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The income and poverty report released on Tuesday by the Census Bureau was such a blockbuster that you’d think the bureau had just issued Beyoncé’s next secret album the night before. Even for many traditionally pessimistic economic observers, this was a very welcome report. Real median incomes rose 5. 2 percent in 2015 — phenomenal growth by economic standards. And 3. 5 million people moved out of poverty. But more important, 2015 was encouraging to economists because of where income growth was concentrated: the poor and middle class. We’re used to hearing about the sagging middle class, but in 2015, the middle class experienced its most income growth in nearly half a century. The income percentages of the middle class (the 40th, 50th and 60th deciles) all grew more than 5 percent. For the poor, 2015 was only slightly less impressive. The 10th and 20th percentiles posted their growth numbers. The only other year when income grew faster was 1968. In fact, maybe things are getting as good as they used to be. The pattern of 2015 is similar to that seen in 1968: growth among the middle class and poor, and moderate income growth among the rich. From the chart, you can see that in percentage terms, the poor tend to have wider ranges of growth and decline, reflecting the kind of financial instability that they face. But no matter how good 2015 seems to be, it cannot undo the years of decline since the recession. If you measure income growth from a longer horizon, 10 years, the picture changes drastically. In addition to greater variance in growth (because we’re taking a longer view) you see that the balance of growth tips toward the rich — and that 2015 does nothing to change that trend. It’s this long view that helps explain the economic anxiety that many people are experiencing. Also problematic is the divide in real income growth between households in rural and urban areas. Households outside of metro areas saw their incomes fall 2 percent (an update on this outlook can be found here) while households in cities saw their incomes grow 7. 3 percent. So while those who pay close attention to economic statistics may cheer about one good year, it’ll take more widespread growth to change how people actually feel. | 1 |
Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the .) Let’s turn it over to Jonah Engel Bromwich for today’s introduction. A California law that went into effect on Sunday barring drivers from holding phones while operating vehicles is among the most stringent in the nation. But experts say that it most likely won’t be enough to prevent accidents caused by distracted driving. Jennifer Ryan, AAA’s director of state relations, cautioned in a phone interview on Thursday that, “hands free is not risk free. ” Ms. Ryan said the California measure matched a larger trend of states bringing legislation with contemporary phones. But while the state’s provisions were particularly broad, she said, it was important for motorists to take responsibility for themselves and pay attention. The law goes beyond what federal authorities recommend to prevent distracted driving, which remains a significant cause of traffic fatalities. The latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that more than 3, 400 people died in 2015 in crashes that involved a distracted driver. Of those, 272 were teenagers. And while the use of smartphones is certainly part of the problem, many are unconvinced that keeping them out of drivers’ hands will be a panacea. Some have speculated that the California law may encourage enthusiasm for cars. When Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure into law in September, he approved of another bill that allowed for the first tests of autonomous driving vehicles on public roads. Steve Finnegan, the government affairs manager of the Automobile Club of Southern California, said that while the new legislation “is a step in the right direction,” it does not address “the complete issue of distracted driving. ” “One of the bigger issues is cognitive distraction,” Mr. Finnegan said. “It’s not what your hands are doing it’s what your brain is doing. ” (Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have metered paywalls.) • Senator Dianne Feinstein will be at the center of the debate over Donald J. Trump’s nominees. [McClatchy] • San Diego’s mayor has quietly started mulling a run for governor. [Politico] • A lawmaker’s claim that California legalized child prostitution was rated “Pants on Fire” by a group. [PolitiFact] • California is bracing for the type of punishing rains that happen about once every . [San Francisco Chronicle] • Grapes ripen earlier. Nights warm up. Aquifers run dry. Climate change is hitting wine country. [The New York Times] • Why more California families are falling into homelessness. [KPCC] • After overhauling its football stadium, U. C. Berkeley owes more money than any other college sports program. [Bloomberg News] • It was one of the most productive, disjointed and confusing years in the life of Kanye West. [The New York Times] • How the Hollywood artist Tyrus Wong fused traditional influences with his own style to create the look of “Bambi. ” [The New York Times] • The category at the Oscars is a race, with “La La Land” in the lead. [The New York Times] • Pete Wells’s harsh review of an Oakland fast food restaurant faced some backlash. [Los Angeles Magazine] Boats bobbing in the marina, a shimmering blue bay, the echoing calls of seabirds. Sausalito, a tiny waterfront community just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, is an inspiring place. So it was, many summers ago, that Otis Redding stayed on a houseboat there and came up with the first idea for an American classic. It was this weekend in 1968 that Mr. Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” was released. In August 1967, the soul singer had come to San Francisco to do a series of gigs at Basin Street West, a storied club at the time. According to Jonathan Gould, the author of a forthcoming biography of Mr. Redding, the rock promoter Bill Graham offered Mr. Redding the use of his houseboat up in Sausalito. While relaxing there with his guitar, he is thought to have sketched the lines: Later, the guitarist Steve Cropper helped to fill out the rest of the song and it was recorded in November. But Mr. Redding never heard the single. Just 18 days after the studio session, he died in a plane crash in Madison, Wis. on Dec. 10, 1967. He was 26. On Jan. 8, 1968, the “Dock of the Bay” album was released. The single rose to No. 1 on Billboard’s pop chart and stayed there for four weeks. It was the biggest hit of Mr. Redding’s career. California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 1 |
A Victory for ‘White’ America November 12, 2016
The narrow split in the U.S. electorate revealed by Donald Trump’s election as President ended with a victory of “white” America over “diverse” America with long-lasting consequences, says moral theologist Daniel C. Maguire.
By Daniel C. Maguire
My reaction four days out from the moral tragedy of Donald Trump’s election as President is this: we are two nations, not one nation. On Nov. 8, 2016, one nation, a very white, very gerrymandered nation, braced by feeble voter turnout, conquered the other.
The conquest will continue for at least a generation since it includes control of the U.S. Supreme Court. Mid-term elections may bring minor relief (or possibly not because Senate Democrats have far more seats to defend than Republicans) but the conquering nation knows that the Supreme Court and other judges pipe the tune to which all must dance. President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence thank their supporters for the upset victory on Nov. 8, 2016. (Photo from donaldjtrump.com)
In this new regimen, the environment loses, true democracy loses, unions lose, education loses, women lose, especially those with problem pregnancies, a free press loses, peace-makers lose, people of color lose, “illegal” immigrants lose, international alliances lose, the goal of basic health care for all loses, the regulations of corporate greed lose, occupied people like the Palestinians lose, sexual minorities lose, real religious freedom loses, the splintered Democratic party loses, and voter turnout continues to lose. And in all losses, the poor are the greatest losers.
There is nothing new in this. The Exodus story in the Bible (when not misunderstood as history) is a metaphor for human societies. Properly interpreted, Exodus was saying that human social organization teeters between the Egyptian pyramidal model of one percent rule and the alternative Sinai model based on appropriate sharing where “there will be no poor among you” (Deut. 15:4) and where swords will gradually be beaten into plowshares.
In the brief period after the Second World War, ending in the early 1970s, the United States getting closer to the Sinai sharing model. Even under Republican Dwight Eisenhower, the top marginal income tax rate was 90 percent. “Justice consists in sharing,” said Thomas Aquinas.
During that brief moral interlude, there was sharing and a healthy middle class, along with the best-educated young in the world. We receded from that in subsequent decades, and on Nov. 8, 2016, we solemnly broke faith with humanity’s best hopes.
The tragedy is terminal only if hope, the most revolutionary of emotions, also dies. The Deuteronomist said that we can choose life or we can choose death and then begged us, choose life for your children’s sake. That salient challenge remains in the wake of this debacle.
Daniel C. Maguire is a Professor of Moral Theology at Marquette University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is author of A Moral Creed for All Christians and The Horrors We Bless: Rethinking the Just-War Legacy [Fortress Press]). He can be reached at [email protected] | 0 |
Veteran political strategist Pat Caddell talked about the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and its possible effect on the 2018 midterm elections with SiriusXM host Matt Boyle on Monday’s Breitbart News Daily. [“All these smart people in Washington, who have not understood politics for some time, these are the same people who said, ‘Well, it wouldn’t hurt the Democrats. The country will love it,’” Caddell said of conventional media wisdom about Obamacare at the time of its passage. LISTEN: “Then we had several elections, and now we’re saying, ‘Oh, of course, the Republicans are doomed,’” he continued, referring to predictions that as many as 20 House Republicans could be facing tougher campaigns in 2018 because of the AHCA. “No, they’re not. It depends on what they do,” Caddell argued. “So far, I’ll tell you as a fairly competent person, I have no idea what’s in this bill. That’s because, other than the talking points, the headlines thrown out by Trump administration and congressional people, I have no clue what’s in it. I don’t know how it answers the problems that have been raised. ” “But at the same time, the failure of the Republicans and the White House and the entire operation to set a narrative, made important what had to be done — to have ceded all of that ground to their opponents on the basis of, ‘Well, you know preconditions are going to be hurt, are going to be cut out of this, and we’re going to destroy Medicaid,’ whatever. To have conceded that ground is to have conceded a lot,” he continued. “But I’m not sure the next election is going to be about health care, one way or the other,” Caddell added. “It depends on whether or not they can get something fixed, and whether or not people perceive that Donald Trump has kept his word, or whether this is just seen as another partisan battle. So I’m not so sure. ” “I don’t see any great movement in the polls, in terms of party support for either party, since they’ve been doing this for several months or raising this. I’m somewhat skeptical. I think the election in 2018 is going to be on much larger grounds than merely a healthcare revolt. It may or may not work to Donald Trump’s benefit — we will yet see — or detriment. I think that we’re going to see some other things raised. But the single most important thing is the economy and what happens to it,” he predicted. “Let me just add another thing: whether or not Donald Trump starts representing, in this White House, the voters who put him over the top,” he said, criticizing the Trump team for “failing to show much interest or clarity” in using their 2016 election victory to shape a new political majority. Caddell agreed with Boyle that House Speaker Paul Ryan was a major force pushing Trump in that conventional Republican direction. He said Ryan was the paramount example of what he calls “the Chamber of Commerce Republican Establishment party,” which was “slaughtered in 2016. ” Caddell said those establishment Republicans “managed to spark an uprising after the victory of the Republicans in 2014 and their immediate decision in December to go into conference and sell out everything the Republican candidates had campaigned on. ” “This group of people has never wanted Donald Trump. They don’t want Donald Trump now. The longer he keeps letting them stab him in the back, which is what’s happening — whether it’s on this, it’s what’s happening at the FCC, on privacy rights,” he warned. “And by the way, where is Donald Trump taking on the massive disaster of the airlines in this country?” Caddell asked. “Nowhere! They leave so much hanging. Partly it’s because I fear it’s because they failed to have an organizing principle of this White House. They are then susceptible to their quote ‘allies’ — enemies! — who want to push their agenda, an agenda that the American people have never wanted. That is a real danger. ” Caddell faulted the Trump administration for failing to use “the bully pulpit of the White House” to influence America’s political culture, with the healthcare debate serving as an acute example. With a caveat about how polling has become unreliable because much of it is conducted by universities, and university polls can no longer be conducted in a truly unbiased manner, he said he doubted the level of energetic support for the House Obamacare replacement bill exceeded 25 percent. “How did they get in that fix? And most of all, how did they do it when, in fact, the market, I think, is collapsing?” he marveled. “Part of the problem is there is no place for ordinary people, or even sophisticated people, to go to find out what the truth is. All we’re getting is propaganda from MSNBC and CNN, the mainstream media. We don’t have enough places for people to go and sort the facts, and it certainly isn’t coming out of the House leadership. ” Boyle noted the White House could spend more time touting its successes, such as achieving the lowest unemployment figure last month in more than a decade. Caddell responded that he did not want to “start throwing around unemployment numbers” he was denouncing as “cooked, in the sense that they no longer reflect the real reality of what unemployment is” last year. “Those people who cannot get work and whatever, that number is still higher, and we shouldn’t repeat the mistake the Obama people and the Bill Mahers of the world” made by overemphasizing the importance of the headline unemployment figure. “This is still not a good economy. It’s getting better,” he pronounced. “But it’s Trump’s opportunity. That, and standing up for people, and shaking Washington to its foundations. That’s why I said something like the airlines. The entire reason our airline industry is so much worse than Europe is because everyone in Washington has been bought off by these people, including those pathetic congressmen I saw question witnesses last week, who complain about their own trips but do nothing about it because they get too much money. ” “When he starts draining the swamp, rather than inviting the swamp to eat him, then he will begin to turn this,” Caddell advised. “But I have to stay it. It’s just a true statement: this White House has no strategy. They could have done things in health care, gotten a bill passed with two things: how about dealing with drug prices, and also allowing interstate competition? Just laying a marker down would have been good. ” “Doing the same thing on tax reform by taking away the hedge fund money, proving he’s not going to be the pawn of these big billionaire rich people — I mean, Trump needs to take charge,” he continued. “They could get successes, but they won’t, as long as they allow themselves to be led by their enemy allies. ” Boyle suggested some of President Trump’s problems stemmed from the enormous permanent bureaucracy, which is prone to undermining dramatic reforms. He said there were some hopeful signs that Trump is beginning to make progress against this obstacle. “I agree with you, Matt. It’s not lost. It’s just got to be kind of frustrating because already, things should be happening,” said Caddell. “I’ll tell you, I don’t mean to be just critical because they have done good things,” he added. “And they are surrounded. Remember, they’re at war with an entire political class. The White House sometimes looks like Fort Apache under attack. I mean, the Indians are everywhere. ” “We have a national media that is literally proving itself to be the enemy of the American people, and it will not put out any news that is true or factual that will help Trump,” he said, accusing the media of banding together “in such negativity to undermine him. ” “Then you have the political class itself, which are the lobbyists, lawyers, money of both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party — who are united because they so desperately need to go back to normal, to further their corruptions,” he added. “Trump needs to strike the high ground. This is the most unique challenge a president has ever had. He has got to figure the unique ways to do it. I think they’re capable of it, but so far, somebody needs to tell them they’re not doing it,” Caddell said. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. Listen to the full audio of the interview above. | 1 |
A trip to a country you mock. Or a screaming tirade from the floor of Congress. An angry tweet to a foreign leader. Or a selfie sent to a stranger. It is the kind of behavior we see in a particular variety of politician — most often, I’ll just say it, men. From New York. Who love social media. Any guesses? In the latest episode of The Run Up, we explore two forces that have endeared and alarmed us in political life this year: impulsiveness and narcissism. And we examine two men, Donald J. Trump and Anthony D. Weiner, who have at times embodied both qualities. Both have ridden those attributes to dizzying political highs but also found they take a toll, raising doubts about their judgment and fitness for public office. I spoke with two people who have studied both men for years: Frank Bruni, a columnist and former political reporter at The Times, and Maggie Haberman, a national campaign reporter whom I first met covering Mr. Weiner back in 2009. “To get to a certain level of success as a politician in the current context — with the cameras on you all the time, with social media, with all of this attention — you have to be able to be a bit of a performer,” Mr. Bruni says. “That requires a certain amount of loving the crowd, a certain amount of narcissism. That’s the price of entry. ” Part of Mr. Trump’s strength as a performer is his mastery of reading the room. We saw that on display with the stark contrast between his performance in Mexico City on Wednesday afternoon and in Phoenix that night, Ms. Haberman says. “Trump’s impulses are to please whatever crowd he is in front of and to meld to whatever audience he’s speaking to,” she says. She reminds us of what Mr. Trump told The Times’s editorial board: that when he feels the energy in the crowd flagging, he goes to his line about building a wall. “He’s coming up with what he says, and what then becomes his policy position, based on how to get the crowd to make him feel good. ” Mr. Bruni says. “This is narcissism as a governing philosophy. ” With both Mr. Trump and Mr. Weiner, Ms. Haberman says, “there’s a certain A. D. D. quality to how they go about their performance or performance art, depending on how you want to describe it. ” When there’s no crowd on hand to provide the dopamine hit, Twitter does the trick. “This need for that dopamine, that need for instant gratification, I think it raises enormous questions — disqualifying questions — about both of them as potential leaders or actual leaders,” Mr. Bruni says. “There’s a big difference between what is interesting to behold and what we want to be governed by. ” Please let us know what you think of The . You can reach us at therunup@nytimes. com, or find me on Twitter. You can also rate and review us on iTunes. From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. On your iPhone or iPad: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. (This link might help.) 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “The ” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone for free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. (This link might help.) 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for the name of the series and select it from the list of results. You may have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone for free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. | 1 |
Sweden is recycling so much trash, it's running out Nov 18, 2016 6 0
( Minds ) Sweden has transformed its waste-infrastructure program to accommodate the burning of trash. They have taken a process that used to be heavily pollutant and modernized it to create incredible amounts of energy with a low waste output. They’ve even figured out how to turn a lot of that polluting gas into biofuel.
Currently, the Swedish population recycles 1.5 billion bottles and cans annually, which is an amazing amount, relative to the population of about 9.6 million (in 2013).
There are 32 of these amazing reconversion plants, dedicated to turning trash into energy, throughout the country and they are actually at a point where they need to import trash to keep them going. They continue to import trash from the UK, Italy, Norway, and Ireland.
Burning it is, now, better for the environment than letting it sit there , says Swedish Waste Management communications director Anna-Carin Gripwell. “When waste sits in landfills, leaking methane gas and other greenhouse gasses, it is obviously not good for the environment.”
“We feel that we have responsibility to act responsibly in this area and try to reduce our ecological footprint,” states Per Bolund, Swedish Finance and Consumption Minister. “The consumers are really showing that the want to make a difference and what we’re trying to do from the government’s side is to help them act, making it easier to behave in a sustainable way.” Vote Up | 0 |
A review of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) wanted fugitive list revealed that less than 16 percent of DEA fugitives are from the United States. [The review of the DEA’s wanted fugitive list took place from April 18 to April 21, 2017, in which all 21 DEA divisions were analyzed. The 21 DEA divisions that oversee the United States had a total of 902 listed fugitives. The of 115 of the 902 fugitives is unknown. The remaining 787 fugitives are from a total of 38 countries with the overwhelming majority coming from Mexico. The top three countries that DEA fugitives come from are: (1) Mexico, 505 (2) United States, 124 and (3) Colombia, 21. Out of the 787 whose is known, 70 percent are from south of the U. S. border, 64 percent from Mexico alone. In an email to Breitbart Texas, the DEA Office of Congressional and Public Affairs said: Each division is responsible for updating their fugitive website and that is done as needed. So if there is someone that has been arrested and needs to come down they do it, however there are instances where some of them have been arrested outside of the United States so, in that instance, they would remain displayed on the fugitive website until they have been extradited to the United States. Each division does quarterly reviews of their websites to check the status the fugitives and update as needed. In the 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment Summary, the DEA categorically states that Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) represent the largest drug threat to the United States: Mexican TCOs remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States no other group is currently positioned to challenge them. These TCOs maintain territorial influence over large regions in Mexico used for the cultivation, production, importation, and transportation of illicit drugs. By controlling lucrative smuggling corridors across the U. S. Southwest Border (SWB) Mexican TCOs are able to introduce quantities of illicit drugs into the United States on a yearly basis. The portfolio maintained by Mexican TCOs consists primarily of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and to a lesser extent, fentanyl. Once these drugs are smuggled across the Mexican border, they are delivered to consumer markets in the United States using transportation routes and distribution cells that Mexican TCOs oversee both directly and indirectly. The DEA lists the following six Mexican drug cartels as having the greatest drug trafficking impact on the U. S.: Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation, Juarez, Gulf, Los Zetas, and the Organization. The most powerful of the Mexican drug cartels is the Sinaloa, which the DEA states it “maintains the most expansive international footprint amongst Mexican cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel exports and distributes wholesale amounts of methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin in the United States … Illicit drugs distributed by the Sinaloa Cartel are primarily smuggled into the United States through crossing points located along Mexico’s border with California, Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. ” The entire U. S. Border is broken down into sections or “turf” that is controlled by Mexican drug cartels. One of the reasons that the Mexican drug cartels have so much power is because they often bribe politicians and law enforcement in Mexico which allows them to operate with impunity. Breitbart Texas is one of the only news organizations that reported on the connections between Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican drug cartels. Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra. | 1 |
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Even for 10 minutes, Curtis Granderson can’t restrain himself. On a recent morning here in spring training, before the start of his 12th full major league season, he was talking about how, at age 36, he will handle the rigors of chasing down balls in center field. As he talked, he asked for a brief timeout and reached for the water bottle he had left on the floor beside his locker. This was his sixth bottle of the day, and it wasn’t yet noon. There would likely be another six before the day was done. “You always see him just crushing water,” said his fellow outfielder Michael Conforto, who is 12 years younger than Granderson. Granderson drinks by the sip. He values that over chugging because he believes it gives his body a constant flow of essential fluids. He is also a firm believer in water, because he can’t drink as much when the water is cold. Thus, a of bottles is always adjacent to his locker. “There are always massive amounts of bottles of water everywhere,” said third baseman David Wright, whose spring training locker is next to Granderson’s. There’s also expansive territory to cover in center field. Granderson may not be ideal as the Mets’ primary player at that position, but he is the best option on a roster with numerous corner outfielders. And despite an uneven 2016 season, when he hit . 237, he clobbered 30 home runs, second only to Yoenis Cespedes on the Mets, and drew a 74 walks. Since signing a $60 million deal with the Mets before the 2014 season, Granderson has primarily played in right. But with another right fielder, Jay Bruce, back for 2017 and Conforto in the mix, Granderson will be asked to man center — with some help from outfielder Juan Lagares, who suffered a strained left oblique on Saturday. The last time Granderson played more than 100 games in center field was 2012, when he was with the Yankees. “He does keep himself in great shape, but the wear and tear of playing center field is going to be tough on his legs at times,” said the Mets’ manager, Terry Collins. Which is where the water comes in. Granderson’s recent track record is proof of how much care he puts into staying healthy. With the Mets, over the last three years, he has averaged 154 games a season — as many as he did in his when he played center for the Detroit Tigers. “I’m the oldest guy here with the Mets,” he said. “I never thought I’d be saying that with any team I’d be on. ” He probably never thought he would be drinking as much water as he now does, either, although he maintains it isn’t water alone that has helped him stay on the field. With experience, he said, he has learned how to give his body a break. “Before, if I wasn’t starting, I felt like I needed to do something, whether it be lift or hit or do something,” he said. “Now, I can shut it down and get back to where I need to after. ” That mentality now applies to the too. He had tried everything from boxing to Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) for fitness in past winters, but eventually stopped because it wasn’t worth the risk of overtraining or injury. Instead, four years ago, Granderson added swimming to his workouts, doing his sessions at his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Chicago. And while he still lifts weights, he has cut back because he didn’t think the extra lifting was necessary. In addition, although some athletes who are Granderson’s age significantly change their diets, Granderson has not done so — except for the water, that is. “When people ask me about my diet, it’s hard to explain because I’ll literally eat everything,” he said. “I like vegetables. I like fruits. I like fried stuff. I like sweets. So if you tell me to cut stuff out, that’s no problem because there’s so much other stuff I like. ” In the his breakfasts are usually oatmeal, fruit and, well, you already know his drink of choice. Often busy with charity work, Granderson packs a lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, nuts, fruit and chocolate milk. Dinner varies daily. “My biggest thing is to maintain weight,” he said. “If I don’t eat, I lose it by nature. ” During the season, Granderson always eats breakfast, checking what time the hotel or nearby restaurants will finish serving it so he can get there in time. During spring training, he often eats in the Mets’ clubhouse. He also loves napping, if only for 10 minutes, and he uses the many plane rides during the season to get still more sleep. “A lot of guys don’t like flying,” he said. “I’m like a baby in a car. ” But or regular season, the common thread for Granderson is water, and then more water. A routine sight in the Mets’ clubhouse is Granderson stuffing water bottles into his glove, back pockets or backpack before practice or when leaving for the team hotel. “I always have it by me,” he said. Granderson changed how much water he consumed after a game on May 1, 2010, when he was 29 and playing for the Yankees. In the sixth inning against the Chicago White Sox, he was running from first base to third on a single when he felt a twinge in his groin area. He left the game and was placed on the disabled list. He was already dealing with a sore throat and a fever, and the Yankees sent him to a hospital to get intravenous fluids. “There they told me: ‘Man, even your veins are dehydrated. You just haven’t been drinking that much water,’” Granderson said. He returned to the Yankees’ lineup after four weeks of rehabilitation, but he made a vow to drink more water. Since then, Granderson has not completely avoided injuries — he sustained a fractured right forearm and broken left pinkie after being hit by pitches in 2013 and has had minor calf ailments that have lasted a few days. But a lack of hydration has not been an issue. “It takes a while to get used to,” he said about all the water. “You wake up a lot a night to go to the bathroom when you first start. ” Granderson now has his water consumption down to a science. Before he arrives at the stadium during spring training, he has already consumed two bottles. Then he has 12 ounces with breakfast. He carries three bottles out to batting practice with him. He’ll have another one with lunch, often with electrolyte powder mixed in. His postgame protein shake is followed by another bottle of water on the way home, and then several more before he goes to sleep. Granderson also drinks decaffeinated tea but doesn’t consume soda, juice or coffee. Those were pushed aside when his water consumption shot up. Asked about Granderson’s water intake, Dr. Melissa Leber, an assistant professor of orthopedics at the Icahn School of Medicine medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York, put it in a larger context. The average sweat rate of an adult while running is about two liters an hour, she said. So an active adult in a warm climate should consume up to six liters of water a day. That is in the general vicinity of how much water Granderson takes in daily, although baseball can be a stationary sport at times, which means Granderson isn’t always running around. But he is always looking to take another sip, amazing his teammates in the process. “I’d just feel full all the time drinking that much,” said Conforto, who estimated he drank perhaps six bottles a day. “But it’s clearly working for him. ” | 1 |
New Year’s Eve personality Kathy Griffin has a message for Donald Trump: she wants to hold his bloody severed head in her hands. [Griffin’s hyperviolent “art” photography holding the simulated Trump head will rightfully put a spotlight on the culture of violence leftists have cultivated in America follow the President’s electoral victory. But it should also serve as a reminder that Griffin is not alone on Hollywood’s female comedy in feeling comfortable using the suffering of people around the world to make money and generate headlines. Too many of Hollywood’s liberal white female comedians see their suffering as joke fodder for new movies, sketches, or routines. Griffin’s “beheading” photo plagiarizes an aesthetic popularized by the Islamic State, in which jihadis hold up photos of severed heads and smile into the camera, beaming with their trophies. Toddlers in terrorist training camps start off with dolls or teddy bears before graduating to human heads. The most aggressive jihadi teachers have their children holding up bloody heads before age 10. These children are taught that beheadings are proper punishment for kuffar (unbelievers) and Muslim traitors who do not adhere to the Islamic State’s version of Sunni Islam. Christians, Jews, Shiite Muslims, and anyone believed to have violated Sharia law, often on video as a threat to the rest of the world. The Islamic State has singled out President Donald Trump for such a fate, but most of its actual victims are not American. They are Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan, Jordanian, Afghan, Pakistani, Nigerian, Bengali, Filipino, and Kurdish of all nationalities — citizens of the countries where ISIS has established a presence. Whether Griffin meant to elicit laughs with her cultural appropriation of Islamic beheading propaganda remains unclear. On Twitter Tuesday, she alleged she was attempting to “mock” Trump. What she clearly did not intend was to highlight the suffering of the victims of this sort of violence with any dignity, earning this episode a place in the greater narrative affirmed by the likes of Chelsea Handler, Amy Schumer, and Tina Fey that the very real violence people of color face around the world is fertile ground for new material. Handler, for instance, has notched several offenses against Africans and black Americans under her belt. In a book and subsequent television special, titled Uganda Be Kidding Me, she jokes that she and a friend believed simply being in Africa would lead to her rape. The analysis of Uganda does not go much deeper than that — the modern history of the nation’s fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony, becomes a throwaway rape joke to sell to American audiences (no thanks to the American liberals who raised money off of his name, Uganda gave up its search for Kony in April despite the terrorist’s unknown whereabouts). During the promotional period for that special, Handler used slavery and rampant violence in eastern Africa to generate joke tweets insulting, among others, Angelina Jolie and Lupita N’yongo. While Handler has dismissed all criticism of her racial invective by claiming to be open to romantic relationships with black men, her tweets branded her a false liberal in the eyes of leftist outlets like Salon. Actors like Amy Schumer and Tina Fey have, in much more egregious fashion, rewritten the suffering of thousands as profitable comedies. In Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Fey took on the true story of journalist Kim Barker, on assigning in Afghanistan to cover the Taliban. Barker’s book The Taliban Shuffle, on which the film is based, is written with the suffering of the subjects in mind, while also acknowledging the dark humor of taking on as dangerous a job as a war correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan. As Barker herself notes in an interview, the film “Hollywoodizes” her story, adding a romantic side plot, and stripping it of the foreign policy depth her book provides (Barker says in the interview she was comfortable with this). As one review observes, the film rapidly gets glib: A joke about Afghan men thinking that Kim “would make a handsome boy. ” A joke about burqas. (Donning one for the first time, Kim exclaims, “It’s so pretty I don’t even want to vote! ”) A joke about the many challenges and ironies of a Western woman navigating a Muslim country. Another review identifies the film as outright racist, depending on “the buffoonery of Afghans” for many of its jokes. While Whiskey Tango Foxtrot at least boasted the endorsement of the book’s author and, one could argue, was an attempt at a heartfelt statement on the absurdities of war, Amy Schumer’s recent FARC parody Snatched clearly makes no attempt to identify with the hundreds of thousands of victims of South America’s most formidable terrorist organization, the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — guilty of innumerable kidnappings, rapes, forced abortions, and murders. In the film, Schumer convinces her worrywart mother, played by Goldie Hawn, to travel to Ecuador, where they are soon abducted by a guerrilla and whisked into the jungles of Colombia. Despite the liberal hero status Schumer brings to the film, critics pilloried it as racist, milking the outrageous stereotypes Colombians have been striving to shake off for the past 30 years for laughs. While Schumer did not write the film, her presence in it — as a comedian who has gone on the record calling Latin American men rapists — only exacerbates the outrage of mocking as delicate a situation as the 50+ FARC conflict. The timing of the film, in the middle of Colombian leftists imposing on their people a peace deal that will turn the FARC into the wealthiest political party in Latin America, didn’t help, either. In every one of these cases, the stars in question proceeded under the assumption that their status as feminist heroes would shield the American public from the racist opportunism present in their work. Though some leftists did condemn these works, showing ideological consistency, none of these women saw their profiles in Hollywood shrink because of their work. No mainstream director, studio, or artist has refused to work with them until they cease exploiting the suffering of people to line their pockets. Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | 1 |
Isaac Davis
The months long Dakota Access Keystone XL pipleine protest at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation by Native Americans and those sympathetic to protection of our water supply have been met with a heavy-handed and brutal clamp down by police and national guard. Militarized goons in battle dress have stormed protector camps with LRAD sonic weapons, attack dogs , tear gas, tazers , and even live ammunition ( killing horses ), while politicians and mainstream media do their best to ignore this growing atrocity, hoping to wait it out until the protestors give up.
But, as the saying goes, Water Is Life , and the issue of life and death is at the root of this protection movement, therefore, for people concerned with life, giving up on this is simply unthinkable. The root issue justifying state oppression of the protest is capitalism, and the perception that money is more important than life itself. When the police and national guard attack U.S. citizens on private property to protect corporate interests, who are they really working for?
The corporate dream of the Keystone XL pipeline is to create a profit stream for a small number of people at the expense of the natural world and anyone in the way. At the top of this pyramid of profit is Texas billionaire Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the project.
So who is Kelcy Warren?
A native of East Texas and graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in civil engineering, Warren worked in the natural gas industry and became co-chair of Energy Transfer Equity in 2007. With business partner Ray Davis, co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Warren built Energy Transfer Equity into one of the nation’s largest pipeline companies, which now owns about 71,000 miles of pipelines carrying natural gas, natural gas liquids, refined products and crude oil. The company’s holdings include Sunoco, Southern Union and Regency Energy Partners.
Forbes estimates the 60-year-old Warren’s personal wealth at $4 billion. Bloomberg described him as “among America’s new shale tycoons” — but rather than building a fortune by drilling he “takes the stuff others pull from underground and moves it from one place to another, chilling, boiling, pressurizing, and processing it until it’s worth more than when it burst from the wellhead.” [ Source ]
Shockingly, in 2015 the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, appointed Warren to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission which is an insult to environmentalists working to protect Big Bend National Park and surrounding sacred tribal lands from another $770 million pipeline project .
“According to the governor’s office, the state parks and wildlife commission “manages and conserves the natural and cultural resources of Texas,” along with ensuring the future of hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities for Texans.” [ Source ]
This glaring conflict of interest has inspired Environmental Science major at UTSA and former Texas State Park Ambassador Andrew Lucas to begin a drive to have Warren removed from this environmental post. His petition is described here :
Most people may know Kelcy Warren as the man behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dallas-based billionaire and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners has been making headlines for fast-tracking a 1100 mile crude oil pipeline across the Midwest and under the Missouri River, just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. No environmental impact assessment, no respect for cultural sites, and no regard for the local and widespread communities living along the river. A similar story is unfolding out in West Texas, where Warren’s company has split through the pristine Big Bend region with the 200 mile Comanche Trail Pipeline and nearly-complete 143 mile Trans Pecos Pipeline. These Pipelines mark the way for massive natural gas and oil developments in the Trans Pecos region.
With untold damages unfolding for cultural and environmental resources at the hands of Energy Transfer Partners, it would surprise most to know that nearly a year ago, Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed Kelcy Warren for a 6 year term as 1 of the 10 commissioners who preside over Texas Parks And Wildlife… Why? Probably the $550,000 in campaign contributions Abbott received from Warren.
Footage of militarized police using the Long Range Acoustic Device ( LRAD ) crowd control weapon against protectors at standing rock on October 27th, 2016: Final Thoughts
Warren is listed as number 150 on Forbes list of wealthiest Americans with an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion in September of 2016. He is the head of the Dakota Access Pipeline snake.
If you are scratching your head wondering why militarized police and private security contractors are beating, gassing and attacking peaceful resistors , including women, children and the elderly, the answer is, they are doing it to protect the interests of Kelcy Warren and others invested in this pipeline project. Read more articles by Isaac Davis .
