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Next Prev Swipe left/right Don’t ask Amazon’s Echo for urgent medical help Amazon’s Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide news, sports scores, weather and absolutely no urgent medical help whatsoever. alexa help me i'm hurt pic.twitter.com/r6iHh5j5VN
— Steve Hogarty (@misterbrilliant) November 4, 2016 | 0 |
Report Copyright Violation Some person had recycle my balls on their recycle bin That was funny driving out of my neighborhood and seeing that. I wonder if his wife upset him for not properly recycling. Ha Ha Page 1 | 0 |
Chart Of The Day: The Great Prosperity (1947-79) Vs. The Great Regression (1980-2016) By David Stockman. Posted On Sunday, November 13th, 2016
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http://www.oftwominds.com/blognov16/fearmongering11-16.html
David Stockman's Contra Corner is the only place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted and rebuked. Subscribe now to receive David Stockman’s latest posts by email each day as well as his model portfolio, Lee Adler’s Daily Data Dive and David’s personally curated insights and analysis from leading contrarian thinkers. | 0 |
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Class warfare is poised to reach a new milestone as this year’s combined total of dividends and stock buybacks by 500 of the world’s largest corporations will exceed US$1 trillion.
So large is that figure that, for the second year in a row, the companies comprising the S&P 500 Index (a list of many of the world’s biggest corporations) will pay out more money in dividends and stock buybacks than the total of their profits. Yes, times are indeed good for speculators. Not so good for employees — you know, the people who do the actual work — whose pay is stagnant or declining so that those at the top can scoop up still more.
Although dividends, a quarterly payment to holders of stock, are steadily increasing, the increase in stock buybacks has been steeper. The total of these has tripled since 2009 as financiers and industrialists feverishly extract as much wealth as they can. This is part of why the “recovery” since the 2008 economic collapse has been a recovery only for those at the top.
In short, a buyback is when a corporation buys its own stock from its shareholders at a premium to the current price. Speculators love buybacks because it means extra profits for them. Corporate executives love them because, with fewer shares outstanding following a buyback program, their company’s “earnings per share” figure will rise for the same net income, making them look good in the eyes of Wall Street. Remaining shareholders love buybacks because the profits will now be shared among fewer shareholders.
Wall Street and corporate executives both win! Hurrah! Who could by hurt by this? Oh, yes, the employees. They’ll have to suffer through pay freezes, work speedups and layoffs because the money shoveled into executive pay and financial industry profits has to come from somewhere. This sort of activity helps buoy stock prices. So does the trillions of dollars the world’s central banks have printed to sustain their “quantitative easing” programs.
We’re not talking loose change here. The U.S. Federal Reserve pumped $4.1 trillion into its three rounds of quantitative easing; the Bank of England spent £375 billion; the European Central Bank has spent about €1.34 trillion; and the Bank of Japan has spent ¥220 trillion so far. That’s a total of US$8 trillion or €7.4 trillion. And the last two programs are ongoing.
Encouraging investment or inflating bubbles?
The supposed purpose of quantitative-easing programs is to stimulate the economy by encouraging investment. Under this theory, a reduction in long-term interest rates would encourage working people to buy or refinance homes; encourage businesses to invest because they could borrow cheaply; and push down the value of the currency, thereby boosting exports by making locally made products more competitive.
In actuality, quantitative-easing programs cause the interest rates on bonds to fall because a central bank buying bonds in bulk significantly increases demand for them, enabling bond sellers to offer lower interest rates. Seeking assets with a better potential payoff, speculators buy stock instead, driving up stock prices and inflating a stock-market bubble. Money not used in speculation ends up parked in bank coffers, boosting bank profits, or is borrowed by businesses to buy back more of their stock, another method of driving up stock prices without making any investments.
The practical effects of all this is to re-distribute income upward . That is the raison d’être of the financial industry.
What else could be done with the vast sums of money thrown at the financial industry? In the U.S. alone, home to a steadily crumbling infrastructure, the money needed to eliminate all student debt, fix all schools, rebuild aging water and sewer systems, clean up contaminated industrial sites and repair dams is estimated to be $3.4 trillion — in other words, $700 billion less than the Federal Reserve spent on its quantitative-easing program.
The British think tank Policy Exchange estimates Britain’s needs for investment in transportation, communication and water infrastructure to be a minimum of £170 billion, or less than half of what the Bank of England spent on its QE scheme.
Borrowing to give more to speculators
To return to the $1 trillion in dividends and buybacks, a research report by Barclays estimates that those payouts by S&P 500 corporations will total about $115 billion more than their combined net income. As a Zero Hedge analysis puts it:
“[C]ompanies will promptly send every single dollar in cash they create back to their shareholders, and then use up an additional $115 billion from cash on the balance sheet, sell equity or issue new debt, to fund the difference.”
Near-zero interest rates, another central bank policy that favors the financial industry, have enabled this accumulation of debt. Debt not for investment, but simply to shovel more money into the pockets of financiers and executives. But debt can’t increase forever, and someday, perhaps in the not too distant future, central banks will raise interest rates, making debt much less attractive. The Barclays report calculates that 2015 also saw buybacks and dividends total more than net income; the last time there was consecutive years in which this happened were 2007 and 2008.
It would of course be too simplistic to interpret this metric as a signal that an economic collapse on the scale of 2008 is imminent, but is perhaps a sign that the latest stock market bubble may be close to bursting.
Another signal that trouble may be looming is that money is now being shoveled into bonds, a sign that confidence in the stock market is waning. A New York Times report suggests that European and Asian investors (the Times of course is much too genteel to use the word “speculator”) are pouring so much capital into U.S. bond markets that a bubble is being inflated there as well. These speculators are seeking higher returns from bonds floated by U.S. corporations than they can get at home. The Times reports :
“The surge in flows echoes a wave of investment in the years right before the financial crisis, when mostly European investors snapped up billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities before the American housing market imploded.
The current numbers are also arresting. According to [former Treasury Department official Brad W.] Setser’s figures, about $750 billion of private money has poured into the United States in the last two years alone.”
Starved for investment
Setting aside the touch of xenophobia in it, the Times report does at least broach the subject of under-investment. And wealthy investors possessing far more money than can possibly be invested is hardly an unknown phenomenon. As an example, let us examine Wal-Mart, which racked up more than $16 billion in net income for 2015 and seems poised to better that this year.
The Walton family, heirs to founder Sam Walton, owns about half of Wal-Mart’s stock and receive a corresponding share of the billions of dollars in dividends the company pays yearly. It also spends billions more buying back stock annually, an indirect help to the Waltons. This is a company notorious for dodging taxes while paying its employees so little they require government assistance, and is the recipient of vast amounts of government handouts .
The Waltons make tens of thousands times what their ill-paid employees earn. They certainly don’t work tens of thousands harder — or even work at all, as the billions roll in just for being born into the right family. Wan-Mart is far from alone, but does provide an exemplary example of class warfare. An estimated $1 trillion a year goes to corporate profits that once went to wages, according to a PBS Newshour report.
The harder you work, the more the boss, and financiers, make. What sort of system is this? | 1 |
Fox News is no longer “Fair and Balanced. ”[The cable news channel is reportedly set to drop its marketing slogan in an effort to distance itself from its former chief Roger Ailes, who invented it when he launched the network in 1996, according to New York magazine. Instead, staffers at Fox have reportedly been asked to use its other, slogan: “Most Watched. Most Trusted. ” A source at the network reportedly told New York that the switch “won’t affect programming or editorial decisions. ” The news comes as Fox News continues to move away from the Ailes era under the guidance of Rupert Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan. Ailes, the principal architect of Fox who changed the cable news business forever, resigned from the network last year under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations and died in May at age 77. The network has undergone significant changes in recent weeks following the departure of longtime star anchor Bill O’Reilly, whose O’Reilly Factor was the cable news program for more than a decade. O’Reilly left the network this year after the New York Times reported that he had paid millions of dollars to settle multiple sexual harassment claims. In his place, Fox News brought on former Crossfire host Tucker Carlson to anchor the 8 p. m. hour and moved its panel show The Five into the 9 p. m. slot. Sean Hannity remained on at 10 p. m. The network remains the on television, but has come under increasing pressure as MSNBC and its star anchor, Rachel Maddow, have benefitted from critical coverage of President Donald Trump. During one week in May, Fox News dropped to third place in the key demo in primetime behind MSNBC and CNN, the first time that had happened in 17 years. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 0 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Struggling to keep Iraq from splintering, American diplomats pushed for a law in 2011 to share the country’s oil wealth among its fractious regions. Then Exxon Mobil showed up. Under its chief executive, Rex W. Tillerson, the giant oil company sidestepped Baghdad and Washington, signing a deal directly with the Kurdish administration in the country’s north. The move undermined Iraq’s central government, strengthened Kurdish independence ambitions and contravened the stated goals of the United States. Mr. Tillerson’s willingness to cut a deal regardless of the political consequences speaks volumes about Exxon Mobil’s influence. In the Iraq case, Mr. Tillerson and his company outmaneuvered the State Department, which he has now been nominated by Donald J. Trump to lead. “They are very powerful in the region, and they couldn’t care less about what the State Department wants to do,” Seznec, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a research group in Washington, said of Exxon Mobil’s pursuits in the Middle East. As America’s biggest oil company, with operations on six continents and a stock market value of more than $390 billion, Exxon Mobil is in some ways a state within a state. While Mr. Tillerson has never officially been a diplomat, he has arguably left an American footprint on more countries than any nominee before him — with an agenda overseas that does not always mesh with that of the United States government. Under Mr. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil has struck lucrative deals with repressive governments in Africa, clashed with China and befriended Vietnam over disputed territory in the South China Sea, learned from hard experience in Venezuela, and built a close rapport with Russia at a time of deepening mistrust between the Kremlin and the West. Mr. Trump emphasized the unique role Mr. Tillerson had played in pursuing his company’s interests around the world, announcing the selection on Tuesday by saying that Mr. Tillerson’s “tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for secretary of state. ” But the task is a new one for Mr. Tillerson, who as chief executive made it clear that a broad range of national interests and diplomatic priorities were not his main concern. His focus was access to energy. “And if we’re able to do that, where it comes from should be of little consequence to us, if it’s reliable,” he said at the Council on Foreign Relations in June 2012. Mr. Tillerson’s first big overseas test came soon after he became Exxon Mobil’s chief executive in 2006, when he confronted the government of Venezuela — and suffered the consequences. The company had worked in Venezuela for decades, but Hugo Chávez, calling for a revolution to benefit the poor, began renegotiating the industry’s contracts. By 2007, the Venezuelan government set its sights on projects that included oil industry titans like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total. Foreign companies soon began cooperating with Mr. Chávez’s government, but Exxon Mobil and another company, ConocoPhillips, balked at the changes. “From the very beginning, Exxon sent strong signals that they would not be run over, they would use all their legal rights, and they would be more confrontational,” said Francisco Monaldi, a former consultant for Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. In response, Venezuela expropriated the assets of both companies. Exxon Mobil took Venezuela to an arbitration court, and got a disappointing outcome. In 2014, seven years after the dispute began, the World Bank’s international arbitration court found in the company’s favor, but awarded only about of what Exxon Mobil said the assets were worth. The company has not operated in Venezuela since. “In my opinion, he took it very personal with Chávez,” said Ghassan Dagher, a Venezuelan oil industry consultant, adding that Mr. Tillerson “fell into the trap completely. ” It was a lesson that may have helped inform Mr. Tillerson’s dealings with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, he said. “Once Exxon finished with Chavez’s story, they said, ‘We’re not going to make the same mistake.’ That’s why they became so close to Putin. ” Mr. Tillerson has had success guiding his company through the politics of the Russian oil business. Exxon Mobil executives said Mr. Tillerson was not available for an interview. But they argued that he and Mr. Putin are not friends, countering criticism in the United States that Mr. Tillerson is too close to Russia to take a strong stance against it. Mr. Putin awarded Mr. Tillerson a medal of friendship for concluding corporate deals in Russia. Not long after, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil industry in 2014 over Moscow’s deadly intervention in Ukraine, leading American foreign policy and the company’s investment goals to diverge. Exxon Mobil now has billions of dollars in deals that will move forward only if the sanctions are lifted. Some officials and executives argue that Mr. Tillerson’s approach to Russia could ease tensions, a view questioned by many diplomats, rights groups and advocates of disarmament. Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Putin, praised Mr. Tillerson, saying Russia was ready to find a way out of the “ridiculous condition” between the two great powers. “We want out of this crisis situation,” he said. In West Africa, Exxon Mobil has made lucrative deals with the government of Equatorial Guinea, which arbitrarily detains and tortures critics, disregards elections, and has faced international prosecution for using oil profits to enrich the president’s family. Tutu Alicante, the director of the watchdog organization EG Justice, said that by doing business in Equatorial Guinea, Exxon Mobil was complicit in reinforcing President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo — a strongman who has held office since 1979. “Exxon definitely has enabled a government that once upon a time was very repressive but didn’t have the resources to keep itself in power,” Mr. Alicante said. As for the selection of Mr. Tillerson as secretary of state, he added, “For just about anyone who cares about transparency in extractive industry, this is a devastating pick. ” Mr. Obiang and his family have faced investigations in the United States and elsewhere for looting hundreds of millions of dollars from Equatorial Guinea’s treasury to buy real estate in Malibu and Paris, as well as statues of Michael Jackson. The president’s son is under investigation for money laundering in France and Switzerland, where the authorities seized 11 luxury cars including a Bugatti Veyron valued at about $2 million. Most of the population of Equatorial Guinea lives on less than a dollar a day. Documentation of questionable practices in the country began before Mr. Tillerson ascended to the chief executive position. In 2004, an American Senate subcommittee identified a bank in Washington where Exxon Mobil and other oil companies deposited hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Equatorial Guinea for operating there. The cash went to the president’s family, the subcommittee’s report found. “The government literally used the oil wealth of the country as a personal A. T. M. ,” said Arvind Ganesan, a director at Human Rights Watch. The same kind of behavior continues, he argued. But Alan Jeffers, an Exxon Mobil spokesman, said that when dealing with countries that have records of corruption, the company was careful to follow the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribes to foreign officials to do business. “We’re a company that follows the laws,” Mr. Jeffers said. “Absent a law prohibiting something, we evaluate it on a business case basis. ” The company has been both complimented and criticized in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer. When Exxon, the precursor of Exxon Mobil, acquired Mobil’s operations in Nigeria in the late 1990s, it was given credit for righting misdeeds, including bribery and negligence, said Matthew Page, a consultant who until recently was the State Department’s top expert on Nigeria. “They came in with a much more rigid, management culture and totally cleaned up Mobil’s operations there,” he said. More recently, under Mr. Tillerson’s tenure, Exxon Mobil’s offshore facilities have been attacked by militants in the Niger Delta who contend that the nation’s oil wealth overwhelmingly benefits a small circle of Nigerian elites, yet causes broad environmental damage like oil spills. The company says it takes environmental protections seriously, including in places that have weak regulations or enforcement. “We’ll impose environmental standards on our own operations that may not necessarily be required by law,” Mr. Jeffers said. “It’s a good practice as a responsible operator. ” Mr. Page said that Mr. Tillerson’s experience in negotiating deals around the world would help him in the role of America’s top diplomat. “Exxon has this reputation as being in terms of its negotiations in other countries, and Tillerson was the big hitter,” he said. “He would fly around the world negotiating these deals with foreign heads of state. From that viewpoint, he’s a natural for secretary of state. ” But under Mr. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil has also been criticized for a lack of transparency in dealings with the Nigerian government. The country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is investigating a 2009 license renewal deal for Exxon Mobil, after allegations that the company was significantly outbid by a Chinese competitor. Critics contend that the deal was done illegally. “They were running a very corrupt and opaque renewal process,” Olanrewaju Suraju, the chairman of the Civil Society Network Against Corruption in Nigeria, said of the Nigerian government in power at the time. Some analysts said that Exxon Mobil had a singular goal overseas. “The one clear trend that runs through Exxon’s foreign policy is that they are really all about business and doing what is best for shareholders,” said Ben Van Heuvelen, the managing editor of Iraq Oil Report. “They are willing to look the other way in the face of a whole host of problems. ” But Robert M. Gates, who served as secretary of defense under President Obama and President George W. Bush, said he had recommended Mr. Tillerson to Mr. Trump. Mr. Gates, whose consulting firm has represented Exxon Mobil, said Mr. Tillerson would be more than capable as America’s top diplomat: “I think Rex is a realist, and I think he will absolutely put America’s interests first in any negotiation. ” | 1 |
UN Press Corps Expunges Israel, As If The Jewish Homeland Doesn’t Even Exist Oct 28, 2016 Previous post
The United Nations has a long history of insulting, disparaging and attacking Israel. It’s press corps now seems to want to selectively remove Israel from its records.
On October 16, 2015, the UN Security Council met to discuss the violence in the Middle East. US Ambassador Samantha Power delivered her remarks about her “ deep concern… about the current situation. ” She specifically condemned the violence in “ Jerusalem, the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza Strip. ” However, when the UN media center summarized her remarks, it stated that the US condemned the violence in “ Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza and elsewhere .” “Elsewhere”? Really? Was writing “Israel” too difficult? Was acknowledging the stabbings and attacks in Israel too controversial?
When the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs at the UN, Tayé-Brook Zerihoun, gave an update on the situation, he described the violence in “ the West Bank, Jerusalem and East Jerusalem ,” but the press corps just mentioned a “ deadly week in the West Bank ” removing any mention of Jerusalem.
Most alarmingly, the Assistant Secretary General welcomed “ Prime Minister Netanyahu’s repeated assurances that Israel has no intentions of changing the historic status quo at the holy sites ,” but the UN media completely omitted the statement in its coverage. As the Temple Mount rumor was the rallying cry for Palestinian extremists to engage in violence, shouldn’t that have been prominently highlighted, not ignored?
The UN press continued to ignore Israel three days later when it mentioned attacks in seven cities – all east
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BOBIGNY (FRANCE) (AFP) — Police fired tear gas after clashes erupted in the suburbs of Paris as demonstrators protested over the assault of a young black man who was allegedly anally raped with a truncheon while being arrested. [Surrounded by a heavy police contingent, about 2, 000 protesters, some carrying placards saying “Police rape” and “Police kill innocent people,” gathered in Bobigny, northeast of the French capital, to demand “Justice for Theo”. Theo, a black youth worker, required surgery after his arrest on February 2 in the “3, 000” estate in the gritty suburb of when he claims a police officer sodomised him with a baton. Projectiles were thrown at police on a footbridge with several vehicles torched and windows smashed on the sidelines of the protest, police said. “Several hundred violent and very mobile individuals” committed various “acts of violence and damage,” said the Paris police prefecture. In a statement it listed projectiles thrown against public buildings, four vehicles torched, two shops and a bus station damaged and several bins burned. “The police had to intervene to rescue a young child in a burning vehicle,” the police said, adding however that no injuries had been reported so far during the protest. Two media vehicles were also attacked, with no casualties reported. The demonstration ended in the evening after police fired tear gas. Theo, who is still in hospital, and his family have appealed for calm after several days of protests over the alleged assault. Rape charges have been filed against the officer and all four police involved in Theo’s have been suspended pending an investigation. With a presidential election this year, the incident has become highly politicised. It has also underscored the breakdown in trust between young people and the authorities in French suburbs. “All the time, we get checks, we get assaulted, they talk trash to us, we say, ‘Shut up’ … We are given little slaps,” a young man of about 20 named Kenzo told AFP. “I didn’t think it still exists,” said Anissa. ”How can they say it’s an accident?” Rallies took place in other French cities, including Rouen where some 200 people demonstrated, while around 250 gathered in Toulouse and more than 300 in Nantes. | 0 |
defense is a welfare and jobs program. an inefficient and corrupt welfare and jobs program. can't find a job? join the military. can't afford college? join the military. | 0 |
As of October 29, there have been at least 141 arrests of peaceful protesters at the Standing Rock Reservation who are attempting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which poses a major threat to the drinking water of all people at Standing Rock.
Paid for by Energy Transfer Partners , parent company to Dakota Access LLC, the DAPL is set to be embedded in a sacred burial ground at Standing Rock. This is the same area where DAPL security used attack dogs on peaceful people to intimidate protesters. Police snipers were seen peaking out of armored vehicles, aiming directly at unarmed protesters.
These water protectors have been brutalized by officers who are using the color of law to help Dakota Access LLC trample on the the 1851 treaty between the US and the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations.
Protesters who were arrested had handcuffs or zipties placed fixed to their wrists, they were stuffed into cages made for dogs and over-crowded cells, and they had numbers written on their arms, many of them having been brutally assaulted, tazed or even maced. Women were strip-searched in front of male officers. According to protesters, an elderly woman who had diabetes had blood sugar level of 488, which is dangerously high, and she was given no medical attention; they merely released her to deal with whatever health complications she had completely on her own.
Zip ties were used to bind people’s hands, and a number of protesters reported that these zip ties were tied so tightly around protester’s wrists that their hands were turning purple as a result of reduced blood circulation.
Cars in the area were impounded. Officers had accessed the vehicles, allegedly to search them, but protesters are concerned that officers would be able to plant contraband in order to expand the charges against protesters.
Over the weekend, an anonymous donor gave $173,000 to bail out protesters from jail.
The International Indian Treaty Council has been listening to testimony over the past two days about human rights violations at Standing Rock. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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A Tom Brady fan and photographer named Abdul Dremali just became an instant Twitter star after giving some very specific advice about what ESPN could do to itself after a network staffer asked the man for permission to use a photo he took at the Boston Marathon. [On April 17, Dremali snapped a photo of a man “motivating the runners” at the Boston Marathon, then posted the image to Twitter. this guy is at the #BostonMarathon right now motivating the runners. i love boston. pic. twitter. — abdul Ὠ (@Advil) April 17, 2017, It wasn’t long before several media operations asked him for permission to use the photo, one of which was ESPN. But Dremali, whose Twitter page is headed by a series of photos of New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady, was not much interested in allowing ESPN to borrow his photo for its own use. In fact, he had some very stark advice about what ESPN could do with itself. i love twitter so much bro pic. twitter. — abdul Ὠ (@Advil) April 17, 2017, Naturally, a lot of other Twitter users found Dremali’s reply to be hilarious. @JackPosobiec God that made me smile! !! — Allan Scott (@commonguy123) April 18, 2017, @JackPosobiec @vandives This is frickin awesome! I hate ESPN, they have become nothing more than a Democrat SuperPAC. — David McGauley (@DavidUndfsioux) April 18, 2017, @JackPosobiec Oh, my goodness! Best laugh of the day. Good for youAbdul. It looked like a witch hunt to me and I don’t follow football! — Deborah Diltz (@DeborahDiltz) April 18, 2017, @JackPosobiec @vdare Awesome ESPN is an racist, LGBT bathroom loving piece of chit, — jimmy campbell (@txjimmy34) April 18, 2017, @Advil *Bows down to greatness* Totally my favorite tweet of all time! — Deplorablefor#45 (@vilevillainess) April 18, 2017, @Advil @MistahWoodhouse You’re my hero, — Casey (@WitherSpartanIV) April 18, 2017, @Advil this is EVERYTHING!! — Brian Drourr Photo (@BrianDrourr) April 18, 2017, @Advil Bro, apparently you owned Twitter yesterday after you let @espn have it. — Brandon L Thacker (@ThackerbrandonL) April 18, 2017, Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0 |
Syrian War Report – November 2, 2016: ISIS and Al-Nusra Attempt to Cut Off Govt Supply Line to Aleppo ‹ › GPD is our General Posting Department whereby we share posts from other sources along with general information with our readers. It is managed by our Editorial Board Iraq’s Popular Mobilization cuts Daesh’s main supply route in Mosul By GPD on November 2, 2016
Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi forces, also known as the Popular Mobilization Units, have taken control of the main highway connecting the Daesh-held Iraqi city of Mosul and the Takfiris’ de facto capital in Syria.
The group’s spokesman, Jaafar al-Husseini, announced on Wednesday that the troops had gained control of the highway linking the northern Iraqi city to Raqqah in a move that effectively cuts the terrorist’s main supply line.
Forces from the Popular Mobilization Units are part of vast operations launched on October 17 by the Iraqi army, Shia and Sunnivolunteer fighters as well as Kurdish Peshmerga forces to retake Mosul, the last stronghold of Daesh in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Iraqi special forces are carrying out a house-to-house terrorist clearance operation in the newly-recaptured neighborhood of Gogjali in eastern Mosul.
Lieutenant Colonel Muhanad al-Timimi said that so far eight Daesh militants had been killed during the operation. Iraqi special forces take part in an operation against Daesh militants in Gogjali, west of Mosul, Iraq, on November 2, 2016.
The Iraqi force also downed a Daesh drone during the operations in Gogjali.
Earlier, Iraq’s Federal Police Forces announced that they had recaptured four villages near city’s Hammam al-Alil area.
Baghdadi trapped in Mosul
Meanwhile, reports say Daesh’s chief, Ibrahim al-Samarrai, also known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was hiding in Mosul when the Mosul operations began last month, and is now trapped in the besieged city.
“Baghdadi is there and, if he is killed, it will mean the collapse of the whole [Daesh] system,” Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, said in a Wednesday interview published by The Independent.
Hussein noted that Baghdadi’s presence in Mosul could prolong the operations to liberate the city, adding that capturing the city would spell the end of Daesh.
“It is obvious that they will lose, but not how long this will take to happen,” he added. Iraqi special forces take part in an operation against Daesh militants in Gogjali, west of Mosul, Iraq, on November 2, 2016.
UN voices alarm over Mosul human shields
In another development, the United Nations Security Council has expressed concerns over reports that Daesh is taking civilians in Mosul from their homes and relocating them in positions where they can be used as human shields.
The council condemns “the use of human shields and calls on all parties to take all feasible precautions with a view to avoiding harm to civilians and civilian objects in accordance with international humanitarian law,” said Senegal’s Deputy Ambassador Georgui Ciss, whose country currently holds the council’s presidency.
Ciss also noted that the Security Council would “not like to see the spread of Daesh to neighboring Syria.”
The remarks came a day after the UN warned that it had received reports of Daesh terrorists forcing thousands of civilians into Mosul, possibly to be used as human shields.
Residents from various locations around the city have also confirmed the reports. An internally displaced man walks with his belongings at al Khazar camp near Hassan Sham, east of Mosul, Iraq, on November 2, 2016.
Over one million trapped in the city
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), more than one million civilians are trapped in the city, all of whom “are in grave danger.”
The aid agency noted that around 18,000 Iraqis had fled their homes since the operation began over two weeks ago to retake the city.
The NRC’s Iraq director, Wolfgang Gressmann, said that aid workers “are now bracing… for the worst. The lives of 1.2 million civilians are in grave danger, and the future of all of Iraq is now in the balance.” Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT, VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians, or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. LEGAL NOTICE - COMMENT POLICY Posted by GPD on November 2, 2016, With 278 Reads Filed under World . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. FaceBook Comments
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Politics Russia Has Called the War Party's Bluff
A hot war is not going to break out after Nov. 8th - thanks to shrewd moves and preparation by Moscow Originally appeared at Sputnik
Cold War 2.0 has reached unprecedented hysterical levels. And yet a hot war is not about to break out – before or after the November 8 US presidential election.
From the Clinton (cash) machine – supported by a neocon/neoliberalcon think tank/media complex – to the British establishment and its corporate media mouthpieces, the Anglo-American, self-appointed “leaders of the free world” are racking up demonization of Russia and “Putinism” to pure incandescence.
And yet a hot war is not about to break out – before or after the November 8 US presidential election. So many layers of fear and loathing in fact veil no more than a bluff. Let’s start with the Russian naval task force in Syria, led by the officially designated “heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser” Admiral Kuznetsov, which will be stationed in the eastern Mediterranean at least until February 2017, supporting operations against all strands of Salafi-jihadism.
The Admiral Kuznetsov is fully equipped with anti-ship, air defense, artillery and anti-submarine warfare systems – and can defend itself against a vast array of threats, unlike NATO vessels.
Predictably, NATO is spinning with alarm that “all of the Northern Fleet”, along with the Baltic Fleet, is on the way to the Mediterranean. Wrong; it’s only part of the Northern Fleet, and the Baltic Fleet ships are not going anywhere. The heart of the matter is that when the capabilities of this Russian naval task force are matched with the S-300/S-400 missile systems already deployed in Syria, Russia is now de facto rivaling the firepower of the US Sixth Fleet.
To top it off, as this comprehensive military analysis makes clear, Russia has “basically made their own no-fly zone over Syria”; and a US no-fly zone, viscerally promoted by Hillary Clinton, “is now impossible to achieve.”
That should be more than enough to put into perspective the impotence transmuted into outright anger exhibited by the Pentagon and its neocon/neoliberalcon vassals.
Add to it the outright war between the Pentagon and the CIA in the Syrian war theatre, where the Pentagon backs the YPG Kurds, who are not necessarily in favor of regime change in Damascus, while the CIA backs further weaponizing of “moderate”, as in al-Qaeda-linked and/or infiltrated, “rebels”. Compounding the trademark Obama administration Three Stooges school of foreign policy, American threats have flown more liberally than Negan’s skull-crushing bloody baton in the new season of The Walking Dead.
Pentagon head Ash Carter, a certified neocon, has threatened “consequences”, as in “potential” strikes against Syrian Arab Army (SAA) forces to “punish the regime” after the Pentagon itself broke the Kerry-Lavrov ceasefire. President Obama took some time off weighing his options. And in the end, he backed off.
So it will be up for the virtually elected – by the whole US establishment — Hillary Clinton to make the fateful decision. She won’t be able to go for a no-fly zone – because Russia is already doing it. And if she decides to “punish the regime”, Moscow already telegraphed, via Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov, there will definitely be “consequences” for imposing a “shadow” hot war.
Sun Tzu doesn’t do first-strike
Washington, of course, reserves for itself a “first-strike” nuclear capability, which Hillary Clinton fully supports (Donald Trump does not, and for that he’s also demonized). If we allow the current hysteria to literally go nuclear, then we must consider the matter of the S-500 anti-missile system – which effectively seals Russia's air space; Moscow won’t admit it on the record because that would unleash a relentless arms race.
A US intel source with close connections to the Masters of the Universe but at the same time opposed to Cold War 2.0 as “counter-productive”, adds the necessary nuance: “The United States has lost the arms race, indulging in trillions of dollars of worthless and endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and now is no longer a global power as it cannot defend itself with its obsolete missiles, THAAD, Patriot and Aegis Land Based Ballistic Defense System, against Russian ICBMs, even as the Russians have sealed their airspace. The Russians may be as much as four generations ahead of the US.”
Moreover, in the deep recesses of shadow war planning, the Pentagon knows, and the Russian Defense Ministry also knows, that in the event some
Dr. Strangelove launched a nuclear preemptive strike against Russia, the Russian population would be protected by their defensive missile systems – as well as nuclear bomb shelters in major cities. Warnings on Russian television have not been idle; the population would know where to go in the – terrifying — event of nuclear war breaking out.
Needless to add, the ghastly possibility of US nuclear first-strike turns all these WWII-style NATO war games in Eastern Europe into a pile of meaningless propaganda stunts.
So how did Moscow plan for it all? According to the US intel source, “they took out almost all the military budget from their stated federal budget, lulling the West into thinking that Russia could not afford a massive military buildup and there was nothing to fear from Russia as they were finished as a world power.
The [stated] military budget was next to nothing, so there was nothing to worry about as far as the CIA was concerned. If Putin showed publicly his gigantic military buildup, the West could have taken immediate remedial actions as they did in 2014 by crashing the oil price.”
The bottom line then would reveal the Pentagon as totally unprepared for a hot war – even as it threatens and bluffs Russia now on a daily basis; “As Brzezinski has pointed out, if this is the case it means the US has ceased to be a global power. The US may continue to bluff, but those that ally with them will have nowhere to go if that bluff is called, as it is being now called in Syria.”
The US intel source is adamant that “one of the greatest military buildups in history has taken place right under the nose of the Russian Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina and the Russian Ministry of Finance while the CIA awaits what they think will be the inevitable Russia collapse.
The CIA will be waiting forever and eternity for Russia to collapse. This MGB maneuver is sheer genius. And demonstrates that the CIA, which is so drowned by data inputs that they cannot connect the dots on anything, must be completely reorganized. In addition, the entire procurement system of the United States military must also be reorganized as it cannot ever keep up if new weapon programs as the F-35 take twenty years to develop and then are found obsolete before they even enter service. The Russians have a five-year development program for each new weapons system and they are far ahead of us in every key area.”
If this analysis is correct, it goes against even the best and most precise Russian estimates, according to which military potential may be strong, asymmetrically, but still much inferior to US military might.
Well-informed Western analysts know that Moscow never brags about military buildups – and has mastered to a fault the element of surprise. Much more than calling a bluff, it’s Moscow’s Sun Tzu tactics that are really rattling loudmouth Washington. Did you enjoy this article? - Consider helping us! Russia Insider depends on your donations: the more you give, the more we can do. $1 $10 Other amount
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Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik News, the Voice of Russia / Ria Novosti, TeleSur, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution – Essays from the Resistance. Is Washington “False Flagging” The New Russia-Iran-Syria-China “Axis of Evil”, Into Nuclear War? By Peter Koenig on October 26, 2016 The penultimate goal is total militarization of the western world, to prevent and suppress protests and revolts .
by Peter Koenig
False flagging has hundreds of years of history; successful history that is, otherwise the method of lying and bullying people into false beliefs, that would not have survived the times.
But false flags took on a new dimension since 9/11. The subsequent terror acts, including the Arab Spring and ‘Color Revolutions’; downing of a Russian plane over Egypt; shooting down of a Malaysian plane over the Ukraine; Paris murderous shootings at ‘Charlie Hebdo’ and ‘Bataclan’; Brussels; Nice; Munich; Orlando, Florida; San Bernardino, California – to name just a few over the last years – were perpetrated by the very actors claiming to fight terror, namely predominantly the secret services of the US, UK and Israel, the European vassals and NATO. The purpose of such acts of terror is to create fear, to justify a police crackdown on the populations and each time doing away with more of the democratic civil rights still left in western society.
The penultimate goal is total militarization of the western world, to prevent and suppress protests and revolts if and when the population eventually wakes up to the flagrant lies that it has been force-fed by the presstitute media for years on end.
And that in itself is a crucial step towards the ultimate goal of Full Spectrum Dominance of the world, or world hegemony, by a small corporate and financial elite. Alas, militarization of the west and ongoing wars and chaos throughout the world, causing millions of death – estimated between 12 and 15 million in the last 15 years – will not suffice to dominate the eastern powers led by Russia and China. Do the elites who pull the strings in Washington want a nuclear war? It may fulfill their pathological objective of total annihilation of the world as we know it, possibly with hundreds of millions of casualties. Just look at Aleppo and multiply this image by a million. See also Kissinger’s 1974 Plan for Food Control Genocide. https://www.schillerinstitute.org/food_for_peace/kiss_nssm_jb_1995.html . Emails expose close ties between Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State and accused war criminal Henry Kissinger. Is reduction of world population by any means a major objective: Kissinger’s 1974 ‘study’ on famine as genocide, was commissioned in full connivance with Monsanto and the GMO technology – a food war, the preparation of which is ongoing as the world is facing a nuclear threat.
Intensified through four decades of Cold War, the US has grown increasingly dependent on the military – security industry for its economic advances. Creating weapons to exploit and destroy in foreign lands what later needs reconstruction is an easy way to making huge profits, sustaining an otherwise outsourced production economy and an ever poorer local population that lives off imported junk.
This is true for the misinformed US and European public. The West is sinking by its own inaction into a deep hole.
However, the need for more sophisticated weaponry and more destruction is spiraling exponentially, as greed, avarice and power know no limits. A WWIII scenario is becoming an imminent danger. wars
Do the neocon architects of US foreign policy hope to survive a nuclear inferno in their lush bunkers? The western presstitute media portrays the US as fighting in the Middle East and elsewhere ‘humanitarian wars’ to stamp out terrorism and other atrocities committed by the new Killary anointed Axis of Evil, Russia-Iran-Syria, and by association, China. The basic premise is, they are the “good guys” and the Russians under Putin’s orders are constantly interfering with America’s humanitarian deeds. This sick understanding, continuously touted by the western media controlled by the six Zionist-Anglo media giants, and repeated hourly, will make massive, credible false-flagging like a walk in the park – a walk in which about a billion ‘westerners’ are cheering for war against the eastern evil. A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for war with Russia
Currently the US is secretly on DEFCON level 3 warning against a Russian nuclear attack (DEFCON = Defense Readiness Condition) . The American public doesn’t know it. – Level 3 means an attack could be days away; level one would imply an imminent attack within less than an hour.
This in itself is a false flag, a make-believe that a first strike may come from Russia, when the Pentagon hawks openly boast that a first preventive strike is not off the table. Some high level generals even push for it.
There is a massive orchestrated build-up of potential false flags around the globe that would allow a first strike nuclear attack on several fronts against Russia, Syria, Iran and China, by the US armed forces, NATO and the European vassals’ own armies. Israel is poised to launch an attack against Iran.
Syria – the 20-nation Peace Talks of Saturday 15 October 2016 in Lausanne, Switzerland, focusing on an Aleppo cease fire, predictably failed to produce any tangible results. Nevertheless, in a real humanitarian effort, Russia has declared an 8-hour truce to begin on Thursday, 20 October, “We have taken a decision not to waste time and to introduce ‘humanitarian pauses’, mainly for the free passage of civilians, evacuation of the sick and wounded and withdrawal of fighters. Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoi, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces
The ceasefire would run from 0800 to 1600 local time (0500 GMT to 1300 GMT) “in the area of Aleppo. During this period the Russian air force and Syrian government troops will halt air strikes and firing from any other types of weapons,” as ‘vanguardngr.com’ quoted senior Russian military officer Sergei Rudskoi as saying at a press briefing. – Later the truce has been extended to 11 hours and at yesterday’s (19 October) ‘peace discussion’ in Berlin, hosted by Madame Merkel, Mr. Putin said he would be prepared to extend it to 3 days, if all the parties were committed to observe it.
What if – in defiance of this mini-ceasefire – US, US-proxies, or NATO fighters keep bombing Syrian army ground troops in the Aleppo region, as well as hospitals and civilian populations, to encourage Al-Nusra, cum IS terrorists to stay their course and keep sowing misery and killing civilians? – Russia has warned Washington that any attack on Assad’s troops would be the object of retaliation. Might such a scenario be a provocation to start a hot WWIII? – Precedents of defying cease fire agreements and blaming Russia for it exist in the not so distant past: 17 September, when the US air force ‘by mistake’ attacked Assad’s ground forces killing 62 soldiers – and who knows how many civilians – then, through the complicit MSM blamed Russia for it. US attack on Syrian troops not an accident, definitely intentional – Assad to AP
It is not inconceivable that US war planes painted to look like Russians, could attack their own Air Force in Syria or Iraq, blaming Russia, thereby triggering a US first strike.
With the brainwashed western population, the false flag would be an easy sell as a Russian aggression, justifying Washington’s ‘first strike’.
America’s indefectible British ally has recently given its fighter jet pilots ‘permission’ to fire on Russian aircraft in Syria. – What if they actually do so, as a US proxy? – And Russia retaliates against a NATO country – which is according to NATO rules an aggression against all NATO. This could mean an all-out war. US and NATO bases in Europe would not be spared. By now there are 24 bases, an increase from 14 since 1991, when the West promised not to expand NATO. This would plunge Europe for the third time in 100 years into – this time an all-annihilating – war scenario. How can Europe not see and understand this?
Yemen – Since March 2015 a Saudi led coalition, for which until recently Washington provided weapons, logistical and intelligence support, is bombing the Houthi rebels. The Houtis, fighting for freedom from the western domination, have seized the Presidential Palace in Sana’a, sending the despotic US puppet President Hadi to Saudi Arabia into exile. The Houthis enjoy the backing of the majority of the Yemeni population and are considered the legitimate government. They also receive logistics support from Iran. They control about a quarter of the Yemeni landmass but more than three quarters of the population. The Saudis have been cowardly targeting mostly civilian populations, family celebrations, like weddings and funerals, humanitarian food and medical supplies and hospitals, slaughtering tens of thousands of mainly women and children. A couple of weeks ago the US and UK Air Forces have joined the Saudis in this atrocious war. The Geo-Political Nature of the Strait of Hormuz
While the Houthis have called on President Putin for help, the US has now called, through the UN, for a 72-hour ceasefire to enter into effect on 19 October mid-night. The official purpose is ‘humanitarian aid’, but the real reason is for the alliance of aggressors to regroup and strategize. It is inconceivable that the Master of Chaos would let go of such an optimal strategically placed country, overlooking the Gulf of Oman and the Iran controlled Strait of Hormuz, through which currently about 25 % of the world’s hydrocarbons sail. A western planted false flag, depicting a Russian intervention, could easily activate a full-scale war.
Israel, entering friendly relations with the Saudis, has asked the House of Saud for access to Saudi airfields which they may use to launch a ‘preemptive’ attack against Iran.
Internet spying and cyber war accusations against President Putin – most ridiculous, but with sledgehammer propaganda the American and most of European population will gulp this lie as the truth – and encourage US, UK and Israeli secret services (the infamous trio) to do likewise.
The argument is that Mr. Putin wants to derail US elections in favor of Donald Trump and hacking into DNC computers to divulge Democratic party corruption scandals – laying bare Madame Clinton’s corruption and lies. Apparently the CIA has already declared a cyber war against President Putin.
Russia could potentially retaliate, jamming key US strategic war systems with DRFM (Digital Radio Frequency Memory) technology, already successfully applied in 2015 in Syria, near Latakia, disrupting all US-NATO Radar and Satellites Communication systems. – Might such a possible retaliation and escalation in cyber warfare be translated into a lethal aggression by Russia, justifying a full-out war, with nuclear consequences?
On 19 October, Presidents Putin, Hollande and Poroshenko traveled to Berlin at the invitation of Madame Merkel to discuss Syria and implementation of a peace plan for eastern Ukraine. First, how come, a sovereign country like Syria is discussed by foreign powers, without – and I mean without any representation of Mr. Assad’s government? It is a human and diplomatic aberration. But what else would we expect from the west. Still, people need to be reminded that what appears normal is NOT normal at all.
The little that emerged from the meeting is that Mr. Hollande went home frustrated since Mr. Putin did not stand up to ‘his responsibilities in Ukraine’- what a flagrant lie! And Hollande knows it! – A lso was disclosed that no real agreement was reached on how to go about achieving peace in Syria. Putin answering questions regarding ISIS from a US journalist
Obviously for the western stooges of Washington, present in Berlin, there is only one way a ‘solution’ could be found: ‘Regime Change’. They will not let go. Even though Hollande and Merkel know absolutely well, why the US instigated the war in Syria, by recruiting and preparing, arming and funding terror groups already in 2007 (look for ‘Syria’ in this article
http://www.globalresearch.ca/its-not-just-the-oil-the-middle-east-war-and-the-conquest-of-natural-gas-reserves/5307589
On Ukraine – Poroshenko has promised a new road map for peace, nothing more exciting. The practical deadlock on Syria and ‘no news’ on Ukraine was to be expected. It is of course being blamed by both Hollande and Merkel on Vladimir Putin, who has never played a role in either conflict, both of them are the result of the evil fist of Washington.
Mr. Putin entered Syria only at the demand of Mr. Assad, to defend and rid the country of western implanted terrorists. He is also doing everything possible to pacify Ukraine, to no avail.
The west doesn’t want peace, but they want to blame Russia for the conflicts. Failure of the Merkel meeting might possibly be followed by a false flag against Kiev or Aleppo, to be put on Putin’s account, what else. Remember, the US Air Force has jets painted as Russian jets.
