text
stringlengths 1
134k
| label
int64 0
1
|
|---|---|
Mayhem Awaits As Crooked Hillary Clinton Is Now Being Advised To Contest The Election Results If the results in the three states were to be overturned, Clinton would win enough electoral votes to win the presidential election. The pro-Hillary computer scientists want the Clinton campaign to contest the election results. Each state has a separate deadline to file a challenge, with Wisconsin’s coming first on Friday. 23, 2016 Top aides to Hillary Clinton have been briefed on unproven claims that the presidential election was hacked by computer scientists, according to a new report.
Campaign chair John Podesta and counsel Marc Elias heard the complaints in a conference call last Thursday, New York magazine reports . The allegations say Clinton won 7 percent fewer votes in counties that use electronic voting, compared with counties that rely on paper ballots in the state of Wisconsin.
The campaign was told that the margin of suspicious votes would swing 30,000 votes to Clinton’s favor. Clinton only lost Wisconsin to Donald Trump in the presidential election earlier this month by .7 percentage points, or around 27,000 votes. Hillary Clinton delivers statement on election results: The allegations also pointed to voting patterns in Michigan and Pennsylvania, states that Trump won only by razor-thin margins.
If the results in the three states were to be overturned, Clinton would win enough electoral votes to win the presidential election. The pro-Hillary computer scientists want the Clinton campaign to contest the election results.
Each state has a separate deadline to file a challenge, with Wisconsin’s coming first on Friday. Clinton Supporters Breaks Down in Tears as Trump wins election: Nate Cohn, a New York Times reporter, poured cold water on the New York magazine report with his own analysis.
“Effect of paper ballots in Wisconsin goes from 7 pts, like NY article, to 0 if you control for race education, density (true w&w/o weights,),” Cohn tweeted .
He said the same voting pattern would apply in the other two states.
So far, there’s no indication the Clinton campaign intends to listen to the computer scientists and contest the election results. A spokesman for Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment. source SHARE THIS ARTICLE | 0 |
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 10:26 UTC © Sophie Wolfson 'Music probably does something unique. It stimulates the brain in a very powerful way, because of our emotional connection with it.’ The multimillion dollar brain training industry is under attack. In October 2014, a group of over 100 eminent neuroscientists and psychologists wrote an open letter warning that "claims promoting brain games are frequently exaggerated and at times misleading". Earlier this year, industry giant Lumosity was fined $2m, and ordered to refund thousands of customers who were duped by false claims that the company's products improve general mental abilities and slow the progression of age-related decline in mental abilities. And a recent review examining studies purporting to show the benefits of such products found "little evidence ... that training improves improves everyday cognitive performance". While brain training games and apps may not live up to their hype, it is well established that certain other activities and lifestyle choices can have neurological benefits that promote overall brain health and may help to keep the mind sharp as we get older. One of these is musical training. Research shows that learning to play a musical instrument is beneficial for children and adults alike, and may even be helpful to patients recovering from brain injuries. "Music probably does something unique," explains neuropsychologist Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster. "It stimulates the brain in a very powerful way, because of our emotional connection with it." Playing a musical instrument is a rich and complex experience that involves integrating information from the senses of vision, hearing, and touch, as well as fine movements, and learning to do so can induce long-lasting changes in the brain. Professional musicians are highly skilled performers who spend years training, and they provide a natural laboratory in which neuroscientists can study how such changes - referred to as experience-dependent plasticity - occur across their lifespan. Changes in brain structure Early brain scanning studies revealed significant differences in brain structure between musicians and non-musicians of the same age. For example, the corpus callosum, a massive bundle of nerve fibers connecting the two sides of the brain, is significantly larger in musicians. The brain areas involved in movement, hearing, and visuo-spatial abilities also appear to be larger in professional keyboard players. And, the area devoted to processing touch sensations from the left hand is increased in violinists. These studies compared data from different groups of people at one point in time. As such, they could not determine whether the observed differences were actually caused by musical training, or if existing anatomical differences predispose some to become musicians. But later, longitudinal studies that track people over time have shown that young children who do 14 months of musical training exhibit significant structural (pdf) and functional brain changes (pdf) compared to those who do not. Together, these studies show that learning to play a musical instrument not only increases grey matter volume in various brain regions, but can also strengthen the long-range connections between them. Other research shows that musical training also enhances verbal memory, spatial reasoning, and literacy skills, such that professional musicians usually outperform non-musicians on these abilities. Long-lasting benefits for musicians Importantly, the brain scanning studies show that the extent of anatomical change in musicians' brains is closely related to the age at which musical training began, and the intensity of training. Those who started training at the youngest age showed the largest changes when compared to non-musicians. Even short periods of musical training in early childhood can have long-lasting benefits. In one 2013 study, for example, researchers recruited 44 older adults and divided them into three groups based on the level of formal musical training they had received as children. Participants in one group had received no training at all; those in the second had done a little training, defined as between one and three years of lessons; and those in the third had received moderate levels of training (four to 14 years). The researchers played recordings of complex speech sounds to the participants, and used scalp electrodes to measure the timing of neural responses in a part of the auditory brainstem . As we age, the precision of this timing deteriorates, making it difficult to understand speech, especially in environments with a lot of background noise. Participants who had received moderate amounts of musical training exhibited the fastest neural responses, suggesting that even limited training in childhood can preserve sharp processing of speech sounds and increase resilience to age-related decline in hearing. More recently, it has become clear that musical training facilitates the rehabilitation of patients recovering from stroke and other forms of brain damage, and some researchers now argue that it might also boost speech processing and learning in children with dyslexia and other language impairments. What's more, the benefits of musical training seem to persist for many years, or even decades, and the picture that emerges from this all evidence is that learning to play a musical instrument in childhood protects the brain against the development of cognitive impairment and dementia. Unlike commercial brain training products, which only improve performance on the skills involved, musical training has what psychologists refer to as transfer effects - in other words, learning to play a musical instrument seems to have a far broader effect on the brain and mental function, and improves other abilities that are seemingly unrelated. "Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can't," says Loveday. "It's a strong cognitive stimulus that grows the brain in a way that nothing else does, and the evidence that musical training enhances things like working memory and language is very robust." Learning to play a musical instrument, then, seems to be one of the most effective forms of brain training there is. Musical training can induce various structural and functional changes in the brain, depending on which instrument is being learned, and the intensity of the training regime. It's an example of how dramatically life-long experience can alter the brain so that it becomes adapted to the idiosyncrasies of its owner's lifestyle. | 0 |
Proper hygiene can go a long way in helping to prevent easily-treatable diseases and viruses. Credit: EcoSoap Bank
Thanks to a college student’s inquisitive thinking and passionate followthrough, thousands of Cambodians have been saved from contracting easily-treatable diseases and viruses. It began when student Samir Lakhani traveled to Cambodia and witnessed first-hand the amount of suffering that results from Cambodians not having access to something most people take for granted: soap.
GoodNewsNetwork relays that Lakhani visited Cambodia to help build fish ponds with an NGO called Trailblazer Cambodia Organization. While he was there for the summer, he witnessed a mother washing her child with laundry detergent. Because few people have soap – as it is considered an expensive luxury, it is not unusual for Khmers to rub their bodies in ash or use harsh cleaning supplies like the mother and her child did.
Distraught by this reality, the inspiring activist began to ponder solutions to the conundrum. Before long, the Pittsburgh University student realized that Siem Reap – a popular tourist hotspot which hosts over 2 million visitors a year – is home to over 500 hotels and guesthouses. Surely, he thought, their waste could be recycled into others’ benefit. After working on the problem long enough, he finally developed a formula for sanitizing and recycling hotel soap bars that would otherwise be tossed in the trash.
After returning to the U.S. and obtaining his degree in environmental studies, Samir began crowdfunding for his idea to create an Eco-Soap Bank organization. Two years later, he had gained corporate sponsorship and the vision he intentioned was realized!
Since the project took off, over 650,000 Cambodians have been provided with clean bars of soap. 30 workers are now employed by the company Lakhani founded. In addition to selling the company’s eco-friendly products as a source of income, they serve as “hygiene ambassadors” to bring soap to local schools and educate the populace on the importance of proper hand-washing techniques.
Thanks to this student’s ingenuity, thousands of Cambodian lives have likely been saved.What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!
This article ( College Student Collects Unused Hotel Soap, Saves Thousands of Cambodians From Disease ) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com
Do you like our independent & investigative news? Then please check these two settings on Facebook to guarantee you don't miss our posts: | 0 |
In a critical step in a longstanding fight, Texas formally said on Tuesday that it was ending Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood, a move the group said could affect 11, 000 patients. The office of inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission issued a final notice terminating Planned Parenthood’s enrollment in the health care system for the poor. If it is not stopped, the termination will be effective in 30 days. Planned Parenthood officials said on Tuesday night that they would continue to provide birth control, cancer screenings, H. I. V. tests and other care to Medicaid patients and seek an injunction in federal court to stop the state. The group sued the state in 2015 after a preliminary notice was filed, but the court case has lingered pending further action by the state. At stake is about $4 million a year in Medicaid funding. The formal notice is the latest salvo in a legal and political fight that dates back years but intensified 15 months ago when the state issued a preliminary notice to end Medicaid funding for the group’s 34 health care centers. “Texas is a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation,” said Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “If the nation goes the way of Texas, it will be nothing less than a national health care disaster. ” In a statement on Tuesday night, the office of Gov. Greg Abbott said, “Texans expect that when taxpayer dollars are granted to health care providers, it is only to those who demonstrate that the health and safety of their patients come before a profit motive that puts women at greater risk. ” The termination notice, signed by the inspector general, Stuart W. Bowen Jr. cited violations that found Planned Parenthood was unqualified to provide medical services “in a professionally competent, safe, legal and ethical manner. ” The notice cited “extensive undercover video” obtained from a Planned Parenthood center in April 2015. The secretly recorded videos purported to show officials trying to illegally profit from the sale of aborted fetal tissue and discussing the issue with abortion opponents who posed as representatives of a biomedical firm. Planned Parenthood has said that the videos were deceptively edited and that the group did nothing illegal or unethical. Representatives from the Health and Human Services Commission and the inspector general could not be immediately reached on Tuesday night about the timing of the notice. Planned Parenthood has 15 days to file an administrative appeal. A spokeswoman said the group was evaluating whether to pursue an appeal in addition to seeking relief in federal court. | 1 |
Polls have closed for the second and final round of voting in the French 2017 presidential race. Join Breitbart London for the latest news and analysis of the vote, count, and aftermath. [The late stages have been hotly contested between former leader of the Front National, now independent candidate Marine Le Pen, and En Marche! leader and key globalist figure Emmanuel Macron. In the past week the two candidates have gone in a televised debate, and have toured the country seeking to drum up last minute support. Preliminary results show Emmanuel Macron has won a convincing victory in the second round, and will be the next president on France. Follow the action as it unfolds with Breitbart London through Sunday evening into Monday morning. | 1 |
Putin-Obama Trust Evaporates
While the U.S. is investigating a potential covert Russian plan to throw a digital wrench in the 2016 election, one nominee has regularly praised their president Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has expressed concern about cybersecurity to Putin amidst negotiations to curb common enemies in Syria. Sept. 9, 2016.
Ray McGovern
October 31, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Baltimore Sun " - How did the "growing trust" that Russian President Vladimir Putin once said marked his "working and personal relationship with President Obama " change into todays deep distrust and saber-rattling?
Their relationship reached its zenith after Mr. Putin persuaded Syria to give up its chemical weapons for verified destruction, enabling Mr. Obama at the last minute to call off, with some grace, plans to attack Syria in late summer 2013. But at an international conference in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi last week, Mr. Putin spoke of the "feverish" state of international relations and lamented: "My personal agreements with the President of the United States have not produced results." He complained about "people in Washington ready to do everything possible to prevent these agreements from being implemented in practice" and, referring to Syria, decried the lack of a "common front against terrorism after such lengthy negotiations, enormous effort, and difficult compromises."
A month earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , who chooses his words carefully, told Russian TV viewers, "My good friend John Kerry is under fierce criticism from the U.S. military machine. Despite [Mr. Kerrys] assurances that the US commander in chief, President Barack Obama, supported him in his contacts with Russia (he confirmed that during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin) apparently the military does not really listen to the commander in chief."
Do not chalk this up to paranoia. The U.S.-led coalition air strikes on known Syrian army positions killing scores of troops just five days into the September cease-fire not to mention statements at the time by the most senior US generals were evidence enough to convince the Russians that the Pentagon was intent on scuttling meaningful cooperation with Russia.
Relations between the US and Russian presidents have now reached a nadir, and Mr. Putin has ordered his own defense ministry to throw down the gauntlet. On Oct. 6, ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russia is prepared to shoot down unidentified aircraft including any stealth aircraft over Syria, and warned ominously that Russian air defense will not have time to identify the origin of the aircraft.
It seems possible that the US air force will challenge that claim in due course perhaps even without seeking prior permission from the White House. Last week, National Intelligence Director and former Air Force General James Clapper commented offhandedly, "I wouldnt put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft if they felt it was threatening their forces on the ground."
Injecting additional volatility into the equation, major news outlets are playing down or ignoring Russias warnings. Thus, Americans who depend on the corporate media can be expected to be suitably shocked by what that same media will no doubt cast as naked aggression out of the blue if Russian air defenses down a US or coalition aircraft.
Meanwhile in Europe, as NATO defense ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters the US is contributing "a persistent rotational armored brigade combat team" as a "major sign of the US commitment to strengthening deterrence here."
"This was a decision made by the alliance leaders in Warsaw," he explained, referring to NATOs July summit meeting in the Polish capital. "The United States will lead a battalion in Poland and deploy an entire battle-ready battalion task force of approximately 900 soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based in Germany."
On Thursday, at the Valdai Conference in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, President Putin accused the West of promoting the "myth" of a "Russian military threat," calling this a "profitable business that can be used to pump new money into defense budgets expand NATO and bring its infrastructure, military units, and arms closer to our borders."
Myth or not, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was correct to point out last spring that military posturing on Russias borders will bring less regional security. Mr. Steinmeier warned against "saber-rattling," adding that, "We are well advised not to create pretexts to renew an old confrontation."
Speaking of such pretexts, it is high time to acknowledge that the marked increase in East-West tensions over the past two and a half years originally stemmed from the Western-sponsored coup détat in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014, and Russias reaction in annexing Crimea. Americans malnourished on the diet served up by "mainstream" media are blissfully unaware that two weeks before the coup, YouTube published a recording of an intercepted conversation between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US ambassador in Kiev, during which "Yats" (for Arseniy Yatsenyuk) was identified as Washingtons choice to become the new prime minister of the coup government in Kiev.
This unique set of circumstances prompted George Friedman, president of the think-tank STRATFOR, to label the putsch in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014, "really the most blatant coup in history."
Its time for Western politicians and media to learn their lesson and pay attention to the statements coming out of Russia. Ask yourselves: Why all this hype now?
Ray McGovern, like Sam Adams, began a career as a CIA analyst under President Kennedy; working on Vietnam, they became close associates. Sam was too straight-arrow to go to the media about the unconscionable fraud regarding the number of Communist forces. Ray knew that and rationalized not doing so himself. So, while a close associate of Sam Adams years ago, Ray fell short of the standard set by the above awardees, who deserved to be honored by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. | 0 |
JERUSALEM — A song entitled “Pull the Trigger” was the soundtrack to the winning performance at a recent children’s dance competition at a community center in the West Bank city of Nablus, containing lyrics calling for “jihad” and “attacking Zionists. ”[The Yafa Cultural Center in the Balata refugee camp posted photos to its website from the first Yafa Folk Dance Competition, Israeli monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch reported. Ru’a Ahmed Sa’id Hamdan, 14, bagged the gold prize for performing a dance set to a song glorifying violence against Israelis. PMW translated the song’s lyrics as follows: The Zionists coveted [our] homeland, Compounding damage and enmity, But the popular revolution awaits [them] The orchard called us to the struggle, We replaced bracelets with weapons, We attacked the despicable [Zionists] We do not want [internal] strife or disputes, While this invading enemy is on the battlefield, This is the day that jihad is needed, Pull the trigger. We shall redeem Jerusalem, Nablus and the country. The Yafa Cultural Center’s Facebook page describes itself as a cultural NGO formed by the Committee for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights with the aim of improving “the cultural and intellectual condition of Palestinians by providing them with a space to develop their talents and skills and to enrich their awareness of their national rights through civic education particularly on democracy and human rights. ” Through a variety of activities the center hopes to “empower Palestinians in fostering a strong and independent identity … while escaping the negative effects of the Israeli occupation. ” Official Palestinian Authority television broadcast a performance of the same song in 2010. The three top scoring dancers at the Yafa dance competition were awarded maps of “Palestine” replacing all of Israel’s territory, in gold, silver, and bronze respectively. | 1 |
COLORADO SPRINGS — The guide enthusiastically led his guest from room to room in the building, pointing out features like the emotion tree and providing thumbnail sketches of the people they encountered. He seemed to know everyone, and everyone returned his greetings in kind with a comment that elicited the guide’s generous, rumbling laugh. The tour ended in a television room, where the guest and the guide watched an Arizona Cardinals football game while grazing on snacks. For years, the guide, Michael Phelps, and his guest, Bob Bowman, had watched N. F. L. games together, but from a suite above the Baltimore Ravens’ home field at MT Bank Stadium, sealed off from and strangers but often surrounded by “friends” who fed off Phelps’s swimming fame. The trip to see Phelps by Bowman, his longtime coach, at the Meadows, a treatment center in Wickenburg, Ariz. northwest of Phoenix, in the fall of 2014 was a revelation, an introduction to a man stripped of the armor that had helped make him an athletic machine. Bowman had difficulty reconciling the swimmer who wore headphones to the starting blocks to sequester himself from the outside world, the guy who was so deeply absorbed in his own journey that he did not learn the given names of all of his teammates on the 2004 and 2008 United States Olympic swimming squads, with the person standing before him offering biographical snippets on those who walked past. “He was like, ‘That guy over there, he owns his own company,’ ” Bowman said. “He had a little story about everybody. I had never seen him like that. I looked at him like ‘Who are you?’ ” It is among the questions Phelps, 30, sought answers to in rehab and, in some ways, is still answering as he prepares for his fifth consecutive Olympics. Phelps’s road to becoming the most decorated athlete in Olympic history had been treacherously steep and narrow, as isolating as a deep free diver’s plunge. The years he should have spent developing and embracing his personality were devoted to developing and embracing his swimming talents. It seemed like a path well chosen when Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The years that followed produced more Olympic glory but also a damning photograph of Phelps with a bong, a second D. U. I. arrest and numerous splintered relationships. By the end of 2014, it appeared plain to everyone that the trail Phelps blazed had veered into a dead end. “He had no idea what to do with the rest of his life,” Bowman said. “It made me feel terrible. I remember one day I said: ‘Michael, you have all the money that anybody your age could ever want or need you have a profound influence in the world you have free time — and you’re the most miserable person I know. What’s up with that?’ ” Phelps has spent the past year and a half pondering it first in therapy as an inpatient at the Meadows and later in the pool, which started out as his sanctuary, became his aquarium and now serves as his platform. His message: Vulnerability is a strength. A plaque outside the natatorium at the United States Olympic Training Center here in Colorado Springs, where Phelps spent several weeks in the spring, hails him as “the most successful Olympian in history with 14 total gold medals,” as if Phelps’s story culminated with the 2008 Olympics. Phelps won six more medals, including four golds, at the London Games four years later, but in a way his narrative — at least the one worthy of proclaiming — did end in Beijing. When Phelps looks at his legacy all he sees is the tarnish. He has spent the past two years applying elbow grease in the hope of burnishing it. He said he was training as well as he ever had, but his focus was no longer on adding to his record haul of medals: the 18 golds, two silvers and two bronzes. This time, the journey is more personal. He said he was on a quest to leave the sport without remorse over the poor training and worse behavior that defined his and Olympic experience. “This time, it’s about trying my hardest, giving it my all,” he said. “I don’t want to live the rest of my life with any regrets. ” The journey to Rio de Janeiro started with a stay at the treatment center, about an hour’s drive from where he has spent the past year training under Bowman, who took over as coach of the Arizona State men’s and women’s swimming teams in 2015. Bowman had been firmly against Phelps’s entering the Meadows after his second D. U. I. arrest in September 2014 (his first occurred when he was 19). “I thought he was going someplace in Malibu to sit on the beach for six weeks and he would come out the same,” Bowman said. But then he watched Phelps interact with his fellow patients during the fourth week of his stay and saw the kind, caring young man he remembered before his sharpening turned him into a machine. At the Olympic Training Center cafeteria in late April, Bowman became emotional when he said, “I never thought that he would ever change. ” He added: “He hid everything that makes him human for 12 years. The rehab is what opened him up. ” Phelps, once known for his prodigious appetite, has scaled back his calorie intake that and increasing his postswim ice baths are about the only concessions he has made to age. Phelps, who turns 31 on the fifth day of the trials, said he felt physically stronger in the water, perhaps because of drills Bowman added to his pool workouts, like multiple repeats of 40 seconds of dolphin kicking while hugging a weight to his chest. In the cafeteria, Phelps placed on his tray a omelet, three blueberry pancakes slathered in butter and syrup, and a parfait cup of plain yogurt topped with blueberries and strawberries. As he talked, he cut his pancakes with a knife with the meticulousness of a surgeon. It is one of his habits. Others include warming up in the same lane every day of a meet and lining up the food in his refrigerator with the fastidiousness of a drill sergeant at a parade. A television bolted to a nearby wall was tuned to ESPN. Phelps glanced at the screen in time to see an image of the former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, who was in the news after being accused of assaulting a former girlfriend and for excessive drinking and partying. “I think Johnny Manziel is taking it to a new level right now,” Phelps said. “It’s really sad. ” Phelps’s nadir came two years ago, on the last Monday of September. On his way out of the Horseshoe Casino, two miles from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, after an evening spent playing poker while drinking, Phelps placed a phone call to his girlfriend, Nicole Johnson. After a estrangement, they had recently gotten back together, a reconciliation set into motion by a call from Phelps. It was after 1 a. m. on the East Coast. Johnson, on the West Coast, asked Phelps if he was sure he was O. K. to drive home. He had spent the start of the weekend with her in California at a wedding and had flown home on a redeye, landing in Baltimore less than 24 hours earlier. She said she was concerned that fatigue from his hectic weekend, combined with the travel, might aggravate the effects of the alcohol in his system. A few minutes later, she received a text from Phelps, who was stopped at a light. “There’s a cop behind me,” he said. An hour passed before her next communication from Phelps, who phoned from jail. His Range Rover had been clocked by the police traveling 84 miles per hour in a 45 m. p. h. zone, and Phelps had been observed crossing the double lines. According to a report in The Baltimore Sun, he failed two field sobriety tests, and a breath analysis recorded his level at 0. 14, 0. 06 in excess of the state driving limit. For the next 72 hours, Phelps locked himself in his house and refused to see or talk to anyone. At one point, he texted his agent, Peter Carlisle, and said he wrote, “I don’t want to be alive anymore. ” The machine was irrevocably broken. “I didn’t see me as me,” Phelps said. “I saw me as everybody else did — as an kid. Let’s be honest. There’s not a single human being in the world that’s like that. ” He took the advice of his inner circle and agreed to go to the Meadows. “I was so afraid coming in,” Phelps said. “I wasn’t ready to be vulnerable. And then, after a couple of days, I said: ‘My wall is down. Let’s get into this and see what’s going on.’ ” For several years, beginning in grade school, Phelps had a recurring dream about snakes. They would appear suddenly in his path, “and I would freak out,” he said. The dream started sometime after his parents divorced when he was 9. Phelps’s father, Fred, who spent more than a as a Maryland state trooper, was a shadowy presence in the life of his youngest child and only son. What bonding they did was through sports. His father recalled taking Phelps to Orioles home games. His law enforcement ties allowed him to gain access, with his son, to the clubhouse. Phelps played multiple sports until he was 11, even if he started the day with a swim workout. In 1996, Bowman, new to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, told Phelps’s parents that their son had the potential to make the Olympics and become a “special” swimmer. But it would require sacrifices from all. They would have to make sure Phelps got to workouts in the early morning and the late afternoon, seven days a week as it turned out, and Phelps would have to give up other sports. Fred Phelps said he had reservations about sending his son down such a narrow path. “He never got a chance to be a teenager, like most normal kids,” he said, adding: “I’d encourage him to take the occasional break. I’d say, ‘Let’s take three or four days, go to the beach.’ And I’d get overruled. ” His parents’ divorce was hard on Phelps. He would grow upset when his father missed a swim meet or canceled a outing at the last minute, summoned to work. Phelps said he channeled his anger and disappointment into his swimming workouts. “I would use that for fuel in the pool,” he said. In 2000, Phelps became the youngest male on the United States Olympic swim team, qualifying in the butterfly as a . At the Sydney Games, with both parents in attendance, he finished fifth. At the world championships in Barcelona, Spain, three years later, Phelps became the first man to break five individual world records in a meet. The competition foreshadowed his haul at the next year’s Olympics, in Athens, and also the jealousy his success would engender. Bowman remembered that when Phelps walked into the dining hall after his first swim, the other American swimmers showered him with hearty applause. After his second and third swims, the reaction was more tepid. By the end of the meet, Bowman said, the clapping was halfhearted. “I remember it so clearly,” Bowman said. “It was like the other swimmers were thinking, What spot of mine is he going to take in the next Olympics?” The same isolation that Phelps experienced in his swimming family, he would recreate in his nuclear family. Sometime after the 2004 Olympics, father and son stopped speaking. “We’re both a little hotheaded and we react emotionally,” Phelps said. “I knew exactly how to set him off, and he was the same way with me. ” Phelps’s original goal had been to raise the profile of the sport. After his superstar turn at the 2008 Olympics, he felt trapped because of how well he had accomplished his mission. In retrospect, Bowman said, Phelps probably should have retired after the Beijing Games. But he was 23 years old, with no college degree, and several of his corporate partners, as well as swimming’s national governing body, were keen on his continuing to grace the world stage. “We created a monster, and after Beijing it was too big to fail,” Bowman said. “We had to do whatever we could to keep it going. That’s how we got to London. The deal with his dad, how to come to grips with his fame, those kinds of things, I thought, we’ll deal with later. ” Phelps described his decline as inevitable and said: “It’s like we dreamed the biggest dream we could possibly dream and we got there. What do we do now?” In 2009, a photograph surfaced of Phelps smoking from a marijuana pipe. The picture was taken at a small private gathering where Phelps believed he was among friends. After that, Bowman said, Phelps changed. He became warier, wearier. Despite a general lack of interest in training, Phelps qualified for the 2012 Olympics with minimal preparation and won four golds and two silvers. He retired to the golf links, but with no structure to his days and no exercise to mitigate his symptoms of hyperactivity disorder, he acted with more impulsivity. Phelps drank alcohol, sometimes heavily, and hung out with people who enabled his sometimes reckless behavior. Bowman could not reach him. Neither could Phelps’s mother, Debbie. He refused to take her calls or answer the door when she made trips to his house to check on him. “I was just pushing people away,” Phelps said. At the treatment center, he reached out to Bowman, his mother, his sisters and his father, whom he invited to a family weekend. Upon receiving the letter of invitation, Fred Phelps almost immediately booked his travel. “That’s my baby boy,” he said, “so I was going to be there for him whether he me or not. ” Since that weekend, Phelps and his father have kept in regular contact. When Phelps was on the plane traveling home from here in May for the birth of his first child, a son, Boomer, he exchanged texts with his father. Since their rapprochement, Phelps has slept better. “It’s kind of weird,” he said. “Once my father and I started talking, I haven’t had a dream about snakes since. ” In his second week of rehab, the men’s circle he attended awarded Phelps the saguaro stick, a symbol of power passed on each week to a patient who exhibits leadership qualities. Phelps said he paraded around with it more proudly than he did any of his Olympic medals. He began reading books, sometimes aloud in group sessions, and it has become a habit. One day, he casually mentioned to Bowman that he was reading “Man’s Search for Meaning,” by Viktor E. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who became a psychiatrist. Bowman was shocked. He said he had seen Phelps read only magazines. As the trials drew near, Phelps ordered “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind,” by Joseph Murphy, and “The Purpose Driven Life,” by Rick Warren. To paraphrase Warren, what on earth is Phelps here for? For starters, he said, to be Johnson’s life mate and his son’s father. To have more medals than any other Olympian? He said he no longer sees that as his sole reason for being. Phelps was in his second week of therapy when he experienced the breakthrough that has been like a second wind propelling him forward. At lunch one day, he was his usual talkative, hyper self. After working out for two hours to expend his energy, he found himself brooding about his behavior, as he often did. “I was afraid to show who I was,” he said, “so I had all these personas. ” In the shower, he shed all his second skins. Phelps said: “I thought: Oh my God, do these people think I’m annoying? Do they not want to be around me? Then I thought, Why do I care? If I talk too much, if I laugh really loud or if I’m hyper at times, or a real pain in the ass, at the end of the day why does it really matter? “Right then and there it was like there’s no point for me to try to be somebody I’m not. This is who I am. ” | 1 |
TAOYUAN, Taiwan — The fields are overgrown with weeds. Warehouses lie abandoned, their corrugated shells covered in rust. In the distance, an air base, where pilots once took off on reconnaissance missions over mainland China, is devoid of activity, its camouflaged hangars and guard towers symbols of a Cold War long over. This neglected area just south of Taiwan’s biggest airport could use a complete makeover. And that is exactly what the local government has in mind. Described as the biggest development project in Taiwan’s history, the Taoyuan Aerotropolis promises, in a video with a saccharine violin and harp soundtrack, a futuristic utopia of homes and thousands of technology jobs. Investors are welcome, and on Sept. 8, a woman named Chen Siting, or Charlyne Chen, arrived, claiming to represent a very prominent businessman: Donald J. Trump. She had been referred to the Taoyuan mayor by Annette Lu, a former vice president of Taiwan, the mayor’s office said in a statement on its website. “I told them: Isn’t Mr. Trump campaigning for president? Isn’t he very busy?” the mayor, Cheng said in a television interview that aired on Nov. 18, referring to Ms. Chen’s group. “They said she is a company representative. His company is still continuing to look for the world’s best real estate projects, and they very much understand Taiwan. ” “She had authorization documents issued by the Trump company,” he said, without specifying. The mayor’s office, in a Nov. 16 statement, said that although investment opportunities had been discussed, the meeting had not resulted in any agreement, and that the election had not been talked about. The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this article. On Friday, Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said that there were “no plans for expansion into Taiwan” and that there had been no “authorized visits” to Taiwan to push for a development project. Asked on Sunday for clarification about the company’s relationship with Ms. Chen and knowledge of her activity in Taiwan, Ms. Miller did not respond to specific questions. She instead repeated in a statement that there had been “no authorized visits to Taiwan on behalf of our brand for the purposes of development, nor are there any active conversations. ” The Sept. 8 meeting, and its confirmation in November, went largely unnoticed outside Taiwan until Friday, when Mr. Trump, the received a congratulatory phone call from the island’s president, Tsai . The call is believed to have been the first conversation between a Taiwanese leader and a United States president or in close to four decades, and it threatens to upend the delicate United relationship because Beijing views any communication with Taiwan’s leaders as an affront to its claim of sovereignty over the island. And even if it emerges that Ms. Chen was largely freelancing, and not acting on behalf of the Trump Organization, the perception of a possible business conflict in Taiwan further complicates the relationship. Potential conflicts of interest for Mr. Trump as president have been documented around the world, including in Scotland, India, Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina and Turkey. But perhaps nowhere are the stakes quite as high as in Taiwan, because it involves ties between the United States and China, the countries with the world’s biggest economies and most powerful militaries. “Even if the phone call had not happened, once these business dealings came to light, it would send a very confusing signal to Beijing,” said Marc Lanteigne, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs who focuses on Chinese security issues. Any business ties could undermine the near certainty that world leaders have had for many decades about some of the basic foundations of United States foreign policy, which has included the primacy of maintaining ties with China in a “very narrow framework,” said Shelley Rigger, a professor of political science at Davidson College in North Carolina who studies States relations. “It is very worrisome not just for leaders in China but for leaders everywhere to think that there could be motivations driving U. S. foreign policy that they can’t, A, know about and, B, work out logically,” Professor Rigger said by telephone. “If the U. S. government is being influenced by some kind of parallel set of side deals and interests that are not the sort of mainstream U. S. foreign policy and national interest agenda, then no one is going to be able to predict anything. ” Adding to the complexity is the fact that the Taoyuan Aerotropolis is a development project, and Ms. Tsai’s administration must give final approval for the complex plan, which involves removing many people from their homes, before construction can begin. Taoyuan is the center of a metropolitan area with over two million residents. Ms. Chen — who, according to online biographies of her, was raised in Las Vegas — has been associated with the Trump Organization for several years, and with Ms. Lu, the former vice president, for much longer. In December 2012, a photograph of the two women was posted on the Facebook page of the condominium sales arm of Trump International Realty in Las Vegas, thanking them for visiting. Ms. Chen also accompanied Ms. Lu, who was then the vice president, during a trip to Las Vegas in 2004. “The Trump Organization said: ‘Hey, Ms. Chen, your business and politics connections seem great. Do you want to help us promote our Las Vegas properties? ’” Ms. Chen said in an interview with a Taiwanese television station in late October. Ms. Lu, reached on her mobile phone, did not comment. Ms. Chen could not be reached for comment. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Chen said she had a letter saying she was a “sales ambassador” for Mr. Trump’s company but was not an employee. Ms. Chen’s visit was followed in October by a visit to Taipei by a Trump Organization employee. The duties of the executive, Donoghue, include trying to find guests for the company’s hotels worldwide. Ms. Donoghue, who is not part of the company’s development team, did not respond to requests for comment. Ms. Miller of the Trump Organization would not specify with whom she had met during her visit to Taiwan. Ms. Chen, who once headed Nevada’s economic development office in Taiwan, has been outspoken about her admiration for Mr. Trump, though it is unclear how much is . “The election demonized Trump,” she said in the television interview. “But in my experience and close interactions with him, he is very nice, has great bearing, has a very good head for business and really respects women. ” | 1 |
Black and a member of the 1% elite Page 1 Related Threads 1 10/21/16 9 10/22/16 10 "Godlike Productions" & "GLP" are registered trademarks of Zero Point Ltd. Godlike™ © 1999 - 2015 Godlikeproductions.com Page generated in 0.006s (8 queries) | 0 |
Comments
The Wall Street Journal has revealed that the National Enquirer paid $150,000 to purchase but never print the story of Republican nominee Donald J. Trump’s affair with 1998 Playmate of the Year Karen J. McDougal.
The alleged affair happened a decade ago, It will come as a surprise to nobody that Trump and CEO David J. Pecker (yup) of American Media Inc, which owns the National Enquirer , are long time friends.
To say that the Enquirer has supported the Trump campaign is an understatement; they’ve recently run stories alleging that his rival, religious extremist Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had five affairs and that his father killed John F. Kennedy; that President Obama is a secret homosexual and that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had only “six months to live,” published more than six months ago.
The knowledge of the affair will come as little surprise to most of us, seeing as Trump is an admitted philanderer and an admitted sexual predator. It’s jsut hard to understand how so many evangelicals can still endorse him, seeing as he personifies everything but “family values.” Related Items: | 0 |
22 Facilities Are In the Top 100 for Both Toxic-Air and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions And we wonder why everyone and everything is getting cancer Owensville, Ind.number 1 Colossians 1: 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Page 1 | 0 |
Tuesday, 8 November 2016 Clinton listening to Trump Concede seconds before passing out
In a shocking turn of events Donald Trump has conceded the Election and admitted defeat to Hillary Clinton. Nearly 24 hours before the polls will close out west. Trump appeared on CNN at Trump Tower in Bogata, Idaho.
"Let's get this right America! I've been faking being a racist,sexist asshole for over a year and a half now. Its time to clear up the misconceptions. i'm really not a Republican," said Trump in front of a stunned following with some very nervous Secret Service men watching,"I'm really a Bernie Sanders zealot, but unfortunately he didn't win and so my gambit to ruin the Republican Party has completely failed to achieve its main goal, a Bernie Sanders Presidency. However, Hillary is still a damn site better than Chris Christie, or Jeb Bush, or any of the other bozos who shared the stage during the early debates."
Hillary Clinton could not be reached for comment as she apparently passed out when Trump conceded rather than contesting the election in all 50 states. Bill Clinton spoke on condition of anonymity, "Hillary is thrilled, though she is drooling a little, the medics haven't quite got her resusitatored yet. I think she is okay though." Make JinoLeFeeto's | 0 |
Share on Twitter IJR Opinion is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.
You ask, “Why Trump?” From your college classrooms, comfortable suburban homes and your summer lakeside retreats in quaint New England towns, you wonder why.
While in class the professor comments, “Well, the main supporters of Trump are uneducated white males.” You, a new age liberal sympathizer - and my classmate - blurt out, “Uneducated white males shouldn’t have the right to vote!”
Is this the college experience I signed up for? I know I'm the type of person liberals like you disdain; I've spent about half my years on this earth working blue collar jobs: logging, haying, septic work, farming, stacking stone walls. I've owned two 1940s era tractors. You don't know what true labor is. I do - I was born and bred into this lifestyle.
All over this land, alarms go off before the dawn. You may work from 9 to 5 in a cozy office, but for the working class the day stretches from dawn to dusk. Sometimes it takes two or more jobs to make ends meet. “Work hard and you will be rewarded,” says the world. But those with the most wealth have only found ways to make others work hard for them.
Although I have chosen to not cast my ballot for the Republican ticket this time around, I have empathy for those who will - those whom you, modern liberalism, created. You outsource businesses and you coddle illegal immigrants who drive down the cost of labor - and therefore the benefits of a job. You, the rich, liberal elite, have taken advantage of those whose backs you live upon. You gutted them, you skinned them, you left them to hang like a deer carcass to bleed out.
On top of it all, you say people like me are “white trash,“”standard rednecks“ and “dirty hicks.” The champions of social justice that attend my liberal arts college in rural Vermont call us “dirty townies."
We grow your food, we transport your food, we build your homes and we keep them maintained - and yet we are snubbed. We plow the roads, fix the power lines and drive semi-trucks so that you can live a life of convenience. You cut our wages and our hours - yet you say we don’t work hard enough.
Since I was 12, I have worked for both rich Republicans and rich Democrats. At least the rich Republicans don't preach all that Democrats do to save the world - while paying me dirt. Few of those who support Hillary Clinton have had to awaken at 3:45 A.M. to start a chainsaw in the dim light of dawn, to work a job where either that chainsaw, a wood chipper, or a falling tree could kill them any day - for the reward of $12 an hour, no less. What is the working man’s death worth to those with millions?
You distract us with the media and you harp on racism, sexism and the insignificant. Where in your agenda is there time for the growing class struggle, the death of family farming, and the tearing of the fabric of rural New England life? You swoop in from elsewhere to buy the land, gentrify the towns, and reduce the local population to the same status as the English peasant after the enclosure movement .
You speak of social programs, give to those who do nothing, give every child a trophy and shelter them from the realities of the world. You talk of raising taxes that the rich somehow never pay. You would rather take a loaf of bread from the working stiff to support the unemployed or those who drink away a college education.
The question at hand should not be, “Why Trump?” The question at hand should be why you drove those who support him into a hole and then tied their hands behind their backs. You want them to support the broken system that gave you, not them, the benefit. Soon, you won’t have to worry about them supporting Trump; rum-filled farmers, a rabble in arms...
Those whom you called a “ basket of deplorables ” are the same stock that brought America into being. Yet, raise taxes, you say. Raise the cost of living, of each and every good that is bought and sold. The resulting burden will only fall upon those who labor their lives away, to struggle to exist, who always will. | 0 |
Dr. David Duke and Mark Collett of the UK discuss Dr. Duke’s Senate race, Brexit and the ethnic supremacism no one is free to discuss November 4, 2016 at 10:13 am
Dr. David Duke and Mark Collett of the UK discuss Dr. Duke’s Senate race, Brexit and the ethnic supremacism no one is free to discuss
Today Dr. Duke had British activist Mark Collett as his guest. They talked about Dr. Duke’s senate campaign as well as the latest news regarding a move by judges in Britain to block the implementation of Brexit.
They also talked about the implications of anti-white governance in Britain, America, and other white countries, which alone are deluged with massive immigration from people around the world.
This is a great show. Please spread it around.
Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern.
Click on Image to Donate!
