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The king of scientific takedowns, NDT doesn’t mess around. 1. When he took down a climate-change denier on Twitter. 2. When he was a guest on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and claimed, “Creationists have a right to their beliefs, and I have a right to my belief that the most famous comet of all time is coming to send them all to early graves. Get ready for a peer-reviewed ass clobbering at the hands of frozen ice and rock.” 3. The time he went on a Twitter rant about Donald Trump. 4. The time a guy was blocking his driveway. 5.The time someone called him ugly.
Holy crap! Looks like when Neil gets pissed, he gets REALLY pissed. We love you, Neil, but please keep Halley’s Comet up in space where it belongs. | 0 |
A firebomb tore through the Republican Party headquarters in North Carolina’s Orange County on Saturday night, and graffiti warning its members to flee town was painted on the walls of a neighboring building, the party and police officials said on Sunday. The party posted images on Twitter of the damaged building in Hillsborough, N. C. on Sunday afternoon that showed blackened walls, charred couches and burned campaign signs for Donald J. Trump and several local candidates. A window was broken, and a swastika was nearby alongside the words “Nazi Republicans leave town or else. ” The bombing occurred at a tense moment in American politics, just three weeks from Election Day and near the end of a divisive presidential campaign that has seen deepening hostility and suspicions between supporters of Hillary Clinton and those of Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly said that he believes the vote will be “rigged” against him. On Sunday, the Hillsborough police said the fire had been caused by a firebomb thrown through a window of the office, which is in a shopping center about 14 miles outside Durham. The damage was not noticed until Sunday, when a business owner called the authorities around 9 a. m. the police said. Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement that no one had been injured. “This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalizing property it willfully threatens our community’s safety via fire, and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation,” Mayor Tom Stevens of Hillsborough said in a statement. “Our law enforcement officials are responding quickly and thoroughly to investigate this reprehensible act and prosecute the perpetrators. ” The Hillsborough police said they were investigating the attack along with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In a statement to The Charlotte Observer, Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the state Republican Party, called the bombing “political terrorism. ” “The office itself is a total loss,” he said. “The only thing important to us is that nobody was killed, and they very well could have been. ” “Whether you are Republican, Democrat or independent, all Americans should be outraged by this and violent attack against our democracy,” he added. “Everyone in this country should be free to express their political viewpoints without fear for their own safety. ” Mr. McCrory, a Republican, condemned the bombing as “an attack on our democracy. ” “Violence has no place in our society — but especially in our elections,” he said in his statement. “Fortunately no one was injured however, I will use every resource as governor to assist local authorities in this investigation. ” | 1 |
A man died at an apartment party on early Saturday morning in Brooklyn after falling through a screen window on the building’s fourth floor, the police said. It was the second falling death of the night in Brooklyn. Earlier, a boy died and another boy was injured after falling from the rooftop of a building nearby in Bushwick. The police said the two boys may have been trying to jump from one building to another. The man, Wyatt Tyler, had fallen after leaning against the screen window in an apartment on Metropolitan Avenue between Olive and Catherine Streets in the East Williamsburg neighborhood, officials said. He lived nearby on the same street. The police said they received a 911 call around 2:30 a. m. and arrived to find Mr. Tyler unconscious and unresponsive on the street. Emergency medical technicians took him to Woodhull Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The falling death involving the teenager happened around 5:30 p. m. on Friday at 57 Grove Street, a multistory building about two miles away near Bushwick Avenue, the police said. The boys were found in the back of the building. The police previously reported the episode happened around 4:30 p. m. The police said one of the teenagers was unconscious and had severe trauma to his head and body. The other was semiconscious and had injuries to his pelvis. The first boy was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital Center, and the other was conscious and alert, the police said. Their names were not immediately made available. In January last year, a girl died after she tried to jump from one rooftop to another in Midtown Manhattan and fell five stories, the police said. | 1 |
Two Houston Police Department officers were hospitalized Tuesday after a suspected burglar reportedly shot each of them multiple times. [The Houston Chronicle notes that one identified officer, Ronnie Cortez, remains in critical but improving condition after a bullet lodged near his spine. Cortez’s fellow officer remains unnamed. He is reported to be awake and talking at this time. A second officer received a threatening wound to his foot. He is listed in stable condition. One suspect was killed at the scene of the crime in southwest Houston while two others remain at large. Officers were called to the scene of a burglary in progress at a home in southwest Houston. When officers arrived, the suspects were still in the area. A gunfight broke out between the suspected burglars and the officers, Fox 26’s Isiah Carey reported. Mayor Sylvester Turner told the Fox reporter one of the officers was shot multiple times. KHOU CBS 11 reported the burglar involved the theft of multiple guns from a home. It is not known if the stole guns were used in the shootout. The injured officers were transported by ambulances that were escorted by Houston police vehicles. HPD: Two officers injured after shooting in SW Houston. Police escorting ambulances as they are rushed to the hospital. pic. twitter. — Tim Wetzel (@KHOUTim) February 28, 2017, At least one suspect appears to still be at large. A manhunt is underway in the area of the shooting and school officials put several schools on lockdown as a precaution. Click2Houston reported: Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said officers were called to the neighborhood just after 11 a. m. to investigate a reported burglary. About 20 minutes later, officers who had arrived in the neighborhood were flagged down by a resident who said there was a burglary in progress. More officers were called to the area, a perimeter was established and search began. Another person told two officers they noticed that the door to a shed in their backyard was open, Acevedo said. As the officers opened the door to the shed, a man stepped out and began shooting. The officers returned fire, killing the gunmen. This article will be updated with additional information upon confirmation. Logan Churchwell contributed to this article. He is a founding editor of the Breitbart Texas team. You can follow him on Twitter @LCChurchwell. He also serves as the communications director for the Public Interest Legal Foundation. 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 |
Dakota Access Pipeline: More Than 100 Arrested as Protesters Ousted From Camp 11/01/2016
NBC NEWS
Authorities used pepper spray and fired bean bags at activists demonstrating against a controversial North Dakota oil pipeline as the standoff there reached a new peak Thursday, according to officials.
Armed soldiers and police in riot gear removed the demonstrators using trucks, military Humvees, and buses Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. Two helicopters and an airplane scanned the operation from the air.
At least 141 protesters were arrested as of midnight Thursday (1 a.m. ET) after law enforcement slowly closed in and tensions escalated, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Seven protesters used “sleeping dragon” devices, which typically involve PVC or other pipe, to attach themselves to items, and fires were set on a highway and improvised fire bombs were thrown at law enforcement, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
One woman allegedly fired three shots from a revolver at police, an emergency services official said. No one was hit.
The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe criticized law enforcement’s “militarized” response to the camp and called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, but stressed that activists would not give up their cause.
“Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace,” Dave Archambault II said in a statement Thursday evening.
“We won’t step down from this fight,” he added. “As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings.”
Archambault also called on activists to “remain in peace and prayer.”“Any act of violence hurts our case and is not welcome here,” he said.
Law enforcement were holding a line north of the Backwater Bridge early Friday morning, the sheriff’s department.
A woman who was being arrested pulled a .38 caliber revolver and fired three shots at law enforcement, “narrowly missing a sheriff’s deputy,” North Dakota State Emergency Services Spokeswoman Cecily Fong told NBC News. The woman was taken into custody and no shots were fired by law enforcement, she said.
The protesters were ousted from the camp that authorities said was on private property in the path of the pipeline late Thursday afternoon, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier told the AP.
The sheriff said that while the camp was secure, officers were still dealing with protesters in the surrounding area, according to the AP. Kirchmeier added that authorities would maintain a presence in the area for the time being to keep protesters off the land. Fong confirmed to NBC News that the camp was cleared.
Protesters allegedly started two fires on the Backwater Bridge protest site and threw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement Thursday night, Fong said.
About 250 protesters had gathered at the camp and another 80 demonstrators with a dozen horses were at the site of a county road, according to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Protesters on horseback galloped toward the law enforcement line before wheeling around and some had begun throwing objects at the officers, Fong said. Demonstrators also allegedly set four DAPL construction vehicles ablaze, Fong said Thursday evening.
“They’ve definitely escalated, they’re throwing rocks and debris,” she said. A handful of officers suffered minor injuries, she said.
Officers fired bean bag rounds and used pepper spray on protesters, Fong said.
Authorities also used a long-range acoustic device with a high-pitched tone to disperse the protesters, who set tires on fire on the highway Thursday afternoon, according to a post on the Morton County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page . Demonstrators stand next to burning tires as armed soldiers and law enforcement officers assemble on Oct. 27, 2016, to force Dakota Access pipeline protesters off private land where they had camped to block construction. The pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune via AP
The department said they repeatedly told the demonstrators they were “free to go,” asking them to move to a separate camp further south and let authorities put out the flames.
The protesters also set an area on fire near a bridge on a county road, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department.
The protesters, comprised of a group that includes Native Americans and environmental activists, had been camped on private property since Sunday near the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of Cannon Ball.
The 1,172-mile pipeline would run within a half-mile of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Opponents of the project say the pipeline could adversely impact drinking water and would disturb sacred burial sites.
Hundreds of protesters from Standing Rock and other tribes have set up camp for months in protest a few miles away from where Thursday’s confrontation occurred, close to where the Missouri and Cannonball rivers meet.
Thursday’s incident came less than a week after more than 80 people were arrested and authorities used pepper spray on demonstrators. The arrests came during a five-hour conflict with police and around 300 protesters, some of whom stubbornly parked cars on the highway near the camp to block authorities from reaching them, according to the AP. They also set a small fire at one of two blockades they set up on the highway.
The majority of the protesters were retreating from the area of confrontation on the highway outside the camp, but had not fully left the area of private land, according to the AP. About 200 protesters remained in the area, listening to tribal elders speak and praying as authorities continued to approach. Play
Authorities used pepper spray and fired bean bags at activists demonstrating against a controversial North Dakota oil pipeline as the standoff there reached a new peak Thursday, according to officials.
Armed soldiers and police in riot gear removed the demonstrators using trucks, military Humvees, and buses Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. Two helicopters and an airplane scanned the operation from the air.
At least 141 protesters were arrested as of midnight Thursday (1 a.m. ET) after law enforcement slowly closed in and tensions escalated, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Seven protesters used “sleeping dragon” devices, which typically involve PVC or other pipe, to attach themselves to items, and fires were set on a highway and improvised fire bombs were thrown at law enforcement, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
One woman allegedly fired three shots from a revolver at police, an emergency services official said. No one was hit.
The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe criticized law enforcement’s “militarized” response to the camp and called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, but stressed that activists would not give up their cause.
“Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace,” Dave Archambault II said in a statement Thursday evening.
“We won’t step down from this fight,” he added. “As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings.”
Archambault also called on activists to “remain in peace and prayer.”“Any act of violence hurts our case and is not welcome here,” he said.
Law enforcement were holding a line north of the Backwater Bridge early Friday morning, the sheriff’s department.
A woman who was being arrested pulled a .38 caliber revolver and fired three shots at law enforcement, “narrowly missing a sheriff’s deputy,” North Dakota State Emergency Services Spokeswoman Cecily Fong told NBC News. The woman was taken into custody and no shots were fired by law enforcement, she said.
The protesters were ousted from the camp that authorities said was on private property in the path of the pipeline late Thursday afternoon, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier told the AP.
The sheriff said that while the camp was secure, officers were still dealing with protesters in the surrounding area, according to the AP. Kirchmeier added that authorities would maintain a presence in the area for the time being to keep protesters off the land. Fong confirmed to NBC News that the camp was cleared. Play
Protesters allegedly started two fires on the Backwater Bridge protest site and threw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement Thursday night, Fong said.
About 250 protesters had gathered at the camp and another 80 demonstrators with a dozen horses were at the site of a county road, according to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Protesters on horseback galloped toward the law enforcement line before wheeling around and some had begun throwing objects at the officers, Fong said. Demonstrators also allegedly set four DAPL construction vehicles ablaze, Fong said Thursday evening.
“They’ve definitely escalated, they’re throwing rocks and debris,” she said. A handful of officers suffered minor injuries, she said.
Officers fired bean bag rounds and used pepper spray on protesters, Fong said.
Authorities also used a long-range acoustic device with a high-pitched tone to disperse the protesters, who set tires on fire on the highway Thursday afternoon, according to a post on the Morton County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page . Demonstrators stand next to burning tires as armed soldiers and law enforcement officers assemble on Oct. 27, 2016, to force Dakota Access pipeline protesters off private land where they had camped to block construction. The pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune via AP
The department said they repeatedly told the demonstrators they were “free to go,” asking them to move to a separate camp further south and let authorities put out the flames.
The protesters also set an area on fire near a bridge on a county road, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department.
The protesters, comprised of a group that includes Native Americans and environmental activists, had been camped on private property since Sunday near the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of Cannon Ball.
The 1,172-mile pipeline would run within a half-mile of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Opponents of the project say the pipeline could adversely impact drinking water and would disturb sacred burial sites.
Hundreds of protesters from Standing Rock and other tribes have set up camp for months in protest a few miles away from where Thursday’s confrontation occurred, close to where the Missouri and Cannonball rivers meet.
Thursday’s incident came less than a week after more than 80 people were arrested and authorities used pepper spray on demonstrators. The arrests came during a five-hour conflict with police and around 300 protesters, some of whom stubbornly parked cars on the highway near the camp to block authorities from reaching them, according to the AP. They also set a small fire at one of two blockades they set up on the highway.
The majority of the protesters were retreating from the area of confrontation on the highway outside the camp, but had not fully left the area of private land, according to the AP. About 200 protesters remained in the area, listening to tribal elders speak and praying as authorities continued to approach. Play
Law enforcement officials began taking steps to remove roadblocks and protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline near Highway 1806 at around 11:15 a.m. local time (12:15 p.m. ET), Kirchmeier said in a statement.
“Protesters’ escalated unlawful behavior this weekend by setting up illegal roadblocks, trespassing onto private property and establishing an encampment, has forced law enforcement to respond at this time,” he said in the statement.
“I can’t stress it enough, this is a public safety issue,” the sheriff said. “We cannot have protesters blocking county roads, blocking state highways, or trespassing on private property.”
The protesters had created a camp in the pipeline’s path on private property known as the Cannonball Ranch on the side of the highway and set up the roadblocks along on Sunday, according to the statement.
Highway 1806 remained closed Thursday between Fort Rice and Cannonball, according to the sheriff department’s statement. Various counties, cities, state agencies and out-of-state law enforcement were helping the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, the statement said.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign weighed in on the protests Thursday evening.
“From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects,” Spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.
“Now, all of the parties involved — including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes — need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest,” Hinojosa said. “As that happens, it’s important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators’ rights to protest peacefully, and workers’ rights to do their jobs safely.”
Protest camp coordinator Mekasi Horinek told NBC affiliate KFYR on Wednesday that the protesters had no plans of leaving their encampment.
“We don’t have any plans on retreating. If they’re going to come in here and they’re going to arrest one of us, they’re going to arrest every one of us,” Horinek said. “We’re going to stand in unity, we’re going to stand in prayer, we’re going to stand in peace.”
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman Dave Archambault II told NBC News on Sunday the tribe had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene in the escalating situation with law enforcement.
“The DOJ should be enlisted and expected to investigate the overwhelming reports and videos demonstrating clear strong-arm tactics, abuses and unlawful arrests by law enforcement,” Chairman Dave Archambault II said. | 0 |
By Tim Hjersted / filmsforaction.org
It's hard to believe Films For Action has been around now for 10 years. From our early years focusing on local film screenings to our more recent years, focusing on raising awareness globally via our website and social media, our mission has been to provide a DIY alternative to the corporate mass media, which censors, erases, sanitizes, attacks and ignores the diverse voices of humanity in favor of a narrow spectrum of elite, faux left-right consensus that favors the status quo and puts the interests of profit over people and planet.
The mass media claims to be neutral and strives to be objective, but it has always been anything but. FOX News is famous for claiming they're "fair and balanced" - a line of propaganda so transparent it's been mocked for years. But the deeper truth is that all media has some form of bias. The major news networks and newspapers of the old media - ABC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS and the New York Times, to name a few, all mask their bias for elite perspectives (both corporate and state) behind a veneer of "objectivity." To present oneself as unbiased, while having bias is, of course, one of the hallmarks of any good, persuasive propaganda.
But the old media is lying to itself for another reason. As one of our heroes, Howard Zinn once famously said, "You can't be neutral on a moving train." Neutrality in the face of injustice, in the face of racism, environmental destruction, corruption, colonialism, empire and plutocracy, cannot and will never be neutral.
Media cannot be neutral on this moving train. Too much is at stake when we are quite literally facing a planetary emergency that is reaching its major turning point. We must pick a side.
Does this mean Films For Action has bias? Yes it does. But it is bias rooted in the desire for justice. Our bias is rooted in our love for Pachamama, our Mother Earth, and all living beings. Our bias is rooted in our desire for a society that's just, egalitarian, peaceful, healing and truly democratic in ways that the present system will never offer. That is the big difference between the old media and the new media. Whereas the old media feigns neutrality and objectivity while promoting a spectrum of thought that benefits their bottom line, the new media is transparent about its values and who it stands for.
It is for this reason that Films For Action will forever stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Indigenous First Nations people, Queer and Trans Folkx, and all other people and movements fighting oppression and struggling for collective liberation all over the world.
Ultimately, our mission as a media network is simple. We're here to support all of the global movements working to change the present system. We believe many hands make light work, and we need all of us helping our 'movement of movements' in whatever way feels right for each other. We need both a diversity of tactics and a diversity of efforts, so the more we can support each other and see how our efforts complement each other, the stronger we'll be.
This idea that "I am because you are" - that your happiness is my happiness, that your suffering is my suffering - this is the guiding principle of love, of ubuntu that is what keeps our feet moving and our hearts in action. We are all one human family in relationship with each other and the rest of the community of life on Earth. So long as there is suffering in the world, our work is not done. | 0 |
The ocellated lizard — known as the jeweled lacerta in the pet trade — is born rusty brown with white polka dots. Within a few months, its skin begins to change into a dizzying, labyrinthine array of black and bright green pixels. By the time the lizard has sexually matured, reaching up to two feet in length, some 4, 000 scales along its back are all black or green, possibly to accommodate a habitat change between early life and adulthood. Through the rest of the lizard’s life, many of these scales will continuously flip between black and green. These outfit changes are dazzling in their own right. But even more surprisingly, the lizard’s patterns may unfold like a computer simulation, according to a study published in Nature on Wednesday. Studying ocellated lizards, Michel Milinkovitch, a professor of genetics and evolution at the University of Geneva, noticed the animals’ scales seemed to behave like a cellular automaton, a model often used in computer science. The general rule was that green scales tended to have four black neighbors, and black scales tended to have three green neighbors. Though cellular automata are commonly used to simulate biological systems on computers, this is the first example of a “living cellular automaton,” said Dr. Milinkovitch, an author of the paper. Cellular automata were discovered in the 1940s by John von Neumann and Stanislaw Ulam, then mathematicians at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who wanted to build a machine. An extremely simple cellular automaton, according to Andy Ilachinski, author of Cellular Automata: A Discrete Universe, who was not involved in the study, is a string of lights where each light switches between on and off depending on what its neighbors are doing. With more complex rules, cellular automata can be used to model many things, from snowflake formation to traffic. To look for a cellular automaton in ocellated lizards, Dr. Milinkovitch, with Liana Manukyan and Sophie Montandon, then graduate students, collected scans of three lizards’ bodies from hatchling stages to adulthood. From this, the researchers inferred a set of rules — a cellular automaton — for how the scales changed color. If a green scale had many green neighbors, there was a high probability it would turn black. If it had no green neighbors, it would stay green. Simulating their cellular automaton, the researchers found it generated a pattern indistinguishable from real lizard patterns. Next, they wondered how the lizards were making these patterns. Their answer came from another mathematician: Alan Turing, pioneer of computer science and artificial intelligence. In the 1950s, Mr. Turing mathematically modeled how patterns and shapes take form in living things. Called a system, his model proposed that patterns emerge from a feedback loop between chemicals that spread through a space, activating and inhibiting each other. His mechanism has since been demonstrated in many organisms. In zebrafish, Turing interactions between cells containing different colors of pigment have been shown to generate stripes. Dr. Milinkovitch suspected a similar Turing mechanism was at play in ocellated lizards. But when he transferred the zebrafish model to lizards, the patterns that emerged were off. Instead of pixelated designs, with each scale being discretely green or black, they were smooth designs, with many scales containing both colors. It looked as if the lizard’s skin were a flat canvas, as opposed to a scaly one with ridges and valleys, Dr. Milinkovitch thought. His team the Turing mechanism, this time accounting for how the valleys between lizard scales might impede the flow of signals between pigmentary cells of different colors. Remarkably, the pattern that emerged behaved like a cellular automaton. To solidify this link, Stanislav Smirnov, a mathematics professor at the University of Geneva, created a set of Turing equations that reproduced the cellular automaton behavior observed. Tracking an animal’s pattern in fine detail over a long period of time to infer the “rules” that govern the pattern is “a great example of computational imaging,” said Leah a professor of mathematics at the University of British Columbia, who was not involved in the research. “I had never seen anything like this before. ” | 1 |
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Nanice Ellis – Overwhelming evidence suggests that the world is in dire condition, but, silently behind the scenes, the world crisis is actually igniting a mass global awakening, and for the first time in history, millions of people like you and me are waking up!
There is no denying, we are on the precipice of huge global change, but, although change is inevitable , the exact nature of it is yet to be determined and, in fact, each of us is waking up in order to make this choice for ourselves — so what we do now, and how we think, will determine the course of history.
According to quantum physics, multiple realities exist simultaneously , and therefore, the future you experience is completely up to you . This means that without your conscious participation, things can go either way. So why choose by passive default and risk living in a dismal and turbulent world, when you have the power to make a conscious choice and decide your own fate? If you want to live in a thriving world of peace, freedom and abundance for all, you must choose this Utopian Reality for yourself — then take action make it happen! Action Speaks Louder than Words
Indeed, our thoughts, beliefs and intentions are responsible for the current reality we experience and the future reality we will call forth, but there is more to it than just positive thinking, affirmations and vision boards, and, in fact, we must integrate our thoughts, beliefs and intentions into reality by taking tangible actions that represent the reality of our choice. Our willingness to take inspired action aligns us with our chosen reality, and with every step in this direction, we seamlessly bridge the gap. Bridging the Gap to Utopia
No doubt, the state of our current reality is overwhelming and can easily paralyze us with fear, but making excuses for complacency, or using powerlessness to rationalize paralysis, only perpetuates the reality we want to change. Additionally, if we focus on the negative by complaining or we leverage feelings of victimhood to fight against the problems, we inadvertently fuel those problems with our (fighting) energy. Resistance is not only futile, it is quicksand for the soul!
Why fight against what is wrong, and give energy to what is wrong, when we could use that same power and energy to create something better? Instead of wasting energy opposing the cause of unwanted conditions, we have the ability to consciously use our individual and collective energy to implement solutions.
The truth is, we cannot align with a utopian reality by fighting against or denying the issues of our current reality, and, in fact, the path to Utopia begins in this reality, and, therefore, the first steps require us to solve our current problems. As always, your journey begins exactly where you are ! We Already Have the Answers!
All around the world, revolutionary concepts and innovations are springing forth from individuals, private businesses and groups of like-minded people. Normal everyday people like you and me are providing some of the most pivotal solutions to virtually all global issues, including free energy technology, solutions to world hunger, sustainable methods for building, growing and waste management and various forms of innovation that could literally free humanity!
The World Wide Web is a virtual treasure chest of knowledge and DIY technology, and many of these new technologies and methodologies are even open source – free for anyone to use, copy, share or build upon. There is no telling what jewels a “treasure hunt” might reveal, but although this knowledge is available to anyone who seeks answers, just like the most recent scientific research, most of it is suppressed, and, therefore, a huge percentage of people around the world don’t even know the answers we need already exists. Yet, information is power, and, therefore, informing the majority is an essential key to global transformation. It might be easy to blame the media for suppressing this information, but suppression has a deeper cause, and it comes back to you and me.
Many of us already have access to this vital knowledge, but we choose to suppress it from those less-informed because we fear they won’t understand, and we are afraid of being judged. Since it seems safer to withhold information than risk judgment, we rationalize silence as being harmless, but in the big picture silence supports suppression, and suppression of information perpetuates disempowerment. Ask yourself, “Is my fear of judgment more important than sharing ideas that could change the world?”
Indeed, the truth is available for all to discover, but until the minds of the majority are saturated with the knowledge and technology to build a new reality, we must be willing to share the truth and spread information to everyone. The Invisible Formula for Disempowerment
Humanity is suffering from the invisible disease of disempowerment, but when you look closely, the real cause is not so invisible. On one hand, we have been taught to be self-sufficient and compete with each other for opportunities, status, power, money, and even natural resources, but on the other hand, we have all been entrained into government-run social systems that provide for education, protection, justice, health-care and other primary needs. This means that as we compete with each other for survival, we blindly depend on corrupt systems that perpetuate mass disempowerment.
The combination of separation from each other plus dependency on a system designed for profit and control is the formula for worldwide disempowerment, and, consequently, the devastating issues we experience today. As the Global Alarm Clock gets louder, we know that we must reclaim our power and we must reunite. We have the ability to transcend all obstacles and together we can create Utopia. Collaboration Beyond Borders
In the mid 1800’s Darwin theorized that nature relies on competition in order to survive, and, as a result, our major global systems have been structured to perpetuate competition, but the latest research reveals that in order for life to thrive, nature actually relies on a system of cooperation where members of the species work together harmoniously.
Merely surviving is no longer an option for humanity, so if we want the human species to thrive, we must stop depending on social systems that perpetuate disempowerment, we must become fully responsible for all our needs and we must replace individual independence and competition with cooperation, and, furthermore, we must be willing to c ollaborate beyond borders , whether those borders are real or imagined.
It’s time, we must stop competing for limited resources, and we must respond to life as if we are all cells of the body called Earth, and, as such, we must consciously re-create a global structure that supports every man, woman and child, and honors all life.
Earth overflows with abundance and can easily provide for every living being, but misuse of resources and capitalism have resulted in a resource crisis, however, by creating sustainable structures that support ongoing abundance, we have the ability to transcend all symptoms of scarcity.
There are endless untapped resources that have yet to be discovered, but in order to access these sustainable treasures, we must approach the Earth from a completely different perspective. Instead of mindlessly taking, until resources run dry, we must implement sustainable solutions that honor and preserve Earth, and are not harmful to human, animal or plant life.
Although the knowledge, information, and technology necessary to thrive and flourish are already available, in order to turn proven or unproven concepts into real life solutions we need each other. No one person has all the answers, and, in fact, by Divine Design, we are each given one piece of the puzzle, so in order to solve the puzzle, we must work together, and as we align with solutions, we call forth the reality of a thriving planet that easily provides abundance for every living being. Creating Community
Millions of people worldwide share a similar dream of building sustainable live-in communities. Many of these people are making that dream a reality. You don’t hear much about it, but communities are popping up all over the world, and there might even be a fully functioning community near you.
Also, consider that the neighborhood in which you now live offers incredible potential. Even people who live independently in a neighborhood can create a conscious community where community members work together growing food in a community garden, developing and maintaining sustainable energy for the whole community and sharing their gifts, skills and talents, as well as other essentials, such as cars, tools, cameras, sporting gear, etc….
Don’t wait for someone else to take charge – if you are inspired to create a live-in community or neighborhood community, follow your inspiration, and don’t delay. Open Source information on community building is widely available, and, in fact, One Community Global http://www.onecommunityglobal.org/ offers hundreds of pages of Open Source material. The Golden Key
As the Global Alarm Clock continues to sound, the deepest part of us remembers that we came here to make a difference and this is the time we have been waiting for!
I realize that it is easy to get caught up in the “dark side” of issues and play the victim of circumstances, but these issues are gifts in disguise; without a doubt, life is directing us to a new paradigm, where we consciously live in harmony with each other and with Earth. So, whatever you do to become more independent, and whatever you do to create a more sustainable lifestyle, do it with love.
During this transition period, it might seem like we are losing conveniences or we must do more work to support ourselves, but when you step back to see the bigger picture, it is clear to see that humanity is being offered the Golden Key to freedom, peace, and harmony, but in exchange for these precious liberties, we must offer conscious responsibility in return, and this means that we must become 100% responsible in every way.
