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Many look at the new healthcare system with their higher premiums and wonder what has happened. Why are their coverages shrinking and their premiums growing? Some have come to the conclusion that the system itself is to blame. They believe that Obamacare is broken?
What they fail to recognize is that this is not the case at all. What we see as failing to make insurance better has made it worse, but it is simply a problem of ignorance. We just are not smart enough to know the truth. Higher premiums and less coverage is the point, it seems.
Breitbart reports :
On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN Newsroom,” MIT Economics Professor and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber argued that “The law is working as designed. However, it could work better. And I think probably the most important thing experts would agree on is that, we need a larger mandate penalty.”
Gruber said, “Obamacare’s not imploding. The main goal of Obamacare was two-fold. One was to cover the uninsured, of which we’ve covered 20 million, the largest expansion in American history. The other was to fix broken insurance markets where insurers could deny people insurance just because they were sick or they had been sick. Those have been fixed, and for the vast majority of Americans, costs in those markets have come down, thanks to the subsidies made available under Obamacare.”
So basically, everything that is being reported is not accurate. There is no reason to think that all of the insurers are bailing like rats on a sinking ship. It just appears that way. This is little more that fool’s hope so that there will not be a mass exit from the exchange.
But, unfortunately, people no longer demand proof. They simply take a man like this at his word. So, he will get away with telling Chicken Little that the sky is not falling; even while it is coming down on his head.
When you chase emptiness, God will let you catch it.
Article reposted with permission from Constitution.com shares | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The official theme for the first day of the Republican National Convention was “Make America Safe Again,” but infighting and protests were undercurrents. Tonight’s speakers included Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Donald Trump’s wife, Melania. Mr. Trump introduced her, walking on stage to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and telling the crowd: “Oh we’re gonna win, we’re gonna win so big. ” Our live coverage is here. The New Yorker published an article in which Mr. Trump’s ghostwriter on “The Art of the Deal” confesses to “a deep sense of remorse” for portraying Mr. Trump positively. “Lying is second nature to him,” the author said. _____ 2. Louisiana officials detailed how an killed three police officers and wounded three more in Baton Rouge, saying he deliberately targeted them. In a range of digital postings, sometimes under another name, the gunman complained that “devils” ran the world and advocated a bloody response to recent fatal shootings by the police. “One hundred percent of revolutions, of victims fighting their oppressors,” he said in one clip, “have been successful through fighting back, through bloodshed. ” _____ 3. Hillary Clinton, speaking at an N. A. A. C. P. convention in Cincinnati, denounced the attacks on police officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas, as well as police shootings that killed two black men this month. “This madness has to stop,” she said. An analysis of dozens of recent state and national polls of voters shows that Mrs. Clinton holds a modest but clear lead over Mr. Trump. _____ 4. Leading antidoping officials urged that Russia be barred from the Summer Olympics in Rio after an independent inquiry confirmed a Russian ’s claims of doping. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said officials implicated in the report would be “temporarily suspended,” but criticized “a dangerous relapse of politics intruding into sports. ” The International Olympic Committee called an emergency meeting for Tuesday. _____ 5. One of our stories today is a meditation on clutter from a different perspective: someone who simply couldn’t afford much stuff. A woman remembers the years when poverty mandated a “minimalist” lifestyle so popular now among the middle class. “For people who are not so well off,” she notes, “the idea of opting to have even less is not really an option. ” _____ 6. Facing reports that Roger Ailes would soon be removed as chairman of Fox News, 21st Century Fox insisted that “this matter is not yet resolved. ” Mr. Ailes is being sued for sexual harassment by a former anchor, Gretchen Carlson. _____ 7. Turkey’s government fired nearly 9, 000 police officers, widening its vast purge of perceived opponents after a failed military coup. Above, a funeral for a police officer killed in clashes. Over the weekend, 6, 000 military personnel were arrested and 3, 000 judges suspended. Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union’s top diplomat urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to show restraint, even suggesting Turkey’s membership in NATO and candidacy for the E. U. could be compromised. _____ 8. Political tensions in France are spiking, as opposition politicians assailed the Socialist government over Thursday’s terrorist attack in Nice. Jeers and calls for the French prime minister to resign fractured a moment of silence he attended in Nice, called to honor the 84 people killed there by a rampaging truck driver. Above, the gathering. New details emerged about the attacker: he was not an observant Muslim but had been recently searching for Islamist material and had collected images of Islamic State and other terrorist figures. _____ 9. A celebrity feud flared anew. Kanye West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, posted clips of a phone conversation that appeared to counter Taylor Swift’s insistence that she was blindsided by lyrics in one of Mr. West’s songs. In the clips, Ms. Swift thanks him for running the line “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex” by her, and he responds, “Relationships are more important than punch lines. ” _____ 10. Finally, stocked up on tissues? Our medical expert wants you to know that the summer cold is no anomaly. We tend to think of colds as being more contagious in winter, he says, possibly because the rhinovirus is more prevalent then and spreads easily when people congregate indoors. But the science, he says, shows that cold temperatures by themselves don’t increase vulnerability. Above, a reminder of subfreezing temperatures. _____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s the Weekend Briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Owned by Unilever, the Axe brand includes a range of men’s grooming products with many of the ingredients never even tested for safety according to the C.I.R. – Cosmetic Ingredient Review. Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
Axe products are loaded with endocrine disrupting chemicals. Endocrine disruptorsare exogenous, synthetic chemicals that have hormone-like effects on both humans and wild-life and interfere with the endocrine system by either mimicking or blocking our natural hormones and disrupting their respective body functions. Member scientists of the Endocrine Society issued a report in which they claim:
“We present the evidence that endocrine disruptors have effects on male and female reproduction, breast development and cancer, prostrate cancer, neuroendocrinology, thyroid, metabolism and obesity, and cardiovascular endocrinology.”
New studies are also revealing that these harmful chemicals may be causing physical feminization in males. A study published by the International Journal of Andrology found that feminization of boys can now be seen through their play habits.
Medical experts are now wondering whether exposure to years of these toxic chemicals is part of the reason so many older men are low on testosterone and experiencing erectile dysfunction. So they take a little blue pill and get exposed to even more chemicals and the cycle continues. Aluminum Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Gly
Aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly is the active ingredient in Axe deodorant products. One or more animal studies show kidney or renal system effects at very low doses, mammalian cells show positive mutation results, animal studies show reproductive effects at moderate doses.
Aluminum was first recognized as a human neurotoxin in 1886, before being used as an antiperspirant. A neurotoxin is a substance that causes damage to nerves or nerve tissue.
COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE
COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE is a very toxic ingredient which has been linked to cancer in animal tests. The biggest danger of using a product with cocamidopropyl betaine is its potential contamination with nitrosamines .
Nitrosamines are created when nitrosating agents are combined with amines. Nitrosamines have been identified as one of the most potent classes of carcinogens, having caused cancer in more than 40 different animal species as well as in humans. PPG-14 Butyl Ether
PPG stands for popypropylene glycol, which is made from a completely artificial petroleum product, methyl oxirane. Another name for that is propylene oxide (which is a probable human carcinogen). Propylene oxide is also an irritant and highly flammable. Butyl ethers are in the paraben family, and they are toluene derivatives (toxic petrochemical compounds). Toluene has proven to have a harmful affect on the reproductive system while parabens have been linked to cancer.
PEG-8 Distearate
According to a report in the International Journal of Toxicology by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) committee, impurities found in various PEG compounds include ethylene oxide; 1,4-dioxane; polycyclic aromatic compounds; and heavy metals such as lead, iron, cobalt, nickel, cadmium, and arsenic. Many of these impurities are linked to cancer. BHT
There have been many studies which demonstrate that BHT accumulates over time in the body, having a toxic impact on the lungs, liver and kidneys amongst other negative effects. A study by Gann in 1984 showed that BHT was capable of promoting chemically-induced forestomach and bladder cancer in male rats.
A 1988 Swedish study by Thompson looked at both BHT and BHA. They found that both were toxic and tumour promoting. Both antioxidants were observed to be cytotoxic in a concentration-dependent manner at concentrations ranging from 100 to 750 microM. At equimolar concentrations BHT was more cytotoxic than BHA. | 0 |
The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has released a new report which claims that crimes committed by migrants rapidly increased in 2016 compared to the previous year. [The new report from the BKA states that in 2016 there was a total of 295, 000 crimes that involved immigrants as suspects, up 90, 000 from 2015 when there were 205, 000. The police say that the crimes counted did not include migrant specific crimes like illegal entry into Germany or staying in the country illegally Die Welt reports. The three most cited crimes that involved immigrants were counterfeiting which accounted for 29 percent of all the crimes, theft at 26 percent, and violence including bodily harm at 24 percent. The BKA said there were 450 cases in which migrants had attempted to kill another person, with 66 murder suspects and a total of 82 victims. The twelve victims of the Berlin Christmas market terror attack in December committed by Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri were also counted in the statistics. In of the cases of attempted murder or homicide, the victims were immigrants themselves with 59 victims coming from migrant backgrounds while other victims included five EU citizens, two citizens and 16 German nationals. Breitbart London has reported on several cases, primarily in and around asylum homes, in which migrant men have beaten and sometimes even murdered family members such as their own wives. The BKA defines “immigrants” in the report as anyone who is either an asylum seeker, a person with refugee status, an illegal immigrant or failed asylum seekers who are allowed to stay in the country. A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said that the government was working on a full report that will also include criminal statistics from the regional governments as well. Several regions in Germany have already released migrant crime statistics and all have shown a drastic rise in migrant crime. In Munich police have noted that almost half of the criminal suspects in the Bavarian city are “ . ” In the German capital of Berlin, the senate has launched a formal inquiry into why migrant crime rates are so high in the city. The Berlin crime statistics showed that 13 percent of the migrant population in the city were suspects in various crimes, compared to the German population in which only 6 percent were suspects in crimes. and Bavaria have both expressed concerns with the growing migrant crime trend. Last month State Criminal Police Office (LKA) president Ralf Michelfelder said, “we are very worried about the rise in violence by asylum seekers. ” Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com, | 0 |
link Okay, we are all familiar with the theory that our universe is some sort of simulation, math that works so specifically, so well, so many predictions from math and science that are proved right more and more often etc and so on. (not going to get into "proof" google it!) So you have to ask yourself WHY would a thing, being, God, whatever want to create such a virtual simulation? We know that we as humans have the right to live and have family's, often with as many kids as sustainable (at the time). This means that however well we create food, we WILL use up all resources on this planet weather we make the best plans or not. But we cant crack viable ways to leave this planet and populate others beyond our own slowly decaying star. So what about this. What if the answer was to create a sped up reality, using all our computing and programming powers to emulate the universe (or observable universe), wait for life to grow on a planet and then give them the same problem we have so that we can reap the answer for ourselves? LEAVING THE SOLAR SYSTEM TO COLONISE OTHER SYSTEMS, INDEFINITELY. Could it be as simple as that? Love to hear your thoughts, been thinking about this for some time now. | 0 |
When I watch Donald Trump, I sometimes feel like Ingrid Bergman — not European and glamorous, but unnerved, as though I’m being gaslit, as in the famous plot of her old classic movie “Gaslight. ” The lights are flickering, but her character’s husband, who is secretly a seriously bad dude, is convincing her that no such thing is occurring. He is trying to get her to question her sense of reality, to think her mind is playing tricks on her — in short, to convince her that she is going slightly crazy, a tactic that can be scarily effective. Trump’s compulsive lies are a fact of the campaign at this point, but I still questioned my own reality for a moment on Monday night whenever he fudged the truth — as when he implied that by saying Hillary Clinton did not have the presidential look, he meant she did not have the “stamina” (this is a lot like his saying that when he insulted Carly Fiorina’s face, he really meant her “persona”). I’d already seen a clip of him in which he goes after Clinton’s lack of a presidential look, specifically — but even so, I had that normal human response, a bit of . Maybe it was taken out of context? I went back and looked — nope, there he is back in September, telling ABC’s David Muir, “I just don’t think she has a presidential look, and you need a presidential look. ” Trump tries to gaslight an entire country when he plays fast and loose with the truth or insists on connections — each of which is an apt tactic for someone who often questions the mental health of women who dare to criticize him. If they are women with big careers, like Maureen Dowd, Mika Brzezinski and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, they are “neurotic. ” He called the Rev. Faith Green Timmons, a pastor who calmly and boldly interrupted him at her church in Flint, Mich. “nervous,” which is apparently the black woman’s (or woman’s) version of neurotic. These women are not just wrong, to Trump they are suffering from a kind of mental or medical condition. “It’s organic, it’s biological,” the feminist writer Elaine Showalter, the author of “Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Culture,” says. “It’s something that comes out of their gender — like whatever was coming out of Megyn Kelly. ” Women, he clearly believes, or wants us to believe, are emotional, guided by feelings rather than reason, which presumably makes them unfit to lead (or unfit to give Trump a hard time). All of this is why it was particularly interesting — subversive, even, in a kind of way — to see Clinton say to Trump early in the debate, “Donald, I know you live in your own reality. ” She followed that up, not much later, with a laugh that led into: “Just join the debate by saying more crazy things. ” She seemed to hesitate before speaking that line it sounded about as spontaneous as her apparent new catchphrase “ . ” Planned or not, “crazy” was a clear provocation — it told us exactly how we were supposed to feel about the things Trump was saying. And it did something else. As anyone who has ever been gaslit knows, nothing drives a person more crazy than being told he — or usually she — is crazy. Trump performed as anticipated — you might even argue that the “crazy” line was a turning point in the debate. Soon after that, the lights started flickering. His already shaky syntax fell apart we had “a fed doing political things” labored digressions about how often he is audited, and how little he minds it mentions of a “big fat ugly bubble” and a “very judge. ” Trump was leaning into the lectern, his face coloring and contorting even his sniffing seemed to pick up, not so much flulike as ticlike. What I would have given for Clinton to offer him a tissue. “Trump did one great thing,” the humor writer Paul Rudnick tweeted on Monday night. “He proved that men are overemotional, petty and silly creatures. ” Clinton came on stage dressed in a red flag she baited Trump, and he charged. Who had the more presidential look? The matador — or the bull? They say the camera never lies. | 1 |
The Dark Art of Political Intimidation | 0 |
Samstag, 29. Oktober 2016 Autofahrer entlarvt geheimen Zahlentrick, mit dem sich jeder Blitzer überlisten lässt Berlin (Archiv) - Ein Berliner Autofahrer hat einen geheimen Trick entdeckt, mit dem sich Radarfallen und Blitzer auf Autobahnen zu 100 Prozent überlisten lassen. Erste Praxistests scheinen die Theorie des Hobbyphysikers zu bestätigen. Seine zahlenbasierte Methode soll für jeden Autofahrer innerhalb von Minuten erlernbar sein. Seit 1990 ist Jörg Haffke jeden Tag auf deutschen Autobahnen unterwegs, was den Berufspendler oft teuer zu stehen kommt: "Früher verging kaum eine Woche, ohne dass ich ein Knöllchen im Briefkasten hatte, nur weil ich mal wieder in eine Radarfalle geraten war", klagt der 43-Jährige. Die verschiedensten Gegenmittel habe er schon ausprobiert: "Reflektierende CDs am Innenspiegel, abgedecktes Kennzeichen oder Blitzwarner-Apps – nichts hatte auf Dauer wirklich Erfolg", berichtet der Familienvater. Er hat den Code geknackt: Jörg Haffke Haffke ist jedoch nicht nur ein cleverer Bastler, sondern auch ein guter Beobachter: "Irgendwann fiel mir auf, dass neben den Autobahnen immer wieder so merkwürdige Schilder mit Zahlen drauf versteckt sind." Zwei Jahre und 122 Excel-Tabellen später ist sich Haffke nun sicher, den geheimen Algorithmus hinter den kryptischen Blechtafeln endlich entlarvt zu haben: "Wenn man ein Tempo mit einem Tachowert fährt, der in etwa der Zahl auf dem letzten gesichteten Schild entspricht oder darunter liegt, verhindert man ein Auslösen des nächsten Blitzers! Man ist praktisch unsichtbar." Welche physikalische Kraft diese offensichtliche Fernwirkung herbeiführt, sei ihm zwar nicht ganz klar: "Vielleicht gibt es ja doch etwas, das größer ist als wir!" Das Ergebnis gebe ihm aber recht: "Keine Knöllchen in den letzten sechs Monaten", erklärt er stolz. Nun will Haffke seine Erfahrungen an andere Autofahrer weitergeben – und hat dazu die Standorte der knapp fünf Millionen bisher identifizierten "Zahlenschilder" in einem einzigartigen Nachschlagewerk verzeichnet. Jörg Haffke: "Zahlenschilder in Deutschland: Die geheimen Zeichen, mit denen sich Radarfallen überlisten lassen", 3480 S., Selbst-Verlag, Eigenheim 2015. bep ( Kojote ); Fotos: Shutterstock; Hinweis: Erstmals erschienen am 27.10.15 Artikel teilen: | 0 |
at 4:08 pm 1 Comment
With the neither the racist nor the Putin-puppet label sticking to Trump, team Clinton and its lobotomized surrogates have regressed back to square one: playing the woman card .
As I noted in a post earlier this week, a professor of linguistics at Berkeley just published an article at Time claiming (with zero evidence of course), that the Hillary Clinton email server scandal only exists because she is a woman. Here’s a brief snippet of what she said:
‘It’s not about emails; it’s about public communication by a woman’
I am mad. I am mad because I am scared. And if you are a woman, you should be, too. Emailgate is a bitch hunt, but the target is not Hillary Clinton. It’s us.
The only reason the whole email flap has legs is because the candidate is female. Can you imagine this happening to a man? Clinton is guilty of SWF (Speaking While Female), and emailgate is just a reminder to us all that she has no business doing what she’s doing and must be punished, for the sake of all decent women everywhere. There is so much of that going around.
It’s not about emails; it’s about public communication by a woman in general. Of course, in the year 2016, no one (probably not even The Donald) could make this argument explicitly. After all, he and his fellow Republicans are not waging a war on women. How do we know that? They have said so. And they’re men, so they must be telling the truth.
I know. It’s really hard to believe the above is real, but it is.
Moving along, President Obama himself is now getting in the mud.
Here’s what he had to say today in Ohio, according to NBC :
COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that sexism is to blame for the tight race for the White House, telling an Ohio crowd that “Hillary Clinton is consistently treated differently than just about any other candidate I see out there.”
Obama went on: “There’s a reason we haven’t had a woman president.”
Speaking specifically to “the guys out there,” Obama told them to “look inside yourself and ask yourself, if you’re having problems with this stuff how much of it is that we’re just not used to it?”
Yep, because the American public handily elected a black man twice, but somehow we all draw the line at a woman. Perhaps, just perhaps, the problem is with Hillary.
Moving along, all this reminded me of a very prescient comment made by Glenn Greenwald a couple of years ago, which I highlighted in the post, Glenn Greenwald on the 2016 Elections – “They’ll Probably Have a Gay Person After Hillary” :
Hillary is banal, corrupted, drained of vibrancy and passion. I mean, she’s been around forever, the Clinton circle. She’s a fucking hawk and like a neocon, practically. She’s surrounded by all these sleazy money types who are just corrupting everything everywhere. But she’s going to be the first female president, and women in America are going to be completely invested in her candidacy. Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power. They’ll probably have a gay person after Hillary who’s just going to do the same thing.
Obama could’ve gone out on a high note, but he decided to go low.
Sad! | 0 |
Hacked emails reveal Hillary funded Trump campaign Posted on Tweet
“He is the only person who can help me win the presidential election”
Washington, Nov 2 : Just as things were getting to the point where it cannot get any worse in the sleaziest American presidential campaign ever (unless otherwise it was revealed during the Halloween that Donald Trump is a real zombie), comes the potentially game-changing news that the Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign has been, for the most part, funded by his fierce Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.
These details emerged in a series of hacked e-mails of Hillary that she had stored in her ‘pen drive’. In one of the emails, Hillary writes to her campaign adviser John Podesta, “It is now more than abundantly clear that the only person who can make me win in the election is Donald Trump.” She goes on to add, “But we cannot sit idly hoping that he would do the job for us on his own. We must actively encourage his campaign. In other words, we must fully bankroll him”.
Podesta, in his reply to the e-mail, concurs with Hillary’s line of thinking, “yeah, you have put it way better than we can.” In fact, he goes one step ahead and lays it all brutally down: “It is only smart that we start funding his campaign before his camp gets all wise and starts funding our campaign. We don’t want a Face/Off kind of situation here where one is the front of the other and vice-versa. As it is, it is difficult telling the two campaigns apart”.
And as part of the carefully constructed plan, Hillary’s team allowed Russian hackers to not only hack her e-mails but also bank accounts, knowing fully well that the hacked mails and money would eventually find their way from the Russians to the Trump camp.
At one point, Podesta does raise the question what if the Russians pass on only the mails and keep the money themselves. “Do you want to trust the Russians with all the money? Looks like a dangerous gambit. I’m red-flagging it here itself”.
But Hillary, who had worked out her strategy pretty smartly, replies Podesta: “When I say money, we are not going to put actual money that Russians would doubtless run away with.” She adds that the plan is to go the Sodexo coupon route. “We put humongous amount of Sodexo coupons. Russians wouldn’t know to use them and would pass it to Trump’s team. I am pretty sure they will lap it up, as I am even more pretty sure that Trump wouldn’t have given lunch and dinner allowance to his team”.
Understandably, the latest e-mail reveals have caused further confusion in a campaign that has never been short of that. The Trump campaign managers lashed out Hillary and her team and accused them “of (metaphorically) sneaking into enemy’s room and poisoning his drink and food”.
Trump’s spokesperson said “they have used our hands to poke our eyes, which anyway we ourselves were doing. This reveals their desperation. But we aren’t fazed. We will continue to do what we have been doing without anybody’s bidding.”
Trump himself, in a speech to his supporters, thundered, “so you now get the real picture. All my gaffes, stupid remarks and silly antics have all been the fault of that woman. The ridiculous things that I say on a daily basis is all the work of Hillary.”
He added: “The crazy things I come up with at all meetings, the media has been there always. I know. I have seen them. Why did they not find out that it was all Hillary’s fault”.
Trump also said that those claiming that I have not paid my taxes have a clear answer now. “How can I pay taxes for Hillary’s money?”
Trump’s parting words were: “Hillary and her conspiracies are a conspiracy of China. She could be the effect of global warming”.
Meanwhile, the Hillary campaign team responded to the allegations by saying, “it is more than a real possibility that the Trump’s team might be using Hillary Clinton’s body double to create her emails and money accounts.”
Hillary’s aide, in a non-hacked e-mail response, said, “Trump campaign team is financing Hillary’s body double and funding themselves. It doesn’t take much to figure this out. It is not rocket science. Just do your math.”
The aide added: “We have also reasons to believe that the Trump campaign team is using a Trump body double to address his meetings so that they will have less embarrassment to manage later”.
Elsewhere, in a totally understandable development, a latest media poll suggested that 100 per cent of Americans would prefer Hillary’s body double to Hillary and Trump’s body double to Trump. “The body doubles are assured of a landslide victory”, revealed the poll. | 1 |
Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Security Question: What is 14 + 5 ? Please leave these two fields as-is: IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-) Doom and Bloom | 0 |
The governor of Vermont has pardoned the son of former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro almost 30 years after he was convicted of selling cocaine to an undercover officer while in college, the Daily Mail reported. [John Zaccaro Jr. was a Middlebury College student when he was arrested in 1986 for selling $25 worth of cocaine to an undercover state police officer. He was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to four months in jail. Zaccaro was placed in a house arrest program where inmates paid for their living arrangements and served 90 days of his sentence “in a luxury $1, 500 a month Burlington apartment,” UPI reported in 1988. Zaccaro’s defense attorney argued that it was a case of entrapment because the officer claimed she was a student and lured him, People reported in 1988. Ferraro accused prosecutors of unfairly targeting her son because of her position as the 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin pardoned Zaccaro and nine others Saturday. “I believe in second chances, and I believe we as a society will continue to move towards a more sensible approach to drug addiction and criminal justice,” Shumlin said in a statement. “As governor, I am honored to be able help people move past their mistakes and help relieve what can essentially amount to a of burden and stigma. ” Zaccaro currently is Principal of P. Zaccaro Company Inc. a real estate investment and management firm, and lives in New York City with his wife and three children. | 0 |
you should've been swallowed you inbred swine | 0 |
Former Obama State Department appointee Marie Harf said on Tuesday that the former president’s decision not to order a military strike against Syria after dictator Bashar crossed his stated “red line” by using chemical weapons against his own people hurt the United States’ diplomatic efforts going forward. [“Now did not enforcing the red line hurt us diplomatically?” Harf said at a discussion at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D. C. “Absolutely. ” Harf, who was a spokesperson for Secretary of State John Kerry, said that decision also hurt Barack Obama politically. “Did it give some people the notion that they used politically that we were unwilling to use military action … absolutely,” Harf said, noting that Obama’s decision also was affected by the lack of support for such strikes by his fellow Democrats. Michael Pregent, adjunct fellow at Hudson, said that the strike on Assad’s military assets ordered by President Donald Trump after the April 4 chemical attack that killed scores of innocent people, including children, was Trump’s most significant foreign policy win since taking office. Assad denied — as he has repeatedly done over the course of the more than civil war — that he was responsible for the attack. But the U. S. has claimed it is certain Assad did carry out the attack. “Last week, Bashar ’s regime killed even more of its own people using chemical weapons,” Tillerson said in the days following the attack. “Our missile strike in response to his repeated use of banned weapons was necessary as a matter of U. S. national security interest. ” “We do not want the regime’s uncontrolled stockpile of chemical weapons to fall into the hands of ISIS or other terrorist groups who could, and want to, attack the United States or our allies,” Tillerson said. The latest development in Syria is a plan brokered by Russia, Turkey, and Iran that would establish four “safe zones” in Syria designed to protect innocent Syrians. But participants in the Hudson discussion said it is unclear whether those safe zones would not ultimately help the Assad regime. | 0 |
Mexico’s government has announced that Presidents Enrique Peña Nieto and Donald J. Trump spent Friday morning on the phone and agreed to not discuss wall payments in public. [In a prepared statement issued by Mexico’s federal government, Peña Nieto’s team claimed that both heads of state understood their shared public differences and agreed to discuss the heated issue as part of an “integral discussion” in relation to their bilateral partnership. The telephone conversation dealt with the issues of trade deficit, international friendship, and both nations working together to stem the flow of drugs and weapons, the Mexican government revealed in their statement. Both presidents told their staff to continue discussing bilateral issues. The two had a productive and constructive call regarding the bilateral relationship between the two countries, the current trade deficit the United States has with Mexico, the importance of the friendship between the two nations, and the need for the two nations to work together to stop drug cartels, drug trafficking and illegal guns and arms sales. With respect to payment for the border wall, both presidents recognize their clear and very public differences of positions on this issue but have agreed to work these differences out as part of a comprehensive discussion on all aspects of the bilateral relationship. Both presidents have instructed their teams to continue the dialogue to strengthen this important strategic and economic relationship in a constructive way. Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. Tony Aranda contributed to this report. | 0 |
LOS ANGELES — Alex R. Hibbert eyed a group of six children whipping red and yellow balls at one another in a large, reverberant pit made with trampoline floors and walls. He wanted in. But one player needed to get nailed by a ball and knocked out of the game first. He stood in line, his feet fidgeting, before bailing. He ran over to a nearby trampoline, pulled up his hoodie, crouched down and launched himself first upward and then backward into a flip. “You bend your feet, keep your hands all the way and jump as high as you want,” he said. “You get maximum air. Once you hit the air then you flip. But you don’t want to do too much because you might do a double flip. ” Alex is the actor who plays Chiron (also knows as “Little”) in “Moonlight,” the film about growing up in a area of Miami as a character in the process of understanding his sexuality. The film has received eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture. In real life, he lives in Miami, where he is a student, but he was recently in Los Angeles for a busy weekend of award shows (he attended both the Producers Guild Awards and the Screen Actors Guild awards) and auditions. So he would have a proper tux to wear to the SAG awards, he also had to stand still for a suit fitting. That’s a lot for an energetic kid. A few hours at the Sky Zone trampoline park in the Van Nuys neighborhood was his play time. “I’m open,” he yelled, his arms spread wide. A ball came straight at his head and he ducked. Then he grabbed it and hurled it at the opposite side of the dodgeball pit, which now had him alone against three boys. He came to the tables, out of breath but happy. “It’s a battlefield out there,” he told his mother, Donna Wellington. “But I’m coming out on top. ” He grabbed for a cherry Icee she was holding for him and took a big gulp. Ms. Wellington snagged it. “Don’t drink all of that,” she said to her son. “You’ll get a stomachache. ” He made a face, then set the drink down. He has gotten a lot of attention because of his ability to make faces. “Moonlight” opens with a scene focused on Alex, but it’s not until about 10 minutes into it that he actually has a line. Critics and moviegoers have been taken by Alex’s performance, most of it delivered without any words, in which he communicates the adolescent angst of a young boy growing up in an environment where his sexuality is not understood. “Mahershala taught me a lot of tips about facials,” he said of his Mahershala Ali, whom he calls his second father. “He was all like, ‘Just think about the moment that is going on. ’” Alex didn’t grow up as an kid looking for a big break. He was living a typical life when stardom found him. He was born in New York City, and lived in Queens until 2011, when his mother decided to move with him to live closer to her own mother. (Alex has one sister, Robin, 22, from his father’s side, who lives in New York with their father.) He goes to a performing arts magnet middle school in Miami Gardens, Fla. loves science class (even though he said school was “mostly boring,” he knows it will help him succeed in his life’s ambition of curing cancer) and is expected to help out at home by doing the dishes and taking out the trash. But in March 2016, Alex’s drama teacher, Tanisha Cidel (she played the role of the principal in the film) suggested to him that he audition for “Moonlight. ” He assumed it was a school production. “I didn’t know it was going to be that big,” he said. “I thought it was going to be like a play or something. ” It was Alex’s grandmother, Hillary Frye, who took him to the “Moonlight” audition. She is now his unofficial publicist. “Every day since the film came she buys a New York Times paper at the and looks for Alex’s picture in it,” Ms. Wellington said. “She’s going crazy, she tells everyone at work, ‘That’s my grandson! ’” His mother is trying to adapt to the new normal of having a son who suddenly is invited to award shows and auditions. So long as the hoopla doesn’t interfere with school, Ms. Wellington is accommodating. On Monday, it was back to their normal routine. “Nothing changed,” said his mother, who works at a nursing facility. “When I travel back and forth, I go right back to work. And Alex goes back to school. ” But he had a few days of glamour before he returned to real life, and some time before the media crush to just be a little kid. After dominating the trampoline, the foam pit, air hockey and the dodgeball court, he had by now moved on to the basketball game. Before his mother could even make her way over, he had racked up 41 points. “I beat the record,” he hollered to her. He sidestepped to the adjacent machine where he tossed the ball some more, to the tune of 43 points. In celebration, he dabbed. He wasn’t done, though. He was ready for more dodgeball. It was 8 p. m. and his mother wasn’t. “Alex, I’m tired,” said Ms. Wellington, who had just accompanied her son to London, where Alex accepted an award on behalf of Mr. Ali. “Mom, one more game,” he pleaded. She gave him a — apparently a talent for nonverbal communication is a family trait. “O. K.,” he said, “I guess it is time to go. ” Anyway, he will need his sleep, given the magnitude of his dreams. There is the whole thing. He would also like to have an acting career like Denzel Washington, to do action movies like Andrew Garfield and get cast on a popular TV series. “I want to be on ‘The Walking Dead,’” he said. “I need to talk to my managers about that. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON, D. C. — President Donald Trump on Friday signed a new executive order on an Offshore Energy Strategy as he proclaimed, “It’s going to lead to a lot of great wealth for our country and a lot of great jobs for our country. ”[From the Roosevelt Room of the White House, President Trump thanked Secretaries Wilbur Ross and Ryan Zinke, lauded their job performance, then told those gathered: This is a great day for American workers and families, and today we’re unleashing American energy and clearing the way for thousands and thousands of American energy jobs. Our country is blessed with incredible natural resources, including abundant offshore oil and natural gas reserves. But the federal government has kept 94 percent of these offshore areas closed for exploration and production. And when they say closed, they mean closed. This deprives our country of potentially thousands and thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in wealth. I pledged to take action, and today I am keeping that promise. The President stated that the order initiates “opening offshore areas to energy exploration,” which reverses an Obama Administration Arctic leasing ban. “It reverses the previous administration’s Arctic leasing ban, and directs Secretary Zinke to allow responsible development of offshore areas that will bring revenue to our Treasury and jobs to our workers. ” Barack Obama seized this last days’ opportunity to shore up his environmental policy in December 2016. The Washington Post reported that he banned offshore oil and gas drilling in hundreds of millions of acres of federal land in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The ban was coordinated with a related move by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The report cited a White House aide, who claimed regarding the Section of the 1953 act withdrawals, “There is no authority for subsequent presidents to … I can’t speak to what a future Congress will do. ” After the Arctic leasing ban was announced, Sen. Ted Cruz ( ) responded in a tweet the Post cited, “Yet another Obama abuse of power. Hopefully, on[e] that will be reversed … exactly one month from today. ” Trump added that the order, “will enable better scientific study of our offshore resources and research that has blocked everything from happening for far too long. ” The result, according to Trump, will be energy cost reduction and job creation, while making the country more secure and energy independent. “It’s going to lead to a lot of great wealth for our country and a lot of great jobs for our country,” said Trump. Ahead of the President’s speech, Vice President Mike Pence called the order “an important step toward American energy independence. ” The entire executive order can be found at WhiteHouse. gov. Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 0 |
It’s our go to response. When the lights are out and the floorboard creaks. When a branch taps a slow waltz against the window pane and our hackles dance a primordial shimmy, we ask the question. The oldest question. “Is there anyone there?”
Turns out, the answer is yes. Not The Alien Contact We Expected
It was a little thing really. Giant leap for mankind moments often are. There were no ships hovering over national landmarks, no grainy footage of aliens being dissected on steel-gray slabs. No ‘take me to your leader moments’ at all.
No, our first potentially legitimate brush with alien intelligence came as one might expect; from the nocturnal laboring of two dedicated scientists.
It was the kind of science you don’t get to see. The methodical pace, the slow transition from hypothesis to data that is the hallmark of good research. The pair painstakingly surveyed a patch of sky simply because it was in need of surveying. They examined some 2.5 million stars, and in doing so, E.F. Borra and E. Trottie of Quebec’s Laval University might have made the single most important discovery in human history.
You see, while the vast majority of the stars they examined were acting in exactly the way they had expected, a tiny fraction of them – 234 in total – were not.
They were exhibiting bizarre modulations that defied easy explanation; they could not be attributed to any known natural phenomena. Indeed, they didn’t look natural at all.
They looked like someone, or rather something, was attempting to communicate with us.
Like, for real.
Because these were the kind of signals that one might expect an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) to use if they were attempting to communicate with us. they were using the oldest known method of attracting attention in the dark
They were shining a light at us. Great Expectations
In a study published in 2012, Borra had proposed this very approach. He wrote : “Consider an extraterrestrial civilization that is more advanced than ours. Let us assume that they want to signal their existence to other civilizations. This is not an easy task considering how vast the universe is. The best chance of being seen is by being accidentally detected during astronomical observations. They know, on the basis of their own experience, that a scientifically advanced civilization observes the sky and takes spectra of astronomical objects. In particular, spectroscopic surveys are carried out.”
These surveys would inevitably reveal the very same modulations that the two Canadian scientists just discovered. Utterly dissimilar to the usual background ‘noise’ of the universe, once detected, they would warrant further investigation. Like ships sailing on a pitch black sea, an alert lookout could easily differentiate between the naturally occurring light flashes of reflected moonbeams or distant lightning, from the frantic signalling of a nearby vessel.
At least, that’s the theory.
Still, there was yet more compelling evidence that this was indeed an attempt at communication.
The 234 stars in Borra and Trottier’s study all had one thing in common. The modulations all came from stars very much like our own Sun, the only star that we know for certain harbors intelligent life. Phone Home?
The most obvious answer is that we need to dig deeper; as Borra acknowledged: “ Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence .”
The need for further research notwithstanding, a very real question needs to be explored. Could we, and indeed should we, attempt to communicate back?
The practical considerations are not insignificant. The signal device, a powerful laser of some kind, could be based on Earth but would have to shine its beam to a space station that contained mirrors capable of redirecting the light to the targets.