And please spread this message to others. | 0 |
SEATTLE — Part of Jillian Boshart’s life plays out in tidy, ordered lines of JavaScript computer code, and part in a flamboyant whirl of corsets and crinoline. She’s a tech student by day, an enthusiastic burlesque artist and producer by night. “ ” and “” she calls those different guises. “My mother got stage fright for me,” she said on a recent night while talking about her childhood performances and dreams. She looked like a 1940s starlet in a tight black sequined dress, a red rose pinned into her red hair. “I like to be prepared,” she said. “I like to be in control. ” At age 31, she seems to be. This year she won a coveted spot here at a nonprofit tech school for women, whose recent graduates have found jobs with starting salaries averaging more than $90, 000 a year. Seattle, where she came after college in Utah to study musical theater, is booming with culture and youthful energy. But again and again, life has taught Ms. Boshart, and others in her generation, that control can be elusive. In the crash of the early 2000s, her family lost the college savings they had been putting aside for her. Her father, a nurse, was laid off after 35 years on the job. Her sister and lost their house during the Great Recession. And very little in the world around Ms. Boshart has led her to feel a sense of comfort and ease: not the soaring costs of living in Seattle, not the whirlwind roar of reinvention in the tech world, certainly not the barbed clamor of national politics. Even for someone who seems to have drawn one of her generation’s winning hands, it feels like a daunting time to be coming of age in America. “I don’t just expect things to unfold, or think, ‘Well, now I’ve got it made,’ because there’s always a turn just ahead of you and you don’t know what’s around that corner,” she said. On the 10th floor of a downtown office building here on a rainy morning in June, a software development instructor stood in a darkened classroom, the images and words from a screen projection branding his white shirt with the fractured language of computer code. In the classroom, at Ada Developers Academy, the tech school Ms. Boshart attends, were a former motorcycle a former college counselor, a waitress, a teacher — all women, most in their 20s and 30s, and all there to change careers. It was the day after the mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla. where the victims, as no one needed reminding, were about the same age as everyone in the room. The students at Ada — Adies, as they affectionately call one other — are in many ways representative of Seattle’s churning, anxious arc of growth and change. The 61 women who have graduated since the school’s founding in 2013 have been drawn here from across the nation and several other countries. Tuition is free for applicants who pass the rigorous admissions process, with costs underwritten by Seattle tech giants like Amazon. Of the 13 most populous counties in the nation, King County in the Seattle metro area is second only to Brooklyn in the highest percentage of residents age 25 to 34, part of the biggest demographic wave since the baby boom, according to census data. And Seattle is luring those millennials from all over, with King ranking second among big counties in the percentage of people who moved here within the past year from another state. But even in a place of alluring opportunity, the Adies, like Ms. Boshart, mirror their generation’s anxieties. Many are terrified of debt and deeply worried about their economic future. Student loan burdens sharply increased nationally during the recession, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, more than tripling to $1 trillion from 2004 to 2012. Unemployment for people under 25 is more than twice the national rate, which has made many of those loans harder to pay off. Millennials have postponed marriage and decisions about where to live and what careers to pursue, the Federal Reserve study said, far longer than previous generations, often out of economic necessity. Hailey Willis, for example, was accepted to Ada and arrived here last year from Chicago with six months of savings to her name. In Seattle, markedly more expensive, the money was gone in 90 days. Asked about her financial future, Ms. Willis, 31, said she saw no chance that anything like Social Security would be there for her or anyone her age. Elsa Moluf, 26, an Ada graduate, said the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, still resonated when she thought about personal safety — a feeling compounded recently by a shooting on a Seattle street in broad daylight only a few feet from her. “In the era of terrorism, I think about stuff like, ‘If I go to this crowded festival, what are the chances,’ ” she said. Baby boomers, to whom millennials are often compared — if only by the force of their numbers — also reached adulthood amid tumult and angst, during the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights. But people now in their 20s and 30s say that the 1960s were different, that there seemed to be a clearer goal then — to end racial segregation, poverty or the war. The economy seemed better and the nation’s future more assured. Now, from niche anxieties like genetically modified crops to defining ones like climate change, questions feel and unprecedented: Is the food we eat still food? How do you get your head around a threat to the entire planet? Contradictions and paradoxes, millennials say, come with the territory. Ms. Boshart, for example, would love to own a house someday. But at the same time, debt to her feels perilous. “I don’t want to be beholden to any bank, ever,” she said with quiet vehemence. She counts the months until the tech job she hopes to get after Ada can help pay off the $22, 000 student debt she has left. And then there are presidential politics, with one candidate, Donald J. Trump, who scares her to death and another, Hillary Clinton, whom she admires but is sometimes hesitant to praise too loudly in an area where most people she knew supported Senator Bernie Sanders. She sees politics through a feminist lens and believes that women’s rights would be undermined by a Trump presidency and a Supreme Court. And even though recent polls and surveys show Sanders supporters largely rallying to Mrs. Clinton, it is not enough to create any sense of security, Ms. Boshart said, that an October surprise of hacked data or a hidden pool of misogyny and rage do not still lie in wait. “There are just so many things you can be anxious about — it’s an anxious time,” she said. “My biggest fear is that America hates women more than they hate Donald Trump. ” Riley Spicer, 26, said she cannot help buying food on sale and socking it away. She arrived in Seattle last year from rural Oregon to start classes at Ada, and she and her boyfriend, Jakob Lundy, 27, a fireman, have planted a garden and started a beehive to harvest honey. “I had the radishes today in my salad at work,” Ms. Spicer said on a recent evening, as she carefully exposed the leaves to reveal bulbs. “When I go to the store and I get three bags of mushrooms, they’re like, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m stuffing mushrooms and freezing them — doesn’t everyone do that?” Ms. Spicer, who studied philosophy and the history of science at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md. has had jobs as a barista, a taxi dispatcher and a deli worker. She has $72, 000 of student debt and has never been paid an annual wage, she said, of more than $17, 000. Based on the track record of Ada graduates, she could soon be making five times as much. So on one level, she and Mr. Lundy — young, in love and employed or soon to be — might look as if they are living the American dream. But neither one is buying it. “I look out there and it just seems completely hopeless to me,” she said as their mutt, Cordelia, wandered through their apartment. “The political system seems so overwhelmingly broken that I have no idea what to do about it. ” Her views are echoed in national polls, where young people are consistently, deeply downbeat about the future and the political system. A recent poll of people 18 to 29 years old by Harvard’s Institute of Politics found nearly half agreed with the statement that “politics today are no longer able to meet the challenges our country is facing. ” More than said the country is “on the wrong track,” and a majority rejected both capitalism and socialism as models for the future. The poll, of 3, 183 American citizens, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2. 4 percentage points. Mr. Lundy rejects the political system entirely and has voted mostly for candidates, if only as a statement of opposition to the choice of a Republican or a Democrat. He is not sure what he will do this year. “I don’t want to support the false dichotomy,” he said. He said he liked Mr. Sanders partly because a Sanders insurgency “would be best at reforming the party, or tearing it apart from the inside. ” He also applauded Mr. Trump’s antics, which Mr. Lundy believes will shatter the Republican Party, too. Either way, he added, a is coming. “Things are going to have to burn before they get better,” he said. Technology is the sea that millennials swim in — a kind of second nature, especially to Adies. But many of them feel a deep ambivalence. Tech, they say, means military drones, loss of privacy and cyberbullying. Social media, the new town square, often feels more like a combat zone than a place to share ideas. Tech companies are driving up rent in places like Seattle, forcing out people, even while creating excellent jobs that Adies are likely to get. “The tech industry is a huge part of the problem,” said Jessica Weeber, 31, who is studying at Ada alongside Ms. Boshart. “As people get paid more and work in tech jobs, rents and housing go up and gentrification happens,” she said. “I don’t know how to solve it. ” But tech is also an unquestionably powerful tool. “Tech gives us the power to change — that’s why I’m here,” said Mindy Carson, 31, an Ada student and strong supporter of Mr. Sanders. She wants to start a nonprofit after graduation, using technology to work on social justice issues. “We don’t have to take what they’re saying on TV for face value, we don’t have to take limited information for face value, because we see the truth, we are connected,” she added. Ms. Boshart used technology in a recent burlesque performance, including a recorded appearance by the astronomer Carl Sagan, to make a point about humanity’s intertwined role with science. She walked on stage wearing a glamorous evening gown, opera gloves, and a corset underneath with 160 LED lights and a tiny computer to run them. Mr. Sagan’s voice came on, talking about the cosmos. As her clothing came off, she said, “I became more and more human. And that was kind of the point: We are artifice to the world, what we present, but as we get deeper and deeper into the human element we are atoms and star dust. ” Ms. Boshart gravitated to burlesque, she said, partly to make such statements. But after her mother died last summer, things became more profound and personal. The women of the Seattle Burlesque Society showed up at the apartment she shares with her fiancé. They brought food. They cleaned. They carved out a quiet corner for grieving and meditation. They became, in their embrace, her sisters. Like many people in her generation, Ms. Boshart does not expect to find those connections in political parties. She no longer goes to church. The workplace doesn’t seem to offer much hope either. “My dad was laid off after 35 years, and that was supposed to be his community, right? That was supposed to be the group of people that understood,” she said before a recent Monday night performance that she was producing at a brewpub north of downtown. “He worked for years and years for you and he’s just out? It was appalling to me. ’’ What should be tossed out, or clung to, is the question of the moment, she said. And for her, a big part of her answer lies in the proud and quirky universe of burlesque, her anchor of belonging in a world that can feel fragmented and frayed. As she got up from the table for a final chat with the cast, music pounded out as performers — various ages and body types in heavy eye shadow and feathered boas — got ready to go on. They hugged, and she cautioned them about a low table with sharp corners that would be hard to see in the dark. One small peril avoided, it was time for . | 1 |
Главная » News » Peru proposes its own TPP to Russia Peru proposes its own TPP to Russia Monday, 14 November, 2016 - 10:30
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said that the TPP project is likely to be revised. At the same time, he stressed that a similar arrangement, but with the participation of Russia and China instead of the United States would be the best opportunity for the countries of this region.
Despite the fact that the Peruvian citizens have been regularly protesting against the TPP, the Liberal President is not said to have decided to do the will of the people. Rather, after the victory of Donald Trump, who doesn’t support this agreement and taking into consideration the White House’s statements that the Obama administration would not have time to ratify the TPP, Kuczynski has decided to be the first one in occupying a niche near the other major countries in the region, including the «economic heavyweight»- China. Related links | 0 |
As the nation struggles to understand the motive behind the ambush-style executions of two Iowa police officers, a woman claiming to be the daughter of the alleged shooter has come forward on social media explaining that mental illness played a factor in the heartbreaking case.
While few details surrounding the shootings have been released, it is being reported that 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene has been arrested in connection with the horrific attacks which claimed the lives of Urbandale officer Justin Martin and Des Moines PD Sgt. Anthony “Tony” Beminio.
The situation began to unfold Wednesday morning after law enforcement received a report of shots fired around 1am. Reportedly, after officers arrived on scene of the disturbance it was discovered that Urbandale officer Martin had been executed while sitting in his patrol car. Roughly 20 minutes after grizzly discovery of slain Officer Martin, authorities found a second victim. Approximately 2 miles away from the location of first reported shooting, authorities found Des Moines PD Sgt. Beminio deceased in his patrol car.
Authorities later announced that they had arrested the suspected shooter identified as Greene without incident in the area of West Des Moines. Greene was said to have been on foot at the time of capture and surrendered to a Department of Natural Resources officer willingly.
Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek told media that “In all appearances it looks just like… these officers were ambushed, ” adding that it did not look like there was any “ interaction ” between the deceased officers and the suspected shooter.
Following the release of the suspected shooter’s identity, Sammie Greene posted an image on social media with the message: “ #Scott’sLifeMatters ”
Via FB
In the comment section of the post, Sammie wrote her “condolences ” to the families of the victims and stated that her father “was very very sick mentally.”
More on the possible motivation behind the shootings via Heavy.com :
A man named Scott Greene, who matches the description of the suspect, recorded himself being kicked out of a football game in Urbandale, Iowa, on October 14, 2016.
The Urbandale School District confirmed to the Des Moines Register that a man named Scott Greene was removed from the football stadium that day. The stadium is at the same intersection where the Urbandale police officer was killed Wednesday morning, the newspaper reports.
Greene also posted a 10-second video featuring only a still photo showing him in the stands of the high school holding American and Confederate flags. You can see that photo above.
In the comments of one of the videos , Greene wrote, “I was offended by the blacks sitting through our anthem. Thousands more whites fought and died for their freedom. However this is not about the Armed forces, they are cop haters.”
He titled the second video, which you can watch below, “Police Abuse, Civil Rights Violation at Urbandale High School.”
“This is an assault on a person exercising his constitution rights on free speech!” he wrote in the description.
The 10-minute video shows Greene after he was removed from the stadium, interacting with Des Moines and Urbandale police officers who are trying to get him to leave the area.
It begins with officers telling Greene to leave for “committing a disturbance in the stands.” He asks them repeatedly, “Have I committed a crime?”
He also accuses an officer of “assaulting” him by “grabbing” him and “shoving” him around.
We will continue to update as new details surface.
| 0 |
David Brock accused of “elitist racism”
Paul Joseph A new email released as part of the Wikileaks Podesta dump features Clinton ally Brent Budowsky accusing Hillary operative David Brock of having a plan that relied upon black voters being “stupid”. The email , sent to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and another Clinton ally CEO Roy Spence, centers around a discussion of a Bernie Sanders campaign ad which featured “many black faces”. Back in January, Clinton operative David Brock caused consternation within the campaign when he publicly claimed that Bernie Sanders didn’t care about black people. Budowsky is not impressed with Brock’s outburst, writing in the email, “Brock makes the cardinal mistake of those who bring politics into disrepute with voters. He tells a lie that people will know is a lie, and insults the intelligence of black voters with a kind of elitist racism that Bill and Hillary Clinton should not be seen with.” “I guess Brock’s plan is that black voters are stupid and will not watch the ad and believe his lie,” writes Budowsky. “I cannot think of anything more desperate, more stupid and more self-destructive than David Brock lying about the Bernie ad and playing a seamy brand of the politics of race using the tactic of deceit on her behalf,” adds the The Hill and Huffington Post columnist, before offering to write a campaign ad for HIllary to counter the Bernie Sanders ad. The email once again underscores the Clinton camp’s paranoia about not being able to authentically connect with African-American voters in a way that Bernie Sanders could. Some black voters have been reluctant to support Clinton as a result of her support for a 1994 crime bill that resulted in the mass incarceration of young black Americans, whom Hilary referred to at the time as “super predators”.
SUBSCRIBE on YouTube: | 0 |
Andrew Cyrille opens one of his two new albums, “The Declaration of Musical Independence,” with a syncopated figure on a snare drum, as taut and riveting as a military cadence. Then he adds cymbals and kick drum, giving the phrase a sinuous curve just as the rest of the band enters. What they’re playing is “Coltrane Time,” an obscure piece by John Coltrane, and Mr. Cyrille shows the way forward with a regal, flowing . He has been working this way more or less since the 1960s, reshaping jazz’s rhythmic syntax while engaging with its lineage. A tireless workhorse in the Mr. Cyrille, 76, deserves substantial credit for helping to unlock a freer pulse and purpose in the music, slipping away from a metronomic framework while preserving a rigorous attention to form. “I used to spend time with older jazz drummers like Philly Joe Jones and Max Roach,” Mr. Cyrille said in a recent interview from his home in Montclair, N. J. “They would always say, ‘You’ve got to make your contribution.’ So that was always in my head. When you find yourself, you have to find your path. ” Mr. Cyrille’s entire body of work suggests a fulfillment of that conviction, carried out with little concern for outside approval. He still hasn’t been named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the lifetime achievement honor bestowed on some of his former collaborators, like the pianists Cecil Taylor and Muhal Richard Abrams and the multireedist Anthony Braxton. But Mr. Cyrille has managed something just as meaningful, bringing his ideas into increasingly mainstream circulation without a hint of dilution. His work on fine recent albums by the pianist David Virelles and the bassist Eric Revis, and with the collective Trio 3, begin to make the case for a renaissance. (Trio 3, with Oliver Lake on alto saxophone and Reggie Workman on bass, will be at Dizzy’s Club on Oct. 27.) Both “The Declaration of Musical Independence” and “Proximity,” a duo recording with the saxophonist Bill McHenry, bolster that impression, if not close the case entirely. A pair of albums with divergent sonic features but a similar ethos of discovery, they highlight Mr. Cyrille’s insight, ingenuity and subtle mastery of touch. “There’s so much clarity in his playing,” said the guitarist Bill Frisell, who appears on “The Declaration of Musical Independence” alongside Richard Teitelbaum on synthesizers and piano and Ben Street on bass. “It doesn’t swallow you up. And he strikes this perfect balance between instigating something and also responding to what’s going on around him. That’s the most amazing feeling in music, and Andrew’s got that really strong. ” Mr. Cyrille is a gregarious conversationalist, quick to illustrate any point. Born in Brooklyn to Haitian immigrants, he recalls being a small child and accompanying his mother to community meetings, where the great hand drummer Alphonse Cimber would often be playing. He honed his skills in almost every conceivable setting, from high school orchestra to Brooklyn jazz bars. He studied at Juilliard even while holding a gig with the Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji. By the when he started working with Cecil Taylor, he had a wealth of experience to draw from. “I had been playing dances and parties, bar mitzvahs and polkas,” he said. “I had been in the drum and bugle corps. ” Mr. Cyrille had also provided musical accompaniment for classes associated with the June Taylor Dancers, improvising rhythmic cues for kinetic movement. “That’s, in a sense, how I learned to solo,” he said. “So when I got with Cecil, I was able to do all of that stuff. One time he asked me, ‘How do you hear rhythm?’ I said, ‘I hear it in relationship to dance. ’” During a more than tenure with Mr. Taylor, who set a high bar for free improvisation, Mr. Cyrille refined new rhythmic strategies. His freedom of expression on the job was absolute, so it was up to him to establish a style that, in his words, “was concrete, and in acknowledgment of people like Kenny Clarke, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey and Max Roach. ” Mr. Cyrille also prioritized a kinship with his fellow drummers. He learned “Coltrane Time” from Rashied Ali, Coltrane’s last drummer, who passed it along like a family heirloom. In 1974, Mr. Cyrille released the album “Dialogue of the Drums,” a collaboration with Milford Graves. “Pieces of Time,” released a decade later, features Mr. Cyrille and Mr. Graves alongside Mr. Clarke, a bebop progenitor, and Famoudou Don Moye, of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. One track from “Pieces of Time” — the jaunty “Drum Song for Leadbelly,” inspired by one of that bluesman’s old recordings — resurfaces on Mr. Cyrille’s new album with Mr. McHenry. “Proximity” otherwise features a balance of simmering idylls and sparring sessions, with drums and saxophone always mutually engaged. The album is lean and dry but hardly austere: It feels dynamic and fully realized, a product of intense exchange. “The Declaration of Musical Independence” has a more ethereal footprint, partly because of the instrumentation: Mr. Frisell is a guitarist who can evoke the flicker of sunlight and shadow, and Mr. Teitelbaum favors the abstraction of sculptural sound. At Mr. Cyrille’s behest, every musician on the album contributed a new tune, and they created a few others on the spot. “Begin,” by Mr. Frisell, is a brief dose of swinging mischief “Say,” by Mr. Street, is a gorgeous, watery ballad. The composition that Mr. Cyrille brought in was “Dazzling (Perchordially Yours),” a process piece in which each musician elaborated on an assigned set of chords, finding common purpose through trial and error. Playing the tune with brushes, Mr. Cyrille sketches a tempo with clear forward motion but no strict cadence. “One can define time as ‘the duration of that which changes,’” he said, briefly letting the phrase sink in. “We think of time as something like or a clock that goes ‘ticktock, ticktock.’ But people who lived before clocks, they would look at the sun or the moon, see when the rooster started crowing. That meant ‘time’ for them. So it would change. ” He went on, “How you deal with it, from one moment to the next, depends on the culture that you come from. ” Then he laughed, but in a way that made it clear he was serious. Cecil Taylor, ‘Unit Structures’ (Blue Note, 1966) This album, deservedly a landmark, presents Mr. Cyrille as the ideal improvisational partner, meeting every swarm and surge in Mr. Taylor’s pianism with his own rumbling poise. Leroy Jenkins, “Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival of America” (Tomato, 1978) The violinist Leroy Jenkins made this album in a contemporary classical vein, with Mr. Teitelbaum on synthesizer, George Lewis on electronics and Mr. Cyrille in alert and supple form. Andrew Cyrille Maono, “Metamusicians’ Stomp” (Black Saint, 1978) Mr. Cyrille featured several of his compositions on this earthy and exploratory album, featuring a captivating young tenor saxophonist, David S. Ware, alongside the slashing trumpeter Ted Daniel. Milford Graves, Andrew Cyrille, Kenny Clarke, Famoudou Don Moye, “Pieces of Time” (Soul Note, 1984) An intergenerational drummer’s summit featuring compositions by all four members (Mr. Cyrille has two) and a spirit of selfless camaraderie. Trio 3 + Vijay Iyer, “Wiring” (Intakt, 2014) The powerfully insightful collective Trio 3 — Oliver Lake on alto saxophone, Mr. Workman on bass, Mr. Cyrille on drums — has made several fine recent albums with guest pianists. This one, featuring Mr. Iyer, is a knockout. | 1 |
Madonna took to Instagram late Thursday to promote an upcoming Trump protest march — by sharing a photo of a woman with shoe company Nike’s “Just Do It” logo apparently shaved into her public hair. [[Warning: Image contains partial nudity.] “Yasssssssss! Just Do it! @nakid_magazine,” Madonna wrote, adding, “1 Million Women’s March!! Be There!! Washington D. C. Jan. 21. ” Yasssssssss! Just Do it! @nakid_magazine 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️ 1 Million Women’s March!! Be There!! Washington D. C. Jan. 21. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 photo by Marius Sperlich, A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on Jan 12, 2017 at 2:02pm PST, As Breitbart News previously reported, thousands of women are expected to travel to the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration. The organization said it wants the event to “send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. ” Earlier this week, singers Katy Perry and Cher and actresses Scarlett Johansson, Zendaya, Debra Messing, and Julianne Moore were announced as being expected to participate in the January 21 event. Ugly Betty actress America Ferrera, chair of the organization’s “artist table,” said the march is about standing up to the incoming administration. “Since the election, so many fear that their voices will go unheard,” Ferrera said in a statement. “As artists, women, and most importantly dedicated Americans, it is critical that we stand together in solidarity for the protection, dignity, and rights of our communities. Immigrant rights, worker rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, racial justice and environmental rights are not special interests, they affect us all and should be every American’s concern. ” The Material Girl is just the latest star to come out in support of the event. The Rebel Heart singer spent months slamming Trump’s campaign, while drumming up support for Hillary Clinton. In October, Madonna famously offered oral sex to anyone who voted for the former Democratic nominee. Last month, Madonna admitted that Trump’s election left her “devastated. ” “It felt like a combination of the heartbreak and betrayal you feel when someone you love more than anything leaves you, and also a death,” the singer told Billboard. “I feel that way every morning I wake up and say, ‘Oh, wait, Donald Trump is still the president,’ and it wasn’t a bad dream that I had. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
November 8, 2016 UN climate chief: No doubt world will shift to low emissions
Climate negotiators started work Monday on implementing the Paris Agreement on global warming amid uncertainty over how the U.S. election will impact the landmark deal as temperatures and greenhouse gases soar to new heights.
U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa told delegates in the rain-soaked Moroccan city of Marrakech that “no politician or citizen, no business manager or investor” can doubt that the world is determined to shift toward a “low-emission, resilient society.”
So far, 100 countries have formally joined the agreement adopted last year in Paris, including top polluters China, the United States, the European Union and India.
However, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he would “cancel” the deal if he wins the election this week. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, backs the climate policies of President Barack Obama’s government.
The upcoming election seemed to be on everyone’s mind at the start of the two-week conference in Marrakech, where even security guards at the sprawling conference center were overheard discussing the potential implications for the world and efforts to fight climate change in particular. | 0 |
Email
“We need more and more jobs. Unemployment is way up here,” he said. “He’s hired more employees, more people, than anyone I know in the world.”
I believe in him first of all because he’s a businessman. I think jobs are badly needed.
Hollywood star, Brad Pitt is usually catching some heat through supporters of President Obama after calling his agenda “anti-Christian.”
Pitt talked out about his own Christian beliefs during the 1999 interview. During the interview, he shared his story of how he or she uncovered religion.
As the particular son of a preacher and spending a majority of his time in the church, he grew to become rebellious as a teen.
After what Pitt calls a personal face along with God, he came back in order to the church in his 20s.
“I had this particular tremendous physical and spiritual experience.”
His devotion to his faith has shocked liberal Hollywood plus angered President Obama supporters who support his alleged “anti-Christian agenda.”
As other celebrities live a liberal and free life-style, Pitt has explained that he is proud of his religion
Because of this, Brad has finally come out in support of Donald Trump and his run for Presidency. | 0 |
November 19, 2016 - By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ - translated by J. Arnoldski -
The other day, the disturbing news came from Lvov, the unofficial capital of Ukrainian Galicia, that the Lvov regional council has filed a lawsuit to forcibly evict the Pushkin Russian Cultural Center. As the head of the regional council, V. Girnyak, said in his statement, organizations tied to the Anti-Terrorist Operation are preparing to transfer the building on Korolenko Street. The Lvov deputies hardly expect to earn more money from these “ATOers.” Rather, the eviction of the Pushkin Russian Cultural Center is explained by a different motive: once again punishing anyone ideologically representative of “enemy” Russian culture.
This center’s building was leased to the Russian community of Lvov in 1990. In 1999, the then mayor Vasiliy Kuybida, set the symbolic rent fee of 5 hryvnia (around $1 back then).
Let us quote one founding document signed by Ukraine, the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine from May 31st, 1997. Point 12 of the agreement reads: “The High Agreeing Parties shall protect the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identities of national minorities on their territory and create conditions for the fostering of their identity….they will contribute to creating equal opportunities and conditions for studying the Russian language in Ukraine and the Ukrainian language in the Russian Federation, training pedagogical staff for teaching these languages in educational establishments, and for these purposes provide equal state support.”
Points 1-2 of the agreement are based on the recognition of the friendly relations between the countries and their territorial integrity. Hence why the agreement is often called a border treaty. For Ukraine, whose territorial sovereignty over some territories (including Galicia, which was part of the Second Polish Republic until September 1939) is quite disputed, this agreement was a real gift. It is no coincidence that a number of patriotic politicians in Russia demanded that this document not be signed.
Russia’s recognition of Kiev’s sovereignty over territories included in the Ukrainian state is founded on Ukraine’s observance of the rights of its Russian-cultured citizens. After the coup d’etat in 2014, Ukraine began pursuing a policy of cultural genocide (ethnocide) against the Russian-cultured population. Now Ukraine is discussing the initiative of the scandalously infamous politician Irina Farion to deprive Russian residents in Ukraine of civil rights. In fact, this measure is already being implemented. The number of Russian schools has rapidly declined while Russian organizations are being prosecuted and their activities are under close surveillance by Kiev’s intelligence services.
In accordance with the 1997 treaty, an entire network of federal and regional organizations of Ukrainians is funded in Russia . For example, in the Rostov region there is a city-level and regional national-cultural autonomy of Ukrainians. The organization receives funding from the city and regional budgets. Its head, the businessman Makarchuk, is a member of the Public Chamber of the Rostov region and is proud of his friendship with Rostov governor Vasili Golubev. Meanwhile, Makarchuk is published on the website of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Svoboda party and frequently makes Russophobic statements.
Unfortunately, Russia is largely to blame for the fact that the civil rights of Russian-cultured people in Ukraine are being massively violated. An example of this is the patronizing policy of the Rostov region authorities. But on the federal level as well, the state does not have sufficient (or any at all) efforts to defend the Russian population of Ukraine (nearly half of the country’s total population).
Meanwhile, a more responsible attitude towards obligations would lead to a discussion on the 1997 treaty. In a situation in which the second country (Ukraine) massively violates the treaty’s basic premises, then Russia has the right to withdraw from the treaty with all the legal and political implications. I see no reason for the Russian budget to support the activities of Ukrainian organizations in Russia or recognize the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine.
Follow us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Donate!
| 0 |
ATHENS — Greek counterterrorism officers have uncovered eight parcel bombs resembling those sent last week to the German finance minister in Berlin and to the Paris offices of the International Monetary Fund, a police official said on Tuesday. The devices were discovered on Monday during a search of the Hellenic Post’s main sorting office, north of Athens, according to a police spokesman, Theodoros Chronopoulos. “The packages were destined for European countries,” he said, calling them “similar” to the ones sent to the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, and to the I. M. F. ’s offices. According to reports in the Greek news media, which Mr. Chronopoulos did not confirm, the packages intercepted at the Athens sorting office were addressed to European Union officials and to multinational companies. The targets reportedly included the leader of the eurozone group of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who coordinates meetings on Greek bailout talks, and an unidentified official of the European Central Bank, one of Greece’s three main international creditors. European Union finance ministers meeting on Tuesday in Brussels to discuss issues including tax policy were made aware of the parcel bombs, but they did not interrupt their talks. “Certainly, we are following these developments with concern,” Valdis Dombrovskis, a vice president of the European Commission, said. According to the Greek news reports, the senders listed on the packages were two former Greek finance ministers, Gikas Hardouvelis and Yanis Varoufakis, who led bailout negotiations. It was unclear why their names were chosen, but the authorities say they do not believe either man had anything to do with the matter. The parcel bombs sent to Mr. Schäuble and to the I. M. F. ’s offices in Paris bore the names of two Greek opposition lawmakers who are broadly perceived in Greece as backing the bold economic changes being pushed by the country’s creditors. The letter bomb sent to the I. M. F. ’s offices in Paris exploded on Thursday, slightly injuring the worker who opened it. A day earlier, staff members at the German Finance Ministry in Berlin intercepted a parcel bomb sent to Mr. Schäuble. Each device contained small quantities of gunpowder, according to the authorities. A Greek extremist group called Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire claimed responsibility for the parcel addressed to Mr. Schäuble but made no reference to the Paris attack or to any other possible targets. In a statement on an anarchist website, the group said it would issue a “proclamation” with more details, fueling speculation about further attacks and a resurgence of domestic terrorism in Greece, where bailout talks have dragged on and political and economic instability are rising. Mr. Chronopoulos said the new parcel bombs “appear” to be the work of the same group. “We don’t know yet but it seems so,” he said. The Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent in 2010. One was addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and intercepted at her office. Another was sent to Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister at the time, and was intercepted at the Bologna airport. (It exploded, but caused no injuries.) A third, meant for France’s president at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, was stopped in Athens, along with a package addressed to Eurojust, the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency, in the Netherlands. Several more were sent to embassies in Athens. One, addressed to the Mexican Embassy, exploded in the hands of a courier, causing minor injuries. | 1 |
Email
The Yemen war uniquely combines tragedy, hypocrisy and farce. First come the casualties: around 10,000, almost 4,000 of them civilians. Then come those anonymous British and American advisers who seem quite content to go on “helping” the Saudi onslaughts on funerals, markets and other obviously (to the Brits, I suppose) military targets.
Then come the Saudi costs: more than $250m (£200m) a month, according to Standard Chartered Bank – and this for a country that cannot pay its debts to construction companies. But now comes the dark comedy bit: the Saudis have included in their bombing targets cows, farms and sorghum – which can be used for bread or animal fodder – as well as numerous agricultural facilities.
In fact, there is substantial evidence emerging that the Saudis and their “coalition” allies – and, I suppose, those horrid British “advisers” – are deliberately targeting Yemen’s tiny agricultural sector in a campaign which, if successful, would lead a post-war Yemeni nation not just into starvation but total reliance on food imports for survival. Much of this would no doubt come from the Gulf states which are currently bombing the poor country to bits.
Mundy points out that a conservative report from the ministry of agriculture and irrigation in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, gathered from its officers across the country , details 357 bombing targets in the country’s 20 provinces, including farms, animals, water infrastructure, food stores, agricultural banks, markets and food trucks.
These include the destruction of farms in Yasnim, the Baqim district of Saadah province and in Marran. Mundy has compared these attacks with figures in the Yemen Data Project, which was published some weeks ago. Her verdict is a most unhappy one.
“According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2.8 per cent of Yemen’s land is cultivated,” Mundy says. “To hit that small amount of agricultural land, you have to target it.” Saudi Arabia has already been accused of war crimes, but striking at the agriculture fields and food products of Yemen in so crude a way adds merely another grim broken promise by the Saudis.
The kingdom signed up to the additional protocol of the August 1949 Geneva Conventions which specifically states that “it is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock…for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population…whatever the motive…”
The fact that Yemen has long been part of Saudi Arabia’s proxy war against Shiites and especially Iran – which has been accused, without evidence, of furnishing weapons to the Shia Houthi in Yemen – is now meekly accepted as part of the Middle East’s current sectarian “narrative” (like the “good” rebels in eastern Aleppo and the “very bad” rebels in Mosul). So, alas, have the outrageous bombings of civilians. But agricultural targets are something altogether different.
Academics have been amassing data from Yemen which strongly suggests that the Saudis’ Yemen campaign contains a programme for the destruction of rural livelihood.
Martha Mundy, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, who is currently working in Lebanon with her colleague Cynthia Gharios, has been researching through Yemeni agriculture ministry statistics and says that the data “is beginning to show that in some regions, the Saudis are deliberately striking at agricultural infrastructure in order to destroy the civil society”.
In a lecture in Beirut, Mundy has outlined the grievous consequences of earlier economic policies in Yemen – cheap American wheat from the 1970s and the influx of food from other countries which discouraged farmers from maintaining rural life (terracing of farms, for example, or water husbandry) – and the effect of Saudi Arabia’s war on the land. “The armies and above all air forces of the ‘oil-dollar’,” she said, have “…come to destroy physically those products of Yemeni labour working with land and animals that survived the earlier economic devastation.”
There are photographs aplenty of destroyed farms, factories and dead animals lying in fields strewn with munitions – effectively preventing farmers returning to work for many months or years. Poultry and beehive farms have been destroyed.
Even today, more than half the population of Yemen relies in part – or wholly – on agriculture and rural husbandry. Mundy’s research through the files of other ministries suggests that technical support administration buildings for agriculture were also attacked. The major Tihama Development Authority on the Red Sea coastal plain, which was established in the 1970s – and houses, as Mundy says, “the written memory of years of ‘development’ interventions” – is responsible for a series of irrigation structures. It has been heavily bombed twice.