The world is in need of a mass pandemic of information that will spread like wildfire, and, when this happens, it will burn up all the lies and illusions that our current reality was built upon, and as it unlocks the invisible chains of disempowerment, the truth will not only set us free, the truth will call forth the reality of our highest dreams, and we will find ourselves on the precipice of total transformation. O ne World under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice and abundance for all! | 0 |
A U. S. representative from California has introduced a bill to block Title IV funds to colleges and universities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. [Representative Duncan Hunter ( ) introduced the No Funding for Sanctuary Campuses Act in late December to define “sanctuary campus” and create financial penalties for any “institutions of higher education that violates immigration laws. ” The bill, H. R. 6530, was by Representatives Tom McClintock ( ) and Lou Barletta ( ). “It’s by no means unreasonable to expect the nation’s higher learning institutions to follow the law the same way we expect states and localities to abide by the law,” Hunter told the Washington Examiner in an interview published on Tuesday. “If a school wants federal money, an open declaration that it’s a sanctuary should disqualify it for federal support. “It’s free to do that, of course, but there should be a consequence in the form of withheld federal funding — it’s that simple,” the California congressman stated. The bill defines a Sanctuary Campus as: (A) has in effect an ordinance, policy, or practice that prohibits or restricts any institutional entity, official, or personnel from — (i) sending, receiving, maintaining, or exchanging with any Federal, State, or local government entity information regarding the citizenship or immigration status (lawful or unlawful) of any individual, (ii) complying with a request lawfully made by the Secretary of Homeland Security under section 236 or 287 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U. S. C. 1226 or 1357) to comply with a detainer for, or notify about the release of, an individual or, (iii) otherwise complying with section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U. S. C. 1373) (B) brings in, or harbors, an alien in violation of section 274( a)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U. S. C. 1324( a)(1)(A)) (C) renders an alien who lacks a lawful immigration status in the United States eligible for any postsecondary education benefit provided on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision of a State) to the same extent as a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such benefit or, (D) has in effect a policy or practice that either prohibits, or in effect prevents, the Secretary of Homeland Security from gaining access to campuses or access to students (who are 17 years of age or older) on campuses, for purposes of Department of Homeland Security recruiting in a manner that is at least equal in quality and scope to the access to campuses and to students that is provided to any other employer. The bill provides an exemption for any person who is a victim of or a witness to a criminal offense. The bill would also penalize the institutions for providing any public benefit including tuition. “It is the sense of the Congress that providing the public benefit of tuition to an alien who lacks lawful immigration status in the United States creates an incentive for illegal immigration and encourages and induces aliens to come to, enter,” Hunter wrote in the bill. The bill was introduced following actions by many campuses across the country to declare sanctuary status following the election of Donald Trump. Breitbart provided extensive coverage of these campus protests and the actions by university and college administrators. The made cracking down on sanctuary jurisdictions a priority during his campaign. A similar bill was also introduced late last month by Rep. Andy Harris ( ) Breitbart Texas reported this week. The Federal Immigration Law Compliance Act of 2016 takes a broader approach of addressing both sanctuary campuses and other jurisdictions with similar policies. “Congress has the responsibility to protect the rule of law in our country and provide for the safety of our citizens. We need to focus on protecting American citizens and those who are in this country legally, instead of providing shelter for those who have violated our immigration law and entered this country illegally. If any entity refuses to comply with federal immigration law, they should be denied federal money until they come into compliance,” Congressman Harris said in a written statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. Both bills were filed late in the 114th Congress. To be considered by the 115th Congress, the bills will need to be . 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. No Funding for Sanctuary Campuses Act — H. R. 6530, | 1 |
Fired former FBI Director James Comey said during his appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that he documented what was said in his meetings with President Donald Trump because the president ‘might lie’ about their discussions. [“I was alone with the president of the United States, or the soon to be president,” Comey said when asked why he documented his meetings with Trump. “The subject matter … I was talking about matters that touch on the FBI’s core responsibility and it related to the personally and then the nature of the person, I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting so I thought it [was] important to document … that combination of things. ” Comey also said that he did not feel the need to document his conversations about intelligence with former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “As I said in my written testimony as FBI director, I interacted with President Obama and spoke only twice in three years and didn’t document it,” Comey said. “When I was deputy attorney general I had one meeting with President Bush about a national security matter. “I didn’t document that conversation either,” Comey said. | 1 |
Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • President Obama began his final major address in Chicago by thanking the American people. “You made me a better president,” he said, “and you made me a better man. ” The White House is offering a live stream of the president’s farewell address. And here is the latest on the transition, including the prospect today of Donald J. Trump’s first news conference since July. _____ • American intelligence agencies presented President Obama and Trump with unsubstantiated reports that Russia had collected compromising and salacious information about Mr. Trump. The information is based on memos generated by political operatives who sought to derail Mr. Trump’s candidacy. _____ • The use of torture was a main theme on the first day of a whirlwind week of U. S. Senate hearings on Mr. Trump’s cabinet choices. In a joint letter, 176 retired officers urged Mr. Trump not to follow through on campaign vows to bring back torture. Hours later, his attorney general pick, Senator Jeff Sessions, above, distanced himself from Mr. Trump’s pledge to bar Muslims immigrants and investigate Hillary Clinton. _____ • “They started coming in like the tide. ” That was an official at a refugee camp near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar, where displaced Rohingya Muslims have fled by the thousands to escape a military crackdown in northern Rakhine State. Those in the camp say soldiers burned their villages, shot at random and systematically raped women and girls. _____ • In Iran, the authorities ignored the opposition chants that erupted at the sprawling state funeral for Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died on Sunday. Mr. Rafsanjani, once a staunch conservative, had in recent years become a hero to Iran’s middle class. For many of those involved in the Green Revolution, the antigovernment demonstrations in 2009, he was a lone establishment voice representing their beliefs. By official estimates, 2. 5 million people attended the funeral. _____ • Beijing has increasingly signaled that it wants to take on a leadership role in promoting the Paris agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions. China can’t yet lead by example yet. It’s still the world’s biggest polluter. But a shift is evident: Witness the country’s plans to spend $360 billion on renewable energy sources. _____ • President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has said he has the names of more than a million supposed drug dealers and corrupt lawmakers. He once promised to kill 100, 000 criminals in his first six months in office. Our reporter met with local officials and law enforcement officers to determine who lives and who dies in the leader’s drug war. “There is no certain or easy way to get off Duterte’s list,” he writes. _____ • President Xi Jinping will speak next week at the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as China looks to cement its role as a global economic leader. Mr. Xi will lead a group of Chinese executives that includes Jack Ma of Alibaba and Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group. He will be the first Chinese head of state to address the annual meeting. • Alibaba is going brick and mortar. The Chinese giant, which is seeking to acquire Intime Retail, has spent billions buying pieces of the very sector it disrupted. • Yahoo plans to rename itself Altaba if the $4. 8 billion sale of its internet business goes through. The name is a play on the single biggest asset that would remain of Yahoo: a 15 percent stake in Alibaba. • Fox News secretly settled sexual harassment accusations against Bill O’Reilly, the network’s top host, last summer. • Auto sales in India plunged in December, a casualty of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ban on large bank notes. • Most U. S. stocks were higher. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • In Afghanistan, dozens of people were killed and more than 80 wounded in an attack on Parliament claimed by the Taliban. [The New York Times] • Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who showed no remorse for killing nine people at a South Carolina church in 2015, was sentenced to death. [The New York Times] • China ordered all textbooks from elementary school to university to push back the start date of its war against the Japanese from 1937 to 1931, and to replace “ war of resistance” with “ war of resistance. ” [South China Morning Post] • Thailand’s cabinet is meeting to discuss emergency measures for the heaviest rainfall in 30 years. At least 21 people have died in severe flooding in the south. [The Nation] • The World Cup will grow to 48 teams from 32 in 2026, a welcome move for Asia and Africa inclusion. But some see a money grab by the governing body, FIFA. [The New York Times] • Clare Hollingworth, a British war correspondent who broke the news of World War II and was one of the first Western journalists to report regularly from China, died in Hong Kong. She was 105. [The New York Times] (In this new section, we’ll help you start your day right.) • We’ve all thought about it: Can we train ourselves to need less sleep? Sadly, the answer is a resounding no. • Recipe of the day: Want to go meatless tonight? Try tofu with wild mushrooms. • Concerns over crashing populations of bees, butterflies and other insects that promote plant growth are spreading around the world. United States officials made the bumblebee the first pollinator to be added to the endangered species list. • And we review writer Han Kang’s new novel “Human Acts. ” Each chapter offers a piercing psychological portrait of a character affected by the 1980 Gwangju massacre in South Korea. Norway is trying to make audio history this week. The country is beginning an experiment to switch off its FM stations and replace them with digital radio. If the plan succeeds, it could be the beginning of a change in how we listen to radio around the globe. Switzerland, Britain and Denmark are considering the same move. Norway, where terrestrial radio remains quite popular, was among the first countries to adopt digital radio in the 1990s. The government’s current effort is aimed at improving audio quality. That was also a goal in the creation of FM radio, which offers staticless, broadcasting. Edwin Armstrong, an American inventor, is credited with figuring out how to transmit sound by modulating the frequency of electromagnetic waves (FM) instead of their amplitude (AM). He later built his own FM station to prove its worth to skeptics, though his triumph was marred by legal battles over patents. The New York Times called Armstrong one of the “great inventive geniuses in electrical engineering” after his death in 1954. “He always preferred to be the master of his own laboratory. That he was. ” _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Presidential candidates mostly concentrated on New York a day before the state’s primary. Donald J. Trump is well ahead in polls there, and Hillary Clinton has a smaller edge. Mrs. Clinton campaigned in Manhattan and Bernie Sanders in Queens. On the Republican side, Mr. Trump and John Kasich focused their attention upstate. But Ted Cruz chose to avoid New Yorkers (and their values). He campaigned in Maryland and Pennsylvania. _____ 2. On Sunday night, Brazil responded to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff as if it were a party one lawmaker fired a confetti gun, and in cities across the nation, thousands took to the streets to celebrate. Monday brought a more sobering appraisal, as the country’s political and economic crises remain as vexing as ever. The Senate will now vote on whether to try Ms. Rousseff on charges of using money from banks to hide a budget deficit. _____ 3. The Supreme Court appeared sharply divided over a challenge to President Obama’s plan to allow millions of undocumented immigrants to stay in the country. Though the case may result in a significant ruling on presidential power and immigration policy, much of the argument was highly technical. Even so, two of the justices took time to acknowledge the ruling’s implications, including Sonia Sotomayor, who nodded to the millions of immigrants who live “in the shadows. ” _____ 4. The death toll from the earthquake that hit Ecuador on Saturday night rose to 350 as residents and rescue crews continued to unearth victims. More than 2, 000 people were injured by the .8 quake, the strongest to hit the country in decades. “It’s incredible what has happened to us — that our city is destroyed and we’re experiencing such anguish and pain,” one resident said. _____ 5. Last month, the elite Phillips Exeter Academy disclosed that it had removed a teacher in 2011 over sexual misconduct in the 1970s and ’80s. The announcement shook loose allegations against other employees, and a second teacher was fired Wednesday. Exeter is the latest in a string of American prep schools that have been rocked by similar accusations, and experts say the publicity has started to yield changes. Schools are their methods for preventing sexual abuse and are becoming more receptive to students who report it. _____ 6. A federal appeals court affirmed a legal settlement between the N. F. L. and the potentially thousands of retired players who were injured during their careers by repeated hits to the head. Some players objected to the deal, originally struck in 2013 and amended in 2014, believing the settlement of up to $5 million per player was not adequate. But the court said that those criticisms “risk making the perfect the enemy of the good. ” _____ 7. Houston woke up to find its lower areas underwater Monday after thunderstorms drenched the city with as much as two feet of rain. Schools and colleges closed across southeastern Texas, traffic was paralyzed by the flooding and about 110, 000 customers were left without power. _____ 8. A European court ruling has made Google the final authority on individual Europeans’ requests that web pages referring to them be removed from its searches. More than 417, 000 people have asked that Google “forget” them, but the company, working behind closed doors, has approved fewer than half of those requests, leaving critics dissatisfied. “It’s a solution,” one said. _____ 9. A nonprofit group in Washington State has come up with a novel solution to a shortage of affordable housing: hoisting unwanted houses from Canada onto barges and transporting them to where they are needed in the state. The idea, while unusual, has proved to be less expensive than building new houses. _____ 10. The recipients of this year’s batch of Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday. The Associated Press won the award for public service for a series on slavery in the Southeast Asia fishing trade. Broadway’s “Hamilton” picked up the prize for drama. And The Times won prizes for international reporting and breaking news photography, including the above picture. _____ 11. On Sunday night, HBO dusted its hands of the fifth season of “Girls,” running two episodes, including the season finale, . Our critic writes that the sudden disposal points to the “national indifference that’s accrued” around the show, as well as a heap of offerings coming from the network. But he also praises “Girls” for remaining ambitious, writing that it’s “never stopped looking for the grander, harsher psychological picture. ” _____ 12. What is a dog? A new book argues that the loving, lovable creatures that many of us consider our best animal friends are not perfectly representative of the species. An estimated of the dogs on Earth are not pets, instead living their lives as or undomesticated scavengers. The book’s authors argue that those dogs hold the key to canine nature. _____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s the Weekend Briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
By Rosanne Lindsay You were born to be a healer. We are all healers by birthright. There is no rulebook on healing. We are simply created to heal ourselves. In order to appreciate that inherent... | 0 |
During a tour of the Baltic states, Sens. John McCain ( ) and Lindsey Graham ( ) called for tougher sanctions against Russia Sunday over hacking allegations. “We will be working for much tougher sanctions against Russia,” McCain said. “They attacked the United States of America. The hacking was an attack and it should be treated as such. ” “We strongly urge our colleagues to enact more meaningful and stronger sanctions against Russia because of their attack,” he added. Graham said he hopes to “make 2017 a year of offense. ” He said in front of reporters, “We believe that [Vladimir] Putin has hacked into our elections in America, that he’s trying to undermine democracy all over the world, and it’s time for new sanctions to hit him hard. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
Snap, the parent of Snapchat, disclosed several important aspects of its business in its initial public offering document. The complete filing is here. Below are notable excerpts. Prospective investors will be drawn to how quickly Snap has grown its advertising business in roughly two years, with the company showing a nearly sevenfold increase between 2015 and last year. The question is how long the can maintain anywhere close to that kind of growth. The company said in its prospectus that it views daily active users as a critical measure of engagement — a measure that is tracked closely by similar companies. (Facebook on Wednesday reported that it had an average of 1. 23 billion daily active users in December.) As does every company in this kind of filing, Snap laid out a number of potential risks to its business. Among them is Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, what has come to be known as Brexit, which could pose large problems for the company because it recently designated London as its international hub. Snap noted that other countries may choose to censor Snapchat. Moreover, the company pointed out that many of Google’s services, which power a significant portion of Snap’s computer services, are restricted in China. So, according to Snap, it isn’t clear “if we will be able to enter the market in a manner acceptable to the Chinese government. ” The company was originally built for users to send photographs and messages to their friends. But the company’s ambitions have grown to include user stories, news and branded content. Evan Spiegel, 26, one of Snap’s two founders, started the company while he was a student at Stanford. Mr. Spiegel, who is the company’s chief executive and serves on the board, owns a stake in the company that was worth $3. 7 billion at the end of last year. His 2016 compensation package came to $2. 6 million and included $503, 205 in base salary, a $1 million bonus and $901, 635 in other compensation that covered his $890, 339 personal security budget. The company’s chief strategy officer, Imran Khan, received nearly $151 million during that same time, largely because of a $145 million stock award when he joined the company from the investment bank Credit Suisse in 2015. A month before the company first filed initial public offering documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, its two each sold stock worth $8. 1 million. The company more than tripled its employee ranks from 2015 to 2016. Yet even with 1, 859 staffers, the company has a relatively small number of workers relative to its valuation. Snap noted that it hired a law firm that employs Mr. Spiegel’s father. The elder Mr. Spiegel is a litigator who represented Transocean, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig at the center of the BP oil disaster. The company has attracted a number of prominent backers, who are expected to reap handsome rewards — if only on paper — in the initial public offering. Among them are investment firms like Benchmark Capital, which owns about 13 percent of the company. Snap’s offering is being led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley won the desired “lead left” position on the prospectus, which indicates that it is the bank that will play the biggest role in the offering. The bank also led Facebook’s initial public offering. | 1 |
BEKOJI, Ethiopia — Dressed in a soccer jersey and gray pants, Chala Tulu, 14, began walking in his bare feet and then gradually increased his pace around a grass track at Bekoji Elementary School. Tulu wore a mask and a harness fitted with a small battery pack and a device known as a gas analyzer. He had volunteered for a VO2 max test, which measures the maximum amount of oxygen a runner can use. A plow had furrowed the track with lane markers. Eucalyptus trees provided a wind break. Hills of barley and wheat rose in the distance, brown and tan in the weeks after the harvest. As Tulu picked up his speed with an elegant stride, children clapped and chanted his name. Pacing him on a bicycle was the physiologist Yannis Pitsiladis. He had begun testing young athletes, trying to identify promising talent for an audacious plan: to use science to facilitate a marathon by 2019, a decade or two sooner than many experts think possible. The current record of 2 hours 2 minutes 57 seconds was set in 2014 by Dennis Kimetto of Kenya. Pitsiladis believed that the first runner to break two hours — and transform the limits of human endurance — would not be a current star but would fit a certain profile: someone who had grown up in a rural East African village at altitude, enhancing his capacity, and who was accustomed to hours of daily activity, like walking or running to school, hauling water and herding cattle. “The issue which is unknown for a marathon is age,” said Pitsiladis, an antidoping expert with the International Olympic Committee and a professor of sport and exercise science at the University of Brighton in England. “Is age a limiting factor?” Pitsiladis said. “Nineteen, 20, 21, is that a negative? Maybe 21 will be even better than 29. might be a wealthy guy he’s not as a hungry. A could be fearless and hungry, ready to run on coals if it makes him better. ” So Pitsiladis closely observed Chala Tulu. A Westerner, Pitsiladis had become sensitive to the challenges of imposing his ideas on East African runners. Ethiopia’s own traditions and techniques had produced Olympic gold medals for more than half a century. And Ethiopians had a particular and evident pride, derived in part from their never having been colonized by Europeans. For the VO2 max testing, Pitsiladis received ethical clearance from Addis Ababa University in the Ethiopian capital, where he is a visiting professor. And he sought permission from Bekoji Elementary’s principal, vice principal and renowned coach, Sentayehu Eshetu. The men gathered in a small office as Pitsiladis explained his enterprise, the Sub2 Project. He introduced his altitude expert, Zeru Bekele, an Ethiopian, clarifying that this was not an endeavor wholly by outsiders. On this late morning in February, Pitsiladis explained that he wanted “to produce the next Kenenisa,” a reference to Kenenisa Bekele, a native of Bekoji who is an world champion, a Olympic gold medalist on the track, and the holder at 5, 000 and 10, 000 meters. Bekele and a fellow Ethiopian, Haile Gebrselassie, are widely considered the greatest distance runners in history, and Pitsiladis had enlisted Bekele for his project, not for him to break the barrier himself but, through training and tests, to better understand what it might take. Pitsiladis spoke respectfully of Eshetu, the coach, who had discovered Bekele and other Olympic champions, choosing potential stars by their body type: short torsos and long legs. “His eyes are good, but he cannot see inside,” Pitsiladis told the principal. “My machine can look inside. ” The Eshetu consented, saying he welcomed the input of science to help mitigate against trial and error in identifying top athletes. “It’s necessary,” he said, “so we can guess who can be fruitful. ” The vast success of its distance runners has given Ethiopia, one of the world’s poorest countries, a chance to boast on the world stage. Its top stars can make hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money and appearance fees, a fortune in a nation where the per capita income is $550, according to the World Bank. Yet Ethiopia’s has faced stiff competition from Kenya and, recently, from Mo Farah, a native of neighboring Somalia and a British citizen who won the 5, 000 meters and the 10, 000 meters at the 2012 London Olympics — distances once dominated by Gebrselassie and Bekele. “In Ethiopia, we have the talent, but what we are doing is by chance,” said Gebrselassie, who is now retired. “We don’t have the right coach. We don’t have the right nutritionist. We don’t have psychologist. No doctor. Since Mo Farah, they start to think about the science. ” Bekoji seemed an ideal place for Pitsiladis to start his talent search. A highlands farming village of about 17, 000 nearly 9, 200 feet above sea level, it is one of the world capitals of distance running, having produced 10 Olympic gold medals. Before Tulu was chosen for the VO2 max test, Pitsiladis asked him a few questions. What did he want to become? How far did he travel to school? About three miles, Tulu said. He walked and ran along the main road and a rural path that sliced through barley fields and cut across a riverbed. “Very good, very good,” Pitsiladis called out as Tulu began to circle the track. Tulu ran in a relaxed manner, his stride long and fluid. His heels nearly kicked his backside in a manner similar to that of Bekele, whose likeness, along with the Olympic rings, was painted on the side of a school building. “I want to be a famous runner, like Kenenisa,” Tulu said. Particularly intriguing to Pitsiladis was that Tulu preferred to run without his shoes and had removed them for the test. For more than 30 years, researchers had quantified how the weight of running shoes affected performance. Less weight on the extremities translated into greater running economy, meaning less oxygen was needed to run at a given speed. The aerobic cost of running increases 1 percent per three and a half ounces of shoe weight, which could amount to a minute in a marathon, research showed. Pitsiladis wanted his Sub2 Project to experiment with a minimalist shoe, which might consist only of a film that covered the bottom of the foot. Pitsiladis thought that the runner who first broke two hours might be a young, barefoot athlete who would continue to run without shoes, as Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia did through the cobblestone streets of Rome in winning the 1960 Olympic marathon. (He won again in 1964, this time in shoes.) Pitsiladis had collaborated on a Harvard study, published in Nature in 2010, that found that barefoot runners tended to land on the forefoot or midfoot whereas runners in cushioned shoes tended to land on their heels. Forefoot landings tended to be more gentle, avoiding the large shock waves that travel up the legs of heel strikers, the study found. Thus, barefoot runners, using the foot’s natural architecture, could run comfortably even on the hardest surfaces. “Barefoot is a quick solution that could go wrong, but it could go bloody right,” Pitsiladis said. “If you said I’m only allowing you to choose one thing, which would it be? Because I’m a risky person, I’d say, ‘Let’s do it barefoot. ’” Relatively little scientific research has been conducted on the world’s fastest marathon runners. For one thing, East Africa is not the easiest place to work. The biomedical lab at Addis Ababa University contains hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment acquired over the years — freezers and sophisticated machines, resembling bread makers, that analyze genes and blood. But because of insufficient funding and a lack of available experts to operate the equipment, much of it was unplugged and covered by tablecloths when Pitsiladis toured the lab with graduate students. “It’s like having a cake shop,” he said. “You’ve got the best sweets in the world, and you can only look at them. ” For his testing in Bekoji, Pitsiladis had haggled for a bicycle a day earlier in a bazaar in Addis Ababa. Eventually, he ventured down an alley, where wet clothes hung on a line, and made a deal. Then he had to make six withdrawals from a cash machine to circumvent its limits. That was a minor inconvenience compared with retrieving a cylinder of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority. The canister, needed to calibrate the VO2 max tests, had been shipped from Italy in November because none were available in Ethiopia. Nearly three months later, it had not cleared customs. Before heading to Bekoji, Pitsiladis and Zeru Bekele, his altitude expert, spent a maddening five hours extricating the cylinder from the authorities at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa. They paid a 100 percent tax on the container and one fee after another. At the last minute, customs officials refused to release the canister to anyone but the purchasing agent from Addis Ababa University. Bekele spent an hour picking up the agent and driving her to the airport. “Come on,” Pitsiladis said in exasperation before leaving for his hotel. “This is ridiculous. ” Ridiculous became surreal when a Charlie Chaplin movie, “The Gold Rush,” began playing in a waiting area at customs. Finally, Bekele secured the canister and took it to Pitsiladis at his hotel. Pitsiladis cradled it like a baby. “No one in their right mind would do this job,” he said with a laugh. A software glitch left the results of Tulu’s VO2 max test unclear. Still, he did not appear to Pitsiladis to be a candidate to eventually break the barrier. Perhaps no one at the school was. Earlier, as Pitsiladis had arrived and children had gathered around his van, he had said with disbelief and mild disappointment, “They’re all wearing something on their feet!” But Kenenisa Bekele had arranged for the trip with a phone call to Eshetu, his former coach, so Pitsiladis proceeded with the testing. Zeru Bekele, the altitude expert, who is not related to Kenenisa, said he worried that as more schools were built in the countryside, Ethiopian children might lose something athletically by not having to run so far to class. “It could be in Bekoji that we’re 20 years too late,” Pitsiladis said. “These are city kids. ” Perhaps he would have to go to a more remote area to find the next marathon star — higher, to 11, 500 feet or 13, 000 feet, where a promising barefoot teenager might live. “Maybe the next Abebe Bikila is someone who doesn’t know about athletics and has never heard of the Olympic Games,” Pitsiladis said. He had more immediate concerns. Pitsiladis needed a current star to give legitimacy to his provocative theories and to pique sponsor interest in the Sub2 Project, which he estimated would cost $30 million. One of Pitsiladis’s former doctoral students, Barry Fudge, had found his own willing science subject on the track in Farah, the British Olympic champion. “Yannis would bite his right arm off to find somebody like that,” said Fudge, the head of endurance for the British track and field federation. Pitsiladis had hoped Kenenisa Bekele would be that athlete, but months of dealing with him suggested serious obstacles might still lie ahead as Pitsiladis applied his science to elite runners in Ethiopia. They had worked together before, as Bekele won the 10, 000 meters at the 2007 world track and field championships in Osaka, Japan, and took double gold in the 5, 000 and the 10, 000 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Even then, Pitsiladis showed a knack for experimenting in training. To mimic the sticky summer conditions in Asia, Pitsiladis devised a thermal chamber in a home in Addis Ababa, employing heaters and kettles of boiling water while Bekele trained on a treadmill. Bekele then won his races with a punishing kick and regal eyes that seemed to intimidate others with their commanding intent. “I really like the guy,” Pitsiladis said. “He’s the greatest athlete we’ve seen. ” Bekele made his marathon debut in Paris in 2014, finishing first and setting a course record in 2:05:04 — the debut ever. But injury sideswiped him. At last year’s Dubai Marathon in the United Arab Emirates, he dropped out after 18 ½ miles, and he withdrew from the London Marathon three months later. In July, Bekele arrived at Pitsiladis’s lab in England about 25 pounds above his competitive weight of 123. He limped when he walked. His right calf was nearly an inch smaller around than his left calf. “I thought it was over,” Pitsiladis said. “He looked like a broken man. ” Injuries had piled up. A stress fracture in his ankle. A torn calf muscle. Strained Achilles’ tendons. It was as if a string had been pulled, yanking Bekele’s back and legs and feet, leaving his muscles out of balance. Bekele was 33. He surely would not be the marathoner to break two hours. (“I’m very close to old,” he said.) Still, he hoped to make a comeback, to win a gold medal in the marathon or the 10, 000 meters at this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and, later, to beat the world record in the marathon. “I have that vision,” Bekele said. If Pitsiladis could restore Bekele, Pitsiladis believed, sponsors would find the Sub2 Project a worthwhile investment. “The whole world will believe in what I’m doing,” Pitsiladis said. His words were hopeful, if not a sure bet. The two men needed each other but had a complicated relationship. They seem opposites in perhaps every way but their willful determination. Pitsiladis is an extroverted scientist, Bekele a reserved and proud athlete, wary of science, or at least reluctant to change the training that brought him so much success. So although Pitsiladis and Bekele agreed to renew their partnership, it was full of operatic uncertainty. Again and again, Pitsiladis would say, “We’re five minutes from disaster. ” They could not even agree on what foods were good for runners to eat. After a workout in September, Pitsiladis had Bekele stop his sport utility vehicle at a roadside stand in Addis Ababa and climbed out to buy bananas. Bekele took a bite and said, “Bananas are not good sometimes. ” Pitsiladis told him: “They’re good all the time. They refuel the muscles. ” Bekele did not mean he disliked the taste. “He thinks bananas make you fat,” Pitsiladis said. When he visited Addis Ababa in September, Pitsiladis found that Bekele had bought into some of the prescribed rehab program but not all of it. For the first time, he was working regularly with weights and using exercise balls to strengthen his core muscles. He agreed to quit eating cakes and to adhere to a traditional, Ethiopian diet of stews and a spongy flatbread called injera. By late September, Bekele had dropped 11 pounds. Pitsiladis planned each meal, restricting Bekele’s calorie intake to about 1, 785 per day. “Just enough to keep you alive,” Pitsiladis told Bekele. Yet Bekele resisted the professional techniques employed by physiotherapists for the Sub2 Project. He preferred a simple massage from a friend. He was not the only Ethiopian runner sensitive about who worked on his legs. “If I treat five or six athletes in a day, they believe I can’t help them anymore because I’ve taken all the bad energy from the other athletes and it will affect them in a negative way,” said Jonathan Schaible, a physiotherapist who worked with Bekele. Part of this distrust stems from beliefs in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, athletic officials said. Religious figures known as debteras are considered fortune tellers and magical healers but are also said to summon spirits that bring misfortune and sickness. Some athletes carry protective amulets and sprinkle holy water into their workout bags, fearing that competitors could put a hex on them, Zeru Bekele said. In late September, on his way to train at Entoto, a eucalyptus forest above Addis Ababa, Kenenisa Bekele stopped to pray at a shrine outside the octagonal, brightly painted St. Mary’s Church. He referred to debteras as priests and said he considered them “very clever. ” “If they want to make someone crazy, they can,” Bekele said. “If they want to kill you, they kill you indirectly. You can’t see, but they send some powers, some evil, to you. ” This subject had been one of intense discussion between Bekele and Pitsiladis. Last summer, when Bekele went to England for treatment, the two sat in a car and talked for hours. According to Pitsiladis, Bekele told him: “I don’t need this treatment. All I need is for the priests to O. K. me. ” If that was what he believed, Pitsiladis said he replied, perhaps Bekele should return to Ethiopia. He stayed. Pitsiladis, who is Greek Orthodox, gave him a painting of St. Raphael, who was martyred on the Greek island Lesbos. “I wanted to demonstrate that, while religion may be important, don’t let people use religion to take over your mind,” Pitsiladis said. “You are in control of your destiny, not these people around you. ” When he left Addis Ababa in September, Pitsiladis seemed more encouraged. Bekele had agreed to regular physiotherapy. He was sticking to his diet. In early November, the tentative assurance evaporated. Bekele wore an unfamiliar pair of shoes on a long run and strained his left Achilles’ tendon. His training became irregular. He put on weight and sometimes resisted physiotherapy. Plans for any exotic training methods affiliated with the Sub2 Project faltered. There would be only a desperate attempt to get Bekele to the starting line of the London Marathon on April 24, a race in which he would have to give an encouraging performance to qualify for Ethiopia’s Olympic marathon team. In January, Bekele traveled to Munich to visit a popular and controversial doctor, . His supporters, including the Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt, swear by him and call him Healing Hans. But some scientists have questioned his unconventional treatments, such as injections of Actovegin, a filtered extract of calf’s blood, along with lubricants and antioxidants. Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the United States Agency, once described ’s injections to ESPN as a “ treatment. ” Pitsiladis accompanied Bekele to Munich, wary of the treatments. At least admonished Bekele to follow the rehab program the Sub2 Project had prescribed, Pitsiladis said. ( declined a request for an interview.) When Pitsiladis returned to Addis Ababa in February, he placed Bekele on an even stricter diet, 1, 000 to 1, 500 calories a day. As his weight declined, so would the pain in his heel. That was the hope, anyway. The London Marathon was only 10 weeks away. In March, Bekele turned inward, secretive, as he sometimes had at the height of his career. He declined to tell Pitsiladis about his training regimen. He would not allow his physiotherapist to weigh him. “He likes to make history when no one is watching,” said Mersha Asrat, Bekele’s coach. Pitsiladis grew exasperated. But he had gotten Bekele in sufficient shape to run the London Marathon. Bekele was no longer the broken runner he had been. In an instant message, he told Pitsiladis, “Thank you for believing in me. ” Pitsiladis replied: “I believe in you 100 percent. And you need to trust me 100 percent. Then we can do it together. ” Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya eventually won in 2:03:05, the marathon ever. While Bekele was left to run alone in the final miles, he gamely finished third in 2:06:36. The running world buzzed about his comeback. If chosen for Ethiopia’s marathon team for the Rio Olympics, he was expected to be a medal contender. “It was nice because I come back from injury,” Bekele said. “Not bad. ” Pitsiladis hugged Bekele. Perhaps now, Bekele would more readily buy into a scientific approach to training. “Let’s see,” Pitsiladis said. In any case, the Sub2 Project would continue. Pitsiladis planned to open a training center in Kenya and hoped to enlist Kipchoge. The International Olympic Committee had pledged funding to his lab for antidoping research, Pitsiladis said. The money could also be used for altitude research in the Sub2 Project. An American biotech firm had also shown interest, Pitsiladis said. “I want to impact a life,” he said of his desire to break the barrier. “You’re here once. You want to do something that matters. I wanted to be an athlete in the Olympics. I didn’t do it. So how else can you make a mark that you were here? I think it’s important. ” | 1 |
10 Views November 07, 2016 GOLD , KWN King World News
As the world awaits the outcome of the election in the United States, buckle up for some rough times.
James Turk: “Everybody who I speak with here in London, Eric, asks me about the US election. I’ve never seen anything like the amount of interest it has sparked. Without any doubt the election has grabbed the attention of people from around the world… Sponsored
An attorney friend I was speaking to the other day called it a remarkable event. I said it had become more like a spectacle than an event. There have been so many twists and turns, it is hard to keep track of all of them. But the stock market seems to relaying a consistent message.
The S&P dropped 9 consecutive days after the FBI announced it had found more Clinton emails, and that it was re-opening its investigation. Today the stock market is soaring as a result of the FBI’s announcement this weekend that there was nothing new in this latest bundle of emails.
Of course, no one really knows what, if any, the impact has been or will be on the final counting of the votes. I don’t rely on the polls, as the mainstream media seems to use them more for massaging public opinion than to offer an unbiased result.
The Brexit Surprise And the record of polls is poor in any case. Just a few months ago the polls here in the UK said Brexit would be voted down.
Normally I do rely on the forecasting ability of the stock market for many things. But not this time. The stock market does not reflect the majority of Americans, most of whom do not own stocks.
It is pretty clear what the stock market is saying. A Clinton victory will be good for stocks, and that a Trump victory would be bad for stocks. But the real situation is not likely to reflect such a simple theory.
There are just too many unpredictable factors. Nevertheless, we do need to be thinking about what happens after the election, regardless of the outcome.
In this regard, we have to recognize that there is no magic wand that will solve the country’s problems just because there is a new president, which explains in part why I remain so bullish on the precious metals.
In 1913 A Monster Was Created Ever since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the dollar’s purchasing power has been headed downhill. There are of course occasional upward bounces along this downward path, some of which last for months or even years. But slowly and surely the purchasing power of the dollar is being eroded away.
Importantly, that decline of the dollar is not likely to change regardless who gets elected. So how does one protect their wealth from this ongoing debasement of the dollar?
This answer is simple. Own tangible things that are useful. Don’t rely on financial assets that are based on promises. In other words, the strategy to protect your wealth – your purchasing power – is to own tangible assets and avoid financial assets. So own things like gold, silver, farmland, mines and other tangible assets of value. Avoid assets like bank deposits, T-bills and bonds. And buckle up for some rough sailing ahead, regardless who wins.”
***KWN has now released the extraordinary audio interview with Egon von Greyerz, where he gives KWN listeners a look what is really happening behind the scenes globally and in the gold market, and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
***ALSO RELEASED: ALERT: Former Soros Just Warned This Is Going To Send The World Into Total Chaos CLICK HERE.
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Sen. Joe Manchin ( ) spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Friday about several topics, including Trump’s position on coal, his rally in West Virginia, the state of play in American politics today, as well as the nomination of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. [While pointing out his dissatisfaction with how he believes Obama nominee Judge Merrick Garland was treated, Manchin said on Gorsuch and his nomination, “The is, if you want a working judicial branch of the government, you’ve got to have nine [justices]. You get to Judge Gorsuch, you start looking at, basically, the qualities of the human being — his temperament, his educational attainment, how he’s viewed by his peers, how his rulings have been. ” Added Manchin, “I could not find a reason why this man, this good man, Judge Gorsuch, should not at least be allowed to have an up or down vote. ” He also said, “I could not see a just reason to filibuster this person,” indicating his decision to vote for cloture on the nomination. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
DAMASCUS (SYRIA) (AFP) — Syria’s foreign minister on Monday called on the country’s refugees to return home, official media reported, without directly commenting on a US ban targeting them. [Walid Muallem “renewed the invitation of the government to Syrian refugees living in neighbouring countries to return to their country” the SANA news agency said. The minister “stressed the country was ready to receive them and grant them a dignified life” the agency reported, as Muallem met UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi. On Friday, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to suspend Syrian refugee arrivals indefinitely and impose tough controls on travellers from seven countries, including Syria, for 90 days. The minister spoke after President Bashar ’s forces on Sunday retook control of a key region that supplies water to the capital. The army’s recapture of Wadi Barada from rebels comes a month after Assad’s forces pushed the armed opposition out of east Aleppo, taking back control of the whole of the northern city. Syria’s rebels still hold to the northwestern province of Idlib, the Western Ghouta area outside the capital and areas in the south of the country. Syria’s conflict has killed more than 310, 000 people since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of protests. The war has forced 4. 8 million people to flee Syria, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Turkey has taken in more than 2. 7 million Syrians, the UNHCR says, and is now the main host country. It is followed by Lebanon with more than one million Syrian refugees, according to the UN. The UNHCR says Jordan has taken in 655, 000 Syrians, but Amman says the number is much higher at 1. 4 million. At least another 228, 000 Syrians have taken refuge in Iraq and 115, 000 in Egypt, the refugee agency says. Syrian refugees have in increasing numbers travelled to, or tried to reach, Europe, making the perilous journey overground or by sea. | 1 |
Dani Rovira protagonizará el mensaje de Navidad del Rey TAMBIÉN INTERPRETARÁ AL ESPAÑOL AL QUE LE TOCA EL GORDO DE NAVIDAD televisión
El popular actor Dani Rovira será el encargado de dirigirse este año a los españoles en el tradicional mensaje de Navidad. Hasta ahora, ningún ciudadano de a pie había conseguido este privilegio, reservado al Rey de España.
La trayectoria del actor ha vivido una tendencia inversa a la de la monarquía. Desde su debut en “8 apellidos vascos”, su popularidad ha ido en aumento, al contrario que los Borbones, que han notado como el caso Nóos les ha pasado factura. “Era el momento idóneo”, afirma Rovira. Además, está seguro de que la repercusión de salir en todos los canales a la vez le beneficiará de cara a su siguiente gran reto: intepretar al español al que le ha tocado la Lotería este año.
Rovira no ha querido avanzar nada del contenido del mensaje, aunque ha prometido muchas sorpresas. “Es posible que aparezca Carmen Machi en algún momento interpretando a doña Letizia, peo por ahora no hay nada seguro”, ha explicado el intérprete y cómico. Según fuentes cercanas al actor, él mismo estaría escribiendo parte de texto, que incluirá reflexiones sobre lo diferentes que son hombres y mujeres y lo mala que está la comida de los aviones.
Juan José Cela, representante del cómico, explica que Rovira lleva varias semanas preparándose para el papel, empeorando su dicción e incluso viajando a Arabia Saudí para cerrar negocios turbios.
La Casa Real no ha querido pronunciarse al respecto. Únicamente ha comentado que Rovira es una buena alternativa al Rey, ya que haber trabajado en “8 apellidos vascos” y “8 apellidos catalanes” le otorga una legitimidad “más que razonable” para afrontar la cuestión del desafío secesionista.
Mediaset no descarta que el año que viene el mensaje corra a cargo de Antonio Recio y Amador, populares personajes de la exitosa serie “La que se avecina”. | 0 |
Get short URL 0 0 0 0 White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said that the outgoing president and the incoming president of the United States will work effectively together to ensure a seamless transition. © AP Photo/ Julio Cortez 2016 US Presidential Election Costs May Exceed Record $6.6Bln WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Despite rhetoric used in the current US presidential election, Americans should be confident in the process and that there will be a peaceful transition of power, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said in a press briefing on Wednesday. "The American people should draw some confidence from the idea that we can engage in a vigorous debate in this country, and then when the votes are tallied… the outgoing president and the incoming president will work effectively together to ensure a seamless transition," Earnest stated.
The 2016 campaign between US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has been marked by hostile rhetoric and personal insults.
Additionally, Trump said in the third and final presidential debate on October 19 that he would first look at the election result before deciding whether to accept it. © REUTERS/ Mike Segar Could Trump Be Right Just This Once? US Voters Concerned Over Election Fraud The comment prompted concerns among commentators that Trump would undermine the peaceful transfer of power that is a hallmark of US elections.
The White House later said Obama would personally escort Trump to the US Capitol for his inauguration if the Republican is elected president.
Trump, but also numerous other critics, have claimed that the election is rigged and pointed to failures of the US election system to prevent voter fraud. Some of the criticisms include the lack of mechanism to verify that individuals are legally entitled to vote as well as to keep people from voting more than once.
