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Posted on October 26, 2016 by Edmondo Burr in Technology // 0 Comments The U.S. military is developing a device that could simultaneously take the load off of a soldier’s back and at the same time generate electricity.
Simply by walking soldiers could generate electricity that is needed to power an array of high-tech gadgets found in modern backpacks.
The bionic power knee harvester, also known as the PowerWalk, is an energy-harvesting device that is attached to both the upper and lower areas of both legs and generates power from movement. The device is still in development and field trials are due to begin in 2017.
The exoskeleton reduces the need of carrying heavy batteries.
Sputnik reports:
“ Just by walking, soldiers could generate power,” the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Project Engineer Noel Soto said in the release. “We are converting the movement of the knees when you walk into useful power. “
“The goal is to reduce the amount of batteries used by soldiers, or to be able to extend the mission with the same load,” Soto noted. “Soldiers are carrying a heavy load and a lot of that weight, 16 to 20 pounds for a 72-hour mission, is due to batteries.”
Soldiers now carry multiple electronic devices that aid in strategy, communication and navigation, including computers, radios, mobile phones, battlefield situational displays and navigation tools, according to the release. | 0 |
Organizers of an event at the University of California Berkeley with conservative firebrand Ann Coulter are fearful of more violence from anarchist groups, following the riots that took place before an event with former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos last month. [The event, which is scheduled to take place in April, was organized by the nonpartisan student political group BridgeCal and the university’s College Republican group. Plans include a talk on immigration followed by a session. It will also be sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation, who will pay the majority of Coulter’s $20, 000 speaking fee. SNOWFLAKES BEWARE: We’re sending @AnnCoulter to Berkeley on April 27. Details to come. #YAFonCampus pic. twitter. — YAF (@yaf) March 28, 2017, However, one of the event’s organizers, Pranav Jandahyala, told CBS San Francisco that the group are “pretty apprehensive right now about everything,” but “truly believe [they] can put on a great event. ” The rioting before Yiannopoulos’s event in February received worldwide attention, as anarchists destroyed campus property smashed local ATMs and bank windows looted a Starbucks attacked Trump supporters innocent individuals and set fires in the street. Others spray painted the words “Kill Trump” on storefronts. This time, however, organizers plan to provide more robust security, to honor the tradition of free speech at Berkeley since the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s. “This time we are definitely going to push them to provide more security than they did last time. More officers on the ground instead of in the balcony,” Jandahyala said. In a statement, UC Berkeley said that Coulter’s invitation “in no way suggests our endorsement of a particular point of view, and we will continue to affirm our commitment to the values of diversity, equality, and tolerance that underlie the greatness of Berkeley and, indeed, of our nation. ” However, the university did reaffirm its commitment to free speech, stating that it does not prohibit events “based on a generalized concern that a speaker’s message may trigger disruptions. ” Jandahyala also added that the event will be a chance to ignite heated discussions, where attendees will have the opportunity to challenge Coulter’s views. “So what I challenge you to do is actually confront her. If she comes to speak on campus and there’s no challenge to her viewpoint and people resort to violence and maybe she doesn’t speak, her views go unchallenged,” he continued. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
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FBI Director James Comey is being publicly criticized by former Deputy Attorney Generals and others from the law enforcement community over breaking his agency’s neutrality to release a vague memo Friday afternoon which amounted to official slander against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald reported first that University of Minnesota law professor and former Bush Administration White House ethics counsel Richard Painter filed an official ethics complaint with the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Counsel against the FBI Director for abusing his office with pernicious political activity.
Richard Painter’s new filing against Comey is similar to the complaint filed by the Democratic Coalition Against Trump , lodged against the FBI Director for violating the Hatch Act , which restricts most federal employees from engaging in any partisan activity. Hours after originally filing this story, Professor Painter wrote this op-editorial in The New York Times to explain why the FBI Director’s actions must not go unpunished:
On Saturday, I filed a complaint against the F.B.I. with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, and with the Office of Government Ethics. I have spent much of my career working on government ethics and lawyers’ ethics, including two and a half years as the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, and I never thought that the F.B.I. could be dragged into a political circus surrounding one of its investigations. Until this week.
An official doesn’t need to have a specific intent — or desire — to influence an election to be in violation of the Hatch Act or government ethics rules. The rules are violated if it is obvious that the official’s actions could influence the election, there is no other good reason for taking those actions, and the official is acting under pressure from persons who obviously do want to influence the election. Absent extraordinary circumstances that might justify it, a public communication about a pending F.B.I. investigation involving a candidate for public office that is made on the eve of an election is thus very likely to be a violation of the Hatch Act and a misuse of an official position. Serious questions also arise under lawyers’ professional conduct rules that require prosecutors to avoid excessive publicity and unnecessary statements that could cause public condemnation even of people who have been accused of a crime, not to mention people like Mrs. Clinton, who have never been charged with a crime. This is no trivial matter. We cannot allow F.B.I. or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power. Allowing such a precedent to stand will invite more, and even worse, abuses of power in the future.
Ironically, the Hatch Act was passed because Republicans thought that employees from one of FDR’s New Deal agencies were involved in partisan electioneering. Little did they know that, today, a registered Republican FBI Director was going to violate it blatantly right before an election. Painter and Comey were colleagues in the Bush Administration when the latter held a position as Deputy Attorney General.
High ranking current Department of Justice officials discouraged Comey from going public just 11 days before a general election.
Shamefully, it’s been revealed that the FBI doesn’t even have a warrant to view these newest emails yet.
Former Deputy Attorney Generals Jamie Gorelick and Larry Thomspon, who served Administration with both parties, issued a harshly worded op-ed in The Washington Post today entitled, “ James Comey is Damaging Our Democracy .” They opined:
As former deputy attorneys general in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, we are troubled by the apparent departure from these standards in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server. First, the FBI director, James B. Comey, put himself enthusiastically forward as the arbiter of not only whether to prosecute a criminal case — which is not the job of the FBI — but also best practices in the handling of email and other matters. Now, he has chosen personally to restrike the balance between transparency and fairness, departing from the department’s traditions. As former deputy attorney general George Terwilliger aptly put it , “There’s a difference between being independent and flying solo.”
At the same time, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch — nominally Comey’s boss — has apparently been satisfied with advising Comey but not ordering him to abide by the rules. She, no doubt, did not want to override the FBI director in such a highly political matter, but she should not have needed to. He should have abided by the policy on his own.
The FBI Director broke policy to inform Congress about details of an investigation without any actual details, or having even seen the new evidence that was so urgent that he had to break decades of policy in order to disclose it.
Even stone age conservatives knew that these latest allegations are nothing more than a partisan political ploy, describing the Trump campaign’s reaction in grim terms: In Trumpworld as Hitler's Bunker terms, this is probably like when Goebbels thought FDR's death would save the Nazi regime.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) October 28, 2016
Within hours of Comey’s official memo breaking, he released an internal “cover your ass” memo admitting that the letter could be misinterpreted, which was instantly leaked to the Washington Post and proved that the FBI Director understood fully the foolishness upon which he had embarked by interfering with an election.
Newsweek pointed out that Republican President George W. Bush had undergone FBI investigation himself before being elected, but nobody in the Clinton White House or the FBI used it to torpedo his 2000 presidential campaign. Bush investigated in 96. Cleared. Imagine if FBI came out in 2000, just be4 election, said "new evidence, dont know what it means." Horrible
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) October 30, 2016
Amazingly, a blogger made requests in 2004 before the election and did get the FBI to release some files about then-President Bush in April of 2005, only five months after the election, but he suspected that they didn’t provide everything and the records show that his requests to expedite release because of the election were denied. The Bush FBI files contained nothing about the events reported by Kurt Eichenwald.
The two former Deputy Attorney Generals said it best :
As it stands, we now have real-time, raw-take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality TV of federal criminal investigation. Perhaps worst of all, it is happening on the eve of a presidential election. It is antithetical to the interests of justice, putting a thumb on the scale of this election and damaging our democracy.
Now, the FBI’s top leadership is in open revolt over the Director’s political meddling as bipartisan condemnation is raining down upon the FBI Director, as his colleagues are openly telling the press that their boss compromised their agency to play partisan politics.
It’s probably only a matter of time before Comey resigns and faces his own investigation for this entire sordid affair. | 0 |
The explosion of violence against conservatives across the country is being intentionally ginned up by Democrats, reporters, TV hosts, comedians and celebrities, who compete with one another to come up with the most vile epithets for Trump and his supporters. [They go right up to the line, trying not to cross it, by, for example, vamping with a realistic photo of a decapitated Trump or calling the president a “piece of s — ” while hosting a show on CNN. The media are orchestrating a bloodless coup, but they’re perfectly content to have their shock troops pursue a bloody coup. This week, one of the left’s foot soldiers gunned down Republican members of Congress and their staff while they were playing baseball in Virginia. Democratic Socialist James Hodgkinson was prevented from committing a mass murder only by the happenstance of a member of the Republican leadership being there, along with his Capitol Police protection. Remember when it was frightening for the losing party not to accept the results of an election? During the third debate, Trump refused to agree to the election results, saying he’d “look at it at the time. ” The media responded in their usual style: A ‘HORRIFYING’ REPUDIATION OF DEMOCRACY — The Washington Post, Oct. 20, 2016, DENIAL OF DEMOCRACY — Daily News (New York) Oct. 20, 2016 DANGER TO DEMOCRACY — The Dallas Morning News, Oct. 20, 2016, ONE SCARY MOMENT IT ALL BOILED DOWN TO … DEMOCRACY — Pittsburgh Oct. 21, 2016, “(Shock) spiked down the nation’s spinal column last night and today when the Republican nominee threatened that this little election thing you got there, this little democratic process you’ve got here, it’s nice, it’s fine, but he doesn’t necessarily plan on abiding by its decision when it comes to the presidency. ” — Rachel Maddow, Oct. 20, “Trump’s answer on accepting the outcome of the vote is the most disgraceful statement by a presidential candidate in 160 years. ” — Bret Stephens, editorial page editor at The Wall Street Journal, “I guess we’re all going to have to wait until Nov. 9 to find out if we still have a country — if Donald Trump is in the mood for a peaceful transfer of power. Or if he’s going to wipe his fat a — with the Constitution. ” — CBS’s Stephen Colbert, Oct. 19, 2016, “It’s unprecedented for a nominee of a major party to themselves signal that they would not accept — you know, respect the results of an election. We’ve never had that happen before. … This really presents a potentially difficult problem for governing … ” — MSNBC’S Joy Reid, Oct. 22, 2016, “This is very dangerous stuff … would seriously impair our functioning as a democracy. … This is about as serious as it gets in the United States. ” — CNN’s Peter Beinart, Oct. 20, 2016, “Obviously, it’s despicable for him to pretend that there’s any chance that he would not accept the results of this election it would be — in 240 years you’ve never had anybody do it. … ” — CNN’s Van Jones, Oct. 20, 2016, Then Trump won, and these very same hysterics refused to accept the results of the election. Recently, Hillary announced her steadfast opposition to the winning candidate using a military term, saying she’d joined the “Resistance. ” Imagine if Trump lost and then announced that he’d joined the “RESISTANCE. ” He’d be accused of trying to activate militias. Every dyspeptic glance at an immigrant would be reported as fascistic violence. But the media seem blithely unaware that the “Resistance” has been accompanied by nonstop militaristic violence from liberals. When Trump ripped up our Constitution and jumped all over it by failing to concede the election three weeks in advance, CNN ran a segment on a single tweet from a random Trump supporter that mentioned the Second Amendment. Carol Costello: “Still to come in the ‘Newsroom,’ some Trump supporters say they will refuse to accept a loss on Election Day, with one offering a threat of violence. We’ll talk about that next. ” In CNN’s most fevered dreams about a violent uprising of Trump supporters, they never could have conceived of the level of actual violence being perpetrated by Americans who refuse to accept Trump’s win. (See Hate Map.) It began with Trump’s inauguration, when a leftist group plotted to pump a debilitating gas into one Trump inaugural ball, military families were assaulted upon leaving the Veterans’ Inaugural Ball, and attendees of other balls had water thrown on them. Since then, masked, armed liberals around the country have formed organizations to beat up conservatives. In liberal towns, the police are regularly ordered to stand down to allow the assaults to proceed unimpeded. The media only declared a crisis when conservatives fought back, smashing the beta males. (“Battle for Berkeley! ”) There is more media coverage for conservatives’ “microaggressions” toward powerful minorities — such as using the wrong pronoun — than there is for liberals’ physical attacks on conservatives, including macings, concussions, and hospitalizations. And now some nut Bernie confirms that it’s Republicans standing on a baseball field, before opening fire. In the media’s strategic reporting of the attempted slaughter, we were quickly told that the mass shooter was white, male and had used a gun. We were even told his name. (Because it was not “Mohammed. ”) But the fact that Hodgkinson’s Facebook page featured a banner of Sanders and the words “Democratic Socialism explained in 3 words: ‘We the People’ Since 1776” apparently called for hours of meticulous by our media. Did reporters think they could keep that information from us forever? The fake news insists that Trump’s White House is in “chaos. ” No, the country is in chaos. But just like Kathy Griffin and her Trump decapitation performance art — the perpetrators turn around in innocence and blame Trump. | 1 |
October 27, 2016 Solar winds triggered a giant geomagnetic storm this week, raising fears that they could cripple power supplies. The charged particles are coming from a coronal hole on the sun that is currently facing Earth. If Earth’s magnetic field was hit by charged particles the effects could also include radar and satellite interference, causing problems phone and internet networks and navigation services. Power grid operators in the US were put on alert yesterday following concerning space weather forecasts. But the impact could be felt all over the world. Warnings were issued by the operator of the biggest power grid in the US, PJM Interconnection LLC, as well as by Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which manages high-voltage power lines across North America, reports Bloomberg . These were the result of US Space Weather Prediction Center raising a ‘serious’ G3 level storm alert, though the alert was later downgraded to a less severe G2 storm. ‘Voltage corrections may be required, false alarms triggered on some protection devices’, said the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center. ‘Drag may increase on low-Earth-orbit satellites, and corrections may be needed for orientation problems’. The ‘moderate’ G2 warning remains in affect today. The solar storms could potentially affect telecommunications and power infrastructures all over the globe. The UK’s Met Office space weather forecast for today said: ‘Elevated solar winds are expected throughout the period, with G1-G2 minor to moderate geomagnetic storms forecast.’ | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Representative Ryan Zinke, Republican of Montana, pitched himself on Tuesday as a serious steward of federal resources in his confirmation hearing for interior secretary, frequently bucking conservative orthodoxy on ownership of public lands, federal funding for preservation and even, briefly, climate change. But Mr. Zinke also emphasized his support for drilling, mining and logging on federal lands, activities strongly opposed by many environmental groups. In testimony before a Senate panel that lasted nearly four hours, Mr. Zinke, a former member of the Navy SEALs who just finished his first term in the House, tried to balance the importance of preservation with use of the nation’s public lands and waters. He expressed admiration for Gifford Pinchot, the first United States Forest Service chief, who advocated planned use and renewal. Mr. Zinke also said he supported energy development on federal lands. Recreational activities and mining, for instance, are not mutually exclusive, he said. “It doesn’t have to be in conflict,” he said. Mr. Zinke broke with Donald J. Trump and even his own past statements on climate change, disagreeing with Mr. Trump’s assertion at one point that it is “a hoax. ” Having once said that climate change was “not proven science,” Mr. Zinke said it was “indisputable” that the climate is changing and that humans are having an effect on it. “I think where there’s debate is what that influence is, what we can do about it,” Mr. Zinke said. “I don’t believe it’s a hoax,” he added. He later appeared to try to temper his statement, emphasizing the need for “objective science. ” Democrats pressed Mr. Zinke, who grew up near Glacier National Park in Montana, about whether he would shield federal lands from being sold, one of their primary concerns. “With a new administration, are these public lands going to face an unbelievable attack by those who would like to take these public lands away from us and turn them over back to states?” asked Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, the panel’s top Democrat. “Or are we going to continue to manage these resources for the incredible investment that they are and continue to improve them, so we get even more economic return?” Mr. Zinke was unequivocal: “I am absolutely against transfer and sale of public lands. I can’t be more clear. ” Asked about his vote on a House rule that would make it easier for the government to cede control of federal lands, he acknowledged that he would not vote for it again. “That’s a great answer,” said Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico. Mr. Zinke said one of his priorities as interior secretary would be to address an estimated $12. 5 billion backlog of maintenance and repairs in the national parks system. He also stated his support for fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which takes money from offshore oil and gas leasing to protect federal natural resources. In one of his few references to the Mr. Zinke said Mr. Trump supported moving toward energy independence. He described his own approach as “all of the above,” explicitly mentioning solar and wind power, as well as fossil fuels. Republicans expressed their own concerns — about the need for a break from what they saw as an era of under the Obama administration. In her opening statement, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the panel’s chairwoman, called her state “the poster child” among the many that suffered under the current Department of the Interior. “For eight years, it seemed that this administration has taken the approach that Alaska has to be protected from Alaskans,” she said, “and they acted accordingly. ” Senators praised Mr. Zinke’s career in the Navy SEALs as an asset, with Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, calling him a “well equipped” candidate. But Mr. Zinke’s time in the military was not without controversy. While serving as a midlevel SEAL Team 6 officer in the 1990s, Mr. Zinke improperly sought government reimbursement for travel to his home, a decision that resulted in some of his superiors’ questioning his judgment and apparently prevented him from being entrusted with a senior post, a New York Times investigation showed. His military background was referenced in a testy exchange with Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois and a fellow veteran. She pointed to the fact that Mr. Zinke embraced Mr. Trump’s defense of his 2005 statements about sexually assaulting women, caught on a hot mike, as “ talk” and questioned whether he was equipped to handle the problem of sexual harassment and assault, also a problem in the military, in the agency he seeks to lead. Mr. Zinke, who served with Ms. Duckworth in the House until recently, said he would have a “zero tolerance” approach to sexual harassment, which he said was “killing morale” at the agency. | 1 |
