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In the beginning, there was the procedural. “Dragnet,” “Law Order” and the like set the template for television crime stories that took viewers briskly though the process by which bad guys get caught. “The Night Of,” the tense and exquisite limited series on HBO, beginning on Sunday, is also a deeply detailed procedural, but with a difference. It has more in common philosophically with the podcast “Serial” (whose first subject, Adnan Syed, was just granted a new trial) Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” and this year’s two O. J. Simpson series — stories that suggest that who is locked up, for what, is largely a matter of resources and random fate. In the fictional “The Night Of,” as in those stories, someone dies, and someone goes to trial, but the biggest suspect is the notion of egalitarian justice. The worst night of Nasir Khan’s life begins with promise. The studious, sexually inexperienced son of Pakistani immigrants, Naz, as he is known, drives his father’s cab from Queens to Manhattan, headed to a party. He’s told there will be girls. He never makes it. Andrea (Sofia ’Elia) a young woman with sad, faraway eyes, mistakes him for a working cabby and hails a ride. It leads to conversation, a connection, a ride back to her townhouse. And then to drugs, sex — and Naz’s waking up to find her stabbed to death. Naz (Riz Ahmed) is picked up for the murder, smeared with DNA evidence. In retrospect, you see how the creators, Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”) and Richard Price (“The Wire”) staged Naz’s last night of freedom — a college kid’s walk on the wild side — as a pit of circumstantial quicksand: the casual encounters that will become eyewitness testimony the chain of bad breaks, bad timing and bad decisions. Mind your armrests when you watch it all unfold you may clutch them right through the upholstery. Naz is interrogated by Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) a glum loner whose eyes tell him that the case is even as his gut says something’s off. Naz’s defense falls to John Stone (John Turturro) — a rumpled “precinct crawler” trolling the lockup for work — who lays out the stakes for a young Muslim in jail for killing a rich white girl. “Not to sound like a teabagger,” he says, “but how do you feel about America?” Stone’s part was meant for James Gandolfini (still listed as a producer). It would have been fascinating to see that bearish actor play a courthouse sad sack, but Mr. Turturro is a fine fit, as is Mr. Camp. They’re a pair of scuffed shoes on opposite feet of the law. The early episodes have a theaterlike intimacy, and they pay close attention to the particulars of arrest and processing. Mr. Ahmed deftly shows Naz’s dawning terror as his world becomes ever smaller the cinematography conveys the isolation, the disorientation, the feeling of being funneled down a dank, chute into the system. It’s a slow ride to hell, last stop Rikers Island. A corrections officer asks Naz if he belongs to a gang he doesn’t, but it turns out that “yes” would have been the better answer. “Well, then, good luck to you,” the officer says. Prison is its own confounding gantlet, overseen by an imperious inmate, Freddy (Michael Kenneth Williams, characteristically smoldering) who may matter more to Naz’s survival than any judge. The later episodes become a more conventional legal story, as Stone patches together a defense, and the case becomes Nancy in the media. There are nods to TV legal series throughout. When Stone prints graphics at a copy shop, the clerk asks if he works for “Law Order” prisoners at Rikers spend break time watching daytime court shows. The series excels at laying out the snowballing costs of a case, financial and psychological. Naz’s parents, who lose their livelihood when the cab is impounded, can’t afford a modest defense fee and have to make decisions on the fly. They also lose a measure of trust in their son they want to believe him, but like us, they didn’t see him not commit the murder, either. And Naz’s experience in prison suggests that, convicted or acquitted, he will be permanently changed. As a legal procedural, “The Night Of” is richly detailed but profoundly unglamorous. A running subplot involves Stone’s unappetizing case of foot eczema. His journey from doctor to herbal healer to doctor, looking for a cure, becomes a symbol for the befuddling process of navigating the legal system. Justice, in this grand, grim story, has feet not of clay but of gross, itchy, mortal flesh. But still it must stumble forward. | 1 |
Politicians, NATO Officials Furious as Spain Plans to Refuel Russian Battle Group
However since then Russia has rescinded the request to refuel at Spanish port Originally appeared at Zero Hedge
Spain is facing international criticism as it reportedly prepares to refuel a flotilla of Russian warships en route to bolstering the bombing campaign against the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. El País reported that the Spanish ministry of foreign affairs was reviewing the permit issued to the Russian flotilla to stop at Ceuta. Politicians and military figures condemned the support from a NATO member as "scandalous," and "wholly inappropriate," while the head of the alliance indicated Madrid should rethink the pit stop.
As The Guardian reports, warships led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov are expected to take on fuel and supplies at the Spanish port of Ceuta after passing through the Straits of Gibraltar on Wednesday morning. Spanish media reported that two Spanish vessels, the frigate Almirante Juan de Borbón and logistical ship Cantabria, were shadowing the warships as they passed through international waters, and that the Admiral Kuznetsov, along with other Russian vessels and submarines, would dock at Ceuta to restock after 10 days at sea.
Late on Tuesday night, El País reported that the Spanish ministry of foreign affairs was reviewing the permit issued to the Russian flotilla to stop at Ceuta.
Last week British Royal Navy vessels monitored the Russian warships as they moved through the English Channel. The vessels were shadowed by the navy as they passed through the Dover Strait . 20161026_spain1.jpg
The enclave of Ceuta sits on the tip of Africa’s north coast, across the Straits of Gibraltar from mainland Spain, and bordering Morocco, which also lays claim to the territory. Although Ceuta is part of the EU, its Nato status is unclear, and since 2011 at least 60 Russian warships have docked there.
Nato said the prospect of Russia’s only aircraft carrier heading to the region does not “inspire confidence” that Moscow is seeking a political solution to the Syrian crisis. 20161026_spain3.jpg
The naval group is made up of Russia’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, as well as a nuclear-powered battle cruiser, two anti-submarine warships and four support vessels, likely escorted by submarines, Nato officials said.
The naval deployment, a rare sight since the end of the Soviet Union, is carrying dozens of fighter bombers and helicopters and is expected to join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast, diplomats said.
But, as The Telegraph reports , Spain is facing anger and criticism from all asunder at their decision to allow the refueling to occur...
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday that Russian warships heading for Syria could be used to target civilians. “We are concerned and have expressed very clearly by the potential use of that battle group to increase air strikes on civilians in Aleppo,” Stoltenberg said, adding that it was “up to each nation to decide whether these vessels may obtain supplies and refuel at different ports along the route to the eastern Mediterranean”.
“The battle group may be used to increase Russia’s ability to take part in combat operations over Syria and to conduct even more air strikes against Aleppo,”
Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium and now the EU’s representative on Brexit talks with the UK, called Spain’s decision to allow the refuelling “scandalous”. politicians_nato_officials_furious_as_spain_plans_to_refuel_russian_battle_group_zero_hedge.png
Sir Gerald Howarth MP, a former Defence Minister, said it would be “wholly inappropriate” for a Nato member to refuel the Russian vessels. “Spain is a member of Nato and Nato is already facing challenges from Russia, not least in the Baltics.
“ The Russians stand accused of indiscriminate bombing in Aleppo and Syria and it would be inappropriate to render them military assistance .”
Former Royal Navy chief Lord West told the newspaper: “There are sanctions against Russia and it’s an extraordinary thing for a Nato ally to do.”
* * *
Spain’s Foreign Ministry told the Telegraph requests from the Russian navy were considered on a “case by case basis, depending on the characteristics of the ship concerned”. A spokesman said: “Russian navy vessels have been making calls in Spanish ports for years”. But in an indication Madrid was feeling increased diplomatic pressure not to help Moscow, the Spanish government said it was reviewing the Russian request. The spokesman said: “The latest requested dockings are being revised at the current time in light of information we are receiving from our allies and from the Russian authorities.”
Russia’s military visits are estimated each to bring in more than $400,000 to the city through a combination of mooring fees, fuel and supplies, and the money spent by sailors during their time onshore. "As long as the Spanish government hasn't banned it, it is a commercial matter like any other vessel stopping to take on supplies, even if it concerns military ships,"
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California & Massachusetts Just Legalized Recreational Marijuana Nov 8, 2016 5 0
In a major win for cannabis proponents, the state of California has just voted to legalize recreational marijuana. California just turned green.
The Proposition 64 was approved by California voters on Tuesday evening, which now makes California as the biggest state for legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.
As it is often said, “As California goes, so goes the nation.” This will certainly bring a massive push from the rest of the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
With the proposition now passed, people living in California who are 21 or older can now legally possess, transport and buy up to an ounce of marijuana as well as allowing up to 6 plants to be grown by an individual.
Nate Bradley , executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association is happy with the results:
“We are very excited that citizens of California voted to end the failed policy of marijuana prohibition. Proposition 64 will allow California to take its rightful place as the center of cannabis innovation, research and development.”
Proposition 64 was opposed by most major law enforcement groups, including the California Assn. of Highway Patrolmen, the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California and the California Police Chiefs Assn.
Interestingly and perhaps somewhat controversially, the initiative to vote in favor of the proposition was supported and funded by Facebook’s President Sean Park as well as billionaire George Soros. They raised nearly $16 million which is about 10 times the amount the opposition campaign raised.
Massachusetts has also joins California in passing recreational marijuana with Florida approving medical marijuana.
As of this writing , the vote for recreational marijuana is currently being approved in Maine, has officially been approved in Nevada and is being opposed in Arizona. Votes are also pending for medical marijuana in North Dakota, Arkansas and Montana.
We could very well wake up in the morning with 4 new states approving recreational marijuana and at least 1 state (Florida) approving medical marijuana.
With California, Massachusetts and Nevada passing the legalization of recreational marijuana, they now join Colorado, Alaska, Washington and Oregon.
Regardless of the presidential election outcome, we are surely to wake up to a different and more green friendly world tomorrow. Spread the good news!
Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science-Health Coaching and offers health coaching services through his website Orgonlight Health. You can follow the Orgonlight Health Facebook page or visit the website for more information on how to receive health coaching for yourself, your friend or family member as well as view other inspiring articles. | 0 |
On a hot night in July at Skylight Books in Los Angeles, Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst perched on stools to discuss their new book of photographs, “Relationship. ” It is by far the most personal of the many projects they have worked on together. The photographs chronicle their romance, which ended soon after many of these images were shown at the Whitney Biennial in 2014. Drucker and Ernst, who are perhaps better known as producers of the winning Amazon series “Transparent,” speak regularly about their work. But Drucker is plainly more at ease in the spotlight. She is tall and blond, with eyes as blue as swimming pools. That night she wore a white shift and heeled and she kept the microphone in its stand so she could gesture with her hands. The images, she told the audience, were meant as a private visual diary. “There was never an intent to show the photographs, even though we are both makers. ” They are both 33 and around the same height, but Ernst appears slighter. Wearing light brown pants, bright white Reeboks and a diamond stud in his right ear, he explained that he and Drucker have backgrounds in “ ethnography,” which he defined as “the practice of creating reflexive work, or work that reflected my community. ” This, he said, was a guiding impulse for the photographs in “Relationship. ” Anyone familiar with the rush of young love will recognize its hallmarks in these photos: all smoldering looks, parted lips and bare limbs on rumpled sheets. Drucker and Ernst have an easy sexual charisma, but that’s not what makes this series novel, even daring. During the years they were together, from 2008 to 2014, Drucker was in the process of transitioning from male to female, and Ernst from female to male. They met soon after they each began taking hormones, so the photographs also capture what Ernst has described as “the unflattering throes of yet another puberty. ” In calling this series “Relationship,” Drucker and Ernst are describing not only their partnership but also their relationship with themselves and their genders, their choices and their bodies. Though Drucker and Ernst are no longer a couple, they chose to publish these photographs anyway, because even as transgender stories are becoming more mainstream, there are few public examples of trans people leading ordinary lives, filled with love and lazy mornings. There are even fewer cases, as Drucker and Ernst emphasized that night in July, of trans people taking control over how they are represented. On “Transparent,” whose third season begins this month, their goal has been to ensure not just that trans people are depicted accurately on screen, but also that they are working behind the scenes — as writers, directors and personal assistants. Except for the character of Maura, a father who comes out to his family as trans, played by Jeffrey Tambor, every trans role on the show is filled by a trans person. The desire to see more transgender people in front of and behind the camera also informs much of Drucker’s and Ernst’s work as artists. Drucker is often the star of her own experimental videos and performances, which challenge conventional views of sex and gender. Her work has been shown at MoMA’s PS1, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and SFMoMA. Ernst’s narrative filmmaking tends to feature trans actors and documentary subjects and travel the festival circuit. He is at work on his first feature, which he describes as a “ aged movie comedy. ” “I remember when we were installing the photographs at the Whitney, someone asked us: ‘Oh, this is great. Who was the photographer? ’’u2009” Ernst told the bookstore crowd. “They assumed we were just the subjects, which is of course the history of this kind of work. But this is what I hope changes going forward. It’s the work we’re doing in television. It’s the work we’re doing in filmmaking. It’s the work we’re doing in photography. It’s making trans people the author, rather than just the subject. That’s really the key. ” cultural representations of trans people have historically reduced them to objects of pity or scorn. “Over and over again, somebody is crying in the mirror, taking off their wig,” Ernst said over dinner at a gastropub near the Silver Lake home he shares with his partner, Patrick Staff, an artist. “There are these fixations that gender people get that are not the way our lives are being lived at all. ” (To be “ gender” is to identify as the gender you are assigned at birth i. e. not trans.) A prime example, he said, is “Dallas Buyers Club,” a critically acclaimed film that earned Jared Leto an Oscar in 2014 for his supporting role as Rayon, an H. I. V. positive trans woman. “She was a throwaway character,” Ernst griped, “a drug addict who was there to make the protagonist learn about himself, and she was named after a synthetic fabric. That’s not a real person. ” In the two years since, there has been a marked political and cultural shift, and a growing public fascination with trans people. For Drucker and Ernst, whose work has always been about making the trans experience more visible, this has meant a much bigger audience. “There needs to be a little demystifying about trans existence,” Ernst said. “That’s why people have so many burning questions about it all. ” Soon after their photographs were installed at the Whitney, they began working on the first season of “Transparent” with Jill Soloway, the show’s creator. Soloway met Ernst when they each had a short film screening at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Soloway’s father had just come out as trans, and she found herself opening up to Ernst about what she was going through. They kept in touch. After Soloway finished writing the “Transparent” pilot, she reached out to Ernst and Drucker, knowing that she needed trans people involved from the start. “Everyone knows and loves them,” she told me in her office on the Paramount lot. “They’re the homecoming king and queen of the trans movement. ” Drucker and Ernst say the show has been able to “undo a lot of damage” when it comes to popular portrayals of trans people. Maura is not a sad loner whose every act and thought is about transitioning. Rather, she is the parent of a flawed but loving family in which everyone seems uncomfortable in their skin. Initially hired as consultants to prevent the show from trafficking in trans stereotypes, Drucker and Ernst were swiftly promoted to producers. They now offer notes on scripts, watch rough cuts of episodes and work closely with the writers and actors to make the trans performances as authentic as possible. Drucker helps Tambor understand how Maura feels about herself and her body, and she tweaks his mannerisms onscreen, regularly nudging him to close his legs, for example. Ernst directs the opening credits. Both also lead what they call “Trans 101” for everyone involved with the show, from Amazon executives to truck drivers, in which they explain the etiquette of working with trans colleagues. They stress that it is best to ask what pronoun people prefer. They advise against inquiring about the genitals or birth names of trans people, or referring to them as “trannies” or “ . ” “People are afraid of saying the wrong thing, so they don’t have the conversation,” Drucker says. “But I think there’s no undignified questions, only undignified answers. ” For many of the show’s trans performers and crew members, all of this has been changing. “’u2009‘Transparent’ was my out party,” Trace Lysette said at the show’s panel at Outfest, the L. G. B. T. film festival in Los Angeles, in July. Like many trans women, Lysette struggled for years to find employment, making money by stripping and sex work before she landed a recurring role as Shea, a friend of Maura’s. “It’s allowed me to get up off the pole and have a career that I never thought would really happen,” she said. Silas Howard, the show’s first trans director, says the call from Soloway was like getting “a golden ticket. ” Tambor has begun teaching acting classes for trans people in Los Angeles. Drian Juarez, the program manager of the Transgender Economic Empowerment Project, a Los Angeles nonprofit group, told me that the show’s success has inspired other companies, including NBC and Ryan Seacrest Productions, to ask her for leads on transgender talent for related stories. Given that trans people are twice as likely to be unemployed as the general population (four times as likely if they are not white) these industry jobs are a big deal. Drucker and Ernst also persuaded Amazon to sponsor the Trans Pride festival in Los Angeles. “I’ve just never seen any production like the familial, politicized, changing, changing empathy machine that is ‘Transparent,’’u2009” Ernst told me. The show, he conceded, doesn’t exactly represent a new norm in the industry, but he and Drucker hope that the many trans people involved in its production are gaining the tools necessary to make their own shows. “It’s certainly the beginning of something new,” Drucker says. For the moment, working on “Transparent” has turned Drucker and Ernst into trans spokespeople in Hollywood. Drucker was among the trans women hired to help Caitlyn Jenner navigate her new trans life on the season E! Network series “I Am Cait. ” Focus Features asked Ernst to be a consultant on “The Danish Girl,” a 2015 biopic about Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo reassignment surgery. Ernst was wary, as the film was already underway with a gender writer, director and star. Yet he found the studio receptive to his many recommendations, including his request that Focus “give back to the trans community in tangible ways. ” The studio created a $10, 000 scholarship for trans filmmakers and helped fund a web series of documentary shorts about trans pioneers called “We’ve Been Around,” directed by Ernst, which had its premiere online in March. “Being trans right now necessitates this multihyphenate way of being,” Drucker says. When Drucker and Ernst were growing up in the 1990s, mass media presented trans people mainly on talk shows like “Jerry Springer,” which tended to sensationalize with big reveals like “My Boyfriend Is a Girl!” and “Guess What . .. I’m a Man!” “You knew you didn’t want to be that, but at least there was something to point to,” Drucker said. We were eating homemade tabbouleh at her house in Cypress Park, which she shares with her boyfriend of nearly two years, Jerid Bartow, an urban designer. Finding models for how to live, or even a language to describe their feelings, was difficult for Drucker and Ernst. After Drucker discovered that she desired boys and Ernst that he liked girls (at least initially) they didn’t feel right calling themselves gay or lesbian because it didn’t feel as if they were attracted to the same sex. They were both relieved as teenagers to discover the term “queer,” which is elastic enough to elide standard definitions of sexual orientation and gender. Each was raised in a supportive home by compassionate parents — a rare privilege, they acknowledge. But public bathrooms were always sites of dread, and school was hard. Drucker’s taste for blue hair, dog collars and makeup made her a target in Syracuse, her hometown. “She hid a lot from us,” her mother, Penny Sori, told me. “It was only when I started working at the high school that I saw she took a lot of crap. ” When Drucker insisted on wearing a gown to the prom, her parents worried that she was putting herself at risk. But when Sori approached her, “Zackary looked at me in this funny way and said, ‘I need your support on this.’ So I said, ‘O. K. let me find my long black gloves and at least accessorize you effectively. ’’u2009” Ernst was similarly ostracized and bullied in Chapel Hill, where his father, Carl Ernst, is an studies professor at the University of North Carolina. As the only queer kid at his public middle school and later at the local Quaker school, he says, he was treated poorly by both students and teachers. With his parents’ blessing, he dropped out in ninth grade. He studied art and music at home, set up a darkroom in his closet and took classes at local community colleges. Art allowed them to vent their anger and defy convention. At her home, Drucker showed me a box of old photographs. Amid the pictures of her bar mitzvah (“a rare moment of gender conformity”) punk adolescence and androgynous college years was a series of snapshots from when she was 3 or 4, dressed in her mother’s clothes and beaming. “Those photographs provided an opportunity for me to see myself outside of the constraints of my reality,” she said. “ making has always provided this place to invent and reinvent myself. ” Drucker went on to study photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Soon after arriving in the city in 2001, she met Flawless Sabrina, a revered drag performer otherwise known as Jack Doroshow, and the first of many “ feminine elders” Drucker collected in search of “proof that it’s possible to have a sustainable life and live outside the rules. ” At Hampshire College, Ernst fell in love with media filmmaking, which allowed him to combine his many interests. For “The Drive North,” a 8 short that Ernst made and starred in as a undergraduate, he used his own animation and original score and experimented with slide projections and energetic editing to tell a story about two teenagers driving to college. It earned him several prizes at festivals around the world. After graduation he moved to New York, where he began working as a personal assistant on film and television projects and eventually became a producer and editor on MTV. Transitioning is a complicated and often stressful process. It took a while before it felt like a necessary step for either of them. Drucker always knew she flouted traditional gender categories, but she was able to maintain a level of androgyny until her early 20s. It was only when her body started aging in a masculine way that she realized “that wasn’t the path I wanted to go down. ” After she moved to Los Angeles to attend the California Institute of the Arts in 2005, she began taking estrogen. Although Ernst knew he wasn’t female, transitioning made him nervous, particularly because he knew few people who had done it. “It was still this kind of distant, weird relative of ‘gay and lesbian,’ and people didn’t understand it,” he says. Without public examples of happy, successful, aging trans people, he remembered wondering: Do people grow old? Do the hormones kill you? As a feminist, he asked himself: Do I even want to be a man? He was also troubled by the fact that it is impossible to transition quietly. It feels extremely public, he explains, because essentially everyone else has to transition, too. “At what point would my mom change pronouns to her hairdresser when they chat about me? It really ripples. It feels like jumping off a cliff. ” Ernst began taking hormones six months before driving country with a friend to study filmmaking at CalArts. They were just starting to pass as men, which meant they were “dealing with the panopticon of stop men’s rooms for the first time. ” The experience was racking, but he learned that men don’t really look at one another in men’s rooms. He also found that people were much kinder to him than when he was a nonconforming woman. “I got the, you know, ’Sup, chief? ’Sup, champ? It was really striking. ” Drucker met Ernst at a party soon after he arrived in Los Angeles. “It was such a revelation when we got together,” Drucker told me. Within a year they were subletting the rundown house of Ron Athey, a performance artist and mentor (they call him “Pops”). They collaborated on several projects, including “She Gone Rogue,” a dreamy experimental short featuring several “ feminine” legends from Drucker’s “chosen family” (Flawless Sabrina, Holly Woodlawn, Vaginal Davis) which debuted at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2012. They also took thousands of pictures of themselves and each other. The photographs that make up “Relationship” were never meant for a mass audience Drucker and Ernst didn’t even share them with friends. They feel like small, private gifts for each other. One shows them topless and tenderly touching each other in bed, their faces flushed with the thrill of discovery. Another finds them nuzzling in the dark corner of what looks like a party, their eyes closed. Often Drucker or Ernst seem to be posing for the other, preening before a mirror or gazing directly at the camera. These photos capture them as they figure out how to present their evolving selves. Ernst is often seen gazing in the distance, steely and remote, his face sprouting new facial hair. Drucker drapes herself across the bed, feline, hither and increasingly curvy. Their disdain for the “prurience” of public curiosity about trans bodies mean there are no full nudes in the book. Both lament that trans people are regularly asked about their genitals. “Cis people are not asked about their genitals, so it’s a bit of a double standard,” Drucker says. But the photos include some comic nods. One shows Ernst with two brown eggs between his legs another has him eating a long link of sausage impaled on a fork. Drucker is seen holding a peeled grapefruit in her lap. As a series, these photos trace a period in Drucker’s and Ernst’s lives when they were both undergoing profound personal changes. Yet they found something still and stable in each other. “That body of work really speaks to how much love and support can still be at the core of something that might seem unstable or uncertain or unfamiliar,” says Stuart Comer, a curator of the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Comer is largely responsible for making these images public. Impressed by their film “She Gone Rogue” and excited by the energy and identity politics of many trans artists, he visited Drucker and Ernst in their Los Angeles studio in 2013. Over margaritas, they shared some of their personal snapshots. Comer was so moved by them that he asked to include a selection in the Biennial. “The formula is so simple, but the cumulative effect of the series is extremely powerful,” says Comer, who is now the chief curator of media and performance art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Unlike Drucker and Ernst’s other collaborations, which tend to be more layered and complex, “Relationship” speaks to audiences because it is so direct. It is about love between two humans who happen to be trans. “It’s an shattering book,” says Kate Bornstein, a trans activist and queer theorist. “You can’t read this book and not understand that trans is an identity that is desirable and filled with desire. There are going to be people writing to Zackary and Rhys saying, ‘Oh, my God, thank you!’ Because right now, being attracted to a trans person is seen as a perversion. ” Drucker and Ernst understand why people are curious about them. “Trans people are basically asking everyone to evaluate their notions of gender,” Drucker says. This involves more than changing a few names and pronouns. It means upending our rules about who gets to be a man or a woman, and how we expect everyone to behave. The effects can be disorienting. As someone who has occasionally chafed against the ways women are expected to perform femininity, I found myself marveling at Drucker’s girlishness, including her perfectly painted fingernails (against my own nailed nubs). What, I asked her, inspires these choices? Were they not burdensome? Drucker patiently explained that she does what makes her feel confident, and she likes the look of manicured nails. It was an answer that could have come from my mother. Recognizing the difference between how gender is felt and how it is enforced can also be liberating. “Modern masculinity is so confining,” Jerid Bartow, Drucker’s boyfriend, told me one evening. “We’re trained to swallow our emotions, to not seem like a sissy. But those expectations don’t exist in our relationship, which is such a relief. ” Bartow recalled a night I was with him and Drucker while they were getting ready for a party, when he declared, “I’m having a clothing crisis!” next to a bed of discarded outfits. “That’s something men are trained not to say. ” Ernst points out that maleness does indeed come with privileges, like being able to ask for things unapologetically and say things authoritatively without being judged. But, he says, “effeminate men, gay men, smaller men, people who are perceived as younger men,” don’t enjoy quite the same benefits. As a sparsely bearded trans man who now identifies as gay, he says he has found it harder to secure a strong place in this “incredible pecking order. ” He adds that men who believe they are in only spaces will say “repulsive things about women. ” He suspects that this misogynistic posturing is largely about earning the respect of other men. “It’s this male obsession with each other that results in a kind of weird, sort of insecure sniffing. ” Both Drucker and Ernst have made a commitment — separately and together — to live their lives as openly and proudly as possible. “As an artist, I’ve always believed in having a fully integrated self and not omitting parts of who you are or what your history is,” Drucker says. “And being a woman named Zackary makes me very visible. ” Being out is not always easy. Like most trans men, Ernst passes as a cis male, so telling people he’s trans means “rocking that boat every day. ” He recalls his discomfort during the Q. A. sessions after screenings of his CalArts thesis short, “The Thing,” at Sundance in 2012. The film is about a heterosexual couple on a fraught road trip. The man is trans. Audience members naturally asked him why he made that choice. “I realized I had to come out as trans every time on the stage,” Ernst remembers. “You have to muster all this bravery and courage to transition and tell the whole world, and then you think, ‘O. K. good, that’s over.’ But then you realize you have to continue that every day — forever. ” | 1 |
LOS ANGELES — Over the last year, the National Geographic Channel has turned itself inside out. Gone are derivative, reality shows set in Alaska. Arriving are lavish productions like “Mars,” a from an team that began on Monday. Even as it spends more on less — about $400 million a year for 150 hours of programming, compared with $300 million for 450 hours before — the channel has cut advertising minutes by up to 50 percent. Will this of National Geographic succeed? Some people in the television business think the answer is no. But James Murdoch, now in his second year as chief executive of 21st Century Fox, is betting that his unorthodox plan signifies the future — how networks like National Geographic must evolve if they are going to survive (and, hopefully, thrive) in a rapidly changing media environment. The overhaul is Mr. Murdoch’s first major entertainment initiative. “It’s not really a linear ratings game anymore,” he said in an interview about the channel, which is by Fox. “It’s about creating demand across platforms, and part of the way to do that is to have programming that is big and commands attention. The last thing you can be in this world is disposable. ” After sauntering along for years without posing any real threat, National Geographic and other lightly viewed channels — CMT, Oxygen, truTV — are now facing a future. Younger viewers increasingly live in an world, where networks don’t matter. Tired of paying for channels they rarely watch, consumers are downsizing to skinny core bundles or forgoing pay television altogether. “National Geographic has not been considered a network,” said Anthony DiClemente, an analyst with Instinet. series represent National Geographic’s effort to avoid getting squeezed out. Fox also hopes to convince distributors like Comcast and ATT to pay more to carry National Geographic. The channel, available in 91 million homes in the United States, receives about 23 cents per subscriber per month, according to SNL Kagan. Discovery Channel, in comparison, receives almost double that amount. In many ways, the new National Geographic plan is similar to the one Fox has long used at FX, home to prestige dramas like “Fargo. ” “Premium is a word we are using exhaustively now,” said Courteney Monroe, a former marketer for HBO and others who was named chief executive of National Geographic Global Networks last year. “Entertaining and smart are not mutually exclusive. ” “Mars” marks the hairpin turn. The $20 million produced by a team that includes the pair Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, mixes scripted drama and documentary sequences in a story about efforts by humans to colonize the red planet. The fictionalized portion looks at a crewed mission to Mars in 2033. Interviews with scientists and footage taped at SpaceX, the aerospace firm founded by Elon Musk, make up the rest. Mr. Grazer said he first pitched the expensive project to Peter Rice, chief executive of Fox Networks Group, over lunch. “It was the fastest ‘yes’ I think I’ve ever gotten,” he said, emphasizing that Mr. Rice has played an important role in National Geographic’s turn. Mr. Grazer described Ms. Monroe, who has limited programming experience, as “high quality, a big thinker, the opposite of petty, someone who will forgive the little things to get to the big things. ” In the pipeline behind “Mars” are ambitious scripted projects like “Genius,” an anthology series, and “Dragon Teeth,” a limited series from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television. These kinds of efforts, which Declan Moore, chief executive of National Geographic Partners, called “exciting, adventurous, audacious, awesome,” are designed to attract cable viewers who are tired of rote reality shows. Mr. Moore plans to monetize viewing across platforms (video on demand, streaming services, iTunes, DVD) while profiting through improved corporate synergy. There are “Mars” books from a publishing division the titular magazine has Mars on its cover and digital channels (National Geographic is the No. 1 noncelebrity brand on Instagram) will also push out “Mars” content. Much of what Fox is doing runs counter to conventional business methods, leading some rivals to scratch their heads. Specials are great, but what fills all the hours in between? And since when is the game not about linear ratings? A recent stunt by National Geographic was seen as particularly odd. The channel paid millions of dollars for “Before the Flood,” a climate change documentary produced by a team that included Leonardo DiCaprio, and after running it a couple of times, the channel gave it away for free on YouTube. National Geographic executives readily acknowledge that they will not make money on the film rather, they always saw it as a effort. National Geographic, after all, got its start in 1888 as an academic society dedicated to spreading geographic knowledge. A company spokesman, Christopher Albert, said the film was viewed, at least in part, by roughly 64 million people worldwide. “We see this as a really big success,” he said. National Geographic Channel has a long history overseas, where it reaches more than 350 million homes. But it became a network in the United States only in 2001. There was no real cable niche left to fill, so the channel, then a partnership between Fox and the National Geographic Society, largely copied the reality show playbooks of competitors. It worked only modestly, and serious society members recoiled at lowbrow efforts like “Taboo” and “Meet the Hutterites. ” “We sort of never lived up to the potential of the brand,” Ms. Monroe said. Then the media business started to fray. National Geographic magazine, with its photography, watched as subscriptions dwindled, putting pressure on the affiliated National Geographic Society, a nonprofit dedicated to pursuits. And the television apparatus started to encounter challenges of its own. Last year, 21st Century Fox paid $725 million to buy the bulk of the National Geographic Society’s business holdings. Together they created a new company, National Geographic Partners, which encompasses television, print publications, maps, digital media, children’s media, licensing and tours. The partners share governance, but Fox owns 73 percent of the venture. The National Geographic Society continued as a separate nonprofit. Even as the channel’s new programming strategy has prompted questions, it has answered others. Some purists were outraged by the Fox deal. As the primatologist Jane Goodall told a Canadian interviewer: “I truly thought it was a joke. This can’t be true. National Geographic, the National Geographic, being owned almost entirely by Fox News, which is filled with climate deniers and almost science?” A year later, those worries have dissipated. Gary E. Knell, chief executive of the National Geographic Society, said he has been thrilled by the programming. And he noted that his philanthropy suddenly has lots of money to spend. The society recently announced an expedition to document the sources of the Cuando River in the remote highlands of Angola as part of an effort to protect its ecosystem. “Most nonprofits spend most of their time ” Mr. Knell said. “We now spend our time thinking about how to change the world. ” | 1 |
VIDEO : CNN BUFFOON WOLF BLITZER BEGS TRUMP TEAM TO STOP ATTACKS ON MEDIA VIDEO : CNN BUFFOON WOLF BLITZER BEGS TRUMP TEAM TO STOP ATTACKS ON MEDIA Videos By Amy Moreno October 27, 2016
We will NEVER stop attacking this disgraceful North Korea-style government-run propaganda media whose sole purpose is to spew pro-Hillary rhetoric, anti-Trump lies, and cover up for the most unliked candidate in the history of American elections.
The American mainstream media is the enemy of the people.
If they want Trump of any of us to STOP attacking them, they need to STOP trying to ALTER the outcome of a presidential election by behaving like a SUPERPAC for Hillary Clinton.
Until then, no – we won’t stop.
Actually, we’ll rev it up a NOTCH.
Watch the video:
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) October 25, 2016 Tune out the North Korea media.
And if you see them online, engage them – challenge them on their biased and unfair reporting.
HOLD THESE BASTARDS ACCOUNTABLE.
Do not shy away or hold back.
If we want a free country we need to stand up and FIGHT for it! This is a movement – we are the political OUTSIDERS fighting against the FAILED GLOBAL ESTABLISHMENT! Join the resistance and help us fight to put America First! Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
synchronized makeup | 0 |
(16 fans) - Advertisement - Yeah. I know, I know. I'm an iconoclast. Yep and I'm proud of it. So the other day I got to thinking about religion and other things in the Homo Sapiens space called life. You know I get philosophical from time to time. And then I get inspired to tackle some very touchy and sensitive subjects that usually set off a lot of people. I get a perverse joy in rubbing people the wrong way and send them into WFT hissy fits. So you know that this article is going to have some folks seeing red and the God-police will start pulling out their truncheons to give me a whack on the ole noggin just to prove their point that I should not meddle in the affairs of the Great Father somewhere in a place called Heaven. The fact is that today, with the click of a mouse button the era of seeking answers and advice about God directly from rabbis, pastors, or imams is gradually coming to an end. And the cause of this backsliding and undermining of the hitherto unquestioned role of these "emissaries of God on earth?" Well, it's not a human person but Artificial Intelligence personified and its called "Google." Google may be the well-known supercomputer system that processes information by nano-seconds but AI has been with us for a long time. Consider the following: Self-driving cars have arrived; Siri (on your Iphones and Ipads) can listen to your voice and find the nearest movie theatre; and I.B.M. set the " Jeopardy"- conquering Watson to work on medicine, initially training medical students, perhaps eventually helping in diagnosis. Nowadays, scarcely a week goes by without the announcement of a new A.I. product or technique. And for all the constant complaining about the religious right's inappropriate influence in politics and religious conservatives' attempts to tear down the church-state wall, the secular movement in America is actually doing quite well. The most recent Pew Research Center poll says 23 percent of Americans are religiously unaffiliated (atheists, agnostics and no-religion people); that percentage increases to 35 percent for Americans under thirty-five -- young people are not doing too many religious conversions, and see God as part of a belief system of their parents. So, for Americans in the Bible Belt and elsewhere this is alarming news - if secularism hasn't yet taken over the country, its on track for that to happen. And its all the fault of artificial intelligence as epitomized in the incredible superpower of Google . Now I do NOT intend to be dismissive of religion or disrespect people's beliefs OR their right to worship and believe what they want to. Me? I believe that every Thursday night when karaoke takes place in Brooklyn my bulldog Max turns into a werewolf seeking cats to relieve them of their hemoglobin fluids. You get my drift -- you can believe what you want but that does not make what you believe true. But one thing is not in doubt -- Google and God are on our daily human agendas. Indeed, the questions that Americans type into Google searches about God appear to confirm the country's rising secularism. For example, according to an economist writing in the New York Times : "Despite the rising popularity of Pope Francis, who was elected in 2013, Google searches for churches are 15 percent lower in the first half of this decade than they were during the last half of the previous one. The top Google search including the word "God" is "God of War," a videogame, with more than 700,000 searches per year." Bummer, people searching for a videogame with the word "God" in it? WFT! Are people losing their cotton-picking minds? And to make matter worse the same economist, Stephens-Davidowitz, also discovered that "Searches questioning God's existence are up." He went further to seek what questions people Google whilst in their periods of doubt: The No. 1 question? In the United States of America? Is without a doubt: "who created God?" And the second? "why God allows suffering?" in number 3 "why does God hate me? And in fourth place: "why God needs so much praise?" - Advertisement - It now appears from this data that people in America are looking to Google for answers to some pertinent and serious questions about God and in an oblique way questioning what they were taught by their parents and learned in churches on Sundays for so many years. There is absolutely no doubt that the Internet and Google have been at odds with religion. The Google phenomenon is also explainable in the context of the adversarial relationship between science and religion -- they just don't mix. Religion -- all religions -- are based on a system of blind, unquestioning belief and a rejection of objective inquiry that is substituted with faith. Religions place and validate this faith by statements found in their Holy Books that's interpreted by preachers, pastors, priests and ministers. These writings and teachings MUST be accepted without question by the faithful. Science on the other hand believes that ALL things in nature should be questioned and examined. And that it is only by this kind of objective inquiry that humankind has progressed and will progress. The Internet and Google are not the products of a Sunday sermon or the dogmatic faith or prayers of the faithful. Advances in medicine, communications technology, transportation, and other things that define modern human existence are the results of science -- not faith or belief. In fact, the cornerstone of the scientific method is to question everything; science accepts nothing that is not provable -- again and again and again. The rise of American secularism and of individuals with no religious affiliations is directly due to the rise and use of the Internet. Hitherto the Internet, and in particular Google , people used libraries and their church leaders for research on questions of faith, belief, and the existence of God. Religion had a stranglehold on knowledge and issues of God and Sin. But with the advent of Google information and knowledge became readily available and a new generation is now growing up in a society more open to doubting old canards and traditional belief systems. Google has undermined religion's central premise for the belief in God -- his all-knowing faculty. Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Google can bring up literally millions of hits SIMULTANEOUSLY on every conceivable topic that the human mind can imagine -- including Biblical history, origins and that of other religious books, and their pros and cons. For iconoclasts like me declining religious affiliation is akin to social improvement. It's evidence of the clarifying influence of scientific rationality that's the end result of the global information revolution. I know that one of the questions here will undoubtedly be about personal faith in the context of our ability to pay bills, order clothes and food, communicate with friends and family and send emails across the word in seconds. And too, I'll hear the issue of the difference between Google as a profit-making, altruistic organization, and the church whose primary concern is about the condition of our souls. These are valid arguments when it comes to God and Google. I'm not suggesting that this is an either or situation. But what I am suggesting is that modern experiences in the secular world are now impacting religious belief and not in a very positive manner. - Advertisement - And yes, from a religious standpoint the question is: because of the rise of Google are religious institutions that used to answer questions about God and Sin crowdsourcing the acts of faith that the entire system is built on? Put another way, does religion risk losing its ability to provide answers to life on earth when Google's data cannot do so? And, in today's Internet and Google dominated world will faithful people when in doubt, Google "who created God?" | 0 |
The full U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday voted against rehearing the panel decision that had affirmed a lower court’s blocking President Donald Trump’s first executive order on immigration from nations. [Five conservative judges on the San court dissented from that denial of an en banc rehearing, writing an opinion explaining why their court should reconsider the case. The dissent by written by Judge Jay Bybee, who began his dissent by stating, “Whatever we, as individuals, may feel about the President or the Executive Order, the President’s decision was well within the powers of the presidency, and the wisdom of the policy choices made by the President is not a matter for our consideration. ” Bybee quoted a 1950 Supreme Court case which declared, “The exclusion of aliens is a fundamental act of sovereignty. ” The dissenting judges also quoted the relevant provision of federal law, where Congress decided at 8 U. S. C. § 1182( f): Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. Bybee went on to explain that: [T]he panel made several other legal errors. Its holding that the States were likely to succeed on the merits of their procedural due process claims confound precedent. And its unreasoned assumption that courts should simply plop Establishment Clause cases from the domestic context over to the foreign affairs context ignores the realities of our world. The Supreme Court held in 1976 that “the responsibility for regulating the relationship between the United States and our alien visitors has been committed to the political branches of the Federal Government. ” The political branches are elected officials in Congress and the White House. The law requires judges to “distinguish between two groups of aliens: those who are present within our borders and those who are seeking admission,” Bybee continued. The Ninth Circuit panel acknowledged that the Supreme Court forbids courts from looking to the motivation of immigration officers when they deny an alien entry into the United States, but then held that this rule does not keep judges from determining the motivation when a president makes the same decision. That “stands the separation of powers on its head,” Bybee added. “With a moment’s thought, that principle cannot withstand the gentlest inquiry. ” Showing how the Supreme Court’s Kleindiest v. Mandel case sets forth the constitutional rule that controls this legal challenge, Bybee observed, “Compounding its omission, the panel missed all of our own cases applying Mandel to constitutional challenges to immigration decisions. ” After exploring several Supreme Court cases that all point in the same direction, the dissenting judges summarized, “When we apply the correct standard of review, the President does not have to come forward with supporting documentation to explain the basis for the Executive Order. ” “As tempting as it is to use the judicial power to balance … competing interests as we see fit, we cannot let our personal inclinations get ahead of important, overarching principles about who gets to make decisions in our democracy,” Bybee said. Noting that “every four years we hold a contested presidential election” in which every judge is disappointed at some point in their careers, he added that federal judges must “respect the consequences of our elections” and “trust that the wisdom of the nation as a whole will prevail in the end. ” Judge Bybee and his dissenting colleagues concluded: Above all, in a democracy, we have the duty to preserve the liberty of the people by keeping the enormous powers of the national government separated. We are judges, not Platonic Guardians. It is our duty to say what the law is, and the of our law, the U. S. Constitution, commits the power to make foreign policy, including the decisions to permit or forbid entry into the United States, to the President and Congress. It is unlikely that the Trump administration will petition the Supreme Court to review this particular decision, which concerned only the first policy, Executive Order 13769. More likely, when one or more of the federal appeals courts hearing the challenges to the revised policy — Executive Order 13780 — issues their decisions on the new order, the High Court will finally weigh in, unless the policy has expired by that point. Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski. | 1 |
According to a report, Attorney General Loretta Lynch advised FBI Director James Comey to not send a letter to Congress that would inform them of new emails the agency discovered in their investigation of Hillary Clinton 's illegal email server.
The New Yorker reported :
On Friday, James Comey , the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting independently of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, sent a letter to Congress saying that the F.B.I. had discovered e-mails that were potentially relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton 's private server. Coming less than two weeks before the Presidential election, Comey's decision to make public new evidence that may raise additional legal questions about Clinton was contrary to the views of the Attorney General, according to a well-informed Administration official. Lynch expressed her preference that Comey follow the department's longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election , but he said that he felt compelled to do otherwise.
Comey's decision is a striking break with the policies of the Department of Justice, according to current and former federal legal officials. Comey, who is a Republican appointee of President Obama, has a reputation for integrity and independence, but his latest action is stirring an extraordinary level of concern among legal authorities, who see it as potentially affecting the outcome of the Presidential and congressional elections.
"You don't do this," one former senior Justice Department official said. "It's aberrational. It violates decades of practice." The reason, according to the former official, who asked not to be identified because of ongoing cases involving the department, "is because it impugns the integrity and reputation of the candidate, even though there's no finding by a court, or in this instance even an indictment."
In the letter that Comey sent to staffers , he expressed that he was under an obligation to inform the people's representatives of the finding.
"Of course, we don't ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed," Comey wrote. "I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record."
"At the same time, however, given that we don't know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don't want to create a misleading impression," he added. "In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season there is significant risk of being misunderstood."
What I don't get, or maybe I really do, is that Comey would not recommend charges against Clinton when he knew for a fact that she broke federal law and had the evidence in hand to prove it. So, don't be deceived by this recent opening of the Clinton probe into her email crimes . Nothing is going to come of it because all of these people are in bed together and they are merely putting on a show for the American people. Mark my words. Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook , Google Plus , & Twitter . You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here . shares | 0 |
Friday on ABC’s “The View,” the panel discussed the possibility of Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Sarah Palin visit to the White House earlier this week being “the saddest day in the history of the White House since the British burned it to the ground in 1814?” Joy Behar asked, “So, is this the saddest day in the history of the White House since the British burned it to the ground in 1814?” Sunny Hostin said, “I think so. I think what was offensive to me was that Sarah Palin said she brought them because Jesus wasn’t available, so she’s comparing these folks to Jesus. ” Behar sarcastically added, “Oh, but they’re going to make America great again, these three. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
An alarming 66 per cent of Germans are afraid they will become the victim of a terrorist attack, with 10 per cent perceiving an “acute threat” to their safety. [The fear is even more widespread among women, the study published by German legal expenses insurance group ROLAND found. Of the female respondents, 74 per cent said they sometimes feel unsafe in crowded places, and nine per cent felt permanently threatened and scared. The authors state: “A large part of the population doesn’t feel safe anymore when visiting crowded places. The fear of becoming the victim of a terrorist attack with a high number of casualties is considerable. “A total of 45 per cent of respondents feel uneasy when visiting crowded locations like stations, festivals or even in the downtowns. “Three percent of the population feel permanently unsafe when visiting a public place along with many other people. ” The poll, of 1, 458 citizens over was conducted in October, before the Islamic State truck attack on the Berlin Christmas market in which Tunisia migrant murdered 12 people. The truck rampage was Germany’s worst terror atrocity since the 1980s, but followed 21 months of Islamist suicide bombings, shootings, and axe attacks. The terrorist killers responsible have included numerous “refugees” from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Algeria, as well as several German citizens of Turkish descent indoctrinated in radical Islam. Around seven of the plots and attacks are thought to have been linked to Islamic State. Germany appears to have become a target of Islamist aggression since the beginning of the migrant crisis in the summer of 2015, with some blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open borders mass migration policy. Several serious plots have been foiled by security forces. In February last year, three Algerians said to have “lived in refugee shelters” were arrested for plotting to attack Berlin. The men had links to Islamic State, and the Berlin prosecutor’s office said they were aware of a “concrete” plan to target the German capital. | 1 |
Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... I'm ok. Your turn. Go! Anonymous Coward Report Copyright Violation Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... Pretty rank these last few days. Wash day on Friday so not long till Im feeling fresh again. Have an itchy anus too. Anonymous Coward Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... My underarms smell like the end of times Anonymous Coward ( OP ) Report Copyright Violation Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... Pretty rank these last few days. Wash day on Friday so not long till Im feeling fresh again. Have an itchy anus too. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 73271021 You need to wash everyday. Why do you Europeans walk around stinking like that? You know better than that! Go hit the shower now! | 0 |
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With just days to go until the election, the Democrats are trying to salvage what little remains of Hillary Clinton’s reputation. Time Magazine is now trying to defend the left-wing candidate with a last resort–using the sexism card.
As we get closer to Election Day, the left seems to be running out of excuses for their floundering candidate. Left-wing heads are on the verge of exploding. Not unlike the Galaxy S7. So, in Time Magazine’s latest attempt to play off Hillary Clinton’s FBI investigation , they’re digging deep and pulling out… the sexism card ?!
I am mad. I am mad because I am scared. And if you are a woman, you should be, too. Emailgate is a bitch hunt, but the target is not Hillary Clinton. It’s us.
No it isn’t. Emailgate, or my preferred term “Dikileaks” is about a candidate mishandling confidential email. A flagrant abuse of the law and our national security. Also, Hillary Clinton doesn’t represent all women. But nice try, dummy. 1
The only reason the whole email flap has legs is because the candidate is female. Can you imagine this happening to a man? Clinton is guilty of SWF (Speaking While Female), and emailgate is just a reminder to us all that she has no business doing what she’s doing and must be punished, for the sake of all decent women everywhere. There is so much of that going around.
