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Hurricane Matthew assaulted Haiti’s southern coast with deadly fury on Tuesday, destroying homes and crops, sweeping away livestock and cutting off transportation as a large part of the Caribbean was pummeled by the storm’s winds and torrential rain. The top United Nations official in Haiti, Mourad Wahba, described the storm as “the largest humanitarian event” in the country of 11 million since a devastating earthquake six years ago, with thousands scrambling for shelter. Haiti’s civil protection agency said a bridge collapse severed the main highway connecting the south with the capital. Initial reports from the government said that five people had been killed, 10 people had been injured and one person was missing. Interior Minister François Anick Joseph said Tuesday night that 14, 530 people had been evacuated and that about 2, 200 homes were flooded or destroyed. As of Wednesday morning, the storm, which was downgraded to Category 3, from Category 4, had passed through Cuba, and the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that a dangerous surge was beginning to spread over the Bahamas, to the north. A hurricane warning was in effect for Haiti, parts of the Bahamas and of Cuba, and a coastal stretch of Florida that includes Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, as well as Lake Okeechobee. As the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia braced for wind and rain, officials in the Caribbean took stock of the destruction. Georges Dubuche, the former director general of Haiti’s Ministry of Health who serves on an advisory board for Direct Relief, an aid organization, said on Tuesday that he feared that there would be “maybe hundreds of dead. ” Mr. Joseph acknowledged that the scope of the destruction was not yet clear and that the government was still assessing the damage. The storm threw into doubt the plans for presidential elections scheduled for Sunday. Officials were expected to announce a decision on Wednesday, with many experts saying it would be nearly impossible to conduct voting with crucial infrastructure crippled or destroyed. “I have a suspicion they will hold it in two weeks,” said Leslie Voltaire, the campaign manager for one of the candidates, Maryse Narcisse. “But it is only a suspicion. ” The storm was still a Category 4 when it made landfall around 7 a. m. Tuesday at Les Anglais, on the southwestern tip of Haiti, the western half of the island of Hispaniola. Frantic residents in the south said by phone that they were coping with major devastation as the storm felled trees, ripped roofs and destroyed farms in what already was a struggling area in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. “Thank God our neighbors came to save us,” said Daphne Thelma, a resident of Les Cayes, one of the towns on the southern coast. “We lost all our crops, and have nothing left. ” She said her family of eight, four of them children, had been rescued by neighbors as trees crashed into their home. The family split up to ride out the storm in different houses. Adassa Romilus, a spokeswoman for Heifer International, a charity that works with 30, 000 farming families in Haiti, said many livestock placed in shelters for protection had been killed. “The shelters couldn’t withstand the force of the hurricane,” she said. Officials reported that roughly 400 homes had been destroyed. In the town of Kay Coq on the remote island of a fishing community of 2, 000 people about six miles off the coast of Les Cayes, the hurricane left a scene of chaos. “Right now there is no more Kay Coq,” said Carobert Altema, 58, a fisherman. “Houses are down, people are screaming. We have no updates about which people are missing. ” Mr. Altema said household belongings had been washed out to sea. “At my age, this is the first time I have experienced something like this,” he said. Aid organizations in Haiti said rescue efforts were focused on evacuating people from houses threatened with collapse. “People have been leaving their homes under the full force of the storm to find shelters,” said Fignole, a program manager in Haiti for Oxfam, the international charity. Mr. Fignole said the storm had hit Haiti just as farmers in the south were about to harvest plantains, a staple in their subsistence diet. “There will be real hunger in the weeks ahead,” he said. Other charitable groups doing work in Haiti also expressed alarm about the storm’s effect on food production in the country, which has been struggling to recover from a prolonged drought. John Hasse, national director for World Vision Haiti, said that the storm destroyed avocado trees and that at least two communities had lost their entire banana crops. “We have gotten good rain this year. We were starting to see progress in malnutrition,” he said, because families were able to prepare healthier food for their children. “We think this is going to destroy a lot of it. ” The National Hurricane Center had projected 15 to 25 inches of rain for southern Haiti and in the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic, warning that as much as 40 inches of rain might fall in some areas. Some streets in flooded, and public transit was paralyzed. But by late afternoon, the storm appeared to have spared the worst of its wrath. Moderate rain was falling, residents reported, with no sign of the catastrophic flooding that was affecting areas farther south. Although the sea level rose at the edge of Cité Soleil, the city’s harbor slum, the water did not breach the central wharf. Residents in the most vulnerable part of the slum, a shantytown called Deye Chabon, piled logs and garbage into barricades that kept the water from spilling into the narrow streets. Nonetheless, residents of Deye Chabon were keeping a wary eye on the sea. “They say if it keeps rising, they will have to go find another place to be,” said Sherby St. Louis, 16, a student. Melanie Jean Pierre, 32, a street vendor, said she was riding out the storm in with her children. She said the only damage had come from a leak in the roof that soaked her bed. More than four million children may be threatened by the hurricane, Unicef warned on Tuesday. “Waterborne diseases are the first threat to children in similar situations,” Marc Vincent, the Unicef representative in Haiti, said. “Our first priority is to make sure children have enough safe water. ” Jessica Pearl, the Haiti country director for the Mercy Corps charity, who lives in said a main concern in areas would be providing drinking water, which she described as “a problem in normal times. ” Haiti still is recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake, with 55, 000 people living in shelters. A cholera epidemic that followed the earthquake has persisted, and it spiked in 2016. Partners in Health, an aid agency that has long worked in Haiti, says there have been 26, 000 cholera cases this year. The hurricane “has the potential to be a big setback for years of efforts to bring cholera under control,” Ms. Pearl said. “The people here have just been pushed down by one thing after another. ” The hurricane center had warned that the combination of a dangerous storm surge and large and destructive waves could raise water levels by seven to 11 feet above normal tide levels on the southern coast of Cuba seven to 10 feet on the southern coast of Haiti four to six feet on the northern coast of Cuba and four to six feet in Jamaica. Officials in the United States were preparing for one of the most powerful hurricanes to threaten the East Coast. The governors of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina declared emergencies while meteorologists refined their forecasts and suggested that the storm could lash the shoreline into the weekend. More than 2, 000 National Guard soldiers were activated across the South, and the authorities planned lane reversals, school closures and sandbag distribution sites. In Florida, where hurricane and tropical storm watches were in effect for part of the coast, officials were considering evacuations. “The problem we have with this storm is that the projected path is right along our coast,” Gov. Rick Scott said on Tuesday during a stop in the Florida Keys. “If it turns, we’re not going to have a lot of time to make a decision. The best thing is to be prepared and not to take any chances. ” Mr. Scott warned that the storm could prove “catastrophic,” and officials worried about extended power failures, widespread flooding and a lack of preparation along the heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor. Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, who said officials expected Matthew to strike the state as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane, deferred a decision on a coastal evacuation until Wednesday. “I would love nothing more than to see this just suddenly take a turn and go out to sea,” said Ms. Haley, who told about one million residents to prepare to leave the coast as soon as Wednesday afternoon. | 1 |
A combat veteran with PTSD wasn’t allowed to fly with her service dog. So she sued. ‹ › Since 2011, VNN has operated as part of the Veterans Today Network ; a group that operates over 50 plus media, information and service online sites for U.S. Military Veterans. Vertical Pools Help Heal Wounded Combat Veterans Seeks Positive Doers To Help Make It Happen By VNN on October 31, 2016 The Vertical Pool was inspired by the anticipated need of the returning wounded, and veterans of all past conflicts, who have limited options for recovery and healing at home. Even if they’re within an hour of a VA hospital, it can be a challenge to get there without assistance. A heated, sanitized, filtered, compact pool in the back yard, house, garage, means convenient, private, daily immersions for exercise, traction, rehabilitation, and recovery. These pools should be available to veterans without convoluted forms and wait times. Simply a doctor’s prescription should put them on a list for immediate consideration. VetPools.org (an effort to raise funds to donate these pools to vets) was formed with the specific objective of helping improve upon the methods and manners by which America receives and treats her returning wounded. The most formidable military force in the world deserves a commensurate comprehensive recovery, reintegration program focused on body, mind, and spirit for those who require assistance. The purpose of this message is to inform interested and connected parties of the desire to hand this product and mission off to veterans who would then become The Vertical Pool LLC and VetPools.org . They could be instrumental in healing themselves and their fellow veterans, as well as civilian America from the physically challenged to the physically fit. Interestingly, while initially intended for veterans, the retail market has turned out to be women. As only one person, innovator/owner of The Vertical Pool and founder/director of VetPools.org , I cannot fulfill this objective alone. The R&D, pool product, and non-profit are all paid for in full, no debt or encumbrances. This “on-demand” pool can be manufactured as needed without excessive, costly inventory and/or storage space. I do not advertise this product because one person cannot build, deliver, and install more than 5 pools in two months. Career options with this DME device and non-profit include owning, manufacturing, marketing, selling, donating, fund-raising, case managing, delivering, installing, and teaching The Vertical Pool’s diverse functions and benefits. This pool is efficient in energy, water, and space; critical qualities in this, the 21st century. A group or collective of 3 to 7 individuals might be prudent to start the program. I would remain teacher, mentor, and guide for years to come while others slip into the ownership of this product and its sister non-profit organization. Please share this idea with any and all contacts who might have the connections to give some veterans a lead to a worthy endeavor and career. To get involved contact; Director, Peter G. Hold | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Donald Trump stands unchallenged for the Republican presidential nomination after John Kasich followed Ted Cruz out of the race. Mr. Trump now faces an electoral map that heavily favors Hillary Clinton. In recent interviews with The New York Times, Mr. Trump sketched out what he meant to be a reassuring vision of his early presidency, including rapid action on a wall with Mexico and halting Muslim immigration. _____ 2. Bernie Sanders holds a lead on Mr. Trump even wider than Hillary Clinton’s, according to a new national poll. Mr. Sanders, who won the Indiana primary on Tuesday but remains far behind in delegates, cites his strong performance against Mr. Trump as a main argument for staying in the race. _____ 3. President Obama made his first visit to Flint, Mich. since the water crisis emerged, promising that he would not rest till the water was safe. He earned applause after asking for a glass of water. “I really did need a glass of water,” he said as he sipped. “This is not a stunt. ” _____ 4. The cause of Prince’s death has not been announced yet, but a clue emerged. His representatives had contacted a specialist in addiction to pain medication, who sent his son on a redeye flight to Minneapolis to offer Prince treatment options. Just off the flight, he was one of the people who found the musician’s body. _____ 5. A towering wildfire raged in western Canada, forcing an entire city of about 80, 000 people to evacuate. The defense minister said the military was ready to assist hundreds of firefighters. The town, Fort McMurray, is the center for the country’s oil sands region. Above, watch scenes from the fire. _____ 6. The Navy SEAL killed in Iraq this week was Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles Keating IV, the grandson of a banker jailed in the 1990s in the savings and loan scandal. His death, in a battle with Islamic State fighters, exemplifies the combat dangers facing U. S. soldiers on the “advise and assist” mission — as well as the range of Americans trying to halt ISIS. _____ 7. An Army intelligence officer is questioning whether the U. S. fight against the Islamic State is legal. Capt. Nathan Michael Smith sued President Obama, saying Congress must explicitly authorize him to deploy troops. Above, Kurdish fighters hunt for militants in the northern Iraqi town where the decorated SEAL was killed. _____ 8. New York City flashed back to the days of mob wars after a man’s body washed ashore in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. His face had been his arms were tied behind him and his feet were encased in concrete — which takes hours to harden. The case may be the only, um, concrete case of the fabled “cement shoes. ” _____ 9. The future of the Japanese company Takata is in doubt after U. S. regulators said 35 million to 40 million more of its airbags needed to be fixed. That more than doubles the size of what is already the largest automotive recall in U. S. history. U. S. stocks fell after a report said U. S. hiring last month was the slowest in three years. _____ 10. The tech world could lose one of its guiding principles. Moore’s Law — the idea that the transistor capacity of a computer chip doubles annually — is not expected to apply once scientists manipulate transistors. So an association of engineers announced it would devise an alternative way to forecast computer technologies. Above, Gordon Moore, the author of the “law. ” _____ 11. Finally, the Justice Department warned North Carolina that its transgender bathroom law violates the Civil Rights Act. The state could lose millions of dollars in federal funding unless they rapidly alter the law. Some establishments are already making their objections to the law clear, like the art hotel 21C, in Durham, above. _____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
JERUSALEM — An Israeli court convicted a man on Tuesday of abducting and murdering a Palestinian teenager in 2014, rejecting his insanity plea and bringing to a close a case that has convulsed Israelis and Palestinians. The Jerusalem District Court ruled that the man, Yosef Haim had been fully responsible for his actions when he and two teenage nephews snatched Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, off a street near his East Jerusalem home, drove him to a forest on the outskirts of the city, choked him, beat him unconscious and burned him to death in the early hours of July 2, 2014. Mr. told investigators during a recorded of the crime that he had urged his young relatives, who struggled with their captive in the back of the car, to “finish him off. ” Prosecutors are demanding a life sentence. One of the teenage defendants was sentenced in February to life in prison, and the other to 21 years, after the judges determined that he had played a lesser role in the murder. Their names have not been made public because they were 16 at the time of the crime. The murder took place at a particularly traumatic period in Israel’s recent history — a few hours after Israelis buried three teenagers who had been hitchhiking home from their yeshivas in the occupied West Bank when they were abducted, shot and killed by Palestinians. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave on a West Bank hillside after a wrenching search. The Israeli authorities determined that Mr. and his nephews intended to carry out a revenge attack, leading to Muhammad’s death. The kidnappings and killings roiled Israeli and Palestinian emotions, touched off riots in East Jerusalem and contributed to a spiral of tensions and violence culminating in the Gaza war that ended in August 2014. Hussein Abu Khdeir, Muhammad’s father, who has closely followed the trial, attended dozens of court hearings and accused Mr. of having faked an act of insanity, said he mistrusted the Israeli justice system because “it judges Arabs one way, and Jews another. ” After the ruling on Tuesday, Mr. Abu Khdeir said he wanted “justice all the way,” meaning a life sentence, no prospect of a presidential pardon and the demolition of Mr. ’s family home, “exactly like they do to Arabs, so that there is democracy. ” “We are tired of this,” he added. “Don’t ask how we feel. For the past year and nine months we haven’t gone to parties. My cousin got married two weeks ago, and we didn’t go. We can’t go. ” Waves of violence have shaken Jerusalem in the years since Muhammad’s death. Tensions over a contested holy site revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Mosque compound reignited rioting in Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and contributed to a surge of stabbing and vehicular attacks by Palestinians against Israelis that spread from Jerusalem to the West Bank and cities around Israel over the past six months. On Monday more than 20 people were wounded when a bomb exploded on a bus in Jerusalem — the first bus bombing in years. Mr. a resident of a West Bank settlement who ran a glasses store in Jerusalem, did not testify during his trial. Asher Ohayon, the public defender representing him, said during the trial that his client was in “a state of denial” and unable to remember his actions or to communicate. Mr. who had received psychiatric treatment in the past, including for disorder, submitted a late opinion by an American psychiatrist after the main court proceedings were over. The psychiatrist told the court that while Mr. understood what he was doing at the time of the crime, the manic and psychotic symptoms he displayed in the past might have affected his ability to control his actions. The prosecution argued that Mr. had worked up until the time of the killing, including that evening, and had acted normally and rationally during and after the episode. He made sure to destroy evidence of his crime — showing that he understood that his actions were unacceptable — and later gave a coherent account of the events of that night, during the prosecutors said. A Israeli psychiatrist found that Mr. was aware of his actions and was not psychotic at the time of the crime, and the court agreed. In addition to murder, the court convicted Mr. of abduction for the purpose of murder, assault, attempted arson and attempted kidnapping. Mr. and one of his nephews had tried to kidnap an Palestinian boy in the same area of East Jerusalem the night before Muhammad was killed, but the boy’s mother shouted and struggled with the kidnappers, and the boy got away. “The acts the accused carried out are of the cruelest imaginable,” a state prosecutor, Uri Korb, said after the ruling. “He burned the victim while he was alive, all motivated by crazed revenge. ” The Jerusalem District Court also convicted on Tuesday an Israeli man, Yishai Schlissel, of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder for his deadly stabbing rampage at the city’s gay pride parade in July, when he killed Shira Banki, a Jewish girl. Mr. Schlissel, an Jew, was released from prison shortly before the march, after having served 10 years for stabbing participants in the gay pride parade in 2005. | 1 |
November 4, 2016 Turkey Rounds Up Erdogan’s Political Opponents as Crackdown Widens
Salahhatin Demirtas, once hailed as the “Kurdish Obama,” among the pro-Kurdish opposition lawmakers held on Friday
A Turkish court placed the two leaders of a major pro-Kurdish opposition party under arrest on Friday in a dramatic widening of a political crackdown that followed July’s failed military coup that will raise concerns about the future of Turkey’s parliamentary democracy.
Police detained the co-chairs of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Selahhatin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, early on Friday morning along with nine other lawmakers. The measures against pro-Kurdish officials more than three months after president Recep Tayyip Erdogan narrowly survived an attempt by part of the military to seize power on July 15 could also open a new season of conflict with armed Kurdish insurgents. Hours after the arrests, a car bombing reportedly killed at least eight people in the city of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey. | 0 |
Former Clinton Foundation CEO begging Russia for ‘urgent and immediate’ asylum? Commenting Policy
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passengers in some small sport utility vehicles may not be as well protected as drivers in certain types of crashes, according to recent tests of seven vehicles by the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The tests, known as small overlap frontal tests, were similar to the kind that the institute conducts by directing the impact to the driver’s side of the vehicle. But in these latest tests, whose results were released on Thursday, the impact was on the S. U. V. s’ front passenger side. Among the small S. U. V.s tested, a 2015 Toyota RAV4 received a rating of “poor” on its results. A 2014 Nissan Rogue and 2014 Subaru Forester received “marginal” safety ratings for passengers. All seven vehicles had received the highest rating — “good’’ — for protecting drivers in earlier, similar crash tests. But sitting next to the driver can be a riskier proposition. Of the seven, only a 2016 Hyundai Tucson earned a “good’’ rating on the test. The remaining three — a 2015 Buick Encore, a 2015 Honda and a 2015 Mazda — were rated “acceptable. ’’ (The different models reflect the first year in each case when modification were made that enabled the vehicles to earn their “good” ratings for the tests.) The findings matter because more than 1, 600 passengers in the right front seats of vehicles of all types died in frontal crashes in 2014, according to the federal government’s fatality data. It is not known how many of those crashes were of the sort replicated by the insurance institute’s tests, which involve 25 percent of the front end of a vehicle striking a rigid barrier at 40 miles an hour. The test, which uses dummies, aims to show what happens when a vehicle runs off the road and strikes an object like a tree or utility pole. The insurance institute, which has been conducting this test for four years, was aware that automakers were focusing their initial safety improvement efforts on the driver’s side of vehicles — given that there is always a driver in the car, but not necessarily a passenger. “Some manufacturers told us that in the short term they could make more driver’ modifications to more vehicle models to improve safety rather than making improvements to both sides,’’ said Becky Mueller, a senior research engineer at the insurance institute and the lead author of the report on the latest tests. But the expectation was that automakers would start to make modifications to the passenger side as well. “We are now four years into the testing and we want to remind manufacturers that the short term doesn’t last forever,” Mrs. Mueller said. “Consumers are going to want the same level of protection for drivers and passengers,” she said. “They expect that when we rate a vehicle ‘good,’ it applies to both sides of the vehicle. ” The small overlap frontal test is the newest of the insurance institute’s crash tests. It began in 2012 as the institute, which is funded by the insurance industry, was trying to determine why people were still being seriously injured or killed in frontal crashes, despite seatbelts, airbags and “good” frontal crash test ratings. One of its studies of newer vehicles found that small overlap frontal crashes accounted for about 20 to 25 percent of those injuries and deaths. Automakers began redesigning their vehicles to get better scores on the new test and provide better protection. The insurance institute said that since the test’s introduction, 13 automakers have made structural changes to 97 vehicles. Because crash forces in the small frontal overlap test are concentrated on the front wheel, suspension and firewall, the passenger’s survival space can be seriously compromised by intruding structures. The front wheel can be forced back into the footwell, resulting in serious and debilitating leg and foot injuries on the driver’s side as the test dummy’s feet and legs get caught up in the metal pedals. It is also easy for drivers and passengers to hit their heads and chests against metal structures, like the instrument panel, protruding into the vehicle. “If the structure is so badly intruded, the airbag can’t do its job effectively,” Mrs. Mueller said. In the Toyota RAV4 test, the intrusion into the interior of the vehicle on the passenger’s side was 13 inches deeper than on the driver’s side. And the RAV4’s door popped open, which in a crash would put the occupant at risk of being ejected. In 2013, when the RAV4 was tested for the first time, it got a “poor” small overlap rating. The 2015 model received a good rating, but Toyota did not make the same safety improvements to the passenger side. In a written statement responding to the new test results, Toyota said, in part: “The I. I. H. S. small overlap test is severe, specialized and goes beyond federal vehicle safety requirements. “Rather than waiting to both driver’s and passenger’s sides,’’ Toyota added, “we took immediate steps to enhance performance on the driver’s side. ” The company said that it had incorporated safety enhancements on both sides for vehicles built on Toyota’s new platforms, beginning with the 2016 Prius. With the Nissan Rogue, maximum intrusion on the passenger side was 10 inches more than on the driver’s side, and the door hinge pillar, which is at the bottom of the passenger compartment where the rocker panel meets the A pillar — a front roof support — was torn off completely, although the door remained closed. In a written statement, Nissan said: “Nissan is committed to the safety and security of our customers and their passengers. We are aware of the I. I. H. S. testing and we are currently reviewing the details to assess opportunities for improved performance. ’’ Hyundai, meantime, was happy to promote its results. “Our 2016 Tucson’s good rating for both driver and passenger in the demanding I. I. H. S. small overlap crash test reflects our commitment to passenger safety at every level,’’ Mike O’Brien, a vice president for Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement. Here are the full results of the tests: Driver side: GOOD Passenger side: GOOD _____ Driver side: GOOD Passenger side: ACCEPTABLE _____ Driver side: GOOD Passenger side: ACCEPTABLE _____ Driver side: GOOD Passenger side: ACCEPTABLE _____ Driver side: GOOD Passenger side: MARGINAL _____ Driver side: GOOD Passenger side: MARGINAL _____ Driver side: GOOD Passenger side: POOR | 1 |
A large fire erupted below the Railroad tracks in East Harlem on Tuesday night, disrupting train service and leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded during the evening rush. Service was suspended to and from Grand Central Terminal, and it was unclear whether it would be restored by Wednesday morning. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said commuters should expect delays. The fire, at 119th Street and Park Avenue, was fueled in part by chemicals stored at a garden nursery that operated underneath the tracks, he said. The New York Fire Department said it was investigating reports of explosions, possibly set off by propane tanks at the site. Emergency officials received the call at 6:42 p. m. and fire officials said at 8:25 p. m. that a majority of the fire was under control. The cause remained under investigation, and no injuries were reported. A beam and support buttresses were bent, and crews were expected to work through the night to make repairs, the governor said. “It’s an ambitious goal,” Mr. Cuomo said during a news conference at the scene. “The scenario is we could have a delayed commute. ” planned to run several trains over the tracks once construction was completed. “The heat of the fire was extreme,” Mr. Cuomo said, adding that it was so intense that firefighters could hear bolts popping from the beams. For commuters, the trip home was a string of misery as they tried to find alternate means of transportation. At Grand Central, an announcement warned passengers that all northbound trains were “subject to indefinite delays at this time. ” The main hall was packed with people standing nearly shoulder to shoulder. Railroad officials said the disruption affected 30, 000 to 40, 000 commuters. Nicole Clarke, of Rye, N. Y. said she waited at Grand Central for 30 minutes before abandoning plans to take . “When I got to that place, it was a mess,” Ms. Clarke said. “They couldn’t tell us anything, nothing. ” She said that she was taking the subway to Avenue and 233rd Street in the Bronx and that her husband would pick her up from there. Linda Vanderperre, who works on Wall Street and uses the Larchmont station, said she had been waiting over 90 minutes for what would be customarily a commute. “It’s beyond ridiculous,” Ms. Vanderperre said. “This is the second day in a row it’s taken me over two hours to get home from Wall Street. ” She looked into using Uber but estimated it would cost around $150 because of surge pricing. “My husband is coming to pick me up if I’m still stuck here at 9,” she said. Three hotels near Grand Central said on Tuesday night that they had received numerous inquiries from stranded travelers but that, even before the fire, they were already booked. The disruption affected service on the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines, said Meredith Daniels, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Transportation authorities said train service was being provided to points north on the Hudson line from the 153rd Street station and the Marble Hill station. Service on the Harlem line was being provided from Wakefield, and trains on the New Haven line were running from Woodlawn to points east and from Stamford to New Haven. Ms. Daniels said the third rail, which powers the trains, had been shut off from 110th to 125th Street. Passengers on two trains that were stuck on either side of the fire were evacuated, officials said. Several passengers complained on Twitter about the lack of clear information and updates. Chris Polos, who commutes from Midtown Manhattan to his home in Scarsdale, said he had been waiting for 90 minutes. “I wish I had more information,” he said. “The big thing is what’s the next step — is it going to be a couple hours or 20 minutes?” | 0 |
President Donald Trump, during his meeting with Congress on Tuesday, floated the idea of having his Southern border wall covered with solar panels. [Trump suggested that he could build a wall “40 to 50 feet high and covered with solar panels,” according to a report from Axios. The energy generated from the solar panels could be used to pay for the cost of building the wall, Trump intimated, according to three sources in the story. It is unclear how serious the president was about the proposal, but he appeared eager to discuss progress for the project. “The wall will be a great help, and it will happen believe me,” Trump said to reporters after the meeting. | 0 |
Home / Be The Change / Flex Your rights / Report Exposes Inner Workings of Facebook and How Clinton Loyalists Control Your Newsfeed Report Exposes Inner Workings of Facebook and How Clinton Loyalists Control Your Newsfeed Claire Bernish October 30, 2016 1 Comment
Censorship by Facebook has become a thorn in the side of nearly anyone with an opinion differing from the narrative touted by the corporate press — for instance, sentiments not praising Hillary Clinton — and now, through both a new report from Reuters and emails published by Wikileaks, we have insight into why certain posts are targeted.
Facebook relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and human judgment to remove posts deemed offensive, violent, or otherwise unacceptable to its community standards — but precisely how the ultimate call to take down posts, pages, and groups are made remains unknown.
And Facebook takedowns, no matter the improvements to the process the social media behemoth claims to make, have been no less controversial or questionable — and those whose posts are censored have little if any recourse to argue their case.
Recent examples of head-scratchers which led to an international uproar, include Facebook’s removal of the iconic Vietnam War photograph of Phan Thị Kim Phúc — who, at just 9-years-old, was captured on film by an Associated Press photographer fleeing the aftermath of an errant napalm attack near a Buddhist pagoda in the village of Trang Bang.
That photograph helped cement in the collective American mind the horrors of the war, and ultimately fueled the success of the anti-war effort — but Facebook arbitrarily pulled the image for nudity — and proceeded even to ban the page of the Conservative prime minister of Norway for also posting the image.
Ultimately, the social media company reversed course in that case — but not before also taking down the equally iconic image of civil rights leader Rosa Park’s arrest.
But taking down of the image of Kim Phúc might not have been simply an error of AI, since it had been used as a specific example in training the teams responsible for content removal, two unnamed former Facebook employees told Reuters .
“Trainers told content-monitoring staffers that the photo violated Facebook policy, despite its historical significance, because it depicted a naked child, in distress, photographed without her consent, the employees told Reuters.”
In the final decision to reverse that censorship, Facebook head of the community operations division, Justin Osofsky, admitted it had been a “mistake.”
According to Reuters , to whom many current and former Facebook employees spoke on condition of anonymity, the process of judging which posts deserve to be remove and which should be allowed will, in certain instances, be left to the discretion of a small cadre of the company’s elite executives.
In addition to Osofsky, Global Policy Chief Monika Bickert; government relations chief, Joel Kaplan; vice president for public policy and communications, Elliot Schrage; and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg make the final call on censorship and appeals.
“All five studied at Harvard, and four of them have both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the elite institution. All but Sandberg hold law degrees. Three of the executives have longstanding personal ties to Sandberg,” the outlet notes. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg also occasionally offers guidance in difficult decisions. But there are others.
Company spokeswoman Christine Chen explained, “Facebook has a broad, diverse and global network involved in content policy and enforcement, with different managers and senior executives being pulled in depending on the region and the issue at hand.”
For those on the receiving end of what could only be described as lopsided and inexplicable censorship, recourse is generally limited and can be nearly impossible to come by. Often, the nature of posts and pages removed insinuates political motivations on the part of the censors.
Indeed, and once again flaring international controversy, Facebook disabled , among others, the accounts of editors of Quds and Shehab New Agency — prominent Palestinian media organizations — without explanation or even a specific example given for justification.
Although three of four Palestinian-focused accounts were restored, Facebook refused to comment to either Reuters or the accounts’ owners why the decision was reversed, except to say it had been an ‘error.’
In fact, although Chen and other Facebook insiders spoke with Reuters directly about contentious content removal policies and procedures, many details of the processes remain covert and sorely intransparent to the public who is so often forced to cope with the consequences.
Earlier this year, an exposé by Gizmodo showing Facebook’s suppression of conservative outlets via its “Trending Topics” section appeared to evidence extreme bias in favor of liberal and corporate media mainstays. Alternative media, too, which provides reports counter to the mainstream political and foreign policy paradigm, has often been the subject of controversial take-downs, censorship, and suppressive tactics — either directly by Facebook, or through convoluted algorithms and artificial intelligence bots.
However, considering Sheryl Sandberg and her loyalists populate the top-level group deciding the fate for content removal complaints, it would appear Wikileaks could provide answers for both post censorship and suppression of outlets not vowing complete fealty to the preferred, left-leaning narrative.
In a June 4, 2015, email to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta — an enormous cache of whose emails are still being published on a daily basis by Wikileaks — penned by Sandberg in response to condolences on the death of her husband, states , in part,
“And I still want HRC to win badly. I am still here to help as I can. She came over and was magical with my kids.”
After a wave of post removals and temporary page bans, it appears Facebook has begun to come to its senses for what actually violates community standards — and what might have political worth contrary to the views of its executives.
Senior members of Facebook’s policy team recently posted about the laxing of rules governing community standards, which — though welcome — might only provide temporary relief. Quoted by the Wall Street Journal , they wrote :
“In the weeks ahead, we’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest—even if they might otherwise violate our standards.”
While the social media giant deems itself a technology, and not news, platform, Facebook is still the bouncing off point for issues of interest for an overwhelming percentage of its users. Although it perhaps has some responsibility in regard to the removal of certain content, putting censorship in the hands of only a few individuals in certain instances is a chilling reminder of the fragility — and grave importance — of free speech. Share | 1 |
“Let’s get her some sex. ” Susan Silver says that was one of her chief contributions as a writer on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show. ” Playing the beloved young housewife Laura Petrie a few years earlier, Ms. Moore and her TV husband, Dick Van Dyke, had been made to sleep in separate beds. But it was the 1970s now. Even good girls had sex. Ms. Silver and the other women writing for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” made sure of it. [ Read Mary Tyler Moore’s obituary | How she changed fashion ] As Ms. Moore’s new sitcom character, the independent, single career woman Mary Richards, put it in one episode: “I’m hardly innocent. I’ve been around. Well, all right I might not have been around. But I’ve been nearby. ” Ms. Silver said there was no particular feminist agenda for the show. There was, however, an number of female writers on it — well over a dozen in the show’s run that started in 1970. They were encouraged, she said, to write from their own experience, and to let Mary Richards’s derive “organically. ” That made “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” a laboratory for the social issues of the day, which in some cases were being reflected for the first time on television. Sex, birth control, equal pay, workplace sexism, homosexuality — all took a turn on the show, and not from the bully pulpit but from the “girl” who could turn the world on with her smile. Here’s how they played: When Lou Grant (Ed Asner) interviews Mary Richards for an associate producer job in his Minneapolis TV newsroom, he asks questions that women in the workplace often got asked but that weren’t necessarily legal: How old are you? Are you married? Divorced? What religion are you? She calls him out but answers anyway, in the show’s first episode. The point was not belabored but Mary Richards slept with her boyfriends. A Chicago journalist had suggested that Mary, who was 30 when the series began, was “undersexed,” Ms. Silver said, and so in Season 3, Ms. Silver wrote an episode in which Mary asked her friend Rhoda if that was the case. A few episodes later, Mary goes on a date and comes home the next morning in the same dress. “Men across the country wrote to the show in despair over the betrayal of their trust and admiration,” Jennifer Keishin Armstrong wrote in her 2013 book, “Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds That Made ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ a Classic. ” The third season featured another handled in a way. Mary’s friend Phyllis (Cloris Leachman) tries to push her brother into Mary’s arms, but the brother (Robert Moore) is more taken with Phyllis’s archnemesis, Rhoda (Valerie Harper). Phyllis works herself into a lather over this development, until Rhoda puts her out of her misery. “He’s not my type,” she reassures Phyllis, who remains skeptical. No really, Rhoda says. “He’s gay. ” Mr. Moore himself was gay, and he embraced the late decision to out the character this plainly, Ms. Armstrong writes in her book, especially since all the laughs were directed at his clueless TV sister. Had the Pill ever been mentioned in a sitcom script before “Mary Tyler Moore”? If so, the moment has been lost to history. Not long after the episode, Mary’s father, at loose ends after his retirement, is visiting Mary for dinner at her apartment. Mary’s mother, making her exit, turns at the door. “Don’t forget to take your pill!” she calls out. “I won’t,” father and daughter answer in unison. Cut to the comically guilty look on Mary’s face. The Pill had won federal approval in 1960, but it was only that year, 1972, that a Supreme Court decision had made it available to unmarried women. And Mary was unmarried, for all seven seasons. Early hopes to make her a divorcée from the outset were instantly quashed by queasy executives. “It used to be I felt I could be myself. Now I feel I represent women everywhere. ” The third season opens with Mary kvetching to Rhoda as she prepares for a meeting at the TV station, where she resents the station manager “trotting in groups of people and saying, ‘This is our woman executive. ’” Her views take on a slightly different cast when she discovers that she makes $50 a week less than the man who had her job before her. She confronts Lou, asking him why. “Because he was a man,” Lou says. “The Dick Van Dyke Show” ended just four years before “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” made its premiere, even though it seemed the two shows were worlds apart. Ms. Moore broke ground in the earlier show, too, though. When the script called for her to vacuum in skirt and heels, she put her foot (in ballet flat) down and her Capri pants on. “We got the absolution of men everywhere,” she told TV Guide a few years ago, “and women kind of breathed a sigh of relief, too, and said: ‘Hey, that’s right. That’s what we wear. ’” | 1 |
Regresa 'La Chimoltrufia', ahora como 'youtuber' Publicado: 27 oct 2016 03:04 GMT
El personaje encarnado por la actriz Florinda Meza, reconocida por su participación en la popular serie mexicana 'El Chavo del 8', vuelve a través de la mayor plataforma de videos en Internet. Youtube / Florinda Meza Síguenos en Facebook
La actriz mexicana Florinda Meza, alejada desde hace años de los vaivenes de la vieja 'vecindad', se suma a los nuevos formatos que posibilita la tecnología y retomó su caracterización como 'La Chimoltrufia', ahora, en una serie de entregas en la plataforma YouTube, informa ' El Debate '.
Bajo el nombre #LadyChimoltrufia, la viuda de Roberto Gómez Bolaños 'Chespirito', creador de las populares series 'El Chavo del 8' y 'Chespirito', se convirtió en 'youtuber' al publicar un video en el que la esposa del 'Botija' brinda una entrevista desde la vivienda en la que trabaja como mucama.
En el corto, que solo ha logrado de momento 2.600 visitas, María Expropiación Petronila Lascuráin y Torquemada de Botija recrea en su propio lenguaje, que la "entrevisitan" sobre sus tareas cotidianas y responde: "Yo todo lo hago bienisisimamente bien".
Según se anunció, en la próxima entrega, el popular personaje brindará información sobre su marido, el ladrón que operaba junto al 'Chómpiras', interpretado por Gómez Bolaños, y sobre sus amigos, por lo que se espera el retorno de sus clásicas frases como la recordada "Pos ¿pa' qué te digo que no, si sí?". | 0 |
Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader Recently Had Their First Public Conversation (Video) Posted on Oct 26, 2016
The renowned activists have an important discussion about America’s current “electoral extravaganza,” climate change, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as several other topics in an nearly hour-long interview. | 0 |
Over the weekend the SUV in which Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson travels was broken into and the contents tossed about. [Johnson lives in the Bridgeport area and other nearby cars were also targeted. According to NBC News, “The vehicle’s interior was found in disarray on Saturday morning when officers went to … [Johnson’s home] to pick him up. ” The vehicle was unmarked so Chicago Police do not believe it was not targeted. The Chicago Tribune quoted Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi saying “items from the glove box had been tossed about, but no weapons or confidential materials or valuables were inside the SUV. ” Police believe there is a possibility the car was accidentally left unlocked the night before. The crime that reached the superintendent’s car is just a taste of the lawlessness that has characterized Chicago all year. On April 27, Breitbart News reported Chicago already had over 1, 000 shooting victims for 2017 and stories of fatalities that included sons being gunned down in front of their mothers. As of May 1, the Tribune reports a total of 192 homicides in Chicago for 2017. This means the city is on track to get close to the nearly 800 homicides witnessed in 2016. On April 25, Breitbart News reported that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s (D) response to the gun violence has consisted of calls for additional gun control. He now wants new controls and regulations on Federal Firearm License holders (FFLs) in Chicago. In other words, with criminal gun use surging, Emanuel wants to go after the gun dealers who have gone through the proper legal channels to get an FFL and who, because of that FFL, conduct a background check on every gun they sell. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0 |
A new damning report shows that multiple Islamist fighters who have travelled from Sweden to fight in Syria and Iraq have been the beneficiaries of welfare payments from the Swedish government. [The new report created by the by the National Defence University on behalf of the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) shows that around 300 Islamists have claimed benefits by using others to give the government the impression that they are still in Sweden despite the fact that they are in Syria or Iraq fighting for jihadist groups, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports. Terrorist researcher and one of the authors of the report Magnus Ranstorp said the problem isn’t just limited to Sweden. Commenting on the results, he said: “it was not surprising, we have seen the same pattern in other countries. Most surprising was that almost all had it in some form. But it is the monitoring that needs to work better. The problem is that there is too little . ” The 300 individuals covered in the report traveled from Sweden to the Middle East between 2013 and 2016, and are thought to have participated in fighting for groups including the terrorist Islamic State. Housing allowances, child support, student loans, maintenance and parental benefits are the most common types of benefits earned by the Islamists, often collected by a third party with the money then sent to them overseas. ” It’s not big money, they do not get rich on it, but it can go a long way in a conflict zone,” Ranstorp said. Police say that student loans, in particular, are an issue because the fighters can game the system by pretending to be going overseas to study and receive large lump sums from the Swedish government. Swedish Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training Anna Ekström said the problem was “totally unacceptable. No state funds will be used for something that is in the vicinity of terrorism. We must take hold of this immediately. We are preparing now to go to the parliament and ensure that the government gets the opportunity to ensure that we do not pay out such large sums at once. ” Sweden has seen at least one case in which the government paid a jihadi before. Late last year, Muslim convert Michael Skråmo was revealed to have been paid £4, 300 by the government since leaving for the Middle East in 2014. The Swedish government has also essentially legalised the flying of the Islamic State flag after a Swedish court refused to prosecute a man who displayed the symbol on his social media account as a promotion of the terrorist group. In 2015 it was shown that the Swedish city of Gothenburg sent more Islamists to the Middle East per capita than any other city in Europe. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 0 |
Written by Daniel McAdams We are often asked, when criticizing the foreign policy of the past several Administrations, "oh yeah, what would you do?" Well we decided to come up with five specific fixes to the prevailing foreign policy that we believe would make a huge difference and would move us much closer to a foreign policy of peace and prosperity. Our top five today on the Liberty Report: Copyright © 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given. | 0 |
Posted on October 28, 2016 by Daisy Luther
Let’s talk about Wikileaks .
First of all, the organization was founded by Julian Assange back in 2006. Their website explains what they are all about:
“WikiLeaks specializes in the analysis and publication of large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying, and corruption. It has so far published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses.”
In the 11 years that they’ve been publishing documents, they have not been disproven a single time. Their record for authentication is perfect. (Learn more here and here .)
So this means that a person would be pretty silly to disregard anything in the reams of information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, the Clinton Foundation, and the political shenanigans that would put the Machiavellis to shame.
