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Emails and Groping: Our Halloween Election Keeps Scaring Us to Death
Informed Comment.
All Hallow’s Eve, contracted now to Halloween, became conflated with the Scottish and Irish pagan Samhain, the harvest festival marking the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. It was an in-between time, when the barrier between this world and the next shimmered and let in decrepit old sprites and gods and monsters that had begun slipping away into the aether with the advent of Christianity. And, the souls of the dead of the past year intruded to visit their homes before being shunted off to the netherworld, as well. Since Celts thought power resided in the head, they often beheaded defeated enemies, so All Hallow’s Eve was the occasion for a fair amount of fumbling about on the part of those who had died violently.
The 2016 election is very much like Samhain, i.e. like Halloween, in breaking down ordinary time and reality, and letting ogres of the past into our daily lives.
So we can’t get out of our minds the image of those tiny hands, back in 1982, and 1996, and 1998, grabbing parts of strangers’ anatomy. The simulacrum of the grabber and kisser and predator has popped out into 2016 and wants to replace George Washington and Ike Eisenhower. We are being asked, with a straight face, to elect a groper in chief. A puritan people who drove Gary Hart from politics for some hanky panky on The Monkey Business and impeached Bill Clinton even though he never got to third base, is now all right with making president someone who groped a porn star and then offered to drop $10,000 when he couldn’t get his way. We are entranced and willing to give our fates into the hands of a weird combination of Frankenstein’s monster and the Vampire Lestat.
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The horror of Halloween always lies in the evil deeds of the past now resurrected, as with Syrian director Moustapha Akkad’s “Halloween” films.
And we’ve had to hear again about the soiled blue dress and the conquests of Bill.
And again about the Anthony Weiner sexting. And to learn what we never wanted to know, that the FBI is investigating him for sexting with a minor. I mean, if that isn’t a Halloween horror movie I don’t know what is.
And Herbert Hoover has come back to tell us we’re in a Great Depression and the only way to get out of it is to halt budget deficits and tighten our belts and lower taxes on the rich (the opposite of how FDR actually got us out of the Depression). The creepy dead and the blighted fading deities of old have come crowding through our 2016 rift in the time space continuum. Long-since failed and discredited trickle down economics has been cheekily resurrected. Why, if only you give more of the nation’s money to the super-rich, they’ll make you rich too. You’ll see. Just wait. And wait. And wait.
It is as though the worst nightmares of the old Soviet Communists finally came through, but with all the irony of history, only after they themselves had faded into the netherworld.
( Human Rights
And then there is the revived horror of the Japanese internment and the exclusion of Holocaust-threatened Jews from the United States, only with the perverse magic of Samhain the Japanese have become Mexicans and the Jews have become their spiritual cousins, the Muslims, the other Abrahamians.
So no wonder Hillary Clinton’s emails can’t be killed. They are Undead emails, slipping in at the fraying of dimensional reality in this season of resurrected monsters and corpses, to haunt us.
Only the silver stake of an actual election can finally kill these spiteful specters, and save us from this long night of phantasy horror. TAGS: | 0 |
How does someone who knows nothing about football get their Instagram football rant published on ESPN’s front page? Well, simple, make it a Instagram football rant. [On Sunday, Spike Lee had brunch in Manhattan with Colin Kaepernick, something which all hardcore revolutionaries do. After their meeting, Lee took to Instagram and posted this: Just Had Brunch With My Brother Colin @Kaepernick7 . How Is It That There Are 32 NFL Teams And Kap Is Still A Free Agent? WTF. Smells MAD Fishy To Me, Stinks To The High Heavens. The New York Need A Quarterback. Who Is The Quarterback? Is My Man Joe Willie Namath Coming Back? Crazy Times We Live In. The Question Remains What Owner And GM Is Going To Step Up And Sign Colin So Their Team Has A Better Chance To WIN? What Crime Has Colin Committed? Look At The QB’s Of All 32 Teams. This Is Some Straight Up Shenanigans, Subterfuge, Skullduggery And BS. ? . By Any Means Necessary. And Dat’s Da NoFunLeague Truth, Ruth. A post shared by Spike Lee (@officialspikelee) on Mar 19, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT, Twitter reaction from the dominated sports media flowed in quickly. All two of them: How is Spike Lee’s opinion on NFL quarterbacks front page news at ESPN? https: . Spike Lee? — Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) March 20, 2017, It’s what MSESPN does, textbook. https: . — Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 20, 2017, Rich Cimini of ESPN in part by citing the Jets quarterback needs, referencing Colin Kaepernick’s past achievements, and pointing out that the Jets owner is a Republican: It’s no secret the Jets are looking for a veteran quarterback. They spent the weekend wining and dining journeyman Josh McCown, 37, who left Sunday without a contract. The two sides will continue to talk. The Jets also remain interested in Jay Cutler and perhaps others in what is considered a weak QB class. From all indications, the Jets have no desire to sign Kaepernick, despite the fact that he is only 29 and has four postseason wins on his résumé. Jets owner Woody Johnson is a prominent GOP supporter who raised millions for Donald Trump last fall, during the presidential campaign, Johnson blamed Kaepernick for being one of the main reasons for the NFL’s declining TV ratings. ” Jason Whitlock’s point about Spike Lee not knowing anything about football cannot be stressed enough. Kaepernick has won only eleven games as a starter in the last three years. This, after Kaepernick notched seventeen wins in his first two years of actual play. Not only that, Kaepernick has never thrown for more than 3, 369 yards in any season. To put in perspective just how awful that stat is, Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott, two rookie quarterbacks, both went well over the 3, 369 yard mark in their first seasons in the league. Cam Newton, who had one of the worst seasons to an MVP award in NFL history, threw for over 3, 500 yards this year. Even Alex Smith, the aging and declining quarterback whom Kaepernick replaced in San Francisco, threw for more yards this year than Kaepernick ever has. These numbers clearly illustrate that Kaepernick has regressed over the last three years. So, the idea that signing him represents some kind of “ ” decision for NFL executives, and that Kaepernick’s current status as unemployed should be considered “MAD Fishy,” is in and of itself “MAD Fishy. ” It makes ESPN’s choice to feature Lee’s Instagram post on their front page, well, ridiculous. The fact remains, that Kaepernick exercised his 1st Amendment right to speak out. Up until this point, NFL executives have exercised their right to not hire him. However, even though Kaepernick has regressed, he will eventually get signed by someone, even if it only amounts to a last minute deal. Also of note, Tim Tebow is 29 years old. And, unlike Kaepernick, actually has a winning record in the NFL. Yet, has no contract with an NFL team. But, there’s nothing “MAD Fishy” about that. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 1 |
When Masayoshi Son, the billionaire Japanese technology investor, solidified his control over his SoftBank internet conglomerate last month, he told shareholders he still wanted to “work on a few more crazy ideas. ” One of those ideas materialized on Monday, when SoftBank unveiled an audacious $32 billion deal to acquire ARM Holdings, the British semiconductor designer. The deal — one of the biggest of the year — would give the Japanese company control of a firm whose chip designs can be found in most of the world’s mobile gadgets, from iPhones and drones to a growing array of smart devices and appliances for the home. The deal is the first major transaction in Britain since it voted to exit the European Union last month. Worries over the impact to the British economy have weakened the value of the country’s currency and made it cheaper for foreign companies like SoftBank to hunt for deals there. Compared with this same time in 2015, for example, assets are 30 percent cheaper for buyers holding yen. For SoftBank, the deal signals another reinvention, this time with a major bet on a future filled with interconnected devices. While major technology companies see a future in smart thermostats and toasters, the technology has not yet become widely available. At the same time, global sales of smartphones have slowed, showing the mobile future has limits. “ARM and SoftBank have an overlap on how we see the future,” Simon A. Segars, ARM’s chief executive, said in an interview. But he left the door open for another offer. “Now that the offer is in the public domain, if anyone wants to make a counteroffer, they are more than welcome to do so,” he said. “There’s always a possibility of someone counterbidding. ” British leaders, under pressure to address global worries about the country’s future outside the European Union, portrayed the deal as an endorsement. “Softbank’s decision confirms that Britain remains one of the most attractive destinations globally for investors to create jobs and wealth,” Philip Hammond, the new chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a statement. Mr. Son said he was a “strong believer in the U. K.,” and he added that he had spoken with Mr. Hammond and Theresa May, Britain’s new prime minister, about the deal on Sunday. The deal is the proposed corporate merger this year, behind Bayer’s offer for Monsanto and a Chinese company’s proposal for Syngenta, according to the firm Dealogic. If completed, it would also be the chip deal on record, after Avago Technologies’ $37 billion deal for Broadcom. SoftBank already has ties to ARM through Sprint, the American wireless carrier that it controls. Mr. Son said he first spoke with ARM’s chairman about two weeks ago regarding a possible takeover, and added that the deal came together quickly. The two sides eventually agreed to a price — more than 70 times ARM’s net earnings in 2015. The deal is expected to close in November. Mr. Son described the deal as a bet on the “internet of things,” a new stage in the evolution of network technology, when cars, buildings and household items may be connected through embedded electronics. He framed the social and economic implications in grand terms. “First there was the internet, then the mobile internet and next there will be the internet of things, which is going to be the biggest paradigm shift in human history,” he said at a news conference. “I’m making this investment at the very beginning of this shift. ” ARM Holdings may not be a household name, but it is most likely that one of the company’s chip designs powers your smartphone, tablet or other mobile device. It devises chips and parts of chips that use less power so that they can be used in smaller gadgets. ARM had a market capitalization of about $22 billion as of Friday’s close, and the proposed acquisition represents a 43 percent premium over the company’s closing share price last week. Started in 1990 as a spinoff from Acorn Computers, a British computer maker, ARM has gone from a small of fewer than 20 people to a global leader whose technology is used in more than 90 percent of smartphones produced by Apple and Samsung, among others. ARM took an early lead on chips for mobile devices, while the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets has been more challenging to traditional chip makers like Intel. Unlike Intel, ARM forgoes the high margins — and equally high production costs — of directly manufacturing microchips. Instead, its engineers design chips, which are then licensed to larger technology companies like Qualcomm that pay ARM fees and royalties for manufacturing the chips. The company’s revenue totaled a mere $1. 5 billion last year, compared with $55. 4 billion for Intel over the same period. But as ARM’s chips have become increasingly powerful, the company’s stable of customers have begun to create devices that directly compete with those powered by Intel. That can be seen in particular in the world of computer servers, which have become the lifeblood of the internet as people’s online activities move into the cloud. As smartphone sales have slowed, ARM has invested millions of dollars in chip designs aimed at new customers, including automakers and household product companies, that are looking to add internet connectivity to their existing products. Mr. Son said he intended to double the number of employees at ARM in the next five years, and he said he would make that pledge a legally binding commitment enforceable by Britain’s takeover panel. SoftBank had been signaling that it was preparing for a major move. Last month, Mr. Son reasserted control over SoftBank’s overseas investment portfolio, easing out a former Google executive whom he had been grooming as his successor. In a statement announcing the departure of the executive, Nikesh Arora, Mr. Son said he had decided to stay on as SoftBank’s chief for at least five or 10 more years. SoftBank has recently been selling assets and raising cash. Last month, it sealed an agreement to sell its majority stake in Supercell, the developer of Clash of Clans and other mobile games, to China’s Tencent Holdings for about $8. 6 billion. It also recently sold about $10 billion of shares in Alibaba, the Chinese internet giant. Until now, SoftBank has invested mostly in the services side of the technology business — internet companies like Yahoo Japan and Alibaba, and mobile phone carriers like Sprint and Vodafone, whose Japanese arm Mr. Son bought in 2006 and turned into one of Japan’s dominant carriers. But abrupt changes in direction are part of SoftBank’s DNA. Mr. Son founded the company in the 1980s as a distributor of computer software. When he broke into the mobile phone market with the Vodafone purchase in 2006, many predicted disaster — SoftBank lacked experience in the industry, and the $15 billion deal loaded it with debt. But the business, renamed SoftBank Mobile, soon became a cash cow. Raine Group, Robey Warshaw and Mizuho Securities advised SoftBank on the deal, while Lazard and Goldman Sachs advised ARM Holdings. | 1 |
By Pao Chang
This is a very interesting video that shows a free energy generator built based on some of Nikola Tesla’s inventions and teachings. This overunity energy generator does not need any fuel to work and has the ability to harness the energy of the environment. In the video, the generator is buried underground and salty water is poured on top of it. The only part of the generator that is above the ground is the wire for connecting to electronic devices.
From YouTube.com :
This movie I found on a torrent site about a year ago, I have no idea what they are saying, who they are, or when it was shot, but clearly it is a very interesting movie showing how this man gets energy from the earth to power light bulbs and other things! Look closely at his homemade rectifiers, spark gap, etc. Maybe a giant joule thief? Who knows? If anyone can translate for us, we would appreciate it a bunch. The file name was called free energy-geo. Thats all we know about it, thanks for watching! More info when it comes at: perpetualmotionholder.com.
Tariel Kapanadze – Generator De Energie Gratuita – 5KW [English Subtitle]
Source: Energy Fanatics
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Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Security Question: What is 8 + 7 ? Please leave these two fields as-is: IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-) Doom and Bloom | 0 |
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC © drshel.com Researchers at Oregon State University have found that a specific detoxification compound, glutathione, helps resist the toxic stresses of everyday life -- but its levels decline with age and this sets the stage for a wide range of age-related health problems. A new study, published in the journal Redox Biology , also highlighted a compound -- N-acetyl-cysteine, or NAC -- that is already used in high doses in medical detoxification emergencies. But the researchers said that at much lower levels NAC might help maintain glutathione levels and prevent the routine metabolic declines associated with aging. In that context, the research not only offers some profound insights into why the health of animals declines with age, but specifically points to a compound that might help prevent some of the toxic processes involved. Decline of these detoxification pathways , scientists say, are causally linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer , some of the primary causes of death in the developed world. "We've known for some time of the importance of glutathione as a strong antioxidant," said Tory Hagen, lead author on the research and the Helen P. Rumbel Professor for Health Aging Research in the Linus Pauling Institute at OSU. "What this study pointed out was the way that cells from younger animals are far more resistant to stress than those from older animals," said Hagen, also a professor of biochemistry in the OSU College of Science. "In young animal cells, stress doesn't cause such a rapid loss of glutathione. The cells from older animals, on the other hand, were quickly depleted of glutathione and died twice as fast when subjected to stress. "But pretreatment with NAC increased glutathione levels in the older cells and largely helped offset that level of cell death." Glutathione, Hagen said, is such an important antioxidant that its existence appears to date back as far as oxygen-dependent, or aerobic life itself -- about 1.5 billion years. It's a principal compound to detoxify environmental stresses, air pollutants, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals and many other toxic insults. In this study, scientists tried to identify the resistance to toxins of young cells, compared to those of older cells. They used a toxic compound called menadione to stress the cells, and in the face of that stress the younger cells lost significantly less of their glutathione than older cells did. The glutathione levels of young rat cells never decreased to less than 35 percent of its initial level, whereas in older rat cells glutathione levels plummeted to 10 percent of their original level. NAC, the researchers said, is known to boost the metabolic function of glutathione and increase its rate of synthesis. It's already used in emergency medicine to help patients in a toxic crisis, such as ingestion of poisonous levels of heavy metals. It's believed to be a very safe compound to use even at extremely high levels -- and the scientists are hypothesizing that it might have significant value at much lower doses to maintain glutathione levels and improve health. "I'm optimistic there could be a role for this compound in preventing the increased toxicity we face with aging, as our abilities to deal with toxins decline," Hagen said. "We might be able to improve the metabolic resilience that we're naturally losing with age." Also of interest, Hagen said, is the wide range of apparent detoxification potential offered by glutathione. Higher levels of it -- boosted by NAC -- might help reduce the toxicity of some prescription drugs, cancer chemotherapies , and treat other health issues. "Using NAC as a prophylactic, instead of an intervention, may allow glutathione levels to be maintained for detoxification in older adults," the researchers wrote in their conclusion. Journal Reference: Nicholas O. Thomas, Kate P. Shay, Amanda R. Kelley, Judy A. Butler, Tory M. Hagen. Glutathione maintenance mitigates age-related susceptibility to redox cycling agents. Redox Biology, 2016; 10: 45 DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2016.09.010 Comment: | 0 |
Email
The second presidential debate flew off the rails on Sunday night when Donald Trump invoked accusations of sexual misconduct against Bill Clinton and suggested that Hillary Clinton could "be in jail" if he's elected in November, threatening to appoint a special prosecutor to look into her private email server.
ABC's Martha Raddatz, one of the debate moderators, asked Trump whether his behavior exposed in the shocking 2005 video released Friday, in which he bragged about groping and kissing women without permission, was consistent with his current behavior.
"As I told you, that was locker-room talk," Trump said. "I am not proud of it. I am a person who has great respect for people, for my family, for people of this country, and I'm not proud of it."
Trump then said if you "look at the history of politics in this country, no one had been so abusive of women" as former President Bill Clinton, the husband of the Democratic nominee, whom Trump suggested intimidated those women.
Three women who had previously accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct held a press conference with Trump earlier Sunday, and each was seated in the front row at the debate.
"Mine were words — his were actions," Trump said.
"So, don't tell me about words," he continued. "I am absolutely, I apologize for those words. But it is things that people say. Bill Clinton. He was impeached. He was no longer allowed to practice law. He had to pay an $850,000 fine to one of the women, Paula Jones, who is here tonight. That when Hillary brings up a point like that, brings up words I say 11 years ago, I think it's disgraceful. And I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth."
Donald Trump: "If I win, I'm going to instruct my attorney general" to investigate Clinton https://t.co/raPU4ICkl6 https://t.co/IWGVUleEtr
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 10, 2016The former secretary of state responded by saying that "so much of what he just said is not right" but that he was doing it because of his floundering campaign.
"I am reminded of what my friend Michelle Obama advised us all," she said. "When they go low, you go high."
"And, look, if this were just about one video, maybe what he's saying tonight would be understandable," she said. "But everyone can come to their own conclusions about whether or not the man in the video or the man on the stage respects women. But he never apologizes to anyone for anything."
She mentioned that Trump had not apologized to the Khans, a couple who lost a son, a Muslim US soldier, during the Iraq War. Trump engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth with the Khans after they appeared at the Democratic National Convention in July.
Clinton also said Trump had not apologized to a reporter whose disability he mocked in front of a camera, a federal judge who Trump said couldn't do his job fairly because he was of Mexican descent, and President Barack Obama, whose birthplace Trump tried to discredit in a multiyear campaign.
"He owes the president an apology, he needs to apologize to our country, and he needs to take responsibility," she said.
Trump responded by repeating the false claim that the Clinton campaign started the rumors casting doubt on Obama's birthplace in 2008. He added that she owed an apology for the "33,000 emails you deleted."
"If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation," Trump said. "Because there have never been so many lies, so much deception. And we're going to have a special prosecutor."
Clinton said everything Trump said was "absolutely false" but she was "not surprised."
"Oh really?" Trump interjected.
Clinton then mentioned the difficulty in fact-checking Trump, to which he capped off the exchange by saying "you'd be in jail" during his potential administration. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The continuing breakdown in Washington’s ability to govern seemed to spread like a contagion Thursday through all three branches of government. The dysfunction somehow managed to reach new levels. The Supreme Court, left by a Republican refusal to act on President Obama’s nominee in the final year of his presidency, deadlocked on a major immigration case. The inaction validated a lower court finding against the administration’s attempt to allow millions of unauthorized immigrants to live legally in the United States. Mr. Obama, who sought to address the nation’s immigration crisis through his executive powers because of a persistent impasse on Capitol Hill, was unable to achieve one of his major goals — which pleased Republicans but left the president angry and disappointed. Democrats ended a raucous protest on the House floor, failing to gain a vote on gun safety issues but exulting in the attention they received via a breakout social media campaign that threw the House rule book out the Capitol’s neoclassical windows. Republican leaders accused Democrats of trying to capitalize on the Orlando, Fla. shooting while destroying the decorum of the House. The decision by Democrats to act out in the House was just the latest attempt to upend the political status quo in a year distinguished by political disruption, from Donald J. Trump rattling the Republican establishment to Senator Bernie Sanders — the democratic socialist who made an appearance at the House protest — drawing huge crowds of young voters with calls to radically change the way Americans think about government. Partisan turmoil is nothing new in Washington. But the cloistered Supreme Court now finds itself disrupted as well by its empty seat, unable to fully function because of a Senate unwilling to act. In what passes in today’s capital for a breakthrough, eight Senate Republicans joined Democrats in giving majority support to a bipartisan compromise to prevent terrorism suspects from buying firearms. But that plan, engineered by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, can go nowhere until she rounds up significantly more Republican support. Tempers were short and patience waned after a long night of confrontation on the House floor occupied by Democrats to the outrage of Republicans, who forced an adjournment vote shortly before 3 a. m. Thursday. “This is the people’s House, this is Congress, the House of Representatives, the oldest democracy in the world and they’re descending it into chaos,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan told reporters Thursday as the protest was winding up. “This isn’t a proud moment for democracy or for the people who staged these stunts. ” As part of that final vote, House Republicans approved and sent to the Senate a bill to address the Zika health threat months after the White House sought the money. But the package, assembled with little Democratic participation, contained elements they knew Senate Democrats would oppose. The calculation appeared to be that if Democrats now block it, they will the ones blamed rather than Republicans. Democrats saw that as just another provocation. “What you are seeing happening is a level of frustration that is just boiling over,” said Representative Joseph Crowley of New York, one of the ringleaders of the Democratic floor revolt. For the duration of the the House chamber, where electronic devices and photographs are frowned on, was awash in selfies, Facebook Live and Periscope. Even normally staid engaged in guerrilla video warfare, streaming a feed from a House member’s phone on its House channel, showing the action as seen from the floor instead of the usual camera angles from the gallery above. House Democrats joyfully flouted House rules. Republicans said that some of their members urged the leadership to employ a device to cut off the coverage, but that was deemed a bad idea. Mr. Ryan and other Republicans suggested there could be repercussions in the form of ethics complaints or other actions against Democrats. “We’re reviewing everything,” he said. “We are reviewing everything right now, as to what happened and how to make sure that we can bring order to this chaos. ” What the payoff will be for that chaos orchestrated by House Democrats remains unclear. They were already expected to gain seats in the November election but a takeover is still considered a long shot, even with Mr. Trump as the Republican nominee. And Mr. Ryan showed that he could still command the House even during the protest. Still, the defiance by House Democrats, who angrily declined to head out of town without so much as a vote on gun control after the killings in Orlando proved that they were willing to fight. They had seen their brethren in the Senate, who have much more legislative leverage, force a vote on gun proposals and did not want to be pushed aside by the House majority. But the inability of the Supreme Court to issue a decision, the Senate stalemate on guns, the dispute over Zika and the disorder on the House floor as lawmakers almost came to blows in an American version of foreign legislators duking it out could just turn people off Washington even more — if that is possible. With dawn just a few hours off, Mr. Ryan jammed through the Zika spending bill and his motion to adjourn to allow Republicans to leave town without even so much as the briefest of debates. “So we’re locked out of everything, if I am understanding the rule correctly?” Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, a Democrat who is considered an expert on House rules, asked of Mr. Ryan. “This is a lousy process, Mr. Speaker. ” The House, as they say on Capitol Hill, was not in order, and the rest of the government was struggling as well. | 1 |
Christmas jams at the tunnel Chop through hustle and bustle Snow and lights make wonderland Out of this concrete jungle. Mary J. Blige, “Christmas in the City” | 0 |
Supermodel sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid took to the streets of New York City on Sunday and joined in protests of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. [The pair were spotted and photographed alongside protesters at the “No Ban, No Wall” protest in Manhattan. The sisters held a sign that read, “We Are All Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, Christians, Jews,” with the words formed to spell “HUMANS. ” A photo posted by Bella Hadid (@bellahadid) on Jan 29, 2017 at 8:56pm PST, January 29: #GigiHadid and #BellaHadid at the #NoBanNoWall march in New York City. A photo posted by Hadid News (@hadidnews) on Jan 29, 2017 at 3:21pm PST, #NoBanNoWall, A photo posted by Hadid News (@hadidnews) on Jan 29, 2017 at 3:33pm PST, Last week, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at enhancing security particularly along the U. S. border and enforcing the immigration laws already on the books. President Trump also signed an order suspending the U. S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days, which prohibits the arrival of refugees into the United States during that period while the refugee vetting process is being reviewed. Sunday wasn’t the first time that the Hadid name was linked to Trump. Gigi Hadid faced fierce backlash last November over what critics called a “disgraceful” and “disrespectful” impression of First Lady Melania Trump during the American Music Awards. After Trump was elected, however, the model told the Associated Press that “honestly, as a country, we have to give [Trump] a chance because that’s what our country voted for and that’s what we accept as citizens in this country. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 0 |
President Donald Trump signed another executive order on Monday that would slash federal regulations. [Trump explained during the signing ceremony at the White House that for every new regulation that would be created, two other regulations would have to be cut. “If there’s a new regulation, we have to knock out two,” Trump said. “But it goes beyond that. We’re cutting regulations massively for small business and for large business. ” Trump met with small business leaders earlier in the morning, who joined him for the signing ceremony. Trump called his order the “biggest such act that our country has ever seen” and said it would help kickstart small businesses. | 0 |
Fifteen years after NATO bombings, Montenegro wants to join NATO 07.11.2016 | Source: AP photo Montenegro's prosecutor for investigations in the field of organized crime, Milivoye Katnich, said that a group "Russian nationalists" was plotting to assassinate Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, who is known for his pro-Western orientation. "Organizers of a criminal group, who are nationalists from the Russian Federation, proceeded from the fact that the government of Montenegro chaired by Milo Djukanovic would not be changed as a result of elections, so one had to overthrow the government by force," the prosecutor said, Pravda.Ru reports. Pravda.Ru asked an expert opinion from an expert at the Institute of European Studies, Stevan Gayich. "Is it a provocation of the pro-Western government? Who is standing behind it?" "What the prosecutor's office of Montenegro, and the Djukanovic regime in general, have been doing recently can be described as walking in the fog. The opposition does not recognize the elections, and the government has found itself in a deep political crisis. Djukanovic has already announced that he will not be prime minister if his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) forms the government. The socialists already say that the DPS has supposedly formed a government, meaning that Montenegro is sure to be a NATO member. In fact, however, the government has not been formed. They defend the interests of the West, so the fight has risen to a higher geopolitical level. "No evidence has been provided. In my opinion, this story is completely fabricated in a very poor way to stir up some noise during the elections and create an atmosphere of fear among opposition voters." "How should Russia respond?" "Russia should at least respond on the level of diplomacy. Montenegro, as a historically Serbian state, used to be a pro-Russian country. NATO bombed Montenegro 15 years ago, and one had to completely change the identity of the people to make Montenegro a NATO member. One of the key points of the identity of the people of Montenegro, the Serbian people, is their attachment to Russia. One had to strike a serious blow on this peculiarity of the people of Montenegro to create a new identity." On October 16, Montenegro held parliamentary elections. Twenty Serbian citizens were detained on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack and a coup on the election day. According to preliminary data, the people wanted to attack citizens and police officers who gathered in front of the parliament with a view to proclaim the victory of one of the political parties and imprison the prime minister of Montenegro. Pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic won the elections. Pravda.Ru Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru | 0 |
Here’s The Shocking Reason Why You Need To Know If Your Doctor Is Republican Or a Democrat
Former president Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, Tina Flournoy, sent an email with attached photo to Brian Fallon, Hillary Clinton’s national press secretary.
According to the email, Podesta wanted to post the image to Twitter, but Fallon suggested giving it to the New York Post. Flournoy said she would send more information about the event, including those who attended.
The Post didn’t run the story, but gossip writer Perez Hilton did, and he included all of the details about the event. The following week, the media ran several stories that raised questions about Sanders attending fundraisers for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Advertisement - story continues below
Here it is, whether you’ve ever wanted to see Sanders’ legs or not:
Talk about creepy. It looked like Clinton had her team stalking Sanders, looking for any opportunity to embarrass him or make him look bad. This was apparently the plan from day one.
It’s true that the last place Sanders should have been caught hanging out after railing against Wall Street was poolside at a plush resort on Martha’s Vineyard, but the heart of this email revealed who the Democrats are, which is nothing but a selfish, money-grubbing group of people who are as mean-spirited as their leader . Advertisement - story continues below | 0 |
By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor on October 29, 2016 FBI Memo: Comey knew nothing was in emails and admits to releasing memo to influence election without cause. Comey: “we do not know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails” Comey had stored these totally innocent emails as part of the long expected October Surprise. What is Comey being promised? Golf memberships, a free Trump condo? More? Comey says this not an investigation but “supplementing the record.” All this while Trump awaits a December trial for raping a 13 year old.
FBI Director James Comey told his bureau that he broke with custom in alerting lawmakers that the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was being reopened because of its political sensitivity.
In an internal memo obtained by Fox News, the beleaguered director noted that the FBI typically would not communicate with the public when reopening a case, according to a Department of Justice source. But Comey said he had to in this case because Clinton is seeking the White House in an election on Nov. 8.
FBI letter from Director James Comey (Fox News)
“Of course we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed,” Comey wrote. “I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.
“At the same time, however, given that we do not know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression,” Comey’s letter continued. “In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter, and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directy from me about it.”
Justice officials (Including the Attorney General of the United States) warned FBI that Comey’s decision to update Congress was not consistent with department policy
Senior Justice Department officials warned the FBI that Director James B. Comey’s decision to notify Congress about renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was not consistent with long-standing practices of the department, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
Comey told Justice officials that he intended to inform lawmakers of newly discovered emails. These officials told him the department’s position “that we don’t comment on an ongoing investigation. And we don’t take steps that will be viewed as influencing an election,” said one Justice official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the high-level conversations.
“Director Comey understood our position. He heard it from Justice leadership,” said the official. “It was conveyed to the FBI, and Comey made an independent decision to alert the Hill. He is operating independently of the Justice Department. And he knows it.”
Comey decided to inform Congress that he would look again into Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails during her time as secretary of state for two main reasons: a sense of obligation to lawmakers and a concern that word of the new email discovery would leak to the media and raise questions of a coverup.
The rationale, described by officials close to Comey’s decision-making on the condition of anonymity, prompted the FBI director to release his brief letter to Congress on Friday and upset a presidential race less than two weeks before Election Day. It placed Comey again at the center of a highly partisan argument over whether the nation’s top law enforcement agency was unfairly influencing the campaign.
In a memo explaining his decision to FBI employees soon after he sent his letter to Congress, Comey said he felt “an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed.”
[Read the letter Comey sent to FBI employees explaining his decision]
“Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record, ” Comey wrote to his employees.
The last time Comey found himself in the campaign spotlight was in July, when he announced that he had finished a months-long investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information through the use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. After he did so, the denunciation was loudest from Republican nominee Donald Trump and his supporters, who accused the FBI director of bias in favor of Clinton’s candidacy. There was also grumbling within FBI ranks, with a largely conservative investigative corps complaining privately that Comey should have tried harder to make a case.
This time the loudest criticism has come from Clinton and her supporters, who said Friday that Comey had provided too little information about the nature of the new line of investigation and allowed Republicans to seize political ground as a result. The inquiry focuses on Clinton emails found on a computer used by former U.S. congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), now under investigation for sending sexually explicit messages to a minor, and top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who is Weiner’s wife. The couple have since separated.
“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election,” John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign, said in a statement. “The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”
Officials familiar with Comey’s thinking said the director on Thursday faced a quandary over how to proceed once the emails, which number more than 1,000 and may duplicate some of those already reviewed, were brought to his attention.
Comey had just been briefed by a team of investigators who were seeking access to the emails. The director knew he had to move quickly because the information could leak out.
The next day, Comey informed Congress that he would take additional “investigative steps” to evaluate the emails after deciding the emails were pertinent to the Clinton email investigation and that the FBI should take steps to obtain and review them.
In July, Comey had testified under oath before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the FBI was finished investigating the Clinton email matter and that there would be no criminal charges. Comey was asked at the hearing whether he would review any new information the FBI came across.
“My first question is this, would you reopen the Clinton investigation if you discovered new information that was both relevant and substantial?” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) asked Comey during the hearing.
“It’s hard for me to answer in the abstract,” Comey replied at the hearing. “We would certainly look at any new and substantial information.”
In the Friday memo to his employees, Comey acknowledged that the FBI does not yet know the import of the newly discovered emails. “Given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression,” Comey wrote.
An official familiar with Comey’s thinking said that “he felt he had no choice.”
“What would it look like if the FBI inadvertently came across additional emails that appear to be relevant to the Clinton investigation and not at least inform the Oversight Committee that this occurred?” the official said. “What would be the criticism then? That the FBI hid it? That the FBI purposely kept this information to themselves?”
The official said the decision came down to which choice “was not as bad as the others.”
Comey’s action has been blasted by some former Justice Department officials, Clinton campaign officials and Democratic members of Congress.
“Without knowing how many emails are involved, who wrote them, when they were written or their subject matter, it’s impossible to make any informed judgment on this development,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who called the release “appalling.”
“However, one thing is clear: Director Comey’s announcement played right into the political campaign of Donald Trump, who is already using the letter for political purposes. And all of this just 11 days before the election,” Feinstein said.
Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman in the Obama administration, said the FBI rarely releases information about ongoing criminal investigations and does not release information about federal investigations this close to political elections.
“Comey’s behavior in this case from the beginning has been designed to protect his reputation for independence no matter the consequences to the public, to people under investigation or to the FBI’s own integrity,” Miller said.
Miller and other former officials pointed to a 2012 Justice Department memo saying that all employees have the responsibility to enforce the law in a “neutral and impartial manner,” which is “particularly important in an election year.”
Miller said he had been involved in cases related to elected officials in which the FBI waited until several days after an election to send subpoenas. “They know that if they even send a subpoena, let alone announce an investigation, that might leak and it might become public and it would unfairly influence the election when voters have no way to interpret the information,” Miller said.
Nick Ackerman, a former federal prosecutor in New York and an assistant special Watergate prosecutor, said Comey “had no business writing to Congress about supposed new emails that neither he nor anyone in the FBI has ever reviewed.”
He added: “It is not the function of the FBI director to be making public pronouncements about an investigation, never mind about an investigation based on evidence that he acknowledges may not be significant.”
In Comey’s note to employees, he seemed to anticipate that his decision would be controversial.
“In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood,” Comey wrote. Related Posts: | 1 |
PHILADELPHIA — Nearly three years ago, the N. F. L. and lawyers for thousands of retired football players agreed on a deal to compensate all former players who had neurological diseases linked to repeated hits to the head, helping the league to move on from one of the most contentious issues facing the nation’s most popular sport. But it took an appellate court ruling Monday to affirm the deal, which potentially provides retirees up to $5 million each, and all but closed the door on future challenges by players in the matter. As much as the debate continues in the court of public opinion on whether football is safe and whether the league has done enough to make it so, the court of law has decided that the league can be on the hook for damages only in a limited way. In a ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit here unambiguously upheld a district court’s approval of the deal, over the objections of some players who had argued that the terms were too restrictive and would not take care of many players who developed serious neurological problems over time. The appellate judges, sitting in Philadelphia, acknowledged the objectors’ points but turned them aside because they found that the settlement benefited the greater good among players. “They risk making the perfect the enemy of the good,” the court said of the players who objected that the settlement was too restrictive. “This settlement will provide nearly $1 billion in value to the class of retired players. It is a testament to the players, researchers and advocates who have worked to expose the true human costs of a sport so many love. Though not perfect, it is fair. ” The appellants can still ask a larger panel of judges at the Third Circuit to hear their appeal, or they can solicit the Supreme Court. But both challenges appear to be long shots because the appeals court ruled overwhelmingly to affirm, legal experts say. In almost every major question before the appeals court, the panel sided with Judge Anita B. Brody of United States District Court, who has overseen the settlement since the hundreds of individual cases against the N. F. L. were consolidated in Philadelphia more than three years ago. The appeals court judges interpreted their role as having not been to determine if the settlement was good or bad, but if it was “fair” and “reasonable” under the conditions of the deal. In that regard, they left little doubt that Judge Brody had acted within her bounds. “They didn’t say this was a good settlement, they said it was a reasonable settlement that was reached,” said Michael Kaplen, a plaintiffs’ lawyer who specializes in cases of head trauma, and a frequent critic of the settlement. “They don’t care that large numbers of players weren’t compensated, only that this was the best deal that their lawyers could make. ” In backing Judge Brody’s decision to approve the settlement, the appeals court judges noted that only a small number of players had objected or opted out. More than 98 percent of retired players approved the deal, which was originally struck in 2013, revised in 2014 to remove the cap on how much the N. F. L. might have to pay players over the life of the settlement, and revised again in 2015. Steven Molo, lead counsel for the players who appealed, said, “We are disappointed in the court’s decision,” and “we are reviewing the opinion and considering our options. ” Mr. Molo and the handful of players who did appeal the decision argued, among other things, that players who were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C. T. E. a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma, should be covered through the life of the deal, not just if they were found to have the condition before the settlement was approved in 2015, as the deal currently states. The appeals court, though, said that Judge Brody’s ruling on C. T. E. and the treatment of the symptoms of the disease was “reasonable. ” The appeals court also said that the admission last month by a N. F. L. executive of a link between C. T. E. and head trauma was “not a ground for reversal of the settlement’s approval. ” The emphatic decision by the appeals court on Monday moved the N. F. L. a step closer to ending one of its most contentious, embarrassing and expensive legal challenges. The spectacle of thousands of former players suing the league for lying to them, and the prospect that some players might have testified in court about the harm they suffered, led the league to promise to pay potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to former players in dire straits. In the deal, the N. F. L. admitted no fault and, critically, insisted that all retired players be included in the settlement, not only the 5, 000 or so who originally sued the league. This has largely removed the threat of a string of endless challenges in the future. In the settlement, players can receive cash payments of up to $5 million if they find out they have Alzheimer’s, A. L. S. Parkinson’s or severe dementia, or were found to have C. T. E. before the settlement was approved last year. Though the ceiling is $5 million, the amount players are paid is based on their age and number of years in the league, and therefore is likely to be far less. The number of players with these conditions may end up being a minority of the pool of retired players. All of them, though, can receive medical tests, paid for by the league, to monitor their conditions. The lawyers for the retired players, who have asked the league to pay $112 million for their legal fees, applauded the appeals court ruling and urged the objectors not to pursue their case further. (Judge Brody will rule on those fees.) “We are pleased with the Third Circuit’s decision to completely uphold the District Court’s approval of the settlement,” Christopher Seeger, counsel for the retired N. F. L. players, said. “This extraordinary settlement’s implementation has been delayed enough by this small group of objectors, whose arguments have been exhaustively examined and overruled by both the District Court and Third Circuit. ” Seeger said that more than 8, 000 retired players have tried to register for benefits, even though the claims process has not opened yet. Only the 150 or so players who opted out of the settlement can continue to sue the league in the matter. Winning individual cases against the N. F. L. may be difficult, though. The league and plaintiffs’ lawyers have noted that the science surrounding C. T. E. is still in its infancy and therefore should not be treated with the same certainly as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions covered in the settlement. The N. F. L. and the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that the conditions associated with C. T. E. like memory loss, are covered under the deal. C. T. E. is diagnosed only posthumously. Some of the players who appealed the settlement said the deal should leave open the possibility that a test will be developed to diagnose the disease in the living. The N. F. L. and lawyers for the retired players added a provision that would allow the players and the league in several years to review the way that C. T. E. is treated in the settlement. Mr. Kaplen, the critic of the deal, said he did not expect the league to willingly broaden the boundaries of who would be eligible for an award. “It’s foolhardy,” he said. “Do you think the N. F. L. is going to open their wallet in 10 years? Experience tells you it’s not going to happen. ” Players who opted out of the settlement and sue the league face other hurdles, among them the issue of whether their case is governed by the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players, an issue that the district court judge in the case did not rule on. | 1 |
Thank the god atop the thing, the 2016 election is almost over. It has been a grueling, often excruciating, process but here we are. I repeat, it’s almost over.