Actually yes, we can imagine this happening to a man. Men cannot hide behind their vagina, or Time readers’ stupidity. Which means they’re usually punished. See also General Petraeus . Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is running for President. She might even win. While under FBI investigation. So “muh sexism” charges are lazy. And insulting to anyone who has three brain cells (like the writer of the Time article).
The people are demanding Clinton act like moral exemplars, thundering from the pulpit like Jonathan Edwards or Cotton Mather. But Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and their many conservative friends are not remotely Clinton’s moral superiors. They are simply bullies, using gender discrimination to give a veneer of plausibility to their accusations.
“Moral exemplars”? “Thundering from the pulpit”? No, Time Magazine feminist shill, Robin Lakoff. People are demanding Hillary Clinton not be a criminal liar. Not really that much to ask of someone who wants to lead the country.
Trump and the other men on Time Magazine’s list haven’t done anything illegal. That’s the difference, not their sex organs. Not their fashion choices. Evidence is piling up against Hillary more and more each day. Even the mainstream media is turning against her . Which means pantsuits or regular suits enter not into the Hillary is a Criminal equation. Her investigation isn’t about sexism. It’s about Hillary breaking the law.
But desperate Time calls for predictable, desperate measures: SEXISM! Just as any criticism of Obama was deemed RACISM.
Leftists are running out of defenses for the pantsuited devil-spawn. So they resort to old hat tactics. Just like they do when they say Wikileaks is the product of Russian hackers.
If we had a brick for every Clinton scandal and misdeed, the wall wouldn’t cost a cent. There’s nothing sexist about holding someone, male or female, accountable for their actions. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite. It would be sexist NOT to hold Hillary to the same standards as all the boys. This is absolutely ridiculous. It’s not that we are against having a woman for president. We’re just against that woman being Hillary because she is corrupt and a pathological liar. Related Items | 0 |
Why So Few Whistleblowers? A Former CIA Agent's Story « on: Today at 11:42:10 AM » Kevin Shipp is a major whistleblower coming from a solid background as a courageous, decorated CIA officer and anti terrorism expert. He held several high level positions in the CIA. A 2011 New York Times article describes the shocking details of Shipp's harrowing personal story of seeking justice and eventually turning whistleblower after his health and the health of his family were severely compromised.Running into the juggernaut faced by so many whistleblowers, Shipp ended up with both his marriage and his career destroyed. Yet in the end Shipp prevailed and managed to stay out of jail. He now speaks openly about both his own personal experiences and how the system works to silence and punish whistleblowers, and in so doing keep corruption and illegal activities at all levels covered up.Shipp's excellent essay below explains in detail why so few whistleblowers have come out on highly illegal activities related to Pentagon corruption, CIA manipulation and overthrow of governments, 9/11 shenanigans, secret mind control programs, and much more. His words show just how much courage it takes for people like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange to expose major government corruption. By spreading the word and calling for clear strong laws to protect whistleblowers, we can make a difference.With best wishes for a transformed world,Fred Burks for PEERS and WantToKnow.infoFormer White House interpreter and whistleblowerSilencing WhistleblowersBy Kevin ShippWhy dont more whistleblowers come out to expose illegal or unconstitutional secret government operations? If these activities are so illegal, why are people not coming forward to report them?Over the last fifty years US government intelligence agencies have perfected a complex, sequential system to systematically silence or destroy any employee, including his or her family, who attempts to reveal illegal or unconstitutional activities conducted as part of secret government operations.As a condition of employment, military and intelligence employees recruited for secret operations are required to sign a secrecy agreement, or nondisclosure agreement, before being given access to the position, which offers high pay and status in the organization. This agreement threatens civil and criminal penalties if the employee reveals ANY information regarding the program. Thinking the agreement will only be used for legal purposes and will get them the coveted job, all employees eagerly sign it.This secrecy agreement was originally designed to protect legitimate classified information, to protect military personnel during wartime and protect legitimate national defense information and technology.However, because of the binding power of the agreement, government agencies began using it as a powerful tool to silence federal employees who question the legality of certain government operations. It was the perfect tool to threaten, silence or jail any whistle blower who dared to challenge the secret operations of government.Today, the secrecy agreement is routinely used as an efficient weapon to intimidate or silence employees. Annual refresher briefings are given to remind employees of the penalties for violating the agreement. These penalties include huge fines, termination, financial ruin and even prison all of which mean the destruction of their lives and their families. Most will not reveal any wrongdoing, no matter how egregious, for fear of calculated, severe retribution.When employees sign the secrecy agreement and are cleared for classified programs, they are not told they are giving up their right to a jury trial, or to sue the agency that hired them. If they try to do so as a whistle blower, they find they have no right to be heard in federal court. Many have found this out when their case was denied; then it was too late. That is part of the system.If the employee attempts to contact their Congressman or Senator, their representative is blocked from receiving any information about their case, because they do not have the necessary clearance.When the employee attempts to blow the whistle to the Congressional intelligence committees, their response is ignored. It is made clear to committee members that they are not to touch such cases, so they refer them back to their Senator or Congressman, who cannot access information involved in their case.If a courageous employee continues to proceed and blow the whistle, a system of personal and career destruction follows. This begins with promotions being denied, being turned down for sensitive or career enhancing assignments, and their files being flagged, ruining their reputation inside their agency. At this point their career is over. If they go quietly, the retribution stops.When the employee still continues their effort to report the information, their travel records, personnel records, medical records and security records are searched for mistakes or damaging information that can be used to threaten them with termination. Their telephones and computers are monitored searching for incriminating information. If no substantive information can be found, it is fabricated and placed in their file.Employees who refuse to back down are then subjected to internal security investigations, multiple, hostile interviews, attempting to get them to recant their information, and multiple polygraph interrogations.In many cases, the employee is commanded to report to the internal medical office for psychological evaluation. If they comply, the evaluation labels them as paranoid, unstable, or disgruntled. This information is placed in their file and is used later to justify the agencys action in the event of outside scrutiny.If the employee contacts a member of the news media, they are immediately cited with violating their secrecy agreement and criminal penalties are filed against them. Several news media outlets are connected to the CIA and NSA and notify them of the employees contact.Finally, the employee is forced to resign after being threatened with termination in kangaroo court meetings where the information fabricated in their files is used against them.After termination or forced resignation, interest rates on their internal credit union loans are raised to make the payments unaffordable. The release of the employees retirement funds needed provide for their family are blocked (a felony). The agency black lists them from gaining employment with other government agencies or contractors, further ruining them financially.Dehumanized, financially ruined and under severe emotional and mental pressure, the employees family begins to break apart. If the familys foundation is not strong, this results in alcoholism, depression and divorce. In some cases, it has resulted in the employee committing suicide, the ultimate goal of the program of destruction. This silences the employee permanently, obscuring the agencys role in their destruction. It is the perfect crime.Should the employee still have the resolve to endure this program of career and personal destruction and continues to press for release of the information, or if his family members attempt to sue the agency for the illegal activity, classified agencies will invoke the secretive State Secrets Privilege, which orders the employee and his family not to reveal the information or face prison. If the familys case reaches federal court, the State Secrets Privilege is invoked and the case is shut down and sealed. Federal judges rubber stamp the censoring of the case without reviewing the case facts.Now that the employees case, and in some cases their familys case, is shut down and under seal, citing national security, the process of silencing the employee is complete. Many are never heard from again, fearing prison if they talk to anyone, including an attorney.Using attractive awards of multi-million dollar contracts, the US government military industrial complex convinces private corporations that their employees must be cleared and sign secrecy agreements. This includes employees at all levels, from secretaries to CEOs. Once they have signed the secrecy agreement, they are bound to keep all information, including potentially illegal information, quiet, being threatened with the same penalties.To date, over five million Americans have been required to sign this secrecy agreement and now fall under the shadow of the State Secrets Privilege.Only a few federal employees have made it through this systematic process of destruction to reveal what they know about the illegal operation they observed. Sadly, some whistle blowers have died mysterious deaths or committed suicide.Employees in intelligence agencies are aware of penalties contained in the secrecy agreement and the huge risk in violating it, even to expose corruption. Most look the other way to protect their careers, retirements and families. Many have observed the outward signs of the system of personal and career destruction used on others and a culture of fear exists. But, they are not fully aware of all that is being done. The full scope of the system is only known at the higher levels of the organization and is hidden from employees, until its use is necessary.This is why we do not see whistle blowers coming out and reporting what they have seen. This system has been used and perfected for over fifty years. It is being used because it works.It works, unless the system is exposed, the whistle blower knows what is coming and prepares for it, and they are supported by private organizations and individuals dedicated to truth in government.This support is essential, not only to protect the whistle blower and their family, but also to defend our Constitutional form of government from tyranny.Kevin M. Shipp,Video https://youtu.be/Nl5NW9KcMt0 Logged "The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."Thomas Jefferson | 0 |
Ain’t you glad, Little Milton sang, that things don’t talk? Especially our bodies. In the 1960s and ’70s Reader’s Digest printed a series of essays with titles like “I Am Joe’s Lung. ” These were popular, and weird. In “I Am Joe’s Heart,” this vital organ emoted like a stereotypically aggrieved Jewish mother. “When Joe thinks of me at all, he thinks of me as fragile and delicate. Delicate! When so far in his life I have pumped more than 300, 000 tons of blood?” Some of our organs, this time of year, are beyond speech. Recall the headline in The Onion, the satirical magazine, about a country singer: “Liver Flees George Jones’ Body. ” James Hamblin’s first book is titled “If Our Bodies Could Talk: A Guide to Operating and Maintaining a Human Body. ” He’s a graduate of Indiana University’s medical school and a senior editor at The Atlantic. His book began its life as an online video series, also called “If Our Bodies Could Talk. ” His segments are like “The Dr. Oz Show,” if “The Dr. Oz Show” were produced by quirky interns from public radio’s “This American Life. ” Sadly there are no talking spleens or thyroids or wombs in Mr. Hamblin’s book. Sadly too there is little identifiable soul in it. Its cardinal humors are wan. “If Our Bodies Could Talk” is a numbingly upbeat grab bag of anecdotes and factoids and curiosities with no . As your literary M. D. I cannot recommend it, except in the tiniest doses. To sit by its bedside for very long is to watch a patient expire. The strangling thing about “If Our Bodies Could Talk” is that someone has told Mr. Hamblin that he’s funny — there’s an attempt at a joke in almost every other paragraph — but he isn’t actually so, at least not on the page. You recognize his jokes as “humor,” but they don’t make you smile. A typical formulation: “Adrenaline is the hormone that’s meant to be released when we are under stress and need energy, say, to outrun a bear or lift a fallen boulder off our climbing partner. (He’s probably not alive anymore, but it’s worth checking. )” Not abysmal, you might think. But over the course of a long book these pokes in the ribs are monstrously wearing. They’re like having a pebble in your ski boot partway down a long slope, or a lash you can’t remove from your eye. Mr. Hamblin is at his best in “If Our Bodies Could Talk” on those rare occasions when he drops his dementedly amiable tone. Once in a while he goes on the attack against greed and waste and stupidity in health matters, and things pick up. “What is gluten?” “What makes hair curl?” “Do I need eight glasses of water a day?” “Why do males have nipples?” This is the sort of trampled ground that Mr. Hamblin’s book mostly covers. He maintains an interest in offbeat diseases, such as one that makes some people scratch constantly and one that causes the human skin to easily rub off. He dispenses offbeat facts as if they were canapés on a tray. “The average person has about six pounds of skin. ” “People with tattoos are six times more likely to have hepatitis C. ” “We produce 1. 5 liters of saliva a day. ” Then he turns to address the charlatans in the supplements industry, and his blood finally begins to simmer. Suddenly your eyeballs don’t have to be forced to remain on the page. He takes aim at a 1994 law called DSHEA (the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act) that prevents almost any regulation or safety testing of supplements. Supplements, he writes, is “a meaningless word that refers to nothing so much as a parallel pharmaceutical industry — one that has accomplished the spectacular feat of selling billions of dollars’ worth of most anything it likes, in almost any way it chooses, promising people anything conceivable about their bodies. ” You read this patriotic and riff and realize that, in the bizarro world we occupy, it can’t be long before Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds are named of the Food and Drug Administration. Mr. Hamblin is just as good on drinks marketed under names like Smartwater and Vitaminwater and Fruitwater and Electrolyte Water. He quotes a doctor who tells him about Electrolyte Water, which is sold at Whole Foods, “The city water in Philadelphia has more electrolytes. ” (The city water in Philadelphia is notoriously mediocre. In her 1974 novel, “Oreo,” the novelist Fran Ross reminded us that it has long been called, after one of the city’s rivers, Schuylkill Punch.) It’s typical of Mr. Hamblin to step on his riff on dubious water products with a joke that’s D. O. A.: “Don’t drink the Oil Water. It’s for cars. ” We have a relationship with medical knowledge. It’s so interesting and so terrible. Lucia Berlin, in her brilliant collection of stories, “A Manual for Cleaning Women” (2015) wrote about a nurse who considered the nature of clear colostomy bags and thought: “What if our bodies were transparent, like a washing machine window? How wondrous to watch ourselves. Joggers would jog even harder, blood pumping away. Lovers would love more. God damn! Look at that semen go! Diets would improve. ” Like Little Milton, I’d guess, I’m glad we don’t have that either. | 1 |
In Season 4 of “Nashville,” Rayna Jaymes’s story line played out like an album of sad country songs, with her fractured family and flailing record label. Meanwhile, some drama was happening offstage as this canceled ABC series sought a new home, bolstered by a Change. org petition signed by more than 174, 000 heartbroken fans. It found one, on CMT, where in a Season 5 preview at 9 p. m. on Thursday, Dec. 15, Rayna exhibits cracks in her gorgeous veneer. Her foundation shaken, “she is having some questions of her own mortality and her own artistry and her own sense of purpose in the world,” said Connie Britton, who plays her. “And that was exciting for me because I love questions of the soul where you are facing a transition in your own sense of who you are and what you’re doing and what you have to offer in the world. ” (The season begins Jan. 5.) By phone from the set in Nashville, Ms. Britton, 49 and the mother of a son, Eyob, pondered the show’s direction. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Is it accurate that you’ve signed on for only 10 of this season’s 22 episodes? That is not accurate. Look, there was so much that got bounced around this summer as the show was canceled and then picked up again. I can just say that I’m completely invested in this season and particularly in these new writers. [The showrunners] Marshall [Herskovitz] and Ed [Zwick] have been a wonderful breath of fresh air, and that’s been really exciting. Did the move to CMT require a reboot? It was complete rebooting and, quite honestly, it was necessary. I did feel to some degree that the show had gone in a direction where we were losing a lot of what the subject matter can provide — everything from story to replicating this really rich town of Nashville. When you get soapier and soapier, your characters suffer because they start to show up just to deliver plot, and you lose sight of who they are. So I think the show is going to move forward in a more languid way that I’m hopeful will really bring these characters back to life. What’s the best thing about playing Rayna? I love the challenge of constant which to me feels very relevant as a woman and as a career woman and as a mother. But quite frankly, probably what I love most is the thing that scares and challenges me the most, which is the music. So even though every single time I have to sing I have some sort of crazy anxiety attack, it’s still the most exciting part of the whole thing. It’s been said that women like you because you lead with your brains, not your beauty. I feel very fortunate that I never got into this business as a beauty queen. Even back in high school, the actors I idolized were the chameleons. That really took the onus off of what I looked like, and what a beautiful woman is supposed to look like. I still feel really lucky, because gosh, as you get older, that stuff starts to go away, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I do see friends of mine who are panicking — and I’m not panicking. Don’t get me wrong: When I see wrinkles on my face, it doesn’t make me happy. But at the same time, I’m always coming from the inside in terms of my approach to the world. So there’s power in owning your age. I’m not interested in playing . I’m not interested in playing irrelevant. I want to depict characters who are getting better with age. That sounds like such a cliché, but all the women I know who are in their 40s are awesome and sexy and so smart and have life experience that you cannot duplicate. And this show is really a great opportunity to push back on the idea. When the show first came out, there was a lot of marketing going on — “Rayna Jaymes, the fading country music star. ” And I have fought it every step of the way, because I’m like, “Absolutely not. ” What I know is existing in a world that’s changing around you and the complications that come along with that. But certainly not just the victim of a life gone by. No way. Is this your last season? I’m not sure, honestly. We’re all sort of figuring out what’s happening, and right now we’re just in it. And I’m really happy to be in that place. How would you want Rayna to go out? Oh my gosh. [Pause.] In a blaze of country music glory! | 1 |
In this our quadrennial season of financial hope, we might wish that the major presidential candidates would reckon with one of the large and looming numbers in our lives. Maybe this particular pair of multimillionaires hears the parents and grandparents who are confounded by college price tags that seem to start at six figures. But the candidates’ plans don’t hold out much cause for hope. Hillary Clinton wants to make tuition for state universities free for families with less than $125, 000 in income, but her plan would require the financial help of states that may not want to chip in. Donald Trump has mentioned refinancing student loans and forcing universities to spend more from their endowments to help students. His website, however, has no formal proposals. Perhaps the debate moderators will demand more details. So what we need right now is one college savings, paying and borrowing plan to rule them all. The best one I know of — the one that visibly reduces anxiety in the faces of people I preach it to — comes from Kevin McKinley, a financial adviser in Eau Claire, Wis. And you can sum it up in about 30 words: Save a quarter of the cost over a child’s first 18 years. Pay another quarter out of current income over the next four years. Borrow the rest, split among the family. Let’s break them down in order, for a family who has its sights on a state university and doesn’t qualify for any grants or scholarships that they would not have to repay. SAVE A QUARTER Let’s say you think an undergraduate degree from a state university will cost $160, 000 in 18 years, including room and board. A quarter of that, per the McKinley plan, is $40, 000. To save that much, you’d need to put aside about $115 each month for 18 years if it earns a 5 percent annual return. Where might it earn that kind of return? In one of those 529 college savings plans that your state probably offers, perhaps in a mutual fund with a mix of stocks and bonds that gets less aggressive as your child gets closer to 18. The website savingforcollege. com is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn more about 529 plans. And where is that $115 supposed to come from? In his 2002 book, “Make Your Kid a Millionaire,” Mr. McKinley suggested looking at the things on your credit or debit card statement and asking yourself this: Would I rather help my kid go to college or would I prefer to keep buying or doing those things on my bill that add up to the number I need to save each month? Harsh? He doesn’t think so. “I don’t judge what people choose to spend money on,” he said. “But most people with kids going to college wish they could go back and change what they spent, because a lot of it was on things that didn’t have any value in the long run. ” SPEND A QUARTER This step is harder. For parents sending a child to a college right now that costs $100, 000 total, they’ll need to find a bit over $500 a month to hit the number, $25, 000, that equals a quarter of the total cost. So rice and beans instead of eating out. No more vacations, or much cheaper ones. If that’s not enough or you already made those changes years ago, a side job may be in order. Doing that, too? Don’t forget that your child is capable of earning $6, 000 annually by working full time in the summer and part time during the school year. If your child earns that much, you’re not responsible for this portion. Are there generous grandparents in the mix? This would be a good time for them to step in if they haven’t already or weren’t sure if they would be able to help until they had their own financial affairs sorted out. THE BORROWING Back when he wrote his book, Mr. McKinley said that he considered debt a last resort. These days, he’s changed his tune. “You’d like to pay cash for your house, too, but it’s just not realistic,” he said. First, student loans. Though the terminology and process is (wildly, needlessly) complex, the advice is simple for anyone wanting to borrow $25, 000: Take out federal student loans from the government, not private ones that come from a bank or similar institution. The advantage of federal loans is that if your child doesn’t earn much after graduation, you can enroll in a program where you’ll be eligible for lower payments. Then, parent borrowing. Mr. McKinley notes that we’re at a rare economic moment where three things are happening at once: Home values are rising nicely in many parts of the country, interest rates are low and lenders are a bit looser than they were in the recent past. For people with children in college now, that means that borrowing money against your home may be a good way to come up with your $25, 000 chunk. Mr. McKinley is bearish on the future of student loans and expects them to become generally less available over time. So he suggested a more aggressive way for the parents of younger children to pay for a quarter of college: Draw on home equity now while you can, put the money in certificates of deposit and treat your (often ) interest payments on the loan like an insurance policy, where you’re paying a “premium” just to be sure you’ll have access to the capital. After all, as we saw in 2009, banks that are loose now with home equity loans can change their minds in a heartbeat. If you do not own a home, or drawing on home equity seems too risky or needlessly expensive (or you’re worried about how that money might affect any financial aid that you end up qualifying for) the federal government offers loans to parents, too. THE MANY CAVEATS Plenty of people don’t make enough money to save anything for college, let alone save $500 a month while their child is in school. Others could have saved but didn’t and are panicking now that the first tuition bill is close at hand. If you’re in that situation, please read the two guides I wrote in 2014 for people in that spot. The McKinley plan is linear. Your financial life probably won’t be, pockmarked as most of our lives are with unpaid parental leave or illness or unemployment or inopportune stock market declines or a bunch of these things all at once. But the plan is also flexible. You could borrow a bit more or save a bit more or consider a gap year between high school and college to put away additional funds. If there is more than one child, these numbers could double, and if private colleges are under consideration, they may double again or more. But at private colleges especially, paying tuition for two children at once will increase your chances of qualifying for financial aid (the kind you get after filling out the federal aid form and sometimes other application forms). Moreover, many colleges (private ones, in particular) offer a different kind of help, merit aid, to good students, even if their families don’t qualify for aid. That can easily lop five figures off costs each year per student, even if it doesn’t bring the private college price down to the level of a flagship state university. Which brings us to a couple of other challenges. How do you know when it’s worth paying a whole lot more for one school than another? Mr. McKinley is facing this question right now with his daughter, Ellie, a high school senior with an interest in web design. She was eyeing the Rhode Island School of Design or the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, but she can study the same things at the University of for less than a third of the retail cost. The family is leaning hard toward the cheaper option. “If you’re the kind of kid who can get into the more expensive school, then you’ll usually have the talent and moxie to succeed even without their education,” Mr. McKinley said. There is also the bizarre unpredictability of the process. The rack rates are high, and while many people get discounts based on need or merit, you have no way of knowing which, if any, you might qualify for many years from now. You’ll probably get the answers some spring day in the future and then have a few weeks, at most, to make what may be among the biggest and most consequential financial decisions of your life. So good luck with that. But don’t let the absurdity of what the system has become paralyze you into doing nothing. “You don’t have to come up with a quarter of a million dollars for your kid,” Mr. McKinley said. “Do what you can now, and just keep building off of it. ” | 1 |
by Dr. Mercola
A new federal report revealed that the majority of U.S. adults (more than 54 percent) had some type of musculoskeletal pain disorder such as back, joint or neck pain in 2012 (the latest year for which statistics are available). [1]
Its prevalence is indicative of the significant price Americans pay for pain — it’s a leading cause of disability and major contributor to health care expenses and disability compensation.
Also revealing, people suffering from pain were significantly more likely to have used a complementary health approach compared to people without pain — nearly 42 percent versus 24 percent, respectively.
The reason wasn’t addressed by the study, but time and again, conventional medicine fails to relieve many people’s pain.
Congressional testimony from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) stated that Americans consume 80 percent of the pain pills in the world, [2] and in a survey of more than 2,000 pain patients in the U.S., most said they were taking a dangerously addictive opioid pain medication. [3]
Research suggests, however, that these drugs work for only about three months, after which changes in your brain may lead to increased feelings of pain along with added emotional upset, including feelings of hopelessness and desperation. [4]
Many pain sufferers have tried virtually every treatment that conventional medicine has to offer — medications, injections, surgery and more — only to find that their pain hasn’t gotten better and they may be struggling with treatment-induced side effects as well (one of the worst of which is opioid addiction ).
At that point (and for many far sooner), it’s only natural that you would begin to seek other options, which brings many people to holistic, complementary or “alternative” health care options for relief. Science-Backed Natural Pain Relief Options
A recent study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings evaluated several complementary approaches for pain relief. [5] The options that follow have been scientifically proven to help with relief, according to the report.
Acupuncture
One of the most common uses for acupuncture is in treating chronic pain. One analysis of the most robust studies available concluded that acupuncture has a clear effect in reducing chronic pain, more so than standard pain treatment. [6]
Study participants receiving acupuncture reported an average 50 percent reduction in pain, compared to a 28 percent pain reduction for standard pain treatment without acupuncture. It’s likely that acupuncture works via a variety of mechanisms.
In 2010, for instance, it was found that acupuncture activates pain-suppressing receptors and increases the concentration of the neurotransmitter adenosine in local tissues [7] (adenosine slows down your brain’s activity and induces sleepiness).
Massage Therapy
A systematic review and meta-analysis, published in the journal Pain Medicine, included 60 high-quality and seven low-quality studies that looked into the use of massage for various types of pain, including muscle and bone pain, headaches, deep internal pain, fibromyalgia pain and spinal cord pain. [8]
The review revealed that massage therapy relieves pain better than getting no treatment at all.
Relaxation Techniques
Breathing exercises, guided imagery, meditation and other relaxation techniques may provide relief, especially from pain from tension headaches and migraines.
Research by an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Herbert Benson, found that people who practice relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation long-term have more disease-fighting genes switched “on” and active, including genes that protect against pain and rheumatoid arthritis. [9]
Exercise
Among people who had experienced back pain , those who exercised had a 25 percent to 40 percent lower risk of having another episode within a year than those who did no exercise. [10]
Strength exercises, aerobics, flexibility training and stretching were all beneficial in lowering the risk of back pain.
Motor control exercises (MCE), which help to improve coordination of muscles that support your spine,11 may also help. One systematic review found MCE led to reductions in pain and disability and improvements in perceived quality of life compared with minimal intervention. [12]
Yoga , which is particularly useful for promoting flexibility and core muscles, has also been proven to be beneficial if you suffer from back pain.
People suffering from low back pain who took one yoga class a week had greater improvements in function than those receiving medicine or physical therapy. [13] The Yoga Journal has an online page demonstrating specific poses that may be helpful. [14]
Medical Marijuana
There are cannabinoid receptors in your brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, immune system and more. Both the therapeutic and psychoactive properties of marijuana occur when a cannabinoid activates a cannabinoid receptor.
Research is still ongoing on just how extensive their impact is on our health, but to date it’s known that cannabinoid receptors play an important role in many body processes, including metabolic regulation, cravings, pain, anxiety, bone growth and immune function. [15]
Some of the strongest research to date is focused on marijuana for pain relief. In one study, just three puffs of marijuana a day for five days helped those with chronic nerve pain to relieve pain and sleep better. [16]
Also revealing, in states where medical marijuana is legal, overdose deaths from opioids like morphine, oxycodone and heroin decreased by an average of 20 percent after one year, 25 percent after two years and 33 percent by years five and six. [17] Turmeric for Pain Relief
Turmeric was once most known for being a flavorful and colorful addition to curry, but in the scientific world, turmeric has earned a reputation for being a multi-faceted healer. Turmeric contains curcumin, which has notable anti-inflammatory properties.
It can inhibit both the activity and the synthesis of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) and 5-lipooxygenase (5-LOX), as well as other enzymes that have been implicated in inflammation.
A 2006 study found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids (curcumin is the most investigated curcuminoid) blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the launch of a protein that triggers swelling and pain. [18]
Turmeric has been found to significantly improve post-operative pain and fatigue, [19] and in a study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added only 200 milligrams (mg) of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility.
Time magazine even published the story of one doctor who marveled at one of his older hip patient’s lack of pain and remarkably swift recovery from surgery. The patient took turmeric regularly, and the results so impressed the physician that he began taking the supplement himself. [20] Essential Oils for Pain Relief
Essential oils are concentrated, aromatic plant extracts that have been used for thousands of years for emotional, cosmetic, medical and even spiritual purposes. One of their most popular uses is also for relief of chronic and acute pain.
There are a number of ways to use essential oils , including via aromatherapy. Lavender aromatherapy, for instance, has been shown to lessen pain following needle insertion [21] while green apple scent significantly relieves migraine pain . Other essential oils noted for pain relief, including relief from joint pain, include: [22] Lavender | 0 |
In an in the New York Times, actress Lena Dunham says President Donald Trump’s draft of a plan to roll back Obamacare’s contraception mandate will be “disastrous” for some women, “jeopardizing their ability to work and provide for their families. ”[ My @nytimes on the proposed birth control coverage rollbacks is in print and online now. Women should have access to any kind of contraception they want, any time they want, without pushback from their employers or insurers. But what about the fact that hormonal BC keeps many of us healthy, in the work force and out of this position? We have the power to let our representatives know that enough is enough. We are the NO LONGER SILENT majority. Link in bio, take action. And yeah, I am this extra hot every time I’m in an ER with pelvic pain 🔥 A post shared by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jun 10, 2017 at 5:37am PDT, Amid a detailed description of her own gynecological problems — i. e. “between 1998 and last week, I’ve been to the emergency room over 50 times with pain” — Dunham criticizes any change that would allow some religious employers — such as the Little Sisters of the Poor — the freedom not to provide contraception, drugs, and sterilization procedures for employees through health insurance plans because of their faith beliefs. She asserts more women are being prescribed birth control pills for a variety of medical problems than for contraception. “Birth control pills are many women’s method of choice for preventing unintended pregnancy and should be covered by all insurance policies for that reason alone,” she writes, but then adds that “millions of women living with endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, cystic acne, migraines, uterine abnormalities and a history of ectopic pregnancies, birth control can be a crucial, even lifesaving, medical treatment. ” She continues: If the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress succeed in stripping funding from Planned Parenthood and giving employers carte blanche to deny women necessary medication under murky notions of moral disdain, all paths to health and wellness will disappear for a huge swath of Americans. While the teachings of the Catholic Church, for example, are in conflict with the use of artificial birth control, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states, “Catholic teaching does not oppose the use of hormonal medications — such as those found in chemical contraceptives — for legitimate medical purposes, provided there is no contraceptive intent. ” The bishops continue, however: But artificial hormones typically treat only the medical symptoms. They do not correct the underlying disease or condition. They also carry the same physical health risks as hormonal contraceptives. Thankfully, with growing advancements in understanding fertility, knowledgeable gynecologists can often prescribe drugs and recommend safer and healthier treatments to correct underlying problems or eliminate discomfort. Like many on the left, Dunham is propping up Planned Parenthood, whose days of being on the receiving end of taxpayer dollars may be numbered. Trump has said he will defund Planned Parenthood if the organization continues to perform abortions. The group, however, showed, in its latest annual report, that it is performing even more abortions and providing less contraception services — all while its taxpayer funding has increased. In Planned Parenthood reports performing 328, 348 abortions — an increase of 4, 349 abortions over the 323, 999 abortions the group states it performed in . The organization also reported 2, 945, 059 contraception services in and 2, 808, 815 of the same services in its latest report, a drop of 136, 244 within a year. With regard to its revenue, the new report shows Planned Parenthood’s total revenue to be $1, 354. 3 million, an increase over the $1, 296. 1 million reported in . The organization shows an increase in government reimbursement and grants this year, reporting $554. 6 million in taxpayer funding, while in it reported $553. 7 million. Planned Parenthood reported an “Excess in Revenue Over Expenses” of $58. 8 million in . That amount rose to $77. 5 million this past year. The fact is, until former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius bureaucratically inserted the HHS mandate into Obamacare, employers were never entangled in their employees’ sex lives and decisions as to when to have a child. Once she did, and groups objected, bosses became an easy target for radical feminists. Many women in Congress are supporting the draft of the HHS contraception mandate rollback. “Obamacare has devastated religious organizations, schools, and businesses, forcing them to cover services that violate their religious beliefs,” says Rep. Diane Black ( ) adding: Protecting religious liberty is a foundational principle of this country, and this draft rule is a victory against President Obama’s assault on people of faith nationwide. Americans will no longer have to seek a burdensome exemption from the heavy hand of government, they will be left alone to practice their religion as they choose. Rep. Vicky Hartzler ( ) says the draft “provides important exemptions for organizations with religious or moral objections to the HHS mandate. ” “In other words, religious charities like the Little Sisters of the Poor, universities, businesses, and individuals with moral objections will now be able to provide employees with health care policies consistent with their conscience and the organizations’ mission,” she continued. “The previous administration’s approach went out of its way to force a mandate that violates the faith and ethical sensibilities of the American public. ” | 1 |
After a crushing loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, fighter Ronda Rousey disappeared from the public eye to lick her considerable wounds. Rousey, though, has finally emerged from isolation to join the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. [The Rousey turned up this week in an Instagram photo, standing next to a friend as they toured a camp of pipeline protesters at Standing Rock. The occasion marked the first time she has appeared in public since her loss to Nunes on December 31. A photo posted by Pauline Macias (@paulinepitamacias) on Jan 24, 2017 at 10:16pm PST, But local Sioux officials have long since tired of the camps thrown up by white protesters, and have asked them to leave. The former bantamweight champion posted stories on her Facebook page in the past, according to Fox Sports. But local Sioux officials have long since tired of the camps thrown up by white protesters, and have asked them to leave. Recently, residents of the Cannon Ball district of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation successfully petitioned the tribal council to ask the protesters to shut down their camps and vacate the area. In many ways, the constant protesting is now meaningless since President Trump signed an order approving the pipeline the protesters were trying to stop. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
There is the guy who can leaf Trump to the whitehouse , imagine the shock . Everything he says is true and isnt it strnge how the Swiss fund all the wars and get away with it including Hitler . If Trump was ever after someone to trust he would be 1st choice and he knows his way around . Imagine how much money theu have ripped off . That justice dept is as crooked as can be . Trump was right about Hillary and ISIS . So much for the Liberty party who has been higjacked by the looks of it . And where is the army ?? I think its what oath ?? All these people who did nothing are guilty of complicity in terror by their own laws . Truth should be rewarded not punished or you end up like the world is now as corrupt as can be , Notice Drudge wont even show this . | 0 |
SAN DIEGO — Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Attorney General Sessions, and Sen. Ron Johnson ( ) concluded a visit to the border on Friday with a tough message for “sanctuary city” jurisdictions, including California. [Standing on an access road on the U. S. side of the border, Secretary Kelly began a press briefing by reaffirming the Trump administration’s commitment to border security, including a “physical barrier” along the southern border. He also emphasized the importance of stopping human trafficking along the border. “There’s nothing the Attorney General and I want more than to put human smugglers out of business,” he said. Kelly cited drastic reductions in the number of illegal border crossings, which he said were down 64% from the same period last year. The reason, he said, was that the Trump administration had shown “we’re serious about border security and enforcing our immigration laws. ” Attorney General Sessions spoke about the boost in morale among law enforcement staff, and praised the progress of the Trump administration. “It’s exceeded what I thought possible so far,” Sessions said. He warned about the danger of infiltration by gangs like “whose motto is ‘murder, rape, and control,’” he said. And then the Attorney General launched a broadside against sanctuary cities — and the “sanctuary state” of California. “It was nearly two years ago that Kate Steinle was shot and killed, dying in her father’s arms, along Pier 14 in San Francisco,” Attorney General Sessions recalled. “The alleged shooter was an illegal immigrant with seven prior felony convictions who had been deported from this country five times. Only weeks earlier, the city had released him from custody, after being apprehended again, even though the federal immigration authorities had filed a detainer requesting that he be held in custody until they could remove him for deportation proceedings. Even worse, this man admitted he came to San Francisco in part because of its sanctuary policies. “So today, the Department of Justice sent letters to nine jurisdictions that were identified — by the Obama administration — as having policies that potentially violate federal law and which receive millions in federal grants. These jurisdictions have until June 30th to send their legal justifications for why they are not in violation of federal law — and the state of California is one of these jurisdictions. … Sanctuary jurisdictions have put known gang members back on the streets. ” He concluded: “I urge New York, California, and other jurisdictions to reconsider. ” The California State Senate recently passed a “sanctuary state” bill, SB 54, that still awaits passage by the State Assembly before proceeding to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk. Kelly, Sessions, and Johnson were concluding a visit to the border, which began in El Paso, Texas on Thursday and concluded in San Diego at the Otai Mesa Detention Facility. The press conference was held in between two existing border fences — a thin, rusted corrugated iron fence on the Mexican side, and a tall, American fence. In the distance, the new pedestrian walkway between Tijuana’s airport and San Diego hovered over the boundary. Johnson, who serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said: “One of the main reasons we come here, in addition to learning … is to thank the men and women” of law enforcement. He reiterated that the Trump administration, in contrast to his predecessor, had prioritized helping border patrol and enforcing the law. “We’re not going to apologize,” he said, for enforcing the law and keeping the country safe. Asked by a local reporter to respond to the argument by sanctuary cities that enforcing immigration law would hurt local policing, Sessions described that as more of an “excuse” than a reason, suggesting that it was driven by ideology rather than evidence. He rejected an accusation earlier Friday by California State Senate President pro Tem Kevin De León ( Angeles) that he and the Department of Justice were basing their law enforcement efforts on “principles of white supremacy. ” “It’s a kind of extremist statement that I totally reject,” Sessions said. He also defended his recent comment about a ruling in a federal court in Hawaii that stopped President Trump’s executive order suspending travel from six countries from going into effect. Earlier Friday, Secretary Kelly told Kate Bolduan of CNN that President Barack Obama had presided over a “very, very open border” and that Obama had done “nothing” to secure the border and enforce immigration law internally. Outside the event, about a dozen demonstrators from the Remembrance Project, which commemorates victims killed by illegal aliens, gathered to support the Trump administration’s efforts. Vaught Becht of Orange County gave the administration an “ ” for its work on immigration and border security thus far. “I think they’re doing a great job. We’ve got a new era. [Trump] supports the citizens. America first, and jobs first. We’ve got a new sheriff in town. He speaks for the American people, not the swamp in D. C. He speaks for us. ” Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
This article is part of a series aimed at helping you navigate life’s opportunities and challenges. What else should we write about? Contact us: smarterliving@nytimes. com. Friendships are important throughout life, but especially so in the stage between school and marriage, when our friends often stand in for family. What do you do when you need to end a friendship that’s turned sour? First, give it some serious thought. Once you initiate a breakup, there may be no turning back. Depending on the type of friendship, a formal ending may not be necessary. “There are typically four types of friendships: friends you have because of shared history friends you’ve made due to forced togetherness your surface social friends and growth friends, meaning the people you want by your side as you go through life wherever you are,” said Melissa S. Cohen, a psychotherapist and relationship coach in Westfield, N. J. “Unless there has been a serious betrayal of trust, you can usually let all but your most important friendships fade away simply by spending less time with each other. ” If, however, your friend asks why you are not texting her or never available to get together, offer an explanation. “Think about what you say and how you say it very carefully. It’s likely that your will never forget those words,” said Irene S. Levine, a psychologist and producer of TheFriendshipBlog. com. Then, talk to your friend in private. “Don’t involve mutual friends. Remember that although you have been giving a lot of thought to the breakup, it might hit your friend without warning,” Dr. Levine said. If you no longer have much in common or simply don’t enjoy your time together anymore, take responsibility for ending the friendship rather than blaming the other person. (Related: How to have more engaging conversations in everyday life) “It’s O. K. to say, ‘I truly care about you and the relationship we’ve had, but I don’t have the bandwidth or time to devote to our friendship anymore,’ or ‘I can’t be the friend that you want me to be right now,’” Ms. Cohen said. “Even if you feel it’s your friend who is sucking you dry, or stuck in college partying mode, or not being considerate, you can compassionately and authentically say, ‘We don’t seem to share the same goals and perspectives. ’” That allows you both to be cordial if you see each other again, and leaves the door open to a reconciliation if circumstances change. “No matter what, it’s always important to be careful with other people’s feelings. That just makes you a good person,” Ms. Cohen added. When a friend betrays you by, say, blabbing your secrets or being consistently cruel, you can and should stand up for yourself. And if this is not one of your closest friends, a breakup is most likely in order. The goal in these instances is to be honest and plainly explain why you can’t be friends with someone you don’t trust. And have the conversation live — either in person or over the phone — because anything you write online could be shared or used against you in a way you may regret. But when you have a major conflict with a best friend, these scenarios don’t apply. It’s ideal to have an open discussion about your feelings. “For those friends, it’s worth it to try harder and give the person the benefit of the doubt because those relationships are rare,” Ms. Cohen said. “Be really honest about what’s going on. ” If after that, the relationship still feels unsustainable to you, let your friend go as gently as you can. “These relationships need to be mutually satisfying to both people,” Dr. Levine said. Be clear that you wish your friend well but resist the urge to explain every detail of your thought process. “It isn’t necessarily kind and won’t necessarily provide the other person with closure. Your friend will still need to achieve that on her own,” Dr. Levine added. And remember that friendship breakups can hurt just as much as romantic breakups, especially if you’ve been close with a friend for a long time. And sadly, noted Dr. Levine, “when you break up with a boyfriend, you can turn to your best friends for support. When you break up with a best friend, you’ve lost the person who might be able to help you get over the loss. ” Want to read more? You might also be interested in: • Think it’s cathartic to run angry? Think again. • How to form healthy habits • The art of making (and not making) plans | 1 |
When Wells Fargo admitted a few months ago that thousands of its employees had created as many as two million unauthorized accounts for its customers, alarm bells went off at Prudential, one of the nation’s biggest insurance firms. Wells Fargo has a partnership with Prudential to sell a life insurance policy to the bank’s retail customers. After news of the Wells Fargo settlement in September, Prudential ordered an internal review of its dealings with the bank, to make sure nothing was amiss with the joint endeavor. A lot was amiss. According to three former managers in Prudential’s corporate investigation division, Wells Fargo employees appeared to have signed up bank customers for Prudential insurance without the customers’ knowledge or permission. In some cases, they even arranged for monthly premium fees to be withdrawn from their customers’ accounts. When investigators reviewed tapes of calls to Prudential’s customer service line, they found complaints from Wells Fargo customers about policies they did not remember buying. Many of the customers did not speak English and needed a Spanish interpreter, the three plaintiffs said. “This definitely was the same kind of conduct that Wells was committing, but through Prudential,” said one of the three Julie Han Broderick, an attorney and former of Prudential’s corporate investigations division, which has about 30 employees. Ms. Broderick and two of her colleagues, Darron Smith and Thomas Schreck, filed a wrongful termination suit against Prudential on Tuesday. They say they were fired in November for trying to escalate attention internally to their discoveries about conduct at Wells Fargo. Prudential said on Friday that the three were fired for “appropriate and legitimate reasons” that had nothing to do with Wells Fargo. A Prudential spokesman, Scot Hoffman, says the company continues to investigate the policies sold through Wells Fargo. Once it is finished, Prudential anticipates “reviewing this matter with our regulators,” he said. Since bankers are not licensed to sell insurance, Wells Fargo employees were encouraged, without discussing specific terms, to steer customers to either a kiosk in bank branches or a website on which they could sign up for MyTerm, a policy that does not require applicants to take a medical exam. Bankers who sold the product got credit toward their steep quarterly sales quotas. Some Wells Fargo bankers appear to have signed people up for MyTerm without telling them, according to the three from Prudential. In some cases, bankers opened MyTerm policies, closed them after a month or two and then promptly reopened them to bolster their sales numbers, the evidence in the lawsuit suggests. Wells Fargo said in a statement on Friday that it was investigating any alleged improprieties that were brought to its attention. “As we have consistently reinforced, if we identify any instances where a customer received a product they didn’t ask for, we will make it right,” said Mary Eshet, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman. The lawsuit, filed in New Jersey state court, provides elaborate details of how the same issues that have disgraced Wells Fargo — which forced the bank to pay $185 million in fines, to account for its actions in Congress, to replace its chief executive and to apologize profusely to customers — are now showing up at Prudential in the accounts that Wells Fargo handled. Under intense pressure to meet sales goals, which have since been eliminated, thousands of Wells Fargo’s workers used customers’ personal information to create sham accounts in the customers’ names some incurred fees on those unwanted accounts, which included checking accounts and credit cards. More than 5, 000 employees have been fired, and an internal investigation is underway. The three people who filed the wrongful termination suit were part of an investigations unit at Prudential that was asked to comb for irregularities in the 15, 000 MyTerm accounts that were sold through Wells Fargo. Those in the unit found that some customers who signed up for MyTerm listed addresses like “Wells Fargo Drive” on their applications, according to the complaint. Some of the policy applications listed suspicious email addresses for customers, and the name listed on a policy sometimes did not match the name in the customer’s email address — “for example, where the MyTerm policy holder was Jason Smith, the email address might be for johndoe@wellsfargo. com,” the complaint said. Additionally, the lawsuit said, “Cellphone numbers were listed as emails, such as 1234567@verizon. net, which was very similar to how fraudulent bank accounts were opened at Wells Fargo Bank. ” The MyTerm policies were “sold predominantly to individuals with last names concentrated in Southern California, southern Texas, southern Arizona and southern Florida,” the lawsuit states. Those four states also accounted for the bulk of the sham accounts created by Wells Fargo’s employees, according to the bank’s disclosures. “When we started peeling back the onion, everywhere we looked, it stunk,” said Mr. Smith, a plaintiff, who earlier this year was a featured speaker at a conference focusing on insurance fraud. An unusually high rate of the Prudential policies that Wells Fargo sold in its first year had lapsed — 70 percent — and many were dropped after only one or two months. In some cases, customers never made a single premium payment. There was also a suspicious pattern of MyTerm policies being closed and reopened, suggesting the unseen hand of a banker trying to buoy sales numbers. For example, “18 clients who purchased the MyTerm policies allowed them to lapse, or they were canceled and then repurchased them two more times,” the lawsuit states. A former Wells Fargo employee said the bank made no secret that it wanted employees to push various insurance products. “We were like insurance salespeople without the license,” said Michael Barborek, a former Wells Fargo banker in Orange, Tex. “They wanted us to offer it to everybody who came in. ” To meet their sales goals, some bankers in his branch would sometimes buy cheap policies for their friends and relatives, pay the first month’s premium and then cancel, according to Mr. Barborek — a blatant violation of regulatory rules and Wells Fargo’s own policies. Managers, facing their own pressure to make numbers, looked the other way, he said. The life insurance product is quick and easy to buy: A customer can complete the application in 15 minutes by answering a few basic medical questions online, without ever speaking to a licensed insurance sales agent. Prudential then, with the permission of the applicant, checks databases, such as pharmaceutical records, to assess the health of an applicant before deciding to issue a policy. The average annual premium is $288. 71 for a policy sold through Wells Fargo, which continues to offer MyTerm. According to the Prudential employees’ lawsuit, one person who contacted Prudential appeared to have had funds removed from his Wells Fargo savings account by a bank employee to pay for a policy he said he had not authorized. And others who called Prudential were confused about how much they owed each month in premiums, and why. As is not uncommon with cases, the three employees did not have entirely clean slates at Prudential. They said Prudential told them it was putting them on unpaid leave after another employee had turned over a series of text messages, most more than a year old, in which they were complaining about others within the corporate investigations division. They contend that the text messages are being used as a pretext by the company to dismiss them for complaining about the handling of the MyTerm investigation. Mr. Hoffman, the Prudential spokesman, said that the termination of the three employees was “entirely unrelated to Prudential’s business with Wells Fargo and Prudential’s decision to examine the sale of the MyTerm product. ” He declined to elaborate on the reason for the firings, noting that Prudential does not comment on employment matters. Mr. Hoffman said that Prudential began reviewing issues with MyTerm sales after complaints from customers in 2015, and expanded the review after news of the Wells Fargo settlement with regulators became public. Before they were fired, Ms. Broderick said, she and her two colleagues ran into obstacles when they pressed others at the insurer, which is based in New Jersey, to investigate their findings more aggressively and to notify regulators. They were kicked out of Prudential’s office in Newark, N. J. and put on unpaid leave just days before Thanksgiving, she said. “We were totally shocked,” Ms. Broderick said. “The game plan was to sweep this under the rug. ” In addition to the suit they filed in State Superior Court in New Jersey’s Essex County, the three intend to file a complaint next week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said one of their lawyers, Christopher Chang, a former Manhattan prosecutor. | 1 |
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Fortune Magazine just identified Google and Facebook as the two sophisticated U. S. tech companies whose employees were swindled out of $100 million by a Lithuanian hacker in the last three years. [The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against Lithuanian Evaldas Rimašaukas. The was described as a fraudulent business email compromise scheme that tricked two sophisticated U. S. internet companies to wire over $100 million to Rimašaukas’ bank accounts in Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Hong Kong. Although the U. S. Justice Department initially screened the names of the scammed U. S. companies, Fortune on April 27 identified what prosecutors had referred to in the federal indictment as Victim 1, as Google, and Victim 2, as Facebook. Rimašaukas beginning in 2013, “forged email addresses, invoices, and corporate stamps in a scam to impersonate a large manufacturer with whom the tech firms regularly did business. ” The Endgaget blog identified Taiwanese parts supplier Rimašaukas impersonated as Quanta Computer. The company is a huge supplier to numerous tech giants, including Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook. The Department of Justice describes Business Email Compromise (BEC) as a sophisticated scam that targets business deals with foreign suppliers and regularly issues electronic wire transfer payments. The scheme usually seeks to compromise access to legitimate supplier business accounts through social engineering or techniques. The fraudsters then request the victims to make unauthorized electronic fund transfers by disguising their activities to appear consistent with normal business practices. The FBI collaborated with Google, Facebook, their banks, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and other law enforcement agencies in the Republic of Lithuania to trace the footprints of Rimašaukas’ phishing attacks and make the arrest at his home in Vilnius. Rimašaukas was indicted by the U. S. Justice Department Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit for identity theft, money laundering, and wire fraud. Federal sentencing guidelines state that conviction for such offenses carries a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of 24 years. Acting U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim, said in a Justice Department announcement, “This case should serve as a call to all companies — even the most sophisticated — that they too can be victims of phishing attacks by cyber criminals. ” Rimasauskas, facing extradition from Lithuania, denied the allegations. Rimašaukas claims that he is innocent and intends to fight extradition to the United States. His attorney at the Cobalt firm, Linas Kuprusevicius, told Fortune in an email: “Mr. Rimasauskas cannot expect a fair and impartial trial in the U. S. A. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — He is forfeiting at least $41 million in pay. He vows that his bank will drop its sales incentive program — blamed for prompting bankers to set up illegal and unauthorized bank and credit card accounts to meet their sales goals — by the end of the week, not in January, as he had previously promised. But at a hearing Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee, nobody was impressed. If anything, the House lawmakers who interrogated John G. Stumpf, the chief executive of Wells Fargo, were even angrier and more hostile than their Senate counterparts who questioned him last week, before either of those steps had been taken. One by one, Democrats and Republicans alike took turns ripping apart Mr. Stumpf and what took place at the bank he leads. They denounced the actions as “theft,” “a criminal enterprise,” identity fraud, an outrage and a devastating blow to the entire banking industry. But that was not all of Wells Fargo’s bad news for the day. Also on Thursday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency fined Wells Fargo $20 million for violating rules on lending to members of the military, including a rate cap on how much interest can be charged to service members on active duty. In a separate action, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $4 million to resolve a Justice Department investigation into improper seizures of vehicles owned by soldiers who fell behind on their loans. “In those instances where some service members did not receive the appropriate benefits and protections, we did not live up to our commitment and we apologize,” the company said in a statement. “We have been notifying and fully compensating customers and will complete this work in 60 days. ” The news did not play well with members of the House committee, who spent more than four hours on Thursday questioning and castigating Mr. Stumpf about the misdeeds under his leadership. “It appears that the company just can’t make it through even this congressional hearing without us learning more and more information about what is going on at Wells Fargo,” Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat of California, said as word began to spread of the coming sanctions over military lending. But Mr. Stumpf — whom the members of the House committee personally blamed for the persistent and widespread misdeeds — stuck to the same script he has used throughout the crisis. The problem, he explained, was an ethical lapse among the 5, 300 employees, most of them bankers and tellers, who had been fired for their actions since 2011. At the hearing on Thursday, Mr. Stumpf apologized repeatedly for his bank’s failings and repeated his earlier pledge — given last week to the disgruntled Senate Finance Committee — to accept “full responsibility” for them. But he again rejected lawmakers’ attempts to cast the scandal as a consequence of broader failings in Wells Fargo’s leadership and corporate culture. “I led the company with courage,” Mr. Stumpf said, while admitting that the company “should have done more sooner” to address the problem of unauthorized accounts being created by employees in the names of real customers. After the Senate hearing and before the House hearing, the board of directors of Wells Fargo agreed to claw back $41 million of Mr. Stumpf’s unvested stock awards, deny him his annual bonus and strip away a portion of his $2. 8 million base salary. Mr. Stumpf said he approved of the decision. Carrie L. Tolstedt, who until recently ran the Wells Fargo retail banking operation, will lose $19 million in compensation. Confronted by the lawmakers with evidence that the practice of setting up phony accounts to meet sales goals might have gone back much further than the bank has admitted, perhaps to 2007, Mr. Stumpf said that Wells Fargo was continuing to investigate the extent of the problem, how far back it stretched and who knew. But those steps did not appease the lawmakers. Several called for Mr. Stumpf’s resignation, and others asked why he shouldn’t be jailed, like a bank robber. “Something is going wrong at this bank, and you are the head of it,” said Gregory Meeks, Democrat of New York, adding, “You should be fired. ” Mr. Stumpf replied, “I serve at the pleasure of the board. ” Mr. Stumpf is the board chairman. Mr. Meeks, at times pounding the table for emphasis, asked if Mr. Stumpf would have set free someone who had robbed a Wells Fargo Bank, then simply apologized and taken responsibility. Criticizing Wells Fargo’s “criminal activity,” Mr. Meeks said: “Your bank, Wells Fargo, has given the entire financial services industry a black eye. ” “To the American people, this kind of feels like déjà vu all over again,” said Representative Jeb Hensarling, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the committee. “Some institution is found engaging in terrible activities. There is a headline, fine, and yet no one seems to be held accountable. ” As Mr. Stumpf testified, a video screen on the hearing room’s wall displayed a scroll of more than a dozen fines Wells Fargo has paid in recent years, totaling more than $10 billion. The list included penalties for subprime loan abuses, discriminating against and Hispanic mortgage borrowers, and foreclosure violations, among others. Mr. Hensarling asked whether such fines are simply the “cost of doing business. ” Mr. Stumpf answered no, adding, “I don’t want our culture to be defined by these mistakes. ” Wells Fargo has been in crisis mode since it acknowledged this month that its employees had, over the course of several years, opened as many as 1. 5 million bank accounts and 565, 000 credit card accounts that may not have been approved by customers. The company agreed to pay $185 million in penalties and fines to settle cases brought by federal regulators and the Los Angeles city attorney. Wells Fargo has said it is contacting all of the customers who may have been affected. So far, the bank has contacted 20, 000 customers with questionable credit cards. About a quarter of them have said that they did not apply for the card or could not remember if they had, Mr. Stumpf said at the hearing. He also said that Wells Fargo would eliminate its product sales goals for retail bankers by the end of the week, accelerating the bank’s previously announced plan to drop them by the start of next year. say those sales goals led to intense pressure on workers to cheat to fulfill unrealistically high quotas. Mr. Stumpf carried with him a binder filled with material to help him form his answers, and he consulted it repeatedly as lawmakers questioned him about how many customers with potentially unauthorized accounts had been affected in their own home states. He reeled off the answers: Texas, 149, 857 Missouri, 1, 191 Delaware, 4, 255. The plight of Wells Fargo workers who lost their jobs for not meeting sales goals came up several times during the hearing, with lawmakers citing personal experiences from their constituents. Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, Democrat of New York, asked how many workers Wells Fargo had fired for falling short. “My understanding is that people should not be fired, terminated for missing sales goals,” Mr. Stumpf answered. “I’m not saying it didn’t happen. We’re doing a review of whatever, whoever might have been terminated for that. ” As for those who did take the fall for the illegal account openings, Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California, was particularly acerbic. “You fired 5, 300 people,” he said at the hearing. “You took 5, 300 good Americans and turned them into felons. ” It is time, he concluded, to break up the big banks. | 1 |
Videos New York Times Admits Key Al Qaeda Role In Aleppo In a backhand way, The New York Times admits that the U.S.-backed “moderate” rebels in east Aleppo are fighting alongside Al Qaeda jihadists, an almost casual admission of this long-obscured reality, writes Robert Parry. Be Sociable, Share! Syrian rebels walk in an alley in Idlib, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. (AP Photo)
As much as The New York Times and the mainstream U.S. media have become propaganda outlets on most foreign policy issues, like the one-sided coverage of the bloody Syrian war, sometimes the truth seeps through in on-the-ground reporting by correspondents, even ones who usually are pushing the “propo.”