Isaac Davis is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and OffgridOutpost.com Survival Tips blog. He is an outspoken advocate of liberty and of a voluntary society. He is an avid reader of history and passionate about becoming self-sufficient to break free of the control matrix. Follow him on Facebook, here . This article ( This is the Man Militarized Police at Standing Rock are Working For ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Isaac Davis and WakingTimes.com . It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement. Don't | 0 |
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THE dress — a petal print with little round buttons up the bodice and a tight collar — is tiny, tailored for a woman 4 feet 9 inches tall. The wearer was Charlotte Brontë, and her demure day dress, just about big enough for a girl, was the plain wrapping that encased an enormous talent, a bubbling blend of ambition, passion and literary genius. Like a disembodied spirit, the dress stands at the entrance to “Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will,” which opens at the Morgan Library Museum on Friday and runs through Jan. 2. Timed to the 200th anniversary of Brontë’s birth, the exhibition offers a compact, sensitively arranged and surprisingly comprehensive tour of the life and work of one of the Victorian era’s most beloved writers, an object of fascination from the moment that “Jane Eyre” was published under the pen name Currer Bell in 1847. The exhibition’s subtitle comes from the pivotal chapter in “Jane Eyre” in which the heroine, although deeply in love with Mr. Rochester, the master of the house where she is a governess, spurns his proposal that she live with him, in effect, as his mistress. He entreats her to stop struggling like a “wild frantic bird. ” She replies: “I am no bird and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you. ” The passage — one of the sizzlers that made “Jane Eyre” an in its time — may be read in the novel’s bound manuscript, on view for the first time in the United States, and opened to the relevant page. Christine Nelson, a Morgan curator, secured the loan from the British Library and, to complement the Morgan’s deep holdings of Brontë manuscripts, books and drawings, arranged to borrow other items from the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire. The exhibition, tracing a fluid, chronological circle, begins by establishing the location. For nearly all her life, Charlotte lived in a modest parsonage in Haworth, northwest of the urban and industrial Bradford and Leeds, perched on the edge of a wild moor. In the hands of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, whose enormously popular biography “The Life of Charlotte Brontë” appeared in 1857, two years after its subject’s death at the age of 38, the village, the house and its inhabitants took on a gothic character that haunted the public imagination. High on a windswept hill, wrapped in darkness and incessant rain, lived a family of creative geniuses, with three little Wednesday Addamses — Charlotte, Emily and Anne — afloat in a literary fantasy world. Two souvenir postcards in the exhibition ratify the general impression: a stern photograph of the parsonage, with gravestones in the foreground, and a truly frightening ambrotype showing the house as a blackened, solitary form with eerily glowing windows. It cries out for an exorcism. Haworth was actually a busy village with 11 grocery stores and six pubs, one of them a few steps from the parsonage. And the three sisters, along with their brother, Branwell, made this humble dwelling a factory of fun, despite the death of their mother and two older sisters. From an early age, the precocious siblings churned out fantasy fiction set in Glass Town, Angria and Gondal, magical imaginary lands populated by aristocrats, poets and lovers aflame. The current of romance ran strong in Haworth Parsonage, where Byron and Scott were gods. Along the walls devoted to “Imagination,” Chapter 2 in the exhibition’s story, the Brontë juvenilia unfolds, remarkable in both form and content. Charlotte mastered a nearly microscopic handwriting, with the appearance of printed fonts, to give her publications the look of a finished book or magazine. The Young Men’s Magazine, a pretend journal in the style of Blackwood’s, measures an inch and a half by just over two inches, yet it contains a table of contents, articles and fake advertisements. Magnifying glasses have been provided, and they are needed. The print was small, but the ambition was titanic. Charlotte, bowing to the prejudices of the day, often presented herself as a kind of country mouse, nothing more than the daughter of a humble clergyman. It was, in large part, a pose. Ms. Nelson has come up with telling bits of counterevidence. Charlotte’s 1830 pencil portrait of Zenobia Marchioness Ellrington, one of her Glass Town characters, is accompanied by a pungent quote, reproduced on a wall of the exhibition. When Zenobia, a formidable intellect with similarities to her creator and to Jane Eyre, attracts the sniping criticism of a circle of males, the beguiling Marquess of Douro rises to her defense. “You are certainly jealous because a member of the feminine gender has displayed such wonderful abilities,” he begins, and goes on to praise a genius “likely to pale the ineffectual fires of her male contemporaries. ” The childhood world of fantasy takes a somber turn at the exhibition’s wailing wall. As the sisters entered their late teens, they faced painfully limited prospects as daughters of a humble clergyman. The world of work beckoned, and for single women of their class, that meant one of two professions, teacher or governess, neither of which they were suited to by talent or temperament. The saddest document in the exhibition is a prospectus that the sisters drew up advertising a school that they hoped to run: “the Misses Brontë’s establishment for the Board and Education of a limited number of young ladies. ” The number was very limited: zero. Just a few years before this low point, Branwell, an aspiring artist, painted a group portrait of the four siblings, one of the focal points of the exhibition. It is a strange visual document. At some point, Branwell painted over his likeness, leaving a whitish pillar between himself and his sisters, almost as though he had beamed himself out of the family, “Star Trek” style. In a sense, he did. His life ended, at 31, in a suicidal spiral of alcohol and opium addiction. Tuberculosis would claim Emily at 30, soon after “Wuthering Heights” appeared, and Anne at 29. For more than a the portrait sat, folded in four and deeply creased, on top of a wardrobe in the home of Arthur Bell Nicholls, the curate at Haworth whom Charlotte married nine months before her death. It was discovered in 1916 by his second wife. It now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery and, like the British Library’s “Jane Eyre” manuscript, rarely leaves. “It was quite extraordinary to secure these,” Ms. Nelson said in an interview this week. “These are pilgrimage pieces. People come to the National Portrait Gallery seeking out that portrait in particular. ” Branwell lacked talent, sad to say, and his depiction of Charlotte gives little or no sense of what she looked like. The only other known portrait of her, by George Richmond, also on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, is a polite, decorous effort. Richmond was commissioned by Charlotte’s editor, George Smith, to produce a flattering image of his subject, and he obliged. Posterity has been left with a hopeless quest for an image to match the vividness of the literary personality. After the misery of servitude, the exhibition follows the path to glory, the years when Charlotte leapt immediately to the front rank of Victorian fiction with “Jane Eyre. ” She managed two more novels in her short lifetime, “Villette” and “Shirley,” which stand guard, along with her posthumously published early effort, “The Professor,” behind the “Jane Eyre” manuscript. The rest is history, of a peculiar sort. Admiration turned to worship within a few years after Charlotte died, three weeks before her 39th birthday and pregnant with her first child, her votive flame fanned into a blaze by Gaskell’s book. Readers of the life and the novels began making their way to Haworth, eager to see the famous moors and behold the parsonage. The exhibition includes an 1858 letter from Patrick Brontë, Charlotte’s father, with a snippet cut from one of Charlotte’s letters, in response to an American admirer seeking a sample of Charlotte’s handwriting. The trickle of pilgrims — perhaps 200 a year in the 1860s — became a flood after the opening of the Brontë museum in a few rooms over the Yorkshire Penny Bank in 1895. Today, little Haworth attracts a million or so visitors a year, at least some of them headed for the Brontë Parsonage Museum, which opened in 1928, replacing the first museum. The fever still rages. At the parsonage museum, the exhibition “Charlotte Great and Small” runs through Jan. 1, and an exhibition in London at the National Portrait Gallery, “Celebrating Charlotte Brontë: ” ended its run last month. “To Walk Invisible,” a period drama about the Brontës written and directed by Sally Wainwright (“Happy Valley” and “Last Tango in Halifax”) is scheduled for broadcast on the BBC later this year. “Jane Eyre,” one if its early reviewers wrote, was a novel “to make the pulses gallop and heart beat. ” The same could be said for its author. And here is the evidence, undeniable and irresistible. | 1 |
Two months after the election heard around the world, I’m worried that the more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same in Congress. [Voters swept the Republican Party into full control of the federal government, expecting us to honor our promises to put a stop to a reckless status quo that is mortgaging their futures. So what’s the first order of business for Republicans in Congress? To pass a budget that doesn’t balance. Ever. To pass a budget that will put our voters on the hook for $9. 7 trillion of new debt over ten years. Is that really what we campaigned on? Is that why voters turned out to the polls? I know it’s not why Kentucky sent me to Congress. The budget’s defenders tried to sell me on it as just a “vehicle to repeal Obamacare. ” I’ve even been told that it’s “just numbers” and not really a budget. The legislation’s own title clearly says otherwise. The numbers “really” say it will add $9. 7 trillion of new debt. But if these are indeed only numbers on a page, and if what’s in the budget doesn’t actually matter, then why don’t we at least use numbers that balance? Why don’t we put a vision into the budget that represents what we as Republicans claim to stand for? Republicans say we are the conservative party. Are we? During President George W. Bush’s eight years, and under a partially Republican Congress, the national debt doubled from $5 trillion to $10 trillion. The response? “Well, he had Democrats to deal with, and if we could ever take all three branches of government, things would be different. ” The debt has gone on to nearly double again under President Obama, and finally the conservative party — the supposedly conservative party — has won all three branches. So what are we looking at? More debt, with the same kind of numbers we rightfully railed against during the Obama years! Congress has special rules for passing a budget that we can use to repeal Obamacare. I’m all for that approach, as long as that budget moves us toward fiscal responsibility. As a physician, you won’t find anyone more excited to get rid of Obamacare than me. But are we so hurried that we can’t even be bothered to vote on a budget that represents our conservative view and doesn’t add $9. 7 trillion to the debt? This is outrageous, and it is unacceptable. And I’m fighting back. We don’t need to choose between either repealing Obamacare or putting forward a budget that balances. We can do both — without a single Democrat vote! We have no excuse. On Monday, the Senate will go on record on an amendment I am offering that will strike and replace the current budget resolution. My alternative presents a conservative vision by freezing spending and balancing by 2024 — without changing Social Security. And it still repeals Obamacare! It even starts in 2018 so as to allow agencies plenty of time to adjust to new spending levels. By containing zero specific cuts to any function of government, it also offers Congress and the administration a chance to work together to prioritize spending. Is there really a difference between how a Republican and a Democrat Congress act? We’ll soon find out. But I need your help. I need your senator and representative to hear from you with a clear message that says, “Enough is enough. ” Let’s balance the budget and repeal Obamacare. Let’s do both now, and let’s honor our commitment to be the change voters called for in November. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Now that the White House has formally accused Russia of meddling in the presidential election with cyberattacks and information warfare, devising a response might seem fairly easy: unleash the government’s cyberwarriors to give the Kremlin a dose of its own malware. Technologically, that would not be too difficult, American officials say. But as a matter of strategy and politics, formulating the right kind of counterstrike is not that straightforward. President Obama’s options range from the mild — naming and shaming the Russians, as he did on Friday — to the more severe, like invoking for the first time a series of economic sanctions that he created by executive order after North Korea’s attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The Justice Department could indict the Russians behind the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and the email accounts of prominent individuals, as it did with members of China’s People’s Liberation Army, who have been charged with stealing industrial secrets. Or Mr. Obama could sign a secret intelligence finding — similar to many he has issued to authorize Central Intelligence Agency efforts in Syria or drone strikes against the Islamic State — to attack and disable Russian computer servers or expose the financial dealings of President Vladimir V. Putin and his oligarch friends. While the last option is tempting, officials say, it would carry risks with the election just a month away. Attacks on online voter registration rolls could sow chaos at polling places, and the election infrastructure has never truly been tested against a power like Russia. The system that underpins American democracy is not even listed as an element of the nation’s critical infrastructure, a list that includes movie theaters and the Jefferson Memorial, among other monuments. Just as Henry Kissinger and other American strategists argued decades ago whether it was possible to wage a limited nuclear war, officials at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, as well as outside experts, have been debating whether it is possible to control the escalation of a cyberconflict. In the nuclear era, seven decades passed with no answer, despite some close calls. Online, where the damage is less lethal but cheap, and attacks are hard to trace and easy to carry out, Mr. Obama and other top officials are proceeding cautiously. cyberpowers face few limits to their ability to escalate attacks. And it is unclear how the United States can establish what the generals call “escalation dominance” — the assurance that America can ultimately control how a conflict ends. Michael J. Morell, a former deputy director of the C. I. A. and a veteran of many debates on the growing cyberweapon arsenal in the Bush and Obama administrations, said on Saturday that the American response had to strike at something that Mr. Putin held dear. But, he added, unleashing a counterattack may not be the answer. “Our response needs to be proportionate to the attack,” said Mr. Morell, who now advises Hillary Clinton on national security matters and is widely believed to be in line for a top intelligence post if she is elected president. Criminal indictments and sanctions against individuals “are only a slap on the wrist,” he said, adding that “offensive cyberactions can’t be seen and are inconsistent with the norms we want to set in the world on cyber. ” Mr. Morell advocated two approaches: deep sanctions on the entire Russian economy and an “aggressive Voice of America program in Russian to tell the Russian people that Putin is only interested in his own aggrandizement” and is threatening the only hope for the country’s economy: integration with the West. But the challenges, as Mr. Morell acknowledges, are clear. Europe is unlikely to go along with sanctions if that means cutting off their access to the Russian gas that keeps them warm. And Voice of America programs, a relic of the Cold War, are slow to work, if they can work at all in the internet age. At its core, the problem that the Obama administration faces is this: What the Russians have done in hacking into American political institutions — and perhaps accessing voter registration rolls — is a digital form of hybrid warfare. In Ukraine, this took the form of Russian soldiers engaging in quiet guerrilla actions out of uniform to undermine the government. (Russia also turned off the electric grid in part of Ukraine last December, mostly to show that they could.) Leaking emails and phone conversations, and generally stirring chaos around elections, have been a Russian art form in Europe, especially in former Soviet states. Such actions walk the line between harassment and conflict. Now, they have come to American shores. That, at least, was the assessment of the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, though they did not show their evidence. “We believed, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s officials could have authorized these activities,” the statement said. In background conversations, officials strongly hinted that the evidence had come, in part, from data collected by the National Security Agency’s implants in foreign computer networks, presumably including Russia’s. The question, said James Lewis, a former government official who specializes in cybersecurity, espionage and warfare at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, is how to deter future attacks while maintaining escalation dominance. “We don’t necessarily want to start a war with Russia,” he said. Mr. Lewis said he doubted that using intelligence findings to embarrass Mr. Putin — leaking details of his financial dealings, his personal life or his relationships with the moneyed elite who help keep him in power — would be the solution. “If we couldn’t deter Moscow from going into the Ukraine, we’re not going to deter them from hacking us,” Mr. Lewis said. For a declining power like Russia, whose economy has been battered by falling oil prices and economic sanctions, cyberattacks are an easy answer. They usually happen below the radar. And for the past two years, Russian hackers operating at the behest of, or directly for, the state have had a string of successes against foreign targets, even testing the limits of the American doctrine that destructive hacking attacks could be considered acts of war. Russian hackers were identified by German intelligence officials as the culprits behind a cyberattack that damaged a blast furnace owned by ThyssenKrupp, Germany’s biggest steel maker. Forensics experts discovered malware in the plant’s system that had previously been tied to a Russian espionage group. That same group was later found to be responsible for a cyberattack on a major French television network, TV5Monde, last year that brought down the station for several days and cost tens of millions of dollars in repairs. And the Russian group, known in the cybersecurity community as APT28 or Fancy Bear, was responsible for a string of cyberattacks on the White House, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mr. Obama decided not to name the Russians in those attacks. “The Russians have had a string of unbroken successes against U. S. targets, and they haven’t paid much of a price,” Mr. Lewis said. That may have created an impression in the Kremlin that cyberattacks would carry no consequences. The deeper concern is that Russia, like other major powers, has a long playbook ready for potential future attacks. Security experts point to evidence that a Russian hacking group, known as Energetic Bear, has been probing the networks of power grid operators and energy and oil companies in the United States, Europe and Canada. That could be exploration — or it could be preparation of the battle space in the event of a future conflict. This summer, hackers calling themselves the Shadow Brokers released a trove of N. S. A. tools that the agency had used to break into and spy on foreign networks. Though it is not yet clear who was behind the attack, some speculated that an N. S. A. insider had leaked the trove, while others said it may have been Russian hackers putting the United States on notice. Mr. Obama seems likely to invoke some kind of financial sanctions under the new executive order, which allows the Treasury secretary to freeze the financial assets of individuals tied to hacking attacks or prevent them from conducting financial transactions. The White House considered applying the sanctions against the Chinese companies and individuals involved in the hacking of the Office of Personnel Management last year, but ultimately decided against it after China pledged that it would not conduct economic espionage against the United States and arrested several individuals. But a similar deal with Russia seems hard to imagine. “How can we choose not to use the sanctions?” Mr. Lewis said. “The question is if we name and punish these guys, will Russians take the hint? My sense is no. ” | 1 |
Sunday, MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts asked twice if President Donald Trump is trying to provoke a domestic terrorist attack in order to “prove himself right” about Islamic terrorism. In separate interviews, Roberts asked if Trump’s tweets had the nefarious motive, first with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and then with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Trump’s tweet about Saturday’s terror attacks in London read, “We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse. ” Roberts asked Reed, “The president doesn’t want us to be politically correct, right? So let’s not be PC about this. Is the president trying to provoke a domestic terrorist attack with this Twitter rant, because, only to prove himself right?” Roberts later repeated the inquiry to Dean, “I asked this of Mayor Reed, but it seems like the president is trying to provoke something that he can politicize more for his own gain in America. Do you feel that way?” Dean answered,”I just think he’s — well, I think he’s totally incompetent. ” ( Daily Caller) Follow Pam Key On Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
And for the last two weeks, Gold is "naturally", unchanged. | 0 |
The people of Palatine, Ill. a suburb of Chicago marked by generic strip malls and tidy had not spent much time debating the thorny questions of transgender rights. But in late 2013, a transgender high school athlete, so intent on defending her privacy that she is known only as Student A, took on her school district so she could use the girls’ locker room. After the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled in her favor last fall, the two sides cut a deal: Student A could use the locker room and the school would install private changing areas. Some in the community denounced the arrangement others joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which represented the girl, in declaring a victory for civil rights. Now the whole nation is in a pitched battle over bathroom access, with the Obama administration ordering all public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. Across the country, religious conservatives are rebelling. On Friday, lawmakers in Oklahoma became the latest group to protest, proposing one measure to effectively overturn the order, and another calling for President Obama to be impeached over it. How a clash over bathrooms, an issue that appeared atop no national polls, became the next frontier in America’s culture wars — and ultimately landed on the desk of the president — involves an array of players, some with law degrees, others still in high school. The sweeping directive to public schools seemed to come out of nowhere. In fact, it was the product of years of study inside the government and a highly orchestrated campaign by advocates for gay and transgender people. Mindful of the role “Whites Only’’ bathrooms played in the civil rights battles of more than half a century ago, they have been maneuvering behind the scenes to press federal agencies, and ultimately Mr. Obama, to address a question that has roiled many school districts: Should those with differing anatomies share the same bathrooms? The lobbying came to a head, according to people who were involved, in a hastily called April 1 meeting between top White House officials — led by Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser and one of his closest confidantes — and national leaders of the gay and transgender rights movement. North Carolina had just become the first state to explicitly bar transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice. “Transgender students are under attack in this country,” said Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, a advocacy group that is active on the issue, summing up the message he sought to convey to Ms. Jarrett that day. “They need their federal government to stand up for them. ” Ms. Jarrett and her team, he said, listened politely, but “did not reveal much,” including the fact that a legal directive on transgender rights that had been in the works for months was about to be released. When — or precisely how — Mr. Obama personally weighed in is not clear the White House would not provide specifics. But two days before that meeting, scores of advocacy groups sent Mr. Obama a private letter, appealing to his sense of history as he nears the end of his presidency, in which he has already advanced gay and transgender rights on multiple fronts. “Too many students — including every single transgender, intersex, and student in North Carolina — will go to sleep tonight dreading the next school day,” the groups wrote, telling him that “your legacy will be defined by the tone you have set and the personal leadership you have shown on these issues. ” The dispute in Palatine came amid increasing confusion for school districts over how to handle questions about bathroom access for transgender students. Officials at the Department of Education said it had received hundreds of requests for guidance — so many that advocates for gay and transgender rights, frustrated by the Obama administration’s failure to issue specific policy guidelines, decided to act on their own. In August, several groups seeking protection for transgender people — including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Education Association and the National Center for Lesbian Rights — issued a guide for schools, hoping to provide a blueprint for the White House. At the Department of Education, Catherine E. Lhamon, 44, a former civil rights litigator who runs the agency’s Office of Civil Rights — and has made aggressive use of a federal nondiscrimination law known as Title IX — was taking the lead. The department’s ruling in favor of Student A in November was the first time it had found any school district in violation of civil rights over transgender issues. For Student A, the federal intervention has been life changing. Her mother, who requested anonymity to protect the privacy of her daughter, said she was close to finishing her junior year and had just gone to the prom with a group of friends. (She wore a “nice, expensive dress” with a lot of sparkles, her mother said.) Student A is starting to think about which college she might attend. “She’s in her own teenaged world right now,” her mother said. The ruling in Palatine reverberated across the Midwest. In the South Dakota Legislature, Republicans were so alarmed by the situation in Palatine that, in February, they passed a measure restricting bathroom access for transgender students — similar to the one that later became law in North Carolina. Opponents sent transgender South Dakotans to meet with Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, and they believe that influenced his veto of the bill. Among the visitors was Kendra Heathscott, who was 10 when she first met Mr. Daugaard, then the executive director of a social services organization that treats children with behavioral problems. In his office to lobby against the bathroom measure, she reintroduced herself. “He remembered me as a little boy,” she said. In Wisconsin last year, another bathroom bill began to work its way through the Legislature, but was beaten back by transgender rights activists, many of them teenagers. In rural Florida, a retired veterinarian and cattle rancher named Harrell Phillips was alarmed one evening in March, when his son reported over dinner that he had encountered a transgender boy in the high school bathroom. “I marched myself down to the principal,” said Dr. Phillips, who believes that “you are born into a sex that God chose you to be. ” The principal, and later the school superintendent, citing advice from lawyers, said there was nothing they could do. So Dr. Phillips turned to his best friend, a lawyer in Jacksonville, who introduced him to Roger Gannam of Liberty Counsel, an Christian organization. Mr. Gannam represented Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses last year. Mr. Gannam had just helped block a proposed ordinance in Jacksonville, with an argument religious conservatives have been lately using to powerful effect: It would endanger women and young girls by allowing men — and even sexual predators — to pose as transgender and enter women’s bathrooms. Ocala, where Dr. Phillips’s son attends school, is now embroiled in a fight much like the one that engulfed Palatine. The school board, at Mr. Gannam’s prodding, voted in April to require transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex. One transgender young man there has been suspended for using the boys’ bathroom. The A. C. L. U. of Florida sued the day before the White House issued its directive, and last Sunday night, transgender activists and their allies held a strategy session in a church — with a sheriff’s deputy standing guard outside because attendees feared for their safety. “It’s separate but equal, so they might as well put black and white up on the bathrooms, too,” said Beth Miller, the mother of Mathew Myers, formerly Madison, an R. O. T. C. student in Ocala who came out as transgender this fall by asking his sergeant to permit him to switch from a women’s uniform to one for men. The sergeant accommodated Mathew on the uniform, but the school required him to use the bathroom in the nurse’s office. “I go to the guy’s bathroom all the time out in public, and no one cares,” Mathew said. Dr. Phillips, who like many Americans was not focused on the issue until recently, vows to take his fight to the Supreme Court. He believes that Mr. Obama “should be impeached” and is furious at “the liberal left trying to push this down our throats. ” Though North Carolina was the first state to adopt a law explicitly barring all transgender people from using public facilities of their choice, many say the current debate has its roots in Houston. In November 2015, voters there repealed the city’s measure, after a campaign in which the law’s opponents boiled their message down to a slogan. It appeared on yard signs, banners, and ominous ads on TV, radio and the Internet: “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms. ” More than 200 cities across the United States had adopted similar laws by the time Houston went to the polls Minneapolis expanded civil rights protections to transgender people back in 1975. But in Houston, the vote took place less than five months after the Supreme Court victory for marriage. Social conservatives were energized. Religious conservatives say that broad civil rights protections for transgender people are unnecessary — a solution to a problem that, they argue, does not exist. Jeremy Tedesco, the lead counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, an conservative advocacy group, argues that ‘‘when it comes to locker rooms and restrooms, separating the sexes is a matter of common decency. ” The repeal of the Houston ordinance rattled national gay rights leaders. “I think they have now created a campaign in a box that we are going to see shipped from city to city and state to state,” Mr. Griffin, of the Human Rights Campaign, said in an interview at the time. Mr. Griffin was correct Alliance Defending Freedom has a website, www. safebathrooms. org, that went live two weeks ago, and its video has been viewed more than 300, 000 times. But the Human Rights Campaign and its allies have a playbook of their own, one patterned after their strategy for marriage equality, in which they fought the battle for acceptance state by state. After the defeat in Houston, their next targets were Jacksonville, Fla. and Charlotte, N. C. — Southern cities where the advocates worked aggressively to elect politicians who would push the cause of gay and transgender rights. In Charlotte, an ordinance failed in February 2015 after that, the Human Rights Campaign and other gay rights leaders poured money into a new organization — Turnout Charlotte. The goal was “to identify and support and ask candidates, ‘Where are you on this issue?’ ’’ said LaWana Mayfield, an openly gay City Council member. With heavy backing from the activists, three new council members were elected last fall, tilting the balance on the council, which passed the ordinance in February. Religious conservatives, who had adopted the “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms’’ message from Houston, were taken aback. “It’s outrageous to have a big Washington, D. C. organization come into the state to influence the public policy of a major city,” said Tami Fitzgerald, the executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, an advocacy group. Republicans in the legislature responded with the bathroom bill, which Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law on March 23. Nine days later, the advocates had their audience with Ms. Jarrett. The North Carolina law, they argued behind closed doors, had created an untenable conflict. “The schools were put in this weird situation by Governor McCrory,” said Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, who was at the meeting. “And it just sped this whole thing up. ” | 1 |
The Dollar Is On Its Way Out – Gold Backed Currency Next? | Rory Hall by IWB · October 27, 2016 Tweet
Rory Hall from The Daily Coin joined Silver Doctors. Hall believes price manipulators are losing control of the gold and silver markets.
When it comes to investing in precious metals, Hall says “stay away from paper…If you don’t hold it you don’t own it.”
Hall also discusses how China accumulating massive amounts of gold. What do they plan to do with the shiny metal? Hall predicts China will issue some sort of goldbacked currency or bond. How will a competing gold backed currency impact the value of the dollar? “It’s no secret the dollar is on its way out,” he says.
The economy is not on the road to recovery, Hall says. The Fed, European Central Bank, and Bank of Japan are holding together a failed system by papering over the cracks in the system, while not fixing the fundamental problems. Hall believes the Powers that Be cannot hold the system together much longer.
Stay tuned to hear Hall’s opinion on how to prepare for the coming collapse! | 0 |
Photo by -ted | CC BY 2.0
While the recent police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott has led to increased scrutiny on police activities in North Carolina, police-community relations are not the only reason racial tensions are flaring. While encounters with police officers can radically differ depending on the race of those involved, access to economic resources tend to follow a similar pattern. Although racial gaps regarding wealth, incomes, and healthcare are nationwide issues, observing them from a statewide perspective can help understand why specific communities feel maltreated.
A UNC Chapel Hill study found that the income and wealth disparities between African Americans and whites in North Carolina are far worse than the national average. It states that:
…black households, at the median, claim only about 13 percent of the wealth and, stunningly, about 4 percent of the net worth of white households. The corresponding figures for the nation are bleak: 15 and 13 percent respectively. Median wealth for white households is roughly seven times that of black households…Nationally, black households have about half the home equity of whites. In North Carolina, it’s about a third.
The study goes on to state that half of all black households in North Carolina have under $100 in savings. At the median, black heads of household aged between 50 and 65 own $17,000 in assets compared to white households’ median of $143,000, which seriously hampers older, black workers from retiring comfortably. This data paints a picture of a state that fails to allow black communities from advancing economically and obtaining some semblance of equality.
The issue is further exasperated by lack of access to health insurance. A North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services study found that 13% of North Carolina whites have no health insurance as compared to 22% of blacks. 16% of whites were reported to be in “fair or poor” health as compared to 23.2% of blacks. The Kaiser Family Foundation research shows that the majority of non-elderly uninsured North Carolinians were minorities: 30% Hispanic and 14% black, while 10% were white. This is especially concerning considering minorities experience disease at a higher rate than American whites, and visit the doctor at much lower rates. The result: communities most in need of medical assistance are least likely to attain it.
This imbalance is in part due to the state government’s failure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, something which would have significantly reduced the coverage gap between those receiving Medicaid and those obtaining income-based subsidies. The North Carolina Justice Center finds that, had the expansion gone through, 500,000 low-income North Carolinians would have health insurance who currently don’t have it, and over 1,000 unnecessary deaths would have been prevented.
While the protests in Charlotte appeared to be a backlash against apparent police brutality, underlying economic factors also come into play. A breaking point will eventually be reached by those living in undesirable economic situations which they view as consequential of a racist and unfair system.
The case of North Carolina is a particularly negative one, but the principles outlined in this research are not unique to North Carolina. Americans cannot expect race relations to cool until access to income, wealth, and healthcare are equalized and structured in a fair, equitable manner. More articles by: Patrick Carr next - | 0 |
HBO aired the final two episodes of the fifth season of “Girls” on Sunday, which found Hannah (Lena Dunham) bonding with her college classmate and frenemy Tally (Jenny Slate) Marnie (Allison Williams) trying to understand her romantic impulses toward Ray (Alex Karpovsky) Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) embracing her role as a marketer, and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) and Adam (Adam Driver) trying to make sense of their budding relationship. Amanda Hess, a staff writer, Margaret Lyons, the TV critic for Watching (the Times newsletter) and Jenna Wortham, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, discuss the entire season, and where the show might be headed in its sixth and final season. This conversation contains spoilers. JENNA WORTHAM I haven’t cried this much watching television since rewatching the second season of “Grey’s Anatomy. ” Even Hannah Horvath, who at one point felt like a monstrous caricature of a millennial, has been cracking me up this season. And the look on her face when she realized Adam and Jessa were together … whew. Everyone is growing in a way that feels so painful, and honest and real. “Girls” has suffered a little as it’s become less of a unicorn. In the last few years, there are so many new and interesting television shows and story lines about women (and by them and for them) on television, so the show hasn’t been as special or as singular since its debut in 2012. But having a little breathing room has gone a long way. I started watching this season when a few friends mentioned how good it’s gotten and I agree: The writing is stronger than ever, and episodes, especially the ones directed by Jesse Peretz, have beautifully poignant arcs. I’m so glad this isn’t the final season, that we get a few more episodes before the . How did the show get so good? What do we think changed since last season? [ You don’t like the girls in “Girls”? That’s its genius. ] MARGARET LYONS: I liked last season! I liked this season, too, though I’m in the minority because I absolutely hated “The Panic in Central Park,” where Charlie and turns out to be a heroin addict. And I did not love “Homeward Bound,” last week’s episode where Hannah dumps Fran, jumps on Ray, and eventually hitchhikes back to New York. But I wanted “Hello Kitty,” the Kitty Genovese episode, to last for nine hours I was riveted, and the closing moments, when Hannah realizes that Jessa and Adam are together, just knocked me out. I would have called it the best acting moment of the “Girls” season, but Elijah’s slow crumple as he realizes his Dill is rejecting him might best it. JW: Margaret, that scene with Elijah walking toward the window in Dill’s apartment, with the glittery New York scape spilling out below, right as “iT” by Christine and the Queens swells behind him — it slayed me. It was absolutely devastating, a sign of how much the show is pushing its characters to confront their desires — and ask themselves if the shiniest things are necessarily the best things. It wrenched my heart right open — and showed off Lena Dunham’s creation at its best. This season also really brought home how good “Girls” is at capturing the spirit of New York, and its power to transform everyone that lives here. It is so good at filling that “Sex and The City” shaped hole in my heart. AMANDA HESS: I’m feeling it, you guys. As the series had marched on, something had become unbelievable about this foursome staying glued together as a friend unit. They aligned in college or just after, but many of these relationships tend to unstick by the time women reach 30. Unlike “Sex and the City” — where the regular brunch date served as a kind of otherworldly purgatory for staging boozy debates about feminism and sex — “Girls” is not timeless. These girls change. And so it was satisfying to see them head off on their own this season — Shoshanna in Japan, Hannah at her mom’s retreat, Marnie on her lark with Charlie, even Jessa kicking around with Adam on Coney Island. And to see them hang out with new girls, too! Watching Tally and Abigail, played by Jenny Slate and Aidy Bryant, step in as emergency contacts for Hannah and Shosh was a highlight of the show for me. Also, finally giving honorary girl Elijah the romantic subplot he deserves. JW: Was it just me or does Shoshanna in Japan feel a little like when Don Draper went to California? Similar Draper dream vibes when Marnie put on the red dress … . AH: Japan has been working double time this year as the destination for white indie girls who need a life change. In “Master of None,” Dev’s girlfriend Rachel torpedoes their relationship by announcing her exit to Tokyo. (She even dyes her hair, too! ). But there was something really appropriate about seeing Shosh in Harajuku, a place that in all of its aesthetics, so perfectly reflects Shoshanna’s intense, girlie drive. I agree with her Abigail: I’d watch the Shosh and Yoshi show any day of the week. JW: Yes, we seriously need a Yoshanna spin off. Side note — Dunham’s as a salty coffee barista have been so great. ML: “Girls” really benefited from the change of scene. (I’d loop Hannah’s time in Iowa in with that, too.) I’ve never been a big Shosh person, but seeing her bob around in Tokyo gave her new context: What would Shosh be like if being “the weird one” wasn’t what defined her? She’d be more confident, maybe, and more grounded. The big question of this season, posed to each character in a different way, was: How do you know you are growing up? For Shosh, that answer was professional success her little victory dance with Colin Quinn at Ray’s coffee bar was as happy as we’ve ever seen her. For Marnie, her answer was getting married. She turned out to be wrong of course marriage is almost always a bad answer, but that doesn’t mean people don’t think it’s the answer. I think her ultimate move might be getting divorced. For Jessa, it’s being in a real — and sober — relationship. (I wish we saw more of her schooling I bet she’s an interesting classmate.) For Elijah, it’s being vulnerable. For Hannah’s dad, Tad, it’s being out. Out out. For her mom, Loreen, maybe it’s being on her own after all. So what is it for Hannah? I think she declared it for herself in her story for the Moth. It’s being free, even just for a little bit. Free of her own bad behavior: Not flashing anyone, not sneaking off to have sex at the spa, not throwing herself at — or on — Ray, not scolding her parents. Just chill. For 10 minutes. Whether any of these characters actually wants to grow up is a different story … AH: But Hannah’s behavior was so bad this season, it kind of felt like she was going to end up in a jail cell, or else in the neurologist’s office: You have 10 episodes to live. The “Basic Instinct” flash, the lesbian gymnastics, the Ray … thing — it all went beyond the edge of delicious discomfort for me, to the point where I had to fight the urge to through her scenes. (Desi’s dopey yet magnetic narcissist was more my speed — Ebon is so good at dancing right on the edge of comedy and tragedy.) The Moth bit was a refresher that Hannah can actually be quite charming in those precious moments when she chooses to reflect. And the ending, where we freeze on her leaping to action, felt like such a psychic correction from the Season 2 finale, when Adam raced to sweep Hannah off her feet to the tune of Fun — my personal “Girls” moment. What do we think Hannah is running toward in Season 6? JW: Earlier this week, I made the joke that the Lena (with Hannah) and Kanye (his bars in The Life of Pablo) are the worst things about their current creations. I hated Hannah in the first two episodes, and I warmed up to her as the season progressed. “Girls” has always excelled at illustrating the diverse taxonomy of uncomfortable youthful sexual encounters and Hannah’s encounter with the lesbian yoga teacher at the retreat was so perfect for that — plus I loved her flash scene. It was hilarious! I could not stop laughing. The nude photo shoot was as excellent, just so classic Hannah Horvath. And even though I loved Jenny Slate’s cameo, the dance scene felt a little gratuitous (but maybe I’m just holding it up to the instant classic Robyn scene from Season 1). But I let out a little whoop when she and Tally went into hysterics at seeing Jessa and Adam (whose union feels so satisfying) in the apartment hallway on their way outside. Maybe Hannah’s biggest revelation will be that the world doesn’t revolve around her, that friendships fade and that we survive. Life does go on. And isn’t that enough? It could be. The more I think about it, the more I love how grotesque Hannah has become. Jessa’s passionate speech in the episode really cut to the quick for me — maybe there’s something redemptive in the hot mess that is Hannah Horvath, even if we can’t see it yet. Maybe there won’t be a payoff. Maybe there doesn’t need to be a grand revelation. If there is, it might be inauthentic to who Hannah has been this entire time. I think I want to root for terrible, narcissistic women to take up as much space as terrible, narcissistic men. ML: I would be so sad if Hannah suddenly became an ordinary or healthy person at the end of next season. And I can’t picture that happening — that’s just not what the show has ever been about. What I liked most about Hannah’s interaction with her former nemesis Tally was her gentle realization that she didn’t have to stay friends with her friends. Like Amanda, I too feel like our main four characters wouldn’t really be a crew anymore, and while Jessa, Marnie, and Shosh have seemingly decided the direction they want their adult lives to take, Hannah hasn’t — and doesn’t seem like she wants to. She still wants to be impulsive (steal a bike!) or unreliable (I’m not going on this road trip after all! ). If her current friends don’t want to do those things anymore, well, she can find new friends. And maybe she should find new friends at this point — given that she has shared sexual partners with all of them. The final scene of Hannah running — complete with freeze frame — was not a new Hannah. She was just her giving into her “do this thing right now” reflex. Hannah doesn’t want to plan, she doesn’t want to lock things down, and she doesn’t want social responsibilities (though she wants others to be responsive to her own needs). She’s flaky, and she has no whatsoever. She didn’t even research The Moth story slam enough to know you can’t use notes! But unlike lots of other “Girls” viewers, I don’t hate Hannah. I love the character, and I want Hannah to have a life she wants. But in the last two seasons, what became clearer was that her path toward happiness wasn’t going to come from the cessation of bad behavior it was going to come from accepting it and not trying to change anymore. You want to be a demanding, inappropriate narcissist forever? Embrace it. AH I somewhat hate all of these people. (Except for maybe Shosh, who is annoying but strikes me as a fundamentally good person). One of my favorite moments of this season was when the thrift store shopgirl in “The Panic In Central Park” episode, played by the wonderful Lane Moore, openly judges Marnie’s life choices, and Marnie is too to even notice. I salute you, shopgirl! You are me, watching “Girls. ” And part of the deranged joy of Marnie’s arc has been witnessing the garbage fire that is her personality ignite her nascent music career. My biggest laugh of the season came right on the heels of Marnie’s breakup with Desi, when they got news that their indie song had been selected for a death montage on “Grey’s Anatomy” and the pair mirthfully united in the name of their shared cause: Fame. Similarly, it was fun watching Hannah get and then squander her book deal, get a gig at GQ (as a native advertiser!) and then enroll and implode at Iowa. But this season she bottomed out by teaching at a private school and squabbling with her boyfriend. This is Hannah’s nightmare scenario: Doing normal person stuff. In the next and final season of “Girls,” I’m ready for her to get back in the game. If she’s going to be a narcissistic monster, I want her to try to eat New York. | 1 |
Good morning. We’re trying something new for our readers in Europe: a morning briefing to your day. What do you like? What do you want to see here? Email us with your feedback at europebriefing@nytimes. com. Here’s what you need to know: • Kurdish forces reported success in their opening salvos of a vast operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State. Analysts say the battle could be a turning point in the war against the militant group. We have two reporters and a photographer near the front lines as Kurdish pesh merga troops advance on villages east of the city. Warplanes from the U. S. coalition are providing air support for the crucial operation, which could take months and involve nearly 30, 000 troops. • European Union trade ministers meet today in Luxembourg to vote on a free trade deal with Canada. Anything short of unanimous approval could derail plans to sign the agreement, known as CETA, at a summit meeting in Brussels this month. • Donald J. Trump said that if he won the U. S. presidential election, he might meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia before being sworn in. Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, meanwhile, said the country’s relations with the U. S. were the worst since 1973. Hillary Clinton is beginning an ambitious assault on traditionally Republican states to further diminish support for Mr. Trump. And new documents show sharp disputes between the State Department and the F. B. I. over Mrs. Clinton’s emails, including a discussion of a possible “quid pro quo” to settle one disagreement. • A separatist commander was killed by a bomb as he rode the elevator in his apartment building in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine traded accusations of responsibility. The two countries’ presidents are expected to meet in Berlin tomorrow, along with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France, for talks aimed at reviving the peace process. • In Britain, a candidate to lead the U. K. Independence Party, Steven Woolfe, quit, saying there was “something rotten” in it. He called on Nigel Farage, who resigned as the party’s leader after successfully campaigning for Britain’s departure from the E. U. to return. And widespread uncertainty about “Brexit” is shaking not only Britain’s business community, but also scientists who rely on funding and international collaboration. • France has been enthralled by the publication of letters that the late President François Mitterrand sent to Anne Pingeot, the “other woman” during his years in the Élysée Palace. Ms. Pingeot typed up the handwritten letters herself. “I don’t know if I did the right thing,” she said. • An explosion at the chemicals maker BASF’s largest production site in Germany killed at least two people and injured at least six others. • Russia’s main satellite network, RT, said a bank in Britain, NatWest, had abruptly closed its accounts. The network, which critics call a Kremlin mouthpiece, denounced it as a attempt to interfere with freedom of speech. • One of China’s richest men, Wang Jianlin, announced sizable financial incentives to draw Hollywood filmmakers to China. His conglomerate’s $8 billion investment in the U. S. film industry has raised concerns in Washington. • Need a tractor in India? There’s an app for that. Rural residents are turning to their smartphones to rent heavy equipment for farming. • The euro and the pound gained against the U. S. dollar overnight. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Der Spiegel: “The Kitsch King’s Palaces Get a Facelift. ” The palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria are in decay and now require extensive restoration. • Politico: “Why Central Europe’s Youth Roll Right. ” New nationalism is taking root among new voters. • BBC: “Exorcism in Italy a Job ‘Too Scary. ’” The Catholic Church is struggling to recruit young priests willing to confront demons. • Monocle: “World Atlas of Tea. ” In this podcast, a tea expert discusses changes in the industry. • ExoMars 2016, a spacecraft launched by the European and Russian space agencies, is to arrive at the red planet on Wednesday and begin gathering data on gases that may provide clues about geological processes, or even hints of life. • The American first lady, Michelle Obama, has drawn praise for quietly and confidently changing the course of U. S. history. Four influential thinkers offer notes. The Obamas will host Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy tonight at the White House, in what could be the administration’s last state dinner. • Romania is investigating allegations that the Orthodox archbishop of Constanta, a city on the Black Sea coast, fraudulently claimed 300 million euros, or $330 million, in E. U. agricultural funds. • Bob Dylan, the newest Nobel laureate for literature, has said nothing about the award, even to the Swedish Academy (which says it is in touch with one of his associates). A black American doctor was in the news last week after writing on Facebook that a flight attendant seeking help for a sick passenger refused to believe she was a physician. Her experience touched a nerve with other professional women of color who have faced skepticism about their credentials. The episode also calls to mind the poet Phillis Wheatley’s ordeals nearly 250 years ago. Kidnapped as a child in West Africa and sold into slavery, she was bought by the Wheatley family in Boston, who used for her first name that of the ship that brought her across the Atlantic. They taught her to read, and she channeled her intellect into writing poetry. Her work earned praise in both the colonies and Europe. Some of Boston’s most learned men, though, doubted that a slave could write so beautifully. In October 1772, Wheatley successfully defended herself to an panel. She “is thought qualified to write them,” the men said of the poems. The following year she toured England, where her book was released, “marking the beginning of an literary tradition,” according to Henry Louis Gates Jr. a historian. A letter to an acquaintance on this day in 1773 indicates that her renown also won her freedom. “Since my return to America my Master, has at the desire of my friends in England given me my freedom,” she wrote. But in one of her poems, she addressed the pain of slavery more directly: “And can I then but may never feel tyrannic sway?” Sean Alfano contributed reporting. Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Archives Michael’s Latest Video Did America Really Pass The Test? – Hillary Clinton Is Going To Win The Popular Vote By A Wide Margin By Michael Snyder, on November 9th, 2016
The 2016 election was a test, and it would be easy to assume that since Donald Trump won the election that America passed the test. Unfortunately, it may not be that simple. A closer look at the numbers reveals a very sobering reality. Yes, Donald Trump won far more electoral votes than Hillary Clinton did, and that means that he is on track to become our next president . But Hillary Clinton is going to win the popular vote, and it is likely to be by a very wide margin once all the votes are counted.