Here are 21 of the most important things that have come out about Hillary Clinton, that unfortunately, no one is reporting on in the mainstream. In the interest of brevity, each topic has a link to an article that goes deeper into the leak. (In no particular order.) John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign had a nice cozy dinner with Peter Kadzik, one of the top officials in the Department of Justice…the day after the Benghazi hearing . Kadzik’s son also asked for a job on the Clinton campaign, and, the icing on the corruption cupcake? Kadzik led the effort to nominate Loretta Lynch, who famously met with Bill Clinton on her private plane right before Hillary’s interrogation about Emailgate. ( source ) We all knew that the Clinton Foundation was just a way for the Clinton family to launder money, and now there’s proof. Zero Hedge writes, “…today’s Wikileaks dump included that memo which reveals, for the first time, the precise financial flows between the Clinton Foundation, Band’s firm Teneo Consulting, and the Clinton family’s private business endeavors.” A pundit called this leak “The Rosetta Stone of the Clinton Foundation,” meaning that with this document, all of their shady financial dealings could be unraveled and translated. ( source ) Clinton is unable to speak for very long without a podium to lean on . Numerous leaked emails reference how certain interviews have to be kept short because she’d be without one. And this article references a very interesting reason why this may be the case – surprisingly it isn’t related to her health. ( source ) The leaks also show that Clinton intends to do her best to restrict the Second Amendment. Brian Fallon, the national press secretary for the Clinton campaign, wrote, “ Circling back around on guns as a follow up to the Friday morning discussion: the Today show has indicated they definitely plan to ask bout guns, and so to have the discussion be more of a news event than her previous times discussing guns, we are going to background reporters tonight on a few of the specific proposals she would support as President – universal background checks of course, but also closing the gun show loophole by executive order and imposing manufacturer liability .” According to an analysis on The Daily Sheeple, “Imposing manufacturer liability means that after Sandy Hook, Bushmaster and Remington Arms would have been prosecuted for having a hand in the murder of children and school staff members for firearms that were legally sold.” ( source ) The campaign was concerned that the sexual escapades of Bill Clinton could be likened to those of another disgraced celebrity, Bill Cosby . Political operative Ron Klain sent an urgent email saying that Hillary should anticipate the following questions, ” How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did? Is his conduct relevant to your campaign? You said every woman should be believed. Why not the women who accused him? Will you apologize to the women who were wrongly smeared by your husband and his allies?” ( source ) Clinton’s campaign deliberately leaked an embarrassing photo of a swimsuit-clad Bernie Sanders to the press, ironically insinuating that it was proof he was bought off by Wall Street. Perez Hilton wrote, “ Bernie Sanders lounges at elite Martha’s Vineyard pool, summer 2015 after helping raise money from Wall Street lobbyists .” ( source ) Clinton admitted she is out of touch with the middle class in a speech to Goldman-Black Rock in 2014. “And I am not taking a position on any policy, but I do think there is a growing sense of anxiety and even anger in the country over the feeling that the game is rigged. And I never had that feeling when I was growing up. Never. I mean, were there really rich people, of course there were. My father loved to complain about big business and big government, but we had a solid middle class upbringing. We had good public schools. We had accessible health care. We had our little, you know, one-family house that, you know, he saved up his money, didn’t believe in mortgages. So I lived that. And now, obviously, I’m kind of far removed because the life I’ve lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy , but I haven’t forgotten it.” ( source ) She made this rather NWO remark at a 2013 paid speech to Brazilian bank Banco Itau: “ My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders , some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” ( source ) In a leak of yet another paid speech, this time to the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago in 2013, Clinton said that Jordan and Turkey “ can’t possibly vet all those refugees so they don’t know if, you know, jihadists are coming in along with legitimate refugees.” Meanwhile, if Clinton has her way , we will be warmly welcoming 65,000 refugees a year, which makes Obama’s 10,000 a year look like small potatoes. ( source ) Clinton blackmailed the Chinese by telling them that the US would base missiles in the region if they didn’t exert some control over North Korean aggression. “ So China, come on. You either control them or we’re going to have to defend against them ,” she purportedly told the audience at a Goldman Sachs conference in June 2013. ( source ) In May 2015, Clinton was no longer Secretary of State but was ready to announce she was running for President when she was invited to attend a summit in Morrocco. The implication from the leaked emails was that a $12 million “donation” from the king of Morocco was dependent on Clinton attending the summit. Human Abedin, usually loyal to her boss, had concerns . “ If HRC was not part of it, meeting was a non-starter. She created this mess and she knows it. Her presence was a condition for the Moroccans to proceed so there is no going back on this,” Abedin wrote to Robbie Mook in a November 2014 email. Incidentally, Clinton didn’t attend. Bill and Chelsea went instead and the $12 million donation was not forthcoming. (source ) Podesta attacked Clinton’s primary election rival Bernie Sanders for criticizing the Paris climate change agreement. “ Can you believe that doofus Bernie attacked it? ” said Podesta. ( source ) Clinton told a Goldman Sachs conference she would like to intervene secretly in Syria . “ My view was you intervene as covertly as is possible for Americans to intervene,” she told employees of the bank in South Carolina, which had paid her about $225,000 to give a speech. “We used to be much better at this than we are now. Now, you know, everybody can’t help themselves. They have to go out and tell their friendly reporters and somebody else: Look what we’re doing and I want credit for it. ” (source ) There is indeed a definite link between the Clinton campaign and what MSM is allowed to say. The campaign has colluded directly with media spokespersons that read like a Who’s Who in American Media : Dan Merica from CNN, Haim Saban of Univision, John Harwood of CNBC and the NY Times, Rebecca Quick of CNBC, Maggie Haberman of NY Times and Politico, John Harris of Politico, Donna Brazile formerly of CNN, Roland Martin of TV-One, Marjorie Pritchard of The Boston Globe, and Louise Mensch of Heat Street. ( source ) As everyone knows, the DNC deliberately screwed Bernie Sanders out of the nomination ( Bonus: Wikileaks also released some of the DNC’s voicemails on the topic ). There are emails that prove who is actually pulling HRC’s puppet strings and that puppeteer is George Soros . The shadow government is not just a conspiracy theory – it really exists and Hillary’s job is to keep George Soros happy. ( source ) Excerpts from her speeches to Wall Street read like a guide to two-faced treachery. In them, she clearly points out that sometimes you “need” to lie. “If everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.” ( source ) Wikileaks emails show that back when she still worked for CNN and before she became an employee of the Clinton campaign, Donna Brazile gave Hillary the questions in advance for her “impromptu” CNN Town Hall questions. ( source ) The campaign got to “approve” articles in influential publications like NY Times, HuffPo, CNN, NBC, CBS, NYT, MSNBC, and Politico, showing a massive collusion with the mainstream media, who has hounded Trump relentlessly in an effort to distract from HRC’s abysmal candidacy. ( source ) Through the treasure trove of Wikileaks emails, we can gain an accurate picture of how Hillary really feels about us all (spoiler: basket of deplorables, basement dwellers and right wing conspirators) ( source ) President Obama knew the whole time that her emails were not coming from the secure State Department server. Cheryl Mills wrote to John Podesta, “ W e need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov .” You see, Obama’s emails all have to be from”whitelisted”addresses. So someone, somewhere, added her nonsecure email to his whitelist. ( source )
And finally, here’s the real reason that treacherous shrew is involved in politics. And let me tell you, it isn’t because she yearns to make things better for anyone but herself. (emphasis mine.)
At the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit, Clinton responded to a question from chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, who quipped that you “go to Washington” to “make a small fortune.” Clinton agreed with the comment and complained about ethics rules that require officials to divest from certain assets before entering government. “ There is such a bias against people who have led successful and/or complicated lives, ” Clinton said. ( source ) Together, we cannot be ignored. I am on a mission between now and the Presidential Election on November 8th and I hope that you will join me. I am going to work day and night to provide the coverage that the mainstream media is not. It isn’t until we combine all of our voices that we can make people listen to the scandals, the rigging, and the corruption, not only in this election but in the system in general. Please join your voice with mine by liking, sharing, and spreading the word. Together, we cannot be ignored. Together, we are an army. Courtesy of Daisy Luther 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 |
Kid Rock is celebrating the release of his line of American Badass Grills by catapulting imported grills into the air, shooting them with a shotgun and saying, “In your face, China. ”[Kid Rock’s American Badass Grills are made in the U. S. A. According to Fox News, Kid Rock released a statement coinciding with the introduction of the grills, saying, “I’m not gonna lie. It is more expensive to make things in America. But it’s important to me. I love America, and I want to do all I can to create manufacturing jobs at home. ” In second video focused on the American Badass Grills, Kid Rock shoots a foreign grill with a . 50 caliber rifle. Prior to pulling the trigger he says, “We’ve grills that are made in China, we’ve got 50 cals that are made in American. This is 100 percent pure American Badass. ” You can purchases a a charcoal version of Kid Rock’s grill for $99. 95 and a gas version for $149. 95, Both grills have the American Badass logo. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0 |
Despite being just the size of a rice grain, robber flies, which live all over the world, are champion predators. In field experiments, they can detect targets the size of sand grains from nearly two feet away — 100 times the fly’s body length — and intercept them in under half a second. What’s more, they never miss their mark. A team led by scientists at the University of Cambridge has started to unveil the secrets to the robber fly’s prowess. In a study published Thursday in Current Biology, the team outlined the mechanics of the fly’s pursuit, from its impressive eye anatomy to how it makes a successful catch every time. Notably, the researchers observed a behavior never before described in a flying animal: About 30 centimeters from its prey, the insect slows, turns slightly and brings itself in for a close catch. “This ‘ ’ phase and change in behavior during a flight is quite remarkable,” said Sam Fabian, a graduate student at Cambridge and an author of the study. “We would actually expect them to do something very simple — just accelerate and hit the target. ” The scientists surveyed robber flies in the field using a “fly teaser,” which consisted of beads on a rapidly moving fishing line controlled by a motor. As the flies charged at the bait, the researchers captured their movements using cameras. At the start of the robber fly’s conquest, it sits on a perch and scans the sky for passing prey. When it glimpses a potential meal, it takes flight, maintaining a steady angle between itself and its target. This proactive strategy, using a “constant bearing angle,” is also employed by fish, bats and sailors, Mr. Fabian said. Maintaining a constant bearing angle gets the robber fly in the ballpark of its prey. Then, at the mark (how the fly judges this distance is still unclear) it subtly changes course so as to approach its target from behind. “We think this second proactive phase allows the animal a higher probability of catching its prey,” said Paloma a lecturer at Cambridge and another author of the study. In the same way that it’s easier to pass a baton by running to someone from behind versus looping around makes it easier for the fly to align itself with its kill. Next, the scientists wanted to understand the robber fly’s startling visual capabilities. Whereas we have a single lens in each eye, the robber fly has several thousand lenses per eye, which range in size. In the center of each eye, the researchers found, is a concentration of large, lenses. This central area, called the fovea, is extremely high resolution and is what allows the flies to see their prey from a distance equivalent to more than one and a half soccer fields for humans. “They basically have permanent binoculars,” said Trevor Wardill, a research fellow at Cambridge and an author of the paper. Rob de Ruyter, a professor of biophysics at Indiana University, who was not involved in the study, said, “The extent to which this fovea is specialized is unusual. ” Other flies, like the house fly, have localized areas of high resolution in their eyes called love spots, but these are not nearly as exaggerated as the robber fly’s fovea. Dragonflies also have impressive foveae, but their bodies are 10 times larger and can more easily accommodate many large lenses in their eyes. These adaptations that make the tiny robber fly a hunting machine are an example of how insects must develop highly specialized strategies to survive in this world, Dr. de Ruyter said. “Insects die at such high rates, and have such short generation times,” he said. “As a result, they try out new evolutionary solutions much faster than we can. ” | 0 |
People Shocked At What Hillary Brought With Her To Speech During Scandal Posted on October 30, 2016 by Amanda Shea in Politics Share This Hillary Clinton landing and speaking in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Friday
Hillary Clinton is attempting to forge through the FBI investigation, which she hopes people will soon forget, as she refuses to accept defeat at the hands of Donald Trump. As she carries on with her sparsely-planned campaign stops in the final days of the election, Iowans were shocked to see what she brought with her to her speech right after the investigation was announced.
No matter how hard Hillary tries, everything she hides seems to have a way of coming out. Karma is certainly working in favor of the American citizens who deserve to know the truth about this woman trying to bully her way into the White House.
When she was in Iowa this weekend, just hours after the FBI announced they are re-opening the investigation into her e-mails thanks to her right-hand woman’s dirty husband, Hillary brought a familiar “friend” that the public couldn’t ignore, which is why photos of it have now gone viral. During the second presidential debate, we were first introduced to Hillary’s ironic nemesis, which wasn’t just her opponent Donald Trump.
A fly pestered the Democratic candidate on live TV as she spoke, sticking to her and never touching Trump in what seemed symbolic since she stinks of lies and everyone knows flies are attracted to garbage. As embarrassing as this may have been for Hillary, she can’t pass it off as a random event since it happened again in a completely different state. That’s right â while she was in Iowa, a fly once again wouldn’t leave her face. Can't even make this up. How many times has a FLY landed on Crooked Rotten Hillary now?! Today at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. pic.twitter.com/tu0Ivw8rFa
— RÎąŃ MÎąĎÎšĐźĎ Ń đşđ¸ (@sooperay) October 28, 2016
Apparently, there’s something about Hillary’s face that flies flock to. and it’s probably the same thing most Americans find so repulsive. It’s not coincidental that this has now happened twice to this candidate in less than a month, and perhaps the fly is just a sign of what the FBI investigation is about to uncover.
Like a crow symbolizing death, the black fly during this election represents the end of Hillary’s campaign since it seems to sense everything she’s trying to hide. | 0 |
For individuals like Margaret Thome Bekema, finishing high school was a dream she didn’t think would ever come true. Instead of graduating from Grand Rapids Catholic Central High in 1936 like she was... | 0 |
This week on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” MSNBC host Al Sharpton said Vice President Mike Pence was a “true believer in stuff” and a “true enemy” of civil rights. When asked if President Donald Trump is impeached would a President Pence worry him, Sharpton said, “Very worried. Pence is a true believer in stuff, a true enemy, in my opinion, of a lot of civil rights measures from what he showed as governor of Indiana. And he has a more dignified, presentable persona. He will be more difficult to beat. Pence is not a better option than Trump. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0 |
Email
Why does everyone think that presidential campaigns are about “issues,” when anyone over the age of consent knows they are all about sex? But it says a lot about the lasting power of Viagra that this is still the case when we have a couple of seventy-year-olds on the ballot. (“ For an election lasting more than four years, please call your doctor .”)
In last week’s newspaper there was a report on the tenth or eleventh woman (I have lost track) to come forward to say that Donald Trump made suggestive and “inappropriate” advances to her during a golf tournament that took place about ten years ago.
The woman in question is Jessica Drake, who during her press conference announced that at the time of the tournament, she was working in the “the adult industry” (that’s what People Magazine calls porn) for Wicked Pictures (the 20th Century Fox of gang banging) when the randy Donald kissed and hugged her in his room.
Trump was already in his pajamas when she knocked on his door, together with two friends. Normally, in the adult business, when three porn stars knock on your hotel door, it’s considered foreplay.
When Trump’s effusive greeting of Miss Drake did not lead to more snuggling, let alone the suggestion to preview some of her work on the hotel television, he offered her $10,000 to satisfy his suite dreams.
Drake again demurred, saying that the next morning she needed to get back to Los Angeles “for work.” By that point in her career she had already notched screen credits for “Extreme Doggie” and “Fornocopia.” I would mention other titles, but as they say at the New York Post , “This is a family newspaper.”
That rejection prompted Donald to offer Jessica an early morning ride (of shame?) on his Trump airliner back to LA, which still didn’t turn the trick. * * *
Then last week, in the presence of her lawyer, Gloria Allred (the Perry Mason of many cases against Bill Cosby) Miss Drake tearfully repeated in primetime her shock and dismay that Mr. Trump had tried to take liberties with her reputation, which, after all, includes the 2009 Adult Video News Award for the “Best Double Penetration Sex Scene” in her classic work, “Fallen.”
Drake said she was coming forward now to stand in “solidarity” with the other women Trump has manhandled, although there were suggestions that her outing was timed to coincide with the launch of Drake’s new online store, where devoted viewers can purchase such classics as her “Guide to BDSM for Beginners,” among other titles.
Normally scenes such as the one I am describing would be consigned to John Oliver, Monty Python, or Saturday Night Live , but in the new normal of presidential politics, even Miss Drake gets a respectful hearing on the issues.
For example, the next day the Huffington Post reported: “Woman Says Trump Sexually Assaulted Her, Offered Her $10,000 For Sex.”
The deadpan New York Times wrote: “Ms. Drake, who appeared Saturday with the women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred, said Mr. Trump had hugged and kissed her and the other women without permission.”
The headline in New York Magazine read: “Adult Actress Jessica Drake Details Trump Assault, Blasts Him for ‘Uncontrollable Misogyny’.”
Look, I have no doubt that Trump is a pig who routinely gropes and propositions women, but since when does the press in a presidential election have to source its stories in the “adult” industry? * * *
Sadly, the answer to this question dates to winter 1992 when Bill and Hillary Clinton figured out that unless a presidential candidate has a sexual storyline, few of the voters will pay much attention to their positions on nuclear disarmament or welfare reform.
During the 1992 Super Bowl, the Clintons appeared on a halftime special of 60 Minutes to deny jointly (Bill: That allegation is false ) that he had ever had an affair with Gennifer Flowers, who lived in Little Rock, Arkansas when Bill was governor and often out jogging.
In this vaudeville performance, Hillary played the straight man, adding: “You know, I’m not sitting here—some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.” (At least she didn’t reference The Eagles.)
Only in 1998, under oath in a sworn deposition, did Bill admit to having a 12-year affair with Ms. Flowers. But neither her allegations in 1992, nor his lying about it, cost him the election that year.
Just the opposite: Clinton’s wanderlust might have won him sympathy among the voters (no strangers to sexual boredom) who found they had more in common with a soft-shell Baptist (Bill) than an uptight Protestant (George H.W. Bush).
Nor did Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky under oath in the Paula Jones case hurt his post-presidential career (worth $200 million +) or the electoral prospects of his wife in 2016.
But it did turn sexuality into a mainstream presidential campaign issue, which is one of the reasons why this year’s race seems only to be about sex. * * *
No doubt the Clintons do find some delicious irony in Trump’s groping charges, as payback for what they view as the Republican use of sexuality to impeach Bill in 1998 and, in 2016, for the GOP plan to make his many adulterous affairs fair game for their campaign soundbites. (Cut to an online image of the White House and over it a fading picture of Bill smoking a cigar, with the caption “Here we go again?”)
Without the pageant-loving, casino operating Donald Trump as the Republican nominee in 2016, Hillary Clinton could well have been vulnerable on the sexual front, with Bill’s mistresses steady fodder for negatives ads and the many allegations from his scorned lovers that Hillary organized the slut-shaming.
Instead of the 2016 election turning on Hillary’s marriage to Hugh Hefner’s doppelgänger, the storyline that has played best in the media is Donald’s secret life as a groper.
The press actually has given Trump a pass for his adultery (which produced all those wonderful children) but zeroed in on his groping, in part because he confessed to it on an NBC videotape and also because—think of ratings—gropers belong in the same basket of deplorables as child abusers and others lurking on subways, crowed elevators, or near schoolyards.
Best of all for the Clintons, politically anyway, is that the charge of groping is impossible for Trump to refute. Even denying it sounds sleazy.
And it colors all aspects of the campaign. To wit: the New York Times headline when at Gettysburg Trump outlined his vision for America: “Donald Trump Pledges to ‘Heal Divisions’ (and Sue His Accusers).” * * *
For its mud-slinging, I am sure the Trump campaign has spent many long hours brainstorming how to tar Hillary as a lesbian. But even that innuendo has fallen flat, despite the rumor mongering that she’s in a Boston marriage with her assistant Huma Abedin (whose husband, Anthony Weiner, is otherwise distracted in high school chat rooms).
Several of Bill’s former lovers (Sally Miller, Dolly Kyle, and Flowers) have tried to play up Bill’s pillow talk that Hillary prefers the nighttime company of women. But none of these allegations have gone further than Infowars or the supermarket press. (“ Hillary Hit Man Tells All !”)
Nor have out-of-wedlock children, a staple of the 1884 campaign (as was chanted to Grover Cleveland: “ Ma, Ma, Where ’ s my pa ?”), gotten much play in this year’s presidential race.
Trump and his casino gumshoes have put considerable effort into tracking down the rumor that Danney Williams is Bill Clinton’s illegitimate son by a Little Rock prostitute named Bobbie Ann Williams.
Trump invited Danney (a sympathetic man) to the third presidential debate, as if to press on Bill a Scarlet Letter. Despite Williams looking very much like President Bill, the story got no more traction than did the news that Malik Obama, the president’s shunned half-brother, is supporting Trump. He, too, got a debate invitation, to sit in the box presumably marked “Shame.”
Also in the dustbin of history are the allegations that Flowers aborted Bill’s baby in 1977 and the whispering campaign (a great political standby when proof is elusive) that Chelsea is the product of an affair between Hillary and her then law firm colleague, Webb Hubbell.
The Williams and Hubbell stories come with some convincing Internet similarities, at least in the photographs, although in both cases politically, this rumor milling whiplashed against Trump, as voters have only equated such tawdry allegations with his Birther past, something that has stuck as campaign mud. * * *
Technically, Birtherism does’t directly involve sex, although it lingers on its fringes, as it speaks to Barack Obama’s illegitimacy, his foreign allegiances, and possibly disputed paternity, including the claim that Frank Marshall Davis was actually Obama’s biological father (another subterranean creed of Trumpism).
Again, the documentary proof is a series of look-a-like photographs, as close as the Internet gets to DNA. That Davis was an American Communist works well in the campaign, as it suggests the origins of Obama’s political genetic code.
Ironically, for all his efforts at smear, Trump came out the loser in the debates when Hillary nailed him to Birtherism, which has become a convenient code word for Trump’s racism, misogyny, and intolerance of immigrants, especially muslims.
Nor, in response, did Trump have any luck in linking the Birther movement to Clinton’s 2008 campaign, when, according to Donald, consigliere-journalist Sidney Blumenthal delighted in the suggestion that Barack was born in Kenya.
Instead, the debate claim only made Trump look disingenuous. Clinton got a pass on what her campaign may or may not have insinuated in 2008. And at this point, no one cares. But voters do remember Trump as the Imperial Wizard of Birtherism. * * *
Republicans can only blame themselves for wanting to divide the electorate in 2016 along lines of sexual preference or deviance, although this strategy was based on Hillary being the Democratic nominee and anyone other than Trump standing for the Republicans.
Had the GOP nominee been Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, or John Kasich, Clinton Inc. might well have been vulnerable to possible storylines about infidelity, illegitimacy, and rape. (Cue up the Paula Jones description of Bill, during a business meeting, exposing himself in a Little Rock hotel and settling her lawsuit for $850,000.)
Instead, the Republicans went with the polyamorous Trump, who, in addition to three marriages, has bragged on morning radio about his success with young women and who since 1996 has been leering at Miss Universe contestants—a bit like Austin Powers. ( Shall we shag now, or shall we shag later ?)
With Trump’s resumé of creepy perversion, you might have thought that the Republicans would drop sexual misconduct from the electoral playbook. Instead, they doubled down to make the case that both Clintons, if elected, would turn the White House into a strip club.
Not only did the Clintons shrug off such innuendo, but, in response, they said (in effect), if they did, it would be to cater to the likes of players such as Donald J. Trump (leisure suit and open collar optional). * * *
For the moment—and I can’t see anything changing in the last days of the campaign—the accepted wisdom of most front pages is that Donald Trump has groped as many women as Tiger Woods has watched pole dancing in Vegas. Even the gallery of “their women” looks about the same.
Conversely, few voters seem to care that Bill might have forced himself on several women or that Hillary helped to cover up his brutality. That’s a narrative of the 1990s, which is perhaps the last time Austin Danger Trump read the newspaper. ( I’ve been frozen for 30 years. I’ve got to see if my bits and pieces are still working .)
For most voters in 2016, names such as Kathleen Willey or Juanita Broaddrick are as lost in time as Nan Britton, who just before the 1920 election bore a love child with then candidate Senator Warren Harding.
Britton and the child got Republican hush money and a sad little house in Asbury Park, New Jersey. After Harding won, she was invited to the White House but their affair, so to speak, was kept in the closet. * * *
If you think about elections as political sitcoms, in 1960 the Kennedys had to run as Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show , complete with twin beds, long flannel pajamas, and prudent kisses on the cheek to say good-night, even if The JFK Reality Show would make Trump, Bill Clinton, and Tiger look like apprentices at adultery.
Come 2016, only something that resembles Modern Family and a desperate-housewives reality show can crack network primetime, and who better to put on air than The Clintons, with their Dallas -like money, communal sexuality, and more illicit storylines than CSI .
For more than twenty years, Bill and Hillary have been bringing us seasons of lust, affairs, “I-did-not-have-sex-with-that-woman”, Vince Foster, Travelgate, foundation slush funds, basement servers, commodity trading, Whitewater, Bosnian snipers, pay-to-play, Benghazi, lost e-mails, and the like, and the ratings only continue to go up.
Sure, The Apprentice was fun for a few episodes, but the sameness of insulting young people grew tedious. How is that supposed to compete with Bill making a pass at Huma, while her husband goes to prison for airing his junk, and Chelsea finding out about her real father. Next on The Clintons ? | 1 |
Waking Times
One of the greatest takeaways of election 2016 is that mainstream, corporate news no longer cares about maintaining the appearance of objectivity, and that the internet has made it possible to counter the top-down state driven narrative with genuine, alternative journalism. This of course challenges the king-making abilities of the corporate media who were shocked when their preferred candidate lost.
“Hillary Clinton was the choice of nearly every American newspaper editorial board. It didn’t matter.” ~ The Los Angeles Times
Just a week after the election, Google, Facebook, Twitter and other internet giants are now declaring a war on so-called fake news sites , trumpeting the idea that unregulated information is confusing and misleading the public and interfering with our ability to make sound decisions.
The sub-text here is that the public can not be trusted, and therefore information in the public domain must be controlled and regulated. But by whom, exactly?
Already several lists of websites are being widely circulated around the internet and heralded as go-to places to instantly determine the credibility of an internet publisher. There are a number of alarming problems with this, especially for a nation that supposedly values freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Several of these lists taxonomize websites under multiple categories, which are only tangentially related, yet grouped under the all encompassing banner of ‘fake’ news.
But, what is the difference, for instance, between fake news and misleading news? And, is there a material difference between misleading news and ‘clickbaity’ news, or is it just about wording of the article title? Also, what is the difference between a fake news site and a hoax site? And, where does editorial news fit into this spectrum, and if the term propaganda is being used, does it now apply to editorializing in general?
The most important concern, though, is who decides what fake news is? The Zimdars Hit List
The most widely circulated list right now was created and is maintained by Melissa ‘Mish’ Zimdars , a professor and researcher at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.
“Bio: I am an assistant professor of communication & media, and this list started as a resource for my students, who are learning about journalism/social media/media literacy.” ~ Melissa Zimdars
The Zimdars list of news site you should avoid is located here . It breaks down some 100+ websites with different ratings under the broad introductory headline, “ False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources.” There are zero examples given for any of these sites explaining why they fall under the heading of fake news, or why their content is to be considered questionable, just a link to their homepage. In other words, these sites are fake news sites because Melissa Zimdars says they are.
When I first saw this list, I was actually not surprised to find that my site, www.WakingTimes.com , was on this list, given our easy to spot anti-status quo perspectives, although it was intriguing to me that my site was misnamed Walking Times, which I took as a sign of the author’s carelessness in creating this list.
Waking Times has a five-year history as an internet blog and content publisher, with almost 7000 original, guest authored and aggregated articles which express the personal interests, biases and world views of the editor, myself, Dylan Charles . This is perfectly legal and acceptable in a free society. I contacted Ms. Zimdars and demanded that she remove our site from the list, and although I have not heard back from her personally, to her credit, our site was removed from the list within half an hour of my email.
For background on her biases, Ms. Zimdars has publicly responded to the question of what news sites trusts and visits:
“Some people are asking which news sources I trust, and all I can say is that I read/watch/listen very widely, from mainstream, corporate owned sources ( The New York Times , The Washington Post, The Boston Globe , The Wall Street Journal , Forbes ) as well as The Atlantic, National Public Radio, and various local and alternative sources with different political perspectives, some of which are included on this list.” ~Melissa Zimdars
Without question, many of these mainstream sites are guilty of publishing false, biased, clickbaity, and propagandistic news, especially so in this election season, so it is clear that an agenda is in play here. The U.S. News Hit List
This list, published by U.S. News & World Report by Rachel Dicker , Associate Editor of Social Media, only features 16 websites, out of thousands, defaming other people’s work without proof, citation or even examples.
Titled, Avoid These Fake News Sites at All Costs , the Dicker list, which includes the well-known satirical site, The Onion , offers three categories, satire, hoax, and propaganda, all lumped under the banner of fake news. Serious anti-establishment blogs like Activist Post are grouped along satire and hoax as propaganda.
Who decides which propaganda is allowable?
Rachel Dicker has published a number of articles for U.S. News, which can be seen on her author page, here . A quick scan of her work reveals an overt bias towards liberalism, against Donald Trump, for social justice issues, and towards leftist political causes. In other words, Rachel Dicker herself has a bias and an agenda, and is a propagandist. The Growing List of Other Hit Lists
Now that it’s all the rage to castigate supposedly fake news in frenzy of coming official censorship, the list of lists is growing, and propagandists have now been given franchise to defame others. Ed Brayton has a list, here . Inquisitr has its elaborated list, here . Snopes, the self-proclaimed oracle of internet truth has published its warning, here . The Independent has posted their version of the Zimdars list, here .
Pardon the pun, but the list goes on and on. Real Issues – Censorship and Personal Responsibility
What’s really happening here is a portal towards total internet censorship is being opened and exploited by the establishment.
The internet has in recent years been flooded with bogus news sites, and it has long been my suspicion that this phenomenon would lead to exactly the scenario we see unfolding right now. The public would clamor for a crackdown on so-called fake news, and in the wake, real, truthful, and critical alternative journalists will be forced out of business and off the internet by an authoritarian corporate government.
Another real issue at play here, though, is the concept of personal responsibility on the part of both publishers and internet users. There is inarguably some gray area when looking at how the internet will evolve, as there are no doubt players who will publish anything just to make money, but does that mean that individuals shouldn’t be trusted with making up their own minds?
The following message from activist John Vibes does well to sum up the conflux of these two issues in the following statement:
“The internet and the alternative media has given us freedom of information. One drawback to this is that people did not seem to get the memo that responsibility is somewhat of a prerequisite for true freedom.
In previous eras, the mainstream media spoon-fed people information, and whether it was true or not, everyone accepted it at face value because they didn’t have much of an ability to fact check even if they wanted to.
Now we have a sea of information thanks to the intern et and the alt-media. Just like the mainstream media in the past, some of this information is factual, while some of it is not. With the mainstream media though, since they only gave you one narrative instead of a sea of information to sift through, it was easy for someone to make up their mind about things.
Now with all this freedom of information, people really need to do their due diligence and actually research the information they come across, instead of letting a media organization spoon feed them a particular point of view, this goes for both alternative and mainstream media.
I say this in light of the fact that multiple sites that i write for have been targeted as “fake news sites” because we present a viewpoint that is alternative to the mainstream. We are being lumped in with bullshit clickbait sites and i think that is all a part of the plan that the mainstream has to reassert their legitimacy.
We work very hard to fact check our info, and always make corrections when necessary, however, people need to realize they are in a new era of media, one that requires research and personal responsibility.” Final Thoughts
The changing face of news and information with the advent of the internet and user friendly content management systems means that anyone can share their ideas with people who are willing to look at them. And people naturally have opinions about politics and life, meaning that we are all propagandists when we publish on the internet.
As the corporate and political establishment look for more ways to control the debate and control public opinion, we will see the rise of self-appointed truth czars and the rise of an official ministry of truth. Unless you do something about it. Dylan Charles . About the Author
Dylan Charles is a student and teacher of Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, a practitioner of Yoga and Taoist arts, and an activist and idealist passionately engaged in the struggle for a more sustainable and just world for future generations. He is the editor of WakingTimes.com , the proprietor a grateful father and a man who seeks to enlighten others with the power of inspiring information and action. He may be contacted at . This article ( Self-Proclaimed Truth Czars Create Lists of ‘Fake News’ Sites to Control Your Mind Dylan Charles
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During an interview on the Fox News Channel following the cancellation of his speech at Breitbart Editor Milo Yiannopoulous stated that “[M]y whole thing is, the left is profoundly antithetical to free speech these days, does not want to hear alternative points of view, and will do anything to shut them down. My point is being proven to me over and over and over again. ” And that the US isn’t far away from the atmosphere that exists in places that have hate speech laws in the UK. Milo said that students who just wanted to hear what he had to see, some of whom don’t necessarily agree with him were stopped by violence from the left, that “is terrified of anyone who they think might be persuasive or might be interesting or might take people with them. You know, I am not a scary kind of as some of the protesters claim. … Instead, I’m just a libertarian, gay, provocateur who likes present interesting arguments. We have good, fun shows with huge, sold out audiences. … [The left] just cannot tolerate anyone on their campus who does not subscribe to their own crazy views. ” He added, “[M]y whole thing is, the left is profoundly antithetical to free speech these days, does not want to hear alternative points of view, and will do anything to shut them down. My point is being proven to me over and over and over again. ” Milo further stated that the police at Berkeley appeared to take “a very approach until the very last minute. ” He later stated that college campuses are some of the most oppressive places to free speech he’s ever been to, and the US is culturally “not that far away from” the atmosphere that exists in the UK thanks to its hate speech laws. Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0 |
In 1957, Walt Disney laid out what was then an astonishing plan for an entertainment ecosystem: Animated movies would fuel theme park attractions, which in turn would power merchandise sales, which would create interest in more movies. Today, with “Frozen,” the plan has evolved further. When the movie became a blockbuster in 2013, taking in $1. 3 billion globally, Disney got busy: It rushed out merchandise, sent Princesses Anna and Elsa on an tour and started work on an Arendelle boat ride at Epcot and three stage musicals. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, told a Wall Street conference last month that he had recently seen a “Frozen” show bound for Disney California Adventure. He noted that “Frozen” would be part of the parade at the new Shanghai Disneyland. And, he said, “I sat on Friday here in New York in a of the ‘Frozen’ musical that we’re starting to develop for Broadway. ” It’s an increasingly familiar approach: Both “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin” had theme park shows before New York productions. (Broadway veterans helped create them all.) Keeping all the efforts untangled can be challenging. Is the theme park show a miniversion of the Broadway one? What about the Disney Cruise Line production? Here’s what we know about the versions of “Frozen” underway: DIRECTOR Liesl Tommy. Raised in South Africa, she tends to pursue projects about civil and political rights. Ms. Tommy is a Tony nominee for her direction of “Eclipsed,” a searing play, starring Lupita Nyong’o, about captive women in Liberia. Her musical credits include “Party People,” a regional show about the Black Panther movement. OTHER TEAM MEMBERS “Frozen — Live at the Hyperion,” as the theater here is named, uses the film’s score, but some songs initially written as solos (“In Summer”) were rearranged by Jason Michael Webb (“The Color Purple”) to become ensemble numbers. Chad Beguelin, the author of the book for Disney’s “Aladdin” on Broadway, adapted the “Frozen” book from the film’s screenplay. Video elements, and there are a ton of them, were handled by Aaron Rhyne (“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love Murder”). STATUS It began an run on May 27 and has up to five performances daily. The Hyperion was home to “Aladdin — A Musical Spectacular,” which ran for 13 years. CAST More than 100 actors, dancers and puppeteers are involved (about 3, 500 auditioned) but Disney declined to identify any by name. With so many daily performances, a spokesman explained, numerous performers share the lead roles. (Disney also, ahem, takes the suspension of disbelief to an extreme at its theme parks: As an usher told a child before a recent performance, Anna and Elsa are real and played by themselves.) RUNNING TIME 55 minutes AUDIENCE The masses. Everyone from babies to older adults took in a recent performance, with a handful of people in prime seats holding up their phones to videotape the opening number. “There’s going to be a lot of people who have never seen theater before,” Ms. Tommy said in an interview. COST TO ATTEND Ostensibly free. But the Hyperion is inside Disney California Adventure, one of two theme parks that make up the Disneyland Resort. Admission to California Adventure is $95 to $119, depending on the day. HOW IT DIFFERS FROM THE FILM “It’s 10 times better than the movie,” a Disney usher named Yvonne (from Lakewood, Calif. according to her name badge) told guests as they waited in line for nearly an hour for a recent performance. Some film fans may disagree. Some songs are abbreviated and ancillary scenes and characters are cut. There is no Marshmallow (the ice monster) for instance, and Anna does not wander into Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna. How it differs from other ‘Frozen’ adaptations A lot more bells and whistles. “People are coming in here full of adrenaline, they’ve been on rides,” Ms. Tommy said. “How do I top that?” There’s a lavish video wall, a sequence in which Sven the reindeer literally flies, and lots of fake fog. ‘Let It Go’ Moment Hold on tight: Elsa belts it out while standing atop a towering set of crystal stairs that rotates out over the audience. DIRECTOR Alex Timbers. An unconventionally witty theater director known for his steampunk aesthetic, he has twice been nominated for Tony Awards, for directing Disney’s “Peter and the Starcatcher” and for writing the book for “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. ” OTHER TEAM MEMBERS Music and lyrics by Kristen and Robert Lopez, who wrote the film’s score, and a book by Jennifer Lee, who wrote the screenplay and directed the film. The set design is by Bob Crowley, who has won multiple Tony Awards, including for Disney’s “Aida” and “Mary Poppins. ” STATUS A developmental lab (two weeks in which actors, accompanied by keyboards and drums, read and sang, using scripts on music stands, before an invited audience that at one point included Mr. Iger) was held in New York last month. A run is planned at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in August 2017, and Disney said that it planned to move the show to Broadway in the spring of 2018. CAST At the developmental lab, Betsy Wolfe (“Bullets Over Broadway”) played Elsa, Patti Murin (“Lysistrata Jones”) was Anna, Okieriete Onaodowan (“Hamilton”) was Kristoff and Greg Hildreth (“Cinderella”) was Olaf. Although actors often remain with productions from the developmental process through full productions, Disney has not committed to casting for the Denver production that cast would likely continue on to Broadway. RUNNING TIME Two full acts, presumably running two to two and a half hours. AUDIENCE The Broadway audience is older than that at the theme parks most ticketbuyers are women. Disney’s shows attract more families with children than do some more Broadway shows, but the company says its shows also draw many adults without children. COST TO ATTEND Prices have not been set, but tickets to “The Lion King” on Broadway are $99 to $199, with premium seats for up to $225. HOW IT DIFFERS FROM FILM Live actors, obviously. An expanded story and an expanded song list — there are eight (and a reprise) in the film, and this production will probably have at least twice that. Among the new songs is “True Love,” an Act II ballad sung by Anna after Hans, a scheming prince, betrays her and locks her in a palace room. HOW IT DIFFERS FROM OTHER ‘FROZEN’ ADAPTATIONS The Broadway version is the only one with new songs and new book material. It will be the most fully realized and ambitious theatrical production. ‘LET IT GO’ MOMENT The song, thanks to its soaring sound and stratospheric popularity, is now the first act’s closing number. DIRECTOR Sheryl Kaller, whose Broadway credits include “Mothers and Sons,” in 2014, and “Next Fall,” which earned her a Tony nomination in 2010. OTHER TEAM MEMBERS Disney has not publicly confirmed this production, but casting notices this year said that Josh Prince, whose Broadway dance résumé includes “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” and the “Shrek the Musical,” would be the choreographer. STATUS Still in the early stages. There has been at least one but this musical is planned for the cruise ship Wonder, which is headed to dry dock this year for refurbishment. CAST With limited living quarters for performers, Disney’s ships often look for people who can simultaneously play a range of characters. But the casting notice for this effort included some specific requirements. For the role of Kristoff, for instance, Disney advertised for a baritone who stands six feet tall or more and can play a “rugged type, a little rough around the edges, yet endearingly awkward. ” RUNNING TIME The show that will likely be replaced, “Toy Story — The Musical,” runs about an hour in the Wonder’s theater. (Or “glitzy theater palace at sea,” if you’re going by the Disney Cruise Line website.) AUDIENCE Disneyphiles. While intended to appeal to a wide range of travelers, guests tend to be well acquainted with Disney’s singular style of entertainment, and that means any efforts to cut corners are noticed. COST TO ATTEND Included with the price of passage, which starts at $507 a person (plus port fees and taxes) for a Bahamian cruise. HOW IT DIFFERS FROM FILM Like the theme park version, this will be about presenting what’s in the movie — in fashion — for already captive crowds. HOW IT DIFFERS FROM OTHER ‘FROZEN’ ADAPTATIONS Disney Cruise Line, which mounts its stage productions without much interaction with its corporate siblings, bills its musicals as “ . ” Marketing pitches aside, this show will almost certainly be the least extravagant. ‘LET IT GO’ MOMENT You can bet that the climactic scene will include fake snow. Choose your seat wisely. | 1 |
In March, Natalie Angier reported some of the latest findings about parrots, nature’s most colorful birds in more ways than one. Along with the article, we asked readers to submit videos of their feathered friends showing what makes them unique. We received hundreds of replies. Many of the videos demonstrated a longstanding fascination with the capabilities and intellects of these amazing birds. As it turns out, that fascination has a long history in The Times. A tour of our archives shows that journalists here have been reporting on what parrots can do since the century. In 1859, a look at a book called “An Illustrated History of the Animal Kingdom” noted the capabilities of parrots. Some birds could recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed, The Times reported. In 1876, an article headlined “Anecdotes of Parrots” recounted the tale of a parrot who died in Britain in 1802 after years spent impressing her owner with her musical ability. She “beat time with all the appearance of science. ” You’ll see these capabilities echoed in the videos submitted by readers, as birds warble tunes they’ve heard people sing and keep beats as steadily as that celebrated musical prodigy. But it wasn’t always the case that parrots were thought of favorably in The Times. An article on the editorial page in 1877 attacked parrots the way the birds themselves tear into food. The polemic was prompted by a Philadelphia man’s proposal to gather the most intelligent parrots and to breed them in a program that sounds a bit like avian eugenics. “There are few persons or things that are more objectionable than the parrot,” the article began. The editorial continued, “That offensive style of bird is either kept by misanthropic old ladies or by malignant persons with a special grudge against their neighbors. ” After watching the videos submitted by readers, it’s hard to believe such charming birds could belong to people so terrible. Consider our opinion of parrot owners to be fully reformed. | 0 |
Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:19 UTC © google Militants entrenched in the eastern part of Aleppo have carried out another artillery attack, injuring at least four civilians in the western part of the city, RT's Murad Gazdiev reports. Militant groups once again targeted West Aleppo's Hamdaniya district, as they continued to shell residential areas controlled by the government forces. Tuesday's attack came just a day after three people were killed, including a child, and 28 more injured in another attack on Hamdaniya and Salahuddin neighborhoods. The latest shelling occurred about 10am local time (07:00 GMT), reported Murad Gazdiev, RT's correspondent at the scene. He also visited Aleppo University hospital, where the victims of the most recent militant attack were being treated. Militants and terrorists that took up positions in eastern Aleppo have been constantly and indiscriminately shelling the western part of the city. On October 18, at least three people were killed and dozens injured when the Jamiliya neighborhood was shelled. The attacks come as Russia and Syrian government forces initiated a humanitarian pause by halting their air strikes a week ago. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the city did not witness any Russian or Syria air strikes for a week. Officers from the Russian reconciliation center and Syrian authorities also helped 48 women and children to leave the rebel-held area on Monday and provided them with necessary aid. Meanwhile, militants repeatedly sabotaged the ceasefire efforts by shelling humanitarian corridors and killing civilians. Moscow has been assisting Damascus in its battle against Al-Nusra terrorists, who have turned eastern Aleppo into a militant stronghold. Comment: See also: | 0 |
BRASÍLIA — The Senate on Wednesday impeached Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, and removed her from office for the rest of her term, the capstone of a power struggle that has consumed the nation for months and toppled one of the hemisphere’s most powerful political parties. The Senate voted 61 to 20 to convict Ms. Rousseff on charges of manipulating the federal budget in an effort to conceal the nation’s mounting economic problems. But the final removal of Ms. Rousseff, who was suspended in May to face trial, was much more than a judgment of guilt on any charge. It was a verdict on her leadership and the slipping fortunes of Latin America’s largest country. The impeachment puts a definitive end to 13 years of governing by the leftist Workers’ Party, an era during which Brazil’s economy boomed, lifting millions into the middle class and raising the country’s profile on the global stage. But sweeping corruption scandals, the worst economic crisis in decades and the government’s responses to the souring national mood opened Ms. Rousseff to withering scorn, leaving her with little support to fend off a power grab by her political rivals. “She lacked it all,” said Mentor Muniz Neto, a writer from São Paulo who described Ms. Rousseff’s final ouster as a “death foretold,” asserting that she lacked charisma, competence and humility. “We deserved better. ” To her many critics, the impeachment was a fitting fall for an arrogant leader at the helm of a political movement that had lost its way. But Ms. Rousseff and her supporters call her ouster a coup that undermines Brazil’s young democracy. Moreover, her impeachment may not restore public confidence in Brazil’s leaders, or diminish the corruption that pervades the country’s politics. To the contrary, many Brazilians note, it transfers power from one party to another. Michel Temer, 75, the interim president who served as Ms. Rousseff’s vice president before breaking with her this year, is now expected to remain in office until the end of the current term in 2018. But Mr. Temer’s centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, which anchored the Workers’ Party’s governing coalition for more than a decade, was also deeply enmeshed in the colossal graft schemes staining Brazil’s political system in recent years. It arguably benefited as much as the Workers’ Party from huge bribes and illicit campaign financing. Since becoming interim president in May, Mr. Temer has had approval ratings nearly as dismal as Ms. Rousseff’s. Shifting the government to the right, he named a cabinet without any female or ministers, outraging many in a country where nearly 51 percent of people define themselves as black or mixed race, according to the 2010 census. Several of the men named by Mr. Temer have already resigned under the cloud of scandal, including his anticorruption minister and his planning minister, amid claims that they were trying to stymie investigations into the bribery scandals engulfing the national oil company, Petrobras. Mr. Temer was recently found guilty of violating campaign finance limits, a conviction that could make him ineligible to run for office for eight years. Beyond that, a construction executive has testified that Mr. Temer was the beneficiary of a $300, 000 bribe, an assertion Mr. Temer disputes. The impeachment effort has divided the nation and stirred passions on both sides. Of the four Brazilian presidents elected since Brazil’s democracy was in the 1980s, Ms. Rousseff is the second to be forced from office through the impeachment process. In 1992, Fernando Collor de Mello resigned before the Senate could convict him on corruption charges. (Under Brazilian law, a president is not impeached until he or she is convicted by the Senate, legal scholars say.) “It’s painfully obvious that Temer is a slap in the face to Brazilian democracy,” said Creuza Maria Oliveira, the president of the National Federation of Domestic Workers, which represents millions of maids who benefited from the strengthening of labor laws by Ms. Rousseff. “Dilma is a champion of the poor,” said Ms. Oliveira, who was among the supporters of Ms. Rousseff who accompanied her to the Senate this week. “Temer is a champion of his own political class, which he wants to shield from justice. ” Some prominent business and political figures in Brazil counter that Mr. Temer, a former speaker in the lower house, has the political skills needed to muster support in a fractious, discredited Congress for ambitious measures aimed at increasing investment in the economy and easing a major pension crisis. Mr. Temer’s administration has “all the conditions needed to embark on a new route,” Philipp Schiemer, the head of ’s operations in Brazil, told reporters in recent days. “We need to decide if we want a Brazil like Venezuela or a Brazil inserted in the new world. ” Still others, including Ms. Rousseff, contend that the ease with which the political elite shunted aside the president will bring more divisiveness and political tumult in Brazil. “This is serious because other presidents of the republic will have to deal with this,” Ms. Rousseff said this week in her testimony in the Senate, comparing her ouster to the coups toppling Brazilian leaders throughout much of the 20th century. “If that isn’t political instability, then I don’t know what is. ” Unlike many of the politicians who led the charge to oust her, Ms. Rousseff, 68, remains a rare breed in Brazil: a prominent leader who has not been accused of illegally enriching herself. Instead, her trial revolved around a contentious legal question of whether she committed an impeachable offense by employing budgetary tricks to conceal yawning deficits. Ms. Rousseff repeatedly insisted that she did nothing illegal, pointing out that her predecessors also manipulated the federal budget. But her opponents argued that the scale of her administration’s transfers of funds between giant public banks, to the tune of about $11 billion, seriously eroded Brazil’s economic credibility and helped her get unfairly in 2014. Ms. Rousseff will not go to jail after her conviction, but she expressed defiance throughout her trial, insisting that Brazil’s economic crisis was largely the result of shifts in the global economy that cut commodities prices. A bureaucrat who specialized in overseeing giant public companies in Brazil’s energy industry, Ms. Rousseff had not held elected office until her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, anointed her as his heir after other leaders in the Workers’ Party were tarnished by a scandal. As a divorced grandmother known as an avid reader of literature, she was an exception in the political scene. In addition to serving as Mr. da Silva’s chief of staff, she was known for her involvement with the Palmares Armed Revolutionary Vanguard, an urban guerrilla group, in her youth. Agents of the military dictatorship captured Ms. Rousseff and tortured her repeatedly in the early 1970s. But the qualities that made her a compelling chief of staff did not carry over when she became president. Her autocratic persona and short temper became legendary in Brasília, a capital where deals are customary when forging and nurturing alliances with an array of bickering parties. Many voters also felt betrayed after Ms. Rousseff’s campaign, when she narrowly won on promises to maintain extensive state control over the economy, resulting in generous public spending. But once she went in another direction, appointing a finance minister who tried to win approval for policies. “She simply lied through her teeth to get forming a wave of national indignation,” said Antonio Risério, a historian and cultural commentator. “Upon perceiving that they voted for one person and elected another, the majority of the population started to want her head. ” With Ms. Rousseff deposed, the Workers’ Party, a dominant force in Brazilian politics for much of the past decade and a half, is now scrambling to find its way in a political landscape where conservative voices are growing more powerful. João Santana, the party’s campaign strategist who helped Ms. Rousseff win two presidential elections, faces charges of illegally receiving millions of dollars in offshore accounts from the bribery scheme involving the national oil company. Even more damaging for the party, federal investigators are seeking graft charges against Mr. da Silva, the former labor leader universally known as Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010. The move adds to mounting legal problems faced by Mr. da Silva, who is still signaling that he plans to run for president in 2018. Ms. Rousseff found herself increasingly isolated in recent months, with many in her party quietly withdrawing their support. But senators offered her a morsel of consolation by voting to allow her to run for public office, overruling an effort to make her ineligible from doing so for several years. And some in Ms. Rousseff’s party defended her as she made her effort before the Senate this week. “You veered from the narrative when you were elected president of the republic as a woman, from the left, a former militant against the dictatorship, without a husband to pose by your side in the photographs,” said Regina Sousa, a Workers’ Party senator from Piauí in northeast Brazil. “You never fit in the cute little dress designed by the conservative elite of this country,” Ms. Sousa added. Heated tempers marked the trial in the Senate. Crying as she spoke, Janaína Paschoal, the law professor who was an author of the impeachment request, said she had been inspired by God and that she was seeking impeachment for the good of Ms. Rousseff’s grandchildren. Ms. Rousseff’s lawyer, José Eduardo Cardozo, said he was stunned that her opponents had dragged Ms. Rousseff’s family into the acerbic debate, pointing out that Ms. Rousseff was never accused of embezzling public funds to benefit her family. “If you want to condemn her, go ahead, but don’t mock the honor of a dignified woman,” said Mr. Cardozo, also crying as he spoke. | 1 |
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November 4, 2016 9:46 am
Lower bitstream would be enough, nothing to do with hosting. Reply - Share JJ November 4, 2016 8:38 am
Surprisingly uk radio 4 this am…a report about the 3 rebel suicide bombs killing so many in western Aleppo, numbers of dead and injured .tied in with announcement of end of humanitarian pause by the end of the day………..even a reference to the numbers of foreign fighters from tens of countries present there.