Such a station would have to be sent on a long lonely voyage of around 614 astronomical units or about 20 times further than Pluto, something Barros described as being : “Not an overwhelmingly large distance.”
Indeed the distance the mirror would have to be placed would scale with he distance of the civilization we were trying to contact. Using an existing technology known as a solar sail we could : “Reach Pluto in 5 years. For an ETI at a 100 lt-yr distance from Earth, the (mirror’s) location would thus be reached within 10 years.
An attempt to reach a civilization even further away would of course take longer, perhaps a century or more and whilst Barro admitted that: “This is a long time.”
He remained adamant that it was not : “…Overwhelmingly so, considering that the ETI civilization may be thousands of years older than ours.”
Humanity then, is on the cusp of being able to send similar signals ourselves. But should we? This Island Earth
According the Professor Stephen Hawking, it might not be such a good idea. While he is convinced that we are not alone in the universe he cautioned that : “We should be wary of answering back.”
In Hawking’s view, a meeting between two civilizations would resemble Christopher Columbus’ historic meeting of Native Americans.
Something that he noted : “Didn’t turn out so well.”
Still, whether we chose to respond or not remains peripheral to the sheer magnitude of the discovery. That intelligent alien life is not only out there but that they are trying to say hello. If true, it points to a universality of at least one pervasive human emotion.
Curiosity.
It’s still not definite; it’s still only a ‘probably,’ but we’ve never been closer to a possible answer. It would be nice to finally know for sure. After all, we’ve been wondering for so long.
As the Epicurean philosopher and poet Lucretius once said : “Nothing in the universe is unique and alone and therefore in other regions there must be other earths inhabited by different tribes of men and breeds of beasts.”
Yeah, there must be.
Watch the teams proposal as to where the light pulses are coming from here:
Featured Image By Beckie Via Flickr/ CC-2.0 About Grownmangrumbles
I'm a full- time, somewhat unwilling resident of the planet Earth. I studied journalism at Murdoch University in West Australia and moved back to the UK where I taught politics and studied for a PhD. I've written a number of books on political philosophy that are mostly of interest to scholars. I'm also a seasoned travel writer so I get to stay in fancy hotels for free. I have a pet Lizard called Rousseau. We have only the most cursory of respect for one another. Connect | 1 |
Andrzej Wajda, who mined Polish history to create films that established him as one of the world’s great directors and won him an Academy Award for his life’s work, died on Sunday. He was 90. His death was confirmed by the Association of Polish Filmmakers, which did not specify where he died. The director Jacek Bromski, head of the association, said Mr. Wajda had recently been hospitalized. From his trilogy of Poland’s wartime resistance (“A Generation,” ”Kanal” and “Ashes and Diamonds”) to his twin portraits of workers under Communism (“Man of Marble” and “Man of Iron”) to his final film, “Afterimage,” released this year, Mr. Wajda unceasingly drew on Polish reality, sensibilities and memory, stressing elements that were at times mystifying to foreign viewers. His absorption in those sensibilities, and in quintessentially Polish subjects, like the romantic appeal of lost causes, extended beyond plot and subtext to the iconography with which he filled his movies, a tendency he lamented but could not escape. “I would gladly trade in this clutch of national symbols — sabers, white horses, red poppies — for a handful of sexual symbols from a Freudian textbook,” he once said. “The trouble is that I just wasn’t brought up on Freud. ” He was also aware that the tensions of the Cold War sometimes estranged Western audiences from his subjects and his style. “Films made in Eastern Europe seem of little or no interest to people in the West,” he wrote in “Double Vision: My Life in Film” (1989). Western audiences, he said, “find them as antediluvian as the battle for workers’ rights in England in the time of Marx. ” But the biggest problems he faced were the practical ones of government disapproval, and sometimes outright censorship, before Poland rid itself of Communist control. That he succeeded in overcoming so much to produce towering works of art earned him the enduring regard of his countrymen. And as opaque as his allusions may have seemed outside Poland, his international reputation grew steadily. Western film historians eventually mentioned him alongside Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa. He was given the Japanese Imperial Prize for his contribution to film in 1996 and an honorary Academy Award in 2000. He also received lifetime achievement awards from the film festivals in Venice in 1998 and Berlin in 2006. The images and textures that shaped the imaginative landscape of Mr. Wajda’s films were drawn from a life that reflected Poland’s tragic modern history, beginning with the outbreak of World War II, when the Nazis invaded and obliterated Poland in partnership with the Russians. The agony continued through nearly six years of German occupation, when the Nazis used Polish soil to establish the ghettos and killing fields of the Holocaust. Then, with liberation, came more decades of totalitarian oppression as successive regimes in Moscow sought to impose Communism on a devoutly Roman Catholic country, an effort that even Stalin once conceded was like “putting a saddle on a bull. ” Andrzej Wajda (pronounced ) was born on March 6, 1926, in Suwalki, a garrison town near Poland’s border with Lithuania. His father was a cavalry officer, and as young Andrzej moved with his parents from camp to camp, he and his brother would playfully choreograph their own battles while all around them real troops carried out training maneuvers. The German Army invaded when he was 13. Two weeks later, the Russians joined in the dismemberment of Poland. The country was quickly overrun by Nazi and Communist forces carrying out the collusion of the pact. As it did for many Poles, history turned personal for Mr. Wajda. His father was one of thousands of Polish officers taken prisoner and killed by the Russians in the Katyn Forest in western Russia and other locations. Though most Poles came to understand who was responsible for what was known simply as Katyn, the official version of events under Communist rule insisted that the Polish officers had been killed by the Germans. Only in 1991 could Mr. Wajda, by then an elected senator in Poland, make a documentary called “The Katyn Forest” in homage to his father and those murdered with him. His 2007 dramatization of the same story, called simply “Katyn,” was an Oscar nominee for best film. A. O. Scott, in The New York Times, praised it as “a powerful corrective to decades of distortion and forgetting. ” After his father disappeared, young Andrzej lived through the war with his mother, a teacher, working at odd jobs in the countryside. He also had what he later called “a posting of no significance” with the Home Army, a resistance group sponsored by the Polish government in exile in London. He enrolled in the Fine Arts Academy in Krakow after the war but transferred to the newly opened Film School in Lodz. He began making films soon after graduating. His first, “A Generation,” finished in 1955, was shot in settings of rubble and ruin, in a Warsaw that had not yet recovered from the devastation of the war. It centered on the wartime experiences of a tough Warsaw adolescent who joins a resistance group headed by a young woman with whom he has fallen in love. Some aspects of the film reflect the Communist Party line of the time the young Communist fighters are depicted as purer, braver and more committed than the members of the Home Army. But with its nuanced characters, “A Generation” transcends propaganda. In 1956, in the wake of worker upheavals that preceded the Hungarian uprising against Soviet Communist domination, Mr. Wajda made “Kanal,” the second film of his war trilogy. It deals with another uprising: the 1944 struggle of the citizens of Warsaw to free themselves from Nazi occupation. “Kanal” tells the story of a corps of resistance fighters who are cut off from the main insurgent force and try to escape through the city’s sewers. It follows three groups of men and women as they wander in the cold, dark water, fearful of German booby traps and electrical wires. Some break down some die in the sewers others sustain hopes and illusions, only to be captured by the Germans. The last of the trilogy that established Mr. Wajda’s international reputation was “Ashes and Diamonds” (1958) a dramatization of a novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski, set on the day Germany surrendered in 1945. The Communists have taken over the wheels of government, and membership in the resistance is suddenly suspect. Maciek, a young former soldier of the Home Army, is instructed to assassinate a Communist official who is arriving to take control of a provincial town. The official is a compassionate man who has suffered greatly in concentration camps. When Maciek encounters him on the street, he shoots him dead. He slips away but panics when he sees police officers checking the papers of he starts to run and is killed. As dawn rises, marking the end of the first 24 hours of peace, Maciek’s body is sprawled on a rubbish heap. Mr. Wajda went on to direct more than 40 theatrical and television films, among them narrowly focused psychological portraits like “Innocent Sorcerers” (1960) and expansive adaptations of historical novels and stories by celebrated Polish writers, like Stefan Zeromski’s “The Ashes” (1965) and Stanislaw Wyspianski’s “The Wedding” (1973). His largely improvised “Everything for Sale” (1968) was a tribute to Zbigniew Cybulski, the charismatic star of “Ashes and Diamonds,” who was killed while trying to leap aboard a train in 1967. Mr. Wajda returned several times to films set against the backdrop of World War II and focused on the tragedy of Poland’s Jews with films like “Samson” (1961) “Landscape After the Battle” (1970) “Korczak” (1991) and “Holy Week” (1995). Most of these films were shown in the West, although it was not until the late 1970s that Mr. Wajda’s work again received the worldwide critical attention that had welcomed his earliest work. This phase started with “Man of Marble,” which he completed in 1976 but which was kept from audiences abroad until a political thaw in Warsaw emboldened bureaucrats to issue it an export license in 1978. In that film, a student filmmaker, memorably played by Krystyna Janda, is trying to find out what became of a bricklayer who in the Stalinist ’50s had won national fame for his enthusiastic productivity. After tracing the worker’s rise as a hero, she uncovers his decline at the hands of the same government that once extolled him. Mr. Wajda tells his story like a thriller: The truth emerges through the shifting Communist propaganda of two decades as depicted in interview after interview, newsreel after newsreel. When “Man of Marble” was released in Poland, some three million people saw it in less than three months, and arguments about its content broke out all over the country. The Poles knew that the Communist government had censored the crucial final scene of the film and refused to allow its presentation at the Cannes Film Festival as an official entry. But it was shown there anyway, and it won the International Federation of Film Critics prize. Reviewing the movie in The Times, Vincent Canby called it “a political epic, compassionate and as bitterly funny as a cartoon. ” As the disintegration of Communist rule accelerated in Poland, more quickly than in the other Soviet satellite states, Mr. Wajda played an active role as both an artist and a patriot. In 1981, when the Solidarity movement was mushrooming, Mr. Wajda released “Man of Iron,” his sequel to “Man of Marble. ” In this film, the Communist government sends a reporter to Gdansk, ostensibly to cover the strike by shipyard workers there but really to smear one of its leaders. The leader turns out to be the son of the bricklayer of “Man of Marble,” who is married to the young documentary filmmaker who uncovered the truth about his father. Soon the reporter gets caught up in the passion of the event he has been assigned to discredit. “Man of Iron” was made as Solidarity was gaining momentum. Real members of Solidarity, including the movement’s leader, Lech Walesa, appear in the film alongside fictional characters. A late entry at Cannes, it was awarded the Golden Palm. Mr. Wajda was allowed to insert the censored last scene of “Man of Marble” into “Man of Iron. ” “That was the best sign,” he later recalled, “that in the years between the two movies the Communists really started losing ground. ” He organized and ran the Solidarity filmmakers’ union and became an active member of the Committee to Help Workers, a major dissident organization. But the last Polish Communist government struck back and Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, its leader, banned Solidarity and declared martial law. As censorship intensified, Mr. Wajda encouraged the clandestine distribution of banned films by his younger colleagues through underground cassettes. The government moved against him, and for the next four years disapproved his film projects he was not able to work in his homeland again until 1985. Leaving Poland, he directed two films that drew critical praise. In “Danton,” made in France in 1982, he drew parallels to the political situation in Poland with his portrayal of the conflict between the moderate, democratic Danton (played by Gérard Depardieu) and the Robespierre (played by the Polish actor Wojciech Pszoniak) during the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. In “A Love in Germany” (1983) a he focused on a passionate and unconcealed love affair during World War II between a German woman (Hanna Schygulla) and a Polish prisoner of war working as a slave laborer (Piotr Lysak). After Communism finally collapsed in 1989, Mr. Wajda was one of the national luminaries asked to run for the Polish Senate by Mr. Walesa, who was about to become president. Mr. Wajda served a single term and then returned to films. But in a situation repeated in other former Eastern bloc countries, Hollywood blockbusters became more readily available on Polish screens, and the subsidies that had spawned and sustained a great national cinema dwindled. Many Polish directors who followed in Mr. Wajda’s footsteps and who had worked with him began making movies abroad. In contrast, Mr. Wajda stayed home. Though he continued to make the occasional film, he devoted much of his energy to theater he often staged works adapted from Russian literature at the Stary Theater in Krakow. Among his notable later works, in addition to “Katyn,” were “The Revenge” (2002) a period comedy with a cast that included Roman Polanski, and “Tatarak” (2009) the story of a woman obsessed with a much younger man. Mr. Wajda was married four times. Survivors include his wife, the actress and stage designer Krystyna Zachwatowicz, and a daughter, Karolina. One of Mr. Wajda’s last films was “Walesa: Man of Hope,” released in 2013 and considered by many to be the final part of a trilogy that began with “Man of Marble. ” Starring the Polish movie and television actor Robert Wieckiewicz — who spoke in an interview with The Times about the pressure of “playing a legend, directed by a legend” — it was the first Polish film to examine Lech Walesa and his work with Solidarity in depth. At a news conference announcing his plans to make “Walesa,” Mr. Wajda said that he viewed it as his greatest professional challenge to date. He quoted Mr. Walesa himself, when he ran for president of Poland, to describe his own feelings about making the film. “I don’t want to,” he said, “but I have to. ” | 1 |
LANSDOWNE, Va. — Like many Republican candidates, Representative Barbara Comstock is trying to prevent Donald J. Trump’s problems from becoming hers. Early on, she supported Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential bid. In ensuing months, she remained resolutely reticent on Mr. Trump, simply never uttering his name in trying to avoid any political undertow that he might create. But after the release last week of a recording in which Mr. Trump boasted in vulgar terms about assaulting women, Ms. Comstock was among the first Republicans to call on him to step down. “This is disgusting, vile and disqualifying,” she said in a statement. “No woman should ever be subjected to this type of obscene behavior, and it is unbecoming of anybody seeking high office. ” Ms. Comstock is hoping her disavowal will be enough. The outcome here in Loudoun County, which in recent years has been seen as a bellwether in presidential politics, will provide a measure of any damage that Mr. Trump’s contentious candidacy may have caused. Ms. Comstock’s wealthy, highly educated district in the suburbs of Washington is a hub of government largess, where federal contractors commute past Buddhist temples, mosques and churches that offer services in Korean. “If the Democrats have any prayer of taking the House, and I think it’s just a long shot, they’ve got to win this seat,” said Thomas M. Davis III, a former Republican congressman who represented portions of Ms. Comstock’s district. So far, many analysts say, there is scant evidence that voters will penalize candidates because of Mr. Trump. “Believe it or not, it hasn’t changed matters all that much,” said David Wasserman, the House of Representatives editor for The Cook Political Report. He has forecast that Democrats could pick up as many as 20 seats, 10 short of the number needed to regain control of the House. Polls have shown that voters are willing to separate their support for certain House and Senate candidates from their feelings about the top of the ticket. In an effort to bolster Ms. Comstock and other vulnerable Republicans, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a “super PAC” aligned with Republicans, announced Friday that it would invest an additional $10 million into 15 targeted races, including hers. Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin also has tried to ensure his party holds its House majority, offering a policy agenda and promising appearances in dozens of cities to lend his power. His campaign said on Thursday that Mr. Ryan had raised $15. 4 million in the third quarter, collecting more than $48. 2 million in 2016. He has transferred more than $31 million of that to the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. Mr. Ryan — having disinvited Mr. Trump from their first planned joint appearance in Wisconsin last weekend after news of the recording broke — effectively cut his members free on Monday, saying he would not defend nor campaign with Mr. Trump. He has instead shifted his focus to the argument that Republicans need to be to serve as a bulwark against a potential President Hillary Clinton. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, has proved once more to be a powerhouse, raising $34. 6 million for House Democrats in the third quarter and $127. 7 million this election cycle, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said on Wednesday. Initial reactions to the 2005 recording of Mr. Trump have also given Democrats cause for optimism. A Wall Street News poll, conducted shortly after the recording was released by The Washington Post, showed 49 percent of voters preferred Democrats take control of Congress, compared with 42 percent who preferred Republicans — the largest advantage for Democrats since the government shutdown in 2013. But Democrats have a steep climb. With 247 seats, House Republicans hold their largest majority since 1931. Nathan L. Gonzales, the editor of the Rothenberg Gonzales Political Report, estimates that Republicans have already locked up 217 seats — and they only need 218 to keep their majority. But Republican strategists are haunted by the prospect that voters who would typically support Republicans might become so disillusioned that they choose to stay home. “This is a highly polarized environment,” Mr. Wasserman said. “And I think the only reason for Democrats to overperform on Election Day is that Republicans are so depressed that they don’t show up. ” At this point, that does not look very likely, he said. While more educated, conservative voters who may have been more likely to split their ticket are looking less enthusiastic, Mr. Trump’s base remains energized, he said. In the suburbs of Minneapolis, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has run ads trying to tie Representative Erik Paulsen, a Republican, to Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump is unpopular there, but the contest had been trending in favor of Mr. Paulsen — who last week joined Ms. Comstock in announcing he would not vote for him. Similarly, in northeastern Iowa, Democrats have been struggling to oust Representative Rod Blum, a Republican who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. Mr. Blum’s district voted for Mr. Obama twice, but the pickup, originally thought to be likely, has been bedeviling Democrats. Mr. Blum has denounced Mr. Trump’s remarks but did not comment on whether he would continue to support him, according to The Des Moines Register. Districts that had been seeing a Trump effect appear to be the ones with higher concentrations of Latinos and Asians, Mr. Wasserman said. Also, white women — a group that may be especially motivated by animus toward Mr. Trump — are also showing strikingly strong support for Mrs. Clinton this year, said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. Though Ms. Comstock’s district trends slightly Republican, voters twice supported Mr. Obama. Mr. Trump is not popular here. Mr. Davis, who represented the area for seven terms, said most voter aversion to Mr. Trump stemmed from his propensity for insults. “This is a pretty dignified, educated group, and they’re just not into insulting people and all that,” he said. “Not particularly liberal, but dignified. ” Just one day before disavowing Mr. Trump, during a debate hosted by the local chamber of commerce here, Ms. Comstock cited a collaboration with Senator Tim Kaine, a fellow Virginian and the Democratic nominee. She twice invoked Bill Clinton, the president whose administration she built a reputation investigating in the 1990s as a House chief counsel. She steered clear of saying Mr. Trump’s name, saying she was “still watching” the race to decide who would get her vote. LuAnn Bennett, a real estate developer who is challenging Ms. Comstock, on Wednesday slammed her for waiting so long to reject Mr. Trump. “I’m afraid that what my opponent was clearly ‘watching’ for was how best to preserve her own political career,” she said. | 1 |
Citing “freedom of speech” and the possibility that expelled migrants risk “persecution” if sent back to their homelands, Sweden’s Justice Minister rejected Erik Nord’s call to deport Islamic migrants and demanded the police chief “explain himself”. [“Not because it would have prevented Friday’s attack but surely we should be able to withdraw Swedish residency rights from people who support violent extremism,” wrote the Greater Gothenburg police chief on Sunday, two days after an alleged terror attack in Stockholm in which four people died and many were injured. But government minister Morgan Johansson slapped down Nord’s “problematic” suggestion, for which he said the police chief needs to “explain himself”. “We have freedom of speech in Sweden. This means people have the right to hold repulsive opinions here,” said Johansson. “But there are always limits … For example when it comes to hate speech,” he added. Asserting that migrants with residence permits are in Sweden because they are in need of protection, the Social Democratic party politician warned that “there is a risk [migrants who support violent extremism] could face persecution if they were sent back”. Nord told the Gothenburg Post on Sunday: “We should be able to tell who are going around proposing the nation become a totalitarian state, be it political or religious, that they have to go back home where they belong. ” Noting how currently Sweden can only deport individuals found guilty of committing or funding acts of terror, the police chief argued that it should also be possible for the nation to expel people who say they support groups which back violent extremism. “Sure there are going to be people who say ISIS is great and that religious extremism is fantastic. But then I don’t think these people should be allowed to stay in Sweden where they are bankrolled and have their lifestyles paid for by the government. ” “Islam itself is not extreme, but there are forms of Islamism and jihad which are causing problems,” he continued. “At this point in time, we know that there are many people going around and giving lectures in support of this sort of extremism. “I just don’t think it’s fair,” Nord added, telling the newspaper that police receive intelligence about Islamist preachers “all the time”. “It’s disgusting that we allow bad people to canvass here, waving ISIS flags,” said Nord. “It’s an insult to those who have fled from Islamic State. ” “I realise that the things I’m saying here could be read as political statements. But we’re living in a new reality now in which, sometimes, it’s important that we be allowed to talk about things we observe,” he told Expressen. | 0 |
President Donald Trump reversed himself Wednesday on the leadership of the Federal Reserve and the fate of the U. S. Bank. [In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said that was open to the possibility of renominating Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen once her current term of office expires next year. During the campaign he was critical of Yellen, describing her as “political” for keeping rates low, and said that he “most likely” would replace her as Fed chief. “I like her, I respect her,” Trump said. He added that “it’s very early. ” When asked if Yellen was “toast,” the president said, “No. Not toast. ” This has caught many on Wall Street and Capitol Hill by surprise, overturning the near universal expectation that Trump would pick a new head for the central bank. The possibility that Trump may support the status quo at the Fed has some supporters scratching their heads. On Wall Street, this is widely viewed as the result of the influence of Gary Cohn and other financiers on the president. “I think we’re seeing the influence of guys like Gary Cohn, Steven Mnuchin and Steve Schwarzman. They probably explained that markets want him to show he’s about the Fed and favors a dovish stance,” said one investment banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Dovish” is Wall Street lingo for leaning toward keeping interest rates lower. “I do like a rate policy, I must be honest with you,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in response to questions about Yellen. Cohn is Trump’s chief economic adviser and holds the position of director of the National Economic Council. A lifelong Democrat, Cohn was the number 2 man in charge of Goldman Sachs until he left to join the Trump administration. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is also a Goldman alum and has close ties to Wall Street. Schwarzman is a friend of Trump’s and the of the Blackstone Group, a Wall Street private equity firm. He reportedly speaks to Trump by phone several times a week and was recently seated beside Trump at a White House gathering of corporate chiefs. Trump also said he no longer opposes the bank, which he accused of “ ” and called unnecessary during the campaign. “It turns out that, first of all, lots of small companies are really helped, the vendor companies,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. Around 40 percent of money is used to subsidize exports from Boeing. Less than 20 percent goes directly to small businesses. The language Trump used, referring to small businesses as ‘vendors’ indicates the influence of big businesses that benefit from subsidies. They have long argued that they pass along subsidies to smaller businesses that manufacture parts for their exports, a theory of subsidies. “ doesn’t help the economy. It doesn’t drain the swamp,” writes critic Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner. Jeff Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric, applauded Trump’s change of heart on . By supporting the Export Import Bank @POTUS is showing great leadership and focusing on creating jobs for American manufacturers. — Jeff Immelt (@JeffImmelt) April 13, 2017, Disclosure: Tim Carney is my brother. | 0 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The ferocious ground assault and aerial bombardment in eastern Aleppo has forced some 16, 000 people to flee for their lives in the last few days, according to Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. “The parties to the conflict have shown time and again they are willing to take any action to secure military advantage even if it means killing, maiming or starving civilians into submission in the process,” Mr. O’Brien warned on Tuesday, calling the siege of the city a “deeply alarming and chilling situation. ” On Monday, forces loyal to President Bashar captured about a third of the territory in Aleppo that had been held by rebels. Planes have dropped leaflets over the areas in the eastern part of city. “If you don’t leave these areas quickly you will be annihilated,” the leaflets warn. “Save yourselves. You know that everyone has left you alone to face your doom and have offered you no help. ” Hisham a member of a council of rebels and civilians in eastern Aleppo, said by telephone on Tuesday that warplanes had hovered closely over the area, steadily dropping barrel bombs, as a delegation of civic activists explored the idea of using safe routes to leave the city, though many were not confident they could escape with their lives. “For the civilians, they have the choice whether they want to leave or stay, but for those of us who don’t trust the regime, we have no choice,” he said through tears, adding that he did not want to leave his home. “I can’t turn my back on my city. ” Rami Jarrah, a Syrian activist and citizen journalist who is based in Turkey but regularly travels to Aleppo, said via Facebook that he did not believe that there was such a thing as safe passage. Five years into the civil war, he said, many of those remaining in eastern Aleppo are on the Assad government’s “black list,” having participated in protests or openly defied it. “All have lost loved ones or have family members who are fighting to protect the city,” he said. “The Syrian regime does not tolerate any form of opposition to its narrative, and this means that leaving eastern Aleppo through ‘safe’ passageways that have been set up by Assad’s forces is not an option for the vast majority of the population. ” He added: “Syrians would prefer to live under chaotic bombardment than be apprehended by the Syrian regime and tortured to death. Five years of people staying put even when leaving was the easiest option is sheer proof of this. ” Around 10, 000 civilians have escaped from the city’s east into western Aleppo, Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations emergency relief coordination office, told reporters in Geneva. An additional 4, 000 to 6, 000 have managed to flee to the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood on the northern edge of the city, he said. Russian and Syrian television channels showed people who had crossed into government territory cheering and thanking the government and complaining of bad treatment by rebels inside. In the neighborhood of Bustan where bombs rained down, Dr. Salem Abdulnasser said the medical center where he worked had notified the staff that it would close on Thursday because it was too dangerous to keep operating. Russia said it would be sending mobile hospitals to Aleppo to assist in the crisis. Russian officials also said that 80, 000 people lived in the districts retaken by the Syrian government and that they were receiving humanitarian aid but there was no footage immediately available of such operations inside the areas until Monday held by rebels. Bassem Ayoub, an activist in eastern Aleppo, said that even those sympathetic to the rebels were on the brink of despair. “I’m ready to agree to the regime’s terms — whatever they are — for the sake of stopping the killing,” he said. “People are dying by the hundreds. Everybody is ready to leave. Stop the killing. ” The United Nations appealed repeatedly for access to deliver food and medical aid to eastern Aleppo and to evacuate the wounded. Jan Egeland, the United Nations special adviser on humanitarian affairs, said last week that Russian officials had agreed verbally, and armed opposition groups in writing, to a plan submitted this month, but the agency’s plan had not received backing from Damascus and no further action had followed. United Nations officials also said that indiscriminate shelling of western Aleppo had continued killing and injuring civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, and had forced about 20, 000 people from their homes. The World Food Program said it was able to supply bread and other rations to community kitchens in western Aleppo, but residents in the eastern parts of the city have had no food distribution for two weeks. “It’s really dire,” said Bettina Luescher, a spokeswoman for the agency, citing accounts of residents sifting through garbage for something to eat. ”It’s a descent into hell,” she said. At the same time, about 700, 000 people are trapped in besieged areas in other parts of the country, Mr. O’Brien said. As in eastern Aleppo, “people in these besieged areas are trapped, terrified and running out of time,” he said. | 1 |
A New York toy maker is set to debut what it says is the first transgender doll available on the market. [Tonner Doll Company says it will debut a doll based on transgender teen Jazz Jennings from the TLC reality series I Am Jazz at the New York Toy Fair, CBS Los Angeles reported. The company has made dolls based on a variety of characters from books and television shows, including Spiderman, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and Wonder Woman. The toy will have a genderless plastic mold typical of most dolls, is being tested for children eight years and older, and is expected to sell for $89. 99, ABC News reported. “Jazz stands for everything I respect from a human nature point of view — she’s incredibly brave, intelligent, and creative,” said company founder Robert Tonner, who called the doll “groundbreaking. ” Jennings appeared on a Barbara Walters special at age 6. The teen, whose biological sex is male, has identified as a female from a very young age. Jennings is the youngest honoree in The Advocate Magazine’s “Top Forty Under 40” annual list and was named as one of Time magazine’s Most Influential Teens for 2014 and 2015. In 2014, Jennings a children’s picture book called I Am Jazz and also wrote a memoir called, “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen. ” | 0 |
There can’t be many “Jeopardy!” champions easier to root for than Cindy Stowell. Ms. Stowell has won six times in a row on taped episodes of the quiz show that began broadcasting last week. Ms. Stowell has developed a fan base like few other contestants. But she is unable to enjoy her performance on TV, or the outpouring of love from “Jeopardy!” watchers. That’s because she died on Dec. 5, just over a week before her episodes began showing. She was 41. When the science content developer from Austin, Tex. began recording her episodes on Aug. 31, she had Stage 4 colon cancer, a fact known by only a few of the show’s staff members and the host, Alex Trebek. Her competitors were unaware. The show has not announced how long Ms. Stowell’s streak of victories will continue. A “Jeopardy!” champion continues playing until unseated by a contestant. On Tuesday, she won again, bringing her total prize money to $103, 803. Her boyfriend, Jason Hess, and her relatives Greg Stowell and Carole Stowell said in a statement, “Cindy came on ‘Jeopardy!’ to play the game she loved, and in doing so, she was able to make a contribution to cancer research in the hopes that no one else would have to go through what she did. ” The money will go to the Cancer Research Institute, according to KXAN, a TV station in Austin. “She knew she wasn’t going to be around, and so she felt like the best thing she could do was try to help do what she could to help get us to a cure faster,” Mr. Hess told the station. After passing an online contestant test early this year, Ms. Stowell was invited to an audition in Oklahoma City. At that point, she reached out to a producer. “Do you have any idea how long it typically takes between an interview and the taping date? I ask because I just found out that I don’t have too much longer to live,” she wrote, according to the show’s website. “The doctor’s best guess is about six months,” she continued. “If there is the chance that I’d be able to still tape episodes of ‘Jeopardy!’ if I were selected, I’d like to do that and donate any winnings to … charities involved in cancer research. If it is unlikely that the turnaround time would be that quick, then I’d like to give up my tryout spot to someone else. ” A producer told her to go to Oklahoma City for the interview, and if she qualified she would be booked three weeks later, the fastest turnaround possible. She competed on painkillers while fighting a blood infection, according to Mr. Hess. “Competing on ‘Jeopardy!’ was a lifelong dream for Cindy, and we’re glad she was able to do so,” Mr. Trebek said in a statement. In her first performance, she won $22, 801, defeating an editor from Vermilion, Ohio, who had won $107, 499 over seven days. She won $8, 199 in her second episode, and on Thursday she came from behind, adding $8, 600 to her total. While it’s not unusual for the show to establish back stories for the contestants, the viewers’ knowledge of Ms. Stowell’s condition “is to share a sad secret with her,” Seth Rosenthal wrote at SB Nation. “I sit in awe of a brilliant woman earning every last dollar she can for the causes dearest to her building a sum of infinite potential in the face of her own finality,” he said. “I have never rooted harder for anyone to win anything. ” | 0 |
Russia Delivers Another 400 Tons of Humanitarian Aid to Donbass
As you can see, Moscow is continuing its 'invasion' of Ukraine Originally appeared at Sputnik
Russian Emergencies Ministry’s trucks have delivered some 400 tons of humanitarian aid to eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk, ministry’s press service said Thursday.
“Over 40 trucks have arrived in Donetsk and Luhansk, carrying over 400 tons of humanitarian aid, mostly food and medicine,” the press service said.
Since 2014, when the internal Ukrainian conflict erupted, Russia delivered over 64,000 tons of humanitarian aid to local residents, helping to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. | 0 |
U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are fighting back against false reports of checkpoints and sweeps during the ongoing operation targeting criminal (ICE) aliens. [“Reports of ICE checkpoints and sweeps are false, dangerous and irresponsible,” ICE officials wrote in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “These reports create mass panic and put communities and law enforcement personnel in unnecessary danger. Any groups falsely reporting such activities are doing a disservice to those they claim to support. ” Media outlets have been reporting statements by community activists that appear to be aimed at instilling fear and false information about the ICE’s Operation Crosscheck, a program targeting criminal aliens and those with immigration court removal orders. “Our community has seen an increase of ICE activity where we have heard ICE agents are going to people’s homes and detaining people,” Cristina Jimenez, executive director of United We Dream, said, according to NBCNews. While not speaking directly to the operation, ICE officials stated, “ICE regularly conducts targeted enforcement operations during which additional resources and personnel are dedicated to apprehending deportable foreign nationals. All enforcement activities are conducted with the same level of professionalism and respect that ICE officers exhibit every day. ” “The focus of these operations is no different than the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams on a daily basis,” the ICE statement concluded. News reports indicate ICE agents have arrested hundreds of criminal aliens over the past few days under this operation. Breitbart Texas reported from Austin, Texas, that 44 criminal aliens had been taken into custody this week. A Texas Congressman, Joaquin Castro ( ) confirmed the arrests were part of Operation Cross Check but questioned the threat posed by those being arrested. “I am asking ICE to clarify whether these individuals are in fact dangerous, violent threats to our communities, and not people who are here peacefully raising families and contributing to our state,” Castro said in a written statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “I will continue to monitor this situation. ” Austin City Councilman Greg Casar added to the fear and false information about the operation by claiming the enforcement action was retaliation for standing up against President Donald Trump’s immigration plans. “I believe ICE is out in public arresting people in order to retaliate against our community for standing up for our values against people like Abbott and Trump,” Councilman Casar posted on Facebook. “Trump and his allies will do everything they can to divide Americans, invoke fear in vulnerable neighborhoods, and demonize an entire community of people. ” Breitbart California’s Michelle Moons reported ICE officials had arrested 160 illegal aliens over the past several days. Department of Homeland Security Spokesperson Gillian Christensen confirmed the arrests as part of a “routine” immigration enforcement action. President pro Tempore of the California State Senate Kevin de Leon also challenged the motivation of the operation and those being targeted for arrest. “There are reports that ICE today executed raids across Southern California,” de Leon said via a written statement obtained by Breitbart California. “I have asked federal officials to disclose how many children, men, and women they have detained what the processing time will be what the rationale is for their detention and I asked that everyone be offered access to an attorney. ” These types of rhetoric comes despite statements from ICE and DHS that the operation is part of a routinely recurring operation targeting criminal aliens. “Our operations are targeted and lead driven, prioritizing individuals who pose a risk to our communities,” ICE Spokesperson Virginia Kice told the Los Angeles Times. “Examples would include known street gang members, child sex offenders, and deportable foreign nationals with significant drug trafficking convictions. ” The operation is in several states. In addition to California and Texas, ICE officials have arrested about 200 people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, FOX 8 News reported. “These reports show the serious consequences of the president’s executive order, which allows all undocumented immigrants to be categorized as criminals and requires increased enforcement in communities, rather than prioritizing dangerous criminals,” California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a statement without supporting her claims. The statement was also reported by Fox 8 News. Democrat leaders like Feinstein and Castro do not appear to have made similar protestations following this same ICE operation in March 2015. During the operation carried out under the Obama Administration, more than 2, 000 criminal aliens were rounded up for deportation in the Operation Cross Check. “This nationwide operation led to the apprehension of more than 2, 000 convicted criminal aliens who pose the greatest risk to our public safety,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a press release obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Today, communities around the country are safer because of the great work of the men and women of U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ” A full report on the 2017 Operation Cross Check, planned and scheduled during the Obama Administration, is expected to be released by ICE officials on Monday. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX. | 1 |
This article is dedicated to one of our readers, AArizonian…keep your powder dry, Brother! – JJ
ReadyNutrition Readers, the title to this piece answers a question posed by the individual that you prevented from reaching the White House, none other than Hillary Rodham Clinton. When asked by Congress whether or not it was actually an anti-Islamic film that prompted the destruction of the American Embassy in Libya, she responded with “What difference does it make?”
It made all the difference in the world. Her “indifferent” masquerade was a façade to cover her wrongdoing: the allowed destruction of an American embassy, and the death of the American Ambassador to Libya and three of his staff. Undoubtedly many of you who took to the polls remembered these events. It made a difference to you, and guess what?
Then you made all of the difference. I stress (as I did with a piece I recently wrote for SHTFplan.com) that the battle was won: Hillary Clinton was prevented from taking the presidency. The war is far from over to restoring our nation to a Constitutional Republic where the governors derive their just powers from the consent of the governed…that’s you and I…and making things completely right. Nevertheless, we took the first step the other night.
You made all of the difference. You, stalwart patriots and preppers from all walks of life. Think of the greatness of the moment, and the moment is yours. You earned it and you’re still here, still strong, with more hope than you had the day before. Continue the fight and the work. Obama has more than enough time to bring the country down through any sort of false flag or a war (provoked from our direction). For this reason, you must continue to study, to keep informed, to keep preparing for times of trouble.