As I write this article, Hillary Clinton has a lead of 218,000 in the popular vote, but most of the votes that have not been counted are on the west coast.
In California, Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump by a 5,482,166 to 2,966,654 margin, and only 68 percent of the vote has been counted so far. So assuming that the ratio stays about the same the rest of the way, Clinton is going to add at least a million more votes to her lead just from the state of California.
Up in Washington state, Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump by more than 370,000 votes, and only 60 percent of the vote has been counted there so far. So she could easily pick up another 200,000 votes in that state.
When everything is all said and done, it seems very likely that Hillary Clinton will have received well over a million more votes than Donald Trump did in this election.
So the truth is that the American people chose Hillary Clinton, but because of some electoral college magic Donald Trump is the winner of the election.
And I am certainly very, very happy that Hillary Clinton is not going to be our next president. Four years under her “leadership” would have likely been the final nail in the coffin for our nation. My hope is that she will now disappear from national politics for good.
But just because she is not going to be our next president does not mean that we passed the test.
In this election, the American people were faced with a very stark choice. Hillary Clinton is the most wicked politician that our country has ever seen, and over the past three decades the American people have gotten to know exactly who she is and what she stands for.
And despite knowing exactly what they would be getting, more Americans voted for her than voted for Donald Trump.
If every vote counted equally, she would be our next president.
I certainly don’t mean to rain on the Trump parade. Christians, conservatives and patriots are right to celebrate this victory by Donald Trump. But the truth is that I don’t believe that we did actually pass the test that we were faced with.
As a nation, we willingly chose Hillary Clinton by a pretty substantial margin.
And don’t think that the radical left is going to forget that Trump lost the popular vote. Already, violence and protests have erupted all over the nation.
Shortly after Trump declared victory, riots broke out in Berkeley, San Jose and Oakland …
“Not my president! Not my president!” chanted anti-Trump rioters in Berkley, California as they light flares and storm the streets.
Riots erupted in Berkley, San Jose and Oakland shortly after the announcement of Donald Trump as president-elect. Rioters are breaking into stores, vandalizing cars and shooting flares.
One woman in Oakland was hit by a car on Highway 24 just after midnight and has suffered serious injuries after. When she pulled over to the right shoulder, she was surrounded by anti-Trump rioters, who vandalized her car and broke the back window, according to CHP officers.
There were reports of protesters burning American flags in some areas of the country, and there were even brawls outside of the White House .
And once the sun set on Wednesday night, the protests started again. According to USA Today , “thousands of demonstrators” have hit the streets in New York City…
In New York, thousands of demonstrators blocked off streets around Trump Tower near the busy intersection of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, chanting “hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” and “p—y grabs back,” a reference to tape of a Trump conversation from years back in which he One woman protester was topless while another climbed on top of a tree to see the activity. Taxis, city buses and passenger vehicles stood at a standstill.
In Boston, radical leftists were organizing a giant protest against Trump …
Far-left organizers are planning a mass protest in Boston against President-elect Donald Trump, citing the need to “immediately start fighting against him.”
Approximately 2,300 people have indicated they will gather outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston tonight for a “Boston Against Trump Rally.” According to the Facebook event page, another 5,000 people say they may be interested in attending.
“Donald Trump is the next President of the United States. We need to immediately start fighting against him. We need to build a movement to fight racism, sexism, and Islamophobia,” the event description says.
Sadly, this could be the beginning of a new era of protests, rioting and civil unrest.
Instead of coming together behind the new president, the radical left seems ready to go to war.
So even though Trump won the election, the truth is that our troubles may only just be starting. More than half the country didn’t want Trump, our nation was already more divided than it has been in decades before he won, and it won’t take much for many of our big cities to descend into utter chaos.
Without a doubt, we should be very excited that Donald Trump won the election, but an election victory is not going to magically make our problems go away.
When faced with the most monumental election in any of our lifetimes, Hillary Clinton received the most votes from the American people, and the consequences for that decision may be far more severe than most people are now anticipating.
About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. | 0 |
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November 3 rd is around the corner. This day of the year may or may not mean something to you. I consider it is a sad day for poetry. On this day 13 years ago the poet of Dagestan, Rasul Gamzatov, left our world. Born on September 8, 1923, Gamzatov is not only the “People’s Poet of Dagestan”, he is the poet of the people who love poetry, nature, home, language, and beauty. In his prolific writings, Gamzatov showed that if we know the place where we come from intimately, we will have enough stories to tell for the rest of our lives. He taught us that it is only by telling stories and paying attention to others’ stories that we truly live. From the remote villages and treacherous mountains of Dagestan, Gamzatov wrote poems and stories whose words are like loaves of bread to feed the hungry. His rhythms like raindrops falling on the endless deserts of the deprived souls. His depth and clarity like clear spring waters from the melting snows of the mountaintops of Dagestan. Some of his poems turn me into a bleeding red rose, a singing wind on a long lonely night, a thunder loudly objecting every form of oppression on this planet. Others silence my vocal cords and sets free a stubborn tear hanging on the corner of my eye. With his stories, I turn into a bird, into a short-lived wild flower on the side of a mountain rock, into a shiny distant star on a silent and cold winter night. Is it a coincidence that Gamzatov died in 2003, the same year Iraq, the land of poetry and beauty, was occupied and turned into rubble and ashes?
The poet arrived to this world in the Avar village of Tsada in the north-east Caucasus. The name of the village means “fire” in the Avar language, which reflects his own poetic fire that was neither tamed nor domesticated nor put out throughout the 80 years of his life. His poems capture the human soul that is like nature: powerful yet also fragile and delicate in other ways. As children of nature, we are capable of doing so much, yet Mother Nature can crush our arrogance in a blink of an eye. Gamzatov understood our delicate existence that can easily be crushed by the cruel rocks of reality. Yet our only bet is on our souls that enable us to fly high and far away. Reminding us of our strengths and weaknesses, he wrote: “Hit a bird with a stone, the bird dies. Hit a stone with a bird, the bird dies.”
The son of the well-known bard, Gamzat Tsadasa, Gamzatov from the early years of his youth showed an extraordinary passion for Avar stories, myths, oral traditions, village songs, and everything the people of the mountains cherished and held dear and sacred. His intellectual character is best captured in a version of an old saying that many mountain peoples worldwide recite: “One should only kneel down in two cases: to drink clear water from a spring, or to smell a wild flower.” This profound expression reminds us of the role of the intellectual in a world where everyone and everything is up for sale. Intellectuals can only kneel down to drink from the spring water of knowledge; or to smell a wild flower whose scent would set their imagination free. If we kneel down for any oppressive power even once, we may forever be cursed, crippled, paralyzed, and perhaps never able to stand up on our feet again. Gamzatov tells us that he first picked the seeds of poetry from his mother’s songs in the cradle. He picked the fire of poems from his father who loved reading and writing poetry, in addition to working long and harsh hours in the fields. From an early age, he was determined to capture the stories of his people to show the world that poetry transcends languages, human differences, and all artificial borders. He once recalled his father, Tsadasa, reacting to one of his early poems: “if you rummaged in the ash, you might find at least a glowing amber.”
I am sad to report that there is an embarrassing absence of the translations of Gamzatov’s writings, particularly in the English language. This negligence is itself a form of censorship of works that may potentially humanize and change how we think about other people and cultures who inhabit our planet. Great works of literature from other places are not only censored by banning them, but even more so by silencing them, by refusing to translate them in the first place. Marginalization is the worst form of censorship and intellectual assassination. Likewise, choosing what gets translated into a certain language and what gets marginalized is a form of shaping and constructing the historical memory of a place according to whims of those who own the money and means of knowledge production. But since the “politics of translation” is not the subject of this article, I will spare you more details lest I distort this poetic atmosphere. To commemorate the 13 th anniversary of Gamzatov’s death, I would like to take you on a journey in one of his most poetic books of all time titled My Dagestan . The book, originally written in the Avar language, was first translated into Russian in 1967. Since then the book has been translated into many languages. For those interested, the only English translation I was able to find is one from 1970, published by Progress Publishers in Moscow. In this article, I will use the Arabic translation first published in Damascus, Syria, in 1984, to share with you some of the countless gems Gamzatov leaves us with in this masterpiece.
From the very opening of the book, Gamzatov treats the reader as a “guest” who, upon entering his home, shall hopefully leave as a long-lasting friend. He opens it with what he titles “Instead of an Introduction”. From the early pages, the poet creates a harmony between writing and his beloved Dagestan. He writes that ideas and emotions are like mountain guests: they come without invitations, without prior notice, and there is no way for us to hide or escape from them when they arrive. In the mountains, there are no “important” or “unimportant” guests. The youngest of guests are equally important and honored even more than the oldest person in the household, simply because they are guests . We receive guests at the doorstep without asking them “where are you from?” We take them to the center of the house and seat them on the pillows, near the fireplace. Gamzatov adds that guests in the mountains appear suddenly and unexpectedly, but they never surprise us, because we are always waiting for them. We wait for them every day, every hour, and every minute. And “like a mountain guest, the idea of this book came to me.” Elsewhere he writes: “I want to write a book in which not the language follows the grammar, but the grammar follows the language.”
Quoting from his notebook, the poet shares with us how in Kolcata (formerly Calcutta) India, while visiting the house of Rabindranath Tagore, he saw a drawing of a bird that doesn’t exist in reality. That bird was first drawn in Tagore’s imagination. Yet if Tagore hadn’t had seen and observed so many different birds that do exist, he would have never been able to draw his own bird. Gamzatov calls it “Tagore’s bird”. To him, this is how writing about the self, the place you love, and the others is also done. In fact, originality and original thinking, in a sense, are like Tagore’s bird: they are unique and never seen before. Yet they can only be created after seeing and observing so many different types of birds that do exist in reality. This is why, Gamzatov insisted that his book be titled My Dagestan , because just like the bird he saw in Tagore’s house was “Tagore’s bird”, so is the Dagestan in the book “Gamzatov’s Dagestan”. It is not, he adds, because Dagestan only belongs to him, but because the way he sees, imagines, and perceives Dagestan is different than any other person on earth, especially when seen through the eyes of transient visitors and tourists. In this sense, Gamzatov reminds us that our homes, our languages, our mountains, and everything we love dearly need a lifetime to be known and a lifetime to be forgotten.
Later he writes that everything around us is potentially a piece of gold or silver. But silver and gold don’t mean anything in themselves. What is important is that the crafter has skilled hands to turn them into something meaningful and beautiful. This is precisely how the stories we hear, see, and experience in this world can be turned into meaningful writings. Here he cites a phrase he once saw engraved on an old jar that read: “the most beautiful jars are made from clay. The most beautiful poems are written with simple words.”
On a different page, he reminds young writers that writing takes so much patience and perseverance. He then cites a phrase he once read on an old door in one of Dagestan’s villages which read: “Don’t break the door! It can be opened with its key!” This, to him, is the type of patience a young writer needs to learn how to open different doors through different words, different styles of writing, and through patience. He advices young writers that rather than asking for a specific topic to write about, they should ask for a set of eyes that can recognize and capture topics worth writing about. In this way, the poet is telling writers that instead of thinking of themselves as “magicians” who can change the world in one piece of writing, they are really more like farmers who plant the seeds of their alphabet not knowing on which hearts and minds they shall fall and grow into new wild lives. Gamzatov then goes on to remind us that just as it is hard to determine whether it is the feelings that generate music or is it the music that generates feelings; it is equally hard to determine whether it is the writer who produces the writing or the other way around.
Gamzatov’s appreciation for poetry and writing that spring out of the deepest point of knowing the self after demolishing all walls with others is deeply connected to the Avar culture and myths. He shares that the Avar people have an old myth stating that the poet was created 100 years before the world was created, as though they are saying that had the poet not participated in creation, our planet would not have been as magnificent as it is. This is why poets and writers must never compromise themselves. The only way to do so, he writes, “is to always be yourself in every single word you write.” As usual, the poet draws on a village tradition to illustrate the point. He cites the tradition of mountain villagers who, before entering a wedding, usually ask: “is this gathering complete, or do you still have a space for me?” The wedding holders usually respond: “Come on in if you are you !” And “in this book,” Gamzatov writes, “I want to prove that I am me !”
In a section titled “Genius”, the poet writes that even if humans get to know all the secrets on this earth, nobody will ever know what “genius” really is, what is its source, how is it shaped, and how does it grow over time. Genius people are also different from one another, for if they were similar, they would cease to be called so: “I have seen so many faces like my father’s face, but I have never recognized in any of them the genius like that of my father,” he writes. He then adds that, fortunately, genius is not inherited, for if it was, it would be like a royalty passed from one royal family to another, from one rich family to another. Indeed, “it is not unusual for an idiot to be born out of a wise person, nor a child of an idiot to turn out wise.”
In the second part of the book Gamzatov begins another journey to introduce us to his love and attachment to his hardly known mother tongue, the Avar language. To him, this deep love and connection with this language is precisely what makes him able to appreciate every other language, land, mountain, plain, and valley on this planet. He shares that a poet can and should in fact be able to speak to all people, regardless of their languages. For Gamzatov, the destinies, dreams, and pains of all people can be carried in a single heart—the heart of the poet. Yet poets don’t actually write poems for each single heart on the planet, nor do they write for every single love, every single smile, or every single teardrop. Poets write about themselves only. But it is only when the boundaries between the self and the other are demolished that the poet will be able to at once write for nobody and for everybody.
Perhaps not surprisingly, following a long chapter on the “mother tongue”, as My Dagestan nears its end, Gamzatov dedicates a good part of the book to mothers and how the first lullabies and songs they sing to us shape and provide us with enough love and inspiration to face the harshness of this world for the rest of our lives. He wonders whether “cowards” are those people whose mothers didn’t sing for them in their cradles. Perhaps those who betray others are people who have forgotten the songs their mothers sang for them in their cradles. The poet is deeply aware of what it means when a mother—or any loving woman in her place—sings for us our earliest songs and tunes. He writes “a mother’s song is the beginning and the source of all human songs. It is the first smile and the last tear.” Considering how the early tunes and the early songs shape our intellect, cognitive abilities, and literary and poetic selves, it is significant that Gamzatov would emphasize the role of mothers’ songs that teach us how to be in love with everything beautiful around us. He writes that there are songs mothers sing when the child is born, others they sing when they lose their child, and yet others they keep singing long after their beloved children are gone. In this way, poetry for Gamzatov is neither words nor music nor the human senses that receive them. It is the encounter between language, music, and the senses. After reciting numerous stories about the power of singing that, to him, far exceeds the power of swords and weapons, he insists that songs can change the world and save countless lives. His words in this section remind me of a very old saying from the Arabian Peninsula which asks us to beware of mingling with people who don’t love music; to beware of people who don’t like and don’t know how to sing.
Gamzatov left us in 2003 but he left behind a treasure in the form of poetry. He left us prose even more poetic than his poetry. From the magical and tough mountains of Dagestan, he wrote in the Avar language and spread so much love and poetry for so many people who aspire to be human before anything else. After all, one of his favorite inscriptions he saw on a tombstone read:
He was no sage,
But bow to him:
He was a man.
In My Dagestan , Gamzatov writes that the people of the mountains were asked why they built their villages so far away, blocked from others, and secluded by all these mountains. Villagers were told that in residing in these mountains, it is impossible to reach them given the dangers of the road. The villagers responded: “Good friends will reach us without worrying about these dangers. As for bad friends, we don’t need them anyway!” Gamzatov was keen throughout his life to record many inscriptions he came across on old doors, gates, tombstones, and mountain rocks in Dagestan’s villages. In two memorable inscriptions about “guests” he writes:
Come, hillfolk, please knock!
We’re well. If we’re not,
Your coming shall cure us!
*
Don’t knock, don’t rouse the household,
You who pass this way!
If good you bring us, enter!
If mischief, go away!
It is hard to end an article about Gamzatov as much as it was hard to start it. I first read My Dagestan when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Baghdad. This year I had to reread its 550 pages to share some of its vivid images and poetic jewels with you. As soon as I finished rereading the book, I felt sad and empty, because the poet indeed fulfilled his promise: I entered the book like a passing mountain guest and here I am leaving it as a dear friend to the poet and to all the remote villages and people he writes about. Gamzatov’s mountains and magical scenes resemble northern Iraq and remind me of everything and everyone I loved and loved me. It reminds me of all the letters I have received over the years from friends who cared about me, friends who betrayed me, and others who still renew their vows of love and friendship in my life every day.
I close the book with great sadness because, in a strange way, it makes me ask the same old questions always secretly lurking in the back of my head or circulating in my bloodstream like an incurable virus: do we only realize the meaning of all things, people, and places that we love after they are no more? Do we always put the people, things, and dreams that truly matter to us aside like storing a precious item in a closet, hoping naively to come back one day to find them as we left them? Is it the big paradox of life that we don’t master the art of living until it is nearly time to depart? After all, Gamzatov himself was quoted saying shortly before his death: “My life is a draft I wish I had the time to revise.” Oh, my friends, I know I should not end on this sad note. Perhaps to truly celebrate Gamzatov’s poetry and life, I should end exactly as he ended My Dagestan in the translation I am holding now in my hands: “We are finished. It is time to separate. And, as they say, we shall meet again. God willing.”
Louis Yako is an Iraqi-American poet, writer, and a PhD candidate of cultural anthropology researching Iraqi higher education and intellectuals at Duke University. | 0 |
‹ › Arnaldo Rodgers is a trained and educated Psychologist. He has worked as a community organizer and activist. Veterans help veterans cope with PTSD through decorated Marine’s New York-based nonprofit Headstrong Project By Arnaldo Rodgers on November 7, 2016 PTSD
BY Larry Mcshane
Two years after serving two tours in Iraq, Army veteran Dustin Shryock started feeling something was wrong — and he didn’t know how to make it right.
“Anxiety attacks that would pop up for no reason,” he recalls of the problems that surfaced out of the blue in 2010. “I’d be sitting on the couch, doing nothing. You can just imagine a normal anxiety attack, like a public speaking engagement.
“And a tiny little thing like that, over time, over and over, became debilitating.”
A fellow veteran pulled him aside with a solution: The Headstrong Project, a group founded four years ago by combat-decorated Marine Corps officer Zach Iscol to assist his fellow American fighters scarred by invisible wounds.
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Tweet Home » Gold » Gold News » Regret Ever Buying Gold and Silver? AGXIIK Has A Few Words To Share With You…
If you bought silver at $35 and now regret buying silver because the dollar-based price dropped 50%, I have a few words to share with you…
Submitted By AGXIIK:
Some people on these boards debate the wisdom of buying precious metals and PM stocks and tend to blame the messenger if the prices change or sentiment goes against that purchase.
I can understand that entirely because on the surface, when Doc or others, including myself as the #2 precious metals pimp on these boards, along with the 20 other sites offering the same advice and products, urged and continue to urge in strongest terms the wisdom of buying gold and silver, plus stocking up on preps such as are offered here as well (I don’t hear anyone busting Doc’s balls for selling ammo, survival food, medicines and water filters) there will be a number of people who question that wisdom.
If you bought silver at $35 and now regret buying silver because the dollar-based price dropped 50% I have a few words to share with you.
If you made that choice for the right reason and see the price drop by 50%, you will be rewarded in other ways. Time is on our side, even for the older of us who don’t have the luxury of decades to wait. Some certainty that you have real money in your safe comes to mind. The price might not be on your side right now but 6,000 years of history is.
You might be rewarded by silver going to $50 an ounce although that might be the low end of the price spectrum when silver reached its apogee.
If you made that choice in the hopes that the $35 silver goes to $100 or even $200, as I did in the early stages of my purchases, then hopes for riches were far from realized. Now we can see why that was not the best decision by a very wide margin. Precious metal prices can make the strongest of us question our thinking and maybe shed a tear or two over our decision.
If you didn’t stay the course because you thought you were lied to the precious metals dealers, couldn’t stand the financial pressure of going ‘all in’ or no longer can fight the evil bastards, that cast of characters ( you know who they are) who’ve taken over the majority of the markets and rig the prices on an hourly basis, I can completely understand that capitulation. The stock market has kicked the living crap out of me more than a few times.
I’ve had more moments of doubt that I made the right decision that I can count as I watch others making fortunes investing in this and that, harvesting paper profits in investments that are destined for the dust bin. But I’ve never regretted or repudiated my decision to buy precious metals.
My strategies have changed a bit now given that I know more about these markets. That’s been a very slow process, partly because it’s been very difficult to shed 55 years of living in a far different paradigm than this one and partly because I am very hard headed SOB and hate to admit I jumped on the band wagon early on and at much higher prices. Fortunately I’ve received good counsel from some really smart people, those who have a much broader perspective than me. EdB, Eric, Sovereign Economist, Pat Fields (RIP) to mention a few. And if I forgot your name I didnt forget your wisdom.
My wife and I have lived in the miasmic stink of the Obama paradigm for 8 years. This latest chapter of a decades-old scheisse show seems like it’s lasted a lifetime but it is coming to an end. The last 8 years and decisions made by us are still sound in light of the latest news. Today, with the horror show we watch on a minute by minute basis, these decisions are becoming even more sound. We live in a world beset by uncertainty. The ability to move quickly and wisely instead of reactively is vital to our well being. Having a strong financial base is critical to buffer ourselves against uncertainty. Precious metals form part of that base.
For thousands of years we peasants have lived by a credo of self reliance. We know, on an instinctive basis, that the powers that be are always willing and able to take what we have by hook or crook. That psychopathic 1% has always been with us. This time is no different. The forces arrayed against us rely on the same time-tested means to harm us. We used to counter them with revolutions, migrations and holding real money in a hole in the dirt floor of out hut.
Unbacked paper currency, debt, central banks out of control, total corruption in the political and banking worlds, moral depravity, intentionally spread of fear and despair, pitting us against them, divisive politics and an overarching world girdling power that controls everything from afar are nothing new. What is new is the world wide awakening of the masses. We peasants, serfs, Ordinary Joes and Janes who see we are being serious screwed with by the powers that be are mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any more. Good News. We finally know their names today. To know their names is to give names AND faces to our enemies, the enemies of the people; names and faces of those who would oppress us.
This time around the situation is even more grave because the people who would have us are legion, with fangs bared and hands reaching out to take what for we have worked our entire lives. The tipping point of us vs them is coming to a head. But they are still human and vulnerable. The bleed like the rest of us. They can be killed, just the rest of us. More good news. There are 10,000 of us to 1 of them.
As Ballinger notes, the real crises in several dozens of countries worldwide is pressing against the people. We see it in real time, see the terror of the people as their lives are being systematically destroyed by forces so dark and evil that I have trouble even imagining there are people like this living the world, united to take We, the People down to hell with them. They have faces and we see them in real time.
I’ve studied, thought, wrote, proselytized and yes, pimped precious metals and preps, awareness and means to counter the threats we see arrayed against us, even to the point that it makes me look like some loon on a Hyde Park soap box. Soap box or note, I’m still fully convinced of the wisdom of those choices, putting my money and time where my mouth is. It’s taken thousands of hours out of my life to do this; time that I could have easily spent elsewhere. I made a decision years ago to be a voice that would not be idle or quiet. If I can turn a bit of the tide and change even a mere 100 minds then it’s been worth every minute of time spent.
Like Doc, Tyler, Eric Dubin and hundreds of others, I believe we are facing an existential threat, partly of our own making because we allowed some really bad actors to move on us, and partly due to things we are barely aware of. I’m not Biblical in that respect, leaving those avenues to others more schooled in religious matters.
The fact that we now see the fangs and claws of those who would have us, it’s impossible to put that cork of unawareness and lack of knowing back in the bottle and just hope for the best. The best we can do is be self aware, prepared and knowledgeable that these are uncertain times filled with financial mistakes, monetary hurricanes and political earthquakes. Some are of our own making because we elect fools and psychos to high office. Some are made by those who don’t care who they harm they do so long as we are forced to pick up the tab. Picking up the tax used to be voluntary. Now it’s written into law. We get to make good on everything that’s been done wrong by the 1% and their political allies. They f*** up and we get to pay.
Ayn Rand spoke of this and many things in her book Atlas Shrugged but more than that, we have dozens of tomes and hundreds of authors telling us that things are not what they seem. The old paradigms no longer hold. Knowing this it’s best to have some assets that comprises a good fallback position if the worst should befall us.
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When President Obama came into office in 2009, his party held commanding majorities in both houses of Congress. By the time he left, they had hemorrhaged dozens of House and Senate seats, and nearly 1, 000 seats in State houses around the country. Obama may have beat Romney in 2012, but voters were sending a clear message about which party they wanted passing the laws. [Still, Obama had no intention of “waiting for legislation” when it came to his agenda. “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” he declared. Ignoring the fact that gridlock between the executive and legislative branches is not a defect in America’s government, but an essential component, Obama figured the elected representatives of the people would be no match for his executive orders. Certainly, the executive order is a legitimate constitutional tool at the president’s disposal. Presidents frequently use them to direct federal departments, and to implement Congressional statutes. Few criticized Obama’s mere use of executive orders, or even the number he issued. The problem was always their brazen unconstitutionality. Take for example Obama’s executive order on immigration. Congress had been debating “comprehensive immigration reform” ad nauseam for decades, with attempts to pass major legislation failing in 2007, and again in 2013. Growing restless, Obama issued an executive order in 2014 that would have delayed deportations of 5 million illegal immigrants. states filed for injunction, arguing that the order violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The Supreme Court would deadlock effectively blocking Obama’s executive amnesty. But the issue raised before the Court was telling. For perhaps the first time in American history, the Supreme Court reviewed whether a president had violated the Take Care Clause of the Constitution. Article II, section 3, reads in part that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed. ” The obscure clause serves as a bulwark against monarchical suspensions of law, while imposing on the President an affirmative duty of faithful execution of the law. Despite campaigning on reversing President Bush’s policy of “trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress,” it appeared Obama was issuing orders in lieu of legislation. Curiously, now that Obama is no longer president, the left is once again interested in executive overreach. In his first few days in office, President Trump fired off a barrage of executive orders. But while Trump’s orders are worthy of debate as matters of executive policy, they so far have not created new law. Yet, reactions have been apoplectic. When Trump issued a temporary freeze on travel from seven Middle East countries, protesters rushed to the airports to stop this “Muslim ban. ” Where were these people when Obama was openly writing his own laws? Trump’s order broadly restricts citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Libya from entering the U. S. for the next 90 days, and suspends all refugees for 120 days. It was the Obama administration that first identified these countries as areas of terrorist “concern. ” In 2015, the administration required persons who had travelled to these countries in the previous 4 years to apply for a visa before entering the United States. Obama also blocked Iraqi refugees for six months in 2011, after discovering Al Qaeda terrorists living as refugees in Kentucky. Trump’s restrictions are certainly broader than Obama’s visa restrictions, and many criticized Trump’s order as it applied to permanent U. S. residents holding green cards. But that is a question of policy, not constitutionality. For one, the order says nothing about banning Muslims, and it affects the same seven countries as Obama’s visa restrictions. It does not affect other countries. If Trump’s order singling out these seven countries amounts to religious discrimination, then so did Obama’s visa restrictions. Others say the order religiously discriminates because it prioritizes refugees of a minority religion. But prioritizing classes of refugees isn’t a novel policy. In 2015, the Obama administration declared its preference for refugees “deemed to be the most vulnerable,” including minorities, “whether that’s a racial minority or an ethnic minority or a religious minority, or even … an LGBT person. ” Moreover, the Immigration and Nationality Act expressly authorizes the president to suspend immigration in furtherance of public safety, or national security. Indeed, national security policy is indisputably within the president’s constitutional authority. In the order, Trump cites national security for these temporary restrictions. As a matter of fact, Obama cited national security when he placed restrictions on visas for these same countries, and when he halted Iraqi refugees. So did President Carter in 1980, when he restricted visas to Iranians. So did several other presidents in the numerous other times immigration restrictions were placed on specific countries. Last Friday, U. S. District Judge James Robart issued a nationwide injunction against the ban. In his brief ruling, Judge Robart does not address any constitutional issues, and merely finds that the State of Washington met its minimum burden. Yet, on the same day, a federal judge in Boston reached the exact opposite conclusion, ruling against the ACLU’s similar attempt to block the travel ban. Robart’s nationwide injunction now goes to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. No matter the outcome, it is hard to imagine a scenario in which this does not reach the Supreme Court. Nationwide injunctions were issued several times against the Obama administration, including for his executive amnesty. But while the Constitution does not authorize the president to write new laws, or extend legal status to 5 million it certainly grants the president substantial authority where national security is concerned. Perhaps a few federal judges think they have a “pen and a phone” too? | 1 |
The U. S. Commission on Civil Rights says it is launching a “comprehensive assessment” into the Trump administration, in light of proposed budget cuts and staff eliminations that it says will cause the civil rights of people of color, the LGBT community, and other “marginalized” groups to be at risk. [Americans deserve better. This civil rights rollback is dangerous for all of us. https: . — Catherine E. Lhamon (@CatherineLhamon) June 15, 2017, According to a press release, the commission, which was created in 1957 as an independent agency that advises Congress and the president on civil rights matters, unanimously approved the investigation. The press statement says the commission is especially concerned with what it perceives as the Department of Justice “minimizing its civil rights efforts” by placing ICE officers in courthouses and by not emphasizing the need for protection for the LGBT community or the disabled. In the Department of Education, the commission says the proposed budget and staffing cuts in the Office for Civil Rights will affect those filing complaints based on sex, race, and other specially protected class categories. Proposed staffing and budget cuts, and mergers of various offices in the Departments of Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services will all have a negative impact on the federal government’s job to monitor civil rights compliance efforts, says the commission. The investigation is launched as ProPublica released an internal memo — sent by Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Candice Jackson — it says it “obtained” that suggests “the Department of Education has laid out plans to loosen requirements on investigations into civil rights complaints. ” ProPublica says: Under the Obama administration, the department’s office for civil rights applied an expansive approach to investigations. Individual complaints related to complex issues such as school discipline, sexual violence and harassment, equal access to educational resources, or racism at a single school might have prompted broader probes to determine whether the allegations were part of a pattern of discrimination or harassment. The new memo, sent by Candice Jackson, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, to regional directors at the department’s civil rights office, trims this approach. Breitbart News reported in April ProPublica’s concern that Jackson “once complained that she experienced discrimination because she is white. ” When an undergraduate at Stanford University, Jackson was critical of an extra help section of a class held solely for minority students. “I am especially disappointed that the University encourages these and other discriminatory programs,” she wrote at Stanford Review. “We need to allow each person to define his or her own achievements instead of assuming competence or incompetence based on race. ” So grateful to hear today from @EByard @MaraKeisling @rea_carey. @MaraKeisling summarized: ”we are the storm raining down justice” https: . — Catherine E. Lhamon (@CatherineLhamon) June 16, 2017, However, Vanita Gupta, the former acting head of the DOJ’s civil rights division under Obama, said, “At best, this administration believes that civil rights enforcement is superfluous and can be easily cut. At worst, it really is part of a systematic agenda to roll back civil rights. ” In an emailed statement to ProPublica, Elizabeth Hill, press secretary for the U. S. Education Department, said the new “enforcement instructions seek to clear out the backlog while giving every complaint the individualized and thorough consideration it deserves. ” The commission is composed of eight commissioners. Four are appointed by the president and four by Congress. The commissioners serve terms and are not confirmed by the Senate. Currently, four members of the commission are Democrats, three are independents, and one is a Republican. The four presidential appointees were all selected by former President Barack Obama. “For 60 years, Congress has charged the Commission to monitor Federal civil rights enforcement and recommend necessary change,” says commission chairwoman Catherine E. Lhamon, an Obama appointee. “We take this charge seriously, and we look forward to reporting our findings to Congress, the President, and the American people. ” | 1 |
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Leader at al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Hawija district, Hassan al-Sawfi, announced on Thursday, that the Islamic State extremist group abducted 75 civilians, southwest of Kirkuk for leaving the land of Caliphate.
Sawfi said in a press statement, “This evening, ISIS militants abducted 75 civilians from Hawija district, while fleeing the district,” adding that, “The civilians were abducted for leaving the land of caliphate and helping other civilians to flee the ISIS-held areas toward Kirkuk and Salahuddin.”
“The abduction took place in the area between Hamrin Mountains and southwest of Kirkuk,” Sawfi explained. “ISIS militants are collapsing and lost their ability to fight,” Sawfi added.
Sawfi also called on officials to accelerate the battles to liberate the district of Hawija to rescue the civilians who are used as human shields.
Meanwhile, a new photo report purportedly released by the ISIS shows Iraqi Army "spies" mass beheaded in "Wilayat Kirkuk," southeast of the current Mosul military operation. The photo report was released on ISIS terrorist channels on November 17. Viewer discretion is advised.