BRASÍLIA — Paulo Maluf, a Brazilian congressman, is so badly besieged by his own graft scandals that his constituents often describe him with the slogan “Rouba mas faz. ” Translation: He steals but gets it done. But like an array of other members of Brazil’s Congress, Mr. Maluf says he is so fed up with all the corruption in the country that he supports ousting President Dilma Rousseff. “I’m against all the dubious this government does,” said Mr. Maluf, 84, a former São Paulo mayor who faces charges in the United States that he stole more than $11. 6 million in a kickback scheme. The drive to impeach Ms. Rousseff is gaining momentum. A pivotal vote to send her case to the Senate for a possible trial is expected over the weekend, and several of the political parties in her governing coalition abandoned her this week, leaving her especially vulnerable. But some of the most vocal lawmakers pushing to impeach Ms. Rousseff are facing serious charges of graft, electoral fraud and human rights abuses, uncorking a national debate about hypocrisy among Brazil’s leaders. “Dilma may have dug her own grave by not delivering on what she promised, but she is untainted in a political realm smeared with excrement from top to bottom,” said Mario Sergio Conti, a columnist for the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. “She didn’t steal, but a gang of thieves is judging her. ” Ms. Rousseff is deeply resented in Brazil, having presided over the worst economic crisis in decades, a huge corruption scandal engulfing the national oil company and the fall of millions of Brazilians into poverty. In the impeachment case, she is not facing charges of graft. Instead, she is accused of using money from giant public banks to cover budget gaps, damaging Brazil’s economic credibility. Ms. Rousseff, then, is something of a rarity among Brazil’s major political figures: She has not been accused of stealing for herself. Eduardo Cunha, the powerful speaker of the lower house who is leading the impeachment effort, is going on trial at the country’s highest court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, on charges that he pocketed as much as $40 million in bribes. Mr. Cunha, an evangelical Christian radio commentator and economist who regularly issues Twitter messages quoting from the Bible, is accused of laundering the gains through an evangelical megachurch. Vice President Michel Temer, who is expected to take over if Ms. Rousseff is forced to step aside, has been accused of involvement in an illegal scheme. Renan Calheiros, the Senate leader, who is also on the presidential succession chain, is under investigation over claims that he received bribes in the giant scandal surrounding the national oil company, Petrobras. He has also been accused of tax evasion and of allowing a lobbyist to pay child support for a daughter from an extramarital affair. Altogether, 60 percent of the 594 members of Brazil’s Congress face serious charges like bribery, electoral fraud, illegal deforestation, kidnapping and homicide, according to Transparency Brazil, a group. The issue has even become a part of the president’s defense strategy. In particular, Ms. Rousseff and her supporters have argued, how can the impeachment process be directed by someone who is going on trial for corruption himself? On Thursday, José Eduardo Cardozo, the solicitor general, said that his office had appealed to the Supreme Federal Tribunal in an attempt to block the impeachment proceedings. He said the effort to oust Ms. Rousseff had become so sprawling that it was “a true Kafkaesque process in which the defendant cannot figure out with any certainty what she is being accused of or why. ” In a session that went past midnight and into the early hours of Friday, a majority of justices on the high court rejected the Rousseff administration’s request to annul this weekend’s impeachment vote. No one can dispute that Ms. Rousseff is very unpopular around the country, as reflected in her nearly approval ratings, the broad ire over bribery and kickbacks within her Workers’ Party, and the regular street protests demanding her ouster. Even so, some Brazilians argue that the impeachment upheaval has less to do with stamping out corruption than with an effort to shift power by lawmakers with questionable records themselves. Ms. Rousseff’s opponents in Congress include Éder Mauro, who is facing charges of torture and extortion from his previous stint as a police officer in Belém, a city in the Amazon. Another congressman aiming to impeach Ms. Rousseff: Beto Mansur, who is charged with keeping 46 workers at his soybean farms in Goiás State in conditions so deplorable that investigators say the laborers were treated like slaves. Almost daily, prosecutors reveal accusations involving Ms. Rousseff’s allies and adversaries in Congress, saying they pocketed bribes in the colossal graft scheme surrounding energy companies. Graphic photos even circulated this month of prostitutes operating in a wing of Congress reserved for committee deliberations, reminding Brazilians of the institution’s circuslike atmosphere these days. Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, criticized the impeachment process, saying the accusations against Ms. Rousseff “are not crimes, but they are related to poor administration. ” He said that the president’s missteps were “actions that other presidents in the past took themselves,” but that Brazil’s politicians were “judging her differently. ” Mr. Almagro also criticized the politicians who were pushing for impeachment but facing corruption accusations themselves. “I am worried about the credibility of some of those who are going to judge or decide this impeachment process,” he said. Mr. Maluf, the former mayor who supports the president’s removal, spent weeks in jail a decade ago on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. But he was released under a law allowing people older than 70 to face such accusations at home. Then Mr. Maluf won a seat in Congress, giving him the privileged judicial standing that keeps nearly all senior Brazilian politicians with such privileges out of jail. Despite Mr. Maluf’s claims in recent days that he could travel outside Brazil without being arrested, he remains wanted by Interpol for the case against him in the United States, according to the United States Justice Department. France also has an outstanding warrant for his arrest in a separate case involving organized money laundering. “My public life was always the opposite of all that,” Mr. Maluf said last week, criticizing the bad deeds in Ms. Rousseff’s government, including her scramble to offer cabinet posts to legislators on the fence over impeachment. Scholars note the sweeping legal protections enjoyed by about 700 senior officials, including cabinet ministers and every member of Congress. Only the Supreme Federal Tribunal can try them, producing years of appeals and delays. “Winning election to Congress is a license to steal for certain figures,” said Sylvio Costa, the founder of Congresso em Foco, a watchdog group that tracks legislative corruption. “In this grotesque system, the biggest thieves are those who wield the most power. ” Claims of misdeeds among other lawmakers do not bother some of the politicians wanting Ms. Rousseff impeached. Roberto Jefferson, a former legislator who went to prison after his conviction for his role in a scheme, said that Mr. Cunha’s talent for political served as a strategic advantage. “The bandit I’m rooting for the most is Eduardo Cunha,” Mr. Jefferson said. (Several lawmakers seeking to oust Ms. Rousseff, including Mr. Cunha, either declined requests for comment or did not respond.) One prominent supporter of Ms. Rousseff is Fernando Collor de Mello, the disgraced former president who resigned in 1992 over an scandal. He resurrected his political career as a senator, only to face charges now of taking bribes in the graft scheme around the national oil company. Mr. Collor’s father, Arnon de Mello, set a precedent after fatally shooting a fellow senator on the Senate floor in 1963. Arnon de Mello managed to avoid prison after a court ruled that the episode was an accident — because he was aiming at another senator. As tempers flare over impeachment, some cite the example of Ivo Cassol, a senator from the Amazon. He was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2013 by the Supreme Federal Tribunal on corruption charges related to contracts granted more than 15 years ago. (Mr. Cassol considers himself innocent in the case, a spokesman said.) Despite the ruling, Mr. Cassol remains in the Senate, keeping the high court’s decision at bay with appeals. He is now delivering some of the most impassioned speeches in favor of Ms. Rousseff’s impeachment, calling her government “disgraceful. ” | 1 |
Elaine Chao, Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Transportation, could collect up to $5 million in Wells Fargo preferred stock after assuming her new role in the Trump administration. [According to financial disclosure forms, Chao will receive a “cash payout for my deferred stock compensation” upon her confirmation as Secretary of Transportation. The annual payouts will begin in July 2017 and would continue through 2021. “This is a golden parachute for government services that the large banks are now increasingly famous for offering. It is not illegal yet, but it does provide the former employee with substantial financial rewards from Wells Fargo, potentially creating a sense of indebtedness from the government official toward the bank,” ethics expert Craig Holman told The Intercept after reviewing Chao’s disclosure forms and Well Fargo’s executive compensation agreement. “These golden parachutes for taking government positions are either a massively corrupting incentive structure — effectively a backdoor bribe to incoming government officials — or an abject waste of shareholder resources,” Kurt Walters, campaign director for Demand Progress, told the outlet. Chao, who served as labor secretary under George W. Bush, sailed through her confirmation hearing last week without scandal. “Elaine Chao Gets Cozy Reception at Confirmation Hearing” is how the New York Times described her hearing. Chao, the wife of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, served on Wells Fargo’s board between 2011 and 2015 and made an estimated $1. 2 million for her services to the San Francisco, bank. Coincidentally, 2011 was the same year the Obama Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says Wells Fargo began forcing its employees to “secretly open unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses. ” Nevertheless, Chao says she’s committed to avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest should she become Transoprtion Secretary — citing her intent to submit a waiver or seek exemption if she engages in any matter that directly affects Wells Fargo. To be sure, government golden parachutes are nothing new. But they are precisely the kind of shenanigans Trump promised to stomp out. Indeed, many of Obama’s top appointees came from financial firms that allocate six and payments to senior executives who accepted government jobs. Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew left Citigroup with $500, 000 stock options guarantees. Obama’s Counselor to the Secretary of the US Treasury Antonio Weiss was set to receive $20 million in preferential stock and deferential payments from his previous employer, Lazard, upon entering government. The news of Chao’s corporate payday comes on the heels of reports that Trump nominee for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will receive a retirement payout worth at least $180 million, should he be confirmed. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
FBI figures show that the number of background checks conducted for gun purchasers in 2016 were so high they actually beat the previous annual record by more than 4 million. [According to FBI figures, there were 2, 771, 159 background checks conducted in December. That ws down slightly from the record high of 3, 314, 594 checks conducted in December 2015, but was more than high enough to help make 2016 a historical year for background checks. In fact, a new record of 27, 538, 673 background checks conducted in 2016. On top of the astounding number of checks, each check could represent more than one gun sold at retail. Checks are performed on the purchaser rather than the gun( s) the purchaser wishes to buy. Once a check is passed, a customer can buy numerous guns. That means 27, 538, 673 background checks could amount to 55, 077, 346 guns sold, if every buyer bought two guns. If each bought three, the figure would be 82, 616, 019 guns sold. It is interesting to note that 2016 had already broken all prior annual records for background checks by the close of business on November 30. Breitbart News previously reported that there were 24, 767, 514 background checks January 1 through November 30 alone. The surge broke previous records by more than a million checks. Donald Trump’s decision to run as a defender of the Second Amendment seems to have caught the mood of the public — at least of consumers in the market for firearms, who were partly driven by concerns that new federal and state restrictions, such as ammunition background checks in California, could limit their ability to own guns and ammunition. The National Rifle Association (NRA) backed Trump and celebrated his victory. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 1 |
With 95% of the vote in, all signs point to a Trump Victory in Florida.
Trump leads Clinton 48.8% to 48.0%
The New York Times Prediction caster at the time of this writing gives Trump a 91% of winning Florida with only 5% of the votes remaining.
Securing Florida is a needed step for Trump is what will still be a difficult but possible bid to achieve 270 delegates and win the Presidency. Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan and Virginia are all looking very close as well. Comment on this Article Via Your Facebook Account Comment on this Article Via Your Disqus Account Follow Us on Facebook! | 0 |
It was June 2012, and I had just sped out of the crowded subway into a sea of people on 34th Street. I stopped to collect myself, to figure out which way I needed to walk to get to my next errand. I was somewhere between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and couldn’t see the street sign from that far away, so I turned my head to the right. Lo and behold, there it was, right above HM: a beautiful collage of 13 diverse faces for the new hit television series “Orange Is the New Black” — me among them. Just five years before this day, I was packing my toothbrush, my most beloved family photos and my favorite walking shoes. I was headed to the Juilliard School. Seventeen years old. Bright, with a head full of bushy hair, ready to sprout into a world unlike Simpsonville, S. C. the rural area where I grew up. I never would have guessed a year after graduating, now 22, I would see my face on a billboard. The feeling was exhilarating. I stood there witnessing thousands of people walk by my face, glance at my face. My heart was so happy I almost forgot why I was even in Herald Square to begin with. When I was a kid, the famous Apollo Theater had come to my hometown to audition kids for “Showtime at the Apollo. ” My parents had allowed me to audition not once, not twice, but three times. For this chubby, chocolate the third time was not the charm. I remember crying as I walked back to the car with my father. “Danielle, only one out of thousands of thousands of people will make it,” he reminded me, referring to the entertainment business. I remember thinking to myself: Well, I want to be that one. After four years of fictional incarceration and three other billboards for “Orange Is the New Black,” I was offered the indescribable chance to play Sofia in the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple. ” I had no idea that it would even be possible to do both at the same time. Thank God everyone was willing to play ball, and let me play on both Team Purple and Team Orange. Months before starting rehearsals for the show, the other two leads and I had glammed up for our first promo shoot. By the time we were headed into previews, taking those photos had vanished from my memory until one random fall day. My best friend had come to visit from South Carolina. As we were walking through the subway station, I turned to my left, and that feeling crept over me once more. There it was, my second ad for the gig of my career. We cried a bit, giggled a bit, took an (you might call it a selfie) and headed to the theater for her first Broadway show. She was so proud of her friend, and I was so proud to make her proud. In my fifth year as a professional actress, another experience came my way — modeling. Christian Siriano had dressed me for awards shows, and we had built a great working relationship but also a true friendship. He had graciously asked if I wanted to be his muse for his new line for Lane Bryant. Knowing that its mission statement focused on empowering women, I was sure this would be a good fit for me and what I stood for. Without hesitation, I said yes. Soon after, Lane Bryant approached me to be one of the faces of its fall campaign. I was thrilled! After shooting photos, I received an email showing me how the ad team planned on using them: on billboards, subway ads and buses in Los Angeles and New York. I was so excited. One night, I was on set and my manager sent me a text: Check your email, but make sure you are sitting. I was getting anxious, and of course the service up in Rockland County, where we shoot “Orange,” was as slow as molasses. I sat as instructed, trying to take deep patient breaths, waiting for the email to come through. It finally opened, and there it was — a sketch photo of me on a billboard in Times Square. Not just any billboard, but the one Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, was hogging for years. Eighteen stories high. It would be replaced with the nearly image of this girl from South Carolina in a leotard and heels. Yeah, I needed to sit. As soon as the billboard went up, people started to post pictures of it. The first time I saw it in person, I was in a car, being driven home from “The Color Purple. ” “OMG,” I screamed. “That’s me. Those are my thighs. Pull over. ” I felt like my parents had when they first met Oprah. They were so excited they got out of the car before it was fully parked. That was me now. I started to cry. To be blessed with all I’ve received in life leaves me speechless. What made this different? This was the first time I was on a billboard by myself. I wasn’t in a costume. I wasn’t Taystee. I wasn’t Sofia. I was Danielle Brooks. And at the bottom of the billboard were the words “See Danielle shine. ” No denying I was shining. The sky was shining that night something special. Not from the LED lights or neon signs of Times Square, but because the dreams of that determined girl with dark skin and kinky hair had been realized. For the first time, the possibilities felt limitless, and I quietly said to myself, “Dad, I made it!” | 1 |
U.S. Politics
Democratic Vice President Joe Biden wants American women to get back in the workforce to help boost the economy. “If we just put all the women back to work, if they were able to afford childcare, we would increase the GDP in America by close to eight tenths of one percent,” he said. “That’s trillions of dollars over the next decade.”
Biden made his remarks during a campaign event for Hillary Clinton at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Tuesday. “The state of our economy could be characterized by a single word: pitiful,” he argued. “We’re still battling recession, I don’t care what the official stats are saying, America is still in recession. And we’re not doing anything about it.”
He added that it was “lazy American women” who brought about the downfall of the economy, because “they sit around on their behinds, doing nothing and squandering their days away when they could be improving the country that has given so much to them.” “I’m not sure how exactly we got to this point, but we’re here and we need to move. Like, yesterday,” he said.
“Mark my words and mark them well,” he addressed the crowd. “Hillary Clinton is the only one who can force American women to go to work. This is true because of a number of reasons. First, she’s a woman herself and not just any woman; she’s a self-made woman. So you better believe what she’s saying is true and has been tried and tested in practice plenty of times.”
“Second, Hillary Clinton understands how difficult it can be to give up the status of a free-loader when your husband is the bread-winner of the household and the wife is expected to tend to the house, the children, make sure dinner is served and always be in the mood for marital duties. She’s been all that and she’s learned how to break free from it, the hard way, I might add,” Biden continued.
“Today’s women are pampered and aren’t used to rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done on their own,” the vice president said. “They’re too dependent, too weak and too lazy to contribute to the economy. The reason for that is they’ve learned how to manipulate men by employing one of the most fundamental laws of economics: when a sought-after commodity becomes short in supply, the demand for it rises even higher.”
“Now, that’s all fine and dandy when it comes to their personal interests, but if you look at the big picture, it’s the economy that’s missing out on valuable workforce. And that’s why we need to get them off their lazy behinds and get them into their workplaces. And like I said, Hillary Clinton is the only one who can do it, which is what makes her the ideal candidate for the next President of the United States. We need to heal this country, folks, not run it into the ground even deeper,” Biden concluded. via: therightists.com Biden Blames “Lazy American Women” For The Economy: “They Sit Around Doing Nothing, Only Hillary Can Force Them To Work” Share this: | 0 |
Videos UN Investigating Human Rights Abuses At Dakota Oil Pipeline Protest The UN’s advisory forum has been collecting testimonies from Dakota Access pipeline protesters and plans to issue a report and possible recommendations once the inquiry is complete. | November 1, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! Dakota Access pipeline protesters face off with police who are trying to force them from a camp on land in the path of pipeline construction on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016, near Cannon Ball, N.D.
MOSCOW – The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is investigating allegations of human rights abuses committed by North Dakota law enforcement officers against Native Americans protesting the Dakota Access pipeline construction, media reported Tuesday.
The UN’s advisory forum has been collecting testimonies from Dakota Access pipeline protesters and plans to issue a report and possible recommendations once the inquiry is complete, The Guardian reported.
The forum previously urged authorities to allow the Sioux tribe to have a say in the pipeline project.
Last Thursday, police used pepper spray and beanbag rounds of ammunition to disperse protesters from land owned by the pipeline company. Law enforcement officers from seven states were dispatched to help the local sheriff’s office and members of North Dakota’s National Guard.
