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Prosecutors in the “sanctuary state” of Maryland are dropping sexual offense charges against the illegal aliens accused of sexually assaulting a girl in a high school bathroom. The Rockville High School freshmen now face charges of distribution of child pornography. [Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told reporters “The facts no longer support the original charges filed,” the Washington Post reported. Prosecutors are now focusing their efforts on allegations of child pornography distribution after police found images of the victim on both suspects’ cell phones. Defense attorneys appeared to admit to the crime, telling the Washington, D. C. newspaper the girl willingly shared the images with one of the defendants. The images were then passed along to the other, they said. Henry Sanchez Milian’s attorney, Andrew Jezic, attempted to downplay the potential new charges saying, “it is hardly uncommon behavior for teenagers. ” Defendant Jose Montano’s attorney, Maria Mena, appeared to deflect to her client’s saying the child pornography charges are made to go after adults, the Washington Post reported. Sanchez Milian old and legally an adult. The national public outcry after the alleged oral, vaginal, and anal rape became public in March was called “racist” and “xenophobic” by Montgomery County Public School Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith. If convicted, Sanchez Milan could face a sentence of five years in prison for child porn distribution charges. The younger Montano could face up to 10 years in prison for possession and distribution of pornography. Lawmakers in various states have been debating how to deal with the issue of teenagers sexting photos of their underage classmates, Breitbart News reported. In the lead up to filing sexual assault charges, law enforcement investigators reported the young teen said she cried out in pain and begged them to stop. A forensic investigator found blood and bodily fluids in the boys’ bathroom. ’s attorney countered that the young girl “actively planned a sexual encounter,” and a school video showed the girl and the accused teen walking into the bathroom together. Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) told Breitbart News’ Katie McHugh, “The only reason the older youth, Sanchez Milian, was in the country at all was because of the Obama administration’s catch and release policies that allowed him to be resettled in Maryland (with the support of taxpayers) with few questions asked. ” “Few groups of illegal immigrants have left such a violent mark in our community as these unaccompanied minors — they are almost like modern day Marielitos (the Cuban inmates released by Fidel Castro decades ago),” she added. “Dozens have been arrested for violent crimes in Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Texas. ” Henry Sanchez Milian, an El Salvadorian national, and Jose Montano from Guatemala were enrolled as freshmen at the high school. As reported by Breitbart News: The 1982 Supreme Court Case Plyler v. Doe forbids public schools from withholding taxpayer funding from illegal aliens, allowing them to enroll in schools meant to educate citizens’ children. As Breitbart News has reported, illegal aliens and their children are entitled to U. S. educations in spite of breaking many U. S. laws. American communities are forced to divert nearly $60 billion in funding each year from their own children to illegals, students, refugees, and U. S. children of illegals granted citizenship by a footnote in the Doe ruling. Milian was encountered by border patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas in August 2016 before the alleged rape on March 16, 2017. He was turned over to the custody of his father. The had a “pending alien removal” case against him, but he was nevertheless allowed to enroll at Rockville High School. U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained Henry Sanchez’ father, Adolfo after determining the Guatemalan to be an illegal alien, reported Breitbart News on March 27. is being held at the Howard County Detention Center. Breitbart News reported in 2014 that Montgomery County had been one of the “’most prominent’ sanctuary cities in the country. ” On March 27, U. S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions urged the state of Maryland to abandon any plans to make Maryland a “sanctuary state. ” On March 21, the largely Democrat Maryland House of Delegates approved the Maryland Law Enforcement and Trust Act which would prevent police officers from asking a suspect about their immigration status. It would prevent police officers from giving illegal aliens to federal authorities unless “required by federal law. ” Officers would also have to get a warrant before complying with an ICE detainer request. As reported by Breitbart News, Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan threatened to veto the bill. On Friday, ICE confirmed they are seeking to deport Sanchez Milan to Guatemala, reported the Washington Post. Even though they do not have him in federal custody, ICE has issued a detainer. Montgomery County officials confirmed they will honor the ICE detainer because of the child pornography distribution charges. Editor’s Note: This article has been updated. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook. | 1 |
Awakening Our Truth: This video forced me to question my beliefs at the deepest levels. It brought me to that pivotal point, after I let go and was shown the truth. Thank you Barbara Marciniak because of your video, I realized Who I truly am and discovered We are all One.
From Barabara Marciniak’s book Bringers of the Dawn :
Bringers of the Dawn: Teachings from the Pleiadians By Barbara Marciniak
Bringers of the Dawn: Teachings from the Pleiadians by Bararbara Marciniak
Compiled from more than four hundred hours of channeling by Barbara Marciniak, Bringers of the Dawn imparts to us the wisdom of the Pleiadians, a group of enlightened beings who have come to Earth to help us discover how to reach a new stage of evolution. Master storytellers and humorists, they advise us to become media free, to work in teams, and to eliminate the words “should” and “try” from our vocabularies. We learn how to go beyond fear, how the original human was a magnificent being with twelve strands of DNA and twelve chakra centers, and who our “gods” are. Startling, intense, intelligent, and controversial, these teachings offer essential reading for anyone questioning their existence on this planet and the direction of our collective conscious –and unconscious. By remembering that we are Family of Light, that we share an ancient ancestry with the universe around us, we become “bringers of the dawn,” consciously creating a new reality, a new Earth.
Bringers of the Dawn is available on Amazon . Via: WooWoo Media
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Obama running out of time to Pardon Clinton 02.11.2016 AP photo By Michael Wells Friday, 11 days before the American Presidential election, FBI Director James Comey announced that he has re-opened the criminal investigation into Hillary Rodham Clinton , former American First Lady, regarding the private email server that she used to illegally circumvent the government's official, secure digital record storage and retrieval systems. Why she needs to be pardoned During the 4 years that she was Secretary of State under the Obama Administration, she admittedly diverted all official electronic communications that she sent or received through her own email server, which was not secured properly to store sensitive government information. This left the information vulnerable to hacking by criminals or other governments. Moreover, the server was in her non-approved basement location, which even left the digital records subject to possible physical theft. Print version Font Size She controlled which official communications got passed on to the government and which were selectively held back from the historic record of our country, with common sense telling us that the ones that incriminated her never made it to the official record. The collection, removal, or storage of sensitive government documents in an insecure location constitutes espionage under American law, and Clinton's dereliction of duty in securing the electronic documents is all that is needed to prove a crime. Even if she had "accidentally" left the information unsecured, her negligence would still constitute espionage . Not done with her yet The announcement by Comey on Friday that the investigation was once again open (based on newly discovered emails that were recovered from a laptop in an unrelated investigation of the husband of one of Clinton's aides) was a serious blow to the Clinton campaign, casting light once again on Clinton's deceptive and megalomaniacal character . (Note: the case was never "closed." It was technically still "open," pending finalizations and administrative procedures, but the investigation had completed and the case would have been closed pending those finalizations). Comey had originally declared the case against Clinton closed in July, stating that while Clinton had obviously broken laws, he felt that there was no reason to prosecute. This was a truly baffling decision, as the publicly-known facts of the case alone are enough to bring a successful espionage indictment. Not only had Clinton secretly housed and controlled government documents at her home, she actively destroyed subpoenaed documents . Clinton and her aides showed clear intent to mislead investigators in the face of a " mountain of evidence of her criminal behavior ." "Although there is evidence of potential violations regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," Comey stated in July when he originally "closed" the case. Equal treatment under the law Any other person in America who was investigated for mishandling state secrets, and there was "evidence of potential violations regarding the handling of classified information," would face a swift and unpleasant prosecution for the Capital offense of espionage. They would be held in prison while the investigation and trial proceeded. One Navy submariner was recently charged with espionage for taking selfies in the engine room where he worked. Once he realized he was being investigated, he destroyed a laptop, cell phone, and memory card. He was charged under the Espionage Act and pleaded guilty to Retaining Classified Information on his phone, but the Obstruction of Justice charged was dropped. Even so, he faces 10 years in prison. By comparison, Clinton removed thousands of government documents, controlled which ones the government had access to, and housed them at her home for years exposed to hackers. According to the U. S. Code , this crime carries varying levels of prison time and monetary fines, with a maximum penalty of death, at the judge's disposal based on the actual specifics and severity of the case. The re-opening of the case is based on the recovery of several thousand new email messages, and it is going to take time to review and analyze the new material. This is not a task that will be completed before the Presidential election on November 8. Therefore, Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the first Presidential candidate in history to be under criminal investigation for espionage by the FBI at the time of the election... unless she is pardoned first . It seems that the only chance her campaign has of winning now is if she receives a Presidential pardon, and quickly. This would completely absolve Clinton of any wrongdoing concerning her email server, and prevent her from being subject to prosecution for the crime or any related crimes, now or in the future. Her espionage crimes against the country would vanish, as though she had never done anything wrong. The Clinton Family would simply walk away from Hillary's 4-year international crime spree that resulted in the deaths of many of our most loyal Americans, while she represented the United States of America and wielded all the power that comes with being the Head of State to her personal gain. Obama had better hurry The sooner President Obama pardons her, the better the chance of Clinton's campaign successfully righting itself by feeding lies to the voters and attacking her opponent, Donald Trump . Having been pardoned will restore much of her credibility with her voters, who would tend to see it as a statement of innocence. With only 10 days until the election, Obama will need to act quickly to save his magnificent successor and seal his legacy as the true enabler of the most corrupt politician in history .President Obama pardoned 98 people Thursday, bringing the total number of people that he has expunged of guilt this year to 688. According to USA Today , this is "the most commutations ever granted by a president in a single year." It sounds like President Obama is quite familiar with the process of "officially forgiving" criminals for their digressions against humanity. Why wouldn't he forgive yet another career criminal, then, in a desperate bid to keep his political party in power? It's obvious that he will . He is too much of a pawn for the Clinton Machine to rise up against their power. That's why the world witnessed the head of the Justice Department (Loretta Lynch) improperly meet with Bill Clinton (the husband of the subject of an ongoing Justice Department criminal investigation) in a jet in Phoenix. That's why Lynch promised to accept the findings of the FBI during the first Clinton investigation, no matter what conclusion they reached - even though she had never done that before. And that's why you saw James Comey buckle and "close" the case the first time. It was (obviously, to the layman) a badly orchestrated "pretend Hillary didn't break the law" order that came down from Obama. James Comey stopped his investigation, as he was instructed, and came up with the "she's guilty but we're not going to prosecute" line. Director Comey has finally stood up to Clinton by "re-opening" the case, and he's playing a dangerous game by investigating her again. It is a widely accepted notion that crossing the Clintons can result in one's death , usually with "suicide" or "unusual circumstances" listed as the cause. Of course, there are rarely and suspects charged in these cases. Keep them out In my opinion, the world would be a better place without the Clintons in power, and America should keep them out of the Whitehouse at all costs. The FBI won't have time to indict Hillary before Obama pardons her, and the most corrupt politician in history will be cleansed of all wrongdoing, ready to destroy the most powerful office in the world with her greed and sense of entitlement. Michael J Wells | 0 |
WASHINGTON — A pair of luxurious waterfront compounds outside New York and Washington have for decades been a retreat for Russian diplomats, places to frolic in the water, play tennis and take lengthy steam baths. On Thursday, Obama administration officials described the compounds differently: as beachside spy nests sometimes used by Russian intelligence operatives to have long conversations on the sand to avoid being ensnared by American electronic surveillance. They ordered all Russians out of the compounds within 24 hours. The move was one of a number of retaliatory measures the White House announced in response to what it called a Russian campaign to wreak havoc on the presidential election, and to what it said was systemic harassment of American officials in Russia. Besides the shuttering of the two compounds, administration officials announced the expulsion by Sunday of 35 unnamed Russian officials — and their families — who they said were working undercover as spies. The announcement had echoes of the reprisals that were common during the Cold War, and the government of Vladimir V. Putin announced within hours that there would be a swift response. That seemingly ensured that the Obama administration’s final days would be consumed by escalating accusations and retaliation between Washington and Moscow. The Obama administration offered no proof on Thursday linking the two compounds or the Russians being expelled to intelligence activities, and veterans of the spy games offered mixed assessments of the administration’s actions. “I think these sanctions are pretty weak. It’s more perhaps symbolic,” said Steven Hall, a former senior C. I. A. official who ran Russia operations until his retirement in 2015. But Mr. Hall said that the other measures could cause more irritation in Moscow. He said that he could not recall a previous move similar to the shuttering of the two compounds — one on Long Island and the other on the Eastern Shore of Maryland — and that expelling the 35 officers and their families “will slow down Russia’s activities in the United States. ” One former senior American official said that the group, made up of officials working at the embassy in Washington and the consulate in San Francisco, makes up about a third of the suspected Russian intelligence officers operating in the United States under diplomatic cover. It is unclear how many of the expelled Russians spent time at the two compounds. The dismissals are believed to be the largest expulsion of Russian officials from the United States since 2001, when about 50 suspected Russian intelligence officers were forced to leave after Robert Hanssen, a senior F. B. I. official, was arrested and charged with spying for Moscow. “I would be flabbergasted if the Russians didn’t reciprocate and expel 35 American officials from Russia,” Mr. Hall said. The C. I. A. has long posted undercover officers in Russia — and nearly every other country in the world — who pose as diplomats, businessmen or other professionals. It is unclear whether any of the Russians being expelled played a part in the hacking that interfered with the American election. Law enforcement officials said that the White House and the State Department had come up with the number 35 and had then turned to the F. B. I. to list Russian officials in the United States who it believed were actually intelligence officers. While the expulsions send a powerful message, they will force the F. B. I. to go back to work trying to identify a new crop of spies the Russians will almost certainly send to the United States. After the expulsions were announced, officials described a pattern of harassment of American government employees working in Russia. In June, a uniformed officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service, called the F. S. B. attacked an employee of the United States Embassy in Moscow seemingly without provocation. “Our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year,” President Obama said in a statement on Thursday. Before this year, the most notable recent episode to become public was in 2013, when Russian officials arrested Ryan C. Fogle, an employee of the embassy in Moscow who the Russian government had discovered was a C. I. A. officer. Mr. Fogle, officially posted in Russia as the third secretary of the embassy’s political department, was picked up on the street wearing a blond wig under a baseball cap. He was carrying a knapsack holding a compass, a Moscow street atlas and $130, 000 in cash, money that Russian officials said was meant to be used to recruit a Russian security officer as a spy. The episode’s amusing details garnered much of the attention, but Mr. Fogle’s arrest and expulsion from Russia was a public indicator that the spying activity between the United States and Russia was heating up — and in many ways had never ended. The F. S. B. took the unusual step of releasing a video showing Mr. Fogle facedown on a street as a Russian officer pinned his hands behind his back. American law enforcement and intelligence agencies have little indication that the compounds in Maryland and New York played any role in the cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations. The Long Island retreat is a estate in Upper Brookville, known as Norwich House. Upper Brookville’s mayor, Elliot Conway, confirmed on Friday that the federal government had ordered the house shut. Federal agents could been seen on Friday morning in the estate’s driveway, shortly before four vehicles with diplomatic license plates drove away. A few of the people in the cars waved to reporters, in an apparent goodbye. The Russian government has owned the property, and another one nearby in Glen Cove, since the days of the Soviet Union, and relations between the owners and local residents have at times been strained. In 1982, Reagan administration officials said Russians were using the Glen Cove mansion to conduct electronic surveillance of Long Island’s defense and technology industries. The Glen Cove City Council responded by barring the Russians from obtaining free beach parking stickers and discounted tennis permits. The Council’s lone dissenting voice described taking away the tennis permits as “petty” and said that “it’s a matter the professionals at the State Department should handle. ” On Thursday, White House and F. B. I. officials said it was the Glen Cove estate, Killenworth Mansion, that was being shuttered. On Friday, they confirmed that it was in fact the Upper Brookville house. The Maryland compound is a sprawling complex of several buildings fronting the Corsica River in Centreville, including a brick mansion that has long been a retreat for Russia’s ambassador to Washington. It has a swimming pool, a soccer field and lighted tennis courts. Anatoly Dobrynin, who served as ambassador to Washington from the Kennedy administration to the Reagan administration, was frequently at the estate, and the Russian government held on to the property after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unlike on Long Island, relations between the Russians visiting the Maryland compound and local residents have generally been placid — even if the Russians did not always adopt the local folkways. Julie Patterson, 44, who has lived on a horse farm near the compound for 12 years, said the Russians largely kept to themselves but were cordial neighbors, inviting locals to an annual Labor Day party. She said that she believed that the property was largely used as a weekend retreat and that she often saw children, families and buses heading to the estate. She said people often held parties there and hosted a sailing club. In 1992, a Centreville resident told a reporter for The Associated Press that the Russians did not cook crabs the local way, by throwing live crabs into a pot of boiling water. “They stab them with a screwdriver, break the back shell off, clean them and then boil the body,” she said. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — President Obama vetoed legislation on Friday that would allow families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for any role in the plot, setting up an extraordinary confrontation with a Congress that unanimously backed the bill and has vowed to uphold it. Mr. Obama’s veto of the measure, known as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, is the 12th of his presidency. But unless those who oppose the bill can persuade lawmakers to drop their support by next week, it will lead to the first congressional override of a veto during Mr. Obama’s presidency — a familiar experience for presidents in the waning months of their terms. In his veto message to Congress, Mr. Obama said the legislation “undermines core U. S. interests,” upending the normal means by which the government singles out foreign nations as state sponsors of terrorism and opening American officials and military personnel to legal jeopardy. It would put United States assets at risk of seizure by private litigants overseas and “create complications” in diplomatic relations with other countries, he added. “I have deep sympathy for the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, who have suffered grievously,” Mr. Obama wrote. But enacting the measure “would neither protect Americans from terrorist attacks nor improve the effectiveness of our response to such attacks. ” Mr. Obama issued the veto behind closed doors on Friday without fanfare, reluctant to call attention to a debate that has pitted him against the families of terrorism victims. Not long before he did so, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, who had previously backed the measure, confirmed that if she were in the Oval Office, she would sign it. Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, also said he would have signed the bill, calling Mr. Obama’s veto “shameful. ” The leaders of both chambers, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, have said they expect the override vote to be successful, which requires a majority. Mr. McConnell’s office said it would consider the veto message “as soon as practicable in this work period,” essentially ruling out the possibility, pressed by opponents of the measure, that the vote could be delayed until after the elections, when lawmakers might feel less political pressure to support the bill. Still, pressure is building on Congress to reconsider the measure, whose passage underlined the lasting political clout of the families that have long demanded it — and the diminishing standing of Saudi Arabia and its supporters in Washington. Mr. Obama argues that the measure would overturn longstanding principles of international law that shield governments from lawsuits, potentially opening the United States to a raft of litigation in foreign countries. But supporters note that those principles already have several exceptions, and contend they are merely seeking to add another narrow one that would allow United States courts to hold foreign governments responsible if they assisted or funded a terrorist attack that killed Americans in the United States. Saudi officials have denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and an independent commission that investigated the attacks found “no evidence” that the government or any senior official funded it. But the commission’s narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government had played a role. The Saudi government has deployed powerful lobbyists and public relations professionals to try to kill the measure. In recent days, it has turned to national security leaders, Fortune 100 corporate executives and retired military personnel for backing. White House officials were making the case to lawmakers that they should sustain the president’s veto. “We continue to make a forceful case to members of Congress that overriding the president’s veto means that this country will start pursuing a less forceful approach in dealing with state sponsors of terrorism and potentially opens up U. S. service members, and diplomats and even companies to spurious lawsuits in kangaroo courts around the world,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said before Mr. Obama vetoed the measure. He acknowledged that the stance was “politically inconvenient,” given the strong sympathy that exists for the families of the victims. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, called Mr. Obama’s action “disappointing,” and said it would be “swiftly and soundly overturned in Congress. ” “If the Saudis did nothing wrong, they should not fear this legislation,” Mr. Schumer said. In a statement, the Sept. 11 families said they were “outraged and dismayed at the president’s veto” and the “unconvincing and unsupportable reasons that he offers as explanation. ” “When we left at 5 o’clock yesterday, we were feeling very confident that we would have the votes for the override, but we’ve got to maintain that support through until next week,” said Terry Strada, a leading activist on the bill who lost her husband on Sept. 11 and was one of dozens of family members who traveled to Washington this week to lobby lawmakers to continue backing it. “Nobody is going to sleep this whole weekend. ” | 1 |
October 28, 2016 at 10:00 am
OMG, a Confederate Flag at school! Minds have been warped forever! “We can’t have that, the truth being spewed out in public like that, people might think they actually have rights!”
“What will you do without freedom” (William Wallace) I don’t know about how others feel, but, in my mind, we’re quite far from true freedom. You need to dispose rubbish? Better have your permit. Need to take a shit, better get your permit. Birth and Death certificates log you in and out and you’re property.
The dehumanizing of the species is well underway. Your number is 8675309.21 Like rats in a cage, we eat, shit, and breathe. Our cage is our own minds, manipulated beyond measure by unscrupulous bastards with a greed that can never be quenched. It’s unfortunate that there are those that exist with a superiority complex and think their shit don’t stink. That superiority complex leads to wars. We’re the most advanced, civilized monkeys on the planet, but you steal my bananas, we’re goin’ to war.
A Confederate Flag? They get their undies in a bundy over a Confederate Flag?
Yep, we must lie to our children and not tell them our true history. We must protect them from the psychological trauma of the truth! “Yes Jimmy, everything’s lollypops and rainbows!”“Here, take some more Ritalin and STFU!”
Pharmacy regulars, it seems most parents on some damned drug too. “Well, I gotta get the kids pills, I may as well get some for me, as long as I’m there.” Hey Dr. Feelgood, what’s up?
“Mother’s Little Helpers” told the story decades ago. Now, snoop in anyones “Medicine Chest” and you’ll discover an array of concoctions, herbals, stimulants, downers, mood enhancers, sleeping pills, wake up pills, stay awake pills, two in the morning, two at noon, two at bedtime, repeat every day until your dead.
You want to live forever? I don’t. I suspect bigger and better things await my arrival, at least, I hope so. | 0 |
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladeshi troops using armored vehicles and firing bullets and tear gas assaulted an apartment house on Sunday in the northeastern city of Sylhet, killing two of the militants besieged in the building, the authorities said. But the troops did not succeed in ending a violent standoff that has left six other people dead, including two police officers, and has injured at least 43. Zedan Al Musa, an additional deputy commissioner of the Sylhet Metropolitan Police, said in a telephone interview that the injured included two officers of the army’s antiterrorism Rapid Action Battalion, including its director of intelligence, Lt. Col. Abul Kalam Azad. A spokesman for the battalion, Cmdr. Mufti Mahmud Khan, said on Sunday that Colonel Azad was in critical condition and had been flown to Singapore for treatment. The six deaths and most of the injuries, including those to the colonel, occurred Saturday night, Commissioner Musa said, when two explosions were set off by militants at a checkpoint about 400 yards from the apartment building, where a crowd had gathered. The Islamic State claimed responsibility on social media “for a bombing on Bangladeshi forces in Sylhet,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist communications. Bangladesh’s elite police forces have been trying to crack down on militant groups since a deadly attack on a restaurant last year, arresting and sometimes killing suspected militants. The attacks that had become commonplace in the country in recent years have largely stopped. Reports of attacks on religious minorities have increased in recent weeks, though, including the killings of a Sufi spiritual leader and his daughter and an attack on a Bangladeshi Christian. So far, neither crime has been officially linked to extremists. The Sylhet siege follows a week of botched suicide bombings in Dhaka. A man detonated explosives on Friday at a police checkpoint near the international airport in Dhaka, killing only himself, the police said. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. Mr. Musa said the police began the Sylhet operation Thursday night, when they received word that militants were hiding on the ground floor of the building on the edge of the city. He said officers cordoned off the building that evening, and were joined Friday by a specially trained police unit from Dhaka. More than 70 residents of the building were evacuated that day, he said, and army commandos took over the operation Saturday. Brig. Gen. Fakhrul Ahsan said in a televised news conference that the militants had small arms, explosives and suicide vests, and had planted improvised explosive devices in the building. “They are well trained, and have thrown back the grenades we lobbed at them,” he said. Army commandos led the assault on Sunday, General Ahsan said. The two militants killed were wearing suicide vests, and one of them managed to set his off, the general said, adding that one or two more militants were believed to still be in the building. “The operation will take more time,” he said. “There are risks involved, and we are not in any hurry. ” | 1 |
Ford will spend $640 million to replace door latches on nearly 2. 4 million cars, trucks and vans because the doors can pop open while the vehicles are moving. On Thursday, the company announced it would add 1. 5 million vehicles to the growing recall, which has become so costly that Ford had to cut its estimated pretax profit to $10. 2 billion from at least $10. 8 billion. Customers have been complaining about the problem, which has affected much of Ford’s North American model lineup, since 2014. At least three million vehicles have been recalled after a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation found 1, 200 customer complaints about doors failing to latch. Thursday’s announcement came under pressure from the highway safety agency, which deemed an Aug. 4 recall of about 830, 000 vehicles inadequate. Ford said in a regulatory filing that the $640 million would cover the cost of both the Thursday recall and the one announced Aug. 4. The latest recall includes the Ford Focus, the Ford Escape and the 2015 Ford Mustang and Lincoln MKC and the Ford Transit Connect small van. Ford says a spring tab in the door latches can break, and the doors either won’t close or could pop open. Dealers will replace the latches without charge. The company said it knows of one crash and three injuries that may be related to the problem. The Aug. 4 recall was limited to Mexico and 16 states with high temperatures and sunlight exposure because, Ford said, the rate of reports of failure was higher. Customers can check whether their vehicle is included on ford. com by clicking on safety recalls and entering their vehicle identification number. | 1 |
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Michael Moore has made some terrific movies in the past, and Where to Invade Next may be the best of them, but I expected Trumpland to be (1) about Trump, (2) funny, (3) honest, (4) at least relatively free of jokes glorifying mass murder. I was wrong on all counts and would like my $4.99 back, Michael.
Moore’s new movie is a film of him doing a stand-up comedy show about how wonderfully awesome Hillary Clinton is — except that he mentions Trump a bit at the beginning and he’s dead serious about Clinton being wonderfully awesome.
This film is a text book illustration of why rational arguments for lesser evilist voting do not work. Lesser evilists become self-delusionists. They identify with their lesser evil candidate and delude themselves into adoring the person. Moore is not pushing the “Elect her and then hold her accountable” stuff. He says we have a responsibility to “support her” and “get behind her,” and that if after two years — yes, TWO YEARS — she hasn’t lived up to a platform he’s fantasized for her, well then, never fear, because he, Michael Moore, will run a joke presidential campaign against her for the next two years (this from a guy who backed restricting the length of election campaigns in one of his better works).
Moore maintains that virtually all criticism of Hillary Clinton is nonsense. What do we think, he asks, that she asks how many millions of dollars you’ve put into the Clinton Foundation and then she agrees to bomb Yemen for you? Bwahahaha! Pretty funny. Except that Saudi Arabia put over $10 million into the Clinton Foundation, and while she was Secretary of State Boeing put in another $900,000, upon which Hillary Clinton reportedly made it her mission to get the planes sold to Saudi Arabia, despite legal restrictions — the planes now dropping U.S.-made bombs on Yemen with U.S. guidance, U.S. refueling mid-air, U.S. protection at the United Nations, and U.S. cover in the form of pop-culture distraction and deception from entertainers like Michael Moore.
Standing before a giant Air Force missile and enormous photos of Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore claims that substantive criticism of Clinton can consist of only two things, which he dismisses in a flash: her vote for a war on Iraq and her coziness with Wall Street. He says nothing more about what that “coziness” consists of, and he claims that she’s more or less apologized and learned her lesson on Iraq.
What? It wasn’t one vote. It was numerous votes to start the war, fund it, and escalate it. It was the lies to get it going and keep it going. It’s all the other wars before and since.
*She says President Obama was wrong not to launch missile strikes on Syria in 2013. *She pushed hard for the overthrow of Qadaffi in 2011. *She supported the coup government in Honduras in 2009. *She has backed escalation and prolongation of war in Afghanistan. *She skillfully promoted the White House justification for the war on Iraq. *She does not hesitate to back the use of drones for targeted killing. *She has consistently backed the military initiatives of Israel. *She was not ashamed to laugh at the killing of Qadaffi. *She has not hesitated to warn that she could obliterate Iran. *She is eager to antagonize Russia. *She helped facilitate a military coup in Ukraine. *She has the financial support of the arms makers and many of their foreign customers. *She waived restrictions at the State Department on selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar, all states wise enough to donate to the Clinton Foundation. *She supported President Bill Clinton’s wars and the power of the president to make war without Congress. *She has advocated for arming fighters in Syria and for a “No Fly” zone. *She supported a surge in Iraq even before President Bush did.
That’s just her war problem. What about her banking problem, prison problem, fracking problem, corporate trade problem, corporate healthcare problem, climate change problem, labor problem, Social Security problem, etc.?
Moore parts company from substantive critique in order to lament unproven rightwing claims that Hillary Clinton has murdered various people. “I hope she did,” screams Moore. “That’s who I want as Commander in Chief!” Hee hee hee.
Then Moore shamelessly pushes the myth that Hillary tried to create single-payer, or at least “universal” healthcare (whatever that is) in the 1990s. In fact, as I heard Paul Wellstone tell it, single-payer easily won the support of Clinton’s focus group, but she buried it for her corporate pals and produced the phonebook-size monstrosity that was dead on arrival but reborn in another form years later as Obamacare. She killed single-payer then, has not supported it since, and does not propose it now. (Well, she does admit in private that it’s the only thing that works, as her husband essentially blurts out in public.) But Moore claims that because we didn’t create “universal” healthcare in the 1990s we all have the blood of millions on our hands, millions whom Hillary would have saved had we let her.
Moore openly fantasizes: what would it be like if Hillary Clinton is secretly progressive? Remember that Moore and many others did the exact same thing with Obama eight years ago. To prove Clinton’s progressiveness Moore plays an audio clip of her giving a speech at age 22 in which she does not hint at any position on any issue whatsoever.
Mostly, however, Moore informs us that Hillary Clinton is female. He anticipates “that glorious moment when the other gender has a chance to run this world and kick some righteous ass.” Now tell me please, dear world, if your ass is kicked by killers working for a female president will you feel better about it? How do you like Moore’s inclusive comments throughout his performance: “We’re all Americans, right?”
Moore’s fantasy is that Clinton will dash off a giant pile of executive orders, just writing Congress out of the government — executive orders doing things like releasing all nonviolent drug offenders from prison immediately (something the real Hillary Clinton would oppose in every way she could).
But when he runs for president, Moore says, he’ll give everybody free drugs.
I’ll tell you the Clinton ad I’d like to see. She’s standing over a stove holding an egg. “This is your brain,” she says solemnly, cracking it into the pan with a sizzle. “This is your brain on partisanship.” | 0 |
Soap opera star and Donald Trump supporter Antonio Sabato Jr. is set to make his own foray into politics with a run for Congress in California. [According to the Los Angeles Times, the General Hospital and Melrose Place star will challenge Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley in California’s 26th Congressional district, which encompasses a large portion of Ventura County and part of the central coast. The actor — who has competed on Dancing with the Stars and worked as a model — spoke at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump in July. Sabato strategist and fundraiser Charles Moran told the Times that the actor’s experience at the convention sparked his own desire to affect change in Washington. “Being a Republican and with proximity to the White House and Republican leadership, he’s going to be able to get more done — being in the majority, with his notoriety, for the residents of the 26th [Congressional] District,” Moran told the paper. Sabato was a vocal supporter of Trump throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. At the Republican convention in July, the actor — who immigrated from Italy to the United States in 1985 — said he had never considered himself to be a political person before, but expressed concern about the direction of the United States, and said those wishing to enter the country should follow the same procedures he did nearly thirty years ago. “Having secure borders, protecting our citizens, none of this is hateful,” Sabato said at the time. “This is the responsibility of the government. And it’s the right thing to do. ” The candidate will reportedly campaign with a focus on veterans and substance abuse issues. In August, Sabato said in an interview that he had been blacklisted from Hollywood due to his political beliefs. “t’s not just me. I know a lot of people in the industry who are in the same boat,” he told Variety. “The reality is if you’re associated with the Republican Party, the casting directors and producers already blacklist you based on that. ” Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
The American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report named 6 California cities among the top 10 worst for smog in the United States. [The Lung Association report card highlighted continued improvement in air quality during 2016. But about 166 million, or 52. 1 percent, of Americans are still at risk from the health effects of air pollution, including higher levels of lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm. The Lung Association has utilized data averages from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency to calculate its “State of the Air. ” This year’s 17th annual report used 2012, 2013 and 2014 ozone data from America’s 228 major cities in the United States to calculate the top ten “Most Cities:: The good news from the “State of the Air” report is that most U. S. cities improved their ozone levels. Although Los Angeles dropped its average number of unhealthy days to its lowest level ever recorded, the still suffers the most ozone pollution in the nation. Another five U. S. cities with historically high ozone levels experienced their lowest number of unhealthy ozone days on average since the report began in 2000, including: Visalia — Porterfield — Hanford, CA Sacramento, CA Dallas — Fort Worth, TX El Centro, CA and Houston, TX. Four other California cities also experienced their lowest number of unhealthy ozone days, including: Bakersfield, CA Fresno — Madera, CA and Modesto — Merced, CA. San Diego had more days on average in this report compared to the 2015 report. Harold P. Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association commented: Thanks to cleaner power plants and cleaner vehicles, we see a continued reduction of ozone and particle pollution in the 2016 ‘State of the Air’ report. However, climate change has increased the challenges to protecting public health. … There are still nearly 20 million people in the United States that live with unhealthful levels of all three measures of air pollution the report tracks: ozone, and particle pollution. | 1 |
The company led by the American billionaire Koch brothers, along with dozens of banks and fund managers, kept billions of dollars in profit from Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme in accounts offshore. As it turns out, that was a good decision. Koch Industries and others who invested in the Madoff fund from offshore accounts won a key ruling in federal bankruptcy court on Monday, when the judge said certain funds held abroad — estimated at about $2 billion — could not be made available to victims of the Madoff scheme. The ruling highlights the that has been raging between those who lost money when the scheme fell apart eight years ago and those who walked away before the fraud came to light, having recouped their original investments and then some. Irving H. Picard, the trustee appointed to recover money for the victims, had argued that he should get the money because the investors used feeder funds that operated in the United States even though they were registered offshore. Those funds gathered investor money on behalf of Mr. Madoff. But Judge Stuart M. Bernstein of Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan said foreign bankruptcy proceedings blocked the trustee from accessing the money. A spokeswoman for the trustee, Amanda Remus, said the decision by Judge Bernstein was “under review,” but added she could not comment on next steps. The decision can be appealed to the Federal District Court. Mr. Picard is still trying to recover more than $5 billion for victims. So far, according to his website, he has obtained $11. 5 billion for about $17. 5 billion in claims. Among the largest recoveries have been $5 billion from the estate of the Florida investor Jeffry Picower, $1 billion from Tremont Group, $550 million from the investor Carl J. Shapiro and others, and $470 million from Union Bancaire Privee, a Swiss bank that ran a Madoff fund. Koch Industries is one of 88 cases in which management, service providers and investors received overseas transfers of money. They have been fighting Mr. Picard’s attempts to recover the money, arguing that it was transferred from these overseas accounts to banks and others outside the United States before the fund collapsed. Koch Industries began investing in the Madoff fund well before its collapse and pulled its $21. 5 million out in 2005. The money withdrawn from the Madoff fund went to a fund registered in the British Virgin Islands and then to a Koch entity in Britain. In addition to Koch Industries, several European banks were listed in court papers as having had Madoff money offshore, including HSBC Bank of London, UBS AG and Credit Suisse of Switzerland, an international arm of Merrill Lynch and the French money manager Natixis. Collectively, the institutions represent “a ‘Who’s Who’ of the European investing class,” said Jonathan Sablone, an attorney from the firm Nixon Peabody in New York. The presence of Koch, based in Wichita, Kan. gives the issue “a political tone,” he added. Its main owners, the brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch, are known for supporting Republican political candidates and causes. Koch, whose oil refineries, chemicals, fertilizers and forest products generate estimated annual revenues of $100 billion, is the privately owned American business after agricultural commodity producer Cargill, according to Forbes magazine. Mr. Picard sued Koch Industries in February 2012, arguing that the money ultimately went back to Koch’s parent company. Asked about the case in June, a Koch Industries spokesman, Rob Carlton, said in a statement: “The Koch entity involved made an investment in an entirely separate fund. That Koch entity no longer exists and its investment was redeemed in 2005, long before anyone knew of Madoff’s fraud. ” Asked for comment about Monday’s ruling, Mr. Carlton declined to comment. A extraterritoriality issue in this case centers on whether investor money withdrawn from the Madoff feeder funds counted as overseas distributions beyond Mr. Picard’s reach. In Monday’s ruling, Judge Bernstein noted that two key funds in the case are being shut down, and the people engaged in that overseas process are trying to go after the same assets being pursued by Mr. Picard. Although Koch’s name appeared in the Madoff court record as early as 2012, its involvement was not publicly revealed until June 3, when its role in the cases was reported by Bloomberg News. Mr. Picard has noted that the Madoff fund transferred $3 billion to Fairfield Sentry in the six years before the fraud came to light in December 2008, with $1. 6 billion of that total withdrawn in the two years before December 2008, and $1. 1 billion transferred just 90 days before that same date. A July 2014 decision by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan blocked clawbacks of transactions outside the United States between foreign parties, in this case money that went from the Madoff firm to foreign funds and then to other investors outside the United States. But in subsequent bankruptcy court filings and arguments, Mr. Picard has said the funds were really in the United States and should thus be fair game. Both main funds at issue “did business in New York, almost all their employees were in New York, they listed New York as their primary place of business, and they dealt with their shareholders from New York,” lawyers for Mr. Picard said in a filing on June 27, 2015. Mr. Madoff, who in March 2009 pleaded guilty to 11 felonies including securities fraud, is serving a sentence in federal prison in North Carolina. | 1 |
Dictionnaire visuel Icônes de Palekh, à la croisée de l’Orient et de l’Occident Aujourd’hui, Palekh, un petit village de la région d’Ivanovo, est principalement connu pour son artisanat local, la miniature laquée de Palekh. Rares sont ceux qui savent que ce magnifique style de peinture prend ses origines dans la peinture d’icônes. Par Ilaria Kantorova , Pavel Inzhelevsky , Igor Davidov
L’ancien village russe de Palekh est situéà 350 km au nord-est de Moscou, sur l’Anneau d’or. Inspirés par les styles de peinture d’icônes de Friaj et de Stroganov, les maîtres de Palekh créent leur propre technique.
La peinture d’icônes de Palekh prospère au début du XIXe siècle. Les icônes fabriquées dans la région se vendent à travers la Russie et à l’étranger. Les peintres de Palekh jouissent d’une grande demande aux niveaux les plus élevés. Lire aussi : Lire et comprendre une icône russe
Ils furent chargés de peindre les murs du Palais à facettes du Kremlin et de restaurer les fresques des cathédrales du Kremlin de Moscou , du couvent Novodevitchi, de la laure de la Trinité-Saint-Serge, des cathédrales et églises de Pskov et de nombreuses autres villes russes.
L’Hymne Acathiste au Sauveur, datant du milieu du XVIII e siècle, est la pièce maîtresse des icônes de Palekh. L’Acathiste est un éloge chantéà l’ église . Les hymnes, textes liturgiques et textes poétiques louant la gloire du Christ et de la Sainte Vierge figurent dans de nombreuses œuvres de Palekh. Ce fondement musical se reflète dans la structure de la composition et dans le rythme des couleurs des icônes. Lire aussi : Les secrets de fabrication des plus belles cloches russes
Dans les Acathistes du milieu du 18e siècle, de 1870 plus précisément, nous retrouvons le trait caractéristique de la peinture de Palekh : le mélange de la peinture de Friaj (dimensionnalité) et de la peinture tardive de Stroganov (plasticité des figures). Ici, nous voyons les constructions composites très complexes. Les peintres d’icônes de Palekh préféraient les compositions complexes avec de nombreux personnages.