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Al Pacino has been cast as former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno in an upcoming Barry HBO film about the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal. [The Scarface and Godfather icon will play the role of Paterno during his time as coach of Penn State University, according to Variety. Paterno is still considered by many to be the greatest college football coach of all time however, his career and reputation were severely damaged after the emergence of a sexual abuse scandal in which his longtime assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, was found guilty of sexually abusing dozens of children. The film will examine Paterno’s role in the scandal. Paterno died in 2012, just two months after he was fired from Penn State. “After becoming the winningest coach in college football history, Joe Paterno is embroiled in Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, challenging his legacy and forcing him to face questions of institutional failure on behalf of the victims,” the official logline for the film reads. The film, which does not currently have a title, will be directed by Barry Levinson, whose previous work includes titles such as Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) Rain Man (1991) and Wag the Dog (1997.) It will be produced by HBO and released by Sony Pictures. Sandusky was found guilty in 2012 of 45 counts of sexual abuse the disgraced coach was later sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
What? Congress has until midnight Friday to come up with a plan to fund the government through early December, or once again, it will be lights out for many operations. The problem this time: Passing a plan all seemed quite simple, since Democrats and Republicans gave up several policy items they wanted attached to the overall spending bill. But the measure still omits $220 million that Democrats wanted to help Flint, Mich. and other cities manage emergencies, and they are threatening to block the bill when it comes to the Senate floor on Tuesday. Who to watch: Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, and Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader from Nevada, who may broker a final deal. Keep an eye on Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan and a longstanding and fierce advocate for Flint who rarely gives up a legislative fight easily. | 1 |
Finding ways to make baseball better has become an topic in sports talk. Limit the number of relievers, end the intentional walk, limit the time and frequency of replays all these issues and more have found their way to Commissioner Manfred’s desk. [Another area in need of improvement, in their minds, was found by The Good Phight, the blog at SB Nation which covers the Philadelphia Phillies. They discovered that there aren’t enough minorities in MLB broadcasting booths. According to Hardball Talk, “Of 164 announcers in 30 teams’ booths, 148 (90. 2 percent) are white men. Only nine are men (5. 5 percent) five are Latino men (3. 0 percent) one is an Asian man (0. 6 percent) and one is a white woman (0. 6 percent). “There are only two broadcast teams with multiple persons of color: the Twins (Torii Hunter and LaTroy Hawkins) and Angels (Victor Rojas and Jose Mota). 17 broadcast teams are comprised of only white people. “The broadcast booths do, however, reflect viewership. Cohen, citing Nielsen stats, notes that 83 percent of those who watch baseball on television are white and 70 percent are men. ” Bill Baer of Hardball Talk concludes by saying, “ … I am pessimistic about baseball’s future with its reluctance to cater to a younger, more diverse audience. MLB was, until only very recently, behind the times in technology and social media and still is in some ways. It has made no effort to curb culture policing by white players past and present. “If MLB wants to remain a mainstay in the sporting realm, it will have to bridge the demographic divide as much as it has recently bridged the technological divide. ” The idea that MLB hasn’t reached out to minorities is ridiculous. The league has hosted tournaments and helped build ballparks in neighborhoods for years. Commissioner Manfred even fired the league’s leadership search firm after teams failed to hire any minorities for managerial and GM positions. Have those efforts yielded great results? Evidently not, but those failures should not be confused with a lack of effort. MLB has clearly attempted to increase its appeal to minorities. The problem is, despite those efforts minorities don’t necessarily seem more interested in playing baseball. Perhaps that will change in the near future. Hopefully it will, yet right now it doesn’t seem clear that MLB’s efforts have worked. Which brings us to the point about the study pertaining to the lack of minority broadcasters. The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough in the broadcast booth, the problem is that there aren’t enough of them on the field. Channeling Hillary Clinton here for a moment, what difference does it make, if MLB teams hire more black broadcasters? Are black high school and college players going to become more likely to pursue a career in baseball because the number of black broadcasters directly mirrors the percentage of blacks in the general population? What baseball needs, especially after the retirement of Vin Scully the greatest sports broadcaster of all time, is an infusion of great and artists. If those guys happen to be black, then great. What we don’t need is yet another social justice crusade. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 1 |
MIAMI BEACH — A cluster of Zika cases most likely transmitted by local mosquitoes has been identified in Miami Beach, and federal and state officials are considering whether to advise pregnant women to avoid traveling to the city and possibly even all of County, a health official said Thursday. Such a decision would signal that the potential threat of local Zika transmission had catapulted to a new level. It would no longer be confined to one zone of active local transmission in Miami — the only one identified in the continental United States up to now. A broad travel advisory could threaten tourism in South Florida and deepen fears among pregnant women living in the area. The Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales, in an email to city commissioners, confirmed that two cases of Zika have been tied to Miami Beach. One case is a tourist who had visited Miami Beach two weeks ago. Another case involves a Miami Beach resident who works on the island, Mr. Morales said in the email, which was first reported by The Miami Herald. “I have been informed that two Zika cases have been linked to Miami Beach,” Mr. Morales said in the email. At noon on Friday, Gov. Rick Scott will hold a news conference to discuss the developments. While the Zika virus has mild or negligible effects in most people, it can be devastating in pregnancy because it can damage the brain of a developing fetus, leading to babies born with unusually small heads, a condition called microcephaly. The Zika epidemic has swept across Latin America and the Caribbean since last year. In Brazil, which has been hardest hit by the virus, more than 1, 800 babies have been born with microcephaly. Until three weeks ago, all documented cases of Zika infection in the continental United States had been linked to people who had traveled to the outbreak region, or people who had sexual relations or close contact with someone who had traveled there. While officials have long expected cases of local transmission in the United States, especially in warm climates like Florida’s where mosquitoes flourish, it was impossible for them to predict exactly where those cases would crop up. On July 29, health officials announced that the first cases of local Zika transmission in the continental United States had affected four people in and Broward Counties. On Thursday, the health official with knowledge of the new developments said that in Miami Beach, there are “a handful of cases” of likely local transmission that involve people who were in “close proximity to each other,” including two new cases that the Florida Department of Health announced Thursday. The official insisted on anonymity, saying that details about the location and any travel guidance for pregnant women are not likely to be officially announced until Friday at the earliest. The official said that expanding the travel advisory broadly would not indicate that health officials think that the Zika virus was spreading rapidly throughout the county or Miami Beach. Rather, it would be “for the sake of almost simplification to make it easy for people to understand the geographic area,” the official said. “Now that we have a second area of local transmission, I think officials wouldn’t be surprised to see in the coming weeks another area,” the official added. “So in an effort to simplify things and get ahead, there are discussions about expanding the area to possibly include the county or other parts of the Miami area. ” Jackie Schutz, Gov. Rick Scott’s communications director, said Thursday that public health officials “have not confirmed a new zone of active transmission,” besides the area in Wynwood, a neighborhood in Miami, that has been designated a zone of active local transmission of the Zika virus since Aug. 1. She added, “there are multiple cases being investigated. ” So far, 25 of the 35 cases of suspected local transmission that Florida health officials have announced have ties to the Wynwood neighborhood, most of them linked to two small businesses. Mara Gambineri, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health, said the department “still believes active transmissions are still only occurring in the area that is less than one square mile in County. ” She added, “If investigations reveal additional areas of likely active transmission, the department will announce a defined area of concern. ” The mayor of Miami Beach, Philip Levine, said that state officials had not confirmed to him that there were cases in Miami Beach. But he said, “There could be a link to Miami Beach. ” He added, “We can expect to see Zika popping up here and there, but it’s not an epidemic. ” The health official interviewed Thursday said Florida officials might be waiting to announce the new cluster until a decision was made about how large an area would be included in any new travel advisory, something that officials from the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were discussing Thursday night. “At a minimum is expanding the travel advisory to Miami Beach,” the health official said. “What’s on the table right now is Miami Beach and making it bigger than Miami Beach. There are discussions about the whole of County. ” The C. D. C. had not issued a statement as of Thursday night, and agency officials said it would do so only after the State of Florida released more details about a new cluster and location. A city of 92, 000 people, Miami Beach sits on a series of barrier islands east of Miami. Its crystalline waters, night clubs, restaurants and hip hotels make it one of the biggest tourist hot spots in the state. About seven million tourists stayed in Miami Beach hotels in 2015, and others visited without staying there, according to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. About half are international tourists, with Brazil leading the way. On Thursday, the health official with knowledge of the discussions said that any updated travel guidance would probably be similar to the advisory for Wynwood. Pregnant women were advised not to travel there and women who lived or worked in the zone, and their partners, were advised to protect themselves from mosquito bites and to practice protected sex. Among those affected by an advisory would be Batsheva Wulfsohn, who is seven and a half months pregnant, and her husband, Zak Stern. The couple live in Miami Beach, and Mr. Stern runs a bakery in Wynwood. “I’m still searching for that reasonable reaction to something that is still quite mysterious in its effects,” said Mr. Stern, who had not heard about the Miami Beach cases on Thursday. “My wife is trying to kind of balance doing everything she can as a responsible mother, while not allowing herself to be crippled in fear all day. ” It is exactly that kind of balance that public health officials have also been striving for, said Dr. William Schaffner, the head of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University’s medical school. In issuing travel warnings, he said, “they don’t want to do social and culture and economic harm and they don’t want to do medical and public health harm by indicating that people are at risk when the risk may be very, very low. ” The authorities have limited travel advisories to Wynwood because it was linked to multiple cases, and because the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits Zika, can travel only short distances, does not live long and does not pass the virus to its larvae, he said. Also, in two other viruses the mosquito transmits, dengue and chikungunya, a mosquito has usually infected only one person, not many, he said. “But the world is sometimes a little messier” than scientific precedent would suggest, he said. So far, health officials “have been making reasonable decisions, and we have all wondered what’s it going to take for them to expand the travel advisory,” he added. “They tread a fine line between really aggressive and being really cautious. ” | 1 |
SEOUL, South Korea — The shadowy woman at the center of President Park ’s worst political scandal apologized on Sunday for her “wrongdoings. ” Hours later, Ms. Park fired her chief of staff and seven other presidential aides in an effort to regain public trust, a day after thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to call for her removal from office. Choi a longtime associate widely seen here as a shamanlike adviser to Ms. Park, returned to South Korea on Sunday from Europe, where she had been in hiding since the scandal erupted weeks ago. Ms. Choi’s lawyer, Lee said she would present herself to prosecutors for questioning on her murky ties with Ms. Park, which are at the heart of the president’s troubles. “She apologizes deeply for causing the people humiliation and despair,” Mr. Lee said of Ms. Choi at a news conference. Mr. Lee said Ms. Choi also apologized for “her wrongdoings,” but he did not elaborate. Ms. Park has been accused of letting Ms. Choi, a private citizen with no security clearance or background in policy making, advise her on crucial state affairs. Ms. Choi, 60, has also been accused of using her influence with Ms. Park to plant her associates in the government, including the presidential office, and to coerce big businesses to donate millions of dollars each to the two foundations she controls. As new details of Ms. Choi’s accused manipulation of state affairs have surfaced, Ms. Park’s approval ratings have plunged to record lows. She apologized last week for letting Ms. Choi edit some of her most important speeches. On Sunday, Ms. Park carried out a major reshuffling of her presidential staff in recognition of “the graveness of the current situation,” her office said. Those dismissed included Ahn the senior presidential secretary for policy coordination, who was accused of collaborating with Ms. Choi in pressuring businesses to donate to her foundations. Also fired were three aides known as the three gatekeepers for their purported role in controlling whom Ms. Park met with and what information reached her. All three are considered close to Ms. Choi. Despite the reshuffling, Ms. Park did not replace her aides on foreign policy and national security. Pressure has been mounting on her to overhaul her leadership style and government to regain some of her lost authority. On Sunday, her governing Saenuri Party asked her to form a new cabinet with opposition parties. Ms. Park’s plummeting political fortunes were dramatized on Saturday when prosecutors raided the homes of a few presidential aides who are believed to be under Ms. Choi’s sway and are accused of collaborating in . Prosecutors also appeared at the Blue House, Ms. Park’s presidential office and residence in Seoul, the capital, demanding that they be allowed to search aides’ offices there for criminal evidence. The Blue House refused them entry, but the prosecutors returned on Sunday, pressing the same demand — a highly unusual move for prosecutors, who have long been accused of being servile political tools of the sitting president. Also on Saturday, at a rally in downtown Seoul, thousands marched on the Blue House to chants of “Down with Park !” and “Impeach Park !” Shoving matches erupted when riot police officers blocked the marchers. Organizers said 30, 000 people had attended the demonstration, while the police estimated the crowd at 12, 000. South Koreans are proud of the global economic powerhouse they built from the ruins of the Korean War and the democracy they achieved after decades of brutal rule by military dictators. Those dictators included Ms. Park’s father, Park who led the country from 1961 until his assassination in 1979. Ms. Park’s scandal is seen as particularly inflammatory because it hurts that pride. On Saturday, many demonstrators said they felt ashamed to be South Korean. Speaking to the crowd, Lee the mayor of Seongnam, a city just south of Seoul, said the president had humiliated the people by relying on a “shamanlike figure” to handle important state affairs, referring to Ms. Choi. “We may be weak, we may be poor, but we have not lost our pride yet,” Mayor Lee said to cheers from the crowd. “President Park has lost her authority as president, and she must step down. ” Little had been known about Ms. Choi, except that she is the daughter of a minor religious cult leader and befriended Ms. Park in the 1970s, when Ms. Park’s father was still in power. Ms. Choi’s father, Choi who died in 1994 at the age of 82, had been accused of manipulating Ms. Park, though Ms. Park has defended him as a patriot and a mentor. Some critics believe that Ms. Choi has inherited her father’s role in Ms. Park’s life. Major political parties have so far refrained from calling for Ms. Park to step down. Her single term ends in February 2018. All recent South Korean presidents have ended their terms in ignominy, disgraced by scandals that often implicate their children as well. Many South Koreans had hoped that Ms. Park, the country’s first female president, who is unmarried and has no children, would be an exception. | 1 |
in: General Health Every once in a great while, a perfect child is born. One who never cries, sleeps all night, and gladly eats whatever food you choose to put in front of them. But unfortunately for most of us with children, developing lifestyle habits, such as a healthy appreciation for nutritious fruits and vegetables, usually requires years of continual work. New information recently released by researchers at Michigan State University’s College of Nursing helps to shed some light on the problem of establishing healthy dietary preferences in young children, and more importantly, may help both parents and medical professionals find more effective ways to approach it successfully [ 1 ] . Does Your Diet Really Affect Your Child’s? In order to better understand the connection between mother’s dietary habits, and those of their children, researchers questioned almost 400 low-income women from all over the state with pre-school-aged children then currently enrolled in educational head start programs. They found that the children whose mothers ate fewer than four servings of fruits and vegetables per week were less likely to consume the recommended number of servings themselves. Perhaps more interesting, was their discovery that children who were viewed as “picky eaters” by their mothers were also likely to consume an inadequate number of servings per week, regardless of the mother’s own dietary habits. This has led the researchers behind the study to speculate on improved methods for encouraging better eating habits in children. Many nutritional specialists have become increasingly focused on making healthy foods appear fun and therefore more appealing to kids. And while a certain amount of progress has been made following this approach, it is far from a stand-alone solution. Tips for Being a Better Influence for Your Child’s Diet In today’s busy world, it’s easy to fall into a routine of serving your family convenience foods — especially when dealing with young children and toddlers, whose taste buds can be very difficult to please. Still, the importance of developing smart dietary habits early in life cannot be overstated. Without a balanced and varied diet, growing bodies don’t get the vitamins and minerals they need to thrive. By focusing directly on the food choices of mothers, experts may be able better influence the diets of their children. This is likely due to a combination of positive modeling and increased access to more nutritious foods. There’s more to it than just working a few extra vegetables into dinner. (Although cooking meals at home instead of eating out every night is a smart first step for some.) Make sure that fresh snack options are also readily available for those in-between bouts of hunger. Not only is this better for your family’s health, replacing pr-epacked commercial snack products with seasonal organic fruits and vegetables or raw nuts and seeds is a great way to save money in the checkout line. Parent’s of so-called “picky eaters” should also keep in mind that some children may need to be exposed to a given food as many as 15 times before they are able to decide whether or not they like it. So don’t give up just yet on convincing your little one that broccoli is good. In the long run, it’ll be worth the effort. References: Jill Vondrasek, Jason Cody. Mothers’ diets have biggest influence on children eating healthy . Michigan State University. 2010 December 14. Submit your review | 0 |
November 11, 2016 Trump: Israel is a ray of hope to the world
Just two days after his stunning election victory, President-elect Donald Trump delivered a message to Israel, describing his personal affection for the Jewish state and hopes that his administration will be able to strengthen ties strained by eight years of tense relations between Israel and the Obama administration.
Calling Israel a “ray of hope,” Trump released the statement to the Israel HaYom newspaper, which is owned by prominent Jewish Republican donor, Sheldon Adelson. Adelson backed Trump in this year’s election towards the end of the race, giving tens of millions of dollars to the Trump campaign and pro-Trump political action committees.
“I love and respect Israel and its citizens,” wrote Trump. “Israel and the US share so many common values, like free speech, freedom of worship, and the special emphasis on creating opportunities for all citizens to fulfill their dreams.”
“I look forward to strengthening the unbreakable bond between our two great peoples. I know well that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and that it is the only one that defends human rights, and that it is a ray of hope for many people.”
Along with his praise for the Jewish state, Trump also touched upon the thorniest issue in the Israel-US relationship – the two-state solution. | 0 |
NTEB Ads Privacy Policy Donald Trump, Bible Prophecy, And The Coming Global Shaking That Will Shock The World Listen to me, America, the time is growing ever shorter. Get your eyes off of red vs. blue and conservative vs. liberal, you will never see the truth that way. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is getting ready to insert Himself into our world in a very visible and tangible way. These are the days of prophecy. by Geoffrey Grider October 30, 2016 Join us as we apply Paul’s command found in 2 Timothy 2:15 to ‘rightly divide’ our Bible and put everything in it’s proper perspective and place.
“And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.” Haggai 2:7 (KJV)
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE when the show starts Sunday night at 9:00PM EST!
Listen to me, America, the time is growing ever shorter. Get your eyes off of red vs. blue and conservative vs. liberal, you will never see the truth that way. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is getting ready to insert Himself into our world in a very visible and tangible way. These are the days of prophecy. CLICK IMAGE SUNDAY NIGHT AT 9:00 PM EST TO LISTEN LIVE TO THIS BIBLE STUDY
On this episode of Rightly Dividing , we look at the 2016 presidential election, just a little over one week away, and the coming implications it will have on the fulfillment of Bible prophecy right here and right now. We are living in exciting times, and they are about to go into end times overdrive.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE when the show starts Sunday night at 9:00PM EST! 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 |
Report Copyright Violation The oNe who's nAME shOuld not be Mention...!!!! His N3ame shOuld never Be mentiOn, because it represents power and real power is scary and unnerving....To those that holD and move the strings of the puppets ....His name is fear by g O d and the de V il but bless bY3 the universal true....Although god and the devil fears him, Lucifer calls him a brother and an equal in the realms of the heavens and the earth....the primordial father but also the s O n of the future earth.... Anonymous Coward Report Copyright Violation Re: The oNe who's nAME shOuld not be Mention...!!!! His N3ame shOuld never Be mentiOn, because it represents power and real power is scary and unnerving....To those that holD and move the strings of the puppets ....His name is fear by g O d and the de V il but bless bY3 the universal true....Although god and the devil fears him, Lucifer calls him a brother and an equal in the realms of the heavens and the earth....the primordial father but also the s O n of the future earth.... Quoting: LuCy X 12702162 Sooo, you know His name? Anonymous Coward | 0 |
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A BY NO MEANS COMPLETE LIST OF FAKE NEWS STORIES FROM THE SELF-DESCRIBED "REAL" MEDIA!
The following items link to sources.
Saddam's Nuclear Weapons , Assad Used Sarin Gas On His Own People , Humans Are Warming The Planet , Side Mounted Fuel Tanks , Radiation is Good For You , Food Lion , Israel's Attack on USS Liberty Was Just an Accident , Torpedoes in The Gulf of Tonkin , Spanish Mine in Havana Harbor , USS Iowa Explosion Was Caused by a Gay Sailor , Putin Shot Down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 , TWA 800 Was Destroyed By a Fuel Tank Explosion And The Hundreds of Witnesses Who Saw a Missile Hit the 747 Were All Drunk , John F. Kennedy Was Assassinated By a Lone Gunman , Robert Kennedy Was Assassinated From Behind by a Palestinian Standing in Front of Him Who Fired 14 Shots From a Gun That Held only 8 bullets , The Lusitania Was Not Smuggling Weapons to Britain When Sunk by the Germans , Vaccines Are Safe , GMOs Are Safe , Food Sold at Organic Stores is Just as Bad as Supermarket Food , Jaunita Broaddrick Was Not Raped , Gennifer Flowers Was a Flake , Vincent Foster Committed Suicide , Brian Williams Was Shot Down (And Other Lies) , If You Like Your Doctor You Can Keep Your Doctor , The NSA Does Not Spy on US Citizens , Common Core is Quality Education , Glyphosate is Safe , The Gulf of Mexico is Perfectly Fine After the Deepwater Horizon Disaster , Mercury in Vaccines and Dental Fillings is Harmless , Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease but Statins Will Save You , The Stock Market Proves the Entire Economy is Working , 94 Million Americans Out of Work Translates to a 5% Unemployment Rate , Illegal Immigrants Do Not Bring Disease Into the US But Unvaccinated Children Are a Danger Even to Vaccinated Children , Dr. William Thompson And His Confession of Rigging the CDC Report on Vaccines and Autism is an Urban Legend , Aspartame is Safe , Monica Lewinsky story ignored , Bush Said Al Qaeda is no Longer a Problem , Arnold Schwarzenegger groped six women , US Troops Gang-Raped Iraqi Women , Hillary Will Win the 2016 Election in a Landslide , Pearl Harbor Was a Complete Surprise , Rather: John F. Kennedy's Head Rocketed FORWARD From the Head Shot , Rather again: George Bush Got Special Treatment in the National Guard , Sarah Palin to Blame for Gabby Gifford shooting , Mitt Romney is a Homophobe , Mitt Romney is Racist , Gang-rape as Fraternity Initiation , 8-Year Old Heroin Addict in DC ...
Now, you all remember to believe the "Real" Media and ignore the "Fake" media when they point out these itty bitty trivial goofs, because Ignorance Is Strength!
"Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." -- Richard Salent, Former President CBS News.
"News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising". former NBC news President Rubin Frank
"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference." -- Edward R. Murrow
Asked to give a toast before the prestigious New York Press Club in 1880, John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff at the New York Sun, made this candid confession [it's worth noting that Swinton was called "The Dean of His Profession" by other newsmen, who admired him greatly]:
" There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.
If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes. " SHARE THIS ARTICLE WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA | 0 |
The NFL Draft has turned into a zoo, literally, and NFL Network draft guru Mike Mayock is having none of it. [The NFL has recently endeavored to spice things up and enhance the entertainment value of the draft. Long gone are the days of a bunch of football nerds sitting around a hotel ballroom calmly scribbling names on sheets of paper, to be carried by runner to the commissioner at the podium so he could announce the name of the player in which the franchise had entrusted its future hopes and dreams. Oh no, say goodbye to suspender moustache guy, and say hello to skinny jean wearing, having purveyor of social media guy. In short, the draft has become an entertainment event geared towards the NFL fan. An entertainment event that, especially in light of the recent, financial demise of ESPN, has to attract viewers in order to draw ratings and raise revenues. One of the new entertainment innovations of the marketing and advertising department of the NFL Network was to have draft pick announcements made . The Texans had their draft picks read from the International Space Station, the Chiefs had picks read from Whiteman Air Force Base, and the Colts had their picks made by … well … an orangutan at the Indianapolis Zoo. The orangutan announcing the #Colts selection is the pick of the #NFLDraft pic. twitter. — Jeffrey Kahn 247 (@jkahn247) April 29, 2017, This latter innovation did not sit well with Mayock. Following prompts from a zookeeper, the orangutan then tapped a TV screen, which then displayed the name of the player the Colts had selected. Funny, right? I thought so. Mike Mayock did not. According to Pro Football Talk, Mayock said, “If we’re going back to the zoo, I’m walking off the desk. I’ve about had the zoo, OK? Enough. Enough. I mean, is this good TV?” NFL Network’s Rich Eisen introduced the zoo segment with some sarcasm, saying, “If we don’t go to the zoo, the world will stop spinning. ” When the orangutan revealed the Colts’ selection of defensive tackle Grover Stewart, Mayock indicated he thought it was unfair to Stewart to turn one of the most significant moments of his life into a circus. “I think we’ve got to be a little respectful,” Mayock said. “It’s a big day for Grover Stewart, and rather than talking about that chimp, let’s get back to some football here. It’s a big day for him. ” While one can certainly see how having an orangutan announce the fulfillment of your life’s dream to reach the NFL could be considered disrespectful, at some point Mayock also has to understand that he’s in the entertainment business, and not just the sports business, which is something that’s probably quite easy to forget when you’ve been immersed in game tape and analysis of over 400 draft prospects for the last several months. The financial collapse of ESPN has heralded in the start of a new era for much of the sports world. Gone are the salad days when you could just name a price and the monster would pay it, then eagerly ask for more. Sports leagues and their affiliated news networks can’t be lazy anymore, relying on the financial largesse of the “Magic Kingdom. ” Instead, they’re going to have to make their products more entertaining, lucrative, and productive in order to pay the freight. Does that mean the NFL Network did the right thing in having an orangutan announce a draft pick? No. Personally, I found it funny and thought Mayock completely overreacted about a moment of levity in the midst of bonanza about football players, the overwhelming majority of whom the country has never heard of before. Maybe I’ve got that wrong, and that’s fine. Here’s what I don’t have wrong: Gimmicky draft selection ideas aren’t going away, and Mike Mayock will not be receiving a Christmas card from the Indianapolis Zoo anytime soon. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 1 |
in: Government , Government Corruption , Sleuth Journal , Special Interests (image: REUTERS/Gary Cameron) Had Comey recommended Hillary be held criminally responsible for mishandling classified State Department documents last July, along with perjury for lying to the FBI and Congress, a firestorm of criticism wouldn’t have followed his Friday announcement. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D. NV) accused him of “tarring Secretary Clinton with thin innuendo,” saying his action “appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another” – claiming he “may have broken the law,” citing the 1939 Hatch Act (An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities). It prohibits federal executive branch employees from engaging in certain forms of political activity – exempting the president, vice president and designated high-level administration officials. Proof of intent is required to hold someone culpable under the law. According to the Wall Street Journal , within the FBI, there was “sharp internal disagreement over matters related to the Clintons, and how to handle those matters fairly and carefully in the middle of a national election campaign.” In a prominently featured NYT op-ed , Law Professor Richard Painter said “(w)e cannot allow FBI or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power.” Not according to former federal prosecutor Daniel Richman, saying “Comey’s critics cannot show his letter violated the Hatch Act unless they can prove that the FBI director was intending to influence the election rather than inform Congress, which was (his) stated aim.” A Sunday released ABC News/Washington Post poll indicated about a third of likely voters are less likely to support Hillary following Comey’s October surprise. The Washington Post said the Justice Department’s public integrity unit blocked the FBI from investigating the Clinton Foundation, claiming inadequate “evidence to move forward.” The department is run by longtime Bill and Hillary ally, Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Last June, she met privately with the former president at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport while Hillary was under FBI investigation – a clear conflict of interest despite her disingenuously claiming “no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body” took place. In a Washington Post op-ed , former attorney general Eric Holder expressed concern about Comey’s “vague letter to Congress about emails potentially connected to a matter of public, and political, interest” – claiming he “violated long-standing Justice Department policies and tradition.” Holder disgraced the office he held. Law Professor Francis Boyle called him “a total disaster for the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Human Rights and the Rule of Law.” Speaking in Florida on Sunday, Hillary changed the subject, saying “there’s a lot of noise and distraction, but it really comes down to what kind of future we want, and what kind of president can help us get there. We won’t be distracted no matter what our opponents throw at us.” Clearly, Comey’s bombshell changed the dynamic of the race, whether enough to derail her White House bid we’ll know in days. Reports indicate the FBI will examine an astonishing 650,000 emails from former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop – estranged husband of top Hillary aide Huma Abedin. It could take months to review volume this immense, likely extending well beyond November 8 and January’s inauguration, to determine if any evidence warrants prosecuting Hillary, Abedin, Weiner or anyone else for mishandling classified government documents, perhaps compromising national security. Having absolved Hillary in July, despite plenty of indictable evidence, it’s hard imagining a change of FBI policy now. Submit your review | 0 |
If Megyn [sic] Kelly Doesn’t Want Her Pussy Grabbed, Why Did She Pose for This “Grab My Pussy” Photo Shoot?
Andrew Anglin Daily Stormer October 27, 2016
Megyn [sic] Kelly has continually asserted over the last two weeks that she personally fears that if Donald Trump is elected President, he will use his Presidential powers to grab her by the pussy.
However, this begs the question: if Megyn [sic] Kelly is so concerned about having her pussy grabbed, why did she pose for this “grab my pussy” photo shoot for GQ?
Keep in mind, these pictures are from 2010. She wasn’t some dumb college student trying to make a few bucks to pay rent with a quick “grab my pussy” photo shoot. She was already a multi-millionaire Fox News host.
Last year, when the whore Kelly was attacking Trump as a sexist, he pointed out this “grab my pussy” photo op, and noted that Kelly is a bimbo.
In response to allegations of bimboism, Kelly told People Magazine : “I was 40, and I was pregnant, I was like, ‘I look pretty good.’“
Of course, in woman-speak this translates to “I was 40, and I was pregnant, and I wanted to send the message to random men that they should grab me by the pussy to confirm that I am still attractive.”
And sure, the pictures do look good, but they are airbrushed all to hell and back
For instance, she is wearing a push-up bra, but the curvature of her breasts has been corrected and wrinkles have been removed from the place where her breasts connect to her chest and from her neck. Armpit wrinkle removal is also plainly obvious.
So nothing is proved by these pictures – other than the fact she wants her pussy grabbed.
In the same year, 2010, she went on the Jew Howard Stern’s show and said that she wanted to fuck Bill O’Reilly, which is bizarre and I believe sick. In this interview she also talked about her breasts and her husband’s penis size.
(Full interview here .)
It is not like she didn’t know she was walking into a sex interview here. That is Stern’s entire shtick. And everyone knows who Howard Stern is.
So the only reason she would go on this show is to sexually objectify herself, which again, is to feel sexy when old and beginning to sag
All of this simply confirms that Megyn’s continued attacks on Donald Trump – such as we saw Newt Gingrich slap her around like an even cheaper hooker than she actually is for earlier this week – are part of a gigantic shit test against Donald Trump.
Basically, Kelly’s entire career is now devoted to trying to bully Donald Trump into grabbing her by the pussy.
Tsk-tsk, Megyn [sic].
Tsk-tsk.
Roger Ailes Firing Conspiracy Confirmed?
Way back when Fox News chief Roger Ailes was fired – OVER A SEXUAL HARASSMENT HOAX THAT MEGYN [sic] KELLY TOOK PART IN BY SAYING HE HUGGED HER WEIRDLY – I said that it was obviously part of an anti-Trump conspiracy by the station’s owner, Rupert Murdock .
Murdock, while claiming to be a “conservative,” is an elite globalist and friend of the Clintons.
Ailes, while not a perfect guy (shilled for Bush’s wars, shilled for Israel), is a friend of Trump and wasn’t going to allow this whore Kelly – as well as a whole bunch of other hosts and pundits – to betray the network’s viewership by shilling for Hillary Clinton.
Because that is exactly what we are seeing now: a massive betrayal of Donald Trump by the Fox News channel.
O’Reilly hasn’t been horrible, but he hasn’t been great either.