The planned $3.7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline will transport domestically-produced light crude oil from North Dakota through the states of South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois. Earlier in October, US environmentalists joined Native Americans in protesting the project, which is being constructed near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The tribe claims it violates their sacred places, including burial grounds, and will affect their water sources. | 0 |
THOMPSONS, Tex. — Can one of the most promising — and troubled — technologies for fighting global warming survive during the administration of Donald J. Trump? The technology, carbon capture, involves pulling carbon dioxide out of smokestacks and industrial processes before the gas can make its way into the atmosphere. Mr. Trump’s denial of the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting climate change, a view shared by many of his cabinet nominees, might appear to doom any such environmental initiatives. But the new Petra Nova plant about to start running here, about 30 miles southwest of Houston, is a bright spot for the technology’s supporters. It is being completed essentially on time and within its budget, unlike many previous such projects. When it fires up, the plant, which is attached to one of the power company NRG’s hulking units, will draw 90 percent of the CO2 from the emissions produced by 240 megawatts of generated power. That is a fraction of the roughly 3, 700 megawatts produced at this gargantuan plant, the largest in the Lone Star State. Still, it is enough to capture 1. 6 million tons of carbon dioxide each year — equivalent to the greenhouse gas produced by driving 3. 5 billion miles, or the CO2 from generating electricity for 214, 338 homes. From a tower hundreds of feet above the Petra Nova operation, the carbon capture system looks like a fever dream of an Erector set fanatic, with mazes of pipes and gleaming tanks set off from the main plant’s skyscraping smokestacks and busy coal conveyors. Petra Nova uses the most common technology for carbon capture. The exhaust stream, pushed down a snaking conduit to the Petra Nova equipment, is exposed to a solution of chemicals known as amines, which bond with the carbon dioxide. That solution is pumped to a regenerator, or stripper, which heats the amine and releases the CO2. The gas is drawn off and compressed for further use, and the amine solution is then cycled back through the system to absorb more CO2. Petra Nova, a joint venture of NRG and JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration, will not just grab the CO2, it will use it, pushing compressed CO2 through a new pipeline 81 miles to an oil field. The gas will be injected into wells, a technique known as enhanced oil recovery, that should increase production to 15, 000 barrels a day from about 300 barrels a day. And since NRG owns a quarter of the oil recovery project, what comes out of the ground will help pay for the carbon capture operation. The plant, which has received $190 million from the federal government, can be economically viable if the price of oil is about $50 a barrel, said David Knox, an NRG spokesman. The company expects to declare the plant operational in January, Mr. Knox said. Aware of problems with carbon capture projects around the country and of the risks of hubris, he said: “We’re not going to declare victory before it’s time. ” If the price of oil stabilizes or rises, and if tax breaks for developing the technology continue and markets for carbon storage develop, he said, utilities might ask, “why would I not want to put a carbon capture system on my plant?” But developing carbon capture has been neither straightforward nor easy. So far, problems have bedeviled major projects, often costing far more than projected and taking longer to complete. The federal government has canceled projects like Future Gen, which was granted more than $1 billion by the Obama administration. Carbon capture systems are not just expensive to build they tend to be and make the plant less efficient over all — a problem known as “parasitic load. ” The Petra Nova carbon capture process gets its energy from a separate power plant constructed for the purpose, which NRG says makes the system more efficient than it would otherwise be, and frees up all of the capacity of the main power plant to sell all of the electricity it produces. The company estimates that the next plant it builds could cost 20 percent less, thanks to lessons learned this time around. If Petra Nova succeeds, it means a boost for carbon capture. Despite carbon capture’s problems, its supporters, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency, call the technology, known as carbon capture sequestration, crucial for meeting emissions standards that can prevent the worst effects of climate change. “If you don’t have C. C. S. the chance of success goes down, and the cost of success goes up,” said Julio Friedmann, an expert at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in California and a former Energy Department official. “If you do have C. C. S. the chance of success goes up and the cost of success goes down. ” Carbon capture is proving itself, said David Mohler, the deputy assistant secretary for clean coal and carbon management at the federal Energy Department. Developing technologies often involves delay and cost overruns initially, he said. “You cannot engineer all the bugs out from inside a cubicle — you really have to do this stuff in the real world,” he said. Driving down costs, he noted, is what engineers and businesses do through research, development and production. He cited the plummeting cost of initially expensive technologies like solar power. “We do figure things out as we go,” he said. What the Trump administration will do with carbon capture is, at this point, anyone’s guess. “The technology only makes sense in a world where you are seeking to avoid putting CO2 into the atmosphere,” said Mark Brownstein, a vice president for the climate and energy program at the Environmental Defense Fund. But some supporters of the technology see reasons for hope. “I actually think it’s a moment of optimism,” said Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who met with Mr. Trump last month as a potential agriculture secretary. Ms. Heitkamp legislation with another Democrat, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, to expand and extend tax breaks for carbon capture projects. “What I saw with the was a laserlike focus on jobs,” she said. “I think he was intrigued” about the economic opportunity that carbon capture could provide to keep coal power generation in the national mix, she added. One of the pillars of Mr. Trump’s campaign was his intention to revive the fortunes of the coal industry through support of clean coal. And while the exact meaning of the phrase is open to interpretation, it generally includes not just technologies that remove soot and pollutants, but also carbon dioxide. Ms. Heitkamp said that businesses, too, were likely to continue development of carbon capture technology, since they planned their plant investments on a curve of decades and are loath to change course because of a single election. “The decision they are making is not, what does the political outlook look like today? What’s it look like over the life of this plant?” Although she concedes that a revival of coal’s fortunes is unlikely, carbon capture could be a way to extend the life of current facilities while keeping the nation’s energy mix diverse. Jeff Erikson, general manager at the Global C. C. S. Institute, which promotes the technology, said he did not expect to see a great number of new coal plants on the way. “I wouldn’t say carbon capture is going to rescue the coal industry,” he said, but pointed out that there is great potential for applying carbon capture to diverse natural gas plants and to industrial applications. Captured carbon can be used not just for oil production but a widening range of industrial processes, or can even be pumped into the ground. One of the most innovative approaches to carbon capture is being tried 50 miles east of the Petra Nova plant, in La Porte, Tex. where a consortium of companies is trying an entirely new approach to power generation. In a $140 million, 50 megawatt demonstration project, the company, Net Power, will use superheated carbon dioxide in much the same way that conventional power plants use steam to drive turbines. This system, invented by a British engineer, Rodney Allam, eliminates the inefficiency inherent in heating water into steam and cooling it again. The power plant produces a stream of very pure, pressurized carbon dioxide that is ready for pipelines without much of the additional processing that conventional carbon capture systems require. The creators say that their technology will produce electric power at a price comparable to power plants, the efficient plants that burn gas to power one turbine and then use the excess heat from that process to generate additional power with a steam turbine. That means, in effect, that “the cost of being green is zero,” said Bill Brown, the chief executive of Net Power. “The potential to capture CO2 at no additional cost would be a game changer,” said Fatima Maria Ahmad, a fellow at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a think tank. Net Power combines the resources of Exelon Generation, a power company, the engineering and construction firm CBI, and 8 Rivers Capital, which developed the technology used in the project. The centerpiece of the project is a special turbine built by Toshiba and designed for the punishingly high pressure used in the process. And while any system that so closely resembles a rocket engine has the potential for what engineers delicately refer to as a RUD — “rapid unplanned disassembly” — those working directly on the project say they have designed safety features that give them confidence. Even if the United States government shows little interest in reducing the nation’s carbon footprint under Mr. Trump and a Republican Congress, consortium officials say they expect to find ready customers from companies in the United States and around the globe, where the threat of climate change is fully acknowledged. “We see this very much playing into all parts of the world,” said Daniel McCarthy, executive vice president for CBI’s technology operating group. Environmentalists remain divided on the issue of carbon capture, said John Coequyt, global climate policy director for Sierra Club. “This is the issue where the biggest range of positions exists within the environmental community,” he said. Groups like the Clean Air Task Force favor it strongly. Other factions call clean coal a fig leaf to keep coal, with all of its environmental baggage, in the energy mix. And many suggest the billions of dollars spent on trying to capture carbon would be better directed to the technologies that don’t pollute the atmosphere in the first place. Dr. Friedmann, the former energy official, predicted that the technology would prove its usefulness. “It’s convenient to just say ‘Keep it in the ground,’ ” he said, referring to an slogan. “What I prefer to say is ‘Keep it from the air. ’” | 1 |
Manuela Carmena pide a los madrileños que guarden las latas y las bolsas de la basura para hacer los vestidos de los Reyes Magos EL MUNDO TODAY RADIO El Mundo Today en tu buzón Tu Email PRISA contrata pitonisas para que hagan el escrutinio electoral de las próximas elecciones EL MUNDO TODAY: PROGRAMA 12 (19/11/2011) Este sitio web utiliza cookies para analizar cómo es utilizado el sitio. Las cookies no te pueden identificar. Si continuas navegando supone la aceptación de la Política de Cookies. Estoy de acuerdo. Más info. | 0 |
Sen. Ted Cruz ( ) ripped into Tesla CEO Elon Musk Thursday night for his use of a private jet after the tech billionaire tweeted his disapproval of President Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. [Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, took to Twitter to announce that he would be departing from all future presidential councils in protest of President Trump’s decision to pull the U. S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. He assured his followers that global warming is real and that leaving the Paris accords is “not good” for America or the world. Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017, Hours later, Cruz mocked Musk’s outrage, pointing out that he regularly travels around the country in his own private jet. If the billionaire CEO was so dedicated to reducing the world’s carbon output, Cruz snarked, he would choose to fly commercial planes rather than private ones. In support of Paris, CA billionaires pledge to never again fly private, will only fly commercial. — will quit symbolic councils instead. https: . — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 2, 2017, Musk has come under fire previously for his liberal use of his private jet, which he upgraded last year from a Dassault Falcon 900 B to a Gulfstream G650 ER. It was reported in 2010 that Musk took private jets to Washington on at least 12 occasions over the course of two years to lobby the Department of Energy for a loan of $465 million, which Musk’s company Tesla was eventually granted. Around the same time, Tesla also struck deals with the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority that made the company exempt from up to $320 million in California State sales and U. S. taxes. Musk has been a vocal supporter of carbon taxes, saying, “All we are doing [with a carbon tax] is trying to match the inherent subsidy for fossil fuels … on the sustainable energy side. Fossil fuels are already getting a massive subsidy if you believe in global warming. If you don’t then [the subsidy] seems really unfair. If you do then it is like oh we are just trying to correct it. ” Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 1 |
TORONTO — One year after Canada embraced Syrian refugees like no other country, a reckoning was underway. Ordinary Canadians had essentially adopted thousands of Syrian families, donating a year of their time and money to guide them into new lives just as many other countries shunned them. Some citizens already considered the project a humanitarian triumph others believed the Syrians would end up isolated and adrift, stuck on welfare or worse. As 2016 turned to 2017 and the yearlong commitments began to expire, the question of how the newcomers would fare acquired a national nickname: Month 13, when the Syrians would try to stand on their own. On a frozen January afternoon, Liz Stark, a retired teacher, bustled into a modest apartment on the east side of this city, unusually anxious. She and her friends had poured themselves into resettling Mouhamad and Wissam a former farmer and his wife, and their four children, becoming so close that they referred to one another as substitute grandparents, parents and children. But the improvised family had a deadline. In two weeks, the sponsorship agreement would end. The Canadians would stop paying for rent and other basics. They would no longer manage the newcomers’ bank account and budget. Ms. Stark was adding Mr. Hajj’s name to the apartment lease, the first step in removing her own. “The honeymoon is over,” she said later. That afternoon, her mind was on forms, checks and her list. But she knew that her little group of grandmothers, retirees and book club friends was swimming against a global surge of skepticism, even hatred, toward immigrants and refugees. The president of the superpower to the south was moving to block Syrians and cut back its refugee program. Desperate migrants were crossing into Canada on foot. sentiment was reshaping Europe’s political map. In a few days, an gunman would slaughter worshipers at a Quebec City mosque. Ms. Stark and her group were betting that much of the world was wrong — that with enough support, poor Muslims from rural Syria could adapt, belong and eventually prosper and contribute in Canada. Against that backdrop, every meeting, decision and bit of progress felt heightened: Would the family succeed? Ms. Stark’s most crucial task that day was ushering the Syrian couple to a budget tutorial. Banks were new to them. So were A. T. M. cards. Because the sponsors paid their rent and often accompanied them to make withdrawals, the couple had little sense of how to manage money in a bank account. Some of Canada’s new Syrian refugees had university degrees, professional skills, fledgling businesses already up and running. But the Hajjes could not read or write, even in Arabic. After a year of grinding English study, Mr. Hajj, 36, struggled to get the new words out. He longed to scan a supermarket label or road sign with ease and had grown increasingly upset about his education, understanding how inadequate it would prove in the years to come. As he stared down Month 13, he felt overwhelmed and alarmed. “We don’t know what will happen,” he said. From the start of the budgeting appointment, the settlement counselor, Roula Ajib, knew something was wrong. “Why are you losing weight?” she asked Mr. Hajj in Arabic. Many other Syrian refugees had filled out in Canada. Worry, he replied. On top of his other concerns, his father back in Syria was entreating Mr. Hajj to send money for doctor’s visits and for farming supplies to help feed their family, even pushing him to ask the sponsors for the funds. When the son said no, unsure if he would have anything to spare and unwilling to ask the Canadians for more help, his father stopped answering his calls. A few days before the appointment, Mr. Hajj, riddled with guilt, grabbed his new cellphone, threw it to the floor and crushed it under his foot. His wife, 37, protested the waste of money and told him to be patient. He had recently gotten a job, in the kitchen of a Middle Eastern restaurant. Their children were attending school for the first time in their lives, learning English and French, becoming ice skaters and soccer champions. She felt sure that the sponsors would remain by their sides and that, apart from financial matters, Month 13 would not change their relationship. “I know our sponsors love us,” she said. “They won’t leave us. ” But she knew her husband was despairing. She had recently found him curled up on their couch, crying. Now, as Ms. Stark sat at the table, unable to understand the conversation in Arabic, Mr. Hajj told the counselor he was considering something extreme. “I was thinking about going back to Syria,” he said. A few hours later, his three older children sat with their legs outstretched in an ice rink locker room as two of the sponsors hunched over them, lacing skates. Carole Atkins, a bubbly teacher’s assistant soon to turn 69, was a hockey fanatic, the oldest player in her league. Now she was initiating the Hajj children in the sport, outfitting them with gear and taking them to a weekly class while their parents stayed home. “Skate hard,” she told them as they bounded onto the ice. Watching from the stands, the sponsors tracked the children’s every move. Moutayam, a fourth grader and the family comedian, was outskating everyone, even the children, charging to the front each time and finishing first. “Oh my God, it’s like he’s running on the ice,” Ms. Atkins exclaimed to Jan Dowler, the sponsor by her side. As Month 13 approached across Canada, every group of sponsors and refugees had to determine what their new relationship would look like. Some were mutually relieved to be done, the chemistry never quite right. In other cases, the Canadians continued directly funding the Syrians, unable to cut the financial cord. The Hajj sponsors had already decided that their payments to the family would stop. (While the specifics of private sponsorship could vary, they had raised more than 30, 000 Canadian dollars, or about $22, 500 in American money, to support the family before the Syrians arrived in February 2016.) The family’s income would dip, but between Mr. Hajj’s earnings and a continued $ government subsidy for families — which he called “the children’s salary” — they would be able to remain in their $ apartment. Still, with the deadline nearing, the Hajj sponsors faced uncomfortable, nagging questions: Were they doing too much for the Syrian family? Should they stand back and stop acting as chauffeurs, planners and fixers? Were they willing to let the family make mistakes? Even if they wanted to stop helping, would they be able to? The skating lessons were only the beginning. Many days at the family’s apartment passed as a series of sponsors knocking at the door, from the mornings when they arrived to tutor Ms. Hajj in English — with a baby at home, she didn’t go out to classes — to the evenings when they took turns assisting with the children’s homework. As they dropped by, they brought extra produce or halal meat, answered questions about mail, drove the Syrians to appointments and took care of whatever else was needed. A calendar on the fridge indicated more reasons for showing up, like dental visits, noted with a tiny sketch of a tooth. A doctor they had found for the family and a adviser warned them that they were impeding the Hajjes from becoming . Some of the sponsors felt the same way. “If we keep up like this, they’re just going to become more and more dependent,” said Ms. Dowler, one of the sponsors who advocated pulling back. “Maybe we’re giving them unreal expectations for the next 10, 20 years of their lives. ” Even Mr. Hajj said he needed to make mistakes. “I have to learn the hard way,” he said. But the sponsors knew how much the family needed. The Hajjes had fled Syria at the start of the war and spent several miserable years in Lebanon, living in squalid conditions, the children working for a dollar a day. Could they really be expected to be independent in a year? The sponsors, mostly retirees, had the time to help, and they thrived on their shared sense of mission. They wanted so much for the Hajjes: not just the basics, like language and literacy, but for them to participate in the mainstream of Canadian life. They could not bear the thought of the family becoming isolated, the parents marginalized, the children missing out on activities their own children had taken for granted. “We’re all Canadians and we’re raising these kids like Canadian kids,” said Peggy Karas, another sponsor. One morning in February, Moutayam’s school bus failed to appear, so the boy dialed one sponsor after another until he got Ms. Karas, who rushed right over instead of letting his mother figure it out. She feared the boy would miss a day of school if she did not step in. “The dependency comes from both sides,” said Sam Nammoura, a refugee advocate who observed similar situations in Calgary, Alberta, where he served as a liaison between sponsors and Syrians. “The newcomers fear taking risks, and the minute they take a risk, the sponsor thinks, ‘They don’t speak English, I will help them,’” he said. The sponsors resolved to continue tutoring Ms. Hajj and the children but to retreat in other ways. They asked the Hajj parents to take the children to swimming lessons instead of doing it themselves. They knew they should teach them more bus routes, instead of driving them so much. But they rarely followed through. When the Hajj children missed a swimming lesson, the sponsors started taking them again. As for showing the family more public transportation routes, “I’m 69,” Ms. Atkins said. “I’m not taking the bus. ” “I haven’t really fostered any independence,” she admitted. Even Ms. Dowler, who pushed the group to do less, found herself signing up the children for camp over spring break and trying to nab a gardening plot for Mr. Hajj, who missed farming. Part of what made it so difficult to step back was that the Syrians and Canadians filled gaps in one another’s lives in a way none of them had anticipated: Wissam had lost her mother as a girl now the older Canadian women became maternal figures to her, somehow able to trade family gossip and confidences about marriage despite the language gap. Ms. Karas longed for grandchildren and had embraced the four Syrian children as if they were her own. The three eldest had years of lost schooling to make up, and many of the sponsors were retired teachers. When one left Toronto for the winter, she fought back tears saying goodbye to the children. The next day, when Moutayam was in class, he cried about missing her. For sponsors, one of the most uncomfortable parts of Month 13 was watching the refugees make financial decisions they found questionable at best. Some of the Syrians took what the Canadians felt were the wrong jobs, or signed up for too many credit cards. Others bought cars, even if they did not have driver’s licenses. The lowest point in the Hajj sponsors’ year had started with an unsettling discovery. Like other Syrians, Mouhamad had arrived in Canada eager to work, but had been counseled by the sponsors to instead take intensive English classes. (They helped him pick up odd jobs in gardening and construction.) A couple of months before the Month 13 deadline, he got lucky. The friend who was advising the group called in a favor the sponsors never could have: He phoned an Egyptian immigrant he had helped years ago who now managed a shawarma restaurant in a mall food court and asked if he could give Mr. Hajj a job. Soon, Mr. Hajj was working a couple of evenings a week in addition to continuing English classes. But when Liz Stark accompanied Mr. Hajj to the bank to deposit a paycheck, she scanned his transactions and noticed something alarming: a couple of thousands of dollars were missing, withdrawn from A. T. M. s. “I thought he was getting scammed, defrauded,” she said later. Mr. Hajj, who seemed evasive, said he had taken out the money to stock up on food. “I wanted to make up for my kids the nights we used to go to sleep hungry,” he said. Ms. Stark, believing that Mr. Hajj didn’t understand his accounts well enough to realize what had happened, went to the bank to try to figure out what had gone wrong. When that turned up no evidence of theft, she and the other sponsors wondered if there were other explanations for the unfamiliar pattern. Had Mr. Hajj sent the money to his father in Syria? Stashed it away in a drawer? A few weeks later, Mr. Hajj asked the sponsors about going on welfare. He had heard about it from his classmates in English lessons. Some were enrolling, seeing it as a safer bet than insecure, jobs, they told him. One explained that he could work and still collect the government assistance, if he could persuade his boss to pay him under the table. With a sinking feeling, the sponsors began to worry: Had Mr. Hajj been withdrawing the money to game the system, to lower his bank balance so he would qualify for social assistance? Even legal use of the welfare system by Syrian refugees was a charged question, the sponsors knew. Some Canadians argued that welfare was a necessary step for some refugees, buying them more time to learn the language, which would lead to better jobs in the long term. A survival job could turn into a trap, the philosophy went. But across Canada, resentment was rising about the amount of help the Syrian newcomers had been given. A member of Parliament was running for the head of the Conservative Party on a platform of screening new immigrants and refugees with questions like “Do you recognize that to have a good life in Canada you will need to work hard to provide for yourself and your family, and that you can’t expect to have things you want given to you?” The Hajj sponsors were acutely aware of this concern. “There’s going to be a backlash if suddenly 25, 000 Syrians appear on the welfare rolls,” Ms. Stark said. In Europe, the idea that government is taking services away from citizens and giving them to foreigners has become a familiar complaint. The sponsors weren’t sure what to believe they suspected that Mr. Hajj was keeping a secret. The situation was “eroding my confidence in Mouhamad and it was eroding my feelings towards the family,” Ms. Stark said. She and the other sponsors asked themselves: How could this be happening, after they had grown so close to the family? And did they really have the right to know or question how Mr. Hajj used money? In reply to his question about welfare, Ms. Karas did not mince words. “We didn’t bring you here and give you all this help so that you could become a drain on our government system,” Ms. Karas told him. She explained that social assistance was a stopgap measure for people in need. “We expected you to go out and get a job and support your family. ” Mr. Hajj agreed not to apply. “I’m a son to these sponsors, who have lived in this country their whole life,” he said later. “They must know for sure what is right and what is wrong. ” “Working is much better than staying at home and doing nothing,” he continued. “And work can make you earn more money. ” The Canadians decided to move on. “I can’t spend my whole life worrying about what happened to that money,” Ms. Stark said. In fact, Mr. Hajj had even more of a safety net than he knew. The sponsors had not told him that because of government support, they had money left over from the family’s first year. When he and his family encountered extra expenses, they would have several thousand dollars waiting. A few weeks after starting work, Mr. Hajj was heading to the restaurant when the subway ground to a halt: part of the line was down. He had no idea where he was, panicked that he would be late, tried to find a bus, and couldn’t ask anyone for help in English. He managed to phone the friend who advised the sponsor group. The man instructed him to get into a cab and told the driver where to take him. Later, Mr. Hajj told Ms. Atkins and his children the story, managing to convey part of it in English. “Bus left here, work,” he said. “Taxi! Money, money big!” (The taxi had cost $12.) If it happened again, Ms. Atkins told him, he should take the bus to Yorkdale. She spoke it slowly, syllable by syllable, and told him to practice. “Yorkdale!” the Hajj children chimed in chorus with their father. Three weeks later, Peggy Karas stood in the Hajjes’ living room and reached her arms out to Julia, the . It was six days into Month 13. Unlike many other groups, the Hajjes and their sponsors had not marked the moment with speeches or a cake they did not seem particularly eager to note the transition. Ms. Karas carried Julia to a wall filled with the sponsors’ pictures, pointed at each, and told the baby a name to match each familiar face: Liz. Jan. Carole. Cliff. Marg. That afternoon, the three older children had conferences, and Ms. Karas and Ms. Atkins were going with them. But the Hajjes were also showing small new signs of independence. While the sponsors were still setting up their doctor’s appointments, the Syrians were now navigating there alone. Classmates of the couple’s twins had started visiting for playdates. To Ms. Atkins’s delight, the Hajjes canceled plans with her to attend a for Syrian families at a community center. And Zahiya, one of the twins, wowed everyone by writing down a phone message in English. Mr. Hajj still had not spoken to his father. But the restaurant was giving him more hours, and his more seasoned arrivals from around the Muslim world, encouraged him and taught him new English words. Mr. Hajj even got his first raise, to $13 per hour from $11. 