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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian government forces pushed deeper into Aleppo on Wednesday, seizing areas around the medieval citadel whose narrow streets had long given rebels cover, websites and conflict monitors reported. Rebel leaders disputed the claims, but antigovernment activists in the area sent increasingly desperate messages saying they believed they would soon be killed or arrested, while civilians said they were squeezing into a smaller and smaller area, with some calling for safe passage out. A rebel fighter with the Nour group, reached in a hiding place near the Old City, said that several neighborhoods had fallen and that defeat appeared inevitable. “Aleppo has fallen,” he said. “If there are no U. N. initiatives, I expect the regime will exterminate us all. ” Several civilians confirmed that the government was continuing its advance into the Old City. Al Manar, Hezbollah’s television channel, quoting Syrian military officials, reported that forces had allowed rebels to leave through a designated corridor to other areas to spare the historical quarter further destruction. Rebels were asking for all civilians who wished to leave to be given safe passage to areas, but not to the province of Idlib, where fighters and civilians not wishing to go to government areas have been bused in previous surrender deals. Instead, rebels asked for safe passage to the countryside in the north of the province of Aleppo. A statement said to be from all the rebel groups in Aleppo, issued on Wednesday, said that Idlib was already filled with displaced people and was a target of intensive Russian and government airstrikes. The statement also called for a humanitarian and for the evacuation of about 500 people in need of emergency medical care, under United Nations supervision with security guarantees. Only then, it said, would the fighters discuss a settlement. “Once the humanitarian situation has been alleviated in Aleppo city, the parties concerned can negotiate the future of the city,” the statement said. “What Aleppo has experienced in the last five months is nothing short of a war of extermination against its civilian population. ” But the rebels’ bargaining power is shrinking with their territory, and as one of their main backers, Turkey, appears to be slackening support. Government officials say they will not slow their advance, asserting that they are liberating eastern Aleppo from radical jihadists holding people there hostage. Government officials issued triumphant statements. Fares Shehabi, a member of Parliament from Aleppo, declared on Twitter, “The Syrian army is about to end the largest the longest hostage crisis in history by liberating all of E Aleppo. ” Russian officials have said that all those who choose to remain in the areas of the city will be considered terrorists and will be “destroyed,” as the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Tuesday. But no agreement has been reached on how the evacuation would work. In a joint statement, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States warned that “a humanitarian disaster is taking place before our very eyes. ” The statement condemned the Syrian government and its allies, especially Russia. The statement cited an urgent need for an immediate to provide assistance to 200, 000 people in eastern Aleppo and relief to those who have fled, and it called on Russia and Iran to pressure the Syrian government to endorse the United Nations’ plan for Aleppo. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that the recent effort by the leaders of six Western nations to seek yet another diplomatic solution to the Syrian civil war was in part meant to “apply pressure to Russia” because Russia is complicit in the deaths of innocent civilians there. “The president doesn’t believe it’s an effective strategy to gloss over or somehow obscure Russia’s complicity,” Mr. Earnest said. “We actually believe that Russia bears special responsibility” because of its intervention on behalf of the government of President Bashar . The government has accused rebels of preventing civilians from leaving and of holding them as bargaining chips. Rebels say that the routes are not safe and that some civilians are reluctant to leave for fear of arrest or conscription once they reach government territory. Approximately 30, 000 have fled to areas of Aleppo from districts in the past week, according to international humanitarian officials. Others — it is not known how many — have been displaced from their homes inside the rebel enclave, and still others have fled to a neighborhood controlled by Kurdish militias, hoping to reach other areas. Years of aerial bombing and artillery bombardment have wrecked many eastern Aleppo neighborhoods, destroying clinics, schools and homes. Rebels have also indiscriminately shelled neighborhoods in western Aleppo. Yasser Hmeish, an antigovernment activist, said he had left his family to travel to a hospital in a different area, only to hear later that the neighborhood where he lived had been taken by the government. “I don’t know anything, anything about them,” he said in an audio message, his voice breaking, adding that the internet service seemed to have failed. He said that he was speaking from a makeshift medical clinic and that doctors were working in secret basement locations after being driven from hospitals. There were dozens of wounded and dead around him, including children, he added. “My neighbors have died they were brought here,” he said. “I couldn’t ask them, ‘Where is my family?’ ” The latest round of fighting has killed at least 341 people, including 44 children, in Aleppo, and 81 people, including 31 children, in districts, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring organization based in Britain. About half of the people fleeing east Aleppo are children, said Hanaa Singer, Unicef’s Syria representative, describing hard conditions in camps for the displaced in cold and muddy weather. During her recent visit, she said, more than 100 mortar rounds had fallen on areas of Aleppo in a few days — killing a volunteer, Ahmed Tawfik, 24, an economics student, who had been working with displaced children — while heavy bombardment echoed constantly nearby in eastern Aleppo. Children at the camp, she said, “shared stories of how they cowered for days and weeks in dark and damp basements in fear of the shelling in besieged east Aleppo. ” She added: “They shared their dark memories of destruction, and the smell of dead bodies under the rubble. They said they were happy to be outside, to enjoy the sun and feel the air. To be able to sing and to play. But they missed friends, fathers and elder brothers. They missed their schools. They missed their books, games, and one girl was missing her teddy bear. ” The growing chaos in Aleppo came as an attack suspected to have been carried out by Israel hit the Mezze air base, minutes from downtown Damascus, the Syrian capital, according to the Lebanese news channel Al Mayadeen, which showed pictures of the complex burning. The base has been critical to the government’s fight against rebels in nearby suburbs. It also houses a prison. | 1 |
Sabine El Gemayel, director and producer of Generation Zapped, highlights her solution-oriented documentary film investigating the growing body of research on the alarming health risks associated... | 0 |
UKIP calls for ban on gay fencing 04-11-16
UKIP has called for the abolition of gay fencing.
The party said that gay fencing was undermining British democracy and defying the will of the people.
Nigel Farage, this week’s UKIP leader, said: “The decent, ordinary people of Britain are being imprisoned inside a massive gay fence.
“We must tear down this fence, or at least paint it red white and blue, rather than this multi-coloured monstrosity that looks like it was designed by a Brazilian transvestite named ‘Roberto’.”
Farage added: “More than 17 million people voted for this country to be protected by a large fence, roughly the same height as a typical English rugby player and with the same red-blooded, male urges.”
The campaign has been backed by the Daily Mail , the Daily Express , the Daily Telegraph and the Sun , who are all offering a free pork pie to readers who destroy any fence that looks gay.
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The Senate confirmed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on the Friday before Congress leaves for a Presidents Day recess. [“As I come here to the floor: I chaired the committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, on Scott Pruitt’s nomination,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R. .) in the minutes before the bipartisan vote that saw two Democrats joining the Republican majority, West Virginia’s Sen. Joseph Manchin and North Dakota’s Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. One Republican voted against the nomination, Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins. “I listened to six and a half hours of testimony,” Barrasso said. “I listened and read through responses that he gave to 1, 200 questions being asked of him. He gave thorough answers. Perhaps not the answer the Democrats wanted to hear but answers that I felt were responsive. ” Barrasso took the nomination out of his committee by invoking a special rule approved by the Senate parliamentarian office, because Democrats boycotted the committee’s vote on Pruitt, which robbed the committee of a quorum. The chairman said despite the opposition from Senate Democrats, Pruitt was an excellent choice to run the EPA. “He is a nominee who, as Attorney General in Oklahoma, protected the environment, worked to strengthen the economy, and stood up for state’s rights, which continues to be most crucial. ” Outsider businessman Sen. David Perdue (R. .) said 0n the Senate floor Pruitt is the key man for lifting the regulatory burden off the private enonomy. “Scott Pruitt will return some sanity to the EPA, which over the past eight years has overzealously issued thousands of regulations with little environmental benefit, all while ignoring the high economic cost,” he said. “I look forward to working with Mr. Pruitt and President Trump to scale back the EPA and provide farmers, businesses, and the American people with some relief after eight years of blatant overreach,” he said. Senate Democrats did not have the votes to defeat Pruitt’s nomination, but they exercised the option to use all 30 hours of debate allotted to each confirmation, as they have with most of the other nominees. To eat up the clock, Senate Republicans have extended the chamber’s sessions and scheduled votes in the early morning hours, if that was when the debate time was running out. When senators came to Capitol Hill Friday morning, they were armed with news that a judge ordered Pruitt to turn over thousands of emails as part of an Open Records Request by an Oklahoma television station. Minority Leader Sen. Charles Schumer (D. . Y.) held a press less than four hours before the vote, where he and other Senate Democrats demanded that the Pruitt confirmation vote be delayed until Feb. 27. Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said the delay was necessary to fully understand Pruitt’s relationship with the industry figures in his home state. “Time will tell and facts will come out, but I believe our Republican friends will rue the day that they had this nomination rammed through the Senate on the very day that the emails were being litigated in Oklahoma, in order to get ahead of any . ” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. .) — at his own press conference after Schumer’s — dismissed any calls for delay as more of the same. ”My overarching goal will be to lead in a way that our future generations inherit a better and healthier environment.” — Scott Pruitt, @EPA pic. twitter. — Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) February 17, 2017, The Pruitt vote was scheduled for 1 p. m. but at 12:30 p. m. Sen. Al Franken (D. .) took to the floor to challenge the language used by Barrasso earlier in the day. Barrasso was making the point that Democratic tactics were not sincere. “These delays are all about obstruction,” the Wyoming senator said. “They’re all about denying President Trump his cabinet — that’s what this all about. It’s about pretending that their candidate, Hillary Clinton, didn’t lose the election in November. ” Franken said this characterization was a violation of Senate Rule XIX, which forbids senators from questioning the motives or impugning the character of another senator. This was the same rule Republicans used to call out and silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D. .) during the floor debate for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation. Unlike Warren, Franken did not force a vote after the presiding officer denied his point of order. But Fraken did walk from his own desk in the back rows to the well of the chamber to hash it out with Barrasso and McConnell. Americans believe that a great country deserves safe drinking water, clean air, and a hospitable environment. That’s where @EPA comes in. pic. twitter. — Sen. Al Franken (@SenFranken) February 17, 2017, Barrasso was clearly ticked off, and Franken gestured with his index finger at Barrasso, saying that it was not right to say that the Democrats were acting as if Clinton won the election. Before the exchange between the two senators got more serious, McConnell told Franken that he had lost his sense of humor. This brought Franken to a . Then, smiling broadly, he told McConnell: “Don’t tell me Mr. Majority Leader that I have lost my sense of humor. That is not impugning my motives — that is impugning my career!” With the point of order resolved, Franken then made a motion requesting the debate on the Pruitt confirmation extend another 248 hours — through the recess. That vote went down on party lines, . Sen. John McCain (R. .) and Sen. Joseph Donnelly (D. .) were not at the Capitol. When senators return Feb. 27, they are scheduled to vote on the nomination of businessman Wilbur Ross for Commerce Secretary. | 1 |
Giuliani on FBI’s exoneration of Hillary: ‘We are supposed to be a country of justice’ Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani tell it like it is By Shepard Ambellas - November 7, 2016 ( INTELLIHUB ) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared on Fox News’ Sean Hannity Show Sunday, to talk about how out of place the Director of the FBI James Comey’s remarks were regarding the Clinton investigation.
Giuliani said that back in July there was already “overwhelming evidence” that Hillary Clinton “violated the law.”‘Now in November we are hearing that she had her maid print out classified material routinely.’
“So if she was completely reckless back in July, the new revelation makes the situation much worse,’ Giuliani told Hannity.
To top it all off, Giuliani said that Clinton Foundation monies were supporting Chelsea Clinton “for more than a decade” and that “Chelsea’s husband, with Chelsea’s help, was going to foundation donors and raising money for his hedge fund.”
This is “racketeering,” Giuliani said.
Sean Hannity pointed out during the exchange that the FBI is operating on a dual standard and if anyone else other than Hillary was being investigated they already would have been locked up for destroying subpoenaed information.
#NoJustice
#HillaryForPrison2016 Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist, filmmaker , radio talk show host and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics. Established in 2013, Intellihub.com is ranked in the upper 1% traffic tier on the World Wide Web. Read more from Shep’s World . Get the Podcast . Follow Shep on Facebook and Twitter . ©2016. Intellihub.com. | 0 |
Home | World | Ignore Farage at Your Own Peril Ignore Farage at Your Own Peril By Roo Lette 14/11/2016 12:26:58
NEW YORK – USA – Lambasted and much maligned by the existing political classes, Nigel Farage, is the reason the UK won its Brexit ruling. Without his vision and his following Britain would have been denied the all important referendum.
Nigel Farage is also chums with Donald Trump, much to the dismay of May, who probably detests both characters, but she is going to have to put her little patterned shoes to the side for a minute and speak to the two men.
The lads are fighting back it seems, and good ol’ Boris has confirmed that Trump will be good for Brexit, and any confirmation from BoJo is as good as any.
This is why it is crucial to end any acrimony towards Farage and Trump, and get on with making some serious money, trade deals between the U.S. are now front of the queue, whereas the EU is now firmly in bottom place.
How the tables have turned in just a few weeks is absolutely amazing. The EU is firmly on the backfoot with little or no cards to play. Their protectionist racket crumbling before their own eyes. Who knows what happened to that Canada deal? Snuffed out like a cigar into Juncker’s cognac glass, a now distant memory to the Canadians, who are really sick of dealing with the procrastinating idiots in Brussels.
In Theresa May terms, Farage must be the go-between between her and Trump, because due to her conduct in the exit proceedings, May has dithered, she has taken a long time and all the while the Remoaners have been allowed to scheme their little schemes. Because of her dithering we now have this High Court case stitch-up and various other nefarious schemes to put a halt to Brexit. Can May be trusted? No, is the short answer, and until there is full movement on the Brexit front, everything she says should be taken with a pinch of salt. Share on : | 0 |
The relationship may have faded long ago, but the intimate images you shared have not. If you’re lucky, your ex deleted them. If you’re not, the photos have sprouted up online. Victims of such nonconsensual posts, often referred to as “revenge porn,” now have some help in preventing their spread: On Wednesday, Facebook announced new artificial intelligence tools designed to keep such content, once flagged, off its site for good. “It’s wrong, it’s hurtful, and if you report it to us, we will now use A. I. and image recognition to prevent it from being shared across all of our platforms,” Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s founder and chief executive, said in a Facebook post. The tools announced on Wednesday are intended to address a uniquely modern and pernicious form of harassment, often but not exclusively aimed at women, that has attracted increasing attention. In March, for example, a report that and veteran Marines had used Facebook to share naked and private photos of thousands of women in the Marine Corps prompted a congressional hearing and a Defense Department investigation. The company has been sued in the past by victims of revenge pornography who accused it of not doing enough to prevent the spread of their intimate images. Now, when such content is reported to Facebook, it will be reviewed by a trained member of a community standards team, most likely resulting in the image being removed and the account of the user who posted it being disabled, Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of global safety, said Wednesday in a post on the site. The technology will then work to identify and thwart the future posting of similar images, not only on Facebook, but also to its instant messaging service and to Instagram. The company also published a guide on reporting and removing such intimate images, and said that it had teamed up with safety organizations such as the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which operates a hotline for victims of nonconsensual pornography. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Lael Brainard, a Federal Reserve governor and a leading proponent of the Fed’s efforts to stimulate the economy, said in a speech on Monday that she still favored “prudence” in raising interest rates despite recent signs of economic progress. The remarks reinforce expectations that the Fed will not raise its benchmark interest rate when its committee meets on Sept. 20 and 21, and investors celebrated accordingly. Stocks rose and interest rates fell, reversing much of the market movement on Friday, when investors worried the Fed might move toward a rate increase. But pressure continues to build for a rate increase before the end of the year. A few hours before Ms. Brainard spoke, Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, joined a growing list of Fed officials arguing that the economy was strong enough to justify an increase in borrowing costs. He called for a “serious discussion” at the September meeting. The Fed also faced new pressure from Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, who said on Monday on CNBC that the Fed’s chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, was keeping rates low “because she’s obviously political and doing what Obama wants her to do. ” Ms. Yellen “should be ashamed of herself,” he added. Mr. Trump’s criticism of Ms. Yellen and the Fed breaks with the general practice of presidents and presidential candidates in recent decades to refrain from criticizing the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, castigated Mr. Trump last week for similar remarks. “Words have consequences,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters. “Words move markets. Words can be misinterpreted. Words can have effects on people’s 401( k)’s, their pension funds, their stock portfolios. ” “He should not be adding the Fed onto his long list of institutions and individuals that he is maligning,” she added. Fed officials insist they will not consider the political consequences of increasing rates. They may, however, hesitate to act before the November election out of concern for the economic consequences of political turbulence, the same way they hesitated before Britain’s referendum in June on its membership in the European Union. Ms. Yellen, presiding over an increasingly fractious group of policy makers, has sought to emphasize their common ground. She said in an August speech that the case for raising rates had become stronger in recent months, but she stopped short of saying that it was time to raise rates. Ms. Brainard’s speech Monday was the last before the Fed’s blackout period, effectively giving her the last word in the public debate among Fed officials ahead of the September meeting. Ms. Brainard agreed reluctantly to support the Fed’s first rate increase in December, but she has stiffened in her concerns. Since then, she has made a habit of laying down markers before important Fed meetings, making the case for patience in March and again in June. On Monday, she once again seized the spotlight to explain why she is still not ready to raise interest rates. Ms. Brainard said recent economic data raised some questions about the strength of growth, and there was certainly no sign of resurgent inflation. “In the presence of uncertainty and the absence of accelerating inflationary pressures, it would be unwise for policy to foreclose on the possibility of making further gains in the labor market,” she told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She added that the context in which the Fed operates had also changed. A global decline in market interest rates means that the force of the Fed’s stimulus campaign has been reduced even without a rate increase. Moreover, she noted that the weakness of the global economy continued to weigh on the United States, contributing to an environment of persistently low growth and low inflation. Finally, she said that she remained more concerned about moving too quickly than waiting too long. The Fed has few tools to ward off fresh weakness in the economy, while it can easily respond to an inflationary resurgence. “This asymmetry in risk management in today’s new normal counsels prudence in the removal of policy accommodation,” Ms. Brainard said. “I believe that this approach has served us well. ” Daniel Tarullo, another Fed governor, said in a CNBC interview on Friday that he too favored patience. Mr. Tarullo described himself as a member of the “‘ ’ camp” that wants to see evidence of stronger inflation before raising rates. So far, he said, there is not enough. “From my personal perspective, I think we have an opportunity to continue to get employment gains,” Mr. Tarullo said. Other officials argue that inflation always follows stronger growth if the Fed waits for the inevitable increase, they warn, the Fed may need to raise rates more sharply, causing a recession. Mr. Tarullo said in the interview, however, that officials who took this view should still have hesitations about the outlook for growth. He described the recent economic data as a mixed bag. A growing number of Fed officials argue that this caution is misdirected. Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said in a speech on Friday that raising rates in the near term could actually help extend the economic expansion, now in its eighth year. The Fed may now be providing too much stimulus, he said, and overheating could end up forcing sharper rate increases. “If we want to ensure that we remain at full employment, gradual tightening is likely to be appropriate,” Mr. Rosengren said in Quincy, Mass. “A failure to continue on the path of gradual removal of accommodation could shorten, rather than lengthen, the duration of this recovery. ” Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City — and, like Mr. Rosengren, one of the 10 Fed officials with a policy vote this year — has expressed concern that low rates are encouraging excessive speculation, birthing future financial crises. Ms. George is the only Fed official to vote to raise rates this year. Fed officials still could coalesce around a rate increase, as they did last year. After September, the Fed has two more meetings on the calendar, in November and December. Asked what it would take to win her vote, Ms. Brainard said she would like to see more inflation. She also noted recent weakness in some economic measures like corporate profits and investment. “It would be important, I think, to see some of those spending indicators starting to really move in a more positive direction going into the third and fourth quarter,” Ms. Brainard said. | 1 |
ReadyNutrition Readers and fellow warriors in the war of sustainability, the election may have been finished, but the unrest is not. I mention “may” have been finished, as the electors of the Electoral Vote have not weighed in on their final verdict. That verdict, due on December 19 may even be amended or reversed, with the entire thing not coming before Congress until January 6. In the meantime, civil disorder is increasing throughout the U.S. in both frequency and locations.
As of this writing, riots and unrest along with demonstrations have occurred in the following large metropolitan areas: Miami, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, New York City, Birmingham, AL, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Eugene, OR, Portland, OR, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Denver, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Fresno, CA to name a few. These are no gangs of urchins around a burning barrel on a street corner: these riots and demonstrations are made up of thousands of angry protestors that have clashed both with Trump supporters and law enforcement, at times violently.
Law enforcement officers reported that more than 25,000 marched from Union Square in Manhattan all the way to Trump tower in midtown. Protests and demonstrations were marked by frequent arrests and clashes with police. On 11/11/16, a man was shot with two suspects detained in Portland, OR, where the clashes are intensifying; the man was shot on Morrison Bridge and law enforcement has stated it is related to the election turmoil.
Michael Moore , left-wing radical filmmaker was also in New York in an attempt to personally confront Trump at his Trump tower on Saturday 11/12/16. He said the following:
“[Trump is an] illegitimate president and does not have the vote of the people.”
In Washington, D.C. protestors blocked the Interstate 395 tunnel that leads to Capitol Hill for several hours. In Chicago thousands marched through the city streets and (what a coincidence) ended up in front of the hotel owned by Trump downtown. In Indianapolis, two police officers were injured by protestors who hit them with rocks. In Los Angeles the police estimated the protestors to be numbering more than 8,000 people.
Credit: CNN Portland, OR placed a curfew in effect for minors in an effort to prevent kids from being beaten up or hurt in the middle of all of it. 10:15 pm is the curfew for those under 14 years of age, and midnight for everyone ages 14-17 years old. In Baltimore the protestors marched from the Washington Monument on Charles Street to the Inner Harbor. Police had to move two reporters from Fox news out of harm’s way when the protestors began throwing rocks and bottles and shouting insults. There were also thousands protesting in Baltimore on Thursday night after the Ravens-Browns football game, blocking traffic for several hours in all directions from the stadium.
One of the interesting things to note is that in all of these cities, the placards of the protestors have many of the same motifs, and further: one type has “#notmypresident” printed on it. Perhaps some of you readers have seen this and can clarify what that means. The reason for the question is that the George Soros machine of destabilization so successfully employed in other countries, such as Ukraine, the former Yugoslavia (Croatia and Serbia, specifically), and Hungary…that machine is up and running in the United States. Paid protestors and other rabble rousers are being paid by Soros and bussed into the target cities to foment riot and dissent. This isn’t the first time Soros has funded riots on American soil and it won’t be the last.
Credit: BET Many protestors in Baltimore held placards with “People’s Power Assembly 443.221.3775” on the front. This, too, bears the hint of more subversive efforts paid for by those behind the scenes wishing to take the country to the bottom. Where does all of this lead? Well for starters, keep in mind those two previous dates mentioned regarding the Electoral votes. In addition to this, there is a petition circulating calling for the electors to reverse their original votes with more than 2 million signatures.
As if that isn’t enough, there are people openly calling on Twitter and Facebook for Trump to be “taken out,” in a myriad of violent manners. As mentioned in other articles, under the John Warner Defense Act of 2006, Obama has the ability to declare a “catastrophic emergency,” defined as one that interferes with (basically) any and every aspect of our society from government to finance. In the “interests of public safety” he can supplement that with Presidential Directive 51 (PD-51) and declare a state of martial law due to civil unrest. He can also call in foreign outsiders (such as the UN) to help him “reinstitute order under the law.”
With that in mind, I wish to refer you to something worth considering. All News Pipeline had an article (a good one in itself…Stefan Stanford and Susan Duclos with ANP are top-notch reporters and writers) with a comment posted that in my opinion truly summarizes what is happening here in this post-election period. The comment can be found at www.allnewspipeline.com/Shocking_Maps_Show_Overthrow_of_America.php , when you scroll to the bottom after the article. Posted by Andrew Mali , here it is in its entirety and well worth some deep thought for all of us as preppers, patriots, and concerned citizens:
“I’m probably going to get a lot of hate for this, but I feel it needs to be said. There is no coincidence that Trump won by electoral vote and lost the popular vote. This whole thing is a setup, to cause mass anger across the country. Right now, the Left is throwing a fit because they think Trump will be the new president, while the Right is distracted by celebrating it. He won’t. It is in the works right now to reverse the decision when congress meets Jan 6 to approve the electoral votes (maybe even something before that). This means the violence could last until then.
The purpose of this is to start a civil war that tears the country apart. What the elite gain from this is the ability to take control of the country by U.N. force, and to call our republic and constitution a failure. “Out of the ashes, the phoenix will rise.” A new country owned by the U.N. with a new government and leader. One does not simply walk into the National Archives and shred the constitution, therefore, we must tear down our country and way of life. This keeps the elites from putting their fingerprints on our demise.
Should we fail to kneel to their will and destroy ourselves, they will use Russia to destroy us so much that any survivors will be left begging the mercy of the U.N. to take them as refugees to a country that is controlled by the U.N. Now is not the time to be running off to fight a civil war, but is the time to be preparing, and praying that God confuses their plans.”
Quite a comment, and also spot-on. Bottom line: it’s going to get worse before it gets any better. You guys and gals need to stay on top of what is happening both nationwide and in your immediate locale. As one eye is on the news, the other needs to be on the preps. Bullets, beans, and Band-Aids are the rule of the day, with plenty of prayer around all of it…the truly indispensable part of your preparations.
Obama still has plenty of time to either take down the society with civil unrest as an excuse or by starting a war before he leaves office. In either case (as the comment pointed out) we must remain vigilant and prepare for society as we know it to change with the blink of an eye. The next few weeks will be a good indicator of what is to happen. In the meantime, keep your powder dry, and keep up that good fight! JJ out!
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson was a Special Forces Medic, EMT and ACLS-certified, with comprehensive training in wilderness survival, rescue, and patient-extraction. He is a Certified Master Herbalist and a graduate of the Global College of Natural Medicine of Santa Ana, CA. A graduate of the U.S. Army’s survival course of SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape), Mr. Johnson also successfully completed the Montana Master Food Preserver Course for home-canning, smoking, and dehydrating foods.
Mr. Johnson dries and tinctures a wide variety of medicinal herbs taken by wild crafting and cultivation, in addition to preserving and canning his own food. An expert in land navigation, survival, mountaineering, and parachuting as trained by the United States Army, Mr. Johnson is an ardent advocate for preparedness, self-sufficiency, and long-term disaster sustainability for families. He and his wife survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Cross-trained as a Special Forces Engineer, he is an expert in supply, logistics, transport, and long-term storage of perishable materials, having incorporated many of these techniques plus some unique innovations in his own homestead.
Mr. Johnson brings practical, tested experience firmly rooted in formal education to his writings and to our team. He and his wife live in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with their three cats.
This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition
Originally published November 14th, 2016 Sign of the Times: Riot Control Gear Sales Are Soaring… Emergency Survival Food Sales Soar as We Get Closer to… We Will Not Go Gently Into the Night: The Silent Majority… How Martial Law Will Lead to the Creation of the… Landing Strips, Farms and Hideaways: Secret Escapes of the… | 0 |
Recently declassified NSA documents show a worrying lack of attention to digital security at the National Security Agency. [The declassified document obtained under a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request by the New York Times, outlines a number of security measures taken by the NSA to secure their digital documents and systems. According to the report, the NSA regularly left physical server stacks completely unsecured and open to tampering, did not use authentication in many of their digital systems and did not use access control lists to verify which users should have access to sensitive information. While much of the report is redacted, information related to the poor security practices of the NSA can still be found. The declassified security review was conducted following the leak of over one million NSA files by Edward Snowden between 2012 and 2013. The report states that the “NSA did not have guidance concerning key management and did not consistently secure server racks and other sensitive equipment in the data centers and machine rooms” in accordance with their “ ” initiative. Data centers were also left unsecured as access controls were not implemented at the time of the report. Similarly, authentication had not been rolled out to all access users either. The report states that far too many NSA employees had administrator privileges, meaning they could make direct changes to NSA systems without approval from within the organization. These administrator accounts were also poorly monitored according to the report, and the number of NSA employees that were given permissions to perform data transfers had not been lowered in an attempt to secure data. In three separate NSA facilities, in Texas, Utah, and North Carolina State University, the team conducting the security audit “observed unlocked server racks and sensitive equipment,” leaving data extremely easy to access. The declassified document further states that the “NSA did not keep accurate and detailed documentation that identified its methodology for completing each initiative,” and “did not describe how it measured the initiatives’ completeness and effectiveness. ” This means that these security vulnerabilities were still present within NSA systems up until August of 2016. The NSA will reportedly take the findings of the security audit into consideration while tightening their internal security, but due to the heavily redacted nature of the declassified document, it is hard to determine what the NSA plans to do about their network security. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 1 |
The coming trial of Robert A. Durst in Los Angeles may not have the star power of the 1995 murder trial of O. J. Simpson, the former N. F. L. running back and actor. Mr. Durst, although the offspring of a Manhattan real estate family, does not have a similar claim to fame. He is charged with killing a confidante in her Los Angeles home 17 years ago for fear that she would cooperate with a renewed investigation into the disappearance of his first wife. But he drew widespread attention as the central figure in a 2015 HBO documentary — “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” — that was broadcast internationally. Like Mr. Simpson, Mr. Durst, 73, has his own Dream Team of defense lawyers, including Dick DeGuerin and Chip Lewis, who won an acquittal for Mr. Durst in a 2003 murder trial in Texas David Z. Chesnoff, who has represented celebrities and mob figures and Donald M. Re, who represented a friend of Mr. Simpson’s in that 1995 trial. So it was perhaps fitting that Mr. Durst’s pretrial hearing last week in Los Angeles Superior Court had all the makings of a media frenzy. To gain access to the courtroom, the major television networks vied with TMZ, BuzzFeed, City News Service, Bloomberg, The Associated Press, Fox News, Courthouse News Service, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily News, The New York Times and assorted bloggers. There were no cameras allowed at the hearing, however, because of a “mystery witness” who was being protected day and night by a Los Angeles SWAT team. Mary Hearn, the Superior Court’s director of public information, kept careful track of who filled the 42 seats inside the court. The New York Times was not on “the list. ” But after some huffing and puffing, I was able to get inside. Six members of the defense team took up the seats in the gallery behind Mr. Durst, possibly to prevent reporters from getting too close to him. At least some of the reporters covering the hearing had not yet been born when Mr. Durst’s very twisty story began in 1982 with the vanishing of his wife, Kathleen Durst, several months before she would have graduated from medical school. Mr. Durst’s trial will most likely not take place until next year. But under California law, the prosecution can put witnesses on the stand who are 65 or older if there is a possibility the witness might not make it to trial, or if the witness is in potential danger. John Lewin, the deputy district attorney handling the case, explained that the “mystery witness” needed protection because Mr. Durst “kills witnesses,” a description that brought objections from the defense. Mr. Lewin may have a reason for obtaining testimony before the trial other than simply to preserve witness statements. He may be trying to send a message to Mr. Durst, who sat impassively in court listening to the proceeding over a pair of headphones: We’ve got you give up. The Dream Team is up against a prosecutor, and perhaps a less dreamy team of assistants, who has built a considerable reputation for winning cold cases. Mr. Lewin is bringing a circumstantial case. There were no witnesses to the killing of Susan Berman, Mr. Durst’s close friend. Although Mr. Durst has never been charged with the murder of his first wife, and her body has not been found, Mr. Lewin has planned to describe how Mr. Durst killed her in 1982. Mr. Durst has been his own worst enemy in the case, having made a series of damaging statements in “The Jinx” in a nearly interrogation by Mr. Lewin in New Orleans, after he was arrested on a Los Angeles murder warrant and in conversations with his friends. It remains to be seen, however, how much of that material will be admitted in court. The first witness last Tuesday was Albert Kuperman, an former dean of the medical school that Kathleen Durst attended between 1978 and 1982. Although he knew her only in passing, he described her as a diligent student. The crux of his testimony had to do with a telephone call to his office on Feb. 1, 1982, the day after Ms. Durst disappeared, from a woman who may or may not have been her. Mr. Kuperman said he could not be sure who the caller was. Investigators have long suspected that Mr. Durst’s friend, Ms. Berman, made the call at his behest, after Ms. Durst was dead. The defense challenged Mr. Kuperman with his prior statements to investigators in 1982 and to the producers of “The Jinx,” in which he seemed far more certain that the caller was Ms. Durst. Mr. Kuperman said that no one had ever asked him how often he had spoken to Ms. Durst or how well he might recognize her voice. I briefly became the story before testimony resumed on Wednesday. The court had to review a motion by the defense to sequester me from the trial. Mr. Chesnoff argued that I had “spent a career investigating Mr. Durst and circumstances surrounding Mr. Durst’s entanglements. ” Indeed, I have been writing about Mr. Durst for a long time. During interviews with the prosecutor, Mr. Chesnoff said, the “mystery witness” claimed to be a friend of mine. The defense planned to call me as a witness in the hope that I would be able to impeach the mystery witness’s current testimony by referring to my interviews with the witness over the past 17 years. “Mr. Bagli,” Mr. Chesnoff said, “is a lot more credible than the secret witness. ” A lawyer for The New York Times, Theodore M. Kider, said that sequestration would be a “dangerous and unprecedented” violation of the First Amendment. He said sequestering, in essence, would penalize a reporter for doing a good job. Besides, he added, California’s shield law would prevent the defense from calling a reporter as a witness. Judge Mark E. Windham rejected the defense motion, and the hearings resumed. Then came the “mystery witness”: Nick Chavin, a New York real estate advertising executive who was close to both Mr. Durst and Ms. Berman for many years. A members of the SWAT team sat in the jury box during his testimony. Mr. Chavin offered two striking stories. After Kathleen Durst vanished, he said, Ms. Berman told him on several occasions that “Bobby” had killed his wife. She said that nothing could be done about “Kathie” but that they had a duty to protect “Bobby. ” Mr. Chavin initially testified that he did not believe her. Ms. Berman, he said, was a “liar” and had a penchant for the dramatic. It was a story he told me in 2000 and for years afterward. But his view of his longtime friend changed, Mr. Chavin said, after he went to dinner in Manhattan with Mr. Durst. Mr. Chavin testified that as the two men parted that night, Mr. Durst said: “I had to. It was her or me I had no choice. ” Mr. Chavin then described a period in 2015 of torment as Mr. Lewin, the prosecutor, sought his cooperation. He said he was torn between his loyalty to his friend and a desire to honor the memory of his other best friend, Ms. Berman. The defense peppered Mr. Chavin with questions, suggesting that he had made up the story about Mr. Durst’s confession. | 1 |
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Posted on November 7, 2016 by Carl Herman
John Hankey ’s documentary of the assassination of President Kennedy is the single most favorite of my US History students among ~100 film clips I show as a National Board Certified Teacher (shown below). John is a retired Advanced Placement US History teacher, and the best documentary I’ve found on that game-changing history revealing the US rogue state .
John’s sharp 12-minute video, Is Donald Trump for Real?
John has rushed to create the following 63-minute documentary connecting Donald Trump to the .01% criminal rogue state leaders: The first 27 minutes document that the Orlando “shooting” included concocted rhetoric to promote fear of so-called “radical Muslims.” This connects to FBI Director James Comey, who refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton for obvious crimes of secret State Department communications hiding Clinton Foundation looting in the billions, then attempting to destroy the e-mail evidence . This expands into CIA/US intelligence interests to recruit assets they use for rogue state actions , but pitch to assets as patriotic undercover service. John’s analysis concludes that since 9/11, any so-called “leader” fear-mongering of “radicalized Islam” are the real terrorists of the US rogue state. The head cheerleader for this fear is Rudy Giuliani, John Trump’s alleged Director of Homeland Security .
John’s commentary for this work:
I didn’t expect Trump to bring Rudy Giuliani into his campaign. I didn’t anticipate the speeches either of them would give at the convention. I didn’t expect Trump to pick someone as dark and dirty as Mike Pence as his vice President. Trump has tied himself, through his policies and speeches, to the perpetrators of both 911 and Orlando. That’s what I learned making this video.
What is the lesson from the 9-11 attacks? Who did the Orlando attacks? This video answers both questions. FBI director, Comey, and the entire FBI organization, began lying and covering up, within hours, perhaps minutes, of the Orlando shooting. He is clearly implicated. This is the same Comey that is in the news right now, holding himself up as a paragon of virtue.
I didn’t expect to learn what I did learn about the shooter: that he went along on ride-alongs with police in high school; that he told his high school friends that he wanted to be a cop; that he was hired by the state of Florida directly out of high school as a prison guard; that he got a degree in police science from the local college; that he worked for the most prestigious, high-security, government-contracted security firm in the world for the last 10 years. He received good reviews in every one of these positions from his supervisors. The FBI saw fit to not mention any of that in their discussions of him. The shooter was gay, and most definitely not devout as a Muslim. Dozens of witnesses say he was the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. And he supported Hillary for president. Clearly he was expendable.
John’s game-changing documentary on the JFK assassination, Dark Legacy, in its 2-minute trailer :
1-minute video of George Bush, Sr.’s apparent duping delight of JFK’s assassination:
Dark Legacy highlights in ten minutes :
Full Dark Legacy documentary in 103 minutes :
My context for the .01% immediate history: The Crimes The US is a literal rogue state empire led by neocolonial looting liars. The history is uncontested and taught to anyone taking comprehensive courses. If anyone has any refutations of this professional academic factual claim for any of this easy-to-read and documented content , please provide it. US ongoing lie-started and Orwellian-illegal Wars of Aggression require all US military and government to refuse all war orders because there are no lawful orders for obviously unlawful wars. Officers are required to arrest those who issue obviously unlawful orders. And again, those of us working for this area of justice are aware of zero attempts to refute this with, “War law states (a, b, c), so the wars are legal because (d, e, f).” All we receive is easy-to-reveal bullshit . When Americans are told an election is defined by touching a computer screen without a countable receipt that can be verified, they are being told a criminal lie to allow election fraud . This is self-evident, but Princeton , Stanford , and the President of the American Statistical Association are among the leaders pointing to the obvious (and here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here ). Again, no professional would/can argue an election is legitimate when there is nothing for anyone to count. And, duh, corporate media are criminally complicit through constant lies of omission and commission to “cover” all these crimes. Historic tragic-comic empire is only possible through such straight-face lying, making our Emperor’s New Clothes analogy perfectly chosen. The top three benefits each of monetary reform and public banking total ~$1,000,000 for the average American household, and would be received nearly instantly. Please read that twice. Now look to verify for yourself . Demanding arrests as the required and obvious public response rather than ‘voting’ for more disaster:
The categories of crime include: Wars of Aggression (the worst crime a nation can commit). Likely treason for lying to US military, ordering unlawful attack and invasions of foreign lands, and causing thousands of US military deaths. Crimes Against Humanity for ongoing intentional policy of poverty that’s killed over 400 million human beings just since 1995 (~75% children; more deaths than from all wars in Earth’s recorded history).
US military, law enforcement, and all with Oaths to support and defend the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, face an endgame choice: Demand arrests , with those with lawful authority to enact it. An arrest is the lawful action to stop apparent crimes , with the most serious crimes documented here meaning the most serious need for arrests. Watch the US escalate its rogue state crimes that annually kill millions, harm billions, and loot trillions.
In just 90 seconds , former US Marine Ken O’Keefe powerfully states how you may choose to voice “very obvious solutions”: arrest the criminal leaders (video starts at 20:51, then finishes this episode of Cross Talk ): Solutions worth literal tens of trillions to ‘We the People’:
Again: The top three benefits each of monetary reform and public banking total ~$1,000,000 for the average American household, and would be received nearly instantly. Please read that twice. Now look to verify for yourself . We can quantify the end of the lie-started and illegal Wars of Aggression quickly into the trillions, and that said, it’s worth a lot more than what we quantify. Truth : a world in which education is expressed in its full potential to only and always begin with good-faith effort for objective, comprehensive, and verifiable data.
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Note: I make all factual assertions as a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History, with all economics factual claims receiving zero refutation since I began writing in 2008 among Advanced Placement Macroeconomics teachers on our discussion board , public audiences of these articles , and international conferences (and here ). I invite readers to empower their civic voices with the strongest comprehensive facts most important to building a brighter future. I challenge professionals, academics, and citizens to add their voices for the benefit of all Earth’s inhabitants.
