text
stringlengths 1
134k
| label
int64 0
1
|
|---|---|
Wall Street pension management companies are protesting a decision by agency officials to preserve a 2016 regulation which supporters say will protect retirees’ savings from sales managers. [On February 3, President Donald Trump directed officials at the Department of Labor to review the regulation “to determine whether it may adversely affect the ability of Americans to gain access to retirement information and financial advice. ” But officials postponed the review until late in the year and set June 9 as the start date for implementation of the regulation, which is dubbed the “diduciary duty” rule because it requires individuals who sell retirement plans to put their customers’ security above their employers’ interest in profits. In other words, salesmen and saleswomen have a “fiduciary duty” to their customers, just as a company’s CEO has a fiduciary duty to the shareholders. The pushback by agency officials to protect the regulation shows “the ‘Swamp’ is working behind the scenes to scuttle President [Donald] Trump’s agenda,” said Patrick Hynes, president of a D. C. advocacy group, Hynes Communications, which opposes the new regulation. Hynes declined to name the business groups who fund his advocacy. But the department’s postponement is good because it gives Trump and his populist aides another opportunity to support the rule amid opposition from greedy Wall Street investment companies, said Knut Rostad, president of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard. The rule can be preserved “if somebody at the highest level gets the president’s ear and gives him the populist view that 95 percent of what he hears from Wall Street is total B. S.,” said Rostad. The agency’s delay “is the only way to change the [current] dynamic, otherwise it is a done deal” that the rule will be killed in late 2017 by Wall Street’s political pressure, he added. As required by the Administrative Procedure Act, federal officials must follow a complicated process when they are writing or replacing regulations. The new timeline set by the labor department means that the fiduciary rule regulation will operate from June until at least late in the year when the incoming Trump appointees at the department will have an opportunity to review and replace the regulation, said Rostad. The Department of Labor oversees retirement savings plans because the savings plans are often picked by employers. The rule has been criticized by major firms — such as Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America — but its most vigorous critics are small financial advice firms which are less able to shoulder the burden of increased regulatory costs. Some critics of the rule say it may force smaller firms to back away from providing advice on covered retirement plans. Some of the biggest Wall Street firms, such as Goldman Sachs, would hardly be touched by the role because they do not do a lot of business with the type of retirement plans covered by the new rule. The rule is opposed by the GOP. For example, no GOP legislators supported the fiduciary rule during an April 2016 House vote. “As someone who has spent decades in the financial services industry, I know the importance of providing all consumers — regardless of income — the opportunity to seek sound financial advice,” GOP Rep. French Hill said when the delay was announced this month. “The DOL’s Fiduciary Rule would greatly diminish access to professional retirement planning and guidance for those who need it the most. This is why a broad, bipartisan majority in Congress has called for the rule to be scrapped as written,” he said. The fiduciary regulation is strongly supported by Democrats, partly because it was developed and pushed by President Barack Obama’s top aides and other progressives. consumer groups are trying to keep the rule alive, according to an article in Politico Pro. Consumer advocacy groups on Wednesday launched a publicity campaign aimed at preserving the rule, including an event on Capitol Hill. It featured Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Stephen Wingate, a retired Vietnam veteran who is trying to recover damages through arbitration from a broker who he alleges steered him into illiquid investments. “Had I known my broker was held to the same standard as a car salesman, I wouldn’t have trusted him so much,” Wingate said. The AARP, which claims more than 37 million members, is also defending the fiduciary rule. “We look forward to continuing to advocate for the successful implementation of this rule so that advisers can no longer legally trick retirement savers into risky or investment vehicles,” said Nancy LeaMond, the organization’s executive vice president. But the rule also has support from some populists who want to help Americans grow their retirement . Brendan Maher, a plaintiff’s lawyer in L. A. for example, argued that the rule helps retirees, according to the BNA news service. “The future of this rule is interesting, because whatever we believe about Trump, he ran on a platform of economic populism,” Maher said. “This is actually a fairly easy place for him to score some points. ” Because the fiduciary rule is aimed at helping “little guy consumers” in the face of controversial financial industry practices, it presents Trump with an opportunity to curry favor with those who support his more populist tendencies, Maher said. He was quick to add that he’s “not that optimistic” this scenario will play out. “I think the future of the rule depends on the political will of the Trump administration, which is less predictable than we might expect,” Maher said. Rostad says the rule is doomed because Wall Street has huge sway in Washington and with the GOP. Even the June date set by the agency officials won’t save the rule if the White Hosue wants it dead, he said. “The Department of Labor have set the stage for being able to come back in December and repeal the whole damn thing,” he said, adding that the Wall Street companies are being greedy in demanding the rule’s demise even before it comes into force. Because of Wall Street’s influence, including with Trump’s economic policy director, Gary Cohn, Rostad said. “The outcome of the process is 95 percent forgone conclusion — [and] the 5 percent variable is whether somebody in the White House gets a different type of [ ] command down to the Department of Labor. ” | 1 |
Hillary Clinton in lead a day before Election Day 11/07/2016
PRESS TV
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads her Republican rival by three percentage points nationally as they head into the final day of a tight race for the White House, according to a new poll.
The final Bloomberg Politics-Selzer & Co poll released on Monday has Clinton ahead of Trump, 44 percent to 41 percent.
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was at 4 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein had 2 percent support.
Clinton also leads Trump by three points in a hypothetical two-way matchup when third-party candidates are not included.
Another tracking poll released early on Monday also put Clinton in the lead.
The former secretary of state held a four-point lead over the billionaire businessman in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. The survey showed 47 percent of likely US voters backed Clinton while 43 percent said they supported Trump.
The Clinton campaign received a late break with FBI Director James Comey announcing Sunday that no criminal charges were forthcoming in the probe of Clinton’s newly-found emails.
“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July,” the FBI chief wrote in a new letter to congressional committee chairmen.
The development is a major relief to Clinton, who is spending the final hours of her campaign trying to close Trump’s path to presidency. Donald Trump walks off the stage after holding a rally at Loudoun Fairgrounds in Leesburg, Virginia, early in the morning on November 7, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
Comey sent the presidential race into a frenzy last month when he sent a letter to Congress saying the FBI had discovered emails in a separate probe that could be linked to the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server when she was secretary of state.
The surprise move infuriated Democrats and lifted the presidential hopes of Trump, who has turned the email controversy into a favorite line of attack against Clinton.
Still, Trump continued to seize on the email issue, insisting that Clinton is “guilty.”
“Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know,” he said Sunday at a rally in Detroit, Michigan. “And now it’s up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8.”
Both Clinton and Trump plan to spend the last day of the campaign racing across key battleground states that could determine the results of Tuesday’s election.
Trump will visit Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire and finish the day with a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Clinton is travelling to Pennsylvania and Michigan before closing with a midnight-rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. | 0 |
Neal Katyal, who served under President Barack Obama as acting Solicitor General of the United States, praised President Donald Trump’s selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat on the U. S. Supreme Court formerly held by Justice Antonin Scalia. [Katyal was Deputy Solicitor General under Obama, and served as acting Solicitor General for roughly a year in 2010 and 2011, representing the Obama administration before the Supreme Court. He is now a partner at the Washington, D. C. law firm of Hogan Lovells, and said in a statement: Judge Gorsuch is one of the most thoughtful and brilliant judges to have served our nation over the last century. As a judge, he has always put aside his personal views to serve the rule of law. To boot, as those of us who have worked with him can attest, he is a wonderfully decent and humane person. I strongly support his nomination to the Supreme Court. Others shared Katyal’s sentiments. Heritage Action CEO Michael A. Needham praised Gorsuch, saying that President Trump had fulfilled his election promise by selecting him: Judge Neil Gorsuch is a nominee ‘very much in the mold’ of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. President Trump deserves credit for fulfilling his campaign pledge by nominating an individual who will, based on his record, interpret the text of the Constitution rather than create unwritten rights supposedly hidden between the lines. The usurpations of the rule of law, substituting for the will of the people as embodied in democratically enacted legislation rights nowhere to be found in our Constitution itself, only serves to divide our nation. Judge Gorsuch is an outstanding choice, and now the Senate must prepare to carry out its “Advise and Consent” role as it has for the past 227 years. Democrats were slower to respond, as they attempted to absorb the choice of a judge widely praised for his intellect and experience. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer ( ) had not reacted to the choice, half an hour after it was made. Neither had Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin ( ). Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
MARFA, Tex. — On a night, a few dozen people clustered near one end of the Lost Horse Saloon here: a small video crew, some Texas locals and tourists including visitors from New York City like me. Deer heads and skulls gazed down from the walls a sign announced “Open Mic Night. ” Seated in the tiny stage area were the two singers and lyricists of the xx — Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim — while Jamie Smith (a. k. a. Jamie xx) the band’s programmer, keyboardist and main producer, looked on from nearby. It was the first performance by the xx since 2014, and a Texas saloon made an unlikely comeback locale for a British band whose melancholy songs tend to conjure dark, lonely London flats or very late nights in club chill rooms. With downcast glances, as Ms. Madley Croft plucked an acoustic guitar, the duo sang the love song “Islands,” from the band’s 2009 debut album, and the clingy breakup song “On Hold,” the first single from its third album, “I See You,” due on Jan. 13. A stealthy, way return made sense for a band that grew out of whispery songs recorded at home but has gathered a worldwide following. From the beginning, the xx bridged the ethic of the electronic underpinnings of dance music and an intuitive sense of pop songwriting that’s succinct, emotionally open and general enough to feel universal. It has turned out to be a durable, expandable, widely admired hybrid: dark and arty yet grounded in the pop basics, eager to communicate. The xx has already sold out a week of British theater dates in March, is booked as a headliner at Lollapalooza festivals in Brazil, Chile and Argentina and was welcomed as a guest on “Saturday Night Live” almost immediately after “On Hold” was released in November. It was precisely the fragility and reticence of the xx, on the debut album they made as teenagers, that brought the band a rapidly expanding following — one that grew further with its more polished but still skeletal second album in 2012, “Coexist. ” Mr. Sim and Ms. Madley Croft, playing parts on bass and guitar backed by keyboard notes and samples from Mr. Smith, sang in smoky murmurs, like hushed dialogues or shared secrets: songs of isolation, longing and intimate tension. In the years between albums, the band’s signature sound — a moody voice in over just a few instruments, with the barest hint of a dance beat — made its way into big pop hits like Hailee Steinfeld’s “Love Myself” and the Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down” (though the xx’s habitual restraint doesn’t extend to the choruses). Even in its absence, the xx had an impact. Yet it’s impossible for the xx to return to teenage naïveté. And sticking too closely to its established ways would have made it feel like a “parody band of ourselves,” Mr. Sim said. “What makes us sound like us has been a combination of mistakes and just our personalities and what’s part of us. That definitely was the case on the first one. So trying to hang onto that consciously just doesn’t work. ” The challenge for the new album was how a band with growing clout, influence and experience could still conjure private emotions. “The band came from such an unambitious place,” Mr. Sim said. “But it’s slowly become something where we do have a lot of drive — we do have a lot of ambition now. ” The band’s solution was both clear and complicated: Work on the sounds, unblock the feelings and abandon rules. “I See You” inevitably scales up the sound of the xx, openly courting a wider audience, but its songs still ring true. The video the band shot for “On Hold” in Marfa, where it did some of the first recording sessions for the new album at a cozy local studio, captured it in a new mode: clowning under the Texas sun, with band members riding shopping carts and skateboards, and Mr. Smith D. J. ing a house party for high schoolers. But the core of the xx — an endearing insecurity — hasn’t disappeared. Over a breakfast of huevos rancheros the morning after the show, the band admitted to renewed stage fright. “Last night — that felt scarier than Radio City,” Mr. Sim said. Together, the band members came across as thoughtful, courteous and unified. Ms. Madley Croft was relatively voluble, and Mr. Smith almost entirely Mr. Sim genially, patiently measured his words. They never interrupted one another. Ms. Madley Croft compared the saloon performance to the awkward club shows at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon in New York that brought the xx its first buzz in the United States. Back then, they stood stiffly by their instruments in near darkness, barely acknowledging the audience. When the band started, the xx imposed its own strictures. To stay personal, Ms. Madley Croft and Mr. Sim would each sing only lyrics they had written themselves. They also avoided, as they still do, specifics like place names or gendered pronouns — using you and I, not he and she — “so you can fit it into your own life and imagine yourself within it,” Ms. Madley Croft said. And even on a recording, an xx song could only have the parts that could be played onstage. “We never set out to be a minimal band,” she said. “We just couldn’t play our instruments very well. ” But with “I See You,” the xx upended its old methods. They recorded outside the familiarity of London (though they eventually returned there) in Marfa, Los Angeles and Reykjavik, Iceland — places with sunshine and landscapes. And they fanned out for projects on their own. Mr. Sim appeared in fashion videos for Dior Homme. Mr. Smith stepped up his sideline as a D. J. remixer and producer, touring widely and releasing an album of his own in 2015, “In Colour,” that included the other xx members among many guest vocalists. He bought his first real synthesizer — a Oberheim that supplies many of the swooping sounds in “On Hold” — after using for so long cheap keyboards, samplers and software sounds. Making music outside the xx also put Mr. Smith in serious recording studios for the first time in a career of laptop recordings. “It made me realize that I love working in and I love working with my best friends — that is how I make the best music,” he said. “But also that I need to put myself out there to occasionally just me and to realize how lucky I am. ” In Los Angeles, where as an Englishwoman Ms. Madley Croft had the guilty pleasure of “sunny skies in November,” she got invited to songwriting camps: brief, intense, collaborations organized to generate hits. She was eager to learn the methods of pop pros. “I just was craving it. I knew it was going to be terrifying and quite outside of what I’ve done before, and I really enjoyed it,” she said. At one session, with the producers Ryan Tedder and Benny Blanco, she recorded a guitar part that came to define a song by OneRepublic, “Fingertips. ” A collaboration with the producer Rick Nowels led back to Jamie xx it yielded a song, “Ecstasy,” that ended up providing a verse for “Loud Places,” a track she sings on “In Colour. ” In an email, Mr. Nowels wrote: “Romy is a wonderful, natural singer and songwriter. She’s a strong intuitive musician which informs her songwriting. Her voice has a quiet intelligence. She writes lyrics from a personal and soulful place. She’s one of the few guitarists these days who has an instantly recognizable style — that’s almost impossible to achieve. She played through my little amp with some reverb, and there was that sound!” The camps, Ms. Madley Croft said, “taught me to trust my instincts. Everybody moves so quickly, works so quickly, that it’s kind of like oiling up your joints. But I was not quite pouring out my soul in that music. So I was really happy to come back with the boys and just get really cathartic again. ” But they were working differently this time. Mr. Sim and Ms. Madley Croft sometimes worked together, trading melodies and bits of lyrics, as in the songwriting camps, and no longer worrying who wrote what. Mr. Smith channeled some of his D. J. expertise into the new songs — although, he said, “It still sounds like there’s space compared to what you hear on the radio these days. ” And instead of staying cloistered, the band took some of its new songs on the road in 2014, playing small gigs around the South. The band’s early reticence was no pose. Mr. Sim and Ms. Madley Cross, both 27, met at the musically oriented Elliott School in the London suburb of Putney and wrote songs, at first, just for themselves. “We didn’t think anybody was going to hear them,” she said. “They were like a diary for us. But then people connected with that. ” They were so uncertain about their lyrics and singing, she added, that even while they were making their first album they exchanged lyrics by email, not in person. By then the xx also included two fellow students: Mr. Smith, 28, and the guitarist Baria Qureshi, who left after the xx’s first album. The band’s limitations gave the xx a distinct sound, full of spaces and silences that drew listeners in. The xx’s quiet desolation had precedents in British pop, like Everything But the Girl and Young Marble Giants, but the xx also had its own dynamic there was drama in each pause. It was possible to hear the songs as a couple’s questions, confessions, quarrels and reconciliations, but the two singers were not romantically involved both are gay. “I’ve always been really up for being quite raw and emotional in music,” Ms. Madley Croft said. “I guess that was my outlet before I could have the confidence to be like that in life. ” The band’s growing audience, particularly after its debut won the Mercury Prize as the best album of 2009, made them only more . When making “Coexist,” Mr. Sim recalled, “There was a lot of thinking of: ‘What do people like about us? What have people picked up on? What makes us us?’ We really tried to cling to that, and it was quite limiting. Our was: ‘We’re going to shut ourselves away. We’re not going to play anything to anybody.’ And it was really insular, and it was tough. ” The culmination of their 2014 tour was a series of performances at the Manchester Festival in England and then at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. The shows, two or three each day for just 45 people at a time, were as much about architectural proportion as about music. The staging started out closely confined, with stylized movements for the band eventually, walls fell away to expose a huge open space. The xx could have been summing up its career trajectory, from tiny rooms to cavernous ones. The songs on “I See You” no longer insist on the austere minimalism of the band’s first two albums. The sonic palette has vastly expanded there are a few solid dance beats, some plush echoes of the Beach Boys, some resonant and ghostly synthesizer tones, even a sample of Hall Oates in “On Hold. ” The frailty and tension of the xx’s past catalog remain “Here come my insecurities,” Ms. Madley Croft sings in “Say Something Loving,” which is far from the album’s only song to mention fear. But there are also new glimmers of confidence. At times, Mr. Sim said, the new album is “celebratory — it’s not all ‘Woe is me. ’” He paused — it is, after all, an xx album — and added, dryly, “Of course, given what we’ve done before, my version of celebratory is pretty different from somebody else’s. ” The album opens with “Dangerous,” which revels, tentatively but firmly, in taking a chance on a relationship it has a brisk, danceable beat, though a warning siren wails in the background. But there are also songs like “Performance,” a tearful ballad about putting a brave face on heartbreak, and “A Violent Noise,” an introvert’s nightmare of clubbing. The album concludes with “Test Me,” an eerie, drumless ballad about a relationship at a breaking point Ms. Madley Croft admitted that she wrote it about the friendships in the band. Over all, no one is likely to mistake “I See You” for a party album. After the new songs, the trio radically reconsidered them, rewriting and sometimes dismantling them almost completely. “We were definitely in the that we would just try everything, and we did,” Mr. Smith said. “And we made some terrible music in the process. I’ve got a hard drive full of stuff that’s never going to get heard. A lot of it was learning to realize that the first thing that you’ve done is by far the best, but having to take every possible route before you get back to that. ” Before leaving Marfa, the xx took me on a bicycle tour of the local landmarks, from the town center out to the Chinati Foundation, Donald Judd’s monument of minimalism. It was 80 degrees and cloudless under the desert sun. And it was easy to identify the pensive English rock band. They were, as usual, dressed entirely in black. | 1 |
Waking Times
The global depopulation agenda stated explicitly on the Georgie Guidestones , but furtively inserted into every matter of our personal affairs is becoming harder to deny. Kenyan doctors in 2014 uncovered mass-sterilizing, infertility-causing chemicals in a widely used tetanus vaccination promoted for use by the United Nations , causing a tense stand off between Catholic bishops and the Kenyan government.
The Kenya Catholic Doctors Association (KCDA) is charging UNICEF and the World Health Organization (two United Nations organizations) with sterilizing millions of girls and women under the auspices of an anti-tetanus vaccination program which was sponsored by the Kenyan government.
“We sent six samples from around Kenya to laboratories in South Africa. They tested positive for the HCG antigen,” Dr. Muhame Ngare of the Mercy Medical Centre in Nairobi told LifeSiteNews. “They were all laced with HCG.”
Anti-HCG or anti-human chorionic gonadotropin is part of documented anti-fertility vaccine trials which sterilized animals on the first injection, and that have been used in human contraceptives .
The Kenyan government has claimed that the tetanus vaccines are safe to use, but the KCDA found otherwise.
According to the Nairobi Standard, Robert Pukose, the vice-chairman of Kenya’s National Assembly of Health Committee has said, “We are at loss about who to believe since both sides have tabled conflicting results. That is why we need new tests conducted jointly for us to give final and conclusive results.”
Dr. Ngare raised some important questions of the vaccines since the were found to be laced by anti-fertility drugs:
“Usually we give a series of shots over two to three years,” said Ngare. This included men, women, and children alike. Without the fanfare that is usually accompanied with other vaccination programs, Kenyan agencies were targeting women in their child-bearing years, starting at the age of 15 and giving them five doses of ‘tetanus.’
Dr. Ngare argues that the only other time a five-dose vaccination program has been used was when it is utilized as a carrier in fertility regulating vaccines laced with the pregnancy hormone, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) developed by WHO in 1992.
All six samples of the vaccine that were sent to laboratories at the University of Nairobi and another in South Africa were found to contain HCG. This mimics a natural hormone produced in pregnant women which causes them to develop antibodies. Their own bodies begin to produce HCG and thereby trigger their own miscarriages .
This is possibly a furtherance of the Nazi sterilization attempts which largely influenced American eugenics laws and practices in the past century, leading to more than 350,000 forced sterilization programs and the legislation which would support them.
As Kevin Mugur Galalae attests simply in his paper written after a 75-day hunger strike in which he protested the global depopulation agenda,
“Births have been prevented by interfering with the reproductive system so as to lower human fertility, while deaths have been promoted by weakening the immune system so as to increase morbidity and mortality.”
If chemical sterilization doesn’t work – by adding fluoride to the water supply, bispehnol A (BPAs) to all manner of food and water, the spraying of aerosol aluminum via chemtrails, genetically modified foods, or manufactured virus, like HIV/AIDS, swine flu, bird flu, Zika, etc. – then you have to depopulate by the use of vaccines .
And if that doesn’t work? Micro-chipped, remotely controlled contraceptive implants are already an option being readied for roll-out in 2018. About the Author
Christina Sarich is a freelance writer, musician, yogi, and humanitarian. Her insights appear in magazines as diverse as Weston A. Price, Nexus, Atlantis Rising, and the Cuyamungue Institute, among others. She was recently a featured author in the Journal, “Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and Healing Arts,” and her commentary on healing, ascension, and human potential inform a large body of the alternative news lexicon. She is also a staff writer for Waking Times . This article ( Kenyan Doctor Feared UN Promoted Vaccine Was ‘A Mass Sterilization Exercise’ Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Nathaniel Mauka and WakingTimes.com . It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution and author bio. | 0 |
Monday 21 November 2016 Lin-Manuel Miranda announces new musical about Trump University
The creator of the musical Hamilton is close to completing his new show based upon Trump University.
The musical will focus on the back story of Trump University and will include the tale of the creation of a fraudulent organisation, the plot to mis-sell so-called educational courses, the mass exploitation of its customers for financial gain, and a final act which focusses on the out of court settlement forced on Donald Trump.
Miranda explained, “I like to tell stories that people don’t really know much about, and I was worried that Donald Trump angrily tweeting at a musical over the weekend might distract people from hearing about him paying $25m to the people who sued him for fraud in the Trump University case.
“So I put together a few tracks to ensure the story will last the ages.
“The songs are almost complete, including a surprisingly upbeat R&B number called Orange bastard lied to me’, and the more soulful ballads Ain’t no way to hide this shit and Lawyers say I gotta settle now or have my shit dragged through the streets for months before ultimately being found guilty of fraud.
Miranda explained that rehearsals will begin next week, and tickets will be available before Christmas. Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently witterings below - why not add your own? | 0 |
Firearms panics happen over a variety of things, like acts of domestic terrorism, mass shootings, or Democrats getting elected to office. Though we may not have to worry about this for a few years after 2nd Amendment enthusiast Donald Trump’s decisive victory last night, let’s cover our bases and talk about a panic if future Democrats are elected.
What is a panic for ammo and firearms? A panic is when people go and buy items just to have them because they are worried that there will soon be no more, or it will be illegal to buy and sell such items, but maybe not to own them already, as most Americans still believe in the no ex post facto laws part of the Constitution.
Adding to a panic is speculators, who buy from retailers who are roundly shamed if they raise their own prices, only to resell privately at much higher levels. While this is legal, it certainly isn’t ethical or a decent thing to do, and these folks deserve being shamed and mocked at every opportunity.
Lastly, the gun store’s or site’s inventory cannot handle the flex in the buying demand, nor can the manufacturer, and an artificially contrived panic creates a real scarcity that can only be corrected by the panic running out of steam as everyone buys what they consider to be enough and natural undercutting resets the price back to lower levels.
Some prices never return. 22 Long Rifle ammunition has still not totally recovered from the damage old B-rock “the Islamic Shock” Obama did to it with his multi-year championship of Best Firearms Salesman Ever, and it may be even worse under the Bitch in Chief.
So, what gets grabbed in a panic? What should you get? What should you count on still being available? We’ve got three categories: guns, ammo, and components/accessories.
Guns Anything that’s big on the liberal hit list is a first target for a ban, so it’s a first target for a panic. Look for things that are popular with the right, and scary to the left. Also look for things that are modern; no one is going to ban the M1 Garand anytime soon.
Evil features matter more than destructive power. Anyone who knows anything about guns knows that the AK-47 and the AR-15 fire intermediate cartridges that are puny enough to be considered inhumane in several states with which to hunt deer as they lack the power to kill the animal with marginal shots. However, they’re black and have mean things attached to them, so they’re on the shit list, while a nice blued with wooden stock scoped bolt action rifle in a magnum cartridge capable of wrecking your world from twice the distance that an AR can pull is safe as it looks “traditional.”
They have to be popular to the left to get noticed; rifles like the FAL and anything based of the G3/HK91 action simply don’t have enough exposure to get targeted, unless they pull something sweeping like the USC 18 922r rules again. The Mini 30 and the M1A might be safe; maybe.
For pistols, pretty much any semi-automatic of the polymer age is fair game to want banned. Oftentimes, stupid rules like restrictive magazine sizes get pushed. 1911s, Hi Powers, other old domestic semi-autos, and revolvers should be safe. Expect the libtards to go after Glocks and the like.
Shotguns seem to be immune these days as there’s not a whole lot of difference between a hunting gun and a combat gun other than paint and mag tube length. I think the Saigas are still not being imported, and it’s about the only box mag fed one out there, but anything else makes a good home defense gun that should also be immune to the ammo panic portion as well.
Ammunition Range (full metal jacket) and defense/hunting (hollow or soft point) cartridges in popular centerfire calibers and 22 Long Rifle will almost literally evaporate from your local store and online, and it’s probably beginning as I write this.
Oddly enough, only certain rounds will suffer panic buying. For rifles, it’s limited to .223/5.56, 7.62×39, and .308/7.62×51. Traditional hunting rounds like 30-30, .243, and .270 do not seem to be impacted. Why doesn’t 30-06 get bought in a panic? As the old joke goes, men with 30-06’s don’t panic, but it really has to do with the feedback cycle I mentioned at the start. If there’s little demand, it cannot exceed the in-store supply, so the perception of it being gone for good cannot occur.
Everything but the shotgun shell and the howitzer round to the far right will sell fast in a panic.
Panic bought pistol ammo is the big 3: 9mm Luger, 40 S&W, and .45 ACP. .380 will round out the affected semi-automatic rounds, and there usually is a bit of a run on .357 Magnum and .38 Special as well. 10mm, .357 SIG, .45 GAP and other magnums like the .44 do not seem to be affected.
For rimfires, .22 Long Rifle just goes poof, while its Magnum brother and smaller, 17 caliber, cousins do not seem to be as affected. Rimfires are not reloadable, and this contributes to their over-stockpiling.
Components and Accessories Most centerfire ammo is reloadable, and the serious amongst shooters will roll their own for economy, self-reliance, and performance, so the consumable components will also get some panics. Although I’ve held off on reloading articles until I get my press set back up, we can hit up the components that will get panic bought briefly.
Biggest thing is primers, even bigger than the bullets, oddly enough. The primer is the little metal cup that gets smacked by the firing pin and sets off the powder in modern cartridges, and they come in two sizes for pistols, two for rifles, and of varying hardness to satisfy military specifications.
The second is gunpowder itself. Fortunately, there’s a wide variety of smokeless powder, and everyone tends to have the brands and formulas they prefer, so it takes a little less of a hit than the primers. The third is the bullets, and since there are so many types and manufacturers, they also take a little less of a hit than primers. While you obviously need all three to reload, bear that in mind. Always save your brass, and anyone else’s you can pick up.
Even though the little ones are easier to use, the higher capacity ones disappear first. Get both.
While it is always a good idea to have spare springs and small parts like firing pins and extractors that are prone to breakage, the number one accessory or part to take a hit in panics is the box magazine, especially “high capacity” ones. I don’t mean the 200 round drum mags, although those do take a dive, nor do I really mean the 100 round coffin mags, but I mean the full capacity full sized pistol mags, like a 15 round mag for a full sized pistol, or a 30 round AR-15 mag. Expect to see P-mags and surplus style aluminum AR mags just vanish. The Gabby Giffords Special, the extended Glock 17 30 round mag, is also a contender for vanishing fast in a panic.
Holsters, slings, cleaning accessories, optics, and ammo cans seem to be immune from panics.
What to do? If you already own a carbine and/or a semi-auto pistol, make sure you have enough ammo, magazines, and spare parts. It’s a lot better to have one gun with multiple mags and a lot of ammo than many guns with the one or two mags with which they came from the factory and a couple boxes of ammo.
I try to have at least six mags for my semi-auto pistols, and at least ten mags for my semi-auto rifles. Get some rifle mags of different sizes, the 30 and 40 AR mags are fun for shooting standing up, but they get in the way of prone firing and the 10 and 20 rounders are preferable.
Your ultimate ammo goal, I maintain, should be a thousand practice rounds and 500 defense rounds for each gun you have, but, in a pre-panic or panic situation, just get what you can at a normal price; some is better than none. If you’re into reloading, you know what to get already.
If you don’t own anything, and want to soon, refer to some pistol articles , a rifle article, a shotgun article, and a buying guide here. Consider buying some stripped AR lowers to build on a rainy day later on.
Build an AR and meet girls at the range?
Conclusion No matter who got elected, I think this country is in for rough times. It’s always better to have firearms and not need them, then not have them and need them. Store yours safely, but accessible and ready in times of need.
Read More: 5 Firearms A Man Should Own
| 0 |
The party was like many others in Delmas, a neighborhood in the Haitian capital, with a vibrant gay community — an evening of men in colorful dresses and revealing attire, laughing and catching up. They sipped Prestige beer and as Beyoncé and Rihanna played in the background. The party stretched into the early morning hours with no end in sight. Then someone knocked on the door. On that March night in 2012, a group of men dressed in black and wearing ski masks forced their way into the apartment. Wilkenson Joseph, then 35, was the closest to the front door. Wearing a red sequin dress, a dark wig, red lipstick and high heels, he was a prime target for the group looking to attack gay men. One of the men stabbed Mr. Joseph in the gut with a knife. His friends picked him up off the floor, blood pouring from his mouth and his side, and rushed him to a hospital. But a doctor demanded $2, 000 before he would provide any care, Mr. Joseph said. For an hour and a half, his friends negotiated a lower rate as he continued to bleed, eventually persuading the doctor to accept $1, 000. Mr. Joseph survived, but he lost his appendix. In a Manhattan office last month, Mr. Joseph recalled his stories of violence slowly, softly and in French. “After the party,” Mr. Joseph said before trailing off, his eyes closing. There was silence as he summoned the months after that party more than four years ago. He stopped attending parties and dressing up. “It was too traumatic,” he said. “I recoiled from the party scene. I was no longer me. ” Mr. Joseph said it was not the first time he had been attacked because of his sexuality in Haiti, where homosexuality is not a crime, but gay men often hide their orientation to avoid being targeted. A makeup artist for eight years, he had worked at “Journal de Loisirs,” a celebrity talk show, and often carried a purse and makeup bag to the office. Seven months before the stabbing, Mr. Joseph said, he was kidnapped from his workplace, hooded and taken to an abandoned home, where he was chained to a pole and beaten. Three men threatened to kill him, he said, and called him an embarrassment to his country. They later let him go. “I always felt threatened,” he said. “And I never said anything back to these people. I was afraid of a violent response. There was always a fear. ” After the 2012 attack, Mr. Joseph applied for a tourist visa to the United States, hoping the country would be as welcoming as it was portrayed on the television shows he had watched as a child, he said. “It was always my dream country,” Mr. Joseph said. “America is where you can make happen the dreams you envision for yourself. ” He arrived in April 2013 on a tourist visa and settled in New York City. A few weeks later, he attended his first party since the attack, at the Monster, a piano bar in the West Village. Feeling safe, he took the stage to sing “Lumane Casimir,” a Haitian song. He applied for asylum shortly after moving to the United States, describing in his application the abuse he endured in Haiti and his fear of returning there. “I feel a lot more comfortable expressing myself here,” he said. “I’ve never feared for my safety here. ” Since his visa expired, he has been working on his immigration status for the past two years with lawyers at Cadwalader, Wickersham Taft, a law firm in Manhattan. He has applied for asylum and has not received an update. They are awaiting an interview date with immigration services. Mr. Joseph lives on $376 monthly in public assistance, including cash assistance and Medicaid. Through a designation known as PRUCOL, he is able to receive benefits despite not having legal status. Without a job, he has struggled to afford a home, flitting between Florida, New Jersey and New York. Shortly after coming to New York, he found himself on the streets, spending nights riding the subway and shuffling between shelters, always worrying that his visa and passport would be stolen. He found temporary housing in Jamaica, Queens, through Unique People Services, an supportive housing program. He stayed there for more than a year, but the conditions were dangerous, Mr. Joseph said. Drug activity brought the police often. Once, he said, a neighbor robbed him of $150. Mr. Joseph has found support in Voix Fortes, a group focused on . There he met Houda Chergui, a coordinator at the nonprofit ASCNYC, which assists New Yorkers living with and at risk for . She recommended he seek help through the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times’s Neediest Cases Fund. With the help of ASCNYC and the African Services Committee, he was able to move into permanent housing, an apartment in the Bronx, in March the city’s Services Administration covers his monthly rent of $1, 100. But the apartment was bare. He slept on the floor and had nowhere to sit or eat. In April the federation provided Mr. Joseph with a $1, 000 grant from the Neediest Cases Fund to buy furniture. He decorated his apartment with a sofa bed, a chair and a coffee table. “The furniture made it into a home,” he said. Mr. Joseph, who had dropped out of school in Haiti to support his family after his father’s death, longs to continue his education and get a job as a masseur or as a counselor to help others, while sending some money to his relatives in Haiti. “I want to continue my studies,” he said. “I want to be able to motivate other people in my situation — others in the L. G. B. T. Q. community — to pursue their education. Before respect comes from others, it comes from within. ” | 1 |
Guest Guest .. More Stories about: Ticker | 0 |
Welcome to RedFlag News, a 100% independent news-aggregation website. The views expressed herein are the views of the linked author exclusively and not necessarily the views of RFN or its advertisers. // Aggregated content may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you believe there is a genuine DMCA copyright infringement, please contact us immediately so that your photography or content can be reviewed and, if necessary, removed. | 0 |
Oregon Live
Juror 4 vigorously defends the across-the-board acquittals of Ammon Bundy and his six co-defendants, calling the rulings a “statement” about the prosecution’s failure to prove the fundamental elements of a conspiracy charge.
The full-time Marylhurst University business administration student was the juror who had sent a note to the judge on the fourth day of the initial jury’s deliberations in the case, questioning the impartiality of a fellow juror, No. 11, who the judge bounced from the jury a day later.
“It should be known that all 12 jurors felt that this verdict was a statement regarding the various failures of the prosecution to prove ‘conspiracy’ in the count itself – and not any form of affirmation of the defense’s various beliefs, actions or aspirations,” Juror 4 wrote Friday in a lengthy email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
He expressed relief that he can now speak out freely, but he wasn’t ready as of Friday morning to drop his anonymity. He said his studies have suffered since the trial started, and he’s not ready for the attention revealing his identity would bring but felt it was important to defend the verdict. The judge withheld jurors’ names during the jury selection process and trial, instead referring to each by number.
The jury closely followed U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown’s instructions on how to apply the law to the evidence and testimony heard during the five-week trial, he said.
The jury returned unanimous verdicts of “not guilty” to conspiracy charges against all seven defendants. Each was accused of conspiring to prevent employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management from carrying out their official work through intimidation, threat or force during the 41-day occupation.
Juror 4 noted the panel couldn’t simply rely on the defendants’“defining actions” to convict.
“All 12 agreed that impeding existed, even if as an effect of the occupation,” he wrote.
“But we were not asked to judge on bullets and hurt feelings, rather to decide if any agreement was made with an illegal object in mind,” the Marylhurst student wrote. “It seemed this basic, high standard of proof was lost upon the prosecution throughout.”
Prosecutors had argued that the case, at its core, was about the illegal taking of another’s property. The heavily armed guards that manned the front gate and watchtower during the 41-day takeover, in and of itself, was “intimidating,” and prevented officers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from carrying out their work, they said.
They argued that the alleged conspiracy began Nov. 5, when Ammon Bundy and ally Ryan Payne met with Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward and promised there would be extreme civil unrest in the community if he didn’t step in and block Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond. The Hammonds were slated to return to federal prison on Jan. 4 and serve out a mandatory minimum five-year sentence for arson on federal land.
Defense lawyers urged jurors in closing arguments not to mix-up the “effect” of the occupation – which undoubtedly kept federal employees from doing their jobs – from the “intent” of the occupiers.
Five of the seven defendants, including Ammon Bundy, testified. Many said that they were there to protest in support of the Hammonds and federal government overreach because they received absolutely no response from state or local government officials to their previous efforts to spur change.
The defense lawyers’ arguments, coupled with the jury instructions on how to apply the law to the evidence, resonated with jurors, Juror 4 noted.
“Inference, while possibly compelling, proved to be insulting or inadequate to 12 diversely situated people as a means to convict,” the juror wrote. “The air of triumphalism that the prosecution brought was not lost on any of us, nor was it warranted given their burden of proof.”
Juror 4 plainly stated that fellow Juror 11, during the initial round of deliberations, “had zero business being on this jury in the first place.”
Juror 11 had worked for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as a ranch tech and firefighter “more than 20 years ago,” he had said during jury selection. Asked by the judge during voir dire if that experience would impede his ability to be a fair and impartial judge of the facts, he said, “Not really.”
Juror 4 explained why he didn’t alert the court immediately after he had heard Juror 11, on day one of deliberations reportedly say, “I am very biased.”
It wasn’t until the fourth day into deliberations that Juror 4 sent a note to the court, asking if a juror who had worked previously for the federal land management agency and outright told the panel he was “very biased” could be an impartial judge. The court, flummoxed by the development, a day later dismissed Juror 11 for “good cause,” after the prosecution and defense teams agreed to the dismissal. At the time, parties to the case weren’t sure which way Juror 11’s alleged bias fell.
Juror 4 said he “resisted the impulse” to send the question sooner in an effort to give his fellow juror a chance to explain himself.
In his email to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Juror 4, for the first time, also contended that Juror 11 “violated” the judge’s explicit orders “by hearkening to ‘evidence’ that was never admitted in this case, refused to consider the defendant’s state of mind and used imaginative theories to explain key actions.'”
Juror 4 said, though, he wishes that he “had sent the letter on day one, since it would have alleviated much stress for all of us.”
The Maryville business student said he is “baffled” by what he described as observers’“flippant sentiments” in the wake of the jury’s acquittals.
“Don’t they know that ‘not guilty’ does not mean innocent?” he wrote. “It was not lost on us that our verdict(s) might inspire future actions that are regrettable, but that sort of thinking was not permitted when considering the charges before us.”
The jury, he said, met with Judge Brown after the verdicts were announced and after the U.S. Marshals’ physical confrontation and arrest of Bundy lawyer Marcus Mumford.
He said many of the jurors questioned the judge about why the federal government chose the “conspiracy charge.” He said he learned that a potential alternate charge, such as criminal trespass, wouldn’t have brought as significant a penalty.
The charge of conspiring to impede federal employees from carrying out their official work through intimidation, threat or force brings a maximum sentence of six years in prison.
“We all queried about alternative charges that could stick and were amazed that this ‘conspiracy’ charge seemed the best possible option,” Juror 4 said.
