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SEOUL, South Korea — For her nearly four years in office, President Park of South Korea cooperated closely with the United States, particularly when it came to dealing with her volatile neighbor, North Korea. A vote on Friday to impeach her now throws both her country and American policy in the region into deep uncertainty, as the North’s nuclear program advances and the incoming administration of Donald J. Trump deliberates over whether to adjust Washington’s stance on how to best contain North Korean aggression. Ms. Park, a conservative, had adopted a tough approach toward the North, focusing on stronger sanctions. Her administration had also agreed to deploy an American advanced missile defense system that infuriated the Chinese. Yet her deep unpopularity — the result of a scandal over that led members of her own party to want to oust her — increases the odds that the next election will be won by an advocate of friendlier relations with China. Ms. Park’s powers are suspended while the Constitutional Court considers whether to remove her permanently. If it votes to do so, South Korea will hold an election for a new president in 60 days. Prime Minister Hwang will serve as acting president. Domestically, her undoing provides the latest example of how corruption remains entrenched at the top echelons of political and corporate life in South Korea, at a moment when the economy is slowing. Parliament’s impeachment motion accused Ms. Park, the nation’s first female leader, of “extensive and serious violations of the Constitution and the law. ” It followed weeks of damaging disclosures that all but paralyzed the government and produced the largest street protests in the nation’s history. Ms. Park suggested that she intended to fight her impeachment, telling cabinet members hours later that she would “calmly” prepare for the court deliberations and giving no hint that she would resign. “I am gravely accepting the voices of the people and the National Assembly, and I sincerely hope that the confusion will come to a satisfactory end,” she said in remarks broadcast on national television. Ms. Park has been accused of allowing a shadowy confidante, the daughter of a religious sect leader, to exercise remarkable influence on matters ranging from choosing top government officials to her wardrobe, and of helping her extort tens of millions of dollars from South Korean companies. Thousands of people who had gathered outside the Parliament building in the frigid cold on Friday cheered when the news was announced. “My heart is beating so fast,” said Han 47, who had come from Paju, north of the capital. “I am so touched that people who are usually powerless can have so much power when they come together. ” A total of 234 lawmakers voted for impeachment, well over the required threshold in the National Assembly, the lone house of Parliament in South Korea. The vote was by secret ballot, but the results indicated that nearly half of the 128 lawmakers in Ms. Park’s party, Saenuri, had joined the opposition in moving to oust her. Ms. Park, 64, came to power in early 2013, backed mostly by older Koreans who had hoped she would be a contemporary version of her father, the military dictator Park often viewed as the modernizer of South Korea. Instead, she became the least popular leader since the country began democratizing in the late 1980s, according to recent polls. Critics said she was authoritarian and used state power to muzzle critics while shielded by a coterie of advisers. The last time South Koreans took to the streets to kick out an unpopular leader, in 1960, they had to fight bloody battles with police officers armed with rifles. That uprising forced Syngman Rhee, the country’s founding and authoritarian president, to resign and flee into exile in Hawaii. Vice President Lee a Rhee confidant who was at the center of a corruption scandal, and his family ended their lives in a group suicide as mobs approached their home in Seoul. In subsequent decades, when South Koreans demanded more democracy, their military dictators, including Ms. Park’s father, brutally suppressed them through martial law, torturing and even executing their leaders. In 1987, violence erupted again as people took to the streets to demand free presidential elections, forcing the military government to back down. This time, in a sign of how far South Korea’s democracy has matured, peaceful crowds achieved their goal without a single arrest. Increasingly large numbers of protesters gathered in the capital, including 1. 7 million people on Saturday — the largest protest in South Korean history. Ms. Park became the first South Korean president to lose an impeachment vote since 2004, when the National Assembly moved to impeach Roh for violating election laws. Two months later, the Constitutional Court ruled that Mr. Roh’s offense was too minor to justify impeachment and restored him to office. But Ms. Park faces much more serious accusations. Still, it is difficult to predict when and how the Constitutional Court will rule on Ms. Park’s fate. Removing her would require the votes of at least six of the nine Constitutional Court judges. Among the current judges, six were appointed by Ms. Park or her conservative predecessor, or are otherwise seen as being close to her party. The process, which may include hearings, will buy time for Ms. Park’s embattled party to recover from the scandal and prepare for the next presidential election if the court decides to formally unseat her. Ms. Park joins the ranks of South Korean leaders who have been disgraced near the end of their terms, with their relatives or aides implicated in corruption scandals. An exception was Ms. Park’s father, who was assassinated in 1979 at the height of his dictatorial power and before anyone dared to bring corruption charges against him. His and subsequent governments had favored a handful of conglomerates with tax benefits, lucrative business licenses and and policies. The businesses were accused of returning the favors with bribes and suspicious donations. Through the years, top corporations have been rocked by recurring corruption scandals, including the one that implicated Ms. Park and her confidante, Choi . In 1988, business tycoons were hauled into a parliamentary hearing to be questioned about millions of dollars they gave to a foundation controlled by the military dictator Chun . The scene was repeated this week, when nine business leaders, including Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung, and Chung the Hyundai chairman, appeared at another parliamentary hearing to be questioned about millions of dollars they gave to two foundations controlled by Ms. Choi. Ms. Choi has been indicted on charges of leveraging her influence with Ms. Park to extort the money from the businesses. Prosecutors have also identified Ms. Park as a criminal suspect, a first for a president, though she cannot be indicted while in office. The businessmen acknowledged giving the money, confirming that the requests had come directly from Ms. Park or her aides. Huh the chairman of GS Group and the head of the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobby group that coordinated the donations, put the situation this way: “It is difficult for businesses to say no to a request from the government. That’s the reality in South Korea. ” Some analysts saw the vote and the huge protests as a repudiation of the entire system. “This impeachment is not only an impeachment against Park ” said Kim a professor of sociology at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul, “but a judgment against the conservative party and the War order that has maintained power in South Korea for so many years. ” | 1 |
By Wes Annac, Editor, Culture of Awareness & Openhearted Rebel Marijuana activist and viral video star Charlo Greene, known as the “f**k it, I quit” reporter, could face up to 54 years in prison... | 0 |
A Coup Taking Place in the United States 11/03/2016 In today’s video, Christopher Greene of AMTV reports on Steve Pieczenik controversial report that a coup d’état is taking place in the United States of America. Putin grants Steven Seagal Russian citizenship 11/03/2016 DAILY MAIL President Vladimir Putin signed off Thursday on a decree granting Russian citizenship to American action her ... New bionic eye implant connects directly to brain 11/03/2016 RUSSIA TODAY Scientists may have made a significant breakthrough in restoring human sight, as a woman who had been blin ... American Express disowns Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters because of pro-Palestinian views 11/03/2016 MONDOWEISS When it comes to aiding Israeli Apartheid, American Express is just another brick in The Wall, according ... AMTV Archives | 0 |
RIO DE JANEIRO — Olympic officials announced on Thursday night that 271 Russian athletes had been approved to compete in the Rio Games — 118 fewer than the country had hoped to enter. But with less than 24 hours until the opening ceremony, the matter remained in question. Soon before the International Olympic Committee’s announcement, an appeals court issued a ruling in favor of two Russian athletes that seemed to undercut the officials’ case against their delegation. The Olympic committee’s exclusion of nearly a third of Russia’s athletes for their ties to a doping program was a blow to the integrity of the Games and will severely diminish Russia’s presence across several sports in Rio. Still, Thursday’s decision was far better for Russia than what many antidoping officials had called for: a ban on its entire team. The International Olympic Committee said that it had consulted with top officials for the 28 sports participating in the Summer Games. Those officials had been asked to scrutinize the history of each Russian athlete. A panel appointed by the Olympic committee approved the final Russian roster, the makeup of which had been uncertain until deliberations concerning wrestlers and swimmers concluded. If the Olympic committee’s ruling stands, Russia will now have a smaller delegation of athletes than 11 other countries, including Italy and Spain. Russia sent 436 athletes to the last Summer Olympics, in London in 2012. The United States has the largest number of athletes, 556, in Rio. legal challenges to the Olympic committee’s decision are likely. In the wake of a doping scandal that implicated dozens of Russian athletes and government officials, Olympic officials had decided that Russian athletes hoping to compete in Rio should be presumed guilty and invited to present a case for innocence only if they had never before had a drug violation. The appeals court said Thursday that notion was unenforceable. Athletes who have been denied entry may still appeal to world sports’ arbitration court, which is based in Switzerland but has established a satellite office in Rio for the Olympics and is prepared to adjudicate cases quickly. The court’s focus, however, is doping cases that arise at the Games rather than broader policy issues, and it is unclear how well equipped the operation may be for a flood of challenges to the eligibility decision. As recently as this week, the sports court issued verdicts on Russian athletes who had been barred for doping by their sports’ authorities. The court upheld the bans that track and field, rowing and weight lifting officials had imposed on Russian Olympic hopefuls. But other federations in other sports, such as boxing, had approved full rosters of athletes, leaving no need for appeals. The Olympic committee’s choices in disciplining Russia have been the subject of dispute and are likely to fuel debate for months to come as the authorities anticipate an overhaul of the antidoping system. “For clean athletes, I think the situation in Rio is tough to watch,” said Travis Tygart, head of the United States Agency. “It’s a mess, and Exhibit A of how truly incapable sport is of policing itself. ” Some athletes and antidoping officials lobbied for what Thomas Bach, the Olympic committee’s president, referred to as “the nuclear option” — excluding Russia’s entire team in a rebuke of its government’s role in cheating schemes that corrupted the results of recent Olympics. “This was a pervasive and system stretching across sports,” said Richard W. Pound, a former president of the World Agency and a former top Olympic committee executive. “At that point you have to say, You’re showing such contempt for the rules of the game, we don’t want you at the Olympics. ” Mr. Bach and fellow Olympic executives rejected that option, a decision Mr. Bach defended this week by saying he wanted to avoid the “death and devastation” it could have produced. Instead, Olympic officials reversed the basic principle of presuming athletes innocent until proven guilty. “The difficult question we had to answer,” Mr. Bach said Thursday, “was, Can you hold an individual responsible for the wrongdoing of his or her country?” Last month, Olympic officials asked each sport’s governing body to make preliminary decisions that the I. O. C. panel would review. They instructed the authorities to consider Russian athletes tainted by the doping system unless their testing histories proved otherwise. Those instructions were not necessarily interpreted uniformly by the governing bodies of various sports, with some ratifying all Russian athletes within hours, as tennis did, and others deliberating for the past week and seeking further guidance. Alexander Zhukov, president of Russia’s Olympic committee, made a final plea to sports officials this week at an oceanside hotel in Rio. He expressed frustration that Russia’s athletes were guilty by default. “Is this not discrimination?” he said. The evening before Olympic officials made their announcement, Mr. Zhukov rightly estimated that between 270 and 280 Russian athletes — roughly 70 percent of what Russia had planned for — would be cleared to compete. “It’s a good question,” he said, shrugging as he guessed. “Unfortunately, we lost our weight lifters. ” | 1 |
Romney won the county overall by about 17% (58-41) four years ago. So this is an area that is full of Republican voters. But let’s check out how the votes came in:
EV = Early voting. This is people coming in to a polling place to vote before Election Day. Romney barely won among early voters by a 51-49 (2%) margin of the two-party vote. This represents a huge +15% Democrat advantage over the final outcome.
AV = Absentee voters. These are people who mail in their ballots. Romney won among absentee ballot voters by a 60-40 (20%) margin of the two-party vote. This represents a small +3% GOP advantage over the final outcome.
ED = Election Day voters. These are people who cast their ballots in person on Election Day. Romney won among Election Day voters by a 60-40 (20%) margin of the two-party vote. This represents a small +3 GOP advantage over the final outcome.
So based on this data (and I have confirmed this when looking at other counties), Democrats are much better at casting early votes than they are at mailing in absentee ballots or showing up on Election Day.
So. What are the 2016 election numbers for Lee County so far, you ask? Well, here you go –
Early voting figures so far show a GOP advantage of 61-39 (22%) in the two-party vote. This is a 20-point pro-GOP swing over 2012.
Absentee voting figures so far show a GOP advantage of 66-34 (32%) in the two-party vote. This is a 12-point pro-GOP swing over 2012.
This data is indicative of a possibly huge Trump win in Florida, which is something that hasn’t been showing up in the statewide polls. This suggests that the polls are underestimating the turnout of Trump’s base. And if the polls are underestimating the turnout for Trump in Florida, then it is likely that they are likewise underestimating the turnout in other states as well.
And note: Virtually all of this vote data came before news broke that Hillary is back under FBI investigation. So the numbers could move even more in Trump’s favor between now and Election Day.
Some really good news about early voting numbers in Florida. Keep in mind that Obama won Florida in 2012 by less than 1% of the vote and that Democrats usually perform much better in early voting than they do on Election Day.
Obama won Hillsborough County (Tampa) by 7 points in 2012. Early voting shows Dems outperforming GOP voters by a similar margin this year.
BUT Obama won Pinellas County (St. Petersburg) by 6 points in 2012, while the GOP actually has a slight early vote advantage there so far this year.
AND Romney won Brevard County (Melbourne/Cocoa Beach) by 13 points in 2012. The GOP currently holds about a 16% advantage over Dems in the early vote there.
Point of the above data is this: Trump is on pace to significantly outperform Romney in the state of Florida, meaning he is quite likely to win the huge swing state and all of its Electoral College votes.
Obama beat Romney by 1% in FL and 4% nationally in 2012. So, let’s call Florida 3% more pro-GOP than the country as a whole. It could well be that if Trump is beating Hillary by more than 3% in Florida (which is certainly possible given the early voting numbers), then that means he is actually AHEAD of Hillary nationally, and is on pace to win the popular vote, and is therefore quite likely to win the election. | 0 |
The have battled evil mutants, killer robots and alien invaders, but now one of the most venerable franchises in the Marvel universe has found itself embroiled in a new — and unexpected — conflict: the religious and political tensions in Indonesia, the world’s most populous nation. On Saturday, Marvel said that it would remove artwork from the first issue of Gold, part of a reboot of the franchise, after readers in Indonesia raised alarm bells on Reddit and elsewhere on social media about what they said were and messages in some panels of the comic. The messages that jumped out to readers in Indonesia appeared to refer to political frictions there over Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is the first Christian governor of Jakarta, the capital, in more than 50 years. He is up for this month. Some images in the comic appeared to refer to Islamist opposition to Mr. Basuki, who is also known by the nickname Ahok. Others seemed to have less to do with Indonesian politics and more to do with the critics said. The artist who sneaked the messages into the images was Ardian Syaf, an Indonesian citizen. The uproar added to headaches for Marvel, which was criticized in recent weeks after one of its executives seemed to blame a sales slump on reader disdain for female and nonwhite characters. Marvel seemed surprised that references to religious intolerance had appeared in the pages of Gold, the reboot of one of its biggest properties. In a statement, the company said the artwork “was inserted without knowledge behind its reported meanings. ” “These implied references do not reflect the views of the writer, editors or anyone else at Marvel and are in direct opposition of the inclusiveness of Marvel Comics and what the have stood for since their creation,” the statement added. “This artwork will be removed from subsequent printings, digital versions, and trade paperbacks and disciplinary action is being taken. ” Marvel did not specify what disciplinary action it would take against Mr. Syaf, a freelance artist who has been penciling comics for Marvel and other companies since 2007, according to his personal website. A spokesman for Marvel, Jeff Klein, declined to answer questions on Sunday about the company’s relationship with Mr. Syaf. Marvel mentioned him in promotional materials for Gold before it debuted last week, and in an interview published on Marvel. com last month, Mr. Syaf said the job was “like a dream come true. ” Mr. Syaf did not respond to an email seeking comment on Sunday, but he did address the controversy in a Facebook post, according to ComicBook. com, a website that closely follows the comic book industry. It quoted him as writing “I don’t hate Christian or Jew” on Facebook and also saying that he has spoken with Marvel about the references he sprinkled throughout the issue. Those references were specific to the tension in Indonesia it seems unlikely that someone who did not follow the country’s complicated politics would have understood them. In one panel of the comic, Colossus, an character, is wearing a shirt with “QS 5:51” on it. Indonesian readers said that was a reference to a verse in the Quran that Mr. Basuki’s opponents have used to argue that Christians and Jews cannot be trusted. Last year, Mr. Basuki was charged with blasphemy for speaking of that verse in a way that some viewed as disrespectful. In another panel, the number “212” appears on a store front. Readers in Indonesia said that was a reference to a large protest held by conservative Islamist groups in Jakarta last December. That same image also depicted the ’s leader, a Jewish superheroine called Kitty Pryde, in a way that some readers found upsetting. It showed her standing in front of a jewelry store sign so that the letters “ ” were displayed next to her head. G. Willow Wilson, the writer of the Marvel series Ms. Marvel, which stars a superpowered teenage girl, criticized Mr. Syaf’s actions and apparent political beliefs in a post on her personal website. She also worried that his actions might hurt other Muslims working in the industry. “This is all to say that Ardian Syaf can keep his garbage philosophy,” she wrote. “He has committed career suicide he will rapidly become irrelevant. But his nonsense will continue to affect the scant handful of Muslims who have managed to carve out careers in comics. ” | 1 |
ISTANBUL — The models, tall and lithe and strutting down the runway to the beat of house music, are from Russia and Eastern Europe. They could be displaying the latest designer styles in Paris or New York, but instead they are here, in Istanbul, wearing high heels, flowing tunics and colorful head scarves. The fashion show, part of Istanbul Modest Fashion Week, was held at an railway station, with train cars and vintage luggage as props. This is not the Islamic fashion of Riyadh or Kabul, nor is it the dark and dreary dress stereotyped in the West. Islamic fashion here is a colorful, creative and joyful enterprise. It is also a huge business. “We’re taking over,” said Dina Torkia, a Muslim fashion blogger from London, who wears a head scarf and was mobbed by fans hoping for a photo. “There are a lot of us Muslim girls who wear the hijab, and we like fashion. ” As Europe grapples with the burkini — a swimsuit that some French beach towns have tried to ban as a symbol of the oppression of women — Islamic dress in Turkey has become a symbol of religious freedom from the strictures of secularism. Istanbul has sought to become an Islamic fashion capital, an ambition that reflects the degree to which Turkish society has been reshaped under the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Under Turkey’s old secular system, the head scarf, or hijab, was seen as a symbol of backwardness and banned in government offices and schools. In recent weeks, as France debated the burkini, Turkey again chipped away at old taboos, allowing female police officers, for the first time, to wear head scarves on the job. No longer an object of derision in Turkey — and with the backing of the Islamist government — the head scarf has spurred an Islamic fashion revolution, complete with fashion houses, magazines, bloggers and Instagram stars. Powerful women in the region, like Mr. Erdogan’s wife, Emine, and Sheikha Mozah, a wife of a former emir of Qatar, have become fashion icons for young conservative women. “Everyone was like, ‘Muslim market? ’” said Kerim Ture, a former technology industry executive who now runs the Islamic fashion house Modanisa, based in Istanbul. “Black burqas. That was the stereotype. ” Mr. Ture employs several designers, and has partnerships with brands in Dubai and Malaysia. Popular colors these days are yellow and baby blue, as are camouflage and tropical leaf patterns. Saudi Telecom has invested in his company. “Our main purpose is to make women feel better,” he said. “To feel the glamour and the shine inside, even if they are covered. ” Mr. Ture said he did not come from an especially religious family, but he has supported Mr. Erdogan, whose policies, arguably, have made his business possible. “My mother is covered,” he said. “My sister is not covered. It’s a Turkish family. ” Mr. Ture organized the Istanbul Modest Fashion Week, the fancy affair held at the train station, in May, the city’s first such event. Designers from around the Islamic world unveiled their collections there. But most of the models in the show were not Muslim. Russian and Eastern European models tend to be taller than Turkish women, Mr. Ture said, and are better able “to carry the stuff, easier to show the glamour. ” One of the designers in the show was Loubna Sadoq, a Muslim woman in her 40s who lives in Amsterdam and began wearing a hijab a few years ago. “I was on a religious journey, and I wanted more peace in my life,” she said. Her new fashion sense, though, did not last long. “I have another lifestyle,” she said, mentioning bikinis and bars. “But I am still religious. I still pray. And I wear a scarf when I go to the mosque. ” Now she is an entrepreneur, selling head scarves made from natural fibers, like bamboo. Muslim fashion designers are essentially trying to answer a single question: How can a woman be fashionable and true to her religion at the same time? “God doesn’t send in a fax, or email, of how we are going to be wearing things,” Mr. Ture said. “Don’t be a sex object on the street for men. That’s the message. Don’t provoke them. ” Ms. Sadoq said the rules of Islamic dress were simple. “There is no difference between modest fashion and mainstream fashion,” she said. “You just have to adjust some things, like the length and width. You shouldn’t see skin, and it shouldn’t be tight. That’s it. ” But as secular Turks fear religion encroaching on daily life, Turkey’s conservative Muslims fear the opposite — that Islam is becoming watered down by commercialism. A small group of conservative Muslims protested outside the fashion show, chanting, “God is great!” One of the protesters, a man, told the gathering that the Quran is clear that women should be veiled, and he lamented that God’s instructions have become “a tool for the immorality called fashion. ” Some of the clothes displayed at the show seemed to push traditional boundaries: slightly tops, a little skin here, a plunging neckline there. “Lengths got shorter, everything got tighter,” said Gamze Ucar, 38, whose family runs a textile business and believes that some items worn by Muslim women nowadays violate Islamic rules. “Trousers are everywhere. ” As the market for couture Islamic clothing has grown in recent years, mainstream designers have sought a piece of the action. DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger have designed Ramadan collections, and Dolce Gabbana sells abayas, long outer garments, priced at more than $2, 000 apiece. Noor Tagouri, a journalist from the United States who has said she wants to be America’s first television anchor, said she often receives emails from Christians who say, “We like the clothes, but we are not Muslim. ” Her response: “O. K. you can still wear it. You can still rock it. ” | 1 |
A NEW SHOCKING VIDEO is now leaving everyone stunned. Watch and see for yourself! Barack Obama is now openly calling on illegal aliens to vote in Tuesday’s election so they can help Hillary Clinton.
No one in the media is making a big scandal of out this! Let’s say the vast majority of those illegal immigrants would vote for Trump, would the media create a big scandal out of it then? Of course they would! What’s even more shocking is that this interview was conducted on November 4th, 2 days ago so we only learned about it now. The media is trying to hide this damning interview where Obama is openly calling on people to break the law!
Obama said when you vote you become a citizen! What the hell is wrong this guy?
Reporter: Many dreamers and undocumented are scared to vote, can they vote?
Obama: When you vote you become a citizen and no one will investigate you!
Imagine yourself going to Japan or South Africa to vote in their elections, what the hell is this a banana republic?
It is over folks this just shows how desperate the establishment is. Its either Trump or revolution. The American people can not accept the results of a stolen election where millions of illegals were allowed to vote.
This whole lawless administration is lies at every turn, Obamacare, Benghazi, Hillary’s private server and emails and now they are calling on illegal aliens to vote. This is the last chance the American people have to save their country and frankly the entire world. If Hillary wins now, Republicans would never stand a chance because she will bring tens of millions of more illegals who would always vote for Democrats.
Obama even has a website for illegals where he is teaching them how to vote: iwillvote.com
Gina Rodriguez asked Obama:
“Many of the millennials, dreamers, undocumented, uhhh ‘citizens’ and I call them ‘citizens’ cause they contribute to this country are fearful of voting, so if I vote, will immigration know where I live, will they come for my family and deport us?”
Barack Obama then answered:
“Not true! And the reason is, first of all when you vote, you are a citizen yourself and there is not a situation where the voting rolls are somehow transferred over and people start investigating, etc. The sanctity of the vote is strictly confidential in terms of who you voted for. If you have a family member who maybe is undocumented, then you have an even greater reason to vote.”
Neil Cavuto of Fox Business was first to bring this video to the public on a major TV station, so we are eternally grateful about it because without him we wouldn’t have known that the Obama regime is planning to allow and not go after illegals voting in these elections!
There is no way in hell they can freaking spin this one out
| 0 |
*Maybe he means 95% chance of violence | 0 |
Rigged Election: US Blaming Russia For Future ‘Falsified Voter Fraud’ by IWB · October 26, 2016
by Baxter Dmitry
US officials claim that if anybody produces evidence of voter fraud in the coming weeks, it will be a Russian plot to undermine people’s confidence in American democracy.
Blaming Russia for the Democratic National Committee and Clinton Foundation hacks proved so successful at distracting Americans from the contents of the WikiLeaks emails that US officials are now attempting to blame future evidence of voter fraud on Russia too.
The claims are being disseminated to the public via mainstream media pipelines as we speak. Reuters, operating as an organ of state propaganda, reported the claims by anonymous U.S. officials on Thursday:
“ The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said however, that the U.S. election system is so large, diffuse and antiquated that hackers would not be able to change the outcome of the Nov. 8 election.
But hackers could post documents, some of which might be falsified, that are designed to create public perceptions of widespread voter fraud, the officials said.
They said that they did not have specific evidence of such a plan, but state and local election authorities had been warned to be vigilant for hacking attempts. “
The keyword in the second quoted paragraph is “ some. ” Truth mixed with lies. Reuters, in collusion with the state, are using confusion, paranoia and heavy-duty spin. Dizzy yet?
The mainstream media has now laid the groundwork to ensure that if Clinton wins the election and is accused of voter fraud, any evidence provided to substantiate the claim can be instantly dismissed as fake Russian propaganda and not investigated properly.
In essence, if the ruling party says that a specific document is false, then without question, it must be false. The Democrats will dismiss evidence of voter fraud as another “conspiracy theory” and “Russian plot.”
The Democrat establishment has spent months attempting to deflect from the content of WikiLeaks emails by alleging the source of the hack was Russia. Now they are attempting to capitalize on the narrative by blaming future voter fraud evidence on Russia as well. | 0 |
BERLIN — As many as three explosions damaged the bus of one of Germany’s most storied soccer teams as it headed to its stadium in Dortmund on Tuesday, wounding one player and forcing postponement of the match, an important playoff in a major European championship. The Dortmund police chief, Gregor Lange, said at a news conference that “we assume it was a targeted attack” on the Borussia Dortmund team. The wounded player, Marc Bartra of Spain, was undergoing surgery on his right wrist, a spokesman for the team said. Watzke, Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive, said that “three explosive devices” had detonated near a hotel outside Dortmund where the players were staying. The state prosecutor told reporters that a letter claiming responsibility had been discovered near the site of the blasts, but that it was too soon to say if it was genuine. The prosecutor, Sandra Lücke, declined to answer further questions about the letter’s contents, including what language it was written in. The authorities also would not describe the three explosive devices. Mr. Lange said that a fourth “suspicious object” had also been found at the scene, but that it had not been set to go off. Photographs of the bus showed that the rear window had been shattered, and the tires appeared to have been blown out. In an interview with Blick, a Swiss newspaper, the goalkeeper Roman Bürki described the moments after what he said was a “huge bang” as the bus turned onto the main road to go to the stadium. “I was sitting in the very back row next to Marc Bartra, who was hit by fragments of the broken rear window,” said Mr. Bürki, who is Swiss. All the players then ducked and lay on the bus floor, he said, because “we didn’t know if something more would happen. ” He added: “The police were there quickly and sealed everything off. We are all shocked — in those minutes, no one was thinking about football. ” On Twitter, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain wished a “speedy recovery” for Mr. Bartra, 26, who played with Barcelona for seven seasons before joining Dortmund last year. The match, against Monaco, will be played on Wednesday night, the first leg of a quarterfinal in the UEFA Champions League. In a Twitter post, the Dortmund police told fans: “We are preparing for a big deployment and will take care of security” at the match on Wednesday. Anxiety over terrorism instigated or inspired by the Islamic State and other extremist groups operating in Europe has risen steadily over the past few years after bloody assaults in France, Belgium, Britain and, most recently, Sweden. In Germany on Dec. 19, a truck crashed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people. Soccer has also figured in Germany’s recent brushes with terrorism. The country’s national team was playing France in Paris in November 2015 when the deadliest terrorist attacks in the French capital opened with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the stadium. Days later, the German authorities postponed the national team’s next international match, in Hanover against the Netherlands, after receiving what security officials termed credible threats of an attack. In that episode, thousands of fans had already reached the stadium when the postponement was announced. Precise details about the tip or any evidence have not emerged. On Tuesday at the Westfalenstadion, the stadium where the match was to be played, hundreds of Monaco fans, hearing the news, chanted “Dortmund! Dortmund!” in a show of solidarity. In what has become another signal of support when terrorist assaults disrupt people’s plans, Dortmund fans quickly adopted a hashtag offering Monaco fans places to stay. Chancellor Angela Merkel, an avowed soccer fan, often attends important international matches. Her chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, condemned the attack on Twitter. “A despicable, cowardly deed, whoever did it,” he wrote. He thanked the police, fans and players for staying calm and doing their duty. Borussia Dortmund is one of Germany’s most successful teams, dating to the late 19th century when soccer first came to Germany from England. Dortmund, in the heavily populated Ruhr industrial region, is the site of a national museum dedicated to the sport that opened less than two years ago. The match to be played on Wednesday will demand extra effort from the shocked players, Mr. Watzke said. “The question is, can we forget the scenes of today?” he added. | 1 |
Hillary Indicted-Paul Ryan to be President-Here’s How
I have written three times that Paul Ryan will be President. The globalists are split but Plan B has been initiated. Paul Ryan has been in the hip pocket of the globalists all along. He supports a border-less America and is a fervent supporter of the Free Trade Agreements. He is a wannabe member of the criminal elite. He is, and has always been the Plan B for the Global Elite. Paul Ryan filed paperwork to run for President in January of 2016 Paul Ryan released the Trump locker-room tapes in act of Benedict Arnold type of betrayal. With 10 days left to the general election, she will not be indicted before the election. Even if her popular support goes south, she will still win because of the tampering with the electoral college by the Soros and the Clinton Foundation. Soros has his voting machines in 16 states, some of them are key battleground states. Hillary will win even if she only gets 20% of the vote and that is where this is headed. Ever die-hard Democrats can no longer stay of the good ship Witchcraft. Hillary will never board Air Force One, maybe Broomstick One, but not Air Force One. She will be elected but indicted before the inauguration. Kaine, the Democratic VP candidate and Hillary will be knocked out of contention when Hillary is indicted. AND WHO IS NEXT IN THE LINE OF SUCCESSION? IT IS THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, PAUL “RAT” RYAN. THAT’S WHO. I HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO, BUT I HAVE BEEN SAYING SINCE APRIL THAT PAUL RYAN WOULD BECOME PRESIDENT.
What Do the Globalists Gain by Following this Course of Action?
If Paul Ryan ascends to the Presidency, it will be business as usual for the criminal elite. The TPP will pass and they will get their war with Russia. Further, America will be on the path of destruction courtesy of this elite wannabe, Paul Ryan
Perhaps the biggest advantage that the globalists will enjoy will the fact that they can minimize resistance. Let’s face it, that when it comes to politics and current events, half of the country is dumber than a box of rocks. These people will see this as a victory over the unpopular Clinton. However, at the end of the day, Clinton or Ryan, it does not make a bit of difference!!!
I just got word that the Clinton Foundation is under IRS investigation as well. Look for the Clinton empire to launch a series of false flag attacks now that they realize that the end is coming for this modern day version of Bonnie and Clyde.
Supporting documentation follows? This Has Been a Set Up Since the Beginning: Paul Ryan Is Responsible for the Release of the Trump Tape
Alex Jones made a very compelling case that Paul Ryan’s top aide, Dan Senor, was behind the leaking of the Bush tape in which Trump is heard to make several lewd remarks about women.
From Info Wars :
“That’s the story swirling around the Internet after Senor’s wife, former NBC reporter Campbell Brown, appeared to confirm the claim.
Brown quoted a tweet that said, “Rumblings that Campbell Brown and Dan Senor are behind the Trump tape leak,” and then responded, “Yep. Still having fun after all these years. Key to a happy marriage.”
A similar story released by WND confirms Info Wars claim that Dan Senor leaked the Trump tape in an obvious attempt to sink the Trump campaign.
After reviewing the Info Wars, WND and other similar claims, there is little doubt that Paul Ryan deliberately sabotaged Donald Trump’s campaign. But why? Why would a prominent Republican sabotage the campaign of the Republican nominee? Well, it is for the same reason that anyone engages in treason, for personal profit. Paul Ryan Is Aligned With Clinton and Obama, Making Him a Globalist Favorite
Paul Ryan has doing his best to help Hillary Clinton defeat Donald Trump. In fact, with encouragement from Ryan, through his very shallow endorsement of Donald Trump. It is becoming a distinct possibility that Trump may not be the nominee when the election finally takes place.
There is no way that the establishment and their minions can afford to have a Trump Presidency. This means that in order to dump Trump, the globalists must create a world where up is down and down is up, white is black and black is white. To some degree, the “tape” has accomplished this.
Paul Ryan, much to the detriment of the American people, is where is he is at today because he was willing to ignore the following as if they did not exist: The free trade agreements which have caused the loss of millions of American jobs so that manufacturers could send millions of jobs offshore to cheap foreign labor markets and then turn around and ship these products back into the United States tax free. Trump has pledged to stop this. Ignore the illegal alien crisis which continues to undercut the wages of the working class, thus leading to much lower salaries and higher unemployment for American workers. Support Obamacare and its provision which forces employers to purchase Obamacare medical insurance for its full time employees. This has greatly added to the demise of small businesses. The undermining of American national security through the admission of UNSCREENED Muslims to America. Supporting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led State Department policy which protects certain Mosques and Muslims with extreme terrorist ties such as what we saw with Omar Mateen. Ryan is complicit in allowing the same chaos that is destroying Europe with UNSCREENED Muslim immigration, to come to America and destroy this country. His failure to oppose should be construed as tacit support. This attitude has given rise to the attitude that it is acceptable for these Refugee/Resettlement immigrants to support Sharia Law over our Constitutional law.
Trump is on the record as opposing each and everyone of the above policies which are destroying America. Most Americans support Trump in this endeavor of putting America first and Making America Great Again ! However, most of Congress is on the take and avail themselves to what should be illegal bribery through corporate campaign contributions. In order to keep the gravy train rolling, politicians, like Paul Ryan, are willing forsake their Constitutional oath and oppose Trump’s pro-Constitutional stand on these issues. In fact, Ryan is of such low moral character that he is even willing to destroy the GOP in order to preserve the criminal status quo, while he receives blood money from the corporations, as evidenced by his release of the Trump tape. The Silver Bullet
Here is the proof that Ryan is eligible to run for President.
From the Federal Election Commission website:
FEC FORM 1 | 1 |
A stunning update on Friday afternoon from the Associated Press said the Pentagon is investigating possible Russian participation in the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons attack. [These officials also supported the dire suspicion that nearby hospitals were attacked to cover up evidence of the WMD deployment: advertisement | 0 |
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt and Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Joel Pollak discussed President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords on Monday’s show. [“I think that what’s lost in the debate and discussion at times is the tools in the toolbox, if you will, that the EPA actually possesses or doesn’t possess to respond to the CO2 issue,” said Pruitt. He looked back to the legal battle between the state of Massachusetts and the EPA in 2007, which ended at the Supreme Court. He noted the outcome did not force the EPA to regulate CO2 but “simply said it had to make a decision on whether CO2 actually poses a risk to human health and the environment. ” “Following that was the endangerment finding in 2009, which eventually led to the Paris discussion and clean power plan, all the rulemaking and the climate action agenda of the previous administration,” he recalled. “What’s not discussed at all is, has Congress ever responded or acted upon this matter, this issue of CO2 with respect to power generation? I will tell you, they clearly have not. ” “If you go back to the clean air amendments from 1990, many of the folks, including Congressman Dingell, — a Democrat as you know — said that it would be a ‘glorious mess’ to endeavor to use the current framework to regulate CO2. The framework that we have is a framework that’s supposed to address local and regional air pollutants, not in my estimation, based upon those who amended the Clean Air Act in 1990, this phenomenon that people describe as the greenhouse gas effect,” he said. “The only power that agencies have, executive agencies have, is the power given to them by Congress,” he stressed. “We can’t reimagine authority. We can’t make up authority. This Supreme Court has been very, very consistent at sending that message through court decisions over the last several years. ” Pollak built on Pruitt’s point to argue there is a profound difference between the Environmental Protection Agency’s original mandate to combat pollution and “what it’s being asked to do by the left, which is to regulate fossil fuel use, and energy use, and energy efficiency around CO2. ” Pruitt agreed it was important to emphasize the distinction between pollutants and carbon dioxide, a naturally occurring component of the earth’s atmosphere. “The American people deserve this debate. They deserve this discussion because it is an orthodoxy,” he declared. “It’s been an orthodoxy for the last several years, and you have rightly stated it. ” He criticized those, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who imply that withdrawal from the Paris climate accord will strip the EPA of its authority to regulate genuine pollutants, with disastrous health consequences. “What they’re referring to is pollutants that we regulate under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards Program, criteria pollutants: SOx and NOx, and particulate matter, and ozone, and other types of things that they then commingle the CO2 discussion with, and that’s where they come up with these types of statements — which is not very transparent for the American people,” Pruitt explained. “What the American people deserve is a true, legitimate, objective, transparent discussion about CO2,” he said. “There was a great article that was in the Wall Street Journal about a month or so ago called ‘Red Team, Blue Team’ by Steve Koonin, a scientist, I believe, at NYU. He talked about the importance of having a Red Team of scientists and a Blue Team of scientists, and those scientists get into a room and ask, ‘What do we know? What don’t we know? What risk does it pose to health in the United States and the world, with respect to this issue of CO2? ’” “The American people need to have that type of honest, open discussion, and it’s something that we hope to help provide as part of our leadership,” said Pruitt. Pollak praised Pruitt for explaining in a press conference that allegedly harmless, agreements like the Paris accord can be used by activists to trigger provisions in American laws such as the Clean Air Act that would force the EPA to issue new regulations — in effect, creating a foreign legal regime with power beyond the U. S. Constitution. Pruitt added that another point in the argument about the Paris accord is that President Obama did not submit it to the Senate for ratification as a treaty, an inexcusable omission given its effects and the fact that Congress had duly ratified other international agreements Obama submitted. “It was discussed at the time that the ‘agreement’ was signed by the previous administration as an executive agreement. As you know, the previous administration walked up to the precipice, if you will, what they perceived as the precipice with respect to agreeing to certain types of targets and obligations of reporting and the rest — and trying to stop at the precipice and say, ‘Well, we didn’t go far enough to trigger treaty obligations,’” he said. Pruitt denounced that approach as “really unfair to the American people. ” “If you’re going to agree to targets in Paris — if you’re going to say, ‘We’re going to reduce our GHG, greenhouse gas emissions, by 26 to 28 percent’ — the people of America deserve a voice in that process,” he insisted. “They need to make sure that if it’s going to contract the economy, it’s going to raise electricity rates — as is already happening, by the way, if you compare our price per kilowatt versus Europe largely or Germany particularly I think we’re at seven or so cents per kilowatt, far better than those in Europe and Germany particularly,” he noted. “The American people deserve a voice in that process, which is what the Founders put into the construct of the Constitution. If it’s going to have an enforceable, obligatory type of response, the citizen’s voice needs to be heard through ratification of these international agreements,” Pruitt said. “What also is not talked about is the exposure domestically, through Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, because Section 115 of the Clean Air Act actually talks about international agreements,” he continued. “The precursor to enforceability around those international agreements under Section 115 is reciprocity with other nations across the globe. At Paris, that’s what we agreed to with China and India and all of those nations. We agreed to reporting requirements. We agreed to take certain steps to engage in reciprocal types of obligations. ” “As such, that reciprocity is evident and could trigger lawsuits by environmental groups here, the environmental left suing the EPA and the United States government and saying, ‘Hey, we agreed to 26 percent and 28 percent targets in this international agreement. Why aren’t you taking steps to meet those targets?’ and then to compel action,” he cautioned. Pruitt said this is where “most of the rulemaking has occurred at the EPA over the last several years — not through general administrative procedure act types of rulemaking, but consent decrees and third parties suing the EPA to compel certain action. ” “Regulation through litigation, if you will, which, I think, is an abuse of executive authority, an abuse of the rulemaking process,” he said. “That’s something that was absolutely key to this decision, is to mitigate and eliminate the exposure to those targets that were set by the previous administration. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
http://mediaarchives.gsradio.net/dduke/112516.mp3
Dr. Duke Lauds White Hero Richard Spencer, the NPI and the True Alt Right!
Today Dr. Duke applauded National Policy Institute director Richard Spencer for having staged a conference in a major venue in Washington D.C. that focused on white interests and specifically discussed Jewish power as a threat to white interests. Having crossed the boundary into the taboo realm of Jewish power, Spencer is now under vicious attack from not only the mainstream media, but from some segments of the “alternative media” that are revealing themselves as nothing more that Zionist tools.
Dr. Slattery joined the show and commented on the significance of someone with the visibility of Spencer, someone with the ability to stage a major conference, addressing the reality of Jewish power.
This show will open your eyes to the amazing progress that we are making. Please share it widely.
Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern. Related Share: | 0 |
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When the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush, it was well-intended: It would increase America’s oil independence and reduce dependence on foreign oil, it would produce cleaner air, and it would help farmers.
The Act required refiners to add ethanol to every gallon of gasoline they produced. If a refiner decided it couldn’t (too costly) or wouldn’t (internal decision) do so, it would be required to buy ethanol credits. Those credits, called RINs (for Renewable Identification Numbers), are now being traded and reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in gains for the big oil companies. According to the New York Times , the Act has “inadvertently become a multi-billion-dollar windfall for some of the world’s biggest oil companies.”
Specifically, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP (British Petroleum) could reap more than $1 billion in profits just by selling those RINs on the open market. This is raising the cost of those refiners who must now buy those RINs in order to comply with the law administered by the EPA. Some may be forced to cut back production, lay off workers, or declare bankruptcy. Which will, of course, come back to cost the consumer, as noted by George Damiris, the CEO of HollyFrontier, a Midwestern refiner: "The consumer is paying more and it’s ending up in the pockets of retailers, major oil companies, or speculators. Over time, if this goes uncorrected, people will basically be put out of business."
This is called the law of unintended consequences. In the oil business, those consequences either weren’t foreseen or were ignored. The Congressional Budget Office tried to summarize the good intentions of politicians exercising excessive hubris in thinking they could control the consequences through political action when they passed the Act in 2007: Proponents of federal support for biofuels … offer several rationales for that support. First, biofuels may help the nation meet energy policy goals by increasing the domestic production of fuels for transportation and reducing the United States' dependence on fossil fuels, such as oil. Second, biofuels may contribute to meeting environmental policy objectives, such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Third, federal support for biofuels can increase incomes in the agricultural sector.
That official “cover” for the Act was published in July 2010, a very long six years ago in the oil business. Fracking was just finding purchase, cars were getting smaller and more efficient, and farmers were happy to divert millions of acres from food production to ethanol production. And those RINs? They were selling for just pennies.
Today those RINs are selling for upwards of $.80 each, one of those unintended consequences that are forcing small refineries either to retrofit or go out of business. Those consequences are also taking sufficient acreage out of food production (to grow corn for ethanol) to impact the price of groceries. And they are proving once again the price of political intervention into what should be a free market.
Those originally opposed to the Act are now supporting it, thanks to having made the required investments to comply with it. For example, Jack Gerard, the top oil-industry lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, now supports the Act, telling the EPA not to change anything as any change would disrupt “compliance plans, investments and commercial agreements that were premised on the current structure.” Geoff Morrell, senior vice president of BP, likes the system the way it is: “Because a few other companies made different business decisions and are now living with the consequences is not a reason to suddenly change the rules.”
This is the perverse result of intervening in a complex system by politicians suffering from the hubristic belief that they can fully control the world around them. As free-market economist Milton Freedman famously stated, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
Surprisingly, Exxon Mobil Corporation is the only one of the big oil producers that has the right idea: Don’t try to fix it; just repeal the entire program. For politicians, however, the temptation to "fix" a program they themselves installed may just be too much of a temptation. Which is another of those unintended consequences of government interference in places where it doesn’t belong.