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Carl Herman is a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History; also credentialed in Mathematics. He worked with both US political parties over 18 years and two UN Summits with the citizen’s lobby, RESULTS , for US domestic and foreign policy to end poverty. He can be reached at
Note: Examiner.com has blocked public access to my articles on their site (and from other whistleblowers), so some links in my previous work are blocked. If you’d like to search for those articles other sites may have republished, use words from the article title within the blocked link. Or, go to http://archive.org/web/ , p aste the expired link into the box, click “Browse history,” then click onto the screenshots of that page for each time it was screen-shot and uploaded to webarchive. I’ll update as “hobby time” allows; including my earliest work from 2009 to 2011 (blocked author pages: here , here ). This entry was posted in General . Bookmark the permalink . Donate Recent Posts | 0 |
Two Systems of Justice In America: One for the Ultra-Wealthy … Another For Everyone Else
Billionaire Peter Thiel said yesterday:
If you’re a single-digit millionaire … you have no effective access to our legal system.
Thiel is saying even plain vanilla millionaires can’t afford justice in America.
Fordham Law School professor and criminal justice expert John Pfaff notes that – using 2007 numbers – many states’ entire budgets for legal defense for people who can’t afford a lawyer is in the single-digit millions: 1. As of 2007, four states’ ENTIRE INDIGENT DEFENSE BUDGET were “single-digit millionaires.”
Maine: $9.6M | 0 |
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It’s time for a workout, and you want to get the most out of it. This should always be the case (otherwise, why bother?), but many people get so accustomed to routines that they can be doing more harm than good. Variety is one of the keys to any workout, and running is no different.
You may think of the treadmill as tedious and tiring, but there are ways that it can be just as much fun as the most exciting marathon or run on the beach. Most people look at the time they spend on the treadmill as a boring necessity that they have to put their heads down and power through, but it can be exciting and fun if done the right way. This is especially the case when you know that you are getting the absolute most out of your treadmill time.
Many of us would prefer to do our running outside, but the old hamster wheel can have added advantages and benefits when you know what you’re doing. By the same token, it can be self-defeating if you hit a rut or make many common mistakes.
That’s why we put together this list. There are a few easy steps you can take (no pun intended) to turn that boring old task into an exciting, calorie burning blast, and we want to help you do that. We also want to help you avoid many of the common– and sometimes silly– mistakes that can waste precious workout time and energy. Some of these mistakes can even be harmful if not cleaned up and corrected.
So first, let’s start with the good stuff. Follow these five simple treadmill hacks to make sure your next time out is more productive than ever! 1. Mix Things Up
This is the easiest way to turn what is usually the boring drudge of the treadmill into a more exciting way of spending your gym time. Variety is also one of the most important weapons in your fat burning arsenal. Mixing things up will provide your body the challenge it needs to shed unwanted pounds in a hurry.
The simplest way to start doing this is to up your intensity and/or duration. However, this can present some problems in itself. If you work too close to your maximum heart rate, you can easily tire yourself out too quickly. On the other hand, we want to burn calories now and slower, steadier workouts can take longer to show results.
The right variety will help you find that perfect soft spot right in the middle. For some days, just do your usual routine of 20 or 30 minutes a little faster than normal. For other days, go slower and longer for around an hour. We know, nobody wants slow or long; but trust us, just keep reading. 2. Use Intervals of Speed
This is all about pushing your body just far enough to burn the most calories without needing to be carried out the gym. You will want to sprinkle in short bursts of sprinting throughout your workout. Remember that thing we said about keep reading? Well, here is a tip that will help you cut time and pounds in one simple step.
Research shows that running hard for two minutes then slowing down for three will burn more calories than just the boring slow and steady routine. That same research also says doing that will help you drop up to four percent more body fat in a few weeks if done regularly.The best way to do this is with 1:2 intervals. For example, using this technique you would increase your speed for around 30 to 60 seconds then drop it back to normal for 60 to 120 seconds. Make sense?
It could take some time to find that perfect sweet spot of speed intervals since it will be different for each individual. You want a speed that takes effort to hold for two to five minutes but don’t overdo it. The goal is to find the speed that makes you feel invigorated as opposed to one that makes you fall off the treadmill with exhaustion. You can eventually build up to higher speeds, but it will all depend on your experience. Prev post Page 1 of 3 Next Be the first to comment Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. Comment | 0 |
WILMINGTON, N. C. — Donald J. Trump on Tuesday appeared to raise the possibility that gun rights supporters could take matters into their own hands if Hillary Clinton is elected president and appoints judges who favor stricter gun control measures. Repeating his contention that Mrs. Clinton wanted to abolish the right to bear arms, Mr. Trump warned at a rally here that it would be “a horrible day” if Mrs. Clinton were elected and got to appoint a tiebreaking Supreme Court justice. “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Mr. Trump said, as the crowd began to boo. He quickly added: “Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know. ” Oblique as it was, Mr. Trump’s remark quickly elicited a wave of condemnation from Democrats, gun control advocates and others, who accused him of suggesting violence against Mrs. Clinton or liberal jurists. Bernice A. King, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called Mr. Trump’s words “distasteful, disturbing, dangerous. ” Mrs. Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, expressed disbelief. “Nobody who is seeking a leadership position, especially the presidency, the leadership of the country, should do anything to countenance violence, and that’s what he was saying,” Mr. Kaine said in Austin, Tex. He called Mr. Trump’s remark “a window into the soul of a person who is just temperamentally not suited to the task. ” And Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, said Mr. Trump’s statement was “repulsive — literally using the Second Amendment as cover to encourage people to kill someone with whom they disagree. ” “For Trump, violence has become a standard talking point, a common punch line, and even a campaign strategy,” Mr. Gross said. Paul D. Ryan, the Republican House speaker who has had a tense relationship with Mr. Trump, told reporters on Tuesday night that the remarks sounded “like a joke gone bad. ” He added: “You should never joke about that. I hope he clears it up quickly. ” Mr. Trump and his campaign did not treat his remark as a joke instead, they insisted he was merely urging gun rights supporters to vote as a bloc against Mrs. Clinton. “The Second Amendment people have tremendous power because they are so united,” he told a CBS affiliate in North Carolina late Tuesday. In an interview with Fox News, Mr. Trump grew adamant. “There can be no other interpretation,” he said, adding, “I mean, give me a break. ” But at his rally earlier in the day, Mr. Trump had actually been discussing what could happen once Mrs. Clinton was president, not before the election. And even many in the audience seemed caught by surprise. Video showed a man just over Mr. Trump’s shoulder go and turn to his companion, apparently in disbelief, when Mr. Trump made the remark. The uproar over Mr. Trump’s remark came as his campaign has been faced with a series of public opinion surveys showing him quickly losing ground to Mrs. Clinton, and just a day after his campaign called his delivery of a prepared economic speech in Detroit, evidence of a newfound political discipline. Mr. Trump’s fellow opponents of gun control stood by him, focusing on his depiction of Mrs. Clinton as a threat to the Second Amendment. “Donald Trump is absolutely correct,” said Jennifer Baker, a strategist for the National Rifle Association. “If Hillary Clinton is elected, there is nothing we can do to stop her from nominating an Supreme Court justice who will vote to overturn the individual right of citizens to own a gun in their home for protection. ” The association also began running a new commercial characterizing Mrs. Clinton as “one of the wealthiest women in politics” and calling her a hypocrite for favoring gun restrictions while having been “protected by armed guards for 30 years. ” Her gun policies, the ad says, would leave ordinary people “defenseless. ” Veiled references to gun violence have tripped up candidates before. In 2010, Sharron Angle, a Nevada Republican challenging the Senate majority leader at the time, Harry Reid, severely damaged her unsuccessful candidacy while discussing the importance of the Second Amendment. “When you read that Constitution and the founding fathers, they intended this to stop tyranny,” she said, adding: “It’s to defend ourselves. And you know, I’m hoping that we’re not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems. ” Mrs. Clinton herself learned the hard way: In June 2008, shortly before she conceded defeat in her Democratic primary contest with Barack Obama, she defended her perseverance in a way that critics said alluded to the possibility that Mr. Obama could be gunned down. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Mrs. Clinton said. She apologized hours later. Mr. Trump did not repeat his violent insinuation at a later event in Fayetteville, N. C. But Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who has championed gun control since the Sandy Hook mass shooting in his state, called Mr. Trump’s remarks “disgusting and embarrassing and sad. ” “This isn’t play,” Mr. Murphy wrote. “Unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you, @realDonaldTrump. ” The condemnation from Mr. Trump’s critics across the political spectrum was deep. On Twitter, the conservative writer John Podhoretz, in a series of posts, wrote that Mr. Trump had implied that all Second Amendment supporters were “potential assassins. ” He added that a president’s words “CANNOT MEAN NOTHING. They are the most important words spoken in the world. ” And Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, wrote on Twitter that the Secret Service should investigate Mr. Trump for making a death threat against Mrs. Clinton: “Donald Trump suggested someone kill Sec. Clinton. We must take people at their word. ” A Secret Service spokesman, who refused to identify himself, said that the agency was “aware of the comments” but did not elaborate. Others seized on Mr. Trump’s remark as an occasion for mockery. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Trump “makes death threats because he’s a pathetic coward who can’t handle the fact that he’s losing to a girl. ” Mr. Trump’s campaign events have grown increasingly vitriolic, with angry chants and jeers directed at Mrs. Clinton. People at his rallies have, with greater frequency, loudly called for violence against Mrs. Clinton — catcalls that Mr. Trump has generally let pass. And on Saturday, Mr. Trump praised his New Hampshire state State Representative Al Baldasaro, who said recently that Mrs. Clinton deserved to face a firing squad over the F. B. I. ’s investigation of her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. In Wilmington on Tuesday, chants of “lock her up,” which first gained traction during the Republican National Convention, were loud and frequent before Mr. Trump took the stage. But one speaker, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, tried to tamp those down. “No, no, we’re here to beat her, and keep her out of Washington,” Mr. Giuliani said. He was interrupted by the same chant minutes later. | 1 |
DAKAR, Senegal — Four days into his term, tucked into a sofa 150 miles outside the country he was elected to rule, President Adama Barrow of Gambia pledged on Sunday to improve his country’s economy, free its political prisoners and create a commission to look into the brutal legacy of his predecessor. But first he has to get home. Mr. Barrow, 51, has been stuck in neighboring Senegal for a week, waiting for the incumbent he defeated, Yahya Jammeh, to step down and leave the country. After initially accepting his loss in the December presidential election, Mr. Jammeh reversed himself, called for a new vote and refused to give up power when his term ended on Thursday. Afraid for his safety, Mr. Barrow fled to Senegal and was sworn in during an inauguration at the Gambian Embassy in Dakar. A coalition of other African countries sent troops into Gambia to evict Mr. Jammeh by force if necessary, and on Saturday night, Mr. Jammeh finally let go. He boarded a plane headed for exile, accompanied by the president of Guinea, who had gone to Gambia to persuade him to leave. Mr. Jammeh’s first stop was Conakry, Guinea. But it was not clear where his final new home would be. The departure paved the way for Mr. Barrow to take over, but on Sunday afternoon, he was still at a house he owns in Dakar, trying to sort out the details of his return home. It could take several days yet security advisers were scheduled to go to Banjul, the capital, on Monday to assess the situation and prepare for his safe arrival. after having awakened late in the morning, the unassuming president sank into a giant couch that seemed to absorb him, and spoke of his hopes for his administration. “Gambia is back again,” said Mr. Barrow, who wore a shiny brown traditional gown and leather sandals. “We have been isolated for so many years, and we want Gambia to be very active again in this world. ” Mr. Jammeh, who took office after a 1994 coup, imprisoned numerous journalists and political opponents during his tenure, some of whom died in jail. His rule was erratic, and made headlines for his claim to have cured AIDS with herbs, a prayer and a banana he also called for beheading gay people. His actions prompted thousands of Gambians to flee the country, and the nation’s weak economy prompted hundreds more to try to make the dangerous trek across the desert and the Mediterranean to look for work in Europe. More recently, an estimated 45, 000 Gambians had rushed across the border to Senegal, fearing violence if Mr. Jammeh were forcibly removed from office, and causing the United Nations to worry about a humanitarian crisis. On Sunday, many of those Gambians began to return home. Officials released a joint declaration by the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States on Sunday that “assures and ensures the dignity, respect, security and rights” of Mr. Jammeh, his family and his loyal supporters, so that “there is no intimidation, harassment of former regime members and supporters. ” The document, which refers to Mr. Jammeh by his preferred honorifics — H. E. (for “his excellency”) Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh — goes on to say that the organizations that issued the report are committed to preventing the seizure of assets of Mr. Jammeh and his family and loyalists. And it says the organizations will work to ensure that in whichever countries offer “African hospitality” to Mr. Jammeh and his family, they do not “become undue targets of harassment, intimidation and all other pressures and sanctions. ” Mr. Barrow said he had planned to create a truth and reconciliation commission to look into the Jammeh government. He said he would wait for the commission’s recommendations before taking action. “It’s a resolution it’s not an agreement,” Mr. Barrow said of the document. Until last fall, Mr. Barrow ran a real estate agency in Gambia and was a fairly member of an opposition party. But Mr. Jammeh began to jail the party’s leaders, and Mr. Barrow found himself rising from the vacuum, assuming the party’s candidacy for president and winning a surprise victory over the authoritarian Mr. Jammeh. Mr. Barrow said on Sunday that his chief priority would be to work on improving the economy in Gambia, where there is widespread unemployment. But he offered no specifics, saying instead that he would assemble a team of experts to figure out how to get the economy back on track. He said he had planned to release anyone imprisoned in Gambia for political reasons, a hallmark of Mr. Jammeh’s presidency and one that alienated him from human rights groups and many Western democracies. “Political prisoners will be freed immediately when I get home,” Mr. Barrow said. “All political prisoners. ” While a great many people in Gambia will welcome Mr. Barrow when he finally returns, Mr. Jammeh still has supporters. Many turned out in tears Saturday night to bid him farewell at the Banjul airport, where he arrived in his . Mr. Barrow said he did not think Mr. Jammeh’s loyalists would present problems for his administration. On Sunday, some Gambians were appalled at the pomp that accompanied Mr. Jammeh on his way out. A military band showed up at the airport to play for him as he walked along a red carpet to a waiting airplane. “That man should have left this country in handcuffs,” said Alpha Gaye, a taxi driver in Serekunda, just west of the capital. “I will be very angry if Yahya Jammeh goes without punishment. He should die in jail. ” | 1 |
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President Obama is just weeks away from leaving office. Our biggest nightmare, backed by a fully Republican Congress, is about to take over. What that means, other than a far more hateful environment throughout the nation, is that a lot of people will lose a lot. Millions will lose healthcare. They don’t care. The national parks could be put on the auction block. They don’t care. Republicans have already started stripping seniors of their healthcare, and don’t let them try to sell you on the benefits of privatization. There aren’t any.
House Speaker Paul Ryan appeared on Special Report on Fox with Bret Baier. Ryan, now that he has a Republican in the White House, is set to start right away repealing the Affordable Care Act even Medicare. Well, he wants to privatize Medicare.
“Your solution has always been to put things together, including entitlement reform,” says Baier, using Republican code for privatizing Medicare. Ryan replies, “If you’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well. … Medicare has got some serious issues because of Obamacare. So those things are part of our plan to replace Obamacare.”
Ryan tells Baier, “Because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.” This is false. In fact, it’s the complete opposite of the truth. The Medicare trust fund has been extended 11 years as a result of the passage of Obamacare, whose cost reforms have helped bring health care inflation to historic lows. It is also untrue that repealing Obamacare requires changing traditional Medicare. But Ryan clearly believes he needs to make this claim in order to sell his plan, or probably even to convince fellow Republicans to support it.
Source: Reverb Press
Here’s the video:
Ryan, as usual, has it completely backwards. The Affordable Care Act is keeping Medicare afloat. Medicare is also solvent until 2028 and it’s an easy fix to keep it solvent beyond that.
Health reform, along with other factors, has significantly improved Medicare’s financial outlook, boosting revenues and making the program more efficient. The HI trust fund is now projected to remain solvent 11 years longer than before the Affordable Care Act was enacted. And the HI program’s projected 75-year shortfall of 0.73 percent of taxable payroll is much less than the 3.88 percent of payroll that the trustees estimated before health reform. (See Figure 1.) This means that Congress could close the projected funding gap by raising the Medicare payroll tax — now 1.45 percent each for employers and employees — to about 1.8 percent, or by enacting an equivalent mix of program cuts and tax increases.
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
What privatization would mean to seniors is that instead of direct coverage, they would get subsidies from which seniors would have to buy their own insurance. Now, let’s forget for a moment that the subsidies will probably not be enough to pay for private coverage, which is much, much more expensive, but if the Affordable Care Act is overturned, it will mean that preexisting conditions will be back. It’s a rare senior (or person) who doesn’t have at least one preexisting condition. In other words, privatizing Medicare will be a huge giveaway to insurance companies, but seniors will be screwed. | 0 |
Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign over allegations he met with Russian officials from a Washington Post story published late Wednesday night. Schumer also called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate. Schumer said, “Last night, when I read the revelations regarding Attorney General Sessions’ contact with the Russian ambassador and his decision to mislead congress about those contacts, I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach. I worried about the future of our country with foreign influenceIin our elections. It goes to the very wellspring of our democracy. For weeks I have said that Attorney General Sessions needs to himself from any investigation into contacts between the president and his associates on the campaign and transition and Russia. For weeks, I made clear that I believe Attorney General Sessions’ close relationship with the Trump campaign requires that he recuse himself from the executive branch investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. ” “It’s a matter of Department of Justice guidelines that I’ve read to you several times that are very clear,” he continued. “The guidelines are clear as day. Yet Attorney General Sessions has demurred. The information reported last night makes it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that Attorney General Sessions cannot possibly lead an investigation into Russian interference in our elections or come anywhere near it. With these revelations, he may very well become the subject of it. It would be of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ quality of this administration were to sanction him to investigate himself. Recusal should have been given. But this goes beyond that. He had weeks, Attorney General Sessions had weeks to correct the record that he made before the Judiciary Committee. ” “But he let the record stand,” Schumer added. “There cannot be even the scintilla of doubt about the impartiality and fairness of the attorney general, the top law enforcement official of the land. After this, it’s clear Attorney General Sessions does not meet that test. Because the justice department should be above reproach, for the good of the country, Attorney General Sessions should resign. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Actor Jim Caviezel portraying Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ.”
Jesus Christ of Nazareth is not the Republican nominee for president in this election cycle.
But if He were, Democrats would try to “destroy” Him in the same manner they’re attacking the 2016 GOP candidate, Donald Trump.
That’s according to radio host Rush Limbaugh, who hypothesized what this year’s race would look like if the Son of God were at the top of the Republican ticket.
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“It doesn’t matter who the Republicans would have nominated, they were gonna get the treatment Trump’s getting. It wouldn’t have mattered,” Limbaugh said Wednesday.
“They would go out of their way to find ways to destroy Jesus Christ if he could be nominated as a Republican. The Democrats would do everything they could, include calling Him a liar, the Bible a fake book, whatever it took.” Rush Limbaugh
And despite the fact the Bible never indicates Jesus was married or had sex out of wedlock, Limbaugh suggested Democrats would do their best effort in trying to find any of His offspring:
“They would scour the historical record looking for children He had fathered, anything they could do to disapprove the gospel to discredit Jesus. That’s who they are. That’s what they would do.”
Limbaugh said the point he was stressing was that Republicans would never escape “this kind of media assault based on who we nominate.” Donald Trump’s RNC acceptance speech (Photo: Screenshot from RNC live feed)
“I say this because a lot of you Never Trumpers are out there claiming that this is exactly what you get when you nominate a guy like Trump. No, it’s exactly what you get when you nominate a Republican. Whenever there is any opposition to the Democrats, this is what they do. It doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do it. They did it to Romney …
“I’ve made this point ’til I blue in the face. They turned Romney, who is mild-mannered Mr. Gosh, Can’t Even Get Noticed into the biggest walking Satan, El Diablo politics had ever seen at that time, and they made it stick So this is why I think Trump has so many people supporting him. He’s fighting back against it when most Republicans haven’t and don’t.”
As an example of how media treatment of Republicans has not changed, Limbaugh played an excerpt of 1980 election-night coverage from CBS. Commentator Bill Moyers characterized the race before it was known that Republican Ronald Reagan would easily defeat Democrat Jimmy Carter. Moyers stated:
“Those of you who might speak Spanish, who might be black, who might be women, remember,” said Carter, “who’s been your friend.” And there under the California sun in San Diego at a shopping center, Ronald Reagan was delivering himself of one of those patriotic soliloquies at which he’s been a master since his days at Eureka College. Suddenly hecklers in the crowd started shouting and waving their ERA signs. Reagan took his cue and snapped back, “Aw, shut up!”
And thousands of supporters roared their approval. Those are the people for whom Ronald Reagan is the apostle of the rollback, the knight who promises finally to slay the dragon of liberal government. Jimmy Carter won four years ago as an outsider, and, if he wins at all tonight, it must be as an insider defending the status quo. Reagan has cast himself as a sheriff who comes riding into town at just in the nick of time shouting, “Enough’s enough.”
“Does it sound like anything has changed in the way these people see the world?” Limbaugh asked. “Not an iota!”
Follow Joe Kovacs on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews | 0 |
Two days ago we wrote about a mutiny of CHAI management against the Clinton Foundation after they grew weary of donors’ complaints about conflicts of interest…apparently donors weren’t happy contributing money to the Clinton Foundation for their AIDS/HIV work only to find out later that the money never actually made it to the Clinton Health Initiative but instead stayed within the Clinton Foundation.
And, of course, the 2011/2012 feud between Doug Band and Chelsea Clinton is also something we’ve covered at great length (see here and here ).
Now, today’s WikiLeaks dump reveals yet another gem in the Doug/Chelsea saga which draws in one of the “Bush 43 kids.”
I just received a call from a close friend of wjcs who said that cvc told one of the bush 43 kids that she is conducting an internal investigation of money within the foundation from cgi to the foundation
The bush kid then told someone else who then told an operative within the republican party
“Not smart”, indeed.
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Contributed by Zero Hedge of www.zerohedge.com . | 0 |
Trump’s grandfather was a pimp and tax evader; his father a member of the KKK ‹ › South Front Analysis & Intelligence is a public analytical project maintained by an independent team of experts from the four corners of the Earth focusing on international relations issues and crises. They focus on analysis and intelligence of the ongoing crises and the biggest stories from around the world: Ukraine, the war in Middle East, Central Asia issues, protest movements in the Balkans, migration crises, and others. In addition, they provide military operations analysis, the military posture of major world powers, and other important data influencing the growth of tensions between countries and nations. We try to dig out the truth on issues which are barely covered by governments and mainstream media. Syrian War Report – October 28, 2016: Militants Make Do-Or-Die Attempt to Break Aleppo Siege By South Front on October 28, 2016 …from SouthFront
On October 28, the joint militant forces launched a full-scale offensive in order to break the siege of militant-controlled neighborhoods of Aleppo city that had been set by the Syrian government forces. The operation was led by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian Al-Qaeda branch). Jaish al-Mujahideen, Fastaqim Kama Umirt, Faylaq al-Sham, Ajnad al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham and the Islamic Front joint the offensive.
The attack begun with massive shelling of the al-Assad Neighborhood in western Aleppo with ‘Grad’ missiles, artillery and mortars. Then, three vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices [suicide – 2, remote controlled – 1] targeted the government positions and the militants launched the main phase of the attack in the direction of Al-Assad Military Academy.
In total, about 3,000 fighters, up to 30 artillery units and unspecified number of heavy military equipment were involved in the operation. The pro-government forces responded with massive artillery fire and air strikes. Air raids were also reported in the area of Khan Tuman, serving the rear base of attack.
Considering the sides’ military capabilities and the terrain features, SF forecasts that the terrorists will not be able to break the siege of Aleppo in case of the effective operations by the Syrian military staff.
The Kurdish YPG have killed over 30 members of Turkish-backed militant groups in clashes near the village of Tall Malid in northern Syria, according to pro-Kurdish sources. Since October 26, YPG units have conducte da series of attacks on the Turkish-backed militant alliance, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and retook the villages of Tall Malid, Jisr ash-Samuqah and others – from it.
In a separate development, the Turkish forces seized the villages of Diwêr El-Hewa and Eblayê that had been controlled by ISIS.
On October 27, the Syrian army’s Tiger Forces and the National Defense Forces liberated the strategic town of Suran in northern Hama. Then, the government forces launched an advance on Taibat Imam. On October 28, clashes continued in the area. Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT, VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians, or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. LEGAL NOTICE - COMMENT POLICY Posted by South Front on October 28, 2016, With 617 Reads Filed under WarZone . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. FaceBook Comments
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is trying hard to reach common ground in the wake of the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. But some justices are trying harder than others. A burst of 11 decisions issued in just over a week in late May provided one telling snapshot of a court divided over the value of consensus. A series of public remarks last week from three justices delivered another. The court seems to have split into two camps, with the four justices at its ideological center working diligently to deliver unified opinions. The remaining members of the court seem less committed to that project. The recent run of rulings, accounting for more than a quarter of all decisions in argued cases so far this term, tells the story. The court’s most conservative members — Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — wrote eight concurrences or dissents. Its two most liberal members — Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor — wrote four. The remaining justices make up the new center of the court. Three of them — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Elena Kagan — voted together in every case, and Justice Stephen G. Breyer cast a single dissenting vote. None wrote a concurrence or dissent. Two members of that core group offered public reflections last week on the court’s current state, declaring themselves satisfied. “I try to achieve as much consensus as I can,” Chief Justice Roberts said at a judicial conference in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. “We kind of have to have a commitment as a group. I think we spend a fair amount of time — maybe a little more than others in the past — talking about things, talking them out. It sometimes brings you a bit closer together. ” The resulting decisions can be narrow or nonexistent, as when the court unanimously returned a major case on access to contraception to the lower courts. That effectively deferred a Supreme Court ruling on the matter for at least a year and probably much longer. The chief justice acknowledged, “It’s been subject to some criticism that you can put things off. ” “Some people think that’s bad,” he said. “I think it has something to do with judicial philosophy. I think we should be as restrained in when we decide the issues when it’s necessary to do so. I think that’s part of how I look at the job. ” The contraception opinion was unsigned, but some sophisticated observers suspect that Justice Breyer played a major role in setting it in motion. He did not address the case directly in remarks at an awards ceremony last week, but he took issue with the idea that the Supreme Court is diminished when it fails to rule in significant cases. “If you believe the Supreme Court should decide all the major issues for the country, you’d like them all decided,” he said. “I happen not to believe that. ” Justice Ginsburg, the leader of the court’s liberal wing, sounded less content with the current state of affairs on Thursday at a judicial conference in Saratoga Springs, N. Y. “Eight, as you know, is not a good number for a multimember court,” she said. In his own remarks, Justice Breyer said an court was capable of deciding most cases, supporting the point with statistics from recent terms. “We’re unanimous 50 percent of the time,” he said. “Twenty percent of the time we’re and half of those are kind of random, not what the press would call the usual suspects. ” That was just about correct, though the fraction of decisions that split along the usual ideological lines in recent terms was more like . But Justice Breyer’s larger point was true: There is no reason to think the court is likely to deadlock all that often. The number of closely divided decisions was never large, and Justice Scalia was not the decisive vote in all of them. In the term that ended last June, he was in the majority in six of 19 decisions decided by a vote. The recent run of 11 decisions followed the general pattern. None were deadlocks. Five were authentically unanimous, while a sixth was unanimous about the bottom line but divided over the rationale. One split 5 to 3, another 6 to 2. The three remaining decisions were 7 to 1, with Justice Thomas in dissent every time. One case concerned prosecutors’ exclusion of all black potential jurors from the trial of a black defendant facing the death penalty. Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, said a prosecutor’s explanation for striking a black potential juror was “nonsense. ” But it was good enough for Justice Thomas, the member of the court least interested in consensus. That same day, the four more quarrelsome justices issued dueling concurrences in a series of cases about offenders sentenced to die in prison. The court itself had done nothing more than return the cases to lower courts for reconsideration in light of a January decision that had seemed to give the prisoners a fresh shot at eventual release. Justices Thomas and Alito, in separate concurrences, said there were still reasons to sustain the sentences. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ginsburg, said lower courts should grant relief in all but the rarest cases. John P. Elwood, a lawyer with Vinson Elkins, wrote on Scotusblog that he was struck by the level of discord. “That’s a lot of disagreement,” he wrote, “for people who agree on the disposition of a case. ” | 1 |
Veterans help veterans cope with PTSD through decorated Marine’s New York-based nonprofit Headstrong Project ‹ › Mr. Hill is a lawyer focusing his practice on representing disabled veterans. He represents veterans and their dependents across the nation. In addition to representing the disabled, Mr. Hill is a recognized authority on VA law. He has authored several books on VA service connected benefits. Mr. Hill gives presentations across the nation on VA disability compensation. He is the treasurer for the board of directors of the National Organization of Veterans Advocates (NOVA). He is a member of the Florida Bar and the Washington D.C. Bar. He is licensed to practice before the United States District Court in and for the Middle District of Florida, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. PTSD: Identification and Compensation By Matt Hill on November 8, 2016
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a condition that’s both underestimated and misunderstood, especially when it comes to the Veterans Association. PTSD is actually a common condition. The Mayo Clinic estimates that more than 3 million Americans are diagnosed with PTSD every year — and that doesn’t take into account those individuals who never receive a diagnosis.
PTSD develops when an individual has witnessed or experienced a traumatic or terrifying event. Unsurprisingly, it’s a condition that’s particularly prevalent among veterans. Although the VA estimates that 10-15% of veterans will develop PTSD at some point following their military service, it’s entirely possible these numbers might actually be much higher in reality.
PTSD is classified as a trauma and stressor-related disorder. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the condition is characterized as a repetitive re-experiencing of an extremely traumatic event (or stressor), usually accompanied by increased arousal, nightmares, and flashbacks. Those who have PTSD often have trouble concentrating, remembering, and sleeping.
But a PTSD diagnosis is not always easy to come by. The manifestation of the condition is not always straight-forward and doesn’t appear in the same way from person to person. It may take months or even years to develop, and symptoms may shift or appear over time. To diagnose a case of PTSD, physicians will look at specific criteria for symptoms. There are four distinct groups of criteria, all with different symptoms. These groups are: Intrusion Symptoms —Nightmares, intrusive memories or thoughts, or psychological and physical reactions to memories of the event. Avoidance Symptoms —Avoiding situations, thoughts, or feelings that you associate with the traumatic event. Negative Changes in Cognitions and Mood —Memory issues, negative thoughts about themselves or others, severe emotions like shame or sadness, lack of interest in activities they once enjoyed, or feelings of detachment, isolation, or disconnection. Changes in Arousal and Reactivity —An easy startle response, or feeling constantly jittery or alert.
It’s easy to see how these symptoms could easily disrupt a person’s life and take a significant toll on their mental health, as well as their personal and professional life. If you or someone you love may be suffering from PTSD, it’s important to seek out help. Because PTSD presents itself differently in every patient, treatment must be sought and tailor-made for each individual. Although there is no cure for PTSD, treatment has proven to be very effective for the majority of patients. Typically, this treatment includes psychotherapy — including cognitive and exposure therapy, as well as regular appointments with a psychiatrist — and in some cases, medication.
If you are a veteran who has been diagnosed with PTSD, you may be entitled to receive benefits and compensation from the VA. There are many things that you need to know to get the benefits that you deserve, and the veterans advocates at Hill & Ponton have published a PTSD guide covering everything regarding a PTSD claim. In years past, veterans were required to provide evidence of the traumatic event that led to the development of their condition. Below are some of the important points in the guide on how to establish service connection and get the proper rating.
The first thing is to establish a service connection for your PTSD in order to be eligible for benefits. The three things the VA requires are: Current Diagnosis: you must have a current PTSD diagnosis that was given by professionals who the VA has deemed “qualified to perform PTSD Compensation and Pension examinations.” These professionals have doctoral-level training in diagnostic methods, clinical interview methods, and psychopathology. They also need to have a working knowledge of the DSM-V and have extensive clinical experience with both the diagnosis and treatment in veterans with PTSD. Typically, these are board-certified psychiatrists and licensed psychologists, but may also include psychiatric residents and psychology interns as long as they’re under close supervision of an attending professional in the field. Essentially, if you’ve received a current PTSD diagnosis from a licensed professional, that analysis satisfies this requirement. Please note: most VA hospitals and clinics employ licensed mental health social workers to treat veterans. Their diagnosis of PTSD alone is not enough to meet this requirement. In-Service Stressor: This might be the most difficult requirement to satisfy. Sometimes, trauma is easy to determine, but other times, proving its occurrence can be challenging. There are a lot of different regulations regarding the type of trauma you experienced. For example, the rules for determining fear of terrorist activity are different from veterans who engaged in combat or sexual trauma. It’s recommended that you consult with your psychiatrist or psychologist, as well as a qualified lawyer, to address this requirement. Nexus: Basically, this is the link between the first two requirements. It’s what connects the traumatic event you experienced with your current diagnosis of PTSD. A medical expert is required in order to explain how your symptoms are a direct result of your in-service stressor — which is especially important if you have multiple stressors. It’s vital you establish that the traumatic event is the definitive link to your diagnosis and cannot be explained by any other events that took place outside of your military service.
Once these requirements have been satisfied, you can then file a claim through the VA. If you file a claim, you’ll need to undergo a Compensation and Pension Examination (sometimes called a C&P Exam) to verify your diagnoses, assess symptom severity, and definitively determine whether your PTSD is directly related to your military service. The VA treats the C&P exam with a lot of weight and it will determine the amount of compensation you receive.
When you go to your exam, remember to be as honest and as forthcoming as possible. You should bring written statements from family or friends that say how your PTSD has impacted your life. You should also bring a list of symptoms you’ve experienced to help you when being questioned during the exam.
After the exam, you will be assigned a disability percentage rate. This percentage reflects how severe your condition is and how much the symptoms affect your ability to work and maintain social relationships. Depending on the severity of your PTSD, you could potentially receive a disability rate of 0%, 10%, 30%, 70%, or 100%.
Overall, the compensation you receive will be related to your estimated impairment of working ability. Above all, it’s important to demonstrate evidence of occupational impairment due to PTSD. Even if your symptoms don’t constitute a 100% disability rating, you may still be able to receive one through a TDIU, which stands for total disability based on individual unemployability. A TDIU may be assigned if an individual fails to meet the criteria for 100% disability but is still completely unable to obtain and maintain employment.
Because the way the VA determines disability percentages can be highly confusing and complex, working with a lawyer who specializes in VA claims may be to your benefit. The various rules and regulations for determining physical disability can be hard to navigate, but mental conditions like PTSD can be even more difficult to prove. That’s why having an expert on your side can be vital.
If you or someone you love may be suffering from PTSD as a result of military service, seek out assistance from an attorney who specializes in veterans’ issues. Alternatively, if you are dissatisfied with a disability rating you have received and aren’t receiving the benefits you need, there may be other options at your disposal.
This guest post was written by Matthew Hill from Hill & Ponton, P.A, a veterans disability law firm . In addition to representing the disabled, Mr. Hill is a recognized authority on VA law. He has authored several books on VA service connected benefits gives presentations across the nation on VA disability compensation. He is the treasurer for the board of directors of the National Organization of Veterans Advocates (NOVA). Related Posts: | 0 |
PARIS — French technicians have successfully downloaded the cockpit voice recordings from the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in May, investigators said Saturday, raising hopes that the information the recordings contain will soon put an end to the intense speculation about what caused the disaster. The recordings, along with the contents of the jet’s flight data recorder that were salvaged in a laboratory near Paris this past week, will be returned to Cairo for further analysis, an crash investigation committee said in a statement. The initial information obtained from the flight data recorder is consistent with automated alerts sent by the doomed plane, an Airbus A320, to a maintenance base on the ground indicating smoke in a lavatory as well as in an area near the cockpit where its flight control computer systems were housed. In addition, deepwater salvage teams have retrieved charred pieces of metal from the plane’s front section that investigators said indicated a fire. EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared abruptly from radar at 37, 000 feet and then plunged into the sea on May 19 on a flight from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 passengers and crew members on board. The Egyptian authorities initially suspected terrorism as a likely cause, although no group has claimed responsibility. A French judge recently opened a criminal investigation into the disaster, which killed 15 French citizens, but so far investigators have found no evidence suggesting that someone got a bomb onto the plane before it took off from Paris. Independent aviation safety experts monitoring the crash inquiry said the scant evidence was not enough to determine whether the fire had been caused by a deliberate act or a technical malfunction such as an electrical short circuit. “There are still more questions than answers at this stage,” said Robert W. Mann, a former airline executive and an industry analyst. A specialized salvage team continues to pull wreckage, as well as human remains, from the seabed, roughly 10, 000 feet below the surface. Mr. Mann said analysis of the burned debris would help investigators determine where the fire had begun and how quickly it had spread. In addition, chemical analysis of soot traces would reveal whether any explosives or other accelerants had been involved. Experts said the voice recordings obtained in Paris would also provide important clues about how the pilots had assessed and responded to the emergency. That could help investigators explain a series of sharp maneuvers the plane made in the final moments before it fell from the sky. Air traffic controllers have said the crew did not communicate any emergency to the ground before radio contact was lost and the plane disappeared from their radar screens. | 1 |
Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:33 UTC © Jonathan Ernest/Reuters Donald Trump called for a "new deal for black America" in a Wednesday afternoon address as he works to bridge the gap he faces with the crucial voting bloc less than two weeks from Election Day. Speaking in Charlotte, N.C., the GOP presidential nominee criticized years of Democratic rule for leaving black America behind and outlined his plan to help. My "deal is grounded in three promises: safe communities, great education and high-paying jobs," Trump said, speaking off what appeared to be scripted remarks "Whether you vote for me or not, I will be your greatest champion. We live in a very divided country, and I will be your greatest champion." Trump called on voters to repudiate Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her party in favor of change. "American politics is caught in a time loop. We keep electing the same people over and over and over," he said. "Every day, I'm out on the trail proposing fresh solutions and new thinking. And every day, the same people, getting rich off our broken system, say we can't change and we can't try anything new, because it's not good for them." The subdued beginning of his speech stood in sharp contrast to the fiery tack Trump usually takes at his campaign rallies, which are meant to inject his brand of politics directly into the veins of his supporters. "I have a message for all the doubters in Washington: America's future belongs to the dreamers, not the cynics and not the critics," he said. "African-American citizens have sacrificed so much for our nation. They fought and died in every war since the Revolution and from the pews and the picket lines, they've lifted up the conscience of our country in the long march for civil rights. Yet too many African-Americans have been left behind." Trump called for incentives to move companies into blighted neighborhoods to bolster employment, help African-Americans get better access to credit and push cities to declare "blighted communities" disaster areas to help rebuild infrastructure. He also said he'd support increasing the number of police officers in such areas, connecting a lack of officers to a rise in murder rate in major cities. But while Trump's call focused on removing "gang members and criminal cartels," he blamed Clinton for promoting a "war on police." He did not mention the accusations of police brutality by minorities who feel that they are disproportionately targeted. It's not the first time Trump has made a direct appeal to black voters — overtures first appeared in scripted speeches in the late summer. He's struggled to gain traction with minority voters in general in polls: He won just 20 percent of the nonwhite vote in a recent CNN/ORC poll, 25 percent of nonwhite voters in Quinnipiac University's recent poll and 17 percent in the recent Fox News poll. Black voters were an important voting block for then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) when he upset Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in North Carolina in the 2008 presidential election. | 0 |
The discovery of an ancient artifact, mainly composed out of aluminum is considered as compelling evidence of ‘ancient astronaut’ visitations to Earth over 250,000 years ago. Lab tests have confirmed the age of the artifact and its mysterious composition. The idea that humanity has been visited by beings not from Earth in the distant past has captured the interest of millions worldwide.
Every once in a while, a strange discovery makes us reconsider whether or not history, as we have been told, is accurate.
What if we are missing something, and what if, in the distant past, extremely advanced technology was present on Earth?