— Maxine Bernstein | 0 |
George Orwell’s classic book “1984,” about a dystopian future where critical thought is suppressed under a totalitarian regime, has seen a surge in sales this month, rising to the top of the Amazon list in the United States and leading its publisher to have tens of thousands of new copies printed. Craig Burke, the publicity director at Penguin USA, said that the publisher had ordered 75, 000 new copies of the book this week and that it was considering another reprint. “We’ve seen a big bump in sales,” Mr. Burke said. He added that the rise “started over the weekend and hit hyperactive” on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Since Friday, the book has reached a 9, 500 percent increase in sales, he said. He said demand began to lift on Sunday, shortly after the interview Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to Donald J. Trump, gave on “Meet the Press. ” In defending a false claim by the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, that Mr. Trump had attracted the “largest audience ever to witness an inauguration,” Ms. Conway used a turn of phrase that struck some observers as similar to the dystopian world of “1984. ” When asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” why Mr. Spicer had said something that was provably false, Ms. Conway replied airily, “Don’t be so dramatic. ” Mr. Spicer, she said, “gave alternative facts. ” In the novel, the term “newspeak” refers to language in which independent thought, or “unorthodox” political ideas, have been eliminated. “Doublethink” is defined as “reality control. ” On social media and elsewhere on Sunday, the book’s readers made a connection between Ms. Conway’s comments and Orwell’s language, and the attention on the book “kind of took a life of its own,” Mr. Burke said. The dictionary publisher described the interview as “fraught with epistemological tension. ” The dictionary also reported that searches for the word “fact” spiked after Ms. Conway’s comments, and then, as an apparent reminder, tweeted the dictionary’s definition. Even outside the United States, interest in “1984” has grown. So far this year, sales have risen by 20 percent in Britain and Australia compared to the same period a year ago, according to Jess Harrison, a editor at Penguin Books. The novel is usually a she said, and it sold 100, 000 copies last year in countries outside the United States and Canada. “But we’ve definitely seen an uplift” in sales, she added. Dystopian novels are “chiming with people,” Ms. Harrison said, adding that “The Man in the High Castle” by Philip K. Dick, an alternative history in which the Nazis defeated America to win World War II, is also selling well. A television series based on Mr. Dick’s novel is now in its second season at Amazon. Penguin also published Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here,” about the rise of a demagogue, last Friday in Britain for the first time since 1935, “and we’re already on to our third printing,” Mr. Burke said. On Wednesday, that book was also ranking among Amazon’s best sellers, as was Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” another dystopian classic. Prof. Stefan Collini, a professor of intellectual history and an expert on Orwell at the University of Cambridge, said that readers see a natural parallel between the book and the way Mr. Trump and his staff have distorted facts. “Everyone remembers ‘1984’ as containing various parodies of official distortions,” he said. “That kind of unreality that is propagated as reality is what people feel reminded of, and that’s why they keep coming back. ” | 1 |
ORLANDO, Fla. — Louis Omar was 20, worked at a Starbucks in a Target store, and lived to dance. Stanley Almodovar III, a pharmacy technician, had posted a Snapchat video of himself singing and laughing on his way to the Pulse nightclub on Saturday. Eric Ivan 36, nicknamed Shaki, had been married to his husband for about a year, worked at a Party City and a Sunglass Hut, and was entranced by interior design. The dead were mostly young, mostly Latino and mostly gay — though some were none of those and a fair number were straight men and women enjoying an evening of Latin music. And on Monday, when their names were read aloud in the auditorium of a senior center, the worst fears of their families came true as the roster of the victims of the Orlando attack became horribly real. Juan Ramon Guerrero was less than a month shy of his 23rdbirthday and in his third year at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He was quiet and kind, his uncle Robert Guerrero, 51, recalled. Like other members of his Dominican family, he liked Latin music, which is why he went to Pulse on Saturday night. “He was not a party boy,” Mr. Guerrero said. The family found out that Juan had been hurt when someone saw him being carried out of the club and into an ambulance. Family members began a frantic search. Finally, a hospital confirmed the awful news. The bereft uncle, like so many other relatives, turned to Facebook to pour out his rage. “Once again the tentacles of death have touched our family, this time at the hands of a coward, a scoundrel, a disgusting human being without any scruples,” he wrote. Cesar Flores, who moved to the United States from Guatemala in 1984 to chase what he called the American dream, learned around 1 a. m. Monday that his only daughter, Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26, had died in the club along with a girlfriend, Amanda Alvear, 25. “She was my best, my only girl,” Mr. Flores, who has two sons, said quietly, with evident grief, outside the Beardall Senior Center, where he was to receive help with arrangements to receive his daughter’s body for burial. “She was a happy girl all the time, but now she’s gone. ” The attacker, Mr. Flores said, should be forgiven. “I cannot hang on to that hate,” he said. “It’s not weapons that kill — it’s the heart. That kind of hate is in the blood. ” As he spoke, two people nearby hugged each other for a long time and sobbed. From the front door of the building, a procession of relatives and friends emerged after the briefing, heads bowed. Each family was surrounded by a team of church volunteers in bright their hands linked to protect their charges from reporters’ questions. One woman, Eileen Villega, said the name of a family friend who had been in the nightclub, Angel L. 27, had not appeared on any of the lists of dead or injured. “His boyfriend is in the hospital, but he doesn’t appear anywhere,” she said. Later, after she had left, his name was indeed found listed among the dead. Orlando is a city that cannot be divorced from its tourist attractions, among them Disney World and Universal Studios, where some of the victims were employed. Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35, was the father of a young son and worked at DisneyLive! according to his Facebook page. The Atlanta reported that he had danced in the Atlanta Bachata Fest, a celebration of Latin dance and music. Luis S. Vielma, 22, worked on a Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios, and was mourned on Twitter by the author J. K. Rowling. He was also an emergency medical student at Seminole State College, whose president, E. Ann McGee, was among several college presidents who found themselves issuing statements of sorrow on Monday, a testimony to the youth lost in the rampage. “We are saddened by the tragic events this weekend, and the loss of one of our own,” Dr. McGee said. Shane Evan Tomlinson, who often sang with his band, Frequency, at Orlando’s Blue Martini nightclub, performed just hours before he was killed. Friends and fellow singers struggled to process the news of a charismatic life cut short. “We’re all really feeling that numbness right now, and just the shock,” said Deejay Young, who met Mr. Tomlinson in a gospel show at Epcot. “It could have been any one of us. ” Jerald Arthur Wright, 31, was one of those Disney World cast members who seemed to never run out of energy for helping guests, and who, as a man whose family was from Ecuador, forged a particularly close bond with Latin American visitors. He was also straight, two friends who worked with Mr. Wright said. He had gone to Pulse on Saturday night to celebrate the birthday of a friend, Cory James Connell, 21, who was also killed. “It’s a great atmosphere,” said Jessica Weyl, 23, a friend who is also straight and goes to Pulse occasionally. “People aren’t judgmental. People aren’t feeling the need necessarily to impress each other. ” She added, “At Pulse it’s just calm, cool, and collected. No one felt pressure to be anyone they weren’t. I’m straight and I love going there. My brother is gay and he loves going there. ” Ms. Weyl had just finished training for a job in Tomorrowland when she met Mr. Wright. “He took me under his wing and kind of showed me everything,” she said. She turned to him for questions about Disney policies, but especially when she encountered a guest who spoke Spanish. “He really connected with a lot of guests — we do have a lot of South Americans come,” she said. “He connected especially to those people. ” Mexico’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that three Mexicans were among the dead. The Mexican Consulate in Orlando was working to determine if a fourth victim was of Mexican origin. President Enrique Peña Nieto said the tragedy’s origins lay in “expressions of hatred, of discrimination, of phobia against certain people. ” Many Latinos in Orlando are of Puerto Rican descent. Edward Sotomayor Jr. 34, was among them. He was proud of his heritage, and had made it his life’s mission to open doors for gay travelers, especially in Latin America. As the national brand manager for ALandCHUCK. travel, an agency that caters to gay people, he organized what the company’s owner, Al Ferguson, called the gay cruise to Cuba. “He fell in love with Cuba,” Mr. Ferguson said. During the trip, in April, Mr. Sotomayor and Mr. Ferguson met with Mariela Castro, Raúl Castro’s daughter and a prominent gay rights activist there. The two men also posed in front of a poster left over from President Obama’s recent trip. On Sunday morning at Pulse, Mr. Sotomayor’s boyfriend of about three years had gone outside to put some things in his car when the shots broke out. Mr. Sotomayor texted him that he was hiding, but safe, and told him not to come back inside, Mr. Ferguson said. About 25 minutes later, he texted his boyfriend again, saying he was still hiding. That was the last message the boyfriend got. Mr. Ferguson said the boyfriend’s parents, who live in Mexico, do not know he is gay. “It’s a double catastrophe,” he said. “You face such horrible loss and then can’t share it. ” | 1 |
Nikki Haskell has packed many lives into her 75 years. She has been a real estate broker, a party planner, a pioneering stockbroker, a cult host, a Studio 54 regular, a diet and fitness guru, and a socialite. Through it all, she has depended on her brains, her enthusiasm and her skill as a social connector to power her through the tough times. But now she is facing what may be the most difficult challenge of her life: maintaining her position in the social hierarchies of liberal New York and Los Angeles while serving as a cheerleader for one of her oldest friends, Donald J. Trump, whom she first encountered in 1974 at Le Club, a defunct nightspot on East 55th Street in Manhattan. Ms. Haskell said she had a wonderful time at the dinner held for Mr. Trump at Union Station in Washington on Jan. 19. But over the weekend, in a suite at the Mandarin Oriental, she seemed to be wavering a little. Glued to the television on the morning of Jan. 22, she watched the coverage of the women’s marches in various cities across the country, as well as footage from the more raucous demonstrations of Jan. 20, during which protesters smashed windows, set a limousine on fire and clashed with the police not far from the Mandarin Oriental. After watching this stuff all day on many different channels, Ms. Haskell thought an uprising might be underway. “You see what’s going on in the streets, all these people rioting, all these women?” she said in a phone conversation. “Nothing ever happened like this. They never had these riots — every street, every city, all across the world. When there’s crowds and craziness like this, you never know what’ll happen. It’s horrifying. ” Given what she was seeing on television and in her social media feeds, she was worried that her vocal support for the new president would make her a pariah. “I can’t be the only person in the whole world defending Donald Trump,” she said. “I’ll be walking down the street, they’ll attack me. I don’t want to be attacked. This is totally out of control. I’m afraid to walk down the streets in New York or L. A. I’m trying to get a television show on the air, which will never happen in this environment. I’ll never have another friend. Nobody’s going to speak to me. ” When Ms. Haskell was a girl growing up on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, her father bought her six horses, and she wore custom riding suits, with white wing collars and high silk hats, in shows across the Midwest. At night, her parents took her to the Chicago nightclub Chez Paris, where she became besotted with show business while taking in performances by Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Carmen Miranda and Mae West. Not long after the family moved to Beverly Hills, Calif. when Ms. Haskell was 13, her father died of a heart attack and her mother went to work. Ms. Haskell soldiered on. At Beverly Hills High School, she was head cheerleader and was voted “Biggest Flirt” in her senior year. In the Los Angeles of the 1960s, she won a twist contest judged by Bob Hope and Joan Collins. She dated Tony Bennett and hung out with Frankie Avalon, Fabian and George Hamilton. She married a real estate developer, Jack Haskell. After divorcing him, she said, she parlayed the $18, 000 settlement into a small fortune on the stock market. She remarried Mr. Haskell in 1966, moved with him to 470 Park Avenue in New York and divorced him again in 1968. She got her apartment in Manhattan, took classes in investing and was hired at Burnham and Company (which would later become Drexel Burnham). For 10 years, she was a stockbroker by day (and one of the few women working on Wall Street) and a constant presence at Manhattan restaurants and clubs by night. She was equally at ease dining at Elaine’s or judging a Blueboy magazine beauty pageant in the meatpacking district. She joked that she lived at Studio 54. She made friends with Rick James, Imelda Marcos, Andy Warhol and the Village People. She hit her stride with “The Nikki Haskell Show,” a charmingly program on the New York stations Channel J and Channel 10. In the 1980s, she was the forerunner of a YouTube star, and her guests included Michael Caine, Divine, Timothy Leary, Sophia Loren, Diana Ross, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Sellers and Peter Ustinov. And Mr. Trump. New York magazine called her the “Queen of Comp” for her habit of scoring freebies in exchange for positive publicity. Spy magazine, less charmed by her social climbing, likened her to Pia Zadora. In the past three decades, she has been a staple at parties and benefits. She has also remade herself as an entrepreneur in the diet and fitness industry as the creator of StarCaps diet pills, which got her in trouble with federal authorities in 2014, because its supposedly “natural” ingredients included the drug bumetanide. Ms. Haskell was fined $60, 000, The Daily News reported. (Ms. Haskell put the figure at $70, 000.) She also sells the Star Cruncher, a piece of exercise equipment, through Groupon — “a gym in a bag,” she calls it. A longtime Democrat, she faced a dilemma last year when Mr. Trump’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination began to take off. “I’m sort of in a quandary,” she said in her Upper East Side apartment last April, “because nothing would make me happier in the whole world than to see Hillary Clinton as president. I never thought that in my lifetime we would have a woman president, and I’ve always been very supportive of the Clintons. I’m a registered Democrat, but I vote across party lines and would never have voted for anyone else except for Hillary, if it wasn’t for the fact that Donald’s running. ” One reason she was leaning toward Mr. Trump was her belief that people were not ready for a female president. “The way things are throughout the world, men just don’t respect women enough,” Ms. Haskell said. “At this time a president being a woman might be detrimental. I hate to say that, but we live in a very, very antiwoman society. ” In September, Ms. Haskell came out as a public Trump supporter when she was interviewed for a Politico Magazine article headlined “The Real Trumpettes of Bel Air,” in which she said of Mrs. Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin, “I don’t think we should have a Muslim in power, someone working for the president. ” After it appeared, Ms. Haskell noticed a change in her social position on both coasts. “That’s when it all started,” she said. “It was a disaster. ” On election night, she went to a dinner in New York hosted by an entertainment mogul and was the only person there who admitted to voting for Mr. Trump, she said. Around 3 a. m. Ms. Haskell logged on to Facebook and posted: “How great, America wins. We love President Donald J. Trump. ” “You must be senile,” one of her followers replied. “U ought to be ashamed,” another wrote. On Nov. 10, she made a selfie video in the back of a New York City taxi and posted it on Facebook. “It’s up to us to do our part to make America great,” she said. “Whether you like Donald Trump or not, now is the time to become a better America. ” Before signing off with her customary goodbye (“ ! ”) she reminded everyone to watch her old public access shows — now available on Amazon Prime — a few of which showed her interviewing Mr. Trump when he was a mogul on the rise. Friends distanced themselves from Ms. Haskell, she said, and one bestie dropped her after 25 years of friendship. “I was actually in tears when someone told me they didn’t want to be my friend anymore because I supported Donald Trump,” she said. But Ms. Haskell refused to stop cheerleading. She made another video of herself while riding in a car down Park Avenue during the time of the frequent demonstrations near Trump Tower and the Trump International Hotel and Tower on Columbus Circle. After expressing frustration with the marches and protests (“stupid,” she called them) she said into her iPhone: “Donald Trump is not going away, and people are going to have to smack their kids around and sit them down and tell them to stop acting like jerks. And to be Americans and get with the program. See you later. !” In December, the writer Kevin Sessums was fed up with her posts on Facebook. The last straw was Ms. Haskell’s posting her 1982 public access interview with Roy Cohn, the mentor to Mr. Trump who served as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s counsel during the hearings in 1954. “As if that were a glamorous, wonderful bit of footage,” Mr. Sessums posted. A later thread taking aim at Ms. Haskell grew to more than 100 comments. Over the holidays, she visited the California home of the movie producer Robert Evans, who wrote about Ms. Haskell in his 2013 memoir, “The Fat Lady Sang. ” He said he had no sympathy for those who have dropped her because of her support for the president. “I love her for it,” Mr. Evans said. “By losing Nikki’s friendship, they’re the losers. But she is a winner. ” On the afternoon of Jan. 19 at the Mandarin Oriental suite, which she was sharing with her friend, the and philanthropist Kelly Day, Ms. Haskell started getting ready for the dinner at Union Station for Mr. Trump’s donors and family members. “Donald always had big ideas, big dreams, and I was always fascinated with that,” she said while doing her eyelashes. She recalled first seeing him at Le Club. “He was really handsome, a hot guy, and he caught my eye immediately,” she said. “He was very captivating, even in a discothèque at night. ” Several months later, Mr. Cohn invited her to dinner at “21” and seated her next to Mr. Trump. “We clicked right away,” she said. The first night he took a Czech fashion model named Ivana Zelnickova out on the town, Ms. Haskell, along with her date, met up with them at Elaine’s. “Ivana and I became friends like that,” she said. “And when Studio 54 opened in 1977, I went with Donald and Ivana. ” As Ms Haskell and Ms. Day left the suite, Ms. Haskell spoke of her increasing number of . “It takes a lot to make me cry,” she said, putting on a golden sable coat. “I have no children. I have a fabulous brother, nieces and nephews, but I’m a woman alone of 75 years old, and I find it just so disheartening. ” At Union Station, once through the metal detectors, Ms. Haskell smiled for the paparazzi. Her table was next to those occupied by Trump family members. After a speech by the Ms. Haskell chatted a while with Melania, Ivanka and Tiffany Trump. “I can’t believe we’re here,” Tiffany told her. As waiters cleared away the main course (roasted branzino) she got up. “I supported Donald when no one supported him,” Ms. Haskell said on her way to the powder room. “One of the family just said to me, ‘It wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for you.’ Well, I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. But I really believe in Donald. ” She walked by Jose Fanjul, the sugar baron, and Christine Hearst Schwarzman, the wife of the billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman. “You know why it’s a great party?” Ms. Haskell said. “Because everybody here loves Donald. ” After dessert (vanilla meringue cake) she seemed to feel better about those of hers. “They’ll get over it,” she said. “If they don’t, they don’t. ” A protester was scowling at guests leaving the party. “He makes America ashamed!” the woman said. Waiting for an Uber, Ms. Haskell rhapsodized about the spectacular crystal, the silverware, the gold charger plates, the tablecloths, the decorations. At the lobby bar of the Mandarin Oriental, she ordered a Grey Goose orange vodka with club soda and a slice of orange (a “ ”) and said she hadn’t been offended by any of the remarks made by Mr. Trump, even those captured on the Billy Bush tape. “Listen, Donald has more respect for women than anyone I know,” she said. “I’m not saying he’s not a guy. Guys talk about girls. They talk about getting them into bed. But it’s just guy talk. ” She remembered the interviews she did with him. “And now they’re all on Amazon Prime,” she said. “The history of what I’ve done will live on forever. ” Back in the suite, Ms. Haskell and Ms. Day ordered room service and didn’t call it quits until around 4:30 a. m. Later, they watched the inauguration together in their bathrobes. On Sunday, while watching the women’s protests on television, Ms. Haskell said she might ease up on the cheerleading until things settled down. “I’m just one little person,” she said. “I’m not Kellyanne Conway. ” She got dressed and made it to Reagan National Airport. “I’m never going to march,” she said on the phone, after clearing through security. “Yes, it worked in the Vietnam War and things like that, but that was a different time. I would have no problem going to Congress, and because I have this close friendship with the Trump family, I will use this opportunity to better all the things for women. Because that’s exactly how I feel. ” While still counting herself a Trump supporter, Ms. Haskell has indeed eased up with the Facebook posts in favor of the president since the inauguration weekend. “You know, I’m running out of friends and I got tired of all the negativity,” she said on Wednesday. “People were busting my chops and I lost a couple of very close friends, which I think is actually quite insane and pathetic, to think that people who are these lifelong friends are not speaking to me because I voted for Donald Trump. ” But lately she has taken pains to post nonincendiary material. “Just to show you how things have changed,” Ms. Haskell said, “the other day I posted myself going to the grocery store. That was a first. ” | 1 |
Gawker Media, the irreverent company that pioneered the wry tone and approach that came to embody a certain style of web journalism, put itself up for sale on Friday in an acknowledgment that its future as an independent news organization was in doubt. Gawker said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and would conduct a sale through an auction. The company is under significant financial pressure from a $140 million legal judgment in an lawsuit by the former wrestler Hulk Hogan and facing a determined foe in the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who is funding legal cases against it. Ziff Davis, a digital media company, has submitted an opening bid, which a person briefed on Gawker’s plans said was in the range of $90 million to $100 million. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sale process. Gawker expects a sale to close by the end of the summer. But even as Gawker took stock of its next steps, it remained, in typical fashion, defiant. “Even with his billions, Thiel will not silence our writers,” Nick Denton, Gawker’s founder and chief executive, said on Twitter. “Our sites will thrive — under new ownership — and we’ll win in court. ” (Mr. Denton, through a spokesman, declined further comment.) Since its founding in 2002, Gawker has espoused a conversational tone that came to be mimicked across the internet and on social platforms like Twitter. Gawker and its affiliated sites — including the Deadspin and Jezebel, which is aimed at women — have relentlessly and gleefully chronicled the lives of the powerful, and often delivered exclusive stories, some of them too for other publications. The company was also an incubator of talent: Employees went on to found websites like The Awl and work at publications like The New Yorker and Time. Gawker also had many detractors, who said it often went too far and published items with little news value that aimed to embarrass individuals. But over the last year Gawker. com has been going through something of a cultural transformation. Mr. Denton has vowed to make the site nicer and Gawker has shifted to politics and away from coverage of the New York media world and celebrity gossip. The decision to file for bankruptcy and put itself up for sale is the latest development for a company that has faced a seemingly unending barrage of bad news in the last year. There was the maelstrom last summer after Gawker published, and then removed, an article about a married male media executive who sought to hire a gay escort. That decision led to the resignations of two top editors. More recently, there was the lawsuit by Mr. Hogan, whose real name is Terry G. Bollea, which has roiled the company and raised questions about its path forward. “It really was an incredibly bad year,” said Hamilton Nolan, a writer who has worked at Gawker for eight years. “I think they’ll study this in journalism schools one day as being the single worst year in media company history. ” In Gawker’s new offices in Manhattan on Friday, the mood was somber. Around noon, Mr. Denton and Heather Dietrick, the company’s president and general counsel, held a meeting to inform employees of the company’s plans and provide reassurance that Gawker would operate as usual during the sale process. “They emphasized that the future is uncertain, but for now we’re going to keep doing what we do, and that was useful for people to hear,” said Alex Pareene, the editor in chief of Gawker. Employees said that few people had known before the meeting of the company’s decision to file for bankruptcy. A keg of beer was brought in and pizzas were ordered. “It was not a raucous or even particularly depressing affair,” Mr. Pareene said. “We’ve had more depressing meetings and we’ve had more argumentative meetings. ” Gawker’s sites published posts assuring readers they were not going anywhere. Filing for Chapter 11 stays claims from creditors, including court judgments — meaning Gawker will not need to begin paying the $140 million that was awarded in March to Mr. Bollea. It also allows companies more time and more control as they reorganize themselves. In its bankruptcy filing, Gawker listed $50 million to $100 million in assets and $100 million to $500 million in liabilities. The company still plans to appeal the case. Also on Friday, a judge in Pinellas County Circuit Court in Florida granted Gawker’s request for a stay of the judgment against it in the lawsuit, pending an appeal. That decision essentially became redundant once Gawker filed for bankruptcy. Weeks earlier, Mr. Thiel acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that he was financially supporting Mr. Bollea’s lawsuit, as well as other lawsuits against the organization. Mr. Thiel, a founder of PayPal and one of the earliest investors in Facebook, was outed as being gay by one of Gawker’s blogs, the Valleywag, nearly a decade ago. He said that Gawker published articles that “ruined people’s lives for no reason” and prompted his decision to finance cases against the company. “It’s less about revenge and more about specific deterrence,” Mr. Thiel said of his supporting Gawker’s legal opponents. “I saw Gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest. ” A spokesman for Mr. Thiel did not return a request for comment on Friday. Gawker is also exploring at least one lawsuit against Mr. Thiel, according to the person briefed on Gawker’s plans. The offer by Ziff Davis, whose online properties include IGN, Geek. com and AskMen. com, is what is known as a “ bid,” essentially setting a floor in a auction. Money from a sale would be held aside to cover creditor claims, including any damages after the appeals process. In an internal memo obtained by The New York Times, Ziff Davis’s chief executive, Vivek Shah, said that under the terms of a potential agreement, the company would acquire Gawker Media’s properties but none of its liabilities. When discussing its plans for Gawker Media, he referred to the benefits of having all of the company’s sites, but conspicuously omitted any mention of Gawker. com. He said the auction would most likely take place at the end of July. Other bidders, which will probably include other media publishers, are expected, particularly with the threat of assuming legal claims removed with the bankruptcy filing. In January, Gawker sold a minority stake in the company to the investment company Columbus Nova Technology Partners, partly in preparation for the lawsuit by Mr. Bollea. Mr. Bollea sued Gawker Media in 2012 over Gawker. com’s publication of a tape that showed Mr. Bollea having sex with a woman who was at the time the wife of a friend of his. In March, after a trial, a Florida jury awarded $115 million in damages to Mr. Bollea. A jury later awarded $25 million more in punitive damages, bringing the total to $140 million. On Friday, some Gawker employees remained hopeful that a new owner might mean a fresh start, but there was also perhaps a tacit acknowledgment that Gawker as everyone knew it could soon be a thing of the past. “There’s not going to be the magical happy ending to the story,” Mr. Nolan said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be the worst ending to the story, but we’re not just going to go back to everything being how it was. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Rafael Nadal, who has not played a match since withdrawing from the French Open in May because of a wrist injury, sounded a note of optimism that his recovery would allow him to compete in the Rio Olympics, after he missed the London Olympics four years ago with a different injury. “Although, as I always say, there is nothing certain in this life,” Nadal told reporters in Majorca on Wednesday. The uncertainty surrounding the Rio Olympics has become more pronounced in tennis, with four top players in the last five days having announced that they will skip the Games, now only two and a half weeks away. Two men, Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych, and two women, Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova, expressed concerns over Zika, which had been largely minimized by players who answered questions about the virus during the French Open and Wimbledon. “I concluded that the risks are too high for my career and for my health, especially as a woman,” Halep said in a statement on Facebook. “Family is much too important for me and I can’t risk not being able to have one of my own after my career in tennis is over. ” Berdych, who reached the Wimbledon semifinals, said previous tournaments had kept him too busy to think about the Olympics until recently. “Obviously, I’ve known about the virus a long time, since when it all started,” Berdych said Tuesday at the Citi Open in Washington. “But of course the season was going on” Berdych, who said he hoped to compete in the 2020 Olympics, said that he could not justify the risks that he saw to his life after tennis. “I’m going to play two, three, four years, and then the rest of my life will be another 60 years, something like that,” Berdych said. “If something happens that makes that not the way you want it, because of one week or one tournament, you might have a sad life. No, I don’t think so I don’t want to take that risk, even if the risks are possibly small or whatever. ” Although several male players removed themselves from Olympic consideration because of a desire to focus on ATP events — which Raonic also cited in an interview after his initial announcement — only one player had mentioned Zika before late last week as a reason for not traveling to Brazil. That was Alexandr Dolgopolov, who pulled out in June and cited Zika as a particular concern giving his existing medical concerns, which include Gilbert’s syndrome, a liver condition. Concerns over Zika had been discussed privately, however. Horia Tecau, who had planned to play mixed doubles with Halep, a fellow Romanian, before she announced her withdrawal, said that Halep had expressed concerns weeks ago about the virus. Tecau, who still hopes to qualify for the mixed doubles event with a partner, said the withdrawals by Halep and other athletes had disappointed him, especially given what he sees as the relatively low risk posed by the virus. “When I keep hearing about this virus, if you sit down and think about all the stuff that we go through during the year, with everything that’s happening in the world now, there’s a lot of risk everywhere,” Tecau said. “I think this Zika virus is a very small percentage out of that risk. It’s not a solid enough reason. ” As an example of overblown concern, Tecau pointed to a report from the United States State Department about concerns regarding the Olympic Games that the ATP had distributed to players. While 20 of the 33 pages focused on crime and security, less than one page focused on Zika. Other players are also confident. Denis Kudla, an American, expressed faith in organizers’ preparedness and said, “It’s going to take a lot more than that to not go to the Olympics. ” Brazilians, such as Bruno Soares, a doubles champion at this year’s Australian Open, have been outspoken about assuaging the panic over the virus. “It’s not the end of the world or something like this,” Soares said. “I feel like it’s a little bit of my duty just to try to inform people. ” Soares has cited the ATP event in Rio de Janeiro in February, when mosquitoes are in season, as reason for his fellow players to be at ease. “So many guys came to me in the last swing in Europe saying, ‘What’s the real situation over there? ’” Soares said. “International media is just making such a huge thing out of it. I’m saying: ‘Listen, guys: I’m from Brazil. We played the Rio event in the summer, when the mosquitoes are way worse — they don’t really grow during winter — and there was zero cases.’ If you go to Brazil, there’s no worry about that. People are just living normal lives. ” Others remain concerned over the mixed signals. Samantha Stosur, an Australian, said she was “absolutely, 100 percent going” but admitted that she had more questions about these Games than about the three previous Olympics she had attended. Eugenie Bouchard, a Canadian, remains undecided. “I don’t know if anyone knows enough about it to really give a good opinion on whether, as athletes, we should go or not,” Bouchard said. “I just don’t know if the health of my future babies is worth it. So that’s what I’m trying to decide in my head. ” Sloane Stephens of the United States said that she had received conflicting medical advice but that she planned to go — and to pack the mosquito nets she had already bought. “One doctor I talked to said, ‘You shouldn’t go, because we don’t know what’s going to happen,’ and yada, yada,” Stephens said. “And some other doctors are like, ‘You know, if this is your dream and you want to go play the Olympics? Go. ’’” | 1 |
The Advocate ran a column on March 3 that claimed, legal or illegal, all “guns are the problem” and called for the LGBTQ community to rally for more gun control. [The jumping point for the call for gun control was the June 12, 2016, attack at the Orlando Pulse nightclub. The column, written by Igor Volsky and Mark Glaze, both steeped in the gun control movement and who previously used a USA Today column to suggest it was time to go after “legally obtained” firearms, did not focus on the Pulse being a club and that the policy guaranteed an armed criminal would face no significant retaliation if he entered with a firearm. Instead, they wrote: Here’s the central fact that should guide our actions on gun violence going forward: The Pulse shooter, the Fort Lauderdale airport shooter, and countless other murderers were legally entitled to have firearms. They did everything right — until the moment they started shooting. Our vision is simple, and unlike the gun lobby’s, it’s actually supported by reality — which is precisely why the gun lobby continues to oppose scientific studies on gun violence. Legally obtained or not, whether by “good guys” or “bad guys,” guns are the problem. The push for not differentiating between legal and illegal guns was anchored in the Orlando Pulse attack and the Ft. International Airport attack. In both instances, the attackers fully complied with gun control laws — their guns were “legally obtained” — only to use their guns for evil. The Advocate’s solution for this is to go after all guns, regardless of whether they are acquired lawfully. Volsky and Glaze admit that gun control is impotent to stop determined attackers, that it has repeatedly failed to stop them. Nonetheless, their solution is more gun control — not simply gun control couched in criminal behavior and criminal possession of guns, but gun control openly fashioned against “legally obtained” firearms, as well. The Pink Pistols, a gun rights group directed toward the LGBTQ community, reacted to the Orlando Pulse shooting differently. On the day of the attack, Pink Pistols spokeswoman Gwendolyn Patton said, “Let us not reach for the fruit of blaming the killer’s guns. Let us stay focused on the fact that someone hated gay people so much they were ready to kill or injure so many. ” She continued, “A human being did this. The human being’s tools are unimportant when compared to the bleakness of that person’s soul. ” 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 |
TUNIS — Dressed in a thick jacket and wool hat on a cool winter evening, counting the coins for his bus fare, Hedi Hammami looks like any other Tunisian on his way to work. But he walks with a limp and sometimes pauses midspeech and screws up his face in pain. “That’s Guantánamo,” he explains. After eight years as a detainee in the United States detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he says he still suffers from headaches, depression and anxiety attacks from the torture and other mistreatment he says he suffered there, even six years after his release. Married with two children now and employed as a nighttime ambulance driver, Mr. Hammami, 47, seems to have rebuilt his life. Yet the pressures of living in Tunisia’s faltering democracy, under harassment and enduring repeated raids by the police, have driven him to make an extreme request. “It would be better for me to go back to that single cell and to be left alone,” he said recently. “Two or three weeks ago I went to the Red Cross and asked them to connect me to the U. S. foreign ministry to ask to go back to Guantánamo. ” The Red Cross refused to take his request, he said, but he insists nevertheless that at this point, that would be best for him. “I have lost my hope,” he says. “There is no future in this country for me. ” When he was first released from Guantánamo in 2010, Tunisia was still a dictatorship under the rule of President Zine Ben Ali and notorious for torturing prisoners, in particular Islamists. Deemed no longer a threat to the United States, Mr. Hammami was sent to the former Soviet republic of Georgia. After the popular uprising in 2011 that overthrew Mr. Ben Ali and set off the Arab Spring, Mr. Hammami negotiated his return to Tunisia. He timed it well, benefiting from a national amnesty for political prisoners and a program of compensation that gave him a job in the Ministry of Health. “I hoped very much that after the revolution everything would get better,” he said in one of several interviews in his rented home in a suburb of Tunis. Yet, soon after he began work in 2013, the police raided his apartment with dogs at 3 a. m. breaking the door and hauling him down to the police station. “They made me crawl on all fours down the stairs,” he recounted. At the police station they said they just wanted to get to know him, and let him go after 15 minutes. “That was just the beginning. ” Since then, Mr. Hammami has lived under a constant regimen of police surveillance, raids and harassment. His cellphone and computer were confiscated. When he moved to a new house, the police followed him, turning up at all hours to question him. In December 2015 he was placed under house arrest, told he no longer had the right to work and ordered to sign in at the police station morning and evening for six weeks. He remains under “administrative control,” and the police enforce the order at will. He cannot travel outside Tunis. Every so often, like on Sept. 11, the police order him to sign in with them. “I feel someone is doing it for revenge,” he says. The police have also scared landlords from renting to him, forcing him to move six times in three years. His Algerian wife’s residency card was confiscated, preventing her from working to supplement his meager salary. The family is barely managing, she said, asking not to be named for fear of further police harassment. Stress and tension from the police actions have intensified the psychological problems Mr. Hammami brought with him from Guantánamo. “I feel too much pressure,” he said, rubbing his temples. “All that blackness comes back. ” Rim Ben Ismail, a psychologist working for the World Organization Against Torture in Tunisia, who has counseled 12 Tunisians who were detained in Guantánamo, says Mr. Hammadi’s wish to return to his cell is fairly typical of the Guantánamo detainees. “They lived with suffering, physical suffering,” she said in an interview. “But now there is a psychic suffering, and often they say, ‘Take me back there. ’” “Because of their past they are all presumed guilty and it is unlivable for all of them and their families,” she added. “The families are being threatened and harassed. ” Parents in particular fear the Tunisian security forces and say they think their sons would be safer in Guantánamo, she added. Raids have often been needlessly violent, she said police officials break down doors and wake a suspect with a gun to his head, often in front of his wife and children. “Everything is being done to create aggression in a person,” she said. “They do not need to raid the house at 2 a. m. ” One of her former Guantánamo patients was harassed so relentlessly by police that he became suicidal and ran off to Syria, where he was killed. “He was such a gentle person,” she said sadly. “By treating these people like this you create a climate of revenge and the sense that they have no place at home. ” There is no doubt that Tunisia has a terrorism problem. It has been grappling with attacks from Al groups since 2013. The violence escalated to spectacular attacks in 2015 and 2016 that killed more than 70 people, many of them foreign tourists at a national museum and at a beach resort hotel. Moreover, Tunisians reportedly make up the largest number of foreign fighters to have joined the Islamic State and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, and some have been encouraged to conduct attacks when they return home. After an attack killed 12 members of the presidential guard in November 2015, the government imposed a state of emergency. At least 139 Tunisians have been placed under house arrest since, according to Human Rights Watch, which documented the cases in a report released in September. The sanctions have been justified in the context of countering terrorism but have “left people facing stigmatization and unable to pursue studies and work,” it stated. International human rights officials have voiced growing concerns of abuses resurfacing in Tunisia. In a report released this week, Amnesty International accused the Tunisian police and security forces of employing repressive measures used by past dictatorships, including torture, deaths in custody, arbitrary house raids and often unlawful harassment of suspects, their families and communities. Ben Emmerson, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights while countering terrorism, said during a recent visit to Tunisia that human rights should be central to counterterrorism operations, noting that torture and other repressive measures fuel radicalism. Mr. Hammami says he feels the police are pushing him that way. The son of a farmer from Tunisia’s poor northwest, he says he originally left for Italy in 1986 in search of work. There he fell in with an Islamic missionary group, Tablighi Jamaat, and later traveled to Pakistan, where he obtained refugee status. He was arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the American military in 2002 and transferred to Guantánamo, where he was accused of training in Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. The Americans also say they found his identification papers in Tora Bora, the last redoubt of Osama bin Laden in the country, according to papers released by WikiLeaks. Mr. Hammami, who denies going to Afghanistan or having any links to Qaeda or terrorism, was eventually released without charge. Whatever his past, he says after nearly 20 years away, he just wants to live quietly. “I never committed a crime,” he said. “I don’t have a record, no theft, no ethics problems, nothing. ” “My only demand is to be stable, but they don’t let me live my life in stability,” he said. “They are pushing you towards death. ” | 1 |
Richard Schickel, who was so captivated by Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” when he was 5 years old that he grew up to be a noted film critic, Hollywood historian and prolific author and documentarian — and estimated that he had watched 22, 590 movies — died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 84. His daughter Erika Schickel said the cause was complications of dementia. Fortified by boxes of Good Plenty licorice rather than popcorn, Mr. Schickel reviewed films for Life magazine from 1965 until it closed in 1972, then wrote for Time until 2010 and later for the blog Truthdig. com. In a career that spanned the studio era and the rise of independent directors, he also wrote 37 books on movies and filmmakers and wrote or directed more than 30 documentaries, mostly for television. He shared or received three Emmy nominations, for “Life Goes to the Movies” in 1976 and “Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente” in 1987. Richard Zoglin, a fellow critic and now a contributing editor at Time, said that what distinguished Mr. Schickel among his peers was his comprehensive knowledge of the movie industry’s players and processes coupled with “an astute critical sensibility” that resisted the trendy. “He wrote from the perspective of a film insider,” Mr. Zoglin said in a phone interview, “but responded to films from a gut level and never lost the sense of being an average filmgoer reacting to what was on the screen. ” Mr. Schickel pulled no punches. Reviewing Stanley Kramer’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” in 1967, the interracial love story starring Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Mr. Schickel groused, “Kramer is earnestly preaching away on matters that have long ceased to be true issues. ” He even dismissed “The Maltese Falcon,” John Huston’s 1941 film noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart, as “cramped and static” and was damning in a retrospective look at “Gone With the Wind” in The Atlantic in 1973. Mr. Schickel wrote that two measures of a movie’s quality should be how much a viewer retains and how much one wants to see it again. By both measures, he loved “Citizen Kane,” “Double Indemnity,” “The Godfather,” “The Searchers,” “Chinatown,” “Fargo,” “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Pinocchio” and the original “King Kong,” as well as outliers like Audie Murphy’s western “No Name on the Bullet” and François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows. ” Mr. Schickel did not view filmgoing as an experience frozen in memory. “You loved ‘My Friend Flicka’ when you saw it at age 10,” he wrote. “If you see it at age 65, you may respect it, but you won’t think it’s a masterpiece (which does not mean you should deprive your grandchildren of the pleasure of seeing this picture when they are the perfect age for it). ” He also understood that the public’s perception of his role had evolved. A critic, he told The Hedgehog Review in 2005, is “a very endangered species in a nation that wants indulgence more than a criticism that questions its fatuity. ” But responding to an article in The New York Times, which suggested that blogging might be making book reviewing more democratic, he wrote in The Los Angeles Times in 2007: “Criticism — and its humble cousin, reviewing — is not a democratic activity. It is, or should be, an elite enterprise, ideally undertaken by individuals who bring something to the party beyond their hasty, instinctive opinions of a book (or any other cultural object). It is work that requires disciplined taste, historical and theoretical knowledge and a fairly deep sense of the author’s (or filmmaker’s or painter’s) entire body of work, among other qualities. ” Richard Warren Schickel was born on Feb. 10, 1933, in Milwaukee, the son of Edward Schickel, who worked in advertising, and the former Helen Hendricks, a docent. He was named for an ancestor, Richard Warren, who arrived on the Mayflower. He was raised in suburban Wauwatosa, Wis. and escaped to the movies on weekends with friends, he wrote in a memoir, “Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip: Movies, Memory, and World War II” (2003) “because the serene and placid little world I inhabited as a kid was so lacking in romantic and heroic adventure. ” He saw Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” when he was 8. “I mimed enchantment for my parents’ benefit,” he wrote in American Heritage magazine in 2006. “I did a lot of that in those days. They were so sweetly earnest, as I now appreciatively recall, about introducing me to ‘the finer things.’ Their problem back then was finding, in Milwaukee, finer things for me to appreciate. ” Mr. Schickel graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and moved to New York, where he freelanced for magazines and reviewed his first film, “A Boy Ten Feet Tall,” starring Edward G. Robinson, in 1965. He described it as “quite a good little movie. ” His marriage to Julia Carroll Whedon, a writer, ended in divorce. In addition to their daughter Erika, who is also a writer, he is survived by another daughter from that marriage, Jessica Vild a stepdaughter, Ali Rubinstein, from his second marriage, to the former Carol Rubinstein, a TV producer who died in 1991 and four grandchildren. His books included biographies of Woody Allen, Marlon Brando, James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Lena Horne and Elia Kazan. His documentaries include a PBS series, “The Men Who Made the Movies. ” “The truth, very simply, is that most movies are lousy or, at best, routine,” Mr. Schickel wrote in “Keepers: The Greatest Films — and Personal Favorites — of a Moviegoing Lifetime” (2015). “We go to see them, much of the time, in search of something else — the comforting darkness of the theater, the play of light and shadow on the screen, the consolations they offer for some temporary trouble,” he wrote. “A lot of the time we don’t give a hoot what’s playing. We are at a public event for private reasons which we don’t always recognize until later, if at all. It is the occasion, the atmosphere, that we crave. ” | 1 |
in: Government , Government Corruption , Obama Exposed , Sleuth Journal Just when it looked like Hillary Clinton was poised to win the 2016 election , the FBI has thrown a gamechanger into the mix. On Friday, FBI Director James Comey announced that his agency has discovered new emails related to Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information that they had not previously seen. According to the Associated Press , the newly discovered emails “did not come from her private server”, but instead were found when the FBI started going through electronic devices that belonged to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner. The FBI has been looking into messages of a sexual nature that Weiner had exchanged with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, and that is why they originally seized those electronic devices. According to the Washington Post , the “emails were found on a computer used jointly by both Weiner and his wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, according to a person with knowledge of the inquiry”, and according to some reports there may be “potentially thousands” of emails on the computer that the FBI did not have access to previously. Even though there are less than two weeks to go until election day, this scandal has the potential to possibly force Clinton out of the race, and if that happens could Barack Obama delay or suspend the election until a replacement candidate can be found? Let’s take this one step at a time. On Friday, financial markets tanked when reports of these new Clinton emails hit the wires. The following comes from CNN … After recommending earlier this year that the Department of Justice not press charges against the former secretary of state, Comey said in a letter to eight congressional committee chairmen that investigators are examining newly discovered emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the email probe. “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote the chairmen. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.” At this point, we do not know what is contained in these emails. But without a doubt Huma Abedin is Hillary Clinton’s closest confidant, and I have always felt that she was Clinton’s Achilles heel. Journalist Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) is fully convinced that the FBI would have never made this move unless something significant had already been discovered … We don’t know what this means yet except that it’s a real bombshell. And it is unthinkable that the Director of the FBI would take this action lightly, that he would put this letter forth to the Congress of the United States saying there is more information out there about classified e-mails and call it to the attention of congress unless it was something requiring serious investigation. So that’s where we are… Is it a certainty that we won’t learn before the election? I’m not sure it’s a certainty we won’t learn before the election. One thing is, it’s possible that Hillary Clinton might want to on her own initiative talk to the FBI and find out what she can, and if she chooses to let the American people know what she thinks or knows is going on. People need to hear from her… If the FBI has indeed found something explosive, would they actually charge her with a crime right before the election? It is possible, but we also have to remember that government agencies (including the FBI) tend to move very, very slowly. If there are thousands of emails, it is going to take quite a while to sift through them all. And of course Barack Obama has lots of ways that he could influence, delay or even shut down the investigation. So those that are counting on this to be the miracle that Donald Trump needs should not count their chickens before they hatch. But if Hillary Clinton were to be forced out of the race by this FBI investigation, the Democrats would have to decide on a new candidate, and that would take time. The following is from a U.S. News & World Report article that examined what would happen if one of the candidates was forced out of the race for some reason… If Clinton were to fall off the ticket, Democratic National Committee members would gather to vote on a replacement. DNC members acted as superdelegates during this year’s primary and overwhelmingly backed Clinton over boat-rocking socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. DNC spokesman Mark Paustenbach says there currently are 445 committee members – a number that changes over time and is guided by the group’s bylaws, which give membership to specific officeholders and party leaders and hold 200 spots for selection by states, along with an optional 75 slots DNC members can choose to fill. But the party rules for replacing a presidential nominee merely specify that a majority of members must be present at a special meeting called by the committee chairman. The meeting would follow procedures set by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee and proxy voting would not be allowed. It would be extremely challenging to get a majority of the members of the Democratic National Committee together on such short notice. If Clinton were to drop out next week, it would be almost impossible for this to happen before election day. In such a scenario, Barack Obama may attempt to invoke his emergency powers . Since the election would not be “fair” until the Democrats have a new candidate, he could try to delay or suspend the election. There would be a lot of controversy as to whether this is legal or not, but Barack Obama has not let the U.S. Constitution stop him in the past. Meanwhile, new poll numbers show that the Trump campaign was already gaining momentum even before this story about the new emails broke. According to a brand new ABC News/Washington Post survey, Donald Trump is now only trailing Hillary Clinton by 4 points after trailing her by as much as 12 points last weekend. And CNBC is reporting on a highly advanced artificial intelligence system that accurately predicted the outcomes of the presidential primaries and which is now indicating that Trump will be the winner in November… An artificial intelligence system that correctly predicted the last three U.S. presidential elections puts Republican nominee Donald Trump ahead of Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. MogIA was developed by Sanjiv Rai, founder of Indian start-up Genic.ai. It takes in 20 million data points from public platforms including Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the U.S. and then analyzes the information to create predictions. The AI system was created in 2004, so it has been getting smarter all the time. It had already correctly predicted the results of the Democratic and Republican Primaries. Without Hillary at the top of the ticket, the odds of a Trump victory would go way, way up. So if Hillary is forced out of the race by this investigation, Barack Obama and the Democrats will want to delay or suspend the election for as long as possible if they can. At this point there is probably not a high probability that such a scenario will play out, but in this crazy election year we have already seen that just about anything can happen. Submit your review | 0 |
When a prominent, progressive establishment think tank, the Center for American Progress, hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on November 10, 2015, it was widely criticized among the left. However, in an email sent by Neera Tanden, the think tank’s president, she defends the decision to welcome Netanyahu with open arms.
The email was published in the latest batch of “Podesta Emails” from WikiLeaks. It offers a glimpse at how Tanden, an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and moderator of CAP’s Netanyahu event, dealt with the controversy.
John Podesta, Clinton campaign chairman, sent her an email the day after the event. “As a bloodied Jack Nicholson said in Hoffa, ‘What has been gained and what has been lost?’ How did the Bibi event score on that scale?”
In Tanden’s reply, she clearly outlined the pros and cons of hosting Netanyahu.
“Things gained: We will never be called anti-Semitic again. No matter what anyone writes,” Tanden asserted. “Mainstream press and people think we handled it just right – tough questions. I think for any dismissers, not that I think there were a lot, but we have definitely proven we’re a think tank. And it may have sealed the deal with a new board member.”
Tanden continued, “Things lost: Staff is riven. On both sides. We are holding a lot of meetings on that. Worse thing – someone leaked staff statement. That kind of thing really changes the culture.”
“How to keep that culture with that kind of leaking is going to be hard, but need to navigate. And far left hates me. We do have a broader issue of expectations in the organization. I had an intern tell me that she was upset we did not tell her ahead of time.”
What was lost and gained is expressed purely in institutional terms. Tanden writes nothing about what CAP may have done to give Netanyahu cover for the crimes the Israeli government commits against Palestinians through its occupation. She has no words for what this may mean for the people of Gaza, who endure poverty and face humanitarian disaster as a result of an economic blockade.
Overall, Tanden concludes, “Nothing we have done has pitted being a think tank and being ideologically action oriented against each other more harshly. At the end of the day, we had to choose.”
“So answer is complicated. If I could have the whole thing not happen, would definitely have it not happen. But it happened to us.”
Inviting a world leader is not something that just happens , like a branch breaking a car’s windshield when it falls out of a tree. Tanden and other leaders of CAP actively sought to host Netanyahu, and they were proud of the prestige it could garner for them.
When she introduced Netanyahu, Tanden said, “Thank you for taking questions because the choices you make matter profoundly to Israel’s future and the future of the region. And we believe that matters profoundly to America.” Notably, she said nothing about the future of Palestinians.
Journalist Rania Khalek pointed out that Tanden let Netanyahu lie repeatedly during the event about the construction of new settlements, settler violence, land theft, and ethnic cleansing.
Tanden and other Clinton appointees served on the Democratic Platform Committee, and during the process, they blocked language that would have acknowledged there is, in fact, an Israeli occupation. They also refused to remove language suggesting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement “delegitimizes” Israel.
A coalition of Clinton Democrats and other liberal Democrats blocked a resolution to support the rebuilding of Gaza during the full Democratic platform committee meeting in July.
Clinton has distinguished herself as a pro-Israel Democrat and will aggressively challenge the BDS movement as president. With the support of Democratic mega-donor Haim Saban, who has pledged to invest billions to fight BDS, Clinton celebrated college students on the “front lines of the battle to oppose the alarming boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement known as BDS” during her speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference.
Additionally, emails previously published by WikiLeaks already have shown that the letter Clinton wrote to Saban, where she pledged to fight BDS, was written to help the campaign attract more pro-Israel donors.
Returning to the CAP event for Netanyahu, in the week before the event, The Intercept published a story on leaked emails showing the lengths to which CAP was willing to go to “placate AIPAC.” The think tank censored “its own writers on the topic of Israel.”
Tanden may seem exasperated in the email. “I need to clear my head on this and then would love to get your advice on a few things in the coming days,” she shared in the email. However, it is not as if there was any kind of an about-face or open display of regret in the aftermath. Tanden and CAP served the interests of AIPAC, also known as the Israel lobby, and if called upon to hold a similar event as a service to a Clinton White House, they will be loyal soldiers and help whitewash the policies of Israel again.
The post Email Reveals What Progressive Think Tank Gained By Hosting Netanyahu appeared first on Shadowproof . | 0 |
Who can argue with this young lady’s speech?
Watch as she totally destroys Hillary Clinton:
I bet if Donald Trump had a brick for every lie Hillary has told he could build two walls.
…
As a thirteen year old even I know Hillary Clinton is working for her own success and ways to control my life, my family’s life and your lives… She wants to make it Hillary’s America… not The Peoples’ America.
Hattip Gateway Pundit
Courtesy post via SHTFPlan.com
| 0 |
The White House declined to respond to comedian Kathy Griffin for her widespread public meltdown after her decision to feature herself holding the bloody, decapitated head of President Donald Trump in a photo. [“The president, the first lady, and the Secret Service have all made it very clear their view on those thoughts,” Spicer said in response to a question from Breitbart News, asking if the family wanted a personal apology from the comedian: Melania Trump called the photo “very disturbing” and questioned Griffin’s mental health. “When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it,” she said in a statement on Wednesday. The president also condemned the photo in a Twitter message. “Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this,” he wrote. “Sick!” During her press conference on Friday, Griffin accused the president and his family of ruining her career and her life after she posed with the photo and said the family “picked the wrong redhead. ” “He broke me,” Griffin said tearfully. | 1 |
Posted on October 29, 2016 by Edmondo Burr in Sci/Environment // 0 Comments Glaciers of the Bolivian Andes receded by 43% between 1986 and 2014 according to the findings of a new study.
Rising temperatures in the Andes have left people living at high altitudes with a water crisis.
The study was published in The Cryosphere , an European Geosciences Union journal. Recommended
The rapid melting of one the largest glaciers on earth, the Totten Glacier in East Antarctica, could raise global sea level at least 2 meters by the end of the century, according to a new study (4 hours ago)
“ On top of that, glacier recession is leaving lakes that could burst and wash away villages or infrastructure downstream, ” says lead-author Simon Cook , a lecturer at the Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK.
European Geosciences Union reports:
Receding glaciers also put water supply in the region at risk. Glacial meltwater is important for irrigation, drinking water and hydropower, both for mountain villages and large cities such as La Paz and El Alto. Throughout the year, the 2.3 million inhabitants of these two cities receive about 15% of their water supply from glaciers , with this percentage almost doubling during the dry season. Glacier retreat also means less water is available to supply rivers and lakes, such as southern Bolivia’s Lake Poopó, which recently dried up .
The new study is one of the first to monitor recent large-scale glacier change in Bolivia, to better understand how receding glaciers could affect communities in the country. “The novelty of our study lies in the bigger picture – measuring glacier change over all main glaciated ranges in Bolivia – and in the identification of potentially dangerous lakes for the first time,” Cook says.
The team measured glacier area change from 1986 to 2014 using satellite images from Landsat, the U.S. Geological Survey’s and NASA’s Earth observation programme. They found that the area of the Bolivian Andes covered by glaciers decreased from about 530 square kilometres in 1986 to only around 300 square kilometres in 2014, a reduction of 43%. Recommended Bodies Of Climbers Alex Lowe & David Bridges Found In Melting Glacier
The remains of renowned American mountain climber Alex Lowe and his companion cameraman David Bridges have been found partially melting out of a glacier on Shishapangma, Tibet. The two climbers disappeared in a Himalayan avalanche 16 years ago while attempting to ascend the 14th highest mountain in the world. (4 hours ago)
As glaciers recede, they leave behind lakes typically dammed by bedrock or glacial debris. Avalanches, rockfalls or earthquakes can breach these dams, or cause water to overflow them, resulting in catastrophic floods known as glacial lake outburst floods. The team reports that both the number and size of glacier lakes in the study region increased significantly from 1986 to 2014.
After studying glacier change, the researchers used their 2014 glacial-lake observations to identify the lakes where outburst floods could occur and present a hazard to populations. “We mapped hundreds of lakes,” Cook explains. “Some lakes are very small and pose little risk. Others are very large, but there’s little or no possibility that they would drain catastrophically. Others are both large enough to create a big flood, and sit beneath steep slopes or steep glaciers, and could be dangerous.”
They identified 25 glacial lakes across the Bolivian Andes as potentially dangerous to communities and infrastructure, as they could result in very damaging floods. If the smallest of these 25 lakes was to drain completely, it would yield a flood with a peak discharge of 600 cubic metres per second. The largest could result in a discharge of over 125,000 cubic metres of water, about 50 times the volume of an Olympic swimming pool, in a second.
While measuring glacier area change was a relatively simple task, Cook says “identifying which lakes are dangerous is the million dollar question” as there are various factors to take into account.