The only one who has consistently supported Donald J. Trump is Sean Hannity, and his ratings have now gone through the roof because of it. I’m half-surprised Murdock doesn’t just fire him for it, but I suppose that wouldn’t work, as the entire viewership would boycott the channel. Right now, they can do a lot of damage to Trump by having the majority of their hosts shill for Hillary, but still having a few support Trump so they don’t totally expose themselves as being part of a Clinton conspiracy. | 0 |
TEHRAN — Iranians bade farewell to Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday, with the sprawling state funeral veering slightly off script when groups of mourners started shouting opposition slogans. The authorities were forced to raise the volume on the loudspeakers playing lamentation songs after some in the crowds took up cries of “Oh, Hussein, Mir Hussein,” a reference to a former presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who has been under house arrest since 2011. Some of the chants were aimed at Russia, Iran’s ally in the Syrian conflict. Video clips on social media showed mourners shouting “Death to Russia” and “the Russian Embassy is the den of espionage,” as they passed the embassy’s complex in the heart of Tehran. People also called for the release of hunger strikers in Iranian prisons. State television, broadcasting the funeral live, airbrushed the protests, which were nevertheless allowed to proceed without police intervention. Mr. Rafsanjani, 82, who died on Sunday, was laid to rest after an elaborate ceremony that lasted several days. Right after his demise, his body was placed in a coffin that was put on public display in the modest house of the late founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. For two days, mourners had filed through the northern Tehran site, untouched since Mr. Khomeini died in 1989. A religious chanter brought the crowds to tears as he recalled how Mr. Rafsanjani helped to oust Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in the 1979 revolution. “Our sheikh was so wise, he made the shah leave, leave,” the chanter sang. Men gathering on the ground floor bowed their heads in respect, while on the first floor — the women’s section — mourners in black chadors peeked down. Qassem Soleimani, the general of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards who runs Iran’s operations in Iraq and Syria, paid his respects, some people said, showing clips of him on their cellphones as proof. Because of Mr. Rafsanjani’s close relationship with Ayatollah Khomeini, he was accorded the honor of being buried in the late leader’s mausoleum, in a golden cage. Before the interment, all Iranians were invited to gather around the campus of the University of Tehran, in the central part of the city, where Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led a prayer. People showed up early, some wearing scarves around their faces to protect them from the morning cold. Families passed by, pushing strollers carrying babies wearing woolen hats. Students took videos with their cellphones. Shiite clerics in traditional winter robes made of camel’s hair held prayer beads. There were so many people — 2. 5 million by official estimates — that many of the dignitaries and family members invited to the campus were marooned in their cars amid the crowds. Some hid behind curtains others waved at the collection of camera phones. One of Mr. Rafsanjani’s daughters, Faezeh Hashemi, was photographed sticking her head out of the window of a bus and flashing a victory sign. She and her brother Mehdi have been harassed by for their growing support of reformists and moderates seeking change in Iran. The daughter, an activist for women’s rights and personal freedoms, was jailed in 2011 for making “ propaganda,” while her brother was given leave to attend the funeral from prison, where he was sent on embezzlement charges. In recent years their father, long a staunch conservative, became an unexpected hero to Iran’s middle class. Mr. Rafsanjani sympathized with some demands made by protesters during the Green Revolution, the antigovernment demonstrations following the disputed victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. They saw him as a lone voice representing their beliefs in Iran’s establishment. Such deviations from the official line were put aside by the authorities on Tuesday. In death it seemed that Mr. Rafsanjani was to be remembered for his revolutionary credentials, not for his criticisms. Potential troublemakers were not invited. The former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, who was supported by Mr. Rafsanjani, was told not to attend, local websites said. The same apparatus that normally churns out posters showing Uncle Sam with blood dripping from his teeth to burn during demonstrations, now printed pictures of Mr. Rafsanjani, extolling him as “a man of history, who is immortal. ” In the teeming streets, scenes clashed incongruously. At one point, Ayatollah Khamenei could be heard through loudspeakers saying prayers for Mr. Rafsanjani while protesters chanted opposition slogans. Some wore green wristbands, the color of the opposition, and flashed victory signs. Supporters of the establishment tried to drown out the slogans by shouting “Allahu akbar,” meaning “God is great,” but for the most part they were overmatched. On state television, sound engineers at one point forgot to lower the volume when people shouted, “Hail to Khatami. ” “Hashemi’s death is a great worry to us,” said Leili Farhang, a university graduate, who emphasized that she was unemployed “like many of my generation. ” She and her friends had showed up in front of the Tehran University campus “to pay respect to a man who respected us. ” It was hard, she and her friends agreed, to come up with the name of anybody within Iran’s establishment to replace Mr. Rafsanjani. Not one has his weight and stature, they concluded: “He will be missed. ” It took hours for the body to arrive at the South Tehran mausoleum, because of “the millions that have come out to honor the ayatollah,” Khabarfori, an Iranian online news channel, said on the Telegram messaging app. Inside the mausoleum, state television showed, a marching band played the national anthem, after which Mr. Rafsanjani’s coffin was placed next to Mr. Khomeini’s, as planned. | 1 |
Hedge fund titans once ran their firms like elite private clubs, picking who made it past the velvet rope and how much they would pay for access to supercharged performance. Years of poor performance have now led a number of funds to consider something more like general admission. Some investors — MetLife, American International Group and the New York City pension plan, among them — have recently begun to withdraw their money from hedge funds in larger numbers. And the investors who stay are getting a chance to sit at the negotiating table and dictate lower fees and better terms for sharing in the returns that managers make. It’s an unusual position for many hedge fund managers, who as a group are not known for sharing well with others. For decades, hedge funds operated on a “2 and 20” model: Investors paid fees of 2 percent of assets under management and 20 percent of any gain in any year. When performance was good, the founders of the biggest firms were catapulted to the top of global wealth rankings. Now, in a bid to persuade investors to stay, some managers are sweetening the deal by lowering fees in return for locking up investor money for a longer period of time and setting certain performance targets that if exceeded, investors would pay a fee. For newcomers, managers are even offering the favorable terms once exclusively offered to longtime loyal clients. “Managers are having to negotiate, and investors are demanding much more than they used to in the absence of value,” said Adam I. Taback, head of global alternative investments at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “High fees are like an expensive car,” he said. “It is fine as long as you’re getting performance out of it. ” In recent years, investor criticism of hedge fund underperformance against a roaring stock market was met with frustration by managers who complained that investors couldn’t have their cake and eat it, too. A hedge fund manager’s job was to protect in down years but not outperform in good years, the industry argued. But when markets began to fall last summer, so did hedge fund returns, rendering the point moot for many investors. Over the last 18 months some of the managers — including William A. Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management and Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital Management — have consistently lost money. Others that made bets on macroeconomic trends were caught off guard by bets and had to shutter their firms. And many hedge fund managers found themselves crowded in the same stock. That meant big returns as everyone piled in but even bigger declines when everyone sold out. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, for example, was one of the most popular stocks held by hedge funds in 2015, and its stock price soared to more than $260 a share at one point. But when news of a government investigation came to light and issues with the company’s pricing strategy became apparent, the stock came crashing down. On Friday, Valeant’s share closed at a low of $24. Mr. Ackman, who has been Valeant’s biggest cheerleader, has lost billions of dollars so far on his bet on the company. His Pershing Square Holdings is down 17. 5 percent so far this year through June 7, in large part because of the Valeant position. Other hedge fund titans including Paulson Company and Viking Global Investors have collectively lost billions of dollars on the Valeant trade. “I see the herd mentality among hedge funds every day,” Roslyn Zhang, a managing director at China Investment Corporation, China’s sovereign wealth fund, said at the SkyBridge Alternatives, or SALT, hedge fund conference in Las Vegas last month. Describing how some funds spend “two seconds” on one theme before deciding to put investor money behind the idea, she added: “We pay 2 and 20 for treatment like this. I am reflecting that maybe we are not making the right decision. ” All of this has prompted some within the industry. “We are in the first innings of a washout in hedge funds,” Daniel S. Loeb, the founder of the hedge fund Third Point, wrote to investors in a recent letter, describing a “catastrophic period” for the industry. But for some investors, acknowledgment of poor performance is not enough. In September 2014, the nation’s biggest pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or Calpers, announced plans to liquidate its $4 billion hedge fund holdings on concerns that the investments were too expensive and too complicated. In April this year, the pension fund for New York City civil employees voted to exit its portfolio of $1. 5 billion in hedge fund investments. Some insurance companies have shown their displeasure, too. “We had a very negative experience in hedge funds,” Peter D. Hancock, the chief executive of A. I. G. told investors earlier this year. The insurance group plans to pull about half of its $11 billion in hedge fund holdings. MetLife, another insurance giant that has roughly $1. 8 billion invested in hedge funds, has been sending out redemption requests to those managers. Steven Goulart, its chief investment officer, recently told shareholders that the exit was prompted by inconsistent performance. The market environment will “continue to be challenging for hedge funds,” he added. Investors pulled $15. 1 billion from the industry in the first quarter of the year. But these exits are a drop in the ocean compared with the $2. 9 trillion the industry manages. Other institutional investors, meanwhile, continue to pump money in. Still, the pressure is mounting. “Now the fact that people are willing to cut, you’re going to see pressure on managers who are not at the top of the pyramid are going to have to cut,” said Mark W. Yusko, the chief investment officer of Morgan Creek Capital. In a move that is largely in the industry, Mr. Robbins recently apologized to investors in an attempt to stem the outflow of investor money from his firm. He pledged to “right the ship as quickly as possible” and even offered investors the opportunity to put more money into a new fund that would waive fees. Mr. Robbins has continued to lose money this year. Investors in his flagship fund have lost 6. 5 percent as of the end of May. So Mr. Robbins is now offering more favorable redemption terms, allowing existing investors that add more money into the fund to step into the shoes of investors that have left, according to three people briefed on the firm’s plans who were not authorized to speak publicly about them. As long as performance continues to lag, hedge funds will be scrutinized and hedge fund giants will be at a disadvantage. David Rubenstein the billionaire of the private equity firm Carlyle Group, perhaps summed up the sentiment best when he told an audience of money managers at the SALT conference in May, “Please don’t be embarrassed about the industry. ” In case there was any hesitation, Mr. Rubenstein added: “We shouldn’t be upset about what we do. We should be proud. ” | 1 |
Clappers answer to peace is more Nuclear weapons. He needs to get off the governments payroll. | 0 |
LOS ANGELES — “We got one!” Those words, shouted by a Annie Potts in the 1984 version of “Ghostbusters,” summed up the feeling on the Sony Pictures lot on Sunday, as the studio released a remake of that comedy to solid results. The new “Ghostbusters,” directed by Paul Feig and featuring women in the main roles, took in about $46 million over the weekend at theaters in the United States and Canada. It was only good enough for second place, behind Illumination Entertainment’s “The Secret Life of Pets” (Universal) which collected an estimated $50. 6 million in its second weekend, for a new domestic total of $203. 2 million, according to comScore, which compiles box office data. But ticket sales for “Ghostbusters” were strong enough to merit revelry nonetheless. “We’re totally ecstatic,” Josh Greenstein, Sony’s president of marketing and distribution, said by phone. Resuscitating any film franchise that has been absent from theaters for 27 years (ever since “Ghostbusters II” arrived in 1989) is extremely difficult. In this case, Sony had the additional challenge of facing down internet trolls unhappy about the casting of Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Kristen Wiig. In Hollywood, trouble like “Ghostbusters” faced before its release can either prompt damaging studio infighting, as executives squabble over what to do, or it can galvanize a management team in new ways. Sony, currently in last place among the six major studios as measured by annual domestic ticket sales, has undergone an extreme makeover in the last 17 months, with Thomas E. Rothman taking over as movie chief in February 2015. “The team really pulled together,” Mr. Greenstein said. Even so, Sony and Village Roadshow spent $144 million to make “Ghostbusters” — ads cost at least $100 million more — leaving the film a long way from profitability. Sony is counting on foreign ticket sales, although China, the world’s No. 2 box office market, is unlikely to clear the film for release. Mr. Greenstein said he expected the generously reviewed reboot to perform well in the weeks ahead. “Paul’s movies have big, huge, high multiples, and there are no big comedies on the horizon,” he said. Amid more straightforward summer remakes and sequels, “the movie is both new and nostalgic, which makes it stand out,” he added. For the weekend, “The Legend of Tarzan” (Warner Bros.) was third, taking in about $11. 1 million, for a total of $103. 1 million. Also of note: Woody Allen’s “Café Society” (Lionsgate) got off to a strong start in five theaters, collecting $355, 000. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — A day after a harsh judgment by the Congressional Budget Office on the House plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, nervous Senate Republicans on Tuesday suggested changes to the bill. They told Trump administration officials — including the health secretary, Tom Price — that they wanted to see lower insurance costs for poorer, older Americans and an increase in funding for states with high populations of people. They said those changes would greatly improve the chances of Senate approval even though they might further alienate conservatives. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, a member of the Republican leadership, said Senate Republicans could take steps to make the bill “more helpful to people on the lower end. ” The Congressional Budget Office’s official assessment of the American Health Care Act — House Republicans’ proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act — put President Trump and Republican congressional leaders on the defensive. The budget office predicted an increase of 24 million people without health insurance by 2026 under the Republican plan, while forecasting $337 billion in deficit reduction over the same period. Speaker Paul D. Ryan was counting on that deficit reduction — as well as tax cuts for high earners and insurance and medical device companies — to entice members whose Republican constituents want to see the law crumble. He is facing critics from different factions in his party, including conservatives who say the bill does not represent the wholesale replacement of President Barack Obama’s signature health law that Republicans pledged, and more moderate members concerned that thousands of constituents will lose coverage. Because Democrats are expected to vote as a bloc against the House bill, Republicans cannot afford many defections when the bill is expected to come to a vote next week. But by underscoring the bill’s effect on the ranks of the uninsured, Congress’s official scorekeeper, the C. B. O. made wavering Senate Republicans all the more skittish of the House’s legislation. Any of the changes that senators are seeking would almost certainly alienate conservative House Republicans who already believe the bill is too generous. “The C. B. O. score has modified the dynamics,” said Representative Leonard Lance, Republican of New Jersey. “It’s incumbent upon our leadership in the House to make sure that whatever is being discussed has the ability to pass in the Senate,” Mr. Lance said, “and I do not believe that that is currently the case. ” Mr. Trump was left to strike a balance between siding with House Republicans while also distancing himself from the details, with top aides conceding that the legislation needed modifications before it could pass the full Congress. On Tuesday, the president talked with House leaders about revisions to address the concerns of the most conservative members, and to Republican senators who fear the measure headed to the House floor would be too costly for older residents. The C. B. O. report clarified just who stood to lose the most under the Republican plan, which in effect would shift health insurance costs from younger, healthier Americans to older, sicker Americans. Under current law, insurers cannot charge older adults more than three times what they charge young adults for the same coverage. The House bill would allow insurers to expand that to . Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, noted that Americans over 60 who earn a little too much to qualify for Medicaid would “have a hard time affording insurance” under the House plan, since insurance premiums would rise far higher than the modest tax credits on offer. “That’s not good,” he said. The House bill includes large transition grants to the states that can be used to help cover people with medical conditions, subsidize insurance purchases beyond the bill’s tax credits, or other interventions some Senate Republicans would seek to make those bigger as well. Mr. Thune wants to revise the tax credits so that they would be focused more on people. The changes sought by Senate Republicans could upend White House efforts to shore up support from Mr. Ryan’s conservative flank. On Tuesday, several of the most conservative members of the House continued to voice their opposition. “Leadership’s public positions have pretty much been ‘this is the bill, take it or leave it’ kind of approach,” said Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, adding, “I have no indication that it has changed. ” And if changes are not made, conservatives are balking. “I’m a no,” Representative Dave Brat, Republican of Virginia, said in an interview on Tuesday. “The C. B. O. report doesn’t really affect my calculation too much. ” Mr. Ryan’s calculus at this point is less strategic (how to actually get a bill that would replace the health care law to final passage) than tactical (how to muster enough votes to get the measure through the chamber he leads). House Republicans portrayed the intraparty divisions as minor. “I think what we unite upon is much greater than what divides us in this,” Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for part of the repeal measure, said on Fox News Tuesday. Mr. Ryan is counting on Mr. Trump, whom he talks to almost daily, to help win passage of the bill in the House. The speaker would then leave it to Senate Republicans to decide if they want to be the ones to refuse to honor the longstanding Republican promise to repeal the law. Mr. Trump, though, has remained leery of Mr. Ryan since the campaign, when the speaker publicly voiced skepticism about Mr. Trump. That point was reinforced this week when Breitbart News, a website and frequent Ryan critic, released comments by Mr. Ryan from October that were critical of Mr. Trump. And House conservatives continued to oppose the bill, which Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, described in an interview with CNN as “still the largest welfare program ever proposed by the Republican Party. ” But the very elements of the bill that conservatives, whose votes will be needed for final House passage, want changed are the very things that many Republican senators, who have a far broader base of constituents, are fighting to maintain or enhance. That is true even in Republican states where the law has helped many patients, especially those who are too young for Medicare but aging and thus more costly to insure. “The way to get to yes is to pass legislation that honors our promise to repeal Obamacare and that drives down costs,” said Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, arguing that the House bill did not do enough to drive down insurance premiums. Mr. Ryan was also not getting any support from Republican governors, who are trying to figure how they can roll back Medicaid expansion without leaving poor and older residents uninsured. “Their bill needs to be the starting point, not the ending one,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican, said in an interview. There is additional pressure on Republicans from groups like AARP, the lobby for older Americans that is fighting provisions of the House bill that could significantly increase health insurance premiums for older Americans. “The bill will dramatically increase health care costs for who purchase health care through an exchange,” said Joyce A. Rogers, a senior vice president of AARP, who denounced the plan as an “age tax. ” Hospitals, with billions of dollars at stake, also stepped up lobbying against the House bill. A coalition of health care providers and advocates, the Alliance for Healthcare Security, is running television advertisements describing the harm that it says could come from curtailing the expansion of Medicaid. The ads are running in Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Nevada and West Virginia and are meant to influence senators from those states. “Tell your senator, these Medicaid cuts hurt real people,” one advertisement says. Susan Van Meter, a senior vice president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, recently led a delegation of hospital executives in a lobbying trip to Capitol Hill. The proposed changes in Medicaid, she said, “are, by far, the most worrisome provisions of the bill, would be disastrous for patients and could create a fiscal crisis for New York. ” | 1 |
In her New Year’s speech, Chancellor Angela Merkel affirmed that her government will win the fight against terrorism with compassion and denied that her mass migration policy, which directly brought terrorists to Germany, was wrong. [advertisement | 1 |
HOT: "Norpoth's Model" Predicts Trump Presidency Trump Is Going To Be The Next President, According To This ModelBY: Eugene Daniels12:34 PM, Oct 26, 2016 LINK: [ link to www.theindychannel.com ] ARTICLE TEXT:Forget the polls. Donald Trump is going to be the next president ��������� at least according to one pretty accurate election model.This assertion isn't a surprise. In February, the model's creator, Helmut Norpoth, gave Trump a 97 percent chance of becoming No. 45 if he got the GOP nomination, though the model now gives Trump an 87 percent chance.Norpoth's model predicts general election results based on how the candidate does in his or her party's primary. Norpoth applied the model to past elections and says it worked for every presidential election except one since 1912."My feeling always has been, what I saw in the primaries, was that Donald Trump did very well," Norpoth said. "He beat a large field. According to my metric about how primaries are shaping up, he did better than Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race, so that gave him a leg up."There are a couple of issues with this. Usually, candidates shift their message after the primary to appeal to voters outside their base. Trump isn't doing that. His speeches haven't changed much, if at all, and he's not really bringing anyone new into his tent.Also, the model doesn't factor in anything that's actually happening in the country at the time. And factors like the economy, the incumbent president's approval numbers and the country's demographics all affect how people cast their vote in November.Outside of Norpoth's model, basically every other measurement out there shows Donald Trump's chance of winning 270 electoral votes is super slim. But, hey, this is 2016, and if we've learned anything, it's that there is nothing normal about this election cycle. Page 1 | 0 |
Home | World | Taxpayer Funded Peer Lord Kerr Calls Taxpayers ‘Stupid’ Taxpayer Funded Peer Lord Kerr Calls Taxpayers ‘Stupid’ By Nema Tocera 18/11/2016 11:12:15
LONDON – England – Treachery comes in many forms, and the insipid vile traitor, Lord Kerr, is a stain on everything that is British.
By calling the British people ‘stupid’ he in fact reveals himself to be an unintelligent pustule of treasonous puss seeping through the veins of the unelected House of Lords.
The Europhile peer has claimed Britain needs intelligent migrants to come to the UK because ‘native’ Britons are ‘so bloody stupid’.
Here is a man who has benefited highly from British taxpayers, who have serviced his chauffeur driven limousines, his first class flights, his mansions, and privately educated his children, calling the people ‘stupid’.
Maybe the taxpayer has been stupid to finance this maggot of a human, a contemptuous traitor willing to sell Britain off to the lowest bidder.
As for the intelligent migrants he speaks of, yes there are a few, but the majority are now selling copies of the Big Issue outside your local train station, or receiving vast amounts of state subsidies, burdening the NHS, and overcrowding the schools. Something Lord Maggot Kerr would not know about since he lives in his taxpayer funded mansions replete with duck houses and luxury.
What he does not understand is that the premise of Brexit is not to halt migration completely but to control it. We are not against controlled migration, we are against unfettered uncontrolled migration.
If there ever were a time to bury these cockroaches infesting the House of Lords, now would be a good time to begin. Share on : | 0 |
Suspects in the kidnapping and attack of a U. S. Border Patrol agent have been captured and an official statement from authorities reveals that the agent was hacked with a machete. Breitbart Texas first reported on the issue and first reported the identity of one of the suspects. In this case, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) first tried to keep the matter from the public and then downplayed aspects of the attack. [The first report on the June 9, 2017, kidnapping and attack, “Border Patrol Agent Found injured on Side of Roadway after Attack,” revealed that the issue had occurred and that CBP had not prioritized alerting the public or other Border Patrol agents. The second report, “Border Patrol Agent was Kidnapped, FBI Leads Investigation,” relied on Breitbart Texas sources who had provided the actual BOLO (Be On Lookout) that was sent to law enforcement officers and agents on the matter. The third report, “FBI’s Suspect in Kidnapping of Border Agent is Deported 3 Times Prior,” revealed all of the details of the BOLO, named the suspect, and source claims that the listed suspect had been deported three times prior to the attack. The recently released official statement directly confirms most of the information Breitbart sources provided. Other aspects, such as the immigration status of one of the suspects, is left unconfirmed by authorities though implied in the fact that one of the suspects’ residences is mentioned and the alleged illegal immigrant’s place of residence is omitted. The official statement from the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department is provided in full below: TWO MEN SUSPECTED IN ATTACK OF AGENT IN CUSTODY, Two men accused in the brutal attack of an U. S. Border Patrol agent on June 9 are in custody. On Tuesday, FBI agents in the El Paso Sector, with the assistance of Doña Ana County Sheriff’s detectives, arrested Sergio Ivan on an outstanding warrant of aggravated battery (great bodily harm) and aggravated assault. He is currently in custody at the El Paso County Detention Center awaiting extradition to Doña Ana County. Thursday, Fernando Puga of Las Cruces was taken into custody by Doña Ana County Sheriff’s detectives with the assistance of FBI agents. Puga is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder. He is currently being held at the Doña Ana County Detention Center on a $1 million cash bond. According to court documents filed by sheriff’s detectives, and Puga confronted an U. S. Border Patrol agent on Friday, June 9, as the agent was reportedly helping his mother at her tamale stand near the intersection of Stan Roberts and McCombs in northeast El Paso. The agent reportedly left in his vehicle with and Puga. At approximately 11:40 p. m. that same night, a sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to Paradise Lane, just off Shalem Colony Trail west of Las Cruces. Upon his arrival, the deputy reported finding a male subject who appeared to be suffering from multiple lacerations to his head and arms. The male subject was later identified as the agent who reportedly left with and Puga from northeast El Paso. The victim said the two men were armed with a gun and a machete. Detectives say the victim was struck repeatedly with the machete. The gun was later discovered to be a pellet gun. Sheriff’s detectives began to piece together details of the attack with an earlier call for service, one that happened just before 9 p. m. on the same night in the 100 block of Amparo Road in Chaparral. Deputies responded to that location on what was initially believed to be an unrelated domestic dispute. When they arrived, it was learned that had been at the house, demanding to see his . The woman’s sister told deputies threatened her with what appeared to be a handgun. The sister described the vehicle was in as an red Nissan — the same vehicle that sheriff’s deputies located on the side of McCombs Road, just south of the New state line. The vehicle matched the description provided by the victim on Amparo Road. Physical descriptions of the two suspects also matched between the victim on Amparo Road, the agent and his mother. The victim remains in critical condition at UMC. The incident is still an open investigation, in cooperation with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, and the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Brandon Darby is managing director and of Breitbart Texas. He the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart. com. Ildefonso Ortiz is an journalist with Breitbart Texas. He the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. (Disclosure: Brandon Darby has spoken publicly about previously working undercover with the FBI and has testified in trials on their behalf. He continues to communicate with a variety of U. S. and foreign law enforcement agencies in connection with efforts to report on and expose transnational criminal organizations and to bring a voice to the victims of such groups.) | 1 |
With a vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch fast approaching, the NRA is making clear they will campaign against Red State Democrats who vote against the nominee. [There are number of Senate Democrats from Red States who are up for in 2018. Gateway Pundit published a list of names that included Senators Tammy Baldwin ( ) Sherrod Brown ( ) Joe Donnelly ( ) Heidi Heitkamp ( ) Joe Manchin ( ) Clair McCaskill ( ) Bill Nelson ( ) and Jon Tester ( ) among others. Democrats in this list who vote against a Gorsuch confirmation will not only find themselves campaigning against a Republican challenger but against the NRA as well. The Washington Examiner quoted a letter from executive director Chris Cox, in which he wrote, “The NRA has every confidence that Judge Gorsuch will protect the Second Amendment rights of law abiding gun owners and will faithfully apply the Constitution in the cases that come before him. He has our strongest support for confirmation. ” Cox added, “Because of the importance of this issue to NRA members and gun owners throughout the country, votes on his confirmation will be considered in future candidate evaluations and we will notify our members accordingly. ” The New York Times shows that Senators Baldwin, Brown, Donnelly, Heitkamp, McCaskill, Nelson, and Tester already voted against the confirmation of Amendment Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Those votes, plus any votes against Gorsuch, could only be expected to unleash the NRA’s unfettered campaigning power against the Red State Democrats. It is also interesting to note that President Trump won all eight states represented above: Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Florida, Montana, and West Virginia. This alone puts added pressure on the Senators, should they vote against the nominee Trump put forward to save the Second Amendment from the machinations of the left. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 1 |
Midway through a lackluster freshman year at the University of San Diego, I called my parents and told them I planned to leave school after the spring semester. They took the news pretty well considering they had just shelled out more than $50, 000 in tuition and living expenses at one of the ritziest private universities in the country, a university where the gym bears the name of the dietitian Jenny Craig and some dorms feature an ocean view. Here, you could easily graduate unaware that 1 in 10 students at surrounding California State universities is estimated to be homeless. I listened to my father’s objections as I walked to the west edge of campus, passing the university’s big, whitewashed buildings, its meditation garden and its infinity pool, before I reached a spot where I could see San Diego’s entire Mission Bay and, beyond that, the Pacific. “If you leave now,” my father said, “you’ll never go back. ” He asked me to get permission from the school so I could return after a year, and I agreed. This made my departure a gap year — something I hadn’t considered up to that point. A lot of other Americans hadn’t either, until the White House announced that President Obama’s oldest daughter, Malia, would take one before attending Harvard next fall. In coverage of Malia’s decision, conservative and liberal media alike called out the perceived elitism of gap years: “Malia Obama Taking a Gap Year Is the Ultimate Sign of Luxury” read the The New York Post headline. “Malia Obama’s ‘Gap Year’ Is Part of a Growing (and Expensive) Trend,” said The New York Times. Slate posed the question “Gap Years for Everyone?” — speculating that “a student who spends a year working to save up money would probably just call the experience ‘life. ’’u2009” Commenters on Twitter further demonstrated negativity: The idea that gap years are inherently elitist may be due to the potentially high cost of travel and of independent programs, which offer a structured experience — typically of adventure, service and more or less education — that can cost upward of $20, 000. But that criticism cuts against the realities most students already face — that is, average tuition and fees of $8, 940, or $28, 308 at private colleges, according to the College Board. When factoring in room, board and other expenses, this would mean spending about $100, 000 over five years at public colleges and more than double that at private ones. After five years, only 53 percent of students at public colleges have graduated. The remaining students will have racked up absurdly high expenses on the way to earning, or not earning, a degree. For them, regardless of what background they come from, time away from campus seems prudent. I certainly wasn’t alone in failing to think carefully before committing to college. I sometimes took three trips a day to the beach with other students. By second semester, most of my friends were less concerned with final exams than with finding the coolest house the fewest steps from the beach to live in the following year. And I would have been too, if I had stayed. I was already failing at least one class. And although my grades were not poor enough to be asked to leave school, I had lost the motivation to do anything but fulfill the minimum course requirements. I felt guilty for wasting so much money and I couldn’t see doing the same thing for three more years. Although I appreciated my parents’ support, I also recognized the extent to which it had become detrimental. Their attempts to eliminate any possibility of real failure had guaranteed its own kind of failure. Financial dependence had enabled me to make a major life decision, the decision to go to college, without taking personal ownership of it. I had managed to avoid thinking about why a degree mattered to me or how I hoped it would enrich my life. When applying to colleges, I had put down whatever fluff my high school counselors suggested for my admissions essays and was accepted by a few schools whose campus scenery had attracted me far more than the course offerings. A gap year presented itself as a chance to claim the independence that formalized education had not encouraged. It was an opportunity to discover a sense of purpose outside of school, to prompt some thinking on those questions before graduating. Without classes and the path to a degree as a crutch that gave structure to my days, I’d be forced to create a structure of my own. But my father wasn’t convinced that a gap year was the right decision. He let me know that if I left school, I wouldn’t receive any financial support. At the time, I viewed this as a threat. Now I see it as a first step toward allowing me the freedom I needed. I knew this wasn’t an easy concession for him. The dependence that many parents encourage — throughout college and even after their children leave home — is now commonplace. In her book “Parenting to a Degree,” the sociologist Laura T. Hamilton documents cases in which a parent comes to the rescue with homework help or buys a daughter clothes so she fits in better with her sorority sisters. What’s often lost in these stories — and the predictable rants on the negative effects of helicopter parenting — is the question of what responsibility children have, as they get older, to put an end to patterns of dependency. It was difficult making a clean break from those patterns to figure out what I wanted to do for the unstructured year ahead. Most of the information I found on gap years was written for parents, by parents. It seemed to miss the point, at least the point as I saw it: to loosen the parental grip so that students can develop an educational framework of their own. While working summer jobs to save money, I found an internship at Surfer magazine in Orange County and reported for duty in late August. I slept in my car the first two nights and rinsed off in the ocean before work until I found an affordable place to rent, and because the internship was unpaid, a job at a store where I could work evenings. As I quickly learned, a food store that defines itself by what it doesn’t have tends to attract a clientele. I took turns providing customers with my and stocking shelves, which I did with a recent college graduate who could not find employment that put his degree to good use and with a woman who claimed to hate the taste of water so much that she drank only juice. This wasn’t the kind of job I wanted to hold for the rest of my working days. Showing up at the store after a day at Surfer, where the editors had some level of engagement with the tasks at hand, prompted career reflection like never before. It was refreshing, after a school year filled with so much apathy, to meet people who seemed to actually care about their work. At the same time, entering the work force made the burden of assuming debt — and my own privileged ability to attend college free of loans — visible in ways that continuing on in school would have never allowed. I came to realize what it meant to take a college education for granted. Aside from opportunities for unpaid internships, I found few options for learning experiences during my gap year. According to the nonprofit American Gap Association, about 1 percent of students in the United States take gap years. By contrast, in Australia and certain European countries, gap years are encouraged as part of the educational process 17 percent of students in the United Kingdom participate in a gap year, according to one study by its department of education. More colleges in the United States are encouraging applicants to consider a “bridge” year before enrolling, and many independent programs and some campuses — like Florida State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Princeton and Tufts — even offer fellowships and financial aid. Ethan Knight, the executive director at the American Gap Association, still sees the need for greater support to encourage a more diverse set of students to participate. “You can get access to Pell funding to go to beauty school,” he said. “There’s certainly as much learning to be had in a gap year as there is in beauty school. So why shouldn’t students be able to earn access to Pell and other government grants for certain gap year experiences?” Mr. Knight pointed to opportunities that could be valuable, such as traveling abroad to learn languages that the State Department views as critical. But federal grants are contingent on receiving college credit, making them unavailable to anyone taking a year off school. In its own way, my limited options became a rewarding educational challenge. In the winter, I moved to Puerto Rico, scrubbed dishes in a locally owned hotel restaurant for $5 an hour, found a used car for $450, and shared a for $400 a month. I ate leftovers off dirty dishes in the restaurant. I cleaned the deep fryers, the garbage bins and the vomit left in the bathrooms by East Coast vacationers. All the other employees at the restaurant spoke in Spanish, and I was perceived as dumb for not speaking fluently. I’d seen the same thing happen at home to whose first language was not English, although it had never fully registered until our roles were reversed. Experiencing these humiliations was a lot easier knowing I had the freedom to leave at any time. Still, it poked holes in my comfort with, and blindness to, some of the inequalities I had grown up with, making them harder to ignore when I left the restaurant behind. And I did leave the restaurant behind, as soon as I had saved enough money to travel for a few months. I bought a plane ticket to Indonesia, rented a motorbike there, and traveled island to island by ferry. The trip was not without its mishaps. To name a few: I was bitten by a monkey got in a motorbike accident lost a good amount of skin on my hands, chest, back, legs and feet in numerous brushes with coral while surfing got a raging ear infection surfing too close to a polluted river mouth after it rained. I did not want my parents to worry, and so I took care to avoid mentioning these hiccups in sporadic calls and emails home from Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Java and Sumatra. What I did mention to my parents, much to their satisfaction, was that I actually looked forward to returning to college in the fall. Time free from the obligations of schoolwork had enabled me to realize my passion for writing, and to apply this to an English major, where I would discover the most formative classes and professors of my education. With this newfound interest I experienced many of the benefits that gap years are said to provide: Studies show that students who take time off before graduating increase their averages, drink less when in college, and go on to find more fulfilling career paths. It also helped me graduate in only two and a half more years — one semester behind where I should have if I’d stayed in school. After graduating, too, I found satisfying work (for a few years, editing a surf magazine). Looking back, though, it would be hard to identify anything from that year as a formula for success. But that was exactly the point. I stocked shelves, scrubbed dishes, did an unpaid internship and traveled. My performance in school did improve afterward, but if I’d thought about chasing those results, or recommended those experiences to others, there’s just no way the same benefits would follow. While there’s certainly a place for making those kinds of calculations, a gap year was about removing those expectations, at least temporarily. It was a time when education ceased to be an act of dependence, an act of fulfilling my parents’ wishes. Only then could the act of graduating from college become a move toward independence. Only then could I make space for education to have value of its own. | 1 |
Home / News / Yikes! Catholic Church announces a major warning against Hillary Yikes! Catholic Church announces a major warning against Hillary Heisenberg 5 mins ago News Comments Off on Yikes! Catholic Church announces a major warning against Hillary
A San Diego Catholic Church claims Hillary is doing the devils work. Reuters reported: A Roman Catholic church in San Diego told its parishioners the devil works through politicians like Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and warned that voting for Democrats is a “mortal sin,” according to local media and the church’s website. The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Old Town made the statements in its weekly leaflet to churchgoers, a copy of which remains on the church’s website. The letter railed against issues like abortion and constraints on tax-exempt organizations from certain political activity, likening them to slavery. “Satan has deceived many Christians to convert to worldly values from Christian ones,” the Oct. 30 bulletin reads. “The devil does this through the tactics outlined by Saul Alinsky with the outcome as Hillary Clinton has stated, ‘And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed,’ to draw us away from God’s teachings.” | 0 |
First ever Hindu was elected to the US House of Representatives. She will take the oath of office over the Bhagavad Gita.
During election, Hawaii elected Japan-born Mazie Hirono to be the first ever Asian-American woman elected to the Senate. Hawaii also elected Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as the first ever practicing Hindu to the US House of Representatives. Because of this, Fox News have declare Hawaii a “disaster zone”.
Gabbard is the daughter of two conservative Hawaii politicians. She first ran, and was elected into office at the age of 21. After her first term, she served on a 12 month tour of duty with Hawaii’s National Guard, and then became the first woman in history of the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy to be designated a “distinguished honor graduate”.
She was then deployed to Baghdad as a medical operations specialist in 2004, and she was deployed to Kuwait in 2008.
History has proven that not everyone is comfortable with a Hindu elect. When Hindu statesman Rajan Zed was asked by the Senate to open with a prayer in 2007, the American Family Association called the prayer “gross idolatry” and urged people to protest. Three protesters interrupted the prayer with shouts from the gallery.
When she is sworn this January, Gabbard will take her oath of office over the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text for Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma.
Gabbard hopes to assist the US in fostering a better relationship with India, the world’s largest democracy with a growing economic and nuclear power. She also hopes to work on veteran’s affairs, and environmental issues.
Other non-Christian people in Congress include Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, who took his oath of office over the Qu-ran.
Ariana Marisol is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science. Follow her adventures on Instagram. | 0 |
Hillary Clinton has lived most of her life in the public eye — and in front of cameras. Staff photographers for The New York Times have documented her career since her husband, then the governor of Arkansas, ran for president in 1992. They covered her during her sometimes turbulent tenure as first lady and over the course of her own political career. Four of those photographers reflect on their experience covering Mrs. Clinton and their impressions of the 2016 presidential election. Covering a campaign is like taking a photograph through a window. The challenge is to see beyond the reflected image — what the campaign is trying to project — and to capture what is really there. I was with Mrs. Clinton on and off during the 2016 campaign and her first presidential run. Her image has always been carefully managed, and our access to activity is rare, making it a challenge to capture the candidate in more unguarded moments. I see no point in showing what anyone can see from the audience or on television. For me, a successful campaign photo allows you to step back and give a fuller sense of the scene. I have taken tens of thousands of pictures of Mrs. Clinton and covered her first presidential run. This campaign feels very different from the 2008 race, and I have wanted to make sure our images reflect that. This time around, Mrs. Clinton has shown more confidence as a candidate and seems more energized on the trail. The crowds at her events are far more diverse and much younger than those during her last run — they look a lot like the ones Barack Obama had in November 2008. Many of the best photos I take of Mrs. Clinton are at the moment she arrives onstage or when she is on the rope line talking to voters. Mrs. Clinton was the in this race, just as she was in the 2008 campaign. But she seems to have enjoyed this one more. There are a couple of moments that have stuck with me as I covered Mrs. Clinton over the course of her political career. At the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion during the 1992 transition, Mrs. Clinton appeared at a news conference with a group of her husband’s senior advisers. It was a quiet signal that she would wield significant power in his administration, and a hint of her political ambitions. In October 2015, I was at the Dinner, an annual Democratic in Des Moines, where I watched as Mrs. Clinton’s primary opponents took sharp jabs at her for her policy positions and her ties to big banks. But as Mrs. Clinton entered the room, the mood turned from political gathering to rock concert as ecstatic supporters reached across bicycle gates, trying to touch her. Mrs. Clinton was a superstar who was expected to cruise to the nomination and enjoy clear advantages in the general election. But very few people — possibly including Mrs. Clinton herself — had an inkling that she was about to take part in the most searing presidential campaign in modern history. I have been photographing Mrs. Clinton since the 1992 presidential campaign, and have spent so much time watching her that I can sometimes predict her gestures and actions at campaign events. While Mrs. Clinton is often described as guarded and hyperaware of how she is perceived, she has frequently projected a sense of ease with who she is during this campaign. She refers to her age unapologetically, often talking about being a grandmother, and seems more comfortable interacting with voters on the trail, at times appearing to take genuine delight in it. Though she rarely deviates from her script, I am always looking for those real and telling moments that show her as a private person rather than just a public figure — though in Mrs. Clinton’s case, those two roles are deeply intertwined. | 1 |
A trades union representing American construction workers says a plan to expand the foreign guest worker visa is “directly counter” to President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” agenda. [The budget, promoted by House Speaker Paul Ryan, will allow Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to expand the number of foreign workers who come to the U. S. for jobs by at least 20, 000. The visa brings foreign nationals to the U. S. for nonagricultural jobs. The visa impacts and poor Americans most, as jobs in the hotel industry, theme parks, retail, and restaurants can insource jobs to foreign workers under the program. visa workers filled more than half a million jobs in the U. S. in the past five years. The North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) is denouncing the plan, saying it will further undercut American workers and the security of their jobs. “This maneuver runs directly counter to President’s Trump’s recent executive actions to ‘buy American and hire American,’ and which were specifically crafted to instruct the Departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security, and State to take prompt action to crack down on fraud and abuse in our immigration system in order to protect workers in the United States and their economic conditions,” NABTU officials said in a statement. “The visa was conceived as a guest worker program that is meant to be used by employers to fill seasonal and temporary jobs, but which has now been all too often used by unscrupulous employers in the construction industry as a means to exploit guest workers and drive down community wage and benefit standards,” the organization continued. “The many horrific abuses within the program have long been documented, and NABTU has repeatedly sought reforms to address the shortcomings in the law that have enabled these abuses to continue unabated. ” NABTU argues that the language in the omnibus spending bill, passed by the House, does not “address” or “reform” the problems within the visa system, saying “it doubles down on bad policy which will have the effect of further jeopardizing the jobs, wages and benefits of American construction workers, while ensuring that guest workers remain vulnerable to abuse. ” The expansion slipped into the spending bill came as a treat to the big business and open borders lobbies, who through the Workforce Coalition organization, successfully lobbied Congress to expand the number of foreign workers who can enter the U. S. every year, as Breitbart Texas reported. Breitbart Texas reported how American wages are struggled to increase in professions covered by the visa. For instance, for landscaping and jobs given to foreign workers, wages decreased by 3. 4 percent between 2004 and 2014. For jobs in the amusement and recreation industry, which also employs a multitude of foreign workers, wages between 2004 and 2014 fell by 1. 3 percent. Overall, in the top 15 industries that employ foreign workers, wages increased in the last decade by 1. 8 percent. John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 1 |
A federal appeals court said Friday that Washington State has the authority to hear a trademark lawsuit by Trader Joe’s against a Canadian store called Pirate Joe’s that resold the grocery chain’s products. The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a decision by a district court to dismiss the trademark case against Pirate Joe’s and its owner, Michael Hallatt. The district court had said that the violations occurred in Canada, where Trader Joe’s has no stores, and that the company failed to prove that Pirate Joe’s affected business in the United States. In its ruling, the appeals courts said the lawsuit could proceed because Mr. Hallatt’s actions — setting up a facsimile storefront in Vancouver, British Columbia, with knockoff branding and online merchandising — could devalue the trademark. The case will return to a federal district court in Washington State. “We’re here to see it through, and that means doing this for the people who want this stuff,” Nathan Alexander, Mr. Hallatt’s lawyer, told The Associated Press. The decision reopens a case that began in October 2011 when workers at a Trader Joe’s in Bellingham, Wash. noticed Mr. Hallatt buying products in excess. He often returned several times every week. Mr. Hallatt acknowledged he was buying the products to distribute them in Canada through his store, then called Transilvania Trading, according to court documents. He later changed the name to Pirate Joe’s. Sometimes donning disguises to avoid detection, Mr. Hallatt conducted shopping runs and occasionally hired other people to buy goods on his behalf. An advertisement Mr. Hallat placed on Craigslist called for a “ for undercover work” with a “ international grocery smuggling operation. ” Court documents said Mr. Hallatt, who holds dual citizenship, had spent more than $350, 000 on goods from Trader Joe’s, which he resold in Canada at a markup. In 2013, the company filed a lawsuit in Washington against Mr. Hallatt for trademark infringement, unfair competition, false designation of origin and false advertising. It added that Pirate Joe’s was not an approved reseller. Responding to the lawsuit, Mr. Hallat said he never claimed an affiliation with the American company. | 1 |
It has been a long time coming — eight years, in fact — but the economic recovery is finally showing up in the average American worker’s paycheck in a big way. There have been plenty of winners in the recovery, which began in : companies, homeowners, investors and, especially, households at the apex of the economic pyramid. But the paucity of gains in pay has stoked anxiety and frustration for many others, a factor in the wave of discontent that Donald J. Trump rode to victory in November. But even as Mr. Trump prepares to succeed President Obama in two weeks, the Labor Department reported on Friday that average hourly earnings rose by 2. 9 percent last year, the best annual performance since the recovery began. And many economists expect the trend to gain momentum this year, as a tighter labor market forces employers to pay more to hire and retain workers. “This is a turning point for the overall economy,” said Diane Swonk, a veteran independent economist in Chicago. While wage growth was robust last year, government data for December showed a more tepid increase in employment, with 156, 000 jobs added during the month, and a slight uptick in the unemployment rate to 4. 7 percent. Until recently, a rise in salaries one month would peter out the next, but the upward trajectory in 2016 reflects wage gains even for Americans at the low end of the pay scale, Ms. Swonk said. Leisure and hospitality workers, for example, saw hourly earnings jump 4. 4 percent from a year earlier, equal to the increase enjoyed by employees in the surging technology sector. To be sure, a number of the economic problems cited by Mr. Trump during the campaign remain: millions of former workers not even looking for jobs, ebbing factory positions and fewer opportunities for the 55 percent of Americans without college degrees or other school credentials. “Strong economic growth doesn’t really matter if it’s not widely distributed,” Ms. Swonk said. “You can have a better economy but still not good enough for people who aren’t participating at all. ” A more comprehensive government barometer of unemployment, which includes workers forced to take jobs because positions were not available, stood at 9. 2 percent in December, a much higher level than at this point in past recoveries. But rising wages should counter the economic undertow, especially if the gains remain . And while a 2. 9 percent increase may not sound like much, it goes much further because inflation is about 1. 7 percent. Economists expect wages to rise by up to 3. 5 percent in 2017 — still below the gains many workers saw in the recovery of the and in the boom of the late 1990s. Although not reflected in the December figures, many workers are getting raises this year because of state increases in the local minimum wage. Some of the increases were substantial, with Arizona, Maine and Washington each raising the floor by $1. 50 or more an hour. Even in California, where, at 50 cents an hour, the wage gain is not as steep, one in 10 workers has gotten a raise. And gains can have a spillover effect, pushing up pay for workers just above the bottom salary tier. For all his criticism during the campaign of Mr. Obama’s economic stewardship, Mr. Trump will inherit an economy that is fundamentally solid. Consumer sentiment, corporate profits and the stock market are all at or near multiyear highs. On Friday, Wall Street embraced the labor market figures, lifting the Dow Jones industrial average close to 20, 000 and a new nominal record. Investors and traders are watching the jobs data closely for clues about when the Federal Reserve Board may next raise interest rates. Last month, the Fed increased interest rates for only the second time in a decade, and policy makers signaled that three more increases could come this year. The wage gains are among the reasons the Fed is likely to stick to that plan, Ms. Swonk, the Chicago economist, said. Monthly job creation last year was well below the 236, 000 average for hiring in 2014 and 2015. But with the economy close to what Fed policy makers and other experts consider full employment, employers are increasing wages, to retain workers and to attract new ones. While the minimum wage increases provide a floor when it comes to pay, the ceiling continues to rise in fields like financial services, sales and technology, said Tom Gimbel, chief executive of LaSalle Network, a Chicago staffing company. “Across the board, I see more aggressive salaries being offered by corporations than at any time in the last 10 years,” Mr. Gimbel said. Seasoned sales representatives are drawing base salaries of $150, 000 a year, compared with $125, 000 two years ago, according to Mr. Gimbel. software developers who once started at around $50, 000 a year can now command $70, 000. Other executives in the Midwest also report upward pressure on wages, including in grittier settings than the fields where engineers and financial professionals cluster. At Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, which has 46 restaurants in the Chicago area and one in Phoenix, pay in hourly positions like server, cook and dishwasher is now about $11. 50 an hour, compared with $10 an hour three years ago. Mark Agnew, the chain’s president, said most of the increase was a result of the steady rise in Chicago’s minimum wage, which has gone from $8. 25 in 2014 to $10. 50 now. It is set to hit $13 by summer 2019. “We want to stay ahead of the minimum wage because we want to attract the best talent,” Mr. Agnew said. A substantial portion of the chain’s 3, 000 workers have been with the company for more than 10 years, a rarity in the restaurant industry that is another benefit of the slightly higher wages. Economists and politicians have long debated whether raising the minimum wage ultimately hurts workers as companies cut positions or leave them unfilled in the face of rising labor costs. So far, that has not been the case at Lou Malnati’s, Mr. Agnew said. The chain has opened about a dozen new locations in the past three years, adding about 600 workers to its payroll over all. “It’s very tricky, and I know the minimum wage may erode job creation in some industries,” he said. “But in my own company, it hasn’t hurt hiring. ” | 1 |
Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the .) Please note: We will pause for Presidents’ Day and be back on Tuesday. For a couple of weeks each February, Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall puts on a show when the setting sun appears to transform its ribbon of water down the face of El Capitan into glowing lava. That’s if conditions cooperate. The phenomenon only works when the sun is lined up just so, the skies are clear and the mountains are snowy enough to fuel the waterfall. A bit of mist whipped up by the wind helps to get the full effect. Pamela Marcelino, a Postal Service worker in San Francisco, made the drive to Yosemite last Saturday to capture the firefall. More than 150 other photographers were there, cameras poised, she said. “And you just wait for that moment, holding your breath,” Ms. Marcelino, 41, said. Then, the glow fades in gradually, peaks and fades out in a matter of roughly 10 minutes. And it’s over. Since last weekend, photographers have been posting dozens of their images to Instagram. Here are a handful that they shared with us: (Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.) • Rain will continue today, with central and southern parts of the state facing heavy rain, flash floods and potential mudslides in some neighborhoods. [AccuWeather] • “It’s not just Oroville”: Record precipitation this winter is straining water control systems statewide, with the most areas lying in the Central Valley. [Los Angeles Times] • An atmospheric river is set to hit Northern California on Monday, and experts say the heaviest rain may fall “right into the Oroville area. ” [The Mercury News] • Yesterday’s “Day Without Immigrants” saw participation statewide, and some school districts had up to triple the rate of absences in certain schools. [The Orange County Register] • Our Culture department is divided over “La La Land. ” Some of us love it. Others hate it. [The New York Times] • All of BART’s 669 railcars will have working security cameras by July 1, officials have promised. [The San Francisco Chronicle] • In the past six years, Big Oil has spent $122 million to shape regulation and legislation in California. [The Nation] • The actor Tom Lenk recreates fashion looks spotted on the red carpet with potato chip bags and other trash. [The New York Times] • For a nation of immigrants, the United States has worked hard to keep foreigners out, writes Eduardo Porter. [The New York Times] • Radio documentary: The bullet train’s vexed crawl up California. [KALW] • Later this month ABC will air an about gay rights called “When We Rise,” which was written by Dustin Lance Black and focuses largely on San Francisco. [The New York Times] This May marks 80 years since the Golden Gate Bridge opened, but today is a darker anniversary: Eighty years ago, 10 laborers fell from the bridge to their deaths, breaking what Life magazine called a “historic record” of safety at a construction site. Up until that day, just one worker had died — remarkable for a time when the rule of thumb in construction was to assume one death for every $1 million spent. The bridge cost $35 million, or about $590 million in today’s dollars. The bridge’s nearly perfect record was due to the obsession with safety protocols from its chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, along with an innovation he brought that was in 1930s construction: a safety net to catch falling workers. Nineteen workers fell to the net while the bridge was being built, forming what they called the “Half Way to Hell Club. ” But on Feb. 17, scaffolding on the side of the bridge fell and ripped through the net, taking the 10 laborers with it. A plaque near the bridge honors the men who died. — Tim Herrera Want to submit a photo for possible publication? You can do it here. California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 1 |
A new scientific theory claims our universe was born from an Event Horizon event as part of a second dimension in an enormous black hole gobbling up other universes in the fourth dimension.