China
Would a US provocation on the Chinese controlled Spratly Islands, or an infringement on China’s air and land space, as there have been many in the past, become a trigger for engaging China in a nuclear aggression? South China sea
Hot spots around the world devastated to chaos by the empire abound. Anyone of them is a potential launch path for an atomic mushroom. Should this happen before the upcoming US elections, Obama might just stay on for another term. He has all the experience it needs to create more chaos and more division to conquer than any of his predecessors. He is also an obedient servant to those that pull the strings and watch through the eye on top of the pyramid, so clearly depicted in the US dollar bill, the symbol for Zionist-Freemason total hegemony. But importantly, he, like Hillary, would most likely not hesitate to push the Red Bottom, when asked to do so by their masters.
Copyright © Peter Koenig , Global Research, 2016 Related Posts: | 1 |
Donnerstag, 3. November 2016 Betrügt Ritter Sport? Fleisch in "Einhorn-Schokolade" offenbar nur vom Pegasus Waldenbuch (dpo) - Droht uns der nächste große Lebensmittelskandal? Offenbar enthält die derzeit euphorisch bejubelte "Einhorn-Schokolade" von Ritter Sport statt echtem Einhorn lediglich billiges Pegasus-Fleisch. Das fand ein Labor für Lebensmittelanalyse in Hamburg heraus. "Ich war sofort skeptisch, als ich hörte, dass die Firma Ritter Sport Einhorn-Schokolade anbietet", erklärt Lebensmittelchemiker Udo Wörne. "Jeder weiß doch, dass Einhörner unglaublich selten sind und Schokolade mit Einhornfleisch wohl kaum für 1,99 Euro pro Tafel angeboten werden kann." Und tatsächlich: Laboranalysen ergaben, dass in der vermeintlichen Einhorn-Schokolade noch nicht einmal Spuren von Einhorn enthalten sind. Stattdessen besteht das Produkt aus Milchschokolade und mit Lebensmittelfarbe bunt eingefärbtem Pegasusfleisch. Bis auf Kopf, Schweif und Hufe werden fast alle Teile eines Pegasusses verarbeitet. Udo Wörne wundert das wenig: "Weil Einhorn mit Preisen von bis zu 5.000 Euro pro Kilogramm kaum bezahlbar ist, greifen viele Hersteller auf wesentlich günstigeres Pegasusfleisch zurück." Die geflügelten Pferde werden meist ähnlich wie Schweine oder Geflügel massenhaft in großen Hallen gehalten, wobei ihnen in regelmäßigen Abständen die Schwungfedern gestutzt werden, um Fluchtversuche zu unterbinden. Einhörner dagegen gelten als äußerst empfindlich und verenden in Gefangenschaft in der Regel innerhalb weniger Wochen jämmerlich. In Produkten, die tatsächlich echtes Einhorn enthalten, sind daher fast immer wilde Einhörner verarbeitet. Diese werden mit Netzen gefangen und dann mit einem sogenannten Einhornhaken aus Metall ausgeweidet. Geschmacklich unterscheiden sich Pegasus und Einhorn gravierend. "Einhornfleisch ist sehr zart und hat einen leichten Nachgeschmack nach Regenbogen. Pegasus hingegen ist faserig und erinnert geschmacklich an eine Mischung aus Maulesel und Pute." ssi, dan, fed; Foto oben: Shutterstock/Hersteller, Foto unten: Shutterstock Artikel teilen: | 0 |
US and Allies Openly Massing Huge Army on Russian Border!
Andrew Anglin October 26, 2016 WWIII: Do it for Ambulance Boy, goyim pigs.
You know, maybe we should do a referendum, like “do you think we should have a nuclear war with Russia to save ISIS because of human rights and barrel bombs?”
I mean, I know most people probably agree with the Jews that the human rights of Syrians are a pretty damned good reason for a third World War.
But I think in a Democracy, the people should have a right to make the call.
Reuters :
Britain said on Wednesday it will send fighter jets to Romania next year and the United States promised troops, tanks and artillery to Poland in NATO’s biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War.
Germany, Canada and other NATO allies also pledged forces at a defense ministers meeting in Brussels on the same day two Russian warships armed with cruise missiles entered the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Denmark, underscoring East-West tensions.
In Madrid, the foreign ministry said Russia had withdrawn a request to refuel three warships in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta after NATO allies said they could be used to target civilians in Syria .
TARGETING CIVILIANS, GOYIM!
RUSSIANS ARE PURPOSEFULLY KILLING SYRIAN BABIES
WHY????
Well, no one knows.
I guess because they are just really mean people.
The ships were part of an eight-ship carrier battle group – including Russia’s sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov – that is expected to join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast, diplomats said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the troop contributions to a new 4,000-strong force in the Baltics and eastern Europe were a measured response to what the alliance believes are some 330,000 Russian troops stationed on Russia’s western flank near Moscow.
RUSSIA HAS A MILITARY INSIDE THEIR OWN COUNTRY 111
WHY WOULD A COUNTRY HAVE AN ARMY IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY????
IT IS A PERFECTLY MEASURED RESPONSE TO MOVE THOUSANDS OF TROOPS ACROSS AN OCEAN AND PLACE THEM ON THEIR BORDER!!!!
“This month alone, Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad and suspended a weapons-grade plutonium agreement with the United States,” Stoltenberg said, also accusing Russia of continued support for rebels in Ukraine.
Those ballistic missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although NATO officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad.
NATO’s aim is to make good on a July promise by NATO leaders to deter Russia in Europe’s ex-Soviet states, after Moscow orchestrated the annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014.
NATO’s plan is to set up four battle groups with a total of some 4,000 troops from early next year, backed by a 40,000-strong rapid-reaction force , and if need be, follow-on forces.
As part of that, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a “battle-ready battalion task force” of about 900 soldiers would be sent to eastern Poland , as well as another, separate force equipped with tanks and other heavy equipment to move across eastern Europe.
“It’s a major sign of the U.S. commitment to strengthening deterrence here,” Carter said.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would send an 800-strong battalion to Estonia, supported by French and Danish troops , starting from May. The United States wants its troops in position by June.
London is also sending Typhoon fighter aircraft to Romania to patrol around the Black Sea, partly in support of Turkey.
“Although we are leaving the European Union, we will be doing more to help secure the eastern and southern flanks of NATO,” Fallon said.
SYRIAN SHADOW
Others NATO allies joined the four battle groups led by the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada to go to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Canada said it was sending 450 troops to Latvia, joined by 140 military personnel from Italy .
Germany said it was sending between 400 and 600 troops to Lithuania, with additional forces from the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Croatia and Luxembourg.
Stoltenberg said allies’ commitments would be “a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond.” Diplomats said it would also send a message to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has complained that European allies do not pay their way in the alliance.
SEND A MESSAGE ALSO TO TRUMP!!!!
IT’S NOT JUST ISIS OR UKRAINE WE’RE SAVING HERE – WE ALSO HAVE TO STOP DONALD TRUMP!!!
The choice is very clear:
Will we allow Putin to help Assad barrel bomb his own people by bombing ISIS and thus deny Syrian babies of human rights?
Or will we launch a massive World War inside of Europe to stop human rights atrocities in Syria?
I think we all know the morally correct answer to this question.
But still though. Let’s have a referendum, just to make sure we’re all on the same page here. | 1 |
It’s the season for family travel and photos — and perhaps enlarging some of those images of snowy landscapes or tropical getaways to decorate your home. There are, of course, the usual print services and methods. You can choose a glossy or matte finish, print a photo on canvas, or make it into a poster with a few clicks online at photo sites like Snapfish and Shutterfly, professional photo shops like Adorama and Mpix, or drugstores and chains like Walgreens and Costco. But the web is also home to many printing services, as well as uncommon surfaces on which to enlarge photos for display, be it burlap, wood boards, acrylic or fabric. Why not try some fresh sites and methods? I recently sent some quality iPhone vacation photos to a handful of companies that I’d never used before and had them enlarged to various sizes and printed on different surfaces. I’ve also offered some guidance about bulk digitizing those boxes of old travel photos sitting in your closet or basement so that you can begin the New Year if not with a vacation, then with a home. Of all the ways to turn photos into wall art, I was most interested in trying engineer prints, named for the large, lightweight prints used by architects. For less than the cost of a couple of movie tickets, you can make huge enlargements. Mind you, it’s a particular aesthetic, one that’s most likely to appeal to people who are after an industrial, shabby chic or bohemian look. The paper is thin and the lines of the images are softer than a fine art print. And engineer prints need not be formally framed. People stick them to their walls with washi tape, a crafting tape that comes in innumerable colors and prints or they hang the prints using wood poster rails or skeleton clips. For a while, engineer prints from photos were primarily available in black and white, but now you can find them in color, too. One of the easiest ways to order them online is through Parabo Press, which is run by Photojojo, an online photography gear shop, and Zoomin, a photo printing service in Asia. As with all printing sites, you upload your image, zoom in closer if you like, and then click to buy. The site’s engineer prints are 4 feet by 3 feet, and cost $20 in black and white, and $25 in color. I sent out two different photos to be made in black and white, and they came out, to my surprise, beautifully. I was impressed that they were able to be enlarged to such a degree and not look blurry. And the paper (while so thin I was worried about accidentally tearing it) lends it an artful, careless look rather than the expected framed print over the couch. Parabo Press is a breeze to use: It’s clean and easy to read, your options are straightforward, and there are no annoying upsells. The site also offers prints on metal, glass, newsprint and Zines (handmade magazines) calendars photo books and prints from its Risograph machine, which uses ink and is described by Parabo as having “a cult following since its invention in 1980s Japan. ” A fabric print — not soft like a bedsheet, more like a place mat made of matte woven fabric — is another departure from a traditional photo enlargement. Order one from a site such as SnapBox and instead of framing it, you can peel and stick it on your wall. The site’s fabric posters adhere to (and can be peeled off) smooth surfaces such as untextured walls, glass, ceilings, tile and finished wood surfaces (avoid surfaces like stucco, concrete blocks, brick, unfinished wood, canvas or freshly painted walls). SnapBox offers fabric posters in more than a dozen sizes from 4x4 to 36x54, from less than $2 to about $80. I ordered a 24x36 fabric poster for $34. 99, a discounted price thanks to a holiday coupon — not cheap (you can buy fine art prints on other sites for less) but you’re printing on special material. Regardless of the cost, I expected the finished product to look like the sort of cheap thing one might see in a dorm room (it sticks to walls, after all) but I was pleasantly surprised. The fabric was durable and the details in the photo — crevasses in a glacier onlookers on a bridge — were nicely defined. SnapBox is a site with clear instructions and pricing. In addition to fabric posters, it also offers fine art prints, photo books and prints on canvas and pillows. While many places can print photos on hard surfaces such as metal and acrylic, printing on wood boards is less common. The grain shows through your photos, which, thematically speaking, seems to make sense for certain subjects, like nature photos taken at, say, the beach or in a park. But what would something more modern, like a skyscraper or a tower, look like on wood? I decided to give it a try and put an image of Tokyo Tower on an 8x12 board ($65). I sent the photo to PhotoBarn, a family business that makes its products by hand in a “ ” in Tennessee. The result was a lovely departure from framed prints and from canvas, which can sometimes make striking photos look like amateur paintings. The wood was smooth and thick, and the image was crisp with a slight sheen — a perfect complement to the steel of Tokyo tower and the silver and glass of surrounding skyscrapers. For the most part the site is intuitive, though a few too many holiday sale buttons on the home page made for a disorienting start. PhotoBarn will also print your photos on canvas, burlap, and other wood products, like ornaments. I noticed a number of complaints about PhotoBarn on Yelp and the Better Business Bureau website regarding shipping speeds and customer service. I didn’t have a problem, but if time is of the essence, you may want to check with the company before placing an order. Once you’ve turned the best of your travel photos into art, it’s time to store the rest. If boxes of prints are taking up closet (and psychic) space, there are plenty of sites online that will scan your old photos (as well as negatives, slides and videos) so you can store them digitally. But there are several things to keep in mind. In general, these sites are a pain to navigate. They’re cluttered with too much text and fine print, and they offer so many options — Do you want your photos scanned in order? Do you want both sides of the photo scanned? — that if you don’t have a goal in mind before you go in, you can quickly be overwhelmed. Decide ahead of time what exactly you want to scan, how many photos you have and how you might use whatever you scan. Also, note that some of these companies by default send DVDs or CDs of your digital files. Not everyone has a CD or DVD player. If you want a thumb drive instead, be sure to select that option (if it’s offered) or call the company and see if it will provide one. Be aware, too, that it’s not unusual for these companies to have long lead times. A number of them digitize your photos in other countries, so it can take weeks to get your images back. For affordable bulk scans, ScanMyPhotos. com is an old standby (you can read David Pogue’s review on nytimes. com). The company will scan about 1, 800 photos at 300 dpi for $145 at its headquarters in Irvine, Calif. the cost of sending the photo box to you, as well as the shipping of the box to ScanMyPhotos and back to you again is included in the price. That’s one of the least costly and most uncomplicated deals around. Other companies charge for shipping photo boxes. I asked a photo editor at The Times if 300 dpi is sufficient for scanning and she said that to print photos at larger sizes, a higher dpi is preferable. ScanMyPhotos has such an option: a prepaid box for $259 for the same number of scans at 600 dpi instead of 300 dpi. A thumb drive is an additional $15. 95 a box. To find the best place to scan photos and film, the Wirecutter, a consumer review site owned by The New York Times, researched 37 different scanning services and tested the top 12 contenders. Memories Renewed took the number one spot. The company, based in Minneapolis, Minn. offered “the best combination of price, quality, and turnaround time of any service we tested,” Wirecutter said. I was planning to try the service however, according to the Memories Renewed site, demand is so high at the moment that the lead time for most projects is more than two months. Scanning photos of any size up to 8. 5x11 is 60 cents a photo a thumb drive is $10 for 8 GB or $15 for 16 GB. Let’s say you don’t want to ship your irreplaceable photos in the mail. Or maybe you’d rather that strangers not see your photos and home videos. You could buy a scanner and scan your photos yourself, perhaps doing a batch for half an hour each day. Personally, I don’t want machines around my home collecting dust (and fast becoming outdated). So I decided to try the new PhotoScan app by Google Photos. It’s free and enables users to scan prints with a smartphone. First things first: These are not scans. If you have prized photos in need of restoration, then go with a professional. However if, like me, you have a bunch of travel photos — landscapes, food, monuments — that you’re keeping simply because you want to remember where you were when, you may want to consider trying the app instead of giving up some privacy and spending upward of $150. By and large, PhotoScan is simple and quick, with almost no learning curve. If you try it, just make sure to hold your phone level when asked to move it over the image. Remember these words: Don’t tilt your phone! Most of the scans I made looked as good as the prints in terms of color and clarity. That said, this is unlikely to be your solution if you want prints or have thousands of photos to scan. Once you get the hang of PhotoScan, using it becomes a repetitive, vaguely activity. That is, unless the app crashes, which it did several times. But I was still glad for it. Even when it crashed, it took only the tap of a finger to begin again. And you can’t beat the price. | 1 |
A UC Berkeley professor has come under fire after a Wikipedia edit project for one of his courses branded President Donald Trump “racist” and “sexist. ”[Berkeley Professor Michel Gelobter has faced a backlash in the Wikipedia community after his students labeled Trump “racist” and “sexist” in edits that were eventually removed. Gelobeter has since been blocked indefinitely from Wikipedia. A course description for Gelobter’s course on environmental justice activism at UC Berkeley posted on Wikipedia argued that the first few months of the Trump administration have been uniquely “ sexist, and racist. ” This semester represents a unique moment in history … the first few months of a historically unique U. S. President whose agenda has been explicitly sexist, and racist. This course will use this moment in two ways: • First, as a learning opportunity for students to engage with critical issues as they emerge on the social, economic, policy, and political landscape • Second, to be of service by documenting key developments and creating a neutral source of information about them. The post was ultimately removed, as Wikipedia prevents unsourced negative claims about living people. A Wikipedia editor said that the line about the Trump administration was a “blatant BLP [Biography of Living Person] violation,” which means that commentary on a living person does not come from a “neutral point of view. ” As part of Gelobter’s course, students created Wikipedia articles that advanced an agenda, containing critiques of Trump’s EPA policy among others. Wikipedia edit projects are now common in the social justice sectors of academia. Feminists at Oberlin, Bucknell, and Temple University hosted Wikipedia events during the academic year. Commenting on this trend, Wikipedia user “Jytdog” argued that academia does not have the right to take over articles for the purpose of education. “Wikipedia is the commons and governed by community policies and guidelines. Just like companies don’t have the right to dump things into public waters, classes don’t have the right to take over space in the commons for classwork. Can you see that?” he wrote. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 0 |
Videos In 2016, Israel Demolished Over 200 West Bank Homes In Illegal Settlement Expansion ‘True to Israel’s entire history, it’s a story of moving in where people already live and kicking them out,’ noted Abby Martin, a journalist who traveled to Palestine earlier this year to document Israel’s oppressive occupation. A Palestinian man tries to stop work by an Israeli bulldozer during a protest outside the village of Deir Qaddis, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, July 13, 2016. The Israeli bulldozers were bulldozing land outside Deir Qaddis village near Ramallah for an apparent plan to expand a nearby Jewish settlement.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank of Gaza have expanded rapidly over the past year, seriously threatening many Palestinian communities and their farmlands.
“This practice doesn’t just mean expanding into Palestinian land,” journalist Abby Martin explained in an Oct. 31 episode of “The Empire Files.” This week on the @EmpireFiles : @AbbyMartin investigates the eviction of Palestinian families https://t.co/rzBYBm1HAD pic.twitter.com/AnvToA9e0Q
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) November 1, 2016
When Martin traveled to the region for several weeks in August and September to report on the effects of Israel’s apartheid policies on the indigenous Palestinian population, her movement around Gaza was heavily restricted by Israeli forces.
Martin continued: “True to Israel’s entire history, it’s a story of moving in where people already live and kicking them out. Wherever these new settlements are planted, they first evict the Palestinians living there and bulldoze their homes into the ground.”
The demolition of Palestinian homes has reached record levels in recent months. Martin cited figures from B’TSelem , an Israeli NGO that opposes the occupation of Palestine, which show that over the past 10 years Israel demolished over 1,148 homes in the West Bank, leaving over 5,282 Palestinians homeless, including over 2,650 children. But in 2016, home demolitions hit a 10-year high, with over 200 homes demolished in the West Bank this year, resulting in 800 homeless Palestinians, half of whom are children.
“Many hundreds more have orders to evacuate their homes and shops for demolition,” Martin noted.
Demolition orders are issued through the Israeli court system, but Palestinians have little to no legal recourse to resist the orders. To make matters worse, many Palestinians never receive the notice of impending demolition in the first place. An expert on home demolitions, who gave his name as “Qossay AZ,” told Martin: “What they do is, they just simply place [the notice] somewhere, on the street, on a wall, on a balcony, whatever, and they would put just a rock on it, if they’re courteous enough, so the wind won’t blow it away. And then they would come, like, ten days after and start demolition.”
Typically, new illegal settlements begin with just a single home built on a hilltop overlooking an existing Palestinian village. This home and any others that follow are illegal under international law , and these settlements develop without explicit approval of the Israeli government. While Israel allows the settlers to violently attack local Palestinians with impunity , but Israeli authorities react with deadly force if Palestinians try to defend themselves.
“Villages all across the West Bank have new settlements encroaching on their residents,” Martin explained. “Instead of building in the acres of empty land, they move in right next door, and expand into Palestinian neighborhoods.”
The settlements expand over time, gradually forcing out more and more Palestinians. Despite their violent origins, most settlements are eventually granted official recognition by the Israeli government.
Israeli forces and settlers frequently burn or bulldoze Palestinian olive trees, an act of genocide which destroys a crop vital to survival. Israeli soldiers also severely restrict Palestinians’ access to the olive groves which remain intact. If the land falls fallow, the Israeli government can then declare it “barren” and further expand into that territory.
Faced with the rapid growth of illegal settlements and outposts, many Palestinians remain determined to defend their land. Martin interviewed Khaled, a Palestinian man who is from one of the last remaining families in his village. He and his family live under constant threat from Israeli settler and soldier violence. Khaled told Martin: “We suffer continuously from the attacks by the settlers. They throw rocks at us and other similar acts of sabotage to cause us harm and damage. We face daily harassment from the settlers in order to force us to leave our homes. These repeated attacks occur constantly and are brutal.”
Despite the violence, Khaled refuses to leave his village. He concluded: “As long as we are staying in our home, they will not be able to achieve their goals in removing us and that is how we are protecting our land. We will not leave our homes, and we are not going anywhere. We are staying in our houses until we die.” | 1 |
The IMF reported last week that global debt hit a record $152 trillion. I’m old enough to remember when a million was a lot, and in the past two decades we have blown right through talking of millions and billions and are now throwing around trillions like its nothing… By Tim Taschler
Much of this debt has been purchased by none other than the big central banks. Sunday, Bloomberg reported that central bank assets have grown at the fastest pace in five years, topping $21 trillion:
The world’s biggest central banks are bulking up their balance sheets this year at the fastest pace since 2011’s European debt crisis to boost lackluster economic recoveries with asset purchases that are supporting stock and bond prices.
The 10 largest lenders now own assets totaling $21.4 trillion, a 10 percent increase from the end of last year, data collected by Bloomberg show. Their combined holdings grew by 3 percent or less in both 2015 and 2014.
You might think that with all this zero-rate and negative-rate money sloshing around that liquidity in the markets would not be an issue. But take a look at what happened in the forex markets last week. The British Pound (GBP), which is a major currency and heavily traded, took a 6% dive in less than two minutes. For reference, anyone watching the forex markets knows that a 1-2% move in the currency world is considered a big move, and 6% in two minutes is certainly not expected in something as liquid as the Pound.
The explanations for this move range from the standard “fat thumb” (i.e. someone inadvertently typed some extra zeros onto a sell ticket and swamped the market) to the easy-to-blame algo computers. Regardless of the reason, if there was one other than someone simply dumping a large number of Pounds onto the market, this type of thing shouldn’t really happen with so much liquidity sloshing around. People are certainly becoming complacent with ‘flash’ crashes, as if they are a normal occurrence and nothing to pay any attention to. I disagree. I think it could be a ‘tell’ and something to keep an eye on.
Think about where we are since 2008. The Fed keeps yapping about raising rates and normalization (though they do little other than talk), which has resulted in bond prices lower and interest rates higher. This is going to put enormous pressure on banks, pension funds and anyone else with a large amount of Sovereign bonds. A bond trader friend of mine told me that seeing all these bonds trading above par (i.e. over their face value) is going to lead to a massive problem. If you pay $1,100 for a $1,000 bond, you are only going to get $1,000 at maturity. At some point there will be losses as these bonds are marked back to par ahead of maturity.
Maybe the central bankers will be able to print and talk their way through to some successful outcome without actually raising rates. Or maybe they can have rates rise without causing some major dislocation in more asset classes, whether it be bonds, stocks, forex or commodities. But then again, maybe they can’t and that is why so many large, successful investors such as Soros, Druckenmiller and Buffett are sitting with large allocations of cash. With moves like we had in the Pound last week, it seems that the end game might be drawing near, and people might just want to be a little careful in the construction of their portfolios.
If you have questions about this article, please contact the author, Tim Taschler at [email protected], or your Sprott financial advisor at 800-477-7853.
Source: Sprott’s Thought
Via: Silver Doctors
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HOUSTON — Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was named the N. F. L. ’s most valuable player on Saturday, 24 hours before he was to try to cap his superb season with Super Bowl glory. Ryan, 31, got his first M. V. P. Award by collecting 25 of the votes while his opposite number in Sunday’s Super Bowl, the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady, finished with 10. Brady has won the award twice, for the 2007 and 2010 seasons. Ryan’s award came after a dazzling season for Atlanta’s offense in which he finished with 4, 944 passing yards, 38 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. Super Bowl LI on Sunday will be his first appearance in the title game. Brady, who is chasing his fifth Super Bowl victory, finished the season with 3, 554 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and two interceptions but played in four fewer games than Ryan because of his Deflategate suspension. Unsurprisingly, Ryan also picked up the Offensive Player of the Year Award. Ryan had the best season of his career after spending last summer working intensively on his throwing motion at a Los Angeles training camp. He averaged slightly over nine yards per pass, the highest rate ever for a quarterback with more than 400 completions in a season. The Defensive Player of the Year Award went to the Oakland Raiders’ Khalil Mack, whose season included 11 sacks, five forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and an interception returned for a touchdown as the Raiders reached the playoffs. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was a surprise pick, ahead of his teammate Ezekiel Elliott, for offensive rookie of the year. Prescott, who played the entire season for Dallas after Tony Romo injured his back in the preseason, drew 28 of 50 votes, beating out Elliott, who finished as the with 21 votes. The Cowboys, who were beaten in their opening playoff game by the Green Bay Packers after finishing the regular season at also saw their coach, Jason Garrett, pick up coach of the year honors. | 0 |
Aparece un Terminator del futuro para preguntar “qué cojones” hemos tocado SEGÚN DICE, HA TENIDO QUE SER ALGO QUE HEMOS HECHO EN LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS viajes en el tiempo
Un robot T-800 ha aparecido de la nada esta mañana en Estados Unidos con la intención de averiguar si la Humanidad ha hecho algo este 2016 porque el futuro se ha arruinado de golpe y no saben qué ha podido ocurrir, según han informado diversos medios estadounidenses. “Estábamos bien y de repente se ha jodido todo ahí delante”, ha declarado el robot en referencia al tiempo del que procede, el año 2056.
“La gente está como loca y el planeta es un páramo, ¿habéis hecho algo fuera de lo normal últimamente? Tiene que haber sido algo de hace dos días como mucho”, ha preguntado la máquina. Ha sido enviada por los hombres del futuro a fin de averiguar qué es lo que hemos podido modificar que ha cambiado el transcurso de la historia.
“La gente está flipando, en serio, ¿habéis inventado un robot súper destructivo? ¿Habéis tirado bombas? Creemos que quizá, probablemente sin querer, hayáis hecho algo gordo”, ha dicho el robot según diversos testigos que han podido hablar con él.
“¿Qué cojones habéis tocado?”, ha preguntado la máquina del futuro.
Según ha explicado, es posible que a lo largo de este año la Humanidad haya tomado una serie de decisiones clave “que quizá parecen insignificantes y razonables” pero que han desencadenado una hecatombe en el futuro. “En mis tiempos estamos jodidos y ha pasado de golpe”, reitera la máquina.
“Pensad, tiene que haber algo que hayáis hecho”, ha insistido el autómata.
Según las fuentes, el robot ha pasado unas horas repasando la prensa y, al acabar, ha exclamado “Ah coño, habéis votado a este” y se ha autodestruido. | 0 |
« L’art de la guerre »
Pactes clairs, sujétion longue par Manlio Dinucci C’est avec raison que le président Barack Obama s’est félicité « des pactes clairs [et de l’] amitié longue » qui unissent son pays à l’Italie. En effet, cet État européen est pieds et poings liés par divers traités et une longue pratique à son suzerain états-unien.
Réseau Voltaire | Rome (Italie) | 27 octobre 2016 Après avoir appelé les Italiens à voter « Oui » au référendum, en s’ingérant dans notre politique nationale avec le silence complice de l’opposition parlementaire, le président Barack Obama a confirmé à son « bon ami Matteo [Renzi] » qu’avec l’Italie les USA ont « des pactes clairs, une amitié longue ».
Il ne fait aucun doute que les pactes soient clairs, et avant tout le Pacte atlantique qui soumet l’Italie aux USA. Le Commandant suprême allié en Europe est toujours nommé par le président des États-Unis d’Amérique et tous les autres commandements clé sont aux mains des USA.
Après la fin de la Guerre froide, à la suite de la désagrégation de l’URSS, Washington affirmait l’« importance fondamentale de préserver l’Otan comme canal de l’influence et de la participation états-uniennes dans les affaires européennes, en empêchant la création de dispositifs uniquement européens qui mineraient la structure de commandement de l’Alliance », c’est-à-dire le commandement états-unien. Concept réaffirmé par le secrétaire de l’Otan, Jens Stoltenberg dans la récente table ronde sur la « grande idée d’Europe » : « Nous devons assurer que le renforcement de la défense européenne ne constitue pas un doublon de l’Otan, qu’il ne devienne pas une alternative à l’Otan ». Garantie de cela : le fait que 22 des 28 pays de l’UE (21 sur 27 après la sortie du Royaume-Uni) font partie de l’Otan sous commandement US, reconnue par l’Union européenne comme « fondement de la défense collective ».
La politique extérieure et militaire de l’UE est ainsi fondamentalement subordonnée à la stratégie états-unienne, sur laquelle convergent les puissances européennes dont les conflits d’intérêt se re-compactent quand entre en jeu leur intérêt fondamental : conserver la domination de l’Occident, de plus en plus vacillant face à l’émergence de nouveaux sujets étatiques et sociaux. Il suffit de penser que l’Organisation de coopération de Shanghai, née de l’accord stratégique sino-russe, dispose de ressources capables d’en faire la plus grande aire économique intégrée du monde.
Dans le cadre de la stratégie des USA et de l’Otan —documente la Maison-Blanche— l’Italie se distingue comme « allié solide et actif des États-Unis ». Le démontre le fait que « l’Italie abrite plus de 30 000 militaires et fonctionnaires civils du département US de la Défense dans des sites déployés dans tout le pays ».
En même temps l’Italie est « partenaire des USA pour la sécurité mondiale », en fournissant des forces militaires et des financements pour une vaste gamme de « défis » : au Kosovo, en Afghanistan, en Irak, en Libye, en Syrie, dans la Baltique et ailleurs, partout où a été et se trouve engagée la machine de guerre USA/Otan.
Un ultime fait confirme ce qu’est le rapport USA-Italie : sont en train d’arriver à la base d’Amendola dans les Pouilles, probablement le 8 novembre, les deux premiers des 90 chasseurs F-35 de l’États-unienne Lockheed Martin, que l’Italie s’est engagée à acheter.
Le coût de la participation italienne au programme F-35, en tant que partenaire de second niveau, est officiellement quantifié dans la Loi de stabilité 2016 : 12 milliards 356 millions d’euros d’argent public, plus d’autres dépenses pour les modifications continues du chasseur qui n’est pas encore pleinement opérationnel et nécessitera des mises à jour continues. Malgré cela —confirme Analisi Difesa— l’Italie aura une « souveraineté limitée » sur les F-35 de sa propre aéronautique. Une loi états-unienne interdit que les « données de mission » (les software de gestion des systèmes de combat des chasseurs) soient communiqués à d’autres. Ce seront donc les USA qui contrôleront les F-35 italiens, prédisposés à l’utilisation des nouvelles bombes nucléaires B61-12 que le Pentagone basera contre la Russie, à la place des actuelles B-61, sur notre territoire « national ».
Manlio Dinucci Traduction
Marie-Ange Patrizio
Source
Il Manifesto (Italie) | 1 |
Walgreens said on Sunday that it was terminating its relationship with Theranos, dealing a severe blow to the embattled company. Walgreens said it would immediately close all 40 of the Theranos testing centers in its Arizona drugstores, the source of most of Theranos’s customers. The giant retailer, a part of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, played a critical role in Theranos’s early success. Founded by Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford University dropout, the company promised to revolutionize the lab industry by being able to offer blood tests through a simple finger prick at a fraction of the cost of conventional testing. But Theranos has run into a relentless barrage of negative publicity and regulatory scrutiny, and Walgreens has sought to extricate itself from its relationship with the Silicon Valley . Federal officials identified serious problems at Theranos’s flagship lab in California, causing Walgreens to halt testing done there in January. The 40 Arizona locations remained open while Walgreens awaited regulators’ final decision, which included whether to ban Ms. Holmes from the industry for two years. While regulators have not yet made a final determination, Walgreens appears to have lost patience. “In light of the voiding of a number of test results, and as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has rejected Theranos’s plan of correction and considers sanctions, we have carefully considered our relationship with Theranos and believe it is in our customers’ best interests to terminate our partnership,” Brad Fluegel, senior vice president of Walgreens, said in a company statement. Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Theranos, said the company would continue to do business using the retail locations it is already running, apart from the Walgreen stores. It has five such locations in Arizona and one in California, and further expansion is planned for Arizona, she said. “We are disappointed that Walgreens has chosen to terminate our relationship and remain fully committed to our mission to provide patients access to affordable health information,” Theranos said in a statement. The statement went on: “Quality and safety are our top priorities and we are working closely with government officials to ensure that we not only comply with all federal regulations but exceed them. ” Ms. Buchanan declined to comment beyond the company’s statement. While Theranos might struggle along with its own retail units, clearly most of its customers came from the testing centers in Walgreens. Having easily accessible locations in corner drugstores was part of Theranos’s grand plan to upend the laboratory testing business, and it had at one time said it eventually envisioned being in Walgreens drugstores nationwide. The announcement of the deal with Walgreens in September 2013 was also when Theranos made its existence known to the world, coming out of the “stealth mode” it had been in since being founded by Ms. Holmes in 2003. Walgreens hoped to add lab testing to its offering, drive traffic to its stores and pick up some of the cachet of being associated with a Silicon Valley . “This is the next step in Walgreens’ efforts to transform community pharmacy, giving our patients and customers convenient access to the comprehensive care they need right in their communities,” Kermit Crawford, who was then Walgreens’ president for pharmacy, health and wellness, said at the time. The endorsement of Walgreens gave the unproven Theranos some credibility that it could perform numerous medical tests on a drop of blood rather than from tubes of blood drawn from an arm. Ms. Holmes became a celebrity whose worth was estimated at $4. 5 billion, based on her half ownership of the privately held company. But it now appears that Walgreens did not adequately vet the technology. Government inspectors and articles in The Wall Street Journal have revealed that much of the company’s testing was being done on standard machines bought from laboratory equipment vendors — the same machines used by Theranos’s rivals. Moreover, Theranos did not even do those tests well, lacking experience and qualified personnel in the laboratory business. Federal inspectors have found numerous problems with operations at the company’s flagship laboratory in Newark, Calif. They have threatened sanctions, which could include barring Ms. Holmes from owning a laboratory company for two years. Theranos recently voided the results from tens of thousand of tests and corrected the results of other tests. Forbes magazine, which compiles lists of the world’s wealthiest people, recently adjusted Ms. Holmes’s estimated net worth to zero. When the testing problems first came to light last fall, Walgreens halted expansion of Theranos testing sites beyond Arizona and asked the company for more information. The action announced on Sunday suggests the drugstore chain was not satisfied with the answers it received. | 1 |
Thursday 10 November 2016 by Davywavy Donald Trump to leave America for a younger, sexier country
President-elect Donald Trump has already got a much younger, sexier county lined up to replace America in his affections.
Concerns have already been raised after Trump demanded America enter into a pre-nup before he takes the oath of office.
Trump, who has already been accused of screwing Mexico when he thinks he can get away with it, defended his roving eye by saying that ‘any President’ would check out hot, available countries and there was nothing wrong with it.
Trump’s penchant for ‘exotic’ foreign names is well recorded, and the people of Brunei Darussalam are already concerned after he commented on ‘getting his tongue around their name’.
Meanwhile, members of NATO and the UN have been told to ‘put out or get out’ in what is being interpreted as a direct demand for favours.
“Look, if Puerto Rico weren’t a protectorate, I’d already be all over them. If I weren’t already their president and, you know, Is that terrible? Is it?”, he told reporters.
“And the Russian Republic. Daughter of the Soviet Union, sure, but they’re only 23 years old. And they’re big, voluptuous, you might say. That’s pretty sexy, am I right?
“I wonder if they’ve got a, you know, opening I might fill.”
North Korea, who are into uniforms and BDSM, have already signalled their willingness to enter into an affair with the President no matter what the consequences for him at home. Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently | 0 |
Tweet Home » Headlines » World News » Rigged Election: Hillary and Trump Caught Partying Like BFF’s With Kissinger at Jesuit Gala
When evaluating Jesuit behavior and influence, please keep in mind that both Donald Trump and Hillary’s VP, Tim Kaine, are Jesuit educated . And it should be of GREAT interest, therefore, that practically on the eve of the US election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton partied the night away at a Jesuit function that included such prominent Jesuit-trained attendees as Henry Kissinger. Not only did the two not look like sworn enemies… they looked like two star crossed lovers going to their first prom…
Submitted by Jeff Berwick, The Dollar Vigilante :
We have been very, very suspicious of Donald Trump since he began his political run.
Many believed he was an outsider who was our “only hope” to tame the US federal government beast. But it has become very clear he is not.
First, Wikileaks showed that Killary herself actually approved Trump to be her competitor . According to an email sent from an assistant at the Clinton campaign, Hillary was aware that Trump was going to run before the political process was fully underway.
Clinton advised the mainstream media to push his legitimacy as a “pied piper” candidate because she realized, after looking at the poll numbers, that she wouldn’t stand a chance at winning the presidency against any of the establishment republicans without making them “pied pipers” – it just so happened that Donald was the easiest to play the role considering his long history of friendship with the Clintons.
In addition, the mainstream media was more than complicit in creating a narrative that the 2016 presidential elections were about Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump from the get go.
But, barely reported in the media, was that after the 3rd presidential debate, Clinton and Trump went out for a night on the town together… and where they went is of great interest.
They went to an annual Jesuit function which is usually full of New World Order types.
THE JESUITS
One of the more interesting things that occurred right at the end of the Jubilee year in early October, was that the Jesuits installed a new Superior General, with the date to commence being actually at midnight on the end of Jubilee.
We found this interesting because there is plenty of evidence that the Jesuits are at least one major arm of what you can call the illuminati.
In fact, the Jesuits were founded in Spain by what various reports call “crypto Jews” – those who are Jewish but pretending to be Catholic. Certainly at that time in Spain it was safer not to be a Jew.
Even Wikipedia, which wouldn’t recognize a conspiracy if it were directly presented by its participants has this to say about the Jesuits:
… In the first 30 years of the existence of the Society of Jesus there were many Jesuit conversos (Catholic-convert Jews) including the second Father General Diego Lainez … The original founder Ignatius … said that he, “would take it as a special grace from our Lord to come from Jewish lineage.”
At the beginning of the Al Smith dinner party after Cardinal Dolan was introduced, a joke was even made by a speaker that “everyone in attendance is doing their part in supporting their charitable efforts and that it couldn’t be done without the support of many of the other devoted “Catholics” on stage like Henry Kissinger, Howard Rubenstein, and Mort Zuckerman” – all of whom are obviously Jewish so this remark was naturally met with a lot of laughter…
In fact, an extraordinary amount of controversy swirls around Jesuits. They are said to constitute the “Black Church” and thus adhere to the same Satanic religion as the world’s elite bankers supposedly hold.
The leader of the Jesuit order is commonly recognized in conspiratorial circles as the “Black Pope” whose signature staff is a crooked cross. Historically, the Jesuit Order has been seen as one that shirks no crime in expanding the power of the Church.
Lest this sound entirely outrageous, one must note that the Jesuits are, for instance, the inventors of concentration camps, which they established in Paraguay in order to incarcerate and then torture the native indians of the area.
But the litany of attributed Jesuit evil is even darker than that according to those who believe in the order’s continued malicious pursuit. The supposed founder of the Bavarian-based Illuminati, Adam Weishaupt, was a Jesuit.
In fact, the order is reputed to have been deeply involved in the Illuminati’s initial expansion, and chances are it is still deeply involved.
One more thing that highlights the evil of the Jesuits is their extreme oath of induction which all superiors must take in order to be elevated to the higher rungs of the organization. This is taken from the book Subterranean Rome by Carlos Didier, translated from the French, and published in New York in 1843 and reads in part,
“…promise and declare that I will, when opportunity present, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do, to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, sex or condition; and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics, rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants’ heads against the walls, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race. That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poisoned cup, the strangulating cord, the steel of the poniard or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity, or authority of the person or persons, whatever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agent of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Faith, of the Society of Jesus…”
One of the most poignant quotes regarding the malevolence of the Jesuits comes from Marquis de LaFayette 1757-1834; who was a French statesman and general who served in the American Continental Army under the command of General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War.
His quote is as follows:
“It is my opinion that if the liberties of this country – the United States of America – are destroyed, it will be by the subtlety of the Roman Catholic Jesuit priests, for they are the most crafty, dangerous enemies to civil and religious liberty. They have instigated MOST of the wars of Europe.”
THE BIG BASH
When evaluating Jesuit behavior and influence, please keep in mind that both Donald Trump and Hillary’s VP, Tim Kaine, are Jesuit educated. And it should be of GREAT interest, therefore, that practically on the eve of the US election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton partied the night away at a Jesuit function that included such prominent Jesuit-trained attendees as Henry Kissinger.
Not only did the two not look like sworn enemies… they looked like two star crossed lovers going to their first prom.
We have long held to our stance that Killary will be the next President of the US. The amount of vote rigging, murders and shenanigans to even get her to where she is so far has been tremendous… and it won’t stop.
That said, if by some fluke, and the Diebold machines malfunction or people in the US wake up slightly and Donald Trump gets elected… it is pretty clear they are on the same team and, as we’ve said previously, nothing major will change.
So, if you were hoping that this election could change things in the US… get over that hope right now. It might change things, but only for the much, much worse.
This charade is being played right in front of everyone’s eyes and most do not understand what is happening or why jokes like the “Catholic” joke is actually funny to these elite people.
They are laughing at the peasants stupidity and lack of understanding, not because the men mentioned are Jews… anyone with half a brain knows that.
But while they laugh, we’ll be laughing all the way to the bank ourselves. Just because these sick people are formulating diabolical plans to enslave humanity doesn’t mean we can’t profit from their planned chaos. It’s better than sitting back in ignorance and making nothing.
Our analysis of these elite’s occult timelines which began with the Shemitah and culminated with the Jubilee, have helped us to accumulate around a 200% collective return on our portfolio in the last year.
Subscribe to The Dollar Vigilante newsletter HERE to continue to receive the best insights into the inner workings of groups like the Jesuits and other arms and actions of the world’s financial elite and how to protect yourself and profit from it.
The groundwork for global governance has been laid, don’t let them blindside you as they attempt to carry out their nefarious plot. Donald Trump even stated at the dinner, “We’ve got to come together, not only as a nation, but as a world community.”
Promotion of the globalist new world order.
They want to keep you ignorant and powerless because after all, knowledge is power.
Educate yourself by joining the worldwide group of dollar vigilantes who can help you expatriate and offer advice on how to protect yourself by purchasing precious metals , bitcoin and other hard assets here.
On Sale At SD Bullion… This Week Only… | 1 |
The Bundy brothers and their comrades were clearly guilty.
They took over the national wildlife refuge, threatened violence if accosted, and wouldn’t let anyone in.
However, the Portland jury acquitted Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy and five others of conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland. The jury could not reach a verdict on a single count of theft for Ryan Bundy.
The charges were conspiring to impede federal workers from doing their jobs and that’s exactly what they did.
But in the end, the jury acquitted them .
The jury wasn’t dumb, or blackmailed or somehow brainwashed. They were sick and tired.
Sick and tired of a bureaucracy in Washington that didn’t listen to them. That dictated use of their lands from thousands of miles away with an iron fist.
It was a classic case of jury nullification : where despite the evidence, the jury is so convinced that the laws are immoral or so wrongly applied that the accused must be set free.
And so Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan and their five co-defendants were found not guilty. Most of them were set free from the courtroom. Ammon faces charges in Nevada, so he is still being held.
As the Associated Press reported it, even lawyers for the Bundys were shocked at the verdict:
“It’s stunning. It’s a stunning victory for the defense,” said Robert Salisbury, attorney for defendant Jeff Banta. “I’m speechless.”
The U.S Attorney in Oregon, Billy J. Williams, issued a statement defending the decision to bring charges against the seven defendants: “We strongly believe that this case needed to be brought before a Court, publicly tried, and decided by a jury.”
This is what happens when the American people see an out-of-control Washington bureaucracy: They ignore them. They ignore the law and decide for themselves that no, these people shall be set free.
While courts are reluctant to inform juries of their right to “nullify,” that’s exactly what they can do.