So on the eve of election day, let’s take a look at the four major campaign’s closing arguments—what their candidacies represent and their visions for America.
Hillary Clinton
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her final case for the establishment in “The Story of Us.” The ad, much like the campaign itself, is a highly misleading and sanitized presentation.
Clinton, the eternal triangulator, celebrates progressive victories she had next to nothing to do with like marriage equality, while positioning herself as a champion for combating Islamophobia (something she has actually contributed to). The only honest argument made is that she will be the first female president.
No mention is made of her own pro-corporate and pro-war policies, or really any of her policies, which is no accident. Hillary Clinton has not so much run for office in the general election as run against Donald Trump taking office, a cynical strategy that appears likely to work if current polling is to be believed.
For more information on what our likely next president will be up to, check out Shadowproof’s series on the Podesta Emails.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump closed out his unorthodox and largely chaotic campaign with “Donald Trump’s Argument For America.” The ad is explicitly anti-establishment and targets “global special interests” with references to Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and free trade and their corrupting influence on the political system in Washington DC.
Trump is never more popular than when he is attacking globalism, especially when considering that Hillary Clinton told Brazilian bankers in a private paid speech she dreams of a “hemispheric union” with open borders and transnational governance. Many people already fear power has slipped out of their hands and those that govern them are accountable to more powerful distant interests.
But Donald Trump has managed to constantly get in the way of his own populist message on the campaign trail. Trump’s crude and ignorant statements—including ad hoc policy proposals that were straight up racist and bigoted—are well out of step with American history and norms. While most mainstream outlets opposed Trump from day one, they still took advantage of such statements as a business opportunity.
Trump made his name in the Republican primaries going hard on illegal immigration, which is a genuine concern for many Americans. But while many Americans want to do something about immigration, few supported Trump’s incendiary rhetoric . No one was more offended by this than Hispanic-Americans, who are likely to respond by voting for Clinton to such a degree that, if Trump loses, they will have made the difference.
Gary Johnson
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, running for president on the Libertarian ticket, has positioned himself as the most viable alternative to the two party system given he is on the ballot in all 50 states and that the Libertarian Party is the third largest party in the country. His ad, “This Is The Year,” emphasizes his independence and honesty.
Johnson’s actual libertarian agenda , however, is not necessarily populist. While his opposition to the War on Drugs has earned him many supporters on the left, his free market ideology is pretty extreme. Johnson is pro-TPP, pro-Citizens United/unrestricted money in politics, and against raising the minimum wage and paid family leave. He also opposes free college or really most government social programs.
Gary Johnson’s campaign strategy appeared to rest mostly on ballot access and getting into the presidential debates. While he got on the ballot in all 50 states, thanks in large part to libertarian party organizing, he never polled well enough to qualify for the presidential debates and was not included. He has gotten a considerable amount of press exposure, but most of it has been negative due to the press’ intractable allegiance and support for Hillary Clinton as well as Johnson’s own missteps, which included yelling at reporters and conceding in an interview he did not know what the city of Aleppo, a major battleground in the Syrian Civil War was.
While Johnson was pilloried by the Clinton-backing mainstream corporate media, the New York Times had to issue two corrections about its own smug story lambasting Johnson for his ignorance.
Jill Stein
Dr. Jill Stein, running for president on the Green Party ticket, appears content that her chances of winning the presidency are non-existent and has set her sights on getting 5% of the national vote. Getting 5% of the vote would qualify the Green Party for presidential matching funds and help the party get automatic balloting in a number of states for the 2020 presidential election.
Stein is, in truth, the only progressive candidate among those polling in the top four and further to the left than Senator Bernie Sanders. She is running on a platform that includes 100% renewable energy by 2030, supporting Black Lives Matter, and making criminal justice reforms, full employment (with government employer as last resort), and a guaranteed living wage, universal single-payer or “Medicare for all” healthcare, curtailing government electronic surveillance, and ending the American empire.
Stein’s plan to pay for it all is as simple as it is radical: massive cuts to the Pentagon budget combined with major tax increases on the rich. While these ideas are pretty standard for a social democratic party in Western Europe, such a program is revolutionary in the United States.
But every revolution has to start somewhere, doesn’t it?
So there are your candidates, the election is tomorrow and the day after that, hopefully, is the end of the 2016 cycle. We made it.
The post Election 2016: The Candidates Make Their Closing Arguments appeared first on Shadowproof .
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TEL AVIV — President Donald Trump on Saturday said both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had assured him they were ready to “reach for peace. ”[Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “assured me he is willing to reach for peace with Israel in good faith, and I believe he will,” Trump told U. S. troops in Sicily, while summarizing his first state visit overseas as a “home run. ” “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured me that he too was ready to reach for peace. He’s a friend of mine and he means it,” Trump said. “All children from all faiths deserve a future of hope and peace, a future that does honor to God,” he added. He also said that he and Netanyahu “continued our discussion about fighting terrorism and crushing the organizations and ideologies that drive it. ” He said that recent terror attacks in the UK and Egypt highlighted the urgency for the U. S. to “defeat terrorism and protect civilization. ” “Terrorism is a threat, bad threat to all of humanity,” Trump said. “And together we will overcome this threat. We will win. ” About Israel, Trump gushed that he was “awed by the majesty and beauty of the Holy Land and the faith and reverence of the devoted people who live there. ” On Sunday, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said it had arrested six Palestinian men, including three PA policemen, suspected of seven separate shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers. | 0 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah declared Saturday that Mustafa Amine Badreddine, the senior commander who died in Syria this past week, had been killed in an artillery attack by insurgents whom the group has been fighting for the past four years. Hezbollah said in a statement that the killing would increase “our determination to continue the fight against these criminal gangs and defeat them,” blaming “takfiri groups,” a term for Islamist extremists that Hezbollah broadly applies to insurgents opposed to its ally in Syria, President Bashar . But the declaration raised more questions than it answered, as fierce speculation continued about how, when, where and by whom Mr. Badreddine was killed, and what the death reveals about the state of Hezbollah and its war effort in Syria. A day earlier, when Hezbollah announced his death, Lebanese media outlets sympathetic to the group initially blamed Israel, the group’s main enemy, for the attack. Israel is widely believed to have assassinated several senior Hezbollah commanders over the past few decades and has carried out a number of airstrikes in Syria, officially unacknowledged but confirmed by Western officials, against the group. If Israel was not responsible — as numerous Israeli analysts have suggested — that would ease the pressure from Hezbollah’s supporters to retaliate. Retaliation could risk igniting a war on Lebanon’s southern frontier at a time when the group, stretched thin because of its operations in Syria, cannot easily afford to open a new front. On the other hand, if insurgents managed to pull off the assassination of a senior Hezbollah figure, rather than merely getting off a lucky shot with the usually imprecise attack of an artillery bombardment, that could be embarrassing for Hezbollah. The group has presented itself as outmatching the insurgents in Syria and preventing them from expanding into Lebanon. Such an attack would make Hezbollah appear newly and surprisingly vulnerable to insurgent foes who had not demonstrated that degree of operational or sophistication. “If one of their lead figures can be killed in a secure area by one of those groups, it would send a signal that they are far weaker than presented,” said Phillip Smyth, an American analyst who studies Hezbollah and other Shiite militias fighting in Syria. Adding to the mystery is that Syrian opposition monitoring groups and residents of Damascus, the capital, say there had been no major shelling over the past week near the Damascus airport, where, Hezbollah said, the attack took place. And no insurgent group has taken responsibility for the attack — surprising given that the array of insurgents, from the Islamic State to Syrian Army defectors, would presumably be eager to do so. Despite rivalries and disagreements among them, they all view Hezbollah as a mortal enemy aiding Mr. Assad in crushing a popular uprising against him. Some of Mr. Assad’s opponents have speculated that Mr. Badreddine may have been killed in Khan Touman, in northern Syria. According to Iranian news outlets, a number of Iranian fighters and allied militia members, including Hezbollah members, have been killed there in insurgent attacks over the past week. The killing also raises questions about operational security. As it expands in Syria, Hezbollah has begun working with many Syrian militia members, some of whom could be double agents. The attack could also mean that a rebel or jihadist group worked with a foreign intelligence agency to pinpoint and attack Mr. Badreddine, said Ali Rizk, a Lebanese analyst close to Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s statement said the attack underscored its view of the Syrian war as being of a piece with its fight against Israel. The group sees the insurgents opposed to Mr. Assad and his closest ally, Hezbollah’s patron Iran, as being allied with the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. | 0 |
Регион: Ближний Восток В арабских странах, как, впрочем, и во всех столицах мира с пристальным вниманием следили за ходом президентской кампании в США. И это понятно: для народов этого истерзанного войной региона исключительно важно, кто будет в Белом Доме и как это может сказаться на обстановке и жизни граждан. Что касается уходящего президента Б. Обамы, то в местных СМИ только ленивый не критиковал политику его администрации, причем в самых резких выражениях. «Наследие Обамы на Ближнем Востоке – это практически полное фиаско: конфликты продолжаются в Сирии, Ираке, Йемене, Ливии, — не раз писал сайт «Аль-Джазира», приводя цитаты из выступления известного профессора-международника из Гарварда Стефена Уолта. — Террористические акции потрясли Турцию, Тунис, Ливан. Ситуация в Палестине остается невнятной, а перспектива урегулирования между израильтянами и палестинцами все больше отдаляется. Действия США в Ливии и Йемене привели к развалу этих государств. А «мантра» Обамы с требованием ухода Асада лишь серьезнейшим образом обострила гражданскую войну в Сирии. Единственным достижением, которое уходящий президент может как-то «записать в свою копилку», — это договоренность об Иранской ядерной программе». По мнению египетской газеты «Аль-Ахрам», «в этой кампании было так много негативного, что вряд ли США смогут отойти от этого в ближайшее время». «Если в Америке видели маяк демократии, то свет этого маяка в последнее время заметно потускнел», — отметила ливанская «Дейли Стар». Особенно резко высказывается саудовский журналист Хаед Аль-Маена в «Сауди Газет». «Эти выборы — самые поляризованные в истории США», — пишет он. Анализируя ход выборной кампании автор делает вывод о том, что «арабы должны больше полагаться на себя и не ожидать чего-либо от американского президента, кто бы им не стал». Жесткой критике журналист подвергает деятельность Х.Клинтон. «Она полностью склонилась перед израильтянами, даже обещала пригласить израильского премьера Нетаньяху в качестве первого иностранного посетителя в Белый дом. Она объявила о твердой поддержке правительства, которое оккупирует земли и угнетает людей, убивает детей и практикует худшую форму апартеида…. Эта женщина не испытывает никаких угрызений совести – какими только словами она не ругает девушек, которые обвиняли ее мужа в изнасиловании. А последние публикации ее электронных писем из «ВикиЛикс» показывают, что она считает выгодным для Израиля разрушение Сирии». В правящих кругах и в СМИ ближневосточных стран превалирующим было предположение, почти даже уверенность, что победу одержит Х.Клинтон. Именно из этого исходили многие политические деятели, руководители крупных экономических корпораций. Успех Д.Трампа был скорее неожиданным и многих поверг в состояние растерянности. Ныне внимание сосредоточено на изучении и анализе заявлений нового 45 президента США. Д.Трамп высказывался в том плане, что намерен быть по одну сторону с Россией и сирийским режимом в борьбы с ДАИШ, — отмечают многие СМИ, подчеркивая, что Х.Клинтон то и дело талдычила о свободной от полетов зоне в Сирии. Многие арабские издания особо выделили ту часть из выступления Д.Трампа на Национальном конвенте Республиканской партии в июле 2016 года, где он упрекал администрацию Обамы в том, что «Америка склонились перед Китаем, Мексикой, Россией и ДАИШ. Однако самое пристальное внимание привлечено к оценкам Трампа, связанным с исламом и беженцами-мусульманами. Сайт «Аль-Джазира» опубликовал статью под названием «Президент исламофобии», в которой утверждалось, что он поднялся к вершинам власти через исламофобскую кампанию и теперь исламофобия станет его официальной политикой. Отмечалось при этом, что поначалу, когда в одном из заявлений Трамп ратовал за запрет мусульманам на въезд в США, эта его позиция не встретила одобрения. Однако уже в марте 2016, по данным опроса, значительная часть американцев полностью поддержала эту линию Трампа. Отдельный болезненный вопрос для арабского мира — позиция нового президента США в отношении арабо-израильского конфликта. «Трамп, — пишет выше упомянутый журналист Х.Аль Маена, — также не принесет ничего хорошего для арабской линии: наивный и не опытный он будет делать только то, что полагает хорошим для себя. И действительно, — заключает он, — как можно относиться с симпатией к арабам, если они вцепились друг другу в глотки». Не только Х.Аль Маена, но и многие арабские комментаторы отмечают, что Трамп позитивно высказывался об Израиле и даже вроде обещал перенести посольство США в Иерусалим — объявленную, но не признанную столицу Израильского государства. «Джерусалем Пост» уже подчеркивало, что «израильские правые восприняли победу Д.Трампа как «конец эры Палестинского государства». Владимир Машин, кандидат исторических наук, политический обозреватель, специально для интернет-журнала «Новое Восточное Обозрение». Популярные статьи | 1 |
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I feel strongly that the Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American people, not on the side of the powerful corporations and the wealthy. For me, that means that we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women’s rights, on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community, that will stand up and say no to Citizens United, a decision that has undermined the election system in our country because of the way it permits dark, unaccountable money to come into our electoral system. ”
– Hillary Clinton
The first salvo from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (or rather, her answer to the first question posed by Fox News’ Chris Wallace to her and Donald Trump at the third presidential debate) was as chilling as it was an exemplar of hypocrisy.
Those on the left are quite fond of leveling the accusation against conservatives of employing “dog whistle politics,” rhetoric that allegedly contains hidden or esoteric derogatory messaging which targets a specific subgroup within the opposition. Ms. Clinton’s response to Wallace’s question (where they wanted to see the Supreme Court take the country, and their views on how the Constitution ought to be interpreted) however, was representative of this tactic.
While women’s rights and those of the LGBT community may seem to be a curious focus for the high court (since objectively, women wouldn’t appear to be particularly oppressed given that one has been nominated to run for president, and the LGBT community accounts for less than 5 percent of the American population), Clinton’s answer revealed the focus she believes the court should have once she becomes empress.
“Women’s rights” is of course “dog whistle” for unfettered abortion, even late-term abortion, which is essentially infanticide via dismemberment. “LGBT rights” is “dog whistle” for disenfranchising the majority of Americans who hold traditional values, primarily Christians. Leveraging a vocal minority of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender individuals whom the left has whipped into a froth against Christians is the methodology that was employed to negate the political power of Christians in Europe and Canada. A direct assault via legislation in this area would not work in the U.S. (at least not at present); however, judicial rulings could effectively bring about the same result.
Let us leave aside for a moment the fact that judicial activism is unethical and skirts the Constitution and that Clinton’s overall objectives are manifestly evil. Hillary Clinton’s stated priorities for the Supreme Court are a clear indicator of her desire to use the court as a bludgeon against the Constitution and individual liberties, rather than allowing it to perform its designated function. The hypocrisy attendant to Clinton citing the rights of women and homosexuals when she is beholden via financial contributions to nations that institutionally persecute and murder members of these groups remains plain for all to see, despite being conveniently ignored by the press.
Clinton’s reference to “powerful corporations and the wealthy” and the malign influence of that sinister conservative organization, Citizens United, was of course another exercise in blatant hypocrisy. Clinton is quite wealthy, and corrupt or otherwise compromised powerful corporations have been instrumental in bringing about the designs of American socialists. Even if Citizens United were a vehicle for “dark, unaccountable money,” the scope of its influence would pale next to the subversive designs of the Muslim Brotherhood , with which Bill and Hillary Clinton have been partnered for decades, or the myriad tentacles of organizations funded by George Soros , the former Nazi collaborator dedicated to advancing oligarchical collectivism in America, someone with whom the Clintons also have a long association.
One need not attempt to decipher the thinly veiled intent behind Clinton’s debate rhetoric to discern what a Hillary Clinton presidency might look like. Her actions to date – and particularly those in the pursuit of seeking that office – should suffice quite nicely. Despite the craven complicity of the establishment press (mainstream media), there is ample evidence for even the most indolent news consumer to reach the conclusion that she and the Democratic leviathan supporting her, and which facilitated Barack Obama’s rise to power, are fundamentally malignant.
In recent days, we’ve become aware of all manner of unethical conspiracies and outright criminality that’s been brought to bear in getting Clinton elected, from Democratic officials tampering with the outcome of the illegal email server investigation, to the oversampling of key demographics in polling in order to enhance the public perception of Clinton’s popularity, to the recent revelation of criminally prosecutable actions on the part of the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the White House.
The bottom line here is that Hillary Clinton represents a class of people who transcend even the loathed archetypal modern politician in their rapaciousness and amorality. What all Americans – not just voters, and not just Republicans – need to realize is that leaders at the highest levels in the Republican Party are every bit as culpable as the gutter operatives of the Democratic Party who pay miscreants to dress up as ducks, instigate fistfights at opposition rallies and, yes, even vote for their candidates.
The burning question is this: In the end, are we to be governed by the will of the people, or are we going to continue pretending that we have a representative government, when we are in effect being ruled by abject thugs operating behind a faux veneer of government? | 1 |
This is definitely not the way that announcers in New Orleans — or, for that matter, commentators on the TNT network — will introduce the lineup for the N. B. A. ’s slam dunk contest on Saturday night. “Please welcome … Aaron Gordon, who has averaged 8. 8 points per game in three seasons for the Orlando Magic … “Derrick Jones Jr. who has scored a total of 11 points in seven games for the Phoenix Suns … “Glenn Robinson III, with his 4. average over five seasons for three different teams . .. “And DeAndre Jordan, the one name casual fans should know, with his averages of 8. 9 points and 10 rebounds in nine years with the titleless Los Angeles Clippers. ” You will not hear any such statistics cited on Saturday night, even though it is absolutely true that none of the participants have managed to average 9 points a game over the course of a career. The N. B. A. which can no longer persuade its biggest names to participate in such a risky novelty event, seems to be doing just fine with its and players headlining the dunk contest. Last year’s event, in Toronto, for example, was an aesthetic and ratings success. Once airborne, the contest was a showdown between Zach LaVine, the eventual winner, and Gordon that brought back memories of Michael Jordan versus Dominique Wilkins in the 1980s, minus the outsize reputations. LaVine passed the ball behind his back before one dunk. Gordon routed it through his legs on a reverse dunk. According to The Associated Press, the telecast drew seven million viewers at its peak, the highest total for any cable show that night. A dunk contest among LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and John Wall would surely attract a larger audience. But the event requires too much rehearsal and too many hard landings for such a commitment by established superstars. LaVine has emerged recently as something of a dunk celebrity, and he might have given the contest in New Orleans a significant boost. But even before his season ended this month with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, LaVine announced that he would not vie for a third consecutive victory. There are only so many ways you can ram a basketball through a hoop. “I feel like I’ve accomplished everything I could in the dunk contest,” LaVine, 21, told reporters last month. “It would be hard for me to go back and outdo myself. I’m never saying I won’t ever do it again, but I’m focused on this year. Getting the rest and just focusing more on just the game is the main thing. ” While the cast of daredevils continues to change, there remains a core fan base that simply loves outrageous pretzel jams by relatively anonymous contestants. That theory will be put to its biggest test on Saturday, with the quartet of ? If even this event manages to pull strong ratings, organizers should consider an even greater leap of faith: Do participants really need to be N. B. A. players, or basketball players at all? Couldn’t tall, acrobats manage even trickier circus dunks? The league could include both players and nonplayers, calling the event “Dunking With the Stars. ” When it comes to luring big names to its break antics, Major League Baseball has easily eclipsed the N. B. A. Baseball continues to showcase some of its biggest stars in its home run derby — which has attracted TV viewership similar to the dunk contest’s in recent years. But its audience appeal also seems more dependent on names. Giancarlo Stanton beat such notables as Robinson Cano and Todd Frazier in 2016, when the derby drew 5. 5 million viewers, according to the Sports TV Ratings website. Viewership was higher in 2015, at 7. 1 million, when Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs joined the festivities. It may be that baseball’s stars are more easily persuaded to participate in the home run derby because the contest requires little practice and, unlike the dunk contest’s reliance on judging, is decided by a simple, objective standard — how many baseballs are knocked over the wall. Still, even such a straightforward event requires a great deal of energy and is not tailored for frazzled veterans. “The home run derby wears you out,” David Ortiz told WEEI. com when he decided not to participate in the 2016 event. “It’s good for the younger guys to do it, puts you on the map for a minute. It takes everything out of you. You definitely have to be in your 20s to do it. ” That goes double for the dunk contest. Double twist, with a reverse finish. | 1 |
We Use Cookies: Our policy [X] Wikipedia Founder ‘Moved On’ For Begging On London Street November 15, 2016 - BREAKING NEWS , BUSINESS Share 0 Add Comment
LONDON city police have confirmed today that they had to “move on” Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales this morning after he was found to be begging on the side of the street.
The 50-year-old entrepreneur was given a verbal warning by the police, who told him he was “making the place look bad”, and that he should try selling Big Issue magazines, or roses, like everyone else if he wants to make a few pound.
Mr. Wales, who co-founded the online non-profit encyclopedia, claimed he was trying to raise money for his organisation in a bid to fund it, and denied any wrongdoing on his part.
“Wikipedia doesn’t rely on online advertising revenue, so we have to find other means of raising money to keep it going,” he told WWN, “I’ve tried busking, but I’m a terrible singer and people just booed me off the street. I said this morning I’d give begging a go, but the police in London are quite strict about that kind of thing and I was told to clear off”.
The grandson of four later added that he might try raising money as a street entertainer instead, and paint himself from head to toe in grey, cement like paint, stating he’s very good at staying still.
“I’ve sent millions of emails to people around the world, asking them for a few bob, but you’d swear I was asking for their first born or something,” he added, ” Less than 1% of our readers give, but yet Wikipedia solves millions of drunken debates every minute; from who is your man starring in that film, to explaining the observational theory in quantum mechanics. Wiki saves time, and sometimes lives”.
If you wish to donate to Jimmy’s cause, please click HERE | 0 |
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s recently impeached president, Park was arrested on Friday, becoming the first South Korean leader to be put behind bars since the mid 1990s, when two former military dictators were imprisoned on corruption and mutiny charges. Ms. Park’s dramatic downfall capped months of turmoil and intrigue, as huge crowds took to the streets to protest a sprawling corruption scandal that shook the interlocking worlds of government and business — including the leadership of Samsung, the nation’s largest conglomerate. A judge at the Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant early Friday morning, warning that if Ms. Park were not taken into custody quickly she might “destroy evidence. ” The charges against her include bribery, extortion and abuse of power. In December, the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to impeach Ms. Park, and she was formally removed from office on March 10. Her removal rattled the delicate balance of relationships across Asia at a tense moment. Ms. Park’s conservatives, in power for four years, had joined the United States in pressing for a hard line against North Korea’s nuclear program. She had accepted Washington’s deployment of an advanced missile defense system that has angered China, which is fearful of an arms race in the region. Moon the liberal opposition leader considered most likely to win the May 9 election to select a new president, has vowed to review that decision, as well as an unpopular deal she struck with Japan over the comfort women, or Korean sex slaves, used by Japan’s army during World War II. Mr. Moon is also viewed as less confrontational toward North Korea and China, and has advocated dialogue to halt the North’s nuclear and missile threats. Ms. Park had spent the night in the prosecutor’s office waiting to learn if she would be placed under arrest. Shortly after 3 a. m. Judge Kang issued the warrant and Ms. Park was taken to a jail outside Seoul, the South Korean capital. Prosecutors had already said that they would indict the former president on 13 criminal charges regardless of whether the judge issued an arrest warrant. Once her trial begins in the coming weeks, Ms. Park will commute from her cell to a Seoul courthouse. Ms. Park was accused of conspiring with a longtime confidante, Choi to collect tens of millions of dollars from big businesses, including more than $38 million in bribes from Samsung. Both Ms. Choi and Samsung’s top executive, Lee have previously been arrested and are standing trial on charges including bribery. On Thursday, hundreds of emotional supporters were gathered near her red brick house in southern Seoul as her motorcade pulled out for the hearing. Some tried to push past police officers lining the road. “We can’t let you go!” they shouted, some of them trying to hurl themselves onto the road. Protesters also threw yellow plastic police fences at uniformed officers who tried to push them back. The ride was nationally televised, with a fleet of television crews following her car. If she is convicted of bribery, Ms. Park, 65, could face between 10 years and life in prison, although her successor has the power to free her with a special presidential pardon. Ms. Park’s arrest added another tragic chapter to the story of her family, which has mirrored the country’s tumultuous modern history. Her father, Park who ruled South Korea from 1961 to 1979, was considered the initiator of the country’s dramatic economic growth but was also vilified as a dictator who used martial law and torture to silence dissidents. In 1974, her mother, Yuk was fatally shot by a Korean assassin who had targeted her husband. Ms. Park’s father was assassinated five years later by his spy chief. After leaving the presidential Blue House, Ms. Park lived in seclusion, unmarried and without children. In the succeeding decades, while the country moved toward democracy, her family drew little attention. Then in the late 1990s, as the economy faltered in the financial spasms that engulfed Asia, and South Koreans began yearning for the kind of charismatic and stern leadership her father represented, Ms. Park was catapulted into political stardom. She seized the opportunity and won a parliamentary seat in 1998, casting herself as a faithful daughter on a mission to rebuild the nation and restore the honor of her father and his generation, whom she credited with fighting Communism and creating a vibrant, economy from the ashes of the Korean War. In 2013, she returned to the Blue House, her childhood home, after winning the presidential election. She was the first child of a former president to win the presidency. Older South Koreans were among her most fervent supporters, while critics warned that she was trying to take the country back to its authoritarian past. Four years later, her career ended in disgrace. In a speech last November, as the growing scandal paralyzed her government, she tearfully confided that she regretted ever becoming president. While a majority of South Koreans believe her ouster was merited, Ms. Park’s fall from grace has been hard to accept for many older, conservative South Koreans who still worshiped her father and family as Koreans once did their ancient kings. “Your highness, I am so sorry that I am powerless to protect you,” an old woman recently wailed on the pavement in front of Ms. Park’s home. “Please forgive me, your highness. ” Since she returned to her home on March 12, hundreds of supporters holding South Korean flags have been rallying daily outside the house to protest her impeachment and oppose her arrest. Ms. Park, who has never accepted the Constitutional Court ruling that ended her presidency, did not answer questions shouted from reporters as she walked into the courthouse on Thursday. But she had earlier denied any legal wrongdoing. Last fall, local news media and former associates of Ms. Choi’s began exposing lurid details of Ms. Park’s alleged conspiracy to abuse her presidential authority to help Ms. Choi, one of her few friends, to collect bribes or extort large “donations” from big businesses. With the economy slowing and youth unemployment rising, the allegations convinced people that Ms. Park had inherited the worst traits of her father: an authoritarian streak and corrupt ties with the business elite. They took to the streets in central Seoul, up to two million at a time, marching peacefully to demand her resignation. When she refused to step down, the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to impeach her on Dec. 9, and she was formally removed from office on March 10. Ms. Park was the first South Korean leader to be forced from office in response to popular pressure since the country’s founding president, Syngman Rhee, fled into exile in Hawaii in 1960 after protests against his corrupt, authoritarian rule. Two former presidents — the military dictators Chun and Roh — were arrested in 1995 on charges of each collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes. The two men, former army generals, also faced sedition and mutiny charges for their roles in the 1979 military coup that brought them to power and in the 1980 massacre of antigovernment demonstrators in the southwestern city of Gwangju. Mr. Chun was sentenced to life in prison while Mr. Roh was sentenced to 17 years. Both were pardoned and released in December 1997. | 1 |
Nouvelles sanctions européennes contre la République arabe syrienne Réseau Voltaire | Bruxelles (Belgique) | 28 octobre 2016 Décision d’exécution (PESC) 2016/1897
du Conseil du 27 octobre 2016
mettant en œuvre la décision 2013/255/PESC concernant des mesures restrictives à l’encontre de la Syrie L’Union européenne a ajouté 10 personnes à la liste des « personnes et entités faisant l’objet de sanctions à l’encontre du régime syrien » (sic), c’est-à-dire de la République arabe syrienne.
Cette décision porte à 217 personnes et 69 entités les objets de sanctions.
Numéro Nom Informations d’identification Motifs Date d’inscription 207 Adib Salameh (alias Adib Salamah ; Adib Salama ; Adib Salame ; Mohammed Adib Salameh ; Adib Nimr Fonction : général de division, directeur adjoint de la direction du renseignement de l’armée de l’air à Damas Membre des services de sécurité et de renseignement syriens en poste après mai 2011 ; directeur adjoint de la direction du renseignement de l’armée de l’air à Damas ; ancien chef du Service de renseignement de l’armée de l’air à Alep.
Membre des forces armées syriennes ayant le rang de colonel ou équivalent ou un grade supérieur, en poste après mai 2011 ; a rang de général de division.
Responsable de la répression violente exercée contre la population civile en Syrie, en ce sens qu’il a planifié des attaques militaires à Alep et y a participé, et qu’il a autorité pour faire arrêter et emprisonner des civils. 28.10.2016 208 Adnan Aboud Hilweh (alias Adnan Aboud Helweh ; Adnan Aboud) Fonction : général de brigade A rang de général de brigade des 155e et 157e brigades de l’armée syrienne, en poste après mai 2011.
En sa qualité de général de brigade des 155e et 157e brigades, il est responsable de la répression violente exercée contre la population civile en Syrie, notamment en raison de sa responsabilité dans le déploiement et l’utilisation de missiles et d’armes chimiques dans des zones civiles en 2013 et de sa participation aux vagues d’emprisonnement à grande échelle. 28.10.2016 209 Jawdat Salbi Mawas (alias Jawdat Salibi Mawwas ; Jawdat Salibi Mawwaz) Fonction : général de division A rang de général de division, officier supérieur à la direction de l’artillerie et des missiles de l’armée syrienne, en poste après mai 2011.
En sa qualité d’officier supérieur à la direction de l’artillerie et des missiles, il est responsable de la répression violente exercée contre la population civile en Syrie, y compris l’utilisation de missiles et d’armes chimiques par les brigades placées sous son commandement dans des zones civiles densément peuplées, en 2013, à la Ghouta. 28.10.2016 210 Tahir Hamid Khalil (alias Tahir Hamid Khali ; Khalil Tahir Hamid) Fonction : général de division A rang de général de division, chef de la direction de l’artillerie et des missiles de l’armée syrienne, en poste après mai 2011. En sa qualité d’officier supérieur à la direction de l’artillerie et des missiles, il est responsable de la répression violente exercée contre la population civile en Syrie, y compris le déploiement de missiles et d’armes chimiques par les brigades placées sous son commandement dans des zones civiles densément peuplées, en 2013, à la Ghouta. 28.10.2016 211 Hilal Hilal (alias Hilal al-Hilal) Date de naissance : 1966 Membre d’une milice affiliée au régime connue sous le nom de “Kataeb al-Baath” (milice du parti Baas). Soutient le régime par le rôle qu’il joue dans le recrutement et l’organisation de la milice du parti Baas. 28.10.2016 212. Ammar Al-Sharif (alias Amar Al-Sharif ; Amar Al-Charif ; Ammar Sharif ; Ammar Charif ; Ammar al Shareef ; Ammar Sherif ; Ammar Medhat Sherif) Homme d’affaires syrien influent exerçant ses activités en Syrie, actif dans les secteurs des banques, des assurances et des soins hospitaliers. Partenaire fondateur de Byblos Bank Syria, principal actionnaire de Unlimited Hospitality Ltd, et membre du conseil d’administration de Solidarity Alliance Insurance Company et de Al-Aqueelah Takaful Insurance Company. 28.10.2016 213 Bishr al-Sabban (alias Mohammed Bishr Al-Sabban ; Bishr Mazin Al-Sabban) Gouverneur de Damas, nommé par Bashar Al-Assad et lié à celui-ci. Soutient le régime et est responsable de la répression violente exercée contre la population civile en Syrie, notamment sous la forme de pratiques discriminatoires à l’encontre des communautés sunnites dans la capitale. 28.10.2016 214 Ahmad Sheik Abdul-Qader (alias Ahmad Sheikh Abdul Qadir ; Ahmad al-Sheik Abdulquader) Gouverneur de Quneitra, lié à Bashar Al-Assad et nommé par celui-ci. Ancien gouverneur de Latakia. Soutient le régime et en tire avantage, notamment en soutenant publiquement les forces armées syriennes et les milices favorables au régime. 28.10.2016 215 Dr. Ghassan Omar Khalaf Gouverneur de Hama, qui a été nommé par Bashar Al-Assad et est lié à celui-ci. Par ailleurs, il soutient le régime et en tire avantage. Ghassan Omar Khalaf est étroitement lié aux membres d’une milice affiliée au régime présente à Hama et connue sous le nom de brigade de Hama. 28.10.2016 216 Khayr al-Din al-Sayyed (alias Khayr al-Din Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed ; Mohamed Khair al-Sayyed ; Kheredden al-Sayyed ; Khairuddin as-Sayyed ; Khaireddin al-Sayyed ; Kheir Eddin al-Sayyed ; Kheir Eddib Asayed) Gouverneur d’Idlib, lié à Bashar Al-Assad et nommé par celui-ci. Tire avantage du régime et le soutient, notamment en soutenant les forces armées syriennes et les milices favorables au régime. Lié au ministre des Awqaf, Dr. Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed, qui est son frère. 28.10.2016 | 1 |
You are here: Home / political cartoon / How WH Staff Is Preparing For A Possible Hillary Presidency [Cartoon] How WH Staff Is Preparing For A Possible Hillary Presidency [Cartoon] October 26, 2016
Robert Gehl asks if you remember back in 2001, when the Clinton’s backed a U-Haul truck to the rear-end of the White House and took off with a bunch of publicly owned furniture and other treasures?
Yeah… that was pretty embarrassing. Probably something you wouldn’t want to repeat.
But then again, you’re not Hillary Clinton.
According to another recently unclassified FBI interview, Clinton and her staff were seen removing furniture and lamps from the State Department offices early in 2009 as soon as she took office as secretary. Hillary was Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
The agent – who is now an investigator with the Department of Homeland Security – said he had no idea whether or not the items were ever returned to the taxpayers.
Back in 2001, after The Washington Post broke the story, the Clintons said they would reimburse the taxpayers $86,000 for the items they stole that were actually government property, LifeZette reports .
They also returned another $28,000 worth of furniture a few days later.
In addition to stealing all that furniture back in 2001, you’ll recall they even removed the “W”s from all the keyboards in a juvenile and childish stunt to upset the incoming administration of George “W.” Bush.
Theft of taxpayer items from the State Department were not the only revelations in the FBI interview, The Washington Examiner is reporting .
In its notes, the FBI writes: “Prior to Clinton’s tenure, being an agent on the Secretary of State’s protective detail was seen as an honor and a privilege reserved for senior agents. However, by the end of Clinton’s tenure it was staffed largely with new agents because it was difficult to find senior agents willing to work for her.” | 0 |
Posted on October 29, 2016 by Michael Snyder
Just when it looked like Hillary Clinton was poised to win the 2016 election , the FBI has thrown a game changer into the mix . On Friday, FBI Director James Comey announced that his agency has discovered new emails related to Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information that they had not previously seen. According to the Associated Press , the newly discovered emails “did not come from her private server”, but instead were found when the FBI started going through electronic devices that belonged to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner. The FBI has been looking into messages of a sexual nature that Weiner had exchanged with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, and that is why they originally seized those electronic devices. According to the Washington Post , the “emails were found on a computer used jointly by both Weiner and his wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, according to a person with knowledge of the inquiry”, and according to some reports there may be “potentially thousands” of emails on the computer that the FBI did not have access to previously. Even though there are less than two weeks to go until election day, this scandal has the potential to possibly force Clinton out of the race, and if that happens could Barack Obama delay or suspend the election until a replacement candidate can be found?
Let’s take this one step at a time. On Friday, financial markets tanked when reports of these new Clinton emails hit the wires. The following comes from CNN …
After recommending earlier this year that the Department of Justice not press charges against the former secretary of state, Comey said in a letter to eight congressional committee chairmen that investigators are examining newly discovered emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the email probe.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote the chairmen. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
At this point, we do not know what is contained in these emails. But without a doubt Huma Abedin is Hillary Clinton’s closest confidant, and I have always felt that she was Clinton’s Achilles heel. Journalist Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) is fully convinced that the FBI would have never made this move unless something significant had already been discovered …
We don’t know what this means yet except that it’s a real bombshell. And it is unthinkable that the Director of the FBI would take this action lightly, that he would put this letter forth to the Congress of the United States saying there is more information out there about classified e-mails and call it to the attention of congress unless it was something requiring serious investigation. So that’s where we are…
Is it a certainty that we won’t learn before the election? I’m not sure it’s a certainty we won’t learn before the election.
One thing is, it’s possible that Hillary Clinton might want to on her own initiative talk to the FBI and find out what she can, and if she chooses to let the American people know what she thinks or knows is going on. People need to hear from her…
If the FBI has indeed found something explosive, would they actually charge her with a crime right before the election?
It is possible, but we also have to remember that government agencies (including the FBI) tend to move very, very slowly. If there are thousands of emails, it is going to take quite a while to sift through them all. And of course Barack Obama has lots of ways that he could influence, delay or even shut down the investigation.
So those that are counting on this to be the miracle that Donald Trump needs should not count their chickens before they hatch.
But if Hillary Clinton were to be forced out of the race by this FBI investigation, the Democrats would have to decide on a new candidate, and that would take time. The following is from a U.S. News & World Report article that examined what would happen if one of the candidates was forced out of the race for some reason…
If Clinton were to fall off the ticket, Democratic National Committee members would gather to vote on a replacement. DNC members acted as superdelegates during this year’s primary and overwhelmingly backed Clinton over boat-rocking socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
DNC spokesman Mark Paustenbach says there currently are 445 committee members – a number that changes over time and is guided by the group’s bylaws, which give membership to specific officeholders and party leaders and hold 200 spots for selection by states, along with an optional 75 slots DNC members can choose to fill.