50. As his English inched forward, his talk of going back to Syria subsided. “I am now out of the zone of only listening,” he said in March, still using his native language to describe his new one. “I’m able to talk back to people, too,” he said. Across the country, as Month 13 turned into Months 14 and 15, the early results of private sponsorship of Syrians looked a lot like Mr. Hajj’s progress — still tentative, but showing forward motion. According to early government figures, about half of privately sponsored adults were working full or part time. As a group, they were outpacing the thousands more refugees who did not have sponsors and were being resettled by the government — only about 10 percent of them had jobs (on the whole, they were less educated and had higher rates of serious health problems and other needs). Previous refugees to Canada over the past decade — a mix of Iraqis, Afghans, Colombians, Eritreans and more — had followed the same pattern, with privately sponsored refugees more likely to be employed after a year at similar rates. Around the world, as a response to the colossal refugee crisis, more countries were exploring Canada’s unique system of letting everyday citizens resettle refugees. Britain and Argentina were starting pilot programs, and others were expected to follow. “The sponsorship program, in my opinion, is the most efficient way of bringing new people into the country, because it provides so much support, emotional, social and financial,” said Mr. Nammoura, the refugee advocate. In Canada, so many people applied to sponsor relatives of the first wave of Syrians that the system was jammed, slots for new refugees impossible to find. (The Hajj sponsors began applying for two of their siblings’ families to come to Canada after two New York Times readers learned of their struggles in an earlier article and donated the sponsorship costs, but the Canadians anticipated a lengthy wait.) Even the opposition Conservative Party, which accused the government of bringing in more Syrians than it could handle — over 40, 000 since November 2015 — supported increasing the number of privately sponsored refugees. “There’s no reason why Canada shouldn’t be harnessing the generosity of private citizens,” said Michelle Rempel, the Conservative Party’s leader on immigration and refugee policy. But there was no common definition of success: Was it enough that these refugees were not dying in the Mediterranean or languishing in camps? Was working a menial job for subsistence pay a positive outcome? Many resettlement veterans argued that it was unrealistic to expect refugees to be after a year, and that the real test would be the fate of their children. In a huge country with a relatively low population, where immigration was seen as necessary fuel, many Canadians were willing to make a generational investment. “We didn’t think about what success would look like,” Ms. Stark said. “We just thought about changing the life of one family. ” The Hajjes wished they could repay the sponsors, but it felt impossible. “They give us so much and we don’t have anything to give,” Ms. Hajj said. “So Mouhamad and I and the kids are always praying for them. ” As the Hajjes and the sponsors left the apartment for the conferences, Peggy Karas asked if Ms. Hajj had brought a diaper for Julia, and the Syrian mother tucked one in her pocket. In the school parking lot, Ms. Karas pushed the stroller and Carole Atkins turned up with the older children, whom she had collected after school. A janitor let everyone in through a locked door, but looked quizzically at the motley group. “It’s a big family,” Ms. Karas told him with a laugh. The twins’ teacher was Stefanie Apostol, a Romanian immigrant who taught a special program for students who lacked formal schooling. She had a lingering accent, a commanding presence and a habit of calling Zahiya and her twin brother, Majed, “my kids. ” She began the meeting by firing off bursts of good news. The twins, unable to read at the start of the school year, were deciphering words. They showed up every day determined, worked intently, asked questions. Zahiya was meticulous. Majed was fast. They competed furiously. An interpreter tried to keep up with the praise, and as she translated for the Hajj parents, a look of immense relief passed over Mouhamad’s face. His children had gone without schooling for so many years. He had been worried that it was too late, that they would be illiterate like him. “We were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to learn,” he said. The teacher, grasping the depth of his fear, decided to show him proof. She beckoned the boy and girl to a stack of simple books and told them to each choose one. “The shark played with Mark at the park until dark,” Majed read. “The chick did a trick with a brick,” Zahiya followed, more hesitant. Mr. Hajj, glowing, looked like a different person. The teacher turned to the sponsors. “Thanks to you guys,” she said, sharing the credit. “You help and support us. ” Moutayam’s teacher had been even more direct: She asked the sponsors to confirm that they would keep working with him, and they replied that they would continue until he could do the homework completely on his own. Dropping the family off at their apartment, Ms. Atkins had intended to go straight home. But at the doorway, Majed wanted her to read him his report card, and Zahiya tugged at her, too. “I guess I’m going back in,” she said. | 1 |
Update: Banks apologized for forgetting about Spielberg’s film The Color Purple during her speech, in a statement posted to her Twitter account Thursday. [“When I made the comments, I was thinking of recent films Steven directed, it was not my intention to dismiss the import of the iconic #TheColorPurple,” she wrote. pic. twitter. — Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) June 15, 2017, “Those who have the privilege and honor of directing and producing films should be held to account for our mistakes, whether it’s about diversity or inaccurate statements. I’m very sorry,” she added. Original story below: Elizabeth Banks “called out” legendary director Steven Spielberg in a speech at the Women in Film awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Wednesday, accusing Spielberg of never having cast a woman as a lead in a film in his career. In an acceptance speech, Banks — who directed and starred in the 2015 sequel to the cult hit Pitch Perfect — reportedly discussed the lack of female representation in Hollywood and specifically the according to the Wrap. “I went to Indiana Jones and Jaws and every movie Steven Spielberg ever made, and by the way, he’s never made a movie with a female lead,” Banks charged. “Sorry, Steven. I don’t mean to call your ass out but it’s true. ” While most of Spielberg’s films do appear to revolve around male leads, at least three have featured lead roles for women his first film, 1974’s The Sugarland Express, which starred Goldie Hawn 1985’s The Color Purple, which starred Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg and last year’s The BFG, which starred child actor Ruby Barnhill. An upcoming film about the Pentagon Papers is set to star Meryl Streep as Washington Post publisher Kay Graham. Spielberg has also produced several titles with leading roles for women, including 2009’s The Lovely Bones, starring Rachel Weisz, and 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha. The Wrap reported that an audience member pointed out The Color Purple to Banks, but she moved on in her speech. Banks — who is set to direct an upcoming reboot of Charlie’s Angels — was feted at the Women in Film event by former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for whom she had campaign during the 2016 race. Clinton told the audience that she had not yet seen the superhero film Wonder Woman, but predicted she would enjoy it. “Something tells me that a movie about a strong, powerful woman fighting to save the world from a massive international disaster is right up my alley,” Clinton said. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
Greetings Earthlings! This is your planet and its moon as seen from Mars, some 127 million miles away. This composite image, which was released by NASA on Friday, was created using a special camera aboard the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is a spacecraft orbiting about 180 miles above the red planet. The camera is called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. It provides scientists with detailed views of the Martian surface so they can better study geological features like its volcanoes and gullies, as well as scope out potential landing sites for future missions. “It’s the biggest telescope ever sent to another planet,” said Alfred McEwen a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona and the principal investigator of HiRise. Dr. McEwen said that the image was taken while NASA researchers were trying to calibrate the camera. NASA knows precisely what color the moon’s near side is, so when it wants to calibrate HiRise, it points it at the moon and takes some images. NASA then analyzes the pictures and if the colors appear off it can correct the calibration. “The moon is boring. It doesn’t change, it’s relatively bland and it doesn’t have all of these variations or changing clouds. It’s a good calibration target,” Dr. McEwen said. “The Earth is a bad calibration target with all its variability like clouds and such, but it makes a pretty picture. ” Earth and the moon appear close in this image, but that is because the moon is actually just behind Earth. The researchers had to wait until the two celestial bodies were positioned like this because it provided them with the best view of the moon to perform their calibration, Dr. McEwen said. To make this picture, scientists combined two separate exposures taken on Nov. 20, 2016, which were processed differently. Dr. McEwen said that NASA needed two exposures to make this image because a good image of the moon saturates Earth, and a good image of Earth makes the moon appear too dark. Vegetation appears red in this image, according to Dr. McEwen. The red spot in the middle of Earth is Australia, the one on the top left is Southeast Asia and Antarctica is the bright white blob in the bottom left. | 1 |
Home / Badge Abuse / This Weird Trick Puts A Police Power In Your Hands This Weird Trick Puts A Police Power In Your Hands The Free Thought Project October 26, 2016 Comments Off on This Weird Trick Puts A Police Power In Your Hands -sponsored content by
Ever try Googling someone only to come up with basic information and maybe a link or two to an outdated social media profile? There’s a new website going around that promises to reveal much more than just a simple google search can show you.
Been issued a speeding ticket? Failed to stop at a stop sign? What about your family members? And friends? If you are like most of us, the answer to at least one of those questions is “yes”—the vast majority of us have slipped up at least once or twice.
An innovative new website — Instant Checkmate is now revealing the full “scoop” on millions of Americans.
Instant Checkmate aggregates hundreds of millions of publicly available criminal, traffic, and arrest records and posts them online so they can easily be searched by anyone. Members of the site can literally begin searching within seconds, and are able to check as many records as they like (think: friends, family, neighbors, etc. etc.).
Previously, if you wanted to research someone’s arrest records, you might have had to actually go into a county court office—in the appropriate county—and formally request information on an individual. This process may have taken days or weeks, or the information might not have been available at all. With websites like Instant Checkmate , however, a background check takes just a few clicks of the mouse, and no more than a minute or two.
While preparing this article, I decided to run a quick search on myself to give the service a real-world test. To my dismay, the search revealed several items I’d long forgotten—one of them being for the possession of a fake ID I was (embarrassingly) issued back in college when I was just 18 years old. “possession of a fake ID I was (embarrassingly) issued back in college when I was just 18 years old”
After searching myself and finding those records, my curiosity was piqued, and I began researching family members—apparently my aunt Susanne isn’t a very good driver, judging by the numerous traffic citations that showed on her record.
One of the most interesting aspects of Instant Checkmate is that it shows not only criminal records, but also more general background information like court records, various types of licenses (FAA, DEA), previous addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, estimated income levels and even satellite imagery of known addresses—it’s really pretty scary just how much information is in these reports.
In addition to giving information on the specific person you search for, the report also includes a scrolling list of “local sex offenders” for whatever region you’ve searched—along with a map plotting out the locations of those offenders. I started perusing the ones that showed up in my report, and I was absolutely blown away when I stumbled upon my junior high school wrestling coach’s mug shot.
“I was absolutely blown away when I stumbled upon my junior high school wrestling coach’s mug shot.”
His crime was listed as “Out of state offense,”” so I wasn’t able to get the specifics (you usually can—this was an unusual case), but he was definitely a registered sex offender. Scary stuff.
I would definitely recommend this tool to friends and family. Anyone can start running background checks on Instant Checkmate within a few seconds—just click this link to get started. If you would like to search someone you know, click here . Note from the Author
I have to warn you before you start your search, the information you find may be overwhelming and has the potential of changing your view of the search subject forever. Keep this in mind when completing your search . – Heidi R. | 0 |
Sunday, 6 November 2016 Farage. Just an unbelievable cunt!
Nigel Farage has threatened to create "political disturbances in the street" after recent developments in the government's implementation of Brexit. Due to his belief that he is destined to become the unelected dictator of a newly "independent" Britain, he has conspired with his millionaire tabloid-owning friends to try to start a sort of beer hall putsch to propel himself to power.
Sadly, nobody followed his advice. Mainly because his supporters are too old to form a mob, they don't know how to organise using social media, and most of them would rather stay indoors watching The Antiques Roadshow.
Mr Farage was disappointed with the response. The would-be tyrant with a German wife has been seen practicing his goose-step for months, although he actually marches more like a duck.
Police have said that it is probably just as well that Farage's supposed violence did not appear, because it would make his incitement a criminal offence. Mr Farage has not been discouraged however, and is planning to hire a crowd of cheap Eastern European labourers to form a mob for him. Make Sir Geoffroy Cockface's | 0 |
Eric Zuesse First, the context in which the issue of war against Russia has been raised: Syria’s government is allied with Russia’s government, and ‘The West’ is trying to overthrow Syria’s government and is bringing into Syria, and arming, tens of thousands of jihadists there, as the footsoldiers to do it. Syria and Russia are bombing the people that we are bringing in. The Presidential candidate of the U.S. Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, is a longstanding and ardent proponent of the U.S. establishing a “no-fly zone” over at least the parts of Syria where non-ISIS jihadists — the jihadists that are financed and armed by the U.S. and its allies (mainly by the Sunni fundamentalist royal families who own Saudi Arabia and Qatar) — have conquered territory from Syria’s (legitimate and internationally recognized) government. It’s conquest of Syria, that the U.S. is backing. The U.S., in both law and fact, is already participating in an invasion of Syria. Syria’s government is run by the ideologically committed anti-Sharia-law and non-sectarian Ba’ath Party, under President Bashar al-Assad, who happens to be nominally an Alawite Shiite (and fundamentalist Sunnis hate Shiites, and all of the jihadists are fundamentalist Sunnis, just as the royal Saudi and Qatari families are ), and Assad has always crushed jihadists in Syria — until Barack Obama became the U.S. President. As soon as Obama came into power, he and Hillary Clinton were working behind the scenes for the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. Clinton has committed herself clearly to completing what President Obama has started. And she intends to do it by means of instituting in Syria a no-fly zone like she did in Libya ( a big win for her ). But there is a big difference: Russian planes weren’t defending Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan government. Russian planes are defending Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government. For the U.S. government to institute a no-fly zone in Syria would mean that the U.S. would shoot down Syrian government planes that are bombing the U.S.-backed jihadists who are fighting to overthrow and replace Assad’s government. Of course many civilians are getting bombed by both the U.S. and Syrian sides, and some of the victims of the Syrian government’s side are publicized on U.S.-allied television in order to stir hatred against Assad and help (the non-ISIS, U.S.-backed) jihadists (such as Al Qaeda in Syria), but this is the way of war — and the propaganda for war — and no “no-fly zone” will improve that situation, but could possibly make it far worse. Russia’s participation in the Syrian war is not an invasion, but America’s is. The Syrian government had requested assistance from the Russian government to help kill all of the jihadist groups (not only ISIS but Al Qaeda in Syria and all the others, all of which are backed by the U.S. and by the royals who own Saudi Arabia and Qatar). The jihadists are trying to overthrow and replace Syria’s secular government. On 30 September 2015, Russia started its bombing campaign there, which continues. Consequently, the U.S.-established no-fly zone in Syria would also be shooting down Russian bombers. At that point, where the U.S. and Russia are at war against each other in Syria due to America’s no-fly zone (in a country where we’re invaders , not invited in by the nation’s government, such as the Russian planes are), either one side or the other would surrender, or else nuclear war would result. How likely would Syria and Russia be to surrender Syria? How likely would the U.S. be to surrender to Russia and Syria? (After all: Hillary Clinton is passionately anti-Russian and anti-Syrian.) In other words, and in short: nuclear war is the likely outcome if Hillary Clinton becomes elected President of the United States . It would be practically unavoidable, if she is elected. The domestic U.S. politics that are associated with this shocking but clear fact are complex, but are likewise clear: The American public simply don’t know or understand these facts; and the reason they don’t is that these facts are hidden from them, as will be exemplified in the following ways: On October 26th, the U.S.-allied propaganda-agency Reuters headlined “Britain, U.S. sending planes, troops to deter Russia in the east” and pretended (without even acknowledging the actual facts of the matter) that this NATO action is a response to ‘deter’ Russia because Russia had accepted in 2014 the overwhelming desire of the residents of Crimea to become Russian citizens after the coup that U.S. President Barack Obama’s Administration had perpetrated in Ukraine during February 2014 , overthrowing the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, for whom 75% of Crimeans had voted . Even Western-sponsored polls that were taken of Crimeans both before and after the resulting Crimean 16 March 2014 referendum on whether Crimea should be restored to being again a province of Russia (which Crimea was until the Soviet dictator Khrushchev had arbitrarily transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954) showed that over 90% of Crimeans wanted to do this and that even a higher percentage of them were mad as hell against what America was doing and extremely supportive of Russia’s position on this matter, but the U.S. government’s position is that it was instead ‘conquest of land’ by Russia, and the U.S. and its allies are pouring troops and weapons onto and near Russia’s borders in order to defend against ‘ Russian aggression’ . The power of sheer propaganda! It’s crucial in politics. The way the Reuters ‘news’ report phrased this matter was “NATO’s aim is to make good on a July promise by NATO leaders to deter Russia in Europe’s ex-Soviet states, after Moscow orchestrated the annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014.” That’s not as much of a lie as the U.S. President’s use of the word ‘conquest’ to describe Russia’s role there is, but it’s close. Reuters’s report opened with “Britain said on Wednesday it will send fighter jets to Romania next year and the United States promised troops, tanks and artillery to Poland in NATO’s biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War.” But in order to play down the danger here, they refused to headline their ‘news report’ with that, it’s real, actual, news, which was: “NATO’s biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War.” That headline would have attracted far more readers, but in the ‘news’ business in a dictatorship , that’s not the main objective when reporting news that the government wants to bury instead of to go viral. It’s part of ‘news’-management, which includes burying what is important. Then, Reuters quoted the U.S. Secretary of ‘Defense’, who said: “It’s a major sign of the U.S. commitment to strengthening deterrence here.” After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, and in the same year terminated its Warsaw Pact military alliance that had been set up by the Soviet Union to mirror America’s NATO alliance, NATO expanded right up to Russia’s borders and is therefore highly aggressive and threatening toward the people of Russia , who don’t like missiles minutes away, any more than Americans would like if Russia took over Mexico and placed troops and missiles on our border. But, according to the U.S.-and-allied propaganda-line, this strangulation of Russia by NATO is ‘deterrence’ against Russia. Then, when Russia responds to such U.S.