last chance saloon for those defiant war criminal murderous rebels, now Russian fleet is in place. Fireworks in Syria this November Fifth? Maybe? Perhaps Stefan de Mistura may approve of Aleppo being saved by legitimate government and State of Syria. Reply - Share JJ November 4, 2016 8:45 am MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. The Russian Defense Ministry and the US Department of Defense will soon sign a document on safety of flights above Syria, all technical issues have been agreed, the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, Col. Gen. Andrey Kartapolov, said Friday. “Now all technical issues have already been agreed and today Russian and American legal experts are verifying the text of the document. We hope that the document will be signed as soon as possible,” Kartapolov said at a briefing for foreign military attaches and journalists. The general recalled that three video conferences of Russian and US militaries had been held earlier. The conferences were dedicated to drafting a memorandum on prevention of incidents and ensuring safety of flights above Syria. “This will ensure conditions to prevent specific situations that could create an incident in Syrian airspace during activities of the aviation of the Russian Federation and partners in the coalition. We are speaking for expansion of cooperation in that sphere and are open for contacts with all interested sides,” Kartapolov said. READ ALSO General Staff: Russian forces delivered air strikes on 380 IS facilities in Syria Russian Navy ships may join Syria operation — General Staff Russian military officer says US ashamed of cooperating with Russia against IS Putin: Russian forces show impressive results in Syria, hundreds of terrorists killed Lavrov, Kerry satisfied with work of military on Syria Earlier, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that during the third video conference, the sides managed to bring their positions closer and agree on the order of further activities. Russia’s Aerospace Forces … Read more » Reply - Share JJ November 4, 2016 9:35 am Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting of the operational Security Council discussed the situation in Syria, including in the context of a decision to hold another humanitarian pause – according to the Kremlin website. The Defense Ministry denied the information about the death of Russian soldiers as a result of the shelling of the helicopter in the Syrian province of Hama. As noted in the Ministry of Defense, the helicopter VKS Russia made an emergency landing by performing routine delivery of humanitarian assistance in one of the settlements 40 km northwest of Palmyra. “During the inspection of the helicopter crew on the ground landing site underwent mortar fire fighters – told the Center for reconciliation of the warring parties in the CAP -. car crew was not injured and was promptly delivered to the search and rescue helicopter at an air base Hmeymim “. The number of settlements that have joined the reconciliation process has increased to 884. The number of armed groups that have declared their commitment to adopt and implement a cessation of hostilities conditions, has not changed – 69. During the day recorded 39 attacks by illegal armed groups in the provinces of Damascus (16) Aleppo (15), Daraa (6), Latakia (1) and Hama (1). The Russian VKS and Air Force Syria opposition armed groups, have declared a cessation of hostilities and to report to the Russian or American centers reconciliation information about their location, strikes not applied. Terrorists in Syria have used humanitarian pause in Aleppo to regroup and replenish the arsenal, said the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova. “The situation in Syria, unfortunately, very heavy, the … Read more » Reply - Share | 1 |
You are here: Home / US / Biden Explains Why Hillary Set Up Her Email Server (This Doesn’t Help Her) Biden Explains Why Hillary Set Up Her Email Server (This Doesn’t Help Her) October 28, 2016 Pinterest
Crazy Uncle Joe is at it again. Vice President Joe Biden, and potentially secretary of state should Hillary Clinton be elected (let that sink in for a minute), claimed that Clinton didn’t understand “the gravity” of using private servers to send and receive classified information as secretary of state.
Social media users pointed out the obviously ridiculous nature of this defense, as many have throughout the whole email debacle. Clinton is either pathetically inept of dangerously corrupt — I’d argue that there’s a lot of both in the equation. Both options mean that she should be behind bars and not running for president. Interviewed by @jdickerson for @FaceTheNation , @VP says @HillaryClinton didnt understand "the gravity" of setting up own e-mail system. pic.twitter.com/abIZ1f0kvO
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 28, 2016 So to quote Dave Chapelle: “I’m sorry officer I … didn’t know I couldn’t do that." https://t.co/a1mLeOv0KL
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) October 28, 2016
Ben Howe of Red State quoted comedian Dave Chapelle: “I’m sorry officer I … didn’t know I couldn’t do that.” Ummm, she did it specifically to evade FOIA. I'm quite certain she "understood the gravity" https://t.co/nZK9EBQp27
— The H2 (@TheH2) October 28, 2016
Twitter user “The H2” pointed out that Clinton very likely understood the gravity just fine; it’s probably why she set up the servers in the first place. The H2 tweeted: “Ummm, she did it specifically to evade FOIA. I’m quite certain she “understood the gravity.”
Absolutely. Clinton almost certainly set up the servers to “evade FOIA,” and the inevitable failures/corruption (such as the pay-to-play operation) she would need to cover up as secretary of state.
The thousands of emails deleted from Clinton’s servers weren’t just yoga schedules and wedding planning — the State Department admitted there were Benghazi-related emails in there.
Clinton is responsible for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, and it is almost a certainty that emails pointing to her involvement were scrubbed — in addition to what we already know that points to her responsibility. She understood "the gravity" she just thought she could "get away with it" #Corruption #draintheswamp #newsisback https://t.co/TrN0xUSbaX
— Jesse Eaton (@landho69) October 28, 2016
Jesse Eaton tweeted: “She understood ‘the gravity’ she just thought she could ‘get away with it.'”
That about covers it. She knew what she was doing, but since she also knows where all the bodies are buried she gets to play by a different set of rules.
We found out that President Obama, using a pseudonym, communicated with Clinton via her private email server — not her state.gov address — even though he claimed not to know about the servers until the scandal came out in the press. Why would he do that if he thought things were on the up and up and didn’t know a thing about the private server?
That might have been part of Clinton’s insurance here as well. She may have figured that if she goes down, so does Obama. That would be pretty stupid considering Clinton found out where she sat on the totem pole in 2008, but no one ever said the woman was a genius.
The FBI announced on Friday that it reopened the investigation of Clinton’s email scandal, and hopefully Clinton will finally be brought to justice. Not likely, but who knows? | 0 |
Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog told the Jerusalem Post conference in New York on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s support for peace “gives an aura of optimism to the region … a spirit of change that needs to be seized. ”[Herzog, who leads the Zionist Union party, was commenting on Trump’s recent commitment to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which has proceeded through visits by the administration’s emissaries to the region, a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, and a similar visit last week by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “The realities are the realities,” Herzog said, arguing that while the Palestinians were “extremely difficult” to deal with, there was no alternative. Regarding Netanyahu’s own commitment to peace, Herzog said that the Israeli leader’s intentions were unclear, and vowed to build a political bloc to oppose him politically if he did not follow through. Herzog was viewed as close to President Barack Obama, who used the State Department to send funds to Israeli opposition groups in an effort to defeat Netanyahu in the 2015 elections. Trump has been praised by other Arab leaders in the region, as a broad, if tacit, alliance emerges between the Sunni Arab states — particularly the monarchies — and Israel. All are facing the common threat of a potentially Iran, and some are grappling with the dangers caused by its terrorist proxies. Herzog was scathing in his criticism of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, whom he accused of forgetting the history of the Holocaust. French voters were at the polls Sunday. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0 |
EE.UU.: Un hombre durmió tres semanas con un cadáver descompuesto bajo la cama Publicado: 26 oct 2016 20:32 GMT
Cuando la Policía entró a la casa del sospechoso de asesinato percibió "un fuerte olor a perfume". Una bota asomaba de una bolsa de basura que había debajo de su cama. Imagen Ilustrativa pexels.com / Kristin Vogt Síguenos en Facebook
Donald Teaford, un residente del estado de Pensilvania (EE.UU.), ha sido acusado de vejación de un cadáver después de que la Policía hallara un cuerpo en estado de descomposición dentro de una bolsa de basura debajo de su cama, informa BuzzFeed News .
Según la denuncia penal, consultada por el portal, la Policía recibió un aviso que apuntaba a la existencia de un cadáver en la casa de Teaford desde hacía tres semanas. Cuando los agentes llegaron a la vivienda, se encontraron que dos de las ventanas estaban abiertas y notaron "un fuerte olor a perfume ".
Los oficiales revelan que cuando miraron debajo de la cama vieron una bolsa de basura con una bota asomando de ella. Además, hallaron un cuchillo cerca del cuerpo que el propietario de la casa trató de ocultar debajo de un DVD y un monedero.
La víctima, identificada como Justin Cogan, y el sospechoso de asesinarlo se conocían y consumían heroína juntos. La Policía indica que la novia de Teaford había muerto por sobredosis en la misma cama de la vivienda.
Teaford ha sido detenido y recluido bajo una fianza de 100.000 dólares. | 0 |
Stopping the shipment of these supplies to Germany would have ended the Nazi war.
Nazism was the first time in human history that the rich had enough wealth to hire an entire country to do their dirty work.
Have you ever wondered who exactly are these rich men that thrive by destroying entire nations only to rebuild them later on — whilst reaping $Trillions in the process?
The most powerful of these infamous families is the Rothschild banking clan, who has been financing both sides of every war since the time of Napoleon.
The following quote, even though it has been attributed to a fictitious character, it is very accurate:
“I told you once before that there were two times for making big money: one in the up-building of a country and the other in its destruction. Slow money on the up-building, fast money in the crack-up. Remember my words. Perhaps they may be of use to you some day. (Rhett Butler)” ― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
To my readers, it will surely come as no surprise to find out that Hitler was, in fact, a Rothschild
Adolf Hitler’s father, Alois Hitler, was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber and Baron Rothschild. Maria Anna was working as a maid in Baron Rothschild’s mansion when she became pregnant and was sent back to her village for confinement.
A correspondent who has extensively researched this subject writes:
“It appears to me that Hitler knew about his connection long before his Chancellorship. Like his father before him, when the going got rough, the Hitlers went to Vienna. Hitler’s father left his home village at an early age to seek his fortune in Vienna. When Hitler was orphaned, after his mother died in December of 1907, he left for Vienna not long after the funeral.
“There he seemed to drop out of sight for ten months! What happened during this ten-month stay in Vienna is a complete mystery on which history sheds no light. It makes sense, now that it has become established that Hitler was a Rothschild, that he and his cousins were getting acquainted, and his potential for future family endeavors was being sized up.”
The Rothschilds and the Illuminati produce many offspring out of wedlock in their secret breeding programs and these children are brought up under other names with other parents.
Hitler was financed by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, which are both owned/ controlled by the Rothschilds, which is further evidence that they have been the greatest force behind the second world war.
It makes me sick to even think about the rivers of blood spilled by their hidden conspiracies and the amount of pain, sufferance and destruction caused to the world.
Also, George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited immensely from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
Adolf Hitler and Prescott Bush
Basically, the Bushes have contributed to the rise of Hitler and made a fortune in the process.
The Powers That Be (TPTB) take good care of their own
From 1945 to 1945, Operation Paperclip granted American citizenship to nearly 1,000 Nazis. Once “bleached” of their Nazism, they ended up working in the US military industrial complex, and have worked for the CIA, NASA, etc..
One of the Nazi experiments that continued in America was mind control. The subject were mostly children and mind control was achieved through torture. The secret project received the name MKUltra.
In his book, The Nazis Next Door , investigative reporter Eric Lichtblau reports that thousands of Nazis managed to settle in the USA after World War II, often with the direct assistance of American intelligence officials.
And what about Adolf Hitler?
The FBI has quietly declassified secret files attesting that Hitler fled to Argentina in 1945 and they knew all about it.
Also, there are separate reports from people who met him in Argentina just months after war.
One of these contacts has even told the FBI the exact location where Hitler and his wife, Eva Brown, were hiding : a lakeside mansion in Patagonia, Argentina. (This remote mountainous paradise was full of top Nazi refugees).
But Hitler and his entourage were offered a safe heaven by TPTB and they were not to be bothered for the rest of their lives.
By Alexander Light, HumansAreFree.com . Introduction by Michelle Walling, HowtoexittheMatrix.com . | 1 |
Manuela Carmena pide a los madrileños que guarden las latas y las bolsas de la basura para hacer los vestidos de los Reyes Magos EL MUNDO TODAY RADIO | 0 |
More recently, bitter melon juice was shown to kill pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in mice in a study done by the University of Colorado. Considering the results were seen in both in vitro and in vivo tests, the effectiveness of bitter melon juice in treating pancreatic cancer, and potentially other cancers, at a clinical level are promising.[ 1 ] “IHC analyses of MiaPaCa-2 xenografts showed that BMJ(Bitter Melon Juice) also inhibits proliferation, induces apoptosis and activates AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) in vivo . Overall, BMJ exerts strong anticancer efficacy against human pancreatic carcinoma cells, both in vitro and in vivo , suggesting its clinical usefulness.” Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat due to the fact that it is often discovered late, leaving very little time to treat. Since traditional therapies (chemotherapy, radiation, surgery etc) were not showing promising results and littler advancement was being made, researchers have been looking elsewhere to find treatment. Interestingly, cannabis, specifically cannabinoids, have been shown to induce apoptic (programmed) death of human pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and stop pancreatic tumor growth in vivo.[ 4 ] Cannabis is perhaps one of the most popular treatments being aggressively pursued right now given its promising results both in labs and anecdotally. Scientific Evidence Many cancerous tumors have insulin receptors which move glucose to cancer cells helping them to grow and divide. Studies have shown that insulin encourages pancreatic cancer cells to grow in a dose dependant manner, since bitter melon has been shown to help regulate insulin levels, this could help prevent pancreatic cancer over the long-term. The Colorado University study was led by Dr. Rajesh Agarwal. They examined effects of bitter melon on 4 different lines of pancreatic cancer cells (in vitro) and in mice. For the in vivo studies, mice were injected with pancreatic tumor cells and were randomly divided into one of two groups. One group of mice received water, which was the control group, and the other group was given bitter melon juice for six weeks. [6] Researchers studied the tumors at the end of the study and results showed that bitter melon juice not only inhibited cancer cell proliferation but also induced apoptosis (programmed cell death). Compared to the control, tumor growth was inhibited by 60% in the treatment group and there were no signs of toxicity or negative effects on the body. With toxicity and negative effects being a huge role in traditional mainstream treatments, this was positive to see. Diabetes A number of clinical studies have been conducted to evaluate the efficacy of bitter melon for treating diabetes. Since it is believed that diabetes is a precursor for pancreatic cancer, researchers felt bitter melon could treat diabetes as well after seeing pancreatic cancer results. In 2011, results of a four week long clinical trial were published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology that showed modest hypoglycemic effects and significant fructosamine management for those taking 2000mg/day of bitter melon. As published by the study: “Bitter melon had a modest hypoglycemic effect and significantly reduced fructosamine levels from baseline among patients with type 2 diabetes who received 2,000 mg/day. However, the hypoglycemic effect of bitter melon was less than metformin 1,000 mg/day.”[ 3 ] Another study published in 2008 in the international journal Chemistry and Biology indicated that compounds in bitter melon improved glycemic control, helped cells uptake glucose and improved overall glucose tolerance. This study was done in mice and led to promising advancements in treating diabetes and obesity with bitter melon.[ 4 ] In contrast, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology in 2007 did not show significant benefit of the treatment of diabetes by bitter melon but 2 years later in the British Journal of Nutrition it was stated that “more, better-designed and clinical trials are required to confirm the fruit’s role in diabetes treatment.” Since that 2007 study, more studies have been done to show beneficial effects which perhaps was a result of better design. Conclusion When it comes to bitter melon juice, the current research available is showing strong results for specific types of cancer cell destruction, diabetes treatment and potential prevention of pancreatic cancer. Further research and clinical trials would be helpful to better understand how effective this plant can be and in what specific cases. It remains a very promising option that could be explored under the correct supervision. Other Uses of Bitter Melon Bitter melon has been used as a traditional medicine for a long time. It has been used to treat: colic, fever, burns, chronic cough, painful menstruation and skin conditions.[ 5 ]
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 |
European Commission President Juncker has claimed the English language is losing relevance after the Brexit vote. [Emm. .. Juncker beams as he says ”slowly but surely English (language) is losing importance in Europe”. pic. twitter. “Slowly but surely English is losing importance in Europe,” Mr. Juncker announced to a conference in Florence, Italy, before switching into French and drawing applause from his audience of European Union (EU) officials, local leaders, and Italian students. “I agitated between English and French but I will express myself in French,” he said, concluding: “And in France, we have elections on Sunday and I’d like them to understand what I’m saying about Europe and about nations. ” He also admitted Europe’s role in the world was diminishing. “We are losing our economic power and our economic clout. We’re currently down to 25 per cent of global GDP. In ten years’ time, that percentage will shrink down to 15. “We’ll be a smaller continent, our economies will shrink accordingly, we’ll face a demographic crisis. ” Bitter @JunckerEU delivers speech in French as ”English is losing its importance”. He needs to stop living in his little European bubble! 🌍 pic. twitter. — LEAVE. EU (@LeaveEUOfficial) May 5, 2017, Later in the speech, Mr. Juncker accused Britain of “abandoning” the European project but also admitted the bloc’s deficiencies played a part in people supporting Brexit. The English language jibe comes as tensions between the EU’s Brexit negotiation team and the UK Government peaked this week. Prime Minister Theresa May accused the EU of attempting to meddle in the UK’s general election, after a series of inflammatory leaks about private meetings last weekend. Reports in the German press claimed Mr. Juncker said Mrs. May was “delusional” about Brexit and that he was “10 times more sceptical” about a successful deal being reached following a dinner with the prime minister. There were also surprise claims the EU had dramatically increased the size of the “divorce” bill it is demanding the UK pays before leaving the bloc, to 100 billion euros. Mr. May hit back Wednesday, accusing European officials of threatening the UK in a deliberate attempt to influence the outcome of the June 8th snap election. “Whoever wins on 8 June will face one overriding task: to get the best possible deal for this United Kingdom from Brexit,” she said. “And, in the last few days, we have seen just how tough these talks are likely to be. “Britain’s negotiating position in Europe has been misrepresented in the continental press. The European Commission’s negotiating stance has hardened. “Threats against Britain have been issued by European politicians and officials. All of these acts have been deliberately timed to affect the result of the general election that will take place on 8 June. ” | 0 |
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Biden said he’d like to throw down with Trump … now Trump responds. Did Biden see this coming? He should have, it’s Trump!
We all knew it would happen, 2016 has been a roller coaster of crazy and unruly behavior from the left and their minions…that it would only be fitting to end it with a duel.
All that’s left now is for each opponent to choose their weapon.
Donald Trump responded to Biden’s statement very literally. Stating he “would really love” to accept the challenge to a fistfight.
I can see Biden swinging wildly already…with his eyes shut and his head ducked.
Biden on Friday slammed Trump’s now infamous taped 2005 comments that famous men could mistreat women with impunity: ‘When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p****. You can do anything.’
Asked if he wished he could debate Trump, a furious Biden replied that he wished he were in high school so ‘I could take him behind the gym.’
Trump, 70, cast himself as the alpha male Tuesday night in Tallahassee, delivering the rhetorical equivalent of a ‘Let’s step outside’ to the 73-year-old Biden.
Seriously though, since this campaign for President is already pure madness. Lets just pretend they were about to get down in a boxing match…who do you think would win?
Dems cheat so…
They would pull a number on Trump like the end fight in Gladiator. Stab him in the side, and let him bleed out during the match… Related Items | 0 |
(Starship Earth) I find this an interesting update from Simon Parkes. It’s hard to know if these “quakes” are intentional or naturally occurring any more. One report says six quakes. Is Rothschild hiding in Grindelwald? Figures. Prime location.
Simon says… (pardon the pun)
This afternoon 5 small earthquakes hit Switzerland south of Bern.
One quake was 4.2 on the Richter scale. This is extremely rare for Switzerland.
This earthquake was also reasonably close to Cern.
But also very close to where Jacob Rothchild is holed up.
http://www.simonparkes.org/swiss-earthquakes
http://earthquaketrack.com/ch-be-grindelwald/recent
https://watchers.news/2016/10/25/earthquake-switzerland-october-2016/
The Earthquakes in Italy…
2 powerful earthquakes rattle central Italy 2 hours apart Buildings have collapsed and the power is out in Castelsantangelo sul Nera.
http://www.earthquakepredict.com/2016/10/2-powerful-earthquakes-rattle-central.html
Things are definitely shakin’ these days.
And something else of note today from my personal perspective… for the first time, I actually heard one of those “emergency broadcasting system alert” tests on the radio. It was 12:29 p.m. Pacific Daylight time.
I had just entered a store and a couple of minutes later heard that tell-tale electronic tone, and just to be sure I was hearing what I thought I heard, I went closer to the speaker in the ceiling.
It was your typical test, saying if there had been an actual emergency, a instructions would have followed… and the regular radio programming resumed. I had to laugh because I think I was the only one in the store who heard it. Everyone else seemed oblivious. If the intention is to incite fear… it failed. We passed the zombie test. High five! ~ BP
Source: Starship Earth — The Big Picture
More from BPEarthWatch… MUST WATCH!
More from RT News… Chilling images capture destruction as two earthquakes hit Italy (PHOTOS, VIDEOS) With two earthquakes hitting central Italy on Wednesday, social media users were quick to capture the devastation on camera.
The second Italy earthquake has been rated 6.0 by the USGS. Virtually the same spot as the foreshock, which remains a 5.5.
— Sean Breslin (@Sean_Breslin) October 26, 2016
The tremors were strong enough to be felt in Rome, which is over 150 km away and residents reported their homes shaking.
“Our village does not exist anymore,” the mayor of Ussita reportedly said.
+++ "Our village does not exist anymore after latest #earthquake ", Mayor of Ussita (Marche) to ANSA +++ #Terremoto #Italy
— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) October 26, 2016
Sounds unbelievable, but luckily so far NO ONE KILLED after the latest strong #earthquake in Italy. A few slightly injured #Terremoto
— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) October 26, 2016
Some buildings reportedly collapsed in the area struck by the quakes. However, the damage is believed to be much less than in August, when a major earthquake hit Marche, Lazio and Umbria regions.
Hundreds of people were killed in the August 24 quake and several towns were razed to the ground in the worst-affected areas.
Second more violent #earthquake hits same region in #Italy . 5.9 magnitude in #Ussita . Mayor says city in panic @inewsmalta #Terremoto pic.twitter.com/dIlW1fc5j7
— Jake Azzopardi (@JakeaAzzopardi) October 26, 2016
Several people were reportedly injured in Wednesday’s tremors, officials in the town of Visso said, and several older buildings – including a church – have collapsed. Some areas have lost power, and several roads remain closed.
Another lamp. #Italy #earthquake pic.twitter.com/anZY7ibZ07
— Russian Market (@russian_market) October 26, 2016
In Castelsantangelo sul Nera, which has around 300 residents, the town’s mayor Mauro Falucci confirmed that there was no electricity.
#Earthquake #terremoto buildings collapsing near the epicentre #visso #ussita #Italy pic.twitter.com/DHqzonGl39
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) October 26, 2016
https://twitter.com/romatheclub/status/791352862056022017
Although the US Geological Survey initially stated that both earthquakes reached a magnitude of 5.6 followed by 6.4, the estimates were later lowered.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has halted all engagements and is said to be following developments, according to Reuters.
Facebook has also reportedly switched its Safety Check on to allow users to inform others that they are not in danger.
#BREAKING : No injuries or fatalities reported in the #Italy Earthquake earthquakes; Damage reported pic.twitter.com/Qx1Dz1mQPd
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) October 26, 2016
Source: RT News
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ERB Trump vs Clinton is finally here! page: 1 link If you're an avid ERB fan like me and 75% of the Internet, then you'll be very happy to know that Nice Peter and Epic Lloyd have finally delivered the highly anticipated Trump vs Clinton rap battle! We all knew it had to happen sooner or later. My guess that it would drop shortly after the final debate turned out to be true! Here it is in all its glory: ** CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE ** While you're at it, may as well check out the Romney vs Obama video from 2012: edit on 27-10-2016 by SoulOfCeres because: Formatting | 0 |
CLARKSVILLE, Md. — Growing up on a street in suburbia, Tatyana and Hannah McFadden raced their wheelchairs up, down and all around. Their family challenged convention, but also fit right in. Two moms, three children, a grandma and two dogs. A basketball hoop in the driveway. Purple wheelchairs scattered throughout the garage. Sports equipment, and prosthetic legs, stuffed in cramped closets. “It’s been just such an amazing year,” Debbie McFadden said, standing alongside her daughters on the backyard patio. Dozens of camera phones clicked. The buttercream on the sheet cake told the rest of the story: “Tatyana Hannah Go for the Gold!” was written in red script across the icing, and two tiny wheelchairs raced on a fondant track. The daughters were raised to believe they could do anything, no matter what the physical impairment, and this is what their uncommon determination has wrought: At the Paralympic Games, which begin Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, Tatyana McFadden could become the first athlete to sweep every distance in wheelchair racing. She will compete in the 100 meters and the marathon — and everything in between. She could leave Rio with seven gold medals. Her sister Hannah is racing in three of the same events, including the 4x100 relay. If the McFaddens finish on the podium, they will be the first sisters to do so in a Paralympics. The odds of this? Longer than a marathon, especially given their start. “You know, when Tatyana and Hannah came here, Tatyana was told by doctors at Johns Hopkins she probably wouldn’t live long, and they said Hannah would never be active,” Debbie McFadden told the gathering at their Rio party. One of the best athletes most Americans have never heard of, Tatyana McFadden may be hard to miss in the coming months. Her Phelpsian medal quest will be a focal point for NBC’s Paralympics coverage — more than 70 hours across NBC’s networks and sports app, compared with six hours of coverage for the London Paralympics four years ago. “In the U. S. you don’t know about the Paralympics,” said Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee. “You’re going to get to know. Give your people a chance to get to know Tatyana. It will take their minds off the presidential election. ” McFadden’s image appears on more than a million Coke cans. Her life story will be told, and retold, in commercials. In the time leading up to Rio, BP became the first United States Olympic Committee corporate partner to sponsor more Paralympians than Olympians. Now that Michael Phelps has packed up his Speedo and gone home and Simone Biles has clapped her last cloud of chalk into the rafters, will the American public stay for the Paralympics ? “We’re on the cusp of breaking the barriers for Paralympic sport,” Tatyana McFadden said. “It’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication, trying to teach society what it means to be a Paralympian, that we’re not any different, that we’re just like the Olympians, with the same training sites, sponsorships, medals and venues. ” If not the same rewards. The United States Olympic Committee awards $25, 000 to every American who wins an Olympic gold versus $5, 000 for every Paralympic gold $15, 000 for Olympic silver versus $3, 500 for Paralympic silver and $10, 000 for Olympic bronze versus $2, 500 for Paralympic bronze. There is also a significant difference between prize purses in major marathons. The New York City Marathon, for example, awards winners $100, 000 its wheelchair division winners receive $15, 000. “It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Tatyana McFadden said. “That bar needs to be raised. ” “If you don’t speak out, it’s going to stay the same,” she said. “Because I’ve been in the sport for a bit, I can be an educator. I want to give back for the next generations to come, however long I’ll be racing. I think it’s really, really important to have that voice. ” Born with spina bifida and adopted from a Russian orphanage, Tatyana McFadden, 27, is paralyzed from the waist down. Hannah McFadden, 20, adopted from Albania, born without a femur in her left leg, is an amputee. She uses a prosthesis to walk and a wheelchair to race. Ruthi McFadden, 17, also adopted from Albania, is the outlier — no wheelchair, no prosthetic leg to pop off at airport security and hand to a T. S. A. agent, as Hannah does for kicks. She has no desire to run the length of a basketball court, let alone a marathon. “I don’t like to sweat,” she tells her sisters. “Our family is a very unique household,” said Hannah McFadden, legs slung over an ottoman in the living room. “If you took a family photo right now, you got Grandma with an oxygen tank, probably sassing the photographer. ” (The oxygen tank comes courtesy of decades of smoking the sassing comes naturally.) She continued: “Ruthi talking about all the boyfriends she has. Tatyana wishing she had all the boyfriends. And me saying, ‘Where’s the food?’ You’d have all those different things going on and oh, yeah, and then parents, Deb and Bridget. We have two moms. “That was just the way it was. Having two moms wasn’t what really stood out about this family,” she said, in the deadpan of a mockumentary. Earlier this year, after People magazine published a feature article with the headline, “Meet My Two Moms: Wheelchair Racing Sensation Tatyana McFadden Reveals How She Was Saved From a Bleak Russian Orphanage,” the family collectively chuckled. It was not exactly breaking news. Debbie McFadden and Bridget O’Shaughnessey have been partners for 32 years. They kept their relationship and their shared parenting role because they did not want headlines to read, “Raised by Two Moms, McFadden Wins Gold. ” “I’ve been public about it,” Tatyana McFadden said, “but I haven’t been always, ‘Oh, these are my two moms, these are my two moms, these are my two moms.’ “It’s something I grew up with, and it’s not any different to me. Our parents have been together, what, more than 30 years? They’re a great example of what love and relationships look like. ” They met when Debbie McFadden was still recovering from the effects of syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease. While she was in graduate school, the condition left her paralyzed from the neck down. As a result, she relied on an electric wheelchair for four years and then crutches for eight. The obstacles Debbie McFadden faced while disabled — limited job and educational opportunities, snap judgments based on physical appearance — came to define her life’s work, as an advocate and a mother. “This can never be,” she told herself. She became the United States commissioner of disabilities in 1989, appointed by President George H. W. Bush. “Why, sir, this job?” she recalled asking the president. “Because you’re a pain in the ass,” he replied. “I’d rather have you working for me than against me. ” (Bush, 92, did not recall the specific interaction, but spoke highly of McFadden, a spokesman, Jim McGrath, said.) McFadden helped write the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, the milestone legislation that prohibits discrimination based on disability. “She makes the impossible happen,” Hannah said. “That woman does not know the word ‘no. ’” Debbie McFadden now serves as her daughters’ manager, or “momager,” as they call it. O’Shaughnessey, who works in information technology for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, is the parent, the one fixing wheelchairs and wearing a headlamp for wheelchair workouts on the track. She is the steady pace runner, the quiet complement to her partner. On a stage in Times Square this summer, surrounded by Olympians and Paralympians, Tatyana McFadden described her early years in St. Petersburg, Russia. “For the first six years in the orphanage, I received no medical treatment, so no wheelchair available,” she said, addressing the crowd at a news media event. “And I taught myself how to walk on my arms, using my arms as my legs to get around the orphanage. ” The next speaker, Michelle Obama, waited in the wings. “The sixth year changed my life for the better, when a woman happened to walk through the door, and that’s my mom Deborah McFadden. She’s here today. ” She paused for applause and then continued. Tatyana McFadden said sports had changed her life, and had perhaps saved it. Given her weak physical state at the time of her adoption, her parents signed her up for every sport they could find to build her strength. “See that wooden fence?” Debbie McFadden said as she pulled into the parking lot outside the home of the Bennett Blazers, an adaptive sports program. “That’s where she was when we first put her in the racing chair and said, ‘Go. ’” Inside the gym, Tatyana’s legacy is everywhere — in her trademark candy purple racing chairs, still used by the current Blazers, and the imprint she has made on the children there today. She is their Stephen Curry, their Serena Williams, their autographed poster on a bedroom wall. “Tatyana brings pride and recognition,” said David Elbert, whose daughter, Ruby, is part of the Blazers program. “She makes these kids stand up taller sometimes. Last Paralympics, Tatyana was on the gas pump. You pulled into BP, and Ruby was like, ‘Whoa. ’” In seventh grade, Ruby broke down Tatyana McFadden’s lawsuit against the Howard County school district for a social studies assignment. When McFadden was 15, Ruby’s age now, she was the youngest member of the 2004 United States Paralympics team. After winning her first two Paralympic medals in Athens, she started her freshman year at Atholton High School in Columbia, Md. She had never imagined that earning a varsity letter would be the greater challenge. Competing against runners, McFadden did not expect her results to count she just wanted to experience competitive sports. Citing safety concerns, school officials prohibited McFadden, a freshman, from racing alongside her high school track team. In 2005, the McFaddens filed suit, claiming no damages, against the Howard County Public School System. Until the case could be heard in federal court, the school allowed Tatyana to race separately, to circle an otherwise empty track after everyone else had run. The highly publicized legal battle took a toll on the teenager. At times, she was booed on the track, ostracized by teammates and ripped on message boards. A teammate, the coach’s daughter, sent a scathing letter to local newspapers. “I will no longer sit back and watch runners be treated unfairly because they are NOT disabled,” the 2007 letter said, according to The Washington Post. “Politically correct or not, I have been waiting several months to get all this off my chest. ” During the years of the lawsuit, McFadden turned to her grandmother Jo for support. “I’d be coming home being emotional and Grandma Jo would help me through it,” Tatyana said. “She reminds me that it’s about the long run. ” “It was a tough time for her,” Grandma Jo said. “A lot of tears. ” Grandma Jo, O’Shaughnessey’s mother, moved in with the family when the children were young. She was the one home when Mom (Debbie McFadden) traveled abroad, running an international adoption agency after her term as commissioner of disabilities. And Grandma Jo was the one home when Mama (Bridget O’Shaughnessey) was still at work in Washington. McFadden eventually won the right to race with her classmates — and the suit paved the way for the passage of a state law that guaranteed all students with disabilities the right to participate in sports. Then it became a national mandate. Three years ago, the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a letter of guidance clarifying school districts’ legal obligation to provide equal access to extracurricular activities to all students. The long run — the marathon view, if you will — made the struggle worth it. It made life easier for those who followed, including Hannah, who did not have to deal with the obstacles or animosity her sister had faced. In Tatyana McFadden’s book for young readers, “Ya Sama! Moments From My Life,” published this year, there is a chapter about the case, with the ugly moments softened or omitted. “I didn’t want to make it so dark or so tragic,” she said. The Russian phrase “Ya sama!” can be translated as “I can do it” or “I can do it myself. ” It is a phrase she learned as a young child in her St. Petersburg orphanage and one she uses now when faced with a challenge. “Any race that Tatyana is on the starting line is a race she can win,” said Adam Bleakney, her coach for the Paralympics and at the University of Illinois, where she is a graduate student. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if she wins seven golds. One of her strengths is her ability to have a very singular focus, whatever the task at hand. There is never a reservation or doubt when she has a goal in her mind. Most of us will get a sliver of doubt, but I don’t think that ever happens to Tatyana. ” After returning with three golds from the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London, Tatyana tried skiing for the first time. She made the 2014 Winter Paralympics team and left Sochi with a silver medal, her 11th over all. In Rio, McFadden is likely to win gold several times over, as she is the holder in the 100, 400, 800, 1, 500 and 5, 000 meters. The United States relay team — nicknamed the McRelay, with a lineup of the McFadden sisters, Amanda McGrory and Chelsea McClammer — is a gold medal contender. And Tatyana McFadden is favored to win the marathon, after having swept the Boston, London, Chicago and New York marathons for the last three years. In April, at the London Marathon, McFadden raced wheel to wheel and shoulder to shoulder with her Swiss rival Manuela Schär. McFadden’s arms throbbed as she pushed past Buckingham Palace, unable to shake Schär, who had saved energy for the final push by riding in McFadden’s draft. The duo headed for the finish at the Mall. As Schär tried to outkick her rival, McFadden floored it to the finish, winning by a second. As her parents watched, even they were astounded. Where did that sprint come from? they asked her. “Well, she was going to beat me,” she said, . | 1 |
The Xbox One port of Funcom’s fantasy survival simulation Conan Exiles will not feature a “penis slider” in the character creation tools. [If you’re feeling a wee bit insecure about your prospective Xbox barbarian, I have some bad news. Microsoft is reportedly forcing the creators of Conan Exiles to castrate the character creation system in the upcoming port of their popular survival game. No, you will not be able to ensure you are as (or not) as you imagine your shirtless savage should be. In fact, you very well might not have a visible penis at all. Funcom Creative Director Joe Bylos said that “Xbox has been pretty clear with us that it’s not going to fly. ” Even so, there remains hope that the oily, burly manly men of the greater Cimmerian zip codes won’t be entirely neutered. According to Bylos, “It’s just going to be off by default I think. I don’t know if partial nudity might be OK. ” He’s a little bit more hopeful for the continued existence of bare breasts, but the developers “haven’t spoken to Xbox” about them specifically. “They do allow breasts in some of their games, but the penises definitely won’t be there. ” The game is already facing a possible ban in Japan due to the depiction of uncensored genitalia, but they “haven’t heard anything” definitive yet from the region. Bylos played coy about the popularity of the game’s naked avatars, expressing surprise at “the attention, the viralness[sic]” of the game’s customizable full nudity. He claims that the developers thought that players “would just sort of see it and laugh and move on,” in clear defiance of all known laws of the Internet. To be fair, we don’t definitively know that any of them have used the Internet before. Will the team be forced to tuck, or will the offending members be removed entirely? For now, the fate of their collective virtual manhood rests firmly in Phil Spencer’s hands. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 0 |