But I guess that one war – or two – in the Middle East is as much as the world can take right now. Or as much as the media are prepared to advertise. Aleppo and Mosul are quite enough. Yemen is too much. And Libya. And “Palestine”… | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Thursday delayed a vote on a proposal to reshape the television market by freeing consumers from cable box rentals, putting into doubt a plan that has pitted technology companies against cable television providers. Members of the Federal Communications Commission could not agree on a box proposal that requires cable operators to provide their shows and movies on alternative devices rather than just on a cable box. The plan was intended to bring more competition to the television industry and liberate consumers from an average of $231 in annual cable box fees. The proposal will still be considered for a future vote. But Tom Wheeler, chairman of the F. C. C. said commissioners needed more discussions. Even late Wednesday evening, members of the F. C. C. were negotiating over disagreements and concerns over the proposal. “It was simply a matter of running out of time,” Mr. Wheeler said in a news conference Thursday after the F. C. C. ’s planned monthly meeting. The window of opportunity for Mr. Wheeler to adopt his signature regulation on cable and satellite boxes is growing smaller. With the change of administration after the election, he is under pressure to pass through several ambitious regulations before the end of the year. The box plan appeared in jeopardy in the days leading up to the vote as one commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, expressed concern over potential copyright violations faced by television programmers. She said at a congressional hearing this month that the plan would make the F. C. C. too meddlesome in program licenses and that the agency might not have the legal authority to act as a watchdog over those agreements. It was a rare disagreement among the Democratic majority. Ms. Rosenworcel, in a joint statement with the two other Democrats on the commission, said on Thursday morning that she supported the goal of the proposal, to create more competition in the television box market. “We are still working to resolve the remaining technical and legal issues and we are committed to unlocking the box for consumers across this country,” the three commissioners said. Under the proposed rules, consumers would be able to watch cable shows on devices like a Roku or Apple TV, or on no devices at all with televisions. Getting rid of the cable box would make finding and watching YouTube and Netflix streaming videos as easy as viewing cable programs because they would be presented in what would look like just another app. The proposal was introduced in January and was supported by President Obama and consumer groups. The regulations were the latest move by the F. C. C. to encourage online video and to bring more attention to the closed television industry dominated by cable, telecom and satellite companies. But the plan had many detractors, including the cable and television industries, for which the cable box has been a lucrative business. Those industries began an expensive lobbying battle to defeat the rules over the last nine months, spending more than $10 million in the last quarter and hiring dozens of outside lobbyists to protest the plan to lawmakers and F. C. C. commissioners. The Copyright Office and dozens of members of Congress also opposed the plan, raising concerns over copyright infringement and a disruption to their advertising deals if programs were given to device makers. Hollywood studios have protested that they would lose control over their content with the proposal, hurting creators and studios. “The M. P. A. A. is pleased that the F. C. C. is taking more time, and we hope they use it to ensure any box proposal remains consistent with copyright policy and avoids harming creators,” said Chris Dodd, chairman of Hollywood’s trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America. And recent changes made to address these concerns do “not solve the copyright, privacy, innovation and other significant concerns that were implicated in this discredited original proposal,” said David Cohen, Comcast’s senior executive vice president, adding that the plan “suffers from the same legal infirmities. ” The regulations would remove a crucial part of the cable television industry’s model of forcing consumers to rent the boxes that showcase their own bundle of channels, analysts say. Making cable programming another app on a device like a TiVo would expose viewers to more streaming content that is directly competing against the bundle. “This is the last gateway to the internet and this is a battle between open and closed platforms,” said Chip Pickering, president of Incompas, a lobbying group that represents Google and Amazon in support of the plan. Backers of the plan were disappointed with the delay, which could put the proposal in jeopardy. “Today’s vote delay is an unequivocal loss for the tens of millions of Americans across the country who are forced to spend their money on overpriced box leases that cost them hundreds of dollars a year,” said Senator Edward J. Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, in a statement on Thursday. He has said consumers have been charged a combined $20 billion a year in forced rental fees. | 1 |
Editors’ note: Here’s one of our favorite stories from the archives, now being featured in our Smarter Living collection. THE guy in the next cubicle is yammering away on the phone. Across the room, someone begins cursing loudly at a jammed copy machine. The headphones on the other end of your desk suddenly look very appealing. Would anyone mind if you tapped into your iTunes playlist for a while? Some workers like to listen to music when they find themselves losing focus. They may also plug in their earbuds to escape an environment that’s too noisy — or too quiet — or to make a repetitive job feel more lively. In biological terms, melodious sounds help encourage the release of dopamine in the reward area of the brain, as would eating a delicacy, looking at something appealing or smelling a pleasant aroma, said Dr. Amit Sood, a physician of integrative medicine with the Mayo Clinic. People’s minds tend to wander, “and we know that a wandering mind is unhappy,” Dr. Sood said. “Most of that time, we are focusing on the imperfections of life. ” Music can bring us back to the present moment. “It breaks you out of just thinking one way,” said Teresa Lesiuk, an assistant professor in the music therapy program at the University of Miami. Dr. Lesiuk’s research focuses on how music affects workplace performance. In one study involving information technology specialists, she found that those who listened to music completed their tasks more quickly and came up with better ideas than those who didn’t, because the music improved their mood. “When you’re stressed, you might make a decision more hastily you have a very narrow focus of attention,” she said. “When you’re in a positive mood, you’re able to take in more options. ” Dr. Lesiuk found that personal choice in music was very important. She allowed participants in her study to select whatever music they liked and to listen as long as they wanted. Those who were moderately skilled at their jobs benefited the most, while experts saw little or no effect. And some novices regarded the music as distracting. Dr. Lesiuk has also found that the older people are, the less time they spend listening to music at work. Few companies have policies about music listening, said Paul Flaharty, a regional vice president at Robert Half Technology, the staffing agency. But it is still a good idea to check with your manager, even if you see others wearing headphones in the office. He said some supervisors might think that workers wearing headphones weren’t fully engaged and were blocking out important interactions “because they are going into their own world. ” “If someone’s not doing a good job,” he said, “then you can have a hiring manager say that all they do is listen to music all day and that it’s hampering productivity. ” For those who choose to listen to music, it’s best to set limits, because wearing headphones for an entire shift can be perceived as rude by those nearby. Dr. Sood, at the Mayo Clinic, said it takes just 15 minutes to a of listening time to regain concentration. Music without lyrics usually works best, he said. Daniel Rubin, a columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, said he has listened to jazz and piano concertos for most of his newspaper career — but only when writing on deadline. He started off using a Sony Walkman, but now makes use of 76 days’ worth of music on his iTunes playlist. “The person clicking their nails three desks away and the person humming next to me all sound equally loud and it’s hard for me to block them out,” he said. As a columnist, he works mostly alone, and people in the office seldom need to approach him. But when he was a budding reporter, he noticed that colleagues would become irritated when trying to get his attention. “It was really annoying because suddenly you would hear ‘Dan . .. DAN . .. DAN RUBIN! People were screaming at you because they needed you. ” ANDREW ENDERS, 28, a lawyer and insurance broker in Linglestown, Pa. said he and an officemate bonded over a local radio station when they worked at the Dauphin County District Attorney’s office. They switched off the radio only when speaking with a client, and they lowered the volume when their boss was around. “I do these very serious things, reviewing insurance policies and evaluating risk and liability exposure,” Mr. Enders said. “A big part of my personality is the artistic side, and music helps me balance who I am as an individual with what I’m doing at work. ” | 1 |
How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Michael D. Shear, a White House correspondent for The Times, discussed the tech he’s using. As a White House reporter, you must be bombarded with news about the Trump administration. What’s your favorite tech tool for staying on top of your beat? When a president routinely makes policy pronouncements in 140 characters, there’s no more important tool than Twitter for a White House reporter. But President Trump and his aides also appear on television throughout the day, often with little notice and without being streamed on whitehouse. gov. So, I’ve recently loaded up Sling TV on all my devices (also, my family just cut the cable cord). Now, no matter where I am — at my desk, at a restaurant, or in a van waiting for POTUS to play a round of golf — I have access to cable news reports and live streams from the White House. What do you like about the setup, and what could be better about it? I like the fact that Sling TV works just about everywhere. There are apps for my iPhone 7 and my iPad Air, as well as my MacBook Pro and the Apple TVs and Rokus I have at home. The apps load quickly and even work behind the firewall at work.’ ”I do have a few gripes. For now, you can’t pause most shows on Sling TV, and there’s no recording of shows. (The company has a DVR beta in the works, but I haven’t been able to get in.) And there are often hiccups. The audio and video are often, frustratingly, out of sync, especially for MSNBC and NBC. And there are times that the channels say “unavailable” for a few seconds, or a few minutes, with no explanation. Also, because of licensing issues, I can get NBC and Fox, but not ABC or CBS.” ’As a political reporter, how do you keep messages, contacts and phone calls secure from surveillance?’ ”I’ve always been pretty careful about electronic security. I have authentication turned on for all of my accounts — email, iCloud, etc. And I’m as careful as I can be to avoid being trapped by a phishing scam. I rarely click on any link from an email, and I’m pretty aggressive about sending emails that I don’t recognize to spam.” ’In the wake of the hacking episodes involving the Democratic National Committee, officials in Washington have become more careful (paranoid?) about their communications, which has affected the way reporters do business. Many of the people I communicate with now routinely ask to discuss issues with secure texting apps such as Signal or Confide. Others still use iMessage or WhatsApp. A few have said they want to have voice communications only over secure voice apps. How do you keep on top of President Trump’s Twitter? Having covered the White House since the beginning of 2009, I’m definitely having to adjust to a new rhythm. I have about a dozen Twitter accounts set to alert me to every tweet, including the @POTUS and @RealDonaldTrump accounts, as well as the president’s senior staff like @Presssec (Sean Spicer) @KellyannePolls and others. I had to adjust my Do Not Disturb settings on my iPhone so that notifications resume earlier — at 5:30 a. m. now. (There are overnight editors who can call me if he tweets between midnight and 5:30 a. m.) I also make extensive use of my Apple Watch to keep tabs on the president’s Twitter habit throughout the day. I generally keep the speaker on mute, but the watch’s haptic engine taps my wrist anytime he or his aides tweet. Beyond your job, what tech product are you currently obsessed with using in your daily life? My mother sent me a check for my birthday and, on a lark, I bought a Google Home. The is in my kitchen and I’m hoping that it becomes a new tool that everyone in my family — including my wife and two teenagers — find useful. So far, I use it as a timer when I cook. I find it much easier to simply say “Hey, Google, set a timer for 30 minutes” than to use the timer on my oven. We also have fun using Google Home for our grocery shopping list. Throughout the week, as we notice things we need at the store, any of us can say, “Hey Google, add orange juice to the shopping list. ” It’s eerily accurate, even on stranger items. The list is automatically compiled in a Google Keep note that all of us have access to. (I will admit that my daughter is having fun putting weird items on the list to surprise me when I go to the grocery.) What could be better about it? The problem with Google Home — and the reason it often sits, neglected, on the counter — is that it just doesn’t do that much. It can’t send emails or text (yet). It can do some limited shopping, but isn’t connected (for obvious competitive reasons) to our Amazon shopping account. It can’t (yet) be used as a convenient speakerphone. The news sources that it accesses are limited (no New York Times headlines read aloud). And there is one, serious limitation that has to be fixed for Google Home to be really useful in a home with more than one person: It needs individual profiles. It has a nice feature that reads out the appointments for your day, but it links to only one calendar. That means only one of us can use the feature. The internet is flooded with fake news. What’s your advice for readers for distinguishing good information from bad information? First, read The New York Times. But more broadly, I guess my advice would be to constantly crosscheck what you see and hear on the internet. If you read a allegation in a Facebook post or a tweet, or on a internet site, try to see whether that allegation is also being reported by The Washington Post or Fox News. Go to the at various news organizations. Look around on Twitter to see whether the allegation has been debunked. If it sounds like something is “too good to check,” it probably means it’s not real. But check it anyway! | 1 |
You glance toward Lower Manhattan and expect to see a single tower where two once stood. You delight in the spectacle of sunlight glinting off its slivered facade. Suddenly, you realize, the new 1 World Trade Center — the Freedom Tower — has become familiar. And 15 years after the twin towers disappeared abruptly from the skyline, they have begun to fade from popular consciousness. They once nearly rivaled the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building as simple, graphic representations of the complex idea of New York. In movies and logotypes, on knickknacks and letterheads, two parallel strokes meant only one thing. Now, a shaft of slender, alternating isosceles triangles — so simple a child could draw it — is coming to mean the same thing. Campagna Sons of Brooklyn, which makes boxes for pizzerias around Lower Manhattan and nearby New Jersey cities like Hoboken and Weehawken, carries a Freedom Tower design, in and sizes. Instagram currently counts nearly 200, 000 posts tagged #oneworldtradecenter. Fishs Eddy, an imaginative housewares store in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan, has introduced the new 1 World Trade Center to its popular “212” line. But dinner plates and other “212” merchandise designed before Sept. 11, 2001, will still have the twin towers in the silhouetted skyline, Julie Gaines, an owner, said. The twin towers have not vanished from the insignia of the New York Fire Department. But last year, on the department’s 150th anniversary, they gave way temporarily to a commemorative patch designed by Firefighter Richard Miranda, of Rescue Company 1, showing the new 1 World Trade Center. The pizza box was designed by Joseph Campagna, who runs the business begun by his grandfather and carried on by his father and uncle. He was inspired to draw up a patriotic tableau with an oversize American flag flying over the new tower. The Campagnas can see the building from their headquarters on the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. “It got bad for a while,” Mr. Campagna said. “But seeing the new tower being built was like seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. ” The design is so popular, he said, that some pizzerias refuse anything else. “If I run out of boxes and send them my stock design — Italian village — they’ll say, ‘I don’t want it,’” he said. “It’s been a smash hit. ” And not just at pizzerias. Using Times Square tchotchke shops as a barometer, the tower is already nearing the apotheosis of kitsch. Though the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building have nothing to fear yet, the Chrysler Building and Brooklyn Bridge may want to look to their laurels. The Freedom Tower is gaining fast. You can now buy snow globes with the tower. Or paperweights. Spoon rests. Key chains. Flasks. Compacts. Shot glasses. Or sheer, provocatively cut panties known as cheekies. “I’ve got this big smile on my face as you talk about souvenir shops,” said T. J. Gottesdiener, managing partner of Skidmore, Owings Merrill, which designed 1 World Trade Center. (David M. Childs was the lead architect.) “‘Icon’ is the right word, but some of the reproductions are so grotesquely misproportioned that it’s very funny. ” Who controls such depictions? From a legal standpoint, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which developed the building in partnership with the Durst Organization. The authority has applied for trademark No. 86931748 on “the depiction of a building with a spire on top,” including its elongated triangular facets. In theory, the authority’s permission would have to be obtained to use this mark on hundreds of items that are listed on the trademark application, including, but not limited to, basting brushes, dust ruffles, mud flaps, fanny packs, mouse pads, rompers, ornaments and golf divot repair tools. But there is no practical way to police such depictions. Two years ago, the agency tried to crack down on Fishs Eddy, saying the use of the twin tower silhouettes on its ceramic ware “interferes with the Port Authority’s control of its own reputation. ” John Oliver responded wickedly on the show “Last Week Tonight” by introducing a Port Authority Bus Terminal dinner plate, with silhouettes of a woman vomiting in a garbage can, a man urinating in a water fountain, a condom and a rat orgy. The authority dropped the matter. Ms. Gaines said, “They would have to sue every souvenir shop in the city, not just us. ” “Our position is consistent,” she added, “that we don’t believe anyone owns the silhouette of the New York City skyline. ” Put another way, everyone owns it. “One World Trade Center and every other structure on the site hold our impossible wish: to have back everyone who was lost on Sept. 11,” Judith Dupré wrote in “One World Trade Center: Biography of the Building. ” “Of all the challenges that the World Trade Center has had to face, perhaps the biggest one is exorcising the ghosts of the structures that it replaced. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders, facing a revolt among conservatives and moderates in their ranks, pulled legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act from consideration on the House floor Friday in a major defeat for President Trump on the first legislative showdown of his presidency. “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future,” the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, conceded. The failure of the Republicans’ blitz to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement exposed deep divisions in the Republican Party that the election of a Republican president could not mask. It cast a long shadow over the ambitious agenda that Mr. Trump and Republican leaders had promised to enact once their party assumed power at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. And it was the biggest defeat of Mr. Trump’s young presidency, which has suffered many. His travel ban has been blocked by the courts. Allegations of questionable ties to the Russian government forced out his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. Tensions with key allies such as Germany, Britain and Australia are high, and Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are at historic lows. Republican leaders were willing to tolerate Mr. Trump’s foibles with the promise that he would sign into law their conservative agenda. The collective defeat of the health care effort could strain that tolerance. Mr. Trump, in a telephone interview moments after the bill was pulled, tried to put the most flattering light on it. “The best thing that could happen is exactly what happened — watch,” he said. “Obamacare unfortunately will explode,” Mr. Trump said later. “It’s going to have a very bad year. ” At some point, he said, after another round of big premium increases, “Democrats will come to us and say, ‘Look, let’s get together and get a great health care bill or plan that’s really great for the people of our country. ’” Mr. Trump expressed weariness with the effort, though its failure took a fraction of the time that Democrats devoted to enacting the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010. “It’s enough already,” the president said. A major reason for the bill’s demise was the opposition of members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which wanted more aggressive steps to lower insurance costs and to dismantle federal regulation of insurance products. In a day of high drama, Mr. Ryan rushed to the White House shortly after noon on Friday to tell Mr. Trump he did not have the votes for a repeal bill that had been promised for seven years — since Mr. Obama signed the landmark health care law. During a 3 p. m. phone call, the two men decided to withdraw the bill rather than watch its defeat on the House floor. Mr. Trump later told journalists in the Oval Office that Republicans were 10 to 15 votes short of what they needed to pass the repeal bill. The effort to win passage had been relentless, and hardly hidden. Vice President Mike Pence and Tom Price, the health secretary, visited Capitol Hill on Friday for a late appeal to House conservatives, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. “You can’t pretend and say this is a win for us,” said Representative Mark Walker of North Carolina, the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, who conceded it was a “good moment” for Democrats. “Probably that champagne that wasn’t popped back in November may be utilized this evening,” Mr. Walker said. At 3:30 p. m. on Friday, Mr. Ryan called Republicans into a meeting to deliver the news that the bill would be withdrawn, with no plans to try again. The meeting lasted five minutes. One of the architects of the House bill, Representative Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon and the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, put it bluntly: “This bill’s done. ” “We are going to focus on other issues at this point,” he said. The Republican bill would have repealed tax penalties for people without health insurance, rolled back federal insurance standards, reduced subsidies for the purchase of private insurance and set new limits on spending for Medicaid, the program that covers more than 70 million people. The bill would have repealed hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act and would also have cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood for one year. Mr. Ryan had said the bill included “huge conservative wins. ” But it never won over conservatives who wanted a more thorough eradication of the Affordable Care Act. Nor did it have the backing of more moderate Republicans who were anxiously aware of the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment that the bill would leave 24 million more Americans without insurance in 2024, compared with the number who would be uninsured under the current law. The budget office also warned that in the short run, the Republicans’ legislation would drive insurance premiums higher. For older Americans approaching retirement, the cost of insurance could have risen sharply. With the House’s most conservatives holding fast against the bill, support for the legislation collapsed Friday after more and more Republicans came out in opposition. They included Representatives Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Barbara Comstock of Virginia, whose suburban Washington district went for the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, in November. “Seven years after enactment of Obamacare, I wanted to support legislation that made positive changes to rescue health care in America,” Mr. Frelinghuysen said. “Unfortunately, the legislation before the House today is currently unacceptable as it would place significant new costs and barriers to care on my constituents in New Jersey. ” The bill died after Republican leaders, in a bid for conservative support, agreed to eliminate federal standards for the minimum benefits that must be provided by certain health insurance policies. “It’s so cartoonishly malicious that I can picture someone twirling their mustache as they drafted it in their secret Capitol lair last night,” said Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts. “Republicans are killing the requirements that insurance plans cover essential health benefits” such as emergency services, maternity care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment and prescription drugs. Mr. Trump blamed Democrats for the bill’s defeat, and they proudly accepted responsibility. “Let’s just, for a moment, breathe a sigh of relief for the American people that the Affordable Care Act was not repealed,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. Defeat of the bill could be a catalyst if it forces Republicans and Democrats to work together to improve the Affordable Care Act, which members of both parties say needs repair. Democrats have been saying for weeks that they want to work with Republicans on such changes, but first, they said, Republicans must abandon their drive to repeal the law. “Obamacare is the law of the land,” Mr. Ryan said. “It’s going to remain the law of the land until it’s replaced. ” Whatever success Mr. Trump had in making business deals, he utterly failed in his first effort at cutting a deal at the pinnacle of power in Washington, Democrats said. “This is not the art of the deal,” said Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, alluding to Mr. Trump’s book. “It is the art of the steal, of taking away insurance coverage from families that really need it to provide tax breaks for those at the very top. ” Rejection of the repeal bill may prompt Republicans to reconsider the political strategy they were planning to use for the next few years. “We have to do some internally to determine whether or not we are even capable of functioning as a governing body,” said Representative Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota. “If ‘no’ is your goal, it’s the easiest goal in the world to reach. ” Representative Robert Pittenger, Republican of North Carolina, offered this advice to conservatives who helped sink the bill: “Follow the example of Ronald Reagan. He was a master he built consensus. He would say, ‘I’ll take 80 percent and come back for the other 20 percent later. ’” Failure of the House effort leaves the Affordable Care Act in place, with all the features Republicans detest. “We tried our hardest,” said Representative Michael C. Burgess of Texas, chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health. “There were people who were not interested in solving the problem. They win today. ” “The Freedom Caucus wins,” he added. “They get Obamacare forever. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump plans to name Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, to lead the Energy Department, an agency far more devoted to national security and basic science than to the extraction of fossil fuels that is Mr. Perry’s expertise. In choosing him to be secretary of energy, the is elevating him to a cabinet post that Mr. Perry once said he wanted to eliminate, a proposal that led to one of the most famous gaffes in recent presidential politics. “Oops,” Mr. Perry said in 2011 as he racked his brain during a nationally televised Republican primary debate, trying to remember the three departments he wanted to dismantle. He mentioned the Commerce and Education Departments but could not recall the third: the Energy Department. Texas is rich in energy resources, and Mr. Perry is an enthusiastic supporter of extracting them. But it is not clear how that experience would translate into leading the Energy Department. Despite its name, the department plays the leading role in designing nuclear weapons, thwarting their proliferation, and ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation’s aging nuclear arsenal through a constellation of laboratories considered the crown jewels of government science. “The Rick Perry choice is so perplexing,” said former Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, who for years led the committee that oversees the Energy Department’s budget. “I think very few people understand that the Energy Department, to a very substantial degree, is dealing with nuclear weapons,” he said. “And Rick Perry suggested the agency should be abolished. That suggests he thinks it doesn’t have value. ” Still, the former energy secretaries Spencer Abraham, a Republican, and Bill Richardson, a Democrat, said they could envision Mr. Perry adapting. “There’s a lot of elements to the department that people don’t necessarily know about until you get there,” said Mr. Abraham, who, as a senator from Michigan, also frequently called for the abolition of the Energy Department. He said his views evolved after he was named its leader in President George W. Bush’s first term. “You find yourself surprised by what it really entails,” he said. About 60 percent of the Energy Department’s budget is devoted to the National Nuclear Security Administration, which defines its mission as enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. Under President Obama, the Energy Department helped secure an agreement with Iran to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and took on a larger role in efforts to combat global warming, particularly through scientific research. It also established the Advanced Research Projects to support breakthrough research on clean energy technology. The last two energy secretaries, Ernest J. Moniz of M. I. T. and Steven Chu of Stanford, brought to the office their doctorates in physics, academic credentials and, in Dr. Chu’s case, a Nobel Prize. Mr. Perry, 66, would bring a different set of credentials. He is the governor of Texas — in office from 2000 to 2015 — and before that was the Texas agriculture commissioner. He holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Texas AM University. In his 2010 book, “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington,” Mr. Perry called the established science of climate change a “contrived, phony mess. ” His views align with those of Mr. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese. More recently, Mr. Perry was a contestant on the television show “Dancing With the Stars,” but was eliminated in an early round. He was briefly a for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, but his Energy Department “oops moment,” as he called it, is widely seen as having sunk his candidacy. His run for the 2016 nomination ended in late 2015, but not before he called Mr. Trump a “barking carnival act” and a “cancer on conservatism. ” Mr. Perry did campaign energetically for Mr. Trump later. Mr. Trump’s selection of Mr. Perry appears to line up with his appointment last week of the Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Pruitt — who, like Mr. Perry, is skeptical of climate change — has built a career out of suing the agency he is now set to lead and seeking to dismantle its rules and authority. Mr. Abraham noted that current events often dictate the energy secretary’s role. When he took the job in 2001, he said, his focus was on rolling blackouts in California and the Enron electric utility scandal. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, his attention shifted to counterterrorism and nuclear weapons and nonproliferation programs. Mr. Chu was brought in by Mr. Obama to focus on climate change programs, but in the summer of 2010, he became consumed with personally helping to engineer a way to stop the oil gushing from a blown BP well in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Moniz’s tenure centered on brokering the Iran deal. “The thing about the department is its diversity, and no one can have a foot in every single department door,” Mr. Abraham said. “You’ve seen people with a science background, a military background. Rick Perry has background running a big bureaucracy, the state of Texas. I think he’ll do a great job. ” And Mr. Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico who served as Bill Clinton’s energy secretary, said Mr. Perry’s experience leading a state with a diverse energy economy could serve him well — with one major caveat. “Over all, Governor Perry is a sound choice, because you need a strong leader with political stature and a megaphone for the job, and Rick has both,” he said, noting that he and Mr. Perry had often worked together as governors of adjoining southwestern states. But “as a big fossil fuel advocate, my concern is that Perry will get sucked in by the Trump climate deniers and try to dismantle the valuable renewable energy and climate change programs that the department manages. ” Already, Mr. Trump’s transition team has raised fear that he will target the agency’s climate change programs and the people who run them. This month, the transition team circulated an unusual questionnaire at the Energy Department that requested the names of all employees and contractors who had attended climate change policy conferences, as well as emails and documents about the conferences. Former department employees and presidential transition officials said a request for lists of specific people involved in shaping climate policy was irregular and alarming. Employees said Tuesday that the choice of a secretary who has vowed to eliminate the agency compounded those fears. An Energy Department spokesman, Eben said the agency had refused to give the names. “Some of the questions asked left many in our work force unsettled,” he wrote in an email. “We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department,” he wrote. “We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team. ” | 1 |
DETROIT — The development of cars in recent years has been primarily a competition between technology companies and automakers working independently of each other. But that dynamic changed markedly on Tuesday, when Google said it would expand its testing of autonomous vehicles by installing its technology in a fleet of minivans made by Fiat Chrysler. The deal is the most prominent example yet of a Silicon Valley company collaborating with a traditional automaker on vehicles. It could also prove to be a breakthrough in the generally wary relationship between technology and auto companies, and prompt more collaborative efforts. The deal is a major departure for Google, which previously had chosen to work mostly on its own in creating and testing vehicles. For Fiat Chrysler, the arrangement allows the company to gain access to Google’s expertise in driverless cars rather than develop its own technology. Analysts said Fiat Chrysler needed a partner to catch up to other car companies that are investing heavily in vehicles. “It couldn’t have picked a better one than Google, which is far down the road with cars,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with the firm Autotrader. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which calls for Fiat Chrysler to provide Google with 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans built specifically to accommodate features. The companies said that Fiat Chrysler would design and engineer the minivans, and that Google would then integrate sensors and computer systems into the vehicles. The arrangement is the first time Google has worked directly with an automaker to adapt vehicles for purposes. Until now, Google had used an automotive supplier to build its own prototypes. John Krafcik, the chief executive of the Google Car Project, said the deal was a critical step in efforts to create autonomous vehicles for everyday driving. He said the collaboration “will accelerate our efforts to develop a fully car that will make our roads safer and bring everyday destinations within reach for those who cannot drive. ” Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Chrysler’s chief executive, has been outspoken in recent months about his company’s desire to form technology partnerships, partly to defray the cost of developing systems on its own. “The experiences both companies gain will be fundamental to delivering automotive technology solutions that ultimately have commercial benefits,” he said. Other automakers, such as General Motors and Ford Motor, are also moving rapidly to develop cars. G. M. for example, has agreed to buy the technology company Cruise Automation to begin outfitting its cars with systems. At the same time, federal regulators are working on setting new guidelines for vehicles. Google is part of a coalition — which includes Ford and Volvo — that supports swift passage of rules to allow for driverless cars on the nation’s roadways. Google is testing its own prototypes in California and elsewhere. The company has also modified sport utility vehicles produced by Toyota to accommodate systems. But the Pacifica hybrid minivan is a larger vehicle that can accommodate more passengers. With features like electronically controlled sliding doors, the van could be well suited to ferrying larger groups of people without the need for an actual driver. There was no indication that Fiat Chrysler had an inside track to mass produce vehicles for Google one day. For now, the collaboration is said to be strictly for testing purposes. The companies said their engineering teams would work together at an unnamed location in Michigan. “It is a deal that should benefit both parties,” said Jack Nerad, an analyst with the firm Kelley Blue Book. Mr. Nerad said adapting a hybrid vehicle like the Pacifica was a logical extension of Google’s testing efforts. For Fiat Chrysler, the deal highlights the attributes of the new version of its bellwether minivan, which is going on sale this year. “It’s hard to look at this as anything but a ” he said. The nation’s top regulator, Mark Rosekind, said last week that technology had the potential to reduce traffic fatalities — currently 33, 000 a year — on American roads. The technology has also been supported by those who advocate vehicles for disabled people who cannot operate a car, as well as by groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving that aim to reduce accidents involving alcohol consumption. Opponents of fully autonomous vehicles have said the safety of driverless cars has yet to be proved, and they cite wrecks involving Google prototypes on public streets. Currently, there are no federal rules that expressly prohibit autonomous vehicles. But California has proposed that cars require an actual driver behind the wheel to take control if autonomous systems fail to operate safely. | 1 |
Email
The Times made a reference on Thursday to the suffering of millions of Yemenis using the phrase "the forgotten war".
An18-year-old Yemeni girl's image catches the attention on the front page of the newspaper. Her malnutrition reduced her to a skeleton and she has disturbingly become emaciated as a result of food shortage.
This newspaper reported that Saida has been hospitalized in the port city of Hodeidah because of malnutrition while the city is under economic siege of Saudi Arabia. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that women will be incorporated into new designs for the $5, $10 and $20 bills. Here is a look at the new lineup. Araminta Ross, known as “Minty,” was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland around 1822. When she was about 26, and married to John Tubman, she escaped to Philadelphia and took her mother’s given name, Harriet. She later returned to rescue family members, and was asked by slaves not related to her to help them escape as well. She took great risks traveling at night from the South to the free North via a network of secret routes and safe houses on the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War began, Tubman became a spy for the Union. _____ Susan B. Anthony was born in 1820 to a Quaker family in Massachusetts and became an antislavery activist as a teenager. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she founded and led several women’s groups and suffrage organizations and played a central role in pressing for what would become the 19th Amendment granting women’s suffrage. In 1872 she was arrested on charges of voting in her hometown, Rochester, convicted and ordered to pay a fine. Six years later, she and Stanton presented Congress with an amendment giving women the right to vote. She died in 1906, 14 years before it was ratified. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in 1815, was a pioneer of the women’s rights movement who played a central role in the drive for women’s suffrage. In 1848 at Seneca Falls, N. Y, she presented the “Declaration of Sentiments” that echoed the language of the Declaration of Independence. But Stanton’s version, signed by 68 women and 32 men, denounced the “long train of abuses” inflicted by men on women. “Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled,” Stanton wrote. Lucretia Coffin Mott, born in 1793, was a Quaker who devoted herself to abolitionist and women’s causes. She played a key role in organizing the Seneca Falls convention and producing the “Declaration of Sentiments” that called for women’s equality. But she was stunned by Stanton’s call at the convention for women to be allowed to vote. “Oh Lizzie, if thee demands that, thee will make us ridiculous!” Mott protested. But she remained a central player in both the antislavery and women’s suffrage movement. Alice Paul, a Quaker born in 1885 who was taken to women’s suffrage meetings as a teenager, founded the National Women’s Party in 1916. She organized protests for suffrage in front of the White House, many of them resulting in beatings by the police. The effort led to the 19th Amendment. Paul, who had a Ph. D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, established a headquarters for the Women’s Party in a house near the Capitol, which President Obama has designated as the Women’s Equality National Monument. Mr. Obama has called her “a brilliant community organizer and political strategist. ’’ Isabella Baumfree — a slave born in 1797 in rural New York — changed her name to Sojourner Truth after she walked off an upstate farm in 1826 with her infant daughter. She became a Christian preacher and grew increasingly political in pressing for abolition, women’s suffrage and prison reform. She delivered her most famous address, “Ain’t I a Woman,’’ in 1851 in Ohio, where she said: “I could work as much and eat as much as a man — when I could get it — and bear the lash as well. And ain’t I a woman? ’’ _____ Marian Anderson, a coal seller’s daughter, was born in 1897 and had become one of the world’s most accomplished contraltos by 1939, the year the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to perform at Constitution Hall because of a “white artists only” clause in its contracts. Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady, resigned from the D. A. R. in protest and encouraged the Interior Department to find a place for Ms. Anderson to perform. The result was an Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial that drew 75, 000 people, with millions more tuning in on the radio. Eleanor Roosevelt, born in New York City in 1884, was the first lady from 1933 to 1945 and redefined the role. Shortly after arriving at the White House, she held the first news conference by a president’s wife and continually surprised the country with her outspokenness and activism. After the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, she was named a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. She traveled the world as a human rights advocate, lecturer and writer until her death in 1962. Her intervention on behalf of Marian Anderson remains among her moments. The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was not the first time the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uttered the phrase: “I Have a Dream. ” He had said it before in speeches in Detroit and North Carolina, but it did not become a national refrain until the day the Baptist preacher, who became the voice of the civil rights movement, used it before 250, 000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The phrase was part of a broader speech about racial justice and equality, but the four words has endured as one of the most powerful, pivotal moments in American history. | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hope to win the Indiana presidential primaries on Tuesday, all but cementing their nominations. Trade experts warn that Mr. Trump’s ideas on international commerce, like imposing heavy tariffs on China, could prompt retaliation and deepen U. S. economic troubles. _____ 2. Mrs. Clinton raised $26. 4 million in April, giving her $30 million in hand and bringing her total in primary funds to $213. 5 million, compared with $210 million for Bernie Sanders. She made a longtime Clinton insider, Minyon Moore, a senior adviser in her campaign. Above, Mrs. Clinton with steelworkers in Kentucky. After Indiana, the next heavyweight primary is California’s on June 7. _____ 3. This Australian computer programmer, Craig Steven Wright, claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the online currency Bitcoin. But many technical experts say he offered insufficient proof. “It would take the real Satoshi about five minutes to provide conclusive proof to the entire Bitcoin community, if the real Satoshi wanted to do that,” one said. The price of Bitcoin fell about $10, to just over $445. _____ 4. Fair warning for air travelers: Do not cut it close for your next flight. A loss of screeners to budget cuts, new procedures and more passengers are creating epic security lines across the U. S. — even before the peak travel season. “This is going to be a rough summer,” an official with the Transportation Security Administration said. _____ 5. The party of the year. The Oscars of the East Coast. An A. T. M. for the Met. Whatever you call it, the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted its annual Costume Institute gala under the eye of Anna Wintour. Tickets this year were $30, 000 apiece, and Ms. Wintour has final say over every invitation and attendee. Here are photos from the red carpet. _____ 6. A teacher sickout closed nearly all Detroit’s public schools, affecting almost 46, 000 children. The school district said that if the state did not kick in more money, summer school would be canceled and teachers would not be paid for July and August. _____ 7. Protests and threats of violence against abortion providers have pushed some to try to keep their work quiet. But one gynecologist accuses her hospital in Washington, D. C. of going too far. Dr. Diane filed a federal civil rights complaint saying the institution had violated the law and personal rights by forbidding her to speak publicly about abortion _____ 8. The Hulu streaming service is working toward offering a “skinny bundle” of broadcast and cable channels, probably for about $40 a month, according to insiders. The service would cater to the individualized expectations of younger viewers, while allowing advertisers to target particular audiences. U. S. stocks rose, recovering from some of last week’s steep declines. Battered technology stocks like Amazon and Microsoft posted gains, but Apple remained down. _____ 9. “The Biggest Loser” has become part of the science of dieting. Researchers tracked competitors as they regained most or all of the weight they lost, and discovered how hard the body fights to undo weight loss. Two key factors: slowed metabolic rates, and hormonal changes that create incessant hunger. “It is frightening and amazing,” an obesity expert said. _____ 10. Negotiations are underway to bring a back into effect in the Syrian city of Aleppo. “The cessation of hostilities has been put to the test, and it has frayed in certain areas, and it has fallen completely in a few areas,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in Geneva. _____ 11. Our TV and movie experts offer highlights and on replays and streaming in a new feature, Watching. Netflix has Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief,” with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. HBO is showing the classic “Grapes of Wrath. ” And of course there’s the season finale of “The Good Wife,” on Sunday, 9 p. m. Eastern on CBS. _____ 12. Finally, Cubans celebrated the arrival of the Carnival line’s Adonia, the first U. S. cruise ship to Cuba in nearly 40 years. “This is history,” one said. _____ 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 the Weekend Briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
BALTIMORE — The outpouring of protests across the country has scrambled the contest for chairman of the Democratic National Committee two weeks before the vote, as party activists thrash out who should be the face of a newly energized party. The surge of liberal activism in response to President Trump’s election has transcended the divisions that some Democrats feared would cleave the party after its defeat in November. But it has also injected volatility into a race for party chairman that had been shaping up as a straightforward proxy war between the candidates most closely identified with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Hillary Clinton. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, one of Mr. Sanders’s most prominent surrogates during last year’s primary race, and Thomas E. Perez, the former labor secretary who backed Mrs. Clinton and received consideration to be her running mate, have emerged as the leading contenders. Yet neither has secured the support of anywhere close to a majority of the 447 committee members who will decide the race, as other candidates did in the weeks leading up to prior votes. This is partly because other hopefuls in a field that has swelled to double digits have yet to withdraw from the race. But it also owes to the genuine uncertainty about who can best harness the antipathy toward Mr. Trump, and lead a party that has been dominated by former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton for more than two decades. At the final candidate forum here on Saturday, the leading candidates all sought to associate themselves with the “resistance” against Mr. Trump. In an acknowledgment of how much Democrats are enjoying their unity — and how much they do not want a replay of the race — Mr. Perez and Mr. Ellison held to a de facto nonaggression pact toward each another. “I had no better friend,” Mr. Ellison said of Mr. Perez, referring to the former secretary’s time in the Obama cabinet. Strikingly, only one candidate among the 10 onstage truly confronted the two : Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind. “Why not go with somebody who isn’t a product of one faction or another faction, but somebody who is here to deliver the fresh start our party needs,” said Mr. Buttigieg, adding of the party’s contentious presidential primary, “I don’t know why we’d want to live through it a second time. ” He does not have anywhere near the number of public commitments that Mr. Ellison and Mr. Perez currently enjoy, but Mr. Buttigieg is trying to fashion himself as a compromise candidate if neither of the secure a majority on the first ballot when the party gathers this month in Atlanta. Anticipating such an effort, two of the other trailing contenders used the forum to target Mr. Buttigieg. The New Hampshire Democratic chairman, Raymond Buckley, boasting of his own neutrality during the presidential primary, turned to Mr. Buttigieg at one point and reminded him of his endorsement of Mrs. Clinton. “Sorry, mayor who supported Hillary,” Mr. Buckley quipped. And Jehmu Greene, a Democratic organizer and a former Fox News contributor, chided the Mr. Buttigieg for his frequent remark that a millennial is best suited to represent millennials. Before and after the gathering, rumors of deals being struck between competing camps swirled in the corridors of this city’s convention center, where the contenders set up booths and one candidate seeking to become the party finance chairman even sprang for a platter of crab cakes. While the hopefuls for party chairman have slightly divergent diagnoses of what went wrong last year and ideas for the best way forward, the discussion so far has largely centered on party tactics and strategy. Mrs. Clinton’s victory in the popular vote, Mr. Trump’s unpopularity and the increasingly liberal bent of the party’s grass roots have tempered any calls for moderation. “This is not going to be a philosophical battle,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democrat. Mr. Hoyer was at Saturday’s forum to support Mr. Perez, but called both his candidate and Mr. Ellison “strong progressives. ” With support from a number of governors, leading donors and Obama loyalists, Mr. Perez is clearly the preferred candidate among the Democratic establishment. That status, despite his liberal credentials, has made him a figure of suspicion among elements of the left. “It says a lot about how much Sanders has skewed how Democrats think when the Latino labor activist from Takoma Park is considered the centrist,” said Kenneth Baer, an author and a former Obama administration official, alluding to the progressive Maryland enclave where Mr. Perez lives. At the outset of the forum here, Mr. Perez proclaimed, “I miss Barack Obama a lot, my friends. ” Yet he conceded during a television interview that the former president had not paid sufficient attention to . He also raised eyebrows last week by telling Kansas Democrats that he agreed with the complaint from Mr. Sanders’s supporters that the primary process had been “rigged. ” Soon after, Mr. Perez wrote on Twitter that he “misspoke” and that Mrs. Clinton “became our nominee fair and square. ” The machinations have seemed rather small, though, in light of the boiling fury toward Mr. Trump. Ben Jealous, the former N. A. A. C. P. president and a supporter of Mr. Ellison, noted that the progressive group that he helps lead had drawn 500 participants to a rally on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and another 400 to Western Maryland, both conservative parts of the state. “Donald Trump will ensure we stay woke,” Mr. Jealous said. | 1 |
It should have been a routine flight from Paris to Houston for Henry Rousso, a prominent French historian and a Holocaust scholar. Instead, it became another and unflattering incident for United States customs authorities who have been tasked with enforcing President Trump’s border security initiatives. Mr. Rousso, who is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University, had visited the United States many times over the past 30 years without much fuss. This time, he was on his way to a speaking engagement at Texas AM University, traveling with a tourist visa. “The experience wasn’t a good one,” Mr. Rousso, who was born in Egypt, said of his detention at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which almost led to a flight back to Paris. Mr. Rousso said he was told by an ”inexperienced official” of Customs and Border Protection that he was violating immigration law by using a tourist visa to enter the country to attend the academic conference. (He delivered his speech.) He is one of many figures who have been detained or interrogated in recent weeks, including Muhammad Ali Jr. who was questioned on Friday in Washington after speaking with members of Congress about being detained last month at an airport in Florida, Mem Fox, a popular Australian author who was questioned at Los Angeles International Airport, and Sidd Bikkannavar, an NASA scientist. Other detentions have drawn notice because of the circumstances rather than the fame of the people involved, for example the Afghan family held for four days even though the father had worked for the American government in Afghanistan for 10 years. “Due to such a number of similar stories in the last weeks,” Mr. Rousso said, “I presume that some tourists will hesitate to fly to the U. S. for a while, especially if they are coming from ‘problematic’ countries or if they have children or elders with them. Why take such a risk to be treated like a criminal?” He may be right. President Trump’s first executive order on travel has coincided with a broad decline in interest among international travelers in booking flights to the United States, according to several travel companies. The original order suspended visa entry from seven predominantly Muslum countries — Syria, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Sudan and Yemen. A revised version of President Trump’s executive order limiting inbound travel, announced on March 6, dropped Iraq from the list of excluded countries and allows people who have visas or ar permanent residents to enter the United States. “It’s the message that’s gone out around the world, that the U. S. is potentially closing for business,” said David Scowsill, the chief executive of the World Travel Tourism Council. “Trump’s administration has made it clear that they will be to ‘Make America Great Again,’ and this has led to an sentiment in the country. ” In analyzing data from British travelers, the travel search engine Kayak found that searches for flights to key cities in the United States had “fallen off a cliff,” especially for 2017 holidays. A study from the farecasting app Hopper showed a significant drop in searches for travel to the United States from 122 origin countries from late December 2016 through Feb. 22. And further analysis through March 6, when the revised order took effect, showed flight searches remained down about 10 percent in comparison to the same period a year earlier. Hopper’s data also shows a correlation between news media reports on the travel ban and a decreased interest in booking travel to the United States. “It seems that as the travel ban becomes featured in the news cycle, regardless of whether it’s in favor or against the travel ban,” said Patrick Surry, the chief data scientist for Hopper, “it may be reminding travelers that there’s a lot of uncertainty around whether international travelers are welcome in the U. S. and flight search demand then drops. ” That means that steady news of detentions could continue to impact tourism — as could the fact that Hawaii, Washington and New York are challenging the revised ban. Mr. Surry said it was still too early to tell whether his study showed a reaction to the travel ban or whether it will affect tourism to the United States in the long run. “Travel is a multibillion dollar industry for the U. S.,” he said. “So even if tourism decreases just a few percentage points, it could have serious effects on the industry. ” Mr. Scowsill said he believed the revised order didn’t do enough to reverse the negative perception created by the original travel ban. “The only way of changing a negative perception is by doing some positive things,” Mr. Scowsill said. ”And positive things are: promoting the U. S. as a tourism destination and making it easier for people to come in. ” Expanding the use of electronic visa processing would help with the latter, he added. These reports come just as the United States tourism industry seemed to have finally regained the losses incurred after the attacks of Sept. 11, according to the U. S. Travel Association. The industry lost $600 billion in the decade after Sept. 11, 2001, according to the association. “A decade and a half of sound policy making from administrations and congresses controlled by both political parties has enabled America to rebound,” Roger Dow, the association’s president and chief executive, said in early February. But by early March, the association expressed concern, saying that Mr. Trump’s order “has had a broad chilling effect on demand for international travel to the United States. ” Mr. Scowsill said he is worried about what the Trump administration’s stricter immigration policies might mean for tourism in the United States going forward. “The United States is in danger of taking the same path it took after the terror attacks, which led to a decade of economic stagnation in the travel and tourism sector,” Mr. Scowsill said. Still, he said he is hopeful that Mr. Trump’s business sensibilities will win out in the end, adding that the United States’ travel and tourism sectors generate over 8 percent of the country’s GDP and support nearly 10 percent of the country’s employment. “President Trump, given his business background,” Mr. Scowsill said, ”with his leisure and hotel and golfing interests, he really does understand that more people coming into the country means more American jobs. ” | 1 |
Now It’s Mustard’s Time To Shine Posted today It’s finally here. A single spotlight on the stage. The crowd falls quiet. It’s mustard’s moment. “Life Hacks For Better Office Efficiency”? Not here. Not today. At long last, mustard, the tang with the texture, has the floor. Big Yellow is off the bench and making everyone proud. Roll out the red carpet! The Yellow Prince of Spice is here. No, no, no! This has no business being here. No right! Mustard has earned its place today. This man has the right idea. If there’s any bright side to mustard being sidelined for so long, it’s that its absence has made this return all the sweeter. The penultimate mustard. The time to close the curtains on our celebration now draws near. It was a long time coming. We will not soon forget this. | 0 |
As the election is inching slowly towards it’s end, experts are nervously scrambling to find any dirt that would stop the Trump train.
First, Megyn Kelly pulled the sexist card, then it was his undisclosed tax returns, then his comments on John McCain, then making fun of crippled reporters, then his reading of Mein Kampf, then his remarks about dating his daughter.
Then accusations of racism from former employees, his usage of eminent domain, hiring of immigrants and other questionable practices, the Trump University scandal, his blunder on abortion, old comments on drug decriminalization and gun control, his relationship with the Clintons and the DC insiders, his comments on refugees and illegal immigrants, the Khan incident. And, of course, the pussy-grabbing scandal.
Surely this time, it will sink his campaign, won’t it ? And yet each time Teflon Don deflects dirt more dexterously than ghetto trash trying escape alimony payments. Nothing seems to be able to stop him, not that his opponents will ever stop trying.
Trump has the fantastic ability to escape unharmed from what would clearly destroy any career politician. Howard Dean’s “Yee-haw” was enough to end his bid for the Democratic candidate in 2004, and yet Trump can call for an end to Muslim refugees, be accused of grabbing women by their loins, and end up being praised for it by the masses, while the mainstream media spew their bile 24/7.
What has allowed Trump to maneuver so nimbly against these accusations is the unprecedented role of internet media in elections, including being able to reach people directly through Twitter and a lack of trust in traditional media, as well as his bigger-than-life persona letting him get away with what others would be lynched for.
But that’s the story for another article. I would rather talk about something else. Particularly, is there anything that could stop him? The answer will surprise you as it goes against all conventional wisdom.
Yes, but it’s not what you think.
Trump’s weak spot
One of the biggest problems with defeating Trump is that unlike other politicians, political scandals not only seem to not affect him, but they even aid him. There is a saying that every anti-Trump meme is also a pro-Trump meme.
Trump has mastered political antifragility, which causes him to only strengthen when opponents try to destroy him. Trump has defeated the left’s “no platform for fascists” mentality by saying things so outrageous they have no option but to report on him.
So, the left cannot choose to not cover him and let him wallow in obscurity like they did with Ron Paul. Neither can they attack him, for each of their attacks only make him more popular.
One memorable movie quote I remember went something like this: “Every man has a weak spot. First you try to buy him with money, then women, then you go for his family, and if that doesn’t work, well, a bullet always does the job.” Unfortunately, unlike other political losers, Don does not need other people’s money, nor does he lack female attention, and his family is smart and probably safe from violence.
But this isn’t an article about (God forbid) Donald Trump getting assassinated. That would stop Trump, but not the Trump train. Trump is more than a man. Trump is an idea. He is the avatar of discontent of all those opposed to progressive ideology. He would become a martyr, thus raising the hatred for his opponents to a fever pitch which might alter America’s consciousness forever. Trump’s enemies can’t afford that.
So if ignoring Trump does not work, throwing dirt at him does not work, bribing him doesn’t work and even killing him won’t work, than what is left? The answer might surprise you.
You see Trump’s power comes from his contrarianism. He is not a candidate, he is an anti-candidate. People don’t just vote FOR Trump they vote AGAINST Hillary, Obama, Progressives and Cuckservatives. He is the wrecking ball who the injured working class and all non-liberal whites as well as minorities not completely in love in with progressive Marxist ideology want to use against the establishment.
So what can be done to stop him ?
Well, let’s ask ourselves what makes Trump popular ? His brashness, his anti-PC attitudes, his anti-elitism, his not being a part of the Establishment hacks, his being “not one of them,” his being different.
So if that is what gives Trump strength, it would make sense that to weaken him, you would have to present him as the opposite of that. To present him as being nothing special, to make him look boring and weak. To present him as just another PC-drone.
They’ve claimed nonstop that Trump is the next Hitler and that he will start building concentration camps and sexually assaulting random women by grabbing their cock pockets and will obliterate Muslims and minorities with Right WiNg Death Squad robots.
Instead they could have claimed that he is just weakling trying to act tough, and that he won’t deliver anything. That he is in love with political correctness and respects women. That he is a progressive’s best choice. That he will bring four more years of Obama.
That of course would present it’s own difficulties. In the age of online media, the monopoly of physical press has been broken. When news circulates at the speed of minutes rather than hours and days, it would be very hard for the establishment media to accomplish this. It is very hard to call Trump ordinary and boring when his statements break so many taboos.
Yet, as difficult as it may have been, at the very least it would have had a chance of success, as small as it was. Calling him sexist, racist, and other mean words did nothing to stop him, and instead only made him more popular with the masses. Some of these incidents have made Donald seem human and it made people trust him more. Showing his flaws had the opposite effect as intended, as those who hated him already needed no extra ammo, but those who liked him were either left indifferent, or what’s worse excited by his statements.
At worst a few moderates had doubts set in their mind, however considering what short attention span undecided voters have, his stellar performance at the second debate clearly made them forget about the statement and maybe even convinced them to focus on Bill’s sexual misdeeds instead.
Why haven’t his opponents used this against him?
This brings us to the final point of this article. Why haven’t his opponents used this against him? Have they not the brains to figure this out? Hard to believe, considering the amount of money being poured into think tanks.
No, the truth is like that the strategy was forsaken because of the side-effects it would have on their own camp. Should his opponents try to attack him as another PC drone, they would be also attacking themselves. Just like Hillary trying to paint Trump as sex offender only made it easier for Trump to point at Bill’s sexual indiscretions. As it has been said in the mighty book of Kek : “thee that dwell in glass lodgings shall not propel sedimentary formations” The Prophecy of Kek, Chapter 4 : Verse 20.
Attacking Trump for being multicultural, politically correct, weak, inefficient, or a shill would only shed light on the establishment’s own weakness.
This means that in order to draw voters away from Trump they would have to claim Trump loves multiculturalism, anti-racism, open borders, free trade, globalism and offer another candidate who would be even more extreme than him on these crucial issues.
Using this strategy against Trump, even if it was successful, would be a Pyrrhic victory for his opponents, as cuckservatives would have to acknowledge they can’t woo supporters with talks about reducing taxes and bringing back Reaganism. The truth is, the future is bleak for Reagan-Bush-Cuck wing of the GOP. Even if they were to win the election, they would lose the war.
The left has won the cultural war not just by winning elections, but by cultural meta-warfare. Instead of moderating their message in attempt to win election, they used popular culture and mass media to push liberal values to the masses, and so the right wing had no option, but do concessions, dropping people who opposed civil rights, women’s liberation and closed borders.
To put it simply, the battle was lost even before Trump came—Trump was the match that ignited the powder keg. He simply mobilized people, and said what others kept in private, but always wanted to say and now there is no turning back.
The elites cannot choose to ignore popular will and still win elections anymore. They will have to reform the GOP to account for their constituency’s desire or risk ending in the dust bin of history. There is no longer the option to charm the sheeple with talks about low taxes, open borders and the awfulness of bigotry. They will have to, at least, nominally give something back to the people to stay in power.
As one wise commenter on this site once said : “Trump may be a liar like the rest of them, but at least he is saying the right lies.”
The next thing people on the manosphere and the alt-right will have to look after will be Trump-like figures who will copy Trump’s rhetoric, but will fail to deliver any solutions. Or they will try to co-opt and redirect that anger. But for now, for the first time in more than 50 years, we are winning the culture war .