“We considered that a lake was dangerous if there were settlements or infrastructure down-valley from the lake, and if the slopes and glaciers around the lake were very steep, meaning that they could shed ice or snow or rock into the lake, which would cause it to overtop and generate a flood – a bit like jumping into a swimming pool, but on a much bigger scale!” Recommended
A new study on antidepressants published in The BMJ has revealed that the risk of suicide and aggression in children and teens increases two-fold when they are prescribed drugs to treat depression. (4 hours ago)
Such catastrophic floods have occurred in the region in the past. Dirk Hoffmann, a researcher at the Bolivian Mountain Institute and co-author in The Cryosphere study, recently documented a glacial lake outburst flood in the Apolobamba region that happened in 2009 and killed farm animals, destroyed cultivated fields and washed away a road that left a village isolated for months. “As those locations are very remote and far away from the cities, authorities at national level and the wider public are often not even aware of the new dangers that mountain dwellers are facing due to the impacts of climate change, and no appropriate measures are being taken,” Hoffmann says.
Cook says these events could be under-reported, suggesting the risk of such floods in the Bolivian Andes has been overlooked. “We heard of other [glacier lake outburst flood] events from villagers when we visited the Apolobamba region in 2015, but there is no mention of these in publications or papers, possibly because many of these communities are relatively remote.” Hoffmann adds: “A nation-wide risk assessment of potentially dangerous glacial lakes would be of great interest to local communities in glacier watersheds.”
In the study, the team also estimated that glacier area will be severely reduced by the end of the century, to about a tenth of the 1986 values. This would put communities even more at risk from water scarcity, Cook says. “We predicted in our study that most glaciers will be gone or much diminished by the end of the century – so where will the water come from in the dry season? Big cities like La Paz are partially dependent on meltwater from glaciers. But little is known about potential water resource stress in more remote areas. More work needs to be done on this issue.”
The team hope the study raises awareness about the rapid glacier loss in Bolivia, how it could change in the future, and how it could affect water supply and cause glacial lake outburst floods. “Ultimately, I hope that our results will be useful to people in Bolivia – governments, agencies, people living in rural areas and cities,” Cook concludes.
This research is presented in the paper ‘Glacier change and glacial lake outburst flood risk in the Bolivian Andes’ to appear in the EGU open access journal The Cryosphere on 20 October 2016. | 0 |
LANCASTER, Pa. — A dull gray house on a hillside has to become a home. Another Syrian family of refugees will be arriving soon, and this empty, echoing old place needs to be readied in welcome. The word has trickled down from the State Department’s refugee resettlement program. A mother, a father, his brother and four children, the youngest just 10. Muslims, traveling from Turkey. Flying into New York in the next few days. Their imminent arrival explains all the commotion inside this house in the small city of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. The state may have gone to Donald J. Trump, who likened the Syrian resettlement program to a “a great Trojan horse” for terrorists. But he isn’t president yet. That is why volunteers and staff members from the Church World Service, a nationwide nonprofit that helps the government take in refugees fleeing violence and persecution, are cleaning cabinets, carting furniture and doing their best to make things homey. Just not too homey. “Doing too much can make a family feel like it’s someone else’s home,” says Josh Digrugilliers, 26, the group’s local housing specialist, whose crowded key chain jangles in reminder of all the refugees in need. He scours a government checklist of housing requirements for a resettlement, mindful that whatever he spends is deducted from a refugee’s government grant of no more than $1, 125. A family’s combined grants must cover its rent and other expenses until the nonprofit has helped the adults acquire Social Security numbers and jobs. The used furniture being trundled in reflects the emphasis on economy. Some comes from the donations hoarded in a cluttered garage, where a “Welcome Home” sign in Arabic is on display. Other items were acquired cheap — chairs for $5, tables for $20 — at Root’s Old Mill Flea Market. New paint and flooring give the house the smell of a fresh start, thanks to the landlord, John Liang, who came to Lancaster as a child, one of the “boat people” who fled Vietnam on dangerously overcrowded vessels after the war. He spent a year in a notoriously hellish refugee camp before coming to Lancaster, where he and his family delivered newspapers, shoveled snow, did sewing and work. Anything. Now 45, Mr. Liang works overtime at a nearby Kellogg’s cereal plant and manages several properties he owns, including this house, which he wants to be — just so. “There are other people living a lot harder, tougher, than what I went through,” he says. Mr. Digrugilliers applies his checklist to the kitchen, where the counter is crowded with mismatched dinnerware, new appliances and clutches of flatware bound with rubber bands. Draped over the oven handle is a dish towel printed with a calendar for 1968, another tumultuous year. Then to the bedrooms upstairs. The children’s twin beds, bought at discount from the Lancaster Mattress Company, are covered with the black G of the Georgia Bulldogs, the winged wheel of the Detroit Red Wings and other invitations to sleep in cocoons of American culture. Armed with a list of what he needs, he and a colleague, Orion Hernandez, climb into a van reeking of McDonald’s. They head to Walmart, where Mr. Digrugilliers recognizes a thin man — a Nepalese refugee who resettled here two years ago — leaving as he is walking in. “Hey, how are you?” Mr. Digrugilliers calls out. “Hello,” the man calls back. Such encounters happen often in Lancaster, whose rich history of acceptance is rooted, in part, in the influence of the Mennonites, Amish and other faiths. A glimpse of the local worldview came in January when a supportive rally of more than 200 people drowned out a much smaller protest outside the Church World Service office here. Sheila Mastropietro, the group’s longtime supervisor in Lancaster, took heart in the moment. It reflected a communal understanding of both the global refugee crisis and the rigorous screening process that refugees undergo before coming to the United States. Still, given a who seems averse to the country’s modest commitment to refugee relocation, Ms. Mastropietro says, “We don’t know what to expect. ” Last fiscal year, the Lancaster office of the Church World Service helped to resettle 407 of the 85, 000 refugees admitted to this country this fiscal year, its target is 550 of a 110, 000. “We are acting as if the numbers are going to be the same — until we hear something different,” she says. Decades of resettlement work have transformed the Lancaster area into a medley of cultures so rich that Amer Alfayadh, 34, a senior case manager, struggles to name them all: “Syrians, Iraqis, Somalis, Congolese, Ukrainians, Belorussians, people from Kazakhstan. Then, of course, Lebanese, Palestinians. Bhutanese, Nepalese, Burmese, Sri Lankans … ” Mr. Alfayadh himself arrived from Iraq in 2010. Though trained as an engineer, he worked at a Lowe’s — customer service, paint, lawn and garden — and as a substitute teacher before being hired to help other refugees. He is accustomed now to urgent calls from fresh arrivals unfamiliar with, say, locks on doors. New clients are often at their breaking point, uncertain what to make of this exotic land called Pennsylvania. Knowing how difficult it can be for anyone in crisis to see ahead — to jobs, school, a future — Mr. Alfayadh says he tries to impart a simple message: “O. K. Tomorrow will be better. ” At Walmart, Mr. Digrugilliers and Mr. Hernandez commandeer two shopping carts each and begin racing through the cavernous store like contestants on the old “Supermarket Sweep” game show, grabbing specific items, down to umbrellas and sanitary pads. His purchases complete, Mr. Digrugilliers mounts his cart and wheels it into the dusk like a skateboard, exuberant with hope that some refugee family’s journey will be just as smooth. It is not. The Church World Service soon receives word that this particular family’s resettlement has been delayed — a development that could be caused by something as simple as a spike in an ’s blood pressure at the airport. But there is no shortage of refugees. Mr. Alfayadh’s supervisor, Valentina Ross, remembers that another Syrian family is arriving in a few days: a father, a mother, three daughters and a boy. They will need a home. Today is the day. A holiday spirit has taken hold in downtown Lancaster, with a colossal Christmas tree glittering in Penn Square and ancient brick houses swathed in festive lights. A mile away, a Church World Service caseworker named Gaby Garver, a focused college graduate of 22, is collecting provisions for the new family at a food pantry. Signing some paperwork, she says, “And no meat products for the family, please. ” As Ms. Garver prepares to leave with milk, vegetables and other items, a pantry volunteer asks: “Since you didn’t take any meat, would you like some extra rice?” Yes, please. More food is needed. Ms. Garver guides her 1999 Pontiac through the cold rain to the supermarket, where many goods sit in cardboard cases. She leaves 10 minutes later with bread, fruit, beans, sugar, tea and a receipt for $26. 58, to be deducted from the family’s grant money. Hunched against the weather, the slight young woman makes two trips carrying the food into the drab gray house. After stocking the refrigerator and cabinet, she conducts a inspection. The fridge is cold. The tap has hot water. The burners on the gas stove ignite. Everything upstairs is fine as well, with even more homey touches added. New pajamas and towels. New clothes hangers. New picture frames, showing stock photos of cheerful families, on the shelves. And on one twin bed, a child’s soccer ball, still in its box. The rain has stopped, a slice of moon risen. Ms. Garver is driving now to the home of a Syrian family that arrived seven months ago. The mother has cooked a hot meal for the refugee family that is about to land any minute in New York, a good drive away. Inside, where five young children zip and waddle about, the prepared meal sits in expectation on the table: a large aluminum tray bountiful with chicken and rice and a huge bowl of salad. The oldest child, Mohamad, 14, helps Ms. Garver carry the food out to her vehicle, and she thanks him. He responds with the formality given to a new language being tried on for size. “You’re welcome,” the boy says, and smiles. Returning to the gray house, Ms. Garver fumbles in the dark to open the door while holding the tray of food. When she returns with the salad bowl, she stoops to collect a clump of junk mail, including a addressed to “Our Neighbor. ” Later tonight, Ms. Garver and Mr. Alfayadh will drive a Ford van to Lancaster Airport, where they will meet two representatives from the local Islamic Center. Soon after, another van will arrive from Kennedy International Airport. Hugs and handshakes will be exchanged in the December air. Luggage will be collected. And six Syrian refugees will be driven the 20 minutes to a warm home perfumed by warm food, in a city made radiant by the multicolored lights of the season. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is sending dozens of additional intelligence analysts to Iraq to pore over a trove of information that is expected to be recovered in the offensive to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State, data that could offer new clues about possible terrorist attacks in Europe. The analysts will have several immediate priorities: Share with the Iraqi military any information crucial to the unfolding fight in Mosul pass along insights useful to American officials planning an attack on Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in eastern Syria hunt for clues about the location of the group’s shadowy leader, Abu Bakr and search for any information about terrorist cells in Europe and any attacks they may be plotting. Maj. Gen. Gary J. Volesky, the commander of American ground forces in Iraq, has called Mosul the Islamic State’s Iraqi “crown jewel. ” Noting that the militants had been entrenched there for more than two years, he added on Wednesday, “Clearly, there’s going to be intelligence that will be able to be exploited. ” European intelligence and counterterrorism officials said they were eagerly awaiting data gleaned from computer hard drives, cellphones, recruiting files and other sources after Iraqi forces advance into the city in coming weeks. These officials fear an influx of foreign fighters fleeing the campaigns against Mosul and Raqqa. Information recovered from two earlier military operations against the Islamic State — one in eastern Syria in May 2015 and another from more recent combat in Manbij, Syria — gave American and allied officials trenchant insights into the Islamic State’s leadership structure and its financing and recruiting. Forces have also recovered detailed records of many of the 40, 000 fighters from more than 120 countries who have poured into Syria and Iraq to fight for the group, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. “If we get a phone off of a dead ISIL fighter in Manbij and it has a number of telephone numbers into a particular capital or city around the world, we share that information with the coalition members so that they can conduct their own investigation,” Brett H. McGurk, President Obama’s envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, said this month. “This is now really starting to work at light speed, although we want to speed it up. ” It is unclear if Islamic State leaders in Mosul will try to destroy any of their electronic or paper records before Iraqi forces and their American advisers can seize them. The Islamic State maintains prodigious and meticulous records, and it is not known if the leaders would take such a drastic step. Data is flowing out of Iraq and Syria as within and between European governments has steadily improved since the deadly terrorism strikes in Paris and Brussels in the past year, European counterterrorism and law enforcement officials say. “A lot has changed since the attacks in Paris,” said Johan De Becker, the police chief of the western districts of Brussels, which include Molenbeek and others that were the home of the Paris and Brussels attackers. “We have made a lot of improvements on the level of national and international signaling concerning the foreign terrorist fighters. ” American officials acknowledge that they face a daunting task in gathering, analyzing and disseminating to Iraqi and Western intelligence services a collection of information from Mosul that is expected to dwarf the 20 terabytes of data retrieved so far in Manbij. One terabyte is equal to the contents of a million books. The Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency have been providing intelligence support to the Iraqis for the past two years, American officials said, but there has not yet been a fight to match the size and scope of the battle to retake Mosul, where half of the city’s previous population of two million still resides. The coalition must be able to offer intelligence support in the Mosul operation to more partner forces — including the Iraqi Army, counterterrorism service and police, as well as Kurdish pesh merga fighters — than in any previous operations to retake other cities. As a result, in the military’s most recent deployment of more than 600 additional troops, dozens of military and civilian intelligence analysts were dispatched to several locations around Iraq. Most were in place just before the Mosul offensive began, but some are still trickling in. “Whenever you liberate a city the size of Mosul, you can expect to get a tremendous amount of information,” said Col. John L. Dorrian, the chief American military spokesman in Baghdad. “Certainly, if we have a window of opportunity that presents itself rather quickly, we do have adequate forces in theater to go ahead and act upon that. ” The intelligence surge would most likely “give us a lot of insight into Daesh networks not just in Iraq and Syria, but it also gives insight into how they export terror around the world, some of the people they work with, how they finance themselves,” Colonel Dorrian said. That is important because even as the Islamic State loses its physical caliphate, or religious state, in Iraq and Syria, the group can still inflict deadly assaults, senior American counterterrorism officials say. “It’s our judgment that ISIL’s capacity and ability today to carry out attacks in Syria and Iraq and abroad has not thus far been significantly diminished,” Nicholas J. Rasmussen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told Congress last month. “The tempo of terrorist attacks and terrorist activity in Europe and other places around the globe is a reminder of that global reach. ” “This external operations capability has been building and entrenching over the past two years,” he warned, “and we don’t think that battlefield or territorial losses alone will be sufficient to completely degrade the group’s terrorism capabilities. ” | 1 |
Diez consejos para preparar tu casa de cara a la llegada de tu primer hijo NUESTROS EXPERTOS TE ASESORAN vivienda
El momento ha llegado. Sólo quedan unos pocos meses para que nazca vuestro hijo y tenéis que adaptar vuestro hogar ahora que vais a ser uno más. Ofrecemos unos consejos para que vuestro piso sea el sitio idóneo para vosotros y vuestro primogénito.
1. Habitación infantil no regida por patrones patriarcales y sexistas : En lugar de pintarla de azul o rosa, mezcla los dos colores y obtendrás un violeta marronáceo francamente desagradable aunque 100% inclusivo y no discriminador. Con los juguetes puedes probar a poner un Action Man con peluca y bikini haciendo la colada y una Dora La Exploradora sosteniendo una metralleta, así el niño aprenderá a no asociar a un género concreto las labores del hogar o la violencia.
2. Disfraza al niño de lámpara : Ciertos caseros pueden ver en un bebé un foco de problemas con los vecinos: ruidos, malos olores, llantos a altas horas de la noche… Por eso, recomendamos que durante el día sientes al bebé en una mesa y le pongas una pantalla de lámpara sobre la cabeza. Así, ante la visita inesperada del dueño del piso, podrá parecer una parte más del mobiliario doméstico.
3. Inclúyele en el contrato de alquiler : El bebé va a disfrutar de las comodidades de vuestro hogar como cualquier otro inquilino. Por eso, es lógico que contribuya a los gastos derivados de alquiler, luz y agua. Desde luego, mientras sea menor de edad no podrá pagar su parte correspondiente, pero piensa lo bien que os vendrá en un futuro la inyección económica que os proporcionará el pago de la deuda millonaria que vuestro hijo habrá adquirido con vosotros por contrato.
4. Vestid siempre como personajes de fantasía : Ir siempre disfrazados del Pato Donald o Bob Esponja alimentará la imaginación y la creatividad del bebé. Se llevará una gran desilusión cuando descubra que en realidad sólo sois unos funcionarios de Correos a punto de cumplir los 40, pero al menos vivirá feliz sus primeros años creyendo que su familia es especial.
5. Instala en su móvil la app de Idealista : Vivir con tu hijo es una experiencia inigualable, pero seamos sinceros, estabais mucho más tranquilos viviendo solos. Instalad la app de Idealista en el móvil que cuelga encima de su cuna, que el niño se sienta “invitado” a buscar cuanto antes su apartamento de soltero.
6. Esconde el porno : Trata de buscarles un sitio seguro a todas esas cintas de porno ruso, las esposas, los electrodos y el resto de juguetes que tu pareja y tú empezasteis a usar para avivar la pasión sexual que había desaparecido entre vosotros. Los niños de hoy en día nacen muy espabilados y, si lo descubriese, podría venderlo todo en el Cash Converters a la primera de cambio.
7. Roba columpios del parque y ponlos en el salón : Es importante que los niños jueguen y se diviertan, pero nada da más pereza que llevarles al parque una fría tarde de febrero. Teniendo los columpios en casa, podréis permitiros no sacar al niño a la calle durante meses. Recomendamos que desatornilléis el columpio y lo subáis a vuestro piso de noche y siempre con el rostro cubierto si no queréis tener que leeros los consejos de nuestro artículo “Cómo cuidar a tu hijo en Alcalá Meco”.
8. Compra calimocho : Cuando menos te lo esperes, tu hijo habrá crecido e, irremediablemente, querrá hacer botellón con sus amigos. Mejor que sea en casa en lugar de en un callejón de mala muerte y mejor con un buen vino que con un cartón de 60 céntimos. Además, un lingotazo a las botellas de vino puede ayudaros a volver a conciliar el sueño cuando el bebé os despierte a las 4 de la mañana.
9. Fabrícale un pijama con flecos de fregona : Ya que el niño va a pasar horas y horas arrastrándose por el suelo de la casa, al menos que limpie el suelo.
10. Llena su habitación de peluches : Si, servirán para divertir y hacer compañía al niño, pero principalmente debes de usar los peluches para esconder dentro de ellos el dinero que ganaste en el Euromillón sin que lo supiera tu pareja para gastártelo tú. | 0 |
Home / Foreign Affairs / The Fix is In — Russia Kicked Off UN Human Rights Council, While Terrorist Saudi Arabia Re-Elected The Fix is In — Russia Kicked Off UN Human Rights Council, While Terrorist Saudi Arabia Re-Elected Jay Syrmopoulos October 29, 2016 1 Comment
New York, NY – Russia lost an election to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the first time since the council’s inception in 2006 – narrowly being beaten out by Croatia – as arguably the biggest supporter of terrorism in the world, Saudi Arabia, was re-elected to the council in spite of strong condemnation from global human rights organizations.
The 47 council seats are elected for a three-year term and regionally distributed, with staggered elections for one third of the seats every year. Russia had just completed a three-year term running against both Hungary and Croatia for the two available seats from Eastern Europe.
After the U.S. lobbied heavily against the Russians, Hungary finished substantially ahead in the voting, with Croatia receiving 114 votes and Russia garnering only 112 votes of the 193 member countries.
“It was a very close vote and very good countries competing, Croatia, Hungary. They are fortunate because of their size, they are not exposed to the winds of international diplomacy. Russia is very exposed. We’ve been in the UNHRC for several years, and I am sure next time we will stand and get back in,” Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said.
Russia will be eligible to run for a seat on the UNHRC again next year.
Staunch U.S. ally, and renowned global terror exporter, Saudi Arabia, easily made it onto the council with 152 votes on the Asian ballot, and will represent the region alongside Iraq, Japan and China for the next three years.
According to a report from RT :
South Africa, Rwanda, Egypt and Tunisia were chosen from the African group, Cuba and Brazil from Latin America and the Caribbean, and the US and the UK will represent the Western bloc, which comprises Western Europe and North America.
Over the next term, which will last between 2017 and 2019, the 14 chosen members will be tasked with formulating the UN’s official position on conflicts occurring around the world, as well as the domestic policies of member states.
It should be noted that the U.S. is intentionally attempting to utilize the UN as a tool to forward their “aggressive Russia” narrative, thus removing Russia from the council is paramount to the American goal of labeling Russia as a human rights violator.
A number of the worlds most prestigious non-governmental human rights organizations, have come forward to claim that the UNHRC has been hijacked by oppressive regimes (like the Saudis) looking to deflect criticism and drive their own agendas.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International produced a joint statement earlier this year condemning Saudi Arabia’s “appalling record of violations” in Yemen, where it has been accused of war crimes over the bombing of Houthi rebels — resulting in the deaths of up to 4,000 civilians. Both organizations have called for Saudi Arabia, a council member since 2006, to be suspended from the UNHRC without success.
Exposing the rampant corruption within the UN system, just last month Saudi Arabia used its power in the council to block an outside inquiry into the Kingdom’s 157 domestic executions last year – often by beheading – while simultaneously heading a successful resolution that allowed their allies from the exiled Yemeni government to investigate numerous human rights abuses committed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
Russia dismissed a petition signed by 80 NGOs, as “cynical” and “dishonorable,” and said the accusations were motivated more by politics than by concern for human rights. The groups, which included Human Rights Watch and Refugees International, asked the voting countries to “question seriously whether Russia’s role in Syria which includes supporting and undertaking military actions which have routinely targeted civilians and civilian objects renders it fit to serve on the UN’s premier inter-governmental human rights institution.”
Make no mistake that the exclusion of the Russians from the council is a strategic move, orchestrated by the United States, as means of both marginalizing Russian influence, and stacking the deck against them in an effort to control the global narrative regarding Russia’s role as an international peacemaker. The goal is to propagandize people into buying into the “aggressive Russia” narrative continually parroted by US war hawks.
When Saudi Arabia, a nation that beheaded twice the number of people as ISIS last year , and one of the biggest exporters of global terrorism, is on the Human Rights Council – while the Russia is summarily dismissed because they challenge the U.S. narrative in Syria – it becomes increasingly apparent that the UN is nothing more than a tool to forward U.S. empire globally. Share Google + morris
This is some sort of sick joke, why doesn’t the west start acting like they have some semblance of responsibility to if not those that gave them Power well then future generations. The West has already made it abundantly clear that because usa loses its Reserve Currency status they will happily take the entire Planet out with them.
This is usa pulling the strings as usual with it’s witless cohorts obeying as told. Social Trending | 0 |
Putin dismisses allegations about Russia’s interference in U.S. election October 27, 2016 TASS vladimir putin , u.s.-russia relations , Valdai , sochi , elections in usa Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club on Oct. 27. Source: Kremlin.ru
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed as hysteria speculations Russia is meddling in the election campaign in the United States.
"On the list of phantom problems, far-fetched problems there is the ongoing hysteria - I just cannot think of another word - over Russia’s alleged influence on the course of the current presidential election," Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club on Oct. 27.
He pointed out that the United States was faced with many problems - from the mammoth federal debt to police brutality.
"But apparently the elite has nothing to say to calm public anxiety," said Putin. "It is far better to distract people’s attention with rumored Russian hackers, spies, agents of influence and so on and so forth.
“Is there anyone who thinks in full seriousness that Russia is capable of influencing the choice of the American people somehow? America is not a banana republic, is it? America is a great power." | 0 |
We the citizens and voters have to stop being enablers of systemic corruption.
The overwhelming consensus of the punditry across the political spectrum is that “Nothing Good Can Come of This Election”–and that’s a very good thing. The handwringing goes like this: The country is deeply divided by schisms that cannot be bridged, every institution from the two parties to the mainstream media to the Department of Justice has been tarnished by cover-ups, collusion or worse; whomever wins the election will enter the presidency without a mandate, and so on.
Why is “nothing good can come of this” good? Because ridding the nation of its political corruption will require hitting bottom.
Just as an alcoholic or drug addict is incapable of making any truly positive changes until he/she hits absolute bottom, so it is with our tolerance of a corrupt political system that is poisoning the nation, one injection of corrupt cash, collusion and pay-to-play at a time.
If our rotten-to-the-core politics as usual is indeed flying off the cliff to complete destruction, that is an unalloyed good.
Just as alcoholics continue down their self-destructive path with the aid of enablers, so too has the corrupt political order expanded with the aid of the Mainstream Media, insiders in the Department of Justice, K Street lobbyists and a veritable army of well-paid lackeys, pundits, academics, apparatchiks and assorted toadies in the organs of governance and in the big-money private sector and philanthro-capitalist dynasties of pay-to-play foundations.
The only way anything will truly change in the political order is if every Establishment insider politico loses every election, from the presidency to dogcatcher. Nothing will change until the mere existence of a private foundation like the Clinton Foundation triggers a landslide loss for the politico with ties to such corruption.
Nothing will change until the collusion of the mainstream media (supplying the insider candidate with debate questions, etc.) alone causes the colluding candidate to lose by a landslide.
Nothing will change until candidates who refuse to accept any donation larger than $100 from anyone or any entity beat the Goldman Sachs/Saudi prince-funded insider candidates by a landslide.
Nothing will change until candidates who fund costly negative TV advertising campaigns with millions in pay-to-play “contributions” from Goldman Sachs et al. lose by a landslide.
You get the point: we the citizens and voters have to stop being enablers of systemic corruption. We have to stop being bamboozled by insiders with promises of “hope and change” and the usual negative TV blitzes funded by corrupt big money.
It’s easy to blame lax campaign laws or the corrupted candidates and their insider toadies, but ultimately we’re responsible for enabling corruption, collusion, pay-for-play and a political and financial Elite that’s above the law.
From the point of view of the corrupted, colluding insiders, MSM flunkies, Department of Justice lackeys and well-paid parrot-pundits, nothing good can come from this election because half the voters may actually cast off the shackles of the nation’s corrupt and corrupting political and financial Elites.
This mass rejection of the politics as usual of corrupt and corrupting political and financial Elites is the highest possible good –a public good that eludes the hand-wringing corrupt insiders, pundits and toadies who have sucked up fortunes from the trough of putrid systemic corruption.
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
We encourage you to share and republish our reports, analyses, breaking news and videos ( Click for details ).
Contributed by Charles Hugh Smith of Of Two Minds . | 0 |
The mainstream media’s reaction to Breitbart News’ expanded influence has run the gamut from bewildered hostility to turgid hysteria, and not much in between. [Media sites are struggling to frame the news of Breitbart’s recent high profile hires, plans to open new bureaus in Europe, and the departure of former Breitbart employees to work in the Trump White House. We summarize their findings here for the amusement of our 45 million unique monthly readers. First up, the Washington Post is upset that Breitbart is not racist. While falsely labeling us an “ ” site, the Washington Post’s Callum Borchers speculates on Breitbart’s future in an article titled: “How Breitbart could lose its street cred. ” The Post moans: “Breitbart has, in fact, looked increasingly mainstream since Election Day. ” After weeks of disingenuously associating us with “white supremacists,” “white nationalists,” and “” the Post appears frustrated to learn that we’re not cross burners after all. But, of course, the Post couches their disappointment by feigning concern for our “street cred. ” If we “go mainstream,” the Post warns that we “risk alienating readers who were drawn to the website because it seemed to be by and for outsiders. ” When reached for comment, Breitbart senior management thanked the Post for the warning and shared the following image from Alexa. com’s top US website rankings: The Atlantic’s Rosie Gray claims we’re trying “to go Mainstream. ” She describes Breitbart News as a “scrappy, outsider publication” that “has never enjoyed this much prominence — but it’s discovering that success brings its own challenges. ” Like the Washington Post, Gray expresses concern that the more Breitbart “becomes part of the mainstream, the more its outsider cred is threatened. ” Ironically, Gray mocked Breitbart just a few days ago for running an oversized headline framing Trump’s inaugural address as : Breitbart going with the font pic. twitter. — Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) January 20, 2017, When reached for comment, Breitbart senior management thanked the Atlantic for its concern and shared the following image from Alexa. com’s top US website rankings: Meanwhile, Salon labels Breitbart News a “fringe news site” and “ propaganda organ. ” Salon’s Gary Legum writes that the recent White House hiring of former Breitbart employees ranks high on the list of the “many tragedies … set in motion by the nascent Donald Trump administration. ” And as a “fake news” bonus, Salon used a headline photo purporting to show the former Breitbart employees who left to join the Trump White House. They included an image of former Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, former Breitbart Senior National Security Editor Sebastian Gorka, and a woman they claim is former Breitbart reporter Julia Hahn. Breitbart Alexander Marlow, when reached for comment, said, “Scoreboard. Oh, and I have no idea who that woman is. ” Legum describes in lurid detail the horrors of “a fully White House”: With Bannon in the West Wing, it was inevitable that the administration would bring in a few of the propagators of the racist, isolationist, nativist swill that over the last few years has made Breitbart the “news” site for the sort of white people who berate Mexican restaurants for printing their menus in Spanish. But even recognizing the likelihood that Bannon would poach some of his former employees was not enough preparation for the ugliness we will likely hear on a daily basis from a fully White House. We offer no comment about “ ugliness,” but Breitbart National Security Editor Frances Martel, when reached for comment, said this about the Mexican restaurant menus: Ojalá que tenga razón Salon que los americanos que no hablan español le estén dando tanto negocio a los restaurantes mexicanos, porque la comida mexicana es deliciosa (aunque, claro, no mejor que la cubana). The Associated Press — the mainstay of establishment journalism — is perhaps understandably miffed that Breitbart is now treated with the same respect as their own hallowed organization at White House press briefings. Two weeks ago, they offered a snarky aside that only Breitbart got a reserved seat at Trump’s January 11 presser. “Other reporters scrambled to save their seats. Reporters shouted and waved their arms at Trump to get his attention, rather than the president calling on questioners from a list, as is often the practice,” the AP sniffed. Breitbart CEO Larry Solov was unavailable for comment. | 1 |
“If conservative ‘Christians’ are about Jesus Christ, why do they always seem to Quote: just about everybody BUT Jesus, most often Paul of Tarsus?” Okay, then. Here are some things Jesus said unlike what you believe:
“I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings,” (Luke 16:9 NIV).
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword,” (Matthew 10:34 NIV).
“From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,'” (Matthew 4:17 NIV).
“You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again,'” (John 3:7 NIV).
Conservatives tend to be more charitable than liberals on average, BTW. It says in 2 Corinthians that God loves a cheerful giver. Socialism would hinder the ability to give freely and out of your heart instead of compulsion.
Additionally, the reason why Jesus “hung out with” sinners is that He wanted to change their evil ways and put their faith in Him:
“Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick,'” (Luke 5:31 NIV).
“‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female,” and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate,’” (Matthew 19:4-6 NIV).
So Jesus certainly did not support gay marriage.
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,'” (John 14:6 NIV).
So much for the relativism that liberalism is inseparable from.
And if the Pentateuch is too conservative for you, just remember that when He was tempted, Jesus Quote: d from Deuteronomy every time.
Liberalism came from the pagan Enlightenment, not Christianity. You strain a gnat and swallow a camel, as Jesus would say to you.
You dare call yourself a good clergyman, fool? Shame on you for believing the lies of the liberal apostates. You say you are clergy, yet clearly you know nothing about the Scriptures, nor do you know God.
If that is the case with you, then this describes you quite accurately:
“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord,” (Jude 1:4 NIV).
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:8 NIV). | 0 |
Council approves cleanup funding
Current retirees’ pensions and health care benefits will not be affected.
DuPont says it hopes to save $550 million over the years by freezing those pensions. It says it also will stop giving future retiree health benefits to staff currently younger than age 50, saving an additional $50 million.
The Wilmington, Del.-based pesticides and materials maker, which employs about 50,000 after spinning off such companies as Axalta and Chemours in recent years and laying off 5,000 management, research, and other staff last winter, says it has followed Lockheed, Johnson Controls and other large manufacturers in switching workers from guaranteed pensions to 401(k) savings plans, whose value rises and falls with the investment markets.
In 2007, DuPont stopped adding new hires to the pension plan. It continued to boost promised benefits to plan members still working at the company.
Since then, it has assigned new workers to 401(k) retirement plans. Instead of guaranteeing pensions whose value rises with years of service, the company pays the equivalent of up to 9 percent of employees’ salaries into investment accounts if they set aside up to 6 percent of their pay.
Workers put that money into funds from a menu of investments, in hopes they can stretch the tax-protected accounts, plus Social Security, to pay their way in retirement.
The freeze will take place in 2018 if the company stays on schedule to complete its planned merger with Dow Chemical Co. and split into separate pesticide, materials and specialized-products manufacturing companies, according to spokesman Daniel Turner.
Turner said the freeze was not connected to the Dow deal. Under CEO Edward Breen, DuPont has been cutting jobs, closing plants and consolidating vendors in an effort to boost profits and streamline operations in advance of the reorganization.
“Sadly, the ongoing cash buyout of 18,000 vested pensioners and today’s action to end pension accruals and health benefits project a company with little concern for those who have stayed with the company in order to build security for their families in the future,” Lawrence Craig Skaggs, a retired DuPont lobbyist, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Since the Dow merger was announced in 2015, Skaggs has posted details and questions concerning DuPont retirement issues at his 6,300-member DuPont Pensioners Facebook site.
“We remain concerned that the DuPont pension plan,” which covers 133,000 current workers and retirees, “is less than 70 percent funded,” Skaggs added, citing Labor Department reports.
Retirees have been pressing DuPont and Dow to put more assets into retirement plans before they divide the companies, to ensure the plans remain solvent.
Pensioners in corporate plans that run out of cash typically are rescued by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which imposes limits on early retirement and payments above insured levels.
Earlier this year, DuPont offered some retirees who are not yet collecting pensions the options of taking their money in lump-sum payments, or replacing their pensions with insurance annuities, backed against loss by state insurance guaranty funds. Recommended for you | 0 |
In 2004, George W. Bush was in the White House, Beyoncé was in Destiny’s Child and more than 100, 000 American troops were in Iraq. Whether or not this could be called a more innocent time, innocence is the central idea — the premise, the moral, the scarlet letter and the white whale — of “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” which takes place in that year. Directed by Ang Lee and adapted from Ben Fountain’s novel, a National Book Award finalist in 2012, the movie is dominated by the baby blues and shy smile of its title character, an Army specialist from a small town in Texas. Billy (Joe Alwyn) and the other surviving members of Bravo Company, having endured a hellish firefight in Iraq, find themselves in equally surreal if less perilous circumstances back in the U. S. A. where they have been conscripted into the halftime show of a Thanksgiving Day professional football game. They are warmly applauded for their service and also callously exploited, fodder for a spectacle that collapses the difference between patriotic sentiment and gross commercialism. The audience’s attention swivels back and forth between the theater of battle and the arena of American pop culture, pausing for quieter moments backstage, in the barracks and at Billy’s childhood home. A genial kid — he’s all of 19, and still a virgin — with a friendly manner and an understated sense of humor, Billy is the kind of person everyone seems to like. The officers in charge of his unit, the sarcastic taskmaster Dime (Garrett Hedlund) and the mystical warrior Shroom (Vin Diesel) regard him with fondness. He is popular with the other men, especially Montoya (whose nickname is Mango). Something about him inspires special devotion from his sister Kathryn (Kristen Stewart) and catches the eye of a cheerleader named Faison (Makenzie Leigh). That’s a lot of people, and I haven’t even mentioned Albert (Chris Tucker) the movie guy who is trying to sell the story of the Bravos to Hollywood, or Norm Oglesby (Steve Martin) the Texas real estate mogul and owner who is the Bravos’ host. Billy’s dealings with everyone — earnest conversations punctuated by flurries of boyish banter and bursts of intense action — give the movie a pleasantly hectic rhythm, but also thin out its emotions. The book is propelled by the breakneck velocity and scattershot jokiness of Mr. Fountain’s prose, but neither frenzy nor insouciance is exactly Mr. Lee’s speed. He is an elegant, contemplative filmmaker, observing strong emotions with a careful balance of sympathy and detachment. And even the chaos of combat and the circus inside the stadium have a choreographed, almost serene quality. You are not immersed in Billy’s world or his consciousness, but floating through them, with your eyes and ears open for small, significant details. There are enough of these to make watching “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” absorbing. The clarity of the digital cinematography (by John Toll) and the precision of the production design (by Mark Friedberg) incite a hundred small acts of noticing, and the script (by Castelli) is attentive to the book’s cacophony of idioms. The movie is being released in two forms: a version with an accelerated frame rate in a couple of theaters and a more conventional version everywhere else. The edition, which was screened at the New York Film Festival, is a fascinating failed experiment, an attempt to bring Billy’s drama to life with unprecedented immediacy that falls into an uncanny valley between cinema and virtual reality. The images are, somewhat paradoxically, so that their artificiality becomes more pronounced you feel as if you’re sitting uncomfortably close to the costumed holograms of famous actors. In more traditional moviegoing conditions the paradox runs in the other direction. The smoothness of the camerawork and the deliberateness of the dialogue make “Billy Lynn” feel more like a filmed play than an adapted novel, despite the verisimilitude of the settings. The acting, in and medium shots, has a studied, stagy quality. Too often, you can hear the writing when the actors speak. But the median quality of both the writing and the acting is pretty high. Ms. Stewart, in just a few scenes, proves once again that she is one of the most interesting screen actresses of her generation, and you may wish that more of the movie was about Kathryn. It is a pleasure to encounter Mr. Diesel in his mode, and to be in the peppery presence of the underrated Mr. Hedlund. And also to witness Mr. Lee’s ability to serve the ideas of a literary source. “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” is about the gulf that separates modern soldiers from their noncombatant fellow citizens, a rift that is the subject of books like Phil Klay’s “Redeployment” and Sebastian Junger’s “Tribe. ” The film is also, like Mr. Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” about love among men. The bonds in this case are comradely rather than erotic, but they are no less deep for that reason, and are stronger than anything else, including patriotism, family loyalty and heterosexual romance. This is not exactly a rare notion, but “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” explores it with gentleness rather than sentimental bombast. The satire may be a little too gentle, but there is something disarmingly tender about the way Mr. Lee dramatizes young Billy’s predicament. You may be surprised at how sweet this movie is and also, in retrospect, startled by how bleak its vision turns out to be. “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for bloody combat, profanity and sexual longing. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. | 1 |
We Use Cookies: Our policy [X] Cher Finally Cracks Time Travel October 28, 2016 - BREAKING NEWS Share 0 Add Comment
AFTER over 27 years of research into quantum mechanics and temporal displacement technology, pop icon Cher has finally found a way to turn back time, WWN can exclusively reveal.
Cher, mostly aged 70, made the stunning announcement at a press conference held outside her particle physics collider facility in Miami, while on break from her busy schedule of Las Vegas residency shows and Einstein-Rosen bridge construction.
The legendary singer announced that as of 3:47am eastern time, the barrier separating humankind from the ability to journey backwards through the clouds of time, to meddle with the past and perhaps find a way to take back terrible things said to a loved one in a moment of anger, undoing any pain and hurt caused in the process.
“It’s time travel, baby, please listen,” said Cher, surrounded by a complex network of computers and shit.
“I’m going to be the first, baby, to travel through time, baby, please listen. Ever since the late 80s, baby, I’ve been wanting to turn back the clock, and after all these years, baby, you have to listen, I’ve found the key to stepping into a vortex travelling at greater than the speed of light, vanishing in front of your eyes but reappearing instantaneously at a pre-determined point in the pa-ah-ast”.
The singer gave a quick rendition of the Shoop Shoop Song and then dematerialised. | 0 |
Report: Trump hosted cocaine-fueled parties with underage girls ‹ › Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. He is a disabled veteran and has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades. Gordon Duff is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world's largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues. Gordon Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than "several" countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology. He is co-host of the popular VT Radio show Jim and Gordie Show . | 0 |
Shawn please don't send him to Canada, we have enough of our Prime Minister who is trying to ruin our country it is bad in shape, we are sinking into debt by the minute. Shawn you are the best on Fox. | 0 |
Not likely. | 0 |
Anthony Weiner Sends Apology Sext To Entire Clinton Campaign Close Vol 52 Issue 43 · Politics · Politicians · Election 2016
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. “Just wanted u 2 know I am so so sorry for the mess I caused everybody,” read the first of several group text messages that Weiner sent to over two dozen top campaign staffers between the hours of 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., a series that reportedly also included a grainy close-up photograph of the former congressman’s right nipple, several images of his erect penis protruding from his boxer briefs, and a fully nude selfie taken in front of a bathroom mirror on which he had written the phrase “I’m a bad boy” in lipstick. “U know I’d do just about anything to patch things up. I just hope nobody over there wants to give me a spanking! So hard right now.” At press time, sources confirmed that Weiner was speaking to the angry father of the 13-year-old girl whose number is reportedly one digit off from that of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Share This Story: WATCH VIDEO FROM THE ONION Sign up For The Onion's Newsletter
Give your spam filter something to do. Daily Headlines | 0 |
Assange Points Out Hillary’s Emails Confirm Oligarchic Control
https://www.rt.com/news/365404-assange-pilger-clinton-fbi/
https://www.rt.com/news/365405-assange-pilger-full-transcript/
The post Assange Points Out Hillary’s Emails Confirm Oligarchic Control appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org . | 0 |
LEXINGTON, Ky. — John Calipari, residue from that morning’s Ash Wednesday service smudged on his forehead, unbound his iPad’s leather case and showed a visiting reporter its gleaming desktop. “It’s never off,” he said. “Because I don’t know how to turn it off. ” Calipari, 58, Kentucky’s successful and controversial basketball coach, does not have a computer in his office overlooking the Wildcats’ practice gym. He does not know how to post Facebook updates or messages on Twitter. He does not, he said, even use email. Yet Calipari, whose résumé at Kentucky includes four Final Fours, a national championship and a No. 2 seed in this year’s N. C. A. A. tournament, is the driving force behind several powerful media platforms — including a Twitter account with more than a million followers, a website and a popular weekly podcast. Collectively, these serve as a permanent branding campaign, a public record of his thoughts and actions, and a mechanism for one of the sports world’s most and polarizing personalities. “We’re going to give out our message,” Calipari said this month, “but they’re also going to be able to see who I am, who my friends are, what I do, what I read — and it’s not filtered through anybody. ” Calipari has long sought to connect directly with fans and showcase his boisterous personality, said David R. Scott, the of Calipari’s 2009 book, “Bounce Back,” and the founding editor of Calipari’s website, CoachCal. com. In an earlier era, Scott said, those connections were forged in interactions he recalled that Calipari, while coaching at the University of Massachusetts, delivered pizza to students waiting in line before games. New technology has allowed Calipari to do the same type of thing, only on a much grander scale. “His major was marketing,” said Scott, now a senior director in communications at ESPN, “and he’s used it every day of his life. ” The internet and social media have eliminated the costs of printing and distribution, making anyone a potential publisher. From political campaigns to corporations to celebrities, organizations or individuals that in the past depended on traditional media outlets for their messaging now communicate directly with voters, consumers and fans. This autonomy is especially crucial for Calipari, who stands atop perhaps the most college sports program this side of Alabama football who seeks a prominent public profile, at least partly to aid the endeavor of recruiting and who in the past, he acknowledges, has been fitted with the “black hat. ” Notoriety and negative coverage have long trailed Calipari, a Hall of Fame coach known for his brash personality and disruptive methods, along with his teams’ consistent success. The N. C. A. A. vacated his Final Four runs with two previous teams, UMass and Memphis, and it takes only a few keystrokes to find someone criticizing his embrace of the “ ” strategy — recruiting talented prospects who expressly aspire to enter the N. B. A. after a single season in college. While in the past, Calipari said, he could not effectively combat reports or columns that cast him or his team in a bad light, that is no longer true. “In the old days, you had to wait,” said Calipari, describing how he would respond to slights or what he viewed as misinformation earlier in his career. “You can get on a day later on the radio, but it’s too late. It’s already singed in their mind. ” Today — with the aid of staff members in Kentucky’s sports information and image operations, who transcribe and publish the thoughts and musings of the coach — things are different. “Now,” he said, “I can respond in 30 seconds. ” Calipari does not eschew traditional media availabilities, and even cooperated on a forthcoming ESPN documentary about his career. But his own megaphone is a big one. Calipari’s Twitter account has three times as many followers as the main one for Kentucky’s basketball program. More than 500, 000 people follow his Facebook feed, and a track his posts on Instagram. Then there is CoachCal. com. It is not — like some other coach websites — a sleepy venue for occasional videos and links to articles posted elsewhere. Instead, it is an source for news, with its own de facto beat writer, Metz Camfield, and a certain, if limited, amount of exclusive access. (While the site is branded with Calipari’s image, it is owned by JMI Sports, Kentucky’s multimedia rights holder.) The site also has a personal blog with Calipari’s reflections on his team’s progress, celebrations of mentors and, of course, rebuttals to criticism. The newest addition to Calipari Inc. is Cal Cast — Calipari’s podcast, a breakout by a major active coach. After only three months and 15 episodes, it has more than a million listens. Calipari has hosted fellow coaches, businessmen, basketball commentators and his good friend Drake. (His dream guest is another clamorous, technologically challenged media machine according to Calipari, President Trump told a journalist whom Calipari declined to identify that he was open to appearing on the program.) All of these endeavors push a daily dose of the gospel according to Calipari. Wondering whether he truly cares about his players? A recent Instagram photograph showed the stat sheet that Calipari said he receives daily, detailing how his alumni are faring in the N. B. A. Want to know his philosophy? A “Recruiting Manifesto” emphasized Calipari’s “ ” approach (foreshadowing “Players First,” one of two books Calipari has written with the writer Michael Sokolove in the last three years). Skeptical that he is following N. C. A. A. rules? A rundown last year reminded readers that Calipari’s squads have among the highest graduation success rates of top teams. A case study in how Calipari can bypass the traditional news media came amid the firestorm that erupted after a 2014 Yahoo report that Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski had used his perch as U. S. A. Basketball’s head coach to recruit high school prospects. Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, then a Team U. S. A. assistant, said in response that Calipari had complained about the arrangement and added that Calipari’s protests seemed disingenuous since he had coached the Dominican Republic’s team — a job that might have helped secure the commitment of the star prospect Towns. One day after Boeheim’s comments ran on Syracuse. com, Calipari, after appearing to respond via a snarky Twitter post, took to CoachCal. com to tell the world that he had called Boeheim (“We are friends”) to praise Krzyzewski’s stewardship of U. S. A. Basketball and to say he did not “begrudge” any potential recruiting advantage. Years later, Krzyzewski appeared as the guest on Cal Cast’s second episode. Calipari gushed about Krzyzewski’s triumphs with the national team, and the coaches bonded over their boyhoods and their affinity for legendary coaches. “Everybody’s going to be stunned,” Calipari said, “that we just talked for 30 minutes. ” Was it benign sincerity? Did Calipari have ulterior motives for staying on the good sides of U. S. A. Basketball and Krzyzewski? Either or both might be true — this month, U. S. A. Basketball announced that Calipari would coach the national team. But Calipari’s public stance was probably delivered more cleanly and persuasively than it would have been even through a with a friendly reporter. “It enables him to put his version of the story out exactly the way he wants to, as sanitized or unfiltered as he cares to,” said Bill Grueskin, a Columbia Journalism School professor. Calipari’s credibility is buttressed by all the things he publishes that have no obvious utility, whether it is a tribute to his family’s late German shepherd or CoachCal. com’s stream of updates on the team, written mostly by Camfield, a former Kentucky journalism major. Even the sponsor announcements Calipari reads during Cal Cast are disarmingly genuine, most of all the Blue Apron spots in which Calipari’s wife, Ellen, describes some delicious meal she has just cooked for her husband. Jerry Tipton, the longtime Lexington basketball beat reporter, said that Calipari’s platforms had an unavoidable bias. “Cal talks about ‘no filters,’ which is fine,” Tipton said, “except it has the biggest filter of all: Coach Cal. ” But Calipari disputed this characterization. “It isn’t filter,” he said. “It’s transparent. ” “I’m not perfect, I’m a sinner — that’s why I’ve got my ash on my head,” Calipari said. But, he continued, “there were so many coaches in the old days that were painted with black hats, and there were guys painted with white hats that should have had black hats on. ” “I’m not trying to write my legacy — someone else will write my legacy,” he added. “But what I am is, I’m transparent, and you are not writing my legacy. ” | 1 |
Politics FBI Director James Comey (AFP file photo)
Hillary Clinton’s top advisers blame FBI Director James Comey for the Democrat’s bruising loss to President-elect Donald Trump.