Moreover, critics have raised the issue of voting machines being highly vulnerable to manipulation and hacking. ... | 0 |
documentary filmmaker Michael Moore says the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare is proof that no nation on earth “sh*ts on its own” people the way the U. S. does. [“Civilized countries that have universal healthcare — no country, no group of people, no tribe sh*ts on their own to the extent and the level that we do to each other it’s the most embarrassing and humiliating thing about this great country,” Moore said on a conference call Thursday held by the Progressive Democrats of America. “Humans anyplace else, what they don’t do is sh*t on their own,” Moore said. “They need their own for their own defense. They need their own for their own survival — they need their own. They need to protect their children, not say to the child, ‘sorry, no, we got rid of Obamacare. We won’t help you. You’re sick? Tough. ’” Moore predicted that Trump would work with Congress to “retain as much or most, even all” of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2010 and commonly called Obamacare, because at the end of the day Trump “likes being popular. ” “[Trump is] trying to find a way to have his cake and eat it too, basically. He likes being popular. He likes his ratings. He does not want to be seen — and he said this during the campaign — as the guy who is throwing 20 million people out on the curb. He said that because he wouldn’t be very popular then,” Moore explained. “He will look for a way to retain as much or most, even all, and I think he’s learned that the worst thing about Obamacare to his supporters is the fact that it’s called Obamacare,” Moore continued. “And I think he’s just going to change the name, you know, the man is all about branding. ” On Wednesday, conservative lawmakers called on Trump to work with Republican leaders in Congress to completely repeal the health care law. But Moore says Trump will likely keep much of Obamacare intact, and move merely to change the law’s name and make adjustments. The went on to praise the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for its ruling upholding a lower court’s order halting President Trump’s temporary executive order. “The more we can discombobulate him, the better,” Moore said of the ruling. Moore also told Progressive Democrats of America members that the liberal left is “doomed” if Rep. Keith Ellison ( .) doesn’t win his race to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
Some films can summon such profound questions that they change the way you perceive life as you once knew it. The following list contains 10 unique movies which do just that. 10) Donnie Darko Richard Kelly’s cult-classic Donnie Darko stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a troubled, sleep-walking teen who insists on challenging authority and who is often visited by Frank, a monstrous rabbit that urges Donnie to perform dangerous and destructive pranks. A haunting work of loneliness, alienation, and the universal desire for companionship and meaning wrapped in the guise of understated ‘80s nostalgia and head-spinning science fiction mythology – Donnie Darko is a film you shouldn’t miss. What makes Donnie Darko especially fascinating is its take on multiple realities and universes. The film explores concepts of imploding universes, black holes, and alternate timelines, leaving most scratching their heads and itching for an immediate second viewing. Richard Kelly stated that the film has varying interpretations, which is why the film is still the object of analysis and debate to this day. advertisement - learn more 9) The Matrix A smartly crafted combination of stimulating action and mind-bending philosophy, The Matrix is a film that casts doubt on our perception of reality. The film’s premise finds Neo (Keanu Reeves), an office-worker by day, computer hacker by night, suddenly stripped of “the grand illusion.” That is, the idea that life as we know is false, a simulated and constructed reality in which mankind is unknowingly imprisoned. The film is an allegory for the concept of a spiritual awakening. Neo is woken up to the fact that he’s been enslaved to the system, the matrix, his entire life. He is re-taught about his unlimited potential as a creator-being, and stands up against the dark forces which hold humanity captive. Amazing in every sense, The Matrix has a lot to offer, with the potential to change the way you understand the world we live in. 8) Waking Life Absurd, transporting, and strikingly original, Waking Life poses many life-changing questions, such as “What are dreams?” and What is reality?” Within the animated film, the lines between the dream-state and reality become blurred as the protagonist wanders through various scenarios and interacts with an eclectic cast of characters. Each character throws science and philosophy into question, and as the main character continues to experience the extended dream, he begins to worry he will not awaken. Humans and inanimate details are sometimes quite realistic, even recognizable (such as Ethan Hawke), but the computer “painting” can give subjects forms, movements, and dimensions that are wildly exaggerated, limber, and stylized in cartoon-like fashion. The movie looks like an LSD trip, and is a cult classic that could find a spot on everyone’s top ten list. 7) Cloud Atlas Colossal in scale, Cloud Atlas follows 6 interwoven story lines that span hundreds of years. The official synopsis describes it as “an exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present, and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.” Cloud Atlas’s prevalent theme delves into the theory of reincarnation, which boasts that an eternal aspect of our self – the soul – experiences any number of lives incarnated here on Earth. The film also explores the concept of karma and the karmic cycle, suggesting that our actions in one lifetime may reverberate into the next. Although the critic consensus is mixed for Cloud Atlas, one must applaud the film for tackling a complex topic like reincarnation, as well as a massively ambitious storyline. 6) Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring is a Korean film that follows a Buddhist monk and his journey at a monastery which floats on a lake in a pristine forest. The story follows the monk as he passes through the seasons of his life, from childhood to old age. Each changing season acts as a beautiful metaphor and lesson that the main character experiences. The film is very quiet but the breathtaking imagery speaks for itself. Although the story has only a handful of characters and everything takes place in a small area, it encompasses a surprisingly broad portion of the human experience, including lust, love, jealousy, murder, suicide, and redemption. It has important things to say about the difficulty of teaching and the elusiveness of wisdom. This film is about learning from one’s mistakes and becoming a better person by seeking wisdom. 5) Samsara In a number of Eastern faiths, samsara literally means “continuous flow,” referring obliquely to the ongoing cycle of life and death, decay and renewal. Samsara the film turns that idea into a sprawling concept, a continuous flow of images of the natural world and the human tide that dominates it. The film envelops the audience in a barrage of diverse imagery that shifts rapidly from one locale and one theme to the next. Through watching the continuous imagery, we are given the chance to truly observe our world with utmost presence, something we tend not do in our fast-paced culture. It’s a journey through life and death, and a film which may give you a new perspective on the human experience. 4) Detachment Detachment is a chronicle of one month in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators, and students through the eyes of a substitute teacher named Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody). Barthes’ method of imparting vital knowledge to his temporary students is interrupted by the arrival of three women in his life — the damaged and naïve prostitute Erica, a troubled teen named Meredith, and a fellow teacher. These women all have profound effects on Barthes’ life, forcing him to not only re-discover aspects of his own personality, but to come to terms with both the tragic suicide of his mother and the impending death of his grandfather. Henry impacts his students’ lives and makes them more focused and attentive, but he alone can only do so much. The film is a character study of one man, and a social commentary on the failing education and social systems. 3) Her Her follows Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), a lonely, introverted middle-aged man who hears of the new OS1, the world’s first artificial intelligent operating system. When Theodore meets Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), the charming female voice of his OS1, he soon finds himself drawn to her romantically. As he becomes closer to Samantha, Theodore must decipher where his desire to be with her is really coming from. There are many themes in Her that parallel the issues of our current technology-obsessed culture. We’ve become so attached to our phones, laptops, and tablets that we’ve begun to lose touch with an essential aspect of life, authentic human interaction. Her reveals how technology is propelling isolation and loneliness to a frightening degree, something we all should consider. 2) Fight Club Fight Club teaches its viewer many things. A big lesson to take away from watching the film is the emptiness that exists within consumerism and materialism. It’s also a film which questions our attachment to identity – are we really who we believe ourselves to be? The film shocks its viewer when we discover that the “revolution” which has been building up is a mere satire constructed to teach the main character a massive lesson about the state of humanity. 1) Life Is Beautiful Life is Beautiful reveals the power of optimism and perception during dark times. The story is simple: A father tries to shelter his son and family from the horrors of WWII. It teaches us how preserving our child-like innocence can protect us from the troubles life may throw at us. A simple concept that is beautifully crafted. Obviously this list only skims the amount of life-changing films available today. I didn’t even mention documentaries, because there are too many to start listing. What are some movies or documentaries that have impacted your life? Share with us below! Some of the previous film synopses were taken from: Rotten Tomatoes | 0 |
SAN FERNANDO, Tamaulipas — Heavily armed criminals continue robbing and kidnapping unsuspecting motorists that travel along the state highways that connect the border region with the rest of the country. In one of the most recent cases, a group of gunmen attacked a married couple near this city. [The attack and kidnapping took place last week when a couple had been riding in a Dodge Caravan from the Mexican State of San Luis Potosi to the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. According to the complaint that the wife gave authorities, between 3 a. m. and 4 a. m. the couple was crossing an area known as Las Norias in the municipality of San Fernando. In the woman’s account of events, she claimed that the gunmen ordered them to stop. Acting out of fear, her husband tried to speed off however the gunmen fired at their tires. The husband lost control of the vehicle, going off the road and crashing into a local shop. The woman appears to have passed out during the crash, while the gunmen went toward her husband and took him at gunpoint. This kidnapping marks the third case of disappearances that have been officially recorded by authorities in the areas around San Fernando. Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J. A. Espinoza” from Matamoros, Tamaulipas. | 1 |
Live - Election Day Coverage 2016
Video The Real News Watch Party Posted November 08, 2016 | 0 |
“Saturday Night Live” ended its first show with Cecily Strong, later joined by Sasheer Zamata, singing Lulu’s “To Sir, With Love” as tribute to the former president. At the end, the two offered up a mug to Obama that says, “World’s Best President. ” Zamata then pled, “Don’t go!” right before “Thank You President Obama” appeared on the screen. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Documents released Monday in the Hillary Clinton email investigation show intense disagreement last year between the State Department and the F. B. I. over whether some of Mrs. Clinton’s emails should be considered classified, including a discussion of a possible “quid pro quo” to settle one dispute. The new batch of documents indicated that in one particular case, a senior State Department official, Patrick F. Kennedy, pressed the F. B. I. to agree that one of Mrs. Clinton’s emails on the 2012 Benghazi attack would be unclassified — and not classified as the bureau wanted. What remained unclear from the documents was whether it was Mr. Kennedy or an F. B. I. official who purportedly offered the “quid pro quo”: marking the email unclassified in exchange for the State Department’s approving the posting of more F. B. I. agents to Iraq. Officials at both the F. B. I. and the State Department said Monday that no deal had been struck, or even offered, over the classification of Mrs. Clinton’s private emails. They noted that the Benghazi email in question had been made public with a sentence blocked out, meeting the F. B. I. ’s demand for classification. They also said no additional F. B. I. agents had been posted overseas. There is no indication from the documents that Mrs. Clinton was aware of the discussion. Donald J. Trump and other Republicans nonetheless quickly seized on the new documents as evidence of what Speaker Paul D. Ryan called “a . ” The F. B. I. ’s latest release of 100 pages of internal investigative files prolonged the intense public scrutiny of Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, which has been perhaps more damaging to her presidential campaign than any other issue. The new documents also cast particular attention on the role of Mr. Kennedy, a State Department civil servant for more than four decades, in working to oversee the review and public release of tens of thousands of Mrs. Clinton’s private emails. One of the F. B. I. reports said State Department employees who reviewed nearly 300 of Mrs. Clinton’s emails on the Benghazi attacks in early 2015 in response to requests from Congress had “felt intense pressure” from Mr. Kennedy and other senior State Department officials to complete their review quickly and “not label anything as classified. ” Mr. Kennedy was part of a battle between the State Department and the intelligence agencies over Mrs. Clinton’s emails. As the emails were prepared for release, officials from the intelligence agencies argued in some cases that information in them should have been marked classified, while State Department officials countered that they contained the routine business of American diplomacy. State Department officials, who argue that the intelligence agencies are overzealous in classifying information, remain sensitive to criticism that they were sloppy in handling the material. In one of the newly disclosed documents, an unidentified F. B. I. employee told investigators that Mr. Kennedy, through another F. B. I. official, had sought in one case “assistance in altering the email’s classification in exchange for a ‘quid pro quo. ’” The F. B. I. had deemed the email classified, but the State Department disagreed. The employee told investigators that “in exchange for marking the email unclassified, State would reciprocate by allowing the F. B. I. to place more Agents in countries where they are presently forbidden,” according to the F. B. I. ’s summary of the employee’s questioning by investigators. A second F. B. I. interview included in the documents provides a somewhat different version of the dispute over the classification of the Benghazi email, with the suggestion that the F. B. I. — and not Mr. Kennedy — had offered to make a deal. In the interview, an unidentified F. B. I. official in the international operations division said Mr. Kennedy had complained to him that the F. B. I. classification of the document “caused problems for Kennedy” and that Mr. Kennedy had wanted to give it a different designation and file it in the State Department basement — “never to be seen again. ” The unidentified F. B. I. official said he was the one who then “told Kennedy he would look into the email matter if Kennedy would provide authority concerning the F. B. I. ’s request to increase its personnel in Iraq. ” The email they were struggling over was sent on Nov. 18, 2012, by William V. Roebuck, who oversaw the department’s office for North Africa and is now the American ambassador to Bahrain. In it, he notified five other officials of the arrest of “several people” in Libya on suspicion they were connected with the Benghazi attack two months earlier. It was subsequently forwarded to senior officials at the department and then to Mrs. Clinton on her private email account by her deputy chief of staff, Jake Sullivan, with a short “f. y. i. ” note. Mark C. Toner, a State Department spokesman, said that no favors had been exchanged in the discussions of Mrs. Clinton’s emails, and that there had been no change in the number of agents in Iraq as a result of the conversations. “The allegation of any kind of quid pro quo is inaccurate and does not align with the facts,” Mr. Toner said. The F. B. I. also said there was “never a quid pro quo,” but it said the accusations had been referred to the bureau’s inspection division, which handles internal ethics issues, to investigate. The F. B. I. official who discussed the issue with Mr. Kennedy has since left the bureau, an official said. One of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy advisers, Michael T. Flynn, a retired general who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the documents provided “undeniable proof” that Mrs. Clinton had “colluded with the F. B. I. D. O. J. and State Department to cover up criminal activity at the highest levels. ” Two prominent members of the House — Jason Chaffetz of Utah, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Devin Nunes of California, the chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — called on Secretary of State John Kerry to relieve Mr. Kennedy of his position pending an investigation. In a letter to Mr. Kerry, they accused Mr. Kennedy, the State Department and the F. B. I. of collusion. They charged that the State Department had altered its normal process in reviewing Mrs. Clinton’s emails, consulting directly with the Justice Department and bypassing the F. B. I. ’s input. A spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign, Jason Miller, said Mr. Kennedy should resign. Mr. Toner said Mr. Kennedy would remain in his position with the full support of Mr. Kerry. After the email issue emerged in March 2015, Mrs. Clinton insisted for months that she had never sent or received emails that contained classified information. But she was forced to backtrack, as the F. B. I. concluded this summer that at least 110 emails had contained classified information, even if they had not been marked as such at the time. | 1 |
Disney is reportedly looking to strike a deal with the estate of the late actress Carrie Fisher for the rights to use the Star Wars star’s likeness in the franchise’s future films. [“With what might be regarded as unseemly haste, Disney is negotiating with the actor’s estate over her continued appearance in the franchise,” Scottish journalist Kirsty Wark said in a recent appearance on the BBC show Newsnight. “If Disney gets the Carrie Fisher will join Peter Cushing, who, last month, 15 years after his death, played a key role in Rogue One as Grand Moff Tarkin,” Wark said. Fisher passed away on December 27, four days after suffering a heart attack while onboard a flight from London to Los Angeles. The latest Star Wars film, Rogue One, featured a digitally enhanced Princess Leia — a Carrie Fisher meant to mirror her character in the original Star Wars. Rogue One filmmakers also used digital scans to reprise Peter Cushing’s character, the villainous Grand Moff Tarkin. Cushing died in 1994. imagery (CGI) has been used to bring back deceased characters — for better or for worse — for decades, though the practice has caused controversy. In 2013, martial artist and film legend Bruce Lee was digitally reincarnated and placed in a television commercial for Johnnie Walker Blue Label. And while Lee’s daughter Shannon was consulted on the project, the ad left some fans furious, because Bruce Lee famously did not consume alcohol: “They’re bad for my body” he was once quoted as saying. Lee’s likeness was also used to sell Mars bars. After the untimely death of Fast and Furious franchise star Paul Walker in 2013, CGI and the late actor’s brothers were used to shoot the final scenes of Furious 7. Oddly enough, Fisher once joked during a roast of George Lucas at the AFI Life Achievement Awards that she doesn’t even own the rights to her own image. “And though amongst your many possessions, you have owned my likeness all these years so that every time I looked in the mirror I have to send you a check for a couple of bucks. ” Nevertheless, Fisher reportedly completed all of her scenes for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII before her death. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy recently said it is hard to imagine a world without Fisher. Indeed, the beloved actress is gone, but perhaps Princess Leia will yet live on. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
A region just outside Baltimore, Maryland, is now looking to join hundreds of other counties and cities across the country with a ‘sanctuary city’ policy that protects criminal illegal immigrants from federal immigration law. [Howard County officials, comprised of mostly Democrats, say they want to ban county officials from inquiring about an individuals’ immigration status. The officials would also be barred from cooperating with federal immigration officials, according to the Baltimore Sun. “The recent national political climate, increased incidents of hate speech and violence, and unfortunate statements made by our nation’s has caused many in the Howard County community to fear for their personal safety and the loss of civil liberties,” Howard County City Council member Calvin Ball said. The City Council, though, acknowledges that Howard County designating itself as a sanctuary city would not go far with Donald Trump’s incoming administration. The incoming President plans to focus heavily on banning a region from failing to comply with federal immigration laws. Jessica Vaughan with the Center for Immigration Studies told the Baltimore Sun she didn’t understand the purpose of the sanctuary city classification for Howard County, as it’s largely based in a fear about federal immigration officials. “I’m at a loss to see how this would affect the real life practices of Howard County officials or force them to do anything they’re already doing,” said Vaughan. “This idea that immigration officers are suddenly going to be raiding elementary schools and so county officials need to enact these policies to protect people from this activity is just silly. It doesn’t happen that way and it never will. This is a solution in search of a problem. ” While Howard County looks to move forward with a sanctuary city policy, other counties are reversing course thanks to Trump’s hardline position that sanctuary cities will have no place in his America. Suffolk County, New York, has officially announced that it will no longer designate itself as a sanctuary city. The move comes just ahead of Trump’s inauguration, as Breitbart Texas reported. Sheriff Vincent DeMarco said his county will no longer demand a judge’s order before detaining an illegal immigrant wanted by federal immigration officials — a major shift away from its previous sanctuary city policy. Trump is expected to take down sanctuary city jurisdictions, with incoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions likely to set legal battles with locales that refuse to comply with federal immigration law. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 1 |
… Is because he has a very powerful bullshit detector. We know this thanks to a fascinating and unwittingly revelatory article in the German newspaper Der Spiegel.[ The paper reveals how, in the days running up to President Trump’s decision to quit the UN Paris accord, he received a series of deputations from EU leaders urging him to change his mind. “For me it’s easier to stay in than step out,” Trump told them. This is perfectly true. Since his momentous Rose Garden speech announcing his plans to pull out of Paris, Trump has taken more flak than a raid over Berlin in ’44. He has upset his daughter Ivanka, his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his financial advisor Gary Cohn. On top of that, he has given the entire liberal half of the planet, plus sundry conservative squishes, the perfect excuse they needed to dismiss him as a loon in thrall to Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Evil, etc … If Trump pulls the US out of the #ParisAgreement he will be committing a traitorous act of war against the American people. My statement: pic. twitter. — Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) May 29, 2017, USA to Earth: FUCK YOU, — Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 1, 2017, Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017, So what was it that tipped Trump over the edge? Well sure, as he made clear in his brilliant White House speech, it was about American jobs. But while I’ve no doubt that that fact provided the rational basis for his bold, principled decision, I think we can look elsewhere for the tipping point. And here it is, in black and white, in Der Spiegel‘s account of how the G7 leaders tried to badger Trump at the summit in Taormina, Sicily. Leaders of the world’s seven most powerful economies were gathered around the table and the issues under discussion were the global economy and sustainable development. The newly elected French president, Emmanuel Macron, went first. It makes sense that the Frenchman would defend the international treaty that bears the name of France’s capital: The Paris Agreement. “Climate change is real and it affects the poorest countries,” Macron said. Then, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded the U. S. president how successful the fight against the ozone hole had been and how it had been possible to convince industry leaders to reduce emissions of the harmful gas. Finally, it was Merkel’s turn. Renewable energies, said the chancellor, present significant economic opportunities. “If the world’s largest economic power were to pull out, the field would be left to the Chinese,” she warned. Xi Jinping is clever, she added, and would take advantage of the vacuum it created. Even the Saudis were preparing for the era, she continued, and saving energy is also a worthwhile goal for the economy for many other reasons, not just because of climate change. At which point, Trump’s bullshit detector must have been bleeping off the scale. Let’s examine those arguments, one by one. First, Mummy’s Boy Macron’s line that “Climate change is real and it affects the poorest countries. ” The first half is trivially true: climate has indeed been changing for the 4. 5 billion years of the planet’s existence. But the notion that recent climate change is catastrophic, unprecedented and significantly is a shaky theory, not a proven fact. And in any case it is beside the point. Even supposing that climate change is all those things, it doesn’t alter the fact that Paris is a pointless waste of money, especially for countries like the U. S. which are expected to bear the burden of the cost. As Bjorn Lomborg has calculated, using the alarmists’ own models and data, if every signatory nation sticks to Paris then the effect will be to reduce global warming by 0. 17 degrees C by 2100. At a cost in excess of $100 trillion. As for the “affects the poorest countries” part — even if this is true, there are better ways of helping poor countries than bombing the U. S. economy to the dark ages. Like, promoting a flourishing economy which yields more to spend on foreign aid. Next, Canadian Prime Minister Bieber on the Ozone Layer. As Matt Ridley shows in some detail here, the vanishing ‘ozone layer’ is more or less an urban myth trotted out by environmentalists mainly to justify their insatiable advocacy of . For reasons I will explain, this news deserves to be taken with a large pinch of salt. You do not have to dig far to find evidence that the ozone hole was never nearly as dangerous as some people said, that it is not necessarily healing yet and that it might not have been caused mainly by CFCs anyway. The timing of the announcement was plainly political: it came on the 25th anniversary of the treaty, and just before a big United Nations climate conference in New York, the aim of which is to push for a climate treaty modelled on the ozone one. See how these memes get repeated, over and over again, as memes are? That piece was from 2014. You can lay money that it won’t be the last time some environmentalist or politician brings it up to “prove” that concerted intergovernmental legislation works because it “healed the ozone layer. ” Finally, the Mutti of all Globalists herself, Mrs Merkel. “Renewable energies, said the chancellor, present significant economic opportunities. ” Yes, I suppose they do, if like Elon Musk you’ve got your snout buried deep in the subsidies trough, or like Warren Buffett you like to profit off the tax credits or like wind and solar developers everywhere you just don’t care about the bats and birds sliced and diced, the countryside spoiled and the people who have their sleep disturbed and their property values trashed. But strip away the subsidies and the green lies and renewables make no economic or environmental sense at all. As for the green Chinese. The green Chinese are laughing at us. As, by the way, are the Indians. And here’s why … Now do you see what I mean? President Trump pulled out of Paris for a lot of sensible reasons. But the one that tipped him over the edge was quite simply this: when you’ve got your fellow leaders of the free world insulting you with arguments you know to be bullshit and treating you like you’re some kind of an idiot, well suddenly it all becomes crystal clear what you’ve gotta do … You call those charlatans’ bluff and remember why it was that people voted you to be President of the U. S. A: because they wanted someone real doing the job, for a change, and not yet another of those charlatans … | 1 |
By Smoking Mirrors on November 6, 2016 Smoking Mirrors — Nov 6, 2016 Dog Poet Transmitting……. It’s Saturday, late afternoon and Tuesday is two days away, if you don’t count the rest of today or Tuesday because it would then be Tuesday and not away anymore. Then again, it will take all day Tuesday for whatever the nonsense is to complete itself and possibly into the next day as well. One thing that this election has done and which hasn’t come to the attention of many people is that it has woken the public up. The public has been able to see first hand the level of media bias and the cynically suckupping celebrities. It has been able to see the intensity of the lies in all those political commercials; like the one that said Trump was walking in on naked beauty contestants, some of whom were only 15 years old. That one amused me. I have never seen the degree of vituperation that has been taking place. I have never seen the media so clearly expose itself for what it is. It did it in such a way and to such a degree that even the wet brain American public was able to see it. Mr Apocalypse is like an expensive watch; a multiplicity of gears turning and each gear is a kind of plot construct and it seems impossible to tell which of them are turning all of the others. You might term it a wheels within wheels kind of thing, or a number of those acts of misdirection from a great magician. All the while a variety of events seem to be taking place but what is happening is that something else, entirely different, is being woven out of them. All the while, as the psychopaths and opportunists are having their way, their every machinations is being recorded for posterity and their every act is being choreographed to a specific end. Destiny is one of those words, one of those concepts, like Karma that has a temporal meaning over a broad surface spectrum, because of the varieties of interpretations given by this one or that one …but these words have much deeper interpretations that exist, according to the depth of the one giving the interpretations. Destiny has an individual application and then various broader applications. Families have destinies, towns and cities have destinies, nations have destinies and even planets have destinies, as do solar systems and galaxies. The gods have a destiny. The gods have Karma and all of the aforementioned do as well. This accounts for some of those who walked out on their families and the towns and cities they were birthed in and grew up in. They were in search of something they carried with them as they went looking. It doesn’t matter where you are. No matter where you are, there you are and the most priceless and valuable thing that it is possible to acquire, you are transporting from place to place as you look for it under the guise of everything else. The first consideration any human being ought to make in this life is to ponder what it is that is distracting them from self inquiry. What is it that makes it so difficult to scrutinize the imponderables of existence. How is it that one can see the Sun and Moon in the sky and the glittering and countless stars and not know that there is some grand and majestic power at work. How can one pass by the Buddhas and Hindu gods in the antique shop window and no wonder about the tales that attend them? How can one not make the connection between the face of a new born baby and an old man sitting in his chair on a porch? How can one attend birthday parties and all those other celebrations and then attend a funeral and not make the connection that since they were present at all of the other events, how could they not expect that a funeral would be held for them? There is a story about the Pandava Brothers where Dharma appears as a stork to one of the brothers and asks him what the greatest mystery is. The brother doesn’t know and the stork says, “That you see men dying all around you and do not think that you yourself will die.” Was that in the Mahabharata? I’m not remembering it that well but it’s been decades since I read the major books from the Hindu tradition; except for The Bhagavad Gita that always seems to be around here somewhere (grin). I cannot shake the feeling that some shocking surprises are looming in the Event Horizon. I also cannot get around the feeling of this unshakable optimism that suffuses the atmosphere all around me. There are threats of earthquakes and tsunamis. There are wars and rumors of wars. There is the specter of economic collapse. The worst of it is the collective immersion of the human psyche in material culture. Without this freakish zombie obsession the self styled elite would have no power over the rest of us but it is like pouring swill into a hog trough with the certainty that the hogs will come a running. It is a form of pornography even worse than the usual fare. It’s the single most difficult hurdle of them all. Human ignorance and indifference are what makes all of the visible evil possible and hardly anyone even sees it. It’s business as usual. It is the daily redundancy of the dream walkers, lumbering up and down the aisles of somewhere in search of something. It is the unexamined lives from cradle to grave with nothing understood and nothing to remember; precious lives wasted and in vain. Few realize the value and privilege of a human birth. Fewer still realize the potential of it. Powerful invisible forces wait at the ready for any and every person who begins to show an interest in the hidden side of existence. They watch to see who awakens to the joy of service. They pray for the opportunity to assist in every righteous endeavor. These days more time is spent publicizing a person’s acts of alleged charity than the act was worth. Wealth is relative and so is the value of one’s contributions. We’ve become a cartoon in so many ways. Bruce Springsteen canceled his North Carolina leg of his tour because North Carolina wouldn’t back down from George Soros’s efforts to create gender neutral bathrooms . Should Hillary succeed in stealing the election, you may be sure that she will continue all of the perversion themes of Bwak! Obama because the same people that own him, own her. I can’t imagine that who becomes president is going to make a great deal of difference because America has a specific Destiny and a specific Karma and we are watching it unwind. In the meantime, regardless of the threats of earthquakes and tsunamis, wars and rumors of wars, economic collapses, political psychopathy and whatever else is out there, a spiritual renaissance is being generated for those so inclined. Anything is possible so I won’t conjecture what might or might not happen. Flying saucers could come out of the skies. The people who live in the Earth might migrate to the surface. The aliens among us might suddenly expose themselves in their real skin. Holographic Jesus could materialize all over the world at the same time. The mist around Shambala could dissolve and reveal itself and then the Destiny of that scenario could play out. Portals could open all over the planet and those who are able to see them could walk through them into another world or dimension. There is no telling what may or may not occur but it goes without saying that it can’t continue to go on the way it has been going and that we are pretty much assured of sweeping and dramatic changes greater than most of us can imagine. The solution is… whatever you come up with based on what you are after or… my version, complete surrender to and reliance on the ineffable who is in absolute control of all of it in the first and… last place and all spaces and places in between. If one is capable of uniting their consciousness with the cosmic consciousness then one enters into the cosmic consciousness and becomes a visible representative of the invisible. There’s a learning curve of course but once muscle memory and all the rest of those memories come on line one is in a positions to sail like a swan upon the river of time. Hassan I Sabbah once said, “Nothing is real, everything is permitted.” Certainly according to appearances (grin). He happens to be right and the only difference between any of us is determined by one’s intention and that decides the good and the bad of it… relatively speaking. It is my hope that all of you not only pass through the flotsam and jetsam that is coming in on the tide but that you absolutely flourish. See you somewhere around Tuesday. End Transmission……. Visible reads from the 6th chapter of“The Way to The Kingdom” | 0 |
TOKYO — The Japanese have acknowledged that their emperor is not a god and he has been stripped of all political power, but the nation still views its monarch as so central to the sense of identity that he is not permitted to resign. Now, Emperor Akihito is suggesting that his people let him retire. He is 82 years old. He has had cancer. He has had surgery. So, in a uniquely Japanese moment on Monday, he went on television to hint at his desire for Parliament to change the law so he can give the job to his son. But it is freighted. The emperor represents a postwar Japan that is committed to pacifism. The current government wants to loosen the reins on the military, and the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is politically powerful. If Emperor Akihito steps down, will Japan lose a check on the government’s drive to rewrite the past, to discard its lessons and taboos? Will his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, also a pacifist, have the standing of his father? Japan is a constitutional monarchy. It is a liberal democracy. It is, in many ways, a deeply conservative country that clings to tradition. Its monarchy — the Chrysanthemum Throne — is the oldest in the world, stretching back to antiquity. Emperor Akihito’s family has held it almost 2, 700 years, according to the customary, if genealogy. If he resigns, it would be the biggest transformation of the monarchy since World War II. Change does not come easily in Japan, and now the government faces a conundrum: It will be criticized if it allows the transition, or blocks it. Crown Prince Naruhito, 56, shares his father’s quiet demeanor and, by all accounts, his commitment to keeping the monarchy apolitical. The prince has repeatedly commended the pacifist Constitution, written by the American occupiers in 1947. It is a delicate moment. If the government amends the law governing imperial succession in Parliament, concern may grow about its influence over the imperial household, analysts said. “People both on the right and left would be cautious about making sure this process doesn’t weaken the institution and therefore open up the succession to political influence,” said Sheila A. Smith, a Japan expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. But dragging its feet on the emperor’s wishes would anger many Japanese. “This is an aging country, and there are going to be a lot of people sympathetic to the emperor’s wanting a comfortable retirement,” said Tobias Harris of Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consulting firm. Opinion surveys conducted by the Japanese news media suggest that the public overwhelmingly supports Emperor Akihito’s wishes to step down. As many as 85 percent of respondents say they favor amending the Imperial Household Law to allow it. “We speak respectfully about the emperor, but arguably we use him like a slave,” said Daisuke Kodaka, 34, an employee at a cosmetics company in Tokyo. “He’s our symbol, but as a person he doesn’t have human rights. We should recognize his rights. ” Amending the law could also revive a contentious issue: the debate over allowing a woman to be the monarch. Only men can inherit the throne, a provision that is increasingly in dispute. A decade ago, during a debate about whether the law should be changed to open the way for female monarchs, conservatives in Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party were firmly opposed. Prince Naruhito has a daughter, and his younger brother has two daughters and a son, Prince Hisahito, the only male in the youngest royal generation. Prince Hisahito’s birth, in 2006, quieted the debate about female monarchs, at least for the time being. But with so few males in the family, experts say the succession is far from secure for the future. Mr. Abe’s government has embraced the idea of female empowerment in other areas, notably the workplace, but few think it is ready to extend the concept to the monarchy. “This opens other cans of worms,” said Kenneth Ruoff, the director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University and the author of “The People’s Emperor,” a history of the postwar Japanese monarchy. Though his words were characteristically vague — he discussed his age, his rigorous daily schedule and what he called his increasing physical limitations — the message was unmistakable. “When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being as I have done until now,” Emperor Akihito said in a prerecorded address that lasted about 10 minutes and was broadcast on Japanese television networks. Mr. Abe, in a short response, suggested that his government was open to changing the law, though he stopped short of making a specific commitment to do so. “Considering His Majesty’s age, the burden of his official duties and his anxieties, we must think carefully about what can be done,” Mr. Abe said. Japanese emperors define eras in the country. Its unique calendar is based on their reigns: 2016 is expressed as Emperor Akihito’s 28th year on the throne, and when his successor takes over, the date will reset to Year One. Emperor Akihito’s father, Hirohito, died in 1989 — Year 64 of his reign — as both the Cold War and Japan’s economic boom years were drawing to a close, intensifying the sense of a historical shift. After World War II, Hirohito stunned his subjects by declaring that he was not a god, overturning decades of government propaganda and centuries of loosely held tradition. The new Constitution relegated the monarchy to a purely ceremonial role. “Historically, it was extremely common for emperors to abdicate,” said Takeshi Hara, an authority on the imperial family at the Open University of Japan. More than half of Japan’s monarchs have vacated the throne, often for quiet retirement at Buddhist monasteries. Only in the 19th century, when Japan’s leaders created the cult of emperor worship, did stepping down become impossible. Emperor Akihito maintains an often punishing schedule, despite treatment for prostate cancer in 2003 and heart surgery in 2012. He and his wife, Empress Michiko — the first commoner to marry into the imperial family — have become consolers in chief for victims of natural disasters, like the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of northern Japan in 2011. In his address, Emperor Akihito referred several times to the postwar Constitution and the symbolic nature of the modern monarchy. He said he wanted to secure that monarchy for the future “in the midst of a rapidly aging society” and “in a nation and in a world which are constantly changing. ” Though he did not use the word “abdication,” he made specific arguments for allowing it. Under existing law, the crown prince could serve as regent if his father became too ill, standing in for the emperor in all but name. But Emperor Akihito indicated he did not wish to be a monarch who “continues to be the emperor till the end of his life, even though he is unable to fully carry out his duties. ” He alluded to the last imperial transition nearly three decades ago. His father had intestinal cancer during the final years of his life, and his slow, painful decline was a focus of intense attention from the public and the news media. Emperor Akihito said he wanted to avoid a situation in which “society comes to a standstill” before his death, and the elaborate funeral rites distract from the enthronement of his heir. Prince Naruhito “represents continuity” with Emperor Akihito in terms of personality and priorities, Professor Ruoff said. As his father did, he has taken up social causes, notably access to clean water in poor countries. Professor Ruoff said Emperor Akihito’s biggest achievement had been to focus attention on social welfare causes. When Japan hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964, Emperor Akihito became the patron of the Paralympics. At the time, people with disabilities were often shunned and stigmatized in Japan. “Akihito and Michiko have spent a tremendous amount of time leveraging their prestige on behalf of the least privileged members of Japanese society,” Professor Ruoff said. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are the conscience of the nation, but they do draw attention to these issues. ” | 1 |
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 11% of American children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as of 2011. However, if you ask the American Psychiatric Association (APA), they maintain that even though only 5% of American children suffer from the disorder, the diagnosis is actually given to around 15% of American children. This number has been steadily rising , jumping from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007. Big Pharma has played a significant role in manufacturing the ADHD epidemic in the U.S., convincing parents and doctors that ADHD is a common problem amongst children and one that should be medicated. However, many countries disagree with the American stance on ADHD, so much so that they have entirely different structures for defining, diagnosing, and treating it. For example, the percentage of children in France that have been diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than 0.5% . This is largely because French doctors don’t consider ADHD a biological disorder with biological causes, but rather a medical condition caused by psycho-social and situational factors. Why France Defines ADHD Differently French child psychiatrists use a different system than American psychiatrists to classify emotional problems in childhood. Instead of using the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) , the French use an alternative classification system produced by the French Federation of Psychiatry called Classification Française des Troubles Mentaux de L’Enfant et de L’Adolescent (CFTMEA). Not only does this significantly differ from the APA’s system, but it was actually created with the intention to “ offer French child psychiatrists an alternative to DSM-III ” because it didn’t compliment French psychiatric practices. The CFTMEA encourages psychiatrists to identify the underlying issues that cause a child’s symptoms and to address them using a psychopathological approach. France defines ADHD as a sociological disorder that’s caused by a set of social situations, whereas the U.S. sees ADHD as a neurological disorder whose symptoms are the result of biological disfunction or a chemical imbalance in the brain. France’s definition of ADHD drastically differs from that of the U.S., which is in part because the pharmaceutical industry helped define ADHD in the U.S. (you can read more about that here ). France’s treatment methods, therefore, also greatly differ from those practiced in the U.S. Treatment Methods for ADHD Used in France Once a French psychiatrist diagnoses their patient with ADHD, they hone in on the behavioural problems by searching for the underlying causes. Psychiatrists will study the child’s distress and compare it to their social situations. France views ADHD as a social context problem; therefore, ADHD is often treated with psychotherapy or even family counselling. Very rarely do French psychiatrists prescribe medications to treat ADHD, as it’s usually rendered unnecessary after taking a more holistic approach. It’s important to note that French psychiatrists also consider a patient’s diet when searching for the causes of behavioural symptoms associated with ADHD. Poor eating habits such as consuming foods with artificial colours or flavourings, preservatives, sugars, and/or allergens may worsen a child’s behaviour. This isn’t difficult to imagine; even as adults we can feel the effects certain foods have on our mood, energy levels, and thought processes. Why There Are Fewer ADHD Cases in France Than the U.S. A study conducted in 2011 stated that the amount of youth in France with ADHD may be as low as 3.5% — a far cry from the 11 to 15% estimate in the United States. Family therapist and author of A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic Dr. Marilyn Wedge suggests that this may be as a result of the cultural differences between the U.S. and France in regards to raising children. According to Wedge, French parents will often impose more structured lifestyles onto their children, such as enforcing strict meal times and using the “cry it out” method with babies and toddlers. Children are taught self-discipline at a young age, which is why Wedge feels they don’t need to be medicated for behavioural issues. Unfortunately, spanking is not considered child abuse in France, so this practice is used fairly often to encourage discipline. In March 2015, the Council of Europe, an international human rights organization, faulted France over the country’s lack of legislation regarding corporal punishment of children. As The New York Times explained , “Child abuse is illegal in France and is punished with long prison sentences, but it is not uncommon for French parents to slap or spank children, or for the French courts to view such actions as acceptable under a customary ‘right to discipline.’“ As Dr. Wedge points out (although neither she nor Collective Evolution support spanking or any other form of child abuse), this simply adds to the discipline they’re encouraged to practice throughout their childhood ( source ).While Wedge makes some interesting points regarding discipline, I don’t think that’s the underlying reason why most French children don’t need to be medicated for ADHD. Rather, because ADHD is largely a behavioural issue, it rarely requires pharmacological intervention. I believe that these treatment methods are successful in France not because of their parenting culture, but rather as a result of their holistic approach in considering diet and behavioural and social context. I believe France does not have an issue with over-diagnosing ADHD in the same way the U.S. does because pharmaceutical companies have not targeted them as heavily. Pharmaceutical companies play a substantial role in defining ADHD and deciding treatment methods in the U.S. For example, doctors and researchers in the U.S. have been paid to overstate the dangers of ADHD and the benefits of taking their drugs and understate the negative side effects. It’s easy for people to believe this misguided information when it’s affiliated with well-known universities like Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Many people don’t even realize that these studies are funded by the very companies that profit from the drugs’ sale because that relationship is hidden in small print ( source ). These drugs can have significant side effects and are actually considered to be within the same class as morphine and oxycodone due to their high risk of abuse and addiction. You can’t just blame all doctors, either; many of them genuinely believe they’re helping these children because of the information they’ve been given in these studies and by Big Pharma. Another reason the U.S. has substantially higher rates of ADHD amongst children than France is because of the ADHD drug advertisements that run in the U.S. Big Pharma creates ads for ADHD drugs sold in the U.S. that are specifically targeted at parents, describing how these drugs can improve test scores and behaviour at home, among other false claims. Evolve Your Inbox & Stay Conscious Daily Inspiration and all our best content, straight to your inbox. One of the most controversial ones was a 2009 ad for Intuniv, Shire’s A.D.H.D. treatment, which included a child in a monster costume taking off his terrifying mask to reveal his calm, smiling self with a text reading, “There’s a great kid in there.” The FDA has stepped in multiple times, sending pharmaceutical companies warning letters or even forcing them to take down their ads because they are false, misleading, and/or exaggerate the effects of their drugs ( source ). This type of propaganda doesn’t take place in France, at least not on the same scale as the in U.S., largely because it doesn’t coincide with their ADHD diagnosis framework. You can read more about this topic in another article I wrote here . How to Use This Information to More Effectively Treat ADHD France’s CFTMEA, definition for ADHD, and holistic approach to treating this disorder provide an excellent example of how we should be addressing ADHD patients, especially children. Instead of getting to the root of these children’s “attention deficits” like French psychiatrists do, American health practitioners typically assume ADHD is a medical condition that can only be fixed with medication. This is not only unethical, but also clearly damaging to a child’s self esteem. Many of these kids could simply be uninterested in the subject matter, suffering from some sort of emotional trauma, or even have heightened creativity and energy! You can’t just blame all doctors in the U.S., either; many of them genuinely believe they’re helping these children because of the information they’ve been given in these studies and by Big Pharma. However, many scientists in the U.S. have suggested alternatives to medicine to treat ADHD and many of them don’t even recognize ADHD as a disorder (read our article on why ADHD may not be real here ). Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report Daniel J. Carlat, M.D , criticized the DSM, stating , “In psychiatry, many diseases are treated equally well with medication or therapy, but the guidelines tend to be biased toward medication.” Holistic Mental Health Practitioner Dr. Tyler Woods further explains:
The DSM tends to pathologize normal behaviors. For instance, the label “Anxiety Disorder” can be given as a result of some kinds of normal and rather healthy anxieties but the DSM will have experts view it and treat it as mental illness. In addition simple shyness can be seen and treated as “Social Phobia”, while spirited and strong willed children as “Oppositional Disorder”. Consequently, many psychotherapists, regardless of their theoretical orientations, tend to follow the DSM as instructed. ( source ) Neurologist Richard Saul spent his career examining patients who struggle with short attention spans and difficulty focusing. His extensive experience has led him to believe that ADHD isn’t actually a disorder, but rather an umbrella of symptoms that shouldn’t be considered a disease. Thus, Saul believes it shouldn’t be listed as a separate disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual. You can read more about his opinion in our article here . Leading integrative pediatrician and author of ADHD without Drugs: A Guide to the Natural Care of Children with ADHD Dr. Sanford Newmark, M.D. has spent more than 15 years studying and successfully treating ADHD naturally. Some of his recommendations include improved nutrition, increased sleep, iron, zinc, and Omega-3 supplementation, family counselling, making positive social and behavioural changes, and pursing alternative modalities such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Homeopathy. Dr. Newmark considers conventional medication a “last resort,” given the fact that ADHD drugs only work about 70% of the time and have potential negative side effects ( source ). It is clear that many doctors are starting to recognize the importance of treating ADHD outside conventional methods. Misdiagnosis and over-diagnosis of ADHD is a serious issue in the U.S., one that is heavily fuelled by the pharmaceutical industry. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with ADHD, I strongly suggest you research this subject more and explore alternatives to medication with the help of a healthcare practitioner! “The very vocabulary of psychiatry is now defined at all levels by the pharmaceutical industry.” – Dr. Irwin Savodnik, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California in Los Angeles ( source ) Related CE Articles: | 0 |
Welcome to Our Picks, a guide to the best stuff to read, watch and listen to from around the internet. Check this space for the article, the next great podcast for your commute, the tweetstorm. And yes, we’re also tooting our own horn here. We’ll share can’ Times stories from the week and surface some gems you might have overlooked. We want to hear from you! Send us feedback about our selections to ourpicks@nytimes. com. • If you have 10 minutes, read this story about a Wikipedia editor who turned abuse from online trolls into something a lot more productive. [Backchannel] _______ • In Denver in the 1920s, a secret society of black intellectuals managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and thwart many of its plans. A short, local history that will make you feel good about the impact ordinary people can have on their communities. [Denverite] _______ • Some travel guides are more useful than others. We’re not sure you’ll need this comprehensive guide to imbibing at Disney World every time you visit the theme park, but it surely can’t hurt to brush up on some of the hot spots. [Roads Kingdoms] _______ • These were four Super Bowl heroes this year: Tom Brady and Lady Gaga, Adam and J. B. If you haven’t heard of the latter pair, that’s O. K. They’re just now telling the story of how they sneaked into the biggest sporting event of the year. [Vocativ] _______ • “It was light killed the beasts, they say. ” It’s haunting lines like these that make one reporter’s journey to the darkest town in America — Gerlach, Nev. — a . [Five Thirty Eight] _______ • Sometimes you need a little distance to fully appreciate the impact of a cultural figure. That is perhaps why, 10 years after Anna Nicole Smith’s death, this substantial and insightful chronicle of the icon’s rise and fall is so satisfying to read. [BuzzFeed] _______ • Now that football season is over, it’s time we shifted our focus to baseball. If you’re a fan of the sport, you’ll want to acquaint yourself with Shohei Otani of Japan. He’s the country’s best hitter, best pitcher and, according to those who make these types of comparisons, the world’s next Babe Ruth. [SportsNet] _______ • You’ve probably heard of the “lone wolf” terrorist. Someone who, with no direct ties to a terrorist group, and carries out violent acts alone. But as this piece by Rukmini Callimachi shows, some of the plots we thought were the work of lone wolves were in fact “remote control attacks” by the Islamic State. The terrorist group used messaging apps to provide virtual coaching and guidance in attacks across the globe. _______ • A crack in an Antarctic ice shelf grew 17 miles in the last two months. Scientists are concerned that it is getting close to a full break. Here’s a visual explainer. _______ • This week, the White House issued a list of 78 terrorist attacks, saying most were underreported. Here is that list, along with our references to news coverage of the attacks. _______ • If you’re itching to listen to something today, may we humbly recommend our new podcast, “The Daily,” covering the day’s most important news in a quick 15 minutes. _______ • We asked readers to tell us if they or someone they knew was affected by President Trump’s executive order on immigration. Our social media editor Sona Patel noticed a number of stories about relationships and marriages thrown into turmoil. Here are a few of them. (If you have a story about the immigration order, you can email us at immigration@nytimes. com.) _______ • In today’s Hollywood, the best way for actresses who have reached the “unfortunate” age of 40 to land interesting roles, or to ensure that complicated stories about adult women get to the screen, is to take creative and business control. So that’s what Nicole Kidman did. _______ • Now for something controversial: Our new baking columnist, the British chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi, makes his debut with a piece called “Eat Your Sugar. ” “I rarely go a day without a slice or bite or square of something sweet. ” (Don’t tell our Opinion columnist David Leonhardt.) _______ • “Ever wanted to feel nervous for 16 minutes straight? If so, watch this. ” Readers had lots of feelings about “Ten Meter Tower,” a short film from . _______ • The New York Times Magazine was awarded three National Magazine Awards this week: Jennifer Percy for feature writing (“‘I Have No Choice but to Keep Looking’”) Nikole for public interest (“Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”) and Sam Anderson for (“David’s Ankles: How Imperfections Could Bring Down the World’s Most Perfect Statue”). Enjoy them for the first time (or revisit them) when you have some time to tune out the rest of the internet. _______ • If you can’t catch Jake Gyllenhaal in his coming performance of “Sunday in the Park With George,” you can at least enjoy his vocal talents online. Filmed in a single take, this video of Gyllenhaal singing Sondheim during rehearsals for the play is a great excuse to take a break from your day. [Facebook, via Vulture] _______ • On Feb. 15, 2014, the fitness legend and motivational figure Richard Simmons disappeared. On Feb. 15, 2017, a podcast looking to find out what happened to this character will launch. Listen to this preview and gear up for the next cult audio obsession. [Missing Richard Simmons] _______ • The best magazine cover of the year is one you’ve probably seen. The readers’ choice selection is one you probably haven’t. [ASME] _______ • Admit it: You don’t read terms and conditions agreements before you sign them. One cartoonist is looking to change that bad habit with this delightful graphic novel that illustrates the iTunes legal jargon we all skip. [iTunestandc Tumblr, via A. V. Club] _______ • If you have an you’d like to needle next week for Valentine’s Day, may we recommend sending one of these Victorian “Vinegar Valentine” cards? With titles like “You Waste Labor on Your Waist” and “A Fright,” there’s no chance your message will be misunderstood. [Abe Books, via Paris Review | 1 |
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Introduction
Castigating the US electorate as accomplices and facilitators of wars, or at best describing it as ignorant sheep herded by political elites, speaks only to a partial reality; in public opinion polls, even in ones weighted overwhelmingly to the center-right, the American people consistently opposse militarism and wars, past and present.