Even after the Revolutionary War, the country (and our countrymen) did not relax. That musket with the powder and lead balls was required to be in every home, that “Brown Bess” hanging over the fireplace. At any given moment we may be called upon to take the same stand that they took. We are called upon to maintain the posture they held with vigilance: to be ready at all times, to defend the home and our country.
You voted and did that the other night…took the stand against the tyranny that almost overtook us. Keep in mind how close it came. Clinton won the popular vote and the electoral vote was far from a landslide. We still face another almost three months with Obama in office. So what’s the point of this piece? The point is to recognize you, our readers, and to tell you that you made a difference last night…just as you make a difference here, to us at ReadyNutrition.
At any time can come an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack, from a foreign country either provoked or allowed…or one carried out by Obama prior to his exit from office. At any time can come a natural disaster or a war. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security. Stay vigilant as our forefathers did. We are on the tail end of 8 years of absolute agony, of destruction to our country. Strong as it was, 8 years was not enough to take it down.
I receive letters from many of you from all across the country. People from near where I live, now, in Montana. People from Ohio in the Mahoning Valley, from the Great Plains of Nebraska, from the Yukon in Alaska, and the Florida Panhandle. I receive letters from Seattle, from Dallas, from New York City, and from Baltimore, where I was born and still call home.
All of these letters have one thing in common: they were written by men and women such as yourselves…men and women “who will not go gently into that good night…who will not give up without a fight.” More than just preppers: survivors, patriots, and Americans. The point to this letter is to salute all of you, our readers, and thank you for being part of the ReadyNutrition family. Thank you for your diligence and efforts as you plan, prepare, and pray. Especially that last part of it.
Because we have to hold the mindset of our forefathers and take an active part to preserve ourselves, our families, and our nation. I salute you, my fellow countrymen! I thank you for your letters and readership, and I thank you for voting…casting a vote to give us…our country…another chance. Stay vigilant and determined, and take care of one another. These poor words of encouragement, I pray, will be with you that you may know how important you are to Miss Tess and I and all of us here at ReadyNutrition.
For [to paraphrase Frost]: Two paths diverged upon a great nation…between tyranny and freedom…and you, the nation took the path of freedom….and that made all the difference.
Because you are the difference, and I thank you. May God bless you and your families in all that you do.
Sincerely,
JJ
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson was a Special Forces Medic, EMT and ACLS-certified, with comprehensive training in wilderness survival, rescue, and patient-extraction. He is a Certified Master Herbalist and a graduate of the Global College of Natural Medicine of Santa Ana, CA. A graduate of the U.S. Army’s survival course of SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape), Mr. Johnson also successfully completed the Montana Master Food Preserver Course for home-canning, smoking, and dehydrating foods.
Mr. Johnson dries and tinctures a wide variety of medicinal herbs taken by wild crafting and cultivation, in addition to preserving and canning his own food. An expert in land navigation, survival, mountaineering, and parachuting as trained by the United States Army, Mr. Johnson is an ardent advocate for preparedness, self-sufficiency, and long-term disaster sustainability for families. He and his wife survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Cross-trained as a Special Forces Engineer, he is an expert in supply, logistics, transport, and long-term storage of perishable materials, having incorporated many of these techniques plus some unique innovations in his own homestead.
Mr. Johnson brings practical, tested experience firmly rooted in formal education to his writings and to our team. He and his wife live in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with their three cats.
This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition
Originally published November 9th, 2016 How To Survive Occupied America How Martial Law Will Lead to the Creation of the… Have a Very Merry Revolutionary War-Remembering Christmas! Emergency Survival Food Sales Soar as We Get Closer to… Why Some People Will Always Bow to Tyrants | 1 |
After years of rapid internal growth, the world’s biggest hedge fund appears to be slowing down. The $154 billion hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, run by the billionaire Ray Dalio, is known for hiring hundreds of people every year. Yet it is now telling recruitment firms to cancel interviews with prospective employees, according to three people briefed on the matter. In recent weeks, dozens of interviews were canceled and advanced negotiations with prospective employees were cut short by the firm, those people said. And some of the firm’s external recruiters have been told Bridgewater will not use them for the time being, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Bridgewater emphasizes secrecy in its communication with investors and the external recruiting firms, and the people requested anonymity because they did not want their relationship with the firm to be affected. It was unclear whether the suspension of recruiting in some areas was temporary or a reflection of a new push to gradually shrink the size of the firm. At the moment, there does not appear to be any talk of layoffs. The firm employs 1, 500 people, most of them at its sprawling headquarters in Westport, Conn. Still, the signs of a pullback in recruiting at Bridgewater are emerging at a time when a number of hedge funds, struggling with poor performance and unhappy investors, are starting to cut back. For example, William A. Ackman’s $12 billion Pershing Square Capital Management, whose main fund is down 19. 1 percent this year, recently fired a dozen employees. The average hedge fund is up 1. 6 percent this year through the end of June, according to the Hedge Fund Research Composite Index, the broadest gauge of hedge fund performance. By contrast, the Standard Poor’s index is up 5. 76 percent. Bridgewater is not immune to the industry’s pressures. It has had uneven performance in its two main portfolio funds, and at least one prominent investor has pulled out a significant sum of money over the last year. The firm’s flagship Pure Alpha fund, which makes broad bets on global economic trends, is down 8. 8 percent, while its All Weather fund, which the firm contends will “perform well across all environments,” is up 10. 4 percent. But last year, those performances were reversed: The All Weather fund lost investors 6. 9 percent, while Pure Alpha gained 4. 7 percent. Over the last two years, the University of California’s Board of Regents, the endowment for the state university system in California, has withdrawn the $550 million it had invested with Bridgewater. Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the chief investment officer for the University of California regents, said in an interview that Bridgewater made money for the endowment, but that a decision was made to focus on investment strategies that would do best. He also said there were some concerns about the future direction of Bridgewater’s leadership. It has been a tumultuous year for the firm. Bridgewater publicly prides itself on what it calls “radical transparency” in its dealing with employees, but is very private about discussing its operations. The firm is in the process of reorganizing its core management committee that reports directly to Mr. Dalio, who founded Bridgewater in 1975. This year, Greg Jensen, a investment officer who was seen as the heir apparent, was removed from his role as executive after reports of a schism between him and Mr. Dalio. Bridgewater hired Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple executive who had worked closely with Steven P. Jobs, to replace Mr. Jensen. Bridgewater has publicly denied there were any internal rifts. The firm is known for its unusual culture, where employees are encouraged to question and sometimes admonish one another. Mr. Dalio encourages all employees to read “Principles,” a little white book that each is given and that includes 210 motivational tips like, “Don’t worry about looking good — worry about achieving your goals. ” Publicly, the firm attributed the management to the need to “strike the right balance” for Mr. Jensen, who Bridgewater said was balancing too much as both executive and investment officer. Mr. Dalio, who is 66, has created a core committee of managers that share top executive positions as part of a transition plan for when he retires. The firm has communicated to investors that the arrangement is part of a “planful transition from a boutique to a professionally managed institution. ” Nevertheless, it has worried some investors. “The management transition, in my view, it just didn’t feel smooth,” Mr. Bachher, of the University of California regents, said. Despite the management transition and the apparent slowdown in hiring, Bridgewater continues to plan to expand its headquarters. Connecticut has given Bridgewater $22 million in financial aid in an effort to keep the firm from moving its headquarters out of the state. The money is expected to go toward the expansion of Bridgewater’s complex in Westport as well as its facilities in Wilton and Norwalk, according to the State Bond Commission. Bridgewater recently received tentative approval from Westport town officials for its expansion plan, according to public documents filed in Westport’s town hall. The plans would include the construction of an underground parking garage and another building at the Bridgewater campus at 1 Glendinning Place, the firm’s headquarters tucked away in the woods and surrounded by streams. Its main entrance is accessible by a nondescript road. | 1 |
A march has taken place in Sunderland to protest alleged police inaction after a young mother reported being drugged, raped, and assaulted by a group of migrant men. [The mainstream press initially reported the arrest and bail of six men from Iraq, Syria, and Bahrain after local woman Chelsey Wright, 26, reported a “serious assault”. However, it is alleged the men all escaped charges and local police failed to investigate the incident properly. Absolutely amazing support for Chelsey. Watching a town come together to bring justice. Amazing!! #justiceforchelsey #Sunderland pic. twitter. — Jade (@Jadeeeyyy) May 13, 2017, In an interview with The Rebel Media’s Tommy Robinson, Ms. Wright describes waking up in a locked room with a strange man of Turkish appearance who laughed at her and banged her head against the wall when she tried to escape. Ms. Wright says she managed to get out of the room when the first man unlocked the door to let another man in, but was kicked down the stairs when she attempted to flee. She says a number of men attempted to restrain her as she made for the front door, dragging her back into the house by her hair in the presence of a witness when she got outside. @AMDWaters and Chelsea at todays #JusticeforChelsea ralley in Sunderland! pic. twitter. — Lucy Brown (@LUCY____BROWN) May 13, 2017, She was able to escape the house a second time and reach safety, and was examined at a sexual assault clinic the same day. She claims forensics yielded two semen samples, only one of which could be properly tested, as well as traces of the date rape drug Rohypnol in her blood. Chief Inspector Paul Milner described Ms Wright as having woken up “in a strange address in Peel Street with cuts and bruises” near the time of the incident. She describes “horrible” bruises around her groin, “whip marks” across the back of her legs, and her arms being “black” where she had been grabbed by the men, as well as handprints on her neck and a footprint on her back. #justiceforchelsey pic. twitter. — Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) April 29, 2017, Robinson appeared to corroborate part of Ms. Wright’s story speaking to a witness over the phone. The witness said she had heard screaming before looking out the window and seeing the young woman being dragged back into the house by the accused migrants, before running out again and falling down in the street, barefoot. With facing charges for the alleged attack, the Justice for Chelsey group claims the police failed to take statements from witnesses or to secure key evidence such as items of clothing lost at the house. I met Chelsey today. She’s beyond brave, she’s standing for every girl and woman raped or abused by these monsters. #JUSTICEFORCHELSEY, — Anne Marie Waters (@AMDWaters) May 13, 2017, Ms. Wright and Robinson are reported to have a petition addressed to Police and Crime Commissioner Dame Vera Baird and signed by some 50, 000 people to Sunderland Police at the end of the march. Just heard @TRobinsonNewEra Chelsey Wright personally delivered the petition to Sunderland police. https: . pic. twitter. — Ezra Levant (@ezralevant) May 13, 2017, Robinson is best known as the founder and former leader of the controversial English Defence League street protest organisation — although he left the group in 2013, citing concerns that it had been infiltrated by extremists. Another Justice for Chelsey demonstration will be held on June 10th 2017, according to his Twitter account. | 0 |
In the waning days of his presidency, Barack Obama is waging a final battle — not over legislation or a Supreme Court seat, but over how he will be remembered. In the latest episode of The we explore what, exactly, the Obama legacy will be. The president is aggressively telling his version, through a major speech broadcast on TV, interviews and a forthcoming book. But Donald J. Trump is telling a very different version, through tweets, speeches and news conferences. Who’s will win out? I speak with David Leonhardt, an columnist at The New York Times who chronicled the Obama administration from the start, and Jodi Kantor, a reporter whose book, “The Obamas,” was just reissued with a new preface. Our conversation explores Mr. Obama’s impact on race, health care, economic inequality and America’s place in the world. And we seek to answer a question historians may puzzle over for decades: Just how consequential was this presidency compared with past White Houses? I speak as well to former Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts about whether Mr. Obama’s relationship with Republican lawmakers had to be so adversarial, polarizing and partisan. Who was to blame? Could Mr. Obama have done more to get things done using executive orders? Mr. Frank is blunt. “Absolutely not,” he says. “You had a Republican majority in both houses that (A) was determined to undercut him politically and (B) did not care if the government was dysfunctional because they don’t like government anyway. And to the extent, by the way, that a failure for the government to perform discredited government, that was a further benefit as far as they’re concerned. ” From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. On your iPhone or iPad: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “The ” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for the name of the series and select it from the list of results. You may have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. | 0 |
BANGKOK — An outspoken member of Malaysia’s Parliament was sentenced on Monday to 18 months in prison for publicly disclosing classified information from an official audit into a government investment fund. A lower court ruled that the lawmaker, Rafizi Ramli, was guilty of violating the Official Secrets Act by possessing and publicizing information from the document. Mr. Rafizi, who has served in Parliament since 2013, could also lose his seat and be barred from running for office for five years. Rights advocates said the prosecution and conviction of a sitting member of Parliament for speaking publicly was unprecedented and was aimed at silencing one of the government’s most vocal critics. “The 18 months’ imprisonment sentence can only be described as harsh and excessive, all the more so as Rafizi was merely performing his role as an elected representative,” Lawyers for Liberty, a Malaysian human rights organization, said in a statement. “The conviction and sentence will create a dangerous chill on free speech and result in a more repressive, opaque and unaccountable government. ” Mr. Rafizi, a member of the People’s Justice Party, has been a leading critic of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is accused of receiving $1 billion from 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, a government investment fund that Mr. Najib established and oversaw. Mr. Najib has said that he never received any money from the fund or took anything for personal gain. The United States Justice Department says that more than $3 billion is missing from the fund and that at least $731 million of it was deposited into the personal bank account of the prime minister, identified as “Malaysian Official 1. ” The Justice Department filed suit in federal court in California in July to recover more than $1 billion in assets that it said were acquired by Mr. Najib’s stepson and close associates in the United States with money stolen from the fund, including real estate and expensive artwork. The prime minister has held on to power by firing critics within his own party, blocking investigations and suppressing dissent. No one in Malaysia has been prosecuted over the missing money. The government conducted an audit of the investment fund, which it then classified as secret under the Official Secrets Act. Mr. Rafizi’s conviction was based on comments he made at a news conference in March in which he discussed a page of the audit that dealt with the fund’s failure to make payments. Around the time of his sentencing, Mr. Rafizi posted on Twitter: “I am not shocked, sad, angry, afraid or anything. No such feelings. Just another day. Been like this. What doesn’t kill u makes u stronger. ” He did not respond to requests for comment, but associates said they expected him to appeal. Cynthia Gabriel, director of the Center to Combat Corruption Cronyism, based in Malaysia, questioned the purpose of having an audit if the findings were to be kept secret. “The Official Secrets Act is being used to hide corruption,” she said. “We need freedom of information laws to help the public monitor and bring to account powerful politicians and businesses. ” The prime minister’s office defended the prosecution of Mr. Rafizi by saying that he broke the law to make a political point and wanted to become a “political martyr. ” “He tried a cheap stunt for personal political gain, but he knowingly committed a serious crime in doing so,” said Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a minister in the office. “It is right that he pays the price — and he has only himself to blame. ” Opponents of the prime minister plan to hold a rally on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur, the capital. A similar event last year drew as many as 100, 000 people, most wearing yellow with the slogan, “Bersih,” or “clean” in Malay, despite a government ban on the garments. A court later upheld the prohibition on the grounds that the shirts posed a threat to national security. Maria Chin Abdullah, a leader of the Bersih movement, said the Official Secrets Act gives the prime minister extraordinary power to suppress potentially damaging information. “The act vests vast powers in the hands of the executive to conceal key information from public access and to decide on what constitutes ‘official secrets,’ which cannot be challenged in court on any grounds,” she said. Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said the conviction went further than the government’s previous steps to block criticism. “This prosecution really is unprecedented because it involves a sitting MP, and the content is the Auditor General’s annual report, which prior to this year has regularly been released to the public after being introduced in Parliament,” he said. | 1 |
92 percent of activists in Berlin, Germany, live with their parents, while one in three are unemployed, according to a report by Bild. [The data was based off of 873 political activists, who had been investigated by authorities between 2003 and 2013. 84% of those investigated were men, while 73% were between the ages of 18 and 29. In Germany, 77% of those who considered themselves very right wing also claimed to be satisfied in bed, while 71% of very left wing people claimed to have the same sexual satisfaction. In all five participating countries (Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark, and Britain) very right wing people had the highest level of sexual satisfaction, whilst very left wing people tended to have the lowest on average. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0 |
Bad News For Hillary After Camera Caught Why She Gave Strange Men $300 Posted on October 31, 2016 by Amanda Shea in Politics Share This Man from video (left), Hillary Clinton thinking she got away with it (right)
Hillary Clinton can’t seem to escape the karma that’s coming her way as the days are dwindling down to the election, and with each one, something else comes out against her that she can’t escape. After the FBI dropped the ball on the first investigation, they’re redeeming themselves the second time around, and now it’s out what she paid strange men $300 to do.
The hits just keep on coming at Hillary. If she gets off the hook again this investigation in addition to everything WikiLeaks has released about her, then we know that there is something seriously corrupt with our government.
Worse yet would be if she’s elected as president, which will force Americans to pay an exceptionally detrimental price for the next four years that could bring lasting implications. The man in this video knows who may have helped in that destructive outcome, done for a small fee that Hillary’s campaign evidently handed out like candy for this cause at a halfway house in California.
MicroSpookyLeaks came forward with the footage they obtained, when they posted it to social media on Saturday which shows the unnamed person in this video admitting what Democrats were giving halfway house patients $300 to do for them. While this man in the video may not have accepted the payment himself, he’s caught saying that Democrats are giving others in the house a $300 rebate check if they vote for Hillary in the state of California. DEMS caught paying patients from a halfway house $300 rebate to vote for HRC in CA! pic.twitter.com/qpxgNt6KgR
— MicroSpookyLeaks™ (@WDFx2EU7) October 29, 2016
This is just one place where cash was probably offered for votes. We can only imagine that if her party is willing to do this there, they hit up other places and people in key states to do the same. What’s particular sick about it isn’t just that they are fraudulently obtaining votes for this woman who can’t get them on her own merit, it’s that they are targeting vulnerable people to get them as part of the dishonest plan.
If Hillary is able to continue on with this campaign and take the White House, Americans have the duty to demand how it happened since there’s no way she could legitimately win. Had Donald Trump been caught bribing halfway house patients for votes or any of the other dishonest deeds leaked out about Hillary lately, the media would have exiled him from the election. | 0 |
at 1:43 pm 3 Comments
By now, everyone on planet earth has heard about the bombshell news just announced by the FBI that it was re-opening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Here’s the text of FBI head James Comey’s letter to Congressional leaders.
Obviously, lots of people are out there pontificating on what, if anything, this means. As such, I’m going to add my two cents to the conversation.
I’ve prided myself on unemotionally calling this election how I see it the whole time, because I’m neither a Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump supporter. Being free of the tremendous baggage that comes with cheerleading a particular candidate in this contentious election, I had consistently predicted a Trump victory until the Access Hollywood tape emerged. At that point I penned a thought-piece titled, Donald Trump is in Trouble – Part 2 , in which I changed my forecast to a Hillary Clinton victory.
Here’s some of what I wrote:
After watching yesterday’s audio and reading through the Wikileaks revelations, my prediction has changed for the first time this election. All things equal from here on out (meaning no additional huge revelations against Hillary), I think Hillary Clinton will defeat Donald Trump. I don’t think it’s going to be a landslide, but I think she’s probably going to win. The audio was very harmful for Donald Trump, and now I’m going to explain why.
First of all, if you want to accurately forecast the outcome of this election you need to get into the minds of the masses. Just like trading financial markets, what you think is right doesn’t matter. What matters is what everyone else collectively thinks, and whether or not they’re going to get off their asses and vote. A big part of why I thought Trump would win related to the fact that I believe many people were simply looking for an excuse to vote for him. Justified disgust with the status quo in general, and Hillary Clinton in particular, pushed millions of Americans into the camp of being willing to take a gamble on Trump despite disliking him personally and disagreeing with him on many issues. I felt strongly that there were millions upon millions of Americans you could place into this category — people who were “flirting with the idea of voting Trump.” I believe a significant amount of these people will not vote for him as a result of the audio. Will it be the majority of them? Probably not, but it will be a material number and arguably enough to swing the election. No, I don’t think these voters will shift to Hillary, and no, I don’t think committed Trump voters will change their minds. However, I do think enough of these willing to be convinced, leaning-Trump types will now stay home or vote third party. It’s these voters who I expected to swing the election in Trump’s favor, and they are now unreliable.
Does Trump’s vulgarity excuse the incalculable crimes of Hillary Clinton and her husband, making them preferable in this election? No it doesn’t, but that’s not the point of this article. Most voters are too superficial, too busy trying to survive and too uninformed to weigh all the very important issues rationally. As an example, think about how most conversations are going to go down this weekend. Let’s say you’re out with a bunch of friends for drinks tonight. Someone says, “so have you seen the Trump audio?” If someone in the group hasn’t, someone will pull out their phone and it’ll be watched in 3 minutes. What if someone then says, “yeah, but have you seen the leaked Hillary emails?” What will your response be? You can’t adequately explain the importance of that to your friends in 3 minutes. Instead, you’ll have to send them a lengthy article that they’ll never read. So by the end of this weekend, pretty much everyone in America will have heard the Trump audio, while maybe 10% will take the time to analyze what came out of Wikileaks. There goes your election.
Understanding the craziness of the election, I finished the piece with the following.
Despite all of that, I still can’t say with certainty that Hillary will win. However, I do think the landscape has changed enough, that for the first time this entire election season, I am no longer confident of a Trump victory. Then again, I was absolutely convinced that Hillary was unelectable after she collapsed on 9/11 and mislead everyone about her health, and I was wrong about that. That’s how completely crazy this election is, and there’s still a month to go. Anything can happen, particularly with the debate coming up this Sunday. So while it’s certainly not out of the question, there will have to be some very material events over the next month to put Trump back in the driver’s seat.
While the Wikileaks emails have been an important factor in keeping this race close, I didn’t think they were sufficient to alter my forecast of a Clinton victory. I think the reopening of the FBI investigation is enough of a black swan to materially change the course of this race.
Clinton supporters will read this and think I’m insane. They will think this because they are anticipating a landslide victory for Hillary. I never expected a landslide, so I think this news tips the election into a total tossup situation. My reasoning for the change is the same that led me to switch my forecast to Hillary after the Access Hollywood video was released. The primary reason I initially thought Trump would win related to the fact I believed enough people would be willing to vote for a person they don’t really like in order to blow up the status quo. I felt that the video recording of Trump’s vulgar commentary was enough to put those people into the absentee or third party column, despite millions of Americans looking for an excuse to vote for Trump due to the well understood awfulness of Hillary. This has changed, and voters now have the excuse they needed to vote Trump.
That reason is simple. The problems with Hillary Clinton will never go away. They will always resurface or new problems will emerge, and it has nothing to do with a “vast rightwing conspiracy” (or Putin). It has to do with her. It has to do with the fact that her and her husband are career crooks, warmongers, and shameless looters of the American public. This re-opening of the FBI investigation just hammers all of that home for everyone. We know what 4 years of Hillary will look like. It’ll be Obama cronyism on steroids, plus endless investigations with a side of World War 3. I don’t think people want that, and so more Americans than the pundits realize will take a gamble on Trump.
As a caveat, the above forecast assumes this new FBI investigation is not closed before November 8th. If it is, I think she’ll win. If not, I think Trump has even odds to win, if not better.
Of course, with 11 days left in this crazy election, many more black swans could emerge. Stay tuned.
In Liberty, | 1 |
Passengers Escaping Burning American Airlines Jet # Grey 0
An American Airlines plane caught fire at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, forcing passengers to evacuate on the runway. American Airlines Flight 383 departed Chicago for Miami on Friday afternoon when it blew a tire and damaged an engine, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro.
The pilot aborted takeoff around 2:35 pm and everyone evacuated, Molinaro said. There were no injuries. Tags | 0 |
originally posted by: carewemust October 27, 2016 It's a disgrace that such prominent media people, like Wolf Blitzer, George Stephanopoulos, John King, Et al., are willing to go before millions of viewers, and shamelessly report what Hillary's campaign tells them to report. Story w/List of 65 Corrupt Journalists: thefreethoughtproject.com... It's always been obvious that CNN-MSNBC-NBC-ABC in particular, go out of their way to HELP Hillary Clinton and HURT Donald Trump. Now, thanks to the Podesta e-mails provided by WikiLeaks, we can see "behind the curtain". If mentally imbalanced Hillary becomes President, imagine the leverage she will have, to bring groups, organizations, companies, and people to their knees, if she doesn't like them! -CareWeMust Those news channels have always been Democrat. Newspapers over 100 years have picked a side and given a slant. You just notice this now? edit on 27-10-2016 by reldra because: (no reason given) | 0 |
The BBC, Britain’s “impartial” broadcaster, has labelled U. S. President Donald Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey as “highly suspicious” running several articles and bulletins drawing comparisons with the Watergate scandal which brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974. [In an article on the BBC News website, titled “Did President Trump fire James Comey as part of a ?” the corporation’s senior North America reporter Anthony Zurcher speculates that “the abruptness and timing of Mr Comey’s dismissal, to put it mildly, is highly suspicious”. “While the White House has said that the move is based on concerns over how Mr Comey handled last year’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server, not many people … are buying that line,” he writes, with little further elaboration. “If the dismissal was because of the email investigation, why act now?” he asks. Zurcher does, however, acknowledge that many of the Democrat politicians “howling” over Comey’s dismissal, such as Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, had previously called for the director to be axed when he announced an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails was being reopened during the 2016 presidential election. Democrats were calling for Comey’s firing until Trump actually did it. pic. twitter. — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) May 10, 2017, In another article from 6 March, with the provocative title, “Echoes of Watergate resurface as links probed” the BBC provided a space for a number of individuals to cast aspersions at President Trump and his Jeff Sessions. The article quotes former Nixon lawyer John Dean as a “prominent voice” who believes he has “been hearing echoes of Watergate ever since this presidency started” accusing the of “dissembling”. It also states that “Russia is believed to have wanted Mr Trump to win the election [and an] unverified report apparently compiled by a private intelligence firm claimed Russia had compromising information on Mr Trump and was in a position to blackmail him” providing little in the way of explanation. It immediately follows up by pointing out that “some commentators” such as George W. Bush’s ethics lawyer Richard Painter “now fear the Russian connection could make Watergate seem trivial”. FUN FACT: President Nixon never fired the Director of the FBI #FBIDirector #notNixonian pic. twitter. — RichardNixonLibrary (@NixonLibrary) May 9, 2017, The article offers nothing in the way of countervailing opinion until its conclusion, in which it briefly discusses a tweet from President Trump in which he accuses Barack Obama of having tapped his phones. However, in contrast to its coverage of individuals speculating negatively on the president’s motives for dismissing Comey, the BBC is quick to point out that the claims are only an “allegation” for which “Mr Trump has not provided evidence”. | 0 |
A few years ago, the biggest enemy of the music industry was Pandora Media. Then Spotify became the target. Now it is YouTube’s turn. In recent months, the music world has been united to a rare degree in a public fight against YouTube, accusing the service of paying too little in royalties and asking for changes to the law that allows the company to operate the way it does. The battle highlights the need to capture every dollar as listeners’ habits turn to streaming, as well as the industry’s complicated relationship with YouTube. The dispute has played out in a drumbeat of industry reports, blog posts and opinion columns. Stars like Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Billy Joel have signed letters asking for changes to copyright laws. Irving Azoff, the manager of artists like the Eagles and Christina Aguilera, criticized YouTube in an interview and in a fiery speech around the Grammy Awards. Also, annual sales statistics were released showing that YouTube, despite its gigantic audience, produces less direct income for musicians than the niche market of vinyl record sales. “This is the result of an explosion of views of music videos on YouTube against a backdrop of decline in the recorded music business in general,” Larry Miller, an associate professor of music business at New York University’s Steinhardt School, said of the fight. With more than a billion users, including the youngest and most engaged music fans, YouTube has long been seen by the music business as a vital way to promote songs and hunt for the next star. At the same time, music executives grumble that it has never been a substantial source of revenue and is a vexing outlet for leaks and unauthorized material. It may not be a coincidence that the major record labels are also in the midst of renegotiating their licensing contracts with YouTube this year. In its newest effort, the music industry has asked the federal government to change the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying that the law, which was passed in 1998 and protects sites like YouTube that host copyrighted material posted by users, is outdated and makes removing unauthorized content too difficult. Cary Sherman, the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, says that even when songs are taken down, they can easily be uploaded again. “This is a new form of piracy,” he said. “You don’t have to go into dark corners and sell stuff out of your car. You can do it in plain sight and rely on the D. M. C. A. to justify that what you’re doing is perfectly legal. ” Europe’s copyright protections are also under review, and last month, Andrus Ansip, the European Commission’s digital chief, called on YouTube to pay more for its content. But so far, YouTube does not seem shaken. In an interview, Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, said that since its inception in 2005, YouTube has paid $3 billion to the music industry around the world. (In earlier statements, YouTube has said that Google, its parent company, paid that amount across all of its sites, but Mr. Kyncl now says that YouTube alone has contributed that sum and that other Google services have added even more.) “Music matters tremendously to us,” Mr. Kyncl said. “Artists matter to us. We are connecting artists and fans on our platforms. ” He also pointed to the site’s new subscription plan, YouTube Red, and said YouTube’s copyright protections were functioning as they should. Content ID, the site’s proprietary system, lets copyright owners keep track of their material, and when the system detects a new video including a tracked song — whether in a full music video or just the background of a clip — the owner can choose to keep the video online or take it down. According to YouTube, 98 percent of copyright claims on its system are made through Content ID, and 99. 5 percent of the claims related to music are handled automatically. YouTube says about half the money it pays in music royalties is related to videos that incorporate music processed through Content ID. “We are working to create what has become the most significant revenue generator in the entertainment industry,” Mr. Kyncl said, “which is a dual revenue stream where you monetize all people: heavy users through subscription, and light users through advertising. ” But the music world argues that YouTube’s financial contributions have not kept pace with the popularity of its streams. In March, the recording industry association’s annual report of sales statistics, usually a dry financial summary, criticized YouTube harshly. It said that free sites like it, which let users pick specific songs on demand, paid $385 million to record labels in the United States — less than the $416 million collected from the sale of just 17 million vinyl records. Spotify paid about $1. 8 billion last year for music licensing and related costs, according to the company’s annual returns, although the average royalty rates for its free tier are not much different from YouTube’s, by some estimates. The fight over the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has touched a nerve. The music industry is bracing for what may be a lobbying battle reminiscent of the one over the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill that was abandoned in 2012 after opposition from technology activists and Internet giants like Google and Wikipedia. The copyright law gives “safe harbor” to Internet service providers that host material. While music groups criticize the law, some legal scholars and policy specialists say any change to it would need to be considered carefully, particularly to preserve protections like fair use. “Anything that rewrites the D. M. C. A. isn’t just going to affect YouTube,” said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland. “It is going to affect blogs. It is going to affect fan sites. It is going to affect places for game creators and documentarians and all kinds of others. ” In December, the United States Copyright Office asked for comments about D. M. C. A. as part of a review of the law, and filings by record companies show how laborious copyright policing can be. Universal Music said that after Taylor Swift’s album “1989” was released in late 2014, the company devoted a team of employees full time to search for unauthorized copies to date, the company said, it has sent 66, 000 takedown notices to various sites about “1989,” in addition to 114, 000 blocks on YouTube made automatically through Content ID. Maria Schneider, a jazz composer, said in an interview that the problem was particularly acute for independent acts like her, who do not have Content ID accounts, and that the D. M. C. A.’s takedown process discouraged lawful requests. YouTube says that about 8, 000 companies and organizations have access to Content IDand that independents may get access through affiliated companies and industry groups. Mr. Kyncl said the steps in the takedown process were meant to ensure the accuracy of requests and deter false claims. Mr. Azoff said that after the Copyright Office made its request, he and other managers asked artists they represented whether they wanted to sign a letter calling for changes to the law. “Not one artist declined,” he said. “But if there are creators who like their music on YouTube and SoundCloud, that’s fine,” Mr. Azoff said. “The whole point is choice: Artists should be able to choose. ” | 1 |
welcome back jeannette trump! | 0 |
Expect people who can't pay the penalties or taxes to be put in prison. This will happen. | 0 |
Beyond the Anti-Trump Protests November 17, 2016
Anti-Trump protests broke out shortly after the presidential results were in, but progressives need a more comprehensive and thoughtful approach to the next four years, says Sam Husseini.
By Sam Husseini
Two views seem to be dominant among progressives regarding Donald Trump: Either protest all he does (people have been holding “anti-Trump” rallies for the past week) or “give him a chance” (let’s see what he does, maybe it will be okay). But both the demonizers and those urging a passive approach are wrong.
The “Anti-Trump” approach is hollow. First, to protest a person is dubious. Too often, “progressives” have focused on the personal rather than the policies and actions. Remember “Anybody But Bush”? That’s not a particularly uplifting way of approaching things and doesn’t lead to genuinely positive outcomes. Also, Trump is someone who has said a lot of contradictory things. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in an MSNBC interview.
So, you can certainly talk about rights for immigrants or women’s rights or ensuring that anti-Muslim policies do not escalate. But to say “anti-Trump” or to ignore good things that Trump has said is hollow. And, yes, there are good things he’s said. For example, during the primaries, he denounced the “regime change” wars waged by George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton:
“We’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that frankly, if they were there and if we could’ve spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems; our airports and all of the other problems we’ve had, we would’ve been a lot better off. I can tell you that right now.”
But it also doesn’t make sense to say “let’s see what he does.” To stand aside is to allow Trump to be cutting deals with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will doubtlessly work to take away what populist, anti-interventionist and pro-working-class instincts Trump might otherwise follow.
Bernie Sanders has in recent days struck a reasonable tone at times. In this interview and in a statement just after the election, he said: “Donald Trump tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media. … To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.”
That seems like a reasonable approach although the major problem with what Sanders says is that it ignores foreign policy, a longstanding problem with Sanders.
But others are addressing foreign policy: Rand Paul is right to press: “ Will Donald Trump betray voters by hiring John Bolton? ” Diana Johnston at CounterPunch wrote: “ After the Election: Don’t Panic, Think! ”
Left-Right Alliances
One possible opportunity is for progressives to be forging left-right alliances , as Sanders alludes to above. Indeed, the senator’s biographer, Greg Guma, notes that Sanders has done that in the past at times: Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking to one of his large crowds of supporters. (Photo credit: Sanders campaign)
“One unusual aspect of Bernie’s approach in Congress has been to wage congressional battles with people whose stands on other issues he abhors. In fact, much of Bernie’s legislative success has come through forging deals with ideological opposites. An amendment to bar spending in support of defense contractor mergers, for example, was pushed through with the aid of Chris Smith, a prominent opponent of abortion. John Kasich … helped him phase out risk insurance for foreign investments.
“And it was a ‘left-right coalition’ he helped create that derailed ‘fast track’ legislation on international agreements pushed by Bill Clinton. The power of that strategy may have reached its apex in May 2010 when Bernie’s campaign to bring transparency to the Federal Reserve resulted in a 96-0 Senate vote on his amendment to audit the Fed and conduct a General Accounting Office audit of possible conflicts of interest in loans to unknown banks.”
In fact, if such a right-left approach isn’t followed now, Trump will likely be forging alliances with Ryan and McConnell . In other words, the path ahead for construction policies may be narrow, but it holds the best hope for the next four years. That strategy calls for attacking Trump when he fails his populist promises but working with him when he pursues them.
This approach also would likely strengthen populist elements within the Democratic Party and may lead to a de facto realignment of U.S. politics. It may be less glamorous than resisting and filibustering, which may be needed on some issues, but finding constructive overlaps might actually fix some things that need fixing.
Last year, in a piece entitled “ In Defence of the Rise of Trump “, I wrote:
“[Trump] might pursue the same old establishment policies if he were ever to get into office — that’s largely what Obama has done, especially on foreign policy. Trump says, ‘I was a member of the establishment seven months ago.’
“The point is that the natives are restless. And they should be. It’s an important time to engage them so they stay restless and funnel that energy to constructive use, not demonize or tune them out.”
Demonizing Trump supporters has proved disastrous. It’s time for another approach by progressives: engagement.