But the party rules for replacing a presidential nominee merely specify that a majority of members must be present at a special meeting called by the committee chairman. The meeting would follow procedures set by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee and proxy voting would not be allowed.
It would be extremely challenging to get a majority of the members of the Democratic National Committee together on such short notice. If Clinton were to drop out next week, it would be almost impossible for this to happen before election day.
In such a scenario, Barack Obama may attempt to invoke his emergency powers . Since the election would not be “fair” until the Democrats have a new candidate, he could try to delay or suspend the election. There would be a lot of controversy as to whether this is legal or not, but Barack Obama has not let the U.S. Constitution stop him in the past.
Meanwhile, new poll numbers show that the Trump campaign was already gaining momentum even before this story about the new emails broke. According to a brand new ABC News/Washington Post survey, Donald Trump is now only trailing Hillary Clinton by 4 points after trailing her by as much as 12 points last weekend.
And CNBC is reporting on a highly advanced artificial intelligence system that accurately predicted the outcomes of the presidential primaries and which is now indicating that Trump will be the winner in November…
An artificial intelligence system that correctly predicted the last three U.S. presidential elections puts Republican nominee Donald Trump ahead of Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.
MogIA was developed by Sanjiv Rai, founder of Indian start-up Genic.ai. It takes in 20 million data points from public platforms including Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the U.S. and then analyzes the information to create predictions.
The AI system was created in 2004, so it has been getting smarter all the time. It had already correctly predicted the results of the Democratic and Republican Primaries.
Without Hillary at the top of the ticket, the odds of a Trump victory would go way, way up.
So if Hillary is forced out of the race by this investigation, Barack Obama and the Democrats will want to delay or suspend the election for as long as possible if they can.
At this point there is probably not a high probability that such a scenario will play out, but in this crazy election year we have already seen that just about anything can happen. 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 |
Tweet Home » Headlines » World News » Get Ready For Civil Unrest: Most Americans Are Concerned About Election Violence
There is a tremendous amount of concern on the right that this election could be stolen by Hillary Clinton. Voting machines in Texas are already switching votes from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton wins this election under suspicious circumstances, it may be enough to set off widespread civil unrest all across the country.
From Michael Snyder :
Could we see violence no matter who wins on November 8th? Let’s hope that it doesn’t happen, but as you will see below, anti-Trump violence is already sweeping the nation. If Trump were to actually win the election, that would likely send the radical left into a violent post-election temper tantrum unlike anything that we have ever seen before.
Alternatively, there is a tremendous amount of concern on the right that this election could be stolen by Hillary Clinton. And as I showed yesterday, it appears that voting machines in Texas are already switching votes from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton wins this election under suspicious circumstances, that also may be enough to set off widespread civil unrest all across the country.
At this moment there is less than two weeks to go until November 8th, and a brand new survey has found that a majority of Americans are concerned “about the possibility of violence” on election day…
A 51% majority of likely voters express at least some concern about the possibility of violence on Election Day; one in five are “very concerned.” Three of four say they have confidence that the United States will have the peaceful transfer of power that has marked American democracy for more than 200 years, but just 40% say they are “very confident” about that.
More than four in 10 of Trump supporters say they won’t recognize the legitimacy of Clinton as president, if she prevails, because they say she wouldn’t have won fair and square.
But many on the left are not waiting until after the election to commit acts of violence. On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s star on the Walk of Fame was smashed into pieces by a man with a sledgehammer and a pick-ax…
Donald Trump took a lot of hits today, and not just in the Presidential race. With less than two weeks to go before America decides if the ex- Apprentice host will pull off a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Famewas destroyed early Wednesday morning by a man dressed as a city construction worker and wielding a sledgehammer and pick-ax in what looks to be a Tinseltown first.
And there were two other instances earlier this year when Donald Trump’s star was also vandalized. One came in January, and the other happened in June…
This is of course not the first time the GOP candidate’s star has been attacked or defaced since Trump announced his White House bid in summer 2015. The most extreme measure was a reverse swastika being sprayed on the star at 6801 Hollywood Blvd in late January. In June this summer, a mute sign was painted on Trump’s star in a seemingly protest against the antagonistic language and policies some have accused Trump of promoting and reveling in during the campaign. In both cases, Trump’s star was quickly cleaned and back as new within a day.
We have seen anti-Trump violence on the east coast as well. Earlier this month, someone decided to firebomb the Republican Party headquarters in Orange County, North Carolina. On the building next to the headquarters, someone spray-painted “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else” along with a swastika.
There have also been other disturbing incidents of anti-Trump violence all over the nation in recent days. A recent Lifezette article put together quite a long list, and the following is just a short excerpt from that piece…
On Oct. 15 in Bangor, Maine, vandals spray-painted about 20 parked cars outside a Trump rally. Trump supporter Paul Foster, whose van was hit with white paint, told reporters, “Why can’t they do a peaceful protest instead of painting cars, all of this, to make their statement?”
Around Oct. 3, a couple of Trump supporters were assaulted in Zeitgeist, a San Francisco bar, after they were allegedly refused service for expressing support for Trump, GotNews reports. “The two Trump supporters were attacked, punched, and chased into the street by ‘some thugs’ that a barmaid called out from the back.” Lilian Kim of ABC 7 Bay Area tweeted a photo of the men, in which one was wearing a Trump T-shirt and the other was wearing a “Blue Lives Matter” shirt.
On Sept. 28 in El Cajon, California, an angry mob at a Black Lives Matter protest beat 21-year-old Trump supporter Feras Jabro for wearing a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. The assault was broadcast live using the smartphone app Periscope.
There is a move to get Trump supporters to wear red on election day, but in many parts of America that might just turn his supporters into easy targets. Let’s certainly hope that we don’t see the kind of violent confrontations at voting locations that many experts are anticipating.
Of course there are also many on the right that are fighting mad, and a Hillary Clinton victory under suspicious circumstances may be enough to push them over the edge.
For example, this week former Congressman Joe Walsh said that he is “grabbing my musket” if Donald Trump loses the election…
Former Rep. Joe Walsh appeared to call for armed revolution Wednesday if Donald Trump is not elected president.
Walsh, a former tea party congressman from Illinois who is now a conservative talk radio host, tweeted, “On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump. On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket. You in?”
And without a doubt, many ordinary Americans are stocking up on guns and ammunition just in case Hillary Clinton is victorious. The following comes from USA Today…
“Since the polls are starting to shift quite a bit towards Hillary Clinton, I’ve been buying a lot more ammunition,” says Rick Darling, 69, an engineer from Harrison Township, in Michigan’s Detroit suburbs. In a follow-up phone interview after being surveyed, the Trump supporter said he fears progressives will want to “declare martial law and take our guns away” after the election.
Today America is more divided than I have ever seen it before, and the mainstream media is constantly fueling the hatred and the anger that various groups feel toward one another.
Ironically, Donald Trump has been working very hard to bring America together. In fact, he is solidly on track to win a higher percentage of the black vote than any Republican presidential candidate since 1960.
If Hillary Clinton and the Democrats win on November 8th, things will not go well for Hillary Clinton’s political enemies. The Clintons used the power of the White House to go after their enemies the first time around, and Hillary is even more angry and more bitter now than she was back then.
And the radical left is very clear about who their enemies are. This is something that I discussed on national television earlier this month…
As I write this, it is difficult for me to even imagine how horrible a Hillary Clinton presidency would be.
But at this point that appears to be the most likely outcome.
Out of all the candidates that we could have chosen, the American people are about to put the most evil one by far into the White House.
Perhaps Donald Trump can still pull off a miracle and we can avoid that fate, but time is rapidly slipping away and November 8th will be here before we know it. On Sale At SD Bullion… This Week Only… | 1 |
Природа
Вырубка лесов, убийства животных для изготовления шуб завзятых модниц, загрязнение мирового океана, разрушение озонового слоя и, наконец, глобальное потепление — лишь первые пункты в списке бедствий, которые терпит старушка Земля. Но не стоит паниковать и копить на билет к Марсу. Величайшие умы нашей планеты, упоённые желанием жить в идеальном мире, нашли способ спасти матушку-природу. Всё, что для этого требуется — заняться с ней сексом. Сексом! С природой!
Величайшие умы — это не нобелевские лауреаты, а австралийские активистки Энни Спринкл и Элизабет Стивенс. Дамочки призывают весь мир спасать окружающую среду весьма нетрадиционным способом. Выкиньте лопаты и перестаньте сажать деревья, лучше примкните к сообществу экосексуалов — людей, которые спасают природу совокуплением в парках. По мнению Энни и Элизабет, наша планета страдает вовсе не от выбросов вредных веществ, а от нехватки радости и любви! Девушки не признают вегетарианцев, отказавшихся от употребления мяса. Не жалуют активистки и людей, променявших свои автомобили на велосипеды. Приверженцы экотуризма у них тоже не в почёте. Всё это совершенно неэффективно и бесполезно! Единственный способ спасти природу — заняться с ней любовью! В самом прямом смысле.
Тем простофилям, которые никогда не занимались сексом с растениями, девушки напоминают — чтобы улучшить экологическую обстановку, достаточно поваляться в грязи и получить от этого оргазм, или просто побегать в лесу в костюме Адама. Природа это поймёт и примет. Допустимо мастурбировать возле водопада и использовать в любовных ласках растения. Полный список спасательно-сексуальных процедур отражён в «Манифесте экосексуалов», написанным Энни и Элизабет. Девушки продемонстрировали собственную версию защиты природы в одном из австралийских парков. По их утверждениям, к движению примкнуло уже 100 000 неравнодушных.
Вероятно, активистки делают ставку на то, что берёзовая веточка, ранее активно участвовавшая в мастурбации, освободившись от рук насильника, превратится, буквально через несколько часов, в 20-летнее дерево. А лес, по которому пробежала голая девушка, от увиденного выбросит в воздух столько кислорода, что в атмосфере вовсе не останется углекислого газа. Мастурбация вблизи водоёма прибавит +10 к карме участника процесса, и нейтрализует сотни лет антропогенного воздействия. Главное — не халтурить! Природа обязательно почувствует, если вы не доведёте себя до высшей точки блаженства.
Любопытно, что на днях в Тбилиси задержали голого мужчину, который бродил по городу. Естественно, сотрудники полиции сразу же узрели в нем экосексуала и начали высматривать поблизости какой-нибудь сексуально озабоченный фикус. К всеобщему огорчению оказалось, что мужчина не вносил лепту в спасение Земли, а бродил голым в результате психического расстройства. Да уж, экосексуалов и душевно больных действительно легко спутать… Но это уже вопрос психиатрии. | 0 |
a reply to: corblimeyguvnor My current avatar is in celebration of Doctor Who Day, the 23rd of November. I have to agree, Tom was also my favourite of the oldies, and Peter Capaldi is my favourite of the reboot. He is old, he can be childish but also so deep, he can be dark but also joyful. His Heavensent episode was absolutely... Awesome. a reply to: sanitizedinfo Sorry to derail the thread! God is Time, eh? Hm, that's actually pretty thought provoking. I often picture God as the result of Time, a bit like the concept of the Omega Point. But God being Time is as interesting of an idea. If entropy increases with passing time, however, doesn't that mean that God is doomed to lose coherence in the future? Proposition: What if Time (Chronos) is actually the emeny of God (Zeus), forever attempting to swallow the latter's substance? edit on 27-10-2016 by swanne because: (no reason given) | 0 |
Home / News / Trump prepares to fill out security, economy teams Trump prepares to fill out security, economy teams Heisenberg 11 mins ago News Comments Off on Trump prepares to fill out security, economy teams
After a busy weekend interviewing job candidates, President-elect Donald Trump prepared Monday to begin filling out his economic and national security teams and outline his emerging White House agenda.
“We’ve made a couple of deals,” Trump told reporters after a weekend of meetings with with no less than 21 job candidates at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J.
Transition aides said they would release a video Monday in which the president-elect discusses plans and “legislative priorities” for the Trump administration that begins Jan. 20.
Topics include trade, notably Trump ‘s opposition to the now-probably-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asian nations; energy development and “job-killing” regulations governing shale and clean coal; national security, with an emphasis on cybersecurity; and immigration, including alleged abuse of visa programs to undercut American workers, said transition aide Jason Miller.
Trump has more meetings on Monday, including one with Rick Perry. The former governor of Texas and ex-rival in the Republican primaries has been mentioned for a number of slots in Trump ‘s Cabinet, including the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, and Agriculture.
The president also met with a fairly prominent Democrat: U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who backed Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries. A military veteran, Gabbard has been a vocal critic of VA medical services.
In a statement released Monday Gabbard said “while the rules of political expediency would say I should have refused to meet with President-elect Trump , I never have and never will play politics with American and Syrian lives.
“President-elect Trump and I had a frank and positive conversation in which we discussed a variety of foreign policy issues in depth,” Gabbard said. “I shared with him my grave concerns that escalating the war in Syria by implementing a so-called no fly/safe zone would be disastrous for the Syrian people, our country, and the world,” Gabbard continued.
Also Monday Trump met with former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown. After the meeting Brown told reporters that he spoke with Trump about being head of the VA.
“He’s obviously going to take my application, or interest, under consideration. I’m glad that he called. He’s going to obviously meet other folks, and we should know, I would think, probably after Thanksgiving,” Brown said. “I think I’m the best person, but there are some tremendous people out there and I don’t look at it as a competition.”
Trump also met with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin who said she was not offered a position but that the meeting was just a start. | 0 |
MADRID — For the past 288 days, Spain has plodded along without an elected national government. For some Spaniards, this is a wonderful thing. “No government, no thieves,” said Félix Pastor, a language teacher who, like many voters, is fed up with the corruption and scandals that tarnished the two previous governing parties. Mr. Pastor, a wiry, animated said Spain could last without a government “until hell freezes over” because politicians were in no position to do more harm. After two grueling national elections in six months, and with a third vote possible in December, no party has won enough seats or forged the coalition needed to form a government. For the first time in Spain’s four decades as a modern democracy, this country of 47 million people has a caretaker government. That has produced an unprecedented public spectacle: Politicians scheme and plot but reject the difficult compromises needed to form a government. Voters watch ruefully with a mix of fascination and contempt. On Saturday, the Socialists’ leader, Pedro Sánchez, stepped down in a move that could open the way for his party to agree to the of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and a government led by his conservative Popular Party. But while the Socialists’ revolt could break the deadlock, it may do little to heal Spaniards’ frustration with a crisis that has further eroded their faith in politicians. Spain’s leaders warned that having no government would mean chaos and deprivation. Instead, more than anything, the crisis seems to have offered a glimpse of life if politicians simply stepped out of the way. For many here, it has not been all that bad. “Spain would be just fine if we got rid of most of the politicians and of government employees,” Rafael Navarro, 71, said inside his tiny storefront pharmacy in Madrid. Too little government is better than too much, he said. In some ways, this is a phantom crisis for ordinary Spaniards. There has been no United government shutdown. There are no mounds of uncollected garbage, no unpaid police officers, no shuttered ministries, no public trains or buses halted. Budget money is still flowing. Government ministries are functioning. Social service recipients and civil servants are being paid. Even if no new government has been formed when the 2016 national budget expires this fall, the old budget will simply become the new budget for 2017. But government is paralyzed in other ways. Nobody is proposing legislation, debating international affairs or even rotating Spain’s ambassadors. Funding for many infrastructure and government projects is frozen. And nationalist movements in Catalonia and the Basque region continue to roil national politics. Spain has been in political limbo since last October, when Mr. Rajoy called a general election while he held a parliamentary majority. His Popular Party then won the most votes in December and June, but did not win a majority. It now holds 137 of the 350 seats in Parliament. The stalemate has come at an opportune moment. After a severe recession ended in 2013, Spain’s economy rebounded. Growth is forecast to be 2. 9 percent this year, almost twice the 1. 6 percent eurozone average expected by the European Commission. Interest and energy rates are at historic lows. Spain, a tourism superpower, expects 74 million visitors this year, six million more than last year, as terrorism fears elsewhere send visitors here. Cafes and museums are crowded, and hotels are booked solid. But after trudging to the polls twice already in the last year, weary voters are in no mood to vote again. The political calendar dictates a vote on Christmas if no agreement to form a government can be reached by Oct. 31. The impasse has dragged on so long that “it’s like ‘Groundhog Day’ every day,” said Pedro Rodríguez, an assistant professor of international relations at a private university in Madrid. Until the recent and chaotic revolt within the Socialist Party, said Nacho Cardero, the editor of El Confidencial, a news website, reader clicks on stories about the crisis had dropped steadily. “People are exhausted,” Mr. Cardero said. “They don’t want to hear one more thing from these politicians. ” Spaniards were hopeful for better government in December, after two new parties, for the first time, won a third of the seats in Parliament. That set off a political because no single party has been able to muster a majority. Nine months later, many voters complain that the new parties have adopted the same cynical and corrosive politics practiced under the entrenched system. The two traditional parties — the conservative Popular Party and the Socialist Party — could have agreed on a new government, but they refused to talk to each other. “Negotiating or giving concessions is perceived as weakness,” said Antonio Roldán, a lawmaker from the upstart Ciudadanos party. Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez, an economic adviser in the Socialist Party, said Spain was so polarized that politics had turned almost into a brawl. “There are only insults and blame and arrogance,” he said. In one survey by the polling company Metroscopia, respondents chose the same few words to describe their feelings about the political deadlock: disappointment, indignation, shame, weariness and deception. In the same survey, Spaniards blamed politicians rather than the party system for the impasse, 58 percent to 20 percent. Other surveys suggest that a December election would produce the same result as the previous two: a Popular Party victory but no majority, according to Metroscopia’s president, José Juan Toharia. Angela Jover Pascual, 26, a waitress and mother of two, said she could not even remember which small party she had voted for in June. She said she had voted only as a protest against the bigger parties. Asked whether she would be ready to vote for a third time in one year, Ms. Jover Pascual replied: “No. It’s useless. ” Mr. Rajoy, the caretaker prime minister, has been able to sit back as the Socialist Party tears itself apart. His party’s powerful political machine and reliable conservative and elderly voters confer an advantage, especially if other frustrated voters stay home. While still a fever for now, however, the crisis could yet flare into a debilitating illness. Some economists warn that a day of reckoning is coming. Spain’s debt and unemployment rates, for instance, are among the highest in Europe. Madrid faces a fine of 5 billion euros, about $5. 6 billion, if it fails to comply this year with its agreed deficit target from the European Commission of 4. 6 percent of gross domestic product. “We have really painted ourselves into a corner,” said José María de Areilza, a law professor in Madrid. For now, things are fairly stable in part because Spain grants considerable powers to its 17 regional governments. They have continued to provide health care, education and other pillars of daily life. “For a Spanish citizen, the most relevant government is the regional one,” said Santiago Lago Peñas, an economics professor in the Galicia region in northwest Spain. But deep within government institutions in Madrid, the crisis is inflicting pain. Joaquín Sánchez Sanz, the director of a nuclear fusion lab for the government agency Ciemat, said he spent about 40 percent of every day dealing with cutbacks imposed by the caretaker government. Just five days before a contract was to be signed to supply cooling equipment to a lab in Japan, the project was canceled, Mr. Sánchez Sanz said. Moreover, every agency contract not already signed was canceled. He does not blame the government crisis for every cutback, but it has created a climate of uncertainty. “If you cannot honor your contracts, next time they want collaboration, they might look somewhere else because now we are not credible,” Mr. Sánchez Sanz said. Many voters in outlying regions view the political fight in Madrid as a constant but distant irritant. “We already knew that politicians were corrupt, but now we also see that they can’t even make politics work,” said Ana Cancela, a civil servant who voted on Sept. 25 in Galicia’s regional elections in Santiago de Compostela, 370 miles from Madrid. Nationwide, wrangling over how to form the next government has many voters wondering: What is the point? “A lot of people said we would go to hell if we didn’t form a government,” said Ignacio Escolar, the editor of the news website eldiario. es. “But we’re still here. ” | 1 |
WikiLeaks Documents Reveal United Nations Interest In UFOs 11/02/2016
HUFFINGTON POST
Revelations in a set of hacked emails released by WikiLeaks earlier this month have sparked new conversations about UFOs and speculation that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth. But a very significant ― and possibly overlooked ― group of WikiLeaks items relevant to the topic was released on May 18, 2015.
WikiLeaks posted more than half a million U.S. State Department diplomatic documents from 1978 detailing America’s interactions with countries all around the world ― including Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy’s efforts to organize a United Nations-based committee to research and investigate global UFO reports.
Many of the documents, written by American UN officials, indicated how closely they were monitoring Grenada’s UFO-related activities.
One document , from Nov. 18, 1978, revealed my involvement in helping Grenada to produce a credible UFO presentation.
I had an opportunity in early 1978 to meet Gairy in New York to present an idea about how I thought the UN would pay attention to his UFO crusade. Through his ambassadors, I gave him a copy of a documentary record album, “UFOs: The Credibility Factor,” that I produced for CBS Inc. in 1975.
Gairy and I met, and after I convinced him I could bring a very credible group of speakers to the UN, he agreed to sponsor my proposal (see image below). Shortly after a handshake deal, he made me a temporary delegate-adviser of Grenada and the rest was, well, history. COURTESY OF LEE SPEIGEL This 1978 letter from Grenada to Lee Speigel confirmed that country’s commitment to sponsor Speigel’s UFO presentation at the United Nations.
The following image shows part of the group I brought together in July 1978 to meet with UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. He wanted to know what we were planning to do at our November event in front of the Special Political Committee, which included representatives from the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. COURTESY OF LEE SPEIGEL On July 14, 1978, producer Lee Speigel (now a Huffington Post writer) brought together a group of military, scientific and psychological experts to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim to discuss Speigel’s upcoming presentation to the U.N. Special Political Committee later that year. Topic: The importance of establishing an international UFO committee. Pictured from left: USAF astronaut Col. Gordon Cooper, astronomer Jacques Vallee, astronomer/astrophysicist Claude Poher, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, Grenada Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy, Waldheim, Morton Gleisner of the Special Political Committee, Lee Speigel, researcher Leonard Stringfield and University of Colorado psychologist David Saunders.
Another cable posted on WikiLeaks , from Nov. 24, 1978, refers to Ambassador Richard Petree’s meeting with Grenada representatives “to discuss their UFO resolution. Ambassador Petree acknowledged the high level of interest in UFOs among some elements of the private sector and scientific community … and pointed to the budgetary impact as a major concern of the U.S. and other countries.”
On Nov. 28, 1978, the day after our presentation at the UN, this document was sent through official channels, detailing the actual UFO event, describing what each of the invited scientific and military speakers had to say to the member nations.
A few days after that, on Dec. 2, 1978, a follow-up cable was transmitted, including the following:
Subsequent to the introduction of the Grenadian UFO resolution, Misoff [Mission Officer] has engaged in two separate informal negotiating sessions, which included representation from Austria, USSR and Grenada, in an attempt to arrive at a mutually acceptable compromise solution to the problem.
A draft decision to be taken by the Special Political Committee (SPC) has been agreed upon by the participants in the informal negotiations, subject to concurrence of their respective capitals. We think referral of the [UFO] matter to the Outer Space Committee (OSC) without a preordained mandate as to what action is to be taken, provides the flexibility the OSC needs to take whatever action it deems appropriate.
It will also obviate the need to vote on a resolution (and gamble on the results).
The following week brought forth another document , on Dec. 8, 1978, which stated:
“The General Assembly invites interested member states to take appropriate steps to coordinate on a national level scientific research and investigation into extraterrestrial life, including unidentified flying objects, and to inform the secretary-general of the observations, research and evaluation of such activities.”
It was further suggested that Grenada’s views on UFOs could be discussed in 1979. Unfortunately, that didn’t come to pass, as Grenada Prime Minister Gairy was overthrown in a 1979 coup.
Needless to say, without the Gairy-based initiative on UFOs, it was quietly relegated to Grenada’s back burner.
This is the tip of the UFO-UN iceberg. It shows how the subject of UFOs wasn’t merely officially ridiculed or slapped aside. There was, and perhaps still is, some interest there, just waiting to emerge. | 1 |
NBC published an article titled “Trump Now Uses an iPhone — Despite Once Calling for an Apple Boycott” to attack the president for switching from his potentially vulnerable Android handset to an iPhone. [The article begins by directly stating that the reason for President Trump’s switch to the handset is for security reasons: “President Donald Trump is finally using an Apple iPhone, despite once calling for a boycott of the company’s products, after concerns that the Android handset he was reportedly using was unsecured. ” “A number of reports have suggested Trump was using a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Google’s Android operating system, a point which has never officially been confirmed,” the article notes. “The New York Times reported in January that the phone was unsecured. This means that it is vulnerable to hackers, something of great concern because the president of the U. S. would be a key hacking target. ” The article then focuses on Trump’s use of the more secure Apple device, citing the president’s past criticism of the iPhone manufacturer for refusing to unlock the phone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook. “During a campaign rally last year, Trump called for people to boycott Apple products because the technology giant refused to unlock the iPhone involved in the San Bernardino shootings. In this case, the FBI asked Apple to unlock a phone belonging to the San Bernardino shooter. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called the order “chilling” and did not assist. ” “During a campaign rally last year, Trump called for people to boycott Apple products because the technology giant refused to unlock the iPhone involved in the San Bernardino shootings,” NBC notes. “In this case, the FBI asked Apple to unlock a phone belonging to the San Bernardino shooter. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called the order ‘chilling’ and did not assist. ” President Trump, of course, has in the past used the products of many companies with whom he disagrees, directly naming at one point in a tweet. The Coca Cola company is not happy with me — that’s okay, I’ll still keep drinking that garbage. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2012, President Trump’s decision to use a more secure mobile phone seems to be a step in the right direction considering the issues surrounding cyber security that were raised during the election. However, NBC appears to cast President Trump’s decision to better protect himself from cyber attacks as a sign of hypocrisy. | 0 |
If you’ve seen one movie apocalypse, you have seen them all, at least if it was directed by Roland Emmerich. For the last two decades, Mr. Emmerich has carved out his own perverse subgenre with about in which a happy few fight, joke and triumph despite alien invasion, a radioactive lizard, the Mayan calendar, melting polar ice and scene after scene of mayhem. Even when he scales down, narrowing his cinematic gun sights on smaller stories (“White House Down”) Mr. Emmerich goes big and then bigger. So, here he is again, going once more unto the blockbuster breach with “Independence Day: Resurgence,” a sequel to “Independence Day,” his amusing 1996 behemoth. The earlier movie is best remembered for its shocker of a sales pitch: a shot of the White House being blown up by a shaft of alien light, an image that was as giddily funny as it was horrific to contemplate. Needless to say, thinking deeply if at all has never been something that Mr. Emmerich encourages. For the most part, his movies are engineered to generate autonomic responses, with frenetic visuals and booming noises that activate the response, which in turn produces arousal. That’s the hope, although “Resurgence” is likely to spur more than popping. All you really need to know about the story is that it took multiple men to cook up this pottage, which hinges on another extraterrestrial invasion and humanity battling aliens as other familiar struggles erupt: technological determinism versus technophobia, secular universalism versus heroic individualism. Five writers actually put their names on the script, including Mr. Emmerich and his longtime collaborator Dean Devlin, and the results are predictably predictable if rarely entertainingly risible, with swaths of exposition and dialogue that sounds like ads (“one people, one world”). The lackluster, at times abysmal writing wouldn’t much matter if “Resurgence” popped visually or featured a charismatic star who could lift a movie as effortlessly as Will Smith did in the first feature. Mr. Smith, unfortunately, declined to appear in the sequel, leaving his two from “Independence Day,” Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum, to give it that old school try alongside veterans like Judd Hirsch and Brent Spiner, far and away the movie’s most valuable player. All deliver professional, winking performances, but they’re also stranded in an overly crowded cast that gives too much time to younger performers who, for the most part, slide right off the screen. Mr. Emmerich does manage to personalize this industrial production here and there, largely in funny little asides that sprinkle the action, like the cutaway to a character using his wipers to clean alien goo off a windshield. But too often, he seems to be trying to summon up energy and dredge up feeling in this movie by glancing back at the first “Independence Day,” as when Liam Hemsworth (as a flyboy) punches an alien, an echo of Mr. Smith’s “welcome to Earth” triumphalism. Except that Mr. Hemsworth, a stolid, pleasant actor, isn’t Mr. Smith, and this isn’t “Independence Day. ” Somehow selling screen death by the millions with a quip and a teardrop just doesn’t cut it. “Independence Day: Resurgence” is rated (Parents strongly cautioned). Bloodless apocalyptic death. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. | 0 |
Senator Ted Cruz said on Friday that he would vote for Donald J. Trump for president, two months after Mr. Cruz pointedly declined to endorse his former rival in a speech at the Republican National Convention. “After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,” Mr. Cruz wrote in a statement on Facebook. For Mr. Cruz, who has fashioned himself as the unbending conscience of modern conservatism, the decision to endorse Mr. Trump is the latest remarkable gamble in a career defined by them, placing him in the corner of an ideologically elastic candidate who savaged Mr. Cruz — and, often, the senator’s family — at every turn during the nominating contest. But Mr. Trump’s rise in the polls, combined with a handful of political overtures from Mr. Trump and his team in recent days, left Mr. Cruz effectively boxed in, raising the possibility that a narrow Trump defeat could be laid at his feet. In his statement, Mr. Cruz said he had based his decision on two factors: a prior pledge to support the Republican nominee — which Mr. Cruz said in July had been “abrogated” by Mr. Trump’s personal attacks on him — and his desire to defeat Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. “If Clinton wins, we know — with 100 percent certainty — that she would deliver on her promises, with devastating results for our country,” Mr. Cruz said. “My conscience tells me I must do whatever I can to stop that. ” But Mr. Cruz’s statement went beyond the perfunctory, praising the policy aims and recent campaign promises of a man he once called a “pathological liar. ” Mr. Cruz did not address the personal attacks that Mr. Trump had leveled — always without hesitation, often without evidence — against the Texas senator and his family during the nominating fight. Among other slights, Mr. Trump questioned Mr. Cruz’s eligibility for the presidency, citing his birth in Canada seemed to disparage the appearance of Mr. Cruz’s wife, Heidi, in a Twitter post and insinuated that Mr. Cruz’s father, Rafael, was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Then there was the nickname: “Lyin’ Ted. ” In recent weeks, several former aides and allies to Mr. Cruz had urged him not to publicly back Mr. Trump, on both principled and pragmatic grounds. Such support could be seen as jeopardizing Mr. Cruz’s professed reputation for conservative ideological purity, given Mr. Trump’s political views, which Mr. Cruz delighted in highlighting during his presidential campaign. And by voicing his support so late in the campaign, the senator also risks feeding a perception, rampant among Senate colleagues, that he is a cynical political operator, mindful only of his own interests. At his convention speech in July, Mr. Cruz urged Republicans to “vote your conscience,” leaving the stage in Cleveland to cascading boos. The next morning, as delegates from his home state jeered him at a breakfast, Mr. Cruz said he refused to fall in line like a “servile puppy dog. ” Mr. Trump, for his part, said this summer that he would not accept Mr. Cruz’s endorsement anyway. On Friday, Mr. Trump said he was “greatly honored” to have the backing of a “tough and brilliant opponent. ” As news of Mr. Cruz’s plans surfaced, first on Politico, some Cruz allies wasted no time registering their displeasure. “I’m just trying to get this Cruz sticker off my car,” Rick Tyler, the senator’s campaign spokesman, said shortly after the endorsement was announced. “I don’t want anybody to get the wrong idea and think I’m a Trump supporter. ” Steve Deace, a prominent Iowa conservative radio host who had supported Mr. Cruz, called the senator’s decision “the worst political miscalculation of my lifetime. ” Voters’ responses were often no kinder. “I am ashamed to have supported you,” one man wrote. “Conservatism is dead,” said another. While Mr. Cruz is widely expected to pursue the presidency again, he faces a 2018 Senate campaign first. In recent days, signs of a tentative peace between the Cruz and Trump camps had begun to surface. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump’s campaign issued a news release that was supportive of Mr. Cruz’s latest Senate venture: his opposition to the federal government’s plan to end its oversight of the internet’s master directory of website addresses. Mr. Trump also included a close Cruz ally, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, on a list of prospective Supreme Court nominees, which Mr. Cruz praised in his statement. Mr. Trump also now employs some members of the Cruz orbit: Jason Miller, who was a top adviser to the senator’s campaign, and Kellyanne Conway, who ran a “super PAC” before becoming Mr. Trump’s campaign manager. “Hell froze over today,” Ms. Conway wrote on Twitter after the endorsement, “and it feels like heaven. ” Longtime Cruz supporters could be forgiven for experiencing whiplash. On Friday, Mr. Cruz cheered Mr. Trump’s vow to nominate justices “in the mold” of Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. In the primaries, he regularly disparaged Mr. Trump’s judgment on judicial matters, holding forth on a “radical extremist” federal judge who happens to be Mr. Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry. On Friday, Mr. Cruz named Mr. Trump’s immigration policy as a bright spot. In the primaries, he attacked Mr. Trump’s proposals as “amnesty. ” On Friday, Mr. Cruz cited “national security” as a reason to to back Mr. Trump. In the primaries, the senator described Mr. Trump as so unsteady that he might even use nuclear weapons against a friendly country like Denmark on a whim. Though Mr. Cruz spoke warmly of Mr. Trump early in the primary season, telling donors he planned to “bearhug” him in the hopes of winning his supporters if Mr. Trump faded, he let fly a blistering critique of Mr. Trump’s personal and political integrity just before leaving the race. “I’m going to do something I haven’t done for the entire campaign,” Mr. Cruz told reporters in Evansville, Ind. hours before decisively losing the state’s primary in May. “I’m going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump. ” He went on to call Mr. Trump “a pathological liar” “utterly amoral” “a serial philanderer” and “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen. ” If voters did not stop him, Mr. Cruz said, “this country could well plunge into the abyss. ” | 1 |
In the days leading up to and after Betsy DeVos’s confirmation as secretary of education, a hashtag spread across Twitter: #publicschoolproud. Parents and teachers tweeted photos of their kids studying, performing, eating lunch together. People of all races tweeted about how public schools changed them, saved them, helped them succeed. The hashtag and storytelling was a rebuttal to DeVos, who called traditional public schools a “dead end” and who bankrolled efforts to pass reforms in Michigan, her home state, that would funnel public funds in the form of vouchers into religious and privately operated schools and encouraged the proliferation of charter schools. The tweets railed against DeVos’s labeling of public schools as an industry that needed to adopt the principles of competition and choice. #Publicschoolproud was seen as an effort to show that public schools still mattered. But the enthusiastic defense obscured a larger truth: We began moving away from the “public” in public education a long time ago. In fact, treating public schools like a business these days is largely a matter of fact in many places. Parents have pushed for policies that encourage shopping for public schools that they hope will give their children an advantage and for the expansion of charter schools that are run by private organizations with public funds. Large numbers of public schools have selective admissions policies that keep most kids out. And parents pay top dollar to buy into neighborhoods zoned to “good” public schools that can be as exclusive as private ones. The glaring reality is, whether we are talking about schools or other institutions, it seems as if we have forgotten what “public” really means. The word derives from the Latin word publicus, meaning “of the people. ” This concept — that the government belongs to the people and the government should provide for the good of the people — was foundational to the world’s nascent democracies. Where once citizens paid taxes to the monarchy in the hope that it would serve the public too, in democracies they paid taxes directly for infrastructure and institutions that benefited society as a whole. The tax dollars of ancient Athenians and Romans built roads and aqueducts, but they also provided free meals to widows whose husbands died in war. “Public” stood not just for how something was financed — with the tax dollars of citizens — but for a communal ownership of institutions and for a society that privileged the common good over individual advancement. Early on, it was this investment in public institutions that set America apart from other countries. Public hospitals ensured that even the indigent received good medical care — health problems for some could turn into epidemics for us all. Public parks gave access to the great outdoors not just to the wealthy who could retreat to their country estates but to the masses in the nation’s cities. Every state invested in public universities. Public schools became widespread in the 1800s, not to provide an advantage for particular individuals but with the understanding that shuffling the wealthy and working class together (though not black Americans and other racial minorities) would create a common sense of citizenship and national identity, that it would tie together the fates of the haves and the and that doing so benefited the nation. A sense of the public good was a unifying force because it meant that the rich and the poor, the powerful and the meek, shared the spoils — as well as the burdens — of this messy democracy. Achieving this has never been an easy feat. The tension between individual striving and the common good, between the beliefs that strong government protects and provides for its citizens and that big government leads to tyranny, has always existed in this country. As a result, support for public institutions and expansive government has ebbed and flowed. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in response to the Great Depression, ushered through the biggest expansion of federal programs in our nation’s history, he did so because he thought that government regulation was necessary to empower common people against corporations and banks but also that government should provide certain protections for its citizens. Under the New Deal, we got Social Security and unemployment insurance. Federal housing projects — public housing — meant quality dwellings for the nation’s working people. Federal works projects employed millions of Americans and brought infrastructure to communities that had not been able to pay for it on their own. At the same time, the New Deal stoked the ire of a antiregulation minority, who began to push back, though it would take some decades before their views became mainstream. They promoted principles, deregulation and the privatization of functions normally handled by the government and sought to define all things — like the benefits of education — strictly in terms of their economic value. Nonetheless, Roosevelt’s government expansion was widely supported, and Americans elected him to an unprecedented four terms as president. But the broad support of public programs and institutions hinged on a narrow definition of who that public was: white Americans. To get his New Deal passed, Roosevelt compromised with white Southerners in Congress, and much of the legislation either explicitly or implicitly discriminated against black citizens, denying them many of its benefits. As the civil rights movement gained ground in the 1950s and 1960s, however, a series of court rulings and new laws ensured that black Americans now had the same legal rights to public schools, libraries, parks and swimming pools as white Americans. But as black Americans became part of the public, white Americans began to pull away. Instead of sharing their public pools with black residents — whose tax dollars had also paid for them — white Americans founded private clubs (often with public funds) or withdrew behind their fences where they dug their own pools. Public housing was once seen as a community good that drew presidents for photo ops. But after federal housing policies helped white Americans buy their own homes in the suburbs, black Americans, who could not get mortgages, languished in public housing, which became stigmatized. Where once public transportation showed a city’s forward progress, white communities began to fight its expansion, fearing it would give unwanted people access to their enclaves. And white Americans began to withdraw from public schools or move away from school districts with large numbers of black children once the courts started mandating desegregation. Some communities shuttered public schools altogether rather than allow black children to share publicly funded schools with white children. The very voucher movement that is at the heart of DeVos’s educational ideas was born of white opposition to school desegregation as state and local governments offered white children vouchers to pay for private schools — known as segregation academies — that sprouted across the South after the Supreme Court struck down school segregation in 1954. “What had been enjoyed as a public thing by white citizens became a place of forced encounter with other people from whom they wanted to be separate,” Bonnie Honig, a professor of political science and modern culture and media at Brown University and author of the forthcoming book “Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair,” told me. “The attractiveness of private schools and other forms of privatization are not just driven by economization but by the desire to control the community with which you interact. ” Even when they fail, the guiding values of public institutions, of the public good, are equality and justice. The guiding value of the free market is profit. The charters DeVos helped expand have not provided an appreciably better education for Detroit’s children, yet they’ve continued to expand because they are profitable — or as Tom Watkins, Michigan’s former education superintendent, said, “In a number of cases, people are making a boatload of money, and the kids aren’t getting educated. ” Democracy works only if those who have the money or the power to opt out of public things choose instead to opt in for the common good. It’s called a social contract, and we’ve seen what happens in cities where the social contract is broken: White residents vote against tax hikes to fund schools where they don’t send their children, parks go untended and libraries shutter because affluent people feel no obligation to help pay for things they don’t need. “The existence of public things — to meet each other, to fight about, to pay for together, to enjoy, to complain about — this is absolutely indispensable to democratic life,” Honig says. If there is hope for a renewal of our belief in public institutions and a common good, it may reside in the public schools. Nine of 10 children attend one, a rate of participation that few, if any, other public bodies can claim, and schools, as segregated as many are, remain one of the few institutions where Americans of different classes and races mix. The vast multiracial, socioeconomically diverse defense of public schools that DeVos set off may show that we have not yet given up on the ideals of the public — and on ourselves. | 1 |
On Friday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated it was his country’s view that the deal the United States had made with the Iranian government to prevent it from becoming a nuclear power should be repealed or replaced. “Look, here’s my position, but it’s my position the deal with Iran. If I had to compress it into two words, ‘repeal or replace,’” Netanyahu said to show host Sean Hannity. He argued the deal gave the best of all worlds to Iran while giving the worst of all worlds to everyone else. “That would be my position,” he continued. “I think Washington has to decide its own position. But clearly, one thing that has to be changed is to not let Iran have the best of all worlds, which is the worst of all world for Israel, the Arab countries, the United States and the world. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0 |
Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead. 1. “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first. ” Those were the words of President Trump at his inauguration on Friday, just as rain began falling in the capital. His forceful address offered a strikingly grim view of the United States, repudiated the establishment and alarmed leaders around the world — but also energized his supporters at home and abroad. At age 70, Mr. Trump became the oldest president sworn in for the first time and the first to have never served either in public office or as a military general. _____ 2. Hundreds of thousands of women gathered to protest Mr. Trump in Washington on Saturday, above, and many more demonstrated in cities around the nation and the world. Here is a photographic roundup. On Friday, protests in the capital turned violent at times. Mr. Trump begins his term with less popular support than any new president in modern times. _____ 3. These photos show a much smaller crowd for Mr. Trump’s inauguration than for Mr. Obama’s in 2009. Both were taken 45 minutes before the ceremony. Our reporters noted a “peculiar sensation” in Washington, where pockets of eerie quiet existed as residents and others skipped town. Mr. Trump and his press secretary falsely claimed that Mr. Trump drew “the largest inaugural crowd ever. ” Mr. Trump also said the media had invented his friction with the intelligence community and called journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth. ” _____ 4. The mood among Mr. Trump’s supporters was jubilant and beyond. “My savior is born,” yelled Amy Azzo, an Iraqi immigrant who traveled from Michigan for the inauguration. “President Trump — I love it. ” Scattered chants of “Lock her up!” came from the crowd, but Hillary Clinton strode on stage with a practiced smile. _____ 5. One of Mr. Trump’s first acts as president was to sign an executive order aimed at scaling back the Affordable Care Act. A report earlier in the week estimated that as many as 18 million people could lose insurance if major provisions of the health care law are repealed. A full digital turnover of whitehouse. gov happened within moments of Mr. Trump’s inauguration, and the official White House Twitter handles also changed over — but whether the president will forgo using his personal Twitter account remains unclear. _____ 6. The Senate confirmed the first two cabinet nominees: James N. Mattis as defense secretary, above, and John F. Kelly as homeland security secretary. Democrats delayed a vote on Mike Pompeo’s confirmation as C. I. A. director until Monday. And the Justice Department cleared Mr. Trump’s appointment of his Jared Kushner, as a senior White House adviser, saying that the president’s special hiring authority exempted such a position from antinepotism laws. _____ 7. President Trump now oversees the intelligence agencies that are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions for possible links between his associates and Russian officials. Among those being scrutinized are Paul Manafort, above, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative. It is not clear whether the communications have anything to do with Mr. Trump, but he has the authority to redirect or stop at least some of the efforts. _____ 8. Mr. Obama left for a family vacation in Palm Springs, Calif. after saying goodbye to about 2, 000 political appointees at Joint Base Andrews. The Obamas pledged to build democracy through the Obama Foundation. They will live in Washington. Joe Biden and his wife are looking for a small house in the same neighborhood. As the Obamas and Bidens headed out of town, Mr. Trump and his wife made stops at three official inaugural balls. We to provide a look at the festivities. _____ 9. And the world keeps turning. Here’s a quick rundown of other top stories: • The Earth hit a record high temperature in 2016, for the third year in a row. • Chelsea Manning was granted clemency and will be released from prison in May. • The Mexican drug kingpin known as El Chapo was extradited to the United States. • An avalanche buried a hotel in Italy. In Tehran, above, a burning skyscraper collapsed on live TV. • A swarm of tornadoes in the Southeast U. S. killed at least 15 people. • The United States bombed Islamic State training camps in Libya and carried out a punishing airstrike against Al Qaeda in Syria. • At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Britain’s leader argued that the country is committed to free trade and globalization. • In tennis, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic were both knocked out of the Australian Open, and Rafael Nadal advanced. N. F. L. playoffs continue Sunday. _____ 10. Finally, one of our articles this week was about the thousands of letters mailed to Mr. Obama each day of his presidency. He read 10 a day, selected by staff members and interns tasked with reading every message that arrived. They told the unfiltered story of a nation. “I never thought about how powerful a letter was,” one of the staffers told us. _____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Evening Briefing, weeknights at 6 p. m. Eastern. Want to look back? Here’s Friday’s Evening Briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Posted on October 29, 2016 by Barry Soetoro, Esq Published on Oct 29, 2016 by Barry Soetoro ANTHONY WEINER JUST GOT CAUGHT (AGAIN) IN ANOTHER TWISTED SEX SCANDAL. IS THIS WEINER SEX STORY ANOTHER HOAX TO HELP HILLARY, OR A BIGGER STRATEGY TO RIG THE 2016 ELECTION FOR SOROS?