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Neal K. Katyal was for a time the top lawyer in the Obama administration. As acting solicitor general, he represented the government before the Supreme Court. He is no conservative, and says he is disappointed that the latest nominee to the court is from the White House of President Trump. Yet in the opinion pages of The New York Times on Tuesday, Katyal made a forceful case for Trump’s pick to the high court, Judge Neil Gorsuch. Katyal called the nominee a man of principle who will uphold the rule of law, and “bring a sense of fairness and decency to the job, and a temperament that suits the nation’s highest court. ” The author says he knows this because he has seen Gorsuch in action, both in court and through a federal rules committee on which they both serve. What Katyal did not mention — and the page did not disclose in his bio — is that he has cases pending before the Supreme Court. Katyal was identified as a former solicitor general, a law professor at Georgetown University and a private litigator at the law firm Hogan Lovells. But in that last role he represents the giant drug manufacturer Squibb, Indian tribes and numerous other clients with cases before the court. Some readers would have liked to know more about Katyal’s background. Here’s one email from Mithra Busler of Atlantic Highlands, N. J. I took this concern to both page and to Katyal himself. Jim Dao, the editor, said the editors had not been aware of Katyal’s cases before the court. Writers are required to disclose potential conflicts, he said, but the process got rushed in this case. “Editors do try to ask writers directly,” he said. “On tight deadlines — and the Katyal piece was done on tight deadline — the question doesn’t always get asked. So I don’t blame the writer or the editor in this case. ” When I reached out to Katyal, he said he had not received such a disclosure request and had not had a conversation about potential conflicts. He also thought it was obvious to The Times that as a lawyer whose practice often brings him to the Supreme Court, he would have a case before it. More critically, Katyal said, it is common for Supreme Court lawyers not to mention litigation they have pending before the court when writing an opinion piece about a nominee or speaking to a reporter. Here’s his response to me in full: The problem is that the did not note that Katyal is among the elite lawyers who argue before the high court. Katyal, in his original submission to editors, disclosed that he is a highly experienced litigator before the Supreme Court. The editors did not disclose that to readers. The Times editors’ lack of disclosure may leave Katyal open to unwarranted criticism, not only from readers but from others looking to challenge his motives. I’m not suggesting Katyal is currying favor with a man who is almost certainly going to be on the court. I seriously doubt that he is. Plus, given the range of his clients, some might benefit and others not if Gorsuch is even on the bench when their cases come up. But The Times opens itself up to that criticism by failing to simply tell the readers more about who he is. Katyal’s piece falls into an appealing category for an editor: a partisan who breaks ranks to support the opposition. Whenever that happens, the author of the piece is bound to endure scrutiny by those who feel betrayed. Shouldn’t The Times err on the side of disclosure? It doesn’t need to be in language that implies a grave conflict. I’m not suggesting that The Times should have listed every case Katyal has before the court. But at minimum, readers in this case deserve to know that he is a Supreme Court litigator with cases before the court. Let the readers decide if that matters, or indeed whether it might even enhance the author’s expertise. Updated 7:30 a. m. February 4, to clarify that it was The Times, not Katyal, that failed to disclose his litigating experience. I intended from the start to convey that this was The Times’s failure and not Katyal’s. I regret the ambiguity surrounding the party responsible for failing to disclose Katyal’s experience and any misunderstanding caused by it. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Democrats continue their rigorous questioning of President Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions and other important posts. Here are key moments from today: ■ Representative Tom Price of Georgia, nominated to be health and human services secretary, defended his investments in an Australian pharmaceutical company during his time in Congress. “The reality is that everything that I did was ethical, above board, legal and transparent,” he said. ■ Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, lamented “the of the nomination process. ” ■ Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, the nominee for budget director, said that tackling government waste and reducing debt would be his top priorities. ■ The toughest questions that Mr. Mulvaney faced on Tuesday came from Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. He asked Mr. Mulvaney about his record of voting for cuts to military spending and appeared to be shocked when Mr. Mulvaney could not remember those votes. ■ Linda E. McMahon, the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment and Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the Small Business Administration, said her entrepreneurial background suited her for the job. ■ Ms. McMahon assured senators that she would be a vigilant opponent of restrictive government regulations. A background investigation of Mr. Price says he understated the value of his investments in an Australian pharmaceutical company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, and claimed income tax deductions that he could not substantiate. The findings emerged from a review of Mr. Price’s tax returns and other official documents by committee staff members from both parties. In a questionnaire in December, the committee staff said, Mr. Price understated the value of 400, 613 shares of the Australian company that he purchased in August 2016 through “a private placement offering. ” The value of the shares was listed on the questionnaire as $50, 000 to $100, 000, but that reflected the purchase price, the staff reported. At the request of the committee, Mr. Price recalculated the value of his holdings to reflect their market price. The revised value was $100, 000 to $250, 000. In addition, the committee staff said, Mr. Price “took improper deductions on his 2016 tax returns” for the depreciation of land associated with condominiums that he owns in Washington and Nashville. Moreover, the staff said, Mr. Price and his wife, both physicians, claimed “miscellaneous employment deductions totaling $19, 034” for various expenses in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Neither Mr. Price nor his wife work as a physician, the staff report said, and “proper documentation could not be located,” so Mr. Price’s tax returns will be amended to remove the $19, 034 in deductions. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, questioned Mr. Price over his trades of health care stocks during his time in Congress. “It is hard to see this as anything but a conflict of interest and an abuse of position,” Mr. Wyden said. In particular, Mr. Wyden pressed Mr. Price over his investments in Innate Immunotherapeutics, which the senator said could be affected by legislation that comes before Congress. Mr. Price said he had done nothing wrong. “The reality is that everything that I did was ethical, above board, legal and transparent,” he said. Just how involved is Mr. Price as the Trump administration plots how it will replace the Affordable Care Act? Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, tried to find out. “President Trump said he’s working with you on a replacement plan for the A. C. A. which is nearly finished and will be revealed after your confirmation,” Mr. Brown said. “Is that true?” “It’s true that he said that, yes,” Mr. Price responded, drawing laughter in the hearing room. “Not that he’s ever done this before, but did the president lie?” Mr. Brown asked. He added: “I know we don’t use the word lie here, because we’re polite, when presidents say statements that aren’t true. But did he lie to the public about working with you?” “I’ve had conversations with the president about health care, yes,” Mr. Price replied. Senator Hatch lamented “the of the nomination process. ” He said Democrats’ attacks on Mr. Price’s ethics were “specious and distorted. ” He said lawmakers should not “invent new standards for finances, ethics and disclosure that are different from those that have generally applied in the past. ” “None of those who say they oppose Dr. Price’s nomination seem to be talking about whether he is qualified,” Mr. Hatch said. Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, also came to Mr. Price’s defense. “I feel like I’ve been asked to be a character witness in a felony trial in the sentencing phase of a conviction,” he said. He called Mr. Price “an honorable man. ” Mr. Mulvaney said that tackling government waste and reducing debt would be his top priorities if he were confirmed as Mr. Trump’s budget director. “I believe, as a matter of principle, that the debt is a problem that must be addressed sooner rather than later,” Mr. Mulvaney said in prepared remarks to be delivered to the Senate Budget Committee. “I also know that fundamental changes are needed in the way Washington spends and taxes if we truly want a healthy economy. ” While Mr. Mulvaney is a big believer in spending cuts, he made it clear that he wanted to protect America’s social safety nets. “A strong, healthy economy allows us to protect our most vulnerable,” he said. Mr. Mulvaney was asked about his failure to pay nanny taxes in his opening question, and said that it had been an innocent mistake. “In 2000, we had triplets. When we came home, we hired someone to help my wife, to help take care of the children,” Mr. Mulvaney said. “In my mind, she was a babysitter. ” He added, “I did not consider her a household employee for purposes of withholding. ” Mr. Mulvaney said he had realized his error when filling out a questionnaire related to his nomination to be Mr. Trump’s budget director. He said that he had quickly notified his accountant, the president and his colleagues so that he could correct the mistake. The toughest questions Mr. Mulvaney faced on Tuesday came not from a Democrat but from Senator McCain. He asked Mr. Mulvaney about his record of voting for cuts to military spending, and appeared shocked when he could not remember those votes. “Boy, I’ll tell you, I would remember if I voted to cut our defenses the way you did, congressman,” Mr. McCain said. “Maybe you don’t take it with the seriousness that it deserves. ” Mr. McCain was also unimpressed with Mr. Mulvaney’s explanation for wanting to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. After giving the congressman a history lesson on the roots of the Sept. 11 attacks, he offered a final note of disapproval. “I am deeply concerned about your lack of support for our military,” he said. Mr. Mulvaney was forced to address suggestions he had made in the past that Social Security was akin to a Ponzi scheme, and he played down that characterization. “I wouldn’t read too much into it, as describing it as a Ponzi scheme,” he said, explaining that he had merely been referring to the fact that the program takes money from people and gives it to other people. As for keeping the program solvent, Mr. Mulvaney said he would not recommend cuts that would cause current retirees to lose benefits. However, he said that he could see raising the age for receiving benefits in the future. Ms. McMahon reassured senators that she would be a vigilant opponent of restrictive government regulations, promising to work to put in place “the right regulations” to spur economic growth if she is confirmed as head of the Small Business Administration. Senator Jim Risch, the Idaho Republican who leads the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said the regulatory structure of government today was “strangling businesses. ” Ms. McMahon presented herself not as the billionaire former chief executive of W. W. E. but instead as an entrepreneur who had weathered the most difficult moments of building a business from the ground up. “Small businesses want to feel they can take a risk on expansion or a new hire without fearing onerous new regulations or unexpected taxes, fees and fines that will make such growth unaffordable,” she said. “We want to renew optimism in our economy. ” Ms. McMahon described how she and her husband, Vince, built their global business enterprise from an operation so small they shared a desk. She spoke of how they fought back from an early bankruptcy filing — a stark contrast to the wealthy former executive she is today. The McMahons were among Mr. Trump’s biggest campaign donors, having given $6 million to a “super PAC” supporting him last August and September. Ms. McMahon and Mr. Trump go back decades, bound by their shared background in entertainment. The Trump Plaza in Atlantic City hosted the W. W. E. ’s WrestleMania twice in the late 1980s, according to Mr. Trump’s W. W. E. “Superstars” bio, and Mr. Trump became a frequent attendee at the entertainment empire’s events. In 2007, he shaved Mr. McMahon’s head in the wrestling ring after winning a Battle of the Billionaires wager. Introduced and endorsed by the two Democrats who defeated her in her failed Senate bids in Connecticut — Senators Richard Blumenthal and Christopher S. Murphy — Ms. McMahon seems likely to sail to confirmation, with the committee expected to approve her next week. The introduction and endorsement of a Republican nominee by two Democratic senators is unusual at the outset of a confirmation hearing. Mr. Murphy, who defeated Ms. McMahon in 2012, expressed “confidence that she is going to give good, sound counsel to President Trump. ” “I saw firsthand the fight that Linda brings to any endeavor she takes on,” he said. | 1 |
BEIJING — As Myanmar’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, met this past week with Chinese officials during her visit here, China helped arrange a gift for her back home, a reminder that it wants to make itself Myanmar’s new best friend. Since assuming power this year, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has said her major goal is to end 70 years of civil war with ethnic minorities seeking greater autonomy. The gift, announced Thursday, was a letter signed by three and stubborn ethnic rebel groups with ties to China that declared their intention to join a peace conference she will convene this month. “I do believe that as a good neighbor China will do everything possible to promote our peace process,” Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi said at a news conference here on Friday. “If you ask me what my most important aim is for my country, that is to achieve peace and unity among the different peoples of our union. Without peace there can be no sustained development. ” But China was not acting out of altruism when it nudged the groups to join the peace talks. After years of encouraging the armed groups, China wants to end the prolonged fighting. The lawlessness created by that conflict has allowed the illegal jade and timber trade, worth billions of dollars, to flourish, but it has also made legitimate commerce across China’s southern border with Myanmar almost impossible. Once peace comes, China plans to build roads and railways across northern Myanmar to the Bay of Bengal, a short cut to supplement the recently built oil and gas pipelines that would bolster trade from the Middle East by avoiding the South China Sea. China also has other projects in mind to knit Myanmar into its orbit. As an indicator of that interest, the Chinese president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Jin Liqun, met with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday. But China is not the only player in Myanmar with plans for new relationships and investments after decades of corrupt military governments. The United States was the handmaiden to the successful election in November, when Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won in a landslide. She is scheduled to visit the White House next month, an invitation intended to confirm the legacy of President Obama’s role in Myanmar’s transition from authoritarian rule to a fledgling democracy. Washington, facing widespread popular sentiment against nation building, no longer pays for major projects abroad, except through the World Bank and other international financial institutions. American corporations have been reluctant to invest in Myanmar although the Treasury Department lifted an array of sanctions a few months ago, others were tightened on some major companies in Myanmar. That means that China has an opportunity to play a major role as a builder in Myanmar, a nation strategically placed between India, China and Southeast Asia and with access to the Indian Ocean. But the United States is not completely out of the picture, analysts say. They note that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is working to cultivate ties with both Washington and Beijing as foreign minister, one of the many posts she holds as the country’s de facto leader. “China sees everything in a transactional way to help themselves,” said Hans W. Vriens, a managing partner of Vriens Partners, a corporate advisory company that specializes in Myanmar. “Its expectations may be too high. Aung San Suu Kyi is rebalancing with China, but they’re not going to move away from the United States. Washington was a very, very big role in the whole transformation to democracy and will remain so under her. ” The Obama administration is not opposed to China’s role in resolving the fighting between the myriad ethnic groups and the army, Mr. Vriens said. An end to the wars in the border region where the groups influenced by China operate is in the interests of the United States and its ally Japan, which has made Myanmar a major destination for its foreign aid and corporate investment, he said. Japanese government experts are helping Myanmar’s ministries draw up plans for urban renewal and transportation routes. On Thursday, three armed groups that had refused to attend the peacemaking gathering, called the Panglong Conference, said they were willing to be there on Aug. 31. All of them — the Kokang group, the Arakan Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army — receive backing from across the border in China. The Kokang, an ethnic Chinese group, used southern China as a haven for tens of thousands of refugees last year during fierce fighting with the Myanmar Army. In a reversal, the Kokang’s leader, Peng Jiasheng, 85, said in a recent letter that he welcomed Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s overtures. “I believe the full stream of history will go ahead,” he wrote. And with China’s backing, the most recalcitrant of the ethnic fighters, the United Wa State Army, the largest ethnic army in Myanmar, has also said it will join the peace gathering. The conference, to be in held in the capital, Naypyidaw, is Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s signature effort since assuming power. She has likened the initiative to the peace talks in Northern Ireland, and she is working on it with the British politician Jonathan Powell, a chief negotiator on those talks and chief of staff under Tony Blair, then the prime minister. China’s president, Xi Jinping, told Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday that China would play a “constructive role” in the peace process. Before arriving in Beijing, she promised China a role as mediator at the conference. But Sumlut Gun Maw, a prominent leader of the Kachin, a largely Christian group that is fighting the Myanmar government, warned that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi should be careful not to overplay her hand with China. Mr. Sumlut Gun Maw, who met with Obama administration officials in Washington several years ago, said the relationship with the Chinese could backfire. The Wa and Kokang enjoy “comradely” ties with China, he said, and China is likely to demand much in return for delivering them to the peace process. | 1 |
Trump Raises Concern Over Members Of Urban Communities Voting More Than Zero Times ATKINSON, NH—Warning supporters that the troubling practice could affect the outcome of the election, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed strong concern Friday that members of urban communities were voting more than zero times, sources reported. Nation Puts 2016 Election Into Perspective By Reminding Itself Some Species Of Sea Turtles Get Eaten By Birds Just Seconds After They Hatch WASHINGTON—Saying they felt anxious and overwhelmed just days before heading to the polls to decide a historically fraught presidential race, Americans throughout the country reportedly took a moment Thursday to put the 2016 election into perspective by reminding themselves that some species of sea turtles are eaten by birds just seconds after they hatch. Report: Election Day Most Americans’ Only Time In 2016 Being In Same Room With Person Supporting Other Candidate WASHINGTON—According to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, Election Day 2016 will, for the majority of Americans, mark the only time this year they will occupy the same room as a person who supports a different presidential candidate. Most Hotly Contested Down-Ballot Measures Of 2016 As Americans head to the polls, they will be presented with a number of issues to vote on besides choosing their representatives. The Onion gives voters an advance look at which measures will be included on the ballots in which states. New Heavy-Duty Voting Machine Allows Americans To Take Out Frustration On It Before Casting Ballot WASHINGTON—Saying the circumstances of this year’s presidential race made the upgrade necessary, election commissions throughout the country were reportedly working to install new heavy-duty voting machines this week that will allow Americans to physically take out their frustrations on the devices before casting their votes. Clinton Staff Readies EMP Launch To Disable All Nation’s Electronic Devices NEW YORK—In an effort to prepare for any new revelations that might emerge about her emails during her tenure as secretary of state, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly told her staff Tuesday to ready the launch of several electromagnetic pulses to disable all of the nation’s electronic devices. End Of Section | 0 |
November 17, 2016
Having named post-truth as the word of the year, The Oxford English Dictionary’s post truth edition will be available online tomorrow, after a book launch on the moon in 1835, attended by Elvis Presley and Winnie the Pooh. The hardback edition will cost $50,000, but most branches of Waterstones will not mind if you nick it.
‘It’s the first time a major linguistic work has been edited by a koala bear,’ said post truth OED editorial director and pantomime horse Ian Smythe, playing down rumours (which he denies starting himself) about the size of his genitals. ‘The volume will be of enormous help to newspaper editors, students, political observers scientists and academics entering a world where the very idea of truth has to be examined by standing on a stepladder made of raspberry jelly and shouting ‘Rabbi, let’s tap-dance to Tewskbury!’
In the UK, the Murdoch press and the Mail group of newspapers say the official launch of the Post Truth era won’t make any difference whatsoever to their editorial policy, announcing that the £350 million pounds a week payable to the NHS has already started and queues waiting for treatment at hospitals are being ignored by immigrant doctors planning suicide attacks on Clarence House and smoking skunk supplied by Diane Abbott.
Meanwhile in the USA the much respected newspaper the Washington Post has launched a new weekly paper called the Washington Post Truth, reporting that Bernie Sanders won the presidential election, Nigel Farage was killed by a falling block of frozen urine traceable back to Air Force One, Bill Cosby has had a new show green lit co starring Monica Lewinsky and the Brexit Referendum ended in a dead heat.
The manufacturers of self adhesive Post It notes have also joined post truth culture by launching a new range of ‘Post Truth It’ notes, bearing pre-printed messages like ‘Have gone to the pictures with Nicole Kidman/Brad Pitt/Lembit Opik’; ‘You do have to work to be mad here’ and ‘This note isn’t sticky so it has fallen off the fridge and you are not reading it.’ Share this story...
Posted: Nov 17th, 2016 by nickb Click for more article by nickb .. More Stories about: Left Alert 0 | 0 |
French citizens are queuing to cast their ballot at the French embassy, London, as the rest of the French nation goes to the polls Sunday. [French voters living in London is an important demographic in French elections, with an estimated 300, 000 citizens living in Britain’s capital. It is often reported and has even been claimed by London’s former mayor Boris Johnson that the sheer number of French living in London makes it France’s sixth largest city. London’s Evening Standard reports of the French citizens in London, 100, 000 are registered to vote. The tens of thousands expected to vote at the French embassy in Kensington today have been met by a high presence of armed British police officers, with the Metropolitan Police command perhaps wary of the high concentration people outside the embassy following the recent Westminster terror attack. All pictures by Rachel Megawhat Breitbart London, | 0 |
Reuters Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star vandalized on video 10/27/2016
REUTERS
Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was defaced by a vandal wielding a sledgehammer and a pick-axe on Wednesday in an act captured on video, police said.
Los Angeles police expect to arrest someone for the vandalism, which left Trump’s name scratched out of the star, the emblem in the middle dislodged and chips missing.
A video posted at Deadline.com, a Hollywood media industry website, showed a man wearing a hard-hat and reflective vest swinging a sledgehammer and pick-axe in the pre-dawn darkness.
The area had been cordoned off with traffic barriers and cones, giving it the appearance of a legitimate work site.
The Republican presidential nominee, real estate developer and reality TV star has faced several large protests during his campaign appearances in California, where polls show him far behind Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The former host of the NBC show “The Apprentice,” Trump received his Walk of Fame star in 2007. A spokeswoman for Trump could not be reached for comment.
Los Angeles police spokeswoman Liliana Preciado at the scene confirmed investigators have video capturing the vandalism attack and she said police expected to arrest whoever was responsible.
Los Angeles-based City News Service reported a man identifying himself as James Lambert Otis said he damaged the installation “to make a point.”
City News reported the man said he had family members who were victims of sexual assault and had intended to remove the star, which he was unable to do, and auction it off to benefit women who have alleged Trump groped them. Trump has denied the allegations.
Otis could not be reached for comment on the report.
Trump drew widespread condemnations from voters and a number of Republican elected officials after a 2005 video emerged in which he was heard talking on an open microphone about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman.
His star on the Walk of Fame was previously targeted.
In the summer, a street artist erected a tiny wall around the star, complete with miniature American flags and barbed wire. The art piece, which was later removed, made light of Trump’s campaign pledge to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce administers the hundreds of star plaques on sidewalks in the Los Angeles neighborhood. They are purchased for $30,000 each.
Leron Gubler, president and CEO of the chamber, said in a statement the star would be covered for several days during repairs. | 0 |
RIO DE JANEIRO — The relics were arranged in a sphinxlike configuration, as in some type of ancient burial ground. Massimo Costantini, the coach of the United States table tennis team, called the formation “a sort of homage to the fallen. ” They appeared on the first day of the Olympics, in a far corner of the table tennis pavilion: 18 white balls, all of them crumpled or cracked, arranged ceremoniously in the center of a quartet of water bottles. It was a fitting symbol of the frustration that has festered at the tables this week at the Rio Games, where the table tennis balls are giving players fits. They do not bounce true, the players said. Their flight paths are unpredictable. And they frequently break. “I think this ball is very bad,” Li Ping of Qatar said after losing a match. The player who beat him, Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany, fumed that the official competition ball “makes it almost impossible to compete. ” Table tennis balls are capricious little things. Infinitesimal variations in size and imperceptible deviations in construction can have considerable ramifications for how they spin, fly and bounce. Casual players — people in suburban garages or fraternity houses — tend not to notice such details. But professionals obsess over them. The balls at the Olympics, then, are not the ones you find, cobwebbed, under the basement couch. They are not even the same balls used at the last Summer Games. Two years ago, the international federation that governs the sport switched the material of the official ball from celluloid to a different type of plastic. The federation also allowed the ball to be slightly larger. Some players are still struggling to adjust — and so, apparently, are some manufacturers. Many players criticized as subpar the specific quality of the balls from D. H. S. a Chinese equipment brand that became the official ball supplier after the 2012 Olympics in London. “I think many players are complaining because we have better balls,” said Timo Boll of Germany, who is at his fourth Olympics. “There are better balls on the market. We don’t use them at international tournaments. That’s a pity. ” The old celluloid balls were required to have a diameter of 39. 5 to 40. 5 millimeters the new ones can range from 40. 0 to 40. 6 millimeters. According to players, a bigger ball produces less speed and less spin. After the change, players had to recalibrate years of training and muscle memory. Those reliant on spin were disadvantaged more than athletic power hitters. The balls were changed shortly after the 2000 Olympics, increasing in size from 38 millimeters. Other past changes in equipment and rumors that more could be coming, like a rise in net height, have left players irked. “This is not good this is unprofessional,” Panagiotis Gionis of Greece said of the tinkering. “It’s your job. It affects you. Some players are destroyed about this. ” Gionis criticized the D. H. S. ball but was equally concerned about the lack of consistency from competition to competition. Different brands can be used in domestic leagues, regional tournaments and international competitions, and no two have felt alike in the past two years. “It’s like if you have to drive a different car than yours,” said Costantini, the United States coach, who was more concerned about this inconsistency than about the quality of any brand. “Maybe the brakes are not the same, the accelerating, and it takes some time to adjust. ” Players have to begin the adjustment process for the Olympics — the most prestigious competition in the sport — weeks or months before the Games to get comfortable with the ball. But that was tough to do this summer, some said, because of what they perceived as the poor quality of the D. H. S. ball. “We practiced with that ball months beforehand to get used to it, but you can never get used to it,” said Ovtcharov, who also said he felt the ball getting softer over the course of his games. (Certain competitions cycle multiple balls through a match, but not the Olympics.) Stefan Fegerl of Austria said: “This ball doesn’t jump so well. Many times it falls down very fast. When you hit them with the edge, maybe it’s broken. The quality is not good. ” In an interview Tuesday, Lou the general manager of D. H. S. said he had not heard any complaints firsthand. Through an interpreter, Lou said the company was “quite satisfied” with its transition to the new ball. Still, he was sympathetic when informed of the concerns. He said the company was continuing research to make a better ball. “From one side, they give us information,” Lou said, “and from the other side, we improve the balls gradually. ” Thomas Weikert, the president of the federation that governs the sport, acknowledged in an interview that the balls used in the past two years had not been as good as they could be. But he said this was a symptom of the industry rather than of any individual company. “They’ve improved a lot,” Weikert said of the balls. “Let’s say it’s O. K. It’s not 100 percent. ” Lou and Weikert noted that some griping was expected. “If you use another ball, other players will complain,” Weikert said. To be sure, certain players seemed blissfully unaware of the complaints. Told about the multitude of players voicing frustrations with the ball, Paul Drinkhall of Britain smiled. “Did they lose?” he said. Boll, the German player, was eliminated in the fourth round of the singles tournament. The team competition begins Saturday. “I’m sure they want to produce now a better ball because they’re getting a lot of criticism,” Boll said. “It would have been nice if it was before the Olympic Games. ” | 1 |
A total of 140 law enforcement officers were killed in 2016 in line of duty deaths. The number of deaths increased by 10 over 2015’s 130 officers who were killed. [The final death of the year came Friday night when Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Landon Weaver was shot and killed while investigating an alleged violation of a protective order. Jason Robinson, 32, allegedly grabbed a gun during the investigation and shot Trooper Weaver, killing him. Robinson fled the scene and was later found after an overnight manhunt. He threatened officers and was shot and killed. Death by gunfire was, once again, the leading cause of death for officers who were killed on duty. A total of 64 officers were killed by gunfire — up from 39 in 2015, according to statistics obtained by Breitbart Texas from the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP). This represents an increase of over 60 percent over the prior year. “The 61 percent increase in law enforcement officers shot and killed in 2016 versus 2015 and a 53 percent overall increase in officers murdered in the performance of duty are deeply troubling statistics,” ODMP Director of Research Steven Weiss told Breitbart Texas. “Included in that statistic is a disturbing increase in officers killed in ‘ ’ murders, such as the incidents in Dallas and Des Moines. ” “These types of murders are particularly disconcerting because they are not born out of a criminal’s desire to avoid arrest, but out of a hatred for not only law enforcement, but for our society as a whole,” Weiss explained. “It is the type of attack that, for the most part, tactical training or increased vigilance may not help to prevent. ” Weiss told Breitbart Texas the “ambush style” murders of police officers have been increasing since 2012. “When a person is willing to plan and then put into action that plan to assassinate a person for no other reason than the person is a law enforcement officer,” Weiss stated, “it is hard to draw any conclusion other than it is an attack against the American way of life. Many times the men or women in uniform represents the face of our government, since an interaction with a law enforcement officer may be the extent of most citizen’s direct contact with government during their lifetime. ” In addition to gunfire, 12 officers were killed by vehicular assault, one officer was stabbed, and three were killed in other types of assaults. Officers gave their lives in service to the public in 34 of our 50 states. Additionally, law enforcement officers with the federal government, Indian tribal police, and the U. S. territory of Puerto Rico also lost their lives while serving their departments. Texas led the nation with the deaths of 19 police officers. California was a distant second with 11 officers being killed. Each of the other states were listed with single digit numbers of officers killed while on duty. Vehicle accidents and a heart attack took the lives of three U. S. Border Patrol agents. This was the second year in a row that Texas peace officers led the nation in line of duty deaths. Automobile accidents were the second leading cause of death for law enforcement officers across the country. Automobile accidents accounted for 23 deaths while motorcycle accidents added seven more. Four officers were killed during pursuits with suspects and twelve officers were killed after being struck by automobiles alongside the roadway. One officer was killed in an aircraft crash and one was struck by a train. Other causes of death included drownings (2) animal related (1) illness (1) falling (1) accidental gunfire (2) heart attack (6) and illness related to (3). Of the 140 deaths recorded, 134 were men and 6 were women. In addition to the 140 human officers killed in the line of duty, 34 K9 officers also lost their lives in the line of duty. Heat exhaustion led the causes of death with 12 K9 officers being killed by heat related issues. An additional ten K9 officers were killed by hostile gunfire and two K9s were killed by accidental gunfire. Weiss said these numbers are about more than statistics. “Each of those deaths represents the loss of a person that dedicated their life to service, to the pursuit of justice, and to keeping their community safe,” he said. “The loss of an officer is something that effects an entire family, many time for generations. Spouses, children, grandchildren, siblings and extended family are all impacted. And the impact many times can have a profound effect on the community the officer served. ” “Thankfully, the law enforcement community is brotherhood like no other and those LOD families, like their loved ones, are never forgotten,” Weiss concluded. “They are supported by their agency and their communities for a lifetime. Agencies and charities ensure their children are able to afford that families can stay in their homes and that children that lost a parent always have a father or mother figure to speak with and be there for them when they need it. ” Author’s note: All statistics in this article were compiled from the Officer Down Memorial Page. A complete listing of the officers killed in the line of duty can be found on their website. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX. | 1 |
In 2005, as he was making a transition from developing real estate to capitalizing on his fame through ventures like a reality show and deals, Donald J. Trump hit upon a strategy for entering the field of education. He poured his own money into Trump University, which began as a business advising customers on how to make money in real estate, but left a long trail of customers alleging they were defrauded. Their lawsuits have cast a shadow over Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. But Mr. Trump also lent his name, and his credibility, to a seminar business he did not own, which was branded the Trump Institute. Its operators rented out hotel ballrooms across the country and invited people to pay up to $2, 000 to come hear Mr. Trump’s “ secrets and strategies. ” And its customers had ample reason to ask whether they, too, had been deceived. As with Trump University, the Trump Institute promised falsely that its teachers would be handpicked by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump did little, interviews show, besides appear in an infomercial — one that promised customers access to his vast accumulated knowledge. “I put all of my concepts that have worked so well for me, new and old, into our seminar,” he said in the 2005 video, adding, “I’m teaching what I’ve learned. ” Reality fell far short. In fact, the institute was run by a couple who had run afoul of regulators in dozens of states and had been dogged by accusations of deceptive business practices and fraud for decades. Similar complaints soon emerged about the Trump Institute. Yet there was an even more fundamental deceit to the business, unreported until now: Extensive portions of the materials that students received after paying their seminar fees, supposedly containing Mr. Trump’s special wisdom, had been plagiarized from an obscure real estate manual published a decade earlier. Together, the exaggerated claims about his own role, the checkered pasts of the people with whom he went into business and the theft of intellectual property at the venture’s heart all illustrate the fiction underpinning so many of Mr. Trump’s licensing businesses: Putting his name on products and services — and collecting fees — was often where his actual involvement began and ended. “That Trump Institute, what criminals they are,” said Carol Minto of West Haven, Conn. a retired court reporter who attended one seminar in 2009 and agreed to spend $1, 997. 94 to attend another before having second thoughts. She wound up requiring the help of two states’ attorneys general in getting a refund. “They wanted to steal my money,” she said. The institute was another example of the Trump brand’s being accused of luring vulnerable customers with false promises of profit and success. Others, besides Trump University, include multilevel marketing ventures that sold vitamins and telecommunications services, and a vanity publisher that faced hundreds of consumer complaints. Mr. Trump’s infomercial performance suggested he was closely overseeing the Trump Institute. “People are loving it,” he said in the program, titled “The Donald Trump Way to Wealth” and staged like a talk show in front of a wildly enthusiastic audience. “People are really doing well with it, and they’re loving it. ” His name, picture and aphorisms like “I am the American Dream, supersized version” were all over the course materials. Yet while he owned 93 percent of Trump University, the Trump Institute was owned and operated by Irene and Mike Milin, a couple who had been marketing courses since the 1980s. A Trump executive, Michael Sexton, told The Sacramento Bee in 2006 that there was a simple reason for going into business with the Milins: Their company was “the best in the business. ” Yet the Milins’ reputation was actually pockmarked with lawsuits and regulatory actions — a dismal track record that Mr. Trump and his aides could have unearthed with a modicum of due diligence. The Milins were known for running ads that screamed “FREE MONEY!” and offered tutorials on how to obtain government grants and loans. They were also notorious for being frequent targets of state regulators. In 1993, the Texas attorney general accused their company, then called Information Seminars International, of taking customers’ money and running. People who bought a $499 “Milin Method” package were promised financing to resell real estate purchased at government auctions, officials said, but when customers sought to follow up with the company, the Milins had vanished. In 2001, operating as National Grants Conference, the Milins settled with Florida authorities after being accused of violating the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. And in 2006, the Vermont attorney general sued the Milins for consumer fraud, ultimately fining them $65, 000 and allowing customers to seek more than $325, 000 in refunds. The regulatory woes continued after the Milins rebranded their seminar business with the name of the country’s real estate developer: In 2007, 33 state attorneys general signed a letter to the Federal Trade Commission accusing the Milins of deceptive trade practices. A year later, their company sought bankruptcy protection, owing $2. 1 million to creditors. The venture continued for a few years. Alan Garten, Mr. Trump’s counsel, said that executives were unaware of the Milins’ history when their business relationship began but that he could not recall when they became aware of the couple’s with regulators. Operating as the Trump Institute, the Milins pursued familiar tactics — and attracted familiar complaints, eventually earning an F from the Better Business Bureau. Seminar attendees who later sought assistance from supposed experts over a Trump Institute phone line complained of being told to ignore what they had been taught in the seminars because it was outdated or useless advice. “The ‘advisers’ refused to listen to us when we referred to the methods taught in the seminars,” Fred and Zofia Besel, a retired couple from New York, wrote in 2009, seeking a refund in a letter that wound up with the Florida attorney general’s office. Unbeknownst to customers at the time, though, even the printed materials handed out to seminar attendees were based on a lie. The Trump Institute copyrighted its publication, each page emblazoned with “Billionaire’s Road Map to Success,” and it distributed the materials to those who attended the seminars. Yet much of the handbook’s contents were lifted without attribution from an obscure guide published by Success magazine in 1995 called “Real Estate Mastery System. ” At least 20 pages of the Trump Institute book were copied entirely or in large part from “Real Estate Mastery System. ” Even some of its hypothetical scenarios — “Seller A is asking $80, 000 for a residence” — were repeated verbatim. Asked about the plagiarism, which was discovered by the Democratic “super PAC” American Bridge, the editor of the Trump Institute publication, Susan G. Parker, denied responsibility and suggested that a lawyer for the Milins, who provided her with background material for the book, might have been to blame. The lawyer, Peter Hoppenfeld, who no longer represents the Milins, said Ms. Parker was most likely at fault but acknowledged forwarding her information from the Milins’ office. Reached at her home in Boca Raton, Fla. Irene Milin told a reporter, “I’m very busy,” and hung up. She did not answer subsequent calls or respond to a voice mail message. Mr. Garten said Mr. Trump was “obviously” not aware of the plagiarism. But even while playing down Mr. Trump’s link to the Trump Institute, calling it a “ licensing deal,” Mr. Garten expressed pride in the venture. “I stand by the curriculum that was taught at both Trump University and Trump Institute,” he said. Ms. Parker, a lawyer and legal writer in Briarcliff Manor, N. Y. said that far from being handpicked by Mr. Trump, she had been hired to write the book after responding to a Craigslist ad. She said she never spoke to Mr. Trump, let alone received guidance from him on what to write. She said she drew on her own knowledge of real estate and a of Mr. Trump’s books. Ms. Parker said she did venture to one of the Trump Institute seminars — and was appalled: The speakers came off like salesmen, she said, and their advice was nothing but banalities. “It was like I was in sleaze America,” she said. “It was all smoke and mirrors. ” | 1 |
TEL AVIV — Writing in an encrypted chat room, Islamic State sympathizers and militants celebrated the deadly terrorist attack against a bus of Coptic Christian pilgrims in Egypt on Friday, and warned that Christians in the country should expect more such attacks. [Breitbart Jerusalem obtained access to correspondence posted in a closed chat group that utilizes the encrypted Telegram messaging service. The group serves as an internal Twitter of sorts for IS jihadists and sympathizers, and has been used in the past to issue IS communications. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in which 29 Christian civilians were murdered by gunmen claiming to be security forces as the pilgrims were reportedly on their way to volunteer at a monastery. “A security team of caliphate soldiers set up an ambush for dozens of Christians as they headed to the church of St. Samuel,” IS announced on Saturday through Amaq, the terrorist group’s media and propaganda arm. The attack horrified Egypt and the Western world, but IS members and supporters on the Telegram network viewed the carnage as heroic and vowed to continue targeting Christians. Talha Alanssari wrote in the Telegram conversation, “May your jihad be blessed you are sons of the Islamic State. Bless the pure hands that struck the strongholds of the Christians and the infidels. Thank Allah who made our hearts happy with the heroic attack of the nation of Caliphs against the Christians in Egypt who should expect more attacks. The same Christians will not have the luxury of security and they will pay … the taxes of the Jizya with the help of Allah” Jizya is a tax levied on living in an Islamic state. Oubaida Alsinawi joined the conversation, saying, “Thanks to Allah before and thanks to Allah after. He’s the one who made a success of this attack of our brothers in the military arena who left to commit suicide but returned safely, thank Allah alone. Thank Allah who allowed our brothers to hunt these Christians as the hunter hunts his prey. The soldiers of the Islamic State will continue in an campaign with these Christians and traitorous Muslims in the Egyptian army and the tribes that help them in Sinai. I swear to Allah that our brothers in the field are demonstrating creativity as they reach these Christians and infidels and all those who help them. The attacks that have yet to come will be much harder with the help of Allah. ” Hamza Alraqawi wrote, “May your jihad be blessed, you the Mujahedeen of the Islamic State in Egypt. You warmed our hearts as our Mujahedeen brothers did who struck in England, Belgium, France, America and Russia. We say to you, continue with the blessing of Allah and increase your attacks and don’t allow them to continue harming the oppressed on the Earth. Here in Raqqa we are fighting fiercely on the outskirts of the city and we won’t let the infidels and traitors enter. Our bodies are explosives meant to kill them and lead them to hell. ” A Telegram user who goes by the name “The Sheikh of the Caliphate” wrote, “Thanks to Allah before and thanks to Allah after for strengthening the Mujahedeen and guiding their hands in their campaigns and attacks. The blessed attack against Christians in Egypt had a special importance for the Mujahedeen, especially after the suicide attack committed in their idol churches. The war against the Christians is no less important than the war against the Shi’ites and against the infidels. They must clearly understand that the abduction and killing of Muslim men and women in Egypt’s streets will not pass without punishment and they must wait for more painful things with the help of Allah. ” Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. Ali Waked is the Arab affairs correspondent for Breitbart Jerusalem. | 1 |
VIENNA — In rejecting a candidate for president on Sunday, voters in Austria showed the limitations of Donald J. Trump’s tailwinds on a continent where extremist politics have traditionally brought cataclysm. Call it the other Trump effect, one that may sow caution among some European voters suspicious of the advances of populist politicians. Populist forces have unsettled politics in Europe and the United States, frequently by using fake news and fanning fears of globalization and migration. The British vote to leave the European Union this year was complicated by such anxieties. The rejection of constitutional changes in Italy on Sunday hinged on a variety of issues. But the choice before Austrians was perhaps the starkest. The bitter yearlong campaign for the presidency pitted Norbert Hofer, a leader of the Freedom Party, founded in the 1950s by former Nazis, against a former Green Party leader, Alexander Van der Bellen. This was a political choice, and Mr. Van der Bellen’s decisive victory — by 6. 6 percentage points with 99 percent of votes counted — left his supporters predictably jubilant, if surprised. In recent days, they had seemed resigned to fearing that Mr. Trump’s victory, in particular, was tilting the outcome here against them. “It is unbelievable,” said Wolfgang Petritsch, a veteran diplomat, a biographer of the former Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and the chairman of Austria’s Marshall Plan foundation. “Austria saves the world!” he said with a twist of irony. Austria is too small a sample to know whether the populist tide is abating. Europe still faces pivotal elections next year in France and Germany, as well as the possibility of a snap election in Italy. Those races will define politics in the European Union for the remainder of the decade. But Austria does seem to disprove the idea that Mr. Trump’s victory accelerated a broader public acceptance of populist, forces. In recent days, many in Austria had seemed resigned to the likelihood of a Trump bounce for the far right. Mr. Hofer himself said in an interview last month that the American election had bolstered support for his Freedom Party. Yet it was not the case. “People followed Trump with curiosity, shock, fear, jubilation, but I don’t think they drew any conclusions,” Johannes Hübner, a Freedom Party parliamentary deputy, said on Sunday night. “It’s like a Hollywood movie. ” Perhaps the message Austrians received, he said, was “beware of another Trump — don’t vote for Hofer. ” Mr. Van der Bellen, who exudes a calm in public, campaigned as a sort of reveling in corny, retail politicking. In an interview in September, he noted that he had been teased for donning traditional Austrian jackets and attending the numerous village fetes and festivals that are the essence of rural life here. Especially, he said, when “it emerges that I like doing this. ” He also suggested then that the intensity of the campaign had led to a broad politicization across Austria, where the voting age is 16. He said Britain’s “tragic” vote to leave the European Union had made people think twice about Austria’s imitating any such move. Mr. Hofer’s party is more skeptical of Europe, but he had stopped well short of calling for Austria to leave the European Union. The country, which straddles the heart of Europe from Italy and Switzerland to Hungary and Slovakia, depends heavily on tourism and exports for its comfortable living standards. A choice to be the first country in postwar Europe to elect a leader for president could have jeopardized that standing. The vote was widely watched across Europe as a measure of how high fringe parties could climb in mainstream politics, turning what is normally a sleepy contest for a largely ceremonial post into a measure of the populist wave that has advanced on both sides of the Atlantic. and forces have already ridden a populist path to power in Hungary and Poland and have gained strength in France and even Germany. Mr. Van der Bellen had appealed to Austrians to vote for reason over extremes. Mr. Hofer campaigned on an “Austria First” slogan, and said he wanted to lead a country that was secure “for our children and grandchildren,” playing on fears of the tide of migrants that have entered Europe. Mr. Hofer’s failure is likely to reverberate around Europe, where the far right has made inroads from Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France to the Alternative for Germany party, both of which have begun eating into support for mainstream conservatives. Establishment politicians are likely to breathe a sigh of relief and interpret the result as a sign that fringe parties still face what many in Europe have long considered a barrier to broader support because of historical associations with fascism. One person who may thank the Austrians, with whom she has tussled over immigration, is Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. Austria’s rejection of the wave comes as Ms. Merkel heads this week into a congress of her conservative party, at which she will be anointed its candidate for a fourth term in elections next year. Ms. Merkel issued no immediate reaction to the Austrian vote, but her vice chancellor, the Social Democratic leader Sigmar Gabriel, called it “a victory for reason. ” Still, Mr. Hofer made the biggest advances of any populist in Europe, racking up almost 50 percent of the vote when he lost a presidential runoff by just 31, 000 votes. His party contested the slim defeat, and Austria’s highest court ordered a rerun on procedural grounds. That was then postponed to Sunday, from October, after absentee ballots were found to have faulty glue. Despite the process, voter interest and emotions ran high. The presidential contest was the since 1986, when Austrians elected Kurt Waldheim, a former United Nations secretary general, despite revelations that he had concealed his service in Hitler’s armed forces close to the sites of Nazi atrocities in the Balkans during World War II. An array of establishment figures lined up behind Mr. Van der Bellen, but Mr. Hofer garnered some support from mainstream conservatives in the People’s Party, which declined to back the former Green leader. Mr. Petritsch and other political veterans said the length of the campaign worked in Mr. Van der Bellen’s favor. He was the clear favorite of voters in Vienna and other cities, and apparently was able to reach into rural areas where Mr. Hofer won in May but performed less strongly Sunday. “He built a broad coalition,” said Alexandra the editor in chief of the liberal daily Der Standard. Now, she said, Austrians will expect Mr. Van der Bellen to mend the rifts that appeared during the bitter campaign. After early projections showed him clearly lagging, Mr. Hofer, 45, quickly conceded on Facebook, asking “all Austrians to stick together and to work together. ” “Dear friends,” Mr. Hofer wrote, “you supported me so well and I am infinitely sad that it did not work out. ” | 1 |
How Deep Will Trump’s Truths Go?