-aggression by positioning troops and weapons to their side of their border, that’s called ‘aggressive’. And NATO is ‘responding’ to ‘Russia’s aggressive moves’. It’s like blaming a raped woman for trying to defend against her rapist. Hillary Clinton’s actions (never her rhetoric) show that she wants more of that type of thing, especially regarding the Russian people, whom the U.S. government wants to conquer by eliminating their international allies, one by one — and then by eliminating their own leader Vladimir Putin himself, after the original ‘regime change in Iraq’ (whose Saddam Hussein was the first Russia-friendly leader to be eliminated; then Muammar Gaddafi, then Bashar al-Assad, then Viktor Yanukovych ). The pattern is clear. And now NATO is going in for the kill. But this reality is not how America’s ‘impartial’ press reports what is actually a buildup toward a possible NATO invasion of Russia. Of course, America’s Republican Party (or conservative) press have long been controlled by neoconservatives (they were all supportive of ‘regime-change in Iraq’, and the American public never punished them for that — mega-criminal deceit goes unpunished), and so they don’t even pretend to be anything more than nationalistic mouthpieces for the U.S. government’s conquests. However, the Democratic Party’s (or liberal) press do need to cater to some progressive anti-nationalistic audiences. Yet still neoconservatism dominates at such newspapers as The New York Times and the Washington Post , as well as in magazines such as The Atlantic , The New Republic , and Foreign Policy , all of which are, if anything, neoconservative Democratic Party organs. All of them endorse Hillary Clinton. But there is a small progressive wing to American ‘journalism’; and, so, here is how one of the progressive sites, Common Dreams, handles this crucial matter, which might soon end the world as we know it: they headlined on October 26th, “NATO Preps ‘Biggest Military Build-Up on Russia’s Borders Since Cold War’,” and opened (quoting from Reuters and other Western sources): Playing “a dangerous game,” NATO pushes allies to send more troops and military equipment to Eastern Europe. NATO is pushing all allies to deploy more troops and military equipment to Russia’s borders, further ratcheting up tensions as the West prepares for “its biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War,” as Reuters observed. “France, Denmark, Italy and other allies are expected to join the four battle groups led by the United States, Germany, Britain, and Canada to go to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, with forces ranging from armored infantry to drones,” Reuters reported. “Yet with the U.S. openly talking [about] a war with Russia, the continued deployments seem far from a purely defensive measure,” argued Antiwar.com’s Jason Ditz [who said]: ”Diplomats also suggested it was only partly about sending a message to Russia, and that the real point of the latest push is to get a bunch of nations involved as a ‘message’ to U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has complained the U.S. is spending too much defending Europe and that Europe isn’t doing enough on its own. That underscores the cynical nature of the deployments, and indeed the sort of thing adding to the sense of NATO being obsolete, that they feel they can afford to organize major deployments just for the sake of scoring political points in member nations’ elections.” These moves are shortsighted, to say the least, wrote Gilbert Doctorow of the American Committee for East-West Accord [by saying]: “America’s steady campaign of expanding NATO, […] its vilification of Russia, and its information war based on lies” are part of “a dangerous game” that is pulling all sides inevitably closer to war, Doctorow argued. Nothing was provided there that highlighted the stark contrast between the strongly anti-invasion Republican Presidential candidate Trump, versus the strongly pro-invasion Democratic candidate Clinton. In other words, no essential context was provided — no context of a policy-decision that America’s voters will have to make, choosing the one or the other to be the next President. Instead, ‘progressive’ news-sites treat their readers and audiences as mere fools who think that voting for a third-party candidate in a U.S. Presidential contest is not a wasted vote, like refusing to vote at all is. The overwhelming majority of the 100+ reader-comments to that Common Dreams report, who expressed a Presidential choice said “Vote Green” or “Jill Stein,” referring to a third-party candidate who stands no chance of winning even one of the 50 U.S. states. In other words: the readers at this progressive site are so unconcerned about the future of the world, that they don’t even care whether the next U.S. President would be Hillary Clinton who would cause nuclear war, or Donald Tump who has consistently argued against her neoconservatism and emphasized the necessity of ending the U.S. government’s rabid hostility toward Russia and ending expansion of NATO up to Russia’s borders. In other words: despite progressive rhetoric, they’re actually oblivious to the world’s future — oblivious to the most important thing of all. And, so, that is the domestic politics of the war that the U.S. elite are determined to wage against Russia. The fix is in for nuclear war. To the owners of the media, the people who hire and fire — and promote and demote — the “news’ people, and thus who shape what the public know and understand and what the public don’t, it’s better that the outcome of the U.S. election be determined by whether or not Donald Trump is a rapist, than by whether or not Hillary Clinton will bring about nuclear war with Russia. So, it’s the way things are. In the U.S.-allied nations such as Britain, the ‘news’ media are similar. For example, Britain’s liberal Guardian headlined on October 27th, “Nato and Russia playing dangerous game with military build-up: Russia wants to detract from problems at home and position itself as a superpower, and Nato troop movements can only help.” It said that, “amid western suspicions the Russian fleet will be used to flatten civilians in Aleppo, Nato’s apparent goal here is to deter future acts of aggression on European territory by Vladimir Putin’s revanchist Russia.” That might as well have been written by the Obama Administration, as by some ‘news’ person. ‘The West’ is clearly behind the plan. Of course, the American public haven’t yet spoken. | 0 |
By the end of this week, all blood banks in the continental United States must begin testing donated blood for contamination with the Zika virus. Many banks are doing so already, and the early results indicate that the country has dodged a bullet — for now. Screenings in a dozen states suggest that Zika infection remains exceedingly rare. Among the approximately 800, 000 blood donations tested in the past six months or so, about 40 were initially positive for the virus. “It is good news that we are avoiding the transmission of Zika,” said Dr. Susan Rossmann, the chief medical officer at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Houston. Still, she noted, it may not be surprising there are so few possibly positive cases, because blood banks have been dissuading people from donating if they recently traveled to an area in which the virus is circulating. Blood donation screening for Zika is performed with tests made by Roche Molecular Systems or by a collaboration between two medical companies, Hologic Inc. and Grifols. The screening effort is regulated as two gigantic clinical trials in which every blood donor is enrolled as a participant. All the results, therefore, are reported to the companies. By Friday, Roche’s machines had screened 475, 000 donations in the United States, excluding Puerto Rico. Just 25 have been “initially reactive” for Zika infection, said Tony Hardiman, who leads the company’s blood screening program. “Compared to Puerto Rico, it’s tiny,” he said. Roughly 1 percent of the blood donors in Puerto Rico were infected by July, with 1. 8 percent of them testing initially positive in the last week of surveillance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By roughly 348, 000 donations had been screened using the test made by Hologic Inc. and Grifols. Fourteen were initially positive for the Zika virus. It may be that not all of these samples are truly contaminated. The technology is still in development, and the manufacturers are scrambling to confirm their results with further investigations of the donors. Of three donors examined by Hologic and Grifols, all seem to have been infected outside the United States. One donor gave blood at United Blood Services in Reno, Nev. after visiting Nicaragua. Another, a New Yorker, had been to Trinidad. The third lives in Arizona and had visited Mexico. All three donors had minute traces of the Zika virus in their blood, detected between 41 and 97 days after travel abroad, Jeffrey Linnen, an associate vice president at Hologic, told attendees at a recent conference for AABB, the group for most blood banks nationwide. Viral material detected after 40 days is unlikely to be live virus, said Dr. David O. Freedman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “The farther along you are after infection, the more likely you are just detecting residual breakdown products from dead virus pieces that are still circulating,” he said. In August, the Food and Drug Administration required all blood banks to screen each of the millions of blood donations collected annually for Zika. Eleven states in areas had to put in the new safeguards in a month. The rest must do so by Friday. At the time, experts feared that mosquitoes would begin turning up in states along the Gulf Coast, prompting outbreaks like those seen in South America and threatening the nation’s supply of donated blood. Universal screening was necessary to avoid transmission of the Zika virus in donated blood, particularly to pregnant women. If exposed to the virus in utero, fetuses can have brain damage, visual and joint problems, and muscle tone so rigid it restricts movement. Florida is the only state with documented local transmission of the virus. In July, the F. D. A. temporarily halted collection of blood donations in and Broward Counties until screening for the Zika virus could be put in place. Blood banks perform the screenings themselves or, more often, pay a laboratory to insure donations are . The additional costs are passed on to hospitals. The range is from $6 to $10 a unit, Dr. Rossmann said. “It’s not inconsiderable, that’s for sure. ” One 2011 survey found that hospitals paid $210 on average for a unit of red blood cells, after screening for pathogens. The cost of blood is increasing, the researchers also concluded. “The F. D. A. requirement made it pretty clear that we don’t have much of a choice, and the hospitals don’t have much of a choice,” Dr. Rossmann said. Meeting the deadlines has been a monumental task for blood banks. Introducing a new test to screen donations usually takes six to 12 months. The F. D. A. ’s timeline was just one month for blood banks in Florida and 11 other states thought to be at high risk for Zika outbreaks, and three months for those in 38 other states. “It was extremely painful, extremely expensive,” said Phillip Williamson, the vice president for operations and scientific affairs at Creative Testing Solutions. “This was an unfunded mandate from our government. ” Rhode Island Blood Center, for example, acquired two new machines to screen 153, 000 annual donations and trained 17 employees to load blood samples and run the automated testing around the clock. “We’ve been scrambling to get ready,” said Dr. Carolyn Young, the chief medical officer. In the coming months, the main threat to the blood supply will be the roughly 4, 000 travelers infected with the Zika virus while abroad. Most do not have symptoms. Dr. Lyle Petersen, the director of the division of diseases at the C. D. C. has called the number of travel cases in the continental states “extraordinary. ” The fear is not that they will all seek to donate blood, but that they will serve as vectors by which the Zika virus will spread in the population, even when the mosquitoes that carry the infection are not present. Sexual transmission is the likeliest route. “When people come back from trips, they generally have sex pretty soon,” Dr. Petersen recently told a packed room at an annual conference for blood transfusion experts. In all cases the C. D. C. has studied, he said, “transmission from infected travelers to their nontraveler partners has occurred within 20 days of the first sexual contact. ” Recently infected travelers have higher levels of Zika in their blood, semen and other bodily fluids, and are probably more infectious. Blood banks had been asking donors about their travel history and that of their sexual partners, and then asking them to postpone donating for at least a month. To prove that their new tests work reliably enough to be licensed, Hologic, Grifols and Roche may need to enroll millions of participants in their continuing trials. Roughly seven million people give blood annually Creative Testing Solutions screens about a third of them. “We have to sign up every one of those people for a clinical trial,” Dr. Williamson said. While the nonprofit can handle the burden, he added, “I’m sure a lot of places out there are struggling as the result of the aggressive implementation guidelines mandated by F. D. A. ” Still, most experts agree that universal screening is costly but necessary if the country wishes to avoid even a single instance in which a child is because of a transfusion of contaminated blood. The Community Blood Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania and Western New York, based in Erie, Pa. has been drawing extra tubes of blood from donors to fly overnight to a Houston laboratory for Zika screening at $6 to $10 a sample. “Compared to the overall cost of health care,” said Scott Greenwell, the executive director of the blood bank, “this is spit in the ocean. ” | 1 |
Killer Sock Puppets: The Return An update in the horrific Sock Puppet Terrorisation (SPT) craze that has been sweeping two coastal towns. Police raided an address in Aldbourgh last night and confiscated over £50 in sock puppet making technology. No one was at the property but offic... Killer Sock Puppets The "Killer Clown" craze that has been sweeping the nation (and led BATTL news to assault a children's entertainer this week) may not be the only costumed terror we have to worry about. Sightings of deranged sock puppets terrorising seaside commu... Major Companies Consider Revision Of Recorded Messages For Customers Waiting For A Call To Be Answered A recent survey of its members by the UK consumer group, Which?, has identified the most annoying elements of recorded messages played to customers who are waiting for their calls to be answered. The most irritating phrase contains a reassurance t... Primary School Teacher In Chubby Brown Shocker A school teacher from the village of Clackersford has found herself in hot water this week after allowing an unruly class of seven and eight year olds to watch a Chubby Brown video. Following a major debacle in the classroom (B7), in which many... End of British Summer Time In an effort to prevent all of the issues with British Summer Time ending, the government will be introducing a new phased two step change to the system. Instead of the clocks changing by one hour on one day, there will now be two days where the c... | 0 |
The United States Agency is seeking to reassure American athletes that their private medical information is safe after Russian hackers gained access to the email account of one of the agency’s officials. The same cyberespionage group that stole private medical information from the World Agency’s athlete database last summer more recently compromised the email account belonging to the science director of the American agency. The agency believes the breach occurred in early September in Rio de Janeiro, at the start of the Paralympic Games. The federal authorities have assessed the extent of the damage and are investigating the attack, the United States agency said. Travis Tygart, chief executive of Usada, called the attacks “deplorable” on Friday, adding: “Our athletes here in the U. S. get it, and they see these cyberattacks for exactly what they are: A blatant attempt to baselessly smear the reputations of clean athletes and to distract from the doping system that corrupted the Sochi Games. ” The hackers, calling themselves Fancy Bear — a group believed to be associated with the G. R. U. the Russian military intelligence agency suspected of involvement in the recent cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee — published files this month relating to American athletes whom the sports authorities had granted waivers to take prohibited drugs. Such waivers, known as therapeutic use exemptions, have been central to the recent Fancy Bear hacks. When the group began publishing athlete files in it argued that the exemptions — granted by top sports authorities and approved by WADA and the International Olympic Committee — constituted sanctioned doping and delivered an unfair advantage. Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, expressed that view this week, suggesting that athletes with drug exemptions should compete in special, segregated categories. The Russian government has denied ties to the Fancy Bear attack. More than 25 American athletes — including Olympians like Simone Biles and Serena and Venus Williams — were affected by the hackers’ first several rounds of disclosures, staggered over several weeks. Ms. Biles, 19, subsequently said that she had received a diagnosis of hyperactivity disorder years earlier, adding that she was not ashamed of her disorder or by the disclosure of her sensitive medical information. Also affected were more than 100 athletes from 26 other countries — including one from Russia — who had permission to take a range of medications to treat conditions like allergies, asthma and attention disorders. But with the latest batch of files, published Oct. 7 and drawing on the American antidoping agency’s emails, the hackers focused squarely on the United States, citing “more than 200 American athletes who have permission to take banned drugs” whose names and waivers they had gained access to via a spreadsheet stored on email. (The United States files, first reported on by Forbes, were taken down for roughly five days, during which the Fancy Bear site was down.) The email breach affected one individual’s account, the United States antidoping agency said this week that account belonged to Matthew Fedoruk, the organization’s science director. Dr. Fedoruk was working at the oceanside hotel where the International Paralympic Committee was headquartered, in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio. His account was thought to have been compromised through the network he was using there. The organization was not aware of the breach until Fancy Bear announced it roughly a month later. The American agency said this week that its email servers had not been compromised and that the breach had affected Mr. Fedoruk’s account alone. The agency said it had determined that Fancy Bear made failed attempts through different channels to gain access to other files, including the agency’s financial records. Russia was barred from participating in the Paralympics after revelations of doping and coordinated that relied on help from Russia’s Federal Security Service. In recent days, Mr. Tygart sent a video message to all American athletes whose information had been made public. He said he had spoken with dozens of athletes and their parents by phone. Mr. Tygart called on global sports leaders to condemn the hacks. Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, has called the breaches “unacceptable” while suggesting that responsibility lies with WADA, which ought to “significantly improve its information security standards to comply with the international data privacy regulations and to prevent data leakage of critical information. ” The Fancy Bear hackers have threatened to continue to release information, suggesting last Friday that Dr. Fedoruk’s emails were only the start of the correspondence they had obtained. As investigations into elaborate cheating by Russia at the last Winter Olympics continue, “some leaders in Olympic sport have taken the bait and are talking more about this,” Mr. Tygart said of the hacks, “than about imposing meaningful consequences on a doping program and how to ensure that it never happens again. ” | 1 |
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Obscured American: Eddie the house painter By Linh Dinh Posted on November 3, 2016 by Linh Dinh
When 46-year-old Eddie found out I’d been interviewing people, he wanted to talk. “You can write a book about me!” and that’s true enough, but then again, I’ve never met an uninteresting person.
Within a minute, Eddie was showing me photos of women on his cell phone. There was plenty of skin and at least one crotch shot. These voluptuous ladies had sent these boudoir selfies to him, Eddie growled, his eyes sparkling.
Eddie’s a beefy dude, with a head like an Olmec statue. Though he wears a permanent scowl, it’s a friendly scowl.
Eddie was in Friendly Lounge with his house painting boss, Tony, an Italian dude who used to live in the neighborhood.
After talking to Eddie, I checked out his Facebook page. “im a fun loving guy who just wants peace in my life,” he introduces himself, and the first two photos feature Eddie with white women. In one, he’s in some bar and wearing a white T-shirt, “WHITE GIRLS LOVE ME.” With his arms outstretched , Eddie’s surrounded by eight white females and one bald white guy. The women appear to be in their 30s and 40s, though one, wearing granny glasses, has sweated, cursed and imbibed her way through nearly six decades, it seems. You go, grandma! In the other photo, two beaming blondes drape themselves all over Eddie.
Below these shots, there’s a video of Oprah Winfrey begging her audience to vote for Hillary Clinton, and down the page, there’s a computer animation of Donald Trump making his most grotesque faces while sitting on a toilet.
Talking to me, Eddie brought up the pains of being rejected by his dad all his life. The rates of American children being born out of wedlock have been rising, calamitously, for decades, and currently stand at around 40%. Among blacks, it’s 72%.
I’ve known Tony since high school. He lives in the suburbs too. I grew up in West Philly, right around the corner from the zoo, then I moved to the suburbs. I’ve been working with Tony for two years.
I was in Boston for ten years. The only reason I came back here was because I had the cancer and everything. After they did the surgery, my family wanted me to come back, you know, be closer to home, in case it happens again.
I was doing work. The customers loved the work. Their relatives were from Boston, and they were like, “Do you travel?” I said, “If it’s worth it, yeah.”
So they put me on a job up there, and my ex-girlfriend, I stayed at her house for a while, then I bought my own place. When I moved up there, I just got work, work, work, work.
I loved it up there! I loved it! I loved it! I loved it!
It’s funny because I’m not like most black guys, black people, you know. I love the water, being out there on the water, fishing and all types of stuff, and there are so many bodies of water up there. That’s where I get my peace of mind, you know what I mean? I sit there and don’t have a care in the world. I didn’t have my own boat. I was renting the stuff right there.
Here, it’s not the same because you can’t get in the water. I love fresh water. Fresh water is beautiful. I like deep sea fishing, salt water and all that, but freshwater is beautiful.
This whole summer, I didn’t hit the water at all. I didn’t even swim this summer. Did you hear what I just said, Tony? This whole summer, I didn’t even swim. Like, what the fuck!
They have lakes up there, and they have park rangers and they’ve got grills up there, where you can grill, volleyball nets, all that stuff.
It’s $4 a carload, so you can have six people in a car. It only takes $4 to get in there. You can swim, fish, play volleyball, and you can do that almost any time.
at it’s crazy to move up there, like they’re so prejudiced up there, but they’re not. They were so nice.
The first day I got up there, people were opening doors for me. They were like, “Hey, how are you doing?!” It was totally different from here, you know, and I loved it, just loved it.
It’s not racial at all. There were so many mixed couples, so many Brazilians, Ecuadorians, all types. Puerto Ricans, Chinese, Asians, all, all, everything.
They did have a bad rap, but it’s just not correct.
They do still have certain areas. They still have these little gangs. Like, one of my buddies wanted to take me to a club. We get there, and I have to park down the street. They had already gone inside the club, but I had to park. When I got close, walking, two dudes stopped me. There was a black guy and a Puerto Rican guy. They were like, “Yo, you got the wrong color on.”
So I opened my mouth, and I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” and I was laughing. “You don’t know my lifestyle. You’re coming at me like that?”
As soon as I opened my mouth, though, they were like, “Oh, you’re not from around here. Where are you from?” I said I’m from Philly, so they were like, “You’re cool, man.” I laughed at them, basically.
There are different levels with me. You get mad, you get angry and you get upset, you know what I’m saying? I try not to get angry, at all. Angry takes me to a totally different place, which is not good, so I try not to do that. I try to stay at one focal point and, even though I’m mad at you right now, I’ll still say something stupid so that you laugh.
Let’s say you’re just bothering me. I’ll walk outside or something, then come back in, and I’ll start fucking with you back, but in a fun way. Even though you were fucking with me in a bad way, I’ll come back and fuck with you, in a good way.
positive.
You’re not going to defeat me by your words or whatever, you know, because I’m very smart. In the 7th grade, I used to smoke weed and stuff like that, came to class all high, and I still got A’s on my tests.
They kept me after school, you know, because I was cheating, and I still got the same grade, so they were like, “You’re so smart to be so dumb.”
My sociology teacher said, “You shouldn’t be getting high. You’re too intelligent for that.” It stuck with me all my life.
Like, me and him are Facebook friends. I texted him, “Hey Mr. Coleman, blah, blah, blah. Yo, thank you for saying that to me when I took your class,” and he was like, “Well, Eddie, I don’t remember what I said.” I told him, “You said that I was so smart to be so dumb,” and I always took that into my brain.
My kids are mixed. I love white women. Ha, ha, ha!
We all bleed the same damn color. People don’t realize that racism is taught. If you take an Asian kid, a black kid and a white kid and put them in the sandbox, they’re going to play, until somebody says they can’t play with that child.
It’s the parents. The parents may come up to that kid, “Get out of there! You can’t play with them!” You know what I mean? The kids will act how kids act. They don’t know no better. They’ll play!
Me, I have no problems at all. You respect me, I respect you.
Like I said, I have mixed kids, but growing up, I was shot at because I was black. I walked through the wrong neighborhood. Somebody tried to shoot me with a harpoon! I’ve been through some shit. I can’t help it if I’m black. I can’t help that.
That’s what he does, you know, scuba diving. He didn’t hit me. I was lucky I got pushed out of the way. This was growing up in the suburbs, Lansdowne, Yeadon, Upper Darby. I got shot at, you know what I mean, because I walked on the sidewalk.
rby, they beat me up. It was a domestic call. My wife was white, OK? We had kids, mixed kids. The argument was next door, not my house, but they came at my house, threw me down the steps, beat me up, put me in a cop car, then turned around and told me, “If you don’t want to go to the hospital, you better give me your address,” so I gave them my address.
They were like, “You don’t live there. A white girl lives there.” They were like, “Where you live at?” I gave them the address again. They were like, “You don’t live there! You go to the hospital,” so guess what? I went to the hospital. They beat me the fuck up!
They took me from my house. She was living there, with me!
I couldn’t even fight back. My wife said, “That’s my husband,” but they made her go back in the house. This was ‘92.
I came home the next day. They ripped my shirt. I had a button shirt. They cut it in the back, with a razor, so I’m walking in my shirt with a hole in it. They made me walk home without no shoes.