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . | 1 |
In the N. F. L. these days, young quarterbacks are all the rage. There once was a time when a team would have to wait two or three years for a young quarterback to develop, but not anymore. The Eagles, with old Carson Wentz at quarterback, are . The Broncos, behind old Trevor Siemian, are also . And the Cowboys, riding old Dak Prescott, are . Here’s what we learned in Week 3: ■ Carolina’s loss was no blip. The Panthers lost once again on Sunday, this time to the Vikings, thanks largely to Cam Newton’s three interceptions. Carolina didn’t lose its second game last season until the Super Bowl. ■ Defense is exciting. Big defensive efforts like the ones by the Eagles, Broncos, Chiefs, and Bills can be just as thrilling as shootouts. The Lions, having let Aaron Rodgers destroy them with four touchdown passes, may want to look into this “defense” thing. ■ After watching the Browns’ Terrelle Pryor play quarterback, wide receiver, and safety in the same game, it becomes clear: For Cleveland to start winning they simply need to clone the former Ohio State star 52 times. Finding a kicker who can hit a field goal would help as well. ■ After a big win, like the one the Bills had over the Cardinals, there is still no better coach at a news conference than Rex Ryan, who opened up about how he feels going into next week’s matchup with New England, saying “I can sit back and say I don’t care who plays quarterback, because Brady ain’t. I don’t care who plays quarterback. Steve Grogan can play quarterback. If Belichick’s playing quarterback, we’re coming after him, I promise you that. ” There is typically a steep learning curve to playing quarterback in the N. F. L. Cam Newton and Andrew Luck each threw four interceptions over the course of their first three career starts. Peyton Manning threw eight. Things have come a lot easier to Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles, who in a start to his career has piled up 769 yards and 5 touchdowns, but has yet to throw an interception. Already getting a lot of buzz for opening the season with convincing wins over Cleveland and Chicago, Wentz took things into a higher gear in helping the Eagles beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, . In a dominant win over Pittsburgh, Wentz surgically took apart the Steelers’ defense, rarely attempting downfield passes and choosing instead to work underneath the coverage to great effect. He completed 23 of 31 passes for 301 yards and 2 touchdowns, including a beautiful short pass to Darren Sproles that the tiny running back broke for a score. In what will surely be one of the biggest upsets of the week, the Buffalo Bills thoroughly crushed the visiting Arizona Cardinals, . Coming into the game, the Bills were reeling, and added some drama after the firing of Greg Roman, the team’s offensive coordinator. The distractions did not seem to bother the players, as Buffalo let the team’s defense and running game carry it to an easy victory. Buffalo’s defense, which had endured quite a bit of criticism after a loss to the Jets last week, showed up to play, intercepting Carson Palmer four times and returning a fumble for a touchdown. The turnovers were critical in a game in which the Cardinals dominated and outgained the Bills in terms of yardage, but could not hold onto the ball long enough to score. Once the Bills offense was on the field it was all about grinding out yards on the ground with LeSean McCoy (110 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Tyrod Taylor (79 yards, 1 touchdown) leading the way in a effort. Cowboys 31, Bears 17: Rookie Ezekiel Elliott, the fourth pick in the draft, had 140 yards on 30 carries, and quarterback Dak Prescott, who was picked 131 spots later, threw his first N. F. L. touchdown pass in an easy victory over Chicago. Broncos 29, Bengals 17: Trevor Siemian, the man given the nearly impossible task of replacing Peyton Manning at the helm of the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, was not intimidated by a Cincinnati Bengals defense, throwing two touchdown passes — he had four for the game — as the Broncos beat the Bengals, . Here’s how the Broncos won. Vikings Shut Down Cam Newton and Panthers: The three interceptions by Cam Newton were not the most surprising thing in the Carolina Panthers’ loss at home to the Minnesota Vikings, nor were the 22 points that the Vikings managed despite playing without Teddy Bridgewater, Adrian Peterson or Matt Kalil. Instead, the most shocking entry on the box score was the shutout Minnesota’s defense pitched against Panthers wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin. Benjamin, who missed last season due to injury, started the season well with 13 catches for 199 yards and 3 touchdowns in the first two games, with Newton regularly praising how much easier everything was with him around. That changed this week, as Benjamin was targeted just once by Newton and finished the day with zero catches. It was the first time in his career that he failed to get a catch, and the Vikings did not stop there, also holding Devin Funchess without a single reception. Captain Munnerlyn, a defensive back for the Vikings, told reporters after the game that the shutout was by design. “We just knew where Benjamin was the whole time,” he said. “Funchess, we weren’t worried about him. It was Kelvin Benjamin. ” Munnerlyn went as far as to say the team was not worried about Funchess, saying he’s “not that good”. The loss ended a home winning streak by the Panthers. Rams 37, Buccaneers 32: Turns out the offensively challenged Los Angeles Rams are capable of getting the ball in the end zone. Case Keenum threw for the team’s first touchdown since relocating back to Los Angeles, and Todd Gurley rushed for two more scores Sunday in a victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Rams ( ) who did not have TD in the first two games of the season, also scored on Ethan Westbrooks’ fumble return and Tavon Austin’s reception in the fourth quarter before thunder and lightning caused a weather delay with two minutes remaining. Colts 26, Chargers 22: There is still plenty to be worried about in Indianapolis, with Andrew Luck continuing to struggle with turnovers and inconsistency for the Colts, but the team finally got its first win of the season. A by T. Y. Hilton in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter completed the Colts’ comeback, and the team’s defense forced a fumble to seal the victory. With the win by Indianapolis, the only winless teams left are Cleveland, Jacksonville, Chicago and New Orleans, but the Bears and Saints have yet to play this week. Redskins 29, Giants 27: It was never going to be easy. The Giants’ defense knew it. They knew it when the linebacker Keegan Robinson stood during a meeting Friday morning to remind his teammates that the winless Washington Redskins were especially dangerous. “It’s like a trap game,” Robinson told them. “This team is desperate. ” But with an opportunity to bury their rivals deeper in the N. F. C. East division, at home on a crisp and sunny afternoon, the Giants’ defense did not heed its own warnings, falling, at MetLife Stadium. Here’s how the Redskins won. Chiefs 24, Jets 3: The play that encapsulated the Chiefs’ demolition of the Jets on Sunday was not the first turnover they forced. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the fifth. Or the sixth. Or the seventh. Or even the eighth. Rather, it was a long gain by the Kansas City’s superlative tight end, Travis Kelce, who caught a pass over the middle, sprinted across the field and at the end of his run administered a blow to Jets safety Marcus Gilchrist that was less stiff arm than ultimate fighting move. Instead of purely shoving Gilchrist, Kelce appeared to lift him with his right hand, pushing him back five yards. The Chiefs bullied the Jets throughout the game, taking advantage of a team that was too slow, too clumsy and too challenged by the task of making sensible decisions — or holding onto the ball — to bother trying to assert itself as a contender in the A. F. C. Dolphins 30, Browns 24: Signed by the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, Cody Parkey came out to kick what would have been a field goal in the closing seconds of a game against the Miami Dolphins. On a tough day in which he had already missed two other field goal attempts, Parkey’s kick sailed and forced overtime. For the Browns, who lost Robert Griffin III to injury in Week 1, and choked away a first quarter lead against Baltimore in Week 2, overtime had to feel like a foregone conclusion. And on Miami’s second possession of overtime, Jay Ajayi confirmed those fears, breaking free for an touchdown run that gave the Dolphins a victory and dropped Cleveland’s record to . Ravens 19, Jaguars 17: Justin Tucker kicked his fourth field goal, a with 1 minute 2 seconds left for a road victory that kept the Baltimore Ravens undefeated and dropped the Jacksonville Jaguars to . Packers 34, Lions 27: Aaron Rodgers threw four touchdown passes — all in the first half — and the Packers withstood a rally from the Lions to win at home. Raiders 17, Titans 10: The Oakland Raiders beat the Tennessee Titans in Nashville, getting three turnovers and a sack from their maligned defense. Russell Wilson threw for 243 yards and a touchdown before suffering a left knee injury as the Seattle Seahawks rolled to a rout of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Wilson was injured with about 10 minutes to go in the third quarter getting pulled down awkwardly on a sack by San Francisco’s Eli Harold. Harold was called for a horse collar penalty, but the bigger concern was how he fell on Wilson’s left leg. Wilson stayed down on the field for a few moments before walking off. Wilson missed the first play of his career due to injury, but returned to throw one more pass. The completion led to the third of Steven Hauschka’s three field goals for a lead and after that Wilson’s day was done. Read more about Wilson’s injury. Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton did not kneel during the national anthem on Sunday, but he addressed the unrest in Charlotte, N. C. by wearing a emblazoned with a quotation from Martin Luther King Jr. Newton, who has avoided making race a part of his personal narrative, surprised some by taking time during the week to address Tuesday’s shooting in Charlotte, which occurred close to the Panthers’ stadium. Many thought Newton would choose to take a knee during the national anthem, similar to the protests of Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers instead, Newton wore a black during that read, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. ” While Newton did not kneel during the anthem, his teammate Marcus Ball stood with his arm extended and his index finger raised, and a group of protesters outside the stadium knelt. Elsewhere in the league, a growing number of players knelt or raised their fists during the anthem, including four players from the Washington Redskins. Last week, DeSean Jackson, who was one of the Redskins players raising his fist, published a photo of Terrence Crutcher, a black man shot by the police in Tulsa, Okla. on his Instagram feed with a caption that read in part, “Us as black People are a threat so jus take our lives smh the system been set up for us not to live and make it thru all this. ” | 1 |
Share This A Muslim family in the United Arab Emirates arranged a marriage for their son, only to find that he “got out” of the deal in the most gruesome way.
The family of a Muslim man was celebrating the upcoming wedding of their young patron when they suddenly heard blood-curdling screams coming from his room. When his brother rushed to see where what all the shrieking was about, he stumbled upon a gruesome scene with the groom holding something horrific in his hand.
Most ancient religions and cultures have a history of arranging marriages and often forcing unwilling participants into betrothals with people they’ve never met and have no desire to wed. However, unlike many other ideologies, Islam rampantly continues to cling to not only arranged marriage but also polygamy, child marriage, and incest. Unlike other religions that have reformed and progressed, there is no hope for Islam, as its most revered prophet commanded and modeled these same barbaric behaviors.
In a bizarre series of events, a young Muslim man in the United Arab Emirates found himself in an arranged marriage that he found completely insufferable. The 26-year-old refused to take a second wife, a refusal that is uncommon with men in Muslim-majority countries unless the bride is found to be undesirable for reasons including defilement, unsatisfactory appearance, poor financial status, or un-Islamic behavior. Instead, the young man, who has a wife and 2 daughters in another country, found a way to dissolve the betrothal in the most shocking way.
Feeling that there was no other way to get out of the engagement, the Khaleej Times reports that the unnamed man decided to render himself “unfit” to be married by taking a knife and slicing off his genitals. He surmised that if he is unable to perform his marital duties by consummating their wedding night, his fiance’s family would be convinced to pull their daughter out of the arranged marriage.
The Muslim groom’s family was adamant that he marry a second wife, somehow forcing the 26-year-old man into a marriage of their own choosing. It was after a family argument that the groom’s brother heard blood-curdling screams and burst into the room to find the man covered in blood and his genitals mutilated.
The brother immediately rushed the young man to the Al-Kuwaiti Hospital, collecting the severed penis in a plastic bag. Thanks to the brother’s quick thinking, doctors at the nearby Al-Qassimi Hospital accepted the victim as a transferred patient and informed him that they would be able to reattach the organ.
“I have conducted a number of surgeries on male organs; but this case was very strange and rare as the organ was separated from the body and was brought to us in [a] plastic bag,” Dr. Younis Al-Shamsi added.
Incredibly, the Muslim man refused the surgery, arguing that he would still be forced to marry the woman after his recovery. After much coaxing, his brother finally convinced him to have his penis surgically reattached. The process took just 3 hours, and the man is expected to make a full recovery.
The Quran states that men are allowed to take up to 4 wives as long as they provide for them. The latter part of the scripture even encourages Muslim men to marry one of their sex slaves “who their right hand possesses” if they have trouble finding a suitable Muslim woman. Of course, Allah considers women nothing more than property, as the Quran states twice that men should beat their wives if they fear even the slightest disobedience from them. In fact, Allah specifically told Job, a character stolen from Judaism and Christianity, that he must take a tree branch and beat his wife after she mocked him in her grief over the loss of their children.
Likewise, the Islamic prophet Muhammad proved that this was what Allah intended by beating his own child bride , Aisha, after she caught the pedophile sneaking out of their house in the middle of the night. His reasoning was that his property had left the house without his permission.
Luckily for the fiance, this man didn’t see her as his next victim with whom he could unload his perverse sexual fantasies and physically torture her if she had any objection. Still, the Islamic oppression of women and children continues to see millions enslaved to abusive predators that are given divine authority to treat them as they wish. | 1 |
Now Pak PM Nawaz Sharif announces demonetization of high value Pakistani currency Posted on Tweet (Image via intoday.in)
Inspired by PM Modi’s gutsy decision to demonetize Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes and by the generally positive reaction of the Indian public, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif too decided to abolish high denomination currency notes and win back public favour. After a quick meeting with the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, PM Sharif, like his Indian counterpart, decided to announce his decision in a nationally televised address to the nation.
“ Bhaiyon aur behnon! ” he roared, adopting a tone similar to Modi’s, “there comes a time in the history of a country’s development when a need is felt for a strong and decisive step. For years, this country has felt that corruption, black money and terrorism are festering sores, holding us back in the race towards development. Terrorism is a frightening threat. Have you ever wondered how terrorists get their money? Enemies across the border – RAW agents to be specific – run their operations by printing fake Pakistani currency!”
Nawaz paused to take a sip of water.
“ Bhaiyon aur behnon! To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that from midnight tonight, the Rs 5000 note and Rs 1000 note will no longer be legal tend…”
At this point, Sharif’s address to the nation was rudely interrupted by army chief General Raheel Sharif who barged into the frame and landed a stinging slap on the PM’s face.
“ Bhaag yahan se! [Get out of here!]” the army chief barked.
Holding a hand to his reddened cheek, the shamefaced PM slowly got up and walked out. General Sharif turned to the camera.
“Ignore whatever he said. Things will continue as usual,” he said, before turning it off. Tweet About UnReal Mama
Ek chatur naar badee hoshiyaar, apane hee jaal me phasat jaat ham hasat jaat are ho ho ho ho ho! | 0 |
TAMPA, Fla. — Kyle Higashioka grew up surfing off the bluffs in Huntington Beach, Calif. which proclaims itself as Surf City. He can lay down some fierce heavy metal licks on his electric guitar, a skill that might be given away by the Iron Maiden socks he wears for workouts. His Spanish isn’t bad, either. In many ways, Higashioka grew up a quintessential Californian. But recently he has begun to explore his family’s roots — by learning to speak Japanese. “My dad has always been pressing me to learn,” said Higashioka, a on his father’s side. “This spring, finally, I thought maybe I should try. ” There was also some pragmatic motivation for Higashioka, a catcher who was elevated to the Yankees’ roster for the first time after a standout 2016 season in the minor leagues: He thought learning Japanese might help him communicate with Masahiro Tanaka, the ace of the Yankees’ pitching staff. And if the Yankees, who have a lengthy history with Japanese players, were to land the Japan League star Shohei Otani next year? “I thought it could be beneficial for the Yankees to have a catcher who speaks Japanese,” Higashioka said. Higashioka, who picked up some words from his father and has relied on software, will bounce words off Tanaka and his interpreter, Shingo Horie, who has helped him improve his baseball vocabulary. He also occasionally tosses phrases toward the cadre of Japanese reporters who cover Tanaka. “I mess around with them in Japanese,” Higashioka said. “I say the few things I know to them even if it’s out of context. I’ll tell them I ate eggs this morning because it’s the only stuff I know how to say. ” He added: “The rule of thumb is they don’t really consider you Japanese unless you speak Japanese. I would be a lot more proud of being able to speak because I am part Japanese. ” As a beginner in Japanese, Higashioka has modest expectations, but his baseball career might provide a good model for persistence and patience. The Yankees chose Higashioka in the seventh round of the 2008 draft and lured him away from a scholarship to the University of California with a $500, 000 signing bonus. While valued for his catching skills — he is regarded as the best pitch framer in an organization that has long prized that skill — Higashioka missed almost the entire 2014 season after Tommy John surgery and had never hit much. Until last year. Higashioka, 26, belted 21 home runs last year between Class AA Trenton and Class AAA trailing only Gary Sanchez, Carlos Beltran, Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin in the organization. He also drove in 81 runs and posted an . 847 plus slugging percentage, about 150 points above his career average. As if to serve as a reminder of last season, Higashioka homered in his first game of spring training. “He put himself on the map, definitely, with what he did last year,” said Manager Joe Girardi, adding that he believed that Higashioka, who has altered his swing, can continue to hit for power. “We talked about it when we left spring training last year that he was impacting the ball better than we had ever seen it. We thought he’d hit some home runs, and it turned out that he did. ” With Sanchez marked as the Yankees’ catcher of the future and Austin Romine having performed capably as the backup last season, Higashioka will most likely begin the season with . Spring training, though, is often a valuable time for pitchers and catchers to get to know one another, as catchers seek to learn not only a pitcher’s repertoire but also his personality. Tanaka said he had developed a good working relationship with Sanchez and Romine last season, adding that he hoped to become more familiar with Higashioka this spring. “It’s about getting on the same page,” Tanaka said through his interpreter. “During the game what is important is that we both know what we want to do. If we’re on the same page, when he gives out that sign, that’s exactly what I want. That’s the type of relationship that ultimately you want to get to. We’re working toward that. ” While Tanaka uses his interpreter to communicate with his catchers, Higashioka rattled off Tanaka’s pitches in Japanese: sutoreeto (fastball) suraidaa (slider) supuritta (splitter) and kattaa (cutter). He can also ask Tanaka where he wants to throw the pitch: takamei (high) or hikamei (low) nikakoo (inside) or gikakoo (outside). Asked which was better — his English or Higashioka’s Japanese — Tanaka smiled. “Same,” he said in English. Tanaka was probably being charitable. Still, Anri Uechi, a reporter for The Kyodo News who has covered Tanaka for two years, said any effort to speak Japanese was generally viewed as a sign of respect. “It’s always nice to have someone speak your language,” Uechi said. “I know I feel that way maybe Tanaka does, too. ” Though Japanese immigrants have settled in Southern California for generations, there are few where Higashioka grew up, so there was little to spark his interest in his family’s heritage. Unlike his father, Ted, a American, Higashioka did not have any friends growing up. “We’re in Huntington Beach,” Ted Higashioka said. “It’s not like it’s a Japanese cultural center here. It was a little more difficult. ” Ted Higashioka spent several years as a child in Japan, where his father worked as an oil company executive. But when the family returned to the United States, there was little reason for him to speak Japanese. He wishes he had. He can understand the language but does not feel comfortable speaking it. “My parents never deterred me from speaking Japanese, but you just feel it,” Ted Higashioka said. “You want to assimilate a little better. You try to put those things in the background and try to be a little more . It’s really important for people to hold onto their heritage and language growing up and not be forced to hide something like that. ” The family history, like that of many during World War II, is complicated. While Shigeru Higashioka — Ted’s father and Kyle’s grandfather — earned a Bronze Star in the Army’s 442nd Infantry Regiment, a mostly unit that fought in Europe, Shigeru’s parents and other family members were sent to internment camps. “The feeling I got from my parents was it was no ill feelings,” said Ted Higashioka, who added that his father was extremely proud of his military service. “It was just a sign of the times. He was just being a good American, but I never heard him be bitter about what happened. I guess, in a way, that was kind of the Japanese way. They just endured it. ” Kyle Higashioka said the topic rarely came up. “My grandparents were quite a bit older than me, so I never really got their perspective on it,” said Higashioka, whose grandfather died 13 years ago. “By the time I was old enough to understand that stuff, it was too late. ” This more recent embrace of his heritage is taking on other forms. If his Japanese is still nascent, Higashioka did a very Japanese thing over the winter: He married in Hawaii. His father also noticed that his older son would leave the last morsel of his dinner on the plate, a form of Japanese etiquette. When this observation was relayed to Higashioka, he smiled, acknowledging that his father was right. “Everything how that culture works is quite different than American,” he said. “It’s cool to see the difference between Tanaka and the rest of the American guys. It’s real interesting and something I’m curious about. ” | 1 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government has executed 5, 000 to 13, 000 people in mass hangings in just one of its many prisons since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Amnesty International contends in a new report. The report on the Saydnaya military prison, which Amnesty said was based on interviews with former detainees there, prison employees, judges and others, accuses the Syrian government of systematically executing perceived opponents after sham trials that lasted just a few minutes. Inmates are kept under conditions so dismal — including regular, severe beatings and deprivation of food, water, medicine and basic sanitation — that they amount to deliberate extermination, defined under international law as a crime against humanity, the report said. While inhumane prison conditions in Syria have been known for decades, the Amnesty report laid out what it described as new details — not documented by any human rights monitoring group to date — about the scale of the killings and the state systems required to facilitate them, including approvals by officials. “We now know where, when and how often these hangings are taking place, as well as which elements of the Syrian government have authorized them,” said Nicolette Waldman, an Amnesty researcher specializing in detention issues and one of the report’s authors. Mr. Assad, in an interview with The New York Times and other journalists last year, insisted that detainees were being treated according to Syrian law and that their families could locate them by appealing to the judicial system. But the report corroborates numerous accounts given to The Times by current and former detainees in several prisons across Syria, detailing regular torture and deprivation. It also echoes reports from families of detainees that the government has refused to provide even basic information such as where they are and whether they are alive. According to former officials cited in the report, detainees — most of them accused of nonviolent offenses, such as participating in demonstrations — are tortured into giving confessions, then taken to military field courts, where they undergo trials lasting two to three minutes. At regular intervals, the Amnesty report said, they are gathered in the middle of the night from their cells and taken blindfolded to an execution room on the grounds of the prison near Damascus, where they are hanged. Some prisoners have managed to stand on toilets to look out windows and see bodies carted away, and the number of slippers left lying on the ground. “If there were 30 slippers, then we knew that 15 people had been executed,” Abu Osama, a former military officer detained in the prison, was quoted as saying. “There were usually between 30 and 80 slippers outside. ” | 0 |
We Are Change
Chelsea Manning attempts suicide in for the second time: Transgender soldier ‘tried to kill herself again after being placed in solitary confinement’
Manning attempted suicide at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas She was sentenced to solitary confinement after her first attempt in July Her attorneys say her deteriorating prison conditions are to blame Claim her time behind bars is an ‘assault on her health and humanity’ Was sentenced to 35 years in prison 2013 for leaking 700,00 secret military and State Department files to WikiLeaks Chelsea Manning attempted suicide for the second time in recent months, her attorneys have revealed.
The transgender soldier, who is serving a 35-year jail sentence for leaking confidential military documents, tried to kill herself at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas last month.
According to The New York Times , she was beginning a week of solitary confinement.
Attorneys Vincent Ward and Chase Strangio declined to divulge details of Manning’s suicide attempt last month at a military prison at Kansas’ Fort Leavenworth.
Wayne Hall, an Army spokesman, said medical privacy laws barred him from discussing the matter.
Chelsea Manning attempted suicide for the second time in recent months, her attorneys have revealed. The transgender soldier (pictured), tried to kill herself at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas last month
But Manning’s attorneys cited her prison conditions — including the solitary confinement that her legal team says she received as punishment for her July suicide attempt — as contributing to their client’s fragile mental state.
Strangio, in an email to The Associated Press, called her treatment since her 2010 arrest and subsequent time serving a 35-year sentence ‘demoralizing and destabilizing assaults on her health and humanity.’
After her July suicide attempt, I watched her begin to piece her life and spirit back together only to have that shattered by the disciplinary proceedings brought against her and then the unannounced initiation of her term of punishment last month,’ Strangio wrote. ‘She has repeatedly been punished for trying to survive and now is being repeatedly punished for trying to die.’
Strangio added he worries about Manning’s ‘ability to keep fighting under these relentless abuses.’
Manning, arrested in 2010 as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 in military court of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks.
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Praying For Chelsea !
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0 comments If you think Anthony Weiner’s perverted antics were bad, wait until you see this! They have been together for decades, and while the truth has trickled out, technology has opened the floodgates. Enter Anonymous. The hard-to-define hacking group is doubted by many though they often get things exactly right. Their ideas about Huma Abedin, Hillary’s top assistant, have enough merit to be worth a look, though what you see may frighten you. Allegedly, Huma has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, as her mother is a member of the Brotherhood’s female counterpart. No question, she is tied to Saudi Arabia, as she was raised there. She was born in the United States, and at age two, her family moved to Saudi. Huma returned at age 18, then started her intern career with Hillary Clinton at the age of twenty. She worked for her mother’s magazine, a Jihadist publication that promotes Sharia law. The Muslim World League funds the Abedin family business, and they also funded al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Who is Human Abedin, in truth? The video below from Anonymous reveals more:
With news of Huma’s estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, dominating the news recently, much is being presented in the news media on Weiner and Abedin’s connection to Hillary Clinton, with the ongoing FBI investigation being primary.
As you may expect, Anonymous, as a group, joins WikiLeaks in their desire to expose the corruption of Hillary Clinton. Conflicts of interest, political scandals, money laundering, pay-for-play on an international scale, and more are the focus on Anonymous.
The amount of information that is available on Hillary Clinton is intimidating, as her career has run for decades.
Take a look at the video below, also from Anonymous, and consider how she and Huma Abedin have found themselves in their current set of controversial circumstances. | 0 |
In a column for The Huffington Post, this week, a student at Villanova University argued that being polite does not excuse the “racism” of those who are against illegal immigration. [“You heard me saying “oops” as my pencil fell, and you then took a break from writing your notes to help me pick it up. I said “thank you” with a smile you smiled back and said “no problem,” Villanova student Valeria Alvarado began. “When I was absent from class because I was sick, you let me look at your notes so I could catch up. You have even held the door open for me when we both walked out of the building together. I really appreciate the times you have helped me out when I needed it. ” Alvarado’s column, “To the Racist Guy Who Picked Up my Pencil,” builds up to the thesis that polite acts do not excuse an individual’s underlying racism, which she claims could be seen in Facebook posts that her peer had made such as those that read “building the wall,” “#AllLivesMatter,” and “we cannot tell which refugees are terrorists. ” “This open letter goes out to every racist person who has ever picked up my dropped pencil said “bless you” after I sneezed stopped to ask me how my Christmas break was, has written “happy birthday” on my Facebook wall, has said “good morning” to me as we walk past each other on campus, or has asked me where I got my “cute shirt” from,” she continues. “No smile, compliment, or favor will erase the fact that I know you do not actually want my family and me in this country. ” Comments on the column were quick to point out that those that are against illegal immigration oppose the illegal entry of persons of all ethnic backgrounds. “Leftist (sic) often get criticized for an alleged “If you don’t agree with my views, you’re just a bigot” attitude, and this piece functions as an interesting case study in that mentality,” one commenter said. Another argued that if the author’s attitude was applied to other laws, it would seem absurd: “If I call for harsh penalties for tax fraud, it’s not personal. Learning that you cheat on your taxes doesn’t change my opinion about tax law — it changes my opinion about YOU. I can still be your friend, but I’ll think a little less of you. ” Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about education and social justice for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com, | 0 |
The Justice Department has found that the Baltimore Police Department for years has hounded black residents who make up most of the city’s population, systematically stopping, searching and arresting them, often with little provocation or rationale. In a blistering report, coming more than a year after Baltimore erupted into riots over the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, the Justice Department is sharply critical of policies that encouraged police officers to charge black residents with minor crimes. A copy of the report was obtained by The New York Times. The critique is the latest example of the Obama administration’s aggressive push for police reforms in cities where young men have died at the hands of law enforcement. The findings, to be released Wednesday, are the first formal step toward the Justice Department’s reaching a settlement with Baltimore — known as a “consent decree” — in which police practices would be overhauled under the oversight of a federal judge. The department started the inquiry at the invitation of Mayor Stephanie . To show how officers disproportionately stopped black pedestrians, the report cited the example of a black man in his who was stopped 30 times in less than four years. None of the stops led to a citation or criminal charge. Black residents, the report said, accounted for 95 percent of the 410 individuals stopped at least 10 times in the five and a half years of data reviewed. The most pronounced racial disparities were in arrests for the most discretionary offenses: For example, 91 percent of those arrested solely for “failure to obey” or “trespassing” were even though the city is 63 percent black, the report found. In one telling anecdote from the report, a shift commander provided officers with boilerplate language on how to write up trespassing arrest reports of people found near housing projects. The template contained an automatic description of the arrestee: “A BLACK MALE. ” “The supervisor’s template thus presumes that individuals arrested for trespassing will be ” the report stated, describing the sort of detentions the language was intended to facilitate as “facially unconstitutional. ” The report indicated that the frequency of arrests without probable cause was reflected in the fact that booking supervisors and prosecutors had declined to file charges, after arrests by their own officers, more than 11, 000 times since 2010. Two weeks ago, Maryland prosecutors dropped charges against the last of six officers charged in the April 2015 death of Mr. Gray, who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury while in custody. With that, Baltimore joined a growing list of cities where deaths sparked outrage, and even riots, yet no one was held accountable in court. While no consent decree has been reached, the report states that the city and the Justice Department have agreed in principle to identify “categories of reforms the parties agree must be taken to remedy the violations of the Constitution and federal law described in this report. ” “I don’t think at this point, it’s about justice for Freddie Gray anymore,” said Ray Kelly, a director of the No Boundaries Coalition, a West Baltimore group that provided its own report on police abuses to the Justice Department. “Now it’s about justice for our community, for our people. ” City Councilman Brandon Scott, vice chairman of the council committee that oversees the department, said the next fight could be over how to pay for the police overhaul. Baltimore is among nearly two dozen cities that the Obama administration has investigated after they were accused of widespread unconstitutional policing. Using its broad latitude to enforce civil rights laws, the Justice Department has demanded wholesale change in how cities conduct policing. In several cities, including Seattle Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo. those investigations began in the aftermath of a death that sparked protests and in some cases riots. Police chiefs, prosecutors and experts say the investigations have forced cities to address longstanding, entrenched issues far beyond the targeted cities. “Chiefs are constantly looking at these reports, not just to learn lessons and best practices from each other, but also what pitfalls we can avoid,” said Scott Thomson, the police chief in Camden, N. J. who is also the president of the Police Executive Research Forum. But reform can take years, which does little to ease the frustration of activists who say that police officers too often go unpunished for deadly encounters with unarmed people. Dayvon Love, 29, a founder of the Baltimore advocacy group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, said that changes would come only when civilians have a say in whether officers should face punishment. Mr. Love described frustrating meetings with Justice Department officials — including Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “I was very skeptical and not really that enthused about meeting with them,” Mr. Love said. At one point, he said, he asked Ms. Lynch what she could do to change state law and give civilians more power over the police. “She said what I figured she’d say, which is that from her position as attorney general, she can’t really do anything about it. ” The Supreme Court has given police officers wide latitude in how they can use deadly force, which makes prosecuting them difficult, even in the killing of unarmed people. For the Justice Department to charge an officer with a federal crime, the bar is even higher. Prosecutors must show that the officer willfully violated someone’s civil rights. State and federal investigators cleared the officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson and those who killed Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Federal prosecutors are still debating whether to bring charges in the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island. Local prosecutors did not. In Baltimore, black residents have been complaining for years of systematic abuse by the department. When the city’s top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, failed to get any convictions in Mr. Gray’s death, many in the city’s poorest neighborhoods were not surprised. After the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, Congress gave the Justice Department the power to investigate police departments for patterns of civil rights violations. The Obama administration has used that authority more aggressively than any other. Prosecutors are enforcing consent decrees on police departments in 14 cities. “We tend to confront systemic problems only when forced to by seemingly extraordinary events,” Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department’s top civil rights prosecutor, said last year. In Seattle, the investigation followed an officer’s shooting of a Native American woodcarver in 2010. The shooting was ruled unjustified, but prosecutors said they could not meet the legal standard to file charges. The federal authorities, however, found a pattern of excessive force and ordered the Police Department to provide better training and oversight. In recent years, the Justice Department has held Seattle up as an example of how cities can best respond to scathing investigations. In other cities, the changes are just beginning. After months of arguing and delay, officials in Ferguson accepted a settlement in March that will force the city to change its policies on when officers can use stun guns, shoot at cars and stop pedestrians. Officials in Cleveland agreed in May to follow strict new standards governing how and when its officers can use force. The report is sure to fuel a broader debate on aggressive policing practices, as it blames much of Baltimore’s woes on “ ” policies adopted in the late 1990s. They were aimed at anyone on the streets whom officers viewed as suspect, making heavy use of and other confrontation techniques. But the approach, the report found, “led to repeated violations of the constitutional and statutory rights, further eroding the community’s trust in the police. ” While Baltimore officials have sought to curb the most extreme policies, the legacy of the strategy continues to vex the department. One example the report cited was a police sergeant who recently posted on Facebook that the “solution to the murder rate is easy: flex cuffs and a line at” the central booking office, made up of people arrested on charges of loitering. | 1 |
This past week, peaceful protesters were brutally arrested at Standing Rock in North Dakota attempting to protect their water from the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatens the water of more than 18 million people in the US. Journalists and medics were arrested, cars were impounded and personal possessions were seized by police.
Once again, government officials brutalize and raise up arms against native people in a fight to steal yet more land and destroy it. It is clear to see that Morton County Sheriff’s office is the primary security protecting the construction of this pipeline.
However, amidst the chaos, many forgot a small victory that occurred last week; nearly 50 water protectors stood against more than 250 police on a bridge on County Road 134.
As Desiree Kane of Yes! Magazine reports:
It was a strategic juncture because police vehicles couldn’t cross the narrow embankments on their way to the raid. If they were stopped at this bridge from the east, they could only come from the north. In the morning, police did come, and from both sides. When I arrived, this blockade had already stopped an LRAD… Even as police numbers grew, eventually well beyond 200, the water protectors held their ground, fearless. Then the dancing began. People began dancing to a hand drum, entranced by the power of prayer.
One elderly man continuously proclaimed in a loud voice, “Send one unarmed like I am out here to negotiate. Please. We are protecting the water for our children and yours. Send one out here to negotiate. Let’s talk! Please!”
The police refused to negotiate, but after hours of this peaceful display of non-cooperation, the police retreated.
This means that those 250 jackbooted thugs could not make it from the east to join in the brutalizing of peaceful protesters. This is a victory, no matter how small. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Contributed by Ryan Banister of The Daily Sheeple . | 0 |
From Valdai with a message of confidence and reform Russia is ready to move forward both economically and politically – but on its own terms, and according to its own interests, priorities and values Russia is ready to move forward both economically and politically – but on its own terms, and according to its own interests, priorities and values.
Heinz Fischer, ex-President of Austria, speaks at the Plenary Session during 13th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi. Photo: RIA Novosti
The political message of this year’s Valdai forum was one of confidence and state-initiated reform. Leading members of Russia’s political class attending the event included President Vladimir Putin, Head of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova, and several key representatives of the executive and legislative branches of state power. While discussing different dimensions of Russia’s development, each of them sought to stress that the country was stable and ready to move forward. ;
On the economic front, a member of the Russian government argued that Russia has now fully adjusted to the volatile international markets and is ready to operate under Western sanctions . Indeed, the overall Russian economy has benefited from sanctions. In particular, agriculture, food industry, and chemicals became important sources of overall growth. The economy’s macro indicators are positive. It is now considerably less dependent on the West and is ready to progress on the basis of developing further relations with China and other non-Western nations.
Another official described preparations for the country’s strategic change in the direction of comprehensive economic, social and political reform. The new strategy will proceed from the need to continue the nation’s integration with the global economy, while improving the quality of state governance and developing Russia’s comparative advantages in the technological sector and human capital.
With hundreds of experts involved, the strategy is to be completed by Spring 2017 and then be given full consideration by President Putin. Along with ideas expressed by members of the Stolypin Club, the newly prepared economic strategy is a critically important source of new thinking by the Kremlin. [The Stolypin Club, headed by Sergei Glazyev and Andrei Kaplach, is one of the two competing groups within Russia that is mapping out a future economic policy for the nation – Editor’s note] Having left behind the energy-based model for growth, the Kremlin is now in search for a new model of development and is likely to be attentive to various recommendations for reform .
In terms of the political system , other officials highlighted the system’s newly gained legitimacy on the basis of a greater openness as demonstrated by the recent elections to the State Duma. The extremely high level of support for Putin helped to elect a parliament with the overwhelming dominance of those advocating his favored course of state-controlled reform. On the forum’s sidelines, several experts speculated about the possibility of early presidential elections in Fall 2017 in order to expedite the implementation of reform.
In foreign policy and international relations, Putin and other officials continued to advance the message of Russia’s preparedness to work with the West on addressing common threats and challenges but not at the expense of Russia’s sovereignty and national interests. Some provided detailed answers to multiple questions from the audience about specifics of the country’s involvement abroad, while Putin outlined a broad vision of globalization for all, rather than some exclusive countries and population groups.
These policy makers indicated that the country’s interests demand standing firm for defending state sovereignty and fighting terrorism in the Middle East, implementing the Minsk agreements in Ukraine, and building a greater Eurasia in close cooperation with China and Central Asian nations.
It remains to be seen whether this vision of confidence and reform will get a chance to be implemented. Obstacles – both external and domestic – are formidable. Externally, the biggest unknown is how the new U.S. administration will deal with Russia. Depending on who arrives to the White House and whether Russia is viewed as predominantly a threat or a potential partner, the U.S. policy is bound to either encourage or complicate the nation’s reform efforts.
Recommended: " What should Putin do next? Valdai experts offer suggestions " Additional pressures and sanctions against the Russian economy are not likely to obtain the Kremlin’s cooperation, but may well push the country away from the state-designed reforms and toward a more interventionist foreign policy and militarization of the budget.
At home, the years of the West’s pressures and insensitivity to Russia’s interests have served to build powerful constituencies that are comfortable with Russia’s siege mentality and obsessed with the alleged American threat. Putin has heavily relied on these constituencies to consolidate his control following the Ukraine crisis and will now have to work against their instincts and preferences.
However difficult it might be to practically implement it, this vision of confident reform on the basis of Russia’s own priorities, values, and interests is worth serious attention. During the years that followed Western sanctions, the Kremlin demonstrated both the lack of desire to be isolated from the global economy and the power to defend its international status and interests.
The opinion of the author may not necessarily reflect the position of Russia Direct or its staff.
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While President Donald Trump has said that he expects some “very good numbers” on economic growth shortly and stocks hit new highs, economic data suggests the economy is growing by less than expected. [The New York and Atlanta Federal Reserve banks both lowered their estimates of Gross Domestic Product Friday. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model forecasts seasonally adjusted real GDP growth is 2. 9 percent, down from its prior forecast of 3. 2 percent. The New York Fed’s Nowcast fell to 1. 9 percent, from 2. 25 percent a week ago. The distance between the forecast indicates that forecasting economic growth is far from an exact science. For that matter, even calculating actual economic growth is not an exact science, as demonstrated by the fact that GDP numbers are frequently revised in the months that follow their initial release. The staffs of the Fed banks create the projections using economic models that can produce different results even when looking at the same data. But both the Atlanta and New York forecasts show a discernible trend toward slowing growth. Earlier in the quarter, the Atlanta Fed was producing growth forecasts above 3. 5 percent and even above 4. 0 percent. Forecasted growth declined steeply in late May and has not recovered as new data has come in. The June 16 forecast was the first to come in below 3. 0 percent for the second quarter. The New York Fed’s forecast also started out near or above 3. 0 percent and has been mostly falling since then. It hit 1. 8 percent in early May, bounced back a little, but is now once again near its low. The most recent decline was driven by disappointing data on housing starts and export prices, indicating that residential investment and net exports will have a smaller contribution to GDP growth than earlier data suggested. Friday morning, U. S. consumer sentiment also unexpectedly declined. Bloomberg’s U. S. Economic Surprise, which measures whether incoming economic data beat or miss expectations, fell below zero for the first time this year. It is now at it lowest point since Trump was elected in November. This suggests the economy is losing momentum. | 0 |
As Calais "Jungle" Burns, Refugees Try To Storm Their Way Back In Oct 26, 2016 2:32 PM 0 SHARES
It has been a harsh week for the 8,000 refugees inhabiting the Calais "Jungle" camp.
Continuing an operation which began on Monday, workers ramped up demolition of France's notorious Calais "Jungle" on Wednesday after fierce blazes cut through a swathe of the camp overnight, sending migrants fleeing for safety. Fabienne Buccio, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, said it was "mission accomplished" for the demolition.
However his assessment may have been premature as charities said many unaccompanied minors had not been processed and BBC reporters at the camp said groups of adults remained.
Wearing hardhats and orange overalls in the morning fog, a team of around 15 workers resumed tearing down tents and makeshift shelters at the camp that has become a symbol of Europe's migrant crisis.
As recounted by AFP reporters, a new fire threw black smoke into the sky as several dozen wood shacks smouldered on a main thoroughfare of the sprawling slum. "Someone burned our tents. Maybe they used petrol or something, I don't know, but the fires spread fast. We had to run out in the middle of the night," said Arman Khan, a 17-year-old Afghan. "I left all my things behind, I have nothing now."
Riot police had cordoned off the demolition area while aid workers and government officials checked that the dwellings were empty. Others carted away the debris and abandoned belongings - mattresses, multi-coloured blankets, supermarket trollies and so on - in small earth-movers. Gas canisters, sinks, refrigerators and other metal objects lay scattered across the desolate scene.
The fires spread just hours after workers moved in Tuesday to clear the squalid camp that has been home to an estimated 6,000-8,000 migrants, many with hopes of reaching Britain.
A local official played down the blazes, telling AFP: "It's a tradition among communities who set fire to their homes before leaving." Located next to the port of Calais, the Jungle has for years been a launchpad for migrants attempting to make it to Britain by sneaking onto trucks or jumping onto trains heading across the Channel.
Since Monday, 3,242 adults have been transferred to centres around France and 772 unaccompanied minors have been moved to shipping containers converted into temporary shelters in the Jungle, the interior ministry said. The numbers represent around half the camp's estimated population before the operation began, according to official figures.
The authorities have said those who agree to be moved can seek asylum in France. Those who refuse risk deportation. The fate of more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors is of particular concern.
Meanwhile, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday that all those "with proven family links in Britain" would eventually be transferred and that London had committed to reviewing all other cases where it was "in the child's interest" to settle across the Channel.
* * *
However, not all are seeking to rush back. Many inhabitants of the camp attempted to break through the police line and storm back into the camp, which is being demolished by the authorities, according to RT's reporter on the ground. Inhabitants break through police line to storm back into #Calais camp. pic.twitter.com/fb1aQSVh99
— Harry Fear (@harryfear) October 26, 2016
Sky News also said that migrants were returning to the “Jungle.” Migrants are returning to the 'Jungle' camp in Calais following fires during demolition at the site
— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) October 26, 2016
A migrant child, who was among those returning to the camp, waved a cricket bat and shouted: “Jungle is not dead! Jungle is not dead!” according to the British Express newspaper. “It’s chaos with these ongoing fires and plumes of smoke [across the camp],” Harry Fear reported from the scene.
“The police line was broken by migrants wanting to enter back in,” he said, adding that it appears new fires have been set across the camp.
According to the RT correspondent, the operation to clear Calais looks much like a failure, despite claims of its complete success by the French authorities. He said that fire brigades on site have been working “quite slowly” to put out the fires. The RT crew also noticed “uncontrolled gas canisters [at the camp’s territory], which haven’t yet been secured by the authorities,” Fear added.
According to an unnamed regional official, the authorities will be able to shut down the processing center, which is dispersing migrants to different locations in France until the end of the day. Fires keep burning in many locations around the camp as some migrants set fire to the camp in response to government actions.
— Jonathan RT France (@Jonathan_RTfr) October 26, 2016
The demolition of tents and wooden structures, which the residents had used as shelter, started at the site on Tuesday. Violent clashes between the police and the inhabitants were reported, with tear gas deployed by officers. The camp was set ablaze last night by refugees displeased with the demolition. The flames caused several explosions of portable gas, with four migrants arrested over the incident. Cette partie de la #Jungle a été rasée au tractopelle #Calais pic.twitter.com/somJBNNkKy
— Jonathan RT France (@Jonathan_RTfr) October 26, 2016
Thousands of hopeful migrants, many of whom are now homeless, are looking to cross the English Channel to find asylum in the UK have been holed up at the camp for months. Britain, however, only agreed to take in around 1,000 migrant children from the camp who have relatives in the UK.
On Wednesday, almost 40 councils in England refused to accept any of the child refugees evacuated from the camp.
Meanwhile, with the UN warning that the recent attack on Mosul may unleash up to another million refugees in the coming weeks, Europe's migrant crisis is about to get even worse. | 1 |
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, urged unity behind Donald J. Trump in a series of interviews on Sunday television shows and said that “people just don’t care” about recent negative reports about his tax returns and his treatment of women. During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Priebus defended Mr. Trump after an article in The New York Times on Saturday in which dozens of women who encountered Mr. Trump over his career told of unsettling conduct. Asked by Chris Wallace, the host, if he was bothered by the accusations in the article, Mr. Priebus at first said that “Well, you know, a lot of things bother me, Chris, and obviously I’m the wrong person to be asking that particular question,” but when asked again, Mr. Priebus said that voters were focused on other things. “I don’t think Donald Trump in his personal life is something that people are looking at and saying, ‘Well, I’m surprised that he has had girlfriends in the past.’ That’s not what people look at Donald Trump for,” he said. When pressed by Mr. Wallace, Mr. Priebus said, “yes, everything bothers me, Chris, but I don’t know the truth of these things, I don’t know other than reading an article whether or not these things are true. I think it’s something that Donald Trump is going to have to answer questions in regard to. ” But, the Trump campaign, Mr. Priebus added, “represents something much different than the traditional analysis of individual candidates” and that while such concerns were “legitimate,” he did not think they were “going to affect people’s view of who and what Donald Trump represents to them, given this election and the electorate. ” On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Priebus said that whatever concerns Republicans might have, the party should rally behind Mr. Trump and he called efforts to draft a conservative for a campaign a “suicide mission. ” “You are not only changing and throwing out eight years of the White House, but you are also throwing out, potentially, generations on the Supreme Court,” Mr. Priebus said. He was responding to an article in The Washington Post that outlined efforts among some Republican leaders, dissatisfied with Mr. Trump as the party’s to recruit a third candidate to wage an independent bid. “Look, we could have up to three justices change over in the next eight years, and this is a suicide mission,” Mr. Priebus said. “It is not right. ” He repeated the argument on his Fox News appearance: “It’s a suicide mission for our country, because what it means is that you’re throwing down not just eight years of the White House but potentially 100 years on the Supreme Court, and wrecking this country for many generations,” he said. Mr. Priebus, who also appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” defended Mr. Trump’s resistance to releasing his tax returns. Asked on “This Week” if Mr. Trump should release his tax returns — an issue that dogged Mitt Romney in 2012, even after he eventually released them — Mr. Priebus repeated his argument that Mr. Trump operated under different political norms. “I don’t think the traditional playbook applies,” he said. “We’ve been down this road for a year. And it doesn’t apply. He’s rewritten the playbook. ” | 0 |
Source: Google Sites
Many people seem to dismiss HAARP as possessing any kind of level of threat, obviously they have completely and totally NO understanding of the potential of radio waves in transmitting actual power.
In general of all the people who under estimate HAARP, I don’t read of anyone here blasting Einstein’s theories, and I can rest assured they understand HAARP less than they do “General or Special” Relativity. Yet from these theories came the Nuclear Weapons technology. So if you don’t believe HAARP can be used as a weapon then you obviously don’t believe Nuclear Energy can be used as a weapon either.
In order to understand HAARP as a weapon, either you have to understand or generally accept the explanation of the technology by others who do understand, that is, if you don’t possess the intelligence to understand this technology.
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.