Such was the case with Anne Barnard’s new reporting from inside west Aleppo, the major portion of the city which is in government hands and copes with regular terror rocket and mortar attacks from rebel-held east Aleppo where Al Qaeda militants and U.S.-armed-and-funded “moderate” rebels fight side-by-side.
Almost in passing, Barnard’s article on Sunday acknowledged the rarely admitted reality of the Al Qaeda/”moderate” rebel collaboration, which puts the United States into a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda terrorists and their jihadist allies, fighting under banners such as Nusra Front (recently renamed Syria Conquest Front) and Ahrar al-Sham.
Barnard also finally puts the blame for preventing civilians in east Aleppo from escaping the fighting on a rebel policy of keeping them in harm’s way rather than letting them transit through “humanitarian corridors” to safety. Some of her earlier pro-rebel accounts suggested that it wasn’t clear who was stopping movement of civilians through those corridors.
However, on Sunday, she reported: “We had arrived at a critical moment, as Russia said there was only one day left to pass through a corridor it had provided for people to escape eastern Aleppo before the rebel side was flattened, a corridor through which precious few had passed. The government says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving. Rebels refuse any evacuation without international supervision and a broader deal to deliver humanitarian aid.”
Granted, you still have to read between the lines, but at least there is the acknowledgement that rebels are refusing civilian evacuations under the current conditions. How that is different from Islamic State terrorists in Mosul, Iraq, preventing departures from their areas – a practice which the Times and other U.S. outlets condemn as using women and children as “human shields” – isn’t addressed. But Barnard’s crimped admission is at least a start.
Barnard then writes: “Instead [of allowing civilians to move through the humanitarian corridors], they [the rebels] are trying to break the siege, with Qaeda-linked groups and those backed by the United States working together — the opposite of what Russia has demanded.”
Again, that isn’t the clearest description of the situation, which is stunning enough that one might have expected it in the lede rather than buried deep inside the story, but it is significant that the Times is recognizing that Al Qaeda and the U.S.-backed “moderates” are “working together” and that Russia opposes that collaboration.
She also noted that “Three Qaeda-linked suicide bombers attacked a military position with explosive-packed personnel carriers on Thursday, military officials said, and mortar fire was raining on neighborhoods that until now had been relatively safe. It was among the most intense rounds in four years of rebel shelling that officials say has killed 11,000 civilians.”
While she then throws in a caveat about the impossibility of verifying the numbers, the acknowledgement that the U.S.-backed “moderate” rebels and their Al Qaeda comrades have been shelling civilians in west Aleppo is significant, too. Before this, all the American people heard was the other side, from rebel-held east Aleppo, about the human suffering there, often conveyed by “activists” with video cameras who have depicted the conflict as simply the willful killing of children by the evil Syrian government and the even more evil Russians.
More Balance A Syrian soldier carries Syria’s national flag after successfully routing rebels from the Aleppo Military Academy in Aleppo, Syria. Sept. 05, 2016.
With the admission of rebel terror attacks on civilians in west Aleppo, the picture finally is put into more balance. The Al Qaeda and U.S.-backed rebels have been killing thousands of civilians in government-controlled areas and the Syrian military and its Russian allies have struck back only to be condemned for committing “war crimes.”
Though the human toll in both sides of Aleppo is tragic, we have seen comparable situations before – in which the U.S. government has supported, supplied and encouraged governments to mount fierce offensives to silence rockets or mortars fired by rebels toward civilian areas.
For instance, senior U.S. government officials, including President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, have defended Israel’s right to defend itself from rockets fired from inside Gaza even though those missiles rarely kill anyone. Yet, Israel is allowed to bomb the near-defenseless people of Gaza at will, killing thousands including the four little boys blown apart in July 2014 while playing on a beach during the last round of what the Israelis call “mowing the grass.”
In the context of those deaths, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who has built her career as a supposed humanitarian advocating a “responsibility to protect” civilians, laid the blame not on the Israeli military but on fighters in Gaza who had fired rockets that rarely hit anything besides sand.
At the United Nations on July 18, 2014, Power said , “ President Obama spoke with [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning to reaffirm the United States’ strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself…. Hamas’ attacks are unacceptable and would be unacceptable to any member state of the United Nations. Israel has the right to defend its citizens and prevent these attacks.”
But that universal right apparently does not extend to Syria where U.S.-supplied rockets are fired into civilian neighborhoods of west Aleppo. In that case, Power and other U.S. officials apply an entirely different set of standards. Any Syrian or Russian destruction of east Aleppo with the goal of suppressing that rocket fire becomes a “war crime.”
Perhaps it’s expected that the U.S. government, like other governments, will engage in hypocrisy regarding affairs of state: one set of rules for U.S. allies and another for countries marked for U.S. “regime change.” Statements by supposed “humanitarians” – such as Samantha Power, “Ms. R2P” – are no exception.
But double standards are even more distasteful when they come from allegedly “objective” journalists such as those who work at The New York Times, The Washington Post and other prestige American news outlets. When they take the “U.S. side” in a dispute and become crude propagandists, they encourage the kind of misguided “group thinks” that led to the criminal Iraq War and other disastrous “regime change” projects over the past two decades.
Yet, that is what we normally see. A thoughtful reader can’t peruse the international reporting of the U.S. mainstream media without realizing that it is corrupted by propaganda from both government officials and from U.S.-funded operations, often disguised as “human rights activists” or “citizen journalists” whose supposed independence makes their “propo” even more effective.
So, it’s worth noting those rare occasions when The New York Times and the rest of the MSM let some of the reality peek through. When evaluating the latest plans from Hillary Clinton and other interventionists to expand the U.S. military intervention in Syria – via prettily named “safe zones” and “no-fly zones” – the American people should realize that they are being asked to come to the aid of Al Qaeda. Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com ). The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Mint Press News editorial policy. Be Sociable, Share! | 0 |
Military British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon (Photo by AFP)
British Defense Minister Michael Fallon says the UK is set to deploy hundreds of troops to the Baltic region in Europe to support its NATO allies in the face of a “more assertive Russia.”
Fallon told a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on Wednesday that Britain would send 800 soldiers to Estonia to fulfill its pledge to deliver one of four battalions to NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in Eastern Europe.
“Backed by a rising defense budget, this deployment of air, land and sea forces shows that we will continue to play a leading role in NATO, supporting the defense and security of our allies from the north to the south of the alliance,” Fallon said.
NATO had announced in July that it would deploy, on a rotational basis, four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—to deter what it referred to as “any Russian incursion.”
During his address at the meeting, Fallon also said that four British Typhoon fighter jets would be dispatched to Romania under the NATO Southern Air Policing mission, which is supposed to protect the Baltic states' airspace against possible attacks from Russia.
“This is about two things: reassurance, and that needs to be done with some formidable presence, and deterrence,” Fallon had said in an earlier interview. “This is not simply a trip-wire….This is a serious military presence.”
The move is likely to draw criticism from Moscow, which has been angered by NATO’s military buildup on its Western borders.
The US-led military alliance cut its ties with Moscow in 2014 and has been reinforcing its presence near Russia’s borders ever since.
The UK and Russia have strong disagreements over a number of issues, mainly the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.
The two countries’ military forces have been involved in a series of aerial and naval confrontations, with Britain sending its jets and warships on several occasions to intercept Russian bombers and naval fleets.
The latest of those encounters occurred on Thursday, when the Russian aircraft career Admiral Kuznetsov and its seven-ship task force were “shadowed” by two British warships on a course to sail through the North Sea and English Channel, on their way to Syria. Loading ... | 0 |
For Bob Dylan, the nagging question of whether his songs qualify as literature was settled for good on Saturday at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm — and his presence was not required to make the case. As the folk singer forewarned, he was not there to receive the 2016 prize in literature, but he sent a warm, humble statement accepting the honor, which was read by Azita Raji, the American ambassador to Sweden, at an evening banquet in Stockholm. Invoking William Shakespeare, whom Mr. Dylan imagined to have been too consumed with practical matters — “How should this be staged?” “Where am I going to get a human skull?” — to bother with whether what he was doing was literature, Mr. Dylan wrote: “I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life’s mundane matters. ‘Who are the best musicians for these songs?’ ‘Am I recording in the right studio?’ ‘Is this song in the right key?’ Some things never change, even in 400 years. “Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, ‘Are my songs literature? ’” Mr. Dylan, 75, concluded. “So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer. ” Earlier in the day, the Swedish Academy defended its nontraditional selection of a musician — and a seemingly uninterested one, at that — for the literary honor. (In his prepared remarks, Mr. Dylan would acknowledge his own inscrutable silence for two weeks after the prize was announced in October: “I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. ”) In a speech in front of about 1, 500 guests, including the Swedish royal family, Horace Engdahl, a member of the Nobel Committee, called Mr. Dylan “a singer worthy of a place beside the Greek bards, beside Ovid, beside the Romantic visionaries, beside the kings and queens of the blues, beside the forgotten masters of brilliant standards. “If people in the literary world groan,” Mr. Engdahl added, “one must remind them that the gods don’t write, they dance and they sing. ” Mr. Engdahl’s speech was followed by a fittingly imperfect Patti Smith, who delivered an estimable Dylan impression on his 1963 song, “A Hard Rain’s Fall,” but also proved his inimitable nature, flubbing a lyric and halting the performance midway through. “I’m sorry,” she said before resuming. “I’m so nervous. ” Still, some in the audience could be seen crying as she finished the song accompanied by a string section. At the same time, Mr. Dylan, who cited only “ commitments” when he finally declined the Nobel invitation, was being spoken about in terms outside of Stockholm, as well. Exactly where the singer was on Saturday during the Scandinavian festivities — which included an evening banquet, with its traditional parade of desserts, after the afternoon award ceremony — remained a mystery. He was not where he can most reliably be found these days — onstage — as his most recent batch of tour dates ended before Thanksgiving. But even with no public appearances scheduled, Mr. Dylan was also a spectral presence around his other, more private, known haunts. Neighbors at properties across the country that are registered in Mr. Dylan’s name or that of his management company described a local legend who was hard to pin down and rarely, if ever, seen — somewhere between Thomas Pynchon and Sasquatch. Outside of a gated home in Malibu, Calif. owned, according to local tax records, by Robert Dylan, a security guard offered cryptically, “What you’re looking for doesn’t exist here anymore. ” Locals, however, described the folk legend as a presence who had been seen intermittently in recent years. On Saturday morning during the Nobel ceremony, the home where Mr. Dylan is thought to live received visitors, including a white pickup truck advertising plumbing services. Two S. U. V.s also gained entrance beyond the prominent “No Trespassing” sign and security cameras, but a voice on the intercom denied Mr. Dylan was inside. About 2, 000 miles away, in Hanover, Minn. a few hours south of his native Hibbing, Mr. Dylan’s legend also loomed, though his corporeal presence remained elusive. At a property associated with Mr. Dylan’s companies, where his brother, David, is thought to live, a private drive lined with pine trees led to multiple buildings decorated for the holidays with lights and blowup Christmas characters. A down the road was the Hilltop Bar, the one place in town that locals could agree Mr. Dylan had patronized. But the owner, who declined to give his name, said he had not served Mr. Dylan in a few years. Nearby, at the Tom Thumb gas station, there were whispers that Mr. Dylan had been around town over Thanksgiving, though no one could say why he missed the Nobel events, which also included news conferences and an earlier meeting with President Obama. Still, Mr. Dylan has not yet entirely ducked the Swedish Academy. To receive the award, which comes with 8 million Swedish krona, or about $870, 000, Nobel laureates are required to give a lecture on their subject within six months of Saturday’s ceremonies, and though the academy said it had nothing on the books yet, there was hope. “There is a chance that Bob Dylan will be performing in Stockholm next year, possibly in the spring,” the academy said in a statement, “in which case he will have a perfect opportunity to deliver his lecture. We will post more information as soon as we have it. ” | 1 |
If we lived in normal political times, our new president would be enjoying his honeymoon period, those few blissful weeks of good will and high hopes that usually accompany the start of an administration. Instead, the election of Donald J. Trump to the nation’s highest office has provoked an opposition movement that is extraordinary in American history, with millions of people devoted to stopping whatever it is he might want to do. The declarations began early on, with one key word echoing across them. “We are going to resist, we are going to oppose,” the filmmaker Michael Moore announced on the Friday after Trump’s election. “This is going to be a massive resistance. ” The following week, the former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann began a new video series titled “The Resistance. ” In December, a group of former Democratic congressional staff members published a pamphlet titled “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda,” calling on liberals and leftists to emulate the most effective tactics of the Tea Party. On Twitter, hashtags like #ResistTrump, #NewAmericanResistance and #TheResistance document the range of concerns and movements now assembling under one banner: climate change, net neutrality, Black Lives Matter, reproductive and immigrant and disability rights. The Women’s March made all of this spectacularly visible, with a show of defiance intended to put the president on notice. “Today is not a concert,” the march organizer Tamika Mallory told the crowd gathered in Washington. “It is not a parade. And it is not a party. Today is an act of resistance. ” Days later, activists unfurled a banner from a crane behind the White House, with just one word printed on it: RESIST. As the term of choice for the emerging coalition, “resistance” signals urgency, the desire to stand up and say no before it’s too late. At the same time, it concedes some ground: With Republicans controlling all three branches of government, “no” may be the only position available to Democrats, leftists and liberals. To resist is to do something negative — to push back against someone else’s agenda when your own back is up against the wall. It is a desperate word for desperate times, filled with limits as well as possibilities. A call to resist is different from a call to “organize” or — to borrow a word from the Age of Obama — to “dream. ” Those words conjure visions of better worlds. Resistance names what you don’t want and leaves the vision thing for another, less urgent situation. It suggests a notably dark story about the next four years, one in which Democrats and liberals spend most of their time in a defensive crouch. Resistance evokes the struggle against totalitarianism, conveying personal defiance and official powerlessness at the same time. So what does it mean to apply that word in an ostensibly democratic system? If you’ve lost at the ballot box but aren’t seeking revolution, what are the most useful forms of political action? If “yes” seems impossible but “no” seems insufficient, what fills the space between? Before Trump’s election, anyone who claimed to have been a member of “the resistance” was most likely over the age of 85, a veteran of struggles in France and other territories during World War II. That resistance involved armed conflict and personal risk of the bleakest sort, with guerrilla fighters hiding in the catacombs of Paris while Hitler’s forces did their worst above ground. Under fascist rule, there were no plausible options for political engagement. It was a fight to the death, and in early 1940s Europe, before the arrival of Allied troops, the outcome was far from certain. Talking about resistance still evokes this sense of honorable struggle against an occupying power. It implies patience as well as militancy, the ability to say no over and over and over again, to refuse to cooperate until the whole system crumbles. After the war, anticolonial movements from South Africa to Northern Ireland found their own strategies of resistance, settling in for long, sometimes bloody fights. The United States introduced its own peculiar twist on this idea, transforming a rallying cry of liberation into a defense of white supremacy. In 1954, after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, white Southerners opted for “massive resistance” — a phrase coined by former Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia to describe the determined and bitter campaign to prevent the desegregation of Southern society. “Massive resistance” defended the racial status quo, but it adopted the language of rebellion, casting the federal government itself as an illegitimate occupying power. The American left created a different language of resistance, much of it focused around the activities of groups like the War Resisters League. This sensibility reached its peak in the late 1960s, during the Vietnam War, when student activists proclaimed a transition, per one slogan, “from Protest to Resistance. ” As the movement veterans Staughton Lynd and Michael Ferber pointed out in their 1971 book, “The Resistance,” that shift grew out of a desire to embrace “a deeper and riskier commitment, a move that warranted a new term to replace ‘dissent’ and ‘protest. ’’u2009” The goal was no longer simply to object to the war it was to throw a wrench into the war machine and make it stop. Antiwar activists continued to engage in peaceful protest — but now some also burned draft cards and firebombed R. O. T. C. centers. A small number, like the Weathermen, took up bona fide guerrilla activity, planting bombs at the Capitol, the Pentagon and other prominent buildings. As the war and its stakes came to an end, so, too, did the embrace of resistance as a literal armed underground conspiracy. But while it faded as a political strategy, it began to gain prominence as a category of academic social analysis, the sort of thing that anthropologists and historians looked for in their studies of human societies. This was part of a broader trend toward “social history,” with its insistence that ordinary people — not just generals and politicians — could be the agents of serious historical change. Sometimes this meant studying organized revolts, like slave rebellions or peasant uprisings. By the 1980s, though, “resistance” had come to encompass a much broader set of behaviors. Enslaved or oppressed people might resist by taking up arms, but they might also resist simply by refusing to do as they were told. The political theorist James Scott called these “everyday forms of resistance” — a category that could include giving a sullen look to an employer, deliberately misfiling forms or just living life, as much as possible, on terms of your own choosing. Today’s “New American Resistance” seems to embrace at least some of this broader understanding. Joining it does not, thus far, require adherence to any particular ideology or set of tactical preferences. It simply means, in the biggest of formulations, that you really don’t like Donald Trump, and you’re willing to do something about it. As a enterprise, designed to achieve the greatest possible participation, this mode of resistance makes sense. But despite its good cheer, it still emphasizes what is not possible: It says that Trump is about to take a sledgehammer to the nation’s finest institutions and principles and that the only thing most citizens can do is shout “no” as loudly as possible. Many organizers have vowed that this yawp of dissent represents a beginning rather than an end — and history suggests that they may well be right. Some of the most significant shifts in modern American law and political culture came out of efforts birthed in panic and despair. During World War I, for instance, the United States banned criticism of the government, interned thousands of German Americans and instituted widespread surveillance of immigrants and political radicals. Many Americans supported these policies others feared that the country was abandoning cherished traditions of tolerance and free speech. In response, a small group of alarmed progressives founded an organization that came to be known as the American Civil Liberties Union. They lost many early courtroom battles, but their vision of a nation in which “civil liberties” were taken seriously eventually changed the face of American law and politics. There are conservative versions of this story, too. In the at a moment when the liberal consensus seemed to be at its height, William F. Buckley Jr. announced plans to “stand athwart history, yelling ‘Stop! ’’u2009” His new magazine, National Review, did not stop history, but it did provide a crucial platform for conservatives to think about where they wanted history to go. The budding movement set its sights on taking over the Republican Party and spent decades making that happen — turning resistance into concrete political success. Today even Buckley’s form of conservatism seems to be under assault by the Trump administration. It is at just those moments when old categories start to collapse, however, that room often opens up for something new. A nascent resistance, right now, is delivering an unusually loud and impassioned “no. ” But the mere act of refusal often turns out to have its own momentum. As people learn that they can indeed say “no,” they may begin to find new ways toward saying “yes. ” | 1 |
UK Express October 26, 2016
The European leader’s controversial statements reportedly included Hollande saying the justice system was “full of cowards”, that there were “too many immigrants” and that there was a “problem” with Islam.
Mr Hollande also spoke harshly about senior politicians in the book, which was released just as he intended to make public his desire to run for the presidency again in 2017.
He blamed US President Barack Obama for creating ISIS saying: “I don’t know what would have happened if we had carried out strikes. What I can say is that we did not carry out strikes, and there’s Daesh.”
Now party members are giving up on the leader following the hapless blunder.
The party are scrambling to pick up the pieces, looking to Prime Minister Manuel Valls – who is disliked in the party – and Segolene Royal – the environment minister and an ex partner of Mr Hollande who is equally unsuccessful in electoral races.
Political Scientist Bruno Cautres: “I’m stunned by the speed of his collapse. This article was posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 6:14 am Share this article | 0 |
Hillary Clinton Waiting In Wings Of Stage Since 6 A.M. For DNC Speech PHILADELPHIA—Saying she arrived hours before any of the members of the production crew, sources confirmed Thursday that presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been waiting in the wings of the Wells Fargo Center stage since six o’clock this morning to deliver her speech at the Democratic National Convention. Depressed, Butter-Covered Tom Vilsack Enters Sixth Day Of Corn Bender After Losing VP Spot WASHINGTON—Saying she has grown increasingly concerned about her husband’s mental and physical well-being since last Friday, Christie Vilsack, the wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, told reporters Thursday that the despondent, butter-covered cabinet member has entered the sixth day of a destructive corn bender after being passed over for the Democratic vice presidential spot. DNC Speech: ‘I Am Proud To Say I Walked In On Bill And Hillary Having Sex’ A friend of the Clinton family describes a Hillary who America never gets to see: the one he saw having sex. Trump Sick And Tired Of Mainstream Media Always Trying To Put His Words Into Some Sort Of Context NEW YORK—Emphasizing that the practice was just more evidence of journalists’ bias against him, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stated Thursday that he was sick and tired of the mainstream media always attempting to place his words into some kind of context. Who’s Speaking At The DNC: Day 4 Here is a guide to the major speakers who will be addressing attendees on the final night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention Bound, Gagged Joaquin Castro Horrified By What His Identical Twin Brother Might Be Doing Out On DNC Floor PHILADELPHIA—Struggling to free himself from the tightly wound lengths of rope binding his wrists and ankles together, bruised and gagged Texas congressman Joaquin Castro was reportedly horrified by what his identical twin brother, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, might be out doing on the floor of the DNC Thursday. Obama: ‘Hillary Will Fight To Protect My Legacy, Even The Truly Detestable Parts’ PHILADELPHIA—Emphasizing the former secretary of state’s competence and tenacity during his Democratic National Convention address Wednesday night, President Barack Obama praised Hillary Clinton as someone who would work tirelessly to defend and advance the legacy he had built, even the “truly repugnant parts.” Tim Kaine Clearly Tuning Out In Middle Of Boring Vice Presidential Acceptance Speech PHILADELPHIA—Describing the look of total disinterest on his face and noting how he kept peering down at his watch as the speech progressed, sources at the Democratic National Convention said that Virginia senator Tim Kaine clearly began tuning out partway through the boring vice presidential acceptance address Wednesday night. Cannon Overshoots Tim Kaine Across Wells Fargo Center PHILADELPHIA—Noting that the vice presidential nominee had been launched nearly 100 feet into the air during his entrance into the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, sources reported that the cannon at the back of the Wells Fargo Center had accidentally overshot Tim Kaine across the arena, sending him crashing to the stage several dozen feet beyond the erected safety net. Biden Regales DNC With Story Of ’80s Girl Band Vixen Breaking Hard Rock’s Glass Ceiling PHILADELPHIA—Devoting a large portion of his speech to the “pioneering, stiffy-inducing” all-female quartet, Vice President Joe Biden regaled the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night with the rousing story of the metal band Vixen breaking hard rock’s glass ceiling in the late 1980s. | 0 |
Since the election, “Never Trump” means never getting a job in Donald Trump’s administration, and that’s a bad thing, according to a new Washington Post article. [The article channels the laments of establishment Republicans who signed the two main “Never Trump” letters during the GOP primaries. Before he won, the conversation was, ‘We really would love for you to change your mind and join us,’ ” Peter Feaver, a National Security Council special adviser under President George W. Bush, said of informal talks with Trump aides. Feaver, who signed both letters, added that, “Since he won . . . the conversation is, ‘There likely will be a blacklist of people who signed the letters who won’t themselves be eligible for a post. ’” The “Never Trump” Republicans signed public letters saying Trump “would be the most reckless president in American history. ” Now that Trump is about to take office, they’re prepared to nobly serve their country, but only if Trump will come to his senses and hire them. The Washington Post portrays the routine job consideration of applicant’s loyalty as something sinister and frightening as it presents responses from Republicans surprised they are now unwelcome. According to the Post: “It’s hostile,” said this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of further retribution. “It’s not just that we’re frozen out … I was told they said there was an enemies list. ” Still, the Post’s editors are standing up for the Republicans they like. “The has virtually no experience in national security and foreign policy, and his transition team could presumably benefit from the broadest pool of applicants for the influential appointive positions in the State Department, Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security,” the Post snipes. “[T]he purportedly blacklisted figures report to their jobs at Washington law firms and think tanks in a state of indefinite limbo as their colleagues, some working in the same offices, are flirting with potential administration jobs. ” Unhappily for those in the D. C. holding pens, the Trump administration has rejected much of Washington’s culture and is staffing key posts with military and business leaders. “The favors people who have been successful in the private sector and amassed personal wealth over those who have achieved prominence in academic or policy fields,” the Post writes in another article. “Those close to him … see think tanks as part of a Washington culture that has failed to implement good governance, while becoming beholden to donors. ” The same elite that attended the same schools, lives ensconced in the same wealthy zip codes, holds the same narrow views on trade, immigration, and war, are now competing with an alternative elite brought in by Trump. Given their vitriol during the campaign, and the weeping and gnashing of teeth after Trump’s election night win, getting passed over for an administration job should not be a surprise. But the political class thinks it’s indispensable, and there would be no consequences for them. They believed the 2016 election would be a polite argument between the Clinton and Bush dynasties — and Trump would never win. What the Washington Post calls “establishment ” find themselves shut out of shaping the future of the country with no one to blame but themselves. Read it all here. | 1 |
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The Democrats are getting really nervous about Trump winning the election. They’re trying to do everything that they can to tear him down even more than Hillary is already. Obama even went as far as to say that the KKK will return!
President Barack Obama wants people in North Carolina to vote for Hillary Clinton, so he’s warning them that Donald Trump would tolerate the support of the Klu Klux Klan if he’s elected president. “If you accept the support of Klan sympathizers — the Klan — and hesitate when asked about that support, then you’ll tolerate that support when you’re in office,” he said.
Obama added that Trump would “disrespect” the Constitution as president, citing the Republican nominee’s vow to put Hillary Clinton in jail.
“[Y]ou threaten to throw your opponent in jail without any due process … then imagine what you’ll do when you actually have the power to violate the Constitution along those lines,” Obama warned.
Obama made his remarks at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on Wednesday, saying that the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.
“I hate to put a little pressure on you, but the fate of the Republic rests on your shoulders,” he said as the audience laughed. “The fate of the world is teetering, and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction.”
Obama dismissed all of the negative ads and bad news that hurt Hillary Clinton as “noise” and “distractions,” that they should put aside.
“Every day is just hysteria and over-the-top coverage,” he said, admitting that even he was getting tired of politics. “I understand the feeling, I promise you.”
He argued that the choice for president was simple, because Trump was a con artist who was unfit and not ready to be president.
“I mean, it’s strange how, over time, what is crazy gets normalized,” Obama said, referring to the multiple controversial statements made by Trump during the campaign.
“That is not the voice of America. That’s not the better angels of our nature,” he said.
If you thought things couldn’t get any more ridiculous, you’re wrong. This accusation is taking things to a whole new level just days before voting. It’s nothing but a desperate, pathetic plea for help. Related Items | 0 |
While Richard Spencer’s half-joke of hailing Donald Trump with R oman salute rose a lot of dust, some remarks in his NPI speech point into rather sinister direction. A posthuman one.
transcript with references and additional a/v material:
Undoubtedly, there was a sigh of relief throughout the world when Hillary Clinton lost Presidential elections to Donald Trump. If for nothing else, then for the sake of quiet joy of watching adolescent commissars melt in tears “because: racism, homophobia, xenophobia and whateverphobia”; it was a joy, and a relief, because it showed monolithic control system of moral nominalism , dubbed “political correctness”, to be a paper tiger.
However, party is over and dialectics is back with the vengeance. As SJW s are, hopefully, moving out from the spotlight of post-historical stage, the new contender asserts his right to fashion the reality of our day and age into his own image. If we are to judge the day by the first gleam of dawn, this image will be just as ugly – and just as unreal – as hermaphrodite ideal of politically correct “ shitlib ”.
In the words of more or less universally acclaimed leader of the “alternative right” movement, Richard Spencer, in the future we are to deal with the leadership of “children of the sun”.
This is an interesting, and to my mind quite worrisome, statement of intent – a manifestation of will, as Spencer would doubtless rectify me – pointing out in many directions while seemingly focusing on the eternal – and quite unidirectional – circular movement of the pagan deity, revered by all self-respecting übermenschen – from Nietzsche to postmodern occultists.
However, there’s a deeper astro-theological metaphor at work here. The “pure eye that can gaze upon overabundance of joy without envy” (Nietzsche) in it’s virtual, postmodern, installment is not to be strictly represented by Swastika – as Spencer apparently assumes, but by other, only seemingly ancient, symbol taken in fact from the world of tabletop and PC gaming and turned into ideological brand by Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin (or his minions): an individual widely promoted by core members of alt right movement.
The symbol in question is an eight pointed star signifying the movement, not of sun, but of presumably primordial origin of everything: Chaos.
In the lines to follow, we’ll provide some preliminary analysis of the emerging situation: the channeling of chaos principle – and adjacent chaos logic – through loosely knit alt right movement, taking as a starting point some statements from Spencer’s speech held at NPI Conference in Washington D.C. on November 21 st .
Triumph of the will or hipster Babylon working
In introduction to his triumphal encomium to the ideological victory of alt right, embodied in the election of Donald Trump, Spencer makes one interesting remark:
“But even though we always took Trump seriously, there was still a moment of unreality – or perhaps too painfully intense reality – when the state of Pennsylvania was called for Donald Trump, the moment when we knew Kek had smiled upon us, that meme magic was real. And though these terms are used half-jokingly, they represent something truly important–the victory of will . We willed Donald Trump into office, made this dream into reality. ”
It is all delivered in a manner of an in-joke, not to be taken too seriously. Moreover, to the uninitiated into mysteries of this Internet movement it is probably unclear who is “Kek” and what exactly is “meme magic”.
We’ll start our explanation with lesser weirdness.
“Meme” is an expression denoting “inexistent existent”, coined apparently by Richard Dawkins to explain how human thoughts fit in his evolutionary theology: memes are thoughts expressed in image and/or phrase which, by circulation in public, acquire the life and subsistence of their own and are able to “infect” the consciousness with their messages, like viruses. Meme is inexistent because there’s no such thing as thoughts having a biologically based self-subsistence and ability to procreate like viruses. Images and/or phrases are not living beings save by bad analogy that omits to tell us on what exactly it is based: what is that one principle making memes and viruses congenial. Yet they, quite paradoxically, exist because analogy apparently works . However no one seems to pose the question, why it works.
Well, it works because it is magical.
Chaos Magick
Here we have an example of magical thinking in the postmodern – in fact posthumanist – vein, resting on assumption that what has not evolved in nature can – and should – be created in analogy to imagined process of evolution. If artificial construct is in line with “principle of evolution” it is real or, to be more precise, it is in accordance with imaginary nature of this principle; it is imagined into existence .
Therefore “meme magick” works only insofar it relies upon artificial, preferably technological medium for sustenance and on assumption that its recipients identify themselves with their artificial, preferably online identities that can indeed be imbibed with “memes” as they are in themselves artificial and arbitrary constructs.
The goal of practitioner of such magic – a far cry from what was traditionally considered to be magic – is to change the world according to his will. This is, more or less, what is known from the Seventies of the last century as chaos magick , a postmodern imitation of ancient practice of acting in sub-human and sub-natural “domain” of the world, in the past mostly confined to people born with dubious talent to practice it. The peculiarity of chaos magick is, on the one hand, that it is entirely syncretic, i.e. that it uses everything that it’s practitioner can imbibe with intended, subjective, meaning, and that it relies on virtual, i.e. artificial world of mass culture, now embodied above all in Internet.
The idea behind it all is that nothing is true and everything is possible .
There are many interesting implications to this.
The first is that everything is interrelated, i.e. that everything is connected with everything else. So any which way you take, you’ll get where you want to get if you will it hard enough. The second is that there’s no hierarchy of higher and lower – there’s only an infinite surface dissolving into ever more complex elements, dissolving in turn into nothingness, if concentrated upon. As there’s nothing higher, there’s nothing to be revered and everything can – and indeed: should – be an object of ironical laughter. And, most importantly, this is the world of dreams, ruled by what is usually called “dream logic” but in actual fact: chaos logic or un-logic .
In this sense, Richard Spencer quite accurately proclaimed Trump’s victory an accomplishment of meme- or chaos magick.
Trump is willed into office by Internet memes binding the will of alt right adherents and turning their dream into reality – virtual reality, one may add, yet reality nonetheless. The fact that Trump was elected for a plethora of motives – from the appeal of his politics, to public takedown of Hillary Clinton by Wikileaks – is immaterial, because in the world of chaos every subjective “reality tunnel”, or interpretation of the world, is as real as any other.
In this sense we can observe new “God Emperor of USA” as a magical creation of Internet, by the Internet and for the Internet – today still the Internet of interconnected computer nodes, but soon probably the Internet of things. If one is to push Spencer’s remark to it’s logical extreme, we can assert that illustrious Donald is the world’s first president of posthuman race; an embodiment of ultra progressive dream invoked to reality by professed ultra anti-progressive group.
So that was lesser weirdness. Let us proceed now to high weirdness.
We owe the reader an answer to a question: who the hell is Kek?
Well, the reason why Spencer mentions him is again a magickal “half-joke”: Kek is interpreted to be an ancient Egyptian deity by a number of Internet observers and identified with alt right memetic avatar – Pepe the frog. While I habitually suspend judgment on all things Egyptian, because ancient Egyptian culture is a slippery ground even for experts, I consider this interpretation, upon closer inspection, to be quite valid in the virtual light of chaos logic.
Namely, Pepe, the cartoon character, conceived in 2005. by cartoonist Matt Furie, emerged as a meme from the depths of Internet forums, more precisely: 4chan sub-forum /pol/, devoted to political discussions with no holds barred, which was, in view of some observers, a breeding ground for many alt right aficionados; a place of absolute freedom, therefore: absolute chaos.
The expression “kek” was also appropriated from the forums and stems from the in-joke among the players of World of Warcraft , replacing the standard Internet abbreviation “LOL” (“laughing out loud”). Someone eventually noticed that Kek is in fact the name of frog-headed Egyptian deity, signifying Chaos and darkness, and Pepe was rebranded as Kek the deity – ironic one, no doubt, half joking one, as surprisingly many alt righters like to put it, but deity nonetheless.
It is important to point out that in view of the most “esoteric Kekists”, that is: (half grinning) faithful of Kek/Pepe, the association was originally entirely haphazard and accidental, yet it developed into an ever growing system of synchronicities – causally unrelated meaningful relations among events. So it came to pass that Kek sounds very similar to ‘cuck’(originally: cuckservative), a term denoting old fashioned conservative who was still not “red pilled” (another meme taken from pop culture, shared by both alt right and conspiracy theorists) by alt right or, should we assume: Kek himself; furthermore, Hillary Clinton addressed Pepe as nothing less than public enemy, identifying presumably the whole alt right movement with cartoon character. Then it happened that after this act Hillary fainted in front of the cameras, and that was immediately interpreted as an action of Kek.
A good run-down of Kek/Pepe/Trump identification
However, it all began with people noticing the numerical synchronicities in the random series of numbers in posts on /pol/ sub-forum:
„One last thing you need to understand about imageboard culture: dubs.
Every post on 4chan and similar venues comes with an 8-digit numerical stamp. This number represents that post’s entry position in the entire posting lineage of the imageboard.
With the amount of traffic these sites get, the last couple digits of this number are essentially a random roll. When a poster gets repeated digits, its called “dubs”, “trips”, “quads”, and so on.
Since a poster can’t know their post number until after they’ve submitted the post, its common for people to “bet” the contents of their message on the occurrence of repeating digits (…) When that endeavor proves a successful, a “GET” has been made and the stroke of luck is celebrated.
Out of this practice, a strange phenomenon began to take place on /pol/: discussion threads associated with Trump displayed noticeably frequent GETs. It wasn’t long before all of these seemingly random elements discussed so far became irreparably tied together within imageboard culture: Pepe the Frog (now /pol/’s unofficial mascot) Donald Trump (/pol/’s overwhelming candidate of choice) Repeating digit post numbers (“GETS”) “KEK” (used as an expression of delight, particular in response to Trump’s “trolling” of the establishment, as well as in reaction to unlikely GETs in general)
…and a god was born.“ ( source )
Synchronicities related to emergence of Kek the God and his merging with Trump in the bowels of Internet forums early on in the presidential campaign, are so numerous and, frankly, mind boggling that we cannot list them here, for the sake of brevity. For our purpose it is sufficient to point out that for many alt right aficionados, including core leadership, Kek is the God and Trump is his prophet, all declared with smug grin and ironical stance, yet with all the necessary power of conviction.
Namely, chaos magick relies on laughter, or irreverence of its own principles because it is essentially un-principled. Fairly in accordance with its postmodern nature it seeks to deconstruct any kind of order to enable its “practitioner” to impose his own will and change the world – as Spencer would put it: make his dreams a reality.
I would go further and add: make all reality a dream ; because, chaos magick and alt right are nothing more but novel forms in the development of virtual, i.e. posthuman , world. The idea of adherence and reattachment to tradition that the alt right movement professes is nothing more but simulacrum appealing to people tired of liberal nihilism – in its essence, however, it is a complete opposite: a disintegration of all substantial traditional principles – above all an idea of preexistent hierarchy of Being – into nothingness of primordial Chaos.
Posthuman traditionalism
I already developed this insight regarding the subversive work of Alexander Dugin, who is probably the most consequent subverter of Tradition with recognizable public persona acting in our age, but now we can see how his affiliates in USA and Europe are doing the same thing – with less philosophical subtlety, but fueled by much greater raw power. Namely, alt right, if we are to judge by what it’s leadership advocates, is ideologically nothing more but project of building the simulated tradition – something Richard Spencer likes to call “political theology” – founded on New Age filtered Aryan myths , racial interpretation of Nietzsche and generally crossbred with “do your own thing” mentality, all done in the virtual ether of information technology. After all, if we are to agree with Spencer – half jokingly of course – that God Emperor was inaugurated by the act of Kek the God, then the victory of alt right “traditionalists” is in fact the victory of technological magic; the act of pseudo magus waving the same wand Ray Kurzweill and his ilk offer to progressive lunatics .
In the end, therefore, we are talking about another victory of posthumanism, branded, spontaneously or otherwise, as traditionalism. The obsession of alt right adherents with “identity” in general and “white identity” in particular points to a fact that they are unable to realize the simple truth of Tradition they supposedly defend: they understand identity as something that can be created and not something that must be accepted . Observing the plethora of various, rather eccentric individuals in it’s vanguard, from macho gay postmodern Spartans to adherents to all kinds of exotic – and to a large extent made up – pagan religions one is at the lack to find a common denominator, save maybe for quite unchallenged neo-darwinist stance, especially to be found among “game” bloggers as Chateau Heartiste . If someone thinks that he can reattach himself to pre-modern spiritual history of humankind – actually the only one there is – while at the same time musing about “alpha and beta males”, “sexual market”, “signaling and counter-signaling”, professing therefore his proud monkey ancestry and reducing human relations to mental GMO of memes, genes and biological analogies, he is doing nothing else than unconsciously subverting the very thing he seemingly defends.
The allure of alt right lies in it’s dialectical opposition to political correctness and rampart destruction of moral substance of the West, induced by process of globalization. Yet this is an eristic or, to use an excellent neologism invented by one correspondent of mine: discordian dialectic; the process of infinite division into ever multiplying opposites founded on the principle of Chaos. It is all done with the crooked half grin, a pinch of salt to every smug remark – with irony of the man who knows he’s a liar and a cheat. But smug humor goes just a short way. In the end it morphs into sarcasm and irreverence of what should in fact be revered and subverts the very principles it professes to defend, far more effectively than dead serious PC brigade or techno loonies of posthumanist movement could ever hope for.
We’ll end with the word of warning to Christian adherents of alt right. The words have a definite meanings and power. There’s only one Chaos and there’s only one bringer of light from Chaos – as some Kek worshipers already defined the poor Frog’s main job . And it’s not the One to be defined as “God from God, Light from Light”, but “God from Gutter, Light from Darkness”. A real Darkness shining in virtual brightness. Hope you guess His name.
So, without a pinch of irony, I declare: be careful who your “hail”.
***
Author Branko Malić is a Croatian author and owner of Kali Tribune , with the background in classical philosophy. He’s focused on philosophy, media, culture and deep politics analysis. | 0 |
Referral from a friend, relative, or certified U.S. Gourd Steward. I hope seeing the big pumpkin helps me find the answer to that question. 3. We’re going to show you the small pumpkin to see how you feel before we set you up with the big pumpkin. Please choose the answer that best describes your reaction to the small pumpkin. I feel comfortable. I feel overwhelmed. I have a feeling that if I see a pumpkin any bigger than that, something truly wonderful will happen. This is not at all what I thought a pumpkin was.