SOME FEEL HILLARY IS “TOO BIG TO JAIL,” BUT FBI JUST “REOPENED” THEIR INVESTIGATION INTO HILLARY’S EMAILS. WILL THE DIRTY FBI COVER FOR HILLARY ONCE MORE, OR WILL COMEY ACTUALLY JAIL HILLARY AND TAKE DOWN HALF OF WASHINGTON WITH HER?
HOW DOES THE REGIME USE THIS WEINER PERVERT, AND WHY IS WEINER POPPING UP 10 DAYS BEFORE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?
TO PRESERVE POWER AND MAINTAIN THEIR HOLD ON AMERICA, THE REGIME’S STRATEGY MAY BE MORE COMPLEX THAN IT APPEARS. THEY MIGHT BE USING WEINER TO STEAL (AND POSTPONE) THE RIGGED 2016 ELECTION BY REPLACING HILLARY CLINTON.
OBAMA THE ULTIMATE TEMP: | 0 |
Kids these days: They just aren’t pulling out the plastic like they did in the past. Data from the Federal Reserve indicates that the percentage of Americans under 35 who hold credit card debt has fallen to its lowest level since 1989, when the Fed began collecting data in a standardized way, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Some older Americans have also been shedding credit card debt since the financial crisis that began in 2008. But for no other age group has the decline in the proportion holding credit card debt been more rapid than it has been for young Americans — who are often referred to as millennials — the data from the Survey of Consumer Finances shows. “It’s pretty clear that young people are not interested in becoming indebted in the way that their parents are or were,” said David Robertson, the publisher of The Nilson Report, a newsletter that tracks the payment industry. Their reluctance could have lasting repercussions for millennials, as well as for the financial system and the economy. Early use of credit cards has, in the past, helped young Americans develop a comfort level with credit that can last a lifetime and lead to a succession of big purchases financed by debt. Without a substantial credit history, it is much harder to take out a home mortgage, for example. “It will probably take them longer to get access to credit,” said Gregory Elliehausen, an economist at the Federal Reserve specializing in consumer finance. “In the meantime, their behavior and some of their habits will have already been formed. ” Over all, Americans’ use of credit cards has recently been creeping up again: Household debt in the United States increased by $35 billion, to $12. 29 trillion, during the second quarter of 2016, a 0. 3 percent rise from the previous quarter that was driven by credit cards and auto loans, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Banks say that their credit card operations are running at full tilt, and that in recent months the number of people having trouble paying their bills has been at record lows. But many younger people have been sitting on the sidelines, deterred by new laws passed after the crisis and big loads of student debt. They are also spooked by the temptation that credit cards offer to spend beyond one’s means. Jason Towner, a who works at a private equity firm, cut up his last credit card, from Capital One, in 2010. He did not have any unruly debts, but he had just watched his father and sister close the family furniture store after a bank cut off their credit line in the middle of the financial crisis. “I was seeing what was happening around the world, and what was happening in my backyard, and I was thinking, ‘This is not a great idea,’” Mr. Towner said recently. The resurgence of overall credit card use in the United States over the last year or two has been driven largely by subprime borrowers, according to the Federal Reserve, which has not looked at the recent growth in borrowing by age. But it is clear to economists who study payment patterns that millennials are gravitating toward payment methods that skirt both cash and credit. Why carry cash when you can whip out a debit card for the smallest transaction — a sandwich or a bottle of soda — or use an app like Venmo or an online payment service like PayPal? All of those typically draw funds directly from a bank account. Mr. Elliehausen of the Federal Reserve said he expected the aversion to debt among young Americans to continue, potentially with a downside. Credit cards are frequently necessary for the bigger purchases — like washing machines and computers — that can make households more efficient and help the economy grow. And credit cards are usually an essential part of the credit history that allows someone to borrow to buy a house. Only 37 percent of American households headed by someone aged 35 and under held credit card debt in 2013, the most recent year for which data from the Survey of Consumer Finances is available, down by nearly a quarter from immediately before the financial crisis. That statistic may undercount young cardholders to some extent, as it excludes people under 35 who live with their parents. But more recent data has also suggested that millennials are using credit cards less than people of a similar age did in the past — and that they are taking on fewer auto loans and mortgage loans than people of similar age did before the financial crisis. Rebecca Liebman, 23, graduated from Clark University in 2015 with a load of student debt. She avoided getting a credit card until earlier this year, and did so then only because she kept hearing about how she would need to build up her credit history if she ever hoped to get a mortgage. “I don’t want to use a credit card irresponsibly, and because of that, it’s scarier to use,” she said. “I grew up — I saw 2008 — I saw my dad get laid off. I don’t trust the financial market. ” Today Ms. Liebman is a founder of a financial literacy site for millennials, LearnLux, and the reluctant holder of a Discover card. Even after getting the card, it took her five months to overcome her ingrained aversion to debt and make her first purchase — a physical wallet. She understands what the aversion will mean for her and for her customers. “It’s going to make me buy a home a lot later in life,” Ms. Liebman said. “I think it will impact a lot of big decisions and push them further out. There are some things that are going to be specific to our generation around financial for sure. ” The reasons for the shift are varied: Like Ms. Liebman, many young people carry burdensome loads of student debt, making it hard for them to take on any more debt — and giving them a sour taste in their mouths when it comes to credit of any sort. The average American under 35 now has $17, 200 of student debt, 182 percent more than Americans of the same age had in 1995, the Fed data shows. On a more practical level, laws passed after the financial crisis made it much harder for younger people to secure cards unless they could prove they had the income to pay the bills. The tents that credit card companies used to pitch all over college campuses — offering students free when they signed up for cards — have largely disappeared. Then there are the young professionals who are able to get a card, but have seen the strain that debt put on their families and friends during the financial crisis. Mr. Towner, whose job in private equity involves lending money to small businesses, is a prime example. To him, the risks involved with debt outweigh the benefits, so he tends to use Venmo and PayPal, or, whenever possible, cash. When he bought his apartment in Berkeley, Calif. he chose a foreclosure and paid with money he had in the bank. “I don’t want to go out and buy, buy, buy, even though that’s what society wants me to do,” Mr. Towner said. “I want to save and invest for the long term. ” | 1 |
A Massachusetts judge has agreed to erase the murder conviction of former NFL player Aaron Hernandez, essentially because his suicide prevents his pursuit of justice by putting an abrupt end to his appeal. [In a decision released Tuesday, Judge E. Susan Garsh said case law in Massachusetts is clear that “abatement” defendants, who are denied the ability to finish an appeal before they die, can have their convictions vacated, ABC News reported. The former New England Patriots tight end committed suicide in his cell on April 19 while serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of football player Odin Lloyd. He died only five days after being acquitted of a second murder charge from an incident in 2012. But, Hernandez had filed an appeal of his conviction and was awaiting the process when he committed suicide. “Abatement has been practiced in state and federal courts for more than a century,” Judge Garsh said. She added that “‘an appeal is an integral part of the system’ and said the interests of justice do not permit a defendant to stand convicted upon death if appeals are not exhausted. ” “Abatement remains the law in this Commonwealth, and this court is compelled to follow binding precedent,” Garsh concluded. Judge Garsh dismissed the claim offered by prosecutors that Hernandez knew of the abatement rules when he committed suicide. Garsh insisted that there was no way to know what Hernandez thought as he prepared to kill himself. The decision, though, could open up the New England Patriots to be liable to pay the Hernandez estate for the salary he missed during his trials and jail time after the team released him. In 2012, the Patriots extended Hernandez’s contract with $16 million in guaranteed money. But, the team released Hernandez almost immediately after he was arrested in June 2013 and didn’t pay him the $5. 91 million of that guaranteed amount. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0 |
“It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur. Those given the high honor of admission to the United States should support this country and love its people and its values,” President Trump said in his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. [“That is why my administration has been working on improved vetting procedures, and we will shortly take new steps to keep our nation safe — and to keep out those who would do us harm,” the president promised. President Trump is expected to reveal those new steps when he signs a new executive order on refugees and immigration on Thursday. The signing was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but press reports indicate that the reaction to the president’s speech has been so positive, the White House chose to delay the signing so as to not step on its own positive message. The executive order President Trump signed on January 27, 2017, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” dealt specifically with those issues, but implementation of that order was derailed when Federal Judge James Robart of the Western District of Washington issued a temporary restraining order on February 3, 2017 halting it nationwide. Rather than engage in a lengthy court fight over the details of that executive order, President Trump has decided the fastest way to safeguard the country from foreign terrorist attacks is to sign a new executive order that has a higher likelihood of surviving the certain judicial challenges which will be brought against it by Democrats and their allies on the left. The president made two key points in his speech Tuesday that offer clues as to what his executive order may contain to improve vetting procedures. (1) He opposes uncontrolled entry of foreign nationals into the United States … (2) From places where proper vetting cannot occur. (emphasis added) President Trump does not view controlled entry of foreign nationals from places where proper vetting occurs as the most important priority in protecting the nation from foreign terrorists. The term “vetting” has been used most frequently in the press to refer to security background checks conducted on a particular type of permanent immigrant to the United States — those entering legally under the federal refugee resettlement program, authorized by the Refugee Act of 1980. That act, as spelled out in subsequent regulations and procedures established by the departments charged with its implementation — The Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services — has established a series of protocols to be followed related to the security background and health of potential refugees allowed to enter the country. Those protocols, though vigorously defended by the Obama administration, have been widely panned by critics of the program, as well as President Trump, as ineffective in ascertaining security risks posed by potential participants in the federal refugee resettlement program. In addition, the current protocols for determining the health risk posed by potential participants in the federal refugee resettlement program have been demonstrated by numerous articles at Breitbart News as being ineffective at preventing the importation of a number of diseases into the United States, the most glaring example being active tuberculosis (TB). Judge Robart’s temporary restraining order left standing several sections in President Trump’s January 27, 2017 executive order. In one section, President Trump limited the number of refugees who could arrive in the United States in FY 2017, which ends on September 30, to 50, 000. Robart did not attempt to stop that presidential directive, because every legal expert agrees the president can, on his own authority as defined in the Refugee Act of 1980, limit the number of refugees to any number — even zero. In FY 2016, under President Obama, 84, 995 refugees entered the United States. Two other sections left standing in Judge Robart’s temporary restraining order are specifically relevant to the executive order it is anticipated President Trump will sign on Thursday: Sec. 3 (a) Suspension of Issuance of Visas and Other Immigration Benefits to Nationals of Countries of Particular Concern, The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, shall immediately conduct a review to determine the information needed from any country to adjudicate any visa, admission, or other benefit under the INA (adjudications) in order to determine that the individual seeking the benefit is who the individual claims to be and is not a security or threat. Sec. 4 (a) Implementing Uniform Screening Standards for All Immigration Programs. The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall implement a program, as part of the adjudication process for immigration benefits, to identify individuals seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission. Sec. 3 (a) directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine “information needed from any country” concerning the potential “security or threat” of refugee applicants as well as visa applicants. Sec. 4 (a) directs the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to “implement a program … to identify individuals seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission. ” These projects have been going on at both State and Homeland Security for over one month now. What that means is the Trump administration has likely developed a significant list of objective standards in both security and public health that refugees and other immigrants must meet in order to be granted entry into the United States. That list is likely to be included in the executive order and will be significantly more resistant to legal challenges. A surprise to look for will be a number of detailed public health standards as well as security standards. One possible new standard will be the implementation of a recommendation made recently by a number of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control that all refugee applicants be tested for latent TB, and that no refugee be allowed to enter the country if they test positive for latent TB, or have not successfully completed treatment for latent TB if they have tested positive for it. | 1 |
The incoming Trump administration appears determined to reverse much of what President Obama has tried to achieve on climate and environment policy. In position papers, agency questionnaires and the résumés of incoming senior officials, the direction is clear — an from eight years of policies designed to reduce emissions and address the effects of a warming planet. The Congress appears to welcome many of these changes. But mayors and governors — many of them in states that supported Donald J. Trump — say they are equally determined to continue the policies and plans they have already adopted to address climate change and related environmental damage, regardless of what they see from Washington. “With a federal government that’s hostile to climate action, more and faster climate action work from cities, states and businesses will be required to stay anywhere near on track with our carbon pollution goals,” said Sam Adams, the former mayor of Portland, Ore. and current director of the World Resources Institute United States. “In many cases, the solutions that help address climate change are what you have to do anyway in a city — transit options so the city doesn’t get gridlocked, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and unlocks a tremendous amount of economic competitiveness because you don’t have thousands of people stalled in traffic,” Mr. Adams added. In last month’s election, Seattle, Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, voted to expand mass transit. Portland, Ore. which many say is the most environmentally minded city in the country, began a new municipal waste program a few years ago, resulting in higher recycling and composting rates, and smaller amounts of trash headed to landfills. Miami Beach is raising roadbeds and building flood walls to hold back the rising seas. California, led by the Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, has adopted a program, which limits carbon dioxide emissions and sets up a market for companies to buy and sell carbon allowances, so companies can meet or come under that carbon dioxide limit. The state has set one of the nation’s most ambitious climate targets — to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Hawaii is planning to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. Governor Brown delivered a fiery defense of his state’s environmental policies at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco last week. He scoffed at reports that some Trump transition officials wanted to eliminate the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s system of satellites. “If Trump turns off the satellites,” he said, “California will launch its own damn satellite. ” Though stymied by alternating bouts of congressional gridlock or presidential administrations over the last two decades, cities and states have been able to take substantive action. They have fortified themselves against rising seas, switched to renewable sources of energy, expanded mass transit and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Whatever happens or does not happen in Washington, officials say, these projects will continue. Leaders in some cities feel that without presidential leadership it will be hard to achieve the swift transition that dealing with climate change requires. Many fear that they will not get federal funds or national policies needed to make it happen. Still, many mayors and state officials are optimistic about their plans already in motion and those that are scheduled over the next few years. “We feel really good, and we don’t see this election slowing us down,” said Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles. “We’re not going to wait for action from the federal government. We’re taking action now and securing our values. ” While experts caution that there are areas where federal regulations can determine what states and local governments are able to accomplish, they maintain that a administration could not halt all the momentum generated locally over the last two decades. About 60 percent of Americans live in cities, which generate most of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. “Cities are where climate change problems originate, and therefore that’s where the solutions are,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City who is of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy and the United Nations’ Secretary General’s special envoy for cities and climate change. A number of cities have made substantial progress. In Miami Beach, where $400 million has been invested to deal with flooding, roads have been elevated and sea walls have been constructed. Susanne M. Torriente, the city’s chief resiliency officer, said the city had also recently completed its greenhouse gas inventory and now would aim to reduce its emissions, regardless of federal policy. Whatever policies the Trump administration adopts, she said, “won’t really be a big change for us. ” Republican mayors also govern some cities that are especially vulnerable to climate change. James C. Cason, the mayor of Coral Gables, Fla. is working to protect the city from some of the flooding it is already experiencing and to prepare it for more flooding that will most likely accompany rising sea levels. Florida has a Republican governor, Rick Scott, who has questioned the cause and extent of climate change, but that has not stopped Mr. Cason and other Republican mayors in South Florida from making pragmatic decisions on the issue. Cities have also seen lots of benefits from networks — the Compact of Mayors, which has been signed by more than 120 American cities, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Climate Mayors and others — most notably, information sharing and solutions, and reaffirming commitments to each other and to their citizens, as many mayors did in a recent letter to the . Depending on their state, however, cities are somewhat limited in what they can do from a legislative or regulatory standpoint. Some policy experts and state officials maintain that state governments, if they are willing to act on climate or energy policy, are where the measurable progress is made. In most states, governors and legislatures have the authority to regulate the two biggest sources of emissions: power plants and transportation. States can set automotive standards, and in the case of California, effectively set them for the whole country, experts said. states require that a certain percentage of their electricity comes from renewable sources, known as a portfolio standard, and another eight have voluntary portfolio standards or targets. In addition to California, nine other states, grouped in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, known as R. G. G. I. and 17 governors, mostly from that group of 29, have also signed the Governors’ Accord for a New Energy Future, which commits their states to certain sustainability goals. New York has also enacted progressive climate policies, rivaling California, largely by engaging market solutions, in particular attempting to reform the state’s utility system. states, which may not be favorable to climate policy, have still achieved meaningful progress, especially when it comes to renewable energy, because of the economics of the wind and solar industries. Texas, for instance, has more wind power than any other state, largely a product of deregulating the utility market, but also of subsidies from the federal government and tax credits. Robert Perciasepe, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said that there were areas where national policies could hamstring state efforts. The federal government, he said, can be helpful in getting states to work together, though it is not essential to those efforts, as demonstrated by R. G. G. I. or the Governors’ Accord. And while achieving meaningful reductions may not be without difficulty, Mr. Perciasepe said, “I’m comforted that we have so much momentum, though we still need to be going faster, and the fact that we need to continue to accelerate may be lost. ” | 1 |
VIENNA (AP) — Austria’s chancellor is offering the country as a new home for the Central European University in Budapest, after Hungarian lawmakers approved laws for tighter regulation of foreign universities. [advertisement | 0 |
If you like the cutbacks to Social Security and other parts of the social safety-net that began during Bill Clinton's administration and escalated during Barack Obama's, then you will love Hillary Clinton. She is salivating like a hungry dog at the prospect of finishing off the remnants of FDR's New Deal that her husband started.
You can stop her and her co-conspirators in the Democratic and Republican parties. Vote for Jill Stein. | 0 |
By Paul Craig Roberts on November 3, 2016 The Oligarchs are now hard-pressed to rescue Hillary as US president, so let’s see if the Oligarchs can once again deceive the American people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reviewing another slew of emails pertinent to Hillary Clinton’s private server investigation.
by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Aren’t you surprised that Hillary and the presstitutes haven’t blamed Putin for FBI director Comey’s reopening of the Hillary email case? But the presstitutes have done the next best thing for Hillary. They have made Comey the issue, not Hillary.
According to US Senator Harry Reid and the presstitutes, we don’t need to worry about Hillary’s crimes. After all, she is only a political woman feathering her nest, just as political men have done for ages. Why all this misogynist talk about Hillary?
The presstitutes’ cry is that Comey’s alleged crime is far more important. This woman-hating Republican violated the Hatch Act by telling Congress that the investigation he said was closed is now reopened.
A very strange interpretation of the Hatch Act. During an election it is OK to announce that a candidate for president is cleared but it is not OK to say that a candidate is under investigation.
In July 2016 Comey violated the Hatch Act when he, on orders from the corrupt Obama Attorney General, announced Hillary clean. In so doing, Comey used the prestige of federal clearance of Hillary’s violation of national security protocols to boost her standing in the election polls. Dare We Call It Oligarchy? Gary Hart is a former United States senator
Actually, Hillary’s standing in the polls is based on the pollsters over-weighting Hillary supporters in the polls. It is easy to produce a favorite if you overweight their supporters in the poll questions. If you look at the crowds attending the two candidate’s public appearances, it is clear that the American people prefer Donald Trump, who is opposed to war with Russia and China. War with nuclear powers is the big issue of the election.
Hillary’s problem has the ruling American Oligarchy, for which Hillary is the total servant, concerned.
What are they going to do about Trump if he wins? Will his fate be the same as John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, George Wallace? Time will tell. Or will a hotel maid appear at the last minute in the way that the Oligarchy got rid of Dominique Strauss-Kahn? Dominique Strauss Kahn indicted by Grand Jury and out on six million dollar bailout, but could he have been set up?
All of the American and Western feminists, progressives, and left-wing remnant fell for the obvious frame-up of Strauss-Kahn. After Strauss-Kahn was blocked from the presidency of France and resigned as Director of the IMF, the New York authorities had to drop all charges against Strauss-Kahn. But Washington succeeded in removing Strauss-Kahn as a challenge to its French vassal, Sarkozy.
This is how the American Oligarchy destroys those it suspects might not serve its interests. The corrupt self-serving Oligarchy makes sure that it owns the government and the media, the think tanks and increasingly all of the major universities, and, of course, through the presstitutes, Americans’ minds.
The Oligarchs are now hard-pressed to rescue Hillary as US president, so let’s see if the Oligarchs can once again deceive the American people.
While we wait, let’s concern ourselves with another important issue. The Clinton crime syndicate in the closing years of the 20th century allowed a small handful of mega-corporations to consolidate the US media in a few hands. This vast increase in the power of the Oligarchy was accomplished despite US anti-trust law. The media mergers destroyed the American tradition of a dispersed and independent media.
But really, what does federal law mean to the One Percent. Nothing whatsoever. The One Percent’s power makes them immune to law. Hillary’s crimes might cost her the election, but she won’t go to jail.
Not content with 90% control of the US media, the Oligarchy wants more concentration and more control. Looks like they will be getting it, thanks to the corrupt US government. The Federal Trade Commission is supposed to enforce US anti-trust law. Instead, the federal agency routinely violates US anti-trust law by permitting monopoly concentrations of business interests.
Because of the failure of the federal government to enforce federal law, we now have “banks too big to fail,” unregulated Internet monopoly, and the evisceration of a dispersed and independent media.
Not so long ago there was a field of economics known as anti-trust. Ph.D. candidates specialized in and wrote dissertations about public control of monopoly power. I assume that this field of economics, like the America of my youth, no longer exists.
In the article below, Rahul Manchanda, explains that “yet again another huge media conglomerate is being swallowed and acquired by another huge media conglomerate, to create another gargantuan media outlet, in another consolidation of the enormous power, money, wealth, intimidation, conspiracy and control” that eviscerates the US Constitution and the First Amendment. | 1 |
COURTLAND, Ala. — In this forlorn Southern town whose factories were battered in recent years by a flood of Asian imports, Rhonda Hughes, 43, is a fervent supporter of Donald Trump. Her old mother is equally passionate about Senator Bernie Sanders. Disenchantment with the political mainstream is no surprise. But research to be unveiled this week by four leading academic economists suggests that the damage to manufacturing jobs from a sharp acceleration in globalization since the turn of the century has contributed heavily to the nation’s bitter political divide. Ms. Hughes avoids discussing the election with her mother, but their neighbor Benjamin Green, 83, knows just what Washington needs. “It’ll take a junkyard dog to straighten this country out,” he said. congressional voting records and patterns of job losses and other economic trends between 2002 and 2010, the researchers found that areas hardest hit by trade shocks were much more likely to move to the far right or the far left politically. “It’s not about incumbents changing their positions,” said David Autor, an influential scholar of labor economics and trade at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the paper’s authors. “It’s about the replacement of moderates with more ideological successors. ” Mr. Autor added: “In retrospect, whether it’s Trump or Sanders, we should have seen in it coming. The China shock isn’t the sole factor, but it is something of a missing link. ” In addition to Mr. Autor, the research was conducted by David Dorn of the University of Zurich Gordon Hanson, a professor at the University of California, San Diego and Kaveh Majlesi of Lund University in Sweden. “Exposure to import competition is bad for centrists,” Mr. Hanson said. “We’ve known that political polarization and income inequality track each other, but that pattern is simply a correlation. We’ve now found a mechanism for how economic changes create further political divisions. ” Parker Griffith experienced the move away from the political middle firsthand. A Blue Dog Democrat who represented Courtland and the rest of Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District, he switched to the Republicans in 2009 and metamorphosed into a moderate Republican. But that wasn’t enough to save his seat. Dr. Griffith was beaten in the Republican primary in 2010 by Morris J. Brooks Jr. who has emerged as one of the most members of Congress. “If you’re under economic stress and you can’t provide for your family, the easiest answer is to find someone to blame,” said Dr. Griffith. “Mexicans, illegal immigrants, Obama. ” Representative Brooks has said that he would consider “anything short of shooting” illegal immigrants to get them out of the country and that he favored imposing heavy tariffs on China to “level the playing field” and punish Beijing for what he sees as currency manipulation. In the case of the Fifth District, which includes Huntsville and its and industries, as well as more industrial Florence along the Tennessee River, the move has been to the right. But Mr. Autor and his colleagues found that in districts with heavy minority representation, similar shocks can push more Democratic districts in the opposite direction. While whites hit hard by trade tend to move right, nonwhite voters move left, eroding support for moderates in both parties, the study concluded. As the South industrialized in the second half of the 20th century, poor Alabamians who once toiled on farms were able to secure a toehold in the middle class. In the shadow of Tennessee Valley Authority dams that supplied cheap power, thousands of workers sewed jeans and and could earn upward of $20 an hour in heavily unionized factories. But the collapse of the apparel industry here in the first decade of the 21st century, following China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, reversed that process. Nearly 10, 000 manufacturing jobs disappeared. At 7. 4 percent, the regional unemployment rate is well below its peak of 12. 8 percent in 2010, but remains far above the national average of 5 percent. The new paper underscores a broader rethinking among economists of the costs and benefits of policies aimed at encouraging industrial competition across borders. “There’s a deeper appreciation for the magnitude of the impact on workers who lose their jobs,” Mr. Hanson said. “But the nature of globalization changed after the end of the Cold War and it took a while for academics to catch up. ” Until the Nafta agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1994, and especially the entry of China into the W. T. O. trade deals were mostly multilateral and the rise in manufacturing imports to the United States came primarily from other advanced industrial nations like Germany and Japan. “China and the W. T. O. represented a shock that was way larger,” Mr. Autor said. “We hadn’t seen shocks like this because we were trading with rich countries, not highly productive developing countries with enormous labor reserves. ” To understand the connection between imports from China and political polarization, the researchers focused on the fact that manufacturers tend to localize in a specific region. “There are these concentrated pockets of hurt,” Mr. Autor said, “and we’re seeing the political consequences of that. ” Mr. Autor and Mr. Hanson emphasize that trade is only one factor among many that have contributed to a polarizing Congress (income inequality is another, as are attitudes toward immigrants). But it has been an important one, particularly over the last decade, when Chinese imports ramped up. This polarization has had a significant effect on the overall ideological makeup of Congress. The authors found that voters in congressional districts hardest hit by Chinese imports tended to choose more ideologically extreme lawmakers. Between 2002 and 2010, districts in the top 5th percentile of trade exposure, on average, experienced a 19 percent greater drop in manufacturing employment relative to districts at the other end of the spectrum. Those districts became, on average, far more conservative: the ideological equivalent of moving from Marco Rubio to Ted Cruz. Some very conservative members of Congress have been sympathetic to free trade arguments in the past, but Representative Brooks, who has welcomed support from the Tea Party, doesn’t mince words about where he stands. “We’re going to have to do whatever is necessary to ensure that a foreign country isn’t able to successfully attack and destroy significant parts of the economy,” he said. “I was in China two weeks ago and they are going to clean our plow if we don’t act. ” Mr. Autor, like most economists, is still persuaded of the benefits that global trade confers on the economy as a whole. But he recognizes that angry voters have valid reasons to be frustrated. “It’s a matter of diffuse benefits and concentrated costs, but our political system hasn’t addressed those costs,” he said. Some staunch defenders of globalization, like Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, also acknowledge that the federal government has failed to adequately address the needs of workers dislocated by lowered import barriers. But the benefit of free trade is “10 times the size of the losses,” he said. “Free trade really helps people in terms of lower prices for products. The benefits are skewed toward people with lower income because they spend a much larger fraction of their income on merchandise. ” Perhaps, but that’s cold comfort to people in northern Alabama, where wages are stagnant and manufacturing jobs are still disappearing. In nearby Decatur, the big Nucor steel plant is hanging on, but it is under intense pressure from Asian imports, said the company’s chief executive, John J. Ferriola. Nucor has a policy, but pay and bonuses have been cut at the company’s five Alabama facilities. Does the steel industry in Alabama have a future? “Tell me what’s going to happen with imports,” Mr. Ferriola said. And in 2014, the giant International Paper mill in Courtland closed abruptly, costing over 1, 000 people their jobs. “Thirty years ago, it was booming,” Ms. Hughes said, pointing out where Courtland’s hardware store, the pharmacy and the used to be. “But those days are never coming back. ” | 1 |
Adam Crapser was adopted from South Korea nearly four decades ago, but today he languishes in an immigration detention center in Washington State awaiting deportation because his American parents never filed citizenship paperwork for him. Mr. Crapser, 41, built a life in Oregon, got married and raised children but will soon be forced to leave the country in which he has lived since he was 3 for South Korea, where he plans to eventually reunite with his biological mother in a small town three hours outside of Seoul, the capital. His family will remain in the United States temporarily, and they hope to reunite in South Korea. “At this point I’m ready to just go back and try to make my life over there,” Mr. Crapser said on Monday night in a telephone interview from Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a week after a judge denied his final request to stay in the United States. “There’s been some good things that came out of all this, surprisingly. ” Mr. Crapser’s sanguine attitude toward the wrenching dislocation that looms ahead is thanks in part to the media attention his case has attracted in both the United States and South Korea, he said. A South Korean documentary on his plight and the lives of other Korean adoptees led to his birth mother coming forward. “I do have a Korean family back in Korea,” Mr. Crapser said. “They’ve been informed that I am returning. It’s good, and it’s bad. It’s kind of bittersweet. ” That promising development is far from a universal experience, however. His lawyer, Lori Walls, said on Monday that Mr. Crapser’s case illustrates how easy it is for permanent residents to be placed in deportation proceedings, even when they entered the country lawfully as adoptees but were not naturalized by their adoptive parents. According to the Adoptee Rights Campaign, an advocacy group, there are about 35, 000 people in the United States who were adopted by American couples as children but who do not have citizenship. Mr. Crapser had been living legally in the United States under documents given to adopted children, Ms. Walls said. In 2001, the Child Citizenship Act automatically made holders citizens, but the law was not retroactive — it did not benefit adoptees who were already legal adults. “Adam was over 18 and so missed the cutoff date,” Ms. Walls said. Mr. Crapser said he first spoke to his family in Korea during a series of FaceTime conversations last winter. He communicated with his birth mother through an interpreter because he does not speak Korean. (He said he planned to bring a tourist phrase book with him when he is deported “so I can read signs and stuff. ”) His American family plans to join him in Korea next year after his wife, a Vietnamese immigrant, becomes a United States citizen. His stepfather in Korea owns a construction company where he hopes to work so he and his family can start a new life, he said. “That’s hopefully the plan, but it’s not written in stone yet,” he said. “We’re hoping that will end up working out. ” Mr. Crapser’s positive attitude belies the Kafkaesque nature of his life in the United States. The decision to deport him was just the latest trying experience in a span that has been, by any measure, exceptionally difficult. Mr. Crapser was adopted along with his sister by an American family that physically abused both children, he told The New York Times Magazine for an article that was published in April 2015. After six years, that family put both children up for adoption again. They were separated, and Mr. Crapser was adopted by new parents, Thomas and Dolly Crapser, who also abused him. They had several other foster and adopted children whom they also treated brutally. In 1992, they were both convicted of criminal mistreatment and assault, and Thomas Crapser was convicted of sexual abuse. Adam Crapser was kicked out of the Crapser home at 16 and later broke back in to retrieve his personal belongings. He pleaded guilty to burglary and served 25 months in prison. More brushes with the law followed. After his release, he was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm. A couple of misdemeanors followed, and he was later convicted of assault after a fight, The Times magazine reported. “Because of the chaotic nature of his upbringing, he was not able to document his status,” Lori Walls, his lawyer, said. Mr. Crapser said he did not realize there was a difference between being a permanent resident and a citizen until he was reunited with his sister, a naturalized citizen, in 2012. Deportation proceedings began that year, shortly after he applied for residency documents and the authorities learned about his criminal record. The final decision was made on Oct. 24 at an immigration court in Tacoma, Ms. Walls said. Mr. Crapser said Monday that he expected to be deported within the next 30 days. Mr. Crapser had never held down a steady job for more than 90 days because he could never prove his legal status, he said, something he always chalked up to a chaotic childhood. “I pretty much had to work under the table for most of my life,” he said. He hoped his fortunes might finally turn around in South Korea. “I guess in a sense the good thing is that I am a citizen of Korea so when I go back I will already be a citizen of some country,” he said. “I guess that’s where I belong. ” | 1 |
The adage “Cold hands, warm heart” might describe me accurately if it also included “cold feet. ” Every autumn, even before the leaves begin to fall from their airy perch, I begin an annual search for better ways to keep my hands and feet from freezing during the coming winter. My investment in mittens and boots could stock a store and includes what is touted as the warmest of warm, but so far no product has been sufficiently protective. The popular advice, “Move to a warmer climate,” doesn’t mesh with my life’s interests, and so the search continues. I may or may not have a version of Raynaud’s phenomenon, but I can surely empathize with those who do. First described in 1862 by a French medical student named Maurice Raynaud, it is characterized by highly localized spasms of small blood vessels that disrupt blood flow to the extremities, most often the fingers and toes and sometimes also the tips of the ears and nose. Viewed in the best possible light, it is a patriotic disorder: Affected areas typically turn white when vessels collapse and cut off blood flow, then blue for lack of blood, then red as blood flow is gradually restored when the areas rewarm. While it is normal for blood to shift toward the body’s core to restrict heat loss when a person is exposed to cold, this reaction is exaggerated in the extremities of people with Raynaud’s phenomenon, also often called Raynaud’s syndrome or disease. Small vessels that supply blood to the skin of the fingers, toes, ears and nose overreact to cold, developing spasms that greatly reduce or completely shut down blood flow to these areas. The weather need not be cold to trigger an attack of Raynaud’s. Moving into an room to escape summer’s heat will do it as well. The same reaction can occur when a person with Raynaud’s is under stress and the body undergoes the kind of response that protects animals in danger by shunting blood to tissues needed to aid survival. In a recent review of the disorder in The New England Journal of Medicine, two professors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Fredrick M. Wigley and Nicholas A. Flavahan reported that Raynaud’s affects between 3 percent and 5 percent of the general population. It occurs in two forms: primary, which is most common and has no known underlying cause and secondary, in which it is associated with another disorder, usually a connective tissue or autoimmune disease like scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis or Sjogren’s syndrome. People who work with certain chemicals, like vinyl chloride, or vibrating tools like a jackhammer are also susceptible to secondary Raynaud’s. Primary Raynaud’s typically begins relatively early in life, between the ages of 15 and 30, and up to half of these individuals have a relative — parent, sibling or child — who also has the disorder. Women are more often affected than men. As uncomfortable as it can be, primary Raynaud’s is not dangerous and is not as severe as secondary Raynaud’s, which has a later onset, usually starting after age 35 or 40. In rare severe cases in which blood flow is chronically diminished, secondary Raynaud’s can result in skin ulcers and even gangrene that require surgery. A doctor can distinguish between the two by putting a drop of oil on the skin at the base of the fingernail and examining the area under a microscope. The presence of enlarged or malformed capillaries in this area, the nail fold, indicate an underlying connective tissue disease. Two blood tests, the antinuclear antibody test and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, can aid in diagnosing an underlying cause of Raynaud’s, which can then be treated. Raynaud’s affects parts of the body that have a characteristic circulatory pattern: a high density of direct connections between arterioles — small vessels that branch out from arteries — and venules, or small veins. These connections, called anastomoses, govern circulation in the nonhairy surfaces of the body, bypassing capillaries that normally bring blood to the skin, Dr. Flavahan explained last year in Nature Reviews: Rheumatology. When people with Raynaud’s are exposed to cold or are under stress, normal nervous constriction of the arterioles in these anastomoses is enhanced and may temporarily cut off blood flow to the affected parts, causing them to turn white and feel cold and numb. When the areas are rewarmed and the spasm resolves, blood flow resumes, often causing tingling or throbbing. There is no cure for Raynaud’s, and remedies supported by solid scientific evidence are few. But there are measures that can minimize its effects. Most important of these is to stay warm. For me that means wearing multiple insulating layers, especially on my arms and legs, so that any extra heat generated can transfer to my hands and feet. It’s a trick I learned and skiing and that I’ve applied to cycling and hiking in New York winters. Wearing a hat and neck gaiter and a outer garment is also very helpful. Mittens keep hands warmer than gloves. I store my hand coverings on the radiator and my boots under it when not in use. My short arms have found a purpose, enabling me to further protect my hands by pulling sleeves down over them. This winter I will try heated gloves fueled by rechargeable batteries that last a lot longer than chemical . I also keep gloves next to the freezer to use when removing frozen foods. Some people even wear gloves when they sleep, and from fall through I wear socks to bed. If you smoke, don’t. Nicotine causes a drop in skin temperature that adds to the problem. Certain medications that constrict blood vessels can also make matters worse. They include many cold remedies, especially those that contain pseudoephedrine some migraine remedies and some blood pressure medications. If undue stress triggers a Raynaud’s attack, try to avoid stressful situations and routinely practice techniques like meditation, progressive muscle relaxation or the relaxation response. Regular physical exercise, while good for everyone’s is said to be especially helpful for those with primary Raynaud’s. Any activity that increases heart rate fosters circulation of warm blood to the extremities. Although there are no drugs approved to treat Raynaud’s, calcium channel blockers, commonly used to treat high blood pressure, can be helpful. They dilate small blood vessels by relaxing the smooth muscles around them. | 1 |
demon clown Pennywise is back with a vengeance in the first trailer for Warner Bros’ upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic It, released Wednesday. [The trailer opens as little Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) follows a paper boat while it slowly makes its way down a street — only to come face to face with the creepy clown hiding in a storm drain. When Georgie disappears in the small town of Derry, Maine, his brother Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) joins with other children in the town to create the Losers Club, an investigative unit determined to uncover the truth behind the strange occurrences. According to Entertainment Weekly, this latest iteration of It focuses on one half of King’s 1986 novel, with plans already in motion for a film. The new film also switches out the novel’s original 1950s time period for the 1980s. The film will mark the second screen outing for the killer clown tale, after the 1990 TV miniseries starring Tim Curry as Pennywise. It is directed by Andy Muschietti (Mama) off of a screenplay by Gary Dauberman, Chase Palmer and Cary Fukunaga. Bill Skarsgard plays the red Pennywise in this one, while Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs and Wyatt Oleff . The film hits theaters September 8. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 0 |
A former reporter for a news website was charged on Friday with making more than a bomb threats against Jewish community centers, schools and a Jewish history museum, federal authorities said. The man, Juan Thompson, 31, of St. Louis, made some of the threats using his own name and others implicating a former girlfriend as part of an effort to intimidate her, the authorities said in a federal complaint unsealed on Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. In one threat, made on Feb. 1 against a Jewish school in Farmington Hills, Mich. the complaint says, Mr. Thompson claimed he had placed two bombs in the school and was “eager for Jewish newtown,” an apparent reference to the 2012 school massacre in Newtown, Conn. in which a gunman killed 20 students and six school employees. The website The Intercept confirmed in a statement on Friday that Mr. Thompson worked for the publication for a little more than a year, until he was fired in January 2016 after it was discovered that he had fabricated sources and quotes in his articles. The arrest came amid heightened tension involving more than 100 threats against Jewish groups that have been reported in dozens of states this year, resulting in a broad inquiry led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The threats, combined with vandalism at Jewish cemeteries, have prompted fears of an increase in . Mr. Thompson is not believed to be responsible for most of the threats against Jewish centers around the country, according to federal law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing. Investigators are still trying to identify who is responsible for those threats, which the officials said were made using sophisticated technology to mask personal details, like identity and the origin of the calls. The federal complaint, which was signed by Christopher Mills, an F. B. I. special agent, says Mr. Thompson’s threats were “part of a sustained campaign to harass and intimidate” the former girlfriend. The harassment began shortly after she ended their romantic relationship last July, the complaint says. Mr. Thompson made at least eight threats against Jewish schools and community centers in New York, Dallas, Farmington Hills and San Diego, according to the complaint. In a threat made on Feb. 22 to the League in New York, the complaint says, a caller, using an untraceable phone number and a tool that disguised the caller’s voice, said there was an explosive material, in the group’s New York office, and that it would be “detonated within one hour. ” The office was immediately searched and no explosives were found. The accusations against Mr. Thompson were announced on Friday by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan William F. Sweeney Jr. head of the F. B. I. ’s New York office and James P. O’Neill, the New York police commissioner. “Threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race — whatever the motivation — are unacceptable, and criminal,” Mr. Bharara said in a statement. “We are committed to pursuing and prosecuting those who foment fear and hate through such criminal threats. ” The F. B. I. said that its director, James B. Comey, and top bureau officials had held a meeting on Friday with Jewish community leaders to discuss the recent increase in threats to Jewish institutions around the country, and that the investigation into the threats was “a top priority. ” Mr. Thompson was arrested on Friday in St. Louis, where a federal magistrate judge ordered him held without bond pending a detention hearing on Wednesday. Mr. Bharara’s office will seek to have Mr. Thompson, who is charged with one count of cyberstalking, brought to Manhattan to face prosecution, an office spokeswoman said. Lucille G. Liggett, a federal public defender who represented Mr. Thompson in court on Friday, declined to comment when reached later in the day. Mr. Thompson worked at The Intercept from November 2014 to January 2016, when he was dismissed, according to a statement by Betsy Reed, the news organization’s editor in chief. In the statement, Ms. Reed said the organization was “horrified to learn” of Mr. Thompson’s arrest in connection with the bomb threats and cyberstalking allegations. “These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted,” she said. Mr. Thompson began making bomb threats in January after harassing his former girlfriend for several months, according to the complaint. She obtained a New York State order of protection against him last August it was renewed in October and again in December. As part of the harassment, Mr. Thompson, without using his actual name, had sent emails and faxes to the woman’s employer that made false allegations about her, including that she was according to the complaint. He also sent her an anonymous email, attaching nude photographs of her and threatening to release them publicly. The bomb threat against a Jewish history museum in Manhattan, which the authorities did not identify, was made on Jan. 28, the complaint says. The phone threat against the League on Feb. 22 was preceded a day earlier by an email to the organization that said that the former girlfriend was “behind the bomb threats against jews” and that she would be making more threats. At a news conference on Friday in New York, Oren Segal, director of the League’s Center on Extremism, said Mr. Thompson had been on the organization’s radar since he was fired for fabricating quotes in articles. “While the motive is unclear, the impact is crystal clear,” Mr. Segal said of the bomb threats Mr. Thompson is accused of making. “While I cannot speak about what is in Thompson’s mind or certainly in his heart, threatening Jewish institutions is an act. ” | 1 |
" Europe developed from the spoils of Colonialism " - it did if you're a simple minded American activist and radical journalist in the Boston Area I guess....a little more learning please Daniel | 0 |
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Communist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America, Workers World Party, the Institute for Policy Studies, Council for a Livable World — it reads like a who’s who for radical anti-Americanism. But these and other groups bent on the destruction of America as we know it are not just fringe elements on the outside looking in. They have infiltrated our government, including the halls of Congress.