Via YourNewsWire
At the very beginning of time, around 13.8 billion years ago, there was a hot dense energetic point where the laws of physics did not apply – something scientists today refer to as a ‘singularity’. The only other place where a singularity occurs in the Universe and all the known laws of physics are temporarily abandoned is at the event horizon of a black hole – which scientists cannot explain.
Scroll Down For Video Below What is odd about black holes is that the even horizon is two-dimensional in an otherwise completely three-dimensional universe. This means that there is something that we are unable to perceive and the theory, which was first suggested in 2014 and is now under serious scrutinisation, claims that our Universe is the result of a singularity of a huge black hole.
In simpler terms, there is a possibility that our three-dimensional Universe is surrounding the event horizon of a four-dimensional Universe. A 2014 study from the Perimeter Institute and University of Waterloo stated: “In this scenario, our Universe burst into being when a star in a four-dimensional universe collapsed into a black hole.
Re-visiting the theory recently, Ethan Siegel, a professor of physics and astronomy at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, explained how a black hole could have formed in another universe which led matter to “fall” into our Universe.
Dr Siegel wrote for Forbes: “As the black hole first formed, from a star’s core imploding and collapsing, the event horizon first came to be, then rapidly expanded and continued to grow in area as more and more matter continued to fall in.
“If you were to put a coordinate grid down on this two-dimensional wrapping, you would find that it originated where the gridlines were very close together, then expanded rapidly as the black hole formed, and then expanded more and more slowly as matter fell in at a much lower rate.
“This matches, at least conceptually, what we observe for the expansion rate of our three-dimensional Universe.”
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JERUSALEM — A Palestinian driver plowed a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers as they were getting off a bus in Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon, killing four and injuring 17 others, according to the police and witnesses. The police called the episode an act of terrorism. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said the attacker had been shot, and the police released images showing the truck’s windshield riddled with bullet holes. The dead included three female soldiers and one male soldier, the Israeli military confirmed. Several people were hospitalized, some with critical injuries. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene of the attack and said the perpetrator was “by all indications a supporter of the Islamic State. ” “This is part of the same pattern inspired by Islamic State, by ISIS, that we saw first in France, then in Germany and now in Jerusalem. This is part of the same ongoing battle against this global scourge of the new terrorism,” he added. Mr. Netanyahu has often made the comparison between local attacks against Israelis and those in the rest of the world, though the attacks in Israel are more broadly viewed as being more connected to the conflict. While the Israeli security services have described a few Palestinian attackers as having been inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State, no direct links have been established between them and the organization. The attack on Sunday occurred on the Armon Hanatziv Promenade, a popular tourist spot between East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem that offers sweeping views of the Old City. The four soldiers killed were Erez Orbach, 20, from Alon Shvut, in the West Bank Yael Yekutiel, 20, from Givatayim, near Tel Aviv Shir Hajaja, 22, from Maale Adumim in the West Bank and Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa. The violence ended several months of relative calm in the contested city, after a period of frequent stabbings, shootings and car attacks. It also underlined the volatility of the situation at a time when Donald J. Trump has promised to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, a potentially explosive step that American administrations have avoided for decades. Palestinian officials say it would destroy the chances of any peace process by prejudging the outcome, and some have said it would constitute a declaration of war against Palestinians. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said on Friday that the Palestinians would view any such change in the status quo in Jerusalem as the crossing of a red line. Mosque preachers addressed the proposed embassy move in their sermons during Friday prayers, apparently on the instruction of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians demand East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israel captured the area from Jordan in the 1967 war and claims sovereignty there. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that holds sway in Gaza, praised Sunday’s attack, without taking responsibility for it. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas official, described it as a “courageous and heroic operation. ” In Gaza City, people were handing out sweets to in celebration. Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, condemned the attack in a statement. “It is reprehensible that some choose to glorify such acts, which undermine the possibility of a peaceful future for both Palestinians and Israelis,” he said. “There is nothing heroic in such actions. ” The Palestinian official news agency, WAFA, identified the driver of the truck as Fadi Ahmad 28, a resident of the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber in East Jerusalem. Ribhi Ewiysat, a resident of the neighborhood, said that a large number of Israeli security forces had entered the area and were at the attacker’s house. Chaim Newman, a tour guide who was accompanying the group of soldiers at the scene, told Israel Radio, “The soldiers got off the bus, and we were getting organized when suddenly the truck came with great speed and rammed into the group. ” “Civilians and soldiers began shooting, and this prevented a worse tragedy,” he added. “He rammed them a number of times, going into reverse and forward in order to hurt more people. ” Chen Lendi Sharon, a paramedic from the Magen David Adom ambulance service, said there was “chaos on the scene” when she arrived. “I saw a truck that rammed youngsters getting off the bus next to the Armon Hanatziv observation point. ” Ms. Lendi Sharon said that at least 10 people were trapped under the bus or were lying on the grass by the road. The attack occurred around 1:30 p. m. Dozens of soldiers were getting off buses at the site as part of a routine educational tour of Jerusalem. Aged 18 to 21, they were cadets from an officers’ course, Israel Radio reported. About two hours after the attack, the truck, a white flatbed with a crane on the back, remained at the scene and an ambulance was still removing bodies. Dovy Meyer, a spokesman for the United Hatzalah ambulance service who was at the scene, said that around 100 soldiers had been milling about when the attack occurred. A spate of deadly stabbings, shootings and car attacks began in October 2015 and quickly spread from Jerusalem and the West Bank to cities around Israel. More than 30 Israelis and two American visitors were among those killed in the attacks. More than 240 Palestinians have been killed during that period, many of them while carrying out or intending to carry out attacks, according to Israeli officials. Several attackers have come from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood. Mr. Netanyahu said the neighborhood had been “encircled” by security forces on Sunday. | 1 |
Martha Stewart took a photo op between portraits of President Trump and Snoop Dogg Saturday at an art fair where she appeared to flip the bird at the president while flashing a peace sign towards the rapper. [Someone posted the photo of Stewart appearing to give Trump the middle finger at the Frieze Art Fair taking place at Randall’s Island Park in New York City on Twitter, where it went viral before the account responsible for posting the photo was set to private, the Hill reported. “Was taking a pic of Trump and Snoop Dogg at Frieze [Art Fair] and Martha Stewart walks up like this #america,” user Newlin Tillotson wrote on Twitter, according to E! News. Stewart later posted a more politically correct version of the photo to her Instagram account, where she flashed peace signs towards both men while promoting the VH1 cooking show Martha Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party that she stars in alongside Snoop and the 2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards that will air Sunday. E! News reports that an executive at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia took both photos, calling the second photo more “politically correct” and “so much less interesting. ” Stewart publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton when she ran for president against Trump and had feuded with Trump in the past. The feud was mostly over Stewart’s 2006 spinoff of Trump’s The Apprentice, which got canceled after one season. The cooking show star did, however, appear to make up with Trump in 2014 at a relaunch party for the New York Observer and congratulated Trump and his family on the election win. “I sent my congratulations to the Trump family, and I think they have an opportunity — let’s see how they do with it. I’m excited,” Stewart told Chicago Inc. | 1 |
A Florida woman recorded herself performing oral sex in a courthouse right before she appeared in front of a judge for charges. [The woman performed the sexual acts during business hours in an empty hallway at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville and posted the video to Twitter with the caption, “Just found a way to get out of trouble,” Action News in Jacksonville reported. The woman was identified by the Daily Mail as Brittany Jones, who performed the sex act on a man sitting on a bench. Officials say the man in the act, which was caught on courthouse surveillance cameras, may work as a security guard there. Jones isn’t facing any charges in the incident, but it is being investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Integrity Unit. Jones has since deleted the video on social media. Jones was in court for an arraignment hearing related to a Jan. 19 arrest for a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, the Florida reported. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to time served, which totaled two days in jail. | 1 |
“Vicuña,” the new play that opened Sunday at Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Calif., portrays a Donald Trump-like candidate in an “Emperor’s New Clothes” tale. The satire about a real estate tycoon and reality TV star turned presidential candidate could be perceived as a hatchet job. However, it offers an entertaining topical comedy on the surface, with glimpses into the climate of fear and xenophobia that has spread across America.
The improbable, uncontrollable Republican candidate here, Kurt Seaman (a name that results in sophomoric jokes that take away from the effort), bears an obvious resemblance to Trump. The mogul “wants to add the White House to his list of properties,” as one character notes. The Trumpisms include the well- respected daughter (called Srilanka here), ex-wives with names that evoke Trump’s, negative attitudes toward immigrants and even an uncomfortable feeling in his party that he will hurt them on Election Day.
“Vicuña” clearly evolved with the election since the Jon Robin Baitz play (his fourth world premiere for the Center Theatre Group) was drafted earlier this year. It takes place as preparations are under way for the third debate between Seaman (played by Harry Groener) and his unseen female opponent, who clearly did better in the first two debates.
Directed by Robert Egan, most of the play’s action takes place in a posh tailor’s atelier, where the character Anselm Kassar (played by Brian George), an Iranian Jewish immigrant, designs garments for presidents and world leaders that create the illusion of power and confidence. The character is based on an actual Washington, D.C., tailor named Georges de Paris, a Greek immigrant who crafted suits for presidents for decades.
Seaman decides that for his last debate he needs a magical, powerful suit made out of the finest vicuña (hence the name) for him by the great presidential tailor. “Clothing conveys credibility,” is the premise. He believes the polls are lying: “People are afraid to admit they are on my side.” However, just in case, this emperor wants new clothes.
The tailor decides, ignoring his personal feelings, to make a suit for a candidate that he finds repellent and make him more. He cannot resist the reflected glory of his powerful suits on the wannabe or truly powerful.
Seaman is at first delighted to meet the tailor’s apprentice, Amir Masoud (played by Ramiz Monsef), who is the son of immigrants. He tells him “Apprenticeship is good. It’s my thing.” But the candidate’s world view collides profoundly with this young Muslim man’s concepts of justice and America. The candidate actually comments that if people cannot make it in their own country and flee, “what kind of people are we letting in?”
Amir serves as the play’s conscience and challenges the candidate (and his daughter). He points out, “A suit can’t stand in for actual goodness and vision.” Amir’s character (like others in the play) is uneven and his actions do not always convey his feelings (like taking advantage of his prep school and Harvard University scholarships before flaunting his Marxist leanings.)
Srilanka (played by Samantha Sloyan) is tired defending her dad against his inappropriate comments. Initially, she tells Amir, “His message is lost when he is not ‘disciplined.’” The dutiful daughter even boasts that “when he’s elected he will be far more human than he’s being painted.” However, once he speaks positively about woman at her alma mater and then does a disparaging sexist interview, she can no longer ignore his inappropriate comments.
The Republican party leadership cannot ignore his “pitchfork campaign” and questionable opinions either. They offer Seaman billions to throw the debate and not become president. The real estate tycoon is now engaged in negotiations “to buy and sell the presidency.”
The final scene is the debate, with the candidate and his exquisite vicuña suit. The final act of the real election is yet to be played. But this play’s final act is veers into darker territory and an “emperor has no clothes” type moment.
The Vicuña cast is excellent. Groener avoids the obvious parody, but conveys the appropriate pomposity. Sloyan does a great job displaying early confidence crumbling to vulnerability of Srilanka’s campaign life. However, the key character is Monsef’s Amir, and the actor is up to the task of carrying the audience on his journey challenging the candidate’s beliefs and actions.
“Vicuña” portrays Trump in an “Emperor’s New Clothes” type tale, opening one week before the election. Baitz’ new play may not have a long shelf life now. However, it raises some serious issues that are not going away on Nov. 9. Maybe the play will be dusted off years from now and presented as a dramedy based on actual people. But, in the meantime, the reality is a little too real as election day looms.
Written and Edited by Dyanne Weiss
Sources:
Performance Oct. 30
Center Theatre Group : Vicuña
Los Angeles Times: Q&A The timely new play ‘Vicuña’ is, and isn’t, about Donald Trump
Photos of Groener (top) and Monsef and Sloyan by Craig Schwartz. courtesy of Center Theatre Group. baitz , Center Theatre Group , Kirk Douglas , vicuña | 0 |
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Posted on October 28, 2016 The Chinese Who Saw the Perils of Westernization Sacco Vandal, American Renaissance, October 28, 2016 They cautioned their countrymen 100 years ago.
Many Westerners fear the decline of their own society while they foresee Chinese ascension and impending dominance–with alternating tones of fear or enthusiasm. The United States is growing demographically and may remain a viable cultural entity, but the consensus is that Europe faces demographic disaster. China and the West seem to be approaching an inversion of their relationship of just over a century ago, during the late Qing period, when the West was dominant and China was peripheral. [1]
Patrick Buchanan described the Western dilemma in 2008:
What happened to us? What happened to our world? When the twentieth century opened, the West was everywhere supreme. For four hundred years, explorers, missionaries, conquerors, and colonizers departed from Europe for the four corners of the Earth to erect empires that were to bring the blessings and benefits of Western civilization to all mankind. . . . Whatever became of those men? Somewhere in the last century, Western man suffered a catastrophic loss of faith–in himself, in his civilization, and in the faith that gave it birth. [2]
Although the United States remains the strongest–but not the sole–superpower, European peoples are in decline everywhere. In another book, Mr. Buchanan points out that “In 1960, people of European ancestry were one-fourth of the world’s population; in 2000, they were one-sixth; in 2050, they will be one-tenth. These are the statistics of a vanishing race.” [3] Mr. Buchanan is hardly the first to warn of impending doom for the West. The lamentations of Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) are well known. Less known, however, are the Chinese from the same period who dreamed of a resurgence for China and warned of Western decline. These voices from the late Qing Dynasty may now seem prescient.
Spengler saw the First World War as a sign of the West’s inevitable decline. Many of the Chinese literati who had at first been smitten with the dynamism of the West also came to see the war in the same way: Western civilization was in a state of crisis that would lead to its destruction. Today, Mr. Buchanan also calls the First World War a “mortal wound” that was “inflicted upon our civilization.” [4] Meanwhile, the Chinese, who have resurrected many of the tenets of their traditional civilization after decades of Maoist rule, argue that Western liberalization and democratization are not the True Way by which they will inherit the Earth. As China begins to return to traditional Chinese pragmatism and the West implodes, certain late Qing intellectuals now appear vindicated. Devastation after WWI.
First among them were Yan Fu (1854–1921) and Liang Qichao (1873–1929). The dynamism of the West at first impressed them, leading them to promote Westernization in China. However, by the end of their lives, both men had come to see the dynamism of the West as self-destructive. They exhorted China to take a middle path between traditionalism and modernization, hoping that this might by the key to supplanting the West.
China in trouble
In the latter half of the 19th century, China was at a technological and military disadvantage. It lost a series of wars with Western powers and was forced to accept unequal treaties. This led various ministers of the Qing Dynasty, such as Li Hongzhang (1823–1901) to advocate mild forms of modernization. Meanwhile, the Meiji government in Japan had started an ambitious effort of full-scale Westernization beginning in 1868. And in 1895, after Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War, it became obvious to most Chinese intellectuals that their nation’s program of limited modernization was not enough.
Until the mid 19th century, Europe had been an inconsequential backwater for China. As late as 1793, a British attempt to establish a greater amount of trade with the Qing was rebuffed with the assertion by the Qianlong emperor (1711–1799) that China “possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no products within its own borders,” and thus had “no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians.” [5] By the mid 19th century, industrialization had made the West vastly more rich and powerful. However, some Chinese thought the sudden dynamism of the West also had intellectual origins. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, China found itself at the mercy of the Western powers that it once looked down upon.
Darwin’s dangerous idea
In 1895, Yan Fu was superintendent of the Beiyang Naval School. In an explanation of Western civilization to fellow Chinese intellectuals, he focused on the theory of evolution. As a young man, he had studied in England and become familiar with social Darwinism, and came to see it as the cultural fountainhead of wealth and power. “Since the publication of [Darwin’s The Origin of Species ],” wrote Yan, “of which nearly every household in Europe and America now has a copy, there has been a tremendous change in the scholarship, politics, and religion of the West. The claim that the revolution in outlook and intellectual orientation occasioned by Darwin’s book exceeds that of Newtonian astronomy is hardly an empty one.” [6] Yan spent the next ten years translating works on English evolutionist thought by men such as Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and Thomas Huxley (1825–1895) in the hope of converting his colleagues to social Darwinism. Yan Fu was attracted to social Darwinism while studying in England.
Perhaps it took an outsider to see the power of evolutionary thought. Darwin’s theory shook Westerners but it also gave them a certain will to power. Herbert Spencer, who coined the term “survival of the fittest,” led the transformation of Darwinism into social Darwinism, which called upon Western man to glorify victory in social competition. Victory in competition was the purpose of all life everywhere.
Yan quickly saw the winning-at-all-costs ruthlessness of social Darwinism as a remedy for China. Writing in his work on Yan’s life, Benjamin Schwartz writes:
What interests [Yan] is not so much the Darwinian account of biological evolution qua science. It is precisely the stress on the values of struggle–assertive energy, the emphasis on the actualization of potentialities within a competitive situation. The image of ‘nature red in tooth and claw’ does not depress him. It exhilarates him. [7]
Yan nevertheless worried that it might be too late for China to adopt social Darwinism, and that his country would be overwhelmed by the nations that had. In a 1895 newspaper essay, “On Strength,” he wrote:
Months and years slip by, and with rapacious neighbors all around, I fear that we will be too late, that we will follow Poland and India, providing an example of Darwin’s [elimination] before we have been able to implement Spencer’s methods. . . . Alas, our individual lives are not worth the worry, but what of our descendants, and the 400,000,000 of our race? [8]
The battle for reform
After defeat in the Sino-Japanese war, many Chinese intellectuals, such as Yan, began to advocate full-scale Westernization. Japan had already adopted social Darwinism in its pursuit of Western wealth and power, and the Chinese intelligentsia began to believe that China should follow suit. In 1898, the Guangxu emperor (1871–1908) appointed the minister Kang Youwei (1858–1927) to head a reform movement after Kang had requested permission to imitate Japan:
As to the republican governments of the United States and France and the constitutional governments of Britain and Germany, these countries are far away and their customs are different from ours. Their changes occurred a long time ago and can no longer be traced. Consequently I beg Your Majesty. . . to take the Meiji Reform of Japan as the model for our reform. The time and place of Japan’s reform are not remote and her religion and customs are somewhat similar to ours. Her success is manifest; her example can easily be followed. [9]
The emperor agreed, and the minister initiated a flurry of Meiji-style reform. A bright young man named Liang Qichao worked with Kang as his protégé, and he became one of the most influential Chinese advocates for Westernization. However, Kang and Liang’s efforts were quickly aborted after an imperial coup under the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908). Liang Qichao
After the Empress Dowager cut short what later became known as the Hundred Days Reform, Kang and Liang escaped political persecution by fleeing to Japan. Once there, Kang continued to support the Qing dynasty and to justify an agenda for Chinese reform via cautious appeals to Confucianism. Liang, however, ultimately broke with Kang and–like Yan–began to espouse “a new view of world history strongly colored by social Darwinism: a struggle for survival among nations and races.” [10]
He wrote:
If we wish to make our nation strong, we must investigate extensively the methods followed by other nations in becoming independent. We should select the superior points and appropriate them to make up for our own shortcomings. [11]
Liang increasingly came to see social Darwinism as the fuel of the West’s dynamism, one of the “superior points” that China would do well to “appropriate.” Writing from Japan, he exerted great influence on young Chinese. Together, Yan and Liang instilled in an entire generation of Chinese students a fervent desire for change. But this influence did not bring social Darwinism to China. Instead, it brought the 1911 Revolution, the New Cultural Movement (1915–1921), and the May Fourth Movement of 1919–perturbations that would spin China into over half a century of upheaval.
Accommodative versus transformative thought
Despite their attraction to social Darwinism and their sometimes radical calls for reform, Yan and Liang were not revolutionaries. Indeed, although Liang and–especially–Yan attacked various instances of Chinese backwardness, they continued to support the Qing Dynasty, advocating slow transition into a constitutional monarchy based on the British model. Once the 1911 Revolution succeeded, however, Liang grudgingly threw his support behind the new republican government, but Yan continued to support monarchy.
Questioning the West
The First World War was a shock to reformers who wanted to embrace the West. As the war dragged on, aging reformers such as Yan and Liang became increasingly disillusioned with not only transformative revolution, but Westernization and even the West. Yan wrote that the carnage of the war was a consequence of Western traits: “Such has been the effect on the human race of civilization and science! When I look back on our [Chinese] sacred wisdom and culture, I find that it foresaw this even at that early date. . .” [12]
Yan explained further:
As I have grown older and have observed the seven years of republican government in China and the four years of bloody war in Europe–a war such as the world has never known–I have come to feel that [the West’s] progress . . . has lead only to selfishness, slaughter, corruption, and shamelessness. When I look back upon the ways of Confucius and Mencius, I find that they . . . have profoundly benefited the realm. This is not my opinion alone. Many thinking people in the West have gradually come to feel this way. [13]
Liang wrote that “recently many Western scholars have wanted to import Asian civilization as a corrective to their own,” and, indeed, the latter half of the 20th century saw the importation of philosophical, religious, and cultural curiosities from the East and into the West. In the meantime he stated his goal for China:
I therefore hope that our dear young people will, first of all, have a sincere purpose of respecting and protecting our civilization; second, that they will apply Western methods to the study of our civilization and discover its true character; third, that they will put our own civilization in order and supplement it with others’ so that it will be transformed and become a new civilization; and fourth, that they will extend this new civilization to the outside world so that it can benefit the whole human race. [14]
Because of the devastation of the First World War, these two thinkers who had once promoted modernization and Westernization instead advocated a modernization without Westernization (or at least minimal Westernization). They seemed to believe that the course of the West was not sustainable and that the West could be supplanted by China if it modernized in a way that was compatible with its nature and culture. They seem to have realized that social Darwinism was a false promise, and that the forces it unleashed could destroy the West.
China and the West today
In the end, China did not follow Japan down the path of Westernization. A burgeoning Chinese nationalism grew up around anti-Japanese sentiment, and this enmity was extended to the West after Japan instead of China was awarded Germany’s Chinese concession at Versailles in 1919. Ultimately, communism on the Soviet model provided the Chinese with an alternative to both Chinese traditionalism and the West. China entered a period of socialist tyranny under Mao Zedong (1893–1976).
After Mao’s death, China began to abandon Maoism. It is still nominally communist, but since the 1980’s, it has followed the example of Hong Kong and Taiwan and has increasingly returned to the teachings of Confucius and Mencius. Chinese now praise Yan and Liang for their wisdom and prescience. The post-Mao leadership of the People’s Republic of China–beginning with Deng Xiaoping–has espoused views nearly identical to those advocated by Liang over a century ago. [15] Statue of Liang Qichao in Tianjin.
At the same time, Westerners are now studying the warnings of Yan and Liang about the inherent instability of the West. As Western liberals such as Martin Jacques herald the coming Chinese domination, there may be a generation of European and American scholars who find themselves in a position similar to that of Yan and Liang: struggling to understand why their civilization has fallen behind that of a rival whose inferiority was once taken for granted.
Thus, while China has found its way back to the middle path, balancing its modernization and Westernization with pragmatism, caution, and Confucianism, the West is disintegrating in a chaos of heterogeneity and decadence. The warnings of Spengler have come true, and Patrick Buchanan forecasts the death of the West. Russia and parts of Eastern Europe are trying to save themselves from liberalism and democracy, but success is not guaranteed.
Thinkers in the Alt-Right are wrestling with the question of how to save our own white civilization. The old order is collapsing due to challenges from abroad and the immigrant invasion. Non-whites are chopping up the West the way the West once chopped up China. We are Yan Fu and Liang Qichao. We must forge a plan for the preservation of our race.
“Sacco Vandal is a founding editor of VandalVoid.com and coauthor of The American Militant Nationalist Manifesto .” See Patrick Buchanan, The Death of the West (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002); David Goldman, How Civilizations Die (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2011); Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World (New York: Penguin Press, 2009); Larry Kelley, Lessons From Fallen Civilizations (Austin: Hugo House Publishers, 2012); Mark Steyn, America Alone (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2009); and Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008). Patrick Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War (New York: Random House, 2008), ix-x. Patrick Buchanan, Death of the West (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), 11-12. Patrick Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War (New York: Random House, 2008), 502. “Modern History Sourcebook: Qianlong: Letter to George III, 1793” Internet History Sourcebooks, accessed March 20, 2014, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1793Qianlong.asp . Yan Fu, “On Stength” in vol. 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition , edited by William Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 256. Benjamin Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), 46. Yan Fu, “On Stength” in vol. 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition , edited by William Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 258. Kang Youwei, “The Need for Reforming Institutions” in vol. 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition , edited by William Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 270. William Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano, ed., Sources of Chinese Tradition , vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 288. Liang Qichao, “Renewing the People” in vol. 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition , edited by William Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 290. Yan Fu, quoted in In Search of Wealth and Power , Benjamin Schwarz (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), 235. Yan Fu, quoted in In Search of Wealth and Power , Benjamin Schwarz (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), 235. Liang Qichao, “Travel Impressions from Europe” in vol. 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition , edited by William Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 378-379. See Max Ko-wu Huang, The Meaning of Freedom (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2008), Chapter 1; and Orville Schell, Discos and Democracy: China in the Throes of Reform (New York: Panteon Books, 1988), chapter “Liang Qichao: China’s First Democrat.” | 0 |
On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny stated that Chelsea Manning’s transition from a man to a woman “certainly played into” President Obama’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence, and “Without that, it’s hard to imagine, I think, this president would have done that. ” Zeleny said, “I think a question that this president the White House will have to answer here — will answer, and I think it’s an important one, if — how much was the personal story of Chelsea Manning involved in this, because the outcry from the left was so strong on this. And she’s having a difficult time in federal prison, no question. But, to me, that is a central question here. Without that, you have to wonder if the outcome would be the same. I think it might not be. ” He added, “[B]ecause she transitioned from a man to a woman, I think all of that certainly played into this. Without that, it’s hard to imagine, I think, this president would have done that. ” ( Mediaite) Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
We Are Change
Wikileaks emails have shaken the very fabric of the political spectrum to the core. We have seen Clinton campaign collusion between the media, DNC, DOJ, DOS, etc. But now everyone’s fears that Sanders was potentially a plant or threatened may have been confirmed in an email from 2015.
In an email exchange from Robby Mook ([email protected]) to John Podesta ( [email protected] ) on May,26,2015 Mook forwards an email from Christina Reynolds to the rest of the Clinton camp. In which she says that Senator Sanders went after HRC and WJC on wealth including using the word hustle. She then goes on to say that she followed up with Brad (potentially DNC CFO Brad Marshall who resigned ) and “the only thing that they’ve pushed is from the attached docs trying to get reporters to write that HRC and Bernie are actually in the same place.” Likely Referring to political stances now exposed to be a lie by Wikileaks because of Hillary’s private and public opinion.
Following up on our call on Friday, just wanted to give some updates and flag that Bernie went after HRC and WJC on wealth (including using the word “hustle.) I followed up with Brad. The only thing they’ve pushed is from the attached docs—trying to get reporters to write that HRC and Bernie are actually in the same place. They are happy for any suggestions, but were not planning on making any big attacks around the announcement.
Mook then writes, “This isn’t in keeping w the agreement. Since we clearly have some leverage, would be good to flag this for him. I could send a signal via Welch–or did you establish a direct line w him?”
What agreement is Robby Mook talking about? What does he mean by “send a signal via Welch.” Is Robby Mook referring to Vermont representative Peter Welch?
Even if Mook was talking about Brad Marshall DNC CFO when he said “This isn’t in keeping w the agreement” that would expose that not only the Clinton campaign but the DNC was feeding reporters to write stories. However this possibility quickly falls apart since earlier this year Guccifer 2 revealed the DNC rigged the primary against Sanders. So Mook wouldn’t need to send a signal to the DNC CFO they were already well connected from the beginning.
The alternative is that it’s a different Welch and different Brad and that Mook wasn’t talking about Sanders but was talking about Brad. However the email chain would suggest that it’s Sanders who Mook is referring to because deeper down the string of emails are two links forwarded from Colin Campbell (Business Insider Journalist) to Clinton staffer Josh Schwerin . One to a story that is criticized by the Clinton campaign in which Sanders bashes Hillary and the other to a story about Hillary Clinton’s campaign selling pants suits.
But it doesn’t end there, in the attachments that Christina Reynolds remarked in the email under a section in the document called “Personal Comments Praise” are positive comments by Senator Sanders about Hillary Clinton.
So I then decided to do some digging through CNBC’s reporter list and contributor list from 2015 and found no one named Brad worked there in July 2015. I looked at July, 2015 because no earlier date was available from archive.org.
I then did the same for Business insider looking for a reporter named Brad seeing as Wikileaks has already previously exposed the close connection between the media and Clinton campaign. Thinking that I could debunk the claim that Bernie Sanders was a potential plant and Robbie Mook was talking about Brad at business insider since CNBC didn’t have anyone named Brad who worked there.In which I found that business insider did not have an entry at all for 2015 either available on archive.org.
Again alternatively Mook might have been referring to another reporter not apart of CNBC or Business Insider named Brad. However the next comment “I could send a signal via Welch” doesn’t make sense. Seeing as how connected the campaign was to the media why would Mook need to send a signal?
It’s also worth noting that earlier in the year it was revealed that the Sanders campaign sold out to the Hillary Clinton’s campaign for a private jet towards the end of the campaign run.
Whatever the case may be this email is deeply disturbing and connecting the dots if the two people mentioned are Peter Welch and DNC CFO Brad Marshall things just got a lot more crazier if that’s even at all possible with recent Wikileaks emails revealing Podesta talking about satanic spirit cooking. What did Robby Mafia Mook mean by “since we clearly have some leverage?” Was the “leverage” Blackmail? threats? Maybe that explains Bernie’s cut on his face later on during the DNC. With such a wild election cycle absolutely nothing would surprise me anymore. Do you feel the Bern?
“The mafia never separates.”
~Robby Mook
The post WIKILEAKS: Suggest Sanders Was A Possible Plant Or Threatened By Mook appeared first on We Are Change .
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A student group at the University of Georgia is facing a police investigation after saying on Twitter that Republicans should be “guillotined. ”[Responding to a story about a professor at the Art Institute of Washington who allegedly claimed that House Republicans should be “lined up and shot,” the Young Democratic Socialists at the University of Georgia reportedly tweeted that the Republican members of the House should instead be “guillotined. ” David Littmann, the founder of the Young Democratic Socialists chapter at the University of Georgia who graduated in 2016, claimed that the tweet was made in jest. “I wouldn’t have made that joke myself, but it is clearly and obviously facetious,” Littmann said. “As a strict pacifist, I believe that all violence is immoral, period. But it’s absurd to take the joke literally. ” The University of Georgia announced on their official Twitter account that the campus police department is investigating the matter. According to the statement, the students involved in the group may also be facing an investigation by the Office of Student Conduct, which oversees student organizations. UGA response to Young Democratic Socialists student group tweet: pic. twitter. — UGA (@universityofga) June 14, 2017, In response to a storm of criticism and a statement from administrators claiming that the campus police department is investigating their call for violence, the Young Democratic Socialists chapter announced that they would disassociate from the University. The student group deleted not only the offending tweet but their Twitter account in its entirety. “Recent events have made clear that the only way forward is through the democratic will and revolutionary spirit of our members and community. The Young Democratic Socialists student group at the University of Georgia has voted unanimously to distance itself from UGA and restructure its platform to meet the needs of its members and the larger Athens community,” according to a post the group made on Facebook. The group has changed their name from the Young Democratic Socialists at the University of Georgia to the Athens Democratic Socialists of America. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 1 |
Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the .) For many Californians, the drought now feels long gone. According to the latest figures from the United States Drought Monitor, about 17 percent of the state remains under “moderate drought” conditions or worse. This time last year, it was about 95 percent. But not everyone is rejoicing. On Catalina Island, just off the Southern California coast, water scarcity is so severe that residents still rely almost entirely on a pair of desalination plants. Catalina is home to population of 4, 000 or so people and a beach playground for roughly a million annual visitors. Residents and businesses have had to contend with mandatory water rationing since 2013. Surrounded by ocean, the island has a major disadvantage to the rest of California: It can’t tap the melting Sierra Nevada snow that sustains mainland farms and cities during the warm months. That’s why officials have tightly restricted the use of Catalina’s main water source: an aquifer connected to the interior Middle Ranch Reservoir. The drumbeat of winter storms has helped to replenish the reservoir, but as of last week it was still only roughly a quarter full — and summer is looming. Alex Krowiak, a photographer and marine science educator who lives on Catalina, published a photo essay on the island’s water problems in News Deeply this month. He shared some of his pictures with us: (Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.) • A day after 14, 000 people were ordered to flee rising floodwaters in San Jose, the mayor acknowledged that the city had been ill prepared. [The Mercury News] • A slumping hillside caused a bridge on Highway 1 in Big Sur to crack. Caltrans said a new one would have to built. [Monterey Herald] • Once you see the spiraling floodwater in Napa County’s Lake Berryessa, it’s hard to take your eyes off it. [The New York Times] • The threat of deportation, once for only those who committed serious crimes, has many immigrants in house arrest. [The New York Times] • Here are the most significant elements of the new immigration approach. [The New York Times] • The road to a Democratic House starts in Orange County, not the industrial heartland. [The New York Times] • Protests flared in Anaheim after a video appeared to show an police officer firing a gun during a confrontation with teenagers. [Los Angeles Times] • A former Palm Springs mayor surrendered at the Riverside jail. He was accused of accepting $375, 000 in bribes from two businessmen. [The Desert Sun] • An art space in Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighborhood said it would close after attacks by activists. [Los Angeles Times] • With the Chargers gone, the Padres have San Diego to themselves. Can they fill the void? [The New York Times] • Managers groping employees. Homophobic slurs. Threats over performance. An inside look at Uber’s workplace culture. [The New York Times] • A judge ruled against a law that would allow actors to hide their age on IMDb, saying it almost certainly violates the First Amendment. [Hollywood Reporter] • Hosting this year’s Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel hopes to find the sweet spot between too much politics and too little. [The New York Times] • On the banks of the Yuba River in the Sierra foothills is a schoolhouse with only 10 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. [Capitol Weekly] • The perfect day trip from Los Angeles: the Channel Islands. [The New York Times] Last week, the State Senate leader, Kevin de León, quietly introduced legislation that would require California to get all of its electricity from solar, wind and other renewable sources by 2045. The proposal significantly raises the bar set in 2015 when Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that aims for 50 percent use of renewables by 2030. We asked a few energy experts for their reactions to the plan. • Is the timeline plausible? It’s “ambitious,” said Felix Mormann, a faculty fellow at Stanford’s Steyer — Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance. “But not implausible. ” “Last year, Germany was able to briefly meet 95 percent of the country’s electricity demand with renewables,” Mr. Mormann said. “But such peak events are still a long way from weaning an entire energy economy off all nonrenewable energy on a permanent basis. ” • What are the biggest challenges? Cost is one, said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at U. C. Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. “Prices are coming down in all these technologies,” he said. “But we wouldn’t know how much it would cost. We also presumably would have to retire some existing power plants, so the ratepayer impacts are unknown. ” Another challenge is energy storage. A total reliance on renewable energy would require a major expansion of storage capacity for those times when the wind dies down and the sun fades, said Sadrul Ula, managing director of U. C. Riverside’s Winston Chung Global Energy Center. “Lithium batteries offer good potential,” he said. “But they’re still not there. ” • Is Mr. de León’s legislation encouraging? Yes, said Dr. Ula, because it would essentially set the table for innovation. “Without that, we don’t discuss it. We don’t have a target,” he added. “Resources and development don’t get channeled unless there is a goal post. ” Want to submit a photo for possible publication? You can do it here. California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 1 |
The corporate elite ruling the planet.