Sorry again for the red tape. If we had it our way, we would just show you the picture right now. 4. We’ll need a little medical information as well. Has anyone in your family died after seeing the big pumpkin? Yes, I’ve lost one or more relatives because they saw the big pumpkin. No, no one in my family has died because they saw the big pumpkin. My cousin died, but that was years after he saw the big pumpkin. I have one or more family members who became paralyzed in some part or all of their body after seeing the big pumpkin, but they’re alive and I obtained their blessing before coming here. 5. Does this pumpkin look orange on your computer screen? If not, please re-calibrate your display settings for optimal viewing of the Big Pumpkin. My display settings have been optimized for viewing the big pumpkin. What I am looking at is definitely orange but in no way a pumpkin. 6. Please choose one of these dogs with a pumpkin. This is simply for our own record-keeping, your choice will in no way affect our decision to show you the big pumpkin.
Ah, excellent choice. 7. Alright, almost done! Here’s a quick liability waiver. Don’t worry, we make everyone do this. It’s to cover both your ass and our ass, but you’re going to be completely fine. I accept full responsibility for any harm done to my physical person and/or computer as a result of viewing the big pumpkin. 8. Lastly, please select an emergency contact before viewing the big pumpkin. Reverend John Gerrity Badboy former reverend Dag Havermeier who got ex-communicated for giving confession while sitting on his motorcycle Let's See The Big Pumpkin Results for Just A Few Minor Formalities Before We Can Show You The Big Pumpkin Okay, we’re all finished! Everything looks to be in order here. Thank you for your patience, now please enjoy the big pumpkin. Share Your Results | 0 |
Keywords: pet care , pet care tips
Having a pet or a companion animal is an amazing thing as the little bundle of joy loves you immensely without asking for much in return. But they do want your little time and attention. Pets are just like kids who need care and support from you, and if they don’t get these things, then they can become victims of infection, malnutrition, and diseases. Therefore, here we have listed some important pet care tips so that you can easily keep your pet happy and healthy. Train your pet
Behavioral training is very important for dogs and cats especially when you have children at the house. Proper training can reduce their aggression and help them to accommodate easily in your home environment. If you are not well experienced with pet training, then you can take help of a professional trainer to train them like sitting on command or walking on a leash. Spaying and neutering
If you have many pets and you don’t want an increase in their numbers, then you can get them spayed or neutered by a vet. It also benefits your pet as it reduces the chances of your pet getting lost because the tendency to roam around will decrease after spaying and neutering. It also lowers the risk of certain cancers, hernias in male pets and uterine infection in females. Induce natural healing
Increasing immunity of your pet is very important, and you can do with a much safer approach. Animal oral nosodes provide a wide range of protection to your pet from various diseases like Corona virus, Lyme disease, West Nile virus. Tick fever etc. and they are very easy to administer as it can be given either by mouth. This natural alternative is safe and has many advantages over the conventional vaccines, many of which are found to be carcinogenic or having side effects. Body cleaning
It is important to get your pet habitual to bathing and other cleaning activities like clipping nails, flea or tick examination, etc. from an early age so it doesn’t get surprised when you give it a bath or try to cut its nails. They can even attack you in defense if they are not used to these activities. Keep them active
Walking your dog early in the morning is good for him and you as well. It gives you time to bond and keeps both of you fit. Besides that, you must play with your pets regularly to keep them active. You can use a Frisbee or ball to play with your pets or tell them to chase you while you run. These activities benefit both of you mutually. Skincare
This is very important especially in the case of pets with a white coat or less pigmentation as they are prone to skin inflammation and skin cancers. Also, check your pet regularly for any external parasite like fleas as it can cause irritated skin, hair loss, hot spots, infection and introduction of other parasites like a tapeworm in your pet. After cleaning and check up, groom your pet by brushing their coat as it helps in reducing hair shedding by them. Watch their diet
Children tend to feed their pet anything even their favorite food without knowing that it can be harmful to them, therefore, inform your young ones about the right food for your pet. Food items containing alcohol, coffee, chocolate, poultry bones, salt or unripe fruit can be bad for your pets. You can also ask your vet about other food items which must not be given to your pet. Moreover, you also need to check the weight of your pet regularly as less physical activity and regular feeding can make them obese or overweight. Pet bedding
Proper rest is equally necessary for the overall well-being of your pet, and they need a corner for their own for that. You should pick a spot in your house which is warm, clean and quiet to make their bed. Their bedding should be cleaned on a regular basis to prevent any parasites like ticks and fleas. Provide a healthy environment
Your pet can understand your mood as it is a living being like you, therefore, try to act happily around them. You must have seen that your cat is scratching the post or toys or your dog becomes restless when you come home. They do these things because they need mental stimulation. Give them toys to play, take them on a walk and play with them to reduce their restlessness and keep their boredom away. Pet identification
This prevents your pet from getting lost or taken away by the municipal persons by considering them as stray ones. Make them wear a collar with the address of your house so that it can be returned to you if it gets lost. These days, microchips are used to identify the pet. These microchips are of the size of a rice grain and placed under the skin of the pet within a second. It doesn’t require any battery and sensitive enough to be scanned and tracked easily by a vet or animal control officer. You might also like… | 0 |
Leon Russell, the longhaired, pianist, guitarist, songwriter and bandleader who moved from playing countless recording sessions to making hits on his own, died on Sunday in Nashville. He was 74. His website said he had died in his sleep but gave no specific cause. Mr. Russell’s health had incurred significant setbacks in recent years. In 2010, he underwent surgery for a brain fluid leak and was treated for heart failure. In July he had a heart attack and was scheduled for further surgery, according to a news release from the historical society of Oklahoma, his home state. With his trademark top hat, hair well past his shoulders, a long, lush beard, an Oklahoma drawl and his fingers splashing barrelhouse piano chords, Mr. Russell cut a flamboyant figure in the early 1970s. He led Joe Cocker’s band Mad Dogs Englishmen, appeared at George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh in New York City and had numerous hits of his own, including “Tight Rope. ” Many of his songs became hits for others, among them “Superstar” (written with Bonnie Bramlett) for the Carpenters, “Delta Lady” for Mr. Cocker and “This Masquerade” for George Benson. More than 100 acts have recorded “A Song for You,” which Mr. Russell said he wrote in 10 minutes. By the time he released his first solo album, in 1970, he had already played on hundreds of songs as one of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles. He was in Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound Orchestra, and he played sessions for Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, the Ventures and the Monkees, among many others. His piano playing is heard on “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds, “A Taste of Honey” by Herb Alpert, “Live With Me” by the Rolling Stones and all of the Beach Boys’ early albums, including “Pet Sounds. ” The music Mr. Russell made on his own put a scruffy, casual surface on rich musical hybrids, interweaving soul, country, blues, jazz, gospel, pop and classical music. Like Willie Nelson, who collaborated with him, and Ray Charles, whose 1993 recording of “A Song for You” won a Grammy Award, Mr. Russell made a broad, sophisticated palette of American music sound and natural. After his popularity had peaked in the 1970s, he shied away from and largely set aside rock, though he kept performing. But he was prized as a musicians’ musician, collaborating with Elvis Costello and Elton John, among others. In 2011, after making a duet album with Mr. John, “The Union,” he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Mr. John called him “the master of space and time” and added, “He sang, he wrote and he played just how I wanted to do it. ” Leon Russell was born Claude Russell Bridges in Lawton, Okla. on April 2, 1942. An injury to his upper vertebrae at birth caused a slight paralysis on his right side that would shape his music: A resulting delayed reaction time in his right hand forced him to think ahead about what it would play. “It gave me a very strong sense of duality,” he said last year in a Public Radio International interview. He started classical piano lessons when he was 4, played baritone horn in his high school marching band and also learned trumpet. At 14 he started gigging in Oklahoma since it was a dry state at the time, he could play clubs without being old enough to drink. Soon after he graduated from high school, Jerry Lee Lewis hired him and his band to back him on tour for two months. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s and found club work and then studio work he learned to play guitar, and he began calling himself Leon Russell, taking the name Leon from a friend who had lent him an ID so he could play California club dates while underage. His drew on both his classical training and his Southern roots, and he played everything from standards to from to pop throwaways. He was glimpsed on television as a member of the Shindogs, the house band for the rock show “Shindig!” in the and was in the house band for the 1964 concert film, “The T. A. M. I. Show. ” In 1967, he built a home studio and began working with the guitarist Marc Benno as the Asylum Choir, which released its debut album in 1968. He also started a record label, Shelter, in 1969 with the producer Denny Cordell. Mr. Russell drew more recognition as a arranger and musician on Mr. Cocker’s second album, “Joe Cocker! ,” which included Mr. Russell’s song “Delta Lady. ” When Mr. Cocker’s Grease Band fell apart days before an American tour, Mr. Russell assembled Mad Dogs Englishmen, a big, boisterous band that included three drummers and a choir. Its 1970 double live album and a tour film became a showcase for Mr. Russell as well as for Mr. Cocker the album reached No. 2 on the Billboard album chart. Mr. Russell also released his first solo album in 1970 it included “A Song for You” and had studio appearances from Mr. Cocker, Eric Clapton, two members of the Beatles and three from the Rolling Stones. But Mr. Russell’s second album, “Leon Russell and the Shelter People,” fared better commercially: It reached No. 17 on the Billboard chart. Mr. Russell had his widest visibility as the 1970s began. He played the Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden with Mr. Harrison, Bob Dylan and Mr. Clapton he produced and played on Mr. Dylan’s songs “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “Watching the River Flow. ” He toured with the Rolling Stones and with his own band. His third album, “Carney,” went to No. 2 with the hit “Tight Rope” it also featured his own version of “This Masquerade. ” In 1973, his “Leon Live” album reached the Top 10, and he recorded his first album of country songs under the pseudonym Hank Wilson. The fledgling Gap Band, also from Oklahoma, backed Mr. Russell in 1974 on his album “Stop All That Jazz. ” His 1975 album “Will o’ the Wisp” included what would be his last Top 20 pop hit, “Lady Blue. ” But he continued to work. He made duet albums with his wife at the time, Mary Russell (formerly Mary McCreary). And he collaborated with Mr. Nelson in 1979 on “One for the Road,” a double LP of pop and country standards. It sold half a million copies. That same year he married Janet Lee Constantine, who survives him, as do six children: Blue, Teddy Jack, Tina Rose, Sugaree, Honey and Coco. Mr. Russell delved into various idioms over the next decades, mostly recording for independent labels. He toured and recorded with the New Grass Revival, adding his piano and voice to their lineup. He made more country albums as Hank Wilson. He recorded blues, Christmas songs, gospel songs and instrumentals. In 1992, the songwriter and pianist Bruce Hornsby, who had long cited Mr. Russell’s influence, sought to rejuvenate Mr. Russell’s rock career by producing the album “Anything Can Happen,” but it drew little notice. Mr. Russell continued to tour for fans, who called themselves Leon Lifers. A call in 2009 from Mr. John, whom Mr. Russell had supported in the early 1970s, led to the making of “The Union” — which also had guest appearances by Neil Young and Brian Wilson — and a tour together in 2010. Mr. Russell also sat in on Mr. Costello’s 2010 album, “National Ransom. ” Then he bought a new bus and returned to the road, on his own. | 1 |
Страна: Сирия Свою статью ветеран вооруженных сил США Джим Дин начинает с цитаты Отто фон Бисмарка, который описывал западных политических лидеров как людей, «курящих в пороховом погребе», и «нисколько не заботившихся о последствиях». Западные СМИ продолжают фабриковать всевозможные выдумки по поводу российских и сирийских «преступлений» в Сирии, нисколько не заботясь ни об их достоверности, ни о публикации опровержений. В то время, как российский МИД развенчивает очередное бредовое обвинение, совершаемые прозападными боевиками массовые казни, грабеж и насилие в Ираке, остаются без какого-либо внимания со стороны международных СМИ. Автор отмечает, что нынешний курс Вашингтона на Ближнем Востоке уже доказал свою полную несостоятельность, поскольку ни на чем не основанные обвинения все дальше подрывают «авторитет» западных СМИ, который и без того уже достаточно подмочен, в то время как поддержка террористов лишь ухудшает обстановку в регионе. Так не пора ли остановится? С полным содержанием статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 0 |
Next Prev Swipe left/right Read Jilly Cooper’s ‘elasticated waist sex scene’
@Kateofhysteria over on Twitter notes, “Now, I love Jilly Cooper. But elasticated waists have no place in a sex scene.”
We were amused enough by this to track down the extract – it’s from Mount and the whole passage is mind-bending. “Oh buttercunt, oh buttercunt” can you imagine anyone saying that?
Maybe we should start running The Poke Bad Sex Writing awards? | 0 |
Following the riots that cancelled the final event of MILO’s “Dangerous Faggot Tour,” The Chancellor of UC Berkeley has released a statement claiming that rather than being caused by students, they were started by “armed individuals in ‘ ’ uniforms using “paramilitary tactics. ”[The event was cancelled after rioters, who the university claim were not students, smashed ATMs and bank windows, looted a Starbucks, beat Trump supporters, pepper sprayed innocent individuals, set fires in the street, and sprayed the words “Kill Trump” on storefronts. Coverage of the riots spread across the world, as people watched on in horror at a university known for its heritage of free speech being taken over by political thugs. In an email to students, UC Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks said that the university “condemns in the strongest possible terms the actions of individuals who invaded the campus, infiltrated a crowd of peaceful students, and used violent tactics to close down the event. We deeply regret that the violence unleashed by this group undermined the First Amendment rights of the speaker as well as those who came to lawfully assemble and protest his presence. ” However Dirks adds that despite going to “extraordinary lengths to facilitate planning and preparation for this event,” the efforts were undone by “100 armed individuals clad in uniforms who utilized paramilitary tactics to engage in violent destructive behavior designed to shut the event down. ” anti fascists group have been known to infiltrate MILO events throughout the tour, with a marxist group as the “Freedom Road Socialist Organisation,” infiltrating protesters at the cancelled event at UC Davis and causing violence. President Donald Trump condemned the riots, threatening to take away the university’s federal funding if the university “does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view. ” If U. C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view — NO FEDERAL FUNDS? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017, We reported yesterday that the university receives over $370 million in federal funding, over half its budget. Since news of the riots broke out, sales of Breitbart Senior Editor MILO’s upcoming book Dangerous increased by a staggering 12, 740% propelling it to the top of the Amazon best seller list. DANGEROUS is available to now via Amazon, in hardcover and Kindle editions. And yes, MILO is reading the audiobook version himself! You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
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Picture, if you will, video footage of vintage (early 2016) Donald Trump buffoonery with the CEO of CBS Leslie Moonves commenting on major media's choice to give Trump vastly more air time than other candidates: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS."
That's the introduction to a powerful critique of the U.S. media. A new film screens in New York and Los Angeles this week called All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone .
The website AllGovernmentsLie.com has screening dates , a list of lies , and a list of good journalists who expose lies . The lists on the website are not identical to the content of the film, but there's a good deal of overlap -- enough to give you a sense of what this project is about.
I'd have made various changes and additions to the film. In particular, I'm tired of all the focus on Iraq 2003. This film touches on war lies since then, but still gives that one particular set of war lies prominence.
Still, this is a film that should be shown in cities, homes, and classrooms across the United States. It includes and is driven by Noam Chomsky's analysis of how the media system is "rigged" without those doing the rigging believing they've done anything at all. It's a survey of skullduggery by corporate media. It's an introduction to numerous journalists far superior to the norm. And it's an introduction to I.F. Stone. It includes footage of a presentation of the annual Izzy Award which goes to journalists acting in Stone's tradition.
One of the lies listed in the film and on the website is that of the Gulf of Tonkin (non-)Incident. Anyone paying attention knows of it now as a war lie. And it was a transparent war lie at the time in a particular sense. That is: had the North Vietnamese really shot back at a U.S. ship off their coast, that would not have been any sort of legal, much less moral, justification for escalating a war. I'd love it if people could grasp that logic and apply it to the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and every other part of the earth today.
But the Gulf of Tonkin lies about Vietnamese aggression against the U.S. ships innocently patrolling and firing off the coast of Vietnam were not transparent to people with faith in the U.S. role of Global Policeman. Someone had to make the lies transparent. Someone had to document that in fact the Secretary of So-Called Defense and the President were lying. Sadly, nobody did that in the first 24 hours after the Congressional committee hearings, and that was all it took for Congress to hand the president a war.
And it was decades before White House transcripts came out and before the National Security Agency confessed, and additional years before former Secretary Robert McNamara did. Yet, those revelations simply confirmed what people paying attention knew. And they knew it because of I.F. Stone who just weeks after the (non-)incident published a four-page edition of his weekly newsletter exclusively about Tonkin. - Advertisement -
Stone's analysis is useful in looking at the incident or lack thereof this past month in the Red Sea off Yemen. And in fact it is to Yemen that Stone immediately turned on page 1 in 1964. The United Nations, including its U.S. ambassador, had recently condemned British attacks on Yemen that Britain defended as retaliatory. President Dwight Eisenhower had also warned the French against retaliatory attacks on Tunisia. And President Lyndon Johnson, even at the time of Tonkin, Stone notes, was warning Greece and Turkey not to engage in retaliatory attacks on each other.
Stone, who tended to look even at written laws that nobody else paid any heed to, pointed out that three of them banned these sorts of attacks: the League of Nations Covenant, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and the U.N. Charter. The latter two are still theoretically in place for the U.S. government.
The United States in Vietnam, Stone goes on to show, could not have been innocently attacked but itself admitted to having already sunk a number of Vietnamese boats. And indeed the U.S. ships, Stone reports, were in North Vietnamese waters and were there to assist South Vietnamese ships that were shelling two North Vietnamese islands. And in fact those ships had been supplied to South Vietnam by the U.S. military and the good old American tax payers.
Stone did not have access to closed committee hearings, but he hardly needed it. He considered the assertions made in speeches by the only two senators who voted against the war. And then he looked for any rejoinders by the chairmen of the committees. He found their denials to be non-denials and nonsensical. It made no sense that the U.S. ships simply happened to be randomly hanging around in the vicinity of the South Vietnamese ships. Stone didn't believe it.
Stone also filled in the background information. The United States had been supporting guerrilla attacks on North Vietnam for years prior to the non-incident. And Stone raised numerous suspicions, including the question of why the U.S. ships had supposedly made sure they were out in international waters for the (non-)incident to (not) occur, and the question of why in the world Vietnam would take on the United States military (something nobody could explain, though Eugene McCarthy proposed that perhaps they had been bored). - Advertisement -
Missing from the film and website of All Governments Lie is I.F. Stone's work on lies about the outbreak of the Korean War. We've learned more since he wrote it, but seen little more insightful, relevant, or timely for our understanding of Korea and the world today. View Ratings | Rate It http://davidswanson.org David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online ( more... ) | 0 |
ST. ANTHONY, Minn. — A lawyer for the suburban police officer who fatally shot a black man during a traffic stop said on Saturday that the race of the driver, Philando Castile, played no role in how his client responded, and that the officer “was reacting to the presence of a gun” when he opened fire. The comments from the lawyer, Thomas Kelly, provided the fullest accounting yet of Officer Jeronimo Yanez’s version of the shooting Wednesday night, even as many details remain unclear. Officer Yanez, of the St. Anthony police, is on leave while state authorities investigate the shooting, which has prompted protests and raised questions about what role race might have played in the stop. “The shooting had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the presence of that gun,” Mr. Kelly said in an interview, noting that Officer Yanez is Latino. Mr. Castile “was not following the directions of the police officer,” Mr. Kelly said, but he declined to provide further detail. Much of what is known about the shooting comes from a Facebook Live video of the aftermath streamed by Mr. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds. In that video, in which Mr. Castile is seen bleeding profusely in the driver’s seat, Ms. Reynolds tells the officer that her boyfriend had been reaching for his identification when he was shot. She also suggested that he had a permit to legally carry a gun. “Please, officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him,” Ms. Reynolds said in the video, which quickly gained international attention. “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir. ” In the video, Ms. Reynolds said her boyfriend was stopped for a broken taillight. Mr. Kelly said there was “more than the reason for the equipment violation” to pull Mr. Castile over, but would not specify what those other reasons might have been. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating the case, has released few details. The bureau has confirmed that the episode started as a traffic stop by Officer Yanez and a colleague near the state fairgrounds in Falcon Heights, a suburb patrolled by the St. Anthony Police Department. Mr. Castile died at a hospital shortly after the shooting. The bureau said a weapon was recovered at the scene. Gov. Mark Dayton, who has met with protesters and black leaders, has expressed sympathy for the Castile family and concerns about the role of race in the shooting, infuriating some in law enforcement. “Would this have happened if those passengers — the driver and the passengers — were white?” Mr. Dayton asked on Thursday. “I don’t think it would’ve. ” Protesters have gathered outside the governor’s residence in St. Paul since shortly after the shooting, and many have framed it as yet another episode of a black man being unjustly gunned down by a police officer. On Friday night, a sizable, racially diverse crowd gathered outside the governor’s mansion, where they had decorated the street with chalk messages like “This needs to end!” and “Justice 4 MN. ” The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has provided no timeline for when its investigation would be finished, though many expect it to take weeks or months. At that point, the case will go to the Ramsey County prosecutor, who can either decide on charges himself or present the evidence to a grand jury. Mr. Kelly said Officer Yanez had cooperated with investigators, providing informal information immediately after the shooting and giving a full statement within about 15 hours. “He’s very distressed about this incident, and he feels badly for the family of Philando Castile,” Mr. Kelly said. “It’s a tragic incident. ” | 1 |
(AP) Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a wily political survivor and multimillionaire mogul who remained among the ruling elite despite moderate views, died Sunday, state TV reported. He was 82. [Iranian media reported earlier Sunday that he was taken to a hospital north of Tehran because of a heart condition. State television broke into programming to announce his death. Rafsanjani’s mix of sly wit and reputation for cunning moves — both in politics and business — earned him a host of nicknames such as Akbar Shah, or Great King, during a life that touched every major event in Iranian affairs since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. His presence — whether directly or through back channels — was felt in many forms. He was a steady leader in Iran’s turbulent years after overthrowing the U. S. shah, a veteran warrior in the country’s internal political battles and a covert in intrigue such as the arms deals in the 1980s. He also was handed an unexpected political resurgence in his later years. The surprise presidential election in 2013 of Rafsanjani’s political soul mate, Hassan Rouhani, gave the former president an insider role in efforts that included Rouhani’s push for direct nuclear talks with Washington. Rouhani’s victory was also another example of Rafsanjani’s remarkable political luck. Rafsanjani was blocked from the ballot by Iran’s election overseers — presumably worried about boosting his already influence. But, in the end, many liberals turned to Rouhani as an indirect vote for Rafsanjani. It came after years of dwindling influence. Another presidential comeback bid was snuffed out by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s surprise victory in 2005 elections, which left Rafsanjani and his powerful clan as fierce critics of Ahmadinejad. | 1 |
Muhammad Ali was an ungentrified black man. That simple truth has resonated in my heart the past few days as volumes of praise and tributes have been lavished on Ali and his legacy. I had not expected to be this sad. We all knew this day was coming, that he would die, but the finality of it has been a bit difficult to accept. Now I understand what my father meant many years ago. He said that when Joe Louis died, he felt that he lost a little bit of himself. Louis had helped frame the ethos of my father’s generation of black men and women as Ali helped frame mine. Louis’s warning to his opponents summed up the determination of my father’s generation: You can run, but you can’t hide. Ali told us to float like butterflies and sting like bees. We all have the heroes and legends of our youth. I am forever grateful that the athlete I most respected and admired taught me the realities of life in the United States — that being an active, conscious black person in America meant traveling a road on which wealth and trinkets would test the will of men and women of principle. Gentrification is on my mind because I live in Harlem and have watched as this and other previously black neighborhoods around the country have been gobbled up and transformed from black to nonblack. Black homeowners, eschewing neighborhood and community, sell for trinkets. Ali never sold. I was a high school junior when he was stripped of his heavyweight title. When his championship belt was taken, Ali effectively said that it was a mere trinket, nothing compared with the principle he was being asked to give up. I loved that, and I would try — sometimes succeeding, sometimes not — to live by that ideal. I met Ali for the first time in the 1970s while working at Ebony magazine. The year I arrived at Ebony, Ali pulled off the greatest boxing upset I have ever seen, knocking out the seemingly invincible, previously undefeated George Foreman in Zaire. Two of Ali’s three fights against Joe Frazier were classics, but the victory over Foreman was transformative. For Foreman, it was . I never spoke to Ali about the Foreman fight, but I spoke plenty about it with Foreman. He was devastated and eventually took a hiatus from boxing. Foreman said he had a religious revelation. I think the revelation was Ali, and everything he stood for. It was during that period that my friend Greg Simms, then the sports editor at Jet magazine, called me one afternoon and asked if I wanted to go to Ali’s house. Of course I did. But once inside, in the presence of an athlete I held in such high regard, I wasn’t sure what to say, and said nothing. I just stood there. Life went on. In September 1976, I covered Ali’s third bout against Ken Norton, at Yankee Stadium. Two years later, I left Ebony to become a feature writer and jazz critic for The Baltimore Sun, and from there, I joined The New York Times in 1982. By that point, the impact Ali had made on my life — the strong belief I now had that black athletes needed to express themselves politically — was set. I was in Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Games when Ali lit the Olympic torch and seemed to set the world on fire. Two years later, I was at the United Nations when Kofi Annan, then the secretary general, presented Ali with the Messenger of Peace Award. In 2005, I was in Louisville, Ky. for the dedication of the Muhammad Ali Center. In each of these instances, the toll that Parkinson’s disease was taking on Ali was increasingly evident. Still, Ali kept up a grueling schedule. After the Louisville event, for example, he was scheduled to fly to Germany to receive an award. I asked his wife, Lonnie, why Ali kept traveling, why he subjected himself to the grind. She said: “People always ask: ‘Isn’t he tired? Shouldn’t he rest?’ Muhammad says, ‘I got plenty of time to rest. ’” My last real exchange with Ali came at the Sydney Olympics, in 2000, during a reception. By now, his Parkinson’s had progressed to the point that you really had to strain to make out his words. Yet Ali was in great form. Asked how it had felt to light the Olympic torch four years earlier, Ali said: “Scary as hell. My left hand was shaking because of Parkinson’s my right hand was shaking from fear. Somehow, between the two of them, I got the thing lit. ” When someone asked him to name his toughest foe, Ali said: “U. S. military. Next toughest fight was my first wife. ” Later, in his hotel room, I was speaking with Ali when he looked at me and asked, “What’s your name?” Of course he knew my name, but he wanted to make a larger point. “Bill Rhoden,” I said, knowing what was coming. “That’s not your name. That’s your slave name. ” He talked for another 15 minutes about racism and oppression and history. What I gleaned from Ali’s life, as I’ve lived mine, is that the goal is not to go through life undefeated. The quest is to exercise resilience and come back stronger. Beloved by much of the world, Ali was nonetheless consistently, unapologetically black. I loved that about him. Muhammad Ali was an ungentrified black man. | 1 |
NEW DELHI — Jeena Sharma, 25, was applying for a work visa to the United States when news came that two Indian engineers had been shot in a Kansas bar by a man who drunkenly questioned their immigration status. News of the shootings, which took place last Wednesday, was quickly eclipsed by other developments in Washington, and even in Kansas, but the same cannot be said of the Sharma household of Mumbai, where Ms. Sharma has received emphatic maternal lectures about her plans to move, starting first thing in the morning. “She asked me: ‘Why do you even need to go to the States? Why do you need to go to a country that doesn’t want you? I’m going to be scared for your life every day,’” Ms. Sharma said. Even as she endeavored, patiently, to convey to her mother the difference between Kansas and New York City, where she hopes to move, Ms. Sharma felt her own apprehensions growing, as the days passed and President Trump made no statement on the crime. “It’s definitely very scary for me at the moment,” she said. “It’s almost as if a brown person is dead, like it doesn’t matter. ” The body of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the software engineer fatally shot in the Olathe, Kan. bar, was expected to arrive by Monday in Hyderabad, a technology hub where immigration to the United States has long been viewed as the surest path to success. Indians were relatively welcoming of Mr. Trump’s victory, and many here express admiration for his business empire and promised crackdown on terrorism. But even before Wednesday’s shootings, that optimism had been diluted by fears that America might no longer welcome immigrants. India is second only to China as a feeder to American colleges, with around 165, 000 students enrolled in the school year, according to the Institute of International Education. Indians are the largest recipients of temporary skilled worker visas, known as visas, which the Trump administration intends to cut back. And close to half a million Indians, who mostly went to the United States legally as students or tourists or on work visas, have stayed on after their visas expired, the Pew Research Center estimates. Reports of rising American hostility toward immigrants have stunned many Indians, said Alyssa Ayres, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who visited Hyderabad recently. “I had a guy on a plane sitting next to me, who turned to me and said, ‘Is it true, what they say about America under Trump? ’” she said. “There is a kind of confusion: What is happening to the United States? People can’t believe what they’re reading. ” Ill treatment of Indian immigrants has, in the past, caused serious damage to bilateral relationships. In 2009 and 2010, reports of racially motivated crimes against Indian students in Australia set off demonstrations outside the Australian Embassy in New Delhi, where Australia’s prime minister was burned in effigy. After that, the number of Indians applying for student visas plunged by nearly half, with severe costs to Australian educational institutions. The diplomatic effect of the shootings in Kansas has been muted so far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not commented on them, though the subject will certainly be raised this week, along with the thorny issue of curtailing visas, when Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visits Washington. Some Indians who had planned to go to the United States said they were hesitating. Manavi Das, who is considering several universities, said she was “constantly looking to see if the school is in a red state, or has witnessed a shooting in recent times. “After a certain event in November,” she said, “I have found my apprehensions turned up a notch. ” Sunny Choudhary, 23, said he had decided not to apply to graduate engineering programs in the United States, because “recent conditions, they are turning into, I think, hostile conditions. ” After Mr. Trump was elected, he added, “my parents said: ‘No, you should not go there. Now we won’t let you go there.’ ” He said that, like many of his friends, he had narrowed his search to Europe. And some Indian parents could use their persuasive talents to encourage their children to return home. “For this period, after the transfer of regimes, I think Indians can come back and serve their country,” said Suguna Kadiyala, 73, whose daughter has been in the United States for 20 years. Nageswara Rao, 71, whose son and daughter work in the software sector in the United States, said he was “not much worried,” though he does dispense regular advice on safety measures. “It is always better to keep away from bars,” he said. His children are safe, he added, “because they don’t go to these bars where white people are more. ” He continued, “I give them advice to be a little bit careful and don’t get into a wrangle with anybody. Just have your own peaceful life. ” | 1 |
People over profits The Ease of Doing Halloween à la Russe
The West's biggest monster this Halloween is Russia, but behind the mask the country is doing absolutely fine Print The author is Chairman, Disciplinary Committee, National Association of Corporate Directors, Russia
Over the past few years I have had various views levelled at me by my fellow citizens such as “You are an apologist for Russia!”, “Putin and his circle are mass murderers”, “you are now blind to the truth!” and so on. I get such statements mostly long distance through the internet from the States and some cases the EU. It is understandable given that bad news sells news, and objective deep investigative reporting by professionals appears relegated to selective interests mostly in the blogosphere. As I live and work in this “nasty, criminal Russia” and am concerned for my family’s welfare, I am more than interested to get the facts on what is happening around us and where we are heading. My sources of information like most people comes from friends, neighbors, work acquaintances, colleagues and of course the global media. A potpourri of opinions, much accusatory noise, so where in this hubbub lurk simple evidential truths? As it is now Halloween, I thought it only appropriate to wheel out the ever-popular ghoulish Russian monster and the attendant gaggle of batty tricky gremlin familiars from Siberian wastes. I do this to pay homage to one of my favorite holidays with the help of such “evildoers” as a backdrop. I invite you to have a look into this fiery pit of horrors, it may entice you re-examine your views, question, and set you on the course to establish your business in Russia! Hhmmmm… trick or treat? Although statistics and rankings tend to overlook fundamental differences in what drives economic progress, or from what starting point one or another nation had to contend with, nonetheless the wicked witch of the west and her legions of LaGardettes have researched some interesting views, namely: The World Bank, Ease of Doing Business Rankings ( http://www.doingbusiness.org/data ). To be fair, I thought a ten-year slice would be sufficient to compare and contrast Russia against the rest of BRICS and the USA, so 2006 through 2016 it is, otherwise Russia’s Government guided by “Count Vlad the Bad” would look even more horrifying. Ease of Doing Business Rankings (World Bank) Countries Rank 2006 Rank 2016 Brazil 119 123 United States 3 8 (Note: The higher the number, the more difficult to do business). What the above indicates to me is that there are general trends becoming apparent, in all cases except Russia and China the ease of conducting business is becoming comparatively harder. Each of the six countries listed above have an individually complex bouquet of internal and external specifics that make direct comparisons almost meaningless, however what is common are overall directions based on common metrics. I would recommend going to the world bank website mentioned earlier as it breaks down the components leading to these overall rankings, which if you are an aficionado of economics and history is an invaluable additional overlay to any reasoned geopolitical assessments of our world. Russia is paternalistic, steeped in a black miasmic lagoon of traditions long since abandoned by our innovative world, stifling development, basic freedoms, and even repressing women! Back home, the issue of women’s rights is vital, newsworthy, of vast political import – it can and does titillate the electorate in many ways both subjective and objective as witnessed in these 2016 elections. Russia on the other hand, popularly prejudged an outcast country, feels it has little to shout about or act on concerning women. This aside from the fact that they are in the main warm, intelligent, competent and stunningly beautiful – fodder for male sexist fantasies. I was horrified to learn that Russia (almost like Don Trump) perniciously tops the list of countries with the highest number of female board members, and that at least 45 percent of senior management positions across its nine time zones are held by women. This evolved without quotas, Hillary Clinton, or any extraordinary outside pressures, which really disappoints me. The pragmatic characteristics of Russians tend to value the actions a person chooses to make, rather than rhetoric and show. In this context, the traditionally developing values and roles between women and men seem naturally to be doing fine. Whistling in appreciation of a woman passing on the street is not insulting; it is what it is, a compliment, pleasure, a bravo between strangers, and a positive normal interaction. Cultural preferences can be hard mistresses to live and work with, no doubt. What Halloween would be complete without including the most odious, shuddersome monster of all? Who else but Vladimir Putin, or “Count Vlad the Bad” as Washington and Brussels like to paint him. His background is frighteningly direct given the infamy he gets. Serving as a KGB analyst for much of his career in East Germany when the wall came down. Moving back to St. Petersburg with his family he worked advising the then mayor on foreign affairs. He resigned from the KGB and progressed within the political administration of the mayor’s office coordinating relations with the military, police, district attorney, customs officials, and other city related diplomatic matters. Considered by those who knew him then as a progressive and talented manager who played a key role attracting a number of Western corporations to the city. He pushed for and directly assisted enabling a great many of joint ventures with foreign companies, establishing a large foreign banking presence, legalizing sale of land that allowed privatization of residential properties, opening the international trade center, strengthening municipal and regional banks. He earned a good reputation within the foreign business community of being an open, practical, ethical man who to the amazement of many, and contrary to the norms of those times did not ask for or accept bribes. Seen by colleagues in Moscow as objective, disciplined and capable was therefore invited into president Yeltsin’s administration where he advanced to the level of prime minister. On New Year’s Eve in 2000, he became acting president, a Yeltsin parting gift to Russia. Count Vlad it seems takes his task of representing Russia’s national interests seriously as evidenced everywhere one looks today inside this monstrous, politically incorrect federation. Russia to be seen as a successful country, particularly in spite of doing so in ways not answerable to the west, does not seem to play well with the leaders in the US and EU. The record of accomplishment of the Russian administration is chilling, the citizenry saw their incomes rise many fold, the poverty rate was halved, consistent economic growth, flat income tax, and a country safe to live in. Unlikely as it may sound coming from this authoritarian hellhole of a country, it has one of the highest rates of education in the world with 54% of Russians having college degrees. Legally mandated paid maternity leave for women, and a payment made directly to the mother on giving birth of a second child of 450,000 rubles (up from 250,000 due to effects of US/EU sanctions). Healthcare is improving steadily as is life expectancy, which has steadily risen to 71 (from a deep dark abyss) and is still rising. All this without Tories, Labor, GOP, Democratic Party, EU a la Brussels, or other “democratic brands” and popular models currently on sale – just the government of the Russian Federation. Frightening! Have a fun and reflectively chilling Halloween! | 0 |
Shut the roof, and closure will finally and deservedly come for Aaron Krickstein. When it next rains during the United States Open, there will be no lengthy delay or complete washout at Arthur Ashe Stadium — and no more reason for a television producer seeking to fill time to consider reminding Krickstein of his long, lugubrious Labor Day in 1991. “Part of me feels like it’s really a long time ago,” Krickstein said in a recent telephone interview. “And part of me feels like it was yesterday. ” He is not the only one. Krickstein’s loss to Jimmy Connors — the ultimate crasher in a sport — was a seminal match in the tournament’s modern history and the first significant story to break on my live watch for The New York Times after I was hired in April 1991. This year’s event will be my last assignment as a staff reporter. Just in time, the tournament will unveil a $150 million retractable roof over the court named for Ashe, who died in 1993 and with whom I happened to watch the fifth set of the classic in the press box high atop what used to be the main court, Louis Armstrong Stadium. “It’s all come full circle,” Krickstein said, unintentionally speaking for us both. I was not exactly a kid out of college, or a tennis newbie, when Connors whipped the Armstrong crowd into a panting frenzy in that match on his 39th birthday. I had covered my first Open in 1978 for a newspaper that existed for a few weeks during a protracted strike by New York’s three dailies. Connors had destroyed Bjorn Borg in the final that year, as Ashe reminded me after seating himself close by while Connors chased Krickstein, 15 years his junior, across the evening shadows to emerge with a tiebreaker victory. “He was unbelievable that day,” Ashe said of the Borg demolition, recounting the scores — — as if they were flashing on the glass enclosure in front of us. “If you’re talking about Connors’s performances here, to me, that was first. This is second. ” In a paean to career resurrection, Connors later called his highly improbable run to a semifinal trouncing by Jim Courier in 1991 as “the best 11 days of my career. ” Like no other tournament, that Open fortified the working man’s ethos Connors proudly and sometimes obnoxiously embodied throughout his career. For years, Krickstein chafed at the thought of Connors’s birthday theatrics and body gyrations, and how behaviorally dismissive he had been of a friendship that began as a mentorship. Krickstein was so deflated after the match that he could barely lift his head when facing reporters. He and Connors would not speak more than a few words for almost 24 years. They did play once more on tour, months later in Memphis. “I was up a set and a break — lost that one, too,” Krickstein said. “Never did beat him. ” Connors being an great, Krickstein could live with that, but what most annoyed him was the reputational residue of their Labor Day epic. Krickstein was cast in too many reruns as a chronic loser, in perpetuity. Years later, when Krickstein was playing at a senior event in Long Island, the woman on the public address kept introducing him as Connors’s hapless 1991 sparring partner. The typically reserved Krickstein took a moment to inform her that he had actually been a player, the winner of nine ATP events and the conqueror of Andre Agassi at that 1991 Open. Alas, even the Agassi triumph was obscured by Connors, who summoned his inner Houdini in a night match against Patrick McEnroe, rallying from two sets down and behind in the third. “Did you talk to Patrick?” Krickstein asked me. “He started the whole thing. ” To which McEnroe said, “Yep, still rubs me the wrong way. ” He, too, had a relationship with Connors, who would occasionally call him to practice, “probably to tick off” McEnroe’s older brother, John, a bitter Connors rival. But the worst part of Patrick’s coughing up a match he believed he had won — “the kiss of death against Jimmy,” he said — was that he was having his best year as a singles player, having survived his own deficit against a Swede named Thomas Hogstedt on the way to the Australian Open semifinals. McEnroe went into a monthslong funk after his nightmare, struggling to watch Connors and the tournament proceed. Except he remembered John, on a network broadcast, saying, “My brother unleashed a monster. ” Patrick McEnroe did get another shot at Connors the following spring in Florida, finally beating the Jimbo in straight sets. Krickstein had to wait more than two decades to reconfigure an old conversation. As the tennis director of St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton, Fla. he had begun a custom of staging annual events for members, summoning old tour friends to come entertain them by hitting a few balls. He took a deep breath and called Connors near the end of 2014. “It was a little awkward, to say the least,” Krickstein said. “First we just talked about our families. I told him where I was working, what I liked to do for our members, how it would be a great honor to have him come down. ” Krickstein proposed that they play a set for old times’ sake, carefully describing it as “a reunion match,” not one for revenge. “Jimmy asked a few questions, little details, but he couldn’t have been nicer,” Krickstein said. At 62, with both hips replaced, a few reporters in attendance and the former American tour player Jimmy Arias poking fun in the chair, Connors dropped an pro set to Krickstein in February 2015. He cast it as his last public match while Krickstein called it “a cool way to reconnect. ” Adulthood happens. Middle age sneaks up on you. Krickstein is 49, a father of two, more reflective on what he can now admit was “an iconic match. ” Yes, he hated when people told him they had seen it during United States Open rain delays, in one depressing stretch over four consecutive years. Over time, “it’s bothered me less and less,” Krickstein said, but he still found himself nodding in agreement when he read somewhere recently that “nobody will be happier about the U. S. Open roof than Aaron Krickstein. ” He has plans to visit the tournament during the first week, meet sponsor obligations, stroll the grounds in Flushing Meadows, maybe take in a match or two. If the clouds happen to burst and the two fabric panels roll across the opening to meet above Ashe while he is there, Krickstein won’t complain. These days he has little to grouse about, he said. Life has been good, very good. But he’ll still happily accept full closure on Connors, along with the roof, after 25 years. He also won’t be alone in wondering, where have they gone? | 1 |
WING, N. D. — The Wagner family farmstead in central North Dakota could have been lifted from a Grant Wood painting: bales of hay rest on a gently sloping hill, cattle graze near a bright blue pond, green tendrils of durum and sunflowers peek out of the dirt. The Wagners fear that all of this could someday be under threat from big, impersonal corporations. It is a concern that is expected to drive them, and other North Dakotans, to the polls on Tuesday to vote on a referendum that would make it possible for companies to buy up farms like theirs. Starting in 1932, North Dakota law barred nonfamily corporations from owning farmland or operating farms. But that changed in March of last year when the state Legislature passed a bill that would relax the corporate farming ban and Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed it into law. Citizens protested the new law, with the state’s farmers union at the forefront, which led to the referendum that voters will face on Tuesday. The law was set to take effect last August, but its fate rests on the outcome of the referendum. A vote for the measure would uphold the new law, which allows domestic corporations and limited liability companies to own and to operate dairy farms and swine production facilities on land that is no larger than 640 acres, or one square mile. A vote against the measure would repeal the new legislation and restore the law that had governed farm and dairy operations in the state for more than eight decades. While the debate is very much focused on maintaining the character of North Dakota, it also taps into widespread fears about the disappearance of family farms throughout the United States and the spread of big corporations and their farming methods into rural America. People like the Wagners who support the earlier law — one of the strictest in the country — say that it protects the environment and family farmers like them. “With corporate farming, they just don’t have the connections,” said Laurie Wagner, whose husband’s grandparents started the farm in the 1930s, as she walked around the property on Thursday. “They could buy up all the land, and it means nothing to them. They could make it impossible for people like us to compete. ” The issue has sharply divided North Dakotans. On rural roads outside Bismarck, the capital, some fields and front yards are decorated with bright green signs declaring, “No to Corporate Farming. ” Many people are suspicious of big business and eager to preserve the state’s long heritage of farms. Agriculture remains North Dakota’s dominant industry, with close to 30, 000 farms and ranches. In 2012, North Dakota became the first state to enshrine the “right to farm” in its Constitution. “I think small towns and rural communities are at stake,” said State Representative Kenton Onstad, a Democrat and the minority leader. “I think the values of North Dakota are going to be given up and slowly erode. ” But those who support the ballot measure say that opponents are acting out of nostalgia and emotion. They argue that the farming and ranching business in North Dakota needs to evolve to stay competitive: Dairies and hog farms have declined in recent years, prompting many people to argue that the industries could use a boost. “We have this picture in our head of the Hollywood farm, with the dairy cows, a couple of pigs, a couple of chickens,” said Katie Heger, a family farmer who favors allowing corporate farming. “There are very few farms that are like that. Farming and ranching is a business. So if we’re looking at sustaining agriculture in the state of North Dakota, we need to look at how we can build business. ” During last year’s debate, Governor Dalrymple, a Republican, said that he hoped changes to the farming law would encourage economic growth in the struggling dairy and swine industries. And he promised that the new legislation included safeguards to protect North Dakota’s family farms. “The bill includes strict limits on the use of the business structure and we do not consider it a threat to the farm sector of North Dakota as we know it,” he said at the time. The North Dakota Farmers Union, which opposed the bill, responded by gathering more than 20, 000 signatures to force the measure onto the statewide ballot. The union has spent heavily on mailers and television ads in recent weeks and recruited more than 1, 000 volunteers to make phone calls and knock on doors to drum up support. Mark Watne, the group’s president, said he believed that if the legislation went into effect, it could open the door to consolidation and the possibility that smaller farms could go out of business. Family farmers, he said, have an incentive to train the next generation, while corporations could choose profits over longevity. “We simply do not believe in our communities that the ownership of land in the hands of a corporate structure is in the interest of agricultural production,” Mr. Watne said. State Senator Terry M. Wanzek, a farmer and rancher who sponsored the bill last year, said that opponents are driven by unwarranted fears of big business. “They think Monsanto or Walmart is going to come in and own everything,” Mr. Wanzek said. “I don’t see this as some big bad bogeyman who’s going to come in and take over the farm. If I felt in any way that it was going to threaten our heritage or our way of life on the farm to any great extent, I never would have supported it. ” Some have argued that allowing family farmers to incorporate could give them more access to outside capital and investors for expansion, like other businesses in the state under corporate structure. “The disadvantage with North Dakota’s law is that you can’t have any other partners once you’ve incorporated except for a very direct relative,” said State Senator Joe Miller, the chairman of the agriculture committee and a sponsor of the bill. “You’re hamstringing neighbors to be able to come together, or outside investment partners, maybe a friend who lives in California who wants to invest. There’s all kinds of different opportunities that one could explore, and that’s completely off the table right now. ” The North Dakota Farm Bureau, a lobbying organization that has farmer members, has adopted an alternative tactic in case the new law is defeated that takes aim at the 1932 law banning corporate farming. Earlier this month, it filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the law, arguing that it is discriminatory and unconstitutional. “The laws of our state, as they stand today, are forcing North Dakota’s farm families to make business management decisions that other businesses are not being forced to make,” Daryl Lies, the president of the Farm Bureau, said in a statement. David M. Saxowsky, a professor of agriculture at North Dakota State University, said that the debate speaks to a culture in North Dakota that places a heavy value on farmland. “We’re very proud of our resources, we think that our land is attractive to investors and we are very proud of our desire to be the business owner,” he said. “And for those reasons, we want to provide an environment in which smaller businesses owned by families can succeed. ” Governor Dalrymple declined to be interviewed. In an emailed statement, he said, “It’s good that this will be decided by the people of North Dakota. ” | 1 |