Who are they and what are their names? Both questions are answered in a riveting film by Trevor Loudon , a celebrated author, filmmaker, and political commentator from New Zealand, who has been researching the radical left for more than 30 years.
In “The Enemies Within,” a trailer for which follows, Loudon profiles fourteen Senators and more than fifty Representatives who seek to complete Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of the United States of America, which —Loudon argues — is the last bastion against the total suppression of freedom as we know it.
Readers are urged to purchase a copy of this eye-opening documentary and share it with as many patriots as you can. The nation’s future depends on it. | 0 |
Getty - Josh Edelson
The Yale Record, America’s “oldest college humor magazine,” taunted the IRS on Thursday by essentially endorsing Hillary Clinton for president by “not” endorsing her.
The magazine is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, meaning they are prohibited from engaging in political activities.
The Yale Record is walking a tightrope as it relates to their non-profit status. Read the editorial board's post below:
In its 144-year history, The Yale Record has never endorsed a Democratic candidate for president. In fact, we have never endorsed any candidate for president. This is, in part, due to our strong commitment to being a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, which mandates that we are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”
This year’s presidential election is highly unusual, but ultimately no different: The Yale Record believes both candidates to be equally un-endorsable, due to our faithful compliance with the tax code.
In particular, we do not endorse Hillary Clinton’s exemplary leadership during her 30 years in the public eye. We do not support her impressive commitment to serving and improving this country—a commitment to which she has dedicated her entire professional career. Because of unambiguous tax law, we do not encourage you to support the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history, nor do we encourage all citizens to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all by electing Secretary Clinton on November 8.
The Yale Record has no opinion whatsoever on Dr. Jill Stein.
—The Editorial Board of The Yale Record
Any reasonable reader would infer that the editorial board is indeed supporting Clinton for president. The only question is whether the paper gave itself enough legal wiggle room before publishing what might as well be a full-throated endorsement. Image Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Here's what the IRS has to say on the matter:
“...tax-exempt organizations described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code are prohibited from participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office. Charities, educational institutions and religious organizations, including churches, are among those that are covered under this code section."
[...]
“These organizations cannot endorse any candidates, make donations to their campaigns, engage in fund raising, distribute statements, or become involved in any other activities that may be beneficial or detrimental to any particular candidate. Even activities that encourage people to vote for or against a particular candidate on the basis of nonpartisan criteria violate the political campaign prohibition of section 501(c)(3)."
The Yale Daily News faced similar controversy when it openly endorsed Clinton. The paper wouldn't confirm its non-profit status to The Daily Caller and called the matter a “misunderstanding.” | 0 |
Andie Gratereaux sat under the autumn leaves at DeSalvio Playground in Manhattan a year ago, peeled away the wrapper from a salted caramel cupcake and started to put her life back together. With the help of a mentor she had met that day, Andie, 12, started a list in a spiral notebook of what she wanted to do over the coming year. Visit a park, try to sew, play music, learn to bake, go ice skating. The list became a road map for a girl uprooted from her home in Virginia after her stepfather threw her and her mother, Arlene Gratereaux, out of the house one night in 2011. He did so during one of his fits of rage, episodes during which he would get so angry he would punch holes in the apartment walls that Ms. Gratereaux covered with her daughter’s drawings. Ms. Gratereaux’s brother drove from Manhattan that night to Petersburg, Va. near Richmond, and took mother and daughter immediately back to his place on the Lower East Side. They were safe then, but they had left everything behind. Without a permanent home, Ms. Gratereaux and Andie have shuffled since then between her brother’s apartment and her parents’ place in the East New York section of Brooklyn. They were not used to this lifestyle, especially Andie. It led Ms. Gratereaux to Catholic Big Brothers and Big Sisters, an affiliate of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York, one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. She worried about their depressing circumstances and thought Andie needed a mentor, someone who could show her a world that seemed beyond her grasp. Andie was matched with Darragh Wright, 33, who had turned to Big Brothers and Big Sisters about the same time. “I was looking for a way to get connected to the New York community in a way,” Ms. Wright, who grew up in Atlanta, said. At DeSalvio Playground, Ms. Wright decided to break the ice over cupcakes. Together, she and Andie worked on the list of goals, and Ms. Wright snapped a photograph of it with her phone so that she would always have it with her. In the year that followed, she would refer to that photo to cross items off the list. She and Andie traveled to Garrison, N. Y. where they hiked in Arden Point State Park. “We had sore feet at the end,” Ms. Wright said. Andie sewed, making two blankets for homeless people as part of a community service project. And she got to bake — banana bread. “My uncle took two helpings,” she said. Ms. Wright and Andie see each other every other weekend, and their meetings start with a game of three questions. On a brisk afternoon in Prospect Park in Brooklyn a few days before Halloween, as children in princess and Spiderman costumes roamed around, Ms. Wright retrieved her questions for Andie from a plastic bag in her purse. What is your favorite food? (Cheeseburger with fries and ketchup.) What is your favorite day of the year? (Her birthday. Ms. Wright’s is Thanksgiving.) They also discussed Andie’s Halloween costume. (A zombie bride, with black eyes, a pale face and bloodied lips.) Then and now, the questions are never too serious. They do not discuss the trip Andie and her mother must make every week from the Lower East Side to East New York to stay for the weekend. They do not talk about the stress weighing on Ms. Gratereaux, a college graduate who most recently found work as a poll worker on Election Day and is receiving job training through Grace Institute, another program affiliated with Catholic Charities. Instead, Andie uses the time as an escape, a chance to become more independent, her mother said. Those moments, along with the aid the family is receiving elsewhere, have started to help them rebuild their lives. Catholic Charities also provided the family with $360 from the Neediest Cases Fund so that Andie could purchase her first laptop. She and her mother spend many hours after school at the library so that Andie can complete her homework. Andie also has lessons when she is with Ms. Wright. On the October day in Prospect Park, they got up from under a tree, and Ms. Wright handed Andie her phone with Google Maps open on it. They wanted to get a cup of hot cocoa, but it was up to Andie to navigate. “Andie, you lead us,” Ms. Wright said, bending over to look at the phone. “Can you find east? Show me on the map. ” Andie shuffled into position and began to walk. “Learning your way around a map is an important thing,” Ms. Wright said as they reversed course after a wrong turn under a bridge. The young girl looked back at the map, and they made their way out of the park. Soon, they would return to another park, the playground in Manhattan where their friendship was forged, to mark their anniversary. “We’ll do the cupcake thing again,” Andie said. Ms. Wright agreed. “And we’ll make another list,” she said. | 1 |
Consumers have always been able to count on the fact that if a product is certified organic, it’s GMO-free. That’s because GMOs aren’t allowed in organic. At least they haven’t been, so far. Last week, our allies at Food DemocracyNOW! broke the news that Melody Meyer, a member of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), wants gene editing, a dangerous new form of genetic engineering, to be allowed in organic. Meyer said as much, in a blog post . Yep, higher ups at the OTA—that “organic” Big Food front group that sold out the GMO labeling movement—are at it again. First, they sold us out on the DARK Act, the bill that effectively killed GMO labeling in the U.S. Now, they want to use the loopholes and exemptions written into the DARK Act to force the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to allow certain types of genetic engineering (some of which are referred to as GMO 2.0 ) to be allowed in organic. At its next meeting, November 16 – 18, in St. Louis, Mo., the NOSB will consider an “Excluded Methods Terminology” proposal that could determine whether or not Meyer and her compatriots at the OTA score another win against organics. We say, no way. If you haven’t already, please sign this petition to the NOSB demanding that all GMO technologies be kept out of certified organic products. TAKE ACTION BEFORE NOV. 15: Tell the National Organic Standards Board to keep genetically modified organisms out of certified ‘USDA organic’ food Support OCA’s anti-GMO work (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education) h/t: Organic Consumers Association | 0 |
Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan Hates President Obama
I have never shared anything by Louis Farrakhan and before tonight would have bet money that I never would have. However, then came this: [insert] Now I don’t agree with all of that, but I was absolutely stunned when another black man would openly criticize Obama – much less a black who happens to be the leader of the Nation of Islam! I’m still reporting from Washington. Good Day.
Bill Still is a former newspaper editor and publisher. He has written for USA Today, The Saturday Evening Post, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, OMNI magazine, and has also produced the syndicated radio program, Health News. He has written 22 books and two documentary videos and is the host of his wildly popular daily YouTube Channel the “Still Report”, the quintessential report on the economy and Washington. | 0 |
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Former Vice President Joe Biden smacked failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton here at the Salt Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday evening. [Speaking to a packed ballroom at the Bellagio conference center on the Las Vegas Strip, the former vice president, who himself declined to run for president, said he believes Clinton was not the “correct” candidate, but he was. “I never thought she was the correct candidate,” Biden said. “I thought I was the correct candidate. ” The audience erupted into applause. The Salt Conference is an annual gathering of private equity leaders here in Las Vegas, organized by SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci. Scaramucci, last cycle, supported Donald Trump. Biden declined to run for president last cycle after the death of his son. “No man or woman should announce for the presidency unless they genuinely believe that for that moment in the nation’s history they are the most qualified person to deal with the issues facing the country,” Biden also said. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in 2015 in his Trump Tower office, Trump said he expected to face Biden in the general election if Biden ran since Clinton had so many problems. “I think Hillary has got huge problems right now,” Trump said then, adding: “Is she going to make it? I hear this thing is big league. Why did she do it? You use the server? Because they’re always looking to go over the edge, whether it’s Whitewater or anything else. They always want to go over the edge. I’m just looking at it saying, ‘What the hell was she doing?’ You know what she was doing. She was guarding from the president seeing what she was doing. ” Biden did not run, Clinton got the nomination, and Trump smoked her on Election Day in the electoral college. | 0 |
On Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration, women from all over the country will be rolling into Washington for what promises to be an enormous protest against Donald J. Trump. But millions of women went to the polls for Mr. Trump on Election Day, including, according to surveys, 53 percent of white women. Why did they? Conventional wisdom that his behavior and remarks would disqualify him in the eyes of many women proved wrong. Interviews with more than a dozen women around the country showed a range of reasons for their support: worries about the economy, anger about the Affordable Care Act and the price of health care, protection of Second Amendment rights, fears about immigration and terrorism, and opposition to abortion. But many women also voted against Hillary Clinton, voicing deep suspicions about the American deaths in Benghazi, Libya her use of a private email server and the hacked emails of the Democratic National Committee as proof that she said one thing in public and another in private. Here are excerpts, condensed and edited, from their thoughts. Voter: Rebecca Gregory, 46. Nurse. Home: Roseville, Mich. In 2008 and 2012, I voted for Obama, I was marriage, Planned Parenthood was very important to me. But after eight years, I saw there was much more racial divide than there had ever been, I didn’t like the way the economy is going and I didn’t like the stance he took on police. My husband is a court officer and volunteers in the police force. [President Obama] didn’t support law enforcement the way he did the community that felt they were being unjustly treated. I think he could have done a better job instead of pointing blame. Instead of saying we need to educate people on how to behave when they’re being pulled over by the police. I’m seeing a barrage of patients coming in from different countries. An Iraqi immigrant came in last night, he needs dialysis. He will never be productive in the U. S. he will always be dependent on Medicaid. I feel for him, I want to help him, but we have to take care of our own people first. Driving to work yesterday, I saw three homeless people. They need our help. If I turned down every candidate who objectified women, I’d vote for no one. _____ Voter: Sandy Pearson, 48. Studying to be a mortgage broker. Home: Chattanooga, Tenn. Trump’s not a perfect man, by any means. He kind of reminds me of my . I think he’s a really good man, deep down. This guy has such potential, and I truly believe he cares about our country and wants to help everyone. I do read things on occasion that he tweets and I think, oh my word. I wish I could have had 10 minutes with him. Listen, Donald, you need to straighten up and stop with this foolishness. What he said about women was disrespectful. But I don’t get offended like some people do. You get through the bad and you focus on the good. Basically these were our choices, and I felt he was the better choice, and I had to overlook the negatives and focus on the positives. At the very beginning of this election, I was leaning toward Bernie Sanders. I looked at all the candidates, what were their ideas to help our country out of debt and make our military strong and be there for our vets. I have so many friends whose health care costs have doubled and are having to get extra jobs just to pay their insurance. And I read all these things about people where their religious liberties are not being taken seriously. _____ Voter: Deb Alighire, 44. Engineer and program manager at Mopar, a subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Home: Clarkston, Mich. I’m very focused on bringing the plants back. In metro Detroit, waiters usually were younger people and during the time of hardship, the bankruptcies, it was very striking to me to go to a Papa Gino’s and have a man being a waiter. Usually these people would have some kind of job related to the automotive industry. I’m super excited about Trump. I believe he knows how to build things. My dad worked at a coal power plant for 39 years and they’re freaked out about energy changing too quickly. I’m also concerned about immigration. I went to Minnesota and I had a Somali cabdriver who lectured me for 35 minutes to the airport about how women in America have too much freedom. My thought process on that is that I don’t like seeing people going through the hardship they go through, but I don’t want to go backwards in the feminist movement, either. _____ Voter: Taylor Davis, 27. Works in a small business. Home: Enfield, Conn. I helped campaign for Obama and I was a Bernie supporter. When he backed Hillary Clinton, I couldn’t get behind it. Both my parents are engineers. My mom was an engineer long before many women in the field. When the economy started faltering, she went from a very high position at Pratt Whitney to being unemployed for a year, and that was heartbreaking. I think that Trump really cares about having jobs back here, not necessarily the service industry. Do I think Trump’s trying to send women back to the kitchen? No, his daughter is a great example. She ran the campaign long before he ran for president. _____ Voter: Robin Mueller, 42. Preschool teacher. Home: Sterling Heights, Mich. I made up my mind for Trump at the last minute. Since my husband is in the military, I was concerned about having someone who didn’t have military experience, didn’t have the knowledge of dealing with world leaders. And I kind of thought he had a big mouth. But I had an who was totally on the Trump train. He talked me into taking him to a Trump rally. I expected him to be like what I’d seen on the news, saying hateful things. But his presence was very calming and I liked his talking points. We really are the middle class, and we kind of get swept aside. The first time she ran against Obama, I was all on board for Hillary Clinton. I really wanted to have a female president. I think that’s important. But I’m not sure that’s her. In the past, her stance on abortion was more the way I feel, just for the first trimester, then she did a 360. She was here in the primary, having a debate with Bernie Sanders. He answered the question honestly. When they asked her the same question, she kind of danced around it. Then she went on “The View” and said she was for abortions. Just take a stance, be honest. Same thing as with gay marriage, she wasn’t for it, then she was. I’m 100 percent for it. It’s ridiculous the way we tell people who they can and cannot marry. Don’t go back and forth. Don’t pander. I voted for Obama the last time. I don’t agree with a lot of what he said, but I felt he was honest. _____ Voter: Katie Holder, 39. Owns a business. Home: Gulf Shores, Ala. I feel very, very badly for the people who are very scared for their way of life. From what I’m understanding, he’s only really wanting illegal immigrants that have committed crimes to be deported, which I agree with. I feel bad for the lesbian and gay and transsexual community that fear for their way of life. From what I understand, he says he’s not going to mess with that. Somebody called me a racist because I did vote for Trump. Hold on, you don’t know me. Doesn’t that make you a racist by calling me a racist when you don’t know me? I’m looking for a brighter future for me and my children, and honestly I felt l like our country was kind of at risk if we did elect Hillary. _____ Voter: Victoria Czapski, 45. Works in education. Home: Sterling Heights, Mich. I felt he had what it would take to get the country back on track. Being P. C. was going to kill the country. He speaks his mind and because of that, he’s not going to lie to you. I don’t want immigrants, accepting them without doing the background checks. Are these people terrorists? I don’t want to live in a country where we have to worry about going to the movie theater or the mall. Let’s be on the offensive, versus the defensive. We are a country based on immigrants. But I believe they should go through the process. My came here, they had to learn English. This is a Christian country. The whole bending over backwards. He says what everyone’s thinking and is afraid to say. That doesn’t make anyone bigoted. I’m not saying there are people out there who shouldn’t be helped. I worked in the inner cities. They’re on welfare. They make a certain amount of money and everything gets taken away. That amount of money is so low that they have no incentive to work. Why don’t you allow them to gradually earn more money? Find a way to help people get over the hump. _____ Voter: Pam Cornett, 46. Formerly now working in customer service. Home: Chattanooga, Tenn. I voted for Trump because I wanted change. I feel like our economy has totally tanked. People do not have disposable income. I feel the last eight years have been a joke. Obama was out for himself. I don’t think he really respected the office. I think it was more about him being a celebrity than a president. Trump’s a successful businessman, and I feel like that’s what America needs to bring our economy back. I don’t think Donald Trump is really Republican, to be quite honest with you. He’s not in a box. One of the most attractive things to me is he can’t be boxed. He wants to bring America back to what it was before. I don’t think it’s taking us back to women have no rights or slavery days. _____ Voter: Paula Filar, 71. Retired business owner. Home: Shelby Township, Mich. I thought if he would only have kept his mouth shut during the primary. About the way people looked, about their size. Really? About McCain. I mean, really? All of it was so egregious. I hated it, I cringed. All of that was bad, but it didn’t stop me. And it’s like Hillary has the right to talk about Trump when she stayed with a guy who was in the White House and took advantage of a young intern? Why would you stay with him? Benghazi. The emails. The I. R. S. She’s a liar. The Clintons got wealthy because of their position. I’d rather have someone there who doesn’t need the money. He’s got a message. He’s going to make a change. Her message was all him. All negative ads. I spent a long time in the staffing industry here, worked with the automotive industry. We weren’t competitive. That’s got to be turned around. We have to have incentives for companies to keep their work here. _____ Voter: Tangie Wooden, 44. Learning facilitator for Blue Cross of Tennessee. Home: Ringgold, Ga. When Trump became my only choice, I felt he was the lesser of two evils. I had major issues with Hillary as far as ethics was concerned. It seems she feels that she is above the law and nothing ever seems to stick. I didn’t particularly like everything he was saying as far as building a wall, and doing this to immigrants. I looked at that more as bravado, his audience needed that to get the applause. But there are allegations about killing people who get in her way — Vince Foster, people like that. Someone who has a big bravado is not as concerning to me as someone who might kill people who get in her way. _____ Voter: Kasia Riddle, 43. Substitute teacher. Home: Murfreesboro, Tenn. I run my household like a business, my classroom like a business. I expect him to run the country in such a manner. You don’t pay more money out than you have. You want to have your budget under control. You want to know the people you’re working with are above average. You want to pick the people based on what they can do, not on what they did for you. He’s not getting large amounts from donors based on what you’ll do for me later. _____ Voter: Guzin Karides, 49. Homemaker, former attorney. Home: Virginia Beach I laughed Trump off like everyone else did. Once I stopped laughing at him and started listening, I started to support him. I felt like once you got past the bluster, he really was interested in helping everyone. I do think having a secure border is very important. My father was a Muslim immigrant from Turkey, he went through the process. I don’t agree with a ban on Muslims, but my father was very wary of Muslims who came over if they didn’t have a reason to be here. He would support a full vetting, but not a total ban. I have always considered myself a feminist. For me, I want to be treated the exact same way. That’s not the feel I get from feminists today, they want extra privileges. I gave up my first marriage so I could be a law partner and then I had to give up on my partnership so I could be a better mom. To say women are going backwards would be wrong. Look at how much Trump hires women, how much he does rely on women, how much he relies on his own daughter. I’m sort of amazed by her. She may pull him more into the middle. She’ll be a good voice for women. | 1 |
November 11, 2016
Following America’s shock election result, a voter has complained of increasing polarisation in the country between people who agree with her and “ignorant scum”.
“I just don’t recognise this country any more,” she said sadly. “I remember a time we could discuss things in a civil manner, with everyone being respectful of each other’s opinions.”
“Nowadays this seems to be impossible, due to the existence of people who obviously must be racist, misogynist knuckle-dragging arsewipes since they disagree with me.”