Sam Husseini is founder of VotePact.org . | 1 |
White House foreign policy adviser Dr. Sebastian Gorka won loud applause from the audience at the annual Jerusalem Post conference in New York on Sunday with a strident defense of his record and the Trump administration’s policies. [Gorka, who followed Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog and World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder, was interviewed onstage by the Post‘s Yaakov Katz. Katz did not waste time before jumping into the most controversial issues, questioning Gorka about rumors — spread largely by blogs and websites — of his membership in an Hungarian order. Gorka denied those reports, noting his father’s efforts to protect Jews from the Nazis, and his own lifelong struggle against totalitarian ideologies. He noted that he was “proud” to wear a medal his father had won from the Vitezi Rend order for his anticommunist activism, adding that the new order had nothing to do with its predecessor, which was disbanded after the Second World War. At the @Jerusalem_Post #Jpost17 conference @SebGorka “I have spent my life fighting against totalitarian ideologies”https: . — Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) May 7, 2017, Gorka pointed out that Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, had honored one of the members of the Vitezi Rend as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” for saving Jews during the Holocaust. And he noted that he had long been an advocate for Jews and for Israel, noting that even those publications that had set out to destroy him found no evidence of any antisemitic statements. In addition Gorka dismissed reports that he was leaving the administration as “very fake news,” and downplayed media speculation about infighting in the White House, describing all of the different advisers to the president as “patriots. ” Tragic that a decent man has to respond to such libel. Crowd here at #jpost17 seemed to appreciate that gave @SebGorka a standing ovation. https: . — Jeff Ballabon (@ballabon) May 7, 2017, From there, the discussion moved into foreign policy, with Gorka emphasizing the Trump administration’s commitment to Israel’s security, as well as to the peace process. He also defended the administration’s tough line on radical Islam, criticizing President Barack Obama’s administration for avoiding the religious inspiration of terrorists and for “leading from behind” — which, he noted, was “following,” in plain English. Asked whether he, and the administration as a whole, were Islamophobic, Gorka pointed out that many of the U. S. military personnel he had instructed in were Muslims, and noted that America’s Arab allies saw the struggle as one within Islam, not against Islam as a whole. He stressed the importance of helping Muslims win the war against radical Islamic terror, but without invading and occupying foreign countries. #Gorka: Trump understands the Islamic terror threat and he will obliterate it. #Jpost17, — David Brinn (@davidbjpost) May 7, 2017, He noted that many of the administration’s toughest critics were people aligned with the “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS) movement, as well as supporters of the Iran deal. Gorka’s critics seemed mostly reduced to fuming at the Jerusalem Post on Twitter. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0 |
A Texas science teacher accused of having sex with an underage student put on a grin for her mugshot when arrested. [Sarah Fowlkes, 27, was suspended from her job at Lockhart High School and faces possible prison time for the alleged crime, the Daily Mail reported. Fowlkes was booked into the Caldwell County Jail and later released. A school administrator reported an inappropriate relationship between a student and a teacher to the police and Child Protective Services, the Houston Chronicle reported. Detectives in Lockhart interviewed a student who said he had sexual contact with Fowlkes. Lockhart Independent School District suspended Fowlkes and notified the State Board for Educator Certification of her behavior. “Lockhart parents entrust their children to us every day, and it is something we do not take lightly,” Superintendent Susan Bohn said in the statement. “Student safety is the district’s most important priority. As soon as we learned of the report, we acted swiftly to involve law enforcement and CPS to conduct a thorough investigation. The district does not and will not tolerate any improper communication or contact between a teacher and child. ” According to a page the school district has deleted from its website, the teacher taught anatomy, physiology, and environmental systems at Lockhart High School since September. Prior to her job at the high school, she taught at Plum Creek Elementary in the same district where she worked since October 2014. Fowlkes is reportedly married. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump said on Monday that the cost of building the military’s fighter jet, the Joint Strike Fighter, had spiraled “out of control,” and he vowed to save billions of dollars on military programs once he enters office next month. In a Twitter post on Monday morning and a series of comments since last week, the assailed cost overruns for the Lockheed fighter jet that have pushed the project’s cost beyond $400 billion, making the plane the most expensive weapons system in military history. “The program and cost is out of control,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Twitter post just before 8:30 a. m. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. ” Mr. Trump’s verbal assault on the continued a pattern in which the has targeted businesses for criticism and threatened presidential action. Since winning the election, he has challenged Boeing to lower the cost of upgrades to Air Force One, stepped in to stop Carrier from sending jobs to Mexico and taken credit for billions of dollars in investment from the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. But in pursuing the program, Mr. Trump may be facing a target that even he cannot budge. The is just the latest in a long line of critics in both parties who have beat up on the project, only to see it survive thanks to deep political support across the country. Lockheed has spread work on the to hundreds of subcontractors in most of the 50 states, and members of Congress typically oppose any cuts that would cost jobs in their states or districts. It is unclear what alternative the could embrace if the military turns away from the this late in the jet’s development the government has spent about $100 billion on the project, and 204 planes have been built. The Pentagon, under Robert M. Gates, the secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011, canceled a different fighter jet, the leaving nothing but the to replace aging fighters used by the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines. Once in office, Mr. Trump could try to shrink overall costs by trimming back plans to buy more than 2, 400 planes. But doing so simply pushes up the price of each jet. And that in turn could provoke diplomatic incidents with American allies who have contracted to add to their militaries. Higher costs per plane could exceed their budgets, as well. In the end, Mr. Trump’s public criticism of the plane may be about sending a warning message to private companies that contract with the military. While Mr. Trump said throughout the campaign that he would rebuild the nation’s military, his Twitter post on Monday signaled to contractors that they should not try to fleece the federal government. The immediate impact of Mr. Trump’s Twitter post on Monday was financial: After it was published, shares of Lockheed Martin had fallen by 4 percent around midday, reducing the company’s market value by about $4 billion, before rebounding somewhat. Lockheed shares ended the day down about 2. 5 percent, closing at $253. 11 a share. Mr. Trump posted on Twitter just as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter was in Israel to welcome the arrival of two the first of a fleet meant to help maintain Israel’s air superiority in the region. Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Carter described the as “the most advanced aircraft in history” and said, “Israel is our first and only friend in the region that is flying” it. Lockheed Martin’s program manager for the Jeff A. Babione, who was also in Israel for the planes’ arrival, said, “I certainly welcome the opportunity to address any question the would have about the program. ” Mr. Babione added that Lockheed had invested hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce the price of the airplane. Lockheed said that if the government stuck to plans to increase production, it could reduce the average price for each by 2020 to $85 million, about the same as less sophisticated fighters cost. The was designed as a aircraft for all of the branches of the United States military, with the goal of overwhelming adversaries with technological superiority. The jet would be able to evade radar and dodge sophisticated antiaircraft missiles while giving pilots a better picture of enemy threats advancing toward them. But despite initial promises that the plane would save taxpayer money, costs have veered sharply higher over 15 years of development. Mr. Trump has not said how he will seize control of the project’s costs, which have risen despite repeated attempts over more than a decade to restrain spending and fix costly mistakes. In an interview on Sunday, and in a speech to supporters in Michigan on Friday, the accused military officials of failing to negotiate good deals with contractors because they know they might be hired by the companies after their military service ends. “The people that are making these deals for the government, they should never be allowed to go to work for these companies,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox News Sunday. ” “You know, they make a deal like that, and two or three years later, you see them working for these companies that made the deal. ” Mr. Trump said military officials who were in charge of negotiating deals like the project should be barred for life from employment with the companies that they worked with, though he did not cite any examples involving the fighter plane. That would be an expansion of the ’s proposal that people who work for his administration be barred from lobbying for five years. In a hearing this year, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, demonstrated the dilemma for members of Congress and others who worry about the ballooning cost of the project. He hailed the plane as a needed part of the country’s arsenal even as he criticized the program’s inability to deliver on time and within budget. “The full capabilities this aircraft will eventually provide are critical to America’s national security,” Mr. McCain said. “But at the same time, the program’s record of performance has been both a scandal and a tragedy. ” The technology in the and other weapons systems is increasingly complex, and politics tend to exacerbate the problems. To lock in congressional support, the Pentagon often starts building the weapons before testing is complete. Cutting funding in the middle of programs can increase costs in the long run if it reduces the economies of scale in the manufacturing plants. Pentagon officials said recently that they needed an extra $500 million to finish development of the planes. They have also been wrangling with Lockheed over the price of the latest batch of planes. The program is also sensitive diplomatically, and as costs per plane increase, the overruns affect the ability of other countries to buy the jets. Israel, for example, has ordered 33 of the stealth fighters at a cost of more than $5. 5 billion, to come from the assistance Israel receives from Washington, and the Israeli cabinet decided recently to increase the number of planes to 50. | 1 |
Get short URL 0 24 0 0 A new study finds (perhaps unsurprisingly) that the wealthy do not pay attention to others, perceiving them as holding less “motivational relevance."
Using Google Glass, a hands-free wearable computer designed to look like eyeglasses, New York University researchers sought to track the eye movements of 61 New Yorkers who were instructed to look at whatever caught their attention while walking down the street. Second Time’s the Charm? Google Reveals New Glass Wearable The Google Glass video camera, placed over the right eye, recorded their gaze. Researchers wrote in the journal Psychological Science that, although socio-economic status did not account for how often a person looked at others, there was nonetheless a correlation between class and interest in others, with wealthier people spending the least amount of time looking at others.
Researchers theorized that "people’s social class affects their appraisals of others’ motivational relevance—the degree to which others are seen as potentially rewarding, threatening, or otherwise worth attending to." Here Lives a Wealthy Man: 8 Countries With the World's Richest 1%
LiveScience wrote that the "findings make a compelling case that social classes differ in their judgments of other people's significance," adding, "…one possible explanation may be that, for people in higher social classes, other human beings hold less 'motivational relevance' — a psychology term that means how worthy of one's attention something or someone is, based on how much reward or threat might be linked with that object or person." Google Glass can sense where a person turns their head, but not necessarily where the eyes are directed, so scientists followed up with a device that tracks eye movements, timed to street scenes in New York City. This yielded the same outcome.
A third study showed 400 participants computer images and found that wealthier people took longer to notices changes in facial expressions. "This finding suggests that social class, like other forms of culture… can shape human cognitive functioning at a deep level," they wrote. ... | 0 |
A grand jury indicted Ronald Gasser Jr. on Thursday in the fatal shooting of the former N. F. L. player Joe McKnight, handing down a murder charge. The charge is more severe than the one that Mr. Gasser had initially faced in December, when critics complained that racial bias may have affected the investigation. If convicted, Mr. Gasser, 54, would face life in prison with no parole. The death of Mr. McKnight, 28, a star running back at the University of Southern California who later played for the Jets and Kansas City Chiefs in the N. F. L. spurred several days of protests. Supporters and Mr. McKnight’s former teammates were outraged after the police initially freed Mr. Gasser. Though the authorities said Mr. Gasser had admitted to the shooting on Dec. 1, he was not arrested and charged until four days later. Mr. Gasser was initially charged with manslaughter over what the authorities described as a “road rage” confrontation in Terrytown, La. about five miles southeast of New Orleans. “Subsequent to that arrest, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office continued working together in a collaborative effort to develop additional evidence regarding the case,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s indictment comes as a result of that joint effort. ” Mr. Gasser’s bond was also increased to $750, 000. The delayed arrest and lesser initial charge had angered critics, who said that Mr. Gasser, the owner of a telecommunications firm and a real estate business, may have been afforded more leeway because he is white, or that the authorities were less invested in swift justice for a black man’s death. In a fiery response after the initial arrest, Sheriff Newell Normand of Jefferson Parish defended the pace of the investigation, saying the authorities needed time to build a better case in a state that has strong Stand Your Ground laws. Investigators conducted more than 160 interviews and spoke to Mr. Gasser for more than 12 hours, Sheriff Normand said at a news conference in December. “Justice has no time period,” he said. “Justice is not a sprint. It is a marathon. These investigations are marathons. ” The confrontation began around 2:45 p. m. after both men were driving erratically, cutting each other off and zipping in front of each other, Sheriff Normand said. Mr. Gasser became irate and engaged in a “verbal altercation” with Mr. McKnight, the sheriff said. When they stopped next to each other at a red light, Mr. McKnight got out of his car and approached the window of Mr. Gasser’s car, the sheriff said. Mr. Gasser then pulled out a handgun from between his seat and the console and shot Mr. McKnight three times, according to the sheriff. | 0 |
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In Drowning in a Sea of Microwaves , the late geneticist Dr Mae-Wan Ho – a visionary voice who opposed GMOs – identified pollution from wireless technologies as a pressing issue of our times.
Noting evidence for “DNA damage … cancers, microwave sickness, [and], impairment of fertility”, she concluded: “Evidence is emerging that the health hazards associated with wireless microwaves are at least comparable to, if not worse than, those associated with cigarette smoking.”
Since the advent of radar, followed by mobile phones and dense WiFi networks, such anthropogenic radiation has sky-rocketed. Although it is non-ionising, and does not destabilise molecules directly, evidence of other harm has been growing since 1950s studies on radar workers.
According to the updated Bio-initiative Report (2012+) by 29 precautionary scientists, effects on biology feature in several thousand, peer-reviewed papers. Yet troubling new findings rarely filter into the media. Or global Green discourse.
Though many studies have reported ‘no significant effect’, research by University of Washington biology professor Henry Lai, and others, reveals that wireless-industry funding is far more likely to yield such findings.
“Toujours ils créent doubte” (‘they are forever creating doubt’), explains former Luxembourg Green MP Jean Huss, whose research on the wireless industry inspired the Council of Europe to call for many precautions (2011), including protection of warning scientists, and wired internet in schools.
But wireless-product marketing has a loud voice. Few of us realise that genetic effects and free radical damage – both disease risks over time – are the most common, cautionary findings. Device-crowded spaces, such as our peak commuter trains or all-wireless classrooms, may be creating a subtly toxic environment.
Wide-ranging, oxidative harm to animals has been found from WiFi sources. And linked pre-diabetic and pre-cancerous changes. Ground-breaking work by biochemistry professor Martin Pall , Washington State University – winner of eight international awards – reveals a viable mechanism for such harm. But as with other ‘inconvenient truths’, it is going unheard.
Bee-whispers: the sensitivity of life on Earth
Life’s exquisite electro-physiology is still being discovered. Researchers at Bristol University reported in May that bees’ hairs are highly sensitive to flowers’ delicate EMFs. In controlled trials in Switzerland, bees reacted to mobile-phone signals with high-pitched ‘piping’: a cue to desert a hive.
Other studies show that mitochondria , the tiny power houses in our cells, are at risk from our new EMFs. And that even DNA , in its delicate antenna-like structure, may be frequency-sensitive.
The long-term, ecological implications of our new, anthropogenic radiation are not known. But peer-reviewed studies revealing harm to birds , tadpoles , trees , other plants , insects, rodents and livestock , offer clues.
Biology professor Lukas Margaritis, at Athens University, for example, uncovered harm to fruit flies from just a few minutes’ exposure to our everyday wireless devices, including cordless phones, Bluetooth, and even digital baby monitors. Reviewing research, India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests warned that sensitive habitats may need some protection.
The UK’s Digital Economy Bill , about to receive its final seal, has sensible proposals for increasing country-wide access to fibre broadband: a technology that does not, in itself, stoke microwave pollution, though wireless add-ons do so. But probe beyond the bill to Ofcom’s 5G consultations, and new EMF exposures emerge: part of global trend.
The worldwide rush towards 5G or ‘fifth generation’ wireless rollouts is set to raise our pulsing pollution to new levels. Untested, high microwave frequencies are being lined up to increase bandwidth, automation, and usage – at great profit to the industry.
These millimetre and centimetre waves, though too weak to heat us, may pose possible risks to our skin, and deeper surface tissue, including that of plants. High-density transmitters are envisaged. A troubling prospect for the many hundreds of patients seen by professor Dominique Belpomme ‘s clinic in Paris: patients whose disabling symptoms from wireless technologies are supported by new brain scans and blood tests .
A delegation of scientists have petitioned for such electrosensitivity to be recognised as an environmentally-induced illness , with an International Disease Code (2015).
Rip-tides: when profits outpace caution
Pushing for fast rollouts, the wireless industry is also in conflict with the Internatonal EMF Scientists’ Appeal to the United Nations. Signed by 223 scientists from 41 nations, it calls for remedial action – such as new safety limits, wave-free zones, and education of doctors – to protect our DNA, fertility, and nervous systems, plus children and pregnant women, from growing wireless exposure. And from rising, mains-electricity fields.
Signs that such caution may be needed are growing. The pulsed, polarized , microwaves used by wireless technologies pose more biological risks than smooth or natural waves. Weak millimetre waves have a known potential to increase antibiotic resistance : what ecological effects might they risk, perhaps, if used universally?
Studies also reveal a risk to skin pain receptors . Published associations between radio – masts and skin cancers, though at lower frequencies, plus mobile-phone masts and EMF-sensitive cancers (Adilza Dode, Minas Gerais University 2013), raise further questions.
In his summer press conference, Tom Wheeler – former head of the CTIA, the vast telecoms lobby- group, and controversial chair of the Federal Communications Commission – proposed unbridled “massive deployment” of commercial 5G transmitters, taking off in 2020.
Anticipating “tens of billions of dollars” of economic growth, with US telecoms “first out of the gate”, he warned “Stay out of the way of technological development! Turning innovation loose is far preferable to expecting … regulators to define the future”.
With no mention of health-testing, carbon costs, or corporate responsibility, the FCC voted unaminously to go ahead by releasing swathes of untested high frequencies for private sector exploitation – so setting a trend. To questionable ends: added to other issues, how will our communities be affected by addiction to 5G multi-stream videos? How will it impact our spiritual communion with Nature?
Many American health activists, and cautioning scientists, are aghast. Dr Joel Moskowitz, director of community health studies at the University of California, warns “precaution is warranted before 5G is unleashed on the world”.
Former government physicist Dr Ron Powell points out the plans “would irradiate everyone, including the most vulnerable to harm from radiofrequency radiation: pregnant women, unborn children, young children…the elderly, the disabled, and the chronically ill… It would set a goal of irradiating all environments”.
Fracking the air? Fault-lines in safety
This drive to mine the electromagnetic spectrum come-what-may has echoes of fracking, and other headlong trends. In Captured Agency , the Harvard ethics report on the FCC, and the wider wireless industry, Norm Alster exposes ruthless “hardball tactics”, supported by “armies of lawyers”, at expense to our health.
Microwaves, Science and Lies (2014), filmed by Jean Hêches across Europe, exposes similar patterns that are driving our pulsed radiation to risky levels. Western “safety limits”, based only on high levels that heat tissue, far exceed those of Russia , China, and some other nations.
Professor Yuri Grigoriev , long-serving chair of Russia’s non-ionising radiation protection body (RNCNIRP), warned the UK’s Radiation Research Trust “ionising radiation is monitored…[but] levels of non-ionising radiation are constantly increasing and ubiquitous: it is out of control … Urgent action is needed”.
Stealthy pollution-raisers, such as the 5G Internet of Things – with 30 billion tiny transmitters forecast for 2020 – and also, sadly, wireless smart-meters [ 1 , 2 *], vetoed by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine , may run counter to a cherished Green goal: that of nurturing healthy environments.
Can we manage our energy, perhaps, in more bio-sensitive ways? Court claims for wireless-meter health harm, supported by medical testimonies – including by neurology professor Andrew Marino (Louisiana) – are sweeping America. Professor Pall explains such meters’ “high intensity” microwave pulses may be more toxic than we realise: “We know from the nanosecond studies these can be very damaging”.
Data obtained by a judge revealed all-hour, house-piercing pulses every few seconds. New data-over-wiring innovations (if free of “dirty electricity”) may offer inspiring, alternative ways forward.
Chrysalis: a paradigm in waiting
To create – in Wheeler’s phrase – a global ‘5G ecosystem’ of wireless super-saturated environments, at insidious risk, over time, to living ecosystems, not least our own bodies, is dysfunctional. And spiritually disturbing. It suggests a mindset deeply at odds with the orchid-like beauty of the Earth.
But cleaner innovations, such as LiFi , ‘eco-dect-plus’ phones, and the latest fibre-optics, suggest a wiser course. A new paradigm – safer connectivity, plus more balanced use – is emerging. And reminds of other step-changes in awareness. From pesticides to organic, from smoke-filled to smoke-free.
We can accede, if we wish, to our rising, planetary smog. To safety limits as high as the moon, in many scientists’ eyes. And to wireless rollouts’ growing carbon costs. Or taking pause, we may begin to call the industry to account – plus governments lulled by it.
We may air helpful new findings, such as risks from tablet-like exposures ( Alexander Lerchl , Jacob Bremens University, 2015). And stark risks from passive exposure, bared by Leif Salford , medical professor at Lund University. We may defend DNA, if we wish, from ionizing and published non-ionizing risks , just as we defend our planet.
And alongside French Green Party MPs Laurence Abeille and Michèle Rivasi , plus the interntional Baubiologie movement, we can explore electromagnetic hygiene. Uplifting possibilities for a safer, cleaner world.
Lynne Wycherley is a nature poet with six published collections. Working in parallel with pioneering doctors, she has been investigating non-ionising radiation for 5 years.
This article originally appeared in The Ecologist . More articles by: Lynne Wycherley next - | 1 |
LIST: Politicians Who Take Most Money From Muslim Radicals… Guess Who’s at the Top?
Given the Russians’ recent threats regarding the potential election of Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, this is not good news.
“Americans voting for a president on Nov. 8 must realize that they are voting for peace on Planet Earth if they vote for Trump,” veteran Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky said earlier this month, according to Reuters .
“But if they vote for Hillary, it’s war,” he continued. “It will be a short movie. There will be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis everywhere.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has himself reportedly also made threats, warning of a potential “confrontation” were Clinton to continue prodding Russia with allegations that it has been attempting to rig the U.S. presidential election.
“Jeopardizing Russian-American relations in order to gain brownie points internally — I consider this to be harmful and counterproductive,” Putin reportedly said this week. “It’s not funny anymore. If somebody out there wants confrontation, this is not our choice but this means that there will be problems.” | 0 |
JERUSALEM — President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters here that he “never mentioned” Israel during a White House meeting two weeks ago with Russian officials. [He went on to accuse the news media of getting the story wrong. Trump was referring to a news making New York Times report quoting a “current and a former American official” claiming it was Israel that provided alleged classified intelligence purportedly disclosed by Trump to Russian officials during the recent meeting. “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’” Trump told reporters here after making brief statements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Never mentioned it during the conversation [with the Russians]. ” “They’re all saying I did, so you have another story wrong,” he said to the assembled reporters. “Never mentioned the word Israel. ” Trump was speaking spontaneously after reporters shouted questions at him at the conclusion of a joint statement with Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister referred to U. S. security cooperation as “terrific. ” The Times report did not claim that Trump disclosed to the Russians that Israel was allegedly the source of the information purported to be about the inner workings of the Islamic State as reportedly discussed with the Russians. The Times’ claim followed a Washington Post exclusive that first reported the purported classified information was allegedly revealed by Trump during a meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador. The Post report cited “current and former U. S. officials. ” Indeed, it was the Times that first outed Israel as the alleged source of the information. The Times’ article failed to note its own report, if accurate, could endanger Israel’s antiterrorism intelligence collection operations. The Post article acknowledged that as president “Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law. ” The Times cited Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, as telling reporters that Trump was not aware of the source of the information. Israeli officials reached by the Times would not confirm that Israel provided the intelligence, which reportedly concerns the inner workings of the Islamic State. McMaster told the Post that “the president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation. ” “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,” McMaster stated. Later, McMaster stated the leak may put U. S. national security at risk. “I think national security is put at risk by this leak and by leaks like this,” he said. “And there are a number of instances where this has occurred and I think it’s important to investigate these sort of things. ” Trump tweeted he has the “absolute right” as president to share information. As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W. H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining … . — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017, The Post claimed the information was provided through an unnamed U. S. ally: The information the president relayed had been provided by a U. S. partner through an arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U. S. government, officials said. The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. The Times outed that ally as Israel, citing a “current and a former American official familiar with how the United States obtained the information. ” In January, Israel’s respected Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported U. S. intelligence officials from the Obama administration warned their Israeli counterparts not to trust then Trump with intelligence secrets, citing alleged fears that Russia held blackmail information over Trump. Those fears seemed to have been in part referencing the now partially debunked infamous dossier claiming that Russia collected compromising videos of Trump. The dossier, which contains wild and unproven claims about Trump and sordid sexual acts, including the mocked claim that Trump hired prostitutes and had them urinate on a hotel room bed, was compiled by former intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who was reportedly paid by Democrats and Republicans to investigate Trump. Meanwhile, the Obama administration faced its share of accusations that it leaked sensitive Israeli intelligence or military operations. In November 2013, Israeli officials were reportedly furious at the Obama White House for confirming the Israeli Air Force was behind a strike on a Syrian military base. Israeli policy is not to confirm strikes carried out beyond its borders. The Times of Israel reported at the time: Israel’s Channel 10 TV on Friday night quoted Israeli officials branding the American leak as “scandalous. ” For Israel’s ally to be acting in this way was “unthinkable,” the officials were quoted as saying. A second TV report, on Israel’s Channel 2, said the leak “came directly from the White House,” and noted that “this is not the first time” that the administration has compromised Israel by leaking information on such Israeli Air Force raids on Syrian targets. It said some previous leaks were believed to have come from the Pentagon, and that consideration had been given at one point to establishing a panel to investigate the sources. In 2012, Israel suspected the Obama administration had leaked information to prevent the Jewish state from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. ABC News reported at the time: The first report in Foreign Policy quotes anonymous American officials saying that Israel has been given access to airbases by Iran’s northern neighbor Azerbaijan from which Israel could launch air strikes or at least drones and search and rescue aircraft. The second report from Bloomberg, based on a leaked congressional report, said that Iran’s nuclear facilities are so dispersed that it is “unclear what the ultimate effect of a strike would be … ” A strike could delay Iran as little as six months, a former official told the researchers. “It seems like a big campaign to prevent Israel from attacking,” analyst Yoel Guzansky at the Institute for National Security Studies told ABC News. “I think the [Obama] administration is really worried Jerusalem will attack and attack soon. They’re trying hard to prevent it in so many ways. ” Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. | 1 |
False reports of gunfire at Los Angeles International Airport on Aug. 28 caused panic among travelers, led to the evacuation of the airport and resulted in more than 250 flight delays. A similar incident occurred two weeks earlier at Kennedy International Airport in New York. While there was no real active shooter in either case, the fear that fliers had during these episodes is very real. Crime statistics show that over all, violence in the United States is as low as it has ever been, yet terrorist attacks at airports in Brussels and Istanbul and mass shootings in the United States have caused passengers to fear loud noises and commotion. Here’s what you need to know about airport safety and what to do if you fear that an active shooter is at an airport. What are the chances of an active shooting or a terrorist attack happening at an airport? Very small, said Larry Studdiford, a security consultant for airports and the founder of Studdiford Technical Solutions, a security firm in Alexandria, Va. An estimated 3. 5 billion people flew globally in 2015, according to the International Air Transport Association, a trade association for the world’s airlines, and comparatively, there were only a handful of incidences at airports. “The chances of a passenger being involved in a shooting or attack at an airport are minimal,” he said. “And, while fear of being at an airport is natural following any airport incident around the world, such as what happened in Istanbul recently, you are more at risk of getting into a car accident on the way to the airport than running into trouble at the airport. ” If there’s a crowd of people running around an airport and you don’t know what’s happened, what should you do? Do not follow the crowds running around, said Mike Ackerman, an expert in travel security and the founder and chairman of the Fort security consulting firm Ackerman Group. Instead, try to find a safe harbor in a quiet place, such as a restroom, and move away from the commotion. “Airports, unlike hotels, don’t have evacuation points because they are supposed to be secure, so it’s not like you can easily get out,” he said. Your best bet is to find a way to stay safe within the airport. If you are in an airport, and there is a potential shooter what should you do? The minute you hear a loud noise or any commotion, move away from it — not toward it — Mr. Ackerman said. “There is a tendency for people to be curious when they hear a loud noise and go toward the trouble, but you want to do just the opposite,” he said. How do you increase your chances of staying safe at an airport? When you get to the airport and have checked in, get through security as quickly as possible, said Mr. Ackerman, because if an attack is going to happen, it will likely be in the area before fliers reach security. “Most attacks in airports, including the attacks in Brussels and Istanbul earlier this year, happen before security checkpoints because the bulk of armed personnel are at, and after you get through, security, and a shooter likely doesn’t want to deal with them,” he said. In addition, Mr. Studdiford advised staying away from areas where people tend to congregate, such as ticket counters, kiosks and baggage claim. “If an attack is going to happen at an airport, it’s likely going to be where there are crowds, so you’re better off staying away from these spots as much as possible,” he said. Check in for your flight before reaching the airport, and get through security faster by signing up for TSA at baggage claim, he said, don’t wait at an idle belt — approach it to pick up your bag only when the belt starts moving. Are some airports safer than others? Not really, especially in the United States, said T. J. Schulz, the president of the trade association Airport Consultants Council and an aviation security expert. “Airports are of different sizes and have different layouts, and that doesn’t mean one is safer than another, but airports in the United States, in general, are safe,” he said. And, travelers should have some peace of mind knowing that all domestic airports have a team of security personnel in addition, some have federal security officers, including armed T. S. A. officers, as well local police . | 1 |
Share This: BY PEPE ESCOBAR
W ill Trump pull a Brexit times ten? What would it take, beyond WikiLeaks, to bring the Clinton (cash) machine down? Will Hillary win and then declare WWIII against her Russia/Iran/Syria “axis of evil”? Will the Middle East totally explode? Will the pivot to Asia totally implode? Will China be ruling the world by 2025? Amidst so many frenetic fragments of geopolitical reality precariously shored against our ruins, the temptation is irresistible to hark back to the late, great, deconstructionist master Jean Baudrillard. During the post-mod 1980s it was hip to be Baudrillardian to the core; his America, originally published in France in 1986, should still be read today as the definitive metaphysical/geological/cultural Instagram of Exceptionalistan. By the late 1990s, at the end of the millennium, two years before 9/11 – that seminal “before and after” event – Baudrillard was already stressing how we live in a black market maze. Now, it’s a black market paroxysm. Global multitudes are subjected to a black market of work – as in the deregulation of the official market; a black market of unemployment; a black market of financial speculation; a black market of misery and poverty; a black market of sex (as in prostitution); a black market of information (as in espionage and shadow wars); a black market of weapons; and even a black market of thinking. Way beyond the late 20th century, in the 2010s what the West praises as “liberal democracy” – actually a neoliberal diktat – has virtually absorbed every ideological divergence, while leaving behind a heap of differences floating in some sort of trompe l’oeil effect. What’s left is a widespread, noxious condition; the pre-emptive prohibition of any critical thought, which has no way to express itself other than becoming clandestine (or finding the right internet niche). Baudrillard already knew that the concept of “alter” – killed by conviviality – does not exist in the official market. So an “alter” black market also sprung up, co-opted by traffickers; that’s, for instance, the realm of racism, nativism and other forms of exclusion. Baudrillard already identified how a “contraband alter”, expressed by sects and every form of nationalism (nowadays, think about the spectrum between jihadism and extreme-right wing political parties) was bound to become more virulent in a society that is desperately intolerant, obsessed with regimentation, and totally homogenized. There could be so much exhilaration inbuilt in life lived in a bewildering chimera cocktail of cultures, signs, differences and “values”; but then came the coupling of thinking with its exact IT replica – artificial intelligence, playing with the line of demarcation between human and non-human in the domain of thought. The result, previewed by Baudrillard, was the secretion of a parapolitical society – with a sort of mafia controlling this secret form of generalized corruption (think the financial Masters of the Universe). Power is unable to fight this mafia – and that would be, on top of it, hypocritical, because the mafia itself emanates from power. The end result is that what really matters today, anywhere, mostly tends to happen outside all official circuits; like in a social black market. Is there any information “truth”? B audrillard showed how political economy is a massive machine, producing value, producing signs of wealth, but not wealth itself. The whole media/information system – still ruled by America – is a massive machine producing events as signs; exchangeable value in the universal market of ideology, the star system and catastrophism. This abstraction of information works as in the economy – disgorging a coded material, deciphered in advance, and negotiable in terms of models, as much as the economy disgorges products negotiable in terms of price and value. Since all merchandise, thanks to this abstraction of value, is exchangeable, then every event (or non-event) is also exchangeable, all replacing one another in the cultural market of information. And that takes us to where we live now; Trans-History, and Trans-Politics – where events have really not happened, as they get lost in the vacuum of information (as much as the economy gets lost in the vacuum of speculation). Thus this quintessential Baudrillard insight; if we consider History as a movie – and that’s what it is now – then the “truth” of information is no more than post-production synch, dubbing and subtitles. Way beyond the late 20th century, in the 2010s what the West praises as “liberal democracy” – actually a neoliberal diktat – has virtually absorbed every ideological divergence, while leaving behind a heap of differences floating in some sort of trompe l’oeil effect . Still, as we all keep an intense desire for devouring events, there is immense disappointment as well, because the content of information is desperately inferior to the means of broadcasting them. Call it a pathetic, universal contagion; people don’t know what to do about their sadness or enthusiasm – in parallel to our societies becoming theaters of the absurd where nothing has consequences. No acts, deeds, crimes (the 2008 financial crisis), political events (the WikiLeaks emails showing virtually no distinction between the “nonprofit” Clinton cash machine, what’s private and what’s public, the obsessive pursuit of personal wealth, and the affairs of the state) seem to have real consequences. Immunity, impunity, corruption, speculation – we veer towards a state of zero responsibility (think Goldman Sachs). So, automatically, we yearn for an event of maximum consequence, a “fatal” event to repair that scandalous non-equivalence. Like a symbolic re-equilibrium of the scales of destiny. So we dream of an amazing event – Trump winning the election? Hillary declaring WWIII? – that would free us from the tyranny of meaning and the constraint of always searching for the equivalence between effects and causes. Shadowing the world J ust like Baudrillard, I got to see “deep” America in the 1980s and 1990s by driving across America. So sooner or later one develops a metaphysical relationship with that ubiquitous warning, “Objects in this mirror may be closer than they appear.” But what if they may also be further than they appear? The contemporary instant event/celebrity culture deluge of images upon us; does it get us closer to a so-called “real” world that is in fact very far away from us? Or does it in fact keep the world at a distance – creating an artificial depth of field that protects us from the imminence of objects and the virtual danger they represent? In parallel, we keep slouching towards a single future language – the language of algorithms, as designed across the Wall Street/Silicon Valley axis – that would represent a real anthropological catastrophe, just like the globalist/New World Order dream of One Thought and One Culture. Languages are multiple and singular – by definition. If there were a single language, words would become univocal, regulating themselves in an autopilot of meaning. There would be no interplay – as in artificial languages there’s no interplay. Language would be just the meek appendix of a unified reality – the negative destiny of a languidly unified human species. That’s where the American “dream” seems to be heading. It’s time to take the next exit ramp. This piece first appeared Strategic-Culture . NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). His latest book is Empire of Chaos . He may be reached at [email protected] . Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. 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FRANKFURT — The investigation into emissions fraud at Volkswagen reached the very top of the company on Sunday after the carmaker said that the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch, is suspected by German prosecutors of violating securities laws. Mr. Pötsch, the former chief financial officer at Volkswagen, is accused of failing to notify shareholders quickly enough of the financial risks of the diesel emissions cheating scandal, which has already led to a $15 billion settlement in the United States and caused the stock price to plunge. The disclosure that Mr. Pötsch is the subject of an investigation is likely to intensify criticism that Volkswagen remains in the hands of many of the longtime insiders who were in charge while the company was producing millions of cars that were deliberately designed to cheat on tests. More than a year after the company was accused of wrongdoing, the scandal is still widening and the damage to Volkswagen’s finances and reputation continues to expand. The investigation of Mr. Pötsch could also provide ammunition to investor groups and mutual funds that are suing Volkswagen in the United States and Germany. The lawsuits claim that Volkswagen managers were aware of the impending scandal and failed to notify shareholders as required by law. The suits could cost the company additional billions of euros. A confidant of the Porsche and Piëch families, who own a majority of Volkswagen’s voting shares, Mr. Pötsch was elevated to chairman of the supervisory board in October 2015. That was a few weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency accused the carmaker of manipulating engine software to conceal illegally high levels of nitrogen oxide emissions. Mr. Pötsch had been the chief financial officer of Volkswagen since 2003 and a member of the company’s management board. As chairman of the supervisory board, Mr. Pötsch oversees the management board. In a statement, Volkswagen said that its management board “duly fulfilled its disclosure obligation under German capital markets law. ” Volkswagen is also under investigation in the United States, not only for programming cars to cheat but also for orchestrating an elaborate starting in early 2014 after tests first cast doubt on what the company claimed were “clean diesel” cars. In fact, the Volkswagen cars emitted as much as 40 times the permitted levels of nitrogen oxides, a family of gases that can cause health problems including asthma and cancer. Nitrogen oxides also contribute to global warming and acid rain, and are a leading cause of the smog that chokes cities like Los Angeles. Volkswagen engineers went so far as to concoct fake engineering data to try to explain a huge discrepancy between the readings in official laboratories and how much the cars polluted on the road, said Alberto Ayala, deputy executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, which did much of the detective work that led to Volkswagen’s exposure. “They lied through their teeth,” Mr. Ayala said in an interview in California last month. The which lasted more than a year, ultimately raised the cost of the scandal to Volkswagen. It has not been able to take advantage of lower financial penalties normally available to corporate wrongdoers who are forthcoming with information and who swiftly take disciplinary action against the responsible employees. Volkswagen has portrayed the malfeasance as the work of midlevel engineers and managers acting without knowledge of top management. But that position has become difficult to defend as more information becomes available from court documents. Lawsuits against Volkswagen by car owners as well as state attorneys general portray a vast conspiracy involving hundreds of Volkswagen employees as well as suppliers like Robert Bosch, the German company that manufactured engine computers for affected vehicles in the United States. The identification of Mr. Pötsch as a target of the investigation could also intensify criticism of the Porsche and Piëch families, descendants of Volkswagen’s founder, Ferdinand Porsche, who own a majority of Volkswagen’s voting shares. Mr. Pötsch is closely associated with the family and is also chief executive of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the holding company for the family’s shares in Volkswagen. Other investors have criticized the families for poor oversight of Volkswagen and helping to create the corporate culture that led to the wrongdoing. Just one person has been formally charged in the case. In September, James Liang, a Volkswagen engineer, pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to defraud regulators and car owners. Mr. Liang agreed to cooperate with investigators and has not yet been sentenced. Mr. Liang was in the United States, but most of the other potential suspects are in Germany. Attempts to work out plea agreements with the others have so far foundered on differences between German and American laws. In Germany, prosecutors have much less scope to offer defendants reduced sentences in return for guilty pleas. Many of the potential suspects are being careful not to leave Germany, lest they be arrested on American warrants, according to lawyers as well as engineers who have been questioned by investigators. Germany does not usually extradite its citizens, but there is no protection for Germans traveling in other European countries. Prosecutors and Volkswagen have previously disclosed that Martin Winterkorn, the former chief executive of Volkswagen, and Herbert Diess, a member of the management board responsible for the Volkswagen brand, are also under investigation for violating the company’s duty to disclose information that could affect the company’s share price. Mr. Winterkorn resigned shortly after the E. P. A. accused Volkswagen of wrongdoing in September 2015, but Mr. Diess remains a member of the management board. Volkswagen shares have lost a quarter of their value since the scandal came to light. The state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20 percent of Volkswagen shares and occupies two seats on the supervisory board, said on Sunday that Mr. Pötsch was innocent until proven guilty and that it would be wrong to arrive at “rash conclusions. ” In a statement, the state said that members of the supervisory board were briefed on Friday on the latest findings by internal investigators. The report provided “no occasion for further measures,” the state said. | 1 |
BREAKING: Trump Takes Lead In Battleground State Of Florida
“We have a record number of people registered to vote in Texas. Weâre having record turnouts, the first day, the second day of voting,” Miller said.