Navin Nayak, the head of the Clinton campaign’s opinion research division, sent an email to senior staffers Thursday, outlining “early signals” as to why the candidate lost the November 8 presidential election, POLITICO reported on Friday.
“We believe that we lost this election in the last week,” said Nayak’s email, which was published by POLITICO. “ Comey’s letter in the last 11 days of the election both helped depress our turnout and also drove away some of our critical support among college-educated white voters — particularly in the suburbs.”
“We also think Comey’s 2nd letter, which was intended to absolve Sec. Clinton, actually helped to bolster Trump’s turnout,” he continued.
The letter also highlighted several other challenges the Clinton team faced throughout the campaign, including a desire for change after two terms by a Democratic president and the reluctance of some Americans to vote for a female candidate. Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Donald Trump in New York on November 9, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
Despite those challenges, Nayak said, Clinton was on course to win until the last week, when “everything changed" and the momentum began to shift in favor of Trump.
“Voters who decided in the last week broke for Trump by a larger margin (42-47). These numbers were even more exaggerated in the key battleground states,” he said.
The FBI director angered Democrats late in October by announcing in a letter to Congress that the agency had uncovered new emails connected to the Clinton email investigation.
Just over a week later, Comey notified Congress that Clinton would not face charges over the newly discovered messages.
Nayak said Comey’s letters encouraged Trump supporters and depressed the turnout for Clinton on Election Day.
“There is no question that a week from Election Day, Sec. Clinton was poised for a historic win. In the end, less than 110K votes out of tens of millions cast on Election Day made the difference in this race,” he wrote.
“In the end,” Nayak concluded, “late breaking developments in the race proved one hurdle too many for us to overcome.”
Clinton had been leading Trump throughout the campaign in most of the polls except for the last week of the election when she lost ground to Trump. | 0 |
A Swedish man is facing charges in court after being accused of eating bacon too closely to a group of veiled Muslim women and calling them derogatory names. [The incident occurred in the Swedish capital of Stockholm over the weekend. The Swedish man, who has not been named by media or the police, is said to have approached the Muslim women who were wearing Islamic veils on a train while he was eating bacon and dangled the bacon in front of their faces, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports. According to the report, the women got up to find seating elsewhere and the man followed them with his bacon. He is alleged to have called them derogatory names and made racist comments, though neither the police nor the court has specified what was said during the incident. The prosecutors allege he then used racial epithets on another woman in the train station after getting off the train. He faces charges of incitement to racial hatred. Reaction to the incident on social media has been a mix of laughter and disbelief amongst English language users. Twitter user PeterSweden tweeted his disbelief at the charges saying: “What’s the next step, being racist for walking your dog?” What’s the next step ? Being racist for walking your dog ? https: . — PeterSweden (@PeterSweden7) March 26, 2017, Other users found humour in the story posting various reaction images involving Islamic extremism and bacon. Many criticised the policies of the Swedish government and political correctness. @PeterSweden7 This insanity is made possible by so called ”politic correctness” which creates an non liveable situation for nativs! ὢ pic. twitter. — Jo Ker #Nexit (@JoKer33817736) March 26, 2017, However, the reaction to the article from Swedish speakers was different. On Facebook, one Swedish speaker wrote: “I hope I never see this. I will make him eat the bacon raw the f**k up!” The sentiment was shared by another Swedish speaker who posted: “In what way do they really think that it would be okay to shove food in the face of someone you don’t know?” and added: “Grown men. Shame on you. ” The case is not the first time bacon misuse has led to prosecutions for hate crimes. In the UK last year, two Polish men were jailed for throwing bacon inside a London mosque. The pair were charged with a “racially motivated attack” when one of the men swore at a Muslim man and threw bacon at him. In Bristol last year, police were also alerted to another potential hate crime after several people threw bacon sandwiches at the entrance of a local mosque. Police commented on the incident calling it “abhorrent”. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 1 |
by JOHN SUMMERLY
A wave of viral and bacterial infections is sweeping across the Northern Hemisphere and people are taking longer to heal from an array of symptoms within the respiratory system. If you are resorting to conventional medicine to address these infections with antibiotics, you are not only adding to the problems associated with antibiotic resistance, but you’re also doing little to address the healing mechanisms within your body to address the cause. Herbal remedies not only boost lung health, but they can heal infections and even repair lung damage. Here are 15 of the best herbs to boost lung health.
1. LICORICE ROOT
Licorice is one of the more widely consumed herbs in the world. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it occurs in more formulas than any other single herb because it is thought to harmonize the action of all other herbs. Licorice is very soothing and softens the mucous membranes of the throat and especially the lungs and stomach and at the same time cleanses any inflamed mucous membrane that needs immune system support. . It reduces the irritation in the throat and yet has an expectorant action. It is the saponins (detergent-like action) that loosen the phlegm in the respiratory tract, so that the body can expel the mucus. Compounds within this root help relieve bronchial spasms and block the free radical cells that produce the inflammation and tightening of the air ways. The compounds also have antibacterial and antiviral effects to them as well which helps fight off viral and bacterial strains in the body that can cause lung infections. Glycrrhizins and flavonoids can even help prevent lung cancer cells from forming which means they can even prevent lung cancer.
2. COLTSFOOT
Coltsfoot has been traditionally by Native Americans for thousands of years to strengthen the lungs. It clears out excess mucus from the lungs and bronchial tubes. It soothes the mucus membranes in the lungs, and has been shown in research to assist with asthma, coughs, bronchitis, and other lung ailments. Coltsfoot is available in dried form for tea or as an alcohol extract known as a tincture.
3. CANNABIS
The toxic breakdown of therapeutic compounds in cannabis from burning the plant are totally avoided with vaporization. Extraction and inhaling cannabinoid essential oils of the unprocessed plant affords significant mitigation of irritation to the oral cavity that comes from smoking. Cannabis is perhaps one of the most effective anti-cancer plants in the world shown in study after study to stimulate cannabinoid receptor activation in specific genes and mediate the anti-invasive effect of cannabinoids. Vaporizing cannabis allows the active ingredients to stimulate the body’s natural immune response and significantly reduces the ability of infections to spread. Vaporizing cannabis (especially with very high amounts of cannabinoids) opens up airways and sinuses, acting as a bronchodilator. It is even a proven method to treat and reverse asthma.
4. OSHA ROOT
Osha is an herb native to the Rocky Mountain area and has historically been used by the Native Americans for respiratory support. The roots of the plant contain camphor and other compounds which make it one of the best lung-support herbs in America. One of the main benefits of osha root is that it helps increase circulation to the lungs, which makes it easier to take deep breaths. Also, when seasonal sensitivities flare up your sinuses, osha root which is not an actual antihistamine, does produce a similar effect and may be help calm respiratory irritation.
5. THYME
Thyme is very powerful in the fight against chest congestion. It produces powerful antiseptic essential oils which are classified as naturally antibiotic and anti-fungal. Thyme is a well known to zap acne than expensive prescription creams, gels and lotions. Thyme tea has the power to chase away and eliminate bacteria and viruses so whether your infection is based on either, it will work. Thyme has been used as a lung remedy consumed since antiquity and is used extensively to day to prevent and treat respiratory tract infections and bacterial infection pneumonia.
6. OREGANO
Although oregano contains the vitamins and nutrients required by the immune system, its primary benefits are owed to its carvacrol and rosmarinic acid content. Both compounds are natural decongestants and histamine reducers that have direct, positive benefits on the respiratory tract and nasal passage airflow. Oil of oregano fights off the dangerous bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, better than the most common antibiotic treatments. Oregano has so many health benefits that a bottle of organic oregano oil should be in everyone’s medicine cabinet.
7. LOBELIA
Did you know that horses given lobelia are able to breath more deeply? Its benefits are not limited to equestrians. It has been used as “asthmador” in Appalachian folk medicine. Lobelia, by some accounts, is thought to be one of the most valuable herbal remedies in existence. Extracts of Lobelia inflata contain lobeline, which showed positive effects in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tumor cells. Lobelia contains an alkaloid known as lobeline, which thins mucus, breaks up congestion. Additionally, lobelia stimulates the adrenal glands to release epinephrine, in effect, this relaxes the airways and allows for easier breathing. Also, because lobelia helps to relax smooth muscles, it is included in many cough and cold remedies. Lobelia should be part of everyone’s respiratory support protocol!
8. ELECAMPANE
Elecampane has been used by Native Americans for many years to clear out excess mucus that impairs lung function. It is known as a natural antibacterial agent for the lungs, helping to lessen infection particularly for people who are prone to lung infections like bronchitis. Herbal practitioners often recommend one teaspoon of the herb per cup of boiling water, drunk three times daily for two to three weeks but elecampane is also available in tincture format for ease.
9. EUCALYPTUS
Native to Australia, eucalyptus isn’t just for Koala bears! Aborigines, Germans, and Americans have all used the refreshing aroma of eucalyptus to promote respiratory health and soothe throat irritation. Eucalyptus is a common ingredient in cough lozenges and syrups and its effectiveness is due to a compound called cineole. Cineole has numerous benefits — it’s an expectorant, can ease a cough, fights congestion, and soothes irritated sinus passages. As an added bonus, because eucalyptus contains antioxidants, it supports the immune system during a cold or other illness.
10. MULLEIN
Both the flowers and the leaves of the mullein plant are used to make an herbal extract that helps strengthen the lungs. Mullein is used by herbal practitioners to clear excess mucus from the lungs, cleanse the bronchial tubes, and reduce inflammation that is present in the respiratory tract. A tea can be made from one teaspoon of the dried herb to one cup of boiled water. Alternatively, you can take a tincture form of this herb.
11. LUNGWORT
Lungwort is a tree-growing lichen that actually resembles lung tissue in appearance. However, this natural remedy doesn’t just look the part. As early as the 1600s, lungwort has been used to promote lung and respiratory health and clear congestion. Pulmonaria selections come in all kinds so seek an herbologist for direction. Lungwort also contains compounds that are powerfully effective against harmful organisms that affect respiratory health.
12. CHAPARRAL
Chaparral, a plant native to the southwest, has been appreciated by the Native Americans for lung detoxification and respiratory support. Chaparral contains powerful antioxidants that resist irritation and NDGA which is known to fight histamine response. NDGA inhibits aerobic and anaerobic glycolysis (the energy-producing ability) of cancer cells. Chaparral is also an herb that fights harmful organisms. The benefits of chaparral are most available in a tincture extraction but chaparral tea may support respiratory problems by encouraging an expectorant action to clear airways of mucus.
13. SAGE
Sage’s textured leaves give off a heady aroma, which arises from sage’s essential oils. These oils are the source of the many benefits of sage tea for lung problems and common respiratory ailments. Sage tea is a traditional treatment for sore throats and coughs. The rich aromatic properties arising from sage’s volatile oils of thujone, camphor, terpene and salvene can be put to use by inhaling sage tea’s vapors to dispel lung disorders and sinusitis. Alternatively, brew a strong pot of sage tea and place it into a bowl or a vaporizer.
14. PEPPERMINT
Peppermint, and peppermint oil, contains menthol — a soothing ingredient known to relax the smooth muscles of the respiratory tract and promote free breathing. Dried peppermint typically contains menthol, menthone, menthyl acetate, menthofuran and cineol. Peppermint oil also contains small amounts of many additional compounds including limonene, pulegone, caryophyllene and pinene. Paired with the antihistamine effect of peppermint, menthol is a fantastic decongestant. Many people use therapeutic chest balms and other inhalants that contain menthol to help break up congestion. Additionally, peppermint is an antioxidant and fights harmful organisms.
15. PLANTAIN LEAF
Plantain leaf has been used for hundreds of years to ease cough and soothe irritated mucous membranes. Many of its active constituents show antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, as well as being anti-inflammatory and antitoxic. Clinical trials have found it favorable against cough, cold, and lung irritation. Plantain leaf has an added bonus in that it may help relieve a dry cough by spawning mucus production in the lungs.
Seek the advice of an herbologist or Naturopathic Doctor on the preparation, appropriate dosages and frequency according to your condition. Many of the herbs above may also be combined for cumulative effects. All of the above are available in various forms, as nutritional supplements, tea blends and prepared oils. You can always grow your own as well to ensure your herbs are organic and ethically harvested. | 0 |
As a member of the Arctic Council, the United States has signed onto two agreements that include efforts to protect the Arctic from climate change, linking it to human activity and calling on global efforts to reduce its effects, including enforcement of the Paris Agreement. [“The Arctic Council, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, has proven to be an indispensable forum in which we can pursue cooperation,” Tillerson said in remarks to the council. “I want to affirm that the United States will continue to be an active member in this council. ” “Foreign ministers of the eight Arctic States signed the third binding agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Arctic Council, the ‘Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation,’ which will help to facilitate entry and exit of persons, equipment, and material access to research infrastructure and facilities access to research areas the use of traditional and local knowledge and education, career development, and training opportunities for students and scientists,” the council press release said. The ministers, including Tillerson, also signed the Fairbanks Declaration, which states, in part: Reaffirming our commitment to the of the inhabitants of the Arctic, to sustainable development and to the protection of the Arctic environment, Recognizing the rights of Arctic indigenous peoples and the unique role of the Permanent Participants within the Arctic Council, as well as the commitment to consult and cooperate in good faith with Arctic indigenous peoples and to support their meaningful engagement in Arctic Council activities, Acknowledging the contributions of local authorities, and the interests of all Arctic residents and communities in the work of the Arctic Council, Further recognizing that activities taking place outside the Arctic region, including activities occurring in Arctic States, are the main contributors to climate change effects and pollution in the Arctic, and underlining the need for action at all levels, Noting with concern that the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of the global average, resulting in widespread social, environmental, and economic impacts in the Arctic and worldwide, and the pressing and increasing need for mitigation and adaptation actions and to strengthen resilience, Noting the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on climate change and its implementation, and reiterating the need for global action to reduce both greenhouse gases and climate pollutants. The White House has not taken an official position yet as to whether it will stick with the Paris Agreement or withdraw, and Tillerson did not comment directly on the matter while in Alaska, the New York Times reported, despite his signing the document in favor of it. “No decision is imminent, and in his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Tillerson presented the delay as necessary to gain the viewpoints of parties outside the White House and even outside the United States, including the other Arctic nations,” The Times reported. “We are taking time to understand your concerns,” Tillerson told the members of the council, which in addition to the U. S. is comprised of Canada, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Russia. “But we’re not going to rush,” Tillerson said. “We’re going to work to make the right decision for the United States. ” “The council members approved, with little fuss, an agreement on scientific cooperation in the region,” The Times reported. “But the meeting’s closing statement, known as the Fairbanks Declaration, had been the subject of a flurry of negotiations on Wednesday. ” “We came here to Fairbanks believing that the declaration language was agreed,” Rene Soderman, the senior Arctic official for Finland, said, noting that the U. S. objected to some language, but that the overall council prevailed in its efforts. “We were able to push the U. S. back as much as possible,” Soderman said. “And they were able to go back as much as possible. ” “It’s a decent declaration and contains all the essential issues for all the eight countries,” Soderman said. Protesters were on hand at the venue chanting slogans, The Times reported, noting Tillerson’s previous job as CEO of ExxonMobil. Terry Chapin, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was one of the protesters who is critical of the council’s need for unanimous decisions on matters. “They’re constrained in the action they can take because they depend on the consensus from participating countries,” Chapin said. “So if the United States is not going to provide consensus on the climate action that’s needed, their hands are tied. “I think we really need to speak to people like Tillerson to say that this is the kind of action that’s needed,” Chapin said. “While the council only has the power to issue advisories, the language in the statement signed by Tillerson comes in stark contrast to statements and promises made by President Trump about climate change,” ABC reported, noting at the same time that Tillerson “endorsed” the Fairbanks Declaration. The Associated Press describes the Arctic Council as “an advisory body that promotes cooperation among member nations and indigenous groups,” and a “focus is sustainable development and environmental protection of the Arctic. ” “It does not make policy or allocate resources, and its decisions must be unanimous,” according to AP. The gathering marked the end of the U. S. chairmanship of the council, which was passed on to Finland. | 1 |
By Wes Williams Election 2016 , Politics , Videos October 27, 2016 Young Turks Finds Out Why Trump Is About To Lose Utah For Republicans For First Time In Decades (VIDEO) Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
Utah. It is one of, if not the most conservative states in the nation, largely thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormons. And as such it is usually a solid, bright red state on the electoral maps. Utah has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate exactly once in the past 64 years — in the anti-Goldwater wave of 1964. But this year it is possible that Utah will not be in the Republican column when the votes are added up. That is, at least not in the Republican column headed by Donald Trump, who is largely being rejected by voters in the Beehive State.
Many Utah voters with strong religious beliefs are not happy with Trump, and unlike many Christian evangelical leaders who have decided to stay hitched to his wagon despite the allegations of improper sexual conduct, Utahans are bolting, putting the state in play. The Young Turks sent Michael Shure to the state to find out what was on people’s minds, and what many of them had to tell him was quite clear — they don’t think Trump is a good representative of their Christian beliefs.
None of the young Utahans Shure spoke to said they planned to vote for Trump. Some said they would vote for Gary Johnson. One college student indicated that he would consider a vote for Hillary. But the name that seemed to come up more than any others was Evan McMullin.
McMullin is the Republican who is running an independent campaign for president. He is also a Mormon, which gives him a huge advantage in Utah. Some recent polls of the state have McMullin polling even with Clinton, but still trailing Trump. But as Benjamin Morris notes at FiveThirtyEight, there are questions about the methodology of those polls that could mean McMullin’s support in Utah is even greater than he is getting credit for.
Whether McMullin wins in Utah or whether Trump is able to squeak out a razor thin victory, one thing is certain: unlike many of their traditional “Christian” counterparts in the deep south and the rest of the Rocky Mountain region, many Mormons want no part of Trump or his policies, which some of them were quite willing to tell Shure that they considered to be un-Christian. Not only will a loss of Utah further hurt Trump’s slim chances of winning the White House, a McMullin win there would make him a footnote in future history books as the first third-party candidate since George Wallace in 1968 to win electoral votes.
Here’s Michael Shure’s report on the mood in Utah, via YouTube:
Featured image via George Frey/Getty Images Share this Article! | 0 |
On Tuesday Hunter Jackson was suspended for seven days after bringing an empty . 22 shell casing to school to show his friends. [Hunter’s school — A Place to Grow — is located in Troy, Illinois. According to Fox 2 Now, Hunter’s mother, Kristy Jackson, said her son was excited because he had just spent time with his grandpa — a Caseyville, Illinois, police officer — who was teaching him about hunting and gun safety. Jackson said: [Hunter] just was wandering around in a field and picked up and put it in his pocket and didn’t tell his parents … it’s paranoia. It’s something that’s become quite an epidemic where guns are automatically assumed that they’re bad … and I’m not sure how a suspension teaches my son anything about tolerance or anything about why he was wrong. It just means his school doesn’t want him there because of things he enjoys. In a Facebook post, Jackson she went to the school to pick her son up like any other day, only to met by “a stone faced teacher” who said her son had brought a “shotgun bullet” to school. Jackson said her immediate thought was, “My kid? Who just spent the weekend learning gun safety?” She said the teacher then handed her a letter saying “[Hunter’s] behavior warranted a seven school day suspension. Which [Kristy] still was expected to pay tuition for, of course. And a threat that if his enthusiasm for guns continued, he’d be permanently expelled. ” Fox 2 Now reports that the letter also said the school had “repeatedly” told Hunter to quit “using other toys as make believe guns” The school’s also emailed Jackson to inform her that he was “notifying the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)” about the suspension. 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 |
Read in Chinese | 点击查看本文中文版 Every foreigner living in China has his share of China Stories. Jonathan has more than his share. Here’s one: Not long ago, the American actor received a call with an offer to appear in “Ip Man 3,” the third in a series of biopics about Bruce Lee’s master. The role was small, but his agent negotiated what considered an “outrageous” amount of money for it, and the producers agreed. was thrilled until he read the script and noticed another part for a foreign actor — a bigger and better role as a mobster named Frank. This was troubling. who is known in China only as Cao Cao, is by far the leading foreign actor working in the country today, having appeared in about 100 movies and television programs since his career began in 1999. He is famous throughout the mainland, and his career has been on a steady upward trajectory. Last December he appeared in the action film “Mojin — The Lost Legend,” currently the movie in Chinese history. Who, wondered, would the producers have cast instead of him? sent panicked texts to the movie’s casting director, but they went unanswered. “I felt threatened,” he told me recently, only half kidding. A few days later, he boarded a plane from Beijing to Shanghai to begin filming. When he showed up to the set, the mystery was solved almost immediately: There, slouching on a stool surrounded by a scrum of people, was the former heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson. The retired fighter had been cast, perhaps misguidedly, as Frank. (The Village Voice later described Tyson’s performance in the film as “sadly unimpressive. ”) introduced himself and over the next three days developed a bond with Tyson. “He was not at all what I expected,” says. The pair discussed their young daughters, Montessori schools and, inevitably, boxing. They also spoke about something each man knows quite a bit about. “Ip Man 3” went on to gross $115 million at the box office in China, with more than half of that coming on the opening weekend. China’s booming movie market grew by nearly 50 percent last year and is expected to surpass North America’s as the largest in the world by next year. These days, Hollywood studios hardly greenlight a blockbuster without first asking, “How will this play in China?” The rewards are too vast. “Furious 7,” for example, earned $390 million in China — more than it made in the United States — and was for a time the film ever in the country. And just as Hollywood has begun to crack the market, Chinese cinema has come into its own. In recent years, Chinese studios have started shifting away from the agitprop that defined their cinematic output for generations and are instead focusing on genres that draw viewers to theaters in any country: action, adventure, comedy. In February, a comedy called “The Mermaid” became the movie ever in China within 12 days of its release, earning more than $430 million. Increasingly, Chinese cinemagoers are opting to buy tickets for movies made specifically for them — like those in the “Ip Man” series — not those that pander to them or lecture them. It is in this sort of film that has finally had the chance to act, rather than portray a for Western imperiousness. If the Hollywood studios really want to understand how to succeed in China, ’s journey makes for a kind of accidental guide. In January, I met at Beijing Capital International Airport to accompany him on a trip to Yiwu, a trading city in Zhejiang Province, 165 miles from Shanghai. From there we would take a van to Hengdian World Studios, the biggest back lot in the world, where he was filming a new TV series. was tired. He had flown in a few days before from the Bay Area, where his wife and two young daughters live the actor now splits time between the United States and China, which he has called home for almost two decades. has wavy brown hair, a thick beard streaked with gray and the kind of broad face that looks good on camera. He curses a lot and often wears a look of deep contemplation that borders on exasperation. As we boarded the plane for our 10:30 p. m. flight, he sported a huge black parka, which he wears on set — Chinese sets are notoriously frigid in the wintertime — and carried a heavy backpack filled mostly with equipment for photography, a personal hobby. The airplane was only half full. lumbered through the center aisle until he reached the last row, where he heaved his backpack onto a seat and plopped down into another as if he were claiming a spot on a bus. During the flight, drank a few cans of Yanjing Beer and discussed his role in last year’s “Mojin. ” In the film, he plays a lawyer to a cult leader. After the first act, he turns into a zombie. It was by far the biggest project of his career, with by far the biggest stars, and it increased his exposure in China by degrees of magnitude. On our plane, a flight attendant recognized him from the film. (In California, by contrast, he is basically anonymous outside of Chinatowns.) was happy for the opportunity to appear in such a large movie but was disappointed with his performance, which he believes was adequate but not excellent. “In a lot of TV shows, you just have to spit out the lines, really. But in a big movie, you’ve really got to be good,” he told me. “In my first big movie, I stepped up into the big leagues and hit a single. ” Still, acting in one of the biggest Chinese blockbusters of all time is a long way from where began. Raised in Torrance, Calif. he attended an arts high school, where he got interested in acting. He went on to study film and molecular biology at New York University. There, he took a Mandarin course and became determined to master the language. He moved to Beijing in 1997 and drifted, living for a period in a student dorm and forcing himself to speak nothing but Mandarin for a stretch. “Like everybody else, I arrived and bummed around for two years, not knowing what I was going to do, trying to do a bunch of things, failing,” he says. “Teaching English. ” Not long after he arrived, he began dating a Chinese woman named Li Zhiyin, a finance major in college who later became his wife. On one of their early dates, he picked up an listings magazine and saw an ad seeking a foreign actor for a Chinese movie. had never lost his love for performing, and he thought it could be fun to act in China. He auditioned and got the part, which was supposed to pay the equivalent of about $400 for three months of work. In the movie, called “Mei Shi Zhao Shi” (“Looking for Trouble”) plays an American documentary filmmaker following around a group of disillusioned bohemians. He says it took the producers two years to pay him. But two weeks after the movie wrapped, he landed three months of work on a Chinese soap opera. There were only a handful of foreign actors working in China at the time, and quickly realized he offered filmmakers there a rare combination of traits. He spoke good Mandarin, was a decent actor and had a look that many Chinese consider typically “American”: six feet tall, square jaw, blue eyes. He was able to make a living in the industry, but his early roles weren’t great. At that stage of his career, most filmmakers still had limited exposure to foreigners and foreign cultures, and his early parts tended to reflect Chinese stereotypes of Westerners. He rarely played bad guys, because there are very few American villains in Chinese movies (those roles tend to go to the woeful cohort of Japanese actors working in China). Instead, was often typecast as a “dumb guy,” he says. Most frequently, he was an arrogant foreign businessman who falls for a local beauty, only to be spurned as she inevitably makes the virtuous choice to stay with her Chinese suitor. Sometimes he played the foreign friend whose presence onscreen is intended to make the main character seem more worldly dubbed another stock character “the fool,” an arrogant Westerner whose disdain for China is, by the end of the movie, transformed into admiration. When he was studying Mandarin at N. Y. U. adopted a Chinese moniker, as many language students do. He took his, Cao Cao, from a historical general who is also a central character in one of the country’s most revered classical novels, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms. ” Like a Chinese King Arthur or Davy Crockett, the original Cao Cao exists in fact and fiction and in between. chose the name because it was easy to remember and because he liked that Cao Cao was a wise, man. Years later, the decision would prove wise indeed. To his Chinese audience, it showed that the American, despite his loutish onscreen personae, took an interest in their history and culture. acted in film and television for almost a decade before he truly found fame. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he landed his own segment on a Chinese news program called “Sunday. ” Dubbed “Cao Cao Lai Le” (“Here Comes Cao Cao”) the weekly reality bit was designed to help increase the show’s ratings and give it a more international flavor by allowing Chinese viewers to experience their country anew through a foreigner’s eyes. The segment eventually devolved into more or less being goofy in front of the camera and enlisting Chinese people to cut loose with him. In one episode, for example, he trains to be a Hooters girl. (In China, the chain is known as “American Owl Restaurant. ”) The show was enormously popular, and soon was being recognized on the street. “One of the reasons I liked ‘Cao Cao Lai Le’ — it was me,” he says. “Instead of playing stupid stereotypes on TV and in movies, I could go out and be me. It’s my personal prejudice that I’m more interesting than the characters I play. ” In 2009, began writing a column called “Token White Guy” for an expat publication, Talk Magazine, in which he chronicled his and adventures. He wrote about the time an acquaintance enlisted him to act in an ad campaign, ’s first. His friend told him the product was “some sort of medicine. ” Then, showed up on set and read his line, which was written in English: “Do you want to be thicker, longer and harder? Then be like Cao Cao and use Strong Balls Hormone. ” (He dropped the ad.) He wrote about the time he was cast to play an English Jew who falls in love with a prostitute and, riddled with guilt, drops to his knees and prays for forgiveness — from Jesus. And the time a Chinese magazine wrote a multi page, entirely fictitious profile of him, and then emailed him a copy. “Cao Cao Lai Le” ran for about three years before the struggling “Sunday” dropped it (“Sunday” soon went off the air as well) but it led to better roles in film and TV and a long line of hosting gigs, which took him to virtually every region of China — from the deserts of the west to the grasslands of the north to the hilly metropolis of Chongqing. Hengdian World Studios is sprawling and surreal, covering 8, 000 acres and featuring a scale model of Beijing’s Forbidden City. “You walk around, and you can’t tell the difference,” told me as we drove past the complex on the way to the set the next morning. Around the lot, different shows were being filmed. Tourists are allowed on set for 199 yuan ($30) per person, and groups of them were huddled around as filming took place. It offered a considerably different experience from the one you might encounter at a Universal Studios theme park. “Instead of ‘Jaws,’ it’s, like, killing Japanese or hanging out with the emperor’s concubines,” said. China’s film industry has long been focused on historical epics, hence the need for a Forbidden City replica. Even as China became a global superpower in the late 20th century, Chinese movies were, by and large, treacly, patriotic fare. And though tastes were shifting, the studios used their connections with the government to ensure their own films succeeded. In 2010, for example, the behemoth studio and distributor China Film Group pulled “Avatar” from 1, 628 screens and replaced it with its own film, a Confucius biopic starring Chow Yun Fat. These days, movies and television shows are still often historical in nature, but they’re less overtly nationalistic and more focused on pure entertainment. was in Hengdian to film a period show with the English title “Knight’s Glove. ” In it, he plays the British ambassador to China, a close friend of the Chinese lead. The story surrounds a search for a lost treasure, and on this day the crew was filming the pair’s reunion after years spent apart. The scene was filmed at the entrance to a building made to look like the British Embassy. plastic Union Jacks fluttered outside in the breeze. Inside, the building was numbingly cold, as had warned there was no insulation or heating. Russian extras in wool military outfits carried fake rifles and shuffled from side to side trying to keep warm. In between shots, donned his parka and applied heating pads called Nuan Baobao (“Warm Little Buddies”) to his stomach, lower back and feet. There was no coffee or tea at one point some cast and crew members were handed plastic cups of warm water. Because the Chinese government allows only 34 foreign movies to enter the market per year, and the officials’ criteria for selection are mysterious, many American studios have sought to lessen the uncertainty by films with Chinese firms, thereby sidestepping the import rules (which apply only when a movie’s producers want a share of the receipts, which is to say they apply, effectively, to all major Hollywood films). And yet few have achieved anything resembling commercial or critical success. Not only have studios struggled to find ways to appeal to both audiences, they’ve also struggled to work well together on set. This is at least in part because of the collision of two vastly different moviemaking cultures. Whereas Hollywood film sets have rather rigid, rules, Chinese sets are decidedly unsystematic, ad hoc, operations. (I once reported on a film whose guy was also in charge of payroll.) On this set, there were dozens of people, mostly young men, standing around in the cold who didn’t seem to have any job at all. It’s exactly these sorts of differences that have made so difficult, and those problems follow them to the box office. Hollywood can also stack the deck somewhat by pandering to Chinese audiences, but that comes at a cost: It grants enormous leverage to the Communist Party over how China is portrayed. Chinese censors have forced studios to cut scenes that they believed made China look weak. A 2015 report by the U. S. Economic and Security Review Commission offered an enlightening selection of anecdotes: In “Skyfall,” Chinese audiences never saw James Bond kill a Chinese security guard, as he does in the original edit in “Mission: Impossible III,” censors cut a scene shot in Shanghai that showed garments drying on a clothesline “Men in Black 3” had a scene removed that showed secret agents using a tool, leading some to speculate that the censors didn’t want to invite the allusion to censorship. Often censors don’t even have to get involved, as studios have begun their films to avoid the hassle. “Red Dawn” is perhaps the most infamous case. The 1984 original is about a guerrilla uprising against a Soviet invasion of America in the 2012 remake, screenwriters updated the movie by casting China as the aggressor. MGM executives realized their error too late, and unwilling to risk offending the censors, they reportedly spent around $1 million in postproduction recasting North Korea as the invader. Despite the breadth of roles he has played in China, is passed over for most . Hollywood producers want to bring in their own talent, he says. And once, Chinese producers told him that because of the ubiquity with which he appears in Chinese cinema and television, he would make their production seem too local. He has acted in only two movies: a epic funded by a Chinese billionaire with a predominantly foreign cast, and a bigfoot movie shot in Shennongjia, a mountainous region in Hubei Province, where there have been hundreds of purported bigfoot sightings. Each film was plagued with dysfunction, and neither has been released. says that the reason most fail is as much about the chaos on the Chinese side as it is the arrogance on the Hollywood side. “They come here and say, ‘We’re from Hollywood, we know better and whatever it is that you think is the right way to do it, it’s by definition not,’’u2009” he says. “You come in with an attitude like that, you will have a lot of problems. You will misunderstand the kind of stories they want to see. ” And as Chinese filmmakers have figured out what sorts of stories Chinese audiences really want to see, the nature of ’s work has changed for the better. Although his part in “Knight’s Glove” wasn’t groundbreaking, he is now often cast in increasingly complex parts. After the morning’s shoot, we drove across the lot to film another scene. In the back of the van, scrolled through photos on his phone of some of the roles he has played over the last two years, each with a distinct style. They included: an American engineer who worked on the first locomotive in China Gen. Douglas MacArthur an “[expletive] lawyer” a World War II radio announcer a dancer a alcoholic barfly a Mafia boss an antiquities expert a sleazy Russian lounge lizard a cowboy a bisexual fashion designer and a French detective. believes the growing variety of roles for foreign actors like him is a result of more Chinese exposure to outsiders. “There are more foreign actors now,” he says. “Chinese know some foreigners. So they write more interesting characters. I’m lucky because I usually get to do the better stuff. ” This trend is likely to continue. The money coming from Chinese producers, and the spending power of Chinese audiences, is simply too great to ignore, and anyone venturing to China from Hollywood — whether producer, actor or cameraman — has to learn how to play by Chinese rules. That means adapting stories to the changing desires of film fans, and learning how to cooperate on China’s less regimented movie sets. Hollywood pros may be arrogant, says Jonathan Landreth, editor of the website China Film Insider, who has been covering the Chinese entertainment industry for more than a decade, but “in the melding of minds between China and Hollywood, there’s been a tipping in the balance of power. So much money is driving these productions that the folks in Hollywood have to listen. ” In the afternoon, the director of “Knight’s Glove,” a young man with bleached blond hair, recruited me to play an extra in a scene with . I would be a driver. I wondered aloud who was supposed to have played the driver, but no one answered, and instead I was shepherded outside to a wardrobe truck and outfitted in a World War military uniform with a Brodie helmet. As I dressed in the truck, approached with a Chinese crew member and said, “They asked me to make sure you knew that they weren’t actually going to pay you or anything. ” I laughed. As absurd as it may seem to be yanked from the sidelines in an instant and thrown in front of the camera, this kind of thing happens with surprising regularity for foreigners in China, and moments like these become the kind of China Stories that keep people like around for so long. We filmed four or five takes of a short scene in the car. I pretended to drive, yanking the steering wheel back and forth with the kind of comical exaggeration you might see in “The Andy Griffith Show. ” Two cameras glided on a track and crane outside the car while sitting in the back, and a young Russian actor, who sat beside me, exchanged a few lines of dialogue. The Russian had until recently been a student in Jinhua, a nearby city, but was now trying his hand at an acting career. Maybe it would have worked out for him had he started a decade and a half ago, like but his performance didn’t bode well. He struggled with the lines his English was wooden, the delivery stilted. on the other hand, naturally eased into character as soon as they started rolling. He said his lines in a British accent, smoothly and barely above a whisper, looking out the window as the camera swept by. | 1 |
Jeffrey Slonim didn’t shout. While the other red carpet reporters tried to get the attention of celebrities by yelling their names, he usually waited for them to come to him. And they usually did. Although Mr. Slonim specialized in light journalistic fare, he took it seriously. He wrote out his questions in advance and avoided the clichéd “Who are you wearing?” As a result, the quotations he gleaned had some charm. Kim Kardashian West marched straight to his side. Anne Hathaway greeted him with a kiss on the cheek. Gwyneth Paltrow and Melissa McCarthy breezed past the other reporters to speak into the recorder that seemed permanently attached to his hand. “He was this little island of sanity at every red carpet,” said Andy Cohen, the Bravo talk show host and author. “When I read the news, I just thought, ‘Wow, how sad. ’” From the 1990s until it all came to a blunt and violent end on Oct. 13, Mr. Slonim, who died at age 56, was a steady and affable presence on the circuit, always neatly turned out and professional as he chronicled the endless balls and premieres. So when he jumped from the roof of a Lincoln Center building, it came as a shock to his relatives, friends and not to mention the celebrities who considered him a gentleman among brutes. “It still doesn’t register,” said Mr. Slonim’s brother, the artist Hunt Slonem (who spells the family name differently). “It’s like, How? What happened? It’s just so shocking. ” He paused. “Anyway, he really made up his mind. ” Mr. Slonim’s writing for Allure was his main source of income from the until late 2015, when he lost his special correspondent position at the Condé Nast monthly. The change came as part of a cutback that followed the firing of the magazine’s founding editor, Linda Wells. A few months later, Lena Dunham stopped on the red carpet to tell Mr. Slonim she missed his page. He appreciated that. “What a doll,” he wrote on Facebook. In the last year of his life, he was trying to piece together a living by turning out items for Gotham, Architectural Digest, Hamptons, the New York Post Page Six column and other outlets. “I don’t want to say that’s what he lived for,” his wife, Fiona Moore, a school administrator, said, “but he really loved his work. ” He cut a stylish figure, never failing to dress for the occasions he covered, which meant crisp tuxes for galas and preppy seersucker suits for summertime Hamptons fetes. He wore his eyeglasses low on the bridge of his nose as he worked, and the J. Press scarf completed the look of someone who might have stepped out of a novel he loved, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Tender Is the Night. ” But the man who might have struck casual onlookers as just another partygoer would inevitably leave the night’s affair for his desk, where he stayed until his copy was ready to file. “Hardest working man in the business,” said George Wayne, a veteran journalist. “The thing about Jeff is, unlike some of us — and I’m one of them — he didn’t want to be part of the story. He was always the humble wretch. He waited at the ropes with everybody else, in the herd. He didn’t mind that. He was so unaffected and so good at his job. ” On a typical day, after working the carpet and filing his items, he would get into bed with his wife at 5 a. m. in their railroad apartment on the Upper East Side and sleep until 7:30. “He wasn’t a great sleeper,” Ms. Moore said. After spending time with his two sons, he would take a nap — then it was back to the job. “I just couldn’t believe the pace he kept,” his brother, Mr. Slonem, said. “He’d be up writing until 5, 6 in the morning. He seemed to have deadlines all the time. He’d always say, ‘I’m on deadline — I’ve got to have this done in two hours.’ For years this went on. ” To those who saw him only when he was in his element, Mr. Slonim seemed to lead a charmed life, unruffled in a milieu peopled with celebrities and publicists. He joined the media scrum at Interview magazine in 1984, when Andy Warhol was overseeing it, thanks, in part, to an introduction from his cousin, the writer Tama Janowitz. Mr. Slonim, a Yale graduate, class of 1982, took the job after an unhappy stint at IBM in Florida, where his habit of moonlighting as a cocktail pianist in a hotel bar suggested he was not cut out for corporate life. He spoke French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. As a young man he banged out short stories on a portable typewriter. Friends fondly recalled him as an expert orchestrator of parties who sometimes entertained guests with his renditions of Scott Joplin rags and Cole Porter standards. What he did for a living gave him a seat for the passing celebrity parade. He dined with Warhol at the Odeon. He stood nearby when Tommy Hilfiger got into a fistfight with Axl Rose in the V. I. P. area of the Chelsea club the Plumm. He saw Tom Cruise roar into a Vanity Fair Oscar party on a black Ducati motorcycle. When Prince held an impromptu, at Lily Pond, a cozy East Hampton nightclub, Mr. Slonim stayed among the dozen or so select guests until 5 a. m. A son of the naval officer and nuclear engineer Capt. Charles E. Slonim, whose career took the family to Hawaii, New Hampshire, Virginia and Washington State, Mr. Slonim early on developed a knack for putting strangers at ease, a skill that came in handy on the red carpet. He met Fiona Moore, the woman who would become his wife, on the Greek island of Ios in the early 1990s. She was on vacation with friends, one of whom had just given her “The Andy Warhol Diaries” as a birthday present. He let her know his name appeared as part of the entry for Thursday, Feb. 12, 1987: “And Jeff Slonim from Interview, he’s Tama’s cousin, and he has perfect teeth, a beautiful toothpaste smile. ” In 1993, Ms. Moore moved into his Lexington Avenue apartment, which is still home for her and their two teenage sons. Their 1995 wedding took place in Cork, Ireland, not far from where Ms. Moore grew up. They found a priest who spoke Hebrew to officiate, as if to provide some middle ground for Mr. Slonim, who was Jewish, and the Roman Catholic Moore family. In his toast, the bride’s father mentioned the Warhol line about Mr. Slonim’s smile, adding that you could judge a horse by the quality of its teeth. Early in the marriage, there was a complication: Mr. Slonim had blood clots and difficulty walking. The diagnosis was polycythemia vera, a rare and blood cancer that may be present for years before symptoms show up. To treat it, he was prescribed the drug Interferon, which he took at regular intervals from the time of his diagnosis until June of this year, according to three relatives. Ms. Moore saw how the changes in New York’s night life and media business affected her husband’s routine and fortunes. Things turned hectic in the giddy late 1990s, with Mr. Slonim working five nights a week soon after the birth of their first son and the onset of his health problem. But the end of the last decade produced a queasiness for Mr. Slonim and others who relied on magazines for their incomes. Blowback from the economic collapse, which coincided with the rise of digital media, made itself felt at Condé Nast Publications, the owner of Allure, in 2009. That is when a McKinsey Company report led to a budget cut of 25 percent at several Condé Nast magazines. The company rid itself of Cookie, Details, Domino, Men’s Vogue and Portfolio. Toward the end of 2015, amid layoffs at GQ, Glamour, Self and Teen Vogue, Mr. Slonim and 14 other Allure contributors lost their yearly contracts. The cutback occurred at roughly the same time as the firing of Ms. Wells. “People were terrified and upset,” Ms. Moore said. “I think Linda being fired was devastating for him. ” The job of celebrity and society reporter, even one at the top of this rarefied field, seemed no longer enough for a family breadwinner. As Mr. Slonim grappled with this, his health issue came to the fore. In June, he stopped taking Interferon. He told his brother that his doctor had taken him off the drug because it was no longer effective for him. Ms. Moore said he started taking a new drug, in the same family as Interferon, but it left him in a low mood. Ray Rogers, an editor who worked with Mr. Slonim at Interview, BlackBook and other publications, was concerned when he saw his friend at an East Hampton benefit over the Labor Day weekend. “I said to him: ‘Jeff, what’s wrong? Are you O. K.?’” Mr. Rogers said. “He looked despondent. He was not himself. And he was like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ And I said, ‘Jeff, what’s wrong?’ I must have asked him that in three different ways. ” Mr. Slonim’s work often took him to Lincoln Center, where the red carpet is rolled out dozens of nights every year. On Sept. 20, on assignment for Gotham magazine’s website, he interviewed Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband, Matthew Broderick, at a Lincoln Center benefit for the New York City Ballet. On Oct. 7, also on assignment for Gotham, he covered the premiere of Pedro Almodóvar’s “Julieta,” part of the 54th New York Film Festival. Earlier that day, he called his sister, a psychiatric social worker and professor, Anne Slonim Rafal, and said he was having dark thoughts. After she laid out counseling options for him, he said, as she recalled it, “You know, I’m just being dramatic. ” At home, he told his wife about the call to his sister, and the two of them discussed the possibility of his going on an antidepressant. But Mr. Slonim was against the idea, partly because he did not like the way people looked when they were medicated. “And then I said, ‘Well, if you’re on medication, you’re actually going to feel so much better, so you’re not going to care,” Ms. Moore said. But her argument did not sway him. “And that, I think, was probably the problem,” she added. “Maybe he should have started taking something. ” They spent the weekend in East Hampton, and things seemed to be looking up. “It was a lovely time,” Ms. Moore said. “Hurricane Matthew was coming in, and we went to the beach and all of that. He kept saying, ‘I feel so much better,’ so of course I believed him. ” After the Hamptons idyll, Mr. Slonim went to Cornell Medical Center to see his hematologist. He apparently spoke of his recent thoughts, and the hospital placed him under observation. His wife said he called from the hospital, saying he wanted to leave. Mr. Slonim also called his sister, Dr. Slonim Rafal, who advised him to be honest with staff members and to follow their recommendations. “They never admitted him,” she said. “They just observed him for, I would say, 36 hours, maybe 48. ” “He wanted out of there, big time,” Ms. Moore said. “He compared it to like the seven rings of hell, basically. ” (A public affairs officer at the hospital said that “regarding Jeffrey Slonim,” she had “no information available. ”) Mr. Slonim was released and made his way home on the evening of Oct. 11, his wife said, and he seemed in good spirits. The next morning, they went for a run together, and he said, as she recalled it: “I can see color for the first time. This is amazing. ” He was also making plans — lunches for the following week and a meeting at the Condé Nast human resources department. “He felt he needed to reinvent himself, that print was dying,” Ms. Moore said. “So he was working on his résumé. ” On the morning of Oct. 13, he went to Lincoln Center. The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Lawn was closed, but he slipped past a chain gate and made his way to its northern edge, above the West 65th Street sidewalk. The lawn, which serves as the roof for the Lincoln Ristorante, has become an architectural showpiece and neighborhood attraction since it opened to the public in 2010. At the time of the unveiling, the New York Times architectural critic Nicolai Ouroussoff singled out the lawn for praise in his review of the Lincoln Center renovations: “The project’s most dazzling space, the lawn warps up on two sides, so that climbing it can make you feel as if you were about to float off into the air on a carpet of green. ” At its high point, the expanse of grass is 23 feet above the sidewalk. At 10:52 a. m. someone called 911. Documents from the New York Police Department note “a male who’s observed pacing on a roof and sitting on a ledge. ” A crowd formed outside the entrances to the restaurant and the nearby Elinor Bunin Film Center. Two Lincoln Center security guards were talking to Mr. Slonim, and it seemed to be working. At one point, he turned around and moved away from the ledge — only to come back. People screamed “No!” when he made his move and hit the sidewalk below. “At 11:05 a. m. the unit was on scene,” a spokeswoman for the Fire Department of New York said in an email. “The unit departed the scene at 11:13 a. m. with one patient to Hospital. ” Despite the doctors’ efforts, Mr. Slonim died later that day, his wife said. “Here’s a guy who spent his whole career covering high society — and to take his life, he walked over to Lincoln Center and jumped,” his friend Mr. Rogers said. “It seemed intentional to me. It seemed pointed. ” Back in the apartment, Ms. Moore found a note on the computer. “He’s rambling and stuff,” she said, “but he thanks a couple of people, and he thanks Linda Wells. It’s really sweet. ” With tears streaming down her face during an interview in her apartment, she went on: “I understand the whole concept of — not that he committed suicide, but suicide took him. I know that he didn’t have a choice. Because it wasn’t him that did this. I know he would never dream of doing that and leaving us. And I know that. ” Julianne Moore was another movie star who made a beeline toward Mr. Slonim at red carpet events. Their relationship went back to the when they were each other’s dates for a homecoming dance at J. E. B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Va. On the rainy, dark afternoon of Dec. 18, Ms. Moore was among the roughly 350 mourners crowded into the Fourth Universalist Society church on Central Park West. Nearby sat Mr. Slonim’s wife and their sons. Speakers included his two sisters, who recalled the Superman costume he wore as a boy his Dominic Moore, who described his generosity with the swag bags he picked up at parties the film producer Bruce Cohen, who reminisced about his days with Mr. Slonim in middle school, at Yale and on the red carpet and the former Allure editor Ms. Wells, who spoke last. “Jeffrey hit the red carpet and he loved it,” she said. “Which sounds hard to believe, now that the red carpet is so often a shouting match and a total fame orgy. But he did, and he respected it, too. ” After describing his amusing encounters with Roseanne Barr, George Clooney and Donald J. Trump, she continued: “You could tell he had a genuine connection with the subjects, many of whom made a ritual out of greeting him with a kiss. He gave as much time and attention to the Oscar winner as he did to the guy who was voted off ‘Survivor: Borneo. ’” A montage of still photographs projected onto a small movie screen gave glimpses of Mr. Slonim from babyhood to adulthood. After the clergyman said a few final words, the mourners stayed in place for a long moment, silent and not quite ready to leave. | 1 |
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s Constitutional Court has repealed a ban by a village led by a mayor on the construction of mosques and headscarves like burkas and chadors worn by Muslim women. [The court said Wednesday that the ban, also outlawing the activity of muezzins, infringed on freedoms of religion and speech. The measure had been in place since November in the village of Asotthalom, on the Serbian border, led by Mayor Laszlo Toroczkai of the Jobbik party. Before Hungary built fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia in late 2015, Asotthalom was a frequent point of entry into Hungary for migrants and refugees on their way to Western Europe. Last year, Toroczkai said the ordinance was adopted to defend the village’s “community and traditions. ” | 1 |
A man everyone calls Cheese won Somalia’s presidency on Wednesday, and the streets of the beleaguered capital, Mogadishu, exploded in cheers. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a former prime minister, was chosen for the top job, capping a electoral process that had been widely criticized as corrupt even by Somali politicians who participated in it. Mr. Mohamed, better known in Somalia by his nickname, Farmajo (from formaggio, the Italian word for cheese, for which his father was said to have acquired a taste when Somalia was an Italian colony) was considered the protest candidate and less manipulated by foreign interests than the departing president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Mr. Mohamed enjoys wide support within Somalia’s army. The moment his victory was announced, celebratory gunfire rang out in Mogadishu as soldiers across the city sprayed bullets into the sky. Mr. Mohamed is rare on the Somali political scene for one reason: He is popular. Crowds of ordinary people poured into Mogadishu’s streets to cheer and whistle on Wednesday night. As one Somalia analyst put it: The least corrupt and candidate won Somalia’s most corrupt and least democratic election. Go figure. Somalia, which has lurched from crisis to crisis since the central government collapsed in 1991, did not hold direct elections. Instead, Western donors helped set up a complicated indirect election in which Somalia’s regions and its myriad clans, subclans and subsubclans chose 329 members of Parliament, and those members of Parliament then voted for a president. Western officials thought it too dangerous to hold direct elections because of the persistent threat from the Shabab militant group, which has killed thousands across East Africa. On Tuesday, the Shabab fired mortar rounds into the area in Mogadishu where the election was being held. Mr. Mohamud, the incumbent, handily won the first round of voting, leading Mr. Mohamed by 88 to 72 votes in a field of more than 20 candidates. Many analysts said that Mr. Mohamud had built a huge war chest by receiving secret payments from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, and that he used that money to line up votes ahead of time in Parliament. Many analysts considered it his election to lose. But Mr. Mohamed seems to have tapped into growing resentment about corruption, or possibly, some analysts said, he had his own ways to win over lawmakers. In the last few years, Somali government officials have been steadily enriching themselves, analysts said, while much of the population has sunk deeper into poverty. Aid workers are now worried that millions of Somalis will soon face a famine it would be the third one in 25 years. In the second round of voting, the other presidential contenders threw their weight behind Mr. Mohamed. He won, 184 to 97. Western diplomats quietly cheered on Mr. Mohamed, seeing him as the most organized — and least crooked — of the contenders. But just about everyone agrees that Somalia still has a long way to go. The government provides few services and controls only small slices of territory. The only reason it controls any territory is the presence of thousands of African Union peacekeepers who have been battling the Shabab for years, taking heavy casualties. Mr. Mohamed, who was born in 1962, had a good reputation as prime minister. As soon as he took office in 2010, he set up a payroll system for soldiers, shrank a bloated cabinet and spoke out against corruption, even though graft continued to blossom on his watch. When he was pushed out less than a year later, as part of a bitter power struggle within the government, protests exploded. Before entering politics, Mr. Mohamed worked as a diplomat for the Somali government and later for the New York State Department of Transportation in Buffalo. He holds American and Somali citizenship, and when he returned to his cubicle in Buffalo after his short stint as prime minister, his baked him a cake. | 1 |
FBI Investigates Saudi Wife-Abusing Clinton Foundation Donor in Straw Donor Scheme November 2, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
It's midnight in America. And the Clintons and the Democratic Party keep finding ways to cover themselves in glory. I'm sure the line on this will be that the FBI is acting "inappropriately" by investigating this. Investigating political corrupt ion interferes with corrupt politicians being elected.