READ: Everything We Have Been Taught About Our Origins Is A Lie
The mysterious artifact, composed mainly out of aluminum was found in Romania during the 1970’s when the nation was under communist rule, and information about it was released to the public at the time.
Now, lab tests conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland, have revealed that the metal fragment is composed of 90 percent aluminum and the remaining 10 percent of 11 different metals.
The artifact has an approximate age of 250,000 years, reports British newspaper the Sun .
But is this artifact really compelling proof ancient astronauts visited Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago?
As it turns out, Aluminum was not created by ‘modern civilization’ until 200 years ago. Aluminium was first isolated in 1825 by Danish physicist HC Oersted, so the discovery of the piece of metal with an age such as this has been considered extraordinary by researchers.
The item was discovered in 1973 when constructors were working on the shorelines of the Mures River, in the vicinity of the town of Auid. At around 10 meters below the surface, workers were left surprised when they recovered three mysterious objects.
All of them appeared, unlike anything they had seen, and seemed to be very old.
Archaeologists were brought to the site and identified two of the objects as being fossil remains.
However, the third piece left researchers surprised. IT appeared to be a man-made artifact, composed of an extremely lightweight metal. Researchers suspected at the time that it was the end of an axe.
To confirm the theories, the objects were sent to analysis to Cluj, Romania.
Experts determined that the fossils belonged to a large –extinct— mammal that died between 10,000 and 80,000 years ago.
READ: We Are Being Lied To About Our History
However, the third object caused confusion among experts. Scientists determined that the object was composed of a lightweight metal and was most likely manufactured due to the concavities of the object.
The Auid artifact is 20 meters long, 12.5 centimeters wide and has a thickness of 7 centimeters.
The object resembled some kind of part belonging to a complex mechanical system. However, researchers were unable to determine to what it belonged.
Deputy Director of the Romanian Ufologists Association, Gheorghe Cohal said: ‘Lab tests concluded it is an old UFO fragment given that the substances it comprises cannot be combined with technology available on Earth.’
However, not everyone seems convinced. Local historian Mihai Wittenberger doesn’t believe the object belongs to a complex mechanical device left behind by ancient astronauts. In fact, Wittenberger
believes the mysterious object may actually be a metal piece from a World War II German aircraft.
More precisely, Wittenberger claims the alleged ‘alien artifact’ was actually part of the landing gear of a Messerschnmitt ME 262.
But there’s one problem with that explanation. The mystery object is 250,000 years old.
The mysteries surrounding the artifact have not been solved, and currently, the ‘out-of-place- artifact resides in the History Museum of Cluj-Napoca, next to a sign that reads: ‘origin still unknown’.
Source: EWAO
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After suffering over a year of attacks due to his support of President Donald Trump, Super Bowl champion New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is now bowing out of the team visit to the White House, citing family matters as the reason. [The Super Bowl winner posted a message to social media saying that while he is “excited” for the team’s visit to the White House, he will be skipping the event. “I am so happy and excited that our team is being honored at the White House today,” Brady wrote in his statement. “Our team has accomplished something very special that we are all proud of and will be for years to come,” Brady continued. “Thank you to the President for hosting this honorary celebration and for supporting our team for as long as I can remember. ” “In light of some recent developments, I am unable to attend today’s ceremony, as I am attending to some personal family matters,” Brady explained. “Hopefully, if we accomplish the goal of winning a championship in the future years, we will [be] back on the South Lawn again soon. Have a great day,” he concluded. Tom Brady is not attending White House ceremony today due to ”personal family matters.” His statement: pic. twitter. — Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) April 19, 2017, The sudden announcement comes as a shock to many who expected Brady to be one of the first in line during the White House visit. Throughout the past NFL season, Brady was dogged by sports reporters more interested in social justice than sports who demanded he distance himself from Donald Trump — though he refused to do so. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
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In early October, the Colombian people voted NO to peace.
Or to be exact, 50.2 percent of 37 percent of the eligible population voted no. In the referendum held on October 2, the majority of voters decided to scuttle the agreement between the government and FARC rebels, which had been reached after four years of peace talks dedicated to ending 52 years of bloodshed.
The vote came just days after the celebratory signing of the agreement, which was lauded in the international community for achieving a bridge between historic enemies and dealing broadly with the root causes of the conflict. The rest of the world was stunned.
Most pundits have begun the post-mortem analysis of the referendum by saying something like “Colombians did not vote against peace.” They go on to discuss other factors, including people’s ignorance of the accords, or their mistaken belief that after four years it could simply be renegotiated.
But the fact of the matter is that the NO voters voted clearly and unambiguously to continue the war. The words on the ballot read: “Do you accept the final agreement to terminate the conflict and build a stable and lasting peace?” It’s almost inconceivable that any population would vote no on this proposition, but they did.
So why did they?
Although even former president Alvaro Uribe, the nation’s leading warmonger, now makes the politically correct statement that the ultimate goal is peace, the macho sentiments of total domination and punishment (of one side), along with a strong dose of Cold War hysteria (yes, in the 21 st century) won the day.
The NO promoters knew what they were doing. They were not promoting an alternative peace. As a 32-year old NO voter quoted in the New York Times put it, “If ‘no’ wins, we won’t have peace, but at least we won’t give the country away to the guerrillas.”
His statement reflects the patriarchal logic that has started and perpetuated wars since time immemorial – the only good enemy is a dead enemy, and if I don’t win, nobody wins.
At least some NO voters and many of the leaders are betting on continuing war until they gain by force their entire military and political agenda – a prospect that, given the war’s longevity to date could easily be another half century. Or never.
The Perks of Permanent War
For many NO promoters, including Uribe himself, “never” could be the best-case scenario. Basking in the limelight of a political career rebuilt on the ruins of one the most complex and progressive peace agreements in history, Uribe released proposals for revamping the peace agreement designed to throw a monkey wrench into any process to salvage peace in Colombia.
Analysts quoted on CNN’s Spanish channel observed that Uribe’s wish list is aimed at “torpedoing the peace accords.” That’s correct: No one expects the FARC to accept Uribe’s terms, which include banning the group from politics, sentencing members to 5-8 year prison terms for crimes including drug trafficking, pardoning Colombia’s security forces for their own serious crimes, and eliminating the meticulously negotiated Tribunal for Transitional Justice.
Huge sectors of the population reject Uribe’s terms as well, since his proposals would also wipe out the parts of the peace accord that regulate the return of stolen lands to peasant and indigenous communities and seriously hamper, if not strike altogether, plans for reparations to victims. They also could rollback meticulously negotiated gains in gender justice and LGBT rights.
To pretend that everyone wants peace and the only issue is how to get it is to ignore the fact that the war benefits many powerful interests. Those interests will fight to keep fighting.
On the political front, war assures military control over a population and justifies authoritarianism and repression through fear. In general, the most militarized parts of the country are areas where peasants, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous peoples are defending their lands and resources from the incursions of transnational corporations and mega development projects. Fear and murder are powerful repressive tools.
War is also a huge business. Thanks to U.S. Plan Colombia and policies that fanned the conflict, Colombia became the third largest recipient of US aid in the world during the war, behind only Israel and Egypt. Colombia’s budget for security forces skyrocketed ; between 2001 and 2005, it grew more than 30 percent, and by 2006 it was double its 1990 levels – some $4.48 billion for military and police.
US Interests
The US military-industrial complex also has a vested interest in continuing the war. The conflict justified Plan Colombia, the $10 billion dollar counterinsurgency and counternarcotics plan that allowed the Pentagon to establish a military presence in Colombia, both physically and by proxy. With the pretext of Colombia’s internal conflict, the US government built up a platform not only for control in Colombia, but also for regional strike capacity, as leaked in the proposed agreement to establish seven US military bases.
Plan Colombia and its later incarnations kept US contracts for weapons, espionage, intelligence equipment, and military and police training flowing to the most powerful lobbying industries in the nation. Billions of dollars have been poured into Plan Colombia and national security investments that ended up in the pockets of political elites and US defense companies. In the budgets for fiscal years 2010-2017, the United States allocated over $2 billion in military and police aid – most of that during the peace talks.
In the process, Colombia was converted into a testing ground for the latest in counterinsurgency and unconventional warfare techniques and equipment from the United States. The blood spilled on its soil feeds the global war machine, to such an extent that Colombia has been groomed as an exporter of counterinsurgency and “security” training, despite its reputation as a gross violator of human rights and the disastrous humanitarian impact of its prolonged war. Colombian forces now work throughout the region to promote the same counternarcotics-counterinsurgency model that left more than 5 million people displaced and untold thousands of innocent peasants executed by security forces.
So very powerful interests saw the peace agreement as a threat. In addition to Uribe followers who viewed it as soft on the FARC, the war economy of the nation and its ally, the United States, was at stake.
In this context, the US government reacted tepidly when peace was voted down. Bernard Aronson, the special envoy to the peace talks, expressed no regret in a press interview after the vote, stating, “We believe Colombians want peace, but clearly they are divided about terms of settlement.” The State Department limited its statement to support for Colombian democracy and further dialogue. After four years of ostensibly supporting the peace talks, neither mentioned the vote as a setback.
An analysis published by the US Army War College, although it is not an official document, openly expresses relief at the continuation of indefinite war in Colombia. Through a mixture of hawkish arguments and lies , the analysis recognizes that the country now enters into a “period of uncertainty,” but notes that this “presents a strategic situation less grave and more manageable, than had the accords been approved.”
It goes on to predict that the FARC will likely break the ceasefire, despite the group’s explicit and public commitment to respect it even in the absence of the guarantees provided in the peace agreement. This position – coming from sources close to the US military, which has in many senses called the shots in Colombia’s war since Plan Colombia began in 2000 – indicates that there is a dangerous possibility of a provocation to further undermine the peace process that has now been thrown into crisis by the NO vote.
The writers also advise President Juan Santos, who staked his political capital on supporting the deal, to retract his commitment to the ceasefire following the vote. They note that Santos promised to “not authorize military operations in the areas where FARC units are located in order to avoid an incident which breaks the fragile truce. Yet not doing so will allow FARC dissidents to operate with almost complete impunity in these areas. Indeed, within the new background of uncertainty, such impunity will increase incentives for FARC units to continue illicit activity, such as drug trafficking, since doing so will pose relatively low risks.”
War Engenders More War, Not Peace
Before the NO vote, the US press hailed Plan Colombia for making peace possible. President Obama, in his self-congratulatory last speech to the UN, proclaimed that we “helped Colombia end Latin America’s longest war.” The logic of this bizarre argument went that were it not for the military debilitation of the guerrillas thanks to the U.S.-Colombian military alliance, the FARC could never have been brought to the negotiating table.
The NO vote is the classic example of the fallacy of that logic. The war fomented by Plan Colombia built up a mentality that made peace an unacceptable solution for many. It revealed the fundamental clash of perspectives between diplomacy and annihilation.
The lesson couldn’t be clearer: War is a terrible preparation for peace. Peace depends on much more than a favorable correlation of forces. Peace, at its core, is a rejection of force as the way to confront differences, and a search for nonviolent solutions to conflict and conflict prevention.
With US military theorists openly calling for reopening hostilities, it is a dangerous myth to assume that at this juncture everyone wants peace and the only open question is how to do it. Plan Colombia, the U.S.-sponsored war on drugs, and Uribe’s “Democratic Security” policy all posit continued militarization. Those who promote peace and reconciliation in the country must deal with that mentality head on. To second-guess or justify NO voters with “they-know-not-what-they-do” arguments reflects the kind of complacency and misreading of the public that created this dangerous debacle in the first place.
There is no doubt that a massive campaign of misinformation and scaremongering played a role. Voters were bombarded with alarmist messages that spun out wild scenarios, from a legislative takeover by the former FARC to a “Chavez-Castro style dictatorship.” CNN’s footage of the NO celebration showed the crowd chanting “The NO won, now we won’t have a Cuban dictatorship.” It didn’t seem to matter that there was no logical relationship between voting for the peace agreement and the nation becoming a dictatorship.
For followers of Uribe, who led the massive campaign against the negotiations and the acceptance of the agreement, the vote was ideological and personal. It represented the right against the left, and Uribe against Santos. For many people stuck in bitter partisan politics, to vote for peace was to vote in favor of the latter.
It is also likely that many people did not have a clear understanding of the accords or their implications, which is a failing of the negotiators and SI (yes) promoters that left a fatal opening for NO propaganda. Some voters also apparently believed that four years of arduous negotiations with the technical support of scores of international experts and mediators could simply be reopened and “fixed” to their liking, though Santos made it clear there was “no Plan B.” Some NO voters quoted in the press even expressed dismay that they had won, believing they were merely casting a protest vote.
Despite these factors, the NO vote reveals a major obstacle: Society has been trained over years of conflict – one of the longest-running internal conflicts in the world – to acquiesce to war as the only response, to dehumanize the enemy and overlook the obvious fact that it takes two sides to sustain hostilities. It’s created a society that believes the only solution is to drive the enemy into the ground – even when they are men and women from one’s own country and their grievances reflect serious social problems.
This is the patriarchal mentality that the war industry thrives on. Plan Colombia has fomented this mentality since it began. It conflated a war on drugs with a counterinsurgency war to justify foreign intervention and broaden the war. The US government knew that military funding was going directly to paramilitary groups. A 2010 empirical study demonstrated a measurable relationship between increases in US security funding and paramilitary homicides. War propaganda presented the FARC as the sole culprit, when terrible atrocities were being committed on both sides.
With the exceptions of Arauca and Norte de Santander, the departments on Colombia’s borders that have suffered most in the war voted to end it. They know what it’s like to feel their houses shaken by bombs, to risk life and limb walking through minefields, to lose their loved ones in crossfire. They know that to stop the violence in their day-to-day lives is far more important than the political games of how punishment and power are dished out.
War as a policy is almost always favored by those farthest from the battlefields.
The Road to Peace
Understanding the very real and perilous obstacles is not the same as being pessimistic or defeatist at this point in the Colombian peace process – it’s a process, after all. It’s important not to minimize the enormity of this setback – President Santos’ Nobel Peace Prize may be deserved, but it’s a sorry consolation prize for having gotten so close only to be slapped down. But it’s also important to acknowledge that there is still room to move forward.
The peace accords opened up a dialogue and allowed the nation to envision peace. Grassroots organizations are mobilizing in defense of this vision and the possibility of a new reality.
This is the hope on the horizon. Since the NO vote, thousands have marched to support the peace process in Bogota, and also in Cali and cities across the country. The marches have awakened and united groups of indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, victims, students, human rights defenders, peasants, women, and the LGBT community in defense of peace.
The international community should openly and actively support the call for a broad grassroots dialogue for peace. It must continue to be firm and vigilant, because there will be a serious attempt to force a return to the model of military annihilation of the left-wing guerrillas while leaving right-wing paramilitaries and other militarist structures intact.
International organizations committed millions of dollars to support peace implementation, and it must be clear that those funds will only be released when the process is back on track. Part of creating adequate conditions is to deny any new funding to militarism – including the war on drugs, which acts as a thinly veiled excuse for militarization.
The NO vote unexpectedly flipped the political situation back in favor of the right-wing hawks. This uprising could not only flip it back in favor of peace, but also create a social movement capable of going beyond the accords in terms of establishing social justice and human rights and addressing the enormous backlog of demands from below.
Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Laura Carlsen heads the Center for International Policy’s Americas Project. Reprinted with permission from Foreign Policy In Focus . | 0 |
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile said Donald Trump has “enormous,” opportunity to find common ground with Democrats in Washington, D. C. Brazile said, “If it’s ‘my way or the highway,’ what you’re going to see again is another round of gridlock in Washington, D. C. You’re going to see retribution and retaliation. He has an enormous opportunity as every president in the first 100 days to show that, you know, he’s eager to find common ground, to meet with, you know, Democrats, Chuck Schumer. I mean Chuck Schumer knows Donald Trump, both New Yorkers. Have him over for breakfast, have him over for afternoon tea and see if you can find some common ground. ” ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key On Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Theodore Shoebat
A major political leader in France, Francois-Xavier Peron , has declared that France is about to enter into a devastating war against Islam , and its going to be extremely violent. His solution to prepare? Embrace the Christian Faith and never accept the antichrist masonic religion .
I did an interview with Mr. Peron about this coming war, and why the Christian Faith must be the religion of the world:
Courtesy of Freedom Outpost
Theodore Shoebat is the Communications Director for Rescue Christians , an organization that is on the ground in Muslim lands, rescuing Christians from persecution. He is the author of two book, For God or For Tyranny and In Satan’s Footsteps: The Source and Interconnections of all Evil , he also has a DVD series called “Christian Militancy,” which is on Christian warfare and our fight against evil and tyranny.
Article posted with permission from Shoebat.com Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 0 |
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Well, I would have to agree with the Clinton camp on this one, for what will probably be the first and last time ever. Her supporters are “f*cking dumb”…
A new email released by Wikileaks as part of the Podesta dump reveals what the Clinton campaign really thinks of their millennial supporters.
Marketing Executive Wendy Bronfein, who was introduced to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta in another email as someone who “could be immensely helpful in improving HRC’s connection to millennials,” advises on how to reach “f**king dumb” young people.
According to infowars , Bronfein tells Podesta that Clinton “may not be the best face” to attract younger voters and that she needs to utilize “trending figures” as part of an “infusion to pull younger voters” because “that’s the crap that young people pay attention to.”
She goes on to state, “It’s f**king dumb but being “cool” counts for more than it maybe should.”
“I hate to generalize a generation but by social media nature, they “follow”. So if someone they identify as cool endorses – they will likely fall in line with that candidate,” writes Bronfein.
Take a look…
This is not the first time Clinton and her team have demeaned their own voter base. It was revealed in another email that Clinton ally Brent Budowsky accused Hillary operative David Brock of having a plan that relied upon black voters being “stupid.”
And in an audio recording leaked earlier this month, Hillary Clinton was caught on tape saying that Bernie Sanders supporters are “living in their parents’ basement” and had bought into a “false promise.”
In yet another email, Clinton operative Bill Ivey spoke of the need to maintain political power by producing “an unaware and compliant citizenry.”
Indeed, WikiLeaks has been the gift that keeps on giving.
SHARE this report to EXPOSE what Hillary Clinton REALLY thinks of the people voting for her! | 0 |
Under the Surface - Naomi Klein and the Great Barrier Reef Share on Facebook Tweet In Under the Surface, a special Guardian film, the award-winning writer and environmental campaigner Naomi Klein travels to the Great Barrier Reef with her son, Toma, to see the impact of coral bleaching caused by climate change. In a personal but also universal story, Klein tells how she wants him to bear witness. ‘Just in case, amid the coral that is still alive, he can find something... read more
In Under the Surface, a special Guardian film, the award-winning writer and environmental campaigner Naomi Klein travels to the Great Barrier Reef with her son, Toma, to see the impact of coral bleaching caused by climate change. In a personal but also universal story, Klein tells how she wants him to bear witness. ‘Just in case, amid the coral that is still alive, he can find something beautiful to connect with, something he can carry with him as he navigates life on a warmer, harsher planet than the one I grew up on. Because climate change is already here – and kids are on the frontlines’ [watch video below] | 0 |
”I remember who the people are there when the tough times are there and he did that for me.” Kraft on his friendship with Pres Trump pic. twitter. Friday while discussing his relationship with President Donald Trump, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said the president intends to create a “vibrant economy to get jobs going again” in America. “I think that his intent is to also to do things that can help the business environment in America, which to me, the people hurting most are working class and poor people. We need a vibrant economy to get jobs going again,” Kraft said on “Fox Friends. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC © Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation/Russia Insider President Obama, Vladislav Krasnov, Ph.D An Open Letter to Barack Obama Dear Mr. President: As your presidential duties will soon expire, I want you make sure your Nobel Peace Prize is deserved: Please instruct your officials to return to the path of negotiations with Russia , be it the Syrian crisis, the lapse of the plutonium nuclear arms control deal or Ukraine. By so doing, you will bequeath to your successor —whomever it might be— a solid foundation on which to build a healthier and more peaceful Planet Earth. The United States should re-commit to the policy of non-interference in domestic affairs abroad that our Founding Fathers consistently proclaimed and adhered to. Instead of imposing our cherished values of "free-market" and "democracy" abroad, let us rely on the wisdom of a man who risked the reputation of a "traitor" when he defied King George's war on American colonies. I am talking about Edmund Burke, the British philosopher and father of modern conservatism. Like ancient Greeks he argued that each country is entitled to its own form of government, be it democracy, republic, monarchy, tyranny or despotism, each of which tend to evolve into its opposite. Therefore, the colonies do not have to bow to the King. Burke's monument now graces Washington DC. In respect to Russia, remember that Empress Catherine the Great refused King George's request to send Russian Cossacks help him quell George Washington's rebellion. During the Civil War, while Europe's powers-- Great Britain, France, and Spain—tried to take advantage of President Lincoln's problems with the South, Tsar Alexander II who had just abolished serfdom in Russia, sent Russian Navy to the harbors of New York and San Francisco as a gesture of Good Will. More recently, in spite of the USSR's unconcealed hostility to "Capitalist" America, the two countries were able to co-operate in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan, and then keep the bitterness of Cold War in check. After 1991, the Communist Russia is no more. The New Russia has been espousing the same values of private property, free enterprise, multi-party free elections, secular government, and freedom of speech and religion— as we do. To be sure, the post-1991 Russian road has been rocky, but this because we meddled on the side of the Russian oligarchs and because it takes years and decades to cultivate free enterprise and democracy in a country that had none for 73 years. In late 1980s, when I was writing Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth (Westview Press, 1991), Soviet soldiers were forbidden to wear crucifix. Now General Sergei Shoigu, Russia's Minister of Defense, would not enter the Red Square without crossing himself publicly. President Vladimir Putin is regularly seen in a church in front of an icon and has addressed Russian Muslims in a mosque and Jews in a synagogue. It's a truly tectonic shift in global affairs since the end of the Cold War in 1991. Therefore, I say, Mr. President, take a breath of fresh air and do what it takes to make your Nobel Peace Prize count: Leave the legacy of peace-seeking negotiations with Russia from which your successor will not deviate lest he or she be called an abominable war monger. More than any other two countries, Russia and the United States are called upon safeguard Peace, Freedom and Commerce not just from San Francisco to Vladivostok, but on the entire Planet Earth. So help us God! Sincerely, W George Krasnow, Ph.D. (aka Vladislav Krasnov) President, RAGA.org October 10, 2016 W. George Krasnow (also published as Vladislav Krasnov), Ph.D., runs the Russia and America Goodwill Association, a non-profit organization of Americans for friendship with Russia. Formerly, he was a professor and director of Russian Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. Under the name of Vladislav Krasnov he published three books: Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky: A Study in the Polyphonic Novel, Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth, Soviet Defectors: The KGB wanted List. His op-ed columns have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, San Diego Union, and Dallas Morning News. © www.whitehouse.gov | 0 |
Turkey and Russia, whose relationship has helped shape the Syrian war and its related crises, shared a new trauma on Monday after an Turkish police officer assassinated Russia’s ambassador. The killing of Andrey G. Karlov in Ankara caused global alarm and raised questions about the larger consequences. On social media, many drew parallels to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, which helped set off World War I — a comparison that analysts, thankfully, reject. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place at an art gallery in the Turkish capital where Mr. Karlov was speaking. The gunman, who was killed at the scene by security forces, shouted “God is great” in Arabic and later said in Turkish: “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria. ” That may hint at his motive: The Russian Air Force was a key part of the Syrian government’s successful assault on parts of Aleppo, which included widespread attacks on civilians. What follows is an explanation of what the episode means for Turkey, Russia, Syria and the United States. That seems very unlikely. So far, both countries are working to manage the situation and sending signals of cooperation. They appear to be aligning their explanations of what happened, pointing their fingers at mutual enemies but not each other. The reason is Syria. In the past few months, Turkey and Russia have taken pains to line up their strategies there. Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert at the Atlantic Council, put it bluntly: “Turkey needs Russia to advance its war interests. Russia needs Turkey to win, as it defines winning, in Syria. Everyone has an incentive to handle this like adults. ” A crisis over a dead ambassador could jeopardize the two countries’ stakes in Syria — or, worse, revive the destabilizing tensions of last year — so they are working to smooth things over. Also over Syria, which goes to show the volatility of the situation. It also demonstrates that both countries are so focused on protecting their Syria agendas that even their nationalistic, leaders would rather play it cool. The two countries were, and to some extent still are, on opposite sides of the Syrian war. Turkey opposes President Bashar of Syria and has backed rebel groups. Russia supports Mr. Assad and entered the conflict on his behalf in the fall of 2015. Shortly after Russia intervened, its planes began bombing rebels and flew along — Turkey says across — the border. In November 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian jet, precipitating a major crisis and fears of war. That also could have pulled in the United States, which is bound by treaty to defend Turkey, a NATO ally, and wanted to avoid escalation in Syria. Under those circumstances, the assassination of an ambassador could provoke an even larger conflict. But over the last year, the countries’ relationship has changed significantly. After years of pursuing Mr. Assad’s downfall, Turkey shifted this summer to a more modest strategy: preventing Syrian Kurdish groups from accumulating too much territory along the border. That change aligned the country with Russia. Turkey fears that Kurdish control of the border would strengthen Kurdish separatism in Turkey, where the government is fighting Kurdish groups, some of which have carried out terrorist attacks. Russia’s entry into the war also changed Turkey’s calculus, making the campaign against Mr. Assad suddenly costlier and less likely to succeed. Russia, for its part, initially struggled to gain ground against the Syrian rebels, some of whom received Turkish backing. Moscow appears to have concluded that it is better off with Turkey as a partner than an adversary. The two countries appeared to settle on an unofficial deal: Turkey would drop its support for certain rebels who threatened Russian interests in Syria, and Russia would drop its support for Syrian Kurdish groups. Russia also allowed Turkish troops and allied militias to occupy Syrian border territory that had previously been controlled by Kurds and the Islamic State. Mr. Stein of the Atlantic Council called the arrangement “Aleppo for Al Bab”: Russia and Mr. Assad would take Aleppo, while militias would take the strategically located town of Al Bab. Because the cities are nearly adjacent, the Turkish and Russian campaigns benefit each other. At the same time, with their forces mere miles apart, a major breakdown over Mr. Karlov’s assassination would simply be too dangerous to tolerate. There is no indication so far that Turkey or Russia will alter their Syria policies. If anything, the attack may cement their partnership. Mr. Stein predicted that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey would seek to distract attention from his government’s unpopular Syria policy by pinning the attack on the United Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Mr. Erdogan also blamed for a coup attempt in Turkey this summer. Mr. Gulen has denied the charges, and Washington has refused to extradite him, citing a lack of evidence. That has strained ties between the United States and Turkey, though this tension serves Mr. Erdogan by helping him to rally support at home, where America is unpopular. “The biggest loser from this will be Washington,” Mr. Stein said. “It’s completely counterintuitive, but it’s Washington. ” | 1 |
TELLURIDE, Colo. — Can we please kill the talk about the death of movies? Yes, it was a dreary summer. The box office was weak and the big Hollywood releases were weaker. Critics were grumpy. Audiences seemed indifferent. There was so much good television. And so the band struck up the funeral march, as it does every year, and the obituaries circulated on social media. Cinema is dead. (Again.) The donning of sackcloth and ashes for this art form is an annual ritual. But so is the Telluride Film Festival, which functions partly as a standing rebuke to such fatalism and gloom. The beauty of the mountain setting and this elegant former mining town’s distance from the stresses of New York, Los Angeles and Toronto have a way of dispelling pessimism. More consequentially, the festival here is a gathering of the faithful, consecrated to the cinephile religion. The local school gym and a hockey rink on the edge of town are temporarily converted into what screening M. C.’s unironically refer to as cathedrals of cinema. Everyone is a believer. Telluride began in the largely as a place to show old, rare and restored films, a commitment that survives in a robust program of classics and curiosities presented by prominent guest directors. And it seduces audiences with the promise that the future of film — the art if not the photochemical medium — will be as glorious as the past. Maybe this is mythmaking or wishful thinking, but having spent a few days here in the dark I prefer to regard it as hardheaded realism. Whatever the state of the industry or the prevailing winds in the culture and the digital economy, the integrity and specificity of cinema is a fact. And its vital signs are strong. Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” is both an example of and an argument for the uniqueness of movies. A lavish and lovely musical romance, it is set in a Los Angeles populated by creative strivers. Two of these, a jazz pianist named Seb (Ryan Gosling) and a thesp (as the trades would say) named Mia (Emma Stone) meet cute in a gigantic traffic jam that doubles as a extravaganza. The next two hours follow the entwined, contrapuntal progress of their relationship and their careers, punctuated by more songs and ending in a swirl of piercing and complex emotion. “La La Land” is simultaneously a throwback and a gamble. Mr. Chazelle, whose previous features were “Whiplash” and “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” affectionately nods at the tradition of movie musicals, invoking the MGM Technicolor gems of the ’50s and Jacques Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. ” But even though his Los Angeles has a decidedly retro vibe, there is something more than nostalgia at work here. At 31, Mr. Chazelle doesn’t just want to summon the old magic. He also wants to modernize it. The tantalizing question is whether, after the hosannas from critics here and at the Venice Film Festival, modern, millennial audiences will allow themselves to fall under the spell. My hunch is they will: The mixture of antiquarian precision and entrepreneurial that drives “La La Land” will be embraced by a generation for whom preservation and invention often go together. It will, in any case, reward literal moviegoers, those hardy souls willing to switch off the flat screen, silence the cellphone and sit quietly in a roomful of strangers. Cinema is an art form, but it is also a destination, a reason to get out of the house. From the viewer’s perspective, a movie is a nondomestic, nonserial experience, enclosed in time and space and, ideally, lingering in the mind after the lights go on and you stumble out into the world. Your perception is at least momentarily altered. A film festival is a collection of such experiences, an archipelago of worlds. You could drift from “La La Land” to Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival,” an eerie and emotional movie that similarly evokes and updates the grandeur and mystery of past masterpieces. It shares some DNA with “2001” and “Solaris,” and stars Amy Adams as a linguist wrestling with grief and an imposing research assignment. Twelve black spaceships are hovering over Earth, and she must use her professional skills to figure out what their inhabitants want. “Arrival” is an elegant puzzle, an engrossing exercise in — for the protagonist, the filmmaker and the viewer alike. Mr. Villeneuve, assisted by Bradford Young’s haunting cinematography and Johann Johannsson’s menacing, melancholy score, creates a heady, sensual atmosphere in which the boundaries between thinking and feeling are artfully blurred. Which may just be another way of repeating that it’s a movie, rather than a franchise installment or a piece of digital entertainment. Maybe that sounds overly defensive. It’s hard, watching four or five films a day amid crowds of fellow pilgrims, to believe that you’re participating in something marginal, obsolescent or beleaguered. There are too many revelations, large and small. There is the exquisite lyricism and deep feeling of “Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins’s astonishing second feature, about a young black man’s coming of age in three piercing chapters. The film cracks open stereotypes and wears its empathy and its artistry on its sleeve. There is the prickly wit and delicious complication of “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer,” Joseph Cedar’s ebullient comedy, with Richard Gere in the title role. There is the philosophical mischief of “Into the Inferno,” the latest documentary adventure from Werner Herzog, which follows him to the edges of volcanoes in search of cosmic meaning and human peculiarity. And then there are treasures in transit from Sundance, Berlin and Cannes, arriving on vapor trails of enthusiasm. Among these are Cristian Mungiu’s “Graduation,” Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea,” Mia ’s “Things to Come” and, above all, Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann. ” Each one in its own way constitutes proof of life for movies. All of them, curiously, dwell at least partly on the complexities of parenthood. “Manchester” is a lacerating, but also frequently funny, study of the long aftermath of grief, with Casey Affleck as a man damaged by past trauma trying to help his nephew (Lucas Hedges). “Graduation” is about a Romanian doctor’s ethical struggles as he tries to help his daughter find a better future by studying abroad. “Things to Come” is a quiet midlife drama in which a philosophy professor (Isabelle Huppert) navigates disruptions in her family and her inner life. “Toni Erdmann,” though. If a single movie were enough to silence reports of the death of cinema, it would be this one, an German comedy set mostly in Bucharest. It you think that sounds preposterous, you’re not wrong. I hesitate to offer further description, since any attempt to characterize this film in conventional terms — as a story, a feminist satire of corporate behavior, a fable of global capitalism, an extended practical joke — would be woefully insufficient. It’s something new under the sun, a thrilling and discomfiting document of the present moment and also, like every movie that matters, a bulletin from the future. | 1 |
Only a day before journalists are set to meet at their annual dinner, a new poll finds that their intended customers, the American people, don’t trust them. Indeed, the poll finds Americans trust the Trump White House to tell the truth more than they do the media. [The poll taken of 2, 006 adults between April 23 and 26 is certainly bad news for the political media as 37 percent of respondents said they trust the Trump White House, while only 29 percent said they trust the media. Worse for the media, the day before their April 29 dinner, the poll found that 51 percent of respondents said the national political media “is out of touch with everyday Americans,” while only 28 percent said the media “understand the issues every day Americans are facing. ” The poll sponsored by Morning Consult unsurprisingly found a partisan outcome with its questions. But what should concern the media is that independents also said they trust the White House more than they trust the media. Republicans had an extremely lopsided view of the press with 72 percent saying the White House was more apt to tell the truth. Only 10 percent said the media would deliver real news while 18 percent said they did not know. Of course, Democratic respondents trusted the media more than they do Trump, but at a much closer margin. 54 percent favor the media with only 12 percent saying they trust the White House. Perhaps a bit surprising was the 34 percent who said they were not sure which was more truthful. But independents broke towards the Republican position with 37 percent saying they trust the White House more than the media (29 percent). Like Democrats, 34 percent said they were not sure. In an age when the media has taken special care to try and discredit President Trump at every turn, the media’s antagonism has driven independents away, not toward, trusting news coverage. The survey found that 43 percent said the media had been harder on Trump than any other president, and almost half (49 percent) said the media is out of touch with average Americans. President Trump spent much of the last year lambasting the media for misreporting the facts, and his recent rally cry that the media engages in “fake news” has also struck a chord with Americans. The poll found that 42 percent said they have seen “fake news” stories in newspapers and TV broadcasts more than once a day. Another 31 percent said they see fake news several times a week in those same traditional media outlets. This result was echoed a few days earlier in another poll, this one of Trump voters. The poll, sponsored by the University of Virginia Center for Politics, found that 88 percent agree with Trump’s claim that the media is the enemy of the American people. So, as the media prepare to meet in Washington D. C. for their annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner, President Trump will be meeting with Americans in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Next Saturday night I will be holding a BIG rally in Pennsylvania. Look forward to it! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2017, The announcement came after the president decided to skip the annual dinner, breaking with the tradition presidents have set in attending the media’s event. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
Don’t just survive when the world burns, but survive in style.
The election of Donald Trump signals a revolutionary fervor among a large segment of the population that is simply fed up, though it is isn’t just his supporters. The economic realities of a stagnated economy are weighing heavily upon the masses, and they are looking for outlets to address their anger.
If the current protests against the election are any indication, the world is nearing ever closer to destruction, and those who can afford to do so are getting out of the path of violence, mayhem and property destruction ahead of a time. Though the dust will likely settle, the current atmosphere is somewhere between ‘anxious’ and ‘panicked’ :
via CBS in Dallas/Fort Worth :
An investor group is planning for a doomsday scenario by building a $300 million luxury community replete with underground homes. There will also be air-lock blast doors designed for people worried about a dirty bomb or other disaster and off-grid energy and water production.
Residents will enjoy an equestrian center, 18-hole golf course, polo fields, zip lines and gun ranges. Retail shops, restaurants and a row of helipads are also in the works. For those looking to “get away,” they’ll also be able to enjoy three white sand beaches and a neighborhood spa .
“We’ve evolved it into long-term sustainability instead of a survival community,” Trident Lakes CEO Jim O’Connor told the Houston Chronicle, adding that the 400 planned condos will house about 1,600 people.
“It’s not just a hole in the ground to hide in — it’s going to be one of the most plush resorts in all of Texas, if not America,” Trident Lakes spokesperson Richie Whitt told the Sherman Herald Democrat.
“People are getting fearful of this world … If need be, it’s going to be one of the safest places on Earth.”
For those already living in the luxury class, the expense of the elaborate underground community is not only grandiose, but to me, the extra expense on comfort, entertainment and the focus on above-ground activities only suggests that they are hedging seriously on the possibility that they might have to retreat to these places for considerable time periods.
We could use fancy words to describe what’s going on. Or we could just show you our Master Plan. pic.twitter.com/XYesGI7V68
— Trident Lakes (@TridentLakes) November 1, 2016
At any rate, the 1% has taken cues from Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party protest voters, Black Lives Matter, Bernie supporters and the populist upsurge that elected Trump – namely, that whether or not some or all of these events are manufactured, the population itself has reached the point of revolt and uprising.
With such deep-seated anger and division, the wealthy are going to great lengths to ensure that they are able to live comfortably and, if necessary, completely apart from the rest of society.
This elitist self-sustaining community will not only set the bar for the rich and well-connected, but for anyone looking to ensure long-term survival through sustainable living that is either off the grid, or not dependent upon it if the grid goes down.
Whether or not the world ever experiences a nuclear attack or apocalyptic disaster anytime in the foreseeable future, there is every sense that society itself could unravel, and that the disintegrated fabric will spread unrest, violence, riots and ruin for all that it touches.
As J.D. Heyes has reported , the elite are preparing their getaways with considerable urgency:
With growing inequality and riots such as those in London in 2011 and in Ferguson and other parts of the USA last year, many financial leaders fear they could become targets for public fury.
The president of the Institute of New Economic Thinking, Robert Johnson, told attendees at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos (itself, ironically, representative of a class of uber-rich that exists apart from the 99.9 percent of the rest of the world) that a number of hedge fund managers and others with the means to do so were already busy planning their getaway.
“I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said.
Food, water, electricity, fuel (and other forms of power), firearms, medicine and skills in everything from agriculture, animal husbandry, mechanics, engine repair, shoes and clothing, tools, hunting and camoflauging will all become vital assets in building that lifeline – and people of all income brackets will need to take measures to prepare, or remain wide open and vulnerable to a society that continues to flirt with total disaster, while scoffing at measures to reduce risk and normalize.
The underground shelter market is gaining in size, especially as more and more sectors are preparing to deal with the increasing importance of the threat of EMP attack.
Notably, engineers just announced the development of ‘conductive concrete,’ which they designed as a low cost way to shield against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.With the potential of grid failure and system wide disabling of communications, data centers, military structures, government buildings and more are investing in defensive protections, though theoretically anyone could create their own shielded room or home using these materials:
According to Phys.org :
Nebraska engineers Christopher Tuan and Lim Nguyen have developed a cost-effective concrete that shields against intense pulses of electromagnetic energy, or EMP. Electronics inside structures built or coated with their shielding concrete are protected from EMP.
“EMP is very lethal to electronic equipment,” said Tuan, professor of civil engineering. “We found a key ingredient that dissipates wave energy. This technology offers a lot of advantages so the construction industry is very interested.”
EMP-shielding concrete stemmed from Tuan and Nguyen’s partnership to study concrete that conducts electricity [creating] – the ability to block electromagnetic energy.
Their technology works by both absorbing and reflecting electromagnetic waves. The team replaced some standard concrete aggregates with their key ingredient – magnetite, a mineral with magnetic properties that absorbs microwaves like a sponge . Their patented recipe includes carbon and metal components for better absorption as well as reflection.
[…] Today’s shielding technologies employ metal enclosures that require expensive metal panel or screen construction, limiting their feasibility in large structures. […] The resulting patent-pending product protects building interiors from electromagnetic interference, such as radio waves and microwaves, as well as electronic eavesdropping.
Furthermore, this type of concrete, known as Shotcrete, can be sprayed on over existing structures – meaning that existing buildings can be upgraded for a fraction of the cost of new construction.
The wealth gap that divides a few from a country devolving into desperate, revolutionary masses will be nothing compared to the doomsday gap that could follow widespread unrest, violence, war or an EMP attack.
Prepping has never made more sense.