Sound Waves and Radio Waves possess some of the same properties and characteristics, yet utilize different mediums of propagation, in other words, Sound Waves use a physical mechanical pressure to be transferred through the air, a solid or liquid,
Whereas Radio Waves use electromagnetic energy as a type of “pressure” and can equally pass through the air, liquid or a solid, with the exception of reflective metals. At this point in order to understand the implications of HAARP, you’ll need to have at least a basic understanding of Electricity, Electrical energy, Electromagnetic energy, Radio Waves, Radio Frequency “ Resonance”, “Radio Wave Transmission and Propagation”, Microwave energy and “Power Transmission Via Microwave Emissions” Unlike the lower radio frequencies, Microwaves tend to act like visible light, very directional, very reflective, and they also have the ability to easily be absorbed by a non reflective medium or easily “permeate” ( go completely through ) a non reflective, non absorptive material, all with a varying degree of loss of power, depending on the medium or material. Microwaves also have the ability to be channeled or ducted through metal tubing or wave guides, but do not react to “Ducting” or being channeled between the layers of the Ionosphere, whereas High Frequency (30-300 MHz.) Radio Waves can be “Ducted” or channeled between the layers of the Ionosphere to be carried longer distances from their point of origin. Through the atmosphere you can simply use the “INVERSE SQUARE LAW” to determine an “exponential” loss of radiated power of any Electromagnetic or Radio wave. This calculation does not take into account the increased "Photon Energy" levels present in electromagnetic radiation at Microwave frequency levels, of which increase in the overall potential of the radiated power and since Microwave energy has a greater "Photon Energy" level than electromagnetic energy at lower frequencies, it's "actual" power at lower wattage emission levels is greater than the power emitted from lower frequency radiation at the same wattage emission level. The HAARP Project is referred to as “High Frequency” and from what I’d read in the past (and I rechecked my sources for posterity) they claim to operate primarily on two frequencies, 3.39 Megahertz and 6.99 Megahertz, both within the 3 to 300 Megahertz or” High Frequency” range.
My question has always been and no one seemed to address this issue yet, are these, the primary carrier frequencies? Or, are these the modulated sub-frequency or HARMONIC, of a higher carrier frequency? Transmissions at Super High Frequency and Extremely High Frequency range are all a little above the capability of most of the equipment I normally use right now or else I would have “tuned in” to investigate. Equipment in these ranges has to be extremely selectable, with a high degree of sensitivity, but maybe not too terribly sensitive at the power levels they boast.
It is also claimed that the HAARP antenna array uses circumpolar polarization of its RF waves. It has been my understanding in the past that circumpolar polarization of the high frequency (3 – 300 Megahertz) wavelength is not as efficient as it is at higher frequencies, like in the Ultra High Frequency and especially the Super High Frequency and Extremely High Frequency (microwave) ranges.
Normally “High frequency” radio waves are generally absorbed by the ionospheres D layer (mainly during the daytime) and reflected back to the earth by the ionospheres E and F, layers when their present (mainly evenings and night),
Whereas “Microwave” transmissions are generally not affected by the Ionosphere, they tend to pass through the ionosphere with little or no effect, except an occasional minor distortion.
With high altitude dispersant of Aluminum or most any other metallic particulates this energy can easily be “reflected” back TO the Earth and INTO the Earth and at the power levels mentioned can easily heat these areas as well.
At the HAARP website they display the photo of what they call a Modular UHF Ionashpereic Radar Array. To me, this appears to be ground plane mounted Phased Array of UHF “circumpolar polarized antenna” capable of transmitting on a “wide band” of base frequencies or overtone harmonics of microwave frequencies. This is the only example of a circumpolar polarized antenna array in any given photo they show, all the other High Frequency of Very High Frequency arrays in any of their photos are definitely not “circumpolar polarized antenna” configurations.
Actually if I had a large antenna capable of high power level transmission in higher frequency ranges like microwave, I’d place it in an enclosed “DOME” like the one shown in one of their photos they make no mention about.
When it comes to a U.S. Government funded operation, we are talking about the capability of operating well above 30 Gigahertz or even 300 Gigahertz, or well above that, Terahertz anyone?
Back in 1964 American Telephone and Telegraph had already began using, the already well developed “MASER” technology for point to point (tower to tower) telephone communications, which lead to the building of most of the Bell telephone towers you see now or have seen in the past, in most every city. I know, I was present at a Bell Labs Demonstration back in 1965. HAARP isn’t the only facility operating a High frequency Active Auroral Research Program, HAARP @ 110 Megawatts of Effective Radiated Power HISCAT (International Radio Observatory, Sweden) @ 350 Megawatts Effective Radiated Power
EISCAT (Tromsö, Norway) @ 48 Megawatts Effective Radiated Power
VOA (Voice of America – Delano, CA @ 27 Megawatts Effective Radiated Power
SURA (Radiophysical Research Institute, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) @ 20 Megawatts Effective Radiated Power
Arecibo (National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Puerto Rico) @ 20 Megawatts Effective Radiated Power
HIPAS High Power Auroral Stimulation Observatory (UCLA Plasma Physics Lab – Fairbanks Alaska) @ 17 Megawatts Effective Radiated Power
(Combined and operated simultaneously via satellite downlink that’s a total of over 590 Megawatts of total microwave power which can also be reflected by possibly satellites, metallic atmospheric dispersants or other reflective medium we may not even know exist and then directed to a centralized point) (remember, generally microwave transmissions generally DO NOT reflect off the ionosphere but go straight out into space unless reflected ) When it is taken into consideration the amount of power they discuss using, 3,600,000 watts, 110,000,000 watts or 350,000,000 watts of RF power (and who knows it could be even more), for you folks that don’t understand, this is one HELL of a lot of power in any Radio frequency range. Example The standard, everyday household microwave oven operates at 700 to 1100 watts of Radio Frequency power in the “Microwave” frequency range.
QUESTON?
When it takes a standard, everyday household microwave oven operating at 700 to 1100 watts of RF power to cook a 10 lb. turkey, then how many 10 lb. turkeys can you cook with 350 Megawatts microwave power?
Think about it!
DIRECTIONAL POWER:
Radio wave transmissions from non-movable, stationary antenna arrays (multiple antennas) can be ACTUALLY be made to be directional by applying more power to the antennas on any one side of the array and less power to the other side while transmitting. This creates electromagnetic wave “Side lobes” towards the side with more power applied and roughly points the transmissions in a selectable direction.
SO BEFORE YOU JUST ARBITRARILY DISMISS HAARP as a THREAT, or just because its radio waves they can’t have any effect on anything, then here are some FACTS to look into. History of Power Beaming The concept of wireless transmission of electrical energy — or power beaming — is not new. The idea has been around for decades, proposed primarily for space-based solar farms to supply energy to Earth or the surface of another world, or for wireless power on Earth. The two technologies that appeared suitable for power beaming involved microwave or laser energy. Researchers in several countries flew a variety of model aircraft using beamed microwave energy 20 years ago. However, the nature of the microwave beam causes it to spread out with distance, with a commensurate decrease in the power delivered to the target. While flight was easy to demonstrate at close distances with microwave beaming, flying an airplane at long distances would require a prohibitively powerful microwave beam to compensate for the energy loss as the beam spread. That left only lasers as a potentially viable option for practical power beaming…. ( http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-087-DFRC.html )
Wireless energy transfer
Microwave method
Main article: Microwave power transmission
Power transmission via radio waves can be made more directional, allowing longer distance power beaming, with shorter wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, typically in the microwave range. A rectenna may be used to convert the microwave energy back into electricity. Rectenna conversion efficiencies exceeding 95% have been realized. Power beaming using microwaves has been proposed for the transmission of energy from orbiting solar power satellites to Earth and the beaming of power to spacecraft leaving orbit has been considered.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer Let me refer you to the an article I read in the past, from the January, 1988 issue of Popular Science
Where researchers successfully flew a lightweight model plane completely on microwave power converted to electricity to operate it’s electric motor driven propeller.
You may want to watch this interesting but effective demonstration,
[u][b] Government terrorists can create earthquakes GOVERNMENT TRANSCRIPT IN INFO [/b][/u]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_ZlGLccC9E
H.A.A.R.P.
By Michel Chossudovsky – Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa and TFF associate, author of The Globalization of Poverty, second edition, Common Courage Press
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:
“Extremely Low Frequency Modulation of Microwave Emissions”
It is completely feasible and possible to modulate a microwave frequency by means of Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), as well as other transmission modes, as to generate an EXTREMELY LOW FREQUENCY wave resultant, with a COMBINED POWER of both the Microwave and Extremely Low Frequency, each frequency with its own unique characteristics and combined characteristics of both frequencies.
For years now EXTREMELY LOW FREQUENCY radio transmissions were used to communicate with submerged submarines, because of ELF’s ability to be transmitted deep in to the waters of the ocean just like sound waves can be transmitted through water.
Just the same as in water, EXTREMELY LOW FREQUENCY radio waves can be easily transmitted below ground level and are used for below ground “Radar Imagining ” , Deep ground penetrating metal detectors, both which operate on low power levels. The higher the power levels the deeper underground it goes before being absorbed within the earth’s layers.
EXTREMELY LOW FREQUENCY radio waves are within the frequency range of Audible Sound waves, and just as sound waves at higher power or decibel levels can shake and vibrate whatever they encounter, the same holds true with Extremely Low Frequency radio waves.
FACTS:
Normal brain waves all fall under the Extremely Low Frequency range:
The EEG is typically described in terms of (1) rhythmic activity and (2) transients. The rhythmic activity is divided into bands by frequency. To some degree, these frequency bands are a matter of nomenclature (i.e., any rhythmic activity between 8–12 Hz can be described as "alpha"), but these designations arose because rhythmic activity within a certain frequency range was noted to have a certain distribution over the scalp or a certain biological significance. Frequency bands are usually extracted using spectral methods (for instance Welch) as implemented for instance in freely available EEG software such as EEGLAB.
Most of the cerebral signal observed in the scalp EEG falls in the range of 1–20 Hz (activity below or above this range is likely to be artefactual, under standard clinical recording techniques).
Both Extremely Low Frequency and Microwave, Radio Wave Transmissions have been admittingly linked mind control.
MICROWAVE MIND CONTROL | 1 |
Эх, мани, мани, были бы в кармане! 22 ноября 2016 Экономика
Как заявила в Госдуме глава Банка России Эльвира Набиуллина, модель экономики, в основе которой лежало потребление за счет доходов от экспорта сырья, себя окончательно исчерпала, хотя в ближайшие годы ее радикальной перестройки не произойдет. По ее словам, на смену изжившей себя потребительской модели поведения населения должна прийти «сберегательно-инвестиционная».
Центробанк и иже с ними, устроив своей, мягко выражаясь, неумной политикой изрядное обнищание масс, теперь считает, что им, этим массам, недурно было бы изменить стратегию пользования деньгами. Какими? Может быть, теми, которыми распоряжаются чиновники на всех уровнях власти? Отнюдь! Госпожа Набиуллина советует нам с вами изменить свое потребительское поведение, урезав средства, которые отводятся на покупки.
Для чего, спрашивается? А все для того, чтобы начать копить ни больше ни меньше как на черный день, как будто сейчас он для россиян какого-то другого цвета! Все-таки «страшно далеки они» там, в ЦБ, не только от народа, но и вообще от реальности: видят всё в каком-то своем цвете, кардинально изменяющем существующую картину на желаемую.
Неужели глава Центробанка всерьез считает, что люди будут из тех скудных денежных поступлений, ручеек которых день ото дня все мелет, выделять какую-то часть, подкапливать и нести в банки? Да еще возлагать надежды на гигантский прирост сбережений? И это сейчас, когда и сберегать-то практически нечего — разве что всем дружно перейти на подножный корм, изредка разбавляя его самыми дешевыми крупами и макаронами. Народ и так сменил ассортимент продуктов на своем столе, предпочитая привычным недорогие аналоги.
А потребность окладывать лишнее появится у жителей России не по щучьему веленью и хотенью Центробанка, а когда они сумеют удовлетворить насущные потребности. Какие? Да у каждого свои: одним квартиру для семейства надо бы попросторнее, у других назрела острая необходимость поменять машину, которая давненько на ладан дышит, третьим подросших детишек учить надо — да мало ли в чем нуждаются люди, не получившие в свое время кусок сладкого государственного пирога!
Тем более что с подачи ЦБ процентные ставки по вкладам неуклонно падают. Поговаривают и о необходимости брать налоги с тех крох, что нарастают в банках на сбережения у обычного гражданина (не будем поминать всуе успевших наворовать или нажиться одним из «относительно честных способов»).
Мы давно уже стали «сами себе банкирами» и не уверены, что нашим «сольдо» выгоднее полежать в ближайшие годы на вкладах, а не под матрасом или в собственной банке. Что у нас в стране скопище наивных буратин?
Источники информации: expert.ru , картинок: newscentral.exsees.com , xa-xa.org Теги: | 0 |
On Nov 1, 2016 2:13 PM, “Mimi Kennedy” wrote:
Please circulate widely:
Bev Harris of blackboxvoting.org finally put up Fraction Magic video. Appropriately, on Halloween.
98,000 views in less than 24 hours: https://youtu.be/Fob-AGgZn44
Don’t be afraid. Watch. The capacity to commit fraud exists; stop arguing about who’s using it, get it out, and in the meantime for this election, pay attention to vote-counting any way you can. Find out if you have ballot images and make sure they’re preserved for public record. Many officials destroy them because they can’t be fixed to match digital vote-shifting.
Accounting software was built into Diebold’s original digital counting system (Global Election Management System, or GEMS.) It has since migrated to ES&S, Sequoia, and Dominion, tallying votes in their DREs and their optical scanners. To work with the accounting software and use it to apply desired percentages to outcomes you only have to
1) know it’s there
2) know how to use it
3) have access before or during an election
4) know how to cover your tracks
Bennie Smith, the researcher who found the accounting program, was inspecting databases that Bev Harris had obtained in a court settlement some years back. (whole story at www.blackboxvoting.org)
He found a few screens showing fractionalized election results and thought “this reeks.” He was familiar with accounting software, and found a menu feature that turned whole numbers into fractions and back again at the click of a key. You need this in accounting, where cents on the dollar require precise totals. But for one person one vote?
Bennie, who can write code, went to work developing a little app that could attach to code Bev had found online, in the early 2000s, in a file named ROB GEORGIA (that story is on www.blackboxvoting.org and was part of the movie Hacking Democracy.) Bennie applied the app to an old race in one of the election database Bev had obtained in court. He changed the results of the race, using the fraction menu, then returned it to whole numbers. https://youtu.be/Fob-AGgZn44 shows it being done in real time. He says the app could be attached by someone who knew what they were doing, and it could run during a live election as results came in – IF you wanted to commit election fraud.
The only evidence one might see, in such a case, would perhaps be an occasional shift downward (loss) of votes already obtained by some candidates, if the fraudster chose a percentage that “showed.” (That’s why “the latest polls” and “margin of error” and “gap is closing” and “momentum” are important considerations. ) Because the app might have to “steal” from one candidate to another to keep within the commanded percentage.
Wow! Activists taking screen shots of live election results have seen exactly this – and it’s explained away as “ glitch”! Hm.
Ok, so we know that hand-counted paper ballots, where there are opti-scan counts, are a necessity – either to a statistically-sufficient random audit or as fully redundant count.
We also know that few paper ballot jurisdictions are set up with that infrastructure, in 2016, to do this. Some states have no audit laws. And what of DRE jurisdictions, with or without paper?
A SOLUTION HAS APPEARED IN THE COURT CASE JOHN BRAKEY JUST WON IN PIMA ARIZONA.
Turns out that many of our opt-scanners and DREs (even those without paper!) make ballot images of cast ballots – opt-scanners create the image as the ballots are scanned, touchscreen as the voted onscreen ballot is “Cast”. AND turns out that these images are nearly impossible, CURRENTLY, to make match a fraudulent digital count. Too many pixels!
Any count shifted by an intruding set percentage cannot currently simultaneously change the ballot images to match.
John Brakey found his Pima County officials destroying the ballot images and refusing to make them public record. Brakey got a court order from a judge that they must be preserved in November 2016 and made available for public inspection.
The public could obtain a vote-count from these images even if officials refuse to hand-count. The ballot image vote count must match the”official” results or something has been manipulated in the “official” results.
Brakey found further suspicious activity around the ballot images. The ES&S optical scanner used in Pima County also has a printer that stamps, on the back of each paper ballot, a unique iD number that is also given to the ballot image. It cannot be traced to the voter. It only matches the paper ballot with its image, as a check and balance for transparent audit.
Pima County officials did not use the printer. They removed its cartridge. Their paper ballots did not have ID numbers. So, impossible to match to the images, which they were destroying anyway.
The ID printer was part of the sales package ES&S offered to jurisdictions to states like AZ that have audit laws. Disabling it was against the law.
The judge ordered Pima County to enable the printer by using a damn cartridge and have it running for the November, 2016, election.
Let’s stand up and demand election integrity using the means at our disposal. We are not to be shamed for insisting that our votes be counted as cast.
The post Very Easy to invisibly steal US elections appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org . | 1 |
In President Trump’s world order, Roger J. Stone Jr. the onetime political consultant and provocateur, has been one of the few constants — a loyalist and “dirty trickster” who nurtured the dream of a presidential run by the for 30 years. But two months into the Trump presidency, Mr. Stone, known for his pinstripe suits, the Nixon tattoo spanning his shoulder blades and decades of outlandish statements, is under investigation for what would be his dirtiest trick — colluding with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton and put his friend in the White House. At a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Monday, Democrats pressed James B. Comey, director of the F. B. I. for information on Mr. Stone. Asked by Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, a Democrat, if he was familiar with Mr. Stone, Mr. Comey replied tersely, “Generally, yes,” before saying he could not discuss any specific person. Mr. Stone, 64, is the best known of the Trump associates under scrutiny as part of an F. B. I. investigation into Russian interference in the election. John D. Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman whose hacked emails were released by WikiLeaks, accused him in October of having advance warning of the hacks, which the intelligence community has concluded were orchestrated by Russia. “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel,” Mr. Stone had mused on Twitter before Mr. Podesta’s emails were released. When Mr. Schiff asked Mr. Comey at the House hearing how Mr. Stone could have known that Mr. Podesta’s emails were going to be released, the F. B. I. director again refused to answer. “That’s not something I can comment on,” Mr. Comey replied. Mr. Stone has denied advance knowledge of the hacks or any involvement with the Russians. But his public statements have given investigators something to focus on. Before the Podesta emails were released, Mr. Stone said in a speech that he had “communicated with” Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder — whom he has defended for years — and that he had a large trove of material on the Clintons that he would publish shortly before the election. He has acknowledged having communicated over Twitter with the online persona Guccifer 2. 0, who American officials believe is a front for Russian intelligence officials. And there was the Podesta tweet. But Mr. Stone has explanations for each: The timeline of his “benign” contacts with Guccifer 2. 0 — “who may or not be a Russian asset” — disproves claims of collusion his communication with Mr. Assange was through an intermediary and was “perfectly legal” and the Podesta tweet referred to information in an article he wrote that appeared two months later, not any emails. Now under scrutiny by both F. B. I. and Senate investigators, Mr. Stone has hired two lawyers to represent him. But in an interview, Mr. Stone maintained that this was “a scandal with no evidence. ” “There is still not an iota of proof that anyone on the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians,” said Mr. Stone, who met Mr. Trump through their mutual mentor, the fixer and lawyer Roy M. Cohn. Mr. Stone learned from Mr. Cohn that all press is good press, and to hit back, hard and often, and he is doing just that. His recent book, “The Making of the President 2016,” is part paean to Mr. Trump and part pushback against the claims related to Russia. While promoting the book, Mr. Stone has said he believes his communications were monitored by the government, and he supports Mr. Trump’s contention that there must have been surveillance of him as a candidate. His own writings mirror, and perhaps feed into, Mr. Trump’s belief that there is a broad intelligence community effort to undermine the current White House. He tweeted in protest of “smears” that he wanted to respond to during Monday’s hearing. Few people go as far back with Mr. Trump as Mr. Stone. Over the years he was by Mr. Trump’s side as he toyed with running for president and then, in 2015, finally decided to do it. But he seems to prefer the role of outside adviser in a relationship that has had many ups and downs. It was the role he played in 2016 after he left Mr. Trump’s campaign over what Mr. Stone said was a fight about its direction. Mr. Stone said he decided to leave Mr. Trump maintained that he fired him. As an informal adviser, Mr. Stone supported Mr. Trump’s plan to focus extensively on immigration at the start of the 2016 campaign, and believed that he could tap into a core group of disaffected Republican voters. He encouraged his engagement with conservative online media, such as Newsmax and, later on, Breitbart. He also advised Mr. Trump to attack Mrs. Clinton over how she dealt with women involved in her husband’s extramarital affairs, a line of attack that Mr. Trump embraced. Mr. Trump offered praise for Mr. Stone on the coming Netflix documentary “Get Me Roger Stone. ” These days he will not discuss how frequently he is in touch with Mr. Trump, or whether he has visited the Oval Office since the inauguration — which he attended dressed according to what he described as “proper etiquette”: a top hat and morning suit. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, told reporters in the briefing room on Monday that Mr. Trump and Mr. Stone speak “from time to time,” and he contended they had not done so recently. To both his allies and critics, Mr. Stone, a native of Connecticut, presents a contradictory portrait. His name inspired anxiety in a generation of New York political operatives. He has embraced theories that Mr. Trump pushed in the campaign about Senator Ted Cruz’s father somehow being tied to the John F. Kennedy assassination. And once a week he on a radio show hosted by Alex Jones, who has a devoted following of Trump voters along with a raft of conspiracy theories of his own. On Monday, when he devoted most of his show to defending Mr. Stone, Mr. Jones expressed concern that Mr. Stone’s life was in danger — a reference to Mr. Stone’s claim that he was recently poisoned with polonium as well as the victim of a “suspicious” broadside car crash last week. Mr. Stone did not let that keep him from an event in Orlando to promote his book the following day. But Mr. Stone is also a libertarian and strong supporter of gay rights and legalized marijuana who expressed concern in 2016 that Mr. Trump’s campaign team didn’t try harder to get him to disavow the Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke. While he has long been an outlier in the political world, he got his real start in national politics with the Reagan campaign in 1979. He is renowned among Republican political professionals for using the internet for years before “any mainstream Republicans or activists,” according to Tony Fabrizio, a veteran Republican pollster. And for a time, as a partner in a Washington lobbying firm, Mr. Stone was a part of the swamp that Mr. Trump now wants to drain. He worked there with his old friend, Paul Manafort, who was Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman. His ties to Russia are now under scrutiny by the F. B. I. but Mr. Manafort denies any suggestion that he colluded with Russian officials or anybody else. But those establishment days seem far in the past. As scrutiny of him has intensified in recent weeks, Mr. Stone has lashed out more aggressively, sending a series of caustic, messages on Twitter, several of which he deleted a few hours after posting. “Don’t confuse Roger Stone with the character I play,” Mr. Stone said with a chuckle in an interview on Sunday, conceding that he has sometimes sent a “ tweet. ” | 1 |
“Homicides Up 55 Percent”–Chicago Stays Vibrant > November 8, 2016, 10:44 am A+ | a- Warning
With Black Lives Matter seemingly on ice until after the election, Hillary’s campaign made it through October without America’s monthly riot (although I’d forgotten the big black flash mob attack on white Temple University students in Philadelphia). But Chicago, America’s role model for one-party Democratic rule, remained vibrant. From the Chicago Tribune :
Homicides up 55 percent in Chicago after another violent weekend
For the second weekend in a row, more than 50 people were shot in Chicago as the number of homicides this year rose to more than 50 percent above the same period last year.
More than 660 people have been killed in the city so far this year, according to data compiled by the Tribune. The number of people shot in Chicago this year is more than a thousand above what it was this time last year, from 2,620 to 3,795, according to Tribune data.
Mayor Rahm released video of a dubious police shooting late last November. Ever since, blacks have been blasting away at blacks in vast numbers, because Black Lives Matter. Or something.
From Friday afternoon to late Sunday, 10 people were killed and 41 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago, in addition to a man shot to death by police on Saturday, police said.
Among the wounded was a 78-year-old man who was dragged out of a car in Englewood on Sunday and shot in the head. He was listed in serious condition.
Five people were shot in a single attack in Uptown early Saturday morning, police said.
I used to live in Uptown. It’s diverse!
Two men, two women and a 17-year-old boy were shot about 1:35 a.m. in the 4800 block of North Winthrop Avenue. They were all taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition.
Law enforcement sources said none of them provided details of the shooting to investigators. | 0 |
GOP: We Will Be United Against Any Supreme Court Nominee Of Hillary Clinton (VIDEO) By Karen Shiebler on October 27, 2016
When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died last February, it threw the United States Supreme Court into chaos. The unexpected death meant that the Court was reduced to only eight members, making the likelihood of tie votes a real possibility.
A tie means no decision, rendering the Supreme Court essentially powerless.
President Obama quickly nominated a replacement for the super conservative Scalia. He chose the very moderate Judge Merrick Garland for the position. He hoped that his choice of a middle-of-the-road, white male might soften Republican opposition to the appointment.
No such luck. As stiff necked as always, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) dug in his heels and refused to allow the Senate to even hold a hearing on Garland’s nomination.
Why, you ask? Because Sen. McConnell and the rest of the GOP leadership insisted it would be better to allow the next President to choose the new Justice.
Democrats were frustrated, but there was nothing to be done. The Republicans wanted to wait for the “next President,” so that’s what would happen.
Now, however, to the surprise of absolutely no one in the word, the GOP is backing away from its own proposal. It looks more and more likely that the “next President” will be Hillary Clinton, and the Republicans want to eat their words.
Last week Sen. John McCain (R-Az) said this : “I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up. I promise you.” That shocking statement was at first denounced by some in the GOP, but now it is gaining support within the Party. Some conservative legal scholars are giving their support to the outrageous idea. Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute says that the Senate would within its legal rights to simply refuse to approve any nominee of the Democratic President. He writes that the Constitution is silent of the question of whether or not the Senate is required to fill vacant seats on the Court. Other legal experts agree that the Constitution would technically allow the Senate to leave the Court essentially powerless, with eight seats divided between the two parties’ points of view. Most also agree that leaving the Court divided would be disastrous. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said : “ I t’s much more difficult for us to do our job if we are not what we’re intended to be ― a court of nine.” This level of obstructionism is completely unprecedented in American history. If in fact the Republicans chose to ignore any nominee, no matter who it might be, then they are stating an intention to upset the entire balance of power in this country. Republicans love to refer to the Founding Fathers, and they love to claim that they adhere to the principals those founders introduced. To eliminate one entire branch of our three branch government system would be far beyond irresponsible. It would be completely unAmerican. Watch here as CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin discusses the Republican threat.
Featured image by Matt Wade via Flickr . Available through Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Generic license 2.0 About Karen Shiebler
Karen is a retired elementary school teacher with many years of progressive activism behind her. She is the proud mother of three young adults who were all arrested with Occupy Wall Street. To see what she writes about in her spare time, check out her blog at "Empty Nest, Full Life" Connect | 0 |
In the Riverview Gardens apartment complex, roused by the sounds of her neighbors waking, Janet Foy stepped over the textbook she fell asleep reading and vowed to herself that today would be the day she finally came back to life. That today she could start reclaiming some of the confidence she once felt when she stood onstage at church and sang about forgiveness and redemption and You who make all things new. At 56, Foy was broke, jobless and living with her older sister in public housing in Kansas City, Mo. and she didn’t feel much like singing anymore. Recently, she had been told by a manager at a Victoria’s Secret that there was no need to leave her résumé. But not too long ago, she wanted me to know, she was pulling in $1, 000 a week at a Merle Norman makeup store, helping other people look and feel their best. But then she took in her brother to try to help him overcome an addiction, and soon she was pulled under financially as he spiraled out of control. She would show up to work too overwhelmed and exhausted to make any sales, and had to dip into her savings until that was gone. She begged to borrow against her next paycheck but eventually lost her apartment and moved into a friend’s spare room. How are you holding up? people would ask. I’m good, girl, she would say. Praise the Lord! But inside, she felt like the movies she had seen in which “a person becomes encapsulated,” suspended between consciousness and oblivion. Finally, on the phone with her sister one night, she broke down: I’m not right, I feel like I am dying. “She was always the steady one,” her sister, Karen Smith Walker, says. “The one who could solve any problem. Always with a book. Always studying. ” But now, after years of living with this desperation, Foy didn’t know how to find her way through it anymore. “I tried to get Obamacare,” Foy recalls. “I called the number, and when the woman told me what it would cost me, I just about dropped the phone. She told me I’d needed to make at least $12, 000 a year for there to be any help to make it something I might be able to afford. Which still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, even now, that having no money meant I got no help when I really needed it. ” She also learned that she could not expect any help from Medicaid, which in her home state remained available only if you fit the criteria sometimes known by the shorthand “poor and” — poor and pregnant, poor and disabled. As a single childless woman, she could forget about it. There was no going to a doctor, even if she felt, as she put it, “like I was falling to pieces inside. ” But then one day she found herself sobbing in front of a nurse and a social worker, members of a team dispatched by the local clinic to embed themselves in the lives of the uninsured residents of the apartment complex where Foy lived — a effort to reach those who would otherwise, as one resident delicately put it, “remain S. O. L. ” The team, part of a program called Care, or C3, developed by the Samuel U. Rodgers Clinic of Kansas City in partnership with the Housing Authority of Kansas City and the Truman Medical Center, used their collective expertise to help the uninsured come up with creative interventions for their health concerns, beyond relying on a regimen of studious neglect supplemented with panicked, bankrupting visits to the E. R. Some days that meant knocking on apartment doors and offering readings. Other days it meant arranging for guest speakers to come and lead classes about reducing stress or cooking nutritiously with limited ingredients. In Foy’s case, it meant a referral to a therapist, who promptly gave her an explanation for her suffering. “My neurotransmitters were going pphhht,” she told me. “They were just shot, after all that loss and trauma I had been through. ” The therapist treated Foy for depression — at no cost. That was a benefit for residents who worked with the C3 team: They received three free visits to the nearby Sam Rodgers Health Center, which they could use for any treatments offered there, including dental work. After her first session with the therapist, Foy started to imagine what it might be like to feel normal again. But after her third visit, sessions would cost $35 modest, she knew, but still more than she could afford. Over the last few years, she learned there was more than one kind of death, like the inability to lift yourself out of a bad place. Now that she had begun to do just that, she dreaded the possibility of losing it all over again. According to the most recent census data, the uninsured portion of the United States population has fallen to 9 percent, with the sharpest drop registered among those living in households with incomes of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level (which, translated into dollar terms, is the equivalent of an income of $48, 600 a year for a family of four, or $23, 760 for a single person). According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 11 million people have purchased private health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, and a majority report incomes between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level. It would seem that Americans are among the greatest beneficiaries of the A. C. A. ’s reforms. And yet in some states this same population also remains, paradoxically, among the reforms’ greatest losers. This subpopulation is living inside a kind of “dead zone,” as Foy put it to me one day, searching for the right metaphor to describe her predicament. A long and suspended silence, she called it, “like when you can’t receive a single call, a single text. ” How these dead zones formed is a matter of unanticipated consequences. The A. C. A. ’s architects did not predict that the Supreme Court would rule in 2012 that it was up to each state whether to expand Medicaid eligibility, which is how they imagined Americans with the most modest incomes would receive coverage. Even though the federal government would have helped fund the expansion, 19 states opted for ideological reasons not to do so, arguing that they are pushing back against government bloat and the fostering of dependency. A result was that the residents with the lowest incomes in those 19 states were now caught between two nonoptions: They made too much to qualify for Medicaid, or didn’t qualify at all, but they also made too little for publicly subsidized insurance on the exchanges, their income not high enough to trigger the refundable tax credits and that could make the possibility remotely affordable to someone making just a few dollars above the federal poverty level. This paradox is referred to widely as the coverage gap. Most people in that gap are on the far side of middle age, with about one in eight edging toward 65 — a time in life when more serious health issues begin to emerge. Almost half are nonwhite. They are almost equally split along gender lines. About a quarter are supporting children, and everyone in the gap is more likely to be working (62 percent) than not (38 percent). Those with jobs work largely for small businesses that employ fewer than 50 people, which aren’t subject to A. C. A. penalties for not offering coverage. Most people in the gap who have jobs work full time. They are agricultural workers, primarily, or employees, but some hold jobs in education, health and social services, professional administration or manufacturing. There is little disagreement in the existing literature about the negative effects of being uninsured: You are more likely to receive a diagnosis of cancer you are more likely to postpone or forgo care, resulting in more severe consequences as treatable illnesses become increasingly complicated with delay. There’s also good, hard evidence from studies on “the wear and tear that worry and stress has on people who don’t have insurance coverage,” says Genevieve Kenney, of the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, noting one of the most compelling and most cited: a study in Oregon that found that offering Medicaid to the uninsured reduced bad medical debts, decreased the likelihood of choosing to cover medical expenses over other bills, buffered them from catastrophic payments and significantly reduced depression. And yet the coverage gap is a new enough phenomenon that scant research exists into the particular and distinct ways that it is playing out in people’s lives. Already, a scattering of researchers, mostly medical anthropologists, have taken steps to follow communities where significant numbers of people are caught in the coverage gap, in order to gain the kinds of insights “you don’t get from a single snapshot, a survey,” says Heide Castañeda, an associate professor in the anthropology department at the University of South Florida. Those insights reveal, as she puts it, “not just how vulnerable people are, but how much agency they have, how much initiative they have to try and find a solution when none seems to exist. You can’t code that in a binary way you have to watch it unfold over time. ” In Castañeda’s case, she has been studying the lives of the uninsured in Hidalgo County, Tex. which has one of the highest rates of uninsurance in the nation. She has traced the health of dozens of families over the last four years, simultaneous to the rollout of the A. C. A. documenting how they have responded to illness or chronic disease or accident. What she has seen is that to live in the gap demands a creative, improvisational mode of survival — one that often masks the true extent of the disparities to anyone on the outside. “It might be true no one is dying in the streets,” she says. “But the uninsured are dying younger people’s life expectancy is affected, people’s ability to work is affected. These informal types of health care, as important as they are, actually help us not to see that. ” If it can be said that life in the gap tends to inculcate a certain guerrilla thinking among those who have no choice but to consider highly improvisational modes of insurance, then it can also be said that treating the people marooned there requires a similar flexibility of thought. You must manage the strange simultaneity of making someone aware of a grim diagnosis, even as you also know you do not have the means to properly remedy it. My curiosity about this is what had brought me to Kansas City, and would ultimately draw me into the state of Kansas, covering more than 1, 000 miles in five days. The area had already established something of a reputation in medical and circles, even before the emergence of the gap, for the innovative ways its providers had adapted to the overwhelming demands of treating the uninsured and medically isolated. Kansas City was, until recently, home to the largest free clinic in the country (before the clinic’s board voted to accept insurance in anticipation of the A. C. A. and the expansion of Medicaid in its state, which then did not happen). And it is currently the home of the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, which gives away $20 million each year to help fund organizations looking for alternative ways to reach the uninsured and to expand community access to quality medical care — the same foundation that supported the efforts of the team embedded at the local housing project where Janet Foy lived. The president and chief executive of the foundation is a physician named Bridget McCandless, who for 13 years before taking her current position headed a Kansas free clinic. She is widely considered a thoughtful and measured voice in larger conversations about community health, having served as president of the Metropolitan Medical Society of Greater Kansas City and serving currently as a citizen representative on a Missouri House of Representatives working group devoted to Medicaid reform. McCandless seemed the perfect person to speak to about any unlikely innovations that had emerged to work around the lack of immediate legislative solutions for those in the gap. She told me a story about one of her former patients, a man with a seizure disorder: “He’s well controlled on inexpensive medicine. However, he has to see a doctor to get the prescription. Because he lacks insurance, he inevitably runs out of medication and has a seizure. This means that he can’t drive to work for six months. It’s really hard to work in construction when you have to admit to having a recent seizure — preventable or not. He collects cans on the side of the road to support himself now. ” It was hard to be innovative, in other words, when you didn’t have anything to innovate with. A program manager named Rebecca Anderson at the Kansas City CARE Clinic, which was once the nation’s largest free clinic and which also receives funding from McCandless’s foundation, put it to me this way: When she first started working for the clinic, she did H. I. V. case management, “which feels really heavy. But there are so many resources available to those patients. Then I transferred over to this area” — she now oversees a team of community health workers assigned to work one on one with uninsured patients — “and this is way harder. These patients really have access to nothing. Absolutely nothing. ” In the case of Kansas, where Gov. Sam Brownback’s experiment in radically reducing government has included not only refusing to expand Medicaid but also on paring back its existing program, the question of what it meant to have access to nothing took on a particular resonance. My first stop was Iola, where the foundation that McCandless heads also funds initiatives for the uninsured. In the parking lot of the local clinic, nearly every spot was filled. Rich seams of coal, natural gas and zinc fueled huge mining operations in this region during the early part of the 20th century, but by the 1930s the seams were already becoming depleted, leading to less and less work. Today the area is largely defined by entrenched generational poverty, unemployment and poor health. People who live in rural areas are much more likely to fall into the coverage gap than those who live in cities, distance and isolation amplifying the complications associated with the patchwork way they must care for themselves. Cyndy Greenhagen worked out of a converted closet in the Iola clinic, and as the designated patient navigator, she ran the numbers for community members who came in without insurance and looking for assistance. She would tell them whether they fell into the gap. Iola was small enough that she could remember the people she couldn’t help — like Suzan Emmons, who lived across town with her two granddaughters, ages 10 and 12. For almost three decades, Emmons, 56, ran her own business cleaning houses. She had become parent to her granddaughters only recently, after seeking their guardianship to remove them from an abusive situation. The girls no longer hoarded food in their room for fear that they would not get another meal, but they were still getting up in the night, sometimes three, four times. The therapist who worked with them told Emmons that the girls were checking to make certain she hadn’t left them. Last year, Emmons made just over $13, 000. She carried private insurance until two years ago, when it became too expensive. But she imagined, when she went to see Greenhagen, that she would now qualify for some kind of assistance. Instead she learned that with the two girls in her household, she fell into the gap. It was the kind of incongruity that Greenhagen regularly experienced in her job. She had said no to people with cancer people who worked three jobs but still didn’t make enough to bump themselves out the gap people who had been laid off and who had made the decision to return to school but now had no income as a result, and so fell beyond the borders of assistance. Another person Greenhagen had recently said no to was Shanette Smith, who lives with her two daughters and her in the home where her husband was raised, not far from the town of Toronto, on the edge of a state park where some of the oldest trees in Kansas still stand. Her girls ride their bicycles in dizzying loops up and down the same driveway that a police cruiser rolled down in the early hours of a morning four years ago — a trooper dispatched to inform her that her husband had been killed in a accident on a stretch of highway just a few miles away. “After that, things fell apart for a while,” she told me, as we stood together in the dining room, where her keeps her collection of Pepsi memorabilia in curio cabinets. The girls were debating whether tonight they would be able to go take showers at the state park, for which their grandmother had purchased a yearly pass. Shanette, her and the girls sometimes went there in the summer to wash up because it offered not only the promise of inexpensive entertainment — Do you think we’ll see frogs in the bathrooms again, like we did last time? — but, with only one bathroom for all of them at the house, also efficiency, measured in terms of both time and water. Three years ago, at her ’ invitation, she and the girls moved their things into the two back bedrooms of the house. With her ’ help, Smith, 28, was able to return to school full time, taking classes at a community college an hour’s drive away. Smith found that she liked school, that she was a good student. She realized that she could finally study to become a nurse, something she considered before her husband’s accident. One by one, she ticked off her required prerequisites, hunted down transcripts and secured letters of recommendation. She was ready, she thought, to turn in her application to a program in September. But then, while attending an informational meeting, she heard of one last requirement she had not anticipated: Students had to prove they had health insurance. Up to that point, she had simply gone without. The school suggested she look into Obamacare. Which, in turn, led her to Greenhagen’s office. Smith had assumed that the $700 a month she received in widow’s benefits and the fact that she was a student would qualify her for some kind of help she didn’t know about the gap, or that her state was one of the places where it existed. Greenhagen kept looking at her screen, as if she didn’t believe it. “I’m so sorry,” she said. After she left the little closet office, Smith walked to her truck, locked the doors and cried. “It just felt like a huge loss,” she told me. “How could everything I had been planning toward, all the work, how could it all be for nothing?” Smith had been trying not to show her daughters how frightened she felt ever since Greenhagen had delivered the news that insurance was out of her reach — and so, therefore, was nursing school. “Shall we get a broom to fight off any frogs we might find in the shower?” she asked them as they prepared to head to the park. But the same thought was repeating over and over: Now what am I going to do? She thought it as she put her daughters to bed, her youngest daughter saying to her through the dark, “I can’t wait to go to school, so I can have homework, too. ” It frightened her that she felt too numb to try to come up with an answer. The day after my visit with Smith and her family, I drove to the town of Pittsburg, to the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, the largest clinic in the state. The center’s doctors tend to more than 43, 000 patients a year, regardless of their ability to pay — “We will never take anyone to collections,” a founding member of the center and its C. E. O. Krista Postai, told me. Many patients here have complicated their medical problems by going for years without seeing a doctor, fearing a bill they couldn’t afford. “This,” Postai said, gesturing around the building, “is all . ” The guiding philosophy at the health center has always been to “always simply say yes — yes, we can help you, whatever it takes,” Jason Wesco, the clinic’s executive vice president, told me. Sometimes that meant staff members’ volunteering to drive someone to Kansas City in their own cars. In the doctors’ cases, it frequently meant, with their patients’ permission, serving as unofficial specialists — reading up, consulting experts and doing as much as they could within the perimeters of their training — for those who could not afford to see one. Still, there was only so much a doctor could do for a man with bone cancer, for a woman who required a heart transplant. “It’s very hard to know that because of a lack of resources, someone will die,” Julie Stewart, a physician at the center, told me. “To have to look in a patient’s eyes and say: ‘Your prognosis is different than that of someone who lives in another state. Your prognosis is less because you don’t have access to insurance. ’’u2009” An evangelical Christian, Stewart was featured heavily in state and national news accounts of the coverage gap over the last year, and she spoke with the conviction and eloquence associated with the tradition of religious testimony. “There’s a disconnect between politicians and people’s lives on the ground,” she said. “I’m strongly . I testified for the bill because I believe God created life. I’ve said babies can feel the same pain as adults, and that position was applauded, so why, when adults are experiencing the kind of severe debilitating pain that I am seeing because they cannot afford the care they need, are the same people not also working to do something about that?” Currently she had a patient with lupus who was particularly worrying to her. The medications Stewart had tried did not seem to be working. “I keep telling her it’s time to see a specialist” — she had arranged for one at Kansas University to see the patient for $200 — “but she keeps saying no, she can’t possibly afford it. ” Stewart wanted to check up on her, so we drove to her home, in a corner of Kansas that Wesco had told me was, until the center opened a satellite office there, so medically isolated that the doctors were seeing cases they had not seen in their residencies or in medical school. “I’ll take my chances with dying, if that’s what it comes down to,” the patient, Brenda Hannah, told me, sitting in the living room of the home she shared with her husband, Bill. “We have no money. We live on Bill’s disability. ” She had been working at Walmart when the pain first started to become unbearable. She couldn’t stand long enough “to make a sandwich. ” By the time she finally connected with Stewart, she had to quit working, and had already racked up several bills. “The pain would just become unbearable,” she said. “It got to the point where I told Bill to hide the guns — I didn’t want to know where they were. ” Bill, silent, rocked harder in his recliner. Since she started working with Stewart, Hannah rated her pain at about a 5 on a scale, which Stewart counted as an improvement. But Hannah was still in a lot of pain. “You should really go to that specialist,” she told Hannah, who just shook her head. Bill required dialysis three times a day, which she handled at home. “I’ve sat here and thought, What can I pawn? The house is the only thing we have. We’re behind on bills so bad” — she pointed to a table where she had stacked unpaid medical bills and all other bills in two piles, each over an inch thick — “and now the car tags are due. ” Next to the front door, Brenda had taped two Notes at eye level, the last thing she would see on the way out of the house. You are smart (smart ass included). You are fun to talk to. “For my depression,” she explained. “To remind myself of the good things about me. ” Summer gave way to fall. Shanette Smith sent off her application to nursing school, hoping that maybe by the time she heard, something would have changed and Greenhagen would not say no. Suzan Emmons gave a speech at a community forum sponsored by a coalition of organizations working to urge the Kansas state government to expand Medicaid and end the gap. “I have worked my entire adult life,” she said. “For the past 26 years, I have been as a housekeeper. I make an honest wage. I feel I am doing all the right things to be a good citizen. ” Janet Foy was trying to ignore a painful knot on one of her breasts. She had heard once of a folk remedy involving iodine, and at first she treated herself this way, ingesting three drops each day. The pain stopped, but when she ran into members of the C3 team in one of the common areas, they urged her to attend a free mammogram event at the local health clinic as a precaution. Until she found the knot, Foy had, in fact, been feeling the best she had in months, like she “might have something in the tank after all. ” The therapy sessions she received free through the interventions of the C3 team had proved a turning point, she told me. She spoke of wanting to sing again. And she had finally come up with a plan that she was certain would bring herself back to life: medical billing and coding. She had found an online review course for $20 a month to prepare for the accreditation test. She followed up this news with a trip to Kmart, where she could lease a $200 Chromebook. Next, she placed a folding table and chair in a corner of the apartment, where she planned to do her homework. My little office, she called it. Through contacts in the housing authority, she had recently learned of the possibility of a paid internship in the medical records and billing departments at a local insurance company, and she wanted to do whatever she could to position herself for consideration. “I’ve already researched all the bus lines,” she told me. So she waited for the news from the mammogram technician with particular anticipation. When the woman told her the mass was benign, she felt it was nothing less than permission to believe that things were going to get better, even if she did not yet know how. “I’m doing all I can for now, with what I have,” she says. “Sometimes that’s all you can do. You just have to take your little life, and walk it out. ” | 1 |