Donald Trump will often be mocked in the coming months as the anti-elitist, anti-establishment disruptor of politics who wants to lower taxes on the elite and who is not above hiring establishment figures such as Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for his team. The mockery will mostly be misplaced simply because the terms “elite” and “establishment” are understood too broadly: Trump’s movement was only against certain forms of establishment elitism which have nothing to do with wealth, membership in a party hierarchy or even political experience. -Bloomberg
In this editorial we learn that Trump voters were against America’s intelligentsia. These are the people who occupy the bureaucratic rungs in Washington and the tenured chairs in top universities.
These are the people as well that cluster in New York, Los Angeles and Washington. They move back and forth between corporations and “public service.”
These are the folks that set the tone for the cultural attacks that are ruining the United States. These people, as well, constitute the ranks of globalists. Much of what they want for America is intended to destroy it.
More:
When Trump supporters think about the “elite” or the “establishment” what they really mean is America’s intelligentsia.
… Collectively, they — we — were seen as an entrenched, closed, arrogant group that sees fit to tell people what to say and think.
… This is the same understanding of “elite” and “establishment” that informed Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”: The Trumpists share Rand’s exasperation with teachers, writers and bureaucrats and their fake recipes for social justice, as well as her admiration for the rough but creative doers, the titans of business.
Of course this is nonsense, and in fact these perceptions are exactly what’s wrong with Rand.
She saw the world as a place where “doers” were hemmed in and pulled down by their inferiors.
But today’s world is not like that. In fact, one can make a case that the industrial revolution – filled with doers – eradicated an independent peasantry whose lives were a good deal freer than ours today.
The problem with the modern world is simple. It is in the grip of a great conspiracy, the likes of which have probably never occurred on this scale in human history.
The conspiracy is apparently run by a few people who have inherited control central banking around the world and thus are worth trillions.
With this money they have created an almost seamless web of propaganda intended to frighten people and drive them into the arms of international government.
The goal is a single world order with one justice system, one central bank, one currency, one civil police force, etc.
This Bloomberg article is focused not on the top people in this conspiracy but on the “little people” who do the bidding of higher ups and have learned how to survive in an internationalist environment and profit from it.
But in our view, these are probably NOT the people that Trump’s voters really voted against. Many of Trump’s voters, like Trump himself, understand that the problems go far beyond academics, bureaucrats and corrupt tycoons.
In fact, this Bloomberg article is a perfect example of a kind of elite propaganda. It is trying to convince us that we need to “listen” to the anger of Trump voters and then, we are instructed, the intelligentsia needs to react.
American intellectuals may violently disagree with the average Trump voter on most things. They may have access to facts that prove that voters wrong. But there’s no way they — we — can go on dismissing and ridiculing these people without dooming themselves to irrelevance and provoking further backlash.
This is in fact the fondest hope, no doubt, of those tasked with defending the REAL culprits from exposure and attack. Such individuals are the ones running the world’s largest corporations and leading the most powerful nation states.
And these individuals may be found in higher places still, plotting the propaganda that the rest of us imbibe. Also managing central bank strategies and even plotting our gradual progress toward a new world war.
The Bloomberg article ends by suggesting that a lot of the irritation of Trump voters is aimed at political correctness and that the US needs “an open conversation about what ails it, not … one that tiptoes around speech taboos about racism, misogyny and sexual discrimination.”
Once more – hooey. Our guess is that like Donald Trump himself, many of his voters – perhaps tens of millions are quite aware that the world’s problems extend far beyond political correctness and “intellectuals.”
Of course we’ll have to wait and see. But Trump called InfoWars to thank them for their support, and InfoWars, for all its controversy, has provided a good deal of reality about the way the world works.
If Trump intends to educate people about the real “conspiracy” – a banking conspiracy located, to begin with, in London’s City – then fairly powerful truths will need to be spoken.
It is quite likely these truths, once uttered, will find a sympathetic audience with many of Trump’s supporters. This isn’t what Bloomberg is hoping for, however. Bloomberg, as this editorial shows, wants a conversation focused on debunking political correctness and bringing America’s – and the West’s – intelligentsia to heel.
Conclusion: Will Trump’s victory provide us with larger truths, or will the conversation be bogged down and trivialized? This is an important question. We can see the answer Bloomberg hopes for. We hope for something more fundamental. | 1 |
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Как сообщает РИА Новости, ссылаясь на представителя городского УМВД, было установлено, что в полицию звонили братья — один учится в первом классе, второй в пятом. Ранее дети на учете не стояли, они из благополучной семьи.
Сотрудникам полиции ученики пояснили, что просто хотели пошутить и о последствиях не догадывались.
Мальчикам еще нет 14 лет, поэтому ответственность за поступок будут нести родители. Мать уже вызвана в полицию, на нее составлен административный протокол о ненадлежащем воспитании несовершеннолетних. Родителям грозит штраф, все документы передадут на рассмотрение в суд.
Отметим, звонки от неизвестных о, якобы, заложенных бомбах в учебных заведениях, нередки. Проблема безопасности в российских школах поднималась много раз, но положение дел, по большей части, оказывается неизменным. Брешь в безопасности не позволяет утверждать стопроцентно, что в школе нет бомбы.
Несколько лет назад, прямо перед Днем знаний, корреспонденты "Правды.Ру" испытали " школьную безопасность ". Тогда мы пронесли в учебное заведение пустую коробку с надписью "бомба" и оставили ее неподалеку от классов. Нам не препятствовала ни охрана, ни педагоги. Причем, также легко и непринужденно мы забрали коробку обратно.
Частными охранными организациями осуществляется контроль 20 тысяч школ по всей стране. И безопасность детей напрямую зависит от ЧОПа, который коллегиально выбрали родители и педагоги. Если где-то охранники являются настоящими профессионалами и не допустят никаких внештатных ситуаций, то в некоторых фирмах на пост в школе сажают человека, у которого от охранника — лишь надпись на груди. Естественно, что в первом случае услуги обходятся дороже, чем во втором, и выбор зачастую очевиден.
Если разобраться, то компетентность школьного охранника прямо пропорциональна его стоимости. За небольшие деньги нельзя требовать от сотрудника уникальных способностей. Ведь по большому счету, один человек должен быть экспертом по комплексной безопасности зданий и сооружений, вахтером, личным телохранителем, обладать некоторыми навыками в психологии общения с детьми, быть не агрессивным и образованным. Что и говорить, список внушительный, чего не скажешь о зарплате. На деле школьный охранник, зачастую, вялый молодой человек, которому мало до чего есть дело, а желание отсидеть смену и сбежать "из этого ада" является приоритетным.
Единственное место, которое контролируется такими секьюрити — входная дверь. Во время летних ремонтов в школу можно завезти хоть целый арсенал, а во время учебного года в некоторых школах под носом у охранника торгуют различными наркотическими веществами.
Загвоздка в том, что, опять же, в тендере на охрану школ выигрывают те, кто просит за свои услуги самую низкую цену. И как бы не убеждали ЧОПы, где охрана действительно чего-то стоит, что их цена оправдана, выбор останавливают на самых недорогих.
Читайте последние новости Pravda.Ru на сегодня Кто отвечает за безопасность в школах? Поделиться: | 0 |
AMMAN, Jordan — Weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market, according to American and Jordanian officials. Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, F. B. I. officials believe after months of investigating the attack, according to people familiar with the investigation. The existence of the weapons theft, which ended only months ago after complaints by the American and Saudi governments, is being reported for the first time after a joint investigation by The New York Times and Al Jazeera. The theft, involving millions of dollars of weapons, highlights the messy, unplanned consequences of programs to arm and train rebels — the kind of program the C. I. A. and Pentagon have conducted for decades — even after the Obama administration had hoped to keep the training program in Jordan under tight control. The Jordanian officers who were part of the scheme reaped a windfall from the weapons sales, using the money to buy expensive SUVs, iPhones and other luxury items, Jordanian officials said. The theft and resale of the arms — including Kalashnikov assault rifles, mortars and grenades — have led to a flood of new weapons available on the black arms market. Investigators do not know what became of most of them, but a disparate collection of groups, including criminal networks and rural Jordanian tribes, use the arms bazaars to build their arsenals. Weapons smugglers also buy weapons in the arms bazaars to ship outside the country. The F. B. I. investigation into the Amman shooting, run by the bureau’s Washington field office, is continuing. But American and Jordanian officials said the investigators believed that the weapons a Jordanian police captain, Anwar Abu Zaid, used to gun down two American contractors, two Jordanians and one South African had originally arrived in Jordan intended for the Syrian program. The officials said this finding had come from tracing the serial numbers of the weapons. Mohammad H. Jordan’s minister of state for media affairs, said allegations that Jordanian intelligence officers had been involved in any weapons thefts were “absolutely incorrect. ” “Weapons of our security institutions are concretely tracked, with the highest discipline,” he said. He called the powerful Jordanian intelligence service, known as the General Intelligence Directorate, or G. I. D. “a reputable institution known for its professional conduct and high degree of cooperation among security agencies. ” In Jordan, the head of the G. I. D. is considered the second most important man after the king. Representatives of the C. I. A. and F. B. I. declined to comment. The State Department did not address the allegations directly, but a spokesman said America’s relationship with Jordan remained solid. “The United States deeply values the long history of cooperation and friendship with Jordan,” said John Kirby, the spokesman. “We are committed to the security of Jordan and to partnering closely with Jordan to meet common security challenges. ” The training program, which in 2013 began directly arming the rebels under the code name Timber Sycamore, is run by the C. I. A. and several Arab intelligence services and aimed at building up forces opposing President Bashar of Syria. The United States and Saudi Arabia are the biggest contributors, with the Saudis contributing both weapons and large sums of money, and with C. I. A. paramilitary operatives taking the lead in training the rebels to use Kalashnikovs, mortars, antitank guided missiles and other weapons. The existence of the program is classified, as are all details about its budget. American officials say that the C. I. A. has trained thousands of rebels in the past three years, and that the fighters made substantial advances on the battlefield against Syrian government forces until Russian military forces — launched last year in support of Mr. Assad — compelled them to retreat. The training program is based in Jordan because of the country’s proximity to the Syrian battlefields. From the beginning, the C. I. A. and the Arab intelligence agencies relied on Jordanian security services to transport the weapons, many bought in bulk in the Balkans and elsewhere around Eastern Europe. The program is separate from one that the Pentagon set up to train rebels to combat Islamic State fighters, rather than the Syrian military. That program was shut down after it managed to train only a handful of Syrian rebels. Jordanian and American officials described the weapons theft and subsequent investigation on the condition of anonymity because the Syrian rebel training is classified in the United States and is a government secret in Jordan. News of the weapons theft and eventual crackdown has been circulating inside Jordan’s government for several months. Husam Abdallat, a senior aide to several past Jordanian prime ministers, said he had heard about the scheme from current Jordanian officials. The G. I. D. has some corrupt officers in its ranks, Mr. Abdallat said, but added that the institution as a whole is not corrupt. “The majority of its officers are patriotic and proud Jordanians who are the country’s first line of defense,” he said. Jordanian officials who described the operation said it had been run by a group of G. I. D. logistics officers with direct access to the weapons once they reached Jordan. The officers regularly siphoned truckloads of the weapons from the stocks, before delivering the rest of the weapons to designated points. Then the officers sold the weapons at several large arms markets in Jordan. The main arms bazaars in Jordan are in Ma’an, in the southern part of the country in Sahab, outside Amman and in the Jordan Valley. It is unclear whether the current head of the G. I. D. Gen. Faisal had knowledge of the theft of the C. I. A. and Saudi weapons. But several Jordanian intelligence officials said senior officers inside the service had knowledge of the weapons scheme and provided cover for the officers. Word that the weapons intended for the rebels were being bought and sold on the black market leaked into Jordan government circles last year, when arms dealers began bragging to their customers that they had large stocks of and weapons. Jordanian intelligence operatives monitoring the arms market — operatives not involved in the scheme — began sending reports to headquarters about a proliferation of weapons in the market and of the boasts of the arms dealers. After the Americans and Saudis complained about the theft, investigators at the G. I. D. arrested several dozen officers involved in the scheme, among them a lieutenant colonel running the operation. They were ultimately released from detention and fired from the service, but were allowed to keep their pensions and money they gained from the scheme, according to Jordanian officials. Jordan’s decision to host the C. I. A. training program is the latest episode in a long partnership. Beginning in the Eisenhower administration, the C. I. A. made large payments to King Hussein, who ruled Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999, in exchange for permission to run numerous intelligence operations on Jordanian soil. C. I. A. money and expertise also helped the king establish the G. I. D. and put down internal and external threats to his government. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United States has flooded Jordan with money for various counterterrorism programs. American and Jordanian spies have run a joint counterterrorism center outside Amman, and a secret prison in Jordan housed prisoners the C. I. A. captured in the region. In his 2006 book, “State of Denial,” the journalist Bob Woodward recounted a 2003 conversation in which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, told Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, “We created the Jordanian intelligence service, and now we own it. ” It is a relationship of mutual dependence, but Jordan has particular leverage because of its location in the heart of the Middle East and its general tolerance to be used as a base of American military and intelligence operations. Jordan’s security services also have a long history of trying to infiltrate Islamic militant groups, efforts that have yielded both success and failure. In 2009, a Jordanian doctor — brought to the C. I. A. by a G. I. D. officer after the doctor said he had penetrated Al Qaeda’s leadership — turned out to be a double agent and blew himself up at a remote base in Afghanistan. Seven C. I. A. employees, as well as the G. I. D. officer, were killed in the attack. Two recent heads of the service, also known as the Mukhabarat, have been sent to prison on charges including embezzlement, money laundering and bank fraud. One of them, Gen. Samih Battikhi, ran the G. I. D. from 1995 to 2000 and was convicted of being part of a scheme to obtain bank loans of around $600 million for fake government contracts and pocketing about $25 million. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, but the sentence was eventually reduced to four years that were served in his villa in the seaside town of Aqaba. Gen. Mohammad who ran the service from 2005 to 2008, was later convicted of stealing millions of dollars that G. I. D. officers had seized from Iraqi citizens crossing into Jordan in the years after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. His trial showed that he had also arranged for money to be smuggled in private cars from Iraq into Jordan and had been involved in sellingJordanian citizenship to Iraqi businessmen. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined tens of millions of dollars. President Obama authorized the covert arming program in April 2013, after more than a year of debate inside the administration about the wisdom of using the C. I. A. to train rebels trying to oust Mr. Assad. The decision was made in part to try to gain control of a chaotic situation in which Arab countries were funneling arms into Syria for various rebel groups with little coordination. The Qataris had paid to smuggle shipments of weapons over the border from Turkey, and Saudi Arabia sent thousands of Kalashnikovs and millions of rounds of ammunition it had bought, sometimes with the C. I. A. ’s help. By late 2013, the C. I. A. was working directly with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other nations to arm and train small groups of rebels and send them across the border into Syria. The specific motives behind the November shooting at the Amman police training facility remain uncertain, and it is unclear when the F. B. I. will officially conclude its investigation. This year, the widows of the Americans killed in the attack sued Twitter, alleging that it knowingly permitted the Islamic State to use its social media platform to spread the militant group’s violent message, recruiting and raising funds. Captain Abu Zaid, the gunman, was killed almost immediately. His brother, Fadi Abu Zaid, said in an interview that he still believed his brother was innocent and that he had given no indications he was planning to carry out the shooting. The Jordanian government, he said, has denied him any answers about the shooting, and has refused to release his brother’s autopsy report. | 1 |
Heat Street moves a little closer to its editorial stance by parting ways with editor Louise Mensch. [From Politico: Louise Mensch is no longer leading News Corp. ’s website Heat Street. The company and Mensch made the change in . Mensch and News Corp. said the move was made so that Mensch could focus on creating new digital media projects for News Corp. … [A] News Corp. source suggested another reason for the change: Mensch’s activity on Twitter and elsewhere had become a distraction for the otherwise successful website. Mensch has been incredibly active on Twitter, often attacking Donald Trump, and talking about various theories regarding intelligence leaks and Russia. She also popped up in John Podesta’s hacked emails where she suggested an idea [BREITBART FACT CHECK: multiple ideas] for an ad for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Read the rest of the story here. For more entertainment, we recommend the following stories: Heat Street Apologizes for Saying Pepe the Frog Isn’t Heat Street Stealth Replaces Article with Louise Mensch SJW Propaganda, Louise Mensch: ‘Everyone’ Who Votes Trump is ‘Scum of The Earth’ Louise Mensch Shares Picture of Her Own Twitter Searches to Call Other People | 0 |
You may now have more messaging apps than you have close friends. As of this week, there are six prominent chat apps in the United States — or as I see it, one too many. The latest to join the horde is Allo, Google’s highly anticipated messaging app that lets people take advantage of artificial intelligence to chat and make plans. Google began offering the smarter app on Wednesday. Allo is appearing at a time when smartphones are already crowded with chat apps. IMessage from Apple is prominent among iPhone owners. Facebook Messenger is widely used on that social network. Also popular is WhatsApp, the chat service from Facebook that has largely replaced text messaging internationally. Add to the list Slack, a group chat tool that is popular among businesses, and Google Hangouts, which was released in 2013, and you have six. I asked the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who studies the relationship between brain size and social circles, about the overload. His research has found that most people have the mental capacity to sustain 150 meaningful relationships, and among them, only five close ones. “Having more apps than close friends doesn’t help, as something will have to go,” Mr. Dunbar said in an email, though he noted that the various messaging apps serve different purposes. Younger people are shying away from chatting on Facebook, for example, to have more private conversations on apps like WhatsApp. With that backdrop in mind, I tested Allo for five days and compared it with the apps that are most similar to it: Google Hangouts, Apple iMessage and Facebook Messenger. After weighing the pros and cons, my advice is that people can hold off on downloading Allo, largely because its artificially intelligent assistant was unhelpful. But if Allo matures, users will probably want to ditch the Hangouts app. First, some context about Allo. Google announced the app in May, aiming to highlight the company’s push into artificial intelligence. Its older chat app, Hangouts, will remain, but Google will emphasize that product’s use as a videoconferencing and messaging app for businesses. To understand how Allo works, it’s easiest to think of the app’s A. I. assistant as an office intern who is lurking in the background, eager to chime in. The assistant analyzes messages you have typed or dictated and, when appropriate, springs into action with automatically generated phrases you can choose to reply with or suggestions for Google searches that may help accomplish tasks. When you’re having a conversation with another person, for example, the assistant suggests ways it can help. Saying “Want to see a movie tonight?” prompts the assistant to offer a Google search for movie showtimes or to reply with suggestions like “Sure, what time?” or “Not really. ” Here is where Allo became frustrating for me. Asking an assistant to search “movie showtimes tonight” should load a list of movies and corresponding showtimes. Instead, Google’s assistant shows a list of movies without showtimes only after tapping on a film can you ask for times. Sometimes that doesn’t even work. Asking for showtimes for the movie “Snowden” loaded movies playing at a movie theater called UA Snowden Square Stadium 14. Not helpful — unless, of course, you live in Columbia, Md. Allo also tries to guess what your written response might be to certain types of phrases, questions or photos. With photos, the app occasionally identifies what’s inside the photo to generate a suggested reaction. So when you receive a photo of a dog, Allo loads responses like “adorable. ” This feature ran into several problems. When I sent a picture to a friend of my cat sitting inside my car, Allo suggested this response to the friend: “What a cute car!” (Sorry, Allo, but my Prius is the opposite of cute.) When I sent photos of my dog to the same friend, Allo’s assistant correctly identified the breed, a Pembroke Welsh corgi. It suggested the reaction “Nice pembroke welsh corgi. ” Impressive, but if someone said that to me in real life, I would add that person to my list of suspected Cylons. For now, Allo’s artificial assistance feels limited. So if I were a manager seeking an assistant, I probably wouldn’t hire Allo. But I would politely tell the candidate to reapply after getting more experience. Each messaging app has its own purpose, but Allo has the most in common with Facebook Messenger, iMessage and Google Hangouts. That’s because all four are capable of adding some personality with stickers and emojis. So I tested Messenger, iMessage and Hangouts against Allo to determine their pros and cons. The highlights: ■ iMessage, Hangouts and Messenger work on mobile devices and computers. Allo works only on Android and iOS mobile devices, though Google plans to expand Allo to computers later. ■ iMessage and Messenger support apps, adding features like sending money to friends within messages. Google has no plans to support outside apps in Allo. ■ Messenger has more sticker packs than Allo, which has only about 25. ■ Facebook is experimenting with chat bots that you can talk to for shopping or summoning an Uber car. Allo’s assistant was quicker to respond and more natural to communicate with than Facebook’s chat bots. ■ IMessage stickers are more fun to use. In iMessage, stickers can be placed on top of messages and photos — add a cartoon mustache to your selfie, for example. On Allo, stickers can be sent only as messages. ■ The Hangouts app is very much like Allo, without the assistant. Allo has more entertaining stickers, including a muscular yellow bull that appears to be twerking. The big difference between the two is that the Hangouts app relies primarily on your contacts list linked to a Google Mail account, whereas Allo pulls contacts from your device’s phone book. The upshot: iMessage and Messenger have more features than Allo. There are two major features missing from Allo: the ability to chat using a computer and using apps and games to do more within messages. With Allo, Google has the opportunity to stand out by offering superior artificial intelligence. Neither Messenger nor Allo has great A. I. yet, but Google’s assistant has a better start. Finally, there is privacy to consider. It’s tough to say how Allo will fare in terms of security until encryption experts take a close look at the app. Here’s what we know so far: By default, Apple’s iMessage service is encrypted, which means a message is encrypted when it is sent from your device and remains encrypted when it passes through Apple’s server and reaches the recipient. Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger both lack encryption, so at some point when messages pass through their servers, they can see your messages. Allo has encryption turned off by default because its server needs to see the messages to work its A. I. magic. However, Allo includes a mode called Incognito with full encryption enabled, which people can use for private conversations, similar to a private mode on a web browser. But, of course, the A. I. features do not work in Incognito. So Allo is a step ahead of Hangouts and Messenger for privacy. But by default (and by design) it is not as secure as iMessage. I recommend waiting for Allo to become available on computers and for its A. I. to become smarter. At the moment, Allo’s assistant will waste more time than it saves when it comes to helping you make plans, and it will probably make conversations more awkward. Google said it was still improving and refining its algorithms, and Allo’s assistant will get better over time. Once Allo’s assistant matures, the Hangouts app will become redundant and you’ll be able to delete it from your device. The catch, of course, is that Allo’s A. I. won’t become sophisticated until more people use it and share feedback. For now, if I really need help, I’m going to request a competent intern. | 1 |
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is set to receive nearly $141 million merger pay following Verizon’s purchase of the company, despite the SEC launching an investigation into whether Yahoo intentionally covered up a widespread hack and leak of its users data for nearly two years. In December, it was revealed that over one billion Yahoo users had been affected by a hack, just months after a previous hack was announced and reportedly covered up by the company. In both incidents, users had their names, email addresses, dates of birth, security questions and answers, phone numbers, and hashed passwords stolen by hackers, including the details of over 150, 000 government employees. Yahoo was reportedly aware of the first large hack, which led to over 500 million account details being stolen, in 2014. However, they failed to announce the incident to the public until late 2016. “The SEC’s investigation looks into whether Yahoo disclosed information about the data breaches in timely enough fashion,” wrote USA Today on the subject. “SEC rules require companies to disclose data breaches and cyberattacks as soon as it is determined the incidents could have an effect on investors. ” “As part of its investigation, the SEC last month requested documents from Yahoo,” they continued. “The agency has been seeking a model case for cybersecurity rules it issued in 2011. ” Mayer’s reign as CEO of Yahoo has often been controversial, with the CEO facing a lawsuit last year that claimed she purposely purged male employees, and with several employees of Tumblr, the popular platform owned by Yahoo, also claiming that Mayer and her management were responsible for the decline of the social network. In January 2016, Mayer also faced a backlash after making a joke to employees about the number of layoffs at the company. “No layoffs … this week!” joked Mayer, in response to questions raised by concerned employees. A New York Times report also claimed that Mayer had denied repeated requests for additional investment in Yahoo’s cybersecurity, with the security team allegedly derisively referred to as “paranoids” inside the company. Following both hacking incidents, and the revelation that Yahoo had been secretly scanning user emails for U. S. intelligence agencies, Verizon reportedly sought a significant discount on its purchase of the company, though the exact figure is currently unknown. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0 |
While media outlets focused on the collapse of Speaker Paul Ryan’s healthcare bill, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) quietly vetoed legislation that would have granted women immediate approval to carry guns for against domestic abusers. [The bill, HB 1852, would make exceptions in the issuance of concealed carry permits, “[providing] that for a period of 45 days after the issuance of a protective order the individual seeking the protective order may lawfully carry a concealed weapon. ” McAuliffe vetoed the legislation on March 24, claiming HB 1852 weakens the “Commonwealth’s gun safety laws” and “perpetuates the dangerous fiction that the victims of domestic violence will be safer by arming themselves. ” Breitbart News reported the story of Carol Bowne, a New Jersey woman who had gotten a protective order against her and applied for state’s permission to have a gun for . The process of getting permission to have a gun was still playing out when a defenseless Bowne was stabbed to death by her on June 3, 2015. Fast forward to the state of Kentucky in May 2016, where a man violated a protective order, went to his ’s house, and was later discovered lying in the grass with multiple gunshot wounds. His former girlfriend was armed and handled his breach of the protective order accordingly. McAuliffe’s veto makes tragic stories like Bowne’s more likely and stories like the one in Kentucky less probable. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0 |
JERUSALEM — The rampant leaks concerning President Trump continued full speed ahead on Tuesday, with the New York Times quoting a “current and a former American official” saying it was Israel that provided classified intelligence purportedly disclosed by Trump during a White House meeting last week with Russian officials. [The report comes six days before Trump is due here in Israel for a visit and could potentially impact the U. S. relationship with Israel. Indeed, the second sentence of the Times report states that the information about Israel reportedly serving as the source “adds a potential diplomatic complication to the episode. ” The Times failed to note its own report, if accurate, could endanger Israel’s antiterrorism intelligence collection operations. Continues the newspaper in the second paragraph of the article: Israel is one of the United States’ most important allies and a major intelligence collector in the Middle East. The revelation that Mr. Trump boasted about some of Israel’s most sensitive information to the Russians could damage the relationship between the two countries. It also raises the possibility that the information could be passed to Iran, Russia’s close ally and Israel’s main threat in the Middle East. However, toward the bottom of the piece, the Times cites Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, as telling reporters that Trump was not aware of the source of the information. Israeli officials reached by the Times would not confirm that Israel provided the intelligence, which reportedly concerns the inner workings of the Islamic State. Israel’s U. S. ambassador, Ron Dermer, affirmed his trust in the U. S. intelligence sharing relationship. “Israel has full confidence in our relationship with the United States and looks forward to deepening that relationship in the years ahead under President Trump,” Dermer told the Times by email. Yesterday, the Washington Post first reported that Trump allegedly revealed “highly classified information” during a meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, according to “current and former U. S. officials. ” The Post article acknowledged that as president “Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law. ” McMaster told the Post that “the president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation. ” “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,” McMaster stated. Later, McMaster stated the leak may put U. S. national security at risk. “I think national security is put at risk by this leak and by leaks like this,” he said. “And there are a number of instances where this has occurred and I think it’s important to investigate these sort of things. ” Trump tweeted he has the “absolute right” as president to share information. As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W. H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining … . — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017, The Post claimed the information was provided through an unnamed U. S. ally: The information the president relayed had been provided by a U. S. partner through an arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U. S. government, officials said. The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. Now the Times has outed that ally as Israel, citing a “current and a former American official familiar with how the United States obtained the information. ” In January, Israel’s respected Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported U. S. intelligence officials from the Obama administration warned their Israeli counterparts not to trust then Trump with intelligence secrets, citing alleged fears that Russia held blackmail information over Trump. Those fears seemed to have been in part referencing the now partially debunked infamous dossier claiming that Russia collected compromising videos of Trump. The dossier, which contains wild and unproven claims about Trump and sordid sexual acts, including the mocked claim that Trump hired prostitutes and had them urinate on a hotel room bed, was compiled by former intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who was reportedly paid by Democrats and Republicans to investigate Trump. Meanwhile, the Obama administration faced its share of accusations that it leaked sensitive Israeli intelligence or military operations. In November 2013, Israeli officials were reportedly furious at the Obama White House for confirming the Israeli Air Force was behind a strike on a Syrian military base. Israeli policy is not to confirm strikes carried out beyond its borders. The Times of Israel reported at the time: Israel’s Channel 10 TV on Friday night quoted Israeli officials branding the American leak as “scandalous. ” For Israel’s ally to be acting in this way was “unthinkable,” the officials were quoted as saying. A second TV report, on Israel’s Channel 2, said the leak “came directly from the White House,” and noted that “this is not the first time” that the administration has compromised Israel by leaking information on such Israeli Air Force raids on Syrian targets. It said some previous leaks were believed to have come from the Pentagon, and that consideration had been given at one point to establishing a panel to investigate the sources. In 2012, Israel suspected the Obama administration had leaked information to prevent the Jewish state from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. ABC News reported at the time: The first report in Foreign Policy quotes anonymous American officials saying that Israel has been given access to airbases by Iran’s northern neighbor Azerbaijan from which Israel could launch air strikes or at least drones and search and rescue aircraft. The second report from Bloomberg, based on a leaked congressional report, said that Iran’s nuclear facilities are so dispersed that it is “unclear what the ultimate effect of a strike would be … ” A strike could delay Iran as little as six months, a former official told the researchers. “It seems like a big campaign to prevent Israel from attacking,” analyst Yoel Guzansky at the Institute for National Security Studies told ABC News. “I think the [Obama] administration is really worried Jerusalem will attack and attack soon. They’re trying hard to prevent it in so many ways. ” Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. With research by Joshua Klein. | 1 |
Tweet Home » Gold » Gold News » ‘When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse’ Precious metals expert Michael Ballanger discusses his favorite investing books and reviews the landscape for gold and the U.S. dollar between now and the end of the year as the almighty “gravestone doji” signals the end of the dollar rally is near… Submitted by Michael Ballanger, Streetwise :
Since entering the hallowed halls of Saint Louis University, that sits near the banks of the equally-venerable-and-old man river, the “Mighty Mississippi,” I have kept a number of books in my library that shall remain as “life textbooks,” tomes upon which to refer in times of confusion, despair, joy and victory.
Because of my background in hockey as a (much) younger man, I have always enjoyed re-reading sports books and one of my favorites was Ken Dryden’s “The Game” because he described a team and league that had many members familiar to me in the 1970s. Thomas Hauser’s “Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times” was another superb book about the singular, most-globally-recognized athlete of all time and, again, an athlete from the era in which I was raised.
However, the REAL text books were books like “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz, “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle, and “Conversations with God, Book 1” by Neale Donald Walsch, all of which dealt with the human spirit and personal struggle.
However, in the world of business and markets, the books which are always within arm reach are, in order of least-to-most importance, “The Battle for Investment Survival” by Gerald M. Loeb (1935), “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” by Lefevre and Lowenstein (1923), “ Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World” by Michael Lewis (2011), “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand (1957) and finally “When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse” by Adam Fergusson (1975).
As a snapshot of the societal impact of the Great Keynesian Experiment through which are currently traversing, “Atlas Shrugged” tells you EXACTLY where we are today complete with gutted-out American manufacturing and massive corruption, intervention, and interference brought about by the odious partnership between government and the elite 1%. The one book that describes the probable outcome of all of the money-printing ($57 trillion) of the post-2008-meltdown era is “When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse” and it is this book that is sitting under the desk phone in my office.
The last paragraph sums it all up with the following ghastly summary: “In hyperinflation, a kilo of potatoes was worth, to some, more than the family silver; a side of pork more than a grand piano. A prostitute in the family was better than an infant corpse; theft was preferable to starvation; warmth was finer than honour; clothing more essential than democracy, food more needed than freedom.” THAT paragraph is like “The Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come” in Lewis Carroll’s “A Christmas Carol,” and it is truly frightening.
The use of history books is, for me, a necessity and the following two quotes are the reasons why:
“History never repeats itself but it rhymes.” – Mark Twain .
and,
“Those who cannot remember the past doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana
In the bigger picture concerning the global capital markets, I see enormous changes coming and it is all laid out in front of us like those little solar lights that illuminate the path from my deck down to the water on a very dark night. In “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand describes what America would look like when the business “elite” finally own the government and legislature and the justice system. Nothing is more relevant than looking at the events that have transpired since the Financial Crisis of 2008 that didn’t “nearly” take down the financial system; it DID take it down but criminal collusion manufactured the bail-out mechanism that allowed it to continue to function in “Walking Dead” fashion.
All you need to do is look at Deutsche Bank to witness all of the same insanity, greed and aberrant behaviors that were so very prominent among the bankster crowd of 2004–2008 being replayed here in 2016 by the German’s beloved DB .
In “Boomerang”, Michael Lewis walks us through the mindsets of the European bankers and politicians and especially the citizenry, whose contempt for the former two is most acute in Ireland, where one might have thought a few of them might have been carted off to jail.
However, nothing can send chills up and down your spine more than the last of my list, “When Money Dies.” We have all heard stories about the Weimar hyperinflation and how the indiscriminate albeit well-intended printing of “Reich marks” sent post WWI Germany into chaos and bedlam and unimaginable human suffering.
“Atlas Shrugged” describes the environment created BY the crime; Michael Lewis walks us through the incredible sense of entitlement among the populist movement responding TO the crime; but Adam Fergusson paints a horrific portrait of the outcome OF the crime. It is a “must-read” for everyone that is playing around with stocks and bonds or trying to manage “Cash” these days. Can’t happen here in “the modern world”? Well, it is happening right now as we speak in Venezuela where prison inmates have been resorting to cannibalism due to dire food shortages and government corruption.
I write all of this nonsense because as a former resident of the U.S., I was there for the Watergate hearings; I watched Nixon resign; I watched Jimmy Carter have his legacy tarnished by an Arab oil embargo, 12% inflation, massive line-ups at the gas pumps and a hostage crisis. I watched Presidential campaigns in 1972 and 1976 first-hand and have always paid a great deal of attention since. The bare facts behind this year’s race are ugly; you have two candidates that are equally annoying, unequivocally flawed and universally repulsed by the vast majority of voters.
What hits me between the eyes is that for the first time in history, we are witnessing a race so thoroughly “un-presidential” that it resembles a WWF wrestling match complete with enough “smackdowns” and “whup-ass” remarks to put Vince McMahon to shame.
The global champion of democracy and capitalism, apple pie and Apple Computer now has the entire world looking on in fear and disbelief that either one of these two candidates could have access to the launch codes that could vaporize the entire planet in a heartbeat all because of a bad meal or a particularly stressful day. The days of Ronald Reagan running the country as Chairman of the Board are now over. And that, my friends, is not only sad; it is outright disturbing.
So the U.S. dollar continues to roll higher and the gold market struggles to right itself against FOREX headwinds. The U.S. dollar responds to the pre-election tape-painting and the broadly-based consensus that once the election is over that the Fed will hike rates and send the USD index to 105.
However, given that I don’t care a great deal for technical analysis, here is a Wiki snapshot of a classic “Gravestone Doji” that indicates that a trend may be coming to an end.
Now take a look at the chart of the U.S. dollar index ($USD) that has finally turned up with a big Gravestone Doji to cap the current rally off the May, June and August lows, setting things up for another metals advance into year-end.
Now, we saw a Gravestone Doji a few months back in the HUI (NYSE Arca Gold BUGS Index) around 175 but it decided to advance another 100 points before correcting, so don’t get too excited (or committed) with this one for the USD. I only mention it because the USD is not as illiquid as the global gold market because the Americans have printed TRILLIONS of USDs since 2008 so it is not nearly as easy to manipulate FOREX as it is gold. Ergo, technical analysis works for the USD and it is useless for gold—period.
I reported to you all that I had re-entered the GDXJ (VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF) position on October 13 th and added more on Friday the 14 th when I suddenly realized that I was far too complacent with the decaying currency sitting in my trading account. I was growing miserable, snarly, inattentive, and argumentative without my beloved GDXJ position and it was truly difficult to function.
Those around me were so happy to see me take my enormous profit on GDXJ and were more than happy with the new drapes and the new leash and the Gourmet Alpo and the “designer doggie bags,” but I now know that they thought of me as “seriously depressed.” I am now no longer upset and I am no longer depressed as I now own every single wonderfully decadent share of the GDXJ that I owned back in late 2015 when the junior miners were being shorted and sold by every HFT algorithm and every desk trader and every CNBC-following doorknob on the planet.
Now, for the traders out there? I have a sell order in for 50% of the GDXJ position at $45.00. If filled, we will own the remaining 50% at new breakeven cost of $32.20 at which point I sit back and chill. No reason to particularly worry with such a wonderful adjusted cost.
Now, most of you are dying to know how a) Stakeholder Gold Corp.’s (SRC:TSX.V) Ballarat RAB drilling program is progressing and b) when the Canuc Resources Ltd. (CDA:TSX.V) /Santa Rosa RTO will be completed. Last update for the Yukon was yesterday and the first seven RAB holes are now en route to the assay lab in Whitehorse where the turnaround should be 10-14 days. SRC CEO Chris Berlet and V.P. Exploration John Nebocat are in Dawson City today travelling to the property for a day full of comprehensive interpretation and analysis. I would expect a drilling update upon their return. I could talk all day about the large intercepts of quartz sericite alteration and the density of the rock they are encountering but until the assays are back from Whitehorse, it is pretty much meaningless.
I have been asked about the seasonality effect and the lack of news flow during the long Yukon winter and whether or not it will affect the stock price performance. The fact that SRC will have a full treasury after all 2016 exploration bills are paid allows a generous amount of working capital to be allocated to marketing. Since getting the story “out” is crucial to the survival of all junior miners, SRC has already secured a booth at the January 2017 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference and will be doing the same for PDAC in Toronto in March. While that is all fine and dandy, it is obviously imperative that SRC has a decent tailwind from positive assay results coming off the 2016 program.
As for the Canuc/Santa Rosa RTO, all I can say is that every RTO to which I have been privy over the years takes longer than first thought and this one is no different. Between the lawyers and the regulators, it seems that just when you think you are getting the green light, they come up with something ridiculous like translating a document that is 15 years old from Spanish to English “in order to protect the poor minority shareholders of Canuc Resources.” In reality, all that needs to happen is for Canuc shareholders to vote on the transaction. It is they that are getting absorbed by the private company (Santa Rosa Silver Mining Corp.) so why not just ask them if they are OK with the terms of the deal and drive on? Alas, despite the delay, I simply cannot stand the wait as the Santa Rosa project will be a beauty. (If anyone wants to have a look at the old PowerPoint presentation that was used back in 2015, email me at [email protected] .)
Only two more weeks until the elections are over and then it should be a “Sell the news” scenario for the USD and that should provide the impetus for a sizzling year-end rally in the metals. Then, as 2016 ticks down, and with so many money managers having missed the gold rally, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is a mid-December scramble for the mining shares and/or physical gold and silver as year-end window dressing is applied to “modern portfolio management.”
Right. . .
Originally trained during the inflationary 1970s, Michael Ballanger is a graduate of Saint Louis University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in finance and a Bachelor of Art in marketing before completing post-graduate work at the Wharton School of Finance. With more than 30 years of experience as a junior mining and exploration specialist, as well as a solid background in corporate finance, Ballanger’s adherence to the concept of “Hard Assets” allows him to focus the practice on selecting opportunities in the global resource sector with emphasis on the precious metals exploration and development sector. Ballanger takes great pleasure in visiting mineral properties around the globe in the never-ending hunt for early-stage opportunities. Want to read more Gold Report articles like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you’ll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent articles and interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page.
Disclosure: 1) The following companies mentioned in the article are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. The companies mentioned in this article were not involved in any aspect of the article preparation or editing. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for its services. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 2) Michael Ballanger: I own, or members of my immediate household or family, directly or indirectly own shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: Canuc Resources Ltd., Santa Rosa Silver Mining Corp. and Stakeholder Gold Corporation. My company Bonaventure Explorations Ltd. has a relationship with Stakeholder and Canuc via Santa Rosa. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector. 3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. 4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer . This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports. 5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise during the up-to-four-week interval from the time of the interview/article until after it publishes.