The right and Left, each in their own way, fail to grasp the contradiction that define US political life, namely, the profound gap between the American public and the Washington elite on questions of war and peace, and the electoral process which results in the perpetuation of militarism. We will proceed to analyze the most recent polling of US public opinion and then turn to the electoral outcomes. In the second part we will discuss the contradictions and raise several ways in which the contradiction can be resolved.
Method
The survey of public opinion was sponsored by the Charles Koch Institute and the Center for the National Interest and was conducted by the Survey Sampling International which interviewed a sample of one thousand respondents.
The Results: War or Peace
Over half (50%) of the American public oppose an increase in the role of the US military overseas; only as quarter (25%) back an expansion.
The public expresses disillusionment with the foreign policy of the Obama regime, especially of new military commitments in the Middle East, which Israel and its Zionist lobby would be the first likely to support.
The US public has a historical memory of past military debacles by Presidents Bush and Obama. Over half of the public (51%) state that the US is less safe over the past 15 years (2001-2015), while one eighth (13%) claim we are safer.
In the present period 51% of the American public opposes the deployment of ground troops in Syria and Yemen while only 10% believe the US should support Saudi Arabia.
With regard to specific US wars, over 50% believe that the Iraq war made the US less secure while only 25% believe it didn’t increase or decrease US security. Similar responses were expressed with regard to Afghanistan, 42% believe it increased insecurity and about a third (34%) stated it neither increased or decreased US security.
In terms of future perspectives, over three quarters (75%) of the American public believe that the next President should rely less on the military abroad or are uncertain. Only 37% favor increasing military spending.
The mass media and the backers of the Democratic Presidential candidate demonize Russia and China. In contrast almost two thirds (63.4%) of the US public believe the greatest threat at this time comes from overseas or domestic terrorists, while less than a fifth (18%) believe that it comes from Russia and China.
In terms of pursuing a peaceful or military policy, 56% want to reduce or freeze current spending while only 37% want to increase military spending.
Wars and Peace: The Political Elites
Contrary to the views of a majority of the public,the last five US Presidents have increased the military budget for over two decades, sent US troops to overseas’ wars in three Middle Eastern , three North African and two europian countries. Despite public opinion majorities, believe that the Afghan and Iraqi wars heighten threats to the US, Obama has retained ground troops, drones and fighter planes in military combat. Despite only 10% approval, the Obama regime has sent arms, advisors and Special Forces in support of the Saudi dictatorship’s invasion of Yemen.
Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Clinton has encircled Russia, and demonized President Putin as the greatest threat to the US at this time, contrary to US opinion which considers the Islamic terrorists a five times more serious threat.
While the political elite and especially the leading Presidential candidates promise to increase US troops abroad and military spending, over three quarters of the American public object or are unsure.
While candidate Clinton campaigns for the deployment of the US air force to establish a ‘no fly zone’ in Syria, the majority public opposes by 51%.
In terms of constitutional law, fully four-fifths (80%) of the US public believes the President needs Congressional approval for military action abroad. Presidents of both parties, Bush and Obama acted without Congressional approval, a precedent which both current presidential candidates are likely to continue.
Analysis and Perspectives
On all major issues of foreign policy pertaining to war and peace, the political elite is far more bellicose than the US public; far more likely to ignore wars that threaten national security; more likely to violate the Constitution;and are committed to increasing military spending even as it reduces social programs.
The political elites are more likely to intervene or become “entangled” in Middle East wars, against the opinion of majoritarian popular opinion. No doubt the decidedly oligarchical military-industrial complexes, Israeli power configuration and mass media publicists, are far more influential than the pro-democracy public.
The future portends the political elites’ continuation of military policies, increasing security threats and diminishing public representation.
Some Hypothesis on the Contradiction between Popular Opinion and Electoral Outcomes
There is clearly a substantial gap between the majority of Americans and the political elite regarding the military’s role overseas, wars, constitutional prerogives, the demonization of Russia, the deployment of US troops to Syria and the US entanglement in Middle East wars, which it is understood to be Israel.
Yet it is also a fact that the US electorate votes for the two major political parties that supports wars, back Middle East alliances with warring states, Saudi Arabia and Israel,and sanction Russia as the main threat to US security. ORDER IT NOW
Several hypotheses regarding this contradiction should be considered.
1. Close to 50% of the electorate abstain from voting in Presidential and Congressional elections, which most likely includes those Americans that oppose the US military role overseas. In other words the war parties ‘win’ elections with 25% or less of the electorate.
2. The fact that the mass media vehemently supports one or the other of the two war parties probably influences a minority of the electorate which votes in the elections. However, critics of the mass media have exaggerated their influence because they fail to explain why the majority of the American public respondents are in contrary to the mass media and oppose their militarist propaganda.
3. Many of the anti-militarism Americans who decide to vote for war parties may be choosing the lesser evil. They may decide there are possible degrees of war mongering.
4. Americans who oppose militarism may decide to vote for militarist politicians for reasons other than overseas wars. For example, majoritarian Americans may vote for a militarist politician who secures financing for local infrastructure programs, or dairy subsidies or promises of employment, or lowering the public debt or opposing corrupt incumbents.
5. Americans opposed to militarism may be deceived by demagogic war party presidential candidates who promise peace and who, once in power, escalate wars.
6. Likewise, ‘identity politics’ can divert anti-militarist voters into supporting war party candidates who claim office because of their race, ethnicity, gender, loyalties to overseas states and sexual preference.
7. The war parties block anti-militarist parties from access to the mass media, especially during electoral debates viewed by tens of millions. War parties establish onerous restrictions for registering anti-militarist parties, voters with non-violent prison records or lacking photo identification or transport to voting sites or time-off from work. In other words the electoral process is rigged and imposes ‘forced voting’ and abstention: limited choices obligate abstention or voting for war parties.
Only if elections were open and democratic, where anti-militarist parties were allowed equal rights to register and debate in the mass media, and where financial campaigns are equalized will the contradictions between anti-militarist majorities and voters for pro-war elites be resolved. | 0 |
Общество
Даже сильные духом личности порой нуждаются в поддержке, нуждаются в других людях. Каждому из нас в любой момент может срочно потребоваться, скажем, жилетка для слёз или кнут с пряником, или палочка-выручалочка, или мягкий, но чудодейственный «пендель». «Всё, я больше не могу! Да я сейчас коньки отброшу! Да ну её к чёрту, эту жизнь!» – орём мы в разгуле эмоций, устав от суеты, проблем, стрессов и вечной борьбы за жизнь и с жизнью. На самом-то деле прокричать хочется совсем другое: «Помогите же мне хоть кто-нибудь, люди!..»
В Нидерландах, стране цветочных полей и песчаных пляжей – могут легализовать проведение эвтаназии не только неизлечимым больным, но и абсолютно здоровым людям, уставшим от перипетий «дурацкой» жизни. Серьёзные слуги народа, одарённые светила медицины и выдающиеся специалисты по этике решили разработать проект гениального закона уже к концу 2017 года. Действительно, чего тянуть кота за хвост? Надоели уже всем эти нытики! Каждому слабаку — по укольчику, и всем будет хорошо. Проблемы простых смертных решатся мигом.
Задумает, скажем, 20-летний инфантильный юноша распрощаться с жизнью из-за неразделённой, как ему кажется, любви – ему с радостью помогут. Устанет какой-нибудь дядечка-трудоголик пахать на трёх работах – ему укольчик. Поедет у многодетной мамаши крыша от бесконечных капризов маленьких «монстров» – добро пожаловать на процедуру. А в это время остальные сильные, уверенные в себе нидерландцы, будут любоваться тюльпанами, пить вино, запекать рыбу, вкушать канапе, баловаться травкой, заниматься любовью, а по воскресеньям дружно ходить в церковь Святого Иоанна Крестителя – в общем, наслаждаться жизнью! Лишь для тряпок и слюнтяев есть дорога – последний путь называется…
Сейчас государство тщательно определяет строгие критерии для грядущего нововведения. В частности, чиновники размышляют о том, с какого возраста можно позволить гражданам уходить в мир иной. В 25 – рановато как-то, нет?.. А с 40-летним что делать? Отправить на консилиум к людям в белых халатах, на всякий случай?.. А 60-летнего кандидата на эвтаназию даже и обследовать, пожалуй, не стоит! Пожил ведь своё, и думать тут нечего! Абсурдно? Скорее печально!
Законы о самоубийстве в разных странах постоянно совершенствуются, приобретают новые формы. В Бельгии с 2014 года процедуру уже официально проводят пациентам, достигшим 12-летнего возраста. В 2011 году жители швейцарского кантона Цюрих проголосовали за легализацию эвтаназии, пока только для «понаехавших», и положили этим начало развитию нового, «суицидального» туризма. В США в 2014 году власти пытались рассмотреть закон об «усыплении нищих» – бродяг, у которых нет денег на лечение. Идея понравилась и министру здравоохранения Литвы, Риманте Шалашявячюте. Она в том же году, из гуманных, естественно, побуждений выступила за эвтаназию для людей, живущих за чертой бедности. Причём, заботливая дама решила, что и детишки из бедных семей тоже не должны понапрасну долго страдать… Уж если предоставлять право на смерть, то всем, и без разбора. И без сожаления, к сожалению. Простите за невольную тавтологию.
В Нидерландах люди стараются никогда не забывать о днях рождения своих друзей и близких. Забыть о столь значимом событии в жизни родственника или друга (подруги) – это прямо-таки большой грех! По традиции нидерландцы даже к дверям туалета крепят календарь с «напоминалками» о столь важных днях. Парадоксально, что в стране, где народ так высоко ценит каждый прожитый год и с такой заботой относится ко всем знакомым, предлагают ввести новеллу о том, как лучше и удобнее умереть здоровому человеку. Здоровому! Пусть уставшему, сломленному, запутавшемуся, но ведь здоровому!.. Законное право на добровольный уход в иной мир – это абсурд или реалии современности? | 0 |
We were somewhere north of Denver, not far from the pot farm, when my neighbor on the party bus pulled hard on his pipe and said: “Know what it is I love about this country? Everyone gets stoned. ” He was a big, bearded fellow who had come up from his cattle ranch in Kansas, and though he didn’t seem like the usual type for a cannabis foodie tour, I felt that he was right. After all, with us on the bus that afternoon was a Whitmanesque array of stoned Americans. There they were, puffing blunts beneath the blinking purple lights: a gay couple from Rhode Island, some multiethnic techies from Atlanta, a rowdy group of white dudes who’d just flown in from Houston for a bachelor party and a Boston mother with a beach house in the Hamptons. Everyone gets stoned. For purely professional reasons, I was myself at that point something slightly less than wholly sober and shouldn’t have been surprised that our tour that day — from farm to head shop to munchies meal — had attracted such a rich assortment of potheads. Then again, there isn’t much surprising about Colorado’s marijuana tourist boom. Imagine visiting Napa Valley — but with weed instead of wine. The state’s “green rush,” as everybody calls it, is a enterprise of hydroponic grow labs and artisanal dispensaries, but the tourist infrastructure that’s emerged to stoke you up and squire you around to see it all operates on a fairly simple principle: Everything is better when you’re high. As I began my exploration of Colorado’s marijuana tourist trade, it occurred to me that a certain amount of lethargy was, well, baked into the notion from the start. So I went looking for something more extensive than a suds and buds tour, but nothing quite so much as a fully immersive Ganja Yoga Retreat. I found the options dizzying: In the two years since the state first permitted the sale of weed to recreational users, an intricate economy has rapidly sprung up. ski buffs can ride to the slopes in charter S. U. V. s, and arriving potheads can schedule pickups from the airport through dedicated livery services like THC Limo. There are stoner painting classes, stoner mountain treks and stoner chefs who will cook you a marijuana dinner. Visitors can avail themselves of mobile apps like Leafly and Weedmaps to track down nearby vendors or book their through websites like TravelTHC. In the end, I elected a sampler tour of Denver offered at the price of $1, 295, not including airfare, by one of Colorado’s most popular pot tourist firms, My 420 Tours. A cannabis concierge helped me plan my weekend, mellowly insisting on the foodie tour and the private massage with medicinal marijuana oil. After I booked the trip, I spent a few hours browsing through the online Colorado Pot Guide ( courses, vaporizer rentals) and reading up on the relevant regulations. (Smoking in public? No. In a licensed commercial vehicle? Light up.) But then, for a period of weeks, I didn’t hear a word from My 420. Just as I began to wonder if the whole thing was for real, an email arrived with my itinerary. “High Alan,” the little note addressed me — at which point I was totally reassured. I should note from the start that I’m not much of a smoker. While bourbon doesn’t last long on my shelf, I get high, at most, a few times a year. That’s why I appreciated the weekend’s first event: an orientation with a cannabis sommelier. I had by then already checked into my hotel downtown, the Crowne Plaza Denver, where a winking desk clerk handed me a large metal vaporizer, my unit. Alone, upstairs, I took it for a shakedown run. It was only 9 a. m. Having thus obtained the proper frame of mind, I went back down to meet a man named Mike Metoyer, who, as I’d been told, would serve throughout the weekend as my cannabis spirit guide. I found Mr. Metoyer in the lobby, waiting for me in a My 420 with its corporate logo. He introduced himself and handed me a swag bag. This, I saw, contained a smaller vaporizer for use outside my room, a recent copy of Dope Magazine and — because of Denver’s potent homegrown — a bottle of lavender oil designed to bring me down if I suffered a panicky high. Like almost everyone I met in the local pot trade, Mr. Metoyer, who is 22 and grew up in a Pentecostal church, had come to marijuana only recently. A few years ago, he told me as we made our way into a ballroom, he’d been working as a docent at a silver mine in the mountains when J. J. Walker, founder of My 420, went on one of his trips. Mr. Walker was apparently impressed and offered Mr. Metoyer a job. “I didn’t believe at first that ‘pot tour guide’ was, you know, an actual position,” he said. “But as you can see, it obviously is. ” Waiting for us in the ballroom was our sommelier, Michael Pyatt, the director of training at Native Roots — “the Gucci of dispensaries,” Mr. Metoyer whispered as we sat down at a table. Mr. Pyatt is a tall, thin man of 27, formerly employed in sales at Best Buy. His knowledge of the product, accumulated over years of personal research, was exhaustive and, within a few minutes, he had filled our table with little plastic canisters of weed. “You a smoker?” Mr. Pyatt asked. I told him not so much. And so, in an almost oenological language, he started to describe for me the qualities of the Native Roots proprietary brands: Harlequin, for instance (“a mix of three sativas”) and Sour Kush (“musky, sweet, cerebral with a nice tight nug structure”). As Mr. Pyatt peered into his goody bag for another strain to show, I turned to Mr. Metoyer and asked what kinds of people usually sign up for his tours. “I get everyone,” he told me, “men, women, young, old, but 60 percent of my clients are from Texas. ” (“It’s a society,” Mr. Pyatt said.) Then Mr. Metoyer added: “Most of our customers are blown away the first time they start smoking on the party bus. They’re like, ‘Wait a sec, you’re sure this is legal?’ When I tell them it is, then they’re like, ‘Whoa, dude, I’ve been waiting my whole life for this! ’” Last year, tens of thousands of people came to Denver for the High Times Cannabis Cup, a marijuana trade show with competitive events (best edible or best sativa flower) and an equally enormous crowd is expected at this year’s gathering, which takes place in Broomfield, Colo. on April 19. “You walk around the state these days and you actually smell the cannabis right out on the street,” Mr. Pyatt said. “It’s just like, dude, game on. ” By that point, he had found a package of his favorite brand, Jellybean, and told me, with a little thirsty lick of his lips, “This one’s got a great head high — it’s the perfect daytime smoke. ” My 420 doesn’t have a marijuana vendor’s license and can’t give samples to its customers, but a workaround was hastily arranged. Mr. Metoyer asked if I had had a chance to test the small vaporizer in my swag bag. When I told him I hadn’t, Mr. Pyatt plucked a frosty bud of Jellybean and offered his assistance: “I could, um, demonstrate it for you — if you like. ” One perk of a My 420 cannabis vacation was a livery car and driver. When I’d arrived the day before at Denver International Airport, a huge black Chevrolet Suburban had been waiting at the curb. Climbing inside, I discovered leather seats, a lingering smell of skunk weed and, behind the wheel, a man named Tariq Williams. Mr. Williams became my escort for the weekend, driving me to various events, including the next one: a cannabis cooking class. A couple of years ago, Mr. Williams had been driving for the airport service Super Shuttle when he came to the conclusion that recreational pot was about to take Denver’s economy by storm. So he quit his job, bought the Suburban used (for $28, 000) and hasn’t looked back since. “I saw it coming,” he told me that first day, “and I had to get my feet in at an early stage. ” While he isn’t yet making what he once made at the airport, he expects he will be soon. At any rate, everyone he knows works in marijuana these days. His brother, who owns a security company, now has contracts with various dispensaries, and one of his friends does waste removal for a cultivation plant. Other friends work as budtenders, or as hash extractors, or as couriers moving plants from farm to store. I noticed a similar phenomenon at the Stir Cooking School in the Highlands area, a very Martha outfit — exposed brick walls, wooden floors — that had recently embarked on a sideline teaching tourists to cook with marijuana oil. Our class that morning was led by a graduate of the Johnson Wales culinary school, Travis French, who instructed us in the preparation of weed chicken tacos, weed guacamole and jicama slaw. The students were another motley crew — in an upmarket, foodie sort of way: a husband and wife who owned a weed dispensary in California, a lesbian couple from Fort Lauderdale and some married academics on a secret holiday from their small Catholic college in the Midwest. I found myself at a work station with two more couples: Jason Lewis, a chef, and Holly Gulbranson, 36, a hair stylist, who had come in from Atlanta to celebrate her birthday and Scottie and Lauren Long, a young musician and pair, who were on their honeymoon from Orlando. All of them said that they had come to Colorado for the pot. “Scottie doesn’t drink so we wanted to go somewhere we could both enjoy ourselves,” Ms. Long told me. “The wedding was for everybody else, but the honeymoon’s for us. ” This winter, a study commissioned by the Colorado Tourism Office found that nearly half of the people polled said that the state’s loose marijuana laws had influenced their decision to visit. While state officials have themselves argued that the poll was misleading — it never asked whether the influence was positive or negative — if the cooking class was any measure, then weed has now joined skiing and microbreweries as one of Colorado’s tourist draws. Mr. Lewis and Ms. Gulbranson had already made the rounds of several Denver restaurants and planned to travel to Pagosa Springs, but the common denominator in their movement through the state was marijuana. Mr. Lewis, a longtime pot enthusiast, told me it was simply nice to be someplace where he didn’t really have to hide his habit. “We do live in Georgia,” Ms. Gulbranson said. It was the same thing with the Longs. In Florida, they explained, they worried all the time about smoking on the street or getting caught with a joint inside their glovebox, but in Denver they could sit on the patio of their rental and pass a bowl in plain sight of the neighbors. “It was a little weird at first because we’re so used to hiding it,” Ms. Long went on. “But when we came in from the airport, they let us smoke in the car. We were both like: ‘Holy cow, the car!’ ” Maybe I just like drinking, but I have to say, I didn’t get it. I mean, I got it: It was cool getting high without fear of being hassled by the cops. But was that really something around which you could plan a whole vacation? I understand that people go on wine trips, but generally speaking, they’re not popping bottles of shiraz the minute they leave the baggage claim. When I thought about it later, it occurred to me that what I might have been reacting to was the hard sell that Denver’s class was putting on these poor, the way in which their stifled desire for pot was being commodified. The longer I stayed in Denver, the more I noticed it. Everywhere you looked there were shrewd little business deals: spend $20 at Dispensary A and you got a coupon for a free drink at Restaurant B spend $20 at Restaurant B and you got a voucher for a $1 joint at Dispensary A. It was even more ubiquitous online. Click onto CannaSaver. com and the bargains all but grabbed you by the throat: 50 percent off Red Dot Edibles! Buy two vaping cartridges and get a free battery! At a certain point, I started to suspect that the city’s reefer tourist moguls were getting their clients high mainly for the purpose of relieving them of their money. “Feel free to load those pipes, guys — someone roll a fatty! ,” our guide aboard the party bus encouraged us, as we climbed on for the tour. This was only hours after the cooking class, and those taking part in both events were by that point wasted. But the exhortation to smoke more pot — not least, on the way to a pot lab — was simply too enticing to pass up. When we reached the lab, my tour mates stumbled off the bus and stood for a moment in the parking lot gazing at the structure as though it were the Vatican. “Oh yeah, dude,” the cattle rancher murmured with a nod as we stepped inside. There, we met Meg Sanders, the chief executive of Mindful, the company that runs the lab. Ms. Sanders, knowing her audience, told us that the site housed 8, 000 individual plants of 50 different strains. This elicited an silence from the potheads, into which she added, waving us on, “All right, let’s head back to Disneyland. ” The technical aspects of the lab were pretty interesting: cryogenic freezers, ovens, lots of fluorescent lights — like something you might find at a pharmaceutical plant or in crime scene photos. Ms. Sanders informed us that every seedling in the building had been tagged at birth with an RFID chip so that the state could monitor its progress from cultivation to retail sale. She was pretty interesting herself: a former financial compliance officer who, like many others, saw an opportunity in pot. “I had a passion for the plant,” she said as we made our way past a giant indoor copse of marijuana, “and” — this seemed especially important — “there was no glass ceiling. ” Things became a bit less interesting as the lab tour ended and, back onboard the bus — joints and pipes ablaze again — we took a ride to a Mindful dispensary, the pot vacation version of a museum gift shop. The transformation from tourist to consumer was immediate, if only because our options were so numerous. There, on the shelves before the spellbound heads, was Mindful’s entire product line: transdermal pot patches, marijuana taffy, pot bacon brittle, vegan pot capsules, Incredible Affogato pot candy bars, CannaPunch cannabis drinks, a Bubba Kush strain of root beer, Wake and Shake canna coffee, Lip Buzz lip balm, Apothecanna pain creams, and, of course, a wide variety of hashes, extracts and smokeables. Next morning, after visiting the hotel gym, I had brunch with Danny Schaefer, the chief executive of Pioneer Industries, parent of My 420. Wanting me to get “the full experience,” Mr. Schaefer urged me to “consume” before our meal — if I missed any reportorial details, he’d make sure I got them later. While that was kind, I kept to the restaurant’s menu, listening as he talked about the growth of My 420’s business. In 2015, its second year of operation, the company handled 300 to 600 customers a week, he said, with an average ticket price of $650. This year, he added, ticket sales were already up by 35 percent. Mr. Schafer went on to say that “taboo tourism” was only one part of the local pot economy, which, he added, also included packaging, labeling and lighting companies, not to mention law firms, consultants and — because the industry uses only cash — heavily armed security firms. It was then that he told me that the ultimate goal of Pioneer Industries was to unite these businesses into a single vocal lobby, and thus turn Colorado into the country’s premier pot vacation destination. “We’ve got skiing, hiking, microbreweries,” he said, “and we’re already the Mile High City. ” But to seize that throne will require competing with states like Washington, which legalized recreational weed in 2012, and Oregon, which did the same on a slightly more restrictive basis in 2014. It will also require the cooperation of state tourism officials who, at least so far, have failed to embrace the vision of Colorado as the Promised Land of pot. “For most travelers, marijuana is a issue,” said Cathy Ritter, the director of the Colorado Tourism Office. “It’s a very small segment of our travel population. ” When I spoke with her by phone, Ms. Ritter acknowledged that she hadn’t used state money to promote pot tourism because most of the funds would, by definition, be spent outside of Colorado and, as she explained, “It’s pretty clear that that’s a federal offense. ” Recently, the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce pushed a bill in the state that would allow producers and sellers to open tasting rooms, as wineries and breweries have, and yet the real work of turning Denver into a pot Napa Valley may in the end rest with people on the ground like Mr. Schaefer or like Pepe Breton, whose greenhouse lab we visited after brunch. Mr. Breton’s story was, by then, familiar: He was a former stockbroker who had gone in search of profit as a marijuana farmer. But it seemed to me that he had a different — and slightly darker — take on the future of the industry. “The big boys are coming,” Mr. Breton said as we walked through his lab. “And when that happens, I won’t be able to compete anymore. I just hope I can sell at the right time and get a good price. ” That evening, after my massage (no, you don’t get high) I went for a long walk through the city. In the twilight, set against the mountains, Denver was changing. You could see it — in the construction cranes, in the old brick buildings giving way to boxy condominiums, in the faces of the tourists on the 16th Street pedestrian mall. What would happen, I wondered, when, like Mr. Breton suggested, Philip Morris and Pfizer — the big boys — arrived, and the quirky, prepubescent marijuana trade suddenly grew up and then went corporate? It was already grasping now, but then? By that point I had crossed the South Platte River to the Highlands again. In the neighborhood of quiet streets, I came across a burger joint and went inside for dinner. The room was warm, college basketball was playing on TV, and I took a seat among the large crowd at the bar. Ordering a beer, it occurred to me that I was very glad to have visited Denver when I did. | 1 |
Embargo on Phillipines - withdraw our military, watch them beg for crumbs. | 0 |
The FBI Is the Regime’s Secret Police The FBI Is the Regime’s Secret Police By 0 58
When FBI Director James Comey announced on July 5 that the Department of Justice would not seek the indictment of Hillary Clinton for failure to safeguard state secrets related to her email use while she was secretary of state, he both jumped the gun and set in motion a series of events that surely he did not intend. Was his hand forced by the behavior of FBI agents who wouldn’t take no for an answer? Did he let the FBI become a political tool?
Here is the back story.
The FBI began investigating the Clinton email scandal in the spring of 2015, when The New York Times revealed Clinton’s use of a private email address for her official governmental work and the fact that she did not preserve the emails on State Department servers, contrary to federal law. After an initial collection of evidence and a round of interviews, agents and senior managers gathered in the summer of 2015 to discuss how to proceed. It was obvious to all that a prima-facie case could be made for espionage, theft of government property and obstruction of justice charges. The consensus was to proceed with a formal criminal investigation.
Six months later, the senior FBI agent in charge of that investigation resigned from the case and retired from the FBI because he felt the case was going “sideways”; that’s law enforcement jargon for “nowhere by design.” John Giacalone had been the chief of the New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., field offices of the FBI and, at the time of his “sideways” comment, was the chief of the FBI National Security Branch.
The reason for the “sideways” comment must have been Giacalone’s realization that DOJ and FBI senior management had decided that the investigation would not work in tandem with a federal grand jury. That is nearly fatal to any government criminal case. In criminal cases, the FBI and the DOJ cannot issue subpoenas for testimony or for tangible things; only grand juries can.
Giacalone knew that without a grand jury, the FBI would be toothless, as it would have no subpoena power. He also knew that without a grand jury, the FBI would have a hard time persuading any federal judge to issue search warrants. A judge would perceive the need for search warrants to be not acute in such a case because to a judge, the absence of a grand jury can only mean a case is “sideways” and not a serious investigation.
As the investigation dragged on in secret and Donald Trump simultaneously began to rise in the Republican presidential primaries, it became more apparent to Giacalone’s successors that the goal of the FBI was to exonerate Clinton, not determine whether there was enough evidence to indict her. In late spring of this year, agents began interviewing the Clinton inner circle.
When Clinton herself was interviewed on July 2 — for only four hours, during which the interviewers seemed to some in the bureau to lack aggression, passion and determination — some FBI agents privately came to the same conclusion as their former boss: The case was going sideways.
A few determined agents were frustrated by Clinton’s professed lack of memory during her interview and her oblique reference to a recent head injury she had suffered as the probable cause of that. They sought to obtain her medical records to verify the gravity of her injury and to determine whether she had been truthful with them. They prepared the paperwork to obtain the records, only to have their request denied by Director Comey himself on July 4.
Then some agents did the unthinkable; they reached out to colleagues in the intelligence community and asked them to obtain Clinton’s medical records so they could show them to Comey. We know that the National Security Agency can access anything that is stored digitally, including medical records. These communications took place late on July 4.
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When Comey learned of these efforts, he headed them off the next morning with his now infamous news conference, in which he announced that Clinton would not be indicted because the FBI had determined that her behavior, though extremely careless, was not reckless, which is the legal standard in espionage cases. He then proceeded to recount the evidence against her. He did this, no doubt, to head off the agents who had sought the Clinton medical records, whom he suspected would leak evidence against her.
Three months later — and just weeks before Clinton will probably be elected president — we have learned that President Barack Obama regularly communicated with Clinton via her personal email servers about matters that the White House considered classified. That means that he lied when he told CBS News that he learned of the Clinton servers when the rest of us did.
We also learned this week that Andrew McCabe, Giacalone’s successor as head of the FBI Washington field office and presently the No. 3 person in the FBI, is married to a woman to whom the Clinton money machine in Virginia funneled about $675,000 in lawful campaign funds for a failed 2015 run for the Virginia Senate. Comey apparently saw no conflict or appearance of impropriety in having the person in charge of the Clinton investigation in such an ethically challenged space.
Why did this case go sideways?
Did President Obama fear being a defense witness at Hillary Clinton’s criminal trial? Did he so fear being succeeded in office by Donald Trump that he ordered the FBI to exonerate Clinton, the rule of law be damned? Did the FBI lose its reputation for fidelity to law, bravery under stress and integrity at all times?
This is not your grandfather’s FBI — or your father’s. It is the Obama FBI.
Reprinted with the author’s permission. | 0 |
November 3, 2016 FBI’s Clinton Foundation investigation now ‘a very high priority,’ sources say
The FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation that has been going on for more than a year has now taken a “very high priority,” separate sources with intimate knowledge of the probe tell Fox News.
FBI agents have interviewed and re-interviewed multiple people on the foundation case, which is looking into possible pay for play interaction between then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. The FBI’s White Collar Crime Division is handling the investigation.
Even before the WikiLeaks dumps of alleged emails linked to the Clinton campaign, FBI agents had collected a great deal of evidence, law enforcement sources tell Fox News.
“There is an avalanche of new information coming in every day,” one source told Fox News, who added some of the new information is coming from the WikiLeaks documents and new emails.
FBI agents are “actively and aggressively pursuing this case,” and will be going back and interviewing the same people again, some for the third time, sources said. | 0 |
2016 presidential campaign by Danny Haiphong
The crisis that has enveloped U.S. imperialism, under both Republican and Democratic rule, rocked the corporate duopoly system and opened the door for Donald Trump's ascension to power. Decades ago, “the Republicans became the White Man’s Party while the Democrats neutralized the left.” Trump is the result. “A genuine, radical left with any vision at all would not tremble before a Donald Trump Administration or mourn a Clinton loss.” System Breakdown: Trump's Chickens Come Home to Roost by Danny Haiphong
“The left can no longer afford to suppress the material struggle for liberation in place of a rhetorical struggle against racism.”
A number of people dropped their jaw in fear after Trump's victory in the 2016 elections. My jaw dropped for a different reason. Trump's victory occurred without the support of the ruling class. Most of his supporters came from the disaffected white working class and petit bourgeoisie (think "small" business). The Trump victory is thus a monumental moment in US history. The two-party corporate duopoly could not have drawn a worse hand and the ruling class has settled with Trump out of sheer limitation. US imperialism is in a state of system breakdown. The chickens have come home to roost.
So how did Trump win? For one, Trump's legions were the only section of the voting age population energized to vote. As BAR's Bruce Dixon has noted , voter suppression has been a common practice in most states for decades. This combined with nearly four decades of capitalist crisis has placed the US political system in a dead-end situation. The Democratic Party has become the truest expression of the ruling capitalist class over this period. It instituted the trade deals, wars, austerity policies, and expanded the police and prison forces necessary to maintain the rule of capitalism in decline. The material conditions of the crisis these policies set into motion ultimately opened the door for Trump's chickens to come home to roost.
“US imperialism is in a state of system breakdown.”
Trump's base is on the move namely to resurrect more favorable economic conditions, historically distributed on a racial basis, of a prior stage of capitalism. War on behalf of industrial capital once distributed income and wealth more favorably to a larger portion of whites. Capitalist decline has forever changed these conditions. The Democratic Party and Republican Party are both responsible for the current conditions of depravity, racism, and neo-liberal psychosis that currently plagues US society. Starting in the 1970s, the Republicans became the White Man’s Party while the Democrats neutralized the left. Four decades of two-party misery greatly influenced the outcome of the 2016 elections.
What is striking about Trump's base is how it was able to compel the Electoral College to betray the wishes of the ruling class. During the Democratic primary, delegates were more than happy to abandon popular will in favor of Clinton. But much has changed since the Democratic Party suppressed the Sanders campaign. WikiLeaks exposed the many crimes of Hillary Clinton. Although Clinton won the popular vote, many Black, Latino, union, and women voters decided not to opt for her as President. Those that did held their nose and were thus seen as less of a threat to the ruling class than the possibility of a dejected Trump base.
“ The Democratic Party and Republican Party are both responsible for the current conditions of depravity, racism, and neo-liberal psychosis that currently plagues US society.”
The left in the US must come to terms with reality. It has spent decades trailing behind the crisis of imperialism by throwing its full support to the Democratic Party appendage of the ruling class. So-called white liberals in particular ridiculed the supposedly backward character of white workers and acted as if they possessed an anti-racist bone in their own bodies. The liberal-left as a whole bound themselves to the party of dead-end capitalism in order to avoid the party of the White Man. It was only a matter of time before the two-party corporate duopoly would rupture under the weight of its own contradictions.