Read more:
Landing Strips, Farms and Hideaways: Secret Escapes of the Elite: “The Rich Are Worried and They Should Be”
Elite Bunker Down in “Secure, Safe Rooms Hidden in Plain Sight”… And You Can, Too
How This Man Converted “Underground Shelter Using a 20 Ft. Shipping Container”
Why The Elite Are Buying Secret Hideaways: “A Lot of Wealthy and Powerful People Are Quite Afraid Right Now”
With Disaster on the Horizon, Elites Busy Building Luxury Bunkers: “Panic, Anxiety, Aftermath”
Continuity Preppers: FEMA, DHS In “Secret Orgy of Preparedness” at Secret Underground Mountain Bunker | 0 |
— from Black Agenda Report
This columnist did not see a Donald Trump victory coming. The degree of disgust directed at an awful candidate was more than I had predicted. Neither the corporate media, nor Wall Street nor the pundits nor the pollsters saw this coming either. Their defeat and proof of their uselessness is total. Those of us who rejected the elite consensus and didn’t support Hillary Clinton should be proud.
Black people are now in fear and in shock when we ought to be spoiling for a fight. All is not lost. Even the victory of the openly bigoted Trump poses an opportunity to right our political ship. Not the electoral ship, the political one. For decades black Americans have been voting for people who have done them wrong. Bill Clinton got rid of public assistance as a right, and undid regulations that kept Wall Street in check. He put black people in jail and yet black people didn’t turn on him until he and his wife tried to defeat Obama. But Obama gave us more of the same. Bailouts of Wall Street, interventions and death for people all over the world, and a beat down of black people who still loved him. Despite the fear of Republican victory we end up losing whenever a Democratic presidential candidate wins.
Victory is ours if we dump the Democrat Party and their black misleaders. The Democrats were so entrenched in their corruption and self-dealing that they didn’t see the Bernie Sanders campaign for modest reform as the savior it might have been. Instead they marched in lock step with a woman who was heartily disliked. Sanders went along as the sheep dog who led his flock straight over the cliff. The Democrats inadvertently galvanized people who had stopped participating in the system and who want change from top to bottom.
One of our biggest problems lies not in facts but in perceptions. What did Democrats do for black people? The Democrats ship living wage jobs off shore in corrupt trade deals like NAFTA and TTP. They don’t prosecute killer cops or raise the minimum wage. Trump will be hard pressed to deport more people than Obama did. The list of treachery is very long.
When Donald Trump asked black people, “What have you got to lose?” his words were met with derision. But in reality he posed a good question. What do we have to show for years of Democratic votes? Obama bailed out banks, insurance companies, Big Pharma and even Ukraine. But he didn’t rebuild Detroit or New Orleans. The water in Flint, Michigan is still poisoned and the prisons are still full.
The outpouring of love for Barack Obama was purely symbolic. In state after state, black people who gave him victory in 2008 and 2012 stayed home. They loved seeing him and his wife dressed up at state dinners but they were never fully engaged in politics because that is not what Democrats want. The love was phony and void of any political intent. Donald Trump will be president because of that veneer of political activism.
As for white people who voted for Trump, of course many of them are racists. However they are not without valid complaints. They don’t want neoliberalism but black people don’t either. They don’t want wars around the world and neither do black people. We corrupt our own heritage of radicalism in favor of shallow symbolism. While we slept walk in foolish nostalgia for Obama and cried at the thought of him leaving office, white people kept their hatred of Hillary to themselves or lied to pollsters. They want America to be great again, great for them. White nostalgic yearnings are dangerous for black people, and we must be vigilant. But there may be opportunity in this crisis if we dare to seize it.
Republicans have been the white people’s party for nearly 50 years. Trump just made it more obvious. He didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. We don’t have to be the losers in this election. Let us remember what we have achieved in our history. Half of black Americans didn’t even have the right to vote in the 1960s yet made earth shattering progress in a short time. But we must understand the source of that progress. It came from struggle and daring to create the crises that always bring about change.
Yes white people will strut for president Trump but that doesn’t mean we must submit as if we are in the Jim Crow days of old. We have ourselves to rely on and we can reclaim our history of fighting for self-determination. The dread of redneck celebration should not be our primary motivation right now. Before we quake in fear at white America we must send the scoundrels packing.
The black politicians and the Democratic National Committee and the civil rights organizations that don’t help the masses must all be kicked to the proverbial curb. The rejection must be complete and blame must be laid squarely at their feet.
Those of us who voted for the green party ticket of Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka must stand firmly and proudly for our choice. We must strategize on building a progressive party to replace the Democrats who never help us. We must applaud Julian Assange and Wikileaks for exposing their corruption. There should be no back tracking on the fight to build left wing political power.
The black people who didn’t return to the polls shouldn’t be blamed either. Those individuals must have personal introspection that is meaningful and political. Their lack of enthusiasm speaks to Democratic Party and black misleadership incompetence. We should refrain from personal blame and help one another in this process as we fight for justice and peace.
The end of the duopoly is the first step in liberation. Staying with a party that literally did nothing was a slow and agonizing death. Sometimes shock therapy is needed to improve one’s condition. If we don’t take the necessary steps to free ourselves this election outcome will be a disaster. Instead, why not bring the disaster to the people who made it happen? The destruction of the Democratic Party and creation of a truly progressive political movement is the only hope for black America. Margaret Kimberley About author Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via email at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley’ maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com . More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page . Related | 0 |
Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire investor, on Saturday lauded the “miraculous” qualities of the United States economy in highlighting another stellar year for his company, Berkshire Hathaway. Mr. Buffett, whose record of beating the stock market over the past 50 years is unparalleled, is known for being persistently optimistic about the prospects of the American economy. But his usual hymn to the dynamism of the American economy in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that was released on Saturday morning reached new heights. “Americans have combined human ingenuity, a market system, a tide of talented and ambitious immigrants, and the rule of law to deliver abundance beyond any dreams of our forefathers,” Mr. Buffett wrote. He was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton during last year’s presidential campaign and he did not mention President Trump in his letter. But his celebration of the American economy’s ability to deliver growth stands in stark contrast to President Trump’s darker descriptions of the country’s economic prospects. That Mr. Buffett went out of his way to give credit to a “tide of talented and ambitious immigrants” was also worthy of note in light of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants. Last year was another outstanding one for the man known widely as the Oracle of Omaha. Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price was up 23 percent in 2016, about double the return on the Standard Poor’s 500 index. Berkshire’s operating companies, which include the insurance firm Geico, the railroad company BNSF and numerous others, also performed well in an improving economy, with operating earnings increasing to $17. 5 billion in 2016 from $17. 3 billion in 2015. Mr. Buffett’s investment letters, which accompany Berkshire’s report, are highly anticipated. After all, he is 86 years old, sitting on a mountain of $85 billion in cash and, as a recent documentary about his life made clear, showing little sign of slowing down. Mr. Buffett also revealed in his letter that a recent bet on Apple had paid quick dividends. He owns a 1. 1 percent stake in the company that he purchased at a total cost of $6. 7 billion. His 61 million shares are now worth over $8 billion. Over the years, Mr. Buffett has had a complicated relationship with Wall Street. He has been a withering critic of the culture of high pay, group think and excessive fees yet he has also swooped in to buy big stakes in investment firms when they hit rough times. In his 2016 letter, Mr. Buffett took special aim at hedge funds, which in recent years have faced persistent outflows of investor money because of poor performance, stubbornly high fees and a broad move toward cheaper, passive options like index funds and funds. Underscoring his thesis that, over time, highly paid hotshots lose out to a cheap index fund, Mr. Buffett presented the latest results of a bet he made nine years ago. Since then, a standard S P index fund overseen by Vanguard is up 85 percent, easily outpacing the hedge funds’ return of 22 percent. Annually, the gap is just as wide: 7 percent for the index fund and 2. 2 percent for the hedge funds. As usual, Mr. Buffett did not mince words in expressing his astonishment as to how elite investment professionals could register such mediocre returns while raking in steep fees. “I’m certain that in almost all cases the managers at both levels were honest and intelligent people. But the results for their investors were dismal — really dismal,” he wrote. “And, alas, the huge fixed fees charged by all of the funds and involved — fees that were totally unwarranted by performance — were such that their managers were showered with compensation over the nine years that have passed. ” | 1 |
A California mother who beat cancer while she was pregnant with twins died from heart failure a day after she gave birth to them. [Jamie Snider of Fresno, 30, underwent treatment and chemotherapy for an aggressive form of cervical cancer while she was pregnant with twins, the Daily Mail reported. After undergoing a and a radical hysterectomy March 16, Snider passed away from heart failure. Snider had beaten the cancer before when she had an ovary removed. She was surprised and overjoyed when she got pregnant with twins. Snider already had two young daughters, Aubrey and Maddie, and was ready to fight the cancer once more. She went through intensive treatment at Stanford Medical Center while she was pregnant, and the disease went into remission once again. Snider posted a photo of herself on Facebook, optimistic about her pregnancy and things to come. Snider’s friend Larina Campanile told KFSN about Snider’s last post on Facebook before the surgery. “‘Tomorrow will be a great day,’” Campanile read from the post. “‘God has been by my side the whole time. All your prayers and love have kept me going as well. Wish me luck. I’m having a at 7 and then a radial hysterectomy right after. I’ll be fine. Thank you, God, for keeping me positive through all the hard times.’ And that was her last post. ” Snider survived the surgeries March 16 but died of heart failure the morning after. The babies, named Camila and Nico, were born prematurely, at 33 weeks, but they are healthy, according to family members. “What gives me peace in my heart is she got to see those babies and hold them and be with them a little bit,” said Campanile. Family and friends have raised money on GoFundMe for Snider’s funeral expenses and help with the children. | 1 |
Get short URL 0 27 0 0 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not be travelling to Brussels, Belgium on Thursday for the EU-Canada summit on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the spokesman for the country’s trade minister said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Thursday, the 28-nation bloc and Ottawa were expected to sign CETA at the joint EU-Canada Summit . However, on Monday Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said the nation was unable to sign the deal due to regional concerns. This is Why It is 'Impossible' to Sign EU-Canada CETA Deal on Thursday "The Canadian delegation will not be travelling to Europe tonight… Canada remains ready to sign this important agreement when Europe is ready," Alex Lawrence, the spokesman for Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, told the Global News broadcaster.
CETA aims to establish a free trade zone between Canada and the European Union , scrapping more than 98 percent of the existing tariffs between Ottawa and Brussels. Opponents fear it would undermine standards and regulations on environmental protection, health, safety and workers' rights. ... | 0 |
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During a panel discussion on Wednesday's “Anderson Cooper 360,” Republican strategist and CNN regular Ana Navarro went off on Newt Gingrich over his meltdown on “The Kelly File”— during which he angrily accused Kelly of being “ fascinated with sex .”
After Cooper referred to Gingrich's rant as “ironic,” Navarro jumped to take issue, 'correcting' the host before torching Gingrich over the treatment of his wife:
“I think the word you were looking for was ‘hypocritical.' Remember Newt Gingrich’s wife? When he was running in 2012, told all of us, told the media [...] Gingrich offered her the choice between an open marriage or a divorce.
So maybe, just maybe, if all of that baggage is on your shoulders, maybe you shouldn’t be the surrogate out there wagging your finger and accusing the woman who was reporting on sexual assault.
Let me explain it slowly — sexual assault and sex are two things. One is unwanted. One is wanted. So maybe they need to understand that to begin with.”
Navarro told uber-Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes that Gingrich shouldn't be used by the campaign in any capacity, given his past. Image Credit: Screenshot/CNN YouTube
Incidentally, following the release of the now-infamous leaked 2005 video in which Trump brags about grabbing women by the p***y, Navarro angrily yelled the word during a CNN panel discussion after Hughes chastised her for saying it on-air.
We'll go ahead and put Ana down as a “maybe” for Trump. | 0 |
U. S. President Donald Trump has informed multiple individuals, including EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, that he intends to remove the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, according several sources. [On Saturday night, Axios reported the news based on “three sources with direct knowledge. ” Breitbart News has independently confirmed this reporting and that Trump has told others the same thing: that he plans to withdraw the U. S. from the agreement. Earlier on Saturday, the President tweeted from Italy that he would make his final decision next week as to whether the U. S. will remain in the Paris Accord. He was in Italy for the G7 summit at the end of his first overseas trip, which was preceded by visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, and Brussels. I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2017, While at the G7 summit, Trump was heavily lobbied to endorse the Paris Climate Agreement, but he declined to do so. The agreement was entered into under the Obama Administration. German Chancellor Angela Merkel characterized climate change talks with Trump as “very unsatisfying. ” On Friday, White House economic advisor Gary Cohn characterized President Trump’s position on climate change as “evolving,” though it was not clear exactly what that meant. An AFP report from early March which cited the New York Times stated that the Trump Administration team was divided over whether the United States should withdraw or remain in the Paris Climate Agreement. Secretary of Defense James Mattis told CBS Face the Nation, in an interview set to air on Sunday, that he sat in on some policy discussions on the issue while in Brussels and that President Trump is “wide open on this issue as he takes in the pros and cons of that accord. ” Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 1 |
Anderson Cooper was reading the names of victims of the Orlando massacre on CNN this week when, uncharacteristically, his voice wavered and he drew up short. For moments, viewers around the country heard only silence, and then the sounds of the anchor struggling to compose himself. “That was horrible,” Mr. Cooper recalled, a bit sheepishly, in an interview on Wednesday. Accustomed to covering foreign wars and lethal hurricanes, Mr. Cooper said he did not like to show his feelings on camera. But this time, he added, felt different: “I’ve been surprised at how emotional this has been. ” As the news industry descended on Florida this week in the aftermath of a mass shooting in a gay nightclub, Mr. Cooper’s raw, coverage has stood out. He has held a vigil of sorts, reciting a list of the dead refused to name the gunman, saying he wanted to focus on victims and, in a widely viewed exchange, grilled Florida’s attorney general for defending a state ban on marriage. Mr. Cooper, who is gay, has seemed to embrace an advocacy role rarely seen among top network anchors, blending reporting with a distinctly personal and empathetic touch. Until recently, Mr. Cooper did not discuss his sexuality in public. On Tuesday, for what he said was the first time he could remember, he referred to himself as gay on the air. “As gay people, we share strands of a common bond,” he said during the final moments of his broadcast. “If this killer hoped to set us backwards, to make us live in fear, I think he’s made a sickening mistake. ” Speaking on Wednesday from his satellite truck in Orlando, Mr. Cooper insisted, emphatically, that he was no activist. “I’m not trying to push an agenda,” he said. “I’m not here to be an advocate, railing at the top of my lungs at injustices that’s the role other people have. ” But he said he had been preoccupied this week by memories of previous murders at gay nightclubs, including a 1970s firebombing in New Orleans and the shooting of gay patrons at a Greenwich Village bar in 1980. “There were people who have died, and no one really told their story,” Mr. Cooper said. “I think the fact that I am gay, and I am in a position where I can determine the content of a broadcast at night on CNN. … ” He let the thought trail off. “There have been generations of reporting on gay people where that has not been the case. ” Opinion is the coin of the realm on cable news, where Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity and their brethren hold court nightly. Mr. Cooper is viewed as a more traditional newsman, even if he does not shy away from conveying moral dismay in his coverage. He made his reputation during Hurricane Katrina, when his anguished reports from a decimated New Orleans seemed to channel national frustration with the recovery effort. It is hard to ignore, however, Mr. Cooper’s deeply felt connections with the gay community that was targeted in Orlando. In an exchange that spread quickly online, he confronted the Florida attorney general, Pam Bondi, with what he said were complaints from gay residents about her office’s legal defense of Florida’s marriage ban. “Do you really think you’re a champion of the gay community?” Mr. Cooper asked, suggesting repeatedly that there was a “sick irony” in Ms. Bondi’s saying she would now work to help relatives of gay victims. Ms. Bondi said on Wednesday that she was “disappointed” by Mr. Cooper’s approach. In a radio interview, she said that all the anchor’s aggressive questioning had done was “encourage anger and hate. ” She said that CNN had omitted a portion of the exchange in which she discussed her for victims’ families and that the location of the interview, in front of an Orlando hospital, “wasn’t the time nor the place. ” (Mr. Cooper said Wednesday that Ms. Bondi “was clearly unhappy at the end of the interview,” adding: “She intimated that I didn’t like her, and I said, ‘I have no ill will toward you at all, it’s just my job to ask you questions. ’”) But Mr. Cooper, who cut short a European vacation to fly to Florida to cover the shooting, said he preferred to keep his focus on the victims, whose experiences, he said, he easily recognized. “I can’t tell you how many bars and clubs I’ve been to over the years,” Mr. Cooper said, volunteering that his longtime companion, Benjamin Maisani, owned several gay bars in New York. “Every gay man in America remembers the first time they went to a gay bar and how they felt. “I don’t want to sound like I’m speaking for the gay community,” said Mr. Cooper, who publicly acknowledged his sexual orientation in 2012. “But it certainly resonates very deeply for me. ” | 1 |
NICE, France — It was the first and last fireworks show in this seaside city that Yanis Coviaux ever saw. He died in the carnage Thursday night. So did Brodie Copeland, 11, who was visiting from the United States. Haroun El Kamel, 12, survived but might never look at fireworks the same way. Then there was Laura Borla, 14, who came to see the fireworks with her twin sister and their mother but was separated from them in the chaos. After days of searching frantically for her, Laura’s family learned on Sunday morning that she was dead. “We miss you already we will love you always,” her sister, Lucie, said in a Facebook post. The driver who plowed his truck into crowds at the conclusion of the Bastille Day fireworks in Nice killed at least 84 people and injured hundreds more. The trauma was exacerbated by the presence of a large number of children, whose deaths, injuries and psychological scars gave this attack — like the one in March that killed many children at a park in Pakistan, or the recent slaughter of families celebrating the end of Ramadan in Baghdad — an especially brutal feel and underscored its indiscriminate cruelty. At least 10 children were killed Thursday night, and at least 35 were treated for injuries at hospitals in Nice. Others were separated from their parents in the chaos, and some no doubt saw and heard things they might carry with them for a long time. No one who was visiting the waterfront that night could have imagined such a horrific ending. Going to the fireworks on July 14 is an annual family ritual in Nice, a time for picnics on the beach — and, when the beach is too full, for spreading tablecloths on the meridian of the waterfront road known for more than 150 years as the Promenade des Anglais. From there, people have a fine view of the sea and the extravagant fireworks display. “You have to bring your children because if you don’t, you will pay for it all year — all their friends are there,” said Raja El Kamel, 43, Haroun’s mother, who was with him and a close friend from Sweden and her two children to watch the festivities. In a city that enjoys a party, the July 14 fireworks are especially beloved because the entire community joins in: Christian and Muslim, religious and secular, but French above all. The presence of large numbers of tourists gives the evening even more of a festive feel. For Yanis and his parents, Mickael and Samira Coviaux, the evening was a first. The parents, both truck drivers, live in Grenoble, and this was their first time seeing the July 14 fireworks on the Mediterranean as a family, said Yanis’s aunt Anaïs Coviaux, a law student in Paris, who came to support her brother and after Yanis was killed. “The children were playing among themselves, and they had their back to the road,” she said. “They did not hear the truck until just one second before it hit. It went up on the sidewalk it struck Yanis and the mother of one of the other children with them. ” The mother also died. There was no first aid nearby. Finally, Mr. Coviaux picked up his little boy and began walking with him until they found a person with a car who agreed to take them to the hospital. When they passed some firefighters, they stopped and asked them to try to revive him. But the child was dead. “He was my parents’ only grandson, the only grandson in the family,” Anaïs Coviaux said softly. She explained that her brother and his wife were too distraught to speak. “Yanis loved people,” she said. “He especially liked Sundays when all the family was gathered, and he would say, ‘Mamie and Papi, we are going to have a party. ’” Later, Mr. Coviaux said in an email that “every single person that Yanis met in his short life fell in love with him. ” The entire family gathered on the promenade Saturday to view the last sights he had seen. “It was important for us to come to the place he died to pay him a tribute,” Anaïs Coviaux said, “because we could not bear to say goodbye to him. We left a picture of him and flowers. ” Identifying children and examining them has been difficult because of the level of trauma and because some were brought to the hospital without relatives, said Sylvie Serret, a child psychiatrist at the Lenval Foundation hospital, which treated at least 30 injured children on Thursday night. “A lot of the children coming in were in a state of shock they were not speaking, for instance,” she said. An emergency room nurse at Pasteur Hospital, Mejdi Chemakhi, cared for several children, including a boy and a girl who had been brought in without their parents. The boy was 4, Mr. Chemakhi said, and the girl was 6. The boy, Mr. Chemakhi recounted, spoke in a flat tone, apparently in shock. “My mummy is dead, but my daddy is still alive,” he recalled the boy saying over and over. The boy, expressionless, finally said, “I am tired, I need to sleep, I have no clothes,” Mr. Chemakhi recalled. “So I took him in my arms and tried to console him,” he said. “You don’t really know what else to do in those situations. It is really important to make them feel safe. ” Later that night, a wounded man was brought to the hospital and told Mr. Chemakhi that he had lost his wife and could not find his children, a boy and a girl. Mr. Chemakhi realized the three belonged together and helped reunite them. On the Promenade des Anglais on Saturday, there were memorials of flowers and notes, sometimes every few feet, to mark where people had lost their lives. Nathalie Russo, 30, a Muslim who wears a hijab, came with her mother to retrace the steps she and her children, Mayssa and Emine, took on Thursday night. “My daughter is telling me that she does not want to see fireworks again,” Ms. Russo said, adding, “She kept asking me, ‘How did the bad people get from Paris to Nice? ’” “She thought the man who did this was one of those who attacked the Bataclan,” she said, “and he had come here to do the same thing. ” The Bataclan is the Paris concert hall where 90 people were shot dead by three Islamic State operatives on Nov. 13, when a total of 130 people were killed in and around Paris by terrorists. Some mothers and fathers who had not been near the fireworks brought their children to see the memorials on Saturday as a way of expressing unity with the community and defiance toward the terrorists. Nour Hamila, a Nice native who has converted to Islam, made a point of bringing her three children, who are 8, 5 and 3. “I told them not to be afraid because that’s what the terrorists want we have to support each other,” she said as her son, Mohamed, placed flowers on one of the memorials. It is harder for those children who witnessed the killings. For Ms. Kamel’s son, Haroun, the moment is etched in his mind. “We saw it from far away, a white truck in this black night,” she said. She recalled thinking that the truck did not belong there because the street was closed to traffic. Her son and her friend’s son and daughter were playing and laughing. Then the driver accelerated and began to veer from one side of the road to the other, “plowing into people,” she said. Somehow she pushed herself and her son onto the sidewalk as the truck neared. Then it passed, and all she remembers was her son saying, “Mama, Mama, you must come to help the people. ” She looked at the road and recognized a neighbor who was kneeling next to her husband, wailing his name. Ms. Kamel told her son to go with her friend and the other children. Everything was silent. “There was just this terrible wind,” she said. “To the left you saw bodies you looked right and saw bodies there were strollers, and people trying to save other people. ” After trying to comfort her neighbor, she looked for her son, but by then the crowds were running, and it was chaos. Hours later, when she found him and her friend, her son said, “Mama, did you manage to save the man?” Ms. Kamel responded that the emergency services had come for him. “You know, children don’t have a global vision,” she said. “He saw all those corpses, but for him, the one at his feet was supposed to be saved. ” | 1 |
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As cities nationwide grapple with fatal police shootings, many involving unarmed black men, Pennsylvania’s legislature on Thursday passed and sent to Gov. Wolf a bill that would block public officials from immediately releasing the names of officers involved in such incidents.
The measure, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Martina White of Philadelphia and approved by the GOP-controlled legislature, stoked sharp opinions and drew votes largely along partisan lines.
Supporters say the bill, supported by several local police unions, is necessary to protect police officers and their families after such incidents.
“We are the protectors of our protectors,” said one proponent, Rep. Dominic Costa, a Pittsburgh De mocrat.
Opponents said the bill flies in the face of transparency, which they believe is even more critical in tragic circumstances involving police shootings.
“Do not undermine the bridges that have been built between law enforcement and communities of color,” said Rep. Margo Davidson (D., Delaware) during a floor debate. “This legislation will do nothing but breed suspicion.” | 0 |
WOW: Indictment ‘Likely’ in Clinton Foundation Case, Hillary’s Server Hacked by FIVE Foreign Entities By: November 3, 2016
Uh-oh.
According to Bret Baier of Fox News, the FBI has been investigating the Clinton Foundation for over a year, and that investigation has been deep and wide – and just as importantly, the FBI is on the verge of indictment for “pay-for-play” with regard to Hillary’s State Department. The FBI investigation has uncovered laptops from Clinton top aides and the material on those laptops is being analyzed.
And most importantly of all , the sources at the FBI have apparently told Baier with “99 percent accuracy” that Hillary’s server was hacked at least five foreign intelligence agencies, and information was withdrawn.
Meanwhile, we now know that the Department of Justice attempted to pressure the FBI into shutting down the investigation into the Clinton Foundation entirely. According to The Wall Street Journal , the FBI deputy director even asked the DOJ if they truly wanted to shut down a “validly predicated investigation.”
This is devastating information for Hillary.
Donald Trump is now leading in Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Iowa, and North Carolina. Trump is within spitting distance in Colorado and Pennsylvania, and two new polls show Trump up in Virginia and New Hampshire, respectively. If Trump picks off any of those latter states, he wins the election.
The best case scenario for Hillary Clinton just days ago was simple: hunker down and wait out these scandals. Assume that as time goes on, the race will revert back to its pre-Comey normal, with Hillary hovering between a two and four percent lead. But each new day brings a new revelation about her corruption and the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and State Department. Each new day demonstrates the extent of the cover-up by the Obama administration.
Hillary’s running out of days to recover.
The only question is whether she can hang on with her fingernails now, especially if the American public is upset enough about her pay-for-play and exposure of American classified material to put Trump in the White House, not trusting Loretta Lynch’s DOJ to prosecute Hillary for her crimes. Tags | 0 |
DAMARISCOTTA, Me. — Several years ago, the owner of a sandwich shop on the main drag here grew so tired of turning the clocks back in the fall — and witnessing the early sunsets that followed — that he simply decided not to. That year, he kept his shop on daylight saving time all winter. “We have such short days,” said Sumner Fernald Richards III, the owner. “It was very nice to get out in the afternoon and still have an hour or two of daylight. ” Changing the clocks brings grumbles around the country, and especially here, in the nation’s Easternmost region, where “falling back” in the wintertime means sunsets as early as 4 p. m. and sometimes earlier. But as the clocks once again were nudged ahead to daylight saving time in many parts of the nation over the weekend, foes of turning the clocks back in the first place saw a glimmer of hope in New England. Efforts to alter time zones pop up around the country like spring tulips every year, and rarely get very far. But some in New England are trying a different tack this time: They want, in essence, to stay on daylight saving time throughout the year, and think that a concurrent regional approach could be the key. If multiple New England states make the jump at the same time, the thinking goes, it just might happen — even if that means taking the unusual step of splitting from the time zone of the rest of the East Coast, including New York City. “We are a distinct region of the country,” said Tom Emswiler, a health care administrator in Boston who is part of a dedicated smattering of New Englanders pushing for the change. “If New York wants to join us on permanent Atlantic time: Come in, the water’s fine. ” The efforts to join Atlantic Standard Time would mean that, for about four months out of the year, some New England states would be an hour ahead of the rest of the Eastern time zone. Last year, Massachusetts created a commission to study the question. The states have not coordinated, but in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine, proposals have been filed that could open the possibility for such a change, at the very least, if their powerful neighbor — home to Boston, an economic driver — does. “Our markets and our businesses would be operating ahead of New York I don’t know how they’d like that,” State Senator Eileen M. Donoghue of Massachusetts said. She is chairwoman of the state’s commission, which has a major public hearing this week. The idea, the senator said, requires much more study and perhaps, down the line, will merit a summit meeting of the interested states. “When you look at the geography, we certainly line up more with the Atlantic time zone,” Ms. Donoghue said. Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and parts of Canada including Nova Scotia are on Atlantic Standard Time now. Experts say the plan seems unlikely to come to fruition. Even if state legislatures passed these bills — and, so far, only New Hampshire’s House has — it would require either a regulatory action by the federal Department of Transportation, or an act of Congress. The governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have expressed reservations about making such a break. But the debate has renewed musings about why, exactly, this part of the country is part of a time zone that may better serve cities to its west, and whether the region ought to boldly step away from its neighbors — maybe even on principle. “Why do we essentially torture ourselves — in the spring in particular — and keep changing the clocks and messing everybody up?” asked Donna Bailey, a Democratic state representative from Saco, Me. who filed a bill on the matter this year. Under the current form of the bill, she said, Maine would have a referendum on the issue if both Massachusetts and New Hampshire made the switch. “If we do it on a regional basis,” Ms. Bailey added, “you carve out a niche for yourself, that you don’t have to be so dependent on New York City. ” Any such switch would create a special complication for Connecticut since the northern part of the state is closely tied to Massachusetts, while many residents of the southern section commute to New York City. The most frequently cited argument against a change is its effect on schoolchildren, who would most likely board buses in the dark on winter mornings. Proponents counter that the whole state of Maine, as well as communities including Boston, are considering pushing school start times back, too. Plus, opponents say, such a change could create confusion for businesses and chaos for passengers taking Amtrak trains from New York to Boston and trying to figure out what time it is. Broadcast schedules — and with them, teams like the Patriots and the Bruins — could be affected as well. “Once you start toying with the clocks, there are repercussions that people don’t bear in mind,” said Michael Downing, the author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time. ” Time was kept locally in the United States until 1883, when railroad companies established the time zones. Daylight saving time began in Europe during World War I as an effort to save energy. It was adopted by the United States in 1918 but repealed the following year after strident objections from farmers, who preferred having more light in the morning, not in the evening. But more cosmopolitan and some Eastern areas, like New York City and the state of Massachusetts, decided to keep it, opening up an inconsistent approach to timekeeping until Congress split the difference in 1966 and set the rule as six months of standard time and six months of daylight saving time. It is now observed between the middle of March and the beginning of November — except in Arizona and Hawaii, which have opted out. If nothing else, the bills have sparked renewed rumination on time and light here in New England, and many people have their reasons for considering a change. “Definitely it would mean a longer day of business,” said Lynn Archer, a chef who owns two restaurants in Rockland, Me. and groaned the other day as the harbor there glowed pink during an early evening sunset. But the idea has left others — including the editorial board of The Bangor Daily News — aghast, saying it would isolate the state and hurt business. Plus, many Mainers are used to things as they are. “You’re tough New Englanders, it’s just like — yeah, it’s cold and dark,” said Susan D’Amore, of Washington, Me. “So?” | 1 |
Nigel Farage has said the UK should adopt Donald “extreme vetting” after the Westminster attack, but not follow Geert Wilders’ plan “for an entire religion to be outlawed” as that will “alienate” moderate Muslims. [“I’ve long taken the view we should be deeply intolerant of sharia law,” the former UKIP leader told Australia’s ABC News. “But I’ve also long taken the view, that if you go down the route of say in The Netherlands, who says he wants in that country for all the mosques to be closed for the Quran to be banned and for an entire religion to be outlawed, then we will lose. ” He said such policies will “alienate the 80 per cent who are with us” adding: “We have got to try to get [moderate Muslims] on our side. ” Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom, argues that there is little distinction between Islamism, radical Islam, and mainstream Muslim beliefs. Mr. Farage, however, said the difference in the spectrum of Islamic beliefs is great — larger than that between moderate Muslim beliefs and Western belief systems. “Let’s be honest: this division, actually, is in some ways less between the Muslim and the Christian community, than it is a division within the Muslim community,” he said. “There is a percentage of people within the Muslim faith in this country who have sympathy with [Islamic State] but the vast majority don’t,” he added. pic. twitter. — Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) March 26, 2017, Mr. Farage also defended his statement that the Westminster terror attack was further evidence of the need for a temporary travel ban from some states. “If you’ve got a problem already, why on earth would you add to it?” he said. “I want us to have extreme vetting. Of course, why wouldn’t you?” The Westminster attacker was indeed born in the UK, but a travel ban “might stop the next one” he said, However, the distinct problem of “ Islamic terrorism” and radicalisation happening in schools, prisons, and online must also be tackled, he said. “We have been, franking, cowardly with dealing with the divisions within out communities,” Mr. Farage said. “We’ve got to get rid of this failed doctrine of multiculturalism. What that meant, is that we have encouraged division within our communities rather than integration and unity. ” | 1 |
President Donald Trump said Wednesday leftwing comedian Kathy Griffin “should be ashamed of herself” for posing with his bloody, severed head in a photo. [“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017, TMZ first obtained the photo, taken by photographer Tyler Shields, on Tuesday and published a short video of Griffin posing with Trump’s severed head. “This is fake blood, just so you know. I won’t give away what we’re doing, but Tyler and I are not afraid to do images that make noise,” Griffin said on the tape. The beheading video was inspired by Trump insulting former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Griffin told a blogger. “I caption this ‘there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his … wherever’ Also @tylershields great maker,” Griffin tweeted on Tuesday. “OBVIOUSLY, I do not condone ANY violence by my fans or others to anyone, ever! I’m merely mocking the Mocker in Chief. ” After an explosive backlash, Griffin deleted her tweets and posted an Instagram video saying she “went way too far. ” “I’m a comic,” she said. “I cross the line. I move the line, then I cross it. I went way too far. The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people. It wasn’t funny. I get it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, I will continue. ” CNN called the beheading photo “disgusting” but did not definitely state Griffin would be prevented from New Year’s Eve coverage. “We found what she did disgusting and offensive. We are pleased to see she has apologized and asked that the photos be taken down. We are evaluating our New Year’s Eve coverage and have made no decisions at this point,” CNN said in a statement. | 1 |
JOHANNESBURG — The two rival factions inside South Africa’s governing African National Congress attacked each other publicly on Friday after President Jacob Zuma abruptly fired a finance minister who was considered a bulwark against government corruption. Mr. Zuma, who has been embroiled in a series of scandals since taking office in 2009, dismissed the finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, as part of a cabinet shuffle in which 10 of 35 ministers were fired. The deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, called the decision “unacceptable. ” Another senior figure, Gwede Mantashe, the A. N. C. secretary general, said the cabinet shuffle was not done with the party’s approval. “Ministers have been moved, and the majority of them were good performing ministers,” Mr. Mantashe said. Jackson Mthembu, a senior A. N. C. lawmaker, said Mr. Gordhan’s only crime was “incorruptibility. ” “It’s unprecedented to have senior A. N. C. members come out with dissenting views in public like this,” said William Gumede, a political scientist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and executive chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation, a group. “Now that the conflict has gone public, people and party members can see the divisions clearly,” Mr. Gumede said. “It will be very difficult for Zuma to shrug this off and claim that everything is fine. ” The firing was a result of a battle between Mr. Zuma and Mr. Gordhan, and the interests they represent. Mr. Zuma’s supporters have accused Mr. Gordhan of representing South Africa’s business community and have urged Mr. Zuma to fire the minister and replace him with someone with a looser grip on state coffers, so as to carry out “radical transformation. ” Mr. Gordhan’s backers belong to the urban faction of the A. N. C. one less beholden to the politics of patronage that the party practices in rural strongholds. Mr. Ramaphosa, a liberation figure who also became one of the country’s richest black businessmen after the end of apartheid, is considered the leader of the urban faction, and he is seen as a leading candidate to succeed Mr. Zuma as the party’s leader in December. The other top contender, Nkosozana a former chairwoman of the African Union who was once married to Mr. Zuma, has been backed by groups most loyal to the president. The finance minister’s dismissal sent the currency, the rand, plummeting as much as 5 percent at one point. The cost of borrowing for the government jumped, amid fears that rating agencies would downgrade South Africa’s government bonds to junk status. Africa’s most industrialized economy, South Africa is projected to grow 0. 8 percent this year, and unemployment is 27 percent. Speculation is rife that Mr. Zuma might be compelled to step down before the scheduled end of his second term in 2019, clearing the way for another party leader to take the reins. Mr. Gordhan, who learned of his dismissal from a television report, defended his record on Friday as protesters gathered at the headquarters of the National Treasury, part of the Finance Ministry. “We hope more and more South Africans will make it absolutely clear that our country is not for sale,” Mr. Gordhan said. “It is important that the public knows what we do at the Treasury, how we serve South Africa, how the budgeting process works and how we make sure that the poor in South Africa benefit from the taxes that we collect from all South Africans, as well. ” The firing on Thursday night capped a week of tensions that began on Monday when Mr. Zuma ordered Mr. Gordhan to return abruptly from a trade and investment roadshow in Britain. As rumors circulated that Mr. Gordhan would be fired, Mr. Zuma summoned A. N. C. leaders for a meeting. The meeting did not produce a consensus, officials have said. The South African Communist Party, part of the A. N. C. coalition that governs the country, said that Mr. Zuma had cited an intelligence report speculating that Mr. Gordhan might be plotting to undermine the president. Mr. Gordhan has called the report preposterous. Mr. Mthembu, the senior A. N. C. lawmaker, said that the intelligence report’s accusations were “plain rubbish. ” Mr. Zuma, in a statement on Friday, announced that he had replaced Mr. Gordhan with Malusi Gigaba, the home affairs minister. Mr. Gordhan’s deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, was also fired and replaced by Sfiso N. Buthelezi. The two new finance appointees — A. N. C. loyalists active in the party since their youth, and members of Parliament — are “largely unknown to investors,” Morgan Stanley said in a research note on Friday. “This could create further uncertainty in South Africa’s financial markets. ” Mr. Zuma said that the — 10 new ministers and 10 new deputy ministers were named — was intended to “improve efficiency and effectiveness” and to “bring some younger M. P. s and women into the national executive in order to benefit from their energy, experience and expertise. ” Mr. Gordhan, after a stint as finance minister from 2009 to 2014, was reappointed to the job in December 2015, after Mr. Zuma abruptly replaced his successor, Nhlanhla Nene, with a junior lawmaker. Mr. Zuma changed that decision four days later, after the rand and the stock market tumbled, and Mr. Gordhan’s return to the job helped reassure investors. But Mr. Gordhan has repeatedly been at odds with the president since then. He resisted Mr. Zuma’s push to approve expensive nuclear power plants, and he tried to rein in public spending. He also clashed with a powerful family, the Guptas, who are close to Mr. Zuma and are so influential that Mr. Zuma was obliged to publicly insist last year that he was in charge of his government. Trieu Pham, a credit analyst at MUFG Securities in London, said there were important differences between this week’s dismissal of Mr. Gordhan and the firing of Mr. Nene in 2015. Mr. Gordhan’s departure, if not the timing, had been expected his replacement, unlike Mr. Nene’s, is a cabinet minister, albeit one with limited experience in finance and the rand and stock prices have risen in recent months, allowing some room for maneuver. “The long waiting time indicates that Zuma has well weighed the factors for and against the reshuffle, and thinks that he has garnered enough support to resist a power struggle and a breakup of the A. N. C. ,” Mr. Pham said. | 1 |
Video: Underwater Handgun Takes Fishing to the Next Level of Fun By: Chase Stephens November 23, 2016
For some people, fishing is a long, boring day of sitting and staring endlessly at a rod and reel that may never get a bite. But what if you could get down with those mocking water-breathers and have high-noon shoot-out with them the way nature intended?
Well, that's just what some Florida boys thought when they decided to take their modified Glock 9mm pistol into the Gulf of Mexico to help deal with the infestation of Lionfish.
TheSickest provides some more details on the Lionfish overpopulation problem and the boys' creative way to address it:
"Lionfish are an invasive species with no natural predators who’s females lay a staggering two million eggs a year. The intersection between ammunition-happy Americans and the determent of an overpopulated species is where the the use of this new sporting phenomenon was birthed.
Lionsfish were never intended to be in the Gulf of Mexico, and while its speculated that their transplant may be linked to a hurricanes back in the 90’s, because of their rapid reproductive nature the waters have become flooded by their presence.
A single Lionsfish consumes 80% reef’s edible baitfish within five weeks of arriving on that reef – incredibly damaging to plant that is the cornerstone of the underwater ecosystem. The issue has gotten to a point where entering the Florida coast at any time can mean running across thousands of Lionsfish, just posted up chilling.
The good news is that the introduction of the gun has the potential of bringing hunters and otherwise uninterested fishers to the gulf for a fun filled time of shooting underwater, an activity that actually looks like a blast."