“If my daughter is a success, my happiness is complete,” declares the title character of “Fatima,” a small miracle of a film from the French director Philippe Faucon. Divorced from her husband, whom she followed to France and with whom she is still friendly, Fatima (Soria Zeroual) is a North African woman raising two teenage girls in Lyon. The oldest, Nesrine (Zita Hanrot) 18, is a medical student, and the younger, Souad ( Aïche) is a sullen, sexy rebel ashamed of her mother for working as a housecleaner. Souad sneers that Fatima is “a useless ” and “a living rag. ” But her mother, however stung, endures the abuse and chooses her words carefully when firing back. Fatima loves her daughter despite her insolence. Steeped in North African Muslim culture, Fatima has traditional notions of what she calls “respectable” female behavior that don’t apply in France, and she is upset when Souad insists on baring her shoulders. If the movie, loosely based on two books by Fatima Elayoubi, tells a familiar story of immigrants struggling to make something of themselves in an alien culture (Fatima speaks some French but reads only Arabic) it does so in a tone that is kindhearted but clearheaded, and the performances are and believable. (Mr. Faucon picked Ms. Zeroual, a nonprofessional actress, to play Fatima.) It makes you feel the intense pressures facing Fatima and her family from all sides. When a young man flirts with Nesrine on a train, she politely but with a tinge of regret explains that she has to study. Some of those pressures come from gossipy female neighbors who are envious, and judgmental. One Moroccan woman fumes that Nesrine didn’t greet her at a bus stop, an incident that Nesrine, lost in her thoughts of school, doesn’t recall. While on the job 12 or more hours a day, Fatima is treated with barely disguised contempt by female employers who brusquely order her around and who, she rightly senses, suspect her of petty theft. Nesrine nearly cracks under the strain of her studies, which require her to absorb complex medical terminology. She worries most about not disappointing Fatima, who is sacrificing everything to pay for her schooling. Nesrine simply can’t afford to fail. Eventually Fatima, exhausted, falls down stairs with her cleaning equipment and takes a paid medical leave. But when the time is used up, she complains of continuing shoulder pains, although tests indicate she has recovered. She has simply reached her limit. To bolster her morale, Fatima has been keeping a bedside journal, written in Arabic. As she reads aloud from it to a sympathetic doctor, her reflections on hardship, sacrifice and life’s unfairness have the tone of a humble manifesto. “Be proud of all the Fatimas who clean working women’s houses,” she reads, and her words resound with the determination and quiet nobility of a woman who, however downtrodden, knows her own worth. “Fatima” is not rated. It is in French and Arabic, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 19 minutes. | 1 |
Retired Brigadier General Ángel Vivas of the Venezuelan military, an outspoken critic of the socialist regime who refused to hand over weapons and accept arrest for years, is suffering severe medical harm after being beaten and tortured by secret police, his family contends. [Dictator Hugo Chávez ordered his arrest before his death after Vivas challenged the new Bolivarian Socialist motto for the Venezuelan military, “Nation, Socialism, or Death” — the same as the Cuban motto. He was convicted of “insubordination” and sentenced to prison, but instead armed himself and went home, refusing to accept the arrest. Vivas was finally taken to a Secret Police (Sebin) prison in early April following the start of a new wave of protests. Viva’s family told the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional that the was beaten severely upon being apprehended on April 7 and displayed signs of being tortured in prison, among them a wound on his temple that has affected vision in his left eye, complete loss of hearing in his left ear, what appears to be a broken rib, and a severe lower back injury that appears to have damaged his internal organs. His family, who saw him for the first time since his arrest on Wednesday, say he is now also unable to stand up straight, uses a cane, and has lost a significant amount of weight. “His health condition is extremely critical,” one relative told the newspaper. Viva’s wife, Estrella Vitora, denounced the torture of her husband on Twitter this week. Vitora adds that Vivas told her he was shot in the ear and had the wound sutured without anesthesia. There is no evidence that Vivas has had access to medical professionals since his arrest. A journalist, Daniel Colina, published Vivas’ mug shot in late April, and reported that authorities had not provided Vivas with arthritis medication he is dependent on or addressed his hypertension. At the time, the injuries his family reported this week were not overt, indicating that he had been subject to beatings and torture within the last two weeks. Me informan mis fuentes que el Gral. Ángel Vivas se encuentra con Hipertensión elevada y tiene que tomar un medicamento para la artritis. pic. twitter. — Daniel G. Colina (@danielgcolina) April 29, 2017, Vivas was arrested on April 7 in an operation his daughter, who witnessed it, says involved a false accident to lure Vivas out of his home. That day, a car crashed into the front of his home. Upon leaving his house to check if anyone had been hurt, an unmarked car approached carrying an estimated 20 armed men, who beat Vivas and whisked him away. The original order for Vivas’ arrest was handed down during the Chávez era, when Vivas legally challenged the imposition of a new, socialist military motto. After the order for his arrest, Vivas locked down in his home and became more vocal in opposing the government, particularly on social media. Vivas contended that the Venezuelan military had been colonized by communist Cuban military leaders, who had been imported to indoctrinate new recruits, and refused to hand over his weapons. Vivas called for Venezuelans to “resist Cuban invasion and the traitors that support it” and called the Cuban flag “the flag of our worst enemy” in 2014. During this latest wave of protests, triggered by an attempted Supreme Court takeover of the nation’s legislature, the Venezuelan opposition leadership have repeatedly called upon the military to abandon dictator Maduro and refuse to attack unarmed civilian protesters. Most of the opposition leadership has nonetheless remained notably silent on Vivas’ case. On his blog, Vivas denounced the opposition shortly before his arrest. In one blog post in particular, reproduced by the Miami outlet Martí Noticias, Vivas wrote, “no politician and no Venezuelan political organization has given me even the least bit of support that I need, and not just that, they have ignored me, to them I don’t exist. ” “They are not really politicians, since they do not defend the interests of their country but their own interests,” he continued, “and those of the organizations to which they belong and international organizations to which they are affiliated ideologically and from which they receive money (the Socialist International). ” Multiple prominent members of the opposition, including the political prisoner Leopoldo López, are members of the Socialist International. One of the organization’s vice presidents, Henry Ramos Allup, is a leader of the opposition in Venezuela. Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | 1 |
BELGRADE, Serbia — Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic appeared headed toward a victory in Serbia’s presidential election on Sunday, winning more than 50 percent of the vote among a field of 11 candidates, according to exit polls and early results. If the preliminary vote count holds and Mr. Vucic passes the 50 percent threshold, he would avoid a riskier runoff on April 16. While Serbia is a parliamentary republic and the presidency is intended as a largely symbolic position, the actual effect of the election result is seen as removing the last check on Mr. Vucic’s power and as a further erosion of Serbia’s nascent democratic institutions. Mr. Vucic, by far the most popular political leader in the country, will choose his successor as prime minister, most likely a pliant one, and he is expected to exercise unchallenged control over all of the country’s main political institutions: Parliament, the executive branch, the ruling party and now the presidency. With its coalition partners, his party has a strong and solid majority in Parliament, and the courts are weak and seen as politically controlled. The departing president, Tomislav Nikolic, had been one of the few checks on Mr. Vucic’s power. With Mr. Vucic in the president’s office, Serbia is likely to follow the same domestic and foreign policy course as during his time as prime minister: enacting the political and economic changes required for membership in the European Union, while simultaneously seeking closer relations with Russia. Creating tensions with Brussels, Mr. Vucic has refused to support sanctions against Russia. Declaring victory in Belgrade, the capital, Mr. Vucic said, “When you have results like this, it’s clear to everyone that there is no instability,” adding, “Serbia is strong, Serbia is powerful and it will be even stronger. ” As Western governments decrease their involvement in the Balkans and membership in the European Union loses its appeal to Serbia and other countries, political leaders in the region are feeling less pressure to govern within the confines of democratic institutions or to protect human rights, press freedom and the rule of law, and to fight corruption. The regional trend is toward “weak democracies with autocratically minded leaders, who govern through informal patronage networks and claim to provide stability in the region,” according to a study by the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group. Observers view Mr. Vucic’s consolidation of power as a product of this drive for stability that has shaped the politics of the western Balkans over the last decade, as Western governments choose to engage with strong leaders rather than work to strengthen democratic institutions. “Stability trumps everything,” said Jelena Milic, the director of the liberal Center for Studies in Belgrade. Public opinion surveys before the election showed that Serbian voters considered Mr. Vucic the best candidate for delivering stability, said Srdjan Bogosavljevic, a pollster at the Ipsos polling company in Belgrade. Living in a region still inflamed by ethnic tensions and economic turbulence, in which older people experienced three wars in a generation, Serbs want a strong leader to guide the country, Mr. Bogosavljevic said. Mr. Vucic’s popularity surged after the arrest and prosecution of Miroslav Miskovic, one of Serbia’s wealthiest magnates, who in June was convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. Mr. Vucic had campaigned for prime minister on a promise to rein in the country’s oligarchs. Mr. Vucic also positioned himself successfully on foreign policy: seeking good relations with Russia while also leaving no doubt that Serbia would eventually join the European Union, despite his frequent criticisms of the bloc. “Serbian public opinion says, ‘We love Russia, but we don’t want to be part of Russia,’” Mr. Bogosavljevic said. “And we don’t like Europe, but we want to be part of Europe. ” Support for European Union membership has fallen to 47 percent, according to a poll in December by the Serbian European Integration Office. Mr. Vucic reinforced his image as an indispensable international partner during the campaign by meeting with world leaders. He met last month in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and in Moscow with President Vladimir V. Putin, who wished him “success” in the vote. Russia has been expanding its influence in the Balkans to fill the vacuum as Western powers draw back, Ms. Milic said. Because Mr. Vucic has delivered on some international issues important to the European Union, like encouraging moderation in Bosnia and engaging in a dialogue with the leadership of Kosovo, the bloc has refrained from overtly criticizing him for abuses like restricting press freedom. “The E. U. is very weak and disinterested in the Balkans now, and this has enabled him to get more credit and less scrutiny for his domestic policies than he should,” said Florian Bieber, a professor of Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz in Austria. “Behind closed doors, they always remind Vucic that he has to better protect the democratic process,” Mr. Bieber said. “But they don’t say it in public. ” | 1 |
OpEdNews Op Eds 10/28/2016 at 10:15:27 Can any U.S. President Ever Overcome the Power of the Establishment and Bring Substantive Change to America? License DMCA We're finally approaching the end of this long, drawn-out, and very boring process of electing this country's next president. Millions upon millions of Americans are backing either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the hope that she or he will bring long-awaited, substantive change to this government and this country. They have been waiting, fervently hoping to finally see some individual who possesses great courage, strong leadership skills, and a deep sense of ethics and morals, become president; and to use the power of the presidency to take this country in an entirely new direction, with a government that adheres to the will of the people. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like either of the two current candidates possesses those qualities and characteristics in abundance sometime in the future we may see such an individual emerge. What kind of real substantive change am I talking about? Well in the latter half of the 20 th Century we saw major accomplishments made during the tenures of various presidents, such as sending a man to the moon, together with important advancements in medicine, science and technology, as well as the creation and development of the internet. Those were very significant achievements but not the kind of substantive changes that greatly impacted the direction of this country. The kind of change of which I speak would be more like the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid health care systems in 1965; and in years past, the Social Security system. Here's the type of change this country and society needs as we navigate the 21 st century. First and foremost we need to see very ambitious government/business efforts and programs to create millions jobs for Americans. That would help greatly to reinvigorate the middle class and jumpstart our sluggish economy; it would also result in significant reductions in the number of Americans who are dependent on food stamps and other forms of government welfare. - Advertisement - Such a program should include the repair and modernization of our deteriorating national infrastructure, the development of solar and wind power, and the creation of a universal health care system that would finally cover all Americans at much lower costs. We need substantive changes in the way we deal with rampant violence in this country; this problem has been escalating and its way past time that something were done to curtail the proliferation and illegal use of guns that are slaughtering far too many of our innocent fellow Americans. But so far the government and, in particular, this Congress, has refused to address this situation because of the power wielded by the gun industry and the NRA. That continued governmental vacillation combined with NRA obstructive tactics must not be allowed to continue. A large majority of Americans would like to see real, substantive changes such as those identified above put into effect; and all of them are clearly doable. However, that's just not happening because there is a massive, seemingly immovable object standing in the way. That object of obstruction is, of course, the Establishment, which is diametrically opposed to any such progress because its own objectives clash with those of the people. It is very difficult and virtually impossible for any president to overcome the power of this Establishment because of what I refer to as the Circle of Power and Control that exists in Washington; here's how this ultra-powerful, self-perpetuating circle operates; - Advertisement - At the seat of this power is Corporate America which uses monumental amounts of $$$ to influence and control our elections so that a large majority of elected senators and representatives return to the Congress time and again; not to advance the needs of the people but, rather, the interests and objectives of Corporate America. We might refer to these politicians as indentured servants. The Corporatists want to slash corporate taxes to further increase profits, to significantly water down the regulations and restrictions on the banking industry., They support the lobbyists and special interest groups that have infiltrated this Congress and are, not only greatly influencing the enactment of legislation, but are often actually writing it. Congress has, as a very top priority, the ongoing funding of the massive Military-Industrial Complex, i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, the State and "Defense" Departments, and the defense industry corporations which produce the machinery of war. Too many taxpayer dollars that should be used to strengthen this country's deteriorating foundations are, instead, directed to the military establishment to maintain its huge empire of bases and installations all over the world, to conduct invasions and occupations of other nations, and to remove elected leaders and/or dictators in various countries. | 0 |
The Colombian government and the nation’s main rebel group said on Saturday that they had reached a “new final accord” to end their longstanding conflict, potentially reviving a deal that was rejected last month in a referendum. The changes to the agreement with the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, were announced in Havana and addressed a range of topics — such as where rebels would be confined after disarming and how courts might address drug trafficking offenses — that negotiators said had troubled voters. The agreement also appeared to withdraw a promise of guaranteed seats for rebels in Congress — one key demand of those who said the rebels would be unfairly rewarded with political positions. In a televised address, President Juan Manuel Santos emphasized the need to ratify the agreement quickly, saying time was running out. “The is fragile,” he said. “The uncertainty generates fears and increases the risks to throw this immense effort overboard. ” However, it was unclear whether the changes would placate voters who had sunk the deal by a thin margin, many on the grounds that it was too lenient on the rebels. After the vote, critics said they wanted rebel leaders to face prison sentences — a demand that seemed nearly impossible to meet after the first agreement had been signed. Álvaro Uribe, a former Colombian president who led the campaign against the deal, issued a brief statement saying he wished to review the changes in coming days. The fate of the war between Colombia and the FARC has been uncertain since the referendum nearly six weeks ago. Polls had indicated that the measure would be approved by a large margin, and the government had even held a signing ceremony with the rebels the week before. But a vigorous campaign emerged against the deal, and it was rejected by 50. 2 percent of voters. The prospect of peace remained widely popular in Colombia, but for many, the terms of the deal did not offer justice after generations of conflict. Scenes of guerrilla fighters donning civilian clothes and preparing to enter politics touched a nerve for many voters who did not feel that the group had shown remorse for past crimes. Catholic and evangelical Christian voters also joined the “No” campaign, hoping that it would be seen as a repudiation of the government’s socially liberal agenda, including the legalization of marriage. On Saturday, negotiators emphasized that both agreements’ references to gender and sexual orientation pertained only to the rebels. Despite the setback of the referendum, Mr. Santos has received widespread international encouragement to complete the deal. Days after the vote, he was named the winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, and the judges warned that it was up to him and the FARC to avoid a renewed war this year. The United States, which played a role in both negotiations, backed the announcement on Saturday. “President Santos and his negotiating team, those from the ‘No’ campaign, and other important sectors of Colombian society deserve credit for engaging in a and respectful national dialogue following the plebiscite,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. | 1 |
Prosecutors charged six members of the violent Latin Kings street gang with stabbing and beating a handicapped man. The gang members allegedly punched, repeatedly stabbed, and beat the victim with his own cane. [District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that the defendants are each accused of brutally attacking a young man for no reason other than he was not a part of the Latin Kings. “Gang violence will not be tolerated in Queens County,” Brown said. “The defendants’ poor choice in pursuing gang membership and the violence that are a part of that lifestyle have led them to be charged with serious felonies that carry the possibility of lengthy prison sentences. ” A Queens County grand jury indicted six members of the violent Latin Kings street gang. They are charged with attempted murder and gang assault stemming from an October 2016 attack on a man, according to a statement from Queens County District Attorney. The six defendants — Michael Aragundi, Jonathan Duy, Jordan Leon, Wilson Matute, Luis Mayancela, and Luis Minchala — were each charged with one count of attempted murder, one count of gang assault, one count of assault, two counts of robbery, one count of robbery and one count of assault. Brown said that the six Latin Kings members approached the outside a bar during the early morning hours of October 29, 2016, and began attacking him — allegedly punching him and stabbing him. The Latin Kings used a cane that the victim had with him as a weapon against him. They proceeded to beat him mercilessly with it, prosecutors stated. Following the attack, the six gang members fled the scene. Emergency responders transported the victim to a nearby hospital where he received treatment for multiple stab wounds and lacerations to his head and neck. Brown said that the victim suffered nerve damage to his left arm which has left him with numbness in his arm and hand. The judge in the case ordered the six defendants back to court on July 10, 2017. The gang members each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra. | 1 |
boy, look at that flame | 0 |
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Just another Thursday, and the morning mix includes bikers from New Jersey, Amish visitors from Pennsylvania and a few children adjusting to a park not intended for play. They settle onto benches for the 11 o’clock retelling. A ranger in the green and gray of the United States National Park Service tucks his lunch on a shelf and walks out to face his audience. A field of wildflowers undulates behind him the clouds seem nearly within reach. He begins: “Remember how bad the weather was that morning?” Hesitant nods turn quickly to head shakes. No. On that particular September morning, you could see forever. This is just the ranger’s way of buckling you in. Helping some to remember what we already know. Helping others, especially those who were not yet born, to envision a beautiful, calamitous day now nearly 15 years in the past. His name is Robert Franz, he is 61, and his title is “interpretive park ranger,” which means that his job is to tell the story of what happened in that field behind him, again and again and again. This is the Flight 93 National Memorial, by far the most removed of the three crash sites. A visit requires a journey through the arresting Allegheny Mountains, up and down and up and down, past a Confederate flag here, a Trump sign there, to a field set aside for reflection. “Mayday! Mayday! Get out of here!” the ranger says, echoing the alarm that was heard by air traffic controllers. The words chill the air, as children fidget and bees buzz about. He continues the story of United Airlines Flight 93, bound for San Francisco from Newark. How four hijackers redirect the jet southeast, most likely to crash into the nation’s capital. How many of the 40 crew members and passengers fought back. How this hurtling jetliner nearly flipped before crashing at 563 miles an hour into the soft, earth, killing all. “The crew and passengers put democracy in action,” Mr. Franz says. “They take a vote” — to storm the cockpit and regain control of the plane. We connect to that day in our own way, and the storyteller in the ranger’s hat is no different. He was born into the military, his father an Army lifer who served in World War II’s European theater, his mother a daughter of the French underground. They were married at the Cathedral of in Paris, and went on a short honeymoon in an Army jeep. Their son Rob spent the better part of two decades flying Army Hueys and Black Hawks and training other soldiers how to fly helicopters. He left the service in early 2001, and was at home on Cape Cod, Mass. that Tuesday, watching the news. He thought of those he had trained, and felt guilt for not being among them for the deployments sure to come. Mr. Franz focused on a real estate career, volunteered with the local veterans’ committee and worked briefly as a police officer. Then, in late 2011, he spotted a listing on a government website for a seasonal job as an interpretive park ranger at the Flight 93 Memorial. He quickly applied, he recalls, sensing a chance to “complete the circle. ” Soon he was driving about 600 miles west to Shanksville every April, and staying until October. He proved to be such a powerful storyteller, his presentation informed by his knowledge of aeronautics, that he was recently offered permanent employment, which he accepted. “He told this story unlike anyone I had heard,” says Stephen Clark, the superintendent for the national parks in western Pennsylvania. “And, of course, being a veteran makes it all the more special. ” Sometimes Mr. Franz stands at the memorial plaza, answering questions about the time of the crash and the location of the bathrooms. He commiserates as people recount their own connections to the day, and keeps his counsel as conspiracy theorists question whether such a crash even occurred. “If somebody’s made up their mind, there’s nothing I can do,” he says. Sometimes he distributes Flight 93 Junior Ranger handbooks, explaining to young visitors what activities they need to complete before receiving a Junior Ranger badge. The booklet is a thoughtful study in trying to find the right words: Early in the flight, their plane was hijacked by four men. To hijack a plane means to take control over it. These hijackers were angry at the United States of America … But there are words, and then there are words. When children ask about the recovery of bodies, Mr. Franz redirects, ever so slightly. Since there were only remains, no bodies, he explains that a spot out there, beyond the wildflowers, is now “a final resting place. ” And sometimes, Mr. Franz is standing before another 11 o’clock crowd, as he is now, telling an American epic in less than a all the while reminding himself not to get emotional again when he comes to a certain point. The more familiar narrative of Flight 93 focuses on those Mr. Franz calls the “big guys” — Todd Beamer, for example, the young software salesman who helped to organize the passenger revolt and whose last recorded words of “Let’s roll!” became a national rallying cry. But the park ranger makes the gentle point that the revolt was “a group effort. ” “Let me tell you about Sandy Bradshaw,” he says, recalling the flight attendant who, in a furtive call to her husband, explained how she was boiling water to hurl at the hijackers. “Let me tell you about Honor Elizabeth Wainio,” he says, recalling the business executive known as Lizz who, in a moment of supreme compassion, called to comfort her stepmother about what was to happen, and who was part of the revolt. She was 27. “No, it’s not looking good,” Mr. Franz says. “But they weren’t going to give up. ” The park ranger, the father of two adult daughters, looks down and takes a long, unscripted pause. As he struggles to regain his composure, the wildflower setting becomes the bikers and the Amish now silent congregants in outdoor pews. Soon these people will wander off, some over to the memorial wall, some up to the new visitors center, where Flight 93 shirts and mugs are sold, and an interactive display includes recordings from the fatal flight. Soon, a Korean War veteran will tell Mr. Franz that he thinks the federal government “overdid it” with this park, and a boy in a tank top and a Penn State ball cap will ask for a Junior Ranger handbook so that he can learn about this place and earn his plastic badge. But right now, Mr. Franz is taking a brief private moment in public that seems to him like an hour. Sandy Bradshaw. Lizz Wainio. Democracy in action … His emotions in check, Mr. Franz acknowledges his awkward pause and returns seamlessly to his story. How the airplane flew right over Route 30, “the road you came in on. ” How this elevated ground is a place to reflect on the tragic loss of life, yes, but how it is also a place to honor the courage of the passengers and crew of Flight 93. And that, he says, “is a good story. ” It’s 11:30. “Thank you,” the ranger says. “Have a great day. ” | 1 |
A litany of celebrities braved temperatures to attend President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s final party at the White House on Friday. [The crowd at the Obama’s farewell bash included George and Amal Clooney, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Stevie Wonder, David Letterman, George Lucas, Paul McCartney, and many more. Cell phones were reportedly confiscated, forcing stars to snap and post photos and videos to their social media accounts from outside the White House. “Stumbling out of the White House at 4am after an incredible night celebrating 8 incredible years,” wrote actress Olivia Wilde in a Twitter post in which she was posing next to her partner, actor Jason Sudeikis. Stumbling out of the White House at 4am after an incredible night celebrating 8 incredible years. 😭 A photo posted by Olivia Wilde (@oliviawilde) on Jan 7, 2017 at 2:10am PST, “The one party we’ll wait in line to get into,” wrote Dj Cassidy in an Instagram post featuring Singer John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen, and Jerry Seinfeld and his wife. The one party we’ll wait in line to get into … @johnlegend @chrissyteigen @jerryseinfeld @jessseinfeld @mimisam28 #whitehouse, A photo posted by djcassidy (@djcassidy) on Jan 7, 2017 at 2:20am PST, Musicians Usher, Kelly Rowland, and Wale, who often collaborated with Michelle Obama on her high education initiative, posed for a photo alongside Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah and TV personality La La Anthony. When the squad takes over The White House #squadgoals 💪🏽 A photo posted by LaLa (@lala) on Jan 7, 2017 at 9:22am PST, Bruce Springsteen, Bradley Cooper, J. J. Abrams, Oprah, Gloria Estefan, Tyler Perry, Robert De Niro, Jon Hamm, Ken Burns, Al Roker, Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham were also in attendance. Sports mogul Magic Johnson, fashion icon Anna Wintour, Hollywood super producer Harvey Weinstein, and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels also made an appearance at Friday night’s bash, which lasted well into the night. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson. | 1 |
Reafirmación testicular de un Real Madrid que se encima de sus posibilidades RESUMEN DE LA JORNADA 12 DE LA LIGA SANTANDER 2016-2017 Resumen de la jornada Betis 2-0 Las Palmas
La ganadería bética engranó un trabajado debut de Victor Sánchez en el banquillo de la Maestranza. Más de cuatro cuartos de entrada para ver a unos toros (metáfora de jugadores) de encaste muy cuajados que embistieron (metáfora de jugar) con nobleza (metáfora de nobleza) y gran calidad (futbolística). Poco pudieron hacer los diestros palmeños que en todo momento se vieron desbordados por los astados (metáfora de los jugadores). Ovación y vuelta al ruedo (liga Santander). Atlético 0-3 Real Madrid
Un Cristiano (Ronaldo) resucitado se apareció a los hijos de Simenone y les dijo: “Juntaos y os declararé lo que os ha de acontecer en los días venideros. Yahvé maldice vuestro furor, que fue fiero, y vuestra ira, que fue dura y por eso seréis envilecidos con tres goles (de falta, de penalti y al contragolpe)”.
Dicho lo cual lo cumplió y los albinos ya sacan cuatro puntos al segundo. Barcelona 0-0 Málaga
Un Málaga impertinente consiguió dejar mudo a un Barcelona desmessiado y ansuarezuado ante la mirada de un Luis Enrique que no supo en ningún momento romper un marcador inamovible. A destacar la actuación de un gran Kameni bajo unos grandes palos evitando unos goles que nunca llegaron a una portería. Como declaró uno de los jugadores malquitas al terminar el partido, “Uno más uno es dos, pero unos nacen y otros se hacen”. Athletic 1-0 Villarreal
El partido se abrió con una ensalada de bacalao con pimientos, a la que siguieron unas patatas a la riojana, perdiz estofada y un chuletón de buey de un kilo, a compartir entre dos. Cuando el partido se empezaba a poner interesante, se cerró el telón del primer acto y a la vuelta de los vestidores la pelota volvió a la nevera. Sólo un error podía matar el cero del tablero. Casi quedó señalado Bruno, que perdió una pelota tonta y el remate rojiblanco terminó en la red. El partido quedó empachado.
De postre una estupenda panchineta de hojaldre. Uno a cero y a vomitar al baño. Alavés 0-1 Espanyol
Gerard Moreno falló un penalti para los pericos poco minutos antes del final, lo cual sumió al delantero guacamayo en un estado de depresión del que parecía imposible salir. Por fortuna para los loros de Madagascar, en la grada se encontraba Paulo Coelho, que gritó a Moreno: “¡Todas las batallas de la vida sirven para enseñarnos algo, inclusive aquellas que perdemos!”.
Segundos después, el delantero tucán lograba el gol de la victoria. Eibar 1-0 Celta
El centrocampista eibarita, Fran Rico, furioso al ser anunciado por megafonía como Pan Rico, fue el autor del único tanto que subió al marcador. Ni las migas dejó en el campo.
Con espacios y la convicción de las cosas bien hechas, el Eibar pudo haber marcado más tantos pero se conformó con ser un equipo muy señor y tendió la mano al Celta. Valencia 1-1 Granada
Granada, tierra soñada por mí, mi cantar se vuelve gitano cuando es para ti, pero sin embargo Valencia es la tierra de las flores, de la luz y del amor, ambas cantadas por Plácido Domingo. Tablas, pues. Sporting 1-3 Real Sociedad
Los hombres de Eusebio fueron muy superiores a los hombres de Abelardo y bastante más que los hombres de Paco. Partido muy viril. De hombre a hombre, mirando a los ojos. Lástima que en la segunda parte del encuentro los jugadores de ambos equipos se centraran más en escupir sobre el césped que en perseguir el balón. Deportivo 2-3 Sevilla
Partido demenciado que acabó con la milagrosa victoria del conjunto hispalense gracias a la intercesión de la Virgen de la Macarena que, con su halo, marcó el camino del gol a Z’Nonzi, Vitolo y Mercado entre saetas y gritos de guapa.
El Deportivo sacó a Santiago Apóstol en la segunda parte pero no sirvió de nada ante la eficacia goleadora de la madre de Dios. Leganés 0-0 Osasuna
La mujer del portero leganita ha pasado el fin de semana fuera por cuestiones de trabajo y él no tenía a nadie con quien dejar a los niños, con lo que el partido se celebrará esta noche, que esta noche sí, sin problema, ya se queda ella, a las 20:45 en el Estadio Municipal de Butarque nos vemos. La salida de la publicidad de los apartamentos no, la otra. Acordaos de traer la pelota, aunque creo que allí alguna tendrán pero mejor llevar una nosotros que luego nunca se sabe. | 0 |
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the USA today gave clarification on the soon to be imposed safety measures required for electric cars. In addition to a two-tone siren that must sound the word “Pus-sy!” and a yellow strobe light mounted on the roof, all owners must carry a man who will walk in front of the car holding a red flag.
‘The NHTSA has worked long and hard on these proposals with our colleagues in Detroit,’ a spokesman – George MustangVEight – said. ‘Over one Americans every year are injured by electric cars and we aim to resolve this unacceptable risk to our citizens with these actions. Plus, the forced employment of a pedestrian speed retarder by all owners of these dangerous vehicles will do wonders for the unemployment these blights have caused in our oil and petrochemical industries.’
In California, Tesla Motors owner Elon Musk remained positive: ‘It’s fine. I’m currently working on a way to convert electricity using the phone lines as a transport medium. I’m sure we can have it running in beta by 2020. Failing that we may soon be able to transubstantiate the intolerable smugness of their owners into pure energy’. james_doc | 0 |
Exile all the top climate scientists in the U. S. to a failing economy where unemployment is rising, taxes are prohibitive and terrorism is rife. What kind of a vicious, sadistic bastard would dream of such a proposal? [Well, his name is Emmanuel Macron and he is the new French president. He has invited America’s entire climate change industry to France in order for them to escape what he clearly imagines to be President Trump’s Terror. He made his offer in a video on Facebook in February this year, before he knew for certain that his rivals had been nobbled to point where he was definitely going to win. “This is a message for American researchers, entrepreneurs, engineers working on climate change … I do know how your new president has decided to jeopardize your budget, your initiatives as he is extremely skeptical about climate change. I have no doubt about climate change … Please come to France. You are welcome. It’s your nation. We like innovation. We want innovative people. We want people working on climate change, energy, renewables, and new technologies. France is your nation. ” If President Macron keeps his promise it will be truly awesome news for the U. S. economy. No one has ever calculated how much the U. S. squanders annually on the great climate change scam. But the annual global figure has been estimated at $1. 5 trillion so we can probably extrapolate from this that the U. S. pays at least one third of that. Here is what half a trillion dollars looks like in figures: $500, 000, 000, 000. Imagine if, instead of being squandered on foreign junkets, kickbacks for presidential donors (that means you Solyndra) subsidies for the wind industry, and salaries for crooked scientists fiddling with the data for political ends, that money was instead spent on something useful like bigger bombs to drop on America’s enemies, fighter jets that weren’t obsolete, or, better still, on paying off the U. S. deficit? Also, it would rid the U. S. of what Macron mysteriously calls “entrepreneurs” but which you and I would more accurately call “ parasites. ” The climate change industry is full of such creatures, attracted like blowflies to a rotting corpse. They contribute nothing of value to the economy — almost entirely dependent, as they are, on taxpayer subsidies. Elon Musk alone has cost the U. S. taxpayer $4. 9 billion. It is typical of a Frenchman not to understand this. France has always been a big believer in the power of the state and in massive, ‘grands projets”. So long as they don’t have any issues with France’s increasingly rich and diverse culture, I can imagine that American climate scientists will be very happy. And once they’ve gone there, so will everyone in the US. | 1 |
Hillary Clinton When They Asked Her What She Thinks of Hillary Clinton, They Never Expected Her to Say THIS!
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Kids say the darndest things… ADORABLE! "My dad told me that Hillary Clinton LIES A LOT, so if she wins she might take over the country! " @realDonaldTrump #VoteTrump pic.twitter.com/cHrP8lkPbS | 0 |
A Texas teacher accused of having sexual relations with multiple high school students, admitted to these lascivious improprieties, even divulging she had sex with two teenagers, according to an arrest warrant released on Monday. [Officers took into custody Heather Lee Robertson, 38, a kindergarten teacher in the Hudson Independent School District, on Saturday, April 22. According to police documents, she stands accused of having sex with a total of four high school male students. Police charged her with four counts of improper relationship between educator and student, The Lufkin Daily News reported. If convicted, Robertson faces up to 20 years in prison. The details of this case unraveled when, on April 20, a Hudson ISD police officer received a tip allegedly linking Robertson sexually to two high school students. Their identities and ages remain unknown. According to the Lufkin newspaper, the officer opened an investigation and interviewed the teens. One said his relationship with Robertson began as “chatting and sexting” over Snapchat shortly after spring break, which led to Robertson inviting him to her apartment for sexual intercourse. He told her he had a friend with him and asked if it was “okay” that the friend tagged along. The student told the officer, Robertson approved both boys coming to her home. They arrived to find her on the couch “vaping,” according to the warrant. This teen said they all for a few minutes after which Robertson instructed them to follow her into the bedroom where she took off her clothes and had sex with the two teens. These youths then told the officer about two other male high school students possibly involved with Robertson. Officers spoke to these other boys, who said they had sex with her at the apartment several times. Reportedly, the teens snuck out of their homes, and Robertson picked them up to bring them to her residence. One of these boys said his improper relationship with the teacher started over the same social media app. In a subsequent police interview, Robertson admitted to all of the allegations and even told officers the first sexual encounter took place in late 2016 and the last happened on April 14, according to the arrest warrant. Robertson added that recently she became a heavy drinker and did not always remember the details of these sexual encounters, KTRE reported. On Thursday morning, Hudson ISD Superintendent Mary Ann Whiteker learned about this situation. That afternoon, Robertson resigned. No doubt, teachers crossing the line sexually with students continue to plague Texas classrooms. DeEtta Culbertson, Texas Education Agency (TEA) spokeswoman, told Breitbart Texas the agency opened 159 of these cases between September 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017. By comparison, the TEA opened 123 cases during the entire academic year. These numbers rose steadily over the years: 141 cases 152 156 163 and 179. In the TEA accounted for a disconcerting 188 instances, which lead Senate Education Committee members to meet and seek policy solutions plus assess the role of social media in fostering this troubling educator behavior. The school year, though, marked an high of 222 cases, Breitbart Texas reported. So startling the numbers, the TEA asked state lawmakers to fund nearly $400, 000 in their academic budget for hiring two investigators and one administrator to better tackle the problem. This legislative session, state Senator Paul Bettencourt ( ) authored Senate Bill 7 to crack down on this schoolhouse epidemic. In March, the upper house voted unanimously for this bill, which since moved onto the House Education Committee. On April 12, they voted with 4 absent for advancing SB 7 through the legislature’s lower chamber. Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter. | 1 |
This is an article from Turning Points, a magazine that explores what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead. Turning Point: Apple resists the F. B. I. in unlocking an iPhone in the San Bernardino terrorism case. I’ve never been able to fit the concepts of privacy, history and encryption together in a satisfying way, though it continues to seem that I should. Each concept has to do with information each can be considered to concern the public and the private and each involves aspects of society, and perhaps particularly digital society. But experience has taught me that all I can hope to do with these three concepts is demonstrate the problems that considering them together causes. Privacy confuses me, beyond my simplest understanding, which is that individuals prefer, to different degrees, that information about them not be freely available to others. I desire privacy myself, and I understand why other individuals want it. But when the entity desiring privacy is a state, a corporation or some other human institution, my understanding of privacy becomes confused. While it’s true that states and corporations often desire privacy, they just as often desire that I myself have less privacy. What does it mean, in an ostensible democracy, for the state to keep secrets from its citizens? The idea of the secret state seems antithetical to democracy, since its citizens, the voters, can’t know what their government is doing. Thereby hang the countless conspiracy theories of our day, many of them supposing that we possess far less privacy than we actually do. Advocates of the secret state, wishing to comfort us, sometimes praise a rough and ready transparency: If you have nothing to hide and you trust your government, what can you possibly have to fear? Except that one can just as readily ask: If you have nothing to hide, what do you really have, aside from the panoptic attention of a state, which itself keeps secrets? Even this simple consideration of privacy confuses me. Is individual privacy and state privacy the same thing? Are they conceptually antithetical? Is it to a state’s advantage to permit its citizens to keep secrets? States desirous of citizens’ secrets have been known to torture their own people in the course of encouraging them to reveal what they know. We know this historically, and we know it still to be true, though whether we’ve personally been affected by it largely depends on where we happen to live. I have ideas about history, more than I have about privacy, and it is here that my confusion deepens exponentially. I believe that our ability to create history, to transcend generations via our extraordinary prosthetic equivalents of memory, is the most remarkable thing about us. Unless we’ve forgotten something, lost it to history, we’ve yet to encounter another species capable of the same thing. Should the F. B. I. or other agencies be able to unlock the iPhones of terrorists? To be able to do so makes them able to unlock yours or mine. Should I be able to encrypt documents in such a way that the F. B. I. can’t decrypt them? If I can, terrorists can as well. (Not that I necessarily accept terrorism as the ultimate fulcrum in such arguments, but it’s become the one most often employed.) In the short term, the span of a lifetime, many of us would argue for privacy, and therefore against transparency. But history, the long term, is transparency it is the absence of secrets. So we are quite merciless, as historians, when it comes to the secrets of the past, the secrets of the dead. We come to know them with an intimacy impossible in their day. It would be unthinkable for us to turn away from their secrets, to allow the Iceman his privacy or to not scan beneath the bitumen to recover an Egyptian priestess’s tattoos. And here, to complete my tangle of confusion, is encryption, no doubt aggravated by my inability to understand the concept mathematically. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the future is all too liable to have its way with today’s most sophisticated encryption technology. I imagine that the world’s secrets — those of both private citizens and state institutions — will one day sit in plain sight on whatever it is that our descendants display data on. Privy to that information while looking back at us, our ancestors will know us differently than we currently know ourselves, just as we now know the Victorians quite differently from how they knew themselves. The past, our own past, which our descendants will see us as having emerged from, will not be the past from which we now see ourselves emerging, but a reinterpretation of it, based on subsequently available information, greater transparency and fewer secrets. If our continually lengthening, ever more transparent history is the sum total of who we are as a species, then our species is the poorer for every secret faithfully kept. Any permanently unbreakable encryption seems counter to that. And yet I would prefer to keep certain secrets of my own, as I assume most of us would. So perhaps that desire is as much a part of us, as a species, as our need to build these memory palaces. | 1 |
George Soros Is Preparing For Economic Collapse – Does He Know Something That You Don’t? June 9th, 2016
Why is George Soros selling stocks, buying gold and making “a series of big, bearish investments”? If things stay relatively stable like they are right now, these moves will likely cost George Soros a tremendous amount of money. But if a major financial crisis is imminent, he stands to make obscene returns. So does George Soros know something that the rest of us do not? Could it be possible that he has spent too much time reading websites such as The Economic Collapse Blog ? What are we to make of all of this?
The recent trading moves that Soros has made are so big and so bearish that they have even gotten the attention of the Wall Street Journal …
Worried about the outlook for the global economy and concerned that large market shifts may be at hand, the billionaire hedge-fund founder and philanthropist recently directed a series of big, bearish investments , according to people close to the matter.
Soros Fund Management LLC, which manages $30 billion for Mr. Soros and his family, sold stocks and bought gold and shares of gold miners, anticipating weakness in various markets . Investors often view gold as a haven during times of turmoil.
Hmmm – it sounds suspiciously like George Soros and Michael Snyder are on the exact same page as far as what is about to happen to the global economy.
You know that it is very late in the game when that starts happening…
One thing that George Soros is particularly concerned about that I haven’t been talking a lot about yet is the upcoming Brexit vote. If the United Kingdom leaves the EU (and hopefully they will), the short-term consequences for the European economy could potentially be absolutely catastrophic …
Mr. Soros also argues that there remains a good chance the European Union will collapse under the weight of the migration crisis , continuing challenges in Greece and a potential exit by the United Kingdom from the EU.
“ If Britain leaves, it could unleash a general exodus, and the disintegration of the European Union will become practically unavoidable ,” he said.
The Brexit vote will be held two weeks from today on June 23rd, and we shall be watching to see what happens.
But Soros is not just concerned about a potential Brexit. The economic slowdown in China also has him very worried, and so he has directed his firm to make extremely bearish wagers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the last time Soros made these kinds of bearish moves was back in 2007, and it resulted in more than a billion dollars of gains for his company.
Of course Soros is not alone in his bearish outlook. In fact, Goldman Sachs has just warned that “there may be significant risk to the downside for the market” …
Goldman Sachs is getting nervous about stocks .
In a note to clients, equity strategist Christian Mueller-Glissmann outlined the firm’s fears that there may be significant risk to the downside for the market.
Ultimately, George Soros and Goldman Sachs are looking at the same economic data that I share with my readers on a daily basis.
As I have been documenting for months, almost every single economic indicator that you can possibly think of says that we are heading into a recession .
For instance, just today I was sent a piece by Mike Shedlock that showed that federal and state tax receipts are really slowing down just like they did just prior to the last two recessions…
US federal personal tax receipts receipts are falling fast. So is the Evercore ISI State Tax Survey .
The last two times the survey plunged this much, the US was already in recession.
Is it different this time?
And online job postings on LinkedIn have now been falling precipitously since February after 73 months in a row of growth …
After 73 consecutive months of year-over-year growth, online jobs postings have been in decline since February. May was by far the worst month since January 2009, down 285k from April and down 552k from a year ago .
Last week, the government issued the worst jobs report in nearly six years , and the energy industry continues to bleed good paying middle class jobs at a staggering rate. The following comes from oilprice.com …
That may seem counterintuitive in an industry that has been rapidly shedding workers, with more than 350,000 people laid off in the oil and gas industry worldwide.
Texas is one place feeling the pain. Around 99,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Lone Star state have been eliminated since prices collapsed two years ago, or about one third of the entire industry. In April alone there were about 6,300 people in oil and gas and supporting services that were handed pink slips. Employment in Texas’ oil sector is close to levels not seen since the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009. “ We’re still losing big chunks of jobs with each passing month ,” Karr Ingham, an Amarillo-based economist, told The Houston Chronicle .
At this point it is so obvious that we have entered a new economic downturn that I don’t know how anyone can possibly deny it any longer.
Unfortunately, the reality of what is happening has not sunk in with the general population yet.
Just like 2008, people are feverishly racking up huge credit card balances even though we stand on the precipice of a major financial crisis…
American taxpayers are quick to criticize the federal government for its ever-increasing national debt, but a new study released Wednesday found taxpayers are also saddled with debt, and are likely to end 2016 with a record high $1 trillion in outstanding balances.
Wallethub, a site that recommends credit cards based on consumers’ needs, said that will be the highest amount of credit card debt on record, surpassing even the years during and before the Great Recession. The site said the record high was in 2008, when people owed $984.2 billion on their credit cards.
Will we ever learn?
This has got to be one of the worst possible times to be going into credit card debt.
Sadly, the “dumb money” will continue to act dumb and the “smart money” (such as George Soros) will continue to quietly position themselves to take advantage of the crisis that is already starting to unfold.
We can’t change what is happening to the economy, but we do have control over the choices that we make.
So I urge you to please make your choices wisely.
*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.* EBT Card Outage?: It Is 8 Days Into June And Many Americans Are STILL Waiting For Food Stamp Money » Jim Clark
Market watch had a story on Soros and his bearish predictions the last six years. Each time he’s made his bearish predictions, the market has gone up. Returns the last 5 months have been good ever since that bearish hysteria in January. Shedlock has been saying we are in a recession every week since 2011.
Bear markets do happen every few years do these guys may be right this time. Broken clocks are sometimes right too. But consider the whole track record of these prognosticators Tim
A few months ago a wealthy coworker told me that he had about $50k in the stock market, and he asked me if I thought that was a good idea. I told him that I wouldn’t have any money in stocks because I believe that a major correction is coming. He later told me that he had gotten out of stocks, and I told him that he was wise to do so. However, the correction that I spoke of still hasn’t started, and my coworker seems to have taken a different attitude toward me.
I no longer talk about what I believe is coming because everything is so manipulated, and it makes me look like foolish when I’m wrong. I believe I’ll eventually be proven right. It’s just a matter of time. I just wonder how much longer they can keep this going. This is insane. ali
Capital should always be diversify in a way so as to reduce exposure to a particular asset or risk. I think one should maintain a portfolio in gold as well as stocks and so on Since last 2 years I have missed some good opportunities to invest and get good returns in stock market, just thinking that the market collapse can be any moment. abc
1. There was a guy always bring an umbrella with him when goes outside, but no rain. One day, he decides not to bring an umbrella with him, and it rain.
2. Some people needs to learn the hard way. Priszilla
That’s me. Nowadays I don’t care about the rain and leave the umbrella home most of the time. I have a dehumidifier at home that dries the home when I bring home wet clothes. JC Teecher
You are not alone.
I tried to get my Dad, now 80, to sell off most of his stock last year before the August/September, “possible” market collapse. he didn’t, good thing, and after the short drop for a couple months, most of his stock investment has now hit decade highs. With some hitting record highs.
But, he has no other investments, and little savings, except some junk silver. In late ’08 I tried to get him to buy into a major stock that had dropped to less than 7 bucks a share. The average for the stock over the past twenty years had been about 17 to 20 bucks. I told him that he could easily double his money in less than two years. He didn’t listen because his broker talked him out of it.
That stock doubled in the first year, and two weeks ago hit an all time high of 70 bucks a share.
I believe a big sell off will happen this Fall. A lot of stocks are way over valued. Liberty First
I encouraged my wife to put all of her retirements into cash at present. What have we got to lose? A small potential gain short term, perhaps. But in 3-4 years there will be major bottom feeding opportunities. Meanwhile, I have a ton of money in gold stocks and silver (SLV). Be patient. And also, spiritual. We know that in the long term we will be right. It takes patience to sit through it, and enjoying family and other things of permanent value make it easyier. michael malachi
pretty good idea with the silver, but maybe we should – as a nation – forget about money for a bit and begin to focus on being a better friend, neighbor, father, mother, sister, brother etc. You cant take it with you when you die. You will be remembered and judged by your relationships and actions (works). It is time to help those in need and love others. Don’t forget the golden rule. Liberty First
Very nice. JC Teecher
For some of us, we have been doing just that for years and years, and some even decades and decades. We realize that the only thing you take with you from this life, is what you give away.
However; there is nothing wrong with making money and becoming comfortably wealthy, as long as it doesn’t become one’s main agenda for everything. When greed takes precedence over charity, then it is time to unload it all and take up the cross.
I have never looked down on poor or disabled people that are doing the best that they can with the hand they have been dealt.
I look down on rich people that have the attitude, and especially those that “act” like they are rich, and act snooty towards others. sistersoldier
Amen and amen again JC. Christ came that we might have life more abundantly. Believers are to love God and grow in wisdom as these things are first and foremost and are more important than money. Just as you have stated we cannot take anything with us as only what we do for Christ will last. Money is a transient possession that is used for this brief life but no longer. Proverbs teaches us that it is better to have a little money but be right with God than a lot of money you obtained unjustly. JC Teecher
Amen to your thoughts as well.
Most people don’t realize that we can be blessed with much more than we need, as a test, to see how we handle those blessings.
The strings of prosperity sometimes ensnare us to the world. Our Father wants to know if our heart remains pure through the prosperous times as well as the lean.
I have found myself, in times past, forgetting that all the prosperity can vanish in a day. Believe me, when I say I have been tested many times.
The key is to not make the terrible mistake of blaming God when all the prosperity vanishes. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
there is no god JC Teecher
I wish that you could have the out of body experience that I had back in 2003. It literally shook me to the core, and before it was over I was completely aware of being in the spirit realm, and in my spirit body. so were the thousands that were with me.
It ‘s up to you, if you want to see it and feel it bad enough. Maybe i can help if at some point you have the desire to believe. Otherwise just accept that you have been blinded for your own protection, until the beginning of the Millennium, or until you give up the ghost/spirit.