She also expressed concern that her political opponents harboured authoritarian tendencies, and said the sooner they were rounded up and put into camps the better “so that a more inclusive and tolerant political discourse can flourish again”. YaBasta | 0 |
by Pepe Escobar for Sputnik International
Cold War 2.0 has reached unprecedented hysterical levels. 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 http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21709028-how-contain-vladimir-putins-deadly-dysfunctional-empire-threat-russia
“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 http://thesaker.is/making-sense-of-the-russian-naval-task-force-off-the-coast-of-syria/ 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. The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95 | 1 |
One man’s front teeth were knocked out. Another blacked out when his car was hit by the force of the blast. And one woman had to have ball bearings tweezed from her flesh, metal fragments removed from her ear and wood shards extracted from her neck. When a bomb exploded on Saturday night on West 23rd Street in Manhattan, more than two dozen people were hurt — most of them struck by shrapnel and flying debris and glass. Officials immediately assured they had only minor injuries, and when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Sunday morning that all the victims had been released from hospitals, there was a collective sigh of relief: In a city scarred by terror, not a single life was lost. But for the victims themselves, the injuries were nothing short of horrific — perhaps not life ending, but certainly life changing. In interviews, they described the shock of the explosion, then the strangeness of returning to daily life while carrying injuries, from gashes with stitches to invisible wounds like ringing ears and nightmares. And while thankful to be alive, they experienced a paradox: One of the worst days of their lives is being referred to by practically everyone else as some kind of stroke of good luck. Four of those injured were recent graduates of Boston University, former roommates who had reunited for dinner and were walking to the subway. They were just feet from the trash bin believed to have concealed the explosive device when it detonated. The moment itself was a blur. “All of the sudden we were running out of there,” said one of the four, Noah McAskill, 22. As they joined other victims, they discovered they had all been hurt. Harris Gordon was bleeding from a cut in his back Luke Sorenson had a gash in his leg. Mr. McAskill had escaped with a few cuts and some hearing loss his hearing returned, though his ears were ringing for days. But his roommate, Joshua Lee, had been hit in the face and lost his two front teeth. His face was still swollen days later and he had been outfitted with temporary false teeth, said Mr. Lee, 22, originally from Los Angeles. An oral surgeon would repair his teeth permanently, but the process would take time. He planned to return to work soon. The young men all said they were focusing on resuming normalcy, but “these boys went to Boston University and lived through the Boston Marathon,” Mr. Gordon’s mother, Andrea, said. “They’ve lived through this twice. ” The criminal complaint filed this week against the suspect in the bombing, Ahmad Khan Rahami, listed the injuries suffered by the 31 victims — two more than originally reported — and included “lacerations in the face, abdomen, legs and arms caused by flying glass” and “metal shrapnel and fragmentation embedded in skin and bone. ” After being released from hospitals in the early hours of Sunday morning, those hurt dispersed into the city, and possibly beyond, left to deal with the aftermath on their own. Helena Ayeh, an architect who lives on West 23rd Street, in the Chelsea neighborhood, was swept off her feet by the blast and cut her right eye. Days later, her eye was still swollen and burning and she had trouble seeing through it, she said. “I’m affected for goodness knows how long, and it’s just sad,” she said. Ms. Ayeh tried to return to work on Monday, she said, but her limited eyesight made it too difficult. She was taken off a project that she was counting on for her income for the remainder of the year. “It’s a very heavy blow,” she said. “I’m sitting here wringing my hands asking, where I go from here?” It could have been worse. The bomb, loaded with ball bearings, has been described as extremely powerful. Similar bombs at the Boston Marathon in 2013 left three dead and many injured, some requiring amputations. But that was a packed street, with spectators standing shoulder to shoulder and the bombs planted at their feet. While Chelsea is certainly crowded on Saturday nights, the pedestrians and cars were not as close together. At the same time, the placement of the bomb — believed to be beneath a trash bin — may have contained the blast somewhat, though it sent the bin flying 120 feet. By sheer luck it did not strike anyone. Brenda Abreu and her boyfriend, David Martinez, 34, were driving past that spot at precisely the worst moment. “One second we were driving,” said Ms. Abreu, 32, who is seven months pregnant. Then the windows on the left side shattered completely, and the car was lifted onto its wheels. “For a second I thought my car was on fire,” she said. Her boyfriend blacked out at the wheel and sprained his knee in the blast. Debris from the bomb struck him behind the ear, leaving him with burn marks. The next thing Ms. Abreu remembered, she was facing emergency responders near the ambulances. “Am I going to go into labor?” she thought. She was put on a stretcher. At Bellevue Hospital Center, one of four hospitals where victims were sent, the two were examined and released early Sunday morning both sustained mild concussions. Dr. Eric Cruzen, the medical director of emergency medicine at Lenox Health Greenwich Village, said his department treated nine patients, including one pediatric patient, for lacerations from shrapnel and glass, head injuries and mild concussions, and decreased hearing caused by the rapid change in pressure during the explosion. Many of the patients who experienced ear trauma had been inside cars at the time of the explosion, and said their windows had been blown out. The same pressure that shatters a window can also shatter an eardrum, Dr. Cruzen said. “It can burst like a window does,” Dr. Cruzen said. “It can be very alarming. ” He added, “I think the psychological effect of being bombed in your home city was probably the worst. ” Ms. Abreu missed two days of work at her job as an administrative assistant, and had rarely left the house. She has had nightmares and trouble sleeping. She refused to watch the news. “Every time I see his picture,” she said, referring to Mr. Rahami, “it just brings back everything. ” Victims of trauma might experience insomnia, irritability, or a loss of or gain in appetite, said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. They might be easily startled by loud sounds. “These are effects that will linger for some period of time,” he said. Over the long term, people in the most extreme cases might have recurring memories of the event, or even lose the ability to concentrate or perform usual work tasks. A person’s psychological recovery does not depend on the scale of the event, whether it is the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or a blast with no serious injuries. “If you’re the person affected, it doesn’t make a difference if it’s a mass tragedy,” Dr. Lieberman said. For those affected by the bombing in Chelsea, feelings are mixed. Since Saturday, Andrea Gordon, the mother of one of the Boston University graduates, has repeatedly thought of other terrorist attacks and found herself flooded with gratitude. “Thank God this guy was captured, and thank God he was an amateur,” she said. Asked if she had talked to her son about how he felt, she said, “I’m going to get there. ” For the moment, her son and his friends were looking to the future. “They don’t want to relive the night,” she said. | 1 |
In a new editorial, the head of the German daily broadsheet Die Welt has called on Germans to oppose U. S. Donald Trump by being more multicultural and more “gay. ”[Head of Die Welt Ulf Poschardt wrote a combative editorial in response to an interview Mr. Trump did with the Bild tabloid on Monday. The highly negative reaction from many online forced the paper into changing the world “schwuler” or gay to ” more creative” after hundreds of comments were made on the paper’s website and over one thousand more on their Facebook page. In the editorial, Mr. Poschardt claims that Germans need to oppose Donald Trump because he threatens the system of globalisation he says has greatly benefited Germany. “Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Cabinet have been right to promote, popularize, and engage in global politics in tough diplomatic struggle,” he wrote, saying that it was good for Germans when globalisation ideas were spread across the world. “The distribution of global prosperity will, in the future, be aggressively decided by the US in its favor — if we do not resist and become better, more courageous, more diligent, innovative, free, open, gay and multicultural,” he wrote initially with gay being replaced with “creative” after the torrent of comments online. Facebook user Kirsten Zander slammed the editorial saying, “Why this martial rhetoric? To defend ourselves against the US president. Did he declare war on us? First of all, we need to take care of our own country instead of squinting at the whole world, as our chancellor does. ” Others took exception to the word gay being used with another Facebook user commenting, “What has this man smoked? Why do we become more successful when we become “gay” and STILL “multicultural”? Is there a correlation between being gay and growing multiculturalism and success?” Another wrote: “Why should we be gay? More open in dealing with gays in our society, I could understand that. But why gay when it comes to Trump?” The comments caused Mr. Poschardt to explain why he chose the word gay which was, according to him, “was meant in the sense of the theses of Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class. When this one detail became vital and threatened to cover the rest of the comment, I changed it. ” After the change, website Queer. de slammed Die Welt saying Poschardt had given in to “ populists” and called it “embarrassing” that he replaced gay with “creative” rather than “more tolerant” or “more diverse. ” The reaction to the election of Donald Trump among German media and German politicians has been highly negative since November. German Chancellor Angela Merkel went as far as to claim that Russian hacking directly influenced the election and warned it could influence the upcoming German federal election later this year. Tiedje, chairman and primary shareholder of communications consultancy WMP Eurocom AG, slammed German media for its coverage of the saying, “whatever he says, whatever he does, it’s never right according to the German television class. ” | 0 |
In an exit memorandum reflecting on eight years of United States foreign policy, Secretary of State John Kerry enumerated the Obama administration’s diplomatic accomplishments. But that record may be weakened or overturned by Donald J. Trump, who has denigrated many of President Obama’s policies. Here is a look at how the secretary and the see the major foreign policy issues differently. Kerry: Mr. Kerry praised the 2015 deal that the United States brokered with Iran to curtail that country’s ability to produce nuclear weapons. Mr. Kerry wrote that before the deal was struck, Iran was less than “90 days away from having the material necessary to produce one nuclear weapon,” but “today they are at least a year away. ” He wrote on Thursday, “In reaching and implementing this deal, we took a major security threat off the table without firing a single shot. ” Trump: Mr. Trump made criticism of the nuclear deal a major talking point of his foreign policy in the presidential campaign. He has called the agreement “the worst deal ever negotiated. ” At a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March, he said, “My No. 1 priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. ” Later, he said he would renegotiate the agreement. Kerry: The secretary said that the United States tried to reset relations with Russia early in President Obama’s first term, but that a series of aggressions including “unprecedented cyber intrusions,” “military intervention in Syria,” and the “illegal occupation” of Ukraine impeded that effort. Trump: Mr. Trump has made improved relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a cornerstone of his future foreign policy. After American intelligence agencies provided evidence that Russians hacked Democratic National Committee systems to help tip the election in his favor, Mr. Trump criticized the reliability of the intelligence community. He has praised Mr. Putin and said he would work closely with him to combat the Islamic State. Mr. Trump also seemed to upend American nuclear weapons policy when he declared in December: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all. ” Kerry: Mr. Kerry devoted a significant portion of his memo to climate change, calling it “not just a threat to the future of our planet, but a growing and immediate threat to our national security. ” He lauded an agreement struck between President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China, which bolstered a global climate agreement reached in Paris in 2015 that he called the most “ambitious, inclusive climate agreement ever negotiated. ” Trump: Mr. Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” said he would “cancel” the Paris accords and vowed to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency “in almost every form. ” His nominee to run that agency is Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, who has led the legal battle against Mr. Obama’s policies. Kerry: Though the Obama administration never fulfilled a promise to shutter the Guantánamo Bay detention center, Mr. Kerry wrote that ”no single action would do more to reaffirm our commitment to international human rights norms and remove a recruiting tool for terrorists than closing” the site. During Mr. Obama’s presidency, the number of detainees decreased to 59 from 242, with 20 approved for transfer. Trump: In a message posted to Twitter on Tuesday, Mr. Trump wrote: “There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield. ” Kerry: “It would be a moral failing of the highest caliber to turn our backs on those in need — including and especially from countries like Syria and Iraq,” Mr. Kerry wrote, adding that the United States had a “profound responsibility to help refugees. ” Trump: After the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. in December 2015, Mr. Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. ” Later in the campaign, he said: “We must suspend immigration from regions linked with terrorism until a proven vetting method is in place. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — There was no filibuster for Clarence Thomas, whose Supreme Court confirmation hearings provoked a national uproar over sex, race and the behavior of powerful men. Antonin Scalia, for a generation the court’s irrepressible conservative id, earned 98 votes in the Senate. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now the patron saint of liberal jurisprudence, got 96. But with the Senate careering toward a showdown over President Trump’s nominee, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, the body’s long history of relative collaboration on Supreme Court matters has come to this: Next week, the last bastion of comity is expected to fall over a plainly qualified, nominee who had no major stumbles in his hearings. And each party’s justification can often be summarized with a schoolyard classic: They started it. “I worry for the institution,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who broke with her colleagues last year in calling for a hearing and a vote on Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama’s own plainly qualified, nominee. “I think, at the risk of alienating everyone I have to work with here, that there’s real shortsightedness on both parts. ” Leaders of both parties seem largely resigned to the next act. With Republicans eager to vote on Judge Gorsuch’s nomination next week, he is seen as unlikely to attract the support of at least eight Democrats, which he needs to reach the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. And the Republican majority, led by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has hinted strongly that it intends to change longstanding rules to elevate Judge Gorsuch with a simple majority vote if necessary. Mr. Trump has encouraged such a move. The specter of Judge Garland, whom Republicans refused to even consider in a presidential election year, has hovered over Judge Gorsuch’s nomination from the beginning, leaving Democrats and the party’s progressive base to stew over what they view as a stolen seat. But veteran lawmakers and scholars of the court have absorbed the present tumult in a deeper context: a prospective Senate nadir achievable only after years of creeping institutional shifts, a mutual recognition of the judiciary’s capacity to accelerate a party’s agenda, and a bipartisan embrace of hypocritical arguments and counterarguments, adopted and abandoned with the political winds. “This is more the coup de grâce than a new beginning,” said Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and an author on Supreme Court matters. “It may indeed make it impossible for presidents to confirm any nominee at any point in their terms unless they also have control of the Senate. ” Some past flash points are familiar — charged enough to enshrine “Bork” as a verb and forever alter the connotations of Coke cans — rendered already in history as signposts of the electrified politics surrounding the court’s nominees. Other episodes, like the escalating partisan tensions over federal judgeships, served to erode Senate cooperation on judicial matters in less immediately perceptible ways. A surge in spending from outside groups, particularly on the right, has also increasingly lent the proceedings a feel. Then there was the precursor in 2013, when Democrats controlled the Senate under Mr. Obama. Facing a blockade of the president’s appeals court and executive branch nominees, the party changed the rules to bar filibusters for such positions, but left the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations untouched. Republicans have not forgotten. “I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you’ll regret this,” Mr. McConnell predicted at the time. “And you may regret it a lot sooner than you think. ” The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, has indeed said he regrets his party’s choice then, when Senator Harry Reid of Nevada was the Democrats’ leader. But the Supreme Court was meant to be different. Under current rules, the minority party can still prevent a vote on a nominee if more than 40 members band together in the filibuster. If 60 senators invoke “cloture,” the filibuster is broken and a full vote can proceed, with only majority support required. In an interview on Thursday at his office in the Capitol, Mr. Schumer said his party’s efforts were about more than protesting the treatment of Judge Garland. He cited concerns over Judge Gorsuch’s record on workers’ rights and his degree of independence from Mr. Trump and conservative groups like the Federalist Society, which pushed for Judge Gorsuch’s nomination. “It’s not vengeance for us,” he said. “It’s not payback. ” There has never been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee. In 1968, senators from both parties joined forces to block Justice Abe Fortas, whom President Lyndon B. Johnson sought to elevate to chief justice. Their obstruction — “ironically, in the middle of a presidential election year,” Mr. McConnell noted this week — centered on Mr. Johnson’s status and ethical questions surrounding Justice Fortas, among other issues. The Senate’s rejection in 1987 of Judge Robert H. Bork signaled a newfound focus on judicial philosophy and temperament, not merely a nominee’s qualifications, as grounds for credible opposition. Four years later, Justice Thomas’s explosive hearings and narrow confirmation, by a vote of 52 to 48, cemented the process as inescapably political, even as the next of Supreme Court confirmations often proceeded with a bipartisanship that has summarily vanished. And for all the outcry over Justice Thomas, no senator chose to filibuster him. “It was a function of norms of the Senate, not rules of the Senate,” said Martin B. Gold, a former senior Senate staff member who is considered an authority on the body’s procedures and protocols. “The rules would have permitted what the norms did not. ” Justice Thomas is one of two sitting justices, along with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. to have fallen short of 60 votes, complicating Democrats’ recent claims that Judge Gorsuch must be held to a “standard” for confirmation. There is likewise, with respect to Judge Garland, no rule prohibiting the consideration of Supreme Court nominees eight months before an election. Sanford V. Levinson, a Supreme Court expert at the University of Texas School of Law, said the present enmity stemmed as much from bitter quarrels over judgeships as from past clashes over Supreme Court picks. He noted the series of filibusters against judicial nominees under President George W. Bush. “The Democrats did escalate,” Mr. Levinson said. “And the Republicans in turn escalated further with regard to doing what they could to delay Obama’s appointments — and then the kind of ultimate escalation with regard to Merrick Garland. ” In the interview, Mr. Schumer argued that the treatment of Judge Garland was “worse than a filibuster. ” And no one, he added, is forcing the Republicans’ hand. “If they change the rules, it’s their volition,” he said. It has been a trying moment for the institutionalists of the Senate, members with a particular attachment to the body’s rituals and norms. At the same time, Republicans have generally declined to assign themselves any blame for the rancor. This week, Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the Republican in the chamber, said the Democrats’ pursuit of a filibuster had become “demeaning to the Senate and to this country. ” Last year, both Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas suggested that they might seek to keep Mr. Scalia’s seat vacant indefinitely if Hillary Clinton won the election. But there is perhaps no surer signal of the Senate’s lurch toward confrontation than Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the body’s member. On Monday, Mr. Leahy was quoted as saying he was “not inclined to filibuster,” even as he expressed his opposition to Judge Gorsuch’s nomination. Hours later, as liberal activists scolded him, the septuagenarian senator issued a clarification on Twitter. “I am never inclined to filibuster a SCOTUS nom,” he wrote, leaving the requisite wiggle room. “But I need to see how Judge Gorsuch answers my written Qs, under oath, before deciding. ” | 1 |
Six former New York City correction officers returned to Rikers Island — this time as inmates — after being sentenced on Friday to prison terms of from four and a half years to six and a half years for their roles in the brutal beating of an inmate there in 2012. The sentencing of the former officers in State Supreme Court in the Bronx came three months after they were convicted of attempted gang assault, the most serious offense, and other charges. The case opened a window on a pervasive culture of violence at Rikers, the troubled city jail complex that houses 8, 000 inmates, at a time when many critics, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, have called for it to be closed. While there have been other instances of brutality against inmates, this case stood out because of the large number of officers involved, as well as the high rank of some of them. Prosecutors said Eliseo Perez Jr. an assistant chief for security, and Gerald Vaughn, a captain, ordered members of an elite squad to beat the inmate, Jahmal Lightfoot, after Mr. Perez decided Mr. Lightfoot was being insolent. Justice Steven Barrett sentenced Mr. Perez, Mr. Vaughn and four others — Jose Parra, Tobias Parker, Alfred Rivera and David Rodriguez — in a courtroom filled with their friends, relatives and fellow correction officers. Dozens of other supporters waited in a hallway outside. Each of the men had faced up to 15 years in state prison on the attempted gang assault charge. The other charges on which the six were also convicted included attempted assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, falsifying business records and official misconduct. “At Rikers Island one day several years ago, officers entrusted with the duty to maintain order and discipline without resorting to force succumbed to their worst instincts and to the casual violence that is too often prevalent among the prison population these men were entrusted to watch,” Justice Barrett said, describing a case he said involved a “dereliction of duty at Rikers Island. ” Justice Barrett gave the longest sentence — six and a half years — to Mr. Perez, whom he called the “most culpable” of the defendants the judge sentenced Mr. Vaughn to five and a half years in prison. The other four former officers each received terms of four and a half years. The six men were immediately taken into custody after being sentenced and were later sent to Rikers. They will eventually be transferred to state prison. Justice Barrett also sentenced two former officers not directly involved in the beating, Harmon Frierson and Dwayne Maynard, to conditional discharges and 500 hours of community service apiece. They were convicted in June on charges of official misconduct for their roles in efforts to try to cover up the attack. Mr. Lightfoot, who was released from state prison in 2014, was in the courtroom as one former officer after another was sentenced during a proceeding that lasted nearly three hours. Afterward, he declined through his lawyer to comment. Lawrence Piergrossi, a prosecutor, praised Mr. Lightfoot in court for coming forward to report the beating by the officers, which occurred in a cell used for searching inmates. “What was supposed to be left in that search pen — because of Jahmal Lightfoot’s courage — has been brought to light,” Mr. Piergrossi said. The former officers, none of whom testified at trial, were portrayed by their lawyers as devoted family men and dedicated public servants without criminal records. Mr. Perez, his lawyer said, had helped with rescue efforts after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Mr. Rodriguez’s youngest child was born during the trial. Others were described by their lawyers as caring for aging or sick parents, and serving in their churches. Several of the defense lawyers said their clients were appealing the guilty verdicts. Nine former and current correction officers were tried together last spring in connection with the beating of Mr. Lightfoot and subsequent effort to cover it up. Five were found guilty by a jury three, who chose a bench trial, were found guilty by Justice Barrett. The verdicts were a major victory for the Bronx district attorney, Darcel D. Clark, a Democrat, who has made prosecuting crimes committed by anyone at Rikers a priority. Law enforcement officials in New York and elsewhere have struggled to successfully prosecute correction officers accused of brutality, in part because of negative perceptions of, and credibility problems with, victims accused or convicted of crimes. Mr. Lightfoot testified during the trial that it was “open season” for the officers to pummel him mercilessly with their fists and boots even as he curled into a fetal position on the floor. The attack left him with injuries that included two fractured eye sockets. Defense lawyers, who rested their case without calling any witnesses, argued that their clients had committed no wrongdoing. They said Mr. Lightfoot had been found with a sharp metal object during a routine search of inmates, and had then disregarded the officers’ repeated orders to drop the object. Mr. Lightfoot, the defense lawyers said, was injured while being forcibly restrained by officers who were simply doing their jobs. The defense lawyers also sought repeatedly to undermine the credibility of Mr. Lightfoot, who was sent to Rikers in 2010 after being accused of stealing a woman’s pocketbook. They cited his ties to the Bloods street gang and his criminal history involving drugs and other minor offenses. They suggested that he had concocted a story about being singled out and beaten, and hoped to gain financially from a lawsuit against the city over the attack that is pending. Mr. Perez retired from the New York City Correction Department in 2013 Mr. Vaughn retired in 2014. The six other officers convicted of criminal charges have been fired, according to correction officials. Jeffrey Richard, the only officer to be acquitted, remains a correction officer. A 10th officer, Michael Pollard, has also been charged in the beating of Mr. Lightfoot. He will be tried separately because of medical problems. He retired in July, according to correction officials. | 1 |
Jon Rappoport
If you wanted to buy a product, and the main source of research on the product was the company selling it, would you automatically assume the product was safe and effective?
But you see, that’s the just the beginning of the problem. Suppose the company’s research was cited thousands of times in the press, as the authoritative standard of proof—and anyone who disputed that research was labeled a conspiracy theorist and a quack and a danger to the community and an anti-science lunatic.
Would you begin to suspect the company had some awesome media connections? Would you suspect some very powerful people were backing the company?
This is exactly the situation with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Read these two quotes:
The government’s Vaccine for Children Program (a CDC organization) purchases vaccines for about 50 percent of children in the U.S.” (The Atlantic, February 10, 2015)
“The CDC currently spends over $4 billion purchasing vaccines [annually] from drug makers…” (Health Impact News, October 24, 2016)
However, the CDC is also the gold standard for research on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. It turns out an unending stream of studies on these subjects. And the results of those studies are dutifully reported in the mainstream press.
Do you think, under any circumstances, the CDC would publish data showing vaccines are ineffective and dangerous? They’d be cutting their own throats.
“Well, we spend $4 billion a year buying vaccines from drug companies, but guess what? These vaccines are often dangerous…”
Every time you read about a CDC study on vaccines, keep this obvious conflict of interest in mind.
When, in 2014, William Thompson, a long-time CDC researcher, publicly admitted he and his colleagues had buried data that would have shown the MMR vaccine increases the risk of autism, he was throwing a stick of dynamite into the whole CDC operation. He was also saying, in recorded phone conversations, that the CDC was lying about vaccine safety in other studies.
This is why major media refused to cover or investigate Thompson’s claims. This is why they spread a blanket of silence over his revelations.
Thompson was threatening a $ 4-billion-a-year enterprise.
The CDC is both a PR agency for, and a buyer from, Big Pharma.
Speaking of PR, would you like to see an example of how the CDC promotes the yearly flu vaccine by lying egregiously about flu deaths in the United States?
In December of 2005, the British Medical Journal (online) published a shocking report by Peter Doshi, which created tremors through the halls of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), where “the experts” used to tell the press that 36,000 people in the US die every year from the flu.
Here is a quote from Doshi’s report, “Are US flu death figures more PR than science?” (BMJ 2005; 331:1412):
“[According to CDC statistics], ‘influenza and pneumonia’ took 62,034 lives in 2001—61,777 of which were attributable to pneumonia and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was the flu virus positively identified.”
Boom.
You see, the CDC has created one overall category that combines both flu and pneumonia deaths. Why do they do this? Because they disingenuously assume that the pneumonia deaths are complications stemming from the flu.
This is an absurd assumption. Pneumonia has a number of causes.
But even worse, in all the flu and pneumonia deaths, only 18 revealed the presence of an influenza virus.
Therefore, the CDC could not say, with assurance, that more than 18 people died of influenza in 2001. Not 36,000 deaths. 18 deaths.
Doshi continued his assessment of published CDC flu-death statistics: “Between 1979 and 2001, [CDC] data show an average of 1348 [flu] deaths per year (range 257 to 3006).” These figures refer to flu separated out from pneumonia.
This death toll is obviously far lower than the parroted 36,000 figure.
However, when you add the sensible condition that lab tests have to actually find the flu virus in patients, the numbers of flu deaths plummet even further.
In other words, it’s all promotion and hype.
“Well, uh, we say that 36,000 people die from the flu every year in the US. But actually, it’s closer to 20. However, we can’t admit that, because if we did, we’d be exposing our gigantic psyop. The whole campaign to scare people into getting a flu shot would have about the same effect as warning people to carry iron umbrellas, in case toasters fall out of upper-story windows…and, by the way, we’d be put in prison for fraud.”
The CDC must turn out a steady stream of outrageous lies about the need for vaccines. If they didn’t, they’d have no way to justify the billions of dollars they spend every year buying the vaccines from drug companies.
Since the sold-out major media won’t connect these dots, I and others need to.
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED , EXIT FROM THE MATRIX , and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX , Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29 th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here . | 1 |
A prominent Italian rabbi has denounced what he sees as a growing Catholic undercurrent “of resentment, intolerance, and annoyance” toward Judaism, exacerbated by the Pope’s “careless” repetition of stereotypes. [In an open letter, Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, the former chief rabbi of Milan, expressed his dismay that despite important advances in relations, the Pope seems to repudiate them with his use of rhetoric in his homilies. “What a shame,” Rabbi Laras writes, that the official documents of the Catholic Church regarding the Jewish faith “should be contradicted on a daily basis by the homilies of the pontiff, who employs precisely the old, inveterate structure and its expressions, dissolving the contents of the aforementioned documents. ” As one example, the rabbi referenced the Pope’s preaching on the law of “an eye for an eye,” which, he said, the pontiff recently evoked “carelessly and mistakenly,” leading to a misrepresentation of the meaning of the law for Judaism. Rabbi Laras is not the first Jewish leader to voice his displeasure over the pope’s frequent references to the “hypocrisy” of the Jewish Pharisees and the “legalism” of the Jewish doctors of the law. Already in 2015, the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo di Segni, said that he had taken his complaints about the Pope’s preaching directly to the pontiff himself, explaining exactly what he found offensive about his homilies. In his letter, Rabbi Laras associates the Pope’s treatment of Judaism to what he sees as a broader problem with contemporary Catholic discourse involving the Jewish faith. Laras wrote that he was not alone in this impression, identifying a number of “disquieting facts,” which “many of us have felt in the air for quite some time. ” These “disquieting facts” include “a substantial distrust of the Bible and a subsequent minimization of the Jewish biblical roots of Christianity,” which, he said, seemed to indicate a new form of the ancient Christian heresy of Marcionism, which held that the God of the Old Testament was fundamentally different from the God worshiped by Christians. The biblical dichotomy between Old and New Testaments, Laras argues, signals “the resumption of the old polarization between the morality and theology of the Hebrew Bible and of Pharisaism, and Jesus of Nazareth and the Gospels. ” The rabbi also underscored the Church’s “embracing of Islam, which is all the stronger as the Christian side is more critical toward Judaism, now including even the Bible and biblical theology. ” He also identified an undercurrent “of resentment, intolerance, and annoyance on the Christian side toward Judaism. ” These and other troubling signs were made very apparent by a recently published event guide for the upcoming fall conference of the Italian Biblical Association (ABI) Rabbi Laras contended. “I observe with the highest displeasure and concern that this ABI program is substantially a defeat for the presuppositions and contents of dialogue,” he wrote, “which for some time now has been reduced, sadly, to fluff and hot air. ” “I am, and this is a euphemism, very indignant and embittered!” he said. Some Vatican observers have suggested that the Pope’s remarks that have angered the Jewish community stem not so much from any on the Pope’s part as from his “carelessness in speech” allied to his dislike of doctrinal precision. “He is possessed of so negative an attitude toward theology that he fails to frame his comments with the requisite precision,” wrote Father Peter Stravinskas, author of The Catholic Church and the Bible, in a recent essay. At the core of the issues that have so distressed Rabbi Laras, he contends, is the Pope’s deep dislike of doctrine, theology and Canon Law. “Francis consistently pits ‘the Law’ against ‘the Gospel,’” Stravinskas writes, and his “allergic reactions to law make him see stark differences where complementarity is more in order. ” “Francis rails against law because of his predisposition against canon law and canon lawyers — as well as moral theologians who represent the consistent trajectory of Catholic morality,” he wrote. As a result, the Pope’s “uninformed and tendentious statements risk setting relations back decades, if not centuries,” Stravinskas claimed. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
El 'selfie' que podría llevar a Justin Timberlake a la cárcel Publicado: 27 oct 2016 00:32 GMT
"¡No hay excusas, mi buena gente!", decía el pie de foto, animando a los estadounidenses a votar. Peter Nicholls Reuters Síguenos en Facebook
El cantante y actor estadounidense Justin Timberlake ha publicado en su cuenta de Instagram un 'selfie' que le puede traer problemas con la justicia, informa la cadena CBS News .
El artista voló desde California al estado de Tennessee con el fin de votar por adelantado. El cantante publicó un autorretrato en la cabina de votación este lunes, animando a todos sus compatriotas a votar. "¡No hay excusas, mi buena gente!", decía el pie de foto. Justin Timberlake"can't stop that feeling" of civic duty, but his ballot box selfie may have broken the law: https://t.co/zqwVirIKx7 pic.twitter.com/Pdr6H60OlC — CBS News (@CBSNews) 25 октября 2016 г.
Los funcionarios estatales han comentado que es un gran gesto, pero hay un problema: en Tennessee entró en vigor una ley a principios de este año que prohíbe a los votantes tomar fotografías o videos en el interior de las cabinas de votación.
Así, el portavoz del secretario de Estado de Tennessee, Adam Ghassemi, dijo que los funcionarios están "emocionados de que Justin no puede detener el sentimiento ('Can't stop the feeling' en inglés, como dice su famosa canción )", pero recuerdan a los votantes que no pueden usar sus teléfonos dentro de los lugares de votación. Según algunos medios locales, el cantante no será investigado por su publicación en Instagram. | 0 |
PLYMOUTH, Mich. — The United States women’s hockey team is going from one tough battle off the ice to a big challenge on it. On Tuesday, the players reached an agreement for wages and increased support from U. S. A. Hockey, the sport’s domestic governing body, after threatening to boycott the 2017 world championship, which begins here on Friday. The landmark deal means that the United States will have a lineup of the best American players at its disposal. But the tense wrangling over the past two weeks has left the team, the defending champions, with only two days to prepare for its opening game — a clash with archrival Canada on Friday night. Meghan Duggan, the American captain, acknowledged that the short turnaround between was not ideal, but she said the team had been energized by the wage fight. “What we just went through is just going to elevate our game that much more,” said Duggan, who led the push for more financial, marketing and training assistance from U. S. A. Hockey. “I’m so excited to carry the momentum into this week and kick off the tournament. ” The team’s first skate on Wednesday evening, she added, “was electric, very energetic, awesome practice. ” Monique said groups of players have been training and skating on their own to maintain conditioning and competitiveness since the planned boycott was announced two weeks ago. “We only have two days to prepare, but we’ve been doing everything at home to be ready, so we’re not that concerned about only having two days together as a team,” she said. “We’ve been preparing all year for this tournament. ” Robb Stauber, who has been head coach of the team for just four weeks, said he used part of the team’s limited practice time to focus on critical situations, like power plays and penalty kills. “I’ve never faced a situation like this, but our players are resilient,” he said. “They showed that in their stance on what they believed in. We expect them to carry that resilience over to the ice. ” The national team players had been negotiating with U. S. A. Hockey for the past 15 months, seeking more financial assistance that would allow them to support themselves while training to compete at a level. Many work two or more jobs while trying to fit in training camps and workouts. They sought, and received, travel and insurance provisions that equal those of the men’s team. Previously, U. S. A. Hockey gave the women $1, 000 a month in the six months leading up to Olympic tournaments. Now, each player will be guaranteed at least $2, 000 per month and will be eligible for more generous performance bonuses. The women also pushed U. S. A. Hockey to put more effort into promoting the game among women and girls. The organization spends around $3. 5 million a year on the National Team Development Program, which grooms elite teenage boys to play college, professional and Olympic hockey. This year’s world championship is being played at U. S. A. Hockey Arena, perhaps the starkest example of the support the organization gives to teenage boys. U. S. A. Hockey acquired the rink in 2015 as a home for the development program, which fields two teams of players under the age of 18. Among its alumni are some of the top American players in the N. H. L. including Patrick Kane, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and Phil Kessel, the older brother of Amanda Kessel, a star on the women’s team. The rink includes a lavish training facility, with an indoor track, a weight room, a skating treadmill and a shooting cage — amenities few college teams can boast. “This is a pretty great facility for the N. T. D. P. program to be playing in,” Jocelyne said. “We want the girls and the younger generation to have a home like this and to be able to play in a place like this. That’s what we strive for. This is obviously a great facility for the boys’ teams and hopefully in the future for some girls’ teams. ” The players’ stand drew support from N. H. L. players as well as representatives from several other top sports leagues, celebrities and Billie Jean King, who fought for equal pay for women’s tennis players long before any of the women’s hockey players were born. A group of United States senators also issued a letter calling on U. S. A. Hockey to reach an agreement to ensure that the women’s team received equitable resources. “It was amazing the people we heard from,” said. “When you get senators writing a letter, you know it’s become a big deal. ” U. S. A. Hockey unsuccessfully attempted to recruit a replacement team from the professional, college and high school ranks. Duggan and other national team members made dozens of phone calls and sent emails and texts asking players to decline to join a replacement team. While Tuesday’s agreement boosted the national team, Wednesday brought a fresh reminder of the challenges that remain for women’s hockey. The University of North Dakota, where the Lamoureux sisters played and worked as members of the coaching staff, announced that it was dropping its women’s hockey program. Eight North Dakota players participated in the 2014 Winter Olympics. “Tuesday was a big step forward and Wednesday, for my sister and me and girls in the Grand Forks region, it was two steps backward,” said. “There’s so many girls in that area, that team is the only team they have access to, so it’s really unfortunate. ” For now, though, there is work to be done on the ice. Friday’s game will match the two giants of women’s hockey. The United States and Canada have met in the final of all 18 world championships that have been played since the International Ice Hockey Federation organized the first tournament in 1990. The United States has won six of the last seven world championships, although Canada has won 10 over all. Canada has four Olympic gold medals in women’s hockey to the Americans’ one. “We love kicking off the tournament against them the atmosphere is going to be great,” said. “The last few weeks, I think we’re a more cohesive group. There’s 100 percent trust in every player. These last two weeks was kind of its own team building. ” Kessel said the Americans were fired up to face Canada. “Every time it’s a lot of pride and it’s a hard game,” she said, “and it’s the most fun game. ” | 1 |
A left wing Dutch vegan who has lived in Switzerland since she was a child has been denied a Swiss passport because locals in her adoptive town find her too annoying. [Nancy Holten, 42, is a animal rights activist who has campaigned against the Swiss tradition of cow bells, calling them cruel. Despite living in the country since the age of eight, and speaking fluent Swiss German, local residents vetoed her application of citizenship, saying they were “fed up” with her challenging their traditions. The Dutchwoman explained her views: “The sound that cow bells make is a hundred decibel. It is comparable with a pneumatic drill. We also would not want such a thing hanging close to our ears?” “The bells, which the cows have to wear when they walk to and from the pasture, are especially heavy. “The animals carry around five kilograms around their neck. It causes friction and burns to their skin. ” Aargauer Zeitung says that as well as cow bells, she has also campaigned against other Swiss traditions including hunting, pig racing, and even loud church bells. Local politician Tanja Suter said Ms. Holten had a “big mouth” and she does not deserve a Swiss passport “if she irritates us and does not respect our traditions”. Ms Holten herself admits: “I think I spoke my mind too often, and I say it out too loud. ” Under Switzerland’s highly decentralised constitution, local towns and regions grant citizenship rather than the central government, and some give citizens a vote on who gets a passport. Villagers in in the canton of Aargau voted by 206 to 144 to reject Ms. Holten’s application for citizenship in 2015, and have now rejected that application a second time. The case will now go to the regional government, which can overrule the vote and grant her citizenship anyway. Switzerland has some of the tightest citizenship laws in the world, and being born in the country often does not grant the children of immigrants an automatic right to a passport. | 0 |
2016 elections by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Donald Trump’s many evils are manifest and obvious. But let’s stop pretending that some historical line has been crossed in U.S. political and social relations. “The dictates of white supremacy are ever present and the numbers of white people who do anything serious about it are small.” Newly outraged Democrats act like they’ve never seen a fascist. “There is an ample supply of domestic fascists. They are the people who wear police uniforms.” Freedom Rider : How Not to Protest Trump by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“ There are many unique characteristics to the Donald Trump story but the institutional evils that permeate this country persist no matter who sits in the oval office. ”
Thousands of progressives are taking to the streets in opposition to the Donald Trump presidency. After eight years of Obama induced slumber they awoke with quite a start. Many of these individuals and organizations protested as part of the anti-war, Occupy and Black Lives Matter movements, but others weren’t concerned about very much until the reality show host became president elect.
The awful Hillary Clinton should be inaugurated the 45 th president of the United States because she won the popular vote. But for the second time in less than twenty years a Democrat preferred by the people will instead be an historical footnote. If nothing else the Electoral College is rightly condemned.
But where else should protesters direct their anger? If they are concerned about fascism they could protest police killings, or United States government murders committed during numerous interventions abroad. They might have risen up against the mass incarceration state. The list of outrages that should get people moving is quite long.
White liberals here in New York City didn’t care very much when black and brown residents were subjected to nearly one million police encounters. Mayor Bloomberg’s infamous stop and frisk program was a tailor made opportunity for public anger. Yet every poll indicated that white people were in favor of this very fascist 21 st century slave patrol. Those same people are now upset but what exactly has raised their ire?
“Trump is no more hostile to the rights of the press than Obama was.”
They say they are concerned about the rights of undocumented people but they didn’t say much when Obama acted as the Deporter-in-Chief. The so-called Muslim registry of men from 25 countries under the auspices of the NSEERS program lasted from 2002 to 2011. That is to say during two years of the Obama administration. They may be concerned about climate change and Trump’s promise to end America’s participation in the most recent climate agreement. But that agreement allows for a rise in carbon production and thus in world temperatures. They would have been smarter to challenge the phony climate change process itself.
They say they are afraid that Trump will muzzle the press. His shouting match with network executives should not be a cause for alarm. Eventually they’ll start saying good things about him so he was foolish to be so hostile. But he is no more hostile to the rights of the press than Obama was. When he used the Espionage Act to punish leakers and whistle blowers many of the now distraught progressives didn’t say much.
So what has gotten progressives so angry? There is nothing new about the so-called alt-right movement. There is always a way to brand white nationalism. They may be the Tea Party one day and alt-right the next but it all amounts to the same thing. The dictates of white supremacy are ever present and the numbers of white people who do anything serious about it are small.
If the sight of naziesque salutes to Trump are upsetting just keep in mind that there is an ample supply of domestic fascists. They are the people who wear police uniforms. They may not “hail Trump” or anyone else but they kill three people in this country every day.
“ Barack Obama and Eric Holder quite literally kept thousands of black people in jail who could have been freed.”
Donald Trump should be given credit for providing so much low hanging fruit. His appointment of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions to the post of attorney general provides ready made ingredients for fear and anger. Sessions was once denied a federal judgeship in part because of racist remarks directed at a black attorney. And who can ignore the glorification of the Confederacy in his name. But what did Obama and his two black attorney generals do? There were no prosecutions of killer police. That fact is a curious one in the age of murder caught on video. The Obama Justice Department argued against giving the right to request resentencing for those convicted during the years of draconian drug crime prosecution. Barack Obama and Eric Holder quite literally kept thousands of black people in jail who could have been freed.
It is difficult to take protesters seriously when they won’t even direct their anger at the party which displayed such gross incompetence during the recent campaign. The inability to defeat the man who seemed so unsuited to the presidency should stir anger towards the people whose hubris brought him to the White House.
There is always a need to engage in struggle, whether a Republican or Democrat is president. There are many unique characteristics to the Donald Trump story but the institutional evils that permeate this country persist no matter who sits in the oval office. We can gauge the true level of concern about justice when a Democrat next emerges victorious. A president who provides a greater opportunity for scorn should not be the last one who faces opposition. Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com. | 1 |
This is one out of several cases raising concerns about the health consequences of using regular talcum powder use. Approximately 1,000 more cases have been filed in Missouri state court, and another 200 in New Jersey, but this may well be the tip of the iceberg.
As Global News reports: “The jury ruling ended the trial that began Sept. 26 in the case brought by Deborah Giannecchini of Modesto, California. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. The suit accused Johnson & Johnson of “negligent conduct” in making and marketing its baby powder.”
Unfortunately, a statement from Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman with Johnson & Johnson, said in the statement to Global: “We deeply sympathize with the woman and families impacted by ovarian cancer…We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.” Obviously, if these are the decisions being made by a court of law, there is ample amounts of science and evidence suggesting the baby powder was indeed the cause. Earlier in the year, a decision was made last by a Missouri state jury that awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox $10-million of actual damages and $62 million of punitive damages. In this case, we saw the exact same response from the company as the case noted above. These cases show how people are using something they thought was perfectly safe, but clearly wasn’t. One of the most painful revelations, as Bloomberg notes, is that: In the 1990s, even as the company acknowledged concerns in the health community, it considered increasing its marketing efforts to black and Hispanic women, who were already buying the product in high numbers. Fox was black. The jury foreman, Krista Smith, says internal documents provided the most incriminating evidence: ‘It was really clear they were hiding something.’ She wanted to award the Fox family even more. Imerys Talc America, the biggest talc supplier in the country and the sole source of the powder for J&J, was also named as a defendant. The company wasn’t found liable. The ‘scientific evidence’ to which she refers clearly have not withstood the scrutiny of either this trial or concerned members of the public; it also fails to account for who funded the research. Her remark also makes plain a disturbing trend amongst big corporations, which is the blind trust of their employees. Many clearly believe what they are told about the products they represent, without questioning or doing their own independent research. Scientific fraud induced by major corporations in this field is no secret, and various medical experts around the world have been speaking out against it for decades. Dr. Richard Horton, current Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet , one of the largest medical journals in the world, has publicly and unequivocally called out the scientific community for this negligence and outright fraud: The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness. ( source ) The sheer volume of statements from very credible people, along with the documents and evidence, attesting to this disturbing trend, is simply overwhelming. (You can find more information and view more examples/statements in an article we recently published about anti-depressant drugs here .) Yet the unfortunate reality is that employees of these big corporations stand behind their products, working under the assurances of corporately-funded science which, obviously, has profit in mind rather than safety. This is a widespread and alarming problem, and it’s great to see more people raise their voice against these shady practices. Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal (NEMJ), is another such professional to do so: It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. ( source ) It’s no secret that many household products are toxic to our health. Science has been confirming their dangers for years now (not that many of us needed this confirmation); these products are literally littered with a number of hazardous harmful chemicals. Researchers in the UK, for example, found that domestic products such as anti-insect sprays, deodorants, cleaning products, cosmetics, and more contain a number of cancer causing chemicals. The researchers, from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who concluded that these types of everyday household products maybe be contributing to 100,000 deaths every single year in Europe, warn that the public remains unaware of these risks. Another example of an insider speaking out against the industry is Foster Gamble, the direct descendant of one of the founders of Procter & Gamble (a company similar to Johnson & Johnson). He himself explains that he was groomed for the establishment, but his ethical concerns prompted him to change direction. To the left you will see a picture of him with Gerald Ford. Foster decided to leave the business and instead raise awareness about many issues, including the hazards associated with everyday household products that the corporations like his father’s manufacture. He’s had an interesting life to say the least, and you can watch a documentary he released a few years ago here .