The FBI is investigating an alleged illegal donation scheme involving a wealthy Saudi family that supports Democratic Florida Senate candidate Patrick Murphy.
Murphy, who has covered himself in glory so often already, is denying everything. And I mean absolutely everything.
The Murphy campaign declined to say whether the candidate is aware of the FBI probe
What's your name? I decline to answer that question.
Murphy, 33, is running against Rubio, the incumbent Republican, in a race that could help decide which party controls the Senate in 2017. Rubio currently leads Murphy by an average of 5.6 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
The FBI investigation, however, relates to Murphy’s first run for the House in the 2012 campaign cycle.
The allegation — originally submitted by a Republican super PAC run by a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — is that Murphy’s high school friend and major political donor, Ibrahim Al-Rashid, coordinated a “straw donor” scheme to boost Murphy.
Murphy knows nothing!
Murphy’s campaign declined to say whether Murphy’s attorneys had discussed the FBI investigation with Al-Rashid’s attorney.
Uh-huh
Al-Rashid is the son of a powerful and politically connected Saudi billionaire. He’s been a major financial benefactor of Murphy’s, giving almost $400,000 to his campaigns and to outside groups supporting the Florida congressman.
Here's how some of these donations worked.
One example within the alleged scheme: A woman who describes herself in federal donation reports as the “owner” and “property manager” of a Texas-based company, Limestone Property Management, gave Murphy’s campaign $300.
But she is neither the property manager nor the owner of the Texas-based company. In fact, she doesn’t work there.
She lived in Miami at the time and was Ibrahim Al-Rashid’s “cleaning lady,” according to a Miami-Dade Police Department report filed in 2012 over a home burglary at Al-Rashid’s property.
Texas property manager vs Saudi's cleaning lady. That's quite a difference.
Murphy has been forced to return Al-Rashid's donations before for purely Islamophobic reasons.
Al-Rashid’s three sons have followed in their father’s political footsteps, contributing large sums to top Democrats, including Rep. Patrick Murphy (D., Fla.), whose Senate race could help decide which party controls the Senate in 2017.
Murphy has already returned a portion of al-Rashid’s donations due to his involvement in a domestic assault incident.
Ibrahim al-Rashid allegedly forced his way into his estranged wife’s Pennsylvania home, where al-Rashid allegedly “grabbed her by the wrist, struck her about the head and face with a closed fist then threw her to the ground,” according to a copy of the police report viewed by the Free Beacon.
Following the 2014 incident, al-Rashid allegedly sent his wife a text message stating, “I am not sorry this time I hope you die in hell,” according to the police report.
Murphy, a longtime friend of al-Rashid, was recently forced to donate around $16,000 in campaign funds to domestic violence groups after the assault charge became a public liability for the campaign. Murphy also returned all of the donations made by al-Rashid during the last three political cycles.
Is the Clinton Foundation involved in this? Do the Clintons do their business in golden and marble toilets?
Nasser al-Rashid, one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest figures and an adviser to the country’s royal family, has donated somewhere between $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, putting him in an elite category of prominent donors.
The Clintons. If there's dirt anywhere, you'll find it on them. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — A pair of White House officials helped provide Representative Devin Nunes of California, a Republican and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with the intelligence reports that showed that President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies. The revelation on Thursday that White House officials disclosed the reports, which Mr. Nunes then discussed with Mr. Trump, is likely to fuel criticism that the intelligence chairman has been too eager to do the bidding of the Trump administration while his committee is supposed to be conducting an independent investigation of Russia’s meddling in the presidential election. It is the latest twist of a bizarre Washington drama that began after dark on March 21, when Mr. Nunes got a call from a person he has described only as a source. The call came as he was riding across town in an Uber car, and he quickly diverted to the White House. The next day, Mr. Nunes gave a hastily arranged news conference before going to brief Mr. Trump on what he had learned the night before from — as it turns out — White House officials. The chain of events — and who helped provide the intelligence to Mr. Nunes — was detailed to The New York Times by four American officials. Since disclosing the existence of the intelligence reports, Mr. Nunes has refused to identify his sources, saying he needed to protect them so others would feel safe going to the committee with sensitive information. In his public comments, he has described his sources as trying to expose wrongdoing at great risk to themselves. That does not appear to be the case. Several current American officials identified the White House officials as Ezra the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and was previously counsel to Mr. Nunes’s committee. Though neither has been accused of breaking any laws, they do appear to have sought to use intelligence to advance the political goals of the Trump administration. Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, refused to confirm or deny at his daily briefing that Mr. Ellis and Mr. were Mr. Nunes’s sources. The administration’s concern was the substance of the intelligence reports, not how they ended up in Mr. Nunes’s hands, Mr. Spicer said. The “obsession with who talked to whom, and when, is not the answer,” Mr. Spicer said. “It should be the substance. ” Jack Langer, a spokesman for Mr. Nunes, said in a statement, “As he’s stated many times, Chairman Nunes will not confirm or deny speculation about his source’s identity, and he will not respond to speculation from anonymous sources. ” Mr. 30, is a former Defense Intelligence Agency official who served on the Trump transition team and was originally brought to the White House by Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser. He was nearly pushed out of his job this month by Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who replaced Mr. Flynn as national security adviser, but survived after the intervention of Jared Kushner, the president’s and Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist. The officials who detailed the newly disclosed White House role said that this month, shortly after Mr. Trump claimed on Twitter that he was wiretapped during the campaign on the orders of President Barack Obama, Mr. began reviewing highly classified reports detailing the intercepted communications of foreign officials. There were conflicting accounts of what prompted Mr. to dig into the intelligence. One official with direct knowledge of the events said Mr. began combing through intelligence reports this month in an effort to find evidence that would justify Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts about wiretapping. But another person who was briefed on the events said Mr. came upon the information as he was reviewing how widely intelligence reports on intercepts were shared within the American spy agencies. He then alerted the N. S. C. general counsel, but the official said Mr. was not the person who showed the reports to Mr. Nunes. That person and a third official said it was then Mr. Ellis who allowed Mr. Nunes to view the material. The intelligence reports consisted primarily of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how they were trying to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle before his inauguration, officials said. The officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the intelligence and to avoid angering Mr. and Mr. Ellis. Officials say Mr. has been reviewing the reports from his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the National Security Council is based. The officials’ description of the intelligence is in line with Mr. Nunes’s characterization of the material, which he said was not related to the Russia investigations when he first disclosed its existence. According to Mr. Nunes, who served on the Trump transition team, he met his source on the grounds of the White House. He said he needed a secure location where people with security clearances could legally view classified information, though such facilities could also be found in the Capitol building and at other locations across Washington. The next day, Mr. Nunes gave a news briefing at the Capitol and then returned to the White House to brief Mr. Trump on the information before telling other committee members about what he had reviewed. His actions have fueled criticism that the committee, under his leadership, is unable to conduct a serious, independent investigation. On Thursday, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he needed clarification on whether White House officials had pursued “a circuitous route” to feed Mr. Nunes the materials so he could then hand them to Mr. Trump. “If that was designed to hide the origin of the materials, that raises profound questions about just what the White House is doing that need to be answered,” he said. He later said he accepted an invitation on Thursday to review the same materials that Mr. Nunes had seen. Yet even before Thursday, the view among Democrats and even some Republicans was that Mr. Nunes was given access to the intelligence reports to divert attention from the investigations into Russian meddling, and to bolster Mr. Trump’s debunked claims of having been wiretapped. On both counts, Mr. Nunes appears to have succeeded: The House inquiry into Russian meddling that he is leading has descended into a sideshow since he disclosed the information, and the administration has portrayed his information as vindicating the president’s wiretapping claims. Yet Mr. Nunes has dismissed Democratic calls to step aside. Instead, he has canceled all committee hearings for now, stalling his own investigation, which opened last week with a hearing during which James B. Comey, the director of the F. B. I. publicly disclosed that the bureau’s investigation into Russian meddling included an examination of any evidence that Trump associates had colluded in the effort. The chaotic situation prompted the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is running its own investigation, to bluntly state on Wednesday that their work had nothing to do with the House inquiry. And television news programs have been dominated by arguments about whether the incidental intelligence gathering of Mr. Trump and his associates was the real issue, or simply a distraction from the Russia investigations. Mr. Nunes has acknowledged that the incidental intelligence gathering on Trump associates last year was not necessarily unlawful, and that it was not specifically directed at Mr. Trump or people close to him. American intelligence agencies typically monitor foreign officials of allied and hostile countries, and they routinely sweep up communications linked to Americans who may be taking part in the conversation or are being spoken about. The real issue, Mr. Nunes has said, was that he could figure out the identities of Trump associates from reading reports about intercepted communications that were shared among Obama administration officials with top security clearances. He said some Trump associates were also identified by name in the reports. Normally, intelligence agencies mask the identities of American citizens who are incidentally present in intercepted communications, though knowledgeable readers can often figure out the identities in context. | 1 |
Pakistan Pakistan's cricketer turned politician Imran Khan (C) talks to journalists outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad on October 20, 2016. (Photo by AP)
Police have raided a youth convention for opposition leader Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) party in the capital, Islamabad, arresting dozens of activists ahead of a planned protest.
Images on local news channels showed police in uniform beating activists with batons and leading those detained away to waiting buses.
"All of a sudden police arrived and started arresting people," media outlets quoted Anila Khawaja, a spokeswoman for PTI as saying.
Several PTI leaders and lawmakers have been infuriated by the police raid.
"The government has proved that there is no democracy in Pakistan, it is a monarchy,” Asad Umar, a PTI lawmaker, told reporters from the scene.
A spokesman for the Islamabad district administration said the raid was enforcing the order issued earlier in the day by the city's top administrator which outlawed gatherings of more than five people.
The Thursday raid came hours after a city order banned all public gatherings ahead of Khan's planned protest set to begin on November 2 in Islamabad. Khan, a former Pakistan cricket star who turned politician, has described the upcoming mass protest as a final push to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign over corruption allegations. The leader of Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, waves to supporters during a rally in Peshawar, Pakistan, on August 7, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
Khan led a previous mass protest in the summer of 2014 in front of parliament, calling for the government to resign over election rigging allegations.
Khan has insisted that his anti-government protests would continue until the Sharif administration offers an appropriate response to the corruption allegations.
Leaked confidential documents from the Panamanian Mossack Fonseca law firm have showing how the company helped rich and powerful clients across the world with shady businesses.
The clients reportedly included three of Sharif's children, who carried out business transactions which could be judged as money laundering and tax avoidance.
The leaked records revealed that Sharif's children, Hasan, Hussain and Maryam, not only owned offshore companies, but also real estate properties in London. Sharif's family denies any wrongdoing.
People in Pakistan, with Imran Khan at the helm, are asking for an inquiry to determine how Sharif’s children made all that money to buy offshore companies and real estate in London's prime locations, and whether they had paid their due tax on their income. Loading ... | 0 |
Morgen neu am Kiosk: Postillon am Sonntag 44/2016 Außerdem in dieser Ausgabe: Ratgeber: Dreieck zeichnen in drei Schritten - S. 27 Rebell oder Terrorist? Der große Syrien-Rätselspaß - Seite 85 "Mich gibt's auch mit Touch-Leiste" – die besten Altherrenwitze für Apple-Fans - Seite 110 | 0 |
LOS ANGELES — In “Swiss Army Man,” Hank (Paul Dano) a castaway stranded on a deserted island, spies a body washed up on the beach. Driven by hunger and despair, he rushes into the surf, only to discover that the body, played by Daniel Radcliffe, is lifeless. Or is it? To Hank’s surprise, the corpse breaks wind, loudly and lustily. Moments later, Hank whoops with glee as he pilots the Mr. Radcliffe across a ocean. When “Swiss Army Man” had its premiere at Sundance in January, it became one of the festival’s most films, eventually winning a directing award. But despite positive reviews (Variety said it was “constantly inventive,” and The Hollywood Reporter called it “bizarrely poetic”) festivalgoers walked out in droves and Vanity Fair wondered if it wasn’t the strangest film in Sundance history. For online commentators who hadn’t seen the film, “Swiss Army Man,” a. k. a. “Daniel Radcliffe’s movie,” became an easy target. “The premise kind of lends itself to that,” acknowledged Daniel Kwan, the film’s . “A lot of the reactions online have been about how stupid this movie sounds. ” Known professionally as Daniels, Mr. Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have created some of the most inventive and visceral shorts and music videos of the past decade. Other directors, like Spike Jonze and Antoine Fuqua, have graduated from music videos to feature films, but few have made music videos as unsettling as Daniels’ work. Which was why no one was pounding on their doors to make “Swiss Army Man. ” The film, which opens Friday, June 24, is the first feature from Mr. Kwan, 28, and Mr. Scheinert, 29. The two are here in the backyard studio of Mr. Kwan’s Highland Park neighborhood home, which he shares with his fiancée, Kirsten Lepore, an animator. Mr. Kwan’s brother, James, lives here, too he’s an animator and children’s book writer and illustrator (“Dear Yeti”). Mr. Scheinert lives less than a away. “When we were editing the film here, I would just walk over with my dog every day,” Mr. Scheinert said. The directors, who often finish each other’s sentences and stories or clarify each other’s points, met in a animation class at Emerson College in Boston. “We didn’t like each other at first,” Mr. Scheinert said, adding that he overparticipated and that Mr. Kwan underparticipated, coming off “like a ‘wasting his parents’ money’ film kid. ” But they soon bonded after they discovered they shared similarly twisted artistic sensibilities. Mr. Kwan’s final school project was an animated short about an insomniac who undresses people while they sleep and does their laundry for them Mr. Scheinert’s starred a dead boy whose body is piloted by small tigers. They began directing music videos and short films together, fantastical pieces in which small dogs are ridden like skateboards (“Dogboarding”) a man kills a red ball after it makes love with his wife (“Interesting Ball”) and a drunk partyer vomits sparks (“Pigeons,” by the band the Hundred in the Hands). Several went viral many featured the directors in starring roles. “Swiss Army Man” began as little more than a joke. “It was Kwan’s idea, originally,” Mr. Scheinert said. “He pitched me this idea of a guy stranded on a desert island finding a corpse and feeding it beans through a funnel, then riding the farts off into the sunset as beautiful music plays. ” The idea was too expensive to film as a short, but the two kept it in their voluminous backlog of weird ideas. And then another idea hit them. Why not make the corpse an amnesiac who must be reminded of the life he left behind to coax him to find his way back to civilization? That could be a feature, they thought. They toyed with various scenarios, and in 2014 the pair entered the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter Lab. On their off hours, looking for a mental respite from “talking to all those genius filmmakers about how to make your script better,” they pitched a music video for “Turn Down for What,” a dance track by Lil Jon and DJ Snake. “We were like, this is the stupidest song we’ve ever been sent,” Mr. Scheinert said. “Let’s pitch the stupidest video we’ve ever pitched. ” In the video’s opening moments, Mr. Kwan simulates sex with a neighbor’s TV set, melts a police officer’s face and smashes potted plants against his crotch. “In my head, I was like, this might be the last music video anyone asks us to do,” he said. Instead, “Turn Down for What” became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed music videos of 2014, landing multiple MTV Video Music Award nominations and receiving nearly half a billion YouTube views. After completing the script for “Swiss Army Man,” Daniels began searching for the two leads. “I was in from the second or third page, from the moment Hank rides the farting corpse across the ocean,” Mr. Dano said. “It was so funny and absurd and beautiful and glorious, I was like, why didn’t I think of that?” Mr. Radcliffe soon followed, and the two began working days in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, and in the redwood forests outside Eureka, Calif. “The atmosphere that the Daniels create on set is like no other I’ve ever worked on,” Mr. Radcliffe said. “They’re so collaborative. Everyone there had either worked together for years on their music videos, or they’d known since college. ” Working with actors of that caliber was a rare treat for the directors. “It spoiled us,” Mr. Kwan said. “We’re used to working with bands who’ve never acted before, or with us and our friends, who don’t really act but just happen to be around. ” The result is not your typical zombie flick or screwball comedy. If anything, it’s a bromance of the purest sort, even though one of the bros is dead, sort of. It’s also a love story, complete with an underwater kiss and the discovery that Mr. Radcliffe’s penis can be used as a field compass. As teenagers, the directors were subjected to “hazing in high school,” Mr. Kwan said. “We were both very expressive boys, neither of us were that good at sports, and that was just something we lived with and kind of accepted. So it’s funny that we tried to make a survival film, which is the most masculine story there is, but ended up making the least manly survival film ever. The two of them sit in the woods, and they talk about their feelings. ” | 1 |
A group of leftist activists wearing pink pussy hats disrupted a Christian opening prayer at Rep. Jack Bergman’s ( ) Thursday evening town hall in Gaylord, Michigan, shouting, “Separation of church and state!” as other constituents stood with their heads bowed in respect. [Dr. Derek Hagland, the assistant pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Michigan’s First District, had just taken the stage to recite an invocation when activists began chanting, “Separation of church and state!” to disrupt him: “This guy was giving invocation,” Rep. Bergman’s communication director Farahn Morgan told Breitbart News. “He was not necessarily party affiliated in any way. That kind of reaction to him? It was the most aggressive that the crowd got during the entire event which was, quite honestly, shocking. ” She added that it was surprising that these activists refused “to engage in dialogue after months of demanding there be a dialogue. The display was upsetting for the constituents who attended and really wanted to participate in a dialogue and hear what the congressman thinks and share their thoughts with him in a constructive way. The activists’ behavior flew in the face of any constructive dialogue. ” She described the incident as “a coordinated fiasco. ” Video footage of the event, provided to Breitbart News by an attendee, showed some Republicans and community leaders standing with their heads bowed during the prayer, despite the disruptive chants. Some of the activists wore pink pussy hats, the same ones donned as a symbol of “resistance” during Donald Trump protests across the nation following his inauguration: Morgan also noted that the interruption did not sit well with some of Rep. Bergman’s Democrat constituents. “A lot of Democrats approached us tonight and said they were embarrassed and apologized. They said those activists did not represent them or what they are about. I thought that was an interesting dynamic. ” Bergman, a retired general who served in the Marine Corps, also held a town hall on Wednesday evening: “Last night, the crowd was certainly more orderly,” Morgan said. She added that there was also a prayer recited Wednesday evening, “but local media live streamed last night’s event and many local groups watched it and planned how to react to tonight’s town hall. ” She said the group Indivisible was most likely one of the main groups involved in the disruption. Morgan said Congressman Bergman felt “disappointed” by the display. Several hours earlier, he had tweeted his enthusiasm about holding constructive dialogue: Gaylord town hall is just starting! Looking forward to some constructive dialogue. pic. twitter. — Rep. Jack Bergman (@RepJackBergman) April 20, 2017, “As a Christian, his faith definitely factors into his decision making. He also says the Constitution is ultimately the sort of guide and document that elected members of Congress have to abide by,” Morgan said. “He’s incredibly transparent about faith being an important part of his life. His faith is unequivocally what guides him, and he’s not apologetic about that at all. ” Recently, Rep. Bergman said, “We learned from England that mandated religion was not a good idea, and so we don’t mandate religion. ” Bergman, who serves on the Budget Committee, the Natural Resources Committee, and the Veterans Affairs Committee, was reportedly one of 54 freshmen congressmen to sign a letter agreeing to argue political issues without attacking those with whom he disagrees. According to the Traverse City Record Eagle, “He called the letter the hallmark of the House’s freshman class, plans on bringing that kind of civil discourse to his town halls and expects attendees to ‘treat adults like adults. ’” Follow Adelle Nazarian on Facebook and Twitter. | 1 |
When Carrie Fisher was cast as Princess Leia in the 1977 film “Star Wars,” she was a with no idea that her character would come to mean so much for so many. “You’re not just an actor in this movie,” Ms. Fisher said, “you’re a diplomat to a country you didn’t know existed. ” Leia proved especially meaningful to female fans, who found their own new hope in Ms. Fisher’s portrayal of the lone woman at the center of the action. Few movies showcased heroines who showed more guts and ingenuity than many of the men around her. Girls got a new uniform, too — instead of putting on a tiara and waving a wand, this princess wrapped her hair into a couple of practical buns and held a blaster in her hand. Over the past 40 years, generations of female “Star Wars” fans have made the character their own, using her image and example as a tool in their own lives. In commemoration of Ms. Fisher’s life, we asked readers to share what she and Leia have meant to them, and the lessons from the character that they will carry on. Here are their edited responses. Liz Cornelius, 37 My husband returned from a one year deployment to Iraq in time to help choose a costume for our daughter, Margot, who had just turned one. We asked ourselves: “Who is a character who is a strong woman? Who is a hero to our generation, and who fought bravely alongside the men? Also, who wore a costume that was comfortable for a baby who is taking her first steps?” This, of course, ruled out Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. We both knew that Princess Leia was the perfect costume choice for our baby daughter, and it must be said: The Force was strong with her. Lisa Roberts, 36 When my daughter was 5 days old, December 2015, we had these photos taken. We chose to name our daughter Lillian, but we seriously considered naming her Leia. Leia is an aspirational character, not because she is a princess, but because she was a rebel for positive change, because she proved that she could rescue herself, and because she was kind above all else. We hope that our daughter can grow into those qualities. Julia Ward, 42 As a child, I never remember thinking consciously about gender. Whenever my brother and I would play, I always just wanted to be the hero of the story. So, I often pretended to be or Sherlock Holmes or even James Bond. It never occurred to me to be a princess — not until Princess Leia. I couldn’t articulate it at the time, but Leia was our first princess. She was as spunky, stubborn and exciting as every little girl I knew, including me. This picture was taken at Halloween sometime between the release of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi. ” My mother made the costume and helped me with the eye shadow and braids. Leia was the only princess I ever wanted to be. Nia Hays, 36 My son is obsessed with Darth Vader — never having seen the film. But it was the perfect excuse for me then to join in on the Halloween fun and dress up as the Princess Leia. Michele Anderson, 44 This was my Mom at about dressed as Princess Leia. She had a wonderful sense of humor and played along with our request to dress like her royal highness. R. I. P. Mom and Carrie Fisher. Anam Ahmad, 26 Princess Leia inspired me to be a strong, bold, unapologetic woman who stood up for what was right and spoke up. She taught me to speak my mind and go after my dreams no matter how scary they were. I decided to cosplay her for the premiere of “The Force Awakens,” and every time I do, it’s an instant confidence boost. She taught me to be brave, and it’s an honor to dress up like her. I cosplay as her classic “A New Hope” look because it’s elegant and it was the easiest to incorporate my hijab into. Carrie Fisher is the reason I haven’t given up on writing and she’s the one that led me to stand up for what’s right and not be afraid to fight for it. Tim Beveridge, 43 I dressed as a bearded Leia for my first “Star Wars” convention, Celebration Europe, in London in August 2016. Although I hadn’t seen the original films until I was 18, her character resonated with me as one who fought to recognize the rights of the “rebel,” or in my case, an gay man who was struggling to feel accepted. After finding out more about her literary and advocacy work over the years, I had even more respect for her as a person, so she was the logical choice to cosplay as when I decided to attend Celebration Europe earlier this year. Needless to say, the reaction from other fans was incredible. Bekah Platzer, 20 I dress up as classic Leia for children and charity. Growing up, I was made fun of for liking “Star Wars,” so I started to keep it to myself and never talked about it. I was shy and felt out of place. After realizing that no one’s opinion but mine mattered, I wanted to make sure young girls never experienced what I did and always felt that they belonged somewhere. I go to children’s hospitals, library’s, Down syndrome walks and so much more dressed as Princess Leia. The excitement and joy in young girls’ eyes shows me that what I’m doing does make a difference. They see a girl loves “Star Wars” as much as they do and it’s O. K. Doing this has given me so much confidence and I never want to do anything else. Even with Carrie gone, what she has inspired will live on and I hope to be part of making that happen. Jenn Harris, 38 The picture here is a still from a production called “In Your Arms,” which was done at the New York Stage and Film at Vassar in 2014 and again in the summer of 2015 at the Old Globe theater in San Diego. The show is 10 pieces written for dance and I am playing Carrie in her piece that she wrote for the show. Everyone loved her piece. And although she never got to see it, I’d hoped she would have been proud of the gorgeous ballet that we created for her play, as I sat stage right as her typing out the piece, then ultimately joining the two lovers at the end. Carrie Fisher’s piece was a fun, complex play about the dizzying conundrum between love and freedom of adventure. My god I’m going to miss her. Peg Ihinger, 56 When I was in high school, I was obsessed with the first “Star Wars” movie. With all of them, really, but the first one particularly blew all the circuits in my imagination, and I particularly gravitated toward Princess Leia. She was tough, she was a leader, she didn’t let any man push her around. Instead of being sweet and docile, she was snappish and didn’t apologize for it. I was so fascinated by her that I began seeking out other examples of the trope of the woman warrior. I later went on to become a fantasy writer who told stories about brave, strong women bucking their world’s trends. I also eventually earned a black belt in karate. Anne Reed, 47 I’m from New Orleans, and for several years, I have marched with the Leijorettes. The Leijorettes are a Mardi Gras marching krewe honoring Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. We wear the traditional Leia costume from “A New Hope,” hemmed to make it more conducive to dancing and marching with white majorette boots. | 1 |
RT
North Dakota, which ranks second in the US in terms of oil production, endured almost 300 oil spills in under two years and yet managed to avoid reporting a single one of them to the public, according to a new report.
Documents viewed by the Associated Press indicate that, since January 2012, as many as 750 “ oil field incidents ” were recorded in North Dakota. The distinction between spills and incidents was not immediately clear but presumably was related to the magnitude of the accident.
North Dakota, which borders Canada and has an estimated population of under 700,000 people, is like many other states heavily involved in oil production in that it is not required by law to inform the public about oil spills. Yet with the potentially devastating consequences a spill could have in a state that relies on farming and water resources, citizens have begun lobbying for greater access to information.
Dennis Fewless, director of water quality for the state Health Department, told the AP lawmakers and regulators in North Dakota are also reconsidering the current state of affairs after a wheat farmer stumbled across a major oil spill last month. That incident was not made public knowledge until 11 days later, when reporters asked. Questions have also been raised as to whether the relationship between the pipeline’s operator, Tesoro Logistics, with regulators is too close for comfort.
“ We’re certainly looking at that now and what would be a threshold for reporting to the public ,” he said. One option he said regulators are considering is a method to better track the spills that occur. Officials “ really have to dig through our database to get specifics ,” he said of the current situation.
North Dakota pumps out millions of barrels of oil every day and installed nearly 2,500 miles of new transport pipelines in 2012. There is now enough pipeline, a total of about 17,500 miles, in North Dakota to travel the distance from Los Angeles, California to New York City. The state ranks behind only Texas as the most productive, yet farmers are still unaware that the land they till every season could be tainted.
“ What you don’t know, nobody is going to tell you ,” Louis Kuster, a wheat farmer located near the north-western city of Stanley, said. Kuster explained how, earlier this month, he watched as truckloads of oily dirt were driven away from a nearby farm.
“ We have no idea how big the spill is and why it happened ,” he said, speculating it may have been from a broken pipeline although no one can be quite sure. “ I’d try to get more information from the state but I’m too busy getting my harvest in .”
In 2013 alone there have already been 291 so-called “incidents.” Of the roughly 2,209 barrels that were lost, all but 490 were contained and cleaned up at the well site. Most of the spills that companies reported to the state totaled less than 10 barrels.
Nearly 500 barrels of oil spilled in 2012, the result of 153 pipeline leaks.
“ That’s news to us ,” said Don Morrison, director of the environmentally-minded Dakota Resource Council. “ The public really should know about these. If there is a spill, sometimes a landowner may not even know about it. And if they do, people think it’s an isolated incident that’s only happening to them .” | 0 |
This is how it ends for Alex Rodriguez? With a whimper instead of an public relations war? Hard to believe. For the moment, let’s not. It is possible that Rodriguez — at 41 and having been, as he put it, “to hell and back” — talked himself into being “at peace” about walking away after Friday night’s game against Tampa Bay at Yankee Stadium. But after a long and tumultuous career fueled by what even amateur psychologists could positively diagnose as a chronic inner turbulence, we suspect this was merely acceding to the franchise’s wishes to move beyond him without stirring up memories of his contentious and litigious past. Four home runs short of 700, 18 shy of Babe Ruth, this and man, once photographed kissing his reflection in the mirror, is going to retire just because Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman decided it was time? “Of course, I think I can play baseball,” Rodriguez said. “You always think you have one more hit in you. That wasn’t in the cards. That was the Yankees’ decision, and I’m at peace with it. ” All of that rang true except the last part. That is why no one should be surprised if another team reaches out in the next couple of weeks or for next season and Rodriguez’s tenure as a Yankees organizational adviser has the staying power of a Trump news cycle. Understand that the Yankees are great at selling history but are not exactly in the business of overdoing sentimentality. Cashman, above all, was once ready to run off Derek Jeter in the middle of a contract squabble. He was not about to yield to Rodriguez’s wishes for a steady diet of when he couldn’t produce as the designated hitter and the Yankees had finally come to grips with the recurrence of 1965. For those not versed in pinstriped lore: with the realization that their roster was old, broken down and overdue for disassembly. As rode the bench these last few weeks — “painful and embarrassing,” he said — and Manager Joe Girardi bristled at reporters’ questions of why, anyone who knows Cashman could imagine his hardening feelings about a player the Yankees welcomed back in 2015 after a suspension for being snared in the net of the Biogenesis drug scandal. Yes, Rodriguez was necessarily contrite and no longer a provocative clubhouse presence. More important, he produced, against all odds and expectations, on the way to 33 home runs. The image enhancement reached the point where the Yankees celebrated his 3, 000th hit with a commemorative day in September, an event unimaginable when Rodriguez was suing or defaming everyone but the talk radio host Mike Francesa in a attempt — wisely abandoned — to avoid suspension by Major League Baseball. But more than any singular story line, Rodriguez’s Yankees career was characterized by unpredictable twists and turns. By his special day, wouldn’t you know that his bat had slowed and the fastball had become an unhittable blur? His return season was nonetheless hailed as a triumphant character reconstruction. He was no longer an albatross with a capital A — until he resumed flailing away this season and the unsparing Cashman had to ask himself, besides $21 million in 2017, how much do we owe this guy? Rodriguez had no more leverage in New York, and what was the point of making a fuss? He went along tamely with the Yankees’ wishes and provided more behavioral assurance for any team that might seriously weigh his explanation on Sunday for why he couldn’t hit a lick after returning from time on the disabled list in May. “Mechanically, I never felt like I caught up,” he said, suggesting that it was more an issue of timing than the intervention of Father Time. If the phone doesn’t ring — a good possibility — then Rodriguez will at least wear the redemptive aura into his playing afterlife as he contemplates a continued association with the game. But who is naïve enough to think he won’t be burning for one last shot? “As far as 700, or any of those type of milestones, I would have had an unbelievable, fun time going after them,” he said, perhaps a flare to anyone in need of a marketing tool while playing out a lost season? What we can be certain of is that the timing of the departure from the Yankees’ bench — one night before Jeter and the 1996 World Series champions return to the Stadium to take another bow — was no coincidence. So many of Rodriguez’s machinations with the Yankees were painfully contrived, especially the $275 million deal that tethered him to the team past the point where the marriage was played out. Remember how word happened to get out during the 2007 World Series that Rodriguez was intending to leave the Yankees as a free agent? As a commodity, he had juice back then, the Yankees capitulated and the deal was officially announced on the very day baseball released the Mitchell report, detailing an entrenched steroid culture we would soon learn Rodriguez was part of. For timing so transparently tacky, it was easy to say, in the flurry of headlines to follow, that and the Yankees deserved each other. All due respect and good cheer aside, that part of the narrative will never change. | 1 |
Gentlemen, Donald J. Trump is the new President-elect of the United States. Though a a few results may still be unclear, Trump has captured the perennial large battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Iowa, and North Carolina, plus Georgia. And, in a change not seen in more than a generation, he has seized Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania and Michigan have not voted for a Republican Presidential candidate since 1988 and Wisconsin since way back in 1984. It appears also that states the Democrats thought were well and truly in the bag for them, such as Minnesota, Maine and Virginia, have stayed blue with only wafer-thin or very disappointing margins. The 2nd Congressional district of Maine, a state which divides its electoral votes along with Nebraska, has been called for the Republicans for the first time in nearly 30 years. The last time any Maine district voted for a GOP Presidential candidate was 1988, when George H. W. Bush seized all four electoral votes there.
Importantly, too, avowedly liberal states have seen significant turnouts for Trump. For example, counts so far show that some 40% of voters in Connecticut and Rhode Island, states with even more liberal media bias than the nation generally, have opted for the “racist,” “sexist,” and “homophobic” Republican candidate. Their votes ultimately did not change the electoral college map, but it is heartening to know that even in the eye of the liberal storm, plenty of people are happy to support Trump. This is despite them facing fierce rebukes and, often enough, violence if they make their views public.
The “clown” candidate has beaten 16 more “experienced” Republican challengers and now Hillary Clinton, the most elite-backed candidate in the world’s political history.
As tonight’s results have shown, plenty of Trump voters in red and blue states alike have been forced to keep their beliefs quiet. Media airtime for pro-Trump views and stories has been deliberately minimized and frequently demonized by the major networks. Mainstream “journalists” such as Glenn Thrush , Wolf Blitzer , Jake Tapper , Jessica Valenti , and Brent Budowsky have been caught collaborating with both the DNC and Clinton campaign (if you believe that these two groups are actually separate). This only increases the esteem in which the emphatic, resounding Trump victory needs to be held.
And let’s not forget the Senate and House races! After months of spineless GOP cucks rushing to differentiate themselves from Trump, The Donald has still carried them to victory in both Houses of Congress . The White House, Senate and House of Representatives are all in Republican hands until at least the 2018 House midterms. Can you taste the very salty tears of the liberals and SJWs yet?
Every powerful vested interest not only supported Hillary, but did everything they could to ruin Trump Yes, it’s happening.
Did you see the last major Hillary Clinton rallies? Celebrities-cum-political hacktivists, chief among them Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Katy Perry, all fell into Clinton’s corner well before their final appearances for her, excoriating anyone who had the gall to support Donald Trump. Even long-term Republicans who betrayed Trump, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, were attacked by celebrity SJWs such as Robert DeNiro after they joined the “Never Trump” ranks, as if they were dangerous saboteurs. The celebrity paranoia has been palpable for months. Hollywood, that broad industry taking in not just film stars but also singers, silver screen actors, and comedians, has become little more than an overpaid trade union for Hillary Clinton.
Likewise, every major American company that has come out for a candidate has come out for Hillary. Plenty of “neutral” corporations have undoubtedly been funneling support to the Clinton campaign behind the scenes as well. Prominent billionaires like George Soros and Warren Buffett have done all they could to drag Hillary’s stumbling half-corpse, both literally and figuratively, across the line. Whilst Trump has been supported by a number of ten-figure businessmen, these men are regularly attacked in the media. They include the scapegoated but brave Peter Thiel and Carl Icahn.
And then there’s the mainstream media. Countless studies have indicated that about 85-90% of all journalists are liberal. This over-representation is more salient still in the upper echelons of newsmen and women, particularly prominent mastheads such as The New York Times , Washington Post , and Huffington Post , plus Democratic TV surrogates like CNN and NBC. The 2016 campaign has inflated this preexisting liberal bias, one that plagued the two George W. Bush Administrations but raged even more ferociously against Donald Trump over the last 18 months.
All of these media elites have lambasted Trump for over a year, at the same time they give the paltriest coverage of the disgusting Hillary, Podesta and DNC emails. Everything newsworthy on this front, from the overwhelming presence of Clinton Foundation donors in Hillary’s Secretary of State diary book to more recent revelations about John Podesta’s involvement with Satanic rituals, has been brushed off the balcony by the Wolf Blitzers and Chuck Todds of the American mainstream media. Yet Trump has triumphed nonetheless!
The new administration must crush the criminal Democratic elites and Clinton Foundation with the rule of law Will Hillary now find herself stumbling into jail?
Inasmuch as the Clinton campaign, the SJWs, and their big business and media enablers have been defeated in this year’s election, they retain very well-oiled and effective means for trying to undermine President Trump once he takes office. Trump’s first priority as Commander-in-Chief must be to remove the bureaucratic apparatchiks preventing a full and frank investigation of the Clinton Foundation. He also needs to clear the way for legal inquiries into the various criminal activities, as uncovered by Wikileaks, perpetrated from within the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The Department of Justice in particular has engaged in all manner of skulduggery, most notably when Attorney-General Loretta Lynch had a private meeting with Bill Clinton during the most crucial time of the FBI investigation into Hillary’s emails. Additionally, elements of the State Department illegally informed Hillary about new developments in that same case. Enough is enough. It’s time to drain the swamp.
Election night produced another curve-ball: after weeks of calling Donald Trump a “sore loser” for him not saying if he would respect the final result, Hillary Clinton refused to speak to her supporters and the American people. It would seem that she only telephoned Trump privately. So who’s the sore loser now?
Last night we were witnesses to the greatest electoral sea-change in American—and perhaps global—history. We cannot lose sight of the work to be done, but for the next 24 hours we can bask in this unprecedented victory against all odds.
Hail to the Chief, Donald J. Trump.
Read More: 4 Reasons Donald Trump Will Win The Presidential Election Of 2016
| 0 |
My Epiphany at Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment By William Henry
God, S/He moves in mysterious ways.
On October 7-9, 2016, I had the pleasure of speaking — and having my mind blown (!)– at the “Ancient Mysteries” conference at Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, VA.
My presentation, “The Essenes and Ascension”, featured my last several years research on these (mostly) Jewish mystics who, extraordinarily, claimed to be living with angels (celestial beings/’extraterrestrials’) who taught them how to transform their human flesh — in a FLASH!!! — into the celestial flesh of the angels. Radiant, luminous, shining, this ‘flashy flesh’ of the angels is composed of a rarefied ‘perfect’ spiritual substance that is as ‘real’ or ‘solid’ in the higher realms as our physical body is on the earth. Attainment of this ‘light body’ is the next step in human spiritual evolution.
According to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes alienated themselves from the rest of society to ‘perfect’ themselves in order to prepare and make way for the visitation of a high celestial being and to lead a revolution in human evolution by transforming themselves into angels and the earth into a planet of righteousness.
The scrolls reveal the Essenes were also obsessed with transforming themselves to be like their visiting angels and their state of being (in light bodies) in order to ascend to and enter a celestial city called Sion or the New Jerusalem . In Hebrews (12:22), we learn this place is inhabited by “ angels gathered in joyful assembly and just humans made perfect .
The Essenes sought to take their place at this family gathering of angels and perfect ones.
THE ESSENES AND THE RAINBOW BODY It so happens that Hurricane Matthew was spinning toward Virginia Beach while I was there. I had no idea that coming on those clouds was a lightning strike of revelation and it was headed my way!
I was excited to hear Cayce expert, John Van Auken’s, talk about Edgar Cayce and the Essenes. Incredibly, the great seer had provided numerous readings about the Essene teachings at least fifteen years before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947. In startling ways, Cayce’s dream-state readings about the Essenes matched what the scrolls said in detail after detail. In particular, I was intrigued by Cayce’s references to the Essenes and perfection which appeared on several of Van Auken’s slides.
While at the A.R.E. I was given a tour of the vault containing Edgar Cayce’s original readings and other artifacts, including the gorgeous painting “Flight Into Egypt” (featured above). I even got to sit at his desk!
A great souvenir from the A.R.E.!
During my talk, I presented the research that led to my unique hypothesis that the Essenes living in Jerusalem and Alexandria Egypt c. 150 B.C. to 66 AD were practicing Buddhist Rainbow Light Body techniques referred to as the Great Perfection . The Tibetans teach that the Great Perfection was originally of extraterrestrial / cosmic origins and represents the highest form of enlightenment or spiritual realization on earth.
The ultimate goal of the Rainbow Body practitioner is to accelerate the frequency of the body until it dissolves into five colored rainbow light, leaving behind only hair, toe and fingernails that have no nerves to be transmuted. The result is a new birth or rebirth into a luminous, humanoid body shot with gold and which emits rainbow colors.
In a process that is as natural as a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, practitioners ‘ascend’ in new perfect bodies of light matching those of the celestial beings. This ‘light body’ is known in virtually every spiritual tradition. It goes by many names, of which the Garment of Light, Robe of Glory, Beaming Garment, Star Body, Diamond Body, Body of Bliss, are just a few.
What ‘called’ me to the Essenes was my discovery that they called their ‘research group’ the House of Perfection and referred to themselves as those who walk in the Perfect Way .
Researchers have observed the link between Jesus’s ‘perfect’ rainbow Resurrection body and the Rainbow Light Body of the Great Perfection. Side by side mages of the rainbow clad resurrected Christ with the Tibetan images of the Rainbow Body (as below) have been a staple of my books, presentations and TV shows since 2006. My three latest books have explored the sayings of Jesus that correspond to this body.
As I listened to Van Auken’s talk, I had no idea that a (major!) new piece to the correspondence between these images and the Tibetan and Christian teachings was about to slip into place.
For years, I additionally have been linking the images of the Rainbow Light Body with those of the Seraphim angels. The highest order of angels, the Seraphim dwell at God’s Throne (in the celestial city, Sion), but routinely interact with humanity, including the Essenes, as discussed in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other documents.
The Seraphim are the angels the Essenes sought to become. The ‘new bodies’ they sought are the same as the bodies of these beings.
In Jewish mysticism, the complete physical characteristics of the Seraphim (also known as the Watchers or Angels of the Lord) includes:
a humanoid body, a ‘serpentine face’, a many colored garment, rising up into the air like whirlwinds, luminous or radiant bodies, feathered cloaks, many eyes, and the ability to fluidly morph or change form and to shape-shift.
This is why, in Christian art, the Seraphim are portrayed as humanoid beings with swirling, vortex shaped bodies covered with feathers. Are the feathers meant to symbolize flight, but also an energy field or waves of light emitted from these beings? I believe so. To me, the visual similarity between the Rainbow Light Body and the energetic bodies of the Seraphim is not a coincidence.
I have proposed the Rainbow Body state and the Seraphim are same class of enlightened celestial beings. The Tibetans haven’t claimed this. Nor has the Judeo-Christian tradition. As far as I know, this is unique to me. I point this out not out of ego, but rather to alert the reader to the source of this link and in hopes that those ‘in the know’ will contact me with any additional references to support my hypothesis.
As they were developed in corresponding Christian theology, Seraphim are beings of pure light and pure love and have direct communication with God. As noted, they dwell at the Throne of God. However, they don’t stay there. They can manifest in our world.
In fact, the resurrected Jesus appeared to St. Francis of Assisi as a Seraph, demonstrating that the state of being of the Seraph is the same as the resurrected state of being. In the art of resurrection, which is derived from eye-witness accounts (John the Revelator, for example) Jesus is either seen with a rainbow around his body or with the body of a Seraphim. In my view, these bodies are the interchangeable or energetic phases of the same light body. One, the Rainbow Body version, is a sped up version of the other (the Seraphim). This because these heavenly beings ‘slow down’ their frequency in order to be perceived by our earthly senses.
Jesus manifests as a Seraph to St. Francis of Assisi. For more on this remarkable contact please see my article Gentle Heart.