Best wishes. sistersoldier
And that which you have so profoundly laid out — is wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” ITSNOTWhatchaThink
there isn’t a god Ken
Just a thought. I’m a fan of silver, but not necessarily of the SLV. Like the GLD, there are likely more contracts per ounce than ounces in the vault to back it. Paper silver is like other paper “assets.” The SLV is being manipulated by the big banks as was admitted to last month by Deutsche Bank. It is entirely possible that your SLV goes higher, but you may not be able to sell it for currency. Check out Bix Weir’s YouTube videos to get a deeper understanding of what I’m talking about. My suggestion would be to convert your SLV to SLW or convert to physical silver you can hold in your hand. Gay Veteran
One day, SOON< that co-worker would have wished he took your advice! Tim
He did take my advice by getting out of stocks. But he may have put his money back into stocks. I don’t know. Since the “correction” that I warned him about hasn’t materialized he doesn’t talk to me much anymore. Frankie
I would not waste any more time worrying about this person Tim. You gave advice that you thought was correct. We are all adults, this person CHOSE to listen to your advice, and probably got further information from other sources as well. YOU didn’t FORCE him to sell his stocks, he CHOSE to do it and instead of ignoring you and now not speaking he should “OWN” his own decision to do what he did. I am of the same ilk as you, I have been preparing for some time for a MAJOR collapse. We think 2008 was bad??? Wait for it!! People have no idea, do not think it is remotely possible that the entire world could collapse with everything that is happening across the globe. I once wanted to help everyone but I realised a long time ago people have to want to help themselves. So now I am concentrating on myself and my family. I truly believe really bad times are coming. People need to learn to be RESILIENT. Those who you thought were friends will become enemies in their desperation, you will need to learn how to defend yourselves and how to “economise” and I am not talking “money” here, I am talking the basic necessities for life. ALWAYSTOMORROW
How SOON? TrumpGodzillaRising
It’s wise to stay silent and simply observe, prepare your own sphere of influence as best you can and that’s about it as collapse accelerates. You’ll find that people become more insane as collapse accelerates. Jews never believed they were being sent off to be gassed even as they were herded onto the trains. Today we know different. Ignore the race hating a sec, focus on events as they are, reality as it is.
I think Soros recognises it’s the global political dimension finally coming to a head, in other words, the people have finally had enough, you can see this globally in so many nations with so many problems converging to create this perfect storm that will feed off itself.
We all know that none of the problems were solved post 2008, they were made infinitely worse. Here we are as predicted, 2015-2020 the collapse would accelerate and war would be the likely outcome when politics and diplomacy fails. In fact war is simply a continuation of politics.
Islamic State
The world order is collapsing. michael malachi
When you have truth to offer – that truth must be brought out into light by sharing it with all who would listen. That is the job of a watchman. The problem is that too many see themselves as watchmen and most are just giving their opinions. A true watchman will have a true word of God that can not be refuted, but will likely be ignored. Opinionists tend to know it all and will make every effort to convince others that they are right. jox
A watchman that ‘have a true word of God that can not be refuted’ doesn’t exist. michael malachi
Anyone can disagree with and make attempts to discredit a true watchman (scoffers), but truth will be realized at some point by all. Ye shall know them by their fruit. A good tree can not produce bad fruit and a bad tree can not produce good fruit. GSOB
Romans 8:1, 14, 16, 19 hut hut hike Scriptures speak otherwise. TrumpGodzillaRising
Hence keeping opinions to yourself. The world is not ready for what’s coming, the world will not thank you for what’s coming. You can’t change anything anyway now, it’s too late.
Ride with the chaos and simply try to survive as best you can, for as long as you can.
Good luck
I am sorry that you say that, may God show you his truth. GSOB
God the Creator became a God-Man
His death redeems those for His glorious plan.
Now in resurrection, the Spirit’s released.
Producing the Church, …. this is God’s Masterpiece. GSOB
Genesis 6:13 – Noah’s day.
What happened in his day, set in rough 1600 years since Adam and Eve? well, the population increased and so did evil.
God is the still observing and been patient and kind by allowing us/them long enough to live and hear the Gospel.
He has called believers in Him to become fishers of men the salty influence in a society engorged in decadence. He sees and knows all, is what they preach, for His own word testifies and verifies the disciples experience. The Spirit sanctifies them.
His Sovereignty is unquestionable, beyond ours to fully appreciate, yet become a man like us.
Different men use different bait but the message the true message is Peace with God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The fire of Gods wrath has been satisfied in Him and He was raised for their justification and new life, eternal life in Jesus.
Where is He now?
How naïve men are to think He don’t exist,
enslaved to god of this age, in their sin.
We see it in our children. In all men.
Only His blood can cleanse the heart from sin.
The Christians see verses like these and understands,
believes, that a Holy Trinity is their One God, that glorious praise of the redeemed.
2 Corinthians 13:14
Jesus Christ.
The Spirit and the Bride say come.
Collectively their message to the world is to endure in His grace, the ministry of reconciliation…. “Be reconciled to God.”
In view of the Day of Christ, they are empowered by His grace to endure in their place the life, worth of the Gospel
Philippians 1:27-29“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for him,…. Yet, God causes all these things to work for their good. TrumpGodzillaRising
You’re gonna need a lot of faith soon, in fact those that survive this will survive because of their iron faith amidst the chaos. Weaker minds will not survive. Gay Veteran
find that gay gene yet? Alana Gale-Perry
I would tell him about this site, and ask him to use his own discernment, and tell him to visit this site often. The best manner, in which to talk about these things, is in terms of exactly what you just stated. That you know that something is coming, and it will be some time in the near future, but things are being manipulated, and it could come tomorrow, or it could be a little more time yet. Tell him that it’s a good thing that it is being held off, so it gives people time to pray and prepare. Ask him if he is preparing, both physically and spiritually. Tell him that’s the next step, and one that should be taken now, if he hasn’t already done so. Take care, and God bless! sistersoldier
If it is any comfort the people of Noah’s day laughed at him as well and disbelieving asked, “Why are you building a boat on dry land?” Gay Veteran
great fiction Heinrich van Rooi
There are only two things to take in consideration and that is Time and Patience …. These two are keys. The Smart has all these two to there arsenal. It is not a question of will it happen or not,,but all about timing. I’ll say September to December range… Jim Clark
He is a fool for listening to you. Markets go down occasionally. 25% of years have double digit declines. But it always recovers and market timing is very difficult. Have a diversified portfolio and ignore the chicken little brigade. DigitalThumb
Yeap, I have learned to keep such information to myself, co-workers just don’t get it at all. Sheep to the slaughter they all think the economy is fine; buying news cars loading up with more debt. The youngsters are the worst totally blindsided. Mondobeyondo
Taking a blind eye on the whole matter…. (i.e. don’t know who Soros is, blah blah etc)
I would say yes. Perhaps (key word) he doesn’t know what the rest of us know. Or he does know and he is positioning us for…. well… Mike Smithy
Soros is one of the most evil SOB’s on the planet and a lifelong member of the inside track club. Diggin the Dirt
This is all an orchestrated ruse, to keep the average joe out of the markets. All the while, these guys are BUYING while you just sit back and watch the markets go UP. The last two weeks I’ve seen sharp reversals higher with the markets on every dip. Today was no exception. df NJ
Pump and dump, dump and pump, and the beat goes on… Dave
You have quotesd soros stuff before. You have used lots.of other experts. Same old same just months and months later. Its so rigged it WULL GO OM FOREVER! GSOB
On Dec 20, 1998, on 60 Minutes did Steve Kroft interview George
Soros where Soros, a Hungarian Jew, admitted collaborating with the Nazi’s
as a teenager and stated: “…I had no sense of guilt.” GSOB Robert
Just got a warning email from Wells Fargo two days ago.
Stocks way overpriced. Fed has no clue. Wall Street bankers liars. Anyone really believes their stories?
Look around your own towns and cities. I see more closed stores than ever. Real estate is clogged with for sale houses. Car lots are full with few buyers. Restaurants are not that busy during their busy times. Theaters have a handful of people in them. Walmart grocery section busy but other areas almost no one shopping. Childcare fees are horrendous. Food prices are rising. People laid off from work. I do not need Soros to know the economy is in bad shape. People who say they are doing well may in fact be truthful but millions of people are already enduring collapse. JC Teecher
We ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. Wait until oil goes back to 100 petro dollars a bbl.
Last time oil went up high they raised the price/cost of everything. When it came down, those prices/costs stayed put. It will happen again, and the poor and lower middle class will suffer greatly…unless the great providers of the nwo, increase ebt. goldminer
Sorros still has lots and lots of money invested in the stock market. He simply took some out and moved it around to invest in PMs where the real money is at right now. He is all about making money. The PM market is exploding! For the miners, Gold funds, and ETFs. All I can say it thanks George! your 250 million investment into ABX. Helped triple the investment I made last winter when their stock was at rock bottom. If you dont own some PM based investments or physical. Its not too late. The fuse is lit. Silver is still real cheap. Get prepared. JC Teecher
It’s easy to take big gambles with investments when you are sitting on a net worth of 25 billion.
What’s a few billion here and a few billion there. Liberty First
Yes, I got out of gld myself for ABX and some other miners. messtime
I know nothing about the precious metals market, but it seems there are a lot of people buying into it in some form or fashion. What i wonder about is that PM do not seem to be supported very much in the world: Meaning what are there? A small amount of buyers & sellers? What does a person do who wants to buy gold? Go to their local stamp & coin collectors store, pawn shop, or maybe order from some business online? It seems to me that if the banks and other financial institutions bought and sold gold coins & bullion, it would be part of the monetary system – i am talking about over-the-counter purchases & sales, or exchanges for paper money. Theoretically if the two businesses in some town went out of business you would have to find another broker in some other town to liquidate your gold coins or whatever you have in the form of gold. Nobody wants gold – just specialty buyers & sellers and that is during relatively stable times. In a large worldwide financial collapse with maybe PM merchants out of business then who is going to buy your PM? I do not think that PM are given the respect that they need in order to be a viable source of security. When i was in Vietnam the people there were always converting cash into gold & it probably worked for them well – but i do not think it was to make a profit but to protect their savings in case they were unable to trade their currency or if the north vietnamese over-ran the country they would be able to buy the new national currency. It is just something i wonder about. Not trying to start an argument. moulesnfrites
The Greeks who held physical gold and silver and FIAT currency outside of the banking system are doing much better than those Greeks who can only access sixty euros a day, for the past two years. I am sure the same applies to the Venezuelans and Argentinians currently.
Only a fool trusts government and banks. Take responsibility and choose the red pill.
A lot of the Jews who escaped Europe in the late 1930s only got past the border guards because of gold and silver. Thousands of years of history with gold and silver compared with about fifty years maximum for any FIAT currency. All FIAT currencies in history have failed. Diggin the Dirt
1 TRILLION in credit card debt in this country now, as reported today. Incredible. The bankers are cleaning up everywhere. df NJ
People are addicted to consumerism like heroin. It’s not all the bank’s fault. I think people are equally responsible for their misery. Although, having any government at all enforce banking laws would be a huge plus for the zeitgeist of our union. Priszilla
You get rich be selling things other people consume. Perishable and single use goods are best. Festival Tickets, cut flowers, toner, ammo and the like. Frankie
Yes, I have to agree. People ARE responsible for their own misery. Thes people who have borrowed beyond their means ABSOLUTELY KNOW IT yet they continue to do it. I have no sympathy for that mindset!! They will suffer the greatest. Bob332
Wait until that bubble burst’s . They’ll be eating their credit cards. Frankie
Too true. Frankie
They think they are, but sooner or later they will fall over. Nothing has “no end” This will come to an end, reality dictates that they will NEVER recover this debt, they have let it become too big due to their avarice and yes they will be “eating their own credit cards” You can not get blood out of a stone, just as you can not get money out of people if they simply do not have it. Sweet T
Who better to time the market collapse than the interim antichrist. fuallofyou
I am sure Soros is reading your blog you dumb @ss. You made my day, doom and gloom preacher. By the way check expiry dates on your cellar prep food xoxoxoxoxox. df NJ
I knew this guy in 1990 who had a cellar full of freezed dried food, 200 gallons of diesel, etc. I ask him how long the food would last in the packages before it would expire. He said 20 years. I’ve always wondered if he was eating a couple of years worth of freezed dried food leading up to 2010. Fubeatdown
Yawn. Gfy. We’re gonna smash you frickin teeth into dust, jack@ss. Can’t wait. fuallofyou
I went incognito just to make this name to respond to your name. I did think your comment was funny. Sincerely A.T. Steeve Girard
What is catastrophic is not the state of Europe before and after Brexit… it’s the process and uncertainty between the two, that is when the damage is done. Preacher62
“We can’t change what is happening to the economy, but we do have control over the choices that we make. So I urge you to please make your choices wisely.” Deut. 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Repent and believe the Gospel and you will no longer need to fear the destruction that is ordained for this world and all who belong to it. df NJ
We must have faith God will continue to provide us a life full of blessings. Faith in God’s love is all we need. GSOB
There are distinctions of a believer of Christ and a disciple of Christ. James 2:19 Orac4Prez
All you nasty people loosing jobs! Get back out there and due you patriotic duty and earn some more taxes. Isn’t that why you voted for Pres Obama! (/sarcasm) df NJ
It’s too bad President Chimp did such a bad job when he was in office. The economy was losing 800,000 jobs per month leading up to the 2008 election. If Chimp-boy did not screw the pooch the black guy would never have been president in the first place! ALWAYSTOMORROW
“President Chimp” Nice job df NJ. Some racist remarks should draw us closer. df NJ
President Chimp was a reference to the George W “the boy wonder” Bush. Not the black guy. ALWAYSTOMORROW
Sorry. I’ll remove my comment. df NJ
Leave it. Whether are you are on the right or the left, nothing will change as long as the corporations control our government. I hope Trump get’s elected. Then maybe America can finally get the fascism-corporatism out of the way and we can return to public policies more favorable to labor and restore sanity.
I sure wish Obama never got elected. Priszilla
The state is the power organ of the ruling class. They need the state to solidify their rule.
You can’t go against either of them. Not as citizens and not as president. You can only deny them influence by removing yourself from their reach. Guest
Who says he was “elected”? Orac4Prez
I cant deny that. I still say that the government has no idea about the economy. Too many economists who have never made anything! And the new high tech companies only use other peoples talents and produce very few jobs compared to their capitalisation (Facebook and twitter etc) don’t have many employees compared to say GE or Microsoft) Plus the older companies providing good jobs providing services to them. Plent of services now but now one can afford them. jaxon64
Goiter-faced, slurping neo-con McCain never had a chance to win the 2008/2009 election. America was sick of war mongers like him regardless of what the economy was doing. No, the true powers that run the country had already decided for either Obama or Hillary to be the next ruse in line. Ultimately they told Hitlery that she would have to wait her turn–now they are incensed because someone is running who is not part of their machine and they didn’t give him permission to run for president. JC Teecher
ole sidearms is pure nwo establishment, just like Lindsay Graham. They are pro war, pro industrialized war complex…aka anti conservative and anti God. JC Teecher
Latest article:
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham attends Bilderberg conference in Germany likely in violation of the Logan Act ALWAYSTOMORROW
Michael, I was glad to read your comment that “We can’t change what is happening to the economy, but we do have control over the choices that we make.”
I agree with you 100%. df NJ
The corporations control our government. There will be no public policies improving conditions for labor. The corporations will not allow it. Bill G Wilminton NC
Vote Trump he will bring the manufacturing base back to The USA…….we have lost millions and millions of manufacturing jobs…and we lost all the support businesses that locate by the factories, these are typically machine shops, fab shops etc etc etc. Robert
Not going to happen. Too late to bring jobs back in manufacturing. The future is robotics. Rotten situation. Trump cannot change things in regard to jobs. Corporations have no reason to come back to American shores. How would he do it? Talk nice to them? Joltin Joe
Drop corporate tax rate to 0 df NJ
It’s already zero with all the tax breaks in the law. Bill G Wilminton NC
Start with section 8 Factories in special manufacturing zones !….Forget section 8 houses….then the people work and pay their own rent or buy a house.
Joltin Joe says 0 corporate tax rate…
Import tariffs………
Create so much manufacturing that there is always a HELP WANTED sign on every building…..that automatically will raise the payscale. someonewhogrewupinsnow
only way corporations return is a half way decent tax rate like other countries at around 15%. and rob is right ….here come the robots!! algol2000
Companies will not return because of all the nonsense diversity laws. Companies succeed by hiring the best, not through quotas. K2
What are those pl elaborate algol2000
Diversity= spend hard earned resources looking for and hiring women, negros, homosexuals even though they were not the best-in-class. It sends a message to the population that meritocracy is dead, and all they have to do is look pretty. Don’t get me wrong, I am negro. K2
Those laws have already been passed? gardeauxandrew
The lowering of standards to pacify sure dumbs down Everyone in America and the world! mtntrek3
I wish decent paying jobs would return, but…… . How to get past corporate greed. Push our wage scales down equal to cheap slave labor costs? Ha,that’s the ticket. This crap going on is sheer greed and power plays. Neither side politically has any real interest in reversing this trend. Trump……… well the day he puts his money where his mouth is and quits indulging in cheap overseas labor to make his clothing line among other things ( which won’t happen because he’s a part of the problem) is the day I would start believing him. He’s a corporate weasel like so many others. He panders to the working class to get votes. Then he’ll start his “utopia” as the full fledged dictator he is. I don’t like many if any of the jerks in politics. He’s a jerk of another kind. He wins the grand prize. Bill G Wilminton NC
anti TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) will propose Conserv to replace Scalia will rework Trade Deals Gatt Nafta Cafta will stop Muslim Immigration will send all Illegals Back will Build The Wall will try to bring manufacturing jobs back will have the boys shower with the boys will have the girls shower with the girls will have the men pee in the mens room will have the girls pee in the ladies room
YUP TRUMP WINS THE GRAND PRIZE Gay Veteran
you mean Scalia who gave us Citizens United and an oligarchy gardeauxandrew
How do you know what Trump can do as President? You moron Americans were duped by the medias and Obama and look what he is doing making America the laughing stock of the world, weakening the military ,making America easy for terrorist attacks and making them untouchable like him because of the moron American who are coward to the race ,gay and now transgender cards and afraid to be offended, Americans stop Washington d.c. corruption and the medias and blind patriotism to a now more than ever corrupt Washington d.c. and the false mindset thant anything is too big to fail or fight . there are more taxpayers than corrupt politicians! Gay Veteran
well we sure are paying a LOT for the bloated Pentagon Bill G Wilminton NC
Robert… Trump can do anything with the HELP of God……
Had a guy like you once on my high school football team, he spoke just like you, rotten situation, other team too big, we cannot beat them, we will never win…..we locked him in one of the lockers and went out and WON.
You need to see the inside of a locker and WE NEED TO PRAY….
Shalom df NJ
I agree. If Trump brings back manufacturing he will become one of the most successful presidents in our history. I will vote for Trump over Hillary. I can’t stand her Nixon Republican policies and her graft to the Clinton foundation. Frankie
She be THE most dangerous woman on the planet. I URGE all Americans to vote Donald Trump. ITSNOTWhatchaThink Bill G Wilminton NC
Hillary The Benghazi Murderer !.
“What difference does it make now” says it all !. Hillary statement at Benghazi hearing about the 4 dead marines and ambassador Stevens.
Scum like this should be in a cell….
Hillary belongs in one house “The Jail House” Frankie
VOTE TRUMP, DUMP THE HUMP HILLARY! ITSNOTWhatchaThink
DUMP TRUMP YOU CHUMP!! Mr. Jameson
You’re a CHUMP if you think Hitlery will do ANYTHING other than screw our country up worse. I am SO sick and tired of you libtard idiots who think Killary is great. You deserve the oven in your future if you vote for her. FOOL. BIG TEXAN
Flower dude—-If you love your country your vote for Hildabeast will end the USA and you and yours will be hauled off to be murdered in a FEMA camp Bill G Wilminton NC
YUP vote Trump put the BENGHAZI MURDERER in Jail. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
“House Republicans asserted the State Department knew immediately that the Benghazi attack was linked to a terrorist group and said there were 600 requests for additional security at the Benghazi compound. Mrs. Clinton said some of those requests were fulfilled, though most of those messages didn’t rise to her level and were handled by the department’s security professionals.” Hillary didn’t murder anyone. She could only know as much as she was informed. Bill G Wilminton NC
There were special forces in Sicily and they could have been in Benghazi in 4 hours….the buck stops at the Secretary of State……Hillary might as well have shot that mortar on the Marines on that roof…..
Hillary is The Benghazi Murderer….
VOTE TRUMP put Hillary in the Jail House not the White House. Gay Veteran
vote for Killary and vote for more war, possible with Russia Bill G Wilminton NC
Well said……it is duly noted that we are pushing in on Russia from all sides… NATO foremost…..but Russia is pecking back as in Jet fighters close flyovers of our naval ships.
Its like the Russians are saying to us ” are you people nuts are you gonna force us to strike first ” but the american people are numb to reality.
VOTE TRUMP he is a natural leader !!. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Hillary will win! Yeah! 😀 ITSNOTWhatchaThink
You’re ridiculous. All Donald knows how to do is flip property, bankrupt businesses & spout his mouth. Frankie
lmao Frankie
And all your Hillary knows how to do is lie, cheat, scam the American people, illegally use private email for Government work, support terrorist groups, fund wars, supply arms, take $$$millions from large Corporations for “favours”, assist your President to engage in illegal wars with dubious allies, not to mention the very questionable Clinton Foundation. Oh and let’s not forget the Benghazi Murderer tag. Bahahahaaa yep, I’M the ridiculous one alright. Frankie
And all Killer Clunton knows is how to keep America at war. Duh ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Hillary will win.. Hillary 2016! 😀 Bill G Wilminton NC
Vote Trump he will put the BENGHAZI MURDERER in Jail. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
OldManBill, you just don’t take a hint Bill G Wilminton NC
Try using your credit card maybe you could buy some upvotes……you just don’t take a hint. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
I know I’m on the board of foolish lil boys. I don’t expect much. Bill G Wilminton NC
Like I have already said you are supporting a woman who wont even say the words ISLAMIC TERRORIST and she is running for president she should be told to step down . She is a disgrace.
There are 50 sets of parents who would like to talk to hillary after the mothers of the 3 marines are finished with her….
After Trumps speech tomorrow nite maybe you ( Snotnose ) will be elected FOOL OF THE YEAR on this blog site…. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Media/politicians don’t blurt things the way you want them. They wait until they have facts before they run their mouth. You want BIGMOUTH Trump? You’ll be sorry. Bill G Wilminton NC
Trump is the only one stating facts…..he has been telling everyone STOP the MUSLIMS from coming into OUR COUNTRY…. He has been saying this for months and months……
Hillary and the other scumbag obama cant even say ISLAMIC TERRORIST and obama calls ISIS ISIL…. The democratic party should demand that obama step down from the Presidency and Hillary should be replaced as the dem candidate.
VOTE TRUMP the only one stating the facts !. CASTIEL
If she wins better prepare your bunker Trump could have defects but she is the devil….how she will solve the situation in Ukraine and Syria and South China without starting a ww3? Because things are escalating to the worse.. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Stay with your foreign politics, foreigner. Bill G Wilminton NC
Even the Foreigners Know that Hillary Belongs in Jail…… ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Foreign minorities here will vote Hillary. Bill G Wilminton NC
Legal immigrants are tired of losing their jobs to ILLEGALS….so they are also voting for TRUMP.
VOTE TRUMP put the HAG in JAIL ! ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Forget it Bill. You’re a sexist old chauvinist, but don’t condemn the country to a bombastic fool who has never governed. Bill G Wilminton NC
Hillary is THE FOOL… she and the other scumbag “obama” wont even say ISLAMIC TERRORIST….well Omar ” the Muslim ” the Orlando shooter claims ISIS connections. Omar knows he was a Muslim Terrorist the only one who doesnt know is HILLARY.
The bombastic fool is Hillary and the mothers of those 3 marines would sure like to talk to hillary ” The Big Fat As*ed Fool” with the $15,000 jacket to cover that fat butt.
Tomorro nite Trump has scheduled a speech and after that speech I wouldnt be surprised if You and Hillary and all you Hillary Fools arn’t run out of town on the brooms you flew in on…..whoosh cackle cackle cackle….good riddance ! CASTIEL
When ww3 begins no one will be foreigner…….tell your politics OBAMA and that slut Hillary if she wins to stay to the politics of their country instead of causing chaos around the world……idiot ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Asshole, Trump would be the soonest one to start ww3 CASTIEL
From what i read in the news….Trump is against the sanctions to Russia and want better relations with that country and Hillary said once that Iran should be nuked….nuked????So idiot you are going to do the same mistake when you voted OBAMA? a wolf dressed as a sheep. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Trump is a political NOBODY. He has never done a political thing in his life other than run for president. You’re EFFIN STUPID CASTIEL
Political things? society dont need politicals but real leaders…..so you want someone who have experience in steal and lie to the people? you are really dumb….Like those German idiots who voted Merkel that defend the invasion of these muslims….you are going to vote for hillary because she is the first women with chances for the Presidency …like you voted in Obama because he was the first black in the white house….thinking that will cause any change….your stupidity have no limits. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
You and the lil boys don’t like her, but she’s a proven effective leader w/realms of knowledge on political workings far beyond Trump. Stop being a moron. CASTIEL
She is a warmonger…she will start a ww3…politicians dont know nothing about war…they think its just a game to gain some money until the day they encounter a strongh opponent..political knowledge is irrelevant….JFK was a great President not because of his political experience but yes by his beliefs thats why he was killed…Nowadays they are all pupets and corrupt…dont you understand? its irrelevant….. Bill G Wilminton NC
HILLARY the MURDERER needs to be in a JAIL HOUSE not the White House !.
“What difference does it make now” says Hillary about the three dead Marines and Ambassador Stevens at BENGHAZI.
HILLARY FOR JAILHOUSE 2016 !. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
“House Republicans assert the State Department knew immediately that the Benghazi attack was linked to a terrorist group and said there were 600 requests for additional security at the Benghazi compound. Mrs. Clinton said some of those requests were fulfilled, though most of those messages didn’t rise to her level and were handled by the department’s security professionals.” Hillary didn’t murder anyone. She could only know as much as she was informed. Bill G Wilminton NC
BENGHAZI MURDERER belongs in Jail House not White House. BIG TEXAN
Your vote for Hildabeast will result in you and your family dead in a FEMA camp!!!! If your side wins you will end at the hand of the Gov you voted for —poetic justice ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Trump has no government experience. He succeeded by bankrupting companies. Bill G Wilminton NC
VOTE TRUMP he has NO GOVERNMENT experience !. sistersoldier
You know who else has no previous government experience? Governor Bruce Rauner of Illinois. That is working out great! (facetious). However I do not support Hillary either I think America needs a leader and not a repeater. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
Hillary will win! 😀 She may not be popular on this board, but the type that habitates this board is happily a minority. Bill G Wilminton NC
YUP she is not popular on this board and not popular with the mothers of the three Marines she left to DIE on that roof.
PUT THE BENGHAZI MURDERER IN JAIL !. ITSNOTWhatchaThink
“House Republicans asserted the State Department knew immediately that the Benghazi attack was linked to a terrorist group and said there were 600 requests for additional security at the Benghazi compound. Mrs. Clinton said some of those requests were fulfilled, though most of those messages didn’t rise to her level and were handled by the department’s security professionals.” Hillary didn’t murder anyone. She could only know as much as she was informed. Frankie
She’s far from popular outside of America…MURDERESS!!! ITSNOTWhatchaThink
How much prior political experience does Trump have? NADA!!! ZIP!!!! ZILCH!!! ZERO!!! He talks the talk, but never walked the walk. But hey.. it’s only THE PRESIDENCY! Maybe next we’ll grab people off the street w/no medical training to do surgery!
Neither did Ulysses Grant or Dwight Eisenhower have a prior politcal position, though both had a strong military background. Dwight being ” The Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War II” and Grant “Commanding General of the United States Army” How much military background does Trump have? NADA!!! ZIP!!!! ZILCH!!! ZERO!!!
“no major U.S. company has filed for Chapter 11 more than Trump’s casino empire in the last 30 years.” He has filed four business bankruptcies. Maybe he thinks it’s just as easy to file bankruptcy w/the entire government and walk away. Bill G Wilminton NC
VOTE TRUMP….He is not a TRAITOR POLITICIAN !.
POLITICIANS put us 20 trillion in DEBT !. gfmucci
And “political experience” is good how? WeRThrough
Please tell us what “experience” the current monkey in power had? Oh and while you are at it, please list his accomplishments besides the implosion of this country. RedSky
Just one thing, how can you bring manufacturing back when the demand globally has fallen off the charts? This is not just a problem here, it is everywhere on the planet. Trump does have a better handle on what is going on for sure but I doubt he will be able to fix it but anything is better than “Billary” where we will see more war on innocent people. autofixer
Just a note. Manufacturing IS returning to the U.S., it has been. The problem is that it is returning to automated (robotic) factories. It turns out Mexicans and Chinese are cheaper than North Americans, yet robots are even cheaper than Mexicans or Chinese. Bill G Wilminton NC
Autofixer Good point…. but there are still manufacturing operations with water fountains for people…..take Carrier Airconditioner who employed 1400 people…. they just recently up and moved to Mexico along with Nabisco and Ford….
Trump as a kick butt leader will figure a way to claw them back plus thousands more…….that is what ya get as a businessman as President vs some corrupt Polititical hack loser like Hillary.
Vote Trump ITSNOTWhatchaThink
To show you what a DIMWIT NAIVE LIL RICH BOY Trump is.. “Donald Trump says Orlando victims could have saved themselves if they were armed” Omar was armed with AR-15 type assault gun which fires 30 rounds a minute. Could you imagine being close enough in a crowded chaotic dance bar to take him out within 2 minutes? That’s your IDIOT BOY talking!!! Bill G Wilminton NC
Trump is the only candidate who spoke about stopping the Muslim immigration !. Hillary wants a 500 % increase in Muslim immigration.
And being armed is becoming a NECESSITY… going to a drinking/dancing establishment is not !. Niteclubs are just bars and it is not permissible to bring a weapon so the muslim freak goes to a GUN FREE ZONE.
Hillary for the first time today used the words “Islamic Terrorism”….obama still has not used this term. Hillary and obama blame the attack on GUNS.
VOTE TRUMP and keep your guns oiled, loaded and ready and remember Hillary wants your guns and wants Muslim immigration increased. gfmucci | 0 |
Rallies in support of President Donald Trump took place across America this weekend in a show of support for the new administration’s agenda. [In many places, resorted to violence. Media outlets, however, suggested inaccurately that the protests were an outgrowth of the protests themselves. demonstrations were held in cities across the country, including New York, Washington, San Diego, Palm Beach, Nashville, Lansing, and Minnesota. Most rallies went forward without disruption, apart from in Berkeley, California, where anarchists became violent after holding a . Ten people were arrested in scenes reminiscent of protests at UC Berkeley against former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos’s talk, while an elderly man could be seen lying in agony after being by the anarchists. Fighting is spreading to the streets in Berkeley. This isn’t a Trump rally anymore. It’s the anarchists. pic. twitter. — Lizzie Johnson (@lizziejohnsonnn) March 4, 2017, Violence also ensued at a rally in Minnesota, where 400 Trump supporters rallied around the state capitol rotunda in St. Paul, before being accosted by an . According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, the conflict led to scuffles, and six were arrested. WATCH: ’March 4 Trump’ participants and counterprotesters engage in dueling chants at MN Capitol rotunda https: . — KSTP (@KSTP) March 4, 2017, In New York, around 200 people demonstrated their support for the president in front of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. Photos: Trump Supporters Rally at Trump Tower In Support Of President And Against ’Seditious Fringe’ https: . pic. twitter. — New York City News (@NewYorkCityOBN) March 5, 2017, Meanwhile, in Washington D. C, around 150 Trump supporters marched from the Washington Monument to Lafayette Square. This handsome guy speaking at the #march4trump rally in Washington DC. I’m one lucky girl! 😘 @DustinStockton pic. twitter. — Jennifer Lawrence (@JenLawrence21) March 4, 2017, In Nashville, Tennesse, a huge crowd turned out at Legislative Plaza as part of the Spirit of America, with rally organizer Mark Skoda telling Breitbart News that the crowd size was estimated at 2, 000 people. Huge Crowd at Nashville Spirit of America Rally in Support of President Trump https: . pic. twitter. — Patricia Miler (@PatriciaMiler1) March 5, 2017, In Palm Beach, Florida, the president’s motorcade was stopped by dozens of supporters, with Trump stepping outside the vehicle to greet them. President Trump stops by #March4Trump Rally Outside Palm Beach #PeoplesPresident pic. twitter. — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 4, 2017, Supporters in Lansing, Michigan, turned out in their hundreds. Donald Trump was the first Republican to win the state of Michigan since George H. W Bush in 1988, defeating Hillary Clinton in the tightest race in state’s electoral history. Pro Trump rally in Lansing Michigan. pic. twitter. — #ObamaGate (@lisafedup) March 4, 2017, Over 200 Trump supporters also rallied in downtown San Diego. #NEWS President Donald Trump Supporters Rally in San Diego — NBC 7 San Diego https: . #RT pic. twitter. — Political Informant (@ThePolinformant) March 5, 2017, On Sunday evening, Donald Trump thanked supporters for the “tremendous support” he had received throughout the weekend. Thank you for the great rallies all across the country. Tremendous support. Make America Great Again! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2017, You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
Republican leaders are trying to line up votes for another Obamacare repeal bill, with a vote possibly coming later this week. It’s also possible the new repeal effort will collapse, sending legislators back to the drawing board. Here are some principles to keep in mind, based on what Republicans have been saying to their constituents since 2010, and what happened when they made their first run at repeal in 2017. [Take your time: Congressional Republicans and the White House have already paid the political price for the failure of their first repeal effort. They bought themselves time, which they should invest wisely. Granted, something needs to be done before the insurance industry implodes completely, but there is enough time to craft a good bill. It’s also important to take the time needed to sell the bill, to both legislators and their constituents. President Obama put a great deal of effort behind the politics of pushing Obamacare through. He lost interest in managing the program after it passed, leading to the inexcusable launch debacle, but no one can fault him for a lack of hard work and careful preparation in guiding the Affordable Care Act through Congress. The American people should be brought on board with a combination of fearless, trenchant criticism of Obamacare plus touting the benefits of the repeal bill. The previous effort had all the energy and enthusiasm of a petulant child reluctantly taking his medicine. Sure, everything Obama and his cronies said about the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010 was a lie, but they lied with vigor and conviction. Conservatives mock Big Government leftists for their arrogance, and for appalling results that make a mockery of their unjustified sense of superiority, but one should never underestimate the appeal of the moral conviction that animates the Left. They’re absolutely convinced they are doing the right thing — they will occasionally dip a toe into religious rhetoric and claim they’re doing the Lord’s work — and anyone who opposes them is a monster. Conversely, congressional Republicans and the Trump White House displayed no air of conviction during the first Obamacare repeal debacle. They acted like they were checking off a box on a list. They looked insincere. It brought the party some ribbing for never being serious about its copious promises to repeal Obamacare over the ears, or the many phony bills they sacrificed to Obama’s veto pen. Time and political effort are needed to lay the groundwork for a repeal bill the public will take seriously. Democrats will act like crusading heroes trying to prevent the selfish Republicans from killing poor people by taking away their health care. Conviction and moral preening will come easily to the other side. If Republicans can’t muster a comparable level of moral authority, they might as well skip a political battle they are destined to lose. Part of the price paid for the hasty initial effort to repeal Obamacare was a significant slide in GOP poll numbers on health care a slide helped along by theatrics at town hall meetings. Efforts by political action groups to pressure Republican legislators into climbing back aboard the repeal train are misguided. Pressure the Democrats, make recalcitrant Republicans feel like this is a fight they can win, and they’ll get back on board. Promote the free market and attack collectivism: One of the big problems with that first doomed effort is that it conceded too many vital arguments about health insurance reform to the Democrats. The most crucial of these arguments is the false belief that insurance (and medicine itself) cannot be entrusted to the free market. This contention is the gateway on the road that leads inexorably to the eternal hell of nationalized medicine. Most Republicans love to talk about the superior efficiency of the free market at allocating resources, and the moral superiority of free capitalist choices over collectivist solutions imposed by force. Sadly, that conviction tends to evaporate when leftists start yelling about how conservatives enjoy killing people by taking away their “free” benefits. Conceding the point that capitalism is cruel and mercilessly exploitative is dangerous, and will presage the loss of much more than the freedom to buy decent insurance at reasonable prices. The Left uses healthcare as its wedge issue to indict freedom as cruelty because it knows people have strong emotional responses to the prospect of poor and sick people “left to die. ” It knows the public believes everyone involved in medicine and health insurance is making obscene profits. It knows few voters truly understand medical science. They’re understandably afraid of getting sick, and they find the huge and complex medical industry incomprehensible. They don’t understand why a tiny little pill, or half an hour of a doctor’s time, has to cost so much. The crucial weakness of healthcare capitalism, exploited relentlessly by the Left, is that people don’t view medicine as a commodity. They think it should be immune to the laws of supply and demand because everyone needs it. Paying for medical treatment is not celebrated as scoring a hot deal for a great product, the way people think of purchasing retail goods, even really expensive items like houses and cars. Buying medicine feels more like losing a bet, getting penalized, adding the insult of medical bills to the injury of sickness. People have been persuaded not to view health insurance as a commodity, either. No one really enjoys “shopping for a good deal” in health insurance, because they don’t understand the complexities of the industry, let alone the complexities of the medical treatment paid for by insurance plans. (It’s interesting that the Affordable Care Act hucksters felt the need to weave capitalist language about freedom of choice and a positive Obamacare “shopping” experience into their pitch, risibly comparing the ACA web exchanges to shopping at Amazon. com. They know it’s important to flatter Americans’ vestigial appreciation for free markets, even as they plot to subvert and destroy them.) One of the most effective arguments against those who insist healthcare is a “right” that should be provided for “free” or at heavily subsidized prices by the State, is to ask them why the even more universally essential need for food should not be satisfied the same way. They never have a good answer for why food shouldn’t be provided by the government, even though most people need food even more urgently than medicine or health insurance. The reason for their silence is the lingering fear that voters know exactly what happens when governments handle food distribution. Nobody wants to schlep to a grim food dispensary to wander among bare shelves with ration card in hand. And yet, that’s precisely what is happening to health insurance under Obamacare. We didn’t get a rainbow of choices between competitive plans at great prices. We’ve got insurers bailing out of the market left and right, leaving effective monopolies in some areas. Prices are way up, and quality is down. Only lavish subsidies hide the real price of Obamacare insurance plans … turning Americans into welfare dependents in the process. Fight for capitalism and free markets, Republicans. Show people that you truly understand and believe in their power and righteousness. Healthcare and insurance were ripened for takeover by decades of Big Government meddling to drive up prices, separating buyers from providers with layers of bureaucracy. Reverse that process, let honest competition bring prices down for everyone, and then make reasonable accommodations for the small number of truly needy customers who cannot afford even those low prices. Shift the political center of gravity: Ever since the Tea Party wave election in 2010, pundits have debated the political wisdom of Obamacare. Democrats paid an enormous political price in 2010, 2014, and arguably 2016 for passing the bill, but they also got something in return for that price. It was no small achievement: they might have changed the relationship between American citizens and their government forever. Obamacare extended government control over a major sector of the U. S. economy, gobbling up student loans along the way. As noted above, it has turned a vast swath of the middle class into welfare dependents, which gives the Party of the State future leverage over their votes. The loss of essential insurance subsidies can and will be used as a threat against voters who dare to call for smaller government. The first dollar of spending cuts will be portrayed as coming out of insurance subsidies, much as we currently hear that the first dollar of spending cuts means cops, teachers, firefighters, and paramedics will get pink slips. Obamacare is the largest single step the Left has ever taken towards its dream of total control over medicine, forever. Countries with socialized health care tend not to have significant “conservative” parties, in any sense Americans of 2008 or earlier would recognize. When the State controls the very health of its citizens, nationalizing the vast amount of money and authority represented by the medical community, it no longer has any reason to fear the wrath of those citizens. We’re getting a taste of that right now with the Obamacare repeal drama. The Affordable Care Act may have been unpopular throughout its life, but it commands more than enough money and influence to defend itself. Was all of that worth Democrats losing the House and Senate for a few years, especially when the Republican majorities were mostly occupied with trying to slow Barack Obama’s roll? Was it worth the surprising loss of the White House to Donald Trump? If the Republicans still can’t repeal the ACA even with the House, Senate, and White House, the price that will be extracted from them by angry and dismayed GOP voters will offset some of the Democrats’ losses. The Democrats lost their entire wing under Obama, dragging the party far to the Left. It’s much too early to judge whether that was a bug in the Obamacare program, or a feature, especially since they dragged a good deal of the electorate to the Left in their wake. They reasonably hope they moved the “Overton window of political possibility” permanently, while their electoral setbacks will eventually be reversed. Democrats did something big with Obamacare and paid a big price. That’s a strategy likely to achieve success against opponents who only pay small prices to accomplish small things. This is not just a policy argument, but a clash of philosophies. If the GOP tinkers with a few policy details while leaving the core philosophy behind Obamacare intact, any victory they might claim will prove to be . Don’t become accomplices to Obamacare: Ever since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Democrats have been desperate to get some Republican fingerprints on it. They love to complain about Republican resistance to the Obama agenda as the driving force behind Obamacare’s failure, but that’s a smokescreen to distract the American people from the cold, hard truth that it’s a 100 percent Democrat program. If Republicans cave into Democrat pressure to “fix” the Affordable Care Act, they will instantly become full partners in its failure. Contrary to what some of the squishier Republicans might be thinking, that will not make Democrats less likely to blame them for everything that goes wrong with health care. Quite the reverse. Future political campaigns will be fought over which party is a better steward for the corporatist health insurance industry that both parties ratified. Republicans are not likely to win that argument, and they’ll have a hard time resisting Democrat pressure to expand the system they signed on to. Don’t be intimidated by factoids about people “losing insurance”: When Barack Obama told the biggest lie in modern political history — “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — his primary goal was to falsely portray the Affordable Care Act as a voluntary program. He boasted the program would be such a huge success that Americans would voluntarily abandon their plans and buy his plans instead. He promised better quality at lower prices. Obama’s big fib had a secondary purpose — he needed to conceal how many people would lose their insurance under his plan. Millions of people lost their insurance plans because of the Affordable Care Act. Quite a few people have lost more than one insurance plan because of disruptions to the market since 2010. The total number of lost plans is hotly debated, but it surely compares to phony Democrat talking points about how many Americans would supposedly lose coverage under current repeal proposals. It’s not reasonable to assume that all of those losses would be catastrophic and permanent, any more than it is reasonable to say Obamacare’s destroyed insurance plans don’t count at all because most of those people eventually found other coverage. Democrats claim the number of people who lost insurance under the Affordable Care Act is irrelevant because most of them ended up buying new (and very often worse) plans to replace their lost coverage. Senator Ted Cruz ( ) once compared this to vandals smashing windows, offering to sell replacement windows to their victims, and bragging about the high volume of window sales under their business model. The same is true of any Obamacare repeal proposal — most of the people who “lose” insurance will obtain new plans, and if the free market is allowed to function properly, those plans will be cheaper and better. Republicans should always and everywhere push back against the false narrative that insurance lost under Obamacare doesn’t count because most of the losses were temporary, but only insurance that might be lost under repeal proposals counts, and all of those losses must be treated as permanent. If that ridiculous argument isn’t killed during the Obamacare repeal debate, reformers will face a new version of it every time they attempt to scale back any government program. It’s a key element of the “progressive” strategy to ensure that ground seized by the State is never returned to the people. Another aspect of that strategy is the notion that only benefits provided or subsidized by the government really count. Expecting people to pay for their own stuff is tantamount to “denying them access” to whatever progressives think they have a “right” to. This new ideological weapon was rolled out in a big way during the 2012 presidential campaign, but many Republicans seem to have missed its significance or dismissed the “paying for my own contraceptives = oppression” argument as too silly to merit a response. They were wrong, and if they don’t persuade voters to resume viewing health insurance as a market commodity instead of a “right” that should be administered by the sacred temples of the holy State, they’re going to have a hard time restoring what the Obama Democrats took away from the private sector. Bring back analysis: Politicians are eternally at war with two key economic concepts: the law of supply and demand, and analysis. In their daily lives, people understand that costs are important, even when a particular good or service is highly desirable. Politicians specialize in making them forget such common sense, stampeding voters into agreeing that certain goals are so righteous or urgent that cost is irrelevant. Those who ask hard questions about the cost or wastefulness of sacred government programs are denounced as heartless penny pinchers. It matters very much that Obamacare is absurdly expensive and wasteful. That’s real money being siphoned from our productive private economy and thrown around by the bureaucracy. A repeal plan that saves American taxpayers billions of dollars is a good thing and should be promoted to the people who pay all those taxes, insurance premiums, and deductibles as such. During the previous Obamacare repeal effort, the Congressional Budget Office said the repeal bill would increase the number of people without health insurance by 24 million while saving $337 billion. Cries of “24 million people will lose insurance under the GOP plan!” were highly dishonest — that’s not actually what CBO said — but just for the sake of argument, divide $337 billion by 24 million people and you come up with over $14, 000 a head. That doesn’t speak well of Obamacare’s cost efficiency, does it? The amount paid per individual “helped” by the Affordable Care Act is ludicrous. Republicans should never tire of pointing that out. Using the free market to make insurance and medicine more affordable for everyone, and then spending more modest sums to help the needy obtain those reasonably priced goods, is far more efficient than a bloated, government control scheme, and it’s far more respectful of our money and freedom to boot. Attack the core rationales of Obamacare: Speaking of analysis, one of the core rationales for the Affordable Care Act — almost the only convincing point in its favor, for many average Americans — was the argument that uninsured people still receive health care for free at hospitals, because they are not allowed to turn sick people away. The rest of us were supposedly paying an exorbitant cost for this “ ” through taxes and higher insurance premiums. Imposing a government regulatory scheme that forces everyone to buy insurance makes sense to many Americans, at least in theory. The Obama White House described as a “hidden tax” of at least $1, 000 a year on every American insurance customer. How else could we possibly alleviate the crisis, without tossing uninsured sick people onto the streets? Versions of this argument are heard to this very day, even though Obamacare supposedly “fixed” the problem — that was one of its primary objectives, along with ensuring access to insurance for people with conditions, who are guaranteed that callous insurance companies would rather not cover at reasonable prices. Neither one of those core issues was remotely as serious as Democrats made them out to be, and Obamacare is not the optimal means of addressing either. This is partly a matter of analysis: total up the time and money spent on Obamacare compliance, divide by the number of people who were truly by insurance, and you could afford to not only cover those peoples’ insurance needs but buy each one of them a car. Research produced late in the Obamacare debate showed that was never as big of a problem as we were led to believe — certainly not a $1, 000 secret tax, or a problem big enough to justify the costs in dollars and liberty imposed by the Affordable Care Act. It was easy for Democrats to exaggerate the size of the problem because the insurance industry and its lobbyists have always pushed mythology as a convenient excuse for high insurance premiums. Everyone involved in dumping Obamacare on us knew was a seemingly logical argument they could sell to a vast number of moderate voters. It was even invoked as an argument in favor of preserving the individual mandate before the Supreme Court. There are much less expensive and intrusive ways we could address the problem — and frankly, Obamacare isn’t really addressing it, because reports from the Obama Administration itself found uninsured visits to hospital emergency rooms had scarcely been reduced at all. One of the big reasons for that is something Democrats are extremely reluctant to talk about: a great deal of the burden comes from illegal immigrants. Another reason is that even people who have insurance will rush to the emergency room instead of waiting for their doctors to become available. Republicans should mercilessly hammer the fact that Obamacare did very little to address one of the key arguments presented in its favor. Also, zero in on the fact that much of the “increased coverage” provided by Obamacare is really coming from Medicaid, and speak fearlessly about the problems facing that program — from fiscal crises to the poor access to doctors it offers many enrollees. Point out that if Democrats wanted to radically expand Medicaid, they should have honestly discussed it with the American people in 2009 and 2010, rather than hiding behind the smokescreen of private insurance reform. Covering people with conditions is a much more complicated issue. Again, it’s popular with Americans because they think it just doesn’t make sense to leave people with serious health conditions without access to affordable insurance — even though selling coverage to people who are guaranteed to generate more costs than income doesn’t really fit the logical definition of “insurance. ” Be honest with the American people: We ought to be more focused on securing affordable health care for patients with conditions, instead of cramming them into the same market that sells bona fide “insurance” against the risk of illness and injury to healthy customers. Forcing insurance companies to cover the cost of care for customers with existing conditions, and allowing them to recoup those costs through a mixture of taxpayer subsidies and higher premiums for everyone else, is a far more serious “ ” problem than the one employed as a sales pitch for Obamacare. Republican reformers should stress the need for more honesty in our opaque and confusing medical and insurance systems, which became even more opaque under Obama’s plan. The true costs of medicine are more obscure than ever to average consumers, and the network of shifted and hidden costs to cover them is more complex. Be honest about the needs of people with conditions, and healthy people who can’t afford even the inexpensive coverage that true market competition will provide. Present the taxpayers with a clean, understandable invoice for handling the needs of those people, in the most streamlined and efficient manner possible, with the lowest bureaucratic overhead. Don’t fumble around with schemes to give them “insurance” — worry about the medical care they need, and how our society can best provide it. Let the cost be spread thin, fair, and clear among us all. We’ll pay it. If there’s one thing polls have proven beyond question, it’s that Americans do not want sick people to lack adequate care, or be financially ruined by paying for it. The political class needs to stop dreaming up elegant schemes to pick our pockets and line the pockets of their cronies. Just give us an honest, efficient plan to do what the American people have clearly stated they want to do. Don’t be afraid to take a few hits: Those who cringe at the first sign of a raised fist rarely win fights. The previous repeal effort would have given us Obamacare Lite, and yet its authors and supporters were still excoriated as inhuman monsters by the Left, their modest restructuring of the Affordable Care Act depicted as a plot to murder the poor. This should serve as yet another lesson — why are any more needed? — that no matter what Republicans do, they’ll be hit with a cyclone of hysterical attacks by the Left, especially in the current hyperventilating “Resistance” political environment. That means even the smallest reform will carry much the same political price as a major overhaul. So why not swing for the fences and do something truly meaningful? Why shouldn’t the GOP focus on giving its voters what they want, instead of worrying about tantrums from the people who lost the last election? Why make deals to appease an opposition that cannot be appeased? Republican strategists should be able to learn a lot by studying the last repeal battle. It should be easy to anticipate Democrat and media lines of attack against a bold repeal plan. Be ready for those attacks with sharp responses, focused on selling the GOP plan to voters who clearly believe Obamacare isn’t the best way to handle health insurance. Be prepared to shoot down misleading factoids and relentlessly hammer everything people don’t like about the insurance landscape. Repetition is your friend, Republicans — look at how relentlessly Democrats jackhammered away at every weak spot in the health care system when they were laying the groundwork for passing the Affordable Care Act. (Of course, they were well prepared for the effort because many of those weaknesses were deliberately created by government regulations over a span of decades — the Left was hitting weak spots it had long ago created.) | 1 |
Ending a sexual abuse case in which Pope Francis intervened three years ago, a Spanish court on Tuesday cleared a parish priest in Granada who had been accused of molesting an altar boy. The court found no evidence that the Rev. Román Martínez had sexually abused one of his former altar boys more than a decade ago. An investigation began after David Ramírez Castillo wrote to Pope Francis in 2014, detailing the sexual abuse that he said he and others suffered repeatedly when they were teenagers at the hands of a group of priests led by Father Martínez. Pope Francis phoned Mr. Ramírez Castillo and urged him to pursue his complaints. The pope also ordered a church investigation into the case, demanding complete transparency. In an ruling, the court said it had exonerated Father Martínez not only because of the lack of evidence against him but also because the testimony of Mr. Ramírez Castillo included elements that were “completely implausible. ” The court listed several events and details provided by Mr. Ramírez Castillo that could not be corroborated or proved false. For instance, there was no birthmark on Father Martínez’s genitals, contrary to what Mr. Ramírez Castillo had claimed. The priest’s lawyer, Javier Muriel, said the verdict showed the case was based on lies. “It is easy to make an accusation of pedophilia, a crime that happens in privacy and in which the testimony of the victim is really the only proof,” Mr. Muriel said. Mr. Ramírez Castillo and his lawyer did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The case could still be appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court. The archdiocese of Granada welcomed the ruling on Tuesday. In a statement, it noted “the suffering that this case has caused, within the diocese but in reality within the whole church. ” | 1 |
John D. Loudermilk, a country singer and prolific songwriter whose dozens of hits in the 1960s and ’70s included “Tobacco Road” by the Nashville Teens, “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” by the Casinos and “Indian Reservation” by Paul Revere and the Raiders, died on Wednesday at his home in Christiana, Tenn. He was 82. His death was announced on Facebook by the songwriter Bobby Braddock, a friend. The cause was a heart attack, said his son Mike. As Johnny Dee, Mr. Loudermilk made several records in a soft rockabilly style in the 1950s, but he found his niche after George Hamilton IV recorded his teen lament “A Rose and a Baby Ruth” in 1956 and Eddie Cochran scored his first solid hit with a cover of Mr. Loudermilk’s “Sittin’ in the Balcony” a year later. After moving to Nashville from his native North Carolina, he came under the wing of the producer and guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins. He soon joined the powerful publishing company and began turning out songs in every style: the perky pop of “Norman” (1961) for Sue Thompson the mournful ballad “Ebony Eyes” for the Everly Brothers” (1961) and the loping western style of “Abilene” (1963) written with Bob Gibson and others, which became Mr. Hamilton’s biggest hit. Mr. Loudermilk drew on his childhood in Durham, N. C. for “Tobacco Road,” which he recorded in 1960. It became a Top 20 hit for the British invasion group the Nashville Teens in 1964 and was later recorded by dozens of other artists, including the Jefferson Airplane, Eric Burdon and War, the Blues Magoos and David Lee Roth. “Indian Reservation,” first recorded by Marvin Rainwater in 1959 as “The Pale Faced Indian,” told the story, in impassioned terms, of the forced removal of Cherokee Indians from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma in the 1830s. As “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian),” it became a Top 20 hit for the British singer Don Fardon in 1968 and a No. 1 hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1971. Mr. Loudermilk, who enjoyed telling a good story, convinced the D. J. Casey Kasem that he had been inspired to write the song when he was stranded by the roadside during a blizzard and a mysterious Cherokee chief, Bloody Bear Tooth, led him to safety and asked him to tell the rest of the world, in song, of the sufferings of his people. Mr. Kasem repeated the tale on his radio program “American Top 40,” giving it currency. In a wink to record buyers, Mr. Loudermilk added “P. S. My regards to Bloody Bear Tooth” on the sleeve of his 1971 album “Volume 1: Elloree. ” John D. Loudermilk, whose middle initial did not stand for anything, was born in Durham on March 31, 1934. His father, also named John D. was an illiterate carpenter. His mother, Pauline, was a homemaker and Salvation Army missionary. He was a cousin of Ira and Charlie Loudermilk, known professionally as the country music duo the Louvin Brothers. When John was 7, his father made him a ukulele from a cigar box and his mother taught him to play it. He soon learned, in addition to guitar, an assortment of instruments, which he played in a Salvation Army band. By his early teens, he had appeared on local radio and television stations. While attending the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, Mr. Loudermilk discovered the work of Kahlil Gibran and began writing poems, one of which, “A Rose and a Baby Ruth,” he set to music. The Durham television station where he worked as a set painter and member of the house band let him play it on air. Mr. Hamilton, visiting the station, heard it and recorded it for Colonial, a label based in Chapel Hill. Mr. Loudermilk joined the label, for which he recorded “Sittin’ in the Balcony” in 1957 and, as the lead singer of Ebe Sneezer and His Epidemics, the comedy song “Asiatic Flu. ” After Mr. Cochran’s success with “Sittin’ in the Balcony,” Mr. Loudermilk dropped out of college and moved to Nashville, where he recorded just one Top 40 song, “Language of Love” (1961). But he made an immediate impact there as a songwriter. With Kitty Wells and Roy Bodkin, he wrote the 1959 country hit “Amigo’s Guitar,” performed by Ms. Wells. That year, Stonewall Jackson scored the biggest hit of his career with “Waterloo,” by Mr. Loudermilk and Marijohn Wilkin. His many hits included “Sad Movies (Make Me Cry),” written for Sue Thompson and recorded by her in 1961. It was inspired, he said, by a woman who cried at the end of the movie “Spartacus. ” He supplied Ms. Thompson with yet another hit in “Paper Tiger” (1964). Mr. Loudermilk’s “Talk Back Trembling Lips” became a country hit for Ernest Ashworth in 1963 and a pop hit the same year for Johnny Tillotson. A striking example of the adaptability of his songs was “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” recorded by the Cincinnati group the Casinos and translated into an urbane Nashville idiom by Eddy Arnold a year later. Mr. Loudermilk was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976. In the 1980s, he turned his attention to the study of ethnomusicology and indulging his passion for sailing and chasing hurricanes. His first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his son Mike, he is survived by two other children from his first marriage, Rick and John, and by his wife, the former Susan Chollette. “I’m looking for the most different thing I can find,” Mr. Loudermilk told The Tennessean of Nashville in 1961 in a discussion of his songwriting style. “Everybody’s writing ‘I love you truly.’ You’ve got to find something new. I talk to drunks at the bus station, browse through kiddie books at the public library, get phrases from college kids and our babysitter. You’ve got to be looking all the time. ” | 1 |
For months, Chief James P. O’Neill was the man in the blue uniform with four gold stars standing, shoulders square, just behind Police Commissioner William J. Bratton in his pressed suits and Hermès ties. On Tuesday, Chief O’Neill stepped to the center: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he would become the next commissioner of the New York Police Department after Mr. Bratton steps down next month. The uniformed officer in the department, Chief O’Neill, 58, has become an increasingly familiar face on the local news, around the city and at City Hall, ready at news conferences and in private meetings with answers for his boss or the mayor. They often summon him with a familiar call, using just his first name. “I always call him Jimmy,” Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, said while inviting him to the lectern on Tuesday. Chief O’Neill began his career in 1983, in the old Transit Police, and is steeped in the city’s policing culture. Yet as Mr. de Blasio took office vowing to reform many embattled and longstanding police practices, such as stop, question and frisk, Chief O’Neill was also among those eager to embrace change, spearheading the department’s effort at a new incarnation of neighborhood policing. “I know exactly how valuable and how fragile it is at times, this relationship between law enforcement and the community actually is,” he said on Tuesday at the City Hall announcement. “This is truly a shared effort and shared responsibility. ” It was Chief O’Neill who sent a team of officers to Los Angeles to study that city’s community policing program, which influenced the plans the New York Police Department was developing to foster better relations. He has been at the helm in overseeing security planning for major events, like the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly and the visit last year of Pope Francis. For months, Chief O’Neill’s public profile has been growing as Mr. Bratton appeared to be grooming him to be the face of the department. The two men met in 1990, when Mr. Bratton came to New York from Boston to take over the Transit Police and Mr. O’Neill was a young supervisor running its video unit. Mr. Bratton used the unit to hone his image within the department, producing videos for the rank and file, and producing commercials and public service messages for the public. When Mr. Bratton returned and was reunited with Mr. O’Neill, it was a reunion of mutual benefit. After languishing for nearly a decade as a deputy chief under Raymond W. Kelly, the commissioner at the time, Chief O’Neill was promoted twice in short order by Mr. Bratton, first to chief of patrol and then to chief of department. It was a remarkable career turn for Chief O’Neill, who had been pushed out of his post as the commander of the department’s narcotics operations after an internal sting operation found officers paying informants with drugs. Chief O’Neill was one of several commanders transferred amid the scandal, which led prosecutors to dismiss many cases involving the officers implicated. The last two years have been quite different. Commissioner Bratton and Chief O’Neill have enjoyed a warm relationship, with Mr. Bratton occasionally teasing Chief O’Neill at news conferences. Those lighter moments — including on Tuesday when Mr. Bratton ribbed Chief O’Neill about his baldness — elicit the friendlier side of a chief who can seem, with his starched uniform and military bearing, to be distant and cool. Some elected officials have said that they worked well with Chief O’Neill as chief of department. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, an advocate of criminal justice reform, described the chief as “very qualified, personable and . ” “Chief O’Neill is a good man, who has always had an relationship with leaders of diverse backgrounds throughout the city,” Mr. Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, said on Tuesday. Late last month, when Mr. Bratton said in an interview with The New York Times that he would be leaving the department before the start of a potential second term for Mr. de Blasio, he talked openly about his admiration for Chief O’Neill and suggested that the chief would be a worthy successor. On Tuesday, the mayor made that a reality. In an earlier interview, Chief O’Neill also said he admired Mr. Bratton’s touch — making officers feel that they are being listened to and trusted. “Obviously, he wants cops to do a great job. But he also wants them to feel good about themselves and to have that sense of fulfillment,” Chief O’Neill said of Mr. Bratton in January. “That is different from the prior administration. ” As the news came out on Tuesday morning, a group of uniformed officers from various Bronx precincts who had assembled at an outdoor session greeted the shift with enthusiasm. “He rose through the ranks, that’s for sure,” Officer Dan Conti, of the 47th Precinct, said as he stood with colleagues near the Grand Concourse. Others nodded. “He’s a pretty good boss,” Officer Conti added. Chief O’Neill’s ascension is unusual. Thomas Repetto, author of a history of the department, said a chief of department had not been promoted to commissioner in more than four decades. Rather, mayors have typically reached further down in the leadership, or more often outside the department, for new commissioners. Before moving into senior posts, Chief O’Neill served as a commander of three precincts: the 25th in East Harlem, the 44th in the Bronx and Central Park. He knows what it is like to face high crime and thousands of homicides a year. But now, with crime boiled down to much lower levels, he has embraced the shifts the administration has wrought: focusing on people, places and conditions that drive crime. “Fighting crime is what we get paid to do,” Chief O’Neill said in January. “But we can’t do that unless we have the backing of the community. Unless we have that connectivity, it’s not going to work. ” As he spoke on Tuesday in City Hall’s Blue Room, Chief O’Neill, who is separated and has two sons in their 20s, faced his mother, who sat in the front row. He choked up, recalling the advice she gave while he was growing up, one of seven siblings in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. “To be a sound and moral man,” his mother, Helen O’Neill, told reporters afterward. “And to always do the right thing, and he has. ” Ms. O’Neill said she was in awe of her son, who likes Irish soda bread, motorcycle rides and discussing with her the books he has read. “He’s more than what you see,” she said. | 1 |
Russia unveiled a weapon capable of reaching United States territory recently, and on its heels, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the actions undertaken in Washington are “pushing Russia into a nuclear arms race,” according to Zero Hedge .