LONDON — Britain’s startling decision to pull out of the European Union set off a cascade of aftershocks on Friday, costing Prime Minister David Cameron his job, plunging the financial markets into turmoil and leaving the country’s future in doubt. The decisive win by the “Leave” campaign exposed deep divides: young versus old, urban versus rural, Scotland versus England. The recriminations flew fast, not least at Mr. Cameron, who had made the decision to call the referendum on membership in the bloc to manage a rebellion in his own Conservative Party, only to have it destroy his government and tarnish his legacy. The result of the Brexit vote presented another stiff challenge to the leaders of the other leading European powers as they confront spreading populist anger. It was seized on by and parties across Europe, with Marine Le Pen of the National Front in France calling for a “Frexit” referendum and Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands calling for a “Nexit. ” European officials met in Brussels to begin discussing a response and to emphasize their commitment to strengthening and improving the bloc, which will have 27 members after Britain’s departure. “At stake is the breakup, pure and simple, of the union,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France said, adding, “Now is the time to invent another Europe. ” Germany urged calm. “Today marks a turning point for Europe,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “It is a turning point for the European unification process. ” Financial markets swooned as it became apparent that the Leave forces would prevail, with the British pound and global stock prices plummeting in value as the vote tally showed the Remain camp falling further behind. With all votes counted, Leave was ahead by 52 percent to 48 percent, an enormous snub to Britain’s elite. The process of withdrawal is likely to play out slowly, perhaps taking years. It will mean pulling out of the world’s largest trading zone, with 508 million residents, including the 65 million people of Britain, and abandoning a commitment to the free movement of labor, capital, goods and services. It has profound implications for Britain’s legal system, which incorporates a large body of regulations that cover everything from product safety to digital privacy, and for Britain’s economy. The main ways in which the change will be felt are on trade — Britain will lose automatic access to the European single market — and on immigration, with Britain no longer bound to allow any European Union citizen to live and work in the country. Britain will have to try to negotiate new deals covering those issues. To those in Britain who supported remaining in Europe, the result of Thursday’s referendum was a painful rejection, leaving the country exposed to a possible economic downturn and signaling a step away from the multiculturalism that they say has made Britain among Europe’s most vibrant societies. To backers of leaving, the outcome was vindication of their belief that Britain could pursue an independent course in the world, free of the Brussels bureaucracy and able to control the flow of immigrants into the country. “Dare to dream that the dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom,” Nigel Farage, the leader of the U. K. Independence Party, one of the primary forces behind the push for a referendum on leaving the European Union, told cheering supporters just after 4 a. m. For Mr. Cameron, the results were a humiliating disaster, forcing him to announce his departure only 13 months after he won behind a surprisingly large Conservative majority in national elections. Critics said that he had led Britain out of Europe for no good reason and that the unity of the United Kingdom itself was threatened, with Scotland now more likely to try again to bolt. Speaking in front of 10 Downing Street early Friday, with his wife, Samantha, standing nearby, Mr. Cameron said he would resign once a new leader had been chosen by his party, a decision he expected by October. He will stay now to provide stability, but a new prime minister, he said, should formally begin Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and negotiate the terms of that divorce. “I held nothing back,” Mr. Cameron said. His voice breaking, he said, “I love this country and I feel honored to have served it. ” His statement created an immediate churn in the political waters, with speculation that the two Conservatives most likely to succeed him are Boris Johnson, the flamboyant former mayor of London who helped lead the Leave campaign, and Theresa May, the Home secretary, who supported Mr. Cameron and Remain, but concentrated on doing her job rather than campaigning. Mr. Johnson was booed Friday morning as he left his home in London, which voted overwhelmingly for Remain. In a brief statement later, Mr. Johnson praised Mr. Cameron, an old friend and rival from school days, as “an extraordinary politician” and said he was sad to see him go. Mr. Johnson refused to answer questions about his own future but praised the result. “We can find our voice in the world again, a voice that is commensurate with the economy on earth,” he said. But if Britain’s Treasury and Central Bank are to be believed, the economic hit the country will take from leaving the single market of the European Union will be considerable, with permanent loss of economic growth, higher unemployment and lower tax receipts. The immediate market reaction was an effort to find a floor in the midst of so much uncertainty, said Barrington Pitt Miller, an equity research analyst at Janus Capital. But he said he expected British economic growth to be zero or negative in the short and medium term, with a secondary impact over time as London’s financial services sector, which makes up about 10 percent of the economy, begins to move staff members and headquarters to Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin. A lot will depend on how the European Union chooses in the end to respond — whether it is “vindictive, friendly or frightened,” he said. Mr. Johnson and some in the Leave campaign argued that the other European nations valued trade with Britain so much that they would negotiate a special deal after Britain’s withdrawal to let Britain remain in the single market without having to guarantee freedom of movement and labor. That seems highly unlikely because it would only encourage other nations to pressure Brussels. But it may be that as the dust settles, some sort of association agreement with Britain could be negotiated, as Ms. Merkel suggested on Friday, though the price could be high. The economy aside, the United Kingdom itself now faces a threat to its survival. Scotland voted by 62 percent to 38 percent to remain in the European Union, and the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said Friday that it was “democratically unacceptable” for Scotland to be dragged out of it against its will. Another independence referendum, she said, “is now highly likely. ” Appearing before reporters in front of the flags of Scotland and the European Union, Ms. Sturgeon, who leads the dominant Scottish National Party, said, “It is a statement of the obvious that the option of a second referendum must be on the table, and it is on the table. ” The threat is real, but any new vote will not come soon, because it is only two years since the last one, which the Scottish nationalists lost, and the price of oil, on which the Scottish economy largely depends, has dropped. Northern Ireland, too, voted for Remain, although Protestants and Roman Catholics, as usual, were split. But the prospect of an open border with Ireland now becoming a hard border between the European Union and the United Kingdom will change matters and require checks of passports and goods, putting strain on the Good Friday peace agreement. In England, which voted for Leave, there are obvious strains, too. They can be found between the young who voted in large numbers for Remain and those over 45, who voted for Leave between the cities and the countryside between richer and poorer and between better educated and less educated. London itself, the glittering, expensive, multicultural and multinational global capital, with its many immigrants and liberal values, was isolated in a sea of those favoring Leave in some sense, the vote was against the wealthy elites who live in London and rule everyone else from there. Last, there is the chasm between political leaders, nearly all of whom backed Remain, and many of their voters, who rebuffed them. Bronwen Maddox, former editor of Prospect Magazine and the new director of the Institute for Government, a research institution, said in an email that “there is a growing intolerance for representative government, which is likely to have consequences for the ability of any government to run the country. ” The referendum, she suggested, might have been about Brussels, but it revealed and unleashed many other forces. Those forces, she said, “have ejected the U. K. from the European Union they may now wreak similar turmoil on the old political parties themselves. ” | 1 |
A group of American spring break revelers reportedly chanted “Build that wall!” during a family show on an evening cruise in Cancun, SF Gate reported. [The Daily Mail reports that the group was aboard the Captain Hook Pirate Ship dinner cruise with other revelers when they broke out into the chants, shocking other tourists on board. Anaximandro Amable Burga, a Peruvian tourist, was on board with his Mexican wife Suly when he witnessed the scene. “Today I was with Suly, my wife (who is a native of Mexico) watching an entertainment show off the coast of Cancun aboard a boat, and at the end of the show, a flock of Americans (maybe under the influence of alcohol, or maybe not) began to sing the infamous ‘Build that wall’ chant louder and louder,’” he wrote on Facebook. Mexican tourists aboard the ship reportedly complained about the chants, but the spring breakers did not stop. The Yucatan Times denounced the chanting in an editorial Friday saying it was an act of “xenophobia and discrimination against Mexicans within their own country. ” The paper also added that the “racist hymn” was “far from being an isolated incident” that has drawn the ire of tourism sector workers who say that the spring breakers’ actions were offensive and rude towards the Mexican people. This is not the only time chants of “build a wall” have been deemed racist by others. CNN called a video of children chanting “build a wall” at a Michigan middle school that went viral in December an example of “racism. ” Photo: file | 0 |
cemetery seemed a natural place to spend a few hours in the midst of a hectic urban tour. I passed under its imposing Gothic Revival gates and began heading uphill on Battle Avenue, named after a Revolutionary War battle that took place across its nearly grounds. The views of the surrounding area and New York Bay became impressive after just a few minutes of walking. After several days in Brooklyn, I was realizing not just how huge it was, but how flat — so even the smallest changes in altitude provided for some great panoramas. The highest natural point in Brooklyn, Battle Hill, stands (at a mere 220 feet) within the cemetery. Walking the lush, quiet grounds, perusing different headstones of the over people interred (including Samuel Morse, Boss Tweed and Basquiat) provided a sanctuary from the city. But it was also a promising stop in my quest to discover the essence of the borough today — the real Brooklyn. And I was doing it in a way that’s particularly improbable these days: on a budget. I initially feared that would be something of a fool’s errand. Brooklyn denizens are fiercely protective of it many who have left are highly critical of it. Everywhere is “the Brooklyn” of somewhere else any coverage is liable to instigate a think piece. The layers of scrutiny make the borough a palimpsest. Standing on a hill in Brooklyn’s landmark cemetery, with its peaceful environs and wonderful views, assuaged my anxiety and filled me with hope, as well as some historical context. “This is Brooklyn,” I imagined Boss Tweed’s voice in my ear. “It’s too damned big, so don’t even think about trying to cover everything. ” What I found over a long weekend was a borough that’s not merely deserving of exploration in its own right, but one that has also become downright touristworthy. Longstanding, inevitable comparisons to Manhattan have not only become unnecessary, they’re not really even relevant anymore: Brooklyn is a bona fide cultural capital, with art, performances, street fairs and museums. And the depth and quality of its food and drink options are impressive and rewarding. Best of all: Despite sharp increases in cost of living (the average price of a home in parts of Brooklyn Heights now dwarfs that of, say, one on the Upper West Side) and tasting menus that can run to over $300, deals can still be found that won’t bust the budget of even the most hawkish . I found that traveling cheaply is actually the best way to find the essence of Brooklyn — its street fairs, dive bars and supermarket food courts are what gave me a sense of how people in the borough actually live. While I spent quite a while in the neighborhoods close to Prospect Park, where I was based, as well as in and Bushwick, I cast my net wide. I went to an intense, uplifting morning service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle church downtown and walked through Atlantic Antic, a street fair that bills itself as the largest and oldest in Brooklyn. I went to a baseball game on Coney Island, channeled John Travolta during a visit to Lenny’s Pizza in Bensonhurst and visited Chilo’s, a great bar in with a taco truck permanently parked in the back patio area. I was particularly proud of the deal I scored on my lodging through Airbnb, which happened to be in Prospect Heights: $75 a night for a private room on the top floor of a gorgeous townhouse. The owners, who work in the visual arts, were generous and accommodating. The neighborhood itself, a small sliver wedged between Park Slope and Crown Heights, ended up being an ideal location. It’s well served by the subway system (2, 3, B, Q) and was a great launching pad for getting into surrounding neighborhoods. While I shared a bathroom with a visiting couple, perks like the outdoor roof deck made this a great bargain. It was late when I checked into my Airbnb, and I needed to fill my stomach with either food or alcohol, preferably both. I ended up at a fun Bushwick night spot, Bossa Nova Civic Club, avoiding the $10 cover charge by entering before midnight. Red light from a backlit bar and purple lasers cut through fog that was quickly filling the dance floor and bar area while house music pumped through the small space. I picked up a $5 can of Modelo and danced for a bit. The club, which had a prominent sign declaring “No racism sexism homophobia transphobia violence,” had a welcoming, diverse crowd. I zigzagged down to the corner of DeKalb and Broadway, where I spotted a big, empty lot where a colorful food truck was parked and a tarp under which a small group of people were animatedly debating politics. I picked up a $7 chicken arepa from the truck, Papelón con Limón, and joined the group at the moment the skies opened up and sheets of rain came pouring down. Everyone crowded in to avoid getting wet, and the conversation continued. “Look at the rest of the world,” said one man, an actor originally from Nigeria. “Margaret Thatcher. Angela Merkel. Women rulers are absolutely the bomb. ” A young woman from Brooklyn was eloquently denouncing Donald Trump. The space features musical acts from time to time the Pink Tacos, the band playing that night, were unfortunately scrambling to put away their gear because of the rain. Our group split up, and I hustled across the street to wait out the rain in Flowers for All Occasions, a bar and art space that just walks the line between eclectic and too precious. I sat in an empty seat and caught the attention of the bartender, a friendly young woman with sparkly eye makeup and bottle caps attached to her temples. I was still hungry, and asked if any food options were available. “Well,” she said, “I could make you, like, a Cheddar pretzel thing. ” I ordered that ($6) and a Narragansett tallboy ($4). The doughy pretzel and cheese cubes were forgettable, but the interesting vibe made up for it. Couples played board games, and one woman appeared to be painting on the floor the wiry, D. J. started blasting “Aquarius” from the cast recording of “Hair. ” I took that as my cue to leave I love that musical, but wasn’t sure how much irony I was prepared to deal with. Flowers for All Occasions was later derisively dismissed by James, a friend and Williamsburg resident, via an Instagram comment: “3rd wave hipster bar. ” Many discussions of Brooklyn, I learned, necessarily touch on complicated issues of gentrification and seniority: How long has this business been there? What was there before it? How long have you lived in the neighborhood? The answer — two years, 10 years, 40 years — can influence attitudes. Some residents hold newcomers — and their money — responsible for the expulsion of residents and businesses in given neighborhoods. But among the many Brooklyn residents I spoke to, there was no uniform answer as to whether gentrification was a positive or negative thing. I met up with Christian Lauro, 42, at a concert at Villain, a newer event space in Williamsburg. He moved to Brooklyn in 2000, and decided to leave when his portion of rent in a shared apartment jumped from $300 to $900. “All the good venues, everything good is gone,” Mr. Lauro said. He conceded, though, that the area is now much safer than it was. “Between here and Greenpoint used to just be garbage, piles of junk cars. You could crawl through them and sit by the water. And now you’ve got this. ” He trailed off, gesturing broadly toward Kent Avenue and the East River. On the other side there’s Ezra Aubain, a Bergen Beach resident who works at the Brooklyn Museum and grew up in East Flatbush. (“Rugby, actually,” she corrected, referring to the old name for the area.) She was overwhelmingly positive about the changes to the borough that had come about since she was a child, namely how much safer it’s become. Her neighborhood was “” she said. “You were scared to go outside. I went to Catholic school and would go to my white friends’ houses. They weren’t scared. You wouldn’t get hurt you wouldn’t hear gunshots in the morning. ” Ms. Aubain was unabashed: “I love gentrification,” she said. “If you grew up where I grew up — I used to pray for my mom. She used to work in the night to pay for Catholic school. ” Ms. Aubain’s mother, an immigrant from Belize, has enjoyed the increase in her property’s value: She now rents out her home. I met Ms. Aubain as I was wandering through the Brooklyn Museum. The stunning 1895 building houses around 1. 5 million pieces the museum, New York City’s third largest, is certainly worth the admission fee. Or, I should say, is worth what the museum suggests you pay, $16 — technically, visitors may pay what they wish. I went to a great exhibit on sports photography, “Who Shot Sports,” as well as a exhibit of beautiful Williamsburg housing project murals of the 1930s. If you’re going to the museum, it’s worth your time to visit the adjacent botanic garden as well (and maybe stop at the Mister Softee truck parked on Washington Avenue on your way). A combo ticket to the museum and garden is $23 — a $5 saving over purchasing them separately. I met up with a friend and her husband and young son. The garden is great for children, by the way — a whole section has toys, games and activities for younger visitors, even a big wooden xylophone for them to play. An hour or two later, we ended up sitting in Brooklyn Bridge Park at the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival — we joked that, of all the Brooklyn things to stumble upon, a music festival was one of the most . We had stocked up for a picnic at Sahadi’s, a fantastic, sprawling store that sells all sorts of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean groceries and prepared foods. The Sahadi family, originally from Lebanon, opened their Atlantic Avenue shop in 1948. The selection of nuts, olives and cheeses is enough to wow even the most particular food snob. I bought a container of hummus, some spanakopita, grape leaves, freshly baked pita chips, and tangy flatbread covered in thyme and sumac, all for about $20. Walking into the park, we heard music and followed it to the festival grounds, a grassy area in the shadow of a temporary Martin Creed sculpture that reads “Understanding” in letters so red and intimidating that it seems more of an imperative than a suggestion. We sat on the grass, enjoying the festival as well as our food. The American music festival (which was free) was something we lucked upon. Some of Brooklyn’s other cultural offerings have a price, but are well worth it. I took a friend to “Remains,” a dance performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, known as BAM. The show was excellent and the $24 seats were reasonable. A word of caution, though: When tickets say “obstructed view” at BAM, they’re not kidding. There was a big pillar directly in my line of vision. (Fortunately, I was able to shift over to a better seat.) The concert I attended at Villain in Williamsburg, which had the spacey Morgan Delt as headliner, cost $10. The acoustics in the cavernous space weren’t great, but at least the drinks were moderately priced: A beer and shot cost me an additional $10. The Villain event was just one of dozens that night in Brooklyn the borough is so busy it can be tough to keep track. The Skint and Nonsense NYC are good sites that try to organize it all. Both have mailing lists and cover everything from bands to gallery openings to fashion shows, even food. I didn’t leave my meals up to a mailing list, though. Instead, I put my trust in a friend from college, Yng, who lives in Carroll Gardens with her family. I met up with them, and we headed down to Sunset Park to Fei Long Market on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 64th Street. The grocery store within was amazing — row after row of Asian dry goods and conventional produce, as well as more items like dragonfruit and durian. The fresh seafood selection was impressive, as well: huge containers of geoduck, clams, crab, sea cucumber and a wide variety of fish. The reason Yng brought me there in the first place, however, wasn’t the groceries. It was for the food court within the market. There is a large, room with roughly a dozen restaurants serving hot food. An order of six juicy, soup dumplings from Shanghai Xiao Long Bao cost $4. 75 a big bowl of noodles in salty black bean paste with vegetables was another $5. “Isn’t this place amazing,” Yng, who is asked me. “It’s just like China. ” She was referring to the good food, of course, but also to the, shall we say, lack of niceties: The bathrooms didn’t have toilet paper, and the only way to differentiate the men’s from the women’s room was if you could read the Chinese symbols on the door. The search for the “real” Brooklyn goes far beyond its art and food, however — being a Brooklynite, I learned, means being active. In the summer, there is free kayaking every Saturday and Thursday between Piers 1 and 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. (I made my voyage before the summer season ended.) It’s first come first served and an easy process: Just pick out a life vest, take off your shoes and hop into a kayak (there are and vessels). It took a little getting used to, but once I had the hang of it, the 20 minutes positively flew by. The water between the two piers is calm and tranquil, and the views of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge are some of the best you’ll find. It’s biking, though, that really defines Brooklyn. I checked out Spinlister, a bike share site that connects you with local bike owners for rentals. Many listings offer gear like helmet and lock, which is a plus. I was looking for something immediate, though, so I ended up going to one of the many stations in Brooklyn and renting one of the famous Citi Bikes by Fort Greene Park. I know, I know: very third wave. Some Citi Bike lessons I learned: Give the bike a good for damage before you rent (it seemed as if half the bikes at my station had their rear reflectors pried off) and check the tire pressure. A day’s rental is $12 plus tax — the trick, though, is that you can ride for only 30 minutes at a time. If you keep the bike out for more than half an hour, you are charged $4 for each additional 15 minutes. These are meant to be commuter bikes, not transportation. I had decided to do a meandering ride between Fort Greene and Red Hook, winding up through Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) before going through Brooklyn Bridge Park and all the way to the docks by Ikea (the ferry out back, which runs to Wall Street, is free on weekends). I got the ride route from the Spinlister site, incidentally, which has a useful (if irregularly updated) blog. I would not have been able to do the entire ride in 30 minutes at a leisurely pace, so I took my time and checked into a Citi Bike station every so often, then checked it out again, ensuring I wouldn’t be charged extra. The result was a fantastic . It was interesting noting the changes in character from neighborhood to neighborhood, from outrageously expensive Dumbo to the harder, more industrial areas of Red Hook. I capped off the ride with a drink at the beloved Fort Defiance bar, where I ended up closing down the place. As it frequently happens, the more I saw and learned of Brooklyn, the more I wanted to see and learn. When I went to cemetery, I was amazed to find out it had been the site of a major Revolutionary War battle — the first after America declared independence on July 4, 1776. I was told by a woman handing out maps at the entrance to look for a black statue of Minerva on Battle Hill, that highest of Brooklyn altitudes. If I looked carefully, I’d be treated to an extraordinary sight: Minerva was waving directly at the Statue of Liberty, far across the bay. After a to climb, I found Minerva on the hill, looking out over the water. I turned and followed her line of vision, looking out for the Statue of Liberty, but all I could see was a large, relatively new condo development. Then I saw her. She was nearly obscured behind someone’s rooftop deck chair and umbrella. For about 10 seconds, I was upset at the existence of this condo: How dare they? But Lady Liberty seemed not to care: She had been there, and would continue to be there. This condo was now part of the landscape, and there was little anyone could do about it. Later I found out that the condo was originally planned to be much higher, completely blocking the view. The developers, it turned out, yielded to protests and compromised. And so this view, for better or worse, was what change looked like. Airbnb rentals near where I stayed, just north of Prospect Park, average roughly $100 a night for a private room. Homestay, another site, has fewer options but bills itself as providing a host family, meaning that all stays will be with another person or family. $50 to $150 per night. The New York Moore hostel, in a Williamsburg loft, offers and dorm rooms, as well as private rooms with baths. Most visitors can expect to pay $40 to $60 per night, but pricing is annoyingly dynamic depending on demand (the highest rate I’ve seen was $104, lowest was $33). Traditional hotels aren’t really Brooklyn’s strong suit, but I had a decent experience at the Red Lion Inn Suites, close to Boerum Hill in Gowanus. I paid $115 per night for my standard room, and I was satisfied. | 1 |
Viacom is going it alone. The troubled media company named Robert M. Bakish as its new chief executive on Monday just hours after it received marching orders to stop exploring a combination with CBS. In a letter to the CBS and Viacom boards, Shari Redstone and her father, Sumner Redstone, who built the $40 billion media empire, said the two companies should continue on independent paths “based on our assessment of the strengths, progress, and future prospects of both companies. ” It was a sharp reversal to their blunt and public position three months ago, when the Redstones all but demanded that the companies reunite. But Ms. Redstone’s plan depended on winning over Leslie Moonves, the highly regarded chairman and chief executive of CBS Corporation, whom she had wanted to run the combined entity. And Mr. Moonves had expressed doubt about how such a deal would benefit both Viacom, which has struggled, and CBS, which has prospered, long before the Redstones proposed the merger in September. For Mr. Moonves, not only did the valuation of the deal have to be right, but he also sought a level of strategic and operational freedom over the combined companies, according to three people briefed on the discussions who requested anonymity because the talks were private. Over the past three months, special board committees at each company worked with advisers to explore the potential combination, although the two sides never reached the point of discussing specific pricing and other deal terms, according to one of the people briefed on the discussion. Ultimately, the two sides could not agree on valuation, especially as the Viacom side grew increasingly optimistic about the company’s future under the leadership of Mr. Bakish. In the past month, since Mr. Bakish stepped into the role as interim chief, he impressed Viacom directors with his vision to revive its struggling television and film businesses. Mr. Bakish, who started at Viacom in 1997, previously led the company’s international group and was considered a strong contender to assume the position permanently should Viacom remain independent. An engineer by training, Mr. Bakish is respected across the company for delivering strong results at his unit even as the rest of Viacom faltered. Mr. Bakish, 52, has outlined his strategy in broad strokes — reinvigorating MTV, Comedy Central and other Viacom TV networks for the digital age, returning Paramount Pictures to growth, expanding the company’s international footprint — but has yet to reveal specific details. He is in the midst of working with executives and employees to create detailed and plans for the company. The challenges are daunting. In the latest fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the company reported a 25 percent plunge in profits and a 6 percent drop in revenues. Ms. Redstone, the vice chairwoman of Viacom’s board, said in a statement that she was “excited by the strategy. ” “While there is much work to do,” she continued, “I firmly believe that Viacom has a bright future, and that confidence is underpinned by senior management’s commitment to innovation and a more coordinated, global approach to managing our brands. ” The developments continue the year for the entertainment empire controlled by Ms. Redstone and her father, Sumner, who is 93 and in poor health. The disruption included court battles in three states, the ousting of Viacom’s chief executive and now a complete turnaround on the call to combine CBS and Viacom. At Viacom, that drama is likely to continue as new management tries to reverse the company’s declining fortunes. CBS is expected to return to its steady position of strength. “This morning’s announcement marks a formal breaking up for now moreover, we do not envision a different suitor for Viacom,” Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Nomura, said. The Redstone family controls about 80 percent of the voting stock in CBS and Viacom through National Amusements, the private company started by Mr. Redstone’s father. Merging CBS and Viacom under Mr. Moonves previously was considered to have provided a quick solution to finding new leadership for Viacom. Earlier this year, Philippe P. Dauman was ousted as chief executive of Viacom. Thomas Dooley, the interim chief executive, then left in when Mr. Bakish assumed the position. Ms. Redstone, who was a driving force behind the removal of Mr. Dauman, continued to publicly advocate the deal. At The New York Times’s DealBook conference in New York last month, she said the corporate merger was more important than ever before, because entertainment companies that create content needed to get bigger in order to increase their bargaining power against distributors like Comcast and ATT. “Scale matters because it is going to give us leverage,” Ms. Redstone said at the conference, “and we are going to need leverage with some partners. ” She did note, however, that it would be possible for the two companies to remain independent. “They are two strong companies, and they both will survive. ” In Monday’s letter to the CBS and Viacom boards, the Redstones said they had concluded that this was “not the right time to merge the companies. ’’ Shares in Viacom’s declined about 9 percent on Monday, while shares in CBS were about flat. Also on Monday, court documents filed by an of Mr. Redstone’s raised new questions about his mental competence as well as corporate governance issues that have plagued the companies for more than a year. In October, Mr. Redstone sued two over civil claims including elder abuse, seeking about $150 million that his lawyers said he was tricked into giving the two women. Sydney Holland, the former girlfriend, said in the court filing that Mr. Redstone’s gift to her in May 2014 came at the same time that Mr. Redstone remained “very active in the business activities of Viacom and CBS. ” In the document, Ms. Holland states that Mr. Redstone gave several other women tens of millions of dollars in exchange for sexual favors, including a Paramount employee. Robert N. Klieger, a lawyer for Mr. Redstone, called the assertions “a work of fiction punctuated by threats of extortion and an overwhelming stench of greed. ” | 1 |
Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars took to Twitter Tuesday to bash Republican Karen Handel and throw their support behind her Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, as voters head to the polls for Georgia’s Sixth District special election. [Comedian Sarah Silverman posted a plea for the voters of the suburban Georgia district to vote for Ossoff, linking to an earlier tweet in which she wrote the state’s voters should “show Handel where she can stuff her bigotry. ” #VoteOssoff #VoteYourOssoff https: . — Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) June 20, 2017, GEORGIA show Handel where she can stuff her bigotry #VoteOssoff ! !!! https: . — Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) June 16, 2017, Actress Debra Messing said Georgia voters “deserve better” than Handel, and urged voters to save the district “from this woman. ” #GA06 LISTEN TO THIS. You deserve better. #VoteYourOssoff @ossoff https: . — Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 20, 2017, 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥oh John Ossoff PLEASE save #GA06 from this woman. #VoteYourOssoff #VOTE https: . — Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 19, 2017, An April election between Handel and Ossoff, a documentary politician, forced Tuesday’s special runoff election. Ossoff had received a flood of celebrity support and cash for his campaign, which was seen as a bid to steal a seat by former Rep. Tom Price ( ) now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Actress Alyssa Milano launched a campaign encouraging people to tweet photos of themselves on voting day. #flipthe5th TOO! SEND ME YOUR PICTURES WITH YOUR ”I voted” STICKER AND I WILL RT THEM. We love you @Archie4Congress! https: . — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 20, 2017, The Who’s The Boss and Charmed star is a vocal proponent of the Democratic candidate and personally drove voters to polling sites for Ossoff during the April election. A slew of stars also used their social media platforms to help encourage voters to pull the lever for Ossoff. Ga Voters, get out there VOTE OSSOFF!! The Future is now, make a Change!! You’re our First Step on the Road to Recovery! !! — Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) June 20, 2017, An America for all of us. #vote #FlipThe6th @ossoff https: . — Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) June 20, 2017, Hey Georgia! Today is the day, grab a friend and get out and #flipthe6th and #VoteYourOssoff! https: . — kerry washington (@kerrywashington) June 20, 2017, People of Georgia: Today you have the chance to wipe this smirk off the Pig In Chief’s face. #VoteYourOssoff #FlipTheSixth pic. twitter. — Danny Zuker (@DannyZuker) June 20, 2017, It starts today. Taking back the House. It starts in #GA06 with Jon @Ossoff#VoteYourOssoff Every fight. Every race. Every state. pic. twitter. — Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) June 20, 2017, #Ossoff is a referendum on your illegitimate failing presidency. #SendAMessage#FlipThe6th#VoteYourOssoff#GA06#TrumpRussiaLies.. 👇👇👇👇 https: . — Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) June 20, 2017, Like Elizabeth Warren, I’m for Ossoff. I hope he wins. I don’t want to make the perfect the enemy of the good. — Alex Gibney (@alexgibneyfilm) June 20, 2017, Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0 |
Comey Reopens Hillary Email Server Investigation October 28, 2016 Comey Reopens Hillary Email Server Investigation
(WASHINGTON) The head of the FBI said on Friday the agency would investigate additional emails that have surfaced related to Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server to determine whether they contain classified information, adding that it is unclear how significant the new materials may be.
In a letter to key Republicans committee chairmen in the House of Representatives, FBI Director Comey said that he "cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work."
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign was hit on Friday by the FBI's reopening of its investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state, eroding a political boost from a strong U.S. economic report.
With just 11 days to go before the Nov. 8 election, FBI Director James Comey said in a letter to several congressional Republicans that the agency had learned of the existence of emails that appeared to be pertinent to its investigation.
However, he said the FBI did not know if the emails were significant and did not provide a time frame for the probe.
Republican Donald Trump's campaign reacted with glee. His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said on Twitter that "a great day in our campaign just got even better."
The resurrection of the email issue, which has dogged Clinton's campaign from the start, dimmed a day that had featured good news for her effort to win the White House.
The Commerce Department reported that the economy grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter, its fastest pace in two years and higher than the expected 2.6 percent, thanks to a surge in exports and a rebound in investment.
The report had bolstered Clinton, who has positioned herself as the best candidate to continue years of economic expansion under Democratic President Barack Obama.
More Americans say jobs and the economy are their No. 1 priority when they decide who to vote for than any other issue.
Trump argues that as a successful businessman and political outsider, he is the best person to take a new approach to rebuilding an economy that has sent too many jobs overseas and left many Americans struggling to find decent jobs.
His campaign said the figures are still not good enough.
"America can do better than the modest growth of 2.9 percent recorded for the 3rd quarter and the dismal growth of 1.5 percent for the past year," Dan Kowalski, Trump's deputy policy director, said in a statement.
While many voters do not follow economic indicators closely, outside experts said the release was still a good one for Clinton. She is seeking to solidify her lead in opinion polls as the Democratic Party works to win as many seats as possible in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, where Republicans now control majorities.
Clinton has also been looking to broaden the electoral map. Her campaign said on Friday that she would campaign in Arizona next week.
"Today's release will likely improve the perception of economic conditions in the U.S. and slightly increase the odds of a Democratic president remaining in the White House," said Brian Schaitkin, senior economist at the Conference Board.
Clinton's camp said Friday's report showed "real progress" since Obama took office in 2009, when the country was struggling to emerge from economic recession.
"With more than 15 million jobs created since early 2010 and real median incomes growing more than 5 percent last year, it's clear we've made real progress coming back from the crisis," Clinton senior policy advisor Jacob Leibenluft said in a statement.
But he added that there is still more that can be done.
Clinton was campaigning on Friday in Iowa, where polls show she and Trump running neck-and-neck, and in Michigan, a traditionally Democratic state hit hard by the movement offshore of many formerly well-paying American manufacturing jobs.
Trump was holding rallies in Iowa as well as in another closely contested swing state, New Hampshire, and in Maine, where his campaign sees a chance to grab one of four electoral votes.
| 1 |
Texas insurer drops push to let homeowners forgo right to sue Texas Tribune. Margarita:
Not many (probably) remember that the largely successful effort to gut tort laws around the country started in mid-80s by insurance companies, after they lost money in the early 1980s real estate boom/bust. Not satisfied with the current tepid tort laws, they are at it again.
And Adam Levitin via e-mail:
I love that the arbitration is getting priced. This is a great example of what I’ve tried to teach in contracts for years: the law only looks at the one-off contract. But the insurer doesn’t give a shit about the individual contract. It’s all actuarial tables. And that creates a total mismatch. The consumer is a one time player, while the insurer is a repeat player. The consumer will rationally value the arbitration clause at basically nothing (there’s an optimism bias too–no one gets married thinking that they’re going to get divorced), because the odds of it being important are so low and there’s only one contract. But because the insurer is doing multiple contracts, even low odds matter. As a result consumers will never properly price for arbitration clauses and the like.
Notice, btw, that the CFPB cannot stop this because it doesn’t have authority over home insurance. That’s all state level regulation.
Samsung recalls 2.8 million washing machines in U.S. over injury risk Reuters. EM:
Hey, look at the bright side – at least the washers aren’t bursting into flame! But, imagine a future where most new washers are connected to the Interwebs – were hackers to trigger such an excessive-vibration condition, it would be a rather eerie consumer-product analog of the US/Israeli Stuxnet hack of the Iranian nuclear-program centrifuges.
The Descent of the Left Press: From IF Stone to The Nation Counterpunch
Class Warfare
Antidote du jour. One of National Geographic’s nature photographs of the year , this one by Zhayynn James .
Four zebras stand in the Masai Mara National Preserve in Kenya at the end of the day as the sun seeps through the clouds, lighting the sky a vibrant orange. See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here . 0 0 0 0 0 0 This entry was posted in Links on | 0 |
Speaker Ryan told OppCast that the Republican Obamacare replacement plan will parallel the Empowering Patients First Act introduced by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. [Speaker Ryan said, “We’re basically putting into law the Price plan as our replace plan. It’s very similar to the bill that Tom Price has worked on for so many years, that many conservatives last year. ” Secretary Price served as the House Budget chairman in Congress and sponsored his bill every congressional term since the Affordable Care Act became law. Speaker Ryan explained that despite concerns about the political will to repeal Obamacare, Congress progresses toward repealing Obamacare. He said, “We’re moving to this next right now in Congress. We’re on track. We’re on our schedule. Our plan was always this spring to take on the repeal and replace of Obamacare, so we haven’t changed a thing. I notice there’s a lot of white noise in the press on this, but we’re as committed as ever before. ” The Empower Patients First Act mirrors many of the details of the Ryan plan leaked in a bill previously reported on last month. The bill provides refundable tax credits for health insurance coverage and health insurance accounts (HSA) contributions. The Department of Health and Human Services would provide state “innovation grants” that would create pools for people with conditions. The OppCast interview provides the first official details of Obamacare’s replacement plan. Congressional staffers denied Senator Rand Paul ( ) from viewing the Obamacare secret draft in the Capitol building. Paul submitted his bill to replace Obamacare. Senator Paul and Congressmen Mark Meadows ( ) and Jim Jordan ( ) pledged to oppose any legislation that does not fully repeal Obamacare. The Ryan plan does not fully repeal Obamacare. Congressman Mark Meadows told Breitbart News about his concerns about the Ryan plan. He explained, “We are concerned about a new federal plan that will only increase premiums and lead to higher prices. We are not going to fix health care by replacing Obamacare with another plan that won’t work. ” | 0 |
MASHIKI, Japan — The death toll from two powerful earthquakes and a series of aftershocks on the Japanese island of Kyushu reached 41 on Saturday, the authorities said, as rescue workers searched for survivors under collapsed buildings and mountains of earth displaced by landslides. The largest of the earthquakes struck the southwestern island early Saturday with a magnitude of 7. 0, according to the United States Geological Survey, making it even more powerful than a 6. quake on Thursday night. The Japan Meteorological Agency said its measurements had registered the new quake at a magnitude of 7. 3. Saturday’s quake, which occurred just before 1:30 a. m. toppled houses and apartment buildings, buckled roads and caused numerous landslides. Hundreds of aftershocks shook the area, more than 100 of them strong enough to damage buildings, the Meteorological Agency reported. “My house survived the first quake, but the second one was too strong,” said Masafumi Uchimura, 80, a retired water maintenance worker in the town of Mashiki, in Kumamoto Prefecture, the epicenter of the two large quakes. “Everything in town is wrecked, but we have to rebuild. ” Mr. Uchimura’s wooden home, which he shared with his wife, daughter and two grandsons, leaned at a precarious angle, its walls and beams splintered, its furnishings upturned in a jumble inside. Mr. Uchimura said his older brother, who lived nearby, was killed in Saturday’s quake. Other homes in Mashiki collapsed. Amid the aftershocks, many people said they had spent several nights camped in their cars, deeming them safer than houses or even the community centers that served as temporary shelters. The police said 32 deaths were confirmed in Kumamoto Prefecture Saturday as a result of the quake and the aftershocks, adding to nine deaths on Thursday. Many of those killed were older people some were trapped under collapsed buildings, and several died in fires and landslides in the mountainous region. About 2, 000 people were treated for injuries, the authorities said. Tens of thousands left their homes for school gymnasiums, community centers and other temporary shelter. Many homes had no water or power on Sunday morning. Some people prepared to spend the night in their cars. TV footage showed dark smoke rising from Mount Aso, a volcano about 20 miles east of the town of Mashiki. Earthquakes and volcanic activity are closely associated, but the authorities said the eruption at Mount Aso, the biggest active volcano in Japan, was minor and did not pose an immediate threat. Sections of a stone wall, centuries old, around Kumamoto Castle collapsed into the moat on Saturday morning. The castle had already sustained damage on Thursday. Several buildings at Aso Shrine, an ancient Shinto site on the north slope of Mount Aso that is considered a national treasure, also collapsed. The Meteorological Agency classified the quake that set the disaster in motion on Thursday as a “foreshock” of the even larger one Saturday. It warned that strong quakes could continue for days until the fault line under the area settled. Heavy rain fell Saturday night, increasing the landslide risk, but the storm had cleared by Sunday morning. In the village of east of Mashiki, landslides tore the moorings from a suspension bridge, causing it to plunge into a valley, and buried more than a dozen homes, NHK, the national public broadcaster, said. Helicopters rescued a number of injured residents who could not be reached by road.. Two students in a university agricultural program died after a dorm in the town collapsed, NHK said. Eight people in remained missing on Sunday. The government dispatched 25, 000 personnel from the Forces, as the Japanese military is known, as well as units from police and fire departments around the country, to help with rescue efforts. The earthquakes since Thursday have been concentrated along a cluster of fault lines that bisect the island of Kyushu from southwest to northeast. The island, somewhat larger than the state of Maryland, is home to 13 million people, though most of it is rural and sparsely populated. The quake on Saturday was the strongest to strike Japan since a 9. offshore earthquake in 2011, which unleashed a tsunami that killed 18, 000 people in the country’s northeast and set off meltdowns at a nuclear plant in Fukushima. | 1 |
CNN Chris Cillizza urged readers Friday to “stop talking” about disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, arguing that “there’s literally no reason to write or talk about [him] anymore. ”[“Can we now stop talking about Anthony Weiner? Like, forever?” says the headline of Cillizza’s piece. Weiner pled guilty Friday to a charge of sending obscene material to a minor. The girl alleged that he sent her nude photos, discussed his “rape fantasies,” and encouraged her to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Weiner will have to register as a sex offender and could face jail time. On the same day, his wife and top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin reportedly filed for divorce. The plea appears to mark the end of the saga commonly known as “Weinergate,” which began in 2011 when the late Andrew Breitbart reported that Weiner — then a New York congressman — had been sending explicit pictures of himself to women online. Breitbart was mocked and derided by mainstream media commentators, some of whom initially called on outlets to ignore his reporting. Weiner’s “sexting” led to his resignation from Congress and later torpedoed a 2013 New York mayoral comeback run when similar messages emerged. In 2016 yet more images emerged, as well as the allegation he had sent messages to the minor. The FBI opened a probe into Weiner’s behavior and in the course of that investigation discovered emails on his laptop sent to Weiner by Abedin that originated from Hillary Clinton’s private email server. This, in turn, led Director James Comey to announce in a letter that the agency was revisiting the probe into Clinton’s homebrew server on Oct. 28, throwing her presidential campaign into turmoil. Clinton has dubiously blamed that letter, along with alleged Russian interference, for her election defeat. If one believes Clinton’s assertion, it makes the “Weinergate” one of the most important political scandals in modern history. Yet, Cillizza says, on the same day Weiner pled guilty, that it is time for everyone to move on and never talk about the disgraced Democrat again. Cillizza’s argument centers on the claim that Weiner has ultimately always sought attention. Here’s the thing: We know that Weiner craves attention — even the negative kind. What else would explain his decision to allow documentary cameras into his trainwreck mayoral campaign? Cillizza says it’s time to refuse him that attention. Now that Weiner is “irrelevant politically,” it’s time to stop. Let’s not get back on that ride. No matter what he says or how much remorse he expresses, it’s clear that attention fuels Weiner. It’s his lifeblood. So let’s not give it to him. The legal proceedings are now closed. Weiner is totally irrelevant politically. His wife, who remains a major player in Hillary Clinton’s orbit, has filed for divorce, according to CNN’s Dan Merica. There’s literally no reason to write or talk about Anthony Weiner anymore. It isn’t the first time Cillizza has sought to end discussion on a difficult political subject for Democrats. Writing for The Washington Post in 2016, Cillizza wrote a piece, “Can we just stop talking about Hillary Clinton’s health now?” which complained about “wacky theories that emerge out of the fever swamps on the very fringe of the conservative movement. ” Less than a week later, at a Sept. 11 memorial, Clinton collapsed and was pictured being dragged into a van by aides. The same day, Cillizza wrote a new hot take: “Hillary Clinton’s health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign. ” Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY | 0 |
protesters in Venezuela’s Barinas state burned down the childhood home of late dictator Hugo Chávez on Monday, as well as the old home of his grandmother, and attacked a number of government buildings with Molotov cocktails. [The attacks appeared to be a reaction to the news that soldiers had killed yet another young man peacefully protesting in Venezuela, bringing the death toll during this latest round of protests up to 62. Protesters appear increasingly frustrated with the socialist opposition’s tactic of staging an march per day calling for presidential elections, which would be run by socialist government officials and have little chance of being free and fair. The Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported that multiple photos began surfacing on social media of the burned down home on Monday evening. Social media users noted that the fire began shortly after the news that the military had killed Yorman Alí Bervecia Cabeza for protesting against socialism. The Associated Press later confirmed that protesters had burned down the Chávez home with opposition legislator Pedro Luis Castillo, who represents Barinas. Queman casa Materna de Chavez en Barinas Enardecidos tras el asesinato de Yorman Bervecia. pic. twitter. — Daniel García (@DanielInformaVE) May 22, 2017, Hoy quemaron la casa natal de Chavez, porque para quemar la de @NicolasMaduro habría que invadir Colombia #FueraMaduro #dictadura pic. twitter. — Broderick Zerpa (@Beisbologo) May 23, 2017, The Spanish newspaper ABC, which has been on the forefront of reporting on the corruption of both the Chávez regime and that of successor Nicolás Maduro, reported that protesters also burned down the home of Chávez’s grandmother and attacked the local headquarters of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) the National Electoral Council (CNE) the regional headquarters of the Secretariat of Education, and the Institute of Housing. The newspaper adds that protesters looted fifty businesses, including multiple bakeries and areperas, restaurants that specialize in the Venezuelan corn arepas. While Chávez’s socialist policies had already collapsed the Venezuelan economy, Maduro’s imposition of strict price controls, ration cards, and government requirements on bakeries have left much of the nation without food. An estimated 15 percent of Venezuelans subsist off of industrial garbage, while three out of four Venezuelans lost an average of 19 pounds in 2016 due to food shortages, Protesters also attacked military convoys and set armored vehicles on fire. Así quedó la tanqueta en #Barinas que reprimió a los ciudadanos #22May #Venezuela (También quemaron sedes del PSUV, CNE, casa de Chávez) pic. twitter. — Juan Zubillaga (@jgzubillaga) May 22, 2017, ABC adds that protesters also burned down yet another statue of Chávez, noting that at least four statues have been taken down or burned since this latest wave of protests began. The Spanish newspaper ABC notes that the socialist opposition group Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) appeared to distance itself from these incidents, as it had “only organized for Monday a protest for health, congregating medical and nursing professionals in Caracas and other cities to protest the sanitary crisis plaguing the country. ” The MUD is a coalition of parties that currently has the majority in the National Assembly. They are calling for the release of political prisoners, free and fair elections, and an end to the use of the military to kill peaceful protesters. The MUD spearheaded an attempt at dialogue with the government throughout 2016 that largely failed and served to diminish the intensity of opposition against Maduro, which has led to growing unpopularity among opponents of the government, Incidents like the destruction of the Chávez statue in Barinas have occurred nationwide, the most recent before this one being in Zulia state, with another statue going down in Carabobo, near Caracas. In westernmost state Táchira, which has been in open revolt for at least three years, protesters beheaded a statue of Chávez in 2014. The socialists have littered Venezuela with such statues, as well as murals and “street art” meant to applaud Chávez and his work imposing the dysfunctional socialist system on the country. Among the most popular “street art” images is a of Chávez’s eyes, meant to send the message that the late dictator is still spying on all Venezuelans from beyond the grave. The Chávez family also holds great influence in the country still. The late dictator’s brother Adán runs the Institute of Housing, which the protesters attacked, and his daughter María Gabriela Chávez is believed to be the nation’s wealthiest woman. The latest string of protests, which began 53 days ago in response to the Supreme Court attempting to annul the National Assembly and install itself as the nation’s legislative body, has left 62 people dead so far. Maduro has allowed the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) to use violence against unarmed protesters to an outrageous degree, including the use of armored tanks to run protesters over, shoot them to death, or asphyxiate them with tear gas. | 1 |
Paul Joseph Watson Political science professor Helmut Norpoth, who has accurately called the results of the last five presidential elections, still asserts that Donald Trump has an 87% chance of defeating Hillary Clinton despite Clinton being ahead in the polls. Norpoth’s model has correctly predicted the outcome of the popular vote for every election since 1996, including the 2000 race where Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush took the presidency. “It usually turns out that the candidate who does better in his party’s primary beats the other guy who does less well,” said Norpoth, adding that Trump’s margin of victory in New Hampshire and South Carolina compared to Clinton (who lost in New Hampshire) was crucial to his model. The other factor is the “swing of the pendulum,” which makes it far more likely for a change of government if one party has been in power for two terms. Norpoth said he | 0 |
Wednesday, 26 October 2016 Mr. Carter's therapy scheduled for the hanger bay of undisclosed aircraft carrier
Spoof Investigations has just learned that the requirement US veterans pay back bonuses, given by mistake, has been suspended by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.