The Trump Administration is thus a logical conclusion of, and not a resolution to, the contradictions of imperialism. The left must now confront what it has avoided for too long. Never has it been clearer that Trump is the logical conclusion to the misery of life under US imperialism. The Democrats overplayed their hand, thinking that rhetoric alone could maintain its false image as the "left" wing of the two-party system. Yet even though the Democrats have consistently betrayed their base on behalf of the ruling class, millions of Clinton supporters are in a state of mourning over her loss.
“The liberal-left as a whole bound themselves to the party of dead-end capitalism in order to avoid the party of the White Man.”
A genuine, radical left with any vision at all would not tremble before the feet of a Donald Trump Administration or mourn a Clinton loss. The left must explore the many facets of the Trump development. It must no longer ignore the white workers and petty bourgeois Trump supporters that have brought real material demands to the fore. The left can no longer afford to suppress the material struggle for liberation in place of a rhetorical struggle against racism. The ruling class is in disarray and the Trump victory proves it.
A Trump Presidency won't be a simple trip to the apocalypse. Even with a majority in the House and the Senate, the Republican Party must now choose to align itself to Trumpist politics or continue to collaborate with the Democratic Party to destroy him. There is no doubt that Wall Street, the military industrial complex, and the rest of the bourgeoisie will attempt to control the unpredictable white nationalist billionaire. The New York Times has already made overtures about a "conflict of interest" between his business investments and his newfound political position. Of course, the Times never had an issue with Obama when he bailed out Wall Street or chose his cabinet from a list provided by Citigroup.
“ The left must take advantage of the internal squabbling among the ruling class that is surely to come.”
Trump is no Wall Street politician so he will inevitably face many contradictions while in office. Will he respect his base's wishes to build mutual ties with Russia and rollback NATO? Will he keep his promise to rid of NAFTA and the TPP? Or will he capitulate to the ruling class, angering his base and potentially setting up an early grave for his Administration? And what will the bourgeoisie do should they not be able to control him? All of these questions must be asked. The left must take advantage of the internal squabbling among the ruling class that is surely to come. Conditions remain favorable to organize a truly radical, left political agenda for social transformation.
The ruling class will attempt to neutralize the left by controlling Trump’s agenda and simultaneously piecing together the Democratic Party for the 2020 elections. It remains to be seen whether this will effectively save the system from collapse. Because the truth is, Trump is not a reflection of some American apocalypse. His victory is a product of system breakdown. Over the next four years, it would serve the left well to defeat any possibility of a Democratic Party resurrection so a true party of the people can arise in this moment of opportunity. Liberals will mourn, but revolutionaries will fight. Danny Haiphong is an Asian activist and political analyst in the Boston area. He can be reached at [email protected] | 0 |
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump hopscotched from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Michigan on Monday in the final, frenzied hours of the presidential campaign, offering clashing closing arguments as the sprawling map of the United States was reduced to a string of states. Accompanied by rock stars, old friends and their grown children, the Democratic and Republican nominees pleaded with voters to end a traumatic campaign with an emphatic endorsement of their visions for the country. In Philadelphia, Mrs. Clinton drew the biggest crowd of her campaign to the vast plaza in front of Independence Hall, where Bruce Springsteen, the balladeer of America, rhapsodized about her values and the candidate portrayed herself as a protector of freedom and equality. “Tomorrow we face the test of our time. What will we vote for — not just against?” Mrs. Clinton asked. “Every issue you care about is at stake. ” She concluded with an appeal to those who have waited decades for a female president. “Let’s make history together,” she said. In Manchester, N. H. Mr. Trump took the stage with his family at Southern New Hampshire University Arena as “God Bless the U. S. A. ” blared, blue laser beams illuminated the dark hall and a smoke machine piped a haze over the crowd. Mr. Trump asked a country polarized over his personality and tactics to embrace his plan to thoroughly shake up Washington. “I am asking for the votes of all Americans, Democrats, Republicans, independents,” Mr. Trump said, “who are so desperately in need of change. ” The contrasts between the candidates and their messages were on vivid display in the campaign’s last full day. As she embarked on a tour, Mrs. Clinton gave a sunny and optimistic summation of her candidacy for the White House. “Tomorrow, you can vote for a hopeful, inclusive, America,” she told a crowd in Pittsburgh. Mr. Trump, who campaigned in five states on Monday, took a harsher approach, assailing the “crooked media,” attacking a “corrupt Washington establishment” and mocking Mrs. Clinton over and over. “It’s a rigged, rigged system,” he declared in Raleigh, N. C. “And now it’s up to the American people to deliver the justice that we deserve at the ballot box tomorrow. ” As the campaign wound down, both candidates dispensed with ritual. Mrs. Clinton, who relishes upbraiding her opponent, toned down her usual assault on Mr. Trump’s conduct and temperament. And Mr. Trump, who normally seeks to convey confidence at all times, sounded uncharacteristically vulnerable. “They say we’ll get a tremendous amount of credit, win or lose,” he said during a rally in Sarasota, Fla. “I said: ‘No, no, no, no. I don’t want any credit if we lose. ’” Despite the ugliness of the campaign, there were signs that Americans were seizing the opportunity to express themselves at the ballot box in large numbers. Turnout in states that allow early voting was high, and in interviews, many voters said they were eager to bring an end to this unusual, exhausting and still suspenseful election. “I’m totally ready for this election to be over,” said Mary Hoch, 54, who attended Mr. Trump’s rally in Sarasota with a “Make America Great Again” hat on her head and a “Deplorable Lives Matter” pin on her shirt. Ms. Hoch predicted a Trump victory. “I think there are a lot of silent Trump voters,” she said. Daniel Saunders, 58, who attended a rally for Mrs. Clinton in Charlotte, N. C. was just as exasperated by the race. “I’m embarrassed by it,” he said. But Mr. Saunders said he believed that Mrs. Clinton would eke out a win. “These things always tighten up, but I think she’ll pull it out,” he said. Both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton sent their running mates, families and allies across the country to maximize their reach in crucial swing states. Mr. Trump relied on his three oldest children — Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. — along with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican nominee. Mrs. Clinton deployed President Obama and former President Bill Clinton, as well as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the first lady, Michelle Obama, perhaps the most popular political figure in the country. “Tomorrow, with your vote, you can say that this country has always been great,” Mrs. Obama said. “That it is the greatest country on earth. ” Mrs. Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, spent much of the day campaigning in North Carolina, which Mr. Obama carried in 2008 but lost four years later to Mitt Romney. “It’s great to see a finish line, isn’t it?” Mr. Kaine said at an outdoor rally in Charlotte. He expressed confidence in the ticket’s chances on Tuesday, but warned supporters against complacency and implored voters to embrace the chance to elect the nation’s first female president. “Every election is important, but not every election will change history,” he said. “If we do what we know how to do, this election will change history. ” Mr. Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, started the day with a brisk jog across a windswept tarmac in an unlikely spot for a Republican: Duluth, Minn. It was the Republican ticket’s second stop in Minnesota in two days, and although few signs point to a Republican upset there, a modest crowd near Mr. Pence’s plane lapped up his attacks on Mrs. Clinton. “It’s almost hard to keep up, all the headlines, all the scandals flowing out of just her years as secretary of state,” Mr. Pence said. Both campaigns conspicuously reached across party lines in their final pitches. In Scranton, Pa. Mr. Trump spoke to what he said were “Democratic voters in this country who are thirsting for change. ” In Ann Arbor, Mich. Mrs. Clinton reminded an audience of her days as an intern for President Gerald R. Ford, a Republican from Michigan, and of all the Republican leaders who have endorsed her this year. “We must put country ahead of party when it comes to this election,” she said. Mr. Trump seemed sensitive to the fact that his final 48 hours on the campaign trail lacked the star power drawn to Mrs. Clinton, who was accompanied by musicians like Jay Z, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Mr. Springsteen. (Collectively, her surrogates have more than 80 Grammy Awards.) “Beyoncé and Jay Z,” Mr. Trump said dismissively. “I like them. ” But, he added mischievously, “I get bigger crowds than they do. ” But the hypercompetitive Mr. Trump could not resist trying to outshine his rival. In Manchester, he read aloud a letter that he said was from Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots football team. “Congratulations on a tremendous campaign,” it purportedly read. “You have dealt with an unbelievable slanted and negative media and have come out beautifully. ” (A spokesman for the Patriots said he could not confirm or deny the letter’s authenticity Monday night.) As a final flourish, Mr. Trump claimed that Tom Brady, the team’s quarterback and a hero across New England, had cast a vote for him. In a radio interview on Monday, however, Mr. Brady said he had not yet voted. | 1 |
Huma Abedin, Hillary’s Clinton’s top aide with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Sexter, the former Congressman, Anthony Weiner, are at the center of the most recent FBI investigation. Things are about to get very interesting.
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BEIJING — Ji Wanchang strolled through a Beijing luxury mall one recent morning with an eye out for luxury coats. But at one store, a clerk told him a Moncler and other coats were “sample sizes” and not for sale. A second clerk, selling a wolf Yves Salomon, said the coat was reserved. Mr. Ji sighed. In both cases, the fur wouldn’t match their labels, he suspected — and the clerks knew selling a fake to Mr. Ji, who is well known on sight in many of China’s shops, meant big trouble. “Ma’am, I don’t want to make things difficult for you,” he told a sales clerk, who nodded and bowed. “I’ve found problems with your clothes, so please correct them. ” Mr. Ji is what is known in China as a professional counterfeit hunter. Part Ralph Nader, part bounty hunter, Mr. Ji rummages for fake or substandard goods in shops. Then, using China’s consumer protection laws, he collects tens of thousands of dollars from the companies that make or sell them. The laws are part of China’s growing effort to weed out the fake clothes, electronics, food and furniture that swamp its stores and frustrate companies and consumers alike. But Mr. Ji’s livelihood is now under threat. Some government officials say Mr. Ji and the unknown number of others like him abuse a law that was meant merely to empower consumers to report fakes. If proposed new government rules get accepted, people like Mr. Ji will no longer be able to go pro. Even as China grows and matures, and moves to protect brands and ideas, it still struggles with how to get rid of fakes. Overseas governments, overseas companies and even its own increasingly choosy consumers complain that China’s counterfeit products hurt brand names and common people alike. Chinese leaders have stepped up efforts to cull them, in part to protect homegrown companies that are starting to produce their own innovative products. Last year, China’s courts handled about 120, 000 intellectual property cases, up 9 percent from 2014, according to official media. One effort was intended to empower the consumer. In 2009, the government promised consumers that if they found a product that flouted food safety laws, they could win 10 times the value of that product in compensation. In 2013, China bolstered an earlier consumer protection law by increasing payouts to buyers of other kinds of fake goods, while a decision from China’s supreme court was widely seen as supporting counterfeit hunters. Mr. Ji and his peers have used these laws to their advantage, buying knockoffs in bulk — the more they turn in, the more they are paid — and filling their storerooms withcounterfeit products. Mr. Ji’s group, the Jinan Old Ji Rights Defense Work Studio, has a network of about 20 informers who report suspected fake products. He says his biggest success to date is collecting about $178, 000 in compensation from a company that tried to pass off its blankets as pure cashmere. China’s boom has given counterfeit hunters a new front. “The main purpose of suing them is to ask them to correct themselves,” said Yu Fengxing, another counterfeit hunter, who chases merchants who sell fakes on online marketplaces run by the Alibaba Group, China’s largest company. He became an counterfeit hunter after he bought an item marketed by a merchant on Alibaba’s Tmall platform as a foot treatment and discovered that it was probably just makeup. In a statement, Alibaba said it was committed to fighting fakes on its platforms. Among overseas companies, people like Mr. Ji have fans. “A lot of my clients would, in some circumstances, support the activities of these kinds of consumer warriors because ultimately they may be uncovering information that helps us do our job,” said Scott Palmer, an intellectual property lawyer at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter Hampton, which represents American corporations in China. But government officials complain that the program is increasingly expensive and increasingly abused. Even some foreign business groups complain. Counterfeit hunters often profit “from complaints that target minor product labeling errors instead of true quality or safety issues,” said James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, in emailed comments. Proposed government rules released in August and under official consideration said that payouts for fakes would not be available to those who sought them “for commercial purposes. ” Mr. Ji, defending his work, says he has to recoup his legal fees, which he incurs when the companies he accuses of selling fakes fight back. He says he makes about $148, 000 a year but his pay is only about $30, 000 to $44, 000 after expenses. “When they encounter a fake product, more than 80 percent of Chinese people will just suck it up and not take it very seriously, as long as their lives are not in danger,” Mr. Ji said. “If there are more professional counterfeit warriors, the quality of goods will improve at once. ” Mr. Ji never set out to be a consumer rights activist. Born in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, he was so poor he could not afford to enroll in a university. His jobs have included running a carwash, selling clothes on the street and operating a food stall. In 2000, a friend of his bought a children’s educational compact disc that turned out to contain pornographic content. Furious, he and his friends “laid siege” to the store where they had bought it, demanding compensation, Mr. Ji said. “At that time, I did not understand what defending your rights is,” he said. Later, Mr. Ji bought a copy of China’s consumer law and a manual on how to tell fakes from genuine products. From that point, he had a new career. On a recent week in October, Mr. Ji traveled to four courthouses in five days across China, filing lawsuits against shopping malls, accusing them of fraud for selling substandard goods. Based in the eastern city of Jinan, he says he goes to court about 100 times a year. Mr. Ji’s work has earned him the enmity of counterfeiters and their thugs, who he says have beaten him up, bound his hands and feet, and telephoned him with death threats. In 2007, police in the southern province of Fujian detained him for 37 days, charging him with extortion, but released him. Still, Mr. Ji views the work as necessary. Every month, he says, he receives more than a hundred phone calls from people curious about how to get compensation from a fake product. On a recent afternoon, a man from the eastern city of Tai’an called Mr. Ji, who was en route to check out a shopping mall in Beijing. How, the caller asked, could he emulate Mr. Ji? Mr. Ji told the aspiring that he could not “just casually enter any shop and buy eight or 10 pieces and demand compensation. ” His profession was built on navigating tricky relationships with local courthouses and police, Mr. Ji said, adding that recently some thugs from Tai’an wanted “my life, my arms and my legs. ” “Not everyone can be a counterfeit hunter. This industry isn’t a gift that falls down from heaven,” Mr. Ji told the caller. “You haven’t seen the hardships and suffering we’ve gone through. You’ve only seen our glorious side. ” | 1 |
By Tera Graham
We spend an overwhelming amount of time in and around buildings; most Americans never leave the comfort of cities, where sizeable structures abound. Yet, rarely do we consider the profound effects architecture has on our everyday experiences. Only standing at the feet of major architectural monuments — like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Great Pyramids outside Cairo — do we stop and consider how magnificent mankind’s ability to build is.
However, more and more scientists are beginning to realize that architecture, like any art form, has the power to influence how we perceive the world. As we learn how architecture can impact our experience of life, we can better control our environments for maximum efficiency — and maximum pleasure.
The Science and Art of Perception Every second we are awake, our brains track variables like heat, light, odor, noise, and movement to ensure our bodies can continue living. Though we rarely realize it, our minds are always aware of the effects of various environments, and that subconscious perception can dramatically affect our experiences of different places. For example, loud, grating sounds usually make spaces less pleasant, while soft, natural light generally makes spaces more inviting.
Neuroscientists are increasingly discovering that the brain is constantly making associations, and oftentimes, these links employ metaphors that are grounded in the physical world we perceive. The intangible concept of “importance” is generally identified as large, though as an idea, it lacks any size or dimension whatsoever. Similar examples are common in language: Our endeavors are completed “step by step,” as though we are walking the concrete path of our tasks, and being “lost in one’s thoughts” likens deep concentration to exploring a dense forest. It is becoming clear to scientists and artists alike that what we perceive informs what we believe. Fortunately, architects are using this newfound knowledge for the better.
The Application of Metaphor Armed with the awareness that our brains are constantly making connections between the corporeal and the conceptual, today’s architects strive to generate certain unconscious effects with their buildings. One of the most pervasive trends in modern architecture is the metaphor of the tree.
Trees have always indicated shelter for humankind: They offer protection from harsh sunlight, from pouring rain, and from dangerous predators. Plus, as humans strive to right their historic environmental wrongs, the tree has become a symbol of sustainability, nature, and health.
Therefore, several architects are now drawing from trees to create healthful, ecological-seeming buildings. The Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Japan contains a “forest” of pillars that closely resemble white saplings. In Spain, the Metropol Parasol uses laminated timber to form a sinuous canopy over a popular plaza.
By integrating elements of trees ― trunks, branches, leaves ― the architects of these buildings have produced not only aesthetically breathtaking structures but also subtly comforting spaces suffused with nuances of nature. Yet, as neuroscience unlocks more of the cognitive impacts of architecture, all structures could have even more powerful metaphor built in.
The Future of Cognitive Architecture The cognitive revolution is just getting started, and we are only beginning to understand how our brains and bodies take in the world around us. Experts in neuroscience and architecture alike look forward to advancements that can have beneficial applications in all sorts of structures.
For example, nearly everyone has experienced a less-than-ideal working environment. Flickering fluorescent lights, freezing or sweltering temperatures, conflicting design elements, and more can dramatically increase stress amongst a workforce, depleting energy and preventing productivity. When these errors are remedied, the effects of an environment are immediately obvious.
In some industries, especially within the industrial sector, we already have sturdy, somewhat more sustainable, buildings that provide benefits workers need: fabric structures . However, in other fields, like health care or education, we eagerly await breakthroughs that demonstrate real impact. With evidence from cognitive science, we can construct hospitals that help patients heal with design and schools that encourage learning through materials and angles.
Though it happens constantly, perception is an intensely complex task. The spaces around us ― both the ones we create and the ones governed by nature ― inform how we live and how we think. Thus, it is imperative that when we construct, we be amply aware of the effects of our constructions: on the environment and on ourselves.
This article ( The Real Effects of Architecture on the Mind, Body, and Spirit ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to and WakingTimes.com . It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
Via: OmniThought
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Seven newly elected Senators were sworn into office Tuesday, the start of the 115th United States Congress. Here are the names and faces of the five Democrats and two Republicans who make up the 2017 freshman senate class. [California — Kamala Harris (D) Following a bitter Senate race with Loretta Sanchez, the former attorney general of California Kamala Harris will become the first American Indian to serve in the United States Senate. In a post election interview, Harris promised to “fight” Trump on issues such as immigration, health care, the environment and crime. Illinois — Tammy Duckworth (D) Tammy Duckworth’s victory over the incumbent Republican senator Mark Kirk was one of the few pieces of good news for Democrats on November 8th. A double amputee and veteran of the Iraq war, Duckworth previously served as the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans as well as the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Indiana — Todd Young (R) Former congressman Todd Young, who also served a decorated career in the Marine Corps, will replace the retired Dan Coats in Indiana. He has previously sponsored legislation such as the ‘Fairness for Families Act,’ which delayed the introduction of mandatory individual healthcare coverage, as well as the ‘Save American Workers Act,’ which sought to define a full time worker as someone working 40 hours a week, in order to prevent companies from reducing contract hours in order to avoid the healthcare mandate. New Hampshire — Maggie Hassan (D) The former governor of New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan also defeated the incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte by a narrow 1, 067 votes. A staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood, Hassan has said her top priorities in the Senate will be protecting abortion law and tackling climate change. Maryland — Chris Van Hollen (D) A former congressman and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chris Van Hollen will now serve as Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) for the 2018 election cycle, as well as now representing Maryland in the Senate. With 100 percent approval ratings on a number of progressive causes, he has been touted as a possible presidential candidate in 2020. Louisiana — John Neely Kennedy (R) The incumbent state treasurer of Louisiana, John Neely Kennedy will vacate his role in order to serve Louisiana in the Senate. A former Democrat, his career has involved managing Louisiana’s economic policy and focusing on how the state can effectively save money. A supporter of Donald Trump, Kennedy received campaign support from the a day before his run off Senate race with Foster Campbell. Nevada — Catherine Cortez Masto (D) Replacing former House Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto will become the first Latina woman ever to serve in the Senate. Her campaign was vociferously supported by environmental and groups, given her support for Planned Parenthood and investment in renewal energies. She defeated Republican Joe Beck by 47 percent to 45 percent. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
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No matter how you feel about zoos, this story will make you feel good.
Zoo administrators are always experimenting with ways to make their animals’ caged experiences as accommodating to their needs as possible, with varying degrees of success. But thanks to an innovative and humane new initiative, one of our most beloved institutions is setting a new standard for animal rights. The San Diego Zoo has taped telescopes to all of their animals’ heads so that they can look at the planets.
What a tremendous step forward!
For decades, the San Diego Zoo led the way in terms of tourist attractions, but this latest move proves that they are even more committed to treating their animals with dignity. With a telescope affixed to each animal’s head, these incredible creatures can now gaze at the planets just by looking up. Visitors can take great comfort knowing that the ostriches, chinchillas, and all other animals are no longer limited to just looking at trees, dirt, or clouds, as they had been for so many heartbreaking years.
According to president and CEO Douglas Myers, the project directly addresses a basic right of all animals.
“When you consider the challenges we face when improving animal captivity, strapping a telescope snugly to each animal’s head is a no-brainer,” said Myers. “These are beautiful creatures that deserve to look at the planets.”
Indeed, most zoo animals have never had the ability to take in the wonders of our galaxy, but in San Diego it’s now a key part of every animal’s care plan. At any moment, an otter can swivel his head and take a look at Saturn. A zebra can glance up from grazing to observe a sea of constellations seemingly close enough to lick. And when the park welcomed a new fox last month, tourists were able to watch as zoologists strapped a tiny telescope to his head, equipped with a polarized filter to protect his sensitive eyes.
Wow!
Well, if you needed another reason to finally visit the San Diego Zoo, you’ve officially got it. Hopefully, this will encourage zoos everywhere to continue to explore new ways to address the welfare of their animals. Thankfully, they now have an excellent place to start. | 0 |
Radio host, author, and constitutional scholar Mark Levin said on his syndicated show on Tuesday that the same measurement of leadership being applied to President Donald Trump should also be used for Congress. [“Why aren’t the first 100 days a measuring stick for Congress and the Democrats?” Levin said. “Can anyone name one piece of positive bipartisan legislation that Nancy Pelosi and Schumer have put forth?” As to Trump’s first 100 days in office, Levin said he has made some positive moves, despite little assistance from Republican leadership. “The one area where Trump has succeeded, is in unravelling the executive orders of Obama,” Levin said. ”He is using the same power Obama did to undo what Obama did. ” “However, the president is having a tough time with the Republican Congress,” Levin said. “There is no excuse for what Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are doing or not doing. ” And, Levin said, this is no time for crossing the aisle to work with Democrats. “It is time to roll Chuck Schumer and the Democrats,” Levin said. The ‘Art of the Deal’ should be the ‘Art of Victory,’” Levin said. CNN reported on the history of the 100 day measurement, which dates back to a president who took over a desperate nation and, thus, a compliant Congress. According to that report: The first 100 days of a presidency amount to about 3% of an span, but for decades the opening stretch of an administration has become the barometer of a commander in chief’s governing power, or lack thereof. The measurement began after Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered office amid the tumult of the Great Depression reported. With banks caving in and jobs vanishing, FDR set to work passing laws and establishing new government bureaus to curb the economic suffering. He swore in his entire Cabinet at once, signed 76 bills into law, and began rolling out the New Deal in his first 100 days in office — a frenzy of activity that, ever since, all presidents have been matched against. Every president since FDR has had to deal with the trial, including John F. Kennedy, who used it to his benefit. “All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1, 000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet,” Kennedy said. “But let us begin!” | 1 |
A woman was drugged and raped by four men in a Stockholm hotel by men police describe as being foreign tourists and so far police have made no arrests in the case. [According to police, the incident occurred on Tuesday, March 28th at a hotel in the middle of the Swedish capital. They say that the woman, herself a resident of another European country, was drugged by four men who then proceeded to take turns raping her. Sources say that the men were foreign tourists, though did not specify which country they were from Swedish paper Aftonbladet reports. Prosecutor Debika Ray Berghog is leading the investigation into the rape attack but has been largely quiet about the details surrounding the incident. While Berghog has not given detail as to the identities of the suspects, she did confirm that the rape had occurred. “I can not say much more than that it is an ongoing investigation. The investigation is at a critical stage, so currently I can not provide more information,” she said. So far none of the suspects in the case has been arrested as Berghog claims that the case is at a “critical” time in the process. “We have some measures we are taking. It is hoped that they will give us more clarity on what has happened and how we should proceed,” Berghog said adding, “more than that, I can not say because I do not want to risk ruining the investigation. ” Sexual assault in Sweden has become more and more common according to website “Gang Rape Sweden” which monitors publicly available court documents to assess the scale scope and origin of perpetrators involved in gang rapes. The site claims that the vast majority of those involved in gang rape attacks come from migrant or foreign backgrounds. The site claims that between 2011 and 2015 there were 125 individuals accused and convicted of participating in group sex attacks and that 105 of them were from a foreign country. More recently Sweden has had two gang rape incidents in the city of Uppsala that were streamed of shared on social media. The first case, which was on Facebook, saw three men arrested during the act itself by police. Witnesses claimed that the men involved were “Middle Eastern” in appearance. The second incident took place in late March and saw two men rape a woman while another one filmed the ordeal and posted the footage to the social media app Snapchat. Police have so far arrested only one man in connection with the attack. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com, | 1 |
Hyderabad, the city that sends the most STEM students from India to the United States, is a city with the “worst engineers” in the country, according to a report. [“Software engineers from the city lag much behind those from other Indian cities when it comes to programming skills, a recent Aspiring Minds study of over 36, 000 engineering students in India showed,” reported Quartz. “The employability assessment company tested students from streams at over 500 colleges across India on Automata, a machine assessment of software development skills. ” The results showed that those in New Delhi were the best programmers, followed by Mumbai. At number three came Bengaluru, with half of the points as those in Mumbai, followed by Chennai and Kolkata. In very last place, with a total of 4. 7 points in programming ability and 4. 76 points in programming practices, came Hyderabad. The best city, New Delhi, received 26. 63 points for programming ability and 27. 16 points for programming practices in comparison. “Hyderabad, India, sent the largest number of STEM students (20, 800) to the United States and ranked fourth for the percentage of its students pursuing a STEM degree (80%) during the period,” declared the report. “Notably, 91% of students from Hyderabad are studying for a master’s degree, versus only 4% for a bachelor’s degree. ” “Lack of programming skills is adversely impacting the IT and data science ecosystems in India,” said Varun Aggarwal, of Aspiring Minds, which oversaw the study. “The world is moving towards introducing programming to . India needs to catch up. ” Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
Paul Krugman’s Facebook Friends Excitedly Posting About New Article He Got Published In ‘The New York Times’ Close Vol 52 Issue 43 · News · Internet · News Media · Social Media
NEW YORK—Sharing the link on their news feeds with captions such as “You have to read this!” and “Check out what a buddy of mine wrote,” Paul Krugman’s Facebook friends reportedly spent Tuesday morning excitedly posting about a new article of his that was published in The New York Times . “Hey everyone, my incredibly talented friend Paul Krugman got an article in the paper! So proud!” wrote the economist’s friend Wendy Shapiro, concluding her post with several exclamation points and a series of clapping hands and smiley face emojis. “This is so, so amazing! And in the New York Times, no less! WAY TO GO, PAUL!” At press time, sources confirmed that none of the 73 people who shared the link had bothered to read the article. Share This Story: WATCH VIDEO FROM THE ONION Sign up For The Onion's Newsletter
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WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans face a vexing dilemma with the impending presidency of Donald J. Trump: Will they maintain the tough line on Russia that has been central to their foreign policy for decades, or cede that ground to Democrats? For decades during the Cold War, Republicans tried to claim the hawkish mantle when it came to confronting the Soviet Union. Vice President Richard M. Nixon famously squared off against Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1959, and years later President Ronald Reagan cast the Soviets as an “evil empire. ” Reagan made that kind assertiveness central to his foreign policy and he is credited by many with hastening the downfall of the Soviet Union, the most persistent and formidable adversary of the United States of the last 60 years. And Reagan disciples today in the Republican Party, including Vice Mike Pence, are many. Reagan helped to frame the template for an American foreign policy that promulgated democracy around the world and curbed what has often been called Russian adventurism. Now Republicans will have to reconcile that party catechism with their vote on Mr. Trump’s selection as secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, who is the chief executive of Exxon Mobil and a longtime friend of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Tillerson, who has described his relationship with Mr. Putin as close, was once presented with the Russian Order of Friendship, one of the highest honors a foreigner can receive. Mr. Trump’s selection of him drew strong condemnation from Democrats and a cool reception from a handful of Republicans like Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a longtime leader against Russian aggression. “Russia is going to be the central litmus test for United States policy,” said Heather A. Conley, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Our allies and our adversaries are watching this very closely, and obviously the names of the cabinet positions are being scrutinized that much more closely. ” Senate Republicans — including Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — who have long been critical of Mr. Putin and of President Obama’s attempt to “reset” relations with Moscow, have praised Mr. Tillerson. “Mr. Tillerson is a very impressive individual and has an extraordinary working knowledge of the world,” Mr. Corker said. That view was echoed by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. The laudatory response from many Republicans over a choice that a year ago, on paper at least, might have appalled them demonstrates a strong desire to begin a new administration aligned with Mr. Trump. It is the same dynamic that has prevented a larger outcry from congressional Republicans over revelations that Russia interfered with the presidential election. They fear they could appear aligned with Democrats in raising questions about the election’s legitimacy. While congressional leaders called for investigations into possible tampering, they stopped short of ordering expansive efforts like a select committee. At the same time, a majority of Republicans are overjoyed with Mr. Trump’s other cabinet picks — staunch conservatives in the world of education, health care and law enforcement — and are likely to accede to the ’s choice for the nation’s chief diplomat. The other selections are “draft picks for conservatives who have been looking to reform those departments for years,” said Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Mitt Romney, who was passed over for secretary of state. “Those cabinet picks have certainly helped build up some of that political capital. ” Still, the contrast from recent years is striking. In 2012, when Mr. Romney was running for president, he called Russia the “No. 1 geopolitical foe,” a position echoing decades of Republican thinking. He was derided by Mr. Obama, his opponent. Mr. Corker and others have joined the most robust voices on Capitol Hill in calling for sanctions on Russia, a position that would seem to put them at odds with Mr. Trump and Mr. Tillerson. He and 20 Senate Republicans tried in 2014 to push through severe new sanction triggers against the nation, and he praised Mr. Obama when he imposed them on Russia for destabilizing Ukraine. Both of the last two major defense bills authorized funding for security assistance to Ukraine, including lethal assistance the Obama administration has refused to provide. This year’s bill authorizes $3. 4 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative, a fourfold increase from last year, focused on increasing the size, capability and readiness of American forces in Europe against growing threats to their security and territorial integrity. Those bills, while championed by Mr. McCain, are in keeping with a long history of bipartisan agreements over checking Russia, like the 1974 Amendment, a trade measure that required emigration criteria to get certain trade benefits. In 2012, led by Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, Congress overwhelmingly passed more sanctions tied to Russian human rights abuses. Last week, Congress passed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act as part of the broad defense bill, continuing a longstanding bipartisan focus on human rights and anticorruption efforts. “I have found Congress on both sides of the aisle to be entirely robust on the issue of Russia,” said William Browder, chief executive of Hermitage Capital, noting that the Senate passed the 2012 measure 92 to 4. “Since then the situation has gotten only worse between Ukraine, the Crimean War, crimes in Syria, cheating in sports, hacking in American elections and so on,” Mr. Browder continued. “It is hard for me to imagine that Congress would suddenly change their mind about Russia just because Donald Trump has a different view. ” There have been notable exceptions to the Republicans praising Mr. Tillerson. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said this week: “I have serious concerns about his nomination. The next secretary of state must be someone who views the world with moral clarity. ” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who often aligns with Mr. McCain, said in a statement that he expected “the U. S. relationship to be front and center in his confirmation process. ” Two other Republicans, Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, reacted to the news as if they had been presented with their sixth choice on a lunch menu of 10 items. “Senator Sasse has been outspoken against Russia’s recent aggressions,” said his spokesman, James Wegmann. “He also looks forward to diving into every nominee’s record. ” The burden will fall to Mr. Tillerson, and perhaps Mr. Trump, to persuade Mr. Rubio and enough other Republicans that he shares their views on Russia, his friendship with Mr. Putin notwithstanding. The process, Ms. Conley, the Russia expert, said, may well provide clues to allies and adversaries about where the United States is headed under Mr. Trump and a Congress in what has been a fraught relationship with Russia. “The question is: Is the United States willing to accommodate the Russian annexation of territory, the invasion of its neighbors and its indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Syria, or are we willing to defend principles and rules that go back to the end of the Second World War?” Ms. Conley said. “If the U. S. walks away from these principles, other countries such as Russia will step into the breach and trample on the very rules that keep Americans safe. ” | 1 |
RICHARD NIXONThe LifeBy John A. FarrellIllustrated. 737 pages. Doubleday. $35. While writing “Richard Nixon: The Life,” John A. Farrell could not possibly have known who would be president on the day his fine book was published. That it happens to be Donald J. Trump is, for him, an extraordinary stroke of luck. To read this biography with an eye only toward the parallels between the two presidents would be lazy and unfair, a disservice to Farrell’s nuanced scholarship. But the context here is unignorable. The similarities between Nixon and Trump leap off the page like crickets. There is, first and most superficially, their nonpresidential looks — Trump with his roosterly combover, Nixon with jowls so low they formed an with his nose. More substantively, there’s the matter of their Old Testament fury at the news media. (“The press is the enemy,” Nixon told his aides. “Write that on the blackboard 100 times and never forget it. ”) What else? Their thin skin. Their skyscraping paranoia. Their cavernous memory for slights. It’s hard to think of two modern presidents with a more dire case of political hemophilia. Once wounded, these men never stop bleeding. Like Trump, Nixon was a monomaniac on the stump, obsessed with the enemies lurking within. Nixon, too, had a penchant for sowing mayhem and a gourmand’s appetite for revenge, especially in the wee hours of the morning. (Trump tweets. Nixon made phone calls.) And members of Nixon’s own party feared for his stability. As vice president, he once flew into a rage after contending with a group of hostile student journalists at Cornell University. “What scares the hell out of me is that you would blow sky high over a thing as inconsequential as this,” an adviser told him. “What in goddamn would you do if you were president and get into a really bad situation?” These similarities in character lead to eerily similar behavioral consequences. In 1968, Nixon opened up a back channel to the president of South Vietnam, assuring him he’d get further support if he could just hold out for a Nixon presidency and resist Lyndon B. Johnson’s offers to broker peace. Nearly 50 years later, Michael Flynn had private discussions with the Russians that seemed to promise them a friendlier American policy — if they could just sit tight until Trump was inaugurated. Both men went on to claim that their predecessors had wiretapped these discussions. Nixon said he’d been tipped off by J. Edgar Hoover. Confirmation of Nixon’s meddling in Johnson’s peace efforts is the only real news that “Richard Nixon” breaks. But startling revelations are hardly the only criterion for a good Nixon biography. He’s an electrifying subject, a muttering Lear, of perennial interest to anyone with even an average curiosity about politics or psychology. The real test of a good Nixon biography, given how many there are, is far simpler: Is it elegantly written? And, even more important, can it tolerate paradoxes and complexity, the spikier stuff that distinguishes sinners from villains? The answer, in the case of “Richard Nixon,” is yes, on both counts. Farrell has a liquid style that slips easily down the gullet, and he understands all too well that Nixon was a vat of contradictions. Some readers may find Farrell’s portrait too sympathetic — he’s as apt to describe Nixon as a tortured depressive as he is to call him a malevolent sneak — but more readers, I think, will find this book complicating and . It’s also hard to read a history of a president’s life without feeling like you’re crawling over the dense folds of an accordion. But most chapters in “Richard Nixon” have room to breathe. The development of Nixon’s character in this book is subtle. He doesn’t start out as a rampaging narcissist and megalomaniac. Over time, it was power combined with profound insecurity that misshaped him. He had no ability to tolerate the slings and arrows of outrageous public humiliations, of which he probably suffered a disproportionate many, and he responded with the venom of a toadfish. The press trolled him. Even Dwight D. Eisenhower trolled him. Once, Ike was asked to name an important decision Nixon had helped him make as his vice president. “If you give me a week, I might think of one,” he replied. Farrell follows a mostly chronological structure. We go to Whittier, Calif. where Nixon was raised by an ogre of a father, a fellow so bad at farming he couldn’t grow lemons. As a young man, Nixon was awkward, square, hopeless at making small talk. I could read a whole book of his love letters to Pat, his future wife. They’re endearing and pathetic, the desperate pleas of the runt of the litter. “Yes, I know I’m crazy!” he wrote in a note he shoved under her door. “And that … I don’t take hints, but you see, Miss Pat, I like you!” In some ways, the Watergate years, because they’re so familiar, are the least interesting stretch of this book. (Though here’s a detail I’d forgotten: Nixon had a mole in almost every opponent’s campaign, a thumb in every pie.) It’s Farrell’s chapters about race that prove the most textured and dizzying: It was over this issue that the president’s Quaker upbringing and Machiavellian impulses seemed most overtly at war. When Nixon first ran for Congress, he was made an honorary member of the local N. A. A. C. P. so progressive was he on matters of race. Yet while running for president, he made it clear he’d “lay off crap,” and once in office he mastered the rhetorical art of exploiting racial grievances. Thus began the South’s transformation from a block of states to a G. O. P. sea. You can also draw a through line from Nixon’s contempt for the liberal elite to Trump’s boastful claims of political incorrectness. That vaudevillian public disdain for East Coast intellectuals, Ivy League blue bloods, cosmopolites — all of it started with Nixon. It was he who first used the phrase “the silent majority. ” He came by that populism honestly. He started from nothing, and he found the culture of Washington, which went gaga over pretty, privileged boys like John F. Kennedy, infuriating. What his populism didn’t mean, however, was stripping the welfare state to the studs. The public still had a taste for big government back then. During Nixon’s presidency, he signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act and established the Environmental Protection Agency. The most charitable biographies paint Nixon as a tragic figure, and that’s precisely what the president is here. Farrell’s Nixon is smart and ambitious, a visionary in some ways (China) but also skinless, both driven and utterly undone by . It may be the way he differs most, at least psychologically, from our current president. Trump has shown almost no evidence of ever, about anything. He appears to sail through life unencumbered by introspection. He’d yield no more depth if you used an oil rig. But grandiosity and profound insecurity often find the same form of public expression: recklessness. “I sometimes had the impression that he invited crisis and that he couldn’t stand normalcy,” Henry Kissinger once said. I’ll leave it up to the reader to determine which president he’s best describing. | 1 |
Donald Trump’s weekly presidential addresses have become YouTube hits. Unlike the addresses of past presidents — which attracted little attention — Trump’s videos have “become surprise online blockbusters — with record numbers of Internet viewers,” the Boston Globe’s Annie Linskey reports. [From the Boston Globe, “He loves doing them,” said Cliff Sims, a West Wing staffer who oversees the address and meets the president each week, often first thing in the morning, with a folder containing the script. “The most powerful weapon we have in our communications arsenal is President Trump speaking directly to the American people. ” The average audience for Trump’s first 15 weekly addresses was 1. 7 million views. That’s more than three times as big as the average viewership Obama received in the same time period last year, according to a Globe analysis of publicly available data. … Each week the Democrats faithfully offer a rebuttal of sorts with their own address. (Under Obama the Republicans did this, too.) The job of delivering an opposition message rotates between the Democrats in House of Representatives and the Senate. These are not as popular. For the rest of the article, click here. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Smartphone users in Russia can no longer download the LinkedIn app on iPhone or Android devices, following a similar move in China to block The New York Times app on iPhones. The demand by Russian authorities to remove LinkedIn in Apple and Google app stores comes weeks after a court blocked the professional networking service for flouting local laws that require internet firms to store data on Russian citizens within the nation’s borders. The action is the equivalent of a nation banning “Catcher in The Rye” and then forcing booksellers to remove the title from their shelves. It puts Apple and Google in a difficult position. The companies are strong proponents of open internet policies and free speech but are now being asked to be agents for governments that censor its citizens. When LinkedIn’s website was blocked, the apps stopped functioning properly. Removing them from the Google Play store and Apple’s App Store may not have cut off access to content, but it sent a signal that countries can push the tech giants to remove the apps. Direct blocking of websites has been done by China, Russia, Turkey and several other nations for years, usually through their internet service providers. But civil rights groups say the pressure authoritarian governments are now placing on Apple and Google is a new wrinkle. “Apps are the new choke point of free expression,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, who leads a project on open internet tracking at New America. Increasingly, United States tech companies are complying with those demands. In the early 2000s, American internet firms strongly pushed back on demands by China to comply with censorship rules within the country’s internet controls, known as the Great Firewall. Recently, Facebook has been working on a censorship tool to be able to access China, where it is currently blocked along with Twitter and Google. LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, said it was “disappointed” with the decision by Russian regulators to block the service, which the company confirmed was extended to apps in Russian Apple and Google Play stores. “It denies access to our members in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses,” said Nicole Leverich, a spokeswoman for LinkedIn. Apple confirmed it was asked to remove its LinkedIn app in Russia about a month ago. It has also confirmed it was asked by China to block The New York Times app, but declined to comment further on both events. Google would not confirm it has removed LinkedIn in Russia but said it adheres to local laws in the countries in which it operates. More nations have enforced their own internet laws in recent years. Turkey intermittently blocks social media, such as during the attempted government coup last summer. It has also forced YouTube to remove content it considers disparaging of its founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. European nations have also drawn up their own privacy laws and in 2014 a court declared its citizens could demand internet companies like Google unlink information about users upon request. Tech companies and civil rights advocates warn that the increasing push by nations to create their own internet rules will Balkanize the internet and potentially lead to privacy violations and the stifling of political dissent. Other countries, however, criticize Silicon Valley and the United States government for setting the norms and rules for the internet. “Internet free speech and internet freedom are increasingly under attack all over the globe, and not just from authoritarian regimes,” said Robert M. McDowell, a former member of the Federal Communications Commission and partner at Cooley law firm. “It appears to be a ratchet with speech control getting tighter. ” LinkedIn has several million users in Russia, it said. In November, a Russian court ruled that the professional networking site broke local laws that require foreign internet firms to keep their servers holding information on Russian accounts within the nation. Most American internet companies in Russia operate in violation of the law, but without explanation, Russian regulators at a body known as Roskomnadzor took the rare step of enforcing its rules. The Russian regulators could not be immediately reached for comment. The action came at a tense moment in States relations related to cyber affairs. Russia has been accused of hacking into American accounts, including the Democratic National Committee, to try to influence the presidential election. American intelligence officials concluded in a declassified report released on Friday that the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, ordered the campaign. | 1 |
To pander to Hispanics Hillary states some whoppers on Univision page: 1 link Ah, Hillary. You change your accent depending on who you talk to. You tell Blacks in an interview you carry hot sauce everywhere. You try to appeal to Native Americans with Elizabeth Warren (hahahaha) but for her this is a low. USing her own grandchild....it isn't the first time she has used the grandchild either. It was the excuse for Bill and Loretta also... Link First, when asked, she says her favorite food is Mexican. In an article this year for “Thrillist,” detailing her favorite restaurants in the state of the New York, Clinton listed Rao’s (Italian), Northern Lights Creamery (gelato ice cream), Lange’s Little Store (sandwiches), Charlie The Butcher’s (meat) and others. But she didn’t list a single Mexican establishment. Second, she went on to tell the hosts her 2 y/o granddaughter is learning Spanish. Really? I mean she should have walked on stage with an El Chapo t-shirt, a sombrero and a six pack of Sol for goodness sake. Now, i know, this is not a big deal but stop and think. She is pathological. Is that who we really want in the White House? Someone who will say ANYTHING to ANYBODY in order to get them to agree. Using your grandchild to pander to a voting block. She is Nasty. If I was HIspanic this may not drive me to vote Trump, even though they should and will, I certainly would not vote for someone as fake as she is. Only good thing was she got a bottle of Tequila for her birthday. I am sure Bills foot massagers in his library will love it.... edit on 10pm31pmf 2016-10-26T14:56:02-05:000202 by matafuchs because: (no reason given) edit on 10pm31pmf 2016-10-26T14:57:05-05:000205 by matafuchs because: (no reason given) | 0 |
Wednesday on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said that she would like to ask Donald Trump if he is going to send her “to a camp. ” Reading a viewer question Cohen asked, “If you booked Donald Trump on your show, what would your first question be?” Maddow replied, “Ah, are you going to send me or anybody that I know to a camp?” ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
SHOCKING: Hillary’s Looking At Disaster & Anthony Weiner’s To Blame Posted on October 28, 2016 by Rebecca Diserio in Politics Share This
Hillary Clinton just got hit with a huge roadblock by the FBI in her quest for the presidency, and things are looking pretty dire for her campaign and election hopes. However, the Clintons play dirty, and she won’t go down easily. Yet, in a crazy turn of events, it looks like the fall of Hillary Clinton is linked to none other than Anthony Weiner, and what’s been exposed now going to shock the whole world. Hillary Clinton (left), Anthony Weiner (right)
Hillary’s campaign was rocked today by FBI James Comey as he announced the reopening of the investigation into Hillary’s email server and sending of classified emails. When Hillary spoke in Iowa after the huge announcement, she was delusional as she gave her prepared comments and said nothing about the FBI’s case against her.