Zero Hedge reported:
Yesterday, Russia reveals photos of a new highly advanced liquid fuelled heavy ICBM capable of evading anti-missile defences and hitting US territory with 10 tonne nuclear payload.
The Makeyev Design Bureau – the designer of Russia’s heavy liquid fuelled Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (“ICBMs”) – ie. of missiles capable of reaching US territory from Russian territory, has published the first picture of Russia’s new heavy Sarmat ICBM which is due to enter service shortly, probably in 2018.
The Makeyev Design Bureau also released this statement along with the picture of the Sarmat ICBM: “In accordance with the Decree of the Russian Government ‘On the State Defence Order for 2010 and the planning period 2012-2013,’ the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau was instructed to start design and development work on the Sarmat. In June 2011, the Bureau and the Russian Ministry of Defense signed a state contract for the Sarmat’s development. The prospective strategic missile system is being developed in order to assuredly and effectively fulfil objectives of nuclear deterrent by Russia’s strategic forces.”
As Zero Hedge noted, the Sarmat has a specific goal of evading U.S. anti-ballistic missile systems that have been deployed in Eastern Europe.
This is yet another reason why we need a president who understands the importance of modernizing and beefing up our military in these uncertain times.
While the U.S. stays stuck in the 1960’s and 1970’s with our strategic deterrents, Russia is working to upgrade their armory. The new Sarmat missile is set to be ready to go in 2018.
AntiWar’s Jason Ditz had this to say about the situation between the U.S. and Russia in regard to our respective military capabilities:
Of course, the United States spends many, many times what Russia does on its military, but the fact that Russia has a proper military capable of defending the nation at all puts it in a total different category from most of America’s recent wars, and Russia’s massive nuclear arsenal makes it clear this is one war which, if the US launches it, they won’t be able to win outright.
Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has called for a no-fly zone over Syria. Here’s what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, had to say about that.
“Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,” he said. “That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.”
Clinton’s track record — both in action and in words — proves that she does not have the judgment necessary to be president. | 0 |
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is asking Games Workshop to eliminate fur from the design of Warhammer 40k figures. [In the grim dark future, there is only war, but, more importantly to PETA, apparently too much fur. According to PETA, the fictional warriors of the year 40, 000 should eschew anything resembling animal products from their gear. They believe that the current depiction “sends the message that wearing fur is acceptable. ” Within a universe steeped in human sacrifice and unremitting carnage, it’s the millimeters of furry accessorizing that have crossed the line. Priests of Khorne can gather blood for the Blood God, so long as no animals were harmed to fill the Lake of Slaughter. Only PETA can protect the hairy squig, or grasp the untamed majesty of a Beast of Nurgle. Turning these free creatures into fashion accessories “doesn’t take any skill,” according to PETA. Unless, of course, they’re just assuming that Imperial Space Marines stopped to skin raccoons in order to intimidate the descending horde of actual robot zombies. No word on whether Tyranids are being considered for this same protection. We can only hope those poor creatures aren’t victimized, delaying their quest to “destroy and absorb all life in the universe. ” Thanks, PETA. With you around, perhaps the exploitative production of Grox burgers will finally cease. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 1 |
DCG | 5 Comments
Considering that Timberlake supports Hillary, he may not be the brightest bulb. We should at least be grateful that he’s not offering blowjobs to anyone voting for Hillary.
From Daily Mail : Tennessee officials are investigating Justin Timberlake after the singer took a selfie in a voting booth.
In a photo posted to his Instagram account on Monday, the 35-year-old celebrity stands in front of a ballot machine and makes a scrunched up face. The caption reads: ‘Hey! You! Yeah, YOU! I just flew from LA to Memphis to #rockthevote !!! No excuses, my good people! There could be early voting in your town too. If not, November 8th! Choose to have a voice! If you don’t, then we can’t HEAR YOU! Get out and VOTE! #excerciseyourrighttovote.’
Taking a photo or recording audio in a voting booth is a crime in Tennessee, with a penalty of up to 30 days in prison and a $50 fine.
After the picture was posted on Monday, a representative from the Shelby County, Tennessee District Attorney’s office told TMZ that Timberlake’s actions are ‘under review’. The Tennessee law banning ballot selfies was passed last year and so far no one has been prosecuted for violating it.
An official for the election board where Justin voted told TMZ that the hitmaker should be lauded for calling on his more than 31million followers to vote.
Timberlake and his wife Jessica Biel hosted a $33,400-a-ticket fundraiser for Hillary Clinton last spring.
Laws nationwide are mixed on whether voters are allowed to take pictures of themselves in the act or of their ballots –‘ballot selfies’. Federal judges have struck down bans on selfies in New Hampshire and Indiana, and rules have been changed in places like California and Rhode Island, but in many states it’s still a violation that carries potential fines or jail terms.
There are laws against sharing any photo of your ballot in 18 states, while six other states bar photography in polling places but do allow photos of mail-in ballots.
Critics say such regulations have not kept up with technology and are confusing for voters and election workers. Some states that ban ballot selfies or have moved to block them cite concerns the photos could harm the integrity of the voting process by encouraging vote-buying or coercion, though some acknowledge there’s no evidence to support those fears.
DCG | 0 |
How much do Inaugural Addresses matter? Many are memorable and continue to be quoted, while most others are forgotten almost immediately. Donald J. Trump will get his chance shortly after noon Friday. “They are a touching, almost naïve attempt to set a tone for what is to come,” Jon Meacham, the presidential biographer, said. “But as we know, and as is often remarked, events are in the saddle. We are not. ” Some of history’s most notable inaugural speeches, including the first of Abraham Lincoln, in 1861, demonstrated that presidents cannot control the tides of history. But even so, the most memorable ones stand as worthy introductions to the presidents who delivered them, their values and their goals. George Washington | Thursday, April 30, 1789 The first Inaugural Address was characterized by the first president’s impressive humility. Professing himself to feel unworthy of the task, and praising God, George Washington used the speech, which James Madison helped him to draft, to declare his faith in Congress’s ability to govern. “The magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies,” he said, essentially announcing his skepticism and fear at not living up to the task. But while he declined to offer any specific legislation to Congress, as was his right under the new Constitution, he did subtly remind the legislative body of its duty toward the new country, asking “that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. ” Then, before praising God at length for a final time, Washington announced that he would decline any financial compensation for taking on the role of president. Andrew Jackson | Wednesday, March 4, 1829 President Jackson was one of the originators of American populism and, fittingly, his Inaugural Address paid tribute to his supporters, the people. “While the magnitude of their interests convinces me that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they have conferred, it admonishes me that the best return I can make is the zealous dedication of my humble abilities to their service and their good,” he said. Jackson’s speech stands as a notable example of the gulf that can exist between rhetoric and action. He pledged to respect the limits of executive power (which he ended up expanding) and expressed his “sincere and constant desire” to be humane and considerate regarding Native American rights. He signed the Indian Removal Act, which expelled tens of thousands of Native Americans from their native homes, into law the following May. Jackson, who had been elected during a time of economic anxiety, had far more to say about policy than did Washington. He discussed “the extinguishment of the national debt,” and devoted many words to the maintenance of military might. But he too, ended his speech on a humble note, looking to God and his fellow elected officials for support as well as his fellow citizens. Abraham Lincoln | Monday, March 4, 1861 Though he promised at the outset that it would be brief, Abraham Lincoln used his first Inaugural Address, one of the more momentous and memorable of all such speeches, to speak at length about the grievances between North and South that would erupt into Civil War a month later. Lincoln attempted to soothe southern states, saying that he had no intention of interfering with the institution of slavery, and that he believed not only that states should be in charge of their own institutions, but also that “it is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend” that they do so. After addressing the question of fugitive slaves at length, he went on to prosecute those who would see the country split, saying that the South had no right to rend the country in half, and cautioning patience. “Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence?” Of course, his plea was futile, and the country plunged into war in April, when Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Four years later, about a month before the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered, Lincoln gave his second inaugural. It was far shorter. John F. Kennedy | Friday, Jan. 20, 1961 John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address contains his most memorable spoken sentence: “My fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. ” But the speech is more than a simple call to duty. As the United States was facing a rival superpower in the Soviet Union, Kennedy used the speech to address a newly interconnected global community, pledging that his country was committed to human rights “today at home and around the world. ” And seeming to address the Soviet Union and its allies directly, Kennedy delivered a call for harmony and a warning against nuclear apocalypse: “To those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request,” he said. “That both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental . ” Ronald Reagan, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1981 In contrast to Kennedy, Ronald Reagan was firmly fixated on the domestic problems plaguing the nation. After acknowledging the routine transfer of power as “nothing less than a miracle” he went on to bemoan the economic ills affecting the United States, saying that “government is the problem” and announcing his aim to “curb the size and influence of the federal establishment. ” “Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it foster productivity, not stifle it,” he said. Only after declaiming the steps he sought to take to to reduce government, did he look outward, saying that once America regained strength at home it could project that strength abroad. And then, toward the end of his speech, Reagan continued a tradition that stretched back to Washington. He said he believed that “God intended for us to be free” and declared that Inauguration Days in the future should be observed as days of prayer. He ended his speech uniting the themes of economic ills and providential help, saying that the crisis the United States faced required Americans’ best effort. He said that what was required was belief, “our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds to believe that together, with God’s help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. ” | 1 |
/ south africa
Issues surrounding a minimum wage bill, education and services are being utilized in attempts to overthrow the African National Congress
South African President Jacob Zuma has come out publically to state that there are efforts underway by the West to undermine the African National Congress (ANC) government which has held power for over 22 years.
A myriad of challenges are facing the South African ruling party including an economic recession, the bringing of several allegations about corruption within the office of the presidency, a declining stock market and national currency along with increasingly worsening relations with the United States.
In Africa there are numerous examples from the post-colonial period of the last five decades where the intelligence and military apparatuses of the imperialist states have sought to reverse the forward progress of the masses of workers, farmers, youth and their leadership. In the recent period in the South American state of Brazil, the first woman President Dilma Rousseff of the Worker’s Party, was forcefully removed from office in a political coup.
In addition to the decline in the South African economy largely due to the overall world crisis which has driven down commodity prices and systematically disinvested from the emerging states, there has been a fracturing of the national democratic movement and the workers organizations over contentious debates surrounding a way forward. In an October report delivered at the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) 17 th Congress in Durban, South Africa, Dr. Blade Nzimande, the Secretary General of the South African Communist Party (SACP), placed these contradictions inside the national democratic revolution and the largest trade union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), within a broader context of the desire by the imperialist states to reverse the advances of the liberation struggles.
In a recent article published by the Agence France Press (AFP), President Zuma emphasized that: “Western powers want to remove the ANC because they do not want the ANC to develop relations with those countries which helped the party in the anti-apartheid struggle.” This statement was made by President Zuma on Nov. 19 laid the blame directly on certain Western countries which do not wish the ruling African National Congress success.
Zuma spoke to ANC supporters at a rally in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province that the imperialist states were utilizing some ANC members to further their agenda, adding that some party members had been won over to the views of Western countries. The president said that those ANC members calling for his resignation were in fact serving the interests of the Western states.
The Political Economy of Destabilization
Since 1994 there have been substantial reforms initiated under the ANC government. There has been the construction of housing for the poor and working class, the expansion of healthcare, the breaking down of racial barriers in public facilities, along with access to household utilities and clean drinking water.
However, the fundamental relations and ownership of production remains under the control of the capitalist class. As a manifestation of modern-day capitalism, high unemployment, rising costs of living including education fees as well as problems associated with service delivery, have continued.
“In all other countries, the majority controls everything from politics, economy and defense . . . It’s only in this country (South Africa) where we don’t have economic freedom. It’s controlled by the minority and those who oppressed us,” Zuma stressed. (AFP, Nov. 21)
The president went on to say: “That is why they are scared that we will take away this economy. They want to take away the strength of the ANC because they know the ANC is the only organization trying to balance the scales.”
Zuma said that his government would not break ties with longtime friends internationally in order to win the approval of the imperialist governments. The president had also spoke at the WFTU 17 th Congress noting that the capitalist system would not relinquish concessions to the working class without demands based upon mass struggle.
Recounting the history of the national liberation movement in South Africa, Zuma said: “Socialist countries like Russia and China helped the ANC, giving it military training and aid during the anti-apartheid struggle. The socialist countries came to our aid. It was Russia who trained us and helped us with the tools to fight. China and other socialist countries helped us.”
In addition Zuma said the Western states are retaliating against the ANC government due its affiliation with the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Summit. The advent of such blocs among the emerging states was a threat to Western hegemony of the world economy.
“They are fighting us because we joined BRICS. Some are in ANC gear but are in the company of the West. We are at war. We are going to protect the ANC,” Zuma emphasized.
In an article published by the South African Mail & Guardian in reference to the stock values of holdings traded on the local market, it noted: “Should South Africa avoid having its credit rating cut to junk in the next two weeks, it could just be staving off the inevitable. More than half of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg said S&P Global Ratings will strip the nation of its investment-level rating. The median probability of South Africa retaining its current assessment in December is 45%, falling to only 20% in 2017, the survey shows. The economy faces a cut to junk on its foreign-currency credit rating as output is forecast to expand at the slowest pace this year since a 2009 recession, delaying the government’s plans to narrow the shortfall on the budget and rein in debt.” (Nov. 18)
Debate Surrounds a National Minimum Wage Amid Allegation of Regime Change Agenda
The ANC government has proposed the adoption of a national monthly minimum wage of 3,500 rand which is approximately $242 U.S. dollars. 47 percent of the working population earns less than this proposed amount. (BBC, Nov. 21)
Despite the possible introduction of such legislation, it falls far short of what is actually needed to maintain a basic household. Prof. Chris Malikane of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg suggested that 12,000 rand per month was essential in maintaining a decent home. (BBC, Nov. 21)
This issue is controversial among the business interests which claim that any significant government-mandated increase in the minimum wage would create further unemployment which stands officially at around 25 percent. Over the last few years there have been large-scale job losses in the mining sector which is impacting economic recovery.
Two years ago COSATU proposed a minimum wage of 4500 rand per month. With inflation since 2014 the amount would be at least 5000 today.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said the 3,500 rand per month figure was decided by a panel of experts. Ramaphosa said: “We are now a step closer to finalizing discussions on the national minimum wage. All social partners will now decide what their take is.” (BBC, Nov. 21)
The ANC must address the issues of joblessness, poverty and service delivery in order to win back its two-thirds majority electoral base inside the country. Local governmental elections which were held in August saw a decline in support for the ruling party by approximately ten points although it remains by far the most popular party in South Africa winning 54 percent of the votes in the August poll.
A commission report issued several weeks ago alleged that the government of President Zuma has been involved in corruption. Zuma has denied the charges and attempts to pass motions of no-confidence in parliament failed on numerous occasions. The current ANC leadership seems solidly committed to keeping Zuma in office until his term expires in 2019.
The party maintains that Washington through its embassy in Pretoria is pursuing a regime-change agenda. Party spokesperson Zize Kodwa stated in March: “They have taken about 45 young people to America to train them as part of their leadership program. What we got from those young people is not what they expected; they were trained on how to destabilize the country and regime change.” (Xinhua News Agency, March 16) | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The federal government on Tuesday made it much easier for companies to use drones for a variety of tasks, including aerial photography and emergency response. The Federal Aviation Administration’s new commercial drone rules allow a broad range of businesses to use drones under 55 pounds, but with several restrictions: The drones must be operated by a pilot who has passed a written test and is at least 16 years old. And drones can be flown only below 400 feet, during the day and at least five miles away from airports. The new F. A. A. rules do not necessarily preclude a hodgepodge of state and local drone regulations that have popped up in recent years. The administration sent a letter to states and cities saying they recommend everyone follow their lead. But it is only a recommendation. The F. A. A. stopped short of giving a green light to package delivery, a goal of Amazon and Google, which have pushed regulators to create rules that would allow them to transfer part of their delivery systems to the sky. The new guidelines mandate that a commercial drone operator must always have the machine within line of sight — a rule that, for now, makes delivering packages unfeasible. Still, the action brings the drone delivery vision one step closer to reality. And experts predict that in time federal regulators will get comfortable with the notion. “Within months you will see the incredible impact of these rules with commercial drones becoming commonplace in a variety of uses,” said Michael Drobac, a lawyer at Akin Gump who represents drone efforts at companies like Amazon and Google. “This will show the technology is reliable and then it becomes harder to argue against broader uses — like for delivery. ” Drone makers and tech companies have been lobbying for the rules for five years. But the Obama administration, while trying to accommodate the potential economic benefits of the technology, has struggled to safely integrate the popular, flying vehicles into airspace. Pilots and privacy groups that pushed hard for greater safety provisions and strong surveillance rules expressed fear that clearing the way for more of the flying machines posed new dangers and few protections from spying. The F. A. A. rules prohibit drones from flying above people and faster than 100 miles per hour. “The F. A. A. continues to ignore the top concern of Americans about the deployment of commercial drones in the United States — the need for strong privacy safeguards,” said Marc Rotenberg, president of Electronic Privacy Information Center. In February 2015, the F. A. A. created its first rules for recreational drone users, and more than 450, 000 hobbyists registered last winter in the government’s user database. Previously, companies had to apply for special permission from the F. A. A. to operate drones. The government has issued more than 6, 000 approvals and about 7, 000 companies are on a waiting list for approval. When the new rules go into effect in 60 days, companies will no longer have to gain that special exemption. “With this new rule, we are taking a careful and deliberate approach that balances the need to deploy this new technology with the F. A. A. ’s mission to protect public safety,” said Michael Huerta, the F. A. A. administrator. “But this is just our first step. We’re already working on additional rules that will expand the range of operations. ” The demand by companies has been broad. Real estate brokers want to use drones to take aerial estate photos, news organizations believe the machines would be useful for news gathering, farmers want to use them to survey fields, and emergency responders believe the devices would be useful for rescue operations. In a fact sheet released by the White House, the government cited economic estimates that commercial drones could generate more than $82 billion in the next decade. Drones “represent a potentially powerful innovation that could have a positive impact on our economy,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. The new rules are “just the beginning of the process. ” Amazon has hired several lobbyists just to focus on drone rules. Its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, expects drone delivery to be available within the next few years and has begun testing its own devices. The federal rules were also important for companies that prefer one blanket set of rules to the many state and city laws that have emerged in recent years. They have urged the F. A. A. to create commercial rules that they hope will new bans passed or being considered in cities like Miami and states like California. “We are extremely pleased the rule establishes a federal approach for operating drones nationwide, and thank the F. A. A. for engaging industry throughout the process,” said Kara Calvert, director of a coalition of drone manufacturers including the Chinese company DJI and GoPro. | 1 |
Some of the young players enrolled at PSV Eindhoven’s academy have had to burst balloons. Others have been told to shoot dots, and more still have been tasked with bringing down alien space fleets. These are hardly the tasks traditionally demanded of teenage soccer prodigies, but then PSV, the Dutch club, does not think of itself as traditional. Most clubs, after all, are concerned only with developing players with nimble feet. PSV, increasingly, is concentrating on nurturing agile minds. That is why in recent years every player at the club, from the youth system to the reserve squad, has been assessed on at least one of four customized computer programs. Though the programs bear an uncanny similarity to video games — balloons, space invaders and the rest — Jurrit Sanders, one of PSV’s sports scientists, rejects the term. “They are not games,” he said. “They are tests. ” Remarkably predictive ones, judging by the evidence that Sanders and his colleagues have encountered. The tests are designed to assess a player’s cognitive capacity, establishing and monitoring his abilities in 16 disciplines, including reaction time, how quickly he makes decisions and how intensely, and for how long, he is able to focus. “We have found that if a player comes in low on the tests, then they tend to leave the club at a low level,” Sanders said. “If they come in high, they tend to leave on a high level. ” The program remains at an early stage Sanders does not contend that the results are conclusive. PSV is sufficiently intrigued, though, to dedicate more time to researching cognitive training. “We know a lot about tactical training, technical training, physical training,” Sanders said. “We do not know a lot about this. ” Finding a way to sharpen the mind, he said, could be coaching’s next frontier. As The New York Times reported this year, there remains a considerable degree of skepticism among scientists and researchers about the benefits of cognitive training. Teams and individuals across a variety of sports continue to invest substantial sums — and even more faith — in systems claiming to hone the mind. Matt Ryan, the quarterback who led the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl, is a devotee of NeuroTracker, a program also in use at Manchester United. Some experts retain the suspicion, however, that they are being sold a myth, that for all the advanced graphics and bold claims, computer programs designed to improve mental performance are, at best, a harmless placebo and, at worst, an expensive delusion. Luc van Agt, a physiologist at PSV, acknowledges those doubts. “We are just at the beginning,” he said. That was part of the reason the club agreed to take part in a study conducted last year at PSV and another Dutch club, AZ Alkmaar, by researchers from the University of Amsterdam. Led by Geert Savelsbergh — an academic known in the Netherlands as “the football professor,” van Agt said — the team exposed a control group of players to a video analysis exercise, in which they had to identify certain movements, such as passes and runs. Another group conducted sessions on IntelliGym, an Israeli cognitive training system based on technology designed in a very different context. “It was developed initially to help make fighter pilots smarter,” said Danny Dankner, IntelliGym’s chief executive. “But something clicked with me that this platform could be used to address a lot of different things. It turns out that there are a lot of similarities in the skill sets needed by footballers and pilots. ” IntelliGym’s interface is based on what Dankner called a “space battle metaphor,” which ice hockey teams have used for several years. It was adapted to make it more relevant to soccer, seen as an underexplored market, with the help of PSV coaches and former players — Phillip Cocu, Mark van Bommel, Ruud van Nistelrooy — with respected pedigrees. “IntelliGym spoke to them,” van Agt said, “to find out what the program needed to do. ” The result is a system that would not look out of place in a arcade. Players are asked to take control of one fleet of spaceships and take on another. The situation, though, changes continually. “One fleet can become invisible, or clouds might come and hide certain ships, or the player might be asked to take control of the other side,” Dankner said. Each twist is designed to flex another mental muscle. “It examines things like anticipation, the ability to divide your attention, your working memory, your spatial perception,” he said. The results of the University of Amsterdam study were clear. Both groups — initially comprising 52 players — were asked to perform their tasks twice a week over 10 weeks. Each time, they were then assessed in brief, games outside on the training field. The researchers found that the skills of the players who had used IntelliGym improved by 30 percent more than those in the control group, according to Dr. Savelsbergh. Sanders is quick to point out that the study was hardly conclusive. But PSV is already conducting a “Phase 2 pilot,” in van Agt’s careful phrase, to see what else can be gleaned from the cognitive training. At AZ Alkmaar, the other club involved in the study, the reaction has been — if anything — even more enthusiastic. “We think of ourselves as the Apple of the football industry,” said Marijn Beuker, the head of performance and development at AZ. “We are always ready to think about new ways of doing things. “We are not a club that can buy the best talents, so we have to develop our own,” Beuker continued, “and to do that we try to look for every aspect of an athlete that can be improved. ” That culture of thinking differently has won AZ plenty of admirers. In February, Beuker visited with Bayer Leverkusen, in Germany, on a expedition. Real Madrid is among the teams to have met with AZ to learn more about the club’s work, which AZ shares freely. “We do not worry that they will catch us up,” Beuker said, “because we believe that in the time it takes them to implement everything, we will have moved on again. ” That may explain his willingness to brush aside doubts about cognitive training: He makes the point that if the improvement is genuine, the cause is irrelevant. AZ has already incorporated IntelliGym into the training regimen of its through teams. “If we think it is something that works,” he said, “then it works. ” The next challenge, according to Sander Roege, PSV’s mental performance coach, is whether anyone can find a way to train cognitive functions with physical exercises. Whatever the doubts, the clubs see the possibilities that cognitive training could open up. The German Football Association has plans to incorporate an IntelliGym suite at its new training center in Frankfurt Oliver Bierhoff, its technical director, is an ardent convert to the idea that sharpening the mind is as important as honing the feet. This, they all believe, is the next frontier. It remains a distant one, but one that ultimately could revolutionize understanding of the sport. At PSV, Roege said there may come a point when it would be possible to determine precisely what sort of cognitive strengths players in specific positions might require. “We are getting closer to finding out what capacities are needed to play on a good level,” he said. “Maybe you will get an ideal profile of what is needed to be a top player. ” | 1 |
Editor’s Note : The CDC is guilty of nothing shorter than CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. Period.
Here are the bones of the story. For the first time in 30 years, a vaccine-damage case has gone before a court judge. Lawyers for a 16-year-old autistic boy are suing a medical clinic for administering vaccines that brought about the autism. The CDC, of course, denies any connection between vaccines and autism. But one of its own long-time researchers, William Thompson, has publicly confessed to fraud in that area. Thompson states that he and his colleagues concealed research data that would have shown the MMR vaccine and mercury-laden vaccines do cause autism. The lawyers for the 16-year-old boy want to bring in Thompson to testify about what he knows. The CDC has said NO. The head of the CDC, Thomas Frieden, states, “Dr. William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services].”
Well, he’s right, because the CDC is the PR arm of the vaccine industry. The CDC is a major purchaser of vaccines for the US federal government. If this boy won his case, other cases would follow. The potential monetary exposure in judgments? A trillion dollars or more.
Ecowatch.com has the details :
“The medical malpractice case seeking Dr. Thompson’s testimony is on behalf of 16-year-old Yates Hazlehurst. The lawsuit alleges that Yates is autistic as a result of vaccine injuries, which occurred when the vaccines were improperly administered in 2001. Because of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986 (VICA), Hazlehurst v. The Jackson Clinic is the only vaccine injury case that has gone to any U.S. court in 30 years.”
“Dr. Thompson wants to reveal the scientific fraud and destruction of evidence that took place in the studies that he co-authored. However, in accordance with the Whistle Blower Protection Act and other federal regulations, Dr. Thompson can not testify under oath without the permission of the director of the CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden.”
“The request on behalf of Hazlehurst specifically relates to the issue of causation, i.e. the issue of whether vaccines can cause autism, which the State of Tennessee Circuit Court Judge found to be both relevant and a proper basis for seeking the deposition of Dr. Thompson.”
“Judge Acree ordered on Feb. 5 that Dr. Thompson should be deposed. Following Judge’s Acree’s ruling, Smith [Bryan Smith, the boy’s attorney] filed a formal request to CDC to make Thompson available for deposition and trial testimony.”
“On Sept. 22, in a letter from CDC Director Thomas Freiden, CDC denied Smith’s request. Smith explained that ‘this denial was a disappointment but not a surprise, since the inescapable implication of Dr. Thompson’s testimony is that the agency fraudulently altered the science to undermine autism cases worth potentially $1 trillion in compensation ordered by Congress’.”
“Smith and Kennedy [Robert F Kennedy, Jr., the boy’s other attorney] plan to immediately appeal the CDC’s denial to federal court.”
William Thompson, the CDC whistleblower, is the subject of the film Vaxxed ( trailer ). Thompson has admitted publicly that he and his CDC colleagues literally threw damning data into a garbage can, to avoid reaching the conclusion, in a 2004 study, that the MMR vaccine raises the risk of autism in children.
His testimony in court would be explosive, to say the least.
Since he is still employed by the CDC, his bosses can keep him out of court. They can muzzle him. They can threaten him. No doubt, Thompson has also signed non-disclosure agreements with the Agency.
How far would the federal government go to silence Thompson, who could open a Pandora’s box containing a trillion dollars in potential judgements? All the way is the obvious answer.
The implications of Thompson’s testimony involve much more than money: the massive destruction of lives through vaccinations. That is ultimately the crime of crimes at the bottom of the cover-up.
And the CDC would be rightly seen as a primary agent in both the crimes and the cover-up.
If the US Department of Justice had any sense of honor, or courage, scores of CDC employees would be in jail right now.
And if major media outlets had any sense of honor, or courage, they would be swarming all over the CDC, hammering on many employees and obtaining confessions from them, releasing the rank truth about vaccines from the Agency’s offices and labs of shame.
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The author of an explosive collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED , Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. | 0 |
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Dressed in crisp Nike uniforms, boasting tall and talented players, competing for a coach who has been with the program through 19 straight N. C. A. A. tournament appearances, the Gonzaga Bulldogs looked as as any member of college basketball’s aristocracy on Saturday night. And that was before play even began. The Bulldogs ( ) then stayed with, built a lead on and survived a late scare from South Carolina ( ) which plays in the Southeastern Conference and had beaten traditional powers seeded second, third and fourth in the past two weeks to make it to the Final Four. But South Carolina could not beat Gonzaga, whose win put it in the national championship game Monday night against another No. 1 seed, North Carolina. Gonzaga had two talented players who are at least 7 feet tall — one, Przemek Karnowski, an experienced senior the other, Zach Collins, a former McDonald’s who could be drafted after his freshman season. They made beautiful partners on defense, with one blocking shots and the other collecting the loose balls. Two of Gonzaga’s leading scorers, Nigel and Jordan Mathews, had transferred from teams. who scored a 23 points, also had a top high school résumé. He attended the Las powerhouse Findlay Prep, a cradle of recent N. B. A. draft picks. This year’s success all made sense, then: Gonzaga spent a significant chunk of the season as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press’s Top 25, while the final poll, taken just before the N. C. A. A. tournament began, had the team at No. 2. The advanced analytics website KenPom. com ranks Gonzaga No. 1 — and has every day since — as do advanced measurements like ESPN’s B. P. I. Jeff Sagarin’s rankings, Joel Sokol’s L. R. M. C. and Sonny Moore’s Computer Power Ratings. In other words, you could be forgiven for not realizing that this was Gonzaga’s first appearance in the Final Four. More important, you might not know that the Bulldogs play in the West Coast Conference, an affiliation that denies them not only the millions of dollars in annual revenue taken in by members of leagues that sign television contracts influenced by football, but also the opportunity to annually play a lot of other teams that are backed by such huge resources and are loaded with major talent. It is not just carping to wonder if the Bulldogs, at last, can run with the big dogs. No serious observer of college basketball thinks that Gonzaga, which made an run to the round of 8 in 1999 and has not missed the tournament since, is simply a midmajor with a remarkable lucky streak. “It’s not 1997 anymore,” South Carolina Coach Frank Martin said after Saturday’s game. “They were Cinderella and all that pretty stuff” 20 years ago, Martin continued, adding, “They’re as as can get. ” But there is still a pretty wide gap between accepting that the Bulldogs, despite their structural obstacles, are a very solid basketball team this season and believing that they are actually the best team in the country. They have not been able to test themselves against elite competition as frequently as teams in the six power conferences have. And the games they had against such competition came earlier, before teams had a chance to jell. In February, while North Carolina was busy beating Notre Dame, Virginia and Louisville (and losing at Duke) Gonzaga was drubbing middling opponents like Santa Clara, Pacific and San Diego. “They’re a lot more athletic in different conferences,” the redshirt sophomore Josh Perkins said, although he added that the stellar shooting in the W. C. C. required consistently frantic defense. Gonzaga’s ordinary scheduling has been aggravated by its tournament run, during which the Bulldogs have played teams seeded No. 16, No. 8, No. 4, No. 11 and No. 7. Yet KenPom. com’s numbers still rank Gonzaga as the best team in the country — with the best defense and the offense — after adjusting for level of competition, and even after weighting more recent games. Ken Pomeroy, the proprietor of the website, squared the circle by pointing not to the teams Gonzaga had beaten but to how the Bulldogs had done it. “Obviously, it doesn’t say much when you’re beating Santa Clara that game doesn’t mean much,” Pomeroy said. “But when you play a series of games against teams like that and win them all easily, that does tell you something. ” In that light, the picture becomes clearer. Gonzaga won 13 games by 30 or more points and 23 by 20 or more. Its average margin of victory entering Saturday night’s game, 22. 3 points, was the best in Division I. The Bulldogs beat tournament teams like Iowa State, Florida and Arizona. They also won three times, always by double digits, against their top conference rival, St. Mary’s, which received an bid to the N. C. A. A. tournament. In the tournament, Gonzaga beat West Virginia, a fourth seed that many believed was one of the country’s top 10 teams Xavier, which had knocked off highly regarded Florida State and Arizona and South Carolina. Because college football and basketball have shorter seasons, uneven scheduling and brisker postseasons than their professional counterparts, much analysis consists of reviewing résumés. But doing so invariably conveys less information than is often assumed. There is nothing about playing a weak schedule — and even now, Gonzaga has played a weak schedule compared with other contenders — that inherently prevents a team from being great, or the best. Of course, as said Saturday, “We can’t control who we played. ” He was referring to Gonzaga’s tournament slate, although the statement also applied to the bulk of his team’s regular season. Gonzaga can control the outcomes, however. On Monday night, it will have the opportunity to make a statement for which there is no valid rebuttal. | 1 |
Brazilians know how to put on a good show on a shoestring — this is the country of Carnival, after all. So despite Zika fears and reports about murky water in Guanabara Bay, the colorful and ecologically conscious Olympics opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Friday night went off without a hitch, and even more: It felt like a giant street party. The film directors Fernando Meirelles (“City of God”) Andrucha Waddington and Daniela Thomas were in charge of the show. The dancing, and there was a lot of it, was the responsibility of the veteran Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker. (Her official title is movement director.) Ms. Colker is a passionate mixer of forms. (In addition to dance, she has a background as a competitive volleyball player.) Her company, Companhia Dança Deborah Colker, combines feats on giant hamster wheels, vogueing, acrobatics and anything else that suits her eclectic sensibility. And she loves props: walls, vases, ropes, wheels. This was all evident in the show. And her experience working with Cirque du Soleil (in 2009) and with samba schools in Rio — collectives that dance their way through the streets during Carnival — surely came in handy. This is not someone easily intimidated by the complexities of a large spectacle with many moving parts. Even so, with 3, 000 volunteers and 114 professional dancers under her direction, this was the biggest show of Ms. Colker’s career. She spoke on the phone from Rio before and after the ceremony. Here are edited excerpts from those conversations. Were you happy with how the show turned out? It was the way I had expected, and everything worked. I’m relieved and happy and proud. Was it difficult to manage so many elements: thousands of volunteers, large projections, musicians, props? I am used to working with a huge system, like when I worked with Cirque du Soleil. Early on I did five workshops and hired people in different styles and areas, which enriched the vocabulary a lot. I started planning a year and a half ago, and the first small workshops were about a year ago. Slowly, I built my team. I started working with the volunteers on May 27. Every weekend, 10 a. m. to 9 p. m. and during the week as well. How did the budget cuts for the ceremony affect you? Not so much. I had to cut one workshop and two weeks of rehearsal, but that was about it. Brazil and Rio are famous for their variety of musical and dance styles. What did you want to show? I wanted everything to bleed together. Like here in Brazil, where everyone is surviving and sharing together. Samba, funk — a style specific to Rio, born in Rio — and passinho, which combines breakdance and and maracatu, from northern Brazil. I mixed all of this. How much of the dancing reflected your own compositional style? I brought things I know to represent Rio and Brazil, and some symbols that are part of my company, like the climbing wall and wheels. But I also found new ways to depict different cultures and people that have been building our country: indigenous, Asian, European, African. It looked like the dancers had a little bit of freedom when they were dancing on those platforms at one end of the stadium. I told them what I wanted, and worked with their experiences, but I wanted it to reflect their personalities. This is so important, because this is real street art. In one section, you had parkour athletes running across an imaginary obstacle course of walls and platforms — actually projections — with a climbing wall at the other side. How did you come up with the idea? Parkour is the athletics of the street. They reveal the city through acrobatics. This is where I brought in my wall that I have used in previous shows — a strong symbol, totally related to the idea of occupying the street and with the idea of sport. There was a section dedicated to indigenous Brazilian culture, in which you used hanging ropes, which dancers wove together. The indigenous peoples are usually shown with stereotypes of folklore. I didn’t do this. I took an organic approach. I went twice to a place call Parintins in the Amazonian jungle, close to Manaus, to lead rehearsals. The idea of the weaving of the elastics was inspired by the oca [thatch houses from Mato Grosso, a state in the rain forest]. We wanted to show Brazil before colonization, something aesthetic, organic and huge. At the end of the show, there was this great samba moment … We had all 12 of Rio’s escola da samba [samba schools] — not the entire ensembles, but a selection from each. Of course, we couldn’t have everyone. We had to choose the best drummers and some special dancers. That was quite an entrance for the model Gisele Bündchen, walking the length of the stadium to “The Girl From Ipanema. ” Did you have a hand in that? [Laughs] I didn’t do anything! That’s Gisele. She has the most perfect walk and the most perfect legs in the world. What message were you and your collaborators trying to get across? The most important thing is the possibility to mix styles and ideas and aesthetics, dance and music and energy. We are a new country, with contemporary ideas, not just what foreign people think about Brazil: pretty women and football. Brazil is this and so many other things. It is an amazing place for contemporary dance and music and film and fashion and art. | 1 |
Facebook Faces High Profile Lawsuit Regarding Facial Recognition Technology ‘DeepFace’ Michael Krieger, Liberty Blitzkrieg
As the technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous and far more accurate, facial recognition and the lack of any laws or regulations around the practice is slowly starting to enter mainstream consciousness. It’s a very important issue that isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
For example, as I highlighted in the recent post, Half of American Adults Exist in a Government Accessible Facial Recognition Network :
Half of all American adults are already in some sort of facial recognition network accessible to law enforcement, according to a comprehensive new study.