As I discussed in my book, The Secret of Sion , Thomas Aquinas said the Seraphim have the quality of clarity, or brightness; which signifies that these angels have in themselves an inextinguishable light, and that they also perfectly enlighten others…” With the revival of neo-Platonism in the academy formed around Lorenzo de’ Medici in Renaissance Florence, the Seraphim took on a mystic role in Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man (1487), the epitome of Renaissance thinking.
Pico took the fiery Seraphim—”they burn with the fire of charity”—as the highest models of human aspiration: “impatient of any second place, let us emulate dignity and glory. And, if we will it, we shall be inferior to them in nothing,” the young Pico announced.
“In the light of intelligence, meditating upon the Creator in His work, and the work in its Creator, we shall be resplendent with the light of the Cherubim. If we burn with love for the Creator only, his consuming fire will quickly transform us into the flaming likeness of the Seraphim. “Models of human aspiration: “impatient of any second place, let us emulate dignity and glory. And, if we will it, we shall be inferior to them in nothing”, the young Pico announced.
According to Renaissance thought, the Seraphim are a different type of human being, a fully transfigured one. Their ‘perfected’ bodies are immortal bodies of light and are therefore able to hold the highest frequencies of love and light. We can become Seraphim by meditating exclusively on the love of the Creator, say Renaissance thinkers. In other words, if we perfect ourselves.
The Essenes believed exactly the same thing. I have proposed the angels the Essenes were living with were Seraphim and the celestial body they were teaching them about was the (or their) Rainbow Light Body.
No other Essene or Tibetan scholars have made this amazing connection. This is because the scholars who have discussed the scrolls are usually specialists and have not gone out of the box to link the Essene’s concept of Perfection with that of the Tibetans, as I have done. Likewise, the Tibtan Great Perfection scholars I have read to not stray into Essene light body practices either. However, once the two spheres are entwined, as I have don, they become one.
This premise is out of the box, but it did not come to me out of the blue. It arose out of the historical fact that Buddhist missionaries brought their teachings to the Essenes in Alexandria in c. 150 B.C, when the Essenes, as we know them in the Dead Sea Scrolls, were formed. The historical background will be featured in my forthcoming book about the Essenes, the light body and ascension.
My reading of Dead Sea Scrolls shows that they contain the proof of this interaction and the Essene practice of human transformation or transmutation into perfect light bodies. Their goal of attaining perfection is the core power pack and red hot coal of the Seraphim found in the scrolls.
Taking this one bold step further, in my presentation, I showed how the Essenes were practicing this “Rainbow Body Resurrection”. This revolutionizes our understanding of the Dead Sea Scroll and the Essenes. I will have copies of this presentation available on the latest edition of my flash drive .
ONLY THE BORN AGAIN CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD The thing is, I never really thought about the connection between the Essene light body or perfection teachings, which are both explicit and veiled in Christianity, and the defining Christian concept of being ‘born again’
The reason is because I am neither a Protestant or an Evangelical Christian, the two Christian movements who have done more than the other several hundred Christian sects to illuminate the mysteries of being “Born Again”. In Christian understanding, one is “born again” after one, proclaiming belief in only One God, two, being baptized in the Name Jesus Christ and then, three, following Jesus into the Kingdom of God.
Thunder rolled for me during Van Auken’s presentation on Cayce and the Essenes when he mentioned Jesus’s teaching on the necessity of being “born again” to enter the Kingdom of God.
Then, lightning struck.
It happened when I put the images I had shown of the resurrected Christ in the rainbow (body) together in my mind with the belief that he is the first “born again” Essene and Christian.
I suddenly realized the Kingdom of God and the celestial city are the same state (of being).
When the smoke cleared, I realized that to be “born again” means to attain the perfect light body or the Rainbow Resurrection Body.
In my talk, I said that, according to the Essenes, the only way to enter the celestial city is to be dressed appropriately. That is, we must attain /wear the flashy perfect body of the angels and “just humans made perfect” who dwell there.
This means attaining the perfect body has the same meaning as being “born again” into a body of spirit (light, love).
I was blown away by the winds that followed this revelation and the simplicity and elegance of this match.
Remember this Memorex ad from the 1970s? That was me putting the Rainbow Resurrection Body together with the Born Again body!
Here is the section from the Book of John (3) containing Jesus’s teaching:
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “ Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again .”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[ gives birth to spirit . 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “ How can this be ?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “ You are Israel’s teacher ,” said Jesus, “ and do you not understand these things ?11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
Jesus taught the uninitiated Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7) and made it clear that only by being born again can you see the Kingdom of God, let alone enter it.
If the new Born Again body is the same as the body of the angels, it means Jesus taught that, in order to enter the Kingdom of God (the celestial Sion), we must be “born again”… into our Rainbow Resurrection Body. We receive this body by following him.
THE PERFECT BODY AND THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN As I take a look around Christendom, I don’t see too many Christians following, teaching, or demonstrating Jesus’s light body or perfection teachings.
You can’t blame or judge them for that. Just google the words “star body” or “perfect body” and see what comes up in our contemporary imagination!
As Jesus lamented, even Nicodemus, a religious leader of his day, had no concept of what it meant to be born again or to attain the perfect body!
We find that the very same thing is true today. Many men and women who fill positions of spiritual leadership in our world have no real understanding of the light body or born again experience.
Consequently, the term “born again” is one of the most (mis) used phrases among present-day Christians.
Like the new age conception of “ascension”, if asked what the term born again means, most Christians likely could not give a clear explanation.
We can see what Jesus was up against when, in his rebirth / resurrection, Jesus enacted or demonstrated the Essene perfection teaching of the transmutation of the earthly body into a heavenly body composed of celestial flesh. Christians would call this the plan of salvation and argue that Jesus authored this plan during his crucifixion, entombment/resurrection and ascension. The problem is the “how to” build the light body from this plan has been veiled in Christianity. Fortunately, the Essene teachings in the Dead Sea Scrolls unveil these teachings for us.
Jesus spoke of perfection numerous times. In particular, in a conversation with a rich man about eternal life.
The man had asked Jesus, “What is required for eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “keep the commandments.”
Which are: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:35-40)
The rich man told Jesus that he had always kept the commandments and wanted to know what else was required (like how much $?).
Jesus says, “… I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven .”
The camel is a symbol of the human body and the material cargo the soul accumulates during is sojourn on earth. Jesus is telling the rich man that his earthly, material being and all that it collects on earth will have to be left behind or transmuted into a celestial substance. In other words, the flesh and blood body will not make it through the portal to the otherworldly realms spoken of by Jesus, but a soul clad in a light body or Garment of Glory can and will. Jesus is simply saying that our ‘stuff’ is not going with us when we enter the eye of the needle to the Kingdom of God.
Jesus then told him, and here is the Essene Rainbow Light Body teaching, and the ‘punch line’ of this blog, “ If thou wilt be perfect (holy, whole, complete), go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Mat. 19:21).
In other words, Jesus is telling the rich man that if attains the perfect light body, and is “born again”, he has found earth’s greatest treasure. He then can follow him through the eye of the needle (or stargate) into the Kingdom of God where perfected humans dwell in bodies of light.
Jesus in the ‘eye of needle’, a gateway filled with stars. He wears the bright white garment of light that symbolizes the Perfect Body.
JESUS LIFTS THE SERPENT AND TELLS US HOW TO ATTAIN THE GARMENT OF LIGHT
Jesus told us how we will transform and attain eternal life in his further remarks in John 3:
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him .”
Jesus is referring to an episode in the Book of Numbers (21:8) in which the Israelites “Make thee a fiery serpent (literally, a seraph), and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live”.
Moses and the Nehushtan, Salisbury Cathedral.
The serpent lifted on a pole is called the Nehushtan , meaning the Brazen Serpent or Fiery Serpent. This last definition is mind blowing, as the Jewish Encyclopedia states Seraph means “fiery flying serpent”. The Nehushtan is the device (‘sign’, ‘symbol’, ‘seal’, ‘tool’, ‘appliance’), symbol or logo of the Seraphim! Jesus is referring us directly to it as the means to attain eternal life! A moment before he told us that LOVE was the key to eternal life. Oh wait. I get it! The serpent on the pole symbolizes the cosmic love within us that arises when we follow the commandments to “love with all our heart and love our neighbor as our self”!
THE HOLY FORCE For me, this is a ‘proof’ or confirmation that Jesus was demonstrating the light body secrets of the angels, specifically the Seraphim. Again, transformation into a Seraph / Rainbow Light Body is the same as being Born Again.
In some Christian movements (especially Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism), to be born again is to undergo a “spiritual rebirth”, or a regeneration of the human spirit from the Holy Spirit. As Jesus tells us John 3:3, no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless they are in their born again body.
The earthly body is born of flesh. The Born Again Resurrection Rainbow Body is born of a spirit, a higher vibration. That holy spirit is love. True love.
Interestingly, the Greek for again also means from above, suggesting that the power or spirit of regeneration comes from above…in in the stars, in the higher worlds. This means our Rainbow Body comes from and exists in a higher realm or in the stars, as the Tibetans teach.
In Christian terms, being born again is the result of a secret act of regeneration (love) by God. A mysterious power or force, the Holy Spirit, transforms our flesh and blood existence in to spirit-filled body and state of being.
The serpent on a pole is a symbol for the regeneration into a spirit body of the Seraphim. Again, they are considered the beings of highest love.
The power of regeneration is found in the prophecy of Ezekiel:
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you ; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances . (Ezek. 36:26–27)
Ezekiel is telling us that regeneration affects us as whole persons. EVERY part of our being — body, mind and spirit — is affected: “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come ” (2 Cor. 5:17).
The new Rainbow Body of Light, that is.
Being “born again” is nothing less than receiving the actual body of Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension — the body of a Seraph or a Rainbow Light Body. In order to ‘attain’ it, Christianity teaches that his Holy Spirit actually enters us and brings our spirit (and its light body) to life. Our spirit is joined with Him” ( 1 Corinthians 6:17 ). We then become one with the perfect One. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”(Galations 2:20).
The mystery of being born again into the Light Body is now revealed, “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” ( Colossians 1:26,27 ).
The Holy Spirit that transforms us and “makes us new” is ever-present, but invisible in the life and teaching of Jesus. I hope this blog has shown that the “born again” body this spirit produces is the same as the Rainbow Body of Light and the body of the Seraphim. Jesus’s teaching about his light body is also ever present, and with this understanding, hopeful more visible.
Jesus compares the mysterious force that regenerates us with the wind: Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
The Bible says that things which are visible are temporary but things which are invisible are eternal (see 2 Corinthians 4:18 ).
In other words, those with born again bodies are living in the eternal everywhere, everywhen and at one with God. This is how the Tibetans define the Oneness of the Rainbow Body state of being.
The Essenes were great scholars, researchers and practitioners of the most advanced spiritual teaching on earth. They said it came from the angels. It matches the Tibetan light body teaching they said came from the stars, meaning it is a universal teaching. It is my hope that my linking the Essene Perfect Way, the Tibetan Great Perfection and the Christian Born Again traditions is received today in the spirit of love and unity with which the Essenes received it two thousand years ago. Then, as now, the promise is the same. When we live from our light bodies we become a new being, a born again being in the here and (or the here and new). We live a life like those of the Seraphim, the Essenes and Christ. Filled with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit we are able to do the same things they could do.
I am thankful, once again, for the winds of Hurricane Matthew and the thunder of John Van Auken and Edgar Cayce that blew this understanding my way.
William Henry is a Nashville-based author, investigative mythologist, and TV presenter. He is an internationally recognized authority on human spiritual potential, transformation and ascension.
Source: William Henry
| 0 |
October 30, 2016 at 3:02 pm
Besides, using a «cloud» account, is extremely stupid. Paedo hunter October 30, 2016 at 1:09 pm
and about time too……my biggest ‘fear’ is the brainwashed masses putting resistence to the change…..like the Brexit ‘remainers’ who just can’t accept they lost yet still fighting at every legal street corner to have it reversed….that kinda mindset for different issues worldwide are the biggest stumbling block to change and they also feed the ruling classes objectives and give them reason to plant some more MSM treats for us to despair at…..like Russophobia……”LONG LIVE PUTIN” Mike October 30, 2016 at 12:05 pm
Thanks Gilad, at least everyone here at vt isn’t brainwashed by Hillary. Vt is doing a disservice to itself by closing the comment sections on articles by Ian and Gordo. What cant control the narrative so you close the comments? Sad days for the Vt faithful! CoJonesGrandes October 30, 2016 at 12:57 pm
Are you aware of Karla Turner’s work? The negative aliens who have controlled this planet for ages have many tools in their box. For example,where an incorruptible person has acquired a large following but works against their agenda, one way of dealing with such a person is to replace his soul. This way, it would appear as if that person has switched allegiances. Unless you are psychic enough to see the soul, you would have NO idea that there has been any such switcheroo. http://www.reptilianagenda.com/exp/e112300a.shtml Quote: HOW THE ALIENS MIGHT CONTROL THE LEADERS:
“…. if they wanted to use one of their own souls … perhaps to inhabit the body of a politicians and work full-time through it, that could be done. …. they could simply take the soul out and stick another soul in. They have the ability to retrieve what we call the soul, to store it in a container, and to put it back into another body. They can put it in any body they wish.” Ariana October 30, 2016 at 11:37 am
Sorry Correction _ Ironically, the masters of color revolutions around the world, are now experiencing the same colorfull revolution from inside, without any snipers behind the courtain and walls !
You must be logged in to post a comment Login WHAT'S HOT | 0 |
President Donald Trump has scheduled five calls to world leaders on Saturday, and has completed most. Among the most anticipated was his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which occurred at noon today. [The call between Trump and Putin was the first of its kind regarding policy, and reportedly lasted around 30 minutes. The two had spoken on the phone most recently in November, when Putin called to congratulate Trump on winning the presidential election. During the call, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer posted a photo of the Oval Office on Twitter, showing the President engaging Putin while surrounded by senior staffers: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor Stephen K. Bannon, and Vice President Mike Pence. After speaking with Chancellor Merkel for 45 minutes @POTUS is now onto his 3rd of 5 head of government calls, speaking w Russian Pres Putin pic. twitter. — Sean Spicer (@PressSec) January 28, 2017, Neither the White House nor the Kremlin have released details regarding the contents of the call at press time. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered questions regarding the scheduled call on Friday, however, lowering expectations for any major policy breakthroughs. “One can hardly expect substantive contacts on the entire range of affairs from this call … Let us wait and see, let us be patient,” he told reporters in Moscow. Peskov added that Russia and the United States had yet to establish official contacts in the new Trump era, but that “routine diplomatic work is underway” to ensure proper communications. In addition to the phone call following November’s election, Putin sent President Trump a letter in December wishing him a merry Christmas and happy holiday season, which Trump described as a “very nice Christmas letter” and thanked Putin for. While Putin’s relations with the Obama White House were notoriously strained — though Putin greatly expanded the diplomatic influence of Russia during President Obama’s tenure, particularly in the Middle East — Putin has appeared publicly favorable to establishing positive relations with the Trump administration. Following President Obama’s announcement of new sanctions on Russia in December, shortly before Trump took office, Putin said in a statement he would not retaliate, calling President Obama’s actions “regrettable” and implying he would wait for Trump to assume the presidency before evaluating how bilateral relations should go forward. Putin also came to Trump’s defense following the publication of unverified documents by the entertainment website Buzzfeed, which claimed Trump had engaged in inappropriate behavior while in Russia. Putin called those giving publicity to the documents “worse than prostitutes” and stated that, while he did not believe that Trump had requested the services of “loose women” while in Moscow, “ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. ” Putin also appeared unintimidated by President Trump’s call for the refurbishing of America’s nuclear arsenal, stating that there was “nothing unusual” about the President wanting to maintain the quality of the U. S. military. Prior to speaking to Putin, Trump held conversations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe is scheduled to visit the White House on February 10. | 1 |
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that the United States should greatly “expand its nuclear capability,” appearing to suggest an end to decades of efforts by presidents of both parties to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in American defenses and strategy. Mr. Trump’s statement, in a midafternoon Twitter post, may have been a response to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who in a speech to his military’s leadership in Moscow earlier on Thursday vowed to strengthen Russia’s nuclear missiles. Mr. Putin said nuclear forces needed to be bolstered so they could “reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems,” apparently a reference to the Pentagon’s efforts to develop systems capable of shooting down rockets. Shortly after Mr. Putin’s comments were reported by the news media, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that the United States must “strengthen and expand” its nuclear forces “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. ” He did not elaborate. The vagueness of Mr. Trump’s posting made it difficult to assess its possible impact on American foreign policy, and further illustrated the potential dangers in setting policy, especially on such grave matters, in Twitter bursts and offhand remarks. Nuclear weapons are so fearsome that only a president can order their use, and deterrence is normally a complicated subject debated in academic treatises and negotiated over years by diplomats. Aides to Mr. Trump, asked to clarify what the meant by the need to “expand” the nuclear ability of the United States, responded with a statement that did not address that point. Jason Miller, the incoming White House communications director, said in the statement that Mr. Trump was referring to “the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it — particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes. ” Mr. Miller added that the had in the past “emphasized the need to improve and modernize our deterrent capability as a vital way to pursue peace through strength. ” It was the second time in two days that aides had tried to recast a statement from Mr. Trump. On Wednesday, he appeared to say that recent terror attacks in Europe had vindicated his campaign pledge to bar Muslims from entering the United States. Aides later said he was merely restating his promise to implement strict vetting and suspend the admission of people from countries associated with terrorism. With his Twitter post on nuclear arms, it remained unclear from his use of the word “expand” whether Mr. Trump would try to reverse agreements such as the New Start treaty, which Russia and the United States signed in 2010 and which commits both nations to modest reductions in strategic nuclear forces. But the implications of Mr. Trump’s post — if it signals the beginning of a new era of nuclear weapons expansion in the United States — could be profound. Derek Johnson, the executive director of Global Zero, a group that seeks the elimination of nuclear weapons, accused Mr. Trump of calling for a “new nuclear arms race,” even as Mr. Putin appears eager for a major expansion of Russian nuclear abilities. “The use of even a single nuclear weapon, anywhere in the world, would be a global humanitarian, environmental and economic disaster,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement. “A nuclear buildup in the U. S. and Russia only makes that nightmare scenario more likely. ” The United States and Russia are already racing to modernize their existing nuclear arsenals, replacing aging missile systems with smaller, more modern weapons that are harder to stop and more precise. That effort by Moscow and Washington, while allowed by current arms control treaties, has nonetheless caused fears of renewing a kind of Cold arms race as the two nations seek technological dominance. The United States is also moving ahead with a modest system of missile defenses in Europe, a program that has deeply angered the Kremlin, which rejects arguments that it is aimed solely at the threat from Iran. But if Mr. Trump also intends to increase the number of America’s nuclear weapons, it could represent a significant break in strategic policy that dates to talks between the two nations that began under President Richard M. Nixon. It could also be a drastic reversal of President Obama’s approach. In one of his first major speeches in 2009, Mr. Obama told a cheering crowd in Prague that the United States would lead an effort to pursue rules and treaties that would result in a world without any nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama has had some limited success in pursuing that vision during his eight years in office. He convened a regular nuclear nonproliferation summit meeting aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear material with special concerns about terror groups gaining access to these materials. Mr. Obama negotiated a deal with Iran that his administration says would delay that government’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. But during Mr. Obama’s time in office, North Korea has conducted several nuclear weapons tests. Contrary to Mr. Obama’s own conciliatory nuclear posture, and concrete steps in that direction, his administration has also embarked on a sweeping modernization of the American nuclear arsenal that may cost up to $1 trillion over three decades. It features new factories, refurbished nuclear arms and a new generation of weapon carriers, including bombers, missiles and submarines. The bombers are to carry a new cruise missile meant to slip through enemy air defenses. During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said that he would not rule out the use of nuclear weapons even though he called their potential use “a horror. ” In an interview with The New York Times in March, the also suggested that Japan and South Korea might have to obtain their own nuclear weapons, which would be a reversal of an American policy that for decades extended promises of protection to allies and foreclosed the need for them to go nuclear. John R. Harvey, who from 1995 to 2013 held senior positions overseeing nuclear weapons programs in the energy and defense departments, said Mr. Trump’s Twitter post on Thursday had several possible meanings, ranging from the routine to actions that could exceed current treaty limits. For example, Mr. Harvey said, Mr. Trump could have simply been voicing support for continuing the “nuclear modernization” program. But Mr. Trump might also have been suggesting that he wants to substantially increase the number of bombers, missiles and submarines. The United States currently has about 7, 000 nuclear weapons in the stockpile, including about 1, 750 strategic warheads deployed in missile silos, on bombers and in submarines around the world, according to the Federation of American Scientists. That is down from more than 30, 000 warheads at the height of the Cold War. Russia has about 7, 300 nuclear weapons, the federation says. Under the New Start treaty, both countries have committed to reducing the number of deployed nuclear weapons to 1, 550 by 2018, though that figure can be exceeded because each bomber is counted as a single weapon even if it carries more than one. David Wright, of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, expressed dismay at Mr. Trump’s choice of Twitter to discuss nuclear weapons policy. “It’s a pretty blunt instrument to be trying to say something intelligible on what his plans are,” he said. “It sounded to me more like an advertisement to appear to be strong to the world as opposed to an assessment of what the U. S. may or may not need. ” | 1 |
HONG KONG — Thousands of people marched in Hong Kong on Sunday to protest an expected decision by the Chinese government that would effectively block two newly elected politicians from taking their seats in the semiautonomous territory’s legislature. The decision, issued the next day, came after the prospective lawmakers, Sixtus Leung, 30, and Yau 25, made controversial remarks last month during an ceremony in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. Rather than say “China” in their oaths, they said “” a term that many find offensive, associating it with its use by Japan during its occupation of China during World War II. Ms. Yau also added an expletive to her oath. Relations between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, a former British colony of 7. 3 million, were already frayed by demonstrations that erupted in 2014 in response to the Chinese government’s rejection of calls for free elections in the territory. The remarks by the two politicians, who have argued that Hong Kong should be independent from China, were widely seen as acts of defiance — and catalysts for a renewed political crisis. Where does the term ‘ ’ come from? Aoki Masaru, a Japanese Sinologist, argued that it originated in early Sanskrit transcriptions of Qin, the name of the dynasty that unified China more than 2, 000 years ago, according to a 2012 essay by the historian Joshua A. Fogel. Qin, pronounced “chin,” may have contributed to the country’s name in many Western languages. With the spread of Buddhism from India, and the translation of scriptures into Chinese, the word entered China and then Japan. Professor Fogel, who teaches at York University in Toronto, wrote that the Japanese used the name for centuries, but especially from the 19th century through World War II. Before the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, the country had no official symbols or constitution, noted Xu Guoqi, a professor of history at the University of Hong Kong who is writing a book titled “The Idea of China. ” Its last imperial dynasty, the Qing, was established by Manchu invaders in the 17th century. Many Chinese nationalists and reformers in the final years of Qing rule — such as Liang Qichao and Zhang Taiyan — used the term “with no hidden bad meaning,” he said. was one of many names these intellectuals used to refer to their country, said John Delury, a professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Some of the intellectuals were involved in the resistance and had gone into exile in Japan, he added. “They felt their country had been stolen for hundreds of years by an invading, Chinese, Manchu people, and now they were trying to get it back,” Professor Delury said. They were searching for a name for the new nation, he said, that would differentiate it from the Qing dynasty. When did Chinese people begin to view the term as a slur? The term is the name for China that has “most exercised Chinese opinion” throughout history, Professor Fogel wrote in his 2012 essay. Jan Kiely, a professor of Chinese studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in an email that “strong feelings” were stirred in Chinese people when the Japanese Empire used the word to refer to China during its incursions into Chinese territory, from the War through World War II. For many Chinese today, Professor Kiely said, recalls the sufferings of the occupation and references a Japanese imperial sense that the Chinese were inherently inferior. On Monday, Li Fei, the chairman of China’s parliamentary committee on the Basic Law, the that governs Hong Kong, criticized Mr. Leung and Ms. Yau for using the term. “I especially condemn insults to the country and the nation,” Mr. Li told reporters in Beijing. “I hope Hong Kong people do not forget how Chinese were slaughtered by the Japanese invaders, and especially that the Japanese invaders committed huge crimes when they occupied Hong Kong. ” Professor Kiely said that public memory of World War II had surged in China over the past two decades in tandem with rising nationalism, thanks in part to a proliferation of memorials, museums, exhibitions and documentaries about the war. If the term can be perceived as a slur against Chinese people, why did the two Hong Kong politicians include it in their remarks? Professor Delury said the politicians appeared to be making a satirical comparison between the Chinese government’s current control over Hong Kong and Japan’s invasion in the 20th century. He said it was significant that the remarks were made in the context of what is normally an ceremony that is designed to indicate submission to the Chinese government. “All this historical stuff is very interesting, but at a certain level,” he said, “what they’re trying to do here is to register their refusal to obey the way they’re being told to obey. ” But the ’ critics include people in Hong Kong who have pushed for democratic reforms in its political system. What explains that? After taking the oath in the Legislative Council, Mr. Leung attributed his pronunciation of China as “ ” to his local Hong Kong accent. But Ming Sing, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said in an interview that some people in Hong Kong dismissed that explanation as “moral hypocrisy,” because Mr. Leung had previously made a point of attacking legislators for their purported unwillingness to challenge the Chinese government. “He was perceived to cover up his real intent,” Professor Sing said. Professor Sing said that many people in Hong Kong also believed that the two politicians’ remarks at the ceremony handed the Chinese government a pretext to reinterpret the Basic Law, which was negotiated before Britain returned the territory to Chinese rule in 1997. He said they fear the Basic Law may be interpreted “in a way that could undermine the rule of law and political freedoms in Hong Kong. ” | 1 |
“Clueless Gamer,” one of Conan O’Brien’s most popular segments, has been picked up by TBS as a series all its own. [The Turner Broadcasting System will build on the popularity of Conan O’Brien’s forays into the world of video games, creating a standalone show out of a segment that’s been a solid viewer favorite since it transitioned from a web series to the nightly show in 2012. Conan typically sits on a couch with various celebrity guests and pokes fun at whatever they’re playing. Thus far, Grand Theft Auto V, Halo 5: Guardians, Fallout 4, Mario Kart 8, DOOM, Final Fantasy XV, and Battlefield 1 have all been featured on Clueless Gamer, among many others. There’s just one little change: Conan won’t be on the couch anymore. While O’Brien will serve as an executive producer, the will feature a new, unannounced host. TBS president Kevin Reilly told The Hollywood Reporter that the segment has become popular enough that “we’ve gotten to the point where video game companies are sending us their new product for us to play and make fun of because it’s been such a huge success. ” They’re pinning a lot on the hope that the viral popularity of the segment will survive transport into independent programming, and without the snarky wit of its creator. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 1 |
It has been a rough few weeks for Donald J. Trump and his team: a bruising loss in Wisconsin, a public campaign and some missteps and gaffes, including his reference to the attacks on the World Trade Center as occurring “on . ” In a lengthy interview in his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower on Tuesday, shortly after casting a ballot for himself and hours before the polls closed, the usually boastful Mr. Trump seemed a bit more humbled as he reflected on his “evolving” campaign and looked to the challenges ahead. Alongside his oldest son, Donald J. Trump Jr. and his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, Mr. Trump spoke freely, talking about whether to court delegates with lavish perks like visits to his mansions. Below are some condensed excerpts from the conversation. On what it was like to vote for himself in New York on Tuesday: I got over to the booth, a lot of people on the street. Obviously, they saw somebody was coming, and when I got out, it was all cheers. And then I went in and I got the voter slip, and I saw my name, and I said: “Oh, that’s very interesting. I’m voting for myself as president of the United States. ” And it does sort of hit you, a little bit differently than when you’re thinking of it in a different context. You see your name, and it says “president of the United States” on a quite nicely printed form. And check the box. And it’s very big for not very many names. So it’s a great honor. Honestly, it’s a great honor. On the recent he ordered, which diminished the role of Corey Lewandowski, his campaign manager: Well, now we are evolving. I’m very happy with my people — the people that both got me here and the people that will take it to the next level. I think that Corey, and my whole group, I’m just very happy with them. We’ve become something that’s a very big thing. On Jeb Bush: I think Jeb would have been the nominee had I not gotten in, but I was able to define Jeb early. On what he sees as his unique ability to bring fresh thinking to old issues: Don’t forget I’m the one that, when Jeb would say, “The country was safe when my brother was president,” I said, “Excuse me, the World Trade Center came down. ” Do you know, nobody thought of that? It’s like the paper clip. Nobody thought about the paper clip except for the guy that thought of it, and he became rich. And everyone else said, “Why didn’t I think of that idea?” On the race for delegates: It’s a rigged system. It’s a disgraceful, disgusting rigged system in the Republican Party. Worse than the Democratic Party, because in the Democratic case it’s obvious with superdelegates. Look at Bernie. He wins every week, and everyone says he can’t win. In the Democrat Party, it’s obvious because they have a superdelegate, that’s like throwing it in your face. The Republican Party is worse, the Republican Party has a system where you can buy the delegates if you want. And you can do anything you want with a delegate, except give them cash. I can play the game better — I can fly them on a 757 to I can fly them to California where I own a place that’s unbelievable, on the Pacific Ocean. But it’s a bad system. You’re buying the election. It’s really wrong, and I’m looking into it, legally. On whether he will emphasize the economy and trade in the Pennsylvania and Indiana primaries: I think my message is so incredible for those two places, because they’ve been decimated, they’ve been decimated. There are some places where it wouldn’t work as well. On Ted Cruz possibly beating him in the delegate race: Look, other than the fact that he’s using a corrupt system and rigged system to get delegates, he’d be out of it already. He can’t win. But how do you pick a guy who’s down millions of votes and many hundreds of delegates. I’m already over 200 delegates up. So how do you do that? Do you understand? That’s pretty hard. I won. The voters voted for me. I think you’d have bedlam in the party. On top of it, Cruz is not a popular guy. He’s not liked. On Senator Marco Rubio of Florida’s attempts to wage a war of insults with him: He played Don Rickles, and then I played Don Rickles times five. And then he stopped. They had to try something. All right? On not wanting to woo delegates: I don’t like the process of it — you’re buying the election. I’m not ruling anything out, but I’ll tell you what — I think that there’s a serious legal challenge to all of this, and it starts with the “super PACs. ” This is a very serious dilemma for the Republican Party. On whether he actually wants the job of president or simply wants to win: Look, there’s no greater honor. But I’m not doing it for the honor. I’m doing it because I really believe that with substance, intelligence and having the proper ability, which I have, we can make this country so successful, so fast. We can bring it back. You know, make America great again. Which is also a great slogan. On how the past year has turned out for him: A couple of people who know me actually said, “Be careful what you wish for. ” It was very interesting. It was a compliment. Well, they understand that I win. My life is winning. I win. I know how to win. Most people don’t know how to win. In golf, in sports, in life — I win, always. Better knock on wood. [Knocks on his desk. | 1 |
Hillary Clinton Waiting In Wings Of Stage Since 6 A.M. For DNC Speech PHILADELPHIA—Saying she arrived hours before any of the members of the production crew, sources confirmed Thursday that presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been waiting in the wings of the Wells Fargo Center stage since six o’clock this morning to deliver her speech at the Democratic National Convention. Depressed, Butter-Covered Tom Vilsack Enters Sixth Day Of Corn Bender After Losing VP Spot WASHINGTON—Saying she has grown increasingly concerned about her husband’s mental and physical well-being since last Friday, Christie Vilsack, the wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, told reporters Thursday that the despondent, butter-covered cabinet member has entered the sixth day of a destructive corn bender after being passed over for the Democratic vice presidential spot. DNC Speech: ‘I Am Proud To Say I Walked In On Bill And Hillary Having Sex’ A friend of the Clinton family describes a Hillary who America never gets to see: the one he saw having sex. Trump Sick And Tired Of Mainstream Media Always Trying To Put His Words Into Some Sort Of Context NEW YORK—Emphasizing that the practice was just more evidence of journalists’ bias against him, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stated Thursday that he was sick and tired of the mainstream media always attempting to place his words into some kind of context. Who’s Speaking At The DNC: Day 4 Here is a guide to the major speakers who will be addressing attendees on the final night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention Bound, Gagged Joaquin Castro Horrified By What His Identical Twin Brother Might Be Doing Out On DNC Floor PHILADELPHIA—Struggling to free himself from the tightly wound lengths of rope binding his wrists and ankles together, bruised and gagged Texas congressman Joaquin Castro was reportedly horrified by what his identical twin brother, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, might be out doing on the floor of the DNC Thursday. Obama: ‘Hillary Will Fight To Protect My Legacy, Even The Truly Detestable Parts’ PHILADELPHIA—Emphasizing the former secretary of state’s competence and tenacity during his Democratic National Convention address Wednesday night, President Barack Obama praised Hillary Clinton as someone who would work tirelessly to defend and advance the legacy he had built, even the “truly repugnant parts.” Tim Kaine Clearly Tuning Out In Middle Of Boring Vice Presidential Acceptance Speech PHILADELPHIA—Describing the look of total disinterest on his face and noting how he kept peering down at his watch as the speech progressed, sources at the Democratic National Convention said that Virginia senator Tim Kaine clearly began tuning out partway through the boring vice presidential acceptance address Wednesday night. Cannon Overshoots Tim Kaine Across Wells Fargo Center PHILADELPHIA—Noting that the vice presidential nominee had been launched nearly 100 feet into the air during his entrance into the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, sources reported that the cannon at the back of the Wells Fargo Center had accidentally overshot Tim Kaine across the arena, sending him crashing to the stage several dozen feet beyond the erected safety net. Biden Regales DNC With Story Of ’80s Girl Band Vixen Breaking Hard Rock’s Glass Ceiling PHILADELPHIA—Devoting a large portion of his speech to the “pioneering, stiffy-inducing” all-female quartet, Vice President Joe Biden regaled the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night with the rousing story of the metal band Vixen breaking hard rock’s glass ceiling in the late 1980s. | 0 |
Sen. Lindsey Graham ( ) is proposing a federal law that would require all candidates for president to release their 1040 personal income tax returns, including President Donald Trump. But such a law should not survive a court challenge, because it would be unconstitutional. [Article II of the Constitution sets forth three criteria to be eligible for president. A person must be (1) a natural born citizen, (2) at least 35 years of age, and (3) been residing in the United States for at least 14 years before the election. That is all. Everything else is left to the voters to decide whom they want as commander in chief. Consequently, a federal statute requiring submitting tax returns would impose a requirement beyond what the Constitution specifies. Any candidate running for the presidency in 2020 would have legal standing to challenge the statute’s legality in court. Several Supreme Court cases involving Congress buttress the idea that Graham’s idea would not pass constitutional muster. In Powell v. McCormick (1969) the Court held that the Constitution’s provision that a simple majority of the U. S. House (or Senate) can decide the qualifications of its new members before allowing them to be sworn into Congress is limited to the criteria set forth in the Constitution (citizenship, age, and residency). Excluding a duly elected candidate for any other reason amounts to expelling that person from Congress, which requires a vote by Congress, instead of 51 percent. More recently, in U. S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995) the justices split on whether states can impose term limits on people from that state in Congress (there, six years for House members and 12 years for senators) voting that such limits imposed by states are unconstitutional. Justice Thomas dissented, joined by the conservative justices plus one moderate justice, arguing that under the Tenth Amendment each state has sovereign authority to add its own conditions for people from that state. The Supreme Court is currently divided on whether state lawmakers can impose additional requirements to qualify for various federal offices on each state’s ballot, but there is likely no disagreement regarding requirements imposed by federal lawmakers to qualify for the ballot. Both the majority and the dissent in Term Limits seemed to indicate that Congress could not impose additional requirements beyond the Constitution’s. The only other constitutional provision relevant to this discussion gives Graham no support. The Elections Clause in Article I says that while states have primary jurisdiction over elections, Congress can pass laws altering the “times, places and manner” of elections for federal office. That Article I provision does not include Graham’s proposed law. This has nothing to do with an election’s time (such as having federal elections on a Tuesday in November) place (polling locations) or manner (such as allowing requirements to cast a ballot). This would instead add a requirement on who can be listed on the ballot. This has nothing to do with transparency or making information available to the public. This is instead about who gets to decide such matters. In this case, the Constitution sets forth what conditions must be satisfied to run for president. The voters can impose whatever additional requirements they choose as shown by who they vote for, but that is between the candidate and the electorate, not legislators who seek to insert themselves into the voting process in ways not authorized by the Supreme Law of the Land. Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski. | 1 |
JUPITER, Fla. — President Trump said on Saturday that judicial decisions that halted his executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries had allowed a flood of refugees to pour into the country. “Our legal system is broken!” Mr. Trump wrote in a Twitter posting a day after he said that he was considering a wholesale rewriting of the executive order to circumvent legal hurdles quickly but had not ruled out appealing the major defeat he suffered in a federal appeals court on Thursday. “SO DANGEROUS!” the president added. Mr. Trump cited a report in The Washington Times that asserted that 77 percent of the refugees who entered the United States since Judge James L. Robart of Federal District Court in Seattle blocked the order on Feb. 3 had been from the seven “suspect countries. ” Still, his allusion to a rush of dangerous refugees is somewhat misleading. According to an analysis of data maintained by the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center, the percentage of refugees arriving from those countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — has risen considerably since the directive was suspended, but the weekly total of refugees arriving from the targeted countries has risen by only about 100. And all are stringently vetted. At the same time, refugee arrivals from countries not affected by the order have fallen sharply. Since the judge blocked the ban, 1, 049 of the 1, 462 refugees who have arrived in the United States, or 72 percent, were from the seven countries affected. In Mr. Trump’s first week of office, before he issued his order, more refugees arrived, 2, 108, and 935 of them, representing 44 percent, were from those seven nations. The figures suggest that the State Department and refugee resettlement agencies, which meet weekly to determine which individuals and families to admit to the United States, may be stepping up their efforts to help refugees from the seven countries. Mr. Trump’s order also sought to put an indefinite freeze on Syrian refugee admissions and temporarily suspend the rest of the refugee program until the screening process could be reviewed and made more restrictive. The figures show a similar phenomenon for Syrian refugee arrivals their proportion has nearly doubled since Mr. Trump moved to block them, although that represents a relatively small increase of about 100. While the 296 Syrians who arrived during the president’s first week in office made up 14 percent of the total, the 402 who have entered since his order was blocked amount to 27 percent of all refugee arrivals over that period. Refugees already face the strictest of vetting procedures to enter the United States, a process that takes from 18 months to two years because of multiple layers of security and background checks. Mr. Trump made his Twitter post at the start of a day of golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan at his resort in Jupiter, Fla. | 1 |
We are in the midst of yet another of Donald J. Trump’s spirals of terrible news. And with prominent Republicans saying they will back Hillary Clinton and others announcing this week that they won’t endorse Mr. Trump, there has been yet another round of speculation about how the party could get rid of him. But it almost certainly can’t. And even if it could, it probably wouldn’t be worth the effort. Here’s why. Under Republican Party rules, Mr. Trump is the only one who can take himself out of the race at this point. The only provision that exists for replacing a candidate nominated at the party convention, Rule 9, was written to apply only in the event of a candidate’s death or refusal to run. Then the Republican National Committee — a body made up of the men and women from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five territories — would be able to name a new nominee by a majority vote. Each state and jurisdiction is given the same number of votes as delegates it has to the national convention, so the system favors larger states. There is, however, some air in the rule — which actually spells out how to fill a vacancy “by reason of death, declination or otherwise” — that an enterprising lawyer could try to exploit. But arguing that Mr. Trump’s nomination can be rescinded by party bosses over the word “otherwise” seems highly improbable. Even if Mr. Trump withdrew as the nominee, replacing him after the convention is uncharted and potentially messy territory. “The rules are vague, and there is no precedent,” said Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a lawyer with Jones Day who has worked on multiple Republican presidential campaigns. Naming someone would be hard enough. Finding a suitable alternative was always the problem with the “Never Trump” movement. No matter how distasteful party leaders found him, they could never agree on anyone else. Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate, would seem to have a strong claim to make because he is the only other Republican formally nominated by his party. But what if others, rivals of Mr. Trump from the primaries like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, decided they deserved a shot? A new candidate would almost certainly not be chosen by acclamation. And determining who and how many are eligible would be a huge fight — one the Republican National Committee would have to resolve before it could ultimately vote. Given that the process of replacing the Republican nominee would probably not go smoothly or quickly — what has for Republicans this year? — there would be very little time left for other essential aspects of a presidential campaign. One of the issues is ballot access. Each state has its own set of rules and deadlines for getting on the ballot, which Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence have already done. Getting their names off and the names of the new presidential and candidates on would be a logistical and legal headache. Some states, including important battleground ones like Iowa, start voting later next month. Legal and logistical complications aside, how would a candidate run a campaign under such a compressed timeline? One thing is for sure: He or she would almost certainly not have the name recognition that Mr. Trump has. Convincing the country’s voters that they should elect you president is an undertaking that requires months, not weeks. | 1 |
By Francis Carr Begbie
ERIC CANTOR , Republican politician, and LISSA MUSCATINE, Hillary Clinton’s former speech writer, were two of the many Jews given free rein to reflect on Donald Trump a few days ago before millions of BBC viewers.
“In the end one could not help noticing one interesting if rather awkward fact about that edition of BBC Newsnight. The editor, two out of three of the main presenters, and all seven of the main interviewees in Washington and London were JEWISH. Not bad for a group said to represent less than 0.4% of the British population.” — Francis Carr Begbie
You might think that after a disaster as humiliating as the election of Donald Trump that our anointed elites would take this opportunity for a bit of humility — that this would be an opportunity for introspection and some soul-searching self-reflection.
Well, the good news is that you would be wrong. For this would involve a level of self-awareness far beyond our narcissistic elites. All around they are demonstrating a complete inability to understand the forces behind their humiliation at the hands of a man they dismissed as a joke from day one and whose demise they predicted every inch of the way.
This self-deception was wonderfully on display in an immediate post-election edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight , broadcast to the nation the day after and including a number of American interviewees. In a specially extended version of the show, programme editor Ian Katz dispatched Emily Maitlis , Mark Urban and David Grossman to find answers on the day after the result.
In both London and Washington a stellar line up of the finest brains from the media and the academy were assembled to help them chew it over.
Entertainingly, the vanity, narcissism and entitlement of the BBC presenter-ocracy was fully on view, proud and undented. To the accompaniment of the Beatles tune “Fool on the Hill” anchor Emily Maitlis could barely contain her rage and sputtered about how “a game show host and someone who owned a beauty pageant” could become president.
Populism, uprising, nationalism versus globalism; as with former President Bush’s puzzlement over “the vision thing,” they seemed to be able to mouth the words but comprehension was lacking.
With every guest, Emily Maitlis showed that old habits die hard or not at all. She dripped condescension from the outset, snapping at immigration traitor , pro-Israel fanatic former US Congressman Eric Cantor who was perhaps trying to redeem himself given the new winds in the Republican Party: “We talked about the vulgarity of this man … This is a man who talked of grabbing women by the pussy. Is that a man you are proud [of]?” An angry school teacher furious with the behaviour of her immature, irresponsible charges.
Easily the funniest moment in the programme came during a virtuoso splenetic performance from historian Simon Schama who seemed to think it was Germany in 1933 all over again. Race, he said, was more important factor in the election than the economic arguments. SIMON SCHAMA, ASHKENAZI JEW
Wriggling in his seat, as if it was subjected to regular electric shocks, he said.
“It is really weird to me how we pussyfoot around the toxic malodorous element of race which has played an important part of this. Anti-semitism has long been part of populism… [beginning] in the early twentieth century. Even today there were sinister references by the likes of senator Jeff Sessions to George Soros who was singled out as a particularly odious figure in this international banking conspiracy.”
(To which many people in the Alt Right might have replied: “couldn’t have put it better myself.”)
Schama almost lost it completely when co-interviewee and neocon stalwart Melanie Phillips told him to calm down a bit.
“It is not a moment for calm, it is not a moment for calm.” he screeched. MELANIE PHILLIPS, ASHKENZI JEW AND VIRULENT ZIONIST
Melanie knows very well what these anti-semitic dog whistles are like. This too is part of populism. We are facing a cataclysmic moment. Melanie is right to say it is a populist revolt. It is nothing to do with conservative republican politics. It amuses me to hear that Eric Cantor imagines that things are going to go on as they always did in the Republican party … [that they] will restrain Donald Trump. They won’t. George Washington warned about despotism and that is what we are facing.
Melanie Phillips, for her part, agreed the most important problem was anti-Semitism, but she saw it coming from a completely different quarter.
There are noxious elements around. … Clearly some of the people supporting Trump are anti-semitic and racists but that is also true of people on the left. There is no sign that he (Trump) personally is anti-semitic or racist. People call people racist when they want to restrict as he does, legal immigration. Anti-semitism is now at record levels at liberal universities overseen by liberal professors and liberal vice chancellors.
Studio presenter Evan Davies muttered about how they had to give up something to people worried about the loss of their traditional societies and really act on illegal immigration. But Schama wasn’t listening. He was worried about David Duke.
Donald Trump re-tweeted a neo-Nazi tweet. It is not a coincidence that David Duke, KKK Imperial Wizard, is exhilarated and rejoicing with the advent of Trump who is his man. We will see race crimes, hate crimes explode now. We will have a far-right supreme court which will reverse Roe [v.] Wade.
As a glimpse into the fevered imagination of at least one strongly identifying Jew, it could not have been more revealing. Before Schama actually self-detonated on air, the programme moved on to more heavyweights.
Neoconservative think tanker Danielle Pletka , senior vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, complained she had no idea what Trump’s policies were. Which was not very helpful.
Mary Kaldor , professor of global governance at the London School of Economics, complained that Trump was “wildly unpredictable” in his stated foreign policies. “He says ‘I love Israel,’ then he says he wants to be neutral between Israel and Palestine.” For her the real danger seemed to be peace. Or as she framed it, Trump getting friendly with Putin to create an “alliance of authoritarian right wing leaders.”
But it was the Pulitzer prize-winning historian of communism Anne Applebaum who painted the most apocalyptic scenario. Applebaum, who has never seen a “Deep State” she didn’t like, said that Trump had been disdainful for NATO and cannot understand why America needs to be in Europe. His admiration for Vladimir Putin as an ideal was very worrying. ANNE APPLEBAUM . . . ANOTHER ASHKENAZI JEW
Europeans need to start from the assumption that United States is not a reliable partner. We need to keep repeating that until it sinks into people’s brains.
She really said that.
Applebaum said Trump sees no need for a relationship with the UK. He said that Trump, who has spent millions developing his two golf courses, which include Turnberry, is, apparently, “not an anglophile and has no interest in Britain. Hillary Clinton does.” Surely, asked presenter Grossman, the Brexit referendum puts Britain and the USA on the same page? Applebaum: “No, no, no.”
Both these women think it makes the election of Marie le pen more likely. Likely correct, and thank god for that!
Alan Greenspan , former chairman of the Fed, was wheeled on to say that he, a lifelong Republican had not voted. He also explained that Trump would not be able to get rid of the current Federal Reserve Bank chair Janet Yellen without a complicated impeachment process.
Earlier in the show, Maitlis tried to get Republican Eric Cantor to condemn Trump but got no change. Cantor responded lamely about Trump’s promise to build a border wall. “I’m not so sure that is going to happen” — showing (not surprisingly) that he remains an immigration traitor at heart. And he continues to show his allegiance to Israel. Cantor said he was less interested in Trump’s immigration policies than his Middle East policies, including his intention to get rid of ISIS.
Lissa Muscatine , Hillary’s former speech writer, assured Maitlis that her old college friend had bounced back as strong as ever.
Elsewhere David Grossman did a breakdown of the vote to show that women and Hispanics had leaned to Trump in far greater numbers that anyone thought possible. (In fact, a solid majority of White women voted for Trump, proving Schama right: Trump voters are racists.) In the end one could not help noticing one interesting if rather awkward fact about that edition of BBC Newsnight . The editor, two out of three of the main presenters, and all seven of the main interviewees in Washington and London were Jewish. Not bad for a group said to represent less than 0.4% of the British population.