We know that six corporations control 98% of the media. It works pretty much the same in any industry or part of the economy.
We are fast approaching a border-less world where government will soon become extinct. And when we were not paying attention we lost our country and our planet. What will that day look like? The following video lays it all out.
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WASHINGTON — The Senate is getting ready for a very late night. As Republicans push forward with repealing the Affordable Care Act, lawmakers are about to undertake a grueling Senate tradition: the a marathon of votes that is likely to stretch on for hours. Yes, that’s really what it’s called. For at least some people in the Capitol, like those who enjoy sleeping when it is nighttime, the experience will be unpleasant. But there is a reason for the spectacle. For Democrats, it provides an opportunity to draw a distinction between their views on health care and how Republicans are approaching the issue. For Republicans, the completion of the exercise clears the way for them to advance to the next step in their quest to gut the health care law. In lieu of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, here is a primer on what to expect. No. Republicans have embarked on a fragile, multistep process to repeal major parts of the health care law, one that is on pace to at least take weeks, even without any big stumbles. But an important step on the way to repealing the law could be taken soon, perhaps early Thursday. The Senate is close to approving a budget resolution that would set in motion the process of drawing up and ultimately passing legislation to repeal the act. Don’t be fooled by the name. In this case, Congress isn’t working on the federal budget. Republicans are taking a series of steps to allow them to repeal the health care law without facing a Democratic filibuster. Passing the budget resolution will set in motion the process that, as drawn up by Republican leaders, will culminate in the passage of legislation repealing major parts of the act. The resolution will direct House and Senate committees to come up with that legislation. (There is some disagreement about the deadline for the committees to finish their work Republican leaders planned for Jan. 27, but this week a group of five Republican senators suggested extending that date by five weeks, until March 3.) The legislation that the committees come up with will be packaged in what is called a reconciliation bill, which is not subject to a filibuster. That’s critical, because Republicans have a majority, and overcoming a filibuster requires 60 votes. Special rules apply to budget resolutions. Senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments, and being generally crafty people, they like to take advantage of that opportunity. The result is the spectacle known as the . The Senate can consider dozens of amendments in quick succession, a task that can extend into the wee hours of the night. None of the amendments hold the force of law: A budget resolution is essentially a blueprint for Congress, and the measure never goes to the president for a signature. But the amendments can be used to provide grist for campaign ads, giving each party the opportunity to force the opposing party’s members to take votes on politically delicate topics. The lengthy undertaking, with minimal debate about the amendments being voted on, is not the ideal deliberative experience. Former Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire and a past chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, once described the as “the Senate’s equivalent to Chinese water torture. ” The Senate is expected to begin the Wednesday evening. Not surprisingly, Senate Democrats are expected to focus on amendments relating to health care law, as part of their effort to denounce the Republican push to unwind it. It remains to be seen how long the drama will go on. Senate Democrats have already displayed their stamina once this week: They spoke on the floor in defense of the law until past midnight on Monday night. Once the amendments have been dealt with, the Senate is expected to approve the budget resolution, a key step toward the Republicans’ goal of repealing the law. The House will take up the budget resolution, which it plans to do once the Senate gives its approval. The House vote could take place on Friday. But some Republicans in the House have expressed unease with voting on the measure this week, because of uncertainty about when and how the health care law would be replaced. | 1 |
(Before It's News)
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Check out this feature video. I have been on it now for less than one week and am already noticing a huge difference. I’ve also only been taking small doses as opposed to the full dose to start out with. But, if small doses is making changes in me, I can only imagine what will happen when I start taking the full amount. I am literally excited!
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CHECK OUT LYN LEAHZ ON YOUTUBE AND SUBSCRIBE TODAY—CLICK HERE NOW! After being sick for many years with ‘strange’ allergies, which all began after living in a home with a hidden mold problem, I can’t tell you how thankful I am and what a blessing it is that God has led me to Glen, the gentleman in the video. It is wonderful beyond words to actually feel ‘normal’ again after having felt sick, tired, and practically living in a prison to my allergies for many years now.
For many years now, I have lived with allergies so bad, not only did I feel like I had a cold 24-7, but I had other strange symptoms too:
—extreme fatigue
—sudden visual disturbances or double vision
—dizziness
—light headedness
—problems hearing, ringing in the ears
—swelling in my face
—swollen glands
—constant food allergies
—allergies to just about everything, including smells
—just an overall not feeling right, you can’t really put your finger on it, but you just don’t feel good
—constant excessively low BP and feeling as if I am about to pass out at times
—feeling like I am in a fog
—unmovitvated
—not feeling good when I would wake up in the morning, like a person having a massive hangover
There is so much more… but I have literally lived this way since around 2004 until now, and this is the first thing that has really helped to make a difference. I will keep everyone updated, as I have not yet tried the full dose. But so far, the low dose is really making a difference. I was told by Glen to start off small due to the strange allergies. So that is what I’ve been doing.
I really want to share this with everyone because I understand how frustrating life is when you don’t feel good, especially when no one gives you answers for your suffering and you have no idea what to do to fix it or make yourself feel better. It’s extremely depressing. I strongly urge everyone to share this post and to try this product. God bless you!
CHECK OUT LYN LEAHZ ON YOUTUBE AND SUBSCRIBE TODAY—CLICK HERE NOW! Don’t believe it? See this blood analysis example:
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Audio of Bill Downs, CEO, founder and formulator of Prodovite explaining the ingredients of Prodovite as well as other information, including testimonials | 0 |
Eleven years ago, I needed a new bike. At the time, I rode a lot. I was in a big group of relatively competitive riders, and we’d often put hundreds of miles on our bikes each week. I agonized over what bike to buy, but I kept coming back to one made by a company called Moots, a Colorado company that builds titanium road and mountain bikes by hand. The father of a good friend of mine had a Moots bike when I was growing up, and it made me salivate. The problem was, they were really expensive. Like, “far more money than I ever considered spending on a bike” expensive. Maybe $5, 000 or so back then. But the more I looked into it, the more I was convinced I had to have this bike. After putting myself through the painful process of shopping around, comparing prices and looking at models that I didn’t really want, I pulled the trigger. Following weeks of buyer’s remorse that more closely resembled terror, I came to realize something that is going to sound crazy. Buying this incredibly expensive bike was one of the best financial decisions I’ve ever made. I understand that writing $5, 000 and the words “bike” and “smart financial decision” all in the same sentence sounds absurd, but it’s not. This was a fantastic, rational, smart financial decision. And I know that goes against everything you’ve heard from every personal finance adviser out there. They’re always telling you how to save money, how to reduce expenses, how to buy cheaper. Right? Cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. What I’m saying is, that’s a shortsighted message that we need to change. Here are the reasons. 1. If you love it, you will keep it if you keep it, you will use it. I bought a bike I love. You may not like it. That’s fine. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. But I love it. And since I love it, I’ve kept it for 11 years. And since I’ve kept it for 11 years, I use it all the time. 2. It replaces five other bikes. The guys I ride with own plastic bikes (carbon fiber). And they may feel the same way about their bikes as I do about mine, but most of them don’t. Most of them think, “Oh, I’ll just go buy a bike. ” A couple years later, they buy the newest bike, and a couple years after that, they buy the newest bike again. Each time they sell the old one and buy the new one, they lose money. That can be costly. I have changed almost nothing on my road bike in 11 years, and I like it more than when I bought it. 3. It will last. Let’s say you follow the standard advice and buy the cheaper bike. We all know what happens with the cheaper bike. It breaks! It wears out, you replace it. And not only does good gear last, but when you buy cheap stuff, you get bored with it. I do not get bored with this bike, and that is why it is saving me money. 4. It’s beautiful. That may sound silly, but it’s important. If you’re planning on having something for a long time, you’d better like looking at it. Any time I even consider looking at a new road bike, all I have to do is wash mine and see the beautiful welds, and I fall back in love again. When I’m done and can no longer ride my bike, it will hang above the mantle over my fireplace. That’s how much I love it. It’s a piece of art to me. 5. The cognitive benefit. Buying things is agonizing. The cognitive expense of switching, replacing and constantly thinking about whether you need a new bike or not has a cost associated with it, too. I don’t think about it. I don’t have to think about it. I’ve got the bike I love. Period. So, I hereby give you permission to consider buying the things you really love — things that may be two, three or perhaps even four times more expensive than a similar product. I am asking you to consider the possibility that buying stuff you love, regardless of price, may be the best decision you can make. Consider that if you love it and you’ll use it, you’ll save not only money but retain the cognitive and emotional energy you would have used to replace the thing once a year. You’ve heard of “buy nice, or buy twice,” right? Well this is a derivative of that idea. But don’t just buy nice, buy what you love. If you don’t, you’ll end up hating, and replacing, until you do. | 1 |
Marching around without any clear direction, mission or destination — and without any clearly stated goal — the women marchers in downtown Washington, DC, threatened to never leave the nation’s capital as they protest newly inaugurated President Donald Trump. [“We won’t go away, welcome to your first day,” women marchers chanted near the White House. It’s ironic that they’re threatening to never leave, since many of the protesters are actually leaving tomorrow or the next day after having been bussed in from around the country and even from Canada. For them to actually stay and occupy Washington, D. C. would cost millions per day — an unrealistic possibility. It’s much more likely these protesters are going to catch their bus or their flight home in the next day or so and depart the national political stage without gaining any real ground. Part of the reason for their looming irrelevancy was evident in the disorganized nature of the march — which was actually more of a giant gathering downtown. Protesters did not have a clear message of what they were asking for — other than venting anger at the fact Donald Trump is the duly elected and inaugurated president of the United States — and did not even march in a coordinated way in any particular direction throughout DC other than to just wander around in groups of a few hundred chanting one thing or another like the aforementioned threat to never leave or another age old Democratic Party protester chant “This is what Democracy looks like. ” Sure, celebrities like Madonna and Ashley Judd and top Democrats like newly elected California Sen. Kamala Harris joined in with speeches but the largely incoherent message that asks for nothing reasonable — the only thing they seem to be demanding is that President Trump go away, something that will not happen — leaves the women marchers against Trump leaving Washington empty handed. | 1 |
In recent years, the has become, simultaneously, one of most beloved and most vilified rifles in the country. It is no surprise why the gun is so reviled by gun control advocates. Omar Mateen, the gunman in the attack this weekend on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. used a spinoff of the rifle produced by SIG Sauer to kill nearly 50 people. The weapon has also been the gun of choice in several other mass shootings: at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. at a holiday party for county health workers in San Bernardino, Calif. and at the campus of Umpqua Community College in Oregon. But the National Rifle Association has taken to calling the “America’s rifle. ” Though the federal government does not keep track of exactly how many are in circulation, experts estimate that there are easily several million in the nation’s rifle racks and gun safes — a huge number, given that the gun, along with other assault weapons, was banned under federal law from 1994 to 2004. The rifle’s extraordinary popularity can be traced to a number of factors, including the ease of its use, its embodiment of a certain military glamour, and the aggressive marketing of the gun industry. The weapon was first built in the late 1950s by Eugene M. Stoner, a former Marine and the lead gun designer at the ArmaLite Division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. It was an unusual rifle for the era, made of lightweight plastics and aluminum instead of traditional materials like wood and metals. It also fired a . bullet, which was smaller and faster than the typical ammunition at the time. Partly for those reasons, the Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, purchased the in bulk in the 1960s and, after renaming it the turned it into the standard issue for American ground troops in Vietnam. Around the same time, a civilian version of the rifle, which unlike its military counterpart could not shoot automatically, also went on sale. Today, dozens of companies produce their own version of the weapon. “Back in the day, people called it the ‘plastic rifle’ because it felt like a toy,” said Sam Andrews, the owner of Tier One Weapons Systems, a gun engineering company in Eureka, Mo. “But that’s evolved. Now people realize that light can be good. ” Because of its system, Mr. Andrews said, the has a fairly gentle recoil. The weapon is also fast and accurate, he added, able to fire, under capable hands, eight rounds in a second. “The reason it’s so popular,” Mr. Andrews said, “is that if you bring a handgun to a fight where there’s an you’re going to lose. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a man like me or a girl. ” Gun owners say that the is used for hunting, sport shooting and . The rifle is also easily accessorized with custom like flashlights, infrared scopes and a variety of grips, and is called the Lego set of the gun world. Its owners swap product reviews or share personal hacks on a wide variety of blogs and online bulletin boards. According to a 2010 survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, owners tend on average to have three different versions of the rifle and spend more than $400 per weapon on accessories and special modifications. Though the can be bought as cheaply as $600, the average retail price was slightly more than $1, 000, the survey found. This demand has been accompanied — some would say caused — by vigorous mass marketing campaigns by gun manufacturers, which often refer to the not as an assault rifle, but as a modern sporting rifle. Groups like the Civilian Marksmanship Program run target competitions each year that attract scores of military veterans, one of the gun’s chief sales demographics. “You’ve got lots of returning servicemen who knew the very well — how to shoot it, clean it, take it apart,” said Jim Scoutten, the executive producer of Shooting USA, a shooting sports television channel. “And when they come back, in many cases they acquire the civilian version. ” The is also heavily marketed to younger gun enthusiasts who are attracted to the highly militarized, Special Operations culture that has become increasingly prevalent in action movies and video games like “Call of Duty. ” In 2014, the Violence Policy Center, which advocates gun control, did a study of the marketing efforts by the Freedom Group, one of the world’s largest gun manufacturers. It found that many of the company’s advertisements used martial images of men in tactical gear and slogans like “Built to Be as Tough as the Job” and “Bravery on Duty. ” The study quotes an article in Shooting Sports Retailer, a gun industry trade magazine, warning salesmen to be wary of certain buyers. “Many of the new shooters attracted to tactical guns for their first firearms purchase will think that they know guns because they’ve played a lot of first‐person shooter video games,” the article says. “Gamers inspired by ‘Call of Duty’ to purchase their first gun will eventually discover that they have a lot to learn. ” But despite such admonitions, the gun industry has used the popularity of these games to sell its products to “a youthful, aggressive, technologically savvy generation,” said Josh Koskoff, a lawyer representing the families of Newtown, Conn. in a lawsuit against the industry. In researching his suit, Mr. Koskoff said that he found screen shots from “Call of Duty” of that bear the names of gun manufacturers. To Josh Sugarman, the founder of the Violence Policy Center, the manufacturers’ attempts to push the among the younger set stem from a stark realization about the future of the industry. “The traditional demographic — white males — is aging and slowly dying off,” Mr. Sugarman said. “So they’re marketing the to the next generation as the new, shiny thing. ” | 1 |
Woodward On Clinton Foundation “It’s Corrupt” By VNN on October 28, 2016 He’s correct: The Clinton Foundation is corrupt, and voters should be troubled by Clinton’s role in the unethical pay-for-play scandals.
Conservative Tribune
Voters have been concerned about Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the scandal-ridden Clinton Foundation.
Liberal journalist Bob Woodward legitimized those concerns Sunday on Fox News by pointing to the Foundation’s “ pay-for-play ” scandals while Clinton served as secretary of state as something that should trouble voters.
Woodward, who broke the Watergate story that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon, told host Chris Wallace in no uncertain terms that the Clinton Foundation is “corrupt” and a “scandal.”
Watch Woodward’s comments on Fox News Sunday here:
“There are allegations about the Clinton Foundation and pay-for-play,” Wallace said. “When you see what seems to be clear evidence that Clinton Foundation donors were being treated differently than non-donors in terms of access, when you see this new revelations (sic) about the $12 million deal between Hillary Clinton, the Foundation and the King of Morocco, are voters right to be troubled by this?”
“Yes,” Woodward responded. “ It’s corrupt . It’s a scandal.”
Wallace had attempted to get answers from Clinton about the issue at the final presidential debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump.
But of course Clinton ducked the moderator’s question and instead talked about the organization’s charitable donations rather than its extreme conflicts of interest — something Woodward took note of and criticized her for.
“She didn’t answer your question at all,” Woodward told Wallace. “And she turned to embrace the good work that the Clinton Foundation has done.”
Woodward apparently didn’t want to discredit the “good work” done by the organization, but pointed out that even its “good work” is compromised by the overwhelming evidence of corruption.
“(T)he mixing of speech fees, the Clinton Foundation and actions by the State Department — which she ran — are all intertwined and it’s corrupt,” he argued.
He’s correct: The Clinton Foundation is corrupt, and voters should be troubled by Clinton’s role in the unethical pay-for-play scandals.
Unfortunately Clinton has an acute ability to avoid being held accountable for her scandals, but we have faith in the American people and their desire to be led by a person with integrity and respect for the office he holds, not someone who continuously looks for ways for his political power to benefit his personal life.
Like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you agree with Bob Woodward about Hillary Clinton and her family’s scandal-ridden Clinton Foundation. What do you think about Woodward’s criticism of Clinton? Scroll down to comment below!
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CHARLESTON, S. C. — A year ago, the nation was transfixed by a different horrific crime, the shooting deaths of nine church members during Bible study at the Emanuel A. M. E. Church here. With the backdrop of the Orlando shootings, survivors and family members of the victims of the Charleston slayings on June 17, 2015, sat down to reflect on forgiveness, race relations, gun violence and the suspect, Dylann S. Roof, called Prime Evil by some of the survivors. On Friday, they joined parishioners from Emanuel A. M. E. Church, political leaders and congregations from around the region for a memorial service at the TD Arena in Charleston, where a year earlier President Obama delivered a eulogy that culminated with his singing “Amazing Grace. ” The conversation, led by Michael Schwirtz and Chris Dixon of The New York Times, included: Felicia and Tyrone Sanders, the parents of Tywanza Sanders, 26, who was killed. Felicia Sanders was present at the shooting, shielding her granddaughter from the assailant. Polly Sheppard, a retired nurse who survived the attack. The children of Ethel Lance, who was killed. They are the Rev. Sharon Risher, Esther Lance, Nadine Collier and Gary Washington Daniel Simmons Jr. the son of the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, who was killed. Michael Schwirtz: Nadine, you gained some fame and notoriety when you stood up in court during the bond hearing and publicly forgave Dylann Roof. Do you have any regrets about that statement? Nadine Collier: I stand behind it. All the way. I don’t have no regrets at all. I just believe in God. And didn’t have that hatred in my heart. Esther Lance: I don’t forgive him because my heart ain’t there. It ain’t going to be no time soon. I can’t forgive him. The Rev. Sharon Risher: Forgiveness is a personal journey for everybody. I have not gotten to that point where I could forgive Dylann Roof. That’s just me. Being in clergy, I’m mandated to forgive, yet I understand that God is a loving god and that he gives everybody an opportunity to reach that path of forgiveness. Felicia Sanders: Forgiveness is not for the person. The person doesn’t care whether you forgive him or not. Forgiveness is for you. Forgiveness is growth. If you don’t have any forgiveness in you, it makes you stagnate. You will never grow. You’re giving the individual the power over you, so that means you’re still a victim to the person. I want to say that we refuse to be a victim. I want him to know, Prime Evil to know, that just because you took our loved ones, you don’t have us. I believe we can get more done now than before. Tyrone Sanders: I want to put on the record that I’m not there yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive. Mr. Schwirtz: Is there any wisdom or insight you have gained over the last year and what challenges are you still trying to overcome? Daniel Simmons: Over the past year, there are a lot of things that transpired positive and negative for all of us. One of the things that happens out of tragedy — as people we have a choice of whether we’re going to be active or how we’re going to respond. So one of the great things, and I’m so proud of my daughter, is that we began a nonprofit, the Hate Won’t Win movement. It’s a nonprofit that’s going to provide opportunity, services programs, initiatives about crimes, violent crimes, gun control and empowerment initiatives. Everybody is doing something, whether it’s going back to school with their children, providing scholarships, whether it’s changing their lifestyles to have an opportunity to give back, to speak in different places, to travel to talk about their personal experiences, to sit down and do an interview with The New York Times. God chose the right place, the right families and the right individuals and most importantly the time. God does what he hates to accomplish what he loves. Mr. Schwirtz: Reverend Risher, what has it been like to be directly involved with the gun issue, pressing for legislation. Have you felt any frustration? Ms. Risher: Right after June 17, I became very vocal and involved in advocacy groups on gun control. So I’ve been on Capitol Hill, I testified before the judiciary committee in Oregon. I have lent my voice to different bills. This is what that year has brought for me, an opportunity and a platform to beg our American people to look at the gun laws, look at background checks. It’s long hard frustrating work, the results aren’t something tangible that you can put your hands on, but laws are being changed and the attention to gun reform is out there. I’m always optimistic. Mr. Schwirtz: The shooting prompted fierce debate over the issue of race in South Carolina and culminated with the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds. How has the issue evolved over the last year? Ms. Risher: The racial tension and history of Charleston is there. It took hundreds of years to build it it will probably take hundreds of years for people to look at Charleston, South Carolina, as a different place. Mr. Sanders: I had a Confederate flag, like about 10 doors down from me. I was tempted to go on the porch and ask them to take it down. But I said, ‘No I’m going to go ahead and leave them alone just like Ms. Polly says.’ If you leave them alone they’ll eventually settle down. And they took it down. They’ve got the state flag up now. Chris Dixon: Did you expect the Confederate battle flag at the State House to come down? Mr. Sanders: I was in awe because I didn’t expect it to happen. But that flag coming down won’t bring my son back. Or my aunt or the other seven. Mr. Dixon: How has the shooting changed Charleston and the way people relate or interact with each other? Mr. Sanders: If they know who I am, they’re a little kinder. When I went back to work, it seemed I got a lot of embracing from the white guys. Ms. Sanders: I still think that there is a lot of unity. I’ve met so many people within this year that I would have never met. So many people still coming giving their condolences. That’s unity right there. I see a lot more smiles. Ms. Sheppard: The same. People are a little kinder to each other. Ms. Sanders: June 17, 2015, was the first racism I’ve ever encountered. And I got it all at once. Ms. Sheppard: There’s unity in more ways than one. If you look on Sunday you’ll see about seven or eight of those trucks with those Confederate flags going across the bridge. So they’re unifying, too. Mr. Schwirtz: Can you speak about your relationship with Emanuel? Are any of you still active in the church? Ms. Sanders: I’ve been trying to go. It’s not easy. It’s a preparation for me. When I go there, I have to not eat at night or drink anything in the morning so that I won’t have to go downstairs to the bathroom. Emanuel is not Emanuel no more. Emanuel is the new Emanuel. The church for some reason thinks it’s about the church. The fellowship hall, where it all happened at, they didn’t give it no respect. I was in line to go into my son’s funeral. And I heard somebody say, ‘Oh, you should go downstairs now, it smells like blood.’ How do you think that made me feel? Ms. Sheppard: This happened on Wednesday and they were back in church on Sunday, which I thought was terrible. Ms. Simmons: I don’t feel the church should have been opened that soon. Because when I went to the church a couple of days after, I could still sense and smell blood. So it wasn’t a good feeling for me. It was one of my weakest moments I’ve experienced throughout this whole process. Ms. Collier: The last time I was there was Aug. 30, 2015, my mother’s birthday. And I haven’t been back since. Growing up I was on choir at the church. Since this happened, it’s like, everything, my whole life changed. My mom was assassinated for the church. My momma when she was not ushering, we got a little seat we sit at, two three rows from the back. I’d come around and sit on the side of her. Can you imagine me coming in and sitting in the front? It just freaks me out. Took everything out of my body just to do that on her birthday. I haven’t been back. | 1 |
Former FBI Director James Comey associates are leaking more information about his conversations with President Donald Trump, asserting that the president asked Comey to let his former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn go. [“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump told Comey, according to parts of the memo read to the New York Times. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. ” At the White House Tuesday afternoon, White House aides denied the story. “This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey,” they said, assuring reporters that Trump never asked Comey to shut down the investigation. They also pointed to a statement from acting F. B. I. director Andrew G. McCabe saying a week ago that there had been no effort to impede the Russian investigation. According to the Times, Comey kept detailed memos about every conversation he had with Trump over the phone and in person. After Trump spoke to him about Flynn, he shared the memo about the conversation with senior FBI officials. | 1 |
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Makia Freeman – President Elect Trump is new title for New York businessman, millionaire and Republican candidate Donald J. Trump, who yesterday on November 8th, 2016 successfully won the US presidential election. Trump managed to defeat favorite Hillary Clinton by a relatively narrow margin. The victory came as a shock to many Americans, regardless of where they reside on the political spectrum. For many in the alternative media, the victory of President Elect Trump comes with a great sense of relief that career criminal Hillary Clinton was not elected (or installed) as so many had expected. Clinton had already showed a propensity to collude, cheat and lie during the Democratic Primaries where she triumphed with dirty tactics over Bernie Sanders. For many others, turned off by Trump’s racism, sexism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and generally flippant comments, the Trump victory is devastating and will challenge them psychologically and emotionally to accept the reality for the results. Hillary Clinton: What Went Wrong?
The result is especially surprising given the degree to which Hillary Clinton had ingratiated herself with the upper echelons of the NWO (New World Order). From an outside perspective, it seemed Clinton had left no stone unturned in brown-nosing and sucking up to the most powerful people and organizations in the world, including the Rothschilds, Goldman Sachs, the Rockefeller CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) and many many more. Additionally, given her propensity for criminality and her powerful backers such as George Soros, coupled with the serious problems electronic voting machines possess in being able to be hacked and the vote flipped, many are left wondering how Hillary lost . What went wrong?
At this stage in the game of post-election analysis, we can point to a few things. Hillary’s criminal past clearly caught up with her. It is unprecedented in the history of US presidential elections for a leading candidate to be under an on-again, off-again criminal investigation. Clinton simply has so many scandals in her recent and distant past that it’s like trying to stop a ship with 30 holes from sinking; you can’t plug them all. She was also running up against the problem that the Democrats had been in power for 8 years, when recent history shows that power seems to change hands in around that time frame. Clinton represented the establishment, and as the popularity of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump has shown, people are tired of the same. They intuitively know the system is rigged and corrupt, even if they can’t exactly put their fingers on it. Obama, Mr. “Hope and Change”, got in with a slick campaign of promising something different (upon which he didn’t deliver). Trump represented anti-establishment, and whether he truly embodies that or not is an entirely different matter, because it’s all about perception. Does a Trump Victory Show that NWO Powerbrokers Are Less in Control than It Seems?
The win of President Elect Trump is truly shocking and monumental event. Many people (including myself) were predicting that it was a foregone conclusion that Clinton would win. For instance, founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange stated before the election that “Trump would not permitted to win” . The MSM (Mainstream Media) were clearly favoring Clinton at almost every turn. Whatever you think of Trump, we can at least say the will of the majority of American voters was respected, which is a relief, given how much corruption exists in our society today.
The question now is this: is a Trump victory the result the NWO powerbrokers wanted all along, for reasons we are yet to see? Or is it a genuine uprising against these forces? What Does a Trump Presidency Mean for Liberty and Freedom?
For me, Trump can be summarized in one word: unpredictable . President Elect Trump truly embodies unpredictability more than any other high-level politician around. One moment he is railing against the 9/11 official story, then he is declaring his love for Israel, then he is bringing up the vaccine-autism connection, then he is suggesting Snowden be killed. Next he is suggesting GMO corn makes you stupid, then he suggesting Muslims be banned from the US , then he is calling global warming a hoax , then he is suggesting the Government be given the power to shut down the internet. Then, after all of that, he makes friendly overtures to Russia while demonizing the hell out of Iran. What does he stand for? Peace or war? Freedom or tyranny?
At this stage no one knows, probably not even Trump himself. He has contradicted himself numerous times throughout his campaign, and merely once suggesting a good idea (i.e. looking at who controls the issuance of money instead of letting the international bankers via the Federal Reserve control it) doesn’t mean it will become his policy.
Unpredictability is one of Trump’s great qualities, but also one of his most dangerous. A lot will depend on with whom he surrounds himself once becoming President Trump, and what kind of advice they give him. His VP Mike Pence is a standard conservative Republican who will be no doubt far more to the liking of the NWO conspirators, but Trump is also taking advice from retired DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) chief Michael Flynn, the man who came out and highlighted how the US created ISIS in a declassified DIA document .
For now, America and the world have around two-and-a-half months to get over the incredible shock of yesterday’s result and psychologically prepare itself for a Trump presidency. Meanwhile, it would be foolish for us to expect that one man can fix all of America’s problems. It will be the job of the independent and alternative media to hold Trump to his promises and his word, and to continue to share ideas of how we can truly create a better, freer and more just society. This necessarily involves questioning the very structures and systems of society, and will never magically improve with just the passing of the baton from one politician to another.
Sources *http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/top-10-proofs-isis-us-israeli-creation/ *http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/scientists-refute-manmade-global-warming/
Makia Freeman is the editor of alternative news / independent media site The Freedom Articles and senior researcher at ToolsForFreedom.com ( FaceBook here), writing on many aspects of truth and freedom, from exposing aspects of the worldwide conspiracy to suggesting solutions for how humanity can create a new system of peace and abundance. SF Source The Freedom Articles Nov. 2016 Share this: | 0 |
Home » Obama in Greece: The last flight of the lame duck Obama in Greece: The last flight of the lame duck 15.11.2016
Barack Obama begins his last tour as US president on November 15th. He plans to visit Greece, Germany, and Peru. The first place that President Obama is going to visit will be Athens. Common mockery
According to the official statements of the White House, Obama is going to announce support for the "ongoing efforts to stabilize the Greek economy", as well as to appreciate the "hospitality of the Greek government and people extended to the refugees and migrants". Both statements may be considered an inappropriate joke: the Greek economy is still in very critical condition, and the country is facing a migration crisis leading to a humanitarian and demographic catastrophe. The Democrat’s requests
Moreover, Barack Obama is going to demand that the Greek government support the anti-Russian sanctions on the ballot in the EU in December, as well as ban Russian warships from entering Greek ports. In addition, Obama is going to demand that Greece remove its veto on Macedonia’s entry into NATO. National interests against neoliberal delusion
All of Obama’s demands for Athens are a classic example of the pressure exerted on national governments by globalists. Neoliberals demand the renunciation of individual countries’ own interests in favor of a "common good". However, the reality is that following this course leads to ruin, degradation, and sometimes the total destruction of states. Related links | 0 |
Wednesday in an interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric, Sen. Susan Collins ( ) said there was little hope in the U. S. Senate for the House GOP healthcare bill should it make its way out of the House. “I’m still looking at the bill, but I have a lot of concerns about it,” Collins said. “For example, some initial analysis suggests that as many as million people could lose their health insurance. And for seniors, who make a disproportionate amount of the population in Maine, it would mean substantial premium increases that would not be covered by the increase credit. So those are two concerns that I have. ” After laying out some more problems she had with the legislation, she said she agreed with Sen. Rand Paul’s ( ) assertion the bill would be dead on arrival in the U. S. Senate, but not for the same reasons as Paul. “I do not think it would be well received in the Senate,” she said. “But I do want to emphasize that it’s still a work in progress. The House committees are going to be working their will on the bill and it has to go before the full House before it comes to us. And it’s been a work in progress, as Secretary Price has said. And, the bill that was released this week is far better than the bill we were briefed on the week before. So, who knows, maybe it will eventually get better — and thus, will be better received in the Senate. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
Ex-State Department Employee: Sending ‘Sensitive’ Info to Private Email Was Norm Under Clinton "Honestly, OTR, EVERYONE I knew at State used our private email..." the former employee said Mikael Thalen
The former director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department wrote that sending “sensitive” content to private email accounts was the norm under Secretary Clinton, emails published by WikiLeaks reveal. Anne-Marie Slaughter, who served at the department from January 2009 until February 2011, stated “off the record” to New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman that “EVERYONE at State” used private email for government-related business. Ex-State Dept Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter: Private email was the norm under Clinton https://t.co/YdFugWYzX5 @wikileaks pic.twitter.com/pCns3FpNQ3
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) October 26, 2016
“Honestly, OTR, EVERYONE I knew at State used our private email (I used Princeton) when we were out of the office…” Slaughter wrote.
Explaining her disdain for the department’s “incredibly clunky and difficult” blackberries, Slaughter admitted that sensitive information was often sent from the State Department to employee’s personal emails.
“We sent sensitive but unclassified documents to our private emails so we could work on them at home and then sent them back to our work emails,” she said.
The comments were uncovered Wednesday in WikiLeaks’ 19th release of Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles | 0 |
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South Koreans are rising up in their millions and demanding the overthrow of their government after a series of leaks proved president Park Geun-hye is a puppet controlled by a covert shadow government.
In a furor eerily similar to that surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of an email server and charity slush fund, critics are charging that Park has irresponsibly managed classified information and benefited from corrupt practices using non-profits as a front.
The South Korean and U.S. comparisons stop there however. Rather than apathetically accepting the situation – like in America – South Koreans have risen up and the media has rounded on their leader. Citizens have taken to the streets en masse and the country’s media have called for the president to step down immediately – or face impeachment.
The essence of the scandal is this: It has emerged that Park, famously aloof even to top officials and aides, has been taking instructions from a group known as the “eight fairies” including Choi Soon-sil, a shadowy billionaire with ties to George Soros and Angela Merkel. Choi has existed around the edges of South Korean power circles for decades, but has never held an official position. Posters of the president being controlled by puppet strings are cropping up all over South Korea as country-wide protests continue to rage. Recommended (4 months ago) France: Protestors Rise Up In Their Millions Against Ruling Class
The Washington Post reports that “Calls for her resignation — and even impeachment — are resonating from across the political spectrum, and her approval ratings have dropped to a record low of 17 percent, according to two polls released Friday.
On Friday, Park directed all of her top advisers to resign en masse, with her spokesman saying a reshuffle would take place, the Yonhap news agency reported. Kim Jae-won, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, told a parliamentary session that Park’s chief of staff had already stepped down.
It’s not clear, however, whether it will be enough.
“Park Geun-hye’s leadership is on the brink of collapse,” said Yoo Chang-sun, a left-leaning political analyst. Shin Yool, a right-leaning professor at Myongji University, called it the “biggest crisis” since South Korea was founded 70 years ago. “The president has lost her ability to function as leader.”
Choi is the daughter of the late Choi Tae-min, who was a kind of shaman-fortune teller described in a 2007 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul as “a charismatic pastor.” Locally, he’s seen as a “Korean Rasputin” who once held sway over Park after her mother was assassinated in 1974.
“Rumors are rife that the late pastor had complete control over Park’s body and soul during her formative years and that his children accumulated enormous wealth as a result,” read the cable, released by WikiLeaks.
Park has strongly denied any improper relationship.
But South Korean media have uncovered evidence that, they claim, shows that Choi Soon-sil wielded undue influence over the president.
JTBC, a television network, said it had found a tablet computer that contained files of speeches the president had yet to give, among other documents. The younger Choi is said to have edited the landmark speech that Park gave in Germany in 2014, laying out her vision for unification with the North. The Hankyoreh newspaper wrote that actual presidential aides “were just mice to Choi’s cat.”
She is also rumored to have created a secret group called “the eight fairies” to advise the president behind the scenes.
TV Chosun, the channel belonging to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, aired a clip showing Choi overseeing the making of an outfit for Park, “raising doubt whether Park made any decision at all without Choi,” the paper said.
South Korean media have been full of Photoshopped graphics to illustrate the relationship, including one showing Park as a puppet and Choi Soon-sil pulling her strings.
Meanwhile, investigators are looking into allegations that Choi siphoned off money from two recently established foundations that collected about $70 million from the Federation of Korean Industries, the big business lobby with members including Samsung and Hyundai. Prosecutors raided Choi’s home in Seoul this week looking for evidence.
At the same time, there are allegations that the daughter of Choi Soon-sil was given special treatment when she applied for Ewha Womans University, one of South Korea’s top colleges.
Local media have reported that her daughter’s grades were not good enough, so the rules were changed to give credit to applicants who had won equestrian awards, as she had. The already-embattled president of Ewha resigned this week.
Ironically, this all comes less than a month after Park’s administration instituted a wide-ranging new law aimed at cracking down on corruption and influence peddling.
Choi is in Germany with her daughter and is refusing to return to South Korea to answer questions, saying she is having heart problems and cannot fly. But in an interview with the Segye Ilbo, she denied creating the Eight Fairies group, owning the tablet or knowingly receiving classified information. “Because I was not a government official, I had no idea that this was confidential,” she told the paper.
Park apologized Tuesday for the scandal, saying she had always acted “with a pure heart.” Then she canceled a planned meeting related to North Korea on Friday so she could consider ways to “resolve the nation’s anxiety and stably run the government,” according to a spokesman.