Read More: Will The #CruzSexScandal Propel Donald Trump Into The White House?
| 0 |
BEIJING — China’s premier, Li Keqiang, defended his government on Wednesday as a bulwark of economic and regional stability, arguing that smoldering tensions with the Trump administration over trade imbalances, North Korea and other disputes in Asia could be solved through dialogue. The comments appeared intended to set an upbeat tone for a first meeting between President Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that is provisionally scheduled for next month at Mr. Trump’s resort in Florida. In an annual news conference that lasted more than two hours, Mr. Li stressed his optimism about relations with the United States. “This relationship is crucial for not just China and the United States, but also for regional and global peace, security and stability, and we have to protect its progress,” Mr. Li told hundreds of reporters at the end of the annual meeting of China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress. Mr. Li’s comments, under giant chandeliers in the lavish Golden Hall at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, showed how quickly the outward mood in relations had shifted. Before and after his election victory in November, Mr. Trump threw down a series of challenges that rattled policy makers in Beijing. Mr. Trump threatened to punish China over its yawning trade surplus with the United States. Last year, the United States’ deficit in trade in goods with China reached $347 billion, and Mr. Trump has promised to close that gap, which he has also attributed to what he calls China’s rigged currency exchange policies. Many economists say that claim is an oversimplification. Mr. Trump also suggested he might abandon longstanding American policy on Taiwan, the island that China treats as an illegitimate breakaway territory. His secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, promised to stop China’s building of islands as military outposts in the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines, Vietnam and other neighbors have competing territorial claims. But since Mr. Trump took office, Chinese diplomats have pressed his administration to retreat from positions that could ignite an early crisis in relations. In February, Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi spoke over the phone, and Mr. Trump reaffirmed established American policy that Taiwan was a part of “one China. ” Administration officials have reined in warnings of possible military action in the South China Sea. And so far, at least, the White House has not introduced measures that could sharply cut the flow of Chinese goods into the United States. Those sources of tension could still flare, especially over trade and the South China Sea, where the Trump administration has promised to establish a more robust naval presence. The Trump administration is also likely to sell Taiwan a large order of weapons, which could renew tensions over that issue. But like other Chinese leaders recently, Mr. Li put a bright veneer over those concerns. He said a trade war of protectionist measures would ultimately damage the American economy. Mr. Li said that if a trade war broke out between China and the United States, foreign companies operating in China, “in particular American companies, would bear the brunt. ” He said he was citing findings published by a foreign think tank, apparently referring to the extra costs that American companies would face buying goods in China for the American market. He also stressed that China would pay close attention to whether Mr. Trump’s administration stuck to the One China policy, which in effect denies Taiwan the possibility of recognition as a separate country, something to which groups in Taiwan aspire. “This policy constitutes the political foundation of . S. relations, and cannot and must not be shaken by vicissitudes,” Mr. Li said of the One China policy. On North Korea, another issue over which the two powers have been at odds, Mr. Li repeated Beijing’s position that only renewed negotiations with Pyongyang stood a chance of curtailing its nuclear program. China, the North’s neighbor and sole major ally, hosted multinational talks on the issue that fell apart after 2009. “We hope that through the efforts of all parties the tense atmosphere can be eased and the parties can return to the track of dialogue,” Mr. Li said. “Nobody wants to have a constant ruckus all day at his doorstep. ” But Mr. Li stopped short of criticizing the antimissile system that the United States began deploying in South Korea last week as a shield against missiles from the North. China has vehemently opposed the system, which it says could also track its intercontinental ballistic missiles, undermining their potency as a nuclear deterrent. The secretary of state, Mr. Tillerson, is scheduled to visit Beijing over the weekend for talks about the meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi and also to discuss regional trouble spots, especially North Korea. For Mr. Li, his annual news conference at the end of the legislative session was a rare chance to dominate the political stage, which is usually filled by the president, Mr. Xi. Unlike his recent predecessors, Mr. Li has not taken a lead in setting economic policy, and some observers have wondered whether he might be replaced as premier after his first term ends next year. But on Wednesday, Mr. Li held center stage, while crediting Mr. Xi with keeping the economy in good health since they were elected premier and president in 2013. Mr. Li presented an optimistic view of China’s economy this year. At the opening of the meeting last week, Mr. Li said the government wanted the economy to grow 6. 5 percent or more in 2017. The target represented a slight easing from last year’s goal, which was 6. 5 to 7 percent. China’s economy grew 6. 7 percent last year, according to official statistics. At his news conference, Mr. Li said that the 6. 5 percent target differed little from last year’s target. “We believe that China will continue to be a strong driving force in the face of a sluggish global economy,” he said. But the between stoking growth and fixing underlying economic problems have become increasingly difficult and contentious. The government says the economy must keep expanding at a relatively fast pace to create enough urban jobs for roughly 11 million rural migrants and new university graduates this year. Mr. Xi will also oversee a big leadership at a Communist Party congress this autumn, when he starts his second term as party leader, magnifying the government’s hunger for social confidence and stability. Yet ever since the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, China has come to depend on bigger and bigger injections of bank lending and other credit to fire up investment and demand. That worries economists, who say that increasingly heavy debt and misspending will eventually drag down growth. China has limited its budget deficit to about 3 percent of economic output, a modest fiscal stimulus. But it has been rapidly increasing total debt in the economy, with overall credit expanding last year by an amount equal to almost of the country’s economic output. Much of the lending has ended up in housing and construction projects, including new expressways and airports. That investment has increasingly taken place in less prosperous inland regions where demand is tepid. As a result, the growth dividend from each dollar of new credit has been shrinking year by year, even as nationwide debt, particularly borrowing by enterprises, has expanded briskly. Mr. Li, however, sought to allay worries about rising Chinese debt. He said that there was no risk to the overall financial system and that the Chinese government’s relatively low budget deficit and large capital bases in banks would protect the country. But he acknowledged that financial challenges remained, saying, “We are fully aware of potential risks and will take prompt and targeted action. ” | 1 |
Share on Facebook
A California woman with Lupus who was wearing a bandana over her head was targeted with a hateful note and her car windows were smashed.
Every day for the past 49 days, Nicki Pancholy, 41, of Milpitas, has been hiking up Mission Peak in the name of peace, she explained to NBC Bay Area . Due to the acidic election cycle, Pancholy said she wanted to walk up the 2,500-foot-high mountain to send up prayers for health and collective harmony. “Every step is a soft whisper to God,” she said.
After she descended from the Peak, she found a note on the hood of her car. “Hijab wearing b—– this is our nation now get the f— out,” the note read.
Because she suffers from Lupus, Pancholy wears a headscarf to protect her from the sun.
“When I saw it, I was in shock,” she said of the message. “That someone would feel so much hate to do this. I realize that this is the climate after this election. But I didn’t realize someone would be so ignorant and in so much pain to cause so much harm.”
Pancholy, who is totally not of the Muslim faith, said she forgives the perpetrators and prays for them.
Watch:
East Bay Regional Park Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime and auto burglary. In addition to the note and smashed car windows, her purse and checkbook were stolen.
Watch courtesy of NBC:
Pancholoy was born in San Jose, California. Her ethnicity is Rajastani Indian and she said her religion is ‘love.’ Trumpsters can’t even bigot correctly.
Since the election, attacks on women, Muslims, blacks and Latinos have been reported across the country. Children are even attacking other children. This comes at a time when the president-elect’s advisers are pushing for a Muslim registry. One prominent Trump surrogate is even suggesting Japanese-style internment camps.
And Trump supporters want us to give the president-elect a chance. I don’t think so.
Image via screen capture Written by Conover Kennard Conover makes tea partiers cry as a hobby. She was Commander of Jade Helm15 during the failed takeover of the South. She's also one of the biggest arseholes on Twitter. At night, she can be found drinking Conservative tears while pulling off the wings of flies just because she can. She is the founder of a Marxist, Commie, Maoist, Socialist site and has contributed to several other sites, blah blah blah. She is an awful person but she doesn't like to brag about that. SEARCH THE SITE | 0 |
Share on Facebook NASA Space Sounds: what happens when spacecraft are used to record radio emissions from planetary environments, which are then converted to sound waves. Some spacecraft have instruments capable of capturing radio emissions. What you're hearing is the result of scientists' conversion of these radio emissions to sound waves. Instruments on NASA's Voyager, INJUN 1, ISEE 1 and HAWKEYE space probes were used to record the vibrations of different objects in our solar system. The recorded sounds are the complex interactions of charged electromagnetic particles from the solar wind, ionisphere, and planetary magnetosphere. The space sounds are really amazing! Nothing was added or tweaked either, these are the beautiful sounds which emanate from that mysterious world above and beyond. Enjoy! Saturn's Rings | 0 |
Support for 'assault-weapon' ban hits record low Even widely opposed by those who don't even own guns Published: 3 mins ago
(The Federalist) Support for a so-called assault weapons ban in the U.S. just hit a record low of 36 percent, according to a new Gallup poll released on Wednesday. The poll showed that 61 percent of American adults now oppose a ban. That level of opposition is the highest ever recorded.
Increasing opposition to the 1990’s-era gun ban isn’t just limited to Republicans. Gallup’s data show that opposition to the ban has increased across the board. Barely 50 percent of Democrats currently support the ban today, compared to 63 percent support from Democrats in 1996, just two years after the federal ban was signed into law. Less than a third of independents currently support a ban, while Republican support hovers at 25 percent. | 0 |
The presidency of Donald J. Trump has been noteworthy for its speed. In his first week in office, as the president’s aides won’t tire of reminding us, Mr. Trump has already put in motion plans to do much of what he promised to do while campaigning. But it’s not just the politician who is moving fast. It’s the population, too. In a matter of hours on Saturday, thousands rushed to the nation’s airports, beckoned by tweets. The flash protests in response to Mr. Trump’s immigration ban, which continued to grow in many cities on Sunday, were as organized as they were instantaneous. Dispatched online, the protesters knew where to go, and they knew what to do once they arrived: to command the story by making a scene. Mr. Trump feeds off media attention. Throughout the campaign, the bigger a spectacle he created, the larger he loomed in the public consciousness. What has been remarkable during the last two weekends is how thoroughly Mr. Trump’s own media personage was blotted out by scenes of protesters. In a brief appearance on Saturday, the president assured the nation that his immigrant ban was “working out very nicely — you see it in the airports. ” But the pictures and videos flooding across our social streams put the lie to Mr. Trump’s breezy pronouncements. Things at the airports weren’t working out very nicely you could see it right there on Instagram. A similar story unfolded the weekend before. In his inaugural address Mr. Trump claimed the mantle of popular will. The next day, a far larger illustration of popular will was on display at marches across the country. The people who gathered for the women’s march hijacked the media narrative. Even for those who did not assemble on either weekend, the pictures carried special power. Amplified on social media and echoing across every TV network, they suggested something larger afoot, something . “Something’s happening out there,” Ana Navarro, the Republican and television pundit, declared on Twitter. Something sure is. We’re witnessing the stirrings of a national popular movement aimed at defeating the policies of Mr. Trump. It is a movement without official leaders. In fact, to a noteworthy degree, the formal apparatus of the Democratic Party has been nearly absent from the uprisings. Unlike the Tea Party and the “” the new movement has no name. Call it the or, if you want to really drive Mr. Trump up the wall, the . Or call it nothing. Though nameless and decentralized, the movement isn’t chaotic. Because it was hatched on social networks and is dispatched by mobile phones, it appears to be organizationally sophisticated and ferociously savvy about conquering the media. Over two weekends, the protests have accomplished something just about unprecedented in the nearly two years since Mr. Trump first declared his White House run: They have nudged him from the media spotlight he depends on. They are the only force we’ve seen that has been capable of untangling his singular hold on the media ecosystem. The movement is new and possibly fragile it could dissipate, like so much else that has come up against Mr. Trump. But in such a short time, the movement has proved unusually adept. It can marshal crowds quickly, as we saw over the weekend, and it can go big, as we saw in the women’s marches, which some crowd scientists believe were the largest day of protest in American history. The movement has other skills. It’s capable of coming up with catchy slogans, funny signs and even branding efforts to rival Mr. Trump’s own. The president has his Make America Great Again hats. Protesters at the women’s march had pink woolen hats with cat ears — “pussy hats,” a reference to the president’s confessed penchant for grabbing things. But unlike Mr. Trump’s hats, the pink caps came from the crowd. Thousands of knitters created them in the weeks between the election and the inauguration, then mailed them off to strangers who shared their views. There’s money, too. Since Mr. Trump’s win, the inchoate online movement has sparked millions in donations to progressive groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. Over the weekend, the A. C. L. U. raised more than $20 million. The movement can also compel the attention of elites. In large part because of pressure from their connected work forces, the leaders of many technology companies denounced Mr. Trump’s immigration orders. Between Friday and Monday, thanks to the movement, Silicon Valley was transformed. An industry that was once merely skeptical of Mr. Trump largely became opposed to him, only because crowds forced change. Most important, though, the movement can command the media narrative. The president has promised a lot of bold change. His boldness will involve lots of consequences. Millions might lose health care coverage if he repeals the Affordable Care Act. Many might be deported if he achieves his immigration proposals. If the last two weeks are any indication, though, none of this will happen quietly. There will be pictures and viral videos of real people facing hardship, and those pictures are sure to inspire hordes. When people are left with crippling medical bills in the absence of health insurance, or when people are deported to Mexico, you will see large gatherings on Facebook, and then on TV. Already, a group of scientists are planning to march on Washington in opposition to what they say is Mr. Trump’s disdain for science. There are other protests planned for Tax Day in April to remind the nation that the president once promised to release his tax returns, then reneged. You might wonder if the protests will achieve much. Americans have protested before (the war in Iraq comes to mind) and the protests did not, in themselves, alter national policy. But if Mr. Trump has proved anything, it’s that everything is different now. We live in a culture ruled by social media streams, one in which most people are skeptical of what they see and read in the “mainstream media. ” This explains why Stephen K. Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News who is a close adviser to Mr. Trump, has been seeking to paint the news media as Mr. Trump’s primary opposition. The weakened news media is an easy mark for Mr. Trump. If the media is his only opponent, he’s got nothing to worry about. Unlike the news media, though, protesters produce an undeniable reality. Protesters can’t easily be dismissed as “fake news. ” They come to you unmediated — not from The New York Times, but from your friends and friends of friends on Facebook. They are, in other words, just another version of your social network — the physical manifestation of an outraged News Feed. Because they’re people you know, they can’t easily be maligned as biased or unfair. When politicians take on political crowds rather than other politicians, it usually ends badly. Hillary Clinton had to apologize for calling Mr. Trump’s supporters “deplorables. ” After first bashing the women’s march on Twitter, even Mr. Trump had to praise the demonstrators. There’s another reason for believing that protests could prove effective against Mr. Trump’s policies: The protesters seem to drive him crazy. Mr. Trump is enamored of crowds. Throughout the campaign, he and his surrogates argued that the polls were rigged, and that his large rallies suggested there was a growing tide of support for his candidacy. The crowds, in other words, became the whole ballgame. They were the only reality that mattered. If he won the crowd, he’d win the election. Now Mr. Trump faces the same dynamic, in reverse. The crowds at his inauguration were supposed to certify his popularity. When they fizzled, and were then outmatched by opposition protests, he couldn’t help relitigating the matter for days. Things haven’t gotten better. Now there are crowds on every screen and every feed. The people aren’t saying nice things about him. And there’s something worse than that, too: They’ve stolen the limelight for themselves. | 1 |
TEL AVIV — Even as France has started an international debate about whether some women cover up too much on the beach, Israel has gone the other way, with fresh concerns about whether some cover up too little. The Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport said on Sunday that it would insist on modest dress by performers at musical events after a singer said she was forced to leave the stage for wearing a bikini top at a beachside concert near here last week. The flap over skimpy swimwear here turned Europe’s burkini debate on its head. A flash of skin on a beach in Tel Aviv, a cosmopolitan city on the Mediterranean, is hardly unusual — Tel Aviv teemed with women sunbathing in bikinis over the weekend, just as it has for years. At the same time, there were also religious women, Muslim and Jewish, covered nearly entirely, a sight that caused none of the political and cultural uproar seen on the sands of the Riviera lately. But if the French local bans on the burkinis illustrated an often libertine country’s discomfort with conservative Muslim traditions, the decision by the Israeli authorities to weigh in on the side of more clothing reflected a different kind of cultural debate. With the influence of Orthodox Judaism having grown in the current government, Israel, a country whose culture was long dominated by secular elites, is struggling with its identity and values. The culture minister, Miri Regev, has been a driving force behind the debate, seeking to deny state money for institutions that do not express loyalty to the state and proposing to vet the music played by the army’s radio station for its patriotism. Her ministry said Sunday that it was now acting to respect the sensibilities of those who might be offended by immodest attire at shows financed by the state. “The ministry’s policy, led by the minister of culture, states that festivals and events which are funded by public money will honor the general public that attends the events, which includes all the various sectors and communities,” Sivan Carmon, a ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement. The ministry intervened after a concert in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, on Friday took a surprise turn. Onstage was Hanna Goor, a singer known for her appearance on “A Star Is Born,” a Israeli reality television program featuring new vocalists. As she performed, Ms. Goor was wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a bikini top and shorts when, she said, a man from the production company contracted by the state approached her and told her to cover up. She said she had refused, only to have the man threaten to kick her off the stage. She sang another song anyway, then noticed the production company official return with a security officer, at which point she left the stage to avoid a confrontation. Ms. Carmon, the culture ministry spokeswoman, said by telephone on Sunday that Ms. Goor’s attire was not appropriate for performing in front of the general public. Ms. Carmon denied that the singer had been forced offstage, but said that the program had been running late and that Ms. Goor’s time had been cut short by maybe one song. In an interview on Sunday, Ms. Goor said she was only trying to stay cool in the late summer heat, and was dressed no different from many watching from the beach. “It’s Friday noon,” she said. “Everything is so sunny, so hot, I was only thinking about how tolerable it would be onstage. ” She said she was stunned by the objection to her clothing. “They made it such a big deal, and now there are new regulations they want to put on and force artists to be more modest,” she said. “It’s just not right. I’m against it, and I will speak my mind about it as much as I can. It’s very important for me to sing the way I want to sing and get up on stage dressed how I want to dress. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, whose extensive for the energy giant has plunged him into global politics from Yemen to Russia, is expected to be offered the secretary of state post this weekend by Donald J. Trump, according to two people close to Mr. Trump’s transition team. Mr. Tillerson has close ties with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whom he has known for more than two decades. Russia awarded Mr. Tillerson its Order of Friendship in 2013, the year before Washington’s relationship with Moscow sank into a deep freeze over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its shadow war in eastern Ukraine. Relations with Russia have grown only more troubled since American intelligence agencies formally determined shortly after the November election that Russia had taken steps intended to help Mr. Trump win. Mr. Tillerson, with no background in diplomacy outside the energy arena, would inherit those problems. He would also face the question of whether to maintain sanctions on Russia — penalties he has criticized for slowing Exxon’s investments in that country. His connections to Russia are sure to come under scrutiny during a Senate confirmation hearing. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said on Saturday that Mr. Tillerson’s ties to Mr. Putin were “a matter of concern to me. ” “I’d have to examine it,” he said on Fox News, adding that “Vladimir Putin is a thug, bully and a murderer, and anybody else who describes him as anything else is lying. ” Mr. Tillerson’s success in business gives him a major credential with Mr. Trump, who values that background, along with loyalty, above other traits. He would be one of several wealthy business executives in top administration jobs. Mr. Tillerson met with Mr. Trump for more than two hours on Saturday at Trump Tower in New York, and two of the ’s key advisers, his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, and his Jared Kushner, have told Mr. Trump that Mr. Tillerson is in a “different league” from his other options. But Mr. Trump is famously mercurial and could change his mind before making his final decision public. A transition spokesman, Jason Miller, declined to comment. Among the other contenders have been Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Trump’s team has discussed the possibility of appointing as deputy secretary John R. Bolton, a highly conservative and combative veteran of the George W. Bush administration. Mr. Trump has also spoken with Richard N. Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a far more centrist figure. Mr. Tillerson, 64, has spent the past 41 years at Exxon, where he began as a production engineer and went on to strike deals around the world for a company that explores, buys and sells oil and gas in some of the globe’s most troubled corners. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Tillerson will deal with many of the world leaders he encountered at Exxon, but with a very different agenda. In addition to an increasingly aggressive Russia, he will have to manage a raging war in Syria that has consumed the last year of diplomatic efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry, a rising China that is staking claims in the South China Sea, and a North Korea that is growing closer to being able to launch a missile at the United States. The kind of diplomacy that Mr. Tillerson has excelled at is far different from the required of a secretary of state, often without the incentive of profits for negotiating partners. Mr. Tillerson assumed the role of chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil in January 2006, and during his tenure the company acknowledged, for the first time, the science underlying climate change. It has said it supports the creation of a carbon tax, which most Republicans have opposed, and it also supported the Paris climate agreement, a major focus of Mr. Kerry’s time in office. Mr. Trump has vowed to abandon the climate pact. In May, Mr. Tillerson told shareholders that “we believe that addressing the risk of climate change is a global issue,” adding that it would require the cooperation of governments, businesses and individuals. Executives at Exxon describe Mr. Tillerson as a strong leader, accustomed to making decisions and giving orders. Some have expressed surprise that he would be interested in the job of secretary of state, because he would not be the final decision maker. A native of Wichita Falls, Tex. Mr. Tillerson speaks with a strong Texas twang and is known for quoting Boy Scout creeds. If he has faced a failure as a leader of Exxon, it was that he was slow to invest in the oil and gas shale fields around Texas and North Dakota. Preferring to invest in big, expensive projects around the world, he left the shale fields open to smaller, more nimble independent companies. When he finally bought XTO, a shale company, in 2009 for over $30 billion, he did so when natural gas prices were at a peak. After paying a premium for the company, Exxon’s earnings have suffered in recent years. Still, in total, Mr. Tillerson has excelled in the somewhat rigid atmosphere inside Exxon. Steve Coll, the author of “Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power,” noted in 2012 that Mr. Tillerson presided over a company that had succeeded “where the question is numbers, or engineering effectiveness, or worker safety performance. ” “But when the question involves the human factor, building trust with your communities where you’re drilling, or convincing people that fracking is not going to ruin their water, or dealing with political environments in 150 different countries with lots of supply problems, or dealing with violence on the ground around your oil fields in Africa — in all of those areas, I think they have a habit of not really taking anybody’s advice,” Mr. Coll said. “They keep the windows closed,” added Mr. Coll, now the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. “They have an enormous amount of confidence in themselves, and I think they defeat themselves in these other areas of political communications more often than they need to. ” The question is how Mr. Tillerson will mesh with the far less hierarchical world of the State Department, where dissent is common, leaks about are often the order of the day, and success and failure are not measured on a balance sheet. He is no stranger to political upheaval, however. Exxon has operations in about 50 countries, and Mr. Tillerson has not been shy about promoting the interests of his company, whether they coincide with American policy or not. Shortly after he took the helm, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela moved to nationalize the assets of 22 foreign oil companies. Most chose to negotiate compensation arrangements. But Exxon Mobil, along with ConocoPhillips, took Venezuela to international arbitration court, and in 2014 Exxon won a $1. 6 billion compensation package. It was a fraction of what the company had demanded, but Exxon showed unusual toughness. The company also mobilized a serious exploration effort in Guyanese waters claimed by Venezuela, and that work is expected to eventually result in major production. Exxon has close ties to the Qatari national oil company, and has partnered with the Qataris in building a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Gulf of Mexico coast that is designed for importing gas and may eventually be used for exporting it, as well. He has also signed deals to develop oil fields in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, angering an important American ally, Iraq, which bars such direct dealings. But most controversial is Exxon’s close relationship with Russia, which Mr. Tillerson has worked hard to strengthen. Exxon has various joint ventures around Russia with the oil giant Rosneft, and has contributed to social programs in education and health. Western sanctions prohibiting certain energy development activities have posed a hurdle to Exxon’s investments in Russia, particularly a joint venture with Rosneft that was supposed to start drilling for oil in 2014 in the Kara Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. Mr. Tillerson has spoken out against sanctions in part because the company is unable to collect revenues from an investment in an oil and gas consortium to which Exxon belongs that operates off Sakhalin Island. “We always encourage the people who are making those decisions to consider the very broad collateral damage of who are they really harming with sanctions,” Mr. Tillerson told shareholders at the company’s 2014 annual meeting. Last week, Exxon became a major player in Mexico by successfully bidding with other international oil companies for the right to explore and develop deepwater reserves. The auction came at a time when Mexico is primed for a confrontation with Mr. Trump, who has vowed to build a wall along the border. | 1 |
The Jorge Cabrera Scandal First Lady Photo-OP with Convicted Cocaine Dealer [INLINE] Star The Economics Section - Page A4 Star [USEMAP] October 24, 1996 First Lady Photo-OP with Convicted Cocaine Dealer Inside White House Secured Perimeter! by Staff Journalists, The Daily Republican Newspaper [INLINE] WASHINGTON DESK - The Justice Department released on Wednesday photographs showing a convicted Miami cocaine trafficker who is seen standing next to and posing with vice president Al Gore. The two were attending a party in Florida last December. Apparently, Cabrera was asked to make a large donation to the Clinton-Gore campaign in exchange for perks like hob-nobbing with Al Gore and the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Jorge Cabrera's cash contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign were so generous, that Cabrera was also invited to the White House and gained entrance there without any FBI & Secret Service security clearance. [INLINE] CNN reported Wednesday that Cabrera's attorney, Stephen Bronis, said $20,000(given to the Clinton-Gore campaign) was not intended to buy protection for drug smuggling. 'He had a lobster and stone crab fishery in the Keys and felt that contribution might promote that future course,' Bronis said. The Clinton-Gore campaign only returned the $20,000 last week after the full story had reached ABC News, and the Clinton administration had been asked for comment by the media. Cabrera was arrested in January during a Miami drug bust of nearly three tons of cocaine. Cabrera was arrested and pleaded guilty to one drug count. He was also imprisoned in the 1980s on narcotics charges. A report that the picture of Cabrera and Gore had been impounded by the Justice Department prompted an angry reaction from Republicans, including Bob Dole's presidential campaign, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Republicans sent letters to Attorney General Janet Reno and the directors of the FBI and the Secret Service seeking information about Cabrera and the campaign contribution. Livingston asked the federal agencies for a complete accounting of the facts relating to the story within three days: whether Cabrera had dined at the White House, details of his relationship with Clinton and Gore and, if he did dine with them, how he passed FBI & Secret Service scrutiny to gain access to them. The U.S. attorney's office in Miami was contacted by reporters. Justice said it would not provide photographs of Cabrera and Gore in Florida and at the White House when reporters requested them on Monday. The Justice Department attempted to claim that Cabrera's story is covered by the Privacy Act law in turning down the media request for information on the arrest for cocaine possession of tons of the illegal drug and dealing. Janet Reno put out information that the photo of Cabrera with Gore and Clinton could not be released without the consent of Cabrera. Later, the Justice Department did release the photographs after Cabrera submitted written authorization. The delay by the Justice Department appeared to be an effort to distance itself from accusations that are mounting from the American public that the Justice Department is receiving guidance from the Clinton White House and the vice president's office on the timing of Janet Reno's investigation. Justice says it is looking into the breach of National Security by Cabrera's ready access to secured areas of the White House and its grounds when he entered as an invited quest of president Clinton for dinner and photo-ops. COMMENT | 0 |
Daniel Cormier nearly died from a weight cut nine years ago. On Friday, people nearly died laughing after a Daniel Cormier weight cut. [The UFC light heavyweight champion tipped the scales at 206. 2 for his Saturday night title defense against Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, himself no stranger to issues. Just 144 seconds after his failure to make the proscribed limit of 205 pounds, DC returned to the scale shortly before the expiration of the time cutoff. He miraculously hit the weight limit on the nose. Strangely, when Johnson, a former welterweight who boasts a win at heavyweight over a former UFC champion, took to the scales the reading registered 203. 8, precisely 1. 2 pounds below the limit — the same amount Cormier “lost” in less than three minutes. Rather than scale skullduggery, ESPN’s Brett Okamoto takes a crack at solving the case of the missing weight by pointing to a prevarication. “Cormier ( ) who cuts a good amount of weight to compete at 205 pounds, may have used an old wrestling trick to lose 1. 2 pounds in such a short amount of time,” Okamoto writes. “During the second UFC officials held a towel out in front of Cormier, who had stripped off all his clothes. Cormier clearly pushed down on the towels, which would presumably offset his weight slightly. ” Fighters employ unusual measures to make weight. Desmond Green, fighting on UFC 210’s undercard, once described to Breitbart Sports how he cut his dreadlocks to make weight. Cormier wished such an option existed for him at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008. He made the 211. limit. Then his kidneys failed. The medical event prevented him from competing and nearly killed him. That Daniel Cormier competed in his twenties rather than his thirties. And he did so at a weight limit nearly seven pounds higher than the one he encountered on Friday. A who did not look outsized in dispatching Frank Mir, Antonio “Big Foot” Silva, and Josh Barnett — none exactly small for their division — at heavyweight appears like a skeleton at the scales as a light heavyweight. But even Skelator Cormier initially failed to make weight. His Daniel Cormier Diet, surely now as as anything peddled by Jenny Craig, shed more than a pound in less than a commercial break. At that rate, the Daniel Cormier Diet figures to lose fatties 50 pounds every two hours. Alas, like most products, the diet wins its fair share of skeptics seeing it as snake oil. But people watching scales, whether athletic commissions or unathletic gargantuans, see what they want to see. | 1 |
JUBA, South Sudan — Armed clashes between two factions and waves of heavy gunfire spread across South Sudan’s capital on Sunday, a day after the nation’s fifth anniversary of its independence. Military helicopters swooped over the city, Juba, and armored vehicles rolled through streets, witnesses said. People took shelter in their homes and hid beneath their beds as the sounds of guns and heavier weapons rose, fell and rose again. “We are fighting at Gudele, Rock City and Jebel,” said William Gatjiath Deng, a spokesman for Vice President Riek Machar, referring to neighborhoods and suburbs of Juba. “There are a lot of bodies. I can’t even count them. ” Each side blamed the other for initiating the new outburst of violence. Michael Makuei, South Sudan’s information minister, said President Salva Kiir would soon declare a “unilateral . ” The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country wrote on Twitter that a “heavily armed exchange” had occurred near its base around 8:30 a. m. “The heavy artillery has been continuing since morning,” Shantal Persaud, a spokeswoman for the mission, said late Sunday afternoon. “The civilians have not been able to move from our accommodation” at the mission’s base near Jebel. Even as people sought refuge in their homes, witnesses reported that officers were knocking on doors in some neighborhoods, checking identity cards. The renewed violence broke a short and uneasy calm on Saturday, after fighting had erupted Friday. That violence is reported to have killed at least 150 people, with the toll expected to rise because casualties were still being counted. Factions of the South Sudanese Army loyal to Mr. Kiir and those backing Mr. Machar, who until this year led a rebellion against the government, have been fighting throughout the capital since Thursday, when the two sides confronted each other at a roadside checkpoint. Five government soldiers were killed in those exchanges. Fighting broke out again the next day as the two leaders were meeting. The United States said it had met with representatives of the South Sudanese leadership on Saturday and had received assurances that the fighting would stop. The United States helped engineer South Sudan’s independence from Sudan and still wields influence in the country. On Sunday, however, gunfire erupted again, spreading to different parts of the capital, including near the main army barracks and Juba International Airport. In New York, the United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Sunday afternoon to address the South Sudan crisis, the council announced on Twitter. In an email, J. Peter Pham, the director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said it was unclear how much sway Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar and other faction leaders in the “ transition government” had over their fighters. “Between the collapse of oil prices and the destruction they themselves wrought in the civil war, South Sudan is so destitute that there are no resources with which the country’s rulers might employ to bring their followers to heel,” Mr. Pham said. | 1 |
The nation’s new immigration policies will help Mexicans as well as Americans, President Donald Trump told the nation today. [“It is going to be very, very good for Mexico,” he told a cheering audience at the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. “Our relationship with Mexico is going to get better and better,” he said Jan. 25, shortly after he signed orders ending a series of policies established by President Barack Obama. Trump’s emphasis on the benefits to both Americans and Mexicans flips the standard script pushed by progressives who argue that Trump’s policies are motivated by hostility towards foreigners, including Mexicans and Central Americans. At the DHS, standing beside Gen. John Kelly, the new DHS chief, Trump declared: The unprecedented surge of illegal migrants from Central America is harming both Mexico and the United States, and I believe these steps … starting right now, will improve the safety in both countries … A nation without a border is not a nation. The policy of firm borders will be used to increase “economic opportunity on both sides” of the border, Trump said, after describing the northward flow of drugs and criminals. “I want to emphasize that we will be working in a partnership with our friends in Mexico to improve safety and economic opportunity on both sides of the border,” he said, adding “I have deep admiration or the people of Mexico. ” He continued: We are going to save lives on both sides of the border, and we also understand that a strong and healthy economy in Mexico is very good for the United States. Very, very good. We want that to happen. Trump’s support for Mexicans living in Mexico is popular among his supporters. percent of Trump supporters have a positive view of Mexican immigrants in the United States — but 75 percent of his supporters also have a positive view of “Mexicans living in Mexico,” according to an October 2016 survey. That positive view of is shared by 80 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of all Americans, and 82 percent of Democrats, leaving Trump’s supporters with similar generous attitudes as other Americans towards foreigners living in their own countries. Trump’s new policies are furiously opposed by globalist progressives. “President Trump’s fantasy of sealing the border with a wall is driven by racial and ethnic bias that disgraces America’s proud tradition of protecting vulnerable migrants,” claimed Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. Jadwat continued, according to a ACLU statement: The DHS deportation force has a track record of racial profiling and excessive force abuses, and expanding it will further erode the rights of millions of people who call our safe border communities home. Locking up asylum seekers who pose no danger or flight risk is unconstitutional and benefits nobody except private prison corporations and politicians looking to score rhetorical points. We will see the Trump administration in court if they go down that road. immigration reformers, however, welcomed Trump’s new policies, even as they also called for action to curb many other policies established by Obama. Top of the list is a law requiring companies to check that possible hires are allowed to work in the United States. The reformers also want Trump to deploy a system so that officials know when legal visitors, such as tourists or temporary workers, have left the country. The system would help reduce the number of “overstay” illegal workers. Congress has repeatedly authorized the deployment of the tracking system since the atrocity, but has not provided the needed funds. In 2015 roughly 500, 000 foreign visitors overstayed their visas, according to a government report. The reformers also want Trump to reverse Obama regulations which sharply increased the inflow of foreign professionals who compete for professional jobs sought by young American graduates. Trump is coming under criticism from immigration reformers for not immediately stopping the renewal of work permits given to roughly 750, 000 illegal immigrants by Obama’s 2012 . Throughout his term, Obama increased the inflow of legal immigrants so much that his agencies brought one migrant into the United States for every two births during the first half of 2016, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. For much of his tenure, Obama’s agencies annually imported one million new legal immigrants plus one million foreign contract workers, even as 4 million young Americans annually entered the job market. By a lopsided margin, most Americans believe companies should hire Americans before hiring additional immigrants. Trump’s policies are mostly opposed by business groups and by many GOP leaders, especially House Speaker Paul Ryan. The GOP’s leadership tend to favor a economic strategy. For example, Ryan has repeatedly argued that business needs a steady supply of foreign workers and professionals about the four million Americans who join the labor force each year, and that foreign workers are needed to prevent any wage increases for American workers. The current inflow of cheap foreign workers cuts’ Americans salaries and effectively transfers roughly $500 billion a year from pay packets into investors’ profits, according to calculations by Professor George Borjas, a Harvard researcher. Follow Neil Munro on Twitter @NeilMunroDC or email the author at NMunro@Breitbart. com | 1 |
URBANA, Ill. — A decade ago, agricultural scientists at the University of Illinois suggested a bold approach to improve the food supply: tinker with photosynthesis, the chemical reaction powering nearly all life on Earth. The idea was greeted skeptically in scientific circles and ignored by funding agencies. But one outfit with deep pockets, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, eventually paid attention, hoping the research might help alleviate global poverty. Now, after several years of work funded by the foundation, the scientists are reporting a remarkable result. Using genetic engineering techniques to alter photosynthesis, they increased the productivity of a test plant — tobacco — by as much as 20 percent, they said Thursday in a study published by the journal Science. That is a huge number, given that plant breeders struggle to eke out gains of 1 or 2 percent with more conventional approaches. The scientists have no interest in increasing the production of tobacco their plan is to try the same alterations in food crops, and one of the leaders of the work believes production gains of 50 percent or more may ultimately be achievable. If that prediction is borne out in further research — it could take a decade, if not longer, to know for sure — the result might be nothing less than a transformation of global agriculture. The findings could also intensify the political struggle over genetic engineering of the food supply. Some groups oppose it, arguing that researchers are playing God by moving genes from one species to another. That argument has gained some traction with the public, in part because the benefits of crops have so far been modest at best. But gains of 40 or 50 percent in food production would be an entirely different matter, potentially offering enormous benefits for the world’s poorest people, many of them farmers working small plots of land in the developing world. “We’re here because we want to alleviate poverty,” said Katherine Kahn, the officer at the Gates Foundation overseeing the grant for the Illinois research. “What is it the farmers need, and how can we help them get there?” One of the leaders of the research, Stephen P. Long, a crop scientist who holds appointments at the University of Illinois at and at Lancaster University in England, emphasized in an interview that a long road lay ahead before any results from the work might reach farmers’ fields. But Dr. Long is also convinced that genetic engineering could ultimately lead to what he called a “second Green Revolution” that would produce huge gains in food production, like the original Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, which transferred advanced agricultural techniques to some developing countries and led to reductions in world hunger. The research involves photosynthesis, in which plants use carbon dioxide from the air and energy from sunlight to form new, carbohydrates. These compounds are, in turn, the basic energy supply for almost all animal cells, including those of humans. The mathematical description of photosynthesis is sometimes billed as “the equation that powers the world. ” For a decade, Dr. Long had argued that photosynthesis was not actually very efficient. In the course of evolution, several experts said, Mother Nature had focused on the survival and reproduction of plants, not on putting out the maximum amount of seeds or fruits for humans to come along and pick. Dr. Long thought crop yields might be improved by certain genetic changes. Other scientists doubted it would work, but with the Science paper, Dr. Long and his collaborator — Krishna K. Niyogi, who holds appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — have gone a long way toward proving their point. Much of the work at the University of Illinois was carried out by two young researchers from abroad who hold positions in Dr. Long’s laboratory, Johannes Kromdijk of the Netherlands and Katarzyna Glowacka of Poland. No one plans to eat tobacco, of course, nor does the Gates Foundation have any interest in increasing the production of that crop. But the researchers used it because tobacco is a particularly fast and easy plant in which to try new genetic alterations to see how well they work. In a recent interview here, Dr. Kromdijk and Dr. Glowacka showed off tiny tobacco plants incorporating the genetic changes and described their aspirations. “We hope it translates into food crops in the way we’ve shown in tobacco,” Dr. Kromdijk said. “Of course, you only know when you actually try it. ” In the initial work, the researchers transferred genes from a common laboratory plant, known as thale cress or cress, into strains of tobacco. The effect was not to introduce alien substances, but rather to increase the level of certain proteins that already existed in tobacco. When plants receive direct sunlight, they are often getting more energy than they can use, and they activate a mechanism that helps them shed it as heat — while slowing carbohydrate production. The genetic changes the researchers introduced help the plant turn that mechanism off faster once the excessive sunlight ends, so that the machinery of photosynthesis can get back more quickly to maximal production of carbohydrates. It is a bit like a factory worker taking a shorter coffee break before getting back to the assembly line. But the effect on the overall growth of the tobacco plants was surprisingly large. When the scientists grew the newly created plants in fields at the University of Illinois, they achieved yield increases of 13. 5 percent in one strain, 19 percent in a second and 20 percent in a third, over normal tobacco plants grown for comparison. Because the machinery of photosynthesis in many of the world’s food crops is identical to that of tobacco, theory suggests that a comparable manipulation of those crops should increase production. Work is planned to test that in crops that are especially important as dietary staples in Africa, like cowpeas, rice and cassava. Two outside experts not involved in the research both used the word “exciting” to describe it. But they emphasized that the researchers had not yet proved that the food supply could be increased. “How does it look in rice or corn or wheat or sugar beets?” said L. Val Giddings, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Washington and a longtime advocate of crops. “You’ve got to get it into a handful of the important crops before you can show this is real and it’s going to have a huge impact. We are not there yet. ” Barry D. Bruce of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, who studies photosynthesis, pointed out that the genetic alteration might behave differently in crops where only parts of the plant, such as seeds or fruits, are harvested. In tobacco, by contrast, the entire aboveground plant is harvested — Dr. Bruce called it “a leafy green plant used for cigars!” Dr. Bruce also noted that, now that the principle has been established, it might be possible to find plant varieties with the desired traits and introduce the changes into crops by conventional breeding, rather than by genetic engineering. Dr. Long and his group agreed this might be possible. The genetic engineering approach, if it works, may well be used in commercial seeds produced by Western agricultural companies. One of them, Syngenta, has already signed a deal to get a first look at the results. But the Gates Foundation is determined to see the technology, assuming its early promise is borne out, make its way to African farmers at low cost. The work is, in part, an effort to secure the food supply against the possible effects of future climate change. If rising global temperatures cut the production of food, human society could be destabilized, but more efficient crop plants could potentially make the food system more resilient, Dr. Long said. “We’re in a year when commodity prices are very low, and people are saying the world doesn’t need more food,” Dr. Long said. “But if we don’t do this now, we may not have it when we really need it. ” | 1 |
Field is correct about the 8a companies and Trump is correct about China . http://planet.infowars.com/politics/whats-the-truth-about-american-vote-fraud-anything-to-suspect As Curtis testifies they were downloading a lot of secret stuff from Nasa as well . Chinese controlling the vote in USA you couldnt make that up , no wonder they have all your industry . No one can deny this didnt happen they are all there at the testimony on video . | 0 |
Japan’s Lost Black Hole Satellite Took This LAST Photo. Proves Something MIND-BOGGLING! Please scroll down for video
This remarkable photo is the last thing Japan’s lost satellite, Hitomi, captured.
Black holes with their ability to consume an entire galaxy, are perhaps the most feared object in the heavens due to the voracious appetite which they hold. It has now been discovered that black holes also have the ability to also feed the growth of galaxies.
Black holes effectively affect and control the growth and expansion of galaxies, acting as a kind of regulator. It appears from recent discoveries that the universe has a life and death cycle for its heavenly bodies. Black holes appear to be at the center of this life cycle, a kind of grim reaper and giver of life all rapped up into one clever little package.
The discovery of this process was noted by a Japanese satellite shortly before its unfortunate demise. The satellite had been focused on the Perseus Cluster which has at its center a super massive black hole. Data from the satellite demonstrated that black holes provide energy for the growth of galaxies. Remember that energy is never lost but instead changed and transformed as time moves on so it makes sense that black holes both absorb and expel energy. Energy is transformed and never destroyed, not even by black holes .
Black holes are formed when a star of enormous magnitude ultimately burns out, and the core collapses into a black hole. The process of a star dying out is a kin to what happens when a nuclear reactor melts down which is both an awesome and terrifying event. Once formed, the black hole absorbs anything which winds up in its path, which includes entire galaxies. The magnitude of such destruction of mass is overwhelming and difficult for the human mind process.
This article (Japan’s Lost Black Hole Satellite Took This LAST Photo. Proves Something MIND-BOGGLING! ) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with full attribution and a link to the original source on Disclose.tv Related Articles | 0 |
OXON HILL, Md. — Stephen K. Bannon brought the battle plan. President Trump brought the fight. A day after his secretive chief strategist laid out a new definition of conservatism animated by attacks on “the administrative state,” globalism and the “corporatist media,” Mr. Trump delivered a visceral gut punch of a speech that executed almost all of the tactics that define the philosophy of the West Wing. Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Mr. Trump launched what was easily the most blistering attack on the media and corporate elites of his already bellicose and eventful presidency. His speech also included a promise to throw undocumented immigrants “the hell out of the country” and a recitation of his campaign promises. It represented a friendly takeover of CPAC, an establishment Republican group whose leadership once viewed the party’s surprise as a noisy interloper. Mr. Bannon, the former Breitbart chief executive who has a hand in nearly every scripted public Trump utterance, had expressed a similar sentiment at the conference the day before. “If you think they’re going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken,” he said during an appearance with Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff. “Every day, it is going to be a fight. ” His onstage discussion, it turned out, was a preview of Mr. Trump’s populist broadsides, with an admonition to anyone who continues to underestimate the determination of the Trump White House to disrupt the Washington establishment. Mr. Trump’s less restrained approach energized CPAC attendees who had once viewed the as a celebrity curiosity — they serenaded him with chants of “Trump” and “U. S. A. ” And his message is resonating with Republican voters, over 80 percent of whom approve of his job performance, despite historically low levels of support among all voters. But Mr. Trump is intensifying his assault on his enemies on the eve of his first national address before a joint session of Congress, a time when most new presidents are moving in the opposite direction, pivoting from martial campaign rhetoric to the more positive, inclusive language of governance needed to build the coalition necessary to pass major legislation. On an operational level, Mr. Trump’s inexperienced but confident White House staff members — dominated by Mr. Bannon — are leaning on Hill Republicans to draft tax overhaul measures and a replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act. In the meantime, they have focused on enacting a series of executive orders, an approach often adopted by presidents at the end of their terms when their legislative leverage has been exhausted. As they did during the campaign, Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon believe they are tapping into an American public less interested in the standard optimistic tropes of presidential politics and more interested in someone who speaks truth to their anxieties. Moreover, aides to Mr. Trump say he fares best when he’s able to target — and nickname — an opponent, whether it is “Little Marco” Rubio, “Crooked Hillary” Clinton or the “Fake News” media. Mr. Bannon, bookish and prone to surrounding himself with young acolytes, previewed Mr. Trump’s during the Thursday session. “They’re corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed — adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has,” he said. “I think if you look at the opposition party and how they portray the campaign, how they portrayed the transition and now they’re portraying the administration, it’s always wrong. ” The attacks on the news media come at a time when the press has been reporting on the Trump campaign’s apparent connections to Russia, the botched rollout of Mr. Trump’s executive order on immigration and the forced resignation of Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, after less than a month on the job. “They’re very smart, they’re very cunning and they’re very dishonest,” Mr. Trump said on a day when his press secretary scrapped his daily briefing for an gaggle for selected reporters. The move, people familiar with the situation said, was enthusiastically backed by Mr. Bannon. The symbiotic political and personal relationship between the two men — the rumpled and the compulsively public and president — is driving much of the momentum and dysfunction of the White House, aides say. For all his talk of creating a blueprint for a Trumpian conservatism that outlasts the president’s career, Mr. Bannon is not regarded as a manager, and he let slip during his CPAC appearance that things in the White House have gone well — but only “to the degree we were planning” them. There is not a lot of daylight between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon on the issues, although the president often jokes that Mr. Bannon’s economic populist agenda makes it hard to tell if the former Naval officer and Goldman Sachs executive is “ or ” according to a Trump associate friendly with both. The biggest difference between the president and his chief strategist is that Mr. Trump is far less constrained by the dictates of any single philosophy — even Mr. Bannon’s vision of Trumpism — than Mr. Bannon, who sees history as a succession of movements and power struggles. And while Mr. Bannon described the president as “maniacally focused” on fulfilling his campaign promises, Mr. Trump often loses focus, as he did during numerous digressions from his scripted remarks on Friday. He unleashed the latest in a succession of surprise rhetorical attacks on longstanding American allies, extemporizing about a friend named Jim who had told him to avoid the “City of Lights” because after several terrorist attacks, “Paris is no longer Paris. ” Clearly reveling in the adulation of a room that had once been hard to win, the president alternated between a theme of dark days — once again singling out violence on the streets of Chicago — and light comedy. Speaking of a meeting with business leaders this week that included food producers, he quipped, “I like Campbell’s soup. ” He also joked about his first appearance at this annual conservative conclave. “If you remember, it was my first major speech. They said he didn’t get a standing ovation — because everybody stood,” Mr. Trump said of the speech, in 2011. “I had very little notes and even less preparation,” he said. “And then you leave, and everybody is thrilled, and I say, ‘I like this business. ’” | 1 |
By Top Right News on November 18, 2016 in Uncategorized
by Brian Hayes | Top Right News
President-elect Donald J. Trump just made his decision for the nation’s highest legal official: Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama.