I should note, however, that there were a smattering of Vox pop style three-second sound-bite interviewees of men in baseball hats celebrating in bars and so on. There was also an abortive panel of a Hispanic man, black woman and Jewish New York Times reporter, and there was a Latvian politician down the line. But otherwise it was an extremely Kosher programme.
The BBC operates one of the most aggressive affirmative action policies in the Western world. In keeping with its position as the Vatican of political correctness, a finger is kept on the scales of employment opportunity to ensure that jobs are skewed heavily for favoured groups.
But given that self-awareness is one area where the elites are notably deficient, it might be s good idea to remind them of the massive Jewish overrepresentation on display here. This is one very privileged group indeed. Overrepresented and overprivileged, one might say. Like this? Share it now. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested Thursday that he would be open to the appointment of an outside counsel to review actions taken by the Justice Department during the Obama administration. [Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Sessions in an interview if the new attorney general would consider designating an outside counsel “not connected to politics” to take a second look at Justice Department actions that provoked Republican ire in the last eight years. Those include the Fast and Furious gun scandal and the decisions against bringing criminal charges over Hillary Clinton’s email practices or the Internal Revenue Service’s treatment of conservative groups. Hewitt contended during his radio interview that the department had become “highly politicized” in the Obama administration and floated the idea of a special review by an attorney with the authority to bring criminal charges and “just generally to look at how the Department of Justice operated. ” Sessions was noncommittal but left the door open, saying he would do everything he could to “restore the independence and professionalism of the Department of Justice. ” “So we would have to consider whether or not some outside special counsel is needed,” Sessions said. “Generally, a good review of that internally is the first step before any such decision is made. ” The exchange reflected the lingering deep partisan anger over the Justice Department’s decision to close without charges the Clinton email investigation and a separate probe into how the IRS processed requests for applications. Sessions said the outcome of the IRS case, in particular, remained “of real concern. ” The Justice Department in 2015 found mismanagement at the tax agency but no evidence that it had targeted a political group based on its viewpoints or obstructed justice. Democrats have called for an outside counsel to probe possible contacts between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Sessions recused himself last week from any investigation that touches the campaign, and Rod Rosenstein, the prosecutor nominated as his deputy, would not commit at his confirmation hearing this week to step aside from any such investigation. During the campaign, President Donald Trump said he would appoint a special prosecutor to look into Clinton, though he expressed ambivalence about that idea after he won the election. It’s not clear how serious Sessions was about the idea of a special counsel to investigate past Justice Department decisions, or how such an undertaking might work. | 1 |
FRANKFURT — Only hours after Britain decided to leave the European Union, Emmanuel Lumineau cast his own “remain” vote — with his feet. Mr. Lumineau said he would move to Paris from London and take about 10 employees at his financial with him. The looming question on Friday was how many other executives might reach the same conclusion, undermining Britain’s status as the No. 1 destination in Europe for foreign investment. Mr. Lumineau’s reasoning was simple. His customers operate under European rules and so must he. “We need to be inside,” said Mr. Lumineau, the French chief executive of BrickVest, a company that allows customers to invest small sums in real estate online. The business consequences of Brexit will take years to fully emerge, largely because no one knows what kind of new trade barriers and regulations will emerge from negotiations with the European Union. But already there were worrisome signs that the “remain” camp’s warnings of economic tumult could come true. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, warned his staff in a memo on Friday that in months to come “we may need to make changes to our European legal entity structure and the location of some roles. ” Mr. Dimon had said before the vote that up to a quarter of JPMorgan’s 16, 000 employees in Britain might need to relocate. Shares of British property companies plunged Friday on fears that the Brexit vote will cause a recession and deflate London’s real estate boom. Jürgen Maier, the top executive in Britain of Siemens, the German electronics and engineering giant, said it might need to rethink its investment plans. He predicted others would do the same, at least until they can judge the impact of Brexit. “All companies will be holding fire to see what happens,” said Mr. Maier, Siemens’s chief executive for Britain. For decades, big multinational companies have used Britain as their beachhead to Europe. As a member of the European Union, Britain offered frictionless access to the mainland, while the legacy of Margaret Thatcher meant there was far less regulation than in France or Germany. Now that the English Channel suddenly seems a lot wider, businesses are waiting nervously to see what kind of new Europe will take shape. Negotiations on a trade relationship are likely to be messy and take years. And in the meantime, Europe could be in for serious political instability as parties in France, Finland and other countries try to ride Britain’s coattails out of the union. It is not all bad for business. The plunging pound will help the tourism industry by making Britain cheaper to visit. BMW Mini automobiles and other products manufactured in Britain will be less expensive for people paying in euros and other foreign currencies. That could be good for exports. Britain could also be free to follow its free market instincts without interference from Brussels. If the “leave” forces are correct, that would make the country a magnet for companies seeking to escape the regulatory corset of mainland Europe. But any advantages are likely to be outweighed by the enormous uncertainties ahead. With no road map, executive could be paralyzed and investment could come to a standstill. Britain’s financial services industry, which employs 1. 2 million people, is especially vulnerable. New stock listings in London are likely to all but cease while companies take stock of the damage. Foreign banks may face the costs of moving thousands of employees out of London to the Continent so they can satisfy regulations governing trading and investment advice on behalf of European clients. London had provided a convenient hub to serve Europe. James P. Gorman, the Morgan Stanley chief executive, and Colm Kelleher, the president, said Friday that they had no plans to relocate staff from London. But in a memo to employees — many of whom worked through the night to handle a huge trading volume — they said they might “consider adjustments to our operating model. ” Even Deutsche Bank, the symbol of German banking nominally based in Frankfurt, uses London as a base for investment banking and trading. It has often made most of its profit there. “I’m afraid that this is not such a good day for Europe,” said John Cryan, the Deutsche Bank chief, who happens to be British. “At this stage, we cannot fully foresee the consequences, but there’s no doubt that they will be negative on all sides. ” Perhaps no company embodies the European project more than Airbus, a politically driven consortium that allowed Europe to remain a player in the aircraft industry after smaller national manufacturers could no longer compete. Airbus produces wings in Broughton and employs 15, 000 people in Britain plus tens of thousands more at suppliers. Outside the union, Britain may no longer have as strong a claim on those jobs. “This is a result for both Britain and Europe,” said Thomas Enders, the Airbus chief executive. “We will review our U. K. investment strategy, like everybody else will. ” Other sectors as different as petrochemicals and Scottish whisky could be damaged by increases in customs duties, diverging legal requirements and slumping growth. Energy companies like BP or Royal Dutch Shell are worried about having to deal with an unwieldy snarl of differing regulations once the European Union umbrella is gone. “Uncertainty is never helpful for a business such as ours,” BP said in a statement Friday. United States technology companies like Google and Facebook have sizable operations in Britain, though their headquarters are technically in countries like Ireland and the Netherlands. Google employs roughly 1, 000 engineers across Britain, working on global products like its search engine and Android mobile operating system. Technology companies could be under pressure to move sales and marketing jobs from Britain, so these employees can still have access to Europe’s common marketplace. The ties are especially close between Britain and Germany, where the dismay was particularly pronounced. Britain imports more products from Germany than anywhere else. Britain is Germany’s customer for exports, after the United States and France. German brands like BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen account for half the cars sold in Britain, according to the German Association of the Automobile Industry. Sales could suffer if Britain raises tariffs on imported vehicles. Shares of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen plunged Friday. German companies have helped keep alive manufacturing in Britain. Mini and are considered iconic British car brands, but both are owned by BMW. Bentley belongs to Volkswagen. Probably the most important company in the renaissance of British car manufacturing has been Nissan, which has pumped close to 4 billion pounds since the into a factory in Sunderland in northeast England. Last year the company produced about 475, 000 vehicles, about a third of Britain’s total, exporting about 55 percent of them to the European Union. Yet despite the European Union’s importance to local jobs, voters in Sunderland voted overwhelmingly to leave. The Brexit camp won 61 percent of the vote compared with 39 percent for remain. Stuart Boyd, a Nissan spokesman, said on Friday that the company was not ready to comment on how it might respond. Perhaps workers believed that Nissan sales would increase because of a weaker pound. But any stimulus to British exports from a devalued currency is likely to be offset by higher prices for imported goods. Britain has a trade deficit, so a weaker pound is on balance negative. Another huge foreign manufacturer is Siemens, based in Munich, which has 13 factories and 14, 000 workers in Britain making products like electric motors, gas turbines and trains. Siemens is not about to pull up stakes. But Mr. Maier, the Siemens chief for Britain, said the Brexit vote could force the company to recalculate some investment decisions. For example, European Union grants help finance Siemens research and development projects in Britain in areas like cars. That financial support will disappear once Britain is out. “The question is more about future investment, future research and development,” Mr. Maier said. “That’s hanging in the balance. ” He embodies the strong ties between Britain and the mainland. Born in Germany, Mr. Maier has lived in Britain since he was 10, studied there, and speaks with a British accent. He said that there was a palpable sense of anxiety Friday morning when he visited a company office in Manchester that is used by engineers and customer service representatives. “It’s usually a really buzzing office,” Mr. Maier said. “This morning it was definitely quiet. Customers weren’t calling. That’s not a good sign. The country is just taking all of this in. ” | 1 |
Guards accompanying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan violently attacked protesters in Washington, D. C. Tuesday who had congregated outside the Turkish ambassador to America’s residence, most Armenians and Kurds protesting Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian bent under Erdogan. [CNN cites D. C. officials as stating that nine individuals, most protesters, were injured in the brawl. An estimated two dozen protesters congregated in front of Turkish ambassador Serdar Kılıç’s residence, some waving a flag associated with the Syrian Kurdish People’s Democratic Union (PYD) which Erdogan’s government perceives as a direct threat to the integrity of Turkey. Two were arrested, one charged with assaulting a police officer it is unclear whether those arrested were protesters or members of Erdogan’s security detail. Videos circulating on social media appear to show Erdogan’s guards among the most violent aggressors. A video published by Voice of America appears to show men in black suits carrying Turkish flags — believed to be Erdogan’s security detail — attacking individuals holding megaphones and protest signs. The guards surround a man who had been kicked to the ground and continuously kick him in the face. Men who appear to be wearing D. C. police uniforms then attempt to surround and capture the men in black suits. The Kurdish outlet Rudaw published an exclusive video showing the injuries of some of the protesters involved. One man, walking away from the incident with a bloodied face, tells the camera, “the Turks attacked me. ” Speaking to CNN, a protester identified as Flint Arthur said that his group had congregated to protest Erdogan’s presence in Washington and his “policies in Turkey, in Syria and Iraq. ” “They think they can engage in the same sort of suppression of protest and free speech that they engage in in Turkey,” he argued. A similar incident occurred during Erdogan’s visit to Washington last year, in which Erdogan guards beat Turkish journalists protesting for their rights. Erdogan’s government has engaged in a prolonged military operation against the nation’s Kurdish minority in the southeast of the country, arguing that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a U. S. Marxist terrorist group, is a threat to Turkish security. Ankara does not distinguish between the PKK and the PYD and its militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) who are strong U. S. allies and considered the most effective force against the Islamic State in Syria. Erdogan came to Washington in part to demand that President Donald Trump rescind his approval of a program to arm the YPG in anticipation of an operation to liberate Raqqa, the Islamic State “capital” and its final stronghold in Syria. A week before arriving in America, Erdogan announced his “patience has ended” with the United States and its alliance with the YPG. Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım reiterated that resolve hours before Erdogan met with Trump, telling reporters that Turkey was open to doing “what is necessary” to keep the YPG from participating in the fight against the Islamic State, implying military action. Shortly after the Pentagon’s announcement that Washington would provide the Syrian Kurds with heavy weapons, the Turkish military executed airstrikes against YPG positions in Syria. While Trump confirmed in a joint statement following their meeting Tuesday that he opposed the PKK, he did not walk back his administration’s support for the YPG. Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | 1 |
Print
[Ed. – The taxation aspect is bad enough. But think about it. Think how the city has to track what people are doing in order to impose such a tax. Since it involves the collection of money for the government, there’s no way IT service companies will be able to keep their books on this private. The vendor’s books on what consumers are doing will have to be as open as the books on buying gas by the gallon at a gas pump. The difference with infosphere activities is that there is no such thing as cash-based anonymity for the customer. One way or another, a trail is left.]
You just want to watch movies and TV shows where and when you want to, so you probably think a column about utility taxes has nothing to do with how you get your entertainment. Wrong. The city of Alameda, California, has put a measure, Measure K1, before its voters that would allow Alameda to tax pay-per-view and video streaming services like Netflix and Hulu as if they were public utilities. Watsonville has a similar measure. Other California municipalities have passed similar language. They haven’t begun to levy utility taxes on these platforms, but figure as soon as one city decides to levy this tax, there will be a stampede across California. …
Michael Petricone of the Consumer Technology Association calls Measure K1 “an absurd expansion of the definition of utility.” Think of “the precedent this sets,” he noted, if cities can tax services that don’t utilize public easements or infrastructure as utilities. | 0 |
Next Prev Swipe left/right We have so many questions about this charity shop find… Anita Singh over on Twitter writes, “Can the person who donated this to my local charity shop please come forward. I need answers”
But the question is: what is that sticker hiding?
“Think it might be chilled ripe mango. I’m picturing him in a straw hat and Bermuda shorts”, writes Anita Singh .
Although @Theeponymousbob has a different theory: | 0 |
This morning a colleague asked if I had a prediction on the election. Of course, trying to predict the outcome today is a fool’s errand. I won’t even take a stab at it. Like literally everyone else in the country, I have no idea what is going to happen when results start flooding in.
And that’s what I said.
Then the conversation transitioned to one of us both picking a state we think the unthinkable might happen in. I chose Michigan .
Call it a hunch. Call it a feeling. Or call it hope. Whatever the case, I feel something special may happen in Michigan tonight and Donald Trump may be the benefactor.
I see a couple reasons for this. First, Michigan has no early voting. Right out of the gate this causes problems for Democrats and their heavy use (or abuse in many cases) of early voting. Democrats struggle with getting voters out on a single day, something Republicans tend to not only do well, but actually favor as traditionalists.
Second, Michigan has been hit hard by Democrat policy for decades. And Democrats can’t squirm their way out of blame on it. The collapse is on their shoulders. They know it, we know it and Michigan’s electorate knows it.
Third, Republicans have enjoyed a lot of recent success across Michigan. Michigan Republicans have been winning a lot of local, federal and statewide races as of late.
Fourth, the Trump campaign got wind of something that sent them to campaign heavily across Michigan in the final weeks leading up to today. It’s possible they just wanted to force Clinton to spend time and money up there, but I think it’s more likely they see something internally that suggests the state is in play.
Fifth, Bernie Sanders almost beat Clinton in Michigan. Her core support there is shaky at best.
Turns out my hunch may be proving possible in terms of voter turnout so far today. Indeed, there are wide scale reports of record turnout across Michigan.
Frank Luntz tweeted out saying the working-class turnout is extremely high and the Governor said “it looks like this precinct has had a lot of people turn out. I hope that happens throughout Michigan” following his vote earlier today.
Twitter is full of reports of long lines and busy precincts, many of which are in parts of the state Democrats don’t have full control over.
Will it be enough? Maybe not. But in August Clinton led the average of Michigan polls by 9.5%. Today her lead is within the margin of error.
Meaning that yes, Michigan is completely up for grabs. And it turns out there is a good chance Trump comes out with a win.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR REAL TIME RESULTS
| 0 |
The pressing question for many viewers tuning in to a preseason football game on Thursday night will be whether San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick will once more refuse to stand for the national anthem. But that question obscures some more meaningful ones: Why is the national anthem a staple of sporting events to begin with? Why does the United States stand apart in making the anthem a part of the pregame ritual? And what does it mean to be patriotic? Kaepernick, once regarded as one of the N. F. L. ’s top players, has suddenly become its most provocative ahead of Thursday’s game in San Diego because, in a country that is unusual in its marriage of sports and public patriotism, he has chosen the anthem as the moment to communicate a message of protest. After declining to stand during the anthem before a game on Friday night, Kaepernick explained that he was motivated by issues of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States — eliciting vitriol from fans who believed his gesture was an affront and praise from those who admired his decision to take a public stand at a time when few prominent athletes are willing to do so. Lost in that debate, though, is that while sports are a type of entertainment, few other forms of entertainment — movies or concerts or exhibitions — have the anthem ingrained into every performance. Tens of thousands of theater goers, for instance, have packed a Broadway musical that is devoted to the life and times of one of this country’s founding fathers, yet “Hamilton” does not feature the national anthem. On the other hand, a game between the Cleveland Gladiators and the Arizona Rattlers in the Arena Football League could not begin without it. For the athletes, the juxtaposition might be even stranger: The president of the United States is not required to listen to the national anthem before beginning his day, but Jay Bruce must hear it before taking the field as an outfielder for the Mets. “I don’t think it’s unusual because every baseball game I’ve ever played, there’s been an anthem,” Bruce said. “I was thinking about that the other day: Like, how many times have I been involved with an anthem? It’s so many times. It’s what I’m used to. ” Historically, the roots of “The Banner” in American sports have been traced as far back as baseball games in the century, and the song became more widespread in baseball during the heightened atmosphere in this country around the First World War. Other sports followed, folding the anthem into their own protocols, and decades later, the pattern seems inextricably linked — though it is unclear why. Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said that the national anthem has been performed before all of its games since 1942 and that “it remains an important tradition that has great meaning for our fans. ” Tim Frank, a spokesman for the N. B. A. said the anthem has been performed before games since the inception of the league in 1946 and that it is done “in honor of the United States and those who have sacrificed to protect it. ” Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the N. F. L. said the anthem is required because “we believe there is tremendous value in coming together to honor our nation’s history and also remember the men and women who have built and protect our country. ” John Dellapina, a spokesman for the N. H. L. cited minutes from a Board of Governors meeting that noted the league has mandated the anthem be played since 1946 “as a show of patriotism” but has allowed “God Bless America” as a substitute since the 1970s. The newest top professional league in America, Major League Soccer, was formed in 1996, and according to Dan Courtemanche, a league spokesman, the original M. L. S. executives had little choice on this issue. Rules regarding the playing of the anthem were enacted, Courtemanche said, because “at this point, it has become part of the tradition of playing a sporting event in America. ” The key words there are “in America. ” No national anthems are played before a French league soccer game or a German handball league game or a Japanese rugby game. So why does the connection exist in the United States? According to Eric Liu, a former speechwriter and adviser to President Bill Clinton who a 2007 book on patriotism titled “The True Patriot,” the difference probably lies in America’s distinctive foundation. Unlike a majority of countries in the world, the United States was not created on a common platform of religion or ancestry or, as Liu said, “some origin myth which goes all the way back to the beginning of history. ” Instead, Americans are bound by notions and concepts — that all men are created equal, as one example — and the ethereal nature of those ideas makes anything that Americans can latch on to concretely seem more important. “I think that’s why this whole thing strikes so many people in such a passionate way,” Liu said. “This is not a country in Europe or Asia that has the traditional patriotic ideas built into it. We are united by a creed, and in a creedal society, the outsize rituals — like the anthem — just carry a lot more weight. ” Perhaps that is why athletes have used it as an opportunity to protest. The basketball player Mahmoud was sanctioned by the N. B. A. in 1996 when he refused to stand for the anthem. The American track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were kicked out of the 1968 Olympics after raising gloved fists on the medals podium. Those athletes, like Kaepernick, were explicitly making political statements, forcing the public to reconcile an apparent slight of the national anthem versus the rights bestowed on all citizens that the song symbolizes for some. Liu and his the entrepreneur and activist Nick Hanauer, highlight a quotation from Carl Schurz, a Union Civil War general and senator from Missouri, who in 1872 made the distinction between a popular line of patriotic thinking — that essentially, what the United States is doing is always right — and what he believed to be a more appropriate philosophy. “The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, ‘My country, right or wrong,’” Schurz said on the Senate floor before adding his own corollary. “My country, right or wrong,” he said. “If right, to be kept right and if wrong, to be set right. ” Is sitting for the national anthem, as Saints quarterback Drew Brees said in his criticism of Kaepernick’s actions, “being disrespectful to the American flag”? Is it, as Brees continued, “an oxymoron” that Kaepernick is sitting down because it is the anthem, and the flag, that give him the right to speak in the first place? Or is it the reverse: that the contradiction comes from those who trumpet the freedoms the flag represents but then criticize someone who exercises those freedoms? Is Kaepernick simply doing his duty, as Schurz said, by trying to set right that which he sees in his country as having gone awry? More than 60, 000 spectators in San Diego and an international TV audience can wrestle with this again on Thursday night. Game time at Qualcomm Stadium is scheduled for 10 p. m. Eastern. The national anthem will be sung a few minutes before. | 1 |
Harvard University’s student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, declared “Universities must not grant figures such as Milo Yiannopoulos a platform to espouse their hateful and unsubstantiated claims,” during an article published by “The Crimson Editorial Board” on Sunday. [“Yiannopoulos does not deserve to be granted the platform of a university campus to espouse his hateful beliefs,” wrote the student newspaper on Sunday. “Institutions of higher education pride themselves on generating new knowledge and challenging old beliefs for the purposes of advancing our understanding of the world. Furthermore, these institutions are built on the principle of research. ” “In contrast, Yiannopoulos appears to challenge others’ beliefs simply for the sake of being a contrarian, and he does so with little tenability for his claims,” they continued. “Yiannopoulos is little more than a racist, sexist, and who encourages hate and fear rather than intellectual thought. ” The student newspaper also claimed “Yiannopoulos poses a tangible threat to the safety and of university students,” before adding that “This alone should be more than enough for administrators to bar him from campuses in the first place. ” You can read the full article at The Harvard Crimson. | 1 |
President Donald Trump’s budget director is threatening to withhold funding for Obamacare subsidies unless Democrats agree to help fund the border wall in the 2017 budget supplemental. [The offer follows weeks of determined Democratic opposition — amid determined waffling by top GOP leaders — to any funding for Trump’s wall during this year. “We have our list of priorities,” budget director Mick Mulvaney said at a business conference on Thursday. He continued: Won’t surprise anyone what some of them are. We want more money for defense. We want to build a border wall. We want more money for immigration, law enforcement. The Democrats may have some of their own priorities. I [already] indicated making some of these payments for the Obamacare subsidies is one of their priorities. Okay, that’s fine. We’re willing to be at that discussion if they want to have it and that’s what we’re telegraphing … we understand they have a certain amount of leverage in the Senate because we do need 60 votes [to get funding]. So we need some sort of bipartisan support in the Senate. They are entitled under that set of circumstances to get some of their priorities funded. It is ripe for some type of negotiated agreement that gives the president some of his priorities and Democrats some of their priorities. We think we’ve opened the door [to a compromise]. I know that we have. Democrats may be open to that compromise. On Wednesday, the Democrats’ Senate leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer told reporters that Democrats are trying to preserve funding for Obamacare. “We’re working hard to get it in the bill. We’re very hopeful, negotiations seem to be going quite well … We want to make a good budget that meets our principles … so far, so good,” he said, according to a report from BNA. com. Democrats will pay a price for obstructing Trump’s priorities, Mulvaney warned. If [Democrats] tell us to pound sand, I think that’s probably a disappointing indicator of where the next four years is going to go. If they tell us, however, that they recognize that President Trump won an election, and he should get some of his priorities funded for that reason, elections have consequences, as folks who win always like to say. ” For months, GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have declined to champion funding Trump’s wall in the 2017 budget supplemental, which is due April 28. Trump has asked for roughly $1 billion to install or upgrade roughly 60 miles of border walls and fences this year. GOP leaders are reluctant to fund the wall, in part, because they don’t want to trade some of their budget priorities to persuade the Democrats to compromise on their opposition to Trump’s wall. Many Democrats fervently oppose the wall, which would literally and symbolically cement his 2016 victory and also block the migration of consumers, cheap workers, and future voters into cities. Also, GOP leaders know their business donors oppose the wall, which would reduce the inflow of consumers and workers to the corporate members of the many Chambers of Commerce throughout the United States. Democrats know the GOP leaders are not willing to champion’s Trump’s wall, so they are escalating their opposition to Trump’s wall and his border reforms, such as greater enforcement of current laws. For example, Democrats are threatening to block all budget funding — and so shut down many government agencies — unless they get their way. On Wednesday, Schumer said all extra immigration funding should be held up until the next round of budget debates in the fall of 2017. “We think that the immigration issue should be discussed in the 2018 budget where there’s votes and discussion and nothing should be shoved down people’s throats and that would apply to the many immigration issues that are before us, not just the wall,” Schumer said in a press call. BNA reported: Billions of dollars for the wall and other funds that Trump wants to boost enforcement have emerged among the “poison pill” riders that Schumer said could threaten passage of the omnibus by the time federal money runs out at midnight April 28. The government is operating under a stopgap continuing resolution because only one of the 12 fiscal 2017 bills was enacted last fall. Schumer suggested that Democrats have considerable leverage in the talks over the details of the omnibus, which have continued during lawmakers’ recess. “Our Republican colleagues know they control the House, the Senate, the White House [and] a shutdown would fall on their shoulders and they don’t want it,” Schumer said. On multiple occasions, GOP leader Ryan has said the Trump wall will be funded in the 2018 budget starting in October, while hinting it will get little funding for construction in 2017. This month, Officials at the Department of Homeland Security However, officials at the Department of Homeland Security have been told by GOP budget leaders that they can reprogram some of their existing funds to pay for construction of prototype wall designs in June. In his Wednesday call with reporters, Schumer gloated that the GOP leaders are not supporting Trump’s budget request. “I think there’s agreement, quiet agreement in the [GOP and Democratic budget leaders] that if the president doesn’t interfere and insist on poison pill amendments [funding for the wall] to be shoved down the throats of the Congress, we can come up with an agreement. ” Follow Neil Munro on Twitter @NeilMunroDC or email the author at NMunro@Breitbart. com | 1 |
0 |
|
WASHINGTON — Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, as the courtly senator from Alabama used to be known, was a stalwart Justice Department prosecutor for almost 15 years, a job he called the adventure of a lifetime. Today, Mr. Sessions has a growing list of gripes about how the Obama administration has run his old department, from its “breathtaking” stance on immigration to its “shameful” refusal to defend a federal ban on gay marriage. “I’m not happy about what’s happened to my Department of Justice,” Mr. Sessions said last year, jabbing his reading glasses in the air at the Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. After nearly a away, Mr. Sessions — now known simply as Jeff — is poised to return to the department to clean house as Donald J. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, with a mandate to carry out the “law and order” agenda Mr. Trump promised on the campaign trail. If he is confirmed, Mr. Sessions, who is considered one of the most conservative members of the Senate, will most likely push for wholesale changes and stances on immigration, terrorism, crime, drugs and guns. Democrats fear he could wipe away progress in civil rights, changes in sentencing and police accountability. “The Justice Department is likely to be one of the most transformed departments in the cabinet in a Trump administration, and with an Attorney General Sessions, you’d obviously see a very strong figure at the top,” said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor. “Much of his is as a prosecutor — a real, prosecutor,” said Mr. Turley, who testified before Mr. Sessions at a Senate hearing last year about the Obama administration’s use of executive authority. Mr. Sessions, 69, was the first senator to endorse Mr. Trump in February, when many Republicans were still shunning the businessman. He has since become a close adviser. The Senate Judiciary Committee, where Mr. Sessions has served for years and sometimes clashed with fellow members, will consider his nomination. Democrats are eager to interrogate him on the rockier patches of his long career, particularly the accusations of racially charged comments in the 1980s that derailed his nomination as a federal judge. Critics charge that the controversy was a harbinger of hostility toward minorities that has continued in his two decades as a senator. “He’s one of the most strident . G. B. T. voices in the Senate,” said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way, a liberal civil rights group in Washington. Mr. Sessions, like Mr. Trump, has made tougher immigration policies a central priority. He has said President Obama’s Justice Department flouted the will of Congress by failing to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. When many Republicans distanced themselves from Mr. Trump’s startling campaign proposal to ban Muslim immigration, Mr. Sessions said he was open to considering it in a Breitbart interview last December with Stephen K. Bannon, who was chosen by Mr. Trump this week as a top White House adviser. Mr. Sessions acknowledged in the interview that the proposal was “treading on dangerous ground” because of the country’s long history of religious freedom. “At the same time, we’re in an age that’s very dangerous, and we’re seeing more and more persons enter, and a lot of them have done terrorist acts, and a lot of them believe it’s commanded by their religion,” he said. “So I think it’s appropriate to begin to discuss this. ” As the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Mr. Sessions, and the political appointees under him, would hold wide discretion in shaping policies across the federal government and in overseeing the enforcement of federal laws at the F. B. I. and other agencies within the Justice Department. His department would also play an important role in advising the White House on Supreme Court nominees and working to get them confirmed in the Senate. Mr. Sessions, an avid student of constitutional history, has called Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February, a model, hailing him for “an unwavering commitment to the rule of law” rather than judicial activism. Mr. Sessions was born in Selma, Ala. the son of a country store owner. The diminutive Mr. Sessions was an Eagle Scout known as “Buddy” as a child. His parents, he said, instilled in him the values of “honesty, hard work, belief in God and parental respect. ” With a law degree from the University of Alabama, Mr. Sessions worked as a private attorney and as an assistant federal prosecutor before President Ronald Reagan tapped him in 1981 as the United States attorney for the southern district of Alabama. He held that post for 12 years. Accusations of inappropriate racial remarks — one black prosecutor said Mr. Sessions called him “boy,” and another prosecutor said he referred to groups like the N. A. A. C. P. and the American Civil Liberties Union as “ ” — doomed his nomination for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench in 1986. But Mr. Sessions took satisfaction not only in winning election to the Senate a decade later, but also in earning a seat on the powerful Judiciary Committee, the same panel that had rejected his nomination as a judge. | 1 |
NBA legend and Georgia sheriff’s deputy Shaquille O’Neal told TMZ Sports that the missing Tom Brady Super Bowl LI jersey is an “inside job. ” “It’s an inside job,” Shaq said. “First, I’m checking the ball boys then I’m checking his teammates, the ones that don’t really play a lot … Somebody knows something. ” Brady’s jersey went missing after Sunday’s game, and he has asked for help finding the piece of memorabilia for his collection. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
Donald Trump is on track to win more black votes than any time since 1960. In the past month, the number of black voters for Donald Trump has increased significantly. These black Trump supporters from Chicago don't want anything to do with #CrookedHillary #TrumpPence2016 #MAGA pic.twitter.com/8JRRR7Ai1l
— RSBN TV (@RSBNetwork) July 29, 2016 Gateway Pundit If Democrats lose 25% of the black vote they would lose Virginia, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina. Black Likely Voters for TRUMP @Rasmussen_Poll Oct 3 – 9% | 0 |
[Photo: Chiquibul Forest Reserve near Guatemalan border: top showing significant illegal clear cuts. while the bottom shows the beginnings of cutting. Credit: Tony Rath .] =By= Jeff Abott Editor's Note The forests, waterways, and tribal homelands are under growing threat across Latin and South America. Increasingly, the indigenous peoples are taking strong stands against the illegal activities, as well as the government sponsored intrusions into the Reserves. It seems that they are virtually the only ones willing to stand in the way of the decimation of their homelands, and of the wild rainforest on which out planet depends. The rainforest is essentially the lungs of the planet and it is being continuously destroyed. A cross Guatemala, indigenous communities are organizing to challenge logging in the country’s vast forests. These communities are concerned with the impact that both legal and illegal logging will have on their watersheds and on the environment.
On June 15, concerned residents from the highland Ixil Maya municipality of Nebaj, Quiche staged a protest outside the municipal building to express their concern with the steady increase in trucks leaving town loaded with lumber.
The action was organized by residents and members of the Indigenous Authority of Nebaj in order to pressure the state authorities to strip the nine companies of their licenses to exploit timber on private lands. Residents raised concern over the fact that the deforestation affects everyone in the area.
Following the protest, concerned residents in the neighboring Ixil municipality of Chajul blocked and detained several trucks transporting lumber from the region for a number of hours. They demanded that the National Institute of Forests, or INAB, and the Division for the Protection of the Environment cease their operations and described the amount of lumber being taken from the local forests as “excessive.”
The Indigenous Authorities of Nebaj also issued a statement to INAB asking them to take action. But the government body declined to act and issued a statement that they are planting new trees for every one that is cut down. But this response did not satisfy concerned residents. “We went to the government bodies and issued statements asking to cease extending licenses for the exploitation of forests,” said Caty Terraza, the communications representative for the Indigenous Authorities of Nebaj. “They told us that they are sowing new trees, but how long will it take for those trees to grow to the same size as the trees that were there before?”
The companies involved in logging operations responded to the protests by significantly reducing the number of trucks transporting lumber from mountains. According to residents, however, it is unclear if this will continue into the future.
The mobilization of communities organizing to challenge logging operations in the highlands of Guatemala represent a growing concern over the destruction of the environment by companies. This challenge to logging companies reflects the understanding of communities of the vital part forests play in the protection of the water sources.
“The trees serve us and the animals,” Terraza said. “The loss of trees is drying up the aquifers. As a youth and as human, I must think of my future, and what I’m leaving my children.” Other communities held similar protests following the actions taken in the Ixil region. On June 26, a similar action was held in Santa Cruz del Quiche, the department’s largest city. Once again protesters were demanding that authorities stop issuing licenses for the exploitation of forests. Increase in Logging across Guatemala
Guatemala is home to vast forests and jungles, but these regions have increasingly come under threat to deforestation. Critics blame uneducated campesinos clearing land for agriculture as one of the prime culprits. This does represent a threat, but there are other bigger threats, including lumber companies, and organized crime. The protest over logging industry activity in indigenous regions occurs at a time in Guatemala of increased concern over deforestation, and comes after the historic march for water in April 2016. Community representatives, nongovernmental organizations, and activists see a connection between forests and water. The Guatemalan government, too, maintains a campaign of reforestation, but this has not stopped companies from cutting down forests for the valuable woods, or the razing of forests by narco-traffickers in the northern department of Petén to build landing strips.
The Guatemalan Ministry of the Economy actively promotes the investment of companies interested in exploiting the country’s nearly 2 million acres of forests. Logging companies and lumber traders have taken an interest in the vast forests of the highlands of Guatemala, where they can find rare hard and soft woods, such as teak, mahogany, oak and the more common pine. These resources can fetch hefty prices at market.
The exportation of lumber and products produced from wood from Guatemala has increased significantly. From 2013 to 2014, lumber exports increased 8 percent, from $6.7 million dollars to $8.6 million. This continues the long trend of the increase in the exportation of lumber and wood products, such as furniture.
But this increase in export of lumber brings the companies into conflict with indigenous communities. According to research by Guatemalan environmentalist and researcher, Juan Skinner, the indigenous regions of the country on average contain more forest cover than the non-indigenous regions of the country.
A 2005 report that Skinner authored highlights that municipalities that are less than 25 percent indigenous have forest cover of around 12 percent. Whereas regions where the population is more than 75 percent indigenous have forest cover of around 35 percent. Guatemala’s Mayan communities are not alone in their concern with the destruction of forests. The southern Xinca community of Quesada, Jutiapa has long taken steps to protect the forests that make up their communal territory. The Xinca people are one of the many ethnicities that make up Guatemala. The rural community in the southern department of Jutiapa has held their forest as communal lands since the 1850s, with subsequent generations continuing to protect the mountain and the forests. Today the forests represent 80 percent of the more than 13,500 acres of land, with the remainder utilized for crops, such as coffee and maize. “Our ancestors left us the land and a group to protect our mountain,” said Jak Mardogueo Ogorio, a representative of the communities’ Directive Council. “All this was passed down through the generations, and we continue this today. In order to cut a tree down, you first must receive permission from the council.” The community leaders have also barred any large-scale logging operations. “We don’t permit companies to operate in our forests,” Ogorio said. “In past epochs companies tried to negotiate for access to the forests, but they always wanted more. How many years for a new tree to grow? Up on the mountain there are trees that you cannot encircle with three people. This is what we are protecting.”
Ogorio and the other 13 members of the community council work directly with the residents to build awareness of the importance of the forests through regular meetings, trainings and a campaign to build alternative cooking stoves that utilize less firewood. In August and September 2016, the council implemented the insulation of 400 cooking stoves in conjuncture with Utz Che, a Guatemalan non-governmental organization.
“This project allows us to slow deforestation because the stoves use less firewood, and there is no need for more and more wood,” Ogorio said. “These stoves allow us to protect our forests.”
Community leaders of Quesada maintain vigilance over the threat of forest fires on communal lands for which they receive funding from INAB. This has generated work opportunity in a region where there are not many options.
The community of La Bendición in the southern department of Esquitla is one of the few regions on Guatemala’s southern coast not dominated by sugar and African oil palm plantations. Residents of the small community were displaced by the country’s 36-year-long internal armed conflict. At the end of the war they negotiated the purchase of a 5,500-acre coffee farm through the Land Fund in 2000 for about $1 million, far more than the value of the land.
When the families already burdened by debt arrived in 2001, they were shocked to learn that the land was not in the state that the Land Fund had promised. There were no rivers, as they were promised there would be, and the high winds meant that their crops were damaged, and there was no paved road. But there was a forest that contained an aquifer. Disappointed residents quickly left the community, leaving just 53 families of the original 170.
Residents continued to be burdened by debt, despite the rich forests. In 2002, the Land Fund proposed a solution: sell the forest. “The same Land Fund that assisted us in purchasing our land was pressuring us to sell the forests in order to resolve the debt,” said Veronica Hernandez, a 47-year-old community leader. “But we refused because if we would have sold our forests, we would have been left without water, or with contaminated water.” Since refusing to sell the land to logging interest, the community has organized to maintain the forests, and protect them from illegal logging and from forest fires. The residents also hold regular community-wide meetings to work to train everyone on the importance of the forests, and to guarantee that no one goes up into the mountain to cut down the precious trees.
Residents have also worked to develop projects like those being implemented in Quesada in order to decrease their impact on the forests. These stoves and solar projects are received across the community to great success. The residents’ resolve to protect their forest was further strengthened following the April 2016 water march, when thousands of campesinos marched to demand the protection of Guatemala’s water sources.
“The April march was important for us and other communities along Guatemala’s coast,” Hernandez said. “It has strengthened our drive to protect the forests and the mangroves along the coast.”
Despite the fact that the community was able to hold off the lumber interests following the purchase of the land, Hernandez and the other residents maintain vigilance to guarantee that no company comes to exploit their land and forests. “These companies always come into our communities to rob from us,” Hernandez said. “They then leave us with all the costs.”
Back in Nebaj, the Indigenous Authority is working to replicate the awareness in La Benedición and Quesada over the importance of forests.
“We are trying to inform community members of the impacts of deforestation,” Terraza said. This sharing of information is strengthened through the local Ixil University, which works to build awareness, and bring higher education to the region.
“But we have to do more,” Terraza added. “We must struggle to guarantee that people know what the impacts are.”
The Indigenous Authorities of Nebaj stated that they are considering other actions, including the continuation of pressure on the state bodies, including INAB, the continuation of protests, and the direct action of blocking trucks transporting lumber.
“[INAB] is an institution of the state,” Terraza said. “If we have all these trees, then it is because we have protected the forests for some time; our ancestors also protected these forests. It should not be so easy for them to arrive and issue licenses to companies to exploit the forests.”