Mr. Carter has also been ordered into "therapy" by CIC Mr. Obama due to this problem with the veterans, which has been going on for years, plus other matters.
Therapy will take place inside the hanger bay of an undisclosed aircraft carrier, where a special section next to the aircraft and other equipment will be roped off and equipped with a couch.
Hanger bay ops will proceed at the same time.
The California National Guard have been particularly hard hit in this veterans fiasco, lured to bonuses ten years ago when military enrollments were declining.
Many were then found ineligible--a mistake by the military, not the veterans--and forced to pay back bonuses they had accepted, often crippling their household finances.
It took news coverage for the government to finally act in the form of Mr. Carter's order to suspend these re-payments. Congress has ignored the problem for years.
Veterans who had risked their lives received letters stating they would face "debt collection action" if they did not re-pay.
How this problem has affected mental health amongst veterans is now under study.
Mr. Carter is reported already troubled with the "confusion" of Syria and now Mosul, as to which group of allies he is supposed to be coordinating.
Both battle scenes, specifically in Aleppo and Mosul, are currently causing "dizziness" in Secretary Carter at this time, an ongoing problem.
"I have trouble standing up straight," he said yesterday.
This additional veterans' problem, finally sinking in to Mr. Carter and the Military Establishment, with the news of this veterans abuse spreading, was "the last straw" in his confusion-dizziness problem.
A spokesperson for Mr. Carter stated that what with al qaeda, al nusra, ISIS, and other militant groups fighting Assad and supporting the US position, his confusion over Syria keeps growing.
Then there's Turkey involved with a lot of bitterness over the Kurds who are effectively fighting ISIS but wanting their own territory in northern Syria.
And generally the problems in the middle east not only involve the US but Russia, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, Israel and who knows who else.
To throw this veterans abuse on top of the overall chaos of US foreign policy has nearly overwhelmed the Secretary.
Accordingly, a session in the bowels of an aircraft carrier, with top psychiatrists smoothing the way on top of the noises of aircraft and machinery screaming here and there, will be just the ticket to put the Secretary back to his right mind.
He could also be bunked just below the flight deck if he needs to stay on a day or so as part of his treatment. Make joseph k winter's | 0 |
Dispatches from Eric Zuesse This piece is crossposted at strategic-culture.org The power above the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the U.S. Attorney General, and, above that person, the U.S. President. That’s whom the FBI actually serves — not the U.S. public. This is the reason why the FBI is having such internal tensions and dissensions over the investigation of Hillary Clinton: Not only is she the current President’s ardently preferred and designated successor — and overwhelmingly supported also by America’s artistocracy and endorsed by the aristocracy’s press — but the top leadership of the FBI have terms-in-office that (unlike, for example, the term of the U.S. Attorney General) do not end with the installation of the next President; and these people will therefore be serving, quite possibly, the very same person whom they are now ‘investigating’. This is the reason why James Comey, the FBI’s Director, let Clinton totally off the hook on July 5th, when he declined to present the case to a grand jury: he and the rest of the FBI’s top management violated three basic principles of trying white-collar-crime cases when a prosecutor is serious about wanting to prosecute and obtain a conviction against a person — he (and they) wanted to keep their jobs, not be fighting their boss and their likely future boss. Hillary: For all intents and purposes, above the law. If America were an authentic democracy, there would be a way for the FBI to serve the public even when the U.S. President doesn’t want it to. According to the only scientific study that has ever been done of the matter, the U.S. federal government is a dictatorship not a democracy. This was reluctantly reported by the researchers, whose own careers are dependent upon the aristocracy which they were finding actually controls that government. They found that the U.S., at the federal level, is not a democracy but an “oligarchy,” by which the researchers were referring to an “economic elite,” America’s billionaires and centi-millionaires who control America’s international corporations and the ‘charities’ (such as think tanks) that are dependent upon them — including many that directly affect U.S. politics, such as the think tanks or other way-stations for former U.S. government employees to become hired by private firms. The authors of the only empirical scientific research-study that has been done of whether the United States is a democracy , or instead a dictatorship, excluded the very term “aristocracy” (or “collective dictatorship” such as an “economic elite” is if that “elite” actually is in control of the given nation’s government) from their article. They did this so as for the meaning not to be clear to the U.S. public. In any country in the modern world where an aristocracy exists, aristocrats nowadays try to hide their power, not (like in former eras) display their power by crowns and other public symbols of ‘the nobility’. The closest the study’s authors came to using that term, “aristocracy,” was their only sentence that employed the pejoritave term for an aristocracy, “oligarchy.” That obscure lone sentence was: “Jeffrey Winters has posited a comparative theory of ‘Oligarchy,’ in which the wealthiest citizens — even in a ‘civil oligarchy’ like the United States — dominate policy concerning crucial issues of wealth and income protection.11″ .. Their 11th footnote made clear that they were referring here to the book Oligarchy , by Jeffrey A. Winters, which stated the ‘theory’ that this article had actually just confirmed in the American case. Their article mentioned the book — and the “oligarchy” — only in this one footnote, so that the authors of the article (whose own careers are dependent upon America’s ‘oligarchs’) won’t be able to be accused by oligarchs (or in any way thought by their own financial benefactors — America’s aristocrats) to have called the U.S. an “oligarchy” (a collective dictatorship by the few super-rich and their agents). To apply either term — “aristocracy” or “oligarchy” — to one’s own country, is now viewed as negative, an insult to the country’s controlling elite. Neither scholars nor scholarly publishers wish to insult the people who ultimately are their top funders. .. This article was written in the standard unnecessarily obscurantist style of social ‘scientists’ who want to be comprehensible only to their peers and not to the general public. Doing it this way is safer for them, because it makes extremely unlikely that their own benefactors would retaliate, against them or else against the institutions that hire them, by withdrawing their continued financial and promotional support (such as by no longer having them invited onto CNN as an “expert”). (This type of fear prevents theory in the social ‘sciences’ from being strictly based upon the given field’s empirical findings: it’s not authentically scientific. The physical sciences are far less corrupt, far more scientific. The biological sciences are in-between.) .. One particular reason why the authors never called the people who control the U.S. government an “aristocracy,” is that everyone knows that the Founders of the U.S. were opposed to , and were engaged in overthrowing, the existing aristocracy, which happened to be British, and that they even banned forever in the U.S. the use of aristocratic titles, such as “Lord” or “Sir.” Consequently, within the U.S., the only term that the aristocrats consider acceptable to refer to aristocrats, is “oligarchs,” which always refers only to aristocrats in foreign countries , and so is considered safe by the aristocrats’ writers (including scholars and political pundits) to use. .. Everyone knows: in accord with the clear intention of America’s Founders , the U.S. should eliminate from its citizenry any aristocrat (any self-enclosed and legally immune group that holds power over the government), but Americans naturally accept the existence of “oligarchs” in other countries (and “good-riddance to them there”), typically the ones in countries U.S. foreign policy opposes and often overthrows by means of coup or outright military invasion (any form of conquest, such as in 2003 Iraq, or 2011 Libya). It’s fine to refer to other countries’ aristocracies as ‘oligarchies’, because any such foreign aristocracy can therefore be declared to be bad and ‘deserving’ of overthrow. Thus, any aristocracy that is opposed to America’s aristocracy (especially one that’s opposed to being controlled by the U.S. aristocracy), and which wants to be controlling instead their own independent nation, can acceptably be overthrown by coup (such as Ukraine 2014 was) or invasion (such as Libya 2011 was). Thus, calling a foreign aristocracy an “oligarchy” is supportive of, not oppposed to, the U.S. aristocracy — and, so, “oligarchy” is the term the authors used (on that one occasion, and they never used the prohibited term “aristocracy”). .. Nonetheless, despite the cultural ban on describing the U.S. as an “aristocracy,” the authors were — as obscurely as they were able — proving that the U.S. is an aristocracy, no authentic democracy at all. Or, again, as they said it in their least-obscurantist phrasing of it: .. “Economic Elite Domination theories do rather well in our analysis, even though our findings probably understate the political influence of elites. Our measure of the preferences of wealthy or elite Americans — though useful, and the best we could generate for a large set of policy cases — is probably less consistent with the relevant preferences than are our measures of the views of ordinary citizens or the alignments of engaged interest groups. Yet we found substantial estimated effects even when using this imperfect measure. The real-world impact of elites upon public policy may be still greater.” .. ‘Greater’ than what? They didn’t say. That’s because what they were saying (as obscurely as possible) is that it’s probably ‘greater’ than is shown in the data that was publicly available to them, and upon which data their clear finding is that the U.S. is an aristocracy, no democracy at all. Or, as they also put it: “Economic Elite Domination theories do rather well in our analysis.” But, actually, “Economic Elite Domination theories” (virtually all of which come down to positing an aristocracy that consists of the billionaires — and centi-millionaires — and their corporations, and their think tanks, and their lobbyists, etc.) did phenomenally well, in their findings, not just ‘rather well’ — they simply can’t safely say this. Saying it is samizdat, in the U.S. dictatorship. .. They were allowed to prove it, but not to say it. So, that’s what they did. They didn’t want to “upset the applecart” from which they themselves are feeding. .. The simplest (but no less accurate) way of stating their finding is: the U.S., at least during the period the researchers probed, which was 1981-2002, was an aristocracy, no democracy at all. The U.S., in other words, was (even prior to the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which is making the aristocracy even more concentrated among even fewer people) a country of men (and women — that’s to say, of individuals ) not of laws; it’s a dictatorship, in short; it is not a country “of laws, not of men” . America’s Founders have finally lost. The country has been taken over by an aristocracy. .. And one of those “men” now, is actually Hillary Clinton, even though she is no longer officially holding governmental power. They know she soon might be. That’s why, the FBI cannot really, and seriously , investigate her. .. It’s not for legal reasons at all. It’s because of whom she is. In fact, purely on the basis of U.S. laws, she clearly ought to be in prison . Any honest lawyer, inside or outside the FBI, has long known this, because the actual case against her is ‘slam-dunk’ , even though the FBI has refused to investigate it and has limited its ‘investigation’ only to peripheral ‘national security’ issues. (The #2 person at FBI, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, right below Director James Comey, specified this limitation to his ‘investigators’. They simply weren’t allowed to investigate her, except on the hardest-to-prove crimes that she probably but not definitely did also do. The slam-dunks were just off-limits to them. McCabe’s wife’s political campaign had received $675,000 from the PAC of Terry McAuliffe , a close friend of the Clintons, who chaired Hillary’s 2008 Presidential campaign. And, even on the harder-to-prove matters, which FBI Director Comey declined on July 5th to pursue, they stood a strong chance of winning, if only Comey hadn’t prevented their moving forward to try — but those issues are tangential to the basic case against her, anyway.) .. There are at least six federal criminal laws which accurately and unquestionably describe even what Ms. Clinton has now publicly admitted having done by her privatized email system, and intent isn’t even mentioned in most of them nor necessary in order for her to be convicted — the actions themselves convict her, and the only relevance that intent might have, regarding any of these laws, would be in determining how long her prison sentence would be. .. I have already presented the texts of these six laws (and you can see the sentences for each one, right there), and any reader can easily recognize that each one of them describes, unambiguously without any doubt, what she now admits having done. Most of these crimes don’t require any intent in order to convict (and the ones that do require intent are only “knowingly … conceals,” or else “with the intent to impair the object’s … use in an official proceeding,” both of which “intents” would be easy to prove on the basis of what has already been made public — but others of these laws don’t require even that); and none of them requires any classified information to have been involved, at all . It’s just not an issue in these laws. Thus, conviction under them is far easier. If a prosecutor is really seeking to convict someone, he’ll be aiming to get indictments on the easiest-to-prove charges, first. That also presents for the prosecutor the strongest position in the event of an eventual plea-bargain. As Alan Dershowitz said , commenting on one famous prosecution: “They also wanted a slam-dunk case. They wanted the strongest possible case.” Comey simply didn’t; he wanted the hardest -to-convict case. His presentation was a brazen hoax. That’s all. .. That’s the real scandal, and nobody (other than I) has been writing about it as what it is — a hoax. But what it shows is that maybe the only way that Clinton will be able to avoid going to prison is by her going to the White House. Either she gets a term in the White House, or else she gets a (much longer) term in prison — or else our government is so thoroughly corrupt that she remains free as a private citizen and still above the law, even though not serving as a federal official. .. Even if she is convicted only on these six slam-dunk statutes (and on none other, including not on the ones that Comey was referring to when he said on July 5th that, “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case”), she could be sentenced to a maximum of 73 years in prison (73 = 5 + 5 + 20 + 20 + 3 + 10 + 10). Adding on others she might also have committed (such as the ones that Comey was referring to, all of which pertain only to the handling of classified information), would mean that her term in prison might be lengthier still, but what’s important in the email case isn’t that; it’s to convict her on, essentially, theft and/or destruction of U.S. government documents by means of transferring them into her private email and/or smashing hard drives. No one, not even a U.S. federal official, can legally do that, and those six laws are specifically against it. .. Motive is important in Ms. Clinton’s email case, because motive tells us why she was trying to hide from historians and from the public her operations as the U.S. Secretary of State: was it because she didn’t want them to know that she was selling to the Sauds and her other friends the U.S. State Department’s policies in return for their million-dollar-plus donations to the Clinton Foundation , and maybe even selling to them (and/or their cronies) U.S. government contracts, or why? However, those are questions regarding other crimes that she might have been perpetrating while in public office, not the crimes of her privatized email operation itself; and those other crimes (whatever they might have been) would have been explored only after an indictment on the slam-dunks, and for further possible prosecutions, if President Obama’s people were serious about investigating her. They weren’t. Clearly, this is selective ‘justice’. That’s the type of ‘justice’ an aristocracy imposes. .. Why, then, did Comey finally switch to re-open the Clinton case? It wasn’t merely the discovery of some of her previously unknown emails on the computer of Anthony Wiener, husband to Hillary’s closest aide Huma Abedin. As Politico on October 28th reported , “Another former Justice official said Comey’s letter [announcing the re-opening of Hillary’s case] could be part of an effort on his part to quiet internal FBI critics who viewed him as burying the Clinton probe for political reasons. ‘He’s come under a lot of criticism from his own people for how he’s handled this. He’s trying to gain back some of their respect,’ former Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said. ‘His ability to do what he does largely depends on the respect within his own ranks.’” .. Joachim Hagopian at Global Research headlined on October 30th, “The Real Reasons Why FBI Director James Comey Reopened the Hillary Email Investigation” , and reported: .. “Former federal attorney for the District of Columbia Joe diGenova spelled it all out in a WMAL radio interview last Friday just hours after the news was released that Comey had sent a letter informing Congress that the case is being reopened. DiGenova said that with an open revolt brewing inside the FBI, Comey was forced to go public on Friday with reopening the investigation. … Finally, diGenova dropped one more bombshell in Friday’s interview. An inside source has revealed to him that the laptops belonging to key Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, both wrongly granted immunity , were not destroyed after all as previously reported, but have been secretly kept intact by investigating FBI agents refusing to destroy incriminating evidence as part of the in-house whitewash.” In other words: Comey was between a rock (the resignation-letters piling up on his desk from subordinates who felt that no person should be above the law) and a hard place (his ability to stay on at the FBI and not have a scandal against himself bleed out to the public from down below). The U.S. wasn’t yet that kind of dictatorship — one which could withstand such a public disclosure. In order for it to become one, the aristocracy’s control would have needed to be even stronger than it yet is. .. Also on the 30th, Ed Klein in Britain’s Dail Mail bannered : .. EXCLUSIVE: Resignation letters piling up from disaffected FBI agents, his wife urging him to admit he was wrong: Why Director Comey jumped at the chance to reopen Hillary investigation. James Comey revived the investigation of Clinton’s email server as he could no longer resist mounting pressure by mutinous agents, sources say. The atmosphere at the FBI has been toxic ever since Jim [Comey] announced last July that he wouldn’t recommend an indictment against Hillary. He told his wife that he was depressed by the stack of resignation letters piling up on his desk from disaffected agents… .. So, does this now mean that, finally, the FBI will bring before a grand jury the evidence that Hillary Clinton blatantly violated those six federal criminal laws against stealing and/or trying to destroy federal documents? .. There has never — at least since 1981 — been so severe a test of the extent to which this nation is (as those researchers found it to have unquestionably been between 1981 and 2002) an “oligarchy.” However, a serious criminal prosecution of Ms. Clinton would potentially start an unwinding of this dictatorship. .. The present writer will make no prediction. However, obviously, the results of the election on November 8th will certainly have an enormous impact upon the outcome. Since I think that anyone but a complete fool can recognize this much, I’m confident enough to assert it — a conditional about the future. About the author =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS | 1 |
As the public turns against Pharma, government embraces it By Martha Rosenberg Posted on November 3, 2016 by Martha Rosenberg
Public anger at Pharma and its outrageous prices has never been higher.
First a smirking Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, refused to explain or defend his price hike of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 on the Hill in February, a price hike that could put the life-saving drug out of reach for some. With clear derision for regulators and the public itself, he tweeted that lawmakers were “imbeciles” after he testified.
Then Mylan jacked the price of its EpiPen, an emergency allergy treatment that saves lives, to $600 up from $100 almost overnight this summer. After public uproar, Mylan offered EpiPen cost breaks to low-income people—a common Pharma ruse that simply shifts costs to others while letting Pharma keep its prices.
And even as U.S. Pharma companies profiteer on older drugs like Daraprim (and newer drugs like the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, which costs $84,000 for a course of treatment), they try to duck U.S. taxes with overseas partnerships and incorporations. The same taxes that fund their drugs in Medicare, TRICARE, the VA and other U.S. entitlement programs.
Pharma may be becoming one of the public’s most reviled sectors but the U.S. government is in the process of erasing the few regulatory firewalls that have existed and tolerating alarming conflicts of interest.
Exhibit A is the nomination and confirmation earlier this year of Robert Califf as FDA commissioner despite financial links to 23 Pharma companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Merck, Schering Plough and GSK, according to a statement on the website of Duke Clinical Research Institute which he directed. In disclosure information for an article in Circulation, Califf also lists financial links to Gambro, Regeneron, Gilead, AstraZeneca, Roche and other companies and equity positions in four medical companies. Califf “served as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant or trustee for Genentech,” said the Medscape website. This is an FDA commissioner?
In the past, someone so heavily funded by industry would not be considered for a government position regulating that very industry. Yet on PBS, Califf saw no problem with doctors and researchers receiving Pharma money and actually thought it desirable. “Many of us consult with the pharmaceutical industry, which I think is a very good thing,” he told host Susan Dentzer. “They need ideas and then the decision about what they do is really up to the person who is funding the study,” he said.
Califf was an early cheerleader for the blood thinning drug Xarelto, which is now linked to at least 500 deaths and possible high level medical deception.
NIMH and NIDA also turn toward industry
Other branches of government are also tilting toward Pharma. In a recent editorial, John Markowitz, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia, lamented that at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the leadership of recently departed director Thomas Insel, translational research (which tends to be Pharma focused) “has become virtually required for funding” with almost no clinical, non-drug research funded.
Insel, an early proponent of SSRI antidepressants (which he said “soothed people’s symptoms within weeks, much faster than standard psychotherapy”), left government to work at a billion dollar, semi-secret private venture between Google and Pharma last year. The CEO of the new Google life sciences venture is former Genentech chairman Art Levinson. As NIMH director while national alarm about toddlers on stimulant drugs was growing, Insel protested “under treatment” of children with ADHD drugs.
Finally, even as drug addiction, especially to opioids, becomes a leading cause of death in the U.S., Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is looking to Pharma to find a “vaccine” for drug addiction. Shouldn’t Volkow know, as head of the institute, there is no “cure” or vaccine for addiction—that it is is widely viewed as a physical, psychological and spiritual disease? Has she ever talked to Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, for example, who, as an addict himself, advocates non-drug, non-Pharma, peer treatment for addiction? (And shouldn’t NIDA replace “drug abuse” with the non-judgmental “addiction”?)
Volkow and Insel ‘s love of industry has also caused them to conduct disturbing animal experiments reminiscent of the noir researcher Henry Harlow. The medical establishment is increasingly reconsidering such invasive and unnecessarily cruel research.
To stay a Wall Street darling, Pharma is gouging on drug prices, fleeing overseas and forming semi-secret partnerships with cyber giants. The public is appalled—and government is helping out.
Martha Rosenberg is a freelance journalist and the author of the highly acclaimed “Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health,” published by Prometheus Books. Check her Facebook page. This entry was posted in Commentary , Health . Bookmark the permalink . | 1 |
US election put into perspective by Toblerone crisis 08-11-16
THE US election has been put into perspective by Britons reeling from a life-changing alteration to Toblerone bars.
Across Britain all election-watching has been immediately curtailed by a nation struggling to understand why their chocolate has changed and who allowed it to happen.
Nathan Muir of Dumfries said: “Give Trump the nuclear codes now, I don’t give a shit.
“Have you seen what they’ve done? The vast, barren plain of chocolate between each delicious honey-and-nougat peak?
“Not only are we losing chocolate, how can that be fairly broken and shared? Someone’s always going to get too much. This will destroy marriages.
“I suppose sometimes you need to be reminded of what’s really important. I remember that from when Cadbury relaunched the Snowflake in September 2001.”
Toblerone manufacturer Mondelez said: “We have no control over the frequency of Toblerone chunks, which occur naturally according to the rhythms of the cosmos.
“These new Toblerones show that the universe is slowing to a halt. It’s deep stuff.”
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So, the president of the Lakers — the one who once posed in Playboy and dated the head coach — created a stir last week by firing her brother, who had helped prepare for his job as the head of basketball operations by training horses. To replace him, she hired the franchise icon with the incandescent smile whose first day on the job last Tuesday represented the start of his experience as a basketball executive. His first move was to hire a general manager whose primary qualification seems to be that he was the agent of another Lakers icon, the one with the killer scowl. These novices will be counting on the expertise of the son of the Lakers’ éminence grise, who stormed off years ago when he clashed with the head coach, the one who dated the owner’s daughter. Got all that? All of this is just another drama in the House of Lakers, the soap opera where familial ties are so inextricably binding they seem to have jumped off the pages of a Tolstoy novel. The Lakers, of course, have been the N. B. A. ’s for spectacle ever since Jerry Buss bought them, along with the Los Angeles Kings, the once fabulous Forum and a ranch, from Jack Kent Cooke for $67. 5 million in 1979. “In certain towns, certain teams are the backbone of that town,” said Jeff Shell, the chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “In Boston, it’s the Red Sox. From my perspective, the Dodgers and Lakers have always been that. The personality of the Lakers, whether it’s Showtime with Magic or Shaq and Kobe, there’s always been the flash and glitz that personifies the town. ” He continued, “They’ve always been a organization that takes care of its fans, so you know that even when they’re not winning, they had a plan. ” In recent years, though, that was in question. While celebrities still dot the courtside seats, the Laker Girls still dance and the franchise value has climbed to $2. 7 billion, according to Forbes, the halcyon days of championship runs are a distant memory. The Lakers are again anchored near the bottom of the Western Conference standings, headed for another of their worst seasons since they moved to Los Angeles — all since the death of Jerry Buss four years ago. To that end, his daughter Jeanie, who was bequeathed stewardship of the team, decided last Tuesday to ax her brother Jim, the chief basketball who, three years ago, had given himself a timeline to restore the championship pedigree his father established by winning 10 N. B. A. championships. And having sent her brother packing, along with Mitch Kupchak, the team’s longtime general manager, Jeanie Buss did what the Lakers have almost always done since her father bought the team. She turned inward. She hired Magic Johnson, the team’s beloved star of the Showtime era, to oversee the team. Working underneath him as the general manager will be Rob Pelinka, who had been the agent for the recently retired Kobe Bryant. They will be joined by an assistant general manager, Ryan West, whose father, Jerry West, starred for the Lakers on the court and as a architect until he decided he had had enough of Phil Jackson, the team’s coach, after the 2000 season. If there were a Mount Rushmore of Lakers basketball, the visages of West, Johnson and Bryant would be chiseled onto it. “I think everybody’s happy she finally took action,” said Kathy Schloessman, president of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission, who has known Jeanie Buss since they took a physics class for nonscience majors at the University of Southern California. “She gave Jim the period of time he asked for, and she realized the brand is important, and she wants to preserve her dad’s legacy. It was taking a beating, and she could only take it for so long. ” While there is skepticism within basketball circles about whether Johnson is best equipped to steer the Lakers in the right direction, it would be hard to find someone in Los Angeles with more good will to expend while trying. “Everybody has a different opinion about Magic’s experience, but he’s definitely committed,” Schloessman said. “He went after this job hard this isn’t a flyby thing. This is important to him. He’s going to be an attractive asset when he’s trying to bring free agents. ” The Lakers have always swung big, back to the days before the Buss family when they worked out trades for Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem and then with West luring Shaquille O’Neal and having the foresight to see that a Bryant would be a superstar. Kupchak, West’s protégé, led a more recent renaissance when he plucked Pau Gasol from Memphis, a deal that led to two more titles. But in recent years, the Lakers had begun to regularly whiff. The former commissioner David Stern nixed a trade that would have brought the Lakers the perennial point guard Chris Paul, and deals for stars like Dwight Howard and Steve Nash bombed. In the last few years, the Lakers failed to land any premier free agents, with LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and LaMarcus Aldridge barely granting them an audience. When the Lakers, flush with space after Bryant’s retirement and with several promising players to build around, could lure only very modest free agents to come aboard — think of Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov — it was clear that time was running out on Jim Buss and Kupchak. The last straw seemed to be when they could not swing a deal last week for the tempestuous center DeMarcus Cousins, whom Sacramento shipped instead to New Orleans for bupkis. “Magic is such a dynamic leader on and off the court, that’s going to translate to the basketball department,” said Mychal Thompson, a former teammate and the Lakers’ longtime radio color commentator. “When Magic calls, every agent and free agent is going to return his calls. He can get an audience with the Pope. ” If it was easy to see coming, the breadth of Jeanie Buss’s decision was striking. A defining characteristic of the Lakers, along with the championships and the embrace of Hollywood, has been that as the sports industry has become increasingly corporate, the Lakers essentially remained a family operation. All six children of Jerry Buss — each of whom owns an 11 percent stake in the team — have worked for the Lakers, and four still do: Janie, who heads community relations Joey, who runs the development league team, the Jesse, who works in the scouting department and Jeanie, whose office sits above the team’s practice court. Nor do you have to be a blood relative to be considered progeny. Lakers Coach Luke Walton is a former fan favorite as a player, as are two of his assistants, Brian Shaw and Mark Madsen. Jordan Wilkes, the son of the former Laker Jamaal Wilkes, is a scout. Linda Rambis, the wife of the former player and coach Kurt Rambis, is an executive. And Jerry Buss said he considered Johnson a son. True, there were often times when the family seemed like a dysfunctional one — when Jeanie Buss, who is respected for her business acumen, carried on a longtime relationship with Jackson and when a public feud erupted between the two stars Bryant and O’Neal — but until recently, the entanglements never seemed an impediment to winning. And in Hollywood, well, the distractions only seemed to add to the charm. “Big stars mean big drama,” Universal’s Shell said. “Our biggest movie franchise is ‘Fast and the Furious,’ and the stars, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, they have drama from time to time. As long as you’re winning and giving the fans a good experience, that adds to the fun sometimes. ” However, in recent years, the fun — as well as the winning — has dissipated, and the family business has become more business than family. With the N. B. A. lockout looming after the 2011 season, the Lakers laid off about 20 staff members, from trainers to equipment managers and scouts, including the longtime assistant general manager Ronnie Lester. A year later, Jim Buss passed over Jackson, who had departed after the 2011 season but was interested in returning, and instead chose Mike D’Antoni as the new coach. Then last week, John Black, the team’s publicist for more than 30 years, was pushed out with Jim Buss and Kupchak, who had been with the Lakers since his playing days. Jeanie Buss, in an interview on the Lakers’ television network, said the decision to shake up the team was so hard to make “that I probably waited too long. ’’ “For that, I apologize to Laker fans,” she said. Where the new direction leads is another matter, as the Lakers, with all eyes on them once again, embrace their past, hoping not to become prisoners to it. | 1 |
Οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες Θα μεταλλαχτούν ή θα γίνουν κομμάτια του Τιερί Μεϊσάν Παρατηρώντας την προεκλογική εκστρατεία στις ΗΠΑ, ο Τιερί Μεϊσάν (Thierry Meyssan) αναλύει την αναβίωση μιας παλιάς και βαριάς πολιτισμικής σύγκρουσης. Η Χίλαρι Κλίντον μόλις δήλωσε ότι οι παρούσες εκλογές δεν αφορούν τα προγράμματα, αλλά το ερώτημα « Ποιοι είναι οι Αμερικανοί; Δεν είναι για πολιτικά ζητήματα που οι Ρεπουμπλικάνοι τενόροι απέσυραν την υποστήριξή από τον υποψήφιο τους Ντόναλντ Τραμπ, αλλά για λόγους προσωπικής συμπεριφοράς του. Σύμφωνα με τον συγγραφέα μας, μέχρι στιγμής, οι Αμερικανοί ήταν μετανάστες από διαφορετικούς ορίζοντες που δέχονταν να υποβάλλονται στην ιδεολογία μιας συγκεκριμένης κοινότητας. Αυτό το μοντέλο σπάει, με κίνδυνο να επέλθει διάσπαση των ίδιων των ΗΠΑ
Δίκτυο Βολταίρος | Δαμασκός (Συρία) | 26 octobre 2016 français Español italiano русский English Deutsch Português Türkçe عربي Κατά τη διάρκεια του έτους της αμερικανικής προεκλογικής εκστρατείας που μόλις διανύσαμε, η ρητορική άλλαξε ριζικά και εμφανίστηκε μια απρόσμενη διάσπαση μεταξύ των δύο στρατοπέδων. Ενώ, στη αρχή, οι υποψήφιοι μιλούσαν για καθαρά πολιτικά θέματα (όπως τη διανομή του πλούτου ή την εθνική ασφάλεια), σήμερα ασχολούνται κυρίως με το σεξ και το χρήμα.
Δεν είναι τα πολιτικά ζητήματα που ανατίναξαν το Ρεπουμπλικανικό Κόμμα - του οποίου οι κυριότεροι ηγέτες απέσυραν την υποστήριξή στον υποψήφιο τους - αλλά ένα πολύ παλιό πολιτισμικό χάσμα. Η κα Κλίντον υπερασπίζεται το πολιτικά ορθό, ενώ "ο Ντόναλντ" γκρεμίζει την υποκρισία της πρώην "πρώτης Κυρίας".
Από τη μια πλευρά, η Χίλαρι Κλίντον προωθεί την ισότητα των δύο φύλων, αν και δεν δίστασε να επιτεθεί και να βρωμίσει τις γυναίκες που αποκάλυπταν ότι είχαν σεξουαλικές σχέσεις με τον σύζυγό της και κατηγορεί τον Ντόναλντ Τραμπ για μισογυνισμό, επειδή δεν κρύβει την αδυναμία του για το θηλυκό γένος. Από την άλλη, ο Ντόναλντ Τραμπ καταγγέλλει την ιδιωτικοποίηση του κράτους καθώς επίσης τον εκβιασμό από μέλη του Ιδρύματος Κλίντον προκειμένου να εξασφαλίσουν ένα ραντεβού στο Στέιτ Ντιπάρτμεντ. Ακόμα δεν δίστασε να κατηγορήσει το Obamacare που δεν εξυπηρετεί τα συμφέροντα των πολιτών, αλλά εκείνα των ιδιωτικών εταιρειών ιατρικής ασφάλισης. Έφτασε δε, στο σημείο να θέσει υπό αμφισβήτηση την ακεραιότητα του εκλογικού συστήματος.
Έχω πλήρη συνείδηση ότι με το τρόπο που μιλάει ο Ντόναλντ Τραμπ, ενθαρρύνει πράγματι τον ρατσισμό, αλλά δεν πιστεύω καθόλου ότι ο τελευταίος βρίσκεται στη καρδιά του προεκλογικού ντιμπέιτ, αλλά στη διαφημιστική εκστρατεία που αναπτύσσεται από τα μίντια υπέρ της Κλίντον.
Δεν είναι αδιάφορο το γεγονός, ότι κατά τη διάρκεια της υπόθεσης Λεβίνσκι, ο πρόεδρος Μπιλ Κλίντον ζήτησε συγνώμη από το έθνος και συγκέντρωσε πάστορες για να προσευχηθούν για τη σωτηρία του. Ενώ εξεταζόμενος για κατηγορίες για παρόμοιες πράξεις σε κάποια ηχητική καταγραφή, ο Ντόναλντ Τραμπ αρκέστηκε να ζητήσει συγγνώμη από εκείνες που είχε προσβάλει χωρίς τη συμμετοχή κληρικών.
Η σημερινή κατάσταση θυμίζει την εξέγερση των Καθολικών, των Ορθοδόξων και των Λουθηρανών κατά των Καλβινιστών, οι οποίοι εκπροσωπούνται κυρίως στις ΗΠΑ από τους Πρεσβυτεριανούς, τους Βαπτιστές και τους Μεθοδιστές.
Αν και οι δύο υποψήφιοι μεγάλωσαν με πουριτανική παράδοση (η Κλίντον ανατράφηκε ως ευσεβής Μεθοδίστρια και ο Τραμπ ως Πρεσβυτεριανός), η κα Κλίντον επέστρεψε στη θρησκεία με το θάνατο του πατέρα της και συμμετέχει σήμερα στην ομάδα προσευχής των Επιτελαρχών του στρατού, The Family (η Οικογένεια), ενώ ο κ Τραμπ ασκεί μια πιο εσωτερικευμένη πνευματικότητα και δεν συχνάζει στους ναούς.
Φυσικά, κανείς δεν είναι δεμένος στα σχήματα του συστήματος με το οποίο ανατράφηκε, αλλά όταν κάποιος ενεργεί χωρίς σκέψη, αναπαράγονται ερήμην του. Το ζήτημα του θρησκευτικού περιβάλλοντος του καθενός μπορεί επομένως να είναι σημαντικό.
Για να καταλάβουμε το τι διακυβεύεται, θα πρέπει να επιστρέψουμε στην Αγγλία του δέκατου έβδομου αιώνα. Ο Όλιβερ Κρόμγουελ ανέτρεψε με στρατιωτικό πραξικόπημα τον βασιλιά Κάρολο Α’. Ισχυρίστηκε ότι θα εγκαθιδρύσει μια Δημοκρατία (res publicum), ότι θα καθαρίζει την ψυχή της χώρας, και αποκεφάλισε τον πρώην κυρίαρχο. Δημιούργησε ένα σεκταριστικό καθεστώς εμπνευσμένο από τις ιδέες του Καλβίνου, σφαγίασε μαζικά τους παπικούς Ιρλανδούς, και επέβαλε έναν πουριτανικό τρόπο ζωής. Οραματίστηκε επίσης, για πρώτη φορά ιστορικά, τον Σιωνισμό: έφερε πίσω τους Εβραίους στην Αγγλία και ήταν ο πρώτος αρχηγός κράτους στον κόσμο που απαίτησε τη δημιουργία ενός εβραϊκού κράτους στην Παλαιστίνη. Αυτό το αιματηρό επεισόδιο είναι γνωστό ως «Πρώτος βρετανικός Εμφύλιος Πόλεμος».
Μετά την αποκατάσταση της μοναρχίας, οι Πουριτανοί του Κρόμγουελ έφυγαν από την Αγγλία. Εγκαταστάθηκαν στην Ολλανδία, όπου ορισμένοι έφυγαν με το Mayflower στην Αμερική (οι «Πατέρες Προσκυνητές»), ενώ άλλοι ίδρυσαν την κοινότητα των Afrikaner στη Νότια Αφρική. Κατά τη διάρκεια του Αμερικανικού Πολέμου Ανεξαρτησίας τον δέκατο όγδοο αιώνα, ξαναείδαμε τη σύγκρουση των Καλβινιστών εναντίον της βρετανικής Μοναρχίας, μάλιστα στα σημερινά βρετανικά εγχειρίδια ιστορίας, αναφέρεται ως ο «Δεύτερος Εμφύλιος Πόλεμος».
Τον δέκατο ένατο αιώνα, στον Αμερικανικό Εμφύλιο οι νότιες πολιτείες (οι έποικοι των οποίων ήταν κυρίως καθολικοί ) πολέμησαν με εκείνες του Βορρά (που είχε κυρίως προτεστάντες έποικους). Η Ιστορία των νικητών παρουσιάσει αυτόν τον πόλεμο ως μια πάλη για την ελευθερία ενάντια στη δουλεία, κάτι που είναι καθαρή προπαγάνδα (οι Νότιες Πολιτείες κατήργησαν τη δουλεία κατά τη διάρκεια του πολέμου, όταν συνήψαν μια συμμαχία με τη βρετανική Μοναρχία) Στην ουσία, επαναλήφθηκε η σύγκρουση των Πουριτανών κατά του αγγλικού θρόνου, λόγος για τον οποίον μερικοί ιστορικοί μιλούν για τον «Τρίτο Βρετανικό Εμφύλιο Πόλεμο».
Κατά τη διάρκεια του εικοστού αιώνα, αυτή η εσωτερική αντιπαράθεση του βρετανικού πολιτισμού φαινόταν ξεπερασμένη, εκτός από την αναβίωση των Πουριτανών στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο με τους «μη κομφορμιστές Χριστιανούς» του πρωθυπουργού Ντέιβιντ Λόιντ Τζορτζ. Οι τελευταίοι χώρισαν την Ιρλανδία και ανέλαβαν να δημιουργήσουν την «Εβραϊκή εθνική Εστία» στην Παλαιστίνη.
Εν πάση περιπτώσει, ένας από τους σύμβουλους του Ρίτσαρντ Νίξον, ο Kevin Philipps, αφιέρωσε μια ογκώδη διατριβή για αυτούς τους εμφύλιους πολέμους, και παρατήρησε ότι κανένα από τα προβλήματα δεν επιλύθηκε, και ανακοίνωσε ένα τέταρτο γύρο [ 1 ].
Οι οπαδοί των καλβινιστικών εκκλησιών, που εδώ και 40 χρόνια ψήφιζαν μαζικά για τους Ρεπουμπλικάνους, υποστηρίζουν τώρα τους Δημοκρατικούς.
Δεν αμφιβάλλω ότι η κα Κλίντον θα είναι η επόμενη πρόεδρος των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών ή ότι αν εκλεχθεί ο κ Τραμπ, θα εξαφανιστεί γρήγορα. Αλλά μέσα σε λίγους μήνες, είμαστε θεατές μιας ευρείας εκλογικής ανακατανομής με φόντο μια μη αναστρέψιμη δημογραφική αλλαγή. Οι εκκλησίες που ανήκουν στους Πουριτανούς δεν αντιπροσωπεύουν παρά το ένα τέταρτο του πληθυσμού και μετατοπίζονται στο στρατόπεδο των Δημοκρατικών. Το μοντέλο τους εμφανίζεται ως ένα ιστορικό ατύχημα. Εξαφανίστηκε ήδη από τη Νότια Αφρική και δεν θα επιβιώσει για πολύ, ούτε στις ΗΠΑ ούτε στο Ισραήλ.
Πέρα από τις προεδρικές εκλογές, η αμερικανική κοινωνία ή θα αλλάξει ή θα έρθει πάλι σε ρήξη. Σε μια χώρα όπου η νεολαία απορρίπτει μαζικά την επιρροή των Πουριτανών ιεροκηρύκων, δεν είναι πλέον δυνατόν να αγνοηθεί το θέμα της ισότητας. Οι Πουριτανοί προσδοκούν σε μια κοινωνία όπου όλοι οι άνθρωποι είναι ίσοι, αλλά όχι ισοδύναμοι. Ο Λόρδος Κρόμγουελ ήθελε μια δημοκρατία (republic) για τους Άγγλους, αλλά μόνο αφού έσφαξε τους παπικούς Ιρλανδούς. Έτσι, σήμερα στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, όλοι οι πολίτες είναι ίσοι ενώπιον του νόμου, αλλά στο όνομα των ίδιων κειμένων, τα δικαστήρια καταδικάζουν συστηματικά μαύρους, ενώ βρίσκουν ελαφρυντικά για τους λευκούς που διαπράττουν παρόμοια εγκλήματα ή αδικήματα. Και στις περισσότερες Πολιτείες, μια ποινική καταδίκη, ακόμα και υπέρβασης ταχύτητας, αρκεί για να αφαιρεθεί το δικαίωμα του εκλέγειν. Ως εκ τούτου, λευκοί και μαύροι είναι ίσοι, αλλά σε ορισμένες πολιτείες, η πλειοψηφία των μαύρων πολιτών έχει στερηθεί νομικά το δικαίωμα του εκλέγειν. Το παράδειγμα αυτής της σκέψης στην εξωτερική πολιτική, είναι η «λύση των δύο Κρατών» στην Παλαιστίνη: ίσα, αλλά προπαντός όχι ισοδύναμα.
Είναι αυτή η πουριτανική σκέψη που οδήγησε τις κυβερνήσεις του πάστορα Κάρτερ, του Ρήγκαν, των Μπους (ο πρεσβύτερος και ο νεώτερος είναι και οι δύο άμεσοι απόγονοι των Πατέρων Προσκυνητών), του Κλίντον και του Ομπάμα να υποστηρίζουν το Ουαχαμπιτισμό σε αντίθεση με τα αναρτημένα ιδανικά της χώρας τους και σήμερα να υποστηρίξουν το Νταές.
Παλαιότερα, οι Πατέρες Προσκυνητές ίδρυσαν κοινότητες στο Plymouth και στη Βοστώνη, οι οποίες έχουν εξιδανικευτεί στην αμερικανική συλλογική μνήμη. Οι ιστορικοί είναι όμως απόλυτοι, έλεγαν ότι αποτελούν το «Νέο Ισραήλ» και επέλεξαν το «Νόμο του Μωυσή». Δεν τοποθέτησαν Σταυρούς στους ναούς τους, αλλά τους Πίνακες του Νόμου. Αν και Χριστιανοί, έδιναν μεγαλύτερη σημασία στις εβραϊκές γραφές παρά στα Ευαγγέλια. Ανάγκαζαν τις γυναίκες τους να καλύψουν το κεφάλι τους με πέπλο και αποκατέστησαν τις σωματικές τιμωρίες.
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Ινφογνώμων Πολιτικά (Ελλάδα) | 1 |
Leave a reply Maureen Moss – Not a typical newsletter from me, these are words that flowed forth this morning.
Clearly the week ahead for the United States and those across the world will be one of the most significant in history. The Presidential election is historic in and of itself, though the weeks to follow may prove to be more so. Nothing is as it appears to be.
We are in the beginning times of an entirely new civilization, as was humanity some 200,000 years ago. Everything not harmonized with this new civilization will be dismantled… not sometime in the future… in the weeks directly in front of us.
Hundreds of thousands of years and billions of people will be shaped by who we become individually and then collectively and how this Earth is restructured by the events unfolding now.
We must trust we are being brought into harmony under the impulse of One system of operation.
Long knowing that a new humanity and new global reality would be born… in this our lifetime… certainly we had little idea of how that would occur.
Not all that long ago we came to know the responsibility we personally held to lift and stabilize our consciousness, open wide our hearts and free ourselves from the captivity of a deceptive, fearful lower nature having multiple realities.
Certainly we started becoming aware of our desire to know ourselves authentically, thus beginning the journey to return to a singular loving nature no longer conflicted by dual pillars of truth nor at odds or war with ourselves.
All this, in Divine right time and in preparation for a new reality to be born on Earth. It had to begin within ourselves.
Certainly not as instinctively, was how an entire distorted external reality (politically, socially, economically and more,) operating in reverse truth, riddled with deception, lies and manipulation would come to find its true nature.
Few would have considered how much could potentially come to Light under the glare of so much darkness, or that it would come through a Presidential election… far from over on election day regardless of the seeming winner…in the United States of America.
This election is a seismic evolutionary event .
In this week ahead, and those to follow… through the flurry and activity of the end times and the beginnings… as you witness the distorted psychology of the human system exposed and broken down from every angle… breathe, stay in your center and with an open heart, open mind and love… be in observance of this most profound display of activity on behalf of humanities evolution… and that of the Earth.
Hold each other close and stay in your center . We will get through this…it has already been written.