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 1 |
MUNICH — He had been bullied at more than one school. He played violent video games, and developed a fascination with mass shootings. He kept a copy of the German edition of “Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters,” a study by an American academic psychologist, and he was treated for psychiatric problems. Somewhere along the way, Ali Sonboly got his hands on a Glock handgun, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition for it. And at 5:52 p. m. on Friday, at a McDonald’s in Munich a few miles from where he lived with his mother, father and brother, he started shooting. Mr. Sonboly, 18, moved on to a shopping mall across the street, then to the top level of an adjacent parking garage. By the time his rampage was done, he had killed eight other young people and one person. Then, in front of two police officers, he killed himself with his own gun, the police said. It was the third mass attack in Europe in little over a week, after the killings of 84 people in Nice, France, and an attack by a young refugee wielding an ax and a knife in Germany that left five people wounded. But unlike those two attacks, the one in Munich appeared, based on initial evidence, to have no overt links to the Islamic State or other terrorist groups, officials said Saturday. Nor did it seem to be directly linked to the wave of migration that has fueled racial, ethnic and religious tensions in Germany and across Europe. Instead, according to accounts by the police, prosecutors, and neighbors and schoolmates of Mr. Sonboly, this most recent assault appeared to be of a less ideological and more personal sort: a sudden, violent outlet for a quietly troubled young man. There were indications that Mr. Sonboly’s rampage might not have been entirely without political overtones. It was carried out on the fifth anniversary of a massacre in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, a extremist who killed 77 people. Asked about a possible link based on the date, the Munich police chief, Hubertus Andrä, said that “this connection is obvious” and was part of their investigation. “We must assume that he was aware of this attack,” Chief Andrä said. But the initial picture of Mr. Sonboly that emerged in the hours after police officers found him dead, less than a mile from the shopping mall with a backpack full of ammunition and a single bullet wound to his head, was of a young man whose concerns were much closer to home. Born and raised in Munich, he held both German and Iranian citizenship. His parents immigrated to Germany, and his father drives a cab. A student at a nearby public school, he was known to adult neighbors as a polite boy who delivered newspapers. He grew up in a secular household, neighbors said, and the family took pleasure in celebrations like birthdays and the Iranian New Year. Some news reports identified him as David Ali Sonboly, though he was known to everyone as Ali. “He was always friendly, very friendly,” said Tovaiau Edo, 32, who lives in the family’s apartment building. “When I saw him and saw the story, it’s like two different people. Not the same people. I cannot believe this. ” But officials and neighbors said Saturday that Mr. Sonboly had been struggling on several levels. He had two previous encounters with the police, both times as a victim, once having been bullied by three other young people and once having been robbed. He spent considerable time playing violent online video games. He had been getting psychiatric treatment, possibly for depression, officials said. “He was always nice, kind, helpful,” said a neighbor who attended the same school on Alfons Street as the attacker and asked to to be identified only by her first name, Safete. Safete said that she had seen the attacker at their apartment building around midday on Friday and that “he didn’t greet me, like he normally does. ” “He was focused on the papers he was holding,” she added. “He didn’t look up. ” Safete said the gunman had argued at one point with a schoolmate, “and said that he was going to go on a shooting rampage. ” She added that she could not remember the name of the schoolmate, or the date of the altercation. Safete’s cousin, who gave her name as Majlinda and attends the same school, said the gunman had been bullied at his current school and a former one. “This has nothing to do with Islam,” she said. “It’s because he was bullied. ” A woman in a neighboring building, whose balcony faced the Sonboly family’s balcony, said she and her son had become friendly with Ali. But the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Paulina, said she and her son had both noticed something off about him. “Ali was somehow closed up on the inside,” Paulina said. “He had something. I don’t know what it is, but something was wrong. ” There were hints that his rampage had been premeditated. In a raid at 3:30 a. m. Saturday on his family’s apartment in the Maxvorstadt neighborhood, which includes some of the city’s renowned art museums and is adjacent to the city’s historic center, the authorities found newspaper articles on police responses to other shooting rampages, as well as the book on school gunmen. The police also removed computer equipment, documents and other materials. Officials said they were investigating reports that the gunman might have hacked a girl’s Facebook page and promised food at an especially low price to lure people to the McDonald’s shortly before the first shootings. They were also investigating whether he had specifically targeted young people. Three of those killed were 14 years old, two were 15, and the others were 17, 19, 20 and 45. Three of the nine were female. All lived in the Munich area, officials said. Of the 27 people injured, 10 were in critical condition, including a boy. After carrying out the shootings in the shopping mall, Mr. Sonboly retreated to the parking garage. From the top level, he engaged in a shouting match with one or more people at a distance, with the exchange recorded on video. One of the bystanders fumed at “Turks,” and the gunman replied, “I am German,” “I was born here,” and “I grew up here in a Hartz IV area,” a reference to a tier of unemployment and welfare benefits — meaning that he was from a bottom rung of society. He seems to have eluded the police at that point, while the authorities were scrambling to respond to reports, later proved unfounded, of gunfire elsewhere and that there might have been as many as three attackers armed with long guns. At the height of the emergency, 2, 300 officers were deployed throughout the city. When the police found Mr. Sonboly’s body, they feared that the backpack he was carrying might contain a bomb. It did not, but it held 300 more rounds of ammunition. “We are assuming at the moment that we are talking about only one perpetrator, one perpetrator who committed suicide,” said Thomas the chief state’s attorney in Munich. Among the many questions facing the authorities on Saturday as Munich slowly returned to normal was how Mr. Sonboly had gotten a handgun and so much ammunition, despite Germany’s strict gun laws. The serial number of the Glock had been scratched off, complicating the authorities’ ability to trace the firearm, said Robert Heimberger, the chief of the Bavarian State Criminal Police, at a late morning news conference. The teenager did not have a license to own a gun. There will also be questions about whether schools, social services and Mr. Sonboly’s family failed to take sufficient notice of his problems, and about the degree to which other attacks and violence in popular culture might have influenced him. “We cannot ignore — and I don’t know the solution, but without a doubt, and this was the case in this instance — that the glorifying of violence in internet games has a damaging effect on the development of young people,” Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, said on Saturday. Chancellor Angela Merkel, after meeting with top officials in Berlin, told the nation that the “night of horror” was traumatic for a Europe already reeling from attacks this month in Nice and on a train headed to Würzburg, Germany. “We are in deep and profound mourning for those who will never return to their families — the families, the siblings, the friends for whom everything will be void and empty today,” she said. Klaus Hurrelmann, a professor of public health and education at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, who wrote the introduction to the Germany edition of the academic study found in the gunman’s room, said the book examined 10 school killers in the United States. It found that they had mental illness, had been exposed to violence and had access to weapons — all of which appear to be the case for the Munich teenager. “It bears noting that the perpetrator had an academic book at his home,” Mr. Hurrelmann said. “He appears to have recognized a familiar suffering among the 10 men in the book, who were in a similar situation. ” | 1 |
NBC's Baghdad Bob: There Is No FBI Investigation of Hillary November 4, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
Remember when Hillary Clinton was insisting that there was no FBI investigation of her, just a security review, even when the FBI rejected that claim?
Well Andrea Mitchell, NBC's own Baghdad Bob, isn't giving up that claim so easily. Even while the rest of the Clinton clique is screeching against the FBI for investigating Hillary like bats from the nether regions of left-wing hell, Mitchell is sticking to the old spin. There is no FBI investigation of Hillary . Close your eyes and say it three times. The FBI is not investigating Hillary. It's not. It's not.
In a complete state of denial on Thursday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell interrupted live coverage of Donald Trump speaking at a Florida campaign rally to supposedly “fact-check” the candidate for citing a bombshell report that the FBI was conducting an extensive investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail and charitable foundation scandals.
Mitchell refused to accept reality: “Just a lot of fact-checking to do. She's not under criminal investigation. In fact, it's not an investigation. It's just a review of the e-mails. She did not lie to the FBI, according to James Comey. There was no grounds to prosecute her. So there are no lies, there’s no criminality.” She fretted: “I don't know even where to start....but I mean, we have to put it in some context.”
The context is that defending Hillary Clinton has become a mental illness.
But as I wrote earlier this week, fact checking has become a media term for insisting on the primacy of its alternate reality even when it flies in the face of actual reality. There is no FBI investigation of Hillary. Anyone who believes that is probably some sort of right-winger who listens to what the FBI actually says, rather than what NBC says that the FBI says. | 0 |
Senator Jeff Flake ( ) revealed that the government gave Brown University $5 million to conduct research on whether or not fraternity brothers drink more than their peers who don’t participate in Greek life. [It’s unclear from Flake’s report why the National Institute of Health granted Brown University such a significant amount of funding to study to the behaviors of students in fraternities. According the report, the $5 million was used for to determine if frat boys drink, smoke, and party more than their peers. Studies on the habits of college students funded with $5 million of NIH grants found fraternity brothers drink, smoke and generally party more than other students. They also sleep in later, which led the researchers to speculate “one explanation for this finding is that Greeks students recognize their sleep needs. ” Perhaps a more likely reason is that they are sleeping off their party lifestyle. Flake concludes that substance abuse amongst college students is a serious problem, but that the research conducted with state funding didn’t provide any information about fraternity life that wasn’t already common knowledge. Substance abuse is a very serious problem, especially among college students involved in Greek life, that deserves thoughtful attention. The studies highlighted here are not finding solutions to problems, but simply retelling what is already widely known about Greek life. As they say at the frat house, “cool story, bro. ” The report on the Brown study was a part of Flake’s annual report that chronicle 50 cases of government fraud, abuse, and waste. Other instances of waste included nearly $2 million of government funds that was designated for the development of a comedy club that would feature holographic performers. | 0 |
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump on Saturday accused former President Barack Obama of tapping his phones at Trump Tower the month before the election, leveling the explosive allegation without offering any evidence. Mr. Trump called his predecessor a “bad (or sick) guy” on Twitter as he fired off a series of messages claiming that Mr. Obama “had my ‘wires tapped. ’” He likened the supposed tapping to “ ” and “McCarthyism,” though he did not say where he had gotten his information. A spokesman for Mr. Obama said any suggestion that the former president had ordered such surveillance was “simply false. ” During the 2016 campaign, the federal authorities began an investigation into links between Trump associates and the Russian government, an issue that continues to dog Mr. Trump. His aides declined to clarify on Saturday whether the president’s allegations were based on briefings from intelligence or law enforcement officials — which could mean that Mr. Trump was revealing previously unknown details about the investigation — or on something else, like a news report. But a senior White House official said that Donald F. McGahn II, the president’s chief counsel, was working to secure access to what Mr. McGahn believed to be an order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing some form of surveillance related to Mr. Trump and his associates. The official offered no evidence to support the notion that such an order exists. It would be a highly unusual breach of the Justice Department’s traditional independence on law enforcement matters for the White House to order it to turn over such an investigative document. Any request for information from a top White House official about a continuing investigation would be a stunning departure from protocols intended to insulate the F. B. I. from political pressure. It would be even more surprising for the White House to seek information about a case directly involving the president or his advisers, as does the case involving the Russia contacts. After the White House received heavy criticism for the suggestion that Mr. McGahn would breach Justice Department independence, a different administration official said that the earlier statements about his efforts had been overstated. The official said the counsel’s office was looking at whether there was any legal possibility of gleaning information without impeding or interfering with an investigation. The counsel’s office does not know whether an investigation exists, the official said. Last month, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, came under fire for asking a top F. B. I. official to publicly rebut news reports about contacts between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that the “White House counsel is reviewing what options, if any, are available to us. ” Mr. McGahn did not respond to a request for comment. He was traveling on Saturday to Florida to join the president at his estate, . The president’s decision on Saturday to lend the power of his office to accusations against his predecessor of politically motivated wiretapping — without offering any proof — was remarkable, even for a leader who has repeatedly shown himself willing to make assertions that are false or based on dubious sources. It would have been difficult for federal agents, working within the law, to obtain a wiretap order to target Mr. Trump’s phone conversations. It would have meant that the Justice Department had gathered sufficient evidence to convince a federal judge that there was probable cause to believe Mr. Trump had committed a serious crime or was an agent of a foreign power, depending on whether it was a criminal investigation or a foreign intelligence one. Former officials pointed to longstanding laws and procedures intended to ensure that presidents cannot wiretap a rival for political purposes. “A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” said Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Mr. Obama. “As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U. S. citizen. ” Mr. Trump asserted just the opposite in a series of five Twitter messages beginning just minutes before sunrise in Florida, where the president is spending the weekend. In the first message, the president said he had “just found out” that “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower” before the election. Mr. Trump’s reference to “wires tapped” raised the possibility that he was referring to some other type of electronic surveillance and was using the idea of phone tapping loosely. The president was adamant in conversations with several people throughout the day on Saturday that he believed he was right about the wiretaps, according to three people with direct knowledge of those conversations. Two people close to Mr. Trump said they believed he was referring to a Breitbart News article, which aides said had been passed around among his advisers. Mark Levin, a conservative radio host, had also embraced the theory recently in a push against what commentators have been calling the “deep state. ” The Breitbart article, published on Friday, claimed that there was a series of “known steps taken by President Barack Obama’s administration in its last months to undermine Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and, later, his new administration. ” Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, once led Breitbart News. If Mr. Trump was motivated to take to Twitter after reading the Breitbart article or listening to Mr. Levin, he was using a presidential megaphone to spread dark theories of a broad conspiracy aimed at undermining his presidential ambitions, and later his presidency. Even with the Breitbart article circulating, several of Mr. Trump’s advisers were stunned by the president’s morning Twitter outburst. Those advisers said they were uncertain about what specifically Mr. Trump was referring to one surmised that he may also have been referring to a news report about a secret surveillance warrant for communications at his New York offices. One senior law enforcement official from the Obama administration, who has direct knowledge of the F. B. I. investigation into Russia and of government wiretapping, said that it was “100 percent untrue” that the government had wiretapped Mr. Trump. The official, who asked for anonymity to discuss matters related to investigations and intelligence, said the White House owed the American people an explanation for the president’s allegations. Ben Rhodes, a former top national security aide to Mr. Obama, said in a Twitter message directed at Mr. Trump on Saturday that “no president can order a wiretap” and added, “Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. ” The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are moving forward with their own investigations into Russia’s efforts to influence the election, and they have said they will examine links between Mr. Trump’s associates and the Russians. Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said on Friday that he believed there were “transcripts” that would help document those contacts, though he said he had not yet seen them. “There are transcripts that provide very helpful, very critical insights into whether or not Russian intelligence or senior Russian political leaders — including Vladimir Putin — were cooperating, were colluding, with the Trump campaign at the highest levels to influence the outcome of our election,” Mr. Coons told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. “I believe they exist. ” In a written statement on Saturday, a spokesman for Mr. Coons said that the senator “did not imply that he is aware of transcripts indicating collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. ” The spokesman, Sean Coit, said Mr. Coons had “simply stated that a full review of all relevant transcripts and intelligence intercepts is necessary to determine if collusion took place. ” The New York Times reported in January that among the associates whose links to Russia are being scrutinized are Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s onetime campaign chairman Carter Page, a businessman and foreign policy adviser to the campaign and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative who said he was in touch with WikiLeaks at one point before it released a trove of emails from John D. Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, last August. Mr. Stone later said he had communicated with WikiLeaks through an intermediary. Mr. Trump appeared on Saturday to suggest that warrants had been issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He claimed that the Obama administration had once been “turned down by court” in its supposed efforts to listen in on conversations by Mr. Trump and his associates. In the fall, the F. B. I. examined computer data showing an odd stream of activity between a Trump Organization server and Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s biggest banks, whose owners have longstanding links to Mr. Putin. While some F. B. I. officials initially believed that the computer activity indicated an encrypted channel between Moscow and New York, the bureau ultimately moved away from that view. The activity remains unexplained. There is no confirmed evidence that the F. B. I. obtained a court warrant to wiretap the Trump Organization or was capturing communications directly from the Trump Organization. During the transition, the F. B. I. — which uses FISA warrants to eavesdrop on the communications of foreign leaders inside the United States — overheard conversations between the Russian ambassador to the United States and Michael T. Flynn, whom Mr. Trump had named national security adviser. Mr. Trump has pointedly and repeatedly questioned in conversations how it was that Mr. Flynn’s conversations were recorded, and wondered who could have issued a warrant. After The Washington Post reported that Mr. Flynn and the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, had discussed sanctions that the Obama administration had just imposed on Russia, Mr. Flynn was pushed out of his post by the White House because he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of the calls. The Breitbart article cited mainstream news reports and concluded — going beyond the public record — that the Obama administration had “obtained authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign continued monitoring the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found then relaxed the N. S. A. rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government. ” Mr. Levin, a day earlier, railed about what he called a “much bigger scandal,” claiming — again with no proof — that Mr. Obama and his aides had used “the instrumentalities of the federal government, intelligence activity, to surveil members of the Trump campaign and put that information out in the public. ” Several senior members of Mr. Trump’s White House staff did not respond to an email requesting responses to more than a questions about Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts. Representative Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, denounced the “willingness of the nation’s chief executive to make the most outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla of evidence to support them. ” Even some Republican lawmakers questioned Mr. Trump’s accusations. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska issued a statement demanding that the president reveal everything he knows about any wiretaps or warrants. “The president today made some very serious allegations, and the informed citizens that a republic requires deserve more information,” Mr. Sasse said, adding that “we are in the midst of a crisis of public trust. ” Taping calls seems to hold a spot in Mr. Trump’s consciousness. He spent many years taping his own phone calls as a businessman. During the campaign, Mr. Trump’s staff members told reporters they feared that their offices were being bugged. But Mr. Trump’s latest allegations represented a sharp change in his tone toward Mr. Obama. The current president has frequently spoken about how much he admires Mr. Obama for the gracious way he handled the transition. But since taking office, Mr. Trump has frequently clashed with the intelligence agencies over the Russia inquiries, including efforts to examine the attempts by that country to influence the presidential election and the contacts between Mr. Trump’s aides and the Russian government. In recent days, the president has appeared increasingly angry about leaks of information that he believes are coming from law enforcement and intelligence officials who are holdovers or recently departed from Mr. Obama’s administration. People close to Mr. Trump have described him as determined to stop those people from sabotaging his administration. One adviser said on Friday that the president had been discussing a possible plan to try to prevent leaks from occurring. The adviser declined to elaborate on what the plan might entail. Two senior administration officials said Mr. Trump had tried for two days to find a way to be on an offensive footing against the news articles resulting from leaks one person close to Mr. Trump said his explosive claim was a result of that. Mr. Trump’s mood was said to be volatile even before he departed for his weekend in Florida, with an episode in which he vented at his staff. The president’s ire was trained in particular on Mr. McGahn, his White House counsel, according to two people briefed on the matter. Mr. Trump was said to be frustrated about the decision by Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, to recuse himself from participating in any investigations of connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mr. Trump has said there were no such connections. Mr. Trump, who did not learn that Mr. Sessions was recusing himself until after the decision was made, told aides that it gave an opening to his critics on the Russia issue. | 1 |
ST. France — It was the first time since a childhood school trip that Anissa Latroche had set foot in a church. Ms. Latroche, a sociology student who is Muslim, came to Mass in the Rouen Cathedral on Sunday to pay tribute to the Rev. Jacques Hamel, the priest who was killed last week by two young men acting in the name of the Islamic State. “They welcomed us very nicely, me and my friend,” said Ms. Latroche, who was wearing a pale blue veil as she entered the church with a mixture of respect and shyness. She said she was shocked about what had happened to the priest, and even more so by the age of one of the killers, Adel Kermiche: 19, just like her. “I have not even started my life yet, and he basically ruined his and so many others’,” Ms. Latroche said. “I don’t get it. ” In the wake of Father Hamel’s murder, Muslim and Christian communities around France came together over the weekend to show solidarity by attending each other’s religious services, in churches and mosques alike. But the services in Rouen, and in St. a nearby suburb where Father Hamel was killed, took on a special resonance. For people in this part of Normandy, the exchange served as a reminder that long before Father Hamel was killed, he and many others from both faiths had worked together to build bonds. In fact, the only mosque in St. was built on land adjacent to one of the town’s churches after the church sold it for a symbolic price of one euro. The church where the priest was killed is in the city center. In the north of the city, members of the St. du Madrillet church and the Yahya Mosque prayed together after the killing. “This event should help us strengthen the links which already exist between us,” the Rev. Auguste said on Friday in the mosque, where several Christian worshipers also attended. “As believers, we must show the example to build bridges between us and not walls, and this could be one of the solutions to fight what is happening right now. ” The imam, Abdellatif Hmito, emphasized the special links between the communities. “You don’t know, you the murderer, the history of this town, who was Father Hamel, and the history of this mosque,” the imam said. “You mistook the community you attacked, you mistook the city and the target, and I would even say you mistook the country. ” St. was a small countryside village until the 19th century, when several waves of immigration transformed it into a community of nearly 29, 000 today. Belgians first built a cotton and textile factory. Portuguese and Spanish people came after World War I and brought a strong Catholic community. North African immigrants first arrived in the 1950s, and Kurdish refugees in more recent years. “St. has always been a melting pot of nationalities and immigrants,” said Pierre Ménard, a local historian. It was also one of the poorest cities in France, he noted, and has been a Communist Party stronghold for more than 50 years. The poverty helped forge ties between religious communities. Still, many inhabitants fear the attack’s potential impact on the social connections that have frayed considerably in recent years. In St. young Muslims are increasingly worried about the radicalization of people they know, the high unemployment rate and a future in which no one is safe. “We all heard about how crazy Adel Kermiche was, and yet we just never took him seriously,” said Leïla Meterfi, 21, who is of Algerian descent. “We are so upset of how they so easily become brainwashed. ” Stéphane Meterfi, 44, emphasized that instead of being upset, young people needed to act, as he once did. Mr. Meterfi, born and raised in St. lost one of his brothers at the age of 19 in a fight between rival neighborhood gangs. “It was in the ’90s I decided to create an association to help young people to get out of the quartier mentality and the violence,” Mr. Meterfi added, referring to something akin to a street mentality. “Then, when I created my association, the priest of the parish of St. was the only one who gave us a place for meetings,” he added. “Nobody trusted the young petty thugs of the town, except for him. ” “The sisters used to be nurses for our mothers, and they planned every cultural activity in the town,” Mr. Meterfi said, referring to local nuns. Years later, Mr. Meterfi used to gather all of the neighborhood’s Muslim mothers and Abbé Pierre, a famous French priest who helped the homeless, for a giant couscous to celebrate interreligious dialogue in St. . “I can’t believe that 20 years afterwards, a guy would kill the symbolic figure of the people who helped us at the time,” Mr. Meterfi said. Near the red and beige Yahya Mosque, the church of St. du Madrillet with multicolored windows was welcoming believers on Friday for a prayer. Some were silently crying, others writing down messages in memory of Father Hamel. Sister Marie Wandrille, 71, came to pay a tribute to the man she had worked with for 20 years. “He was so attached to interreligious dialogue,” she said. “He and I used to give tutoring classes for children after schools. Muslims and Catholic children used to come to our parish every day. ” Near the church, Muslim women and Christian women set up an association to collect clothes for poor people. “The link between the two communities is very strong here,” Sister Wandrille said. “At the end of Ramadan, we still celebrate together,” she added, referring to the Muslim holy month. “I am sure that this attack will bring us closer, not the reverse. ” In front of the mosque, a group of young men from a Salafist group distributed leaflets condemning the attack, but they refused to speak to reporters. For Mr. Meterfi, it was an example of the two faces of the new generation in St. . “They might be doing this peaceful distribution, and at the same time, they would hide their real intentions,” he said. “The truth is, we don’t really know or control our youth anymore. ” According to the local department, 140 people in the region were considered “radicalized” last year. At St. ’s City Hall, which faces the house of Father Hamel, people have left several messages calling for peace between members of different faiths. Hubert Wulfranc, the mayor, said he still believed that the town would “stand up” in the wake of the murder. “It must stand up” he added. But he recognized that recent violence might exacerbate tensions. He said he would be vigilant about reports of verbal aggression against Muslims, as well as other cases of “radicalization. ” “There were 2, 000 people gathered in the local stadium on Thursday to pay a tribute to Father Hamel,” Mayor Wulfranc noted. “We must ask ourselves where the other inhabitants were and why they did not come. ” | 1 |
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According to a report by an Emirati media website, Emarat Al-Youm, Saudi ambassador to the UAE said in a press interview that any contact with Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and even making telephone conversations with these countries’ officials by the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, should first be checked carefully and approved by the General-Secretariat of the organization in Riyadh. | 0 |
Voting Machine Problems Are Being Reported All Over America By Michael Snyder, on November 8th, 2016
After what happened in the last election , people seem to be more alert to signs of potential election fraud this time around. And right now the Internet is buzzing with reports of voting machine problems in some of the most important swing states. In some areas officials were forced to make emergency switches to paper ballots due to voting machine issues, and in other cases voters that intended to vote for Donald Trump were having their votes registered for Hillary Clinton instead. The mainstream media is insisting that these are “isolated instances”, and hopefully that turns out to be true because the integrity of our elections is of the utmost importance.
Voting machines are supposed to make voting easier and more efficient, but instead they are once again causing major headaches all over the country. The following summary of technical issues that we have seen so far comes from the New York Daily News …
In Utah, voting machine problems in the southern part of the state forced poll workers to use paper ballots, with some residents sent to alternate voting locations.
Voters in Colorado received provisional ballots after officials reported computer problems state-wide, though at least one county said that the state electoral system was back up Tuesday afternoon.
Machine issues were reported in Wilson County, Tenn. — and at one point all of the county’s machines went down, according to local reports . Voting later resumed manually.
In Texas, a computer used by election clerks malfunctioned at a polling place, so officials briefly diverted voters to another polling place more than two miles away.
In Louisiana, some early voters were forced to wait as correct machines were installed.
In Durham County, N.C., paper poll books were being used Tuesday due to “tech problems at a few sites.”
But much more troubling is what has been happening in Pennsylvania. Numerous voters have been reporting that their votes were switched by the voting machines from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. The following is an excerpt from one local news report …
“Every time I would push a candidate for the Republican party, it would come up for the Democratic candidate,” said voter David Drane.
Election judges in Clinton Township, Butler County confirmed there were issues with two of their eight automated voting machines. Most of the issues came when people tried to vote straight party ticket.
However, others said they specifically wanted to vote for Republican Donald Trump only to see their vote switched before their eyes to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“I went back, pressed Trump again. Three times I did this, so then I called one of the women that were working the polls over. And she said you must be doing it wrong. She did it three times and it defaulted to Hillary every time,” Bobbie Lee Hawranko said.
And USA Today is reporting that vote switching is also being reported in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania…
And in one of the few glitches with political overtones, a problem with the calibration of electronic voting machines in Lebanon County, Pa., caused about a half dozen machines to display what voters thought were straight Republican tickets as straight Democratic tickets. Poll workers alerted the county elections bureau, and voters were able to change their ballots, said Michael Anderson, director of the Lebanon County Bureau of Elections.
If you recall, this exact same kind of thing happened in the all-important swing state of Ohio in 2012 .
So if Pennsylvania ends up being the difference in a Hillary Clinton victory, this will need to be looked at very, very closely.
Reports of vote switching in Pennsylvania are already getting so much attention that they are even making television news …
In other parts of the state, a different type of problem has emerged. One African-American voter that tried to vote for Trump was extremely frustrated when the voting machine that he was using remained completely stuck on a selection for Hillary Clinton. This particular voter captured this on video and uploaded the video footage to Twitter … this is what I was talking about, they fixed it but it was on some nut shit at first. pic.twitter.com/GO5Y9FCnYN
— ædonis | hotep (@lordaedonis) November 8, 2016
Voter turnout is very heavy all over the nation, and it looks like we may shatter voter participation records all over the nation.
So that is a good thing.
And we can get an idea of what voters are thinking by what they are searching for on the Internet …
When looking at searches of “Who is ____ voting for,” these names are the most popular:
Taylor Swift | 1 |
Support among American high school students for the First Amendment is stronger today than it has been in the last 12 years, according to the latest in a series of large nationwide surveys of the nation’s rising voters. Some 91 percent of high school students say they believe that individuals should be allowed to express unpopular opinions, according to a Knight Foundation survey of nearly 12, 000 students conducted last year. The survey is the sixth in a series, the first of which was carried out in 2004, when 83 percent supported such rights. “What we’ve seen since 2004 is a slow but steady increase in support,” said Kenneth Dautrich, the study’s lead author and the president of the Stats Group, a statistical and data services firm. Here’s a look at some of the top findings. High school students may broadly back the First Amendment, but not without limits: Their support is tempered depending on the kind of speech and where it’s delivered. “While support for the First Amendment as a general concept has never been higher, the devil’s in the details,” said Jonathan Sotsky, director of strategy and assessment for the Knight Foundation. percent of the students may support the right to express unpopular opinions in general, but only half as many — 45 percent — support that right when the speech in question is offensive to others and made in public. Bullying speech enjoys slightly less backing, and students are even less supportive of either kind of speech when it’s delivered on social media. Many students find little sacred in professional reporting: More than half put as much or more trust in photos, videos and accounts shared by individuals online than in traditional news sources. The 726 teachers surveyed, however, were far more skeptical of the online postings. Students may have faith in firsthand accounts shared online, but they are still generally wary of the news they see there. percent said they had “some” or “a lot” of trust in the information found in newspapers, compared with 77 percent for television news and 70 percent for news websites. Just 49 percent reported similar levels of trust in news shared on social media. The survey results suggest that high school students and adults differ greatly in how they consume news. Students are almost twice as likely as adults to “often” use mobile devices for news and nearly three times as likely to report “often” getting news from social media. Adults are much more likely to report “often” getting news from local TV and newspapers. Students are far less concerned about their privacy on the internet than adults, according to the survey. But that is changing: In 2016, 76 percent were somewhat or very concerned about privacy online, compared with 70 percent two years earlier. | 0 |
HOUSTON, Texas — Two thieves used a truck to plow into the side of a gun range in Houston, Texas, early Thursday morning. They took off with all the pistols and rifles they could grab. [“Two young males drove a pickup truck into the side of the business, went in, and took assorted rifles and pistols at roughly 4 in the morning,” said Capt. Eddie Martin with the South Houston Police Department, reported the Houston Chronicle. The alarm was sounded but law enforcement authorities were not notified right away. Officers showed up at the Marksman Indoor Range in South Houston early Thursday but the burglars had already taken off. The South Houston Police Department officers were on the scene within seven minutes of the burglary. “They were in pretty quick and out pretty quick,” Captain Eddie Martin was reported to say. Law enforcement officials are going through surveillance video tapes but do not have a license plate at this time, reported the hometown paper. The Houston Chronicle reports that approximately 32, 000 guns have been stolen in the Houston area in the last eight years, and that only seven percent of those have been recovered. The firearms were heisted from Houston area homes, automobiles, pawn shops, and gun dealers. Texas leads the nation in thefts from unlicensed gun dealers and has a robust black market for guns that have been stolen. Moreover, stolen guns are frequently used to commit other crimes. Breitbart News reported in April that thefts from licensed gun dealers were at a rate of . 039 percent in 2015. According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, approximately 16 million guns were sold by Federal Firearm License holders in 2015 and 6, 163 guns were stolen from them. Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wanted to make gun makers legally responsible for the misuse of stolen guns, as reported by Breitbart News in October 2016. Clinton responded to the dismissal of a lawsuit against Remington Arms by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary victims by calling it “incomprehensible. ” She on her promise to change laws to allow gun manufacturers to be sued by crime victims. Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2. | 0 |
Monday at the White House press briefing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned municipalities that have implemented the policy of sanctuary cities, which he described as making “our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on the streets. ” Sessions said the Department of Justice would require that jurisdictions that are seeking or applying for DoJ grants to certify compliance with 8 U. S. C. 1373 as a condition of receiving those awards. ” Sessions said, “According to one recent poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that cities that make arrests — that arrest illegal immigrants for crimes should be required to turn them over to immigration authorities. Unfortunately, some states and cities have adopted policies designed to frustrate this enforcement of immigration laws. This includes refuses to detain known felons under federal detainer requests or otherwise failing to comply with these laws. For example, the Department of Homeland Security recently issued a report showing that in a single week, there were more than 200 instances of jurisdictions refusing to honor I. C. E. Detainer requests with respect to individuals charged or convicted of a serious crime. These charges and convictions against these aliens include drug trafficking, rape, sex offenses against a child and even murder. Such policies cannot continue. They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on the streets. ” He added, “Today, I am urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with these federal laws, including 8 U. S. C. Section 1373. Moreover, the Department of Justice will require that jurisdictions seeking or applying for Department of Justice grants to certify compliance with 1373 as a condition of receiving those awards. This policy is entirely consistent with the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs guidance that was issued just last summer under the previous administration. This guidance requires state and local jurisdictions to comply and certify compliance with Section 1373 in order to be eligible for OJP grants. It also made clear that failure to remedy violations could result in withholding grants, termination of grants, and disbarment or ineligibility for future grants. ” He concluded by saying, “I strongly urge our nation’s states and cities and counties to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce immigration laws and to rethink these policies. Such policies make their cities and states less safe. Public safety as well as national security are at stake and put them at risk of losing federal dollars. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0 |
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Companies that employ pregnant women, women who are planning to become pregnant, or even men whose wives or girlfriends are contemplating pregnancy should consider letting them work indoors if they are in areas with Zika transmission, federal health and safety officials said Friday. If the virus reaches the American mainland this summer the recommendation could impose a major burden on industries such as construction, agriculture, transportation, amusement parks and cafes, which employ hundreds of thousands of outdoor workers. It was among a general set of guidelines jointly issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect workers from occupational exposure to the Zika virus. The greatest risk of infection is from mosquito bites, although the new guidelines recognize that the virus can also be transmitted sexually. As interim guidelines, they are not legally enforceable, said Jordan Barab, the deputy assistant secretary for OSHA at the Labor Department. Issuing advisory guidelines is common during emergencies like epidemics, he said. The new guidelines also recommended that pregnant employees not travel to areas where the Zika virus is circulating and that businesses consider allowing workers who are or may become pregnant delay traveling to those areas. That recommendation also applies to the male partners of such women. The other recommendations made on Friday are based on earlier guidelines issued to protect against West Nile virus. They urge employers to give outdoor workers clothing that covers exposed skin, hats with mosquito netting, insect repellents, and to eliminate standing water near work sites where mosquitoes could lay eggs. Other guidelines issued Friday covered workers, who face biting insects and hazardous pesticides, and laboratory and health care workers, who could be in danger of acquiring the Zika virus from patients’ blood and bodily fluids. Mr. Barab said industries that employ outdoor workers had not been consulted before the guidelines were issued. Jill M. Shugart, an environmental health specialist in the C. D. C. ’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said her organization often consulted with unions and trade groups but in this case had discussed these occupational guidelines primarily with the airline and cruise ship industries. Those industries were initially concerned with the travel guidelines for pregnant women that the C. D. C. issued in January. Asked if there had been any reaction from businesses with outdoor employees, she said: “The guidelines were just posted today, and we have not heard from every single sector. ” Calls to the United States Chamber of Commerce, which represents employers, were not returned Friday afternoon. It was not clear what constitutes an “area with Zika transmission” for purposes of the workplace guidelines. Mr. Barab said his agency would defer to the C. D. C. on that question. Ms. Shugart suggested that her agency’s travel guidelines might be used to define such an area, but she added that those parameters are broad. The agency initially recommended that pregnant women avoid entire countries, then amended that to include only areas below 6, 500 feet in elevation because the mosquitoes that carry Zika do not survive at high altitudes. The only American territories with known Zika transmission are Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa. If the virus reaches Florida or the Gulf Coast this summer, as the C. D. C. has said it might, employers across these regions may not know if their specific location is at risk. Defining such areas by county or state may be required presumably, an outbreak in Key West would not affect a job site in Minnesota. Mr. Barab said he assumed that the C. D. C. would eventually come up with a narrower definition. In the new guidelines, the advice about indoor work is phrased more cautiously than the other guidelines. For example, the new recommendations said that employers should “consider reassigning” employees “if requested by a worker. ” | 0 |
Has Satanism infiltrated the Washington elite? New WikiLeaks emails suggest John Podesta attended a “Spirit Cooking” dinner party at Marina Abramovich’s house.
Via YourNewsWire
Given what we know about the performance artist’s occult fascination, it’s safe to assume they weren’t saying the Lord’s Prayer.
So what happened at this dinner party? Marina Abramovich demonstrates what Spirit Cooking is in a YouTube video. Painting a wall with pig blood, Abramovich smears the sentence “WITH A SHARP KNIFE CUT DEEPLY INTO THE MIDDLE FINGER OF YOUR LEFT HAND EAT THE PAIN.” Another daubed message reads “FRESH MORNING URINE SPRINKLE OVER NIGHTMARE DREAMS.”
Anramovich then throws blood over a small statue in the corner of the room, before writing “SPIRIT COOKING.” Blood is then ceremoniously run around the four corners of the room. Another message on the wall reads “MIX FRESH BREAST MILK WITH FRESH SPERM MILK DRINK ON EARTHQUAKE NIGHTS.”
At 7 mins 30 Abramovich is seen in a projected video with a snake wrapped around her head, it’s tail in her nostril. Warning: in case you hadn’t guessed, this video contains graphic content.
Spirit Cooking, according to article about Marina Abramovich, “ is about the conversion of matter into energy, of the material into the spiritual. Abramovic derives her inspiration from the popular belief that the spirits still need food even though it is no longer solid, but in the form of light, sound and emotions.
This superstition is found in numerous cultures and there are even strict rules as to how this spiritual fare should be prepared. In this paradox, in the material underpinning of something immaterial, the physical and spiritual worlds meet.
Or to use her own words, ‘When you make something visible for something invisible, the invisible becomes visible.’ “ Marina Abramovich has long been associated with the occult. Her performance art often features Satanic themes and mock human sacrifice.
Here she is performing with Jay-Z – a man not shy about proclaiming Satanic beliefs.
Perhaps we we shouldn’t be surprised Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta attends Satanic Spirit Cooking dinners. After all, Hillary Clinton appears to have banned use of the word “God” during her campaign. Watch this woman struggle with her natural instincts while Hillary smiles knowingly at her side.
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Moments ago, after teasing its twitter followers to “stay tuned for our FBI-DoJ #PodestaEmail special circa 4pm EST” Wikileaks released what appears to be part 28 of its Podesta dump, dubbed the “DoJ/FBI/Huma special” and includes some 1,308 emails, bringing the total to 45,526 in total emails released.
RELEASE: The Podesta Emails Part 28 – DoJ/FBI/Huma special #PodestaEmails https://t.co/tIw3T6L6se
More: https://t.co/v8OnMJnWsS
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 3, 2016
We assume the batch will be heavily focused on the DOJ, FBI and Huma, and will present readers with any relevant emails as we find them.
* * *
In an email from June 10, 2011 from now-campaign communication manager Jenn Palmieri to John Podesta and Neera Tanden, Palmieri writes – regarding Huma Abedin following the first Anthony Weiner scandal – that it is…
“Time to get in the haz mat suits… Bust in that house and get Huma the hell out of there.”
Tanden responds “Lord have mercy.”‘
We assume this was a reference to one of the early Anthony Weiner scandals, and a harbinger of things to come regarding Huma’s husband. In retrospect, they should have followed their rhetorical advice.
* * *
On August 27, 2015, an email from Lanny Davis, special counsel to President Bill Clinton, and spokesperson for the President and the White House on matters concerning campaign-finance investigations and other legal issues, appears to suggest that both Fox news and Megyn Kelly were part of the campaign’s pre-coordination with journalists. Davis tells Jen Palmieri the following “personal” thoughts, which suggest getting a guarantee from Megyn Kelly that she won’t be “tough on Hillary ” in a proposed interview – which could be a “ratings and media bonanza” – meant to explain why Hillary “wiped” her server.
Dear Jen,
I know what I’m about to propose is very risky and will be instinctively viewed negatively on the first reaction. But because of the high advantages that I see, perfectly aware of the risks, I think this proposal should be considered.
I propose that the Secretary be on the Megyn Kelly File show for at least 30 minutes. I believe I can reduce the risks, since I know Megyn and Roger Ailes very well, by ensuring that the Secretary will have an opportunity to answer tough questions on emails and other issues without interruption.
In fact , I believe it is in the interest of Secretary Clinton as well as Fox for the questions to be tough , something we should not fear as long as she has an opportunity to answer. I know she will do well with adequate preparation, and especially after yesterday’s excellent statement taking full responsibility for mixing personal an official business on a single email device.
I still believe the issue of the wiping out of uthe private server still needs to be dealt with – e.g., simply stating that was done primarily to protect personal privacy on personal emails but she made the mistake of mixing personal with official on the server because she was using a single device, and she should have been more transparent shortly after she left office.
This interview has the potential to be a ratings and media bonanza. I have confidence she would hit a political home run and have a massive audience to deliver her message without a filter.
Of course there is a risk that Megan will try to show how tough she can be, even tougher than on Trump. I am assuming the worst case on that risk. But if we have a guarantee, which I believe We will get, that she will have an uninterrupted chance to respond to every question, and we have time to prepare, I think this could be a major plus and even a game changer in the various negative narratives about the Secretary being largely inaccessible and sometimes testy with the media.
It would be so much better to be able to talk to you on the phone about this and discuss the pros and cons. If you are willing and available, what would be the best time in the best telephone number?
With warmest regards, and thanks as always for your consideration of my ideas,
Lanny
He follows up four days later with the following:
Would love a chance to talk on phone – a few additional background points re conversation I had with Roger Ailes and Megyn some time ago on the subject of HRC pre – announcement.
It is unclear what was the ultimate fate of the “personal” proposal. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Как сообщает Reuters со ссылкой на Геологическую службу США, это было второе за вечер сильное землетрясение в этом районе. Ранее сообщалось о другом землетрясении - магнитудой 5,4.Эпицентр второго землетрясения, по данным службы, располагался около города Кастельсантанджело-суль-Нера (центральная область Марке).
По словам мэра Мауро Фалуччи, в городе отключилось электричество.Как отмечает Reuters, оба землетрясения «были достаточно сильными и их ощутили 150 км южнее - в Риме, где лампы закачались на верхних этажах зданий». По данным РБК, власти города Виссо, располагающегося недалеко от эпицентра, заявили о нескольких пострадавших.