Quand les bolchéviques prirent le pouvoir, la peinture d’icônes subit un brusque coup d’arrêt. Mais, contre toute attente, les maîtres de Palekh trouvèrent une nouvelle niche dans la production de miniatures laquées. Lire aussi : | 0 |
If she could change any one event in all of world history — including possibly going back in time to thwart genocidal dictators — former Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester would choose to ensure Donald Trump lost the 2016 presidential election. [The actress — set to play Paul Revere’s daughter in the upcoming Fox series Making History — made the claim in an interview with Yahoo! Style to promote the show. “Like, if I could snap my fingers? Trump would not be elected. That’s all,” Meester told the outlet. The actress noted that she may have opted to change an altogether different historic event had Trump not won the presidency in November. “As of right now, I feel that way,” she said. “Before Trump, I would have said that Hitler was never born. Humans are so f*cked up. ” Meester wasn’t particularly politically outspoken during the 2016 presidential campaign. But in a recent interview with beauty outlet Byrdie, the actress described the atmosphere in America as “crazy” and said she found it “challenging” to constantly tune in to the news. The actress added that issues of sexism and climate change continue to plague the country. “I’m not saying we should take these issues for granted. But I think what can’t be as easily defended is the environment, and people are doing irreparable damage,” she said. “It’s pretty unbelievable that there are people out there who don’t think so. They just ignore the facts, and that’s pretty scary. Four years: Maybe we don’t have that long. ” The actress — who played socialite Blair Waldorf in the popular Gossip Girl television series — is hardly the only star to compare Trump to Nazi leader Hitler. Numerous celebrities, including John Legend, Bill Maher, Louis C. K. Eva Longoria and Cher, to name just a few, have all made the comparison. So have news outlets like the Washington Post. Adolf Hitler oversaw the slaughter of six million Jews, as well as the murders of millions of others, including Polish, Serbian, and Russian political prisoners the mentally and physically handicapped (who often underwent forced sterilization) gypsies, and gay people in concentration camps across Europe during World War II. The Nazi Holocaust of Europe’s Jews — who were singled out for destruction — is considered the most infamous genocide in modern history. Hitler’s victims were gassed to death, forced on “death marches,” lined up to be shot in firing lines, and had their remains burned in crematoriums. Others starved to death or died from illnesses and diseases spread throughout the camps. Trump was elected president on November 8, 2016, and it was not immediately clear which of his policies could be reasonably compared to the death and destruction wrought by Hitler. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
It was the day before my wedding, and I still didn’t have a dress. In less than 24 hours, family and friends would be gathering to celebrate the occasion, and at this point my “something borrowed” was going to be an entire church outfit. Was I concerned? Not really, and not for long. I decided to throw a Hail Mary at my mom by asking if she would make a skirt to match the $10 top I found. She did. And it was lovely. My wedding dress was just one of many things I wasn’t concerned about. For example, five days earlier (on a Thursday, which also happened to be New Year’s Eve) I was on the phone with the woman who would become my banquet coordinator. The conversation took place about an hour after I was officially engaged (with an $8. 88 Walmart wedding ring purchased that morning) while hiking in the Sedona Verde Valley in Arizona. It went like this: HER (choking cough) “Excuse me? You’re getting married in five days, and you’re just calling me now?” ME “Well, I actually think I’m being quite generous. I just got engaged, and you’re my first call. I figured I should work out some logistics before texting everyone. And no, I’m not pregnant. ” HER “Well this is unusual. How many people are you expecting?” ME “Probably 100. ” HER (cough) “One hundred people with five days’ notice?” ME “People do it for funerals all the time. If I’ve underestimated, we’ll have leftovers. If I overestimated, I’ll just make my family eat last. ” HER “I’m not sure how to process this. O. K. let’s talk about flowers. ” ME “Ha. No, thank you. ” HER “No flowers?” ME “The room is beautiful enough, so I don’t think anyone will notice. Seems wasteful. ” HER “How about tablecloths and napkin colors?” ME “Just whatever is cheapest and most convenient. ” HER “You don’t have colors?” ME “Well, I guess the only suit my fiancé has right now is navy. Plus, he has a pink tie. So I guess we’ll go with that for our wedding colors. Navy and pink. ” HER “Is this a joke?” The entire luncheon was planned in an hour. Because Rob Reading, now my husband, and I knew each other for four years and had been dating for a year, we already knew we wanted to spend eternity together. (We had already met with our bishops for premarriage approval but had not become officially engaged.) And because of my husband’s maritime work and subsequent transfer from London to the Bay Area, along with my working on the legal team for the Little Sisters of the Poor Supreme Court case, we figured we had two options in the moments after his proposal: get married in a week or in a year. We eagerly decided it was five days to put my theory to the test. Why five days? Long ago, I became convinced that modern weddings were unnecessarily burdensome. My theory: You could plan a beautiful wedding in a week. The second call I made that day in the desert was to my parents (who told me their prayers were answered). The third call that afternoon was to the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints. I wasn’t concerned about getting a slot at the temple because early Tuesday morning isn’t prime time for weddings. It was still Day 1 of planning at this point. I already had my ceremony and reception sites secured. Wedding invitations were soon sent (yes, that day) via text message with a collage of selfies saying: “Would love to have you come if you can make it. No gifts. Just love. ” I called in favors from my best friends to do photos, hair and makeup. I pulled strings to get performers and an M. C. for the event. As I was the last of six children to marry (not to mention my 13 foster siblings) my parents certainly weren’t complaining. In addition, the small farm town that I grew up in — more cows than humans — was rejoicing that the two of us, in our 30s and 40s, were marrying at all. To be sure, five days’ notice was inconvenient for our guests, and there were a few who could not make it. But whether five days or five years, it would have been inconvenient and there would have been those who would have missed it. And surprisingly, there were only a handful of close friends who couldn’t make it, the same rate as any wedding. And some of the best parts? Total planning time: 26 hours. Total cost: $4, 500. The result, on Jan. 5, 2016, was the perfect wedding day. People said that it couldn’t have been more lovely if we had had a year to plan it. No one noticed that we didn’t have flowers. Or, as my mother, Marilyn, said: “Hallelujah! Hallelujah for putting the relationship above a wedding reception. Hallelujah for not worrying about complicated logistics. And hallelujah for not having enough time to change your mind!” Rob kept saying to me throughout the planning process, “What do you want me to do?” I told him there really wasn’t a lot that has to be done to plan the wedding, and here’s why: With each social expectation for weddings, I asked myself: “Does this achieve the goal of making the people at my wedding feel loved and appreciated for the role they play in my life? Will it help strengthen my marriage and the promises we made to each other?” If the answer was no, I didn’t waste any more time. I now appreciate applying this to other areas of life. Is where we go to dinner eternally significant? If not, it’s not worth arguing over. Do party favors for the barbecue you’re giving matter? Probably not. Enjoy the path of least resistance. If it truly represents the most important elements of your life and relationship, put time, energy and creativity into it. If not, do yourself a favor and skip the stress. Rob also saw the beauty in our short engagement and the microburst planning period. “The longer it plays out, the longer the nuisance,” he said. “It would have been just an obstacle to starting our life. So why wait?” We may not have a $200 gravy boat, and I may have worn an $8. 88 Walmart wedding ring that eventually turned my finger green, but our flowerless, wedding set the perfect precedent for married life — elegantly simple. Read More: Here’s How She Planned Her Wedding in a Week | 1 |
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Every day, it seems, we talk about Prison America; the profitable high growth industry that entombs millions of our people… stealing years, often decades, of their lives while destroying families and communities along the way… as we continue to subsidize a vicious, sagging economy built upon death… not life. Though the debate centers largely on the question of why we continue to prosecute and bury mostly young people of color and poverty for drug crimes and other non-violent offenses, the equation often misses a core component of the challenge concerning how to control willful cops… those in uniform and out… who cross the line with mostly unbridled power to dictate who goes to prison and who does not, whose reputation remains solid and whose becomes soiled, and then set about to do whatever it takes to see their view of justice be had.
In the US, result oriented justice is not new or even creative; it’s as old as the frontier sheriff with boundless power to rule with a firm hand to control who got to walk down the streets of Dodge and who did not. Of course, cops plant evidence, coerce statements and entrap folks… that’s a given. Torture, rendition and agent stings are very much now the norm. No breaking news here. Ultimately, when all else fails, it’s the modern day version of the old school way to ensure “case closed”… another “victory” for those who not only relish their power but see its arbitrary application as just fine as long as they get their man… or woman.
It seems most cops, from those directing traffic on the boulevard to the guy in the designer suit before Congress, lose sight along the way that their power is but power on loan… not owned by them to use and do with as they please when their own social, political or “security ends” justifies their means… or where they seek to lay the groundwork for future employment.
Once again, this past week, FBI Director James Comey proved that point.
Although finely polished and experienced, this lifelong Republican cop seems to feel that there’s one set of rules for all those he’s helped to send to prison and a completely different one for him… one blue book of conduct for all others in the Department of Justice but, apparently, not a volume to be found among the personal library of he who now occupies the Director’s desk of the FBI.
Time and time again, throughout the Clinton email scandal, Comey has proven himself to be not much more than an old fashioned ward healer… but with a badge… desperate for the feel of flesh or to see the flash of bulbs or, perhaps, a novice candidate for political office looking for a hook to, some day, launch his own career.
FBI Directors do not hold press conferences to discuss or explain why charges have not been pursued against a potential subject of interest or a target of an investigation. They just don’t. Inexplicably, he did.
As a matter of long settled policy, these matters are simply not offered up to the public for Monday morning debate or talking head analysis which can not only tarnish the reputation of persons cleared of criminal wrongdoing but expose investigative sources or techniques that can endanger the reliability of future investigations or the safety of agents. Indeed, legend is the cases where the door to on-going or post hoc litigation leads has been slammed shut, without hesitation, by federal judges for this very reason.
As well, the all too convenient mass publication by the FBI in this matter of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of its sensitive 302 reports (official FBI case progress memoranda) are simply unprecedented. Indeed, prisoners (and journalists) often spend years litigating access to this material which is challenged by the FBI, every step along the way, with endless technical statutory excuses for keeping it secret; even in cases, long closed, where its release might offer a ray of hope to those perhaps wrongfully convicted or overcharged.
Most stunning of all however was the cheap political ploy by Comey where but 11 days prior to the election he suggested, in a public writing to Congress, that he had uncovered newly discovered, potentially damning evidence with regard to the Clinton email scandal. The tenor and tone of the Director’s insinuation is remarkable, indeed astonishing, given the fact that apparently neither he nor any of his agents had, as of the time of the written press conference, reviewed the material itself. Can anyone say deceitful?
Even more disingenuous was the timing of this claim which not only rubbed up against firmly rooted and sound DOJ policy but, in fact, swallowed it whole as the Director slobbered away from the political dining table with a scheming smile on his face.
Although periodically ruptured, by design the mandate of federal law enforcement necessarily excludes witting participation in the political process, let alone becoming ensnarled in it, as an ostensible partisan or one consciously seeking to impact upon it one way or another. That’s the job of politicians not cops.
Indeed, the Department of Justice has, for decades, avoided taking actions that might be viewed as an attempt to influence an election. As noted in a 2012 Justice Department memo “… all employees have the responsibility to enforce the law in a neutral and impartial manner…which is ‘particularly important’ in an election year.” According to Matthew Miller, former Director of the Justice Department’s Public Affairs Office, this becomes all the more sensitive, nay, critical as Election Day draws near:
“Justice traditionally bends over backward to avoid taking any action that might be seen by the public as influencing an election, often declining to even take private steps that might become public in the 60 days leading up to an election.”
This rule finds firm footing in the position of a host of former and current Attorneys General and senior prosecutors. For example, it has been reported that former AG Janet Reno was “adamant… anything that could influence the election had to go dark,” as she suspended a politically sensitive investigation… one much further removed in time from Election Day than the most recent blindside, by the FBI Director, just 11 days before the vote to see who will lead this country for the next four years.
Remarkably, it appears Comey completely ignored the “preference” of current Attorney General Lynch… his boss… as well as her deputies that he adhere to a well established DOJ policy of remaining silent about on-going investigations and refrain from taking any steps that could influence the outcome of an election . This view has been shared by Republican prosecutors as well. As noted by George J. Terwilliger III, a deputy attorney general under President George Bush, “There’s a longstanding policy of not doing anything that could influence an election.” He added “Those guidelines exist for a reason. Sometimes, that makes for hard decisions. But bypassing them has consequences.”
Sadly, Comey’s palpable decision to charge full steam ahead and place his own view and reputation before that of the electoral process as so much the ultimate arbiter of what he believes the public should know and not… real or otherwise… on the eve of this election is not sui generis . Although different in approach, and context, he now follows a long and time tested tradition of corrupt and venal FBI directors who have not hesitated to implement personal political agendas ranging from the Palmer raids upon anarchists of the early 20 th century, to the blacklisting and perjury traps of McCarthy , to the murder of black activists under COINTELPRO .
Comey is many things. He is not however stupid or brash. He had to know that what essentially constituted a vaguely worded personal press release, in the final desperate days of a very ugly campaign, would be seized upon, by an opposing candidate, media pundits and the public, as newly discovered evidence of criminality, even without verification, that might very well alter the course of US history.
To him, it mattered not that the “new” emails were as yet unparsed. Nor did he care that their timed release would almost certainly have the consequence, if not the intended effect, to mislead the American people already battered and tired by unprecedented levels of empty rhetoric and unfounded accusations by both sides.
One can only wonder whether Comey’s blindside was simply breathtaking in its carelessness or… like the beat cop who has decided who goes to jail and who goes home… a calculated decision to place his own personal stamp of approval on who he wants to see as his next uber boss.
The path from street corners or, at times, even Board Rooms to prison cells is not a complicated walk at all. It seems these days the road to the White House is pretty much the same march… just a bit longer and nastier. | 0 |
Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana has so far played the role of Donald J. Trump’s translator to conservatives, character witness to evangelical Christians, and clarifier in chief, issuing explanatory statements after Mr. Trump has committed a variety of unforced political errors. By now, he had hoped to add another line to his 2016 political résumé: surrogate in chief, stumping with and raising money for Republican Senate candidates. But, especially among vulnerable incumbents, the reception has been tentative at best. The problem is not Mr. Pence, strictly speaking: He is largely viewed with respect and appreciation by fellow Republicans. The problem is the man on top of the ticket — and the fear that Mr. Pence is an unwitting carrier of a kind of political toxicity. “This notion that, ‘I’m Mike Pence, I’m here to help, and people won’t notice I’m associated with Donald Trump,’ in these close Senate races, is notionally absurd,” said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “The association with Trump that Pence brings into your campaign — I think most Senate candidates are going to want Mike Pence in their states the way they’re going to want a mosquito bite in Miami. ” Aides to Republicans in several contested Senate races, when asked if their candidates had any plans to appear with Mr. Pence, politely demurred. “Kelly is focused on the Senate race and talking to as many New Hampshire voters as she can, and we’ll see what happens,” said Liz Johnson, a spokeswoman for Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. “We look forward to helping Republicans up and down the ticket to make sure career politicians from the past like Senator Feingold and Hillary Clinton aren’t elected,” said Brian Reisinger, a spokesman for Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. And from the team of Senator Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania: “Pat and Mike are friends, and Pat would be happy to see him in Pennsylvania, but there are no plans to campaign together at this time,” said Ted Kwong, a campaign spokesman. Even the campaign of Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who has endorsed Mr. Trump, said the senator had no events scheduled with Mr. Pence, though he was “not closing the door. ” At one point after his selection by Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence — the understated, half of the Republican ticket — was expected to play the role of national cheerleader, bringing party loyalty and a frisson of excitement to the aid of Republicans in statewide and Senate races and helping to rally conservative voters to turn out in November. “Pence gives vulnerable senators an opportunity to campaign with the presidential ticket without the baggage of the photo op with Donald Trump,” said Nathan Gonzales, editor of The Rothenberg and Gonzales Political Report. “Trump makes it hard for many Republicans to be excited or unified about this entire election, but Pence is a breath of fresh air for them. ” But that may be in doubt, as Mr. Pence has increasingly backed up Mr. Trump, echoing some of his more contentious statements. In a CNN interview Thursday, Mr. Pence seconded Mr. Trump’s contention that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was a stronger leader than President Obama. “I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country,” Mr. Pence said. Mr. Pence did, however, break with Mr. Trump in saying he believes Mr. Obama was born in the United States. And on Friday, he released 10 years of his tax returns — though it remained unclear whether Mr. Trump would follow suit. Some appearances involving Mr. Pence may yet unfold: His aides have held discussions with several Senate campaigns, including that of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, about coordinating joint outings. (“Marco has tremendous respect and admiration for Governor Pence,” said Olivia a campaign spokeswoman, “but we have no joint events scheduled with him at this time. ”) To be sure, Mr. Pence is no outcast: Some Republicans believe that he can help shore up the party’s base in states like Arizona, Georgia and Missouri, helping to energize social conservatives who appreciate his opposition to abortion rights. He recorded a video testimonial for Representative Joe Heck, the Republican candidate in the competitive Senate race in Nevada. He has appeared with at least 17 House members, many in solidly Republican districts where turnout will be crucial three governors and four senators — including Richard Burr of North Carolina, who is in a tough fight, and Mike Lee of Utah, who hosted Mr. Pence at a policy forum recently. “Mike’s excited to continue to unify the party behind the ticket and he looks forward to helping competitive Senate races wherever he can,” said Marc Short, a senior Pence adviser. “He knows it will be important to have a Republican Senate when he and Mr. Trump are elected. ” But Mr. Pence’s firepower in attracting favorable attention, including that of major political donors, is somewhat limited. He lacks the star power of a Sarah Palin or Paul D. Ryan: Though reporters, aides and Secret Service agents were looking on while Mr. Pence got a haircut in Pennsylvania recently, the barber had no idea his customer was a candidate. Another indication: He has appeared on Fox News only about a dozen times since becoming Mr. Trump’s running mate. As Mr. Pence himself likes to joke, he’s “kind of a Republican celebrity. ” Instead, he has been more active behind the scenes, not only helping Mr. Trump, but also burnishing his own credentials and relationships — something that could help further his own political ambitions if Mr. Trump is defeated. He has quietly reached out to former Trump rivals, like former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and to fierce opponents, like the Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes, to try to quell lingering tensions. “It’s a very, very soft sell,” said Mr. Sykes, an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump who met privately with Mr. Pence during a recent campaign swing through the state. “He asks nothing. He basically said, ‘Can we keep the lines of communication open? ’” The Trump campaign has also largely ceded donor outreach to Mr. Pence, according to an Indiana Republican briefed on the discussions Mr. Trump does not enjoy making donor calls, and Mr. Pence’s team has an existing apparatus. On Tuesday, Mr. Pence will headline a in Washington — the first in the capital for the campaign. Ryan Williams, a Republican strategist who worked for Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012, said that while Mr. Pence was “a nice guy” and generally some Senate candidates understandably choose to avoid unnecessary risks. “The concern isn’t that Mike Pence is going to say something crazy,” Mr. Williams said. “It’s that Donald Trump, on the other side of the country, is going to say something crazy, and he’ll have to clean it up — and that will involve other Republicans at the event. So even just having Mike Pence there could be a distraction. ” | 1 |
Smaller lavatories are helping airlines to add extra seats to new and existing aircraft for more profit, but some passengers — if they can get into the bathrooms — say they are being shortchanged. The continuing installation of smaller and reconfigured bathrooms, which began in late 2013, has led to complaints about safety issues, say travelers and flight crew, who are concerned about restricted access for the physically disabled, as well as ease of use for other passengers Barry Brandes, a retired singer from Somers, N. Y. travels several times a year on United Airlines. At Mr. Brandes said that getting into the new lavatories on the Boeing a airplane, is not easy. “If I don’t duck, I hit my head on the door,” he said. “I can’t stand up completely, so I have to twist myself into a pretzel to use the facility. ” United has a total of 250 Boeing and aircraft that feature a combination of the new lavatory and the traditional lavatory, according to Erin Benson, a spokeswoman. In an email, she said the airplanes are reconfigured for the best use of space. In some aircraft, she noted, lavatories in first class have a new design, but have not decreased in size, while new lavatories located between first class and the first row of economy have decreased in size. The configuration of the toilets can make it especially difficult during medical emergencies to help travelers who are incapacitated or unable to move on their own, said Jeffrey A. Tonjes, a spokesman for United flight attendants in the Association of Flight a union that represents 50, 000 flight attendants at 18 airlines. “Both passenger and flight attendant are in harm’s way for injury or slowed response if we have difficulty getting to the passenger,” Mr. Tonjes said. “United Airlines is aware of this, and committed to addressing the issue about a year ago, but has been slow in getting the fix done. ” The square footage of the old and new bathrooms varies, depending on their location — whether they are in the back next to the galley, on the sides of the plane in front of the galley, in coach or in first class — and the model of aircraft. This reporter recently measured the lavatories on a Boeing which had the traditional, older bathrooms, and on a which had the newer bathrooms. The traditional lavatories in first class and coach on a Boeing measured, 41 inches long by 34½ inches wide by 75 inches high. On a Boeing the new bathroom in first class measured 36 by 27 by 77, and in coach measured 39¾ by 24½ by 77. The new lavatories, which had smaller sinks and trash receptacles, were a bit taller than the traditional bathrooms, but narrower and less deep. Ms. Benson, who declined to give official dimensions, said only that the newer bathrooms shrank three to four inches from the sink to the opposite wall, and lengthened two to three inches from the back of the toilet to the door. The smaller bathrooms, combined with smaller galleys and trimmer seats with less pitch, allow space for an extra row of seats in the rear. Doug Alder, a spokesman for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said that airlines choose their own lavatory, galley and seat arrangements from various suppliers to create optimal use of cabin space. He declined to reveal lavatory dimensions and added, in an email, that “there is currently only one supplier for lavs across all models of the 737 — Aerospace. ” Numerous phone calls requesting an interview with executives from Aerospace, which has its headquarters in Wellington, Fla. were not returned. Ms. Benson of United declined to comment on complaints about the smaller bathrooms and referred questions to Airlines for America, a trade group that represents major United States airlines. Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for the group, wrote in an email: “I’m not aware of issues or complaints on the matter. ” United is not the only airline to install smaller lavatories on its newer aircraft. Bobbie Egan, an Alaska Airlines spokeswoman, said six of its airline’s 153 Boeing 737s have lavatories that were slightly reduced in size, and that no customer complaints have been registered. “Separately, adjusting [the seat] pitch and removing a lavatory and closet on these six planes enabled us to add one row of seats,” Ms. Egan wrote in an email. Delta Air Lines flies the Boeing which all have the smaller lavatories, and Airbus 320s, which are undergoing cabin modification. “A small number of the A320s now have the smaller lavs,” said Morgan Durrant, a spokesman for Delta. He said that in customer surveys, there has been no significant feedback or complaints about the size of the lavatories, and no reports of related injuries. Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight has a different perspective. “The concerns are uniform across the industry,” said Ms. Nelson, who added that does not represent Delta flight attendants, who are not unionized. Describing facing lavatories, she said that “the doors of these restrooms open into each other, creating safety issues. There are a lot of injuries, with smashed fingers, doors hitting people, bumps and bruises. ” Ms. Nelson said that the rear cabin restroom doors also create a barricade between the cabin and the back galley when open, limiting the ability of crew to maneuver if a passenger in the cabin is in trouble. Some parents with small children say they cannot help their kids in the toilet unless the door stays open. Passengers of size, and those with physical challenges, say getting into the smaller lavatories is often not possible for them. Jake Fitzpatrick, who is in the process of introducing a that reviews travel accommodations for the physically challenged, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, which requires a caregiver’s help in order to use the restroom. When he takes Delta and Alaska Airlines, Mr. Fitzpatrick said, it’s impossible for him to get into their bathrooms, so he uses restrooms at the airport before boarding. “It’s hard to hold it, even for three to four hours,” said Mr. Fitzpatrick, who lives in Portland, Ore. “If I go before, it takes 30 to 45 minutes to board everybody, and when we land, we often have to wait for a gate. A to flight means someone with a disability might have to wait five to six hours to go to the bathroom. ” Department of Transportation rules require at least one accessible lavatory on aircraft, but do not require accessible lavatories on aircraft like the Boeing or Airbus 320, which are used for many to flights. Caitlin Harvey, a spokeswoman for the department, wrote in an email that the department has not received a significant number of written complaints from passengers with disabilities about the size of bathrooms on aircraft. However, she said, disability rights advocates have consistently raised the issue, advocating a rule requiring airlines to provide an accessible lavatory on aircraft. So the department has formed the Advisory Committee on Accessible Air Transportation, which comprises industry representatives, disability rights advocates and other experts, to look into it. “The committee is studying a range of promising design and layout solutions, both with respect to the lavatories themselves and with respect to onboard wheelchair design, that may be implemented in the and ” Ms. Harvey wrote in an email. “The committee is also studying the costs and that may come with imposing any new accessibility standards. ” Such changes can’t come soon enough for travelers like Wilma Abbey, a retired teacher from the Nashville area, whose two hip replacements have made maneuvering in airplane bathrooms very difficult. “Just wait until someone gets stuck in one of those bathrooms, causing an emergency landing, and the airline gets sued,” Ms. Abbey said. “How much money do the airlines have to make before they provide the basic necessities? I’d like to see airline executives sit in coach and use the bathrooms they’ve provided us. It’s just an insult to the customers. ” | 1 |
Abedin & Weiner to Testify Against Clinton
Huma Abedin, Hillary’s Clinton’s top aide with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Sexter, the former Congressman, Anthony Weiner, are at the center of the most recent FBI investigation. Things are about to get very interesting. | 0 |
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The concept of evolution should not be limited to the scientific assertions around Darwin’s theory of natural selection, but ought to include the more general idea that people and processes constantly evolve in response to the forces that surround them. We evolve from childhood into adulthood, and, ideally, from self-centeredness toward the good of larger entities like our community or nation (and now, faced with climate change, the good of our planet). Political arrangements have evolved from the divine right of kings into still–evolving democratic systems.
A Supreme Court justice’s orientation toward evolution in this basic sense determines whether he or she is a strict originalist (a nicer word for fundamentalist), or sees the Constitution as a living document that must be responsive to changing conditions. No founding father composing the second amendment could have foreseen the surfeit of guns decimating our country today.
Such evolutionary processes are alive, dynamic, an unstoppable juggernaut pervading every aspect of reality. Against them, even the determination not to evolve has evolutionary effects, as we have seen in the bizarre presidential process of the past year. A Neanderthal candidate has helped awaken a generation of young women, and ideally young men also, to evolve beyond being victims of crude chauvinist stereotypes.
The whole cosmos has been evolving for 13.8 billion years, from energy to matter to, here on earth, life and self-conscious life. Evolution is the context of our reality, the story all humans share. This story is beginning to seep into collective consciousness in a way that may yet render obsolete divisions such as those between Shia and Sunni, let alone between “radical Islamic fundamentalism” and the “post-Enlightenment West.” We all evolved from the same mysterious source. Every differentiation in that largest context, by race, tribe, religion, ethnicity, feels arbitrary and abstract.
It is not surprising that fundamentalism in whatever form has often found the evolutionary paradigm threatening, because it implies a challenging dynamic of change that feels insecure. For many believers, to generalize unfairly, religion provides behavioral rules that can be a source of security and comfort even as they are used as excuses to remain exclusive and resist evolving.
Within each world religion, there are minority enclaves (the Sufis in Islam, Zen practitioners of Buddhism, Catholic mystics like Teilhard de Chardin) who understand that their spiritual discipline is an opportunity to evolve toward inclusivity, toward looking within at fears and projections rather than looking outward for enemies, and toward expanding our identifications and responsibilities beyond the national to the planetary.
Far from being a benign, feel-good process, evolution is often painful, one step forward, two back. Take the tortured but necessary demise of the American coal industry. No one wants to see the debilitating effects of unemployment on real people with real families, but so far the technology of coal burning hasn’t evolved a way not to accelerate global warming.
We humans are supposedly not built to respond effectively to long-term threats like changes in climate, but, late in the game as it is, we do seem to be collectively learning what is at stake and evolving locally and globally. Entrepreneurs are rapidly bringing to market solar, wind, and other cleaner and more sustainable energy sources.
Unfortunately, negative and harmful processes can also become subject to an evolutionary juggernaut. Since 1945 weapons systems have evolved (more accurately, we have evolved them) to a level of complexity and destructive power that we are already powerless to control. The Pentagon is reported to be spending its usual vast sums on research into computer-controlled robotic drones capable of making their own autonomous decisions about who is an enemy. The defense establishments of other great nations are presumably up to the same mischief, or soon will be, because the arms race never stops evolving. Or won’t until we embrace a new way of thinking: that we must evolve to survive.
We, we the nations, are hopelessly complacent in our present reliance upon deterrence as a workable security system. As the fellow falling from the hundredth floor said as he passed the sixtieth: so far so good. The system, an emperor with no clothes solemnly worshipped by legions of self-confident experts, is too complex not to be subject to breakdown at any moment, perhaps by accident, perhaps where NATO and Russia push up against each other in Eastern Europe, perhaps in Kashmir.
The threat of nuclear extinction provides a new context for the obsolete parochialism of the world’s major religions. If this threat isn’t enough to accelerate the ecumenical impulse, what is? As people of diverse spiritual worldviews acknowledge that they have in common the possibility of annihilation, our shared anxiety can energize evolution toward inclusivity and nonviolent solutions to conflict. The world is in a race between fundamentalists and arms manufacturers on the one hand, and evolutionaries who see clearly both the futile dead-end of the arms race and the possibility of a security built upon the truth of interdependence, which appears in similar form in all the religions as the Golden Rule. We will live together or die together. As we treat others, so we will be treated. Whether they each understand this or not, this is the hidden-in-plain-sight background behind the Trump-Clinton mud-wrestle.
Will the arms manufacturers and the politicians in league with them evolve in the face of the nuclear threat in a way similar to our positive responses to the challenge of climate instability? I live in Maine, where the state’s largest private employer is the Bath Iron Works. They are building three of a new kind of guided missile destroyer that is contoured to hide from radar. Each one costs 4 billion dollars. Recently I had a conversation with an Iron Works employee. I made the assumption that, given his job, he would be hawkishly supportive of a robust military. Not at all. His exact parting words were “I’d be much happier building solar panels.” Related | 0 |
Oct 26, 2016 3:52 PM 0 SHARES
The long await IPO of Snapchat is finally coming: according to Bloomberg the social media will seek to raise as much as $4 billion in its planned initial public offering, making it the biggest social media company to go public since Twitter's initial public offering in November 2013.
Bloomberg reports that The IPO could value Snapchat at about $25 billion to $35 billion, citing unnamed sources, and while no final decision has been made and the size of the IPO may change, and the valuation could reach as much as $40 billion, one of the people said.
In a surprising twist, because the company’s revenue is less than $1 billion, it plans to file IPO documents confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the people said.
Snapchat chose Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to lead its offering, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, Allen & Co., Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG will also be involved as joint book runners, the people said.
The Los Angeles-based company makes an application for sharing selfies and videos, watching news videos and chatting with friends. After its last funding round, Snap’s private market value reached $18 billion. | 0 |
On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus declared congressional Democrats had a “colossal failure” in the spending bill. In referring to the Democrats losing the requirement that defense spending match programs, Priebus said, “That’s one of the biggest colossal failures of the Democratic party that no one is talking about. ” He added, “They lost on military spending. We got one of the biggest increases in military spending in the history of these increases,” he said. “Number two, for the first time in six years our military is going to get a raise. We got a billion and a half dollars we can do work on on the border, including 20 foot border walls that are going to up where fencing existing today. We are going to be able to buy the property we need to continue the wall moving forward” ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
This year, the Ides of March marks the 236th anniversary of one of the most important — yet widely unknown — battles of the American Revolution: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse. [Near Greensboro, North Carolina, Robert Kirkwood and his men lined up facing the Redcoats, including the dreaded Banastre Tarleton, a cavalry officer known for his ruthlessness. A light breeze carried the sound of fifes and Highlander pipes across the field in front of the county courthouse. With blood dripping from his sword, the Patriot cavalry officer, Light Horse Harry Lee, father of General Robert E. Lee, delivered a stirring address to prepare his men for battle: “My brave boys, your lands, your lives and your country depend on your conduct this day — I have given Tarleton hell this morning, and I will give him more of it before night. ” Listen to O’Donnell discuss this article on Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM: Forming the front line, members of Kirkwood’s Delaware Blues, flanked by militia and cavalry, stared across the recently plowed cornfield at the “scarlet uniforms, burnished armor, and banners floating in the breeze” as Cornwallis’s army assembled in formation more than four hundred yards in front of them. In the damp, cold morning air, the Americans took their carefully plotted positions in the defense and prepared for what proved to be one of the most crucial battles of the war. Born in 1746, Kirkwood graduated from Newark Academy (now the University of Delaware) and worked on his family’s farm before becoming a first lieutenant in the Delaware Regiment at the age of . Later promoted to captain and brevetted to major at the end of the war, “Captain Bob” was a man of steel who marched thousands of miles and, beginning in 1775, took part in at least battles for his country during the Revolution. His order book, which served as a daily diary, recorded that he and his men marched more than 5, 000 miles, many times barefoot, often without pay or shelter, and with limited food and threadbare uniforms. Typically, Washington employed Kirkwood’s unit for reconnaissance missions or as an indefatigable rear guard. Against the odds, Captain Bob and his Delaware Blues fought and made the difference at many inflection points during the Revolution. The story of this epic battle and the intrepid Robert Kirkwood is recounted in Washington’s Immortals, a bestselling book released in paperback this week. The first treatment of the Revolution, it captures key events of the war from the point of view of the soldiers in the Maryland and Delaware Continentals (Washington’s elite shock troops). This groundbreaking book offers a perspective from the most elite units in Washington’s army, the fighting force the general called upon, time and again, to hold the line or turn the tide in decisive battles. The fighting at Guilford began on March 15, 1781, with artillery volleys from both sides. As the men heard and felt the ominous thunder of the cannons, Lee reminded those in the front lines to “stand to make two fires” before falling back. They would use the same “collapsing box” defense tactics that had served them well at the Battle of Cowpens, where Kirkwood’s men and the Marylanders repulsed the British and conducted a famous bayonet charge that altered the course of history. The British advanced across the field. Remembering their orders, Kirkwood and the others shot twice before withdrawing through the second line of defense. Their goal was to entice the British to follow them deeper into the Patriot lines, forcing the Redcoats to fight through dense brush and gullies before they reached the backbone of Washington’s Army, the Maryland Line, accompanied by the rest of the Delaware Regiment and Virginia Continentals. The British succumbed to the ruse. Thinking the Americans were fleeing, they surged forward. But as the British drew near, the second line of defense opened up with devastating effect on the enemy troops. Stunned, the British advance momentarily stalled as the Americans continued picking off soldiers. Falling back from the front line as Lee ordered, the Delaware Blues’ fight was far from over. Now positioned within the trees flanking the battlefield, they used the foliage for cover as they continued firing, drawing the enemy ever closer to the Marylanders and other Continental units that comprised the third and final line of defense. Approximately and hour and thirty minutes after the battle commenced, the British reached the third line of defense. The fresh Marylanders stood ready to hammer the British troops who were, by then, exhausted from fighting. At first, the Marylanders appeared to be winning, but inexperienced militia were sprinkled within the ranks of the veterans. As the British bore down with the cold steel of their bayonets, some of the militia began to break. Yet most of the Continental Line held as the engagement became a brawl between men from the opposing sides. Desperate for a victory, British General Cornwallis attempted a dangerous gamble. He ordered his artillery to fire into the mass of fighting men. Deadly grapeshot tore through the limbs of British and Americans alike. Exposed to the deadly fire, the Marylanders began a slow withdrawal. The American commander on the scene, General Nathanael Greene, decided it was time to cut his losses. He had achieved his objective of badly damaging Cornwallis’s army and inflicting enormous casualties. He left scores of bleeding and dying in his wake. Cornwallis’s commissary general Charles Stedman captured the carnage: “The night was remarkable for its darkness accompanied with rain which fell in torrents. Nearly fifty of the wounded, it is said sinking under their aggravated miseries, expired before the morning. The cries of the wounded and dying, who remained on the field of action during the night exceeded all description. Such a complicated scene of horror and distress, it is hoped, for the sake of humanity, rarely occurs, even in military life. ” Harry Lee summed it up differently, calling the battle an American strategic victory and singling out Kirkwood and his men, saying, “The company of Delaware under Kirkwood, to whom none could be superior. ” Despite having achieved a pyrrhic victory, Cornwallis’s army was too attenuated to pursue the Americans as they retreated. The British general relocated his army to Wilmington, North Carolina, to rest and recover, initiating a chain of events that would eventually allow the Americans to trap and defeat his army at Yorktown. Neither side realized it at the time, but the Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a major turning point that positioned the Americans for their ultimate victory. For Robert Kirkwood, Guilford Courthouse was just one more episode in a military career. He would survive throughout the Revolution and continue serving his country afterward. He met his fate as he would have desired — on the battlefield. In November 1791, he participated in the fight against Native Americans at the Battle of the Wabash (St. Clair’s Defeat) near Fort Recovery, Ohio. A fellow officer recalled that Kirkwood had been sick for weeks “yet always ready for duty. ” At the start of the epic battle, Kirkwood was “cheering his men, and by his example, inspiring confidence in all who saw him. ” A veteran of more than thirty battles, Kirkwood, shot through the abdomen, fell mortally wounded. Asked if he wished to be carried off the field, he faced the Indians and told a fellow officer, “No, I am dying save yourself, if you can, and leave me to my fate. . . . I see the Indians coming and God knows how they will treat me. ” The enemy scalped and killed Kirkwood in one of the worst defeats ever for an American army. Forgotten heroes such as Robert Kirkwood, steeled by resilience and courage, bent history by fighting for a country not yet born and a cause in which they believed with all their hearts and souls. Patrick K. O’Donnell is a bestselling, critically acclaimed military historian and an expert on elite units. He is the author of ten books. Washington’s Immortals is his newest, which has just been released as a soft cover and has been named one of the 100 Best American Revolution Books of All Time by the Journal of the American Revolution. O’Donnell served as a combat historian in a Marine rifle platoon during the Battle of Fallujah and speaks often on espionage, special operations, and counterinsurgency. He has provided historical consulting for DreamWorks’ miniseries Band of Brothers and for documentaries produced by the BBC, the History Channel, and Discovery. PatrickkODonnell. com @combathistorian | 1 |
Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo stepped up to the microphone during the World Series rally in Grant Park and choked up, as he spoke about what it meant to be able to be on a team with the 38-year-old catcher David Ross, who was a mentor to him. Rizzo, Ross, and center fielder Dexter Fowler stood shoulder-to-shoulder singing that silly jingle, the one that goes, “Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey, Chicago, whaddya say? Cubs are gonna win today.” It all really hit home for me as a Cubs fan.
Life is full of things that bring us joy but carry unsavory aspects to them. The Cubs team is owned by Tom Ricketts, a man who donated $1 million to Donald Trump and bears a frightening resemblance to Ted Cruz; so much that one might think Ricketts was his brother. The Cubs also signed Aroldis Chapman, a closer, who served a 30-game suspension this year for domestic abuse. Cubs executives and city officials are responsible for some pretty rapid gentrification in the area of Wrigleyville. With that said, almost all of the Cubs players had fun with each other and never let the pressures of fan-fueled folklore around “curses” defeat them. That made the postseason truly blissful.
This is where I wrote, Thomas G, my father’s name on the wall. I had to squeeze it in near the brick sidewalk.
I live about seven blocks from Wrigley Field. I went down there multiple times in the past week. The day after they won, I went down to Wrigley Field to write my father’s name on the stadium wall and join thousands of other Cubs fans in paying tribute to family, who died before they could see the Cubs win a World Series. In the immediate hours after their sweet victory, I took my life into my own hands and went down to the area around Clark and Addison to snap a photo of the stadium sign with “World Series Champions” emblazoned on it.
On Sunday, right before Game 5, down 3-1 in the series, I stood outside the friendly confines and said to myself—and to my father, even though I don’t really believe in this kind of stuff, this was going to be the game where they turned it all around. That they could still come back. Also, I bought a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times after each game, even the editions with the devastating headlines on Game 3 and Game 4, because it was important to have the full story. I can now put those papers side-by-side and forever see the journey the Chicago Cubs took and relive the heart-wrenching and euphoric moments that took place.
This seismic sports event—ending the longest championship drought in American sports history—gripped me like so many other Americans. It taught me, once again, the importance of slowing down life and reveling in these kind of experiences. Which I know is easy for me to say. I did not have a boss, who told me I had to work a night shift or else I would be fired. I did not have to worry about what I was going to do to feed my children or prevent my home from being foreclosed. I did not have to be concerned about an array of disadvantages people should not have to confront on a daily basis, but all too often we just go, go, go, and lose sight of those little things that can make us feel a bit more content in life. Or we reject slowing down to appreciate something amazing that magnificently disrupts our routine.
Additionally, during an election that has smothered and shaken many of us, the perfect antidote was watching this team play baseball. Players like Rizzo let their guard down and made themselves vulnerable in front of us. They were on a world stage, where they perhaps may have thought they needed to maintain a level of toughness or masculinity. Rizzo, on the other hand, as he now famously told Ross during Game 7, was an “emotional wreck,” and he did not seem to be ashamed of making that confession.
Many of us were “emotional wrecks.” Everyone watching this series felt like “emotional wrecks” at some point. Not everyone watched all moments of the games, unless you happened to be in the select group of people that possibly had tickets to all the games.
I’ll never forget how Ross told Rizzo it was only going to get worse in the 9th inning. He was right. The Cleveland Indians tied the game in the 8th, acrobatic second baseman Javier Baez had a mishap with a bunt that could have been costly in the 9th, and fans had to bow their heads and hope Chapman would not make a mistake, even though manager Joe Maddon clearly overworked him the past few games.
Statue outside Wrigley Field of Ernie Banks (Photo by Kevin Gosztola)
The weather went from great to pouring rain. There was a delay. That delay gave the team a kind of gift, a bit of a halftime to find their composure to go out and win in the 10th inning. (It was suggested during the rally that this may have been a gift from legendary shortstop and first baseman, Ernie Banks, who was “Mr. Cub.” Or, legendary third baseman Ron Santo, who later became a WGN radio broadcaster. )
So, Rizzo, the “emotional wreck,” stepped up to the microphone during the rally and gave this very real and human tribute to a mentor, “Grandpa” Ross, who played his last game on November 2.
“Gramps and I sat down a few years ago in an offseason before his last season with Boston. He was a free agent, and we just talked,” Rizzo shared. “We had the same agent. We’re talking, and I say to my agent, man, this is what the Chicago Cubs need. He is exactly what we need to bring everything together. Obviously, a lot of pieces came through with that, but he taught myself personally how to become a real winner. He’s like a brother to me.”
Fighting back tears, Rizzo continued, “He’s taught me a lot in life—on the field, off the field, how to be a better person. I’m forever grateful for him. He’s going out a champion forever. For the rest of his life, he can say the last game that he played he’s a world champion.”
That to me is what has made these past moments special. The fact that it took so very long for the team to finally win a baseball championship means all three-to-four generations were brought together. Sons and daughters know their parents longed for this, and many of them have parents, who longed to see what happened. If those parents are still alive, their parents were ecstatic to have lived to see a Cubs World Series.
Kevin Gosztola
Families shared stories about their first games, games they remembered, games they want to forget, and games they saw with their fathers or mothers. They shared stories of players they remembered or recalled when they first put on a Cubs baseball hat or wore a jersey with their favorite player’s name on the back. I dug out a photo of me when I was a toddler wearing my Cubs shirt.
I am 28 years-old. I waited 13 years for this because 2003 was the first postseason, where I really got into watching the Cubs play and experienced what it meant to fail to end the drought when they lost to the Florida Marlins in the National League Championship Series. That is a rather short time span when compared to legions of fans.
Maddon said, “It’s a players’ game.” Indeed, but for the Cubs, it’s unique. Cubs baseball was essentially a fans’ game, much more so than other ball clubs.
The last two years of decisions by business executives were made for the fans. The scouts, who went out and found these all-star players, did it for the fans. They recognized there were so many aging Chicago Cubs fans, who kept asking them on the street if they were going to live to see the Cubs win a World Series. Theo Epstein, one of the executives who enabled this team, did not want to have to tell any more fans to take their vitamins when asked if this would be The Year.
Even with 103 wins in the regular season and the status of number one team in baseball, all too many fans were aware of the record for teams, who came in to the postseason on top and did not make it to the World Series. We also took note of the statistics for comebacks in the World Series when teams were down 3-1. So few ever win not only three games in a row but three games in a row, including two on the road.
That put tremendous pressure on the Cubs players. They clearly felt it, and we thank them for putting up with millions of “emotional wrecks.”
As fans process and revel in the fact that it happened (as Maddon would say, how we did not suck), I think about what this means for next year. For the first time, it is possible to watch the Cubs without bringing a legacy of doubt and negativity to games. There are no more goats. There is no more Steve Bartman. There are no more distractions that are not typically part of baseball. Everyone’s favorite punchlines don’t really work anymore. They all are part of the past, and the immediate future is baseball with a team that will have some of the players, who won this championship and who will undoubtedly find ways to dazzle us again as they attempt to repeat as champions in 2017.
***
For a coda, Chicago Cubs fan Caitlin Swieca pledged a day after Chapman signed with the team in July to donate $10 to a Chicago domestic violence organization every time he got a save. Her campaign managed to raise over $31,000, especially when it took off after she shared it on Twitter.
Swieca told ESPN she thought during Game 7, “We all compromised what we believed in to root for this guy, and he’s gonna blow it.” Then, it shifted to a celebration. Cubs pitcher Mike Montgomery got his first career save ever, and it was in Game 7 of the World Series. She was happy Chapman did not get the glory and said it couldn’t have been scripted better.
Oh, and at the parade, some of us fans looked up to see a plane with a banner that read, “Chinese Americans For Trump Go Cubs.” I stood next to a Filipino American family, who had some Chinese heritage in their ancestry. She thought it must be a joke. Then, someone told her it was real. They read something about this group of Chinese Americans. Instantly, she said she was insulted.
We’re not all Trump fans because Ricketts owns our team. Only a small segment are, and they are the same kind of white men and women disconnected from reality, who you will find in the fandom of just about every American sports team. They would probably support Trump whether Ricketts was a Cubs executive or not.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel were at the rally, but they are both hot garbage. Neither took the stage to speak, and I view that as some kind of small political victory that sweetens the victory over a baseball team with a racist/colonialist sports mascot, which should be replaced immediately. In fact, let’s conjure the Curse of the Racist Mascot and say the Cubs passed it on to them and that’ll prolong their championship drought until they replace Chief Wahoo. Maybe then the Indians will get rid of him.
The post It Happened: Personal Notes From A Young Chicago Cubs Fan appeared first on Shadowproof .
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Doreen Virtue – It’s a week of you getting unstuck and making great progress . . . provided that you listen to and take action upon your inner divine guidance. You are guided to take quiet time for yourself so you can really hear God’s guidance for you, because exciting and positive healings and manifestations are awaiting you.