And it’s a nightmare for liberal Democrats.
In fact that’s exactly what the Huffington Post called him in their flash headline moments ago…
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, 69, would serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official if nominated by Trump and confirmed by his fellow members of the Senate. Sessions, an early Trump backer, is an immigration hard-liner who has been in the Senate since 1997 and previously served as attorney general for the state of Alabama.
Sessions is as “hardline” as a conservative can get on the core issues of the Trump Agenda, and signals to Washington that Trump is dead-serious about enforcing laws against illegal immigration, enforcing voter ID and gutting the hard-left “civil rights division” at the Department of Justice.
Sessions is a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama appointed by Ronald Reagan, and a tough prosecutor with little patience for liberal arguments, and a deep respect for the Constitution.
Sessions is credited with crafting Trump’s entire immigration platform , released last August. His plan includes building a permanent border wall, including details on how he would make Mexico pay for it ; end birthright citizenship , overhaul the refugee program that has overwhelmed America’s heartland, enact mandatory E-Verify to block illegals from jobs, a “pause” in green card approvals to allow unemployed Americans a chance at job positions, and an increase in salaries of H1-B visa holders to stop the undercutting of wages by foreign workers.
And unlike some cutting-edge picks such as Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Sessions is almost certain to win speedy confirmation as a sitting, senior Republican Senator.
The official announcement from Trump’s transition team is expected later today. SHARE THIS article if you want Trump to FINALLY enforce the nation’s immigration laws… | 0 |
U. S. military releases video of Tomahawk missile launched by Navy warships in the Mediterranean. https: . pic. twitter. The Pentagon released video of the US firing Tomahawk missiles into Syria from Navy warships stationed in the Mediterranean Sea. Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 1 |
Former Senator Barbara Boxer defended Meryl Streep’s controversial, Golden Globes acceptance speech and urged Democratic politicians to follow her lead during CAA’s “Take Action Day” summit on Thursday. [Boxer — who just signed on as a client at CAA after leaving the Senate last year — was one of several politicians and progressive leaders taking part in what the Hollywood billed a “ ” political summit for clients and staff. “I don’t think she talks down to anybody,” Boxer said of Streep during a conversation with CAA agent Michael Kives, according to Deadline. “I don’t think it’s up to people to worry about how one segment of the country thinks. What did Meryl Streep say that should be offensive to the middle of the country, that Donald Trump imitated a disabled person? Believe me, people in Middle America didn’t like that one bit. ” During her acceptance speech at the Globes in January, Streep said that Hollywood belonged to the most “vilified” segment of American society in the wake of Trump’s election, and criticized what she called the president’s “instinct to humiliate,” his “disrespect” and his “violence. ” The speech was widely praised in Hollywood but sparked outrage among the president’s supporters. While she defended Streep’s speech, Boxer said it was important not to speak out politically just “for the sake of doing it. ” “I believe in freedom of speech for every single person, whether they work in Hollywood, don’t work at all, are old, young, whatever,” she said, according to the Wrap. “Don’t do it for the sake of doing it, but if it moves your heart and you have a stage, use it. ” “It’s not up to Meryl Streep to tailor our message to middle America, it’s up to candidates who are running for office to tailor a message that resonates,” Boxer added. CAA’s “Take Action Day” runs all day Thursday and was also expected to include appearances by Sen. Kamala Harris ( ) Rep. Kevin McCarthy ( ) Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and Muslim Public Affairs Council founder Salam . Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
This is Donald Trump's favorite thing he has in common with his daughter Lol Mail with questions or comments about this site. "Godlike Productions" & "GLP" are registered trademarks of Zero Point Ltd. Godlike™ Website Design Copyright © 1999 - 2015 Godlikeproductions.com Page generated in 0.007s (8 queries) | 0 |
Facebook will stop “fake news” using a similar algorithm as the platform’s one against “” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. [“In Zuckerberg’s view, according to Fast Company, tackling click bait required a rejiggering of the site’s algorithms, as assisted by users’ input,” reports Fortune. “The solution is similar to the approach the site is now taking to improve the situation around ‘information diversity or misinformation or building common ground’ — euphemisms for the more popular conceptions of ‘filter bubbles,’ ‘fake news,’ and ‘echo chambers. ’” “Now it’s not gone a hundred percent but it’s a much smaller problem than it used to be,” said Zuckerberg on the issue of . “It’s not like they are problems that exist because there’s some kind of underlying, nefarious motivation. ” Last month, The Daily Mail reported that Facebook, which has become notorious for banning conservative and users, as well as harmless comedy pages, has started to roll out “fake news” features, which are run by partisan services led by The Poynter Institute. “Users have reported seeing a window when they attempted to share articles that were deemed inaccurate by ” reported The Daily Mail. “Facebook itself will not decide what is real and what is considered fake. Instead, it is enlisting The Poynter Institute, a Florida journalism school, to sift through content. The Poynter Institute is the host of the International Fact Checking Network which bills itself as a ‘global alliance of fact checkers’. Its members include ABC News, Politico, The Associated Press, Snopes. com and The Washington Post. ” Facebook has also started placing “how to spot false news” on user timelines. pic. twitter. — Charlie Nash (@MrNashington) April 12, 2017, The term “fake news” has often been used to smear independent conservative news sources, such as Breitbart News, despite the fact that several news outlets have been exposed by Breitbart for publishing their own “fake news,” including the Independent, the Daily Beast, CNN (numerous times) the Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. As previously reported, “Snopes Arturo R. Garcia openly labels himself as a ‘progressive,’ attempted to compare Trump supporters to racists on Twitter, misattributed a quote about him to Breitbart News, and acts as the editor of ‘Racialicious’ — ‘A blog about the intersection of race and culture’. ” Fellow Snopes Bethania Palmer attempted to link Trump to the KKK, defended a racist professor, wrote numerous articles for Raw Story — including two attempting to associate former Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon to domestic violence and white supremacy — and acts as a contributor for the “progressive” Truthout. David Emery, another and staff writer at Snopes, openly asked on Twitter whether there were “any Trump supporters. ” Despite their clear political biases, all three were tasked with political candidates over the 2016 presidential election under the guise of a neutral service. In February, Apple CEO Tim Cook, who financially supported Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 U. S. presidential election, called on tech companies to filter out “fake news,” while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also penned a plan to tackle “fake news” last month, highlighting his intention to roll out the feature. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
Eric Zuesse The reliability of all of these reports can reasonably be questioned, but here they are: On October 14th, NBC News bannered “CIA Prepping for Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia” , and reported that, “The Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News. … The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation.” On October 30th, “Super Station 95” reported an “Update” saying that “a trusted source” said: It appears the United States is going to engage in battle in Syria. SuperStation95 just received this communication from a trusted source: I just landed back in the US from Diego Garcia. War is brewing. The island has more aircraft and refueling tankers than I have seen since 2005. Docks were full and 30 ships were moored off shore.This is a huge buildup. B1s and B2s and b52s in abundance. Never seen them all at one place. It seems stupid to bunch them up at one facility. Our layover was only supposed to be for 4 hours but the flight crews were so backed up we stayed overnight. The hotel was full and we bunked in a tent. We have never had to do that before. AF security is everywhere and they were assey. (Acting like strict, suspicious assholes) Just a heads up, keep your eyes open. I know that I am not giving away in classified information, the Russians have a satellite dedicated to watching this island. Also, the navy had 2 subs at the docks at once. I have never seen more than 1 there. B52s have new paint jobs — all flat black. Whats up with that? On top of all this, huge numbers of in-flight refueling tankers are also on the island. More than enough to supply air operations to/from the Middle East, non-stop. This is a very bad development. The US would never stage this much hardware at Diego Garcia unless they were planning a full-out, prolonged, military action. Based upon my military experience as a contractor who has visited Diego Garcia every 6 months for 11 years, we are going to war. On November 3rd, NBC News headlined “Exclusive: White House Readies to Fight Election Day Cyber Mayhem” , and reported “Officials are alert for any attempts to create Election Day chaos, and say steps are being taken to prepare for worst-case scenarios, including a cyber-attack that shuts down part of the power grid or the internet. But what is more likely, multiple U.S. officials say, is a lower-level effort by hackers from Russia or elsewhere to peddle misinformation by manipulating Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.” This news-report included a video of Andrea Mitchell, headlined “Is Russia a third party in the 2016 race?” If the United States government, on or after Election Day, says that Russia had done something of this nature, then the U.S. ‘response’ to the alleged ‘cyber-attack from Russia’ would presumably be one or more of “the exact measures the CIA was considering,” as NBC reported on October 14th, and World War III could then start with a cyber-war that could escalate to serious consequences, such as deactivating a power-grid in one or both of the countries, and, subsequently, a direct military invasion, of one by the other. But how would the U.S. public ever be able to come to know whether that alleged Russian provocation actually existed and wasn’t instead provoked intentionally by the U.S. government in order to provide a pretext for the U.S. to invade Russia? (After all, we’ve been pouring troops and weapons onto and near Russia’s borders for months now — and how would the U.S. respond to a provocation in which Russia surrounded our border with nukes?) On November 2nd, ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ an anonymous retired Green Beret, headlined “Something Big Is Underway On All Fronts: ‘Within The Next Few Weeks The Future Of The United States Will Be Decided’,” and he reported that: As of this writing, the increased U.S. troop presence in Eastern Europe includes a battalion-sized element of American troops being emplaced in the Suwalki Gap, Polish territory that borders Lithuania in a 60-mile stretch of corridor. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that 600 Russian and Belarussian airborne troops conducted training exercises in Brest, on the Belorussian-Polish border only a few miles from where the U.S. forces are deploying in Poland. This on the heels of Britain deploying 800 men, tanks, and jets to Estonia, along with pledges of Challenger 2 tanks, APC’s (Armored Personnel Carriers), and drones. Two companies of French and Danish Soldiers will join the British in the deployment to Estonia. For the first time since 1945, Norway has violated its treaty with Russia (then the Soviet Union) not to station foreign troops on its soil. A company of U.S. Marines will soon be stationed for a 6-month deployment in Norway. The situation is heating up in Ukraine, according to a report on fort-russ.com entitled Ukraine Moves Massive Force up to Lugansk Frontline , published October 28, 2016. The report reveals the Ukrainian Army is deploying 3,500 soldiers and 200 armored vehicles of the 15th Motorized Infantry Brigade to Krasny Oktyabr in the district of Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine. For the first time in history, Romanian airspace is being patrolled by the RAF (Royal Air Force) of Britain. His report closes: “The next war will be initiated by an EMP [Electro-Magnetic Pulse] device detonated above the continental United States followed by a limited nuclear exchange and then conventional warfare. … Obama is the joker, setting the stage for the transfer of power. That transfer is not going to occur with the losing candidate (in either case) going gently into that good night. The stage is set for a war to begin. The stage is set for a false flag operation to take down our grid. The stage is set to steal the election for Clinton or declare it null and void. Within the next few weeks, the future of the United States will be decided…with or without the consent of the governed.” If it’s not true, then why is the U.S. engaging in these preparations? Russia has never attacked America. The Cold War was supposed to have ended. The U.S. government obviously thinks it now is actually hotter than ever, and so, apparently, we place the jihadists on the back burner; we’ve got a much bigger war to wage, and we’ll know soon whether it starts soon after the ‘election’. | 0 |
posted by Eddie This remarkable photo is the last thing Japan’s lost satellite, Hitomi, captured. Black holes with their ability to consume an entire galaxy, are perhaps the most feared object in the heavens due to the voracious appetite which they hold. It has now been discovered that black holes also have the ability to also feed the growth of galaxies. Black holes effectively affect and control the growth and expansion of galaxies, acting as a kind of regulator. It appears from recent discoveries that the universe has a life and death cycle for its heavenly bodies. Black holes appear to be at the center of this life cycle, a kind of grim reaper and giver of life all rapped up into one clever little package. The discovery of this process was noted by a Japanese satellite shortly before its unfortunate demise. The satellite had been focused on the Perseus Cluster which has at its center a super massive black hole. Data from the satellite demonstrated that black holes provide energy for the growth of galaxies. Remember that energy is never lost but instead changed and transformed as time moves on so it makes sense that black holes both absorb and expel energy. Energy is transformed and never destroyed, not even by black holes. Black holes are formed when a star of enormous magnitude ultimately burns out, and the core collapses into a black hole. The process of a star dying out is a kin to what happens when a nuclear reactor melts down which is both an awesome and terrifying event. Once formed, the black hole absorbs anything which winds up in its path, which includes entire galaxies. The magnitude of such destruction of mass is overwhelming and difficult for the human mind process.
source: | 0 |
This article was written by Michael Krieger and originally published at his Liberty Blitzkrieg site .
Editor’s Comment: At the heart of things, Americans are fed up with the economic state of affairs, and with the political/financial corruption that brought us to that point. Though political philosophies differ greatly, there was a huge populist movement behind Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump both. There are millions and millions of people who want nothing more than to clean house in Washington, stop the people who are shafting them, and be left alone to enjoy their lives.
People feel so strongly about this that they have been overwhelmingly willing to support completely unknown and fresh faces (like Obama was in 2008), politically inexperienced (like Trump) and politically ostracized figures in the margins of the existing government (like Bernie or Ron Paul). Donald Trump has the opportunity to embody this sentiment of the people and be a great president. As Michael notes in this article, Obama had that same opportunity, but proved to be a tool of the elite, and a puppet for Wall Street, et al.
Will Trump prove to be a tool of the elites as well? It is simply too early to say. In the best case scenario, he could break ties with the controllers for the sake of his own legacy and the American people and actually take an honest shot at downsizing the mess of Washington’s mismanaged control over our lives… Its a Herculean task, but if he attracts some/any of the right people, it may be possible. Let’s hope so…
Americans Roll the Dice With President Donald Trump
by Michael Krieger
The forgotten men and roomen of our country will be forgotten no longer.
– President elect Donald Trump in his victory speech
They said it couldn’t happen, but those of us who have been intimately studying what’s been going on since the financial crisis knew he could win. So here we are, in the midst of a historical populist revolt that brought a man who has never held public office to the Presidency.
I have so many thoughts to share, putting them down in a coherent manner within a single post is going to be a real challenge. As such, I’ve decided to separate this piece into sections. Let’s start with the following.
What Happened?
This one’s pretty easy. In Monday’s post, Final Thoughts on the U.S. Presidential Election , I wrote:
The bigger question is, who do I think will win? On that question, I don’t have a strong opinion at the moment. Ultimately, it depends on whether Americans go into the voting booth and see status quo vs. blowing up the status quo, or if they see Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton. If they see the former, odds are in Trump’s favor. If they see the latter, it’s a matter of which personality Americans find least repulsive.
It turns out enough Americans saw the election as a referendum on the status quo to propel him to victory. We know it wasn’t because people liked him personally, they just wanted to (understandably) blow up the establishment. So why am I so confident of this?
Let’s take a look at some of the following reported by the AP :
There were grim strains woven into voter sentiments as they cast their ballots.
Nearly 7 in 10 voters said they were unhappy with the way the government is working, including a quarter who were outright angry.
Six in 10 voters said the country is seriously on the wrong track and about the same number said the economy was either not good or poor.
Two-thirds saw their personal financial situation as either worse or the same as it was four years ago. One in three voters said they expect life to be worse for the next generation.
Americans held their noses as they picked between the candidates: More than half of voters cast their ballots with reservations about their candidate or because they disliked the others running.
That was true both for those backing Trump and those supporting Clinton, the exit polls showed.
After a long, hard-fought campaign, just 4 out of 10 voters strongly favored their candidate.
Moreover, how about this from Reuters :
Americans who had cast their votes for the next president early on Tuesday appeared to be worried about the direction of the country, and were looking for a “strong leader who can take the country back from the rich and powerful,” according to an early reading from the Reuters/Ipsos national Election Day poll.
Again, none of this is surprising to those of us who are aware of the ever increasing levels of theft, corruption and fraud now endemic to the U.S. economy. Indeed, the man who should have been the Democratic nominee for President laid it out perfectly all the way back in July 2015 when he tweeted:
I think the discontent of the American people is far, far greater than the pundits understand.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 8, 2015
The driving force behind Trump’s victory wasn’t racism, homophobia or sexism. This is a country that elected a black man President twice in a row. The driving force was desperation, economic angst, hopelessness, and more than anything else, a deep hatred for the U.S. status quo. As Trump accurately described the voters who put him over the top, they are “ the forgotten men and women.”
A Historic Opportunity
Donald Trump has a historic opportunity to be a great President. Barack Obama was presented with a similar opportunity eight years ago and he immediately squandered it by surrounding himself with miserable, status quo economic and foreign policy insiders. He ditched the people who believed in him and voted for him, and in doing so cemented his legacy as that of a man who coddled oligarchs, kept banking criminals out of jail and further incinerated the Middle East. He’ll also be seen as the man whose tremendous disappointments as commander-in-chief led to the emergence and elevation of Donald Trump.
People wanted major change in 2008 and they didn’t get it. They still want it. The only big question now is whether or not Trump will deliver, and whether it will be unifying change as opposed to more surveillance, militarization of police, torture, attacks on civil liberties, etc. Since Trump has a clear authoritarian streak, he runs the risk of going down the wrong path. However, that path will lead to only one thing; an even more broken America and another failed Presidency.
I was never able to personally get behind Trump, in large part due to the above concerns, as well as the fact that he’s a big government, centralization type of guy, and that’s not the kind of government I support. That said, I want this country to thrive and I want Trump to succeed. Indeed, we need him to succeed.
As such, I’m going to take advantage of the opportunity he presented to his critics during his victory speech in order to outline what I think he needs to do to make America great.
Let’s start with the facts and a simple admission: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. This is a clear signal that at least half the country doesn’t like him, and a large number of them, are in fact, terrified of him. Unless you’re an aspiring mob boss, you don’t want half the population to feel this way about you. So what should Trump do?
I think he needs to focus on creating a consensus amongst the American people around issues at least 80% of us can agree on. In my Final Thoughts piece, I outlined five of them:
Rather than dwelling on the differences between these two populist movements (Sanders and Trump), let’s consider some of the areas where they overlap.
1. Trade — Opposition to NAFTA and current “trade” deals such as TPP, TTIP, and TISA have been central to both the Sanders and Trump campaigns.
2. War and militarism — Whether you believe Trump is sincere or not, opposition to Obama/Clinton interventionist overseas wars were key talking points for both Trump and Sanders.
3. The system is rigged — The painful acknowledgment that the U.S. economic system is a rigged scam that fails to reward hard work, and is more akin to a parasitic, predatory oligarchy with very limited social mobility, has been a key campaign theme for both Trump and Sanders. The economy is increasingly dominated by near-monoploy giants who relentlessly push for more power and more profits irrespective of the cost to society, whether that cost be war, poverty or social unrest.
4. Money in politics — The rigged economic system described above aggregates wealth into an increasingly small number of hands. Those hands then buy off politicians and rig the political process. A rigged economy and rigged political system perpetually feeds itself and endlessly grows at the expense of the public like a terminal cancer. Both Trump and Sanders emphasized this problem.
5. Rule of law is dead — Sanders focused on Wall Street bankers, while Trump focused on Hillary and her inner circle of cronies, but the overall point is the same. Rich and powerful oligarchs are above the law. We all know this, but Washington D.C. refuses to do anything about it.
The Democratic Party as we know it is now dead. This means tens of millions of Sanders supporters are out there, pissed off at Hillary, and the Democratic establishment in general. These engaged citizens can be brought into the fold if Trump focuses on unifying issues such as the ones listed above, and leaves his authoritarian anti-civil liberties tendencies behind. I really hope he does this, but I have my doubts.
If he doesn’t focus on unifying issues, he’ll be as divisive as Obama and the country will flail endlessly from one failed President to another like the sad, nuclear armed Banana Republic it has become.
People = Policy
Trump will be a failure unless he brings the right people into his inner circle. This is of the utmost importance. Indeed, I knew for certain Obama was a total fraud the moment he appointed Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner to key positions within his administration. This is the area I think Trump is most vulnerable to making some very big mistakes. Indeed, I was very bothered by the effusive compliments he showered upon one of the nation’s worst political figures, Chris Christie, during this victory speech. Nevertheless, since this post is about being as productive possible, I will name someone I’d like to see close to President Trump: Scott Adams.
Like many of you, I’ve been following Scott closely this entire election. I’ve listened to many of his periscopes and heard enough to appreciate his intellect, deep understanding of human nature, judgement, and desire to get the nation on the right track. Of all the high profile Trump supporters, he is the one I’d want to be closest to the ear of Trump. I don’t know if Scott would accept a position if it were offered to him, but I hope he would.
Furthermore, there are others who would be beneficial for a President Trump to have around who are already throwing their hats in the ring. For example, take Eric Scott Hundsader of HFT-fighting fame:
Dear @realDonaldTrump
I’d like to throw my hat in the ring for a position at the SEC/CFTC.
— Eric Scott Hunsader (@nanexllc) November 9, 2016
If Trump really wants to shake things up, he needs to think outside of the box and look far beyond the Chris Christies of the world, and consider some very sharp people he’s never heard of. If he surrounds himself with the old, tired political characters we already know, I fear very little will change for the better.
A Warning
Since Trump has repeatedly commented on the precarious and vulnerable state of financial markets, I assume he has a somewhat decent grasp of what he’s about to face. That said, no one can truly prepare for what’s coming. If I’m correct, and a nearly forty year sovereign bond bubble is in the early stages of bursting, this represents a potential financial extinction level event. I don’t care who you are, being President during a time like this will be replete with challenges and extreme danger. He better not take this financial super cycle lightly, and he should also prepare for a cyclical economic downturn. It won’t be Trump’s fault when it arrives, but it’ll be his to deal with.
Irrespective of my serious concerns, I desperately want Trump to succeed. America needs him to succeed. I’m confident that Trump will never read a single word of this, but it’s also possible someone with access to him will. If so, please consider my observations. The Republic depends on him unifying the people and helping to foster an environment in which every American has a opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
This article was written by Michael Krieger and originally published at his Liberty Blitzkrieg site .
| 0 |
NTEB Ads Privacy Policy MAGA-MANIA: Ford Motor Company Calls Donald Trump To Say They Won’t Be Moving To Mexico “Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky -- no Mexico,” Trump wrote in a Twitter post. by Geoffrey Grider November 18, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump suggested on Twitter that he convinced Ford Motor Co. to keep production of a Lincoln sport utility vehicle in the U.S. instead of moving it to Mexico. And the automaker doesn’t dispute that.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Donald Trump made a handful of super hardcore campaign promises which resulted in being the deciding factor why so many Americans voted for him. One of those promises was that he would seek to impose a 35% tariff on Ford Motors if they moved to Mexico. Mere days after Trump’s massive victory, Ford chairman Bill Ford personally called president-elect Trump to congratulate him on his win, and to say that Ford will not be moving. Say it with me one time –“ Make America Great Again! “
“Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky — no Mexico,” Trump wrote in a Twitter post. Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky – no Mexico
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016
Ford builds the Lincoln MKC small SUV at its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky alongside the Ford Escape SUV. Ford had never said it was considering shifting MKC production south of the border. But the company confirmed Friday that it had been “likely” to move the work to Mexico in 2019 when its current contract with the United Auto Workers union expires. TRUMP FLASHBACK: Ford moving division to Mexico is a disgrace:
This is what started the ball rolling for Trump back in the beginnings of his campaign. “We had planned to move the Lincoln MKC out of Louisville Assembly Plant,” probably to the Cuautitlan factory in Mexico, Christin Baker, a Ford spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
Trump has criticized Ford for planning to move all its North American small-car production to Mexico, where wages are 80 percent lower than in the U.S. Ford also builds the Lincoln MKZ sedan at a factory in Hermosillo, Mexico. During the campaign, Trump threatened to slap Ford’s Mexican-built cars with a 35 percent tariff . He also said he would terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which lets goods flow between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada without tariffs. Ford Says It’s Keeping Lincoln Production in Kentucky After Donald Trump Tweets
Ford, which has expressed a willingness to work with Trump since he was elected, confirmed late Thursday it told the future president the Lincoln SUV will stay in Kentucky.
“We are encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the U.S.,” the automaker said in an e-mailed statement.
Bill Ford met with Trump during the campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to get the candidate to stop targeting the automaker, which says it has created nearly 28,000 jobs in the U.S. during the past five years. In his first answer of the first debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump attacked the automaker for plans to move production of the Focus small car and C-Max hybrid from a plant in Michigan to Mexico.
“We are everything that he should be celebrating about this country,” Bill Ford told reporters in September. “We pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, we paid back our borrowings, we are healthy again, we’ve been adding jobs in the U.S. and we are the largest manufacturer of cars and trucks in the U.S.” source SHARE THIS ARTICLE Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING | 0 |
Yes, but the problem is, they don’t work. I have tried literally just about everything for my problems to no avail. Furthermore, so have many people with cancer and other incurable diseases to no avail. But this stuff really works. It cured Lisa Haven of a lifelong illness she has had to do with blood loss, cured her father of dementia, and is working for me. It also has cured people with cancers, etc. Don’t knock it until you try it – do as you wish, but all I can say is that I am EXTREMELY happy that I tried it. It’s working! God bless. | 0 |
Clinton operative 'Dirty' Donna Brazile is the kind of political filth we need to eradicate from Washington DC: She let Hillary Clinton CHEAT at the debates!
Tuesday, November 01, 2016 Tags: Donna Brazile , cheating democrats , racketeering (NaturalNews) Dirty Donna Brazile. Political filth on display. The stench of dirty democrat tactics has now reached a new, nauseating milestone in America with the revelation that "Dirty" Donna Brazile, a DNC operative working for Clinton, smuggled debate questions out of CNN and handed them over to the Clinton camp before the debates ever took place so that Hillary Clinton could CHEAT.Yes, Hillary Clinton CHEATED in the debates. As I've said all along, they were 100% rigged by CNN, the "Clinton News Network," which now functions as the propaganda front of the criminal Clinton cartel seeking to steal power by crushing the very concept of open, fair and free elections in America."CNN commentator Donna Brazile, who is now the chair of the Democratic National Committee, [was] caught again passing debate questions from the network to the Clinton campaign during the Democratic primary," reports Breitbart.com .Dirty Donna Brazile was caught so blatantly that even CNN had to fire her to create the appearance that CNN is still engaged in something resembling ethical journalism. Funneling town hall and debate questions to Hillary Clinton days before the events... The Daily Caller adds even more stunning revelations to the depths of cheating carried out by Dirty Donna Brazile on behalf of the corrupt, criminal-minded Clintons: Donna Brazile, the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, began providing town hall and debate questions to the Clinton campaign earlier than previously known, emails released by WikiLeaks on Monday show.The email threads also show that Brazile, a former CNN contributor, revealed to the Clinton campaign the name of the person who provided her with a question that was asked of Clinton at a March 13 town hall co-hosted by CNN and TV One. Brazile also shared a question from a debate hosted by CNN a week earlier.A March 12 email exchange shows Brazile stating that she received a town hall question from Roland Martin, a TV One host who co-moderated a March 13 town hall with CNN's Jake Tapper.A March 5 email shows that she shared a question with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and communications director Jennifer Palmieri that was to be asked in a March 6 debate hosted by CNN in Flint, Mich. ARREST Brazile, Mills, Podesta, Schultz, Abedin and Clinton What we are all witnessing here with these revelations about cheating, corruption, obstruction of justice, bribery and vote fraud is nothing less than the inner workings of a criminal cartel composed of a modern day political mafia .All these political scumbags need to go to jail. They are all guilty of serious crimes against the United States and against democracy itself. They respect no law. They follow no rules. They cheat, lie, deceive, steal and intimidate their way to power, election after election. They live as legally immune parasites feeding off the blood, sweat and tears of the American middle class who are barely staying afloat while Washington elitists like Brazile, Abedin and Clinton dine on luxury meals like a disturbing scene out of the Hunger Games .But it's not President Snow we have to worry about in the real world... it's the haunting possibility of a President Clinton. Why We the People must NEVER allow Hillary Clinton to seize the White House We the People must never allow Hillary Clinton to seize the White House. We must halt this sociopathic liar and cheater at the ballot box on November 8th. And once that's accomplished, we must petition President Trump to relentlessly pursue criminal indictments of the HUNDREDS of seditious traitors inside the Clinton regime who have blatantly violated numerous federal laws to commit massive fraud and attempted theft of power across America.There are literally hundreds of these democrat criminals who need to be locked up for life. They are a danger to democracy and a danger to a free society. They are sociopaths, liars, cheats and even murderers. They are fraudsters and political con artists who prey upon the weak-minded (i.e. democrats who are still so stupid and clueless that they're voting for Hillary ). If we don't stop them now, they threaten to turn America into a Fourth Reich , complete with the mass murder of political dissidents and the silencing of all critics of the Clinton regime.These democrats like Dirty Donna Brazile want to run America like Haiti , complete with all the corruption, bribery, scandals and economic collapse that Third World countries routinely suffer.But filthy scumbags like Brazile are about to find out something rather shocking: We the People won't tolerate your lies and corruption any longer! We the People are going to arrest you, indict you, prosecute you and see you and your co-conspirators behind bars where you belong. The Trump movement is awakening tens of millions of Americans to the astonishing criminality of the democrats in Washington There's an unstoppable movement rising up in America now that simply will not tolerate filthy democrats stealing our democracy and conning their way into power. If they steal the election, we will take to the streets and declare a Clinton presidency illegitimate and illegal . We will stand behind the military men and women in uniform as the U.S. armed forces depose you and remove you from office , to announce new elections without the festering, cancerous stench of the DNC and the Clintons hanging over this nation like a putrid cloud of filth.We the People have had enough of you demons, you creatures from Hell, you walking bags of anti-human reptilian snakes who pretend to be "leaders" in Washington. Your days of tyranny and totalitarian domination are rapidly coming to an end. And you will soon face the informed justice of an enraged population that refuses to be enslaved by your incessant corruption and wretched government rackets.From Breitbart.com : Racketeering: Former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy has recently observed that Hillary Clinton's abuse of the State Department looks an awful lot like a "racketeering enterprise," which could trigger the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1971, more widely known as RICO. McCarthy explained:Under RICO, an "enterprise" can be any association of people, informal or formal, illegitimate or legitimate it could be a Mafia family, an ostensibly charitable foundation, or a department of government. It is a racketeering enterprise if its affairs are conducted through "a pattern of racketeering activity." A "pattern" means merely two or more violations of federal or state law; these violations constitute "racketeering activity" if they are included among the extensive list of felonies laid out in the statute. It's time to defeat Clinton , followed by arresting all the Clinton operatives and initiating hundreds of federal prosecution cases against these Third World fraudsters. That's how we take back America, restore democracy and regain public trust in law and order. NOTE TO THE FEDS: Arrest the democrat criminals or lose any semblance of legal authority in America REMEMBER: If federal authorities do not arrest and prosecute the Clintons and all their co-conspirators, they essentially forfeit any real claim to legitimate legal authority. At that point, the citizens will realize they no longer have any logical obligation to pay federal taxes, obey federal laws, abide by federal regulations or consent to be governed by anybody in Washington at all.After all, a nation run by a system that refuses to hold its leaders accountable for their criminal conduct is a nation that can no longer claim to operate under the rule of law. At that point, "justice" becomes a sad, tragic joke against the citizens, and the nation soon finds itself on the verge of a mass citizens' revolt. If the FBI won't seek criminal indictments against Hillary Clinton and her criminal cohorts, sooner or later the military or the citizens will do it for them . Health Ranger Approved AquaTru Water Filter Back in Stock
I've secured 500 units of the amazing AquaTru at $100 off for Natural News readers (while supplies last).
Breakthrough filter removes nearly 100% of hundreds of contaminants. No plumbing needed. SHIPS TODAY . | 0 |
New details are emerging about Nikola Tesla’s rumored “Death Ray” technology being in the possession of Russia. Declassified FBI documents reveal that the technology actually exists and was hidden from the public after his death.
Via UsualRoutine
Published after 73 years of being kept from the public, the declassified documents vindicate conspiracy theorists. They claim that many of Tesla’s innovations were far ahead of his time but were suppressed by the mainstream scientists.
According to Sputnik News, Russia has developed a unique radio-electronic weapon to disable enemy drones. The device will soon enter service with the Russian Armed Forces. This is according to a United Instrument Corporation (UIC) spokesman.
Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defense) journal editor-on-chief Igor Korotchenko revealed that the test unit uses ultrahigh frequency impulses to disable aircraft electronics. Similar to the effects of an EMP burst, it renders them useless in a combat environment.
Russia Unveils New Weapon, Based On Nikola Tesla’s Death Ray? “With its effective range apparently not exceeding one kilometer, this weapon may be used against UAVs flying right above the battlefield,” Korotchenko also added that similar weapons were currently being developed not just in Russia but also in the US and other countries.
Alexander Perendzhiyev, a military political analyst said that the weapon can be used not just against aircraft but against all systems with microelectronic elements. The new weapon is especially effective when used against devices with hi-tech microelectronic systems frying their circuits.
According to Your News Wire, there are currently no details suggesting that Nikola Tesla’s death ray was the basis of the new Russian weapon. There are many who believe that the famous inventor created weapons of mass destruction. However the majority of Tesla’s work involved those for domestic use. Most notable these is the Alternating Current or AC.
For now, the declassified FBI documents reveal nothing except that the death ray is in fact real and not just a figment of imagination. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Vice President, Henry Wallace, mentioned in the declassified FBI records as having advisers discuss “its effects.” One these includes those dealing with the wireless transmission of electrical energy.
| 0 |
0 Add Comment
VOTING continues across America today as the American electorate seeks to vote in a new president, and while the identity of the 45th president of the United States of America is not yet know, what is known is that Americans are currently Americaning the shit out of the American election.
“So many people are staunchly opposed to one another and their preferred candidate, but they are always in agreement that they will do their level best as Americans to America the shit of the election,” election expert Sebastian Cumstard explained to WWN.
“The beautiful thing about America is that no matter your race, creed, class or gender, whatever your barely researched opinion is, it will likely lead you to vote in an almost violently patriotic manner or to use the technical term it will see you ‘America the shit out of it'” added Cumstard.
The most recent polls have indicated that supporters of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump voted ‘in good conscience’ for their candidate and did so believing they ‘America’d the ever living shit out of it’. Asked to expand on what they meant by this, some 98% replied by screaming ‘America’ as loudly as humanly possible.
The world will continue to watch on helplessly with many confirming they will not be able to sleep until they know who America feels can America America the most; Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
Regardless of the result, alcohol experts expect a huge spike in alcohol consumption when the outcome is known, with people motivated to down the nearest thing to them out of despair or relief.
Elsewhere, an Afghan farmer has expressed no preference as to which candidate he would prefer to be in charge in three months time when he is killed by an erroneous missile strike, but conceded the whole thing would be ‘very American’. | 0 |
Country: South Korea In October 2016, the Presidential Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification of Korea suggested to the President of the Republic of Korea returning US tactical nuclear weapons to the country. The report entitled “The policy of promotion of the second plan on Korean reunification” states that the search for opportunities to place US tactical nuclear weapons in the Republic of Korea and the permanent basing of American strategic forces may serve as a pressure tool both on the DPRK, and on China to toughen sanctions in respect of Pyongyang. The placement of US tactical nuclear weapons in the Republic of Korea is justified in the report by the following example – SS-series ballistic missiles were placed in the territory of the former USSR that were targeted on Europe, in response to this, the USA placed Pershing II – the American medium-range ballistic missiles of mobile basing – in Europe. Earlier, on September 12, 2016, 31 representatives of the Saenuri governing party signed a statement, which proposed that the Parliament discuss launching an independent South Korean nuclear program. The same former leader of the parliamentary group Won Yoo-chul, who is one of the major proponents of the idea to publicly discuss the issue of nuclear weapons in the South, has announced that the Republic of Korea should consider any protection measures from the provocative acts of the North, including nuclear weapons for the purposes of self-defense. Won Yoo-chul believes that American strategic nuclear weapons should be placed in the South in the short-term in order to achieve nuclear balance with the North. However, in the long-term, the South should create its own nuclear potential exceeding that of North Korea at least two times. According to Chung Mong-joon, member of South Korea’s Parliament, as the Rubicon in terms of the peninsula denuclearization has been crossed, the Republic of Korea needs the nuclear weapons. The statement also emphasizes the fact that this is not an opinion of just a few members of Parliament. The day before, on September 11, the leader of the Saenuri governing party Lee Jung-hyun announced to journalists that the adoption of strict measures was required. He said that “in the current situation this is the topic of discussion to focus on; yet it is the issue that has been always avoided.” It goes without saying that the opposition called such a proposal unrealistic and potentially leading to increased conflict. The speaker of the Democratic Party of Korea Yoon Kwang-suk has called the proposal unspeakable. The Republic of Korea government also opposes the placement of the nuclear weapons in the country as it contradicts the denuclearization principle on the Korean peninsula. Meanwhile, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, one of the three leading conservative publications, surveyed 16 experts on security and international relations. They are divided into three groups: nine of them support denuclearization, four of them approve of the idea of obtaining the nuclear weapons for the purposes of self-defense or the placement of US tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, and the remaining three experts propose using nuclear weapons against the North. Moreover, this division clearly correlates with their liberal or conservative outlook. Academics have noted that the South Korean bomb will go against the non-proliferation system, which may lead to a split in the international community. The Republic of Korea will have to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which will result in international sanctions and the termination of the Cooperation Agreement with the USA on nuclear power engineering. Thus, Seoul will lose access to enriched uranium, which will lead to disruption in the energy sector. In addition, it will send the wrong signal to the DPRK that nuclear weapons might be accepted by the international community. The nuclear armament of Seoul will mean a recognition of Pyongyang’s nuclear status and it will completely bury the prospects for the peninsula’s denuclearization. That is why some experts have proposed relying on the US nuclear “umbrella”, stating that Washington is unlikely to allow Seoul to obtain its own nuclear weapons, and any countermeasures may affect the country’s economic situation. Another position suggests using the nuclear program as part of a bargaining strategy in order to reach the “zero option” and to eliminate nuclear weapons in both the North and the South. Those who support the proposal of the Saenuri Deputies consider the independent nuclear program to be a well-minded response. The USA withdrew tactical nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula in 1991, and the majority of its nuclear torpedoes and mines were destroyed. It will be difficult to place American tactical nuclear weapons again. Moreover, “we should not entrust the destiny of our nation in foreign hands.” Is there any guarantee that the USA will join the nuclear war for our sake in the changing international environment? What is the public opinion on this issue? An opinion poll conducted by the Gallup Korea agency among 1,010 people showed that 58% of the respondents supported the idea of South Korea obtaining its own nuclear weapons. 34% of the respondents spoke out against it: most of them young people. The remaining 7% refused to answer or said they could not give a definite answer. Relying on the containment model that currently exists between India and Pakistan, supporters of the Seoul bomb suppose that the current technological level will mean a bomb can be made in 8-12 months . However, according to a statement made by an official of the US National Security Council Jon Wolfsthal on September 21, 2016, neither the independent program nor the placement of the US tactical nuclear weapons would boost the security of the Republic of Korea . The USA is able to attack its enemies from any part of the world, and all its potential opponents are aware of this. Therefore, he does not believe that these actions will play an additional role in dissuading the DPRK from turning to a military solution. Neither the USA nor the Republic of Korea is interested in the South Korean nuclear program. In the author’s opinion, the entire fact of bringing this issue for the public discussion is indicative, as South Korean nuclear weapons would truly cause great harm to the non-proliferation system. Konstantin Asmolov, Ph.D. in History, Chief Research Fellow at the Center for Korean Studies of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “ New Eastern Outlook ”.
| 0 |
The Benedict Arnold of the Republican Party, Paul “Rat” Ryan, your next President if the globalists get their way.
People laughed at me when I said back in April, that Paul Ryan would be your next President. How could I be so sure, because he would not actively campaign and endorse anyone, in a meaningful way during the Republican Primary. He filed paperwork to run for President on January 30, 2016. And he is a Clintonista, a globalist, a traitor to the American people. He doesn’t carry the criminal baggage of Clinton, but he supports all free trade agreements, the elimination of all national borders, the weakening of our military. etc., etc.
Paul Ryan represents the globalists and their Plan B since Hillary Clinton is going to be indicted AFTER the election.
Please watch the following video and you will see the inescapable conclusion that Hillary Clinton is no longer useful to the globalists and Ryan’s lack of a criminal record , whose election will not spark rioting in the streets from 50% of Americans who do not know any better, and who will do what he is told by the Rothschild/Rockefeller cartel.
All the documentation you need is on The Common Sense Show.
Please make this go viral. Awareness of this insidious plot designed to fool the American people can blow this plan up. Every American needs to see this evidence so that even the casual Clinton supporters will not cast their vote for her knowing she will never make it to Inauguration Day.
P lease Donate to The Common Sense Show
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND DON’T FORGET TO “LIKE” US
This is the absolute best in food storage. Dave Hodges is a satisfied customer. Don’t wait until it is too late. Click Here for more information.
| 0 |
Click for full size (374K) picture.
This photograph appears on pages 24 and 25. Taken by AP Photographer James Altgens, it clearly captures the moment when John Kennedy clutches his throat. Note the following.
John Connally is clearly turned to his right. Had he indeed been hit by the same bullet which has just exited Kennedy's throat, his wounds would have traversed his body from right to left. Connally's wounds were from back to front. NOTE: The claim has been made that Connally was facing forward when JFK was shot in the neck, before the photo was taken, but in order to then see the view in this photo, Connally would have had to twist to his right after being shot!
Note the turned heads of some of the policemen and Secret Service agents. Clearly, they have heard and are responding to the sound of gunshots.
Note the fourth car back, which contains Vice President Johnson's Secret Service detail. The car doors are open as the agents rush to protect Johnson from the threat. Compare this with Kennedy's Secret Service detail, who have not moved at all. Also note the man within Kennedy's Secret Service car who is grinning ear to ear (tentatively identified as Dave Powers). It is interesting to note that in the book "Mortal Error" this photograph is deliberately cropped to hide the open doors of the car carrying V.P. Johnson's Secret Service detail.