Effectively, the jury nullifies a law they believe is either immoral or wrongly applied to the defendant, and that’s what happened here.
And it bodes well for America. Jury nullification sends a messages to prosecutors and lawmakers about their priorities and about what they see as harassing or abusive prosecutions.
A professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City wrote about how important the power of jury nullification really is:
Juries clearly have the power to nullify; whether they also have the right to nullify is another question. Once a jury returns a verdict of “Not Guilty,” that verdict cannot be questioned by any court and the “double jeopardy” clause of the Constitution prohibits a retrial on the same charge.
So whether the Bundy’s antics were stupid or dangerous or just plain wrong, it doesn’t matter. The Portland jury found that in this case – the seven defendants were to be set free because in our court system, a jury of their peers felt the government went too far .
Yes, this is good news for America, for the people, for the rule of law and for the right of the people to object. To say: “ No. We will stand for this no longer.” | 0 |
I respect this nigger, he got stance. Fuck the police and their harassment. Because of what,"domestic abuse"? This is beyond race. Cops are doing dirty jobs for government, harassing people and protecting criminals.
And who the fuck is SJW negro sounding white cunt with tasser? Female cop? | 0 |
Written by John W. Whitehead Monday October 31, 2016 “The people have the power, all we have to do is awaken that power in the people. The people are unaware. They’re not educated to realize that they have power. The system is so geared that everyone believes the government will fix everything. We are the government .”—John Lennon How do you balance the scales of justice at a time when Americans are being tasered, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, hit with batons, shot with rubber bullets and real bullets, blasted with sound cannons, detained in cages and kennels , sicced by police dogs, arrested and jailed for challenging the government’s excesses, abuses and power-grabs? Politics won’t fix a system that is broken beyond repair. No matter who sits in the White House, the shadow government will continue to call the shots behind the scenes. Relying on the courts to restore justice seems futile. Indeed, with every ruling handed down, it becomes more apparent that we live in an age of hollow justice, with government courts, largely lacking in vision and scope, rendering narrow rulings focused on the letter of the law. This is true at all levels of the judiciary, but especially so in the highest court of the land, the US Supreme Court, which is seemingly more concerned with establishing order and protecting government agents than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution. Even so, justice matters. It matters whether you’re a rancher protesting a federal land-grab by the Bureau of Land Management, a Native American protesting an oil pipeline that will endanger sacred sites and pollute water supplies, or an African-American taking to the streets to protest yet another police shooting of an unarmed citizen. Unfortunately, protests and populist movements haven’t done much to push back against an authoritarian regime that is deaf to our cries, dumb to our troubles, blind to our needs, and accountable to no one. It doesn’t matter who the activists are (environmentalists, peaceniks, Native Americans, Black Lives Matter, Occupy, or the Bundys and their followers) or what the source of the discontent is (endless wars abroad, police shootings, contaminated drinking water, government land-grabs), the government’s modus operandi has remained the same: shut down the protests using all means available, prosecute First Amendment activities to the fullest extent of the law, and discourage any future civil uprisings by criminalizing expressive activities, labeling dissidents as extremists or terrorists, and conducting widespread surveillance on the general populace in order to put down any whispers of resistance before it can take root. Thus, if there is any means left to us for thwarting the government in its relentless march towards outright dictatorship, it may rest with the power of juries and local governments to invalidate governmental laws, tactics and policies that are illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional. Just recently, in fact, an Oregon jury rejected the government’s attempts to prosecute seven activists who staged a six-week, armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. In finding the defendants not guilty—of conspiracy to impede federal officers, of possession of firearms in a federal facility, and of stealing a government-owned truck—the jury sent its own message to the government and those following the case: justice matters. Many other equally sincere activists with eloquent lawyers and ardent supporters have gone to jail for lesser offenses than those committed at the Malheur Refuge, so what made the difference here? The jury made all the difference. These seven Oregon protesters were found not guilty because a jury of their peers recognized the sincerity of their convictions, sympathized with the complaints against an overreaching government, and balanced the scales of justice using the only tools available to them: common sense, compassion and the power of the jury box. Jury nullification works. As law professor Ilya Somin explains, jury nullification is the practice by which a jury refuses to convict someone accused of a crime if they believe the “ law in question is unjust or the punishment is excessive .” According to former federal prosecutor Paul Butler, the doctrine of jury nullification is “premised on the idea that ordinary citizens, not government officials, should have the final say as to whether a person should be punished.” Imagine that: a world where the citizenry—not the government or its corporate controllers—actually calls the shots and determines what is just. “We the people” can and should be determining what laws are just, what activities are criminal and who can be jailed for what crimes. This is where the power of jury nullification is so critical: to reject inane laws and extreme sentences and counteract the edicts of a profit-driven governmental elite that sees nothing wrong with jailing someone for a lifetime for a relatively insignificant crime. Jury nullification is a powerful reminder that, as the Constitution tells us, “we the people” are the government. For too long we’ve allowed our so-called “representatives” to call the shots. Now it’s time to restore the citizenry to their rightful place in the republic: as the masters, not the servants. Nullification is one way of doing so.Various cities and states have been using this historic doctrine with mixed results on issues as wide ranging as gun control and healthcare to “ claim freedom from federal laws they find onerous or wrongheaded .” Where nullification can be particularly powerful, however, is in the hands of the juror. The reality with which we must contend is that justice in America is reserved for those who can afford to buy their way out of jail. For the rest of us who are dependent on the “fairness” of the system, there exists a multitude of ways in which justice can and does go wrong every day. Police misconduct. Prosecutorial misconduct. Judicial bias. Inadequate defense. Prosecutors who care more about winning a case than seeking justice. Judges who care more about what is legal than what is just. Jurors who know nothing of the law and are left to deliberate in the dark about life-and-death decisions. And an overwhelming body of laws, statutes and ordinances that render the average American a criminal, no matter how law-abiding they might think themselves. If you’re to have any hope of remaining free—and I use that word loosely—your best bet remains in your fellow citizens. Your fellow citizens may not know what the Constitution says and they may not know what the laws are, but if you’re lucky, those who serve on a jury will have a conscience that speaks louder than the legalistic tones of the prosecutors and the judges and reminds them that justice and fairness go hand in hand. That’s ultimately what jury nullification is all about: restoring a sense of fairness to our system of justice. It’s the best protection for “we the people” against the oppression and tyranny of the government, and God knows, we can use all the protection we can get. It’s also a powerful way to remind the government—all of those bureaucrats who have appointed themselves judge, jury and jailer over all that we are, have and do—that we’re the ones who set the rules. So how do you not only push back against the police state’s bureaucracy, corruption and cruelty but also launch a counterrevolution aimed at reclaiming control over the government using nonviolent means? You start by changing the rules and engaging in some (nonviolent) guerilla tactics. Employ militant nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience , which Martin Luther King Jr. used to great effect through the use of sit-ins, boycotts and marches. Take part in grassroots activism, which takes a trickle-up approach to governmental reform by implementing change at the local level (in other words, think nationally, but act locally). And then, as I explain in more detail in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People , nullify everything. Nullify the court cases. Nullify the laws. Nullify everything the government does that is illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional. Reprinted with permission from the Rutherford Institute . Related | 1 |
CAIRO — An airstrike on a residential area near the Yemeni capital, Sana, on Tuesday killed 17 civilians, most of them women and children, as international criticism continued to build over a deadly bombing the day before of a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders. Residents of a village in Nehem District, northeast of the capital, said that warplanes from the Saudi military coalition fighting on behalf of the Yemeni government had bombed a family home. Health officials in Sana confirmed that 17 bodies had been taken to local hospitals after the airstrike. Shayef Muhsin Asem, who lived in the house but was out at the time of the attack, said that after the house was bombed, family members rushed in to try to rescue survivors when a second airstrike hit. The attack on Tuesday took place in the village of Al Madeed, where a marketplace was struck on Aug. 7, killing 18 civilians, according to witnesses and health workers. The military coalition did not issue a statement about the airstrike on Tuesday. The coalition, fighting in support of the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Houthi militias, has stepped up its bombing campaign in recent weeks. On Monday, at least 15 people were killed in Hajjah Province, in northern Yemen, when warplanes bombed a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders. The United Nations secretary general, Ban condemned the airstrike on the hospital and said he was “deeply disturbed by the intensification of airstrikes and continuing ground fighting and shelling” in Yemen, according to his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric. Separately, the World Health Organization — which had built the emergency wing of the Abs Hospital, destroyed in Monday’s airstrike — called on “all parties to protect health workers and facilities,” according to the agency’s spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic. The military coalition asked its Joint Incidents Assessment Team on Tuesday to investigate the hospital bombing, said Mohammed Qubaty, the minister of information in Yemen’s government. The assessment team is ostensibly independent, but its members are from countries in the coalition. Abs Hospital was the fourth Doctors Without Borders facility in Yemen to be bombed in the war, and Mr. Ban said 70 health centers had been damaged or destroyed by one side or the other. Teresa Sancristóval, an emergency program manager for the group, said that after each attack, the agency “receives reassurances from the actors in the conflict with promises that this will not happen again. ” She said that the agency had shared information about its centers with all parties in the Yemen conflict, but that this had done little to stop the bombings. “This new incident shows that there are no effective measures in place to ensure that hospitals are not another casualty of war,” Ms. Sancristóval added. There were differing reports of the death toll in Monday’s hospital bombing: The provincial health director, Ayman Ahmed Mathkoor, said 18 had died Doctors Without Borders put the number at 14. Mr. Qubaty, the information minister, said he could not comment on what happened to the hospital. “We are waiting for the results of the investigation,” he said. “In an area where fighting is still going on, to get all the facts usually takes time. ” Abs Hospital and local health officials said there was no military presence in or around the hospital. Maj. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, the spokesman for the coalition, said investigators from the assessment team would be talking to Doctors Without Borders officials about Monday’s episode. “For the time being, we cannot call it bombing of a hospital,” General Asseri said. Saudi officials insist that they have struck only at military targets, and accuse the Houthis of using civilian facilities to carry out attacks against the government and its coalition partners. By way of example, General Asseri said a school that was reportedly hit last Saturday, killing 10 students in the town of Haydan in Saada Province, was actually a Houthi militia training facility. “Definitely it is not a school it is a camp where they train their fighters,” he said. Unicef officials in Yemen, however, concluded in an investigation that most of those killed were 6 to 8 years old. The government also said Tuesday that its forces had succeeded in routing Al Qaeda militants from Abyan Province. The group had a number of strongholds near the southern capital of Aden, where the government has been based since it was driven from Sana by the Houthis. Earlier this month, government forces claimed to have expelled Qaeda fighters from Shabwa Province, and the extremists fled the southern coastal provinces of Hadramout and Lahj in the spring. The southern coastal provinces are important because they have the bulk of Yemen’s exportable oil and gas reserves, which were shut down by the presence of Al Qaeda. “All facilities are under the control of the government now,” Mr. Qubaty said. He predicted that the government would be exporting oil within a few weeks and natural gas within months. | 1 |
The Walt Disney Company and other employers regularly utilizing the visa program are under investigation for alleged abuse, according to a Department of Homeland Security letter to Congress. [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) acting director James McCament wrote in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley ( ) that there are “multiple investigations” of employers who use the visa. Every year, more than 100, 000 foreign workers are brought to the U. S. on the visa. Most recently, that number has ballooned to potentially hundreds of thousands annually, as universities and are exempt from the cap. With more entering the U. S. through the visa, Americans are often replaced. Among those being investigated, USCIS confirmed, are Disney, Eversource Energy — formerly Northeast Utilites — and the University of California San Francisco. “U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has participated in multiple investigations regarding the possible misuse of the visa program by employers … ” McCament wrote in the letter. Northeast Utilities was most recently called out for their mass of Americans who were subsequently forced to train their foreign replacements. Fired tech worker Craig Diangelo announced to Breitbart Texas that he would be running for Congress in Connecticut’s Fifth District as a result. Diangelo said in 2013, he was working at Eversource Energy, when suddenly the company partnered with Infosys and Tata Consulting Service to replace at least 220 Americans with Indian nationals coming to the U. S. through the . Meanwhile, the Disney corporation laid off nearly 250 American IT staff and replaced them with laborers, leading 30 of those laid off to file a discrimination lawsuit, as Breitbart Tech reported. This year, the University of California San Francisco was hit with a lawsuit by replaced Americans after firing 50 and 30 contractors, outsourcing their jobs through HCL, Breitbart Tech reported. USCIS’ letter to Grassley also noted that in accordance with President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order, the agency would “propose new rules and issue new guidance relating the visa program. ” “In particular, in accordance with the Executive Order, the proposed new rules and guidance would seek to supersede or revise previous rules and guidance in ways that would protect the interests of U. S. workers, including through the prevention of fraud and abuse,” the letter stated. The Trump Administration, in recent months, has increased pressure on outsourcing firms and employers. In April, a White House briefing statement called out, as Breitbart Texas reported, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Cognizant — all of which are responsible for the mass replacement of Americans at companies like Carnival Corporation and MassMutual Life Insurance. “And you’ve seen some of these examples where you have career employees at a company who have been working there for 10, 20 years, and then they get laid off and they hire a contracting firm using H1B workers at much less pay,” the statement said. “And again, this is an issue that labor unions have called attention to for a long time. ” John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0 |
Written by Daniel McAdams What does the Trump era hold for the liberty movement? For those who are pursuing peace and prosperity over the war and poverty of the neocons and elites? Do we have anything to cheer? Future of Freedom Foundation's Jacob Hornberger joins today's Liberty Report with his take: Copyright © 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given. | 0 |
MEMPHIS — Coach Roy Williams recalled feeling so inadequate in that locker room last season. North Carolina had just lost in the national championship game to Villanova on a shot, and Williams was left to rummage through his team’s splintered dreams. What could he say? How could he help? “It’s just like somebody reached into your chest and pulled your heart out and shook it right in front of your face and taunted you,” Williams said this week. “There was nothing that I could say that would remove the pain that those kids felt and our staff felt. But I told them I would hope one thing they could get out of it was to use that as fuel. ” The players who returned this season have fulfilled that desire, applying new hope to their old goal of chasing a national title. On Friday night, the Tar Heels used their size and shooting acumen to overwhelm the Butler Bulldogs, in a South Regional semifinal at FedEx Forum. North Carolina, college basketball royalty, advanced to the round of 8 for the 26th time in school history by shooting 54. 4 percent from the field. Joel Berry II, a junior guard who had been dealing with a sore right ankle, led the Tar Heels with 26 points, and Justin Jackson, a junior forward, added 24. Luke Maye, a sophomore forward, came off the bench to collect 16 points and 12 rebounds. Butler ( ) offered something resembling a threat late in the second half when by Kelan Martin helped trim North Carolina’s lead, which reached 20 points early in the half, to 10. But the Tar Heels ( ) had too much size and too many options. With less than three minutes to go, Jackson misfired on a . But Theo Pinson, a forward, corralled the offensive rebound, and the possession led to a layup by Berry to make it . North Carolina arrived here for a regional thick with blue bloods. Kentucky and U. C. L. A. no strangers to championships, faced each other in Friday’s late semifinal. Butler, then, was something of an afterthought — to most folks, anyway. But not to Williams, who called the Bulldogs “pretty doggone good” before Friday’s game. He cited, for example, that Butler had won its last two games against North Carolina, dating to 2012, as well as the program’s appearances in national championship games, in 2010 and 2011. As a result, Williams said, he had not spent a second watching film of Kentucky or U. C. L. A. ahead of Friday’s meeting. His focus was on the Bulldogs. As for Butler Coach Chris Holtmann, he expected to be slightly daunted by the moment. The program had been through a lot since making its last appearance in the regional semifinals in 2011, a roller coaster that winded through coaching changes and a move to the Big East Conference. Holtmann, who took over in 2014, has emerged as a steadying force. On Friday, the problem was that he could glance at the opposing bench and see Williams, a dean of the coaching industry, the proud owner of wins and two national titles. “Somebody is going to be really calm come opening tip,” Holtmann said before the game, “and somebody is going to be really nervous. I’ll let you figure it out. ” Holtmann knew his team would be undersized, especially in the frontcourt, and he anticipated that the Tar Heels would run much of their offense through the post. He compared them to the Green Bay Packers of the Vince Lombardi era: Everyone knew what was coming, but nobody knew how to stop them. Sure enough, North Carolina went inside on its first possession, finding the senior forward Isaiah Hicks for a short jump shot. What his players lacked in stature, Holtmann hoped they could compensate for with savvy. He relied heavily on the senior forward Andrew Chrabascz, who stepped in to draw an early offensive foul and drilled a couple of to keep Butler involved. If there was one clear concern for North Carolina, it was Berry’s physical condition. He had rolled his right ankle earlier in the tournament and wore a walking boot this week. But he insisted that he felt fine, started against Butler and then thrived. Berry made his first three shots, two of them . The Tar Heels sank nine of their first 11 attempts, and their lead swelled: to 10, to 13, to 16 and beyond. Everyone seemed to get involved for North Carolina. Consider the unlikely emergence of Maye, who cluttered the box score in the first half: a 14 points to go with nine rebounds in 10 minutes. North Carolina led by at the half. | 1 |
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It's been just over one month since José Fernández and two of his friends, Emilio Jesus Macias and Eduardo Rivero, passed away in a boating accident during the early morning hours of September 25th.
According to reports , Fernández's boat was traveling at high speeds when it hit a jetty. Image Credit: Manny Hernandez/Getty Images
While initial reports indicated that alcohol was not a factor in the crash, it is now believed that the men were drinking the night of the accident.
As the Miami Herald reports, the search warrant affidavit suggests that the diver could smell a “heavy” alcohol odor on Fernández and his friends.
The last known picture taken of Fernández the night he died was outside the dockside bar American Social. Managers of the bar confirmed that Fernández and his two friends were there, but it's unknown if the men were drinking.
The affidavit says that the driver of the vessel was driving with “recklessness” that was “exacerbated by the consumption of alcohol,” according to the Herald. And while toxicology reports have been completed, the report has not yet been released by investigators. Breaking: Jose Fernandez, companions had strong odor of alcohol after fatal crash https://t.co/KLmreMpv3n pic.twitter.com/BfcpBaXmAv — Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) October 26, 2016
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) says that it found a receipt for alcohol in one of the victims' pockets that was stamped the same date as the accident. The Miami Herald reported that the affidavit also states that the associate medical examiner who conducted the autopsies shows that all three men had water in the lungs and trauma consistent with a boat crash.
The exact cause of death, however, was not mentioned.
It also hasn't yet been confirmed who was driving the boat. Speaking with the Miami Herald, FWC spokesperson Lorenzo Veloz, says that he had been on Fernández’s boat “several times, but that Fernández had not been captain;” it's unknown how much experience Fernandez had captaining the boat.
The affidavit states that the crimes being investigating are Boating Homicide While Intoxicated and Vessel Homicide. However, because all three men who were on the boat are deceased, it is unclear against whom charges could be brought. It is also unclear whether civil charges will be brought.
Fernández's ashes have since been spread at sea, his favorite place to be: #JoseFernandez 's ashes scattered at site of boat accident. His mother says he wanted to be laid to rest at sea. #Fox35 pic.twitter.com/BU5MXWHJLk — LuAnne Sorrell (@luannesorrell) October 4, 2016
Hopefully, now that more information regarding the accident has been made available, the families, friends, and fans of the men on the boat can start finding closure.
According to the United States Coast Guard's recreational boating statistics , in 2014 there were over 4,000 boating accidents. Over 11 percent of those accidents occurred in Florida, and alcohol was the reason behind over 250 of the accidents.
Fernández was seen as the future of major league baseball. At just 24 years old, Fernández had 76 career starts during his three years with the Miami Marlins, striking out over 500 of his opponents. He was well on his way to becoming one of the greats.
He was also expecting a child with his girlfriend, Maria Arias: A photo posted by Jose Fernandez (@jofez16) on Sep 19, 2016 at 8:23pm PDT
His legacy will live on through their unborn daughter , Penelope. | 0 |
LONDON — The London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse have tried to merge three times since 2000, hoping to create a European stock market heavyweight. And now, after a ruling from European regulators on Wednesday, all three efforts have failed. The $30 billion merger, announced more than a year ago, would have created Europe’s largest stock market operator by far, leaving the combined company better positioned to compete with American rivals. But the deal faced a number of questions, particularly after German regulators and politicians balked at the combined exchange having its headquarters in London even as Britain moves forward with plans to leave the European Union. On Wednesday, the European Commission officially blocked the deal, with Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s competition commissioner, citing concerns that a merger would create a “de facto monopoly” in the clearing of bonds and products. “As the parties failed to offer the remedies required to address our competition concerns, the Commission has decided to prohibit the merger,” she said. The rejection came on the day that Britain began the negotiating process to withdraw from the bloc. While the shape of Britain’s eventual trading relationship with the European Union following the Brexit remains unclear, one thing is certain: The European authorities will maintain jurisdiction over many big mergers, even when they involve companies with headquarters outside the European Union. But as Britain leaves the bloc making such deals may become even thornier. British companies like the London Stock Exchange will probably be perceived differently, seen instead as overseas buyers. “We deal with any company who has a footprint in the European market because we want competition in the European market no matter your flag, no matter your ownership, and that goes for everyone,” Ms. Vestager told a news conference. Though the decision by European regulators ended a monthslong effort to combine the two operators, the announcement itself was widely anticipated. Last month, the London exchange said that the deal was unlikely to be approved after European regulators — who had opened an investigation in September — unexpectedly added a condition that it sell a majority stake in MTS, an electronic platform for trading European government bonds and other fixed income products. The London Stock Exchange called the remedy “disproportionate,” arguing that any such sale would set off additional regulatory processes in Europe and the United States, and would be detrimental to its businesses in Italy, where it operates the Borsa Italiana. On Wednesday, it said it “regrets” the Commission’s decision to block the merger, but was confident in its prospects as a business. The chairman of Deutsche Börse’s supervisory board, Joachim Faber, meanwhile, said the decision was “a setback for Europe. ” “A rare opportunity to create a global market infrastructure provider based in Europe and to strengthen the global competitiveness of Europe’s financial markets has been missed,” he said in a news release. German regulators and lawmakers had also become increasingly concerned in recent months about the combined company having its headquarters in London after last year’s referendum in Britain on European Union membership. They have pushed for the headquarters to be in Frankfurt. Prosecutors in Germany had also opened an inquiry into the timing of the purchase of Deutsche Börse shares by Carsten Kengeter, the Deutsche Börse chief executive who was set to head the combined company. The shares were purchased months before the exchanges announced their merger, but investigators are looking into whether they were secretly in talks at the time of the share purchase. Mr. Faber, has said the accusations have no basis, and Mr. Kengeter has called them “unfounded. ” Deutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange had hoped to create a potential European champion by combining stock exchanges in Britain, Germany and Italy, as well as several of Europe’s largest clearinghouses. That would have helped the combined company compete with United States rivals like the Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, and CME Group, which operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Mercantile Exchange. In seeking approval for the deal, the London Stock Exchange Group agreed in January to sell LCH, the French operating arm of the LCH. Clearnet Group, after saying it was seeking to “address proactively antitrust concerns raised by the European Commission. ” The sale was contingent on the approval by European regulators of the Deutsche Stock Exchange transaction. But the European Commission did not find that to be convincing, saying it would have created an effective monopoly in the clearing of bonds and other fixed income products in Europe. The commission also found that the merger would have removed horizontal competition for the clearing of equity derivatives. Regulators found that the parties proposed remedy of selling LCH would have addressed only its concerns about equity derivatives, but not its unease about fixed income clearing. The Intercontinental Exchange had been seen as a potential rival in the deal for the London Stock Exchange, but it opted in May not to pursue an acquisition. The rejection of the Deutsche Börse merger, however, now raises questions about whether the Intercontinental Exchange would take another look at the London exchange. “A weakened L. S. E. may need to look west for a future partner and strategy,” said John Colley, the associate dean of Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. Mr. Colley said that while the London Stock Exchange’s business was performing well, “there is very likely to be some fallout from Brexit. ” The Intercontinental Exchange was one potential bidder, he said, particularly given the weakness of the British pound against the dollar and the reduced cost of borrowing in an environment of historically low interest rates. “The L. S. E. is now vulnerable to a bid,” he said. Deutsche Börse, however, does not have many potential targets for mergers in Europe, and will probably try to attract stock listings and trading from Britain following Brexit, Mr. Colley said. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO — With sales sluggish and stiffening competition from rivals like Google and Facebook, Apple announced on Monday coming improvements to the software that runs its devices, including a revamped Music app, an easier login process and better across devices. More significantly, it also made it easier for app developers to tap the full power of Apple’s technology — from its Siri voice assistant to instant messaging and Apple Pay — in their own apps. “We believe it is crucial that we provide the best tools so you can produce the best apps,” Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, told a crowd of about 5, 000 assembled here for the company’s annual worldwide developer conference. developers write the apps that make an iPhone or a Mac more useful and personal. As the company struggles with flat sales of its products, Apple has been trying to mend its sometimes troubled relationship with the people who have filled its App Store with two million apps. On Monday, Apple said it was allowing access to two of its crown jewels — Siri and its messaging app, iMessage — hoping that the creativity of outside developers will spur a round of innovation to make the iPhone seem as magical as it did when the first apps were introduced eight years ago. Showing off how developers could use messaging, an Apple executive opened the app DoorDash from inside Apple iMessage and put together a joint order with friends. Earlier this year, Facebook opened up Messenger to bots, automated software assistants that can accomplish various tasks. Google also announced plans to introduce a messaging service with similar capabilities. “A lot of the messaging apps are moving toward this,” said Brian Blau, a technology analyst with Gartner who attended the event. “If Apple hadn’t announced developer access to messages, I would have been really surprised. ” Developers were also pleased to get access to Siri so they could incorporate voice commands into their own apps. Until now, Siri has mostly been limited to Apple services and has been used for tasks like conducting searches, getting directions or asking the virtual assistant to make a call. Faizan Buzdar, chief executive of Convo, a business collaboration software maker, said his company had already been using Siri to a limited extent so that customers could bookmark items that pop up in the Convo app. “But my vision would be to say, ‘What’s our revenue this week? ’” he said, adding that Siri would then open Convo, which would pull in data from its app and partner apps, and provide the answer. “That kind of natural language can really push the barriers of business. ” Initially, Siri will only be available for certain categories of apps like those providing messaging and services. Apple has been a leader on mobile devices since the introduction of the iPhone a decade ago. But in some critical respects, it is now playing . For example, Google, whose Android smartphone software is more popular than Apple’s globally, uses sophisticated facial recognition technology to organize a user’s photos, and Google’s mapping service works closely with other apps to identify important locations and automatically provide directions to appointments. Apple said on Monday that it would offer similar features in the next version of its iPhone software, iOS 10, which will be released in the fall with a new crop of iPhones. Similarly, Apple’s integration of other services into iMessage mirrors what Facebook has done with Messenger and what Tencent, a major Apple rival in China, has done with WeChat messaging. Unlike Google and Facebook, which rely on uploading a user’s data to the cloud, Apple said the new features will keep data on the phone to protect user privacy. “In some ways the star of the show wasn’t a particular product but Apple’s refutation of accusations that it can’t compete with Google and Facebook in artificial intelligence and deep learning,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst of Jackdaw Research, in an email after the presentation. Apple is a clear leader in some areas, particularly the nascent field of smartwatches. Announcing improvements to its Watch platform, Apple said that the new version of the watch’s operating system would start apps instantly. Users will also be able to scribble responses to messages one letter at time, instead of relying on the canned responses that are currently available. The Watch remains tethered to the iPhone for most uses, and the company seems to be repositioning it as a accessory, offering improved activity tracking and sharing. There is even a new app. In an attempt to persuade customers to buy more Apple products, the company also introduced a host of planned features to share data between devices. The documents on the desktop of a Mac, for example, will be accessible on iPads and iPhones. Photos taken with the iPhone can be viewed on the Apple TV. Apple signaled its desire to be a player in global where sales are expected to total $2 trillion this year, according to the research firm eMarketer. Apple said that retailers’ websites would soon be able to use Apple Pay as a checkout method, and customers could authorize a purchase with their fingerprint on their iPhone. Currently, the digital payment service is restricted to physical stores and apps, where it has gotten a lukewarm response. A few days before the conference, Apple made two other major announcements affecting developers. It will begin testing paid search ads in the App Store, which will allow developers to buy a slot at the top of the search results when a user looks for an app. Apple also said it would reduce the cut it took from subscriptions in apps to 15 percent, from 30 percent, after the first year. Whether Apple’s improvements will be enough to keep developers happily writing apps for the iPhone and other Apple products remains to be seen. If it continues to be difficult for apps to stand out in the App Store, more developers will concentrate on developing great mobile websites instead, said Cathy Boyle, principal analyst for mobile at eMarketer, a research firm. Creating an iPhone app typically costs $50, 000 to $200, 000, and some cost as much as $1 million, according to an eMarketer report last June. A website is cheaper, and while it lacks some convenience of an app, there are techniques to make a site easy for web users to find. “Developers are asking, ‘What is the additional revenue I can get from an app? ’” Ms. Boyle said. | 1 |
link Wednesday, October 26, 2016 Today, the amazingly energetic Donald J. Trump promised something that NO DEMOCRAT has cared enough to attempt, in decades. Our next President proposed and detailed a critically important "NEW DEAL FOR BLACK AMERICA". Story: www.nbcnews.com... It's a damn shame that Barack Hussein Obama completely ignored the/his Black community after receiving their votes. Now, Hillary Clinton is following in his footsteps.. She's blindly assuming that because she's a Democrat, and was endorsed by Barack Obama, the African American community will "fall in line" like good little mindless minions, and cast their 16 million votes for her, like they did for Obama in 2012. This cycle, open-minded Black Americans who refuse to be FOOLED AGAIN, are indeed going to give Donald Trump a try. As you can see from this video of boxing promoter DON KING introducing Donald Trump to a church filled with Black ministers and community leaders in Ohio last month, important segments of the community are tired of being lied to, screwed by, and ignored by, DEMOCRATS that they voted for! Don King Introduces Donald Trump (C-Span Video): www.youtube.com... For obvious reasons, the "old guard" community leaders like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, along with the NAACP, are not in Donald Trump's corner. But what's most telling, is that they are not out there at rallies raising Hillary's arm to roaring crowds of supporters either. Probably because they know Hillary is lying when she exclaims, "I ain't in no ways ever tired of fightin for youuu!" in Black churches. In 30 years, she's done NOTHING for no one except herself, Chelsea, and Saudi Arabian women abusers. -CareWeMust | 0 |
By Carlos Delgado , Film & Tv critic, wsws.org T he second season of the USA Network television drama Mr. Robot, created by Sam Esmail, concluded recently. Though drawing a somewhat smaller audience than the first season, the show remains popular among critics and has developed a following among young viewers in particular. The series has won a Golden Globe for best drama series, and star Rami Malek won an Emmy award for his portrayal of Elliot Alderson, a security engineer-turned-vigilante hacker who leads a cyberattack on E Corp, described as “the world’s biggest conglomerate.”
In the first season, Elliot is recruited into the hacker group “fsociety” by the mysterious Mr. Robot (Christian Slater). Fsociety plots to wipe out the debt records of E Corp in order––in Mr. Robot’s words––to “take down” the “evil corporation” and incite “the biggest revolution the world will ever see.” The hack ultimately throws the global financial system into chaos. In a narrative twist, Mr. Robot is revealed to be a mental construct inside Elliot’s head, based on memories of his dead father.
At the start of the second season, Elliot has retreated to his mother’s house, seemingly having abandoned his “revolution” to focus on ridding his mind of Mr. Robot. The cyberattack itself, far from “taking down” E Corp, has instead caused it to consolidate its power. E Corp CEO Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer) is using the chaos created by the hack to secure a government bailout and to advance Ecoin, the company’s proprietary digital currency.
Meanwhile, the effects of the financial crisis are largely being borne by the population itself. A credit crisis has frozen the accounts of masses of people, and most are forced to subsist on a $50 a day allowance. The economy is in freefall. Major cities have ceased trash collection, leaving mountains of garbage to pile up on city streets. E Corp banks have taken advantage of the loss of data to gouge customers for interest and loan payments that they have already paid. Large protests are a regular occurrence, and social unrest is boiling over. Taken at face value, the show depicts “revolution” as a cure worse than the disease, one that, at best, is the product of misguided naiveté; and at worst, inevitably leads one down the road of violence and treachery.
Darlene (Carly Chaikin) assumes leadership of fsociety. She is determined to “finish off” E Corp by “destroying public confidence” in the company, largely through the use of stunts and “symbolic” protests. Meanwhile, the killing of a key member of fsociety causes the hackers to fear that they are being targeted by the Dark Army, a shadowy group of Chinese hackers who participated in the E Corp cyberattack. At the same time, an FBI investigation led by agent Dom DiPierro (Grace Gummer) is closing in on the fsociety hackers, and the resultant panic and paranoia forms something of a throughline for the season.
The first season of Mr. Robot suffered from a number of problems, not least of which was a kind of narrative hyperactivity that resulted in a maddening array of subplots, distractions and “twists.” The series seemed unable to hold its attention on important matters, and the meagerness of the political content, steeped in a kind of shallow anarchism, limited its ability to say much when it did. But the first season also possessed what seemed a sincere outrage at the corporate-financial elite, the “top one percent of the top one percent” who “secretly run the world” as Elliot says in the pilot.
The second season is sharply different in tone. In place of the rapid-fire editing and the pounding, insistent soundtrack, the second season is much quieter and more slowly paced. One gets a sense that the show creators had a desire to settle down and tell a more grounded, perhaps more realistic story.
They are partially successful in some places. The various scenes that take place among the E Corp elite are generally convincing, with recurring images of financial oligarchs gazing contemptuously—and nervously—down on crowds of protesters from high-rise offices. An atmosphere of foreboding and tension pervades.
It doesn’t take long, however, for the show’s attempts at realism to descend into the kind of affected “darkness” so prevalent in contemporary film. Characters wax pseudo-poetically on the human condition, generally expressing hopelessness and angst. Lines such as, “We’re all just tightrope walking above that pit of ungodly pain that’s daring us to trip up,” are par for the course. The scenes themselves are underlit and gloomy, with shots scrubbed of color and framed to make the world seem inescapably isolating and cold.
Matters are not helped by the scenes involving Elliot’s struggle with Mr. Robot, which end up becoming a tedious series of exchanges on the nature of “truth,” “reality,” “illusion,” “control,” etc. Additionally, Elliot’s tenuous grasp on reality gives the show creators free reign to pull the rug out from under the audience whenever they see fit.
When Elliot states in an internal monologue that “We trust that [our senses] accurately portray the real world around us. But what if the haunting truth is they can’t? That what we perceive isn’t the real world at all, but just our mind’s best guess? That all we really have is a garbled reality, a fuzzy picture we will never truly make out?” one is hardly surprised. T he change in tone is apparently a deliberate attempt on the part of the show creators to depict the consequences of the first season’s “revolution.” Indeed, the fsociety hackers often express ambivalence, if not outright regret, for their actions in the first season, which everyone agrees have only made things worse.
In the World Socialist Web Site ’s initial assessment of the show, we wrote that, “The idea of ‘revolution’ and ‘revolutionaries’ put forward by Mr. Robot is ludicrous … In general, the series appears to have little interest, despite the references to inequality, in the conditions of wide layers of the population, much less any conception that masses of people will take part in the process of changing things. This is a ‘revolution’ carried out by (and presumably for) a layer of disgruntled computer engineers and other professionals.”
The creators’ conceptions have led them from outrage to pessimism. It is no doubt true that a cyberattack like the one depicted in the first season would likely bring about little more than increased state repression. But insofar as the show creators continue to identify these actions with “revolution” while refusing to see an alternative, they end up condemning the entire notion of revolution itself. Taken at face value, the show depicts “revolution” as a cure worse than the disease, one that, at best, is the product of misguided naiveté; and at worst, inevitably leads one down the road of violence and treachery.
More than a few retrograde elements accompany all this, including the sympathetic portrayal of the FBI and an undercurrent of anti-Chinese chauvinism.
By the end of the season, some of the fsociety “revolutionaries” have set out a plan that would include an act of violent terrorism, while others are speculating about the possibility of “undoing” the effects of the hack and “putting everything back the way it was.” One has little reason to believe that any of this will turn out well. WITH ORIGINAL SELECT COMMENTS FROM ORIGINAL THREAD (whose opinions we endorse) solerso • 2 hours ago
” they end up condemning the entire notion of revolution itself. Taken at face value, the show depicts “revolution” as a cure worse than the disease, one that, at best, is the product of misguided naiveté; and at worst, inevitably leads one down the road of violence and treachery.”
This is a very common and, old trope in popular film and television. It appears frequently in certain kinds of imaginative fiction – from Star Trek to the Marvel comics Batman film franchise . The message is that revolutionaries aren’t your friends. They don’t ‘really’ want to change the world for the better. According to the trope, revolutionaries are primarily dangerous, selfish, narcissists who are, “too cowardly” (or too “lazy”) to “work within the system” for “real change” . grok • 11 hours ago
‘More than a few retrograde elements accompany all this, including the sympathetic portrayal of the FBI and an undercurrent of anti-Chinese chauvinism.’
This is indeed one of the main things about the show which repels me (aside from the usual bourgeois — and Hollywood —‘take’ on what ‘revolution’ actually is): its turning of yet another TV show with initial potential into really just another ‘cop’ propaganda show: this time portraying the FBI secret police as being (yet again) essentially the ‘good guys’. The other is the almost shocking portrayal of the chinese (hackers or their de facto chinese government backers) as being the usual ‘inscrutable’, ‘Yellow Peril’ Threat from the East…
OTOH some of the best elements of the show — aside from the somewhat accurate portrayal of what hacking actually is, and how it is actually accomplished (with eventual, obvious ‘product placement’— the ‘Pwn Phone’— by those who must be technical consultants to the show) — are some scenes where even the audience (I did) enters Elliot’s disoriented dream state, along with him… like at the beginning of one episode where he is transported, along with his family, into a 1980’s sitcom — with an apparent bloody body in the trunk of their car (c/o Mr. Robot), as they take a vacation trip down the turnpike. The author is correct about the weakness of this side of the show — leading to too many cheap ‘Bobby-Ewing-in-the-shower’ moments — but this particular one worked out exceptionally well.