With the Messages From Your Angels Oracle Cards at http://bit.ly/MessagesCards
SF Source Doreen Virtue | 0 |
After President Donald Trump described former President Barack Obama as a “sick guy,” the former president’s loyal team rose in unison to defend him. [Obama’s office quickly asserted that the president had a “cardinal rule” not to interfere with investigations led by the Department of Justice. “Enough said,” wrote former White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, sharing the statement on Twitter. Trump’s accusations clearly triggered a nerve among former Obama staffers, as many of them spent their weekend battling back the suggestion that their boss engaged in shady tactics to take down Trump. Obama’s former foreign policy spokesman Ben Rhodes sprang into action on Twitter, directing a series of challenges to Trump’s statements. “No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you,” he wrote on Twitter, challenging Trump. He also denounced Trump’s assertion that a lawyer could make a case that Obama was wiretapping his phones. “No. They couldn’t. Only a liar could do that,” he replied. Rhodes appeared disturbed that the pundits had lauded Trump’s speech to Congress earlier in the week, suggesting that they were part of the problem and shaming them for their assessment. “Dear Pundits who lauded his speech. Is it still ‘presidential’ to call your dignified predecessor ‘Bad (or sick) guy! ’” he asked. Rhodes, who famously bragged about creating an “echo chamber” to sell the Iran nuclear deal to the public, was deep in the process of creating a new one as Trump’s claims rocketed through the news. “This isn’t a campaign anymore. WH needs to explain what’s going on with these repeated blatant lies about a matter of justice and natsec,” he wrote. “He’s lying no matter what ‘3 people with direct knowledge’ say. This isn’t he said he said. Obama did not order a wiretap. That is a fact. ” “This seems ‘nutts,’” Obama’s former campaign chief David Axelrod chimed in on Twitter. “Frantic way in which Donald Trump is kicking up dust only adds to suspicions and the need for full public reckoning. If there were the wiretap Donald Trump loudly alleges, such an extraordinary warrant would only have been OKed by a court for a reason. ” Former Obama speechwriters Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau, who recently launched a “Crooked Media” left wing media outlet, immediately launched a series of snarky messages on Twitter. “They said Trump was presidential on Tuesday,” Lovett wrote on Twitter. “Nixon got weird at night. Trump wakes up angry. ” He directed his angry followers on Twitter to question members of Congress. “Important also to direct your anger at the Republicans in Congress who have enabled and apologized for this awful devious moron,” he wrote. Obama former senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer also questioned Republicans for their failure to denounce Trump’s accusations. “Have any elected Republicans had the courage to speak out against Trump’s deeply, deranged tweets this morning?” he asked. Other Obama staffers were still reacting to initial accusations. “Jesus, I can’t sleep until 8am on Saturday anymore?” complained Favreau on Twitter on Saturday. After Obama’s statement was released, Favreau asserted that the former president never denied any wiretapping of Trump Tower, suggesting that Trump was guilty. “I’d be careful about reporting that Obama said there was no wiretapping. Statement just said that neither he nor the WH ordered it,” he wrote. Other staffers reacted with incredulity. “Why would Obama decide close out his presidency by illegally wiretapping a buffoon that everyone thought was going to lose in a landslide?” questioned Tommy Vietor, Obama’s former National Security Council spokesman. Citing a report from CNN’s Jake Tapper asserting that Trump’s claim came from a Breitbart News story, Vietor added,”Jake confirms what we all assumed. Trump shares conspiracies with all the forethought of your crazy uncle on Facebook. ” Favreau quickly slipped into gallows humor as the afternoon wore on. “By tomorrow morning, the party line will be that Obama personally bugged Trump Tower while disguised as the cable guy,” he wrote, and added, “I just learned that Trump robbed a bank. And I have exactly as much evidence for that claim as Trump does that Obama tapped his phone. ” “Wiretap birtherism is not a governing strategy,” Rhodes replied, citing Favreau’s tweet. On Sunday, former White House press secretary Josh Earnest went on ABC’s This Week to deny the allegations and raise more questions about Trump’s involvement in Russia. “The bigger the scandal, the more outrageous the tweet,” he said as he joined the show with Martha Raddatz. Earnest stoked the fires of speculation surrounding Trump’s campaign communications with the Russians. “It is almost like a Russian novel to try to keep up with all these conversations,” Earnest said, citing multiple incidents of Trump campaign officials coming into contact with representatives of the Russian government. When pressed for details about the investigation, Earnest feigned ignorance, pointing out that he was “not aware” of any details but repeated that Obama did not meddle with the investigation. “Here’s the simple answer to that question, is, Martha, I don’t know and it’s not because I’m no longer in government,” he said. “The fact is, even when I was in government, I was not in a position of being regularly briefed on an FBI criminal or counterintelligence investigation. ” But as the day wore on, the team appeared increasingly frustrated that Trump’s narrative was taking hold. “Needs to be repeated: this is not he it’s Obama didn’t do what Trump said. Trump lied about it and offered no proof,” Rhodes urged on Twitter. “[F]or the MILLIONTH TIME, the White House doesn’t interfere in independent investigations,” Favreau complained in response to the former United States director of National Intelligence’s denial of the existence of a wiretap on Trump Tower in an interview on Meet the Press. The group, who maintained discipline during the Obama administration, appeared to enjoy their new found freedom to defend their boss and detract from his successor. The squad began cynically floating their own conspiracy theories with a thread of gallows humor. “What did you know and when did you know it about Trump lying about where Obama was born, when he founded ISIL, ordering wiretaps?” Rhodes joked to Favreau, who promoted his upcoming podcast about the fiasco. Citing a claim from Trump’s former campaign manager Cory Lewandowski, Rhodes mockingly added that “the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy” joined Obama by listening into a meeting between the Russian ambassador and Sen. Jeff Sessions. “Remember that time Valerie and I took the space shuttle to the moon to get the forged birth certificate?” he wrote to Favreau and Feiffer. “Do you even know how many Mass voters I drove to NH on Election Day?” replied Favreau, citing another one of Trump’s claims of voter fraud. “Don’t tell anyone, but I worked with Ted Cruz’s dad to kill JFK,” joked Feiffer. “My last act on the job was using massive amounts of Iranian invisible ink to make Trump inauguration crowds disappear,” Rhodes continued. | 1 |
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Hillary Clinton has gone and done it now! After acting like she has nothing to hide in the emails seized by the FBI, she managed to pull some strings and sabotage the NEW investigation before it even began…
It turns out that she got her good friend Loretta Lynch to assign a man named Peter Kadzik from the Department of Justice to oversee the case against her. Peter Kadzik
So who is Peter Kadzik? Well, thanks to Wikileaks we know that he is a good, personal friend of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and future Chief of Staff if she wins.
In fact, Peter Kadzik was mentioned more than TWENTY TIMES in Podesta’s emails!
Now just try and tell me that is not as rigged as it gets.
This is gonna be an all out war between the FBI and the Department of Justice, and if we want Hillary to get her just deserts, we gotta be ready to help Director Comey fight back!
Now, step one to beating Hillary Clinton is to share this out to everyone you know. We the people need to demand a FAIR investigation. NEXT PAGE==> | 0 |
LOL! Remember When Obama Told Trump He’d Never Be President? (VIDEO) shares
Just a few weeks ago on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, Obama mocked Donald Trump saying he’d never be president. The audience laughed and cheered. Everyone was so sure Obama was right.
The Daily Beast reported:
Obama Fires Back at Trump’s Mean Tweets on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’
For the second time in two years, Obama read some “mean tweets” about himself on Jimmy Kimmel Live, including one that called him “the Nickelback of presidents” and another that compared him to Sharknado: “Loud, stupid and over-hyped!”
But the inevitable kicker came when Obama read one from Donald Trump. “President Obama will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States!” Trump once wrote of the president. “Really? Well, @realDonaldTrump, at least I will go down as a president,” Obama replied.
Here’s the video:
Things look a little different now, don’t they? shares | 0 |
For a long time, very few people thought there was money to be made selling hot chicken. This is almost certainly because for a long time, very few people outside certain neighborhoods in Nashville knew what hot chicken was. The ones who did know usually lived somewhere near Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, which was known as Prince’s BBQ Chicken Shack until it was taken over by a member of the family who thought it was time to acknowledge that what the Princes did to chicken had nothing to do with barbecue. Prince’s is and always was a restaurant. The chicken was never cooked in advance. It spattered away in a skillet while the customer who had ordered it waited, and waited. But the thing that made Prince’s famous, to the extent that it was famous, was what happened to the chicken after it came out of the skillet. Still dripping with oil, the legs, thighs and breasts were given a glossy finish with spicy oil. Prince’s kitchen is a restricted area. The family guards the recipe for that oil fiercely. But the seasonings are said to include brown sugar, dried garlic, paprika and, crucially, cayenne. Depending on how much oil is applied, the cayenne can make a eater cry. When Anthony Bourdain was asked about the scariest situations he’d been in while filming his television shows, he named Congo, Libya and Beirut, followed by hot chicken in Nashville. Pain was the point all along. According to the family legend, which fortunately for everybody took shape long before became a household phrase in America, Thornton Prince’s girlfriend cooked the first hot chicken for breakfast one morning during the Depression to get back at him for his nocturnal wanderings. Forgetting that revenge is best served cold, she loaded the chicken with spice, only to find that her unfaithful man loved hot chicken, shared hot chicken with his friends and made hot chicken into a business that has lasted more than 70 years. Although Prince’s had local competition from a hot chicken place started by a former cook, it was only in this decade that entrepreneurs began to think that cooking chicken that makes customers cry might be a good way to earn money. In the Nashville area there is Slow Burn, Pepperfire and Hattie B’s, among others. KFC began selling its version of Nashville hot chicken throughout the United States in January. Independent operators have set up across the country from Los Angeles to Cambridge, Mass. to Brooklyn, where Carla Hall opened a tiny Nashville chicken spot in June. Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen doesn’t lack for branding. Slogans and catchphrases are written all over the menu and the walls, inside and outside on the corner of Kane and Columbia Streets. The place is so clearly positioned to spawn multiple locations that it almost seems pregnant. When you have decided whether you want thighs, drumsticks, breasts, tenders or some combination of these, one of the smiling people working at the counter will ask: “Do you want Southern, Hoot Honey, Hoot, Hootie Hoot, or Boomshakalaka?” It’s like having a conversation with an owl. Even when you know that Ms. Hall, a host on “The Chew,” has been identified with the phrase “hootie hoo” since her days as a “Top Chef” contestant, this is not an easy question to answer the first time you hear it, or the second or third time, either. Most customers fall back on a number system, one to six. Level one, Southern, gets no hot oil and is easy enough to eat. Like all the chicken, it sits on white bread and has pickle slices pinned on it with toothpicks. Level two is slicked all over with just enough oil to give it a rounder flavor that is sweet, savory and spicy but not cruel. Heat tolerance is of course a personal thing, but at level three I became slightly more aware of my skin at level four, I became conscious of the passing of time at level five, I began tearing off chunks of white bread and stuffing them into my mouth. Level six gave me second thoughts, but not serious pain. (If you want to go to the dark side, the chicken for you is the extra hot at Peaches HotHouse in Brooklyn, although the chile payload is delivered by a spice powder sprinkled over the top parts of the crust that aren’t powdered just taste like regular fried chicken.) The meat at Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen tastes natural, which is to say it hasn’t been twisted beyond recognition by aggressive brining of the kind practiced at Root Bone and other places around town. Ms. Hall seems to have focused her efforts on the crust, and it is excellent, a darkish shell both formidably crunchy and a little chewy. Spice or no spice, this is not a style of fried chicken you often find in New York. The hottest and crunchiest chicken I ate was the one I waited longest for. The least exciting, though it was still well worth eating, was a piece of white meat that came out before I’d moved from a counter to one of the few chairs. This is a small restaurant, not built for lounging, and Ms. Hall may not want hungry crowds hanging out while the chicken sizzles away. But her recipe is good enough to make you wish every piece were cooked to order. The sides and desserts will not draw anybody to Columbia Street, but a few of them are very good. I tend to sigh when I hear that collards were cooked without meat, but Ms. Hall’s are lively and tangy better, actually, than many pots of collards around town. No reforms have been inflicted on the candied yams, and that is good news. The pimento cheese, punched up with flecks of hot green pepper and served with a bag of Ritz crackers, was exactly what I hoped it would be. I felt the same way about the biscuits, which had a tenderness that tends to elude Northern cooks. The potato salad, on the other hand, needed perking up, and the macaroni and cheese was the opposite of creamy, a hard, bland lattice of noodles. The bread pudding was dried out, too, and something seemed to have gone wrong with the whoopie pies. They were dense and lumpy, as if a distracted baker had left out an ingredient. I can’t imagine why Ms. Hall is bothering with whoopie pies when her banana pudding is (a) charming, with caramelized bananas and a swirl of what looks like whipped cream but turns out to be a version of Marshmallow Fluff and (b) the only dessert anybody needs after pimento cheese and fried chicken. | 1 |
New Heavy-Duty Voting Machine Allows Americans To Take Out Frustration On It Before Casting Ballot WASHINGTON—Saying the circumstances of this year’s presidential race made the upgrade necessary, election commissions throughout the country were reportedly working to install new heavy-duty voting machines this week that will allow Americans to physically take out their frustrations on the devices before casting their votes. Man Grateful To Live In Society Where Mattress Disappears If Left On Sidewalk For A Couple Days COLUMBUS, OH—Emphasizing that such an impressive feat should not be taken for granted, local man Nathan Montgomery told reporters Wednesday he was incredibly grateful to live in a society where a mattress just disappears if it’s left outside on the sidewalk for a couple days. Clinton Staff Readies EMP Launch To Disable All Nation’s Electronic Devices NEW YORK—In an effort to prepare for any new revelations that might emerge about her emails during her tenure as secretary of state, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly told her staff Tuesday to ready the launch of several electromagnetic pulses to disable all of the nation’s electronic devices. Mom Produces Decorative Gift Bag Out Of Thin Air LEXINGTON, MA—Conjuring the item into existence along with several sheets of perfectly coordinated tissue paper, local mother Caroline Wolfson, 49, reportedly produced a decorative gift bag out of thin air Tuesday within a mere fraction of a second of her daughter mentioning she needed to wrap a present. Anthony Weiner Sends Apology Sext To Entire Clinton Campaign BROOKLYN, NY—In response to the FBI’s announcement that its investigation of him had produced new evidence that could pertain to its probe of the Democratic presidential nominee, Anthony Weiner reportedly sent an apology sext early Monday morning to the entire Hillary Clinton campaign. | 0 |
Home / News / Madonna Says She’ll Give A Blowjob To Anyone That Votes For Hillary Clinton (VIDEO) Madonna Says She’ll Give A Blowjob To Anyone That Votes For Hillary Clinton (VIDEO) Heisenberg 1 min ago News Comments Off on Madonna Says She’ll Give A Blowjob To Anyone That Votes For Hillary Clinton (VIDEO) Pop star Madonna got raunchy while introducing comedian Amy Schumer at a performance in New York City Tuesday night, promising the crowd sexual favors in exchange for their support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“If you vote for Hillary Clinton, I will give you a blowjob. OK?” the 58-year-old Rebel Heart singer told an audience at New York’s Madison Square Garden Tuesday night. “I’m really good. I’m not a douche, and I’m not a tool. I take my time, I have a lot of eye contact, and I do swallow.”
The comments came as Madonna warmed up the crowd with a very brief standup set ahead of the Trainwreck star’s performance at the Garden Tuesday night, according to the New York Daily News .
Schumer took the stage afterward for her first stand-up gig since hundreds of supporters of Republican candidate Donald Trump stood up and walked out of her performance in Tampa, Florida earlier this week after the comedian called him an “orange monster.” As Breitbart previously reported, Shumer was widely booed during the performance at Tampa’s Amalie Arena, where she instructed security to remove hecklers.
During her performance Tuesday night, Schumer read aloud a letter she composed in response to the Trump fans who walked out on her show in Tampa.
“Dearest Tampa, I’m sorry you didn’t want me, a comedian who talks about what she believes in, to mention the biggest thing going on in our country right now,” Schumer said, adding: “How could I think it was OK to spend five minutes having a peaceful conversation with someone with different views? After the show, I want you to know that I will go straight to a rehab facility.”
The comedian added that she looks forward to “putting this all behind us” in November, when “ Hillary Clinton is our motherf*cking president.”
Madonna has previously used sex appeal to drum up support for the Democratic presidential candidate; in September, the singer joined fellow pop star Katy Perry in stripping off her clothes to encourage Clinton voters to head to the polls in November. | 0 |
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[Ed. – How do they go through all this hair-tearing, the sackcloth and ashes, and not question the quality of their candidate — or their choice to run her?]
[Clinton’s allies] said they were “dumbfounded” by the revelation that the new FBI review may have been spurred by a separate investigation into Anthony Weiner sending lewd texts to a minor. Weiner is separated from wife Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest aides.
And they worried that Clinton’s unconventional email arrangement had finally caught up to her and might imperil her presidential bid less than two weeks before Election Day.
“I’m livid, actually,” one Clinton surrogate told The Hill. “This has turned into malpractice. It’s an unforced error at this point. I have no idea what Comey is up to but the idea this email issue is popping back up again is outrageous. It never should have occurred in the first place. Someone somewhere should have told her no. And they didn’t and now we’re all paying the price.”
Another ally called the campaign’s mood something akin to “paralysis,” and blamed Weiner’s behavior for railroading the campaign.
One strategist said the developments would further cement the notion that Clinton has something to hide.
“It’s made people think there’s always going to be something around the Clintons, some investigation, some inquiry,” the strategist said. “It never goes away.” | 0 |
When Yordano Ventura won Game 6 of the 2014 World Series for the Kansas City Royals, he wore the initials of Oscar Taveras on his cap. Taveras, an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, had just been killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic, the homeland they shared. Early Sunday morning, Ventura was killed in a car accident there at 25. Andy Marte, 33, a former infielder who spent parts of seven seasons with Atlanta, Cleveland and Arizona, was killed in another car crash Sunday in the Dominican Republic. Major League Baseball announced the deaths on its social media accounts. The traffic authorities in the Dominican Republic said that it was not clear whether Ventura had been driving when he died on a highway about 40 miles northwest of the capital, Santo Domingo. Marte died when the he was driving hit a house about 95 miles north of Santo Domingo, the authorities said. Ventura was a who reached the majors in September 2013 and seemed destined to stay for many years. He had a record of with a 3. 89 earned run average, and he was part of the team’s core, with a $23 million contract that could have bound him to Kansas City through 2021. “I love you my brother,” Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer wrote on Instagram, sharing a photograph of himself with Ventura. “I’m in disbelief and don’t know what to say. I love you ACE. ” Only one qualified starting pitcher, the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard, had a harder average fastball last season than Ventura’s Syndergaard’s averaged 97. 9 miles per hour, Ventura’s 96. 1 m. p. h. Ventura made three World Series starts, two in 2014 against the San Francisco Giants, and then a loss to the Mets at Citi Field in 2015. He gained a measure of notoriety last season when he was suspended for eight games for hitting Baltimore’s Manny Machado in the back with a fastball, inciting a brawl. Ventura was with a 4. 45 E. R. A. in his final season. Marte spent the past two seasons playing professionally in South Korea. Once a promising prospect for the Braves, he was traded to Boston for Edgar Renteria in 2005, and he was then quickly sent to Cleveland in a multiplayer deal that brought Coco Crisp to the Red Sox. Marte played 278 of his 308 career games with the Indians, and batted . 218, with 21 homers and 99 runs batted in, over all. “He was a genuine person who always greeted you with a warm smile,” the Indians wrote on Twitter. Tony Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said in a statement: “It’s never easy to lose a member of our fraternity, and there are no words to describe the feeling of losing two young men in the prime of their lives. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families, friends, teammates and fans throughout the United States and Latin America. ” The Dominican Republic’s president, Danilo Medina, posted on Twitter that the nation “is dressed in mourning with the deaths of Andy Marte and Yordano Ventura, great sportsmen who raised high our national banner. ” Fans began arriving at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium shortly after Ventura’s death was announced, leaving flowers, hats and other mementos outside. Flags at the ballpark were lowered to . A 2015 study by the World Health Organization found that the Dominican Republic had the highest traffic accident death rate in the Americas, 29. 3 per 100, 000 inhabitants. The deaths of Ventura and Marte follow the death of another major leaguer, the Miami Marlins’ pitcher Jose Fernandez, in a boating accident in September. | 1 |
More conspiracy bull stit@ | 0 |
The highly charged debate over transgender rights has resulted in a tangle of contradictory laws governing access to public bathrooms and locker rooms across the country. Many states permit transgender people to choose bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity, considering it a civil rights issue. But in a handful of states and cities, legislators are moving in the opposite direction. Here are some milestones in the national debate. 2012 | Cities including Austin, Tex. Berkeley, Calif. Philadelphia Santa Fe, N. M. and Seattle were among the first to pass laws requiring restrooms, following a pattern emerging at schools and universities. Soon museums, restaurants and even the White House (in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) began rebranding restrooms, resulting in a dizzying range of creative signage and vocabulary. December 2014 | In a memo by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. the Justice Department took the position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applied to claims of discrimination based on gender identity. The memo was one of a combination of policies, lawsuits and public statements that the Obama administration used to change the civil rights landscape for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. May 2016 | The Justice and Education Departments issued guidance that, under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, schools receiving federal money may not discriminate based on a student’s transgender status — and that the departments would treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX. Jan. 20, 2015 | President Barack Obama mentioned transgender people in his State of the Union address, a presidential first. “That’s why we defend free speech and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” Mr. Obama said. Nov. 3, 2015 | After a yearlong battle, Houston voters easily repealed an ordinance that banned discrimination based on several “protected characteristics,” including gender identity. Opponents said the measure would allow men claiming to be women to enter women’s bathrooms and inflict harm. The message ”No Men in Women’s Bathrooms” on signs and in television and radio ads turned the debate from one about equal rights to one about protecting women and girls from sexual predators. (Houston became the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor, Annise D. Parker, in December 2009 she had pushed hard for the ordinance.) November, 2015 | Public schools began to write policies requiring transgender students to use private changing and showering facilities, drawing complaints of discrimination. February 2016 | The South Dakota Legislature approved a bill that would require public school students to use bathrooms and other facilities that correspond to their biological sex, defined in the bill as “a person’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth. ” Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, vetoed it. The Legislature announced in January that it would consider a similar bill. March 23, 2016 | Meeting in special session, North Carolina legislators passed a bill known as House Bill 2 barring transgender people from bathrooms and locker rooms that did not match their biological sex. Republicans unanimously supported the bill, while in the Senate, Democrats walked out in protest. “This is a direct affront to equality, civil rights and local autonomy,” the Senate Democratic leader, Dan Blue, said in a statement. The bill’s passage prompted the N. B. A. to withdraw this season’s Game from Charlotte and led the N. C. A. A. to move playoff games in several sports — including and games in its most prominent event, the Division I men’s basketball tournament — out of the state. May 12, 2016 | The Obama administration took up a legal fight with North Carolina over the issue, quickly issuing guidance — signed by Justice and Education Department officials — that was sent to all school districts, outlining what schools should do to ensure that no student was discriminated against. The letter did not have the force of law, but it contained an implicit threat: Schools that did not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal dollars. The measure attracted criticism and support from across the country. Cities in the Deep South were increasingly at odds with their states on gay rights and other benchmarks, moving toward common ground with big cities on the coasts. And North Carolina, the rare Southern state that is evenly split between liberals and conservatives, was considered to be up for grabs in the November presidential race. But backlash against the law roiled the governor’s race and affected other crucial contests. April 19, 2016 | A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va. ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm, a transgender student who was born female and wanted to use the boys’ restroom at his rural Virginia high school. April 22, 2016 | As the Republican presidential Donald J. Trump said that transgender people should be allowed to use whatever bathroom they feel most comfortable with. At a town event, he said that North Carolina’s legislation had resulted in an exodus of businesses and “strife” from people on both sides of the issue. “You leave it the way it is,” he said. “There have been very few complaints the way it is. ” Aug. 21, 2016 | A federal judge in North Texas blocked the Obama administration from enforcing guidelines intended to expand restroom access for transgender students across the country. In his ruling, which he said should apply nationwide, Judge Reed O’Connor said the government had not complied with federal law when it issued “directives which contradict the existing legislative and regulatory text. ” The Trump administration has decided not to challenge the injunction in court. September 2016 | Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed a bill requiring all bathrooms to be gender neutral, effective March 1, the first such state legislation in the country. Jan. 5, 2017 | A bill revealed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, would require transgender people to use bathrooms in government buildings and public schools and universities based on their “biological sex,” overruling any contrary local rules, and raising the prospect of a new confrontation with college sports officials and professional sports leagues. Feb. 22, 2017 | President Trump rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary. In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice and Education Departments rejected the Obama administration’s position that nondiscrimination laws require schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. With Mr. Trump’s decision, the focus shifts to the Supreme Court, where Mr. Grimm’s 2016 lawsuit is scheduled for oral arguments at the end of March. | 1 |
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Government secrecy is running rampant in an age where more and more people are demanding transparency. Did you know that the U.S. Government classifies over 500 million pages of documents each year? Justification for the mass classification of information is (apparently) done for the sake of “national security,” but as we know: “The dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts, far outweigh the dangers that are cited to justify them. There is a very grave danger that an announced need for an increased level of security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of censorship and concealment. That I do not tend to permit, so long as it’s in my control.”– JFK ( source ) If a scholar wanted to research political, historical, scientific, or any other type of archival work, it would prove difficult and limiting seeing that most of their government’s activities are kept a secret. It is truly impossible to access the factual history of their country. The declassification of classified documents (a small portion) does not occur until decades after that information has been concealed, one great example of that is the UFO phenomenon, once believed to be a “conspiracy theory” by the masses before the substantial release of government documents showing otherwise. You can read more about that and access some of those documents here . Evidence is now pointing to the fact that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is no different. The office is supposed to legally protect the inventions of entrepreneurs and companies, some of whom have developed ground breaking technology. Unfortunately, that’s not the case as new documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal how the Patent Office has been using a secret system to withhold the approval of some applications. This 50-page document was obtained by Kilpatrick Towsend & Stockton, LLP, who commonly represent major tech companies that include Apple, Google and Twitter (to name a few). You can view that entire document HERE . ( 1 ) The program delaying patent applications is called the Sensitive Application Warning System (SWAS). Usually, when an application is submitted for a patent approval it requires a couple of examiners who work with the Patent office to go through their process of approval. This process usually takes approximately 1 to 2 years, but applications that are filed in SAWS must be approved from several people, and can be delayed for a number of years. “There is no official channel to notify an applicant once their patent is placed in the system, and the Patent Office has denied requests to divulge what applications are on the SAWS list.” ( source ) The documents also indicate areas of technology that might have a patent application placed in the SAWS program – these include smartphones, internet-enabling systems and more. This information is set to be published in an online journal called “Law360” to inform the public. Tech Columnist Alyssa Bereznak at Yahoo News states that most companies are fully aware of this. I first came across this recent information in her article, which you can view here , but I felt compelled to add more information. As you will see below, there is more information that has surfaced prior to these documents that suggest this type of “invention secrecy” goes far beyond these technologies. One great example (out of many) of delayed patent applications comes from Dr. Gerald F. Ross. He filed a patent application for a new invention he had devised to defeat the jamming of electromagnetic transmissions at specified frequencies. It was not until June 17, 2014 (almost 37 years later) that this patent was granted. ( 2 ) Invention Secrecy Is Still Going Strong
As great as it is to see new information pertaining to invention secrecy come to light, it’s also important to note (as reported by the Federation of American Scientists; see annotated bibliography) that there were over 5000 inventions that were under secrecy orders at the end of Fiscal Year 2014, which marked the highest number of secrecy orders in effect since 1994.( 3 ) This is all thanks to an act many people are unaware of. It’s called the “Invention Secrecy Act” and it was written up in 1951. Under this act, patent applications on new inventions can be subject to secrecy orders. These orders can restrict their publication if government agencies believe that their disclosure would be harmful to national security.( 4 )( 5 ) As mentioned earlier, “national security” has become an excuse and justification for the classification of a large amount of information on a variety of topics that the public is deliberately kept in the dark about. Apparently, many of these projects and inventions go far above and beyond presidential knowledge. “It is ironic that the U.S. should be fighting monstrously expensive wars allegedly to bring democracy to those countries, when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy when trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars, have been spent on projects which both congress and the commander in chief know nothing about.” ( source ) – Paul Hellyer, Former Canadian Defense Minister. So what type of technology is under restriction under the Invention Secrecy Act? We don’t really know, but a previous list from 1971 was obtained by researcher Michael Ravnitzky. Most of the technology listed seems to be related to various military applications. You can view that list HERE . ( 6 ) As Steven Aftergood from the Federation of American Scientists reports: “The 1971 list indicates that patents for solar photovoltaic generators were subject to review and possible restriction if the photovoltaics were more than 20% efficient. Energy conversion systems were likewise subject to review and possible restriction if they offered conversion efficiencies in “excess of 70-80%.” ( source ) Secrecy is No Secret A couple of years before the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, the National Security Act was created. As a result, a number of intelligence groups and executive bodies followed. None of these groups had any active congressional oversight. The United States has a history of government agencies existing in secret for years. The National Security Agency (NSA) was founded in 1952, its existence was hidden until the mid 1960’s. Even more secretive is the National Reconnaissance Office, which was founded in 1960 but remained completely secret for 30 years. Along with this secrecy is the information these agencies obtained, and continue to obtain until this day. Special Access Programs are another great example of secrecy. From these we have unacknowledged and waived SAPs. These programs do not exist publicly, but they do indeed exist. They are better known as ‘deep black programs.’ A 1997 US Senate report described them as “so sensitive that they are exempt from standard reporting requirements to the Congress.” ( 7 )(8) We don’t really hear about black budget programs, or about people who have actually looked into them. However, the topic was discussed in 2010 by Washington Post journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin. Their investigation lasted approximately two years and concluded that America’s classified world has: “Become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.” (9) You can read more about the Black Budget in detail HERE . Today, it seems to be evidently clear that secrecy has lead to what Dwight Eisenhower warned us about: “In the council of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential disaster of the rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.” ( source ) What Has All This Secrecy Led To?
The fact that so much information is concealed from the public domain has led to a kind of “breakaway civilization.” A term coined by Richard Dolan .
Someone, or some groups are “in the know.” This or these groups who have had access to information over many decades that the public hasn’t is no doubt living and perceiving the world in a different way from what the masses do. This has led to a world within worlds, a separate civilization apart of our own who have access to knowledge that we don’t. Who are they? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? What do they know?
You can read what Richard has to say about it here .
Sources: | 0 |
Cilic, 27, won his first Masters 1000 tournament at Cincinnati on Aug. 21 and vaulted back into the top 10 with a victory over Andy Murray, the reigning Wimbledon and Olympic champion. Cilic, who had three match points against Roger Federer in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, kept Murray off balance with a nearly unreturnable wide slice serve, followed by flat bombs up the middle. After parting ways with his longtime coach Goran Ivanisevic, Cilic hired Jonas Bjorkman to help strengthen his forehand and his return, both of which let him down in crucial moments against Federer at Wimbledon. Against Murray at Cincinnati, Cilic returned brilliantly. Cilic is seeded seventh at the United States Open, and his rising level of play suggests that he could be rounding into the kind of form that led him to the title in 2014. With his classic technique and his flowing backhand, Dimitrov has long been compared to Roger Federer, his idol. But Dimitrov, a Bulgarian nicknamed Baby Fed, has struggled to live up to the lofty expectations of his early years on tour. At Cincinnati, he reached the semifinals before succumbing to Marin Cilic in three sets. Dimitrov played with remarkable discipline and attention to detail, reining in his tendency to try for a flashy winner in favor of playing shots. Since Wimbledon, he has been working with Dani Vallverdu, who spent several years coaching Andy Murray, and the results look promising. Seeded 22nd, Dimitrov looks determined to reach his considerable potential. Since his stunning victory over Roger Federer in the 2009 United States Open final, del Potro has been sidelined for long periods by injuries to both wrists. But he has persevered against long odds to return to top form. Del Potro, a laconic Argentine, rejoined the tour full time this year and has steadily improved his conditioning and his match toughness. It all came together at the Olympics, where he beat Novak Djokovic in the first round and Rafael Nadal in the semifinals before narrowly losing the gold medal match to Andy Murray. Ranked 142nd, del Potro, 27, needed a wild card to get into the Open, but his return bolsters a draw weakened by the absence of Federer. With his blistering serve and his overpowering forehand, del Potro has the weapons to thrive on quick hardcourts. But it is his love of the battle that makes him a crowd favorite. After losing to Simona Halep in a tight final in Montreal, Keys reached the semifinals at the Olympics and then lost a heartbreaking match for the bronze medal to Petra Kvitova. It is clear that Keys, a American, is gaining confidence with each match. After skipping the Cincinnati event and withdrawing from the Connecticut Open with a neck injury, Keys enters the United States Open as the eighth seed and should be fresh. With her powerful serve and her groundstrokes, Keys has the ideal game to win on fast hardcourts. And as the youngest American player in the top 10, she should be buoyed by the crowd. While dominating the field at Cincinnati, Pliskova gave up only four games in her semifinal victory over the reigning French Open champion, Garbiñe Muguruza. In the final, Pliskova equaled that feat with a breathtaking display of power tennis, outhitting Angelique Kerber in nearly every baseline exchange to win, . A Czech, Pliskova has a booming serve and follows that up with clean, flat groundstrokes that push opponents deep behind the baseline. What sets her apart from her peers is her willingness to play stingy defense when necessary. She tracks down nearly every ball and has an uncanny knack for restarting points with neutralizing shots that frustrate opponents even more than her winners do. Although the Pliskova has never advanced past the third round of a major, her remarkable play at Cincinnati makes her a serious Open contender. At 22, Puig made history this month by winning Puerto Rico’s first Olympic gold medal, defeating three former Grand Slam champions (Garbiñe Muguruza, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber) along the way. Puig played to win and went after her opponents on the big points with fearless ball striking. She has a somewhat unorthodox backhand, hit with a loose and whiplike backswing, but it is deceptive, accurate and lethal. The confidence she gained from her momentous win in Rio de Janeiro is hard to calculate, but Puig showed that she could compete with anyone in the world. Seeded 32nd at the Open, she will be a dangerous presence in the draw. | 1 |
Bernstein interview with John Pilger November 16, 2016
America’s liberal elitists, who look down on the discontented working class and put up a presidential candidate representing a failed Establishment, set the stage for Donald Trump’s victory, journalist John Pilger tells Dennis J Bernstein.By Dennis J Bernstein
Despite Donald Trump’s long history of stiffing workers, dodging taxes and abusing women, he will become the 45th President of the United States, a remarkable turn of events that has a lot of liberals and Democrats scratching their heads and wondering how he could have beaten the powerful Clinton political/money machine.
One person who was not surprised was journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, who was born in Sydney, Australia, and now is based in London. Pilger has reported from all over the world, covering numerous wars, notably Vietnam. When he was in his 20’s, he became the youngest journalist to receive Britain’s highest award for journalism, Journalist of the Year, which he won twice. He also has an Emmy and his most recent book is Hidden Agendas and the New Rulers of the World .
Dennis Bernstein: I’m going to ask you later on about the new film, which I’m very excited about. But let’s begin with [the Nov. 8] victory over Clinton, by Trump. Were you surprised? What do you think was at the core of the Trump victory? Journalist John Pilger (Wikipedia)
John Pilger: You know, I wasn’t surprised. Brexit undoubtedly helped this. I wasn’t surprised. I think I’m quite surprised by how decisive his victory is. But I must say I felt rather angry, and I think we probably expended enough anger on Trump. He’ll, no doubt, provide us with plenty of material coming up. But I think it’s time for people, so-called liberal people, to look in the mirror.
Who created Trump? Who created this disastrous election, so-called campaign? In my opinion the enablers of all of this was the liberal class, in the United States. The liberal class has refused to acknowledge, in its arrogance, the huge disaffection and discontent among ordinary people. And painting them in such broad strokes has been… what did Clinton call them?…”deplorables” and “irredeemable”? That’s really disgraceful.
DB: Yes, that’s my father.
JP: You know, Clinton was an extremely dangerous prospect. Dangerous because she represented a war making, rapacious status quo. The status quo would have, actually, altered slightly under her. It’s my understanding, in fact, I believe that she might have provoked a very major war, with Syria and with Russia.
We don’t know what Trump will do. We have to now, putting aside all the parodies and the abuse, we have to now be thinking in terms of practicalities. He’s running the show. What will he do? But I think before we do that, again, we have to reflect on all the myths.
I heard a Harvard professor on the BBC, on the very night, before the count began, talk about the hard left in the Democratic Party, and how she would have to embrace the idea of Bernie Sanders and what he stood for. You know, this kind of drivel, and misrepresentation has been everywhere. The media, personally, and I’m speaking of journalists, produced probably the most unfettered propaganda I can remember at any time. In my career, this has been the worst.
There was no serious attempt, really, to analyze and examine either candidate and what they stood for. Trump was dismissed as a demon, with all the salacious stuff around him, undoubtedly some of it true, and all of that. But he was a serious candidate, he was never analyzed, and that’s why there’s a great surprise, and a great shock.
And, it’s something that liberal America has to start coming to terms with itself. We had Barack Obama presented seriously as a candidate of hope and real change. He was nothing of the kind. He was in fact a warmonger. He’s got four wars going at once. He conducted an international terrorist campaign using drones. He has prosecuted more whistleblowers than any president in American history. And, you know, when you think of Trump’s disgraceful remarks about throwing people out of the country, and building a wall… who is the Deporter-in-Chief? The liberal Barack Obama. He has deported more people than any other president. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arresting suspects during a raid in 2010. (Photo Courtesy of ICE)
So, all of these facts have been lost and they represent a real crisis for the opposition in the United States, the broad opposition. Barack Obama’s great achievement was that he killed off the anti-war movement, because people, doe-eyed from the beginning, thought that Barack Obama was some kind of genuine inspirational liberal, instead of the warmonger that he is. I think there’s a lot of these people [who] are going to be listening to your program, they need to hear this.
Say that there is a real opposition to Trump and what he’s going to do. We don’t know what he’s going to do, but also an understanding of his constituency, the majority of Americans eligible to vote voted for him. That’s a fact that has to be come to terms with, we have to come to terms with.
DB: You know I think, John Pilger, you know I’m thinking about all the things Hillary Clinton accused by Trump of, oh, you know, supporting Bill Clinton’s attacks on women, and molestations. I’m not really interested in that, at this point, because what I’m interested in is how she sustained Bill Clinton’s war policy. You remember Layla Al-Attar, right? You remember how Bill Clinton sowed his oats in his first days of his presidency by killing this leading artist of the Middle East who welcomed women into the art world, an unusual situation. It happened in the context of Hillary Clinton giving her famous speech in Beijing about women. But she never mentioned Layla Al-Attar. She never apologized to the family. Layla’s daughter was blinded, in that attack. She was getting operations, getting medical treatment near Stanford where the Clintons would go visit Chelsea. And she never said a word. But, anyway, more on that?
JP: Yeah, well, that’s a very good and rather notorious example. Clinton’s war making is on the record, her destruction, and she was the lead destroyer of a modern state, Libya. And as a result of that destruction–which she gloated, on camera, she gloated about the gruesome murder of Gaddafi–in that destruction some 40,000 people died. Honduras, she was responsible for the coup against the democratically elected government.
DB: They call her there the Deposer-in-Chief.
JP: Yeah, yeah. And the idea that among certain liberal people that she represented some kind of honorable alternative to the verbose and unpredictable Donald Trump is so absurd. I think, again, I think all this is important because there will not be an opposition, there won’t be an opposition to Trump, and there won’t be an opposition to the great national security machine that really runs the United States.
I mean, okay, he’s anti-establishment, but that establishment isn’t going anywhere. And, yes, he will bring in his own establishment. He’s talking about defense secretary. Who is it? Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican of Alabama. And national security advisors will have a hawkish edge: General Flynn and Representative Duncan Hunter of California, there. So all this is unknown. The point is, there was very little between Trump and Clinton. And what really distracted people, diverted people, from understanding this was what is unfortunately called, because there has to be […] a better term, identity politics.
Clinton was said to represent an advance for women. She’s anything but. She’s a diametric opposite of that. Clinton, the Democrats were meant to be an advance for people of color. Well, it was Clinton, the two Clintons, Bill and Hillary Clinton in the mid-90’s, who devised the so-called welfare reforms that most historians, political historians, now agree was the trigger for sending so many African-Americans into the gulag that is America’s prison system.
So these, these have to be confronted because an opposition is going to be needed. At the present, there isn’t one, in my opinion. There was never an opposition to Barack Obama, a violent president, who seduced the media. It’s interesting that the more unpopular or that Donald Trump was made, with the media, and all of them were against him, all of them, bar some Murdock outlets, and others. But most media was against him. I think that helped to give him support. The media is held in such low regard by ordinary people. The so-called elites are held in such low regard by ordinary people. This is a class issue. There was a class issue running right through this campaign. And that has to be understood.
DB: Indeed, that word class does not come up in the United States. We’re the upwardly mobile society. Everybody can make it.
JP: Well, it didn’t. But it is, you know, that’s what I mean by identity politics. Gender and race are separated from class. And it’s not who you are, or what the color of your skin is, sometimes it is, perhaps often it is, but in the final analysis it’s the power you serve. And that’s class. And until the resistance to an intelligent understanding of that is swept aside, people are going to be mired in this, the distractions of identity politics. Where they don’t feel any obligation, really, to find out. To find out about how the rest of humanity, how the rest of their compatriots in the United States live and what their problems are. It’s all about “me, me, me.” And until that is understood and discarded, discarded, and real feminism returns, not the kind represented by Hillary Clinton, real feminism, to take one major issue, then the Trumps will triumph. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking at Planned Parenthood Action Fund membership event at the Washington Hilton on June 10, 2016. (Photo by Lorie Shaull, Wikipedia)
DB: Real feminism? What do you mean by that John, real feminism?
JP: Well, I mean feminism that is part of class. The feminism that understands that it’s not just simply the privileges of bourgeois women. That’s it not simply the privileges of the readers of the New York Times, and the Guardian in this country. It is the rights of women everywhere. It is the right of women to life, in places like Iraq, but are bombed by Americans. I think it was actually the New York Times source for this but one extraordinary statistic I read not long ago, there were 700,000 widows created since 2003. The last 13 years in Iraq, widows, women…
DB: 700,000…
JP: 700,000… Now until those proclaiming themselves as feminists but keeping their feminism very parochial, very tight, and saying that a woman should be in the White House even if she’s Hillary Clinton, I would suggest they consider that fact. Those women have a right too. And those deaths were caused by American policies. And, all I’m saying is that the so-called identity, single issues have to stop being single issues. Feminism should be part of class, all the time. Because it’s poor women who suffer most. And a lot of the people who voted for Trump were those women. I read that, is it 52% of white women voted for him?
DB: Something like that, yeah.
JP: Well, that has to be understood. Those women have rights too.
DB: In a little bit, I want to talk more about the press. I’m going to do that with you in the context of Jeff Sessions. Let’s talk specifically about one huge foreign policy issue. How do you understand… were you able to understand the difference between Clinton, Syria, Russia and Trump? You know, we know that the Clinton machine played Trump as a dupe of Putin, in Putin’s pocket, the Russians sabotaged the election, that’s what most people who were supporting Clinton probably now feel that Hillary would have won if the Russians didn’t subvert. But the actual policies, what do you understand about that?
JP: If they believe that, Dennis, then they suffer from, I’ll be gentle, terminal naiveté. I really want to say that they are stupid. Because it’s really stupid to believe that. And it’s been proven to be stupid: that it was all down to the Russians. I mean, for God’s sake, what nonsense. You know? Those myths… projected by the media, should be rejected, immediately. We have to learn to deconstruct and reject these propaganda messages that come out. But that one is a particularly obvious one. How could people believe such nonsense? I find that, actually, quite depressing. And I’ve heard it from people. How could they believe such nonsense? That the Russians were actually on the side of Trump, he was in league with them, and all of that nonsense.