The video below shows just how fun it can be:
"Shooting invasive Lionfish over 100ft underwater with customized Glock 9mm handgun in the Gulf of Mexico," the video description states. "The project started to see if we could shoot a gun underwater and it evolved into much more with the right people involved. Lionfish are an invasive species that need to be eradicated. All weapons modifications done under supervision of Airborne Arms Inc license holder "07-Manufacturer of Firearms other than Destructive Devices" with support of Lone Wolf Glock Parts. www.lonewolfdist.com"
Exit video of another group of fisherman who've combined skiing with barbarian weaponry to help deal with Peoria, Illinois' Asian carp problem:
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(Before It's News)
By Michael Synder Is the 2016 election in the process of being stolen? Just a few weeks ago I issued a major alert warning that this exact sort of thing might happen. Early voting has already begun in many states, and a number of voters in Texas are reporting that the voting machines switched their votes from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. The odd thing is that none of the other choices were affected when these individuals attempted to vote for a straight Republican ticket. If Hillary Clinton is declared the winner of the state of Texas on election night, a full investigation of these voting machines should be conducted, because there is no way that Donald Trump should lose that state. I have said that it will be the greatest miracle in U.S. political history if Donald Trump wins this election, but without the state of Texas Donald Trump has exactly zero chance of winning. So those living down in Texas need to keep reporting anything unusual that they see or hear when they go to vote.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but the exact same thing was happening during the last presidential election. The state of Ohio was considered to be the key to Mitt Romney’s chances of winning in 2012, and right up to election day the Romney campaign actually believed that they were going to win the state.
Unfortunately for Romney, something funny was going on with the voting machines. In a previous article , I included a Quote: from an Ohio voter that had her vote switched from Mitt Romney to Barack Obama three times …
“I don’t know if it happened to anybody else or not, but this is the first time in all the years that we voted that this has ever happened to me,” said Marion, Ohio, voter Joan Stevens.
Stevens said that when she voted, it took her three tries before the machine accepted her choice to vote for Romney .
“I went to vote and I got right in the middle of Romney’s name,” Stevens told Fox News, saying that she was certain to put her finger directly on her choice for the White House.
She said that the first time she pushed “Romney,” the machine marked “Obama.”
So she pushed Romney again. Obama came up again. Then it happened a third time.
“Maybe you make a mistake once, but not three times,” she told Fox News.
And we did see some very, very strange numbers come out of certain areas of Ohio four years ago.
For example, there were more than 100 precincts in Cuyahoga County in which Barack Obama got at least 99 percent of the vote in 2012.
If that happened in just one precinct that would be odd enough. But the odds of it happening in more than 100 precincts in just one county by random chance are so low that they aren’t even worth mentioning.
And of course this didn’t just happen in Ohio. Similar things were happening all over the country .
The reason why I bring all of this up is to show that there is a pattern. If a fair vote had been conducted, Romney may have indeed won in 2012, and now it appears that voting machines are being rigged again.
In Wichita County, Texas so many people were reporting that their votes were being switched from Trump to Clinton that it made the local newspaper …
Shortly after early voting booths opened Monday in Wichita County, rumors swirled online about possible errors in the process. Several online posts claimed a friend or family member had attempted to vote straight party Republican ticket, but their presidential nomination was switched to the Democratic nominee, Hilary Clinton. None of the local reports were from people who experienced the situation first hand. A Bowie woman posted that a relative who lives in Arlington saw her votes “switched.” The post was shared more than 100,000 times Monday.
And Paul Joseph Watson has written about some specific individuals that are making allegations that their votes for president were switched by the machines. One of the examples that he cited was a Facebook post by Lisa Houlette of Amarillo, Texas …
Gary and I went to early vote today…I voted a straight Republican ticket and as I scrolled to submit my ballot I noticed that the Republican Straight ticket was highlighted, however, the clinton/kaine box was also highlighted! I tried to go back and change and could not get it to work. I asked for help from one of the workers and she couldn’t get it to go back either. It took a second election person to get the machine to where I could correct the vote to a straight ticket. Be careful and double check your selections before you cast your vote! Don’t hesitate to ask for help. I had to have help to get mine changed.
I don’t know about you, but major alarm bells went off in my head when I read that.
A similar incident was reported on Facebook by Shandy Clark of Arlington, Texas …
Hey everyone, just a heads up! I had a family member that voted this morning and she voted straight Republican. She checked before she submitted and the vote had changed to Clinton! She reported it and made sure her vote was changed back. They commented that It had been happening. She is trying to get the word out and asked that we post and share. Just want everyone’s vote to be accurate and count. Check your vote before you submit!
And of course they weren’t the only ones reporting vote switching. It turns out that lots of other Texans have also experienced this phenomenon …
So is there a serious problem with the voting machines?
According to Breitbart , one county in Texas has already removed all electronic voting machines and has made an emergency switch to paper ballots…
Chambers County election officials have executed an emergency protocol to remove all electronic voting machines available during early voting until a software update can be completed to correct problems experienced by straight-ticket voters .
Chambers County Clerk Heather Hawthorne told Breitbart Texas Tuesday morning that all electronic voting was temporarily halted until her office completes a “software update” on ES&S machines that otherwise “omit one race” when a straight ticket option is selected for either major party. The Texas 14 th Court of Appeals race was reported to be the contest in which voters commonly experienced the glitch.
Let’s keep a very close eye on this. If the state of Texas ends up in Trump’s column on election night, perhaps no harm has been done.
But if Trump loses Texas there is no possible way that he will be able to make up those 38 electoral votes somewhere else.
Despite what the mainstream media is saying, the truth is that election fraud is very real. Just the other day, WND published an article that contained a list of documented cases of election fraud in 23 different states . And Devvy Kidd just authored a piece that pointed out that there are 24 million voter registrations in this country that are “ no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate “…
In 2012 the highly respected Pew Research Center exposed the sickening state of voter rolls in this country:
Nearly 2 million deceased registered to vote
Close to 3 million registered in multiples states
Approximately 24 million—one of every eight—voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate
More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters
Approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state
But despite everything you just read, the mainstream media is trying very hard to prop up faith in the integrity of the process. In fact, just today CNN came out with an article entitled “ Poll: Most see a Hillary Clinton victory and a fair count ahead “…
Almost 7 in 10 voters nationwide say they think Hillary Clinton will win the presidency next month, but most say that if that happens, Donald Trump will not accept the results and concede, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
Americans overall are more confident that the nation’s votes for president will be cast and counted accurately this year than they were in 2008. Whatever the outcome, however, nearly 8 in 10 say that once all the states have certified their vote counts, the losing candidate has an obligation to accept the results and concede to the winner.
Unfortunately, CNN does not have much credibility left at this point, and it is getting harder and harder to believe the polls that are being put out by the mainstream media.
And the mainstream media would also have us believe that if evidence of election fraud does emerge that it will be because the Russians have made it up …
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are warning that hackers with ties to Russia’s intelligence services could try to undermine the credibility of the presidential election by posting documents online purporting to show evidence of voter fraud.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said however, that the U.S. election system is so large, diffuse and antiquated that hackers would not be able to change the outcome of the Nov. 8 election.
But hackers could post documents, some of which might be falsified, that are designed to create public perceptions of widespread voter fraud, the officials said.
Now that is a real “conspiracy theory”, and it would be incredibly funny if all of this wasn’t so serious.
During this election season, if you see or hear anything unusual about voting in your area, please report it.
The American people should be allowed to make a free and fair choice, and anyone that attempts to alter an election is committing a crime against all of us.
And let’s watch the state of Texas very carefully. If it goes blue, you will know that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/it-is-happening-again-voting-machines-are-switching-votes-from-donald-trump-to-hillary-clinton | 0 |
ERBIL, Iraq — More than two years ago, a Christian farmer in his 70s named Mosa Zachariah fled his village near Mosul with, as he put it, only the pants he was wearing. He left behind his house, “tons of wheat” and a BMW. But now that his town, an early target of the Iraqi security forces as they advance on Mosul itself, has been cleared of the Islamic State forces, it is not jubilation he feels, but fear of what awaits him if he tries to return. He wistfully talked about his city’s diversity as something completely unattainable now. “In that time, the Muslims and Christians were like brothers,” he said. Musab Juma, a Shiite who used to live in the Mosul area, said he would not be going back, either. He relocated to Najaf, in southern Iraq, where he has a food stall and has decorated his home with old photos and antiques from his hometown. Yazidis and Kurds and Shabaks, other minorities that were once vital pieces of Mosul’s human tapestry, have moved on, too. And many Sunni Arabs, who make up most of Mosul’s population, say they will never go home again, even if that is where their parents and grandparents are buried. Before the Islamic State’s occupation began more than two years ago, Mosul was Iraq’s most diverse city. Its rich culture, stretching back to the ancient Assyrians, and reputation for tolerance made it a vital symbol of an Iraq that could at least aspire to being a unified and whole nation. Now, as Mosul’s exiled civilians watch the battle for their city unfold, the only thing they seem to have in common is the belief that they once shared a special history that can never be reclaimed. Some of that belief, but not all, was torn apart after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when many Christians felt threatened and fled as Arabs and Kurds fought over old animosities. Mosul, home for many former Baathist army officers suddenly tossed from power after the invasion, became a center of the Sunni insurgency and a stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the precursor of the Islamic State. “Until 2003, the Mosul community was living in peaceful coexistence, but after that, things changed,” said Jafar Khaleel, 46, who left Mosul in 2014 after the Islamic State onslaught. “The Sunnis don’t trust the Shiites. The Shabak cannot live with the Christian. This is what the American occupation left behind. ” Back then, there was a social compact for Iraq’s minorities that at least promised security in exchange for tolerating the tyranny and lack of personal freedoms under Saddam Hussein’s government, led by an elite class of Iraq’s minority Sunni population. Today, there is widespread nostalgia for that time, though it is not shared by most of Iraq’s Shiite majority, now in power. “For generations, life was normal there,” said Sabah Salim Dawood, 62, a Christian from Mosul. “In the factories, on the farms, in the offices, nobody asked, ‘What are you?’ ” Now there is a sense of unraveling that feels permanent. “A man cannot describe in words what he misses,” said Omar Ahmed, 29, who used to work in Mosul’s Health Ministry and is now exiled in the northern Kurdish region. Walking through a ransacked church recently in Bartella, a mostly Christian town at the edge of Mosul, reveals an elegy to what has been lost. Some walls have been burned others are streaked with Islamic State graffiti. A whiteboard on a wall in an anteroom lists a daily schedule for Islamic State recruits — fitness routines, weapons instructions and Shariah law lessons. Strewn on the floor are dusty reminders of those who once prayed there: Christian storybooks, copies of a “quarterly social cultural journal” published by the Chaldean Church, a Santa Claus figurine, photographs of schoolgirls and a pink plastic rose. An old Iraqi tourist guide from the 1980s celebrated Mosul as a city whose rich history as a place of great Arab conquests important to the region’s past that made it “a city of great importance. ” Its nickname as the “the city of two springs” — because autumn and spring weather are so similar — was a testament to the city’s livability. “Since 1969, a Spring Festival has been held every year in Mosul,” the tourist guide noted. “Flower processions and folk dancing by thousands of people from every walk of life bring much gaiety to the place. ” Moslawis, as they are known, have their own dialect, and jokes, many based on their reputation for being stingy, which goes back to a famine in 1917, when they suffered as the Ottoman Empire took food from the city to feed its starving army. The rest of Iraq is known for its generosity, but a common joke goes that the only time a Moslawi will invite someone in for lunch is during Ramadan, when everyone is fasting. Even so, the city is also known for its food, especially Mosul’s kibbe, flat bulgur wheat discs stuffed with ground meat that are famous all over Iraq. There is the abundance of cultural heritage, the remnants of empires: ancient churches, monasteries, tombs, shrines and an antiquities museum that is important not just to Mosul but the broader Middle East. Nearly all have been destroyed or defaced by the Islamic State. Putting the city back together socially is “going to take a very, very long time,” said Rasha a Sunni Arab from Mosul who now lives in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where she is a research fellow at the Studies and Research Center and writes about her home city. “I think everyone is going to live on their own. The Yazidis are going to live on their own. Christians are going to live on their own. The Sunnis are going to live on their own. ” As a child, she recalls, her classroom had seven Christians, seven or eight Kurds, two or three Yazidis, one or two Shiites, and the rest Sunni Arabs. There were four or five languages spoken, she said, plus three religions and two sects of Islam. “That diversity you didn’t find anywhere else,” she said. Walking to school, she would pass by a winged bull statue from Assyrian times, at the old city walls, that has been demolished by the Islamic State. “I really regret now that I took them for granted,” she said. Perhaps most painful is seeing former friends turn into enemies. Muhammad Sayed, 26, is Shiite, so for him there was only this choice when the Islamic State took over Mosul: Leave or be killed. Like many Shiites from the city, he eventually moved to Najaf, a holy city for his sect, where he now bakes bread and sells it on the street. “The Islamic State destroyed my childhood and my memories,” he said. “They turned some of my friends into murdering terrorists, some of the friends that I studied with in primary school and high school, and I have the most beautiful memories with them. But they have joined the terrorists, and for them, I have become an infidel. ” The task of trying to stitch Iraq back together is immensely complicated. But for Iraqis who have been displaced, it all boils down to a single, simple human emotion. “The major problem in Iraq is dealing with fear,” said Falah Mustafa, the Kurdish region’s foreign minister, at a recent panel discussion in Erbil, about Mosul’s future. “It’s immensely painful to be betrayed by your neighbor. ” | 1 |
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Dark chocolate is in. So, too, is beef jerky. And ice cream? You bet. Driven by definitions of what is healthy to eat, people are turning to foods they shunned just a couple of years ago. Studies now suggest that not all fat, for example, necessarily contributes to weight gain or heart problems. That has left companies scrambling to push some foods that they thought had long passed their popularity peak — and health advocates wondering what went wrong. Under the new thinking, not all fat is bad, and neither are all salty foods. A stigma among the public remains for sugar substitutes, but less so for cane sugar, at least in moderation. And all of those attributes are weighed against qualities like simplicity and taste. “I think the equation has changed,” said Steve French, a managing partner at the Natural Marketing Institute, a research firm, said. Edy’s ice cream, known as Dreyer’s west of the Rockies, is a case in point. Edy’s sold 10. 8 percent more of its Edy’s Grand Ice Cream, a ice cream, in the 52 weeks that ended Feb. 21 compared with the year before, according to IRI, a data and research firm. Other ice creams also had sales gains. Over the same period, Edy’s sold 4. 8 percent less of its Ice Cream, made with a process that lowers the fat content. When the product was introduced in 2004, it was promoted as having less fat and fewer calories — and sales soared. Now, that sort of marketing is gone. Instead, the company has retooled some of its products to make them with fewer ingredients and to include cane sugar rather than corn syrup, which many consumers don’t like. Labels on those ice creams will also tell consumers that they contain no genetically engineered ingredients. The devil, of course, is in the details of those new scientific findings. None of the new studies, for instance, recommend eating as much bacon as you want. “The new definition of modern health is very different from the traditional view, which was to reduce fat, sugar and sodium,” said Robert Kilmer, president of Nestlé Dreyer’s Ice Cream, a division of Nestlé USA. “Healthy now is about what’s in my food and where did it come from. ” Food companies have been working feverishly over the last several years to offer what consumers perceive as improved nutritional content and healthier food. Sales of products made from organic ingredients have risen sharply in recent years, for example. Mars Food, a division of the privately held Mars candy company whose brands include Uncle Ben’s and Dolmio, reduced sodium by over 20 percent in many of its products and recently announced a plan to go even further. And General Mills is eliminating artificial colors and flavors from its cereals — no more neon hues in Trix. But consumers are constantly recalculating the pros and cons of the foods they eat — leading to some unexpected foods rising in popularity. For example, in 2015, Americans checked the fat content on food labels less often than they did in 2006, according to research from the Natural Marketing Institute. They’re focusing more on the list of ingredients, a product’s environmental impact and animal welfare — the famous “Farm” episode in “Portlandia” in which a waitress can tell diners the name of the chicken they’ll be eating remains relevant five years after it was first shown. And don’t forget about taste. A majority of Americans say they value taste more than how healthy a food is. This can be frustrating for food executives, who spent years getting salt, sugar and fat out of a wide variety of products, paying high costs in development and marketing along the way. Michael Sharp, the research scientist at Nestlé who has presided over the reformulation of its ice creams, noted that all of the ingredients he is working to eliminate today were originally added to the product for good reasons. “The ingredients we’ve subtracted either had some functionality on their own or improved the functionality of other ingredients,” Mr. Sharp said. “Corn syrup adds a lot of body and bulk to a product — but the consumer doesn’t want it today. ” Nutrition experts are watching the shift warily. Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a research and advocacy group, noted that companies have gone a long way toward reducing or eliminating saturated fats, which raise cholesterol in the blood and increase the risk of heart disease. The American Heart Association and other health advocacy groups have long recommended limiting consumption of saturated fat. But in recent years, studies have suggested that maybe saturated fat is not as bad as once thought. One analysis of research on saturated fats, which generated some criticism, blurred the link between it and heart disease. Another study concluded that skim milk did not appear to restrict weight gain among young children. That rethinking seems to have encouraged some consumers to return to foods. Edy’s French Vanilla Grand ice cream, for example, has four grams of saturated fat in every . A of the same flavor in its variety, the recently less popular option, has 1. 5 grams of saturated fat. Similarly, the public appears to have been persuaded by some evidence that eating dark chocolate is good for the heart. Technavio, a market research firm, predicted that sales would increase an average of more than 8 percent a year through 2019. But the federal government also recommends a limit on total fat consumption — the combination of bad and good fats. An bar of Ghirardelli 72% Intense Dark chocolate supplies more than the government’s daily recommendation for saturated fat and more than of the recommendation for total fat. “There are recommended limits on total fat that I think have sort of gotten lost in the marketing,” Ms. Wootan said. “There’s nothing in science that tells you it’s healthy to eat as much fat as you want, just as long as it’s not saturated fat. ” Another sore point among nutritionists is the rising sales of jerky, once regarded as little more than a sodium delivery mechanism. Now, as consumers clamor for foods high in protein, jerky has become a popular option. One ounce delivers about a quarter of the daily recommended amount of protein and costs roughly $2. 50. Sales of meat snacks like jerky shot up 46. 9 percent from 2011 to 2015, to more than $2. 6 billion, according to Nielsen, a market research firm. “Jerky is manly, jerky is kind of rednecky and jerky can even be kind of offensive if people don’t know what it is,” said Troy Link, chief executive of Link Snacks, a snack food business. “So we changed things up and began calling it a protein snack, and now jerky is being eaten by health eaters who haven’t been involved in the category before. ” Link Snacks’ most popular product, Jack Link’s Teriyaki Beef Jerky, delivers 12 grams of protein and just 80 calories in a serving — and the daily recommended amount of sodium. Mr. Link said the company had worked to reduce the sodium in its products, along with getting rid of monosodium glutamate and nitrites. “For the most part, sodium has become good again, and I think certain fats have become good again, too,” he said. “At the end of the day,” he said, “people want something that tastes good. ” | 1 |
Congratulations, House Republicans. You just passed the socialized medicine bill in American history. [And, if it passes the U. S. Senate, you will own the disaster formerly known as Obamacare — just in time for the 2018 elections. It will be called “Trumpcare” or “Ryancare” or GOPcare. ” And it will still be health care brought to you by the experts at the U. S. Postal Service and Veterans Affairs Department. To be sure, there are some great aspects of this bill. It makes Obamacare less terrible. It includes Medicare reforms that will save innocent taxpayers and our grandchildren many billions of dollars over future years. That one part of GOPcare is the first decent thing Congress will have accomplished in the past decade (other than confirming Justice Neil M. Gorsuch). But will it be worth it? After all, Republicans have just finally conceded the entire argument against socialized medicine in America. They have officially retreated from the belief that liberty, and free markets are ultimately the best way to provide the most people with the best health care. By supporting health care — even if it is a little less than Obamacare — Republicans have, in fact, endorsed health care. Remember those evil death panels we used to all be opposed to? Well, now you are the death panels. What about politically? Will it be worth the carnage at the polls? With this, Republicans give up all claims to campaign against Democrats for foisting disastrous Obamacare on the American people. As usual these days, it was President Trump who had the sharpest and most farsighted political instincts on the whole matter when he said Republicans would be better off just letting Obamacare collapse of its own weight. Then Republicans could win two more elections by blaming Democrats for all the misery they had caused. But Mr. Trump said it would be wrong to punish voters for the decisions of their terrible politicians. That is true statesmanship. Watching Republicans in Congress jump on this political grenade reminds me of another time Republicans dutifully lined up for a senseless Kamikaze mission, a spending bill back in 2011. Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona Republican, described the bill as a “crap sandwich. ” Believe it or not, Mr. Gosar described the bill as a “crap sandwich” — by way of explaining why he voted IN FAVOR of the bill. “You definitely do not want to bite into it, you cannot stand the taste, but you know you have to eat it,” he said in an actual press release issued by his office explaining — again — why he voted FOR the bill. See, this is the whole problem with Washington. It is the only place in America where someone finds a “crap sandwich” and they feel compelled to vote for it. Then they decide they have to eat it. Out in actual America, nobody has ever seen a “crap sandwich” because since there is no market for them — nobody is making them. And if ever a “crap sandwich” escaped Washington and wound up in normal America, nobody would pick it up, vote for it or dream of eating it. Look, I am not a politician and have lived my entire life with the single goal of rendering myself unelectable to any public office. But I have to tell you, I would never vote for a “crap sandwich. ” But the more I look around this place, I start to wonder if we haven’t all been voting for a bunch of “crap sandwiches” for a very long time. • Charles Hurt can be reached at churt@washingtontimes. com follow him on Twitter via @charleshurt. | 1 |
Home » SD Podcast » INTERNAL COUP AGAINST HILLARY? | Jason Burack
Jason Burack from WallStForMainSt.com joins Silver Doctors to discuss the bombshells from the FBI and Wikileaks that are killing Clinton’s campaign .
Burack says FBI director James Comey should have indicted Hillary Clinton in July. By reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, Comey is trying to save himself, Burack says.
Latest Wikileaks is revealing corruption also in the media. Hacked emails show former CNN contributor and DNC chair Donna Brazile gave questions to Clinton before some primary debates.
But this leak about Brazile is insignificant compared to other revelations from Wikileaks, Burack says. He says the big news from Wikileaks really is the emails showing Clinton’s willingness to do anything for money.
Even more damaging leaks may still be on the horizon , Burack says. There are rumors the Clinton’s 33,000 deleted emails will be released before the election.
Finally, stay tuned to find out whether there is an internal coup against Clinton! This entry was posted in Finance News , SD Podcast and tagged Clinton , collapse , Crisis , Crooked Hillary , Donald Trump , Elijah Johnson , Email Scandal , FBI James Comey , FBI reopens Hillary emails , Federal Reserve , financial collapse , Gold , Hillary Clinton , hyperinflation , inflation , silver doctors , Trump , Trump collapse economy . Bookmark the permalink . Post navigation | 0 |
(Before It's News)
by Leon Pantenburg
I bought this knife to review. At the time of publication, Kellem Knives had no sponsorship relationship with Survivalcommonsense.com. I’m a sucker for old time knife designs, especially when they are re-created with modern materials. IMO, this makes for a time-tested, utility design that will do the job.
I particularly like the Scandinavian Puukko design, so that’s why I got a Kellam Hawk.
The Kellam Hawk
The puukko is a Finnish knife, and the name lends itself to the Finnish word “puukotta,” which means “to stab/knife.” The prefix, “puu” means “wood” in Finnish. The design of the puukko is attributed to the indigenous Sami people, who created several knives to use for day to day tasks; the puukko was the smaller option, used to skin fish or animals.
“Although historical records vary, the puukko dates back about 1000 years. Both men and women carried (and carry) puukkos, although the sizes change depending on the person, as the puukko handle is meant to fit the hand size of the user. (From: EDC History: Pukko – A simple knife with a rich history.)
The old design is getting some attention from modern knifemakers. I recently reviewed the Battle Horse Knives Feather Stick, another knife with the Puukko design, and it worked out really well.
Here’s the Hawk’s specs:
Product Details:
Blade: 3″ Carbon Steel Handle: 4.5″ Stained Curly Birch Full Tang construction Dangler-style leather sheath Total Length : 7.5″ Grind: Convex is my all-time, go-to favorite grind , but scandi is a close second or third. For a beginner, it is the easiest to learn to sharpen on. The bevel is sharpening guide – all you do is lay it flat on a whetstone and hone away.
The scandi is also a great woodworking grind, and a practical choice for someone looking for a bushcraft knife.
The Hawk handle fits my large hands very well.
Handle: I have big hands – size large gloves – and many otherwise excellent knives don’t work for me because the handle is too short. I don’t like two or three finger grips. IMO, they don’t give a secure grip for hard work, and I’m concerned they might twist in my hand.
The 4.5-inch handle fits my hand really, really well. It is made of dyed curly birch, a common wood in Russia and Scandinavia, with nice figure. The wood makes a handle that doesn’t transfer heat or cold. This is a consideration for a knife that will be used in Finland’s frigid winter.
The diameter is large, which gives me a good, solid grip. When wet or slimy from cleaning fish, or bloody from butchering, the handle seems to get “grippier.”
A comfortable, safe handle is a really important aspect of a user knife. Pretty doesn’t cut it (pun intended) when there are lengthy cutting tasks to be done.
Steel: The high carbon steel holds a wicked edge. I don’t know exactly what it is, but the Hawk’s steel held up nicely to normal cutting and bushcraft tasks.
Traditionally, Blade materials can vary from the three-layer approach, which combines strong and flexible steels, to composite designs. Most are made with Finnish steel, Ovako 100Cr6, which is equivalent to U.S 52100 bearing steel, according to Nordic knife blog Nordiska Kniva r.
Spine: I would like the spine to be ground at a 90-degree angle, like an ice skate, so it could be used for processing tinder or scraping a ferro rod. It isn’t. But a few passes on a grinder could fix that.
Sheath: The dangler-style, form-fitted leather sheath holds the knife securely. Almost too securely. It requires a slight twist to loosen the Hawk. It’s a consideration – the knife won’t fall out, but it’s a two-hand job to remove it. This might be a deal-breaker for some users.
I find this annoying, but you can get used to the tight sheath.
Full tang construction with a brass bolster. I prefer a full tang on any rigid blade knife, even though I’ve never needed that extra strength. In fact, one of my favorite user knives, the Mora 840 Companion , has a plastic handle and a three-quarter tang.
For the strongest knife available, though, get a full tang.
Hand made in Finland.
The Hawk is a user knife, able to handle a variety of tasks.
In actual use , the Hawk lives up to the user reputation of the Puukko knives. It went along on Fremont District’s Webelos Woods, a Boy Scout outing, recently. It was used to whittle sticks and do the assorted tasks associated with camping.
On the way home, on an isolated section of highway, I saw a fast-moving car hit a deer up ahead of me. The front end of the vehicle was demolished, and the hood popped. The air bag deployed and the radiator was steaming.
After checking out the driver and passenger for injuries, (they were shaken, but fine) the driver and I followed the injured buck. It had dragged itself across the road and was severely injured.
It was still alive, with two broken legs, probable internal injuries and it was in agonizing pain. We called 911. Rather than wait a possible half-hour for the Oregon State Police to arrive, we ended the deer’s suffering with the only tool available – the Kellam Hawk.
The knife worked quickly and humanely for the sad, but necessary task.
That’s the mark of a good knife. It gets the job done.
Do you need a Hawk?
Everybody needs a good knife . The Hawk is based on a proven design, with quality materials. The Hawk has proven to be a very useful tool, and one that can be used in a variety of situations, from slicing a bagel at work, to hunting and fishing.
The knife retails for $74.95, and that’s a steal for a handmade knife. If you’re looking for a good-looking user, that you can work hard and pass down to your grandchildren, the Hawk is a really good choice.
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BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives won a state election Sunday in their rivals’ traditional heartland, a stinging blow to the German leader’s challenger in September’s national election. [The western state of North which includes Cologne, Duesseldorf and the Ruhr industrial region, is Germany’s most populous and has been led by the Social Democrats for all but five years since 1966. It is home to 17. 9 million people, nearly a quarter of Germany’s population. It is also the home state of Martin Schulz, the Social Democratic challenger seeking to deny Merkel a fourth term in the Sept. 24 national election — though he wasn’t on the ballot Sunday. #BREAKING — Merkel’s CDU leads big after initial exit polls in a critical regional election#nrwltw17 #Germany #NRW pic. twitter. — dwnews (@dwnews) May 14, 2017, Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on partial counting, showed Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union beating the Social Democrats by about 34 percent to a bit over 30. 5 percent. They gave the Greens, the junior coalition partners in the outgoing state government, only 6 percent. That means governor Hannelore Kraft’s coalition with the Greens lost its majority in the state legislature. And it puts conservative challenger Armin Laschet, a deputy leader of Merkel’s party, in a position to replace her. Herzlichen Glückwunsch @ArminLaschet @CDUNRW_de! Der SPD ist die Kraft ausgegangen. Tolle Stimmung in @ ! @BerlinGestalter pic. twitter. — CDU Berlin (@cduberlin) May 14, 2017, “The CDU has won the heartland of the Social Democrats,” said the conservatives’ general secretary, Peter Tauber, calling it a “great day” for the party. “This is a difficult day for the Social Democrats, a difficult day for me personally as well,” Schulz told reporters in Berlin. “I come from the state in which we took a really stinging defeat today. ” #SPD’s Schulz says his party suffered a crushing defeat (in state election in SPD’s homeland NRW). pic. twitter. — Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) May 14, 2017, But he urged the party to concentrate now on the national election. He said that “we will sharpen our profile further — we have to as well. ” “We will continue fighting the result will come on Sept. 24,” Schulz said. The Social Democrats’ national ratings soared after Schulz, a former European Parliament president, was nominated in January as Merkel’s challenger. But defeats in two other state elections since then had already punctured the party’s euphoria over Schulz’s nomination, and its ratings have sagged. Sunday’s election was the last before the national vote. So sehen Sieger aus! @bodoloettgen @ArminLaschet #nrwgehtvor #ltwnrw17 #ltwnrw pic. twitter. — (@CDUNRW_de) May 14, 2017, Kraft announced that she was stepping down as the Social Democrats’ regional leader. The projected result is the party’s worst in North since World War II. The projections put support for the Free Democrats, who are eyeing a return to the national parliament at September, at a strong 12 percent. The party — whose national leader, Christian Lindner, led its election effort in North — has tended to ally with Merkel’s conservatives over recent decades. The nationalist Alternative for Germany was seen winning 7. 5 percent, giving it seats in its 13th state legislature, and the opposition Left Party around 5 percent. A likely outcome appeared to be a “grand coalition” of the biggest parties under Laschet, though it was also possible that a slim majority for the CDU and Free Democrats would emerge. A “grand coalition” would mirror Merkel’s national government, in which the Social Democrats are the junior partners. After a blaze of publicity earlier this year, Schulz — who chose not to join the government when he returned to Germany after being president of the European Parliament — has struggled to maintain a high profile. In the North campaign, Merkel’s conservatives sought to portray Kraft’s government as slack on security, and also assailed what they said is regional authorities’ poor handling of education and infrastructure projects. Health Minister Hermann Groehe, a conservative, said his party had “tailwind” from the national level, but Sunday’s vote was “a decision about state politics. ” “There was no tailwind from Mr. Schulz that could have balanced that out,” he said. Merkel’s party seemed keen not to appear too euphoric. Asked about Germany’s government after September her chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, said that “we always have to keep a cool head … we shouldn’t talk about coalitions before the harvest is in. ” National polls show the Social Democrats trailing Merkel’s conservatives by up to 10 points after drawing level earlier this year. | 1 |
by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Silver Seek :
The Illusion of Explanatory Depth
For years I have calmly, patiently, and for the most part rationally, listened to friends, family, patients, and colleagues grapple with the notion of precious metals.
The majority understand the basic reasons why some portion of portfolio allocation is necessary or prudent, but very few have (or will) taken action.
Often, people are shocked that I would be interested in the matter to begin with. I think subconsciously people understand to be a “Doctor” is to be a teacher, but on the surface most people find it odd and uncomfortable to accept my interest and quest in something that rarely occurs to them.
Occasionally, there will be debate. I don’t necessarily look for them. Experience with humans of all ages and from all walks of life has afforded me a healthy dose of humility. But I’m happy and proud to go as far as anyone would like about money, finance and especially silver.
No matter how tempting it is, no matter how strong the need is to be right and to feel vindicated, it is normally fruitless. I don’t know where I first heard it, but one of my favorite expressions has become:
“I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”
Understanding requires a shift. One that, I feel myself almost cringing to admit, involves emotional intelligence. This goes against all rational logic.
Most people are polite. And I’ll admit to a tendency for avoiding conflict — especially given the context in which many of these (potential) debates typically arise.
I came across the following article by accident some time back . It immediately resonated with my own experience in wrestling with my own beliefs, but also the beliefs, world views, and opinions of people I care about.
And collectively speaking, the opinions and views of anyone with a pulse who cares about financial safety, justice, and wealth.
You are, I’m afraid to say, mistaken. The position you are taking makes no logical sense. Just listen up and I’ll be more than happy to elaborate on the many, many reasons why I’m right and you are wrong. Are you feeling ready to be convinced?
Whether the subject is climate engineering, the Middle East or forthcoming holiday plans, this is the approach many of us adopt when we try to convince others to change their minds. It’s also an approach that, more often than not, leads to the person on the receiving end hardening their existing position.
(Ed. For the subject of money and wealth, at the root lies the fear of loss – more powerful than the want of profit. People will do anything, and convince themselves of practically anything, to avoid loss.)
Fortunately, research suggests there is a better way – one that involves more listening and less trying to bludgeon your opponent into submission.
A little over a decade ago Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil from Yale University suggested that in many instances people believe they understand how something works when in fact their understanding is superficial at best.
They called this phenomenon “the illusion of explanatory depth”.
They began by asking their study participants to rate how well they understood how things like flushing toilets, car speedometers and sewing machines worked before asking them to explain what they understood and then answer questions on it.
The effect they revealed was that, on average, people in the experiment rated their understanding as much worse after it had been put to the test.
What happens, argued the researchers, is that we mistake our familiarity with these things for the belief that we have a detailed understanding of how they work.
(I’m sure you’ve experienced this with the topic of money and currency. We use the terms interchangeably, though they are very different in reality. I’ll never forget the transformation I witnessed in a “Bitcoin aficionado” – arriving from the technological side of things – coming to grips with the store of wealth versus currency.)
Usually, nobody tests us and if we have any questions about them we can just take a look. Psychologists call this idea that humans have a tendency to take mental shortcuts when making decisions or assessments the “cognitive miser” theory.
Why would we bother expending the effort to really understand things when we can get by without doing so? The interesting thing is that we manage to hide from ourselves exactly how shallow our understanding is.
It’s a phenomenon that will be familiar to anyone who has ever had to teach something. Usually, it only takes the first moments when you start to rehearse what you’ll say to explain a topic (or worse, the first student question) for you to realize that you don’t truly understand it.
All over the world, teachers say to each other “I didn’t really understand this until I had to teach it.” Or as researcher and inventor Mark Changizi quipped: “I find that no matter how badly I teach I still learn something.”
Explain Yourself
Research published last year on this illusion of understanding shows how the effect might be used to convince others they are wrong.
The research team, led by Philip Fernbach of the University of Colorado, reasoned that the phenomenon might hold as much for political understanding as for things like how toilets work.
Perhaps, they figured, people who have strong political opinions would be more open to other viewpoints, if asked to explain exactly how they thought the policy they were advocating would bring about the effects they claimed it would.
Recruiting a sample of Americans via the internet, they polled participants on a set of contentious U.S. policy issues, such as imposing sanctions on Iran, healthcare and approaches to carbon emissions.
One group was asked to give their opinion and then provide reasons for why they held that view. This group got the opportunity to put their side of the issue, in the same way anyone in an argument or debate has a chance to argue their case.
Those in the second group did something subtly different. Rather than provide reasons, they were asked to explain how the policy they were advocating would work. They were asked to trace, step by step, from start to finish, the causal path from the policy to the effects it was supposed to have.
The results were clear. People who provided reasons remained as convinced of their positions as they had been before the experiment. Those who were asked to provide explanations softened their views, and reported a correspondingly larger drop in how they rated their understanding of the issues. | 0 |
Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Sen. Rick Santorum said, “President Obama was probably one of the most vindictive presidents that we’ve ever dealt with,” adding, “This president has been a bully. ” Partial transcript as follows: TAPPER: That was Donald Trump talking about Russian President Putin and his hopes for a better relationship with him and with Russia. Others on Capitol Hill are worried about just how much Putin likes Trump and what that might have meant during the election. The panel is back with me and Senator Santorum, I rudely cut you off. I want you to respond. Mayor Morial was talking about how well President Obama took the slings and arrows when he was president — you take issue. SANTORUM: Yes. I take big issue because President Obama was probably one of the most vindictive presidents that we’ve ever dealt with in going after individual members of Congress and anybody who disagreed with him, and that was one of his hallmarks. One of the things that made it him hard for him — I’ll be honest — hard for him to get things done was going after Paul Ryan while Paul Ryan is sitting right in front of him and trying to embarrass him. TAPPER: On Medicare. SATORUM: Yes, on Medicare and going after the Supreme Court during the State of the Union address where the Supreme Court — trying to bully the Supreme Court. This president has been a bully. This president has been tough. He’s done it in a cool way, I’ll give you that. The guy has style, but it’s not because he’s been — he’s been light handed or he’s been soft touch. He’s been a very tough touch. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
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Wait a second, didn’t Cheryl Mills ask for immunity ?In a batch of hacked emails that Wikileaks released this Tuesday morning, one of the notable highlights is a March 2, 2015 exchange between John Podesta and Clinton aide Cheryl Mills in which the Clinton Campaign Chair says “On another matter….and not to sound like Lanny, but we are going to have to dump all those emails.” Podesta To Mills: "We Are Going To Have To Dump All Those Emails" https://t.co/ZpWdIJ1zFF pic.twitter.com/pbBKAkn0JU
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 1, 2016
Then we have another terrifying conversation that gave some more insight into what Hillary Clinton‘s campaign advisers think about her private email server, as well as who they think may have allowed it in the first place.
In an email thread from July 2015 between Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and her adviser Neera Tanden, Tanden asked, “Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email? And has that person been drawn and quartered?”
Yikes, better sooner than later? Which emails? And then why would Podesta think they need to dump all of those emails if there isn’t anything important in them? They mus have just about yoga, right? Hah.
Intent? Hey, I’ve got an idea! let’s blame the Russians!