“And itâs not Bernie Sanders supporters coming out to support (Democrat nominee) Hillary (Clinton). Itâs not (President) Barack Obama supporters coming out to support Hillary. Itâs a new surge of Trump voters, many who have never registered to vote,” he continued. “Many who have not voted in eight or 10Â elections so theyâre not reported in the polls.”
Miller then said he had proof that the polls are being rigged. His proof comes amid Trump’s claims that the election was being rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton.
“I know for a fact that the polls are off because they oversample Democrats by 8, sometimes up to 16 percent, oversampling Democrats. Theyâre oversampling women by 5 to 8 percent,” Miller explained.
“So the Republican vote is underreported. Plus there is no way to sample this extra 20Â to 25percent of new voters that are Trump voters. Theyâre not Republican, theyâre not Democrats, theyâre pragmatists. Theyâre tired of the status quo and they want change.”
Watch the entire interview below: YUGE RECORD BREAKING VOTES in TEXAS!!! & Its Not Bernie Fans or Obama Voters for Hillary Clinton!! ALLL Donald Trump Folksđ #wednesdaywisdom pic.twitter.com/Sn79fMhwXG
— DEPLORABLE TRUMPCAT (@Darren32895836) October 26, 2016 | 0 |
#Gorsuch asked about letter by student accusing him of encouraging discrimination against pregnant female lawyers https: . pic. twitter. Tuesday at his confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Neil Gorsuch responded to an accusation made by former Obama administration staffer Jennifer Sisk that he once told students women manipulate maternity leave. Sisk, a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School, alleged Gorsuch made the comments in a legal ethics class. However, when confronted by Sen. Dick Durbin ( ) Gorsuch promptly denied the allegation. Transcript as follows: DURBIN: Let me ask you this specific one. It was 1993 and you were at Oxford, when you believe you first met this professor. Professor Finnis was tapped by the Solicitor General Timothy Tymkovich, to help defend a 1992 state constitutional amendment that broadly restricted the state from protecting gay, Lesbian and bisexual people from discrimination. During the course of the deposition which he gave in support of that effort, Finnis argued that antipathy toward LGBT people, specifically toward gay sex, was rooted not just in religious tradition, but Western law and society at large. He referred to homosexuality as bestiality in the course of this as well. Were you aware of that? GORSUCH: Senator, I — I know he testified in the Romer case. I can’t say sitting here I recall the specifics of his testimony or that he gave a deposition. DURBIN: I guess the reason I’m raising this is this is a man who apparently had an impact on your life, certainly your academic life. And I’m trying to figure out where we can parse his views from your views what impact he had on you as a student what impact he has on you today with his views. GORSUCH: Well, then I guess, Senator, I think the best evidence is what I’ve written. I’ve written over — gosh, written or joined over 6 million words as a federal appellate judge. I’ve written a couple of books. I’ve been a lawyer and a judge for 25 or 30 years. That’s my record. And I guess I’d ask you respectfully to look at my credentials and my record. And some of the examples I’ve given you from my record about the capital habeas work, about access to justice. I’ve spoken about publicly. Those are — those are things I’ve done, Senator. DURBIN: And what about LGBT (inaudible) individuals? GORSUCH: Well, Senator, there are — what about them? DURBIN: Well, the point I made is … GORSUCH: They’re people. And, you know … DURBIN: Of course. But what you said earlier was that you have a record of speaking out, standing up for those minorities who you believe are not being treated fairly. Can you point to statements or cases you’ve ruled on relative to that class? GORSUCH: Senator, I try to treat each case, and each person, as a person, not a this kind of person, not a that kind of person — a person. Equal justice under law is a radical promise in the history of mankind. DURBIN: Does that refer to sexual orientation as well? GORSUCH: Senator, the Supreme Court of the United States has held that marriage is protected by the Constitution. DURBIN: Judge, would you agree that if an employer were to ask female job applicants about their family plans, but not male applicants, that would be evidence of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act? GORSUCH: Senator, I’d agree with you it’s highly inappropriate. DURBIN: You don’t believe it’s prohibited? GORSUCH: Senator, it sounds like a potential hypothetical case. It might be a case or controversy I might have to decide, and I wouldn’t want to it sitting here at the confirmation table. I can tell you it would be inappropriate. DURBIN: Inappropriate. Do you believe that there are ever situations where the costs to an employer of maternity leave can justify an employer asking only female applicants and not male applicants about family plans? GORSUCH: Senator, those are not my words and I would never have said them. DURBIN: I didn’t say that. I asked you if you agree with the statement. GORSUCH: And I’m telling you I don’t. DURBIN: Thank you. In Wang vs. Kansas State, the case involved a professor. You wrote an opinion that noted that EEOC guidance commands deference, quote, “only to the extent its reasoning actually proves persuasive. EEOC’s enforcement guidance on pregnancy discrimination provides as follows. Because Title Seven prohibits discrimination based on pregnancy, employers should not make inquiries into whether an applicant or employee intends to become pregnant. The EEOC will generally regard such an inquiry as evidence of pregnancy discrimination where the employer subsequently makes an unfavorable job decision affecting a pregnant worker. Do you find this instruction to be persuasive? GORSUCH: Senator, I — there’s a lot of words there. And if you’re asking me to parse them out and give you a legal opinion, then I — I fear that you may be — I — I’d respectfully say I’d have to study it in the course of a judicial case. DURBIN: Well, let me bring it right down to the operative words. Whether employee should or should not make inquiries into whether an applicant or employee intends to become pregnant. GORSUCH: Senator, I need to — it sounds like you’re asking me about a case for a controversy. And I — with all respect, when we come to cases in controversies, a good judge will listen. Socrates said the first virtue of a good judge is to listen courteously and decide impartially. DURBIN: I think you know why I’m asking these questions. GORSUCH: No, this one I — I don’t. DURBIN: The reason I’m asking is because about your views on pregnancy women in the work place is because two of your former students from legal ethics and professionalism class last spring wrote to this committee to say how troubled they were by your comments in an April 19th class. It was a discussion regarding the hardship to employers of having female employees who may use maternity benefits. One of these students signed her name publicly to her letter, which is a pretty brave thing to do. That student didn’t just make this issue up after you were nominated. Last night, the University of Colorado Law School confirmed that she had voiced her concerns with administrators shortly after your April 19th class and also confirmed that the administrators told her they would raise this matter with you, though they never actually did so. When we receive information like this which raises questions about your views and conduct on important issues, I want to get to the bottom of it. I mentioned that to you yesterday in my opening statement that I would be bringing this up. So, I just want to ask you to confirm, did you ask your students in class that day to raise their hands if they knew of a woman who had taken maternity benefits from a company and then left the company after having a baby? GORSUCH: No, Senator. And I’d be delighted to actually clear this up. DURBIN: Please. GORSUCH: Because the first I heard of this was the night before my confirmation hearing. I’ve been teaching legal ethics at the University of Colorado for seven or eight years. It’s been a great honor and a pleasure. I teach from a standard text book that every professor — well, I don’t know if every professor — a number of professors at CU and elsewhere use. It’s an excellent textbook — Professors Lerman and Shrag. In one of the chapters in the book confronts lawyers with some harsh realities that they’re about to face when they enter the practice of law. As you know and I know, we have an unhappy and unhealthy profession in a lot of ways. Lawyers commit suicide at rates far higher than the population. Alcoholism, divorce, depression are also at extremely high rates. Young lawyers also face the problem of having enormous debts when they leave law school. As a — and that’s a huge inhibition for them to be able to do public service like you and I are so privileged to be able to do. We talk about those things. There is one problem in the book — and I’d be happy to share with you the book and the teacher’s manual so that you can see for yourself, Senator — which asks a question. And it’s directed to young women because sadly, this is a reality they sometimes face. The problem is this. Suppose an older partner woman at the firm that you’re interviewing at asks you if you intend to become pregnant soon. What are your choices as a young person? You can say yes, tell the truth. Hypothetical is that it’s true and not get the job and not be able to pay your debts. You can lie, maybe get the job. You can say no. That’s a — that’s a choice, too. It’s a hard choice. Or you can push back in some way shape or form. And we talk about the pros and the cons in this acratic (ph) dialogue that they can think through for themselves how they might answer that very difficult question. And Senator, I do ask for a show of hands, not about the question you asked, but about the following question. And I ask it of everybody. How many of you have had questions like this asked of you in the employment environment, an inappropriate question about your family planning? And I am shocked every year, Senator, how many young women raise their hand. It’s disturbing to me. I knew this stuff happened when my mom was a young practicing lawyer, graduating law school in the 1960s’. At age 20, she had to wait for a year to take the bar. I knew it happened with Justice O’Connor, couldn’t get a job as a lawyer when she graduated Stanford Law School and had to work as a secretary. I am shocked it still happens every year that I get women, not men, raising their hand to that question. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify that Senator. Follow Breitbart. tv on @BreitbartVideo | 1 |
On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews stated that President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey “for not playing ball” and that with Comey’s firing, “clearly, we’re on the trail there to an impeachment. ” Matthews said, “We already nailed down the fact that he [Trump] fired the guy [FBI Director James Comey] afterwards for not playing ball with him. There’s a lot of evidence here. It seems to me it would take a reasonable person in the direction of, perhaps wanting more information, but clearly, we’re on the trail there to an impeachment. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0 |
Grab a hanky… Photo courtesy of Anika Rychner
From Today.com : Emmett Rychner was the first to move away. Two years ago, the young preschooler moved to a neighboring town, leaving behind his best friend, Erling Kindem, a World War II veteran who lived next door.
Last week, the time arrived for a final goodbye.
Erling, 91, died last Saturday, just three days after 6-year-old Emmett paid a visit to the nursing home where he was receiving hospice care.
“After we told Emmett that Erling had passed away, he was very quiet for a while,” his mother Anika Rychner told TODAY. “The first thing he said was, ‘So we’ll just have to wait a really long time. I know we’ll see him again in heaven.’”
For more than a decade, the two families lived next to each other in a Minneapolis suburb, but didn’t have much of a relationship beyond saying hello. That changed after Emmett came along.
“He was about 2 when this all started. He would start venturing over to Erling’s backyard when he was out in his garden with his tomatoes,” Rychner recalled.
One day, when Emmett saw Erling pouring dirt around his new sidewalk, he grabbed his toy shovel and wheelbarrow and walked over.
Erling was tickled by his new companion and they instantly bonded.
From then, Emmett went outside anytime he spotted his buddy. “He would also go knock on Erling’s door and ask if Erling could play,” his mother recalled with a laugh.
The two had lawn mower races (Emmett rode his electric toy mower). They played croquet and rode bicycles. And they cared for Erling’s garden, which grew one of the boy’s favorite foods, tomatoes.
“He especially liked the cherry ones that he could pick right there and eat in the garden. So he’d help Dad weed the garden,” Erling’s son, Charlie Kindem, told TODAY.
Two years ago, Emmett’s growing family moved away to the countryside. A month later, Erling and his wife moved to a senior apartment. But the two friends continued to visit each other regularly. Photo courtesy Anika Rychner
“Erling was still driving when we moved away, so we would sometimes come home and find tomatoes from his garden on our front porch, or a note for Emmett with some other treasure he brought him,” Rychner said.
“If we hadn’t visited in a while, Erling would call, and we would go visit,” she said. “Or sometimes the kids we’d say, ‘We should go see Erling,’ and we would stop on our way home from school.”
Emmett often drew pictures of B-24 bomber planes for his friend, who served as a radio operator and gunner during World War II.
“A lot of kids are not comfortable around elderly people because they look different. Emmett always was,” Rychner said. “He was never was shy about hugging Erling and holding his hand.”
When Erling’s wife, Joyce, with whom he had five children, died last fall, Emmett and his family attended her funeral.
“It was a natural thing,” Kindem said of his father’s relationship with Emmett. “He didn’t talk down to him at all. He talked to him like he was a regular person and not a little kid.”
But Erling was always like that, his son said.
“Dad was always friendly with kids. Growing up, he would play with us, whether it was baseball or football,” he said. He recalled how Erling flooded the vacant lot next door to their home every winter to turn it into an ice rink.
This past spring, Erling moved into an assisted living home. But his heart condition began to worsen and last month, he moved into a nursing home, where he received hospice care.
Emmett saw his friend the day after he moved in, and again last week. That was when Emmett read his friend the Lord’s prayer, and Erling encouraged his buddy to listen to his parents. Their final goodbye…
“It felt like a goodbye,” Rychner said. Erling passed away three days later.
Emmett has been more quiet than usual, but appears to have absorbed the news, in part because his parents had been preparing him. Rychner said she considers it “a wonderful gift” that Emmett had the chance to experience the decline of a friend’s health in such a positive, natural way.
She felt proud her son didn’t shy away from Erling, even in his illness.
“We all have to experience death at some point in our life of a loved one. That’s an important part of growing up. You can’t avoid it,” she said.
Both Rychner and Kindem said they have been moved by the outpouring of support since NBC-affiliate KARE first reported their story two years ago. The station continued to chronicle the friendship and reported the news of Erling’s death.
“He has strong faith that he will see him again,” Rychner said.
DCG | 1 |
November 1, 2016 at 11:34 pm
Russia do not want the end of the human race…. The USA and UK does……But if the humans are to die……. They will die too……Regardless of their rat hole….. YES… the world is force to accept the US dollar at gun point and nuclear weapons…..USA kill 3.7 millions innocent humans of all ages in Iraq…. They kill 400.000 humans i Afghanistan….. They kill 250.000 humans in Syria and blame ASSAD and Russia…They activated the plate destroyer to attack Italy with two Earthquake and punish the minister….They repeated the same in Ecuador twice….The world court and the UN are 1 % corrupted and murders……ISIL, Alqaeda, AL-Nusra and Bocaharanis are already inside USA in various close down military bases……USA will be communist and feudalism one more time… | 0 |
Donald Trump Wins The Presidency In Historic Mandate Victory As Hillary Clinton Concedes Reaction to the prospect of a Trump presidency rippled across the globe, with financial markets abroad falling as American television networks raised the prospect that Mrs. Clinton might lose. Asian markets were trading sharply lower, down around two percentage points, and in the United States, Dow Jones futures were down as much as 600 points in after-hours trading. The American people have voted, Donald Trump is president, and the world is in shock
“And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:” Daniel 2:21 (KJV) Tonight. the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spoke quite loudly. Change like this country has never seen, like the world has never seen, has arrived at our doorstep. President Trump has been elected leader of the free world . People, you better buckle up because things are about to become unglued. For well over a year now, we here at NTEB have been telling you that Donald Trump is God’s man for the White House, and that Bible prophecy would be fulfilled in the process. Two very eye-opening articles you need to read are The Real Reason Why Donald Trump Was Chosen To Be The Republican Candidate For President and Why A Bible Believer Is Supporting Donald Trump For President Of The United States . I wrote those articles on May 4 and February 13, respectively. Are YOU ready for what comes next? The liberal news media certainly does not seem to be ready, in fact, they seem to be in quite the state of shock as you can see below. The NYT declared just after 11:30 p.m, Donald Trump was declared the victor in Florida , earning him the state’s 29 electoral votes and giving him a more certain grip on the presidential contest with Mrs. Clinton. How the world is reacting to Trump’s victory: Reaction to the prospect of a Trump presidency rippled across the globe , with financial markets abroad falling as American television networks raised the prospect that Mrs. Clinton might lose. Asian markets were trading sharply lower, down around two percentage points, and in the United States, Dow Jones futures were down as much as 600 points in after-hours trading. CNN: This Sea of Red Has Got to Make You Feel Better Fox News projects: Donald Trump wins FL, Clinton wins CA Chris Wallace: Trump could be our next president Donald Trump wins Florida, CNN projects:
Get ready for momentous change like this country has never seen, and while you do that, get ready for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
Because it’s coming… | 0 |
Putin Mocks Clinton Claim Of Russia Election Meddling: ‘Is U.S. A Banana Republic?’ “Is the U.S. a banana republic? America is a great power. If I’m wrong, correct me.” American Mirror - October 28, 2016 Comments
Hillary Clinton claims she’s the only candidate who will stand up to Vladimir Putin, but she’s also the only candidate who apparently believes the United States is vulnerable enough to not prevent Russia from meddling in the November presidential election.
Russian President Putin mocked that notion on Thursday. Vladimir Putin: "Does anyone really think Russia could influence the American people's choice in any way? What,is the US a banana republic?" pic.twitter.com/ngQhJR1AtP
“Does anyone seriously think that Russia can influence the choice of the American people?” Putin told a group of academics in Sochi.
“Is the U.S. a banana republic? America is a great power. If I’m wrong, correct me.”
Hillary Clinton has repeatedly blamed Russia for the disclosures of campaign operative emails by Wikileaks.
“We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election,” Clinton said at the second presidential debate.
“And believe me, they’re not doing it to get me elected. They’re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump.”
“Anything that goes wrong they blame Russia,” Trump told a crowd in Ocala, Florida days later. “We are being hacked because we have people who don’t know what they are doing. They always blame Russia.”
“They say Donald Trump is friends with Putin. I don’t know Putin, folks,” Trump added. “What the hell do I have to do with Putin?” NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles | 0 |
The etiquette of the empty nest can bedevil even the most sophisticated parent. Take, for instance, the actress Alfre Woodard. Ms. Woodard said that when her younger child (her son, Duncan) went to college in 2012, her depression caught her in a bind. “Suddenly the thing that made my life vibrant and not like a showbizzy person’s life was gone,” said Ms. Woodard, who can be seen in Netflix’s coming series “Marvel’s Luke Cage. ” “I was leaking. I not only lost Duncan’s presence, but I lost having a lot of big, smelly kids — his friends — in the house all the time. They used to play lacrosse in my driveway. I used to cook for them. ” Lest she make her son uncomfortable, Ms. Woodard tried to obscure her sadness. “I would hide in the bathroom and weep into a wet face towel,” she said. But then she worried that maybe she had overcorrected course and seemed unfeeling. “So I told him, ‘Let’s cry together for a couple of minutes so that you know I’m gonna miss you.’ He said sure. So we stood there for a couple of minutes and then finally he said, ‘O. K. Mom. I’ll be upstairs. ’” Parents have been crying into face towels for centuries. But syndrome has gained especial piquancy in a world in which parents and their offspring are in the habit of texting one another a few times a day, and in which accounts of shootings on campuses are repeated on social media with a frequency bordering on the abject. The pot may be further sweetened by a recent Pew Research Center study’s determination that, for the first time on record, the most common arrangement for people aged 18 to 34 is living with parents. So now those parents whose children do move out are alone in their aloneness. For many empty nesters, landing on the proper spot of the Umbilical Arctic Gale continuum can be tricky. “You have got to leave your kids alone,” Ms. Woodard said. “The only time you text is if you have something really slammin’ to say. Something you know they’re really into. Like, Duncan is a big golfer, so I’ll text, ‘Oh, no, Rory didn’t!’ That’s all I’ll say. What you don’t want to write is ‘Your room is so warm!’ Or ‘Have you eaten?’ Or ‘Do you have any friends?’ ‘Are you drunk? ’” Some parents and students are tempted to use Facebook and Instagram as the world’s cheapest baby cam, though “some students say that no way do they want their parents on social media,” said Karen Coburn, the senior consultant in residence at the office of the vice chancellor for students at Washington University in St. Louis. “Others say they like it because it means they don’t have to communicate with their folks as much because the parents get an idea of what the kids are up to,” Ms. Coburn said. “But one of the worst things a parent can do is to ‘friend’ one of their kid’s friends. One of my students told me, ‘Another student came up to me and said, ‘This old woman friended me on Facebook, I think it might be your mom or grandmother.’ The ‘old woman’ was probably 45. ” Indeed, fences are usually built for a reason. Robert Lindquist, a freshman at the University of Connecticut who is majoring in digital media and design, has imposed a rule on visits from his family. “It started out as a joke,” Mr. Lindquist said. “I’m going to school only an hour and a half away from my parents. It’s not quite as inconvenient as I’d intended. ” Mr. Lindquist said: “The rule applies to any family member. We have a term, ‘the Lindquist Confusion Factor,’ because I have nine aunts and uncles. They’re excellent people, but that many of them can be a little much if you’re not prepared. ” Asked how his parents reacted to the demand, Mr. Lindquist said, “I don’t recall them being overjoyed. ” Some people view the concept of syndrome itself as suspect. Shayla Rivera, a comedian, says in her act that she had to look up the term on the internet: “White women get sad when the children leave the house. What?” Asked about the routine, Ms. Rivera, who has a son and a daughter, emailed from Kosovo, where she was performing for American troops, “As I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, some of the North American vicissitudes were not part of my paradigm. They say that women actually go into their kids’ room and smell their clothing! Are you kidding me? I spent 18 years shutting my son’s door so the smell of dirty socks and other mysterious aromas wouldn’t come into the house. When he left I had to go in there with sage, holy water and a priest. ” All joking aside, Ms. Woodard said that parents may feel a child’s absence even more acutely. “Their house or apartment is smaller, so the kid’s presence is missed more,” she said. “Also, parents probably raised that kid on their own. ” Regardless of the factors when a household is decanted of its young people, it’s clear that kids who leave their home need a lot of room to grow in, and that parents need to hone their listening skills. Once, when Ms. Coburn asked a Washington University student to give advice to a group of the school’s parents, the young woman offered: “Sometimes we want your advice and sometimes we don’t. The challenge is, we won’t tell you which time is which. ” Nina Keneally, a mother of two who lives in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, runs a service called Need a Mom, in which she can be hired as a combination mentor and life coach. “Most of them don’t complain about their parents being in touch too much,” Ms. Keneally said of her clients in their 20s. “But a lot of them talk to me about stuff that they wouldn’t talk to their parents about: relationship problems, or things they’re contemplating doing or not doing. Parents would jump in too quickly, or would be embarrassed about what the kid is proposing. ” Indeed, the greatest lesson for many empty nesters may be learning to be their child’s coach or inspiration rather than a child’s concierge or critic. In 2014, when students at Keene State College in New Hampshire injected a local event called the Pumpkin Festival with and the president of the college chastised her students for failing to “pumpkin responsibly. ” It seems only natural that a parent, on hauling the last box of his child’s shinguards and Harry Potter effluvia into the unsupervised blankness of a dorm room, may fear the advent of pumpkin irresponsibility. In the end, empathy and patience are an empty nester’s Xanax. I asked Ms. Woodard what she would say to her parents today about keeping in touch if she were a young person going off to college. Ms. Woodard didn’t miss a beat: “I would say, ‘I’ll hit you up. ’” | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Protesters near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation have won a round, but few think their fight against an oil pipeline is over. The Department of the Army said on Sunday that it would seek an alternate route for the pipeline, but some uncertainty remains — Donald J. Trump supports the project and his administration could undo the Army’s decision. Above, veterans joined the protesters. _____ 2. A mistrial was declared in the case of a white former police officer in South Carolina who shot an unarmed black man in the back last year. The jury, a panel of 11 white people and a black man, said it would not be able to reach a unanimous verdict. On Friday, the jury had signaled that it was within a single vote of convicting Michael Slager, who was captured on video firing the fatal shots at Walter Scott. _____ 3. movements across Europe are among the winners after a constitutional referendum in Italy failed and the country’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, above, resigned. The vote deepened concerns that Italian banks could spiral into disaster and worries about the endurance of the euro. In Britain, the Supreme Court began what is expected to be four days of hearings on the government’s efforts to retain a free hand in organizing the exit from the European Union. _____ 4. The North Carolina man who was arrested for firing a rifle in a popular Washington pizzeria confirmed he was motivated by a fake news story about a suspected child trafficking ring allegedly running out of the restaurant and led by Hillary Clinton. Edgar Welch, above, told police he went to the restaurant to “ ” the pedophilia hoax. Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s choice for national security adviser, is under scrutiny for sharing similar conspiracy theories about Mrs. Clinton. _____ 5. Ben Carson, who endorsed Mr. Trump after ending his own presidential bid, was chosen as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has no experience in government or expertise in housing policy, but he opposes government programs that he says encourage “dependency. ” Mr. Trump is expected to fill a series of other domestic positions this week. So far, he’s selected a mix of wealthy outsiders, Republican insiders and former military officers. _____ 6. Tensions between China and Mr. Trump are escalating, even before the takes office. A editorial in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party of China, denounced Mr. Trump for speaking with Taiwan’s president, and Mr. Trump posted messages on Twitter that stepped up pressure on Beijing. The Taiwanese appear to be cautiously embracing Mr. Trump’s attention. _____ 7. The death toll from a warehouse fire in California could continue to rise as the search for victims may go on for days, authorities said. people have now been found dead 11 of the victims have been positively identified. We spoke with residents of the building, who described persistent electrical problems and their escape from the inferno. “It was like something out of a horror film,” one woman said. _____ 8. Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina, above, has conceded in his bid for giving the national Democratic Party a rare cause for celebration. Mr. McCrory, a Republican, drew nationwide attention during his one term for signing a law limiting bathroom access for transgender people. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, declared victory on election night, but the win was contested. _____ 9. “We must never repeat the horror of war. ” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s announcement that he will visit Pearl Harbor, the U. S. naval base that Japan attacked in World War II, effectively reciprocates President Obama’s May trip to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, above, where the U. S. used a nuclear bomb to end the war. Mr. Abe’s visit to Hawaii is set for Dec. 26 and 27, just weeks after the 75th anniversary of the attack in Hawaii, which happened on Dec. 7, 1941. _____ 10. One of our stories today was not the one that we intended to report. Our journalists went to the small town of Iraan, Tex. on Friday to chronicle the high school’s undefeated football team playing a state quarterfinal game. They won. But on the way home, an lost control and collided with a bus carrying the team’s cheerleaders. Liz Pope, above, a fixture of the school community, died and several others were injured. _____ 11. Bob Dylan sent the Nobel Prize committee a speech to be read on his behalf when he is awarded the literature prize in Stockholm on Saturday. Patti Smith, the musician and writer, will perform his “A Hard Rain’s Fall” as a tribute. _____ 12. ’Tis the season to purchase Christmas figurines of famous people squatting to defecate. The unusual holiday tradition from northeastern Spain is not meant to denigrate the politicians and celebrities portrayed. They’re actually a nod to the use of human waste as fertilizer. First made in the 18th century, the small sculptures are usually placed in a Nativity scene. Politicians from the U. S. have been particularly popular this year. Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s Friday’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
William Pickens III has spent most of his 80 summers in Sag Harbor Hills, a beach community of modest bungalows on the edge of the Hamptons. His principal built the house across the street his family doctor lived two doors down. Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were his house guests. Those were the people who came to Sag Harbor Hills. About a year and a half ago he noticed a change. There were new buyers, and they were different. They did not mix much, and they identified themselves by names like 81 Harvest Holdings L. L. C. or 45 Hillside Holdings L. L. C. “I don’t know Mr. and Mrs. L. L. C. ,” Mr. Pickens said. “But I know the family on either side of them, because I grew up with them. But who the hell is L. L. C. ?” “It’s worrisome,” he added. “May not be illegal, but it’s worrisome. ” Sag Harbor Hills and its neighboring subdivisions in the Long Island village of Sag Harbor, Ninevah and Azurest, are uncommon among American beach communities. After World War II, when Sag Harbor was home to a robust working class, developers offered parcels in an undeveloped swath of town for $1, 000 or less. Black families bought in, creating three adjoining communities linked by dirt roads. Two nearby subdivisions, Eastville and Chatfield’s Hill, also attracted black home buyers. As in other black enclaves of segregated communities, laborers lived next to professionals and high rollers. For many it was a world of their own, a decompression zone — home in a way that even their city residences might not be, because it had been built by people like them. The racial makeup kept home prices down. White buyers tended to choose other parts of Sag Harbor. That is changing. As house prices in the Hamptons soar, Sag Harbor Hills and its neighbors are now luring investors looking for bargains. A lawyer named Bruce F. Bronster, backed by investors, has bought at least nine properties in the three communities, each registered to a different L. L. C. Others have followed. In November, residents received a mass email saying a buyer was willing to pay up to $600, 000 in cash for houses — was anyone interested? “It feels like a hostile takeover,” Beverly Granger, a retired dentist, said, adding that strangers have come onto her property to post offers to buy. “People are very aggressively buying up properties and wanting to put bigger homes that are out of character for the community. It just feels different. ” On a recent afternoon, the shaded ranch houses and small lots gave Sag Harbor Hills the feel of a quiet suburb, shaggy in a few spots, embellished with home additions in others, all leading to a ribbon of bayside beach. Neighbors waved as they passed one another on the street. Because banks in the 1950s and 1960s would not lend money in areas, the homes that went up were small. So family life took shape outdoors, among neighbors, said Ms. Granger, who has spent summers in Sag Harbor Hills since 1951. “There was no television,” Ms. Granger said, describing life in the hamlet. “You got a little bit of radio. And so you really went in the homes to sleep and eat, and the rest of the time you were outside doing things. ” Neighbors watched one another’s children, she said. Houses tended to stay within families or among friends turnover was rare. With the arrival of celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, the restaurateur B. Smith and Allan Houston of the New York Knicks, the communities rivaled Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard as a vacation mecca for successful . Colson Whitehead, writing about the summers of the black elite in his novel “Sag Harbor,” described an oasis apart from his white prep school. “We fit in there,” he wrote. At a village trustees’ meeting this month, residents faced off. Mr. Bronster was seeking approval to build a house of 5, 300 square feet on several combined lots, the biggest in an area where the median house size is 1, 378 square feet. Neighbors, including a group called Save Sag Harbor, which formed to keep stores out of downtown, came ready to oppose him. Mr. Bronster brought backup to the gathering. “He brought his architect, he brought a attorney and some other attorney, and he had aerial photographs and professionally done graphs,” said Victoria Sharp, a former director of the AIDS center at St. Luke’ Hospital in Manhattan. “If Bronster was putting up a house of 4, 000 square feet, people would be fine with that,” Ms. Sharp said. “But putting up a house of 53 hundred square feet represents a tipping point. The next one is 55, and the next one is 59. And he’s got big money behind him and is going to make this neighborhood what it never has been. ” Like others interviewed for this article, Ms. Sharp, who is white, said the tensions were not racial. She said that since moving to Sag Harbor Hills from another neighborhood in the village last February, she has been welcomed into her neighbors’ homes. “It’s exactly why I moved here,” she said. In 14 years in her previous house, she was never invited to a neighbor’s party. “There’s a real sense of community here. And that’s about, unfortunately, to be interrupted. ” Mr. Bronster said he had no intention of changing the community’s atmosphere. He, too, was drawn by the neighborly feel, he said. “I’m especially appreciative of the history of the neighborhood, how it was started, what it means to the residents who live there and how that has enabled the community to develop a very warm and gregarious and welcoming sense,” he said. “That’s why I want to be there. ” He added that he was developing dilapidated houses to rent to “ families that want to be part of the community. ” An even bigger house, of 5, 900 square feet, has been proposed for four combined lots that belong to Robert Kapito, the president of the investment firm BlackRock, who is also one of Mr. Bronster’s investors. Mr. Kapito earned more than $20 million last year, according to company filings. Final approval for the two houses is pending. Renee Simons, who lives next to the site of Mr. Kapito’s proposed house, said that she felt dismissed by the newcomers, and at odds with some neighbors, who hope the new houses will raise the value of their homes. “It feels like us versus them, which is not healthy,” Ms. Simons said. “It’s not what I come here for. There’s such an increase in contention now. ” “We’re on defense,” she said. “So then you get called a . ” Dianne McMillan Brannen, a real estate agent who has lived in Ninevah for 25 years, said she worried about a domino effect: investors combining lots to build bigger houses, which drives up sales prices, which tempts more families to sell, until eventually a historically rare haven looks like just another upscale beach resort. In the last year, she said, 13 houses have been sold to builders or investors, compared with the usual four or five. “An identity is the most important thing that could be lost,” Ms. Brannen said. “This area is not always going to be . You could have 250 homes, and it would be an entirely different set of people here. And those sets of people are not going to regard it as we have regarded it. And they’re not going to have a story to tell about what’s happened previously. And unless we tell that story, it’ll go away. ” Mr. Pickens, whose grandfather was an early field secretary of the N. A. A. C. P. said he welcomed newcomers, whatever their race, but not investors or people with four or five houses and no commitment to the community. “This is sort of reverse integration,” he said. “That’s fine, that’s the American way. But there are 5, 000 miles of coastline in America, and five are commanded and owned by blacks. So we treasure what we own. That begins to disappear. Think about that. So that’s what we’re dealing with. And once you leave here, you can’t afford to come back. ” Of the newcomers, he asked: “Do they really want to be here or do they want to see us out of here? I’m for integration, I’m not for elimination. ” | 1 |
The Abnormal Normal of Nuclear Terror October 28, 2016
Almost goofily, behind Official Washington’s latest warmongering “group think,” the U.S. has plunged into a New Cold War against Russia with no debate about the enormous costs and the extraordinary risks of nuclear annihilation, Gray Brechin observes.