So I went to my old neighborhood. I talked to my mom and all that, and we went to the Lansdowne police station, because we knew an officer there. They said there was nothing they could do about it, because there’s a code of silence among the police officers, or so they said, so my sister took it to a different level.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Mary Mason? WHAT? My sister took it to a radio station. They had a picture of me. They had a picture of my clothes. They had a picture of me all beat up and everything.
Over nothing! Over nothing! Literally. I was beaten up over nothing!
I ended up suing them but, again, I was young, so I settled out of court with them. I ended up getting, like, $45,000. If I kept it going, I would have gotten a whole lot more.
Like I said, again, then I was selling drugs. I had an arsenal. I had guns and stuff like that, you know. I was going to blow the police station the fuck up, you know what I mean, but the police station was right next to a school, so I couldn’t do that.
No, I didn’t have a record then. I never got caught.
They were arguing next door. It wasn’t us! They went to the wrong house and fucked me up!
I’ve got three friends that are police officers. I trust them, but I don’t trust those other ones. As soon as I saw them, it’s, “Yes, sir,” whatever, but they threw me to the ground and worked me over!
For two years, they harassed me. They banned me from that town. If they saw me driving, they’d pull me over. They were like, “You’ve got two minutes to get out of this town!”
I had to move back to my mom for a little while. My wife and kids, too.
I never got bitter over that. I get sick of reading stuff now in the news. I think about my children’s security. It pisses me off, you know.
Like I said, again, I already lived that life. Innocent people getting beaten up by the cops, getting killed, that could have been me, I could have gotten killed. That night.
What I was doing was, I was avoiding that act, you know, which was kind of hard to do, because certain roads led that way, so I had to take back streets just to keep away. Again, I was still young, too.
I was going to blow the hell out of that police station, you know what I mean? I had the artillery to do it, but, again, glory to God and all that. God had my back! Otherwise, that police station and whoever was in it was gone!
There’s a kid that I went to school with, they killed him in a cell. Now, when they put you in that cell, they take your shoe strings, they take your belt and they take your shirt from you, so how are you going to hang yourself? He’s 6–4. How do you hang yourself when you’re 6–4 and you’re in a 6-foot cell? You can’t!
He was a good kid, but he was a bad kid, you know what I mean? I forget how he got locked up. He got locked up for something. They killed him the same night. They locked him up, then they killed him. You can look it up. It’s on the Internet still.
My wife stayed with me. Five years later, we split up, but it wasn’t over that. I had three children with her, my oldest three.
She got mad because I moved on. I had another woman. I was just having another kid. I had a reason to dump her, you know what I mean? If you’re in a relationship, and you’re not growing. You’re supposed to grow together. She cheated on me. I’m sure she did. She got caught twice, so when she started doing it, I started doing it.
She did it first, she did it first, she started it.
All I did was work. I worked, then came home, I swear to God! I was bringing home $1,300 cash a week. I was taking out vent systems, heaters, boilers and all that. I was bringing all this money home. It’s heavy work, back-breaking stuff. All you wanted to do was go home to your shower and that’s it. Eat, then sleep.
I was mad because she was collecting welfare. It’s like, “Why are you collecting welfare?” We’ve got plenty of money. We had a good life. It’s because of her girlfriends. It was like, “You can get this, you get that.” Now, I had no insurance and stuff. I told her, “You can get the medical, and you can get the food stamps, but don’t get the cash,” but she went out and got it all. She got all the benefits, so I ended up in the system.
I told the judge, “How are you locking me up, when my kids live with me? Like, what are you talking about? This is my house. My kids live with me and everything.” Well, it was because of her, she was getting welfare, but I didn’t know.
I was getting locked up for a month here, a month there, you know. When they locked you up in the state of Pennsylvania, they suspended your license, so how could you get to work? If you had a driving job, you couldn’t do it. It’s fucked up!
I told the judge, again, here you go, “My kids live with me. I don’t owe her nothing. Why am I here? If you look at the record, you’ll understand what I’m talking about here. I’
“Oh, I’m trying to get more money, blah, blah, blah blah,” so he looked and found out that she had a warrant out, so he said to me, “Mr. Calvin, you want me to lock her up? What she’
I said, “Your honor, no.” I said no. “We’re not together no more. I didn’t suffer from you guys. I was in the system. I was in jail six times, but I’m done now.” I said, “No, that’
She was acting real stupid. I looked at her and I said, “I told you you wasn’t going to get no money.” That’s what I said to her. “I told you you weren’t going to get no money. The judge could have locked you up, no matter what I said. You heard what he said. It was welfare fraud. You’
I have a kid that’s getting ready to turn four, up in Boston. All of my other kids are here. I’ve got 24, 21, 20, 16, 15 and one that’s getting ready to turn four. I grew up without a father, so I was going to make sure I’
My three oldest, I put money into their accounts, in their names. They each have $50,000 in their bank account, right now. They’ve got more money than I do. Now, my younger ones, my 16 and 15-year-old, they’ve got about $10,000. The baby don’t have shit, you know what I mean, but she’
I was doing the smart thing with the money. Like I said, I grew up without a father, so I’m going to provide for my kids, no matter what. I’ll suffer later, but as long as my kids are OK, then I’m happy.
When I did get to know my father, I met him in church. I
I was 16. Again, I was selling drugs, but I was also working at McDonald’
He comes into church, sits behind us and goes like this to my mom. Taps on her shoulder, “Who’s that?” She almost cursed in church. “It’s a shame you don’t know your own son!” I turned around and almost flipped, but then I realized I was in church. I was like, “You made me and you don’
When she got pregnant by him, she was with him for, like, five years. She said, “I’
My father, I almost killed him, in church. I was so angry. Yeaah. Yeaah. I was like, “How can you not know who I am? Where was you at?” Like, “Why don’t you want me? What did I do to you? I didn’t do anything to you. You made me,” but there was nothing, not a fuckin’ word, not a fuckin’
I never called him dad. I never called him pop. There was nothing until I turned 18. When we graduated high school, I paid for his parking to come see me graduate. That’
My father came to my graduation because I begged him to come. Face to face, I was like, “I’m your son. Aren’t you proud of me for graduating, at least?” He was like, “Well, she has money.”
I paid for his parking. I paid for his ticket. We got, like, three graduation tickets, and you had to pay for two more. I paid for it. I paid for him. It was $10 or something. He didn’
That’s why I made a promise to myself. I said that when I have kids, no matter what happens between me and the girl, my kids are going to know who I am, and that I was there, so that’
Tony gets mad that a lot of his crew don’
I know what it’s like to be on a bus with kids, grocery shopping and all that, with the kid wrapped around you, and you carrying bags and getting on a bus. I know what it’
I told Tony, “I ain’t got no vehicle, man. I gave it to my son. I ain’
When I hear people, because I hear people all the time, like how they hate their mom, how they hate their dad, and I’m like, I can see how you hate your dad, and you must have a reason, but at least you’re living together. I didn’t have that. All I had was my mom. You’ve got a mom and a dad, so you should be happy, you’re lucky, because I didn’
Linh Dinh is the author of two books of stories, five of poems, and a novel, Love Like Hate . He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog, Postcards from the End of America . This entry was posted in Features . Bookmark the permalink . | 0 |
Your arteries are the system within your body that continually transport the essential nutrients and oxygen that you need to survive, from your heart to the rest of your body.
A massive part of staying healthy and keeping your arteries clear and clean has to do with your diet. It is very true when you are told “You are what you eat.” It is also true that what you put into your body will determine your overall health including your cardiovascular health. Adjusting your diet to include artery-friendly foods can improve your general health and the condition of your heart. Here are 6 natural foods that will help to cleanse and unclog your arteries which will help prevent a heart attack or stroke:
Organic Asparagus “Asparagus works within the 100,000 miles of veins and arteries to release pressure, thereby allowing the body to accommodate for inflammation that has accumulated over the years.” says Shane Ellison, an organic chemist and author of Over-The-Counter Natural Cures. It also helps ward off deadly blood clots.
Organic Pomegranate “Pomegranate contains phytochemicals that act as antioxidants to protect the lining of the arteries from damage”, explains Dr. Gregg Schneider, a nutritionally oriented dentist and expert on alternative medicine.
Turmeric “The spice turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory,” Dr. Schneider says. “It contains curcumin which lowers inflammation—a major cause of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries.)”
Spirulina A daily 4,500 mg dose of this algae can help relax the artery walls and normalize blood pressure. It could also help your liver balance your blood fat levels.
Organic Cranberries Research shows that potassium-rich cranberries can help reduce cholesterol levels and regular consumption may also help reduce your overall risk of heart disease by up to 40 percent.
Organic Watermelon A Florida State University study found that people given a 4,000 mg supplement of L-citrulline (an amino acid found in watermelon) lowered their blood pressure in just six weeks. Researchers also say the amino acid helps your body produce nitric oxide, which helps widen blood vessels.
If you have an artery that supplies blood to the heart become blocked, then you could suffer a heart attack. Not all heart attacks are fatal, but all heart attacks will leave behind some damage to the heart. However, if the left coronary artery of the heart becomes totally blocked, the heart attack will be fatal. Eat foods that cleanse your arteries.
Thanks to Dr. Gregg Schneider and Shane Ellison for the quotes used in this article. | 0 |
By Carey Wedler When it comes to brute force, law enforcement and private security currently have the upper hand on the ground in Standing Rock,... | 0 |
November 2, 2016 Networks Continue to Ignore Obamacare Collapse
Bill Clinton’s startling description of Obamacare earlier this month as a “crazy system” yanked the Big Three broadcast networks out of the blackout of bad news about the health care reform law — but only a little.
According to a new study by the Media Research Center, which tracks left-wing bias in the news, the nightly news broadcasts and ABC, NBC, and CBS combined have devoted just 10 minutes and 21 seconds on the Affordable Care Act since the beginning of the year. Most of it has come since the former president made his controversial comments on Oct. 3.
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RICHMOND, England — Charles Porter and his staff of eight work from his office in a converted riding school on the grounds of Aske Hall, an old manor house set in the gentle, rolling hills of North Yorkshire. His Australian Labradoodles, Bertie and Cybil, spend their days lounging on a leather sofa by a roaring fire. It is an unassuming setting for an unassuming company. Porter does not advertise or seek to publicize his work he had never previously granted an interview. His website is modern and sleek but studiously enigmatic. “There are no pictures of people we work with,” he said. “We live and die by our discretion. ” To hundreds of players in English soccer over the last 20 years, though, Porter is an integral part of life. “He has helped me out with all sorts of things,” said Kevin Kilbane, formerly of Everton and Ireland’s national team. Danny Mills, a longtime client and former England international, described Porter as a “consummate networker, a great person to have around to take the stress away. ” To Porter’s clients — actors and musicians as well as athletes — he is almost indispensable. He will not say it, but he is the ultimate purveyor of the Premier League lifestyle. It is Porter whom you call to get your hands on the latest cellphone, or when the time comes to upgrade your car. It is Porter who can make sure your Christmas shopping is completed, or your vacation is booked. It is Porter who knows the people to hire if you want Santa to visit your children, and it is Porter, to at least one player, whose help you seek when you want to propose. “One client rang me and said: ‘Charles, I want to get engaged, and I want you to sort everything out,’” he said. “I said, ‘Have you at least found a partner?’ He said he had someone in mind, but that he needed everything else arranged: a ring, a venue, to fly in by helicopter. “We’d never done anything like that before, but we pulled it off. We sent them to a Scottish castle. She said yes, and they’re still married. There was only one thing we couldn’t quite do: He said he wanted snow. I had to tell him that there are some people I can’t have conversations with. ” It takes Porter a little time to come up with a satisfactory, concise definition of what it is, exactly, that he does. “It is,” he said, mulling it over, “quite difficult to pin down. It can be a bit of a challenge when people ask. ” He can say easily enough what he is not. “We are not a concierge service,” he said. “We are not the people you call to get a table at the Ivy, or at the Chiltern Firehouse. ” He is not, as one of his clients found out, the man to call when you want a pack of cigarettes delivered to a bar by taxi at 3:30 in the morning. Porter initially settled on calling himself a “ ” but a little later, a more poetic turn of phrase occurred to him. “We are the people who fill the holes,” he said. “We are the people who make life a little smoother. ” That his name is still so little known outside the rarefied circles in which he works goes some way to explaining his success in doing that. He would doubtless be able to write a compelling, salacious memoir, but breaking the omertà of his trade would be anathema to him. He religiously eschews . That sort of tact, to the rich and famous, holds tremendous appeal. Porter started out some 20 years ago, after his work with the phone network Cellnet brought him into contact with Middlesbrough, the Premier League club the company sponsored. “I remember going to the training ground,” he said. “There were two guys hanging around in the car park. ” They were known, to the players, as something not far off from Baloney Bob and Fairground Frank. “One did cars, the other watches and jewelry,” Porter said. “I thought I could do it better than that. ” His initial sphere of expertise was, thanks to his background, cellphones. “It was one of the first things the players wanted,” he said. “But the clubs did not have people helping them set those things up. In the early days, there was one Senegalese player who had a SIM card. He was spending about £7, 000 a week phoning home. ” Porter used his contacts not just to give players access to contract phones but to help them with the paperwork, customer care, technical support and security. There was, for a while, a fad for personalized phone numbers, incorporating birthdays or jersey numbers. “Then they started asking for other things,” he said. He sourced cars, worked with private banks to set up accounts, and, later, added insurance, holidays and luxury shopping to his repertoire. As his portfolio expanded, so did his client base. “I started out with 12 Premier League players,” Porter said. “Now we have about 3, 500 people from sport, entertainment, everything. Most of them work in teams or casts, and they talk to each other. It is all word of mouth. ” Porter looks after the families of many of them, too. “One of the things I learned working inside a club was that you have to take care of the unit,” he said. “If a player is happy but his wife does not have a car or a phone, then that does not help. ” As the Premier League has become more international, of course, the clubs have picked up much of that burden. One of Porter’s first clients was Juninho, the Brazilian playmaker who signed with Middlesbrough in 1995. He was installed in two cramped rooms at the Stockton Hotel, along with his entire family. Now, most teams have dedicated player care departments, employing as many as a dozen people to ensure their charges’ lives run as easily as possible. They help them find properties to buy or, increasingly, rent enroll their children in schools make sure their bills are paid and, in some cases, find churches or mosques where they can worship. “The clubs have done all they can to take Bob and Frank out of the equation,” Porter said. They maintain lists of trusted suppliers, from luxury brands to financial advisers the department store Harvey Nichols is among the retailers that install shops at training grounds so players do not have to browse with the masses. Porter, though, has not seen his work dry up. If anything, the opposite is true. He is now invited by clubs to educate young players about phone security his clients are, increasingly, the teams themselves, rather than individuals. “I will quite often get calls at night explaining that they are with a player in a restaurant,” he said. “They will say they are signing tomorrow and they need a phone for them as soon as the deal is done. ” The phone invariably comes first Porter and his team remain available for everything else, should they be required. They arrange about 20 cars a month, ordinarily upgrades. A small clutch of clients demands the latest phone on the day of release, regardless of how many they already have. At least one player, a peer said, had as many as seven at one point. They are sent out wrapped in scented tissue paper. “That is what we do: that personal service,” Porter said. Much of the work, though, is sorting out bank accounts, credit ratings, car insurance, technical problems. “I realized a long time ago that these people are not going to ring a call center, give their names and spend 40 minutes on hold to sort out their data allowance,” Porter said. That is where he and his team come in: to take care of life’s little annoyances, to fill the holes, to make the journey as smooth as possible. | 1 |
Wikileaks Email: Clinton Operative Thinks “Black Voters Are Stupid” David Brock accused of "elitist racism" Paul Joseph Watson - October 27, 2016 Comments A new email released as part of the Wikileaks Podesta dump features Clinton ally Brent Budowsky accusing Hillary operative David Brock of having a plan that relied upon black voters being “stupid”. The email , sent to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and another Clinton ally CEO Roy Spence, centers around a discussion of a Bernie Sanders campaign ad which featured “many black faces”. Back in January, Clinton operative David Brock caused consternation within the campaign when he publicly claimed that Bernie Sanders didn’t care about black people. Budowsky is not impressed with Brock’s outburst, writing in the email, “Brock makes the cardinal mistake of those who bring politics into disrepute with voters. He tells a lie that people will know is a lie, and insults the intelligence of black voters with a kind of elitist racism that Bill and Hillary Clinton should not be seen with.” “I guess Brock’s plan is that black voters are stupid and will not watch the ad and believe his lie,” writes Budowsky. “I cannot think of anything more desperate, more stupid and more self-destructive than David Brock lying about the Bernie ad and playing a seamy brand of the politics of race using the tactic of deceit on her behalf,” adds the The Hill and Huffington Post columnist, before offering to write a campaign ad for HIllary to counter the Bernie Sanders ad. The email once again underscores the Clinton camp’s paranoia about not being able to authentically connect with African-American voters in a way that Bernie Sanders could. Some black voters have been reluctant to support Clinton as a result of her support for a 1994 crime bill that resulted in the mass incarceration of young black Americans, whom Hilary referred to at the time as “super predators”.
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by Yves Smith
Yves here. What the informative post below fails to mention is that farm credit had become a hot political issue by the time the Farm Credit system was created. For more details on the struggle of indebted farmers to obtain political power, see The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America by Lawrence Goodwyn. As Matt Stoller wrote in 2010 :
A lot of people forget that having debt you can’t pay back really sucks. Debt is not just a credit instrument, it is an instrument of political and economic control.
It’s actually baked into our culture. The phrase ‘the man’, as in ‘fight the man’, referred originally to creditors. ‘The man’ in the 19th century stood for ‘furnishing man’, the merchant that sold 19th century sharecroppers and Southern farmers their supplies for the year, usually on credit. Farmers, often illiterate and certainly unable to understand the arrangements into which they were entering, were charged interest rates of 80-100 percent a year, with a lien places on their crops. When approaching a furnishing agent, who could grant them credit for seeds, equipment, even food itself, a farmer would meekly look down nervously as his debts were marked down in a notebook. At the end of a year, due to deflation and usury, farmers usually owed more than they started the year owing. Their land was often forfeit, and eventually most of them became tenant farmers.
They were in hock to the man, and eventually became slaves to him. This structure, of sharecropping and usury, held together by political violence, continued into the 1960s in some areas of the South. As late as the 1960s, Kennedy would see rural poverty in Arkansas and pronounce it ’shocking’. These were the fruits of usury, a society built on unsustainable debt peonage.
Today, we are in the midst of creating a second sharecropper society. I first heard the term “slaves to the bank” from a constituent fighting a fraudulent foreclosure. The details aren’t so important — this couple had been illegally placed in a predatory loan — but at one point, the wife explained that she and her husband were so scared they would have “given their first born to the bank to keep their home”. That was fear speaking, total unadulterated panic. And as we watch debt-holders use the ornaments of fear, such a loan sharking company that set up fake courts to convince debtors they were losing cases, we should recognize that what the creditor class wants is what they’ve always wanted: total dominance of our culture.
By Sarah Quin Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of Washington. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website Hoping to learn from other countries’ experiences in organizing finance for agriculture, more than 150 Americans were sent abroad in the summer of 1913 to investigate the minutiae of farm-credit systems in and around Europe.
They were sent as far north as Norway and as far south as Egypt, with Ireland and Russia marking the western and eastern boundaries of the study. They learned of microcredit-like experiments to support small-plot tenant farming in Italy. In France they were told how farm credit embodied democratic ideals. In the Netherlands and Spain, commission members found counterparts who, like the Americans were doing, had looked to other European nations for ways to improve the management of farm credit. Perhaps the most anticipated stop of this trip would be in Germany, whose system of long-term farm credit distribution had achieved world renown.
The key ideas brought home from Europe by commission members more than a century ago still shape today’s U.S. credit policy. The organizing principle of these ideas was the proposition that providing farm credit could be a low-cost and politically palatable form of economic policy through which government could help people help themselves. This paved the way for the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916, which redesigned the U.S. system from the ground up by creating a new network of government-supported farm credit cooperatives.