Pass the popcorn please…
It is also not clear which emails Podesta is referring to in the thread, but Podesta adds: “better to do so sooner than later.” Let’s hope that a subsequent response, yet to be leaked by Wikileaks, will provide more color. Related Items | 0 |
Nation’s Optimists Need To Shut The Fuck Up Right Now Close Vol 52 Issue 44 · Politics · Politicians · Election 2016
WASHINGTON—Saying their rosy attitude about the state of the election was not helping anything given what is currently transpiring, sources confirmed Tuesday night that the nation’s optimists need to seriously shut the fuck up as soon as humanly fucking possible. “Sure, things may look bad right now, but even if the worst happens, it’s only four years we’re talking about here,” said Santa Fe, NM resident Pete Mirenge, one of hundreds of thousands of positive thinkers across the nation who would do everyone a huge goddamn favor by closing their fucking traps right this fucking second and keeping them sealed for the foreseeable future. “This is exactly why we have a system of checks and balances—to ensure that whatever happens in the election, the executive branch never gets too much power. Think about it: Has any president been able to carry out their platform to the letter? No. Nothing’s ever as bad as it seems, believe me.” According to sources, a calm and composed Mirenge—who reportedly has about five seconds before his mouth is shut for him—then added that the country’s been through much worse and everything turned out okay. Share This Story: WATCH VIDEO FROM THE ONION Sign up For The Onion's Newsletter
Give your spam filter something to do. Daily Headlines | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia paid millions of dollars to Washington lobbyists to keep it out of court. They have been unsuccessful. And now it is up to the kingdom’s lawyers to limit the damage. With families of Sept. 11 victims now able to pursue legal claims against the Saudis, the fight over responsibility for the terrorist attacks 15 years ago is likely to shift to a courtroom in Lower Manhattan, not far from where the World Trade Center once stood. The legal battle could last for years, and would be waged using thousands of pages of documents, deposition transcripts and official government investigations. It could end in millions — or billions — of dollars’ worth of Saudi assets being seized in a court settlement, or a judgment that largely vindicates the Saudi government, which for years has insisted it had no role in the deadly plot. Lawyers for both sides were shaping a legal strategy on Thursday, the day after Congress overrode a veto of a law allowing the suits to go forward. For more than a decade, they have been blunted by a sovereign immunity law protecting foreign governments from American lawsuits. Now, lawyers say they expect that a federal judge will once again take up the cases originally filed in courtrooms across America, but that several years ago were consolidated into one suit in the Southern District of New York. In recent months, the Saudi government used a constellation of Washington lobbying and public relations firms to try to thwart the Sept. 11 bill as it made its way through Congress, a clear sign of the angst in Riyadh over the legislation’s implications. But despite the congressional drama, the angry barbs from Mr. Obama and warnings from Saudi officials that they may need to sell off hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of assets to avoid their being seized in a court settlement, some legal experts said that the plaintiffs face a headwind in trying to prove Saudi involvement. “Although there is loose talk of 10 billion dollars’ worth of judgments against Saudi Arabia, in fact the deck remains stacked against the plaintiffs,” said Raj Bhala, a professor of international and comparative law at the University of Kansas Law School. The most significant hurdle facing the roughly 9, 000 plaintiffs, a combination of family members of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks and people injured on that day, is to persuade a court there is solid evidence of a direct Saudi government role in the attacks. The American government — from the F. B. I. to the Commission to a separate congressional inquiry — has spent years and millions of dollars investigating the attacks and thus far has not found proof that Saudi officials were complicit in the plot. The Commission found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” Al Qaeda. But the commission’s phrasing left some to speculate that there might be evidence of involvement by other, officials. Some investigators have long believed that the various inquiries never unearthed the truth about several individuals connected to the Saudi government at the time of the attack, in particular a Saudi consular official in Los Angeles named Fahad . Mr. Thumairy, who had been the imam at the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, Calif. had contact with two of the hijackers — Nawaf and Khalid — in the months before the attacks. An F. B. I. document in 2012 concluded that he had assigned someone to take care of the two men during their time in the Los Angeles area. Another Saudi who was on the kingdom’s payroll at the time, Omar later helped the two men settle in San Diego. Both Mr. Thumairy and Mr. Bayoumi vigorously denied to American investigators that they had knowingly assisted in the terrorist plot. But the exact roles of the two men, and potentially the roles of other Saudi officials, could be closely scrutinized in the months and years ahead. Sean Carter, one of the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case in the Southern District, said that his team’s complaint alleging a Saudi government role in the attacks was buttressed by 4, 500 pages of supporting evidence. The new law, Mr. Carter said, could open the way for new discovery in the case and even to depositions of Mr. Thumairy and other Saudi citizens. But Eric Lewis, a lawyer for two Saudi charities that have been defendants in the continuing Sept. 11 litigation, said that lawyers for the plaintiffs would not be able to use the discovery process as a fishing expedition to depose any Saudi citizen they thought could be tangentially connected to the case. They would have to convince the judge, he said, that the Saudi government was still directly responsible for Mr. Thumairy or anyone else the plaintiffs would like to depose. Mr. Lewis said that “there is no there there” on the allegations of any Saudi government role in the attacks, given the kingdom’s long history of being at war with Al Qaeda. “The notion that senior Saudi officials or the Saudi government had an interest in supporting Sept. 11 and the attack on the World Trade Center is patently absurd,” he said. Obama administration officials have warned for months that the Sept. 11 bill sets a dangerous precedent and could lead other nations to retaliate, possibly exposing the United States to private lawsuits in foreign courts because of American intelligence or military operations overseas. On Thursday, several members of Congress who voted for the law acknowledged that it might need to be amended. Officials and analysts across the Persian Gulf responded angrily on Thursday to the bill’s passage, and said it had led their countries to begin rethinking their alliance with the United States. Some suggested that Saudi Arabia and its regional allies had ways of striking back at what they saw as a betrayal by the United States, by lessening their investments in the United States or dialing back their engagement in joint military and security programs. Others said that the bill would make Saudi investors less comfortable putting their money in the United States. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that “the erosion of sovereign immunity will have a negative impact on all nations, including the United States” and raised the prospect that Congress might take new action during the session in November that might blunt the effect of the bill. “It is our hope that wisdom will prevail and the Congress will take the necessary steps to correct this legislation in order to avoid the serious unintended consequences that may ensue,” it said. Some opponents of the new law, both in the United States and overseas, said they hoped that the Obama administration would eventually make use of the legislation’s provisions allowing the attorney general to intervene directly in the civil court proceedings — effectively to delay proceedings if the government could convince a judge that the United States and Saudi Arabia are in discussions to settle the cases outside of court. Starting any discussions — even as a delay tactic — would take some convincing for Saudi officials. The kingdom, said Mr. Bhala, the law professor at the University of Kansas, “has said that going down the road of settlement negotiations would be tantamount to an admission of guilt. ” But, Mr. Bhala added, “They could see things differently now. ” | 1 |
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See that wedge of people cheering behind the podium at political rallies? The ones who just so happen to sit nicely within the camera frame? They are always something of a fantasy construct. If a candidate has a problem with women voters, then the podium behind will be packed tightly with women. If some number cruncher decides that Black men would rather vote for someone else, then they too get press-ganged into the formation of a human canvas. A little bit of demographic sleight of hand if you will.
It’s no big deal. They all do it. It’s a talking point, a visual cue for the doubters and a psychological nudge for the undecided. Any Color You Want So Long As It’s White
Of course, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has a problem with pretty much every non-white male demographic you can think of. And when it comes to Black voters, his poll numbers are so low that misrepresenting his demographic base is all but impossible. No matter how large your crowd is, a statistical zero still leaves you with a chronic shortage of Black people. And that means they cannot be used as props that detract from the massively racist campaign he’s been running. Which must make him sad.
Time for plan B.
And no, that’s not a racially insensitive name or a typo. That’s his name, or at least, that’s the one he is using right now. The Cultist Formerly Known As…
You might have seen Michael before. Back in 2012, during the Republican primary race, Rick Santorum asked him to front his campaign rally. Attendants were treated to an excruciatingly awful jazz set , followed by rabid claims that Democrats are all closet Nazis. He told the crowd : “The Democrats, they’re the worst thing that ever happened to the Black man. They’re the slave masters.”
So, right off the bat, we know we’re dealing with someone who has some legitimate political arguments to make. That’s good to know.
The “Blacks for Trump” placards that wafted in the torrid zephyr sliding past Trump’s rally in Sanford, Florida last Tuesday were hard to miss. The inane grin of a middle-aged white woman, holding one of the signs at arm’s length as if afraid the word ‘black’ might come and get her, was particularly memorable.
The man stood next to her, wearing a T-shirt that read “Republicans Aren’t Racist” was less conspicuous but keen-eyed observers recognized his familiar brand of crazy from past GOP events. It was none other than our man Michael.
You know, the Black Man. Trump’s Cult Following
He wasn’t born with that name of course. Previous names include Maurice Woodside and Michael Symonette while his website lists it as Michel Nicholson. Go figure.
As a former high-ranking member of the Nation of Yahweh — a violent black supremacist organization — he has good reason to keep his true name secret. The cult disintegrated in the 1980s shortly after its leader, Yahweh ben Yahweh , was arrested on conspiracy charges relating to 14 murders committed in Miami. Yahweh was convicted and eventually served 11 years of an 18-year sentence before his death in 2007.
Michael has had his share of legal problems too.
Implicated, but never convicted of two separate murders, he has since been charged with — though again, never convicted — of four separate felonies since the cult crashed and burned.
And according to the New Miami Times , Michael still cuts something of a radical figure. They describes him as being : “An anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events.”
And just like that, all of a sudden, his support for Trump begins to make a lot of sense.
Watch Michael’s enthusiasm for fellow nut-job Donald J. Trump:
Featured Image via screenshot from YouTube video
About Grownmangrumbles
I'm a full- time, somewhat unwilling resident of the planet Earth. I studied journalism at Murdoch University in West Australia and moved back to the UK where I taught politics and studied for a PhD. I've written a number of books on political philosophy that are mostly of interest to scholars. I'm also a seasoned travel writer so I get to stay in fancy hotels for free. I have a pet Lizard called Rousseau. We have only the most cursory of respect for one another. Connect | 0 |
Friday while filling in as a guest host on “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” conservative commentator Mark Steyn offered his thoughts on the Chicago beating incident early this week that led to four individuals being charged with hate crime in addition to other charges. Steyn blamed the motivation for the incident on identity politics, which he argued has a “dehumanizing” effect and as long as identity politics remains part of the left’s playbook, more of those types of incidents would occur in the future. “I think we’re going to get a lot more of this stuff in the future because it is the logic of identity politics,” Steyn said. “It is where identity politics leads. It is about ultimately the dehumanization that attends identity politics. ” “The minute you have identity groups — the minute you have identity politics that what matters is whether people are black, or white, or gay, or straight, or transgendered, or cisgenerded, or Muslim, or infidel — then you do not see the humanity in your fellow man,” he continued. “All you see is the disfavored group and eventually you end with what happened in this situation. ” “There will be more of this in the future as long as the left is invested in identity politics as the organizing principle of society,” he added. “Identity politics is a polite word. The actual term for what it is is a return to tribalism where don’t see people as individuals equal before the law, citizens, the of others. What matters more and more is what group you belong to. This crime is ultimately where identity politics leads. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
2016 elections by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Adebayo
The major parties are more concerned with preserving their duopoly than with defeating each other. So-called “progressives” help preserve duopoly rule, failing “to understand that as long as they are complicit with the Democrats, they have no power.” Most people are actually more Green than Democratic in their views, but “have a hard time comprehending that there are more than two parties,” according to Green candidate Dr. Flowers. Margaret Flowers’ Retrospective on Running as a Green for the U.S. Senate by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Adebayo
“ The message of the Green Party resonates with people because we talk about real issues that they experience in their lives and solutions that they want to see.”
The Democratic and Republican parties’ attempt to monopolize the presidential media cycle was challenged by candidates like Dr. Margaret Flowers, who ran for the US Senate on the Green Party ticket in Maryland. She used the electoral platform to speak directly to working class communities. Dr Flowers was profiled in a recent BAR article regarding the decision of the Maryland League of Women Voters to deny her the right to participate in the only televised senatorial debate. Undaunted, Dr. Flowers took to the stage and demanded to be recognized as an equal participate in the electoral process. She was escorted off stage by security forces under protest with audience members shouting: “Let her speak!”
Margaret is a Maryland pediatrician and mother of three. In 2007, she made the decision to stop practicing clinical medicine, which she viewed as antithetical to the welfare of working class and front line communities. Instead, she decided to “practice political medicine.” The class dynamics of health care is evident to her. “The wealth divide is one of our biggest health care problems” and is the cause of “the greatest disparity” in health outcomes. In 2009, she joined Physicians for a National Health Program, becoming a Congressional Fellow and opening a chapter in Maryland. She was arrested at a Senate Roundtable on Health Insurance for speaking on behalf of the single payer option. Margaret said in an interview: “our first goal was to have a seat at the table….If we couldn’t get a seat, at least we could expose the insincerity of the current attempt at healthcare reform and show that single payer was actively being excluded.”
Margaret views the struggle for health care as “part of a broader social, racial, economic and environmental justice movement.” She has organized campaigns to fight for state and federal single payer health care systems. In addition, Margaret provided leadership and took on corporations focusing on the issue of net neutrality, the concept that everyone should have equal access to the Internet regardless of their usage or ability to pay.
I met Margaret during the Freedom Plaza Occupy Movement in Washington, DC where she helped me organize the Occupy EPA demonstrations.
Below, Margaret provides her reflections and analysis on running as the 2016 Green Party candidate for the US Senate in Maryland.
Adebayo: What political and cultural lessons did you learn from running against the Democratic and Republican machines?
Flowers: Running for office in Maryland taught me that the major political party machines, especially the Democratic Party, are pervasive in our state. Their tentacles reach deep into the non-profit organizations, the media, the polling organizations and the universities.
There is a culture in the state that is trapped in the duopoly. People are so used to thinking in terms of just Democrats and Republicans that they have a hard time comprehending that there are more than two parties. It is almost like a habit. When confronted with the reality that the media, non-profits, polls and universities were excluding our campaign, the most common responses were that this is how it has always been or that they excluded us because they could.
It was disappointing that the Maryland League of Women Voters, which is supposed to be nonpartisan and educate voters about their choices on the ballot, imposed an arbitrary high polling criterion that was used to keep me out of debates. It was disappointing that a public university, the University of Baltimore, which sponsored the only televised senate debate in Maryland, shut down political discourse by excluding me even though I would have provided a perspective that was not heard in the debate.
It was interesting to see how the media and polling organizations create a Catch-22 situation for alternative party candidates. Early on in my campaign, when public pressure was applied, the Baltimore Sun published one article on my campaign that mostly argued that I had no chance of winning and that I was mostly like a Democrat. Their failure to cover my campaign early on, or to even mention that I was running when they covered the other candidates, made it less likely that I would reach potential donors and volunteers. This made it less likely that I would poll well, especially since there were few polls that included me and they were done in September. As a result, my low polling numbers were used to justify my exclusion from events.
When our campaign did reach people, we received a very welcoming response. People are interested in a broader discussion of the crises we are facing and solutions to them. The solutions that I support are widely supported by the public.
And finally, it was interesting to see how so-called progressive organizations are trapped inside the Democratic Party and fail to understand that as long as they are complicit with the Democrats, they have no power. They fail to understand that their undying support for Democrats basically means that they are taken for granted. Unfortunately, “progressive” organizations endorsed Van Hollen and Clinton, even though their platforms include support for fracking and war and only partial solutions to the crises in education, healthcare and other human rights violations. This support and undying commitment of so-called “progressive” organizations to the Democratic Party defies logic.
Adebayo: In your opinion, how can the Green Party use the momentum of your state campaign as well as the national Stein/Baraka campaign to create a more effective popular grass-roots movement?
Flowers: It is already happening. New Green Party locals are forming around the state of Maryland. The current locals are growing. Many of the people who are involved in the locals are also involved in advocacy and activism, so there is a natural synergy. It is our task now to continue to nurture and grow that for the next election and to encourage greater collaboration and visibility of the Green Party with local movements.
Personally, my next focus will be to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). We are organizing to stop it from being ratified by Congress after the election. If we stop that, it will be a huge victory of popular power over corporate power. We can build off that to encourage more people to rise up and demand that the political agenda protect people and the planet.
Adebayo: How do third party organizations, such as the Green Party, fight the political, financial and media dominance of the two major corporate parties?
Flowers: This is a David and Goliath fight, but we have truth and justice on our side. The message of the Green Party resonates with people because we talk about real issues that they experience in their lives and solutions that they want to see. We are working to expose the media blackout and to encourage people to demand that the media and debates are more inclusive. And we are learning to use social media platforms to reach people. One aspect of the campaign that is very heartening is the commitment of the volunteers. People are donating their skills in filmmaking and graphic design. People are doing regular outreach and visibility actions across the state. It is truly amazing and it energizes me to see it.
Adebayo: As you reflect on your Senate campaign, what strategies worked best to encourage activism and what stratagems could you have employed to elicit more public support?
Flowers: Running a statewide campaign is a challenge. Some of the best experiences that I had were doing one-on-one outreach around the state. I would definitely do more of that if I ran again. And holding volunteer training sessions is critical for people to develop comfort with outreach strategies. I am sure that there is more that I could do, but at this point I am still focused on completing this campaign. Then we will debrief more. Dr. Marsha Adebayo is the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated: No FEAR: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA . She worked at the EPA for 18 years and blew the whistle on a US multinational corporation that endangered South African vanadium mine workers. Marsha's successful lawsuit led to the introduction and passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). She is Director of Transparency and Accountability for the Green Shadow Cabinet and serves on the Advisory Board of ExposeFacts.com. | 0 |
She is probably the only internet sensation in Harpursville, N. Y. a hamlet of about 3, 500 people in the Southern Tier region: April, a very pregnant giraffe, whose livestream video has attracted millions of viewers. But April’s instant stardom — the stream, which was posted about three weeks ago by Animal Adventure Park, where she lives, has been viewed nearly 20 million times on YouTube — is raising hopes that the attention will yield an economic boost for the region, a former manufacturing powerhouse that has struggled in recent years. The audience that has tuned in online to watch and wait for April to give birth has translated into phone calls, emails and a surge of interest in the animal park, now closed for the winter, said its owner, Jordan Patch. Mr. Patch said he had received dozens of inquiries about which airport was closest to the park (Greater Binghamton Airport) the nearest hotels (also in Binghamton, about 20 minutes away) and where visitors could camp (Chenango Valley State Park). “It’s phenomenal,” Mr. Patch said, adding that the Southern Tier, a line of counties north of Pennsylvania, had long sought recognition as a great part of New York to visit. Mr. Patch said the idea for the livestream arose from the many emails and calls he was receiving from local residents asking for updates on the pregnancy of April, a reticulated giraffe. The livestream allowed her fans to monitor her progress on their own, theoretically freeing Mr. Patch to attend to other matters. It did not work out that way. “I’m answering a lot more emails now than I was before,” he said. “It’s absolutely overwhelming. We are inundated with messages and emails, media interviews and requests. ” Interest has poured in from Canada, India, Ireland and Scotland. The BBC called the calf’s arrival the most anticipated birth since Prince George was born in 2013. “In fact, the media spotlight is arguably greater,” the publication noted. The livestream was removed from YouTube briefly in February after complaints that it was showcasing nudity and sexually explicit content, Mr. Patch said. Mr. Patch believes the complaint came from people who do not believe in keeping animals in captivity. A spokeswoman for YouTube declined to comment on why the video was taken down but said it was back up in an hour. The animal park — about 20 acres with more than 200 animals, including spotted hyenas, black bears, zebras, wildebeest, and a collection of monkeys and primates — has embraced the attention. A GoFundMe page has been set up and April merchandise is being sold to raise money, and there are plans to hold a naming contest once the calf is born. “We still scoop poop, feed animals and we have a living collection that depends on us that we have to maintain,” Mr. Patch said. “On the park side it’s business as usual. ” The park acquired April, a mother of three, in September 2015, in hopes that she would bear her fourth child with the help of a male giraffe, Oliver. Within a month the two were mating, Mr. Patch said. Forecasting a gestation period of about 15 months, Mr. Patch’s staff predicted that April would give birth in January or February of this year. But they may have calculated the date of conception incorrectly. “Like every other animal in the world, just because you connected doesn’t mean you conceived,” Mr. Patch said. The livestream of April is now being viewed nearly five million times a day. And though some viewers have complained about the long wait, the delay has allowed interest to build, encouraging local officials. “You pray for something like this to happen when you’re a community of our size,” said Jennifer Conway, president and chief executive of the greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, which manages tourism for Broome County. | 1 |
(Before It's News)
NUKE PRO: Exposing Truth Anti-Nuclear Information and Resources, and Disaster Preparation Planning: http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/ Malloch-Brown and Soros are buddies at the Soros led NWO “Open Society Institute”
Malloch Brown became chairman of the board of directors of SGO Corporation Limited, a holding company whose primary asset is the election technology and voting machine manufacturer Smartmatic, in 2014.[37][38]
Malloch Brown has been closely associated with billionaire speculator George Soros. Working for Refugees International, he was part of the Soros Advisory Committee on Bosnia in 1993–94, formed by George Soros.
He has since kept cordial relations with Soros, and rented an apartment owned by Soros while working in New York on UN assignments.[43] In May 2007, Soros' Quantum Fund announced the appointment of Sir Mark as vice-president.[44] In September 2007, The
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In amazing Orwellian fashion, this buddy of Soros, his name is very similar to Moloch, aka Satan. And in emails to Clinton people speak of “sacrificing to Moloch”. H
I think I see the resemblance | 0 |
Waking Times
“Today the path to total dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by Congress, the President, or the people . Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system … a well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state…. The important point to remember about this group is not its ideology but its organization… It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government…. This group … is answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts. It is practically irremovable.”— Senator William Jenner, 1954 speech
Unaffected by elections. Unaltered by populist movements. Beyond the reach of the law.
Say hello to America’s shadow government.
A corporatized, militarized, entrenched bureaucracy that is fully operational and staffed by unelected officials who are, in essence, running the country, this shadow government represents the hidden face of a government that has no respect for the freedom of its citizenry.
No matter which candidate wins the presidential election, this shadow government is here to stay. Indeed, as recent documents by the FBI reveal, this shadow government— also referred to as “The 7th Floor Group” —may well have played a part in who will win the White House this year.
To be precise, however, the future president will actually inherit not one but two shadow governments.
The first shadow government, referred to as COG or Continuity of Government, is made up of unelected individuals who have been appointed to run the government in the event of a “catastrophe.” COG is a phantom menace waiting for the right circumstances—a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, an economic meltdown—to bring it out of the shadows, where it operates even now. When and if COG takes over, the police state will transition to martial law.
Yet it is the second shadow government —also referred to as the Deep State—that poses the greater threat to freedom right now. Comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes, this government within a government is the real reason “we the people” have no real control over our government.
The Deep State, which “ operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power ,” makes a mockery of elections and the entire concept of a representative government.
So who or what is the Deep State?
It’s the militarized police, which have joined forces with state and federal law enforcement agencies in order to establish themselves as a standing army. It’s the fusion centers and spy agencies that have created a surveillance state and turned all of us into suspects. It’s the courthouses and prisons that have allowed corporate profits to take precedence over due process and justice. It’s the military empire with its private contractors and defense industry that is bankrupting the nation. It’s the private sector with its 854,000 contract personnel with top-secret clearances, “a number greater than that of top-secret-cleared civilian employees of the government.” It’s what former congressional staffer Mike Lofgren refers to as “ a hybrid of national security and law enforcement agencies ”: the Department of Defense, the State Department, Homeland Security, the CIA, the Justice Department, the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President via the National Security Council, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a handful of vital federal trial courts, and members of the defense and intelligence committees.
It’s every facet of a government that is no longer friendly to freedom and is working overtime to trample the Constitution underfoot and render the citizenry powerless in the face of the government’s power grabs, corruption and abusive tactics.
These are the key players that drive the shadow government.
This is the hidden face of the American police state that will continue long past Election Day.
Just consider some of the key programs and policies advanced by the shadow government that will continue no matter who occupies the Oval Office.
Domestic surveillance. No matter who wins the presidential popularity contest, the National Security Agency (NSA), with its $10.8 billion black ops annual budget, will continue to spy on every person in the United States who uses a computer or phone. Thus, on any given day, whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior. Local police have been outfitted with a litany of surveillance gear, from license plate readers and cell phone tracking devices to biometric data recorders. Technology now makes it possible for the police to scan passersby in order to detect the contents of their pockets, purses, briefcases, etc. Full-body scanners, which perform virtual strip-searches of Americans traveling by plane, have gone mobile, with roving police vans that peer into vehicles and buildings alike—including homes. Coupled with the nation’s growing network of real-time surveillance cameras and facial recognition software, soon there really will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
Global spying. The NSA’s massive surveillance network, what the Washington Post refers to as a $500 billion “ espionage empire ,” will continue to span the globe and target every single person on the planet who uses a phone or a computer. The NSA’s Echelon program intercepts and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax and email message sent anywhere in the world. In addition to carrying out domestic surveillance on peaceful political groups such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and several religious groups, Echelon has also been a keystone in the government’s attempts at political and corporate espionage .
Roving TSA searches. The American taxpayer will continue to get ripped off by government agencies in the dubious name of national security. One of the greatest culprits when it comes to swindling taxpayers has been the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), with its questionable deployment of and complete mismanagement of millions of dollars’ worth of airport full-body X-ray scanners, punitive patdowns by TSA agents and thefts of travelers’ valuables. Considered essential to national security, TSA programs will continue in airports and at transportation hubs around the country.
USA Patriot Act, NDAA. America’s so-called war on terror, which it has relentlessly pursued since 9/11, will continue to chip away at our freedoms, unravel our Constitution and transform our nation into a battlefield, thanks in large part to such subversive legislation as the USA Patriot Act and National Defense Authorization Act. These laws completely circumvent the rule of law and the rights of American citizens. In so doing, they re-orient our legal landscape in such a way as to ensure that martial law, rather than the U.S. Constitution, is the map by which we navigate life in the United States. These laws will continue to be enforced no matter who gets elected.
Militarized police state. Thanks to federal grant programs allowing the Pentagon to transfer surplus military supplies and weapons to local law enforcement agencies without charge, police forces will continue to be transformed from peace officers into heavily armed extensions of the military, complete with jackboots, helmets, shields, batons, pepper-spray, stun guns, assault rifles, body armor, miniature tanks and weaponized drones. Having been given the green light to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance, all with the general blessing of the courts, America’s law enforcement officials, no longer mere servants of the people entrusted with keeping the peace, will continue to keep the masses corralled, controlled, and treated like suspects and enemies rather than citizens.
SWAT team raids. With more than 80,000 SWAT team raids carried out every year on unsuspecting Americans by local police for relatively routine police matters and federal agencies laying claim to their own law enforcement divisions, the incidence of botched raids and related casualties will continue to rise. Nationwide, SWAT teams will continue to be employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activity or mere community nuisances including angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Domestic drones. The domestic use of drones will continue unabated. As mandated by Congress, there will be 30,000 drones crisscrossing the skies of America by 2020, all part of an industry that could be worth as much as $30 billion per year. These machines, which will be equipped with weapons, will be able to record all activities, using video feeds, heat sensors and radar. An Inspector General report revealed that the Dept. of Justice has already spent nearly $4 million on drones domestically, largely for use by the FBI , with grants for another $1.26 million so police departments and nonprofits can acquire their own drones.
School-to-prison pipeline. The paradigm of abject compliance to the state will continue to be taught by example in the schools, through school lockdowns where police and drug-sniffing dogs enter the classroom, and zero tolerance policies that punish all offenses equally and result in young people being expelled for childish behavior. School districts will continue to team up with law enforcement to create a “schoolhouse to jailhouse track” by imposing a “double dose” of punishment: suspension or expulsion from school, accompanied by an arrest by the police and a trip to juvenile court.
Overcriminalization. The government bureaucracy will continue to churn out laws, statutes, codes and regulations that reinforce its powers and value systems and those of the police state and its corporate allies, rendering the rest of us petty criminals. The average American now unknowingly commits three felonies a day, thanks to this overabundance of vague laws that render otherwise innocent activity illegal. Consequently, small farmers who dare to make unpasteurized goat cheese and share it with members of their community will continue to have their farms raided.
Privatized Prisons. States will continue to outsource prisons to private corporations, resulting in a cash cow whereby mega-corporations imprison Americans in private prisons in order to make a profit. In exchange for corporations buying and managing public prisons across the country at a supposed savings to the states, the states have to agree to maintain a 90% occupancy rate in the privately run prisons for at least 20 years.
Endless wars. America’s expanding military empire will continue to bleed the country dry at a rate of more than $15 billion a month (or $20 million an hour). The Pentagon spends more on war than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety. Yet what most Americans fail to recognize is that these ongoing wars have little to do with keeping the country safe and everything to do with enriching the military industrial complex at taxpayer expense.
Are you getting the message yet?
The next president, much like the current president and his predecessors, will be little more than a figurehead, a puppet to entertain and distract the populace from what’s really going on.
As Lofgren reveals, this state within a state, “concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue ,” is a “hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.”
The Deep State not only holds the nation’s capital in thrall, but it also controls Wall Street (“which supplies the cash that keeps the political machine quiescent and operating as a diversionary marionette theater”) and Silicon Valley.
This is fascism in its most covert form, hiding behind public agencies and private companies to carry out its dirty deeds.
It is a marriage between government bureaucrats and corporate fat cats.
As Lofgren concludes:
[T]he Deep State is so heavily entrenched, so well protected by surveillance, firepower, money and its ability to co-opt resistance that it is almost impervious to change … If there is anything the Deep State requires it is silent, uninterrupted cash flow and the confidence that things will go on as they have in the past. It is even willing to tolerate a degree of gridlock: Partisan mud wrestling over cultural issues may be a useful distraction from its agenda.
In other words, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People , as long as government officials—elected and unelected alike—are allowed to operate beyond the reach of the Constitution, the courts and the citizenry, the threat to our freedoms remains undiminished.
So the next time you find yourselves despondent over the 2016 presidential candidates, remember that it’s just a puppet show intended to distract you from the silent coup being carried out by America’s shadow government. About the Author | 0 |
You Are Here: Home » Health News » Quit Smoking! Smoking Cigarettes Causes 150 Genetic Mutations and Cancer Quit Smoking! Smoking Cigarettes Causes 150 Genetic Mutations and Cancer Prev post Next post
Breakthrough research discovered that smoking one pack of cigarettes every day can lead to 150 cell mutations in a year. These mutations can occur in different regions of the body, increasing the risk of smokers to develop cancers not just in areas that are in direct contact with inhaled chemicals.
A comprehensive study, the first of its kind, probed deeper into the effects of smoking on the human body through the use of a pattern recognition program. The methodology is likened to recording the noise in a roomful of people and then separating individual voices to better hear them.
A group of collaborating researchers studied and compared 5,000 cancerous tumors from those who are habitual smokers and those who have not smoked a single cigarette in their life. The results were staggering with 150 different kinds of mutations in different parts of the body. The Main Reasons to Quit Smoking Quit Smoking Now!
You reduce your risk of getting serious disease no matter what age you give up. However, the sooner you stop, the greater the reduction in your risk. In fact, researchers have found that if you quit smoking before the age of 50 your risk of dying is virtually reduced to that of a non-smoker.
Even if you give up after the age of 60, your risk of dying at any given age is reduced by about 39% compared to a person who carries on smoking. If you stop smoking you: Reduce the risk of getting serious smoking-related diseases such as heart disease, cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and peripheral vascular disease. Reduce the risk of getting various other conditions which, although not life-threatening, can cause unpleasant problems. For example: Erection problems (impotence). Optic neuropathy – this is a condition affecting the nerve supplying the eye. Cataracts. A breakdown of the tissue at the back of the eye (macular degeneration). A skin condition called psoriasis. Gum disease. ‘Thinning’ of the bones (osteoporosis). Raynaud’s phenomenon – in this condition, fingers turn white or blue when exposed to cold. Reduce the risk of pregnancy complications if you are pregnant. If you have smoked since being a teenager or young adult: If you quit smoking before the age of about 35, your life expectancy is only slightly less than it is for people who have never smoked. If you stop smoking before the age of 50, you decrease the risk of dying from smoking-related diseases by 50%.
It is never too late to quit smoking to gain health benefits. Even if you already have COPD or heart disease, your outlook (prognosis) is much improved if you quit smoking.
Planning and support can help you quit smoking for good. Before your quit day, take time to prepare for challenges. Make a plan for quitting. Know what to expect in the first days of being smokefree. Identify your reasons for quitting and plan how to ask for help if you need it. Quit Smoking! Smoking Cigarettes Causes 150 Genetic Mutations and Cancer
Breakthrough research discovered that smoking one pack of cigarettes every day can lead to 150 cell mutations in a year. These mutations can occur in different regions of the body, increasing the risk of smokers to develop cancers not just in areas that are in direct contact with inhaled chemicals. A comprehensive study, the first […] How to Detox the Lymphatic System
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If you’re looking to get some bang for your buck, lavender oil is a godsend.! by Elizabeth Seward – Staff Writer Whether you want to use the fragrant essential oil for practical purposes around the house or holistic healing, lavender oil is packed with health benefits and everyday uses that shouldn’t be ignored. The oil, which is […] Homemade Body Wash Recipe
Try this awesome homemade body wash recipe today! by Jillee – Onegoodthingbyjillie.com When I was growing up…I don’t think we ever bought “body wash”. It was Ivory or Dove bar soap…or nothing at all. 🙂 Even after I first got married we still did the bar soap thing…because I remember trying to convince the hubster that Dove soap was better than Irish Spring. lol. (I still try to convince him […] Chia Seeds Health Benefits
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by April McCarthy – Preventdisease.com The modern diet of processed foods, takeaways and microwave meals could be to blame for a sharp increase in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, including alopecia, asthma and eczema. A team of scientists from Yale University in the U.S and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, say junk food diets […] Cancer Drug Melts Away Deadly Cancer Cells in 80% of Patients
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Back in February, the company that runs the World Chess Championship announced some big news: the tournament would return to New York City this fall, for the first time in more than two decades. The company promised to reveal a venue shortly. But then it did not. Players and bloggers cried foul, suggesting that the tournament would not come to the city after all. The company, Agon Limited, based in Russia, called the speculation “ and gossip. ” That was in May. Then more silence, more speculation. The official chess world, it should be said, is as fractious as the Olympics. Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov, the Russian businessman who heads the World Chess Federation, has been sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department after being accused of “materially assisting” Syria’s president, Bashar and also said he was abducted by space aliens. During the controversy about a planned Islamic center near ground zero in New York in 2010, Mr. Ilyumzhinov wrote to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg offering to build a interfaith tower designed like a chess piece on the site instead. Support for his governing practices is not unanimous in the chess world. The silence on details about the coming tournament struck some chess fans as suspicious. Nigel Short, a British grandmaster and tart commentator, posted on Twitter, “Can’t imagine the next World #Chess Championship taking place in New York, for a whole host of reasons. ” The speculation can now rest. The world championship will be held at the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, Ilya Merenzon, the head of Agon Limited, told The New York Times on Monday. Joel Lippman, the events director for the Seaport, confirmed the arrangement. The tournament pits the current champion, Magnus Carlsen, 25, a charismatic Norwegian who appeared in ads for the sportswear company RAW, against the Russian challenger, Sergey Karjakin, 26, who will come to the match a decided underdog. Many chess fans had hoped the challenger would be one of two Americans, Hikaru Nakamura or Fabiano Caruana, who both have roots in New York, but Mr. Karjakin, a supporter of Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Crimea, bested them and others in the qualifying tournament in Moscow in March. The games are scheduled to begin on Nov. 11 and continue for several weeks, until one player earns six and a half points (players receive a point for a win and a half point for a draw). Mr. Merenzon said that securing a venue for such a long period proved harder than expected. Among the other sites considered: Trump Tower. The players will compete in a soundproof glass room, in front of 300 spectators plus VIPs, who will have a lounge area. Regular tickets will cost up to $50. Mr. Merenzon said he expected audience members to come and go during games, which can take five or six hours, with long stretches between moves. Commentators will analyze the game in progress, and a gift shop will sell souvenirs. “It’s the first time we’re taking this product fully to market,” Mr. Merenzon said. “We’re saying chess is open for business. ” | 1 |
Home / Be The Change / Antiwar / United Nations Finally Acknowledges US-Backed Rebels in Syria are Murdering Civilians United Nations Finally Acknowledges US-Backed Rebels in Syria are Murdering Civilians Baran Hines November 2, 2016 Leave a comment
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura stated Sunday that he is “appalled and shocked by the high number of rockets indiscriminately launched by armed opposition groups” which have killed hundreds of civilians in Aleppo during recent weeks. The attacks from groups supported by the United States were described as “ relentless and indiscriminate” while targeting civilians and killing children, according to the statement released by de Mistura’s office.
The battle for eastern Aleppo has become more violent as the Syrian army continues to regain control of the strategic city while targeting the UN designated terrorist group Jahbat Al Nusra, which is known as Al Qaeda in Syria. Most of the attacks by opposition groups have targeted civilians as almost 100 civilians were reported killed in 3 days in western Aleppo, which is controlled by the Syrian government.
US officials and others claim that opposition groups supported by the United States are also being targeted by the Syrian army and civilians are being killed. However, US-backed groups have continued to work directly with Al Nusra in Aleppo, and, for more than six months, have refused requests by the United States and Russia to separate from terrorist groups.
UN Envoy Staffan de Mistura condemned the attacks by these groups because they continue using inaccurate weapons to launch attacks which are claimed as self-defense against the attacks from the Syrian army.
“Those who argue that this is meant to relieve the siege of eastern Aleppo should be reminded that nothing justifies the use of disproportionate, indiscriminate [attacks,] including heavy weapons on civilian areas and it could amount to war crimes,” de Mistura said.
Opposition groups have also used chemical weapons with the most recent attack occurring on October 30, killing 3 and injuring 40 civilians in western Aleppo areas controlled by the government. Non-governmental organization Amnesty International said the attacks show “ a shocking disregard for civilian lives ” in a statement released Monday.
“ The goal of breaking the siege on eastern Aleppo does not give armed opposition groups a license to flout the rules of international humanitarian law by bombarding civilian neighborhoods in government-held areas without distinction ,” said Samah Hadid , a senior Amnesty official in the Beirut regional office.
The Syrian war has seen an increase in violence after the collapse of the September 9 ceasefire agreement negotiated by diplomatic officials from the United States and Russia. Opposition groups contributed to the collapse of the ceasefire after violating the ceasefire over 300 times in the first two weeks, according to the Syrian news agency SANA . Amnesty International also cited the United States being responsible for more than 300 civilian deaths in recent weeks.
The ceasefire agreement called for Russia to influence the Syrian government forces to stop fighting for control and for the US to influence rebel groups to separate from terrorist groups Al Nusra and Islamic State so they could be targeted by joint US-Russia military campaigns. The US has failed to achieve this since February 2016 despite US officials claiming to be in daily contact with rebel groups.
Another significant incident causing the Syrian ceasefire to fail was the September 17 attack by the United States on Syrian troops fighting the Islamic State near the city of Deir Ezzor, killing more than 80 troops and wounding over 100 others — including civilians. That incident, which the US called an accident, led to public accusations from Russia that the US is intentionally helping the Islamic State.
A few days later on September 19, Russia was accused by the US of bombing a United Nations aid convoy for Aleppo, a charge denied by Russia citing forensic evidence indicating that the attack was not an airstrike. The ongoing public tension led to the United States ending direct negotiations with Russia over the Syrian conflict on October 3 , and both sides have since traded public declarations which many see as heightened war rhetoric . Share | 0 |
adobochron Leave a comment
CUPERTINO, California ( The Adobo Chronicles, San Jose Bureau) – Technology giant Apple is known for its innovation and for constantly reinventing itself and its products. This strategy has spelled the company’s tremendous success across the globe.
Occasionally, Apple immerses itself in politics and the current political atmosphere following the election of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president is one of those times.
By now, the term Alt-Right (Alternative Right) has become a familiar phrase especially on social media.
The Alternative Right, commonly known as the Alt-Right, is a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that “white identity” is under attack by multicultural forces using “political correctness” and “social justice” to undermine white people and “their” civilization. Characterized by heavy use of social media and online memes, Alt-Righters eschew “establishment” conservatism, skew young, and embrace white ethno-nationalism as a fundamental value.
In keeping up with this new political atmosphere, Apple has just announced that it will be replacing all keyboards on its desktops, laptops, iPhones and iPads with a new design that adds the “Alt-Right” key. The key will be located in the lowermost right corner of the keyboard. How appropriate
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the addition of this all-important key will enable those who subscribe to the Alternative Right ideologies (and idiosyncrasies) to identify themselves when sending emails, texts or posting on social media. Hitting the “Alt-Right” key will automatically add the hashtag #AlternativeRight to whatever a person is typing on the keyboard.
Welcome to the 22nd century! Rate this: | 0 |
Home / Be The Change / Flex Your rights / BREAKING: Oregon Standoff Leaders Acquitted For Malheur Wildlife Refuge Takeover BREAKING: Oregon Standoff Leaders Acquitted For Malheur Wildlife Refuge Takeover Jay Syrmopoulos October 27, 2016 2 Comments
Portland, OR – The group of men who seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, in rural Oregon were found not guilty late Thursday, vindicating brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy after the 41-day standoff that brought nationwide focus to long-running dispute over federal control of rural land in the Western United States.