God Bless You, | 0 |
GARLAND, Tex. — There was a time when he was known as a young man — a regular at his church and a pleasant presence on a suburban, multicultural street in a neighborhood called Camelot. He grew up to serve his country in Afghanistan. But on Thursday night, Micah Johnson, an drove his car to a rally against police violence and began killing officers in downtown Dallas, hoping to single out the white ones. In the process, he also managed to bring his war back home, killing at least one fellow military veteran and heightening fears that the nation he had been deployed to protect overseas was now failing to address its growing racial divide at home. The Dallas police remained on edge Saturday. In the late afternoon, officers drew their weapons and cleared an area near the back of their headquarters after a report of a suspicious person in a department parking garage. The agency later said that no one had been found. In the past several days, as demonstrators jammed the streets in a number of American cities, protesting police violence, new details emerged about Mr. Johnson’s life. They revealed a young man who had returned in disgrace from his stint abroad in the Army Reserve, but then continued a training regimen of his own devising, conducting exercises in his backyard and reportedly joining a gym that offered martial arts and weapons classes. A Dallas County official also revealed Saturday that Mr. Johnson — who killed five officers and wounded seven others, as well as two civilians, before the police killed him with a explosive device — had kept an extensive journal and described a method of attack in which a gunman fired on a target and then quickly moved to another location to confuse an enemy. Although it did not seem to be a precise plan for Mr. Johnson’s ambush, it was strikingly similar to the tactics he used. “It’s talking not only about how to kill but how to keep from being killed,” said Clay Jenkins, Dallas County’s chief executive and director of homeland security and emergency management, who said he had not read the original journal but had reviewed summaries of it. “It shows that he’s well prepared. ” Mr. Johnson showed an affinity for radical organizations on his Facebook page. Organizers of the Black Lives Matter network and others have denounced Mr. Johnson’s shooting spree. In a news conference on Saturday in Warsaw, President Obama said it was “very hard to untangle the motives” behind the shooting. “As we’ve seen in a whole range of incidents with mass shooters, they are, by definition, troubled,” Mr. Obama said. “By definition, if you shoot people who pose no threat to you — strangers — you have a troubled mind. What triggers that, what feeds it, what sets it off, I’ll leave that to psychologists and people who study these kinds of incidents. ” On Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said in a statement that Mr. Obama had called him to offer condolences. Mr. Abbott said he had thanked the president and reiterated the need for Americans to unite after the shooting. Tensions remained high, however. In San Antonio, the police were investigating reports late Saturday that gunshots had been fired at their department’s headquarters, Chief William McManus said at a briefing. Officers said that they heard gunshots hitting the building just before 10 p. m. and that “a number of shell casings” were recovered, Chief McManus said. There were no injuries. Mr. Johnson spent some of his childhood at the home of his father and stepmother in Garland, about a drive north of downtown Dallas. Their neighborhood, Camelot, is a collection of and houses of vintage, and their house is set in the middle of a block, where a number of neighboring homes this weekend still displayed American flags from the Fourth of July weekend. The neighbors walking by or working on their lawns were black, white, Hispanic and Asian. Courtney Williams, 37, an electrician who lives in Forney, just east of Dallas, said he had known Mr. Johnson during his teenage days, when Mr. Johnson would stay with his mother in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas. The two young men attended the same church, and Mr. Williams recalled Mr. Johnson as a “ ” youth who was active in church events and the typical pursuits of a teenager. “Video games, the whole nine yards,” he said. Mr. Johnson showed no interest in weapons, Mr. Williams said. “He was just a quiet kid,” Mr. Williams said. “No attitude, no trouble with school. Just a normal kid. ” Mr. Williams lost touch with Mr. Johnson after the younger man graduated from John Horn High School in Mesquite, Tex. where he had shown some interest in the military, going so far as to participate in the school’s Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program. He was not, it seemed on Saturday, a standout: Horn’s former J. R. O. T. C. instructor said he had little recollection of Mr. Johnson. He enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2009 and was assigned to a unit — a component of the 420th Engineer Brigade — near Dallas. More than four years later, the unit deployed to Afghanistan. But before the soldiers left for the Afghan theater, they stood in formation not far from the streets where Mr. Johnson would someday stage a siege. An officer urged them to take care of their families and cultivate their faith. He also emphasized the importance of adapting on the fly. “Continue to build the flexibility to adjust to changing and unforeseen situations faster than the enemy can adapt,” the officer said, according to a video of the ceremony. “This is how we will succeed. ” But Mr. Johnson did not succeed. While overseas, a female soldier in Mr. Johnson’s unit accused him of sexual harassment. When the Army considered kicking him out, he waived his right to a hearing in exchange for a lesser charge. Soon he was back in Texas, living with his mother. Ron Price, 49, a former president of the Dallas school board, lives in Mesquite, about four blocks away. He used to see Mr. Johnson in the neighborhood and exchange hellos. He said he had noticed nothing really remarkable about him. “He was just another guy at the gas station,” he said. But Mr. Jenkins said a neighbor had seen Mr. Johnson doing militarylike exercises in his backyard in Mesquite in the last couple of weeks. Mr. Johnson’s preparations seemingly extended to visits to a “ and personal protection” gym in the Dallas area. The gym’s owner, Justin Everman, told The Daily Beast that it counted many police officers among its members, and he sought to distance himself and his business from Mr. Johnson. “It’s disgusting, what he did,” Mr. Everman told The Daily Beast. “I’m disgusted. ” In addition to reading summaries of the journal, Mr. Jenkins said he had heard descriptions of its contents from other officials. Some of it was given over to very specific combat and sniper tactics, including details, Mr. Jenkins said, of “what we call ‘shoot and move’ tactics — ways to fire on a target and then move quickly and get into position at another location to inflict more damage on targets without them being able to ascertain where the shots are coming from. ” This tactic is used by the military’s special forces. “When you couple ‘shoot and move’ and other tactics in his writings, his practice in the yard, his interest in weaponry, it seems to me that this was a individual,” Mr. Jenkins said. He added, “It appeared that he was an excellent marksman and was calmly shooting, as opposed to someone who’s just holding a gun up and aiming it and pulling the trigger in the direction of where they think people are. ” Mr. Jenkins said Mr. Johnson had used a semiautomatic SKS rifle and a handgun. He drove his vehicle to the demonstration and parked it, Mr. Jenkins said, but was on foot at many points throughout the attack. Mr. Johnson’s knowledge of “shoot and move” — and the fact that a few of the protesters in the crowd who were not involved in the shooting were armed and carrying rifles — has helped shed light on how a theory of multiple assailants emerged. In Texas, gun owners can legally and openly carry what are known as long guns, including shotguns and rifles. The carrying of handguns is regulated in Texas and requires a permit, whether concealed or openly carried, but the carrying of rifles is largely unregulated and requires no permit. The open carrying of rifles has become common at many demonstrations in Texas in recent years. “When the shooting first happened, you had people in the crowd who were carrying long rifles and dressed in camouflage,” Mr. Jenkins said. “And then the shooting happens, and those people begin to disperse and move quickly, and they have guns and they’re not police officers and there’s a shooting, and so one of the things that people would investigate quickly is did they have anything to do with whatever is happening. ” Mr. Jenkins said that Mr. Johnson did not appear to have advance knowledge of the march route. Parts of the route were determined on the spot without planning, Mr. Jenkins said. Throughout a sweltering Saturday, a section of downtown Dallas remained a crime scene as investigators faced a second day of piecing together the details of the attack, an inquiry that had included more than 200 interviews. More than 20 square blocks remained cordoned off. Two squad cars outside Police Headquarters have become memorials, covered in flowers, balloons, posters and handwritten notes. On Friday evening, before the officers went on heightened alert, person after person slowly and quietly approached the cars to add tributes. A Dallas police sergeant wiped her eyes, and a handful of people gathered in a circle to pray. Similar moments played out on Saturday. “I miss you already Brother, but you are home with the angels now,” said a note about Officer Brent Thompson. The authors wrote, “You were, are, and always will be our hero. ” As Mayor Mike Rawlings visited Police Headquarters on Saturday, he told reporters: “We’re all human here, and I think that people feel each other’s pain. And that’s what makes it great, that’s what makes you hopeful that we can do this, that we can move from senselessness, absurdity that’s like a Camus novel, to something that has redemption and hope in it. And that’s ultimately what we need to do. ” He stopped to speak with a woman kneeling by one police car and told her, “Pray hard, sister. ” | 1 |
Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos — and anything else that strikes them as intriguing — in the Playlist. You can listen to this playlist on Spotify here. Like this format? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes. com. Back in the pop arena after her detour into show tunes and pop standards, Lady Gaga unleashes her great big voice on a perennial pop subject: fury and disillusionment. “Mistaken for wasn’t love, it was a perfect illusion,” she belts, angry and tremulous. Lady Gaga and three producers — Mark Ronson, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and BloodPop — go for a hybrid, with a Motown beat underpinning both electronics and guitars and an Top 40 key change into the last verse. But the influence Lady Gaga still can’t escape is Madonna the climax of the chorus, the words “perfect illusion,” use the same melodic line as “keeping my baby” in Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach. ” JON PARELES The narrator is a prisoner — incarcerated in some verses, brutalized by corrupt capitalism in others — in “Digging for Windows,” the first solo song in a decade from the Zack de la Rocha, the rapper who fronted Rage Against the Machine. Produced by (who had Mr. de la Rocha as a guest with his project Run the Jewels) the track pounds away, mostly on one relentlessly repeated note, thickening and eventually bringing in a loud guitar to match the mounting anger. Part of the message is arguable — “Won’t mark the name on a ballot” this year? — but the fury is convincing. J. P. It was 2004, another election year, when Green Day released “American Idiot,” its blast at the quiescence of the George W. Bush years. “Revolution Radio” is the title song of its album due Oct. 7, and Green Day’s tools and attitude haven’t changed: punk propulsion, guitar hooks and barreling drums behind pop melody carrying a call for “a rebel’s lullaby under the stars and the lost souls that were cheated. ” The band’s old energy endures so does the frustration. J. P. The rapper Mykki Blanco temporarily sets aside her usual bravado in “Loner,” one of the more melodic tracks on her debut album, “Mykki. ” With Jean Deaux cooing a chorus alongside her, she testifies to deep insecurities within the fishbowl of social media. “I need help, I’m so sad,” she confesses, but she can’t resist broadcasting her problems: “I’m standing wasted on ’m naked. ” It’s the plaint of someone who’s never sure which followers are also friends. J. P. “Veil Scans” is less than five minutes long but evokes eternity. The electronic composer Tim Hecker deals in dread, repetition, density and depth, opening dark chasms in the soundscape. A loop of what sounds like a string orchestra, sliding upward through just one whole tone, runs nearly all the way through “Veil Scans” around it are warped echoes and reflections, clouds of static, deep bass murmurs, distant voices, eerie keenings. It’s not so much a track as a glimpse into some inexorable evolutionary process. J. P. A decade ago the pianist Eric Lewis was that rare thing: a promising young musician who, of his own volition, had stepped away from a coveted post in the house orchestra of Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. He soon became something even rarer: a jazz artist with the profile and bearing of a certain kind of pop star. Rebranding himself as ELEW, he wowed a range of audiences, from the TED Conference to the White House, with hyperdynamic covers of songs by Coldplay, the Killers and Linkin Park. So what to make of his new acoustic trio album, “And to the Republic,” made with one of Mr. Marsalis’s old rhythm sections? Whatever else you want to say, it doesn’t smack of cynicism. Mr. Lewis crowds the track list with acts of tribute: to his romantic partner (“Lil Luba”) to a former mentor (“Tones for Elvin Jones”) to a couple of lodestars (“Ornette,” “Monk”) to a formative sound (“The Philly Groove”). And he connects handily with the bassist Reginald Veal and the drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts, favoring a polyrhythmic swagger. You hear it on the opening track, “Medicine Man,” which works a childlike melodic line into something like an expedition. At the same time, Mr. Lewis finds a place for something from the ELEW wheelhouse: a chiming arrangement of “Heartbeats,” by the Swedish electronic duo the Knife. NATE CHINEN Having Peter Gabriel write the song for Oliver Stone’s “Snowden,” the film about the computer systems administrator who revealed the extent of secret government surveillance, was a match so neat it seems almost inevitable. Mr. Gabriel realized the implications of the internet early on, and well before that his songs had reckoned with the ways that larger systems grind down individual liberty. He’s also a master of shadowy, suspenseful, production, like the ticking percussion and staggered bits of melody he uses in “The Veil. ” The lyrics are on topic: “Some say you’re a patriot, some call you a American hero or a traitor that deserves to Die. ” But Mr. Gabriel finds the broader implications, too, as he sings, “There’s no safe place to go. ” J. P. Carly Rae Jepsen recently released “Emotion: Side B,” a companion to her critically adored 2015 album “Emotion” and a late applicant to your poolside summer soundtrack. “First Time” is the album’s most irrepressibly gleaming track: a product of the Swedish complex, evoking 1980s bubble gum like Debbie Gibson. Ms. Jepsen, true to form, mixes some hope into her heartbreak. “But if you stay here,” she sings, “we could away the goodbye. ” N. C. The close of summer lends both a backdrop and a metaphor to Jason Aldean’s new single, in strong rotation on country radio. It’s a tune of stoical yearning, the yawp of a dude bemoaning the end of a seasonal romance. “She might have stayed never ever left these arms,” he brays, “If only I had a little more summertime. ” It’s an efficient burst of feeling from Mr. Aldean’s seventh studio album, “They Don’t Know,” due on Friday. N. C. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump’s transition was in disarray on Tuesday, marked by firings, infighting and revelations that American allies were blindly dialing in to Trump Tower to try to reach the of the free world. One week after Mr. Trump scored an upset victory that took him by surprise, his team was improvising the most basic traditions of assuming power. That included working without official State Department briefing materials in his first conversations with foreign leaders. Two officials who had been handling national security for the transition, former Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan and Matthew Freedman, a lobbyist who consults with corporations and foreign governments, were fired. Both were part of what officials described as a purge orchestrated by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s and close adviser. The dismissals followed the abrupt firing on Friday of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who was replaced as chief of the transition by Vice Mike Pence. Mr. Kushner, a transition official said, was systematically dismissing people like Mr. Rogers who had ties with Mr. Christie. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Christie had sent Mr. Kushner’s father to jail. Prominent American allies were in the meantime scrambling to figure out how and when to contact Mr. Trump. At times, they have been patched through to him in his luxury office tower with little warning, according to a Western diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations. President Abdel Fattah of Egypt was the first to reach Mr. Trump for such a call last Wednesday, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not long afterward. But that was about 24 hours before Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain got through — a striking break from diplomatic practice given the close alliance between the United States and Britain. Despite the haphazard nature of Mr. Trump’s early calls with world leaders, his advisers said the transition team was not suffering unusual setbacks. They argued that they were hard at work behind the scenes dealing with the same troubles that incoming presidents have faced for decades. And Mr. Trump himself fired back at critics with a Twitter message he sent about 10 p. m. “Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions,” he wrote. “I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!” The process is “completely normal,” said Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, who emerged on Tuesday as the leading contender to be Mr. Trump’s secretary of state. “It happened in the Reagan transition. Clinton had delays in hiring people. ” Mr. Giuliani, who made his comments in a telephone interview, added: “This is a hard thing to do. Transitions always have glitches. This is an enormously complex process. ” There were some reports within the transition of . One member of the transition team said that at least one reason Mr. Rogers had fallen out of favor among Mr. Trump’s advisers was that, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he had overseen a report about the 2012 attacks on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, which concluded that the Obama administration had not intentionally misled the public about the events there. That report echoed the findings of numerous other government investigations into the episode. The report’s conclusions were at odds with the campaign position of Mr. Trump, who repeatedly blamed Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent and the secretary of state during the attacks, for the resulting deaths of four Americans. Eliot A. Cohen, a former State Department official who had criticized Mr. Trump during the campaign but said after his election that he would keep an open mind about advising him, said Tuesday on Twitter that he had changed his opinion. After speaking to the transition team, he wrote, he had “changed my recommendation: stay away. ” He added: “They’re angry, arrogant, screaming ‘you LOST!’ Will be ugly. ” Mr. Cohen, a conservative Republican who served under President George W. Bush, said Trump transition officials had excoriated him after he offered some names of people who might serve in the new administration, but only if they felt departments were led by credible people. “They think of these jobs as lollipops,” Mr. Cohen said in an interview. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, weighed in as well. On Tuesday, he issued a blunt warning to Mr. Trump and his emerging foreign policy team not to be taken in by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whom Mr. Trump praised during the campaign. “The Obama administration’s last attempt at resetting relations with Russia culminated in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and military intervention in the Middle East,” Mr. McCain said. Some of the early transition difficulties may reflect the fact that Mr. Trump, who has no governing experience or Washington network and campaigned as an agent of change, does not have a long list of establishment figures from the Bush era to tap. His allies suggested that might ultimately prove positive for Mr. Trump if he was able to assemble a functioning team that would bring new perspectives to his administration. For advice on building Mr. Trump’s national security team, his inner circle has been relying on three hawkish current and former American officials: Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Peter Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman and former chairman of the Intelligence Committee and Frank Gaffney, a Pentagon official during the Reagan administration and a founder of the Center for Security Policy. Mr. Gaffney has long advanced baseless conspiracy theories, including that President Obama might be a closet Muslim. The Southern Poverty Law Center described him as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes. ” Prominent donors to Mr. Trump were also having little success in recruiting people for posts in his administration. Rebekah Mercer, the scion of a powerful family of conservative donors and a member of Mr. Trump’s executive transition committee, has said in conversations with Republican operatives and previous administration officials that she was having trouble finding takers for posts at the under secretary level and below, according to a person familiar with her outreach efforts. She told them that the transition team was more than a month behind schedule and on a tight timeline. In another delay, Mr. Pence did not sign legally required paperwork to allow his team to begin collaborating with Mr. Obama’s aides until Tuesday evening, a transition spokesman said. Mr. Christie on Election Day signed a memorandum of understanding to put the process into motion as soon as the outcome was determined, but once he was ousted from the job, Mr. Pence had to sign a new agreement. The paperwork serves as a nondisclosure agreement for both sides, ensuring that members of the ’s team do not divulge information about the inner workings of the government. Teams throughout the federal government that have prepared briefing materials and reports for the incoming president’s team are on standby, waiting to begin passing the information to counterparts on Mr. Trump’s staff. As of Tuesday afternoon, officials at key agencies including the Justice and Defense Departments said they had received no contact from the ’s team. | 1 |
Get short URL 0 108 0 0 In a further sign of growing tensions between the United States and Turkey, Pentagon officials revealed on Wednesday that the Kurdish YPG militia will play a major role in the upcoming attack on the Daesh-held city of Raqqa, and it’s not good news for Ankara.
As coalition forces continue retaking the Iraqi city of Mosul from Daesh, US officials are looking ahead to Raqqa, the terrorist group’s Syrian stronghold. © REUTERS/ Zohra Bensemra US Detects No Actions by Turkish Troops Interfering With Mosul Operation - White House
American forces are currently on the ground in Syria to train opposition fighters, including Kurdish YPG militia fighters operating within the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend. However, a key US ally isn’t happy about it.
"Turkey doesn’t want to see us operating with the SDF anywhere, particularly in Raqqa. We’re having talks with Turkey and we’re going to take this in steps," Townsend told reporters . "The only force that is capable on any near-term timeline are the Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the YPG are a significant portion. We’re going to take the force that we have and we will go to Raqqa soon with that force."
Townsend underlined the importance of liberating Raqqa, saying US officials believe the city is where the terrorist group plans most of its international attacks.
"We think it’s very important to get isolation in place around Raqqa to start controlling that environment on a pretty short timeline." © REUTERS/ Nour Fourat US-Led Coalition to 'Move Soon to Isolate Raqqa'
As the eastern flank of the NATO alliance, Turkey is a vital ally to the United States and its Western partners. Tensions have been high through the administration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Under Erdogan, Ankara has launched a crackdown on Kurdish communities in the country’s southeast.
In what may have been an effort to appease Turkish leadership, US officials stressed that, while the YPG will play a role in the offensive, it will not be directly involved in taking Raqqa. Townsend added that the US will also play a smaller role in the Raqqa operation than it has in Mosul. "We’ll have fewer coalition troops there, less combat capability there, we’ll have to apply coalition combat support in a different way than we are doing here in Iraq," he said.
Expected to coincide with the Mosul operation, the Raqqa offensive is expected to begin soon.
"I think it will be within weeks, that’s what I want to say, and not many weeks," US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters on Tuesday. ... | 0 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A between Syria’s government and the weakened rebel forces arrayed against it took effect early Friday, but within hours, violations were reported. Still, the agreement — announced on Thursday by the Syrian government’s strongest backer, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — could be a turning point in a nearly conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and defied repeated efforts to end it. The agreement highlighted Russia’s status as the main international player in Syria. The United States, which has supported rebel factions, welcomed the truce but played no role in brokering it. The accord appeared shaky even before it took effect, with the parties disagreeing on issues that have sunk past peace plans, like the fate of Syria’s president, Bashar . A spokesman for Ahrar one of the largest rebel groups, wrote on Twitter that his group had reservations about the agreement and had not signed it, throwing its compliance into question. Apparently, the group still had not signed when the began at midnight. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict, said in a statement on Twitter early Friday that rebels had breached the in Hama Province. A spokesman for the rebel group Jaish told Reuters that government forces had violated the truce, shelling areas in Atshan and Skeik, villages in Idlib Province, which borders Hama. Even before the new clashes were reported, Ahrar ’s status and other issues had left many analysts skeptical. “It looks like the Russians are trying to jam this through and make it happen through pure positive thinking and momentum,” said Sam Heller, a fellow at the Century Foundation who studies Syria. “All indications are that there are still major unresolved questions and issues that will sabotage its implementation. ” Many past efforts to quell the fighting, including two agreements this year between Russia and the United States, have failed, and Mr. Putin himself called the deal fragile. But in recent months, major shifts have occurred in the war and among the foreign powers embroiled in it, creating an opening for the new agreement. The rebels’ loss of eastern Aleppo this month was a major blow to their movement, leaving them without footholds in any of Syria’s largest cities. That has made it harder for their foreign backers to see them as a realistic alternative to Mr. Assad. Even Turkey, which is a longtime supporter of the opposition and is supposed to ensure rebel compliance with the has backed away from its demand that Mr. Assad step down. In addition, the Obama administration has reduced its engagement in Syrian diplomacy, while Donald J. Trump has vowed to cut support for the rebels and to work with Mr. Putin to fight jihadists. As the United States has stepped back, Russia has stepped forward. Mr. Assad’s forces, ground down by years of war, have become heavily dependent on Russian military support, giving Russia the leverage to push Mr. Assad toward new talks. But after nearly six years of a war that has drawn in many foreign powers, the issues to be resolved are many, and cracks in the agreement surfaced late Thursday, before the took effect. Left unresolved was the future role of Mr. Assad. Many rebels have vowed to reject any deal that would leave him in power. Some even called the a time to regroup for future battles. “The is a new opportunity for the revolutionaries to get their house in order and prepare for all coming possibilities to topple the regime, militarily and politically,” Ammar Sakkar, a spokesman for a prominent rebel faction, wrote on Twitter. Also unresolved was the presence in Syria of fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other Shiite militias, which gave substantial support to Mr. Assad’s forces in the battle for Aleppo. On Thursday, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said they should leave the country, a demand the Syrian government is likely to resist. Excluded from the according to the Syrian Army, are the jihadists: the Islamic State, which controls territory in eastern Syria and across the border in Iraq the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, which is strongest in the country’s northwest and “groups linked to them. ” How to define groups “linked” to the jihadists will be a thorny issue. The Syrian government has portrayed all of its opponents as terrorists. The agreement was reached in the Turkish capital, Ankara, in talks that included Turkish and Russian officials and rebel representatives. It called for a across Syria to begin at midnight. That would clear the way for peace talks in late January in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. That is a far cry from Geneva, where previous talks hosted by the United Nations have been held, but the office of the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, issued a statement cautiously welcoming the truce. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said he hoped Mr. Trump would join the efforts after he takes office on Jan. 20. The Syrian government described the as a natural to “the victories and successes that our armed forces accomplished,” a clear reference to Aleppo. Mr. Putin spoke on Thursday with Mr. Assad, who “expressed willingness to comply” with the accord, according to the Kremlin’s website. The precise details of the deal were not clear Thursday night. Russia said seven rebel groups had signed it. Together, they hold territory in Syria’s northwest, along the border with Turkey east of the capital, Damascus and in the south, near Jordan’s border. Five of them are mainline rebel groups that have received covert military aid through a program run by the C. I. A. and its counterparts in allied countries. The list also includes Ahrar a Islamist group with close operational ties to Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. A spokesman for the group denied that it had signed the agreement. The Obama administration, which has resisted greater involvement in what it sees as an intractable conflict, welcomed the news. “Any effort that stops the violence, saves lives and creates the conditions for renewed and productive political negotiations would be welcome,” said the State Department’s deputy spokesman, Mark C. Toner. If the agreement holds, it may solidify Mr. Assad’s grip on the country’s western ridge and lead to a joint effort by Russia and the United States against Islamic State militants. But that is a big if, given the number of parties involved, their competing interests and the scope of the fighting. Aside from the politics of it, many Syrians hoped the truce would stop the violence that has become part of everyday life. “It is a way to stop the waterfall of blood that is happening in Syria,” said Obaida an antigovernment activist reached through Skype in a part of Idlib Province. He said the miserable conditions there for Syrians displaced by the war had fueled hatred of Mr. Assad’s government. Idlib “is like a pot boiling with hatred for the regime in these terrible conditions of hunger and cold,” he said. “We hope that there are negotiations, but we hope that they don’t give up on demanding the fall of the regime. ” Mr. Putin said the meant that Russia could draw down its forces in Syria. He said once before, in March, that the bulk of Russian forces would go home, yet combat continued. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — When Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy visited the White House in October for a state dinner, he made a commitment to President Obama: Italy, which resettled a Yemeni detainee from Guantánamo Bay last summer, would take one more person on the transfer list. But before the deal was completed, Mr. Renzi resigned. So a day after his successor, Paolo Gentiloni, formed a government on Dec. 14, Secretary of State John Kerry called to congratulate Mr. Gentiloni — and to urge him to follow through on the commitment, according to an official familiar with the negotiations. Mr. Gentiloni agreed, leading a rush to finalize the details and paperwork. The effort was part of a burst of urgent, diplomatic talks aimed at moving as many as possible of Guantánamo’s 22 prisoners who are recommended for transfer. By law, the Pentagon must notify Congress 30 days before a transfer, so the deadline to set in motion deals before the end of the Obama administration was Monday. By late in the day, officials said, the administration had agreed to tell Congress that it intended to transfer 17 or 18 of the 59 remaining detainees at the prison they would go to Italy, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. If all goes as planned, that will leave 41 or 42 prisoners in Guantánamo for Donald J. Trump’s administration. Mr. Trump has vowed to keep the prison operating and “load it up with some bad dudes. ” Obama administration officials agreed to speak about the transfers on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks and congressional notifications that are not public. Elisa Massimino, the president of Human Rights First, said that even though it appears likely that failing to fulfill his vow to close the Guantánamo prison will be part of Mr. Obama’s legacy, it was still “incredibly important” that his administration did not let up on the effort to get out those men who were deemed transferable, if security conditions could be met, after a review. “In terms of gradations of immorality, holding people for years who we have no national security interest in detaining is unconscionable,” she said. “This is not just about a campaign promise. ” The Bush administration brought about 780 men to Guantánamo after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying that it could hold Qaeda suspects there in indefinite wartime detention without trial — a move that the Supreme Court eventually approved — and that it could disregard the Geneva Conventions in how it treated them, which the court rejected. President George W. Bush started trying to close the prison in his second term and bequeathed 242 detainees to Mr. Obama. If the proposed transfers go through, the 41 or 42 prisoners Mr. Trump would inherit include 10 men who were charged or convicted in the military commissions and 27 who have not been charged but are deemed too dangerous to release. The latter group includes a few people accused of links to significant attacks, like the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, but for whom evidence is thin, and others who are not linked to any attack but who, officials believe, remain committed to Islamist militancy. That would leave the last four or five men on the transfer list. They include an Algerian, a Moroccan and a Tunisian whom the administration was reluctant to repatriate for reasons having to do with their home countries, officials said, and a stateless Rohingya man whom no country offered a home. All have been imprisoned for nearly 15 years. While a board put the first two on the transfer list only recently, a 2009 task force had put the latter two on the transfer list seven years ago. Their fates are now uncertain. It is not clear whether Mr. Trump will refuse to transfer any remaining detainees — a step many Republicans denounced whenever Mr. Obama did it — or continue to use the review boards that periodically consider moving detainees onto the transfer list. Obama officials credit that review process for a drop in the recidivism rate among former detainees. Of transfers, 35 percent are confirmed or suspected of in militancy of transfers, the combined figure is 12 percent, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Matthew G. Olsen, the former National Counterterrorism Center director who led the task force in 2009 that initially reviewed and recommended what to do with each of the detainees, said nearly eliminating the transfer list was a major accomplishment. “There is a humanitarian imperative not to detain people who can be safely transferred to their home country or to another country, and much of what we have seen over the past few years has been continued detention for many such people,” he said. Most who would be transferred next month are Yemenis. Because conditions in Yemen are chaotic, the Bush and the Obama administrations were reluctant to repatriate Yemeni detainees, so they stayed behind as others from more stable countries went home. The Obama administration did not try to resettle them in its first term, hoping Yemen would stabilize. It finally gave up and began resettling Yemenis in late 2014. The final push, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations, traces back to May 14, 2015, when Mr. Obama met at Camp David with leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations — including Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — and obtained political commitments to help resettle Yemeni detainees. At the time, there were 57 men on the transfer list, about 49 of whom were Yemenis. Then, that July, several events helped set the conditions to turn such talk into transfers. First, the administration appointed Lee Wolosky to fill the vacancy as the State Department special envoy for Guantánamo closure, a role that had been open for six months his Pentagon counterpart was Paul Lewis. Then, Mr. Wolosky met with Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, and they developed a plan to speed up the process by imposing a deadline on the Pentagon to act on any proposal. Under law, the secretary of defense must approve any transfer both Chuck Hagel, the former secretary, and Ashton B. Carter, who took over in early 2015, went through periods when they were slow to act. Later that month, at a National Security Council Principals Committee meeting, the White House presented Mr. Carter with a memo imposing the deadline. According to several witnesses, he reacted angrily. But the Pentagon soon began moving more swiftly, including by starting its review of proposals without waiting for other agencies to sign off first, officials said. At the time, Mr. Kerry was in Europe completing the Iran nuclear deal. After he returned, he called Mr. Wolosky into his office and they agreed to make sustained diplomatic engagement on transfers a priority. Mr. Wolosky also obtained the authority to offer assistance to defray resettlement during negotiations, in the range of $100, 000, out of a Pentagon contingency fund without waiting for permission, officials said. Those events set the stage for the final push. Some detainees went to Europe, but the largest batches went to the Gulf nations, which the administration — attracted by the idea of sending Yemenis to a place with a shared language and capable internal security agencies — repeatedly asked for more help. In an interview, Mr. Wolosky said that even if Mr. Trump fills the prison back up, he does not consider his efforts to have been in vain “because detainees are not fungible. ” “Looking at these cases on an individualized basis was the right thing to do legally and morally,” he said. “A number of detainees the United States government unanimously decided years ago it no longer needed to detain were finally and responsibly released from U. S. custody. That is irreversible, regardless of what policy the next administration pursues. ” | 1 |
A billionaire, a queen and an American first lady walked into a public charter school on Wednesday, collecting bouquets, examining owl pellets and hugging students amid the clicking of cameras. The visit to Excel Academy, an charter school, by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Queen Rania of Jordan and Melania Trump, the first lady, was meant to emphasize the Trump administration’s stance on school choice. But it was also part of a day of photo ops intended to cast a softer lens on a presidential administration grappling with several international crises, and provide another glimpse of a first lady whose sporadic appearances in Washington have revealed relatively little about her own leadership style. Earlier in the day, Mrs. Trump and Queen Rania stood behind President Trump and King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House. It was just one item on Wednesday’s agenda, which was also packed with a news conference to condemn a chemical attack in Syria and meetings to discuss brokering a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. At the news conference in the Rose Garden, Mr. Trump said his position on the civil war in Syria and his opinion of the country’s president, Bashar had changed. Mr. Trump did not offer details on any shift in policy. King Abdullah is viewed as a moderate voice among Arab leaders and has established himself as a willing partner to Mr. Trump. This was his second visit to Washington since Inauguration Day. The day’s visits offered the American public another look at Mrs. Trump, who has revealed relatively little about her approach to the role of first lady. As a woman who has been in the public eye for decades, Queen Rania might have provided a template of sorts for Mrs. Trump: She is an education activist and a member of Jordanian royalty, and her public presence is with bilingual updates on her trips to schools, family events and hospitals. At the short listening session with students at Excel Academy, Queen Rania asked questions about the coursework and curriculum. Mrs. Trump stuck to the basics, asking the students for their names and grade levels, but later elaborated on the visit in a statement relayed by the White House. “Education is critical to our efforts to shine a light on the topic of gender equality and empowerment of women,” Mrs. Trump said. “Hearing directly from teachers and the students who attend the school was an important step in the dialogue needed to further my agenda as first lady of the United States. ” The meeting between Queen Rania and Mrs. Trump was quickly framed on social media as a battle of the stylish. Both women appeared in structured looks: Mrs. Trump in a kelly green dress with a center slit and belt, and Queen Rania in a black ensemble with a high neck. Vanessa Friedman, our chief fashion critic, offered her analysis: “They both seem to have dressed for business: and suited (or in Mrs. Trump’s case, ). It’s a very safe look, for both women, if not one that conveys fun or relaxation — or even modernity. Rather, both looks respect the office, and the idea of a state visit. Though interestingly, there is also something subtly militaristic in the tailored lines of each outfit. ” Because Americans know little about her, the curiosity surrounding Mrs. Trump is sometimes focused intensely on her aesthetic: Her official portrait, released this week, instantly spawned debate over what she was wearing, her makeup, her airbrushing choices, her outfit’s designer and her physical stance. Her meeting with Queen Rania, whose outfits are often featured in tabloids for those seeking to replicate her choices, is likely to prompt a similar reaction. | 0 |
LOL! Social Justice Warriors Were Triggered By This ‘GENDER IDENTITY’ Joke On Saturday Night Live shares Facebook
Saturday Night Live definitely leans left, they love to make fun of conservatives. But every once in a while they poke fun at the left. In this case, they made a joke about gender identity on the dating application Tinder. They also pulled the election into it.
In case you didn’t see it, here’s the joke:
Social justice warriors on Twitter were not happy: What the fuck is this @SNLUpdate pic.twitter.com/Q3PTZghM5g
— Sam Escobar 👻 (@myhairisblue) November 21, 2016 Trans & gender nonconforming people are more likely to be harassed, attacked, abused, discriminated against — but yeah. LOL DEMS! @SNLUpdate
— Sam Escobar 👻 (@myhairisblue) November 21, 2016 Dear @ColinJost and @nbcsnl : thank you so much for supporting the erasure of non-cis people. Thanks for actively contributing to oppression.
— Sam Escobar 👻 (@myhairisblue) November 21, 2016 @ColinJost i don't think, as a professional comedian, it can possibly escape you how this joke is punching way way down.
— Emma Phipps (@phippsdontlie) November 22, 2016 @ColinJost You wish you had a point. Instead it's just tired old LGBT-shaming disguised as edgy commentary.
— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) November 22, 2016 The fallout of this election has been a beautiful destruction. Intolerance is everywhere and it is eye opening to the masses. https://t.co/BbdFsO1Frh And before you say its "just a joke," here are 2 reminders:1) jokes like these normalize oppression2) SNL doesn't know how to write jokes.
— Sam Escobar 👻 (@myhairisblue) November 21, 2016
Lighten up, snowflakes!
The actor in the skit ultimately responded: @PWRBTTMBAND so you think 100 percent of Trump voters were hatred and 0 percent had any other rationale?
— Colin Jost (@ColinJost) November 22, 2016 @PWRBTTMBAND It's politics. A lot of politics is messaging and getting America on board. I want to examine how we failed at that goal.
— Colin Jost (@ColinJost) November 22, 2016 @PWRBTTMBAND I worry about not doing any self-examination and making the same mistake again.
— Colin Jost (@ColinJost) November 22, 2016
Wow. It looks like Colin Jost is way ahead of the Democratic Party. shares | 0 |
Регион: США в мире Как отмечает в своей новой статье американский режиссер и журналист Андре Влчек, странная ирония есть в том, что голосовать на выборах президента Соединенных Штатов могут только американцы, однако мириться с последствиями этих выборов должен весь мир. И хотя победу одержал Трамп, который не считается «явным представителем» западных элит, он все равно имеет к ним самое прямое отношение. Автор напоминает, что в переводе с греческого «демократия» означает «власть людей», но отнюдь не «власть элит». А потому даже то «меньшее зло», которое сегодня будет править Соединенным Штатами — все равно остается злом. Автор отмечает, что за последние десятилетия мир достаточно натерпелся от «последней империи на Земле». А потому не пора ли последовать примеру британцев, которые заявили о брексите, и объявить «вордсит» т.е. полное игнорирование США со стороны всех суверенных государств. Может быть, тогда плутократия в США наконец-то сменится неким подобием демократии. С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 0 |
ISTANBUL — Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was assassinated at an Ankara art exhibit on Monday evening by a lone Turkish gunman shouting “God is great!” and “don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!” in what the leaders of Turkey and Russia called a provocative terrorist attack. The gunman, described by Turkish officials as a police officer, also wounded at least three others in the assault on the envoy, Andrey G. Karlov, which was captured on video. Turkish officials said the assailant was killed by other officers in a shootout. The assassination, an embarrassing security failure in the Turkish capital, forced Turkey and Russia to confront a new crisis tied directly to the Syrian conflict, now in its sixth year. The implications for the relationship, which had been warming recently after plunging a year ago, were not immediately clear. But some analysts played down the notion that the assassination would lead to a new rupture, saying it could conversely bring the countries closer together in a shared fight against terrorism. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Russian television that Mr. Karlov had been “despicably killed” to sabotage ties with Turkey. Mr. Putin spoke with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, by phone, and the two leaders agreed to cooperate in investigating the killing, and in combating terrorism broadly. In an emergency meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov and other top officials, Mr. Putin said, “There can be only one answer to this — stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this. ” Mr. Erdogan, in a speech late Monday night, said the assassination was a provocation meant to derail efforts by Turkey and Russia to collaborate more closely on regional issues and economic ties. “We know that this is a provocation aiming to destroy the normalization process of relations,” Mr. Erdogan said. “But the Russian government and the Turkish republic have the will to not fall into that provocation. ” The assassination came after days of protests by Turks angry over Russia’s support for the Syrian government in the conflict and the Russian role in the killings and destruction in Aleppo, the northern Syrian city. The Russian envoy was shot from behind and immediately fell to the floor while speaking at an exhibition of photographs, according to multiple accounts from the scene, the Contemporary Arts Center in the Cankaya area of Ankara. The gunman, wearing a dark suit and tie, was seen in video footage of the assault waving a pistol and shouting in Arabic: “God is great! Those who pledged allegiance to Muhammad for jihad. God is great!” Then he switched to Turkish and shouted: “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria! Step back! Step back! Only death can take me from here. ” Hasim Kilic, a Turkish photographer for the Hurriyet news organization who witnessed the attack and sold his images to Reuters, said in a telephone interview that the gunman had fired seven shots at the ambassador — “four from behind, three while the body was on the ground” — as guests screamed and scrambled to hide. Mr. Kilic, who was crouched behind a cocktail table about 12 feet away, said the gunman had ordered everyone else out and refused a security guard’s request to drop his weapon. “Call the police, and I will die here,” Mr. Kilic quoted the assailant as saying. Turkish officials said the gunman was killed after a shootout with Turkish Special Forces. He was identified by Turkey’s interior minister as Mevlut Mert Altintas, from the western province of Aydin and a graduate of a police college in Izmir. Local news reports said that Mr. Altintas’s mother and sister had been arrested and that a computer had been confiscated from their house. While it was too early to tell if the gunman acted alone, his use of jihadist slogans and his invocation of Syria raised the possibility that he was a member, or at least a sympathizer, of an Islamist group like Al Qaeda’s Syria affiliate or the Islamic State, two organizations that Turkey has been accused by allies, including the United States, of supporting in the past. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told the Rossiya 24 news channel that Mr. Karlov had died of his wounds in what she described as a terrorist attack. Turkey’s Interior Ministry said the ambassador had died at Guven Hospital in Ankara. Russian news agencies said the ambassador’s wife fainted and was hospitalized after learning of her husband’s death. They also said that as a precaution, Russian tourists in Turkey had been advised against leaving their hotel rooms or visiting public places. Russia’s Tass news agency said that Mr. Karlov had been shot from behind while finishing remarks at the opening of an art exhibition titled “Russia Through Turks’ Eyes. ” Mr. Karlov, who started his career as a diplomat in 1976, worked extensively in North Korea over two decades, before changing regions in 2007, according to a biography on the Russian Embassy’s website. He became ambassador in July 2013. The attack was a rare instance of an assassination of a Russian envoy. Historians said it might have been the first since Pyotr Voykov, a Soviet ambassador to Poland, was shot to death in Warsaw in 1927. For many Russians, the assassination is likely to recall the killing in Tehran of Aleksandr Griboyedov, a poet and diplomat who died after a mob stormed the Russian Embassy. That episode is remembered as the most severe insult to Russia’s diplomatic corps in the country’s history. More recently, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, now allied with Russia in Syria, kidnapped four Soviet diplomats in 1985, killing one and releasing three a month later. The United States, which has tangled bitterly with Russia over the Syrian conflict, quickly condemned the assassination in Ankara. In a statement, Secretary of State John Kerry called it a “despicable attack, which was also an assault on the right of all diplomats to safely and securely advance and represent their nations around the world. ” Other prominent officials who often criticize Russia’s actions in Syria and elsewhere also offered their condolences. “No justification for such a heinous act,” Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, said on Twitter. Secretary General Ban of the United Nations said he was “appalled by this senseless act of terror. ” Donald J. Trump, who has been accused by critics of aligning with Russia, said in a statement that Mr. Karlov had been “assassinated by a radical Islamic terrorist. ” The assassination also illustrated the long reach of the Syrian war. It has destabilized Europe with hundreds of thousands of refugees, spawned terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, and led to the rise of the Islamic State, which controls territory across Iraq and Syria. When the war began, Turkey was rising and confident, and Mr. Erdogan, then its prime minister, began supporting rebels seeking the ouster of the Syrian president, Bashar . Preoccupied with bringing Mr. Assad down, Turkey opened its borders to weapons and fighters flowing to the rebels, turning a blind eye, for a time, when the opposition turned increasingly Islamist. As the war ground on, the consequences for Turkey were profound. It was overwhelmed with refugees — more than three million now reside in the country — and the rise of the Islamic State led to terrorist attacks within Turkey’s borders. In the fall of 2015, Russia entered the conflict in support of the Syrian government, reinforcing Mr. Assad at a weak moment and dealing a blow to Turkey’s ambitions in Syria. Relations between Turkey and Russia reached a low point in November 2015 after Turkey shot down a Russian jet near the Syrian border. But this year, in an effort to restore relations, Mr. Erdogan, now Turkey’s president, met with Mr. Putin in St. Petersburg, and ever since the two countries have largely put aside their differences on Syria and focused on improving economic ties. In August, when Turkey’s military went into Syria to push the Islamic State out of the border town of Jarabulus, the move was widely seen as having been made with the tacit approval of Russia. For Turkey, the Ankara attack resonated in the Turkish collective memory: Turkey lost many diplomats in the 20th century to Armenian militants in a campaign to avenge the Armenian genocide during World War I. “Turkey is very aware of the size of this failure, and I think the government will make every effort to investigate this fully,” Sinan Ulgen, a Turkish former diplomat who is the chairman of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, an Istanbul research organization, said of the Russian diplomat’s assassination. “I don’t expect any crisis between Turkey and Russia. ” Since the Turkish military incursion into Syria in August, Mr. Erdogan’s criticism of Russia over Syria had been muted. But Mr. Erdogan faced a dilemma: Even as he was warming to Russia, he faced a Turkish public, not to mention the Syrian refugees within Turkey, angry over Russia’s role in the bombing of Aleppo. On Monday evening in Istanbul, just after the assassination, a group of protesters gathered outside the Russian consulate on Istiklal Avenue, the city’s largest pedestrian street. The gathering was more street theater than protest, with two men lying on the street, shrouded in bloody sheets and the Syrian flag, and surrounded by candles, to represent the killings in Aleppo. Mohammed a Syrian activist who participated, said, “I felt extreme happiness when I heard the news” of the assassination. He continued: “This is the first step in getting justice for the Syrian people. The ambassador is not innocent. He represents the foreign policy of his murderous state and thus he is a murderer, as well. Now we are waiting for revenge against everyone who shed blood in Syria. ” | 1 |
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“The Art of War”
How to vote No to Nuclear Weapons by Manlio Dinucci The US has just discarded a proposal by its allies in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly seeking the total elimination of nuclear weapons. However States illegally harbouring US nuclear bombs may request their removal from their territory by virtue of art 2 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Voltaire Network | Rome (Italy) | 2 November 2016 français italiano “Thank you, President Obama. Italy will pursue with great determination its commitment for nuclear security”: so wrote Prime Minister Renzi in a historic tweet. Six months later, at the United Nations, Renzi voted Yes to nuclear weapons. Towing the line to the USA, the Italian government sided against the Resolution approved by a large majority of the First Committee of the General Assembly, requesting that a United Nations Conference be called in 2017 to “negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons leading towards their total elimination”.
Thus the Italian government went back on what it had promised two years ago at the Vienna Convention, to the “petitioning”, anti-nuclear movements when it assured them that it was willing to work for nuclear disarmament by playing the “role of a mediator patiently and with diplomacy”. Thus into a void falls our appeal, “ We demand total nuclear disarmament ”, which pleads the government for “a coherent pursuit of the commitment and fight for wiping out nuclear weapons”, in a “humanitarian and legal journey towards nuclear disarmament” where Italy could play “a more active role, possibly [even] a driving role”.
The parliamentary motions of this same tenor also fall as a consequence. It is easy enough to use the generic calls to nuclear disarmament: we only need to reflect on the fact that the US President has established nuclear rearmament to the tune of 1,000 billion dollars yet he has been honoured with the Nobel Prize for Peace for “his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons”.
The specific way that Italy can contribute to the objective of nuclear disarmament, enunciated in the United Nations Resolution, is to free our country from US nuclear weapons. To achieve this, we need not appeal to the government, but [simply] to ask it to respect the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), signed and ratified by Italy, art 2 of which provides:
“Each State that is militarily non-nuclear and which is a Party to this Treaty, undertakes not to receive from anyone else nuclear weapons or other explosive nuclear devices, nor to control such weapons and explosive devices, directly or indirectly”.
We must ask Italy to stop violating the NPT and ask the United States to immediately remove all its nuclear weapons from our territory and not to install in it the new B61-12 bombs, a springboard for USA/Nato nuclear escalation against Russia, nor any other nuclear weapons. We must [also] ask that the training of Italian pilots, to use nuclear weapons under US command, be put to an end.
This is the aim of the campaign launched by the Committee No War, No Nato and other organizations. The campaign obtained its first significant result: on 26 October, at the Regional Council of Tuscany, a motion of the group Sì Toscana a Sinistra was approved that “commits the Group to ask the Government to respect the Non Proliferation Treaty for Nuclear Weapons and to ensure that the Untied States immediately removes any nuclear weapon from the Italian territory and desists from installing [on Italian soil] the new B61-12 bombs and other nuclear weapons”. Through these and other initiatives, we can create a wide-reaching front that, with a strong mobilization, forces the government to respect the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Six months ago, requests were made in the pages of Il Manifesto whether, on the basis of the NPT, someone in Parliament might be ready to request for US nuclear weapons to be immediately removed from Italy. We are still awaiting a response.