All-in-all, a disappointing promise, turned into yet another police propaganda show, with the big message: ‘revolution is futile, kids!’ plastered thruout. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS | 1 |
Richard Strauss’s opera “Der Rosenkavalier” is about the passage of time. It’s the story of a wealthy married woman, the Marschallin, who is having an affair with a much younger man, and who realizes that she is getting older and that he will sooner or later move on. Her most famous aria, at the end of the first act, is about wanting to stop the clocks. At the end of the opera, to music so full of feeling Strauss wanted it played at his own funeral, she accepts the inevitable and graciously surrenders her lover to a younger woman. Robert Carsen’s new staging of “Rosenkavalier,” which had its debut in London this winter and opens at the Metropolitan Opera on Thursday, April 13, emphasizes the theme of change and upheaval by moving the setting from Vienna to the moment when the piece was written, at the twilight of the Hapsburg Empire and the eve of World War I. It becomes an opera about the end of an era, or even the end of the world. For Renée Fleming, the superstar soprano who will sing the Marschallin at the Met, and for music, this really is the end of an era: This “Rosenkavalier” may well be her farewell to staged opera. She will sing her final performance on the afternoon of Saturday, May 13. People who know Ms. Fleming, 58, say that she has been planning this moment for years. The novelist Ann Patchett, who became friends with her after finishing “Bel Canto,” about a diva with many traits, said recently: “For as long as I’ve known Renée, the thing she always talks about is the fact that it’s all going to end. She has always had this feeling: ‘I’m a carton of yogurt with an expiration date stamped on it, and that day will come and I’ll be thrown out. ’” So Ms. Fleming is trying to say goodbye on her own terms. “You don’t want people to be saying, ‘Oh my God, please stop,’” she said in London as she prepared to finish the “Rosenkavalier” run there. “Or, ‘I heard her when. ’” Her departure is a watershed moment for her extravagant, expensive art form, which is always imagining itself in trouble — what is opera about except crises? — but may really be in peril this time. Not only is opera more divorced than ever from mainstream culture, but also its core audience, the people who buy subscriptions, is literally dying off. The Met has had some luck attracting new operagoers through social media, collaborations with theater and visual artists, and fresher branding, but the most reliable way of ensuring attendance is still by casting big international stars, and one of Ms. Fleming’s magnitude is almost impossible to replace. Plácido Domingo, the only singer on her level still performing, is 76, and, though he keeps defying time, can’t go on forever younger artists like Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann may be but are hardly household names. “A superstar is that intangible thing,” said Mary Lou Falcone, the publicist who in 1998 helped guide Ms. Fleming through a crisis of confidence so severe she almost quit opera after being booed in Milan. “Nothing can explain it. After all the projections and trajectories, the public either latches on or it doesn’t. ” Drawn to Ms. Fleming’s combination of glamour and accessibility — she became known as “the people’s diva” — the public did latch on. Invited to sing David Letterman’s Top 10 list, and to record, in the original Elvish, some of the soundtrack for the third “Lord of the Rings” movie, she gained a following among people who, strictly speaking, weren’t opera buffs at all. In many cases, Ms. Fleming was the first and only opera singer they’d ever paid attention to. She has sold over two million records, a huge number for opera, and won four Grammy Awards. In 2014, she became the first opera singer to deliver the national anthem at the Super Bowl. In 2015, she made the jump from Lincoln Center to Broadway to appear (as a tetchy diva) in the play “Living on Love. ” “Her huge ambition was not just to be an opera star,” said Matthew Epstein, Ms. Fleming’s manager from 1995 to 1999. “She wanted to be Beyoncé. She still does. ” Like Beyoncé, and unlike many of her opera colleagues, Ms. Fleming has gone about her stage career — and, now, her plans for after — with unusual deliberation. “Renée is not like other singers,” said Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Met. “I’m not saying she’s the only one who’s nice. But she’s very calm. Whatever fears or horrors she has are well hidden. ” Mr. Epstein recalled a period in the 1990s when Ms. Fleming was making a specialty of “Der Rosenkavalier. ” “She said to me: ‘I think I’m going to stop now, and this is something I can come back to at the end,’” he said. “The arc of a career is complicated. It’s hard to start a career, and it’s even harder to end one elegantly. So I think this is a very smart and considered decision on her part. It’s called going out at the top. ” Mr. Carsen, who has also directed Ms. Fleming in some of her most acclaimed productions, including Handel’s “Alcina” and Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” said: “Renée has been one of the most glamorous and really beautiful singers. A beautiful woman in every respect. It was never in the cards that as the years moved on she was going to start playing people’s mothers. ” Ms. Fleming turned 58 in February. Her friend and mentor Leontyne Price was the same age when she retired from the opera stage in 1985, and there is a famous YouTube video of her struggling to keep it together as she receives an endless ovation. It’s hard to believe that Ms. Fleming won’t puddle up a little at her last performance. But in London in January, on the morning after her “Rosenkavalier” at the Royal Opera House, she was anything but nostalgic. Sitting in the kitchen of her flat on one of the city’s most posh streets, she seemed less a forlorn diva than the very organized and energetic, very American chief executive of a small company: Let’s call it Renee Fleming Inc. “My guide to this whole process, when I was thinking about what to do, was Leontyne Price,” she said in her surprisingly deep speaking voice — so low she once saw a speech therapist, fearing it might be bad for her singing. “She said that her concertizing afterward was when she had the most fun, and she also said something to the effect that she felt she was no longer surrounded by her colleagues. That becomes true very quickly — pretty soon your colleagues are of another generation. ” Ms. Fleming insisted that she wouldn’t stop singing entirely but that she was just changing her focus. She plans to give more concerts (which, though she didn’t say so, are both easier and far more lucrative than singing staged opera) make more records, find new music to sing, and spend more time at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she was named creative consultant in 2010. (Some have speculated that position might be a steppingstone to running an opera company herself.) She said she was even thinking of getting involved in an internet for streaming arts programs. Some of Ms. Fleming’s fame is a result of arriving at the right moment, when there were still powerful management and record companies to promote her career. Some is a result of calculation and astute . Following the advice of Ms. Falcone, whom she hired in 1995, she lost weight and started paying more attention to her hair and wardrobe. (Nowadays, according to Ms. Patchett, she dresses up even to go to Kinko’s at 8 in the morning.) But it couldn’t have happened without her voice — shimmering and lustrous. Her detractors sometimes claim that Ms. Fleming’s voice is actually too much of a good thing: too lush, too creamy. She has been called the June Cleaver of opera singers — too bland, in other words — and her voice has been described as Botoxed, so plump and seamless that it lacks dramatic expressiveness. Ms. Fleming’s sound hasn’t darkened with age, as often happens to sopranos. (If it had, she might have ended up with a wider choice of roles in her 50s). She’s not as virtuosic as she once was, but whether you like her voice or not, she still sounds much the way she did 25 years ago. It hasn’t hurt her career that, as Mr. Carsen pointed out, Ms. Fleming is also very beautiful, with a face, high cheekbones and unusually large eyes, which onstage are as expressive as a silent film star’s: a ’s ideal of what an opera singer should look like. And unlike some earlier divas, for whom the job description seemed to include being as difficult offstage as was humanly possible, she is, for a superstar, almost unnaturally normal and unaffected. She loves to interact with her most devoted fans and even makes a point of remembering their names. Sue Schardt, a friend of hers since college, said Ms. Fleming hasn’t changed much since they shared a dorm room. “Renée’s not just humble,” she said. “She’s chronically humble. ” Ms. Fleming grew up outside of Rochester, where her parents were both music teachers. She was gifted, but not a prodigy, and there wasn’t enough money to send her to a fancy conservatory like Oberlin College, her first choice. So she enrolled in the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam, where she majored not in performance but in music education, assuming she’d follow in her parents’ footsteps. She has said that back then she had no idea how to sing and sounded like a “buzzing insect,” which isn’t quite true. Ms. Schardt shared an ancient tape recording of Ms. Fleming singing in the student union, and she sounds not unlike a young Joni Mitchell, her idol at the time. “Renée was always doing surprising things,” Ms. Schardt recalled. “So does it surprise me, the career she has now and what she’s developed into? No. Is it something we were thinking about when we graduated in 1981? No. It all goes back to being a girl from central New York. At the core, that’s who she is. She’s a working singer, and these are gigs. What grounds her is her friends, her family, her girls. ” (Ms. Fleming has two daughters by her first marriage — which ended in 1998, around the time she was heckled in Milan — and three stepchildren with her second husband, Tim Jessell, a corporate lawyer Ms. Patchett fixed her up with on a blind date.) If Ms. Fleming had a noticeable talent back then, it was for jazz, still one of her great loves. She was good enough that Illinois Jacquet, the jazz saxophonist, urged her to drop out and tour with his group. She declined, she says, because she was too much of a nerd and afraid of that much freedom. Instead she stayed in school and, always an overachiever, kept applying for and winning fellowships: ones from the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School, and a Fulbright that took her to Germany. Fortunate in her teachers, among them Beverley Johnson and the imperious Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, she acquired a formidable mastery of the mechanics of singing. Even now, listening to her talk about breath control, tongue tension and laryngeal placement is enough to make you wonder how anyone ever learned to sing at all. But even with all her technique — or maybe because of it — Ms. Fleming was a late bloomer. She suffered from stage fright, from poor audition choices and from finding a certain psychological comfort in finishing second rather than first place in competitions. For a while, she sang practically anything: for example, 10 roles in a stretch starting in 1995. But in the period after that, guided by Mr. Epstein and Ms. Falcone, she made the crucial decision to be more selective and focus on parts that particularly suited her voice. As it happened, many of them were roles in which she wouldn’t have to do battle with the looming legacy of Maria Callas and other great divas of the past: Massenet’s Thaïs and Manon Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello” the title role in Dvorak’s “Rusalka” (an opera that was practically until Ms. Fleming brought it back into the repertory) Tatiana in “Eugene Onegin” and the Marschallin. She has been so affecting in these last two that you begin to suspect some deep personal connection to the parts: the shy, spurned lover who never gets over her youthful passion, and the aging mistress. Ms. Fleming has said that it’s unlikely she will ever be poisoned or strangled to death in real life (or become a mermaid, for that matter) but that “playing out the Marschallin’s grief, her fears and finally, her heartbreaking dignity — those are the moments when I feel most exposed. ” If Ms. Fleming has a model besides Leontyne Price, it’s surely Beverly Sills. Her popularity, at its peak even greater than Ms. Fleming’s, was based on the same formula — humble roots, hard work, unaffected approachability, the kind of voice you didn’t need to know a thing about opera to love — and after her retirement from the stage, she went on to become a hugely influential arts administrator and cultural ambassador. As comfortable sitting on panels as standing onstage, Ms. Fleming has lobbied for arts education in schools and is collaborating with the National Institutes of Health on a project to study the effects of music on the brains of people with autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stress disorder. Her creative consultancy with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, originally intended as a sort of experiment that might bring Ms. Fleming to that city more often, has grown into something far deeper. The company’s 2015 premiere production of “Bel Canto,” based on Ms. Patchett’s novel, came about mostly through her energy and determination: She proposed the project and then, acting more like an impresario than a diva, lined up all the talent, at one point bringing in a spreadsheet listing some 60 possible composers. (The Peruvian composer Jimmy López eventually got the nod, and the playwright Nilo Cruz wrote the libretto.) She has worked on audience development efforts and has encouraged the company to leaven its operatic offerings with classic musicals. Every couple of months, she spends a week or so in Chicago, attending meetings and giving master classes. Early in February, she was the host of a event called Chicago Voices, which included classes for young singers on social media, and marketing. Ms. Fleming taught a session to a group of aspiring high school students, not just encouraging them but also bending over volunteers and squeezing their backs to improve their breathing. Afterward, she presided over a panel discussion, delving into details about the larynx, the importance of hydration and perhaps more about the vocal mucosa than nonsingers really need to know. A little more than 24 hours later, as if to prove the soundness of her theories and her own breathing apparatus, Ms. Fleming took part in a big concert celebrating Chicago singing in all its variety. She was the only one on the bill without roots in the city, and also — because this is what opera stars do — the only one to appear in three different outfits. She sang a Debussy art song, a operatic version of “Summertime,” a Sarah Vaughan jazz tune in a duet with Kurt Elling, and, with John Prine, a gently twanging version of the Nashville song “(We’re Not) the Jet Set. ” That Ms. Fleming sang more than any of the other performers doubtless had something to do with the fact that she was the organizer and headliner. But unlike a lot of singers, she also has the range to perform in that many styles. She can sing practically anything, and in about six languages — not just opera and art songs, but jazz, pop and standards. Her 2010 rock album, “Dark Hope,” including songs by indie bands like Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie, was an experiment that pleased almost no one. The indie crowd resented her poaching on their turf, while Ms. Fleming’s opera fans complained that, singing more huskily and about two octaves lower than usual, she sounded so little like herself that they couldn’t recognize her. But the album has a certain oddball integrity, and, if nothing else, demonstrated Ms. Fleming’s fearlessness. Her very eclectic most recent record, “Distant Light,” which came out in January, includes Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” a lovely old chestnut with a text by James Agee some arty Anders Hillborg settings of poems by Mark Strand, who was a friend of Ms. Fleming’s and three Björk songs. These last numbers might be thought an odd choice for an opera singer, but Ms. Fleming pointed out that even her mother, the former music teacher, loves Björk: “She’s so creative, like Lady Gaga even before Lady Gaga. ” Ms. Fleming doesn’t have much interest in becoming a figure like Adelina Patti, the hugely popular and opera star who went around, like Cher, giving farewell concerts for 20 years after she “retired. ” What she wants is to keep on singing, a reasonable amount for a reasonable amount of time, and to be a part of whatever happens next. While the prognosis is not particularly good for the landscape she dominated, she sounded determined and upbeat about the future. On several occasions, she has brought up her fascination with “American Idol,” which she used to watch with her daughter, and said that she wished opera singers were among the contestants. “I feel like we’ve been left out of the conversation, and we have a lot to offer technically,” she said recently. “I guess it’s the ivory tower and all that, but I’m trying to open the door again. I think my contribution now is to think about audience development, about supporting young artists, and the development of the art form. ” She isn’t temperamentally inclined to share her regrets, but on the eve of her farewell she offered a few. “I would have loved to have sung a lot of the heavier repertoire,” she said. “I once had a manager who said ‘You’re never going to make it otherwise.’ Mimì, Butterfly, Tosca, Salome, Elektra: It would have been exciting, but it simply wasn’t for my voice. ” After pausing a moment, she quickly changed the subject to her work at the Lyric Opera. “That opportunity came as a shock, sort of, seven years ago, when the last thing I was thinking about was slowing down,” she said. “Right now I feel like I’m doing everything — singing, concertizing, touring, creating new work. I just kind of love doing all these different things. Time will tell. I may never choose to focus more. ” | 1 |
U. S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Monday during an interview on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom that “there really isn’t any Common Core anymore” in the country’s schools. [“The Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA] which is in the process of being implemented now, essentially does away with the whole argument about Common Core,” DeVos said, adding: Each state can set the standards for their state. They may elect to adopt very high standards for their students to aspire to and work toward. That will be up to each state to be able to ascertain what is right for that state. We hope that all of them will have very high expectations. ” The secretary’s comments come in sharp contrast with President Donald Trump’s statement at a CEO Business Town Hall several weeks ago. During that meeting, Trump returned to his campaign promise to end the Common Core standards and once again make education policy the domain of state and local governments. “Common Core, I mean, we have to bring education more local,” Trump said at the White House. “We can’t be managing education from Washington. ” The president continued: When I go out to Iowa, when I go out to the different states and I talk, they want to run their school programs locally and they’ll do a much better job … And I like the fact of getting rid of Common Core. You know, Common Core, to me, we have to end it. We have to bring education local, to me. I’ve always said it, I’ve been saying it during the campaign, and we’re doing it. DeVos’s statement is similar to that of other establishment Republicans in Congress. In December of 2015, Sen. Lamar Alexander ( ) chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, touted that he and Democrat Sen. Patty Murray (WA) had facilitated the “bipartisan” passage of the ESSA measure that would replace the George W. No Child Left Behind (NCLB). President Barack Obama signed the bill into law almost immediately, referring to it as a “Christmas miracle. ” “We have reversed the trend toward a national school board, repealed the federal Common Core mandate, and enacted what the Wall Street Journal called ‘the largest devolution of federal control to states in a quarter century,” Alexander said. A statement on Sen. Richard Burr’s ( ) website following the signing of ESSA into law also said the measure had succeeded in “repealing the common core mandate. ” “This is a big deal,” Burr said about the new law. “It will bring an additional $24 million per year in funding to poorest children in North Carolina and put a stop to the Common Core mandate. ” Establishment Republicans based their pronouncements on the portion of ESSA that states, “The federal government is prohibited from … Mandating, directing, controlling, coercing, or exercising any direction or supervision over academic standards that states develop or adopt, including Common Core State Standards. ” Parent activists and education scholars who have studied the law, however, assert ESSA neither repeals the Common Core mandate, nor prohibits the education secretary from coercing states into adopting the standards. In fact, those who have been battling against Common Core in the states say ESSA actually does the opposite: it keeps states anchored to the controversial education reform. “Within the other 1, 060 pages of ESSA lurk the provisions that will keep states in Common Core, or something that looks very much like Common Core,” American Principles Project (APP) education fellow Jane Robbins and Indiana parent activist Erin Tuttle wrote at The Pulse 2016. “The Secretary won’t have to mandate anything, because the other parts of the bill contain the requirements for … ‘high standards,’” a phrase that has come to refer to Common Core. ESSA also requires every state to submit its education plan for approval to the U. S. Department of Education. Robbins and Tuttle assert: That plan must be “coordinated” with 11 federal statutes, including the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act passed a year ago the Education Sciences Reform Act, which is all about collecting student data for research the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act, which adds to the Head Start requirements on preschool standards and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Authorization Act, which governs the NAEP test that will almost certainly be aligned to Common Core to hide the fact that Common students perform poorly on NAEP. Requiring state plans and therefore state standards to coordinate with all these federal statutes means, as a practical matter, states will keep Common Core. The ESSA law also says, “Each State shall demonstrate that the challenging academic standards are aligned with entrance requirements for coursework in the system of public higher education in the State and relevant State career and technical education standards. ” “This is simply another way of saying states must have ‘ and ’ standards,” say Robbins and Tuttle. “And as made clear by the U. S. Department of Education’s own materials, ‘ and ’ means Common Core. ” Upon Trump’s comments earlier this month that “we have to end Common Core,” American Principles Project senior fellow Emmett McGroarty said, “Today’s comments show that President Trump has not forgotten his promise to end Common Core and return to local control of education. ” McGroarty added that Trump’s leadership on the elimination of Common Core in the states is vital from this point forward. “Every Swamp creature will unite to fight against the president on this, so his leadership will be critical,” he explained. “We look forward to seeing what steps the Trump Administration will take in the coming months to take power away from Washington D. C. and return it to parents. ” | 1 |
Un exorcista presentará la nueva temporada de “Hermano Mayor” EL PADRE CARRASCO LIDIARÁ CON ADOLESCENTES CONFLICTIVOS "CON UNA BUENA HOSTIA A TIEMPO" televisión
El padre Carrasco, párroco en una iglesia de Ourense, sustituirá al exboxeador Jero García al frente del programa “Hermano Mayor”, en el que un experto lidia con adolescentes conflictivos. Así lo anunciaba Toribio Vallés, director de programación de Cuatro, en rueda de prensa. La cadena de Mediaset cree que Carrasco es la persona adecuada por su perfil “conciliador, sereno y acostumbrado al trato con criaturas diabólicas”.
El cura confesó que la llamada de Cuatro le sorprendió más que la de Cristo. “El de exorcista es un trabajo con poca visibilidad”, ha admitido. “Que tu cliente te vomite y te insulte no es plato de buen gusto para nadie, pero también tiene cosas bonitas: conoces gente, ayudas a familias desesperadas y puedes practicar lenguas muertas, como el arameo, el latín o el bable”. Carrasco ha explicado el caso de “el demoniu cabreau”, en el que una señora fue poseída por un diablo asturiano y acabó siendo alcaldesa en su aldea por el Partido Popular.
La temporada de “Hermano Mayor” ya está en proceso de grabación. Según adelanta Vallés, los casos son más espectaculares que otros años. “El padre Carrasco visita a una adolescente que no estudia, es muy respondona y gira la cabeza 350 grados”, ha explicado. “Técnicamente no es una posesión, le faltan diez grados para serlo, pero el procedimiento es similar: agua bendita y el cuerpo de Cristo”, precisa. El cura ha defendido que “lo mejor en estos casos es una buena hostia a tiempo”.
Carrasco se inició en el mundo del exorcismo viendo tutoriales de YouTube. “Las primeras expulsiones del demonio las realicé en vacas que hay en la granja de mis padres”, ha relatado. Poco a poco fue perfeccionando la técnica, primero con primates, luego con pelirrojos y finalmente con personas.
Los responsables del programa han aprovechado la cobertura mediática para hacer una llamada a la población: “Si tenéis un hijo rebelde, que usa expresiones como ‘coworking’, ‘CEO’ o ‘Voy a montar una startup’, poneos en contacto con nosotros. Quizá aún estemos a tiempo de salvar su alma”. | 0 |
NO JUSTICE: Schools are banning creepy clown costumes, but Katy Perry’s allowed to wear THIS? Posted at 8:14 pm on October 29, 2016 by Brett T. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
Earlier this month, the epidemic of creepy clowns became so widespread as to finally make it into a White House press briefing, where Josh Earnest suggested reporters maybe check with the FBI or Department of Homeland Security about how they were choosing to respond to the red-nosed menace.
It doesn’t take much of a Google search — or maybe a search of your child’s backpack for the note the teacher sent home — to find that a lot of school districts, and even some municipalities, have banned clown costumes this Halloween. As if that and the fact that it falls on a Monday didn’t suck all the fun out of Halloween this year, Katy Perry has ruined the holiday for everyone with her Hillary Clinton disguise.
It reportedly took makeup artists six hours to apply the necessary prosthetics to simulate the aging effect of decades of scandals, and in the end, they ended up with … Jay Leno in a blonde wig? Katy Perry dressed up as Hillary Clinton for a Halloween party last night. Orlando Bloom is behind her as Trump. pic.twitter.com/sxmdnpdpUW
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 29, 2016
Perry even brought her own Bill Clinton for public display, while her real-life love Orlando Bloom followed close behind in some sort of Carrot Top/gorilla hybrid Donald Trump costume. Trending | 0 |
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Hillary Clinton began conducting focus groups and polling swing state voters as early as December 2014 to figure out how to brand herself and find a “rationale” for running for president.
Nearly two years before the election, Clinton’s team circulated a timeline of research objectives for which the nascent campaign would spend $2 million on focus groups and surveys, according to recently released hacked emails.
A “fundamental question” was how to brand Hillary as either “Badass/hip,” or a “Grandma.”
“Attached is an updated summary of the research process and a budget,” Robby Mook, who would become Clinton’s campaign manager, emailed on Dec. 8, 2014. “I want to emphasize that THIS *WILL* CHANGE because the team will have better ideas on methodology and the strategy will evolve as the project progresses.”
“I would still assume our budget will be in the $2+ million range per my earlier memo, even though the attached budget is lower than $2 million (obviously, we are going to make this as cheap as we can without sacrificing thoroughness and quality),” he said. | 0 |
For travelers, flying business or first class is increasingly within the realm of possibility. Prices for these seats are lower than in the past, said George Hobica, the founder of the air travel advice site airfarewatchdog. com. “Airlines used to upgrade passengers to first or business class for free,” he said, “but they’ve stopped doing that and are instead making these tickets more affordable and attainable. ” Here, he shares his tips on how to snag a seat in these premium cabins without paying premium prices. BUY DIRECT The airlines themselves, as opposed to airfare ticket sites such as Expedia. com, usually have the best prices for their and tickets, Mr. Hobica said. The lowest rates in these classes tend to be nonrefundable. So when searching for fares on an airline’s site, find the cheapest options by searching for a nonrefundable or seat. Also, know that carriers often have fare sales for these cabins in the summer and over the December holiday season, when fewer business travelers are flying. Find out about these sales by signing up for an airline’s . One example for this year: British Airways has Thanksgiving and Christmas specials where passengers can buy tickets in first class or Club World, the carrier’s equivalent, to London from some cities in the United States starting at $2, 038. FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL USE A CONSOLIDATOR Airline ticket consolidators buy in bulk from airlines and sell them to consumers for a discount. It is even possible to find these fares for travel. Mr. Hobica said he frequently buys tickets through consolidators to fly to Europe during the peak summer season for prices equivalent to or within a few hundred dollars of an economy ticket on the same flight. However, be aware that you might not earn frequent flier miles through a consolidator ticket, and the ticket may be nonchangeable. PlanetAmex. com and InternationalTravelSystems. com are both reputable consolidators. TRY A LOCAL TRAVEL AGENT That travel agency in your town could have access to consolidator fares, Mr. Hobica said. Though many travel agencies can no longer get you discounted airfare, there are some who can, he said, and it’s always worth calling or stopping in to find out. UPGRADE WITH MILES Airlines sometimes offer to upgrade your economy ticket for a nominal fee combined with frequent flier miles (usually with 15, 000 to 20, 000 miles each way for travel within the United States and at least 40, 000 miles one way for international travel). For an additional $75 and 15, 000 frequent flier miles, Mr. Hobica said, he was able upgrade a $133 economy ticket to Boston from Los Angeles on American Airlines to . | 0 |
NTEB Ads Privacy Policy As Her Electoral College Numbers Begin To Fall, Crooked HIllary Calls Off Election Night Fireworks The campaign called the Coast Guard last week to tell them the event was off, three days after the New York Post reported it was planning the bash - although the cancellation was secret until Monday. It emerged as fresh projections of the electoral college showed she has lost the iron grip pollsters believed she had on the 270 college votes needed for victory. by Geoffrey Grider November 7, 2016 Hillary Clinton’s campaign has called off its planned election night fireworks display, it emerged Monday, the day before America goes to the polls. Staffers were going to put on a two-minute show over the Hudson River after the results come in on Tuesday, but the proposal has been canned, TMZ reported on Monday. The campaign called the Coast Guard last week to tell them the event was off, three days after the New York Post reported it was planning the bash – although the cancellation was secret until Monday. It emerged as fresh projections of the electoral college showed she has lost the iron grip pollsters believed she had on the 270 college votes needed for victory. CNN has moved Ohio, Utah and one district of Maine from toss-up to leaning Republican, and New Hampshire from leaning Democratic to toss-up. That changes the math significantly for Clinton, putting her projected total at 268 and Trump’s at 204 – with the rest of the votes to be fought over. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Hillary Clinton: Until now she had been above 270. Fox News has changed its projection too, making Utah and North Carolina toss-ups, rather than leaning towards Clinton, while Arizona and Iowa move to leaning Republican. And a series of other measures pointed to a far tighter race than some pundits had predicted. In Florida, early voting figures obtained by the Drudge Report suggested Trump was doing better than Mitt Romney, and Hillary Clinton was under-performing Barack Obama in 2012. Similarly, Drudge reported that North Carolina had seen Trump exceed early voting expectations. The figures showed Trump behind be 305,000 when Romney was behind by 447,000 – a deficit which he still won the state from. The cancellation of the fireworks emerged three days after FBI director James Comey told Congress his agency was investigating a trove of emails found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The cancellation was made Thursday – before Comey wrote again to Congress to say that the FBI had not found anything to justify changing its verdict of no charges to the Democrat about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Still, Clinton’s campaign suffered collateral damage in the nine days which elapsed between the letters. source
Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING | 0 |
X Dear Reader! VDARE.com isn’t just a website. We are the voice of the Historic American Nation . Our goal is nothing less than to develop a full spectrum media network to speak up for our people during this difficult time for our country. Part of that means building institutions which are offline and in the real world. There’s something about a paper journal that suggests permanence, which inclines people to take it more seriously. And because the news cycle is so fast, some of the most important, substantial, and potentially influential writings fall through the cracks and don’t get the attention they deserve. For that reason, we’re proud to announce the creation of VDARE QUARTERLY, a print journal featuring the best material from our webzine. This will replace our yearly anthologies and ensure that the information and analysis you really don't want to miss will get in front of you as quickly as possible. However, we need your help. For us to unveil this exciting new product we need 600 magazines ordered to cover the print expenses. Fill out the form below to instantly receive a digital copy of VDARE QUARTERLY, and when we have the number of necessary subscribers it will go to print and your exclusive paper copy will ship directly to you! Depending on the package you choose, you will receive multiple paper copies (provided enough readers support the community effort). We encourage you to pass these around – they serve as an excellent gift for friends and family, while at the same time helping to build our community. VDARE QUARTERLY is aesthetically pleasing as well as ideologically powerful. But this isn’t just a service we are providing. VDARE QUARTERLY is a tangible manifestation of your investment in us, and in our country. A subscription is one of the most effective ways you can help us build our media network, expand our influence, and build the kind of movement we will need to take back our country and ensure our children have a recognizable America.
We count on your support! Yours sincerely, Peter Brimelow, Editor of VDARE.com VDARE QUARTERLY countdown: 275 already ordered, 325 still to go | 0 |
in: Corporate Takeover , Economy & Business , Science & Technology , Sleuth Journal , Special Interests Six corporate giants control most media and related content Americans consume. Comcast, News Corp., Disney, Viacom, CBS and Time Warner dominate US broadcast and cable television news, entertainment and sports, movie and TV production, theme parks, record labels, publishing, and for-profit online operations. On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported telecommunications giant AT&T and Time Warner agreeing to merge. Approval, if granted, would likely assure greater consolidation in both industries – benefitting corporate predators at the expense of the vast majority of consumers, giving them less choice than already, ensuring higher prices for poorer service. Hillary is a Wall Street, war profiteers, corporate predators tool, virtually certain to support this outrageous deal – likely to get FCC and Justice Department approval on her watch. Campaigning in Pennsylvania, Trump called the proposed deal another example of too few sources disseminating information to Americans, warning of “too much concentration of power,” manipulating people, telling them how to think. As president, if elected, he vowed to oppose it. He’s against jobs-killing TPP, NAFTA and similar deals. “Our jobs are fleeing the country,” he said. “They’re going to Mexico. They’re going to many other countries.” Hillary calls TPP the “gold standard in trade agreements,” sure to approve what Trump opposes. He calls friendly relations with Russia a good thing, praising Putin as “a leader…far more than our president has been,” saying “(i)f we have a (normal) relationship with Russia, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could work together on it and knock the hell out of ISIS.” Hillary’s rage for endless wars to eliminate all sovereign independent governments risks nuclear confrontation with Russia, China and Iran on her watch. Trump is no peacenik, no paragon of virtue, yet he’s on the right side of vital issues discussed above. Hillary should terrify everyone – on the wrong side of virtually everything mattering most, the most ruthlessly dangerous choice for president in US history. Submit your review | 0 |
TEL AVIV — Amid reports that President Trump’s and senior adviser Jared Kushner allegedly talked with Russia’s envoy to the U. S. about setting up a back channel for communications, it may be instructive to recall that representatives for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign reportedly established a back channel with Iran. [The Washington Post, which broke the story about Kushner, cited communications from Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak to Moscow allegedly intercepted by U. S. intelligence officials. Russian diplomats are known to deliberately place misinformation in communications they believe are being monitored, the Post noted, allowing for the possibility that Kushner never actually asked for a back channel. ABC News quoted two sources as saying the purported back channel that Kushner and Kislyak were allegedly discussing was supposed to focus on policy issues, including the war in Syria where Russia is highly influential. In August 2014, Michael Ledeen, a former consultant to the National Security Council and U. S. Defense Department, penned a column at PJ Media stating Obama opened a to Iran during the 2008 presidential campaign. Ledeen said the back channel went through retired Ambassador William G. Miller, who also led the 1979 negotiating mission during the Iran hostage crisis. Ladeen wrote that Miller confirmed his involvement to him. Ledeen wrote: (emphasis added by this reporter) The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration. During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies. The secret channel was Ambassador William G. Miller, who served in Iran during the shah’s rule, as chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador Miller has confirmed to me his conversations with Iranian leaders during the 2008 campaign. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. | 0 |
INDIANAPOLIS — As if on cue, Yiqing Zhou and Xueyin Shi let out the same response when asked how they will feel about having their commentary heard on national television. “A little bit nervous,” they both said through laughter. Zhou and Shi, you see, do a lot of things together. They are both graduate students studying electrical engineering at the University of Dayton, whose men’s basketball team won the Atlantic 10 championship. They are a couple. And they are both broadcasters for Flyers games. But theirs are not just any broadcasts: They call Dayton games in Mandarin Chinese, for broadcasts distributed on the university’s athletics website. And on Friday night, when the No. 7 seed Flyers fell, to Wichita State in the first round of the N. C. A. A. tournament, CBS tossed a brief part of the game action to Zhou and Shi. Zhou and Shi are members of a rotating cast of five broadcasters who call the games for Dayton in Mandarin. Their energy, among other factors, helped them draw the season’s two prime assignments from Michael LaPlaca, Dayton’s associate athletic director for multimedia. The Atlantic 10 tournament in Pittsburgh last week was the first time Dayton had the international commentators for a road game. The N. C. A. A. trip this weekend was the second. “They just have a chemistry that just clicks on air,” LaPlaca said. “I don’t even know Mandarin all that well, but when you hear them broadcast, it goes incredibly well. ” The Mandarin broadcast, which is in its second year at Dayton, is LaPlaca’s brainchild, the product of an initiative by a university looking to engage more with the international students on campus. After noticing that the University of Illinois started an online Mandarin broadcast for its football games during the 2015 season, Dayton saw an opportunity to try something similar. “Basketball is such a level game,” LaPlaca said. “It’s a sport that crosses all languages, all boundaries. So it made sense for us to be able to start this program and to allow international students to be able to broadcast the games and also reach an audience out in China. ” When the program was started before last season, the university estimated that its enrollment of about 11, 000 included more than 600 Chinese students. Additionally, Dayton has an institute in the Suzhou Industrial Park, near Shanghai. LaPlaca said 64 students initially showed interest in the broadcasting venture. He narrowed the field by sending applicants a video clip of a shot by Dayton guard Jordan Sibert during a First Four game of the 2015 N. C. A. A. tournament. The clip had nothing but ambient crowd noise LaPlaca told the aspiring students to improvise and announce the play. He worked with a Dayton professor who speaks Mandarin to rate the best students. Zhou and Shi had met at Shanghai Normal University and went to Dayton — which has a working relationship with Shanghai Normal — for their senior years, sticking around for graduate school. They quickly became rabid followers of the Flyers’ basketball program and, despite no media experience, decided that pairing on a broadcast would be a great way to share a hobby and connect with friends and family back home in China. “We love U. D.,” Zhou said. “Why don’t we share what we know about U. D. basketball?” The two have gotten familiar with all of Dayton’s opponents, regularly poring over game notes, brushing up on injuries and studying the backgrounds of visiting coaches. They watch highlights of recent games to fill in any gaps in their knowledge. “When we do the broadcast, we need to control our emotions sometimes, because we are crazy U. D. fans,” Shi said. On broadcasts, she added, “we need just to talk as clear as possible. We can’t bring our emotions in because we need to talk U. D. a lot, but we also need to talk other teams sometimes. So I think the hardest thing for me is just to control my emotions. ” Zhou said before the game that the nervous feeling they were expecting on Friday night would be nothing new they both get nervous before each tipoff, but they quickly ease their way into the flow of the game. While Friday’s audience was far larger for a few plays, the routine mostly remains the same, save for a little extra explaining of the concept of March Madness to a Chinese audience. “The Chinese fans have no idea how the seeds come out and everything,” Shi said. “So we will do like a brief introduction to them to let them know how the N. C. A. A. tournament works. ” | 1 |
Pentagon spent $58.3 billion since 1997 for development weapon systems programs, which have been later canceled, according to report. The US Department of Defense has spent $58.3 billion over the past two decades for development weapon systems programs, which have been later canceled, a recent Pentagon’s report said.
Since 1997, the US Department of Defense has canceled 23 military programs, which were initially funded, the report issued on Tuesday by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics claimed.
“Almost 44 percent of those dollars are in two programs: Future Combat System (FCS; $20.7 billion) and the RAH — 66 Comanche reconnaissance/attack helicopter ($9.8 billion). Eight canceled programs spent at least 100 percent of their original RDT&E [Research Development Test and Evaluation] baseline, including Comanche (but not FCS). On average, about two-thirds to three-fourths of the original RDT&E baselines were spent before these programs were canceled,” the report reads.
According to the authors of the report, not all the spent money should be considered wasted, because, despite the cancellation of a program, newly developed technologies can be used in creation of other weapons systems.
Source: Sputnik News
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Store 2006 Audio Emerges of Hillary Clinton Proposing Rigging Palestine Election Unearthed tape: 'We should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win' Observer
On September 5, 2006, Eli Chomsky was an editor and staff writer for the Jewish Press, and Hillary Clinton was running for a shoo-in re-election as a U.S. senator. Her trip making the rounds of editorial boards brought her to Brooklyn to meet the editorial board of the Jewish Press.
The tape was never released and has only been heard by the small handful of Jewish Press staffers in the room. According to Chomsky, his old-school audiocassette is the only existent copy and no one has heard it since 2006, until today when he played it for the Observer.
The tape is 45 minutes and contains much that is no longer relevant, such as analysis of the re-election battle that Sen. Joe Lieberman was then facing in Connecticut. But a seemingly throwaway remark about elections in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority has taken on new relevance amid persistent accusations in the presidential campaign by Clinton’s Republican opponent Donald Trump that the current election is “rigged.”
Speaking to the Jewish Press about the January 25, 2006, election for the second Palestinian Legislative Council (the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority), Clinton weighed in about the result, which was a resounding victory for Hamas (74 seats) over the U.S.-preferred Fatah (45 seats). | 0 |
Photo by manhhai | CC BY 2.0 I n classical mythology, the Acheron is one of the rivers of the Underworld. It marks the boundary between the living and the dead. The ferryman Charon ferries the dead across the Acheron to a place where they lose memory. Nothing of what made them human remains—happiness, suffering, love, hatred, guilt, regret, redemption, betrayal, forgiveness. From Gilgamesh to Odysseus to Aeneas, the living heroes of the epic descend into the Underworld at a point of despair in the sense of their quest. Burdened by a fate that requires momentous courage and tragic self-sacrifice for the sake of their people’s survival, they resent the absurdity of their lot. Down there on a visit, they return from the shadow land strengthened. They recognize that the business of living is not oblivion but action. John Marciano’s recently published book, The American War in Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration ? functions as such a Charon in reverse. It ferries readers back to the realm of remembering. This slim volume could not have come at a more opportune moment. American political culture is punch-drunk with the pursuit of war. The altered state is reaching the point of delirium tremens. Thwarted in the neocolonial scheme of annexing Syria by Russia’s legal intervention, the American elite are pushing for confrontation. Though it is hard to think the unthinkable, the nuclear holocaust may happen if not by intention then by spontaneous combustion from over-intoxication with the fumes of war. This reckless confrontation results from decades of accumulated unaccountable power. Its boldness reflects a cumulative experience of impunity for aggressive behavior by soft and hard neocolonial postures since the end of WW II. The war in Vietnam, as Marciano suggests, should have functioned as the lesson that checked the nation’s historical thrust for conquest, but the turning point would have required a national effort to relinquish the myth of the Noble Cause, the delusion that America is vested with a divine mandate to assimilate the people of the world to the American image–for the people’s own good. Britain had its White Man’s Burden; France its mission civilatrise ; America its Manifest Destiny. This timely volume traces the war to the apocalyptic finale of the most powerful military in the world defeated by the determination, courage, and self-sacrifice of a peasant people unwilling to be enslaved. But this is as much a book about the past as it is about the present. It reminds us, with Tolstoy, “The reality of war is in the killing, “ a realization officialdom would like to block. In fact, they have prepared a falsifying celebration of that moral and military debacle. As Marciano writes in his introduction, “In May 2012, President Barack Obama and the Pentagon announced a Commemoration of the Vietnam War to continue through 2025, the fiftieth anniversary of the conflict’s end. Among the Commemoration’s objectives, three stand out: ‘to thank and honor’ veterans and their families . . . ‘to highlight the advances in technology, science, and medicine related to military research conducted during’ the war; and to ‘recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by the allies’.” President Obama claimed in the commemoration announcement speech that the war had been “an honorable cause.” Marciano challenges this notion. America’s historic ideology of the Noble Cause, he writes, rests on the belief that the United States is “A unique force for good in the world, superior not only in its military and economic power, but in the quality of its government and institutions, the character and morality of its people, and its way of life.” T his is the mystical bigotry of a messianic faith typical of empires. Imperial militarism seeks in a Noble Cause the justification for subjugating large chunks of humanity. In the distant past, the Noble Cause may have received the sword directly from a god—as it did in postcolonial America when it sought to exterminate the native inhabitants. By the anointment of the sword, the divinity also endowed, supposedly, the conquering “race” with moral superiority. Thus, imperialism, in the perverse arrogance of its twisted psyche, contains the germ of genocide. As a result, the superstition of a superior “race” has been endured by most of the “races” on the planet as a most Ignoble Cause. In Vietnam alone, the Big Lie of the Noble Cause sent four million Vietnamese to their death. Marciano leaves us in no doubt that the White House and the Pentagon are commemorating a crime. They are falsifying history in order to shape the future, which will be and is the reenactment of the war against Vietnam on a global scale. They want to establish the altar for a “sacred union,” the nation united behind the Noble Cause of war. On the altar will sit the fetish of the export of the “miracle of democracy, ” in reality the imposition of regimes of terror such as the Vietnam War planners established in Saigon. We see today in Ukraine that the “miracle of democracy,” brought to Kiev by the US in 2014 to the tune of five billion dollars, amounts to a handful of dry dust, collected from the WW II graveyard of European Nazism, inciting a lot of blind, anti-democratic and noxious nationalism. As through a glass darkly, Marciano shows us that in the war crime against Vietnam we can see reflected the crimes perpetrated today from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Iraq to Syria, from Yugoslavia to Libya and across the African continent. As in Vietnam (the fakery of the Gulf of Tonkin incident), today’s war are based on fabricated pretexts; as in Vietnam (napalm and agent orange), today’s wars are chemical wars (depleted uranium for Yugoslavia and Iraq; phosphorus for Falluja); as in Vietnam (Hanoi and Haiphong) the bombings destroy urban life, vital infrastructure, schools and hospitals; as in Vietnam (Laos, Cambodia) the bombings spreads out (today to Yemen); as in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) the leaders who resist US penetration are demonized (Milosevic, Saddam, Qaddafi, Assad) as enemies of humanity. As in Vietnam, all the wars of today are fought mostly to prevent or reverse independence and self-determination of former colonial places. Finally, as in Vietnam the USSR, today’s Russia is emerging as the displacement of all the guilt that weighs on the shoulders of the Noble Cause. The Washington Post recently wrote “the Kremlin annexed Ukraine.” I read it twice—not “annexed Crimea,” the standard disinformation, but the whole of Ukraine! Does one laugh or weep? Does one have to take a hallucinogenic to see Russian flags and images of Putin blanketing Kiev instead of Neo-Nazi emblems and images of Bandera? The next president will certainly be Hillary Clinton, whom I call “the centripetal president.” From Republicans to Democrats to Neo-Cons, all converge on endorsing the war candidate. In her consensus war regime, the elite will decide everything. We will not be consulted. This is why The American War in Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration? is a vital read. It calls for our re-democratization–to question our leaders, to be skeptical of the media, to avert our eyes from the petrifying stare of the Medusa decked with the aegis of the Noble Cause; to challenge—even ridicule– the vaunted humanitarianism of an elite of bloodhounds baying for war; to refuse to commemorate war crimes and to work to stop them. Above all, we need to remember that the crimes of other governments are the responsibility of the people of those governments—not of our bombs. Though our elite have abrogated to themselves the power and the right to remake the map of the world by force, we need to reassert the legal principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign states if we are serious about peace. We, citizens, do not have the right (or the power, unless we line up behind the power of the militarist state) to change the practices of other states, but we do have the right to demand change for those of our own. Let’s start exercising that right. We did for Vietnam; we can do it again. Commemorate the people who protested the war in Vietnam, not the crime the governing elite committed there in our name, as Marciano’s book amply documents. The US government is now engaged in waging eight wars. We better get busy. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS Please comment and debate directly on our facebook group installation ABOUT THE AUTHOR Luciana Bohne is co-founder of Film Criticism, a journal of cinema studies, and teaches at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. She can be reached at: [email protected] Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. 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in: Government Corruption , Mainstream Media , US News , Whistle Blowers Let’s talk about Wikileaks. First of all, the organization was founded by Julian Assange back in 2006. Their website explains what they are all about: “WikiLeaks specializes in the analysis and publication of large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying, and corruption. It has so far published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses.” In the 11 years that they’ve been publishing documents, they have not been disproven a single time. Their record for authentication is perfect. (Learn more here and here .) So this means that a person would be pretty silly to disregard anything in the reams of information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, the Clinton Foundation, and the political shenanigans that would put the Machiavellis to shame. Here are 21 of the most important things that have come out about Hillary Clinton, that unfortunately, no one is reporting on in the mainstream. In the interest of brevity, each topic has a link to an article that goes deeper into the leak. (In no particular order.) John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign had a nice cozy dinner with Peter Kadzik, one of the top officials in the Department of Justice…the day after the Benghazi hearing . Kadzik’s son also asked for a job on the Clinton campaign, and, the icing on the corruption cupcake? Kadzik led the effort to nominate Loretta Lynch, who famously met with Bill Clinton on her private plane right before Hillary’s interrogation about Emailgate. ( source ) We all knew that the Clinton Foundation was just a way for the Clinton family to launder money, and now there’s proof. Zero Hedge writes, “…today’s Wikileaks dump included that memo which reveals, for the first time, the precise financial flows between the Clinton Foundation, Band’s firm Teneo Consulting, and the Clinton family’s private business endeavors.” A pundit called this leak “The Rosetta Stone of the Clinton Foundation,” meaning that with this document, all of their shady financial dealings could be unraveled and translated. ( source ) Clinton is unable to speak for very long without a podium to lean on . Numerous leaked emails reference how certain interviews have to be kept short because she’d be without one. And this article references a very interesting reason why this may be the case – surprisingly it isn’t related to her health. ( source ) The leaks also show that Clinton intends to do her best to restrict the Second Amendment. Brian Fallon, the national press secretary for the Clinton campaign, wrote, “ Circling back around on guns as a follow up to the Friday morning discussion: the Today show has indicated they definitely plan to ask bout guns, and so to have the discussion be more of a news event than her previous times discussing guns, we are going to background reporters tonight on a few of the specific proposals she would support as President – universal background checks of course, but also closing the gun show loophole by executive order and imposing manufacturer liability .” According to an analysis on The Daily Sheeple, “Imposing manufacturer liability means that after Sandy Hook, Bushmaster and Remington Arms would have been prosecuted for having a hand in the murder of children and school staff members for firearms that were legally sold.” ( source ) The campaign was concerned that the sexual escapades of Bill Clinton could be likened to those of another disgraced celebrity, Bill Cosby . Political operative Ron Klain sent an urgent email saying that Hillary should anticipate the following questions, ” How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did? Is his conduct relevant to your campaign? You said every woman should be believed. Why not the women who accused him? Will you apologize to the women who were wrongly smeared by your husband and his allies?” ( source ) Clinton’s campaign deliberately leaked an embarrassing photo of a swimsuit-clad Bernie Sanders to the press, ironically insinuating that it was proof he was bought off by Wall Street. Perez Hilton wrote, “ Bernie Sanders lounges at elite Martha’s Vineyard pool, summer 2015 after helping raise money from Wall Street lobbyists .” ( source ) Clinton admitted she is out of touch with the middle class in a speech to Goldman-Black Rock in 2014. “And I am not taking a position on any policy, but I do think there is a growing sense of anxiety and even anger in the country over the feeling that the game is rigged. And I never had that feeling when I was growing up. Never. I mean, were there really rich people, of course there were. My father loved to complain about big business and big government, but we had a solid middle class upbringing. We had good public schools. We had accessible health care. We had our little, you know, one-family house that, you know, he saved up his money, didn’t believe in mortgages. So I lived that. And now, obviously, I’m kind of far removed because the life I’ve lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy , but I haven’t forgotten it.” ( source ) She made this rather NWO remark at a 2013 paid speech to Brazilian bank Banco Itau: “ My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders , some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” ( source ) In a leak of yet another paid speech, this time to the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago in 2013, Clinton said that Jordan and Turkey “ can’t possibly vet all those refugees so they don’t know if, you know, jihadists are coming in along with legitimate refugees.” Meanwhile, if Clinton has her way , we will be warmly welcoming 65,000 refugees a year, which makes Obama’s 10,000 a year look like small potatoes. ( source ) Clinton blackmailed the Chinese by telling them that the US would base missiles in the region if they didn’t exert some control over North Korean aggression. “ So China, come on. You either control them or we’re going to have to defend against them ,” she purportedly told the audience at a Goldman Sachs conference in June 2013. ( source ) In May 2015, Clinton was no longer Secretary of State but was ready to announce she was running for President when she was invited to attend a summit in Morrocco. The implication from the leaked emails was that a $12 million “donation” from the king of Morocco was dependent on Clinton attending the summit. Human Abedin, usually loyal to her boss, had concerns . “ If HRC was not part of it, meeting was a non-starter. She created this mess and she knows it. Her presence was a condition for the Moroccans to proceed so there is no going back on this,” Abedin wrote to Robbie Mook in a November 2014 email. Incidentally, Clinton didn’t attend. Bill and Chelsea went instead and the $12 million donation was not forthcoming. (source ) Podesta attacked Clinton’s primary election rival Bernie Sanders for criticizing the Paris climate change agreement. “ Can you believe that doofus Bernie attacked it? ” said Podesta. ( source ) Clinton told a Goldman Sachs conference she would like to intervene secretly in Syria . “ My view was you intervene as covertly as is possible for Americans to intervene,” she told employees of the bank in South Carolina, which had paid her about $225,000 to give a speech. “We used to be much better at this than we are now. Now, you know, everybody can’t help themselves. They have to go out and tell their friendly reporters and somebody else: Look what we’re doing and I want credit for it. ” (source ) There is indeed a definite link between the Clinton campaign and what MSM is allowed to say. The campaign has colluded directly with media spokespersons that read like a Who’s Who in American Media : Dan Merica from CNN, Haim Saban of Univision, John Harwood of CNBC and the NY Times, Rebecca Quick of CNBC, Maggie Haberman of NY Times and Politico, John Harris of Politico, Donna Brazile formerly of CNN, Roland Martin of TV-One, Marjorie Pritchard of The Boston Globe, and Louise Mensch of Heat Street. ( source ) As everyone knows, the DNC deliberately screwed Bernie Sanders out of the nomination ( Bonus: Wikileaks also released some of the DNC’s voicemails on the topic ). There are emails that prove who is actually pulling HRC’s puppet strings and that puppeteer is George Soros . The shadow government is not just a conspiracy theory – it really exists and Hillary’s job is to keep George Soros happy. ( source ) Excerpts from her speeches to Wall Street read like a guide to two-faced treachery. In them, she clearly points out that sometimes you “need” to lie. “If everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.” ( source ) Wikileaks emails show that back when she still worked for CNN and before she became an employee of the Clinton campaign, Donna Brazile gave Hillary the questions in advance for her “impromptu” CNN Town Hall questions. ( source ) The campaign got to “approve” articles in influential publications like NY Times, HuffPo, CNN, NBC, CBS, NYT, MSNBC, and Politico, showing a massive collusion with the mainstream media, who has hounded Trump relentlessly in an effort to distract from HRC’s abysmal candidacy. ( source ) Through the treasure trove of Wikileaks emails, we can gain an accurate picture of how Hillary really feels about us all (spoiler: basket of deplorables, basement dwellers and right wing conspirators) ( source ) President Obama knew the whole time that her emails were not coming from the secure State Department server. Cheryl Mills wrote to John Podesta, “W e need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov .” You see, Obama’s emails all have to be from”whitelisted”addresses. So someone, somewhere, added her nonsecure email to his whitelist. ( source ) And finally, here’s the real reason that treacherous shrew is involved in politics. And let me tell you, it isn’t because she yearns to make things better for anyone but herself. (emphasis mine.) At the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit, Clinton responded to a question from chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, who quipped that you “go to Washington” to “make a small fortune.” Clinton agreed with the comment and complained about ethics rules that require officials to divest from certain assets before entering government. “ There is such a bias against people who have led successful and/or complicated lives, ” Clinton said. ( source ) Together, we cannot be ignored. I am on a mission between now and the Presidential Election on November 8th and I hope that you will join me. I am going to work day and night to provide the coverage that the mainstream media is not. It isn’t until we combine all of our voices that we can make people listen to the scandals, the rigging, and the corruption, not only in this election but in the system in general. Please join your voice with mine by liking, sharing, and spreading the word. Together, we cannot be ignored. Together, we are an army. Article first posted at DaisyLuther.com Submit your review | 1 |
Capt. Kristen Griest was among the first women to ever graduate from the Army’s elite Ranger school, and after Thursday, she will become the first woman able to lead an infantry unit into combat. Her graduation from the Maneuver Captains Career Course at Fort Benning, Ga. qualifies her for duty as an infantry officer after being approved for infantry duty earlier this week. She is joining a branch of the Army that had long been considered the last bastion of traditionally male combat roles, and with the move, the Army has crossed another barrier in its promise to consider women for all roles without exception. “She’s going to go on and serve the rest of her career, however long it may be, as an infantry officer,” Lt. Col. Jerry Pionk, an Army spokesman, said on Thursday. “Her road is far from done it is just more in line with what she feels her aspirations are. ” Unofficially, women had served on the deadly front line for years, but they were barred from direct combat in roles such as tank or infantry officer until December 2015, when Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced that the Pentagon would allow women in all military roles, with no exceptions, opening up about 220, 000 military jobs. “They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat,” Mr. Carter said. “They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men. ” Colonel Pionk stressed that the Army was being “deliberate and methodical” during a “major cultural shift” in opening roles to women, and that Captain Griest was evaluated by the same standards as a male officer requesting a transfer. “This isn’t really about putting women into infantry and armor branches,” he said. “We are at a time and a place in the world where we need to have the best leaders from everywhere, and that includes women. ” Still, the option for Captain Griest to move into her current role was not available as recently as last summer, when she made history along with First Lt. Shaye Haver by graduating from the grueling Ranger school. Both women said that they had not received any special treatment. “I do hope that with our performance in Ranger school we’ve been able to inform that decision as to what they can expect from women in the military,” Captain Griest told reporters after her graduation. “We can handle things physically and mentally on the same level as men. ” As Captain Griest moves forward in her career, the Army is creating a path forward for younger female cadets who want to be trained to lead in branches that were previously unavailable. This spring, 13 female cadets were approved to enter armor, and nine were approved for infantry, Colonel Pionk said. “We’re at the point where we’re now starting to branch women who want to go,” he added. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr. Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will stay that way. His research suggests something quite different: that liberal democracies around the world may be at serious risk of decline. Mr. Mounk’s interest in the topic began rather unusually. In 2014, he published a book, “Stranger in My Own Country. ” It started as a memoir of his experiences growing up as a Jew in Germany, but became a broader investigation of how contemporary European nations were struggling to construct new, multicultural national identities. He concluded that the effort was not going very well. A populist backlash was rising. But was that just a new kind of politics, or a symptom of something deeper? To answer that question, Mr. Mounk teamed up with Roberto Stefan Foa, a political scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. They have since gathered and crunched data on the strength of liberal democracies. Their conclusion, to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Democracy, is that democracies are not as secure as people may think. Right now, Mr. Mounk said in an interview, “the warning signs are flashing red. ” Political scientists have a theory called “democratic consolidation,” which holds that once countries develop democratic institutions, a robust civil society and a certain level of wealth, their democracy is secure. For decades, global events seemed to support that idea. Data from Freedom House, a watchdog organization that measures democracy and freedom around the world, shows that the number of countries classified as “free” rose steadily from the to the early 2000s. Many Latin American countries transitioned from military rule to democracy after the end of the Cold War, much of Eastern Europe followed suit. And longstanding liberal democracies in North America, Western Europe and Australia seemed more secure than ever. But since 2005, Freedom House’s index has shown a decline in global freedom each year. Is that a statistical anomaly, a result of a few random events in a relatively short period of time? Or does it indicate a meaningful pattern? Mr. Mounk and Mr. Foa developed a formula to answer that question. Mr. Mounk thinks of it as an system, and it works something like a medical test: a way to detect that a democracy is ill before it develops symptoms. The first factor was public support: How important do citizens think it is for their country to remain democratic? The second was public openness to nondemocratic forms of government, such as military rule. And the third factor was whether “antisystem parties and movements” — political parties and other major players whose core message is that the current system is illegitimate — were gaining support. If support for democracy was falling while the other two measures were rising, the researchers marked that country “deconsolidating. ” And they found that deconsolidation was the political equivalent of a fever that arrives the day before a case of the flu. Venezuela, for instance, enjoyed the highest possible scores on Freedom House’s measures of political rights and democracy in the 1980s. But those democratic practices were not deeply rooted. During that apparent period of stability, Venezuela already scored as deconsolidating on the test. Since then, Venezuelan democracy has declined significantly. In 1992, a faction of the Venezuelan military loyal to Hugo Chávez attempted a coup against the democratically elected government. Mr. Chávez was elected president in 1998 on a wave of populist support, and he immediately passed a new constitution that consolidated his power. His government cracked down on dissent, imprisoned political opponents and shredded the country’s economy with a series of economic overhauls. Likewise, when Poland joined the European Union in 2004, it was hailed as an especially strong example of a country making the transition to consolidated democracy. But Mr. Mounk and Mr. Foa found strong signs of deconsolidation during that period: As early as 2005, nearly 16 percent of Poles said they believed democracy was a “bad” or “fairly bad” way of running the country. By 2012, 22 percent of respondents said that they supported army rule. And in the a series of antisystem parties began to gain traction in Polish politics, including Law and Justice, of the Republic of Poland, and the League of Polish Families. Today, that fever is starting to look a lot like the flu. Law and Justice, which won the presidency and a parliamentary majority in 2015, has systematically weakened democratic institutions. The government’s attempts to undermine the country’s constitutional tribunal, for instance, set off an investigation by the European Union. The resulting report warned that the government’s actions “endanger not only the rule of law, but also the functioning of the democratic system. ” According to the system, signs of democratic deconsolidation in the United States and many other liberal democracies are now similar to those in Venezuela before its crisis. Across numerous countries, including Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States, the percentage of people who say it is “essential” to live in a democracy has plummeted, and it is especially low among younger generations. Support for autocratic alternatives is rising, too. Drawing on data from the European and World Values Surveys, the researchers found that the share of Americans who say that army rule would be a “good” or “very good” thing had risen to 1 in 6 in 2014, compared with 1 in 16 in 1995. That trend is particularly strong among young people. For instance, in a previously published paper, the researchers calculated that 43 percent of older Americans believed it was illegitimate for the military to take over if the government were incompetent or failing to do its job, but only 19 percent of millennials agreed. The same generational divide showed up in Europe, where 53 percent of older people thought a military takeover would be illegitimate, while only 36 percent of millennials agreed. In the United States, Donald J. Trump won the presidential election by running as an antisystem outsider. And support for antisystem populist parties in Europe, such as the National Front in France, Syriza in Greece and the Movement in Italy, is rising. Of course, this is just one paper. And the researchers’ approach, like all social science, has limitations. It is only as good as the survey data that underlies it, for instance, and it does not take into account other factors that could be important to overall stability, such as economic growth. At least one prominent political scientist argues that Mr. Mounk’s and Mr. Foa’s data is not as worrying as they believe it to be. Also, of course, correlation is not the same as causation. Although the researchers found a relationship between deconsolidation and democratic instability, that is not the same thing as proving the root causes of either factor. “That’s only one measure,” Mr. Mounk acknowledged of his own research. “But,” he added after a pause, “it should have us worried. ” He fears that the minutiae of politics can easily distract from these more fundamental dangers. “It’s not just about what Trump will do to the E. P. A. ,” he said, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. “It really is that Trump may try to undermine liberal democracy in the United States. ” “Look, this stuff is already going on in other places,” Mr. Mounk added. “If there’s one task that we have as journalists, as academics, as thinkers, it’s to drive the stakes of this home for people. ” | 1 |
Cut and paste from Stormfront? | 0 |
26 WikiLeaks bombshells on Hillary you need to know Most explosive revelations that could keep Clinton out of White House Published: 26 mins ago About | | Archive Leo Hohmann is a news editor for WND. He has been a reporter and editor at several suburban newspapers in the Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, areas and also served as managing editor of Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh, North Carolina. Print Hillary Clinton with top aide Huma Abedin.