By Gray Brechin
When Lewis Mumford heard that a primitive atomic bomb had obliterated Hiroshima, the eminent urban and technology historian experienced “almost physical nausea.” He instantly understood that humanity now had the means to exterminate itself.
On March 2, 1946, seven months later, he published an essay titled “Gentlemen: You Are Mad!” Not only did madmen, Mumford insist, “govern our affairs in the name of order and security,” but he called his fellow Americans equally mad for viewing “the madness of our leaders as if it expressed a traditional wisdom and common sense” even as those leaders readied the means for “the casual suicide of the human race.” Illustration by Chesley Bonestell of nuclear bombs detonating over New York City, entitled “Hiroshima U.S.A.” Colliers, Aug. 5, 1950.
In the 70 years since the Saturday Review of Literature published Mumford’s warning, that madness has grown to be normative so that those who question the cost, safety and promised security of the nuclear stockpile are regarded as the Trojans did Cassandra — if they are noticed at all.
“The bottom line on nuclear weapons is that when the president gives the order it mus t be followed, ” insisted Hillary Clinton in the third presidential debate as a means of affirming her own — rather than her opponent’s — qualifications to give that order. “There’s about four minutes between the order being given and the people responsible for launching nuclear weapons to do so.”
Four minutes to launch is a minute more than the three to midnight at which the Doomsday Clock now stands. Clinton no doubt calculated that voters would be more comfortable with her own steady finger on the nuclear trigger. I can think of no better proof of Mumford’s contention than the fact that those voters would give any individual the power to abruptly end life on Earth unless it is that her statement went unremarked by those keeping score.
The Nobel Mistake
Less than nine months into Barack Obama’s presidency, Norway’s Nobel Institute bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize on him largely on the strength of his pledge during his first major foreign policy speech in Prague to rid the world of nuclear weapons. In a 2015 memoir, former secretary of the Institute Geir Lundestad expressed remorse for doing so, saying “[We] thought that it would strengthen Obama and it didn’t have that effect.” President Barack Obama uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009. (White House photo)
Like all modern presidents, Obama quickly learned the political economy of the entrenched nuclear establishment, committing a trillion dollars to the “modernization” of the arsenal and its delivery systems 30 years beyond his presidency.
As Obama prepared to leave office, his Defense Secretary Ashton Carter rejected pleas for reducing the stockpile and announced that the Pentagon planned to spend $108 billion over five years to “correct decades of underinvestment in nuclear deterrence … dat[ing] back to the Cold War.” The last Cold War, that is.
Such staggering expenditures are, however, even more unlikely to purchase the order and security that Secretary Carter promised than when Mumford issued his warning. That was well before thousands of thermonuclear weapons waited on hair-trigger alert for the order to launch or a glitch that would do so without an order.
In his recently published book My Journey At the Nuclear Brink , Bill Clinton’s Defense Secretary William Perry detailed the numerous close calls by which the world has dodged partial or all-out Armageddon and claimed that the likelihood of disaster is growing rather than diminishing. Most of these events are unknown to the public.
Former head of the U.S. Strategic Command General James Cartwright bolstered Perry’s claim when he told a San Francisco audience that “It makes no sense to keep our nuclear weapons online 24 hours a day” since “You’ve either been hacked and are not admitting it, or you’re being hacked and don’t know it.” One of those hackers, he said, could get lucky.
A Non-existent Debate
When Hillary Clinton was asked at a town hall event in Concord, New Hampshire, if she would reduce expenditures for nuclear arms and rein in the corporations that sell the government those weapons, she replied “I think we are overdue for a very thorough debate in our country about what we need and how we are willing to pay for it.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix, Arizona. by Gage Skidmore)
Such a debate has never been held and — given the peril, complexity and cost of nuclear technology — it is never likely to happen unless a president of exceptional courage and independence demands it. The profits of weapons production are simply too great and few of the prospective victims understandably want to dwell on the unthinkable when so much more diverting entertainment is available on their Smartphones.
Nuclear weapons by their nature are inimical to transparency and thus to the public discussion, control and democracy they ostensibly protect. Nor does Doomsday make for winning dinner banter.
The Brookings Institute in 1998 published a study of the cumulative costs of nuclear weapons entitled Atomic Audit . It put the bill to date at $5.5 trillion, virtually none of which was known by the public or even to members of Congress or the President. The cost simply grew and continues to grow in the dark, precluding spending on so much else that might otherwise return in public works and services to those who unwittingly pay for the weapons while also mitigating the causes of war abroad.
If she wins, Hillary Clinton’s election to the Presidency will be hailed as historic, but not nearly as historic as if she would sponsor that “overdue” and “very thorough debate” of which she spoke in the city of Concord. Such a debate might begin to lift from her own shoulders — and from those of her successors if there are to be any — what she called “the awesome responsibility” of four minutes to launch. That way lies sanity after 70 years of its opposite.
Dr. Gray Brechin is the Project Scholar of the Living New Deal University at the UC Berkeley Department of Geography. He is the author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin which explains the historical context of California’s long but little-known involvement with nuclear weaponry. | 1 |
The impact of the Syrian refugee crisis has been felt worldwide.
While it has helped make immigration a central issue in the U.S. presidential elections, one of the most affected countries has been Germany — with Pew noting that the nation received “442,000 asylum applications in 2015 alone.”
Now, a report has emerged from Germany that just one of these immigrants is claiming nearly $400,000 in benefits from the government, due to the fact that he arrived in the country with his four wives... and 23 children. Europe going mad: Syrian refugee in Germany claiming benefits for his 4 wives and 22 children. https://t.co/Cmcn550fym — Michael Heaver (@Michael_Heaver) October 26, 2016
The man — who has been identified only as Ghazia A. — is allowed to have multiple wives under Muslim tradition, but only if he can support them financially.
Upon emigrating to Germany, where polygamy is not officially permitted but officials have been 'looking the other way,' Ghazia was forced to choose just one of his four wives as his “main” wife.
He then split up his 22 children — one has since married and moved to Saudi Arabia — among the other three. These family members were placed in neighboring homes, some up to 31 miles away.
Ghazia explained to German newspaper Das Bild how his wide-ranging family responsibilities have left him unable to work:
"According to our religion I have the duty to visit each family equally and not to prioritize any of them.
I am practically always on my way to be with my family — yet I would gladly like to work."
Noting that “regardless of how one evaluates facts morally, it is never wrong to know the hard numbers,” one German financial manager calculated the state benefits Ghazia would receive for his massive family.
According to his estimate , it comes out to roughly $390,000 per year in U.S. dollars. Germany: Syrian Refugee with 4 Wives and 23 Children Claims £320,000 a year in benefits https://t.co/lU2ED6dSn9 — Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) October 26, 2016
While much of the criticism surrounding America's acceptance of refugees has centered on concerns of terrorism , similar cultural clashes have also been seen in the U.S.
In August, one refugee family brought a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania school they were placed in, arguing it's not the school they “deserved.” Lawsuit: Expert calls pace at Phoenix Academy ‘totally inappropriate’ for refugee students https://t.co/8AW75hF7tY #LNPinsider #FridayReads — LancasterOnline.com (@LancasterOnline) August 19, 2016
Other, larger concerns have also emerged about the potential culture clash that could come as a result of accepting huge numbers of refugees, particularly involving women.
Some have argued that the “brutal ideology in Muslim majority countries” that many refugees were raised to practice places women in Western countries at risk of both sexual assault and violence.
In September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that she had lost control of her “open-door” refugee policy, even expressing that she would “turn back time” if she could.
With Ghazia's case representing just one situation causing backlash from her citizens, it's not difficult to see why. | 0 |
La estación de Calatayud del AVE será un colchón al que saltar desde el tren en marcha LA ESTACIÓN DISPONDRÁ TAMBIÉN DE UNA MÁQUINA DE VENDING QUE NO FUNCIONA tren
Asumiendo al fin que no es rentable que el AVE Madrid-Barcelona se detenga en Calatayud, Renfe ha informado esta semana que la estación de la localidad consistirá a partir de la semana que viene en un colchón situado en el suelo y junto a las vías para que los pasajeros que quieran apearse puedan tirarse desde el tren en marcha sin lastimarse. “Es una estación modelo Pikolín que sustituirá a la actual, que será derribada”, ha explicado un portavoz de la operadora ferroviaria esta mañana.
La estación del tren de alta velocidad situada en Calatayud medirá 135×90 centímetros y dispondrá del primer andén viscoelástico de Europa, según defiende Renfe. El procedimiento para que los pasajeros del tren, que viaja a una media de 250 kilómetros por hora, puedan apearse en Calatayud consistirá en situarse en una de las puertas y recibir un pequeño empujón de un miembro de la tripulación.
La asistencia de la tripulación será esencial para calcular la trayectoria correcta hacia el colchón, explica la compañía española.
Renfe no ha querido detallar qué procedimiento deberán seguir los viajeros que deseen subir al tren. La compañía está haciendo pruebas para ver si una persona puede correr en paralelo al convoy y saltar al interior mientras varios ejecutivos le gritan “vamos, vamos, corre” desde la ventanilla.
“En el caso de obligar a los ejecutivos a subir a los trenes en marcha, habilitaríamos un vagón de mercancías con un gran portón de madera y tres ejecutivos vagabundos en el interior que tocarían la armónica y explicarían leyendas del Ibex”, ha explicado el portavoz. | 0 |
Pediatricians Ease Screen Time Guidelines New Company Aims To Explore Intersection Of Technology, Other Thing Intuihub officials say the particular thing needs to incorporate the latest technology if it wants to stay relevant. Close Intuihub officials say the particular thing needs to incorporate the latest technology if it wants to stay relevant. NEWS October 26, 2016 Vol 52 Issue 42 · News · Technology
SAN FRANCISCO—Explaining how their company was poised to usher in a bold new era of innovation, founders of local startup Intuihub told reporters Wednesday that their mission is to explore the intersection of technology and another thing.
“When you look at where the world is going right now, it just makes a lot of sense to take cutting-edge technology and incorporate it into this other thing,” said Intuihub co-founder Martin Fiske, who explained that the other thing will be modernized and streamlined once it is integrated with the latest technological breakthroughs. “We’re looking out at an exciting new frontier, one in which technology will be used to push the boundaries of what the other thing is capable of.”
“And we believe there’s no limit to what we can accomplish when we take technology and the other thing and put them together,” Fiske added.
Intuihub will reportedly employ groundbreaking advancements in technology to take the other thing in a variety of new and intriguing directions, including some directions, company officials promised, that have never before been imagined. According to the startup’s founders, their work will forever change the way people think about and interact with the thing.
Fiske, who reportedly began his career working solely with the other thing but soon realized that adding technology to what he was doing would “open amazing new doors for the thing,” told reporters that his company has an incredible opportunity to revolutionize both technology and the other thing. Five years from now, he said, the thing is likely to be completely unrecognizable by today’s standards.
He pointed out that Intuihub is already disrupting the entire landscape by using technology to make the other thing more accessible and convenient.
“Technology is evolving, and the other thing needs to evolve along with it,” said Fiske, noting that no other company focusing on the other thing is using technology the way Intuihub is. “The synergy between technology and this thing will be so strong that when the two come together, they may actually create a third thing, one that we believe could be truly world-altering.”
After describing their plans to launch a revolution that will change the lives of millions for the better, Intuihub founders confirmed they were also interested in partnering with brands to create more personalized experiences for the thing’s consumers. 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 |
Trump World’s Darkest Side November 8, 2016
Donald Trump’s campaign has exposed and spoken to the real pain and profound alienation of many Americans, but the candidate also has exploited those emotions with lies and appeals to prejudice, says Michael Winship.
By Michael Winship
When I grow up, I want to be Charlie Pierce , who covers politics for Esquire magazine and has toiled in our scrivener’s trade, as far as I can tell, since the late 1970s.
I know, technically, he’s a couple of years younger than I am, but he writes with the fierce wit and well-aimed anger to which I aspire, and as this wheezing milk train of a presidential campaign clanks into the final station, few have been as perceptive when it comes to trying to figure out just what the hell has happened to America this year. Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. (Photo credit: Grant Miller/RNC)
Charlie Pierce has done so with great style throughout, but now, thanks to Donald Trump and just hours before Election Day, he has come to the end of his watchdog rope. He wrote on Saturday that Trump — to whom he refers as El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago — had “managed to exceed even my admittedly expansive limits for political obscenity.”
Pierce was talking about Trump’s reaction after President Obama responded to an elderly heckler wearing a military tunic at a Friday campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
As the crowd booed the man, Obama said, “Hey! Listen up! I told you to be focused, and you’re not focused right now. Listen to what I’m saying. Hold up. Hold up! … Everybody sit down, and be quiet for a second… First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech. Second of all, it looks like maybe he might’ve served in our military and we got to respect that. Third of all, he was elderly and we got to respect our elders. And fourth of all, don’t boo, vote.”
In other words, the President showed poise, grace and yes, class. But shortly after, here’s how the moment was seen through Trump’s eyes at a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania: “There was a protester and a protester that likes us,” Trump said. “And what happened is they wouldn’t put the cameras on him. They kept the cameras on Obama. … He was talking to a protester, screaming at him, really screaming at him. By the way, if I spoke the way Obama spoke to that protester, they would say he became unhinged.”
Unhinged? Really? We all know that Trump seems to get his news from an implanted electrode picking up propaganda signals from the Planet Mongo. But there comes a point when the lies piled upon lies become too much for even the fairest and most equable of us. Hearing Trump’s demonstrably false description of what happened at Obama’s rally, Charlie Pierce finally had it.
“Maybe it was because it was so ludicrously provable a lie,” he wrote. “[Trump] didn’t care. He never has cared. His contempt for the democratic processes and for the norms of self-government is matched only by the deep contempt he has for all the suckers who mistake his contempt for the American experiment for their deep disappointment in it. He has measured their intelligence by his heavily leveraged net worth and found them hilariously lacking.
“We are all the subcontractors who build his indomitable ego for him and, as such, he can stiff us according to his customary business plan. His campaign long ago became a sickening charade performed by a grotesque charlatan.”
The Scene in Reno
And so it is. Look, too, at how Trump and his followers at a rally in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday responded to a man with a “Republicans against Trump” sign. Before someone shouted “Gun!” and the moment turned even uglier, Trump had looked down and said, “Oh we have one of those guys from the Hillary Clinton campaign. How much are you being paid, $1,500?” As the crowd booed, Trump said, “Okay. Take him out.” The run-down PIX Theatre sign reads “Vote Trump” on Main Street in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. July 15, 2016. (Photo by Tony Webster Flickr)
The protester, a Reno resident named Austyn Crites, described himself as Republican and a fiscal conservative. He told The Guardian he was grateful to the police who removed him from the auditorium for interrogation — they kept him from being further kicked, choked and pummeled by the gang of Trump supporters who surrounded him.
Still, he said, “The people who attacked me — I’m not blaming them. I’m blaming Donald Trump’s hate rhetoric, … The fact that I got beat up today, that’s just showing what he’s doing to his crowds.”
Throughout the campaign, whenever Trump has egged on his followers, I’ve thought of that line in Young Frankenstein, when the angry Transylvanian villagers are told by the local police inspector, “A riot is an ugly thing, and I think that it is just about time we had one.”
Remember what Trump said when a protester was dragged out of a February rally in Las Vegas: “I love the old days — you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks. … I’d like to punch him in the face.”
By now, you’ve heard it all before and the litany of lies, outrageous claims and insults has climbed so high that many of us have become numb and weary from the sheer repetition of Trump’s buffoonery. You can only go to so many demolition derbies before the sight of flaming car wrecks becomes routine.
Dog Whistles
What’s more, you can argue that far more insidious and frightening are the dog whistle attacks appealing to the baser instincts of the bigoted and ignorant. The latest: the closing ad from the Trump campaign that, with anti-Semitic overtones, points fingers at “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class.” Former speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
As Josh Marshall notes at Talking Points Memo , “The four readily identifiable American bad guys in the ad are Hillary Clinton, George Soros (Jewish financier), Janet Yellen (Jewish Fed Chair) and Lloyd Blankfein (Jewish Goldman Sachs CEO)… This is an ad intended to appeal to anti-Semites and spread anti-Semitic ideas… This is intentional and by design. It is no accident.”
Here is something Charlie Pierce wrote back in May . Trump, he said, “is riding on a wave of pain that he never has felt.”
“He is riding on a wave of anxiety he never has encountered. Beyond their love of him, there is no indication that he is as deeply aware of what has powered his rise as the people whose fear, and doubt, and, yes, hatred has powered his rise. Their job is still to wait in line, cheer on cue, and give him the devotion that he has earned because, after all, he is He, Trump, and they’re not, and that will never change.”
Add it all up and to me, this is what it comes down to: Do you want to live in a United States where anger, prejudice and fear rule, and dissent is viewed as treason, or in a country where we try to meet every issue from terrorism to education with clear eyes and a rational mind?
This year’s choices are far from perfect, but nonetheless a choice must be made. To quote a founding father who believed in such things: liberty, once lost, is lost forever. This could be democracy’s last stop. Vote.
Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWinship . | 1 |
Osteoporosis (yes, magnesium is more important than calcium for bone health!) Diabetes Kidney Stones “Similarly, patients with diagnoses of depression, epilepsy, diabetes mellitus, tremor, Parkinsonism, arrhythmias, circulatory disturbances (stroke, cardiac infarction, arteriosclerosis), hypertension, migraine, cluster headache, cramps, neuro-vegetative disorders, abdominal pain, osteoporosis, asthma, stress dependent disorders, tinnitus, ataxia, confusion, preeclampsia, weakness, might also be consequences of the magnesium deficiency syndrome.” – Journal of the American College of Nutrition
Amazingly, the article referenced above even mentions neuro-vegetative disorders as a possible result of magnesium deficiency. This would include comas. Stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium and stressful experiences can immediately lead to complete depletion of magnesium stores; could this be a contributing factor to why we see comas after traumatic accidents/injuries? As I mentioned above, magnesium is an electrolyte responsible for brain signals and conductivity. Without magnesium, people in comas may not be able to come to and resume conductivity. Many people with diabetes also fall into diabetic comas. Diabetes is listed as another possible consequence of magnesium deficiency. Could this be a factor in diabetic comas as well? Something to think about and research further!
Cravings
Do you crave chocolate? Why, when people are stressed out, do they go for chocolate? Chocolate is one of the highest food sources of magnesium.
Magnesium is associated with so many disorders that Dr. Carolyn Dean of the Nutritional Magnesium Association has devoted an entire book to discussing how she has treated thousands of patients for a wide array of diseases, with magnesium as the primary component. Her book, The Magnesium Miracle, is a must-read if you have any of the magnesium deficiency symptoms above, or any health problems in general – as there is likely a magnesium component to everything. Check out 50 Studies Suggest That Magnesium Deficiency Is Killing Us .
Why Don’t Doctors Find Magnesium Deficiencies In Tests?
Unfortunately, conventional medicine has not woken up to the amount of research that has been done on magnesium deficiency.
One of the reasons Western Medicine is so off base with magnesium is how they test it: with blood tests.
Blood tests do not yield ANY information about magnesium … why? Because the body controls the levels of blood magnesium very tightly. If the magnesium in the blood drops just a little bit, you’re going to have a heart attack. It’s that sample. So to prevent this, the body will rob all of its cells, tissues, and bones of magnesium in order to keep the blood levels constant. If you do a blood test for magnesium, the cells could be completely empty while your blood levels remain constant.
What’s worse is that magnesium is not even in your blood. 99% of the magnesium in the body is stored in the cells that get robbed, while a mere 1% of your body’s total magnesium is in the blood. These tests are a complete waste of time, and they’re not educating doctors to this reality.
“A serum test for magnesium is actually worse than ineffective, because a test result that is within normal limits lends a false sense of security about the status of the mineral in the body. It also explains why doctors don’t recognize magnesium deficiency; they assume serum magnesium levels are an accurate measure of all the magnesium in the body.” – Dr. Carolyn Dean, The Magnesium Miracle.
Why Are We So Deficient?
Here’s the short(ish) version: Number one , we’re being poisoned by our food. Number two , we’re increasingly stressed out. We’re running our engines on high to keep up with life and it’s draining us. Stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium and stressful experiences lead to depletion of magnesium stores. Number three , we’re eating more sugar than ever. For every molecule of sugar we consume, our bodies use 54 molecules of magnesium to process it. Fourth , low levels in the soil and modern farming techniques deplete stores of magnesium. And lastly, magnesium is depleted by many pharmaceutical drugs and estrogen compounds such as oral contraceptives, antibiotics, cortisone, prednisone, and blood pressure medications (“Drug-induced nutrient depletion handbook,” Pelton, 2001). Diuretics in coffee and tea (caffeine) also raise excretion levels. Oh and by the way – flouride competes for absorption with magnesium!
Nowadays, nearly everyone is magnesium deficient – no test needed. Refined/processed foods are stripped of their mineral, vitamin, and fiber content. These are anti-nutrient foods because they actually steal magnesium in order to be metabolized. When consumed, they demand that we supplement with magnesium or we are destined to break down eventually due to severe deficiency. Like I said, sugar is the worst offender. Every single molecule of sugar you consume drags over 50 times the amount of magnesium out of your body.
Well, what if you eat a healthy diet? Processed products are not the only foods that are devoid of magnesium. In general, magnesium has been depleted from topsoil, diminishing dietary intake across the board while our need for magnesium has increased, due to the high levels of toxic exposure we come across in our daily lives (air, water, plastics, chemicals, the list goes on!). The soil is depleted of magnesium because of the pesticides that are sprayed on all conventionally grown plants and worldwide pollution that affects even the cleanest fields. Pesticides also kill those beneficial bacteria/fungi that are necessary in order for plants to convert soil nutrients into plant nutrients usable by humans.
Are You A Cannabis User?
Cannabis has so many positive effects in terms of treating diseases such as epilepsy, cancer, and more (read 1 , 2 , 3 and cureyourowncancer.org ). Trust me, I’ll be the first to tell you I’m all for it – it’s a safe and effective herb with countless therapeutic benefits that the government has been hiding for years. The only way they want you using it is if they’ve patented one of its’ chemical compounds and can sell it to you for a profit.
However, we should also look at what happens to our body on a cellular level if we use cannabis on a daily basis. Would you take parasite cleansing herbs every day for the rest of your life, or even every few days? Probably not. You’d take them when you’re sick or during a monthly cleanse, or else you’d develop some side effects from overuse. We need to remember that cannabis is a powerful herbal medicine and should be treated in such a way.
It turns out that using marijuana tends to deplete the body’s stores of magnesium, with the result that the person feels more on-edge after coming down from the high.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t safe in moderation. It means that over time, if used consistently without proper balance via magnesium replenishment, it can and will cause magnesium deficiency.
The Best Ways To Get Magnesium
1. Eat magnesium rich foods grown on organic soil.
2. Take ionic magnesium drops. This is my new favorite method, which I’ve learned from The Magnesium Miracle.
3. Apply magnesium oil to your skin! This is the second best way to raise your levels.
4. Soak in epsom salt baths. This will provide not only magnesium, but sulfur for your liver as well.
Additional References (not linked in the article)
Oxford Journals – Magnesium Basics: http://ckj.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/Suppl_1/i3.full
Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD: http://drcarolyndean.com/magnesium_miracle/ | 1 |
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Earlier this week, someone claiming his name was Jamie Otis vandalized Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame.”
He pretended to be a construction worker, and attacked the terrazzo and cement star early Wednesday morning with a pickaxe and a sledgehammer. Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star destroyed, police investigate https://t.co/xFfCOdz1iZ pic.twitter.com/qJOsbbjTHp — FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) October 27, 2016
While police searched for Otis, who is likely to be charged with a felony, the star was surrounded by caution tape. Police have monitored the scene as well. But for one homeless woman, that wasn't enough ...
The unnamed woman now stands guard at the star, protecting it from further damage and showing her support for Trump through a number of handwritten signs: Very powerful!Homeless Trump Supporter guards Trump's star on Hollywood Blvd... "20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets" pic.twitter.com/XsDmiMCUNs — America First! (@America_1st_) October 27, 2016
“20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets in tents.” Homeless woman guards Trump's Hollywood star, surrounded by iPhone &sack of cheap Forever21 clothes, all foreign-made. — Deplorable KYGrifter (@KyGrifter) October 27, 2016
"Did Hillary have sex with that woman senator Weiner's wife.
Can Americans go to Mexico for jobs housing medicine." A homeless person guards Trumps star in Hollywood. Even the homeless love Trump. #AmericaFirst #MAGA pic.twitter.com/s4sJ1rNElO — Deplorable Vet (@KGBVeteran) October 27, 2016
“You racist mother-f**kers vote Trump.” — Apafarkas Agmánd (@ApafarkasAgmand) October 27, 2016
“U mother-f**kers know!!! Take care home first. Vote Trump. F**k Mexico.” — Sunflower Girl (@X5MSport15) October 27, 2016
According to the LAPD, vandal James Otis was arrested on Thursday. ABC News reported that Otis — heir to the Otis Elevator family and grandson of the man who invented Listerine — remains unapologetic for his actions. He gave a brief statement with his attorney present:
"I'm not at all ashamed of what I've done. What Mr. Trump has done is he's derailed the entire election. I got so upset. I got so frustrated and angry and that's why I did this.
I admitted my mistakes. And I'm now dealing with my consequences. Unlike Mr. Trump who has never admitted what he's done."
Otis also claimed that his intent was to auction off the Trump nameplate after he removed it from the sidewalk, giving the proceeds to the women that Trump has allegedly sexually assaulted. However, he was forced to return the nameplate upon his arrest Thursday. | 0 |
President Donald Trump made the end of Common Core and the return to local control of education the primary items of his campaign’s education agenda, but the woman leading his education department claims Common Core has not existed in the country’s schools since 2015. [I will end common core. It’s a disaster. https: . #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump2016 pic. twitter. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016, On Monday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said, “There really isn’t any Common Core anymore,” citing the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which was passed in 2015. ESSA, she claims, “does away with the whole argument about Common Core. ” The secretary’s comments came just several weeks after Trump returned to his campaign statement that he wanted to end Common Core and make education policy once again the domain of state and local governments. “Common Core, I mean, we have to bring education more local,” Trump said at the White House. “We can’t be managing education from Washington. ” The president continued: When I go out to Iowa, when I go out to the different states and I talk, they want to run their school programs locally and they’ll do a much better job … And I like the fact of getting rid of Common Core. You know, Common Core, to me, we have to end it. We have to bring education local, to me. I’ve always said it, I’ve been saying it during the campaign, and we’re doing it. While campaigning in 2016 — after the enactment of ESSA — Trump listened to millions of grassroots parents and teachers who asked him to cut off federal funding for and end the superstructures that made Common Core possible in the first place. “Common Core is a disaster,” Trump noted time and again. While he provided few details of his education plan, he acknowledged the frustration of parents in their attempt to eradicate the Common Core system of math and English language arts standards and tests, and the accompanying massive student data collection, in their states. “For the first time in any presidential campaign, an education issue claimed a place of importance with grassroots citizens,” writes American Principles Project senior fellow Jane Robbins at the Library of Law and Liberty, explaining the basis for the grassroots’ ire at the progressive Common Core policies: In the early days of Common Core, almost no one outside the federal and state education bureaucracies or the insular world of “education reform” had ever heard of it — even though the standards would ignite the largest grassroots movement in American history. Common Core was adopted by state executive branch officials in response to “incentives” from federal executive branch officials, with (in almost every case) no consent from or even notice to elected state legislators. In a joint statement to Breitbart News, parent activists Heidi Huber of Ohio and Jenni White of Oklahoma agree “the very reason billionaire Donald Trump appealed to the everyday Core mom is because he appeared to understand the kitchen table politics of grassroots America. ” Toward the end of his campaign, Trump’s message about ending Common Core was overshadowed by a new message about school choice — one that received significant attention with the announcement of DeVos as his selection for federal education secretary. DeVos had been a major backer of school choice and school vouchers in her home state of Michigan. She had also been a supporter of Jeb Bush and his education foundation, and, ultimately, served as an delegate for establishment Republican candidate John Kasich at the GOP convention. Meanwhile, grassroots parent groups in Michigan also noted that DeVos lent financial and service support to organizations that promoted the Common Core. Upon her nomination by Trump, however, DeVos denied she supported the Core. “I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control,” she said. “When Governors such as John Engler, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Pence were driving the conversation on voluntary high standards driven by local voices, it all made sense. ” DeVos’s nomination was accompanied by a level of controversy rarely seen for an education secretary. The left — led by teachers unions — began to work against her because of her support for school choice which, they claimed, would redirect funding from public schools. The mainstream media focused its energy on the battle between its own leftwing public school supporters and “conservative” DeVos. As the left often does, it also often made the decision to mock the secretary unfairly, rather than deal with her on the actual issues. After a very shaky confirmation process — which required Vice President Mike Pence to break a tie vote in the Senate — DeVos was finally confirmed. But the controversy continued within the GOP as the secretary began to fill her department with many individuals with ties to Core Jeb Bush, as well as Indiana — where Common Core was “repealed,” but then simply “rebranded” with a new name. Trump’s constitutionalist base continued the drumbeat on eliminating the U. S. Education Department and Washington bureaucrats’ influence on local education policy. Two bills were introduced in Congress with that end in mind, one by Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie (R) and the other by North Carolina Rep. David Rouzer (R). Though DeVos has continued with comments that Common Core is no longer an issue because of its elimination through ESSA, those who have studied the federal law and observed the secretary’s choice of staffers say her comments are typical of the establishment GOP. According to Huber and White, “Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos was not only disappointing, it telegraphed more of the same tone deafness of the previous administration. ” “Betsy DeVos was confirmed and began assembling a team of staffers, most of whom represent pretty establishment Republican experience and positions,” Joy Pullman, managing editor at The Federalist, also tells Breitbart News. The author of a newly released book, The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids, Pullman notes that while school choice is a positive goal, the idea that the federal government should be involved in regulating it in any way suggests the Trump education department is not planning on reducing its influence, as Trump had originally promised. She explains: Everyone without financial or political incentives to the contrary, such as teachers unions, knows that choice exists and it generally works. The real conversation is whether government will destroy it by using laws and regulations to commandeer private and charter options or stay true to the promise of the word “choice” and truly let parents control the style and content of their children’s curricula. Many questions remain unanswered about the Trump administration’s leadership on these issues, and there has been absolutely no action on Trump’s repeated campaign pledge to “eliminate Common Core. ” On the plus side, Trump signed legislation in March that, via the Congressional Review Act, rolled back two education policies — one regarding teacher training programs, and another regarding meeting some ESSA directives. The ESSA rule concerned states’ accountability in identifying failing schools and reporting their plans for improving them to the federal government. Nevertheless, ESSA still requires states to submit their overall education plans to the U. S. Education Department. In March, DeVos’s office released a new guide on how states may fulfill their requirement to the federal government. The guide features a “revised template” offered by the education department itself, and adds that two private groups — the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association — both of which own the copyright to the Common Core standards, may assist states with an “alternative template. ” Ann Marie Banfield, education liaison with the New Cornerstone Research and Policy Institute, tells Breitbart News DeVos’s messages are at odds with how Trump campaigned on education issues: Trump campaigned with the promise to get rid of Common Core and even referenced Gov. Jeb Bush as someone who supported the federal education reform that parents never asked for. The appointment of Betsy DeVos has left many of us underwhelmed and disappointed. You don’t appoint a Jeb Bush crony and expect parents who’ve been fighting against Common Core to be thrilled. In February, conflict between Trump and DeVos was reported by the New York Times, as the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned Obama’s directive, which effectively permitted children to change their sex by simply declaring they have the “gender identity” of the other sex. DeVos reportedly objected to changing Obama’s policy, but was overruled by Trump and Sessions. Pullman observes that Trump’s rollback of Obama’s Title IX guidance is “a win, but it was done over the objections of Secretary DeVos, which is worrisome. ” “Even if you think it’s okay to force naked boy bodies and naked girl bodies into the same private facilities, the federal government has no authority to do what Obama’s Education and Justice departments did in this regard,” she adds. “We would ask president Trump — as he completes the first 100 days of his administration — to consider the tens of thousands of parents who believed his promise to end Common Core, and implore him to invite leading parent activists to the table,” say Huber and White. “It would undoubtedly benefit President Trump, but more importantly, it would serve the children he promised to deliver from the special interests of the FedEd complex. ” Emmett McGroarty, senior fellow at American Principles Project, tells Breitbart News DeVos is not supporting Trump in his stated education agenda. “Secretary DeVos is undermining the Trump presidency,” he asserts. “Great presidents have a great vision and are able to bring it into reality. That invariably means overcoming the timid in their own administration and in Congress. That’s the hurdle President Trump faces. ” | 1 |
By Everett Numbers The Pentagon and Congress are both promising quick fixes to the scandal surrounding excessive National Guard bonus payments to soldiers. However, the... | 0 |
written by Admin by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org Before I start this condemnation of lies from ‘liberal’ ‘news’ media, I should indicate that I am a former lifelong Democrat who left the Party over the corruption of the Obama Administration when the corruption became capped by their Democratic National Committee using many devices to steal the Presidential nomination away from Bernie Sanders, to hand it to Obama’s chosen successor Hillary Clinton, whom Obama expected would complete his pro-Wall-Street legacy by passing into law some version of his trade treaties and by Hillary’s conquering Russia, the latter of which goal was a U.S. government project that had actually started in secret on the night of 24 February 1990 when the then-President George Herbert Walker Bush initiated what has since become a ceaseless behind-the-scenes U.S. government program to expand NATO right up to Russia’s borders and ultimately to conquer Russia itself. Though the Cold War ended authentically on Russia’s side in 1991, it never really did end on the U.S. side (that was just a lie) — and Obama-Clinton were hoping soon to culminate the U.S. aristocracy’s conquest of Russia. I remain a committed progressive journalist but am no longer committed to any political party, because now both of the major political parties are vile and no third party in a Presidential system of government stands a realistic chance of controlling either the Executive branch or the Legislative branch of government — its only function is to serve as “spoiler” for one or the other of the two. So: I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, nor a supporter of some ‘third’ Party, but remain unchanged throughout, consistently a progressive, which means totally dedicated to truth and against lies (such as dominate all forms of conservatism). My criticisms of ‘news’media reflect that, no political-party orientation.
On November 9th, Salon’s reporter Brendan Gauthier headlined Salon’s top-of-homepage headline of the day, “In Donald Trump’s cabinet from hell, corporatism and cronyism run rampant — and Sarah Palin may be there, too” and reported what was at the time speculation that was sourced to an NBC news report, titled “Gingrich, Giuliani, Priebus Eyed for Top Jobs in Trump White House: Sources” , which stated that:
Among the names being considered, according to conversations with three campaign advisers who requested anonymity to speak freely: Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Newt Gingrich for secretary of state, retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn for defense secretary or national security adviser, Trump finance chairman Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary, and Republican National Committee finance chair Lew Eisenberg for commerce secretary.
Trump himself has not taken an active part in transition efforts, in part out of superstition: He fears too much planning before a victory might jinx the campaign. In 2012, he was shocked to read detailed stories on Mitt Romney’s preparations for the White House long before election day…
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, a loyal supporter, has taken a major role managing the transition effort, especially as the official transition chief, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has drifted from the campaign…
Asked for comment on the above names floated for cabinet posts, Trump campaign spokesman Hope Hicks replied by e-mail that “none of this is accurate.”
Gauthier added nothing substantial to that NBC information (of which, maybe, “none of this is accurate”) except to say such uninformative things as that Gingrich “proved himself a rabid Trump surrogate” and as that Giuliani “has been a tireless, if controversial, surrogate for Trump on the trail and in the media.” But in one instance Gauthier linked to a New York Post op-ed by Michael Flynn as being his source by which to allege regarding: “ Department of Defense Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn: Trump’s national security adviser was fired from his post as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, which he attributed to his hawkishness.”
That statement about Flynn is outright false. Here is all that Flynn’s op-ed — Gauthier’s cited source — actually said concerning his having been fired by Obama:
Two years ago, I was called into a meeting with the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and the director of national intelligence, and after some “niceties,” I was told by the USDI that I was being let go from DIA. It was definitely an uncomfortable moment (I suspect more for them than me).
I asked the DNI (Gen. James Clapper) if my leadership of the agency was in question and he said it was not; had it been, he said, they would have relieved me on the spot.