Adding fuel to the fire, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook did something pretty damning, just minutes after the Comey announcement. He deleted his entire Twitter feed and years of tweets that must have incriminated him in some way to Hillary’s email scandal. But, that’s not all.
Fox News is reporting that the FBI found other emails from another government official, not from WikiLeaks but coming from an investigation into Anthony Weiner , which may indicate that his wife Huma Abedin, Hillary’s closest aide, is the link to the disaster Hillary is now facing:
“A senior law enforcement official separately told Fox News the FBI decision is not linked to WikiLeaks messages or any hack, and the newly discovered emails did not come from the Clinton server – but from another device from another government official.”
Hillary doesn’t live in the real world very well, so she won’t go quietly, even though it’s pretty clear her campaign is probably over. Even when facing defeat against Barack Obama in 2008, she would not give up.
Even when it came to the battle for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton refused to concede defeat until the bitter end and then past it. Not only did Hillary refuse to drop out even when Obama was the clear winner, while her people threatened a convention floor fight, but she insisted on staying on in the race for increasingly bizarre and even downright disturbing reasons.
In South Dakota, Hillary explained that there was no reason for her to drop out because somebody might shoot Barack Obama, “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.” [via Sultan Knish ]
Even after Obama had clinched the delegate votes, Hillary’s speech brought back the Al Gore argument that George Bush didn’t win the election in 2000, saying, “Nearly 18 million of you cast your votes for our campaign, carrying the popular vote with more votes than any primary candidate in history. Even when the pundits and the naysayers proclaimed week after week that this race was over, you kept on voting.” Robby Mook (left) deleted his entire Twitter feed after FBI re-opened email case, Huma Abedin & Hillary Clinton (right)
Look for Hillary, refusing to drop out of this campaign, and We the People need to put pressure on the FBI to conclude this investigation before Election Day. We cannot have a sitting president who will be going to prison, and yet, we know that Hillary Clinton will refuse to drop out no matter how dire this situation truly is.
The mere fact that we all know she is guilty of sending classified documents makes her unfit to hold any political office ever again, and Americans must demand Hillary Clinton is held accountable. It’s time we take back our country and put Hillary in prison where she belongs. | 0 |
Support Us Should I Get Botox?
source Add To The Conversation Using Facebook Comments November 1, 2016 at 6:25 am
I think that maybe she can use a very natural makeup as an enhancement for her features to make her skin look softer and fresher. More than those lines her skin looks tired. Exfoliation, hydration, and a natural makeup will do a great difference in her. November 1, 2016 at 6:25 am
Botox is a toxin, it's not for "taking care of your skin". If you want to actually take care of your skin and reduce the appearance of your wrinkles, you should do a deep chemical peel once a year, derma roll every month, and use prescription Retin-A in between those things. Keeping the skin hydrated and nourished with consistent exfoliation is the key to young skin. So vitamin e oil, steam facials and natural moisturizers on the regular. As far as feminism and skincare/plastic surgery, I think it's less a gender issue than a reach to maintain biological attraction. Youth equals fertility, and – because we're animals – to attract a mate, generally it's about how "fertile" you appear. Call it peacocking or whatever you will, it's not anti-feminist to care about how you look. | 0 |
posted by Eddie Below is a great example of how police harass the innocent. C.J. and Matt were simply walking, at night. They had committed no crime and presented no threat to another’s property or person when a police officer decided to detain them.
This police officer had no reasonable suspicion to stop these guys so he says they were loitering. Apparently walking through a public space at night, is now loitering. After stopping them, the officer claims that not answering questions is ‘suspicious activity.’ Apparently the 5th Amendment to the Constitution is ‘suspicious’ to this cop. Some people will say that he should have consented and answered the questions this cop was asking. However they have probably never heard this lecture, by officer George Bruch of the Virginia Beach Police Department, explaining why you should ‘never, never, never, ever talk to the police, ever.’ The police will all to often use your own words to imply that a crime has been committed, even if you are innocent. Around the 4:30 mark in the video, C.J. makes this officer look pretty silly. It was good that C.J. got this jab in early as the night had apparently just started for these cops. Tax payer money well spent. | 0 |
Email
Elections in the United States are far and away the most expensive in the entire world. In 2012, the Federal Election Commission reported that $7 billion was spent on the presidential campaign. By the time the ink is dry on the 2016 election, the number will likely be even higher. American voters take for granted that political campaigns provide value that allows them to choose the candidate that best represents their ideology and policy positions. But, is this really the best system? Is it even a good one?
The astronomical cost of campaigns in the U.S. prohibits all but a small handful of individuals with the celebrity and access to obscene sums money the realistic opportunity to compete. It should be no surprise that the two finalists for president in 2016 are both multi-millionaire oligarchs. Even so, they are dependent on raising hundreds of millions of dollars from big business and other special interests.
Is it reasonable to expect that after such a process the winner of the election will be able to represent the interests of the average citizen rather than the super-wealthy elite individuals and corporations whose patronage allowed them achieve victory at the polls?
A recent Princeton University academic study disputes this notion. Martin Giles and Benjamin Page write that statistical measures demonstrate that elites and business interests have an impact on policy directly correlated to their wealth, while the average voter has no discernible impact on policy at all. The influence of regular citizens is so low, the authors argue, that it would be inaccurate to characterize the American political system as a democracy.
As greater economic power necessarily translates to greater political power, a reasonable remedy to the situation would be to decrease inequality in the United States. If inequality was drastically rolled back to a level closer to that found after the end of WWII – through massive taxes on wealth, income and capital gains, along with the abolition of inheritance – perhaps the conditions would exist for fair elections based on competitive campaigns.
But absent such a drastic realignment of the politico-economic system, are there better possibilities for American citizens to elect officials that represent their interests? The nation has seen that Barack Obama’s promises in 2008 to represent “hope and change,” to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, close Guantanamo, operate transparently, limit domestic surveillance and reform taxes were, in reality, little more than hot air.
What if instead of being allowed to create his own narrative, a summary of his undistinguished record as an lawyer from elite universities and corporate-friendly record state representative and politician was what voters had to guide their expectations of how he would govern?
Perhaps the U.S. could look to Cuba, where the Revolutionary government – facing unrelenting subversion and destabilization for decades by its imperial neighbor to the north – has managed to eliminate money from politics entirely. At the municipal level, candidates spend no money and do not campaign at all. Instead, voters are presented with short biographies to reference in determining who they believe would better represent them.
As the U.S. prepares for its latest electoral spectacle in a few weeks, I offer sample bios for the two presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, based on what they may look like if they were running for office in Cuba . *** | 0 |
Big Cannabis – on the lines of Big Pharma – is on the cards. At least that’s what Germany-based pharmaceutical giant Bayer’s $66 billion takeover of America-based agrichemical giant Monsanto (a leading producer of RoundUp Ready genetically modified crops) indicates. Financed from a consortium of corrupt, in-debt, and influential banks (including Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, and Bank of America), the multi-billion-dollar deal (negotiated by the Rothschild Banking Cartel) brings Bayer ( famous for selling heroin to children and financing Nazi concentration camps ) closer to the multi-billion-dollar cannabis market through its ”mission” to create a one-stop shop for seeds, crop chemicals and computer-aided services to cannabis growers .
#Cannabis is Non Toxic but #Monsanto will make it toxic by making a GMO version. #SaveCannabis #VoteNoOn64
— David (@rskls) September 6, 2016
Cannabis proponents believe the largest all-cash deal on record will destroy the infant marijuana industry by introducing genetically modified cannabis seeds, highly expensive cannabis-based drugs, monopolistic use of patents, and restrictive business practices. Leafly notes:
“The worry is that the combined firm will have the financial and political influence to do to cannabis what it has already done to corn, tobacco, and other cash crops — namely, use pricey patented cannabis seeds (Roundup Ready Blue Dream, anyone?) that favor large-scale operators and rigidly control how all cannabis farmers farm. The merger, in other words, could be the first step toward Big Cannabis .”
Monsanto’s decades old intimate ties with the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company — a leading producer of pesticides for commercial and consumer lawn and garden use (who was ordered to pay $12.5 million in criminal fines and civil penalties for violations of Federal Pesticide Laws in 2012) — is especially a matter of concern. Monsanto and Scotts Miracle-Gro have long been partners with the DEA to produce hormones and carcinogenic chemicals used in the wars against marijuana and coca plants.
Jim Hagedorn, who took over Scotts Miracle-Gro in 2001, shared his intention to “invest, like, half a billion in the pot business” with Forbes in July, calling cannabis the biggest thing he has ever seen in lawn and garden. Forbes reports:
Scotts Miracle-Gro shelled out $135 million last year on two California-based businesses [including the $130 million buyout of General Hydroponics] that sell fertilizers, soils and accessories to pot growers. It recently spent another $120 million on a still-undisclosed lighting and hydroponics equipment company in Amsterdam and promises to invest about another $150 million by the end of 2016.
Altogether, the deals are bigger than the largest single acquisition in the history of Scotts Miracle-Gro, which takes in $160 million of profit on $3 billion in sales annually. | 0 |
Home › POLITICS › ASSANGE CLAIMS ‘CRAZED’ CLINTON CAMPAIGN TRIED TO HACK WIKILEAKS ASSANGE CLAIMS ‘CRAZED’ CLINTON CAMPAIGN TRIED TO HACK WIKILEAKS 0 SHARES
[10/27/16] Julian Assange has claimed the Hillary Clinton campaign has attacked the servers being used by WikiLeaks. Despite the Ecuadorian embassy shutting down his internet until the US election is over, the website will continue publishing, according to Assange.
“Everyday that you publish is a day that you have the initiative in the conflict,” Assange said via telephone at a conference in Argentina on Wednesday.
The whistleblowing website has been releasing emails from Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta, on a daily basis since early October.
Assange claimed the release “whipped up a crazed hornet’s nest atmosphere in the Hillary Clinton campaign” leading them to attack WikiLeaks.
“ They attacked our servers and attempted hacking attacks and there is an amazing ongoing campaign where state documents were put in the UN and British courts to accuse me of being both a Russian spy and a pedophile,” he added.
Ecuador’s decision to shut down his internet was described by Assange as a “strategic position” so that its “policy of non-intervention can’t be misinterpreted by actors in the US and even domestically in Ecuador.”
He said he was sympathetic with Ecuador, insisting they face the dilemma of having the US interfere with their elections next year if they appear to interfere with the US elections next month. Post navigation | 0 |
posted by Eddie If you’ve been keeping up with alternative media outlets the past couple weeks, you probably know that the DEA just classified kratom, a tropical deciduous tree with leaves used for various medicinal purposes (1) , a Schedule 1 substance. This puts it in the same class as heroin (2) . Vendors are already struggling to import it, and some have gone into hiding (2) . Kratom has been called a lifesaver for sufferers of mental or physical conditions made worse by pharmaceutical drugs. Despite this (and despite the harms caused by opiates), the scandal-ridden DEA has set its sights on fighting yet another helpful natural substance proven to work better for the treatment of various conditions than its pharmaceutical counterparts. An uprising began the moment the DEA announced the decision. Activists and kratom users everywhere are refusing to take it lying down and are working to correct the false image this classification paints of a misunderstood medicine. Blurring the Line By classifying it Schedule 1, the DEA is essentially telling us kratom is as bad as heroin. A little research reveals that not only is it nowhere near as bad as heroin or other opiates, but it can be used to treat opiate addiction. Anything that alters the mind is a drug, and by making classifications like this, the DEA is seriously blurring the line between beneficial and harmful drugs while confusing the public and proliferating ignorance. Nature produces countless mind-altering chemicals we’re supposed to use to heal the body and elevate the mind and soul. In this day and age, people are becoming aware of the power of nature to heal many of the problems created by man. This unjustified action against one of many beneficial natural substances serves only to expose the fact that the DEA is out of touch with the rest of the world. No Longer a Legitimate Authority Cassius Kamarampi writes that we have no reason to consider the DEA’s authority legitimate in the wake of their recent scandals (2) . One scandal, which broke wide open in the media, involved agents holding sex parties with prostitutes in Columbia supplied by local cartels (2) . This ultimately forced the head of the DEA, Michelle M. Leonhart, to step down (2) . It’s as if the agency wants to bring attention away from their misdeeds and onto the latest supposedly dangerous drug. Perhaps they intend for the backlash to make people forget their scandals and continue to bicker about which drugs the government should or shouldn’t let the masses use. If this is the case, there’s one thing they didn’t consider: activists don’t forget. You can’t expect independent thinkers to excuse the scandals of an agency that targets them with unfair laws. Ultimately, this classification will drive researchers and activists to expose more corruption within an agency that can no longer be taken seriously but is nonetheless dangerous to those who oppose it. It’s Up to Us The masses aren’t always quick to question the ulterior motives of government agencies they’ve been conditioned to believe exist for the greater good. This is one reason the backlash from the activist community is so strong: we know by this point that it’s up to us to make a change. The struggle against an unjustified classification of a natural medicinal substance has to be particularly coherent, well organized and founded upon a strong sense of cohesion to make up for the apathy in society. We won’t have much help and we may find ourselves in opposition to people who know no better than to believe what the government or DEA tells them, but it helps to know there are millions around the world who, like us, are fighting for the positive change we know we can have. We just have to strive for it together. Kratom’s Medicinal Uses Let’s take a look at some of kratom’s reported medicinal uses. The information below doesn’t paint a complete picture of what it can do, but the uses we’ll learn about are enough to convince anyone it shouldn’t be illegal or considered as dangerous as heroin. According to Natural Blaze , kratom isn’t an opiate but functions similarly by attaching to activating opioid receptors in the brain – without the harsh side effects (2) . Among other benefits, chewing on kratom leaves can alleviate chronic pain and anxiety as well as help in the struggle against addiction (2) . This is due to the leaves’ natural euphoric effects, which, again, come without the negative side effects of opiates (2) . According to OrganicFacts.net , kratom’s benefits include lowering blood pressure; boosting metabolism; relieving pain; improving the immune system; increasing sexual energy; easing anxiety; preventing diabetes; eliminating stress; and inducing a healthier state of sleep (1) . Kratom (or Mitragyna speciose) is native to Southeast Asia where it’s used for its medicinal properties (1) . It’s no stranger to being banned: it was banned in Thailand despite that it’s indigenous there and used regardless (1) . It’s described as a natural opium substitute with unique chemical compounds and nutrients found in its leaves (1) . It contains a wide range of alkaloids and other organic substances, and despite being banned it’s still widely used in Thailand; studies estimate that up to 70% of males in the country chew anywhere from 10-60 leaves daily (1) . As a less harmful substitute for opium, it exhibits no addictive qualities (1) . This in itself makes kratom a great treatment for addiction and other physical or mental health problems (1) , which is more than we can say about most of big pharma’s drugs. Organic Facts provides an in-depth description of each of kratom’s medicinal properties, paraphrased below. Pain Relief Kratom is best known for relieving pain in a way similar to opiates (1) . This is due to the analgesic properties of the alkaloids and nutrients in its leaves, which impact the hormonal system and relieve pain quickly (1) . The alkaloids and nutrients increase the amount of serotonin and dopamine released into the body; this can either mask or alleviate pain (1) . The alkaloids essentially dull the body’s pain receptors (1) , and this opium-like quality is considered kratom’s “most important application” (1) . Improving Immune System Health The alkaloids also have a “major” combinative effect on the strength and resilience of the immune system (1) , and research that’s still being checked suggests chewing on the leaves can prevent illness or reduce its severity (1) . If the DEA’s ban were lifted, research could continue unhindered and the truth could eventually reach a mainstream audience. Improving Sexual Drive Many see kratom as an aphrodisiac and fertility booster (1) . The extra energy and blood flow received from the leaves can help increase fertility, re-energize a tired libido, and improve duration as well as conception rates (1) . Treating Anxiety & Mood Swings The leaves are often chewed by sufferers of chronic stress, depression, anxiety and mood swings for their anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) properties (1) . Chewing them can also regulate hormones in the body, providing relief from symptoms of chemical imbalance without the need for dangerous pharmaceutical drugs (1) . Helping Recover from Addiction Kratom has been used to cure addiction to opiates and other harmful substances for thousands of years (1) . Opium addiction has been a major problem in countless cultures throughout history. Since chewing kratom leaves provides a similar sensation to opium without the comedown or other negative side effects, addicts trying to get clean consider it a “tolerable solution” that helps them cover and cope with symptoms of withdrawal (1) . Keeping the Heart Healthy Studies connect chewing kratom leaves with a drop in blood pressure; the leaves’ chemical components reduce inflammation throughout the body when they impact its hormones (1) . The affected areas include the arteries and blood vessels (1) . It can even prevent serious heart conditions such as stroke, heart attack or atherosclerosis by relieving tension in the cardiovascular system (1) . Treating or Preventing Diabetes Kratom’s effect on blood sugar levels isn’t as well-known as its treatment for pain or addiction (1) . Limited research suggests the leaves’ alkaloids regulate the amount of insulin and glucose in the blood, preventing the dangerous peaks and troughs often suffered by diabetics (1) . Because of this, kratom could potentially prevent diabetes or help those who already suffer with it to manage it (1) . Side Effects Any mind-altering substance comes with its share of side effects, but like cannabis, kratom’s lack of serious or dangerous side effects is one of its most remarkable qualities. The effects listed below are only common for first or second time users, and they diminish as the body acclimates to regular use (1) . They include fatigue, nausea and constipation, as well as a “kratom hangover” that can come with headaches or nausea the morning after the first or second use (1) . This pales in comparison to what opium addicts experience, and most would probably be glad to have a natural medicinal substance to help them through their recovery. Nature Can’t Be Outlawed The following is my opinion and may or may not reflect the ideals of those who are more involved in the fight against kratom’s criminalization. Kratom’s recent classification can be likened in many ways to the Marihuana Tax Act of the 1930s. The medicinal benefits of cannabis were well-known during that time, as it was used for medicine throughout the United States. The benefits of hemp were also well-known. As it became apparent to billionaires with control over the media that they couldn’t make as much money from hemp as they could lumber, cotton and other less easily replaceable resources, they deemed cannabis the evil Mexican marihuana and outlawed it with the help of heavily publicized propaganda campaigns. Kratom might not come with the array of industrial benefits provided by hemp (feel free to correct me if it does), but I’d imagine the government and DEA have a similar intention in outlawing it. The Struggle for Freedom As many have pointed out, this latest development is just another instance in the overall struggle between government agencies and the people they try to control through oppressive and intimidating laws. It represents the struggle for freedom; in this case, the freedom to use nature the way it’s intended without fear of persecution. This includes the use of substances with medicinal uses big pharma can’t market. The government’s efforts to stifle the use of these substances for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies (or other industries aligned against them) is futile. As Damian Marley put it, “people will always be who they want, and that’s what really makes the world go ‘round”. Rather than fight it, the DEA should accept that the masses are slowly embracing natural approaches to treating, curing and preventing disease. They should also accept that the effort to suppress the use of any natural substance with proven benefits for the mind or body is futile in the big picture. Conclusion The struggle between the DEA and sensible free thinkers is birthed from our resistance to their attempt to control or prevent the natural relationship between man and the psychoactive chemicals found in nature. Humans have interacted with natural mind-altering substances for centuries, and despite how hard any government agency tries to prevent this interaction, it will continue indefinitely because it exists for a reason. The truth about kratom is already spreading as a result of the backlash from the DEA’s decision. If we can make people aware of its medicinal properties and inspire them to take action, we can reverse a decision made out of negligence for the lives that will be affected by it. Criminalizing the innocent only creates crime where there was none, and at this pivotal point in mankind’s evolution, we should be past this kind of backward thinking. Sources: “Health Benefits of Kratom Leaves”, Organic Facts – https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/other/kratom-leaves.html Cassius Kamarampi, “Kratom Now Schedule 1: Cartel Sex Scandal Shamed DEA Suppresses Herb Imports”, Era of Wisdom , August 31, 2016 – http://www.eraofwisdom.org/kratom-now-schedule-1-herb-imports-suppressed-cartel-sex-scandal-shamed-dea/ From Around the Web Founder of WorldTruth.Tv and WomansVibe.com Eddie ( 8932 Posts )
Eddie L. is the founder and owner of WorldTruth.TV. and Womansvibe.com. Both website are dedicated to educating and informing people with articles on powerful and concealed information from around the world. I have spent the last 36+ years researching Bible, History, Alternative Health, Secret Societies, Symbolism and many other topics that are not reported by mainstream media. | 0 |
Sputnik and Jill Stein Want A Vote Recount
Apparently the Russian news site and the Green Party candidate want a vote recount that could remove “peace with Russia” Trump and install “nuclear war with Russia” Hillary.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201611241047810414-stein-sputnik-interview-election-recount/
The post Sputnik and Jill Stein Want A Vote Recount appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org . | 0 |
Videos Hackers Dump More Intel From NSA’s Elite Equation Group The new leak purportedly reveals IP addresses of NSA controlled servers in 49 countries that are used to launch offensives against NSA targets. | November 1, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! This June 6, 2013 file photo shows the sign outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md.
In August, anonymous hacker(s) dumped a cache of cyberweapons that appeared to originate with The Equation Group , an elite, NSA-affiliated hacking squad.
The leakers called themselves The Shadow Brokers, and they sought bTc1,000,000 for access to the remainder of The Equation Group’s files. Earlier this month, arrested NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin was accused of being the source of the leak to The Shadow Brokers, though not necessarily deliberately (he may have been hacked by The Shadow Brokers).
The Shadow Brokers have had no takers for their auction, and so they’re now dumping more files, presumably to stir up interest.
The new leak purportedly reveals IP addresses of NSA controlled servers in 49 countries that are used to launch offensives against NSA targets. If the leaks are to be believed, they show that the NSA uses hacked servers in China and Russia to attack other countries. The dump contains some 300 folders of files, all corresponding to different domains and IP addresses. Domains from Russia, China, India, Sweden, and many other countries are included. According to an analysis by the security researcher known as Hacker Fantastic, the dump contains 306 domains and 352 IP addresses relating to 49 countries in total. If accurate, victims of the Equation Group may be able to use these files to determine if they were potentially targeted by the NSA-linked unit. The IP addresses may relate to servers the NSA has compromised and then used to deliver exploits, according to security researcher Mustafa Al-Bassam. “So even the NSA hacks machines from compromised servers in China and Russia. This is why attribution is hard,” Al-Bassam tweeted on Monday. This work by Boing Boing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. | 0 |
columnists from a variety of media outlets have thrown their toys out of the pram in response to MILO’s appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher” yesterday evening. [Daniel Holloway of The Chicago Tribune, attacked Maher for giving MILO the opportunity to “renew attacks on familiar targets,” despite the fact that Maher repeatedly challenged MILO on the show. Yiannopoulos continued by repeating his assertion that Jones, who has been a writer and cast member on “Saturday Night Live” for four seasons, is “barely literate. ” His claim went unchallenged by Maher. Neal Broverman of The Advocate argued that Maher “crossed the line” by having MILO on the show, before criticizing the liberal commentators use of the word “fag. ” If it wasn’t bad enough that Bill Maher gave gay troll Milo Yiannopoulos a huge forum by featuring him on his HBO show, the straight TV host thought it appropriate to call him a “fag” during the interview. … On top of Maher’s disgusting choice of words, he introduced Yiannopoulos like he was a Hollywood celebrity joking and almost flirting with him like he was having George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence, or some innocuous actor on his show. Hannah Gold of Jezebel was similarly outraged, claiming Maher is now a “monster” for his decision to invite MILO on as a guest for Friday night’s show. The thing about Maher is that — though he’s made too many nasty jokes about minorities and women for me to ever enjoy him — he is usually pretty good at making fun of everyone. He didn’t do that in his interview with Yiannopoulos. I’m sure Maher of all people can appreciate the truth about how much that fucking sucked. Mary Papenfuss of The Huffington Post, falsely labeling MILO a “white nationalist,” criticized Maher for allegedly letting MILO off easy for what she regards as his controversial stances on several issues. The appearance between Bill Maher and Milo Yiannopoulos on HBO’s “Real Time” came off more like a mutual admiration society. At one point, the host even playfully referred to the white nationalist as an “impish, British fag. ” Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson slammed Maher, accusing him of helping to amplify MILO’s “bigotry,” while also falsely associating the Dangerous Faggot with “white supremacy. ” Bill Maher was complicit in amplifying bigotry in that Breitbart interview. He not only allowed it but left it unchecked. — deray mckesson (@deray) February 18, 2017, But the prize for hyperbolic outrage surely goes to Daily Kos blogger “Chitown Kev. ” “The gall of Bill Maher to compare Milo to the late, great Christopher Hitchens was stunningly unmitigated,” wrote Kev. “I mean, really? REALLY?” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — An airport encounter this week between Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and former President Bill Clinton has welled into a political storm, with Republicans asserting that it compromised the Justice Department’s politically sensitive investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices while she was secretary of state. The Obama administration declined to say on Thursday whether the meeting between Ms. Lynch and Mr. Clinton, in Phoenix on Monday night, was appropriate. The press secretary, Josh Earnest, said that the investigation of Mrs. Clinton would be free of political influence and that he would leave it to the attorney general to explain the meeting. Ms. Lynch said the meeting with Mr. Clinton was unplanned, largely social and did not touch on the email investigation. She suggested that he walked uninvited from his plane to her government plane, which were both parked on a tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. “He did come over and say hello, and speak to my husband and myself, and talk about his grandchildren and his travels and things like that,” Ms. Lynch said at a news conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where she was promoting community policing. “That was the extent of that. And no discussions were held into any cases or things like that. ” That did not mollify Republican lawmakers, who said the meeting raised questions about the integrity of the government’s investigation. Since last summer, the F. B. I. has been investigating whether Mrs. Clinton or her aides violated laws on the protection of classified material by using a private email address and server in the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua, N. Y. The F. B. I. is expected to make a recommendation to the Justice Department in the coming weeks. While some legal experts said they believed criminal indictments in the case were unlikely, the investigation continues to cast a shadow over Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. “In light of the apparent conflicts of interest, I have called repeatedly on Attorney General Lynch to appoint a special counsel to ensure the investigation is as far from politics as possible,” Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas and a member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement on Thursday. “This incident does nothing to instill confidence in the American people that her department can fully and fairly conduct this investigation, and that’s why a special counsel is needed now more than ever,” he said. Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, seized on the incident, describing it in a radio interview as a “sneak” meeting and saying it exposed the rigged nature of the process. Even some Democrats expressed uneasiness with the appearance the meeting created. “I do agree with you that it doesn’t send the right signal,” Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said in response to a question on CNN’s “New Day” program. Ms. Lynch “has generally shown excellent judgment and strong leadership of the department, and I’m convinced that she’s an independent attorney general. But I do think that this meeting sends the wrong signal, and I don’t think it sends the right signal. I think she should have steered clear, even of a brief, casual, social meeting with the former president. ” At the White House, Mr. Earnest was asked repeatedly about the propriety of the meeting. He defended what he said was Ms. Lynch’s long record of independence as a federal prosecutor. But he stopped short of saying the administration viewed the meeting as appropriate. “I wasn’t there for the meeting,” Mr. Earnest said, “but the attorney general was, and she was asked a direct question about it, and she answered it. I think that is consistent with everybody’s expectations. ” | 1 |
time for more civil unrest… fuck DAPL, they deserve to burn in the oil they are trying so desperately to transport across the nation. | 0 |
During an investigation into former New York congressman Anthony Weiner’s lewd texting with an underage girl, new communications were uncovered on the congressman’s computer which have given FBI Director James Comey cause to re-open the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information.
On Friday, Comey notified the leaders of the congressional oversight committees that the investigation has been re-opened. In his letter, he wrote:
In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.
According to FBI officials, the emails were discovered after the bureau seized a device which was used by both the former congressman and his estranged wife, Huma Abedin, a top aide to the Clinton Campaign, which contained related information to their investigation into Weiner’s “sexting” escapade with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Hillary Clinton seems to be confident that the FBI will not bring charges against her.
“[FBI Director James Comey] himself has said he doesn’t know whether the emails… are significant or not,” Clinton said to reporters on Friday. “I’m confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July. Therefore it’s imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay.”
Donald Trump, speaking to a crowd in New Hampshire on Friday afternoon, tipped his hat to the FBI for having the “courage” to correct “the horrible mistake that they made.”
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before,” Trump said. “We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.” Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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RT crew comes under fire as Aleppo militants launch massive new assault (VIDEO) 11/03/2016
RUSSIA TODAY RT’s Murad Gazdiev and his crew came under fire in Aleppo as militant groups holding the eastern part of the city launched a new assault on government-held western areas, trying to break the blockade, after rejecting an offer to leave the city with their arms.
The neighborhood “ has been relatively quiet for the past two days and we wanted to see what was happening there ,” RT’s Gazdiev reported from Aleppo. “ There are still dozens of civilians there, not everyone managed to leave. ”
The rebels apparently launched a major new offensive against the government-held part of the city, radio communications intercepted by the Syrian military indicate.
“ There were apparently two or three suicide car bombs blown up very close to us. We hid. We saw many shells landing meters away from us, ” Gazdiev said.
The Syrian Army helped the RT crew along with civilians being evacuated from the area.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian military said that last week’s attempts by the militants to break through the blockade around the city had failed, and suggested that they leave Aleppo through one of two corridors opened for that purpose.
Russia and Syria halted airstrikes on eastern Aleppo two weeks ago amid a flurry of criticism from the West over civilian casualties in the city. Moscow said civilians were being held by the militants as human shields, but agreed to keep warplanes away from the city.
The offer to leave Aleppo by Friday night was rejected by some groups controlling the eastern part of the city.
Russia’s earlier attempts to allow militants to leave and civilians to be evacuated from eastern Aleppo were thwarted by the more belligerent groups, which opened fire at anyone trying to use the corridors – both those meant for armed people and unarmed civilians. | 0 |
An Identity-Politicized Election and World Series Lakefront Liberals Can Love An Identity-Politicized Election and World Series Lakefront Liberals Can Love By 0 9
It’s the perfect time to be an affluent white and politically correct North Side Lakefront – or other kind of – Liberal and sports fan in the Chicago area. Think about it. Your beloved Chicago Cubs are finally going to their first World Series since 1945 and they will be doing a battle against a team with the worst racist Native American logo in major U.S. professional sports: the Cleveland Indians – yes, the “Indians.” The Indians’ Chief Wahoo – a wild grinning caricature – is the single most offensive, politically incorrect image in sports today.
It’s enough to make folks forget that the Cubs are owned by a politically active right-wing Republican family, the Ricketts, one of whom recently contributed $1 million to the racist and sexist bigot Donald Trump. And that the Cubs’ storied ballpark Wrigley Field will be jammed with rich white people who can swallow up secondary market World Series tickets selling for as high as $18,000 . And that the Cubs owe no small part their ability to overcome their “ Billy Goat curse ” (proclaiming that they’d never go again to the final championship series) largely to massive infusions of big Ricketts money required to purchase free-agent veterans to go along with their younger stars.