WikiLeaks has provided a treasure trove of inside information on what Hillary Clinton really thinks about important issues such as trade and immigration, but Clinton herself has chosen not to answer questions about the revelations.
She has focused instead on criticizing the Russians as the source of the hacks, despite the fact there is no proof of Russian involvement.
The emails also shed light on how the Clinton campaign interacts with Wall Street banks, with friendly media, and how it worked to undermine the candidacy of Democratic rival Bernie Sanders with the help of the DNC.
WikiLeaks says it has about 50,000 emails from the private Gmail account of John Podesta, a senior Democratic Party official who has served as White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton and a senior adviser to President Obama. He was the author of Obama’s climate change policy. John Podesta
In February Podesta moved seamlessly from the White House to become chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Here are some of the most explosive revelations from the WikiLeaks email dumps featuring Podesta’s account and others.
Preference for Muslim Americans In 2008, when Podesta served as co-chair of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, Michael Froman, a former Citibank executive, sent Podesta a “list of African American, Latino and Asian American candidates, broken down by Cabinet/Deputy and Under/Assistant/Deputy Assistant level, plus a list of Native American, Arab/Muslim American and Disabled American candidates.” The Arab American list came with a special note to exclude Arab Christians – they had to be both Arab and Muslim.As New Republic reports, Obama’s eventual cabinet appointments ended up almost entirely as Froman recommended.Froman ultimately became the recipient of the largest bailout from the federal government during the financial crisis.
Shielding Obama In a March 4, 2015, email to Hillary Clinton’s lawyer Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s eventual campaign chairman Podesta asks if they should withhold email exchanges between Clinton and President Obama that were sent over Clinton’s private server.The day before Podesta sent his email to Mills, the House Benghazi Committee privately told Clinton to preserve and hand over all her emails.The email from Podesta to Mills says: “Think we should hold emails to and from potus? That’s the heart of his exec privilege. We could get them to ask for that. They may not care, but I(t) seems like they will.” An email exchange between Podesta, Paul Begala, and Clinton pollster GQRR shows the Clinton campaign was pushing the Muslim Obama narrative back in January 2008. Included was a survey of Obama “negative facts” such as this one: “Obama (owe-BAHM-uh)’s father was a Muslim and Obama grew up among Muslims in the world’s most populous Islamic country.” The pollster writes “we have reworked the Obama message into the survey, as requested.”
Secret speeches to Wall Street Hillary Clinton was so enraged that Bill Clinton was forced to cancel a paid speech at Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley in 2015 that she “needed a cool down period.” The email chain, on March 11, 2015, before she formally launched her campaign, includes top aides to both Hillary Clinton and former President Clinton, and reveals that Hillary’s future campaign aides were concerned about the political impact of Bill giving a speech to a Wall Street bank. “Morgan Stanley is coming down,” wrote Robby Mook in an email to top Clinton aides.Top aide Huma Abedin explained that Hillary would not be happy about it, writing: “HRC very strongly did not want him to cancel that particular speech. I will have to tell her that [Bill] chose to cancel it, not that we asked.” Hillary Clinton’s paid speeches to Goldman Sachs and other financial firms, a point of contention during this year’s primary, were the subject of an email to Podesta. Excerpts from some of the speeches had been flagged by Clinton’s research team, including the necessity of having “both a public and a private position” on issues. It was just part of “making sausage” in the political arena, she said, that certain positions on issues needed to be kept hidden from the public. Some “flags” in Hillary Clinton’s paid speeches were noted in a Jan. 25 email from campaign research director Tony Carrk to top Clinton advisers, including Clinton’s declaration that “My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” Countless establishment media outlets parlaying themselves as “fact checkers” tried to downplay this email by saying it was “mostly about trade,” not immigration, as if the words “open borders” were never mentioned. But the email exchange also shows how Hillary’s about-face on the TPP trade deal was mere pandering to Bernie Sanders’ voters and had no basis in reality in terms of how she really feels about trade deals. In a speech at Goldman-Black Rock on Feb. 4, 2014, Carrk pointed out, Clinton admitted she’s “Kind Of Far Removed” from middle-class struggles due to “The Economic, You Know, Fortunes That My Husband And I Now Enjoy.” Clinton, in other speeches, boasted of her ties to Wall Street, an issue primary opponent Bernie Sanders continually raised. Clinton still has refused to release transcripts of her paid speeches while blasting Donald Trump for not releasing his tax returns.
Working in tandem with ‘friendly’ media WND reported Tuesday emails showing reporters, editors and contributors not just advocating for Hillary Clinton but apparently colluding with the campaign. Univision Chairman Haim Saban urged the Clinton campaign to hit Donald Trump harder over immigration. The Boston Globe tried to time a Clinton opinion piece to do the most good in New Hampshire. CNBC’s John Harwood urged Clinton campaign chairman Podesta to watch out for then-GOP candidate Dr. Ben Carson. Democratic National Committee official and CNN contributor Donna Brazile apparently tipped off the Clinton campaign to a potentially difficult CNN town-hall question on capital punishment during the Democratic Party primary season. Brazile adamantly denies it . In a July 2015 email, New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich appeared to ask permission from Hillary Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, to use certain quotes of the presidential candidate in an article. Palmieri replied, suggesting he remove a reference Clinton made to Sarah Palin and delete Clinton’s statement, “And gay rights has moved much faster than women’s rights or civil rights, which is an interesting phenomenon.” CNBC correspondent John Harwood, who was widely criticized for posing biased questions to Donald Trump as a primary debate moderator, effectively served as an adviser to the Clinton campaign, emailing Podesta with the subject line “Watch out.” The warning was regarding GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, who “could give you real trouble in a general (election).” Maggie Haberman, a former Politico reporter who now works for the New York Times, was described in a January 2015 memo as having “a very good relationship” with the Clinton campaign. “We have had her tee up stories for us before and have never been disappointed,” the memo said.
Demeaning Catholics Podesta discussed fomenting “revolution” in the Catholic Church with a progressive activist while Hillary’s now-communications director Jennifer Palmieri mocked Catholics who speak out against the liberal social causes of the Democratic Party. “There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church,” Sandy Newman, president and founder of the nonprofit Voices for Progress, wrote Podesta in February 2012 . The email, among the third batch released by WikiLeaks, was titled “opening for a Catholic Spring? just musing.” Podesta tells Newman of progressive organizations he and his colleagues created to recruit members of the church who can lead a revolution when the time is right.“We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this,” the Clinton campaign chairman writes. “But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up.” Clinton, who has accused Trump of praising Putin, called the Russian leader in a 2014 speech “engaging” and “a very interesting conversationalist.” Excerpts from Clinton’s speeches were contained in a document emailed to Podesta to point out quotes that could harm the campaign.
Collusion with DOJ Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon alerted staffers that the Justice Department was proposing to publish Clinton’s work-related emails, contending it showed collusion between the Obama administration and Clinton’s campaign. Fallon wrote that “DOJ folks” told him a court hearing in the case had been planned. The day after Hillary Clinton testified in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi last October, Podesta met for dinner with a small group of well-connected friends, including Peter Kadzik, a top official at the Justice Department. Lawyers also told the Clinton campaign in emails that Hillary’s private email scandal “ smacks of acting above the law and it smacks of the type of thing I’ve either gotten discovery sanctions for, fired people for, etc .”
Entanglements with foreign governments King Muhammad IV of Morocco made a $12 million pledge to fund the Clinton Global Initiative conference, but only if the likely presidential candidate attended the event as a speaker. Hillary’s top aide, Huma Abedin, wrote in a January 2015 email that “if HRC was not part of it, meeting was a non-starter.” Then she warned: “She created this mess and she knows it.” Hillary ended up not attending but her husband Bill did. An email from Hillary Clinton’s account to Podesta on Aug. 17, 2014, said Saudi Arabia and Qatar were “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to [ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” Critics have pointed out that the Clinton Foundation has received considerable funding from the two Middle East nations. In a leaked 2013 paid speech to the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Hillary said Jordan and Turkey “can’t possibly vet all those refugees so they don’t know if, you know, jihadists are coming in along with legitimate refugees.” Two years later she called for a 550 percent increase in the number of Syrian refugees coming to the U.S. largely from United Nations refugee camps in Jordan.
Insider’s insider had sway over DNC A WikiLeaks email dump on July 22 revealed that Debbie Wasserman Schultz used her position as head of the DNC to work in concert with the Clinton campaign to undermine the candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt. Schultz was forced to resign over the emails. Issues used to undermine Sanders’ campaign included his faith, or lack thereof. The Clinton campaign tried to reschedule the Illinois presidential primary to lower the chances a moderate Republican would get a boost following the Super Tuesday primaries. “The Clintons won’t forget what their friends have done for them,” wrote Robby Mook, who later became Clinton’s campaign manager, in the November 2014 email to Podesta. | 1 |
Posted on October 28, 2016 by Baxter Dmitry in News , US // 2 Comments
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has broken his silence and endorsed Hillary Clinton as Wall Street’s preferred candidate.
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zacharia, Blankfein said that although he had previously declared he would not endorse a candidate, the situation is now critical and Hillary Clinton must be elected.
“ I certainly, yes, I do — yes, so flat out, yes, I do ,” Blankfein said when asked whether he supports and admires Clinton.
As was revealed by Wikileaks, Hillary Clinton spent the run up to her presidential campaign giving speeches to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks, where she praised their talents and explained her real position on financial regulation.
In essence, Hillary told the banksters she would let them set their own rules and regulations because “ the people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry. “
Hillary Clinton has taken a tough public position on Wall Street during the campaign, likely due to Senator Bernie Sanders’ success in the primaries. But you can completely dismiss anything she has said in public. Wikileaks also revealed that Clinton admitted to the National Multi-housing Council in a private speech that “ you need both a public and a private position. ”
Hillary Clinton’s private position has been exposed. She is the Wall Street candidate promising them the ability to set their own rules. Now, unsurprisingly, they have endorsed her.
On October 24, 2013, Clinton told Goldman Sachs that Dodd-Frank had to be done mostly for “ political reasons ” because Congress needed to “ look like ” it was doing something about the crisis.
Behind closed doors, she assured the bankers she was on their side, saying,“ There’s nothing magic about regulations, too much is bad, too little is bad. How do you get to the golden key, how do we figure out what works? And the people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry. ”
Music to Wall Street’s ears
“ I mean, right now, there are so many places in our country where the banks are not doing what they need to do because they’re scared of regulations, they’re scared of the other shoe dropping, they’re just plain scared, so credit is not flowing the way it needs to to restart economic growth, ” Clinton said. “ So people are, you know, a little — they’re still uncertain, and they’re uncertain both because they don’t know what might come next in terms of regulations, but they’re also uncertain because of changes in a global economy that we’re only beginning to take hold of. ”
For Goldman Sachs and the other big banks, was there really any other choice this cycle? After all, they did pay Hillary Clinton $675,000 for those three speeches, and have generously supported her political career.
Considering the pay-for-play environment in the Clinton world, the real question is: what do Blankfein and Goldman Sachs want in return and what is Clinton’s private position on giving it to them? | 0 |
By wmw_admin on October 28, 2016 Joe Barnes — Daily Express.com Oct 27, 2016 The Veliky Novgorod ready to launch. Click to enlarge
The Veliky Novgorod is the latest addition to Russia’s Black Sea fleet which is capable of striking land, sea and underwater targets, and follows other significant movements by the Russian navy.
The diesel-electric vessel, which sports advanced stealth technologies and increased combat range was officially launched in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
Deputy Commander of the Russian Navy Vice-Admiral Aleksandr Fedotenkov and Admiralty Shipyard CEO Alexander Buzakov were in attendance at the official flag-raising ceremony before the vessels moved to the Black Sea for operation.
Earlier this month, Mr Buzakov said that another Varshavyanka-class submarine, the Kolpino, would be launched in November.
He said: “The state of tests of the fifth submarine, the Veliky Novgorod, were successfully completed and on October 25 it will be handed over to the Black Sea Fleet.
“The transfer of the sixth submarine, the Kolpino, is underway, scheduled to be completed on November 25.”
The submarines are designed for anti-ship and anti-submarine operations in mid-depth waters, are capable of holding a crew of 52, have a top underwater speed of 20 knots and a cruising range of 4000 miles.
They can stay submerged for 45 days and are armed with 18 torpedoes and high surface-to-air missiles and will join Russian efforts to defeat ISIS in Syria.
Russian President Putin has also bolstered his warship fleet in the Baltic sea by arming them with long-range missiles which are capable of striking Europe.
Two ships, traveling through the Mediterranean in the fleet of five, were thought to be remaining in the sea, where they were due to refueling in Spain before making their way towards Syria.
But instead, the two ships have moved through the North Sea, passing through the Great Belt around Denmark and into the Baltic Sea.
It is believed the ships are on their way to Russia’s Baltic enclave Kaliningrad, which has recently had scores of missiles deployed to the area.
A source told Russian media: “With the appearance of two small missile ships armed with the Kalibr cruise missiles the Fleet’s potential targeting range will be significantly expanded in the norther European military theatre.”
Nato has stepped up its plans to deploy thousands more troops to the Russian border as President Putin continues to increase his nation’s preparation for war.
The global alliance will use its meeting with European Union officials to launch an aggressive push to implement troops in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
An agreement – signed at a Nato summit in Warsaw in July – will see as many as 4,000 soldiers stationed close to the Russian border in case Moscow launches all out war. | 0 |
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The FBI is reopening the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email case.
The news came while Clinton was without WiFi on a flight to an Iowa campaign stop, so while reporters hurled questions at her upon landing, all Clinton could muster was the old smile-and-wave.
Later, after collecting her thoughts, Clinton faced national reporters eager to hear her reaction and declared that the FBI needs to explain their behavior against her.
“We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national elections of our lifetimes,” Clinton said . “Voting is already underway in our country. So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.”
Like so many others who’ve jumped to defend her after FBI Director James Comey announced there would be an investigation into newly uncovered emails, Clinton claimed that the FBI should have kept their mouths shut until after the election.
There’s an election going on, after all.
And Clinton thinks it’s “perhaps the most important national election of our lifetimes” because she thinks her opponent isn’t fit to lead.
If the FBI investigates her, they’re disturbing the nation. They’re disrupting the election. While many voters believe candidates for president ought to be held to the same standards as anyone else, and the truth can only help Americans make the right decision in the polls, Clinton thinks the FBI was wrong to announce the latest uncover to the public.
Typical of someone who has so much to lose for having done so much wrong.
Perhaps her continual insistence that she is above the law for one reason or another is why there’s been so much backlash already.
Independent Journal Review reports:
In Wisconsin and Minnesota , there are already reports of voters coming back to their polling offices to change their votes. And in Maine, the Secretary of State has allowed voters the option of switching votes in past elections.
The fallout could be intense, as the polls have tightened dramatically in recent days. Tracking the same ABC/WaPo poll that had Hillary Clinton up four points earlier this week shows them within just two points on Saturday:
It’s clear that Clinton is rapidly losing supporters as the election draws near, while Trump is gaining.
If Clinton believes that being a presidential candidate in a close election should excuse her from investigation, what will she think her role as president would grant her?
If current trends continue, she might not get that chance.
Independent Journal Review continues:
The national polls aggregated by Real Clear Politics have the spread at 3.8 points. The battleground states of Florida , Arizona , and North Carolina are down to thin margins for Hillary Clinton, and Trump has the lead in Iowa , Georgia , and Ohio . Trump still trails by a significant, but not insurmountable, margin in Pennsylvania and Virginia .
Be sure to let us know what you think, and sound off in the comments below. | 0 |
Posted on October 26, 2016 by Michael DePinto
For anyone who has heard about, but not yet had a chance to learn the details about the undercover operation produced by James O’Keefe ’s Project Veritas about the inner workings of the Democrat Party, you’re in luck. I have written two different posts covering the subject from different angles, and this will be the third, covering Hillary’s response. Each post include at least some, if not all of the undercover recordings released so far by James O’Keefe .
For over a year, O’Keefe risked his life by going deep undercover into the Democrat Party’s factory of corruption, and just this week after everyone laughed at Trump for calling the election rigged, O’Keefe began releasing portions of the SHOCKING video he took while undercover. In the videos, some of the highest ranking members of the DNC make some of the most jaw-dropping admissions of guilt you’ve EVER heard in your lives, not the least of which is, “[w]e have a call with Hillary’s campaign EVERY DAY to go over what areas need more focus.”
In the first post I wrote titled, George Soros’ Master Blueprint to Conquer the West Gets Caught on Camera , I go into detail about how the money funding all the illegal operations caught on film comes from Hillary Clinton ‘s largest donor, none other than George Soros . One very high ranking Democratic operative explains what happens with the money once it comes in. Upon receipt:
“[t]he campaign (Hillary Clinton campaign) pays the DNC, the DNC pays Democracy partners, Democracy Partners pays the Foval group, and the Foval Group goes and executes the sh** on the ground.”
WOW! Then, when questioned about the legality, the response was:
“It doesn’t matter what the friggin’ legal and ethics people say, we need to win this motherf**ker.”
That’s just the beginning. The evidence gets infinitely worse. Then, in the second post I wrote titled, This Video Guarantees a Trump Win Even With Hillary’s Fraud Machine , I present an honest look at both candidates, and how they operate. The post contains 100% of the released undercover footage so far, so you learn EXACTLY who is prescribing what to whom, and I assure you that nothing can prepare you for what James managed to catch on film. You’ll be sick.
Then, I contrast the criminal enterprise Hillary is running with a montage of videos taken over a 30 year span of Donald Trump , and in each of the clips spanning all those years, Trump is asked about potentially running for the Presidency some day. Some of the answers are 30 years old, and all are spontaneous. Unlike the scripted (and now we know, totally false) statements we consistently get from Hillary, it is painfully obvious the answers Trump gives are genuine, and from the heart.
Love him or hate him, good luck arguing that Trump isn’t authentic in the video. You get a good look at who would be in the Oval Office, and it’s not the caricature that Team Hillary has tried so hard to create. On the other hand, Team Hillary’s behavior is utterly indefensible, and she knows it, which is why she runs like hell in the video below the second reporters begin to ask her about the recordings.
There’s nowhere to run now though Hillary… You and your staff have a lot to answer for… much of which is criminal in nature (go figure!)
Article posted with permission from The Last Great Stand
Michael DePinto is a member of the fast growing un-silent American majority that is sick of the insanity going on in this country right now. He has been accused of being vitriolic, bombastic, sarcastic to the extreme, and probably worse behind his back. Michael is sick of being branded a right wing-extremist, racist, homophobe, warmonger, or whatever other asinine adjectives Liberal Progressives have for the words COMMON SENSE these days. Michael is also a blogger at The Last Great Stand and an Attorney. 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: | 1 |
CNN has terminated its relationship with Kathy Griffin after the comedian posed for a photograph while holding a fake, bloodied decapitated head meant to resemble the head of President Donald Trump. [“CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program,” the network’s communications department tweeted Wednesday morning. CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program. — CNN Communications (@CNNPR) May 31, 2017, Griffin had CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live broadcast each January since 2007 alongside the network’s lead anchor, Anderson Cooper. Cooper took to Twitter late Tuesday night to say he was “appalled” by his ’s photo. “For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in,” the Anderson Cooper 360 host wrote. “It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate. ” The shocking photograph, first published by TMZ Tuesday morning, was taken during a photo shoot conducted by the My Life on the comedian and Los artist and photographer Tyler Shields, who is reportedly known for his provocative work. The photo caused a firestorm online, where it quickly circulated and led to calls for a boycott of Griffin’s work, including her current comedy tour. The comedian apologized in a brief video posted to her Twitter account Tuesday, saying she had “crossed the line” and that the image had gone “too far. ” CNN’s termination of its relationship with Griffin is the latest in the continuing fallout over the image. On Wednesday, ADT — the largest home security company in North America — announced it would pull its advertising from CNN over the photo, while the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico announced it had cancelled Griffin’s upcoming performance, which had been scheduled for June 16. The U. S. Secret Service is also reportedly investigating the circumstances surrounding the photo shoot. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump responded to the image Wednesday, with the president saying in a message on his Twitter account that the photograph and its resultant coverage has been particularly hard on his son, Barron. The First Lady called the photograph “very disturbing” and “simply wrong” in a separate statement. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 0 |
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Joseph P Anthony – November 2016 starts on a pretty similar note to that of the previous month except there is feeling of change in the air, that’s because last month’s New Moon in Scorpio marks another momentous crossroads for humanity.
The sign Scorpio rules death, as well as transformation. Its ruler is Pluto, the Greek god of the Underworld, the terrain of the “unconscious”. What needs to die this month before it can be reborn? Scorpio is the only astrological sign that has three symbols- the Scorpion (physical), the Eagle (psychological) and the Phoenix (spiritual) – showing that there are three levels of transformation to be achieved before true metamorphosis can occur.
Unfortunately, the mood in November isn’t peaceful at all, not only do we have the presidential election show here in the US, but because we also have Venus and Mars switching signs along with a strong alignment between Jupiter, Pluto and Venus towards the end of the month. As we start off November we have action-oriented Mars still in Capricorn until the November 8th, in the same sign as Pluto and in a deplorable lack of understanding with Jupiter from Libra and Uranus from Aries. But the exact aspects have already been perfected, so the frequency of accidents or violence generated by this combo should be somewhat diminished.
The Full Moon this month will occur in the steadfast sign of Taurus on November 14th. This Taurus lunation serves to calm us down and take a load off. Why rush, why fuss, why push, why pull? Taurus wants us to take a chill pill, man. Full moons tend to be emotional, but a Taurus full moon tends to be calmer. Emotionally, Taurus tends to not get riled up the same way that other signs can. So take it easy, and don’t stress the small stuff. Kick back, and let things happen in their own time and way.
Taurus rules our finances, so this Full Moon we see some issues having to do with money in general such as stock market going up or down, or tackling financial issues and finding resolutions on a personal level. We can see this with individuals, groups, corporations, governments. We can see smart financial moves rewarded, and financial recklessness punished. We may find ourselves more indulgent during this lunation since Taurus does love food, drink and sensual activities, so if you’re trying to be good, remember; moderation!
Have a good month friends ! Joseph P. Anthony SF Source Joseph P Anthony Oct. 2016 Share this: | 0 |
MEXICO CITY — It is a simple sculpture: 64 concrete pyramids that stand in a perfect circle around acres of rippling, black volcanic rock. Known as “Espacio Escultórico” (“Sculptural Space”) the sculpture was inaugurated in 1979 here on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. It is considered one of the most important pieces of land art in Mexico, a tranquil oasis in a chaotic city. But the recent construction of a white building nearby has prompted a furious protest that pits the university’s needs against Mexico’s cultural heritage. The campaign against the building, which looms over the pyramids from less than a away, has drawn hundreds of artists, architects and intellectuals from Mexico and beyond. A change. org petition to protect the work has gathered more than 30, 000 signatures. Prominent cultural figures, including the writer Elena Poniatowska, have published letters in the press or posted video statements on Facebook defending the sculpture about 300 students and faculty members of the university’s architecture school signed a letter to the head of the department in April calling for the building to be modified or demolished. For the artists, the building, which belongs to the social science faculty, ruins the line of the sky against the flat tops of the pyramids. “All the great works of land art — the horizon is how they function,” the artist Anish Kapoor said in an interview at the site last week. Anything that intrudes on the art, he said, “takes away some of the poetic, unnameable qualities of the work. ” About two dozen artists have said they would be willing to auction works to pay to move the building — among them Mr. Kapoor, a show of whose work opened at the University Museum of Contemporary Art here on Saturday. “You can’t move the lava. You can’t move the landscape,” said Pedro Reyes, a sculptor who is leading the campaign to dismantle Building H, as it is known. “So you have to move the building. ” Some students raised concerns last year about several construction projects on campus, including Building H, but it was not until Mr. Reyes visited the sculpture in February that he saw the finished building and began campaigning. Much land art, in which the landscape is integral to the work, is remote and can be huge, such as Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty,” on the shore of Great Salt Lake in Utah, and Michael Heizer’s vast, unfinished sculpture “City,” in the Nevada desert. Patricia Martín, an independent curator in Mexico City, said Building H was typical of rampant Mexican construction where “people do not make the effort to think” what the impact will be. The ruckus “raises a public debate about how to think about space, how to think about art, how a building looks,” she said, adding, “That is healthy. ” But the university says it will not destroy a building that it paid over a $1 million for and that is being used for classes and research. Marcos Mazari Hiriart, director of the architecture faculty, said the construction was a “mistake” and had “damaged” the horizon of “Espacio Escultórico. ” But the problem could be remedied by camouflaging the building, not demolishing it, he said. Besides, Mr. Mazari said, the artwork, which stands in a nearly ecological reserve that occupies a third of the university campus, was not intended to be protected in perpetuity from intrusion by other construction. “Is it urban art or land art?” he said. Arguing that the land around the work only became a reserve — and a serendipitous buffer — a few years after the sculpture was made, he said, “It became land art over time. ” Building H does not break any regulations, said Sergio Boeta Angeles, a lawyer in Mexico City who specializes in cultural heritage. “There is no legal basis for not building it,” he said. “It’s a moral question. ” The sculpture was a collaboration among six Mexican artists: Helen Escobedo Manuel Felguérez Mathias Goeritz Manuel Hernández Suárez, known as Hersúa Federico Silva and Enrique Carbajal, known as Sebastián. Its centerpiece is a naturally formed, jagged mound of lava rock that seems still to be bubbling from the earth. Around that stand the pyramids, evenly spaced with a slightly wider gap at the four cardinal points. The work is surrounded by scrubland filled with indigenous plants. Building H is not the only construction that is visible, but it is taller than most and on higher ground. In a city struggling with violence, pollution and chaotic planning, a fuss over one building could seem trivial, Mr. Reyes said. But it is all the more reason to respect the sculpture, he said. “Mexico needs peace,” he said. “This is the most peaceful place in Mexico City. ” Allowing the building to stay would set a poor precedent, some said. “If they leave that building there, who knows what else they’ll build,” said Cesar Cervantes, 27, a geography student who was sitting on the edge of the circle last week. Mr. Mazari said that the university would hold a workshop this month to discuss remedies for Building H — painting it blue, growing plants over it, planting trees to hide it, covering it with mirrors. The university has formed a committee to monitor campus construction, he said. But the building’s opponents insist the building must go, or its top few floors should be removed so it is no longer visible from the sculpture, a remedy Mr. Mazari calls impractical. If money is the main obstacle, the artists say, they will foot the bill. “Works like this represent what can be done,” Mr. Kapoor said. “They must be looked after. ” The fight against the building was “a battle for the poetic spirit of the work,” he said, adding, “We lose that in our culture, we lose everything. ” | 1 |
BEIJING — China set a slightly lower economic growth target for this year as the country’s lawmakers began their annual meeting on Sunday. The new target, while only a bit lower than last year’s, continues a long streak of China trying to dampen expectations as the country grapples with thorny problems like the maturing of its economy, its considerable industrial overcapacity, a growing debt load and pernicious pollution problems. At the meeting of the National People’s Congress, China addressed issues such as pollution, debt and foreign policy. Li Keqiang, China’s premier, called on Sunday for economic growth this year of “around 6. 5 percent or higher, if possible,” slightly more modest than last year’s target of 6. 5 to 7 percent. Actual growth last year, according to official data, was 6. 7 percent. Even with the slight drop in projected growth, many economists argue that China’s annual target remains too ambitious and is adding to its problems. But Mr. Li defended the target. “The projected target for this year’s growth is realistic,” Mr. Li said in a report issued on Sunday before lawmakers convened. “An important reason to stress the need for stable growth is to ensure employment and improve people’s lives. ” In a separate report issued to the legislature, the National Development and Reform Commission — which helps steer the economy — said the growth target was meant to reassure the public at an anxious time. Later this year, the Chinese Communist Party will undergo a leadership and officials have said that stability is essential. “This rate of growth is conducive to fostering healthy public expectations,” the commission report said. China, it added, was “facing complex and volatile” conditions this year. Since the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, China has rapidly expanded debt to stimulate the economy and to make sure that it hit fairly ambitious targets for economic growth. Reformers have called for lower targets that would not require so much debt to achieve. Mr. Li also tried to reassure a public that has grown increasingly angry about noxious air, water and soil left by decades of feverish industrial growth, and burning coal is a main culprit. “We will work faster to address pollution caused by coal burning,” Mr. Li said. Those steps would include trying to cut the amount of coal used for winter furnaces and heaters. “All key sources of industrial pollution will be placed under online monitoring,” he said. But China’s appetite for coal remains enormous. Mr. Li said that China would keep cutting excess coal production this year, but more slowly than previously. He said that this year the government aimed to shut down at least 150 million metric tons of coal production. Last year, he said, the government cut 290 million tons. In terms of other pollutants, Mr. Li said that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions would be cut 3 percent this year and that fine particles of pollution in the air, which are of particular threat to health, would decrease “markedly” in “key areas. ” He also said that energy consumption would decline by 3. 4 percent per unit of economic output — a calculation that will still allow increases in emissions of global warming gases. Mr. Li did not mention President Trump, whose campaign language suggested a tougher stance against China on trade and regional issues. These annual reports by China’s prime minister are traditionally used for laying out generalities, not specific policies. But Mr. Li built on an effort by the president, Xi Jinping, to promote China as a reassuringly stable and mature power in uncertain times. “In the face of profound changes in the international political and economic landscape, China will always be on the side of peace and stability,” he said. On trade, Mr. Li said China will continue to oppose protectionism. “Economic globalization is in the fundamental interests of all countries,” Mr. Li said. “China will not shift in its commitment to promoting global economic cooperation. ” But Chinese officials were circumspect about the government’s latest increase in military spending. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress, Fu Ying, told reporters that the rise would be about 7 percent. But the documents released at the opening of the legislative meeting left people guessing about the exact size of China’s official defense budget for 2017, unlike previous years. Credit in China grew about 20 percent a year between 2009 and 2015, and the level of corporate debt in particular has alarmed economists who worry about a rising number of bad bank loans. Mr. Li said that the government was looking to lower debt loads in the economy from a splurge of bank lending, but he suggested it would be done a “prudent” way that would not risk an economic shock. But the Ministry of Finance budget report, issued alongside Mr. Li’s report, outlined a tougher approach to local governments that have collected debt to pay for infrastructure. “Higher priority will be given to preventing and controlling local government debt,” the budget report said. Provincial governments would develop “local contingency plans” to deal with debt risks, it said. Foreign companies have become increasingly vocal about business barriers, intellectual property theft and other problems in the Chinese market. Some are turning elsewhere to establish a base for production. Mr. Li held out an olive branch, promising to “make big moves to improve the environment for foreign investors. ” He said that service industries, manufacturing and mining would become more open to these investors. He also promised that, contrary to most expectations and previous experience, foreign companies would not be discriminated against on license applications, setting standards or government procurement. The country has laid out plans — called the Made in China 2025 initiative — for it to seize a global lead in a long list of key and manufacturing industries in the next eight years. Legislators gave polite applause to most of Mr. Li’s plans. But one new policy drew vigorous clapping in a country where a national grid of routes has quickly made travel commonplace: Mr. Li said the government would end roaming charges on cellphones used outside the province in which the phone numbers were initially registered. | 1 |
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Some of the emails that have come to the public’s attention via WikiLeaks are out-and-out bombshells , while other chains are so fragmented and enigmatic that an understanding of what they portend requires reconstruction and some guesswork.
One that fits the latter category centers on an exchange between Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta and Neera Tanden, of the hard-left Center for American Progress , concerning an apparent leak that needed — shall we say? — plugging?
The original email was from Tanden to Podesta, dated March 8, 2015 and time-stamped 4:49 p.m. Here’s the message:
Ron Fournier is a writer for National Journal. The highlighted link in the email takes you to an article at National Journal with the intriguing title “Emails May Be a Key to Addressing ‘Pay-to-Play’ Whispers at Clinton Foundation.” The article is protected by a pay wall which prevents me from providing more information, but I can tell you the subhead: “There are not two Clinton controversies. There is one big, hairy deal.”
Here is Podesta’s response, sent a half-hour later:
Eric Braverman, the name Podesta throws out as the likely mole, is a former CEO of the Clinton Foundation.
Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone has posted a tweet in reaction partly to this exchange in which he advances the claim that Braverman was working with WikiLeaks and now fears assassination by the Clinton machine: Word on the street is Eric Braverman, Clinton Foundation CEO, has fled the USA and is attempting to gain asylum in Russia. Anyone confirm?