I knew then it had more to do with the stand I took on radical Islamism and the expansion of al Qaeda and its associated movements. I felt the intel system was way too politicized, especially in the Defense Department…
I was pissed but knew that I had maintained my integrity and was determined in the few months I had left to continue the changes I was instituting and to keep beating the drum about the vicious enemy we were facing (still are)…
We’re in a global war, facing an enemy alliance that … picks up radical Muslim countries and organizations such as Iran, al Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamic State.
That’s a formidable coalition, and nobody should be shocked to discover that we are losing the war.
There was no indication whatsoever in the article, that Flynn had been fired on account of any “hawkishness.” That allegation by Salon was simply fabricated.
The reality about Flynn’s firing was the exact opposite: he was too ‘dovish’ to suit the neoconservative Barack Obama, who was now demanding that all of his top military generals support his goal of going to war against Russia. Flynn objected to that by saying that only one war at a time makes any sense, and that this war must be the defeat of jihadists, nothing else — certainly not a war against the other nuclear superpower.
Rather than Flynn’s support of Trump being a reflection of their shared ‘hawkishness’, it reflects their strong belief that the view that Barack Obama holds and that Hillary Clinton holds even more strongly — that the war against jihadists must be subordinated to the war against Russia — is a totally upside-down view of the priorities, and that instead of the U.S. supporting jihadists who are warring against Russia and its allies, the U.S. ought to be supporting Russia and its allies who are warring against jihadists.
If Salon wants to support the Obama-Clinton view and oppose the Trump view on the basis of truthful assertions, then that’s journalism and it is not mere political propaganda.
But if Salon wants to deceive its readers into holding the political viewpoint that they hold, then what else is there to call Salon but a propaganda-site? | 1 |
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) reportedly went on a tirade at a “swanky” Manhattan restaurant Sunday night, screaming at a wealthy patron over her support for President Trump. [Schumer lost his temper when dining at Upper East Side restaurant Sette Mezzo, the New York Post’s Page Six reported. The top Senate Democrat was dining with friends when he ran into former U. S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph A. Califano Jr. and his wife, Hilary, at the restaurant. Witnesses say that Schumer became incensed that Hilary, daughter of CBS founder and chairman William S. Paley, voted for Trump, though her husband is a prominent Democrat. “They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside,” one witness said of the encounter. “How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar! He’s a liar!” Schumer reportedly yelled. Hilary confirmed the encounter with Schumer and called the senator’s actions “really rude. ” “Sen. Schumer was really rude … He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything,” Hilary said. Another witness told a different story about Schumer’s encounter with the couple, saying the senator approached the couple’s table first. “It was a pleasant conversation. Joe said the senator was doing a good job on health care. Joe joked that Hilary voted for Trump. The conversation continued outside because everyone left at the same time,” the witness said. In a statement, Schumer’s spokesperson denied that there was a heated encounter at the restaurant. “[He] and his wife ate at the café on Sunday, engaging in unremarkable conversation with patrons who approached their table. There were no heated exchanges with anyone,” the spokesperson said. Schumer has railed against the Trump administration, saying Sunday that President Trump’s proposal for a border wall will not get votes from Republicans or Democrats. He also called on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan ( ) to replace House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes ( ) and announced that Senate Democrats will filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. | 0 |
The kids are hungry, the driver has a headache and everyone has to go to the bathroom. If you’re traveling by car on a holiday weekend, the last thing you want to find at a roadside rest stop is a long line for a toilet. Companies that run major highway service plazas in Japan go to considerable lengths to ensure you never will, as they compete for the coveted Japan Toilet Award from the transportation ministry. Nexco Central Nippon Expressway, which runs 200 of the rest stops, promises that patrons should never have to wait more than two minutes to use the lavatory. The company’s Neopasa Shimizu stop, one of several near Shizuoka City, about 15 miles from Mount Fuji, shows how. To keep things moving at Neopasa Shimizu, where 25, 000 people may stop on a busy weekend, there are 72 stalls in the ladies’ room, compared with 14 stalls and 32 urinals in the men’s — a ratio meant to combat the longer waits that women often encounter in public facilities. Technology is put to work, too. A sensor in each stall detects whether it is in use, and relays that information to a large monitor screen mounted outside the restroom. Small icons even indicate whether the available toilets are the Western sitting style or the traditional Japanese squatting style. Of course, those who find these elaborate status panels too confusing can always just walk up and down the stalls, looking for an unlocked door. | 0 |
Votes Being Switched In Multiple States To Clinton Electronic voting machines switching votes across the country Owen Shroyer | Infowars.com
We now have reports in multiple states that a vote for Donald Trump is being switched to Hillary Clinton.
As reported by Infowars Friday, a woman in Hollywood, Maryland came forward this week to claim that her ballot was switched to Hillary Clinton after she had tried to vote for Donald Trump. Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles Download on your mobile device now for free. Today on the Show Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars crew. From the store Featured Videos FEATURED VIDEOS Victim Of Hillary Chicago Violence Speaks Out - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . Trump Responds To New FBI Investigation Of Hillary - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . ILLUSTRATION How much will your healthcare premiums rise in 2017? >25% © 2016 Infowars.com is a Free Speech Systems, LLC Company. All rights reserved. Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice. 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force | 0 |
The recent measles outbreak in Minnesota, which was confined to 20 members of the Somali community in Hennepin County, part of the . Paul metropolitan area, has now spread across the state. [“The Minnesota Department of Health reports the state’s measles outbreak has spread from Hennepin County to Stearns County, totaling 29 cases, marking a new record,” KSTP reports. “ cases have been confirmed in the Somali community,” KSTP adds. The Minnesota Department of Health added that: “The same number of cases [25] revealed the people affected were unvaccinated. However, in one case, the child had one MMR vaccination. ” MDH reports 28 cases are confirmed in Hennepin County, and one case is in Stearns County. In the past 20 years, 2011 had the most cases with 26 total. The remaining cases have not been verified. All cases are children between the ages of 0 and 5. The city of St. Cloud, located about 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis, is the county seat of Stearns County. Breitbart News asked the Minnesota Department of Health if they could confirm if the four cases of the 29 that were not among the 25 “confirmed in the Somali community” were in the general population not part of the Somali commuity. “No — they simply haven’t been verified yet,” a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Health tells Breitbart News. “Most likely Somali. There’s always a bit of a lag pending investigation,” the spokesperson adds. Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger blamed the measles outbreak on “misinformation” that was provided to the Minnesota Somali community, not on the health practices common in that community. “This outbreak is about unvaccinated children, not specific communities. Unfortunately, the Minnesota Somali community has been targeted with misinformation about vaccine risks. We’re partnering with Somali community leaders and health care providers to counteract that misinformation,” Ehlinger said in a statement released by the Minnesota Department of Health earlier this month. “There are people of all backgrounds around the state who have chosen not to protect themselves or their children. Often that decision is based on good intentions and inaccurate information. It’s the responsibility of all of us who care about the health of Minnesota children to make sure people have accurate information and take action to protect their families and their communities,” Ehlinger added in an additional statement issued by the Minnesota Department of Health on Monday. That statement also specifically addressed the Somali community in Minnesota: MDH also recommends that all Somali Minnesotan children statewide who have already received their first dose of MMR vaccine get their second dose now. This special vaccine schedule is commonly recommended during outbreaks instead of waiting until 4 to 6 years old for the second dose. Parents of Somali Minnesotan children should contact their child’s health care provider and specifically tell them the child needs the MMR vaccine. This may help avoid a longer wait associated with scheduling a routine appointment. . Paul is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated to be around 70, 000. “Since FY 2002, 100, 246 Somali refugees have resettled in the United States, according to the State Department’s interactive website. Of these, 99. 9 percent, or 99, 909, are Muslim,” Breitbart News reported in December. Assimilation of resettled Somalis in this country has been a significant problem, and continues to be so. In 2016, two Somali refugees, one in a Minnesota mall, the other at Ohio State University, attacked and injured more than 20 Americans. Both refugees were killed by law enforcement during the attacks. On the public health front, Somali refugees in Minnesota have been identified as responsible for 22 percent (161 out of 732) of the cases of active tuberculosis (TB) diagnosed between 2010 and 2014, despite accounting for about one percent of the state’s population, as Breitbart News reported. “Hennepin County is also the site of two recent cases of active tuberculosis at local public high schools . . . The letter to parents from St. Louis Park Public Schools informing them of the case of active TB in January was sent in three languages: English, Spanish, and Somali, ” as Breitbart News reported. Recently, female genital mutilation (FGM) within the American Somali community has come to the forefront as a significant problem as well. Earlier this month, two doctors and another person were arrested in Livonia, Michigan on charges of conducting illegal FGM procedures on young Somali girls transported from Minnesota. In 2014, the Refugee Womens Health Center in Phoenix, Arizona told NBC News that 98 percent of all Somali women treated there (a total of 247 over five years between 2010 and 2014) were victims of FGM. | 1 |
when i awoke this morning the Dow Jones Propaganda Index was down 72 points…
then in a matter of only a few minutes it inexplicably reverse ramped almost 100 points to turn positive…
it was then that i decided to scour the Lamestream media, Alt-Media, and lastly ZeroHedge headlines to uncover what could be behind such a preposterous, absolutely fraudulent spike across all the Fraud indices…
however before i could conclude my inquiry the DJPI spiked another 50 plus points to recapture the all important, CON fidence inspiring 18,200 mark coincidentally beginning exactly in the last 30 minutes of “trading” in the EuroPeon cesspool of fraud and manipulation - Londone…
it was then that i realized that what had occurred was the same bullshit i’ve witnessed for the last 5-7 years running…that being that the Fraud Markets ramped on ABSOLUTLEY NO GENUINE POSITIVE MACRO-ECONOMIC, GEO-POLITICAL NEWS OR DATA WHATSOFUCKINGEVER…
at that moment , roughly 9:14 am, i realized that for todays "Fraud Markets Wrap” to be posted latter in the day, i could simply “cut & paste“ from previous commentaries regarding what the rest of the day would portend because as i and many others have learned - “When the same bullshit happens every day there’s no need to type…just cut and paste…” - Kaiser Sousa -
so thats precisely what i did…
"then, of course yet again all of the U.S. Fraud Indices entered into the sideways shuffle, ridiculous narrow “trading” pattern you all now as “suspended levitation” for the bulk of the day…” - Kaiser Sousa - from every day the last 2 years. http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia
then in the famous last 2 hours of “trading”, and despite the “markets” coughing up the phony reversal implemented by “you know who”,they nonetheless fought to the death to hold on to those “green shoots” with “investors” piling into such noted bail weathers like , BOEING, NIKE, GE, and DISNEY pushing the DJPI back above the 18,200 mark… proving that the recovery in the land of the “exceptional’s” continues to shower its’ waiters, bartenders, fast food servers, and interest income starved senior citizens with generational wealth and prosperity for all…
lastly, as for the blatant attempts to hold the phony paper prices of Gold & Silver within ridiculous “trading ranges” while the global financial and monetary system crumbles before “eyes that dare to see” alike every fiat currency (WITHOUT EXCEPTION!!) has throughout history - lets just say this…how much more obvious can the Fed, Exchange Stabilization Fund, ThreadNeddle St. inbreeds, and Scum St. flunkies make it for you
DEATH TO THE FUCKING MONEYCHANGERS. | 0 |
Texas County Enacts "Emergency Paper Ballots" After "Software Glitch" In Voting Machines Oct 26, 2016 1:50 PM 0 SHARES
Just yesterday we noted several social media complaints from Texas voters who alleged that when they voted a straight republican ticket that voting machines were switching their presidential selection to Clinton/Kaine. While most undoubtedly dismissed these reports as conspiracy theories, new official reports from Chambers County, Texas suggest that there might be some truth to the voting machine "irregularities". According to an NBC affiliate , polling stations in Chambers County had to enact emergency protocols yesterday and revert back to paper ballots after a "glitch" was discovered in the county's voting machines.
The issue was actually discovered on Monday morning when Chambers County Clerk Heather Hawthorne was casting her own ballot and the voter next to her noticed that one of her votes was not filled in when she reviewed her electronic ballot Hawthorne told 12News on Tuesday.
An error in the voting machine programming by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) caused votes for one statewide court of appeals race not to be entered when a voter tried to vote straight ticket in either party according to a release from Chambers County.
ES&S is the vendor that Chambers County contracts with to program their voting machines.
The Texas Secretary of State's office informed Hawthorne to create emergency paper ballots to continue voting until the problem could be fixed according to the release.
Below is the official press release from the Chambers County Clerk:
Of course, these confirmed reports from Chambers County seem eerily similar to problems reported yesterday on social media from people who also experienced problems when voting a "straight republican ticket."
The following report also surfaced in Arlington, Texas from a person who voted a straight republican ticket only to find just before submitting her ballot that her presidential choice had been switched to Clinton/Kaine . After reporting the error to polling officials, the voter was told that these errors "had been happening."
This Reddit user also noted multiple reports of voting errors across the state of Texas.
Of course, the real question is how many people submitted erroneous ballots before this "glitch" was caught and how many other "software glitches" exist in other counties around the country that will never be caught? | 0 |
By Heather Callaghan, Editor Now that people are catching on that obesity equals toxin storage and endocrine problems – losing excess weight is more important than ever. “Meal... | 0 |
VIDEOS Here’s what happened when a Hillary supporting MIT professor decided to analyze her emails… In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty By Michael Krieger - November 7, 2016
A few days ago, Cesar A. Hidalgo published a very important article titled, What I Learned From Visualizing Hillary Clinton’s Emails .
So who is Cesar Hidalgo? César A. Hidalgo is associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the author of Why Information Grows: The evolution of order from atoms to economies. He has also lead the creation of data visualization sites that have received more than 100 million views, including datausa.io, dataviva.info, atlas.media.mit.edu, immersion.media.mit.edu, pantheon.media.mit.edu, streetscore.media.mit.edu, and others (see chidalgo.com for more details).
At this point, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m highlighting this guy’s post two days before the Presidential election. It’s for two reasons. First, the piece offers a very good representation of the sort of peer pressure that can come down upon an academic for being seen as having the “wrong” political opinion. Second, and perhaps most important, his email visualization tool taught him that the current state of our government in these United States simply can’t achieve the best outcomes for the public at current scale (size, geographic/cultural diversity, etc).
With all that out of the way, I’m going to highlight what I found to be the most powerful part of his piece.
Enjoy: So what did we learn by making this dataset accessible? We learned a few things about what Clinton’s emails said, about how the media works, and about how people interpreted the project. We made clinton.media.mit.edu publicly available last Friday night (October 28, 2016). We launched with a single story , written by Alejandra Vargas from Univision. My intuition was that the story was likely to get picked up by other news sources. After all, the tool facilitated people’s ability to read and understand the content of these emails, and the connections of the people involved in them. But I was wrong—it has been nearly a week since we released the project and no other major news source has picked up the story, despite having been viewed by more than 300,000 people in less than a week. So how did we get so much traffic without any news coverage? The answer is social media. So far, the tool has been shared widely on Twitter, Facebook, and for a brief but intense time, on Reddit. Its spread has been fueled by different motives, and also, has been battled in different ways. Many reporters shared the news on their personal accounts understanding that the tool represents a different form of data reporting, or data journalism: one where people are provided with a tool that facilitates their ability to explore a relevant dataset, instead of being provided with a story summarizing a reporter’s description of that dataset. Another group of people that shared the news were interface designers, who understand that there is a need to improve the tabular interface of present day email clients, and that the inbox we presented in this project was an attractive new alternative. But many people also shared our site claiming that this was evidence of Clinton’s corruption, and that the site supported Trump. More on that later. But the spread of the site was not without its detractors. A few hours after we released the site I received a message from a friend telling me that what I had done was “a huge mistake” and that I should have waited to post this until “later in the year.” A few days later, outside my lab, a member of a neighboring research group called me a “Trump supporter” and told me that I should have only made that site available if it also included Trump’s emails. I told him that I would be happy to include them, but I had no access to the data. In haste, this colleague began emailing me news articles, none of which provided access to the alleged public dataset of Trump emails. Later, a friend of one of my students posted the news on Reddit, where it went viral. And I mean really viral. It became the top story of the Internetisbeautiful subreddit, and made it to Reddit’s front page. It collected more than 3,000 upvotes and 700 comments. But as the story peaked, a moderator single-handedly removed it in an authoritarian move, and justified this unilateral silencing of the post by adding a rule banning “sites that serve a political agenda or that otherwise induce drama.” Of course, the rule was added AFTER the post was removed. Reddit appears to be rampant with censorship these days. So when it comes to media, social or not, I learned that providing information directly to people so that they can inspect it and evaluate it, is a value that many people consider second to supporting their preferred electoral choice. The twist is that I don’t support Trump. In fact, I don’t support him at all. I think he is potentially a threat to global security, and also, a candidate that has shown repeatedly to be a dividing rather than unifying force. He has failed to respect contracts numerous times, defrauding contractors; and he certainly has shown little respect for people’s development by creating a fraudulent university. So I think he is ill prepared for most jobs, including a difficult one like that of being president. I support Clinton in this election, and even though I don’t get to vote (As a green card holder I just pay taxes), I want her to win next Tuesday. I really do. But I understand that this is my own personal choice, a choice that I want to make sure is informed by my ability to evaluate information about the candidates directly, and by a media that is more transparent than the one we now have. Trust me, if I had Trump’s tax records, I would also think it is a good idea to make a tool that makes them more easily digestible. But my reason to make that tool, once again, would not come from my support for Clinton, or my opposition to Trump. It would come from my support for a society where people have direct access to relevant sources of information through well-designed data visualization tools. Now here’s where we get into very important lessons about the future. So what did I learn about Clinton’s emails? One of the advantages of helping design a data visualization tool is that you get an intimate understanding of the data you are visualizing. After all, you have to explore the data and use the tool to make dozens of design decisions. In this case, the development cycle was particularly fast, but nevertheless I got to learn a few things about the data. Of course, the whole point of making this tool is that you can use it to come up with your own interpretation of the data. That said, you might be curious about mine, so I’ll share it with you too. What I saw on Clinton’s emails was not surprising to me. It involved a relatively small group of people talking about what language to use when communicating with other people. Also, it involved many unresponded-to emails. Many conversations revolved around what words to use or avoid, and what topics to focus on, or how to avoid some topics, when speaking in public or in meetings. This is not surprising to me because I’ve met many politicians in my life, including a few presidents and dozens of ministers and governors, so I know that what work means to many people in this line of work, on a daily basis, is strategizing what to say and being careful about how to say it. I am sure that if we had access to Trump’s emails we would see plenty of the same behavior. So what I got from reading some of Clinton’s email is another piece of evidence confirming my intuition that political systems scale poorly. The most influential actors on them are spending a substantial fraction of their mental capacity thinking about how to communicate, and do not have the bandwidth needed to deal with many incoming messages (the unresponded-to emails). This is not surprising considering the large number of people they interact with (although this dataset is rather small. I send 8k emails a year and receive 30k. In this dataset Clinton is sending only 2K emails a year). Our modern political world is one where a few need to interact with many, so they have no time for deep relationships — they physically cannot. So what we are left is with a world of first impressions and public opinion, where the choice of words matters enormously, and becomes central to the job. Yet, the chronic lack of time that comes from having a system where few people govern many, and that leads people to strategize every word, is not Clinton’s fault. It is just a bug that affects all modern political systems, which are ancient Greek democracies that were not designed to deal with hundreds of millions of people. On another note, this exercise also helped me reaffirm my belief that the best way to learn about the media is not by reading the news, but by being news. I’ve had the fortune, and misfortune, to have been news many times. This time, I honestly thought that we had a piece of content that some media channels would be interested in and that it would get picked up easily. I have many reporter friends who are enthusiastic about new forms of data journalism, and that actually have been positive and encouraging this week. So I imagined that there was a good chance that a reporter would see the site, go to his or her editor, and say: “Hey, I have an interactive data visualization of all Clinton’s emails. Can I write a story on it?” and the editor would say: “Of course, make it quick.” I don’t know if these conversations actually happened, but given the large volume of traffic our project received I would be surprised if they didn’t. I learned that the outcome was not the one I intuited. And this brings me to my final point, which is that while I support Clinton in this election, and I think Trump is a bad choice for president (a really bad one), I still think that we should work on the creation of tools that improve the ability of people to personalize scrutinize politically relevant information. I now understand that much of the U.S. media may not share that view with me, and that I think this is an important point of reflection. I hope the media takes some time to think about this on November 9 (or the week after). Also, the large number of people who were unable to interpret our tool as anything but an effort to support or oppose a political candidate — and that was true for both liberals and conservatives — speaks to me about an ineffective public sphere. And that’s something I think we should all be concerned about. This polarization is not just a cliché. It is a crippling societal condition that is expressed in the inability of people to see any merit, or any point, in opposing views. That’s a dangerous, and chronic, institutional disease that is expressed also in the inability of people to criticize their own candidates, because they fear being confused with someone their peers will interpret as a supporter of the opposing candidate. If you cannot see any merit in the candidate you oppose, even in one or two of the many points that have been made, you may have it. So that’s how this election has muddled the gears of democracy. When we cannot learn from those we oppose, or agree when they have a valid point, our learning stops. We keep on talking past each other. I know that this election has made learning from those we oppose particularly difficult, but the difficult tests are the ones that truly show us what we are really made of. These are the situations that push us to see past we don’t like, or don’t agree on, so we can rescue a lesson. You may not agree with me, but I hope at least I gave you something to think about. While his points about media censorship and peer pressure are self-explanatory, I want to take a quick moment to discuss his most meaningful insight, which is the idea that “ political systems scale poorly.” This is hugely important, because as the current status quo system collapses, many of us in the Western world will be presented with an incredible opportunity to do things completely different. Unfortunately, none of the candidates in the 2016 election (including Sanders and Trump) have been promoting the idea of political decentralization, which is the direction I think we need to move toward. In voting for Brexit, that’s exactly what the British people professed a preference for, and it’s what we need here in America. In some important ways, I think we should look back toward the original concept of government as understood by our founders. A loose-knit collection of largely self-governing states that are bonded together in certain important ways, yet independent and sovereign in all other ways. Indeed, I think we can break things up even further than that, but let’s start there for the time being. If we want to stick with representative democracy, I think for it to work best, it needs to be very local. I think the future of mankind depends on us getting our political systems right, and I think governance has to be shifted to the local level as much as possible. This all reminds me of Aldous Huxley’s extremely prescient warning in his 1958 book Brave New World revised (see my review of it), in which he wrote: Or take the right to vote. In principle, it is a great privilege. In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty. Therefore, if you wish to avoid dictatorship by referendum, break up modern society’s merely functional collectives into self-governing, voluntarily co-operating groups, capable of functioning outside the bureaucratic systems of Big Business and Big Government. Bottom line: We need to decentralize everything, especially government. | 1 |
Bookselling is a tough business these days, but BookCourt in Brooklyn seemed destined to stay. One of the foremost independent bookstores in the area for decades, BookCourt flourished, as did the borough, and it grew into one of the country’s premier literary hot spots. Its owners, Henry M. Zook and Mary B. Gannett, seemed to have found the secret to success after opening the store 35 years ago. But on Tuesday, Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett said they planned to shut BookCourt on Dec. 31, sending a gasp through its literary community and its Cobble Hill neighborhood. BookCourt had weathered the upheaval of the bookselling industry over the last 20 years as reading habits changed and online outlets like Amazon rose. It withstood the 1999 opening of a Barnes Noble store just a few blocks away and even outlasted the owners’ marriage. But the store could not survive one fundamental thing: the desire of both owners, now in their 60s, to retire. “We know the store will be missed, and we are very proud of what we accomplished,” Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett wrote in a statement. They said that the longevity could be explained in part because they had “invested in the neighborhood and the real estate which housed the bookstore. ” Over the years the couple bought the two stately buildings that house the store on bustling Court Street. Since its opening in 1981, BookCourt has hosted many famous authors who have stopped in the city for readings, lectures and talks, including Junot Díaz, Megan Abbott and Don DeLillo. And it has been a base for the writing community that has swelled in Brooklyn and a springboard for many authors. The novelist Emma Straub said she did her first reading at BookCourt in 2009, around the time when she started working as a bookseller and sold copies of a novella she wrote at the store. “Lots of people I sold them to were editors that then bid on my novel later,” Ms. Straub, 36, said. Ms. Straub has had launch parties for all of her books here. “For me, there was no place more important,” she said. Dennis Johnson, a founder of Melville House, a publishing company in Brooklyn, said he was shocked that the store was closing. “They’re really supportive of little publishers like us,” he said. Mr. Johnson said that in the early 2000s, Mr. Zook would sell books at a few of his events. “He said, ‘I’ll bring a load down and sell them for you,’” Mr. Johnson said. “I doubt he made any money. ” Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett had opened the store long before the borough’s resurgence as a thriving cultural center and hip place to live. Zack Zook, 32, a son of BookCourt’s owners, grew up in an apartment above the store. In the 1990s the block had overgrown vacant lots full of rusting automobiles. Rats abounded, he said, and some of the store’s workers had been mugged nearby. “It was radically different than it is now,” he said. The vacant lots have been replaced by a Starbucks and a grocery store. The novelist Jonathan Lethem said the store also influenced Brooklyn’s literary boom. “To have a neighborhood bookstore like that was part of the formation of the character of the place as we now know it,” he said. Ms. Gannett and Mr. Zook’s statement did not say why they decided to retire at the end of the year, but Zack Zook said his mother no longer lived upstairs and his father had moved upstate. “They got in early. They were able to make sound investments,” Zack Zook said. “Usually when you make a significant investment, there is some kind of return. ” On Tuesday, customers quietly perused the store. A woman with a dachshund on her lap read a children’s book in the window. A clerk moved his arms like a windmill to a song on the stereo. One man conversed about the suburbs as a clerk dusted the store shelves. The air smelled of hardwood floor and the pages of books. “It’s just the sort of amenity people move to Brooklyn for,” said Betsy Sand, who had been buying books at the store since it opened. She recalled that after Hurricane Sandy, “this place was the neighborhood gathering place. ” Nationally, statistics indicate that independent bookselling is on the rise. The American Booksellers Association, which represents independent booksellers, said its membership included more than 2, 300 stores in 2016, up from 1, 651 in 2009. And a couple of stores have even expanded. Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, which opened in 2009, added a shop in Gardens last month. Word, in Greenpoint, opened an outpost in Jersey City. Ms. Straub and her husband plan to open a bookstore, a decision that came to them after learning BookCourt was closing. First, they asked Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett to let them take over the store. “But that didn’t work out,” Ms. Straub said. Instead, they will try to open a store nearby. “We decided that we couldn’t stomach living in a neighborhood with no independent bookstore,” Ms. Straub said. | 1 |
posted by Eddie Hillary Clinton proposed rigging a foreign election in a 2006 meeting with Jewish Press editors, and now the leaked audio has been posted on the web to prove it. Speaking to the editorial board of the Jewish Press at their office in Brooklyn, Clinton also said it was a mistake to allow Palestinians to hold a democratic election. “ I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake ,” said Senator Clinton. “ And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win. ”
The audio tape was never released and has only been heard by the small handful of Jewish Press staffers in the room. According to Eli Chomsky, an editor and writer, his audio cassette is the only recording of the meeting. Nobody had heard it since 2006 – until today when he released it to the world. However mainstream media have attempted to blacklist the story, and Control The Record employees have been actively working to remove it from internet forums and social media. The tape is 45 minutes and contains much that is no longer relevant, but Clinton’s casually delivered comments about denying Palestinians democratic elections – stating that if they must have them, they should be rigged – has taken on new relevance in the midst of persistent allegations from Republicans that the Clinton camp is attempting to rig the Nov. 8 election. Fixing foreign elections Recalling the 2006 meeting, Chomsky says he was taken aback that “ anyone could support the idea—offered by a national political leader, no less—that the U.S. should be in the business of fixing foreign elections .” Clinton also discussed the problem of global terror, and articulated phrases that Trump has accused her being reluctant to use publicly. “ I think you can make the case that whether you call it ‘Islamic terrorism’ or ‘Islamo-fascism,’ whatever the label is we’re going to give to this phenomenon, it’s a threat. It’s a global threat. To Europe, to Israel, to the United States…Therefore we need a global response. It’s a global threat and it needs a global response. Chomsky is then heard asking Clinton a question about potential conflict in Syria – and Clinton gives him an entirely different answer to the public position she is pushing now. In fact, she sounds just like Donald Trump does in 2016. “ Do you think it’s worth talking to Syria—both from the U.S. point [of view] and Israel’s point [of view]? ” Clinton replied, “ You know, I’m pretty much of the mind that I don’t see what it hurts to talk to people. As long as you’re not stupid and giving things away. I mean, we talked to the Soviet Union for 40 years. They invaded Hungary, they invaded Czechoslovakia, they persecuted the Jews, they invaded Afghanistan, they destabilized governments, they put missiles 90 miles from our shores, we never stopped talking to them.” The conversation moves on, but then Clinton returns to the topic. “ But if you say, ‘they’re evil, we’re good, [and] we’re never dealing with them,’ I think you give up a lot of the tools that you need to have in order to defeat them…So I would like to talk to you [the enemy] because I want to know more about you. Because if I want to defeat you, I’ve got to know something more about you. I need different tools to use in my campaign against you. That’s my take on it. ” Chomsky said that he held onto the tapes for all of these years due the Jewish Press’s reluctance to “ say anything offensive about anybody, ” but in the current election rigging climate he considered the contents of the tape to be in the national interest. “ I went to my bosses at the time, ” Chomsky said. “ The Jewish Press had this mindset that they would not want to say anything offensive about anybody—even a direct quote from anyone—in a position of influence because they might need them down the road. My bosses didn’t think it was newsworthy at the time. I was convinced that it was and I held onto it all these years .” source: | 1 |
ORLANDO, Fla. — Corpses do not faze him but Joshua D. Stephany, Orlando’s chief medical examiner, still has the image of what he saw inside the Pulse nightclub on the morning of the slaughter seared into his head. Strobe lights were still flashing. The television was still on. Purses and cellphones were strewn about the floor. And there were bodies everywhere. “What you saw was drinks that were just served. You saw bills that were about to be paid. You saw food,” said Dr. Stephany, 41, who was called into duty hours after Omar Mateen barged into the popular gay nightclub and opened fire. people were killed in the attack. “Time just stopped. ” Although he had been filling in for about a year, Dr. Stephany was officially made Orange County’s chief medical examiner two days after the slaughter at Pulse. On his first real day on the job, his office completed 18 autopsies. He said he performed at least seven of the 49 autopsies. The exact number he is not certain of. He lost count. He and his four colleagues, aided by two state pathologists called in from elsewhere in Florida, have now conducted autopsies on all 49 victims as well as the assailant. Out of respect for those who were killed, Mr. Mateen’s corpse is being held in a different part of the morgue, in an area typically used for decomposing bodies. Determining the cause of death was routine in this case, as all of the victims had bullet wound after bullet wound. “So you kind of take a typical homicide scene, multiply it by 50, even that just won’t prepare you for what you see,” he said. “I don’t think you can find anybody more experienced than medical examiners to go to that type of events, but to see the sheer number of decedent is almost surreal. ” The pathologists put aside their emotions, he said, as they sought to identify everyone. The technicians photographed, and fingerprinted the bodies to confirm their identities. They inspected tattoos. They washed blood off the victims’ faces so they could be compared to photographs from their driver’s licenses and Facebook profiles. The identity of one victim frustrated the team for dozens of hours, until Dr. Stephany realized that a wallet he had picked up off the ground at the club as evidence contained the person’s name. In autopsy after autopsy, the doctors documented every wound and plucked every bullet, noting where it entered and the direction it traveled. “It doesn’t appear anyone suffered,” he said. “Everyone went down where they were. I don’t think anyone had prolonged suffering. ” A New Hampshire native, Dr. Stephany has conducted several thousand autopsies in his life. He has seen his share of overdoses, suicides, hangings and car crashes. But he said he knows this case, his first as the chief, will be one he will not forget. “It hasn’t been able to sink in yet,” Dr. Stephany said. “I don’t think there’s any way it could not affect you immediately or eventually. ” | 0 |
The Department of Homeland Security was improperly restricted by officials working for President Barack Obama, says John Kelly, the new DHS secretary. Politicians who complain about the implementation of the border laws passed by Congress “should have the courage and skill to change those laws, otherwise they should shut up and support the people on the front lines,” Kelly said. Read the full speech here. Follow Neil Munro on Twitter @NeilMunroDC or email the author at NMunro@Breitbart. com | 0 |
Report Copyright Violation Syrian boys BANNED from swimming pool after girls as young as NINE sexually assaulted The girls - sisters aged 9, 11 and 14 - were surrounded and molested by seven migrants, the youngest of whom was just seven.The father of the schoolgirls said he had dropped them off at the swimming pool as a treat for the older girl’s 14th birthday.He said as soon as they started swimming they were harassed by the boys who surrounded them in the pool.The man said: “Five of the boys touched the girls' breasts and bottoms.” He said his 11 year-old daughter managed to get away from the youths and ran to the pool supervisor to ask for help. Police were called and arrived soon after.A police spokeswoman said the suspects were being investigated for sexual offences. Read More: [ link to www.express.co.uk ] Follower of ChristExamined under the lens of true biblical christianity, Roman Catholicism is reduced to an elaborate system of blasphemous paganism dressed in a garb of Christianity. Anybody with an iota of common sense guided by the spirit would recognise that Jesus Christ is the Rock of God, and the revelation of this, which Peter has garnered, is upon which the Church is to be built. Historically, symbolically and doctrinally; Catholicism sets itself up above God and his word, and is most definately the 2nd Babylon to which all the great reforms alluded to."God is a spirit; and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth"Facebook Page about the Pope: | 0 |
US Supreme Court: Transgender Bathroom in Schools November 02, 2016
For the first time the US Supreme Court will take up the issue of Transgender Bathrooms being forced on schoolchildren.
The transgender bathroom and locker room issue has been debated in states across America since President Obama earlier this year publicly announced that Title IX anti-discrimination law includes transgender self-identity, he even weighed in specifically on the particular case in Virginia that has made it's way to the Supreme Court. Caitlyn Hope, a 17-year-old began to self-identify as a boy in 2014. She has not undergone sex change surgery but is undergoing hormone therapy. Caitlyn legally changed her name to Gavin and started to use the boys' showers, toilets, and locker rooms at school.
"This is the first time that the Court will be addressing the question of whether laws protecting against sex discrimination in education are applicable to 'gender identity,'” Liberty Counsel noted.
Parents voiced their concerns when hearing about what was happening at the school. Despite school board attempts to accommodate by building private, single-stall bathrooms and to keep school common bathrooms gender separate, they were sued. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought a lawsuit on Caitlyn's behalf, demanding that she may use all of the school's facilities. It is expected that the Supreme Court ruling next year will have direct impact on community bathroom laws, such as North Carolina's HB2, which keeps public bathrooms gender separate.
There are currently only eight justices on the Supreme Court, and with Republicans disallowing hearings on Obama’s nominees, either pro-transgender Hillary Clinton or pro-life Donald Trump will nominate someone to fill the vacancy. On November 8th YOU will decide!
Original article by www.lifesitenews.com / TRUNEWS analysis. | 0 |
In the wake of the June 3 London Bridge attacks, Police One warns that conditioning Britons to “run, hide, tell” does not demonstrate resolve. [Instead they show that the tactic reveals “an aversion to the use of force in [which] may embolden … terrorists. ” Police One praises the Brits who did what they could to buy time by throwing drink glasses, bar stools, etc. at the London attackers. The response was not without demonstrations of courage. But the overarching mindset of “run, hide, tell” instead of “Move! Escape or Attack!” betrays a conditioning that seeks a means of retreat instead of a means of counteraction it is a response from a position of weakness instead of a position of strength. Police One quotes Winston Churchill’s 1940 address to the House of Commons: We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills we shall never surrender. But the word “fight” does not appear to be in the lexicon of those behind 21st century social and psychological conditioning in Britain. And this is tragic because some people will be forced to fight for their lives. Police One explains, “Yet, in the end, there may be no other alternative for the public but to fight. Running and hiding may work, depending on the circumstances and a person’s proximity to the epicenter of an attack, but for some people, there will be no suitable alternative but fighting. ” The lack of emphasis on “fighting” is part of a paradigm that impacts the Metropolitan Police as well. After all, “the majority of British police officers are not trusted with lethal force tools and the officers who are actually equipped with firearms operate in a culture where their use is highly discouraged by authorities. ” So it comes as not surprise that one of the officers near the June 3 terror attacks had only a “club” for both an offensive and defensive tool. Police One asks, “Is it possible that the British are emboldening these attackers by failing to demonstrate their resolve and their commitment to confronting evil with force?” They suggest Churchill would answer in the affirmative. 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. | 0 |
Israel settlements legal, Trump aide says, playing anti-Iran video message on Mount... Israel settlements legal, Trump aide says, playing anti-Iran video message on Mount Zion By 0 60
GOP nominee Donald Trump does not believe that settlements built by the Zionist regime of Israel in Palestine are illegal, his advisor on Israel says.