What wasn’t reported was there was a strand running through a lot of Trump’s speeches that sounded to me like a kind of America first, what they used to call isolationist politics. We’re going to deal with our people at home, we’re not going to spend the treasure on overseas, and especially in going to war with countries. I mean, frankly, for those of us living outside the United States, who are not American, that’s encouraging. I always find it remarkable that I’ve got to this stage in life and that I haven’t really… and that I’ve survived American foreign policy.
So, Clinton was a very dangerous prospect. Trump may be a dangerous prospect too. We don’t know. Will he do as he said, as he said in his acceptance, victory speech? We will have relationships, we will not have conflict with other countries, and all that. That could be just rhetoric. Trump is Mr. Rhetoric, so who knows? I think the most important thing is that an opposition is built, a genuine movement. Now, having been seduced and subverted by Obama, and largely by Clinton and others, there has to be a real oppositions in the streets. And it has to be informed. It can’t accept these terrible myths.
DB: Hillary Clinton, just to bring it to Syria for a moment, she was very strong on a no-fly zone. And it did appear that Trump was a little more interested in negotiating. What do you see the dangers of a no-fly zone? That, to me, was perhaps the most frightening part of what her policy could have been.
JP: I don’t know. I mean, he has said contradictory things on the Middle East. Very contradictory. He’s been bellicose, in one sense. But in another, he’s been… a thread that has run through Trump’s speeches, fairly consistent, and that is that he wants to do a deal with Russia. He doesn’t want to fight them.
It’s ironic, because, as we speak… and I read only the other day, hundreds of thousands of NATO troops, Americans, British, and others, in effect, massing on the borders of Russia. Now what will happen to them? What will happen to that provocation? That’s a very, very dangerous provocation. Now, will Trump diffuse it? Will he step back? I don’t know.
It’s interesting, he has spoken against NATO. In fact, for the Republican Convention Platform his people were asked to remove one issue, and that was that NATO would receive renewed shipments of weapons. And they were quite specific about removing that. That was pointed out to me by Professor Steven Cohen, who’s been very interesting on this at New York University, and taken a lot of criticism for taking seriously, or at least analyzing some of the things that Trump has said over Russia. But, you know, we never know if he meant it. He’s contradicted himself. So, now we’re about to find out.
DB: I’m laughing a little bit because I think I’m a little bit afraid of the potential, in terms of where this could go. I’m not sure if I would be more frightened if Hillary was elected. A lot of people are furious with me for taking this perspective. But I, as you’ve outlined, Iraq, Libya… given the history, you know Honduras, Hillary Clinton, her hands are full of blood. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions donning one of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps.
JP: Dennis, it’s an uninformed, and often the… and often a willfully uninformed and ignorant fury that you’re describing. It’s a knee-jerk. You know we’re in the age of the knee-jerk, of social media, knee-jerk, government by Facebook, war by media. It’s an anti-intellectual time, not to think through. So the fury you describe, I would suggest, is almost a willfully ignorant one. Because what are we if we’re not questioning, and what are we, if we’re not pointing out that which the mob, as they used to call them in the 19 th century, disagrees with?
DB: Now, let me sort of put Henry Kissinger and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, as he’s known inside Alabama, together in a question about the media. It was very interesting to me… I mean I have investigated a number of church burnings, probably 30 or 40 that took place in Alabama when Jeff Sessions was the attorney general. Before that he was the U.S. attorney prosecuting phony voter fraud.
But Jefferson Sessions is the pre-eminent racist. I was interested, everybody was upset about David Duke. Well, he’s a frightening fellow, former Klan member. But it was Sessions who was the uptown Klan. He was one of the funders, he was one of the prosecutors of the same kinds of stuff that continue in terms of undermining people of color’s rights to vote, and poor people’s’ rights to vote in this country. But the media, they were upset about Duke, but they don’t know who Sessions is.
JP: No, they don’t know. Isn’t that interesting? And Sessions is being considered, as I understand it, as Trump’s Defense Secretary.
DB: Well, for him, anything outside the border of Alabama is foreign policy. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking to the AIPAC conference in Washington D.C. on March 21, 2016. (Photo credit: AIPAC)
JP: Yeah. Now, if that’s correct, then […] how you’ve described him, of course, it’s worrying. This is a new situation, entirely new situation. And this is Trump now building a completely new, presidential establishment. But I do stress, that the so-called old establishment, the Pentagon, the intelligence, the NSA, the CIA, and all the rest of them, are going nowhere. They are the establishment. They will remain the establishment.
Actually, Trump reminded us, in his acceptance speech that he had something like 200 generals and admirals… I suppose there must be a lot of generals and admirals, former ones anyway hanging about. But he had 200 of them. Hillary had a lot of them because the Pentagon serving generals and admirals came out and demanded that Trump be beaten. Just as the CIA demanded that Trump be beaten. And the State Department demanded that Trump be beaten. He’s building his own establishment but those… the old establishment will remain as powerful as it’s always been.
What will give Trump power is the fact that he has both the houses in Congress, including many of his enemies in the Republican Party. And they also demanded that he be beaten. So that’s a volatile situation.
DB: Indeed it is. What about this? How do you see this sort of parallel structure that people talk about in terms of the relationship… you mentioned it in the beginning of the interview, between the Brexit vote and Donald Trump? Is this sort of a parallel structure?
JP: Yeah, I think it’s related. And your first question, you know, was I surprised? Yes. Ah, no, I wasn’t surprised that much, because of Brexit. I think we are at a stage in contemporary history where people almost feel like a Greek chorus, they can see and they are aware of what is happening, but they feel they can’t do anything about it. I think that’s widespread.
And it doesn’t only apply to working people. I think it applies, in the United States, of course, we go back to the issue of class. It certainly does apply to working class people, but it applies to many in the middle class which has been destroyed by these extreme neoliberal economic policies, in recent years.
So, that’s what happened here, in Brexit. I always felt that Brexit was a rebellion. It was a rebellion. It was people saying, “We’re fed up with these arrogant elites, taking away our basic rights, ignoring us, not hearing us.” And I think many people…it wasn’t… it was painted, of course, by the liberal class in Britain, as the result of a possibility of increased immigration. Yes, that was part of it. But it wasn’t… it was only part of it. (Photo by Luis Felipe Salas, 2009)
It was about impoverished people, people losing the very underpinning of their security and the security for their families. And that’s exactly true in the United States. You go to places like Kentucky where… in those ravaged coal areas, where the life expectancy, I read recently is less than that of Ethiopia. Alright, that may be right at the end of the spectrum. But, you know, it applies to all the states that Trump won. Pennsylvania, particularly, Ohio, and others.
Yeah, and that applied here in a different sense, but not really. It’s about… it’s about a rebellion. In the United States, there is a vacuum on outside the establishment. I would say that both Clinton and Trump were extreme right-wing. That’s how I would describe them.
DB: Well, it was a riveting moment, I guess you could say, when I think it was in a debate with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton evoked, as one of her key advisors, Henry Kissinger.
JP: Yeah.
DB: That was pretty extraordinary, right?
JP: Yeah, well, you know as someone who should have been prosecuted a long time ago, has been wrong on practically everything anyway, I’m not surprised. She is extreme right-wing. Trump is extreme Populist right-wing. And we’re still to find out what that means.
But my point is, that that, even in the center, in the social democratic space, in the former, going way back, Democratic Party space which now doesn’t… Democratic Party as far as a reforming party is long gone. But that doesn’t exist. The United States has never had a Labor Party. They’ve got a Labor Party, we’ve got a Labor Party here, but that’s been corrupted by our very own, although rather different in personality, Clinton-type character, Tony Blair. And all the others. That’s been corrupted.
And that… in Britain, that has given rise to the extraordinary popularity of Jeremy Corbyn, who never wanted to be leader of the Labor Party, but was really swept up in it by a popular movement, that came straight from this disenchantment, this disaffection, this rejection of the political system.
The same disaffection and disenchantment is in the United States. But who do people vote for? Who do people vote for? In comes Trump, trumpeting all the American stuff about, you know, I’m a rich man, but I got rich because I knew how to do it, and you can too. Speaking this populist language. I don’t think Sanders was ever a threat. And really Sanders is a disgrace. You know, his embrace of Clinton was so false some, to the point where Clinton could declare him as an ally. So he was never a threat. He joined, he joined up.
DB: That was really troubling, and obviously, a lot of young people who supported Bernie Sanders, were profoundly troubled. And, I’ve spoken to some of them, and they are furious, and they didn’t show up for Hillary even though they had it drummed into their heads, things like, “Even if it’s just the vote on the Supreme Court, that alone is worth it.” The appointment of liberal judges.
JP: Yeah. This is grasping for straws, really. And people have got to be, got to stop being disappointed. They’ve got to be stopped being shocked. Stop being surprised. They’ve got to understand why something happened. They’ve got to inform themselves. And they’ve got to be part of a real movement, a real oppositional movement. Nothing less than that will do now. uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009. (White House photo)
DB: John, you’ve got a new film that’s just coming out now, about to come out. Among other things, it’s sort of a document that calls attention to the fact that the United States, under Barack Obama, has been engaged in a massive, and very dangerous nuclear buildup. This is in the context of Hillary Clinton being Secretary of State. So would you tell us a little bit about what you’ve learned about Obama and about the film?
JP: Yeah, not only… well, it’s about China as a target. At present… and, Dennis, this is truly shocking, in the northern hemisphere, there is the biggest buildup of U.S. led NATO forces since World War II, confronting Russia. In the Asia-Pacific, there is the biggest buildup of U.S. Naval forces confronting China. This was not an issue. This was not an issue. It is truly something in the election campaign that we just had. And the… you know, we’re faced with so much provocation [that] has gone on, and that’s what my film is about. It has to do with the Asia-Pacific. But the nuclear issue has returned.
Under Obama, nuclear warhead construction and spending increased massively. It increased in spite of Obama’s pledge in 2009 to help get rid of nuclear weapons. The opposite happened. There’s something like a trillion dollars has been earmarked to be spent on nuclear weapons development in the coming years. Nuclear… the whole nuclear issue is so urgent, it’s so urgent because of this, these provocations against Russia, against China, both of them nuclear armed powers. China has reportedly changed its nuclear weapons policies to first strike, as a direct consequence of this pressure from the United States. Now what will happen to that? That’s such an important question, because war and peace really should be at the top. If a kind of apocalyptic war broke out then all other issues are irrelevant.
DB: We see this in the so-called U.S. Pacific Pivot, how dangerous this is getting. Again, because of idiotic U.S. press, all attention is on this so-called maniac in North Korea that we have to do something about. But I think the point here is that we’ve got another… when it comes to nuclear proliferation, and weapons, we’ve got a maniac in the White House.
JP: Well, yeah, that’s it. And there’s always been a maniac in the White House, I’m afraid. And that’s why I said recently I am always grateful that I’m still here, that I haven’t found myself witnessing my own demise in some nuclear apocalypse, that was the result of U.S. foreign policy. Our understanding of who’s the maniac… I don’t think North Korea is a threat, really, to anybody, frankly.
What North Korea wants is a peace. They want a peace treaty with the South. They want a peace treaty with the United States. They almost had it a while ago. That’s what they want. And I don’t think they’re a threat. But they’re exploited. With their recent test of, I think a nuclear missile, the U.S. has employed, or is about to employ these THAAD missile defense system. These are very aggressive. They got the word defense in there but they’re very aggressive. A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test by the US Army, September 10, 2013. (Wikipedia)
DB: And they’re aimed, they’re meant to be aimed, at China.
JP: They’re aimed at China. They’re not aimed at North Korea, well maybe in the end, North Korea. But North Korea is regarded, really, contemptuously, as an oppositions of power. They’re aimed at China. And China is being told now–this is from Clinton’s speeches, that WikiLeaks released–according to Clinton, you know, the threat against China is that you control North Korea or we’ll let you have some of their missiles, but they’re all aimed at China. And when I was in Okinawa recently, there’s no question, 400 – 500 miles from China, that in the 132 U.S. bases on the island, they were all aimed at China. Now that is a massive, provocative situation. Will Trump dismantle it? Or will he appease it? Or will he use it? These are the questions.
DB: These are big questions. And this may seem a little bit silly but I think it makes a lot of sense. In the midst of everybody talking about the crazy person in the north, we learn that Park, the current president, the daughter of the late and bitter dictator of South Korea has been… one of her key advisors has been a seer. That she’s been taking advice from somebody who has been essentially sort of a phony, if you will, a crystal ball reader who has the attention of the president. And so we find out that policy coming out of our allies in the south, with this huge massive military operation happening in Jeju and other places. She’s taking orders… people made fun of Nancy Reagan.
JP: Yeah, well I’m not surprised. I mean, South Korea is a colony. It’s not an ally. It’s an American colony. But it’s a colony that, as a lot of colonies, can cause you a lot of trouble. The French found that with Algeria. And it’s got potential for trouble. It could, you know, it could… it has some very extreme people there, and they could start a war. But it is a colony. It has thirty odd thousand U.S. troops, bases all over it. And as you mentioned, it has this… the South Koreans have built this new naval base on Jeju Island, with facilities for nuclear submarines, and Aegis missile destroyers and all the rest of it.
So… these places are flashpoints. They’re flashpoints in… almost in a war waiting to happen, or in a war that is being beckoned. During the old Cold War–and I think we’re in the second Cold War now–during the old Cold War, there were red lines, at least, [that] you didn’t cross, there were spheres of influence. And you might probe but you didn’t really cross the red lines marked down by the Soviet Union, and…which were mostly in Europe, to protect itself, of course. And the Soviets, although they supported liberation movements in the developing world, did not confront the Americans there. So there were these red lines. There are no red lines now. That’s the difference. It’s much more dangerous, now, in my opinion.
DB: Well, and, you know, it’s interesting I’m on my way out to North Dakota, at Standing Rock, and where we see the Indigenous communities of North America trying to once again warn the genocidists of the United States government, how dangerous it is to be destroying the Earth, the water flow, not to mention destroying sacred burial grounds. We see, we’ve got Bull Connor coming back, in the sense that we’ve got dogs, an incredible, heavily armed force, brutally going after people who are resisting with their bodies, with their buffalo, with their beliefs. And the lines are drawn again. And no major candidate mentioned Standing Rock, I don’t think. JP: Yeah.
DB: Trump is invested, by the way. He’s invested there.
JP: None of these pressing issues were mentioned. That’s why it’s a very strange time. What is going to happen now? But, again I repeat, I think it’s time for people to organize. There has to be an independent, an extra-parliamentary, if you like, opposition. An opposition, a movement of the streets, a movement among people having been shamed into silence almost, during the Obama years. People have got to come back now.
DB: It’s amazing how many smart people can be so stupid. I guess they are well schooled but they don’t have any ability to understand foreign politics. I don’t know. This country is desperate in that regard. How little the politicians know about the rest of the world. It’s incredibly troubling.
JP: Yeah, so in one sense it’s up to us, in the broader sense of us. Not to believe the myths. Not to accept the propaganda, not to retreat in our own introspective worlds of me. But collectively to do something.
DB: John, I left upstairs, all the background on your film. Could you remind us the name of the film and what’s the schedule in terms of the distribution, and how people can pay attention?
JP: Yeah. Well, my new film is called “The Coming War on China.” And it will be broadcast on the ITV network in Britain, which is the biggest television network in Europe. It will be broadcast here [England] on the 6th of December. It will be released around the same time. As yet, we don’t have a distributor in the United States, and it’s always difficult but we’re doing work on that. And it really is about the recurring theme in much of my work, and that is the imposition of great power on people, and their resistance to it. And it’s very much, as I’ve mentioned, about the renewal of the nuclear danger. But it traces the history of the abuse of people in order to achieve a nuclear supremacy. Part of the film is set in the Marshall Islands where between 1946 and 1958 the equivalent of more than one Hiroshima was exploded every day. People were guinea pigs. The noon time “Human Chain” at the entrance of the Naval Base at Gangjeong Village, done to remind the South Korean Navy that the opposition to the construction of the naval base on Jeju Island has not ended. (Photo by Ann Wright)
DB: And they’re still suffering.
JP: And they’re still suffering. So the film traces this across a broad landscape. It starts there and it brings us across the Pacific to the 400 U.S. bases that ring China. One of which, a very important one, is in the Marshall Islands. So it tries to explain the geopolitical situation in the Asia-Pacific, and the resistance to it. It has some extraordinary people resisting this militarism in Okinawa, and Jeju, and the Marshalls. And we’ve got a lot to learn from them.
DB: And just to note, I mean it is interesting the Chinese are not sitting still for this and they’ve just joined, if you will, with the Russian fleet on their way to Syria. So this is getting pretty ugly.
JP: Yeah.
DB: This is a touchstone for more terrible things. Well, John, I do thank you for spending the hour with us. It’s always enlightening, to have you. I want to tell people that your name is John Pilger. And you’re, really, an inspiration to me and many journalists who really believe in getting down and finding out what’s really going on. One of your latest books is Hidden Agendas and the New Rulers of the World. You’ve got your film coming out The Coming War Against China. And you wrote a piece most recently Inside the Invisible Government War: Propaganda, Clinton and Trump. And you did an excellent interview with Julian Assange.
JP: Yeah, yeah. Interestingly, that interview with Julian Assange went out on, RT, Russia Today, and one of the reasons it did, well they a good job of it, such a good job that it ended up with something like four million viewers. But no other broadcast, mainstream broadcast would take it. They have their own agendas. And that has to be understood by people. If you want to find out what is going on, you abandon the media as it’s presented to us. It’s unwatchable, it’s really just a product of enduring propaganda.
DB: And if you happen not to like Donald Trump, you can thank the corporate media who didn’t mind getting rich on Trump. And sort of gave him 50 to 1 coverage compared to the other candidates.
JP: Yeah, yeah.
DB: Unbelievable. What a struggle. Dennis J Bernstein is a host of “Flashpoints” on the Pacifica radio network and the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom . You can access the audio archives at www.flashpoints.net . | 0 |
I just ate a giant cheese pizza w fries. Ask me anything Re: I just ate a giant cheese pizza w fries. Ask me anything How did you get them to put the fries on the Pizza?? Page 1 Related Threads 1 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 0.006s (7 queries) | 0 |
October 30, 2016 at 1:18 PM
Right now we are at a pivot point in this nation’s history as important as any time in the past. We have the choice over the next 9 days to elect a woman who has proven time and time again that she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, operate outside and above the law. Or we can elect a person who appears to represent values quite the opposite of Killer Clinton.
This Moonpie Mafia’s last venture into the Oval Office was filled with scandals from the very minute they entered the White House through their exit, carrying every bit of furniture and silverware they could load in their U-Haul trailer. Their body count runs to the millions when you take into account the destruction of other countries during their despotic reign And Bush was even worse.
Have we forgotten the nearly 80 men women and children (22)of the Branch Dividians, murdered by armed goons on the direct order of Janet Reno, Killer Clinton’s hired assassin and attorney General.
Did we forget that Madeline Albright, Killer’s Secretary of State, when she bragged about a 500,000 body count as an acceptable death toll in Central Europe, as Killer’s husband sent in his mercenaries to slaughter innocent civilians in Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia while supporting puppet regimes and war lords who murdered millions of their peoples through planned genocide. How about Rwanda with the death toll that was well in excess of 500,000. I recall Bill Clinton basically saying “Ooops. Sorry. I guess I kind of missed that one–hey Monica–how about another blow job. I really get off getting head while I shoot some cruise missiles at the people in Iraq and Afghanistan” It sure defines “Getting off”
I guess the memory hole is just that deep. Idiots and morons will elect Killer because they either know nothing of history, don’t care about the Clinton’s death toll or actually like the idea that this psychopathic murdering mutant bitch might actually be elected to the highest office in the land. Anyone who voted for Killer votes for death by the number and democide by the millions.
When it comes to Trump, I’m not a fan of his either. But when given the choice of Killer or Trump I am forced to chose between the lesser of two evils. BIG EVIL lives in the skin of Killer Clinton. Whatever lives in the skin of Trump is, I am convinced, is far less a danger to the Republic (in name only) than Killer Klinton and her Blood thirsty Killer Klown Klan | 0 |
On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “MSNBC Live,” host Stephanie Ruhle reacted to Meryl Streep’s speech at the previous night’s Golden Globes by saying “it’s fair to say there are many people in Hollywood that are now out of touch” with average Americans. Ruhle said that Trump did make fun of a disabled reporter, and celebrities who came from normal backgrounds become successful “might be the American Dream, but it’s fair to say there are many people in Hollywood that are now out of touch with that America. I mean, that’s an argument you could make. ” MSNBC Correspondent Steve Kornacki stated that the Streep speech and Trump’s reaction were “political . ” That wouldn’t convince anyone. Ruhle added that Streep didn’t convince anyone. ( Real Clear Politics) Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
During a question and answer session at her alma mater, Hillary Clinton said the only thing she would change about her unsuccessful 2016 presidential run was that she would win. [In what was intended to be a private QA session at Wellesley College, Clinton was asked what aspect of her campaign she would do differently, to which she responded, “I’d win. ” Clinton’s campaign was marred by controversy after private emails released by Wikileaks revealed extensive collusion between her campaign and the media. The FBI also investigated her on charges of mishandling her private email server midway through the campaign. The former secretary of state also drew criticism for describing half of Donald Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables,” as well as generally failing to provide a convincing message to the American people on issues such as the economy, national security, and immigration. Clinton also suggested that sexism damaged her chances of winning, arguing that as the first woman nominated for the presidency by a major political party, “you know you’re going to be subject to unfair and criticism. ” Amazing to see @HillaryClinton speak today @Wellesley ! What a great way to kick off #womenshistorymonth #wellesleycollege pic. twitter. — Abigail Harrison (@AstronautAbby) March 3, 2017, On the subject of passing legislation, Clinton took the opportunity to make a veiled dig at Trump, arguing that “compromise is not a dirty word in a democracy. ” To avoid her remarks leaking out to the press, Wellesley closed the event to the media and asked attendees to keep their cell phones off. However, parts of her address later emerged on Twitter. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Monday’s Breitbart News Daily to give her review of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East. [“It was a good speech,” Geller said of President Trump’s remarks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the weekend. “It’s just that President Obama had set the bar so low that just the mention of Islamic terror is cause for jubilation. That’s how bad it is. ” “It was a mixed bag. I hope that he follows through on many of these initiatives. These new centers for combating extremist ideology — again, the fear of not naming the motive, of a motiveless ideology, is deeply troubling,” she said. “Of course, King Salman’s remarks were as telling and revealing as President Trump’s,” she added. “The idea that he does not speak to the Islamic teachings and text that call for jihad, he does not speak to jihadic doctrine. He spends the entire time telling us, preaching to us, that Islam is a religion of peace and that it has a history of coexistence. I don’t know what period he’s talking about because for 1400 years Christians, and Jews, were forced to live in dhimmitude under denial of basic human rights. ” “And, of course, he cites that famous Koranic quote that CAIR cites, that President Obama cites, about if you save one life you save the world entire — when, in fact, that is a Talmudic verse that was cribbed by the Islamic religion, and it really is an implied threat to the Jewish people. We don’t have to get into the of it, but the whole speech of King Salman’s was a deception,” Geller charged. (CAIR is the Council on Relations, a political organization in the United States.) “I’m very glad that President Trump talked about fighting ISIS because according to leaked emails from Hillary Clinton, the Saudis were supplying ISIS, and Qatar was supplying ISIS. They can’t continue to play both sides, which the Saudis have done brilliantly for decades,” she said. “So when President Trump says, ‘Drive them out of the mosques,’ that’s a tricky one because how are countries living under Muslim rule going to drive the most devout out of the mosques? That’s where I think President Trump got it wrong, when he said that terrorists were falsely invoking the name of God. No, they’re not. They’re citing Koran chapter and verse. That was misleading,” said Geller. “It is pure Islam. It is authentic Islam,” she insisted. “I mean, when he says that the terrorists do not worship God they worship death — that’s just not true. They’re dying in the cause of Allah. They’re not screaming, ‘Death akbar.’ They’re screaming ‘Allahu akbar.’ They pray five times a day. If you look at ISIS videos, they pray after they slaughter in the cause of Islam. ” “Abu Bakr the Caliph of the Islamic State, has a Ph. D. and a master’s in Islamic theology from the world’s leading Islamic university,” she pointed out. “Do Western leaders presume that they know more than he does about Islam?” Geller went on to “emphatically state that the battle between good and evil was an extraordinary statement, wonderful” in Trump’s Riyadh speech. “Even though the White House released the text calling it ‘Islamist extremism,’ he said ‘Islamic extremism.’ That’s an important point because that word ‘Islamist’ is a ridiculous word. It’s nothing except the person using it doesn’t want to offend Islam by speaking unwelcome truths about the political nature of that religion,” she argued. “Overall, it was an A,” she graded Trump’s speech. Marlow noted that Trump surprisingly removed the qualifier of ‘radical’ Islamic terrorism and referred simply to ‘Islamic terrorism’ directly. “It was brilliant,” Geller said, mocking how adversarial media outlets chastised Trump for declining to denounce “radical Islamic terrorism” as if he were backing away from his campaign rhetoric, when, in fact, what he said in the Riyadh speech was even more blunt and direct. She also jeered at a CNN headline that took Trump to task for allegedly failing to discuss human rights in Saudi Arabia. “Oh, my God,” she exclaimed. “You had President Obama, who was aiding and abetting the mass slaughterers, who never uttered the word, who gave billions to one of the worst human rights violators on the planet, Iran — and that was the CNN headline — like they give a fig about human rights in Muslim countries! It’s extraordinary. The coverage is almost Kafkaesque. ” Geller said it was “thoroughly enjoyable” to watch the media struggle to come up with talking points that portray Trump’s Middle East trip as a failure. “He just delivered to the Saudis the largest arms deal — and, of course, we know that is really because of Iran. Iran is fighting the Saudis in Yemen,” she noted. “President Obama would harp on this, the biggest victims of this extremism are Muslims themselves. That’s a false narrative because the Sunni vs. Shia — you saw that with ISIS when they would line up their victims and ask them specific questions about Islam. The Sunni don’t think the Shia are Muslims, and the Shia don’t think the Sunni are Muslims. They’re fighting for who is the true Muslim. When the West says, ‘Oh, they’re killing Muslims’ — again, that’s in your mind, but not in the mind of the Sunni and not in the mind of the Shia. ” “I am concerned about that arms deal,” she added. “The common enemy of Iran and the Saudis, of course, is Israel. Right now, the Saudis need Israel because Iran has been newly emboldened and newly enriched and newly armed, thanks to President Obama. That’s sort of scary. Where is the law of unintended consequences going to be?” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
Does someone behind the scenes want to see civil war in the United States?
The answer is almost certainly yes.
And it isn’t likely to settle down anytime in the next few days. (If you aren’t prepped for this, go here to learn how to stay safe .)
Just a little background: this has been going on since the midst of the campaign when actors were hired on Craigslist and trained to disrupt rallies.
For example, one Craigslist ad was answered by Paul Horner, who admitted he was paid $3,500 to cause a scene at a Trump event in Fountain Hills, Arizona. “As for who these people were affiliated with that interviewed me, my guess would be Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” Horner said. “The actual check I received after I was done with the job was from a group called ‘Women Are The Future’. After I was hired, they told me if anyone asked any questions about who I was with or communicated with me in any way, I should start talking about how great Bernie Sanders is.” Horner continued, “It was mostly women in their 60’s at the interview that I went to…” ( source )
Actors Wanted – Knowledge of politics or skilled fighting a plus! (see image )
The same report goes on to say: When asked about the other protesters at the rally, Horner said he saw most of them during the interview and training for the rally. “Almost all of the people I was protesting with I had seen at my interview and training class. At the rally, talking with some of them, I learned they only paid Latinos $500, Muslims $600 and African Americans $750. I don’t think they were looking for any Asians. Women and children were paid half of what the men got and illegals received $300 across the board. I think I was paid more than the other protesters because I was white and had taken classes in street fighting and boxing a few years back”
You can also read this article , in which a quote caught on video from Project Veritas shows how the Clinton campaign caused disruptions via “bird-dogging.” There’s a lot of evidence that someone is funding these protests.
An eyewitness in Austin, Texas spotted protesters being transported by chartered coach buses.
Then there was this Craigslist ad. (see image )
There are many more tweets along these lines, but suffice it to say, suspicion is high that these, just like the Clinton campaign, are rigged to manipulate the American people. Why would anyone want to cause all this trouble?
That’s where the web gets tangled. It certainly seems counterproductive to set fire to America. After all, what these people are doing is likely to end up with more tyranny – like martial law, for example.
Exactly.
That’s precisely the plan.
Back in August, hackers from a group called DC Leaks got into the private documents of the Open Society, an organization founded by George Soros. Soros, whom DC Leaks referred to as “the architect and sponsor of almost every revolution and coup around the world for the last 25 years” is a pro-globalist billionaire who has been trying to take over the world via shadow government for decades.
Zero Hedge reported on the findings in the Soros leak: The documents are from multiple departments of Soros’ organizations. Soros’ the Open Society Foundations seems to be the group with the most documents in the leak. Files come from sections representing almost all geographical regions in the world, from the USA, to Europe, Eurasia, Asia, Latin, America, Africa, the World Bank “the President’s Office”, as well as an unknown entity named SOUK. As the Daily Caller notes , there are documents dating from at least 2008 to 2016. Documents in the leak range from research papers such as “ EUROPEAN CRISIS: Key Developments of the Past 48 Hours ” focusing on the impact of the refugee crisis, to a document titled “ The Ukraine debate in Germany “, to an update specific financials of grants. They reveal work plans, strategies, priorities and other activities by Soros, and include reports on European elections, migration and asylum in Europe. An email leaked by WikiLeaks earlier this week showed Soros had advised Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State on how to handle unrest in Albania – advice she acted on.
As well, it’s important to note that Soros provided a whopping $33 million to activists in Ferguson, Missouri, escalating a protest to a siege. The Washington Times reported: …liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he did with MoveOn.org. Mr. Soros spurred the Ferguson protest movement through years of funding and mobilizing groups across the U.S., according to interviews with key players and financial records reviewed by The Washington Times. In all, Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson , according to the most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society Foundations…
This is business as usual for the OSF (Open Society Foundation), as explained by director Kenneth Zimmerman : Mr. Zimmerman said OSF has been giving to these types of groups since its inception in the early ’90s, and that, although groups involved in the protests have been recipients of Mr. Soros’ grants, they were in no way directed to protest at the behest of Open Society . “The incidents, whether in Staten Island, Cleveland or Ferguson , were spontaneous protests — we don’t have the ability to control or dictate what others say or choose to say,” Mr. Zimmerman said. “But these circumstances focused people’s attention — and it became increasingly evident to the social justice groups involved that what a particular incident like Ferguson represents is a lack of accountability and a lack of democratic participation.” Soros-sponsored organizations helped mobilize protests in Ferguson , building grass-roots coalitions on the ground backed by a nationwide online and social media campaign. Other Soros-funded groups made it their job to remotely monitor and exploit anything related to the incident that they could portray as a conservative misstep, and to develop academic research and editorials to disseminate to the news media to keep the story alive. The plethora of organizations involved not only shared Mr. Soros‘ funding, but they also fed off each other, using content and buzzwords developed by one organization on another’s website, referencing each other’s news columns and by creating a social media echo chamber of Facebook “likes” and Twitter hashtags that dominated the mainstream media and personal online newsfeeds.
Soros was busted for paying protesters to go into Ferguson and stir things up. This is not theory. It’s FACT. The Daily Mail reported that Soros spent $33 million to bankroll the protests. The Washington Times reported that it was totally cool, though, because humanitarian that he is, Soros just wanted to help the civil rights movement ( source ). What a guy. Of course, this seems to be a thing with the kabillionaires. The Ford Foundation and Rockefeller foundation also fund “social activism.” Which is kabillionaire code for “mess stuff up and wreak havoc.”
Keep in mind that the organization Black Lives Matter was born through the Ferguson riots. Does this look familiar?
If the Modus Operandi in these protests looks familiar, that’s because MoveOn.org is organizing a lot of them, and MoveOn is funded by …you guessed it: George Soros. The organization was originally founded to combat the impeachment of Bill Clinton…are you seeing a link here? Another proud instigator is the Answer Coalition which also – are you sitting down? Has links to Soros. ( source )
There are a lot of people who are out there because they genuinely oppose a Trump presidency. The unfortunate thing is, their opposition comes from propaganda that they passionately believe. They are acting based on misinformation and they’re being professionally manipulated.
The next step here is martial law, which nobody wants.
Well, nobody except George Soros and friends.
Someone who wants to see America ripped apart is causing this division. Last summer, it was leaked that Soros attempted to destabilize Russia and depose Putin in 2012. Putin responded by banning Soros and all of his organizations from Russia. In 2014, Putin issued an international arrest warrant for Soros.
We could certainly improve both international relationships and our current situation by extraditing Soros immediately.
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website , where this article first appeared , offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter , and you can email her at SF Source Activist Post Nov. 2016 | 0 |
Standing before a crowded room of entrepreneurs and investors at a conference in San Francisco last summer, former Vice President Al Gore described how climate change could be contained, possibly even reversed. Next to take the stage was Kevin Mandia, the founder of Mandiant, a security company acquired by another security company called FireEye, who said nothing could be done to stop hackers from conducting digital attacks. The juxtaposition did not sit well with Oren Falkowitz, a former analyst at the National Security Agency. “I thought, ‘Really? We can solve global warming but we can’t stop cyberattacks? ’” Mr. Falkowitz recalled. He didn’t buy it. For the last two years, Mr. Falkowitz’s Area 1 Security, has been trying to persuade the owners and operators of computer servers that have been compromised by state spies, criminals and hacktivists to allow the company to tap into those servers to monitor the attackers’ activities. Those servers have given the Area 1 team a much clearer picture of who is being targeted and what tools and websites attackers are using. And the security company has started to block attackers, heading them off days or even months before they hit their targets. It’s a new tack in an industry that in recent years has appeared less confident that it can block digital attacks. Most security seeking funding today have resigned themselves to the inevitability of a breach and are focused more on identifying an attack as it plays out and praying that they can respond before the perpetrator makes off with something important. It’s as if everyone in the cybersecurity industry forgot that customers pay them to keep from being hacked in the first place. Mr. Falkowitz and his Blake Darché and Phil Syme, think they have found a new way to turn attackers’ tools against them. For as long as there have been cyberattacks, hackers have relied on a vast network of compromised servers around the globe to funnel their malicious code, search out targets and steal data. By watching what happens on those compromised servers at dentists’ offices, farms, welding shops and tech companies, Area 1 believes it has secured a unique vantage point for monitoring and even blocking attacks. Area 1’s technology addresses one of the most pernicious digital threats: attacks, which bait unsuspecting workers into clicking on links in emails and unknowingly giving attackers a toehold in their employers’ systems. Phishing attacks have become an epidemic. To date, more than 90 percent of breaches have begun with a phishing attack, according to Verizon. Intelligence experts say that phishing attacks are the preferred method of Chinese hackers who have managed to steal things as varied as nuclear propulsion technology and Silicon Valley’s most guarded software code. “Oren does not take it as writ law that we have to live that way, and he wanted to do something about it,” said Ted Schlein, a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, which has invested in Area 1. “If we could look every company in the eye and say, ‘We can stop your phishing attacks,’” Mr. Schlein said, “then Oren could look Kevin Mandia in the eye and say, ‘Thanks for the inspiration, but you’re wrong. ’” One of the biggest challenges in combating phishing attacks has been a lack of among victims, security firms and law enforcement. Victims are reluctant to publicize security breaches, potentially keeping competitors from heading off similar attacks. And the role of the government in sharing threat data has been constrained since the former intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden leaked documents revealing the scale of government monitoring. The Obama administration has been pushing to collect and share more threat data with the private sector. But few companies want to share any more data with the government than they are compelled to by law. Intelligence agencies say the lack of works to attackers’ advantage. “We are in a very complex digital world that’s only going to get more complex as innovation presents challenges we haven’t even anticipated,” said Daniel Ennis, former director of the Threat Operations Center at the N. S. A. “People have incredible expectations of the government to keep them safe” online. “My concern is that the bad guys are going to us,” he added. “The only way we’re going to them is a partnership between the government, the private sector, the victims and academia. ” Until that happens, Area 1 may have found a way to circumnavigate the politics by recruiting the owners of those compromised servers around the globe. “Cyber is perceived as this ‘Matrix’ structure, but people forget that it’s also physical in nature,” Mr. Falkowitz said. “The players are not just the attackers and the victim there’s an entire underbelly of the web that has been subverted. ” Area 1 discovers, on average, 859 new targeting phishing sites a day. Now it can use its unusual vantage point to help its customers stave off attacks. It is still early days, but Area 1 aims to eventually end phishing attacks altogether, Mr. Falkowitz said. “We just went to Mars and found water, and people are saying we can’t solve this?” | 1 |
I firmly believe for the population of which cant afford the "cash is king" concept, the key is moving to a single payer system just like in Canada. The so called profit goes back in to the healthcare system instead of into the insurance company's as profit. Why have a middleman to take the cream, for what... doing paperwork? The fact the single payer system was purposefully missed as an viable alternative is obviously keeping the status quo...It work's here in Canada.. its just we should spend more on hospitals and staffing to increase procedures and get the wait times down, instead were spending it on NAFTA tariffs and other nonsense. This then gives ammo to those who want to pick on our system, I have to wonder if it is all not done on purpose.. as its pretty obvious what needs to be done to make it better. You all need to get over these hungry insurance guys appetite's for your cash. You know they will spin it to serve themselves as per usual... | 0 |
HOBOKEN, N. J. — The engineer of the New Jersey Transit train that crashed into Hoboken Terminal on Thursday, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others during the busy morning commute, felt well rested and was unaware of any mechanical problems in the moments before the accident, federal investigators said on Sunday. At a news conference in Hoboken, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board said they had interviewed the engineer, Thomas Gallagher, as well as the train’s conductor, who was not identified, and still were no closer to determining the cause of the crash. It was the first fatal accident on New Jersey Transit trains since 1996, Bella the vice chairwoman of the safety board, said. Ms. said that Mr. Gallagher, 48, had no recollection of the accident itself and that the first thing he remembered was waking up on the floor of the cab afterward. She said Mr. Gallagher had told investigators that his cellphone was turned off and stored in a personal backpack, which remains in the cab of the control car. She also said Mr. Gallagher had reported that the train was traveling about 10 miles an hour when it entered Hoboken Terminal — a fact that apparently contradicted initial reports that the train was moving at a higher speed. New Jersey Transit announced on Sunday that all rail service in and out of Hoboken Terminal would remain suspended until further notice. However, the Light Rail line at Hoboken was back in service, the agency said. The investigation into the crash has focused in recent days on retrieving data recorders from the badly damaged train that was carrying about 250 passengers when it failed to stop on the track and plowed through a barrier into a wall at the terminal. Transportation officials said on Sunday that investigators had retrieved one data recorder from the train’s locomotive, but that it was not functioning and had not provided any usable information. Investigators were trying to retrieve a second event recorder from near the front of the train, but it was still too dangerous to enter the area, officials said. The inquiry has also used drone footage and other videotapes to capture aerial images of the train, the officials said. But the investigators still have to determine precisely how fast the train was going when it entered the station. Ms. would not discuss a separate audit of New Jersey Transit by the Federal Railroad Administration, except to say that it “will definitely be part of our process. ” The audit began in June after railroad officials noticed an increase in safety violations and a leadership vacuum at the top of the agency. | 1 |
It might seem strange for a parent to give thanks for a birth defect.
However, in the case of one baby girl, being born with an extra digit might have saved her life. Image Credit: Flickr CC/ Lars Plougmann
According to PopSugar , the newborn girl appeared perfectly healthy at birth— with one exception. Her tiny hand included an extra thumb.
Love What Matters posted a photo of the baby girl on its Facebook page: Loading Facebook Post...
As the newborn's parents explain, that third thumb earned their daughter some extra medical tests. And those extra tests led to an important discovery. They write :
“Quincy has an extra thumb, which now we realize was a blessing in disguise. If she wouldn't have had this anomaly (along with her missing kidney), they never would have sent us to see a geneticist who referred us to a cardiologist. It was at her first cardiology appointment that we found out she has a congenital heart defect that will require surgery.”
According to the National Institutes of Health , congenital heart defects affect approximately one out of 8,000 newborns, but can have few symptoms. It is even possible for doctors to miss the signs of a heart defect during a physical exam. Left untreated, a severe heart defect can lead to heart failure. However, with proper medical care, children with heart defects can go on to live healthy and active lives.
Ironically, from the moment her mother first saw the extra thumb, she called it her daughter's “heart thumb.” Though she didn't realize it at the time, that nickname would be a perfect way to describe her “lucky” extra digit:
“When Liv saw her thumb for the first time, she told us it was her heart thumb. If we would have only known how right she was! Quincy is our little heart warrior!”
Affectionately calling Quincy their “little heart warrior,” her parents say they are fortunate that this “strong, beautiful baby” belongs to them. | 0 |
How Electoral College Cheats Democracy November 13, 2016
Exclusive: A shadow over Donald Trump’s “election” is the fact that Hillary Clinton appears headed toward a significant plurality of the national popular vote, a quirk from the archaic Electoral College, notes Daniel Lazare.
By Daniel Lazare
The election commentary now filling the Internet seems distinctly out of touch. Many analysts are castigating Hillary Clinton for all the things she did wrong, her failure to connect with white workers in the Rust Belt , her inability to sufficiently rally blacks , and so on. Or they’re criticizing the American people for falling for a racist, sexist know-nothing like Donald Trump.
But these critics are ignoring the elephant in the parlor. The simple fact is that Americans didn’t elect Trump. An ancient relic known as the Electoral College did. For better or worse, a plurality of the people voted for Hillary Clinton. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
Indeed, her margin of victory is turning out to be bigger than many imagined. The latest count by the Associated Press has her ahead by about a half million popular votes, or Clinton’s 48 percent to Trump’s 47 percent. That’s about the same as George W. Bush’s losing margin in 2000 before a judicial coup d’état propelled him into office.
But Nate Cohen of The New York Times ’s “Upshot” team is predicting that by the time all mail-in, absentee, and provisional ballots are counted, it will end up even bigger, i.e., as high as 2.2 million , or 1.7 percent. That’s ten times John F. Kennedy’s margin of victory in 1960 and four times Richard Nixon’s in 1968.
If true, then Clinton will not only have won in terms of the popular vote, she will have won big (or as Trump might say “bigly” or “big league” depending on how you decipher one of his favorite expressions). Yet thanks to an obscure constitutional quirk, she’s not the one going to the White House. Instead, an orange-haired reality TV star is so that he possibly can do to the United States what he did to his own real-estate empire, i.e. drive it into bankruptcy.
A Failure of Democracy
Three things seem clear as a consequence. One is that America has a major problem on its hands. After all, this is the second time in 16 years that the people (or at least a plurality of the people) have been robbed of their choice for president. And both times political democracy has suffered a major body blow as a consequence. How much more abuse the democratic process can take without succumbing entirely is now open to question. An artist’s rendering of the Constitutional Convention in 1787
A second thing is that no one has foggiest idea how to fix it. A third is that the ruling elite and its minions in the chattering classes don’t give a damn because, in contrast to the population at large, they benefit from the breakdown (it’s much easier to control a demoralized population that has lost faith in the value of democracy) and are therefore eager to sweep the entire issue under the rug. So let’s take these issues on one at a time and see where they lead.
First, the problem. The Electoral College is a very Eighteenth-Century affair, an example of what happens when New World pragmatism combines with the Age of Reason’s love affair with ancient Rome. Faced with a tentative new republic in which “democracy” tended to be limited, local and individualist, the Framers concluded that a special body of elite electors was needed to hold the country together and ensure that a solid leader like George Washington took the reins.