According to a report in by the Associated Press :
A jury found brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy not guilty a firearm in a federal facility and conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the 300 miles southeast of Portland where the trial took place. Five co-defendants also were tried one or both of the charges. Ammon Bundy has a house in Emmett.
Despite the acquittal, the Bundys were expected to stand trial in Nevada early next year on charges stemming from another high-profile standoff with federal agents. Authorities rounding up cattle at their father Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014 because of unpaid grazing fees released the animals as they faced armed protesters.
The Bundy family initially made headlines in 2013 when the Bureau of Land Management brought armed agents in to seize rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle after his refusal to pay federal authorities a massive debt – which he claims is illegitimate.
In response to the militarized response in Nevada by the BLM, militia from across the U.S. mobilized and coordinated a response which saw hundreds of armed Americans stand up to what they perceived as vast federal overreach.
What the government thought would be an open-and-shut case was anything but. The group never denied they seized the refuge while armed or that they made demands of the government.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this case is not a whodunit,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said in his closing argument, making the argument the group illegally commandeered a federal building.
The AP reports:
On technical grounds, the defendants said they never discussed stopping individual workers from accessing their offices but merely wanted the land and the buildings. On emotional grounds, Ammon Bundy and other defendants argued that the takeover was an act of civil disobedience against an out-of-control federal government that has crippled the rural West.
Federal prosecutors took two weeks to present their case, finishing with a display of more than 30 guns seized after the standoff. An FBI agent testified that 16,636 live rounds and nearly 1,700 spent casings were found.
Ammon Bundy spent three days testifying in his own defense, focusing on the fact that federal overreach is destroying rural Western communities that have relied on the land — for generations in many cases. Bundy made clear that the plan was to simply take control of the refuge by occupation, while eventually returning it to local control.
Originally, 26 occupiers were charged with conspiracy. Eleven pleaded guilty, while another had the charge dropped. Seven defendants have not yet been tried. Their trial is scheduled to begin February 14, according to the AP.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, an Oregon-area reporter posted to Twitter that Ammon Bundy’s attorney Marcus Mumford was tackled by U.S. Marshals after insisting that Bundy should be allowed to be released from custody, with the judge subsequently ordering the courtroom cleared.
The armed occupiers took control of the remote bird sanctuary on January 2, in response to the prison sentences given to two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, after being convicted of arson in relation to an ongoing dispute with the BLM. Upon occupying the refuge the group demanded that the father and son be freed and that federal officials cede control of publicly held lands to local control.
Ultimately, the Bundy brothers and a number of their fellow occupiers were arrested in an ambush style attack, while on the way to negotiate with a Sheriff. It ended with officers gunning down Robert “LaVoy” Finnicum – a charismatic group spokesman. Currently, numerous federal SRT agents are under investigation for lying about firing at the occupiers’ vehicle during the ambush.
The majority of the remaining occupants left the refuge in the wake of Finnicum’s killing, with four holdouts negotiating their surrender until February 11.
In the wake of the verdict, both the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office also expressed disappointment.
U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said his office “respects the verdict of the jury and thanks them for their dedicated service during this long and difficult trial.”
“For many weeks, hundreds of law enforcement officers — federal, state, and local — worked around-the-clock to resolve the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge peacefully. We believe now — as we did then — that protecting and defending this nation through rigorous obedience to the U.S. Constitution is our most important responsibility. Although we are extremely disappointed in the verdict, we respect the court and the role of the jury in the American judicial system.” – Greg Bretzing, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Oregon
Regardless of the sentiments of those in government and law enforcement, the jury carried out justice — with this verdict solidifying that the killing of LaVoy Finnicum was nothing less than criminal .
Revealing exactly why the 2nd Amendment is so important to a free people, Bundy testified that the reason occupiers chose to carry guns was because they understood that they would be immediately arrested otherwise and needed to protect themselves against possible government violence.
There is no mistaking the difference in law enforcement’s response to unarmed protestors — versus those that exercise their right to bear arms. One need look no further than the ongoing protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock – which has been met with numerous militarized and violent crackdowns on non-violent water protectors – to see exactly how differently armed protestors are treated. Share Google + tz1
“Armed Occupiers”? Really? Out west, that is like saying “cowboy hat wearing occupiers”, or “warmly dressed occupiers”. Or “white occupiers”. Joseph Slabaugh
Having your gun with you (second amendment) while protesting the government for “redress of grievances”, does not mean they broke a law. They did not threaten anyone. They did not kill anyone, unlike the government thugs. Social | 0 |
Boycott targets Trump family on retail front Participants shun GOP nominee's products, retailers who carry them Published: 1 hour ago
(CBC) An eye-catching shoe piques your interest and draws you in. Upon closer inspection, the label leaps out at you — Ivanka Trump, in simple gold lettering — and you recoil as if stung.
That’s the kind of reaction behind a growing boycott of the products emblazoned with the brand of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as well as the popular, working women-targeted fashion line from his eldest daughter — who has arguably been his most influential and effective family member during the current election campaign. | 0 |
Robert Scheer and Lizbeth Mateo Explore the Contradictions of U.S. Immigration Policy Posted on Nov 4, 2016 Lawyer and immigrant rights activist Lizbeth Mateo. (KCRW)
In this week’s episode of “Scheer Intelligence,” the Truthdig editor in chief speaks with the lawyer and immigrant rights activist who self-deported in order to illuminate the plight of immigrants.
Mateo came to the United States with her family at age 14 and attended college and law school. She returned to Mexico for several days in 2013 and was subsequently denied DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), calling into question her ability to live and work in the United States.
In their conversation, Mateo tells Scheer why she decided to become an activist and self-deport, knowing it was a risky move. She discusses why President Obama has been called by some “The Deporter-in-Chief,” and tells Scheer that whatever happens in the presidential election, immigrants will not forget the politicians who remained silent while Donald Trump insulted them.
A rushed transcript follows.
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly
Robert Scheer: Hi. This is Robert Scheer. Welcome to another addition of Scheer Intelligence where the intelligence comes from my guests and in this case it is LIzbeth Mateo, a immigrant activist, who has had a rich history ever since she came into this country, dealing with immigration laws. She came in at the age of fourteen from Oaxaca, she went to local schools, graduated from Venice High School and actually, spent two years at Santa Monica College, where we are broadcasting from. Very proud alumni. Went on, then to Cal State-Northridge and another great local institution and then went up to Santa Clara College, a Jesuit institution in Silicon Valley and graduated from law school.
All of which would now put her in position for a great career except there is a question about her documentation, which is actually the subject of this podcast. Everybody is now talking about immigration reform or getting rid of immigrants or what have you and there is a lot of hypocrisy around this issue but one of the bright spots, although maybe Elizabeth will disagree with me, is that at least here in the state of California, which has been ahead of the country, I think, on immigration reform as far as licenses. In one bill, Jerry Brown, our Governor, signed, you can actually get credentialed as a lawyer and function.
Why don’t we begin with that? On the one hand, you represent the great achievement of the American melting pot. A person who did everything right and yet you could have been eligible for the Dream Act that Obama has proclaimed or seems to support. There is a bit of a mixed record there from Obama on this, which you can discuss, but you have a problem in your record in that you were an activist and one of your activist actions was to self-deport, so why don’t we talk about that.
Lizbeth Mateo: Yes, first of all, thank you so much for inviting me, for having me here. I am essentially what a lot of people call a dreamer. I came to the US at a very young age. I went to high school, college in the area, I graduated from law school and yes, California has been, I think, at the forefront of immigrant rights issues for a long time. We are able to get in-state tuition, pay like everyone else who is a citizen. Also get certain financial aid and more recently, at least for me, the most crucial thing in my career is that I can actually get a license. I can take the Bar, get a license, and practice law.
The issue is, now, I can’t work legally in the US. I don’t have a work permit because I do qualify, in my opinion, for deferred action for childhood arrivals or DACA as most people know it, which is a program that President Obama created in 2012.
However, as part of my activism, I left the country in 2013, briefly, with two other young people and we joined a campaign called the Bring Them Home Campaign. We essentially met with other young people in Mexico who had been deported, who had left for family reasons, for other emergencies, who wanted to come home. We came back , the nine of us, we were named the Dream Nine and we presented ourselves at the border and asked the government to allow us to come home, which they did after seventeen days in detention and so, I went on to law school, thinking I am going to remain in this country, I have been allowed to come home and I am going to apply for DACA eventually, which I did, only to receive not one but two notices of intent to deny from the government citing that exit. That is what I am dealing with right now and that is what I am fighting for.
Scheer: So this is a situation that a lot of people fall into. That something has gone array in their papers either because they were really great citizens, like you, activists to try to make the country better or they had some technical difficulty.
Speaking as a lawyer, what can be done now, not just in your case, where do we stand on the immigration issue? I know the Democrats are saying they are great on it and they are getting a lot of votes based on that. They weren’t always great and the Republicans are being led by an out and out neo-fascist, Donald Trump, who wants to just blame, when he is not blaming Muslims, he wants to blame immigrants, undocumented immigrants, for all of our problems. Of course, they have nothing to do with it. We are in a weird place where the good people haven’t always been so good.
Mateo: Yes, and that is a problem. Especially during this election that has been very negative, where immigrants have been described with some of the most horrible words but I think, at least for me, not so much from the stand point of a law graduate or a future lawyer, but more from the stand point of an immigrant and an organizer, I think that we need to be ready regardless of who becomes President. Even if it is Hilary Clinton. She is saying some great things about immigrants now but she hasn’t always been on our side. She was the first one to call for the deportation of minors, refugee children from Central America. She has agreed with the policies of President Obama to deport almost three million people at this point, 2.5 million people, including many of those refugee children, many of who are still in jails across the country at this point.
To me, that is just unacceptable that in this country we put kids in jails, in prisons. I think whoever becomes President, we have to be ready to keep organizing like we have so far and that is part of the reason why I am speaking out on my case and why the government wants to deny me a benefit that, one, I qualify for and two, that I think I have worked very hard for and have, in many ways, earned through my activism, through my work in my personal life and that is the kind of message that I am trying to send to the community at this point.
Scheer: You know, living here in Los Angeles and running into a lot of people, students of my own at USC and elsewhere who have questionable status, they are a little angry with Obama and some of them, my students, have called him the Deporter in Chief.
Mateo: He is the President who has deported more undocumented immigrants in the history of this country and that is ...
Scheer: More than any other President. | 0 |
Страна: Сирия Как отмечает в своей новой статье пакистанский исследователь Салман Рафи, попытка контратаковать правительственные войска под Алеппо привела к тому, что войска боевиков были смяты и отброшены назад. Теперь окончание битвы за Алеппо уже не за горами, что сразу же отразилось на моральном состоянии противников Асада. Информационные агентства сообщили, что бойцы яро поддерживаемой Вашингтоном Свободной сирийской армии устроили бой с боевиками Джабхат Аль-Нусры за контроль над рядом пропускных пунктов на сирийско-турецкой границе. Более крупные бандформирования по всей Сирии начали поглощать мелкие, отбирая «их» земли и добычу, что в итоге приведет к коллапсу всех поддерживаемых Западом сил в Сирии. Автор отмечает, что та неясность, которая воцарилась после победы Дональда Трампа на президентских выборах, лишь ускоряет процесс разложения «оппозиционных сил». С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 0 |
0 9 0 0 The US is training Syrian opposition for the operation to retake Raqqa from Daesh terrorists.
WASHINGTON(Sputnik) — US forces are on the ground in Syria, equipping, advising, and training Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and partners for the operation to isolate and then retake the Daesh stronghold of Raqqa, Coalition Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said at a briefing Wednesday. “I will not talk about locations where our US forces are in Syria but they are there," Townsend stated. "They equip and train at various locations, and we have advise and assist teams that will accompany partner forces anywhere they fight Daesh." © AFP 2016/ AHMAD AL-RUBAYE US Soldier Uses Kalashnikov to Show Yezidis How to Repel Daesh in Sinjar (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) On Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said that "capable, motivated" local Syrian forces would lead the offensive on the city.
Raqqa operation is expected to overlap with the offensive to retake Iraq's Mosul , according to the Defense Department.
Daesh, which is outlawed in Russia and other countries, seized Mosul in 2014 and Raqqa in 2013 along with a number of other cities and towns in the two countries. ... | 0 |
. Russell Brand Brilliantly Explains The Trump Election The mixed reactions over the election results is certainly no secret. Some are terrified and devasta... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/russell-brand-brilliantly-explains.html The mixed reactions over the election results is certainly no secret. Some are terrified and devastated, others are joyous, feeling hopeful and are starting to think the elite lost some control on this one. Russell Brand had some rather interesting insight that resonated deeply with me as it’s precisely what I’ve been sharing since the night of the election: don’t lose hope. More on that below, but first please read this important perspective. The fact Trump ‘got in’ shows that, more than anything, people really want change. They are tired of the same old stuff, and enough was brought to the surface about how corrupt Hillary is that people wanted to try something different.During the tail end of election night, as social media lit up, I remember feeling that the election result and the Brexit result brought forth very similar reactions. Many did what the media told them to do and simply began calling out ‘the stupid people, racist people and uneducated people!’ But the truth is, we won’t see the world clearly with that worldview, we’re being challenged to expand our consciousness here and I for one believe that is our course of action. Bernie Blues All in hindsight! Although Bernie had the popular vote before, Hillary, the DNC and the media worked to knock him out. Now more than ever everyone wants Bernie back, and while people think it’s a mistake that he didn’t get in, it’s not. It’s perfect. because that’s what it took to get people to realize the system is rigged . You see, you can’t pick and choose when to say that ‘everything happens for a reason’ and that ‘everything is perfect’ and ‘consciousness creates reality’ etc. Those are universal truths that remain true regardless of what is taking place. When something doesn’t go our way we fall out of awareness and into ego. We begin burying ourselves in emotion. It would be better, instead, to accept what happened and begin asking why? And how? What can we learn from this and why did we co-create this reality? Think about it, what is more important given our incredibly messed up situation? Having another president we feel OK about or now having the world know that the elections are rigged? There is a corrupt elite running our world and that now sets the stage for discussion on where we can go from here. It is imperative that we come to terms with and understand our current state without turning a blind eye to what’s really going on. If we don’t do that, we won’t be able to come up with solutions that truly work. Shifting consciousness includes seeing things clearly and learning the lesson this cycle is trying to teach us. (...) What Now? So where do we go from here? What’s next? Well, the first step is to process the emotions and the fear that’s getting in the way of us seeing the truth. If we keep getting caught up in them, we’re only going to create even more problems — which is our choice. But ask yourself if you feel it’s necessary to do this given that a quick shift in awareness can help us see more clearly and help us begin a different set of discussions. The next step would be having the conversation about the elephant in the room: it’s troubling that after all these years, we still show up at the polling stations to vote for a system that doesn’t have the people’s interests in mind and that is only making things worse as each year goes by. With a shift in consciousness and awareness, we can start creating something new . By Joe Martino (excerpt) | 0 |
Britain’s most senior immigration judge has slammed barristers who have blocked members of a Muslim rape gang being stripped of British citizenship, accusing them of playing the system as they earn substantial fees at the taxpayer’s expense. [The lawyers have been treating the immigration tribunal with “sustained and marked disrespect” and there have been “multiple recent examples of similar conduct and misconduct” Mr. Justice Bernard McCloskey said, according to The Telegraph. The Rochdale gang was convicted in 2012 of preying on girls as young as 13 in the town, plying them with drink and drugs before they were “passed around” for sex. They are appealing against a decision made by then Home Secretary Theresa May to strip them of British citizenship as the first step towards deporting them. The case, which is being funded by legal aid, raises fears that dangerous criminals and their lawyers are and obstructing the courts in an attempt to delay deportation from the UK for as long as possible. Gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed, 63, has already lost an appeal against his possible deportation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) during which he claimed his convictions were a conspiracy by police and members of the jury to “scapegoat” Muslims. Mr. Ahmed, who has been married three times and has five children, is being represented by barrister Rajiv Sharma. Three other men convicted of child sex offences in the same case, Abdul Aziz, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, are represented by immigration and human rights barrister Zainul Jafferji, and Burton Burton Solicitors, a Nottingham firm headed by senior partner Mohammed Mahruf. All of the men making the appeal are originally from Pakistan. They hold dual citizenship, and will not be left stateless if they are stripped of British citizenship. In a damning ruling, Justice McCloskey said the men’s barristers and solicitors had failed to submit the necessary papers to the court and had repeatedly asked for adjournments. Tim Loughton MP, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, which has investigated delays in deportation cases, accused immigration lawyers of “playing the system” with some cases being spun out over months and even years. “We are seeing lawyers going through all sort of procedural measures to delay and delay on their client’s behalf,” he said. “In some cases the Home Office simply gives up and let these people go rather than incur any further expense in detaining them pending deportation. ” | 1 |
The Security Council on Thursday formally recommended António Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, to be the next Secretary General of the United Nations. The envoys representing the 15 members of the Council, including the five permanent members, decided by acclamation in a session to send Mr. Guterres’s name to the General Assembly for final approval. Speaking in Lisbon after the Council’s vote, Mr. Guterres said he accepted the endorsement with “gratitude and humility. ” The selection process was an “exemplary process of transparency and openness,” he said, and the willingness of the deeply divided Security Council’s to reach consensus over his nomination should serve as “a symbolic moment. ” He pledged to show “the humility that is needed to serve especially those that are most vulnerable,” victims of conflict, terrorism, human rights violations and poverty. Mr. Guterres, 67, who ran the United Nations refugee agency for 10 years, was the among 13 candidates, including a record seven women. Two candidates had dropped out. Many veteran diplomats and activists had hoped that the United Nations would be led by a woman for the first time in its history. Mindful of the issue of gender equity, Mr. Guterres has promised parity in making appointments to senior posts, but has not been more specific about how he would advance the rights of women through the work of the organization. The General Assembly is expected to approve Mr. Guterres’s appointment next week. If elected, he will succeed the current secretary general, Ban whose second term expires at the end of this year. | 1 |
Rosneft baut ehemalige Romanow-Residenz wieder auf 28. Oktober 2016 TASS Der Ropschinski-Palast ist Teil des Unesco-Weltkulturerbes, aber in einem schlechten Zustand. Nun soll der Ölkonzern Rosneft das Gelände mieten und die Anlagen restaurieren. Facebook romanows , öl und gas Trotz der Tatsache, dass das Palast-Park-Ensemble in Ropscha seit 1990 auf der Liste des Unesco-Weltkulturerbes steht und ein Denkmal von föderaler Bedeutung ist, handelt es sich bei einem Großteil der Objekte um Ruinen. Quelle:Lori/Legion-Media
Am Dienstag teilte Russlands Kulturminister Wladimir Medinski mit, dass der Ropschinski-Palast bei Sankt Petersburg für 99 Jahre an den Ölkonzern Rosneft vermietet werden könnte. Das Unternehmen wolle das zerstörte Denkmal restaurieren und Touristen Zutritt zur Hofanlage gewähren. Der Palast hat eine bewegte Geschichte
Das Park-Palast-Ensemble Ropschinski ist eine ehemalige Romanow-Residenz. Foto: Archivbild
Das Park-Palast-Ensemble Ropschinski ist ein architektonisches Denkmal aus dem 18. Jahrhundert und eine ehemalige Romanow-Residenz. Die Hofanlage wurde auf Anordnung Peters des Großen erbaut und sollte an den Erholungsort Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary, Tschechische Republik) erinnern. Unter Kaiserin Elisabeth und nach Entwürfen des italienischen Architekten Bartolomeo Rastrelli wurde schließlich ein zweistöckiger Palast mit einer großen Parkanlage gebaut.
Nach der Palastrevolution wurde der gestürzte Peter III. in die Anlage gebracht. Er verstarb unter ungeklärten Umständen. Nach der Oktoberrevolution wurde der Palast schließlich verstaatlicht. Das Hofgelände diente als Standort für die Fisch-, Vieh- und Vogelzucht sowie weitere Betriebe.
Im Jahr 1944 wurde der Palast von den sich zurückziehenden deutschen Truppen in Brand gesetzt. Nach dem Krieg wurde das Anwesen restauriert. Es beherbergte eine Flugeinheit und später ein Bataillon der chemischen Abwehr des Militärbezirks Leningrad.
In den 1960er-Jahren wurde der Palast unter staatlichen Schutz gestellt, Ende der 1970er-Jahre wurde er stillgelegt. Welche Summen sind für den Wiederaufbau nötig? Kommersant | 0 |
Grand Central Terminal, the main building on Ellis Island and the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden — all among the greatest New York City landmarks — look better today than they have since their earliest years. Many hands were responsible. John Belle was the common denominator. Mr. Belle, the retired founding partner of Beyer Blinder Belle, an architectural and planning firm that has specialized in preservation, restoration and contextual design, died last week at 84. With his death, the city has lost an architect who conveyed a genial joy in resuscitating the masterworks of his predecessors. That made him an appealingly modest figure in a room full of big architectural egos, since he was at his best when his own interventions were least obvious. New York has also lost a link to the intellectual crucible of the 1960s, when Jane Jacobs and others demanded that architects stop obliterating the past and, instead, take time to understand the many ways in which people were well served by older buildings and neighborhoods. “Preservation is one of the highest forms of good citizenship,” Mr. Belle said on his firm’s website. “As a witness to the aftermath of the urban renewal movement in New York, I was determined to find a different way. ” For her part, Ms. Jacobs held Beyer Blinder Belle in high regard. “They were looking at the fabric of the community,” she said in an interview in 1998. “That was very welcome and very exciting, that there were professionals who were, at last, doing that. ” She added: “A community can’t just come by waving a wand. It has history. History was, to the modernists, an enemy. So this was a very radical realization. And an important one. ” John Belle was born on June 30, 1932, in Cardiff, Wales. His father, Arthur, was a clerk at a Lyons tea shop in Cardiff. His mother, Gladys, was a housewife. Mr. Belle received diplomas from the Portsmouth School of Architecture in England and the Architectural Association in London before moving to the United States in 1959. Once in America, Mr. Belle worked for Josep Lluís Sert and Victor Gruen before starting his own firm in 1968 with Richard L. Blinder and John H. Beyer. Mr. Blinder died in 2006. Mr. Beyer is still active. Mr. Belle’s early work included community planning projects in Manhattan. With the addition of James Marston Fitch to the practice in 1979, Beyer Blinder Belle began moving to the forefront of architecture. The firm attracted wide attention in 1990 with its renovation and restoration of the abandoned Ellis Island immigration station into the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. The vaulted ceiling in the former Registry Room, made of 28, 258 Guastavino tiles, was cleaned until it looked — as Mr. Belle aptly put it — like . Where modern interventions were needed, they were made as inconspicuous and respectful as possible. When the Haupt Conservatory at the botanical garden in the Bronx was restored in 1997, Herbert Muschamp, who was then the architecture critic at The New York Times, said it could “once again hold its sparkling glass head up high amid the great architectural symbols of New York. ” Though critics have faulted Beyer Blinder Belle’s conservatism, it is worth recalling that the firm was associated in 1998 with the daring architect Santiago Calatrava in what proved to be a losing bid to redesign the James A. Farley Building, also known as the General Post Office, as a Pennsylvania Station annex. Penn Station was not where Mr. Belle was to win his greatest renown. That was at Grand Central. You almost had to have been there in the 1970s and ’80s to believe how far the terminal had fallen into decrepitude, even after its status as a landmark was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1978. Travelers shared Grand Central with a large homeless population. “The building was divided into turf claimed by different drug dealers,” Mr. Belle and Maxinne R. Leighton wrote in “Grand Central: Gateway to a Million Lives. ” “Commuters were scared to take trains there at night. Parents warned their children not to use the dangerous bathrooms. ” In 1990, a design and engineering consortium led by Beyer Blinder Belle began work. Their strategic first strike was to demolish a billboard called the Kodak Colorama, which had blocked daylight into the main concourse for 40 years. “It was as if life were being breathed back into the building,” Mr. Belle and Ms. Leighton wrote. “Many commuters stopped in their tracks, speechless and amazed at the change that had so instantly brought back the majesty of the space. ” Their astonishment increased as the concourse ceiling was cleaned by workers on a scaffold that was rolled slowly through the room over a period. The mud brown sky turned a startling teal, with stars, constellations and zodiac signs popping out in contrast. Besides restoring the past, Beyer Blinder Belle made fundamental changes, too, starting with the construction of an entirely new marble staircase to the east balcony. It echoed, but did not replicate, the ornate western staircase. Some preservationists hated the idea. But the firm prevailed before city and state preservation agencies after it uncovered a plan by the original architects, Warren Wetmore, that showed a staircase to the east balcony. That proved, Mr. Belle and Ms. Leighton wrote, that the idea “was not an ploy to have our personal imprint on the building, but that in fact our goal was to complete the original design. ” Mr. Muschamp, the architecture critic, approved. “The new eastern staircase, which threatened to diminish the room’s amplitude, has the opposite effect of magnifying it,” he wrote in 1998, as the $425 million renovation neared completion. He continued, “Even more impressive is the uncovering of the ramps, located just behind the ticket windows, that lead down to the lower level and its fabled Oyster Bar. ” “Beyer Blinder Belle’s greatest accomplishment,” Mr. Muschamp said, “has been to reveal that Grand Central is above all a monument to movement. ” Mr. Belle’s first wife, Wendy Adams Belle, an artist and teacher, died in 1974. His second wife, Anne Belle, a documentary filmmaker, died in 2003. He died on Thursday in Remsenburg, N. Y. where he had a home. He also lived in Manhattan. The cause was Lewy body disease, said his son David Belle, who survives him, along with another son, Sebastian three daughters, Amelia, Fenella and Antonia Chapman and eight grandchildren. Mr. Belle knew his work would never fully be done. “The act of restoring a building to its original state is only half the battle,” he and Ms. Leighton wrote. “The other half is to guard against its denigration throughout its future existence. ” | 1 |
Like place cards at a society wedding or the lineup at a Soviet May Day parade, the seating at a campaign event is a GPS map of rank and favor. At the first presidential debate at Hofstra University on Monday night, Bill and Chelsea Clinton, along with Chelsea’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, were on one side of the room the extended Trump clan on the other. Ivanka Trump, 34, was, as usual, first among equals in a petal pink dress that drew focus from Melania’s slinky black, followed by Ivanka’s two adult brothers, Donald Jr. 38, and Eric, 32. But from a select position on the aisle, Tiffany Trump, 22, elegant in a navy sheath with lace décolletage, beamed up at the stage — for once distinctly visible to her father at the podium and to the world. For much of the campaign, except for a brief speech at the Republican National Convention, Tiffany — Donald J. Trump’s daughter with his former wife Marla Maples — has been the Trump, off to the side in family photos and missing from the campaign trail and that spooky ad aimed at the millennial vote. She was left out of the biographical documentary of Mr. Trump shown at that convention and was unmentioned in news articles that detail the advice his three older children are doling out as the race gets tighter. When Greta van Susteren did a special on the Trump family on Fox News this summer, “Meet the Trumps,” with interviews with Melania, Ivanka and his two adult sons, the only reference to their missing half sister was, “There is also Tiffany Trump, who keeps a low profile. ” Gossip columns have called her the Jan Brady of the Trump family. As the campaign grapples with the firestorm Mr. Trump started by a former Miss Universe, his youngest daughter may be around a lot more. He could use an extra young woman in his corner. Mr. Trump’s team appears to be grooming Tiffany — gingerly — to pitch in on the campaign trail in the coming weeks, particularly with millennials. Her Instagram feed, which in the past was dotted with party shots of her and a group of close friends who have been called the “Snap Pack,” has been cleaned up, and her Twitter account largely restricted to campaign photos and a pitch by Tiffany, and steering clear of any controversies. (Though Tiffany was called out this week by Jing Daily, a Chinese luxury goods trade website, because at the debate she wore a dress by a young Chinese designer, Taoray Wang, while her father was on stage bashing China.) Tiffany, according to her mother, has felt wounded by the media depictions of her as the forgotten Trump and is eager to help out on her father’s campaign as it heads into its final six weeks. “She’d like to get to know her father better and spend time with him like his other children did: by going to his office and watching him work,” Ms. Maples said in a recent phone interview. “Only now, he’s not in the office anymore. He’s on the campaign trail. ” Ms. Maples raised Tiffany as a single mother in Los Angeles and now lives about a mile from her only daughter in Manhattan. Tiffany seems intent on living up to Mr. Trump’s expectations. And like her older half sister, Ivanka, Tiffany reflects well on her father and mirrors his idealized . The real estate developer is the first to admit he was not exactly a helicopter parent. Instead, Mr. Trump raised helicopter offspring: adult children who hover, dote and praise unstintingly. It’s possible Mr. Trump won his children’s allegiance by following the French theory of child rearing, expounded in “Bringing Up Bébé” and other books that recommend strict rules and restrained doses of attention. Then again, there is an even larger body of literature about the narcissistic parent. “Tiffany has always been a very special person, very confident, very driven, always the hardest worker and not bashful about it,” Ivanka, 34, said in a phone interview. “A lot of people are happy to get by without doing a lot of work, or work hard and pretend they don’t. She is proud of her work. ” Like Ivanka, Tiffany went to her father’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania likes fashion and is dating someone whose family is in real estate: Ross Mechanic, a senior at Penn, the son of Jonathan Mechanic, a real estate attorney. (Ivanka is married to the real estate scion Jared Kushner.) Tiffany Trump attended a private school in Calabasas, Calif. alongside the Kardashians but without close contact with her father. “I had the blessing of raising her pretty much on my own,” Ms. Maples said. There, the Trump name wasn’t as well known as it is in New York, and Tiffany was shielded from the kind of tabloid attention that dogged his older children during their parents’ sensational divorce. Donald Jr. Ivanka and Eric are from Mr. Trump’s first marriage to the Ivana Barron, 10, is his son with his wife Melania. Like her older siblings, Tiffany spoke with aplomb on her father’s behalf at the Republican Convention in Cleveland, describing him as her mentor, her role model and a caring, attentive parent. Like them, Tiffany didn’t give many concrete examples. She said she saved all her report cards because she treasured the “sweet notes” he wrote on them, even though more often it’s the parent who holds on to memorabilia. She recalled that when a beloved relative died (her grandmother’s fiancé) he was the first to phone her. Apparently, the telephone is the paternal umbilical cord when growing up Trump. In interviews and digital campaign ads, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Tiffany describe how engaged and loving their powerful, busy father was by saying he always accepted their calls at the office. To outsiders, however, that may seem faint praise given Mr. Trump’s lifelong alacrity for getting on the phone with reporters. Ms. Maples said that when Mr. Trump called to console Tiffany about the death in the Maples family and invited his grieving daughter to visit him in New York, she urged Tiffany to go. “It gave him a chance to see her as a real person and not just a happy, smiling little girl,” she said. Mr. Trump takes credit for his children’s sunny devotion. “I’ve always been a very good father,” he told Anderson Cooper in a Trump family interview this summer on CNN. “They come to me, friends of mine, very successful people, and their children have problems with drugs and problems with alcohol and problems with a lot of things, and they say: ‘Could you speak to my son? Could you speak to my daughter?’ And I’m always very honored to do that. ” When asked to describe his youngest daughter, Mr. Trump replied by email: “Tiffany is a tremendous young woman with a big and beautiful heart. She was always a great student and a very popular person no matter where she went. I am incredibly proud of Tiffany and how well she has done. — DJT. ” (Tiffany did not consent to be interviewed for this article, although she did pose for its photo shoot. Instead, the campaign delivered a list of approved contacts. Other family friends who were not on the list said they were instructed not to speak without authorization.) Outside acquaintances echo that she is more serious than she looks on social media. “She didn’t seem like a party girl at all,” Carson Griffith, a writer who followed the Snap Pack around the Hamptons in 2015 for Du Jour magazine. (Ms. Griffith also occasionally writes for The New York Times.) “She stayed in the city Friday night to finish a paper, and I never saw her drink a glass of wine. ” Ms. Griffith was impressed by Tiffany’s good manners: “When I would ask about her, she would say: ‘How about you? What’s your job like? ’” Tiffany’s vacations were mostly spent on trips with her mother — a mix of fun getaways and tours overseas, like handing out vitamin C pops at an orphanage in Malawi. A bodyguard went with her on visits to her Georgia relatives, but otherwise she blended easily in her mother’s small hometown. Sometimes, her celebrity status poked through. Recalling a party for Janice Kiker, a close family friend in Dalton, Ga. said: “Tiffany showed up in a faded, tutu. I was shocked. ” She added with a laugh: “Then someone told me it had belonged to Shirley Temple. I said, ‘Never mind. ’” Lara Trump, who is married to Eric, said Mr. Trump is close to all his children. “I was struck when I first came into this family how much he is their dad,” she said by phone while campaigning for her in Columbus, Ohio. “In public, he’s a performer. Behind closed doors, he is polite and respectful and wants to hear from other people,” Lara Trump said. She noted that Mr. Trump and Tiffany have a “fun and loving relationship” and that “he is very proud of her. ” Some observers have a less benign view of Mr. Trump’s rapport with his children. “I can say with real confidence that he spent virtually no time with them when they were young,” said Tony Schwartz, who shadowed the real estate developer for 18 months to ghostwrite Mr. Trump’s 1987 best seller, “Trump: The Art of The Deal. ” Mr. Schwartz said in a recent article in The New Yorker that he now regrets the book and his role in promoting Mr. Trump. “On the rare times Ivana brought one or two of the children to his office, he couldn’t have been less interested,” Mr. Schwartz said. That wasn’t entirely true with Tiffany, Ms. Maples said. When Tiffany was a baby at he would occasionally snatch her up and carry her as he talked to electricians and carpenters building a club health spa. Tiffany was too young to remember. “I kept pictures for her to prove it,” her mother said. (She also confirmed that Tiffany was named for one of Mr. Trump’s favorite deals: the air rights he bought above the landmark store to build Trump Tower.) Growing up, Tiffany mostly saw her father on spring break at though Mr. Trump visited her on occasion as well. “Whenever Tiffany got an award, he would fly to California to see her get it,” Mrs. Kiker said. As a teenager, Tiffany seemed interested in having a show business career like her mother. She took acting lessons with her mother’s coach, and in 2011 she recorded a pop song, “Like a Bird. ” College brought Tiffany closer to her father — and her half sister. Ivanka arranged for her to have a summer internship at Vogue. After graduating last June, Tiffany spent her summer months on a paid internship in communications at Warby Parker, the eyewear company, and is studying to take the law school entrance exams. Tiffany seems intent on staying close to her centripetal father. “Law school completely makes sense,” said Lara Maggs, a close friend from Penn. Ms. Maggs described “Tiff” as a study grind who is driven to prove herself. “A law degree would bring added value to a really accomplished family,” she said. The Trump children aren’t the only famous scions with a rich, successful parent. Chelsea Clinton is also enmeshed in the family business. “There are instances where demonstrating family loyalty — family love — means upholding a core identity around wealth,” said Jamie Johnson, a filmmaker and heir to the Johnson Johnson fortune, who made “Born Rich,” a 2003 documentary about his cohorts, including Ivanka. “The more public the family, the greater the emotional responsibility to uphold the public image,” Mr. Johnson said. Donald Jr. and Ivanka Trump are not only consiglieri in their father’s company and his campaign, they were regulars on “The Apprentice” and stressed how hard they had to work in business to earn their father’s trust. They were privileged, but not spoiled or entitled, Ivanka said. Certainly, compared to some of their more dissipated, profligate peers in the top 0. 01 percent, the Trump children are remarkably on message. In that family interview with Anderson Cooper, Tiffany batted back a suggestion that her father was condescending and even insulting to women. “He has the utmost faith that we can accomplish whatever we set our minds to,” she said, speaking of Ivanka and herself, “just as well as men, if not more so. ” Even Mr. Trump wasn’t always sure his children would flourish under his oversize shadow. “Statistically, my children have a very bad shot,” Mr. Trump told Playboy in 1990. “Children of successful people are generally very, very troubled, not successful. ” There are not many hints of dissent or rebellion in the pack. After Mr. Trump left Ivana for Ms. Maples, Don Jr. didn’t speak to his father for a period of time. Now, if anything, Don Jr. models himself a little too closely to his father: He posts recklessly on Twitter on Mr. Trump’s behalf, most recently comparing Middle Eastern refugees to Skittles candy. Tiffany’s friends say that she doesn’t take her father’s wealth for granted, despite some social media posts from a year ago. (One is a of a bowl of caviar.) “Unless she’s with her dad, she’s happy to fly coach,” said Lara Maggs, her friend from Penn. “When we flew together from Philly, we were in the middle seats at the back of the plane. ” She said that the day before Tiffany flew to the convention, she bought the blue dress she wore for her speech at Bloomingdale’s off a sales rack. Ivanka said she didn’t want to expose her little sister to the klieg lights of the presidential campaign before she is ready. “She will not do it if she is not comfortable with it,” she said. “Nobody is pushing her. ” She added, indignantly, “People refer to us as surrogates, but we are his children. ” | 1 |
Rep. Lamar Smith ( ) spoke with Breitbart News’ Washington Political Editor Matt Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 on Saturday about the media bias that’s reached unprecedented levels since President Donald Trump was elected and poses a risk to the democracy it is tasked to protect. [“I think the media bias today is a threat to our democracy for this reason,” said Smith, who is the chairman of the House Media Fairness Caucus. “If the American people don’t get the facts then they can’t make good decisions. “And if the American people can’t make good decisions because they’re not getting the facts then I think that is a threat to democracy,” Smith said. Smith said the “ mainstream media” is not only replacing facts with opinion but “invective and venomous opinions” when it comes to reporting on Trump. During the interview, Smith cited a number of polls that show clear media bias, including a poll conducted in May that shows the majority of Americans — or 65 percent — believe the media publishes “fake news. ” Smith also said that the media has an “incredible responsibility” to provide accurate news and that the “constant barrage of personal attacks” on the president and Republicans can contribute to individuals acting irrationally as was the case this past week when a shooter opened fire on GOP lawmakers and staff at a baseball practice in Alexandria, VA. The gunman, James T. Hodgkinson of Illinois who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and posted messages on social media, died from his injuries after Capitol Police on security detail for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise ( ) engaged him in a gun battle. Scalise remains in critical condition following multiple surgeries for his injuries. “I’ve never seen before in my 35 years of involvement in politics, and quite frankly this amount of venom contributes to — I’m not saying it’s the only reason — but it does contribute to an environment of hatred and violence and we shouldn’t be surprised I think if it does have an impact,” Smith said. Smith also said that the media clearly did not expect Trump to win the presidency and that it was a “shock to their system. ” “But that’s still no excuse for the amount of bias we’re seeing,” Smith said. When Boyle asked Smith what Americans should do to fight media bias, he said people should speak out. “The most important thing that we can do to counter the media’s bias, quite frankly, is to speak out against it,” Smith said, adding that he is not advocating censorship but encouraging people to write to their representatives in Congress and to write letters to the editors of their local newspaper. “The mistake we make overall is letting the media tell us what to think,” Smith said. “We’ve got make sure that we warn the American people to not let the liberal media tell them what to think. ” | 1 |
Zero Hedge November 1, 2016
With both Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton voicing extreme accusations of violating federal law against FBI Director Comey’s decision to be transparent about his investigation into Clinton’s emails, it appears President Obama is having none of it. As White House spokesman Josh Earnest stated: “President Obama doesn’t think Comey is trying to influence the election.”
Senate minority leader Harry Reid claiming Comey may have violated federal law…
“I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act,” Reid wrote in a letter to Comey, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Hatch act prohibits government officials from using their positions to influence an election.
“Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”
“When Republicans filibustered your nomination and delayed your confirmation longer than any previous nominee to your position, I led the fight to get you confirmed because I believed you to be a principled public servant,” Reid wrote.
“With the deepest regret, I now see that I was wrong.”
But, President Obama has now crushed that narrative:
John Earnest explains:
“President Obama doesn’t think Comey tried to influence the election.”
“Obama still believes Comey has “good character””
“Obama has a lot of confidence in AG Loretta Lynch”
Which, roughly translated into images is this…
Furthermore, as we noted last night , Harry Reid had suggested that ” talked w/ top NatSec officials who say that Comey “possesses explosive information” about Trump’s ties to Russia.”
That has also been completely rebuffed as The White House says it “has not been briefed on the existence of any FBI investigation on activities, habts of Donald Trump.”