— Stone Cold Truth (@StoneColdTruth) October 25, 2016
How ironic that Braverman, according to the scuttlebutt, is seeking asylum from Russia, of all nations! | 0 |
The Obama administration is dismantling a dormant national registry program for visitors from countries with active terrorist groups — a program that Donald J. Trump has suggested he is considering resurrecting. The registry, created after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has not been in use since 2011, so the move is largely symbolic and appeared to be aimed at distancing the departing administration from any effort by the new president to revive the program, known as the National Security Registration System, or Nseers. Asked on Wednesday, in the aftermath of the Berlin attack, whether he still intended to set up a registry for Muslims and impose a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants, Mr. Trump said in Florida, “You know my plans. ” Hours later, a spokesman said Mr. Trump was not reaffirming his earlier calls for a ban on immigration from Muslim countries but was referring to his more recent clarification that he would bar people from countries with a history of Islamist extremism. The move by the White House to formally end the registry is among the actions being taken in the final weeks of the administration that could prevent, or at least slow, what Democrats fear may be a swift rollback of President Obama’s efforts on immigration and climate change. A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Among the Republican proponents of the registry program is Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and a member of Mr. Trump’s transition team. Mr. Kobach, an helped to devise the program while at the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration. Last month, before a meeting with Mr. Trump, Mr. Kobach was photographed with a document of proposals that included, under the rubric “Bar the Entry of Potential Terrorists,” a proposal to reintroduce the registry program. That information, as well as Mr. Trump’s comments on the campaign trail, prompted Democratic lawmakers, mayors from cities with large populations and some business leaders in Silicon Valley to call on Mr. Obama to undo the legal framework that undergirds the program. That can be done with a rule change. The Department of Homeland Security submitted such a rule change for public posting on Thursday morning, and it is set to be published in the federal register on Friday. “D. H. S. ceased use of Nseers more than five years ago, after it was determined the program was redundant, inefficient and provided no increase in security,” Neema Hakim, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. The program is “not only obsolete” and “outdated,” but diverts personnel and resources from other areas that are seen as more effective, the statement said. Some experts say there is no need for a registry. Officials in the agency have long believed that the program has outlived its usefulness. A number of newer programs, developed in the years since the Nseers system was put into place, capture a vast amount of information that allows customs officers to flag for additional questioning people from certain countries or those with unusual travel itineraries. A 2012 report by the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said that since 2006, senior officials in the agency had been calling for the termination of the program, and in the report, the inspector general recommended that it be ended. “Information obtained from fingerprints, flight manifests, travel and identification documents and intelligence sources is more valuable in determining who poses a potential national security risk,” the report said, citing customs and border control officers. “Leaving the regulatory structure of the Nseers program in place provides no discernible public benefit,” the report said. The regulations that are being undone date to 1991, at the time of the first gulf war, when immigration authorities began requiring the registration and fingerprinting of certain nonimmigrant travelers entering the United States from Iraq and Kuwait. The authorities removed the requirements for those countries two years later but retained provisions preserving the attorney general’s power to compel the same information from nonimmigrants from specific countries. In 2002, the federal government began the program and required special registration from those arriving from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Syria. By 2003, the list had expanded to 25 countries, most with majority Muslim populations and most in Africa and the Middle East. A decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security, which had taken over the program, said it had stopped registering arrivals from the designated countries and removed all countries from the list. But the move left in place the regulations that allowed for it to be restarted. In recent days, dozens of Democratic officials in Washington, as well as the New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, have called for the regulations to be rescinded. “No known terrorism convictions have resulted from the program,” read a joint letter, dated Dec. 1, from more than 50 Democratic members of the House of Representatives. Mr. Schneiderman, a Democrat and a vocal opponent of Mr. Trump, said the program was “an affront to our core American values of pluralism and equal justice under law. ” Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple are among several technology companies that have publicly stated that they would not assist the new administration in developing any program that would collect information that could be used by the government to track immigrants from Muslim countries. The technology companies took action after thousands of Silicon Valley engineers signed a pledge saying they stood in solidarity with Muslim Americans and immigrants and would not use their skills for the “new administration’s proposed policies. ” “We refuse to build a database of people based on their constitutionally protected religious beliefs,” the engineers said in a statement. Mr. Hakim, in his statement, said the regulations had long since been replaced by automated systems and programs that were not in place at the start of the registry program — which required interviews by federal agents and targeted specific countries. The new tools are “far better equipped to face the evolving landscape of international terrorism,” he said. Those programs include an automated system for collecting and storing biometric data such as fingerprints from nearly all people entering the country. The changes are set to take effect immediately after they are published on Friday. | 1 |
LONDON — It had all been going so well. Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain had just left Washington on Friday evening after a tense but successful first visit with President Trump for a flight to Ankara, Turkey, for her next awkward encounter, with the increasingly autocratic Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. By the time she had landed in Turkey, however, Mr. Trump had signed his executive order halting entrance to the United States of all Syrian refugees and of most citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Mrs. May was beginning to feel the backlash. After she termed the executive order an American issue, criticism erupted even among her own members of Parliament. She was accused of appeasement by a former British diplomat. Protesters gathered outside Downing Street on Monday night, and more than 1. 5 million signatures collected on an internet petition demanding that Mrs. May rescind her invitation for Mr. Trump to visit Queen Elizabeth II. A close relationship with any American president is regarded as crucial by allies and foes alike, but especially by intimates like Britain, Canada, Japan and Mexico. Yet like moths to the flame, the leaders of those nations are finding that they draw close at their peril. While Mrs. May is the latest prominent figure to suffer repercussions for her handling of Mr. Trump, the leaders of those other three close allies have also felt the sting of public anger soon after what seemed to be friendly telephone calls or encounters. They then find themselves facing a situation, either openly criticizing the leader of their superpower ally or pulling their punches and risking severe criticism at home. One Western leader to escape this fate so far is the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has kept a cool distance from Mr. Trump. In a telephone call on Saturday, she reminded him of Washington’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions to accept refugees fleeing war, a view underlined by her official spokesman. The danger of playing nice with Mr. Trump should come as little surprise to his country’s allies. Besides campaigning on an “America First” platform, he has regularly argued that allies have been taking the United States for a ride, in trade, security and financial terms. While he has been cordial in public settings with the leaders of those allied nations, Mr. Trump has turned on them soon afterward. “The problem for May is that Trump doesn’t value relationships. He values strength and winning,” said Jeremy Shapiro, the director of research at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former senior State Department official. “If you rush to the White House to offer a weak hand of friendship, you guarantee exploitation. ” While Mr. Trump’s executive order was clearly not aimed at Britain, he signed it on Friday, just a few hours after Mrs. May left. “You can show up at his doorstep and hold his hand so he doesn’t fall down a ramp, but that doesn’t mean a few hours later when he’s signing an order he thinks at all about how it affects you, your politics or your citizens,” Mr. Shapiro said. Particularly problematic for Mrs. May was her offering the invitation to Mr. Trump to undertake a state visit with Queen Elizabeth II this year, which was accepted. The internet petition to Parliament calling for the cancellation of the invitation says the visit “would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen. ” By Monday evening in Britain, there had been more than 1. 5 million signatures, and some were enjoying themselves watching the numbers rise in real time. At a large protest outside Downing Street, people urged Mrs. May to cancel the state visit and said that while relations with Washington were important, they should be cooler toward Mr. Trump. Amber Curtis, 21, a film student who is and said that she worried for her family and friends in America. “It sends a bad message if he comes here after this ban,” Ms. Curtis said of Mr. Trump. “I wouldn’t say that I want no relationship at all, but he cannot come here under the terms of this ban. The terms need to be renegotiated. ” Negma Yamin, 50, a teacher of Pakistani origin, was in tears. “I’m so upset as a fellow Muslim I hate the persecution,” she said. Mrs. May “should absolutely have no relationship with him,” she added. “You can’t negotiate with a person like that. What is he going to do with the people? He’s dividing the U. S. he’s dividing the world. ” On Monday, Downing Street insisted that the invitation stood. But who knows how Mr. Trump will react? The Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has had a similar experience to Mrs. May’s — twice. Last year, in the name of conciliation and dialogue, he invited Mr. Trump to Mexico, a somewhat questionable move given Mr. Trump’s contempt for Mexico and his promises to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, raise tariffs, deport millions of Mexicans, and build (or finish) a border wall and make the southern neighbor of the United States pay for it. The visit was widely viewed in Mexico as a national humiliation. It left Mr. Trump looking stronger and Mr. Peña Nieto looking weaker, especially when Mr. Trump, in an immigration policy speech in Phoenix the same day, insisted again that Mexico would pay for the wall. Mr. Peña Nieto persisted after Mr. Trump’s election, apparently aiming, like Mrs. May, to influence the new president and to moderate what many hoped was just hyperbolic campaign talk. But just before the two men were to meet in Washington, Mr. Trump issued executive orders calling for the wall and greatly restricting immigration. Mr. Peña Nieto called off the meeting only when Mr. Trump threatened on Twitter to cancel it unless Mexico agreed to pay for the wall. Embarrassed and cornered, Mr. Peña Nieto moved first, an act of defiance that provided a rare moment of public approval for the unpopular president. But given the importance of bilateral ties, he did speak to Mr. Trump the next morning for an hour, without setting a new date to meet. “This is neither a victory nor a defeat,” said Fernando Dworak, an analyst in Mexico City. “It is the bell ringing in a boxing match. ” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan has the distinction of being among the first to feel the sting of Mr. Trump’s actions. In a meeting in November in New York, Mr. Abe urged Mr. Trump, then the not to abandon a major trade deal, the Partnership. One of Mr. Trump’s first actions in office was to abandon the deal, which many considered a victory for China, even though the pact had already been blocked in the Senate. Mr. Trump has long questioned the United States’ financial and military commitment to Japan’s security, and he has criticized the automaker Toyota for planning to produce cars in Mexico. An editorial in the Mainichi Shimbun, a paper in Japan, questioned why Mr. Abe was not taking a stronger stand against Mr. Trump: “It is hard to understand why the prime minister is defending a president who destroyed the trade accord — formed after nearly six years of arduous negotiations — on his fourth day in office. ” Given the stakes, Mr. Abe has refrained from open criticism of Mr. Trump and is scheduled to meet with him in Washington early in February. The Trump effect has been felt even in Australia, where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has come under criticism for saying it is not his job to comment on the domestic policies of other countries. This after securing a pledge from the president on Sunday to honor an Obama administration agreement to accept refugees detained on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus. In Canada, too, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has had his Trump moments. Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular in the country, but as Mr. Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, once said, proximity to America “is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant no matter how friendly or temperate the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. ” So instead of provoking a fight, Mr. Trudeau moved swiftly to make contact with officials in the new administration and reshaped his cabinet to promote ministers with experience in the United States. Mr. Trump made problems right away for the Canadian leader by giving the to the Keystone XL pipeline, putting Mr. Trudeau in an uncomfortable position between environmentalists and oil producers. If Mr. Trump goes after Canada on trade issues, as seems likely, Mr. Trudeau is expected to become significantly more vocal and critical. But to date he has avoided public criticism of the American president, a reticence that may have helped over the weekend, after Mr. Trump’s executive order on immigration. Canada was able to get quick clarification from the White House that the directive would not affect the movement of Canadian citizens and dual nationals into the United States. After fumbling its initial response, Britain got essentially the same clarification 15 hours later, which London hailed as a result of its special relationship with Mr. Trump. While Britain may have been influential, however, the White House was already narrowing the initial interpretations of the executive order. But not before Mrs. May was attacked for timidity in the face of outrage by her own legislators and by the opposition. Still, the “special relationship” has never been an equal one, so some degree of humiliation often goes with the territory. As one message on Twitter, posted by the user @Locke1689, a professed “progressive conservative,” read: “Actively snubbing the world’s only superpower would be gross diplomatic . ” | 1 |
You are here: Home / *Articles of the Bound* / EXCLUSIVE: Keith Ellison’s Student Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Police Activism (Video) EXCLUSIVE: Keith Ellison’s Student Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Police Activism (Video) November 22, 2016, 8:13 am by Guest Author Leave a Comment 0
By: Renee Nal | New Zeal Keith Ellison (right) in a June 1989 issue of ‘Forward Motion’ responding to “police brutality”
In the wake of communist-fueled anti-police sentiment resulting in relentless, brutal attacks on America’s law enforcement officials, a look at prospective DNC leader Keith Ellison ‘s radical anti-police and anti-capitalist history is in order.
As Trevor Loudon reveals in his film the Enemies Within , Keith Ellison is a “perfect example of the Muslim/Marxist alliance.” In his “student radical days,” the young Marxist was condemning capitalism and “police brutality” around the same time he converted to Islam. In 1989, Keith Ellison was featured in “ Forward Motion ,” the now-defunct print magazine of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization – the same group that eventually spawned the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
The article was titled “Battling the Rise in Police Brutality” and is not found online. Keith Ellison at the FRSO print magazine “Forward Motion,” June 1989
In the article, Ellison lashed out at “white supremacy” and “capitalism” as being responsible for drug use by black Americans: Keith Ellison as quoted at the FRSO print magazine “Forward Motion,” June 1989
Ellison expressed concern later in the same article that working with organized labor may lead to a “white supremacist problem.” Keith Ellison as quoted at the FRSO print magazine “Forward Motion,” June 1989
Here, Keith Ellison discusses the “contradictions” surrounding how those in the progressive movement to convince black Americans that “white supremacy is an evil system” are “predominately white.” Keith Ellison as quoted at the FRSO print magazine “Forward Motion,” June 1989
Trevor Loudon documents more on Keith Ellison here.
The late communist party member Erwin Marquit explains in his memoirs how the radical left worked to elect Keith Ellison in 2006:
“To gather support for Ellison, I suggested to [ Communist Party USA members] April Knutson and Jim Knutson that they draft a letter addressed to activists in the peace movement urging them to support Ellison.
Doris and I and the Knutsons then solicited signatures to the letter from among well-known peace activists. In July, we circulated the letter as widely as possible. Doris and I volunteered to cosponsor a fundraiser for Ellison in our home on 24 July with our neighbors Dave Holets and his wife Nancy Arneson. Dave, already retired, had been in charge of managing the finances of the School of Physics and Astronomy. Together, we leafleted the immediate neighborhood with invitations to the fundraiser.
On 21 and 22 July, I went into St. Louis Park, a suburb just west of the city line, a block and a half from our home, to do door knocking. When someone appeared at the door, I would begin by introducing myself by name. I was not surprised when one of the first responses I got was, “Oh, you’re the Communist at the University of Minnesota.” Two or three others recognized me in a similar manner. The fact that I was campaigning for Ellison did not seem to bother any of them. ” (emphasis added)
Watch this clip on Keith Ellison from Trevor Loudon’s film, The Enemies Within: 0 | 0 |
If you made a New Year’s resolution, there’s an 80 percent chance you’ve already given it up or you’re just about to. But that’s O. K.! We want to help you stick with it — or revamp it into something you really want to achieve. So for February, Smarter Living will offer tips, advice and motivation. Every Monday in The Times’s Morning Briefing, we’ll pose a new question or idea to you, and on Thursday, we’ll highlight a few top answers. If you’d like to participate, email us at smarterliving@nytimes. com with the subject line “My resolution” and your name, resolution and . We kicked things off this past Monday, and we’ve already received more than 600 responses. Here are some resolutions we’ve received so far: Susan I read your offer (and not for the first time!) in this morning’s Times briefing, and decided that I was among the masses whose resolutions were about to die — and decided I’d try to give mine some CPR. My resolution and why I chose it: To find meaningful freelance work so that I can shed the unpalatable drudgery of being cooped up in the same place all day, every day, doing unsatisfying work in the name of money. Two specific : I will check new job boards each week, extending my reach to N. Y. C. (from just Philly, where I live) and apply to at least two jobs per week and I will contact everyone I’ve worked with in the past 10 years to see if they could use any help. Sam Feigenbaum My resolution and why I chose it: I’ve always wanted to be an artist but was afraid to really try. I’ve resolved to fill one sketchbook back and front per month. I hope to exceed 1, 500 pages this year. I finished my first yesterday. : Starting on Feb. 1, I will set my alarm half an hour earlier to add 30 minutes of drawing exercises in the morning. I will also keep everything that does not pertain to sketching off of my art table. That’s for art, not Chinese food. Antara Dasgupta My resolution and why I chose it: My resolution is to rid myself of the disease known as procrastination — this is so I can actually revise my lectures futile all nighters, thereby ensuring that I actually have a chance for a future (incredibly sorry for all the extra negativity during an already bleak period)! : From Feb. 1, I will go to the library to actually study instead of spending hours finding the 10 NYT articles I can read for the month (I’m a college student, £3 is exorbitant). I will also stop binge watching episodes of “Jane the Virgin. ” Sara Dempsey My resolution and why I chose it: My resolution is threefold: to track my financial life more carefully be more aware of how I’m spending my money and learn how I can make better choices with it. : In January, I’ve brought my lunch to work every day and used both Mint and Personal Capital to track my spending. I also (finally!) enrolled in my company’s 401( k) at 7 percent. I’m testing to see if that percentage is the right one. I am reading up on index funds and looking to be a more educated investor. Emma Gelsinger My resolution and why I chose it: To put my laundry away as soon as it is done in the washer and dryer. I chose this because although it may seem trivial, like many others that I know, I regularly found myself sifting through baskets (or piles) of clean laundry. And let’s never underestimate the procrastination tactic of moving the clean laundry from the bed to the floor and back again . .. needless to say, it causes some really unnecessary daily stress and frustration. Sub goals: 1. Buy a new (pretty) laundry basket and put the laundry in the washer as soon as it is full (one month in and so far so good! ). 2. Make sure that everything going into the laundry basket actually needs to be washed to reduce unnecessary laundry. Erik Heger My resolution and why I chose it: My No. 1 resolution is to play my harp again. I have been playing harp my entire life, for fun and professionally. I was diagnosed with a nerve condition a few years ago: cubital tunnel syndrome. There are ways back to health, but it will take a lot of small steps and commitment. : Sleep with my elbow braces on every night for February and March. Work on physical therapy, neck, back, arms, jaw. Make that part of daily activity for February and March. Aumarie Benipayo My resolution and why I chose it: I want a strong and fit body that will carry me through retirement. I want to enjoy the older years and not be hindered by health issues. Two specific : My biggest challenge is how much I love food and drink. I am also a binge snacker. I eat when I’m bored. I eat when I’m stressed. At times, I turn into a living garbage disposal. : Finally lose the last five pounds that I’ve tried to lose for years. I can do this by being mindful of the food I eat every day. Before I grab that snack or second helping, ask myself if I’m hungry or really need it. Second sub goal: Build a leaner body by incorporating physical activity at least one to two times per week. My plan is to do a combination of weight training and cardio (Orangetheory) along with my current yoga routine. I’ll start here for the first three months then my progress. Scott Peterson My resolution and why I chose it: My resolution for this year is to quit smoking cigarettes. I’ve been a smoker for five years now, at one point three packs a day. I’m only just about to turn 21 and I can hardly walk the mile from my apartment to campus without feeling out of breath and still craving a smoke. I work for an outdoor program at my school, leading other students on trips backpacking, kayaking, caving (my favorite) etc. and I don’t want to be held back by nicotine any longer while I try to experience the beauties of Earth. I want to be healthier. : By spring break (March 11) I would like to desire only one cigarette, with my coffee while I read The New York Times. By the end of this semester (May 9) I want to no longer crave a cigarette at any point. Wendl Kornfeld My resolution and why I chose it: Live with more deliberation and completion. Living with a constant sense of urgency didn’t do much except to make me feel anxious having so many unfinished projects made me feel ineffective and frivolous. : I will be more aware of when I am moving too fast and observing too little, increasing awareness and decreasing chance of injury. I will take on fewer projects and either finish them by a set date or discard them lest they become frustrating and . I will literally move a little more slowly throughout the day, observing more what is happening around me (increasing awareness, decreasing chance of injury) I will put things back where they belong. Lindsey Challis My resolution and why I chose it: I want to be a better friend. I have amazing friends I care about deeply all over the country, but because my community here in Atlanta has changed so much, I often spend evenings alone feeling isolated. : Starting now, each week I will make time to send a handwritten letter or have a phone call with one friend or family member. When I’m exhausted or stressed after work, instead of turning my brain off with TV, I will reach out to a friend — even if it’s just a text message. Tim Herrera (your Smarter Living editor) My resolution and why I chose it: To be better with money and save more for retirement so that someday I might be able to (gasp) retire. : This month I’ll order delivery for dinner one fewer night per week, and I’ll cut down at least one of my daily afternoon coffees (which I buy solely out of habit, but which cost me around $500 over the course of a year). | 1 |
Source: 70News
October 31, 2016 Updated on November 1, 2016
• John Podesta: Kadzik was a "fantastic lawyer" who "kept me out of jail."
• Podesta and Kadzik, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, were in frequent contact, other emails show.
• Both were classmates at Georgetown Law School in the 1970s, discussed plans to celebrate Podesta's birthday. And in another sent last May, Kadzik's son emailed Podesta asking for a job on the Clinton campaign.
• Kadzik lobbied Podesta ( then WH Chief of Staff ) to pardon his billionaire, tax dodger fugitive client Marc Rich, whose wife gave $1 million to the Clintons and other Democrats prior to the pardon. FBI Director James Comey is now trying to do the right thing and correct the deed cleaning up the mud he and Hillary Clinton put all over the face of FBI agency. By reopening Hillary Clinton's case, thanks to 650k-emails linked to sex scandal of Huma Abedin's husband Anthony Weiner and the mutiny of FBI agents who won't put up with Comey's crap, we are suppose to finally get justice.
But guess what? DOJ assigned a Clinton ally and John Podesta's very close friend Peter Kadzik to take charge of the new investigation.
In a letter to Congress, the DOJ writes that it "will continue to work closely with the FBI and together, dedicate all necessary resources and take appropriate steps as expeditiously as possible," assistant attorney General Peter J. Kadzik writes in letters to House and Senate lawmakers.
WHO IS PETER KADZIK?
According to an excellent article published by DAILY CALLER:
The day after Hillary Clinton testified in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi last October, John Podesta, the Democrat's campaign chairman, met for dinner with a small group of well-connected friends, including Peter Kadzik, a top official at the Justice Department.
The dinner arrangement, revealed in hacked Podesta emails released by WikiLeaks, is just the latest example of an apparent conflict of interest between the Clinton campaign and the federal agency charged with investigating the former secretary of state's email practices.
Podesta and Kadzik, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, were in frequent contact, other emails show. In one email from January, Kadzik and Podesta, who were classmates at Georgetown Law School in the 1970s, discussed plans to celebrate Podesta's birthday. And in another sent last May, Kadzik's son emailed Podesta asking for a job on the Clinton campaign.
The post-Benghazi dinner was attended by Podesta, Kadzik, superlobbyist Vincent Roberti and other well-placed Beltway fixtures.
Kadzik, who started at the DOJ in 2013, helped spearhead the effort to nominate Lynch, who was heavily criticized for her secret meeting with the former president.
In the trenches
Podesta and Kadzik have a long history — one which has largely gone unnoticed during the ongoing Clinton email scandal.
Kadzik represented Podesta during the Monica Lewinsky investigation. And in the waning days of the Bill Clinton administration, Kadzik lobbied Podesta on behalf of Marc Rich, the fugitive who Bill Clinton controversially pardoned on his last day in office.
That history is cited by Podesta in another email hacked from his Gmail account.
In a Sept. 2008 email , which the Washington Free Beacon flagged last week, Podesta emailed an Obama campaign official to recommend Kadzik for a supportive role in the campaign.
Podesta, who would later head up the Obama White House transition effort, wrote that Kadzik was a "fantastic lawyer" who "kept me out of jail."
Podesta had been promoted to Clinton’s chief of staff when he and Kadzik became embroiled in another scandal.
Kadzik was then representing Marc Rich, a billionaire financier who was wanted by the U.S. government for evading a $48 million tax bill. The fugitive, who was also implicated in illegal trading activity with nations that sponsored terrorism, had been living in Switzerland for 17 years when he sought the pardon.
To help Rich, Kadzik lobbied Podesta heavily in the weeks before Clinton left office on Jan. 20, 2001.
A House Oversight Committee report released in May 2002 stated that "Kadzik was recruited into Marc Rich's lobbying campaign because he was a long-time friend of White House Chief of Staff John Podesta."
The report noted that Kadzik contacted Podesta at least seven times regarding Rich’s pardon.
On top of the all-hands-on-deck lobbying effort, Rich's ex-wife, Denise Rich, had doled out more than $1 million to the Clintons and other Democrats prior to the pardon. She gave $100,000 to Hillary Clinton's New York Senate campaign and another $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library.
SOMETHING STINKS (again)! Peter J. Kadzik a Assistant Attorney General having dinner with Podesta WHILE FBI is investigating HRC? Nice! -VJ pic.twitter.com/xVjiRwQMCz — RealVinnieJames (@RealVinnieJames) October 30, 2016
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Sardar Hussain refused to believe it. He had been orphaned in Afghanistan by a Taliban bomb at age 13. After waiting in limbo for two years, he said he was only days away from getting on a plane to the United States when he heard that President Trump would be barring entry to refugees. Mustafa did believe it. He teared up, saying his life was over at age 28. An Iraqi refugee in Lebanon, he thought he was so close to getting to the United States that he had gone out and bought a new shirt for his trip. When she read on Facebook about the temporary ban, Alwia Abdullah, 43, who fled from Darfur in Sudan to Jordan with her husband and six children, got a sudden, stabbing pain in her gut, and couldn’t sleep. “We left because we were discriminated against in Darfur,” she said. “So to be discriminated against by a U. S. president, by a nation we see our future in, is so disheartening. How do you live with that?” They were among an estimated 110, 000 people in line to be processed for resettlement in the United States during this fiscal year. In fact, they thought they had already made it through the rigorous vetting procedure and, after years of waiting, were on the verge of having their hopes realized. Now, all are suddenly, indefinitely waiting again, barred from entry to the United States for at least four months, according to an executive order signed by Mr. Trump on Friday, with no assurances of what could happen to them next. The order, Mr. Trump said, is a way to “keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. ” “We don’t want them here,” he said at the Pentagon. “We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. ” The executive order calls for the United States’ annual refugee quota to be cut to a maximum of 50, 000, compared with 85, 000 allowed in during the fiscal year ending in September 2016. Even last year’s figure was dwarfed by the historically high number of displaced people in the world, 65 million, or by the more than 1. 5 million migrants and refugees arriving in European countries since 2014. Mr. Trump’s order also suspends the entry of all Syrian refugees indefinitely, calling their arrival “detrimental to the interests of the United States. ” Beyond that, it suspends visas to people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for 90 days. Asked about Mr. Trump’s refugee ban, Stéphane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesman, said he hoped “it’s a temporary one. ” He noted that more people were displaced around the world than ever before. “The U. S. resettlement program is one of the most important resettlement programs the U. N. works with,” he said. Mr. Trump’s action was the latest closed door in a world that has become increasingly unwelcome to refugees, amid rising concerns and hostility in many resettlement countries in Europe, and in countries of first refuge like Turkey and Lebanon. For those refugees, in particular, who thought that their asylum process was over and that they would be accepted in the United States, the dismay was overwhelming this past week. Faten Diab, 34, a former charity worker from Syria, said she had been told that she and her family would be among a relatively small number of Syrians allowed into the United States. Last year, only 10, 000 had been granted that privilege, compared with 40, 000 in Canada. Ms. Diab and her husband said she fled to Turkey and applied for asylum in the United States in summer 2015, along with close friends who applied at the same time. They said the friends had received a final decision just over a week ago and had flown to America. The Diabs had reason to hope that their own number would come up any day. Now, that may never happen. Reached by telephone in their tiny apartment in Turkey, Ms. Diab sounded distraught, as the couple’s daughter could be heard playing in the background. “We are so, so, so sad,” Ms. Diab said, complaining that Mr. Trump’s claim that terrorists were slipping in as refugees was overblown. “The process of resettlement is long and difficult. You can say he is wrong. Because he didn’t live the application steps in all its difficulties. ” Strictly speaking, America does not actually owe anything to the Diabs from Syria or the Abdullahs from Darfur they are just reacting to its historical promise to take the world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free. ” But in other countries, like Iraq, citizens who worked for the American military, government and companies were promised preferential treatment for resettlement. Many thought that the risks they took on behalf of the United States would be repaid one day with a safe haven when they needed it. Now Iraqis are also on Mr. Trump’s proscribed list. Laith 37, was one of many who could not believe it. A former interpreter for the United States military, he was wounded twice in battle, in the leg and stomach, and now lives in fear of retaliation from militants in his Baghdad community. He was not ashamed to beg. “Please Mr. President, you are the president of one of the biggest states in the world,” he said. “Don’t be hasty in taking this decision. Be fair with us. ” Mustafa, the Iraqi, is a Shiite Muslim who worked on construction crews on American bases, mostly on fortifications. As he put it: “I made homes for them that kept them safe. I felt I was doing something good for humanity. ” But militias in his neighborhood discovered what his job had been and accused him of treason. “I was beaten and shot and knifed and eventually came to Lebanon two years ago,” he said, during an interview arranged in Beirut by the International Refugee Assistance Project, a New legal aid group. After years of interviews and investigation, Mustafa said he was finally told to take his medical examination and now only needed to be given the date for his flight, to California. To get ready, Mustafa splurged at a Beirut store to buy the clothes he would wear into his new life: dark green pants, a vest, a checked shirt in four colors. “I would wear the best clothes I have, and I wouldn’t take anything else with me, not even my memories,” he said. Mustafa still has some hope that somehow exceptions will be made, which is why — like most of the refugees interviewed for this article — he did not want his full name published. “If I do get rejected,” he said, “I’d regret ever having shaken hands with an American. ” He struggled not to weep. Sardar Hussain, 16, an ethnic Hazara boy from central Afghanistan, was rocked by disbelief. He said that when he was 13, his father, mother and younger sister were killed when a bomb blew up a taxi that was taking his mother to a hospital. After paying a smuggling network $7, 000 to get him to Australia, he was marooned en route, on the Indonesian island of Java, when Australia cracked down on boats bringing refugees there. For seven weeks, he slept on the sidewalk behind the United Nations offices in Jakarta, Indonesia. Now, after more than two years, he said, his flight to America was scheduled for Monday. “We were given a commitment to go there,” he said, speaking softly in English at a coffee house in Jakarta, just after completing his final medical exam. Firas 23, a Syrian refugee in Turkey, went out with friends on Wednesday night to drink away his disappointment. He was a university student and opposition activist in Syria before fleeing his hometown, Raqqa, now the Islamic State’s de facto capital. He was still looking for answers. “Is Trump trying to fight the terrorists by giving up on the victims of the very same terrorists?” he asked. “ISIS wants to destroy our lives, and now Trump declined to give us one. ” Sara, 31, a former television presenter who fled to Indonesia from Afghanistan after death threats — the Taliban and other cultural conservatives despise seeing Afghan women in public at all, let alone on television — was trying to arrive at answers of her own. “You just wait,” she said. “You see how the years pass. You get older, you cannot make any plans. You watch your dreams die with every second you spend waiting. ” After three years and four months, she thought that the waiting was finally over, and that she would soon have a date when she was allowed to fly. Now her life has been suspended for at least four more months, with no guarantee that she will still be included in the Trump administration’s refugee quota once the visa moratorium is lifted. “The bitter truth,” she said, “is that your whole life is dependent on a single decision of someone who doesn’t have even the slightest idea what it’s like to live as a refugee. ” | 1 |
(actualizada a las 21:35 26.10.2016) URL corto 0 46 0 1 MADRID (Sputnik) — La oposición criticó duramente el discurso del presidente del Gobierno en funciones, Mariano Rajoy, en la primera sesión del debate de investidura celebrado en el Congreso de los Diputados en España.
La portavoz del PSOE, Isabel Rodríguez, afirmó respecto al discurso de Rajoy que "le ha faltado autocrítica y le ha sobrado triunfalismo".
"No puede hablar de pensiones ni educación después de haber recortado en ambas cosas", aseguró la política. "Hemos visto a un Rajoy triunfante en el diálogo, pero el país no está para eso, hay mucho que hacer", insistió. © REUTERS/ Sergio Perez El debate de investidura de Mariano Rajoy La portavoz socialista también hizo alusión a las continuas llamadas al diálogo y al consenso en el discurso del líder conservador.
"Llega tarde para el diálogo, en concreto llega cinco años tarde, después de que muchas personas hayan sufrido con austeridad y recortes las consecuencias de su falta de diálogo", afirmó en rueda de prensa.
Por su parte, el portavoz de Podemos, Iñigo Errejón, también criticó el discurso de Rajoy que, según el político de izquierdas, "es el mismo que en la investidura fallida del mes de agosto". "Rajoy ha reiterado lo mismo que en el pasado debate, no hubo innovaciones, es el mismo guión. No propone nada nuevo, la novedad es lo que hará el PSOE, que le permitirá ser presidente", insistió Errejón, que recalcó en varias ocasiones que el PP volverá a ocupar el Gobierno gracias a la abstención de los socialistas.
Cruces de acusaciones en la oposición © REUTERS/ Sergio Perez Rajoy anuncia el inicio de una "nueva etapa política" basada en el diálogo El Comité Federal del PSOE decidió el pasado domingo abstenerse en la segunda votación de investidura del conservador Mariano Rajoy para permitir al líder del Partido Popular (PP) formar Gobierno y evitar la celebración de unas terceras elecciones en España.
En concreto, el máximo órgano interno del PSOE aprobó una resolución que contempla oponerse a la investidura de Mariano Rajoy en la primera votación para mostrar "su rechazo frontal a las políticas del PP" pero que indica a sus diputados que deben "abstenerse en la segunda votación" para "desbloquear la excepcional situación institucional que sufre el país".
De esta manera, el PSOE, principal partido de la socialdemocracia española y líder de la oposición, entrega el poder por primera vez en la historia del país a su máximo rival histórico, el conservador Partido Popular.
Más: PSOE: en ningún caso nos planteamos proporcionar estabilidad al Gobierno de Rajoy
Ante esta situación, Podemos considera que deben ser ellos (la tercera fuerza en el Congreso) los que lideren la oposición, dado que son los que no han permitido que Rajoy siga en el Gobierno. "Es difícil liderar la oposición y al mismo tiempo poner a Mariano Rajoy en el Ejecutivo. Nosotros al PP le decimos que no y vamos a seguir representando un modelo alternativo al del PP", insistió Errejón, en referencia a la decisión del PSOE.
Sin embargo, por su parte, el PSOE defiende que ellos van a "liderar la oposición".
"El PSOE va a liderar la oposición. Por nosotros estaríamos votando no, pero no se trata del partido, se trata del país. Necesitamos acabar con esta situación de bloqueo", ha justificado la portavoz. — Sputnik Mundo (@SputnikMundo) 24 de octubre de 2016
Isabel Rodríguez también culpó a Podemos de esta situación por su voto en contra de Pedro Sánchez, por aquel entonces líder socialista, en el primer debate de investidura tras las elecciones del 20 de diciembre. "Lamentamos que estemos en este proceso de investidura, pudiendo haber tenido un Gobierno progresista si hubiese querido Podemos. El rechazo del señor Pablo Iglesias (secretario general de la formación morada), a un presidente socialista nos ha traído hasta aquí", sentenció. © AFP 2016/ Gerard Julien Podemos apoya las protestas contra la investidura de Rajoy Mañana los portavoces de los partidos tendrán la oportunidad de replicar en la Cámara el discurso del líder conservador y finalmente se producirá la primera votación, que con toda probabilidad será fallida por no alcanzar la mayoría suficiente.
Ante esta situación, el Congreso deberá volver a votar el sábado por la tarde, pasadas 48 horas de la primera votación, en la que tan solo es necesaria una mayoría simple.
En ese momento, si todo continúa según lo establecido, Rajoy conseguirá formar un nuevo Gobierno gracias al apoyo de los 32 diputados de Ciudadanos, una parlamentaria de Coalición Canaria y la abstención de los socialistas del PSOE. ... | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Republicans wanted to talk about Hillary Clinton’s emails on Tuesday. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and her Democratic defenders wanted to talk about almost anything else. And in the end, after nearly five hours of parrying, dodging and weaving, Ms. Lynch appeared to emerge unscathed from a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing that dwelled at length on her decision last week to shut down the yearlong investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s emails on the recommendation of the F. B. I. director, James B. Comey Jr. Republicans, on the other hand, were exasperated and at times furious over the steadfast refusal of the nation’s top law enforcement officer to discuss many details of the investigation, the process or the legal rationale for closing the case against the presumptive Democratic nominee. While Ms. Lynch said she was “extremely proud of the tremendous work of the dedicated prosecutors and agents” on the politically tense case, she deferred repeatedly to the remarkable briefing that Mr. Comey gave reporters last week about his decision not recommend charges. If they wanted to learn more about the substance of the investigation, Ms. Lynch told Republicans, they should look to the F. B. I. director’s statement, which concluded that Mrs. Clinton was “extremely careless” in her handling of classified material but did not “intend” to break the law. House Democrats were more blunt. “This is over with, this controversy about emails from Hillary Clinton,” said one exasperated Democrat, Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia. Mr. Johnson and other Democrats tried to veer the conversation to almost anything other than Mrs. Clinton’s emails: gun violence, police shootings, voting rights, immigration, even copyright protections for songwriters. Ms. Lynch’s performance was not purely obfuscation. Mr. Comey did not notify the attorney general or her aides before making his briefing, and her approach to the hearing on Tuesday suggested friction between the F. B. I. and the Justice Department over the public way he announced his findings, although officials in both offices have denied any tension. Explaining her reluctance to answer many of their questions, Ms. Lynch told Republicans tersely that while Mr. Comey “has chosen to provide great detail into the basis of his recommendations,” she did not think it was “appropriate” for her to do so. “I know that this is a frustrating exercise for you,” Ms. Lynch acknowledged after another in a string of brief responses. Indeed, as Ms. Lynch sidestepped one question after another, Republican committee members became increasingly agitated. One accused her of “stonewalling. ” Another called it a “hear no evil, see no evil performance. ” A third said he had directed aides to tally the times she declined to answer a question directly (74, by his count). At one point, the committee chairman, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, interjected to tell Ms. Lynch that her “refusal” to answer many of the committee’s question was “an abdication of your responsibility. ” The hearing provided further evidence of Republicans’ eagerness to keep the email controversy alive as Mrs. Clinton’s general election campaign begins in earnest against Donald J. Trump. Just a day earlier, Mr. Goodlatte and Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had asked the Justice Department to mount a new investigation to determine whether Mrs. Clinton perjured herself last fall when she testified before Congress about her use of a private email system. They cited apparent contradictions between what Mrs. Clinton told Congress about the email server and what the F. B. I. found. Republicans attacked Ms. Lynch at the hearing not only for her decision to sign off on closing the email investigation, but also for an unscheduled meeting just days earlier with former President Bill Clinton aboard her plane at a Phoenix airport. Mr. Goodlatte and other committee members said they found the timing of the meeting suspicious, but Ms. Lynch said it was merely a social meeting. “The former president indicated he wanted to say hello, and I agreed to say hello,” she said. “We had a social conversation. Nothing of any relationship to the email investigation was discussed, nor were any specific cases or matters before the Department of Justice discussed. ” She defended her decision not to recuse herself from the case after her meeting on the tarmac. She said she had deferred to the F. B. I. and experienced prosecutors, and saw no need to step out of the case completely before accepting their recommendations. Republicans questioned Ms. Lynch several times about whether she hoped to remain as attorney general if Mrs. Clinton was elected. She refused to speculate, saying that she was focusing solely on finishing out her current term. Mr. Trump and other Republicans have suggested that Mrs. Clinton could use the enticement of another term as attorney general to curry favor with Ms. Lynch in the email investigation. Ms. Lynch said she had not discussed any future positions with Mrs. Clinton or anyone else. By the end of the hearing, nerves on both sides of the aisle were beginning to fray. As upset as Republicans were over Ms. Lynch’s nonresponses, Democrats were equally angry over the unyielding focus on Mrs. Clinton’s problems at the expense of other national issues like the attacks in Dallas and Orlando, Fla. “We have mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting,” complained Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, “yet this hearing has been about email. ” | 1 |
Блажен, кто верует во что попало… 04 ноября 2016 Политика
Фильм Алексея Учителя, повествующий об отношениях Николая Второго и Матильды Кшесинской, возмутил группу почитателей царя. Депутат Поклонская пообещала проверить картину, хотя она ещё и не вышла в прокат. При этом в доме Романовых оскорблёнными себя не считают.
Прямо возвращение на машине времени на полвека назад и даже больше! Полная ассоциация со словами о романе Пастернака, с которых каждый выступающий начинал тогда свою обличительную речь: «Я книгу не читал, но…». Так и мы: никто фильм не смотрел, кроме тех, кому это по должности положено: в своё время с таким запросом, по словам Алексея Учителя, уже было обращение в прокуратуру. Выяснили, что нарушений законности не обнаружено! А на нет, как говорится, и суда…
Вот суд-то как раз и замышляется, да не какой-нибудь — «народный»! С петициями, огульными обвинениями, протестными заявлениями. Ну, а поскольку не смотревшие фильм фанаты Николая II – по-другому этих «верующих» в непогрешимость царя называть сложно – вдруг начали проявлять необъяснимую активность аж через полгода после появления в сети трейлера «Матильды», хочется найти причины такого ажиотажа.
Фильм может оказаться хорошим или плохим, псевдоисторически-костюмным или умным, пробуждающим чувства – в любом случае, не дело использовать художественное произведение в низменных целях. А они явно просматриваются! Как во всех детективах с поиском виновных, хочется задать сакраментальный вопрос: «Кому это выгодно?» И опять же, как в детективе, мотивов обнаруживается, как минимум, два.
Во-первых, кто-то позаботился, чтобы фильму, который выйдет в прокат только в марте, создать «антирекламу»: за полгода-то уже все начали о нем забывать, а тут люди отчего-то рвут и мечут… Многие из одного только праздного любопытства решат посмотреть картину, вдруг да что-то там есть такое…
Во-вторых, есть желающие правдами и неправдами дестабилизировать обстановку в стране. «Чувства верующих» для них — всего лишь интернет-повод. Вспомните, в школе, в классах этак 8-9, всех нас на уроках истории учили не путать причину с поводом! А кукловодам любой повод сгодится, чтобы достигнуть своей цели, чтобы посеять раздор и шатание. Сначала в сети, где страсти от малейшей искорки разгораются в полыхающее ненавистью пламя, а там, глядишь, и…
А верующие и неверующие, в большинстве своём, и думать не думают о каком-то там кино – у них сейчас куча других насущных проблем, скорее материально-денежных, чем духовных! | 0 |
Live at Truthdig: What Do the Dakota Access Pipeline Arrests Mean for First Amendment Rights? Protesters square off against law enforcement during a demonstration against the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Screen shot via The Intercept )
This past weekend, 127 people were arrested at the construction site of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Since the demonstrations began this summer, over 260 people have been arrested.
Among those facing legal retribution for demonstrating alongside members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is Democracy Now! journalist Amy Goodman, who was initially brought up on “riot” charges, although these charges were later dropped . Actress Shailene Woodley made mainstream media headlines when she was arrested earlier this month during a peaceful protest—a process she streamed live onto her Facebook page. And award-winning documentary filmmaker Deia Schlosberg faces decades in prison for documenting the protests.
There’s a common thread linking Goodman, Woodley and Schlosberg: each incurred criminal charges after documenting the protests in some form. Woodley, during her Facebook live stream, states that she is being singled out by law enforcement “because I have 40,000 people watching.” Goodman, speaking after her own charges were dismissed, declared that “the state’s attorney was attempting to stop journalism.”
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Schlosberg, however, faces the highest consequences for filming protesters earlier this month: up to 45 days of jail time. The Guardian reports :
Schlosberg, a New York-based film-maker, is facing three felony conspiracy charges for filming protesters on 11 October at a TransCanada Keystone Pipeline site in Pembina County in North Dakota, with prosecutors alleging that she was “recruited to record the criminal activity”.