Meanwhile, the liberals’ party has a presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who is about to become the national government’s first female chief executive after trouncing the aforementioned bigot Trump in the November 8 th … | 0 |
I’m going to level with you. Getting inside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is hard. “Advanced timed passes for April 2017 Available on January 4th,” the website laughs. So with all due respect to the buckets of cash raised to fix Dorothy’s ruby shoes, the opening of the Blacksonian is the museum event of the year — probably the century. (Yes, “the Blacksonian,” because no one is going say that whole name and no one’s going to say “NMAAHC,” either, because no one wants to hear “God bless you” every time somebody does.) The wait to create a national museum of black history and culture was decades long. And the result amounts to a major bureaucratic, academic and emotional achievement. Now everybody wants in. So some of us have to wait. I got in on a chilly autumn Sunday, after a stranger, who had more passes than she needed, gave an extra one to me. There aren’t many places where gluttony becomes largess, but it does at the Blacksonian. While you’re standing there, hoping a look of pity turns into a pass, there’s plenty of time to roll your eyes at the faint fragrance of barbecued meat from the food truck parked along Constitution Avenue, or to ask someone to hold your spot in line while you consult with the man selling pies nearby. There’s also plenty of time to admire the edifice you’re waiting to enter: three tiered trapezoidal stacks of gating that sheaths a giant glass box. I had assumed that the gating was iron or actual bronze. Nope. Aluminum. Aluminum siding. But it’s the most vivid, most alive, aluminum siding you’re ever going to see. Obviously, we’re talking about architecture not black hair, but the edges lay perfectly. Designed just a little differently, the gating might have read as defensive, as a meticulous: “Keep out. ” But the panels are too porous for combat. They extend cautious warmth, instead: “Take care. ” The trapezoids, we’ve been told, evoke a Yoruba crown, imputing a sense of majesty. You can see that, especially in the museum’s silhouetted logo. Yet viewed from the minor distance of 14th Street and Constitution, with the Washington Monument playing the role of antenna, it’s a fortress. But — unlike, say, the pink marble of its neighbor the National Gallery of Art, or the curvilinear limestone of the National Museum of the American Indian — the Blacksonian is brown. In the course of a day, depending on the weather and the light, that aluminum skin turns every shade of that color. In the sunlight, it’s golden, sepia in the shade, when it’s overcast. At dusk, it’s mahogany and deep chestnut after a cloud gobbles up the sun. The building can be all of these browns without ever getting to black, as if it knows that no black person is actually, phenotypically black. So the building, a mighty, physical construct, memorializes a figurative one. “Black” is the concept that gets unpacked, rebuilt and celebrated within the museum. Inside, there’s more waiting to be done — for the very good restaurant, for the ladies’ room, for entry to the museum’s deep lower levels. Building waiting into the experience feels right for a place that tells the story of a people who’ve had to wait for everything else. The anticipation for the subterranean history galleries already feels mythic. You might know, for instance, that the museum’s narrative history starts underground, and gradually brings you up — into the present, into the ample light that pours through the great glass enclosure. But that doesn’t account for the emotional toll of all the waiting and reading and thinking and connecting and feeling to come. It doesn’t account for the experience of standing in the immense concourse and seeing the faces of the hundreds of people waiting with you, the endless hues of skin. This standing around is simultaneously boring and one of the happiest, most poignant things I’ve ever done with monotony. Here we all are, imported as Africans, standing around as checking our phones, laughing, talking, taking group selfies, waiting with white people from this country and from Europe, with all kinds of Latinos, all kinds of Asians, all kinds of Arabs, to interact with a version of a story of what America truly is. During that wait for the underground galleries, natural impatience threatens to upstage the human majesty of it all. You don’t know why it’s taking so long to get there. Once you reach the entrance, you see. You’re waiting for an elevator. The Blacksonian has one pivotal conceit, one metaphorical device that you need to embrace despite its hokiness, despite its comical proximity to a set of stairs, and it’s the elevator. The elevator is an enormous glass box that comfortably fits about 30 people. The operator welcomes you to a time machine that’s going to carry you from the 21st century to the 15th. It was a device I knew I’d bought into when the operator asked whether we were ready, and I honestly couldn’t say that I was. Despite waiting all morning for this — despite waiting all my life, really — I was overcome with stress. Suddenly, I was unready to see any of the 37, 000 procured, purchased and donated objects, even as the box began its descent and landed its cargo at the year 1400. The stress never left. And it probably shouldn’t have. That’s history. It’s heavy. You just bear the weight as you set forth to graze thousands of chronologically arranged facts, names, photographs, things, explanatory guides, problems. The museum doesn’t tell you how to proceed. You’re not doing it wrong, even though a school of museum criticism — and to be fair, some museumgoers — expect . Maybe the Blacksonian doesn’t instruct you on where next to graze. But you’re always oriented. And it’s the orientation that gets to you. Until the installation on slaves’ role in the Revolutionary War, for instance, the ceilings in the galleries are low (Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are among the museum’s donors, and I wish their heads luck). With a crowd, the walkways narrow the lighting is almost notional, polite, correspondent with one solemn detail after the next. You can see more than well enough to understand that enslaved labor was foundational for the colonies. You can hear that anyone speaking is doing so almost reluctantly. You feel simultaneously overheated and spiritually chilled. In these early galleries, you’re always in someone’s way. There’s always some image you’re not seeing, some wall text you practically have to kiss in order to read. It’s strange: Here we are, climbing past one another, inspecting the historical molecules that make us us. Objects, stories, illustrations, faces, ideas and legislation will magnetize you to them, will imprint themselves upon you. That happened to me almost immediately, with the wall of slave ships. It carries the names of vessels and their countries of commercial origin (always Europe, often Portugal). It specifies the date of disembarkation and tallies the number of passengers versus the number of survivors. The wall appears to be a single structure, full of information that you have to both crouch and get on the tips of your toes to make out. Then you realize that it runs the length of much of one side of the gallery, and that the decorative presentation has fooled then floored you. It’s such a horrifyingly casual display that it becomes grimly amusing before it turns devastating. The awkward presentation feels morally apt. The Atlantic Ocean was once a sloshing highway to transport slaves. The work you do to see that wall is emblematic of the work to be done by visitors all over the historical galleries. You reach the end of Reconstruction on the lowest level and have to climb a ramp to get to the civil rights era. That doesn’t feel accidental. It’s effort that seems meant as a terribly loaded abridgment of the work black people have always done in this country. Progress is a StairMaster. The Blacksonian reveals a wicked, poetic sense of humor about this history. You exit that long, tight, airless gallery into a huge open space with virtually no ceiling, and you realize you weren’t breathing. And then you catch your breath only to look up and see, on a platform, a statue of Thomas Jefferson. Arrayed behind him are rows and rows of bricks painted with the names of some of his slaves — Hercules and Jupiter and lots of Sallys. Surrounding him are equally proportioned statues of Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Banneker, Phyllis Wheatley and the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture — black people the museum argues are equally important. They loom near Jefferson. They haunt him. Abraham Lincoln, too, is morally conjoined here, on the abolition of slavery. He is as bound to Frederick Douglass, as Tony Curtis is chained to Sidney Poitier in “The Defiant Ones. ” Lincoln’s not a hero at the Blacksonian. He’s a man with a nagging mandate from Douglass to do the right thing. He’s another brick in the wall. The time machine transports you to other places — to an old slave cabin, a heartbreakingly perfunctory bill of sale for a black girl, the coffin of young, murdered Emmett Till, to photograph after photograph of slaves who radiate a kind of melancholic neutrality. Encountering so many long faces makes you aware of the length of yours. They also dare you to wonder: Who, among these ancestors, was the first to have the audacity to be pictured with a smile? The wonder keeps growing. How did this country ever evolve from a wall listing the amount paid for so many black people to the wall on the great ground floor featuring the many black people who helped pay to build the museum that would display either wall? How did we get from the funereal assessment of American history below ground to the vibrant galleries on the upper floors that salute black hair, black comedy, black athletes, black scientists, black travel, black art, black body language, Chuck Berry’s Cadillac? (That’s not quite the story down the Mall, at the Museum of the American Indian, and I carried that heaviness around with me, too.) The Blacksonian takes astonishing care to correct a crucial misrepresentation of slavery. I, at least, am guilty of necessarily focusing on the very real degradation of the work and not on the dignity and ingenuity of the workers. Over and over, the word “skill” appears in the display texts to describe the innovation slaves made to streamline agriculture and industry. Though the labor was evilly got and cruelly maintained, the laborers were innovators, creators and artisans. We call this place a museum, but to behold its impregnability, to feel centuries of pain and pride, to receive the story of how black people helped forge this nation (first by whip then by will) to find, at the twilight of one historic presidency and the dawn of what promises to be a very different one, that the forging must (must) continue — to see that metal gating reaching up, up, up — is to sense that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture really should have an additional name, one worthy of all that forging and hammering and ironing out. It should also be called the Blacksmith. | 1 |
Canada’s Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has announced she will launch an investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of a private aircraft to travel to a private island in the Bahamas over the New Year holiday, the first such ethics probe of a prime minister since the ethics office was established in 2007. [Following a formal request for an investigation into Justin Trudeau’s use of the aircraft, owned by the Ismaili Shiite leader the Aga Khan, Dawson wrote in response that she was “satisfied” that the situation merited an official investigation. “I have therefore commenced an examination under subsection 44( 3) of the [Conflict of Interest] Act to determine whether Mr. Trudeau has contravened sections 11 and 12 of the Act in connection with his recent stay at and travel to the Aga Khan’s privately owned island,” she wrote, according to Canada’s CBC. The federal Conflict of Interest Act prohibits the use of private aircraft on the part of the prime minister “for any purpose except in exceptional circumstances,” requiring Dawson to approve all such uses before they occur. Trudeau did not submit a request to Dawson for approval before using the aircraft. Using a private aircraft in such a way, which may be seen as a form of bribe coming from someone receiving as much government largess as the Aga Khan, also violates Liberal Party ethics rules Trudeau himself championed. According to the Toronto Sun, the maximum sentence for the ethics charges Trudeau is facing is a $500 fine for each of two violations Dawson is considering, which the newspaper notes is a “relatively paltry sum for a prime minister who earns more than $350, 000 a year and gets a free home. ” Trudeau’s office initially refused to reveal where the prime minister was spending the New Year’s holiday, other than to confirm it would be outside of Canada. Before leaving the country, Trudeau had delivered a traditional end of the year message in which he called the holiday a “once in a lifetime opportunity to ring in the new year together” among fellow Canadians for the 150th anniversary of the nation’s founding. Canada’s National Post later revealed that the Trudeau family celebrated the new year on the Aga Khan’s private island, located in an island cluster locally referred to as “the Hamptons of the Bahamas” due to the names of the owners of those islands. Trudeau reimbursed the government for use of federal aircraft to fly to Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. The Aga Khan is the head of the Ismaili Shiite branch of Islam, an imam “philanthropist and hereditary spiritual leader,” according to NBC News. He is also a longtime friend of the Trudeau family, which the Prime Minister acknowledged in response to the ethics review. “This was our family vacation and it was with someone who has known me since I was a toddler and been a friend of the family,” told CBC about the vacation, in response to whether he would take the vacation again knowing it would launch an unprecedented probe into the ethics of his actions. While not answering the question, Trudeau said he was “happy to take all of the questions” Dawson sent his way. The CBC also asked Trudeau to explain why he did not submit the private jet use for Dawson’s review, as the law demands. “We’re going to have all sorts of conversations with her, I’m sure, in the coming days and all this will be ironed out,” he responded. “It was a family vacation and we were focused on that,” Trudeau added. Last week, when journalists revealed that Trudeau had taken the trip on the Aga Khan’s aircraft, Trudeau told Canadian media, “we don’t see an issue on that. ” While certainly the flashiest, this is not Trudeau’s first ethical conflict since taking office in late 2015. In November 2016, Trudeau admitted to having discussed political issues with Chinese millionaires at a Trudeau Foundation fundraiser, a violation of lobbying laws. Upon being confronted by conservative MPs over his presence at the lavish fundraising events, Trudeau insisted it was necessary for him to attend because it would allow him to “create economic growth for the middle class. ” | 1 |
For The Small Price Of $2.3 Million, You Could Own This Beautiful, Self-Sufficient Island Posted on Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox. Thank you for subscribing. We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously x
By Brianna Acuesta This island costs less than most celebrity homes.
A Scottish island by the name of Tanera Mor is for sale, as its permanent residents recently moved out and put the island, along with its cafe, post office, schoolhouse, and 9 homes, on the market.
The island boasts stunning views, traditional houses that have been recently restored, and self-sufficiency that is unmatched on other islands.
The 760-acre isle is powered by wind turbines and generators and has a freshwater treatment plant. It’s part of a group of other islands called the Summer Isles and has an established tourism business that brings in a bit of revenue.
This particular island is the biggest in the isles and is located just 1.5 miles away from the Scottish coast.
The scenery itself is reason enough to buy this island, or any of the three lots that are being offered separately. It’s got 7 miles of cliffs, coves, and beaches to meander and relax on and you can walk across the whole island easily because it’s only 1.6 miles long.
Over 164,000 native trees were recently planted to combat severe winds, giving the island a more natural feel. Despite the winds, the surrounding waters are said to be ideal for aquatic hobbies such as sailing, fishing, and diving; there’s even a historic pier to utilize for some of these activities. Also listed on the website for this property is that it’s common to look out and see porpoises, dolphins, basking sharks, and otters close by.
Included in the sale are four neighboring small islands that are completely uninhabited but contain tidal pools and other treasures. Considering a nice apartment in a big city like Manhattan costs just as much and has considerably less space, this deal may seem like a steal. While you might be giving up that city vibe, you’d be replacing it with amazing views and a relaxing life.
Would you consider buying this island? Please share, like, and comment on this article!
Featured Image Credit: Tim Winterburn
This article ( For The Small Price Of $2.3 Million, You Could Own This Beautiful, Self-Sufficient Island ) via NB is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com Tags: | 0 |
By Sean Colarossi on Mon, Oct 31st, 2016 at 8:47 pm While the media continues to focus on the Clinton email non-story, news about Donald Trump's ties to Russia continues to gain steam. Share on Twitter Print This Post
While the media continues to focus on what is increasingly becoming a non-story – FBI Director James Comey’s vague letter regarding more emails related to Hillary Clinton – news about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia continues to gain steam.
Not only did NBC just report that the FBI is now in the preliminary stages of investigating Trump’s ex-campaign manager’s connection to Russia, but Slate also reported on Monday that a Trump server may have repeatedly been communicating with a Russian bank.
Slate claims that while a group of computer scientists was looking into the Russian cyber attack of the DNC, they stumbled onto something unexpectedly.
The report:
In late July, one of these scientists—who asked to be referred to as Tea Leaves, a pseudonym that would protect his relationship with the networks and banks that employ him to sift their data—found what looked like malware emanating from Russia. The destination domain had Trump in its name, which of course attracted Tea Leaves’ attention. But his discovery of the data was pure happenstance—a surprising needle in a large haystack of DNS lookups on his screen. “I have an outlier here that connects to Russia in a strange way,” he wrote in his notes. He couldn’t quite figure it out at first. But what he saw was a bank in Moscow that kept irregularly pinging a server registered to the Trump Organization on Fifth Avenue.
More data was needed, so he began carefully keeping logs of the Trump server’s DNS activity. As he collected the logs, he would circulate them in periodic batches to colleagues in the cybersecurity world. Six of them began scrutinizing them for clues.
The researchers quickly dismissed their initial fear that the logs represented a malware attack. The communication wasn’t the work of bots. The irregular pattern of server lookups actually resembled the pattern of human conversation—conversations that began during office hours in New York and continued during office hours in Moscow. It dawned on the researchers that this wasn’t an attack, but a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump Organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank.
This news doesn’t come out of nowhere. Trump has repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin as a strong leader, all while taking pro-Russia positions throughout the campaign that come straight off a Kremlin wishlist.
The Clinton campaign was quick to jump on the report in a statement by Clinton Senior Policy Adviser Jake Sullivan:
This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia. It certainly seems the Trump Organization felt it had something to hide, given that it apparently took steps to conceal the link when it was discovered by journalists.
This line of communication may help explain Trump’s bizarre adoration of Vladimir Putin and endorsement of so many pro-Kremlin positions throughout this campaign. It raises even more troubling questions in light of Russia’s masterminding of hacking efforts that are clearly intended to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia’s meddling in our elections.
Trump’s pro-Russia rhetoric and policy positions are not a coincidence. The more information that comes out, the clearer it is that the Republican nominee has connections to Russia that he is hiding from voters.
With just a week until Election Day, this is the explosive story the media should be focusing on. It’s critical that the American people know what kind of financial ties a potential president has with an American adversary, especially when that adversary is Russia. | 0 |
Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
I was born on July 20, 1944, the day of the failed officers’ plot against Adolf Hitler. That means I preceded the official dawning of the nuclear age by exactly 369 days, which makes me part of the last generation to do so. I’m speaking not of the obliteration of two Japanese cities by America’s new “wonder weapon” on August 6th and 9th, 1945, but of the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexican desert near Alamogordo on July 16th of that year. When physicist Robert Oppenheimer , the “father of the atomic bomb,” witnessed that explosion, the line from the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita , that famously came into his head was: “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
How apt it still remains more than seven decades later, at a moment when nine countries possess such weapons — more than 15,000 of them — in their arsenals, most of which are now staggeringly more destructive than that first devastating bomb, and as TomDispatch regular Michael Klare points out today, some of which are closer to possible use than at any point in at least a couple of decades. For those of us who lived through the years of bomb shelters, atomic movie monsters , the Cuban Missile Crisis (which left me, age 18, fearing I might be toast in the morning), the rise and fall of antinuclear movements, and nuclear nightmares of a sort I still remember vividly from my youth in a way I no longer recall the dreams of last night, it’s a horror to imagine that nuclear war is still with us; even more so, because, in Election 2016, we have a presidential candidate who is not only ignorant about those weapons in hard-to-believe ways, but who wonders why “we can’t use them,” and who might months from now have his finger on that “nuclear button” (or rather command of the nuclear codes that could launch such a war). Don’t tell me that this isn’t a living nightmare of the first order.
I find it eerie in the extreme and unnervingly apt that the Clinton campaign has brought back a living icon of our nuclear fears, the little girl from the 1964 election who appeared in the famous (or infamous) “ Daisy ” ad President Lyndon Johnson ran against Republican contender Barry Goldwater (who, in retrospect, seems like the soul of stability compared with you know whom). She was then seen counting to 10 as she plucked petals off a daisy just before an ominous, echoing male voice began the countdown to an atomic explosion that filled the screen. Now, that girl, Monique Luiz , a grown woman, is shown saying , “The fear of nuclear war we had as children, I never thought our children would ever have to deal with that again. And to see that coming forward in this election is really scary.”
She’s now 55 years old and, however the Clinton campaign may be using her, there’s still something deeply unnerving for those of us who had hoped to outlast the nuclear age simply to see her there more than five decades later. And if you think that’s unnerving on the eve of the most bizarre presidential election in memory, then read today’s piece by Michael Klare and imagine just how unsettling, in nuclear terms, the years ahead may prove to be. | 0 |
SEOUL, South Korea — Rex W. Tillerson, the new secretary of state, offered the diplomatic understatement of the month on Saturday when he told the sole reporter he permitted on his airplane: “I’m not a big media press access person. I personally don’t need it. ” Perhaps, by breaking with a of past practice and flying off without the regular State Department correspondents on board, Mr. Tillerson was hoping to continue to operate in a style that worked well for him as chief executive of Exxon Mobil. In that job, he could negotiate complex oil and gas deals behind closed doors and then inform his board of directors and shareholders afterward. Certainly, his predecessors at the State Department have all wished for more time, space and secrecy to work through some of the world’s knottiest problems. The North Korea crisis that dominated this trip is a prime example of one that, if mishandled, could easily veer into war. Yet long experience teaches that foreign policy is rarely made in the kind of bubble that Mr. Tillerson wants. Maybe John Hay had that luxury as secretary of state under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, when the United States was just emerging as a global power. But in the modern era, everyone from Dean Acheson to John Kerry has found that superpower diplomacy abhors a news vacuum. When America’s top diplomats create one, adversaries and allies usually fill it with their own narrative of events, their own proposals, their own accounts of encounters with Washington. Sure, there have occasionally been secret deals — Henry Kissinger’s mission to China when he was President Richard M. Nixon’s national security adviser, for example — but they are rare. And American diplomats generally have little luck presenting the world with faits accompli. Both at home and abroad, public diplomacy is about persuading the world that a particular solution is in the global interest, not just the American interest. And that often means building an argument while the diplomacy is in progress, or else risking a loss of influence and control of the narrative. That, and ego, are usually what make a secretary of state a “media press access person. ” Mr. Tillerson got a brief taste of this reality even before beginning his somewhat rocky first outing in Asia. China tried to box him in by reviving an old proposal for a “freeze” of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs in return for an freeze of all military exercises with South Korea. It is one of those ideas that sound eminently sensible at first hearing. Who would oppose a diplomatic timeout for North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, which are escalating toward demonstration of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could splash down off Seattle or Los Angeles? After all, that’s how diplomacy with Iran began six years ago, ultimately leading to a nuclear deal that, love it or hate it, took an apparently imminent military conflict and defused it for a decade or so. Doing something similar with North Korea is an idea that some American proliferation experts embrace as the option on a menu of nothing but bad options. At a brief news conference in Seoul, Mr. Tillerson did use the words “imminent threat” to describe the North Korean program, and accurately noted that a freeze “would leave North Korea with significant capabilities that would represent a true threat, not just to the region, but to American forces. ” But other than that, he never grappled with the Chinese arguments in favor of their proposal — which left the door open for his Chinese counterpart to restate his case in Beijing. As a senior South Korean official told me after Mr. Tillerson’s meeting, “there are South Korean politicians” — including one or two who could become president after a snap election next month — “who may find the Chinese approach preferable to the risk of a conflict. ” The Chinese example here is a small one, but it is telling. In past administrations, the State Department would have used the long flight to Asia to give reporters a sense of its arguments and strategy. The secretary of state would have wandered back to the press seats on the plane and offered, on “background,” the administration’s thinking about the major issue of the day. Mr. Kissinger was a master of this spin James A. Baker III, Colin L. Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton were no novices, either. And often, it is more than spin: It is a way for the secretary to test whether an idea has a longer than the plane ride. “It’s not about access. It’s about context,” John Kirby, who has served as spokesman for both the Pentagon and the State Department and is considered one of the best at navigating the process, wrote on Twitter in response to Mr. Tillerson’s declarations. Mr. Kirby is right: The most important paragraphs in most articles about diplomatic news are the explanatory ones that lay out the administration’s strategy and assess whether it is tenable in light of history, or the facts on the ground, or other realities that the secretary of state may not want to discuss. As Mr. Kirby himself has noted, State Department correspondents work a bit differently from those at the White House. They do not often shout their questions, and television cameras are absent from many of the most important briefings. “Many have covered the beat for decades,” he noted over the weekend. “They know the complexities, the history. ” (Not all of us took the “decades” part as a compliment.) The group that has covered the State Department is heavy with former foreign correspondents and war correspondents who have lived around the world, have sources in foreign capitals and write books about the global challenges the country faces. Their conversations have been known to run to wonkish topics like deterrence theory. So it might not be surprising that Mr. Tillerson doesn’t want them in the back of his airplane, talking to his staff and probing how the new administration’s approach to North Korea and China might differ from what predecessors tried. As he said in that interview with the one journalist he brought along — a reporter from the Independent Journal Review, a website that had never covered a State Department trip before — Mr. Tillerson has something more in mind. “I view that relationship that I want to have with the media, is the media is very important to help me communicate not just to the American people, but to others in the world that are listening,” Mr. Tillerson was quoted as saying. “And when I have something important and useful to say, I know where everybody is, and I know how to go out there and say it. ” There is something to be said for his approach. Clearly, Mr. Tillerson wants to shake up the foreign policy elite, and that starts with a press corps that feeds in the very swamp this administration says it wants to drain. He also says he is saving money by using a smaller plane (though news organizations pay steeply for each employee who flies with the secretary). This early in Mr. Trump’s tenure, many policy decisions have not yet been debated thoroughly within his administration, so as Mr. Tillerson noted on Saturday, there is not much for him to say. And there would be considerable risk in getting out ahead of his sometimes mercurial boss. (That boss, Mr. Tillerson conceded, went ahead and posted a Twitter message complaining that “China has done little to help!” without running it past him first.) Yet there is something else that Mr. Tillerson’s policy forgoes: the often useful symbolism of top American officials’ being seen to travel with a free and intrusive press asking questions that leaders do not want to hear. When Mr. Kerry was in Bahrain last year, the visit gave the State Department press corps a chance to publicly interrogate his very uncomfortable Bahraini counterpart about some specific human rights abuses in the country. (“I’m glad you asked that,” Mr. Kerry told correspondents later on his plane, making it clear that he knew local reporters could not have done so.) When President Abdel Fattah of Egypt barred the State Department press pool last year, the State Department itself lodged an objection. None of those considerations mattered much when Mr. Tillerson traveled on behalf of the world’s largest oil company. As he said, he personally did not need reporters then, and he doesn’t now. But as secretary of state, he now has 320 million shareholders, and many of them have a stake in how he conducts America’s business around the world. | 1 |
NTEB Ads Privacy Policy Att’y General Loretta Lynch Pleads The 5th When Asked Questions About Obama’s Iran Ransom Payment “Every Obama administration official and department involved in the Iran Deal appear to be running for cover,” the source said. “Like we feared, the Iran deal is turning out to be a disaster and Iran is emboldened in its aggression. Evidently Attorney General Lynch and the Department of Justice have decided ‘refusal to cooperate’ is their best strategy. by Geoffrey Grider October 28, 2016 Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of Congress about the Obama administration’s secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has “pleaded the Fifth” Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments
Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.
In an Oct. 24 response , Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch’s behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran . Loretta Lynch Pleads the Fifth To Protect Obama In Iran $1.7 Billion Hostage Money
The response from the attorney general’s office is “unacceptable” and provides evidence that Lynch has chosen to “essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries regarding [her] role in providing cash to the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism,” Rubio and Pompeo wrote on Friday in a follow-up letter to Lynch, according to a copy obtained by the Free Beacon .
The inquiry launched by the lawmakers is just one of several concurrent ongoing congressional probes aimed at unearthing a full accounting of the administration’s secret negotiations with Iran.
“It is frankly unacceptable that your department refuses to answer straightforward questions from the people’s elected representatives in Congress about an important national security issue,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your staff failed to address any of our questions, and instead provided a copy of public testimony and a lecture about the sensitivity of information associated with this issue.” Obama on Iran payment: ‘We do not pay ransom’
“As the United States’ chief law enforcement officer, it is outrageous that you would essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries,” they stated. “The actions of your department come at time when Iran continues to hold Americans hostage and unjustly sentence them to prison.” The lawmakers included a copy of their previous 13 questions and are requesting that Lynch provide answers by Nov. 4.
When asked about Lynch’s efforts to avoid answering questions about the cash payment, Pompeo told the Free Beacon that the Obama administration has blocked Congress at every turn as lawmakers attempt to investigate the payments to Iran.
“Who knew that simple questions regarding Attorney General Lynch’s approval of billions of dollars in payments to Iran could be so controversial that she would refuse to answer them?” Pompeo said. “This has become the Obama administration’s coping mechanism for anything related to the Islamic Republic of Iran—hide information, obfuscate details, and deny answers to Congress and the American people.” Obama Administration Finally Admits $400M To Iran Was Ransom For Hostages
“They know this isn’t a sustainable strategy, however, and I trust they will start to take their professional, and moral, obligations seriously,” the lawmaker added.
In the Oct. 24 letter to Rubio and Pompeo, Assistant Attorney General Kadzik warned the lawmakers against disclosing to the public any information about the cash payment.
Details about the deal are unclassified, but are being kept under lock and key in a secure facility on Capitol Hill, the Free Beacon first disclosed . Lawmakers and staffers who have clearance to view the documents are forced to relinquish their cellular devices and are barred from taking any notes about what they see.
“Please note that these documents contain sensitive information that is not appropriate for public release,” Kadzik wrote to the lawmakers. “Disclosure of this information beyond members of the House and Senate and staff who are able to view them could adversely affect the diplomatic relations of the United States, including with key allies, as well as the State Department’s ability to defend [legal] claims against the United States [by Iran] that are still being litigated at the Hague Tribunal.”
“The public release of any portion of these documents, or the information contained therein, is not authorized by the transmittal of these documents or by this communication,” Kadzik wrote. Congressional sources have told the Free Beacon that this is another part of the effort to hide details about these secret negotiations with Iran from the American public.
One senior congressional source familiar with both the secret documents and the inquiry into them told the Free Beacon that the details of the negotiations are so damning that the administration’s best strategy is to ignore lawmakers’ requests for more information.
“Every Obama administration official and department involved in the Iran Deal appear to be running for cover,” the source said. “Like we feared, the Iran deal is turning out to be a disaster and Iran is emboldened in its aggression. Evidently Attorney General Lynch and the Department of Justice have decided ‘refusal to cooperate’ is their best strategy. But this is dangerous and ultimately won’t protect them from anything.” source SHARE THIS ARTICLE Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING | 0 |
Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald excoriated the Democratic Party for what he suggested was not learning from the lessons of the party’s 2016 presidential election loss. Greenwald pointed out the losses Democrats have suffered in prior elections, particular at the state level and said that the party wasn’t learning from its mistakes, but doubling down on what it had done before. He noted that the GOP have of the governorships and are just one state house away from having the ability to convene a constitutional convention. “It is a party that has collapsed as a national political force in the United States,” Greenwald said. “It’s not just the national presidential election. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
Главная » Новости » Впервые за 30 лет США направили подводный ракетоносец в Тихоокеанский регион Впервые за 30 лет США направили подводный ракетоносец в Тихоокеанский регион вторник, 1 ноября, 2016 - 12:45
США направили на военную базу на Гуаме стратегический подводный ракетоносец "Пенсильвания". При этом Стратком (Стратегическое командование США) подчеркивает, что сроки, как и цели нахождения подводной лодки на тихоокеанской базе не раскрываются.
"Данный конкретный визит на Гуам отражает приверженность США обороне союзников в Индо-Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе и дополняет многочисленные учения, операции и другую деятельность в рамках военного сотрудничества с государствами-партнёрами" - сообщает пресс-служба ВМС США.
Несмотря на то, что руководство США считает одну лодку "критически важным, стабилизирующим и чрезвычайно эффективным элементом американских сил ядерного сдерживания", вряд ли Вашингтон пойдёт на открытую конфронтацию с сильным соперником - Россией или Китаем. Таким образом, можно сделать вывод о том, что ракеты могут быть направлены либо на Корейский полуостров, либо на Индо-Пакистанский регион. Однако то, что в последнее время не прекращаются американо-южнокорейские учения и консультации, наиболее вероятной целью видится КНДР.
Тем не менее, Россия, Китай и, вероятно, ряд других стран примет к сведению факт переброски. Особенно в свете того, что в Китае проходит сейчас крупнейшая военно-техническая выставка, в ходе которой китайскому руководству представлены, в том числе, секретные виды вооружения. Материалы по этой теме | 0 |
Home / Blue Privilege / Police Officer’s Wife Caught Faking a Robbery In a Scheme To Frame Black Lives Matter Police Officer’s Wife Caught Faking a Robbery In a Scheme To Frame Black Lives Matter The Free Thought Project October 30, 2016 1 Comment ( RT ) A Boston police officer’s wife has been charged with faking a robbery which she attempted to frame the Black Lives Matter Movement for.
Maria Daly reported a burglary at her home in Millbury on October 17 and claimed her jewelry and some money had been stolen. She told police her home had been graffitied with the letters, “BLM.”
“Something wasn’t quite right,” Millbury Police Chief Donald Desorcy said . “I think that was pretty obvious and as a result of that investigation, the officers did their due diligence and followed through with the investigation that we had.” This is white supremacist Maria Daly, the wife of Boston cop Daniel Daly.She staged a fake robbery of her home, and tried to blame #BLM pic.twitter.com/vrdqg1cM6r
— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) October 29, 2016
CBS Boston reports Daly took to social media soon after the fabricated robbery, saying, “We woke up to not only our house being robbed while we were sleeping, but to see this hatred for no reason.”
“If you would of [sic] asked me yesterday about this blue lives and black lives matter issue my response would of [sic] been very possitive [sic],” the now private Facebook account continues. “Today on the other hand I have so much anger and hate that I don’t like myself. This is what we have to deal with these days and it makes me sick that this is what was on the side of my house.”
Despite Daly’s best efforts, the police were able to tell no robbery took place. @crystalhaynes The poor lady just needs some help..
— Mark Scanlon (@markscanlon50) October 28, 2016
“Basically we came to the conclusion that it was all fabricated,” said Desorcy. “There was no intruder, there was no burglary.”
Police concluded Daly fabricated the robbery due to financial difficulty. Daly confessed and returned the items she claimed were missing, which amounted to $10,000 in jewelry.
Desorcy told reporters, “We weren’t going to sweep this under the rug,” and that he felt sorry for the family.
Daly’s husband Dan is not suspected of being involved in his wife’s crime. Share Google + The Cat’s Vagina (Nasty Woman)
So, is she going to be brought up on the same charges that any one of us would be for staging a crime and lying to police, or will she avail herself of Blue (Dick Holster) Privilege? Social | 0 |
Fucking Amazing.
That people regurgitate this shit.
Is there nothing real anymore? We live in an illusion. | 0 |
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) October 28, 2016
For those of you who were waiting, the wait is over: Tomorrow's cover: Weiner sext probe found dirt on Hillary https://t.co/6z0BJkr23s pic.twitter.com/hAk6D02j8y
— New York Post (@nypost) October 28, 2016
So, does it live up to your expectations?