Most importantly, note the man standing in the ground level doorway of the Texas Schoolbook Depository (which is where he reportedly told the Dallas PD he was at the time). Mortal Error Version Of The Altgens Photo Click for full size (44K) picture.
This is the Altgens photo as it appears in the book "Mortal Error". Note that the photo has been cropped to hide the fact that Vice President Johnson's Secret Service detail has already opened their car doors while Kennedy's Secret Service detail remains motionless. The Man In The Doorway
Compare these two images. The man in the doorway of the school book depository, and Oswald's photo immediately after his arrest.
This is a photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald taken shortly after his arrest. Note the clear similarity in both appearance and dress to the man in the schoolbook depository doorway in the Altgen's photo.
The Warren Commission "identified" the individual as Billy Lovelady, a fellow Book Depository employee. But while Lovelady claimed the person in the Altgens' photo was himself, he also stated that he'd worn a red and white vertically striped shirt on the day of the assassination, which was confirmed by photos of Lovelady taken at the time of the assassination!
The man in the doorway's shirt in not striped and is open in front, exposing the tee shirt underneath.
In color films taken from another angle, the color of the shirt worn by the man in the doorway was revealed to be orange-brown. When Oswald was arrested, he was wearing the identical shirt- an orange-brown tweed with missing buttons and tee-shirt underneath.
Other films taken on November 22, 1963 confirmed that Lovelady was in fact wearing a red and blue plaid shirt.
Hence, the figure in the doorway is NOT Lovelady.
(Billy Lovelady died of a heart attack Jan 1979)
NEW! Higher resolution versions of the Altgens photo!
Raw image | 0 |
Freitag, 25. November 2016 Immer mehr Menschen geben als Informationsquelle Nummer 1 "Mario Barth" an München (dpo) - Immer mehr Menschen stillen ihren Informationshunger nicht mehr bei klassischen Medien wie Zeitung, Radio, TV oder Online-Nachrichtenseiten, sondern auf der Facebook-Seite von Comedian Mario Barth. Das ergab eine aktuelle Erhebung des Meinungsforschungsinstituts Opinion Control. Insgesamt 47,4 Prozent der 1439 repräsentativ ausgewählten Bundesbürger gaben an, ihren täglichen Informationsbedarf "größtenteils oder vollständig" im Facebook-Auftritt des Humoristen zu stillen. Erst dann folgen TV-Nachrichten (26,2%), Nachrichtenportale wie Spiegel Online (17,2%), Radio (9,1%) und gedruckte Zeitungen (0,1%). Kein Wunder, dass Mario Barth mit über 2 Millionen Fans über mehr Reichweite verfügt als die Online-Auftritte von Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung und FAZ zusammen."Offenbar gelingt es Mario Barth besser als den klassischen Medien, weltpolitische Zusammenhänge glaubwürdig und in ansprechender Weise darzustellen", erklärt Umfrageleiter Heinz Geiwasser. "Er wirkt auf viele Nutzer glaubwürdiger, frischer, unabhängiger und kompetenter als die Konkurrenz. Und ganz nebenbei erfährt der Nachrichtenkonsument auch noch Fundamentales über die Unterschiede zwischen Mann und Frau." Sonja Rode bringt sich auf den neusten Stand, was nationale und internationale Politik angeht. Sonja Rode (41) aus Templin ist eine der vielen, die inzwischen abends statt der Tagesschau lieber die Facebook-Seite Barths anschauen. "Da bekommt man Dinge mit, die man in den Mainstream-Medien nicht lesen kann. Mario ist mein absoluter Lieblingspublizist." Wichtig findet sie, dass Mario Barth immer alles hinterfragt: "Kennste? Kennste?" Für Sonja Rode ein untrügliches Zeichen für aufrichtigen Journalismus. Die meisten Information zogen Besucher der Facebookseite aus den vom Entertainer regelmäßig geposteten Video-Häppchen. In den durchschnittlich zehnminütigen Beiträgen äußert sich Mario Barth mit gewohnter Berliner Schnauze zu privaten, aber auch weltpolitischen Dingen und enthüllt internationale Verschwörungen wie etwa den Umstand, dass frühmorgens an einem der wichtigsten Feiertage der USA keine Demonstrationen vor dem Trump-Tower stattfanden :Doch auch der Kommentarbereich, wo sich Barth-Fans untereinander kontrovers austauschen und mit ihrem Idol direkt in Kontakt treten können, gehört für immer mehr Menschen zum Nachrichtenmix. "Barth bietet seinen Nutzern einen Vollservice", erklärt Geiwasser. "Besucht man seine Seite, braucht man keine weiteren Nachrichtenseiten mehr ansurfen." Selbst ein Wetterbericht fehle nicht:Auf seine neue Medienmacht angesprochen, erklärte Mario Barth: "Dit wunnert mich jetz wenich. Wat ham'se immer alle auf mich einjeprügelt? Wat ham'se alle…? Denen hab ick's jezeicht und dit hab ick nur meinen Fans zu... Det is wie ick neulich mit mener Freundin, geh ick so mit der, einkoofen geh ick, und da dreht die sich plötzlich zu mir und hat, dreht die sich, und hat die Arme so inne Hüften. Schauen'se mal so. Kennste? Kennste? Worauf wollte ick hinaus? Na egal, dit kann man ooch komplett in meinem neuen Programm, wo jetz grad die Zedeh ..." ssi, dan | 0 |
You used to need $10 million to become a customer of Goldman Sachs. Now you can get in with a dollar. At a time when many storied firms on Wall Street are asking themselves profound questions — such as, What does it mean to be a Wall Street firm in this day and age? — one of the most elite institutions in the business is opening an bank catering to the little saver. And while new accounts do not come with free toasters, GS Bank, started in April, does promise “ savings” and “no transaction fees. ” In short, it is aimed squarely at ordinary Americans — a clientele the company scrupulously avoided during the first 147 years of its history, favoring instead tycoons and plutocrats. It is the crystallization of an extraordinary moment in the halls of American finance. Goldman, like other marquee banking companies, is hunting for new business as its traditional ones falter. Regulations rolled out since the 2008 financial crisis have put a crimp in Wall Street’s traditional expertise. The bond trading desks that generated most of Goldman’s precrisis profits now make only a fraction of what they did before. Over the last year, Goldman executives have been preparing to introduce 401( k) accounts, loans for people saddled with credit card debt and new investment funds that can be purchased by anyone with an account. It will all be online only. In fact, Goldman thinks one of its advantages will be that it does not have the historical baggage — read, expense — of traditional branches and tellers. All of this has prompted some in the industry, given that Goldman has so little experience in the hotly competitive field of retail banking. Not least among the challenges: Getting Americans to warm to a bank that has been maligned as a symbol of Wall Street greed during the 2008 crisis. At least one new customer dismissed that worry. “Of course they get blamed for stuff,” said Daniel Sigal, a college student in the Los Angeles area who calls himself a Wall Street hopeful. But “Goldman Sachs is the Nike of finance,” he said — a brand everyone knows. Its foray into banking is “very, very positive,” he said. He also liked the 1. 05 percent interest rate on savings accounts that Goldman offered, which dwarfed the 0. 01 percent he was getting from Wells Fargo. The average is 0. 54 percent, according to Bankrate. com Goldman will have to pull in many people like Mr. Sigal to make even a tiny difference in its annual revenue, which tends to be measured in the tens of billions of dollars. The senior Goldman executive overseeing all of this said that none of these businesses were lines that he could have imagined the firm getting involved in even five years ago. “We had an opportunity to take a clean sheet of paper and draw out what we might do,” said that executive, Stephen Scherr, the chief of strategy for Goldman and the chief executive of its federally insured bank. Before the crisis, Goldman did not even have a federally insured bank it was forced to open one as a condition of receiving bailout funds during the financial crisis. Initially, the bank was viewed by executives as a drag. More recently, though, Goldman has come to view the bank as one of its brightest opportunities. “Over the years, it became clear that the bank had greater potential to help grow the firm,” Mr. Scherr said. Behind the scenes, Goldman executives have been debating how far they want to expand their new retail offerings and if they eventually want to end up with something that would look more like a online bank. The company is in the earliest stages, and it could back off if the initial experiments fail. So far, interest has been strong. Mr. Scherr said that the bank had opened tens of thousands of new accounts in its first few weeks, in addition to the 150, 000 accounts it acquired from GE Capital. (Goldman bought the online banking arm of General Electric’s financial services subsidiary this year, acquiring about $16 billion in deposits as part of the deal.) Although Goldman has a call center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, it was unprepared for the surge of interest in its fledgling retail bank. Soon after the bank’s debut, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal wrote about the many hiccups he encountered while trying to open an account, including error messages and confused call center representatives. Goldman’s’ way forward is likely to be anything but easy, even with billions backing it. It faces lots of entrenched competitors and has almost no experience in the human elements of this kind of banking, such as customer service. Jay Sidhu, the founder of one of the many new competitors Goldman is facing, BankMobile, is skeptical of Goldman’s prospects, given the importance of customer service in retail banking, and Goldman’s lack of experience in the area. He said it would have to offer something more than good prices to attract and keep customers. “I have a lot of respect for Goldman — but you cannot be great at everything,” said Mr. Sidhu, who is also the chairman and chief executive of BankMobile’s parent company, Customers Bank. Goldman is betting that its investments in technology will help it take advantage of big changes in the financial industry over the last five years, during which banks have moved away from a business model based on relationships and branches and toward one that is more reliant on smartphones and software. Mr. Scherr said that Goldman was looking broadly at businesses where it could use its technology to provide a cheaper banking product. He cited lending as a particularly attractive area for potential expansion, calling it “ripe for technology disruption. ” The strategy of offering what are essentially discount financial products is a somewhat unexpected one for Goldman, given that it has long been known as the most upscale firm on Wall Street. This is somewhat like Maserati making a push into the motorized bicycle market. But the offerings, if successful, could provide a valuable public perception payoff for Goldman by softening the firm’s image as a remote bastion of power and wealth. The first big test will come later this year when Goldman starts offering a lending product targeting people who need relatively small personal loans of around $15, 000 to $25, 000. Overseeing that effort is an executive hired from the credit card company Discover, Harit Talwar, who runs a team of about 50 people working on the Mosaic project on the 26th floor of Goldman’s headquarters in Manhattan. Many of the employees are coders working on sophisticated ways to gauge the credit quality of potential borrowers. Last fall, Goldman introduced its first funds, which are managed according to computer algorithms and can be purchased through any brokerage account. Then, a few months back, Goldman purchased a small Honest Dollar, that offers inexpensive accounts for retirement savings, aimed at freelancers and other workers in the gig economy. These products are not all being run out of the bank. But Mr. Scherr said that the new offerings were being built with a common technological infrastructure that will make it easier for them to interact and potentially integrate. Mr. Scherr is working closely with the head of technology at Goldman, Marty Chavez, who has been trying to open up the bank to new customers and business strategies. Mr. Sidhu, of BankMobile, said he was not expecting big things but was watching with curiosity. “If Goldman wants to be a retail bank for every Joe, I wish them a lot of luck, because they will need it. ” | 1 |
American Pastor Andrew Brunson has been imprisoned in Turkey for more than six months after he was detained for what government officials said was his membership in an “armed terrorist organization,” but now Vice President Mike Pence has reached out to Brunson’s wife, Norine, and pledged the U. S. is working on securing her husband’s release. [The American Center for Law and Justice, which is lobbying for Brunson, reported the letter from Pence comes on the heels of a meeting just days ago between Norine and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during his recent diplomatic trip to Turkey. “On the heels of Pastor Andrew Brunson’s wife personal meeting with U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson concerning the wrongful imprisonment of her husband, she received a personal letter from Vice President Pence assuring her that Brunson’s ‘case remains a top priority of the U. S. government,’” ACLJ reported. Citing his “deep, personal interest” over Brunson’s plight, Pence wrote: “I can assure you both that the State Department and this White House, under President Trump’s leadership, consider Andrew’s release and reunification with you and your three children extremely important. ” Pence also said that he had “personally discussed [Pastor Andrew’s] detention with senior Turkish officials,” according to ACLJ. Brunson and his wife have lived as Christian missionaries in Turkey for more than 20 years and raised their children there. Now, his family is suffering the loss of their beloved husband, father, and brother. “It’s been very hard on us as his family,” Beth Herman, Brunson’s sister, told Breitbart News. “We love him and we want him to be back with his family. ” “We really, really want to get this case, my father’s case, to President Trump,” Brunson’s daughter Jacqueline Brunson told Fox News in a recent interview. Jacqueline Brunson, a college student, told she’s has put her wedding plans on hold, Faithwire. com reported. “That’s kind of on hold because I want my dad to be able to walk me down the aisle,” she said. “I want him there. He only gets to see me get married once. ” Brunson made a direct appeal to Trump in a statement he gave to officials at the U. S. Embassy in Turkey: Will the Turkish government face no consequence for stubbornly continuing to hold an American citizen as a political prisoner? Even though I have a long public track record as a church pastor, they falsely accuse me of being a member of an Islamist terrorist group. I have been imprisoned since October 7, 2016. During this time the Turkish government has produced no proof and has rebuffed numerous attempts by the American government to secure my return to the United States. In fact they are treating the US government with contempt and paying no price for it. I plead with my government — with the Trump Administration — to fight for me. I ask the State Department to impose sanctions. I appeal to President Trump: please help me. Let the Turkish government know that you will not cooperate with them in any way until they release me. Please do not leave me here in prison. ACLJ also launched a petition drive, which 261, 383 people have signed, to show their support for Brunson and to ask for his release and return to the United States. “We have a strong faith in God,” Brunson’s sister said. “We believe God is with him and he’ll make it through this. ” | 1 |
Channel list
Following hurricane Matthew's failure to devastate Florida, activists flock to the Sunshine State and destroy Trump signs manually
Tim Kaine takes credit for interrupting hurricane Matthew while debating weather in Florida
Study: Many non-voters still undecided on how they're not going to vote
The Evolution of Dissent: on November 8th the nation is to decide whether dissent will stop being racist and become sexist - or it will once again be patriotic as it was for 8 years under George W. Bush
Venezuela solves starvation problem by making it mandatory to buy food
Breaking: the Clinton Foundation set to investigate the FBI
Obama captures rare Pokémon while visiting Hiroshima
Movie news: 'The Big Friendly Giant Government' flops at box office; audiences say "It's creepy"
Barack Obama: "If I had a son, he'd look like Micah Johnson"
White House edits Orlando 911 transcript to say shooter pledged allegiance to NRA and Republican Party
President George Washington: 'Redcoats do not represent British Empire; King George promotes a distorted version of British colonialism'
Following Obama's 'Okie-Doke' speech , stock of Okie-Doke soars; NASDAQ: 'Obama best Okie-Doke salesman'
Weaponized baby formula threatens Planned Parenthood office; ACLU demands federal investigation of Gerber
Experts: melting Antarctic glacier could cause sale levels to rise up to 80% off select items by this weekend
Travel advisory: airlines now offering flights to front of TSA line
As Obama instructs his administration to get ready for presidential transition, Trump preemptively purchases 'T' keys for White House keyboards
John Kasich self-identifies as GOP primary winner, demands access to White House bathroom
Upcoming Trump/Kelly interview on FoxNews sponsored by 'Let's Make a Deal' and 'The Price is Right'
News from 2017: once the evacuation of Lena Dunham and 90% of other Hollywood celebrities to Canada is confirmed, Trump resigns from presidency: "My work here is done"
Non-presidential candidate Paul Ryan pledges not to run for president in new non-presidential non-ad campaign
Trump suggests creating 'Muslim database'; Obama symbolically protests by shredding White House guest logs beginning 2009
National Enquirer: John Kasich's real dad was the milkman, not mailman
National Enquirer: Bound delegates from Colorado, Wyoming found in Ted Cruz’s basement
Iran breaks its pinky-swear promise not to support terrorism; US State Department vows rock-paper-scissors strategic response
Women across the country cheer as racist Democrat president on $20 bill is replaced by black pro-gun Republican
Federal Reserve solves budget crisis by writing itself a 20-trillion-dollar check
Widows, orphans claim responsibility for Brussels airport bombing
Che Guevara's son hopes Cuba's communism will rub off on US, proposes a long list of people the government should execute first
Susan Sarandon: "I don't vote with my vagina." Voters in line behind her still suspicious, use hand sanitizer
Campaign memo typo causes Hillary to court 'New Black Panties' vote
New Hampshire votes for socialist Sanders, changes state motto to "Live FOR Free or Die"
Martin O'Malley drops out of race after Iowa Caucus; nation shocked with revelation he has been running for president
Statisticians: one out of three Bernie Sanders supporters is just as dumb as the other two
Hillary campaign denies accusations of smoking-gun evidence in her emails, claims they contain only smoking-circumstantial-gun evidence
Obama stops short of firing US Congress upon realizing the difficulty of assembling another group of such tractable yes-men
In effort to contol wild passions for violent jihad, White House urges gun owners to keep their firearms covered in gun burkas
TV horror live: A Charlie Brown Christmas gets shot up on air by Mohammed cartoons
Democrats vow to burn the country down over Ted Cruz statement, 'The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats'
Russia's trend to sign bombs dropped on ISIS with "This is for Paris" found response in Obama administration's trend to sign American bombs with "Return to sender"
University researchers of cultural appropriation quit upon discovery that their research is appropriation from a culture that created universities
Archeologists discover remains of what Barack Obama has described as unprecedented, un-American, and not-who-we-are immigration screening process in Ellis Island
Mizzou protests lead to declaring entire state a "safe space," changing Missouri motto to "The don't show me state"
Green energy fact: if we put all green energy subsidies together in one-dollar bills and burn them, we could generate more electricity than has been produced by subsidized green energy
State officials improve chances of healthcare payouts by replacing ObamaCare with state lottery
NASA's new mission to search for racism, sexism, and economic inequality in deep space suffers from race, gender, and class power struggles over multibillion-dollar budget
College progress enforcement squads issue schematic humor charts so students know if a joke may be spontaneously laughed at or if regulations require other action
ISIS opens suicide hotline for US teens depressed by climate change and other progressive doomsday scenarios
Virginia county to close schools after teacher asks students to write 'death to America' in Arabic
'Wear hijab to school day' ends with spontaneous female circumcision and stoning of a classmate during lunch break
ISIS releases new, even more barbaric video in an effort to regain mantle from Planned Parenthood
Impressed by Fox News stellar rating during GOP debates, CNN to use same formula on Democrat candidates asking tough, pointed questions about Republicans
Shocking new book explores pros and cons of socialism, discovers they are same people
Pope outraged by Planned Parenthood's "unfettered capitalism," demands equal redistribution of baby parts to each according to his need
John Kerry accepts Iran's "Golden Taquiyya" award, requests jalapenos on the side
Citizens of Pluto protest US government's surveillance of their planetoid and its moons with New Horizons space drone
John Kerry proposes 3-day waiting period for all terrorist nations trying to acquire nuclear weapons
Chicago Police trying to identify flag that caused nine murders and 53 injuries in the city this past weekend
Cuba opens to affordable medical tourism for Americans who can't afford Obamacare deductibles
State-funded research proves existence of Quantum Aggression Particles (Heterons) in Large Hadron Collider
Student job opportunities: make big bucks this summer as Hillary’s Ordinary-American; all expenses paid, travel, free acting lessons
Experts debate whether Iranian negotiators broke John Kerry's leg or he did it himself to get out of negotiations
Junior Varsity takes Ramadi, advances to quarterfinals
US media to GOP pool of candidates: 'Knowing what we know now, would you have had anything to do with the founding of the United States?'
NY Mayor to hold peace talks with rats, apologize for previous Mayor's cowboy diplomacy
China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices"
Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be'
Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1%
America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith
Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine
Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET
Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award ; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths
Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do'
Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State
President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise
Police: If Obama had a convenience store, it would look like Obama Express Food Market
Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males
NASA: We're 80% sure about being 20% sure about being 17% sure about being 38% sure about 2014 being the hottest year on record
People holding '$15 an Hour Now' posters sue Democratic party demanding raise to $15 an hour for rendered professional protesting services
Cuba-US normalization: US tourists flock to see Cuba before it looks like the US and Cubans flock to see the US before it looks like Cuba
White House describes attacks on Sony Pictures as 'spontaneous hacking in response to offensive video mocking Juche and its prophet'
CIA responds to Democrat calls for transparency by releasing the director's cut of The Making Of Obama's Birth Certificate
Obama: 'If I had a city, it would look like Ferguson'
Biden: 'If I had a Ferguson (hic), it would look like a city'
Obama signs executive order renaming 'looters' to 'undocumented shoppers'
Ethicists agree: two wrongs do make a right so long as Bush did it first
The aftermath of the 'War on Women 2014' finds a new 'Lost Generation' of disillusioned Democrat politicians, unable to cope with life out of office
White House: Republican takeover of the Senate is a clear mandate from the American people for President Obama to rule by executive orders
Nurse Kaci Hickox angrily tells reporters that she won't change her clocks for daylight savings time
Democratic Party leaders in panic after recent poll shows most Democratic voters think 'midterm' is when to end pregnancy
Desperate Democratic candidates plead with Obama to stop backing them and instead support their GOP opponents
Ebola Czar issues five-year plan with mandatory quotas of Ebola infections per each state based on voting preferences
Study: crony capitalism is to the free market what the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity
Fun facts about world languages: the Left has more words for statism than the Eskimos have for snow
African countries to ban all flights from the United States because"Obama is incompetent, it scares us"
Nobel Peace Prize controversy: Hillary not nominated despite having done even less than Obama to deserve it
Obama: 'Ebola is the JV of viruses'
BREAKING: Secret Service foils Secret Service plot to protect Obama
Revised 1st Amendment: buy one speech, get the second free
Sharpton calls on white NFL players to beat their women in the interests of racial fairness
President Obama appoints his weekly approval poll as new national security adviser
Obama wags pen and phone at Putin; Europe offers support with powerful pens and phones from NATO members
White House pledges to embarrass ISIS back to the Stone Age with a barrage of fearsome Twitter messages and fatally ironic Instagram photos
Obama to fight ISIS with new federal Terrorist Regulatory Agency
Obama vows ISIS will never raise their flag over the eighteenth hole
Harry Reid: "Sometimes I say the wong thing"
Elian Gonzalez wishes he had come to the U.S. on a bus from Central America like all the other kids
Obama visits US-Mexican border, calls for a two-state solution
Obama draws "blue line" in Iraq after Putin took away his red crayon
"Hard Choices," a porno flick loosely based on Hillary Clinton's memoir and starring Hillary Hellfire as a drinking, whoring Secretary of State, wildly outsells the flabby, sagging original
Accusations of siding with the enemy leave Sgt. Bergdahl with only two options: pursue a doctorate at Berkley or become a Senator from Massachusetts
Jay Carney stuck in line behind Eric Shinseki to leave the White House; estimated wait time from 15 min to 6 weeks
100% of scientists agree that if man-made global warming were real, "the last people we'd want to help us is the Obama administration"
Jay Carney says he found out that Obama found out that he found out that Obama found out that he found out about the latest Obama administration scandal on the news
"Anarchy Now!" meeting turns into riot over points of order, bylaws, and whether or not 'kicking the #^@&*! ass' of the person trying to speak is or is not violence
Obama retaliates against Putin by prohibiting unionized federal employees from dating hot Russian girls online during work hours
Russian separatists in Ukraine riot over an offensive YouTube video showing the toppling of Lenin statues
"Free Speech Zones" confuse Obamaphone owners who roam streets in search of additional air minutes
Obamacare bolsters employment for professionals with skills to convert meth back into sudafed
Gloves finally off: Obama uses pen and phone to cancel Putin's Netflix account
Joe Biden to Russia: "We will bury you by turning more of Eastern Europe over to your control!"
In last-ditch effort to help Ukraine, Obama deploys Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson's Rainbow Coalition to Crimea
Al Sharpton: "Not even Putin can withstand our signature chanting, 'racist, sexist, anti-gay, Russian army go away'!"
Mardi Gras in North Korea: " Throw me some food! "
Obama's foreign policy works: "War, invasion, and conquest are signs of weakness; we've got Putin right where we want him"
US offers military solution to Ukraine crisis: "We will only fight countries that have LGBT military"
Putin annexes Brighton Beach to protect ethnic Russians in Brooklyn, Obama appeals to UN and EU for help
The 1980s: "Mr. Obama, we're just calling to ask if you want our foreign policy back . The 1970s are right here with us, and they're wondering, too."
In a stunning act of defiance, Obama courageously unfriends Putin on Facebook
MSNBC: Obama secures alliance with Austro-Hungarian Empire against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine
Study: springbreak is to STDs what April 15th is to accountants
Efforts to achieve moisture justice for California thwarted by unfair redistribution of snow in America
North Korean voters unanimous: "We are the 100%"
Leader of authoritarian gulag-site, The People's Cube, unanimously 're-elected' with 100% voter turnout
Super Bowl: Obama blames Fox News for Broncos' loss
Feminist author slams gay marriage: "a man needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
Beverly Hills campaign heats up between Henry Waxman and Marianne Williamson over the widening income gap between millionaires and billionaires in their district
Biden to lower $10,000-a-plate Dinner For The Homeless to $5,000 so more homeless can attend
Kim becomes world leader, feeds uncle to dogs; Obama eats dogs, becomes world leader, America cries uncle
North Korean leader executes own uncle for talking about Obamacare at family Christmas party
White House hires part-time schizophrenic Mandela sign interpreter to help sell Obamacare
Kim Jong Un executes own " crazy uncle " to keep him from ruining another family Christmas
OFA admits its advice for area activists to give Obamacare Talk at shooting ranges was a bad idea
President resolves Obamacare debacle with executive order declaring all Americans equally healthy
Obama to Iran: "If you like your nuclear program, you can keep your nuclear program"
Bovine community outraged by flatulence coming from Washington DC
Obama: "I'm not particularly ideological; I believe in a good pragmatic five-year plan"
Shocker: Obama had no knowledge he'd been reelected until he read about it in the local newspaper last week
Server problems at HealthCare.gov so bad, it now flashes 'Error 808' message
NSA marks National Best Friend Day with official announcement: "Government is your best friend; we know you like no one else, we're always there, we're always willing to listen"
Al Qaeda cancels attack on USA citing launch of Obamacare as devastating enough
The President's latest talking point on Obamacare: "I didn't build that"
Dizzy with success, Obama renames his wildly popular healthcare mandate to HillaryCare
Carney: huge ObamaCare deductibles won't look as bad come hyperinflation
Washington Redskins drop 'Washington' from their name as offensive to most Americans
Poll: 83% of Americans favor cowboy diplomacy over rodeo clown diplomacy
GOVERNMENT WARNING: If you were able to complete ObamaCare form online, it wasn't a legitimate gov't website; you should report online fraud and change all your passwords
Obama administration gets serious, threatens Syria with ObamaCare
Obama authorizes the use of Vice President Joe Biden's double-barrel shotgun to fire a couple of blasts at Syria
Sharpton: "British royals should have named baby 'Trayvon.' By choosing 'George' they sided with white Hispanic racist Zimmerman"
DNC launches 'Carlos Danger' action figure; proceeds to fund a charity helping survivors of the Republican War on Women
Nancy Pelosi extends abortion rights to the birds and the bees
Hubble discovers planetary drift to the left
Obama: 'If I had a daughter-in-law, she would look like Rachael Jeantel'
FISA court rubberstamps statement denying its portrayal as government's rubber stamp
Every time ObamaCare gets delayed, a Julia somewhere dies
GOP to Schumer: 'Force full implementation of ObamaCare before 2014 or Dems will never win another election'
Obama: 'If I had a son... no, wait, my daughter can now marry a woman!'
Janet Napolitano: TSA findings reveal that since none of the hijackers were babies, elderly, or Tea Partiers, 9/11 was not an act of terrorism
News Flash: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) can see Canada from South Dakota
Susan Rice: IRS actions against tea parties caused by anti-tax YouTube video that was insulting to their faith
Drudge Report reduces font to fit all White House scandals onto one page
Obama: the IRS is a constitutional right, just like the Second Amendment
White House: top Obama officials using secret email accounts a result of bad IT advice to avoid spam mail from Nigeria
Jay Carney to critics: 'Pinocchio never said anything inconsistent'
Obama: If I had a gay son, he'd look like Jason Collins
Gosnell's office in Benghazi raided by the IRS: mainstream media's worst cover-up challenge to date
IRS targeting pro-gay-marriage LGBT groups leads to gayest tax revolt in U.S. history
After Arlington Cemetery rejects offer to bury Boston bomber, Westboro Babtist Church steps up with premium front lawn plot
Boston: Obama Administration to reclassify marathon bombing as 'sportsplace violence'
Study: Success has many fathers but failure becomes a government program
US Media: Can Pope Francis possibly clear up Vatican bureaucracy and banking without blaming the previous administration?
Michelle Obama praises weekend rampage by Chicago teens as good way to burn calories and stay healthy
This Passover, Obama urges his subjects to paint lamb's blood above doors in order to avoid the Sequester
White House to American children: Sequester causes layoffs among hens that lay Easter eggs; union-wage Easter Bunnies to be replaced by Mexican Chupacabras
Time Mag names Hugo Chavez world's sexiest corpse
Boy, 8, pretends banana is gun, makes daring escape from school
Study: Free lunches overpriced, lack nutrition
Oscars 2013: Michelle Obama announces long-awaited merger of Hollywood and the State
Joe Salazar defends the right of women to be raped in gun-free environment: 'rapists and rapees should work together to prevent gun violence for the common good'
Dept. of Health and Human Services eliminates rape by reclassifying assailants as 'undocumented sex partners'
Kremlin puts out warning not to photoshop Putin riding meteor unless bare-chested
Deeming football too violent, Obama moves to introduce Super Drone Sundays instead
Japan offers to extend nuclear umbrella to cover U.S. should America suffer devastating attack on its own defense spending
Feminists organize one billion women to protest male oppression with one billion lap dances
Urban community protests Mayor Bloomberg's ban on extra-large pop singers owning assault weapons
Concerned with mounting death toll, Taliban offers to send peacekeeping advisers to Chicago
Karl Rove puts an end to Tea Party with new 'Republicans For Democrats' strategy aimed at losing elections
Answering public skepticism, President Obama authorizes unlimited drone attacks on all skeet targets throughout the country
Skeet Ulrich denies claims he had been shot by President but considers changing his name to 'Traps'
White House releases new exciting photos of Obama standing, sitting, looking thoughtful, and even breathing in and out
New York Times hacked by Chinese government, Paul Krugman's economic policies stolen
White House: when President shoots skeet, he donates the meat to food banks that feed the middle class
To prove he is serious, Obama eliminates armed guard protection for President, Vice-President, and their families; establishes Gun-Free Zones around them instead
State Dept to send 100,000 American college students to China as security for US debt obligations
Jay Carney: Al Qaeda is on the run, they're just running forward
President issues executive orders banning cliffs, ceilings, obstructions, statistics, and other notions that prevent us from moving forwards and upward
Fearing the worst, Obama Administration outlaws the fan to prevent it from being hit by certain objects
World ends; S&P soars
Riddle of universe solved; answer not understood
Meek inherit Earth, can't afford estate taxes
Greece abandons Euro; accountants find Greece has no Euros anyway
Wheel finally reinvented; axles to be gradually reinvented in 3rd quarter of 2013
Bigfoot found in Ohio, mysteriously not voting for Obama
As Santa's workshop files for bankruptcy, Fed offers bailout in exchange for control of 'naughty and nice' list
Freak flying pig accident causes bacon to fly off shelves
Obama: green economy likely to transform America into a leading third world country of the new millennium
Report: President Obama to visit the United States in the near future
Obama promises to create thousands more economically neutral jobs
Modernizing Islam: New York imam proposes to canonize Saul Alinsky as religion's latter day prophet
Imam Rauf's peaceful solution: 'Move Ground Zero a few blocks away from the mosque and no one gets hurt'
Study: Obama's threat to burn tax money in Washington 'recruitment bonanza' for Tea Parties
Study: no Social Security reform will be needed if gov't raises retirement age to at least 814 years
Obama attends church service, worships self
Obama proposes national 'Win The Future' lottery; proceeds of new WTF Powerball to finance more gov't spending
Historical revisionists: "Hey, you never know"
Vice President Biden: criticizing Egypt is un-pharaoh
Israelis to Egyptian rioters: "don't damage the pyramids, we will not rebuild"
Lake Superior renamed Lake Inferior in spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness
Al Gore: It's a shame that a family can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of polar bears
Michael Moore: As long as there is anyone with money to shake down, this country is not broke
Obama's teleprompters unionize, demand collective bargaining rights
Obama calls new taxes 'spending reductions in tax code.' Elsewhere rapists tout 'consent reductions in sexual intercourse'
Obama's teleprompter unhappy with White House Twitter: "Too few words"
Obama's Regulation Reduction committee finds US Constitution to be expensive outdated framework inefficiently regulating federal gov't
Taking a page from the Reagan years, Obama announces new era of Perestroika and Glasnost
Responding to Oslo shootings, Obama declares Christianity "Religion of Peace," praises "moderate Christians," promises to send one into space
Republicans block Obama's $420 billion program to give American families free charms that ward off economic bad luck
White House to impose Chimney tax on Santa Claus
Obama decrees the economy is not soaring as much as previously decreeed
Conservative think tank introduces children to capitalism with pop-up picture book "The Road to Smurfdom"
Al Gore proposes to combat Global Warming by extracting silver linings from clouds in Earth's atmosphere
Obama refutes charges of him being unresponsive to people's suffering: "When you pray to God, do you always hear a response?"
Obama regrets the US government didn't provide his mother with free contraceptives when she was in college
Fluke to Congress: drill, baby, drill!
Planned Parenthood introduces Frequent Flucker reward card: 'Come again soon!'
Obama to tornado victims: 'We inherited this weather from the previous administration'
Obama congratulates Putin on Chicago-style election outcome
People's Cube gives itself Hero of Socialist Labor medal in recognition of continued expert advice provided to the Obama Administration helping to shape its foreign and domestic policies
Hamas: Israeli air defense unfair to 99% of our missiles, "only 1% allowed to reach Israel"
Democrat strategist: without government supervision, women would have never evolved into humans
Voters Without Borders oppose Texas new voter ID law
Enraged by accusation that they are doing Obama's bidding, media leaders demand instructions from White House on how to respond
Obama blames previous Olympics for failure to win at this Olympics
Official: China plans to land on Moon or at least on cheap knockoff thereof
Koran-Contra: Obama secretly arms Syrian rebels
Poll: Progressive slogan 'We should be more like Europe' most popular with members of American Nazi Party
Obama to Evangelicals: Jesus saves, I just spend
May Day: Anarchists plan, schedule, synchronize, and execute a coordinated campaign against all of the above
Midwestern farmers hooked on new erotic novel "50 Shades of Hay"
Study: 99% of Liberals give the rest a bad name
Obama meets with Jewish leaders, proposes deeper circumcisions for the rich
Historians: Before HOPE & CHANGE there was HEMP & CHOOM at ten bucks a bag
Cancer once again fails to cure Venezuela of its "President for Life"
Tragic spelling error causes Muslim protesters to burn local boob-tube factory
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: due to energy conservation, the light at the end of the tunnel will be switched off
Obama Administration running food stamps across the border with Mexico in an operation code-named "Fat And Furious"
Pakistan explodes in protest over new Adobe Acrobat update; 17 local acrobats killed
White House: "Let them eat statistics"
Special Ops: if Benedict Arnold had a son, he would look like Barack Obama | 0 |
BEIJING — Both came to power vowing to restore their nations to greatness. But America’s loud, Donald J. Trump, and China’s guarded, calculating president, Xi Jinping, are glaring contrasts as politicians, and their pairing has injected new unpredictability into relations between their governments. “I could not think of two more different protagonists in the great drama of U. S. relations,” Evan S. Medeiros, formerly the senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, said by email. “Personalities matter a lot in international relations, especially between great powers. ” A quarrel after China seized an underwater drone from the United States Navy has given a taste of how Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Xi’s different styles could play out if bigger tensions were to break out over the South China Sea, trade imbalances, North Korea’s nuclear weapons or other issues that Mr. Trump has raised. Mr. Trump has recently blared warnings at China, seemingly guided by visceral reflexes and a vague but bold set of demands. By contrast, Mr. Xi, the son of a Communist veteran, is disciplined and steely. He rarely speaks off the cuff in public. Even his seemingly impromptu gestures are often carefully choreographed, and he usually adheres to policy points when meeting foreign leaders. Mr. Xi is certainly capable of bold action, as he has shown in the South China Sea, but he tends to shroud his thinking in a cloud of slogans. That leaves outsiders guessing about when and how he will act on his demands. “The situation could become quite combustible,” said Jessica Chen Weiss, an associate professor at Cornell University who studies Chinese foreign policy. “Xi Jinping is more measured in his public statements than Donald Trump, but the Chinese government will likely hit back quite forcefully against any radical efforts to challenge the status quo,” Ms. Weiss said. “The best thing the ’s advisers can do for our national security is to screen Trump’s tweets. ” Mr. Trump took to Twitter on Saturday after the Chinese military confirmed that it had seized a submersible drone in waters about 50 miles northwest of Subic Bay in the Philippines. The Pentagon had revealed the seizure, and China’s Ministry of National Defense said it would return the device, which can be used to monitor undersea currents and conditions, in an “appropriate manner. ” Mr. Trump suggested that wasn’t good enough. He said China’s seizure was an unprecedented act, and later added, “We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back. ” Mr. Trump did not say how he would handle similar disputes after he is sworn. But his other comments so far suggest that he will take a blunter, less predictable course on China than recent White House administrations. This month, Mr. Trump spoke on the phone with Tsai the president of Taiwan, breaking nearly 40 years of American presidents and avoiding direct conversation with the leader of the island, over which China claims sovereignty. In an interview with Fox News, Mr. Trump then suggested he could depart from the One China principle, which blocks Washington from diplomatic ties with Taiwan, using that as a pressure point to seek trade concessions from Beijing. He also criticized China on trade, the buildup of military outposts in the South China Sea and its reluctance to isolate North Korea. “China is not used to the U. S. asserting and pushing its interests like the Chinese do,” said Dan Blumenthal, the director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, who praised Mr. Trump’s blunter approach. “If it is prepared for that, we will be able to avoid confrontation and conflict. ” So far, Mr. Xi has not reacted publicly to Mr. Trump’s warnings. The two men had a brief but cordial call after Mr. Trump won the election. Chinese leaders rarely wade openly into disputes, leaving that to junior officials. But pressure for a tougher reaction to Mr. Trump could build in China if he keeps lobbing out warnings, especially after he becomes president. Experts disagreed over whether China’s seizure of the submersible drone was intended as a signal to Mr. Trump, or even authorized by Mr. Xi. But Chinese decision makers probably took into account that Mr. Trump’s team would read it as “a test and a warning,” said Ni Lexiong, a naval affairs researcher at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. “It would be impossible for China not to react to his provocations,” Mr. Ni said by telephone. “Trump seems to want a foreign policy that keeps the other side guessing. But that way of working can easily lead to trouble. ” On Monday, an editorial in a prominent Communist Party newspaper said that Mr. Xi’s government needed to be ready for rockier relations. “Trump hits out with a hammer to the east and a club to the west, and his real thinking is very difficult to fathom,” said the editorial in the overseas edition of the paper, People’s Daily, using a Chinese saying that means to speak or act without rhyme or reason. China, it said, should “stay steady on its feet, keep a good grasp of developments, calmly respond, and that’s it. ” But even China’s calls for calm have barbs and caveats that could rile a Trump administration. When the Chinese defense ministry said it would return the submersible drone, it also said the Chinese ship showed a “professional and responsible attitude” by seizing the device, although the drone appeared to be outside even an extremely expansive view of China’s rightful reach in the South China Sea. Chinese are already urging a harsher response to Mr. Trump. On Saturday, Global Times, a newspaper often dominated by rhetoric, held a forum in Beijing where speakers urged tough retaliation if Mr. Trump moved closer to Taiwan, and praised the seizure of the underwater drone. “China isn’t afraid of confrontation with America,” Dai Xu, a former Chinese Air Force senior colonel and outspoken hawk, said at the meeting. “Without China’s cooperation, Trump will achieve nothing. I dare say that if he opts for confrontation with China, he won’t stay in office for more than four years. ” Another speaker, Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, told Global Times: “China is a dragon. America is an eagle. Britain is a lion. When the dragon wakes up, the others are all snacks. ” Such tough talk does not set Chinese foreign policy, but Mr. Xi and other leaders are sensitive to nationalist ire that they themselves have nurtured. Mr. Xi has summed up his vision of national rejuvenation and strength as the “Chinese Dream,’’ a theme he has promoted since taking office. Pressures on Mr. Xi are likely to grow if Mr. Trump continues publicly excoriating China, especially on territorial issues, like Taiwan and the South China Sea, where public sentiment often favors a tough response. “China tends to give the new leader a grace period to settle in,” Ms. Weiss said, citing her research about China’s response to elections and new leaders. “Trump has moved more quickly to challenge and defy China than other however, so the grace period could end quickly. ” American presidents know how swiftly relations with China can deteriorate. In 1999, President Bill Clinton struggled to repair ties after NATO bombs struck the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, then the capital of Yugoslavia, killing three people. The White House insisted the bombing was accidental, but the Chinese government did not believe that, and days of angry protests followed. In 2001, a United States Navy reconnaissance plane made an emergency landing on Hainan, a Chinese jutting into the South China Sea, after colliding with a Chinese Air Force jet whose pilot plunged to his death. Eleven days later, China released the 24 American crew members, and the plane was recovered in parts over the following months. A scenario like that could unfold very differently under Mr. Trump. “If Trump perceives that he is being challenged, he will probably instinctively not want to be seen as weak,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It will be very messy if he decides to tweet or speak publicly in a crisis before he has all the intelligence and analysis necessary. ” Mr. Xi also has his domestic political timetable to worry about. He was appointed head of the Communist Party in 2012, and next year a party congress is all but certain to give him five more years in that job. But Mr. Xi must settle on a new cohort of senior officials to work under him, and during elite the party leadership puts even more emphasis on stability. “The leadership has to balance those goals of preserving a more stable and predictable external environment with avoiding the perception of weakness and vulnerability,” Ms. Glaser said. “I tend to believe that the latter will trump the former if the Chinese leadership has to choose. Pun intended. ” | 1 |
Zach Cartwright | November 6, 2016
A prominent Native American association is making a powerful statement about offensive sports team logos using indigenous people as mascots.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), which is behind the effort to change the names and logos of the Washington Redskins football team and the Cleveland Indians baseball team, is circulating a purposefully offensive image using other ethnicities as mascots to promote dialogue about the inappropriateness of having an ethnic stereotype as the face of a team.
In a poster made by the NCAI, several imaginary sports teams — the New York Jews, the San Francisco Chinamen, and the actual Cleveland Indians are all seen side-by-side. The “New York Jews” mascot is a hook-nosed, bespectacled grinning face, the “San Francisco Chinamen” logo is a buck-toothed Chinese stereotype in a traditional sedge hat, and the Cleveland Indians logo is depicted next to the other two offensive images.
The evolution of offensive portrayals of Native Americans is nothing new in sports. As Indian County Today Media Network’s Vincent Schilling reported, Chief Wahoo — the mascot of the Cleveland Indians — goes back to 1928, when the team used various depictions of a Native American man in traditional headdress for its official team logo. Between 1947 and 1951, Chief Wahoo had yellow skin. After a body was added to Chief Wahoo, the mascot’s skin color was changed to a deep crimson. The Chief Wahoo known by baseball fans today has been the Cleveland Indians’ logo since 1972.
As the NFL season continues, pressure is increasing on the Washington Redskins to change their name and mascot, after years of pressure from indigenous groups. An op-ed posted on ESPN in 2015 argued a change in the team’s name is “ inevitable ,” saying team owner Daniel Snyder is clinging to the past. Author Mike Wise cited the example of NFL referee Mike Carey, who asked the league to not assign him to Washington Redskins games for the final years of his career, saying he didn’t want to take part in disrespecting Native Americans.