The Act was arguably a watershed in the use of credit as a federal policy tool whose impact was felt far beyond the agricultural sector. Before 1916, the national government used credit allocation more sparingly, as a temporary means to support expensive internal developments such as railways. After the Act, there was a continual expansion of programs that bought, sold, issued, guaranteed, or otherwise promoted the flow of credit to specific sectors or groups. In the United States today, one third of privately issued debt is backed by the government, not only through the Fed but also through the $3.4 trillion in loans guaranteed or held through a vast network of federal credit programs (if you include implicit guarantees of financial debt, the amounts are much, much higher ). As Marianna Mazzucato and L. Randall Wray have noted , these forms of credit support are a central part of how the federal government participates in the U.S. economy. This proliferation of government credit allocation seems remarkable in light of longstanding political attitudes on government involvement in the economy.
Farmers depend on credit for their livelihoods, using it not only to buy equipment and prepare land but also to feed their families in the lean months before the harvest. As the United States developed into an agricultural powerhouse , it faced a significant problem in moving capital reserves concentrated in eastern cities into the hands of small borrowers spread out across a vast and sparsely populated frontier. In the absence of modern day credit institutions, the West and South suffered destabilizing credit cycles of boom and bust, with mortgage rates sometimes twice as high as those in the Northeast. Many farmers believed that these higher rates were the unfair doings of parasitic financiers and middlemen. In the Jacksonian era, many farmers worried that government involvement in banks and credit would make the situation worse by adding corrupt politicians into the mix. Over time, however, Populist farmers came to believe that a stronger national government was needed to break bankers’ stranglehold over the supply of credit.
By the 1890s, the question of farm credit was a polarizing national issue: a proposal to offer credit and currency backed by local storage units (called the Subtreasury Plan) became a wedge issue that threatened to undermine the coalition that made up the Southern Democratic Party. Credit distribution was one of the most acrimonious and destabilizing class divides of the era, but by the middle of the decade these credit debates had been eclipsed by the politics of free silver. Left unresolved, the credit problem lingered.
In the first decade of the 20th century, a group of progressive reformers rediscovered the issue of “farm credits.” Worried about social disintegration in America’s heartland in the wake of massive urbanization, these reformers came to view the stable and affordable supply of credit as essential to farmers’ well-being, and through that, the well-being of the entire nation. But, being elites, they approached credit not as inherently exploitative so much as a technical problem to be solved. They looked to Europe for guidance and inspiration. Hence the tour.
By the time committee members arrived in Germany, news of that country’s farm-credit success had traveled around the world, and some of its techniques were already adopted by other nations such as France. German lecturers told the group that German agriculture thrived not because of the quality of German soil, but because of the quality of German credit. The Americans were especially interested in one type of credit institution — the Landschaften , a network of local cooperative banks that issued covered mortgage bonds called Pfandbriefe . These Pfandbriefe bore a decidedly modest 3%-4% return. “The Germans prefer to sleep well rather than eat well,” one lecturer explained.
The entire German credit system was built for stability rather than profit: it used conservative land valuations, careful regulatory standards, and local risk-sharing to assure its reliability. Whether this could be adapted to the American context was a serious question. A political economy professor lecturing in Halle warned the delegation that, while the Landschaften were the “perfect” means of mortgage credit, differences in political systems could make the system untenable in the U.S. When a delegate asked how the Prussians dealt with defective land titles, the speaker simply dismissed the question: “Well, that is an impossible thing in Prussia. We have no defective titles.” German farm credit distribution rested on a solid foundation of independent oversight and bureaucratic reliability. It was a far cry from the underdeveloped and scandal-ridden United States national government.
The committee members returned home recognizing the technical superiority of the German system but debating its cultural and political adaptability to the United States. Would a conservative system of risk-sharing and oversight be embraced by Americans, who they deemed “ambitious, individualistic, desirous of acquiring means and property”? Would government “paternalism” kill Americans’ entrepreneurial spirit? Would American society accept the principle that farmers deserved special treatment when it came to accessing credit?
To overcome these objections, proponents of a European-inspired farm credit policy spun it as government helping people help themselves , providing credit support could through farmers’ cooperatives.
The divisive nineteenth century credit politics gave way to a vision of credit as an inoffensive means of economic development, of low cost to the state. Proponents argued that “wise legislation” to lower credit risk could unlock the value of the nation’s land, then estimated by one commentator at $40 billion. It was a huge potential payoff. Later scholars of credit programs would frequently note the same thing about the federal credit programs: compared to direct forms of welfare or other expenditures, credit support is cheap, since it can be implemented by government guarantees, tax expenditures, risk management techniques, and disbursements paid back over time, sometimes with interest.
This logic was built into the structure of the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916. The centerpiece of the Act was a proposed local version of the German system. The Treasury was authorized to fund 12 reserve banks in order to funnel credit to a network of new farmers’ lending cooperatives. The Department of Agriculture encouraged the formation of these lending cooperatives through a massive education effort. In a nod to American independence, the German system of risk sharing — in which members of the Landschaften were liable up to the full value of their property — was watered down. If the bank itself ran into trouble, American farmers would be liable for only 10% of their loan amount, rather than for the full value of their property. Since, over time, farmers could pay into the system and repay the state, the long-term costs of the program were expected to be low. Tax-exempt bonds would encourage a flow of funds into the reserve banks at the cost of some state revenue, but this was far less expensive than, say, directly subsidizing farmers.
For all that the 12-bank structure mimicked the Federal Reserve Act, the creation of lending cooperatives meant that the FFLA was a far more complicated, experimental, and entrepreneurial design. A new system of farm credit was built from scratch. One observer at the time noted that
[i]n spirit the Act was revolutionary — its authors were convinced that American methods were not worth saving.
Not long after the passage of the Act, government officials recognized that the low cost and ideological palatability of the farm loan system could apply in other sectors. Credit support in the housing market ballooned during the Great Depression, and the postwar proliferation of credit as a tool of governance continues today.
In the “Analytical Perspectives” section of the President’s budget, the chapter detailing the $3.4 trillion in loans held or guaranteed by the federal government reveals the diverse political uses of credit. Federal credit has military functions, including Defense Department loans for the purchase, stockpiling, and manufacturing of military materiel, and the Atomic Energy Commission’s use of guarantees to encourage nuclear science. Credit is also a tool of foreign policy: the United States exports food to other nations through USAID. Loans can serve as disaster relief, as both FEMA and the SBA include credit support to assist with natural disasters, and the federal government also provides loans directly to states for this purpose. Credit is also extensively used as part of energy and environmental policy, with geothermal and renewable energy, biorefineries, and synthetic fuels having all benefited from credit support. Tracing its use in housing, David Freund notes that the appeal of credit programs is that they seem like small market corrections rather than consequential state policies. And they have been used to support every major sector of the American economy.
The Analytical Perspectives of the budget wraps the complexities of these programs in the dry academic language of market corrections. “Credit and insurance markets sometimes fail to function smoothly due to market imperfections … ” The implication is that this massive mobilization of debt and risk absorption by the federal government is best thought of as a technical adjustment to market imperfections, rather than, say, the American version of a developmental state.
That language, I believe, is the moderate way of thinking about credit articulated during the progressive era, and now tailored for the neoliberal age. Like a nervous wizard, it asks us not to pay attention to the man behind the curtain, and for the most part, Americans comply. And why wouldn’t they? After all, the idea that credit support does not ask us to think hard about the social and political conditions of possibility for market success has been part of the appeal of credit support all along. 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 |
The Times of Israel reports: US President Donald Trump refused to confirm reports that he would announce the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during a visit to Israel next month, but hinted Thursday that he may clarify the issue at that time. [On Thursday, Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis (R) who earlier this year led a trip to scout locations for the embassy, said Trump would announce the relocation when he visits Israel at the end of May, fulfilling a campaign promise he appeared to walk back after assuming office. Asked about the relocation by Reuters, Trump demurred. “Ask me in a month on that,” he told the news agency. Trump also appeared to express frustration that Israelis and Palestinians continued to not have a peace deal, saying there was no reason for the conflict to persist. Read more here. | 1 |
VIDEOS Italy’s earthquakes leave 15,000 homeless, ‘soul of the country’ damaged Given the strength of Sunday’s new quake, experts said it was remarkable that it had not resulted in any more fatalities By Extinction Protocol - November 2, 2016
Italian authorities said on Monday they were taking care of more than 15,000 people left homeless by the country’s most powerful earthquake in nearly 40 years. Although Sunday’s 6.6 -magnitude tremor did not result in any deaths, the third powerful quake in just over two months has left thousands of homes in ruins or structurally unsafe and emptied a string of villages and small towns across the country’s mountainous central regions. The majority of residents of the devastated villages and towns have taken refuge with friends and family as they anxiously await a green light to return to their homes.
But the national civil protection agency said on Monday it was providing assistance to 15,000 people affected by Sunday’s quake, which was so powerful it caused cracks in buildings in Rome, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) away from the epicenter near the Umbrian town of Norcia. Some 4,000 people from the worst-hit area around Norcia have been sent to hotels on the Adriatic coast with another 500 taken by bus to the inland Lake Trasimeno. More than 10,000 are being put up in converted sports halls and other temporary facilities, including tents, across Umbria and the neighboring Marche region, the protection agency said.
A further 1,100 people are still in Adriatic coast hotels as a result of the August 24th Amatrice earthquake, which left nearly 300 dead. Given the strength of Sunday’s new quake, experts said it was remarkable that it had not resulted in any more fatalities. With many roads blocked by landslips or huge boulders dislodged by the quake, civil protection chief Fabrizio Curcio and reconstruction supremo Vasco Errani were surveying the damage by helicopter. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has vowed that every damaged house will be rebuilt and that communities he described as part of “the soul of the country” would not be abandoned. But after the trauma of three major quakes in such quick succession, the future of the already sparsely populated affected areas looks bleak. “At the moment I don’t see any possible future,’ evacuated Norcia resident Antonella Ridolfi told AFP. “Everything here will have to be rebuilt. There is nothing really solid left in the center. We have always bounced back after other earthquakes but we’ve never had to deal with one as strong as this.” – The Local | 0 |
Applying to college is onerous enough. Asking to defer enrollment for a year can be even more intimidating. Here’s how to navigate the process. Delay freshman year, not your application. Students interested in a year off should still apply to college their senior year of high school, advises Michele Hernández, of Top Tier Admissions and a former admissions officer at Dartmouth. It ensures that you’ll have access to your school’s resources and won’t be bogged down with applications and standardized testing during a year that may include travel abroad. “You’d be surprised how quickly your high school forgets you,” Dr. Hernández said. “It’s really hard to go back and ask for teacher recommendations and the other materials you might need after a year has passed. ” It’s also a good idea to keep options open should plans suddenly change. You might not get that internship or job you were counting on, or you might get into a college with even better options for a bridge year, like the international program at Princeton or Tufts’ “1+4” program, offering both national and international service opportunities. Harvard has long encouraged applicants to consider a year off, but that won’t increase your chances of getting in. While more and more institutions are seeing value in a gap year, it’s better to inform them of your intentions after you’ve been accepted. “It might work against you because admissions’ priority is filling that year,” Dr. Hernández said. “They don’t know what the next year is going to look like. ” If your plans have merit — education, work or service components — they are likely to agree. But, she said, “depending on what you’re going to do, a gap year can be viewed as slightly frivolous. So that’s why I say, get in first and then propose an idea. ” If a college has no gap year program, write to the admissions director before deposits are due. Describe plans for the year ahead, and ask whether time off will affect any scholarships the school has offered for freshman year. USA Gap Year Fairs organizes events where students can hear about an array of programs and speak with professionals in the field: 39 were held this winter a list of locations for 2018 will be published in the fall (usagapyearfairs. org). The American Gap Association accredits independent programs that offer or learning experiences. It maintains lists of the programs, which run a few weeks to a year, and their scholarships, as well as university policies on deferring enrollment (www. americangap. org). The association tracked $2. 8 million in support for gap year programs in 2015. Some universities even provide funding for experiences. Florida State University offers $5, 000 gap year fellowships, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers fellowships of $7, 500, with a focus on students from rural school districts in the state. Chapel Hill is impressed with the results. “Students in the gap year fellowship don’t struggle like other freshmen do with the transition into college,” said Richard Harrill, who helped design the program. Instead, he said, participants “become even more intellectually hungry. ” | 1 |
From Amsterdam to New York, London to Havana, Dutch men across the world held hands this week to show solidarity with a gay couple who say they were brutally beaten in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The outpouring of support came after the married couple, Jasper and Ronnie said they were attacked by a gang of youths while holding hands on their way home from a party early Sunday. According to a statement the Arnhem police posted on Facebook, the two said they had been attacked by men wielding bolt cutters one had some of his teeth smashed out. Prosecutors said five teenage suspects would be charged on Thursday with serious bodily harm. The authorities are still investigating the motivation for the attack, which the victims have characterized as a hate crime. The beating caused particular outrage in the Netherlands, which has long prided itself on its tolerance. Amsterdam, the capital, has been a haven for sexual minorities for centuries, and it has marketed itself as the “gay capital of Europe. ” Homosexuality was removed from the Dutch criminal code in 1811, and the Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage, with the first ceremonies in 2001. Gay rights are supported across the political spectrum in the Netherlands. The attack comes as the country has been grappling with growing sentiment, fueled in part by the leader Geert Wilders, who has railed against immigrants and Muslims in particular, saying that “Islamization” is a threat to European liberal values, including gay rights and women’s rights. The populist party of Mr. Wilders, who likens himself to Donald J. Trump, came second in recent Dutch elections. He is an ideological heir of Pim Fortuyn, a politician who derided Islam, immigration and multiculturalism, and who was openly gay. Mr. Fortuyn was killed in 2002, days before his party placed second in national elections. The Dutch news media quoted Gerald Roethof, a lawyer for one of the suspects, as saying that the couple had instigated the fight by acting aggressively toward the teenagers, an accusation the two vehemently denied. Mr. Roethof also denied that bolt cutters had been used, or that the men were targeted because they were gay. But he said his client had acknowledged punching one of the men in the mouth. Mr. 31, told the Dutch public broadcaster NOS that he and his husband seldom held hands in public for fear of provoking an attack. “But we’d had a nice evening, it was late, and we thought we were alone,” he said. Then suddenly six to eight youths set upon them, he said, and “before I knew it, I was on the ground fighting with three men on top of me. ” After the attack, which Mr. 35, recounted on his Facebook page, Dutch politicians, actors, police officers, soldiers and athletes took to the streets, holding hands. Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Amsterdam to show their support for gay rights. The expressions of support grew after the journalist Barbara Berend appealed on Twitter for men, whether straight or gay, to walk hand in hand. Dozens heeded her call and posted photographs of themselves doing just that, often with the hashtag #allemannenhandinhand (all men holding hands). Two politicians — Alexander Pechtold, leader of the party D66, and Wouter Koolmees, a lawmaker in the party — showed up for coalition talks on Monday holding hands. COC Netherlands, an advocacy group for gay rights based in Amsterdam, said the number of reported cases of violence against gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people had increased to 1, 600 in 2015 from about 400 in 2009. Of the 1, 600, nine resulted in convictions for offenses, including hate crimes. It cautioned, however, that the increase in reporting could also be a result of greater awareness of the issue. | 1 |
I believe they are wire guided, as the operator is not aiming 100% steady the missile oscillates.
Correction: I just searched atgm kornet and it is laser guided, good video on it on YouTube.... | 0 |
Trump Spokesperson Katrina Pierson Caught In Blatant Lie, Threatened With Lawsuit (VIDEO) By Andrew Bradford
The Donald Trump for President campaign is filled with liars. From the candidate himself to the people who attempt to defend him on television, the default position for anyone who gets a paycheck from Trump is dishonesty. And perhaps no one better personifies this than spokesperson Katrina Pierson, who went so far on CNN this morning that she was threatened with a lawsuit.
Pierson appeared, along with Democratic strategist Angela Rye, and Pierson began her lies by saying the American middle class is in trouble due to the economic policies of the Obama administration. Rye countered with facts : “I would like to go back to something Katrina mentioned, which was the middle class is hurting. Well I would go to what we’ve learned from the census bureau last year which is the middle class, and poor people, had the best year they’ve had ever since — in 2015. In quite some time rather. I won’t say ever. It says that real median household income was $56,500 in 2015. That is an increase from $53,700 the year prior. I would also point to you the fact that the unemployment rate is much lower than when President Obama started.”
Then host Carol Costello played a video clip of Trump referring to “ghettos,” and that led Rye to comment: “People like Donald Trump actually take for granted the fact that they have readily available access to capital.”
Pierson began spitting and sputtering, so Rye told her: “I know you don’t want to hear this because the truth burns.”
Unable to come up with a reasoned defense, Pierson went personal, alleging that when Rye worked for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), she “ran (it) into the ground.”
Rye replied: “I ran the CBC into the ground? That’s laughable.”
When Carol Costello asked Pierson exactly what she was referring to, Pierson told her : “The record is out there. Look at where the finances were.”
Rye: “Let me just help you. Good luck with that lie. That’s crazy, what you’re talking about. That’s slander. I could sue you, Katrina.”
Only problem is, if she did sue Pierson, she might not get much money. Pierson, you may recall, was arrested in 1997 for shoplifting and was also accused of illegally collecting unemployment benefits. Those who live in glass houses should never ever throw rocks at others, Katrina.
Featured Image Via CNN Screengrab About Andrew Bradford
Andrew Bradford is a single father who lives in Atlanta. A member of the Christian Left, he has worked in the fields of academia, journalism, and political consulting. His passions are art, music, food, and literature. He believes in equal rights and justice for all. To see what else he likes to write about, check out his blog at Deepleftfield.info. Connect | 0 |
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CNN has published a stinging fact check of the Trump Administration, exposing several falsehoods in a joke that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made Tuesday about salad dressing. [During the afternoon’s White House press briefing, Spicer made a quip about conspiracy theories that U. S. President Donald Trump is an agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin — recruited via blackmail in 2013 — and how the professional journalists who believe this conspiracy might add consumption of “Russian dressing” to their pile of circumstantial evidence. Case closed? Hardly. CNN’s Michelle Krupa dug deep and found that ACKSHUALLY, Russian dressing has no direct connection to the country that hacked our election. Krupa penned a fact check headlined “Russian dressing is actually from Nashua, New Hampshire”: “If the President puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russia connection,” Sean Spicer said. Thing is, Russian dressing isn’t Russian. (Also, it’s really not for salads, but more of a sandwich spread — usually a Reuben.) The mayo and ketchup concoction — often dressed up with horseradish and spices — was created in Nashua, New Hampshire. This is not the first fact check of Trump or his administration, but it could end up in the hall of fame — along with these winners from Krupa’s peers: • Both CNN and NBC News called BS in the second presidential debate of 2016 after Trump said that Hillary Clinton “acid washed” her email server — for, instead of literally washing the device with acid, her tech team merely used a program called “BleachBit” to delete the server’s data. • The Associated Press “fact checked” Trump’s opinion that actress Meryl Streep is overrated. • In the inverse of this phenomenon, PolitiFact has called two statements from Trump “half true” and “mostly false,” even though the articles concede that the claims and numbers he put forward are accurate. | 1 |
Leave a reply The 7 Maoi facing the equinox sunset at Ahu Akivi on Easter Island (photo copyright Ian Sewell)
Paul Rosenberg – Civilization has to be transmitted from one generation to another. If it isn’t, processes break down and life becomes difficult. Soon there must be a painful reform, or else the civilization will be lost.
This is fundamentally the job of families (especially parents), but at the moment that’s not really possible: How many families can survive on one income? And if one of the parents can’t stay home and teach the fundamental lessons of civilization, who will pass them to the next generation?
Certainly the better daycare facilities try, but to think that someone watching a couple dozen kids is going to transmit civilization to them as effectively as a parent who’s with the child day and night is simply ridiculous. The blame for this rests almost solely at the feet of the state of course, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
I’ll begin by quoting the redoubtable Fred Reed on the current situation:
We live in a dying culture and, soon, a diminished country. It cannot be saved.
Not true? Add up the bits and pieces. We laugh in horror, some of us, primarily the older, at the decline of schooling, the courses like Batman and the Struggle for Gender Equity. Comic, yes. Yet in aggregate, these constitute an academic and civilizational collapse both profound and irreversible. Enstupidation does not happen in a healthy country. Who even wants to reverse this onrushing night? Not the universities, nor the teacher’s unions, nor a professoriat gone as daft as the “students,” nor the banks battening on student loans [sic].