— Shoshana Weissmann (@senatorshoshana) October 28, 2016 "Stroking Gun"– that's pretty funny! https://t.co/sSec2Z3isp | 0 |
A student at Amherst College in Massachusetts accused of sexual misconduct is being refused the right to defend himself on the basis that it could cause “psychological harm” to his accuser. [The unnamed student was expelled from Amherst College despite arguing that his accuser had actually assaulted him, while a judge blocked his attempt to subpoena his accuser into releasing text messages on the grounds that the case “would impose emotional and psychological trauma” on her. “[The student] was blackout drunk at the time — a detail that Amherst administrators deemed ‘credible,’ on subsequent review,” wrote Reason, who used the “John Doe” placeholder name for the student, before adding, “Of course, it’s questionable whether a blackout drunk student can actually provide the level of consent that Amherst’s sexual misconduct policy requires. ” The incident in question took place years ago, during the late night early morning hours of February 2012. Jones was Doe’s girlfriend’s roommate at the time. Jones went to Doe’s dorm room and sexual activity ensued: Jones performed oral sex on Doe. But Doe was blackout drunk at the time — a detail that Amherst administrators deemed “credible,” on subsequent review. Of course, it’s questionable whether a blackout drunk student can actually provide the level of consent that Amherst’s sexual misconduct policy requires. Other factors cast doubt on the idea that Jones was the victim and Doe the perpetrator. After leaving Doe’s dorm room, Jones texted another male student and asked him to come to her dorm room for sex. She also texted a residential advisor about her “stupid” decision to engage in sexual activity with her roommate’s boyfriend. In these text messages, Jones admitted that she was “not an innocent bystander. ” She also complained about how long it was taking this second male student to do anything sexual with her. She did not file a complaint against Doe until two years later. Based upon the “preponderance of the evidence” standard that was established by the Obama administration, Doe was expelled from Amherst. Legal scholars KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor of The Volokh Conspiracy at The Washington Post argue that the preponderance standard established by the “Dear Colleague” letter of the Obama administration “told all of the more than 7, 000 colleges that receive federal money to use the lowest possible standard of proof” in determining the outcome of sexual assault cases on college campuses. President Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos was harshly criticized by the left for donating to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) which supports the notion that the burden of proof in campus sexual assault cases should be higher and that all accused should be afforded proper due process. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about social justice and libertarian issues for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 1 |
“The advice that I would give to people today, if they’re home from work, is to — is to go about a normal day,” Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said on Sept. 12, 2001. “Take the day as an opportunity to go shopping, be with your children. Do things. Get out. Don’t feel — don’t feel locked in. ” Go shopping. Mr. Giuliani’s counsel on the day after a terrorist attack killed 2, 753 people in Lower Manhattan was quickly stripped of context and turned into caricature — retail as opiate. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. I don’t think he meant that shopping would solve the problems of a city struggling to awaken from an unparalleled nightmare. But it was the first thing that came to his mind. The role of retailing at ground zero came to mind again last week on my first visit to the Westfield World Trade Center shopping mall, which opened in August. The experience was at once heartening and dispiriting. Heartening, because Santiago Calatrava’s soaring Oculus now teems with people. The cantilevered “diving boards” over the great hall have instantly become downtown’s version of the crowded balconies at Grand Central Terminal, the ideal spot to take that perfectly symmetrical architectural panorama. (With a selfie in the bargain.) Things will only get livelier when subway stations are opened at either end of the hall, and the Oculus grows into its role as a transit corridor. Dispiriting, because there is little to suggest that Westfield World Trade Center occupies consecrated ground. Apart from the bravura of Mr. Calatrava’s design, and the marble floors, this mall could be just about anywhere. And unlike the mall of the original trade center, there seems to be no place yet to get your shoes shined or a key copied. It was also dispiriting because I could have seen this coming years ago. As a reporter, I failed to pay enough attention to the role played by Westfield America in the redevelopment. That left me susceptible to the official line that the Oculus was a transportation center with shops appended. It is now clear that the Oculus is — and was always intended to be — a shopping mall with an ancillary transportation purpose. Lynne B. Sagalyn’s new book, “Power at Ground Zero: Politics, Money and the Remaking of Lower Manhattan,” lays out some clues I neglected. Westfield had big ideas for a trade center mall years before the attack. The company is a shopping center operator founded by Frank P. Lowy and based in Australia. Its American arm was the partner of Silverstein Properties, which signed a contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in April 2001 to take over the trade center. Westfield looked at the expansive trade center plaza and the already profitable underground mall, and dreamed greater dreams, Ms. Sagalyn wrote: “150, 000 square feet of additional shopping space created by raising the plaza one level, opening up the concourse with a grand entrance to bring light into the underground areas, and making better connections with ramps and staircases to provide access to the new level. ” Silverstein and Westfield remained the leaseholders after the trade center was destroyed. Though city planners sought to recreate the street grid that had been obliterated by the original trade center, Westfield was adamantly opposed. “Frank Lowy had built his mall empire on the highly successful model of the suburban center the design of this prototype — large, undivided pedestrian spaces without passing cars and trucks — was totally oriented to making it as easy as possible for consumers to spend money,” Ms. Sagalyn wrote. Westfield pulled out of the project in September 2003 but paid $1 million for an option to return. “Nothing had changed about the company’s ambition to control the retail opportunity in one of the country’s most valuable locations,” Ms. Sagalyn wrote. Four months later, Mr. Calatrava’s design for the World Trade Center Transportation Hub was unveiled. The mezzanine level was the working heart of the PATH commuter railroad terminal. But the birdlike shell between Church and Greenwich Streets — now known as the Oculus — was what captured the city’s imagination. And that is where the Port Authority intended to accommodate many of the trade center stores. “The Transportation Hub offered exceptionally good retail space with strong profit potential,” Ms. Sagalyn noted. Westfield returned and eventually put $2 billion into the project, Ms. Sagalyn said. The Oculus structure, built by the Port Authority, cost $483 million out of the overall $4 billion budget for the hub. On Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the attack will be marked with a solemn ceremony at the trade center. This is Westfield’s first chance to show itself as a corporate citizen there. “Due to the sensitive nature of the day,” Westfield told its tenants in a recent letter, “we’re recommending to our retailers — in part based upon guidance from our community partners — that they not open for business until the conclusion of the ceremony at approximately 12:30 p. m. This is 90 minutes after our traditional open hours on Sundays. ” Last week, I canvassed 50 of the 60 tenants currently at the trade center. Of the 21 that responded to an email inquiry, 19 — including Apple, Breitling, Charles Tyrwhitt, Fossil, John Varvatos, Kate Spade, Kiehl’s, Kit and Ace, L. K. Bennett, Moleskine, Sephora, Sugarfina and Thomas Sabo — said they would honor the request. Two other stores, COS and House of Samsonite, said they would not open until 1 p. m. The John Varvatos store said it would donate 20 percent of the day’s sale proceeds to the Tribute Center. Westfield also plans to turn the enormous LED advertising billboards in the concourses over to video programming by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. The restraint is commendable. I’m not certain it suffices for the magnitude of the moment. But it certainly hews to Mr. Giuliani’s suggestion, made long ago. | 1 |
Villanova ( ) which won last year’s N. C. A. A. men’s basketball tournament on a at the buzzer in the championship game, was awarded the top overall seed in this year’s bracket, released Sunday evening, one day after winning the Big East tournament. The other No. 1 seeds include North Carolina ( ) the team Villanova beat in that thrilling 2016 title game Kansas ( ) which has now received a top seed seven times in Coach Bill Self’s 14 seasons and Gonzaga ( ) from the West Coast Conference, which despite several deep runs and, now, 19 straight berths has never made the Final Four. The preseason Nos. 1 and 2 in the Associated Press poll, Duke ( ) and Kentucky ( ) earned No. 2 seeds. Both are loaded with talent, including several freshmen expected to turn pro later this year, and while each struggled at times due to inexperience and injury, in recent weeks they seem to have cohered, respectively winning the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conference tournaments. The team from the was conference champion Arizona ( ) with a while the Big Ten’s member was Purdue ( ). Northwestern ( ) was virtually assured of its first berth ever in the nearly 80 years of the tournament. Here’s a breakdown of each region: Gonzaga was installed as a No. 1 seed for the second time in program history, but the last time, in 2013, did not go so well. The Bulldogs lost to Wichita State in the second round. But while Gonzaga ( ) still has never been to a Final Four, the Bulldogs are a worthy No. 1: They lost only to Brigham Young and outscored opponents by more than 23 points a game. The Zags’ biggest problem? Arizona, the champion, lurks at No. 2. NORTHWESTERN IS IN Is something in the water in Chicago? First the Cubs win the World Series, and now the Wildcats, the darlings of the Big Ten, are in the tournament for the first time. Northwestern will face Vanderbilt in a battle of colleges used to being overlooked — sometimes for good reason — in sports. UPSET SPECIAL Harvard in 2014. Yale in 2016. Don’t bet against the Ivies. Princeton, unbeaten in the conference, winner of the league’s inaugural tournament, has won 19 in a row. You can make it 20. Sorry, Notre Dame. Winning a title was clearly valued by the selection committee, which made North Carolina a No. 1 seed despite its loss to Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. The South might be the most fun region to watch: North Carolina, the blue bloods Kentucky and U. C. L. A. and Wichita State and Wake Forest all have scoring offenses. OH, YOU AGAIN A Wichita rematch? Sign us up. Too bad it would come in the second round. Three years after a classic game, Wichita State could be poised for revenge. One analyst, Ken Pomeroy, rates the Shockers as the nation’s team. UPSET SPECIAL Louisville Coach Rick Pitino and his son Richard, who leads Minnesota, are the first coaching duo in one N. C. A. A. tournament. But Minnesota is a good bet to go down to Middle Tennessee State, which is and which eliminated Michigan State a year ago. Kansas may have the easiest path to the Final Four of any of the No. 1 seeds. The Jayhawks would not normally like seeing Michigan State in its region, but the Spartans have been troubled by injuries. Louisville, the No. 2 seed, is typically tough on defense, but the Jayhawks appear rested and ready as they chase their first N. C. A. A. title since 2008. TEAM OF DESTINY Something happened in those few harrowing seconds when Michigan’s plane skidded off the runway in an aborted takeoff en route to the Big Ten tournament. The Wolverines, the eighth seed in that tournament, won four straight games to earn a No. 7 seed in this one. A deathly scare seems to have given Michigan new life. UPSET SPECIAL Few picked Iona to win even the M. A. A. C. tournament, but don’t be shocked if the Gaels stun No. 3 Oregon. The Ducks are reeling after losing the senior Chris Boucher (11. 8 points, 6. 1 rebounds, 2. 5 blocks) to a knee injury. It was no surprise that Villanova, the Big East champion, received the bracket’s No. 1 overall seed. But the Wildcats ( ) could end up meeting Duke ( ) for a trip to the Final Four. Despite three straight wins over ranked teams en route to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title, the Blue Devils failed to supplant North Carolina — whom they defeated in two of three meetings this season — as a No. 1 seed. HARD TO FORGET Try to remember this name: Jesusemilore Talodabijesu Ojeleye. Better known as Semi, the junior forward leads Southern Methodist, a No. 6 seed that has won 16 in a row. Coach Larry Brown’s abrupt resignation last summer seemed to galvanize the Mustangs, who are third in the nation in scoring defense. All five starters are 6 feet 6 inches or taller. UPSET SPECIAL South Carolina is staggering in with six losses in its past nine games and was probably as a No. 7. The Gamecocks will struggle with Marquette, which leads the nation in shooting percentage (43 percent). You want a hot team for your bracket? How about Michigan, which has not lost since its plane slid off the runway in Ypsilanti on Wednesday. No one was hurt, but the accident meant the team had to travel to the Big Ten tournament on game day morning and wear makeshift uniforms for their first round game. Not a recipe for success? Think again. Michigan, seeded just eighth, reeled off four straight wins in four days, over No. 9 Illinois, No. 1 Purdue, No. 4 Minnesota and No. 2 Wisconsin to take the tournament. Hot teams in conference tournaments have sometimes immediately flamed out in the N. C. A. A. tournament, so there’s no guarantee Michigan’s run will continue. But if you believe in momentum, you might want to give the Wolverines a close look. Arizona, Bucknell, Duke, East Tennessee State, Florida Gulf Coast, Gonzaga, Iona, Iowa State, Jacksonville State, Kent State, Kentucky, Michigan, Middle Tennessee, Mount St. Mary’s, Nevada, New Mexico State, New Orleans, North Carolina Central, North Dakota, Northern Kentucky, U. N. C. Wilmington, Princeton, Rhode Island, South Dakota State, Texas Southern, U. C. Davis, Vermont, Villanova, Wichita State, Winthrop. 28 and Counting for Kansas: The Jayhawks will make their 28th consecutive appearance in the tournament, passing North Carolina’s mark from . Kansas also won the Big 12 conference this year for an N. C. A. A. Division I record 13th straight time, breaking U. C. L. A.’s conference streak from . After Kansas was upset by Texas Christian, in the Big 12 tournament, we’ll see if the Jayhawks are able to play up to their seeding, which they have not always been able to do in past tournaments. | 1 |
Next Prev Swipe left/right German footballer does impressive keepie uppies with his chewing gum While some of us have trouble chewing gum and walking at the same time, Borussia Dortmund player Felix Passlack can do some very impressive keepie uppies with his. | 0 |
As cable TV sports giant ESPN continues to contract with a massive loss of subscribers, and a corresponding loss of advertising income even as its budget continues to rise, some are warning that the network’s focus on cable TV is a very bad business model going into the future. [ESPN has lost an astounding 12 million subscribers since 2011, according to a lengthy new analysis of the network’s status by Bloomberg. Indeed, in the final quarter of 2016 the network lost 621, 000 subscribers in a single month, the most it has ever lost at one time. The sports network’s losses drove down the stock of network owner Disney by seven percent last year. Faced with the fall in subscribers and the consequent drop in advertising revenue, ESPN recently announced a major round of layoffs to save what was reported as “tens of millions” of budget dollars. It was later revealed that the layoffs will affect mostly talent. The fall of ESPN coincides with the rise of liberal political content seen on the air, content many say is driving even more subscribers away. The complaints about the liberal politics being ladled over its sports coverage became so pervasive that the network’s ombudsman, Jim Brady, felt pressured to write an extensive article about the problem on the network’s website. But, as Bloomberg notes, the network faces another, more problem. The way Americans consume entertainment — especially sports — is in flux with many dumping cable TV and relying more on the internet, and streaming video on mobile devices. ESPN, it appears, is so focused on its pay TV business model that it is failing to keep up with the customers’ needs. In response to this charge, though, ESPN executives insist that the move to “cut the cord” is exaggerated, Bloomberg says. While other cable TV networks are now offering streaming services, ESPN has found it difficult to emulate the model. HBO, for instance, charges a $15 a month fee for customers to watch its programming over the internet. But, ESPN would drown with such a low fee. According to Bloomberg, to pay its budget, ESPN would need 43 million customers paying $15 a month to survive with internet services. It is an unrealistic number. A major budget problem are the exorbitant fees that the network has to pay to the various leagues for broadcast rights. ESPN’s broadcast fees amount to more money than many networks spend on their entire budget. As ESPN’s future continues to be questionable, one solution would be for the leagues to understand that the days of the billions in broadcast rights it had been seeing are likely coming to an end. In the future, those fees will simply have to be cut if the leagues want to stay on broadcast TV and internet services. It all portends a future where professional sports will be earning far less money than it has been used to seeing, and that this gravy train is probably coming to an end. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
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This kid just seriously hit the jackpot.
Fifteen-year-old Taylor Hutton has known that he’s gay for as long as he can remember, and over the past few months he’s been working up the courage to finally tell his friends and family the truth. Taylor even planned to film some of those moments and post them on YouTube, in hopes that they might help other kids going through a similar experience. But just when this teen was ready to stop hiding who he really is, something incredible happened: Donald Trump and Mike Pence were elected into the White House, and Taylor just got another four years to plan his viral coming-out video!
Um, luckiest teen ever?
Up until now, Taylor figured he’d just prop his iPhone up to record the moment he came out to his parents, but after watching the presidential election results come in last night, Taylor knew that he needed to scrap that plan immediately. This lucky teen now has until at least 2020 before he can safely come out of the closet, and that’s more than enough time to come up with the sort of next-level viral video idea that could seriously break the internet!
Instead of releasing some half-baked, hastily edited video on his YouTube channel this spring, Taylor will now get to spend at least the next four years of a Trump/Pence administration dreaming up the most heartwarming and totally shareable coming-out video imaginable. And depending on how the next election goes, this kid just might get the chance to keep brainstorming camera angles and staging options in his head until he’s well into his mid-20s or older.
So awesome! With cameras only getting better and better, it’s possible that four years from now we’ll even get to witness Taylor finally arrive at some sort of peace with himself in stunning, crystal-clear 8K resolution.
Best of luck to you over the next four years, Taylor! We can’t wait for you to release that coming-out video as soon as doing so doesn’t put you under immediate danger from your own government. With all that extra time to plan it out, it’s going to be so great! | 0 |
PaulCraigRoberts.org October 29, 2016
I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump.
Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks like this is not endeared to the oligarchs.
Who are the oligarchs?
—Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put 5 banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the federal reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks’ balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.
—The military/security complex which has spent trillions of our taxpayer dollars on 15 years of gratuitous wars based entirely on lies in order to enrich themselves and their power.
—The neoconservatives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China.
—The US global corporations that sent American jobs to China and India and elsewhere in order to enrich the One Percent with higher profits from lower labor costs.
—Agribusiness (Monsanto et.al.), corporations that poison the soil, the water, the oceans, and our food with their GMOs, herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, while killing the bees that pollinate the crops.
—The extractive industries—energy, mining, fracking, and timber—that maximize their profits by destroying the environment and the water supply.
—The Israel Lobby that controls US Middle East policy and is committing genocide against the Palestinians just as the US committed genocide against native Americans. Israel is using the US to eliminate sovereign countries that stand in Israel’s way.
What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes’ reporting and the facts on the ground.
According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote. Hillary has won the election before the vote. Hillary has been declared a 93% sure winner.
I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary’s public appearances are unattended but Trumps are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida:
“Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and stickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages.”
I know the person who gave me this report and have no doubt whatsoever as to its veracity.
I also receive from readers similar reports from around the country.
This is how the theft of the election is supposed to work: The media concentrated in a few corporate hands has gone all out to convince not only Americans but also the world, that Donald Trump is such an unacceptable candidate that he has lost the election before the vote.
By controlling the explanation, when the election is stolen those who challenge the stolen election are without a foundation in the media. All media reports will say that it was a runaway victory for Hillary over the misogynist immigrant-hating Trump.
And the liberal, progressive opinion will be a relieved and off guard as Hillary takes us into nuclear war.
That the Oligarchy intends to steal the election from the American people is verified by the officially reported behavior of the voting machines in early voting in Texas. The NPR presstitutes have declared that Hillary is such a favorite that even Republican Texas is up for grabs in the election.
If this is the case, why was it necessary for the voting machines to be programmed to change Trump votes to Hillary votes? Those voters who noted that they voted Trump but were recorded Hillary complained. The election officials, claiming a glitch (which only went one way), changed to paper ballots. But who will count them? No “glitches” caused Hillary votes to go to Trump, only Trump votes to go to Hillary.
The most brilliant movie of our time was The Matrix. This movie captured the life of Americans manipulated by a false reality, only in the real America there is insufficient awareness and no Neo, except possibly Donald Trump, to challenge the system. Americans of all stripes—academics, scholars, journalists, Republicans, Democrats, right-wing, left-wing, US Representatives, US Senators, Presidents, corporate moguls and brainwashed Americans and foreigners—live in a false reality.
In the United States today a critical presidential election is in the process in which not a single important issue is addressed by Hillary and the presstitutes. This is a total failure. Democracy, once the hope of the world, has totally failed in the United States of America. Trump is correct. The American people must restore the accountability of government to the people. The Best of Paul Craig Roberts Tags: Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions , co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House. Visit his website . Copyright © 2016 Paul Craig Roberts | 0 |
usapoliticsnow admin 2016 Election , US News
Voter fraud has been a running theme in this election with the Democratic party and will continue to be through the election. Trump has been warning voters for months about fraud and it’s certainly happening, especially in swing states like Florida.
This time around, absentee ballots are being fraudulently filled out in Democratic Broward County, Florida, which was just discovered with a sworn testimony via affidavit. The witness describes going into a back room where SOE employees were sitting at a table with stacks of absentee ballots, filling them out assembly line style.
Here’s a larger version of the section listed in the Tweet…
Newsmax reports, According to the affidavit, the former employee alleged that on Monday about 8:30 p.m. she had been told to take a stack of absentee ballot forms to what is known as the Pitney-Bowes Room at the Supervisor of Elections (SOE) office in Lauderhill, Fla. Through the locked door’s window, she saw four workers sitting at a table in the room with “stacks of documents and writing something,” according to the affidavit.
She knocked on the door — and an SOE worker opened the door, took the stack from her “and closed the door,” she alleged. “The employee seemed very rushed.” When the former employee returned a short time later with a second stack, the woman was allowed into the room.
Newsmax reports, According to the affidavit, the former employee alleged that on Monday about 8:30 p.m. she had been told to take a stack of absentee ballot forms to what is known as the Pitney-Bowes Room at the Supervisor of Elections (SOE) office in Lauderhill, Fla.
Through the locked door’s window, she saw four workers sitting at a table in the room with “stacks of documents and writing something,” according to the affidavit. She knocked on the door — and an SOE worker opened the door, took the stack from her “and closed the door,” she alleged. “The employee seemed very rushed.” When the former employee returned a short time later with a second stack, the woman was allowed into the room.
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If Clinton is elected, Obama will hand her the power of a dictator.
Upon Inauguration Day, Clinton will have the power to to the following:
As President, Hillary Clinton Would Have the Power to Enact Slave Labor According to EO 13603, the President, or the head of any federal agency that he shall designate, can conscript “persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation,†in both “peacetime and times of national emergency.† I can hear the Obama supporters now as they will write to me and say, “Obama would never do that, you are drinking from the Kool-Aidâ€. Well, here it is, you can read it for yourself.
Sec. 502.  Consultants. The head of each agency otherwise delegated functions under this order is delegated the authority of the President under sections 710(b) and (c) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2160(b), (c), to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation and to employ experts, consultants, or organizations. The authority delegated by this section may not be redelegated.
Hillary Will Have the Power to Nationalize All American Food and Food Production Through Executive Order 13603, Obama has granted himself the authority control all food and now has the unique ability to starve America into submission as it relates to his handing the country off to the bankers in the name of perpetuating the New World Order and ridding the planet of the weak and those who will not willingly go along with the intentional destruction of America. Here are some of the key provisions of EO 13603 and its impact on the control of the American food supply.
With the stroke of his pen, Obama has total and absolute control over all food where his EO 13603  states:
e) “Food resources†means all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. “Food resources†also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product. (f) “Food resource facilities†means plants, machinery, vehicles (including on farm), and other facilities required for the production, processing, distribution, and storage (including cold storage) of food resources, and for the domestic distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer‌â€
This unconstitutional EO is particularly disturbing in that it clearly states that the government has control over anything that is “capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals‌â€Â If you thought that you and Fido were going to get through the coming food crisis by storing and consuming dog food, think again.
It is important to assess how devastating this Executive Order could prove to be to the American people though a brief assessment of America’s food vulnerability.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Listen to Dave Hodges describe just how dangerous Clinton could be if elected.
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From Daily Mail : The BBC has been accused of acting recklessly after targeting children as young as six with a programme about a schoolboy who takes sex-change drugs.
Parents are angry that the show, available on the CBBC website, features a transgender storyline inappropriate for their children.
And concerned campaigners said it could ‘sow the seeds of confusion’ in young minds. The programme, Just A Girl, depicts an 11-year-old’s struggle to get hormones that stunt puberty, making it easier to have sex-change surgery in the future .
One mother, writing on the Mumsnet website, said her daughter had become worried after seeing the video . She said her girl, who likes wearing boys’ clothes and playing football, had ‘asked me, anxiously, if that means she was a boy’.
Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘It beggars belief that the BBC is making this programme freely available to children as young as six. I entirely share the anger of parents who just want to let children be children.
‘It is completely inappropriate for such material to be on the CBBC website and I shall be writing to BBC bosses to demand they take it down as soon as possible.’
Former Culture Secretary Maria Miller voiced her concerns over the BBC tackling the subject in ‘an age-appropriate way’, saying such issues should be raised ‘where children can have support from parents’.
And Tory MP Julian Brazier said: ‘This programme is very disappointing and inappropriate. Children are very impressionable and this is going to confuse and worry them. ’
Family campaigner Norman Wells said: ‘It is irresponsible of the BBC to introduce impressionable children as young as six to the idea that they can choose to be something other than their biological sex.’
Just A Girl is the fictional video diary of a child who calls herself ‘Amy’ and dresses as a girl. It is hosted on the CBBC website, aimed at children aged between six and 12 .
In the half-hour programme, Amy – played by an actress – reveals she was born a boy called Ben but has already started using puberty-halting drugs.
Such hypothalamic blockers provoked a furore two years ago when The Mail on Sunday revealed an NHS clinic was willing to give them to children as young as nine.
Critics cited research claiming that most teenagers confused about their gender never go through with surgery, with many realising they are gay. The BBC row comes amid growing controversy over gender issues, fuelled by a number of high-profile cases.
In one, a Christian couple were threatened with having their 14-year-old daughter taken away because they oppose her plans to become a boy. In another, a seven-year-old boy was ordered to be removed from his mother’s care as ‘she was raising him as female’, causing him ‘a great deal of emotional harm’.
In Just A Girl, Amy says: ‘When I was born, Mum said Dad was so pleased that he had a boy to take to the football. But Mum knew I was different. She realised early on that I was born in the wrong body.’
She adds: ‘My Mum supported me when I did a PowerPoint presentation to my class about transitioning and that I wasn’t going to come to school in boys’ clothes any more, but girls’ clothes. I wasn’t Ben, I was Amy.’
Later Amy is shown telling a friend, Josh – a boy who wants to be recognised as a girl – that she is on hormone blockers, saying it took ‘ages’ to get them after ‘loads of tests and talks at the clinic’. ‘Once they realised I was trans for real, [I] got them,’ she says. In another entry, Amy tells viewers she has developed a crush on a boy called Liam, but confides: ‘Liam thinks I’m just a girl, but I’m not. I’m trans. And what’s he going to say if he finds out? Stop being my friend? Why? I’m still me, aren’t I?’
Child psychotherapist Dr. Dilys Daws said the programme could confuse children. She said that, while it was natural for youngsters to wonder what it would be like to be the opposite sex, the BBC was irresponsible to feature the ‘extreme’ step of gender change for six-year-olds because they were too young to grapple with such issues .
The programme generated hundreds of comments on Mumsnet. One mother, who said her seven-year-old had watched the show, asked: ‘Am I being unreasonable to think this is an inappropriate topic for a young age group?’
Another replied: ‘Don’t think this is remotely suitable for a seven-year-old. To start suggesting that children can be transgender when they’re far too young to actually have a gender is reckless and damaging. A small boy who is told that he can become a girl may take this as meaning that sex changes are possible, that sometime in the future he’ll wake up with a girl’s body.’
Another user added: ‘I don’t think hormone therapy should be normalised any more than 12-year-olds drinking or doing recreational drugs should be normalised.’
Other critics slammed the BBC. Mr Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said: ‘The more we promote the idea that a boy can be born into a girl’s body and a girl can be born into a boy’s body, and that drugs and surgery can put things right, the more children will become utterly confused. Respecting and preserving a child’s birth sex should be seen as a child protection issue. ’
But some parents on Mumsnet were more positive. One wrote: ‘I don’t believe there is “too young” for stuff like this. The earlier you teach your children that everyone is different and that nobody is “normal” the better.’
Dr .Polly Carmichael, a clinical psychologist specialising in transgender children, said: ‘Raising awareness of these issues is the best way to challenge stigma and discrimination associated with identity issues. Programmes like Just A Girl can contribute to a healthy and informed public discussion. ’
The BBC said: ‘Just A Girl is about a fictional transgender character trying to make sense of the world, deal with bullying and work out how to keep her friends, which are universal themes that many children relate to, and which has had a positive response from our audience. CBBC aims to reflect true life, providing content that mirrors the lives of as many UK children as possible. ’
DCG | 0 |
Is Trump the lesser of two evils or are both candidates equally unelectable?
THE GREAT DEBATE BEGINS: We’ll know who is right tomorrow!
SARDONICUS (to Flopot) : I know it makes your blood boil to consider the “lesser of two evils” scenario. But LD has always been a conscientious non-voter and is therefore unlikely to be voting for either Trump or Hillary. Nor am I for that matter, since I am a UK resident and do not get to vote in the American elections.
You really must reconcile yourself, Flopot, to the fact that Hillary is held in such visceral loathing that her millions of haters feel they have no option but to vote for her opponent, Donald Trump, even though they are aware of the Donald’s many faults and his Zionist connections.
It’s either not voting at all or voting for the lesser of two evils.
FLOPOT : You don’t understand the meaning of “lesser of two evils”. It is a con trick; it doesn’t exist. Donald will pursue the same globalist wars and cultural revolutions as any other Zionist puppet. It is a meme that exists to get your consent to continue the same evil.
HARBINGER: Hear hear. Exactly Flopot. As I’ve stated umpteen times, Trump is good cop, Hillary is bad. But sadly, Sardonicus does not see the ‘grand plan’ even though the likes of Zbigniew Brzezinski and Carroll Quigley do, both very much part of that process.
There is not one politician in the west who becomes what they are, without a careful vetting procedure. Classic example is Jeremy Corbin , whom many thought was going to be the saviour of Labour and take it to the Zionists, when he has proven without any shadow of a doubt that he’s a rampant Zionist, even though who goes on pro Palestine marches.
Trump is a puppet. Clinton is a puppet. May is a puppet. Merkel is a puppet….. There is not ONE politician in the west who isn’t part of the ‘grand plan’ and it’s why everything works according to plan.
SARDONICUS (to Flopot and Harbinger) : Yes, I understand exactly what both you and Harbinger are saying and I can sympathize with your viewpoint. You are saying there is NO LESSER OF TWO EVILS here since both candidates are EQUALLY EVIL. Because both are Zionists and will deliver a program to further Jewish interests. That’s what you’re saying, right?
The only difference, as Harbie indicates, is that one of these two candidates is playing the “bad cop” (Hillary) and the other is playing the “good cop” (Trump). So it’s nonsense to vote for the “good cop” as the “lesser of two evils” when both cops are equally evil when the chips are down.
This is your argument and I can sympathize with it only if you are correct in your initial assumption that Trump has no redeeming features whatever and is a total charlatan and liar who will break every single promise of his if he gets into the White House.
You are entitled to that assumption, but you are NOT entitled to believe that your assumption is universally shared. Kevin MacDonald certainly doesn’t believe that Trump is a thorough scoundrel who will sell all White America down the river as soon as he is elected. Nor do the thousands of White Nationalists and other White Americans who share MacDonald’s perfectly acceptable and intellectually defensible views.
These millions of Trump supporters do NOT believe that Trump is an unmitigated scoundrel who will break his promise to build a wall to keep the Mexicans out. Trump has said he has no intention of starting a war with Russia. Hillary has made no such promise. Trump has said he will crack down on illegal immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants from hostile Muslim states. Well, MacDonald and his White Nationalists are giving Trump the benefit of the doubt.
I for one refuse to think that Kevin MacDonald and the millions who are hoping for a resurgence of White ethnic interests are deluded and mistaken in their advocacy of Donald Trump. They could be right. Trump could be their man and actually deliver the goods, i.e., improve the lives of millions of White Americans who are now suffering under Jewish hegemony and a multiculturalism that has gone mad.
The pessimism both of you share in regard to the irredeemable character of Donald Trump is simply a subjective state of mind. It’s an opinion, not a fact.
I may choose to say, “I can’t stand garlic and onions.” This makes me a garlic-and-onion pessimist. My subjective viewpoint that garlic and onions are horrible vegetables does not make it a scientific fact that garlic and onions are horrible vegetables. The garlic and onion eaters of the world are entitled to tell me to get lost if I told everyone to give up eating garlic and onions.
So it is with Flopot and Harbinger with their Trump pessimism. They are making a logical mistake in confusing impressions with facts. It is not a FACT that Trump is a scoundrel; at the most it is a subjective opinion.
HP : Trump is not a politician who has been a politician who grew up a politician and lived and breathed politics all his adult life. Apart from business/social, of course.
He’s an Alpha businessman who just happens to be waaay more intelligent and personally powerful than 99% of the political mediocres who envy and hate him.
He came from out of nowhere and like a freight train rolled right over them before they could even cry foul or man an offense against him based on their default slime factor M.O.
Hell, he vetted them ! Even as the entire weight of the political, M$M, Hollywood, Academia, foreigners, etc., etc., set upon him like no other in memory near or far. But they couldn’t even put a dent in him, or scare him off, and you know the vile demons tried very hard.
He didn’t scare. But he did and does scare them. A lot.
Being a uber-quick study, he easily overtook and surpassed the half-bright bureaucrat politicians and within one solitary year he IS The Alpha Politician.
Putin (and his 12 time zones full of natural resources) will no doubt enjoy Trump. Putin will respect his intelligence, embrace his personality, utilize his uber-business talents and skills, and very very importantly, hugely importantly.. share their big big patriotism for their nations, their citizens..
In other words: The world gets an early Christmas present this year!
UNGENIUS: Well said, HP! I would add only one statement: Trump is not a murderer, but Killery is a murderer of long standing which should make a choice simple between the two.
GILBERT HUNTLY: Sardonicus, thanks for your healthy and sane perspective! Well said! 🙂
LOBRO: Seconding that. And add HP’s perceptive comment [ above ] to the score for level headed reason.
ARIADNATHEO: Sardonicus, Harbinger and Flopot: You are all wrong, as I used to be, I admit.
“Jewish hegemony,” “zionism” …. are nothing but red herrings that distract our attention from the real enemy. It’s not “Jews, Jews, Jews,” it’s Goyim, goyim, goyim. I owe it to Amy Martin to have finally understood who are, to cite her “the two more powerful lobbyists in the US” — the Podesta brothers!
Also who are the real rulers whose vast web of corruption brought them virtually absolute power: the Clintons! No Jews are involved anywhere.
Amy is really good (AND good looking). Why did RT get rid of her?
KAREN: Ariadnatheo, great satire!
FLOPOT: Satire reveals truth, though. We’re our own worst enemy — gullible goy; the malleable toy.
ARIADNATHEO: This is a prediction I trust [ short amusing video ].
If you watch, make sure it is BEFORE lunch.
JOHN KIRBY: Sounds like the usual shakedown.
THE DOT (having the last word, unedited) :
@ darkmooners charlatans
you have been supporting the cretin clown d j dumpy from day one just because that you are sick and mentaly diseased racist pigs just like him your lunatic drivel is just like his . guess what Adriana you sick horny hog ,your Donny will not win ,loser I seen a gifted seer and some mysterious unseen someone ,she can look at the future do some kind of time travel ,I was told that ,but my mind couldn’t accept it ,so i asked for a proof ,the future winning lottery numbers.she asked for my soul then i ran away . before that she said that she visited tomorrow and Donny lost the election . now Adriana and the rest of you dark spirited hyenas ,who is crazier you or me or that witch We’ll know tomorrow (Ed) Like this? Share it now. 7 thoughts on “ Celebrity Deathmatch: Darkmoon Sages Make Their Final Predictions on US Election ” Flopot says: | 0 |
Around the Web Founder of WorldTruth.Tv and WomansVibe.com Eddie ( 8893 Posts )
Eddie L. is the founder and owner of WorldTruth.TV. and Womansvibe.com. Both website are dedicated to educating and informing people with articles on powerful and concealed information from around the world. I have spent the last 36+ years researching Bible, History, Alternative Health, Secret Societies, Symbolism and many other topics that are not reported by mainstream media. | 0 |
ABC Poll Oversamples Dems by 9%, Claims Hillary Leading Mainstream media oversampling Democrats to create fake Hillary lead Kit Daniels - October 27, 2016 Comments
In another example of poll rigging, an ABC presidential poll surveyed 9% more Democrats than Republicans and showed Hillary Clinton leading by 12% – with a 3% sampling error!
ABC claims it’s a “12-point race” with Clinton ahead after polling a “random” national sample of 1,155 likely voters, but the poll’s methodology reveals the poll was heavily biased in favor of Hillary.
“Results have a margin of sampling error of 3 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 36-27-31 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents,” ABC said near the bottom of the poll.
Of course Hillary will be ahead in polls dominated by Democrats, but ABC and other mainstream media outlets are betting that voters won’t bother to look at a poll’s methodology to find the bias.
Even if there’s more registered Democrats than Republicans nationally, they don’t outnumber them by nearly 10% because otherwise Republicans wouldn’t be winning national races.
“These kind of misleading polls really strike at their credibility as pollsters,” wrote media analyst Aaron Rossiter. “They seem to want the big Hillary lead, probably to throw off the poll averages and suppress Republican voter turnout.”
And if the fact that mainstream polls are “adjusted” to manufacture a Hillary lead still sounds doubtful to you, just read this leaked email from Democratic consultant Tom Matzzie:
“I also want to get your Atlas folks to recommend oversamples for our polling before we start in February. By market, regions, etc. I want to get this all compiled into one set of recommendations so we can maximize what we get out of our media polling.”
The email also includes this report from The Atlas Project on how to rig polls to get the desired result:
For example, in Florida, a key battleground state, Democratic consultants recommended oversampling African-American and Hispanic voters who lean Democratic so the polls favor Democrat candidates:
– General election benchmark, 800 sample, with potential over samples in key districts/regions
– Benchmark polling in targeted races, with ethnic over samples as needed
– Targeting tracking polls in key races, with ethnic over samples as needed | 0 |
New Home Sales - Tightrope Walk Over a Windy Canyon By Lee Adler. The Commerce Department reported today that sales of newly built homes posted a seasonally adjusted month to month increase of 3.1% to an annualized rate of 593,000. The department revised the August headline number down by 5.6% from 609,000 to 575,000. Without that revision the headline number this month would have been down by 2.7%. Surprise, surprise. Revise, revise. | 0 |
Tomi Lahren suggested in an interview that the Clintons are responsible for multiple murders.
A prominent journalist working at Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze who had endorsed Hillary Clinton is suggesting in a new interview that Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible for multiple murders.
Tomi Lahren spoke about comments she recently made about the Clintons having a high body count and that Bernie Sanders is only supporting Hillary out of fear he might mysteriously disappear in an interview on The Jamie Weinstein Show .
Weinstein asked Lahren during the interview: ‘You think Bernie Sanders is supporting Hillary Clinton because he’s afraid he is going to mysteriously disappear. You went on to say that the Clintons have a high body count. Do you believe that the Clintons really are killing people?’
She responded by saying: ‘You know, sometimes we look at patterns and we look at things that are happening and sometimes you can’t dismiss everything as a conspiracy.’
Weinstein then asked Lahren if she was referring to the conspiracy theory held by some that the Clintons were somehow responsible for the death of Vince Foster, a close friend of the couple who was found dead in 1993 of what was later ruled to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
‘The list – I will let your listeners go on and look at some of these examples and they can decide for themselves,’ said Lahren.
‘But there’s been some mysterious circumstances that have surrounded – we just saw, what with the DNC leaks and then what happened to a person that worked for the DNC that was in charge of that?’
Lahren was referring to the death of Seth Rich, who was murdered near his home in Washington DC this past July.
Soon after, DailyMail.com learned that he was set to start working for Hillary’s campaign.
Weinstein pointed out to Lahren that Rich’s parents said they do not suspect anything ‘suspicious,’ to which she replied: ‘Well, his family doesn’t want to be in a body bag either, Jamie.
‘I have got to be honest with you. What was it? He came in and was robbed, but his wallet and his watch weren’t taken? So he was robbed and what was he…’
And another claim: ‘Sometimes you can’t dismiss everything as a conspiracy,’ said Lahren (Clinton above with Vince Foster, whose death Lahren also finds mysterious)
One more claim: Lahren also spoke about the death of DNC worker Seth Rich (above), saying his parents are keeping quiet out of fear of ending up in a ‘body bag’
At this point Weinsten jumped in to say: ‘You think he might have been killed by the Clintons?’
Lahren responded to this by stating: ‘I don’t know if he was killed by the Clintons or a Clinton hit person. I’m not going to sit here and be what you want me to be which is a conspiracy theorist, but I will say…’
Weinsten then cut in briefly to point out he was just asking Lahren questions.
Lahren continued: “I think there are a lot of circumstances that surround the Clinton family that aren’t explainable and I will let people go on and research it for themselves. And if they think there is something fishy going on, I leave it to them. I certainly do.”
Source
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The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released a statement condemning the actions of the protesters at the MILO event at UC Berkeley Wednesday night. [“FIRE condemns both violence and attempts to silence protected expression in the strongest terms,” the statement reads. The use of mob violence to respond to constitutionally protected expression is an affront to our nation’s liberal traditions. And as so often happens, it has also proven deeply counterproductive, sabotaging its apparent aim. Instead of silencing Yiannopoulos, the violent response ensured that his message was broadcast nationwide. The events at Berkeley should alarm citizens from across the political spectrum who hold dear the liberal values enshrined in the First Amendment. FIRE will continue to insist that the proper answer to speech you hate is more speech, and we stand with the vast majority of Americans who live according to this principle every day. An updated statement was released on Thursday morning which contained a greater analysis from FIRE. The organization noted how they had praised UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks for refusing to cancel MILO’s event but were disappointed it did “not appear that the campus was prepared for the magnitude of the disruption, and the speech was canceled as a result. ” FIRE also responded to President Trump’s threat to cancel UC Berkeley’s federal funding, noting that “under current law, public universities that enforce blatantly unconstitutional speech codes and private universities that violate their own promises of free speech do not face the same potential loss of federal funding for censoring campus speech that they do for violating other federal civil rights laws and regulations. ” However, they also argued that since they had seen no evidence themselves “that Berkeley as an institution made any effort to silence Yiannopoulos,” it would be “deeply inappropriate” to cut off federal funding to UC Berkeley when those rioting were “not under its control and in contravention of its policies. ” DANGEROUS is available to now via Amazon, in hardcover and Kindle editions. And yes, MILO is reading the audiobook version himself! Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_, on Gab @JH or email him at jack@yiannopoulos. net. | 1 |
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