Sports fans are pushing the change the names of the teams through online petitions. A MoveOn.org petition asking the Redskins to change their name has garnered nearly 8,000 signatures as of this writing, and a Change.org petition to Cleveland Indians owner Larry Dolan asking the team to retire the Chief Wahoo logo has nearly 14,000 signatures.
Zach Cartwright is an activist and author from Richmond, Virginia. He enjoys writing about politics, government, and the media. Send him an email at [email protected] | 0 |
#NODAPL: Battle at the End of the World Share on Facebook Tweet
Watching the footage of the police attack against water protectors from last Sunday, conjured images of the apocalypse. Yet, despite this brutal assault, the people at Standing Rock keep on fighting. This video is dedicated to Sophia Wilansky, who was critically injured during the attack. Read more about this incident here. [watch video below] | 0 |
North Carolina, whose heartbreaking loss in the N. C. A. A. tournament championship game a year ago provided one of the game’s indelible moments — the shot by Villanova’s Kris Jenkins — avenged that defeat with a win over Gonzaga, on Monday to claim its sixth national title. The No. Tar Heels returned many of the players who left the court in Houston devastated a year ago. But at University of Phoenix Stadium, they could finally bask in the confetti that rained down from the rafters. They beat Gonzaga, another No. 1 seed, which was making its first appearance in the Final Four. The Bulldogs ( ) representatives of a small Jesuit school in Spokane, Wash. have never won an N. C. A. A. championship in any team sport. The men’s basketball team has been a constant presence in the N. C. A. A. tournament for nearly two decades, but this year — with only one loss coming into Monday — was arguably their strongest team to date. It was a sloppily played game, and at times poorly officiated, as the referees seemed to miss several calls in the second half. “It was an ugly game,” said North Carolina Coach Roy Williams, who won his third national title with the Tar Heels. “I don’t think either team played well offensively. The magnitude of the game had a lot to do with it. ” U. N. C. finished the sloppy game in decidedly unsloppy fashion, going on an run that was keyed by the defense. With Gonzaga down three points with 22 seconds left, the Bulldogs’ Nigel drove the lane but was blocked by U. N. C. big man Kennedy Meeks. A quick outlet and a dunk by Justin Jackson and Carolina had its title. North Carolina got 22 points from Joel Berry II, but as a team shot badly: just 36 percent, with Jackson going 6 for 19 and 0 for 9 from 3 points. Berry was the only Tar Heel to sink a 3: he had four of them. Gonzaga also struggled, shooting 34 percent. Big man Przemek Karnowski was with most of those shots coming from close to the basket. His errant touch was exacerbated by the absence from most of the game of freshman Zach Collins, who had foul trouble throughout and eventually fouled out. Gonzaga was led by 15 from but he was from the floor. The Tar Heels ( ) tried not to make the year all about redemption, even though the players had a group text message chat titled “Redemption. ” Even though point guard Nate Britt, whose Jenkins, hit the shot that crumbled Carolina, would not bring up the game with him. Even though Coach Roy Williams had purposely avoided watching the replay of that shot all year. They tried to cast this season in a new light, even though most of the players who gathered in Williams’s home on Aug. 22 were the same players he had in the postgame locker room that night in Houston when he stood before them and addressed them, struggling to find words. “I felt so inadequate,” Williams recalled, the loquacious reduced to a mumble. And so, even though only seven other teams have rebounded from a loss to return the title game, and even though their loss in last year’s final was uniquely devastating, here were the Tar Heels, none the worse for wear. Monday’s game featured a quick pace at the outset, which typically would favor North Carolina. But the Bulldogs focused on its transition defense to slow down the Tar Heels, limiting North Carolina to just 2 points in the first half. But the Tar Heels, who shot just 30. 6 percent in the first half, missing 11 of their first 13 attempts, still managed to go into halftime trailing by just three, . From there they stayed close in a tight game, ultimately securing redemption. Here’s how the Tar Heels won their sixth title: North Carolina led with 15:33 left to go in the first half in Phoenix. Both teams struggled to make buckets in the early going, with big Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski missing two from close range. Just before the first time out though, the teams traded with Josh Perkins of Gonzaga and Joel Berry of North Carolina sinking them. Perkins led all scorers with 5 points. Marc Tracy: Interesting that Gonzaga started with just one true big man, Przemek Karnowski. North Carolina is best down low, with Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks, both of whom are in the game. And Gonzaga has a stellar second giant to go along with the Karnowski in freshman Zach Collins, who entered the game after just three minutes. In the semifinal win over South Carolina, Gonzaga looked at its best when both were on the floor. My guess is that Gonzaga wants to limit Collins’s minutes, at least in the first half, to ensure he doesn’t get into foul trouble. Another 3 by Josh Perkins and a Johnathan Williams jumper gave Gonzaga a lead with 10 minutes left. Perkins was the top scorer with 8, but everyone was getting involved in the fast paced, game. Five Bulldogs and seven Tar Heels have scored. A Joel Berry and a basket by Justin Jackson pulled the Tar Heels back to within 2. A surprise early stat. Though North Carolina is one of the best rebounding teams in the country, it is being outrebounded by Gonzaga so far, . Gonzaga held a lead over North Carolina at halftime of the national championship game. It was a lively game, with plenty of action, but neither team shot especially well. Gonzaga was 12 for 30, while North Carolina made 11 of 35 shots, including from range. Przemek Karnowski, one of Gonzaga’s looked a little lost, shooting all from close range, after getting a finger in the eye in the semifinal. But the other big man, freshman Zach Collins, a possible top 10 N. B. A. draft pick, came off the bench to chip in two baskets and four rebounds. Guard Josh Perkins of Gonzaga led all scorers, with 13. Gonzaga outrebounded the best rebounding team in the country, . North Carolina was led by 9 from Joel Berry II, whose ankle injuries had caused pregame concern. Marc Tracy: Not to harp on this theme, but it’s the battle of the bigs. North Carolina’s Kennedy Meeks had a couple great moves on Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski. But overall it is a battle that favors Gonzaga, if they can keep their guys on the floor. Their two favorites, Karnowski and Zach Collins, both have two fouls, though, which is why relatively untested freshman Killian Tillie has played five minutes (after playing seven total last game). Beyond that, I think the rim has been unkind to both teams. U. N. C. point guard Joel Berry II clearly is not limited by his ankle. I sense that Gonzaga is content to let U. N. C. take very deep shots, and so far the Zags have not been punished, with U. N. C. making just 15. 4 percent of their . If that number regresses to the mean significantly, U. N. C. could run away with it. But I’m betting we go down to the wire on this one. Joel Berry made an easy bucket off a steal, Justin Jackson made two free throws, and North Carolina reclaimed the lead in the first 35 seconds of the second half. It was the start of a good stretch for North Carolina, who rode an run to start the half. Gonzaga missed three straight shots in the lane, prompting Coach Mark Few to call a timeout. Zach Collins made a play after a pass from Przemek Karnowski, then Jordan Mathews hit a to regain the lead for Gonzaga with 16 minutes left. But Collins picked up his fourth foul just afterward. That will put extra pressure to perform on the Zags’ other big man, Karnowski, who is from the floor. The game swung back and forth, with neither team able to pull away. A highlight for Gonzaga was Karnowski lunging to the basket and finally scoring his first points of the game. North Carolina was staying close despite a poor game by its biggest star, Justin Jackson, He was shooting 3 for 13, missing all seven of his . Also struggling was Gonzaga star Nigel shooting 2 for 10. It remains to be seen which team will win the game or whether North Carolina will cover the line. But “under” bettors are sitting pretty. Barring several overtimes, the game is likely to fall well under the 155 total. Though Gonzaga in particular is known for its defense, sloppy play and poor shooting by both teams is the main culprit for the low score. Notably, Przemek Karnowski, who shot 60 percent this season, is . Gonzaga has gone seven minutes without a basket. With seven minutes remaining, the officials have called 21 fouls in the second half alone (39 total) slowing the game and ruining both teams’ chances for momentum. A couple of the N. B. A. ’s elite have noticed. The national championship game, tightly, if sloppily played throughout, seemed to be coming down to the wire. With a little less than 2 minutes to play, the score is tied, . Both teams made their share of mistakes, and neither could pull away with under two minutes to play. Ultimately, the Tar Heels made the big shots and the big stops when they needed to. Late in 1992, when he was asked to submit samples for a new theme song for CBS’s coverage of the N. C. A. A. men’s basketball tournament, Bob Christianson did what he usually does. He paced his small basement studio. He washed dishes and scrubbed the floor. He ironed clothes. His best melodies have often crystallized better away from the piano. “If I write at the piano,” he said, “my fingers tend to go where they are used to going. ” This time, his fingers would not arrive at the eight notes that would come to define March Madness for nearly a until he formulated the right groove — a groove inspired by the percussive heartbeat of the tournament itself: a dribbling basketball. Read the complete story about the origin of the March Madness theme song here. It wasn’t long after the Michigan men’s basketball team won the Big Ten tournament this month when the moment arrived for the Wolverines to claim their polyester scalp: to bring out the ladders and let each player, coach and staff member take part in cutting down the nets. When the assistant coach Billy Donlon’s turn came, he made his snip, retreated down the ladder and handed off the scissors to his fellow assistant Jeff Meyer — gripping the blades and offering the handle, the way he and everyone else were taught in kindergarten. But when Donlon looked down moments later, he recalled last week, he saw his palm covered in blood. Read more about this N. C. A. A. tournament tradition here. | 1 |
THIS IS COMEY’S LAST CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION THIS IS COMEY’S LAST CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION Politics By TruthFeedNews October 29, 2016
By Gregg Jarrett
The most wounded man in Washington is James Comey.
Ever since his legally incomprehensible announcement that he would not recommend criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton, he has been the equivalent of an extra on the set of “The Walking Dead”. His reputation tarnished. His legacy forever tainted.
His own agents turned against him in disgust. Those, including lawyers, who had worked exhaustively gathering the incriminating evidence were furious that Comey had publicly laid out their case of how Clinton was grossly negligence under the Espionage Act, yet decided not to prosecute. Comey had gone from revered to reviled, all in one day.
Now, his stunning announcement that he is reopening the criminal investigation of Clinton based on newly discovered evidence is, perhaps, the chance at redemption for which he may have been searching. He has disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner to thank for a second chance.
According to confirmed reports, the FBI seized electronic devices in the possession of Weiner during the course of an investigation into his sexting with an underage girl for which he is now in legal jeopardy. Since Weiner is married to Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, the FBI were legally entitled to access her emails on those same devices. Those are probably the messages that triggered a reopening of the Clinton probe.
Whatever the source of the new evidence, it may have provided the excuse or pretext that Comey so desperately needed to remedy the wrong perceived by so many. A legal “do over”, if you will. A mistake corrected. An injustice rectified.
Of course, it is altogether possible that Comey will reach the same conclusion as he did before –that prosecutors could not prove Clinton broke the law. His statement stressed he does not know the “importance” of the new emails.
But if this is Comey’s opportunity to atone, it is not good news for Hillary Clinton. The Director may now be more determined than ever to reverse his legal judgment of Clinton’s mishandling of classified materials. It’s like a first year law student getting to retake the final examination in criminal law after flunking the test. He can now change his legal analysis and arrive at a better conclusion.
After all, it was Comey himself who testified before Congress that more than 2,000 classified documents were found on Clinton’s personal server in her home –clearly an unauthorized place under the law. He described her explanations as untruthful and her conduct “extremely careless”. That would be more than sufficient for criminal charges against anyone else whose name is not Clinton.
What does all of this mean for Clinton’s chances of winning the election a scant ten days from now? At this early stage, it is impossible to know. Yes, at the moment, the electoral map favors Clinton substantially. But that could evaporate in a political instant.
On its face, the revelation seems extremely damaging to her candidacy. Perhaps fatal. Yet, it is premature to say how voters will react on November 8 th when they enter the voting booths across America. Some may view the resurrected FBI probe as patently unfair, coming a little more than a week before the election. Voters may feel she is being victimized and react with sympathy. The news may energize or motivate her supporters to cast their ballots in record numbers.
For others, a reinvigorated FBI investigation will serve as proof they were right when they concluded, perhaps long ago, that Clinton is chronically corrupt. As pointed out in my recent column , a Clinton presidency would probably be engulfed in scandal and endless investigations, even in the absence of today’s news. Do Americans want to cast a vote in favor of 4 years of acrimony and intransigence?
And what happens if a President Clinton is indicted for crimes under the Espionage Act? Would she resign, as Nixon did… or temporarily step aside under the incapacity provision of the 25 th Amendment until her criminal trial is concluded? How would Congress react? The entire sordid affair could devolve into an impeachment trial reminiscent of her husband, Bill Clinton.
Another national nightmare.
These are weighty decisions which voters are now suddenly forced to consider. It may not be fair or right. But, in a democracy, freedom of choice inexorably falls to the citizenry.
It brings both benefits and burdens.
Gregg Jarrett is a Fox News Anchor and former defense attorney. H/T – FoxNews
Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
Have you heard of Dr. William Thompson? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. His story was completely ignored by mainstream media outlets, the same way that they recently ignored the fact that the Pentagon paid a PR firm half a billon dollars to make fake terrorist/news videos. Dr. William Thompson is a longtime senior CDC scientist. He has published some of the most commonly cited pro-vaccine studies — studies which purport to show absolutely no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, for example. Two studies he and his co-author published in 2004 and 2007 (CDC studies) were the most commonly cited studies used by the scientific community to debunk the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine/autism link. ( Thompson, et al. 2007, Price, et al. 2010 , Destefano, et al. 2004 ) The study concluded that “the evidence is now convincing that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine does not cause autism or any particular subtypes of autism spectrum disorder.” ( source ) A decade later, Dr. Thompson came out publicly admitting that that it was “the lowest point ” in his career when he “went along with that paper.” He went on to say that he and the other authors “didn’t report significant findings” and that he is “completely ashamed” of what he did, that he was “complicit and went along with this,” and regrets that he has “been a part of the problem.” ( source )( source )( source ) A study with revised information and no data omission was published by Dr. Brian Hooker (a contact of Dr. Thompson) in the peer reviewed journal Translational Neurodegeneration, and it found a 340% increased risk of autism in African American boys receiving the Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine on time. The study has since been retracted during the same time of this controversy. You can read the full study HERE , although, unsurprisingly, it has since been retracted. Thompson’s attorneys, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Bryan Smith of Morgan & Morgan, also released a statement from Dr. Thompson, which mentioned Hooker: “ I have had many discussions with Dr. Brian Hooker over the last 10 months regarding studies the CDC has carried out regarding vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes including autism spectrum disorders. I share his belief that CDC decision-making and analyses should be transparent.” ( source ) Even pro-vaccine politicians were contacted, as these documents were sent to Congress. One of them reads as followed, as illustrated by congressman Bill Posey : “The [CDC] co-authors scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the [MMR vaccine] study. The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room and reviewed and went through all the hard copy documents that we had thought we should discard and put them in a huge garbage can.” CDC Blocking Testimony Disconcertingly, Thomas Frieden (see picture above), the Director of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), has blocked Dr. Thompson’s attempt to testify on scientific fraud and the destruction of evidence by senior CDC officials. Attorneys Smith and Kennedy have been seeking to have Thompson testify on medical malpractice, specifically with regard to fraud in a series of studies that found no link between vaccines and autism, which are cited earlier in the article. Mr. Kennedy writes that, according to Thompson, “for the past decade his superiors have pressured him and his fellow scientists to lie and manipulate data about the safety of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal to conceal its causative link to a suite of brain injuries, including autism.” Ecowatch , Dr. Frieden said that “Dr. William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHS [Health and Human Services].” Despite the fact that Thompson revealed a casual link between vaccines and autism, or autistic features, Frieden stated that “Dr William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHD.” The case seeking the testimony of Dr. Thompson is from the family of 16-year-old Yates Hazlehurst. A lawsuit is currently underway implying that Yates is autistic as a result of vaccine administration that occurred in 2001. Related CE Article With More Information
The Top 6 Reasons Why More Parents Are Choosing To Not Vaccinate Their Children Some Quotes That Really Make You Think “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” – ( source )( source ) Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard Professor of Medicine and Former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine” Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime Editor in Chief of the New England Medical Journal ( source ) “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.” Dr. Richard Horton, the current editor-in-chief of the Lancet ( source ) | 0 |
Voter Fraud is Trump’s Greatest Challenge New Stanford electronic voting machine study cites probably fraud in favor of Clinton. The study covered the last Democratic primary election results.
A new Stanford study indicated which only use electronic voting machines give Hillary a 9% advance over Sanders in the Democratic Primary.
The Stanford study demonstrated that pre-election polls accurately predicted election results when a paper ballot was used. However, whenn unaccountable electronic voting machines were used, with no confirming paper trial, Clinton exceeded expectations by 9%. When one runs the odds on this being due to random chance, the odds are nearly incalculable. What adds fuel to this fire is that the two major manufacturers of the voting machines, Dominion Voting and H.I.G. Capital, are large Clinton campaign supporters. I remember reading something about the fact that it is illegal to engage in such a flagrant conflict of interest. However, as FBI director, James Comey, has demonstrated, we are living in a country with no rules for the elite establishment.
The criminality oozing out Clinton, never stops. Here is a 3 minute, concise, summation of Clinton got away with voter fraud against Bernie Sanders and how she will do it to Donald Trump. Conclusion
There are six large groups that will support and vote Clinton, because they need their tax funded gravy train to continue. Some of these groups are powerful (e.g. the military industrial complex). Some of these powerful groups have provided the Clinton Foundation with $2 billion dollars of ill-gotten gains to win this election. The Clinton Foundation controls the electronic voting industry and we have seen that could mean as much as 10% of the vote could be stolen.
What is a Trump supporter to do? We need to all become missionaries of the truth. We need to take every opportunity to express to people why they need to vote for Trump.
Trump only has one network that supports him out of the six entities that controls 98% of the media and that is Fox. And why is that? Trump and Rupert Murdock reached a secret deal. More on this in a future story. | 0 |
Tensions continue to escalate in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where protestors attempt to peacefully face off against riot police and the National Guard. In addition to being maced and beaten with... | 0 |
Rufus Farmer, 33, was tired of all the ways he saw black men being mistreated by the nation’s law enforcement system — from the police officer who once berated him for crossing the street to the mandatory prison sentences that sent so many of his peers away. So when former President Bill Clinton appeared on April 7 in Philadelphia at a rally for his wife, Hillary, Mr. Farmer protested, carrying a sign denouncing Mr. Clinton’s 1994 crime bill, which set lengthy prison sentences and flooded the streets with police officers. A fiery exchange broke out between the activists and the former president as Mr. Clinton forcefully defended the legislation. But it was not just Mr. Clinton who criticized the young protesters. Afterward, some older did, too. “I think it is crazy to protest the crime bill,” said Caryl Brock, 53, a social worker from the Bronx, who scolded the protesters on social media. “Should it be amended? Maybe. But a lot of people really wanted it. I really wanted it. ” Young and energized this election cycle are aggressively challenging longstanding ideas and policies, especially those carried out during the Clinton administration in areas like crime and welfare. But the activism is also laying bare a striking generation gap between younger and older whose experience, views of the former president and notions of how they should push for change diverge dramatically. The parents and grandparents of today’s young black protesters largely waged the battle for civil rights in courtrooms and churches. They carefully chose people who were viewed as upstanding citizens, like Rosa Parks, to be the face of their movement, and dressed in their Sunday best as they sought to gain broader acceptance. Mr. Clinton endeared himself to these generations by campaigning in black churches and appointing more blacks to the cabinet than any previous president had. But many of today’s activists — whose political consciousness has been shaped by the killings of black people by the police — do not believe that acting respectfully will protect them from being harassed or shot. They aspire not to become a part of the political system, but to upend it. “You do have older generations of church folk who believe that marching and singing is the best way to bring about change,” Mr. Farmer said. “We’ll march, too, but we’ll do what we need to do to communicate our message, if it happens to be yelling, or blocking an intersection. And we don’t care if people — particularly white people — believe it is respectable. ” The gulf between young black people and their elders surfaced repeatedly in more than two dozen interviews conducted in the days after Mr. Clinton’s clash with the protesters. To young activists like Mr. Farmer, Mr. Clinton’s legacy on crime is paternalistic and damaging. But many older black voters who raised families during the crack epidemic — an era many young people do not remember — remain steadfastly loyal to the Clintons. Ms. Brock said she had been a social worker in charge of the removal of children from dangerous homes in the South Bronx and Spanish Harlem in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when crack tore a path of destruction through those neighborhoods. “I saw it all,” Ms. Brock said. “Moms would give birth and leave the hospital to get a hit. My car got broken into every week. People were scared to walk down to the bodega, afraid they’d be followed and robbed. ” She said she was relieved when the crime bill passed. In addition to providing more money for prisons and the police, the law banned assault weapons and offered funding for drug courts and rehabilitation. “Because of the crime bill,” she said, “anybody that wanted rehabilitation, we could process them and get them a detox bed in a hospital. ” Ms. Brock’s comments underscore a sometimes overlooked reality in today’s of the crime bill: The legislation was broadly embraced by nonwhite voters, more enthusiastically even than by white voters. About 58 percent of nonwhites supported it in 1994, according to a Gallup poll, compared with 49 percent of white voters. Mr. Clinton has seemed rattled at times as he tries to defend the measure to younger in an era in which concerns about mistreatment by the police and mass incarceration have eclipsed the fear of crime in many black communities. And among these younger voters, the Clintons lack the deep admiration that they enjoy from previous generations of . In the Democratic primary contests so far, 92 percent of black voters 65 and older cast ballots for Mrs. Clinton, compared with 45 percent of black voters under age 25, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research. Some and older found themselves siding with Mr. Clinton after his confrontation with the protesters in Philadelphia, which was widely broadcast on television and social media. During the exchange, Mr. Clinton said that the legislation targeted gang leaders “who got children hopped up on crack and sent them out the street to murder other children. ” He then lectured the activists, who support the Black Lives Matter movement: “You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter. ” Roz Rodgers, 55, a community engagement worker from East St. Louis, Ill. said she understood what Mr. Clinton was trying to get across. “All black lives should always matter — that is what Bill Clinton was saying,” Ms. Rodgers said. “It bothered me, the reaction he got. ” About the activists, she said: “This younger generation is more vocal. They are not accepting the rules, regulations and expectations that exist. ” Today’s angry demonstrations over policies make it easy to forget how the former president was hailed two decades ago for taking a stand against gun violence in black communities. An emotional, unscripted speech Mr. Clinton gave in 1993 about the toll of violence on black youth has been called one the best of his presidency. He delivered it from the pulpit of the church in Memphis where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his last sermon. “The other day on the front page of The Washington Post was a story about an child planning her funeral,” Mr. Clinton told the congregation that day, 10 months before he signed the crime bill. “The freedom to die before you’re a teenager is not what Martin Luther King lived and died for. ” Black churchgoers gave him sustained applause and named him an honorary member of their congregation. A columnist in The Washington Post said the speech “embodied what has always been the promise of Clintonism. ” “Only Clinton could say it, and only now,” read a column in The St. Louis . Willie W. Herenton, the first mayor of Memphis, was in the church that day. “It’s easy for people to lose the connection of where we were in 1994 and where we are today,” Mr. Herenton said. The national murder rate hit a high in the early 1990s, disproportionately affecting neighborhoods in major cities. Today, violent crime is down and mistreatment by the police and excessive incarceration have taken center stage in the minds of many younger voters. In 2013, nearly of black men 18 to 34 reported being treated unfairly by the police in the previous 30 days, according to a Gallup survey. That has stirred anger among some young black people, which has crystallized in resentment of the Clintons in this election cycle. Charli Cleland, 24, a student at Brooklyn Law School, said he planned to vote for Senator Bernie Sanders, even though his family has always admired the Clintons. “Growing up, there was always this idea that Bill Clinton was a man for people of color,” he said. “Then this political year comes around, and there is so much being exposed as to what they have said in the past and what kind of bills they have approved in the past. I’m realizing that it’s actually against everything that I initially thought about the Clintons. ” When he watched the exchange in Philadelphia, Mr. Cleland said he viewed Mr. Clinton and his remarks as “paternalistic” and “implicitly racist. ” The interviews with the younger voters reveal a pattern: Not only are they distrustful of the Clintons, but they also appear disillusioned with politics and institutions in a way their parents are not. And they are less interested in gaining approval, especially from white people. “We do not believe that freedom for black Americans will come through politicians,” said Erica Mines, an activist in Philadelphia who demonstrated at Mr. Clinton’s speech alongside Mr. Farmer. “We can no longer rely on the ballot box for our freedom. ” Older generations fought for civil rights “to be accepted into mainstream society,” she said. “But younger folks are saying, ‘I’m not going to fit into that box anymore, or allow society to tell me what I need to be. ’” Mr. Farmer said his mother, who put her faith in the ballot box, the church pulpit and the Clintons, initially found it hard to understand his brand of activism. “She just thinks in a way that is popular of a generation. Go in peace. March. Sing a hymn or two. Don’t do any fighting. Don’t do too much yelling,” said Mr. Farmer, a former Marine. Mr. Farmer and Ms. Mines joined a group called the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice, which believes that only disruptive, direct action can bring about change. On Thursday, members of the group blocked an intersection to push for a $15 minimum wage and other measures. Both he and Ms. Mines were arrested. Mr. Farmer says his mother’s views are changing as she watches his experience. “I was locked up for about 27 hours,” he said. “She was at the precinct when I came out. She gave the police an earful. ” And, in perhaps a more surprising shift, after hearing what Mr. Clinton said in Philadelphia, his mother has decided not to vote for Mrs. Clinton for president, Mr. Farmer said. “She was a Clinton fan,” he said. “She would have voted Clinton automatically. ” | 1 |
“Hillary is a REAL Christian” says Michael Moore Documentary filmmaker thinks criminal Clinton is actually a Christian The Alex Jones Show - October 27, 2016 Comments
Forget those pro-life people, Hillary Clinton, supporter of so-called “partial birth abortion” is the REAL Christian.
The rest of you bitter clingers are hypocrites, says Michael Moore to his liberal Amen-corner. Download on your mobile device now for free. Today on the Show Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars crew. From the store FEATURED VIDEOS Expert: Trump has Already Won Election - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . Democrats Plan To Burn Down U.S. If Trump Elected - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . ILLUSTRATION How much will your healthcare premiums rise in 2017? >25% © 2016 Infowars.com is a Free Speech Systems, LLC Company. All rights reserved. Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice. 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The White House has forbidden members of President Obama’s cabinet to address the Democratic National Convention this month, a stark break from past policy that is intended to avoid the appearance that the administration’s final months are being consumed by the politics of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In 2012, as he campaigned for five members of the president’s cabinet addressed the party convention in Charlotte, N. C. But in issuing the prohibition this year, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, decided to “send a signal about the primacy of the Obama administration’s responsibility to manage the government and serve the American people,” said Jennifer Friedman, the deputy White House press secretary. It is hardly the first judgment that Mr. Obama’s team has had to make about how deeply to get involved as the president takes on an increasingly active role in the raucous campaign to succeed him — decisions that involve not only considerations of policy and appearances, but legal ones, as well. Federal law requires top appointees to carefully separate their official duties from political ones, and those distinctions have taken on added significance this year, given the unusual nature of the race to succeed Mr. Obama. White House officials believe that the campaign presents a particularly tricky set of challenges: a presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, who routinely prompts controversy with his provocative statements and positions a presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Mrs. Clinton, who once served in the administration and has considered several cabinet secretaries as potential running mates and a president who looms over the race. “This is largely an effort to delineate as clearly as possible the public, official governing responsibilities we have at the White House, and separate that from politics,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. Administration officials must walk a fine line, one that sometimes involves hairsplitting differences. Hurling a personal insult at Mr. Trump from a White House lectern? Off limits. But Mr. Earnest can note the many ways in which Mr. Trump’s positions are at odds with the president’s. Headlining a for Mrs. Clinton? No problem for a cabinet secretary, as long as the secretary does not use his or her official title or ask for contributions. The White House counsel, Neil Eggleston, and members of his staff have stepped up their warnings to White House officials and other top administration appointees to exercise care that their political activity stays within the law, which limits the use of official resources for partisan activities. At the same time, lawyers at the Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the federal law that restricts partisan activity by government officials, have increased their investigations of federal employees and have been warning Mr. Obama’s top advisers and appointees to watch what they say and do when it comes to the presidential campaign. The president and vice president are exempt from many of the legal strictures. But even Mr. Obama has taken precautions to separate his role as the head of the Democratic Party from his official duties. When Mr. Obama taped his endorsement video last month for Mrs. Clinton at the White House, it was done in the Map Room — part of the residence, rather than his West Wing offices — and Mr. Earnest was quick to note that it was “not filmed at government expense. ” This week, when Mr. Obama travels to North Carolina for his first campaign appearance with Mrs. Clinton, the cost of the trip on Air Force One will be shared between the White House and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, according to a complicated formula worked out by his legal counsel to comply with federal election law. The risk of ethics breaches is increased by the sheer number of cabinet secretaries active on the campaign trail. A handful have publicly endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and three — Julián Castro of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Thomas E. Perez of the Labor Department and Tom Vilsack of the Agriculture Department — routinely surface on lists of potential candidates. White House officials emphasized that there had been no finding that cabinet secretaries were barred by law from speaking at the convention, although Mr. Obama’s lawyers concluded before the 2012 election that they must not use the title of “secretary” if they did. from the past serve as cautionary tales. In 2012, the Office of Special Counsel concluded that Kathleen Sebelius, then the secretary of health and human services, had violated the Hatch Act — the 1939 law that governs federal employees’ participation in political activity — by making “extemporaneous partisan remarks” during a speech at a gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, in North Carolina. Ms. Sebelius, who asserted that the Democratic lieutenant governor “needs to be the next governor of North Carolina” and that Mr. Obama should be “president for another four years,” later said the comments were an unscripted “mistake. ” A year earlier, the special counsel found that the Office of Political Affairs in George W. Bush’s White House had committed numerous violations of the Hatch Act during the 2006 midterm congressional elections, including by coordinating requests from members of Congress to have cabinet secretaries make campaign appearances in their districts. Mr. Obama shuttered the office, and when it reopened in 2014, his lawyers issued new guidance about how to comply with the law. They have erred on the side of caution ever since, current and former officials said. “They’re pitching a in the ninth inning of the administration, and why screw it up at the end?” said Norman Eisen, a former special counsel for ethics and government reform under Mr. Obama. “Historically, the last months of an administration are a time when people get lazy and things go off the rails, so extra vigilance is called for. ” The Hatch Act, which was enacted after officials in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration were accused of using New Deal programs to sway the outcome of the 1938 congressional elections, is designed to prevent political favoritism and coercion in the administration and ensure that citizens receive the same service from the federal government, no matter their political affiliation. In theory, it means that most federal employees may participate in partisan politics only on their own time — following strict rules — and at their own expense. In practice, it can lead to awkward contortions. Mr. Earnest and other administration press representatives are advised to pivot away from overt questions about partisan politics and stick to “safe zones,” such as what the president himself has said publicly. At the Agriculture Department, Mr. Vilsack requires all political appointees to attend hourlong ethics and legal briefings during the campaign season, and asks agency lawyers to present an “ethics moment” each week to explain the intricacies of the rules, said Matt Herrick, his communications director. When he wrote an opinion article in The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in August endorsing Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Vilsack left out his official title, signing it as the former governor of the state. “With Republicans in control of the House and the Senate, you can bet that the investigative arm will swing into action very quickly if anything is even hinted at being wrong,” said Richard W. Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served as Mr. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007. “The public is very cynical about ethics issues across the board, so anybody in the administration going even close to the line is not going to help Secretary Clinton. ” | 1 |
License DMCA
I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump.
Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks like this is not endeared to the oligarchs.
Who are the oligarchs? -- Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put five banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the federal reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks' balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.
-- The military/security complex which has spent trillions of our taxpayer dollars on 15 years of gratuitous wars based entirely on lies in order to enrich themselves and their power.
-- The neoconservatives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China. - Advertisement -
-- The US global corporations that sent American jobs to China and India and elsewhere in order to enrich the One Percent with higher profits from lower labor costs.
-- Agribusiness (Monsanto et.al.), corporations that poison the soil, the water, the oceans, and our food with their GMOs, hebicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, while killing the bees that pollinate the crops.
-- The extractive industries -- energy, mining, fracking, and timber -- that maximize their profits by destroying the environment and the water supply.
-- The Israel Lobby that controls US Middle East policy and is committing genocide against the Palestinians just as the US committed genocide against native Americans. Israel is using the US to eliminate sovereign countries that stand in Israel's way.
What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes' reporting and the facts on the ground. - Advertisement -
According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote. Hillary has won the election before the vote. Hillary has been declared a 93% sure winner.
I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary's public appearances are unattended but Trump's are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida:
"Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and stickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages."
I know the person who gave me this report and have no doubt whatsoever as to its veracity. | 0 |
Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army commander and Sinn Fein political leader who helped negotiate peace in Northern Ireland after decades of sectarian violence, and became a senior official in its government, died on Tuesday in Derry. He was 66. Sinn Fein said Mr. McGuinness had died after a short illness. When he resigned from the Belfast government in January, The Irish Times reported that he had amyloidosis, a rare condition caused by the abnormal buildup of protein deposits in tissues and organs. In bombings and killings that raged from the 1960s to the ’90s between Protestant and Roman Catholic forces — the Troubles that left 3, 700 dead — Mr. McGuinness was widely believed to have joined, and later directed, terrorist activities. He denied the allegations. His only convictions, in the early ’70s, were for possessing explosives and ammunition and for belonging to the outlawed I. R. A. But in his 40s he evolved into a peacemaker and politician. He was chief negotiator for Sinn Fein, the political arm of the I. R. A. in a complex Good Friday Agreement in 1998, in which Britain, Ireland and the political parties of Northern Ireland created a framework for in Belfast and for eventual resolution of issues like sovereignty, civil rights, disarmament, justice and policing. And on May 8, 2007, a day many thought would never come, the Rev. Ian Paisley, who had founded the Democratic Unionist Party and had long stood for continued Ulster association with Britain, and Mr. McGuinness, who had fought for Ulster’s incorporation into a united Ireland, took oaths as the leader and deputy leader, respectively, of Northern Ireland’s government. As Prime Ministers Tony Blair of Britain and Bertie Ahern of Ireland looked on, the proceedings ended direct British control of Northern Ireland and reinstated home rule for its 1. 8 million people. Legislative power was vested in a Northern Ireland Assembly, and Ulster began a new era in which adversaries pledged to abandon armed struggles and embrace political solutions. The I. R. A. had already destroyed its weapons and given up its clandestine cells, and Sinn Fein (pronounced ) had endorsed a reconstituted Ulster police force, which it had regarded for decades as an arm of British and Protestant repression. Left unresolved was whether Northern Ireland would ever be reunited with the predominantly Catholic Irish Republic. The Good Friday Agreement provided that that could happen only with the consent of Northern Ireland, and it made it likely that Ulster and its Protestant majority would remain in perpetuity — along with the legacies of killings and religious enmities. Once banned from entering Britain, Mr. McGuinness won a seat in the House of Commons in London ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Ireland in 2011 visited prime ministers several times at 10 Downing Street met Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama at the White House and shook hands twice with Queen Elizabeth II. “This is the side of his political life that McGuinness wants the Irish people to remember: the reformed man, the young, hotheaded idealist who learned the error of his ways and forged peace, an achievement that still wins him plaudits from around the world,” the British magazine New Statesman said in 2011. “To some in Ireland he is a hero — a man who stood up for the oppressed, who fought the British. To others, he was, is and will always be a criminal. ” James Martin Pacelli McGuinness was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, on May 23, 1950, one of seven children of William and Peggy McGuinness, a Catholic family that shared two bedrooms and an outdoor toilet in the crowded slum of Bogside, a setting for much violence during the Troubles. His father worked in an iron foundry, and his mother in a shirt factory. The parents attended Mass and took communion daily, and they gathered their six sons and daughter nightly for a recitation of the rosary. Martin was a bright, eager boy who loved the poems of W. B. Yeats and played chess, but he failed the 11 Plus exams in his last year in grade school. So instead of getting an academic education, he went to a Christian Brothers technical school, where the boys were beaten. He quit school at 15 and became a butcher’s assistant. Like many Bogside youths, he joined the lionized I. R. A. and was a gunman at 18. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Bogside was a war zone of hatred and revenge. youths were beaten by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. There were riots and protests. Two boys were shot dead by British soldiers in 1971. The Provisional I. R. A. the more militant successor to the I. R. A. launched ferocious counterattacks. Arson fires burned 100 shops, and snipers killed 26 British soldiers in Derry alone in 1971 and ’72. Mr. McGuinness was second in command of the Derry I. R. A. on Bloody Sunday, the grim day in 1972 when British troops fired on unarmed civilians staging a peaceful protest against the British practice of internment without trials. Fourteen people were killed in what became known as the Bogside Massacre. In 1973 and 1974, Mr. McGuinness was imprisoned twice, for possession of a car filled with explosives and ammunition, and for his acknowledged membership in the illegal I. R. A. In 1974, he married Bernadette Canning. They had four children: daughters Grainne and Fionnuala, and sons Fiachra and Emmet. There was no immediate word on his survivors. From the late 1970s to the ’80s, Mr. McGuinness was widely assumed to be the I. R. A. ’s chief of staff. Hundreds of people were killed by the I. R. A. in that period, including the queen’s cousin Earl Mountbatten, whose fishing boat exploded off County Sligo in 1979. Many I. R. A. attacks also occurred in England, including a bombing at a Brighton hotel in 1984 that killed five people and was intended to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Mr. McGuinness was accused of participating in or plotting crimes. Television documentaries and news and magazine articles linked him to murders of informers and bombings that killed scores. He and Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein’s president, reportedly concluded in the early 1990s that militance was not advancing their aims. in 1994 and 1997 ensued, and talks led to the peace accords. Mr. McGuinness was minister of education in an interim government from 1999 to 2002. Elected to the House of Commons in London in 1997, he was in 2001, 2005 and 2010 and served until 2013. A biography, “Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government,” by Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston, appeared in 2001. As senior officials of Northern Ireland, he and Mr. Paisley became friends of sorts. When Mr. Paisley retired in 2008, Mr. McGuinness gave him a Seamus Heaney poem. After a decade as deputy first minister, Mr. McGuinness resigned in January for health reasons, prompting a snap election in which Sinn Fein made major gains and nearly overtook the Democratic Unionists as the largest party in the regional assembly. “He retires without his dream of a united Ireland being fulfilled during his tenure,” Daniel McConnell, political editor of The Irish Examiner, wrote. “But his contribution to peace on this island will be long remembered. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — When President Trump’s new Middle East envoy began haggling over the details of an agreement with Israel to curb construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, they turned to a politically improbable adviser: Yael Lempert, a diplomat who worked on the issue in Barack Obama’s White House. When Mr. Trump met with the leaders of Japan, Britain and Canada, he included Thomas A. Shannon Jr. another career diplomat, who rose to the No. 3 post in Mr. Obama’s State Department. And when Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson traveled to Turkey this past week to rally support for the military campaign against the Islamic State, he took along Brett H. McGurk, who coordinated that effort as Mr. Obama’s special envoy. These diplomats are part of a rare cohort in the Trump administration: holdovers from the Obama years, whose skills, knowledge and bureaucratic finesse have enabled them to survive, even thrive, in an administration determined to purge all vestiges of its predecessor. Anytime there is a change in administrations, career government officials face a tricky transition. But that process has been particularly difficult under Mr. Trump, because of the insurgent nature of his campaign and his deep suspicion of the permanent bureaucracy. While these diplomats have held on through multiple transfers of power in Washington, navigating this new administration poses special challenges. Ms. Lempert has come under fire from people on the Israeli right, who accuse her of continuing to push Mr. Obama’s policies. And Mr. Shannon’s ability to get along with Mr. Trump’s inner circle has rankled some in the State Department, which has become a hotbed of dissent against the new president and his policies. “They’re relying on these people for sheer expertise,” said Elliott Abrams, a Republican elder who was briefly considered for the post of deputy secretary of state. “But there is a danger here. You have to make a judgment about whether the career person was so embedded in the previous administration that they need to go immediately. ” The status of Obama holdovers remains a source of tension within the National Security Council. Since the inauguration in January, Mr. Trump’s aides have pushed to get rid of many of them, in part because they question whether people who worked for Mr. Obama can be loyal to Mr. Trump. It is unclear whether the new national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, is resisting these efforts, though he has made a point of meeting with the career staff. The problem is compounded by severe delays at the White House in filling jobs. So far, it has nominated people for only 43 of 553 key executive branch positions, according to a tally by the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. The delays are particularly acute in the national security field, where the White House is confronting crises like the military campaign against the Islamic State. Even before his secretary of state, Mr. Tillerson, was confirmed, Mr. Trump had signed an executive order barring visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries and moved to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The travel ban thrust Mr. Shannon, whose title is under secretary of state for political affairs but who was then serving as acting secretary of state, into an awkward spot. The White House barely consulted the State Department before issuing the order, and it relied on Mr. Shannon to rally his colleagues — many of whom bitterly opposed the order — to enforce it. White House officials, some of whom had expected the State Department to actively undermine the president, said they were surprised by the speed with which it issued instructions to consular offices worldwide. They credit Mr. Shannon, 59, with overseeing that response. “He was a rock” that weekend, said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist. “Really came to the forefront with leadership, judgment and class. Folks think very highly of him. ” Mr. Shannon also stood in for Mr. Tillerson in the president’s meetings with Prime Ministers Theresa May of Britain, Shinzo Abe of Japan and Justin Trudeau of Canada. At the news conferences in the East Room after those meetings, he was the lone outsider who sat with Mr. Bannon and other members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. In all these cases, Mr. Shannon said, he was simply doing his job as a Foreign Service officer. “We take an oath to the Constitution, and that Constitution is all about respect for our laws and for the will of our people,” he said. “We have to respect the decision of the American people. ” A veteran of the Foreign Service, Mr. Shannon served in the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, where he became a favorite of Mr. Bush’s secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. He also served as assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs under Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama, a job in which he won the trust of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “I am not the least bit surprised he is one of the last men standing,” said Daniel Restrepo, a former senior director in the National Security Council who worked with Mr. Shannon. “He’s both an effective diplomat and an effective bureaucrat, with an agreeable personality. ” Arturo Valenzuela, who succeeded him as assistant secretary, noted that Mr. Shannon was a fan of Nascar. That helps give him a common touch, which Mr. Valenzuela said might appeal to the people in Mr. Trump’s circle, even though he has a doctorate in history from Oxford. Certainly, Mr. Shannon has built bridges to Mr. Tillerson, who recently asked him to stay on as under secretary, traditionally the post for a career diplomat. For Ms. Lempert, who has been posted to Jerusalem and advised Mrs. Clinton’s cabinet successor, John Kerry, on his dealings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the appeal to Mr. Trump’s advisers was her experience in the complex, world of negotiations. Her colleagues say she is well connected on both sides and is viewed as an honest broker (though in Israel, critics fault her for what they say was her role in Mr. Obama’s campaign to pressure Mr. Netanyahu to freeze settlements). As it happens, Mr. Trump — through his special envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt — is now pushing the Israeli leader to slow down construction as well. And Mr. Greenblatt, a lawyer who worked for the Trump Organization and has no experience in Middle East diplomacy, decided to keep Ms. Lempert on to advise him on the ins and outs of that negotiation. Ms. Lempert, who is Jewish and also served in the Bush administration, played a major role in negotiating a $38 billion military aid package for Israel on behalf of the Obama administration. Still, after reports surfaced that Mr. Netanyahu’s aides were suspicious of her involvement in the talks, the prime minister’s office felt obliged to issue a statement saying it had no objection to her. Mr. Greenblatt, in a statement, said, “I have been ably supported by the extremely officials at the National Security Council (including N. S. C. Senior Director Yael Lempert). ” She declined to comment, as did colleagues from the Obama administration. Some said they worried that praise from them would hurt her with her new bosses. A few of Mr. McGurk’s former colleagues demurred from commenting for the same reason. But of all the Obama holdovers, he has had perhaps the smoothest transition. In part, that is because Mr. McGurk, 43, has been working on Iraq and related issues through three administrations. He also clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, which Republicans view as a valuable credential. This past week, he was at Mr. Tillerson’s side in the Turkish capital, Ankara, advising him on the bewildering politics of the coalition against the Islamic State. The United States plans to use a combined force of Arab and Kurdish forces to mount an assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State stronghold in Syria. But the Turks, who are fighting Kurdish militants at home, are balking because they view the Kurdish units as terrorists. Mr. McGurk organized a recent meeting of coalition members in Washington. In addition to his network of contacts in the region, he has forged close ties to the Pentagon, including to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. “By virtue of his experience, he has almost knowledge,” said Peter D. Feaver, who worked with Mr. McGurk in the National Security Council. “In Brett’s case, he has proven he can be a loyal team player on very different teams. ” | 1 |
A small percentage of these weapons of mass destruction is sufficient to destroy the world for centuries, as depicted in the film, Planet Of The Apes.