Charts provided by Michael Ballanger | 1 |
ORLANDO, Fla. — When Dr. Joseph Ibrahim heard that the attack at the Pulse nightclub may have been linked to terrorism, he caught himself fearing any kind of link to his own Muslim, roots. Please, he thought, don’t let Ibrahim appear anywhere in the gunman’s name. Dr. Ibrahim — who heads the trauma unit at Orlando Regional Medical Center, and generally goes by Joey — had already spent hours repairing gunshot wounds in the bodies of Latino men and women, many of whom were the sons and daughters of immigrants, too. Yanked from bed by a phone call at 2:15 a. m. he was doing what he had trained for. His old friends from his hometown in Tennessee were pulling for him. But it was hard to escape the pairing: the son of one Muslim immigrant from the Middle East trying to save the lives of mostly gay Latinos whom another son of Muslim immigrants tried to kill — all in a chunk of verdant Florida built on Disney joy. “Maybe we’re a target because of our diversity and tolerance,” Dr. Ibrahim said after a morning of surgery on Wednesday. “Here you constantly see people from all over the world, and it’s wonderful. ” This is the Orlando that the shooting tore right through, a place that sees itself as a model of diversity, at ease with difference, with room for everyone and every ride. Even now, as the conversation outside Orlando zeros in on “radical Islam,” this city is awash in American flags, vigils with Republican and Democratic politicians trying to speak Spanish, and signs on churches, strip clubs, and restaurants with two catchphrases: “Orlando Strong” and “Orlando United. ” It is hardly a perfect union, one without pain, or frustration. Some Latinos have wondered why the shooting that left 49 people dead has become a touchstone and not a Latino one. Some immigrants with loved ones among the dead have collapsed in the arms of local leaders, desperate for financial help, wishing for more of the support found in the larger Puerto Rican community. There is some confusion too many countries in the hemisphere are still trying to figure out if any of their citizens were killed, a challenge since many of the victims had United States citizenship even if they were originally from somewhere else. But all of these issues — the intersecting identities, the struggles for recognition — only make more obvious just how much this most American of places has rapidly changed. Walt Disney had the vision to cobble together a resort with secret land deals in a quiet cow town of lakes and mosquitoes. Now, Orlando and its suburbs in Orange County point to where this country is headed when it comes to demographics, and the degree to which immigrants and their offspring are woven into every aspect of American life. What Orlando looks like today is what the United States will look like in 30 years — that is what local Republican Party officials tell newcomers. In simple terms, the white population is shrinking (it is now at 43 percent in Orange County) and cultural and ethnic diversity is expanding and evolving as foreigners, new arrivals from Puerto Rico, and the children of earlier immigrant waves all find their footing in Orlando’s affordable sprawl. At Valencia College, more than of the student body is nonwhite. On Wednesday, black and Latino students with the school’s Alliance — including Jorge Lanza, 23, a son of immigrants from Honduras who goes by George — gave out free hugs and candy near the library seven of the people killed at Pulse were current or former Valencia students. Most of them had not been here for long, which is typical. Nearly of the 1. 3 million people in Orange County arrived Center, which opened in 1982. “I happen to have been born about 1, 000 yards that way, but there is not a large population in Orlando that are residents,” said Mayor Buddy Dyer of Orlando, a Democrat, standing near the Pulse nightclub. Teresa Jacobs, the mayor of Orange County, who is a Republican, said that newness, along with the lack of a single dominant group — plus nonpartisan elections — have pushed Orlando toward tolerance. “We have to get along,” Ms. Jacobs said. The shooting shattered the area’s image as a welcoming place. It is why at the public memorials here, many residents said the attack had been particularly hard for people to accept. And yet, immigrants and the children of immigrants, from the Caribbean and beyond, played a role at every stage of the tragedy. The gunman, Omar Mateen, was a American. His parents, who got married in New York in the early 1980s and briefly lived in Flushing, Queens, before moving to Florida, were quick to assimilate after moving from Afghanistan. His first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, was from Uzbekistan. His second wife, Noor Zahi Salman, was born in California to Palestinian parents from the West Bank. Many of the people Mr. Mateen killed had similar stories of hyphenated existence. Jerald Arthur Wright, 31, whose family was from Colombia, worked at Walt Disney World and never seemed to run out of energy, helping guests in both Spanish and English. Luis S. Vielma, 22 Juan 25 Joel Rayón Paniagua, 31 — they were all immigrants from Mexico, working mostly in tourism, too. If you visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, you might have seen Mr. Vielma. Among those who survived and saw their friends die or be wounded, there are even more — including Adrian López. An immigrant from Cuba, he stood up before Orlando’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday night and through tears, after apologizing for his rusty Spanish, told his heroic tale of escaping the shooting, then running back in to try to save his husband, who was wounded. The police SWAT team that killed Mr. Mateen also included at least two Latino officers. The Orlando Police Department is about 18 percent Hispanic and includes officers “from just about every Latin American country and other parts of the world,” said Deputy Police Chief Orlando Rolon. Then there is the Orlando Regional Medical Center, the tall modern hospital a few blocks from Pulse. Dr. Ibrahim, who is 39 and speaks with a drip of Tennessee drawl, said that as he worked on victim after victim early Sunday morning, he was surrounded (as usual) by colleagues with ties to other parts of the world — nurses of Asian and Hispanic descent, technicians from Jamaica, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. “We worked side by side, without question,” he said. In the days that followed, he said, he heard many arguments for “taking the country back” and keeping out Muslims. It was mostly on talk radio, as he drove to work for surgery. And while the hosts focused on Mr. Mateen’s father, Dr. Ibrahim contemplated his own dad, an immigrant from Egypt, who married an American and practiced medicine in Tennessee. “It’s difficult,” Dr. Ibrahim said, noting that he would not be here if that kind of policy had been in place when his father wanted to leave Cairo. “I just have to believe that those people have not met the right individual. There are a lot of people who never meet Muslims who are kind, gentle and giving. ” Stephen Miller, a policy adviser to Donald J. Trump, said Mr. Trump — who has spent months condemning immigrants from Mexico and the Muslim world — simply wants to “select immigrants who support, defend and uphold our values. ” Mr. Miller described Mr. Trump’s proposal to stop all immigration from Muslim countries until a broad security assessment could be put in place as “about as mainstream and common sense as it gets. ” But Dr. Ibrahim said what he heard was mostly an appeal to ignorance and fear. He said he moved to Orlando from Tennessee in part so his twin boys, who are 11, could grow up around different kinds of people. Like their father, whose looks make him hard to place in terms of ethnicity, they represent a mixture of cultures: Their mother is white, Anglo in the lexicon of Orlando, born and raised in Tennessee. But as a family with Ibrahim for a last name, they are still sometimes seen as outsiders. Dr. Ibrahim said his wife was once denied a loan because her name was confused with someone on a European terror watch list. He and his wife also struggled with whether to continue the tradition, common in the Middle East, of passing on his second name, Abdellatif, to their oldest son. In the end, they went for it: Abdellatif now links grandfather, father and son, three generations of . Dr. Ibrahim is hoping that he won’t regret it. “Hopefully by the time he’s of age,” he said, “people will be even more tolerant. ” | 1 |
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In the last two articles of this series we described the makeup of voters and considered the likely outcomes under a variety of different voting systems. Here we will repeat that thought-experiment but consider a different makeup of the voter attitudes.
In the chart below, the results for the various voting systems are shown for both systems, serving both as a review and as a preview. But more importantly, the chart illustrates the difference between traditional voting systems and balanced ones. It is worth noting that in the traditional column, only Celeb (celebrity) candidates are competitive whereas in the balanced column the non-celebrity (Ghost) candidate is consistently at least competitive. Who Has a Chance of Winning(image by Paul Cohen) License DMCA
Clearly, by these results, the balanced systems tend to be open to more candidates, and sometimes different candidates, than traditional systems. The difference stems from the fact that balanced voting systems consciously take into account both support and opposition of candidates -- whereas traditional systems only consider support.
This election is between three candidates, two of whom are celebrities, well known by nearly all voters. Al Celeb has strong support from 35% of voters but is strongly disliked by 60%. Beth Celeb is strongly supported by 33% of the voters but very much disliked by 52%. The other candidate, Ghost, draws his support from the 12% of voters, who disapprove both of the Celeb candidates. Ghost is well regarded by the relatively small number of voters who know much about him.
You might now take some time to think about which of the four candidates deserve to win the election.
If the election were held using plurality voting, it is pretty clear that Al Celeb would be the winner with 35% of the vote. The fact that both Celeb candidates have more opposition than support does not matter because opposition is not a factor in traditional voting systems like plurality voting.
On the other hand, if the election were held using balanced plurality voting , then presumably 35% of the voters would vote for Al Celeb and 33% would vote for Beth Celeb. But each of the Celeb candidates will face opposition votes as well. Al Celeb might have as much as 60% of voters casting votes against him, or as few as 48% against him if all 12% of voters who favor Al Ghost choose to vote for Ghost. So Al Celeb will have a net vote of somewhere between -13% and -35% of the voters. By the same reasoning, Beth Celeb will receive a net vote between -7% and -19% of the vote. Ghost, with between 0% and 12% of the vote will win the election. When opposition to them is taken into account, celebrity candidates lose their great advantage. - Advertisement -
With approval voting , Al Celeb and Beth Celeb will respectively get 35% and 33% of the vote while Ghost will get only 12%. As with plurality voting, Al Celeb will be declared the winner.
With balanced approval voting , (where the voter is asked to indicate approval or disapproval -- or neither - for each of the candidates), Al Celeb and Beth Celeb will respectively get -25% and -19% of the vote while Ghost will get 12% so Ghost will be declared the winner.
In this election there are few enough candidates that one might question the motivation for using ration voting , but for the sake of providing an example we can consider it nonetheless. Each voter would be handed three plurality ballots (it could be more or less than that, but three seems reasonable with just three candidates). It seems likely that a Ghost voter would cast all three ballots for Ghost, giving Ghost 12% of the vote. But Al Celeb and Beth Celeb would respectively receive 35% and 33% of the vote. Al Celeb would be declared the winner. However, if sentiment among Ghost voters favored Beth Celeb over Al Celeb then some might cast some of their ballots for Beth Celeb and this could turn Beth Celeb into the winner.
If this election were held using balanced ration voting, each voter would be handed three balanced plurality ballots. Any outcome is possible for this election, the voters have free reign to decide. This may not immediately obvious to you -- it was not to me. I had to set up a spread-sheet to try out scenarios to see this to be the case.
It is the Ghost voters who will make the selection between the two Celeb candidates and that will be by deciding how many of their 12% of ballots will go to Celeb candidates. If 2% more of those 12% are cast against Al Celeb than are cast against Beth then the race between the Celeb candidates is a tie. Of course if more than 2% go against Al Celeb then he will lose and the contest will be between Ghost and Beth Celeb. If that margin is less than 2% then the contest will be between Ghost and Al Celeb. - Advertisement -
Also as might be expected, whether Ghost can win will depend on how many of the Celeb voters decide to vote against the candidate they dislike (rather than for the Celeb candidate they like). If 23% of voters (Celeb voters) decide to cast votes against the Celeb candidate they dislike then the race becomes a toss-up.
It is worth mentioning that voters will likely make these decisions according to their real feelings. They will cast votes against a candidate they dislike and they will vote for candidates they like. With balanced voting methods, voters can freely express dislike for particular candidates and that means they are not forced to resort to strategic methods to express this very real and very natural belief.
With IRV , Celeb voters are likely to put the candidate they favor in first place on their ballots. Ghost will garner at most 12% of the vote, so Ghost will be eliminated in the first round of counting. Now the Ghost voters may all decide to not even list a second choice since that would mean voting for a candidate they dislike. The choice between the two Celeb candidates lies in the hands of these Ghost voters who do not like either of them. If just a little more than 2% more voters (necessarily these would be Ghost voters) list Beth Celeb as a second choice than those who list Al Celeb as second choice then that would give the election to Beth Celeb rather than to Al Celeb. Under IRV, the Ghost supporters would be well advised to give some serious consideration to whom they consider the lesser of the two evils. As with other traditional systems, with IRV a little-known candidate does not stand a ghost of a chance and the only real choice is apt to be between two celebrities.
With IRBV , voters have more freedom of expression. Might any voters decide to cast their first priority against some candidate? Since there will be only two counts of the votes, some Celeb voters may well choose to cast their first-ranked choice as a vote against the Celeb they dislike. Presumably they would do that if they preferred Ghost to win rather than letting the wrong Celeb candidate winning. If enough voters choose to vote against one or the other of the Celeb candidates then Ghost actually could survive to the second round of voting and if a preference for Ghost by the voters whose Celeb candidate lost in the first round then it is quite possible for Ghost to become the winner. Under IRBV, this race is wide open with any of the three candidates having a chance to win. | 1 |
This post was originally published on this site
If Hillary wins, I’m talking the loved ones into a hundred foot deep bunker or a southern hemisphere island.
Did you know Russia has the Sarmat ICBM that reaches all parts of America and Putin thinks Americans, who were, for the most part, not badly touched, the way Russians were, in previous world wars, should know how horrific war is?
If we have WWIII, and it looks like we will, you and I will suffer, terribly, if we live.
Snowflakes are voting for WWIII and they don’t know it. Related | 0 |
Photo by Diego Torres Silvestre | CC BY 2.0
The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda.
The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions.
In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade – behaviour then considered outlandish. One feminist, Ruth Booth, declared, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!”
Bernays’ influence extended far beyond advertising. His greatest success was his role in convincing the American public to join the slaughter of the First World War. The secret, he said, was “engineering the consent” of people in order to “control and regiment [them] according to our will without their knowing about it”.
He described this as “the true ruling power in our society” and called it an “invisible government”.
Today, the invisible government has never been more powerful and less understood. In my career as a journalist and film-maker, I have never known propaganda to insinuate our lives and as it does now and to go unchallenged.
Imagine two cities.
Both are under siege by the forces of the government of that country. Both cities are occupied by fanatics, who commit terrible atrocities, such as beheading people.
But there is a vital difference. In one siege, the government soldiers are described as liberators by Western reporters embedded with them, who enthusiastically report their battles and air strikes. There are front page pictures of these heroic soldiers giving a V-sign for victory. There is scant mention of civilian casualties.
In the second city – in another country nearby – almost exactly the same is happening. Government forces are laying siege to a city controlled by the same breed of fanatics.
The difference is that these fanatics are supported, supplied and armed by “us” – by the United States and Britain. They even have a media centre that is funded by Britain and America.
Another difference is that the government soldiers laying siege to this city are the bad guys, condemned for assaulting and bombing the city – which is exactly what the good soldiers do in the first city.
Confusing? Not really. Such is the basic double standard that is the essence of propaganda. I am referring, of course, to the current siege of the city of Mosul by the government forces of Iraq, who are backed by the United States and Britain and to the siege of Aleppo by the government forces of Syria, backed by Russia. One is good; the other is bad.
What is seldom reported is that both cities would not be occupied by fanatics and ravaged by war if Britain and the United States had not invaded Iraq in 2003. That criminal enterprise was launched on lies strikingly similar to the propaganda that now distorts our understanding of the civil war in Syria.
Without this drumbeat of propaganda dressed up as news, the monstrous ISIS and Al-Qaida and al-Nusra and the rest of the jihadist gang might not exist, and the people of Syria might not be fighting for their lives today.
Some may remember in 2003 a succession of BBC reporters turning to the camera and telling us that Blair was “vindicated” for what turned out to be the crime of the century. The US television networks produced the same validation for George W. Bush. Fox News brought on Henry Kissinger to effuse over Colin Powell’s fabrications.
The same year, soon after the invasion, I filmed an interview in Washington with Charles Lewis, the renowned American investigative journalist. I asked him, “What would have happened if the freest media in the world had seriously challenged what turned out to be crude propaganda?”
He replied that if journalists had done their job, “there is a very, very good chance we would not have gone to war in Iraq”.
It was a shocking statement, and one supported by other famous journalists to whom I put the same question — Dan Rather of CBS, David Rose of the Observer and journalists and producers in the BBC, who wished to remain anonymous.
In other words, had journalists done their job, had they challenged and investigated the propaganda instead of amplifying it, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children would be alive today, and there would be no ISIS and no siege of Aleppo or Mosul.
There would have been no atrocity on the London Underground on 7 th July 2005. There would have been no flight of millions of refugees; there would be no miserable camps.
When the terrorist atrocity happened in Paris last November, President Francoise Hollande immediately sent planes to bomb Syria – and more terrorism followed, predictably, the product of Hollande’s bombast about France being “at war” and “showing no mercy”. That state violence and jihadist violence feed off each other is the truth that no national leader has the courage to speak.
“When the truth is replaced by silence,” said the Soviet dissident Yevtushenko, “the silence is a lie.”
The attack on Iraq, the attack on Libya, the attack on Syria happened because the leader in each of these countries was not a puppet of the West. The human rights record of a Saddam or a Gaddafi was irrelevant. They did not obey orders and surrender control of their country.
The same fate awaited Slobodan Milosevic once he had refused to sign an “agreement” that demanded the occupation of Serbia and its conversion to a market economy. His people were bombed, and he was prosecuted in The Hague. Independence of this kind is intolerable.
As WikLeaks has revealed, it was only when the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in 2009 rejected an oil pipeline, running through his country from Qatar to Europe, that he was attacked.
From that moment, the CIA planned to destroy the government of Syria with jihadist fanatics – the same fanatics currently holding the people of Mosul and eastern Aleppo hostage.
Why is this not news? The former British Foreign Office official Carne Ross, who was responsible for operating sanctions against Iraq, told me: “We would feed journalists factoids of sanitised intelligence, or we would freeze them out. That is how it worked.”
The West’s medieval client, Saudi Arabia – to which the US and Britain sell billions of dollars’ worth of arms – is at present destroying Yemen, a country so poor that in the best of times, half the children are malnourished.
Look on YouTube and you will see the kind of massive bombs – “our” bombs – that the Saudis use against dirt-poor villages, and against weddings, and funerals.
The explosions look like small atomic bombs. The bomb aimers in Saudi Arabia work side-by-side with British officers. This fact is not on the evening news.
Propaganda is most effective when our consent is engineered by those with a fine education – Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia — and with careers on the BBC, the Guardia n, the New York Times , the Washington Post .
These organisations are known as the liberal media. They present themselves as enlightened, progressive tribunes of the moral zeitgeist. They are anti-racist, pro-feminist and pro-LGBT.
And they love war.
While they speak up for feminism, they support rapacious wars that deny the rights of countless women, including the right to life.
In 2011, Libya, then a modern state, was destroyed on the pretext that Muammar Gaddafi was about to commit genocide on his own people. That was the incessant news; and there was no evidence. It was a lie.
In fact, Britain, Europe and the United States wanted what they like to call “regime change” in Libya, the biggest oil producer in Africa. Gaddafi’s influence in the continent and, above all, his independence were intolerable.
So he was murdered with a knife in his rear by fanatics, backed by America, Britain and France. Hillary Clinton cheered his gruesome death for the camera, declaring, “We came, we saw, he died!”
The destruction of Libya was a media triumph. As the war drums were beaten, Jonathan Freedland wrote in the Guardian : “Though the risks are very real, the case for intervention remains strong.”
Intervention — what a polite, benign, Guardian word, whose real meaning, for Libya, was death and destruction.
According to its own records, Nato launched 9,700 “strike sorties” against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at civilian targets. They included missiles with uranium warheads. Look at the photographs of the rubble of Misurata and Sirte, and the mass graves identified by the Red Cross. The Unicef report on the children killed says, “most [of them] under the age of ten”.
As a direct consequence, Sirte became the capital of ISIS.
Ukraine is another media triumph. Respectable liberal newspapers such as the New York Times , the Washington Post and the Guardian , and mainstream broadcasters such as the BBC, NBC, CBS, CNN have played a critical role in conditioning their viewers to accept a new and dangerous cold war.
All have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia when, in fact, the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and Nato.
This inversion of reality is so pervasive that Washington’s military intimidation of Russia is not news; it is suppressed behind a smear and scare campaign of the kind I grew up with during the first cold war. Once again, the Ruskies are coming to get us, led by another Stalin, whom The Economist depicts as the devil.
The suppression of the truth about Ukraine is one of the most complete news blackouts I can remember. The fascists who engineered the coup in Kiev are the same breed that backed the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Of all the scares about the rise of fascist anti-Semitism in Europe, no leader ever mentions the fascists in Ukraine – except Vladimir Putin, but he does not count.
Many in the Western media have worked hard to present the ethnic Russian-speaking population of Ukraine as outsiders in their own country, as agents of Moscow, almost never as Ukrainians seeking a federation within Ukraine and as Ukrainian citizens resisting a foreign-orchestrated coup against their elected government.
There is almost the joie d’esprit of a class reunion of warmongers.
The drum-beaters of the Washington Post inciting war with Russia are the very same editorial writers who published the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
To most of us, the American presidential campaign is a media freak show, in which Donald Trump is the arch villain.
But Trump is loathed by those with power in the United States for reasons that have little to do with his obnoxious behaviour and opinions. To the invisible government in Washington, the unpredictable Trump is an obstacle to America’s design for the 21 st century.
This is to maintain the dominance of the United States and to subjugate Russia, and, if possible, China.
To the militarists in Washington, the real problem with Trump is that, in his lucid moments, he seems not to want a war with Russia; he wants to talk with the Russian president, not fight him; he says he wants to talk with the president of China.
In the first debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump promised not to be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into a conflict. He said, “I would certainly not do first strike. Once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over.” That was not news.
Did he really mean it? Who knows? He often contradicts himself. But what is clear is that Trump is considered a serious threat to the status quo maintained by the vast national security machine that runs the United States, regardless of who is in the White House.
The CIA wants him beaten. The Pentagon wants him beaten. The media wants him beaten. Even his own party wants him beaten. He is a threat to the rulers of the world – unlike Clinton who has left no doubt she is prepared to go to war with nuclear-armed Russia and China.
Clinton has the form, as she often boasts. Indeed, her record is proven. As a senator, she backed the bloodbath in Iraq. When she ran against Obama in 2008, she threatened to “totally obliterate” Iran. As Secretary of State, she colluded in the destruction of governments in Libya and Honduras and set in train the baiting of China.
She has now pledged to support a No Fly Zone in Syria — a direct provocation for war with Russia. Clinton may well become the most dangerous president of the United States in my lifetime –a distinction for which the competition is fierce.
Without a shred of evidence, she has accused Russia of supporting Trump and hacking her emails. Released by WikiLeaks, these emails tell us that what Clinton says in private, in speeches to the rich and powerful, is the opposite of what she says in public.
That is why silencing and threatening Julian Assange is so important. As the editor of WikiLeaks, Assange knows the truth. And let me assure those who are concerned, he is well, and WikiLeaks is operating on all cylinders.
Today, the greatest build-up of American-led forces since World War Two is under way – in the Caucasus and eastern Europe, on the border with Russia, and in Asia and the Pacific, where China is the target.
Keep that in mind when the presidential election circus reaches its finale on November 8 th, If the winner is Clinton, a Greek chorus of witless commentators will celebrate her coronation as a great step forward for women. None will mention Clinton’s victims: the women of Syria, the women of Iraq, the women of Libya. None will mention the civil defence drills being conducted in Russia. None will recall Edward Bernays’ “torches of freedom”.
George Bush’s press spokesman once called the media “complicit enablers”.
Coming from a senior official in an administration whose lies, enabled by the media, caused such suffering, that description is a warning from history.
In 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal prosecutor said of the German media: “Before every major aggression, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically for the attack. In the propaganda system, it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons.”
This is adapted from an address to the Sheffield Festival of Words, Sheffield, England.
John Pilger can be reached through his website: www.johnpilger.com (Reprinted from Counterpunch by permission of author or representative) | 1 |
Ex-Assistant FBI Director: Clintons Are a Crime Family October
That's quite an endorsement . And if there's anything top FBI officials now, it's crime families. Certainly this is probably the first serious level of experience that Hillary can claim in any field.
“The Clintons, that’s a crime family, basically,” former assistant FBI director James Kallstrom said. “It’s like organized crime. I mean the Clinton Foundation is a cesspool.”
“Kallstrom, best known for leading the investigation into the explosion of TWA flight 800 in the late '90s, said that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, was a “pathological liar.”
He also blasted Attorney General Loretta Lynch, claiming that she impeded the investigation into Clinton’s private server.
“The problem here is this investigation was never a real investigation,” he said. “That’s the problem. They never had a grand jury empanelled, and the reason they never had a grand jury empanelled, I’m sure, is Loretta Lynch would not go along with that.”
Kallstrom also said that FBI Director James Comey and the rest of the FBI’s leadership were responsible for holding back the investigation, not the rest of the bureau.
“The agents are furious with what’s going on, I know that for a fact,” he said.
But according to the media, the FBI investigating Hillary is the real crime. | 0 |
Кто что хочет видеть — то и видит 20 ноября 2016 Политика
Российское посольство в Швейцарии направило в МИД страны ноту после сближения швейцарских истребителей с бортом специального летного отряда «Россия», который обслуживает первых лиц государства. На борту Ил-96 в этот момент находились журналисты кремлевского пула, которые направлялись на саммит АТЭС в Перу.
Наконец-то россияне доподлинно узнали для каких целей российскому президенту не один Борт № 1 (тот самый, на котором перевозят его бесценное тело), а целых пять. Еще два заказаны и поступят в полное распоряжение Владимира Владимировича (кто-то сомневается, что его?) в 2018 году. А так как венценосный не может пока еще использовать несколько средств передвижения одновременно (или может?) он предоставляет их во временное пользование самым важным и нужным людям.
А кто это у нас? Нет, воздушному флоту российских олигархов и высокопоставленных чиновников, позавидует любой арабский шейх. А вот своевременная доставка в нужные точки земного шара президентского пула журналистов – это задача государственной важности, стратегическая, так сказать. И то верно. Стоит только представить себе, какой коллапс случится в стране, если вдруг Владимир Соловьев в своей обязательной ежевечерней проповеди не сможет доверительно рассказать зрителям, как многозначительно перемигивался с ним или покашливал президент или, не дай бог, Дмитрию Киселеву придется готовить свои еженедельные эскапады на основе данных, опубликованных в зарубежных источниках.
И неважно, что только на перевозку пассажиров президентского авиаотряда в 2014 было выделено из федерального бюджета, сформированного, в том числе из налогов граждан, даже не имеющих телевизора в доме, более 2-х миллиардов рублей. Главное, чтобы журналисты из президентского пула вовремя оказались на месте и с честью выполнили свой патриотический долг.
Полетела было вся эта камарилья в Перу, чтобы своими глазами увидеть, как, может быть, Владимир Владимирович «случайно» встретится «на полях» форума «Азиатско-Тихоокеанского экономического сотрудничества» с «хромой уткой» Бараком Обамой. Но веселая поездка за океан не задалась. Сперва где-то в районе Швейцарии за ними увязался местный истребитель (и чего бы ему в небе своей страны делать?). Журналисты — люди тонкой нервной организации — повскакивали к окнам, стали готовиться к тому, что их собьют или захватят в заложники, силой принудят всю оставшуюся мучиться, живя в Швейцарии и страдая по Родине. Понятно, что МИД переполошилось, стало ноты с протестами разбрасывать. На святое, на народное достояние покусились проклятые швейцарцы.
Потом, правда, швейцарским пилотам скучно стало, улетели они по своим швейцарским делам. А вот Борт № 1 перепугался не на шутку, да так сильно, что, приземлившись на дозаправку в Лиссабоне, вновь взмыть в небо не смог. Что-то там жизненно важное сломалось, и запчасти — опять же спец-бортом — будут доставлены в столицу Португалии. Из-за этого (вот где настоящий кошмар!) наш президент проведет полдня под прицелом только вражеских телекамер и будет отвечать только на каверзные вопросы, на которые у него нет подготовленных помощниками и советниками ответов.
Так это всего лишь вполне миролюбивое Перу и исключительно экономический АТЭС. А представьте себе, что такой кошмар случится, если он отправится в самое логово – в США или некогда дружественную Германию! Тут-то без своих прикормленных журналистов впору самый главный Борт № 1 разворачивать и возвращаться домой. То-то конфуз случится. | 0 |
Study Finds Women Now Drinking as Much as Men Once a male problem, heavy drinking is now rampant in both sexes Image Credits: jarmoluk/Pixabay .
A new study found that women have caught up with men as the heavy drinkers over the past 100 years.
BMJ Open released their journal that came to the conclusion that women are drinking more alcohol than men and it is having health ramifications. The study, which looked at over 4 million people over a period of over a century, suggested that this is a result from “successful marketing campaigns” and sweeter alcoholic products being designed for younger women.
“These results have implications for the framing and targeting of alcohol-use prevention and intervention programs. Alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders have historically been viewed as a male phenomenon. The present study calls this assumption into question and suggests that young women in particular should be the target of concerted efforts to reduce the impact of substance use and related harms,” the researchers stated in the news release. | 0 |
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LOCAL fucking hero Martin Dooley has thwarted the efforts of US police today by checking in to the Standing Rock Sioux Native American reservation, forcing them to restart a lengthy count on the number of people at the site.
The champion of the people outwitted North Dakota police investigators by pretending he was at the location, when he actually wasn’t, and is just one of the many geniuses who did the same from the comfort of their home.
“I was told this would stop police from doing something or other,” the full grown male explained, who even watched a 30 second video of the protest on the Guardian, “I’m not really sure of the in’s and out’s of what I’m supposed to be doing, but it looks great online for me and the rest of the protesters,” adding, “We’re like hackers or something”.
More than 1.5 million people have so far “checked in” on Facebook to support protesters fighting against the new oil pipeline in Standing Rock. The protesters believe the local police department were using Facebook’s location feature to compile a list of activists who are protesting about the pipeline, and requested people to check in to ‘confuse’ investigators.
“They really got us there,” admitted one police officer at the scene, who was busy macing faces, “We were on number 1,234,786 when some guy from Ireland checked in, forcing us to start again. Now we have no idea who’s protesting. We’ve been outsmarted, and outwitted. All we can do now is fire some rubber bullets and hope for the best. God, you people are so clever”.
Meanwhile, a county Mayo man’s check-in to the Corrib gas pipeline has so far accumulated 28 fellow protesters. | 0 |
30 Mins After FBI News, Hillary Exited Plane… Did One Dirty Thing Before Posted on October 30, 2016 by Robert Rich in Politics Share This
We know that the FBI reopening its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails couldn’t have been good news for the presidential hopeful, but the fact that it took her a whopping 30 minutes to exit her plane after landing speaks volumes on the matter. However, it seems that Hillary made sure to do one dirty thing before walking down those stairs.
Crooked Hillary is a cowardly schemer – and her recent actions go to prove just that. Mad World News reported Friday that after the news broke of FBI Director James Comey reopening their investigation, Hillary was seen rapidly exiting her plane and ignoring reporters before darting into her SUV. Just In: Clinton declines to answer questions about the FBI as she deplanes in Cedar Rapids. Sat on tarmac for 30 minutes after news broke. pic.twitter.com/zC115U7YNp
— Adam D. Brown (@aduanebrown) October 28, 2016
However, recent reports indicate that her dodging the matter at hand began far before that point . In fact, Hillary’s staff made sure to disable the plane’s Wi-Fi after the news broke so that the reporters onboard wouldn’t learn of the matter until they got on the ground. Of note as we wait for Clinton: plane had no wi-fi today. One adviser after we landed: "We're learning about this just like you all are." pic.twitter.com/CjsH71LJNo
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) October 28, 2016
Of course, Hillary made sure to stay far away from the media seats until she got off the plane, but it didn’t end there. As reporters had questions about Hillary, an adviser used President Barack Obama’s time-old line saying — “We’re learning about this just like you all are.” Clinton’s plane did not have WiFi. Her advisors learned about the FBI letter when you did. https://t.co/C0uSXheh1i https://t.co/BAGhckS2aN
— CNN (@CNN) October 28, 2016
Although CNN tried their best to make it sound as if they didn’t have Internet access on the plane at all, the Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau came forward saying that Hillary’s plane is equipped with Wi-Fi. Hillary has been dodging the consequences of her actions since the beginning of her campaign, but this is a new low for even her. The Hillary plane has wifi. https://t.co/dLZ0tigZhP
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) October 28, 2016
At this point, she knowingly put those in charge of getting information to the world in the dark in order to protect herself. Too bad for her, running only gets you so far in terms of justice. She will one day have to face the music.
As the saying goes – “you can run, but you can’t hide,” and the noose that all those guilty of treason get in the end seems to be getting closer and closer every day. | 0 |
BOSTON — Janet L. Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, did not talk on Friday about the Fed’s plans for its benchmark interest rate. Instead, she talked about why those plans have been so hard to make. In a speech, Ms. Yellen said the Fed was struggling to understand the behavior of the labor market and the weakness of inflation. It is reconsidering how changes in monetary policy ripple through the economy, and the impact of international events. In short, as often happens after a crisis, the Fed is sorting through some existential issues. “The events of the past few years have revealed limits in economists’ understanding of the economy and suggest several important questions I hope the profession will try to answer,” she said at a conference here hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The Fed has indicated it is likely to raise rates in December if economic growth continues, although it has repeatedly retreated from similar predictions in the last nine months. Investors now see more than a 70 percent chance of a December hike, according to CME Group, and Eric S. Rosengren, the Boston Fed’s president, buttressed those expectations Friday. “The market seems to think that there’s a very high probability of December,” Mr. Rosengren told CNBC. “We’ll see how the economic data actually comes in, but I think that is priced appropriately. ” Mr. Rosengren, however, was ready to raise rates in September. Ms. Yellen and most of her colleagues were not. The debate among Fed officials revolves in part around the consequences of holding down interest rates to push unemployment to an unsustainably low level. A certain amount of unemployment lubricates labor markets, maintaining a ready supply of workers for businesses that are expanding. In the past, pushing unemployment below that level has increased inflation. Mr. Rosengren has warned that could force the Fed to raise rates more sharply, potentially driving the economy into recession. But an unusually large share of American adults are neither working nor counted among the unemployed. They are not trying to find jobs. Ms. Yellen and other Fed officials have raised the possibility that a low unemployment rate could persuade some of these people to start looking. That could increase growth without increasing inflation. “If strong economic conditions can partially reverse damage after it has occurred, then policy makers may want to aim at being more accommodative during recoveries than would be called for under the traditional view,” Ms. Yellen said on Friday. Ms. Yellen described this outcome as “plausible” but not proven. Businesses buoyed by strong sales might expand workers might find it easier to move into better jobs increased investment in research might even lead to higher productivity growth. The Fed is embarked on the experiment. Officials predicted in December that they would raise rates four times this year. So far, they have not raised rates at all. The Fed’s benchmark rate remains in a range between 0. 25 percent and 0. 5 percent, a low level that encourages investment and . And over the last year, the unemployment rate has held steady while the labor force has expanded. The question is how much further the Fed can go. The presenters at the Boston Fed conference, which was devoted to the slow pace of growth in recent years, generally attributed a large share of the economy’s underperformance to issues that would seem beyond the reach of monetary policy, including demographic shifts and slow productivity growth. “Just pushing down unemployment, by itself, is unlikely to draw large numbers of workers back into the labor force,” said Gabriel a professor of economics at Harvard University. James Stock, also a Harvard economist, said annual growth during this expansion has been about 1. 74 percentage points slower than the last three expansions. He said demographics and productivity accounted for about 0. 9 percentage points of the shortfall. He attributed most of the rest to insufficient government spending and weak demand for exports. Yet few drew the conclusion that the Fed should raise rates. Peter Ireland, a professor of economics at Boston College, described himself as “really, really nervous” about the judgment that the central bank’s work is done. “My December vote is no,” said Robert E. Hall, a Stanford economist. The Fed is unlikely to act at its next meeting, in November, just a few days before the presidential election on Nov. 8. Patrick T. Harker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said on Thursday that the election could cause significant economic disruptions. “It may be prudent to wait until we have resolved some of that uncertainty,” Mr. Harker said. The Fed’s last meeting of the year, in December, looks more likely for a rate change. Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said early this month that he wanted the Fed to move forward slowly, but that he did not regard the exact timing of the next rate increase as important. December would be “fine,” Mr. Evans told reporters in Auckland, New Zealand. “I am less concerned about the timing of the next increase than I am about the path over the next three years. ” Ms. Yellen surveyed a number of the issues that are perplexing Fed policy makers. The conventional understanding of monetary policy is that the Fed raises or lowers interest rates, which moves markets, which changes the behavior of businesses and consumers, and so the American economy grows or slows. But the Fed has struggled to stimulate the economy. One possible reason, Ms. Yellen said, is that households and businesses with relatively large debts were unwilling, or unable, to take advantage of low interest rates. She said that the Fed also needed to improve its understanding of the economic impact of changes in financial conditions. The behavior of inflation is another mystery. It fell less than expected during the recession it has strengthened more slowly than expected in the aftermath. “The influence of labor market conditions on inflation in recent years seems to be weaker than had been commonly thought,” she said. Finally, she mentioned the impact of global economic weakness on domestic growth. “This is a wonderful time to be an academic,” Mr. Rosengren said in introducing Ms. Yellen. But, he continued, “I empathize with the challenges our chair has” in charting policy with so many uncertainties. | 1 |
It’s come to this: Twitter is now employing IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence to help fight the ongoing war against its own users. [The AI famous for winning at Jeopardy and replacing insurance claims agents will take on its greatest challenge yet: Twitter trolls. Watson will use its ability to interpret natural language and analyze images to do something that the estimated 2, 300 remaining employees of the social network have repeatedly failed to do. Once thriving, the embattled social network has been in steady decline for years. In an attempt to strike a balance between the open nature of the platform and preventing online “abuse,” Jack Dorsey and his team have instead careened through a public comedy of errors as people on both sides of the debate have lost patience and moved on from the platform. Twitter Vice Present of Data Strategy Chris Moody said that they have had “some abuse” on the platform, discussed “very publicly in the past few months. ” In announcing the partnership with IBM Watson, he stressed that their first priority is to “stop the abuse. ” “Watson is really good at understanding nuances in language and intention. What we want to do is be able to identify abuse patterns early and stop this behaviour before it starts,” he said. Watson will help Twitter identify “abusive” accounts. Twitter will then use the information to decide whether to limit a user’s visibility or simply ban them from the service altogether. Whether or not Watson proves effective at his task, Twitter will face an uphill battle to regain its status and popularity. The company is caught between users who have become discouraged by its toxicity, and others equally dismayed by its tightening of free speech on the social network. In any case, this is a desperate attempt to reverse the company’s fortunes — but at this point it looks a lot like swapping deck chairs on the Titanic. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 0 |
Where did ISIS get that? Any guesses? And how do you know it's Russin made? | 0 |
Shockwaves are reverberating around the Kremlin today as word spreads regarding an extraordinary meeting called by Vladimir Putin yesterday where, according to sources, the Russian president said that “95% of the world’s ruling class are not even human,” but are “cold-blooded hybrids” who are “members of an ancient cult.”
Did Putin just out the world’s political and financial elite as cold-blooded hybrid human reptilians? Did he really just go there?
Speaking at a behind closed doors forum for the highest echelons of government and staff in his home city of St. Petersburg, Putin responded to questions about the Panama Papers leak by pointing out who was behind the plot: the U.S. government, their spy agencies, and George Soros’s OCCRP.
Putin slammed his fist on the table and exclaimed, “George Soros, you sly dragon, this is war,” according to sources close to the President. Putin then vowed to ramp up sanctions against Soros’s Open Society even further.
When questioned by a top aide as to what he meant by “dragon” (an unusual word in Russian), Putin sighed heavily and fixed the assembled group with his trademark stare before explaining that all is not what it seems in regards to how the world is run.
Resisting gentle attempts by close aides to stop the President ‘going there,’ Putin said that the evidence was everywhere, and that he personally had intimate knowledge of their dealings. He said that he was not one of them, but they are afraid of him and have attempted to lure him into their “ancient Babylonian cult.”
“The evidence, ancient and modern, is enormous,” he said.
Putin said that mankind has been manipulated to become “unconscious” through the use of programming by media and politics, the perfect example of which was the recent Panama Papers leak. The world’s ruling class have tyrannical control over our food, water, and air supply, and they are actively dumbing down the masses.