Schlosberg recently spoke with Goodman on Democracy Now! and explained the charges against her . “Conspiracy—they were all conspiracy charges: conspiracy to theft of public—theft of property, conspiracy to theft of service and conspiracy of interfering with a public—a critical public infrastructure.” She outlines the situation that led to her arrest:
I was filming the action. I was on public land. I was on a public road and at no point trespassed, at no point, you know, broke in or destroyed any property. I had nothing to do with the planning of the event. I was there to document it. I think it’s essential for journalists to—journalists and filmmakers to go where the mainstream media is not. And there’s a major hole in the coverage of climate change and people that are already dealing with the consequences of climate change and people that are fighting climate change. So, I take that responsibility very seriously.
Filmmaker Josh Fox, whose documentary “ How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change ” was produced by Schlosberg, has been extremely vocal about her arrest and what it means for a free press.
“Never did I ever think that the biggest threat to her life, of her livelihood, would be the United States government and our police force,” Fox told Goodman on Democracy Now!. He labels the charges against Schlosberg, Goodman and Woodley as a “brutal repression of the media,” and explains how police are infringing on constitutional rights. “These people are not accessories to the crime, they are the media,” he says. “This is a First Amendment, constitutionally protected activity.”
Fox continues:
It makes me terrified for the future of our profession. We need to be able to operate as documentarians. We need to be able to operate as independent media that are allowed to bring these stories to the public. And it’s constitutionally protected. And we won’t rest.
Many have rallied behind Schlosberg by signing an open letter that Fox wrote to President Obama. “Journalism, especially documentary filmmaking, is not a crime, it’s a responsibility,” Fox wrote. Celebrities like Neil Young, Mark Ruffalo and Daryl Hannah are among those who have signed their names to the open letter.
On Thursday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. PDT / 4 p.m. EDT, the Truthdig team will sit down with Schlosberg and Fox to discuss the impact of these arrests on journalistic freedom. How can journalists protect their First Amendment rights? What do the hundreds of arrests say about the current state of American democracy?
Groundbreaking technology has also been used to cover the protests. New media like Facebook Live and Twitter give an on-the-ground, direct look into the demonstrations. Last weekend, law enforcement shot down a drone used by the protesters to document their interactions with police. How does new technology play a role in journalism and freedom of the press?
Join us on Thursday by tuning into our Facebook page for the live video stream. Please leave any questions for Schlosberg and Fox in the comments section below. You can watch past editions of “Live at Truthdig” on our YouTube page . | 1 |
Rep. Dave Brat ( ) discussed repealing Obamacare with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Monday, as well as alternate plans, including one he recently introduced in the House. [The Daily Signal reports, “Rep. Dave Brat, . has introduced a bill in the House that, if passed, will allow individuals to decide how they want their health care funds to be spent, without the influence of the government or health insurance providers. ” Brat said that the health savings account legislation is a way for lawmakers to prove to the American people that they have a plan to replace Obamacare after repealing it. Brat discussed several domestic alternatives, as well as systems other nations use. “We’re waiting for leadership to coalesce around a plan,” said Brat. In response to Democrat criticism that the GOP does not have a plan, Brat said, “That’s not true. We have five or six plans. We need to get a political backbone pretty soon and pick one of them. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 0 |
Dispatches from STEPHEN LENDMAN A ccording to Professor David Bosco , writing in Foreign Policy, “(t)he prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is ready to initiate a full investigation of a range of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, including some by US personnel, according to several knowledgeable sources.” MAIN PHOTO: Kissinger, international war criminal at large. He will die in his bed—like Pinochet and Franco—and totally escape justice. The American media can be counted on to eulogize him as a great and “tough-minded statesman.” Bet on it. “The ICC move would mark the first time that a formal ICC investigation has scrutinized US actions and sets up a possible collision with Washington. Established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on July 1, 2002, it’s mandated to prosecute individuals for genocide and aggression, as well as crimes of war and against humanity. Instead, it functions solely as an imperial tool, supports powerful interests, targets independent states Washington and other Western nations oppose. It lets America, its NATO partners, Israel and their rogue allies get away with mass murder. .. Bosco cites unnamed sources, indicating chief ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda “will seek to initiate an investigation in the coming weeks, likely after the US presidential election but before the end of the year… US officials visited The Hague,” letting her know who’s boss. It’s unclear where she intends to go. On October 7, 2001, US-led NATO forces attacked Afghanistan without just cause – less than four weeks post-9/11, naked aggression planned months before that fateful day. .. Appalling war crimes followed, continuing daily. All post-WW II US wars were and continue being waged illegally against nonbelligerent countries reflecting over 70 years of unaccountability. No US government or military official ever faced charges for Nuremberg-level high crimes. It’s irrelevant what Bensouda does or doesn’t do. The 2002 American Service Members’ Protection Act (ASPA, aka The Hague Invasion Act) “protect(s) United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international court to which the United States is not party.” .. CIA boss and notorious war criminal Richard Helms. This scoundrel died in 2002, so he definitely escaped justice.
It authorizes the president to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court.” It prohibits the extradition of anyone from America to the ICC. In a November 2000 open letter, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Zbigniew Brzezinki, former CIA director Richard Helms and other US signatories said Washington must put “our nation’s military personnel safely beyond the reach of an unaccountable international prosecutor operating under procedures inconsistent with our Constitution.” .. Kissinger’s high crimes are well-documented. Brzezinski got Jimmy Carter to sign a secret directive, authorizing aid for Mujahadeen fighters combating the pro-Soviet Russia government in Kabul, aiming to induce Moscow’s military intervention which followed, what Brzezinski called “the Afghan trap.” .. Helms at CIA orchestrated Operation Phoenix in Vietnam, an assassination program claiming thousands of lives. Hillary Clinton, as junior New York Senator, supported the Hague Invasion Act. America and Israel, among other countries, failed to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. .. They remain unaccountable for the highest of high crimes. Expect Bensouda’s investigation, if initiated, to accomplish nothing. Bosco admitted she’ll “be launching one of the most difficult investigations the court has undertaken, both practically and politically.” No internal or external judicial body ever tried holding America accountable for decades of Nuremberg-level high crimes. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS ABOUT THE AUTHOR STEPHEN LENDMAN lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected] . His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” ( http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html ) Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com . =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. Print this post if you want. Share This: | 1 |
SEOUL, South Korea — China said on Saturday that it was suspending all imports of coal from North Korea as part of its effort to enact United Nations Security Council sanctions aimed at stopping the country’s nuclear weapons and program. The ban takes effect on Sunday and will last until the end of the year, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a brief statement posted on its website on Saturday. Chinese trade and aid have long been a vital economic crutch for North Korea, and the decision strips North Korea of one of its most important sources of foreign currency. Coal has accounted for 34 percent to 40 percent of North Korean exports in the past several years, and almost all of it was shipped to China, according to South Korean government estimates. The ban comes six days after the North Korean test of a ballistic missile that the Security Council condemned as a violation of its resolutions that prohibited the country from developing and testing ballistic missile technology. In the test, North Korea claimed that it had successfully launched a new type of missile. It said its missile used a technology that American experts say will make it harder to detect missile attacks from the North. In the resolution it adopted in November in response to the North’s fifth and most powerful nuclear test, the Security Council said that North Korea should not be allowed to export more than 7. 5 million metric tons of coal a year or bring in more than $400 million in coal sales, whichever limit is met first. It was unclear whether that cap has already been reached for this year. Officials of the United States and its allies, including President Trump, have suggested that China, North Korea’s principal economic patron, should be more aggressive in enforcing sanctions. But while it does not approve of the North’s weapons program, China has also been seen as reluctant to inflict crippling pain on North Korea, for fear that it might destabilize its Communist neighbor. In April, China announced that it would ban coal imports from North Korea as part of the United Nations’ efforts to squeeze the country’s ability to raise funds for its nuclear and missile programs. But it allowed exemptions for coal imports for “livelihood” reasons, and deliveries continued. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment on the suspension after it was announced on Saturday. Calls to the ministry’s press officer were not answered. On Friday, the Chinese minister of foreign affairs, Wang Yi, said at a conference in Munich that the United Nations sanctions of North Korea “must continue to be strictly implemented. ” But Mr. Wang also argued that only renewed negotiations would offer any hope of curtailing North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. China has hosted talks — including itself, South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Japan and Russia — aimed at a negotiated settlement of the North Korean nuclear standoff. But those talks have stopped since 2009, and there seems little hope of them restarting anytime soon. “This situation cannot continue,” Mr. Wang said, “because the ultimate outcome may be intolerable to all sides. ” Last year, China imported 22. 5 million metric tons of coal from North Korea, an increase of 14. 5 percent on the amount in 2015, according to Chinese customs statistics. In December, China imported about 2 million tons of North Korean coal. Mysteel, a Chinese industrial analysis firm, estimated that under the limits imposed by the sanctions, the coal quota would be used up by April or May. In 2015, China’s cumulative imports of North Korean coal reached 7. 5 million metric tons by May. The coal suspension also followed the assassination of Kim the estranged half brother of the North Korean leader Kim on Monday at an airport in Malaysia. The Malaysian authorities are continuing to investigate the case. South Korean officials have suspected North Korean involvement in the killing of Mr. Kim, who had been living in Macau, the Chinese gambling enclave. Some analysts have speculated that the killing may have infuriated Beijing because Mr. Kim was considered a candidate to replace Kim the North Korean leader, should the current government in North Korea fall. | 1 |
100 Million Marine Mammals Are Mistaking Ocean Trash for Food But Boyan Slat Has a Solution Nov 16, 2016 0 0
Oceanographers recently went ‘fishing,’ but not for what you might think. They were on a reconnaissance mission to find out just how bad the Pacific Garbage Patch – an enormous gyre of ocean liter – had become. When they pulled up their nets recently, they found they were “choked with plastic bits and pieces.”
Aside from the viewable plastic trash, researchers have found 750,000 microplastic pieces per square kilometer in the Garbage Patch, and the marine life which must live in these waters, is riddled with them.
Estimations are that more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic weighing more than a quarter of a million tons currently float at sea globally. Most of this plastic debris comes from sources on land and ends up in oceans and bays due to poor waste management, and over-consumption.
It takes between 450 and 1000 years for plastic to biodegrade, and in the meantime, it simply breaks into smaller and smaller pieces which animals mistake for food. Tube-nosed seabirds, like this Tristram’s storm petrel, eat plastic particles in the ocean, mistaking them for food. Sarah Youngren / Hawaii Pacific University/ USFWS
The number of creatures that are affected is mind-boggling. Sadly, dolphins, sea birds, sea lions, tortoises, whales, and over 700 different marine species are likely to go extinct because of the plastic garbage choking our oceans. Millions of sea-dwelling creatures are literally ingesting their death, by mistaking plastic ocean trash for food.
According to EcoWatch , just one species, a type of sea-bird can hunt for many fish in the sea, but areas that reliably contain food are very patchy. In other words, tube-nosed seabirds are searching for a “needle in a haystack” when they forage. They may be searching for fish, squid, krill or other items, and it is possible that plastic debris visually resembles these prey. Scientists believe that this specific example tells only part of a more complex story.
For some marine life, the plastic particles are so small, that even algae consume them, so they don’t even know that they are ingesting human waste which is detrimental to their health. Pioneering research another reason that some marine life like birds might be eating plastic trash – they are likely confusing bits of plastic bottles and bags for small fish.
Dr. Gabrielle Nevitt and his associates have found that certain species of tube-nosed seabirds are attracted to dimethyl sulfide (DMS) , a natural scented sulfur compound. DMS comes from marine algae , which produce a related chemical called DMSP within their cells. Once those cells are damaged—for example, when algae die, or when marine grazers like krill eat it—DMSP breaks down, producing DMS. The smell of DMS is how seabirds know that food is nearby—not by the algae, but because of the krill that eat the algae.
Seabirds are likely being tricked into eating marine plastic garbage because of the way it smells. Tests comparing the feeding habits of over 20,000 birds from more than 70 species showed that species of birds that use DMS as a foraging cue eat plastic nearly six times as frequently as species that are not attracted to the smell of DMS while foraging. In short, plastic is effecting the entire eco-system and even interfering with physiological signaling in birds .
This research is likely just revealing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Great Garbage Patch and the ramifications of continuing to allow our ocean’s to be devastated with plastic trash.
There is a bright side to learning about the true depths of this issue. Organizations like the Ocean Clean Up Project just revealed their prototype to address the problem: | 0 |
Protestants get ready to grovel By Gilad Atzmon Posted on November 9, 2016 by Gilad Atzmon
This week we learned that Jewish institutions insist upon the Protestant Church apologising for its founder’s views of the Jews. The Jewish Algemeiner writes that “the 500th anniversary of the Reformation would be the ‘perfect time’ for Protestant leaders to recognise and apologise for the ‘horrific antisemitism’ of their movement’s founder, Martin Luther.”
The truth of the matter is that Martin Luther didn’t know about Zionism, Israeli criminality, Alan Dershowitz, Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Epstein, or Sir Philip Green but he still had a serious problem with the Jews. Back in 1543 he wrote On The Jews and their Lies , a book notorious for its opposition to Jews and their religion.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper—associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre—wants the Protestants to disown the founding father of their church or at least to “directly address the issue (of anti-Semitism) in the overall context of what they’re celebrating in terms of this anniversary,”
David Michaels of B’nai B’rith insists that the churches reject some of their founder’s teachings. “This reality requires committed Lutherans and other Christians to ensure that there is fitting recognition and rejection of Luther’s hateful beliefs about Jews, wherever these persist.”
The Protestant world is clearly being subjected to an institutionalized assault Judaism. But there is one thing the Jewish Algemeiner fails to do. It fails to brief us about Luther’s argument against the Jews. The truth of the matter is that Luther’s animus towards Jewry wasn’t at all racially driven. His arguments against Jews were purely theological rather than biological. Thus, using the term ‘anti-Semitism’ in reference to Luther is misleading. It leaves one wondering whether Bnai B’rith and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre are lying consciously when they refer to Luther as an ‘anti-Semite’? If they do, we may actually need to seek the assistance of Luther’s book in order to grasp Rabbi Cooper and Michaels’ conduct.
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli jazz musician, author and political activist. His new book, “The Wandering Who,” may be ordered from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk . This entry was posted in Religion . Bookmark the permalink . | 0 |
The True Scandal of 2016 Was The Torture of Chelsea Manning By Jeremy Scahill
November 10, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Intercept " - A few days ago, we learned that Private Chelsea Manning attempted to take her own life last month for the second time since being sentenced to 35 years at the U.S. military prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. The whistleblower, who provided the collateral murder video, the Iraq and Afghan war logs, and the hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. State Department cables to Wikileaks, was convicted of espionage. As I waited to vote today, I found myself thinking of her languishing in misery in isolation and incarceration.
This election particularly in its closing stages has been dominated by controversies over emails, classified documents, and Wikileaks. Weve heard endlessly about Hillary Clintons private basement server, her 33,000 deleted emails, the phishing and leaking of John Podestas emails, including parts of Clintons much discussed private speeches to Goldman Sachs. Trump, for his part, suddenly discovered a great love for Julian Assange, though he does have trouble correctly spelling Wikileaks in his tweets of praise. Taken together with Trumps bizarre and consistent lauding of Vladimir Putin and leaks from the U.S. intelligence community, the country has been treated to an odd flashback of Cold War propaganda, including a fair dose of red-baiting from the Democrats. In the matter of Anthony Weiners computer, his wife Huma Abedins communications and the potential implications for Clinton, the FBI, whose overreach had not previously been of much concern to Democrats, suddenly became a deviant manipulator of the electoral process, while Trump and his supporters alternately praised the agencys professionalism and denounced it as part of the rigged system.
The U.S. public is now getting a taste of the way hacking, phishing, and an overwhelming dependence on fallible machines and networks can impact politics. But lets be clear: None of the disclosures in this campaign not one thing in any of the hacked emails or those declassified and released from Clintons private server has brought to light anything of greater importance than the documents Chelsea Manning provided to Wikileaks. She revealed war crimes, including murder and torture, dirty and duplicitous dealings of the U.S. and its allies, exposed liars, documented a secret history of Americas longest running war, and forced a much needed debate about the U.S. role in the world. And for that, she is being tortured.
The double standards of our society dictate that a perjurer like the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, faces no consequences for his crimes. Gen. David Petraeus gets a slap on the wrist, no jail time, and prestigious positions at universities for sharing classified information with his mistress. Only Gen. James Cartwright may face the inside of a prison cell for discussing classified information with journalists and he is a sacrificial lamb for the cause of exonerating Clinton and Petraeus from any true accountability by the Obama Justice Department.
But Chelsea Manning, whose motivation was noble, whose actions made our country better, faces the full wrath of the system. And it may end up killing her. When we talk about the high-tech scandals that marked this election, at the top of the list should be the torture of Chelsea Manning. | 0 |
‹ › Arnaldo Rodgers is a trained and educated Psychologist. He has worked as a community organizer and activist. Military Veterans Are Helping To Save Coral Reefs By Combating Climate Change By Arnaldo Rodgers on October 27, 2016 Veterans Are Helping To Save Coral Reefs Find Your Job Now at HireVeterans.com
By Ken Silverstein At a time when the presidential election is dividing families and friends, at least one issue is bridging the gap: giving veterans of the U.S. military a new lease on life by teaching them how to restore coral reefs. And they are trying to enlist big business as their ally. Indeed, the marriage of the ocean’s ecology along with those who have served their nation is breathing a new spirit into the coral reefs, which make up a whole community of living organisms that survive on the ocean floor. Those reefs aren’t just a thing of beauty. They are also an economic engine, spawning entire enterprises that range from tourism to medicine, including the making of drugs that deal with cancer, arthritis and bacterial infections. “Our guys are special forces who are physically strong but who are also struggling,” says Jim Ritterhoff, founder of Force Blue that combines the virtues of military training with coral reef restoration.
Read the Full Article at www.forbes.com >>>> Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VNN, VNN authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. Notices Posted by Arnaldo Rodgers on October 27, 2016, With 0 Reads, Filed under Veterans . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry FaceBook Comments
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Obama Won’t Vote With America at the UN Under Obama, the United States won’t defend the United States. November 1, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
A generation ago the Communist tyranny in Cuba demanded that the United Nations condemn America for the embargo. The brutal Castro regime’s rant accused the United States of threatening “nuclear annihilation,” “countless acts of sabotage and plans to assassinate Cuban leaders.”
On a cold day in October, the European left-wing activist serving as UN Ambassador announced to applause that her administration would no longer be voting to defend the US at the UN.
"UN Member States have voted overwhelmingly for a General Assembly resolution that condemns the U.S. embargo and calls for it to be ended. The United States has always voted against this resolution. Today the United States will abstain," Samantha Power said.
"Thank you," she added, acknowledging the applause.
Under Obama, the United States would no longer defend the United States. A generation ago the Communists had been in Cuba. Now they were in Washington D.C.
Instead of defending America, Obama’s chosen representative agreed that our Communist enemies had a point about our lack of human rights and our imperialist foreign policy.
“Let me be among the first to acknowledge – as our Cuban counterparts often point out – that the United States has work to do in fulfilling these rights for our own citizens. And we know that at times in our history, U.S. leaders and citizens used the pretext of promoting democracy and human rights in the region to justify actions that have left a deep legacy of mistrust,” she said.
If the Cuban representative had been in her place, he could not have done much better. Communist Cuban propaganda was now being parroted by Ambassador Power. If the Castro dictatorship wanted to save money, it could shut down its propaganda department and outsource the labor to Washington D.C.
The Cuban ambassador boasted that Cuban Communists had “rid ourselves of US imperialism” and proclaimed that, “We will never go back to capitalism.” He declared that the resolution was a powerful message to “the peoples of the world.” The message is indeed unmistakable.
Ben Rhodes, the close Obama adviser who sold the media on the Iran sellout, curtly tweeted his justification, “No reason to vote to defend a failed policy we oppose.”
Who is this “we”?
The Cuban embargo is the “law of the land”. It’s the official policy of the United States. It’s based on laws passed by Congress and implemented by President John F. Kennedy and his successors.
This “we” certainly isn’t the United States government, its elected representatives in the legislative and executive branches working together to end the old policy and implement a new one.
One member of the “we” must be Ben Rhodes because he tells us so. Who is Rhodes? An “aspiring” novelist who pushed Obama to back the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, the Iran nuke sellout and now, apparently, choosing Communist Cuba over America.
No one has ever elected Rhodes to anything, but under left-wing rule, he outweighs Congress, President Kennedy, the law of the land and the national interests of the United States.
“We” is Obama who made the final decision. It’s Ambassador Samantha Power. It’s a number of other functionaries all of whom derive their power from a single elected official who is only one third of the government. This is the “we” that announced its treasonous opposition to the US at the UN.
America has a “we” problem.
If the “we” of the American left wants to vote its own way, it should secede to form its own country.
When President John F. Kennedy proclaimed the “Embargo on All Trade with Cuba”, he based it on authorization from “the Congress of the United States”. That is how our system used to work.
These days El Teleprompte in D.C. decides that he wants to sign a nuclear treaty with Iran, mandate transgender bathrooms, legalize millions of illegal aliens or open relations with his brother tyrant in Havana and he does so on his own authority. And Congress is dismissed as a bunch of obstructionists.
That’s not how America is supposed to work. That’s how Iran works. That’s how Cuba works.
The first word in the introduction to Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive on Cuba after the date was “I”. Obama’s basis for his authority is his 2014 announcement. L'etat c'est moi. Obama is the State.
JFK, no humble shrinking violet, mentions “I” only in the fourth paragraph, after Congress. What is the context of Kennedy’s “I”? “Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority of section 620(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.”
The “I” of JFK can only act as a servant, not a master.
In Obama’s “Directive”, Congress exists only to be berated or badgered for its obstructionism. There is no source of authorization for anything other than Barack Obama. There is no law. Only Obama.
Now the big “we” in Washington have decided that they will oppose America at the United Nations. But Ben Rhodes, who aspires to excel at novelistic narratives, made an unfortunate slip. Obama has been accused of Louis XIV’s L'etat c'est moi mentality. But Ben Rhodes isn’t saying, “We are the state”. Instead he tells us that there are two powerful political entities in America. One is US. The other is We.
“We” does not yet entirely control the state. But “we” also feels no obligation to the United States. If “we” agrees with America, then “we” will vote with it at the UN. If “we” opposes America, then “we” votes against it. “We” will choose patriotism or treason based on its own interests. Not ours.
“We” happens to run America. But it isn’t America. It’s the parasite humped on America’s back.
You can call “we” by many names. Deep State is one. It’s a coalition of left-wing special interests networking through politics, the non-profit sector and media corporations to control America.
President Kennedy was quite familiar with the enemy . “We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice.”
Kennedy was speaking after the recent Bay of Pigs crisis. The Foreign Assistance Act, mentioned by him, was passed by Congress that year. While the Cuban embargo limited the ability of the Castro regime to sponsor and spread terror around the region and the world, it didn’t stop the “we” in Washington D.C.
It is easy to sit here in the distant future of 2016 and wonder whether Cuba matters at all. But the truth is that we are still enmeshed in the same fundamental struggle of the Cold War. That struggle did not end when the Berlin Wall fell. It is a battle over whether nations will be ruled by “We the People” or by the nameless “We” of the monolithic and ruthless conspiracy of the Nomenklatura of the left.
By backing away from America at the United Nations, the “we” have announced their independence from the laws, responsibilities and duties of the country whose government they have hijacked.
But the “we” offer us no such independence from their treasonous rule. Instead they impose on us the collectivism of Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel “We” in which everyone suffers under the stifling progressive tyranny of the One State that controls every aspect of human life. That novel inspired 1984.
What “we” offer us is what Cuba’s Castro, We’s One State and every Communist regime offer us. It's what George Orwell in 1984 summed up as, “A boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
President Kennedy dated his embargo proclamation from the “one hundred and eighty-sixth” year of “the Independence of the United States of America.” At the United Nations, Ambassador Power cheerfully declared America’s enforced submission to the Communist demands for Cuba.
The Cuban people show no signs of winning independence from their Communist overlords. The question is will the United States of America be able to regain its independence from the “we”? | 1 |
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Every continent save Antarctica is ringed by vast stretches of seagrass, underwater prairies that together cover an area roughly equal to California. Seagrass meadows, among the most endangered ecosystems on Earth, play an outsize role in the health of the oceans. They shelter important fish species, filter pollutants from seawater, and lock up huge amounts of carbon. The plants also fight disease, it turns out. A team of scientists reported on Thursday that seagrasses can purge pathogens from the ocean that threaten humans and coral reefs alike. (The first hint came when the scientists were struck with dysentery after diving to coral reefs without neighboring seagrass.) But the meadows are vanishing at a rate of a football field every 30 minutes. Joleah B. Lamb, a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University and the lead author of the new study, said she hoped it would help draw attention to their plight. “We call seagrass the ugly stepchild of marine organisms,” said Dr. Lamb. “They don’t get a lot of respect, compared to corals and mangroves. ” Seagrass first evolved tens of millions years ago, when some flowering plants moved from land into the ocean. They still grow flowers, pollen and seeds, but they now do so underwater, with a powerful form of photosynthesis that allows them to thrive in dim light at depths of up to 190 feet. The sediment in which they grow is loaded with deadly hydrogen sulfide. They detoxify by pumping some of the oxygen they release during photosynthesis into their roots. With these adaptations, seagrass meadows became more productive than today’s fertilized cornfields. As they spread across the planet, the meadows altered the sea floor, building soil and supporting entirely new ecosystems. Animals like manatees and juvenile fish took up residence. “Killer whales are a big tourist attraction, but people probably don’t realize that seagrass beds are really important as nurseries for the fish that the salmon require, which the killer whales require,” said C. Drew Harvell, a marine biologist at Cornell University and senior author of the new study. Humans depend on these nurseries, too. Many of the species harvested in commercial fisheries begin life in seagrass meadows. Without them, fishermen would catch far less, and make less money. In 2014, University of Cambridge researchers studied seagrass meadows in southern Australia to estimate the value they bring to the fisheries industry. They estimate that each acre of seagrass adds about $87, 000 per year. The plants also draw fertilizer runoff and other pollutants out of the water, locking them safely away in meadow soil. Scientists have estimated that an acre of seagrass provides more than $11, 000 worth of filtering every year. These services alone would make seagrass meadows among the most economically valuable ecosystems on Earth. But now Dr. Harvell, Dr. Lamb and their colleagues have found that these plants may help us in another way: by wiping out pathogens. Their new study, published in the journal Science, began with a scuba diving trip in Indonesia. The scientists were inspecting coral reefs for infections with bacteria and fungi some reefs are increasingly falling prey to these diseases. “By the end of the workshop, we all came down with amoebic dysentery,” recalled Dr. Harvell. “One scientist developed typhoid, and we had to ship her out. ” The experience left Dr. Harvell wondering if the illnesses of the scientists might somehow be connected to those of the reefs. “It just got me thinking about human health and environmental health and how they’re linked,” she said. She discussed the idea with Dr. Lamb, who began to investigate. Seagrass meadows can release so much oxygen that the surrounding water fizzes like champagne. That oxygen might be able to kill pathogens, Dr. Lamb realized. The plants also host fungi, which are known to producing compounds. Dr. Lamb and her colleagues decided to study sites around four islands in Indonesia with and without nearby seagrass. The scientists devised two strategies to search for pathogens. In one survey, they collected seawater and put it in petri dishes to see if colonies of bacteria known as Enterococcus grew from the samples. Levels of the bacteria in water from seagrass meadows, they found, were a third of the levels in water from other sites. In a second search, the scientists grabbed fragments of DNA floating in seawater. By examining the sequences, they identified 18 kinds of bacteria. Water from the seagrass meadows had only half the level of this DNA, compared with water collected at other sites. The scientists next turned their attention to coral reefs around the islands. Reefs next to seagrass meadows, they found, were half as diseased as those without meadows. Thorsten B. Reusch, a marine ecologist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Germany who was not involved in the study, called it “truly fascinating and innovative. ” He also warned that “it remains to be seen what the exact mechanisms of the pathogen removal are. ” Dr. Lamb and her colleagues are now searching for those mechanisms. They’re also trying to put a number on the value of seagrass’s powers. “There could be a huge potential in how valuable they become,” said Dr. Lamb. Robert J. Orth, a seagrass expert at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who was not involved in the new report, predicted it would lead to similar research on seagrass meadows in other parts of the world. “It’s going to make people think,” he said. The growing recognition of this plant’s importance comes even as it is disappearing. Nearly a third of the world’s seagrass meadows have died off since the 19th century. A number of studies indicate that they are now disappearing at an accelerating pace. Last week, Dr. Orth and his colleagues published a detailed study of the retreat of seagrass in Chesapeake Bay in the journal Global Change Biology. Since just 1991, they estimate, 29 percent of the bay’s seagrass meadows have vanished. Their research points to two main culprits. Eroded dirt washes into the Chesapeake, making the water cloudy. Seagrass get so little sunlight that the resulting dimming can be deadly. Seagrass is also being pummeled by climate change. Warmer summer temperatures in Chesapeake Bay cause the plants to lose much of their oxygen through their leaves. With less oxygen to pump into their roots, they are poisoned by toxic sediments. The cloudiness of the water makes the heat even worse. With less sunlight, the plants produce even less protective oxygen to begin with. “We have a double whammy,” said Dr. Orth. As the underwater meadows disappear, economic value disappears with them. The Chesapeake Bay meadows are a nursery for blue crabs, for example. Dr. Orth and his colleagues estimate that the seagrass has eliminated more than 500 million juvenile blue crabs since 1991. Seagrass meadows can store enormous amounts of carbon. Their soils don’t decompose because they have very little oxygen in them. As a result, seagrass meadow soil around the world has accumulated an estimated nine billion tons of carbon. As seagrass meadows disappear, that carbon is being released back into the ocean. Some of it may make its way into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. As dire as the situation has become, there is cause for hope. In recent years, Dr. Orth and his colleagues have successfully restored seagrass meadows off the coast of Virginia. “Now we have 6, 200 acres of seagrass,” he said, “where in 1997 there wasn’t a single blade of grass. ” | 1 |
Experience the battlefield in 360° with this interactive trailer for Ubisoft’s upcoming Vikings vs. Knights vs. Samurai brawler, For Honor. | 0 |
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How did the "growing trust" that Russian President Vladimir Putin once said marked his "working and personal relationship with President Obama " change into today's deep distrust and saber-rattling?
Their relationship reached its zenith after Mr. Putin persuaded Syria to give up its chemical weapons for verified destruction, enabling Mr. Obama at the last minute to call off, with some grace, plans to attack Syria in late summer 2013. But at an international conference in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi last week, Mr. Putin spoke of the "feverish" state of international relations and lamented: "My personal agreements with the President of the United States have not produced results." He complained about "people in Washington ready to do everything possible to prevent these agreements from being implemented in practice" and, referring to Syria, decried the lack of a "common front against terrorism after such lengthy negotiations, enormous effort, and difficult compromises."
A month earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , who chooses his words carefully, told Russian TV viewers, "My good friend John Kerry ... is under fierce criticism from the U.S. military machine. Despite [Mr. Kerry's] assurances that the U.S. commander in chief, President Barack Obama, supported him in his contacts with Russia (he confirmed that during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin) apparently the military does not really listen to the commander in chief." Do not chalk this up to paranoia. The U.S.-led coalition air strikes on known Syrian army positions killing scores of troops just five days into the September cease-fire -- not to mention statements at the time by the most senior U.S. generals -- were evidence enough to convince the Russians that the Pentagon was intent on scuttling meaningful cooperation with Russia.
Relations between the U.S. and Russian presidents have now reached a nadir, and Mr. Putin has ordered his own defense ministry to throw down the gauntlet. On Oct. 6, ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russia is prepared to shoot down unidentified aircraft -- including any stealth aircraft -- over Syria, and warned ominously that Russian air defense will not have time to identify the origin of the aircraft. - Advertisement -
It seems possible that the U.S. air force will challenge that claim in due course -- perhaps even without seeking prior permission from the White House. Last week, National Intelligence Director and former Air Force General James Clapper commented offhandedly, "I wouldn't put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft ... if they felt it was threatening their forces on the ground."
Injecting additional volatility into the equation, major news outlets are playing down or ignoring Russia's warnings. Thus, Americans who depend on the corporate media can be expected to be suitably shocked by what that same media will no doubt cast as naked aggression out of the blue if Russian air defenses down a U.S. or coalition aircraft.
Meanwhile in Europe, as NATO defense ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters the U.S. is contributing "a persistent rotational armored brigade combat team" as a "major sign of the U.S. commitment to strengthening deterrence here."
"This was a decision made by the alliance leaders in Warsaw," he explained, referring to NATO's July summit meeting in the Polish capital. "The United States will lead a battalion in Poland and deploy an entire battle-ready battalion task force of approximately 900 soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based in Germany."
On Thursday, at the Valdai Conference in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, President Putin accused the West of promoting the " myth " of a "Russian military threat," calling this a "profitable business that can be used to pump new money into defense budgets ... expand NATO and bring its infrastructure, military units, and arms closer to our borders." - Advertisement -
Myth or not, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was correct to point out last spring that military posturing on Russia's borders will bring less regional security. Mr. Steinmeier warned against "saber-rattling ," adding that, "We are well advised not to create pretexts to renew an old confrontation."
Speaking of such pretexts, it is high time to acknowledge that the marked increase in East-West tensions over the past two and a half years originally stemmed from the Western-sponsored coup d'e'tat in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014, and Russia's reaction in annexing Crimea.
Americans malnourished on the diet served up by "mainstream" media are blissfully unaware that two weeks before the coup, YouTube published a recording of an intercepted conversation between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. ambassador in Kiev, during which "Yats" (for Arseniy Yatsenyuk) was identified as Washington's choice to become the new prime minister of the coup government in Kiev.
This unique set of circumstances prompted George Friedman, president of the think-tank STRATFOR, to label the putsch in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014, "really the most blatant coup in history." | 1 |
What is it with Clinton’s Hollyweird supporters? Some just do not have any class. Cases in point:
Madonna will give a blowjob to anyone who will vote for Hillary.
Katy Perry strips naked , under the guise of comedy, to get out the vote (for her candidate, Hillary).
Miley Cyrus tells voters to “ kiss her ass ” if you don’t support Hillary.
Now there’s another classy Clinton supporter: Jennifer Lopez
From Daily Mail : Here’s one way to drum up votes in a swing state.
On Saturday night, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony looked as intimate as ever while performing a concert for Hillary Clinton at Bayfront Park Amphitheater in Miami, where the candidate herself joined them onstage and embraced the Out Of Sight star.
The erstwhile spouses have worked together a great deal this year; on top of a Radio City Music Hall performance in August, they’re currently collaborating on a Spanish language album.
For her Miami show, the 47-year-old had slid into a typically showstopping outfit, this one largely comprised of a black satin robe with a hem at mid-thigh.
And it certainly made the most of her famous backside – with the star flashing it to the crowd throughout her hits-packed set.
Read the rest of the story here .
Clinton must be so proud of her Hollyweird supporters.
For a comprehensive list of Hollyweird-types to boycott, see here .
DCG | 0 |
LOS ANGELES — Before he fatally shot a U. C. L. A. professor he had studied under, a gunman apparently killed a woman near his home in Minnesota, then drove to California planning to gun down two professors, but found only one of them, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The gunman, identified as Mainak Sarkar, killed Prof. William S. Klug on Wednesday morning, then took his own life, leaving a note asking that someone check on his cat at his apartment in St. Paul, Minn. the Los Angeles police chief, Charlie Beck, said. In that apartment, police found what they described as “a kill list,” including the names of Dr. Klug, another U. C. L. A. professor and a woman who lived in nearby Brooklyn Park, Minn. Los Angeles officials alerted the police in Brooklyn Park shortly after midnight, and the officers who went to the address found “an adult female who was deceased of an apparent gunshot wound,” said Mark Bruley, deputy police chief of Brooklyn Park. Officials in both cities declined to give the woman’s name or describe her relationship with Mr. Sarkar. People who knew her identified her as Ashley Hasti, a medical student and former girlfriend of Mr. Sarkar’s public records show that for a time, they had both lived at her address in Brooklyn Park, a modest beige house on a quiet, street. Ms. Hasti studied Asian languages and literature at the University of Minnesota and later enrolled in medical school there. “She was just ever so interested in everything,” her grandmother Jean Johnson said. “That girl was so smart that you just couldn’t get ahead of her. ” Hennepin County records show that Ms. Hasti and Mr. Sarkar were married in 2011. The current legal status of their marriage was unclear, though neighbors said they did not remember ever seeing Mr. Sarkar around her home in the suburbs north of Minneapolis. Ms. Hasti met Mr. Sarkar about five years ago, after she went to Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. to take courses, and her family later spent some time with him, Ms. Johnson recalled. She remembered some jarring moments, like Mr. Sarkar saying that his family had a history of violence, and falsely disparaging Ms. Hasti’s academic integrity. But they broke up more than a year ago, she said, and her granddaughter never indicated that she feared him. Early Thursday morning, Ms. Johnson said she got a call from Ms. Hasti’s other grandmother, who broke the news. “She just screamed at me, ‘Ashley’s dead,’ ” Ms. Johnson said. “I just about had a heart attack right there. ” The at the University of California, Los Angeles, was the latest in a long string of campus shootings, but the fact that professors were specifically targeted heightened what some faculty members said was a growing fear of violence and prompted many to think about experiences they have had that might have angered students. New laws in Texas and other states allowing people to carry concealed weapons on college campuses have heightened concerns about gun violence, though concealed carry is still prohibited on most campuses around the country, including those in California. Two prominent faculty members have left the University of Texas at Austin, citing the change, and a third has said he will try to defy the law and bar guns in his classroom. “You never want to have to think about something like this, and now I’m not sure I can avoid thinking about it,” said Joshua Dienstag, a political science professor who spent two and a half hours on Wednesday barricaded in a room with four others while U. C. L. A. was on lockdown. Mr. Sarkar, 38, who immigrated from India, earned a Ph. D. in mechanical engineering from U. C. L. A. in 2013. On March 10, in a blog post that has since been deleted, Mr. Sarkar called Dr. Klug, 39, “a sick person. ” “I was this guy’s Ph. D. student,” he wrote. “We had personal differences. He cleverly stole all my code and gave it another student. He made me really sick. ” Chief Beck said at a news conference that investigators think the claim was unfounded and that Mr. Sarkar had “some mental issues. ” On Wednesday, Mr. Sarkar walked into the Engineering IV building, entered the office of Dr. Klug, and opened fire. The professor, married and the father of two small children, was considered a star in computational biomechanics, a field that applies engineering principles to biology and medicine. Dr. Klug was a devoted youth baseball coach. His research dealt with topics as esoteric as the mechanical structures of the protein shells around viruses, and of layers of fatty molecules in cell membranes. The note Mr. Sarkar left in the office talked about a grievance against the other professor on his list, Chief Beck said, adding, “Detectives believe, and I support their belief, that he went there intending to kill two faculty members from U. C. L. A. ” The other professor was at the time, he said, and it was not clear if Mr. Sarkar tried to find him. Professors had known of Mr. Sarkar’s grudge against some faculty members, he added, but they did not think he posed a threat. Court records in Minnesota indicate that Mr. Sarkar’s only with the law were minor traffic and parking tickets. He took two semiautomatic pistols with him to U. C. L. A. — both legally purchased in Minnesota, officials said — along with multiple magazines, but fired just three shots from one weapon. “He could have caused many more fatalities,” Chief Beck said. As students and faculty here tried to resume classes and prepare for finals, some professors said that campus shootings have subtly transformed the educational experience and have made them more cautious. David Myers, a former chairman of the history department who has offered “active shooter” training, said that when he met with students who seem enraged or unstable, he found himself watching their hands, ever more cognizant of the possibility that they might be armed. “I sort of lived in fear of this day coming to my own campus,” Dr. Myers said. “And it did. It did. ” Ideally, a university “is a place of free movement of ideas and people,” he said. “When that is constrained in the way it was yesterday, something is killed off. ” Stephen Aron, who succeeded Mr. Myers as chairman of the history department, said he had become quicker to refer troubled students to counselors rather than trying to discuss their problems. Digital communication makes it harder to tell how students really are, he added, because “it’s harder to parse out tone in an email than . ” “People are feeling a bit discombobulated today,” he said. “I’m hearing that mostly from my staff. They’re the ones there every day, so in some sense they’re most vulnerable in those situations. It’s not surprising they feel particularly scared. ” | 1 |
In the days before rapid sea or air travel, it could take months to travel to Mecca. The spiritual heart of Islam lay far from its great capitals in Istanbul, Delhi and Isfahan. The devout came from distant lands on foot, by camel and in carriages. Bedouin tribes routinely robbed these pilgrims, who were the primary source of revenue for this ancient desert town. Now, the ease of air travel and the rise of a global Muslim middle class have made the journey to Mecca far less arduous and far more common. Last year, three million came for the hajj, a pilgrimage in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar that is considered obligatory for every Muslim who can afford it five million more came for the umrah, a minor pilgrimage that can be made for much of the year. And millions of Saudi citizens routinely pass through Mecca’s sacred sites as tourists. The Italian photographer Luca Locatelli, visiting Mecca this year during the umrah period, captured how radically the city has changed to accommodate this growing influx of pilgrims. Until the first half of the 20th century, this was a small city of spacious stone houses famed for their mashrabiyah, or latticed windows and balconies. Five hills known as the rim of Mecca encircled the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba, or House of God, located in the city center. Today, all a visitor would recognize from older images of Mecca are the Ottoman domes of the Grand Mosque, its minarets and the Kaaba. The ancient hills, the old stone homes and many of the sites linked to the life of the Prophet Muhammad have been obliterated by towering shopping malls, hotels and apartment blocks. It is a transformation that has been underway since the late 1970s, when the wealth generated by the oil boom led Saudi monarchs to devise an ambitious plan to replace earlier Ottoman structures and to expand the Grand Mosque and its surroundings with architecture. At a projected cost of $26. 6 billion, the Saudi Binladen Group has led the efforts to increase the capacity of the Grand Mosque, adding new wings, prayer areas, escalators and hundreds of bathrooms. Before his death in 2015, King Abdullah ordered the installation of the world’s largest folding umbrellas in the piazzas outside the Grand Mosque, to shelter worshipers from the blistering sun as they offered prayers, read the Quran or simply basked in their proximity to this holy site. His successor, King Salman, announced plans to build a ring road, subways and intercity trains to accommodate millions of worshipers. One of Locatelli’s photographs looks as if it were taken from the air, but it was actually shot from one of the highest points of the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, which houses a hulking hotel and shopping complex a few hundred meters from the gates of the Grand Mosque — 46 times taller than the Kaaba and crowned by a clock five times the size of Big Ben. Throughout the history of Islam, no other ruler built in such proximity to the Kaaba certainly none built anything to dwarf it. In luxury hotels like the Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower and the Raffles Makkah Palace, views of the holiest site of Islam are marketed as the “Haram view” and “Kaaba view,” and a standard room can run anywhere from $1, 500 to $2, 700 a night during the hajj. Locatelli, who is Italian and was raised Catholic, gained entry to Mecca through his marriage to an Indonesian Muslim, which included a ceremonial conversion and gave him a feeling of sympathy for his wife’s religion. In his striking images, you can see experiences shared by pilgrims everywhere as well as the mix of crass commercialism and genuine faith common among holy sites across religions (Lourdes, Fátima, Varanasi). A group of men in ihram — two pieces of white cloth that the pilgrims wear to convey a state of purity and human equality — get a bite to eat in a food court a young man takes a selfie with the Kaaba in the background hundreds pray inside a shopping mall. “I wanted to show my Western viewers that being a holy tourist in Mecca is not very different,” Locatelli says, “that we do similar things whether we go to a great temple, to St. Peter’s or to Mecca. ” When Locatelli first arrived in Mecca, he was anxious about his outsider status. But, he says, “Mecca was truly peaceful. My fear melted away within days. ” BASHARAT PEER | 1 |
White House foreign policy adviser Dr. Sebastian Gorka showed up Wednesday at a book talk I gave at the headquarters of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington, D. C. He was joined by a Jewish White House colleague, along with several dozen other Jews. [All of these Jews were unaware, apparently, that in their midst a hidden Nazi was lurking — at least, according to the Forward, which attempted Thursday to claim that Gorka is secretly a member of a Nazi organization. We have been here before. Last month, a blogger made the same false claim, which was thoroughly debunked by Breitbart News (where Gorka was once an editor) and others. The Forward now claims Gorka once pledged loyalty to the Historical Vitézi Rend, a racist rival to the Vitézi Rend, which is a postwar anticommunist organization. (The word “historical” was added to allude to the original Vitézi Rend, which was by Hungary’s government and later banned.) Gorka denies it all. And as Trump critic Liel Leibovitz notes in Tablet, the Forward offers no proof other than the claims of the Historical Vitézi Rend, whom the Forward suddenly deems a trustworthy source not requiring further corroboration. It is possible to play this game both ways: In 2015, the Forward changed its name from “The Jewish Daily Forward” to simply “the Forward. ” This, apparently, was a nod to antisemites. After all, the Forward is critical of Israel. Verdict: Guilty! Not to be outdone, the execrable Stephen Goldstein of the Anne Frank Center — a man who desecrates the Holocaust by abusing it in his partisan attacks against the Trump administration — demanded that Gorka resign, claiming that “grotesque Antisemitism … has infected the Trump White House. ” That absurd statement, like the article that inspired it, is nothing more than the defamation of a good man and the most administration in U. S. history, staffed to the rafters with Jews. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. An earlier version of this article referred to the “Republican National Coalition” instead of “Republican Jewish Coalition. ” | 0 |
Hillary Clinton is just fine .