Manlio Dinucci Translation
Anoosha Boralessa
Source
Il Manifesto (Italy) | 1 |
It is 1860 and Stephen Douglas is running against Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s election will lead to a civil war. The pitfalls of catastrophic events were ever present.
In 2016, it is Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton. It is becoming clear that the election of either candidate will set off civil unrest and possibly lead to a civil war.
We are now just beginning to see a myriad of pieces fall into place in which will irrevocably divide this country for at least a generation.
When Hillary Clinton wins, the awakened American people, and some in the military will not accept this country being handed off to the UN and ultimately the Chinese. Hillary has no plan for America and the reason is clear. America has no future is she is elected by hook or crook.
If Trump even gets close to winning, the forces are of the NWO are not going to forsake the continued raping of the American people and just give up. They will fight!
The Electoral College Through out this week, I have documented case after case of voter fraud through the use of George Soros voting machines. Soros is omnipresent in the voting fraud fiasco. Also, I have broken a story about the attempted bribe of an elector in Arizona and this is only the beginning.
This summer we will begin to hear rumors of the officials of the Electoral College being bought off by TPTB, for it is their vote, not the people, whose votes will elect the next President. Trump could win 70% of the vote and not carry one state if the Electoral College refuses to cast their vote in accordance with the popular vote. And you thought you lived in a Republican form of Democracy.
As I just pointed out, there is always the question of “dirty” voting machines. Most pollsters will tell you that if the general vote is reported with more than 3-4% variation from the polls, one can easily demonstrate voter fraud. However, do you think TPTB, the criminal elite running this country, will care at this point that you know what they are doing? This is why they do the fake polls to condition us to the fact that Trump is losing. He is not, he is winning in a landslide. Further, the globalists always have their finger on the false flag button. This is why they have economic collapse, World War III, power grid down, a manufactured food crisis, etc., etc., etc., and the ultimate martial law to accompany any and all of these potentialities waiting in the wings.
Right now, UWEX 16 is practicing for Civil War and foreign troops are in play. UWEX 16 (i.e. Jade Helm 16) will be spreading to other states as announced in their operational plans. The Federal Reserve has met with Obama and Biden. The only thing that Obama could the Fed is the use of the military to put down any populist uprising over a stolen election or a false flag attack to prevent the election from happening.
Now, Paul Martin’s sources have learned and are communicating that there is a coordinated 18 state swat team drill. Could they be practicing for anything else but civil unrest over a stolen election? In short, if by some manner of Divine intervention, Trump wins, we will see massive terrorism in this country on an unprecedented scale from the Clinton Democrats and the terrorists we have let into the country through the Refugee/Resettlement program. I believe that Obama will not leave the White House and will impose his version of martial law, Executive Order 13603 style.
If Clinton is able to steal the election, America is done and unfortunately, the streets will run red with blood.
More Foreign Troops The knot in the noose, consists of the foreign troop movements that are taking place on our soil. I am getting repeated reports of large armored columns of UN vehicles being transporting or traveling on their own in the South stretching from Texas to Georgia. However, wide scale proof, with clear and convincing photos, not photo shopped, are lacking. Do I think that foreign military are planning for civil unrest in America? Yes, there is no question. I am encouraging all to keep their eyes open, take raw footage and transmit the raw footage to outlets like the The Common Sense Show .
Yesterday, when I said on a radio interview that America is grave danger because of Trump securing the nomination, these are just a few of the things that I had in mind. Yesterday, I was reading about massive revivals in West Virginia. Pray that these revivals sweep the country because we, the American public are defenseless and our faith is our best defense.
Conclusion Barring a miracle from the Almighty, the forces of subjugation have lined up against Trump and appear to have stolen the election. Pray, pray and pray some more that this 4th degree Coven Witch is not allowed to occupy the White House.
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When hackers associated with North Korea tried to break into Polish banks late last year they left a trail of information about their apparent intentions to steal money from more than 100 organizations around the world, according to security researchers. A list of internet protocol addresses, which was supplied by the security researchers and analyzed by The New York Times, showed that the hacking targets included institutions like the World Bank, the European Central Bank and big American companies including Bank of America. While some of the Polish banks took the hackers’ bait, the scheme was detected fairly quickly, and there is no evidence that any money was stolen from the intended targets. Yet security researchers said the hit list, found embedded in the code of the attack on more than 20 Polish banks, underlines how sophisticated the capabilities of North Korean hackers have become. Their goals have now turned financial, along with efforts to spread propaganda and heist data and to disrupt government and news websites in countries considered enemies. The list of targets, which has not been previously reported, is part of a growing body of evidence showing how North Korea, a country that is cut off from much of the global economy, is increasingly trying to use its cyberattack abilities to bring in cash — and making progressively bolder attempts to do so. North Korea’s hacking network is immense, encompassing a group of 1, 700 hackers aided by more than 5, 000 trainers, supervisors and others in supporting roles, South Korean officials estimate. Because of the country’s poor infrastructure, the hackers typically work abroad, in places like China, Southeast Asia and Europe. Like other North Koreans allowed to work abroad, the hackers are constantly monitored by minders for possible breaches in allegiance to the government. The security firm Symantec said it believed that the hackers behind the Poland attack were also behind two other major breaches: the theft of $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh and a 2014 attack on Sony Pictures, which rocked the film industry. “We found multiple links, which gave us reasonable confidence that it’s the same group behind Bangladesh as the Polish attacks,” said Eric Chien, a researcher at Symantec, which studied both attacks. The firm has not traced the attacks to a specific country’s government, but American officials have blamed North Korea for the Sony attack, partly based on intelligence that came from American breaches of North Korea’s computer systems. The list of targets uncovered in the Polish attack — including big American financial institutions like State Street Bank and Trust and the Bank of New York Mellon — is illuminating for its ambition, Mr. Chien added. “It’s one thing to go after Bangladesh,” he said, “but it’s a whole other thing to take on the U. S. ” United States prosecutors are investigating North Korea’s possible role in the Bangladesh heist, according to a person briefed on the inquiry, who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential. And on Tuesday, Richard Ledgett, a deputy director of the National Security Agency, said that research linked the Sony Pictures attack to the Bangladesh heist. He also affirmed that he believed nation states were now robbing banks. All of this represents a troubling new front in cyberwarfare, Mr. Ledgett said at an event sponsored by the Aspen Institute. “That is a big deal,” he said. North Korea has denied involvement in the attacks on Sony and others, instead accusing South Korea of disrupting its websites. North Korea’s population is cut off from the internet except for a handful of sites filled with propaganda. The Polish episode provides a case study of how North Korean cyberattack goals have escalated. The attack began around October when the hackers planted a virus on the website of the Polish financial regulator — then waited for banks to inadvertently download it when they visited the site. The perpetrators used what is called a attack — named after the way predators ambush prey by lazing around a spot — to go after the banks in this case, the “watering hole” was the financial regulator’s website. When the visitors on the list landed on the page, they would be redirected to software that would attempt to download malware. The list of targets extended beyond Poland, investigators said, because the group intended to carry out similar attacks elsewhere. “This was a global list, but they hadn’t gotten around to making a watering hole for all these country banks,” Mr. Chien said, adding that the hackers appeared to have created sites in Mexico and Uruguay, too. Symantec said it had blocked 14 attacks against computers in Mexico and 11 in Uruguay. The fact that the hackers were able to attack a specific site showed that their capabilities had improved, Mr. Chien said. The group also used its own modifications of code and exploits more broadly shared by cybercriminals, whereas before it had mostly built its own tools — another indication of evolution. While Polish banks were the most numerous targets, the number was in the United States, including the American arm of Deutsche Bank. CoBank, which lends to agriculture and rural projects, was targeted, too. The central banks of Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile and the Czech Republic were on the list. The only target associated with China: branches of the Bank of China in Hong Kong and America. North Korea has been carefully cultivating its cyberattack capabilities since the early 1990s, according to South Korean officials. Generally, the country selects young computer prodigies and trains them as hackers, according to people who have attended the South Korean government’s discussions of the North’s hacking operations. South Korean cybersecurity officials began detecting attacks attributed to North Korean hackers around 2009. Working overseas is a huge incentive for young hackers, since many North Koreans have little chance to leave their impoverished, isolated country. As long as the hackers meet their targets, they are allowed to live abroad and often get the added perk of running illegal gambling sites online, generating profits they can share with supervisors. While North Korea lags developed countries in hacking capabilities, it has occasionally startled observers in South Korea. In 2011, investigators found that a South Korean bank had been hit by malware when an infected computer used by a employee was briefly hooked into the bank’s server network. South Korean hackers who forensically analyzed the attack were impressed not so much by the malware, but by the fact that North Korean hackers had been so constantly on alert, apparently for hours or days on end, waiting for the short window during which the infected computer was connected to the bank’s servers so that they could activate the virus. While the Pentagon has recently warned that North Korea’s hacking abilities could be a way of conducting military operations, the attacks on banks shows the country’s more prosaic goal of getting money. “In the past, North Korean hackers usually attacked government websites with the goal of destroying systems and triggering social confusion,” said Kim a professor at the Graduate School of Information Security at Korea University in Seoul, who is an adviser for the South Korean government’s cybersecurity division. “Now they have shifted to making money, attacking banks and private companies, apparently because the North’s other means of raising foreign currency are increasingly blocked under United Nations sanctions,” Mr. Kim said. North Korean hackers have also begun using ransomware — viruses that encrypt all data in an infected computer or smartphone — to make money. The hackers demand a ransom, usually in Bitcoin, in return for providing victims with a decryption code. In July, the South Korean police said North Korea’s main intelligence agency had stolen the personal data of more than 10 million customers of Interpark, an online shopping mall in South Korea. Interpark did not learn about the breach until it received an anonymous message threatening to publicize the leak of personal data unless it paid the equivalent of $2. 7 million in Bitcoin. South Korea attributed the attack to hackers belonging to North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, its main spy agency. In the end, no Bitcoin changed hands. Instead of paying the ransom, Interpark reported the attack to the police. | 1 |
The City of Phoenix has declined the adoption of a sanctuary policy. [The Phoenix City Council turned down a plan to become a sanctuary city, citing that the state’s 2010 immigration law, SB1070, which bans any jurisdiction from providing a safe haven to illegal aliens, as the Associated Press reported. Phoenix’s Democrat Mayor Greg Stanton made the motion to deny the City from becoming a sanctuary jurisdiction, citing the 2010 immigration law, but then denounced President Donald Trump’s efforts of deporting criminal illegal immigrants. “We cannot allow this to continue to happen,” Phoenix resident Maria Castro said told the City Council, also noting that her mother is an illegal immigrant. “Deportations are happening every day. You are leaving orphans at home every single day. ” Others, though, took issue with illegal immigration. “We must be living in the ‘Twilight Zone,’” Tim Rafferty said. “This is the United States of America, we were built on laws. This isn’t about being mean or being hateful. This is our immigration law. ” A wide range of residents spoke before the city council, with sanctuary supporters invoking the detainment of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, an illegal alien in Phoenix, who was deported to Mexico. Garcia de Rayos had been living in the U. S. illegally since she was 14 and is married to another migrant. In 2008, she was detained by ICE after she found to be illegally using a Social Security number to work at a theme park. In 2013, a judge ordered her to return home to Mexico, but she instead was required to periodically meet with immigration officials due to lax enforcement policies under former President Obama. Now, Garcia de Rayos’ deportation is routinely used by the open borders lobby to advocate in favor of illegal immigration, as Breitbart News reported. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. On the eve of the New Jersey and California primaries, a survey by The Associated Press found that Hillary Clinton had enough delegates to clinch the nomination. The campaign manager for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said in a statement that The A. P.’s ruling was “unfortunate” and “a rush to judgment. ” Mr. Sanders had hoped that a victory in California might persuade party leaders to back him. President Obama has yet to endorse either candidate, but his aides have said that he is eager to campaign on behalf of Mrs. Clinton and is particularly enthusiastic about taking on Donald J. Trump. _____ 2. As Iraqi forces and their Shiite militia allies try to wrest the city of Falluja from the grip of the Islamic State militants, thousands of civilians have fled, braving the perils of nighttime journeys and the militants’ gunfire to make it out. But at least 50, 000 more are trapped inside, and as many as 20, 000 may be children. Aid workers worry that many will be threatened by starvation if the siege wears on. _____ 3. After a lackluster jobs report in May, the Federal Reserve may be rethinking its plan to raise interest rates. Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, gave a speech on Monday in which she did not repeat her past remarks about a rate increase “in the coming months. ” She insisted though, that one bad report would not cause the Fed to chart an entirely new course: The bank could still decide to raise rates in the summer or the fall. _____ 4. A sexual assault case that had already made its way through court drew fresh attention after the victim’s entire statement to her attacker in court was published. The defendant, a former student at Stanford University, was sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of three counts of sexual assault, a punishment that many critics said was far too lenient. An effort has been mounted to recall the judge who handed out the sentence. _____ 5. The Cavaliers have lost the first two games of the N. B. A. Finals by a combined margin of 48 points. In other words, they’re getting crushed by the Golden State Warriors, who are intent on capturing their second consecutive championship. Our analyst places much of the blame on the shoulders of the Cavs’ superstar, LeBron James. After all, he writes, “this was the team the King himself courted. ” _____ 6. The Ohio woman whose son wandered into a gorilla exhibit, leading to the fatal shooting of a silverback named Harambe, will not face charges, a state prosecutor announced Monday. “She was being attentive to her children by all witness accounts,” the prosecutor said. “And the just scampered off. ” The episode has raised questions about whether gorillas really belong in zoos. _____ 7. American sailors stationed in Japan were prohibited from drinking after an officer was arrested in connection with a car accident that left two Japanese civilians injured. Resentment against the U. S. military on Okinawa has been rising, and the arrest of the sailor, who was thought to be drunk, caused a public outcry. _____ 8. If Mark Zuckerberg is vulnerable to hacking, then who among us is safe? That was the question after news broke that the Facebook billionaire was the victim of a hacking collective, which broke into several of his social media accounts. The simplest way to avoid a similar fate? Use different passwords for different websites, and change them frequently. _____ 9. New Yorkers often think of Pennsylvania Station as a grim purgatory, one best avoided if possible. Yet some of the most beautiful music ever written — Mozart, Beethoven — is piped into the station. The D. J. s are not fellow travelers, but three Texan women who attempt to anticipate the music that will best soothe Gothamites. _____ 10. Rain kept Kanye West from performing at the Governors Ball music festival on Sunday. So the rapper displayed the extent of his powers: He signaled that he would play a concert at 2 in the morning at another venue in the East Village. A crowd materialized out of thin air, but the concert was not to be. The closest Mr. West came to performing was to emerge briefly from the sunroof of a car he was riding in. _____ 11. Most of us would never imagine wanting to track the brain signals of amorous flies, or that the task might present a tricky problem. A paper released last month details the way a team of California scientists worked their way through that experiment using cameras, lasers and surgery, in which the tops of the creatures’ heads were replaced by tiny glass windows. _____ 12. Muhammad Ali broke all the rules of boxing. So what made him a champion? Fast feet. A pesky jab. An iron jaw. A lean frame. And a cunning, calculating, mind. That final attribute also contributed to his singular status as a politically outspoken, unapologetically black athlete who never sold out, our columnist writes. _____ 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 |
Columnist Pat Buchanan asks why greater emphasis isn’t being placed on the leaking of classified intelligence to the media concerning the investigation of alleged connections between the Trump campaign and the Russians. If FBI director Comey is unwilling to investigate these illegal leaks, Buchanan suggests a special counsel should. [From Buchanan’s latest column: Is the FBI investigating the intelligence sources who committed felonies by illegally disclosing information about the Trump campaign? Comey would not commit to investigate these leaks, though this could involve criminal misconduct within his own FBI. Again, the only known crimes committed by Americans during and after the campaign are the leaks of security secrets by agents of the intel community, colluding with the Fourth Estate, which uses the First Amendment to provide cover for criminal sources, whom they hail as “whistleblowers. ” Indeed, if there was no surveillance of Trump of any kind, where did all these stories come from, which their reporters attributed to “intelligence sources”? Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from any role in the Russian hacking scandal. But the Justice Department should demand that the FBI put the highest priority on investigating the deep state and its journalistic collaborators in the sabotage of the Trump presidency. If Comey refuses to do it, appoint a special counsel. Read the rest here. | 0 |
7 Things You Need To Know About Trump And Sex Slave Island By: Amanda Prestigiacomo May 9, 2016
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at Hillary Clinton when it comes to her husband's escapades. "The kitchen sink," in this case, is Jeffery Epstein's “Sex Slave Island” and President Bill Clinton’s ties to it .
Why wouldn’t Trump use this ammo? The answer is simple: Trump himself has ties to Epstein, the billionaire Democratic donor and convicted pedophile known for having under-age sex slaves on his private plane and what the media calls "Sex Slave Island."
Here are seven connections between Trump and Epstein's sex slave endeavors that you need to know about:
1. Trump himself has said that Epstein is “a lot of fun to be with,” adding that he admired the sex offender's affinity for beautiful women “on the younger side.”
"I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,'' Trump once said about the convicted sex offender. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it -- Jeffrey enjoys his social life."
2. Trump was named in Epstein’s “little black book.”
Epstein’s “ little black book ” was stolen by a former employee in 2004. The book, nicknamed "The Holy Grail" by the employee, revealed the name of Donald Trump and listed “14 phone numbers including emergency numbers, car numbers, and numbers to Trump's security guard and houseman.”
3. Trump has allegedly flown on Epstein’s private plane — a hot spot for under-age sex orgies.
“Mark Epstein, Jeffrey's brother, testified in 2009 that Trump flew on Jeffrey's private jet at least once,” reports VICE News . “Meanwhile, message pads [see below] from Epstein's Palm Beach mansion that were seized by investigators and obtained by VICE News indicate that Trump called Epstein twice in November of 2004.”
Epstein’s private Boeing 727, according to one of his alleged victims, Virginia Roberts, was nicknamed the “Lolita Express.” Roberts recalled “unsavoury” sex orgies on the private plane when she was just 15 years of age with Epstein and his friends.
4. Both Trump and Epstein are named as sex abusers in a case with an under-aged girl.
Radar Online reports that a woman in California, “identified” as Katie Johnson, filed a $100 million lawsuit against Trump on April 26, accusing the real estate mogul of raping her when she was just 13 years old.
Johnson “claims Trump raped her when she was 13-years-old and forced her to engage in sex acts by threatening to harm her and her family,” notes The Independent UK . “She claims the alleged abuse took place over a four-month period at underage sex parties held in New York City in 1994.” Epstein was also named for alleged sexual misconduct and threats.
Trump’s team adamantly denies the accusation, suspecting the claim is possibly a hoax since there is allegedly “no evidence” the plaintiff “actually exists.”
5. Epstein admitted to knowing Trump under oath, and curiously pled the fifth to Trump attending sex parties with underage girls.
Back in 2010, Epstein admitted to “socializing” with Trump, but when a lawyer representing an under-aged victim of Epstein’s asked if he has “ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18,” Epstein curiously pled the Fifth. Per Vice News : Q: Have you ever had a personal relationship with Donald Trump? A. What do you mean by "personal relationship," sir? Q. Have you socialized with him? A. Yes, sir. Q. Yes? A. Yes, sir. Q. Have you ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18? A: Though I'd like to answer that question, at least today I'm going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth, and 14th Amendment rights, sir.
6. At least one of Epstein’s underage sex victims was recruited from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago — which he frequented often.
Virginia Roberts, an alleged victim of Epstein’s, "was recruited to perform a massage for Epstein while working as a $9-per-hour locker room attendant at Mar-A-Lago.”
Roberts claims that “Epstein turned her into a ‘sex slave’ and pimped her out to various friends, including England's Prince Andrew. Over the years, the passengers on Epstein's jet, she said, included ‘a whole bunch of other girls, sometimes famous people, sometimes some politicians.'"
7. Trump was subpoenaed in 2009 for his connection to Epstein’s under-age sex slave rings. Trump has denied ever being served.
In 2009, Trump was subpoenaed in a case against Epstein concerning victim Virginia Roberts. Trump's attorney Alan Garten said that the subpoena "never happened."
"There is no debate over what happened," said one of Roberts' attorneys. "I served Mr. Trump with a subpoena for deposition in 2009. He talked to me voluntarily, and consequently we withdrew the subpoena in light of his voluntarily providing information…. I can't imagine there being any dispute of any of this."
Additionally, Garten told VICE News in January that Mr. Trump has "no relationship" with Epstein other than the Democratic donor frequenting Trump's Mar-A-Lago. "A lot of people hung out there, including Jeffrey Epstein," said Garten. "That is the only connection."
According to the evidence, however, the connections with Epstein appear to go a lot deeper than that. Tags | 1 |
BERLIN (AP) — Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal doesn’t get much sleep these days, but says it’s well worth it. The community rabbi and head of the Jewish outreach group Chabad in Berlin has been campaigning relentlessly to turn his dream of creating a Jewish campus in Germany into a reality. [For years, he’s lobbied the German authorities, raised millions of euros (dollars) in funds and bought a 3, 000 square meter (32, 000 square feet) plot of land next to Chabad’s synagogue in the German capital’s Wilmersdorf district. More than just a new facility, Teichtal sees the center as a step toward Chabad’s goal of a vibrant Jewish community in the former Nazi capital, in part by welcoming and integrating Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union and encouraging interactions with . “Everyone in Europe talks about fears and uncertainties, we’re talking about going forward,” said the orthodox rabbi, looking across the large empty plot where a few containers have been set up as a temporary extension of Chabad’s kindergarten. The planned building will be dedicated to Jewish education, culture and sports, the first of its kind in Germany. If all goes to plan, the groundbreaking is scheduled for September and the entire campus is slated to be finished in late 2019. German authorities approved some of the permissions earlier this month. “With all the challenges we’re facing today, building this campus is a signal: We’re here to stay — otherwise we wouldn’t build,” says Teichtal, who wears a traditional beard, a velvet kippah and a black caftan. Germany has experienced a strong influx of Jews in recent decades and Berlin has the biggest Jewish community in Germany, with about 40, 000 members. Those numbers are still a far cry, however, from Germany’s flourishing Jewish community of more than 500, 000 before the Nazi period, with some 120, 000 Jews in Berlin alone. Overall, some six million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Because of its history, Germany took in some 200, 000 Jews from the former Soviet Union since the fall of communism in 1989 — most of them secular and with only little knowledge about their own religion. When Rabbi Teichtal and his wife Leah set out from Brooklyn to Berlin 20 years ago, they came with the goal of reaching out to this group, but also to the established German Jewry. Though New York based, Chabad members are sent out as “Jewish messengers” around the globe with the aim of getting mostly unaffiliated Jews in touch with their religion. In the last two decades, the Chabad community in Berlin has kept growing and there are now around 600 to 700 families who regularly take part in the community’s offerings, Teichtal said. Chabad has a synagogue, an educational center, a kindergarten, an elementary and high school — but the facilities are spread over the city and so popular that the Jewish group can’t offer places to all the applicants. With the establishment of the new 7, 000 (75, 300 ) campus, all Chabad schools will all be united under one roof and also offer more facilities, including a library, cafeteria, movie theater, concert hall and a ballroom for weddings and other festivities. The sports center will include an indoor basketball court and opportunities for soccer and other ball games. Outside, there’ll be a playground and a garden. The cost of the entire campus is projected at around 18 million euros ($20. 3 million). It’s being funded by the federal government, Berlin’s state government, several German foundations and private donations. Unlike most Jewish institutions in Germany, which are behind fences and tightly guarded against attacks, Teichtal says he wants the Jewish campus to be open to everyone. “It should become a place where Jews and can come together and meet,” he said. | 0 |
Everyone needs a genuine reminder now and again of how stunning they are – both inside and out. Fortunately, a travel photographer named Mehmet Genç has been doing just that as he’s... | 0 |
The FBI has learned of more emails involving Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she headed the State Department, FBI Director James Comey told several members of Congress, telling them he is reopening the investigation. “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of email that appear to be pertinent” to Clinton’s investigation, Comey wrote to the chairs of several relevant congressional committees, adding that he was briefed about the messages on Thursday. “I agree that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
FBI Director Comey, in letter to members of Congress, says FBI is investigating additional emails in Clinton private server case pic.twitter.com/Ue0qlhqT5w
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) October 28, 2016
The FBI director cautioned, however, that the bureau has yet to assess the importance of the material, and that he doesn’t know how long that will take.
FBI Dir just informed me, "The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation." Case reopened
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 28, 2016
Stocks fell after Comey’s announcement, CNBC reported.
Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, praised the decision to reopen the case.
“Now that the FBI has reopened the matter, it must conduct the investigation with impartiality and thoroughness,” he said in a statement. “The American people deserve no less and no one should be above the law.”
Almost 15,000 new Clinton emails were discovered in September.
In mid-October, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, promised at least “four new hearings” after Congress returns from recess in November based on the new emails, which lawmakers received but have not been made public.
“This is a flashing red light of potential criminality,” Chaffetz said.
The new evidence points to a “quid pro quo” arrangement between the FBI and the State Department, he noted.
DEVELOPING — DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Source: RT News
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WASHINGTON — The book jacket for J. Dennis Hastert’s 2004 memoir, “Speaker,” proudly notes how little known he was by the public despite being one of the most powerful people in America. “Not because he has anything to hide,” it says, “but because he doesn’t care who gets the credit. ” It turns out that John Dennis Hastert did have something to hide, something quite reprehensible. Now his admission in federal court that he sexually molested wrestlers on the Illinois high school team he coached years before setting foot on Capitol Hill is provoking a of his tenure as the Republican speaker. And Mr. Hastert fares poorly in this new light. The bill of particulars is lengthy. Consider the Mark Foley page scandal. An explosion in questionable “earmarking” for pet legislative projects. The neutering of an already weak ethics process. Hardball tactics on the House floor. A weakening of committee chairmen accompanied by heightened pressure on them to leverage legislative clout to raise campaign money. Undue deference to the executive branch. Personal enrichment. Take those together with the shocking revelations of sexual abuse of youths placed in the trust of Mr. Hastert, a popular and successful coach, and he emerges as a deeply flawed figure who contributed significantly to the dysfunction that defines Congress today. Even his namesake Hastert rule — the informal standard that no legislation should be brought to a vote without the support of a majority of the majority — has come to be seen as a structural barrier to compromise. Mr. Hastert’s affable persona and the odd circumstances that thrust him into the speakership — a surprise resignation at a moment of crisis and the lack of alternative consensus candidates — kept expectations low and helped insulate him from harsh criticism. “Nobody was going to see him as evil incarnate or someone who was fundamentally undermining the integrity of the legislative process,” said Norman J. Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who has been critical of Mr. Hastert and his era in the House. “But the abuses and the offenses just kept piling up. ” The nature of Mr. Hastert’s sexual conduct with the youths — one of whom took financial compensation that led to law enforcement scrutiny of Mr. Hastert’s banking practices — raises new questions about his handling of the page scandal. Disclosures of sexually charged communications from Mr. Foley, then a Republican House member from Florida, to teenage pages whose welfare was the responsibility of House leaders caused a furor in 2006 and helped Democrats take back the House. Mr. Hastert professed no awareness of the activities even though others said he had been alerted to the behavior but did nothing. It is now easy to imagine that Mr. Hastert had hoped the problem would disappear out of fear of bringing attention to his own past. In fact, rumors about Mr. Hastert surfaced at the time but nothing ever came of them until years later, when large bank withdrawals to pay one of his victims caught the attention of federal authorities. It was a sex scandal that put Mr. Hastert into the top House job in the first place. Robert Livingston, a Louisiana Republican in line to replace Newt Gingrich, was forced to step aside after accusations of marital infidelity as the House impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998. Republicans settled on Mr. Hastert, then a deputy to the feared House whip, Tom DeLay of Texas, a figure so polarizing he could not move into the speaker’s chair. Mr. Hastert and Mr. DeLay worked closely for years. And after Mr. DeLay faced ethics recriminations over lawmakers on a major Medicare vote in 2003, Mr. Hastert ousted the ethics chairman and key staff members and instituted changes to make it harder to bring such complaints. Much of Mr. Hastert’s time in office has been measured in the context of the Sept. 11 attacks and the congressional response. He was seen as a chief ally of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, with whom he had a very close relationship as the White House pushed for war against Iraq and for antiterror measures. Scott Lilly, a former senior House Democratic aide who is now at the Center for American Progress, recalled that Mr. Hastert provided space on the House side of the Capitol for Mr. Cheney, who already enjoyed an office across the rotunda because of his role as president of the Senate. “At times, he seemed to believe he worked for the vice president,” Mr. Lilly wrote in a recent Huffington Post article, “The House That Denny Built. ” To Mr. Lilly and Mr. Ornstein, one of the most egregious acts by Mr. Hastert was steering a 2005 highway bill to passage after he made certain that it contained a new Illinois road called the Prairie Parkway close to land Mr. Hastert had secretly purchased through trusts. A series of profitable real estate deals, along with a flourishing lobbying practice after he left the speakership, helped Mr. Hastert’s net worth grow substantially and explained how he had millions to pay to his high school victim. Designating federal money for pet projects reached such a corrupting level during the Hastert era that it was later banned altogether. Some lawmakers now say the ban has made it much harder for Congress to advance legislation without the incentives that used to exist. Mr. Hastert still has allies, some of whom wrote letters to a federal judge hoping to influence sentencing, with Mr. DeLay writing that Mr. Hastert “is a man of great integrity. ” Most former colleagues want to say little, either good or bad, about the man they once affectionately called Coach. The House seems unlikely to formally weigh in since Mr. Hastert has been gone since 2007. His portrait has been removed from the speaker’s lobby. But the impact of his reign lingers. | 1 |
It’s fair to say, Europe’s been shocked by Trump’s Europe’s
Trump’s
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Share the joy | 0 |
Posted on October 29, 2016 by Claire Bernish
In a thoroughly stunning development, the FBI has announced the relaunch of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and personal server , after learning of “ the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation ,” as Rep. Jason Chaffetz tweeted Friday afternoon. FBI Dir just informed me, "The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation." Case reopened
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 28, 2016
With just ten days to go before the presidential election, this development could knock the Clinton campaign for quite the loop — particularly amid growing controversy in revelations from campaign chair John Podesta’s emails , which continue to be published by Wikileaks on a daily basis.
FBI Director James Comey penned a letter to Congress Friday, noting the bureau had learned additional documents had become apparent that could have bearing in the investigation of Clinton, stating , in part, via NBC News :
“Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.”
Although Comey did not initially make it apparent the content nor source of the documents, Federal Law Enforcement officials did acknowledge that the content originated from devices owned by one of Mrs. Clinton’s top aides, Huma Abedin and her husband, Anthony Weiner . After consulting with the team of investigators, Comey “agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to asses their importance to our investigation.”
Comey made no suggestion whether or not the documents could be “significant,” but the fact the investigation has now been reopened certainly piques additional questions about both the new items as well as how they might have originally escaped the FBI’s attention.
“There are outstanding questions . . . regarding a possible conflict of interest into this case,” stated House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz in a letter to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, as cited by the Washington Post . Chaffetz requested McCabe provide documentation concerning his wife’s 2015 bid for the Senate, which, as the Post notes, received financial support from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close to Hillary Clinton.
Chaffetz requested documents from McCabe concerning “when you first became aware the State Department was pressuring the FBI to reverse its decision regarding the classification of one of Secretary Clinton’s emails,” and, “when you first became aware the FBI had opened an investigation into Secretary Clinton’s email server.”
Indeed, Chaffetz notes several discrepancies in interdepartmental interactions during the course of the prior investigation, such as:
“In the spring and summer of 2015, the FBI interacted with multiple agencies regarding Secretary Clinton’s emails. In April or May of 2015, Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy began contacting officials in the FBI’s National Security Branch, which you headed prior to serving as the head of the Washington Field Office. Under Secretary Kennedy pressured FBI officials to reverse a decision regarding an email deemed by the FBI to contain classified information. …”
Considering the increasingly embattled campaign of Hillary Clinton, and the late date for initiating further investigation, one wonders whether the abrupt discovery could be related to the putatively missing 30,000 emails which have been the subject of both consternation and ridicule for months.
Although Comey did not reveal, well, much of anything about the decision to relaunch the investigation, it’s clear this will have a direct and resounding impact on Hillary Clinton’s contentious bid for the White House. Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 0 |
Короткая ссылка 33 Восточно-Сибирское следственное управление на транспорте СК России завершило осмотр места катастрофы вертолета Robinson R-44, разбившегося 23 октября в Забайкальском крае.
«В качестве основных версий произошедшего следствием рассматриваются неисправность авиационной техники, ошибка пилотирования и влияние погодных условий», — говорится в сообщении , опубликованном на сайте ведомства.
Вертолёт Robinson, принадлежавший ООО «Урюмкан», вылетел 22 октября по маршруту Золотореченск — артель «Джалал-Кадай» и в контрольное время не вышел на связь. После поисков, к которым была привлечена авиация , удалось найти обломки вертолёта. Позднее удалось найти и тела троих находившихся в нём людей, которые направлены для исследования в краевое бюро судебно-медицинской экспертизы. | 0 |
You may have been asked at some point in your life how many of your friends are white or black, as a test for racial inclusiveness. Now try a question that reveals something about the class divide in the United States: How many of your closest friends didn’t graduate from college? The insularity of elites has been noted frequently in this election season as an explanation for the failure of political operatives, journalists and scholars to recognize the political ascendance of Donald J. Trump. But it isn’t a new phenomenon. As my colleague Nate Cohn and others have pointed out, Americans tend to sort themselves geographically by party or ideology so that people tend to live near one another. With the help of Morning Consult, a research technology company, we sought to measure such insularity. In a poll of more than 2, 000 registered voters, it found that 29 percent of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree say all five of their closest friends have at least a college degree. And 31 percent of adults who either never attended college or never graduated say none of their closest friends had at least a college degree. The survey shows that the less educated aren’t quite as insular as the educated. Among those without a college degree, 10 percent said all of their five closest friends didn’t attend college. Among those with a college degree, 3 percent said all five of their closest friends never attended college. Among Americans who say they had postgraduate educations — doctors, lawyers, professors, graduates — 57 percent say four or five of their best friends have at least a college degree. Half of the people with a college degree say that. Liberals are about as exclusive in their friendships as conservatives: 34 percent of them say four or five of their five closest friends have college degrees. Among conservatives it is 30 percent. Others have tried to measure the elites’ bubble. PBS NewsHour created a quiz for its viewers based on “Coming Apart,” the 2012 book by Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The quiz sought to determine just how isolated the American elite are. It asked questions like “Have you ever bought an Avon product?” and “Have you ever bought a pickup truck?” What it found was that on a scale of 1 to 100, the average score was 40, with a lower score indicating insulation from mainstream American culture. The quiz was a lot of fun, but it still left unanswered the question of how isolated and polarized Americans are. Despite the separation of the college educated from the less educated, the Morning Consult survey shows that race still reveals a sharper separation. Among whites, 48 percent say all of their five closest friends are white. percent of blacks say all of their five closest friends are black, and 31 percent say none of their five closest friends are white. Not surprisingly, people of the same income level say they flock together. About one in three adults in households earning less than $50, 000 a year say all of their friends have incomes that level or below. Almost four of 10 adults in households earning more than $100, 000 a year say none of their five closest friends earn less than $50, 000. A bubble envelops people by party affiliation as well. Among Democrats, almost 34 percent say all of their closest friends are Democrats, while only 7 percent of Democrats that say that none of their closest friends are Democrats. With Republicans, 28 percent say all of their friends are Republican. It should come as no surprise that Americans who tend to spend time with one another share the same views. Almost six in 10 people who disapprove of Barack Obama’s job performance as president say all five of their closest friends disapprove as well. Asked about the Affordable Care Act, 43 percent of those who oppose it say all five of their closest friends also oppose it. And 39 percent who support the health law say none of their five closest friends oppose it. We see a sharper divide with abortion: 56 percent who oppose more restrictions on abortion say their friends feel the same way, and 39 percent who support more restrictions on abortion say all five of their closest friends support such restrictions. People who identified as political moderates tend to have views that are closer to those of liberals than to those of conservatives. But in terms of sharing friendships among people with less education, political ideology seems to make little difference. Nearly the same percentage of moderates, conservatives and liberals — about 36 percent — have few or no friends without college degrees. | 1 |
Originally appeared at Strategic Culture Foundation T he Obama administration is now accusing Russia of cyber-crime and trying to disrupt the US presidential election. The claim is so far-fetched, it is hardly credible. More credible is that the US is reeling from Putin’s stunning humiliation earlier this week. Since June, US media and supporters of Democrat presidential contender Hillary Clinton have been blaming Russian state-sponsored hackers for breaking into the Democratic party’s database. It is further alleged that Moscow is stealthily trying to influence the outcome of the election, by releasing damaging information on Clinton, which might favor Republican candidate Donald Trump. Russia has vehemently denied any connection to the cyber-crime charges, or trying to disrupt the November poll. Now the Obama administration has stepped into the fray by openly accusing Russia. «US government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign to interfere with elections», reported the Washington Post. This takes the row to a whole new level. No longer are the insinuations a matter of private, partisan opinion. The US government is officially labelling the Russian state for cyber-crime and political subversion. Predictably, following the latest allegations, there are calls among American lawmakers for ramping up more economic sanctions against Russia. While US intelligence figures are urging for retaliatory cyber-attacks on Russian government facilities. Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov derided the US claims as «rubbish». He noted that the Kremlin’s computer system incurs hundreds of hacking attempts every day, many of which can be traced to American origin, but Moscow doesn’t turn around and blame the US government for such cyber-attacks. There are several signs that the latest brouhaha out of Washington is a bogus diversion. A s with previous Russian-hacker claims by the Democrats and US media, there is no evidence presented by the Obama administration to support its grave allegations against the Russian government. Assertion without facts does not meet a minimal standard of proof. When reports emerged in June – again through the Washington Post – that the Democrat National Committee (DNC) was hacked by Russian agents, the allegation relied on investigations by a private cyber security firm by the name of CrowdStrike. The firm is linked by personnel to the NATO-affiliated, anti-Russian think tank Atlantic Council. Again no verifiable evidence was presented then, just the word of a dubious partisan source. Scoundrels like John Podesta, a filthy DNC apparatchik, are naturally throwing more fuel on the flames. Back then the Russian scare story, for that’s what it was, served as a useful diversion from far more important issues. Such as the 19,000 emails released from the DNC database showing that the party chiefs had preordained Clinton’s presidential nomination over her Democrat rival Bernie Sanders. Much-vaunted «US democracy» was exposed as a fraud, and so the Washington establishment quickly went into damage-limitation mode by smearing Russia. It was the whistleblower site Wikileaks, run by Australian journalist Julian Assange, that released the embarrassing emails. It Russia. Assange has since hinted that his source was within the Democrat party itself. This is where it gets really explosive. Assange has vowed to release more emails that will prove that Clinton as Secretary of State back in 2011-2012 masterminded the supply of weapons and money to Islamist terror networks in Libya and Syria for the objective of regime change. Furthermore, Assange says that the emails prove that Clinton lied under oath to Congress when she denied in 2013 that she was had any involvement in facilitating arms to the jihadists. Assange has said that Wikileaks is going to publish the incriminating emails on Clinton’s alleged gun-running to terrorists this month. If the evidence stands up, Clinton could be prosecuted for perjury as well as treason in aiding and abetting official terrorist enemies of the US. The exposure of an American presidential candidate as being involved in state sponsorship of terrorism while serving as a top government official is a powerful incentive for the Obama administration to find a lurid diversion. Hence, the latest charges by the US government against Russia as perpetrating cyber-crime and of trying to subvert American democracy. This is just one more illustration of how irrational and unhinged the US government has become. Day by day, it seems, leads to more damning revelations of Washington’s complicity in illegal wars, covert subversion of foreign states, and systematic collusion with terrorist networks which have inflicted thousands of deaths on American citizens, among many more thousands of other innocent civilians around the world. In addition to exposure by sources like Wikileaks, much of revelation about US criminality and state-sponsored banditry has emerged from Russia’s principled Syria. Russia’s intervention has not only helped salvage the Syrian nation from a foreign conspiracy of covert war for regime change. Russia’s intervention has also brought into clear focus the systematic links between Washington and its terrorist proxy army working on its behalf in Syria. Washington’s mask of moral and legal superiority has been ripped from its face. And what the world is seeing is the vile ugliness beneath. Such is Washington’s ignominious fall from pretend-grace to its grim, odious reality that Vladimir Putin this week was empowered to speak from the moral high ground. In announcing Russia’s unilateral suspension of a 2002 accord with the US for the disposal of nuclear-weapon-grade plutonium, Putin went much, much further. He gave Washington a list of ultimatums that included the US ending its trumped-up sanctions against Russia, with financial compensation, as well as the scaling back of NATO forces from Russia’s border. In other words, the Russian leader was talking truth to American power in a way that megalomaniac Washington, with all its ridiculous delusions of «exceptionalism», has never ever heard before. American pretensions of greatness are eroding like a castle built on sand. Washington’s criminal enterprises and specifically the complicity in terrorism for the supreme crime of foreign aggression are being glaringly exposed. And now with due contempt, Russia is putting manners on Washington. It must be excruciating the humiliation for the narcissistic American tyrant to be treated with the disrespect that it deserves and which is long overdue. Moreover, the humiliation is not just in the eyes of the world. The American people can see the true ugly nature of their rulers too. When a giant banner declaring «Putin a peacemaker» was unfurled off Manhattan bridge in New York City this weekend, the popular enthusiasm went viral. Washington is reeling from Putin’s righteous courage to call it out for what it is. The truth-telling is hard to take for this unipolar unicorn. Its deluded myth-making about its own virtues are being stripped bare. What’s going on here is a world-class, historic exposure of American power as a nefarious excrescence on humanity. The reaction is understandable: foaming-at-the-mouth, desperate, hysterical and panicked. Accusing Russia of hacking into the American «democratic process» is a wild attempt to divert from the paramount issues: Washington’s exposed descent into a vile morass of its own making; the emperor is a criminal; the people know it; and a genuine world leader like Vladimir Putin has the temerity to lay it on the line to this has-been. Photo: Image used by Politico in its biased presentation on this issue. | 1 |
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DALLAS — The heavily armed sniper who gunned down police officers in downtown Dallas, leaving five of them dead, specifically set out to kill as many white officers as he could, officials said Friday. He was a military veteran who had served in Afghanistan, and he kept an arsenal in his home that included materials. The gunman turned a demonstration against fatal police shootings this week of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana from a peaceful march focused on violence committed by officers into a scene of chaos and bloodshed aimed against them. The shooting was the kind of retaliatory violence that people have feared through two years of protests around the country against deaths in police custody, forcing yet another wrenching shift in debates over race and criminal justice that had already deeply divided the nation. Demonstrations continued Friday in cities across the country, with one of the largest taking place on the streets of Atlanta, where thousands of people protesting police abuse brought traffic to a standstill. Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, said in New York that there was apparently just one sniper, though there were so many gunshots and so many victims that officials at first speculated about multiple shooters. Officials said they had found no evidence that the gunman, Micah Johnson, 25, had direct ties to any protest or political group, either peaceful or violent, but his Facebook page showed that he supported the New Black Panther Party, a group that has advocated violence against whites, and Jews in particular. Searching the killer’s home on Friday, “detectives found materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition, and a personal journal of combat tactics,” the Dallas Police Department said in a statement. Three other people were arrested in connection with the shooting, but the police would not name them or say why they were being held. In addition to the five officers who died, seven officers and two civilians were wounded. The Police Department said that 12 officers had returned fire during a wild series of gun battles that stretched for blocks. After the shooting subsided, Mr. Johnson, wielding an assault rifle and a handgun, held the police off for hours in a parking garage, claiming — apparently falsely — to have planted explosives in the area, and threatening to kill more officers. In the end, the police killed him Friday morning with an explosive delivered by a robot, the Dallas police chief, David O. Brown, said. During the standoff, Mr. Johnson, who was black, told police negotiators that “he was upset about Black Lives Matter,” Chief Brown said. “He said he was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. ” He refused to rule out the possibility that more people were involved, saying, “We’re not satisfied that we’ve exhausted every lead. ” Mr. Johnson, who lived in the Dallas area, served as a private in the Army Reserve from March 2009 to April 2015, according to records released by the Pentagon. He was listed as a carpentry and masonry specialist, and served in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014. The sequence of events this week provoked anger and despair, dealing blows both to law enforcement and to peaceful critics of the police, who have fended off claims that the outcry over police shootings foments violence and puts officers’ lives in danger. “All I know is that this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens,” Chief Brown said. Just hours after President Obama, reacting to video recordings of the shootings in Baton Rouge, La. and Falcon Heights, Minn. spoke in anguished terms about the disparate treatment of the races by the criminal justice system, he felt compelled to speak again, this time about the people who attacked officers. “We will learn more, undoubtedly, about their twisted motivations, but let’s be clear: There are no possible justifications for these attacks or any violence towards law enforcement,” he told reporters Friday morning in Warsaw, where he was attending a NATO summit meeting, after speaking by phone with Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas. The White House said Mr. Obama would travel to Dallas early next week, at the invitation of the city’s mayor. Later in the week, the president will host a discussion between the police and community leaders to help find solutions to racial disparities and ways to better support police, aides said. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who was in Washington, said that the week’s violence had left many people with a justifiable “sense of helplessness, of uncertainty and of fear,” but that “the answer must not be violence. ” “To our brothers and sisters who wear the badge, I want you to know that I am deeply grateful for the difficult and dangerous work that you do every day to keep our streets safe and our nation secure,” she said. To the protesters, she said, “Do not be discouraged by those who would use your lawful actions as a cover for their heinous violence. ” But William Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, appearing on Fox News, said that there was “a war on cops,” and that the Obama administration was to blame for appeasement of those who attack the police. The attack appeared to be the deadliest for law enforcement officers in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. “Our profession is hurting,” Chief Brown said, calling the actions of his officers nothing short of heroic. “Dallas officers are hurting. We are heartbroken. There are not words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city. ” The shooting erupted just before 9 p. m. only a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. It cut short an emotional but peaceful demonstration, unleashing chaos as terrified marchers, including families with children, ran for cover, while police officers ran toward the shooting, guns drawn and firing back. “I grabbed my shirt because I was close enough, I thought I might have been shot,” said Jeff Hood, a minister who took part in the march. “I was screaming, ‘Run, run! ’” Bystanders captured extraordinary video of the shootout on downtown streets, with officers taking shelter behind patrol cars and pillars, and tending to their fallen comrades, amid the boom of gunfire and the flash and glare of squad cars’ emergency lights. The violence struck near one of the city’s busiest districts, filled with hotels and restaurants as well as county government buildings, and hundreds of people spent much of the night trapped in buildings that were placed on lockdown. The dead included four officers of the Dallas city police, and one from Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Jane E. Bishkin, a Dallas lawyer who represents five of the wounded officers, said that they were expected to recover, but that one of them, a woman, had suffered a serious injury to her left arm and might be disabled as a result. After Mr. Johnson was cornered on the second floor of a parking garage, negotiators spent hours trying to get him to surrender, Chief Brown said, but he “told our negotiators that the end is coming and he’s going to hurt and kill more of us, meaning law enforcement, and that there are bombs all over the place in this garage and downtown. ” “The negotiations broke down, and we had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect,” the chief said. “We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was. ” The three other suspects were a woman who was taken from the garage and two others who were taken in for questioning after a traffic stop, but they were not providing much information, the chief said. On Friday, a large part of downtown remained off limits to civilians as detectives, and agents from the F. B. I. and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, combed through the sprawling crime scene. Chief Brown suggested that the gunman had some knowledge of the march route. “How would you know to post up there?” he said. “We have yet to determine whether or not there was some complicity with the planning of this, but we will be pursuing that. ” But Dominique R. Alexander, a minister and head of the Next Generation Action Network, who said he had planned the march, said his group did not condone any violence. “I was right there when the shooting happened,” he said. “They could have shot me. ” | 1 |
AMSTERDAM — For the first time, the four paintings still known to exist from Rembrandt’s series depicting the five senses are being displayed together. The works, completed when he was still in his teens, are presented in the exhibition “Sensation: Rembrandt’s First Paintings,” on view at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, until Nov. 27. This Dutch master’s allegory of smell, “The Unconscious Patient,” was discovered only a year ago at an auction in New Jersey, after being found in someone’s basement. The small auction house had given it an initial sales estimate of $500 to $800. Two Rembrandt experts suspected that it might have been an original and drove the bidding up to $870, 000. The painting has since been authenticated and is now part of the Leiden Collection in New York, a private grouping assembled by Thomas S. Kaplan and Daphne Recanati Kaplan, a married couple. The collection already contains two works in the series, depicting the senses of hearing and touch. These three were exhibited together at the Getty Center in Los Angeles in May. Now they are joined by the allegory of sight, on loan from Museum De Lakenhal in the Dutch city of Leiden, Rembrandt’s hometown. Created from 1624 to 1625, while Rembrandt was living there, these early paintings fit into a tradition of northern European genre painting. They sometimes play on the double meaning of the word for the sense that each depicts. For example, in Rembrandt’s “A Pedlar Selling Spectacles” (sight) an elderly couple with poor eyesight browse through a box of eyeglasses held by an untrustworthy street vendor. The image explores both meanings of sight: vision and observation. “These earliest of paintings by Rembrandt are fascinating in what they tell us of the young artist’s abilities and his precociousness,” An Van Camp, curator of Northern European art at the Ashmolean Museum, said in a statement. “The paintings show that at the age of just 18, Rembrandt already has a genius for representing human character and emotion, and for packing in amazing amounts of detail into the briefest of brush strokes. ” A fifth panel, which would depict taste, is missing from the exhibition, as it has not been seen for almost 400 years. Ms. van Camp said that it might be lost or destroyed. An empty frame in the exhibition space invites visitors to reflect on what it might have looked like, and, Ms. van Camp said, it might encourage them to look for it in their attics. | 0 |
Breaking: FBI Reopens Investigation into Clinton Emails FBI looking into "new developments" after previously recommending no charges against Democrat candidate Image Credits: Gage Skidmore / Flickr .