So more lies?! | 0 |
Home › BIG BROTHER › FACEBOOK SAYS USERS CAN’T STOP IT FROM USING BIOMETRIC DATA FACEBOOK SAYS USERS CAN’T STOP IT FROM USING BIOMETRIC DATA 0 SHARES
[11/2/16] Facebook Inc.’s software knows your face almost as well as your mother does. And like mom, it isn’t asking your permission to do what it wants with old photos.
While millions of internet users embrace the tagging of family and friends in photos, others worried there’s something devious afoot are trying to block Facebook as well as Google from amassing such data.
As advances in facial recognition technology give companies the potential to profit from biometric data, privacy advocates see a pattern in how the world’s largest social network and search engine have sold users’ viewing histories for advertising. The companies insist that gathering data on what you look like isn’t against the law, even without your permission.
If judges agree with Facebook and Google, they may be able to kill off lawsuits filed under a unique Illinois law that carries fines of $1,000 to $5,000 each time a person’s image is used without permission — big enough for a liability headache if claims on behalf of millions of consumers proceed as class actions. A loss by the companies could lead to new restrictions on using biometrics in the U.S., similar to those in Europe and Canada.
Facebook declined to comment on its court fight. Google hasn’t responded to requests for comment (Scroll down for a closer look at the court cases) .
Courts have struggled over what qualifies as an injury to pursue a privacy case in lawsuits accusing Facebook and Google of siphoning users’ personal information from e-mails and monitoring their web browsing habits. Suits over selling the data to advertisers have often failed.
This year, the U.S. Supreme Court set a “concrete injury” standard for privacy suits, a ruling that both sides are using to argue their case ahead of a hearing Thursday in San Francisco over Facebook’s bid to dismiss the biometrics case.
Google is fending off suits in Chicago, arguing that the Illinois statute can’t apply outside the state under the Constitution’s interstate commerce rules. Google also contends the Illinois law doesn’t regulate photos.
Facebook encourages users to “tag” people in photographs they upload in their personal posts and the social network stores the collected information. The company uses a program it calls DeepFace to match other photos of a person. Alphabet Inc.’s cloud-based Google Photos service uses similar technology.
The billions of images Facebook is thought to be collecting could be even more valuable to identity thieves than the names, addresses, and credit card numbers now targeted by hackers, according to privacy advocates and legal experts.
While those types of information are mutable—even Social Security numbers can be changed—biometric data for retinas, fingerprints, hands, face geometry and blood samples, are unique identifiers.
“Biometric identifiers are a key way to link together information about people,” such as discrete financial, medical and educational records, said Marc Rotenberg, the president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who isn’t involved in the case. Facebook has “cleverly got its users to improve the accuracy of its own database,” he said. Post navigation | 0 |
RIGA, Latvia — In the Baltics, there may be no war on Christmas but there’s a pretty prickly one over the tree. For six successive seasons, Riga and Tallinn — the capitals of Latvia and Estonia — have waged a feud over which was the site of the world’s first decorated Christmas tree. Riga says it was first, in 1510. Tallinn claims a much earlier event, in 1441. More than civic pride is at stake. travel has become extremely lucrative, especially in the north, where there are no swaying palms to lure the . And this year, the rivalry has taken on both an added urgency and a darker tinge. Simmering tensions between Russia and NATO and the faltering Russian economy have squeezed tourist traffic from what had been a prime source of vacationers. And the deadly attack on Berlin’s Christmas market this week has raised fears that holiday markets, in general, may see fewer customers for their hot spiced wine and sugary treats. The Christmas tree spat began in 2010, when Latvians started an advertising campaign that claimed that Riga was the first, citing 1510 as the year when a mysterious and rambunctious medieval brotherhood known as the House of the Black Heads paraded through Riga carrying a constructed replica of a tree. They decorated it with fruits and candles, danced around it and then, a few days later, burned it to the ground. Hold on a second, responded the Estonians. They produced evidence that they claim showed that a similar festival had taken place at yet another lodge of the Black Heads, this one in Tallinn in 1441. And their festival, Estonians claim, involved a real tree. In fact, said the historian Juri Kuuskemaa, “we can be sure it was a spruce. ” Riga’s mayor, Nils Usakovs, countered that claim by saying that the Estonians employ tactics when it comes to the invention of the Christmas tree. It’s an unusual war, fought with ornaments and historians. “Cities like Berlin had to wait until the 18th century before the first recorded public use of a Christmas tree,” sniffed Mr. Kuuskemaa, 74, who is also the official Herald of Tallinn, a ceremonial position for which he often dons period garb. “And for Paris and London, it didn’t happen until the 19th century. Tallinn and Riga did it centuries before all the great metropolises of Europe. ” Whizzing round the capital the week before Christmas, Mayor Usakovs has taken on the work ethic of an elf. At the foot of a former landfill site that is being converted into a miniature ski resort, Mr. Usakovs lit his 48th Christmas tree of the season. He said the Christmas tree conflict, in reality, had reached a bit of a historical stalemate, as there was not enough contextual evidence to say for certain which city came first. But he doesn’t care. “Any time they say they were first, they have to mention also our city,” he said. “Tourists from Germany or Belgium or Russia don’t care for historical truth they care about cities with fancy Christmas trees, fancy Christmas markets. And when they read that there is also this battle between Tallinn and Riga — it’s fun!” Nearly 200 miles north, in Tallinn, the chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s defense committee, Hannes Hanso, stood beside the official parliamentary tree and declared that he took a policy of total nonrecognition when it came to Riga’s claims. “I didn’t know Latvia had any claim to the first Christmas tree,” he said with mock incredulity. Mr. Hanso also reminded Latvians not to get any ideas about who has the highest mountain either, as Estonia’s Big Egg Mountain, at 1, 043 feet, was clearly higher than Latvia’s Gaizinkalns, which reaches to a mere 1, 024 feet. Deployments of elves and reindeer have become the important weapons for Baltic nations to keep tourism levels steady over an otherwise dead season. It is especially important for Latvia and Estonia where, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism’s direct contribution to gross domestic product is twice as big as it is in Lithuania, the southernmost Baltic state. In 2015, in Lithuania it amounted to 1. 7 percent, whereas in Latvia and Estonia it was 4. 1 percent and 3. 9 percent. With the weak ruble keeping many Russian tourists at home, Christmas profits are even more under threat. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the birth of Jesus in early January, so the holiday markets could stay open for weeks longer and still find eager crowds. Mariann Lugus, secretary general of the Estonian Travel and Tourism Association, said that Estonia had detected a dip in the number of Russian tourists in January 2014. A year later, though, after the Russian seizure of Crimea and the imposition of international sanctions, Russian tourism plummeted. Only about half as many Russians visited that January. Latvia, for some reason, has not experienced similar drops. “We don’t know why that is,” said Irena Riekstina, secretary general of the Association of Latvian Travel Agents and Tour Operators. “This is probably going to happen at some point and we need to prepare for this. ” Maximilien Lejeune, executive director at European Best Destinations, a travel website, said that the Christmas tree war could end up attracting even more visitors to both cities as they compete for other popular Christmas season destinations like Lapland and Norway — especially if tourists become nervous about attending holiday markets in cities that have experienced terrorist attacks. Keen to compete is Remigijus Simasius, the mayor of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Though his city has no claim to the first Christmas tree, he hopes to compete with even larger and more elaborate presentations. He threw down the gauntlet this year with a towering tree adorned with 50, 000 bulbs, which drew wide acclaim. His tree provoked rebukes from Russia, though, where several articles accused the Lithuanians of copying the tree’s design from a smaller one in Moscow’s Red Square. Lithuania may have no claim to the first Christmas tree, Mr. Simasius said in his annual Christmas speech, but it was important to think in broader terms. “We are part of the Baltic Sea region, and we are happy that this tradition is born in our region,” he said. Mr. Lejeune said that “in troubled times, people like to have landmarks,” and that’s what European holiday markets have become. “People also like to escape when the news makes them afraid,” he said. “That’s why magic movies have such success in cinemas. The Christmas markets also allow people to escape a bit from reality. ” But not everyone is in the Christmas spirit. Gustavs Strenga, an archivist and historian at the National Library of Latvia, said that both Riga and Tallinn were guilty of making creative leaps with their historical interpretations. Actually, he said, those celebrations by the Black Heads had nothing to do with Christmas and were connected to other festivities the brotherhood celebrated. Looking down at his coffee cup, Mr. Strenga admitted that his skeptical position had not gone down well in Latvia. “I’ve been called the Grinch,” he said. | 1 |
Back in 1968, at the age of 22, Donald J. Trump seemed the picture of health. He stood 6 feet 2 inches with an athletic build had played football, tennis and squash and was taking up golf. His medical history was unblemished, aside from a routine appendectomy when he was 10. But after he graduated from college in the spring of 1968, making him eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he received a diagnosis that would change his path: bone spurs in his heels. The diagnosis resulted in a coveted medical deferment that fall, exempting him from military service as the United States was undertaking huge troop deployments to Southeast Asia, inducting about 300, 000 men into the military that year. The deferment was one of five Mr. Trump received during Vietnam. The others were for education. His experience during the era is drawing new scrutiny after the Muslim American parents of a soldier who was killed in Iraq publicly questioned whether Mr. Trump had ever sacrificed for his country. In an emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, the soldier’s father, Khizr Khan, directly addressed Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, saying, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one. ” Mr. Trump’s public statements about his draft experience sometimes conflict with his Selective Service records, and he is often hazy in recalling details. In an interview with The New York Times last month, Mr. Trump said the bone spurs had been “temporary” — a “minor” malady that had not had a meaningful impact on him. He said he had visited a doctor who provided him a letter for draft officials, who granted him the medical exemption. He could not remember the doctor’s name. “I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels,” Mr. Trump said in the interview. Asked to provide The Times with a copy of the letter, which he had obtained after his fourth student deferment, Mr. Trump said he would have to look for it. A spokeswoman later did not respond to repeated requests for copies of it. The Selective Service records that remain in the National Archives — many have been discarded — do not specify what medical condition exempted Mr. Trump from military service. Mr. Trump has described the condition as heel spurs, which are protrusions caused by calcium built up on the heel bone, treated through stretching, orthotics or sometimes surgery. Mr. Trump said that he could not recall exactly when he was no longer bothered by the spurs, but that he had not had an operation for the problem. “Over a period of time, it healed up,” he said. In the 2015 biography “The Truth About Trump,” the author, Michael D’Antonio, described interviewing Mr. Trump, who at one point slipped off a loafer to display a tiny bulge on his heel. And during a news conference last year, Mr. Trump could not recall which heel had been involved, prompting his campaign to release a statement saying it was both. Mr. Trump, who has hailed his health as “perfection,” said the heel spurs were “not a big problem, but it was enough of a problem. ” “They were spurs,” he said. “You know, it was difficult from the walking standpoint. ” In December, his longtime personal physician, Dr. Harold N. Bornstein, announced that Mr. Trump had “no significant medical problems” over four decades and that, if elected, he “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. ” Dr. Bornstein made no mention of the bone spurs but did note the appendectomy from Mr. Trump’s childhood. The medical deferment meant that Mr. Trump, who had just completed the undergraduate real estate program at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, could follow his father into the development business, which he was eager to do. The story of Mr. Trump’s draft record has been reviewed by other publications, starting in 2011, when The Smoking Gun published his Selective Service documents. But a Times examination of his history, including interviews with Mr. Trump and experts on the era, revealed new details. For many years, Mr. Trump, 70, has also asserted that it was “ultimately” the luck of a high draft lottery number — rather than the medical deferment — that kept him out of the war. But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise. Mr. Trump had been medically exempted for more than a year when the draft lottery began in December 1969, well before he received what he has described as his “phenomenal” draft number. Because of his medical exemption, his lottery number would have been irrelevant, said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, who has worked for the agency for three decades. “He was already classified and determined not to be subject to the draft under the conditions in place at the time,” Mr. Flahavan said. In a 2011 television interview, Mr. Trump described watching the draft lottery as a college student and learning then that he would not be drafted. “I’ll never forget that was an amazing period of time in my life,” he said in the interview, on Fox 5 New York. “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers, and I got a very, very high number. ” But Mr. Trump had graduated from Wharton 18 months before the lottery — the first in the United States in 27 years — was held. The fact that a candidate seeking the presidency received military deferments or otherwise avoided fighting in Vietnam is not unusual. Voters have shown themselves willing to look past such controversies, electing George W. Bush, who served stateside in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam era, and Bill Clinton, who wrote to an Army R. O. T. C. officer in 1969 thanking him for “saving me from the draft. ” Mr. Trump likened his history to that of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other prominent politicians, who also received several deferments. Mr. Trump said he had strongly opposed United States involvement in Vietnam. “I thought it was ridiculous,” he said. “I thought it was another deal where politicians got us into a war where we shouldn’t have been in. And I felt that very strongly from Day 1. ” Even if his views on Vietnam are broadly shared today, both his record and his statements on the war have proved fraught for Mr. Trump during his campaign. Last summer, he faced a backlash when he declared that John McCain, the Republican senator who had been a prisoner of war during Vietnam, was “not a war hero,” explaining, “I like people who weren’t captured. ” Then a series of audio clips surfaced from the 1990s, including one in which Mr. Trump told Howard Stern, the radio show host, that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases while dating “is my personal Vietnam. ” Mr. Trump has acknowledged feeling somewhat “guilty” for not serving in Vietnam and has stressed that if he had been called, he would have gone. After his 18th birthday, in June 1964, Mr. Trump registered with the Selective Service System, as all men his age did. It was the summer after his graduation from the New York Military Academy, and Mr. Trump recalled filling out his papers with his father, Fred Trump, at the local draft office on Jamaica Avenue in Queens. The next month, Mr. Trump received the first of four education deferments as he worked his way through his undergraduate studies, first at Fordham, in the Bronx, and then as a transfer student in the real estate program at the Wharton School, in Philadelphia. He received subsequent student deferments during his sophomore, junior and senior years. At Fordham, Mr. Trump commuted from his parents’ home in Queens and played squash, football and tennis. He remembered Fordham for its “good sports. ” At Wharton, Mr. Trump began preparing in earnest for his career in real estate by buying and selling townhouses in Pennsylvania and driving home to New York on weekends to work for his father. During the Wharton years, he said, he had less time for sports but stayed physically active, playing pickup golf at public courses near campus. At Penn and other universities, Vietnam dominated discussions. Mr. Trump said Wharton, with its business focus, had been somewhat different. Although he “hated the concept of the war,” he said, he did not speak out against it. “I was never a fan of the Vietnam War,” he said. “But I was never at the protest level, either, because I had other things to do. ” As Mr. Trump’s graduation neared, the fighting in Vietnam was intensifying. The Tet offensive in January 1968 had left thousands of American troops dead or wounded, with battles continuing into the spring. On the day of Mr. Trump’s graduation, 40 Americans were killed in Vietnam. The Pentagon was preparing to call up more troops. With his schooling behind him, there would have been little to prevent someone in Mr. Trump’s situation from being drafted, if not for the diagnosis of his bone spurs. “If you didn’t have a basis to be exempt or postponed, you would have been ordered for induction,” said Mr. Flahavan of the Selective Service. Many men of Mr. Trump’s age were looking for ways to avoid the war, said Charles Freehof, a draft counselor at Brooklyn College at the time, noting that getting a letter from a physician was a particularly effective option. “We had very little trouble with people coming back saying, ‘They wouldn’t accept my doctor’s note,’” Mr. Freehof said. Mr. Trump had a classification, which was considered a temporary exemption. But in practice, only a national emergency or an official declaration of war, which the United States avoided during the fighting in Vietnam, would have resulted in his being considered for service. Neither occurred, and Mr. Trump remained until 1972, when his status changed to permanently disqualifying him. “For all practical purposes, once you got the you were free and clear of vulnerability for the draft, even in the case of the lottery,” Mr. Flahavan said. Still, Mr. Trump, in the interviews, said he believed he could have been subject to another physical exam to check on his bone spurs, had his draft number been called. “I would have had to go eventually because that was a minor medical — it was called ‘minor medical,’” he said. But the publicly available draft records of Mr. Trump include the letters “DISQ” next to his exam date, with no notation indicating that he would be . Since Mr. Khan publicly addressed him in the Democratic convention speech last week, Mr. Trump has been pressed about his sacrifice, including by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Stephanopoulos. “I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot. ” | 1 |
Al Gore is back again to warn about the dangers of climate change in the first trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the to his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth. [“Storms get stronger and more destructive. Watch the water splash off the city,” the former vice president and climate change activist warns in the trailer as newsreel footage of severe weather plays in the background. “This is global warming. ” “Despair can be paralyzing,” he adds, “but this, to me, is the most exciting new development. We’re seeing a tremendous amount of positive change. The basis is there. But it’s still not enough. ” The trailer also features several brief excerpts of President Donald Trump’s comments on global warming, and shows Gore delivering lectures and traveling around the world to survey damage up close. Inconvenient 2 premiered as the opening night film at the Sundance Film Festival in January, reportedly drawing a standing ovation after the screening from the audience in Park City. “This movie gives me an extra burst of hope because I think … it really effectively tells the story of how much hope is out there for transforming our energy system to become much more efficient,” Gore said at the screening, according to Variety. “We are going to win this. ” The trailer’s release came the same day President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will roll back several key energy industry regulations signed into law by former President Barack Obama. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, with original director Davis Guggenheim returning as executive producer. Paramount Pictures will release the film on July 28. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
Maha ’s family is divided. She immigrated to New York City in 2014, reuniting with her three sons who had arrived earlier. She expected that her husband, Husham and her two other sons would soon join her from Amman, Jordan, finally bringing the family together after a tumultuous decade of surviving the Iraq war, fleeing to Jordan and then searching for a permanent home. But on Friday, the family was dealt another blow, after President Trump approved a sweeping executive order on immigration that, among other things, blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries including Iraq, where members of the family are citizens. Her husband and two sons in Jordan are for now locked out of the United States, and Ms. Obaidi cannot travel away, or risk being denied . “Now our family in the U. S. can’t even come to visit us, nor can we visit them,” Mr. Qadhi said on Saturday in Amman. “We just sit and watch like the rest of the world what is happening, and our fate is being decided for us, in front of our eyes. ” The family lived in Baghdad as American tanks, troops and missiles tore into the Iraqi capital in 2003. It stayed for several years, despite gunfire and bomb blasts outside its house and the kidnapping of several family members. The family helped American soldiers even though other Iraqis targeted it for doing so. One of the sons in Amman, Thabit said he and his father had run a snack bar on an American base in Baghdad, serving candy and soft drinks to troops, and operated a internet cafe, which required them to be vetted and approved to begin work. After Thabit was kidnapped in 2006 by Qaeda terrorists and eventually released, he said, he reported details about the episode to American officials in the hope that they would be caught. And on his way home from the Baghdad base one day, he came upon four American troops injured along the road, and he said he had loaded them into his car and driven them to the Green Zone. “America has abandoned its responsibility to protect those who protected and cooperated with the Americans,” he said. “It’s a decision solely based on my religious faith. It’s discrimination solely on religious grounds. ” He added: “This is the wrong decision. Is it even constitutional?” The family’s home was along one of Baghdad’s major highways, an entry point for American troops during the invasion. The family huddled in a windowless section of the home for 10 days, as bullets shattered windows and rockets blazed through the sky, until the United States took control of Baghdad. In the years after the invasion, the family remained in Iraq, even as unrest spread, militants took up arms and tensions between Sunnis and Shiites flared up. In addition to Thabit Ms. Obaidi’s husband was also kidnapped, on two separate occasions. The family members recalled the lengths to which they went to get them freed, how they stuffed $60, 000 in Iraqi dinars into garbage bags and were instructed by cellphone to travel to a series of locations before dropping off the ransom. “It was like in the movies,” Ms. Obaidi said in an interview this month. Fearing more attacks, the family left Iraq for Jordan. It joined many other Iraqi refugees, including extended family members. Ms. Obaidi and her husband used their savings to buy a home in Amman. Employment opportunities were scarce for Iraqis, leading three of her sons, starting in 2010, to venture to the United States to find work. When Ms. Obaidi later followed them, she hoped that her entire family could apply for asylum and unite in America. She made the trip despite a number of concerns. “At first, I felt afraid,” she said. “How can I live in this country? It is a foreign country. It is very far from my culture. How will I be compatible with the community?” To her surprise, Ms. Obaidi found New York to be unlike its gruff stereotypes. People smiled as she walked down the street. Men helped her haul heavy bags up stairs. Others offered her seats on the subway. “Everybody in America is very nice,” she said. “They are very polite, helpful people, nice people, always with a smile on their face. That is my experience. ” She has found additional support from the International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian aid, relief and development nongovernmental organization based in New York. Founded in 1933, the organization is the newest organization supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, and the only one of the eight groups whose work extends beyond the New York area. It operates in 29 cities in the United States and in more than 40 countries. The organization was instrumental in helping Ms. Obaidi adjust to her new life and connecting her with a number of social services, including health insurance and food stamps. It helped her obtain a Social Security card, navigate New York’s streets and understand its transportation system. The group also helped her study for her driver’s license permit exam, among other services. “I feel I am not lonely,” she said. “I have somebody. I have somebody to support me. ” She shares a home in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens with two of her sons, Saif and Qaed . Her third son, Tameem and his wife, Melissa Forstrom, also live in the neighborhood. “I have a nice life,” Ms. Obaidi said. “Even though my apartment is small, I feel happy in it. I like it. ” But it is a home with some notable, painful absences. “I’ve divided myself,” Ms. Obaidi said. “Some part is there in Jordan, and some parts … ” She trailed off, overcome with emotion. In Amman, Thabit her oldest son, lives with his wife and son across the street from Ms. Obaidi’s husband, Husham, and their youngest son, Omar . They have been denied asylum in the United States. In October 2015, Husham was sent a conditional acceptance letter for asylum in the United States. About a year later, he received a second letter, denying him resettlement. Omar who works at Unicef to help provide water, sanitation and hygiene to Syrian refugees in Jordan, was also denied resettlement. “We have lived here as if we were waiting for something, as if everything was temporary, but now we no longer know what we are waiting for,” Omar said in his apartment in Amman. Thabit who has traveled to New York several times to visit his family, has not received the same denial letters for resettlement in the United States. His tourist visa was renewed, but a week later, an officer at the American Embassy in Amman told him that his visa had been canceled, and his case for resettlement was denied. Whether they will ever get approval to move to the United States is even more uncertain now. Thabit said that Mr. Trump’s order was particularly painful and that he felt America was turning its back on Iraqis who had risked their lives to help soldiers during the war. “At the end we realized we were no longer welcome, neither from the Iraqis because we worked with the Americans, nor from the Americans because we were Iraqi,” he said. Like many Iraqis, Thabit is living in Jordan on a conditional basis. He must renew his permission every year, and it is dependent on the family’s financial means. “Nothing is guaranteed in business,” he said. “Today, my trade company here is successful, but if one day the business fails, then what will happen? Where do I go?” In the United States, his siblings, even with employment and legal immigration status, live in a similar state of unsteadiness and concern. For three years, Tameem ’s only proof of his legal status was an record known as an form, a document without a photo of him and only his name and identification numbers. It has hindered his attempts to travel even within the United States. Visas for Saif ’s wife and children were approved recently after a wait of more than two years. They were booked on a plane expected to arrive Feb. 7, but Friday’s executive order by Mr. Trump has dashed those plans. “The kids, they grow up far from their father,” Saif said. “All of a sudden, I told them ‘I’m sorry, something changed. I may not be able to see you soon. ’” He and his wife are distraught by the development, which leaves them in a precarious position. In anticipation of the move, their children were taken out of their private school and the lease on their apartment in Amman is to expire on Feb. 1. “I’m watching the news every second,” Mr. Qadhi said. Ms. Obaidi’s children have been able to acclimate to their new surroundings and establish a rhythm in their lives. Tameem owns a cellphone store in the East Village in Manhattan, Qaed works as an information technology manager, and Saif is an Uber driver. Ms. Obaidi stays busy by volunteering at the Masjid Dar mosque. The family gathers as often as work schedules and other responsibilities allow, most often on Sundays, when Ms. Obaidi prepares a large meal. They all await the day when more chairs can be placed around the table. Halfway across the world, the other half of the family shares that sentiment. Omar said he missed his brothers, but especially his mother. “It just feels weird that we are now split, and the future looks grim,” he said. “We are travelers on a journey with no destination, and my family is so far away. ” | 1 |
MEMPHIS — One of the perks of playing college basketball for a powerhouse program like North Carolina is all the gear. Every year, the Tar Heels are outfitted with more shirts, sweats and sneakers than they can possibly wear in a season. The only problem is that their friends and families know it. “Oh, people are always asking for stuff,” said Stilman White, a senior guard. “It’s a weekly thing, to be honest. ” The latest request came from White’s sister, Noel, who became enthralled with one of his as North Carolina began to prepare for the N. C. A. A. tournament. “My sister would not talk to me about anything else besides that shirt until I finally just gave it to her so she’d stop bugging me,” White said. Among the potential difficulties facing college basketball players, being the recipients of too much branded (and free) gear surely qualifies as a problem. But it is one of the most noteworthy byproducts of lucrative endorsement deals that prominent programs like North Carolina, U. C. L. A. Kansas and Michigan have with sports apparel companies like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour. The N. C. A. A. will remind anyone within earshot that these players are still amateur athletes, and the mere suggestion of compensation — beyond their scholarships — opens the door to a swirl of complications. But they do receive gear — so much gear — and the N. C. A. A. allows them to give it away. They just can’t sell it. For the companies, the arrangement has obvious benefits: team after team filled with players who serve as walking billboards on one of the sports world’s biggest stages. In the brands’ view, the more clothing and shoes they hand out, the more likely it is that a player will wear their logo. For the athletes, who are often oversize teenagers who struggle to find clothes and shoes that fit, the free gear — including coveted sneaker styles that can cost $200 or more a pair — comes in handy. But the question eventually becomes: What to do with all of it? Sweatshirts wind up going to moms and dads. Shorts get shipped off to siblings. Old sneakers are handed out to pals back home — whether they fit or not. Gabby Williams, a star forward for the women’s basketball team at Connecticut, said she had set aside a stack of UConn clothing as gifts for her family members to wear during the Huskies’ latest tournament run. “It’s always nice to give back to everyone else,” she said. “We do get a lot of stuff, and we’re very lucky, so I love to give my stuff away. ” Charlie Noebel, a senior guard at Oregon, said that he constantly hears from friends desperate to get their hands on a pair of the Ducks’ custom Nikes. “All the time,” said Noebel, who wears size 12. 5 shoes. “Most of my friends are 10s, so they can’t fit into them. But they’ll always be like, ‘Hey, I can wear two or three pairs of socks, I don’t care. ’” Oregon seem to be popular, too. In recent years, the Ducks have worn a different one for every game, and unloading those is rarely a problem. As Noebel explained, “A lot of people like the color green. ” At Michigan, where the university has an apparel deal with Nike that could be worth as much as $173. 8 million through 2031, some players said they had received as many as 13 pairs of Jordan brand sneakers this season. Sometimes, they said, the shoes just appear, tucked inside fresh boxes left on chairs before random practices. “It was pretty cool just to get free stuff,” said a junior guard who, before he joined the Wolverines, would spend his own money on the Jordan gear he now gets gratis. Bob Bland, Michigan’s longtime equipment manager, is responsible for the surprises. When a new shipment of sneakers arrived this season, Bland showed up for a team film session with a bin full of them. He called players up by name and number to receive their allotments. Moments like those are a big deal for Brent Hibbitts, a sophomore from Hudsonville, Mich. Growing up, he said, he was such a fan of Jordan sneakers that he would camp outside stores just for the chance to buy the newest release. “I think I waited outside one time for 10 hours in a blizzard,” he said. Hibbitts no longer has to subject himself to such ordeals. Nor do the players at North Carolina — Michael Jordan’s alma mater — which also has a deal with Nike. White, for example, said he had stacks of Jordan sneakers in boxes. Some live in his locker. Others take up real estate in his dorm room. He has even sent a few to his parents for safekeeping. “Stockpiles,” White said. And while he is happy to part with and also has bequeathed used pairs of sneakers to friends, White was clear that there is a line even friends and family cannot cross. “They’re not,” he said, “getting any of the new stuff. ” Alex Olesinski, a sophomore forward at U. C. L. A. said his classmates were always in the market for his freebies. “They’ll be like, ‘Give me a shirt,’” he said. Most are not particularly discriminating, he added. “They’ll take anything, honestly. ” There could be a lot for the taking soon: The Bruins are in the final year of their contract with Adidas and next season will switch to Under Armour. Despite that coming change, the Bruins’ equipment cupboard is anything but bare. This season, Olesinski said, Adidas provided each U. C. L. A. player with more than 15 pairs of sneakers. In the locker room after the team’s practice session on Thursday afternoon at FedEx Forum, Olesinski pointed to a nearby pair of colorful . “Today is the first day I’ve worn those,” he said. “Comfortable. ” Dillon Pulliam, a sophomore guard at Kentucky, has laid in about a dozen pairs of sneakers that he has never worn. He has lent a couple pairs to his younger brother, Zach, who plays at Division III Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky. far down the food chain. The occasional giveaway is no problem, Pulliam said. He still has more than enough for himself. “I’m going to be good for basketball shoes for the rest of my life,” Pulliam said. Some of his friends, though, are more discerning collectors. Pulliam said he had heard from several people this season who coveted one item in particular: Nike Kobe 11s with the Wildcats’ interlocking UK logo on the inside heel. Each Kentucky player, he said, had received three pairs, one each in three color schemes: blue, white and gray. Nike made similar versions for Duke, Michigan State and Oregon, but if you want a pair, good luck: Because they were items, you would need to find a player willing to part with his. Sneakers are seldom in short supply at programs like Kentucky, North Carolina and U. C. L. A. the three blue bloods that cohabitated in Memphis over the past few days for the South Region semifinals and final. The fourth team left in the region when the weekend began, Butler, is a program with its own rich basketball history — but one that appears to take a more judicious approach to equipment. Nate Fowler, a sophomore center, said each Butler player typically receives three sets of practice shorts and jerseys at the start of the season, along with one pair of sneakers. They get another pair about halfway through the season, and then maybe one more at the start of the postseason. Fowler said he was aware that players at other programs get more free stuff, not that he minds. He knows he can always get more — as needed. Butler, you see, has a storage closet. “If anything rips,” he said, “they’ll replace it. ” | 1 |
A Southwest Airlines flight scheduled to leave Louisville, Ky. on Wednesday morning was evacuated on the runway after a passenger’s Samsung cellphone caught fire, passengers and the airline said. Southwest said in a statement that passengers and airline employees were taken off Flight 994, which was scheduled to leave for Baltimore, after a customer reported “smoke emitting from a Samsung electronic device. ” The Verge identified the passenger as Brian Green and his phone as “a replacement Galaxy Note 7. ” A Samsung spokeswoman said in a statement on Wednesday that the company was unable to immediately confirm which device was involved in the episode. “We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause,” the statement said. “Once we have examined the device, we will have more information to share. ” The company, which is the world’s largest smartphone maker, announced last month that it would replace 2. 5 million of the smartphone model because of a flaw in the battery’s cell that could result in the devices bursting into flames or exploding. Mr. Green told The Verge that he had picked up the new phone on Sept. 21, after the recall. The episode could be damaging for the company, because the replacement devices were thought to be safe. The new models had been approved by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, which on Wednesday said it was investigating the episode. In a statement, the commission chairman, Elliot F. Kaye, encouraged owners of the smartphone to turn it off and immediately participate in the recall. He also said staff members had reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration, Samsung and Mr. Green, noting that the agency is “moving expeditiously to investigate this incident. ” Christine Sundman, 65, a retired teacher who was planning to return home to New Hampshire after visiting her daughter’s family in Louisville, was one of the passengers evacuated from the flight. She said that a woman sitting near the phone’s owner had told her that the device had just been powered down when it caught fire. The owner quickly dropped the device on the floor, Mrs. Sundman said in a phone interview. Mrs. Sundman said she had been sitting in the seventh row of the plane and did not notice any commotion until a flight attendant rushed to the front to consult with her colleague. As they exchanged urgent whispers, Mrs. Sundman said, “I did hear the word ‘smoke.’ ” The two flight attendants went into the cockpit, Mrs. Sundman said, and within seconds the captain came out and calmly told passengers that the plane had to be evacuated. She said he did not need to use the loudspeaker to make his voice heard. As the passengers disembarked, the smell of smoke began to permeate the plane. “I did not see any of the passengers lose control,” Mrs. Sundman said. “One woman was kind of buzzing around a lot, but nobody lost control. The airline was working as hard as it could. ” Mrs. Sundman said the passengers were eventually told that a hole had burned through the floor. After about two hours, she said, the flight was canceled and passengers were allowed back on the plane to recover their baggage. “This could have happened moments after we took off, or in the air,” she said. “It could have been catastrophic. ” Earlier this year, Qantas banned Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from its flights because of instances in which they caught fire when passengers dropped their devices into the electronically activated seats, crushing the phone and damaging the battery. Air France also said it had several smoke or fire events that were set off in the same way. The Federal Aviation Administration strongly urged owners not to use the phones on planes, before the recall was ordered. | 1 |
Report Copyright Violation The media chooses our president (Hillary), because we're a nation of morons. If the media said, "Trump's a genius, women like him, he's a man's man, he's dynamic, he's vibrant... but Hillary is crooked and she's a criminal and no one likes her" Blah Blah... if that happened, women would support and vote for Trump, etc.Think about that. Just flip the whole thing.There's never been a pile-on in MSM history like the one against Trump.While he had a few unforced errors, I don't think it would matter much what he did. They would trash him, or drag up 10 year old Tweets and play them 24/7 all day, even if he had pivoted to being presidential.If they wanted to prop up Trump and destroy Hillary, we would have seen the opposite happen.This entire election has been nothing more than an exercise in mass propaganda. Hillary is the chosen candidate of the Establishment, and she shall win. Early voting totals already show the Democrats are showing up in big numbers for Hillary, and Republicans are lagging behind.The election IS rigged, but largely by the media and voting scams may not be necessary if the Sheeple are compliant . "Being easily offended is indicative of your own guilts and neuroses regarding your self." - AC 25018606"Easily the best poster on this site and never afraid to speak the truth." -Ronin"You're the most politically incorrect person on the site. Keep on speaking the truth brother." - Anon"You're still on the ball, Cigarette Man! God bless."- Helios Maximus | 0 |
Kansas State University’s policy not to investigate accusations of rape in fraternity houses is “incorrect,” according to federal government statements filed in court in support of two female students at the university. The two women, Sara Weckhorst and Tessa Farmer, both told the university that they had been raped in two separate episodes at fraternity houses in 2014 and 2015. In both cases, they say, the university would not investigate because the fraternity houses were off campus, even though they were sanctioned fraternities. Their federal lawsuits, filed in Kansas in April, say the university violated Title IX, a civil rights statute prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, by failing to respond to their complaints of rape. Title IX generally governs gender equity in education. Responding to the lawsuits, the university argued in court that the cases should be dismissed because it is not legally responsible for reports of rape at “ ” fraternity houses or events. But the government, in documents filed Friday, disagreed, saying that Title IX covers all education programs of a federally funded school, including the house and events of a fraternity. “The continuing effects of a rape, including the constant fear of exposure to one’s assailant, can render a student’s educational environment hostile,” the government filings said. “Thus, a school must respond to allegations of sexual assault in fraternity activities to determine if a hostile environment exists there or in any other education program or activity. ” The government told universities, in a “Dear Colleague” letter in 2011, that Title IX requires them to investigate accusations of rapes of students. It specifically cited fraternity houses. The court statements, by the Departments of Justice and Education, have been filed in about a dozen other lawsuits since 2010 where the law is in dispute. Title IX is an increasingly contentious issue at colleges and high schools across the country. Calling the legal lay of the land a “hot mess” when it comes to Title IX, Wendy Murphy, a professor who specializes in sexual violence law at New England School of Law, said she hoped the government would file statements in other pending Title IX cases to help clarify the law. Ms. Weckhorst, of Doylestown, Pa. said in her complaint that she had become incapacitated from drinking alcohol at a fraternity party in April 2014, while a freshman at Kansas State, and was subsequently raped by two men. Ms. Farmer, of Overland Park, Kan. told a similar story. After drinking too much at a fraternity party, she said in her complaint, she blacked out on a bed in the fraternity house. She awoke as an unknown man was raping her, her complaint said. The women are seeking both monetary damages and orders that the university investigate their accusations. | 1 |
SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia and his conservative Liberal National coalition could lose more than 10 seats in Parliament, according to early election returns on Saturday, which might leave it unable to form a majority government. Neither Mr. Turnbull nor the opposition Labor leader, Bill Shorten, had conceded defeat late Saturday, with about 70 percent of the votes counted in the elections to select Australia’s House of Representatives. The party or coalition that wins a majority of the seats in the House forms a government. A sharp reduction in the 90 seats Mr. Turnbull’s government held before the election could damage his leadership prospects. Mr. Turnbull’s decision to call an early election and run a long campaign now seems to have been a poor gamble. Australia’s election campaigns typically run about four weeks. This one was about two months. According to official projections late Saturday from the Australian Electoral Commission, the governing coalition, which includes the Liberal and National Parties, was on track to win at least 68 seats, and the Australian Labor Party at least 70. Australia’s third major party, the Greens, had won one seat, and independent candidates had won four seats. The contests for as many as seven seats were still undecided when counting was suspended for the day. Analysts said absentee votes submitted by mail and votes cast early at polling places could affect the outcome. About 30 percent of Australia’s 15. 6 million voters cast their ballots in these ways. Mr. Turnbull spoke just after midnight to a rowdy gathering of Liberal Party members at Sydney’s Wentworth Hotel. “Tonight, my friends,” he said, “I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government. ” But the final result, in terms of seats, may not be known until Tuesday, Mr. Turnbull said. Speaking to Labor Party supporters gathered at the Moonee Valley Racing Club in Melbourne, Mr. Shorten said: “We will not know the outcome of this election tonight. Indeed, we may not know it for some days to come. But there is one thing for sure: The Labor Party is back. ” “And Mr. Turnbull’s economic program, such as it was, has been rejected by the people of Australia,” he added. “Whatever happens next week, Mr. Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda. ” The federal treasurer, Scott Morrison, a Liberal Party member, speaking on ABC television, rejected criticism of Mr. Turnbull’s leadership. He said he expected the coalition to form a government once all votes were counted. Mr. Turnbull unseated Tony Abbott, who was in his first term as prime minister, just 10 months ago, but now he is facing an erosion of support. Political analysts said that if the Liberal National coalition failed to win 76 seats in the House, it would be forced to form an alliance with some of the minor parties or independents, only two of whom are likely to side with the conservative coalition. Mr. Turnbull is also likely to face a more fractious Senate. Vote counting for the Senate races had not been completed. Analysts said minor parties would win more seats there, making it harder for the government to pass its legislation. The governing coalition held 33 seats in the Senate before Saturday’s election and needed six more to hold a majority. Australia’s Senate, which checks the power of the House of Representatives by having the final say over all legislation, is made up of 12 senators from each state, plus two each from the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, the location of the capital, Canberra. Typically, minor parties find it easier to win those seats, and so they are able to wield a disproportionate degree of power in relation to their level of support. In May, Mr. Turnbull called for a election, in which all Senate seats are thrown open for a vote instead of the usual half. This followed changes in March to Senate rules that Mr. Turnbull hoped would result in a less fractious upper house by making it harder for dissenting senators to retain their seats. Early results showed that One Nation, an party based in the state of Queensland and led by Pauline Hanson, was likely to win at least one Senate seat. | 1 |
November 1, 2016 Half of Russians fear Syria could spark World War III
Nearly half of Russians fear that Moscow’s bombing campaign in Syria could spark World War III, a poll showed Monday.
Moscow, an ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, has been staging bombing raids in Syria since September 2015.
Forty-eight percent of Russians were concerned that “heightened tensions in relations between Russia and the West could grow into World War III,” according to a poll conducted by independent pollster Levada Centre last week.
That figure was up from 29 percent in July this year.
Moscow’s air strikes have negatively affected the way Russia is perceived internationally, 32 percent said, up from 16 percent in November.
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