Source: Z Magazine ( N0v 2016 )
Nauseated by the Had enough of their lies, escapism, omissions and relentless manipulation? | 0 |
Alfonse M. D’Amato, a former United States senator, has given many speeches in his day, trying to rouse his peers into action. Not all have worked. But of all those failed exhortations, none — at least, none known so far — have occurred on a JetBlue Airways flight, ending with Mr. D’Amato’s removal from the plane. Mr. D’Amato, 79, who represented New York as a Republican from 1981 to 1999, was removed from a JetBlue flight in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. after causing a conflict, according to the airline. The episode, captured in part on cellphone videos taken by passengers, was on a New airplane at Fort International Airport on Monday, days after a gunman killed five people there. The JetBlue flight, which had been scheduled to depart around 1:40 p. m. Monday, did not take off until about 8 p. m. after delays. During the delay, Mr. D’Amato stood in the aisle and urged other passengers to walk out with him, according to video of the episode. “We can still speak in this country,” Mr. D’Amato said in the video. “I am making an appeal to all you people. Stand up for what’s right and walk out with me. ” At least one unidentified passenger stood to join him. “I’m going,” he said. It is not exactly clear what prompted Mr. D’Amato’s response. The crew was trying to move passengers to address a weight imbalance, an airline spokesman said. A passenger, Jeffrey A. Wurst, said that the plane’s captain explained that about 10 people needed to move to the back of the plane from the front to balance how the cargo had been loaded. “I saw Al D’Amato go to the back, to one of the last rows,” Mr. Wurst said. “People spotted him and asked to take pictures. The captain then asked for more people to move. D’Amato gets up and starts” shouting, he said. Eventually, the police were called. An officer from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office can be seen walking toward Mr. D’Amato in the video. Mr. D’Amato seems to refer to the issue with the seats, speaking during an announcement that the plane would take off once everyone was seated. “I’m getting thrown out because I stood up and said to the captain, ‘Why don’t you do what you’re supposed to do? ’” Mr. D’Amato says in the video. “If you’re supposed to move two or three people, move them. And so he got annoyed at that, and I’m getting thrown out. ” As he walks by the open cockpit door, Mr. D’Amato can be seen telling the captain that he is a “poor excuse” for a leader. He turns to a flight attendant and appears to curse. JetBlue said that decisions to remove passengers from flights were not made lightly. “If a customer is causing a conflict on the aircraft, it is standard procedure to ask the customer to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs a risk of escalation in flight,” the company said in a statement. Gary Lewi, a spokesman for Mr. D’Amato, said that the former senator was in Florida to visit an ailing friend. Mr. Lewi cited Mr. D’Amato’s frustration over the long delay and “sleep deprivation” as factors in the incident. “Anyone who knows Senator D’Amato knows he speaks his mind,” Mr. Lewi said in a statement. “JetBlue has apologized to the senator for overreacting, and the senator apologized for speaking his mind at a time when he clearly had left his patience at the gate. ” The sheriff’s office said it had referred the matter to JetBlue. The airline said no further action would be taken. The intensity of emotions raised by travel and the ubiquity of social media have combined to produce a perpetual stream of caustic episodes that spin into viral news after being captured on cellphone cameras. This year, tempers flared in the wake of an emotional presidential election. A video of a supporter of the Donald J. Trump, taunting other passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Allentown, Pa. spread widely in November. The airline eventually barred the passenger for life. Weeks later, a man was kicked off a JetBlue flight about to depart from Kennedy International Airport after causing a disturbance upon learning Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, were on the flight. His husband posted about it on Twitter. Mr. Wurst said that what concerned him most about the D’Amato episode was the lack of civility. “What I find disappointing in the situation is that we were one terminal away from where a tragedy erupted on Friday,” he said. | 1 |
Most voters consider Donald J. Trump a risky choice for president, saying he lacks the right temperament and values, but he is seen as more transformative and better at handling the economy than Hillary Clinton, according to the latest New York News poll. Mrs. Clinton, despite being as disliked as Mr. Trump, is seen as a safer option. Majorities of voters say she has the temperament for the job and would better handle foreign policy. Only 36 percent of them, however, view her as an agent of change. That perception deeply worries some Clinton campaign advisers, who want the race to hinge on Mr. Trump’s character rather than voters’ desire to upend the status quo. With less than eight weeks until Election Day, the two candidates are locked in a close contest in which the challenge from candidates may make a difference. Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has the support of 46 percent of likely voters nationwide, compared with 44 percent for Mr. Trump, the Republican that result includes voters who said they were leaning toward a candidate. Looking more broadly at all registered voters, Mrs. Clinton holds a wider edge, 46 to 41 percent, driven by her support among women, minorities and college graduates. Getting registered but unlikely voters to the polls in November is a large challenge for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. Mr. Trump has an advantage among men, whites and less educated voters. In a race, Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton are tied at 42 percent each. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has the support of 8 percent of likely voters, and the Green Party nominee, Jill Stein, takes 4 percent. Mr. Johnson is hoping to qualify for the coming presidential debates, but he is short of the requirement of reaching 15 percent support in an average of major polls. Among likely voters younger than 30, Mrs. Clinton’s support drops 10 points in a race. Their support for Mr. Trump falls seven points, but he is not relying on young voters as much. The race has clearly grown tighter in recent weeks. National polling averages have narrowed markedly from early August to today. Polls in a number of key swing states, including Ohio and Florida, have narrowed in the past week as well. Projections of Mrs. Clinton’s Electoral College advantage have also shown a tightening based on recent polls. Voters expressed discontent with both candidates. Among those who say they intend to vote for Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton, slightly more than half express strong support. The rest say that they harbor reservations about their candidate or that they are voting simply to thwart the other nominee. Despite the voters’ misgivings, the nominees are consolidating support among their party faithful. Mrs. Clinton commands support of 87 percent of Democrats, while Mr. Trump is supported by 85 percent of Republicans. The poll results offer more cause for concern than confidence for Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton as they prepare for their first debate, on Sept. 26, and as early voting begins in some states next weekend. Their favorability ratings remain stubbornly low, with only about of voters seeing each of them positively, despite the candidates’ attempts to use their conventions, commercials and public appearances to persuade voters to see them in a new light. A majority of voters say Mr. Trump does not care about the needs or problems of Hispanics most voters see Mrs. Clinton as caring about Hispanics, and a majority of voters agree with her view that most illegal immigrants in the country should be allowed to stay and eventually apply for citizenship. The nationwide telephone poll was conducted with 1, 433 registered voters from Sept. 9 to 13 on cellphones and landlines. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all voters. Mr. Trump’s temperament stands out as potentially his most damaging vulnerability, as his penchant for insults and provocations often undercuts his political message. Trump advisers see the televised debates as Mr. Trump’s greatest opportunity to reassure people about his personality, but he starts off in a weak position, with 64 percent of voters saying he does not have the right temperament to be president. percent of voters see Mr. Trump as a risky choice for president, compared with 51 percent who hold that view about Mrs. Clinton — a surprising number in itself given that she has been a president’s spouse, a senator and a secretary of state. For Trump advisers, the image of Mr. Trump as a gamble comes with an upside. They concede that he is most likely to lose the election if a majority of voters view him as dangerous or reckless. But if he can persuade people to see him simply as unpredictable — even cagey in a strategic sense — as well as committed to disrupting the federal government, voters could regard him as worth taking a chance on for four years while looking to his advisers and Congress as a check on his power. Several Trump supporters said in interviews that they believed he was worth the risk, given the economic and security challenges facing the nation. percent of voters think Mr. Trump could bring real change to Washington, a edge over Mrs. Clinton another 48 percent think he could not bring change. “The risky part with Trump is the fact of his rhetoric, how he says things,” said Patrick Kellegher, 52, a political independent and a retired deputy sheriff from Anaconda, Mont. “But I think he is outside the known government circles. ” He added, “I think Trump will bring about real change because he’s looking at it through a different scope. ” The candidates also face continued doubts about their honesty. Of the two, Mrs. Clinton has tried more visibly to address misgivings about her trustworthiness, by releasing decades of tax returns and more details about her health than Mr. Trump has. Yet one stain on her reputation is proving indelible: About seven in 10 voters say she did something wrong when she used a private email server as secretary of state, including 45 percent who say she did something illegal. Concerns about her judgment linger even among some of her supporters, who say she could have been more forthcoming about her email practices before they grew into a political controversy and the focus of a scathing F. B. I. report. “I don’t think she’s been dishonest or untrustworthy in a way that disqualifies her to be president, but she shouldn’t have worried so much about political ramifications and come clean up front,” said Lindsay Dofelmier, 36, a lawyer in Houston who is supporting Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Trump has yet to release any of his tax returns, a break with political tradition that goes back decades, and has been far less specific than Mrs. Clinton on many personal and political questions, including his policy proposals. Asked if it was necessary for Mr. Trump to release his tax returns, 59 percent of voters said it was. percent of voters said they would like the candidates to release more medical records. | 1 |
So much media, so little time. Consumers face a dizzying array of entertainment choices that include streaming video such as Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Netflix cable channels and apps from outlets like HBO and Showtime YouTube and as many as 28, 000 podcasts. With them all offering uncountable hours of addictive programming, how is a listener or viewer supposed to keep up? For some, the answer is speed watching or speed listening — taking in the content at accelerated speeds, sometimes two times as fast as normal. While speed viewing does save time — devotees say it can save hours over the season of a series — others raise concerns that it undermines the rhythm of a production and can dilute some creative elements. Jan Rezab said in an article in Forbes last year that his viewing eventually progressed from 1. 2 times to two times as fast. “As you continue to speed watch, higher speeds get easier and easier to comprehend,” he wrote. “I’ve been speed watching for the last 2 years, and I now feel comfortable watching at 2x the normal viewing speed. ” He watches some even faster. Be prepared to jump through a few hoops if you want to speed up your content, though. While some players make it easy to change your playback speed, others make it more difficult. On YouTube, it lives under settings. On Apple’s native podcast app, it’s right next to the play button, and other podcast players have a similar function. Audible, the major audiobook app, offers the option as well. Netflix, Hulu and HBO, however, don’t offer higher speeds on their players, but there are workarounds available. It’s possible to speed up online video through a Google Chrome extension, and an media player called VLC will play many formats of digital media. Some boxes like TiVo allow playback of recorded programs. It’s not clear how widely the practice has been adopted. In an informal poll on Twitter, David Chen, a host and producer of the movie and television podcast “Slashfilmcast,” asked, “Do you ever listen to podcasts or watch at a faster speed than intended?” Of 1, 505 responses, 79 percent chose the response “No, it’s an abomination,” while 16 percent said they did so for podcasts, and a total of 5 percent said they did so for films, television and podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast, Mr. Chen and his Jeff Cannata and Devindra Hardawar, took up the question of speed viewing. A listener asked, “In this increasingly world, I wonder, how much of a crime against culture I am committing by speeding through these shows?” The podcast hosts seemed aghast. “How dare you,” Mr. Cannata, said, adding that the practice “cheapens your entertainment. ” Mr. Hardawar said speed viewing did not allow time to soak in what was happening. “I feel like you are not even actually watching it,” he said. “You’re consuming it. You’re not actually like absorbing it or letting it work on you in a creative way. So yeah, this is bad. This is bad. ” Speed viewing waters down the emotional impacts of a movie, Peter Markham, senior at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles, said in an interview last week. “If you were watching a play by Pinter, for example, the pause could carry the greatest meaning,” he said. “I can’t imagine watching a movie at twice the speed. ” Renan L. Borelli, 31, who is director of audience growth and engagement at MTV News and who has a commute from Park Slope in Brooklyn to the West Village in Manhattan, is a big fan of podcasts. He listens to as many as three or four a day and subscribes to about 30. Mr. Borelli estimated he could save about five to 10 minutes per podcast. “Even if it’s a couple of minutes, it’s a help,” he said in an interview, noting that he has “many gigabytes” of podcasts stored on his phone. Nicholas Quah, who writes Hot Pod, a newsletter about podcasts, said in an email that it was unclear how widespread speed listening was, but that anecdotally, it appeared to be “an established behavior” among listeners. He said he saw no harm in it. He wrote, “Speed listening might be more offensive to folks who make highly produced, preciously crafted and podcasts (vs. a loose conversational one, like the Slate gabfests) but what we’re actually confronting here is that tension in the relationship between artist and consumer: Which is more important, the artist intent or the consumer’s preference?” Mr. Chen, of “Slashfilmcast,” said in an email that speed listening was a consumer’s way of saying: “I don’t care how you wanted me to experience this work you’ve created. I just care about the information exchanged. ” Lost are elements of dramatic or comedic timing and intentional silences, he said. “It becomes a fundamentally different experience that disregards what the creator intended” at an accelerated speed, he wrote. He said the practice was like trying to eat twice as many meals as normal to avoid missing any culinary treats. “Sure, you might actually be consuming more, but you’re probably having a worse, more grotesque experience,” he wrote. “And you’re certainly not doing it in a way that the chef intended. ” | 1 |
HONG KONG — Facebook rumors force a politician to publish proof of his heritage. Fake images show a prominent female leader in a hangman’s noose. A politician’s aide decries violent crime with a Facebook photo of a girl’s corpse — an image that turns out to come from another country. Another day on social media for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump? Think again. Those incidents took place in Indonesia and the Philippines, where social media’s outsize place in politics is widely acknowledged, even as that role is coming under sharper criticism in the United States. Well before last week’s American election threw Facebook’s status as a news source into the spotlight, leaders, advocacy groups and minorities worldwide have contended with an onslaught of online misinformation and abuse that has had political repercussions. And for years, the social network did little to clamp down on the false news. Now Facebook, Google and others have begun to take steps to curb the trend, but some outside the United States say the move is too late. “They should have done this way earlier,” said Richard Heydarian, a political analyst in the Philippines, one of Facebook’s markets. “We already saw the warning signs of this years ago. ” On Thursday, President Obama, speaking in Berlin and standing alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel, criticized Facebook and other social media for disseminating fake news. He became so impassioned that at one point he lost track of the question he was answering. “If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect,” Mr. Obama said. The impact of Facebook and other social media platforms on international elections is difficult to quantify. But Facebook’s global reach — roughly a quarter of the world’s population now has an account — is difficult to deny, political experts and academics say. Some governments are pushing back, sometimes with undemocratic consequences. Ms. Merkel has said she is considering plans to force social networks to make public how they rank news online. Some African countries have banned the use of Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter before elections. Indonesia’s government has closed sites that it says promote fake news, though experts say some portals were also targeted for political reasons. Facebook said on Thursday that the social network was a place for people to stay informed and that what people saw in their news feed was overwhelmingly authentic. The Silicon Valley company previously denied that it failed to deal with misinformation and said it continues to monitor the social network so that it meets existing standards. “I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way — I think is a pretty crazy idea,” Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, told a tech conference days after the American presidential election. “Voters make decisions based on their lived experience. ” Facebook’s power is often stronger overseas than it is in the United States. In many developing countries with populations new to both democracy and social media, experts said, fake stories can be more widely believed. And in some of these countries, Facebook even offers free smartphone data connections to basic public online services, some news sites and Facebook itself — but limits access to broader sources that could help debunk fake news. One such place is the Philippines, where a spokesman for its populist president, Rodrigo Duterte, shared on Facebook an image of a corpse of a young girl believed to have been raped and killed by a drug dealer. Fact checkers later revealed that the photo had come from Brazil. Despite the debunking, proponents of Mr. Duterte’s bloody crackdown on reported drug dealers and addicts still cite the image in his defense, according to political analysts. Tens of thousands of Philippine Facebook users also recently shared a story claiming that NASA had voted Mr. Duterte “the best president in the solar system. ” While many commenters on the Facebook post took it as a joke, some appeared to take it seriously. And an image of Leila de Lima, a local lawmaker and a critic of Mr. Duterte, depicted her facing a hangman’s noose. “Facebook hasn’t led to empowerment of the average citizen, but empowerment of professional propagandists, fringe elements and conspiracy theorists,” said Mr. Heydarian, the Philippines political analyst. “Voices that were lurking in the shadows are now at the center of the public discourse. ” In Indonesia, where Facebook is so popular that some people confuse it with the broader internet, the service has considerable sway. When Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president, was running for office in 2014, he was accused through social media of being a Chinese Christian and a communist — severe criticism in the deeply Islamic country. The Indonesian politician released his marriage certificate to prove he wasn’t Chinese and made a pilgrimage to Mecca just before voting. “The fake news had a very big impact in our campaign,” said Tubagus Ramadhan, who helped Mr. Widodo run his social media campaign during the election. The online misinformation has not been limited to elections. In Colombia, Facebook users widely shared a crudely altered photo of a pop singer, Juanes, wearing a suggesting he opposed a peace deal with the country’s largest rebel group. On Twitter, Juanes denied it. Colombia’s voters narrowly rejected the deal in a referendum last month. While Facebook has won plaudits for allowing people in disaster zones to tell friends and families they are safe, it has also been a conduit for dangerous rumors in those situations. At the height of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, a false message widely distributed in Sierra Leone on Facebook and WhatsApp, which is owned by the social network, said bathing in hot water with salt would cure and prevent the spread of the virus. Even in democracies like Germany, Spain and Italy, false news reports and hate speech on social media have whipped up populist movements, which have often targeted the recent influx of Middle Eastern refugees, to garner wider electoral support. Now, many European politicians are questioning what role social media has had in deciding what voters can and cannot see. They also have forced social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google to sign up for voluntary — so far — standards to police hate speech online. In Germany, Ms. Merkel’s push to require American social network companies to publish how they rank news is intended to give voters greater control over what they read online. “Algorithms must be more transparent,” Ms. Merkel has said, “so that interested citizens are also aware of what actually happens with their own media behavior and that of others. ” Other politicians, often in more recently established democracies, are going a step further. In some African countries, including Chad and Uganda, officials cite uncorroborated security threats and fears that false results could be shared online as reasons for shutting down social media ahead of elections. Christian Echle, director of the Africa media program at a German political foundation, said such actions were and that social media had played a role in helping voters — many located far from urban centers — to gain access to information and interact with political candidates. But, he added, a growing amount of news shared through social media was either false or biased, making it difficult for people in these often fledgling democracies to know which news outlets to trust. “There’s a big, big threat — that social media will deepen existing gaps in these societies,” said Mr. Echle, who is based in Johannesburg. “People are still learning how to use social media, so many can easily fall for hoaxes. ” | 1 |
Daily Mail October 26, 2016 Hillary Clinton isn’t leaving anything on the table in her effort to win Florida – engaging in an uninhibited appearance on the Spanish language channel Univision where she appeared on ‘El Gordo y la Flaca,’ practiced Spanish, danced with the portly host, and got serenaded by a Mariachi band. ‘What is better than this?’ Clinton asked when the spectacle was complete. On the show, she met with Bronx-born singer Prince Royce – but also was offered cookies by the little person who is one of the regulars on the Spanish language show. Clinton, who downed shots at a bar during her failed 2008 primary, also got offered a bottle of tequila. ‘Look what happens if you drink too much,’ Clinton commented, pointing to the worm in the bottle. This article was posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 9:41 am Share this article | 0 |
License DMCA Racism is generally thought of as discriminating against any group of people because of certain distinctive physical features they have in common. The barren shallowness of this definition is itself actually characteristic of the 'consciousness' of people who engage in racist attitude and orientation. To find the real roots of racism we have to go down to the level of culture formation itself. It is here that what we call racism becomes inevitable. Racism does not exist merely as a flaw in cultural formation. It is an innate feature of culture formation because of what culture has always historically shown itself to be. All culture formation begins in the response of awareness to reality as experienced through the filter of this particular awareness. Everything we know about human pre-history and history tells us that fear plays a radical role in culture formation. The very fact that culture formation is a group response rather than being characterizes by any significant degree of individuality supports this thesis. The group forms as a means of protection against real possibilities of danger. Reality is perceived as dangerous, or at least as presenting possibilities of danger. And ultimately reality means the apparently inescapable mystery of mortality, which is anything but welcome and non-threatening. - Advertisement - The group forms as a means of protection and as the group develops, its group identity begins to form the rudiments of culture. This culture identity has fear as part of its elementary constitution. And the primary means of countering the threats this fear perceives is to find and develop features of reality that affirm the group identity. This involves both finding actual features in and projecting desired features onto reality. And the primary projection always involves seeing reality as having a face that affirms and reflects the face of the group itself. And this absolutely includes affirmation of the physical characteristics of the group. These physical characteristics become inseparable from the entire cultural panoply. This does not mean that culture is simply fantasy. But the fact that there are real elements in any culture only fortifies the fantasy elements and makes them indistinguishable from the real. The iconic imagery of all cultures shows the superhuman higher powers as having features that precisely reflect the features of the human group that develops this imagery. This is not merely coincidental or accidental. It shows that the human group has a fear-based emotional need to believe its particular features, which are subject to mortality, are, in spite of this fact, the features of truth . Truth becomes the protective shield of the distinctively featured group. And it must be kept in mind that this Truth is Absolute Truth (God) and therefore gives an Absolute value to the features of the group. So any human feature or behavior that varies from this group-truth is seen as at least potentially threatening and dangerous and can easily be seen as evil . But wherever it falls in the spectrum of evaluation, it is always alien and suspect because it challenges the group-truth-identity with existential fear at its foundation. The fact that aspects of culture such as art and religion can bring a joy to the people of a particular culture does not nullify anything I have said. And it also does not mean that these aspects are of no real value. But it does reveal the fact that even these aspects are of limited reality-value. And this limit is exposed by the existence of other humans who have developed a clearly different culture. The problem of racism is precisely the problem of how humans develop the Reality-Truth picture that sustains them as a group. Paranoid fear of a person or group with different physical and psychological-orientation features is not just arrogance. It involves an existential fear of identity dissolution and it reflects the failure to adequately deal with this fear in human history. Some degree of racism exists wherever culture exists. The idea that racism is a feature of exclusively any one group of people is ludicrous and very dangerous. It's all about human fear-constriction and the human desire for power over what is frightening in reality rather than expanding further into reality and keeping an open-ended identity. It is the result of partial human identity development pretending to be absolute and finished. To end racism means to end desperate attachment to dangerously undeveloped identity. It means consciousness expansion to a depth that reveals all culture as relative in truth-value and all humans as transitional forms in evolutionary movement. We are all racist because we are all afraid of reality and its evolutionary movement. The solution to this is not the development of black culture, or white culture, or yellow culture... The solution is the development of a fearless open-ended human culture and such a culture does not yet exist anywhere on the earth. Until it does humanity is in danger of self-destruction. In the present context of American society there is no ready solution to racial discrimination because there are no social structures that feed the consciousness expansion required. This oligarchic society is the death-cold pyramid of human fear of reality that feeds the forces of exploitation, abuse, and neglect. It induces pathological behavior from the top of the pyramid to the bottom. The solution to the rabid discrimination against Native Americans and African Americans at the bottom of the pyramid is not the popularizing of Native-American or African-American culture that just ends up as pulp for the amoral capitalist machine in the form of decadent and feckless entertainment. The solution is the creation of a human culture that is genuinely open to everyone because it encompasses all human experience and response. There is no other solution. However politically incorrect it might be, there is no other solution. - Advertisement - | 0 |
The village is poor, even by the standards of rural Kenya. To get there, you follow a power line along a series of unmarked roads. Eventually, that power line connects to the school at the center of town, the sole building with electricity. Homesteads fan out into the hilly bramble, connected by rugged paths. There is just one working water tap, requiring many local women to gather water from a pit in jerrycans. There is no plumbing, and some families still practice open defecation, lacking the resources to dig a latrine. There aren’t even oxen strong enough to pull a plow, meaning that most farming is still done by hand. The village is poor enough that it is considered rude to eat in public, which is seen as boasting that you have food. In October, I visited Kennedy Aswan Abagi, the village chief, at his small home, decorated with posters celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden and the lives of African heroes, including JaKogelo, or “the man from Kogelo,” as locals refer to former President Barack Obama. Kogelo, where Obama’s father was born, is just 20 miles from the village, which lies close to the banks of Lake Victoria. Abagi told me about the day his town’s fate changed. It happened during the summer, when field officers from an American nonprofit called GiveDirectly paid a visit, making an unbelievable promise: They wanted to give everyone money, no strings attached. “I asked, ‘Why this village? ’’u2009” Abagi recalled, but he never got a clear answer, or one that made much sense to him. The villagers had seen Western aid groups come through before, sure, but nearly all of them brought stuff, not money. And because many of these organizations were religious, their gifts came with moral impositions I was told that one declined to help a young mother whose child was born out of wedlock, for example. With little sense of who would get what and how and from whom and why, rumors blossomed. One villager heard that GiveDirectly would kidnap children. Some thought that the organization was aligned with the Illuminati, or that it would blight the village with giant snakes, or that it performed blood magic. Others heard that the money was coming from Obama himself. But the confusion faded that unseasonably cool morning in October, when a GiveDirectly team returned to explain themselves during a town meeting. Nearly all of the village’s 220 people crowded into a tent placed near the school building, watching nervously as 13 strangers, a few of them white, sat on plastic chairs opposite them. Lydia Tala, a Kenyan GiveDirectly staff member, got up to address the group in Dholuo. She spoke at a deliberate pace, awaiting a hum and a nod from the crowd before she moved on: These visitors are from GiveDirectly. GiveDirectly is a nongovernmental organization that is not affiliated with any political party. GiveDirectly is based in the United States. GiveDirectly works with mobile phones. Each person must have his or her own mobile phone, and they must keep their PIN secret. Nobody must involve themselves in criminal activity or terrorism. This went on for nearly two hours. The children were growing restless. Finally, Tala passed the microphone to her colleague, Brian Ouma. “People of the village,” he said, “are you happy?” “We are!” they cried in unison. Then he laid out the particulars. “Every registered person will receive 2, 280 shillings” — about $22 — “each and every month. You hear me?” The audience gasped and burst into wild applause. “Every person we register here will receive the money, I said — 2, 280 shillings! Every month. This money, you will get for the next 12 years. How many years?” “Twelve years!” Just like that, with peals of ululation and children breaking into dance in front of the strangers, the whole village was lifted out of extreme poverty. (I have agreed to withhold its name out of concern for the villagers’ safety.) The nonprofit is in the process of registering roughly 40 more villages with a total of 6, 000 adult residents, giving those people a guaranteed, income. An additional 80 villages, with 11, 500 residents all together, will receive a basic income. With this initiative, GiveDirectly — with an office in New York and funded in no small part by Silicon Valley — is starting the world’s first true test of a universal basic income. The idea is perhaps most in vogue in chilly, places, among them Canada, Finland, the Netherlands and Scotland. But many economists think it might have the most promise in places with poorer populations, like India and Africa. GiveDirectly wants to show the world that a basic income is a cheap, scalable way to aid the poorest people on the planet. “We have the resources to eliminate extreme poverty this year,” Michael Faye, a founder of GiveDirectly, told me. But these resources are often misallocated or wasted. His nonprofit wants to upend incumbent charities, offering major donors a platform to push money to the world’s neediest immediately and practically without cost. What happens in this village has the potential to transform institutions, but its effects might also be felt closer to home. A growing crowd, including many of GiveDirectly’s backers in Silicon Valley, are looking at this pilot project not just as a means of charity but also as the groundwork for an argument that a universal basic income might be right for you, me and everyone else around the world too. The basic or guaranteed income is a curious piece of intellectual flotsam that has washed ashore several times in the past often during periods of great economic upheaval. In “Utopia,” published in 1516, Thomas More suggests it as a way to help feudal farmers hurt by the conversion of common land for public use into private land for commercial use. In “Agrarian Justice,” published in 1797, Thomas Paine supports it for similar reasons, as compensation for the “loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. ” It reappears in the writings of French radicals, of Bertrand Russell, of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Silicon Valley has recently become obsessed with basic income for reasons simultaneously generous and as a palliative for the societal turbulence its inventions might unleash. Many technologists believe we are living at the precipice of an revolution that could vault humanity into a postwork future. In the past few years, artificially intelligent systems have become proficient at a startling number of tasks, from reading cancer scans to piloting a car to summarizing a sports game to translating prose. Any job that can be broken down into discrete, repeatable tasks — financial analytics, marketing, legal work — could be automated out of existence. In this vision of the future, our economy could turn into a version of itself: extreme income and wealth inequality, rising poverty, mass unemployment, a shrinking labor force. It would be more George Saunders than George Jetson. But what does this all have to do with a small village in Kenya? A universal basic income has thus far lacked what tech folks might call a proof of concept. There have been a handful of experiments, including ones in Canada, India and Namibia. Finland is sending money to unemployed people, and the Dutch city Utrecht is doing a trial run, too. But no experiment has been truly complete, studying what happens when you give a whole community money for an extended period of time — when nobody has to worry where his or her next meal is coming from or fear the loss of a job or the birth of a child. And so, the tech industry is getting behind GiveDirectly and other organizations testing the idea out. Chris Hughes, a Facebook founder and briefly the owner of The New Republic, has started a $10 million, initiative to explore the viability of a basic income. (He has also been a major donor to GiveDirectly.) The research wing of Sam Altman’s incubator, Y Combinator, is planning to pass out money to 1, 000 families in California and another state. Then there is GiveDirectly itself, which has attracted $24 million in donations for its effort, including money from founders of Facebook, Instagram, eBay and a number of other Silicon Valley companies. Many donors I spoke with cited their interest in the project as purely philanthropic. But others saw it as a chance to learn more about a universal basic income, a way to prove that it could work and a chance to show people the human face of a hypothetical policy fix. In December, Altman, the president of Y Combinator, spoke at an event hosted by Stanford, the White House and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the charitable institution the Facebook billionaire founded with his wife, Priscilla. Altman discussed the potential for basic income to alleviate poverty, but his speech veered back to the dark questions that hang over all this philanthropy: Is Silicon Valley about to put the world out of work? And if so, do technologists owe the world a solution? “There have been these moments where we have had these major technology revolutions — the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, for example — that have really changed the world in a big way,” Altman said. “I think we’re in the middle or at least on the cusp of another one. ” GiveDirectly may be a charity, but it speaks in the argot of Silicon Valley. It is a platform, connecting donors and recipients, that prides itself on low overhead and superior analytics. It disdains what it sees as the bloated, expensive, incumbents that dominate the nonprofit space. And it even has a privileged bootstrapping creation story, beginning with its founders batting the idea around in Harvard Square academic buildings and scraping together money from friends. The idea for the nonprofit came to Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus, who is now a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, when they were graduate students at Harvard. Both were studying development and doing fieldwork overseas, an experience that underlined an Economics 101 lesson: Cash was more valuable to its recipients than the gifts commonly distributed by aid groups, like food or bed nets or sports equipment. If you’re hungry, you cannot eat a bed net. If your village is suffering from endemic diarrhea, soccer balls won’t be worth much to you. “Once you’ve been there, it’s hard to imagine doing anything but cash,” Faye told me. “It’s so deeply uncomfortable to ask someone if they want cash or something else. They look at you like it’s a trick question. ” But at the time, distributing cash aid in a country with little to no banking infrastructure outside major cities would have required an extraordinary amount of manpower, not to mention introducing the risk of robbery and graft. But mobile phones with minutes began flooding into African markets in the 2000s. Enterprising Ghanaians, Kenyans and Nigerians started to use their minutes as a kind of currency. In 2007, Vodafone and the British Department for International Development together built a system, called for Kenyans to transfer actual shillings from cellphone to cellphone. An estimated 96 percent of Kenyan households use the system today. Faye and Niehaus — along with their friends Rohit Wanchoo and Jeremy Shapiro, also graduate students — thought about setting up a website to raise cash in the United States and send it directly to poor Kenyans. But they never found a nonprofit that would distribute that cash abroad. They decided to do it themselves in 2008. “Because it was a and we started in grad school,” Faye said, “we were open to the idea of it being wrong or failing. ” The following year, Faye traveled to small Kenyan villages during the summer break, offering cash to whoever seemed poor and would take it. (The money, about $5, 000, came out of the foursome’s own pockets.) That, surprisingly, worked well enough to give them the confidence to start a threadbare randomized control trial the year they graduated. It found that the recipients, who received an average of $500, saw excellent outcomes: Their children were 42 percent less likely to go a whole day without eating. rates dropped, and mental health improved. In time, the nonprofit attracted the attention of Silicon Valley and its young philanthropists. Two Facebook founders gave donations. Then, in the spring of 2012, Faye went to a friend’s brunch in Brooklyn and met someone working for Google. org, the tech giant’s giving arm. She liked the sound of GiveDirectly and arranged for Faye and Niehaus to give a presentation at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. The company ended up contributing $2. 4 million. At first, GiveDirectly handed out large lump sums, generally $1, 000 spread into three payments over the course of the year. The nonprofit’s field officers would locate villages in Kenya, then find the poorest families in each individual village using a simple asset test (whether a family had a thatched roof or not). The field officers would introduce themselves to the town elders, explain their purpose and return to provide mobile phones and training to recipient families. Then GiveDirectly would push a button and send the money out. On a steaming October morning, I went with two GiveDirectly executives, Joanna Macrae and Ian Bassin, to visit one of the villages that had received GiveDirectly’s payments. We took off at dawn from Kisumu, a bustling industrial city on the banks of Lake Victoria, and followed a highway to Bondo, a small trading city filled with cattle, bicycles and roadside food stands. From there, we turned inland from the lake and drove into a lush agricultural region. The residents of this village had received money in 2013, and it was visibly better off than the pilot village. Its clearings were filled with mango plantings, its cows sturdy. A small lake on the outskirts had been lined with nets for catching fish. “Could you imagine sitting in an office in London or New York trying to figure out what this village needs?” Bassin said as he admired a cow tied up by the lakeside. “It would just be impossible. ” Perhaps, but delivering money by has some downsides, too. We visited an older woman named Anjelina Akoth Ngalo, her joints painful and swollen with advanced malaria. Sitting in her hut, she told us that she had received only one payment, not the three that she was promised. She had given her phone to a woman in a nearby village who transferred the money out of it. Ngalo visited the village elder to try to get her money back, but nothing had come of it. She was now destitute, living on about $5 a week. She had not eaten since the day before, and she had run out of malaria medication. (Bassin said that less than 1 percent of recipients experience theft, crime or conflict.) By giving money to some but not all, the organization had unwittingly strained the social fabric of some of these tribal communities. One man we visited in a separate village nearby, Nicolus Owuor Otin, had acted as a liaison between the community and the GiveDirectly staff, showing them where different families’ houses were, for instance. For that reason, he said, the other villagers thought he was determining who would get what and threatened to burn his house down. Still, nearly all the recipients described the money as transformative. Fredrick Omondi Auma — a Burning Spear devotee wearing a hat and bell bottoms when we visited — had been impoverished, drinking too much, abandoned by his wife and living in a mud hut when GiveDirectly knocked on his door. He used his money to buy a motorbike to give taxi rides. He also started a small business, selling soap, salt and paraffin in a local town center he bought two cows, one of which had given birth and he opened a barbershop in the coastal city Mombasa. His income had gone from 600 shillings a week to 2, 500 shillings — roughly $25, a princely sum for the area. His wife had returned. He had even stopped drinking as much. “I used to go out drinking with 1, 000 shillings, and I’d wake up in the bar with 100 shillings,” he said. “Now I go out drinking with 1, 000 shillings, and I wake up at home with 900. ” “I didn’t imagine I would be living in an house,” he said, referring to his roof. “I didn’t imagine I’d be wearing nice shoes. I didn’t imagine I would have a business, and earnings from it. I didn’t imagine I would be a man who owns cattle. ” Many popular forms of aid have been shown to work abysmally. PlayPumps — contraptions that let children pump water from underground wells as they play — did little to improve access to clean water. programs have saddled families with animals inappropriate to their environment. Skills training and microfinance, one 2015 World Bank study found, “have shown little impact on poverty or stability, especially relative to program cost. ” All across the villages of western Kenya, it was clear to me just how much aid money was wasted on unnecessary stuff. The villagers had too many jerrycans and water tanks, because a nongovernmental organization kept bringing them. There was a thriving trade in Toms canvas : People received them free from NGO workers and then turned around and sold them in the market centers. And none of the aid groups that had visited the villages managed to help the very poorest families. In the village, for example, Faye and I paid a visit to a woman named Caroline Akinyi Odhiambo, who lives in a mud hut on the edge of town with her husband, Jack, a laborer, and her two small children. The most expensive thing she ever bought, she told me, was a chicken for 500 shillings, or about $5. Her family was persistently hungry. She knew of three nonprofit groups that had helped the village before GiveDirectly. One aided families with school fees, but it chose not to help her children. “I do not want to talk about it,” she said. What is worse, Faye told me, walking away from Odhiambo’s hut, was that most nonprofit projects in the region were never subject to anything like an impact assessment, either. There is no way to know how well they are working, or whether that money would be better spent on something else. “The question should always be: Would we be better off just giving this money away as cash?” Faye said. “There usually is not a way to answer that question. ” A vast majority of aid — 94 percent — is noncash. Donor resistance is one reason for this it is not easy to persuade American oligarchs, British inheritors and Japanese industrialists to fork over their money to the extremely poor to use as they see fit. “There’s the usual worries about welfare dependency, the whole ‘Give a man a fish’ thing,” said Amanda Glassman, a public health and development expert at the Center for Global Development. “It’s so powerful. It’s really a basic psychological feature of the landscape. You’ll start drinking. You’ll start lying around at home because you’re getting paid. ” Cash also seems harder to market. American taxpayers might be perfectly happy to fund education for young women in poor countries or vaccinations for schoolchildren. But they might balk at the idea of showering money on poor, unstable countries. “The visual of putting a pill in a kid’s mouth is so much more attractive to people,” Glassman said. Institutional inertia is another factor. “There are a lot of good people working in the system,” Niehaus said. “And there are a lot of organizations pushing to do cash transfers. But the way they are structured and incentivized from the top down — they aren’t structured to do it. They have a specific mandate, like health. Cash transfers give choice of what goal to pursue to the recipients. ” Moreover, cash might force aid workers and nongovernmental organizations to confront the fact that they could be doing better by doing things differently — often by doing less. “It’s easy to muster evidence that you should be giving cash instead of fertilizer,” said Justin Sandefur of the Center for Global Development. “The harder argument is: You should shut down your U. S. A. I. D. program, which is bigger than the education budget of Liberia, and give the money to Liberians. That’s the radical critique. ” Faye put it more bluntly, if : If cash transfers flourished, “the whole aid industry would have to fire itself. ” There is something to that. One estimate, generated by Laurence Chandy and Brina Seidel of the Brookings Institution, recently calculated that the global poverty gap — meaning how much it would take to get everyone above the poverty line — was just $66 billion. That is roughly what Americans spend on lottery tickets every year, and it is about half of what the world spends on foreign aid. In the village, the residents had just started to work through how transformative the program would be, what they could do with the money and how different their lives could feel in 12 years. Detractors often say that no one would work in a world with a basic income, that the safety net could grow a bit too comfortable. Ultimately, what a universal income would do to workers in the rich world will remain a mystery until someone tries it out. But here, many villagers were concerned primarily with procuring the sustenance and basic comforts that their penury had denied them. Odhiambo, the woman who had not been offered aid by the school group, planned to buy corrugated iron sheets for her roof she considered possibly paying off her dowry. Another villager, Pamela Aooko Odero, ran a household that had been suffering from hunger, with all eight of them living on just 500 to 1, 000 shillings a week. She took her money as soon as she got it and went to buy food. Many more made plans that were entrepreneurial. Two widowed Margaret Aloma Abagi and Mary Abonyo Abagi, told me they planned to pool their funds together to start a small bank with some friends. Charles Omari Ager, a houseboy for the had his phone turned off and wrapped in a plastic bag in his pocket when the first text came in. He was driving the widows’ goats and cattle from one meadow to another when he happened upon an aid worker, who prompted him to pull out his phone, turn it on and wait. The text was there. The money was there. “I’m happy! I’m happy! I’m happy!” he said. He bought himself a goat that day. When he got his money, Erick Odhiambo Madoho walked to the local highway nearest the village and took a matatu, a shared minibus, overloaded with 20 passengers, down to Lake Victoria. There he found an stand and converted his mobile money into shillings. He used the cash to buy the first of three rounds of fishing line that he would need to into nets to catch tilapia in the lake. When the nets were done, he told me, he would rent a boat and hire a day laborer to work with him. He anticipated that his income, after costs, might reach as much as 2, 000 shillings on a good day. I asked him why he hadn’t saved money for nets beforehand. He shrugged, smiled and said, “I could not. ” | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO — Want to invisibly spy on 10 iPhone owners without their knowledge? Gather their every keystroke, sound, message and location? That will cost you $650, 000, plus a $500, 000 setup fee with an Israeli outfit called the NSO Group. You can spy on more people if you would like — just check out the company’s price list. The NSO Group is one of a number of companies that sell surveillance tools that can capture all the activity on a smartphone, like a user’s location and personal contacts. These tools can even turn the phone into a secret recording device. Since its founding six years ago, the NSO Group has kept a low profile. But last month, security researchers caught its spyware trying to gain access to the iPhone of a human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates. They also discovered a second target, a Mexican journalist who wrote about corruption in the Mexican government. Now, internal NSO Group emails, contracts and commercial proposals obtained by The New York Times offer insight into how companies in this secretive digital surveillance industry operate. The emails and documents were provided by two people who have had dealings with the NSO Group but would not be named for fear of reprisals. The company is one of dozens of digital spying outfits that track everything a target does on a smartphone. They aggressively market their services to governments and law enforcement agencies around the world. The industry argues that this spying is necessary to track terrorists, kidnappers and drug lords. The NSO Group’s corporate mission statement is “Make the world a safe place. ” Ten people familiar with the company’s sales, who refused to be identified, said that the NSO Group has a strict internal vetting process to determine who it will sell to. An ethics committee made up of employees and external counsel vets potential customers based on human rights rankings set by the World Bank and other global bodies. And to date, these people all said, NSO has yet to be denied an export license. But critics note that the company’s spyware has also been used to track journalists and human rights activists. “There’s no check on this,” said Bill Marczak, a senior fellow at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. “Once NSO’s systems are sold, governments can essentially use them however they want. NSO can say they’re trying to make the world a safer place, but they are also making the world a more surveilled place. ” The NSO Group’s capabilities are in higher demand now that companies like Apple, Facebook and Google are using stronger encryption to protect data in their systems, in the process making it harder for government agencies to track suspects. The NSO Group’s spyware finds ways around encryption by baiting targets to click unwittingly on texts containing malicious links or by exploiting previously undiscovered software flaws. It was taking advantage of three such flaws in Apple software — since fixed — when it was discovered by researchers last month. The cyberarms industry typified by the NSO Group operates in a legal gray area, and it is often left to the companies to decide how far they are willing to dig into a target’s personal life and what governments they will do business with. Israel has strict export controls for digital weaponry, but the country has never barred the sale of NSO Group technology. Since it is privately held, not much is known about the NSO Group’s finances, but its business is clearly growing. Two years ago, the NSO Group sold a controlling stake in its business to Francisco Partners, a private equity firm based in San Francisco, for $120 million. Nearly a year later, Francisco Partners was exploring a sale of the company for 10 times that amount, according to two people approached by the firm but forbidden to speak about the discussions. The company’s internal documents detail pitches to countries throughout Europe and contracts with Mexico, which paid the NSO Group more than $15 million for three projects over three years, according to internal NSO Group emails dated in 2013. “Our intelligence systems are subject to Mexico’s relevant legislation and have legal authorization,” Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Washington, said in an emailed statement. “They are not used against journalists or activists. All contracts with the federal government are done in accordance with the law. ” Zamir Dahbash, an NSO Group spokesman, said that the sale of its spyware was restricted to authorized governments and that it was used solely for criminal and terrorist investigations. He declined to comment on whether the company would cease selling to the U. A. E. and Mexico after last week’s disclosures. For the last six years, the NSO Group’s main product, a tracking system called Pegasus, has been used by a growing number of government agencies to target a range of smartphones — including iPhones, Androids, and BlackBerry and Symbian systems — without leaving a trace. Among the Pegasus system’s capabilities, NSO Group contracts assert, are the abilities to extract text messages, contact lists, calendar records, emails, instant messages and GPS locations. One capability that the NSO Group calls “room tap” can gather sounds in and around the room, using the phone’s own microphone. Pegasus can use the camera to take snapshots or screen grabs. It can deny the phone access to certain websites and applications, and it can grab search histories or anything viewed with the phone’s web browser. And all of the data can be sent back to the agency’s server in real time. In its commercial proposals, the NSO Group asserts that its tracking software and hardware can install itself in any number of ways, including “over the air stealth installation,” tailored text messages and emails, through public hot spots rigged to secretly install NSO Group software, or the way, by spies in person. Much like a traditional software company, the NSO Group prices its surveillance tools by the number of targets, starting with a flat $500, 000 installation fee. To spy on 10 iPhone users, NSO charges government agencies $650, 000 $650, 000 for 10 Android users $500, 000 for five BlackBerry users or $300, 000 for five Symbian users — on top of the setup fee, according to one commercial proposal. You can pay for more targets. One hundred additional targets will cost $800, 000, 50 extra targets cost $500, 000, 20 extra will cost $250, 000 and 10 extra costs $150, 000, according to an NSO Group commercial proposal. There is an annual system maintenance fee of 17 percent of the total price every year thereafter. What that gets you, NSO Group documents say, is “unlimited access to a target’s mobile devices. ” In short, the company says: You can “remotely and covertly collect information about your target’s relationships, location, phone calls, plans and activities — whenever and wherever they are. ” And, its proposal adds, “It leaves no traces whatsoever. ” | 1 |
Even though Selina Meyer is the leader of the free world and, also, a woman, “Veep” rarely digs deeply into the gender politics that affect women in positions of power. The show has subtly highlighted the fact that Selina has to worry about her haircuts, her acne and the visibility of the bags under her eyes to a degree that most men officials probably don’t. We’ve also seen her male political colleagues underestimate her on more than one occasion. But most of the time, she and her staff are too busy dealing with things like teleprompter and data breaches to directly address the sexism that a woman of Selina’s stature would likely confront on a daily basis. That changes in this week’s episode, in which Selina handles several crises unique to a woman POTUS. For starters, there’s that Politico story that claims that a member of the White House staff referred to the president using That Word. (I say That Word because the word in question — the most insulting thing a woman can be called — is unfit for print here.) Selina instructs Amy, the only woman in her inner circle of advisers, to find out who’s responsible for calling her such a derogatory name. Not surprisingly, it quickly becomes clear that Amy and almost everyone else in that aforementioned inner circle has recently used That Word to describe their boss. (“I shouted it into my phone on the Acela quiet car,” Mike confesses in one of the great, lines in this episode.) The fact that there’s an ugly, sexist aspect to that particular expletive doesn’t necessarily seem to have occurred to any of them (note: they’re mostly men) and in a way, that makes sense. To borrow a line from “A Christmas Story,” the Oval Office dwellers of “Veep” work in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It is their true medium they are masters. So many obscenities trip and fall off their tongues every day that it’s unlikely they even considered the harsh ramifications of what they said about Selina. But Selina is very aware of how hurtful That Word is and calls Amy to the White House in the middle of the night to discuss it. In a scene that feels as though it were ripped from an old Bette Davis movie, Selina, dressed in a flowing nightgown while darkly barking orders and smoking a cigarette, delivers a blistering monologue: “I am the first female president of the United States and this is an affront. I’ll tell you something, Amy, a lot of people don’t want me to be president. And you know why. Because fundamentally, people hate women. Right? I mean, they’ll just stop at nothing to get me out of here. Everybody’s trying to get me. But I’m not going to let them. ” Theoretically, it is possible to listen to this speech without being reminded of Hillary Clinton. But so far, I haven’t figured out how. It’s telling that Selina only feels comfortable speaking so pointedly about her gender in a dimly lit room, in the dead of night, with only a single other woman present. It implies that she knows if she were to say any of this during the work day, with all the Oval Office lights on and everyone on her team present, she’d be perceived as crazy or overly sensitive. Consequently, Selina tends to suppress her worst suspicions about how she’s perceived or simply distract herself with the 87 other messes spilled at her feet. For example, later in this episode, when she finds out that Jonah is succeeding in his Congressional campaign by railing against her record, a move that actually validates her theory that everyone is “trying to get her,” she lets it roll off her back. Ben tells her it’s good news since once Jonah gets elected, he’ll support her presidency. (Though, really, can’t we all see Jonah on that promise once he gets a tiny taste of power?) Regardless, the truth is there’s only so many attacks a woman can worry about at once. There are key points in this episode that deliberately show Selina leaning too hard into stereotypical female behavior. One is that Oval Office scene with Amy, which casts Selina as the harpy. The other involves her waffling about whether or not to bail out the bank overseen by Charlie Baird, a move that may be the best thing from an economic standpoint but a terrible thing for her image since she’ll be perceived as doing a favor for her lover. That whole story line traffics in two classically demeaning perceptions of women: That they’re indecisive, and that they’re always driven by their hearts instead of their heads. By depicting Selina in this way, it’s as if the show is inviting its audience to see her as a prototypical woman, too. But then “Veep” does something brilliant and subverts all of that by having Selina decide not to bail out Charlie’s bank, primarily because of that drippy “love is what matters” pep talk from Gary. Selina isn’t going to fall for the kind of talk she calls “When Gary Met Sally. ” You can call her That Word and you can think she’s being indecisive but she is still a woman who can’t be pigeonholed. (It’s worth noting that this episode was by a woman, Georgia Pritchett, and a man, Will Smith, and directed by a man presumably inclined to be sympathetic to Selina — Brad Hall, husband of Julia .) Other examples of women raging against various machines are sprinkled throughout this episode, too. There’s the reappearance of Candi Caruso, the seemingly competent job applicant who once again is called in for an interview and immediately dismissed because the position is being filled . There’s poor Amy, who’s so overworked that she hilariously tells Siri to set a reminder for her to freeze her eggs. And then there’s Catherine, who has more of a right to feel neglected and demeaned than maybe any other woman on “Veep. ” After struggling for days to have a conversation with her mother, she finally drops a bomb on her at the end of this episode when she announces that she’s fallen in love with Marjorie, Selina’s Secret Service agent who was hired because she supposedly looks like Selina from behind. Despite all those progressive things Selina says for the cameras during a for her holiday shopping trip to Kramerbooks Afterwords Café — she claims she plans to purchase a book by the poet Wanda Coleman, as well as a graphic novel “with a strong Asian protagonist” — Selina’s goes out the window when she realizes her daughter is gay. “I wish mother was alive, because this definitely would have killed her,” Selina says. But shouldn’t she have seen this coming? Of course Catherine has fallen for Marjorie. She’s the one person on Earth who looks (a little) like Selina and actually pays attention to Catherine. | 1 |
In a series of tweets, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed U. S. President Donald Trump while praising Pope Francis for his alleged “denunciation of #MuslimBan” and of the Rohingya genocide going on in Myanmar. [Zarif appears to have attempted to drive a wedge between Trump and the Pope, tweeting that the world “needs leaders who urge dialogue compassion, not walls exclusion. ” Welcome @Pontifex denunciation of #MuslimBan #RohingyaGenocide. World needs leaders who urge dialogue compassion, not walls exclusion. — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) February 10, 2017, The Iranian minister was referring to a recent general audience in which Pope Francis made some extemporaneous remarks urging prayer for the persecuted Rohingya people, who are Muslims. The Pope actually never mentioned President Trump’s temporary travel ban on 7 nations that are hotbeds of Islamic terrorism, including Iran. In his remarks Wednesday, Francis asked his hearers to pray in a special way for “our Rohingya brothers and sisters. ” “Driven out of Myanmar, they go from one place to another because they are unwanted,” he said. “They are good people, peaceful people. They are not Christians, but they are good, they are our brothers and sisters. And they have been suffering for years,” Francis said. “They have been tortured, killed, simply because they follow their traditions and their Muslim faith. Let us pray for them. I invite you to pray for them to our Father in Heaven, all together, for our Rohingya brothers and sisters. ” Earlier in his address, the Pope repeated a favorite of his regarding the need to “create bridges rather than walls,” though the Vatican has insisted that this figurative expression refers to an attitude of openness to dialogue with others, and does not refer to specific walls or persons. Charles Maung Bo, the first Catholic cardinal from Myanmar (the former Burma) has called the persecution of the Rohingyas “an appalling scar on the conscience of my country. ” According to Cardinal Bo, the Rohingyas are “among the most marginalized, dehumanized and persecuted people in the world. They are treated worse than animals. Stripped of their citizenship, rejected by neighboring countries, they are rendered stateless. ” Among his recent tweets, Zarif also confirmed his support for U. S. protesters against President Trump, saying that many Iranians had also demonstrated in defiance of “threats insults” from the U. S. government. On Revolution Day, Iranians turn out in huge numbers to defy threats insults by US govt praise American people for rejecting #MuslimBan. pic. twitter. — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) February 10, 2017, Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
We were recently shown, and examined the above artifact that supposedly was found, along with many others, in a cave in the southern desert of Peru; exact location to be given, hopefully, in the future.
The underside of the skull (full set of images below) indicates that this artifact is bone, about 3 to 5 mm thick, and still has a stiff, grey, skin-like material attached to it.
Note the very narrow foramen magnum aperture where presumably a very thin vertebral system once entered the skull.
The adult hand indicates the size of the specimen, and note that it is relatively bilaterally symmetrical, and that the skull is greatly elongated.
Though easy to state that it is a complex fake, the caretaker and those that presumably found it, along with other specimens, have no access to artisans or taxidermists that could have made them.
The caretaker removed some of the bone from the underpart of the skull and exposed what is presumably marrow.
This, as well as the bone and skin can be sampled for DNA and radiocarbon testing in prominent laboratories in North America that we are working with already.
The television series Ancient Aliens has shown initial interest in the specimen, and more specimens like this, from the same location may soon be available for observation and study.
Here's the full set of images from Brien Foerster's website :
Humans Are Free
SOURCE | 0 |
MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts cautioned Democrats Saturday, saying they are in a “fever dream” and letting themselves “get the cart before the horse” over the report that President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor retired Gen. Mike Flynn asked for immunity in exchange for his testimony in the investigation into Russian ties to the president. “It is wild speculation,” Roberts warned of asking for immunity meaning certain guilt. “I think that there are many Democrats who are watching this who might be in a fever dream over what is taking place here because they are letting themselves kind of get the cart before the horse on this. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
FEAR OF TRUMP: BUSH, OBAMA, CLINTON ALL BUYING PROPERTY IN NON-EXTRADITION NATIONS – WILL TRUMP PROSECUTE THEM Oct 28, 2016 Previous post
It appears Bill and Hillary Clinton are making plans to flee the country in the event Donald Trump wins this election.
Reports are circulating that the Clintons have transferred 1.8 Billion dollars from the Clinton Foundation to the Qatar Central Bank, via a facilitation/abatement of JP Morgan Chase & Company for reasons not revealed.
This move of such a large sum of money to the country of Qatar says in itself, Hillary Clinton knows she is going to lose the election, and she doesn’t plan to allow herself to be prosecuted for various high crimes and treason under a Trump Administration.
The country of Qatar happens to be one of a handful of countries that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, thus would be a perfect place for her to run to in escaping justice.
Donald Trump has said many times during his campaign and at the Presidential debates that once he gets into office, he intends to prosecute her on various high crimes from her latest crimes of sending classified material via a personal e mail server. All the way to gun running to terrorist groups in Syria resulting in the deaths of 4 Americans in Benghazi.
Overpasses For America is a grassroots organization. We dedicate this website to bringing you the hard to find truth in news. The website is not free to operate, and we do not charge for its use. If you would be so kind as to help offset our costs of operation by clicking an ad while you’re here, we would greatly appreciate it! Thank you for visiting. May God bless you and bless America.
Apparently, Hillary is not the only person in Washington who has made plans to escape justice under a Trump Administration. John Kerry has quietly been selling his property in the US for millions of dollars of late, with an announcement of the sale of his $25 million dollar Nantucket mansion in June 2016, as well as the sale of his yacht for $3.9 million in July 2016.
President Barack H Obama has also apparently been making exit plans with his purchase of a $4.9 million dollar seaside mansion in Dubai in January 2016, another non extradition country.
Snopes and other supposed fact checking sites have debunked both the story of Obama’s purchase of the mansion and the firing of Rear Admiral Rick Williams. However, over the last several months, these sites have been busted for lying in trying to debunk such information as the before mentioned, when in fact the information is true.
Snopes and other sites try their best to keep incriminating information from being believed, but the truth has a way of coming out on its own, as it always has.
The Bush family has been quietly | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.