The FBI on Friday announced it is reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, another shocking October surprise for the Democrat candidate days from the presidential election.
In a letter to committees and lawmakers relevant to the matter, FBI Director James Comey cited “recent developments” for the bureau’s decision to look into new emails which may contain classified information and how they may relate to its previous investigation.
“In previous congressional testimony, I referred to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton’s personal email server. Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony,” Comey wrote in the letter obtained by CNBC .
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
“Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be signifcant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony,” Comey stated.
Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who led an Oversight Committee effort to pursue perjury charges against Hillary , tweeted about the FBI’s announcement. FBI Dir just informed me, "The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation." Case reopened
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 28, 2016
Back in July, Comey announced the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state would not result in a recommendation to the Justice Department to pursue charges.
“Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case,” the FBI director stated in a speech at the time. Trump: I have great respect that the FBI and Department of Justice have the courage to right their horrible mistake pic.twitter.com/LeDNgWvqa2
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 28, 2016
Speaking at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump jumped on the bureau’s decision to reopen its case:
“The FBI has just sent a letter to Congress informing them that they have discovered new emails pertaining to the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s investigation. And they are reopening their case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America.”
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.”
“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Dept. of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood and it is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.”
CNBC reports, “Stocks turned negative after the report of the new probe,” adding that “Many analysts have said that markets were pricing in a Clinton victory in November.” | 0 |
Breitbart London Raheem Kassam ripped into “ ” Barack Obama’s “ final presidential address” on the Breitbart News Daily show on Sirius XM Patriot 125 on Wednesday morning. [Describing Obama’s final address to the nation as a “tepid farewell” Kassam slammed his “hour long, snooze fest”: “Unlike Reagan at 20 mins, Carter at 18 minutes, Clinton at 10 minutes, or Eisenhower at 15 minutes, President Obama decided to genuflect towards himself for almost an hour last night, weeping into his hanky while lauding other people’s achievements: the Navy Seal’s killing of Bin Laden, the worst economic recovery in seven decades, the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage. “The is a man desperate to end his presidency by being able to use the phrase ‘Yes we did’ … More accurately, however, would have been his own phrase that he once levelled at the hard working people of this country: ‘You didn’t build that. ’” Campaigning his “legacy of mediocrity” in Chicago, Illinois, Obama was quoted as saying, “I’ve lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were ten, or twenty, or thirty years ago”. Kassam hit back at the claim, pointing to the racial tensions happening concurrently to the outgoing president’s final days where “a U. S. Attorney General [was] being heckled during a confirmation process by Black Lives Matter activists, and while an infantile spat takes place in Congress over a painting depicting police officers as pigs”. The Breitbart London EIC then tore into Obama for invoking the Constitution as an outdated document, the president saying, “Our constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power — with our participation, and the choices we make. ” “The sneaky little message shone through,” said Kassam, “at least for me, is that the Consitution is ‘just a piece of parchment’. ” ”Our Constitution is just a piece of parchment” says Obama, finally admitting his disdain for it #ObamaFarewell, — Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) January 11, 2017, “It’s incredibly intentional. A piece of parchment. Not a piece of paper. Not a set of ideals. Not a guiding light that we should all act as defenders and protectors of. No. A piece of parchment. Something old — maybe even outdated? “Just like in December when he called the electoral college a ‘vestige’ of an earlier America, his aim here was clear to me. “A remarkable, beautiful gift — sure. But the conscious effort to highlight the age of the document in a speech that urged people to keep pushing for a radical overhaul of the makeup of this country was nothing short of almost brilliant rhetorical deception. ” Rather than closing his speech with best wishes or God’s blessings to his successor, Kassam remarked that “Obama did no such thing. Instead, he heaped praise on his staff, his wife and his Vice President and utterly predictably harkened back to the era of slavery and abolition. A subtle but sharp dig at the country he served so poorly. ” Kassam ended by saying that he, too, almost felt like crying — “I didn’t — because I’m a proper bloke” — emanating from a twinge of joy over the end of the Obama administration. “I almost shed a tear for him too, as a human being, having occupied the most powerful position in the entire world at a time where the field was most fertile for his radical agenda and standing up there knowing full well that on day one his successor would undo almost every … let’s use a word he likes so much vestige of his presidency. ” Listen in full to Raheem Kassam on Breitbart News Daily below … | 0 |
The Queens shelter where Natasha Bell worked as a security guard was within walking distance from the one where she and her children lived. Ms. Bell slogged away at one job after another, trying to piece together financial security for her family, only to be reminded how far she has to go when she returns home every night to the shelter. “I’ve had lots of jobs,” Ms. Bell, 34, said. “I’ve never stopped working. ” She traces her transience to the death of her grandmother, who raised her when her mother was unable. When Ms. Bell’s grandmother’s health declined, she dropped out of school at 16 to be by her side. In the years after her grandmother’s death, Ms. Bell lived in shelters operated by the Covenant House. She earned a high school equivalency diploma, got a job at a McDonald’s and moved into supportive housing. But she did not make enough to pay her bills. Her financial burdens significantly increased after the birth of her first daughter, Aziya, in 2006. Ms. Bell moved back into a shelter. “I felt down lots of times,” she said. “It was discouraging. It isn’t an easy place to be, especially with small children that like to play and crawl and cry and are hungry. ” At times, Ms. Bell stayed with Aziya’s father. The couple had a second child, Anyla, in 2009. But they could not make living together work, and she was homeless yet again and plagued by a familiar shame. Ashamed about their life, Ms. Bell instructed her daughters not to mention that their home was a shelter when they were out in public. In 2007, Ms. Bell was hired as a security guard, working at various shelters, a role that kept her close to people whose lives mirrored her own. “I got to meet a lot of people, a lot of people going through the same experiences that I went through,” Ms. Bell said. “A lot of people have been through worse things than I have been through and that gave me a lot of motivation to continue as well. ” What she did not realize until years later was the influence she had on the people she had met. On two separate occasions, while working at the Bellevue Men’s Shelter in Manhattan in 2013, Ms. Bell encountered security employees whom she did not remember at first, but they recognized her immediately. Both were former residents of shelters where Ms. Bell had worked. They credited her with inspiring their careers. That same year, while residing at the 93rd Avenue Family Residence, Ms. Bell attended an information session held by Semiperm Housing, a partner organization of the Community Service Society, one of eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Semiperm Housing helps homeless single parents and their children find permanent housing, and offers support services for residents, like child care, counseling, financial literacy and parenting courses. “I thought it would be a great program for me and my girls to stop the cycle of going in and out of shelters,” Ms. Bell said. She had grown demoralized, thinking she might never have a place of her own to call home, somewhere free of logs and curfews. Ms. Bell and her daughters moved into the Semiperm Housing facility in Manhattan later that year. In April 2015, Ms. Bell left her security job to take a job with the city’s Department of Education as a teacher’s assistant at a Manhattan elementary school. She enrolled at Hostos Community College to work toward an associate degree in early childhood education, though she had to take the semester off to deal with a health scare. In February, Community Service Society used $1, 085 in Neediest funds to buy living room furniture for Ms. Bell, as well as $116. 50 for a monthly MetroCard to travel to work. The furniture helped create a sense of permanence for the family, though memories of shelter life still linger with Aziya, who occasionally asks Ms. Bell if they will have to move again. Since Aziya’s birth, Ms. Bell has grown closer to her own mother she is a bigger part of her grandchildren’s lives than she was of Ms. Bell’s at that age. The family sees her often. Ms. Bell is still struggling financially she has hefty credit card debt and owes $12, 050 in personal loans. She is also behind by $3, 549 on her rent. The Community Service Society is working to help pay the back rent with an additional $981 in Neediest Cases funds. United Way’s Emergency Food and Shelter program has also provided money, and additional money that Ms. Bell received from HomeBase, a program in the city’s Department of Homeless Services, will pay off the back rent. Despite worries about paying off her debt and her history of instability, Ms. Bell said she was focused on her goals and undaunted by her continued struggles. “I don’t think it will be easy, because nothing is easy,” she said. “I think it will be a challenge, but I’m up for a challenge. ” | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The death toll from a 6. earthquake in Italy continues to grow, and rescue teams are becoming less hopeful of finding survivors amid the rubble. At least 250 people in central Italy were killed by the quake, which leveled buildings in several towns early Wednesday and has continued to jolt the region with hundreds of aftershocks. Myanmar is also sorting through the damage caused by a different earthquake on Wednesday: Though it was stronger than the one in Italy, only a few deaths have been reported. ______ 2. Hillary Clinton delivered a blistering attack on Donald Trump during a speech in Nevada, accusing him of “taking hate groups mainstream” and giving radical fringe groups a national megaphone. Mr. Trump’s indication that he might retreat from his vow to deport all immigrants who are in the United States illegally drew criticism across the political spectrum, if for different reasons. He appeared at a rally in Mississippi with Nigel Farage, the British politician credited with leading the Brexit movement, who compared voting for Mr. Trump to “doing what we did for Brexit in Britain. ” ______ 3. Regardless of which presidential candidate you’re supporting or whether you even plan to vote this fall, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a lot of political content on Facebook. The social network has been a successful home for partisan pages with names you’ve probably never heard of before — their content might be created by people overseas, their audiences are cumulatively in the tens of millions of people and a single website can rake in $60, 000 a month. “It’s like a meme war,” said Rafael Rivero, who runs one of the pages, “and politics is being won and lost on social media. ” So is a lot of money. ______ 4. The Turkish military sent more tanks into Syria as it continued its most significant offensive yet in the conflict there. The effort, backed by American air support, is to oust Islamic State militants from a border town, but Turkish officials have made little secret that the main purpose is to prevent Kurdish militias — some of which have been crucial allies of the U. S. — from seizing more territory in the region. In Afghanistan, a siege on the prestigious American University in Kabul killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Afghan government said suspicion had fallen on a faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan. ______ 5. In New York City, our effort to chronicle the life and death of each person murdered this year in one of the city’s deadliest precincts continues: Roberto Rodríguez, a Mexican immigrant, was killed in May. His death became the seventh homicide in the 40th Precinct in the South Bronx, which has since recorded several more. Mr. Rodríguez came to the U. S. hoping to earn money to build a better life for his infant son in Mexico, but wound up in a tangle of gang ties. ______ 6. Hundreds of students at the University of Texas carried brightly colored dildos with them during the first day of classes. Their point was to protest a law that lets concealed handguns be carried on campus. “It’s absurd. So, I thought, we have to fight absurdity with absurdity,” said Jessica Jin, an organizer of the protest. ______ 7. Sonia Rykiel, the rebellious fashion designer who found success by aiming to create “clothes for everyday life,” died Thursday from complications of Parkinson’s disease. She was 86. Ms. Rykiel’s designs celebrated pregnancy, popularized skirts and sweaters, and caught on with women around the world. Her career spanned nearly a and left a lasting impact on the industry. ______ 8. Happy 100th birthday to the U. S. national parks system. President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the National Park Service on this day in 1916. At the time, there were only 35 national parks and monuments. Today, the service manages more than 400 areas covering about 84 million acres. President Obama added 87, 500 more acres in Maine on Wednesday. ______ 9. Swimming with the dolphins in Hawaii, a popular tourist activity, may soon become a thing of the past. Federal officials have proposed rules that would prohibit swimming with or approaching within 50 yards of Hawaiian spinner dolphins. Tour operators are not pleased. But the presence of boats and swimmers has disrupted the dolphins’ habits and natural behavior, officials said. ______ 10. Lastly, if you’ve always wanted your own newspaper and have $175 to spare, now is your chance. Send the money with an essay to Ross Connelly, above, who is looking for a successor to take over The Hardwick Gazette in Vermont, a weekly newspaper that has been around since 1889. He just extended the deadline for essays to Sept. 20. ______ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Horseradish Root
Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
** I add Cayenne Pepper and Turmeric Root but this isn’t a part of Dr. Schulze’s recipe
Preparation:
This tonic is prepared like all tinctures: fill a glass with herbs, completely cover the herbs and then add two or three more inches of liquid, in this case vinegar. Then let the tonic sit in a dark place for at least 2-6 weeks, the longer the stronger it will be.
You will need a large glass jar — I use the gallon size jar by Ball so that I can make a large batch that will last.
Next, peel and chop your veggies. Some people put them in whole while others dice grate, or process them. This is up to you how small you want your pieces, I like mine chopped but not minced just because it makes the straining process a little easier and I reuse the pieces in soups after.
*Remember, these are hot peppers and onions, if you’ve never cut them before they are powerful enough to make you cry. Many instructions recommend wearing gloves. I never have gloves around the house so I just do it bare handed and let the tears roll. However, if you have any small cuts on your hands you will becoming highly aware of them. To get the smell and burn off I wash my hands with hot soapy water and then with fresh squeezed lemon juice after and make sure not to touch my eyes for at least an hour.
Place all of the ingredients into the large glass jar and completely cover with apple cider vinegar so that the vinegar sits two inches above the herb and veggie line. (The extra vinegar accounts for the expansion)
Place a firm lid on the tonic and while holding the lid in place shake the tonic so that it mixes and settles. Add more vinegar if needed. You can let the medicine sit alone for weeks or you can shake it daily, which is recommended. I let mine sit for a full moon cycle.
Strain
Next, for storage and ease of use, strain the tincture. You will need a loosely woven piece of cloth, like cheesecloth, muslin, or some handkerchiefs, a large bowl, and a stainless steel colander that fits into the bowl. If you don’t have these tools, you can place the cloth over the mouth of the jar and pour until all of the liquid has come out but you will waste a lot.
Place the colander into the bowl and line the colander with cheesecloth. Pour the contents of the jar into this strainer. Take a flat object, like a plate, and press onto the concoction to press the remaining juices out.
You can pour the tonic into small jars or you can rinse your large jar and keep it in there. Tinted bottles, like amber glass, are recommended for storing tinctures because they reduce light damage.
Store in a dark, cool place. Compost the remains or you can freeze to add a kick to soups and other dishes. This man made a youtube video to show how he makes the Master Tonic. Dosage
Once the tonic is ready you can start drinking it daily or as needed to support digestion, the immune system, and other ailments. Remember, you were soaking really powerful and spicy herbs so that is what it is going to taste like. I actually mix a little raw honey into mine so that it goes down smoother but most take it as it is. Make sure you are drinking a lot of water throughout the day, too.
This is Dr. Shulze’s label for dosing:
For the homemade concoction, unless you have a dropper, a shot a day will work. A shot is usually 1-2 ounces. However, if you are fighting an infection or cold you can up the dosage to 5 or 6 shots a day.
Know Your Herbs: Key Constituents
Garlic: alliin, essential oils, sulfur compounds, germanium, selenium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, Vitamin A, B Vitamins, Vitamin C
*treats colds, flus, sore throats, aids digestion, stimulates white blood cell production, antiseptic, antibacterial, antimicrobial, vermifuge, aids circulation and cholesterol, lowers blood sugar levels
Ginger: Essential Oils, oleoresin, gingerol
*anti-inflammatory, repair damaged joints, improves circulation, lowers blood sugar, heals nausea, antiseptic
White Onion: sulfur, quercetin, alliins, phytochemicals, dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin B6, potassium
Habanero: antioxidant, phenolic compounds, carotenoids and ascorbic acid
Horseradish: sulfur, antioxidants, mustard oil, vitamin C
*antibiotic, vermifuge, increases white blood cell count, diuretic, loosens mucus and works for sinus infections, lung problems, cough, asthma
References: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition The British Journal of Nutrition Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences | 1 |
Monday 14 November 2016 by Davywavy and Spacey ‘Suspicious object’ at Daily Mail offices identified as a piece of factual journalism
The offices of The Daily Mail were evacuated earlier after a suspicious object later identified as a piece of journalism was discovered in the building.
A spokesman for the Daily Mail & General Trust confirmed they had no idea how the fact came to be at Northcliffe House and it definitely wasn’t theirs.
Chief Ad salesman Simon Williams told us how he made the discovery.
“My suspicions were first aroused when I saw this bit of research that included actual data and verified citations on it just lying about, and I thought ‘There’s no reason that should be here’.
“Clearly nobody at the newspaper would have something like that nowadays, so it must have been brought in by an outsider.”
The owner of the factual journalism has not been identified, although police are confident it did not originate in the offices of rival outlets such as the Guardian or the Canary.
Security services are understood to be wanting to talk to a man they describe as ‘suspicious’ as CCTV footage shows him doing some actual research and speaking to experts before writing an article.
Police described the evacuation of the offices as extremely orderly.
“It was dead easy,” we were told.
“We just turned on the BBC news and everyone just covered their ears and ran from the building.”
The accurate reflection of events was discovered at around 1.30pm, and staff were told to wait in the street outside while the Mail’s specialist team of fact disposal experts investigated its contents.
As one member of the fact disposal team explained, “We have spent thousands of man-hours perfecting the art of taking dangerous facts and making them safe for consumption by our readers. This was no different, and we were ready.
“By the time we had finished, I can assure everyone the content was completely fact-free.” | 0 |
Fox Sports 1 “Undisputed” Shannon Sharpe lamented Friday that former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow is trying his hand at baseball in the New York Mets organization after the launched a home run in his minor league debut the night before. Sharpe, after questioning Tebow’s batting averages, said the former Heisman winner is “going to try every sport until he finds something he’s good at,” but added that may be difficult because “he’s not good at anything. ” “Help me understand this,” Sharpe told Skip Bayless. “He hit . 194 in the fall league. And they say, ‘You know what? That’s good enough to bring you to spring training.’ He goes to spring training asking bats . 148. They said, ‘You know what? We think if we can give you more opportunity, you can be good.’ At what point in time do people say, ‘You know what, Tim? Your run is up. ’” “We’ve got to stop this. Here’s a guy who is going to try every sport until he finds something he’s good at. How about he’s not good at anything,” he later added. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0 |
Posted by Matthew Bernstein | Nov 10, 2016 | Liberal Corruption Thanks To The Protestors, He’s Thinking Of Declaring Martial Law
In every competition out there, there will be a winner and a loser. It’s just the way that competitions work. Literally everywhere you go there are competitions going on and there are always winners and losers. How To Make An Organic Super Food For Survial At Home - Watch Video Click Here
When we are children, we are always taught to be gracious losers. Yes sometimes losing a tough competition hurts, but if you accept it graciously, people will always praise your character. The problem with today’s young generation is that they have forgotten how to lose graciously.
Since the announcement that Donald Trump has won the presidential election, liberals have been protesting this victory. They’re literally ignoring everything that has been taught to them since we were children. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the result; Trump won the election and that is a fact.
But these protests continue and there is one person that seems to be the mastermind behind it. That would be the ultra liberal billionaire George Soros. He was also responsible for financing some of the protest groups that was designed to have violence at the Trump rallies. George Soros Has A Plan In Place
During the election season, it was discovered that Soros was behind some of the protestor’s actions. He was paying them to create a scene and cause violence that would have the media talking about the Trump rallies. Now this shouldn’t have been happening in the first place but it was.
And now that Trump has been elected president of the United States, there are people that are out on the streets protesting his victory. It’s a little ironic considering that liberals were the ones that were complaining about how Trump wouldn’t accept the election results if fraud was detected.
Here is the issue though. There are people out on the streets that are protesting a presidential election. These are the same people that were the ones inciting violence at the Trump rallies. And those people were paid by Soros to start, so it’s likely that he is the one that is paying them to start civil unrest now.
And there is a specific reason that Soros wants to have violence at the protests. That would mean that President Obama would have to declare Martial Law. This is how it works. It’s literally a domino effect. There are people out protesting the election results. Obama Might End Up Declaring Martial Law
But when they start having mass amounts of violence at the protests then the entire country is going to start noticing. If that happens then there is going to be pressure on the president to solve it. President Obama would then declare Martial Law.
Martial Law is when the president has to suspend transfer of power due to the fact that there is a “National Emergency.” Therefore if that would happen then Trump wouldn’t be able to see the White House because Obama would still be the president of the United States. There is a good chance that this has been the back up plan for some liberals all along.
And there is proof out there that the protests are staged. There are protests going on all over the United States and in one part of the nation, Austin, Texas, they found the buses that were used to bring the people in. Again these are planned in order to create civil unrest. They Literally Found The Busses The Protestors Used
And there is more proof. The signs that the people brought to the protests were all created and printed by groups related to the Soros cause. You can’t just print thousands of signs on a whim. These events have to be planned and thought out. And that is exactly what was happening.
Finally the last bit of proof was that the Democrats and Soros have paid people to protest and create a disturbance at Trump events before. Since they have done it in the past, they are definitely going to do it now. And the Democrats are willing to pay them to create this disturbance. The Signs Were Created By Soros Groups
But the scariest part about all this is the fact that people are actually volunteering to protest the election just because Trump won. Again we are taught from a young age to accept defeat with graciousness. Right now they are acting like a bunch of spoiled kids because they didn’t get their way.
And now there is a possibility that Obama is going to declare Martial Law because of these protestors. They couldn’t accept the fact that the country spoke and they wanted Trump in charge. But now they are actively interfering with a Democratic election because they want to complain about the choice.
Again this is all most likely due to Soros. And he has had a hand in it before. He wants to see a globalized country and that means that he will do whatever he can to make it happen. That includes ordering an attack on Trump Tower in Chicago . That was where some of the protests in the country were happening.
But he also had a hand in trying to fix the election. In 16 States they were using voting machines that were being produced by Soros controlled companies . Of course that meant that he was going to do what he could to rig the election. It most likely wouldn’t have mattered if you voted Trump; the machines were going to submit for Clinton.
Share this article to show people that Soros has a plan for all of these protests. He wants to make sure that they create enough of a civil disturbance that Obama will declare Martial Law and stop the transfer of power from him to Trump. That way the globalist agenda could still happen.
However the best option is to not engage with the people that are out there. It’s like handling a two-year-old child that is throwing a temper tantrum. If you just ignore them they will settle down. Therefore just ignore the protestors and don’t engage with them. | 1 |
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Ten months ago, Ammon and Ryan Bundy caused a stir when they, along with a number of their supporters, seized control of a federally owned wildlife sanctuary. For six weeks, they occupied the land, demanding that the government surrender the nearly 200,000 acre preserve to the locals.
After the weeks-long standoff ended peacefully, federal weapons and conspiracy charges were filed against both Bundys and 5 additional members of their group.
Their trial , which lasted nearly as long as their attempted insurrection, ended Thursday with all parties (Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Peter Santilli, Shawna Cox, Ryan Payne, and Joseph O’Shaughnessy) being acquitted.
The New York Times reports:
"The defendants never denied that they had occupied and held the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters for nearly six weeks, demanding that the federal government surrender the 188,000-acre property to local control.
But their lawyers argued that prosecutors did not prove that the group had engaged in an illegal conspiracy that kept federal workers — employees of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management — from doing their jobs."
The Washington Times provided some additional information about the individual charges:
All seven faced charges of conspiring to impede federal employees, while four were also charged with possession of firearms at a federal facility and two had an additional charge of theft of government property.
The jury had not yet reported on one undisclosed charge, according to the Associated Press."
The trial was not without its exciting moments — Judge Anna J. Brown of the U.S. District Court ordered that one juror be dismissed just one day before the verdict was returned. Attorneys for the defendants called for either the juror's removal or a mistrial after he was accused of bias.
One of the defendants, Brian “Booda” Cavalier, was sentenced on Tuesday to time served, or nine months, for “conspiring to impede federal workers through intimidation, threat or force, as well as possession of a firearm at a federal facility.”
Immediately following the trial, Ammon Bundy was placed under arrest again.
Bundy's attorney, Marcus Mumford, put up such a fuss that he was tackled by U.S. Marshals in the courtroom: Marcus Mumford was just tackled to the ground by at least 5 us marshals after kept arguing that Ammon Bundy was free to go #oregonstandoff — Maxine Bernstein (@maxoregonian) October 27, 2016 As marshals struggled w Mumford on floor of courtroom, yelling,'Don't resist!' Judge ordered:'Everyone out of courtroom.' #oregonstandoff — Maxine Bernstein (@maxoregonian) October 27, 2016
But Bundy's arrest stemmed from an earlier standoff also involving a land dispute with the federal government. He is being extradited to Nevada , where he will stand trial for his role in that confrontation as well.
Video of Bundy's arrest after the trial can be viewed here: | 0 |
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Ever notice how the criminals deflect from the real issue? That has been done by the Democrats and their useful idiots in the media. In the last debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton , there were mixed views about who was behind the Wikileaks release of Democrat emails, specifically those of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta . While Trumps said he wasn't sure, Clinton claimed it was the Russians, but the real question is not who was behind the leaks, but whether or not the emails are true.
This is the question that investigative journalist Ben Swann posed on Reality Check .
Clinton cited 17 agencies that claim that hacks were made by Russia. Among those she referenced are the following: CIA State Department Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Each of the agencies have credibility issues. Swann also pointed out that every one of those agencies also said the Iraq had weapons of mass destruction too, even though they didn't have them.
Trump was right to point out that those agencies don't actually know for sure if Russia was behind the hack or not. However, the issue is not really who is behind the leaks, but whether the information being leaked is true.
As of the report, 26,000 emails from John Podesta have been released by Wikileaks. Among those emails are many that point out the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation engaged in pay-to-play schemes.
Swann referenced an email from Clinton's chief deputy adviser Huma Abedin who said that Moroccan authorities donated $12 million to The Clinton Foundation 's global initiative in order to gain access to Clinton while she was at the State Department.
Additionally, there have been numerous emails that demonstrate a collusion between the Clinton campaign and major media outlets. Boy, no one saw that one coming, did they? In fact, emails released by Wikileaks show at least 65 mainstream reporters working close with the Clinton campaign.
If that wasn't enough, Glenn Thrush, who is a senior staff writer for Politico, allowed John Podesta to proofread and edit his article. In writing to Podesta, Thrush said, "Because I have become a hack [sic] I will send u the whole section that pertains to u [sic]… Please don't share or tell anyone I did this." Now, we know you can't trust one word that Thrush puts out.
Also, Podesta's emails indicate that they were attempting to deceive Bernie Sanders supporters at the Democrat Convention earlier this year.
Additionally, Clinton's staff also discussed which e-mails to release and delete.
So, while the Clinton campaign attempts to deflect from the real issue by pointing to Russia as being engaged in hacking emails, the reality is that she is not wanting to discuss whether the information contained in the emails is true.
Swann asks, "If they are [true], who cares where they came from? Who cares why? Because if the accusation is that the Russians are trying to influence this election by telling the truth, then what does that tell us about how American media is trying to influence the election?"
I couldn't agree more. The American media has been bought and paid for, and it's not just on the Democrat side either. Several media outlets are just as guilty of hiding the truth about their own political heavy weights. It's up to Americans to be able to research for themselves and then come to a proper conclusion. However, with the way things have stacked up in the email releases, there is no doubt that the truth has been exposed. The real question is, will the American people do anything about the criminal activity that has taken place concerning Hillary Clinton and her minions? Well, if Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Sobarkah is any indication , we can expect absolutely no justice from Congress or the Justice Department. shares | 0 |
Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised that Donald Trump could be elected president, but I was. I live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan, two of the most liberal places in the country. But even online, I wasn’t seeing many signs of support for him. How did that blindness occur? Social media is my portal into the rest of the world — my periscope into the communities next to my community, into how the rest of the world thinks and feels. And it completely failed me. In hindsight, that failure makes sense. I’ve spent nearly 10 years coaching Facebook — and Instagram and Twitter — on what kinds of news and photos I don’t want to see, and they all behaved accordingly. Each time I liked an article, or clicked on a link, or hid another, the algorithms that curate my streams took notice and showed me only what they thought I wanted to see. That meant I didn’t realize that most of my family members, who live in rural Virginia, were voicing their support for Trump online, and I didn’t see any of the memes that were in heavy circulation before the election. I never saw a Trump hat or a sign or a shirt in my feeds, and the only Election Day selfies I saw were of people declaring their support for Hillary Clinton. To be clear, I’m not blaming the algorithms for what I assume to be their role in augmenting my worldview. They did exactly what I told them to do, blocking out racist, misogynist and comments, hiding anyone who didn’t support Black Lives Matter, all with such deftness that I had no idea that a candidate who ran a campaign on exactly those values had gained enough popularity to win the election. But considering that more than 40 percent of our country’s population consumes news on Facebook, finding alternative perspectives shouldn’t have been that hard. I knew about Eli Pariser’s theory on filter bubbles, or the idea that online personalization distorts the type of information we see, and even so, I still chose to let algorithms shape how I perceive the world. Everything I could want to see is available at my fingertips, and yet I didn’t look. In April, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, addressed a room of developers about the importance of his social network. Facebook, he said, has the power to bring people together who might otherwise never have the chance to meet. “The internet has enabled all of us to access and share more ideas and information than ever before,” he said. “We’ve gone from a world of isolated communities to one global community, and we are all better off for it. ” But that’s not what has happened. Zuckerberg’s idealism is belied by his desire to duck responsibility for mediating the content of his site. On Facebook, the political divide has only been entrenched further. It’s the BuzzFeed dress debate, only for our entire lives: We are two countries, one that sees blue and black and the other that sees white and gold. The internet once offered outlets we could use to understand one another. But they are rapidly disappearing. Most social media — like Facebook and Instagram — is curated by software built to manage the high influx of information flowing into it, but there have still been a few islands of digital wilderness, a Galápagos of sorts, where culture thrived untouched. They included Vine (whose closure was announced in October) and Snapchat, and even Tumblr, which were homes for marginalized ideas, theories and lifestyles. The app Vine was the first place I got a glimpse of cultures beyond my own, including those of the Middle East. I was able to see how some women there wanted us to see them: prospering, aware. A young woman living in Saudi Arabia who goes by the name Amy Roko used Vine to show clips of herself living her life — her version of normalcy — at the mall, goofing off at home. In her most viral video, she stares into the camera, her face covered in a niqab, save for her perfectly outlined eyes. “[expletive] called me ugly,” she snaps. “I said, [expletive] where?” The emphasis on the last word becomes the punch line as she whips off one niqab to reveal a second underneath. I was thrilled to realize that women living there could have a sense of humor similar to my own. Vine was born as an app and intended to be a social community. But Vine links could be shared independent of the network, and people did so with abandon, meaning that Vines appeared scattershot around the web, defying the sorting mechanism of streams and feeds. They could land on your screen via text message, direct message, email. Roko’s Vine was a riff on one originally posted by a young black American named Brionna London, who was miffed that someone thought she needed makeup to be pretty. You can draw a straight line from brown women in Saudi Arabia to black women in America, a marvel unto itself, a window into the way the internet flattens space and time — a vivid example of its fulfilling its promise to bridge divides. At Vine’s peak, it had more than 200 million monthly users who watched videos billions of times, and it excelled at showing these sorts of commonalities: that, say, black kids in New Orleans lived and looked a lot like white kids in Florida. (At the very least, they shared a similar humor and taste in music, which gave me hope that they would share a sense of humanity as well.) And yet Twitter, which owns Vine and is struggling to turn a profit while keeping its main service appealing to advertisers, could seemingly no longer afford to keep the video feature (which reportedly costs millions a month to maintain) afloat. Following news about Twitter’s decision to close the service, there were rumors that outside companies made inquiries about purchasing Vine’s remains. But it’s most likely too late to salvage the community there. In its earlier days, Snapchat offered its own version of cultural exchange. The app had an incredible series on “city life” that gave users direct windows into different worlds. People submitted short video diaries about life in their cities, which the company compiled into a single video, viewable by anyone using the app. I remember feeling delighted watching people in Istanbul and São Paulo showing off their routines and customs. But the company is now prioritizing “live stories,” which feature more mainstream events like the Super Bowl and music festivals. The effect is still fascinating, but less intimate. Snapchat seems to be betting that people are more interested in the familiar. The future of Tumblr, the blogging platform whose endless warren of rabbit holes about gender theory, critical feminist thought and identity politics is unlike any other on the internet, is the most uncertain. Yahoo, its parent company, succumbed to financial struggles and has announced plans to be acquired by Verizon, raising questions about the future of its properties. What we’re seeing with Snapchat, Tumblr and Vine reflects a larger shift in the economy. content, by and large, is not lucrative at a scale that satisfies investors, and as a result, most companies are changing direction toward other revenue streams. One of the more significant shifts is the move into social messaging. Semiprivate messaging applications — group text threads and applications like WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook) and Slack — have grown in popularity as people move away from public arenas for conversation, a shift caused in part by spikes in unchecked harassment on major social networks. New features are introduced daily, it seems, to make messaging with your friends more “fun. ” The latest version of the iPhone’s software includes the ability to make messages “explode” with confetti. WhatsApp now offers the ability to tag people in messages, as you might tag them in a photograph online. These changes have probably been spurred by messaging applications overseas, which used similar features to attract and retain customers. (Line, a Japanese company that built an addictive messaging app with 220 million monthly users worldwide, had one of the biggest initial public offerings — $1. 1 billion — earlier this year.) These new messaging features work to bind private groups tighter together, by making it more fun to talk to one another than to engage with the world at large. What happens when we would rather look inward? I have found something of an answer in a short story called “The Great Silence,” by Ted Chiang, about humankind’s search for signs of alien life. The story is narrated by a parrot in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, home to one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. “Their desire to make a connection is so strong that they’ve created an ear capable of hearing across the universe,” the creature begins. “But I and my fellow parrots are right here. Why aren’t they interested in listening to our voices?” The paradox is not to be missed: We are more interested in locating alien species than understanding the humanity among the species we already live with. The story ends on a somber note. “Human activity has brought my kind to the brink of extinction,” the narrator explains. “They didn’t do it maliciously. They just weren’t paying attention. ” Chiang’s lesson hits hard in this new political and cultural moment. Social media seemed to promise a way to better connect with people instead it seems to have made it easier to tune out the people we don’t agree with. But if we can’t pay attention to one another, we might as well not live on the same planet at all. | 1 |
CAIRO — Two men who found a travel bag containing a bomb on a Manhattan street last month — and then walked off with the bag but left the bomb — were not just employees of EgyptAir but security officers for the carrier, two officials at the airline said on Friday. Surveillance footage showed two men finding the bag on West 27th Street on the evening of Sept. 17, soon after a bomb exploded on West 23rd Street, injuring 31 people and triggering terrorism fears across the region. In the video, the men were seen pulling from the travel bag a white plastic bag that contained a pressure cooker connected to wires and a mobile phone. They left the white bag on the sidewalk and walked away with the travel bag. The bomb did not explode, and investigators have said that the men may have inadvertently disabled the device. The two men, identified as Hassan Ali and Abou Bakr Radwan, had flown to New York from here, serving as unarmed security guards on the flight, the officials said. The bag they found contained one of several homemade bombs that prosecutors say were planted that day in New York and New Jersey by Ahmad Khan Rahami, an American citizen. American investigators released footage of the two men, appealing for help in identifying them. The EgyptAir officials who identified them as Mr. Ali and Mr. Radwan spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The officials said they believed that the two employees were not connected to Mr. Rahami or the bomb plot. “They didn’t know what was in it,” one of the officials said of the travel bag. Mr. Ali “told me he saw it and thought it was nice,” the official recalled. “He opened the bag to check it out and found a pot. ” Mr. Ali did not want to go to the trouble of flying the pot back to Cairo, the official said, so he put it aside and left with the travel bag. “You know, we see things left on the street in New York all the time,” the official said. “Stuff no one wants. It’s normal to take them. ” The two men told friends and colleagues that they had not read the news or realized the significance of their find until Egyptian reporters started calling EgyptAir, the officials said. One of the officials said Mr. Ali and Mr. Radwan flew back to Cairo the day after the episode. American investigators have not been able to interview them, the officials said. Egyptian police officers went to Cairo International Airport on Friday to question the two men but were unable to find them because it was their day off, one of the officials said. Mr. Ali and Mr. Radwan have not been disciplined by EgyptAir, staff members of the airline said. Tarek Attiya, a spokesman for the police, said he could not deny or confirm any of the developments. Friday’s revelation is troubling for Egypt, whose aviation security procedures have come under intense scrutiny after three major air disasters in the past year. In October 2015, a Russian plane crashed into the Sinai Peninsula after what may have been a terrorist bomb brought it down. In March, a passenger wearing a fake explosives belt hijacked a domestic EgyptAir flight and diverted it to Cyprus. The crisis was resolved within hours when the man, later determined to be psychologically troubled, surrendered. In May, EgyptAir Flight 804 plunged into the Mediterranean, en route to Cairo from Paris, killing all 66 people on board. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. EgyptAir employs security officers like Mr. Ali and Mr. Radwan to maintain order during flights and to ensure that planes are secure during stopovers at foreign airports. Unlike the undercover air marshals who travel on American carriers, Egyptian security officials are unarmed and can be identified by an understated uniform. Generally, one security officer sits near the front of the cabin and another toward the rear. In some foreign airports they are responsible for searching workers who clean planes between flights. When a plane is in the air, they sometimes deal with unruly passengers. They receive modest training and are typically paid about $400 a month. Before the identities of the men who found the bag were revealed, Dina a spokeswoman for EgyptAir, said that they were not EgyptAir workers and that the men shown in the surveillance footage did not resemble any of their employees. Ms. Foulycould not be reached for comment after the men were identified. But images from Mr. Radwan’s Facebook page appear to match one of the men in a photograph released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The F. B. I. declined to comment. Both Mr. Ali and Mr. Radwan have no known political affiliations, according to several EgyptAir officials. “These guys are harmless they would be useless in a fist fight,” one of the airline officials said. “They cannot be in any way involved. ” “They don’t understand that they are wanted as witnesses,” he said. “They are shocked and scared now. Radwan is especially scared. The poor guy is always anxious. ” “Please, I cannot say anything,” Mr. Radwan said when reached by phone on Friday. “There is a spokesperson for the company. Speak to them. ” He then ended the call. Mr. Radwan’s last public post on Facebook came a day before the attacks in New York and New Jersey. It is a video of a man urging people not to associate Islam with terrorism. Several attempts to reach Mr. Ali on Friday through an intermediary were unsuccessful. | 1 |
A judge ruled Monday that deposition testimony from a civil lawsuit in which Bill Cosby acknowledged obtaining quaaludes as part of his efforts to have sex with women can be admitted as evidence in his coming criminal trial. Prosecutors have described the testimony, given by Mr. Cosby in a 2005 lawsuit and portions of which became public in July 2015 as crucial evidence that led them to reopen the investigation into an accusation by a former Temple University staff member that he had sexually assaulted her. The Montgomery County, Pa. district attorney’s office charged Mr. Cosby last year with drugging and molesting the former staff member, Andrea Constand, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Mr. Cosby’s lawyers had argued that the deposition should be suppressed because, they said, he had been induced to sit for the deposition, and waive his Fifth Amendment rights against by an alleged promise by a former county district attorney not to prosecute him. The former district attorney, Bruce L. Castor Jr. had testified during a hearing in February that he hoped the promise would lead Mr. Cosby to testify in the civil case that had been brought by Ms. Constand. But in a ruling, Judge Steven T. O’Neill of the Court of Common Pleas in Montgomery County said he found no evidence that there had ever been such an agreement. “This court concludes that there was neither an agreement nor a promise not to prosecute, only an exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” Judge O’Neill said. Mr. Cosby’s criminal trial is currently scheduled to begin next June. In the deposition, Mr. Cosby never admitted to nonconsensual sex, but nevertheless presented himself as an unapologetic, cavalier playboy, someone who used a combination of fame, apparent concern and powerful sedatives in a calculated pursuit of young women. The profile was at odds with the popular image he so long enjoyed of father figure and public moralist. Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Mr. Cosby, declined to comment on the judge’s decision. In a statement, Kevin R. Steele, the current district attorney, said the ruling was “another step forward in this case and will aid the jury in making its determination. ” Mr. Cosby gave his testimony in the civil case over four days in September 2005 and March 2006. Ms. Constand eventually settled the lawsuit on undisclosed terms, but agreed to help in the prosecution of Mr. Cosby last year when approached by prosecutors. The decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for Mr. Cosby’s lawyers as they have sought to have the charges thrown out, or shape the evidence to be admitted at trial. Last month, Judge O’Neill rejected their argument that the delay of more than 10 years in bringing charges against Mr. Cosby denied him the right to a fair trial. At a hearing before Judge O’Neill next week, his lawyers are scheduled to argue against an attempt by Mr. Steele to introduce testimony by 13 other women who say they were also assaulted by Mr. Cosby. | 0 |
By wmw_admin on September 5, 2006
Extracts from a talk given by Lee Brown at the 1986 Continental Indigenous Council, Tanana Valley, Fairbanks, Alaska. Six Million Jews 1915-1938 By wmw_admin on March 4, 2013
Years before Hitler and WWII the iconic figure of six million Jews was being widely promulgated. Here are a few examples The Man Who Would Be King By Rixon Stewart on April 15, 2008
Some say that Prince Michael of Albany has a more legitimate claim to the throne of England than the Windsors. Are they right? And why are the Windsors and the mainstream media delberately ignoring him? Affidavit of Richard Tomlinson By wmw_admin on February 14, 2008
“I firmly believe that there exist documents held by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) that would yield important new evidence into the cause and circumstances leading to the death of the Princess of Wales.” Bilderberg Meeting – Media Should Be Ashamed By wmw_admin on July 12, 2003
Why do the Bilderberg meetings receive so little coverage. Victor Thorn examines why, and how, real news is suppressed by the mainstream media Caught but not about to be arrested: Craft International Trained Men at Boston Bombing Location Before Attack By wmw_admin on April 19, 2013
What are privately owned military teams doing at the Boston Marathon? Photographic evidence of who was behind the blasts Soros/CIA Plan to Destabilize Europe By Wayne Madsen on September 28, 2015
The same forces that orchestrated the various ‘colour revolutions’ and the ‘Arab Spring’ are behind Europe’s migrant crisis. Wayne Madsen explains The Essene Gospel of Peace II By wmw_admin on April 26, 2007
Translated by Purcell Weaver and Edmond Szekely from its original Aramiac, a language that today few know but 2000 years ago was the language that Christ spoke and taught with The Life of an American Jew in Racist Marxist Israel Part I By wmw_admin on July 2, 2007
Jack Bernstein was a rarity, an American Zionist who ‘returned’ to Israel, not for a holiday but to live and die in Israel building a Jewish nation. What makes him almost one of a kind, however, was his ability to see through the sham of Zionism | 0 |
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