По информации Геофизической службы РАН, на которую ссылается ведомство, сейсмособытие произошло в 9:15. Его эпицентр залегал в акватории Тихого океана, в 226 километрах к востоку от города Курильска.
Как пишет Российская газета, жители островного региона подземных толчков не ощутили. Об угрозе возникновения цунами не сообщается.
Правда.ру ранее писала, что в Японии сейсмологи зафиксировали землетрясение магнитудой 6,5 - подземные толчки произошли южнее Токио в Тихом океане.
Как пишет РИА Новости, о жертвах сообщений нет. В ообщении метеослужбы Японии говорится, что очаг подземного толчка находился на глубине 10 км в Тихом океане к югу от Токио. По японской шкале оценки силы землетрясений, магнитуда этих толчков не превысила 1 балл.
Тем не менее, землетрясение ощущалось в девяти префектурах Японии. Информации о жертвах и возможных разрушениях пока не поступала, угроза цунами не объявлялась.
Правда.ру ранее писала, что 12 сентября подземные толчки магнитудой 4,9 и 5,4 были зафиксированы возле города Кёнджу (Кёнсан-Пукто) в 370 км от Сеула.
Об этом сообщает геологическая служба США (USGS).
Информации о жертвах и разрушениях не поступало. Ранее в Северной Корее был зарегистрирован толчок магнитудой 5,3, что стало следствием ядерных испытаний.
Как уточнили в ведомстве, на пять часов утра по местному времени (23-00 12 сентября по Москве) общее число пострадавших составило восемь человек, большинство из которых находились рядом с эпицентром толчков: пятеро пострадавших - из провинции Северная Кенсан, двое - из Тэгу и еще один - из провинции Южная Чолла.
В основном люди пострадали от упавшей мебели и кусков зданий, но два человека получили ранения, когда решили спрыгнуть на землю со второго этажа, испугавшись подземных толчков. В то же время ранения у всех легкие, жизни пострадавших угрозы нет, пишет Правда.ру.
23 августа в Италии произошло землетрясение магнитудой 6,4 . Подземные толчки зафиксированы недалеко от города Перуджа.
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By Daily News Bin | November 3, 2016 | 2 947 SHARES
Most Americans know Jason Chaffetz as the rogue Republican Congressman who can get away with being as dishonest and duplicitous as he wants because his conservative district in Utah keeps reelecting him no matter what he does. He was caught using private email for work purposes while he was trying to take down Hillary Clinton for doing the same. And last week he flat out lied about an FBI letter in clear violation of federal law under the Hatch Act. But just when you think Chaffetz can’t be dirtier, it turns out his campaign is literally being funded by a criminal enterprise controlled by overseas investors.
The single biggest campaign donor Jason Chaffetz is a company called Nu Skin Enterprises. Research done by Reverb Press has revealed that it adds up to nearly six figures in total, a surreal dollar amount for a fairly obscure company to give to a single Congressmen. But despite the lack of name recognition, Nu Skin is a billion dollar pyramid scheme which pushes questionable anti-aging miracle cures. And it’s been busted by the Feds for criminal behavior resulting in tens of millions of dollars in penalties.
Bizarrely, Nu Skin Enterprises is now being bought up by overseas Chinese investors to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, placing the company largely under overseas control even as it’s begun its illegal business practices into China. Included in the investors list: family members of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. So what does this all have to do with Congressman Jason Chaffetz? In short, a busted criminal pyramid scheme now controlled by Chinese political figures has been funding its very own member of Congress from the very start of his political career. In fact, before entering politics, Chaffetz used to be an employee of the company. With each new turn, the story grows stranger. If you enjoy Daily News Bin, consider making a contribution: Contributed by Daily News Bin staff 947 | 0 |
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Как рассказала первый замминистра финансов Татьяна Нестеренко, сейчас финансовая поддержка больше всего необходима семьям с детьми в возрасте до 16 лет, особенно в ней нуждаются "семьи с двумя и более детьми и одним работающим родителем".
"Сегодня было бы правильно и нам перейти на применение принципа нуждаемости при назначении отдельных социальных выплат и обсудить возможность введения нового вида пособия - пособия по бедности", - добавила Нестеренко.
По словам чиновницы, прежде чем вводить новый вид пособий, сперва стоит определить понятие "нуждаемость" и его критерии на законодательном уровне.
Предложения министерства не отражены в проекте бюджета на 2017-2019 годы, добавила Нестеренко.
Ранее председатель Правительства РФ Дмитрий Медведев подписал постановление о снижении величины прожиточного минимума.
Как пояснил Правде.Ру член комитета Совета Федерации по экономической политике Николай Власенко, "это стоит воспринимать как техническую вещь. Есть правила определения прожиточного минимума. Они ежеквартально корректируются. В третьем квартале он был несколько завышен из-за инфляции, которая у нас носит сезонный характер. Одновременно, например, снижение покупательского спроса, запускает дефляционные процессы. У нас сейчас специфическая ситуация в экономике - называется биполярная инфляция и дефляция ".
По мнению эксперта Правды.Ру, в некоторых секторах инфляция идет опережающими темпами, а в каких-то есть даже дефляция. Получилось, что в четвертом квартале по тем товарным группам, по которым идентифицируется прожиточный минимум, произошло снижение. Во многом из-за того, что в третьем квартале был существенный рост. Эксперт напомнил, что прожиточный минимум - техническая цифра, к которой "привязаны" размеры социальных пособий, субсидий на ЖКХ и многое другое. Но самое важное - это социально-демографический ориентир, порог бедности.
Правда.ру ранее писала, что поступало предложение ввести продовольственные карточки для бедных россиян.
Отметим, что использование продуктовых карточек для поддержки малообеспеченных людей является довольно распространенной в мире практикой, к примеру, в США активно применяется система Food stamp. На сегодняшний день около 21% американцев подают заявки на получение ежемесячных социальных пособий.
Кстати, ранее с предложением ввести продовольственные карточки в России выступала ФАС. Доктор экономических наук, профессор Владимир Мантусов в интервью Правда.Ру сообщил, что введение продуктовых талонов не вызовет никакой паники среди населения, так как это является обычной мерой социальной поддержки. Однако, отметил эксперт, основной целью должно быть истребление бедности и нищеты в стране для того, чтобы люди не нуждались в бесплатных продуктах.
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Death may be the great equalizer, but it isn’t necessarily evenhanded. Of all the fields of endeavor that suffered mortal losses in 2016 — consider Muhammad Ali and Arnold Palmer in sports and the Hollywood deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds — the pop music world had, hands down, the bleakest year. Start with David Bowie, whose stage persona — androgynous glam rocker, dance pop star, electronic experimentalist — was as as his music. The year was only days old when the news came that he had died of cancer at 69. He had hinted that his time was short in the lyrics of his final album, released just two days before his death, but he had otherwise gone to great lengths to hide his illness from the public, a wish for privacy that ensured that his death would appear to have come out of the blue. Then came another shock, about three months later, when Prince accidentally overdosed on a painkiller and collapsed in an elevator at his sprawling home studio near Minneapolis. Death came to him at 57, and by all indications no one, including Prince Rogers Nelson, had seen it coming. As energetic onstage as ever, holding to an otherwise healthy regimen, he had successfully defied age into his sixth decade, so why not death, too? Leonard Cohen, on the other hand, in his 83rd year, undoubtedly did see it coming, just over his shoulder, but he went on his — I hesitate to say merry — way, ever the wise, troubadour playing to sellout crowds and shrugging at the inevitable, knowing that the dark would finally overtake him but saying essentially, “Until then, here’s another song. ” It was as if 2016 hadn’t delivered enough jolts to the system when it closed out the year with yet another death. George Michael, the 1980s sensation whose aura had dimmed in later years, was 53 when he went to bed and never woke up on Christmas. Pop music figures fell all year, many of their voices still embedded in the nicked vinyl grooves of old records that a lot of people can’t bear to throw out. The roster included Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane Keith Emerson and Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer Glenn Frey of the Eagles and Maurice White of Earth, Wind Fire. Leon Russell, the piano pounder with a Delta blues wail and a mountain man’s mass of hair, died. So did Merle Haggard, rugged country poet of the common man and the outlaw. He was joined by the bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley and the guitar virtuoso who was practically glued to Elvis’s swiveling hips in the early days: Scotty Moore. And then there was George Martin, whose genius had such a creative influence on the sounds of John, Paul, George and Ringo (and, by extension, on the entire rock era) that he was hailed as the fifth Beatle. If the music stars could fill arenas, so could idols of another stripe: the mighty athletes who left the scene. No figure among them was as towering as Ali. Some called him the greatest sports figure of the 20th century, the boxer who combined power, grace and brains in a way the ring had never seen. But he was more than a great athlete. Matters of war, race and religion coursed through his life in a publicly turbulent way. Some people hated him when he refused to be drafted during the Vietnam War, a decision that cost him his heavyweight title. But more people admired him, even loved him, for his principled stands, his high spirits, his lightning mind, his winking and, yes, his rhyming motormouth. Until illness closed in, little could contain him, certainly not mere ropes around a ring. Palmer, too, was transformational, golf’s first media star. The gentleman’s game was never quite the same after he began gathering an army on the rolling greenswards and leading a charge, his shirt coming untucked, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his club just that, a weapon, as he pressed the attack. An entire generation of postwar guys took up the game because of Arnie, and not a few women did, too. He was athletically blessed, magnetically cool, telegenically handsome — but he was somehow one of them, too. The same was said of Gordie Howe, Mr. Hockey, a son of the Saskatchewan prairie who tore up the National Hockey League, hung up his skates at 52 and died at 88 and of Ralph Branca, a trolley car conductor’s son who was a living reminder that one crushing mistake — his, the fastball to Bobby Thomson that decided the 1951 National League pennant — can sometimes never be lived down. Pat Summitt, the coach who elevated women’s basketball, led her Tennessee teams to eight championships and won more games than any other college coach, could not defeat Alzheimer’s disease, dying at 64. And within months the National Basketball Association lost two giants from different eras. Clyde Lovelette, an Olympic, college and N. B. A. champion who transformed the game as one of its first truly big men, was 86 his hardwood heir Nate Thurmond, a defensive stalwart who battled Russell, Wilt and Kareem in the paint in a Hall of Fame career, was 74. Even older, in the baseball ranks, was Monte Irvin. When he died at 96, there were few people still around who could remember watching him play, particularly in his prime, in the 1940s, when he was a star on the Negro circuit but barred from the major leagues. He made the Hall of Fame anyway as a New York Giant and became Major League Baseball’s first black executive, but when he died, fans pondered again the question that has hung over many an athletic career shackled by discrimination: What if? A different question, in an entirely different sphere, arose after the stunning news that Justice Antonin Scalia had died on a hunting trip in Texas: What now? In the thick of one of the most consequential Supreme Court careers of modern times, he left a void in conservative jurisprudence and, more urgently, a vacancy on the bench that has yet to be filled, raising still more questions about what may await the country. Other exits from the public stage returned us to the past. Nancy Reagan’s death evoked the 1980s White House, where glamour and West Coast conservatism took up residence on the banks of the Potomac. John Glenn’s had us thinking again about a burst of national pride soaring into outer space. The deaths of Tom Hayden and Daniel Berrigan, avatars of defiance, harked back to the student rebellions of the 1960s and the Vietnam War’s roiling home front. Phyllis Schlafly’s obituaries were windows on the roots of the right wing’s ascension in American politics. The death of Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as attorney general, recalled the Clinton years, all eight of them, from the firestorm at Waco, Tex. to the international tug of war over a Cuban boy named Elián González, to the bitter Senate battle over impeachment. On other shores, Fidel Castro’s death at 90 summoned memories of Cuban revolution, nuclear brinkmanship and enduring enmity between a strongman and the superpower only 90 miles away. The name of Boutros the Egyptian diplomat who led the United Nations, led to replayed nightmares of genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia. The death of Shimon Peres removed a last link to the very founding of Israel and conjured decades of growing military power and fitful strivings for peace. And that of Elie Wiesel, in New York, after his tireless struggle to compel the world never to forget, made us confront once again the gas chambers of Auschwitz. If writers, too, are even in fiction, then the world is poorer without the literary voices of Harper Lee, Umberto Eco, Pat Conroy, Jim Harrison, Anita Brookner, Alvin Toffler, Gloria Naylor and William Trevor, not to mention the playwrights Peter Shaffer, Dario Fo and, Edward Albee — all dead in 2016. But just as treasured were those who spun for our viewing pleasure — none more lustily than Ms. Fisher, the Princess Leia of the “Star Wars” tales. Just a day later, capping a year of startling deaths, Ms. Reynolds, a singing and acting leading lady of an earlier era, died at 84 in the throes of a mother’s grief. Devotees of the “Harry Potter” movies were saddened by the death of Alan Rickman, who played the deliciously dour professor Severus Snape in that blockbuster franchise but whose career, on both stage and screen, was far richer than many of Snape’s younger fans may have known. Zsa Zsa Gabor’s celebrity, by contrast, outshone a modest acting career. Gene Wilder and Garry Shandling died in the same year, both having perfected a brand of hilariously neurotic comedy fit for a culture. And this time Abe Vigoda, of the “Godfather” movies and “Barney Miller,” actually did die, after having not actually done so years ago when wildly uninformed people spread the word that he had. On the other side of the camera were directors whose vision came to us from all parts: Jacques Rivette, the French New Wave auteur, with his meditations on life and art Abbas Kiarostami, the Iranian master, with his searching examinations of ordinary lives Andrzej Wajda, a rival to Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa in some critics’ eyes, with his haunting tales of Poland under the boot first of Nazis and then of Communists. A long roster of television stars of a generation or two ago passed on, images of their younger selves frozen in time: Noel Neill (“Adventures of Superman”) Alan Young (“Mister Ed”) Robert Vaughn (“The Man From U. N. C. L. E. ”) William Schallert and Patty Duke (father and daughter on “The Patty Duke Show”) Dan Haggerty (“The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams”) Florence Henderson (“The Brady Bunch”) and Alan Thicke (“Growing Pains”). And Garry Marshall, the creative force who practically owned prime time with “Happy Days,” “Mork Mindy,” “Laverne Shirley” and more, died at 81. On Broadway, lights were dimmed in memory of Brian Bedford, Tammy Grimes and Anne Jackson, all brilliant in their day. The architect Zaha Hadid left behind monuments to her fertile imagination and shaken acolytes around the world. The street photographer Bill Cunningham, who found fashion statements on every corner, was suddenly missing, making Manhattan, overnight, a less idiosyncratic, less interesting place. That smiling skinny man pedaling his bicycle among the honking cabs in a blue French worker’s jacket with a camera slung around his neck — what a picture! — had split from the scene. So had seemingly a generation of fellow photographers who had made art in recording the last half of the 20th century: Ruth Gruber, Marc Riboud, Louis Stettner and more. And so had the TV journalists Morley Safer and Gwen Ifill and the TV commentator John McLaughlin, all of whom had tried to make sense of it. Music’s other precincts were emptier without the conductor and revolutionary composer Pierre Boulez and the new music soprano Phyllis Curtin the jazz artists Mose Allison, Bobby Hutcherson and Gato Barbieri the rapper Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor) and the Latin megastar Juan Gabriel. Silicon Valley saw a giant depart in Andrew S. Grove, who led the semiconductor revolution at Intel. The television industry lost a executive, Grant Tinker, who in the ’80s made NBC the network to watch in prime time. Astrophysics, and the smaller world of women in science, said farewell to a pioneer and a champion in Vera Rubin. And for tens of thousands of people who might have choked to death had they not been saved by his simple but ingenious maneuver, the passing of Henry J. Heimlich prompted not just sympathy but, even more, gratitude. Come to think of it, eliciting a large, if silent, thank you from those who live on is not a bad way for anyone to go. Which brings us to Marion Pritchard. Few who died in 2016 could have inspired measures of gratitude more profound. She was a brave young Dutch student and a gentile who risked her life to save Jews from death camps in the early 1940s, in one instance shooting a Nazi stooge before he could seize three little children she had been hiding. By her estimate she saved 150 people. How many were still alive when she died a few weeks ago at 96 is anyone’s guess. But we know for certain that some were, and we can reasonably surmise that a good many more were, too, all of them still in possession of her selfless gift and her matchless legacy, their very lives. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The United States has increased its forces near the northern Syrian town of Manbij as concerns have grown that fighting could erupt among the complex array of militias and Syrian and Turkish troops who are operating on the crowded battlefield near there. Photographs of American troops in Stryker vehicles and armored Humvees flying American flags circulated on Saturday on social media. The command that is fighting the Islamic State, a militant group also known as ISIS or ISIL, acknowledged the buildup around the town, but did not provide details. “The coalition has increased its force presence in and around Manbij to deter any hostile action against the city and its civilians, to enhance local governance and to ensure there is no persistent Y. P. G. presence,” an American military spokesman said, using the acronym for the People’s Protection Units, Kurdish militia groups that have been trained by United States military advisers. The Turks have repeatedly complained that the Y. P. G. which played a critical role in taking Manbij, has yet to vacate the city, despite American assurances that it has done so. The spokesman added, “This is a deliberate action to reassure our coalition members and partner forces, deter aggression, and ensure all parties remain focused on defeating our common enemy, ISIS. ” American military officials said the total number of United States forces in Syria had not increased. But the new deployment of American troops around Manbij has been done in a visible manner. A combustible mix of forces are crowding the battlefield in northern Syria, including Syrian militias, Syrian government forces, and Kurdish and Arab fighters trained by the United States. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who commands the task force that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, told reporters on Wednesday that Syrian government troops had advanced near Manbij to the point where they were within “rifle range” of Syrian Arab fighters backed by American forces. The United States has hundreds of troops in northern Syria who have been training and advising Syrian Arab and Kurdish fighters. “It’s very difficult and complicated,” said General Townsend, adding that it was important that tensions among the groups not disrupt the campaign against the Islamic State. “That’s what we ought to keep our efforts focused on, and not fighting deliberately or accidentally with one another. ” The potential for a clash is clear. Abu Amjed, the head of the Manbij Military Council, which has responsibility for securing the city, said during an interview last week that Turkish forces had been shooting at his front lines. Another worry is Ahrar an Islamist opposition group, which has been supported by the Turks. Under a recent agreement that Russia is said to have played a role in brokering, Syrian government forces are moving into villages near Manbij. The Manbij security forces appear to have ceded control of the villages to prevent them from being occupied by militias or Turkish troops. In a development that reflected the fluid and confusing battlefield, Russian aircraft on Tuesday mistakenly bombed Syrian Arab fighters trained by the United States. General Townsend said the attack, which took place about 10 miles southwest of Manbij, occurred when the Syrian fighters moved into villages that had been occupied by the Islamic State. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had not carried out airstrikes in areas that the United States had previously designated as being occupied by fighters. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — It’s or time for Republicans. After a tumultuous decade that has seen profound changes in the makeup and character of their party, Republicans are poised to complete their slow but steady climb back to power as they seize control of the House, Senate and the White House for the first time since 2006. That political triad will leave them with a splendid opportunity for success. But there is little room for failure if they hope to satisfy their impatient constituents and deliver on bold promises to reshape the nation’s health care delivery system, restructure the tax code, drive job creation, muscle up American foreign policy, rebuild a crumbling infrastructure and set America on a new course. Republicans who will take command of the Senate and House as the 115th Congress convenes on Tuesday have long been itching for a chance to do it their way, constantly grousing that President Obama and Congressional Democrats held back American progress and economic growth. Now they must show they can deliver. And they know it. “When you have both houses and the presidency, there is no acceptable excuse for not passing major legislation,” said Representative Tom Cole, a senior Republican from Oklahoma. “There is a lot of pressure on Republican members to produce and to produce quickly. ” That will not be easy. There is a mutual wariness between many Republicans in Congress and Donald J. Trump, leaving it unclear how often their interests and priorities will coalesce or collide. Some of the biggest fights might well be between Republicans on Capitol Hill and the White House occupied by a man who campaigned against the establishment and some of the very Republicans running Congress. Republicans must also maneuver while facing slightly expanded Democratic minorities in the House and Senate, in a climate that is, in many respects, even more hostile than it was before the November elections. Democrats remain angry at how Republicans treated President Obama, including their refusal to consider the nomination of federal Judge Merrick B. Garland to the United States Supreme Court. Democrats want payback for the cold shoulder given to Mr. Garland’s nomination to satisfy themselves and to show their supporters that they are not going to roll over for the new Republican government. While they cannot employ the filibuster to block most nominations, they still retain it for Supreme Court picks and legislation — at least for now. Perhaps most important, Republicans themselves are going to need something of an attitude adjustment. The contemporary Republican Party has been built out of fierce opposition to Mr. Obama and deep disdain for activist government. Nearly of current House Republicans have never served with a Republican president and their entire time in Washington has been spent fighting the executive branch. As a result, Republicans have had the luxury of being able to argue for positions that appealed to their conservative base but that they knew would not become law because Senate Democrats would block them or because the president would veto them. Now, if they can assemble the votes, their ideas will become law — with all the attendant consequences. Republicans who have shied from the responsibility of government will now be called upon to support increases in the debt limit, approve annual budgets, endorse spending bills and back other measures that they formerly left to the Democrats and some of their more compromising colleagues. With Democrats unlikely to help on many of those votes after being castigated for them by Republicans, the Republicans who belonged to the “vote no, hope yes” caucus when it came to critical legislation in recent years now will have to vote yes and hope things go well. This isn’t the same style of Republican majority pushed from power after being routed in the 2006 midterm elections after the public backlash to the administration of President George W. Bush and his handling of the war in Iraq. Forged by the Tea Party revolt that restored Republicans to control of the House in the 2010 elections, and in the Senate in 2014, this party is much more conservative with a membership that tends to see government as an impediment to be leveled, not as a force to be shaped to their views to the benefit of their constituents. Eight years of railing against the Obama administration has infused them and their constituents with a hostility and disregard for the government that Republicans must now lead rather than ridicule. Tensions could arise between House and Senate Republicans as well. When the Newt party took over the House in 1995 for the first time in four decades, newly empowered Republicans sent a raft of legislation to the Senate, only to see it stall there. With President Bill Clinton in the White House at the time, Republicans knew much of it would not be enacted. Now, with Mr. Trump soon to occupy the Oval Office, it is unlikely that House Republicans will be willing to watch Democrats bottle up legislation in the Senate. Demands that their Senate counterparts eliminate the filibuster could mount quickly. While they understand the challenges, Republicans are nonetheless jubilant at their enviable position. “A Republican in the White House and a Republican majority in Congress present tremendous opportunity to make real progress,” Senator Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado, said in the party’s weekly radio address on Saturday. “We assume that responsibility with the promise that we’ll work hard to do everything that we can to deliver more opportunities to Americans tomorrow than they have today. ” “I am pretty giddy,” said Mr. Cole as he looked ahead. Republicans have won their chance. Now it is time to see what they can do with it. | 1 |
WASHINGTON, DC — The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has warned that deliberate leaks of “sensitive or classified” U. S. government information by “trusted insiders” will “remain a significant threat” during President Donald Trump’s tenure. [DNI Daniel Coats’ warning can be found in the latest World Wide Threat Assessment unveiled during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last week. “Trusted insiders who disclose sensitive or classified US Government information without authorization will remain a significant threat in 2017 and beyond,” notes the assessment, authored by the U. S. intelligence community. “The sophistication and availability of information technology that increases the scope and impact of unauthorized disclosures exacerbate this threat. ” What Coats describes sounds similar to what has come to be known as the “deep state,” which refers to entities within and outside the federal government colluding to prevent a democratically elected leader from implementing his agenda. Breitbart News reported: The term “deep state” has been used to refer to deliberate leaks designed to undermine the president, but also to the willing collusion of elements of the mainstream media, the latent distrust and suspected opposition of elements of the intelligence services, but also the willing resistance of certain career civil servants in the agencies charged with carrying President Trump’s directions to fruition. Specifically, the primary purpose of the “deep state is to undermine a democratically elected leader’s agenda and ultimately overthrow that leader. A “deep state” is primarily powered by a steady drip of classified information, much like what has been taking place under the Trump administration. Nevertheless, various mainstream media outlets have dismissed the existence of an American “deep state” working against the Trump administration as a conspiracy theory. The “deep state” involves an intricate network comprised of government insiders, often made up of individuals from the military and intelligence communities. Many media outlets described concerns voiced by President Trump and his supporters about the intelligence community and other components of the government leaking classified information as paranoia. Through the threat assessment, the intelligence community itself is warning that the disclosure of classified information by “trusted” government insiders is not only real but also poses a “significant threat. ” The Worldwide Threat Assessment also warns against foreign actors, including some from Latin America, seeking to infiltrate the U. S. government. It reports: The United States will face a complex global foreign Intelligence threat environment in 2017. We assess that the leading state intelligence threats to US interests will continue to be Russia and China, based on their services’ capabilities, intent, and broad operational scope. Other states in South Asia, the Near East, East Asia, and Latin America will pose local and regional Intelligence threats to US interests. For example, Iranian and Cuban intelligence and security services continue to view the United States as a primary threat. Penetrating the US national decision making apparatus and the Intelligence Community will remain primary objectives for numerous foreign intelligence entities. Additionally, the targeting of national security information and proprietary information from US companies and research institutions involved with defense, energy, finance, technology, and other areas will remain a persistent threat to US interests. Besides foreign governments like Russia and China, criminals will also seek to undermine America’s intelligence community by recruiting American government insiders to obtain information and conduct surveillance. “ entities, including international terrorists and transnational organized crime groups, are likely to continue to employ and improve their intelligence capabilities including by human, technical, and cyber means. As with state intelligence services, these entities recruit sources and perform physical and technical surveillance to facilitate their illicit activities and avoid detection and capture,” points out the threat assessment. In 2016, the threat assessment also warned that “insiders who disclose sensitive US Government information without authorization will remain a significant threat in 2016. ” | 0 |
Former Florida Governor and candidate for president Jeb Bush has reportedly taken a pass on buying the Miami Marlin baseball team, according to reports. [In April it was reported that Gov. Bush had joined a consortium of investors, including former New York Yankee Derek Jeter, looking to buy the baseball team by offering a $1. 3 billion bid. The deal was said to represent a profitable return on investment for current Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria who bought the team for $158 million. Despite the team being valued at only $940 million, the deal for $1. 3 billion would have returned over eight times what Loria originally paid for the team. But, according to reports, Gov. Bush has now dropped out of the group seeking to make the deal, the Associated Press reported. The source reported to the AP on the condition of anonymity because the deal is still in the midst of negotiations. The Marlins have also not made any public statements on the deal. “Gov. Bush has great respect for Derek Jeter, and Derek remains a great friend,” the inside source told the AP. “And he’s looking forward to a great rest of the season for the Marlins. ” It had been reported by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred that the Bush group’s offer for the team was roughly on par with an offer being made by former GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg Romney. With the group fronted by Gov. Bush dropping out of the bidding, that leaves only the Romney offer on the table. The Marlins are struggling to stay out of last place in the NL East this year. They haven’t been in the playoffs since 2003. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0 |
Tesla has quietly zoomed past another automotive milestone. Just a week after the company surpassed Ford Motor in market value, its shares closed at $312. 39 on Monday, making Tesla worth about $50. 9 billion, slightly more than General Motors. G. M. like Ford Motor, has been operating for more than 100 years, and in the first quarter of 2017, it sold hundreds of thousands more vehicles than Tesla, an electric car upstart, did in all of 2016. But investors are betting that Tesla, whose chief executive is Elon Musk, has room to grow as the world’s appetite for electric vehicles expands. Tesla said on April 2 that its sales had risen 69 percent from the same period a year ago. The next day, Ford and G. M. released disappointing sales figures. Although the big automakers are financially healthy and produce the types of vehicles, like trucks and sport utility vehicles, they are perceived as lagging in technology like alternative power and autonomy. Tesla’s first electric vehicle, the Roadster, rolled off the assembly line in 2008, and its Autopilot feature has been included since 2015. It currently offers two vehicles, the Model S luxury sedan and the Model X S. U. V. which sell for $90, 000 including options. The Model 3, a compact electric model that Tesla plans to sell for $35, 000, is expected to debut this summer and be produced in significantly higher volumes. | 0 |
http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/wikileaks-john-podesta-attended-satanic.html Here's more evidence of Satanism among the government's "elite" New WikiLeaks emails suggest John Podesta attended a “Spirit Cooking” dinner party at Marina Abramovich’s house. Given what we know about the performance artist’s occult fascination, it’s safe to assume they weren’t saying the Lord’s Prayer. So what happened at this dinner party? Marina Abramovich demonstrates what Spirit Cooking is in a YouTube video. Painting a wall with pig blood, Abramovich smears the sentence: “WITH A SHARP KNIFE CUT DEEPLY INTO THE MIDDLE FINGER OF YOUR LEFT HAND EAT THE PAIN.” Another daubed message reads: “FRESH MORNING URINE SPRINKLE OVER NIGHTMARE DREAMS.” Anramovich then throws blood over a small statue in the corner of the room, before writing “SPIRIT COOKING.” Blood is then ceremoniously run around the four corners of the room. Another message on the wall reads: “MIX FRESH BREAST MILK WITH FRESH SPERM MILK DRINK ON EARTHQUAKE NIGHTS.” Here's her email to Tony Podesta: At 7 mins 30 Abramovich is seen in a projected video with a snake wrapped around her head, it’s tail in her nostril. Warning: in case you hadn’t guessed, this video contains graphic content. Spirit Cooking, according to an article about Marina Abramovich, “is about the conversion of matter into energy, of the material into the spiritual. Abramovic derives her inspiration from the popular belief that the spirits still need food even though it is no longer solid, but in the form of light, sound and emotions. [ Alexander : The only spirits that need food in the form of light, sound and — negative — emotions are the Archons who control mankind . They have e ntrapped our souls eons ago in the reincarnation cycle and torture us in this dimension of pain and sufferance, so that we polarize the pure energy that we receive from the Source into the much-needed negative energy, which they use to feed on and keep this Matrix running . The so called "elite" are empty vehicles used by these demonic beings to control and torture us — indefinitely. Luckily, in this incarnation we have the opportunity to learn how to escape their control when we get to the "other side." ] This superstition is found in numerous cultures and there are even strict rules as to how this spiritual fare should be prepared. In this paradox, in the material underpinning of something immaterial, the physical and spiritual worlds meet. Or to use her own words, ‘When you make something visible for something invisible, the invisible becomes visible.’ Marina Abramovich has long been associated with the occult. Her performance art often features Satanic themes and mock human sacrifice. Take a look at this performance at the MoCA annual gala. Warning: NSFW. And, as all Satanists, she is fond of Baphomet and the pentagram (cut straight into her body). By Baxter Dmitry Dear Friends, HumansAreFree is and will always be free to access and use. If you appreciate my work, please help me continue.
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Friday on his Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson had author Ann Coulter weigh in on Kathy Griffin’s emotional press conference where the comedian accused President Donald Trump and his family of trying to “ruin” her life after she posed for a picture holding a fake decapitated head of the president. Coulter slammed the victimhood mentality of liberals, saying victims have become the biggest bullies in the United States. Watch: “Victimhood is like a magical elixir that makes any kind of behavior possible, justifies any kind of overreach or cruelty. It’s like the perfect tool,” Carlson said. “That was the theme of my book, Guilty, how victims had turned themselves into the aggressors and thereby wonder around creating other victims,” Coulter replied. “Victims are the biggest bullies in the country now. ” “I don’t think it’s an attack for Trump just to comment that his son had seen that disgusting image that wasn’t funny and wasn’t interesting and oh, she was just so smug and thought it was so funny,” she later added. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0 |
BNI Store Nov 7 2016 BIGGEST MUSLIM LIE OF THE DAY: “White supremacists are openly threatening Election Day violence…so the FBI is hassling Muslims” Is it the inbreeding? Or just that they think they can promote any fantastical lie or obfuscation and the Kardashian-worshipping American public won’t notice. It’s been reported for days that The Islamic State/al-Qaeda is calling for the “slaughter of U.S. voters” on Election Day. But that didn’t stop officials from designated terrorist group CAIR from inventing a fake potential threat against Muslims…to deflect the fact that the FBI is questioning potential terror-linked suspects in the Muslim community. USA Today Ritz Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, said Saturday on Twitter that the threats appear in an essay carried by the Islamic State’s Al Hayat media center that declares militants “have come to slaughter you and smash your ballot boxes.” 3) #ISIS urges Muslims to refuse participate in #Elections2016 & to announce that they “have come to slaughter you & smash your ballot boxes”
— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) November 5, 2016 “May Allah make this year’s U.S. presidential election a dreadful calamity like no other to have struck America throughout its pathetic history,” the seven-page manifesto, entitled “The Murtadd Vote ,” read. Murtadd is an apostate who turns his back on Islam. The essay, which uses lengthy religious arguments in an effort to justify such attacks, also declares there is no difference between the Republican and Democratic parties in their “policies against Islam and Muslims” In an article from the perpetually Muslim-sympathizing Fusion website: As if Muslim Americans haven’t had it hard enough during this presidential campaign—what with Donald Trump’s steady drumbeat of Islamophobic racism–now comes reports that federal agents are paying surprise visits to Muslims across the United States ahead of the November 8 election. According to officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations, representatives from the FBI have questioned Muslims living in at least eight states leading up to November 8, reportedly searching for information pertaining to a possible Election Day al Qaeda threat . Over the weekend, the designated terrorist group CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) received reports from Muslim-Americans in eight states, who said they were approached by FBI agents who wanted to speak to them about the alleged threat. Those states included California, Washington State, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kansas Oklahoma, Florida and Texas. Hassan Shibly, executive director of CAIR’s Florida offices, called the reported questioning “completely outrageous,” and “borderline unconstitutional,” telling the Washington Post : “That’s the equivalent of the FBI visiting churchgoing Christians because someone overseas was threatening to blow up an abortion clinic. It’s that preposterous and outrageous.” The people who were interviewed this weekend were asked if they knew anyone who might want to harm Americans at home or abroad. Shibly said all of those interviewed appeared to be of Afghani or Pakistani descent. Shibly says such sweeps are dangerous to Muslim-American relations.’Unfortunately we’re dealing with an environment that’s not very friendly to American Muslims,’ he said. ‘The environment is very hostile to the American Muslim community.’ On Twitter, CAIR’s Dallas-Fort Worth director Alia Salem posted a short video updating her followers about the FBI visits, and offering a series of resources for anyone approached by law enforcement. “It was made apparent to us that the FBI has a list of a couple hundred people they are wanting to visit,” Salem told the Dallas Morning News . “And ask a series of eight generic questions intended to drum up information about the attacks.” The FBI’s sudden scrutiny of Muslim Americans comes as the United States is experiencing a surge in white nationalism and militia groups , fueled in no small part by Donald Trump’s KKK-backed candidacy . Militant Trump supporters have, in fact, explicitly stoked fears of violence come Election Day. (But it’s Muslims who actually carry out terrorist attacks on Americans) “Prior to this campaign season, these ideas were relegated to sort of the political fringe of the American political landscape,” Ryan Lenz, a researcher at the anti-American, Muslim-funded Southern Poverty Law Center told Reuters . “Now these ideas are legitimized.” Perhaps while the FBI is questioning Muslim Americans over vague international threats, they should check in with some of the no-longer-fringe radicals on America’s far right wing, too. | 1 |
If Hillary Clinton brushed aside medical advice to rest after getting a diagnosis of mild pneumonia, she was risking developing a more serious case, medical experts said Monday. Pneumonia — which leads to infiltration of fluid into the lungs, leaving a patient short of breath and often feverish but still able to function — can become serious or even fatal if it is not properly treated, doctors said. The illness can be caused by viruses, bacteria or, less often, fungi or damage from toxic fumes. Without extensive testing, which is not normally needed, it is impossible to know what caused Mrs. Clinton’s case. Mrs. Clinton’s doctor released a statement saying that the illness was diagnosed on Friday morning and that she was advised to “rest and modify her schedule. ” Her team has released very little information about her condition: exactly how it was diagnosed what antibiotics she is taking the results of any blood work, chest or other diagnostic tests that may have been performed or whether she has any underlying condition that made her vulnerable to the illness. On Monday, a campaign spokesman said that more medical information would be released this week and that those records would show she had “no other undisclosed condition. ” As a result, doctors asked about her case said they could only speculate. “Hillary is sick, but she had two days of activities after she was diagnosed, so she’s not that sick,” said Dr. Paul A. Offit, the chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He said he doubted she was infected with “the really serious bacteria that put you in a hospital. ” It is not uncommon for a doctor to diagnose pneumonia merely after listening to a patient’s chest through a stethoscope and hearing “rales,” which sound like tissue paper being crinkled, said Dr. William Schaffner, the chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School. A doctor can also order a chest a sputum sample and blood tests, “but she could be getting perfectly good medical care even if these things were not done,” Dr. Schaffner said. Normally, patients are started on antibiotics immediately, and the test of whether the diagnosis and treatment were right is whether they quickly improve. Elevated white blood cell counts could indicate a bacterial infection, and a sputum sample and nasal swab can be taken to see what bacteria are present. But growing bacteria in culture can take days, “and in half of all pneumonia cases, even with tests, we aren’t able to identify the cause,” said Dr. Charles S. Dela Cruz, a lung specialist at Yale medical school. If a patient does not get better after taking antibiotics, more testing should begin, Dr. Schaffner said. Only then do doctors begin to worry about a more serious underlying cause, such as leukemia. Several doctors said they did not think Mrs. Clinton posed any infection risk to others. Adults “are very, very rarely carriers of bacterial pneumonia,” Dr. Schaffner said. outbreaks in rare cases occur in close quarters like submarines and prisons, but adults do not normally carry pneumonia bacteria in their noses and throats as children do. “That’s why patients admitted to hospitals with pneumonia aren’t put in isolation,” he said. “There’s no need. ” Dr. James M. Musser, the head of pathology at the Houston Methodist Medical System, said, “Most people are not infectious if they have pneumonia, and being on antibiotics makes them even less infectious. ” Dr. Dela Cruz differed, saying he felt patients should limit contact with others the first few days of treatment when the source of a pneumonia is unknown. Dehydration, which Mrs. Clinton’s team blamed for her apparent collapse at Sunday’s memorial service, could be caused by a combination of standing outdoors on a hot, humid day and any fever she might have had, Dr. Schaffner said. Like sweating during exercise, fever causes the body to lose moisture, which can lower blood pressure and cause fainting. Mrs. Clinton’s normal blood pressure is according to a description of her health released July 28, 2015, by Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, her internist. That is on the low side of a normal range, and could contribute to a tendency to faint, Dr. Schaffner noted. Allergies, which typically cause sneezing, not coughing, rarely trigger pneumonia, experts said. “In retrospect, that coughing episode looks more like a possible viral infection,” Dr. Schaffner said, noting that on the campaign trail, Mrs. Clinton has come close to many people and has shaken many hands. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just warned doctors that flu season appeared to be starting unusually early this year, he added. Since both are over age 65, Mrs. Clinton and Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, should be getting annual flu shots and should also have had two shots against pneumococcal pneumonia, experts said. Although “pneumo shots” protect against several bacterial strains that are the most common causes of pneumonia, they do not protect against all of them. | 1 |
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