She’s not sick. That weird neurological problem she had? All cured.
Pneumonia? Done.
Blurry vision? Concussion? Not a problem.
Right?
Well, maybe not.
Because if Hillary Clinton is in tip-top health, then why does she need help making her way up one little step.
In this video from The American Mirror , we can see Clinton heading up to a podium to make an appearance in Lake Worth, Texas.
As she attempted to take a step up to a small riser, an aide quickly offered her support – which she clearly needed.
Take a look: Hillary heads over to the overflow area to say hello to the crowd in Lake Worth, Florida. But ya know, no enthusiasm there. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/3cUDK245XK
You can also clearly see another assistant standing behind her, just in case she doesn’t make it up all the way.
Twitter had a field day: @HillBroYo The Mystery Medic is back pic.twitter.com/qkURGDbzeW
— Captain Chaos (@tonyr951) October 26, 2016 @HillBroYo how come she needs a hand to step on a small platform?What's wrong with her? | 0 |
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(Reuters) — The Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday unveiled revised rules for collecting, analyzing and storing information on American citizens, updating the rules for the information age and publishing them in full for the first time. [The guidelines are designed “in a manner that protects the privacy and civil rights of the American people,” CIA General Counsel Caroline Krass told a briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The new rules were released amid continued public discomfort over the government’s surveillance powers, an issue that gained prominence following revelations in 2013 by former government contractor Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency (NSA) secretly collected the communications data of millions of ordinary Americans. Read the rest of the story at Reuters. | 0 |
ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq opened the next chapter in its offensive to drive the Islamic State out of Mosul on Sunday, preparing an assault on the western half of the city. Overnight, planes carpeted the ground with leaflets, directly appealing to the group’s fighters to surrender. “To those of you who were intrigued by the ISIS ideology,” one of the leaflets said, “this is your last opportunity to quit your work with ISIS and to leave those foreigners who are in your homeland. Stay at home, raising the white flags as the forces approach. ” On television, Prime Minister Haider announced the beginning of the offensive, describing it as “a new dawn” and calling on his troops “to move bravely forward to liberate what is left of the city. ” The Islamic State has held Mosul for nearly three years, and it is the group’s most important stronghold in Iraq. Retaking the entire city, in what is expected to be a monthslong campaign, would be a huge victory for Iraqi troops. The assault is taking place amid concerns about the condition of hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the western part of the city. Food, water and cooking fuel have all been reported to be in short supply, and residents have described increased harassment from Islamic State fighters preparing for the attack. The overall push to free Mosul, once Iraq’s city, began in October, with local troops pushing from the east into the city’s geographically larger but more sparsely populated eastern half. In late January, they reached the banks of the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul, and declared the city’s eastern section liberated. The operation took longer than expected and took a high toll on civilians and the Iraqi forces, but much of the city’s infrastructure was preserved, and a sense of daily life has returned. That is in contrast to the operations to take back other cities, including Ramadi and Sinjar, which were decimated by airstrikes. More than a year after Sinjar was freed, even its mayor has not been able to return. The fight for Mosul’s western half could be even more protracted than the fight for its east. The west is home to neighborhoods of narrow streets, some so small that it will not be possible for Iraqi troops to enter in their fortified Humvees. That may make the Islamic State’s signature suicide bomb attacks even more effective. Because all five of the bridges spanning the Tigris have been bombed, Iraqi troops will trace a circuitous path to western Mosul, initially approaching it from the south. Officials said the first objective would be Mosul International Airport, just south of the city. By midday on Sunday, Iraqi forces had captured a string of nearby villages and advanced within six miles of the airfield, officers said. American forces are supporting the operation. “The U. S. forces continue in the same role as they did in east Mosul,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters traveling with him on Sunday, adding that the rules of engagement for American troops in Iraq had not changed. “We are very close to, if not already engaged in, that fight,” he said. Mr. Mattis added that the coalition fighting the Islamic State would “continue with the accelerated effort to destroy” the group. Anticipating the offensive, the Islamic State damaged the Mosul airport, carving wide trenches into the runways and adjacent taxiways and aprons, leaving no paved portion usable for aircraft, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by Stratfor, a global intelligence company. While the airport may be unusable, taking it would still be a milestone for the offensive, as would taking the adjacent hilltop village of Abu Saif, which sits at a higher elevation than Mosul. Because of the Islamic State’s heavy use of snipers, securing high ground is crucial, and Iraqi forces were nearing the base of the hill by Sunday afternoon. The troops’ push into western Mosul will be further complicated by the Islamic State’s vast network of tunnels throughout the city, which allow fighters to hide from overhead surveillance. And the group is increasingly using armed drones to spot and remotely bomb advancing Iraqi troops. Yahya Salah, whose neighborhood in eastern Mosul was liberated in November, described how Iraqi troops were just streets away when Islamic State fighters forced their way into his home, armed with a jackhammer. They herded Mr. Salah’s family into one of the bedrooms. From behind the closed door, Mr. Salah said, he heard a deafening sound and realized the fighters were drilling a hole. “They worked without stopping — when one got tired, another took over, and they dug a hole that was 1. 5 meters wide,” said Mr. Salah, who said his family had been locked in the bedroom for three days. “When we said we were thirsty, they threw water bottles at us. ” He said the fighters had left at noon on the final day. The Iraqi Army arrived at sunset and unlocked the door. When the family stepped into the rest of their house, they found piles of dirt in three of their four bedrooms and a hole in the living room floor. The tunnel the fighters had dug stretched for dozens of yards, allowing the terrorist group’s foot soldiers to slip away. Residents have shown reporters similar tunnels throughout the eastern part of the city, and officials expect the same in western Mosul. A photo essay published this weekend by the Islamic State, titled “Life of Fighters South of Mosul,” shows militants cooking a meal on a kerosene stove, reading the Quran and praying inside a tunnel wide enough for five men to stand side by side. At the same time, the Islamic State has become better at the use of small drones, which are available off the shelf in malls across the region, including in Erbil, the nearest major city to Mosul. They use the drones to pinpoint army positions and to target them, and recently recovered Islamic State documents show how the group has cobbled together its own drone program. Iraqi forces say they frequently see the aircraft, two to four feet long, overhead, whining like lawn mowers. Then, 30 minutes later, they take incoming fire at that location. “Mosul would be a tough fight for any army in the world, and the Iraqi forces have risen to the challenge,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of the effort against the Islamic State, said in a news release from United States Central Command announcing the beginning of the operation. Some of the 450 American advisers on the ground in Iraq are helping Iraqi officers plan and carry out the offensive. Reached by telephone, residents in western Mosul described the elation they felt at the approach of government troops. “All we have left to eat is tomato paste. We are eating it with salt,” said Umm Anwar, 41, who asked to be identified only by her nickname. “We are ready to kill ISIS ourselves with knives, or by biting them, because we are in so much pain. ” | 1 |
United States Marine Field McConnell Plum City Online - ( AbelDanger.net ) October 28, 2016
1. Abel Danger ( AD ) claims that Serco relayed Zulu timing signals to mentors of the Federal Bridge Certification Authority in support of live webcast of torture killings in the Mumbai attacks of November 2008 and B.C. pig farm raves (1996-2001).
2. AD claims that Serco used an 8(a) protégé company – Base One Technologies – to blackmail Hillary Clinton into outsourcing the operation of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to users of the federal bridge and equipping selected users with patented webcast servers for Zulu betting on the times of victims’ deaths.
3. AD claims that in 1994, Serco operatives at the National Visa Center began equipping Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama – a former Sidley Austin intellectual property (IP) lawyer and a protégée of terrorist Bernardine Dohrn – with a long-range visa service for the BC pig farm and Mumbai snuff-film crews.
4. United States Marine Field McConnell – Global Operations Director of Abel Danger – has offered to serve as a five-star general in a future Trump administration so he can first recognize and then destroy Serco's Zulu bridge to Clinton patents and Obama snuff-film crews.
Mumbai Terror Attack Watch NSG successful in mission against Mumbai attackers
Media Coverage of Starnet Raid - August 20, 1999
Hillary Clinton vs. James Comey: Email Scandal Supercut
Copy of SERCO GROUP PLC: List of Subsidiaries AND Shareholders! [Note British and Saudi Governments, AXA, HSBC , Teachers' and Gold man Sachs]
Defense Ammunition Center [Outsourced to Serco ]
Serco ... Would you like to know more?
"Digital Fires Instructor Serco - Camp Pendleton, CA Uses information derived from all military disciplines (e.g., aviation, ground combat, command and control, combat service support, intelligence, and opposing forces) to determine changes in enemy capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action."
"The 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks were a series of attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba , an Islamic militant organisation based in Pakistan , carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai . The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday, 26 November and lasted until Saturday, 29 November 2008, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308.[2][ 14 ]
Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , the Oberoi Trident,[15] the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower ,[15] Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital,[15] the Nariman House Jewish community centre,[16] the Metro Cinema,[17] and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College .[15] There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle .[18] By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj Hotel had been secured by Mumbai Police and security forces. On 29 November, India's National Security Guards (NSG) conducted 'Operation Black Tornado' to flush out the remaining attackers; it culminated in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Taj Hotel and ending the attacks.[19] Ajmal Kasab[20] disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba,[21] among others.[22] The Government of India said that the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers were in Pakistan.[23] On 7 January 2009, Pakistan confirmed the sole surviving perpetrator of the attacks was a Pakistani citizen.[24] On 9 April 2015, the foremost ringleader of the attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ,[3][4] was granted bail against surety bonds of ₨200,000 (US$2,000) in Pakistan.[25][26]"
"THE CASE OF THE VANISHING VISA FILES
December 25, 2009 10:00:00 PM PST
By Chuck Goudie
December 16, 2009 (CHICAGO) -- Potentially important evidence has disappeared in a terrorism case involving two Chicago men. Their visa records vanished from Chicago's Indian consulate. It comes one week after the ABC 7 I-Team raised questions about how David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana obtained their foreign visas in the first place.
The case of the vanishing visa records has churned up diplomats from Mumbai to Michigan Avenue. India's foreign secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters overseas Wednesday that she wants answers from Chicago's Indian consulate about the records and visa documents that have disappeared, records that might show how two accused Chicago terrorists obtained permission to scout targets in India.
Top officials of Chicago's India consulate wouldn't talk to the I-Team on camera last week when asked how terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana obtained five-year, unlimited passage visas to India.
And the consul general did not return calls Wednesday regarding the paperwork they used to process Headley and Rana's visas, which Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao announced Wednesday have disappeared.
Wednesday evening, the Chicago consul general emailed a statement to the I-Team that conflicted with government statements made in India. The brief statement read: "We have not reported loss of any papers regarding issuance of visa to David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana Hussain. Relevant information concerning the issuance of visa to these persons is available with the Government of India".
India's counterpart to the FBI is looking into the visa application process as part of its probe into the 2008 Mumbai massacre.
The two Chicago suspects are accused of having roles in the assault. Rana was denied bond by a Chicago district judge Tuesday, despite family members and friends offering $1 million in cash and property. Rana has not been directly charged with the Mumbai attack that left 175 dead, but was linked to the assault in government court filings.
Headley, a Pakistan-born Chicagoan, is a convicted heroin dealer whose birth name was Daood Giliani. He changed his name to ease travel to India, according to federal prosecutors in Chicago and to avoid the required pre-visa background check by Indian authorities.
Since the time Headley and Rani were processed, India's Chicago consulate office began contracting out visa requests to a private company called Travisa Outsourcing that on its website claims, "We have revolutionized the way people get their visas."
And the new visa processing was subject of a news conference last year.
"The advantages of outsourcing is the Travisa company, which is handling the outsourcing, has set up a call center," said Ashok Kumar Attri, consul general.
Foreign Secretary Rao said she is impressed with the cooperation the US has given to Indian investigators. Headley and Rana are not due back in court until January."
"Was Bernardine Dohrn the Mentor of Michelle Obama at Sidley Austin?
April 22, 2008
Bernardine Dohrn was at Sidley Austin a law firm in Chicago from From 1984 to 1988, Dohrn was employed by the law firm Sidley Austin, although her criminal record has prevented her from being admitted to either the New York or Illinois bar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardine_Dohrn
Michelle Obama graduated from Harvard Law School in 1988. But she likely also was a summer associate in 1987 and likely 1986. Barack Obama was assigned to her in 1989 when he was a summer associate from Harvard Law School. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
He entered Harvard Law School in 1988.[9] More links and excerpts:
https://oldatlanticlighthouse.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/northwestern-law-prof-bernardine-dohrn-weather-underground/
Steve Sailer on Michelle Obama
http://www.vdare.com/sailer/080225_michelle_obama.htm
Michelle's Princeton thesis:
http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2008/02/22/michelle-obama-thesis-found-download-it-here/
James Fulford quotes Politico
Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained exclusively from the campaign by Politico , shows a document written by a young woman grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be allowed to remain "on the periphery." Read the full thesis here: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 . Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide – Jeffrey Ressner – Politico.com
Sidley Austin likely recognized this in Michelle even if she didn't show them her Princeton thesis. Who better at Sidley Austin to be mentor to the author of this Princeton thesis than Bernardine Dohrn who had been number 2 on the FBI most wanted list?
Barack Obama was assigned to Michelle Obama in summer 1989. This may have reflected how few blacks there were at Sidley Austin, especially from Harvard Law School or the equivalent. Dohrn got her J.D. from University of Chicago Law School. Since she is a prof at Northwestern despite her background, we might infer she was very smart and understanding. So she was the perfect person to be the mentor for Michelle Obama at Sidley Austin.
The above is speculation, hypotheses or opinion. All statements should be restated as questions. All other disclaimers apply."
"Webcasting is the distribution of media files through the internet. The earliest webcast equivalent of an online concert and one of the earliest examples of webcasting itself was by Apple Computer 's Webcasting Group in partnership with the entrepreneurs Michael Dorf and Andrew Rasiej . Together with David B. Pakman from Apple, they launched the Macintosh New York Music Festival from July 17–22, 1995. This event audio webcast concerts from more than 15 clubs in New York City. Apple later webcast a concert by Metallica on June 10, 1996 live from Slim's in San Francisco.[ 3 ]
In 1995, Benford E. Standley produced one of the first audio/video webcasts in history.[4] On October 31, 1996, UK rock band Caduseus broadcast their one-hour concert from 11pm to 12am (UT) at Celtica in Machynlleth, Wales, UK – the first live streamed audio and simultaneous live streamed video multicast – around the globe to more than twenty direct "mirrors" in more than twenty countries.[5][ 6 ]"
"Serco Processes 2 Millionth Patent Application for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Date: 18 Mar 2013 Serco Inc., a leading provider of professional, technology, and management services to the federal government, announced today that their Pre-Grant Publication (PGPubs) Classification Services team recently processed their 2 millionth patent application for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). Each application was also processed within the contractually required 28-day window."
"BREAKING: @HillaryClinton's E-Mail Server Company Got Almost $1 Million In Gov't Loans After Wiping E-Mails
OCTOBER 26, 2016
BY CHARLES C. JOHNSON 6 COMMENTS
Give it up already. It's over. K. J. Gillenwater was the primary researcher behind this story.
Hillary Clinton's e-mail server company got almost $1 million in government loans starting immediately after they were secretly asked to wipe Hillary Clinton's name from her e-mails.
Platte River Networks (PRN) got a $493,000 loan from the Small Business Administration in August 2014 and another $350,000 loan in September 2015:
Public government data available as USAspending.gov
The first half-million dollar loan arrived not one month after PRN employee Paul Combetta was caught accidentally revealing his company was deleting evidence at Hillary's request in July 2014 .
The second $350,000 loan came about one year later.
You won't hear this stuff from the lying mainstream media. Keep the GotNews mission alive: donate at GotNews.com/donate or send tips to [email protected]. If you'd like to join our research team, [email protected].
After getting the first loan, PRN moved to a large office space after previously working out of the owner’s condo. The head of the Small Business Administration is Maria Contreras-Sweet , a Mexican immigrant who was appointed to the office by Barack Obama two months before Hillary's PRN got the first loan.
WikiLeaks leaks have proven Hillary's corrupt pay-to-play scheme. GotNews has shined a light on how Hillary gets favors from Hispanic and Democratic government bureaucrats before .
Did Hillary Clinton pay her e-mail server company Platte River Networks (PRN) with almost $1 million in favorable government loans — given out by a political friendly — in order to alter her illegal e-mails and get her name off them?
It sure looks like it.
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has been lodged for more information.
Stay tuned for more.
K. J. Gillenwater was the primary researcher behind this story."
"Police conclude search of Starnet
CBC News Posted: Aug 24, 1999 11:26 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 24, 1999 11:26 AM ET
Police have wrapped up several days of searching the offices of Starnet Communications in Vancouver. They entered the company offices and homes of some directors on Friday.
Police were looking for evidence of illegal gambling, distributing child pornography, and money laundering. Since the raid, Starnet officials say police just don't understand their business.
The search warrant details 18 months of police investigation. It traces a network of companies registered in American and Caribbean jurisdictions.
The warrant also identifies Vancouver as the centre of Starnet's operations, even though this is a grey under Canadian law.
Police note that Starnet's revenues grew dramatically in the past two years, from betting and sex shows and from lucrative licensing agreements for its gaming software. The investigations and pornography from company sites were grounds for Friday's raid and seizure of company materials.
RCMP Constable Peter Thiessen says investigators left Starnet offices yesterday morning. He says, "They spent the better part of three days going through the business. And as a result of that search the investigation is continuing, but no charges have been laid." Starnet's many investors were spooked by the raid. Share prices dropped almost 70-percent on Friday. However, the company insists the raid had minimal effect on its operation. Stocks rose slightly yesterday after a day of very heavy trading.
In written statements, company CEO Mark Dohlen said the Wall Street Journal calls Starnet the leader in Internet gaming and entertainment. He says companies like his, those on the cutting edge, are often misunderstood. Yesterday, Starnet announced it will sell off the sex side of its business. It plans to focus more resources on gaming.
The Police investigation is expected to last for several more months."
"Super Serco bulldozes ahead
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER UPDATED: 23:00 GMT, 1 September 2004
SERCO has come a long way since the 1960s when it ran the 'four-minute warning' system to alert the nation to a ballistic missile attack.
Today its £10.3bn order book is bigger than many countries' defence budgets. It is bidding for a further £8bn worth of contracts and sees £16bn of 'opportunities'.
Profit growth is less ballistic. The first-half pre-tax surplus rose 4% to £28.1m, net profits just 1% to £18m. Stripping out goodwill, the rise was 17%, with dividends up 12.5% to 0.81p.
Serco runs the Docklands Light Railway, five UK prisons, airport radar and forest bulldozers in Florida."
" Serco farewell to NPL after 19 years of innovation 8 January 2015 Serco said goodbye to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at the end of December 2014 after 19 years of extraordinary innovation and science that has seen the establishment build a world-leading reputation and deliver billions of pounds of benefit for the UK economy. During that period under Serco 's management and leadership, NPL has delivered an extraordinary variety and breadth of accomplishments for the UK's economy and industry. Some of the key achievements during that time have been:… It has been estimated that work carried out by the Centre of Carbon Measurement at NPL will save eight million tonnes of carbon emissions reductions (2% of UK footprint) and over half a billion pounds in economic benefit over the next decade…. NPL's caesium fountain atomic clock is accurate to 1 second in 158 million years and NPL is playing a key role in introducing rigour to high frequency trading [for Serco 's front running banks] in the City through NPL [Zulu] Time."
"UK Cabinet Office – Emergency Planning College – Serco …..Types of Exercise Workshop Exercises These are structured discussion events where participants can explore issues in a less pressurised environment. They are an ideal way of developing solutions, procedures and plans rather than the focus being on decision making. Table Top Exercises These involve a realistic scenario and will follow a time line, either in real-time or with time jumps to concentrate on the more important areas. The participants would be expected to be familiar with the plans and procedures that are being used although the exercise tempo and complexity can be adjusted to suit the current state of training and readiness. Simulation and media play can be used to support the exercise. Table-top exercises help develop teamwork and allow participants to gain a better understanding of their roles and that of other agencies and organisations. Command/Control Post Exercises These are designed primarily to exercise the senior leadership and support staff in collective planning and decision making within a strategic grouping. Ideally such exercises would be run from the real command and control locations and using their communications and information systems [Feeling lucky, Punk?] . This could include a mix of locations and varying levels of technical simulation support. The Gold Standard system is flexible to allow the tempo and intensity to be adjusted to ensure maximum training benefit, or to fully test and evaluate the most important aspects of a plan. Such exercises also test information flow, communications, equipment, procedures, decision making and coordination. Live Exercises These can range from testing individual components of a system or organisation through to a full-scale rehearsal. They are particularly useful where there are regulatory requirements or with high-risk situations. They are more complex and costly to organise and deliver but can be integrated with Command Post Exercises as part of a wider exercising package."
"Christopher Rajendran Hyman CBE (born 5 July 1963 in Durban, South Africa)[1] was Chief Executive of Serco Group plc from 2002 to October 2013.[2] … On graduation, he worked for Arthur Andersen. In 1989, he won an 18-month exchange with Ernst & Young in London, who employed him after four months.[1] Head hunted in 1994 by Serco , Hyman became European finance director, and in 1999 was made group finance director. In 2002, Hyman became chief executive. .. Hyman resigned from his role of Chief Executive of Serco on 25 October 2013 following allegations that Serco had overcharged government customers. .. He was [making a presentation to Serco shareholder, including British and Saudi governments] on the 47th floor of the World Trade Center [North Tower] at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001."
"July 7, 2016 Developments in PKI occurred in the early 1970s at the British intelligence agency GCHQ , where James Ellis , Clifford Cocks and others made important discoveries related to encryption algorithms and key distribution.[ 19 ] However, as developments at GCHQ are highly classified, the results of this work were kept secret and not publicly acknowledged until the mid-1990s.
The public disclosure of both secure key exchange and asymmetric key algorithms in 1976 by Diffie, Hellman , Rivest, Shamir , and Adleman changed secure communications entirely. With the further development of high-speed digital electronic communications (the Internet and its predecessors), a need became evident for ways in which users could securely communicate with each other, and as a further consequence of that, for ways in which users could be sure with whom they were actually interacting.
Assorted cryptographic protocols were invented and analyzed within which the new cryptographic primitives could be effectively used. With the invention of the World Wide Web and its rapid spread, the need for authentication and secure communication became still more acute. Commercial reasons alone (e.g., e-commerce, online access to proprietary databases from web browsers) were sufficient. Taher Elgamal and others at Netscape developed the SSL protocol ('https' in Web URLs); it included key establishment, server authentication (prior to v3, one-way only), and so on. A PKI structure was thus created for Web users/sites wishing secure communications.
Vendors and entrepreneurs saw the possibility of a large market, started companies (or new projects at existing companies), and began to agitate for legal recognition and protection from liability. An American Bar Association technology project published an extensive analysis of some of the foreseeable legal aspects of PKI operations (see ABA digital signature guidelines), and shortly thereafter, several U.S. states (Utah being the first in 1995) and other jurisdictions throughout the world began to enact laws and adopt regulations. Consumer groups raised questions about privacy, access, and liability considerations, which were more taken into consideration in some jurisdictions than in others.
The enacted laws and regulations differed, there were technical and operational problems in converting PKI schemes into successful commercial operation, and progress has been much slower than pioneers had imagined it would be.
By the first few years of the 21st century, the underlying cryptographic engineering was clearly not easy to deploy correctly. Operating procedures (manual or automatic) were not easy to correctly design (nor even if so designed, to execute perfectly, which the engineering required). The standards that existed were insufficient.
PKI vendors have found a market, but it is not quite the market envisioned in the mid-1990s, and it has grown both more slowly and in somewhat different ways than were anticipated.[20] PKIs have not solved some of the problems they were expected to, and several major vendors have gone out of business or been acquired by others. PKI has had the most success in government implementations; the largest PKI implementation to date is the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) PKI infrastructure for the Common Access Cards program."
Base One Technologies – Corporate Strategy – We are a Government Certified Women-Owned Business
We practice Diversity Recruitment and Staffing for IT positions Base One was founded in 1994 by a women engineer who had made a career in technology research for many years. Base One has been very successful in focusing on diversity recruiting and staffing for IT projects. It has been our experience that the greater the diversity mix, the more creative the solution. As in any field the more diverse the viewpoint the more thorough your analysis. Our engineers can think out of the box.
Because of our affiliations we have access to pools of resources among more diverse groups & individuals. We work with a large pool of minority professionals who specialize in IT skills. We are able to have access to these resources through our status as a D/MWBD firm and our affiliations. These affiliations assist us in working with resources among more diverse groups & individuals. We are also partnered with firms that are 8A certified as Minority firms, Disabled Veteran firms, Native American firms, Vietnam veteran firms, women owned firms.
Our hub zone location keeps us close to the professional organizations of great diversity. We are active in recruiting from and networking with these community organizations of local IT professionals. This has given us access to a large pool of diversity talent.
Base One's staff of engineers are a diverse group of professionals. This diverse network of engineers helps us to branch out to other engineers and creates an even larger network of resources for us to work with.
The greater the diversity the more complete & thorough the analysis. The broader the spectrum of points of view the broader the scope of the analysis. We feel that a diverse team gives us a greater advantage in creating cutting edge solutions. To that end we will continue to nurture these relationships to further extend our talent pool.
The greater the diversity mix, the more creative the solution.
The more diverse the viewpoint, the more thorough the analysis.
The more diverse our team, the more our engineers can think out of the box.
This is why Base One Technologies concentrates on diversity recruitment in the belief that a diverse team gives us a greater advantage in creating cutting edge solutions."
Information Security Planning is the process whereby an organization seeks to protect its operations and assets from data theft or computer hackers that seek to obtain unauthorized information or sabotage business operations.
Key Clients Benefiting From Our Information Security Expertise: Pentagon Renovation Program, FAA, Citigroup, MCI.
Base One Technologies
Expertly researches, designs, and develops information security policies that protect your data and manage your firm's information technology risk at levels acceptable to your business.
Performs architectural assessments and conducts both internal and external penetration testing. The results of these efforts culminate in an extensive risk analysis and vulnerabilities report.
Develops, implements and supports Information Security Counter measures such as honey-pots and evidence logging and incident documentation processes and solutions."
"Base One Technologies, Ltd. is a DOMESTIC BUSINESS CORPORATION, located in New York, NY and was formed on Feb 15, 1994. This file was obtained from the Secretary of State and has a file number of 1795583. "
"Serco's Office of Partner Relations (OPR) helps facilitate our aggressive small business utilization and growth strategies. Through the OPR, Serco mentors four local small businesses under formal Mentor Protégé Agreements: Three sponsored by DHS (Base One Technologies, TSymmetry, Inc., and HeiTech Services, Inc.,) and the fourth sponsored by GSA (DKW Communications, Inc.). Serco and HeiTech Services were awarded the 2007 DHS Mentor Protégé Team Award for exceeding our mentoring goals." http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/100515p.pdf
"Opened in 1994 as the successor to the Transitional Immigrant Visa Processing Center in Rosslyn, Va., the NVC centralizes all immigrant visa pre-processing and appointment scheduling for overseas posts. The NVC collects paperwork and fees before forwarding a case, ready for adjudication, to the responsible post.
The center also handles immigrant and fiancé visa petitions, and while it does not adjudicate visa applications, it provides technical assistance and support to visa-adjudicating consular officials overseas.
Only two Foreign Service officers, the director and deputy director, work at the center, along with just five Civil Service employees. They work with almost 500 contract employees doing preprocessing of visas, making the center one of the largest employers in the Portsmouth area.
The contractor, Serco , Inc., has worked with the NVC since its inception and with the Department for almost 18 years.
The NVC houses more than 2.6 million immigrant visa files, receives almost two million pieces of mail per year and received more than half a million petitions from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in 2011. Its file rooms' high-density shelves are stacked floor-to-ceiling with files, each a collection of someone’s hopes and dreams and each requiring proper handling. ….
The NVC also preprocesses the chief of mission (COM) application required for the filing of a petition for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). Such visas, for foreign nationals who have performed services for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan, require COM concurrence before the applicant can file a petition with USCIS. The NVC collects the requisite documents from such applicants and, when complete, forwards the package to the U.S. embassies in Baghdad or Kabul for COM approval"
Yours sincerely,
Field McConnell, United States Naval Academy, 1971; Forensic Economist; 30 year airline and 22 year military pilot; 23,000 hours of safety; Tel: 715 307 8222
David Hawkins Tel: 604 542-0891 Forensic Economist; former leader of oil-well blow-out teams; now sponsors Grand Juries in CSI Crime and Safety Investigation
| 1 |
KAIFENG, China — The rooms where Chinese men and women once assembled to pray in Hebrew and Mandarin are silent. Signs and exhibits that celebrated centuries of Jewish life have disappeared. An ancient well, believed to be the last visible remnant of a synagogue, was recently buried under concrete and a pile of earth. After locking down Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and tearing down church crosses in eastern China, President Xi Jinping’s campaign against unapproved religion and foreign influence has turned to an unlikely adversary: a small group of Jews whose ancestors settled in this now faded imperial city near the banks of the Yellow River more than 1, 000 years ago. A few hundred residents had staged a lively, sometimes contentious rebirth of Kaifeng’s Jewish heritage in recent decades, with classes, services and proposals to rebuild the lost synagogue as a museum. Some residents even migrated to Israel. For years, the city government tolerated their activities, seeing the Jewish link as a magnet for tourism and investment. But since last year, the authorities have come down hard on the revival, in an example of how even the smallest spiritual groups can fall under the pall of the Communist Party’s suspicion. The government has shut down organizations that helped foster Jewish rediscovery, prohibited residents from gathering to worship for Passover and other holidays, and removed signs and relics of the city’s Jewish past from public places. “The whole policy is very tight now,” said Guo Yan, 35, a tour guide who advocates a distinctively Chinese strain of Judaism and runs a small museum in an apartment filled with pictures of Kaifeng’s Jewish past. “China is sensitive about foreign activities and interference. ” Only about 1, 000 people claim Jewish ancestry in this city — a drop in China’s ocean of 1. 35 billion people or Kaifeng’s population of 4. 5 million — and only 100 or 200 of them have been active in Jewish religious and cultural activities, experts say. Nobody outside the government seems to know for sure why this tiny band of believers came to be viewed as a threat. But officials appear to have become alarmed about their growing prominence sometime last year as Mr. Xi’s government demanded that religious groups and foreign organizations bow to tighter controls. Judaism is not one of China’s five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Taoism. “Xi has said that religion is a major issue, and when he speaks, that has consequences,” said a burly local businessman who has supported the Jewish revival and who, like others here, asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation by the authorities. “They don’t understand us, and worry that we’re being used. ” He and many of Kaifeng’s Jews, as well as their supporters abroad, said the clampdown did not spring from outright which is relatively rare in China. Shanghai and Harbin, a northeast city, have organized displays and events celebrating their role protecting Jews who fled persecution in Europe. “It’s fear about religion, not just us Jews,” the businessman said. Until a few decades ago, the Jews of Kaifeng seemed destined to fade away, an obscure memory at the intersection of two ancient civilizations. Their forebears, possibly merchants from Persia, settled in Kaifeng when it was the vibrant capital of the Northern Song dynasty and built a synagogue here in the 12th century. For hundreds of years, they prospered largely free of persecution, surviving the rise and fall of successive dynasties. But their numbers dwindled as they intermarried with China’s ethnic Han majority. The synagogue crumbled away. By 1851, when European missionaries acquired a Hebrew Torah in Kaifeng and later presented it to the British Museum, few if any residents could read it. Still, even after decades of Communist rule, some residue of Jewish identity survived in Kaifeng. Parents and grandparents told children of their roots and warned them not to eat pork. The revival here took off in the 1990s as Jewish tourists, scholars and businesspeople from around the world who were curious about this remote outpost of Judaism began to visit and share their knowledge. Several years ago, two organizations, the Institute and Shavei Israel, set up offices and offered classes in Hebrew, Judaism and Jewish history, partly to counter Christian missionaries operating in Kaifeng. “We began with our old generation, which had no foundation,” Ms. Guo said. “But then all these different Jewish groups came in, bringing in different ideas and values. ” The authorities were ambivalent, hopeful that the interest from abroad could help economic development in Kaifeng — a charming yet dilapidated backwater amid China’s frenzied growth — but also wary of foreigners and of Judaism, a religion here. “Anytime it seemed to cross the line of publicity, that’s when there always would be a pushback against the Chinese Jews,” said Moshe Yehuda Bernstein, a researcher in Perth, Australia, who has written about the revival in a forthcoming book. “The idea was: We’ll let you do it, but don’t let anybody know about it. ” But the current clampdown has gone much further than previous ones, residents said. Some blamed a report in The New York Times last year in which a city official attending a Passover banquet spoke sympathetically about the revival, apparently violating government guidelines. Others cited accounts through the community grapevine that a Jewish woman from Kaifeng had won asylum in the United States after claiming religious persecution. “The Kaifeng Jews are in a kind of survival mode again,” said Anson Laytner, a retired rabbi in Seattle and past president of the Institute, who has worked with the Jews in Kaifeng and drawn attention to the clampdown. The institute pulled out of Kaifeng last year after its community worker there, Barnaby Yeh, came under police scrutiny. “I think it was the actions of a government that’s paranoid,” said Mr. Yeh, a convert to Judaism now living in Maryland. Shavei Israel, which had been helping Kaifeng Jews visit and settle in Israel, was forced by the police to close its community center in 2014. Residents tried to keep the center going in a rented apartment, but that was ordered closed this year, one of them said. Even signs of the Jewish historical presence have been erased. An inscribed stone marking the site of the old synagogue was removed from the front of a hospital that occupies the grounds, and workers buried the ancient well behind the hospital. Two hospital employees said city officials had ordered the changes. “All this says that there are no Jews here,” one Jewish man said as he nervously looked around during an interview in a teahouse. He was one of several Jewish residents I met in Kaifeng who said they wanted to reassure the government that they were patriots. But they also said they were afraid of speaking publicly, even to declare their patriotism. “Please remember, don’t make us out to be political,” the man said. “We just want recognition as Jews. ” Jews can still gather in small groups in their homes to pray, and there have been no arrests, they said. But many said police or state security officers were monitoring them. “Before, the Chinese government was very relaxed, but now we’re under more restrictions,” said You Yong, a member of one of the city’s eight historically Jewish clans, who now observes Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, at home. The local office of the party’s United Front Department, which manages ethnic and religious affairs, referred questions to the city’s state security service, which deals with political threats and espionage. Officials there declined to comment. Jewish descendants in Kaifeng do not automatically qualify as Jews under Israeli law because their ancestry has been so diluted. But Michael Freund, the chairman and founder of Shavei Israel, said the Israeli government should raise their treatment with Chinese officials. “It needs to be done respectfully and delicately, but it needs to be done,” he said. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy in Beijing, Efrat Perri, said the embassy “recently became aware of the mentioned developments in Kaifeng” and would “look into it in order to gain a better understanding of the facts. ” The Jewish families I met in Kaifeng seemed determined to preserve their revived identity. Some decorated their homes with traditional candlesticks for Shabbat, grainy photos of grandparents, drawings of Kaifeng’s destroyed synagogue, and maps of Israel. One Friday evening, two couples invited me to join their Shabbat service, for which they had been studying a Torah reading. “You don’t recognize me as a Jew,” the host said, “but I recognize myself as a Jew, and that’s what is most important. ” He broke bread with his brawny hands, and after ceremoniously drinking homemade wine, his guests shared shots of baijiu, a potent Chinese liquor. “Judaism,” the host said, “is all about endurance. ” | 1 |
License DMCA In a TV interview today I was asked, considering the new FBI revelations about Hillary's emails, who would win the election. I replied that the FBI would be the winner, that the USA's intelligence agencies would be deciding who would win-- an outrageous, traitorous situation. On Monday, I had dinner with three heroic NSA whistleblowers-- Bill Binney, Thomas Drake and Kirk WIebe-- after they'd shared the stage in a panel discussion presented at West Chester University. Whistleblowers Thomas Drake, William Binney, Kirk Wiebe and moderator/organizer West Chester professor Jana Nestlerode(image by Rob Kall) License DMCA - Advertisement - I came away with the clear conclusion that the US Intelligence community is a major threat to democracy. The whistleblowers stated that NSA tracks the signal intelligence-- phone calls, emails, credit card transactions, medical bills, automated toll payments-- for every American and for billions of people -- seven billion nodes. The intelligence agencies track every member of congress and all their family and friends. They track all the people in the White House, all the people in the Supreme court, all executives of corporations. All it takes is one brother-in-law selling drugs or hiding a criminal record to get a job and that puts a person of power in congress, the White House, wherever, at risk of coercion. That's why privacy is so important to all of us, even if we have something to hide. We can be blackmailed because we love someone who has something to hide. Remember, Ed Snowden was able to access the information. Actually, there may be thousands of private contractors-- employees of big corporations-- who have access to all or part of the massive data trove. There's even a name for one of the things they do. Remember, "Sig-Int" is the term used to refer to signal intelligence-- anything that can be picked up electronically. These contractors and intelligence agency officers engage in what is called "love-Int," basically spying on wives and girlfriends to find out if they are cheating. The abuse of the system is dangerously, rampantly out of control. The recent disclosures of nebulous information about Hillary Clinton's emails are an outrageous, screamingly transparent effort to influence the election. There is no way to justify the timing. This is just the latest stretching beyond the boundaries by an intelligence agency leader. It has to stop. FBI head Comey should be charged with whatever laws apply which relate to using government power to unlawfully influence elections. It is clear that the FBI as well as the NSA, which surely has had all of the missing emails all along, have used their control over and selective analysis of them to influence the election. This should not have happened. It can never happen again. The presidency of the United States must not be determined by the head or heads of a spy agency. And it looks like that's what we're seeing. Whether you support Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, this process should be horrifying to you. - Advertisement - | 0 |
CHARLOTTE, N. C. — This city’s leaders, faced with mounting demands for transparency after a fatal police shooting of a black man led to rioting, resisted calls on Friday for the immediate release of video of the killing and argued that a rushed disclosure could compromise a criminal inquiry. The status of the police video of the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, and the shooting’s circumstances have been debated here for days, and the discussion deepened on Friday, especially after lawyers for Mr. Scott’s wife, Rakeyia, released a cellphone video that she took of the episode on Tuesday afternoon. During a news conference shortly before Ms. Scott’s video became public, city officials alternated between declaring their commitment to openness and insisting that no official footage should be released before the conclusion of the inquiry by the State Bureau of Investigation. The Charlotte police chief, Kerr Putney, warned that hastily distributed footage might endanger the city’s wary and fragile peace. “If I were to put it out indiscriminately, and it doesn’t give you good context, it can inflame the situation and make it even worse,” he said. “It will exacerbate the backlash. It will increase the distrust, so that is where discernment, judgment and reasonableness have to come in. ” The chief, who is black, added: “It’s not that I want to hide anything. It’s I want to be more thoughtful and deliberate in delivering the whole story. ” Mayor Jennifer Roberts said the video “should be released,” and in a statement after Ms. Scott’s footage began circulating online, she urged the state investigative team “to use every resource at its disposal to get this done and release the information to the public as quickly as possible. ” The demands of protesters, who have sometimes chanted for the release of the footage, gained traction Friday, even after the city made its public defense. When demonstrators took to Charlotte’s streets on Friday for the fourth consecutive night of protests, they reiterated their plea. Protesters also marched in Atlanta. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, said on Twitter that the city should release its footage without delay. Mrs. Clinton initially planned to visit Charlotte on Sunday, but she postponed her trip after Ms. Roberts publicly asked her and Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, to avoid visiting the city for now. A spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton, Jennifer Palmieri, said the trip would be rescheduled for Oct. 2, “provided circumstances allow. ” Earlier, Cornell William Brooks, the president of the national N. A. A. C. P. said the release of the video could not wait. “It’s important the public have as much information as possible,” he said. The state attorney general, Roy Cooper, also urged Charlotte officials to make their footage public. “We must continue in the pursuit of truth while also continuing the important work of bringing our communities and law enforcement together to build trust and safety for all,” said Mr. Cooper, who is the Democratic nominee for governor. “One step toward meeting both goals is for the videos in this case to be released to the public. ” The debate comes as North Carolina prepares to curb access to police videos. A state law, scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, prohibits police recordings from being considered public records, and a court order will be required for their release. Judges will be allowed to consider whether “release is necessary to advance a compelling public interest,” as well as whether publication “would create a serious threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice. ” Gov. Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor who signed the new measure into law this summer, expressed reservations about releasing the footage. “Now more than ever, we have to make sure that we protect the constitutional rights of any individual being involved in that investigation,” Mr. McCrory said. “That is our responsibility. ” The State Bureau of Investigation said late Friday that the Charlotte police had the power to release the footage and that “discussions are actively underway between local officials regarding the release of that video. ” In other developments, the police said that a man had been arrested in connection with the Wednesday night shooting death of a protester, Justin Carr, in central Charlotte. Jail records showed that Rayquan Borum, 21, of Charlotte, was charged with murder. Mr. McCrory said he hoped that the arrest would quell speculation among some protesters that a police officer had opened fire and killed Mr. Carr during Wednesday’s march. Officials were also bracing for the possibility of unrest over the weekend, and Ms. Roberts did not lift the city’s . m. curfew, which she ordered late Thursday. The police did not enforce the curfew early Friday, and Chief Putney indicated that officers might not ever do so. “It is a tool in the toolbelt to help us maintain order,” said Chief Putney, who added that he had requested the curfew, in part, because of intelligence that suggested a “violent group” was traveling to Charlotte from South Carolina. “It gives us discretion. ” Mr. McCrory said he anticipated that the National Guard would remain in Charlotte until at least Sunday, and President Obama, in an interview aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” urged calm. “I think it’s important to separate out the pervasive sense of frustration among a lot of about shootings of people, and the sense that justice is not always colorblind,” Mr. Obama said, adding that illegal behavior during protests was “not going to advance the cause. ” “In Charlotte,” he continued, “my hope is that in the days to come, that people in the community pull together and say, ‘How do we do this the right way? ’” | 1 |
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