The decision may not have been unreasonable given the exigencies of the day. (The proposed Constitution was a radical departure from the Articles of Confederation, which made the states supreme. The Constitution shifted sovereignty to “We the People,” but the states, especially the small ones, still wanted a significant role in the new hybrid system.)
Unexpected Problems
But 230 years later, the device has turned out to have unexpected consequences. By awarding one vote for every senator and representative that a state sends to Washington, it triples the clout of demographic Lilliputians like Wyoming (population 586,107, according to the most recent estimate) at the expense of multi-racial giants like California (population 39.1 million). By forcing presidential candidates to concentrate on a handful of swing states, it sidelines Democratic strongholds like California or New York along with Republican bastions such as Indiana or the Deep South. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in an MSNBC interview.
It also effectively cancels out millions of votes. Since Clinton carried New York State by 59 percent, it means that out of the 4.1 million people who voted her, some 632,000 might just as well have stayed home. Since she carried California by 61 percent, more than a million Golden State residents could have done the same.
Since it makes it possible to rack up a majority of electoral votes by winning a plurality in a surprisingly small number of state contests, one reform group has calculated that a candidate could conceivably win with as little as 30 percent of the popular vote overall. Indeed, if a third party makes a strong showing, it could even be less since all the winning candidate would have to do is win a 34-percent plurality in as few as 16 states.
As farfetched as such arithmetic may be, it shows how readily the two kinds of votes, electoral and popular, can diverge. The tighter the contest, moreover, the greater the chance that they will, which is why they did so in 2000 when Al Gore and George W. Bush were running neck-and-neck and again in 2016 when the race proved unexpectedly close. Rather than resolving differences fair and square, it’s a process all but designed to leave the majority (or a plurality) feeling cheated and scorned when races are hardest fought.
Undercounting Urban Voters
The Electoral College also tips the balance in favor of the Right by penalizing urban giants like California or New York, where ten times as many people ride the subways each day as live in all of Wyoming . Where Hispanics and racial minorities account for 44 percent of the ten most populous states, they account for less than 30 percent of the ten least. Yet it’s the latter who benefit. A protest placard at a rally in New York, April 19, 2016. (Photo by The All-Nite Images Flickr)
This is unfair, undemocratic, and downright racist. But it’s also counterproductive because it prevents government from addressing human needs where they are most likely to occur, i.e. in crowded cities or traffic-snarled suburbs rather than in the Big Sky country of Montana where hardly anyone lives and cows outnumber people by better than two to one .
Not that the Electoral College is the only institution that shamelessly flouts the principle of one person-one vote. The Senate is even worse since it gives equal weight to California and Wyoming even though the former’s population is some 67 times greater. But not only do two wrongs not make a right, but it turns out that Democratic senatorial candidates collectively outpolled Republicans on Tuesday as well by 45.2 million to 39.3 . But so inequitable is the system that the GOP still wound up with a 51-seat majority.
Something must be done, which brings us to problem number two: the solution. The answer is that nothing can be done because, under the current system, the tools to fix it do not exist. In 2006, a Stanford computer science professor named John Koza came up with a clever scheme to sidestep the Electoral College by calling on each state to pledge its electoral votes to whoever won the popular tally. Once states accounting for a majority of electoral votes – as few as 16 as we have seen – signed on, it would be a done deal.
But after ten states plus the District of Columbia lined up behind Koza’s reform, the movement stalled. One reason is that Republican states have no incentive to support a reform that clearly reduces their clout. Another is that swing states are even less inclined since they reap real-life rewards from their role as presidential battlegrounds . So the idea of democratizing the Electoral College appears to be a dead end.
No Way Out
That leaves reform via a constitutional amendment. But this is the unlikeliest of all thanks to an arcane amending process that requires two-thirds of each house plus three-fourths of the states to approve any change, no matter how minor. The first is a non-starter since Republicans control both the House and Senate, while the second is even worse since it allows just 13 states to block any reform sought by the remainder. U.S. Capitol.
Thirteen micro-population states representing as little as 4.4 percent of Americans are not likely to do away with an arrangement that augments their own power. By the year 2030, they’ll be even less likely since their share of the population by that point will have shrunk to just 3.5 percent, according to Census Bureau projections .
Unfairness thus appears to be locked in – not for years or decades but for as long as the current constitutional arrangement persists.
Which brings us to item number three: the role of the political elite. As The New York Times pointed out on Friday , Clinton criticized the Electoral College during the “battle of Florida” in November 2000.
“I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people,” she said, “and to me that means it’s time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president.”
Twelve years later, Trump lashed out at it as well, tweeting that it is “ a disaster for a democracy .”
This time around, the silence is deafening. Trump didn’t mention it since he is obviously loath to quarrel with an arrangement that put him over the top. But Clinton said nothing in her concession speech about outpolling her opponent either. Why not?
One reason is that she had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution as senator and had then invoked it too many times on the campaign trail to talk about changing the rules now that they had gone against her. But another is that any mention would lead to questions about how such an outmoded and inequitable system had been allowed to persist 16 years after the political disaster of Bush v. Gore.
Why did the politicians fail to fix a system that is so obviously broken or – for that matter – even take any initial steps? How could they be so lax? These are questions that Clinton now finds inconvenient because she knows there is no easy answer, so she held her tongue. Her devotion to the constitutional status quo outweighs her loyalty to the plurality of Americans who voted for her. (One can only imagine how Trump and his angry supporters would have reacted if Trump triumphed in the popular vote but was denied the presidency. One might assume that he would cite that fact as proof that the system was “rigged.”)
Losing Credibility
But the problem is not going away. The system is, in fact, collapsing before our eyes. Elections are a mess because they’re in the hands of thousands of state and county officials with their own special rules and procedures – not because a system like this makes sense (it obviously doesn’t), but because that’s what the Framers decreed (or didn’t anticipate) and no one knows how to change it. President James Madison, an architect of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, but also a Virginia slave owner.
Congress is frozen and corrupt while democratic accountability is nonexistent in an age of filibusters and anonymous Senate “holds” allowing a single legislator to prevent certain actions, such as confirmation votes for senior officials, from reaching the floor. Poland disappeared from the map in 1795 because a bizarre “liberum veto” allowed gave each senator power to block any bill and thus throw the entire government into paralysis. Yet today’s Senate “holds” allow individual legislators to do much the same.
Meanwhile, the only thing worse than a rightwing thug like Trump is a rightwing thug whose legitimacy is in question and who therefore can be counted on to turn even more thuggish by way of compensation.
Something should be done but nothing will be because the Founders had no idea that the system would last as long as it has and therefore neglected to include a workable toolkit with which to perform the necessary repairs. It’s not a pretty picture. But it will not get any better until the people face the problem of how to fix it on their own.
Daniel Lazare is the author of several books including The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy (Harcourt Brace). | 0 |
Your head feels like it’s inside a bass drum, your mouth is cottony and the contents of your stomach might not stay put. Maybe you partied hard and had a little too much to drink — or maybe a lot too much — so you turn to the internet to search for cures to a hangover. To spare you the bleary research, here’s what you should know before you drink. If you have to ask, count yourself lucky not to have experienced one. Not surprisingly, the more alcohol you consume, the better your chances of getting a hangover. Binge drinking of four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men during any one episode increases the likelihood of a hangover, Laura J. Veach, an associate professor of general surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in N. C. said in an email. Dr. Veach said a hangover occurs when the concentration of alcohol in one’s system is decreasing. It is at its worst when all the alcohol has been eliminated. “Addiction specialists have often noted that a hangover is technically a form of alcohol withdrawal at its most benign,” she said. The scientific community does not completely understand what causes hangovers, Dr. Preston R. Miller, a surgeon at Wake Forest, said in an email. Alcohol is a diuretic that causes dehydration and irritation of the gastrointestinal tract, leading to nausea and dilation of blood vessels, which can cause the headaches associated with hangovers. Unless you are going to abstain or drink in moderation, the answer is no, experts said. Some commercial products promote themselves as surefire remedies but Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, said in an interview: “The bottom line: When you get the hangover, there is nothing clinically proven to make it go away. There is no magic pill. ” A detailed survey of medical literature and research in 2005 concluded, “No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover. ” Among the commercial products promoted as cures: IV drips with a blend of saline solution and electrolyte replacement fluid, patches that are said to replenish the vitamins and acids lost when consuming alcohol, and a “natural dietary supplement,” only one dose of which is required to “prevent” a hangover, its manufacturer says. Dr. Miller said most cures treat the symptoms, such as a headache or dehydration, “but the only way to truly get over a hangover is time. ” Dr. Marc I. Leavey, a primary care physician in Lutherville, Md. who writes a blog, “String of Medical Pearls,” said in an email that the products were “gimmicks” that either relied on a placebo effect or were no more effective than slowly sipping ice chips or an electrolyte sports drink. “Alcohol consumption is a market,” he wrote. “It would seem logical that attempts to cash in on the inevitable aftermath would spawn any number of products claiming to help, despite the lack of any foundation for those claims. ” Dr. Glatter recommended staying away from liquors such as bourbon and whiskey. They contain more congeners, complex organic molecules that give the liquors their color and taste but also generate more intense hangovers. Better to drink clearer liquors, such as vodka and gin, which have fewer congeners, he said. Once the damage is done, Dr. Reed Caldwell, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, recommended hydrating with water, electrolyte drinks or coconut water, getting proper nutrition and exercise and taking a cool shower. He added that caffeine may help relieve symptoms from poor sleep but it will not reverse the effects of alcohol or a hangover. Before you start drinking, eat some food (it slows the absorption of alcohol) and have something nonalcoholic between drinks. Before bed, take a nonsteroidal pain reliever and drink water, Dr. Glatter said. Hangover cures remain a hotbed of research, he said, adding: “I think we’re going to get there. We’re not there yet. ” | 1 |
This week, we meet for breakfast to talk through our conflicting feelings about the new film “When the Bough Breaks,” the No. 2 movie in America. Jenna loved it Wesley not so much. We also decode the inherent racism of the sharing economy. Airbnb recently issued a report about how they plan to fight discrimination on the site. One of the proposed solutions is to make the avatar photos of smaller, making it harder to discriminate. Um, what? “I’ve got to be honest with you,” Wesley tells Jenna on the show. “If AirbnB wants to make the avatars smaller, make mine twice as big! If you don’t want me staying in your house, don’t front like you’re happy to have me. ” “This moment of reckoning is bigger than has ever happened before with the whole tech wave,” Jenna says. ”The fact that we have these founders that want to be woke,” Jenna says, is a big step in the right direction. But even with that awareness, she says, the fact remains: “You can’t code yourself out of racism. ” We also bring in the dance writer Shanti Crawford to review the moves we watched at the United States Open. From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. On your iPhone or iPad: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “Still Processing” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for “Still Processing” and select it from the list of results. You may have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. | 1 |
The Federal Aviation Administration, citing fire hazards, has warned against using Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones on aircraft. Three Australian airlines and the German carrier Lufthansa have outright banned their use onboard. But the threat of airliner fires is not limited to Samsung devices, which the company has offered to replace. And the hazard is far more than theoretical. Qantas, one of the Australian carriers, had an onboard fire during a flight this year when a passenger’s cellphone was crushed in the mechanism of a seat and the phone’s battery ignited. In January as a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta arrived at the gate, crew members discovered that a bag containing two laptop computers had burst into flames, according to the F. A. A. The smoke prompted some passengers to use the emergency exits and wait on the wings until help arrived. The problem is batteries, which have become the standard for portable consumer electronics, including phones, tablets and laptops, because of the power they can pack into a small package. They are also highly volatile. Battery fires were considered a contributing factor in the crashes of three cargo planes in the last 10 years: an Asiana 747 in 2011, a UPS 747 in Dubai in 2010 and a UPS in Philadelphia in 2006. In January, the F. A. A. issued a warning that batteries in a cargo hold carried the “risk of a catastrophic hull loss” on an airplane. So far there have been no airliner disasters specifically attributed to passengers’ digital devices. But experts worry about the sheer mathematics. The Royal Aeronautical Society in Britain estimates that even a jet with only 100 passengers might have more than 500 batteries aboard. Those numbers, and the attendant fire risks, could eventually catch up with the public. The question is: What to do about it — besides issuing advisories? The F. A. A. administrator, Michael P. Huerta, said in an email statement that the agency recognized that the batteries posed risks and that it was tracking all incidents in aircraft cabins “to help us determine what we can do. ” Mr. Huerta urged passengers to put their devices “in a bag or other safe location” when not using them. But the F. A. A. is in a tough situation. Under the regulatory rules, it cannot ground the Galaxy Note 7 until the Consumer Product Safety Commission orders a recall. On Friday, the safety commission said it was working with Samsung on the terms of a recall and urged owners of the phones to stop using them. On Saturday, Samsung offered new guidance to owners: Turn off your phone and bring it in for a replacement. Congress has limited the F. A. A. ’s ability to place restrictions on devices on airplanes beyond the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization, according to Laura Brown, an F. A. A. spokeswoman. The organization, a United Nations agency, says the devices should not be transported on passenger planes as cargo or in checked baggage. As for use, the organization defers to each country’s rules. Any attempt to seriously restrict or even ban devices powered by batteries would probably face an outcry from travelers, who have come to consider them an indispensable part of modern life. There would also be the question of who would enforce such rules, and how. Airport security processes are already long and tedious, without adding a new layer of scrutiny. Until a few years ago, before the use of phones and other electronic devices was allowed below 10, 000 feet, it was widely known that passengers surreptitiously defied the rule. Flight attendants complained that it was impossible to police. So the goal is to contain the hazard. In the event of a battery fire in flight, F. A. A. standards may help minimize the damage. Seat covers, carpets, curtains and dividers are made of special materials that are flame retardant, even against a battery fire, which burns in the neighborhood of 1, 000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Isidor Buchmann, an engineer who runs the informational site BatteryUniversity. com. Some experts say those standards could suffice. “It’s damned near impossible to propagate a fire on an airplane,” said George J. Ringger, an aeronautical engineer with his own consulting company, who specializes in cabin interiors. “Could a passenger get burned? Yes. Would there be smoke that would propagate in the cabin? Do crews have protocols? Yes. ” But some other fire and safety experts are not as sanguine. A laptop battery fire could take hours to burn itself out. And the smoke emitted would be abundant and toxic. Michael Gilchrist is an engineer and of PlaneGard, a maker of a case meant to contain the fire and smoke if a battery starts to malfunction. Customers include Air Tahiti Nui, which carries the PlaneGard case on transoceanic flights. “With a laptop, you see what happens,” Mr. Gilchrist said. “You have a or event. That could cause a lot of problems. ” There is no global database with comprehensive information about battery fires from electronic devices in the cabins of passenger airplanes. The F. A. A. ’s tally — 19 fires in the last five years — is based on what the agency’s spokeswoman, Ms. Brown, called an “informal list. ” The Australian authorities investigating the Qantas event in May found that there had been 17 episodes in their jurisdiction during the same period. A spokesman for the airline industry group, the International Air Transport Association, said its members had reported 24 cases in which a battery overheated and caught fire or released smoke in the passenger cabin. But Mr. Gilchrist says events often go unreported. “The reporting is horrendously bad, but if you sit and talk with a pilot or an aircrew, they’ll say it happens once a month,” he said. “This is not a remote occurrence. ” In 2013, after considerable pressure from customers, airlines began allowing passengers to use electronic devices from gate to gate. As the number of devices passengers typically carry has increased, more accommodations have been made for their use, including USB ports that let people watch movies on their own devices and electrical outlets for chargers. “The advent of electronic devices, as well as an electric plane, raises new issues that ought to be addressed very carefully by the regulatory authorities,” said N. Albert Moussa, founder of the fire safety company BlazeTech and a consultant on airplane fire hazards. Although the Samsung recall is renewing public awareness of the problem, Mr. Moussa is not optimistic that it will prompt solutions. “Historically, the community takes real action,” he said, only “when an accident happens. ” | 1 |
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WikiLeaks’ email dump is proving a great deal of things about who Hillary Clinton really is and what she stands for. She’s rather comfortable with cozying up to Wall Street , she has nothing but contempt for the everyday American , and employs people who literally want to bring about a complicit and unaware citizenry (which she likely supports 100%).
It is also no secret that she is very much a fan of sweeping foreign-style gun laws which would effectively destroy the Second Amendment without even repealing it (though she obviously has not read my refutation of her unconstitutional and oppressive platform ). She would be more than happy to make the laws of states like California, Maryland, or New York into federal law…
So why did she not fully endorse the highly controversial and oppressive New York gun control law known as the S.A.F.E. Act, which does many of the things that she so ardently desires to do? Good question…
The Washington Free Beacon reported:
Top Clinton campaign staffers worried about embracing the 2013 New York gun control law known as the SAFE Act during a speech at a leading gun control group’s awards dinner, and ultimately decided to avoid praising some of the law’s more controversial provisions, hacked emails published on Wednesday show.
While reviewing the speech Hillary Clinton was slated to give at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s 2015 Bear Awards, a number of top Clinton staffers discussed how to praise Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s work on gun control without embracing the SAFE Act.
The leaked emails show top Hillary aide Huma Abedin express a desire to fully endorse the NY law, which effectively bans any and all AR and AK style sporting rifles, and limited magazine capacity to 10 rounds (originally it was 7, despite rather few firearms that use a 7 round magazine, but that was struck down as federal court).
Despite Huma’s advice that Hillary endorse the law, Corey Ciorciari, a Clinton researcher advised against it.
“Don’t see a need to fully embrace the SAFE Act,” he said. “There are some controversial items in there. We can highlight pieces that fit within our agenda.”
…
Ciorciari drafted a line that would highlight the parts of the SAFE Act the campaign liked while ignoring the rest.
“I’m working with Megan to incorporate something like this: ‘After the tragedy of Sandy Hook, when Congress failed to heed the call of the American people to take action, you led the fight in New York and expanded life saving background checks,’ he said.
Carrk, the campaign’s research director, agreed with Ciorciari. “SAFE is not a safe bet,” he replied.
So the SAFE Act is “not a safe bet,” ehh? What exactly does that mean?
If anything, it shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign knows that gun control is not a winning issue; it’s not a primary platform upon which the Democrats can win.
Especially when it comes to things like banning the most commonly owned sporting rifle in the country, that’s something that is literally toxic for almost any candidate running for office right now, with a few exceptions in certain very Leftist districts.
Nonetheless, Hillary has touted some very dangerous ideas about new laws that would severely infringe on our right to bear arms; ideas like universal background checks (code words for gun owner registry), placing liability for gun-related deaths on firearms manufacturers, closing the gun show and online “loopholes” (which don’t exist!), etc. Essentially, she’s advocating for things that will not solve crime, but will merely make criminals out of possibly a hundred million or more Americans.
But of course, she can’t say that. She can’t say that she wants to ban your sporting rifle, force you to register it if it’s grandfathered, then prohibit transferring, thus creating de facto confiscation through the passing of a generation.
She knows that saying that, or even saying anything close to that, would be immediately pounced upon by the NRA, National Association for Gun Rights, Gun Owners of America, and countless other national and state-level organizations that fight to protect our rights. So she uses vague language and capitalizes on emotionally charged terms to get support for an extremist agenda.
Still, don’t be fooled. Though she did not explicitly endorse NY SAFE Act-style gun laws, she does support them, and you and I both know it.
As is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” | 0 |
link IMO, here is what is happening. you guys are jumping to conclusions by not having any context and taking this at face value. I've been into this a very long time, and with that perspective I see some repeating patterns. To the point of the op, this is the same old same old--with a new generation of players. We've seen the same exact thing over the last 70 years with people like George Adamski, David Fry, Billy Meier, William Moore, and Steven Greer. It's the same story: A privileged individual is given the keys to open a few doors about what "really is happening." Tom DeLonge believes (and that's all it takes) he has been given these keys, and he's running with it, as his handlers knew he would. Tom sees this whole "Sekret Machines" schtick as a "franchise." That's how he talks about it. when he says "franchise" he's talking in George Lucas Star Wars terms with movie tie-ins, merchandise, graphic novels, coffee cups, t-shirts, and back packs. That's his vision for this. He sees opportunity to make this thing BIG. Now, he's been writing to Podesta and who knows who else, but he and we know Podesta has an interest in UFOs. So Podesta is seen by Tom as an "in" for what he perceives as the new administration and he is offering himself as a legitimate representative of his generation. His statement to Podesta is one of POSITIONING HIMSELF as a natural go-between for these issues--especially with "young people." It has nothing really to do with young people being disenfranchised and cynical and everything to do with Tom DeLonge taking an important position vis-a-vis "Disclosure." If DeLonge pulls this off it won't be Stephen Bassett of the Paradigm Research Group or Steven Greer, who "once had dinner with the head of the CIA" whose name is forever associated with "Disclosure." The name everyone will remember is Tom DeLonge. THAT'S what is happening here. DeLonge is attempting to position himself to take major advantage of what he now thinks is reality, and which also includes a major Star-Wars-sized "franchise" that has the potential of turning him from a mere multi-millionaire into something much larger. Of course, he may also be a dupe and or delusional, but he may not know that yet. edit on 10/27/2016 by schuyler because: (no reason given) | 0 |
Hollywood studios could be in for another year of “ bombs” and increased volatility around releases, film industry analyst Doug Creutz warned in a report this week. [As he has been warning for years, the Cowen and Co. media analyst said that film studios’ increasing reliance on tentpoles and superhero movies will contribute to a decline in box office grosses in 2017, making what once seemed like bets on flicks a decidedly riskier enterprise. According to Deadline, Creutz says the film industry in 2017 will be “at least as difficult” as it was in 2016, when operating profits at the major studios fell 14. 6 percent, even as total box office receipts inched up 2. 2 percent over 2015 numbers. That increase was due largely to inflation and the increasing cost of movie tickets, the analyst warned. And Disney — with its stable of established franchise properties like Star Wars and Marvel films — reportedly captured the lion’s share of the haul with a staggering 60. 5 percent of the industry’s $4. 18 billion in total operating profits. Creutz noted that nearly upcoming releases from major studios this year boast budgets north of $100 million, and predicted Fox and Paramount could struggle the most with offerings like War for the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: The Last Knight, respectively. He added that Disney would likely continue its dominance with a new Star Wars film and the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, while Warner Bros. could see success with Wonder Woman, Justice League and Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk. The Cowen and Co. analyst has expressed skepticism for years about the major studios’ shift toward pursuing similar release strategies, or what he described as putting “more and more eggs in the franchise picture basket. ” “History suggests — and we have ample evidence of this in the animation genre — that as the number of films in a given genre increases, the average performance decreases, and that even the films in a genre are not immune to the phenomenon,” Creutz wrote in a 2015 report, according to the Hollywood Reporter. After a brutal Summer 2016 that saw numerous bombs like Alice Through the Looking Glass, Ghostbusters, and The BFG, Creutz warned that the film industry is in “real trouble. ” Making matters worse, receipts from the 100 films at the international box office last year reportedly dipped 1. 7 percent as European territories have become inundated with a glut of blockbuster films. Creutz suggested last year to the New York Post that studios should focus on diversifying their release slates, or else just shut down altogether. “Where did all the romantic comedies go?” he asked. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
Report Copyright Violation FOX Business Network Mocks Hillary at West Palm Beach Rally: "Plenty of Space" (VIDEO) The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson | 0 |
Videos Video: Journalist Covering Pipeline Protests Shot While Conducting Interview During an interview, this journalist was shot point-blank by police. Fortunately, the entire ordeal was caught on camera. | November 7, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! A member of the Stutsman County SWAT team who declined to give his name nor to be identifiable by badge stands guard by an armored personnel carrier while deployed to watch protesters demonstrating against the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Stand Rock Sioux Reservation, in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016.
Tensions continue to escalate in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where protesters attempt to peacefully face off against riot police and the National Guard. In addition to being maced and beaten with batons, activists opposing the four-state Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) have been tased and even shot with rubber bullets.
As the recent incident (below) reveals, violence seems to only be escalating rather than ceasing. Though the UN has called on the U.S. government to halt all construction of the pipeline , its development continues. Desperate and on edge, activists at Standing Rock continue to put their lives on the line, unaware of what will come next – prepared to expect anything. Unfortunately, what recently occurred is a reminder of the danger people protesting corporate greed face. I was shot by militarized police WHILE interviewing a man on camera at #StandingRock …and here's the footage. #NoDAPL https://t.co/FfWiSCbiKf pic.twitter.com/4DRwNPkfZ9
— Erin Schrode (@ErinSchrode) November 3, 2016
During an interview with Cantapeta Creek, activist and journalist Erin Schrode was talking when out of nowhere, police shot her with a rubber bullet. She can be heard screaming, “Ow!” before crumbling to the ground.
In the Facebook post , Schrode wrote that while “militarized police” shot her at “point-blank range”, she was physically unhurt but shaken from the attack. In an interview with Fusion , she later relayed that she couldn’t fully comprehend what had happened but just remembered being in “excruciating pain.”
She said: “I couldn’t fathom that I’d just been hit. Why would they target me? Why would they shoot anyone? There was absolutely nothing violent, aggressive, provocative going on at the protests yesterday.”
The day after the activist realized she’d caught the entire incident on camera, she quickly uploaded it to social media to share with the world.
What’s happening in Standing Rock doesn’t just pertain to the indigenous in the area, it affects present and future generations. In addition to trying to protect the Missouri river, activists supporting the Standing Rock Sioux tribe are hoping to preserve sacred burial ground and send a message about the need to respect Native American treaties. Commenting on the scene at Standing Rock, Schrode says: “I can’t believe what is happening here in Standing Rock. It’s a scene like I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world, and it’s right here at home.”
You can bet that this activist isn’t leaving Standing Rock until justice is served. She’ll remain – like the majority of people who have set up camp on the edge of the reservation – until the pipeline is halted or all are physically forced off the land. If the latter occurs, expect deafening outcry from activists around the world. These men shot me at #StandingRock today. I pray for them– and for our peaceful, prayerful water protectors. #NoDAPL https://t.co/hUXigAF6u4 pic.twitter.com/5HI14dTEO8
— Erin Schrode (@ErinSchrode) November 3, 2016 This work by True Activist is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License. | 0 |
Imagine if the former Mafia boss John Gotti, who went to prison for murder and cultivated the public’s fascination with his flamboyant New York lifestyle and menacing charm, had a YouTube channel. Imagine if he used that channel to become a video star by portraying himself as a penitent hit man and regaling viewers with tales of violence while seeking forgiveness for homicides past. For Colombians, the equivalent of such an unlikely YouTube sensation can be found in John Jairo Velásquez. He is a former enforcer for the Medellín drug cartel who has boasted of committing hundreds of murders on behalf of his boss, Pablo Escobar. Mr. Velásquez spent more than 20 years in prison for plotting the killing of a Colombian presidential candidate in 1989 and goes by the nickname Popeye. Now, Mr. Velásquez, 54, is trying to rebrand himself as a sort of evangelist in a series of videos he began posting on YouTube last year. The underlying message (there were 81 videos as of Sunday) is one of forgiveness. Now, he is known as Popeye Arrepentido, or Remorseful Popeye. “It’s not about monetizing my life story but about telling the stories, the things that happened,” he said in an interview on Sunday. “I’ve been famous for 30 years. I only want to have an opinion because I am an activist. I am against the Venezuelan and Colombian government. I am against Donald Trump because of his hatred of Latinos. I just want my opinion heard. ” His audience cannot seem to stop watching. The videos have gained more than 117, 000 subscribers and 9. 5 million views. The comments are filled with praise and admiration. One person signed off with “Hugs. ” But not all people are enthralled by Mr. Velásquez’s budding stardom — least of all the victims touched by the cartel’s acts of mayhem. The son of one victim — a man who was among 107 people killed by a bomb planted by the cartel on a plane that exploded over Bogotá, Colombia, in 1989 — said Mr. Velásquez’s popularity overshadowed the harm he had unleashed, The Guardian reported. The son, Gonzálo Rojas, said that the former hit man had shown no real remorse and that he was trafficking in a perverse sort of celebrity because of his crimes. Most hit men do not turn up on YouTube seeking a second act by spilling secrets about past misdeeds. (Mr. Gotti died in 2002 while serving a life sentence.) But one expert described Mr. Velásquez as “an astute ” who had capitalized on his infamy by claiming to have been reformed while glorifying . Mr. Velásquez, however, said he felt reborn after being released on parole in 2014, according to a description of his YouTube account. “I created this channel with the intention to be able to talk day to day about my process reintegrating into society as well as my process with true remorse,” he wrote. “Being an assassin is not normal,” he said in the interview. Now, he said, he “respects life and society. ” “I was resocialized: When I changed my way of thinking, I changed my way of being,” he added. In one video, he seeks forgiveness from a relative of one of his victims. When a viewer asked, “When can the victims of the drug war of the Medellín cartel meet you — the ones who lost brothers or fathers in the police force?” Mr. Velásquez said he found the question painful. But he asserted: “It was the war that killed your brother, but I am not going to justify that. I am going to assume responsibility because your brother was defending a country, an institution, and we were murderers paid by the cartels. ” If Mr. Velásquez, who uploads videos out of his apartment in Medellín, is troubled that his stated contriteness is at odds with the opening graphics of gunfire and bullet holes in his videos, he is not showing it. And he revels in the limelight. Some viewers have responded by welcoming him back to society. “Hello, Popeye,” one wrote. “I love all of your statements because they are full of honesty and courage. Hugs. ” Others celebrate his flair and ability to talk directly to the people: “You have the personality to be able to tell the truth to the Colombian society. ” Vincent T. Gawronski, a professor of political science at College in Birmingham, Ala. said in an email: “In a twisted way, we celebrate ‘successful’ criminals, even killers in Hollywood movies, cable television shows and soap operas: ‘Scarface,’ ‘Blow,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘The Sopranos,’ Netflix’s ‘Narcos. ’” Dr. Gawronski noted that nearly a dozen “narconovelas” had aired on television and that there were many “narcocorridos,” or ballads, celebrating drug traffickers. “We mythologize those that challenge authority and do whatever they want and get away with it,” he said. He added: “Of course, Velásquez’s fame is directly tied to his relationship with Pablo Escobar. The stories he can tell will keep him popular, but they might also get him killed. ” In an interview published in The Telegraph in 2014, Mr. Velásquez, who said he had a wife and son living in the United States, declared that he could take care of himself if anyone came after him. In a video, Mr. Velásquez recalled where he was in 1993 when the authorities killed Mr. Escobar, the ruthless cocaine trafficker who ran the Medellín cartel. When one viewer wanted to know what Mr. Escobar had written in his notepads, Mr. Velásquez said: “Those notepads were simply to write the names of the people who he wanted to kill. If he wrote your name in those notepads, you were a dead man. ” If the mobsters from Mr. Gotti’s day had a strict code of silence about criminal activity, Mr. Velásquez seems unconcerned about revealing the inner workings of the cartel. In a video posted in October, he said he would always be an assassin. He boasted about his reputation on the streets, calling himself the living memory of the cartel. He said he would never speak ill of Mr. Escobar. “For me, Escobar was a terrorist, a drug dealer, a kidnapper — but he was also my friend he treated me with kindness and respect,” he said. “He was the kind of man that would look you in the eyes and do what he says. Everyone knows what he was, but with me he was good. ” “I loved Pablo,” he said. “He never owed me money for any of my hits. ” | 1 |
It may have been “Tiny House Nation” that finally broke me. Last month this offbeat real estate show on the FYI network began its third season of cramming homeowners into trailers, bungalows and other mini abodes. The homes are little. The season premiere was not. The running time was nearly 65 minutes uninterrupted — a full hour and a half with ads. There’s been a lot of talk in the business about “Too Much TV” — the surfeit of hundreds of original scripted series every year. But there’s a corollary issue: TV. Even as viewers’ time becomes more precious, individual episodes are bloating. Television has come down with a case of gigantism. HBO’s drama, “Vinyl,” began with a pilot, directed by Martin Scorsese, that vamped on like the coda to “Freebird. ” The series premiere of FX’s drama “Fargo” ran around 97 minutes with ads. “Fargo,” the Coen brothers movie it was based on, ran 98. Episodes of Netflix’s romantic comedy “Love” ambled up to 40 minutes. As a critic, I’m used to championing greater options for artists. We’re lucky to live in a time when TV creators have freedom from arbitrary constraints. But more and more of my TV watching these days involves starting an episode, looking at the number of minutes on the playback bar and silently cursing. Historically, network television was like a container ship the product had to fit standard boxes for ease of shipping. Networks needed predictable schedules and had to turn over specific time slots to affiliates. It was a process — episodes were a presence in the early days of television — but 30 minutes generally came to mean comedy, and 60, drama. Episodes used to be longer, in that commercial breaks were shorter, but the journey from beginning to end stayed the same. And networks occasionally tinkered with length. NBC supersized its popular Thursday night sitcoms in the early aughts Fox inflated “American Idol” like a Macy’s parade balloon. But those stunts were exceptions. Today’s great fattening, like so many trends in TV now, is in part the influence of streaming TV. The only thing limiting the length of a Netflix or Amazon binge show is your ability to sit without cramping. The menu is bigger, and so are the portions. Meanwhile, basic cable channels realized that there was no reason their “hourlong” series needed to end on the hour. If they pushed a 10 p. m. drama’s end to, say, 11:17, they could give their creators the kind of narrative real estate available on HBO and Showtime. The most dramatic early claimer of elbow room was FX’s drama, “Sons of Anarchy,” which piled on plot and ended its episodes with music montages. Now it’s common for cable hits to plump up. The most recent season finale of “The Walking Dead” ran 90 minutes, though I have rarely seen an episode of “The Walking Dead” that needed its full 60. Like its zombies, it could be hacked down by a third and shamble along just as well. At best, extended episodes can make room for complexity. But focus and showmanship still matter. In a era, being able to hook an audience is more important, not less. The best examples of Big TV make the most of each moment, instead of padding them out. Take Louis C. K. ’s barroom drama “Horace and Pete,” whose first episode ran almost 68 minutes and played like live theater. Its third episode — essentially a long dramatic monologue about infidelity by Laurie Metcalf — is 43 minutes of regret and catharsis, the camera holding tight to Ms. Metcalf’s face. I did not look at my watch once. Louis C. K. may have earned the right to go long by proving he could also go short his FX comedy, “Louie,” included stories that would run only a few minutes if that was all they needed. AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” a more conventional drama, regularly overstays its slot by a few minutes. But it uses its time mindfully, to suspend tension and let character moments play out. There’s a certain aspect to longer episodes, even with great shows. When the sixth season of the sitcom “Community” moved to Yahoo from NBC, it was finally free of constraints — and something was off. The pacing was sluggish the jokes were less crystalline. Maybe “Community” — a product of the fractious compromise between art and business — needed limits in order to transcend them. Those time constraints and network scissors, much as writers love to bash them, can be the Marie Kondo method of comedy. The first season of Netflix’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” was originally made for NBC, and like its spiritual forebear “30 Rock,” it was packed like a diamond. The second season, made for streaming, is still funny, but you can feel the drag in some of its episodes. TV was raised with rules, the product of technology and business models that had little to do with art. It’s shedding those strictures as it grows up, which is good — that’s given us anarchic comedies like “Broad City” and dramas like “Rectify. ” But freedom also proves the values of the discipline you learn under restrictions. I appreciate ambitious storytelling. But I also appreciate getting a full night’s sleep. | 1 |
HEZE, China — First the news rippled across China that millions of compromised vaccines had been given to children around the country. Then came grim rumors and angry complaints from parents that the government had kept them in the dark about the risks since last year. Now, the country’s immunization program faces a backlash of public distrust that critics say has been magnified by the government’s ingrained secrecy. Song Zhendong, like many parents here, said he was reluctant to risk further vaccinations for his son. “If he can avoid them in the future, we will not get them,” said Mr. Song, a businessman. “Why didn’t we learn about this sooner? If there’s a problem with vaccines for our kids, we should be told as soon as the police knew. Aren’t our children the future of the nation?” The faulty vaccines have become the latest lightning rod for widespread, often visceral distrust of China’s medical system, and a rebuff to what many Chinese critics see as President Xi Jinping’s bulldozing, rule. The scandal is just the latest crisis to shake public faith in China’s food and medicine supplies, but it is the first big scare under Mr. Xi, who had vowed to be different. He came into office promising to “make protecting the people’s right to health a priority. ” “If our party can’t even handle food safety properly while governing China, and this keeps up, some will wonder whether we’re up to the job,” Mr. Xi said in 2013, the year he became president. The anger here in Heze, the city in the eastern province of Shandong where the scandal has its roots, is evident. About two million improperly stored vaccines were sold around the country from an overheated, dilapidated storeroom. The main suspect in the case is a hospital pharmacist from Heze who had been convicted of trading in illegal vaccines in 2009 and was doing it again two years later. Many parents said they were especially alarmed that nearly a year had elapsed from the time the police uncovered the illicit trade and the time the public first learned about it in February. “Withholding information doesn’t maintain public credibility,” said Li Shuqing, a lawyer in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, who is one of about 90 attorneys who have volunteered to represent possible victims in the case. “In the end, it makes people more distrustful. ” To many here, the combination of lax regulation and the secrecy surrounding a potential public health crisis seems like déjà vu. In the SARS crisis of 2003, 349 people died across mainland China and hundreds more died elsewhere after officials hid the extent of its spread. In a scandal that came to light in 2008, at least six children died and 300, 000 fell ill with kidney stones and other problems from infant formula adulterated with melamine, an industrial chemical. “The customers worry about fake milk powder, fake medicine, fake vaccines, fake everything,” said Ma Guohui, the owner of a shop on the rural fringe of Heze that sells baby products. “This is certainly going to affect people’s thinking. My boy got all his vaccination shots. If he were born now, I’d worry. ” Despite such fears, the tainted vaccines are more likely to be ineffective than harmful. The World Health Organization has said that outdated or poorly stored vaccines rarely if ever trigger illness or toxic reactions. Chinese government investigators said last week that they had not found any cases of adverse reactions or spikes in infections linked to ineffective vaccines. The greater danger may be more insidious. The erosion of public trust could damage China’s immunization program, which has been credited with significant declines in measles and other communicable diseases. “Confidence is easy to shake, and that’s happened across the world and has happened here,” said Lance Rodewald, a doctor with the World Health Organization’s immunization program in Beijing. “We hear through social media that parents are worried, and we know that when they’re worried, there’s a very good chance that they may think it’s safer not to vaccinate than to vaccinate. That’s when trouble can start. ” After unfounded reports of deaths caused by a hepatitis B vaccine in 2013, such vaccinations across 10 provinces fell by 30 percent in the days afterward, and the administration of other mandatory vaccines fell by 15 percent, according to Chinese health officials. The illicit vaccines in the current case were not part of China’s compulsory, vaccination program, which inoculates children against illnesses such as polio and measles at no charge. The illegal trade dealt in vaccines — including those for rabies, influenza and hepatitis B — which patients pay for from their own pockets. The pharmacist named in the investigation, Pang Hongwei, bought cheap vaccines from drug companies and traders — apparently batches close to their expiration dates — and sold them in 23 provinces and cities, according to drug safety investigators. She began the business in 2011, just two years after she had been convicted on charges of illegally trading in vaccines and sentenced to three years in prison, which was reduced to five years’ probation. Officials have not explained how she was able to avoid prison and resume her business. Ms. Pang, in her late 40s, and her daughter, who has been identified only by her surname, Sun, kept the vaccines in a rented storeroom of a disused factory in Jinan. The storeroom lacked refrigeration, which may have damaged the vaccines’ potency. The police have detained them but not announced specific charges, and neither suspect has had a chance to respond publicly to the accusations. Lax regulation in the commercial system allowed Ms. Pang’s business to grow, several medical experts said. Local government medical agencies and clinics were able to increase their profits by turning to cheap, illegal suppliers, People’s Daily, the official party paper, reported on Tuesday. Police investigators discovered Ms. Pang’s storehouse last April, but word did not get out to the public until a Shandong news website reported on the case in February of this year. Most Chinese had still heard nothing about it until another website, The Paper, published a report that drew national attention a month later. It was the government’s intolerance of public criticism, critics said, that kept the scandal under wraps, a delay that now makes it harder to track those who received the suspect injections. “We’ve seen with these problem vaccines that without the right to know, without press freedom, the public’s right to health can’t be assured,” said Wang Shengsheng, one of the lawyers pressing the government for more answers and redress over the case. In the last few weeks, official reticence has been supplanted by daily announcements of arrests, checks and assurances as the central government has scrambled to dampen public anger and alarm. Premier Li Keqiang ordered central ministries and agencies in March to investigate what had gone wrong. Last week, the investigators reported that 202 people had been detained over the scandal, and 357 officials dismissed, demoted or otherwise punished. Health and drug officials promised to tighten vaccine purchase rules to stamp out trade. “How could this trafficking in vaccines outside the rules spread to so many places and go on for so long?” Mr. Li said, according to an official account. Without decisive action, he said, “ordinary people will vote with their feet and go and buy the products they trust. ” Mr. Xi has so far not publicly commented on the scandal. Dr. Rodewald, the World Health Organization expert, said the proposed changes were promising and would mean clinics would not have to rely on selling vaccines for their upkeep. Xu Huijin, a doctor in Heze, said that the concern over the scandal — and unfounded rumors of deaths — had depressed the number of parents bringing children to her clinic for inoculations. “This was badly handled,” she said. “There was a lack of coordination, not enough information. We should have found out about this long ago. Doctors are taught to tell patients the full facts. ” | 1 |
Christians worldwide celebrate Palm Sunday, commemorating the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week, a week that would end with his death on Good Friday, then followed by Easter Sunday. [For followers of Jesus, this week marks the culmination of a lifetime of sinless obedience to God, and the final five days of a teaching ministry that even the billions who do not claim the name of Christ must readily acknowledge changed the world forever. But what does the Bible say happened as these final events of Jesus’ life began to unfold? The Old Testament Zechariah had prophesied that Israel’s great king, the messiah, would come mounted “on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ” From the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament: And when he [Jesus] had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it. ’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it. ” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near — already on the way down the Mount of Olives — the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples. ” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. ” — Luke 19:28 — 40 (ESV). Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski. | 1 |
Hillary Clinton will be there. Donald J. Trump, too. Pleasantries will probably be exchanged. And after that, the road map for the first presidential debate is anyone’s guess. What are some of the most consequential “ ” ahead of Monday night’s showdown — the possibilities that make the campaigns sweat? Or should: He is off to a head start: Mr. Trump already threatened to invite Gennifer Flowers, who claimed to have had a affair with Bill Clinton, as his debate guest. (Mr. Trump’s campaign later said that Ms. Flowers would not be there.) Still, a decision to confront Mrs. Clinton from the stage about her husband’s misdeeds would raise the stakes considerably. Mr. Trump plainly sees a benefit in reminding voters of past Clinton scandals they may have forgotten. But the risks are substantial: The move could make Mrs. Clinton appear more sympathetic and repel female voters already uneasy with Mr. Trump. Then there is Mr. Trump’s marital history to consider. No one likes a . But voters, presumably, want their president to know at least a few things. Among some Republicans who hoped to stop Mr. Trump in the primaries — and who remain convinced that he could not survive a civics class — a great regret persists: No one ever tried to insult his intelligence by stumping him with an easy question. What is the Common Core, which he claims to despise? Who is the prime minister of Canada? How does a bill become a law? Does Mr. Trump know the answers? It may not matter to some of his supporters, but an “oops” moment (looking at you, Rick Perry) could be the stuff of millions of cable news and YouTube replays. It can seem as though Mr. Trump loves no sound more than the swaggering Queens timbre of his own voice. But for a candidate not known for his policy depth, a format poses a unique challenge. In the Republican primary debates, he often disappeared for extended stretches, letting his many rivals skirmish over assorted campaign proposals, before lumbering in with a memorably evocative quip about, say, the size of his genitals. This time, it is 90 minutes with Mrs. Clinton. That is a lot of airtime. Perhaps the greatest fear in the Clinton camp centers on the choices of Lester Holt, the debate moderator. Specifically, will Mr. Holt see fit to interject when the candidates shade the truth? Though Mrs. Clinton’s reputation for candor is checkered, her team hopes the debate might lay bare Mr. Trump’s prolific assemblage of falsehoods. Some signature untruths, like Mr. Trump’s insistence that he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, have often been allowed to go unchallenged, including at a recent NBC candidate forum. Mrs. Clinton’s team has urged Mr. Holt to set a different tone. Mr. Trump fashions himself a master negotiator. Perhaps Mrs. Clinton will make him an offer he would have trouble refusing on live television. As the Clinton camp continues to press Mr. Trump to release his tax returns, she might be tempted to make a deal, or at least float one. She could offer to do his taxes for him next year. Or she could volunteer a charitable contribution, as Mr. Trump did while promoting the false “birther” movement questioning President Obama’s birthplace. Speaking of which … After five years as principal spokesman for the idea that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States, Mr. Trump acknowledged this month that the president was born here. Also, Mr. Trump said, he would rather not talk about it anymore. But Mrs. Clinton would. So far, Mr. Trump has strained to identify a coherent reason for his change of heart. One of the most significant debate moments may arrive when Mr. Trump is compelled to provide one, before the watchful eyes of the many Obama supporters still wary of Mrs. Clinton. The sightings are rare, like an endangered animal wandering through Manhattan. But those close to Mrs. Clinton have long contended that she can be quite funny. In an election often defined by showmanship and confrontation, a zinger might prove powerful, particularly from such an unexpected source. Even after dozens of debates in two presidential campaigns, the most memorable moment for Mrs. Clinton still may be when Representative Rick A. Lazio walked, with a finger pointed, into her personal space during the 2000 Senate race to demand she sign a pledge forsaking outside money. Female voters recoiled at his behavior, and Mrs. Clinton’s supporters are quietly hopeful that Mr. Trump may seek to prove his alpha status with a similar intimidation tactic. Can Mr. Trump — a man who recently insisted on divulging his testosterone levels, despite releasing scant medical records — resist the urge? Mr. Trump, well practiced at innuendo and ominous warnings, has often compelled reporters to ask questions they never thought would be necessary. Questions like: Did he just encourage violence against his opponent? (And, if not, what did he imply about the “Second Amendment people” who might take matters into their own hands if Mrs. Clinton is elected?) It is not clear if Mr. Trump views this tic as a shortcoming or as a strength of his oratory. But if Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Holt can challenge him in real time over such a flourish, Mr. Trump might be placed on the defensive, without a spokesman on hand to walk back his comments immediately after the fact. It might not prove anything. It might not be fair. But after decades of conspiracy theories and Mrs. Clinton’s recent bout with pneumonia, supporters worry that a simple coughing fit — hardly implausible during a lengthy, uninterrupted gabfest — could feed perceptions about her fitness to serve. It would be especially damaging given how many voters have seen the video of her wilting this month while leaving a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony. Well before that, Mrs. Clinton had occasionally gone hoarse on the campaign trail, or slogged through a flurry of hacks at the microphone. Monday would be a poor time for a relapse. Mr. Trump has admired his leadership. He has cited his poll numbers in Russia. Mr. Trump has even played down the killing of dissident journalists, on the grounds that “our country does plenty of killing, too. ” The Republican nominee has had many nice things to say about President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. And there is little that Mrs. Clinton would like more than to make Mr. Trump repeat them. | 1 |