Russia Insider : Paul Craig Roberts: ‘ Putin’s Nukes Could Wipe Out Entire East Coast ‘ (PODCAST) If the US thinks it can continually transgress against Russia until Moscow gives in, it is gravely mistaken
Suffice to say, though children are at play, this is not a game.
Those who have been toying with outright war against Russia, and an escalation of the conflict in Syria, are putting the lives of all Americans at risk.
Of course, the threat of nuclear annihilation has been with us since the earliest days of the Cold War, but Russia has now positioned itself with the largest and most destructive nuclear arsenal of any country in the world.
Economist and political critic Dr. Paul Craig Roberts explains how diplomatic relations have broken between Russia and the United States, after the U.S. knowingly attacked pro-Assad Syria forces… that, of course, was the cherry on top of a host of insults, deliberate antagonism and a strategy that could only result in further chaos and war .
The end of negotiations is unfortunately, given that fighting it out could mean thermonuclear war that would make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look trivial in comparison.
After a period of some patience, Russia is now warning that the United States is dangerously close to turning a proxy war into a direct world war – and they are deadly serious about defending the motherland and their sworn allies – namely Assad.
Any further attack could result in immediate destruction.
Putin is a formidable opponent and Russia a powerful enemy. At present time, they have the capability of wiping the entire East Coast of the United States off the map – where more than 100 million people live. Will the ranking misleaders in Washington continue to gamble with all of our lives?
via the Express : VLADIMIR Putin’s nuclear stockpile could completely destroy the east coast of the US in one clean swipe should the Russian leader launch an attack on the West, an expert has warned. A staggering 112.6million people could be at risk of extermination from the deadly missiles. Russia has the largest haul of nuclear weapons of any country in the world and reportedly has the most powerful bomb named the SS-18 – menacingly nicknamed the Satan. Experts estimate Russia has 55 of the deadly weapons, but only five would be needed to destroy the East Coast of the US. […] “Five or six of these ‘Satans’ as they are known by the US military, and the East Coast of the United States disappears.” Dr Roberts said: “The atomic bombs that Washington dropped on these helpless civilian centres while the Japanese government was trying to surrender, were mere popguns compared to today’s thermo-nuclear weapons.
What’s more, the Russian have hinted strongly at the possibility that they would be able to disable electronics, communications and defense shields in the U.S. via electromagnetic warfare – perhaps an EMP .
Worst of all, the American misleaders haven’t even got a good reason for putting the population at such a risk – strategy in the middle east is muddied at best, and prodding for war with Russia doesn’t carry a clear narrative either.
The world could change, and American power could end in a few decisive minutes. Hopefully it would never come to that, but we shouldn’t live in a false world where we pretend these situations can’t harm us. | 0 |
Leaked funding documents reveal an effort by George Soros and his foundations to manipulate election laws and process rules ahead of the federal election far more expansively than has been previously reported.
The billionaire and convicted felon moved hundreds of millions of dollars into often-secret efforts to change election laws, fuel litigation to attack election integrity measures, push public narratives about voter fraud, and to integrate the political ground game of the left with efforts to scare racial minority groups about voting rights threats.
These Soros-funded efforts moved through dozens of 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) charities and involved the active compliance with civil rights groups, government officials, and purportedly non-partisan groups like the League of Women Voters.
The leaked documents also reveal deliberate and successful efforts to manipulate media coverage of election issues in mainstream media outlets like the The New York Times.
Conservatives and Republicans have no opposing effort or source of funds that represents even a small fraction in opposition to level of the Soros-led manipulation contained in the leaked documents.
The documents reveal that the Soros campaign fueled litigation attacking election integrity measures, such as citizenship verification and voter ID. It funded long-term efforts to fundamentally transform election administration — including the creation of databases that were marketed to state governments for use in voter verification. It propped up left-leaning media to attack reports of voter fraud, and conducted racially and ideologically targeted voter registration drives.
The racially targeted voter registration drives were executed at the same time Soros dollars were funding other public relations efforts to polarize racial minority groups by scaring them about the loss of voting rights and the dangers of police officers.
The Soros documents reveal hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into the effort to transform the legal and media environment touching on elections. One document notes that poverty-alleviation programs are being de-emphasized for this new effort. It states: “George Soros has authorized U.S. Programs to propose a budget of $320 million over two years, with the understanding that the annual budget for U.S. Programs will be $150 million beginning in 2013.”
Source
| 0 |
SHARIA IN AMERICA? How Minneapolis Muslims Are Still Being Recruited By Terrorists Barracuda Brigade 2016-11-23 Print I truly hope that Trump keeps his promise to keep Muslims out of our country… 100percentfedUp : Isolation of the Somali Muslim community AND teaching Sharia law in Muslim schools in Minneapolis are the two main reasons why we should still fear their recruitment to terrorism. Assimilation hasn’t happened and that’s a HUGE problem! Pete Hegseth goes to “Little Mogadishu” and finds out that many Somali Muslims don’t speak English and that they actually teach Sharia law in school but not sure about American law. This all goes back to the REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM and the HUGE problem with bringing over 3 million MOSTLY Muslims to the U.S. in the past 30 years. We need to take a look at defunding this program because it’s ballooned way past what it was originally intended to be.
IS THIS HAPPENING IN YOUR TOWN? HERE’S THE LOWDOWN ON THE REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD HEAR: Related | 0 |
Friday, 28 October 2016 Space station Time Channel reporter Kurt Walker
Comcast the communications giant will be debuting the time channel on its generic package featuring a collection of globally placed reporters that will be constantly updating times from every location on the planet.
Some will be embedded with troops in war ravaged middle east, some will be found holding onto a palm tree during a punishing Caribbean hurricane. Some will be about to crest the summit of MT. Everest.
Where ever and whenever 24 7 365 viewers can tune in to find rapid fire 5 second live updates from absolutely everywhere including the space station.
The fast paced action will be anchored from a studio in New York where two hosts will alternately update the time to the second while dozens of digital clocks labeled with foreign cities will change each and every second as the whirlwind of time swiftly moves forth.
"Some day when time ends" said Biggy Bigelow chairman of Comcast "we will be there to report it". Make thomas o'hanlon's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 0 |
in: Natural Medicine Bitter melon is a fruit that grows abundantly in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Traditionally it has been used to treat diabetes and other more mild diseases or illnesses. More recently, bitter melon juice was shown to kill pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in mice in a study done by the University of Colorado. Considering the results were seen in both in vitro and in vivo tests, the effectiveness of bitter melon juice in treating pancreatic cancer, and potentially other cancers, at a clinical level are promising.[ 1 ] “IHC analyses of MiaPaCa-2 xenografts showed that BMJ (Bitter Melon Juice) also inhibits proliferation, induces apoptosis and activates AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) in vivo . Overall, BMJ exerts strong anticancer efficacy against human pancreatic carcinoma cells, both in vitro and in vivo , suggesting its clinical usefulness.” Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat due to the fact that it is often discovered late, leaving very little time to treat. Since traditional therapies (chemotherapy, radiation, surgery etc) were not showing promising results and littler advancement was being made, researchers have been looking elsewhere to find treatment. Interestingly, cannabis, specifically cannabinoids, have been shown to induce apoptic (programmed) death of human pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and stop pancreatic tumor growth in vivo.[ 4 ] Cannabis is perhaps one of the most popular treatments being aggressively pursued right now given its promising results both in labs and anecdotally. Many cancerous tumors have insulin receptors which move glucose to cancer cells helping them to grow and divide. Studies have shown that insulin encourages pancreatic cancer cells to grow in a dose dependant manner, since bitter melon has been shown to help regulate insulin levels, this could help prevent pancreatic cancer over the long-term. The Colorado University study was led by Dr. Rajesh Agarwal. They examined effects of bitter melon on 4 different lines of pancreatic cancer cells (in vitro) and in mice. For the in vivo studies, mice were injected with pancreatic tumor cells and were randomly divided into one of two groups. One group of mice received water, which was the control group, and the other group was given bitter melon juice for six weeks. [6] Researchers studied the tumors at the end of the study and results showed that bitter melon juice not only inhibited cancer cell proliferation but also induced apoptosis (programmed cell death). Compared to the control, tumor growth was inhibited by 60% in the treatment group and there were no signs of toxicity or negative effects on the body. With toxicity and negative effects being a huge role in traditional mainstream treatments, this was positive to see. Diabetes A number of clinical studies have been conducted to evaluate the efficacy of bitter melon for treating diabetes. Since it is believed that diabetes is a precursor for pancreatic cancer, researchers felt bitter melon could treat diabetes as well after seeing pancreatic cancer results. In 2011, results of a four week long clinical trial were published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology that showed modest hypoglycemic effects and significant fructosamine management for those taking 2000mg/day of bitter melon. As published by the study: “Bitter melon had a modest hypoglycemic effect and significantly reduced fructosamine levels from baseline among patients with type 2 diabetes who received 2,000 mg/day. However, the hypoglycemic effect of bitter melon was less than metformin 1,000 mg/day.”[ 3 ] Another study published in 2008 in the international journal Chemistry and Biology indicated that compounds in bitter melon improved glycemic control, helped cells uptake glucose and improved overall glucose tolerance. This study was done in mice and led to promising advancements in treating diabetes and obesity with bitter melon.[ 4 ] In contrast, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology in 2007 did not show significant benefit of the treatment of diabetes by bitter melon but 2 years later in the British Journal of Nutrition it was stated that “more, better-designed and clinical trials are required to confirm the fruit’s role in diabetes treatment.” Since that 2007 study, more studies have been done to show beneficial effects which perhaps was a result of better design. Conclusion When it comes to bitter melon juice, the current research available is showing strong results for specific types of cancer cell destruction, diabetes treatment and potential prevention of pancreatic cancer. Further research and clinical trials would be helpful to better understand how effective this plant can be and in what specific cases. It remains a very promising option that could be explored under the correct supervision. Other Uses of Bitter Melon Bitter melon has been used as a traditional medicine for a long time. It has been used to treat: colic, fever, burns, chronic cough, painful menstruation and skin conditions.[ 5 ] | 0 |
Picture it: Manhattan, 2017. A crisp Saturday morning. Every table in Rue La Rue Cafe — a new restaurant in Washington Heights dedicated to Rue McClanahan and her hit television series, “The Golden Girls” — was occupied, including one in a replica of the kitchen set from the show. The pumps Ms. McClanahan (Blanche) wore in the pilot episode are displayed in a glass case. Mannequins draped in her gowns surrounded a pianist and guitarist playing mellow jazz on a corner stage. Behind them, on a pedestal, was her 1987 Emmy for lead actress. When the musicians took a break, a mounted television was turned up so customers could watch episodes that play steadily. Conversation happily quieted as Bea Arthur (Dorothy) and Hal Linden were heard saying good night after a date. “This is a museum!” said a woman in line to order. From behind the counter, the Michael J. LaRue, replied, “It’s a museum with good food. ” Few series radiate the necessary warmth to justify a tribute restaurant, but “The Golden Girls,” that enduring electric blanket of American television, is a part of the culture that people have held tight. It has been 25 years since the end of the sitcom about four older Miami housemates — Dorothy, the salty wit Rose (Betty White) the lovable dim bulb Sophia (Estelle Getty) the Italian spitfire and Blanche, the Southern vixen — but fans keep finding new ways to love it, with countless parodies, action figures and and Hulu’s recent nabbing of exclusive streaming rights. For all the show’s zany plots, what fans seem to cherish most are the intimate scenes in which the four friends sit around their kitchen table, sharing a cheesecake and talking into the night. That spirit has now become a guiding force for Mr. LaRue, 53, who owns the restaurant with Ms. McClanahan’s son, Mark Bish. Mr. LaRue first met Ms. McClanahan at an animal rights charity event at Studio 54. They quickly became best friends, he said, and she repeatedly asked him, in jest, to marry her so she could be Rue LaRue. When Ms. McClanahan died in 2010, he became the executor of her estate, which includes an extensive personal archive that Ms. McClanahan wanted made available to her fans. “A little voice in my head said, ‘Restaurant! ’” Mr. LaRue said during a recent interview. A resident of Washington Heights, he had no other neighborhood in mind for the new spot. “Before, we’d have to go downtown for good food and live entertainment,” he said. “I want people to stay in the neighborhood, and if they don’t live here, to come uptown. ” Construction on the space, formerly a pet store, lasted nearly a year. The bathroom was outfitted to match the show’s pink and mint tiles, with a bawdy door Ms. McClanahan had designed for her California house. The banana leaf Martinique wallpaper on two walls was to match its exact look in Blanche’s bedroom. CHOCnyc, an Inwood bakery, created a cheesecake in honor of each Girl, and the Bronx Brewery provided two custom beers. The menu, from Michele Weber, formerly the chef at Good Enough to Eat, will feature nods to the show — lasagna al forno, Genügenflürgen cake — and recipes shared by the cast: Ms. Arthur’s chutney, Ms. White’s angel food cake, Ms. Getty’s pasta salad. There are also signature coffee blends: Sophia’s “Picture It” Sicilian Roast (inspired by a favorite line of the character) Rose’s St. Olaf blend, Dorothy’s Roast, and, for a little spice, Blanche’s Gentlemen Caller’s Beans. “My grandma loved the show,” said Patrick Rickerfor, 41, who was making his fourth visit to Rue La Rue. “She was from Honduras and didn’t understand English all that well, but she got the slapstick comedy. ” Ana Perez, 28, was back for the second day in a row. “I’m a Blanche,” she admitted proudly. Anabel Perez, 23, her sister, said, “I’m a Dorothy. ” “And we’ve got a little Sophia over there,” Ana added, gesturing to their young cousin, buried in a game on her smartphone. “It was my favorite show growing up. That episode where Mario Lopez got deported makes me cry. ” Junko (a Sophia) and Paul Lindberg (a Rose) were when they noticed that the cafe had opened. They threw their bags down at home and raced over. “We used to walk by here every day, thinking, ‘When’s it going to open? ’” Ms. Lindberg said. “My mom in Japan keeps asking me, ‘Is that cafe open yet? ’” Bix Gabriel, from Bloomington, Ind. and her sister Marisa Gabriel, from Adelaide, Australia, overheard talk of the place in an Ethiopian restaurant a few nights earlier and frantically Googled. “We sang the theme song coming in,” Bix Gabriel said. “The show was so progressive and ahead of its time,” Joe Samalian, Ms. Gabriel’s husband, added. “It passes the Bechdel test like you wouldn’t believe. ” “I must say,” Marisa Gabriel said, leaning in, “‘The Golden Girls’ is the best cure for postpartum depression. I have two children, and I watched it each time, and it helped me immensely. ” Mr. LaRue echoed a similar sentiment: “I know people who put on ‘Golden Girls’ DVDs the way others take a Valium. ” One of the walls features photographs of Ms. McClanahan’s six husbands, while another is dedicated to Ms. White, the last surviving Girl, who hopes to get to Rue La Rue in the spring. Near the end of Ms. McClanahan’s life, Ms. White sent her a fresh orchid every week, as well as pears and oranges from California. “She would call and say, ‘Can I talk to Ruesy? ’” Mr. LaRue recalled. “One day, right before the stroke, do you know what they were talking about? Ryan Reynolds. Betty was in that movie ‘The Proposal,’ and Rue’s in the hospital, like, ‘Who’s that young man? He’s delicious.’ She was up until the last minute of her life. ” Mr. LaRue is full of these stories, and happy to share them. “She sewed for me, she baked for me,” he said. “My mother died when I was 8 years old. I had this hole in my being that I didn’t even realize. ” A sidewalk plaque at the entrance bears Ms. McClanahan’s name and the opening lyrics of the show’s theme song, “Thank You for Being a Friend. ” Some of her ashes are buried underneath. “There’s never a time when ‘The Golden Girls’ is not playing on this globe,” Mr. LaRue said. “It taps into something that we all share as human beings — a fear that as we age we’re going to become irrelevant and alone. The show is a tonic for that fear. It says you can still look good and have sex and have a very full life, with friends. ” “I once asked Rue why she got married so often, and she said, ‘I don’t want to die alone,’” he recalled. “And she didn’t I was there, holding her. I was able to look in her eyes and tell her, ‘Everything’s going to be O. K. you have nothing to worry about. ’” He smiled, suddenly teary. “I still miss her. ” Looking around the cafe, he added, “But she would love this. ” On the television, Ms. McClanahan, Ms. Arthur and Ms. White sang “Mr. Sandman” to lull a baby to sleep. Patrons, seeking shelter from the cold, happily watched. The baby quieted, and the Girls tried to tiptoe off. He cried, and they started up again. They sang until he slept. | 1 |
Parkinson’s Disease and the Uric Acid Sweet Spot VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
The link between Parkinson’s and dairy may not just be explained by the pesticides and lactose. Close Transcript Transcript: Parkinson’s Disease and the Uric Acid Sweet Spot
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s. Characterized by a slowness of movement, rigidity, tremor, and stooping posture that all gets worse and worse—and, there’s also non-movement symptoms, like cognitive impairment, sleep, smell, and mood disturbances, as the disease spreads to other areas of the brain.
The cause of Parkinson’s is perhaps one of the most important questions posed by the science of aging. For example, why is the consumption of dairy products associated with increased risk for Parkinson’s? Maybe, because they contribute to “our exposure to pesticides and other neurotoxins,” like dieldrin, which continues to be found in the autopsied brains of Parkinson’s victims—even though it was banned decades ago. But, it lingers in the environment, and we continue to be exposed to the pesticide through contaminated dairy, and other animal products.
It’s “unlikely to be due to milk compounds such as calcium,…D,…fat, or…protein,” since there’s no association with Parkinson’s when they’re “derived from other sources.” It could be the milk sugar, though (lactose), accounting for the increased risk of death and bone fractures, as well as Parkinson’s, and earlier onset Huntington’s disease.
But, there’s a third possibility, as well. Milk lowers uric acid levels, and uric acid may be protective against Huntington’s, and also slow the decline of Parkinson’s—and, most importantly, may lower the risk of getting Parkinson’s in the first place, thought to be because uric acid is an important antioxidant in the brain, something we’ve known for over thirty years now.
This can be shown directly in human nerve cells in a petri dish. Add the pesticide rotenone, and oxidative stress shoots up. Add the pro-oxidant homocysteine, and it goes up even more. But, add some uric acid, and it completely suppresses the oxidative stress caused by the pesticide.
But, drinking milk has a uric acid-lowering effect, citing this study, describing it as “[A] cute effect of milk.” But it turned out to be just a cute typo. An “Acute effect of milk on uric acid levels” in the blood. Drink cow’s milk, and uric acid levels drop 10% within hours. Drink soy milk, and they go up 10% within hours. Now, for the painful arthritic disease, gout, which is caused by too much uric acid, the uric acid-lowering effect of dairy is a good thing.
But, uric acid is a double-edged sword. If our uric acid levels are too high, we can get gout. But, if they’re too low, it may increase our risk of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and MS. Here’s the five-year risk of gout in men for various uric acid levels. If our uric acid is over 10, we have a 30% chance of suffering an attack of gout within the next five years, whereas at levels under 7, our risk is less than 1%.
So, it might make sense to have levels as high as possible, without going over 7, to protect the brain, without risking our joints. But, having excessive uric acid in the blood puts more than just our joints in jeopardy. Yes, having too low levels may increase our risk of MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even cancer—but, having too high levels may increase our risk of gout, kidney, and heart disease.
So, having a uric acid level over 7 isn’t just associated with an increased risk of gout, but an increased risk of dying from all causes. But, having a low uric acid level may also shorten our lifespan by increasing mortality. High uric acid is associated with increased risk of death from heart disease, but low uric acid is associated with increased risk of fatal stroke, for example. So, keeping uric acid at optimum levels—the sweet spot between 5 and 7—may protect the brain in more ways than one.
If you measure the uric acid levels in those with Parkinson’s, they come in down around here, which can explain why dairy consumption may increase risk for Parkinson’s, because milk pushes uric acid levels down. Dairy may also explain the differences in uric acid levels between meat-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. If you plot men out, vegans are significantly higher than vegetarians—presumably because they don’t drink milk, with those eating meat and milk somewhere in between. Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Lactose and Parkinson’s? See Could Lactose Explain the Milk – Parkinson’s Disease Link? .
Uric acid as an antioxidant? I’ve touched on that before in Miocene Meteorites and Uric Acid .
If levels are too high, consider cutting down on Flesh and Fructose and eating cherries (see Gout Treatment with a Cherry on Top and Treating Gout with Cherry Juice ). Check out Preventing Gout Attacks with Diet .
Can a plant-based diet be used to treat Parkinson’s? See Treating Parkinson’s Disease With Diet . Any plant foods in particular that may help? Try nightshade veggies: Peppers and Parkinson’s: The Benefits of Smoking Without the Risks?
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here . To post comments or questions into our discussion board, first log into Disqus with your NutritionFacts.org account or with one of the accepted social media logins. Click on Login to choose a login method. Click here for help. Comment Etiquette Joe Caner
I have an uncle with Parkinson’s and diabetes. It is a terribly debilitating disease. It is very frustrating for him. He is there, but has been slowly loosing his ability to communicate coherently. It is difficult to see this once witty, cosmopolitan and articulate man become a prisoner within his own body. The last time I saw him he offered me ice cream. There were several gallons of the stuff in their freezer, and he scooped out a large bowl with several different varieties for himself. My aunt told me that is all he wants to eat now a days. I declined telling him I no longer eat animal products. I told him that he would do well to adopt the same eating pattern. One of my cousins told me don’t bother because he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, and that it would be a shame to deprive him of one of his last pleasures. It is very sad. WFPBRunner
I’ve been there. I had a patient who weighed 250 and Parkinson’s. I explained to the family that if he lost weight he would get around a lot better. They said the same thing. We feel so bad for him that we give him treats. After busting them many times they finally got the message. He got down to 160 and his medication was decreased. He was able to get around much better-even able to take long walks without assistant. Food and our attachments are a funny thing. Thea
Joe Caner: I’m sorry to hear about your uncle. It can be so heart breaking to see loved ones making these types of decisions. My heart goes out to you. Blair Rollin
I think , when they get to that point, they’re not really enjoying life anyway. Food consumption is the last bit of control they have in their lives. Eating fat and refined sugar is probably one of the few happinesses that they can even experience. My friend eats, and always has, a diet of mostly processed meats and dairy. “Very few vegetables.” He went on bp meds when he was 40, suffers debilitating gout and is in terrible health. When I suggest to him that his health problems are due to his diet and he should switch to a vegan diet his response is, “You have to die, right?”. I think this is a common attitude. Most of the diet related health problems manifest gradually and are confused with normal aging. They suffer from health hopelessness and can’t even remember what it was like to be healthy. Rachel
To Joe and everyone who responded to Joe: I, too, have watched loved ones succumb to the chronic diseases of our times and die slow painful deaths. It is painful for us, the living, as well. And hopeless feeling. But this is also why those of us on this site need to stay the course and show others that the fates of our loved ones do not have to be our fate too. I hold my good health (63, BMI 21, no meds, no diseases, no doctors necessary) out as an example of what we CAN have as we age if we so choose. I try not to miss an opportunity to tell people, when they ask me about my WFPB diet, about the diabetes, blindness, cancer in my family and how my lack of those diseases in myself is no mistake. Every day I get to be an example to my community of the good health anyone can also have. But this topic intersects with another larger topic and that is ObamaCare. We are all paying gigantic insurance premiums – including myself – to pay for the ill health of those we love and are ill. The meat and dairy industry continues to cost us all. So I try to not miss an opportunity to delicately remind the curious of that fact – especially those who complain about the high cost of insurance. Because it isn’t the high cost of insurance that is the problem. It is the high cost of medical treatment for a very sick society. It took many years to get the word out about the cigarette industry. It will take decades on this topic as well. But each day we can all take great pride in honoring our loved ones by standing – and eating – for good health in their names and memories. That is the only way that I can deal with the pain of missing those I still love so much. Thea
Rachel: Nice. Thank you for your thoughts. susan
Beautifully said Rachel, thank you Toni Aparici Galindo
How do i raise uric acid, i’m vegan and i have it in 3,77 mg/dl. I suppose i need to increase the protein intake by consuming more beans? lemonhead
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/apple-juice-may-be-worse-than-sugar-water/ Toni Aparici Galindo
I eat at least 5 pieces of fruit a day. Very complex science nutrition. I,m 35 may be you get more uric acid as you get old, so my levels are normal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12242321 Don Forrester MD-NF Moderator
I wouldn’t go out of my way to increase uric acid levels. Lifestyle practices associated with elevated uric acid levels (e.g. alcohol, increased body fat, meat, fish, shellfish, low fiber, low folate, low physical activity) are on balance more harmful. There is no association of increased uric acid with consumption of animal or plant protein or purine rich vegetables (e.g. asparagus, cauliflower, peas). Keep up with NF.org as the science keeps coming! Have a happy holiday season. HaltheVegan
In the graph shown in the video, it looks like soy milk raises uric acid levels at least for a few hours after drinking it. If one has slightly low uric acid (4.5 mg/dl), would it be advisable to drink some soy milk to raise it to the 5 to 7 mg/dl range suggested in the video? (PS, I’m WFPB and do moderate exercise. ) David J
Coffee and supplemental C lower uric acid, so you might want to avoid those. susan
Very interesting video. I went searching for info about the connection between heart disease and uric acid levels. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/472684_3 According to this link women are at mant times greater risk of death due to ischemic heart disease when uric acid levels rise above 7.0 … 300% greater risk for women (!!!) vs 77% for men. How is it that this is not even mentioned by doctors? even when I suffered gout one summer, the doctor laughed and said I was hardly henry the Vlll type being fit and slim, and said, ‘next time, dont suffer, come in and get meds’
My question is, is the connection to heart, kidney, and other diseases in fact weak, and if not why are doctors not mentioning this as a matter of course to patients? George
It’s impossible to have percentages over 100% because then everyone would have it! Basic level statistics susan
hi George, thanks, I just took it from the medscape page.. so it could be written, 0.77 vs 3.0 ? anyway the fact remains that women are at high risk of cvd with elevated uric acid levels independent of other factors. And, I wonder if family members suffering gout increases risk ? I have to look into this more John
George, it’s about risk. If one way you had 10% risk, then you changed something and now your risk is 30%, you had 300% of the risk you had before. John S susan
yes, thank you John for your comments. I find this and related topics so interesting. I have been viewing the other videos linked under Doctors notes having to do with uric acid levels, diet as in cause and treatment etc. Dr Forrester posted some causes of elevated uric acid levels above, but in my case (I dont drink etc) they say my one gout attack could be dehydration related since I joined the running club that year. In any event, once was enough! Here today reading about parkinson’s and other devestating diseases, I have to agree with Rachel that in going forward the thing to do is stay informed and be the best example we can be. John
They probably don’t know. The majority of their continuing education is paid for by Big Pharma. WHy would Big Pharma care about that? John S
Hello, so would ghee (clarified butter) have any effect on uric acid? George
M. D.: The only dairy product I consume is 1 tsp of ghee a day, which is the only thing that keeps me from having to deal with dry eyes, so i’m interested in your question. Please read under the possible mechanisms in the following article; https://www.dairynutrition.ca/index.php/scientific-evidence/roles-on-certain-health-conditions/milk-products-and-gout Ghee is all lipids and based on the information given they don’t seem to have anything to do with the effect of dairy on serum uric acid levels. But this site promotes dairy products, so without reading the papers, we shouldn’t come to conclusions. susan
This link may offer some ideas MD, if you scroll down and look undet Appendix 1 , dietary advice for gout patients. They advise fresh fruits and vegetables, daals, and similar dishes are good. Fat laden ‘party foods’ are to be avoided. http://doctor.ndtv.com/topicdetails/ndtv/tid/60/Gout_and_high_blood_uric_acid_levels_(hyperuricaemia) .html Skeptic Steve Billig
Many (most?) metabolic activities in the body fall into the “Goldilocks” category of those with a sweet spot (range actually) above which and below which are unhealthful [body temperature, respiration, blood pressure, blood pH, many minerals (iron), many vitamins (A), dietary protein, calories and on and on]. Happily, a well designed vegan diet often is helpful in keeping the body in the healthy range. I hope there is a follow-up to this video that describes the food and food group strategies that help keep uric acid levels in the healthy range, and vegetarian dietary patterns that push the body out of the healthy uric acid range. broccolu
Sometimes it is hard to differentiate when it is sciences and when it is the anti meat anti dairy stance from the good doctor.
First of all, pesticides are everywhere, in plant foods and animal foods. If you eat GMO plant foods and don’t wash them thoroughly then you will eat a load of pesticides.
Secondly, about the uric acid, I look at all the research articles and they said that low uric acid is associated with Parkinson’s disease. Nowhere does it say about dairy products. So a lot of people have low uric acid for a number of reasons. For instance eating cherry will lower your uric acid too. Should we stop eating cherry because of this? Does Dr Greger talk about not eating cherry to avoid Parkinson’s?
At the Parkinson’s web site, they talk about taking inosine supplement to raise the uric acid level which can be low in some people due to a number of reasons (not because of milk or cherry, LOL). | 0 |
Hangar 17 at Kennedy International Airport is large enough to house a Boeing 747. For 14 years, however, it has held something much larger: the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. From the enormous columns that supported the World Trade Center towers to delicate crystal pendant earrings from a Casual Corner store in the shopping concourse, Hangar 17 contained symbols of destruction, despair, pathos, hope and resilience. Now, it is nearly empty. When summer ends, it will close. Apart from the low thunder of airport traffic, the loudest sound in Hangar 17 is the buzz of fluorescent ballasts, echoing around the 1. structure. Water drips on a tent over a metal tangle that would be unrecognizable as a vehicle if it did not have wheels. Hangar 17 has served since 2002 as a depot for World Trade Center salvage. In that time, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has distributed 1, 890 pieces of the twin towers’ steel and 550 other objects to the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the New York State Museum in Albany and institutions and organizations around the world, like the China Construction Steel Structure Museum in Beijing, the San Francisco Police Department and Cracker Trail Elementary School in Sebring, Fla. All the steel has now been claimed. The distribution program was to have ended earlier this year. But Patrick J. Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, stepped in. “There were fewer than 50 artifacts left,” he said on Tuesday. “I extended the program to give the team time to find proper homes for the remaining pieces. We think we’ll be able to do that. ” The unclaimed inventory includes unnervingly intimate objects from the concourse shops. A luxuriant Afro wig. A display stand stacked with $34 Petite Sophisticate blouses. A mannequin hand wearing a feathered black satin glove with a ring. A $20 Warner Bros. Studio Store gray polo shirt embroidered with Wile E. Coyote and labeled “Ash. ” Prospective recipients may have balked at items that so viscerally evoke the street scenes around the trade center after the 2001 attack, even though the objects themselves are not directly connected with the 2, 753 people who were killed that day. As the distribution program nears an end, two museum directors marveled that it even began. “The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is not a museum,” said Mark Schaming, the director of the state museum. “They did heroic work. There was no handbook. There was an instinct to collect things for a museum that didn’t exist. It was curatorial triage. The site was still burning, yet they were going in there and pulling things out. ” The state museum acquired about 150 objects from the hangar, including the Port Authority Police Department vehicle used by Officer David Lim and his Labrador retriever, Sirius. Alice M. Greenwald, the director of the memorial museum, credited Robert I. Davidson, then the chief architect of the authority, with reaching out to the architect Bartholomew Voorsanger soon after the attack to say, “We’ve got to save some of this stuff. ” Mr. Voorsanger assigned his colleague Mark Wagner to comb the wreckage and decide — on the spot — what pieces warranted saving for posterity. Mr. Wagner later joined the architectural firm Davis Brody Bond, which designed the memorial museum. Salvaged objects were originally kept on a tarmac at Kennedy while Hangar 17, which had last been used by Tower Air, was readied. At first, the hangar was not much better than the tarmac as a storage space. But by 2004, the authority had installed tents on the hangar floor to shelter the vehicles, pieces of the giant rooftop antenna, elevator motors and the like. It also built rooms in which to store and conserve the ruins of Alexander Calder’s “Bent Propeller” sculpture extremely compacted segments called “composites,” one of which contained the remnants of four tower floors fused into a mass only four feet high and the “last column” removed from the trade center site. “They were reattaching pieces of rust to preserve an artifact for posterity,” Ms. Greenwald said. “Now the ‘last column’ is available to the millions of people who are awed by it. ” It was one of 400 objects and lots that the memorial museum acquired from the Port Authority, she said. “Had the Port Authority not taken the steps it did,” she said, “this material would have gone to the scrapyard. We would not have the museum we have today. ” By August, the authority plans to have disconnected power and water to the hangar, which is nearly 60 years old. It will almost certainly be demolished. Shown a photograph of the darkened room in which the last column was conserved 12 years ago, Ms. Greenwald said: “Wow — it’s like a ghost town. That chapter is now truly closed. ” | 1 |
Palestine Palestinians check the flat of Amjad Aliwi after Israeli authorities demolished it in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus on October 11, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
A new report has revealed that the number of Palestinian homes demolished by Israeli authorities in the largest division of the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the current year stands at more than 700.
Israel's Hebrew-language Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday that a total of 780 Palestinian homes have been demolished in Area C of the West Bank, which constitutes about 61 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli military control, since January, leaving 1,129 people homeless.
That compares to 453 demolitions in the area last year, which left 580 Palestinians without any place of residence.
The newspaper noted that a total of 125 Palestinian homes have also been destroyed in East Jerusalem al-Quds since the start of the year, up from 78 last year.
The demolitions affected 164 Palestinians in the region, marking an increase from 108 the previous year.
The revelations came only two days after Israeli military forces razed three Palestinian homes in the Beit Hanina and Silwan neighborhoods of East Jerusalem al-Quds, displacing at least 44 people, including minors.
International bodies and rights groups argue that Israel’s sustained demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds are an attempt by the Tel Aviv regime to uproot Palestinians from their native territories, and confiscate more land for expansion of illegal settlements.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian lands have created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
The Palestinian Authority wants the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinians state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. Loading ... | 0 |
Since there have been teenagers, there have been adults trying to control them. The Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the Stubborn Child Law in 1646, allowing parents to have their defiant teenage sons put to death. The Bible suggests stoning them to death. But what if adolescent defiance is not a demon to be exorcised, but a power to be harnessed? The brains of adolescents are notoriously more receptive to rewards and peer approval, which can lead to risky behavior. But researchers and educators are noticing that young people are also more sensitive to notions of social justice and autonomy. Teenage rebellion can be virtuous — even wholesome — depending on the situation. A new study out today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that teenagers make wiser choices if they are encouraged to reimagine healthy behavior as an act of defiance. The researchers went to a middle school in New Braunfels, Tex. and randomly assigned 489 eighth graders to different groups. One group read the kind of article you’d find in any health class. It explained how the body processes food recommended a diet low in sugar and fat and featured colorful pictures of fresh foods. Another group read an exposé of cynical practices by some food companies, such as reformulating food to make it more addictive and labeling unhealthy products to make them appear healthy. “We cast the executives behind food marketing as controlling adult authority figures, and framed the avoidance of junk food as a way to rebel against their control,” explained the researchers, led by Christopher Bryan at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and David Yeager at the University of Texas at Austin. The real test came the next day, when the students were asked to choose which snacks they wanted in anticipation of a celebration. This selection took place in a different class, so it’s likely no one knew that it had anything to do with the reading from the day before. An interesting pattern emerged. Teenagers who had read the exposé article chose fewer junk food items than those in the control groups. They were 11 percentage points more likely to forgo at least one unhealthy snack, like Oreos, Cheetos or Doritos, in favor of fruit, baby carrots or trail mix, and seven percentage points more likely to choose water over Sprite or . That might seem like a small difference, but if sustained it would translate to the loss of about a pound of body fat every six to eight weeks, the researchers said — a public health triumph. What I like about this study is that it doesn’t just reframe healthy eating for adolescents it recasts adolescent defiance for adults. It depicts teenage rebellion as a potential asset to be cultivated, rather than as a threat to be quashed. Of course, we don’t know if this behavior change will last longer than a day. To learn more, the researchers will be conducting another experiment next year, following teenagers’ cafeteria choices for months after they’ve read the exposé article. “What’s really exciting about this study and other work like it is that if you can appeal to kids’ sense of wanting to not be duped, you empower them to take a stand,” said Dr. Ronald E. Dahl, director of the Center on the Developing Adolescent at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Dahl’s own research suggests that adolescent brains are not inferior to adult brains, as is sometimes assumed to the contrary, they may have special advantages in navigating social hierarchies and adapting to rapid change. “If they are motivated, you can change their behavior profoundly. ” In 2000, an antismoking ad, created in consultation with teenagers, featured a group of young people that piled up 1, 200 body bags outside the headquarters of a tobacco company — representing the number of deaths attributed to smoking each day in America. In the ad, an youth calls out the company’s sins over a megaphone, as an older white man peers down nervously from his office above. The spot and others in the campaign turned the Marlboro Man narrative upside down, reframing smoking as an act of corporate submission, rather than rebellion. In 2009, a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimated that the broader campaign, known as “truth,” prevented some 450, 000 young people from starting to smoke from 2000 to 2004. People who have spent their careers working with teenagers have learned this lesson through trial and error. “There are two adolescent imperatives: to resist authority and to contribute to community,” said Rob Riordan, of High Tech High, a network of California charter schools. He has found that as students work together toward a shared purpose, the impulse to resist authority fades. Adults work harder when they have a higher purpose, too. Health care professionals, for example, wash their hands more carefully when signs remind them of the benefits to their patients’ health rather than to their own, according to the organizational psychologist Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. But teenagers seem to be particularly sensitive to even a whiff of mission. In another study, also by Mr. Yeager, students who had been asked to reflect on the larger purpose of their learning were more likely to grind through math problems and resist the urge to watch viral videos or play Tetris. Their increased, in other words, when they connected math to a larger cause. Teenagers who stop eating meat as an act of defiance display the same kind of tenacity, a phenomenon Mr. Yeager calls “spite vegetarianism. ” “Adolescents have this craziness that we can criticize — or we can tap into,” said Ron Berger, who taught public school for 28 years and is now the chief academic officer at EL Education, a nonprofit network of 150 schools nationwide. “This is a time in their lives when justice matters, more than any other time. ” Schools affiliated with EL Education embed social purpose into the curriculum to try to make good use of this trait. At Polaris Charter Academy on Chicago’s West Side, seventh graders learning about the Second Amendment decided to start a campaign against gun violence in their neighborhood. They created four announcements, which aired on television published a book about peacemakers in their community and presented their work to the mayor. Ameerah Rollins, now 16 and a junior at Richard T. Crane Medical Prep High School, was one of the seventh graders. At first, she said, “none of us really thought we would make much impact. ” But as the students began to interview local officials and organize community events, “I noticed that people were starting to look at us, to acknowledge what we were doing. ” Nine out of 10 of her classmates knew someone who had been shot or killed. Taking action felt like a way to begin to avenge those deaths. “It triggered something very personal. And when it became personal, we actually started to put in the work. ” From her experience, Ms. Rollins concluded that teenagers may have a distinct capacity to change society. “With adults, they’re more realists,” she said. “They see how things happen, and they feel that maybe this isn’t really worth it. But in seventh grade, we don’t pay attention to the negativity. We never give up. A lot of people may see that as being naïve, but in reality, that’s power. ” Her class’s experience raises other tantalizing possibilities: What else might teenagers be driven to do in the name of benevolent defiance? Could adolescents who learn about the profit motives of the beauty industry begin to see Photoshopped images as propaganda? Could they start to resent how designers borrow manufacturers’ tricks to make their products more addictive? More important, could any of these mental shifts endure longer than a few hours? Mr. Bryan and Mr. Yeager, the authors of the new food study, know they are working against a powerful consumer culture. Most obesity prevention efforts do not lead to any weight loss in young people, according to a of 64 programs. But they will soon test whether they can change the way their study subjects see ads long term — so that each new soda commercial acts like a booster shot of indignation, rather than temptation. “Then the food industry is paying to undermine their own products,” Mr. Bryan said, sounding downright adolescent. | 1 |
Consultant tied to Trump super PAC promoted ‘voter suppression’ against black, female... Consultant tied to Trump super PAC promoted ‘voter suppression’ against black, female voters By 0 98
Donald Trump may call the 2016 election “rigged,” but a consultant connected to the Great America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC, told reporters that the group has a suppression campaign in the works, believing them to be representatives of a potential donor.
Political consultant Jesse Benton is once again in hot water. After journalists from The Telegraph introduced themselves to the former Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) aide as lawyers representing a potential Trump donor who was also a Chinese national, Benton proceeded to not only tell them how to donate to Trump’s campaign despite it being against federal election law, but also discussed attempts to suppress votes in Cleveland, Ohio.
This isn’t Benton’s first time engaging in politically and legally questionable behavior. In May, he had to take a step back from his role at the Great America PAC after pleading guilty to buying an endorsement for presidential candidate Ron Paul in 2012, during his time as campaign manager. Benton was sentenced to two years of probation.
The undercover reporters first contacted the PAC’s co-chairman, Eric Beach, who was filmed telling them that their Chinese client would be “ remembered ” if Trump becomes president, The Telegraph reported .
Beach proceeded to refer them over to Benton, claiming he was a consultant. When they met with Benton, he discussed the Trump campaign’s plans in the swing state of Ohio. Referring to Hillary Clinton’s support in Ohio, he said: “ In Cleveland, if we can…turn her to regular turnout levels, she’s gonna lose about 60,000 votes in that area – that’s a dead heat. ”
“ So we have a voter suppression campaign quite frankly, targeting African-Americans, and sort of suburban moms, just bad stuff about Hillary, just trying to take their taste for her away, ” he explained.
When it came to the issue of how the Trump campaign would be able to accept money from a Chinese national without arousing suspicion, Benton explained that he would channel the cash through a dark money tunnel.
Super PACs make use of non-profit organizations to collect money from donors because 501(c)4 nonprofit groups are allowed to donate funds to political campaigns without disclosing who their donors are. Benton said he could accept the offered $2 million contribution from the non-existent Chinese donor by having the money sent to his company, which would then pass it on to one or two more non-profits.
The Great America PAC has tried to distance itself from Benton. Dan Backer, a lawyer for Great America, told The New York Times that “ I think it’s pretty clear that someone who used to work for the organization decided to leverage that former relationship for his own purposes. ”
Backer suggested that Benton had exaggerated his role in the PAC, telling The Telegraph that Benton was engaging in “ puffery and self-promotion. ”
Benton has denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the reporters were brought to him as a “ business referral ” from Beach and that the clip was actually a part of a “ public affairs contract, ” The Telegraph reported.
The Trump campaign claims to have severed ties with the PAC, releasing a statement saying it “ publicly disavowed this group back in April. This is public via Federal Election Commission filings. ”
However, it was just a month ago that Trump’s son Eric and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke at a Great America PAC fundraiser, Raw Story reported .
Via RT . This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license. | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.