David Friedman, who was campaigning for the New York billionaire at a restaurant on Mount Zion (Jabel Sahyoun) in East Jerusalem al-Quds, made the comments to AFP after the Wednesday rally.
“I don’t think he believes that the settlements are illegal,” Friedman said.
He also said the former reality TV star is “tremendously skeptical” about the so-called two-state solution, promoted by the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama during his eight years in office, but to no avail. David Friedman (L) exiting the Federal Building with Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump, (R) following their appearance in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey, February 25, 2010. (Photo via Bloomberg News)
The Obama administration has already voiced criticism over Tel Aviv’s expansionist policies, considered illegal… | 0 |
Jonathan Easley writes at The Hill that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon deny that they are not getting along despite recent stories to the contrary. From the Hill: In a joint phone call with The Hill on Wednesday, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon furiously pushed back at reports of division, saying there is no friction between them. Trump aides are particularly angry with a story published Tuesday by the conservative outlet Bannon once ran, Breitbart News, in which anonymous sources blamed Priebus for tumult at the White House and suggested that the chief of staff’s job was in immediate jeopardy. But Bannon and Priebus insisted that they’re working closely and amicably together and that reports to the contrary are false. “Reince is doing an amazing job,” Bannon told The Hill. “We are executing on President Trump’s agenda in record time. That’s because Reince is getting the job done. ” Read the rest of the story here. | 0 |
Failed weapons systems cost Pentagon $58 billion over two decades Published time: 26 Oct, 2016 19:47 Get short URL The Pentagon building in Washington, DC. © AFP The Pentagon loves to throw good money after bad ‒ to the tune of nearly $60 billion on failed big-ticket weapons systems over the last two decades, according to a new internal Department of Defense review.
From the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) that focused on fighting the last war to its RAH-66 Comanche stealth helicopters that never quite got off the ground, between 1997 and October 2016, the Pentagon invested $58 billion on weapons technology it never received. That doesn’t include the boondoggle that is the F-35 jet , which was finally declared “ready for combat” at the beginning of August.
The FCS ($20 billion) and the Comanche ($9.8 billion) are just two of 23 major weapons programs that were canceled before they were finished, and together the two Army projects made up more than 50 percent of the “sunk costs” outlined in the Pentagon’s annual internal acquisitions performance review. The 224-page report by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall was published earlier this week. Read more 5 costly Pentagon projects of dubious merit
The report noted how much money was spent on each canceled program, how far along in the process they were before they were killed, and if any of the technology was rolled up into new programs. For example, although the FCS was canceled, parts of it ‒ including many of the manned ground vehicles and the Intelligent Munitions System ‒ were swept up into a current program called the Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization Program.
Most of the programs were killed before they blew through their budgets, but eight of them spent all the money allotted to them before the Pentagon canceled them, the report found.
The Government Accountability Office, a Congressional watchdog, conducted an audit of Pentagon spending in 2011 and found $70 billion in waste, the New York Times reported at the time . Much of the overspending happened because the DOD started building weapons systems before the designs were fully tested, the auditors said.
With acquisitions overruns long being a thorn in the side of the Pentagon’s budget, in March the Air Force enlisted IBM’s Jeopardy! -winning cognitive computer , Watson. Two contractors are currently working to create programs that would enable Watson to navigate the 1,897-page Federal Acquisition Regulation, helping potential government vendors actually bid for military contracts. The project is expected to become operational by 2018.
Another way the Pentagon has sought to cut down wasted spending is through the latest update to its acquisitions program, called ‘Better Buying Power 3.0’, which was announced in April 2015 . The program was designed to have “a stronger emphasis on innovation, technical excellence, and the quality of our products,” Kendall wrote in a memo ordering the program's implementation. It calls on the military-industrial complex to make projects more affordable in terms of funding, schedule and manpower throughout the entire lifespan of their products. It will also reward contractors for successful expense management, and ask them to eliminate unproductive processes and unnecessary bureaucracy.
Of course, holding contractors accountable for their failures when it comes to major cost overruns or weapons systems that don’t work is easier said than done. And it doesn’t help when someone at the Pentagon thinks it’s a good idea to spend money on bomb-sniffing elephants . | 0 |
October 31, 2016 Hillary Clinton demands answers and Democrats call foul
he FBI has announced it is investigating new emails sent by Hillary Clinton on a private server during her time as Secretary of State, sending her campaign into panic mode just 11 days before the presidential election. The emails were found during an investigation into illicit text messages between Anthony Weiner, a former congressman, and a 15-year-old girl, according to The New York Times . Huma Abedin, Mr Weiner’s wife, is one of Mrs Clinton’s closest aides and was pictured with her on Friday as the news broke.
Email (will not be published) (required) Website Sow a seed to help the Jewish people Follow Endtime Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Endtime Ministries | End of the Age | Irvin Baxter Endtime Ministries, Inc. PO Box 940729 Plano, TX 75094 Toll Free: 1.800.363.8463 DON'T JUST READ THE NEWS... understand it from a biblical perspective. Your Information will never be shared with any third party. Get a 2-year subscription, normally $29, now just $20.15. ONLY 500 deals are still available. Offer available while supplies last or it expires on December 31, 2015. close We are a small non-profit that runs a high-traffic website, a daily TV and radio program, a bi-monthly magazine, the prophecy college in Jerusalem, and more. Although we only have 35 team members, we are able to serve tens of millions of people each month; and have costs like other world-wide organizations. We have very few third-party ads and we don’t receive government funding. We survive on the goodness of God, product sales, and donations from our wonderful partners. Dear Readers, X close We have experienced tremendous growth in our web presence over the last five years. In fact, in 2010 we averaged 228,000 pageviews per month. Last year we averaged just over 2,000,000 pageviews per month. That’s an increase of 777% in five years! However, our servers and software are outdated, which causes downtime on occasion for many of you and additional work hours and finances to maintain for us at Endtime. Updating our servers and software as well as maintaining service for a year will cost us $42,000. If each person reading this gave at least $10, our bill to provide FREE broadcasting and resources to the world via our website would be covered for over a year! Learn more - Click Here ► Dear Readers, | 0 |
By Justin Gardner As the corporatocracy tightens its grip on the masses – finding ever more ways to funnel wealth to the top – humanity... | 0 |
A federal judge in Hawaii says Muslims in America are unfairly and illegally discriminated against by Donald Trump’s effort to curb the immigration of violent Muslim refugees from Muslim countries. [Another judge in Wisconsin says a Syrian who recently was given asylum — and who is not even a citizen — has the right to ask a fellow judge for visas to fly his relatives into the United States, regardless of opposition from the U. S. government’s border, police and intelligence, and immigration agencies. Three California judges and a judge in Washington State say the President’s sole right and solemn duty to guard the borders ends when a state suffers financial harm because its universities can’t import more customers from restricted countries. These judges are competing with each other to throw invented legalistic roadblocks in front of Trump’s legal and proper defense of the nation’s borders, said Hans Von Spakovsky, a former lawyer at the Department of Justice who is now working for the Heritage Foundation. “I don’t think the [various judges] have any professional shame about it — in fact, they’re being applauded by newspaper editors for actually ignoring the [Congress’] law and [Supreme Court] rulings based on their own personal policy preferences,” he told Breitbart. The judges’ grab for power, despite the plain text of the Congress’ law and despite prior Supreme Court decisions, “is destructive of the rule of law, which is the entire basis of our Republic,” he said. “It is a very bad development that threatens our democracy … [and] it looks like it is going to get worse [because] we’re going to have more and more litigation, and it is very clear that the progressive left wants to use the courts to fight way our democracy works,” he said, adding “I think what they doing is very . ” The only fix, he said, is for Trump to aggressively push the Senate to confirm good judges for the 110 empty judicial seats around the nation. Trump will be aided in this push because the Senate’s former Majority Leader, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, changed the Senate rules to lower the thresholds to end filibusters of judicial confirmation debates. “The Trump administration has to remember that Harry Reid ended the [ ] filibuster for judges except for the Supreme Court [so] all they need are 51 votes to get any judge confirmed … They were given a gift by Harry Reid and they need to take it,” he said. Trump must also disregard the Senate’s traditional “blue slip” process, which gives Senators a quiet veto over nominees to judicial seats in their states. Democrats used that process to push President George W. Bush to nominate progressive judges to states during his eight years in the White House. One of Bush’s “blue slip” progressives judges blocked Trump’s Executive Order in Washington State by declaring that universities and companies can ask judges to override Presidents’ curbs on immigration. Trump and the GOP Senators “have to override that” veto, Spakovsky said. The judge in Washington State, James Robart, declared Feb. 3 that “the [president’s] executive order adversely effects the State’s residents in areas of employment, education, business, family relations, and freedom to travel. These harms extend to the States by virtue of their roles as parens patriae of the residents living within their borders. ” That judge was backed up by three judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who court decisions from domestic cases to declare that the danger of jihadism is less urgent than universities’ foreign revenues: the University of Washington was in the process of sponsoring three prospective employees from countries covered by the Executive Order for visas it had made plans for their arrival beginning in February 2017, but they have been unable to enter the United States. The University of Washington also sponsored two medicine and science interns who have been prevented by the Executive Order from coming to the University of Washington … Under the “third party standing” doctrine, these injuries to the state universities give the States standing to assert the rights of the [foreign] students, scholars, and faculty affected by the Executive Order. … the public has a powerful interest in national security and in the ability of an elected president to enact policies. And on the other, the public also has an interest in free flow of travel, in avoiding separation of families, and in freedom from discrimination. We need not characterize the public interest more definitely than this when considered alongside the hardships discussed above, these competing public interests do not justify a stay [upholding Trump’s policy] The Wisconsin decision was announced March 10 by Judge William Conley of the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, who went several steps further by saying an individual, who is not even a citizen, has the right to overrule the president if he or she can get a judge to agree. According to the Wisconsin judge’s order: Plaintiff is a Sunni Muslim who, after being fully vetted by U. S. immigration authorities, was granted asylum status because of the torture and religious persecution he had suffered in Syria. he thereafter filed derivative asylum petitions to reunite with his wife and his only surviving child … .. President Trump’s efforts to impose an immigration ban by executive order are threatening to stop Plaintiff’s derivative asylum petitions in their tracks. From 2o13 to 2015, government data shows that 25, 565 foreigners got asylum status — and according to Judge Conley — the right to bring their families into the United States regardless of Congres’ laws and the policy that an elected president promised to implement if he was democratically voted into the White House. In Hawaii, Judge Derrick Watson decided that the elected President’s policy of defending Americans from Muslim jihadis who emerged from Muslim culture in Muslim countries might hurt Hawaii’s tourism industry, saying in his order that: The State points to preliminary data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which suggests that during the interval of time that the first Executive Order was in place, the number of visitors to Hawai‘i from the Middle East dropped (data including visitors from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen) … Because there is preliminary evidence that losses of current and future revenue are traceable to the Executive Order, this injury to the State’s proprietary interest also appears sufficient to confer standing. The judge also opposed the President’s national defense against Islam’s violent doctrines by quoting the Muslim cleric’s testimony about”ethnicity” and children’s worries, saying: [“My children] are deeply affected by the knowledge that the United States — their own country — would discriminate against individuals who are of the same ethnicity as them, including members of their own family, and who hold the same religious beliefs. They do not fully understand why this is happening, but they feel hurt, confused, and sad. ” Alongside the judges’ escalating and expanding claims of their judicial power over elected presidents, the written law is entirely clear that the written Constitution and the elected Congress give only the elected president and his deputies the legal power to accept or deny entry of alien foreigners into the United States. Here’s the relevant statute, 8 U. S. C. § 1182 (f): (f) Suspension of Entry or Imposition of Restrictions by President, Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. The Supreme Court has accepted and validated this “plenary power” of the elected president. For example, the court declared in its 1950 judgment lawsuit, titled Knauff v. Shaughnessy, that “It is not within the province of any court, unless expressly authorized by [congressional] law, to review the determination of the political branch of Government to exclude a given alien. ” In 2015, the Court reasserted that judgment in Kerry v. Din, saying: The state action of which Din complains is the denial of [spouse] Berashk’s visa application. Naturally, one would expect him — not Din — to bring this suit. But because Berashk is an unadmitted and nonresident alien, he has no right of entry into the United States, and no cause of action to press in furtherance of his claim for admission … So, Din attempts to bring suit on his behalf, alleging that the Government’s denial of her husband’s visa application violated her constitutional rights … In particular, she claims that the Government denied her due process of law when, without adequate explanation of the reason for the visa denial, it deprived her of her constitutional right to live in the United States with her spouse. There is no such constitutional right. And, Here, a long practice of regulating spousal immigration precludes Din’s claim that the denial of Berashk’s visa application has deprived her of a fundamental liberty interest. Although immigration was effectively unregulated prior to 1875, as soon as Congress began legislating in this area it enacted a complicated web of regulations that erected serious impediments to a person’s ability to bring a spouse into the United States … This Court has consistently recognized that these various distinctions are “policy questions entrusted exclusively to the political branches of our Government, and we have no judicial authority to substitute our political judgment for that of the Congress. ” But that case was decided by 5 to 4, with former Justice Antonin Scalia providing the critical fifth vote against the block of four progressives who would have granted foreigners a conditional right to immigrate into the United States, regardless of government or voter preferences. Scalia is dead, and the Senate has yet to vote on his nominated successor, Judge Neil Gorsuch. | 1 |
West Point Academy And Children Are The New Champions For Gay Marriage By Jonathan Lenhardt on November 4, 2013 Subscribe
Another day, another bit of ground my socially conservative Republican counterparts have lost on the gay marriage debate. This past Saturday, November 2, 2013 West Point Military Academy’s Cadet Chapel hosted the first ever male same-sex marriage ceremony . This follows two female same-sex marriages late in 2012.
Needless to say, somebody at the academy has decided to join the 21st Century and not a moment too soon; gay marriage was made legal in New York State way back in mid-2011 . Still, long time coming aside, it was a huge day for West Point graduates 28-year-old Larry Choate III (Class of 2009), and 27-year-old Daniel Lennox (Class of 2007), and we at Liberal America sent our congratulations.
Sadly, however, there is still a raging debate on gay marriage and whether or not it should be made legal courtesy of the Big G, (U.S. Federal Government). Fifty two percent of Americans say yes according to a Gallup poll conducted this past July, and we already know what we, here at The Liberal Conservative , think about federal laws on not just gay marriage but marriage in general – spoiler alert: we’re for gay marriage, just not via federal law.
Now the thing that the far-right, Tea Party-indoctrinated “Republicans,” have to realize is that there is a certain group of people to which they have fallen behind on this matter, and many others. This is a group of people that they should be ashamed and embarrassed to have fallen behind. This is a group of people who have proven to be more mature, more merciful, kinder, and warmer than they are.
Children .
If you’ve ever checked out any of the ?Kids React To…? videos on YouTube such as the one above or this one or – more importantly – this one , then you’re familiar with the work of The Fine Brothers , Benny and Rafi. They’ve been at this for a while now and, as The Daily Dot explains, when they’re not getting kids’ reactions to things like, Nyan Cat, Justin Bieber, or Rebecca Black, they have their delightful cast of youngsters tackling issues like race relations, rape culture, bullying, and, yes, ?gay marriage.
Thirteen children were asked to react to videos of same-sex marriage proposals and offer their opinion. With the exception of a single young boy, the children reacted universally positive; and then with anger when they inevitably discover that not everybody is allowed to marry who they love in the United States – the “freest” nation on Earth.
To the proposals themselves the kids, Californians aged 5 to 13 years, were floored by the displays of love they were fortunate to witness in the videos. And when he discovered the truth about gay marriage in America young Dylan wondered:
Why would you be that mean to someone?
Indeed. Why would we be that mean to someone?
Someone in the audience yells “Religion!” and I roll my eyes in disappointed concurrence.
This author’s personal favorite reaction comes from 5-year-old Lucas who, apart from looking gloriously like Zachary Quinto as Spock, turns to one of the Fines after the first video and asks “So, they’re gay?” When this is confirmed he simply lets out a nonchalant and confirming, “Oh.” Standing against gay marriage is..illogical. | 0 |
Fans of Megan Fox have had to exercise patience: The actress, by her own admission, doesn’t work much. “I’ve never made more than two movies a year,” she said. Her recent arc on the Fox series “New Girl,” was, then, an unexpected treat, and she will reappear next season, she said, as a love interest and comic foil. And she returns as April, the adventurous reporter and stalwart buddy in the sequel “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” out on Friday, June 3. A case of bronchitis caused her to miss the premiere in New York, where the movie was filmed, but Ms. Fox spoke afterward by phone from Los Angeles about her unambitious career path and her working relationship with the producer and director Michael Bay, who first propelled her to stardom in “Transformers,” and is behind the “Turtles” movies. As a mother of two young sons, with a third child on the way (with the actor Brian Austin Green) Ms. Fox, 30, long ago gave up playing Halo, but she still gravitates toward the fantasy universe. “If I got sent 10 scripts and one of them was for an action or or gaming movie, that’s the first one I’m gonna read,” she said. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Is it important for you to play women who are both strong and physically attractive? I don’t get a whole lot of say in terms of character development on movies like these. It’s not like I’m in there helping them write the script saying, “April should do this, because this is what a real feminist would do. ” In terms of what’s available for women to play in general in Hollywood, it’s pretty scarce. You have these stereotypes that still dominate films: the nag, the trophy, the escort. [Laughs.] I haven’t been sent a nag script yet, but I do get plenty of, like, “interesting stripper. ” Or, “She’s super funny, but she’s also an escort, but that’s what makes it funny!” Would you rather have more say? [On “Ninja Turtles”] if I had said, I feel like my integrity is being compromised wearing this schoolgirl uniform, they would listen to that, of course. But that wasn’t something that affected me in a negative way at all. On a movie like this, I don’t mind doing [the scene] as written, but I do do a lot of improv. I’m sort of a ballsy talker, and so I bring that to the character whenever it’s appropriate to the scene. That never makes it in. How did the “New Girl” role come about? I don’t watch a lot of television, so I didn’t know about it. They wanted to pitch it to me, and I thought that was so bizarre, because I’m not known for working in television, and not known for comedy, even though I’ve done a couple. And I loved it. I was taken aback by how weird and offbeat and fun [the show] is, and the character falls right in line with how I like to play to my own comedic timing. You’ve said that you’re not very ambitious as an actress. Why not? I know [that] idea is a very strange thing because usually actresses are all ambition, and are driven to achieve and they’re workaholics, for the most part. And I’ve never been that way. I’m not necessarily very passionate about acting per se. I don’t feel validated by being on a set or making a movie. I have a lot of fun making these movies, but it’s not a representation of my innermost being. You and Michael Bay had a public falling out after you compared him to Hitler in an interview. You weren’t in the fourth “Transformers. ” How did you mend fences? I had to ride out two years of very negative press. There’s this perception that I was sort of thrown out of Hollywood. The positive thing was that it forced me to be very introspective and go, ‘You were not totally right in this situation.’ I reached out to him, and we had a very genuine exchange. From that point forward, it was good. What kind of movies would you like to do? I actually prefer doing these kind of movies, which always surprises people because they always assume that everyone wants to be the suffering artist, making these festival pieces. There’s something that’s more athletic about the process of making these movies, there’s more adrenaline involved, there’s more risk factor, there’s more chaos, and so I just find it to be a more exciting experience. These are also the kind of movies that I prefer to watch, because they’re an escape into a supernatural world, which has always been where I prefer to daydream, anyway. | 1 |
Humans Came Out Of Australia Not Africa By DailyBellStaff - November 05, 2016
… Man searching for toilet in Australia’s outback makes astounding discovery of 49,000-year-old human settlement … Archaeologists working with traditional Aboriginal owners have discovered astounding evidence of the earliest human habitation of inland Australia. – Sutff, NewZealand’s Largest Online Source
Australian habitation keeps getting pushed back and this discovery mentioned above pushes it back farther.
But apparently not far enough. There are alternative explanations that claim Aborigines are somewhere in the area of 300,000 years old.
This theory claims that Aborigine people colonized the world including Africa.
The theory is supposedly based on inaccurate African DNA samples and more accurate Australian DNA samples
You can see a comprehensive article here. There are a number of fascinating YouTube videos on the subject as well (if YouTub hasn’t taken them down).
The article refers to a paper, Recent African Genesis of Humans, by Professors Alan Wilson and Rebecca Cann. This paper was said to have established that humans came out of Africa. It was the “final word,” but then came this:
Not long after their paper was published Rebecca Cann realised they were mistaken. In 1982 she examined the mitochondrial DNA of 112 Indigenous people, including twelve full-descent Aboriginals, and the results were in total opposition to what they assumed was fully resolved.
Nevertheless, Cann was obliged to contradict a central tenet of their paper, stating that “mitochondrial DNA puts the origin of Homo sapiens much further back and indicates that the Australian Aboriginals arose 400,000 years ago from two distinct lineages, far earlier than any other racial type.”
Not only was the emergence of Aboriginal Homo sapiens “far earlier” than any Africans, she provided a sequence and motherland.
The Australian racial group has a much higher number of mutations than any other racial group, which suggests that the Australians split off from a common ancestor about 400,000 years ago. By the same theory, the Mongoloid originated about 100,000 years ago, and the Negroid and Caucasian groups about 40,000 years ago.
Alan Wilson was “desperate” to reclaim validity for the paper’s initial conclusions and visited Australia twice. He sampled “mtDNA of 21 full-descent Australian Aboriginals and provided 15 different strands.” The results led Wilson to decide that there must have been “15 pregnant females on board.”
He tried again in in 1989 but was no more successful. The second sampling included a “similar percentage (70%) of mutation was present.” Wilson quit at this point, conceding that humans had not come out of Africa initially.
It seems too far out to admit, but while Homo erectus was muddling along in the rest of the world, a few erectus had got to Australia and did something dramatically different – not even with stone tools – but it is there that Homo sapiens have emerged and evolved… Homo sapiens would have evolved free from competition out of a small band of Homo erectus 400,000 years ago.
There are at least ten Australian sites claimed to be older than 60,000 years, granted every date is challenged by conservative critics, but even so, all are the products of respected academics.
What needs to be accepted is that if just one date proves to be correct, irrespective of whatever judgment is passed on the other nine, it can be confidently declared as a fact that Australia was not settled by African Homo sapiens 60,000 years ago.
The Aborigine culture is based on so-called Dreamtime narratives that provide a history of Aborigine society. In fact, Egyptian inscriptions have been found in Australian caves. It is perfectly possible that Egyptian culture was in some sense initiated in Australia.
The idea is that human culture generally is Australian. Illustrations of big, high-prowed boats have been found on rock walls in Australia. These are sea-going vessels.
It is fairly clear that Aborigines reached South America perhaps 40,000 years ago and were subsequently attacked by waves of immigrant Indians. The Aborigines retreated to the bottom of South America, and islands there, where their descendants remain.
Fascinating technology exists in Australia. Most significant are hand-sized “melted rocks” that also serve as star-maps. Even today we don’t have the technology to melt successive layers of rock, one on-top of the other.
And these melted rock maps have further elaborations. They seem to provide maps of the astrological heavens, hundreds or thousands of different constellations.
The aborigine culture yields up numerous secrets. The tribes owned their land for tens of thousands of years and thus we can see that ownership of land is an organizing factor of mankind. They had confrontations but these were often individual in nature. The aborigine culture existed in Australia without major, ongoing wars, apparently.
This is a larger lesson that indicates quite clearly that our current hyper-militarization is a kind of farcical propaganda. Human beings don’t have to live in a perpetual state of war.
The information about the Aborigine past is useful in other ways as well. It shows us more clearly than ever that there are two kinds of cultures in the world.
There is tribal culture that organizes itself in harmony with “nature” and is both inclusive and democratic. Then there is “urban” culture that seeks to put people into huge metropolises where every facet of person’s life can be controlled.
Currently urban culture is ascendant. And the more one contemplates it, the more it seems purposeful rather than coincidental.
Everywhere, tribal culture is under attack. In the Americas, tribal culture has been considerably diminished. Pacific cultures have lost tribal elements and these are only being gradually rediscovered.
It turns out that there was a pan-Pacific culture that included canoe travel without maps. The navigator steered using perceptions of the waves and the sky.
Often the navigator would supposedly go into a trance and stay in a semi-wakeful state for weeks at time. There was a whole culture associated with this sort of navigation and a pervasive education that could take decades to master.
It had nothing to do with “drifting rafts” visiting other islands coincidentally.
The aborigine culture has been virtually wiped out in Australia like other tribal cultures. But the more we understand about these cultures, the better. Unfortunately, there are considerable, organized barriers in the way.
For instance, it is surely likely that organized human habitation took place more than 5,000 years ago. It is possible that coastal cities exited 10,000 years ago or longer. These cities were wiped out in a huge flood, or so the hypothesis goes.
But there are evidences of this ancient culture including a city more than a mile offshore beyond India’s Western coast. The Indian government indicated it would investigate a decade ago but has not yet.
The current archaeological bias involves a narrative of human civilization that begins with Sumer and ascends from there. But it is perfectly possible that the story of humanity is a good deal more complicated and includes ebbs and flows.
The current archaeological bias militates against tribalism. We are supposed to believe that human society has ascended in perpetual progress. That makes anything that comes now better than what came before, which benefits elite strategies for continually organizing and manipulating humankind.
Conclusion: It’s perfectly possible that human history is a good deal different than what we’ve been told. One place to begin a reexamination is Australia. | 1 |
After Debate Duke Says USA becoming Banana Republic November 3, 2016 at 9:27 am After Debate Duke Says USA becoming Banana Republic
This is what the viewing audience thought about who won the debate! | 0 |
John McFadden no longer sticks his hand out for a yellow cab. He has plenty of other options at his fingertips. With a couple of taps on his phone, he lines up rides with Via, a service that shuttles him around Manhattan with strangers for a flat rate of $5. When he wants to ride alone, he taps again, this time summoning a car through Uber. “I used to go out and hail a cab, but this is more convenient,” said Mr. McFadden, 47, a photographer. “We all use our phones all day, every day. ” The yellow cab may be as synonymous with New York as pizza, Broadway and the Empire State Building, but more and more it is no longer the ride of choice. This fixture of city life — a touchstone of popular culture in movies like “Taxi Driver’’ and the hit television series “Taxi” — was once the main alternative to subways and buses, hailed by rich and poor alike. Cabdrivers were the ambassadors of the streets, welcoming newcomers, passing along city lore and dispensing advice even when no one asked. But yellow cabs — which now number just 13, 587 — have lost significant ground to a growing fleet of black cars summoned by apps with short, catchy names and loyal followings: Uber, Lyft, Via, Juno, Gett. The average number of daily taxi trips fell by more than 100, 000 in November 2016 from the same month six years ago as these apps have taken off. Today, more than 60, 000 black cars are for hire in the city. More than 46, 000 are connected with Uber, though they may also work for other services too. And the competition is fierce. The services offer discounts and promotions along with options such as car pools, the ability to rate drivers and GPS tracking. They have flooded neighborhoods where taxi service has long been spotty and are now competing in areas like Midtown Manhattan, where taxis once flourished. And they appeal to a new generation of riders who live on their phones, ordering everything from groceries to books and movies. “It won’t be long before this is an Uber town instead of a town,’’ said Evan Rawley, an associate professor of management at the Columbia Business School. “ apps have gained a huge market share in a short period of time. They have expanded the market, but also stolen share from taxicabs. ’’ Many owners and drivers are struggling in a city with more transportation options than ever, including a new subway line on Second Avenue and the proliferation of Citi Bikes. The medallions that give cabs the right to operate have plummeted in value, going for less than half of the $1. 3 million price recorded in 2013 and 2014, though industry experts have cautioned that their value was inflated. At the same time, many drivers have defected to the new services, which often offer more flexible hours and bonuses, resulting in so many taxis sitting idle in parking lots and garages that they have become known as “taxi graveyards. ” Over all, yellow cabs made an average of 336, 737 daily trips and $4. 98 million in fares in November, down from 463, 701 trips and $5. 17 million in fares in the same month in 2010, according to city data. “I don’t remember the last time I took a yellow cab,” said Stacey Moorehead, 51, who works in advertising. “My son had a bar mitzvah every single weekend for six months. I never took a cab. I either took Via or Uber to take him there and to pick him up. ” Kwabena Boateng, 46, a cabdriver since 2001, says that things have gotten so bad that many of his friends now work for Uber. He makes less than he did even three years ago. “I am still contemplating what to do,” he said. Still, Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents the owners of 5, 500 medallions, said the industry was evolving to meet the demands of passengers and drivers, introducing its own apps, Arro and Curb, and opening a new center in Queens to provide training and recruit new drivers. “This is always going to be an iconic town,” Mr. Woloz said. “Uber is the same everywhere — there is nothing ‘New York’ about them — kind of like McDonald’s or Starbucks. But yellow taxis are unique to New York City and, while maybe a little retro, they are as vital and soulful as ever. ” New York City’s taxi industry grew out of the hansom cabs of the 1800s, according to Graham Hodges, the author of “Taxi! A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver. ” After a businessman, Harry N. Allen, was overcharged for a ride, he started the first fleet of cabs in 1907. The shiny red cars were imported from France, equipped with fare meters and lined up at a stand outside the Plaza Hotel. As the years went on, yellow taxis became popular because the color was easy to spot from a distance, Mr. Hodges said. John Hertz, the founder of Hertz car rental company, started the Yellow Cab Company in Chicago in 1915. Yellow became the official color of New York’s medallion taxis in 1967. There were more than 16, 000 cabs in New York before the city began regulating the number in 1937 out of concerns that an oversupply had led to reckless driving, congestion and fares. “It became part of our consciousness,” Mr. Hodges said. “They’re really essential to the quotidian life of the city. ” Yellow cabs still have their fans. Sean Lawrence, 28, a freelance producer, said he preferred hailing a cab because it was less complicated than fiddling with an app and because cabdrivers knew their way around. “I like to think the hail is here to stay,” he said. But others have never even set foot in a yellow cab. Since moving to the city in June, Chip Hermann, 25, an associate at a financial services company, has used only Uber, Lyft, Via or Juno. “Maybe I’ve missed that ‘New York experience,’ but I don’t really want it,” he said. “It just makes sense to use technology to make things cheaper and easier. ” Uber, which started operating in New York in 2011, is by far the largest of the services. It provided an average of 226, 046 rides per day in October 2016, followed by Lyft, with 35, 908 rides, according to city data. Via had 21, 698 rides Juno, 20, 426 and Gett, 7, 227. “Before you used to see a sea of yellow now you see a sea of black,” said Robert Perez, 63, a cabdriver for two decades, as he pointed to a line of black cars on West 38th Street. While black cars have long served Wall Street banks and law firms, they were not for casual or users because they had to be prearranged. Only taxis were allowed to pick up people on the street. But now, with smartphone apps that can dispatch cars in minutes, there is little practical distinction between them. But owners and drivers complain that while they serve the same customers as the apps, they are more heavily regulated by the city. Uber, for instance, can use surge pricing to charge higher fares during peak times while cabs are locked into fixed rates. By 2020, half of all yellow cabs must be while the new services have no such mandate. “Some progress has been made in leveling the playing field, but a lot more work needs to be done,” Mr. Woloz said. Meera Joshi, commissioner of the Taxi Limousine Commission, said regulation was needed “to protect the rights of passengers, drivers and those they share the street with. ” Alix Anfang, an Uber spokeswoman, said the company filled a gap, serving many neighborhoods where yellow taxis were scarce and other transportation options limited. “We have consistently grown fastest in communities outside of Manhattan,’’ she said, “because there is a huge market of people who want a reliable, affordable way to get around but, before Uber, were left stranded. ” Via started in 2013 with five sport utility vehicles on the Upper East Side, where subways are crowded even with the new line on Second Avenue and taxis are in short supply during commuting periods. The service now has more than 1, 500 cars crisscrossing much of Manhattan, as well as making stops in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and at the airports. Via has also expanded to Chicago and Washington. Uber and Lyft have their own version of a city car pool, UberPool and Lyft Line. Daniel Ramot, 41, Via’s and chief executive, said his service was inspired by the shared taxis in Israel known as “sherut” that supplement the public transit system. Mr. Ramot said he could have used Via himself when he worked for a biotechnology research company in Midtown in 2012. At the end of a long day, he would join the line of people at the curb, all trying to hail cabs. “It was not a happy moment, especially if you’re trying to get home and do something,” he said. “I could just visualize these vans coming up the avenues picking people up and dropping them off. ” | 1 |
PARIS — The French leader Marine Le Pen clashed sharply with her probable presidential opponent, the centrist Emmanuel Macron, over immigration, integration and France’s role in the world, during a marathon televised debate Monday night, a vivid prelude to the election battle to come. Facing off for the first time in a debate that stretched for three and a half hours, Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Macron offered the starkest of contrasts, with the National Front leader providing a dark picture of a France besieged by immigrants and Islam, and her rival preaching conciliation. The debate also included the three other main contenders — the Socialist Benoît Hamon, the Republicans’ François Fillon, and the candidate Mélenchon — but it was the fight between Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen that riveted attention. Mr. Macron, a former economy minister who founded a political movement centered on France’s stagnant economy, but who has never held an elected office, appeared flustered at times as Ms. Le Pen displayed a mocking smile. The first round of voting in the presidential election will be on April 23, and the top two candidates will advance to the second round on May 7. Opinion polls show that Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen are the most likely to make it to that runoff — a result that would be a stunning rebuke for France’s two main political parties, the Socialists and the Republicans. Ms. Le Pen, inheritor of the populist National Front party from her father, concentrated her fire Monday night on her younger opponent. Mr. Macron, 39, has advanced more by offering a fresh face than by political savvy, and Ms. Le Pen, 48, sought to exploit his vulnerability, forcing him to define himself in opposition to her strident positions. She accused Mr. Macron of supporting the “burkini,” the swimsuit at the center of a rancorous debate last summer over displays of the Muslim faith. “We’ve got Islamists in our country,” Ms. Le Pen said. “The demands are incessant,” she said, citing food and clothing. An unsettled Mr. Macron shot back: “I’m not putting words in your mouth. I don’t need a ventriloquist. ” “The trap you are falling into, Madame Le Pen, with your provocations, is to divide society,” he said, adding that she was making “enemies out of more than four million French men and women whose religion happens to be Islam. ” The other three candidates present Monday night tried to get shots in at the two . Mr. Fillon was once favored to win the election, but he has been wounded by a series of scandals, most notably charges of embezzlement over allegations that he put family members on the government payroll for nonexistent jobs. He sought during the debate to project a reassuring image of gravity, but he was forced to acknowledge that he “might have made some mistakes. ” Most recently, he was accused of accepting two suits worth 13, 000 euros, or about $14, 000, from a political fixer. That has left Mr. Fillon vulnerable to sly insinuations about his ethics. Mr. Hamon, for instance, pointedly described himself as someone who would be “an honest and fair president,” free from the influence of “money and lobbies. ” Mr. Hamon, the Socialist candidate, has promised a guaranteed “universal income” and has spoken of cutting the already reduced French workweek, but his chances are thought to be lowered by the presence of Mr. Mélenchon, whose positions are largely similar. Ms. Le Pen, who also faces accusations related to fictional jobs, accused Mr. Mélenchon of being a “Robespierre” when he called on voters to “reward the virtuous and punish those who don’t seem so. ” Mr. Macron, for his part, projected an image of innocence and virtue, and Ms. Le Pen aimed directly for it, with the most savage blast of the evening aimed at his reputation for speaking at length but saying little. After a windy declaration by Mr. Macron on protecting France’s “independence,” Ms. Le Pen, whose campaign is centered on a withdrawal from the European Union, mockingly repeated the word before firing back. “You’ve spoken for seven minutes, and I have no idea what you said,” she said. “You haven’t said anything. Every time you talk, you take a little of this, and a little of that, and you never settle on anything. ” | 1 |
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