Caitlyn Jenner soon takes part in another transition. [According to Us Weekly, the former Olympian has received and accepted an invitation to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump: Caitlyn Jenner accepts invitation to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration: https: . pic. twitter. — Us Weekly (@usweekly) January 11, 2017, Jenner has fought back against charges from the Left that a Trump presidency would create negative effects on women and the LGBT community. Instead, Jenner argued that Trump stands “very much for women” in addition to remaining open on some LGBT issues. Jenner, a staunch Republican, gave some idea of what frames her political views in an interview with Bill Simmons in August. “I believe in the simple things,” Jenner explained. “I believe in our Constitution. I think the Republican side, although I’ve been very disappointed with them over the last 10 to 20 years, has a better opportunity to bring this country back to, really, as close as you can to what it was. … I have kind of positioned myself with the Republican Party to try to help these people understand, [to help] the Republican Party understand what the issues are for the LBGT community. ” The E! Channel canceled Jenner’s show I Am Cait in August, the same month in which she told Bill Simmons about her love of the Constitution and the Republican Party. Surely nothing more than a coincidence there. After supporting Trump and attending his inauguration, Jenner’s chances of scoring another show rank only slightly higher than her chances of landing on another Wheaties box. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 1 |
Blue lives matter. That is, in essence, what Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been saying since he took office, promising to protect the lives of police officers, stop undermining them as (he implied) the Obama administration had, and let them get back to enforcing law and order. For some in law enforcement, the message has done what it intended to do: mollify, soothe, inspire. With vilification on the street, who needed vilification from the top? But to others, it is as shrill and jarring as a traffic whistle, threatening to undo years of work toward dismantling policies that led to mass incarceration and the erosion of trust in the police. We asked two experts to weigh in. In the first camp is Sheriff Michael Bouchard of Oakland County, outside Detroit, who explains the perspective of officers facing hostility and scrutiny by cellphone cameras as they perform a dangerous job. On the other side is Ronal W. Serpas, former chief in Nashville and New Orleans, who counters that not just civilians, but officers themselves, are safer when policing is done more fairly — sometimes at the insistence of the federal government. Sheriff Bouchard answered questions by phone, and Dr. Serpas by email. Their responses were edited for clarity and length. Michael Bouchard: I think that police agencies are expecting and capable of handling scrutiny. But I think that the tone and the rhetoric did in fact diminish it. It almost — in many situations — came from a “You’re broken,” adversarial position rather than “You’re a professional, occasionally you’re going to have situations that need rectifying and we want to work together to make sure that happens. ” It’s a very different kind of vantage. I think every police executive that’s worth their salt — and I believe that’s 99. 9 percent — believe that if police do something wrong they ought to be held accountable. Ronal Serpas: To the contrary, the Department of Justice must ensure that the federal Constitution is followed so that all citizens experience constitutional policing as a right. There are about 18, 000 police departments in America. Few police agencies have been part of a D. O. J. review since 1994, and even fewer have been party to a consent decree. In those departments, the data suggested it was indeed necessary. What really makes the job of American policing more difficult is when we fail to realize the police are just one part of an interconnected system of criminal justice (police, prosecution, judiciary, corrections, mental health, drug addiction, etc. Sheriff Bouchard: I think there’s a great deal of officers on the front line that are much more cautious about doing the job in a proactive way, for fear of negative exposure. I mean, what you want is proactive policing to question situations, to stop cars, to look for something that is on the precipice of being a crime and interrupt it before it happens. When you put a chilling effect on that kind of patrol, you basically become report takers. It’s the job of the chief to tell their folks, “Look, if you do your job as you’re trained and as I expect, I will stand behind you. ” And that’s a difficult thing for a lot of people to feel and understand in this environment — that they would be stood behind. Because use of force captured on a cellphone is not pretty. A street fight is not pretty. That does not make it inappropriate or illegal. Dr. Serpas: Yes and no. In the case of the Baltimore Police Department it’s been my personal experience, from interviewing nearly 100 officers, that the department has not “pulled back. ” In fact, to a person, every officer was clear — they see their job to save lives and make the community safe. “We did not take a knee” was a constant refrain. In Chicago, the data appears to be the opposite, in that officers have been far less proactive — and that has been a recent development. What the data in Chicago suggests is that there was a sudden and dramatic change in officer activity immediately following the public release of information regarding the tragic death of Laquan McDonald. We will likely need more time and information to understand the factors driving this . Sheriff Bouchard: One of our concerns about the dialogue from the past administration about we need to be more involved with the community is the presumption that we weren’t already or didn’t care about it. I have a list of community engagement programs that are as long as my arm. But some of the engagement also goes back to funding. So for example, in one of the communities where we are policing, at one time they had 200 officers. Now we police that community with about 77. And so at the same time the past administration said, “You need to do more of that,” pointing their finger, they didn’t give me any grants when I applied for that community to do that. Dr. Serpas: There is no such thing as too much emphasis on community relations and partnerships. Crime reduction necessarily comes from the relationships the police have with the community. Despite the great advances in technology like DNA or ballistics evidence, our criminal justice system must have willing community members who will participate in criminal investigations and prosecutions. Every officer and prosecutor knows this. Sheriff Bouchard: Civil rights investigations are routinely undertaken by the Department of Justice, and we’re not suggesting that they stop, but the approach that “virtually every department is broken” has been a frustrating dialogue. Clearly there’s some videos that we’ve all seen that are obviously out of bounds. But there are some videos that don’t lend themselves to context or totality of circumstance. So rushing to a decision based on that often incites problems, and not calms tensions. So the first thing ought to be a calming moment, saying: “Look, we don’t know all the facts and circumstances. We’re going to find out. And if there was wrongdoing, people will be held accountable. ” Dr. Serpas: Each of us demands that if a friend or family member encounters a police officer they will be treated fairly and with dignity. If not, then we expect the local police or political leaders to rectify the situation. But we all know this may not be the case in every local government. It is our federal Constitution that establishes what the requirements of policing are in this nation. | 1 |
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BERLIN (AFP) — The first reprint of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in Germany since World War II has proved a surprise bestseller, heading for its sixth print run, its publisher said Tuesday. [The Institute of Contemporary History of Munich (IfZ) said around 85, 000 copies of the new annotated version of the Nazi leader’s manifesto had flown off the shelves since its release last January. It had initially planned to print only 4, 000 copies but boosted production immediately based on intense demand. The sixth print run will hit bookstores in late January. The work had figured on the bestseller list in weekly magazine Der Spiegel over much of the last year, and even topped the list for two weeks in April. The institute also organised a successful series of presentations and debates around “Mein Kampf” across Germany and in other European cities, which it said allowed it to measure the impact of the new edition. “It turned out that the fear the publication would promote Hitler’s ideology or even make it socially acceptable and give a new propaganda platform was totally unfounded,” IfZ director Andreas Wirsching said in a statement. “To the contrary, the debate about Hitler’s worldview and his approach to propaganda offered a chance to look at the causes and consequences of totalitarian ideologies, at a time in which authoritarian political views and rightwing slogans are gaining ground. ” — ‘Not reactionaries or radicals’ — The institute said the data collected about buyers by regional bookstores showed that they tended to be “customers interested in politics and history as well as educators” and not “reactionaries or rightwing radicals”. Nevertheless, the IfZ said it would maintain a restrictive policy on international rights. For now, only English and French editions are planned despite strong interest from many countries. The institute released the annotated version of “Mein Kampf” last January, just days after the copyright of the manifesto expired. Bavaria was handed the rights to the book in 1945 when the Allies gave it control of the main Nazi publishing house following Hitler’s defeat. For 70 years, it refused to allow the inflammatory tract to be republished out of respect for victims of the Nazis and to prevent incitement of hatred. But “Mein Kampf” — which means “My Struggle” — fell into the public domain on January 1 and the institute said it feared a version without critical commentary could hit the market. Partly autobiographical, “Mein Kampf” outlines Hitler’s ideology that formed the basis for Nazism. He wrote it in 1924 while he was imprisoned in Bavaria for treason after his failed Beer Hall Putsch. The book set out two ideas that he put into practice as Germany’s leader going into World War II: annexing neighbouring countries to gain “Lebensraum” or “living space” for Germans, and his hatred of Jews, which led to the Holocaust. Some 12. 4 million copies were published in Germany and from 1936, the Nazi state gave a copy to all newlyweds as a wedding gift. | 1 |
Authorities arrested three illegal aliens for allegedly breaking into an attorney’s home and kidnapping him in the middle of the night. [Detectives from the Orange County Sherriff’s Office Criminal Division located German Adalid 19, Henrry Eduar 17, and Erik 17, in Port Arthur on Friday, 12 News reported. Two of the three suspects allegedly broke into the home of Orange County attorney Jim Sharon Bearden Jr. on May 8 wearing masks and tied him up as they stole items — guns and electronics — from his home. The third suspect, who acted as the driver, waited outside and served as a lookout. The three suspects then purportedly drove Bearden Jr. to a bank where they forced him to withdraw cash at which time they let him and his vehicle go. “The three were arrested for burglary of a habitation, a 1st degree felony and taken to the Jefferson County jail,” 12 News reported. All three suspects are reportedly illegal aliens from Honduras. Captain Cliff Hargrave said that the three illegal aliens supposedly confessed to the crime. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately placed detainer requests on all three illegal aliens. Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra. | 1 |
In the wake of the January 6 shooting in the Ft. International Airport zone, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz ( ) makes clear that the federal government may no longer allow passengers to check a gun in their baggage. [According to NBC 6, Wasserman Schultz indicated that she wants to see the federal government do something. She said, “We certainly need to revisit and review whether or not you should be allowed to check firearms in your checked baggage and travel with them. ” She also floated the option of creating a secure area where people who check guns have to go to pick up their firearm. And her third option was a ban on checking ammunition. Lost on Wasserman Schultz is the fact that Florida is one of only six states where it is illegal for concealed carry permit holders to carry a gun in unsecured areas for . So large groups of unarmed innocents stand together in areas of the airport that lack security it is a mass public attacker’s dream come true. Banning guns in checked baggage would do nothing to stop further attacks, as a criminal or terrorist with a gun can walk into the unsecured areas from the pickup curb and kill easily. The solution here is clear: eradicate the law that mandates that concealed carry permit holders be disarmed in baggage claim areas. This is a action, rather than a federal one, and Representative Jake Raburn ( ) has already introduced legislation to repeal the requirements. Under Raburn’s plan, criminals and terrorists will have to deal with the fact that citizens can shoot back. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 1 |
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Broc West joins us once again for our ongoing look at news from across the Asia-Pacific. This time we cover: how countries across the Asia-Pacific are inching out from under the American umbrella; how the Japanese and the Russians may (or may not) be on the verge of formally concluding a WWII peace treaty; and Australia and Indonesia’s potential joint exercises in the South China Sea.
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WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton assailed Donald J. Trump on Friday as untrustworthy on women’s issues, sharpening her tone against him in her first major speech since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Finally free to focus on the general election, Mrs. Clinton signaled that she planned to hit her likely Republican opponent in an area of perceived weakness while working to mend fissures within her own party by focusing on issues dear to progressives, such as protecting abortion rights and funding for Planned Parenthood. “When Donald Trump says, ‘Let’s make America great again,’ that is code for let’s take America backward,” Mrs. Clinton said at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in Washington. In a speech, Mrs. Clinton seized on Mr. Trump’s suggestion in March that abortion be banned and that women who violate such a ban face punishment. Although he later retracted the remark amid a bipartisan backlash, Mrs. Clinton made clear that she would not let it go. “Anyone who would so casually agree with the idea of punishing women, like it was nothing to him, the most obvious thing in the world, that’s someone who doesn’t hold women in high regard,” Mrs. Clinton said to loud applause. Mrs. Clinton said that protecting Planned Parenthood’s funding was a top priority amid an onslaught from Republicans who have threatened to shut down the government over its opposition to the organization. She also called for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of government money for abortions. Mrs. Clinton has struggled at times this year to appeal to younger women, but she does not expect that to be a problem against Mr. Trump. Her campaign plans to regularly remind female voters about his penchant for making sexist remarks, such as referring to women as “fat pigs” and “dogs. ” On Friday she quoted Mr. Trump as saying that he thought leave made the country less competitive and that women should work harder if they wanted to earn more. Mr. Trump has said that he will be better for women than Mrs. Clinton, but polls show that so far he is turning them off in a big way. A Gallup survey from April found that 70 percent of women in the country had an unfavorable opinion him. By making Planned Parenthood Action her first campaign stop after capturing the nomination, Mrs. Clinton demonstrated that, instead of making a quick pivot to the center, she is intent on rallying the Democratic base after a bruising primary campaign against Senator Bernie Sanders. Another important step toward party unity came on Thursday night when Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts offered a rousing endorsement of Mrs. Clinton. The two women met privately on Friday morning in Washington to discuss the party’s path forward and how to beat Mr. Trump in November. Ms. Warren is a favorite of the progressive wing of the party and has become one of its most vocal and effective critics of Mr. Trump. She described Mr. Trump as a “racist bully” in a speech on Wednesday night and made a forceful case for Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy. The meeting Friday could also fan speculation that Ms. Warren is on Mrs. Clinton’s shortlist of potential running mates. While she has maintained that she loves her current job, Ms. Warren did say Thursday night on MSNBC that she felt she had the capacity to be president. For now Mrs. Clinton is taking on Mr. Trump on her own, and after a difficult week for him in which he drew widespread condemnation for making racist remarks about a federal judge, she is not holding back. She mocked him for walking back his claim that Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel — who is presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University — was biased because of his Mexican heritage and lamented Mr. Trump’s disparaging treatment of a disabled reporter. Both were examples, she said, of how a Trump presidency would be problematic for more than just women. “Donald Trump would take us in the wrong direction on so many issues that we care about,” Mrs. Clinton said. “He does not see all Americans as Americans. ” | 1 |
It’s all old news to those of us who, unlike Democrat LIVs (low information voters), pay attention to the Alternative Media. But it’s still significant because the information made it to Fox News’ Hannity Show .
His name is Jeff Rovin .
After decades as one of Bill and Hillary Clintons’ many retainers, Rovin is outing himself as the Clintons’ “ fixer ” — defined by Oxford Dictionaries as “ A person who makes arrangements for other people, especially of an illicit or devious kind. ” In Rovin’s case, he claims to have been employed by the Clintons to suppress and remove from the media any scandalous news of their sexual affairs. Note: For a few of the Clintons’ other retainers, see “ Hillary Clinton’s medical handler, cleaner, & prompter were all at the last presidential debate ”.
Rovin says he was paid $4,000 a month to keep the Clintons’ open marriage and their respective adulteries from the news. In Hillary’s case, she had “affairs” with Vincent Foster and with a female Hollywood honcho. Note: On July 20, 1993, Foster — who was Bill Clinton’s deputy White House counsel at the time — was found dead on a park bench in D.C.’s Ft. Marcy Park, supposedly from a self-inflicted gun shot. See “ FBI files linking Hillary Clinton to Vince Foster suicide vanished from National Archives “. Note: According to the Clintons’ former assassin Larry Nichols, when she was First Lady, Hillary regularly went to California on weekends to be with Hollywood producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and other women to “worship” Satan at “a church”. See “ Clinton friend and assassin Larry Nichols: Hillary is a satanist ”. Linda Bloodworth-Thomason , 69, is a television producer who, with her husband Harry Thomason, is best known for creating, writing, and producing the TV series, Designing Women . The couple are notable for their friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton, which dates back to Bill’s days as governor of Arkansas. The Thomasons created several short-subject political propaganda films for Bill, the most famous of which was The Man from Hope that introduced Bill at the 1992 Democratic Convention. The Thomasons did similar propaganda films for Hillary’s run for the U.S. Senate and for other candidates, such as General Wesley Clark’s presidential bid. Clark has endorsed Hillary for president. (See “ Obama-supporter Gen. Wesley Clarke: Disloyal Americans should be put in concentration camps ”)
Here’s Rovin on Hannity , on Oct. 24, 2016:
The National Enquirer first broke Jeff Rovin’s story. Here’s what Rovin told the Enquirer :
During the 1980s and 1990s, I was working in Hollywood as a reporter for several national magazines and newspapers. Because of my good relationship with stars, publicists and the press I became “a fixer”: someone who helps stars keep embarrassing stories out of the press. I helped keep secrets safe for some of Hollywood’s leading men.
In 1991, my reputation was such that I was asked to work on behalf of a fast-rising figure on the national stage: Arkansas Gov. William Jefferson Clinton. I attended a meeting in Hollywood where I was told by an intermediary: “There will be a lot of stories coming out in the tabloid press. We want them buried.”
I was informed that these stories would involve rumors of Bill Clinton‘s many sexual dalliances and an alleged ongoing affair of Hillary Clinton with a male member of her law firm, Vince Foster, as well as a female mover-and-shaker in Hollywood.
For a retainer of $4,000 a month — paid by a third party, not the campaign — I was told to keep these stories hush-hush in one of two ways: by trading access to the Clintons for “positive” interviews, or by paying the reporters.
The payments were always cash, usually delivered in a movie theater or restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, and came in two denominations: $100 for a heads-up that a bad story was coming; or considerably more to kill the piece.
It did not appear that the job would be terribly time-consuming: After all, Hillary reportedly had just one lover, and Bill’s girlfriends were all in the past.
Not so. The sexual dalliances were ongoing — and so my communications with the West Wing, Air Force One and Camp David continued through 1998 — a stunning length of time when one considers that both the president and the first lady were supposed to be devoting their full energies to the business of the people of the United States!
The gravest example of a Clintonian lack of judgment occurred in March 1994. Presidential brother Roger Clinton was marrying his eight-months-pregnant bride Molly. There was a bachelor party. Prostitutes were involved. Recordings were made. Recordings involving Bill Clinton.
Arrangements for a meeting between Bill and a 26-year-old brunette were discussed when the president was to arrive in Dallas for the ceremony.
The tape recording was offered, for sale, to The National Enquirer . Before the publication and its then-editor could publish a transcript, I swooped in and negotiated for the White House to give this paper exclusive access to the ceremony itself. Not even The Washington Post or The New York Times had that. The Enquirer was given leave to publish exclusive White House photographs.
At the reception, while Bill Clinton sang with the piano player, Hillary was introduced to The Enquirer reporter. Her expression fierce, voice tight, she took and tightly held the reporter’s hand and demanded, “Are we done now?” The reporter replied, “Madam First Lady, with this incident, yes.”
Of course, we were not done. This was one of many in an endless string of sexual stories arising from what effectively was the Clintons’ open, polyamorous marriage.
I have kept these secrets for a quarter-century because Bill Clinton had become an elder statesman with heart trouble and Hillary Clinton seemed to be focused, at last, on the business of doing her job — for better or for worse.
I am coming forward now because of the endless attention the alleged indiscretions of Donald Trump have received. Nothing I have heard comes close to the sexual and moral corruption of the Clintons — many of which have yet to be revealed.
Predictably, the liberal media is focusing on one man’s alleged misdeeds and ignoring another’s proven sins.
I mention some of these here and now because we have only two serious candidates for the presidency. In the few weeks remaining until the election, we should not be weighing whose corruption is worse (the Clintons win by a landslide, if all were to be told), but who has the best ideas and leadership skills to become president of the United States. Hillary Clinton is transfixed by Christina Aguilera’s boobs, confirmed by the singer on the Ellen Degeneres Show in May 2016.
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MANILA — Samsudin Dimaukom, the mayor of a town in the southern Philippines, was watching television last Sunday after midnight when he was startled to hear the country’s new president call out his name. It was no honor. President Rodrigo Duterte was reading a list of more than 150 officials he said were involved in the illegal drug trade. He ordered Mr. Dimaukom and the others to turn themselves in within 24 hours or be hunted down. “We were really surprised when the president came out to announce it,” Mr. Dimaukom, the mayor of Datu said by email. “Not once were we involved in drugs. In fact, we were fighting drugs. I support the president’s drug war. ” Since he took office six weeks ago, Mr. Duterte, 71, has roiled the nation with a violent war on drugs that has left hundreds dead, most of them poor and powerless. This week, in what seemed to be a new phase, he took on judges and police generals, military officials, more than 50 mayors and local officials, and three men said to be current or former members of Congress. He stripped them of their weapons permits and, in some cases, their government security details, potentially leaving them vulnerable to vigilantes. The escalation provoked a clash with the Supreme Court, nearly causing a constitutional crisis before Mr. Duterte backed down, and it has raised questions about the list, a McCarthyesque device of uncertain origin and unencumbered by evidence. “How are the lists being prepared?” asked Senator Leila de Lima, a former justice secretary and former chairwoman of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights. “Who are the sources? If they have evidence, they should file charges, and that’s the only time they should disclose the name. ” But if anything, the campaign has made him only more popular. His approval ratings soared to 91 percent in July, according to a Pulse Asia poll, far higher than the 39 percent of the vote he received on Election Day in May. Even some people who have been killed by vigilantes were wearing “Duterte” wristbands when they were gunned down. “He’s doing what he promised,” said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform. “He’s not surprising anybody. People like him because he is an action man. ” Mr. Duterte, a combative former mayor and prosecutor, has repeatedly called for the killing of drug dealers, and an estimated 800 people have died at the hands of police or vigilantes since his election, officials say. Many were gunned down in the street and left with a cardboard sign identifying them as drug pushers. Such killings have become known as “cardboard justice. ” More than 600, 000 drug users and dealers, fearing for their lives, have turned themselves in, the authorities say. Most have been sent home after giving the police a statement and are likely to face investigation later. But his clash with public officials has been less . On Monday, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno of the Supreme Court challenged the president over the seven judges on his list, telling them not to submit to arrest without a warrant. The court also announced that it would investigate any allegations of the judges’ connection to the drug trade. “To safeguard the role of the judges as the protector of constitutional rights, I would caution them very strongly against ‘surrendering’ or making themselves physically accountable to any police officer in the absence of any warrant of arrest,” Justice Sereno wrote. Mr. Duterte angrily warned her not to interfere with his campaign to bring an end to what he calls the “pandemic” drug problem in the Philippines. In a speech at a military camp on Tuesday, Mr. Duterte said she “must be joking” by demanding arrest warrants, which he said could take months to obtain. And he warned her not to create a crisis “because I will order everybody in the executive department not to honor you. ” “Please, don’t order me,” he said. “I’m not a fool. If this continues, you’re trying to stop me, I might lose my cool. Or would you rather I declare martial law?” But on Thursday, Mr. Duterte apologized, saying he never intended his “harsh words. ” He said he had been moved by “the magnitude” of the drug problem and was seeking to solve it within his authority as president. At the same time, questions were being raised about the list of names that Mr. Duterte read on national television and the death threat it carried. Critics pointed to flaws in the list and questioned whether it had been properly vetted. Justice Sereno said that only four of the seven judges on the list were still on the bench. One of them died in 2008. Another was dismissed in 2007. Jeffrey Celis, who was listed as a congressman, never served in the body, according to the local news media. Many of the elected officials quickly denied any involvement in the illegal drug trade. Some volunteered to take drug tests. One vice mayor said he had been the victim of mistaken identity it was probably his brother the police were after, he said. Mr. Dimaukom, the Datu mayor, said he had been wrongly placed on the list because of false accusations spread by political rivals. Mr. Duterte acknowledged that some names might be on the list by mistake. He said he would take responsibility for anyone who was wrongly accused, although what action he would take was not clear, particularly since the list might be seen by vigilantes or the police as a license to kill. Dionisio Santiago, former head of the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency, said in an interview that the list was similar to one prepared by his agency that he presented in 2010 to the president at the time, President Benigno S. Aquino III. Mr. Aquino, he said, took no action. Mr. Santiago said some people might have been placed on the list erroneously or because of a grudge. But he said most of the list was accurate, and he defended the inclusion of deceased officials. “Does being dead exonerate you?” he asked. “Dying does not erase your reputation. ” The police said that most of the people the president named had reported to the authorities as he demanded. Mr. Duterte’s presidential immunity may shield him from any repercussions, which is fine with his supporters. “The president’s public shaming of government officials involved in the illegal drugs trade is the best use of the presidential immunity from suit in our history,” Representative Danilo Suarez, the minority floor leader in Congress, wrote in The Manila Standard. Ms. de Lima, who leads the Senate committee on justice and human rights, said the committee would hold hearings this month on the wave of extrajudicial killings. “He’s now a runaway train,” she said. “It’s very revolting to me. So far, the victims of the summary killings are the lowly ones, the powerless, who cannot afford lawyers, who cannot seek audiences with the president. ” Despite Mr. Duterte’s threat, so far that fate has not befallen the officials, suggesting that despite his bravado, he may not want to unleash a civil war. In Datu a town of about 20, 000 people, Mr. Dimaukom said he was not worried about an investigation. “First, our defense is the truth,” he said. “If you are not guilty, why should you be afraid?” But he was taking no chances. The morning after the list was announced, he reported to the local police, then flew to Manila, the capital, to meet with officials there. | 1 |
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THE OUTPOURING of anger, fear and frustration in Ireland at Donald Trump’s election victory has been brought into sharper focus as people to voice to their vehement opposition to many of the things the president-elect has said and done.
Irish citizens were served a sharp shock last week when they woke up to learn that the country they live in had elected a man who stood for all that is wrong with the world. Countless thousands of people took to social media to admonish the billionaire, but people will be shocked to learn more can be done to avoid the tyrant-in-waiting from damaging Ireland during his 4-year term.
It cannot be denied that Trump is probably the most reviled and debated person in Ireland today, with his proposed policies having a massive effect on many millions of people living here in Ireland. WWN has 5 things you can do to challenge Trump’s presidency and the legitimacy of many of his most controversial opinions and ideas.
1) His treatment of minorities must be stopped. Act now
Donald Trump, a xenophobe at heart and the source of all evil in this world, has previous when it comes to spreading hate. Not many people are aware of this fact, but Trump set up Direct Provision centres in Ireland, where asylum seekers are forced to live in a prison-like existence and live off an allowance of €19 a week. To question Donald Trump directly on this click HERE .
2) He is a misogynist
If you found yourself irate at his ‘grab them by the pussy’ comments, you will lose your shit when you discover Trump is in charge of a number of compensation schemes operated by the Irish government, which see the women of the Magdalene Laundries and Survivors of Symphysiotomy denied their payments and justice due to a slow and dysfunctional system. Just what is it about Trump and his utter contempt for women? Don’t bother tweeting Trump directly on this one, as he’s quite busy at the moment. However, his Nobody Has More Respect For Women Than Me office can be reached HERE .
3) Trump thinks homelessness, specifically in Ireland, is hilarious
Trump has endlessly tweeted about how he enjoys the plight of Ireland’s homeless, finding the increase in the cost of property and rent to be a source of joy. What better way to get back at that orange troglodyte than by volunteering for a homeless charity. You never know, if you give whatever time, money or resources you can afford to a charity you may even get a disparaging Twitter response from the president-elect. To piss off Donald Trump click HERE .
4) Make Ireland Great Again
Ireland’s 45th president is for tax breaks for the rich, ending universal insurance cover and an ill advised overhaul of the education system and so much more which could well lead to hardship for future generations. However, Ireland will hope it can safeguard previous policies of cutting social welfare for the under 25s, normalising free labour through an internship scheme, increasing the price of college education and smiling broadly at a 15% youth unemployment rate. If you’d like to urge your local representatives to make the case for changing nothing, you know where to find them. | 0 |
Don Ciccone may never have achieved the fame of Frankie Valli, but he was a vital member of the Four Seasons, and sang on some of their biggest hits. That is his catchy voice on tastier sections of “Who Loves You” and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night),” both revived in the smash Broadway musical “Jersey Boys. ” Mr. Ciccone also led The Critters in the 1960s, with hits like “Younger Girl” and “Mr. Dieingly Sad,” and was a musical director and bassist for Tommy James and the Shondells in the ’90s. An obscure footnote to his extensive recording career was an unreleased batch of songs he recorded in the early 1970s with his longtime friend Brian Gari, 64, a who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Mr. Gari wrote the songs and backed Mr. Ciccone on piano on recordings they made as demos to interest record labels. Of 20 selections, several were produced and released as complete songs, but even on the remaining sparse tracks, Mr. Ciccone’s vocals shone. “Don had that kind voice and we always liked the tapes,” said Mr. Gari, who hung on to those old demo tapes for the next 45 years. He and Mr. Ciccone would occasionally prod each other to dust them off and release them as a “Ciccone Sings Gari” album. In early October, Mr. Ciccone contacted Mr. Gari and said he planned to finally do just that, but a week later Mr. Ciccone died of a heart attack at age 70. “The week before he died, Don told me he wanted to put out the demos,” Mr. Gari recalled. “He said, ‘My next project is ‘Ciccone sings Gari. ’” Mr. Gari said he decided to realize Mr. Ciccone’s “last wish,” and, on a recent weekday, he was in a music studio near Union Square working with a sound engineer, Peter Millrose, to give Mr. Ciccone’s remarkable vocals on the old tapes a proper setting. One number called, “I Just Had to Say My Last Goodbye” had the jaunty, melodic feel of Todd Rundgren, or the band Chicago in the 1970s. Working from Mr. Gari’s stylistic cues, Mr. Millrose layered piano, bass and drums, and then toyed with horns, strings and other effects to punctuate Mr. Ciccone’s phrasings. As Mr. Gari suggested various riffs or motifs, Mr. Millrose played them on a keyboard and added them to the digital recording until the spare track had become a slick, sturdy, fully orchestrated song. Mr. Millrose worked from sheet music of lyrics and chords written by a teenage Mr. Gari with help from his mother, who unlike Mr. Gari, had the musical training to write the melodies on music paper. Some original elements would not be preserved, like the simulated rainstorm augmenting a lover’s farewell in “She Left on Good Terms. ” The two recorded the song in Mr. Gari’s apartment and used the bathroom shower for rainfall sound effects, along with Mr. Ciccone making sounds of thunder. Mr. Gari called the project bittersweet, bringing him both the joy of hearing Mr. Ciccone’s youthful voice again, but also a twinge of sadness that he was not around to participate and enjoy the results. “It had been my dream to do this album, but I never thought it would happen after he died,” said Mr. Gari, who kept the tapes among a large trove of materials he has amassed in the sprawling, apartment on West End Avenue where he has lived for more than 50 years while writing almost 1, 000 songs, several books and the music and lyrics for “Late Nite Comic,” which had a brief Broadway run in 1987. Mr. Gari has been married twice and held both his weddings in the apartment, which is full of memorabilia, including a vast archive of Upper West Side photos and film clips he has shot since he was in elementary school. One room is packed with items from Mr. Gari’s maternal grandfather, Eddie Cantor, the movie and radio star. Shortly before his death, Mr. Cantor wrote a letter to the Brian, praising his creativity and anointing him as “the one to carry on the tradition of show business in the family. ” Mr. Gari immediately began writing songs and riding the bus around Manhattan, selling his songs to music publishers. He enjoyed watching Mr. Ciccone perform with The Critters on “ ” an afternoon dance show hosted by John Zacherle, known as “The Cool Ghoul. ” Mr. Gari wrote an adoring fan letter to Mr. Ciccone in 1966. Mr. Ciccone wrote back and their ensuing correspondence led to a friendship. By 1971, Mr. Gari was a struggling songwriter and Mr. Ciccone was looking for his next recording contract. Mr. Gari would play him the catchy teenage love songs he had written with melodies that he described as in the “sunshine pop” vein. Of the 20 songs they recorded, several were made into fully produced songs, including “Bicycle Ride,” and “Silent Celebration,” which were issued by the Metromedia label on a 45 r. p. m. record. They recorded through 1973, when Mr. Ciccone joined the Four Seasons for a tenure that lasted through 1981. One of his Four Seasons bandmates from the era, Lee Shapiro, will produce one of the songs, Mr. Gari said. Mr. Gari said he hoped to release a CD of the 20 songs, several of which will include guitar work by his friend Dean Bailin, who played the memorable guitar fills on the 1979 hit “Escape (The Piña Colada Song). ” Mr. Gari said he would be happy if the “Ciccone Sings Gari” CD sold just enough copies to cover his recording costs. “I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. I’m doing this in his honor,” he said. “It fulfills my dream and his last wishes. I’m taking his death and making something positive out of it. ” | 1 |
Breitbart News has arrived. The opinion and news site, once a curiosity of the fringe right wing, is now an increasingly powerful voice, and virtual rallying spot, for millions of disaffected conservatives who propelled Donald J. Trump to the Republican nomination for president. Known for gleefully bashing the old Republican establishment, Breitbart now finds itself at the center of the party’s presidential campaign. Its longtime chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, was named campaign chief by Mr. Trump, whose nationalist, message routinely mirrors the Breitbart worldview. On Facebook, it rivals news organizations like The Washington Post and Yahoo, and it has challenged conservative favorites like Fox News in its influence on the campaign, if not in size of audience. On Thursday, the site received its biggest billing yet — in the form of a scathing condemnation. In a nationally televised speech, Hillary Clinton identified Breitbart as the Democratic Party’s media enemy No. 1, warning about a “de facto merger” between the Trump campaign and a news outlet that she described as racist, radical and offensive. For Mrs. Clinton, it was a strategic attack that linked Mr. Trump to leading avatars of the right. But among Breitbart’s ideologically driven journalists, her remarks were taken as validation. “I’ll play it cool, but not that cool: It was a big moment,” the site’s editor in chief, Alexander Marlow, 30, said in an interview on Friday. “A major presidential candidate engaging us like that, and calling us out directly, was quite thrilling. ” The rise of Breitbart News, founded a decade ago by the provocateur Andrew Breitbart, who died in 2012, is an unlikely outcome for a small, decentralized news outlet with a penchant for infighting. But it remains an outsize source of controversy — for liberals and even many traditional conservatives — over material that has been called misogynist, xenophobic and racist. The site refers to “migrant rape gangs” in Europe, and was among the first news outlets to disseminate unsubstantiated rumors that Mrs. Clinton was in ill health. Its writers often vilify the Black Lives Matter movement, emphasizing what they call a scourge of “ crime,” and described “young Muslims in the West” as the world’s “ticking time bomb. ” Before Mr. Breitbart died, the site had gained notoriety by championing the Tea Party movement and publicizing an undercover video that led to the closing of Acorn, the community organizing group. It also posted misleading footage of Shirley Sherrod, a black Department of Agriculture official, who was fired for seeming to express resentment toward a white farmer the White House later apologized. Last month, Milo Yiannopoulos, the site’s tech editor, was banned from Twitter after inspiring a sustained online harassment campaign against the “Saturday Night Live” actor Leslie Jones. Reports surfaced this week about domestic violence charges filed against Mr. Bannon stemming from a divorce in 1996. Supporters say it is the site’s willingness to embrace viewpoints considered far outside the bounds of respectable political discourse that is the very source of its success — in the same way that Mr. Trump’s more extreme proposals, like banning Muslims from entering the country, galvanized the Republican primary electorate. And like Mr. Trump, Breitbart excels on social media. Last month, it ranked as the 11th most popular site on Facebook, according to statistics from the social analytics firm NewsWhip. A year ago, its Facebook page had fewer than a million followers now, it has more than 2. 3 million. The Breitbart home page drew 18 million visitors last month, roughly the same as Politico, according to data from comScore. It beat conservative competitors like The Daily Caller, though mainstream sites like CNN draw tens of millions more visitors each month. Breitbart, which is privately owned, has declined to release revenue figures. The site appears to be backed by Mr. Breitbart’s estate its chief executive, Larry Solov and the family of Robert Mercer, a wealthy conservative donor and Trump supporter, according to corporate documents and two people briefed on the company’s finances. For Mr. Marlow, the editor in chief, the site’s success comes from attracting an underserved segment of conservatives — opponents of immigration and free trade who did not see their views reflected in other outlets. In online conservative news media, Mr. Marlow said, “The focus has not been on the traditional dichotomy. It’s become populism and nationalism versus globalism. ” He said that Fox News, long a favored venue for the Republican establishment, had lost its feel for the right, saying the network harps on older controversies, like the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and that its owner, Rupert Murdoch, is unwilling to criticize open immigration. “Fox is critical of Trump and a lot of the values that his voters stand for,” Mr. Marlow said. “A lot of conservatives feel betrayed. ” (Fox News has drawn its ratings amid this year’s campaign, and Mr. Trump routinely appears on the network. “We will let our year speak for itself,” the network said in a statement on Friday.) For those who track hate groups, Breitbart’s success is particularly alarming. “Breitbart in the last year or so has consistently picked up themes coming from the ” said Heidi Beirich, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, using a nickname for a loosely affiliated online movement that includes nationalists and many supporters of Mr. Trump. Ms. Beirich said that Breitbart came to her attention because she found that white supremacist websites, like The Daily Stormer, were increasingly linking to its coverage. “To people in the who have basically been maligned and haven’t been part of the political system at all, this is a big, big deal,” she said, adding: “Their views are finally in the mainstream. ” It was this development that prompted aides to Mrs. Clinton to consider whether she should explicitly call out Breitbart to voters. “We think it’s important that people understand what Trump stands for, and what these groups stand for, and what it means that he echoes them,” said Glen Caplin, a Clinton campaign spokesman. Breitbart issued a statement on Thursday dismissing Mrs. Clinton’s address as “one of the most bizarre, paranoid, conspiratorial presidential campaign speeches in recent memory. ” On Friday it posted a list of what it called the “Top 20 lies in Hillary’s ‘ ’ speech. ” Not everyone affiliated with Breitbart is pleased with the site’s recent turn. Several longtime staff members quit earlier this year, saying that Mr. Bannon had turned a website founded on grounds into a de facto propaganda outlet for Mr. Trump. “I don’t think it would be Andrew Breitbart’s proudest moment to be called the foundation for white supremacy on the internet,” Ben Shapiro, one of the editors who resigned, said on Friday. Did Mr. Shapiro ever expect to see Breitbart, which began as a aggregator of wire stories, prominently featured in a speech by a presidential candidate? “It wouldn’t have surprised me if a Democratic presidential candidate did that,” Mr. Shapiro said. “I’m just surprised that she’s not wrong. ” | 1 |
TEL AVIV — There is fear that further advances by the Syrian army, assisted by the Hezbollah and elite Iranian troops, may turn the border area into an Iranian proxy base, an Arab intelligence officer said. [“It’s not so much the possibility that it happens, but the prospects of an Israeli retaliation if Iranian forces come near its border,” he said. “Israel made it clear, publicly and behind the scenes, that it would not tolerate Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guards’ presence along its border. ” “Iran has exploited the campaign against Nusra Front and the Islamic State to take root in the border area,” he said. “Jordan and Israel too would like to see these organizations out, but not to the point that Hezbollah and Iran fill the void. ” Lately, Israel and Jordan have cooperated closely on the matter, he stated. “Israel knows that Jordan needs to act against extremist elements but both want to prevent Iran from taking advantage of it. ” “It is also in [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s best interest to keep the Iranians out,” the official contended. “True, he has stated that the Golan Heights would be liberated by force, and he relies heavily on Hezbollah and Iran. But at some point he’d wish to rule over his own border areas, which is something Jordan can live with. But not Iran. ” He added that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards tried several times in the past to gain a foothold in Jordan. “But these cells were unveiled and dismantled before they became operational. ” He added that the joint operation room of the Syrian opposition groups has become almost completely inactive. “Its activity has been dramatically reduced,” he said of the operation room. “There are no more operational and tactical plans and directives. The world wants first and foremost to remove the jihadist threat, but the elements in the region believe that the jihadi threat will be replaced by an Iranian one. ” He said that Jordan has rebuffed Iranian proposals to increase economic cooperation despite the financial dire straits in which the Kingdom finds itself. “They want to prevent Iran from having any kind of foothold in the kingdom. ” | 1 |
Has family guy gone nuts? page: 1 link I was watching and they were singing a weird chant something about patriotic weirdness and barbecued human heads. I just brushed it off then 5 mins later some more weird popped in outta nowhere wtf so I recorder it I have no idea why quagmire took Peter back in time so far or what it's supposed to mean. Why would going back in time cause home to that? Or am I missing something Peter: [demonic voice] I see the six stations of the Lord's order, and they will all burn ! edit on 26-10-2016 by ssenerawa because: (no reason given) link That was kind of weird and random. Were they referencing anything? Probably just typical family guy but they have taken part in predictive programming and subliminal messages I am pretty sure edit on 26-10-2016 by GoShredAK because: (no reason given) Oh family guy... There are a lot of references to: a) time travel and its ramifications including multiple timelines. They even have an episode where time flows backward. b) occultic crap. There is another episode where Peter puts on noise cancelling headphones to "be alone with my thoughts". This is all while on a plane, and his "innver voice" begins babbling about blood shed and something about the dark counsel or something along those lines. c) Paranormal in general. Ghosts and spirits speaking through telelvisions etc. One of my personal favorites is when Peter talks to the t.v. as if the people on it can "hear" him. Ironically enough,the people on tv respond to him. To me, the show is some type of op. With american dad included. Afterall, seth macfalane was set to be on the plane that hit the north tower...talk about a splitting of timelines. Addendum: this show has a lot, and i do mean ALOT of references that resonate with my life and experiences to a very close T. edit on 26-10-2016 by OneGoal because: (no reason given) | 0 |
KABUL, Afghanistan — After months of failed Pakistani efforts to broker peace talks with the Taliban, an American drone strike against the leader of the Afghan militants signaled a major break with precedent as the United States circumvented Pakistan in an effort to disrupt the strengthening insurgency, officials said on Sunday. The Afghan intelligence agency said Sunday that the Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, had been killed in the strike in the restive Pakistani province of Baluchistan. The United States announced the strike Saturday but could not confirm that Mullah Mansour had been killed. Although there was still no official reaction from the main Taliban spokesman, some Taliban commanders on Sunday denied the reports, saying their leader was not in the area of the strike. Even if Mullah Mansour was not killed, the attack was significant, as it is believed to be the first American drone strike in Baluchistan, the de facto headquarters of the Afghan Taliban, after years of such attacks in other Pakistani and Afghan areas. The death of Mullah Mansour, who was consolidating his authority over a fracturing Taliban as the militants made major gains on the battlefield, would throw the insurgency into its second leadership crisis within a year. Still, it was unclear whether it could create any significant breathing space for the Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani, which has struggled to bring the insurgency into negotiations. Even with no clear successor to Mullah Mansour, the issue of peace talks has long been seen as deeply unpopular among the Taliban’s most senior leadership. The strike in Baluchistan was also seen as a signal that the Obama administration was growing less patient with Pakistan’s failure to move strongly against the Taliban insurgency. While Pakistan’s powerful military establishment has quietly cooperated with the C. I. A. ’s campaign of drone strikes against Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban in the northwestern tribal areas, it has refused past requests from the spy agency to expand the drone flights into Baluchistan, former American officials said. The United States and the Afghan government have long pointed at the Taliban sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan, particularly in Baluchistan, as the main reason for the resilience of the insurgents despite a campaign against them that, at its peak, involved nearly 150, 000 international troops. But until the strike against Mullah Mansour on Saturday, consecutive administrations in Washington had resisted the temptation of going after Taliban sanctuaries out of fear of angering Pakistan. Instead, American officials focused on pressuring the Pakistani military to force the Taliban’s leadership into joining peace talks with the Afghan government. Pakistani officials were alerted to the attack against Mullah Mansour only after the strike, said a senior American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential operational details. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Sunday denouncing the attack as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. The stance echoed Pakistan’s anger over the American raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Then, too, the United States informed Pakistan of the raid only after the fact. The Foreign Ministry said in the statement that a man carrying a Pakistani passport with the name Wali Muhammad, who entered from Iran on Saturday, had been targeted in the strike, along with his driver. It was not immediately clear if either was Mullah Mansour. American officials say President Obama authorized a strike against Mullah Mansour weeks ago as it became clear that the new leader of the Taliban had little interest in peace talks. Months of efforts involving Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States to initiate talks led nowhere, with Mullah Mansour only intensifying his attacks. The opportunity on Saturday, after a closer surveillance of his movements was activated, presented itself relatively quickly, in a matter of hours, and the military acted using the earlier White House authorization. It took the Afghan government until noon on Sunday to state that Mullah Mansour was dead. The Taliban brushed it aside as propaganda along the lines of similar claims in December. The Afghan government, at that time, said Mullah Mansour had been killed in fighting between rival Taliban factions, also in Baluchistan. “Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the leader of the Taliban group, was killed around 3:45 p. m. yesterday as a result of an airstrike in Dalbandin area of Baluchistan Province in Pakistan,” the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said in a statement. “He had been under close surveillance for a while, until his vehicle was struck and destroyed on the main road in the Dalbandin area. ” Mullah Hameedi, a top Taliban military commander in southern Afghanistan, confirmed a strike in the border area but denied that Mullah Mansour had been there. “We are going to persuade Mullah Mansour to publish his audio record to confirm he is alive,” he said. The United States did not offer confirmation of its own. “We are confident, but at this point we do not have indisputable facts that he is dead,” said Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland, a spokesman for American forces in Afghanistan, said on Sunday. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking on Sunday in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, was the first senior official to talk about the attack. He repeatedly referred to Mr. Mansour in the past tense. Asked if Pakistan had been kept in the dark about the operation until it was complete, Mr. Kerry would not say “when we communicated. ” But he indicated that he talked with Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, on Sunday morning, after the strike was announced. “We have long said that Mansour posed an imminent threat to us and to Afghan civilians,” he said. “This action sends a clear message to the world that we will continue to work with our Afghan partners. ” Pakistan’s relatively muted reaction, similar to its standard protests against drone strikes by American forces, might be due to the fact that, according to Taliban commanders in recent months, Mullah Mansour had repeatedly resisted Pakistani officials’ pressure on him to join negotiations. “Mansour has not been cooperative in making progress on peace settlement discussions with Afghanistan,” said Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the RAND Corporation. “One red line for Pakistan has historically been a failure by Taliban operatives to accede to Pakistani priorities. ” Mullah Mansour rose to the Taliban leadership after the death of Mullah Omar in 2013 was revealed last summer. A former aviation minister lacking battlefield expertise, he ascended through the ranks of the insurgents gradually but was seen as a crucial figure in the Taliban’s regrouping after an initial defeat following the invasion in 2001. Once he rose to the movement’s No. 2 position, he began a campaign of sidelining rivals and creating a monopoly over resources and . After a very public leadership confirmation last summer in front of large gatherings of Taliban in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, Mullah Mansour had limited his movements, Afghan officials said. While the reason given to his subordinates was security — he narrowly missed an attempt on his life, attributed to dissidents within the Taliban ranks, in December — keeping the leader at a distance from the commanders followed a pattern that became routine under Mullah Omar. A persistent question over whether Mullah Mansour would strike a peace deal with the Afghan government was his deep involvement in narcotics, a trade that has prospered in insecurity. The United Nations, as well as the Afghan government, has described Mullah Mansour as resembling the leader of a cartel rather than an insurgency that has relied on religious justification for its long war. “Mullah Mansour was involved in smuggling and the mafia besides the leadership responsibility he had, which is why he was in favor of continuing the war to better run his businesses,” said Jawid Kohistani, an Afghan security and intelligence analyst. “That is why he wouldn’t cooperate for the calls for peace talks. ” When Mullah Omar’s death was revealed last summer, Mullah Mansour was a strong, though not unanimous, candidate for the job. But even as the Taliban under his leadership remained a formidable and violent force, Mullah Mansour struggled to unite the ranks. He quashed breakaway groups and sought to buy the support of other skeptical commanders, all while maintaining a publicity campaign that portrayed him as the head of a united command. Much remains unclear about the succession if he is dead. One leading candidate would be Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of Mullah Mansour’s most feared deputies, who has largely been running battlefield operations in recent months. While closely linked to Pakistan’s spy agency, Mr. Haqqani would struggle to gain the support of the wider Taliban as his small but lethal network has only in recent months fully integrated into the larger insurgency. Whether or not Mullah Mansour resurfaces as he did the last time he was reported killed, the United States’ expansion of its drone campaign into Baluchistan suggests “that the U. S. is losing patience with the promises of Pakistan,” said Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington. “The Taliban insurgency will probably continue, but Pakistan has another chance to dissociate itself from backing the greatest threat to Afghan stability,” Mr. Haqqani said. | 1 |