She did, however, attend a ceremony in the southern city of Busan, where university students shouted “Park Geun-hye should step down!” and “Choi Soon-sil must be arrested!” Share: | 0 |
I used to teach at the graduate school of information sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. I couldn’t believe how many students looked at ESPN. com or its ilk in class. We live in a world of screens, where digital distractions contend with our need to learn. Is multitasking a good idea? No. Clifford Nass, a Stanford professor who pioneered research into how humans interact with technology, conducted numerous studies of people juggling different cognitive tasks, like talking on the phone, watching television and working on a computer. Basically, people are bad at it. They are actually moving in and out of different things quickly, not working simultaneously, and nothing gets enough attention. On the other hand, performance isn’t the same as learning. Song, a psychologist working with the neuroscientist Patrick Bédard at Brown University, found that when people learn motor skills with a distraction, the two are internalized. That can create better learning, particularly if you have to recall facts in a dissonant environment. “When pilots are learning how to handle emergency situations,” Dr. Song said, “it’s better if they learn them with distractions going on. ” But don’t turn the volume to 11. “If you can take an exam while you have Twitter on, sure, study while you’re on Twitter,” Dr. Song said. “But you better negotiate with your teacher. By the way, colleagues say I shouldn’t even talk about this. ” If you’re easily distracted, do something small about it. Quiet music may be the distraction a flighty person needs to keep focusing. If the student tries to focus too completely, he may, paradoxically, break off altogether with a bigger distraction. Analog learning works better. Writing notes by hand is better than typing them on a laptop, according to a 2014 Princeton study. People taking notes by hand use fewer words but they have better recall of concepts. “People who take notes on computers are transcribing, and people taking notes by hand tend to be choosing more,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. “An important part of learning is ordering things, and you do that more with note taking. ” Web surfing is the new secondhand smoke. Dr. Zimmerman, like me, used to spot students looking at entertainment websites in class, a disengagement he thought hurt the student and the class over all. Even sitting next to someone multitasking on a laptop could affect your learning and performance, according to a 2012 Canadian study. With that discovery, he said: “I banned them. No one has complained. ” | 1 |
A phone call to the office of Jeremy Travis, new in Washington: “The attorney general wants to talk with you. ” The attorney general of the United States at that moment, in 1994, would have been Janet Reno, and not long before, Mr. Travis had gone to work for her as director of the National Institute of Justice, an agency that conducts research for the Justice Department. Ms. Reno told him that she was sitting with one of her deputies, Mr. Travis recalled on Thursday, and they had just read a news article about the DNA exoneration of a man who had been on death row. “She said, ‘I have two questions,’” Mr. Travis said. “‘How many more are there like this? What can we learn from it? ’” It may not be immediately apparent how daring that inquiry was 22 years ago. DNA testing was then in its early days as a tool in criminal justice, and few people anticipated that prisoners would clamor to have old biological evidence retested in hopes of clearing their names. Moreover, hardly anyone was willing to say aloud that innocent people really were locked up. Politicians could not spend money fast enough on prisons. After a long climb in crime rates, the country was ratcheting up sentences. Bill Clinton had suspended his presidential campaign in 1992 so that he could be in Arkansas, where he was then the Democratic governor, for the execution of a murderer who had shot himself in the head and was so that he asked prison guards to save the pecan pie from his last meal for him as he was being led to his lethal injection. Ms. Reno had read, though, about the exoneration of 16 people, including a former marine, Kirk Bloodsworth, who had been sent to death row in Maryland for the killing of a child on the strength of testimony by five eyewitnesses. At such a moment, the notion that fallibility was poured into the foundation of the criminal justice system was startling and disruptive. Ms. Reno, who died this week at 78, was unafraid of looking directly at it. The first woman to hold the position of attorney general, she served eight years. “This is an illustrative story of how she fought for truth, and how she worked,” said Mr. Travis, who is now the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Without Google or the rich resources of the modern web, the researchers working for Mr. Travis scoured reports from around the country. The Innocence Project in New York, the leading organization using DNA to overturn convictions, had some information, but it too was still in an embryonic phase. Still, the researchers found 28 cases of innocent people who had been wrongly convicted, and prepared a report, “Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science. ” DNA testing is practical only in a small fraction of cases, but the flaws it discloses in conventional investigative techniques — first documented in that report — are profound. The most important question is not how those innocent people got out of jail, but how they got into it. Eyewitness errors were a leading source of wrongful convictions, as were false confessions and junk forensic science. The report included commentaries by prosecutors, a police superintendent, and Peter J. Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck, the of the Innocence Project, who wrote, “There is a strong scientific basis for believing these matters represent just the tip of a very deep and disturbing iceberg of cases. ” (Mr. Neufeld, Mr. Scheck and I later wrote a book on the subject.) At Ms. Reno’s request, the justice institute brought in panels of psychologists who had studied the working of human memory. “She stayed the whole day,” Mr. Travis said. The work led to new ways of asking witnesses to look at suspects and of recording complete interrogations, as well as greater rigor in laboratory practices and the preservation of evidence. Ms. Reno met many detectives in her home as a child — her father had been a police reporter in Florida — and for her, it was important that the public realized they were hardworking, great people, said James Doyle, a lawyer and author who interviewed her for “True Witness,” a book about eyewitness procedures. That first report she commissioned on DNA exonerations looked fearlessly at the errors not just of police officers, but of a whole constellation of players in justice. “Ernest Hemingway once famously wrote that ‘all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain, called ‘Huckleberry Finn,’” Mr. Doyle wrote on the Crime Report website. “It is not too much to say that all modern criminal justice reform can be traced to that pamphlet. ” | 1 |
Philip Rucker and David Filipov write at the Washington Post that Donald Trump’s chief strategist and former Breitbart News Executive Chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, will assume a new National Security role: President Trump on Saturday ordered the Pentagon to devise a strategy to defeat the Islamic State and restructured the National Security Council to include his controversial top political adviser as he forged a partnership with Russian President Vladi mir Putin in their first official phone call. [ … ] Counseling Trump in the effort will be Stephen K. Bannon, the White House chief strategist whose influence inside the administration is expanding far beyond politics. In a separate presidential memo, Trump reorganized the National Security Council to, along with other changes, give Bannon a regular seat on the principals committee — the meetings of the most senior national security officials, including the secretaries of defense and state. [ … ] Bannon has already been playing a major role in directing Trump’s foreign policy, administration officials say, and joined the president in the Oval Office on Saturday for his calls with Putin and several other world leaders. You can read the rest of the story here. | 1 |
In an interview broadcast Friday on Breitbart News Daily, author Ann Coulter talked about the violent demonstrations have employed to shut down speech they dislike, notably Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart News at UC Berkeley this week. [SiriusXM host Alex Marlow contended that the mainstream media’s irresponsible use of terms like “fascist” and “white nationalist” for speakers who are not of the Left has laid the groundwork for violence against them. “It is the rise of a genuinely violent fascist movement,” Coulter said of these gangs. “It would be as if the Nazis went around complaining about how the Jews were attacking them and oppressing them. That’s basically what we have going on now. ” She recalled how violent protesters shut down a Trump rally in Chicago during the 2016 presidential campaign. “It was amazing to me how many families with kids, and wives, and daughters, they continued to go out to see Trump. It is like my college speeches, something I’ve been doing for a long time. You know, you’ll have 20 speeches that are fine, and then suddenly, BAM! the violent mobs show up. You never know when it’s going to happen, so you have to be prepared all the time,” she said. “But Americans still did come out. I think that was intended to reduce Trump’s crowds, and make it look like he was the one creating the violence. All of this, just for someone who says, ‘We have to take care of Americans first.’ That’s what they’re so upset about, Alex,” Coulter declared, returning to an earlier point about how the U. S. Congress is attempting to cut back on the cost of major programs for Americans, such as Social Security and Medicare, at the same time advocates insist on importing even more dependents. “We can’t afford that. We can’t afford this. We have to raise the retirement age. No, stop! We gave at the office!” she exclaimed. Coulter agreed wholeheartedly with President Trump’s threat to “withdraw all federal funding from Berkeley” if the college administration refuses to deal with violence. “This is a genuine threat to democracy when people can’t engage in the first of the Bill of Rights, the very first one that’s mentioned: freedom of speech,” she warned. “This has been a burgeoning movement, particularly on our college campuses, for a long time. ” “In a calm, reflective moment, I think he should do the same thing with any colleges that have speech codes or need special ‘free speech zones’ where students professors are disciplined for engaging in First Amendment speech,” she advised. “This has absolutely been done before,” she noted. “The IRS has been used to say, ‘Sorry. If you’re collecting student aid, you can’t attend these colleges. We’re not sending any student aid to these colleges who don’t abide by … ’ — and those were often kind of silly ‘principles’ being enforced, like Bob Jones University, that’s sort of a very hardcore fundamentalist Christian college. I’m a Christian. It has some beliefs — or it used to I don’t know if they still do — but one was from the Tower of Babel. They wouldn’t allow interracial dating. ” “They had blacks, they had whites, and it was mostly a country back then — in fact, scholarships for black students — but whites couldn’t date black students. Blacks couldn’t date white students,” she explained. “And I ought to add, because I looked this up at the time, there was very little dating of any sort. If you went on a date at Bob Jones, you had to have a chaperone with you. Anyway, there was no racial animus to this it hit both races equally. ” “But for that, the IRS came down like a ton of bricks on Bob Jones University. No federal aid through student scholarships, as I recall. A student who had student aid could not attend that college. And now, we have a genuine fascist, violent fascist, movement rising up, and there’s not only no punishment, but taxpayers are paying for this? Oh, no, no, no. Second to immigration, the next biggest problem in this country is the universities and public schools,” she said. Coulter said this climate of hatred and violent repression of dissent comes from the university administrations. “These are not spontaneous movements,” she scoffed. “I described in my book Demonic on groupthink and mob behavior, that these are particularly lickspittle students that want to please the professor. And they know damned well their professors are opposed to everything Ann Coulter says and everything Milo says. It’s just like presenting a polished apple to the teacher. ‘Oh, teacher, here: I brought you a gift today! I went and protested Ann Coulter! ’” “At the risk of being snobbish, but telling you what the truth is, it doesn’t tend to happen at the Ivy League schools,” she observed. “Berkeley is weird. … The worst ones are the Jesuit colleges and the community colleges. I mean, at Harvard and Yale — and I’ve spoken at both places many times — Wellesley, Smith, my own alma mater Cornell, the kids are too — they want to challenge you intellectually. They’d be embarrassed to throw something. ” “Though I do think there is a new movement kind of sweeping through here,” she added, “at some of these schools, we’d be organized. We’d be ready to go. I’d give the speech. They could stand up at the mics. I’d take questions until they had collapsed from exhaustion. And usually at the tougher schools to get into, that’s how they want to be. They want to ask you a question and outsmart you. It’s when it is a who doesn’t have the power of speech or logic, and just throws food — so it would tend to be the lesser colleges. ” “The other thing is, when we would be prepared and have college Republicans and large men prepared to throw out any hecklers, sometimes the members of the administration would stop people — our people, who had rented the room had paid for me to come speak. Someone comes to disrupt and start heckling, they try to remove the heckler, and an administrator — this happened at Syracuse University — some dean of students stepped forward and said, ‘You can’t remove the heckler because you’re interfering with his free speech rights! ’” Coulter said with astonishment. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 1 |
The funded BBC on Thursday claimed that new rules allowing women to wear a hijab during basketball matches represent “a big step forward in women’s sport”. [The organisation made the claim on the BBC Sport Facebook page, over the news that the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) had changed a ruling that did not allow female basketball players to wear the hijab during matches, on the grounds that it was a safety issue. However, the claim was poorly received by the page’s followers, who contended the decision is, in fact, a step backwards rather than forwards. “In what way is this a big step forward? The hijab is an oppressive garment for men to control their wives. But yeah, if it makes the beeb feel more virtuous then let’s pretend it’s progressive,” user Nathaniel Shelley wrote. Another user, Codey Sharp, wrote: “This is a step backwards, allowing women to be oppressed even whilst playing sport, marvellous. ” In 2014, the Qatari women’s team were forced to withdraw from the Asian Games after being denied permission to wear the garment during matches. Last month, the BBC lauded an Australian photographer’s response to what he called a “tragic” rise in “ sentiment” in his homeland by taking the piece of Islamic female clothing known as the burqa and using it as an art prop, describing it as “critique of the rising far right and Islamophobia”. BBC Radio host Roger Bolton recently described the organisation’s coverage of religion as a “mess” because its young metropolitan liberal staff are “dangerously ”. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump turned his attention to national security and military readiness on Wednesday, saying in a speech that his approach to foreign policy could be summed up in three words: “peace through strength. ” Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, offered many facts to support his vision and outlined the approach a Trump administration would take on issues related to national security. We found five of his key claims or proposals to be misleading or consistent with current policy. “As soon as I take office, I will ask Congress to fully eliminate the defense sequester and will submit a new budget to rebuild the military. ” The military, Mr. Trump said, needs to be expanded and equipped with a new generation of aircraft and other equipment. The changes he proposed — such as adding about 90, 000 soldiers to the Army and expanding the Navy to 350 ships — would require tens of billions of dollars a year in additional military spending (expanding the Army alone could cost more than $10 billion a year). To get the needed money, Mr. Trump said he would call on Congress to reverse the cuts to military spending made as part of the budget sequester in 2013, which was the result of a compromise reached between Democrats and Republicans. Still, the new spending would ultimately cost taxpayers nothing, Mr. Trump suggested, turning to familiar Republican talking points to explain how he would pay for it. He said he would eliminate wasteful government spending, increase energy production and trim the federal work force, including the military bureaucracy, for instance. He also suggested he would collect unpaid taxes, which he said amounted to $385 billion. But Mr. Trump offered scant details about how much his new military budget would cost and how his proposals to “make the government leaner” would cover the spike in military spending. _____ “The Navy is among the smallest it has been since 1915. ” The shrinking of the Navy’s fleet is a specious claim that has been a popular Republican talking point for years. The variation that Mr. Trump repeated on Wednesday — that the Navy’s fleet of 276 ships is its smallest since World War I — is accurate in strictly numerical terms. But military commanders and experts say the claim purposely obscures the ability of today’s Navy, ignoring the vast gap between what a warship could do a century ago and the frightening array of armaments, aircraft and surveillance equipment carried by modern Navy vessels. Cruisers and destroyers carry cruise missiles, submarines can launch nuclear weapons, and a single aircraft carrier with its escort ships wields more firepower than most militaries on the planet. _____ “I will ask my generals to present me a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy ISIS. ” The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is in retreat in Syria and Iraq, and Pentagon officials and analysts believe that the plans laid out by the Obama administration are working. Still, the group remains a potent force in the Middle East, and its loyalists overseas continue to present a significant threat. Could that be addressed by a new plan that focuses on, as Mr. Trump said, “cyberwarfare, financial warfare and ideological warfare” in addition to military action? Unlikely, say defense officials and analysts. The United States and its allies are already focusing on those fronts, and have been especially successful at targeting the Islamic State’s financial strength by striking its infrastructure and seizing territory, depriving the group of its tax base. The ideological piece has proved more difficult — the Islamic State is still attracting recruits — but who exactly would come up with Mr. Trump’s new plan was not made clear. The generals he cited in his speech, after all, were the ones who devised the current plan. _____ “We will also make it a priority to develop defensive and offensive cybercapabilities. ” The United States has already prioritized cyberwarfare — in fact, it was arguably one of the first states to use a cyberweapon, the Stuxnet computer worm, which wiped out many of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges in 2010. The defensive part has proved more challenging in large part because no one — not a single country or private company — does it particularly well. There is no easy solution, experts say, and attackers have a huge advantage: They often need to find only a single vulnerability in software that contains millions of lines of code. Defenders need to find them all to “immediately protect” networks, as Mr. Trump promised to do on Wednesday. _____ “Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, is now flush in cash released by the United States. ” Mr. Trump claimed that the United States had released $150 billion to Iran. He failed to point out that the money came from Iranian assets frozen by the United States and released under the terms of a deal to limit Tehran’s nuclear program. The $150 billion figure he offered is also disputed by experts who say it represents the highest possible estimate for the total value of Iranian assets unfrozen by the United States. The figure is probably closer to $100 billion, many say. Mr. Trump also mentioned “$1. 7 billion in cash ransom payments. ” The payments were made in cash earlier this year to settle an old arbitration case, not pay a ransom. But the Obama administration has acknowledged that it used the money as leverage, holding on to the payments until Iran released American prisoners. | 1 |
By wmw_admin on November 3, 2016 Reports Afrique — Nov 1, 2016
Iraqi army and popular forces have discovered a number of US-made missiles from a military position of the ISIS (ISIL, IS, Daesh) in the Southern part of Mosul, informed local sources disclosed after the first group of pro-government troops opened their way into Southern Mosul on Monday.
“Several US-made missiles were found in al-Shoura region to the South of Mosul,” a local source said on Monday. The Iraqi army and popular forces had found US-made missiles in Anbar province several times before. Provincial officials confirmed that the US-made weapons were sent by the US-led anti-ISIL coalition airplane for the ISIL terrorists in Anbar province.
Meantime, Iraqi security officials announced that the ISIL has sent US-made military equipment to Tal Afar region in the last two days to stand strong against Iraqi popular forces’ impending attack to capture the region.
“The ISIL terrorists have sent US-made TOW anti-tank missiles to Tal Afar and it is quite evident that they are preparing for a long-term war,” the Arabic-language media quoted an Iraqi security official as saying on Monday.
In late August 2015, a senior Iraqi intelligence official revealed that the US helicopters drop weapons and other aids for the ISIL terrorists in the Western province of al-Anbar.
“The fighters present at the forefront of fighting against the ISIL always see US helicopters flying over the ISIL-controlled areas and dropping weapons and urgent aids for them,” the official who called for anonymity told FNA.
Yet, he said the helicopters could have also been sent from Turkey or Israel.
He added that in addition to dropping aids, the helicopters transfer the ISIL ringleaders and wounded members from the battleground to some hospitals in Syria or other countries which support the terrorist group.
The official cautioned that such assistance further prolongs the conflicts in Anbar, adding that when the Iraqi army and popular forces purge the terrorists from Anbar province, the US helicopters will transfer the ISIL ringleaders to other regions to prevent the Iraqi forces’ access to ISIL secrets.
Also in March 2015, a group of Iraqi popular forces known as Al-Hashad Al-Shabi shot down the US Army helicopter that was carrying weapons for the ISIL in the Western parts of Al-Baghdadi region in Al-Anbar province.
Meantime in February 2015, a senior lawmaker disclosed that Iraq’s army had shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the ISIL terrorists in Al-Anbar province.
“The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” al-Zameli said. | 0 |
A tenuous peace in the upper echelons of the Republican Party showed signs of unraveling this weekend as a major donor compared Donald J. Trump to Hitler and Mussolini, Mr. Trump and Mitt Romney reignited their feud, and one of Mr. Trump’s aides took a shot at an important campaign ally. Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a major contributor to Republican candidates, railed against Mr. Trump on Friday at a meeting of Republicans in Park City, Utah, comparing him to the Axis leaders, according to several people in attendance who declined to be identified because the discussion was private. The comments, first reported by The Washington Post, came at Mr. Romney’s annual retreat of Republican donors, leaders and business executives. Mr. Trump’s candidacy, and the divisions it is causing among leading Republicans, was an undercurrent of the gathering. Mr. Romney has been outspoken in his refusal to support Mr. Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, even as other party figures have grudgingly fallen into line. No one has personified the party’s divisions like Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker, and the pressure on him intensified this weekend. At the Utah retreat on Friday, Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor, pressed Mr. Ryan on his decision to support Mr. Trump, according to an attendee, saying she did not know how to explain it to her children. Then, on Saturday, Dan Scavino Jr. a senior adviser and the social media director for the Trump campaign, criticized Mr. Ryan on Twitter, linking to an article on a conservative website that accused him of harming his party, complete with the headline “Paul Ryan Is the Reason the G. O. P. Is Losing America. ” The discord appeared to bring a quick end to a period of relative peace in the party that began Tuesday when Mr. Trump issued a statement in which he backed away, slightly, from remarks accusing a federal judge of being biased against him because of the judge’s Mexican heritage. Mr. Trump did not apologize but said his remarks had been “misconstrued. ” Later that night, after the final primaries of the presidential race, he gave a restrained speech in which he refrained from offending anyone. The new approach did not last long. By the end of the week, he had resumed referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who has called Mr. Trump a “racist bully,” as “Pocahontas” because of her claims during her Senate bid that she had Native American heritage, which has not been proved. “Somebody said to me, one of the media, ‘Mr. Trump, would you apologize? ’” Mr. Trump said at a rally on Saturday in Tampa, Fla. “I said, ‘Yes, I’ll apologize — to Pocahontas, I will apologize!’ Because Pocahontas is insulted. ” Mr. Trump also attacked Mr. Romney, calling him “a choker” and saying he “didn’t work like he should have worked” when he was the nominee in 2012. Once Mr. Romney lost, Mr. Trump added, he should have gone “off into the sunset. ” “You don’t sit there jealous and sick to your stomach,” he said. A day earlier, Mr. Romney, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, said he feared that Mr. Trump’s election would lead to “ racism” that would “change the character of the generations of Americans that are following. ” Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, gently chided Mr. Romney on Twitter on Friday, writing, “Respect Mitt and differences but couldn’t disagree more. ” Adding that the Supreme Court was “too important to lose for generations,” Mr. Priebus ended his post, “Let’s stop this and unify. ” Mr. Trump and the party have gotten a late start on for the general election and need as many of the party’s reliable donors as they can attract. At Mr. Romney’s donor retreat on Saturday, Mr. Priebus was more pointed, telling donors opposed to Mr. Trump that the party would “win with or without you,” according to an attendee present for his remarks. A representative for Ms. Whitman did not respond Saturday to a request for an interview about her comments. Ms. Whitman, according to one of the people present, did not stop at comparing Mr. Trump to Hitler and Mussolini. She also warned the gathering that if Republicans compromised on their principles to win an important election, they would be entering fraught territory. “What happens next time?” she asked, implying that it could lead to more compromises and more candidates like Mr. Trump. Ms. Whitman, who ran for governor of California in 2010 and was a finance for Mr. Romney in 2012, was part of a group of major donors who tried to stop Mr. Trump during the primaries through paid advertising. She has been explicit about her disdain for him. “Look at the comments he’s made about women, about Muslims, about reporters,” she told CNBC in March. “It’s just repugnant. ” The group at the retreat represented a mix of the Republican Party, divided between those who have said they cannot support Mr. Trump, like Mr. Romney, and those who have tepidly endorsed him, like Mr. Ryan, who was Mr. Romney’s running mate in 2012. In an emailed statement, Mr. Trump dismissed Ms. Whitman’s comments. “I never met Meg Whitman, but the job she is doing at Hewlett Packard is not a very good one,” Mr. Trump said. “Based on the disastrous campaign she ran in California, and the tens of millions of dollars she wasted, I have learned a lot from her. I do not want her support. ” Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to questions about its social media director’s gibe at Mr. Ryan, which at a minimum showed a lack of message discipline inside the campaign. Whether it would endanger Mr. Ryan’s support of Mr. Trump was not clear the speaker’s office did not respond to requests for comment Saturday. He was forced to respond Friday when pressed by Ms. Brown, who now runs an education website and is married to Dan Senor, who was an adviser to Mr. Ryan and to one of Mr. Trump’s primary race rivals, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Turning to Mr. Ryan during a panel discussion, Ms. Brown told him that one morning, one of her sons, expressing disappointment, had asked why he endorsed Mr. Trump. What, she asked Mr. Ryan, was she supposed to tell her child? The attendee present for the exchange said Mr. Ryan appeared slightly uncomfortable but handled the question well. He said Mr. Ryan had explained that while he understood the disagreement among Republicans, he believed that his decision to support Mr. Trump would be better for the Republican Party in the long term. Mr. Trump, he said, had won with large margins in some of his House members’ districts, and many voters liked and supported the candidate. Indeed, Mr. Trump ran away with the Republican nomination with the same flamethrowing approach he is using today. “It’s like what they said about his temper,” said Brett Mohnkern, 29, of Oil City, Pa. who went to Mr. Trump’s rally on Saturday in Pittsburgh. “Tone down for what?” Still, the attendee who saw the exchange with Mr. Ryan on Friday said the party’s debate over whether to support Mr. Trump was like a family’s struggle with a divorce. Mr. Ryan, in one of his appearances at the retreat, tried to infuse what little humor he could into the situation. He joked that he had recently told David Copperfield that he wished the magician could make Mr. Ryan disappear from 2016. | 1 |
An Oregon man accused of stabbing a grocery store employee is also accused of murdering his mother, police said. [Joshua Lee Webb, 36, was charged with murder and attempted murder after he allegedly murdered his mother Tina Marie Webb, 59, at their home and then stabbed a grocery store employee at a store 10 miles away, KGW reported. The man entered the Estacada Thriftway Harvest Market in Estacada Sunday at approximately 2:15 p. m. allegedly carrying a human head and holding a knife, before he stabbed the employee. Other grocery store employees knocked the suspect to the ground and pinned him down until authorities arrived, Estacada fire officials said. Police took Webb into custody and had him evaluated at a nearby hospital. KPTV reports that the victim was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition. The victim’s identity has not been released, although many people in town know the grocery store employee as “Mike. ” Sandy’s interim police chief Ernie Roberts said the victim is expected to make a full recovery. | 1 |
Sounds good, Pedro. | 0 |
During Saturday’s “Justice” on Fox News Channel, former Nixon and Ford speechwriter, actor and author Ben Stein said that mainstream media is acting as the “supreme power in America right now,” adding that they are trying to cut President Donald Trump “down to size. ” “The media is the supreme power in America right now, and they are trying to cut President Trump down to size, and they’re using the judiciary as one of their pawns,” Stein told host Jeanine Pirro. “The media is the unaccountable fourth branch of the government,” he continued. “They can make up sources and have them go down in the history books as great journalists. They can make things up. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
Monday on Laura Ingraham’s nationally syndicated radio show, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan discussed the possibility of the United States escalating its involvement in the Syrian civil war days after President Donald Trump launched a military strike on a Syrian airbase in responding to the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons. Buchanan noted the biggest cheerleaders of Trump’s action were Sens. John McCain ( ) Lindsey Graham ( ) and Marco Rubio ( ) which he deemed to be “the war party. ” However, argued that they would not “get the war they want” from Trump. “It’s McCain and Graham and Marco Rubio — the war party,” Buchanan said. “But let me say this, Laura — my view is they’re not going to get the war they want. If Donald Trump the president takes us into Syria’s civil war and he’s already made the first strike — it will consume his presidency. And the sense I get this morning and listening to some of these folks on yesterday’s show is that, ‘Don’t worry, this is just a . We’re not going into Syria. The enemy is still ISIS, as indeed it is if you take a look at what happened in Egypt yesterday, 47 dead and 100 injured. ” “So I think the war party is going to be frustrated because I cannot believe that Donald Trump on second thought is going to plunge us into Syria, which he told us again and again and again would be an act of folly — that our enemy is ISIS and our enemy is and that we should finish them off,” he added. “Then we’re necessarily going to have to work with the folks who did most of the heavy lifting in finishing them off. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
ALBANY — State lawmakers on Friday reached a deal to conclude the 2016 legislative session that included a modest ethics package, state funding for supportive housing for the homeless, and a extension — with major caveats — of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s control of New York City schools. Consensus on the ethics reform seemed to come quickly on Friday, the day after the last official day of the legislative session. The deal would, among other things, strip state pensions from public officials convicted of corruption and strengthen prohibitions on political campaigns’ ability to coordinate with independent expenditure committees. But a similar consensus kept lurching out of reach on the issue that mattered most to Mr. de Blasio: mayoral control. In the end, he ceded significant concessions to his Albany antagonists in exchange for an extension of a single year, down from the three years he had hoped for. Bowing to demands from the State Senate majority leader, John J. Flanagan, a Republican who is not disposed to be helpful to a mayor who has openly worked to flip control of the chamber to the Democrats, the mayor and his allies in the Assembly agreed to disclose more information about city school districts’ spending and to accept a change to the oversight structure for more than half the city’s charter schools. A extension, with few or no caveats, had seemed all but cemented when lawmakers went to bed on Thursday evening. But the morning found Mr. Flanagan pushing for the funding transparency requirement, followed by the provision in the afternoon. It would effectively create a parallel system of charter schools within the city, allowing “ charter schools in good standing” to switch to join the State University of New York umbrella or the Board of Regents of the State Education Department. City Hall gritted its teeth. “This extension is a recognition of the unprecedented progress and achievements mayoral control has delivered for our school system,” Austin Finan, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said in a statement. For people outside city education circles, however, there was plenty of meat in the agreement that Mr. Flanagan Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat and the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, a Democrat, announced on Friday evening. Lawmakers also agreed to require school districts to test for lead in drinking water, with the state paying for some of the testing costs. The adoption of the lead testing bill was a victory for Assemblywoman Catherine T. Nolan, a Queens Democrat, who heads the Education Committee and who had been criticized for blocking a previous bill that she considered too broad. Under the new bill, schools would be required to periodically test for lead — though some already do — and notify parents in the event the dangerous element is discovered. The state will also provide an additional $50 million in capital funding for SUNY and the City University of New York. But the governor’s announcement that the state would release $570 million in state resources to build and operate 1, 200 units of supportive housing for the homeless was immediately dissected and dismissed by advocates for the program, who said it fell far short of Mr. Cuomo’s initial commitment to pay for 20, 000 units. “Tonight’s plan would appear to be a betrayal of the most vulnerable New Yorkers and the latest broken promise from a governor who makes sweeping announcements that lead to paltry results,” the Campaign 4 Housing, a supportive housing group, said in a statement. Mr. Cuomo and the legislative leaders had already agreed to funding for 6, 000 units over five years as part of the state budget passed in March, but another deal was required to release the first infusion of money for spending. The $570 million figure included only $150 million of new state funding, said Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi, the chairman of the Assembly’s Social Services Committee, with the rest coming from existing capital funds and tax credits. “In January, it was 20, 000 units,” he said. “In April, it was 6, 000 units. Now it’s 1, 200 units and it’s only $150 million in new money. All the rest is smoke and mirrors. ” Early Saturday morning, the lawmakers were in the process of passing the new legislation. At about 2:15 a. m. the Legislature finished its last remaining substantive task: the Senate passed a bill to legalize daily fantasy sports, which had been considered illegal gambling in New York. The Assembly had approved the measure on Friday afternoon. Other bills won both houses’ backing on Friday. The Legislature passed a bill that aims to ensure equal access to legal representation for the poor by reimbursing counties for indigent legal services, drawing praise from the New York Civil Liberties Union. The hotel industry in New York City cheered the passage of legislation that would keep people from advertising stays shorter than 30 days in unoccupied homes, a measure that the bill’s supporters said would restrict commercial operators of illegal hotels, but that Airbnb — the company that prompted the bill — said would affect regular city residents. It is already illegal in New York to rent out an empty apartment for less than 30 days at a time. The Legislature also passed bills that would increase penalties for using software known as ticket bots to scoop up large numbers of tickets to concerts, games or other events, a practice that the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, highlighted in a recent report. Doing so is already illegal, but the bill would make it a misdemeanor. The agreement on Friday, which came after a flurry of deals at the March budget deadline, including an increase in the minimum wage and the establishment of a paid family leave program, did not please corporate leaders like Heather Briccetti, the president of the Business Council of New York State, who called it devoid of any “major or cost reduction measures. ” Nor did it mollify government watchdogs and other advocates of ethics reforms who had high hopes that the convictions last year of Sheldon Silver, the former Assembly speaker, and Dean G. Skelos, the former Senate majority leader, would finally shame the Legislature into acting to prevent corruption. But of all the measures on ethics that lawmakers did discuss this session, pension forfeiture, a straightforward and broadly popular measure, was the only prominent one to survive. Mr. Cuomo had proposed but failed to win support for more ambitious proposals that included eight different bills for closing a loophole that allows limited liability companies to donate to political candidates up to the limit for individual contributors, rather than for businesses. In order for pension forfeiture to become a constitutional amendment, two consecutively elected legislatures must approve it before voters consider the measure on the ballot. The announcement about the ethics agreement highlighted what were called strong protections against the independent expenditure committees empowered by the Citizens United ruling, the Supreme Court’s 2010 campaign finance decision. The governor had made a push to tighten restrictions on such committees over the past few weeks. The ethics package will also require political consultants who simultaneously advise elected officials or candidates and work with companies that have business before the state to register with the state and disclose their clients. It strengthens disclosure requirements for lobbyists and for nonprofits that lobby the state to disclose financial support from other nonprofits that are not supposed to engage in political activity. Blair Horner, the executive director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the deal was a “smorgasbord of elections, ethics and lobbying reforms” that nonetheless was “not focused at the heart of what’s wrong with Albany,” including the nearly unchecked flow of money through multiple limited liability companies. That said, Mr. Horner said the move to define coordination between independent expenditure committees and candidates was an improvement. “No one has defined what that means,” he said. “And this does. ” The greatest source of friction on Friday appeared to be the mayoral control issue. There was concern within City Hall that the charter school provision would significantly change how such schools in the city run. Charter schools can be authorized by three agencies — the State Education Department, the city’s Education Department and SUNY — but all operate according to the same state law. Although the announcement of the agreement did not offer details, the Senate’s proposal would exempt SUNY schools from the usual state standards and free to set their own rules, two officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. There are 111 charters authorized by SUNY in the city. Another 55 are authorized by the city’s Education Department, and 39 by the state department. | 1 |
Harvard Law School, moving to open its doors to a larger, more diverse pool of applicants, said on Wednesday that it would accept the graduate record examination, known as the GRE, for the admission of students entering its fall 2018 class. The law school, whose alumni include senators, chief executives, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and President Barack Obama, is the second accredited law school in the United States to accept the GRE for admission. It follows the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, which made the change a year ago. At the time, Arizona’s decision provoked a heated debate in the legal profession, which has long supported the Law School Admissions Test, or LSAT, over whether that test should be relied on as a single valid predictor of law school success. Since Arizona’s move, around 150 law school deans, including Martha Minow of Harvard Law, have expressed support for the change. Now Harvard Law is taking the same step. The school said it would start a pilot program in the fall, when students begin submitting applications for the juris doctor program that begins in 2018. The change “will encourage more students in the United States and internationally from a greater degree of disciplines to apply,” said Jessica Soban, assistant dean and chief admissions officer. Applicants who want to can still submit LSAT scores. The GRE test is offered many times each year and in numerous locations around the world, Ms. Soban said in an interview. In addition, she said, “many prospective law school applicants take the GRE as they consider graduate school options. ” The decision to make the change came after a recently completed Harvard Law study that examined GRE scores of current and former students who had taken both the GRE and the LSAT. The study concluded that “the GRE is an equally valid predictor of grades,” Ms. Soban said. It remains to be seen whether other schools follow Harvard. The law school, which admits about 560 students to each class, has seen its applications increase in recent years, unlike many other law schools in the United States. A survey of 125 law schools last year by Kaplan Test Prep found that 56 percent had no plans to allow applicants to submit GRE scores instead of LSAT scores. Only 14 percent said they planned to amend their policies, but more than half also said they did not want the American Bar Association to explicitly require that law schools accept only LSAT scores. The bar association’s accrediting body will soon consider changes to the rules governing law school admissions. Barry Currier, managing director of the group’s section on legal education and admissions to the bar, said on Wednesday that “at this point we will defer for now any comment on any individual law school’s proposal or pilot program on testing of prospective students. ” When Arizona’s law school chose to accept GRE scores, it risked being expelled from the Law School Admission Council, which oversees LSAT administration and the common application process used by thousands of law school students. But after law school deans rallied around Arizona, the council backed off on quashing such experimentation. This year, the council’s spokeswoman, Wendy Margolis said, “schools have that right under the current A. B. A. standards. ” Ms. Minow said in a statement that Harvard Law School was “continually working to eliminate barriers as we search for the most talented candidates for law and leadership. ” Harvard benefited, she added, when “we can diversify our community in terms of academic background, country of origin, and financial circumstances. “Also, given the promise of the revolutions in biology, computer science, and engineering, law needs students with science, technology, engineering and math backgrounds,” she continued. Harvard Law School has also taken other steps, including conducting admissions interviews via Skype, to diversify its student body about 17 percent of its students are from outside the United States. | 1 |
Whilst leading a free speech countermarch across the UC Davis campus, MILO managed to take a couple of selfies with protestors who had come out for the second day in a row, following the forced cancellation of last night’s event with Martin Shkreli.[ The protestors followed the march at the beginning, screaming chants such as “No Milo, No KKK, No Fascist USA,” and generally trying to interrupt the proceedings, before eventually deciding to give up. The march involved MILO finally getting to chance to speak on the campus, to a crowd of over 300 people, where he discussed the importance of free speech and challenging the consensus on American college campuses. At the end, MILO and the Davis College Republican group reenacted the UC Davis pepper spray incident that took place in 2011, when protestors from the Occupy Movement were pepper sprayed by police after refusing to leave, leading to a nationwide controversy on the use of force by police. | 1 |
Two hundred thousand Uber users deleted the app from their phones after the company supported its New York drivers’ making trips out of Kennedy Airport while taxi companies refused to drive in protest of the Trump administration’s travel ban. From some, it was a moment to switch to rival companies like Lyft, which recently pledged a million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union. But what does switching from one Silicon Valley corporation to another really accomplish? Aren’t they all basically the same? “If you’re going to ban Uber, throw your iPhone in the trash, delete your Facebook account, stop using Twitter,” Jenna says on this week’s episode of Still Processing. “All of these companies are, in some way, supporting this administration. ” As Wesley puts it: “It’s a protest . ” Also, with the final season of “Girls” beginning on Sunday night on HBO, we take a moment to talk about the show’s legacy. And after we talk about the show, we talk to it, with excerpts from Jenna’s recent conversation with the cast: Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet and Jemima Kirke. They discuss the show’s early lack of diversity, why “Silicon Valley” gets off easy and what it’s like to have the public completely conflate actors and the characters they play. We’ve got excerpts! Finally, we play a new game that we hope to come back to. It requires zero expertise, just lots and lots of speculation. From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. On your iPhone or iPad: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “Still Processing” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for “Still Processing” and select it from the list of results. You may have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. | 1 |
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