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The Times of Israel reports: US Donald Trump told the Israel Hayom daily that he intends to go through with his pledge to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, saying that “clearly I did not forget” the promise made on the campaign trail. [Asked by the paper Tuesday night at the Chairman’s Global Dinner in Washington, DC — an exclusive black tie event for diplomats and members of the incoming administration — if “you have not forgotten your promise concerning the embassy in Jerusalem,” Trump responded that “of course I remember what I said about Jerusalem. ” Read more here. | 0 |
The University of Utah will become the first major sports university to officially sponsor competitive gaming. [According to Bloomberg, the first varsity eSports team will compete in Riot’s League of Legends collegiate league. As one of the five wealthiest organizations in college sports, their endorsement of the explosive eSports scene is a decisive statement about its future. But the University of Utah won’t foot the bill for the scholarships from its massive $70 million sports budget. Instead, the scholarships will be funded by the university’s acclaimed Entertainment Arts Engineering department. Program head A. J. Dimick didn’t specify how much they would initially invest. Still, his enthusiasm for the program — and eSports as a whole — is readily apparent. He asks other schools to “join us,” encouraging them to help “move this along together. ” Utah may be the first of the “Power Five,” but the University of California was the first on the map overall, investing $250, 000 in a dedicated arena. At the time, UCI’s Acting Director of Esports Mark Deppe said: Esports is the future of competition. Period. It transcends language, geography, race, age, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability and many other identities. In five years many more schools will official programs and more structure will be in place to regulate and provide guidance to schools. Esports also has a huge opportunity to learn from the successes and shortcomings of traditional sports and provide a model for collegiate competition in the 21st century. There is a steady flow of signs that suggest he’s right. ESPN believed that the industry was already “primed for growth” in early 2016, and that growth has reliably exceeded expectations. Initially, UOU’s program will offer partial scholarships to its participants. Their eventual goal, however, is to broker sponsorship deals to expand into more games. If possible, they would eventually provide full scholarships for up to 35 talented students. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Government scientists are seeking a million volunteers willing to share the innermost secrets of their genes and daily lives as part of an ambitious research project to understand the causes and cures of disease. Those selected to be members of the “precision medicine cohort” will be asked to provide a detailed medical history and blood samples so researchers can extract DNA. They will also be asked to report information about themselves — including their age, race, income, education, sexual orientation and gender identity, officials said. But the project involves much more than statistics and laboratory work. The government plans to collect information about a person’s lifestyle — diet, exercise, smoking, drinking, sleep patterns and other behavior — and the environment in which a person lives, so researchers can identify possible risk factors, including air pollution or high lead levels in drinking water. Those wishing to participate will be able to sign up by computer or smartphone, and even by using an ordinary telephone to contact a traditional call center. The project, begun as part of President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, seeks to develop treatments tailored to the characteristics of individual patients. “Anybody anywhere can raise their hand and say they want to participate,” said Kathy L. Hudson, deputy director of the National Institutes of Health, which is leading the effort. Health care providers, including a number of hospitals and community health centers, will invite their patients to participate. Enrollment is scheduled to begin in November or December, with a goal of signing up a million or more people within four years. “There are a lot of enticing reasons to participate,” said Mark Masselli, president and chief executive of the Community Health Center in Middletown, Conn. one of a clinics chosen by the government to recruit patients. “Perched on your shoulders will be the best and brightest researchers, working on your behalf. ” The project is being orchestrated by Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, who in a previous job led the government’s successful effort to map the human genome. Congress in December provided $130 million to the National Institutes of Health for the research cohort. Mr. Obama has requested $230 million for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, and the appropriations committees in both houses of Congress have approved the request as part of a spending bill for 2017. That bipartisan support strongly suggests that the project will continue after Mr. Obama leaves office. The scale of the project dwarfs most other health research in the United States, such as the Framingham Heart Study, which has produced valuable insights on heart disease by following about 15, 500 people enrolled at different times since the late 1940s. “In the Precision Medicine Initiative,” Dr. Hudson said, “we hope to follow people for at least a decade. The longer it lasts, the more value it will have. ” People can sign up through academic medical centers at Columbia University, Northwestern University in Illinois, the University of Arizona and the University of Pittsburgh, each of which is working with local partners. Columbia, for example, is collaborating with Hospital, Harlem Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine. Participants will be recruited to reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the nation. To help achieve that goal, officials have enlisted community health centers, where more than 90 percent of patients have annual incomes less than twice the poverty level (less than $23, 760 for an individual). About of health center patients are Latinos, and about are . Officials said they wanted patients to be partners in the research, not just “human subjects. ” To that end, patients will have access to all the information about themselves, including laboratory and genetic test results. Doctors could eventually use the data to shape treatment for an individual patient, rather than using standard treatments that may not work for everyone. Patients will help guide the research, sitting on its steering committee and advisory board. The government intends to collect data from online questionnaires, physical exams, electronic health records and devices like Fitbit. Using smartphone apps and wearable sensors, participants could report information on their blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs. Officials hope to recruit 150, 000 patients from community health centers. Anne Kauffman Nolon, president and chief executive of Hudson River HealthCare, a community health center serving 10 counties of New York, said her patients would need help to overcome several obstacles. The patients, she said, include homeless people, migrant seasonal farm workers, people with low literacy skills and people who have neither computers nor smartphones. Dr. Carmen Chinea, the chief medical officer of the Hudson River health center, said that participants would not receive instant gratification, but could eventually receive “more precise treatments” for conditions including diabetes, cancer and depression. The Mayo Clinic will create a huge biobank to collect, analyze and store 35 million samples of blood, DNA and other materials from participants. Vanderbilt University will operate a data center to store information. Some of the data will be made available, without personal identifiers, to researchers and “citizen scientists,” officials said. Cancer doctors already choose drugs for certain types of cancer based in part on genetic characteristics of tumors. Dr. Joshua C. Denny, the principal investigator for the project at Vanderbilt, said his research had identified genetic mutations that increase the risk of heart attack or stroke for people taking a certain medication. Dr. Rhonda K. Trousdale, chief of endocrinology at Harlem Hospital, said she was reaching out to church and community leaders to seek their help in publicizing the project and enrolling volunteers. “A big motivation for researchers is to use this data to find correlations between people’s lifestyle, family history, environment and genomic data — to figure out what factors contribute to disease and if they affect different populations in different ways,” Dr. Trousdale said. “That’s what precision medicine is about. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — How unusual is the Republican blockade of the nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court? After a comprehensive look at every past Supreme Court vacancy, two law professors have concluded that it is an unprecedented development. Senate Republicans say they will not consider any nominee offered by Mr. Obama to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. The power to appoint Justice Scalia’s successor, they say, should belong to the next president. That categorical stance is new in the nation’s history, the professors, Robin Bradley Kar and Jason Mazzone, wrote in a study published online by The New York University Law Review. The Senate has never before transferred a president’s appointment power in comparable circumstances to an unknown successor, they said — an argument that many Democratic lawmakers have also made. In every one of the 103 earlier Supreme Court vacancies, the professors wrote, the president was able to both nominate and appoint a replacement with the Senate’s advice and consent. This did not always happen on the first try, they wrote, but it always happened. “There really is something unique about the position Republican senators are taking with respect to the Scalia vacancy,” said Professor Mazzone, who teaches at the University of Illinois. “You really cannot find any single comparable case,” he said. “We really did not find any precedent for the idea, notwithstanding the Senate’s very broad powers in this area, that a sitting president could be denied outright the authority to offer up a nominee who would receive evaluation through normal Senate processes. ” The study was the subject of a thorough critique by Edward Whelan, a prominent conservative legal blogger, who said Professors Kar and Mazzone had to perform semantic gymnastics to discern a consistent historical practice. The study considered only nominations to the Supreme Court, though the Senate must also confirm other federal judges and senior executive branch officials. “It is nonsensical to read into the Constitution one rule governing Supreme Court justices and another rule for everyone else,” Mr. Whelan wrote in a series of posts on National Review’s Bench Memos blog. The professors also excluded nominations from three presidents who gained office by succession rather than election, saying that the constitutional status of unelected presidents was contested until the adoption of the 25th Amendment in 1967. In addition, they excluded three presidents who started the nomination process after their successors had already been elected. You can make a decent case for both exceptions. It is harder to ignore President Lyndon B. Johnson’s failure in 1968, an election year, to fill Chief Justice Earl Warren’s seat. Johnson ultimately withdrew his nomination of Justice Abe Fortas. The study’s authors “gerrymander their way around this inconvenience,” Mr. Whelan wrote, by saying that there was no actual vacancy to fill because Warren had merely declared in a letter to Johnson that he was prepared to step down “effective at your pleasure. ” The Fortas affair helps both sides in the debate. Some senators opposed his nomination on the grounds that the next president should make the appointment. But the Senate Judiciary Committee held confirmation hearings and sent the nomination to the Senate floor. The nomination failed, but mostly on the basis of an individualized assessment of Fortas’s qualifications to be chief justice. “There is a difference,” Professor Mazzone said, “between the Senate rejecting, as it’s quite entitled to do, a particular nominee on the merits, and the Senate taking the position that a president cannot exercise a constitutionally delegated power. ” Should it matter if the Senate has always given presidents a real shot at appointing a Supreme Court justice? At a minimum, the authors say, the historical precedents establish “a benchmark of fair dealing. ” More controversially, they say that historical practices “can ripen into constitutional rules. ” That is not obviously true, but the Supreme Court seemed to say something similar in 2014, in a case on recess appointments. But even if the constitutional argument is a stretch, tradition counts for something. “History draws a distinction between rejecting a candidate and rejecting a presidential power,” said Professor Kar, who also teaches at the University of Illinois. “It’s a norm of fair dealing in the Senate. Procedure matters, and this breach is a dangerous one. ” Mr. Whelan wrote that the study supplied an answer to the wrong question. The right one, he said, is “how to deal with (a) a nomination by an president, (b) in an election year, (c) that threatens to dramatically alter the ideological composition of the court. ” That is a good description of current political realities. Professors Kar and Mazzone say they instead tried to discern a neutral principle from centuries of unbroken practice. I asked Professor Mazzone what he would tell a Republican senator to do in considering Judge Garland’s nomination. “You do what the Senate has always done in comparable circumstances,” he said, “which is you proceed with a evaluation of the candidate on the merits. ” | 1 |
HAVANA — Cuba is preparing for Fidel Castro’s final public appearance: a memorial offering Cubans a chance to pay their respects. Details of Mr. Castro’s death on Friday night, at the age of 90, have yet to be made public. But as if performing a play that had been rehearsed for a decade, the government continued to roll out plans for what official statements have called a period of “Duelo Nacional,” or national mourning. Government employees have begun setting up speakers and yellow gates at the Plaza de la Revolución, where the memorial will begin on Monday. Granma, the main government newspaper, published a special edition on Mr. Castro’s life and achievements. Statements and articles in government news outlets have also been lionizing Mr. Castro’s life and achievements — “All of Cuba With Fidel,” said one headline — while warning that liquor sales would be limited nationwide until next Sunday, when the mourning period is scheduled to end at noon. “Public activities and events will be suspended, and national flags will fly at in public buildings and military installations,” Granma reported. “Radio and television will continue with programming that is informative, patriotic and historical. ” All across Havana on Saturday night and Sunday morning, Cubans seemed quieter, more cautious, less certain of what the future might hold. Several nightclubs stayed closed on Saturday night. Traffic lessened, and the usual weekend music and revelry seemed dialed back. Many predicted that the somber mood — both sincere and enforced by the state — would hold until Mr. Castro’s ashes were interred in Santiago de Cuba next Sunday after a procession along the country’s central highway. Elian Gonzalez, the center of an international custody battle waged by Fidel Castro nearly two decades ago, returned to the public eye on Sunday to praise the leader who fought to return him to Cuba. Echoing the adulation on state media, Mr. Gonzalez said on television that the Cuban leader’s legacy will long outlive him. It’s “not right to talk about Fidel in the past tense . .. but rather that Fidel will be,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “Today more than ever, make him omnipresent. ” At one of Havana’s most popular hot spots — behind the imposing Capitolio building, which is being restored to hold the country’s national legislature — the crowds were smaller than usual after dark on Saturday. Several young Cubans could be seen scrolling through Facebook and pointing out what relatives and friends around the world were sharing about Mr. Castro’s death. Only a handful were talking to those relatives by video chat, which is usually the most popular activity in the hot spots spread across Havana. Tourists in the group said they were surprised but pleased to have been on the island during such a historic moment. “I’m definitely going tomorrow to see everyone saying goodbye to Fidel,” said Miguel Castillo, 52, a visitor from Costa Rica. “He was a symbol of resistance. The people of Latin America had long been listening to his voice, to his call for autonomy. ” Marini Danilo, 30, a tourist from Italy, said he couldn’t believe his vacation had turned into a chance “to live in such a big story. ” “For me, he was just another dictator,” Mr. Danilo said. “He was not my dictator, he was Cuba’s, but it feels crazy to be here. ” At least on Sunday, the scale of the goodbye for Mr. Castro was hard to gauge. Cubans have long known that when the world is watching, so are the state authorities: During international conferences, during President Obama’s visit in March and, now, after Mr. Castro’s death, the presence of state security becomes more intense, both in the streets and behind the scenes. Even without such clear warnings, Cubans — after decades of living under Mr. Castro and his brother Raúl — know that in such moments they are expected to behave and to say very little, especially to visiting reporters. So far, grief and memorialization have been dominated by the state. There have been only occasional public expressions or gatherings of any kind: a few students from a young Communist group getting together to grieve publicly on Saturday a small group of Cubans waving flags on the Malecón, the city’s seaside boulevard. At the Plaza de la Revolución on Saturday night, the wide expanse of concrete was empty except for the police, some soldiers — and exactly four visitors snapping photos. But starting on Monday, Cubans expect to see thousands of others, for the final spectacle of the Fidel Castro era. | 1 |
Trump win opens way for China to take climate leadership role. 3 Shares
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China has warned Donald Trump that he will be defying the wishes of the entire planet if he acts on his vow to back away from the Paris climate agreement after he becomes US president next January.
The election of climate change skeptic Donald Trump as president is likely to end the U.S. leadership role in the international fight against global warming and may lead to the emergence of a new and unlikely champion: China.
“It is global society’s will that all want to co-operate to combat climate change,” a senior Beijing negotiator said in Morocco on Friday, at the first round of UN talks since the Paris deal was sealed last December. The Chinese negotiators added that “any movement by the new US government” would not affect their transition towards becoming a greener economy.
China worked closely with the administration of outgoing President Barack Obama to build momentum ahead of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. The partnership of the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters helped get nearly 200 countries to support the pact at the historic meet in France's capital.
By contrast, Trump has called global warming a hoax created by China to give it an economic advantage and said he plans to remove the United States from the historic climate agreement, as well as reverse many of Obama's measures to combat climate change.
MORE... Canadian Big Media ignoring responsibility by failing to cover climate change crisis Petition calls for DOJ investigation into ExxonMobil's denial of climate science Zou Ji, deputy director of the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and a senior Chinese climate talks negotiator, told Reuters that if Trump abandons efforts to implement the Paris agreement, "China's influence and voice are likely to increase in global climate governance, which will then spill over into other areas of global governance and increase China's global standing, power and leadership."
China is expected to play a pivotal role in consolidating and enhancing South-South partnership, particularly when it comes to issues related to climate change.
China is steadily ramping up efforts to assist other developing countries in addressing climate change, a gesture that has received wide welcome.
Speaking to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Moroccan Foreign Minister and Climate Change Conference (COP22) President Salaheddine Mezouar said that China has an “extremely important role to play in accompanying, reinforcing and boosting South-South partnership and support sustainable development policies in the African continent”.
Xie Ji, deputy chief of the Chinese delegation to the ongoing 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22), said on Nov. 7 that China has ironed out a concrete program to help other developing countries to become more climate-resilient. "We will help build up ten low-carbon pilot zones, launch 100 climate change mitigation and adaptation projects, and offer training programs for 1,000 climate-related professionals," he said.
What Xie called the "10-100-1000" project is part of the effort that China has made in recent years to help other developing countries fight against climate change. The country has earmarked a total of 580 million yuan (about US$85 million) since 2011 to help developing countries, according to Zhang Yucheng, deputy director of the International Cooperation Division of the Department of Climate Change of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The most recent offer is the South-South Climate Cooperation Fund, a US$3.1 billion fund pledged by Chinese President Xi Jinping last September to help developing countries address climate issues. | 0 |
The end of daylight saving time next month will create a more dangerous evening commute as people find it harder to see on the streets, New York City officials say. The earlier sunset and darkness have been linked to an increase in the number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured by vehicles, according to an analysis by the city’s Department of Transportation of data from 2010 to 2014, the most recent years available. In the latest instance, a woman was fatally struck by a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus on Friday evening as she walked in Lower Manhattan. The bus driver was arrested and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian, according to the police. As a result, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio will announce on Thursday a new $1. 5 million “dusk and darkness” safety campaign that will include radio and television advertisements, signs on buses, and billboards to warn drivers as well as pedestrians to be more careful, especially at that time of day. In addition, the police will target drivers during those hours who speed, fail to yield to pedestrians, text on cellphones or block bike lanes. The campaign is part of the city’s Vision Zero plan, a set of proposals that aims to eliminate fatalities and injuries caused by vehicles. This year, as of Monday, there have been 192 traffic fatalities, 114 of which involved pedestrians — the rest involved people in cars, bicyclists and people on motorcycles. In contrast, there were 177 traffic fatalities during the same period last year, of which 96 involved pedestrians. “To meet our ambitious Vision Zero goals, especially during the more dangerous reality of this season’s evenings and nights, we have focused our efforts even further,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “Our key Vision Zero agencies have teamed up to not only study crash data, but to work closely together and make critical adjustments that we believe will literally save lives. ” It is the first time that the city has adjusted traffic policy based on time and seasonal changes, though in the past, it has stepped up traffic enforcement at the beginning of the school year or during the winter holidays. Nationally, a similar pattern has emerged, according to Michael Flannagan, an associate research professor at the University of Michigan, who has studied traffic safety nationally. “You do see a big jump in pedestrian fatalities and injuries in the evenings in the fall when the change back to standard time makes the evenings suddenly darker,” he said. Dr. Flannagan added, however, that the increase was not caused by a disruption of sleep from the time change, but instead “simply because it was dark” and it becomes harder for drivers to see pedestrians. Conversely, in the spring, when the transition to daylight saving time makes the evenings suddenly lighter, there is a corresponding decrease in pedestrian fatalities and injuries nationally, he said. The city’s traffic analysis showed that between 6 p. m. and 7 p. m. during the week — the prime commuting time — the weekday hourly average rate of severe injuries and fatalities involving pedestrians rose to 2. 44 in or nearly triple the average rate of 0. 84 in August. “It’s certainly much more dangerous at dusk both for pedestrians and motorists,” said Dr. Daniel M. Laby, the director of the Sports and Performance Vision Center at the State University of New York College of Optometry. Dr. Laby added that even people with normal eyesight could not see as well at dusk because the human eye does not adapt well to decreasing light. Vision becomes less sharp, with less contrast and depth perception. In addition, he said, there is typically more glare from uneven lighting as the sun sets, and more visual distractions compared with nighttime, when headlights help to focus attention. “You put this all together,” Dr. Laby said. “It almost makes you not want to go home at night. It’s risky. ” Amy Cohen, 51, a social worker in Park Slope, Brooklyn, said that, sadly, she was only too aware of the dangers on city streets at dusk. Her son, Sammy Eckstein, 12, was fatally struck by a van not long after 5 p. m. in October 2013 while retrieving a ball that had rolled into the street. Ms. Cohen, who helped found the advocacy group Families for Safe Streets, said that while she supported the new campaign, the city also needed to take more steps to permanently redesign streets and slow traffic, such as widening sidewalks, increasing the crossing time at traffic lights, narrowing driving lanes and installing traffic cameras that record speeding vehicles. “Education is a good start but much more needs to be done,” she said. The city’s traffic analysis found that dusk and evening crashes were often the result of drivers trying to make turns. In particular, there was a surge in severe injuries and fatalities from November to March, according to the analysis. “Through education and enforcement with our sister agencies, every driver needs to learn about the limited visibility of this season and the dangers of fast turns, especially in the evening hours,” said Polly Trottenberg, the city’s transportation commissioner. Ms. Trottenberg said the problem was underscored last year by a rash of nine pedestrian fatalities — three of which occurred during daylight hours — in the eight days after daylight saving time ended on Nov. 1. In total, there were 138 pedestrian fatalities in 2015, the lowest number since 1910. As part of the new safety campaign, city officials will seek to publicize the dangers of dusk and darkness through radio ads that are timed to run during the evening commute, and cards that will be handed out urging drivers to slow down, especially when turning, and to “look closely” since “more pedestrians are hurt in crashes around sunset than any other time. ” Pedestrians are also reminded to watch for turning cars. In addition, the city is specifically contacting people at senior centers, and taxi and livery drivers. | 1 |
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I learned exclusively tonight that the Democratic Coalition Against Trump is being joined by University of Minnesota Law Professor Richard Painter in a non-partisan joint campaign to mount a public campaign against an expedite a response to their parallel complaints against FBI Director James Comey for his partisan witch-hunt of Hillary Clinton.
Painter is a former Bush Administration White House Counsel who served as ethics counsel to the President.
“Richard Painter and I connected this evening, and we are sending out the message clearly that the FBI Director’s behavior is a non-partisan issue, and we will be sending out a joint press release tomorrow morning accordingly,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Adivsor to the Democratic Coalition Against Trump.
Both parties seek to prevent future political interference by America’s top federal law enforcement agency into partisan elections.
“We plan to make joint television and other media appearances together with Professor Painter,” said Dworkin who plans to participate in the broadcasts, “or alongside other members of the DCAT.”
Each independently made similar complaints to Department of Justice’s Office of Special Counsel’s ruling about the FBI Director’s recent memo .
Because the memo has intruded on this year’s presidential election, DCAT and Painter are alleging that FBI Director Comey’s violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits pernicious partisan use of office by federal employees or officials.
The FBI Director ignored Justice Department policy guidance which proscribes public investigatory actions within 60-days of an election. It’s a policy that has been respected across parties and administrations for decades to keep justice and elections un-entwined.
Justice officials specifically advised Comey of the policy .
He sent a mea culpa letter to other FBI agents just hours after the election-impacting memo.
The Democratic Coalition Against Trump filed the first reported Hatch Act complaint against FBI Director Comey in the wake of his unusual memo Friday afternoon.
Yesterday, Professor Richard Painter filed his own Hatch Act and ethics complaint against the FBI Director and an ethics complaint over the same memo, which is also drawing the ire of the career professionals at the top federal investigatory agency. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — An exhausted and Iraqi Army faces daunting obstacles on the battlefield that will most likely delay for months a major offensive on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, American and allied officials say. The delay is expected despite American efforts to keep Iraq’s creaky war machine on track. Although President Obama vowed to end the United States’ role in the war in Iraq, in the last two years the American military has increasingly provided logistics to prop up the Iraqi military, which has struggled to move basics like food, water and ammunition to its troops. Without the help, Americans commanders said, the offensive against Mosul would most likely fail. Americans are ferrying equipment and spare parts directly to the battlefield by cargo plane, helping arrange purchases of ammunition for equipment and pressing the Iraqis to adopt measures to improve a supply chain that would run over 200 miles from Defense Ministry depots in the Baghdad area to Mosul. But no matter how hard the Americans push, the Iraqis can go only so fast. The pace of ground operations is likely to become even slower in the summer’s searing heat and during the coming holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims often fast during the day. Much of the Iraqis’ equipment needs to be repaired or replaced, and many Iraqi units will require additional training before attacking Mosul. “A lull won’t be sexy, but it’s the hard and important work that needs to be done to generate combat power,” said Col. Steven Warren, who until this month was the top American military spokesman in Iraq. The logistical challenges are far from the only hurdles facing the United States as it struggles to deal with the complexities in Iraq. Iran is supporting tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, police officers and Shiite militiamen who are preparing for an assault against the Islamic State in the Sunni city of Falluja in western Iraq, which has raised fears of a sectarian blood bath. Prime Minister Haider of Iraq ordered the Falluja offensive over the objections of American advisers who urged him to focus on the bigger prize of Mosul, Iraq’’s city and the de facto headquarters of the Islamic State in Iraq. But after a series of Islamic State suicide bombings last month killed hundreds in Baghdad, Mr. Abadi faced growing domestic pressure to stop the threat in Falluja, which is about 35 miles west of the capital. The Iraqis have long struggled with their military organization, but the problem worsened in the summer of 2014 when the Islamic State seized wide swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq and stole much of the military’s trucks and other equipment used to move troops and supplies. Since then, American logisticians have been working directly with the Iraqis to try to improve their supply chain. The problem has been complicated because the Iraqi military is made up of a mix of equipment and weapons from the Soviet era, the United States and elsewhere. The Iraqis rely on an antiquated maintenance system that sends broken equipment to Baghdad to be fixed, and they do not have an automated system for tracking their supplies. American advisers have worked to overhaul the maintenance system, encouraging the Iraqis to develop the ability to do repairs closer to the battlefields. The Americans have also arranged for other countries in the coalition fighting the Islamic State to give or sell the Iraqis the ammunition and parts they need to keep their military functioning. The Americans have also taken the lead in preparing detailed schedules for moving troops, training them, and delivering ammunition and equipment to the battlefield. “As the Iraqis move farther away from their depots at places like Taji, they will have to adopt similar sustainment practices,” Lt. Gen. Sean B. MacFarland, the top American commander in Iraq, said in an email, referring to a city just north of Baghdad. “To do this requires a good deal of reorganization. ” “Extending the reach of the Iraqi security forces also requires logistics planning,” General MacFarland said. “We are doing a great deal of that for the Iraqis because we recognize that Rome wasn’t built in a day. ” The Iraqis have had some success against the Islamic State since December. This year, for the first time since the fighting against the Islamic State began in August 2014, the terrorist group has not gained any additional territory. The Iraqis have reclaimed the city of Ramadi and several smaller cities in western and northern Iraq. Backed by air power, Iraqi forces have regained 45 percent of the territory the Islamic State seized in 2014, American commanders say, an increase from 40 percent at the beginning of the year. Bombing by Americans and other European countries involved in the fight, including the British and French, has halved the Islamic State’s oil production and cut its revenues between 30 and 50 percent, American intelligence analysts say. But the analysts have concluded that many of the areas that the Iraqis need to reclaim — including Mosul — will be more difficult to seize because the Islamic State has controlled them for a longer period and has heavily fortified them. The Islamic State has roughly 19, 000 to 25, 000 fighters, about half in Iraq and half in Syria, Colonel Warren said. Most of the 10, 000 to 12, 000 in Iraq are concentrated around Mosul, in the Tal Afar area, and elsewhere in Nineveh Province. The expected delay in the Mosul offensive highlights the frustrations of the Obama administration with the seesaw nature of the Iraqi ground campaign. But Mr. Obama and his commanders decided that it was better for Iraqis to control the tempo of the counteroffensive, even with its fits and starts, than for the United States to reclaim a leading combat role that Mr. Obama thought he had ended when he withdrew all American troops in 2011. “Logistics is one of the things we are most concerned about, so we look to do everything we can to keep the timeline on track,” said Col. Christopher Garver, the United States spokesman for the coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq. “Yes, there’s a danger of things slipping to the right on the calendar, as we say, pushing into the future, but we have a whole team working to prevent that from happening. ” In interviews, Iraqi commanders in the Falluja operation acknowledged some of the challenges facing their troops, but they sought to discount the impact on their operations. “We have a lot of experience fighting in the hot weather and are used to it, but, yes, fighting in the heat is a very difficult thing,” said Abdul Wahab the commander of military operations in Falluja. “The enemy in front of us is ISIS, and it is not an easy enemy and we don’t want to give it the impression that our fighters are getting tired in the hot weather. So no matter high the temperatures are, we will continue fighting until liberating Falluja entirely. ” The commander of operations in nearby Ramadi said the military would make some tactical adjustments because of the heat but not stop fighting altogether. “Let’s be frank: In Iraq, even if we go to market we get annoyed by the heat,” said the commander, Ismael . “But we must beat the heat and put the appropriate plans in place to get over it and continue operations. We will take advantage of the dawn times to attack. ” Asked for a description of the air campaign in the coming months, Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. the American air war commander, said he would keep the pressure on the Islamic State, even if the tempo of the Iraqi ground offensive eased. “As the Air Force, we’re able to strike ahead of the ground maneuver,” General Brown said. “I know where the next fight is going to be. Then what I want to be able to do is actually soften up that with strikes ahead of the ground maneuver. ” | 1 |
Next Swipe left/right 8 classic football banners of our time Proof that sometimes the most entertaining part of a football match is the banners made by fans – here are 8 from over the years that have brightened up the beautiful game.
1. Aston Villa v Fulham, 2006 | 0 |
Saturday, 12 November 2016 Could Donald Trump really be part of an elaborate hoax for a US reality TV show?
In early November 2016, Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, expressed more clearly than many other world leaders the hope that Donald Trump, when in office, would be very different from the Donald Trump she had witnessed on the presidential campaign trail.
Comments attributed to Mr Trump while campaigning have led many to accuse him of being racist, sexist, and discriminatory towards people with disabilities - to name just three character traits that have met with liberal-minded disapproval.
If Ms Sturgeon and others are to have their wish fulfilled, however, Mr Trump, after entering the White House on 20th January 2017, will need to consistently demonstrate liberal, tolerant, non-discriminatory opinions and behaviour.
Suppose this did indeed occur. Imagine that the first act of the new president was to personally champion the cause of disabled, Mexican, Muslim women. Many would wonder what could possibly have led to such an apparent transformation.
In such circumstances, the following might be rationales to consider - doubtless all would be proposed:
1 - The CIA - or the shape-shifting, lizard-like aliens who control the world - had replaced Donald Trump with a liberal look-alike.
2 - A divine messenger had shown up in the Oval Office, pointed out that Mr Trump was in his latter years and explained that God remained undecided about whether the president's final elevator journey should be up or down.
3 - Donald Trump had been part of an elaborate hoax for a US reality TV show. The writers had constructed a character from a composite of least desirable presidential characteristics. Then, somehow, it had all got out of hand.
4 - Donald Trump had been a really nice guy after all and had wished to be president to do good in the world. He had lied to get elected as he had correctly calculated that only a racist, sexist bigot could hope to win the hearts and minds of more than half the US population. Also, the Ku Klux Clan vote could have been a clincher.This scenario has an interesting corollary in that Mr Trump's alleged threats to go after his opponents after the election could transform into him targeting his own supporters. He might passionately castigate those who elected him, saying how disgusted he was by their behaviour and telling them that their appalling attitudes had no place in the modern world.
5 - Donald Trump had always been the ideal president. He had been targeted with a misinformation campaign by a biased media - a media that had been supporting a political elite who had become out of touch with, and had ceased to care about, ordinary US citizens.
6 - Donald Trump had really been as bigoted as the liberals had feared. He had discovered, however, that, as president, the pragmatics of balancing complex political factors, both at home and overseas, constrained his words and actions. He had been forced to concede that a president is not nearly as powerful as one might think.
When will the real Donald Trump reveal himself? Make Swan Morrison's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 0 |
Traditional retailers have spent more than a decade and billions of dollars trying to transform their businesses for the online shopper. Yet Amazon and other digital upstarts continue to lap them. Now Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and the dominant player of stores, is turning to someone else’s technology and talent. On Monday, the company said it was buying Jet, the online bulk retailer, for $3. 3 billion, the largest deal ever for an company. The purchase, and a shuffling in the executive ranks that comes with it, are Walmart’s clearest acknowledgments yet that its online strategy is not working. It also sends a strong message to the rest of the consumer and retail industry: When it comes to competing against Amazon, not even the mightiest stores can go at it alone. “The other retailers are going to be looking up to it and saying, ‘You know, absolutely, we’ve been failing at doing this,’” said Jharonne Martis, a retail analyst at Thomson Reuters. “Bringing in an expert might be the key to it. ” Over all, Walmart’s sales have stalled. The online business grew just 7 percent last quarter, a number that Doug McMillon, the company’s president and chief executive, acknowledged at the time was “too slow. ” Most recently, the company has focused much of its online strategy on expanding its curbside grocery pickup business. Jet is perhaps best known for an algorithm that encourages bulk buying, an area where Walmart. com has fallen short and could energize its sagging online growth. Walmart said Jet offered it access to “urban and millennial customers,” two groups that the retailer’s large rural footprint has been slow to attract. Walmart said on Monday that Jet had added more than 400, 000 users monthly. Jet says it uses a complex formula to offer items 10 to 15 percent less than competitors by adjusting prices based on the quantity of products bought at once. The company relies heavily on suppliers, and Walmart offers more pricing power and potentially better distribution operations through its vast network of warehouses across the country. Still, the $3. 3 billion figure is given that Jet. com started selling products barely a year ago. Walmart is not valuing Jet. com solely based on traditional metrics like profitability, which the does not have. The retailer is spending billions in cash and stock in large part for something — or someone — else: Marc Lore. Mr. Lore, a serial entrepreneur who started Jet. com, is seen as one of the few executives who can help put a dent in Amazon’s edge. “If you looked at Jet from a fundamentals perspective, the company wouldn’t be worth what they’re paying for it,” said Anand Sanwal, the chief executive of CB Insights, a research firm covering venture capital. “They’re trying to inject Marc and probably some of the veterans on his team, and try and help Walmart figure this out. ” Mr. Lore, 46, will take over responsibility for Walmart. com in the United States and will continue running Jet, which will operate separately, Mr. McMillon said in a call with reporters. Walmart will be “thoughtful” about how it merges the two companies, and will focus on expanding both brands in the he said. Mr. Lore will replace Walmart’s current top executive, Neil Ashe, who will leave the company. Mr. McMillon said that now was the “natural inflection point” for a leadership change and praised Mr. Ashe for doing an “outstanding” job building the company’s online business. Mr. Lore a company, Quidsi, that grew into a collection of websites, including Diapers. com and Soap. com. The company was sold to Amazon in 2010 for more than $500 million. He stayed at Amazon for two years, then left to figure out a new project. Investors lined up to back Mr. Lore on his next venture, Jet. com. He raised more than $200 million before the company sold a single product, and more than $500 million over all. In the latest funding in November, the company was valued at $1. 5 billion, according to data compiled by CB Insights. He is seen as someone who can bring a unique approach when it comes to according to Adam Silverman, an analyst at Forrester, a research firm. “Marc has been a creative force within the industry, creating pretty innovative business models, including Jet. com,” Mr. Silverman said in a phone interview. “He’s proven that he can create businesses from scratch, and Walmart needs a bit of that entrepreneurship within their business. ” Recently, though, Jet. com has struggled. The company has been quickly burning through much of the cash it has raised, spending freely on hiring and marketing. To attract new customers, it dropped its annual $50 membership fee. The strategy has caused Jet. com to lose money on every shipment, something that would not have been reversed for another five years, Mr. Lore predicted in a 2015 interview. Connecting with Walmart could help Jet. com amplify its business without the stress of private in a market that has become more challenging for unprofitable companies. Under the terms of the deal, Walmart will pay $3 billion in cash, a portion of which will be distributed to Jet. com stakeholders over time, while $300 million will be paid in Walmart stock over time, according to a statement released by the companies on Monday. Walmart said that while it would incorporate some of Jet’s ideas and talent into Walmart. com, Jet would remain a separate brand, too. Yet both sites will continue to face a daunting reality: Amazon. com continues to wallop the competition. Amazon does more business online than any other retailer, yet still reports growth. In 2015, Amazon reported that net product sales rose 13 percent to $79. 3 billion, while Walmart reported that global annual revenue had risen 12 percent, to $13. 7 billion, in its latest fiscal year. For Walmart, buying Jet may not be about beating Amazon at its own game, according to Charlie O’Shea, the lead retail analyst for Moody’s. “We view this as a race for second,” Mr. O’Shea said. “Amazon’s lead is so great that it’s going to be virtually impossible to catch them, but you can compete with them. ” While legacy retailers continue to struggle with how best to compete online, represents only 8 percent of all sales, Mr. O’Shea said. “All Walmart has to do is be better than the other guys,” he said. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday night that the United States had carried out a missile strike in Syria in response to the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack this week, which killed more than 80 civilians. “Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the air base in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” Mr. Trump said in remarks at his estate in Florida. “It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. ” Mr. Trump — who was accompanied by senior advisers, including Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist Reince Priebus, his chief of staff his daughter Ivanka Trump and others — said his decision had been prompted in part by what he called the failures by the world community to respond effectively to the Syrian civil war. “Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically,” the president said, referring to President Bashar of Syria. “As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen, and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies. ” The Pentagon announced that 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles had been fired at Al Shayrat airfield in Syria. The missiles were aimed at Syrian fighter jets, hardened aircraft shelters, radar equipment, ammunition bunkers, sites for storing fuel and air defense systems. Dmitri S. Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, told reporters Friday morning that the strike “deals a significant blow to relations between Russia and America, which are already in a poor state,” according to the news agency RIA. Mr. Peskov said the strike did nothing to combat international terrorism. “On the contrary, this creates a serious obstacle for building of an international coalition to fight it and to effectively resist this universal evil,” he said. Fighting terrorism was Mr. Putin’s stated goal when he dispatched the Russian military to Syria in September 2015, though its main effect has been to shore up Mr. Assad. Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Russian forces had been notified in advance of the strike. “Military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield,” he said. No Russian aircraft were at the base, military officials said. “We are assessing the results of the strike,” Captain Davis added. “Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat airfield, reducing the Syrian government’s ability to deliver chemical weapons. ” The cruise missiles struck the airfield beginning around 8:40 p. m. Eastern time on Thursday, and the strikes continued for three to four minutes. According to Captain Davis, the missiles were fired from the destroyers Porter and Ross in the eastern Mediterranean. Talal Barazi, the governor of Homs Province, where the base sits, told Reuters early Friday that ambulances and fire trucks were scrambling to respond to fires there. Administration officials described the strikes Mr. Trump ordered as a graphic message to the world that the president was no longer willing to stand idly by as Mr. Assad used horrific weapons in his country’s long civil war. To do otherwise, they said, would be to essentially bless the use of chemical weapons by Mr. Assad and others who might use them. “This clearly indicates the president is willing to take decisive action when called for,” Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson told reporters in Florida. He said Mr. Trump had concluded after seeing the results of the chemical attack that the United States could no longer “turn away, turn a blind eye. ” “The more we fail to respond to the use of these weapons, the more we begin to normalize their use,” Mr. Tillerson said, a thinly veiled reference to President Barack Obama’s decision to refrain from strikes in 2013. Mr. Tillerson added that the United States had not informed Mr. Putin about the coming missile strikes and that Mr. Trump had not spoken with the Russian leader in the hours afterward. The decision to act came with a swiftness that took observers of the new president by surprise. After being briefed on the chemical attack shortly after it occurred, American intelligence agencies and their allies worked quickly to confirm the source of the chemical weapons, administration officials said. In Washington the next day, the president convened a meeting of senior members of his National Security Council, where military aides presented him with three options. Officials said Mr. Trump peppered them with questions and directed them to focus on two of those options. On Thursday, after Mr. Trump traveled to Florida for his dinner with President Xi Jinping of China, he convened what officials described as a “decision meeting” with his top national security aides — many of them with him at and others on secure video screens from Washington. After what aides called a “meeting of considerable length,” Mr. Trump authorized the missile strikes before starting the dinner with Mr. Xi. “It was important during the president’s deliberations,” said H. R. McMaster, the president’s national security adviser, to weigh the risk of action against the “risk of this continued, egregious, inhumane attacks on innocent civilians with chemical weapons. ” A military official said the attack was at the more limited end of the military options presented to Mr. Trump on Thursday by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The official said the strike was intended to send a signal to Mr. Assad about the United States’ intention to use military force if he continues to use chemical weapons. It was the first time the White House had ordered military action against forces loyal to Mr. Assad. Mr. McMaster said the missile strikes would not eliminate Mr. Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons, but would degrade it. He said the United States military had specifically sought to avoid hitting what it believes is a facility containing more sarin gas at the airfield. He said the military had also sought to “minimize risk” to citizens of other countries — specifically Russians — who might have been in the area at the time. The Pentagon on Thursday night released a graphic showing the flight track of Syrian aircraft as they left the Shayrat field on Tuesday and carried out the chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Province. The speed with which the Trump administration responded — and remarks earlier in the day by American officials who said that options were still being considered — appeared intended to maximize the element of surprise, and contrasted sharply with the Obama administration’s methodical scrutiny of a military response. It was Mr. Trump’s most important order so far for the use of force — virtually all of his administration’s other operations in Syria, Yemen and Iraq have been carried out under authorization delegated to his commanders — and appeared intended to send a message to North Korea, Iran and other potential adversaries that the new commander in chief was prepared to act, sometimes on short notice. Two Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, praised the strike in a statement and called for Mr. Trump to go further: to “take Assad’s air force — which is responsible not just for the latest chemical weapons attack, but countless atrocities against the Syrian people — completely out of the fight. ” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also expressed support. Mr. Tillerson is scheduled to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday. Administration officials said the strike was intended to put Mr. Tillerson in a position to tell the Russians that they should use their leverage to ensure that Mr. Assad’s government does not carry out more chemical weapon strikes and to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the civil war in Syria. The events of Thursday night marked a dramatic turnabout for Mr. Trump, who until this week had displayed virtually no interest in a deeper role for the United States in the long, bloody conflict. Well before he became a presidential candidate, Mr. Trump pleaded with Mr. Obama in 2013 to avoid the kind of strike that he has now ordered. As recently as this week, before seeing images of dying children gasping for breath during the chemical attack, Mr. Trump and his top aides hardly appeared inclined to more forcefully assert American power in the country. But the change seemed to emerge during a Rose Garden news conference Wednesday afternoon, as Mr. Trump reacted to news, and images, of the attack with horror and a newfound desire to respond. In less than 24 hours, his shift was reflected at the Pentagon, where senior Defense Department and military officials began drafting options for Mr. Trump, and in Florida, where Mr. Tillerson hinted at a strong response to Mr. Assad’s actions. In remarks late Thursday evening to a small group of reporters, recorded and quickly broadcast to the world, Mr. Trump announced his decision. “We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world,” Mr. Trump said solemnly. “We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who passed. And we hope as long as America stands for justice, then peace and harmony will in the end prevail. ” | 1 |
Email Print Huma Abedin has VOIDED her immunity deal with the FBI. She will be facing jail time or give up dirt on Hillary Clinton. Hillary has got to be crying big ol’ gator tears right about now… Huma Abedin has been by Hillary’s side for a long time. After those emails were found on her husband Anthony Weiner’s computer. Hillary Clinton does not want her around anymore. According to Hillary’s campaign, Abedin is now sitting in a different section of the plane when it was traveling to Florida. Image surfaces of Huma Abedin crying on plane as Clinton Campaign finds out the FBI has re-opened the email investigation. #HillarysEmails pic.twitter.com/2yIUgiYOsV
— REGATED (@regated) October 29, 2016
*** Now she is nowhere to be found. #Hillarysemail Huma Abedin is not on the plane with #HillaryClinton today. She must be freaking out especially since she signed this doc. pic.twitter.com/KOwI5rN1pW
— Trump Street Team FL (@ChatRevolve) October 29, 2016
*** Hillary is throwing her top aide under the bus.
Huma Abedin’s immunity deal is over.
This is the end of Hillary Clinton. Her campaign is sinking faster than the Titanic.
Let’s sink it faster 😉 !
Let’s share this post 1 million times. The Clinton campaign is falling apart and it is time to put Trump in office. The election is over. Join us on Facebook to Stop The Takeover. Click on the button to subscribe. | 0 |
TRUTH DIED at the Hands of Katherine Frisk By Katherine Frisk on October 29, 2016 Or did the Truth die at the hands of Wikipedia’s Editors?
As of the 26th Of October ( GMT) the editors of Gaven MacFadyen’s profile chose to add this addendum to his personal profile:
Personal life
He was born in Greeley, Colorado in 1940 as Gavin Hall Galter; he eventually took on the surname of his stepfather.[13] MacFadyen lived in the Pimlico district of London with his wife, Susan Benn. He died of lung cancer in London on October 22, 2016 at the age of 76.[5]….Truth died at the hands of Katherine Frisk..
Here is a screen shot: Screen Shot 26th October GMT
On the 24th of October I read about Gavin MacFadyen’s death on RT which you can read HERE, and immediately went to Wikipedia to find out more details on his life. Under his personal life this is what I found:
Personal life
MacFadyen lived in the Pimlico district of London with his wife, Susan Benn. He died at the hands of Evan McMullin, a CIA operative, after MacFayden allegedly discovered information relating to numerous scrubbed black-ops missions linked to the assassination of multiple Third World heads of state.
Here is a screen shot, which by the way, was not only witnessed by myself but many other people. I did not edit this or add or subtract anything from it. It was as you see it: Screen Shot 24th October (GMT)
I then went in search of a person called Evan McMullin. I found a detailed biography on Esquire Magazine which you can read HERE.
I then wrote up an article about it for Veterans Today which you can read HERE .
To the editor’s of Wikipedia, a site that is considered by many to report the “facts” and to which millions go for background information on a daily basis, please note, in the article I asked the following questions:
Was he involved in MacFadyen’s death and if so what proof does anybody have that he was?
All it says is “He died at the hands of Evan McMullin.” Is Evan McMullin aware of this “fact” on Wikipedia and has he made any statements in this regard?
Did Evan McMullin kill Gavin MacFadyen as claimed? Or is this a stunt?
I would like to know which part exactly does Wikipedia think caused “ the Truth to die ” at my hands?
On the morning of the 26th of October, I was alerted to the fact that Gavin MacFayden’s personal profile had changed again.
This time it read:
Personal life He was born in Greeley, Colorado in 1940 as Gavin Hall Galter; he eventually took on the surname of his stepfather. MacFadyen lived in the Pimlico district of London with his wife, Susan Benn. He died of lung cancer in London on October 22, 2016 at the age of 76.
Here is a screen shot: Screen Shot 26th October
On further examination I found another screen shot of more editing that had been done on Wikipedia on 24th of October. As you can see, it is typical of politics in the USA today where nobody misses a chance at mudslinging, disinformation, “poisoning the well,“and muddying the waters of all journalism :
I would like to ask the editors of Wikipedia: By whose hand did the truth die? Mine or your own?
Please read your own prospectus where it says:
Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful
And to “ lidcombe, australia with telstra “, although, no doubt, this is not who you really are, and who posted that “ ….Truth died at the hands of Katherine Frisk” I suggest that you remove it.
Here is a tribute to Wikileaks Director Gavin MacFadyen. The readers can make up their own minds as to who and what Gavin was. | 0 |
An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official allegedly threatened executives at an energy company by telling them he would send them to prison to be raped by a black male prisoner named “Leroy,” the Santa Barbara reports. [The claim has emerged from a civil case brought by the EPA against a company formerly known as Greka Oil Gas Inc. and now known as HVI Cat Canyon Inc. ( ) concerning oil spills near its tar leases in California. The company is fighting back in the case — and, in the course of its defense, exposed the State of California’s destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence, a scandal that local media have dubbed “Targate. ” Now, the EPA is faced with accusations of racism and homophobia, the reports: The racist and homophobic statements came to light in depositions of Andrew deVegvar, former president of Greka — now known as HVI Cat Canyon Inc. — and Rob Wise, the Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup coordinator in a civil action that could cost the company millions in fines. Some of the spills date back to 2005. Mr. deVegvar told a company attorney in a deposition that, in 2008, Mr. Wise “made comments about how he was going to put me and (Greka founder) Randeep (Grewal) in jail, and I would become intimate with Leroy,” according to a transcript. “He made comments about how — whether or not Randeep was ready to file bankruptcy and showed a certain glee in putting the company in bankruptcy and asked me to give him at least 48 hours’ notice before the filing. ” While being deposed, Mr. Wise didn’t deny trying to force the men to comply through use of racist and homophobic threats and stereotyping. Instead, he said repeatedly he didn’t recall making such statements. “Leroy” was unavailable for comment. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0 |
A number of iconic fashion designers are reportedly chomping at the bit for the chance to dress future First Lady Melania Trump for Inauguration Day. [New York socialite and philanthropist and Trump family friend Jean Shafiroff, who sits on the Couture Council of The Museum at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, took a poll to determine how interested designers were when asked their thoughts on dressing Mrs. Trump. Shafiroff told the New York Post that Zac Posen, B. Michael America, Victor de Souza, and Zang Toi are among the designers who say they’d be willing to dress the First Lady . “Any designer who dresses her will get enormous press,” Shafiroff told the outlet. The news comes after several designers, including Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs, publicly declined to design clothing for Mrs. Trump. “‘I have no interest whatsoever in dressing Melania Trump,” Jacobs told WWD in November. Shortly after Trump’s victory in November, designer Sophie Theallet urged her colleagues in the fashion world not to design clothing for or associate with the new First Lady in any way. “The rhetoric of racism, sexism, and xenophobia unleashed by her husband’s presidential campaign are incompatible with the shared values we live by. I encourage my fellow designers to do the same,” she said. Designer Stefano Gabbana, of fashion house Dolce Gabbana, has proudly posted photos on his Instagram of Mrs. Trump wearing his clothing. The photos caused a stir on social media, and Gabbana fired back at critics threatening to boycott his designs. “How many stupid and ignorant people r on Instagram! !!” Gabbana wrote back in one of several comments taking aim at the negative posters. “Please if you don’t like my post unfollow me … thank you. ” Last month, designer Calvin Klein said “of course” he would dress Melania Trump. “She’s beautiful,” the designer told TMZ. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0 |
Videos Israel: Ancient Papyrus Proves Jerusalem Belongs To Israel Israel is using a fragment of an old tax bill is meant to undercut Muslims', and UNESCO claims to the important site. | October 27, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! A view of the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, Monday, May 2, 2016.