Friday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. Lindsey Graham ( ) said he had reason to believe his conversations with foreign leaders were requested to be “unmasked. ” Graham said, “I have reason to believe that a conversation I had was picked up with some foreign leader or some foreign person and somebody requested that my conversation be unmasked. I’ve been told that by people in the intelligence community. All I can say is there are 1, 950 collections on American citizens talking to people that were foreign agents being surveilled either by the CIA, FBI or the NSA. ” Watch: “Here is the concern: Did the people in the Obama administration listen in to these conversations?” He continued. “Was there a politicizing of the intelligence gathering processes? Here is what I want to know of the 1, 950 collections on American citizens. How many of them involved presidential candidates, members of Congress from either party and if these conversations were unmasked, who made the request? I want to know everything there is about unmasking, how it works and who requested unmasking of conversations between foreign people and American members of Congress. ” He added, “I’ve got information to suggest that I was incidentally collected. I don’t know if I was unmasked or not. I’ve sent a letter to the NSA, FBI and the CIA requesting any collection on Lindsey Graham. If you have reason to believe a member of Congress is committing a crime, you go get a warrant to follow us around like you would any other citizen. I meet with foreign leaders all the time. And I would be upset if any executive branch agency listened in on my conversations, because I’m in another branch of government. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Donald J. Trump said on Tuesday that he had no intention of pressing for an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server or the financial operations of her family’s foundation, dropping the “lock her up” pledge that became a rallying cry for his campaign for the White House. Mr. Trump, who branded his rival “Crooked Hillary” and said she would go to jail if he were president, said in an interview with reporters and editors at The New York Times that he was no longer interested in pursuing Mrs. Clinton, in part because he wanted to heal the wounds of a divisive campaign. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t,” Mr. Trump said during the interview. “She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways, and I am not looking to hurt them at all. The campaign was vicious. ” His reversal on prosecuting Mrs. Clinton was particularly striking given the outsize role the issue played during the presidential campaign, in which her use of a private email server as secretary of state became a prominent theme, and one she has blamed for her loss to Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump said he wanted to “move forward” from the subject. Without elaborating, he said that “we’ll have people that do things,” perhaps a reference to the F. B. I. or Republicans who might continue to press for prosecutions in the email or foundation cases. But the made clear that he would not seek to pursue an investigation himself nor make it a priority after he assumes office. The decision angered some of his most fervent supporters, who immediately criticized his seeming change of heart. “Broken Promise,” blared the headline on Breitbart News, a conservative news site that has strongly backed Mr. Trump. “It’s not something that I feel very strongly about,” Mr. Trump said at The Times, unlike health care or immigration. “This has been a very painful period of time. ” Clinton aides did not respond to a request for comment about Mr. Trump’s remarks. During their second debate, Mr. Trump turned to Mrs. Clinton and vowed, “If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there’s never been so many lies, so much deception. ” After Mr. Trump’s turnaround on Tuesday, the conservative commentator Ann Coulter, one of his staunchest supporters during the campaign, suggested on Twitter that Mr. Trump was overstepping his role. “Whoa! I thought we elected @realDonaldTrump president,” she wrote. “Did we make him the FBI, DOJ? His job is to pick those guys, not do their jobs. ” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative advocacy group that has been a relentless critic of Mrs. Clinton, said on Tuesday that it would be a mistake for Mr. Trump to drop the threat of appointing a special counsel to look into her email use. Mr. Fitton said that although the F. B. I. had already investigated the matter twice, that inquiry was flawed. His group has gained access to thousands of pages of Mrs. Clinton’s State Department emails through lawsuits and is pressing its case in court even after her defeat. Representative Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said last week on Fox News that his committee would continue to investigate the matter as well because “we’ve got to get to the truth. ” Mr. Chaffetz’s office said on Tuesday he was unavailable for comment about Mr. Trump’s statements. Although the F. B. I. ’s email investigation is closed, the agency still has an open inquiry into the Clinton Foundation. That inquiry began after the 2015 publication of “Clinton Cash,” a book by Peter Schweizer that asserted that some foreign entities had given money to the foundation in return for State Department favors when Mrs. Clinton was there. The Clintons have denied the assertions. The F. B. I. and Justice Department conduct their criminal investigations largely independently from the White House, so Mr. Trump cannot tell agents to close their cases. A president ordering the F. B. I. to stop a politically sensitive case would be a major scandal. “It does seem like an extraordinary breach of protocol for him to get involved in that decision,” Glen A. Kopp, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said of the . “I know of no recent circumstances when the president ordered an attorney general not to pursue a criminal matter. ” If, as president, Mr. Trump were to order the F. B. I. director, James B. Comey, to close the foundation inquiry, Mr. Comey could choose to rebuff him. F. B. I. directors are given terms to insulate them from political pressure, but the president still has the power to fire a director, as President Bill Clinton did with William S. Sessions in 1993 after a Justice Department investigation uncovered ethical abuses by Mr. Sessions. In an interview last week with CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” Mr. Trump said he had not yet decided whether to dismiss Mr. Comey over his handling of the Clinton email investigation, saying the director “may have had very good reasons for doing what he did. ” As a practical matter, though, Mr. Trump’s remarks will probably have little impact. The investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s emails is already closed and, while the one into her family’s foundation remains open, senior F. B. I. officials and career Justice Department officials have said there is little evidence justifying moving forward with a case. When the case comes up for review, senior agents and prosecutors may decide to shut it down, but it will not be because of Mr. Trump’s remarks. While the ’s decision is likely to frustrate investigators at the F. B. I. who are fiercely protective of their independence to follow the facts they uncover, some legal experts applauded Mr. Trump’s decision to not pursue investigations into Mrs. Clinton’s emails or her family foundation. Rory K. Little, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, said he was inclined to support both moves by Mr. Trump. A decision to shut down an investigation, he said, “is not out of step with constitutional constraints,” as the Constitution gives the president the power to issue pardons for federal crimes. | 1 |
By Dierdre Fulton As yet another study links fracking to cancer-causing chemicals, Pennsylvanians opposed to oil and gas drilling in their state are reiterating their call for a statewide moratorium... | 0 |
Friday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Mark Levin made the case that President Donald Trump’s reaction to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision not to proceed with the House GOP’s legislative effort to repeal and replace Obamacare was a positive. Levin called it “actually outstanding” and likened that leadership style to former President Dwight Eisenhower. “I thought the president’s comments today were actually outstanding,” Levin said. “And he showed enormous humility. And this guy doesn’t give up. I mean, he said OK, we’ll fight another day. In essence, he said that events will reach a point where this is going to have to be resolved. And when it reaches that point, I’m. ‘Mark, that’s not leadership.’ But it kind of is, actually. I’m not making a comparison. It is the sort of way that Dwight Eisenhower managed. When things reach a certain point, they’ll be knocking on my door. Then we’ll figure things out. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
Next Prev Swipe left/right It’s a bit off to do a sick burn on your wife via her grave stone @Duncanfyfe over on Twitter writes, “still thinking about Henry’s brutal post-mortem burn on his wife”
If anyone knows anything about this couple then please get in touch – all we can find is some Companies House mentions. | 0 |
CHICAGO — “There is no curse that’s crazy talk,” the chairman of the Chicago Cubs, Tom Ricketts, said the other day in his office. The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908, nor have they qualified for one since 1945. In Chicago and beyond, by the legions, people think the explanation must come from the supernatural. There is talk of a certain billy goat. You might have to live here to understand. Once again, the Cubs are in the playoffs. They had the best record in the major leagues, which has made them the talk of the baseball world as well as the favorites to win this year’s World Series. This might make other teams and their fans ecstatic. Yet in Chicago, there is a thinly veiled, repressed gloom that comes with having had your heart broken so often. People cope with the postseason tension in different ways. Carol Haddon, a lifelong fan, offered perspective. “My basement has flooded way too often — that’s sad,” she said. “The Cubs failing to win the World Series when I sense an honest effort? No, I’m not going be overly dejected about that. ” Jon Lester, a Cubs pitcher, has sought to own the curse, insisting his teammates confront it and talk about it. “There is nothing for us to run from,” he said. A beer vendor at Chicago’s Wrigley Field looks around and notices some no longer occupying their seats. “It’s heartbreaking,” the vendor, Rocco Caputo, said. “They passed away, and I know they never got to see a World Series win. ” Will this be the year? A sampling of the people caught up in the exhilaration and strain of the 2016 season: Carol Haddon, a Cubs holder for 45 years, has a transistor radio affixed to the wall of the home dugout in front of her seat. She keeps score of every game and lauds Cubs fans for weathering more than a century of postseason futility. “We are not loser fans,” she said. “We are optimistic fans. I choose not to carry the losses on my back. I choose to look at the bright side of things. That’s an attribute. ” Haddon first bought her season tickets when they cost $3. 50 a game, or roughly $285 for the season. That was in 1971, when the Cubs drew only about 10, 000 fans to most games. (This year, they have averaged nearly 40, 000 a game.) Haddon remembers the ballpark was sometimes so quiet that a fan could hear the infielders chatting in the middle of an inning. And fans would routinely join in on those conversations. Haddon, a former schoolteacher who said she is in her early 70s, has attended at least 2, 000 games at Wrigley Field and become so close to Cubs players that they have been houseguests and accompanied her to high school softball games to root for her daughter. “It was all so informal then — that was before the WGN effect,” Haddon said. WGN, a division of the Tribune Company, which owned the Cubs at the time, was one of cable television’s first superstations, making its debut in 1978 on fledgling cable systems nationwide. Cubs games — including 81 played in the daytime at Wrigley, which did not have lights until 1988 — were beamed across the country, making the Cubs a kind of second home team for some. In places without major league teams, the Cubs were adopted as the home team. Nearly 40 years later, the Cubs can genuinely say they have a nation of fans. And hundreds of thousands of them make frequent pilgrimages to Wrigley Field, where tickets are in high demand. Haddon, who last week wore Cubs earrings, a Cubs pullover and white shoes decorated with the kind of red stitching used on a baseball, never puts her two tickets for sale on secondary ticket markets like StubHub. Her two children and various friends come to games with her. Saturday night games are always date nights with her husband, Jimmy. There has been plenty to despair, but the one time Haddon struggled to keep her sunny disposition was during the 1984 National League Championship Series, when the Cubs were one victory from making it to the World Series, then were eliminated with three consecutive defeats in San Diego. An error by the star Cubs first baseman Leon Durham — the ball trickled under his glove and through his legs — led to San Diego’s surprising comeback in the final game. As usual for a Cubs postseason defeat, there were shadowy circumstances that led to the last, crushing loss. Before the game, Durham’s first baseman’s mitt was accidentally doused with Gatorade, making it sticky and gluey. Flustered, he considered using another glove but decided against it, a decision Cubs fans have lamented ever since. Durham’s mitt may have, in essence, been stuck shut as he was trying to snare a crucial ground ball. Haddon was at the game in San Diego. “That’s the only time the Cubs really, really made me cry,” she said last week. “When I got off the plane coming home and saw my husband, I started crying. ” But Haddon has been confident approaching this year’s playoffs. Even if she feels the fear around her, especially because the Cubs have the best record in the majors. “Everyone is a little afraid to be so excited,” she said, sitting in her princely seats with her feet propped on the Cubs’ dugout during a weekend day game. “We’re all afraid. Well, I’m not afraid, because I believe we will win. We should win. We’re the best team in baseball. ” Pitcher Jon Lester spent nine seasons with the Boston Red Sox, watching as a city and a region burdened by decades of dispiriting postseason losses had its championship renaissance. In his second season as a Cub, Lester cannot help seeing the similarities between Chicago and Boston. “In Boston, no matter how good the Patriots, Celtics or Bruins are, it’s sort of a Red Sox town,” he said. “I feel the same thing is true in Chicago. No matter how good any other team is, it always comes back to the Cubs. ” Lester has also assessed the two fan bases and sees considerable differences. “East Coast versus the Midwest,” he said. “It’s not the full, type of city and fan as you get in Boston. Here, everybody is a little slower, a little more . But the passion is still there. Both ballparks are packed every night, and everybody is yelling. ” While much of the Cubs’ roster was built with shrewd acquisitions of young talent, Lester was perhaps the final pivotal piece added when he spurned multiple other suitors, most notably the Red Sox, to sign a contract before the 2015 season worth $155 million. He was rejoining the architects of Boston’s multiple championships: the Cubs’ president for baseball operations, Theo Epstein, and General Manager Jed Hoyer. Lester brought with him the gravitas of a World Series pitching record and a 0. 43 earned run average in those games. There were other bonds to his Boston days. Lester is one of two cancer survivors in the Cubs’ clubhouse. In 2006, he was told he had a form of ’s lymphoma, but returned to win the game that clinched the World Series for the Red Sox in 2007. Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo was told he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2008, when he was an Red Sox minor leaguer. Lester and Rizzo first met in the Boston clubhouse shortly after Rizzo received the diagnosis, with Lester offering his counsel on how to approach the chemotherapy and the mental challenges of confronting the disease. Eight years later, they have been reunited as Cubs and have developed a bond. Lester had a record this season, the best winning percentage for a National League pitcher. Rizzo is a leading candidate for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award after slugging 31 home runs and driving in 101 runs. All around the Cubs’ clubhouse, Lester has become a seasoned, valued voice, perhaps because of his Boston experiences or maybe because Lester had to overcome so much more off the field. But he is not reluctant to discuss the subject that never goes away in Chicago: the Cubs’ curse. “I’ve told the guys we have to talk about it, because you can’t stick it in the back corner of a dark room and never acknowledge it,” Lester said, standing at his locker. “That’s how bad things creep in. This city has waited a long, long time. For whatever reason — a goat or a black cat — things haven’t worked out. “But we’ve talked about wanting to be the team that wins the World Series — a Cubs World Series. ” Lester looked across the team’s clubhouse, toward the long, serpentine footpath that leads to the home dugout and the cozy grounds of Wrigley Field, built six years after the Cubs’ last World Series victory. “There is a reality that we are facing,” Lester said. “It is the team’s history. But history gets updated all the time. ” A mime once came to lead the Cubs’ pregame stretching drills. A player rode his bike from his home to the ballpark like a Little Leaguer, in complete uniform. Another day, the team stepped onto the field to find live bear cubs frolicking in the grass. All the shenanigans came from the fertile, experimental mind of Cubs Manager Joe Maddon, a grizzled and usually former scout, minor league hitting coach and manager and coach who waited 31 years to be put at the helm of a club. Before the 2015 season, when he was 60 years old, Maddon agreed to become the Cubs’ manager and shoulder the weight of history that came with the job. The new sheriff in town gave his team a set of nonmarching orders. As he described them last week: “I don’t have any rules or regulations other than I want you to run hard to first base and I want the pitchers to work on their defense. There are no dress codes I think they’re nonsensical. The concept of being late is overblown. You can’t really be late for anything. ” In less than two years, Maddon’s freethinking philosophy has elevated him to status in Chicago, where his preachings are emblazoned on sold all over the city. John Baranowski, a longtime Cubs fan, was wearing one of Maddon’s signature that read “Do Simple Better” as he prepared to enter Wrigley Field last week. Baranowski likened Maddon to a baseball swami delivered to Wrigley by divine intervention to reverse the Cubs’ curse. “Is there anyone better to fix an insanely situation than a guy who lives to defy what people say is supposed to happen?” Baranowski said. “This is the perfect guy. He doesn’t care about the stupid curse. ” Maddon, whose record with the Cubs is may have saved his most important, if atypical, managerial ploy when it comes to the famed curse. He refuses to shy from it. At Wrigley Field, he had a wall leading from the team’s clubhouse to the dugout inscribed with this Maddon maxim: “Don’t let the pressure exceed the pleasure. ” Maddon is not going to allow more than a century of postseason despair to ruin his good time. “For me, the word ‘pressure’ should be an absolute positive and not a negative, because if people are throwing that pressure out at you, that means there’s really something good attached to whatever you’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “Pressure lives in the future, not the present tense. If you can live in the moment, then you can enjoy the pleasure of it. ” Sitting at his office desk beneath the Wrigley Field grandstand, Maddon shook his head. “Listen, I’ve wanted to do this since I was 6 years old, and now I’m going to get here and be miserable?” he said. “No, man, I don’t get that way of thinking at all. ” Rocco Caputo has tramped up and down the stairs at Cubs games for 33 years, a smiling, wisecracking fixture at Wrigley Field, a place called “the friendly confines” for its cheery atmosphere. But there is a hidden melancholy, like a family secret never discussed. It reveals itself when the Cubs are in the postseason. “There’s a lot of crying that nobody likes to talk about,” Caputo said as he stood in a narrow aisle in Wrigley’s lower deck last week. “It’s there in the stands. ” Caputo was selling beer behind home plate in 2003 during what was probably the most tormenting bad break in a Cubs playoff run. In the eighth inning of Game 6 during that year’s National League Championship Series, the Cubs had a lead and were five outs from a victory that would send them to the World Series when Steve Bartman, a longtime fan of the team sitting along the railing of the stands, interfered with a foul fly ball that might have been caught by a Cubs outfielder. The incident set in motion a series of misplays and quirky bounces that could only happen to the Cubs, who lost that game and Game 7 the next day. Caputo looked into the eyes of his customers that night. “I saw the hurt,” he said. With the Cubs eliminated, Caputo finished counting his beer sales cash and dashed from Wrigley Field to begin the walk home. Instead, he walked for miles in the opposite direction. “I didn’t want to go home,” he said. “I didn’t know where I was going. I felt like jumping in Lake Michigan. I just walked for like an hour. ” Unlike some Cubs fans, he does not blame Bartman, but unlike some Cubs fans, he is willing to admit to some kind of Cubs hex. “We’ve got a curse and we’ve got to get rid of it,” Caputo said. “A lot of people have been coming here for years, and it’s getting hard. “Most of us have been waiting our whole lives. I’m 49. I’m helping all I can. I cheer my heart out. I sell the beer. ” In 2009, when the Ricketts family was getting ready to buy the Cubs, occasionally someone would ask Tom Ricketts: Aren’t you worried about aligning yourself with a franchise best known for not winning the World Series? Ricketts had a much bigger fear. He was nervous that the Cubs, who had decent teams back then, might win the World Series before he could buy the team. Ricketts, who was making the bid for the Cubs along with his two brothers, sister and parents, wondered if his family would want to own the Cubs without the World Series drought. “It’s much better to be part of the quest for a championship than to be coming in after the goal has been accomplished,” Ricketts said last week. “Our question was: If they win the World Series, do we care anymore?” The Ricketts family, whose fortune derives from TD Ameritrade, the brokerage founded by the patriarch Joseph Ricketts, need not have worried that the Cubs would shatter its hopes. As soon as the Rickettses took charge, the Cubs fell apart, losing an average of about 93 games during the next five seasons. Ricketts, the ownership’s public face, was nearly an everyday presence at Wrigley Field during those seasons, as he is now, making himself available to fans as he walks through the concourses at almost every home game. He often rides a commuter train to his downtown Chicago office, where he also runs an investment banking company he created in 1999. Raised in Nebraska and a Cubs fan since he went to college in Chicago — he and his brother once lived across the street from Wrigley Field — he is one of the most accessible team owners in American sports. “When we were losing 101 games one season, everyone assumes I walked through Wrigley and had everyone yelling at me,” he said. “That wasn’t the case at all. Every once in a while, there would be somebody who didn’t understand our plan, but we could buy them a beer and try to explain. ” The plan was to turn all the baseball decisions over to Epstein, the president for baseball operations, who gutted the Cubs, several times trading away most of the team’s older starting pitchers for young, undeveloped talent, to build a sustainable core for the future. With the Cubs now the favorites to win World Series, Ricketts hears fans saying they wished the Cubs were backing into the playoffs instead — there is less pressure that way. Ricketts snickered and said, “There are a lot of people here who have a lot of time to overthink all those angles. ” Never mind that no team has ever been so vexed by so many curious setbacks and omens, many with such rich, colorful names and narratives. A fan, Billy Sianis, and his pet goat were ejected from Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series. Sianis vowed that the Cubs would never again win baseball’s championship because of the insult. The Cubs lost in seven games and have yet to return to the World Series. Hence, the celebrated curse of the billy goat. There was also a prancing black cat preceding a 1969 collapse. Ricketts would not hear any of it. He shook his head side to side when the Cubs’ many bizarre postseason outcomes were recounted to him. “We had a lot of bad teams, and when we had good teams, we had a lot of bad luck,” he said. “And we just have to accept that. That’s the truth. But there is no curse. ” | 1 |
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[10/30/16] Despite threats from the Nicolás Maduro ‘s administration, Venezuela started the day paralyzed by a strike organized by the country’s political opposition.
“Nobody leave their homes!” was the call made by the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) this Friday, October 28. The general strike is supposed to last 12 hours — from six in the morning until six at night — as a way of protesting the government’s refusal to go through with the presidential recall referendum process.
The call precedes the possibility for dialogue between the two sides this Sunday, October 30, but following threats from the government against businesses who choose to join in on the peaceful protest. Part of those threats involved the government “taking over” businesses by force.
Faced with such threats, it isn’t clear which businesses would go through with the strike and if regular workers would clock in. The student movement, meanwhile, made it clear that they would be participating in the strike.
A sector of the National Worker’s Union has joined in on the strike as well.
In a statement titled “Democracy and the Rule of Law Are at Stake in Venezuela,” the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce said that the decision to participate is up to each and every individual business.
Vice President Carlos Larrazábal reiterated that the agency is not taking a stance one way or another. Businesses have the freedom to strike if they want to. Post navigation | 0 |
The Syrian Army's "Election Campaign" - Al Bab Or East-Aleppo?
The Russian president Putin declared another unilateral ceasefire in east-Aleppo for Friday: "A decision was made to introduce a 'humanitarian pause' in Aleppo on November 4 from 9:00 am (0600 GMT) to 19:00," the chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov said in a statement on Wednesday.
Gerasimov said the decision was approved by Syrian authorities and was meant to "prevent senseless casualties" by allowing civilians and armed combatants to quit rebel-held eastern Aleppo....Defence ministry Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that Russia had ceased air strikes on eastern Aleppo for 16 days, following criticism over a Russian-backed Syrian government assault that has killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed infrastructure, including hospitals.
This is probably the last ceasefire on offer before al-Qaeda and CIA proxy forces in east-Aleppo are attacked in full force.
These head-chopping "rebels" rejected the Russian offer: Rebel groups in Aleppo dismissed Russia's latest offer, with one of the groups describing it as a media stunt for "public consumption."
Yasser al-Youssef, a spokesman for the Nour el-Din el-Zinki rebel group, said Russia "is not serious" and its latest initiatives "don't concern us." He added that the Russian leader's comments do not reflect the reality on the ground.
The great "rebel" attack from Idleb in the west on Aleppo to open a corridor to the government besieged "rebel" area in east-Aleppo has failed. Local fighting is still ongoing but the main attack has stopped. Most of the major hardware of the attacking "rebels", tanks and multiple rocket launchers on trucks, have been destroyed by the Syrian and Russian artillery and air forces.
The Syrian Army and Russia have assembled major fresh forces in Aleppo. Syrian special forces are preparing for a big attack and Iran supported groups as well as some Russian units are on the ground. On Friday the Russian aircraft-carrier Kuznetsov will arrive on the Syrian coast. It adds some 30 fighter planes and attack helicopters to the assembled land based air forces. The carrier is accompanied by several destroyers and frigates as well as submarines. These add to the air defenses but can also launch salvos of cruise missiles.
But this whole build up may have a different purpose than an all out attack on east-Aleppo. bigger
North-east-east of Aleppo is Al-Bab, a city held by ISIS (grey) and campaign aim of Turkish (green) as well as Kurdish (yellow) forces. The Kurdish YPG forces (named SDF to disguise them as mixed Kurdish-Arab group) want to connect their areas in northwest-Syria to those in north east-Syria. They need the line from north-Aleppo through Al-Bab to the city of Manbij further east which is already in their hands. They are generally capable and well equipped but their forces are stretched and they lack major artillery and reliable air-support. From the north Turkish proxy "rebel" forces, supported by Turkish artillery from north of the Turkish-Syrian border, have moved south to prevent a Kurdish west-east uniting of their areas and to keep supply lines for ISIS to Turkey open. They are now on the geographic limits of the Turkish artillery support. The Turkish army is reluctant to move its artillery south of the border into Syria. The army is based on conscript forces and the Turkish people would start to make trouble for Erdogan if their drafted sons get killed in Syria. There is also no legal base for an invasion by regular Turkish forces.
The Turkish air force has been supporting the Turkish "rebel" proxies in central Syria. But after it recently bombed and killed about 100 Kurdish fighters northeast of Aleppo the Russian and Syrian air forces have warned it off. Any Turkish plane entering Syrian air space is a legitimate target. The Turks understood the warning and have since stayed out of Syrian airspace.
Turkish supported forces taking Al-Bab could be in preparation of an attack on Aleppo from the east, endangering the Syrian progress in the city. Kurdish forces are known for their notorious unreliability as allies. They change sides for minor bribes or issues. They could probably be trusted to take Al-Bab now without bothering the government forces in Aleppo but that could change any day.
The third possible power to take Al-Bab is the Syrian Arab Army (red on the map). Since it took the Qweiris airbase south of Al-Bab back from ISIS it is only some 10 kilometers away from the city. A second direction of attack could come from the eastern parts of Aleppo. Taking Al-Bab would consolidate the areas between Qweiris and Aleppo and would be a good position to prepare for a later attack on the ISIS "capital" Raqqa southeast of Al-Bab and east of Qweiris. Areas directly north of Al-Bab could be let open for the Kurds to bother with the Turkish supported forces. The Syrian government will not protest when those fight each other.
Starting this weekend we will probably see two Syrian government campaigns. A major bombing campaign against "rebel" positions in east-Aleppo as well as a ground attack by Syrian government forces against Al-Bab. I find this more plausible than an imminent ground attack on "rebels" in east-Aleppo that was not prepared so far by a major campaign from air and artillery forces.
Something big Syrian military "election campaign" will happen in Syria while the U.S. public, government and media are distracted by their election circus. Are the other forces fighting in Syria, the U.S. supported proxies, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Turks prepared for such a new Syrian government campaign? Do they have plausible counter moves in store? 2, 2016 at 03:49 PM | Permalink | 0 |
There are two types of show business star: matte and gloss. Matte stars deaden the light, their recesses best revealed in shadow. Creatures of chiaroscuro, they conquer and retreat, like Garbo, turn chameleonic in company, like Brando, alternating sullen disgruntlement with outright . Beards may be involved. Gloss stars, by contrast, eat up the light like a cat sunbathing on a windowsill. They strut with the ease of toddlers showing off to their parents. Think of the peacock thrill of being looked at that John Travolta evinces in “Grease” or Tom Hanks in “Big” or Jennifer Lawrence in anything besides “The Hunger Games. ” Theirs is an egoless egotism that, by dint of the generosity with which it is offered up, yields audiences the promise of transcended, liberated self. Here, have me. Alan Cumming is the latter. His new book, YOU GOTTA GET BIGGER DREAMS: My Life in Stories and Pictures (Rizzoli, $29. 95) is a scrapbook of photographs taken by the actor over the years, accompanied by biographical sketches of what he was up to at the time — prose selfies for a kind of memoir. Here is a shot of Glenn Close’s “totally smoking ripped back” on the red carpet at the Tonys. Here is Eva Mendes’s cleavage at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. Here is a blurry shot of Oprah snapped in the star’s tail winds at an Elie Wiesel Foundation dinner in her honor. “Very famous people create whirlwinds,” he notes, and kicks his book off with a Force 7 gale: Hurricane Liz, whom he runs into at Carrie Fisher’s birthday party and soon has cackling “like a trucker who’d just heard a good fart joke. ” The book ends, some 250 pages later, with the actor’s being barged out of the way by Diana Ross making a beeline for the dance floor at an Oscar party. “The song she was so desperate to dance to was one of her own!” he notes. “Talk about being in the middle of a chain reaction. ” There is a tradition of stars turning paparazzi — Jeff Bridges has taken beautiful photographs on and off the movie set. There’s a tradition, too, of British performers going to Hollywood and returning with their wits intact to write up the experience in memoirs: David Niven set the bar with “The Moon’s a Balloon. ” Quentin Crisp turned his humor into a cottage industry. Cumming has already proved himself a gifted writer with “Not My Father’s Son,” wringing humor from the hard facts of his upbringing in Scotland, not least his brute of a father, who used to shear him with clippers, like a sheep. Cumming Sr. makes a brief appearance at the start of this book, too, sneering at the little plastic Kodak camera that his son wins in a church raffle: “Get on with that grass” — an instruction to which the rest of the book might be said to raise a puckish middle finger. “I am a sensualist,” he writes. “I understand the need to let go. ” There is a curious innocence to his pictures of drag queens and boys snapped on trawls through the dive bars and strip joints of Lower Manhattan, which he eats up “like a deprived child. ” What makes Cumming unusual is that the powers of observation that make him a good writer haven’t canceled out the instincts for pleasure that propel him out into the world. He has advanced and found a retreat within himself, as all artists must, throwing his own to which we are all luckily invited. Think of this book as the goody bag you get to take home afterward. “I had never seen my name engraved on a dildo before,” Cumming writes of his haul from the Fleshbot Awards. “And I had never received an award that I could potentially penetrate myself with, safely at least. ” It’s that “safely” that sets you thinking. He never does get around to finishing his father’s lawn. If celebrity is the biggest party the ego can throw, then the example set by Bill Murray takes the principle a step further, asking: Can the ego crash its own party? In THE TAO OF BILL MURRAY: Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing (Random House, $26) the Rolling Stone contributing editor Gavin Edwards tracks the mysterious sightings of the comedian made by the public for years. The Scandinavian exchange students’ party he crashed near St. Andrews Links in 2006, where he ended up washing the dishes. The international conference on biodiversity and conservation Murray dropped in on to talk about sturgeon. The music festival in Austin where he popped up behind the bar in 2010, pouring people tequila regardless of their order. The list goes on: a game of kickball on Roosevelt Island, a snowball fight in upstate New York. Typically, festivities end when Murray slips away with the words “No one will ever believe you. ” Edwards has saved some of us a lot of work. Murray watchers have been keeping unofficial scrapbooks of this activity for years, and like many of us, the author suspects there is more going on here than the irrepressibility that has long lightened his forays to the golf course — using spectators’ sweaters to polish his balls, for instance — although Edwards includes these, for good measure. “Our trickster god,” he writes, “Bill isn’t just being a clown. He has a tao, a way of being, a philosophy of life. ” Murray’s deus ex machina are an attempt, in Edwards’s formulation, “to make real life more like the movies. ” He takes careful note of the courses in French and philosophy Murray took at the Sorbonne in the years following his “Ghostbusters” success, where he was exposed to the teachings of the thinker George Gurdjieff, who argued that most of us sleepwalk through our waking lives it is the task of the freethinker to wake us up. There’s no record of these calls ever being unwelcome, although one Williamsburg hipster, disgruntled to find Murray at a Halloween party with the band MGMT, does accuse him of making “poor life choices. ” The bulk of the activity postdates the end of Murray’s second marriage in 2008, but as with his screen performances, the dusting of midlife melancholy adds rather than subtracts from the stories. My favorite has Murray driving a golf cart around the streets of Stockholm with two drunken Swedes singing Cat Stevens’s “Father and Son” until they are stopped by the police. “Bill’s explanation that he was a golfer proved insufficient,” Edwards writes, which may be one of my favorite sentences in any film book this year. There have been greater, weightier testaments to the art of cinema published in 2016 — Edwards’s book is no more than a magazine article, really, padded out with a bio of the comedian and a slightly redundant filmography — but for sheer dopamine release, it’s hard to beat. Tippi Hedren puts gossips out of their misery early on in her memoir, TIPPI ( $28. 99): Barely 37 pages in and here is Alfred Hitchcock, “shorter and even rounder than I was expecting,” casting the model in “The Birds” after seeing her in a Sego commercial. What follows has long been the subject of Hollywood rumor and inspired a 2012 TV film, “The Girl,” so Hedren’s decision to break her silence on her director’s “obsessive, often embarrassingly ardent, often cruel behavior” is a significant addition to our current conversation on sexual assault. Fixing Hedren with an “unwavering stare” wherever she went on set, Hitchcock instructed her “Do not touch The Girl,” had her followed and — creepiest of all — had a “life mask” of her face made for his own personal use. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this,” Hitchcock’s wife, Alma, confides in her at one point. Jay Presson Allen, the writer of her subsequent film with the director, “Marnie,” pleads, “Can’t you love him just a little?” Finally, after a series of “excruciating” encounters in her dressing room and a fumble in the back of his limo, he summons her to his office and assaults her. “It was sexual, it was perverse, and it was ugly,” she writes. “I’ll ruin your career,” Hitchcock threatens upon being rebuffed, and then proceeds to do just that, denying her opportunities to appear opposite David Niven and Marlon Brando in “Bedtime Story” and in François Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451. ” But the rest of the book (written with Lindsay Harrison) is not without incident. Hedren marries her manager the pair grow obsessed with lions, start a small animal sanctuary in their backyard and plow every penny into a film epic starring the beasts. A decade in the making, “Roar” has the scent of genuine insanity, involving multiple trips to the E. R. after the cats attack Hedren’s daughter, Melanie Griffith the cinematographer Jan de Bont (later to direct “Speed”) and Hedren herself, who is mauled by a leopard named Pepper. “I sat on the floor with my eyes tightly closed and held perfectly still while I felt his claws on my right thigh, followed by his sandpaper tongue licking honey off my cheek,” she recalls, in slightly more detail than her mauling by Hitchcock. At least Pepper didn’t block her from working with Truffaut. Bryan Cranston’s memoir, A LIFE IN PARTS (Scribner, $27) suffers from the lopsidedness that afflicts any account of fame — Cranston was 51 when he took the role of Walter White in AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” which made him a global star. But Cranston is a storyteller, practiced enough in his skills of to make those five decades pull their weight. Determined not to repeat the path of his father, an actor who appeared on TV shows and in a movie about killer grasshoppers before succumbing to terminal resentment, young Cranston works as a farmhand, learning the correct way to kill a chicken he sees a cadaver split open while a trainee for the Los Angeles Police Department learns how to spot shoppers from thieves while working as a security guard (“Shoppers move quickly. Thieves have a slower pace”) and is motorcycling down the Eastern Seaboard when, seeking refuge from a storm, he reads “Hedda Gabler” in one sitting. As he drifts off to sleep that night, he knows what he wants to do with his life. “I knew how he carried himself. Burdened,” he writes of Walter White, upon being sent the script for “Breaking Bad” by the showrunner Vince Gilligan, who remembered Cranston from a small role he’d given him on “The . ” He’d also, by that point, appeared in six episodes of “Seinfeld” and seven seasons of “Malcolm in the Middle,” and was up against Steve Zahn for the role. As intriguing as the Zahn idea is, it was Cranston’s less glitzy résumé — the years spent doing commercials for Excedrin and Preparation H — that was required for the chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White: a pinpoint study in frustrated ambition and simmering megalomania, in White’s demented liberation a lusty Gloria in Excelsis Deo for jobbing actors everywhere. Jason Diamond’s SEARCHING FOR JOHN HUGHES: Or Everything I Thought I Needed To Know About Life I Learned From Watching ’80s Movies ( paper, $15. 99) is one of those pop culture bildungsromans in the vein of Nick Hornby’s “Fever Pitch,” wherein a writer enacts an obsessive battle with a pop culture phenomenon that fills his or her sky, before finally realizing the fixation is perilous and parachuting to safety. Growing up Jewish in the Chicago suburbs, beaten by his father, abandoned by his mother, Diamond is by 15 a punk with a carving a Dead Kennedys logo into his desk, seeking plaintive escape in films like “Pretty in Pink,” “Home Alone” and “The Breakfast Club. ” “I wanted to live in a John Hughes film. I wanted everything to turn out just right,” he says, but wonders, “How many more times could I tell myself there’d be a happy ending?” The reader suffers from a similar curiosity. Diamond, now the sports editor at Rollingstone. com, never gets far enough into his John Hughes obsession to explain it, or why his alienation doesn’t express itself in angrier form — the music of Nine Inch Nails, say, rather than the quirky but world of Hughes. But the sweetness is telling, a sign of the strain to his nature that will eventually win out. He moves to New York, takes a job as a barista, starts an unauthorized biography of Hughes, stalls on Chapter 1 (“He’s an artist just screaming to break out,” his notes read) before finally returning to old haunts in Chicago, where he succeeds in laying some of his ghosts to rest and opening a crack of daylight between himself and his idol. I’m not sure Diamond gets enough about Hughes into the book — for long swaths, the title rings literally true — but he has successfully negotiated the writer’s most important rite of passage: He makes himself matter, first to himself and then to us. A sequel to his previous book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor,” Thomas C. Foster’s READING THE SILVER SCREEN: A Film Lover’s Guide to Decoding the Art Form That Moves (Harper Perennial, paper, $15. 99) aims to make you “a better reader of movies. More informed. More aware. More analytical. ” Despite this lofty aim, the book is written in the style of someone anxious to reassure his readers that they will not be left behind at any point: “Films not only have to have chemistry they’re like chemistry. Now, relax, there won’t be any lab reports. ” Foster goes in for so many of these icebreakers, each an implicit expression of the author’s confident air of superiority, that you grow a little impatient for the fruits of the wisdom whose brilliance he is so thoughtfully shielding from us. What you get is this: “Movies are motion” “If you put enough” shots “together in the right order you get a movie” “Every character has a story” and “A filmmaker can jump from place to place,” but “jumping from time to time is problematic. ” This last observation is so off the mark you wonder if the author has ever seen a movie: “Citizen Kane”? Flashbacks? ? Elliptical editing? Every now and again, one stumbles through the fog of generalities across a piece of analysis born of simple observation: the way John Ford uses Monument Valley to frame the landscape of the West, for example, or the cocoon of alcoves, rooms, elevators and stairwells in Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel. ” “This is a world very much like the actual world between the wars,” Foster writes, citing Ionesco. “Personal freedom is a scarce and fragile commodity. ” It is telling that Foster is at his best when he forgets his readers entirely. Brian Jay Jones’s biography GEORGE LUCAS: A Life (Little, Brown, $32) tells an tale: how a scrawny, easily bored nerd from Modesto, Calif. resisted the lure of his cooler, more flamboyant filmmaking contemporaries to stun the world with cinema aimed at his inner that reshaped Hollywood overnight. The collective double take over “Star Wars” never gets old, although if it’s a definitive reconstruction of the creative spaghetti that fed into the saga you want, then Chris Taylor’s masterly “How Star Wars Conquered the Universe” is your book. Jones, who comes to Lucas from a celebrated life of Jim Henson, tells a more straightforward story in definitive detail, although you have to wonder whether Lucas is a good fit for the biographical format: a cautious, withdrawn man, bland in his tastes, his resentment toward his father driving his fight for autonomy from the studios. So much in Lucasland seems born of peeve and pedantry, it’s a miracle the films are as ebullient as they are, but then that is the Faustian sacrifice behind “Star Wars”: All the fun, humor and adventure in its maker’s life are instead up there on the screen. Crisper pleasures await in BRESSON ON BRESSON: Interviews (New York Review Books, $24. 95) edited by Robert Bresson’s widow, Mylène, and translated by Anna Moschovakis. This collection of interviews reveals the great French filmmaker’s own interview technique to bear more than a passing resemblance to Roger Federer’s drop shot. In shuffles a nervous interviewer to take his or her seat, stealing the odd personal observation: The auteur’s eyes are and he speaks softly. “What was it that drew you to this subject?” he is often asked. It seems innocent enough, but this is Bresson. He thinks, then gently deconstructs the implicit assumptions about cinema contained therein, and rolls the ball back to the interviewer’s feet with a smile. “I don’t choose my subjects. They choose me,” he says. “Films should not have subjects at all. . ’u2008. ’u2008. What I’m trying to do is to come up to the edge of saying too little, in order to try to express with silence what other films express with words — the almost imperceptible things that happen on a face, or in a look in someone’s eyes. ” He interviewed much as he made films: by saying very little, with great eloquence. | 1 |
There is no reason to speculate about whether nominating Donald J. Trump has cost the Republican Party support in this presidential election. There is plenty of data to demonstrate that it has. Dylan Matthews of Vox showed one way of measuring the toll of choosing Mr. Trump over a candidate who more resembles past nominees. He considered the predicted election outcome for 2016 based on fundamental conditions that have long been known to affect presidential outcomes. Doing this yields a very tight race, extremely close to the mark. The Upshot’s election forecast and other forecasts give Hillary Clinton a substantial lead, suggesting how much Mr. Trump might be underperforming an average Republican nominee from the past several decades, given how close this election was supposed to be based on fundamentals like the economy and the president’s approval rating. Another way to see what is being called the Trump Tax is to look at polling’s generic ballot question: It asks people whether they would vote for the Democrat or the Republican, with no declaration of the identity of those people. This survey question often gets a different response than a question about specific candidates — especially if the candidates are not yet known. That’s because respondents are typically thinking of their favorite candidate as the winner of the nomination, regardless of what the likely outcome of the nomination process will be. In the winter and spring of 2016, Republicans who were fans of Ted Cruz or John Kasich might have conjured up thoughts of a general election in November with Mr. Cruz or Mr. Kasich on the ballot — not one in which Mr. Trump was the nominee. These voters would have answered the generic ballot question with their favorite candidate in mind. When it grew clear that Mr. Trump was likely to be the party’s candidate, it became harder for these voters to imagine someone other than him on the ballot when faced with the generic question. That’s why data on this question give us a different kind of glimpse at the tax Mr. Trump is levying on the G. O. P. The change in results on the generic ballot question for the 2016 race reveals an interesting pattern. Data from YouGov, an online polling organization, show that once Mr. Trump began to dominate the Republican primaries in March and a concerted effort by the other candidates began — and then failed — there was a significant shift in the generic ballot results. From autumn 2015 to spring 2016, the Republican was beating the Democrat in the generic ballot question. In January 2016, for example, the spread was seven points — 39 percent for the Democrat and 46 percent for the Republican. As it became clear that Mr. Trump would be the nominee, the pattern changed and the Democratic candidate went ahead. By the end of July, the Democrat had 44 percent and the Republican 36 percent. One way to view this reversal is as the price for nominating Mr. Trump. Similar trends do not appear to be at work on the generic ballot for the House of Representatives, suggesting two things. First, Mr. Trump’s unpopularity has not affected races to the same degree that it has his own race. Second, the trend among the presidential race is not a general sentiment. It is actually something specific about his campaign and most likely about him. It’s also possible, but less likely, that the change in the generic vote question is less about Mr. Trump and more about Mrs. Clinton, or more specifically, her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders. Perhaps during the Democratic primaries some independent voters thought Mr. Sanders might be the nominee, leading them to hold back from supporting the Democratic candidate until they were sure it would be Mrs. Clinton. If this were the case, however, the switch in the generic vote matchup would probably have happened later in the year when the Democratic contest was winding down. What’s especially striking is that the negative reaction to Mr. Trump by many Republican voters comes largely from his strident language in separating people into “in” and “out” groups based on race and ethnicity. Although this discourse may have achieved his goal of gaining publicity and support among primary voters during the summer and fall of 2015, it is most likely the reason he is trailing in the polls now. A Quinnipiac poll released on Thursday revealed that 59 percent of likely voters thought the way Mr. Trump talks appeals to bigotry. Given that they want to win elections more than anything else, parties rarely make catastrophic mistakes in nominating candidates for president. Because of that, it is easy to believe that who the candidates are and what they say has little effect on presidential election outcomes, especially in this period of heightened partisanship and party sorting. But they do. Just because we rarely see it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. | 1 |
Home › POLITICS › CLINTON EMAIL INVESTIGATION HAS SHIFTED THE POLLS SIGNIFICANTLY IN TRUMP’S FAVOR CLINTON EMAIL INVESTIGATION HAS SHIFTED THE POLLS SIGNIFICANTLY IN TRUMP’S FAVOR 4 SHARES
[11/1/16] MICHAEL SNYDER -Donald Trump has all the momentum now. Will it be enough to propel him to victory on election day? Trump’s poll numbers were improving even before we learned that the FBI had renewed its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, and the new survey results that came out over the weekend and on Monday make it clear that Clinton’s “certain victory” is not so certain after all. Unless something changes, Americans are going to go to the polls on November 8th with an FBI criminal investigation hanging over the Clinton campaign like an ominous cloud, and that is very good news for Trump.