Conducted over a year and relying in part on Freedom of Information and public record requests to 106 law enforcement agencies, the study , conducted by Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, found American police use of facial recognition technology is a scattered, hodgepodge network of laws and regulations.
“Looking at the sum total of what we found, there have been no laws that comprehensively regulate face recognition technology, and there’s really no case law either,” Clare Garvie, an associate at the CPT, told Vocativ. “So we find ourselves having to rely on the agencies that are using that technology to rein it in. But what we found is that not every system — by a long shot — has a use policy.”
With that in mind, Bloomberg published an interesting article yesterday covering a couple of lawsuits against Facebook and Google regarding their facial recognition practices.
Here’s some of what we learned:
While millions of internet users embrace the tagging of family and friends in photos, others worried there’s something devious afoot are trying 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 declined to comment on pending litigation.
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.
And just how good is Facebook’s technology? According to the company’s research, DeepFace recognizes faces with an accuracy rate of 97.35 percent compared with 97.5 percent for humans — including mothers.
Rotenberg said the privacy concerns are twofold: Facebook might sell the information to retailers or be forced to turn it over to law enforcement — in both cases without users knowing it.
Now here’s some history on Facebook and facial recognition. Facebook v. Privacy Law
December 2005 — Facebook introduces photo tagging
October 2008 — Illinois adopts Biometric Information Privacy Act
June 2012 — Facebook acquires Israeli facial recognition developer Face.com
September 2012 — Facebook ceases facial recognition in Europe
2015-2016 — Facebook, Google, Shutterfly and Snapchat sued under Illinois biometrics law. Shutterfly settles confidentially.
May 2016 — Illinois lawmaker proposes excluding photos from biometrics law, then shelves bill after privacy advocates complain
October 2016 — Facebook makes second attempt to get biometrics lawsuit thrown out
The Facebook case is In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation, 15-cv-03747, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco). The Google cases are Rivera v. Google, 16-cv-02714, and Weiss v. Google, 16-cv-02870, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
For prior articles on the topic, see: | 0 |
“ We are closely monitoring the situation around Mosul. So far we see no substantial progress in liberating this city from the terrorists of ISIS ,” he added, referring to the terrorist organization Islamic State by its former name. According to the Russian military, among the civilian objects hit by US-led coalition airstrikes was a school for girls in southern Mosul, which was attacked last Friday.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross reiterated its call not to target civilians and civilian infrastructure in Mosul. The aid organization earlier warned that the offensive may force hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the city, overstretching Iraq’s already-challenged ability to shelter them.
The general described the situation around the Iraqi city on the sidelines of a report about Russia’s action in Syria, where Moscow and Damascus continue a pause in the offensive in Aleppo, which is divided between the Syrian Army and various armed groups, including the terrorist organization Al-Nusra Front. | 0 |
Will Hillary Clinton Get America Back on Track? Posted on Oct 31, 2016 U.S. Embassy London / CC BY-ND 2.0
The parallels are striking. In the last decades of the nineteenth century – the so-called “Gilded Age”— America experienced inequality on a scale it had never before seen, combining wild opulence and searing poverty.
American industry consolidated into a few giant monopolies, or trusts, headed by “robber barons” who wielded enough power to drive out competitors. A few Wall Street titans like J.P. Morgan controlled the nation’s finances.
These men used their huge wealth to rig the system. Their lackeys literally deposited stacks of money on the desks of pliant legislators, prompting the great jurist Louis Brandeis to tell America it a choice: “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.“
We face a similar choice today.
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Then, America chose democracy. President Theodore Roosevelt, railing against the “ malefactors of great wealth ,” broke up the trusts. And he pushed Congress to end the most blatant forms of corruption.
His fifth cousin, FDR, went further – enacting social insurance for the elderly, the unemployed, and the disabled; a minimum wage and forty-hour workweek; the right to unionize; compensation for workers injured on the job; and strict limits on Wall Street.
In other words, between 1870 and 1900, American capitalism got off track. Between 1901 and 1937 (the effective end of the New Deal), America put capitalism back on track.
We’re now in the Second Gilded Age, and American capitalism is again off track. It takes about three generations for Americans to forget how our system, unattended, goes wrong. And then to right it.
Inequality is now nearly at the same level it was in the late nineteenth century. Half of all families are poorer today than they were a decade-and-a-half ago, the pay of CEOs and Wall Street bankers is in the stratosphere, and child poverty is on the rise.
Meanwhile, American industry is once again consolidating – this time into oligopolies dominated by three or four major players . You can see it in pharmaceuticals, high tech, airlines, food, Internet service, communications, health insurance, and finance.
The biggest Wall Street banks, having brought the nation to the brink of destruction a few years ago, are once again exercising vast economic power. And big money has taken over American politics.
Will we put capitalism back on track, as we did before?
The vile election of 2016 doesn’t seem to offer much hope. But future historians looking back on the tumult might see the start of another era of fundamental reform.
Today’s uprising against the established order echoes the outrage average Americans felt in the late nineteenth century when they pushed Congress to enact the Sherman Antitrust Act, and when Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan fulminated against big business and finance.
One hundred twenty years later, Bernie Sanders – the unlikeliest of presidential candidates – won 22 states and 46 percent of the pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries, and pushed Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party to adopt many of his proposals.
At the same time, Donald Trump – a faux populist – has laid bare the deep discontents of America’s white working class, which both parties have long neglected. Not incidentally, Trump has also jeopardized the social fabric of America and nearly destroyed the Republican Party.
Hopefully some of America’s current elite will conclude, as it did at the turn of the last century, that they’d do better with a smaller share of a growing economy fueled by a flourishing middle class, in a society whose members feel the system is basically fair, than in one riven by social and political strife.
History has proven the early generation of reformers correct. While other nations opted for communism or fascism, Americans chose to make capitalism work for the many rather than the few.
If Donald Trump is elected next week, all bets are off.
But if Hillary Clinton assumes the presidency, could she become another Teddy or Franklin D. Roosevelt?
You may think her too much of an establishment figure, too close to the moneyed interests, too cautious. But no one expected dramatic reform when each of the Roosevelts took the reins. They were wealthy patricians, in many respects establishment figures. Yet each rose to the occasion.
Perhaps she will, too. The timing is right, and the need is surely as great as it was over a century ago.
As Mark Twain is reputed to have quipped, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” | 0 |
7 Wikileaks Hillary Revelations The Media Won’t Cover Trump should win based on Hillary's corruption alone David G. Brown | Return of Kings - October 27, 2016 Comments
The recent Wikileaks revelations about the Clintons, the Clinton campaign, media collusion, and the various hypocrisies of the Democratic Party are groundbreaking in both their scope and depth.
The sheer number of hacked emails covering so many topics, combined with the shadiness of the activities involved, should have already handed Donald Trump the election.
Alas, the media, whose collusion with the Clinton campaign is laid out in many of the emails, will not have a bar of reporting them in a professional, ethical fashion. The following seven email exchanges have either been deliberately suppressed by mainstream outlets or given the slimmest coverage to feebly ward off accusations that they are in the de facto service (or pocket) of Hillary Clinton.
1. “Women’s advocate” Hillary Clinton admits that Saudi Arabia and Qatar fund ISIS, but refuses to rebuke them for it
After rounding on Donald Trump for very tamely calling former Miss Universe Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy,” one might think that Hillary Clinton has the interests of women at heart. Her admission that Saudi Arabia and Qatar fund female-enslaving ISIS tells another story. | 0 |
It was first noticed as a bit of meteorological arcana. An alert from the National Hurricane Center at 2 p. m. on Sept. 22 noted that a tropical wave had been detected moving off the west coast of Africa but gave it little likelihood of developing into a major storm. Still, develop it did, becoming a textbook example of how storms follow no textbook. It then mushroomed into the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic since Hurricane Felix in 2007, killing, by some estimates, more than 800 people in Haiti, slamming into the Bahamas and then skirting a razor’s edge that, had it been a few miles south and west, could have caused catastrophic damage in Florida. By Saturday, it was barely a hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, but it still had the potential to bring heavy rain and flooding to the Carolinas. Dieulifaite Derlus, Maria Ageeb, Ed Kelley and Todd Neville had nothing in common — until the storm hit, leaving behind stories of disaster and disaster narrowly averted. Here are some of them. His family safe, Mr. Derlus carefully retraced his steps atop the back wall behind his home on Tuesday, making one final trip to save a few valuables. But the wind was too strong, knocking him off the ledge and into the rush of muddy water below. Before he could get up, the wall fell, too, unable to withstand the . p. h. gusts. It toppled right on top of him. Neighbors spotted Mr. Derlus, 62, and carried him, semiconscious, from hospital to hospital. Each one turned him away. There were no doctors to help. As he approached the third hospital, he died in the neighbors’ arms. “He was the pillar of our family,” said Maude Levius, his wife, holed up with their five children in the one room of the house that was not destroyed. They don’t know where they will bury him, or how they will pay for it. Their furniture, clothes and other possessions were washed away in the storm. “We have no idea what we’re going to do now,” Ms. Levius, 56, said. Mr. Derlus was the family’s sole bread winner, his job as a driver for a government agency providing for all seven of them. “I don’t know how God will provide for us. ” When the shingles started popping off the roof and she realized she could not make it to the main house, Ms. Ageeb thought she knew where she would be safe — in the bathroom of the apartment where she lived behind the house where she and her three brothers had grown up. Ms. Ageeb, 34, a lawyer, recalled what happened next on Thursday around 11 a. m. as the peak of the storm’s fury was hitting. “Suddenly, half of the ceiling just lifted up and blew right off,” she said. “Luckily, I had already packed my passport and valuables in a backpack, just in case. All I had to do was grab it and go. ” She fought her way down the external stairs in the middle of winds nearing 140 m. p. h. and was sure at one point that she would be blown away. “The wind started pushing me from side to side,” she said. “It almost pulled my glasses off my face and I stumbled, trying to grab hold of them, because without them, I’m blind. I made it to the bottom, and my brothers helped me. ” From their house, they watched as the other half of the roof was blown away and everything she owned was exposed to the storm. Ms. Ageeb’s home is one of many that were badly damaged in the area. Homes, shops and service stations lost roofs and windows, sea walls collapsed and several areas were severe flooded. There has been no official report of the extent of the damage. Ms. Ageeb captured the aftermath on a video. “I can’t stop shaking,’’ she said. “I’m still a nervous wreck. I just want this to stop so we can just get on with cleaning up and trying to see what we can salvage. ” “Our country, this island, is going to need a lot of help,” Ms. Ageeb added. “We’ve always helped all the other islands, and I think this time now we’re definitely going to need help. I don’t know from who or from where, but we’re definitely going to need help. ” The authorities in Volusia County were urging people to evacuate from their beachfront communities. The storm was lurking, threatening, frightening. But for a time, Mr. Kelley, the mayor of Ormond Beach, had no plans to leave. “Originally, we weren’t going to board it up,” Mr. Kelley said of his home, which is a few miles inland and not far from Daytona Beach, the typically stock car racing hub. “We just thought we’d take a chance. ” But Mr. Kelley ultimately had a realization, pushed along by the demands of his children: Maybe, as a local government official, he should follow the recommendations of a local government. “Why are we telling people to leave? Because it’s dangerous,” Mr. Kelley said. “When did you decide? When you start thinking: ‘Well, we’re telling everybody else to leave. Why am I here? ’” So, he concluded, “We actually heeded the advice that was given by us and others. ” By the time Mr. Kelley left the city on Thursday, he said that he had also recognized that the storm might leave him out of reach at a perilous moment for Ormond Beach, a city of about 41, 000 where the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller used to spend winters. “I don’t know what I was going to do staying there because we knew, absolutely, that we were going to lose power,” Mr. Kelley said in an interview from Gainesville, where he had taken refuge and, by Friday afternoon, acknowledged that an evacuation had been a wise choice. “The preparations were done,” he said. “There was no decision that I would have had to make that couldn’t have been from here. ” Mr. Neville, an accountant in St. Augustine, watched the damage unfold. As water rushed into his city, he glimpsed a partly submerged white sport utility vehicle. He listened as the palm trees twisted and as the rain pounded a roof. But Mr. Neville was nowhere near St. Augustine. Instead, from a haven on the other side of the state, he used his cellphone to watch the ravaging of a city in real time. It is one way technology is taking at least some of the uncertainty out of disastrous storms. You cannot control the weather, but you can see its damage even when you’re elsewhere. Mr. Neville’s ability to keep watch on St. Augustine was born of gadgetry and fraternity: The images that poured onto his cellphone often came from surveillance cameras that he and other members of his regular Friday morning breakfast group at Georgie’s Diner had installed at their homes and offices. On the Friday morning when Hurricane Matthew passed about 30 miles from St. Augustine, Mr. Neville was safe and dry near Tampa. The updates still flowed. There was the panning video from a jeweler that showed nature’s disconcerting powers, and an image from a friend named Chris that showed the floodwaters rising around the pumps of a Shell gas station that shares a parking lot with Georgie’s. Yet Mr. Neville said he knew the destruction could have been far worse in a city that was the capital of Florida before it was a state. It would have been worse, Mr. Neville knew, had some forecasts held and the storm edged any closer to land. “I remember looking at the 5 a. m. update and thinking, ‘Thank goodness it’s 35 miles offshore,’” Mr. Neville said. “Until that 5 a. m. update, for the last three days, we’ve had the bull’ on us. ” St. Augustine is a city accustomed to storms and floodwaters: St. Johns County, of which St. Augustine is the seat, notes on its website that residents are reminded annually “of the vulnerability of our coastal community. ” But Hurricane Matthew’s timing was especially worrisome. “It hit St. Augustine right at high tide,” Mr. Neville said. “During a high tide, we’ll get minor flooding just from that. And then you throw in a storm surge, and it’s unbelievable. ” But technology has its limits. As the storm reached peak intensity on Friday, the power went out and the battery backups blinked off. As night fell across Florida on Friday, Mr. Neville’s surveillance camera had not switched on again. | 1 |
A British police officer was moved to activate her panic button after taking offence at a parody song making fun of former leader Osama bin Laden being played at a garden party, bringing in serious to a small English village. [The officer pressed the panic button on her camera after being dispatched to a garden party in a picturesque Cambridgeshire village at around 10pm on Thursday and overhearing a song being played that mocked Osama Bin Laden. Responding to the call for help, the local force dispatched another ten officers and a police helicopter, Cambridge News reports. It is alleged that in addition to the parody song making fun of the dead terrorist, were also shouting “ abuse” a suggestion the partygoers deny. Mark Donovan, who attended the party in the Cambridge village — which dates back to the time of the Domesday Book — spoke to the paper after the incident, and said: “We was having a summer’s evening in my neighbour’s garden as we don’t have one. We had our karaoke machine on playing music through our phones from YouTube which are all approved songs. “It was about 10pm and the music may have been a little loud but it was before 11pm. Someone must have made a complaint, and a police officer attended our address, at which time a song from YouTube called the Bin Laden Song came on. “This police officer said she took offence at the song and pressed her panic button on her body cam and that’s when about ten police turned up and the police helicopter. “They are now investigating it as a racist crime. It is ridiculous. ” Police have seized the karaoke machine. | 1 |
API Reports A Build, DOE A Draw by IWB · October 26, 2016 Tweet
You cannot make this up…one could almost think an election was nigh…
The “”markets”” were selling off and the VIX had just crossed into important bear territory when – surprise! – the DOE completely reversed the API report (which reported a larger than expected BUILD) and reported a DRAW.
Now, I am prone to thinking that nearly all “”markets”” are in full shenanigan mode right now, I confess to that, but that comes from having a lot of context and possibly too much information.
I knew that a major 400,000 barrel per day pipeline taking oil away from Cushing had broken a few days ago, so I wasn’t surprised to hear of a build.
Pipeline remains closed following oil spill in Oklahoma
Updated: 3:50 PM CDT Oct 25, 2016
(AP) — A Seaway Crude Pipeline Co. pipeline that spilled oil at a storage hub in Oklahoma remained closed Tuesday, according to a spokesman for Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners, a 50 percent owner of Seaway.
“As of right now we don’t have an estimate of when it will be back up,” as officials are trying to determine the cause of the spill that happened shortly before midnight Sunday in Cushing, spokesman Rick Rainey said.
CUSHING, Oklahoma – While crews in Cushing continue to clean up oil after a pipeline break early Monday morning, the spill is stoking fears about what may be to come for the nation’s oil hub.
The Seaway Pipeline is one of the largest in the nation, running 500 miles from Cushing to refineries in Freeport, Texas. Because it’s two pipelines, the owning company Enterprise could shut down one and keep oil flowing, but only 450,000 barrels per day.
The section of pipe that burst can carry 50,000 barrels of oil or roughly 2.75 million gallons.
So right on top of the reported build and right on top of a major break in one of the largest oil pipelines carrying crude AWAY from Cushing, what’s a “”market”” manipulating government lackey to do?
Why report a surprise DRAW, thereby spiking oil, and indeed the entire US equity “”markets” because, such as.
This all feels about as believable as anything else this (s)election cycle.
Chris | 0 |
President Donald Trump met Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuela’s most prominent prisoner of conscience, at the White House Wednesday night, demanding freedom for Popular Will party leader Leopoldo López “immediately. ”[ The President met Tintori along with Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Marco Rubio, who had delivered a speech against the oppressive Venezuelan socialist regime to the Senate floor on Wednesday. Trump posted a photo of the group together to Twitter Wednesday night, with the message “Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez, a political prisoner husband of @liliantintori (just met @marcorubio) out of prison immediately. ” Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez, a political prisoner husband of @liliantintori (just met @marcorubio) out of prison immediately. pic. twitter. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017, The Miami Herald notes that Trump did not appear to have a meeting with Tintori scheduled, but instead a dinner with former Republican primary rival Marco Rubio. The two appeared to agree to cooperate in the interest of helping Tintori and López. Rubio delivered a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday demanding the United States do more to help López and other political prisoners in the South American nation, arrested for organizing peaceful assemblies. Rubio delivered a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday in López’s defense, calling him “a Venezuelan opposition leader who three years ago this week led peaceful demonstrations against the regime of Nicolas Maduro — and he was thrown in jail for it. ” Of Tintori, he said she “is an incredibly brave woman who does not rest as she continues advocating for her husband’s release and the release of all political prisoners. And continues to fight for a free and democratic Venezuela. ” The Venezuelan government arrested López in 2014 for organizing a peaceful protest and sentenced him to 13 years in prison. Tintori has since taken on the mantle of advocating for the freedom of Venezuelans worldwide. In December, Tintori chained herself to the walls of the Vatican seeking a meeting with Pope Francis but did not receive an invitation. The Pope met with her once months before that protest. In his meeting with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, however, Pope Francis vowed to “take any step that would contribute to resolving open questions and generate greater trust between the parties. ” President Trump repeatedly promised Latin Americans from oppressed countries that he would use the Oval Office to advocate for freedom in their homelands. He particularly singled out Venezuela and Cuba, the latter with which President Barack Obama expanded diplomatic relations, as requiring his attention. President Trump has also made empowering women a priority of his administration. | 1 |
Wed, 26 Oct 2016 19:25 UTC © Waterford Whispers News In a bid to clear up any confusion about their latest ruling on the cremated remains of loved ones, the Vatican confirmed it is still alright to scatter paedophile priests wherever they want, but not ashes. Yesterday the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church urged followers not to scatter the ashes of the dead after cremation and instead to store them in places approved by the Church. "We'll make all the decisions on who and what goes where, thank you very much," German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, the prefect of the doctrinal watchdog, told WWN, "Scattering the remains of loved ones on unholy ground will only ruin their chances of staying in heaven. But the scattering of paedophile priests is fine, though; when we're doing it," before adding, "Please leave all the important decisions on the welfare of others to us. We won't let any of our worshipers down". The latest move comes just 53 years after the Vatican 'legalised' cremation, mirroring the amount of time it takes for the church to act on various different subjects, including child sex abuse. "We don't make decisions lightly here, so we like to take our time," the Cardinal admitted, "But when we do, we like to make sure that they are the best decisions tailored for the financial gain of our multi-billion euro a year organisation". A two-page instruction issuing new rules on cremation also said that there were even some cases where a Christian funeral could be denied to those who request that ashes be scattered. "There is absolutely no profit for us if someone gets cremated and spread over some field for free," Muller pointed out, breathing on a 24 carrot ring on his hand before polishing it on his silk gown, "We offer an array of allotments across the world, and at a bargain price too. We'll even throw in an annual mass and a few prayers graveside for any cremated relative wishing to be buried on sacred ground". Allotments can range anywhere between €5,000 to €19,000 for a family plot, with the church charging over €20,000 for extra holy burial slots. | 0 |
Congressman Justin Amash ( ) said that if the House of Representatives does not change course, Republicans might need a new Speaker. [The Michigan conservative responded to a question about gridlock in Washington, saying, “We need either a change in direction from this speaker, or we need a new speaker. ” Rep. Amash added that the speaker should be replaced with someone who is “nonpartisan. ” Congressman Amash also criticized the House Republican leadership. He said, “When we go home for the weekend, they give us a set of talking points. They say, ‘Here are your talking points.’ That’s not the way you’re supposed to represent a community. ” Congressman Amash echoes the sentiment of other conservatives who wonder if Ryan should lead the House. Lou Dobbs, a Fox Business anchor, called on Paul Ryan to resign after the Obamacare repeal fiasco. Ryan seems hell bound on destroying the GOP and working against the American people … It’s time for Speaker Ryan to resign. #MAGA #Dobbs pic. twitter. — Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) March 14, 2017, Judge Jeanine Pirro called for Paul Ryan to resign in her opening monologue after the House Republicans failed to pass Ryancare: Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the house. The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his healthcare bill, the one trumpeted to repeal and replace Obamacare, the one that he had seven years to work on, the one he had under lock and key in the basement of Congress, the one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass. Congressman Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said that there are “no conversations going on” in his caucus about replacing Ryan. Congressman Amash later tried to recenter the conversation towards his constituents at the town hall, saying, “I’m the one holding a town hall here — not Donald Trump. ” | 1 |
President Donald Trump lost California by a wide margin in November. Yet the state was crucial to his surprise victory overall — thanks to the large number of Californians on his team, and to the specific issues he highlighted on the trail. [A new profile by Scott Lucas of Politico, “How California Gave Us Trumpism,” highlights these factors — as well as the unique role played by Breitbart California in coverage of the shocking murder of Kate Steinle on July 1, 2015: The signal California moment for the marriage of Claremont constitutionalism and Breitbart spectacle came in July 2015, not long after Trump had launched his presidential campaign. On that day, Juan Francisco an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had been deported five times, allegedly fired three shots from a handgun while walking along the waterfront in San Francisco. One of those bullets ricocheted off the pavement and struck a passerby named Kathryn Steinle in the back. She died two hours later in a nearby hospital. Breitbart feasted on the story, which it depicted as the ultimate proof of California’s decline and, more broadly, the grievous consequences of unconstitutional immigration run amok. San Francisco’s city leaders were criticized for prioritizing sanctuary city policies in a play for Latino votes, rather than carrying out their basic public safety functions. Mass immigration, the erosion of constitutional norms and liberal politicians all played a role in Steinle’s death, Breitbart argued. From “Unchecked Immigration: A Greater Threat to The USA Than ISIS” and “SF Supervisors Refuse to Answer Questions About Steinle’s Death,” the site published more than 100 news and opinion articles about Steinle’s death. On the campaign trail, Trump quickly held up the incident as the epitome of a broken immigration system. “My heartfelt condolences to the family of Kathryn Steinle. Very, very sad!” the candidate tweeted days after the killing, adding “We need a wall!” Less than a week later, Breitbart News reported that Trump had surged in a poll of its readers, climbing to second place in the GOP primary field, behind Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. “Trump’s message about illegal immigration may resonate even more” after the shooting, the site reported, presciently. Lucas correctly identifies the Kate Steinle moment as a turning point in the campaign. As Breitbart News explained in September 2016, it was Trump’s effort to highlight the plight of the victims of crimes by illegal aliens that shifted the entire Republican primary race. As “Blue State Blues: The Graph That Explains Donald Trump’s Surge” recounted: On July 10, 2015, former Florida governor Jeb Bush was the frontrunner, at 16. 3%. Donald Trump was a distant seventh, with just 6. 5% of the vote. Keep in mind that Trump had been running against illegal immigration since he launched his campaign more than three weeks before, with his infamous remarks about illegal aliens from Mexico. None of that had resonated much. And then, on July 1, Kate Steinle was shot and killed in San Francisco while strolling along a pier with her father. The murderer, Juan Francisco had been deported five times before, and had been convicted of seven felonies. He later told a local journalist that he had specifically come to San Francisco because it was a “sanctuary city” that would not cooperate with federal immigration officials or enforce immigration laws. Breitbart News focused on that story in the days that followed. Breitbart California’s Michelle Moons, who had covered the protests in Murietta against illegal alien children who had surged across the Mexican border exactly a year before, wrote a series of articles about Steinle. She used her extensive sources in the law enforcement community, as well as among families who had lost loved ones to crimes by illegal aliens, to build the details of the story and place it in a broader context. That was when Trump began to show an interest in meeting with those families, who had reached out to him in the days after the Steinle murder. He met with them on July 10 in Los Angeles, and the enduring image of that event was of the Donald Trump standing silently as he listened to the families pouring out their grief. … From that moment, Trump took off in the polls, and almost never looked back. From seventh place in the RealClearPolitics average on July 10, Trump shot to first by July 19. His dramatic rise is all the more surprising given that only 7 percent of Americans called immigration the “most important problem” facing the country in a Gallup poll taken over the same period. By listening to the families, and giving them a voice, Trump was no longer speaking of illegal immigration in the abstract, but in a concrete, human way. In so doing, he connected with others who had been victimized, or ignored, by their own government on so many issues, from trade to Obamacare. That September 2016 article concluded: “The question now is whether Trump can convince enough voters by November 8 to trust him, as the victims’ families do. ” Of course, we now know the answer. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
The brutality that comes from the open border between the U. S. and Mexico is often unreported or never brought up again after an initial report by news outlets in both countries — Mexican journalists often lose their lives for such reporting U. S. journalists simply avoid such reports for political reasons. Even in the cases where establishment media have covered the horrors, they do not include the previous reports in current news or discussions about border issues. Let’s look at five egregious examples. [1. “Rape trees” exist in remote regions of southern Texas and extend as far as 90 miles from the border. Brooks County, Texas, is a remote area surrounding a secondary Border Patrol checkpoint nearly 100 miles from the U. S. border. Mexican human smugglers attempt to take groups of migrants around the checkpoint — often marching them days in immense heat through dense brush so that they can reach a stash house. The smugglers’ culture takes pride in raping any of the migrants the smuggler deems as attractive and the rapist will often tie a garment from the victim, such a a bra, on the tree under which the rape occurred. Police and federal agents refer to these trees as “rape trees. ” 2. The bodies of dead migrants are often found by animals in remote border regions of Texas and Arizona. Authorities routinely find the dead bodies of migrants in The Rio Grande Sector of Texas and in the Tucson Sector of Arizona. In one Texas county, the remains of 552 migrants were discovered in a period. The Ajo area of the Tucson Sector also sees a large number of bodies discovered. Though these incidents have been reported, they are often not included in current discussions about border security or the pros and cons of changing aspects of border security. 3. Migrants who cross the border without a Mexican cartel’s permission can be subject to beatings and sodomy as retribution for crossing the cartel’s “turf” on U. S. soil. In August 2015, an illegal immigrant crossed through Sinaloa Cartel territory without permission in an effort to illegally enter the U. S. A cartel scout saw the man and ordered a SUV with four gunmen to intercept him. The event occurred near Tucson, Arizona. The illegal immigrant was hospitalized and medical staff spent hours in surgery removing shards of wood from the man’s rectum. He had been severely beaten by the gunmen and sodomized. 4. The bodies of dead migrants have ended up thrown into mass graves in Texas without ever having been identified. This horror occurred in the same Brooks County mentioned previously in this piece. Forensic anthropologists from several universities were horrified to discover that this was occurring and that some were buried in piles and others were buried in kitchen trash bags. 5. Families in Central America often put their daughters on birth control before their illegal journey to the U. S. because there is the expectation of multiple rapes along the way. As Breitbart Texas previously reported: Women and young girls from Central America are routinely given birth control or morning after pills by their mothers in anticipation of the likely sexual assaults that will occur on their illicit journey to the United States. These females are often raped immediately upon making it to their first stop once they arrive in a Mexican stash house from Guatemala. They then are shipped to the U. S. border, usually to Reynosa, Mexico, immediately south of McAllen, Texas. In the process of making it from the first stash house to the second, the women and young girls are often sexually assaulted or raped again by the smuggler — or group of smugglers — taking them between the two locations. The sexual assaults and rapes then often happen again in the second Mexican stash house of their journey. They are then trickled into the U. S. across the porous border and brought to a third stash house in a U. S. border town, usually in or near McAllen, Texas. They are often sexually assaulted or raped again by the operator of the stash house, if they are deemed attractive by the criminals operating the clandestine facility. They are stockpiled until the cartel wants to send a large load of narcotics across the Rio Grande. The cartel then sends a large load of humans across in one area and then a drug load across in another. Once the human beings are in Texas, another smuggler then picks up the women and young girls and drives them with a coyote to a point along Highway 281 just before the Border patrol checkpoint immediately south of Falfurrias, Texas. The checkpoint is approximately 85 miles north of the U. S. border. This shocking report is not just from Breitbart alone, as even the Huffington Post reports that 80 percent of female migrants are raped or sexually assaulted on the journey from Central America to the U. S. Brandon Darby is managing director and of Breitbart Texas. He the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart. com. Ildefonso Ortiz is an journalist with Breitbart Texas. He the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. | 1 |
As usual we will go parse through the disclosure and bring you some of the more notable ones.
* * *
In a February 2012 email from Chelsea Clinton’s NYU alias, , to Podesta and Mills, Bill and Hillary’s frustrated daughter once again points out the “frustration and confusion” among Clinton Foundation clients in the aftermath of the previously noted scandals plaguing the Clinton consultancy, Teneo:
Over the past few days a few people from the Foundation have reached out to me frustrated or upset about (fill in the blank largely derived meetings Friday or Monday). I’ve responded to all w/ essentially the following (ie disintermediating myself, again, emphatically) below. I also called my Dad last night to tell him of my explicit non-involvement and pushing all back to you both and to him as I think that is indeed the right answer. Thanks
Sample: Please share any and all concerns, with examples, without pulling punches, with John and Cheryl as appropriate and also if you feel very strongly with my Dad directly. Transitions are always challenging and to get to the right answer its critical that voices are heard and understood, and in the most direct way – ie to them without intermediation. Particularly in an effort to move more toward a professionalism and efficiency at the Foundation and for my father – and they’re the decision-makers, my Dad most of all
* * *
A February 2015 email from Neera Tanden lashes out at David Brock of the Bonner Group, profiled in this post: “ Money Laundering Scheme Exposed: 14 Pro-Clinton Super PACs & Non-Profits Implicated .” As a reminder, the Bonner Group, as we showed last month, may be a money laundering front involving various SuperPACs and non-profit institutions:
In the email Tanden says that:
“Brock/Bonner are a nightmare: Really, Suzie Buell isn’t giving to the superpac? I wonder how that got in this story “ Big donors holding off making pledges to pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC “,
and concludes by saying that “ Sometimes HRC/WJC have the worst judgement .”
In retrospect, she is right.
* * *
Speaking of “donor advisor” Mary Pat Bonner , the following email from March 2009 hints at potential impropriety in shifting money from one democratic donor group to another, the Center for American Progress :
I have moved all the sussman money from unity ’09 to cap and am reviewing the others . I will assess it and keep you informed
Something else for the DOJ to look into after the elections, perhaps?
* * *
And then there is this email from August 2015 in which German politician Michael Werz advises John Podesta that Turkish president Erdogan “is making substantial investments in U.S. to counter opposition (CHP, Kurds, Gulenists etc.) outreach to policymakers” and the US Government.
John, heard this second hand but more than once. Seems Erdogan faction is making substantial investments in U.S. to counter opposition (CHP, Kurds, Gulenists etc.) outreach to policymakers and USG. Am told that the Erdogan crew also tries to make inroads via donations to Democratic candidates, including yours. Two names that you should be aware of are *Mehmet Celebi* and *Ali Cinar*. Happy to elaborate on the phone, provided you are not shopping at the liquor store.
The email :
This should perhaps explain why the US has so far done absolutely nothing to halt Erdogan’s unprecedented crackdown on “coup plotters” which has seen as many as 100,000 workers lose their jobs, be arrested, or otherwise removed from Erdogan’s political opposition. Share: | 0 |
SOMERS, Wis. — It is the stunning paradox of American politics. In a bitterly divided nation, where Tuesday’s vote once again showed a country almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, one party now dominates almost everything in American governance. With Donald J. Trump’s win, Republicans will soon control the White House, both chambers of Congress, the tilt of the Supreme Court, more state legislative chambers than any time in history, and more governor’s offices than they have held in nearly a century. Republican leaders say that shift — to a level of control that some historians said the Republicans have not seen since the 1920s — will finally end gridlock in Washington. They say it will allow the party to charge forward on pledges to change policies on health care, immigration and taxes, and expedite changes that have long been sought in the states. Democrats say the change has the potential to undo years of legislation meant to ensure a more equitable America, upend progress fighting climate change, leave millions stranded without health insurance and usher in harsh laws against immigrants. Experts said that no one thing handed the Republicans so much power, even in places like this that were once reliably blue. The current power balance reflects, among other things, the extraordinary dynamics of a race featuring a outsider against the first female major party nominee, the vagaries of turnout in a nation where roughly half of registered voters cast ballots, the systematic redrawing of political maps in ways that favored Republicans, and frustration among voters over lost jobs, low wages and the nation’s changing racial and ethnic mix. “That’s just the way it broke,” said Tim Storey, an elections expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Republicans thought they were playing defense, and Democrats thought that it was going to be a good year for them, but Republicans outpaced them and came out as strong as they went in, all across the board. ” At the state level, the outcome means 24 states will be under full Republican control in legislatures and governor’s offices, clearing the way for new policy. Only six states will now have legislatures and governor’s offices exclusively dominated by Democrats, Mr. Storey said. Matt Walter, the president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said the Republican sweep has been mounting for years, particularly in state legislatures, where Republicans have grown increasingly dominant since 2010. During President Obama’s time in office, Democratic state lawmakers lost more than 800 legislative seats. “The personalities this time were so big and the drama was so big and so rapidly changing and consumed so many people’s attention that it in some respects blinded them to this trend line that this has been bubbling up for many years,” Mr. Walter said. “It really is the manifestation of this change that we’ve been seeing bubbling up from the bottom for many cycles now. ” In theory, control in a divided nation might spur lawmakers to find bipartisan answers to bipartisan problems. But few people expect that. In Wisconsin, where Republicans took hold of state government years ago though the populace remained somewhat split politically, the political leaders have done the opposite — pressing forward with a conservative agenda that has included measures to reduce labor power, limit abortions and add restrictions on voting that disproportionately affect Democratic constituencies. On Tuesday, Wisconsinites chose a Republican for president, something they had not done since 1984, propelled by worries over the economy and a desire to shake up Washington. Mr. Trump beat Hillary Clinton by about 1 percentage point, or about 27, 000 votes. Some voters here said that they were encouraged by a flip to Republican control of Wisconsin’s Legislature and governor’s office six years ago, and favored Mr. Trump in the hopes that he would deliver more of the same to the nation. “Since 2011, we have made decisions one after another — some controversial, many, many bipartisan — to move Wisconsin forward,” Robin Vos, the speaker of the State Assembly, said on Wednesday. “And I think that’s the model that we want to use as we go to look at what Washington, D. C. should do. Stick to your principles. Remember the people who actually sent you to get things done. ” Wisconsin’s switch to Republican control was not without a battle. In 2011, thousands of demonstrators furiously protested efforts to limit labor union power, including sharply cutting collective bargaining rights for most workers. Gov. Scott Walker soon faced a recall election, which he won. Labor unions shrank significantly in the state, and the Republicans pressed on with other parts of their agenda, including voter ID requirements and redrawing political maps. On Tuesday night, the Wisconsin Legislature remained firmly in the hands of Republicans, including what leaders described as their largest majority in the Assembly since 1956. “The Republicans didn’t work with the Democrats at all,” said Chris Larson, a state senator, who was among a group of Democratic lawmakers who fled to Illinois for weeks in 2011 in an unsuccessful attempt to block passage of the cuts. “They came in and just did everything as fast as they could. They jammed through everything. And pretty quickly, they had everything they wanted. ” In more than a dozen interviews in Somers, a bedroom community on Lake Michigan dominated by farms, small businesses and a public university, many residents said they were pleasantly surprised to wake up to the news Wednesday morning that their state had flipped from blue to red. They said the deepening conservatism had been years in the making. They had grown discontented with Mr. Obama’s policies, particularly the Affordable Care Act, and were turned off by Mrs. Clinton, whom they saw as untrustworthy. At Tina’s Somers Inn on the village’s main commercial strip, one group of retirees sat at a table playing their regular game of euchre while Fox News was on a nearby television. “We’re still a mix of Democrats and Republicans here — I don’t think you could call us a red state,” said Dianne Hegewald, 71. “I have very close friends who are Democrats. But the Republican regime is just doing a better job right now. ” Karen Ashton, the owner of a gift shop in Somers, said she was a registered independent but was eager for Republicans to have full control of all branches of government. “Now they’ll really be able to get things done,” she said. Some of her friends and neighbors in town are farmers who have been hurt by Environmental Protection Agency regulations and high taxes, she said, sipping a kombucha tea. “They’re sick of the government,” she said. “They think that with Trump in there, he can fix all of that. ” rule can produce results, experts say, and it can also produce changes that will benefit the party in power. Control tends to breed more: Legislators have the ability to redraw political maps in the coming years and establish voting rules that benefit their party. Cooperation between state and federal leaders of a single party can speed along results, from infrastructure projects to federal grants. But there are risks, too. Charging too far too fast can cause blowback as quickly as in elections just two years from now. “There’s always a danger of overreach,” said KC Johnson, a professor of history at Brooklyn College. He noted the Republican dominance in the 1920s, when, he said, a debate over cultural issues tended to overshadow mounting economic questions that eventually culminated in the Great Depression. “The contrast between attention paid to issues that ultimately proved unimportant and attention not paid to issues that became important later on is interesting. We know how the 1920s end,” he said. It is hard to measure control of so many offices with numeric precision, but he said that Democrats had probably last held a level of power similar to what the Republicans have now between 1937 and 1945. “The evidence is mixed on unified government,” said William Howell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. “There is a fair bit of historical evidence that Congress enacts more laws during periods of unified government. But in this period of slim majorities and rampant obstructionism, past trends may not hold. ” Fred Risser, a Democratic Wisconsin state senator who is the state lawmaker in the nation, said the stakes of the Republicans’ dominance for the nation’s policy — for taxes, education policy, environmental regulation — were enormous. Yet Mr. Risser, 89, who first held political office in 1956, said the risks for the Republicans were also large. “They’ve got everything now, and so everything that happens they are responsible for and no one can blame the Democrats anymore. It’s always difficult to control everything. They have a lot to lose. ” Linda Truesdell, whose family has lived in the Somers area since the 1820s, said on Wednesday that she was disheartened by the Republican takeover. She had twice voted for Mr. Obama, who in 2012 beat Mitt Romney by 12 points in this county on Tuesday, Mr. Trump beat Mrs. Clinton here by less than one percentage point — 225 votes. “Trump was a television personality and that had a big influence on people,” she said, as she left the town post office and walked toward her pickup truck. “People here are thinking that he’s going to solve their problems. ” | 1 |
Welcome to the “hotel with the worst view in the world. ” Please be mindful of the art on the walls. The elusive British street artist Banksy has decorated the interiors of the Walled Off Hotel, a guesthouse in the West Bank city of Bethlehem whose windows overlook the barrier that separates the territory from Israel. Among the rooms decorated by the artist, who has earned a following for tagging walls around the world with witty illustrations and dark political commentaries, is the “Banksy Room. ” In the room, a mural on the wall above a bed depicts a Palestinian and an Israeli locked in combat — only they are having a pillow fight. Banksy, who rarely comments on his work and keeps his real identity a secret, has made trips to the West Bank for years and has previously, under cover of night, painted the barrier itself. On a recent trip, he painted a mural on the barrier, just steps from his current project, showing a girl being pulled aloft by balloons. Last year, four street murals in Gaza were attributed to him, including one depicting a Greek goddess amid the rubble of a destroyed house. In addition to the guest rooms, Banksy has created something of a museum that includes surveillance cameras mounted like taxidermic trophies, a Grecian bust surrounded by a cloud meant to depict tear gas, and a wax statue depicting the signing of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 letter of British intent to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The hotel will open to guests on March 11, with rooms starting at $30 a night. Banksy, who first came to prominence by stenciling artworks on the walls of Bristol, England, has become an international superstar. In 2015, he created an exhibit called Dismaland, in which works by Israeli and Palestinian artists were displayed side by side. Some of Banksy’s works have sold at auction for more than $1 million. | 1 |
Music Track Courtesy of APM Music: “Voyage”
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Putin Prepares For World War 3 With Simulated Drills Across Russia
“This is very dangerous for Norway and Norwegians,” he said.
“How should we react to this? We have never before had Norway on the list of targets for our strategic weapons. But if this develops, Norway’s population will suffer,” he warned.
“Because we need to react against definitive military threats. And we have things to react to, I might as well tell it like it is,” Klintsevitsj added.
Russia has on several occasions criticized the plans to deploy 330 US troops at Værnes. Norway’s defence minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, has rejected those criticisms and insisted that the deployment does not constitute a US military base but is rather a test run that will be evaluated during 2017.
“There is no objective reason for the Russians to react to this. But the Russians are reacting at the moment in the same way toward almost everything the Nato countries are doing,” Søreide said.
Before joining Nato in 1949, Norway allayed Russian fears by pledging not to open its territory to foreign combat troops so long as Norway was not attacked or threatened with attack.
Norway’s government argues that Nato troops are already training regularly in the country and that the deployment of troops does not equate to the opening of a permanent American base.
The US already has vast amounts of military equipment positioned in Norway — notably in tunnels dug into mountains — but no troops.
Klintsevitsj’s remarks bring to mind similar Russian comments made about Norway’s neighbour to the south, Denmark.
In March 2015, Russia’s ambassador to Denmark warned that Danish ships will become Russian targets if Denmark joins Nato’s missile defence system.
“I don’t think the Danes fully understand the consequences of what will happen if Denmark joins the American-controlled missile defence. If it happens, Danish war ships will become targets for Russian atomic missiles,” Mikhail Vanin wrote in an opinion piece published by Jyllands-Posten. | 0 |
BUDAPEST — Lawmakers in Hungary on Tuesday rejected a proposed national ban on refugees relocated from the rest of the European Union, dealing a rare defeat to Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Mr. Orban submitted a plan to ban the refugees, in the form of a constitutional amendment, last month, after a similar proposal failed to pass by referendum because of insufficient voter turnout. He has vowed to block a European Union program that would resettle migrants from the Middle East and Africa who have gone to countries like Greece and Italy. Under that program, Hungary, a nation of 10 million, would have to accept 1, 294 of a total of about 160, 000 migrants. The amendment needed of sitting members of the Parliament to pass. It got 131 votes on Tuesday — two shy of the necessary threshold. Three lawmakers voted no, and the rest abstained. The Jobbik party, which is part of the official opposition but usually sides with Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party on migration issues, was crucial to the defeat of the amendment. Gabor Vona, a lawmaker and the leader of Jobbik, said that his party would support only a solution that “defends Hungary and Hungarian people, not just from poor migrants but from rich migrants, not just from poor terrorists but from rich terrorists. ” He was referring to a rule that allows foreigners who invest over 300, 000 euros, or about $332, 000, in Hungarian bonds to acquire residency. The program dates to 2012, but it has drawn attention recently, after reports that Hungarian bonds could be bought in places like Erbil, Iraq. Critics say that allowing migrants to settle in Hungary could open the door to terrorists from unstable countries like Iraq, and they say the residency program might open the door to corruption. The Fidesz party has been politically weaker since last year, when it lost its supermajority in Parliament. That advantage had allowed Mr. Orban’s government to rewrite the Constitution and to pass legislation to rein in the judiciary and the press, packing some of the country’s top institutions with political allies. Lajos Kosa, an ally of Mr. Orban who leads Fidesz lawmakers in Parliament, said before the vote on Tuesday that the Jobbik party would be “joining the ranks of traitors” if it rejected the amendment. “Hungary can only count on Fidesz and K. D. N. P. in the struggle against migration,” he said as he emerged from the vote, using the initials for the Christian Democratic People’s Party, which is part of the governing coalition. “We are naturally going to continue the struggle,” he said, noting that more than three million voters in the referendum had opted to support the ban on migrants. On Tuesday, analysts were cautious in interpreting the defeat of the amendment as a sign of the government’s declining political power. “I wouldn’t say that this is a huge failure for Orban — it’s a failure, but a minor one,” said Csaba Toth, the director of strategy for the Republikon Institute, a research and advocacy group that has been critical of Mr. Orban’s government. “This is the second time the government can’t have their own way, which is important for a group whose main governing strategy is power. ” Last year, Mr. Orban and his government began an aggressive campaign against migrants, particularly those from the Middle East, as hundreds of thousands crossed Hungary’s southern border, most of them en route to Germany. The number of crossings fell nearly to zero after Hungary built a fence along sections of the border and as the flow of migrants shifted away from the Balkans. Nonetheless, Fidesz’s campaign against migration has continued, and the party’s stance has seized both attention and voters from Jobbik, which had been the main voice for nationalists. Mr. Toth, the analyst, said that the vote on Tuesday could be seen as an attempt by Jobbik to improve its political standing. “It can say that corruption is more important to Fidesz than the fight against quotas,” he said. | 1 |
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