While the UNESCO resolution which recognized the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as a “Muslim holy site of worship” was barely reported around the world, and considered fairly non-controversial, Israeli officials have been expressing fury over the matter for two solid weeks.
And the Muslims may have a huge, ancient mosque that has been a key part of Islam for 1,300 years, but Israel has a small strip of papyrus they found in a cave, which they’re pretty sure is a far more conclusive document, since it mentioned the word Jerusalem and was written in Hebrew.
Israeli officials have claimed that the UNESCO resolution, in recognizing the mosque as important to Islam, was tantamount to denying Israel’s absolute and eternal control over the entire city of Jerusalem. Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev said the papyrus strip proved Jerusalem “was and will remain the eternal capital of the Jewish people.”
The al-Aqsa mosque was built on a site which is believed to have previously housed an important Jewish temple, and some Israelis advocate the eventual destruction of the mosque and the construction of a new temple, though the details of such a construction would be hugely religiously complicated, and since the destruction of the mosque would undoubtedly start a massive war, it is considered unlikely. Still, the far-right government wants to ensure that they have some international precedent for their claim to the territory. This entry was posted in Daily Digest , Foreign Affairs and tagged Al Aqsa Mosque , Israel , Jerusalem , Muslim holy site , Palestine , UNESCO . Bookmark the permalink . tapatio
Contrary to the propaganda of the Judeo-fascists, the Palestinians DID have a state – called Canaan, that lasted for over 2000 years and built the city of Jerusalem – until they were destroyed by ethnic cleansing and genocide by the J6ws for the purpose of stealing the land now called Palestine. The survivors of that genocide are in Palestine and scattered throughout the region.
When the Jews were finally driven out of Palestine, for treachery and terrorism, the great majority of them went North into Eastern Europe. Some scattered into other regions of the Middle East and North Africa, where they integrated and lived among the other tribes before and after the transition to Islam. The J6ws that went into Europe, over the centuries, were driven from state to state because of their conspiracies, treachery, arrogance, usury and all of the other characteristics they exhibit today in Palestine and on Wall and Fleet Streets.
After the Jewish “kingdom” in Canaan was defeated, by the Assyrians in 351 BCE, the Jews never were allowed to rise to power again. Their >600 year reign in Canaan was marked by oppression of non-Jews, marauding and attacks on the most heavily traveled trade route in the world. After 66 BCE, for a time, Rome made the error of trying to allow the Jews limited self-rule, which ended in rioting, conspiracy and terrorist attacks by the J6ws on both Romans and the other tribes of Palestine.
From the time of the final defeat of the last Jewish terrorists in 135 CE, until the early 20th Century, Palestine was one of the most peaceful regions of the world. It benefited from a lack of obvious oil resources – avoiding attention from Western greed. The only upsets during that almost 2000 years were the defeat of the Byzantines (the remnants of the Roman Empire), the European “Crusades”, a couple of Asian incursions and a few tribal squabbles.
By 1900, Palestine was one of the most productive agricultural regions of the Middle East and a major exporter of citrus and olives. Its “Jaffa Brand” oranges were famous throughout the world (I’ve never eaten one. But, I have a crate with most of the paper label in my office).
The Jew claim that all of the land they obtained in Palestine was purchased is ludicrous. They went to some FORMER land owners of the DEFUNCT Ottoman Empire and paid them something to sign bills of sale to land they didn’t own and had probably never seen.
I read one report by a British officer in the Palestine Mandate. His unit was sent to investigate an attack on a small Palestinian town. They found the ENTIRE POPULATION of the town slaughtered, many of the bodies mutilated and most of the women and girls raped, with some tortured. The animals, including house pets, had all been killed and many mutilated. After further investigation, the British Army concluded that the massacre had been carried out by Irgun terrorists and that Menachem Begin almost certainly led the slaughter. This is the sort of sub-human that Jews “elect” as their Prime Minister.
The Zionists have the delusion that they can re-write history to suit their cult. They are sadly mistaken. Lonny
Not contrary to you being a racist @$$hoIe, you spend every day of your life whining about Jews for several hours a day. tapatio
NO, JEW-BOY, I SPEND PART OF MOST DAYS HELPING TO BRING ABOUT THE DAY WHEN THE DISEASE, OF WHICH YOU ARE PART, IS ERADICATED AND HUMANS CAN HAVE PEACE AND DECENCY. Lonny
You spend part of your days hating Jews and the other part blowing jihadis, tapaDILDO. Hating Jews doesn’t make you decent. It makes you a racist lowlife. Kagey1
Mint Press, you disingenuously fail to state the true objection of Israel to the UNESCO vote. That it fails to also include the Jewish origins of the site. In fact, the resolution appears to state that Jerusalem is only holy to Muslims. It negates the prior Jewish and Christian connections. That is the objection, not the inclusion of the later Muslim connection. tapatio Lonny
TapaDILDO still trying to get negative attention from Jews. Little crybaby never got enough attention from mommy. tapatio
Since the Jews invaded and committed GENOCIDE in Canaan/Palestine about 3000 years ago – yup, they were there before Muslims or Christians. The Christians appeared 2000 years ago and the Muslims came 1400 years ago. But, since the Jews’“claim” to Palestine is based on their genocide of the Canaanite kingdom after the Jews were driven from Egypt, that claim would seem to be shaky at best.
And, ancient Judaism became functionally extinct at tel Megiddo in 135 CE – 1881 years ago. The “Jews” that we see today are the descendants of Eastern European barbarians who were converted to Judaism by the few survivors of their terrorist war against Rome.
Today’s Jews and their ancestors NEVER saw Palestine until Rothschild’s Zionist disease. The FEW (about 17,000) Jews that lived in Palestine before Zionism were ALL Europeans, living on European charity – mostly in Jerusalem. They were ultra-orthodox whose entire function was to “study” the Torah and pornographic Talmud – the NEVER worked.
Humanity really needs to comprehend fully that this cult, that has been driven from more than 100 countries in the last 2000 years is NOT “PERSECUTED”. JUDAISM IS A TOXIC CULT-URE THAT LIVES ON THE BLOOD OF OTHERS – VAMPIRES, AS THEY HAVE BEEN CALLED BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, VOLTAIRE AND OTHERS.
GREAT JEWISH LEADERS
There goes Tapadildo inventing a fake history again, as always.
Jews didn’t invade. Jews lawfully immigrated under the Ottomans and so did the Arabs.
Jews committed no genocide there. The Arab population grows at one of the fastest rates on the planet.
There hasn’t been a Canaan for 3500 years… but you’re whining about it as though it was last week. No mention of all the genocides against non-Muslims over the last 1400 years? How about the ones this year?
Hating Jews has turned you into a frothing lunatic, obviously. DumbTwat. ivanacardinale
YOU ARE GREAT!!! WITH THIS, YOU JUST SHUT UP LOONY TUNES!!! tapatio
Thanks, but don’t count on that shutting up Lonny. They are assigned to sites and he probably won’t quit unless he quits/is fired from his job. Lonny
Why don’t you lead by example and show everyone how to shut-up, TapaDILDO.
Nah, you thrive on several hours’ worth of negative attention from Jews every day. ivanacardinale
He might be one of those Mossad trollies, being paid to do the job, the social media counterattack Lonny
You might be one of those racistCUNTS… Wait, “might?”… sorry. ARE. ivanacardinale
The War on UNESCO: Al-Aqsa Mosque is Palestinian and East Jerusalem is Illegally Occupied http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/27/the-war-on-unesco-al-aqsa-mosque-is-palestinian-and-east-jerusalem-is-illegally-occupied/ Lonny
Sorry, racistCUNT… there is no law which says Jerusalem is illegally occupied. Who do you claim it belongs to, racistCUNT?
Jews were also “Palestinians” and were “Palestinians” longer than any Arabs were, racistCUNT. ivanacardinale
So, you are palestinian then!!! Is in your DNA!! Lonny
Jews are the actual Palestinians, racistCUNT. It’s in your DNA to be a racistCUNT. tapatio
NO Jew has more than a trace of Semitic DNA. That was almost eradicated at tel Megiddo in 135 CE. The traces that exist in SOME Jews are from the terrorists that managed to escape from Megiddo (all men) and breed with the barbarians of Southeastern Europe.
The Iranian and other native Middle Eastern Jews are not Semitic, but Persian, Ethiopian, etc., so far as I know and I taught anthropology for 35 years. Lonny
TapaDILDO and his 1.5 terabytes of insane Jew-hate. Too funny. moosehorn
So the sorry sad son of wxxre that you are admits that Palestinians exist? Lonny
Sorry, stupid… did you think you wanted to engage in a conversation about what constitutes a “Palestinian”? moosehorn
Lol, you are a sorry stupid piece of crap. Lonny
Says the phuqqstain who couldn’t engage in a topic if his worthless life depended upon it. moosehorn
Ivana was right by referring to you as loony toones. Lonny
I’m right by referring to you as a dumbschitt. tapatio
You already showed us what you had for lunch today, TapaDILDO. moosehorn
You keep proving that you are a mentally challenged Axxhole. Lonny
The day you offer a mental challenge to anyone is the day you stop being a phuqqstain and graduate into average idiocy. moosehorn
Bravo, couldn’t come up with a better description. Lonny
Of what pours into your Jew-hating mouths. tapatio
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/77ca2bb6a1767c6776e94afaf505f28bad3b6bb346e4d3d500d1dd0f010ddc9a.jpg moosehorn
I bet your parents are siblings, such stupidity and ignorance is but the result someone conceived by incest. Lonny
I bet that’s a jihadiQoqque banging against your tonsils. Such blowing skills are the result of someone who’s practiced a lot. tapatio
No “might” about it. He/she/it is a hasbara troll, either working out of Palestine (and paid with money stolen from the American taxpayer) or is some Jewish escuincle working out of his mama’s Brooklyn apartment. Lonny
There ‘s a definite about this: You are one dumb Jew-obsessed, racist @$$hoIe. tapatio
It’s obvious. So is the lunacy and stupidity behind this obsession. tapatio
BTW, discussions in other venues STAY on those venues. ivanacardinale
Well, then America belongs to the native, original peoples, so, the rest of us should start packing their bags and go back to where we come from. Same thing with Europe. It was a Roman Empire, so, Europe belongs to the Italians then. Can the “israelis” stop the crap of ancient documents? in which world they think they are living? During thousands of years everybody invaded, killed and squattered each other. So, if we go for history, NOTHING BELONGS TO NOBDY!! Michael Hess
The supreme irony is that Islamophobes are always going on about how backwards Muslims are wanting to protect their culture going back to ancient times, yet Hasbarians do the same thing.
Meanwhile, as the article states, there is simply nothing at all that is controversial in this resolution, the scandal is as made up as Benghazi and Ambassador Stevens and Hillary.
The fact is, there was no state of Israel prior to May 14th, 1948. So these people need to get it out of their heads because you cannot claim sovereignty to a single dunam of land before that. Of course, as more people learn that Palestine was an officially and legally created country twenty-four years before Israel, things are getting far more interesting.
Worse yet still for Israel, the rogue state has no legal hold over Jerusalem at all in the real world not rules by little fragments of papyrus and religious imagery back when people did not bathe and thought that the stars were oil lamps that someone lit up each night.
UN Security Council resolution 476 and about eighteen others prove that Israel holds no legal sovereignty in Jerusalem whatsoever, this is precisely why the US Embassy Act of 1995 is waived every six months because by moving the embassy, that would put the US in violation of more than several Security Council resolutions. Lonny
Sorry, moron. You are always lying about Jews. Who’s criticizing Arabs for protecting their culture? You mean, when there are those among them who ATTACK OTHER cultures that you think is an attack on Islamic culture? You think it’s a preservation of Islamic culture when ISIS began perpetrating a genocide on the Yzidis?
There is something controversial, numbnutted goatface… They refuse to use the Jewish terms for the places, even though those are the terms which have been the prolific ones for thousands of years.
The fact is, goatfaced Jew-hater… Israel was around 2000 years ago, so there was a state of Israel before May 14, 1948, and Jews have been praying at the Western Wall for millennia. And they certainly had sovereign land there historically. You really are one heck of a Jew-hating loser, goatface!
Israel has plenty of legal hold over Jerusalem in the real world, goatface. See how it exercises its legal hold? Who are you claiming it belongs to? You know who REALLY never had sovereignty over a single dunum of the land over there? Palestinian Arabs.
Your misapplication of what you think are laws are not credible. And misusing the 4th Geneva Convention is what is not valid. ivanacardinale
You puke violence through your words, and also ignorance. Violence is the weapon of the people that has no reason. We know very well the history of that land. And you seem to invent it. And I laugh when i read every year about “Israel Independence”. From whom got the independence? From which Empire? the Palestinian? the Roman? the ottomans? or from the UN? Most countries has battle for years for independence against an empire. Israelis got it through what? as far as we know, you are being called the haggana? Lonny
Actually, the only reason people puke around you is they see your face.
Violence is what you use to defend yourself, stupid. You come on here and attack me… I never attacked you… and then you want to pretend you’re innocent on top of it! What a dumb hypocrite!
You clearly don’t know the history if you think there wasn’t a Jewish kingdom there before.
Israel got independence from a region which hadn’t been sovereign in 2000 years. The last people who ruled it were the Ottomans, and very temporarily the British. There were no nation-states in that region at the time. Suddenly, there were, because that’s how the Allies set it up after beating Germany and the Ottomans.
Didn’t know that, did you?
Before there was even a Hagganah, the Jews were struggling for independence there, and even when it was under Ottoman rule they asked for independence.
You don’t know much of anything. Now, prattle back at me and pretend that I’m violent, when you’re the ignorant one who opened up their mouth at me first. tapatio
Easy-bake monkey, STFU. THIS IS JUDAISM in Palestine .
A cult capable of committing, supporting and defending the crimes below IS A DISEASE and should be eradicated from this Earth .
Jews Blow Up and Kill Palestinian Boy By Force-Feeding Him Gasoline Lonny
Jew-hate is a form of psychosis.
See your stupid little list, Jew-hate weenie? If I posted all the Arab terrorist acts, the ratio would be over 1000 to 1. tapatio
You might note that TRUTH is not “hate” Jew-boy, 99% of the “Arab” terrorists are from THIS source – JEW OWNED .
AS SUBORDINATES OF THE ROTHSCHILD-BILDERBERG EMPIRE, WASHINGTON, ISRAEL AND SAUDI ARABIA BUILT AND OPERATE AL QAEDA, ISIS AND THE OTHER TERRORIST GROUPS OPERATING IN SYRIA (and elsewhere) TO DESTABILIZE COUNTRIES AND ESTABLISH A “CALIPHATE” THAT WOULD “COOPERATE” WITH THE EMPIRE.
LIKE THE TERRORIST GROUPS THEMSELVES, THAT CALIPHATE WOULD BE JUST AS OPPRESSIVE AND VICIOUS AS ITS PARENT (established by Jewish/British bankers, 100 years ago) – SAUDI ARABIA. SAUDI ARABIA AND THE TERROR GROUPS SPAWNED THEY ARE THE GUTTER SCRAPINGS OF ISLAM – EQUAL IN ALL RESPECTS TO THE ZIONIST DISEASE.
Global Warfare: “We’re going to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan & Iran
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1438.htm
“Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right”
AND
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor (9/11 – PERFECTION). Domestic politics and industrial policy will shape the pace and content of transformation as much as the requirements of current missions.” (p 63)
AMERICA’S “RASPUTINS” RESPONSIBLE FOR PLANNING THE LAST 15 YEARS OF DEATH – JEWISH ZIONISTS ALL
CLEAN BREAK
Dov Zakheim Lonny
Tapadildo and his usual psychotic copy/pastes needs a lot of negative attention from Jews. Has for YEARS. tapatio
ANYONE WHO TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT JUDAISM IS GOING TO GET A LOT OF NEGATIVE ATTENTION FROM THAT DISEASE.
MOICHE FEIGLIN IS DEPUTY SPEAKER OF THE ISRAELI KNESET. BELOW IS THE HEBREW TEXT FROM FEIGLIN’S FACEBOOK PAGE. THIS CREATURE IS TYPICAL OF THE JEWISH ANIMALS THAT HAVE INVADED PALESTINE.
TRANSLATION OF FEIGLIN’S FACEBOOK POST…………..
With God’s Help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Mr. Prime Minister, We have just heard that Hamas has used the ceasefire to abduct an officer. It turns out that this operation is not about to be over any too soon. The failures of this operation were inherent to it from the outset, because: a) It has no proper and clear goal; b) there is no appropriate moral framework to support our soldiers. What is required now is that we internalize the fact that Oslo is finished, that this is our country – our country exclusively, including Gaza. There are no two states, and there are no two peoples. There is only one state for one people. Having internalized this, what is needed is a deep and thorough strategic review, in terms of the definition of the enemy, of the operational tasks, of the strategic goals, and of course, of appropriate necessary war ethics. (1) Defining the enemy: The strategic enemy is extremist Arab Islam in all its varieties, from Iran to Gaza, which seeks to annihilate Israel in its entirety. The immediate enemy is Hamas. (Not the tunnels, not the rockets, but Hamas.) (2) Defining the tasks Conquest of the entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting forces and their supporters. (3) Defining the strategic goal: To turn Gaza into Jaffa, a flourishing Israeli city with a minimum number of hostile civilians. (4) Defining war ethics: “Woe to the evildoer, and woe to his neighbor” In light of these four points, Israel must do the following: a) The IDF [Israeli army] shall designate certain open areas on the Sinai border, adjacent to the sea, in which the civilian population will be concentrated, far from the built-up areas that are used for launches and tunneling. In these areas, tent encampments will be established, until relevant emigration destinations are determined. The supply of electricity and water to the formerly populated areas will be disconnected. b) The formerly populated areas will be shelled with maximum fire power. The entire civilian and military infrastructure of Hamas, its means of communication and of logistics, will be destroyed entirely, down to their foundations. c) The IDF will divide the Gaza Strip laterally and crosswise, significantly expand the corridors, occupy commanding positions, and exterminate nests of resistance, in the event that any should remain. d) Israel will start searching for emigration destinations and quotas for the refugees from Gaza. Those who wish to emigrate will be given a generous economic support package, and will arrive at the receiving countries with considerable economic capabilities. e) Those who insist on staying, if they can be proven to have no affiliation with Hamas, will be required to publicly sign a declaration of loyalty to Israel, and receive a blue ID card similar to that of the Arabs of East Jerusalem. f) When the fighting will end, Israeli law will be extended to cover the entire Gaza Strip, the people evicted from the Gush Katif will be invited to return to their settlements, and the city of Gaza and its suburbs will be rebuilt as true Israeli touristic and commercial cities. Mr. Prime Minister, This is the a fateful hour of decision in the history of the State of Israel. All metastases of our enemy, from Iran and Hizballah through ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood, are rubbing their hands gleefully and preparing themselves for the next round. I am warning that any outcome that is less than what I defined here means encouraging the continued offensive against Israel. Only when Hizballah will understand how we have dealt with Hamas in the south, it will refrain from launching its 100,000 missiles from the north. I call on you to adopt the strategy proposed here. I have no doubt that the entire Israeli people will stand to your right with its overwhelming majority, like myself – if only you will adopt it. With high regards, respectfully,
ORIGINAL HEBREW TEXT FROM FEIGLIN’S FACEBOOK (Just in case he removes the comment, as they frequently do)
ב”ה
ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו
אדוני ראש הממשלה זה עתה נודע כי החמאס ניצל את הפסקת האש בכדי לחטוף קצין. מסתבר שהמבצע הזה לא עומד להיגמר כל כך מהר. הכשלים במבצע היו טמונים בו מתחילתו כי:
א – אין לו מטרה נכונה וברורה. ב – אין מעטפת מוסרית ראויה התומכת בחיילינו.
מה שנדרש כעת הוא להפנים שאוסלו נגמר, שזו ארצנו – רק ארצנו, כולל עזה! אין שתי מדינות ואין שני עמים – יש רק מדינה אחת לעם אחד.
בעקבות ההפנמה הזו נדרש שינוי אסטרטגי עמוק ויסודי – הן בהגדרת האויב, הן בהגדרת המשימה, הן בהגדרת היעד האסטרטגי וכמובן – בהגדרת מוסר הלחימה הנכון והנדרש.
1 – הגדרת האוייב האויב האסטרטגי הוא האסלאם הערבי הקיצוני על כל גרורותיו מאיראן ועד עזה המבקש לחסל את ישראל כולה. האויב בעין הוא החמאס. (לא המנהרות, לא הרקטות – החמאס)
2 – הגדרת המשימה: כיבוש הרצועה כולה וחיסול כל הכוחות הלוחמים ותומכיהם.
3 – הגדרת היעד האסטרטגי: להפוך את עזה ליפו. עיר ישראלית פורחת עם מינימום אזרחים עוינים.
4 – הגדרת מוסר הלחימה:“אוי לרשע ואוי לשכנו”
לאור ארבעת הנקודות הללו על ישראל לבצע מיד את הפעולות הבאות:
א – צה”ל יגדיר שטחים פתוחים על גבול סיני ובסמיכות לים בהם תתרכז האוכלוסייה האזרחית- הרחק מהשטח הבנוי ואזורי השיגור והמנהור. באזורים אלו יוקמו מחנות אוהלים עד לאיתור יעדי הגירה רלוונטיים. אספקת החשמל והמים לאזורים שהיו מאוכלסים – תנותק.
ב – האזורים שהיו מאוכלסים יופגזו בכוח אש מקסימלי. כל מתקני החמאס האזרחיים והצבאיים, אמצעי הקשר והלוגיסטיקה – יחוסלו עד היסוד.
ג – צה”ל יבתר את הרצועה לאורכה ולרחבה, ירחיב מאוד את הצירים, ישתלט על אזורים שולטים וישמיד קיני ההתנגדות במידה וייוותרו כאלה.
ד – ישראל תחל באיתור מדינות ומכסות הגירה לפליטי עזה. המעוניינים להגר יזכו בחבילת סיוע כלכלית נדיבה ויגיעו לארצות הקולטות עם יכולת כלכלית משמעותית.
ה – מי שיתעקש להישאר ויוכח כי אין לו כל קשר לחמאס, יידרש לחתום באופן פומבי על הצהרת נאמנות לישראל ויקבל תעודת זהות כחולה בדומה לזו של ערביי מזרח ירושלים.
ו – עם שוך הקרבות יוחל החוק הישראלי בכל הרצועה, מגורשי גוש קטיף יוזמנו לשוב ליישוביהם והעיר עזה ובנותיה ייבנו כערי תיירות ומסחר ישראליות לכל דבר.
אדוני ראש הממשלה! זוהי שעת הכרעה גורלית בימיה של מדינת ישראל. כל גרורות האויב, מאיראן והחיזבאללה ועד דע”ש והאחים המוסלמים – חוככות כעת את ידיהן בהנאה ומכינות עצמן לסבב הבא.
אני מתריע שכל תוצאה שהיא פחות ממה שהוגדר כאן, משמעותה עידוד המשך האופנסיבה נגד ישראל. רק אם יבין החיזבאללא כיצד טופל החמס בדרום, ימנע מלשגר את 100,000 הטילים שלו – מצפון.
אני קורא לך לאמץ את האסטרטגיה המוצעת כאן. אין לי כל ספק שכמוני, עם ישראל כולו יעמוד ברוב מוחץ לימינך – אם רק תאמצנה.
בכבוד ובהערכה רבה משה פייגלין Lonny
TapaDILDO has all of his Jew-hate copy/pastes rolling to get negative attention from Jews. Such an infantile little Jew-hater… uses JihadiCokk as a pacifier. tapatio
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6862a06b7dca0b6b4e7021675a233af3ef12f5a747576a7a076f7e66e15d3a52.jpg Lonny
TapaDILDO still trying to get negative attention from Jews by showing them what he just ate for lunch. tapatio
APPARENTLY THIS BEANIE-BABY CAN’T READ. BUT, HIS MAMA PROBABLY CAUGHT HIM IN A TEL AVIV BACK ALLEY. HARDLY A WOMAN IN THAT CULT WITHOUT A COIN SLOT IN HER FOREHEAD. Lonny
Apparently, you’re too stupid to understand that I pointed out what you ate for lunch, Jew-hate infant. tapatio
Jew-boy, you fail to comprehend that I couldn’t care less about your ad hominem drivel. It only reinforces the reality that Judaism, especially the Zionist form is a FILTHY DISEASE – just like its cells – YOU.
For more than 3000 years, from their expulsion from Egypt and from the money changers Jesus is said to have driven from the temple steps to the predatory global Rothschild banking cartel to the lowest loan shark in NY, to the Internet propaganda shill, the IDF thug and Mossad scum and their rabbis preaching the delusion of a “chosen” master-race, this predatory cultl posing as religion and ethnicity has most closely resembled a malignant cancer metastasizing through our world, corrupting and spoiling everything it touches.
When one or a few cultures find a particular culture toxic, it could be bigotry. When almost EVERY culture finds Judaism toxic, JUDAISM IS TOXIC .
Every expulsion of Jews below was preceded by widespread and extreme crime and abuses BY JEWS. The Jews have been expelled from more than 100 countries. Listed below are ONLY expulsions that could be directly linked to RAMPANT JEWISH CRIME. They had NOTHING to do with “persecution” of Jews. However, often, innocent Jews suffered because of guilt by association with their predatory culture.
The expulsions of Jews were acts of SELF-PRESERVATION by non-Jewish cultures.
Expulsions of Jews | 1 |
BERLIN — Throughout the almost 11 years Chancellor Angela Merkel has been in office in Germany, her nation has been reassuringly stable in the midst of tumult throughout Europe, maintaining a steady economy and stolidly predictable politics. But it is becoming increasingly clear that Ms. Merkel’s decision last year to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the country has set off aftershocks that continue to upend politics in Germany and beyond. And on Monday, a day after voters in Berlin dealt her party another stinging loss in the second regional vote in two weeks, she was left to convince voters that she was not out of touch with their anger and anxiety over the flood of immigrants. “If I could, I would turn back time by many, many years to better prepare myself and the whole German government for the situation that reached us unprepared in late summer 2015,” Ms. Merkel said after meeting with leaders of her party, the Christian Democratic Union. “Nobody, including myself, wants a repeat of this situation. ” In a speech that was at times personal, Ms. Merkel took responsibility for her party’s showing in balloting in Berlin. She also acknowledged a role in the party’s humiliating finish, behind the Social Democratic Party and a nationalist party, Alternative for Germany, two weeks ago in her home state, . She pledged to work to regain voters’ trust. Since her decision to welcome refugees from Syria and other poor and countries, the effects across Germany and Europe have only grown more intense. The main political beneficiary of the backlash in Germany has been Alternative for Germany — a trend that has played out across much of the Continent, where parties are on the rise in many countries. The question of how far to go in assimilating the migrants has exposed a deep rift between Eastern and Western Europe, and the economic and cultural challenges of absorbing so many people have contributed to rising nationalism in countries including France, the Netherlands and Austria, and to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. On Monday, instead of gathering with President Obama and other world leaders in New York at the United Nations, Ms. Merkel stayed home to shore up her political standing a year before general elections, deflecting questions about whether she would even run again. The chancellor defended her decision as “absolutely right,” but she acknowledged that “ultimately, it led to a time when we did not have enough control over the situation. ” She pointed to legislation and efforts since then aimed at helping to regain control and integrate the new arrivals. Her conservative party’s loss on Sunday in the state elections in Berlin, she acknowledged, was the result of the mass arrival of refugees and a resulting protest vote against the party. But there were several other reasons, she said, including the emergence of “a world, where people are not necessarily interested in facts, they are just following their feelings. ” The behavior of voters and politicians this year — most stunningly seen in Britain’s vote to leave the European Union — has upset faith in opinion polls and in institutions developed since World War II to contain the or thought that is now attracting populist support. Many Germans found their country’s chaotic response to the influx of migrants worrying to the point that they felt a threat, whether real or perceived, to their personal stability and prosperity, said Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “To many, the German state appeared not to be capable of handling this wave of migrants,” Ms. Stelzenmüller said. “That raised questions of safety of their own personal life. That showed, right or wrong, their country’s institutions were not as strong as people thought they are. The shock of the initial wave is still in people’s bones. ” Ms. Merkel said it was vital to recognize the economic roots of insecurity, suggesting that globalization and new trade patterns could have profound effects on people, from the German farmer to the young population of Africa. Making that connection, she argued, is essential for a decent future. Germany “won’t let itself be rattled to its core,” she said, adding, “That didn’t happen even in such a indeed extremely unsettling, year as the past one. ” Germans in rural areas — where Christian Democrats hold more sway than in cities — are deeply worried that even if they are doing well, they have lost faith in their prospects for the future, she said. “When the young people all leave the villages, when one can only with difficulty sell one’s home,” she noted, there is drama and uncertainty “which thicken into a fear, or at the very least a worry about the future. ” After 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the spread of freedom across Europe, she said, made it seem that Europe was on a victorious course and could not be overtaken. Now, she added, “something has developed where we notice that in the globalized world, we are not necessarily in the forefront. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has gone into hibernation, withdrawing from the central role it has played in American life throughout Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ’s decade on the court. The court had leaned right until the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. According to the conventional wisdom, the court is now evenly divided and large numbers of ties are inevitable. But the truth is more complicated. The court is not deadlocked so much as diminished. The justices will continue to issue decisions in most cases, but many will be modest and ephemeral, like Monday’s opinion returning a major case on access to contraception to the lower courts for further consideration. “We’re seeing an even greater push for broad consensus and minimalist rulings, and a majority of the court seems willing to go along with that approach,” said Jonathan H. Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University. Opinions vary about whether a Supreme Court that does little is good for the nation, but the trend is certainly a testament to Chief Justice Roberts’s leadership. He has long said he favors narrow decisions endorsed by large majorities, and it turns out that goal is easier to achieve on an court. In public remarks in April, Justice Elena Kagan described a court that is now “especially concerned” about finding ways to achieve consensus. “All of us are working hard to reach agreement,” she said. “I give great credit to the chief justice, who I think in general is a person who is concerned about consensus building, and I think all the more so now,” she added. “He’s conveyed that in both his words and his deeds. ” The resulting minimalism is good news, said Eric J. Segall, a law professor at Georgia State University. “Yesterday’s contraception case shows why an equally divided court among liberals and conservatives has many benefits for our country, and also why the claims by many court watchers about an court are overstated,” he said Tuesday. In the contraception case, Zubik v. Burwell, No. the court’s unanimous unsigned opinion urged lower courts to find a compromise, one that Professor Segall said “may lead to a better solution for both sides. ” The opinion sought to bridge the gap between religious groups that wanted no part in providing contraception coverage to their female employees and the Obama administration, which wanted to make sure the coverage remained easily accessible “This type of consensus decision making,” Professor Segall said, “is a welcome change from the normal political and sometimes partisan approach we normally see in important opinions, where one side can impose its own agenda on the parties and the country. ” Republican senators have vowed not to confirm President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick B. Garland, saying the choice of a replacement for Justice Scalia should go to the next president. That would leave the court for many more months. In the meantime, the Roberts court is in important ways dominated by the court’s liberal wing, which can now block efforts to move the law to the right. A prime example came in March, when the court deadlocked in a case that had threatened to cripple unions, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, No. . When the case was argued in January, the court’s conservative majority seemed ready to say that forcing public workers to support unions they had declined to join violated the First Amendment. Justice Scalia’s questions were consistently hostile to the unions. There are many other ways to assess the shift in the balance of power since Justice Scalia’s death. Four days before he died, the court blocked the Obama administration’s effort to combat global warming by regulating emissions from power plants. The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s conservatives in the majority. Just three weeks later, in a significant victory for the Obama administration, Chief Justice Roberts refused to block a different regulation limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. And last Thursday, a deadlocked court refused to vacate a stay of execution of an Alabama man, Vernon Madison, with the court’s four conservatives saying they would have let the execution proceed. Had Justice Scalia lived, Mr. Madison would almost certainly have died. The court has three major decisions left to decide before the justices take their summer break: on abortion, immigration and affirmative action. In the first two, tie votes would leave in place conservative appeals court decisions but set no Supreme Court precedent, allowing the justices to return to the broader legal issues in later cases. At the argument in March in the abortion case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, No. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said that it could be useful to return the case to the lower courts to develop more evidence. That approach would yield another minimalist decision. When the court agreed in January to hear the immigration case, United States v. Texas, No. conservatives hoped for a major ruling on presidential power. They were particularly heartened when the court took the unusual step of asking the parties to address the question of whether Mr. Obama had violated his constitutional obligations to enforce the nation’s laws. But when the case was argued before eight justices in April, a deadlock seemed likely and a sweeping decision on executive power was off the table. There is one case in which the court could still take a step to the right, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, No. a challenge to the university’s admissions plan. Justice Kagan has recused herself, based on her work on the case as United States solicitor general. That means Justice Scalia’s death eliminated rather than created the possibility of a tie. All of this term’s blockbusters were added to the court’s docket before Justice Scalia died. Since then, the justices have agreed to hear just seven cases, and none of them concern issues of broad public interest. Several involve intellectual property and procedural issues unlikely to produce ideological splits. The next term, which starts in October, is thus shaping up to be a thin and quiet one. Until the next justice arrives, the Supreme Court will remain on the sideline of American life. “The court will be on the front pages less often,” said David A. Strauss, a law professor at the University of Chicago. “The justices won’t have so much trouble with relatively technical cases, and some of those can be very important to the legal system,” he added. “But they will either stay away from the most controversial cases or do what they’ve been doing over the last few months — deciding those cases in a way that postpones, maybe indefinitely, the day of reckoning on the most divisive questions. ” | 1 |
HONG KONG — When protesters disrupted an art exhibition by Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, a political cartoonist, at the George Town Literary Festival in Malaysia on Saturday, he assumed that the police would want his help identifying those responsible. Instead, said Mr. Zulkiflee, who goes by the name Zunar, he was questioned by the police, detained for a day and informed that he was under investigation for producing cartoons that purportedly defamed Prime Minister Najib Razak. It was not the first time Mr. Zulkiflee, who already faces nine charges of sedition and is barred from leaving the country, has courted trouble with his pen. His cartoons frequently target Mr. Najib, who is accused of taking millions of dollars from a state investment fund. Mr. Najib has faced widespread calls to resign, most recently at an anticorruption demonstration this month that drew tens of thousands in Kuala Lumpur, the capital. In an interview, Mr. Zulkiflee, 54, discussed how social media has become an increasingly important channel for political dissent in Malaysia, and why he continues to use his art to investigate corruption and injustice without dwelling too much on the risks. Do you feel that the climate for creating your art has changed in recent years? People are really not happy with the government — more and more people — but there are laws stopping them from being in the front row and being very, very vocal. So they will use any type of form, of tool, to express their view or protest. So now, social media is something that is a very effective tool. People are starting to be creative in social media by using drawings, cartoons, posters or video clips. The government feels this is very dangerous for them, so they start to introduce laws. As an example, the Sedition Act was introduced by the British government in 1948. And in 2012, the prime minister made an open pledge to Malaysia that he would abolish the Sedition Act, live on TV. But he uses it more now, and it’s going to be strengthened. Do these kinds of regulations affect your creative process? I’m facing so many laws three laws have been used against me so far. But one thing I keep in my mind — one very, very important thing — is that the biggest enemy for anyone in the world is . For me, talent is not a gift but a responsibility. People ask, do I have fear? Yes, I have fear, I’m human. But responsibility is bigger than fear. So I don’t want to really think what the government will do next to me. I just concentrate on what I’m supposed to do. That can help me continue and draw more cartoons. If I start to think about law, I start to think about prison, I start to think about government action, I will definitely start to practice — and this is no good. So I will draw as usual. Your cartoon about the person in chains with the Sedition Act around his neck and the Penal Code as handcuffs … That’s a self portrait. What were you trying to say there? You see that three laws, which I mentioned earlier, have been used against me. First is Sedition Act, second is penal code, third is Printing Presses and Publications Act. I was chained with these laws — hand, neck and leg. But if you go to my shirt, you can see my philosophies there. Among them are “I will keep drawing until the last drop of my ink” and “How can I be neutral … even my pen has a stand. ” So this drawing shows that even though there’s a law to stop me, even though there’s a regulation to stop me, even though they tried to ban my books — actually, not tried, they already banned my book — I will keep drawing. That is why, without hands, I still use my mouth or my teeth to draw. This is to show the philosophy and determination to fulfill my duty as a cartoonist in Malaysia. You have said that you are expecting a 10th sedition charge. Even without that, you’re looking at upward of 40 years as a maximum prison sentence. How do you feel about the prospect of potentially having to serve so much time? You have to understand this is a politically motivated charge, it’s got nothing to do with the law. In Malaysia, it’s very, very difficult for us with politically motivated charges. You just need to look at what happened to the opposition leader’s case in Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim. Even though he had strong evidence and witnesses, it was political. It will be very difficult for us to fix that. But this is a very important case for me to create awareness around the world about the state of freedom of expression and human rights in Malaysia. I’m going to face it. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans appear to have accomplished a feat that President Obama, with all the power at his disposal, could not in the past seven years: They have galvanized outspoken support for the Affordable Care Act. People who benefit from the law are flooding Congress with testimonials. Angry consumers are confronting Republican lawmakers. And Democrats who saw the law as a political liability in recent elections have suddenly found their voice, proudly defending the law now that it is in trouble. Thousands of people across the country held rallies over the weekend to save the health care law, which Republicans moved last week to repeal with a first but crucial legislative step. A widely circulated video showed Representative Mike Coffman, Republican of Colorado, eluding constituents who had wanted to meet with him to express their concerns on Saturday at a community event in Aurora, Colo. Rallies on Sunday to save the health law drew robust crowds around the country. “We are here today — thousands strong in Boston, and at more rallies all across this country — because we will make our voices heard,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, told a crowd outside Faneuil Hall in Boston. “If Republicans try to rip health care out of the hands of millions of Americans, we will fight them every step of the way. ” And progressive groups are planning a bus tour to fight the repeal effort, starting Tuesday. With their quick strike on the law in the first days of the new Congress, Republicans had hoped to begin the repeal process before a backlash could develop or opposition could be organized. But congressional Republicans are at risk of losing the message war, especially since they are fighting on two fronts. On one side, the has repeatedly lobbed disruptive demands at them, such as his insistence that they prepare a replacement health bill almost immediately. To that, he added a new promise over the weekend: that the Republican version would provide “insurance for everybody. ” On the other front, Democratic lawmakers have taken to quoting grateful constituents to personalize what can be an arcane legislative fight: Bryce in Seattle Randy in Rhinelander, Wis. Nicole in Hockessin, Del. and many more. The focus of public attention appears to be shifting from the defects of the health care law to the plaintive pleas of people terrified of losing insurance if the law is repealed. “I want to thank President Obama from the bottom of my heart because I would be dead if it weren’t for him,” Jeff Jeans, a man from Sedona, Ariz. who described himself as a lifelong Republican, told Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Thursday at a meeting televised on CNN. Republicans acknowledge their constituents’ concerns, but they say supporters of the health law are manufacturing them. Representative Rob Woodall, Republican of Georgia, blamed Democrats for “amping up anxiety” with “fear mongering. ” “The anxiety is real,” Mr. Woodall said, “but it’s real based on the failures of the president’s health care law. ” Republicans will soon face a new challenge: maintaining anger at “Obamacare” without Mr. Obama in the White House to stir their passions. Regardless of its provenance, the law’s support has until now received less attention. Appearing on the NBC News program “Meet the Press” five days after Mr. Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, predicted that as people learned about the law, “it’s going to become more and more popular. ” Around 20 million Americans have gained coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s online insurance marketplaces or through its expansion of Medicaid, and enrollment has continued to grow. About 11. 5 million people have signed up for marketplace plans or had their coverage automatically renewed for this year, nearly 300, 000 more than at this time last year, the Obama administration said this month. But the popularity bounce never came. Public opinion remains deeply divided, with the law no more popular today than when it was passed. In December, according to a monthly tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 46 percent of Americans had unfavorable views of the law, up from 40 percent in April 2010. The share with favorable views slipped to 43 percent, from 46 percent in April 2010. “In the short term, the A. C. A. has been a political disaster for President Obama and the Democrats,” Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a health policy adviser in the Obama White House from 2009 to 2011, said in a 2014 book. As Congress took a first step last week toward rolling back Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement, Mr. Trump celebrated. “The ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act will soon be history!” he said on Twitter. Some Democrats distanced themselves from the Obama administration after HealthCare. gov crashed on its debut in 2013. More recently, with premiums soaring and insurers defecting from the Affordable Care Act marketplace in many states, Democrats were hard put to defend the law, which was passed without any Republican votes. But as Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans race to repeal the law, Democrats are taking a more aggressive stance. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, told the story of Sonja L. Podjan, a blueberry farmer in Watervliet, Mich. who was in pain for several years until she got insurance under the Affordable Care Act, which covered the cost of surgery to repair a severe tear in the meniscus of her right knee. In an interview, Ms. Podjan said she “started freaking out” after the election and sent an email to Ms. Stabenow. She said she was “flabbergasted” when she heard back from the senator’s office. Ms. Podjan said that the premium for an insurance policy covering her and her husband was about $1, 000 a month, but that they paid just $62 after receiving government subsidies provided under the law. “I am scared to death we will lose our insurance, and what happens then?” said Ms. Podjan, who reported that she and her husband had medical expenses totaling $41, 000 in the past two years. Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, told the story of a constituent, Kevin Kargacin, whose daughter Amber takes drugs costing more than $60, 000 a year for multiple sclerosis. “Kevin is scared because the cost of treating Amber’s disease is so high,” Mr. Udall said. In an interview, Mr. Kargacin said he wrote to Mr. Udall because “we are terrified that without the Affordable Care Act, Amber could be denied insurance or run into lifetime caps on expenditures for her treatment. ” Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, said: “Many Minnesotans have contacted me in the last few months, frightened about the future of their health care coverage. I heard from a man in Orono. His wife was diagnosed with cancer this year. On top of everything his family is now dealing with, he is terrified that his family will lose coverage if there is a repeal. ” Whether such concerns reflect a change in public opinion is difficult to say. Over the past six years, Republicans have collected stories from hundreds of constituents complaining that their insurance policies were canceled, their premiums have shot up and their deductibles are so high that the insurance is nearly worthless. “Scott from Hickory has had his health insurance canceled three times now, disrupting his continuity of care,” said Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina. “Patricia from Kernersville now has a whopping $6, 550 deductible. ” Representative Pat Tiberi, Republican of Ohio, reported that a constituent named Kimberly had difficulty obtaining treatment for a brain tumor because, she said, “virtually no doctors take the marketplace insurance. ” The differing accounts are not necessarily in contradiction. Some people have benefited from the law while others have seen their coverage disrupted. Republicans said the Obama administration had been slow to recognize and acknowledge problems with the Affordable Care Act. Administration officials said insurance rate increases of 25 percent or more were not a significant problem because people could get subsidies to help defray the cost — even though millions of people buying insurance on their own do not receive subsidies. The administration insisted that insurance markets were “stable and vibrant” even as large insurers pulled out of Affordable Care Act exchanges where they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2015, the administration said that “claims data show healthier consumers” in the exchanges, but some insurers disputed that assessment, saying they had not seen an influx of healthy people to help cover the costs of sick people. | 1 |
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