The Clinton campaign was hoping that this renewed investigation would not “move the needle”, but unfortunately for them that appears not to be the case. Hillary’s unfavorable rating just hit an all-time high , a whopping 45 percent of all Americans believe that this scandal is “worse than Watergate”, and a Rasmussen survey has found that 40 percent of all undecided voters that are leaning toward voting for Hillary Clinton are still open to changing their minds before election day.
And even before this story broke on Friday, Clinton was having a difficult time getting her voters to the polls. According to the New York Times , early voting among young adults and African-American voters is significantly down compared to 2012, and those are demographic groups that Clinton desperately needs to turn out in large numbers.
But of course the key to winning the election is getting to 270 electoral votes, and poll numbers appear to be shifting in the key swing states that Trump and Clinton both desperately need. For a moment, I would like to examine what the numbers currently look like in some of the most important states…
Florida
Without Florida, Donald Trump has absolutely no chance of winning. This is something that even the Trump campaign has admitted. That is why it was so alarming that most of the polls in October had Hillary Clinton leading in the state.
Fortunately for Trump, a new survey that was conducted on Sunday shows him leading in Florida by four points .
Georgia
Georgia wasn’t supposed to be a problem. Georgia has traditionally been a deep red state, but polling throughout this election season had shown a very tight race. This had Republicans deeply concerned and the Clinton camp very happy.
But now the momentum has seemingly shifted and the latest poll has Trump up by seven points .
North Carolina
Mitt Romney won North Carolina in 2012, and Donald Trump very much needs to win it if he hopes to be triumphant on November 8th. Hillary Clinton was shown to be leading in the eight most recent polls before the email story broke, but in the first major survey conducted afterwards she is now down by two points .
Ohio
No Republican has ever won the presidency without Ohio, and Trump knows how important it is to his chances. The three most recent polls conducted before the FBI renewed the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails all showed a tie, but now the very first survey conducted afterwards shows Trump up by five points .
Colorado
Hillary Clinton has consistently been in the lead in Colorado throughout this campaign, and most experts didn’t give Trump much of a chance in the state, but the latest survey shows that Clinton’s lead has been whittled down to just one point .
Arizona
A survey that was conducted in mid-October showed Clinton having a five point lead in John McCain’s home state, but now the latest major poll has Trump up by two points .
Nevada
One of the most important swing states out west is Nevada, and most surveys showed Hillary Clinton with a strong lead throughout the month of October. Unfortunately for her, a poll that was conducted on Sunday shows Donald Trump with a four point lead .
Clearly Trump has the momentum at this point, and it will be very interesting to see how the numbers change over the next few days.
And as we learn more about what is in these newly discovered emails, will her fellow Democrats stick with her? Already, some are publicly wavering. The following example comes from WND …
Longtime Clinton confidante and former Democratic pollster Doug Schoen told Fox News the newly renewed FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server is forcing him to “reassess” his support for the Democratic nominee for president.
Schoen, a Fox News contributor, made the comments to host Harris Faulkner during a live television appearance Sunday night on “Fox Report Weekend.”
Public opinion is shifting quickly, but the bad news for Trump is that more than 23 million Americans have already voted. So millions upon millions of Americans cast their votes before they even learned of this new FBI investigation. If the race is very close, that could end up making the difference.
And of course the race could dramatically change once again if the FBI comes to some sort of resolution about these new emails prior to November 8th. On Monday, CNN reported that a resolution before election day did not appear to be likely…
FBI officials are unlikely to finish their review of new emails potentially related to its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server before the November 8 election.
The initial work of cataloging top Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s emails found on her estranged husband Anthony Weiner’s laptop could be done in the next few days, US law enforcement officials told CNN.
But the investigators are expected to spend more time doing other work, including likely working with other federal agencies to determine what — if any — classified materials are in the emails. This makes it unlikely there will be a resolution prior to the election.
However, late on Monday evening the Drudge Report reported that the L.A. Times has learned that investigators may have a “preliminary assessment” completed “in coming days”…
LA TIMES TUESDAY: FBI Investigators had planned to conduct new email review over several weeks. It now hopes to complete ‘preliminary assessment’ in coming days, but agency officials have not decided how, or whether, they will disclose results publicly… Developing…
Whether good or bad, I do believe that the American people deserve to hear something conclusive about these emails before November 8th.
If nothing is found to implicate Clinton, the American people should be told that.
And if evidence of very serious crimes is discovered, there is no way in the world that should be held back until after the election.
Even if it throws the election into complete and utter chaos , the American people deserve to know the truth.
But will we get it?
Stay tuned, because I think that this is going to be a crazy week. Post navigation | 0 |
Email
It looks like President-elect Donald Trump is wasting no time making his mark on Washington. He’s already gotten to work appointing his new Cabinet members and laying the groundwork for his new administration. And if it wasn’t already clear that things are going to be done Trump’s way for the next four years, Donald Trump just whispered “Hope you like to make ham, motherfucker” to a White House executive chef.
Wow! It looks like Washington is going to be a very different place under President Trump!
Those who witnessed the encounter say that, during a recent visit to the White House, Trump caught sight of a high-ranking member of the White House kitchen, waved him over, and said, “Come here, let me talk to you a minute,” in a voice that was somehow both cordial and threatening. When the chef got close to Trump, the president-elect shook his hand, pulled him close, and began whispering that once he got sworn in, the chef would be doing nothing but cooking him ham 24/7.
Members of the White House staff overheard the phrases “Ham is your life now, idiot” and “I don’t care what else you can cook. I only want ham” as Trump whispered to the chef, whose eyes grew wide with silent fear as he listened to what our nation’s newest president was telling him. They also say that Trump briefly smiled to wave to photographers before turning back to the chef with a dark and menacing expression on his face to continue whispering about ham.
Now that’s the sign of a president who isn’t afraid to shake things up!
While many Americans are deeply troubled by the bigoted rhetoric of Trump’s presidential campaign, those who voted for him as a protest against the political establishment have got to be pretty happy about a story like this one! No other president would grab a White House chef by the hand and whisper, “You live in Ham World now, motherfucker!”
And it seems as if President-elect Trump has a concrete plan in place, as well! Trump didn’t just tell the White House chef that he wanted ham in general; he had specific types of ham that he wanted, including “baked ham,” “smoked ham all the time,” and “ham with frosting.” Trump was also overheard telling the White House chef, “You’re also going to be making something called a Pork Jackhammer, which I just invented during the limo ride over here. It’s incredibly dangerous to make, and I want to eat it every day.”
It definitely looks like this is going to be a new era in Washington! You just know it’s not going to be business as usual in D.C. anymore when Donald Trump isn’t afraid to look a White House chef right in the eye and say, “When I ask for Chinese food, that just means soy sauce on ham. When I ask for sushi, that’s raw ham. President Trump will be eating barges of ham for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The moment I take the oath of office is the moment that your world becomes a pork-fueled hellscape.”
People who voted for Trump wanted a maverick, and it looks like they got one!
After about two minutes of whispering ham-related threats, Trump stepped away from the chef and began smiling and waving at the surrounding press as if nothing had happened, but his message was clear: When Donald Trump becomes president, he’s going to play by his own rules, and he’s only going to eat ham! If President Trump has his way, life in the White House might become completely unrecognizable! | 0 |
Report Copyright Violation I'm at Sonic eating popcorn chicken, ask me anything I'm at Sonic eating 3 large orders of jumbo popcorn chicken, 2 large orders of chili cheese tots and a RT 44 Diet Coke, ask me anything. | 0 |
As the chairman of Ferragamo USA, Massimo Ferragamo, 59, the youngest son of the founder of the fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo, has strong roots in fashion, but recently, he’s unexpectedly found a second career in the world of hospitality. In 2003, Mr. Ferragamo, prompted by his penchant for Tuscan wine, purchased Castiglion del Bosco — an estate in Montalcino, Tuscany — and spent five years transforming the property into an upscale resort. Mr. Ferragamo spends several months a year in Tuscany and spoke to The New York Times recently about his love of the region. Below are edited excerpts from the interview. What gave you the idea you to turn Castiglion del Bosco into a resort? I wanted to get involved in producing wine in Tuscany because I have always loved Tuscan wines, especially Brunellos, and a friend of mine heard that the property was for sale and took me to see it. It was a massive estate that was somewhat and the vineyards were only 150 acres out of 5, 000. The best use of the land was to turn it into a resort, so that’s what I ended up doing. Tuscany is a destination. What are some hidden gems? Definitely Punta Ala, a town set on the Tyrrhenian Sea. I grew up going there in the summers with my family, and it has incredible sailing and a nice beach. Then, in the countryside, there are the most charming villages around Monte Amiata, which are untouched by time, like Abbadia San Salvatore and Piancastagnaio. And around the villages you have pristine pastureland that’s rich with chestnut trees. Summer and early fall are the region’s peak tourist seasons. When do you think is the best time of year to go? September is beautiful because it’s harvest time, and the weather is pleasant. April and May are also great when it comes to weather, and November is the time to go for white truffles — the town of San Miniato has a great truffle fair then. I’m also a fan of Tuscany in winter — it’s nice to sit in front of a fire with a delicious glass of red wine at night. During the day, you can go on long walks through the countryside and take scenic drives, but without any crowds. Visiting wineries tends to be a staple activity for tourists to Tuscany. How should they pick which wineries to visit? They should visit ones that produce wines and have scenic estates but stick to seeing two wineries a day — any more and you won’t appreciate anything you saw or tasted. Ask locals or your hotel concierge what wineries they like and think are the most beautiful, or ask your friends who’ve been to the area. I like going to Duemani, which is in the Riparbella area, and also am a fan of Sassicaia and Ornellaia. Can you come to Tuscany if you don’t drink alcohol? Absolutely. It’s a great place for fitness fanatics there is both rigorous and gentle hiking and biking there. Also, you can go to olive oil estates to taste oils. It’s also possible to visit farms that produce cheese and have fabulous meals in little restaurants that have been around a long time. If you’re into history, we have historic towns and villages, such as Pisa and Siena, and abbeys and convents. Is Tuscany a destination for families? Many of the hotels welcome children, especially along the coast, and offer lots of activities for them. At del Bosco, we have kids’ cooking classes and archery lessons and even get them to crush grapes during the harvest. And kids are welcome at almost any restaurant in Tuscany. Most don’t have children’s menus, but the owners will make your kids anything they want, whether it’s a simple pasta or fried chicken. | 1 |
Dienstag, 15. November 2016 Erdogan ratlos, was er noch machen soll, damit EU Beitrittsgespräche beendet Ankara (dpo) - Es ist einfach wie verhext! Nachdem er seit Monaten alles dafür getan hat, dass die Beitrittsgespräche seines Landes mit der EU endlich abgebrochen werden, ist der türkische Präsident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mit seinem Latein am Ende. Warum die Europäische Union weiter verhandeln will, kann er beim besten Willen nicht nachvollziehen. "Ich bin gerade dabei, die Todesstrafe einzuführen, ich lasse täglich neue Gegner meiner Regierung verhaften, schränke die Presse ein", flucht Erdoğan, während er gerade vor dem Spiegel sein Bärtchen stutzt. "Worauf zum Teufel warten die in Brüssel denn noch? Das müsste doch locker reichen, dass die Türkei hochkant rausfliegt!" Selbst will er die Verhandlungen mit der EU nicht abbrechen: "Ich muss warten, bis Brüssel die Beitrittsgespräche abbricht, damit ich das dann in aller Öffentlichkeit anprangern und mich selbst als Opfer darstellen kann", so Erdoğan. "Wenn ich die Gespräche abbreche, bin ich der Buhmann. Huch, fast hätte ich die Nasenhaare vergessen." Kritisch betrachtet sich Erdoğan im Spiegel. Er beschließt, den deutschen Außenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, der gerade die Türkei besucht, zu einem persönlichen Gespräch zu empfangen. "Ich haue dem zur Begrüßung einfach eine rein, jawoll!", ruft Erdogan energisch und nickt seinem Spiegelbild zu. "Mal sehen, was sie dann machen..." Idee: shp; dan, ssi; Foto [M]: Shutterstock Artikel teilen: | 0 |
Friday at the Colinas Chamber of Commerce in Irving, TX, Sen. Ted Cruz ( ) said some President Donald Trump political problems were “ . ” Cruz said, “What I’m trying to do is just ignore the circus. ” He continued, “There are a great many people in Washington that want the Trump presidency to fail,” he added, “Unfortunately, some of the damage is . I wish that was not the case. ” ( Right Scoop) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
■ The resort doubles its initiation fee — to $200, 000 — leading to charges that the Trump Organization is cashing in on its founder’s power. ■ By President Trump’s definition of voter fraud, his senior adviser, Steve Bannon, his Treasury secretary nominee and one of his daughters could be swept up in the investigation. ■ The Twitter rebellion seems to be spreading as the Defense Department weighs in on Muslim refugees. The initiation fee at Mr. Trump’s club in Florida — which the president himself has called the Winter White House — has doubled to $200, 000, after membership applications surged in the wake of Mr. Trump’s election, the head of membership there said. Bernd Lembcke, the managing director at the Palm Beach, Fla. club, said the change in the initiation fee had been planned last fall, before the election, and that $200, 000 had been the fee before 2010, when it was cut in half because of the recession. But Mr. Lembcke, who has been at the club for 21 years, said that it also reflected the upswing in ’s popularity. “We have had a sudden surge in requests,” he said, adding that new members must be recommended by someone who is already a member, as is the case at many private clubs. Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a nonprofit group that promotes government ethics, said the move showed that Mr. Trump and his family intended to profit from his status as president. “At the minimum, this creates the appearance of cashing in the presidency and selling direct personal access to the president,” he said. “It is unacceptable. And it demeans the office of the presidency. ” The new initiation fee went into effect on Jan. 1, although the annual dues remained the same — $14, 000 a year, he said. The club has 482 members, with a cap of 500. “It enhances it,” Mr. Lembcke said of Mr. Trump’s new job and its impact on the value of the membership. “His presidency does. ” “But we are very careful in vetting them,” he added. News about the change in the initiation fee was reported by CNBC. By President Trump’s definition, his senior White House adviser, Steve Bannon, is apparently committing voter fraud. So is his nominee to be the next Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. So, apparently, is one of his daughters, Tiffany Trump. Mr. Trump was pretty broad with his definition of voter fraud when he took to Twitter Wednesday morning to request an investigation of the nefarious conduct of the 2016 electorate — with no evidence to support it. There is, in fact, a difference between investigating actual voter fraud and cleaning up the voter rolls. If you move states, you aren’t usually required to tell the state you are leaving that you no longer want to be on the roster. And so it goes that Mr. Bannon is registered in Sarasota County, Fla. and New York City. Mr. Mnuchin appears on the rolls of New York and California. And Tiffany Trump, should she choose, could potentially vote in Pennsylvania and New York. If she did, of course, that would be fraud. Now Melania Trump is fielding her own foreign leader calls. Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, called Mrs. Trump on Wednesday to congratulate her on becoming the first lady, according to the prime minister’s office. “The two of them look forward to seeing each other soon in Washington and to working together to strengthen the ties between Israel and the United States,” Mr. Netanyahu’s office said. Their husbands spoke by telephone earlier in the week, and Mr. Trump invited Mr. Netanyahu to visit him in Washington next month. President Trump announced that he will nominate businessman and former military intelligence officer Philip Bilden as secretary of the Navy. Mr. Bilden, who ran a private equity firm in Hong Kong until retiring three years ago, has expertise in both maritime affairs and Asia — two areas that are of central importance to the Navy. He was picked over an early Trump campaign backer, former Rep. J. Randy Forbes of Virginia. Mr. Bilden received a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard in 1991. First came the reposting of photos by the National Park Service that clearly showed that President Trump’s inauguration crowd was smaller than former President Barack Obama’s in 2009. That was followed by a contrite apology and lots of pretty pictures. But the national parks took up the cause, with a Twitter storm on climate change from the Badlands that was quickly taken down. And lots more: Now, with word that Mr. Trump is moving to shut down the flow of refugees and halt immigration from nations, is the Defense Department joining the fray? Incidentally, the National Park Service now says those Twitter posts from the Badlands came from a disgruntled former employee who had commandeered the account without permission. A National Park Service official said Tuesday: No official word on why so many other parks chimed in. Mr. Trump may have thought he was being constructive when he weighed in on Chicago’s terrible murder rate, but his offer (or threat) of federal support has not gone over well — either with Chicago Democrats or Republicans. Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez, Democrat of Illinois was miffed. But Republicans weren’t too keen on the notion of the federal government swooping into to fight city crime. The Republican media consultant Rick Wilson noted the obvious: Perhaps Mr. Trump’s motivation isn’t much of a mystery. On Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago offered the president what he called “unsolicited advice. ” “You didn’t get elected to debate the crowd size at your inaugural,” Mr. Emanuel said. “Now, obviously, I wasn’t a supporter of Trump. He got elected to make sure that people have a job, the economy continues to grow, people have security as it relates to their kids’ education, etc. And it wasn’t about your crowd size. It was about their lives and their jobs. ” “The speech missed an opportunity to speak to our better angels as a country,” he said of the president’s inaugural address. Or maybe Mr. Trump was just watching Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. Who says former (and supposedly bitter) rivals can’t join forces in the spirit of Washington’s most unifying party — the “green” party? (That’s money, get it?) No emoluments clause apparently can stop the former Clinton and Trump campaign managers Robby Mook and Corey Lewandowski from hitting the road for paid gigs on the speaking circuit, which is precisely what the two will do together. Leading Authorities, a speakers’ bureau, said it is organizing the events as “ ” assessments of Donald Trump’s White House. The two will also “debate the day’s hot issues,” including cyber attacks. Mr. Lewandowski just recently set up shop down the street from the White House in a consulting and lobbying firm he runs with another former Trump adviser, Barry Bennett. Update: The speaking agency has now deleted the material from its website. A representative for the firm told Buzzfeed that the listing was generated by them and not Mr. Mook and Mr. Lewandowski. Another update: Mr. Mook says no way, he never would have agreed to this buddy show. His press aides won’t say what exactly is bothering Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but something clearly has gotten his goat. It might be that the new administration has been slow to answer requests that date back to the Obama administration. Then again, his committee still hasn’t voted out the nomination of Mr. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. With the Trump Organization under a very public microscope, the company said Tuesday that it has appointed two monitors — Bobby Burchfield and George Sorial — to keep tabs on any ethical issues that may arise. The former has strong ties to Republican politics and the latter to President Trump. Mr. Burchfield, a Washington lawyer who has represented George H. W. Bush and the Republican National Committee, was appointed as independent ethics adviser to the Trump Organization, meaning he will advise on avoiding conflicts of interest, with the power to sign off on certain transactions. A longtime Trump Organization executive, Mr. Sorial will now be chief compliance officer, giving him a lead role in ensuring that the company complies with ethics rules and standards, while also implementing new policies. The two will assume their roles at a time when Mr. Trump has said he is trying to remove himself from the activities of the business that carries his name. Mr. Trump said during a news conference on Jan. 11 that he would place his business in a trust controlled by his two adult sons — but some ethics experts have chided the plan for not going far enough to avoid conflicts. | 1 |
Tweet Widget by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Adebayo
Lead kills brain cells, but it took a federal judge to order that households in Flint, Michigan, be delivered four cases of bottled water to prevent further damage to their health. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of the mass poisoning “were rewarded with blanket immunity and protection by the State.” One wonders, “How different the reaction of the Obama administration would have been had ISIS claimed responsibility for poisoning Flint?” Federal Judge Orders Water Delivery to Flint Residents by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Adebayo
“ The Flint water crisis is the pathway for future genocidal acts against Africans in America just as the Tuskegee experiment was the pathway to Flint.”
For nearly one year, EPA and state officials (and presumably the president) knew, according to Congressional testimony, that residents of Flint, Michigan, were drinking, bathing, washing dishes in lead-poisoned water, and providing formula laced with poisoned water to infants. There is little hope for Flint’s predominantly black children who have ingested, and absorbed dangerous levels of lead. The poisoning of Flint’s water supply was simply the latest act of domestic terrorism towards Africans in America.
But, the horror of the Flint water crisis has not stopped. What has stopped is the corporate media coverage of the carnage. This week, a federal judge, David Lawson, ruled that residents of Flint who continue to face lead contamination of their water supply are entitled to delivery of free bottled water to their homes. State officials must deliver each week four cases of bottled water to Flint households that don’t have “properly installed taps.” This ruling, while important, clearly falls short of the dignity and respect Flint residents deserve. In fact, the State of Michigan, without remorse or shame, has argued against such provisions.
“If the residents of Flint were considered fully human or valued citizens why should they have to fight for the provision of clean water?”
Flint residents have complained that the approximate $234 million that has been committed by the state of Michigan is inadequate to replace lead service lines, provide additional healthcare, clean water and water filters. Victims of this crisis have voiced concern that phone lines to arrange for water delivery and staffing at water stations have proved insufficient to meet the needs of the community. In addition, the State reduced service hours and eliminated service at water supply stations altogether on Sundays. One resident complained:
“Most of the people who’ve called [the phone service] never had people come out. It’s just not staffed.”
The State has argued that water delivery to qualifying households is an additional unnecessary expense costing $9 million. It was this same kind of argument that led the City Manager appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder in April, 2014, to switch the city’s water supply to the polluted Flint River and then failed to require the city, because of financial considerations, to use corrosion controls to prevent lead from leaching off water pipes to private homes. If the residents of Flint were considered fully human or valued citizens why should they have to fight for the provision of clean water? As humans and citizens this is their right! The State has shown, once again, that Black lives do not matter in Flint and that residents will have to fight for life-sustaining water.
The poisoning of Flint water should be considered an act of terror and should have been prosecuted under US terrorism laws and all involved indicted for domestic terror. But not one senior EPA or state official was fired or indicted -- criminal blame was reserved for low-level technicians. The poisoning was never treated as an “emergency” situation. In fact, until residents of Flint started to protest, federal and state officials were content to allow the poisoning to continue.
“Victims of this crisis have voiced concern that phone lines to arrange for water delivery and staffing at water stations have proved insufficient to meet the needs of the community.”
What this crisis has clearly exposed is that Flint was a deliberate poisoning of a low-income Black community. The perpetrators of this terrorist act were rewarded with blanket immunity and protection by the State. The EPA Administrator and Governor of Michigan will soon reap the benefits of being “good Germans” as they leave public service for lucrative private sector positions.
It took President Obama nearly two years to travel to Flint for what was promoted as a “briefing.” How different the reaction of the Obama administration would have been had ISIS claimed responsibility for poisoning Flint.
The EPA had the power to issue a cease and desist order against the State of Michigan under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA Section 1431) that allows the EPA to seize control of State’s water system:
“… Upon receipt of information that a contaminant that is present in or likely to enter a public water system or an underground source of drinking water … that may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to the health of persons, the EPA administrator may take any action she deems necessary to protect human health.”
According to congressional testimony by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the EPA’s paltry excuse for not invoking congressionally mandated emergency powers was that they wanted to allow Michigan State agencies enough time to settle this matter. In the interim, women suffered miscarriages, Flint residents suffered strokes, and children developed neuro-toxic levels of lead poisoning that impact their intellectual and cognitive function.
“ The EPA Administrator and Governor of Michigan will soon reap the benefits of being ‘good Germans’ as they leave public service for lucrative private sector positions. ”
Members of Congress called for the resignations of both the Michigan Governor and the EPA Administrator. While Obama did not have the power to unseat an elected Governor, he has the power to fire EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy who serves at the pleasure of the president. His decision was to leave McCarthy in place presumably because of the good job she performed in Flint. What is perhaps most revealing about the background story of the poisoning incident is that President Obama, by leaving McCarthy as head of the EPA, reaffirmed his faith in her abilities to carry out the mandate of his administration, including handling the more than over 300 additional water systems throughout the country, primarily in Black and low income communities, that indicate toxic levels of lead in the water.
History will judge that the Flint water crisis is the pathway for future genocidal acts against Africans in America just as the Tuskegee experiment was the pathway to Flint. One should note that the Tuskegee experiment (1932-1972), conducted by the US Public Health Service, consisted initially of a sample size of 399 Black men. The Flint water poisoning “experiment” (starting in 2014) consisted of a city of nearly 100,000 residents. The escalation of organized violence, such as Tuskegee and Flint should trigger a mass movement to protect African life particularly as we contemplate policies of the Trump Administration. Dr. Marsha Adebayo is the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated: No FEAR: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA . She worked at the EPA for 18 years and blew the whistle on a US multinational corporation that endangered South African vanadium mine workers. Marsha's successful lawsuit led to the introduction and passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). She is Director of Transparency and Accountability for the Green Shadow Cabinet and serves on the Advisory Board of ExposeFacts.com. | 0 |
John Kirby and the US State Department Blatantly Support Terrorists
Kirby and the State Department serve as apologists and white-washers for barbarism Originally appeared at New Eastern Outlook
The US government, together with the MSM, blatantly supports terrorists. The nexus between politicians, terrorism and the media is well known to the intelligence community. However these links and cozy connections are usually written off as mere coincidence. We are told that the arms and funding which they illegally receive are but an accidental by-product of supporting “freedom fighters,” and that no one planned for these groups to be transformed into terrorist organisations.
This is but the tip of the iceberg as nowadays Radical Islamists are now just considered as rebels by the main stream media or described as “spoilers” by the US State Department, whose main spokesman, John Kirby just recently referred to Al-Nusra in East Aleppo as a spoiler to the ceasefire in Syria .
The way the US government and the MSM support terrorists is nothing that should come as any surprise. And this is not accidental, because a specific spokesperson has been appointed to run this media spin operation.
Meet John Kirby – the man who will call terrorism by anything other than what it is
Retired Rear Admiral Kirby is the official US State Department Spokesperson. He is a graduate of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, rather than the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, and holds degrees in history, international relations, national security and strategic studies. He has worked in information-based roles throughout his armed forces career, though usually speaking to the goverment rather than the public, and the steady, year-on-year increases in US military spending show he has been very effective in this role.
Kirby was once a Pentagon spokesman. He used to be a Pentagon spokesman, well positioned to present sensitive information in non-controversial packages for mass public consumption. The Pentagon is hardly likely to tell us the truth about the things the public should be interested in: rows between generals, unauthorised or illegal actions or what the generals really think about the politicians they serve. But it has a press service regardless, so has to turn all that into something benign and equally interesting, as far as security clearance will allow.
This is why, under Kirby’s direction, radical Islamist groups which commit acts which meet any definition of terrorism, even if you agree with their cause, are now referred to simply as “rebels” by the mainstream media, or “spoilers” by the State Department. Listen to this example: Kirby referring to Al-Nusra as a “spoiler” to the ceasefire in East Aleppo .
He also has a neat trick for minimising terrorism: he refers to Daesh by the silly name Dash, a word Americans are familiar with from athletics, which conjures up images of educated young people in running gear rather than hooded terrorists murdering, beheading and marauding. His statements about Dash are really questionable.
People probably think they are funny, what about those families of the beheaded people and those killed by ISIS, would they find it funny? It is sick. Readers should be disgusted with Kirby.
Perhaps these guys think they have the terrorists controlled and managed. However when you tell the public we are at war with radical Islamists, and Al Nusra and others are on the terrorist watch list, why are these “national security experts” allowed to give them the a pass as if allies? The key is that we have allies that are radical Islamists who have attacked us and lots of others. Those allies are supporting the conflict in Syria .
Western governments are always telling their public that we are at war with radical Islamists, and that Al Nusra and other groups are designated terrorists and will be eliminated (they are on a kill list). All kinds of actions are taken in the name of fighting terrorism, and Western soldiers are sent to die in faraway places doing it.
So why is Kirby, presented as a “national security expert”, allowed to talk about them as if they are cuddly allies, or so insignificant that they are hardly worth the billions being spent fighting them?
Terratwitter army
Wars are by definition controversial, and always attract comment. Everyone has an opinion about a given conflict, and an important point, as they see it, to make. So there is always an endless stream of people who could be called upon to comment in the media. The only way to give any credibility to the contributor chosen is to present them as having some particular qualification, and Kirby’s title unquestionably gives him one.
There will also be those up close to the action who disagree with anything Kirby says, including many of the troops the State Department has sent to fight in these conflicts. However there is more than one way to skin a cat.
If Homeland Security wants to track down some actual terrorists then they should look at the source of Twitter feeds, and you will find all shapes and forms, many are members of the Islamist Front. It is clear that even some very prominent main stream journalists are actually supporting “rebels” by engaging with them in these learned exchanges.
Have you ever noticed how certain articles and statements attract a large number of comments saying the same thing? These are allegedly from members of the public, and therefore by inference “neutral”, the response of the man or woman in the street rather than an interested party. However this “vox pop” system is easy to manipulate, and there is plenty of evidence this is actually happening..
Many of the Twitter feeds and comments about conflicts involving terrorists, allegedly from “the general public”, are actually from members of the Islamic Front, and can be traced back to them. One example is the Twitter account Monther@amirramzi. Yet mainstream journalists do not call these individuals out as such. They engage with them as if they are impartial observers whose observations prove the points made in their articles, which the commenters just happen to have read, amongst the dozens available at any given time, when they have plenty of other things to do with their lives.
A State Department Spokesman has a long reach. You have to have a lot of weapons in place to take on the Pentagon, even in a verbal battle. Are we to believe that all these journalists are working with the Islamic Front independently, without help from above?
Too good for their own good
No one wants to live under a repressive regime. Consequently it is very easy to convey the notion that a “rebel” is simply a decent person fighting against injustice, as every individual likes to think they themselves are. People tend to make this connection without looking any deeper, and it takes a lot more effort than most casual observers are willing to make to go into the details of any conflict, and build a counter-narrative to the one presented by the mainstream media.
The term “rebel” is used to cover all kinds of combatants in Syria. It includes both the “moderate opposition” and self-avowed terrorists. In order to make this fiction stand up, a lot of claims need to be made and a lot of things not reported, as they would counter the picture of a homogenous group of decent people taking a stand which is so obvious it does not need to be explained.
It is rarely reported that the moderate opposition was persuaded to reject a UN plan to kick out Al Nusra, who are as much a threat to the ambitions of the moderate opposition as the Syrian government is. The opposition to Assad is now forcibly led by the terrorists the West claims to be fighting, because the more moderate forces have been subjected to it by the same West. This is why Kirby refers to Daesh as Dash – he is implying that the moderate forces are fully in agreement with it, and this somehow makes it something other than a terrorist group, in the same way Al Qaeda has been partially rehabilitated by saying its name over and over again until it becomes as familiar as breakfast to the reading public.
Similarly the word “Christian” is bandied about for an American audience which is increasingly influenced by the religious right which mushroomed as a backlash to failed liberalism. Kirby and his assistants claim that Christians are being persecuted by Assad the Muslim, without going into exactly who is meant by “Christians”, and what the ramifications of holding that faith are.
Most Syrian Christians describe themselves as Orthodox, but they are split into two very different groups. One is under the Patriarchate of Antioch, based in Damascus, and the other is under either the Jacobite Syrian church or the Nestorian Assyrian church, which have been outside the mainstream Orthodox communion since the 5th century. Politically these are very different animals – the Church of Antioch uses Arabic in its services as part of a deal with the state for protection, whereas the Syrians generally use Syriac and the Nestorians Aramaic. Nor do they receive the same protection, being treated as suspicious minorities by the Syrian state.
It is this which lies behind the kidnapping and ongoing detention of two bishops, the Syrian Church’s Archbishop John Ibrahim and the Church of Antioch’s Metropolitan Paul Yazigi, who have been held by ISIS since 2013. This is intended to convey the idea that all Christians are the same, and all must therefore hate Assad. We are told that the whereabouts of these two bishops are unknown, but we were told the same about Terry Waite, the Church of England peace envoy who was held captive in Beirut for five years by the Islamic Jihad Organisation.
On that occasion, with all the sophisticated weapons targeting systems and intelligence at its disposal, the West couldn’t find one captive in a city its raids demonstrated it knew backwards. Bishop Paul is the Metropolitan of Aleppo, strangely enough.
Too many friends to be true
The radical Islamists presented as cuddly flies in the ointment by Kirby are sponsored by external governments. We are often told that these include those of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Many questions have been raised in Western countries about having state sponsors of terrorism as allies, and what those states’ real attitude to terrorism therefore is . Minimising the actions of these groups is therefore a domestic political imperative, not merely a foreign relations or security one, for Western governments.
This is why Channel 4 News published the report “Aleppo – Up Close With The Rebels” on October 5th. It was an attempt to promote known war criminals and child murderers and thus cleanse their actions, and those of the governments who support them and supply them with the means of committing them. When people started recognising certain faces in the video, and connecting them to actions which had caused journalists to question the US government’s support for this particular rebel group, Channel 4 removed its own report, most unusually . It has not however changed its editorial policy, and presents other groups with similar records in the same way in spite of this.
There is also a connection with John Kerry’s recent discussions with Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir. It is known that the 28 classified pages of the US government’s official 9\11 report, kept from public view, deal with the role Saudi Arabia played in those attacks. Now Kerry and al-Jubeir are trying to prevent the new Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act from having any effect.
If it is actually enacted, JASTA will restrict sovereign immunity and make it easier for individuals to prosecute the Saudi state over 9\11, on the basis of the official report. It will also make it easier for other countries to pass parallel legislation which will result in the US being prosecuted for its own actions. This may explain why Obama vetoed the bill, and it was only passed over his veto.
Now Kerry is trying to fix it so that the bill never comes into effect . If it was enacted, it could have a significant effect on future conflicts by enabling those who believe the actions of a sovereign nation, such as Syria, are criminal to pursue them through legal rather than military avenues. This is the option most “moderate” groups would doubtless prefer. This gives the US military-industrial complex, the only people to profit from any war, every motive for presenting radical terrorists as reasonable, sensible people doing a sensible thing.
Everyone wins except the future
Most terrorist groups would be equally radical in behaviour but not be able to achieve as much if just let to their own devices, as they would have neither the weaponry nor the intelligence support. The only reason terrorists who are happy to be martyred by the Western infidels accept their support is because it somehow legitimises them, and they can hope for future favours.
Menachem Begin, former Israeli PM and Nobel Prize Winner for Peace, was still wanted in the UK for a Zionist bombing when he attended the Leeds Castle Middle East peace negotiations in 1978, but by then enjoyed the dignity of then being a Prime Minister rather than a terrorist, because the West said so .
John Kirby is still serving the purposes of the Pentagon by presenting terrorists as reasonable, insignificant forces. Not only is he continuing the US sponsorship of terrorism by doing this, he is justifying the billions spent on fighting this apparently insignificant threat. Now the Pentagon can have unlimited funds to spend on anything it can sell to the public.
Isn’t this a wonderful picture once you connect the dots? “US mainstream media — the playground of spooks and hacks. A propaganda arm of the regime indeed — but that’s not nearly all of it ….”
Seems the terrorists have jokes of their own, and they are no laughing matter. Enemies are easy to manufacture, same as “manufacturing consent”, especially when you know your audience. It is also easy to turn them into friends in the same way. All you need to do is co-ordinate the effort like a military campaign.
Who better than John Kirby to tell us what’s what before we have the time to work it out for ourselves? | 0 |
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