I’m more optimistic than Fred in that I think our civilization can be saved. But what he writes is true, and the West’s big institutions are simply vampires sucking the blood of a declining civilization.
I think we can all admit that every major institution of the West, including the mega-corps, is engaged in stripping the Western populace of everything they possibly can. There is no virtue involved, no principle, no honor… there’s not even much consideration for the future. These outfits, under whatever excuses they’re trotting out this year, are strip-mining Western civilization, not building it.
That said, let’s look at some particular villains. The Political Correctness Barbarians
When I first saw these people rising to power, decades ago now, I thought they were so ridiculous that they’d come and go quickly. Unfortunately I was wrong, and they subverted millions of children. The current insanity over “safe spaces” and such condemns them openly, and especially that it’s becoming acceptable to say “I hate white people.” Anti-Religionists
It’s one thing to be a simple agnostic. It’s quite another to go out and try to dismember religion… which in nearly every case means Christianity. And to be honest about it, most people who do this are acting out their personal traumas: either in permanent rebellion to their parents or in anger at one church or another.
Slashing and burning things simply bears bad fruit, but here’s the core issue with attacking Christianity:
The people who pushed Christianity out of Western culture were arrogant and destructive – not that they pushed it away, but that they never bothered to replace it .
If you want to remove the moral core of a civilization, you have to replace it with something better. And the religion-haters did not. They sawed off the limb that held them and were too arrogant to consider the consequences. Academia and the Education Vampires
The Enlightenment sits before us as a twisted wreckage. Its destruction followed the usual path: first setting up institutions, then monopolies and fiefdoms, and finally lording it over others as far and as long as they could.
Education has whored itself out to the state and treats its students as income-generating tools. Are there a few exceptions? I’m sure there are, but they are few. Academia, including most of scientific academia, has disgraced itself. Could any serious Enlightenment thinker have respected “scientific consensus”? Please! Science places experimentation above all and never ever sells itself to a page full of names and initials!
The scientific process has been subjugated by institutions that thrive on restricting access. Cronyism is massive, peer review is corrupted, and the uncredentialed are treated like lepers. These institutions sit atop the corpse of the Enlightenment. Corporatized Art
The arts – music, film, painting, sculpture – are not widgets. They are immensely more important than that, forming minds and cultures in deep ways.
How to pay the artist (singer, writer, whatever) has long been a problem and remains one. Hopefully a good answer arises at some point. Until then, seeking profit by dumbing down every art form is simply degrading.
The corporations that now control music and film have bastardized art for money. I’m not ready to jail them and I certainly don’t think the state could do a better job, but I am willing to say that they have disgraced art. Have you ever wondered why elegance is gone? Why loudness and drunkenness are treated as virtues? The State
Being that it forcibly skims half of the West’s production every year, given that it punishes all who do not obey it, and given that its laws are for sale to the highest bidders, the number one destroyer of Western civilization is the state. Hands down. Think of what people could do for their children and grandchildren with twice as much money.
And don’t get me started on enforced charity, the victim culture, “you didn’t build that,” and “it takes a village.” I don’t like to swear in print. A Final Point
I could go on, but this is a column, not a treatise. My final point is this:
None of the above are transmitting civilization, even if some of them once did. They are tools for reaping the masses, and we need to leave them behind. But far more importantly, we need to build methods and systems that will transmit Western civilization.
The authentic Western virtues – cooperation, initiative, creativity, curiosity, co-dominance, and real justice (not merely a form thereof) – are necessary for a prosperous humanity, and the institutions of our time have flamboyantly failed.
It’s time to start building afresh. SF Source Freeman’s Perspective Nov. 2016 Share this: | 0 |
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During the decades-long Cold War the belief in America was that the Soviet Union had an ideology of world domination. Every nationalist movement, such as Vietnam's effort to throw off French colonialism, was misinterpreted as another domino falling to Soviet world conquest. This mistaken American belief persisted despite Stalin's purge of the Trotsky elements that preached world revolution. Stalin declared: "socialism in one country."
As the Soviets did not have the aim that the US attributed to them, the two governments could cooperate in reducing the dangerous tensions that nuclear weapons presented.
The rise of the American neoconservatives and their doctrine of US world hegemony has given the United States the expansionist ideology formerly attributed to the Soviets. Only this time the expansionist ideology is real. Yet, Russia's foreign minister, Lavrov, said today that "we [the US and Russia] have no ideological differences which make the Cold War inevitable." - Advertisement -
The inability of the Russian government to understand that the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony is the driving force of US foreign policy leaves Lavrov puzzled at the high level of hostility toward Russia. As Lavrov believes that there are no ideological differences between the two countries, he doesn't understand the hostility. However, he does understand that this hostility toward Russia is a negation of Cold War rules that both countries avoid surprising the other with what could be perceived as a dangerous threat.
There is no sign that the US government understands the danger in Russia's perception of threat -- or that Washington cares. - Advertisement - | 0 |
Scientists say they may have found a sort of magic ingredient to prevent asthma in children: microbes from farm animals, carried into the home in dust. The results of their research, published on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, were so convincing that they raised the possibility of developing a spray to do the same thing for children who do not have regular contact with cows and horses. It is a pressing problem because as many as 10. 6 percent of children have asthma, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And there is no cure for this chronic and frightening disease. The discovery originated with an idea that has been around for years: that a growing number of children were developing asthma because their daily environments were simply too clean. If children are exposed to microbes that stimulate their immune systems in the first few years of life, they will be protected against asthma, the hypothesis says. As asthma rates climbed, researchers published study after study supporting what has become known as the hygiene hypothesis. The most consistent findings were from studies that compared children who grew up on farms — less asthma — with children who grew up in other environments. But in every case, there were many other differences between the children who had less asthma and those who had more. So it was not clear what exactly might have led to different asthma rates. What was missing was evidence that one essential factor in the environment was protecting children. And what was needed was a reason it had exerted its effect. The new study provides this, asthma researchers say, which is what makes its results so spectacular. It is still early. The study was small, and even though its results were striking, more work needs to be done. But, said Dr. Brian Christman, a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University and a volunteer spokesman for the American Lung Association, “They really nailed it. ” The new work began when a group of investigators noticed that something peculiar was happening with children from two insular farming groups: the Amish of Indiana and the Hutterites of North Dakota. Asthma is rare among the Amish, affecting 2 to 4 percent of the population, but common among the Hutterites, with 15 to 20 percent affected. Yet the Amish and the Hutterites have similar genetic backgrounds. The Amish originated in Switzerland, the Hutterites in Austria. Members of both groups have large families and a very simple lifestyle. Their diets are similar, children in both groups have little exposure to tobacco smoke or polluted air, and both groups forbid indoor pets. Both groups also have meticulously clean homes. There was one difference, though: farming methods. The Amish live on dairy farms. They do not use electricity, and use horses to pull their plows and for transportation. Their barns are close to their homes, and their children play in them. The Hutterites have no objection to electricity and live on large, industrialized communal farms. Their cows are housed in huge barns, more like hangars, away from their homes. Children do not generally play in Hutterite barns. The researchers decided to start with a small study. They looked at 30 Amish children and 30 Hutterite children and asked what sort of immune cells were in their blood. “We never thought we would see a difference,” said Carole Ober, an author of the study and the chairwoman of the department of human genetics at the University of Chicago. To the researchers’ astonishment, she said,“we saw whopping differences with very, very different cell types and cell numbers. ” None of the Amish children had asthma. And they all had a large proportion of neutrophils — white blood cells that are the immune system’s paramedics and are part of what is known as the innate immune system. These children’s neutrophils were newly emerged from their bone marrow, evidence of a continual reaction to microbial invaders. “All 30 of the Amish kids had this,” said Anne I. Sperling, another author of the study and an associate professor of immunology and medicine at the University of Chicago. By contrast, six of the 30 Hutterite children had asthma, and all of them had far fewer neutrophils in their blood. The neutrophils that they did have were older ones, not cells that had just emerged. Instead, their blood was swarming with another type of immune cell, eosinophils, which provoke allergic reactions. It was as if they were primed for an asthma attack as soon as they breathed something to set it off. With the Amish children, Dr. Sperling said, it would clearly take a lot more provocation to set off an allergic response. The researchers decided that the differences between the Amish and the Hutterite children were so great that they should forge ahead with additional research to try to figure out what was stimulating the Amish innate immune system. They analyzed dust from the Amish and the Hutterite homes. The Amish dust was loaded with debris from bacteria the Hutterite dust was not. The researchers sent the dust to Dr. Donata Vercelli, an associate director of the asthma and airway research center at the University of Arizona, who would test the dust in mice. She put dust — Amish or Hutterite — into the airways of mice 14 times over a month and then exposed the animals to allergens. She measured how the airways responded: Did they constrict and twitch? Were they inflamed? “We found exactly what we found in the children,” Dr. Vercelli said. “If we give the Amish dust, we protect the mice. If we give the Hutterite dust, we do not protect them. ” Dr. Ober and her colleagues heard the results in a conference call with Dr. Sperling. “Our jaws were hanging open,” Dr. Ober said. “We could not believe it. ” Dr. Vercelli repeated the test and added another control. She gave the Amish dust to mice that were missing genes needed for the innate immune response. This time, the dust did not protect them. “It was incredibly exciting,” Dr. Sperling said. “Now we have a model that allows us to do these studies like never before. We can zoom in on microbial products. ” The work is scientifically sound, said Dr. William Busse, a professor of allergy, pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Wisconsin. “It is an extremely positive march forward,” he said. “This is an exciting paper. ” Now, said Dr. Talal Chatila, an immunologist at Harvard Medical School, “it is not to start thinking of how one could harness those bacteria for a therapeutic intervention. ” Dr. Chatila, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new paper, hastened to add that he was not suggesting that people start packaging Amish dust and selling it in pharmacies to protect children from asthma. But, he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if inactive forms of the bacteria could be used. ” | 1 |
Google’s antitrust problems in Europe are about to get a whole lot bigger. The company is expected to be charged with breaking the European Union’s competition rules by unfairly favoring Google services, like its search engine and Google Maps, on its Android smartphone operating system over those of rivals, according to three people. The three, who work in either government or the private sector, spoke on the condition of anonymity. The charges, known formally as a statement of objections, may be announced in Brussels as soon as Wednesday, though the announcement could still be postponed until later this month, according to one of the people. The expected charges against Google are the latest in a raft of regulatory problems that American tech giants have faced as the European Union has cracked down on these companies’ perceived dominance over how people in the bloc get access to digital services. That ranges from privacy complaints over how Facebook uses people’s online information to questions about Apple’s tax affairs from its headquarters in Ireland. These cases come after previous antitrust investigations into how the likes of Microsoft and Intel operated across regions. Google denies that it has breached the region’s tough competition laws, and it will have several months to respond to the charges from the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. “Anyone can use Android with or without Google applications,” Mark Jansen, a Google spokesman, said in a statement when asked about the company’s mobile software. “Hardware manufacturers and carriers can decide how to use Android, and consumers have the last word about which apps they want to use on their devices. ” A spokesman for the European Commission declined to comment. Despite the company’s denials, the expected charges linked to Android, which powers 77 percent of European smartphones, would represent a major setback for the Silicon Valley company as it grapples with a growing number of global competition investigations into Google’s vast operations. The case against Android also comes as Google is trying to strengthen its position on mobile — increasingly the primary way that people go online — as its traditional desktop business has started to show some signs of fatigue. Europe’s antitrust officials have already accused Google of unfairly abusing its dominant market position across the bloc to favor some of its own search services. A conclusion into those separate charges is expected within months, and it could lead to a fine exceeding $7 billion, equivalent to about 10 percent of Google’s most recent annual revenue, the maximum allowable fine. The Federal Trade Commission in Washington is also looking into whether Google broke American antitrust laws by using its Android operating system to bolster the company’s products. American officials previously investigated claims that Google’s search services violated federal competition rules, though they eventually decided not to bring charges. Other countries, including India and Russia, have similarly either accused the company of breaking antitrust rules or opened antitrust investigations into Google’s activities. Canadian authorities, though, said on Tuesday that they had closed their investigation into claims that Google had misused its dominant position in online search. They added they would continue monitoring the company’s activities. Apple continues to generate the largest share of revenue from global smartphone sales. The company also bundles its own services, including digital maps, into its mobile software, but has yet to face similar questions over whether it has broken Europe’s antitrust rules. Google does not make money from licensing its basic Android software to cellphone manufacturers, but instead earns revenue through digital services like advertising from search, among other mobile services. It holds more than 80 percent of the smartphone operating system market worldwide, according to the technology research company Gartner. If European officials demand that the company provide rivals greater access to the Android universe — a possibility if Google is found to have broken the region’s laws — the search giant may find it more difficult to promote its own mobile services to users worldwide as well as to smartphone makers. As part of the charges to be announced as soon as Wednesday, Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s antitrust chief, is expected to focus on Google’s deals with cellphone manufacturers that include bundles of Google services included in Android. Speaking in Amsterdam on Monday, Ms. Vestager said that these deals may have hindered competition by forcing cellphone manufacturers to rely on Google’s mobile services that come preinstalled on certain versions of the Android software. “Our concern is that, by requiring phone makers and operators to preload a set of Google apps, rather than letting them decide for themselves which apps to load, Google might have cut off one of the main ways that new apps can reach customers,” Ms. Vestager said ahead of the charges being announced. The case related to Google’s Android operating system has been long expected. In 2013, Europe said it had received an official complaint from FairSearch Europe, a group of Google’s competitors, including Oracle and Nokia, among others. Aptoide, a Portuguese Android online marketplace, also filed a complaint against Google in 2014. These companies say that they have been financially hurt by Google practices that they call unfair, an accusation the company rejects. In response to these complaints, the European Commission announced last year that it would investigate Google’s dominant role in the Android operating system, and whether rivals had been treated unfairly. “Consumers deserve more choice and innovation in mobile devices and applications,” said Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for FairSearch. “A statement of objections in the Android case would be an important step forward for competition and consumers. ” Google says that its partnerships with cellphone makers that rely on its operating system are voluntary, and that these relationships offer benefits to consumers as well as manufacturers. Europe’s latest antitrust charges represent one of the first major challenges for Sundar Pichai, who took over as Google’s chief executive after a reorganization last year. Google is now owned by a holding company called Alphabet, which reports its quarterly earnings on Thursday. In February, Mr. Pichai traveled to Brussels to meet with Ms. Vestager and other European politicians, including Günther Oettinger, a German politician in charge of the digital economy in the bloc. Eric E. Schmidt, Alphabet’s executive chairman, has also been a regular visitor to Europe, meeting often with regional officials, in part to discuss the company’s continuing antitrust problems. Mr. Pichai is no stranger to competition struggles. In 2009, he wrote to European officials explaining why they should take a hard line against Microsoft on charges that the company had abused its position in web browsers. Microsoft eventually paid more than $3 billion in fines for breaking the region’s antitrust rules. Now, Google faces mounting pressure over accusations it abused its position in everything from online search to its Android operating system. And it is the turn of Mr. Pichai, along with other Google executives, to respond. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans, racked by divisions over health care, taxes and spending, are increasingly desperate for leadership from the White House to unite the party and point the way toward consensus. But presidential leadership does not appear to be forthcoming, leaving the party largely paralyzed at a moment it had thought would be full of legislative activity. “The White House is huge,” said Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota. “The president is the only person who can sign a bill into law, so he’s the guy that ultimately holds the whip hand when it comes to this getting done. ” As congressional leaders struggle to clear the first major legislative hurdle of the Trump era — a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — their talks with the White House, though not infrequent, have failed to advance any coherent, cohesive policy prescription. Repealing the health care law is the Republicans’ first step toward enacting their broader agenda. So far, President Trump, seeking to project an image of a man of action, has preferred executive actions over engagement with Congress. In the absence of presidential leadership, the most fiscally conservative House Republicans have stepped forward to demand that the health care law be whittled to near nothingness. More moderate senators are insisting on a replacement plan with many of the current law’s popular components. Both sides are pressing hard to sway lawmakers working on draft legislation that would roll back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, replace the subsidies offered in the insurance marketplaces with tax credits to buy coverage, and eliminate tax penalties for people who do not have health insurance. After weeks of loud protests across the country from voters who are fearful of losing their health care, Republican governors complicated matters further this week by joining Democrats in a call for a replacement plan that would ensure coverage for the 20 million Americans who gained insurance under the Affordable Care Act. “I’d like to hear a renewed commitment to repealing the law,” said Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah — another sign of just how far the party is from unity. Democrats, who have been dismissed as obstructionists by Republicans determined to repeal and replace the law without them, are sitting by quietly waiting for those efforts to fail. At that point, Democrats believe, Republicans will have to reach across the aisle and repair the law. “We’ve maintained all along there is room to negotiate,” said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii. “But only if they abandon their attempt to repeal the law. ” While he has seen no moves toward cooperation yet, “they are in a world of hurt,” Mr. Schatz said of Republicans, “because none of their plans add up, and their members are starting to figure this out and the public is starting to figure this out, and they don’t have Obama as a foil anymore. I think they need to fail first. ” Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, who has long offered to help fix the law, said she had heard from only one Republican colleague, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, since the end of last year. “I don’t think Republicans have decided what they’re waiting for,” she said. “The White House or Godot. ” Many Republicans seem to be resigned to seeking consensus on health care legislation, as well as on a budget and tax reform, without comprehensive White House guidance. Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was relying less on a signal from Mr. Trump than on discussions between lawmakers and the administration to “get the details filled in. ” Those details include how Mr. Trump plans to fund his call for a 10 percent increase in military spending, Mr. McCaul said. “From a budget standpoint, these numbers are difficult to crunch,” he said. “We as Republicans want a stronger national defense. That money’s got to come from someplace. That’s where the hard decisions have to be made. ” Mr. Trump’s aversion to making big changes to two of the costliest government programs, Medicare and Social Security — something Republicans generally crave — is not helping matters. “That makes it even more difficult,” Mr. McCaul said. The president’s budget outline, unveiled this week, has something for almost every Republican to hate, from the lack of entitlement reform to large proposed cuts at the State Department. “Speaking for myself,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, “I think the diplomatic portion of the federal budget is very important, and you get results a lot cheaper, frequently, than you do on the defense side. So, speaking for myself, I’m not in favor” of huge reductions at the State Department. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called those cuts “dead in the water” for him. Many of Mr. Trump’s direct contributions to the legislative process have happened through the news media, as he has signaled his priorities in interviews that have sometimes left congressional Republicans scrambling to decipher his intentions. Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, said some of his Republican colleagues were frustrated by their inability to move forward. “They’re reading about what he wants to do at the same time I am in the paper,” he said. Six weeks after Mr. Trump said Republicans would provide a replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act that offered “insurance for everybody,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin is fighting to reconcile his party’s competing priorities while also contending with the occasional messaging complication from the White House. “This is a plan that we are all working on together: the House, the Senate, the White House,” Mr. Ryan said Tuesday. “We’re all working on this together with the administration. ” | 1 |
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish prosecutor says a girl has been formally charged with planning bomb attacks against two schools in Denmark. [Prosecutor Nilas says the teenager is accused of “having made preparations to make bombs” using the explosive known as TATP. She said her targets were a school west of Copenhagen and a Jewish school in the capital. Police thwarted the plans by arresting the girl on Jan. 13, 2016. A trial is set to start April 7, 2017 in Holbaek, northwest of the Danish capital. Charges against a man, initially believed to an accomplice, have been dropped. Defense lawyer Michael Juul Eriksen told The Associated Press his client, who twice had been in Syria, would be released later Friday. Neither the girl nor the man could be identified. | 1 |
Drivers across the country are racing to their local Department of Motor Vehicles offices to claim “covfefe” vanity license plates just days following President Trump’s tweetwhere he meant to type “negative press coverage” and instead wrote “covfefe. ”[Drivers have already claimed their “covfefe” vanity plate in at least 21 states, including California, North Carolina, Maine, and Nebraska since Trump sent out his tweet early Wednesday morning, CNN reported. Greg Cooper, a California attorney, was one of the first in the nation to claim his state’s “covfefe” license plate. His daughter, Tayla, posted a photo of him with the plate design to Twitter, which received over 97, 000 likes and has been retweeted over 20, 000 times. Cooper, who was with family when he saw Trump’s tweet and thought it would be funny to buy a “covfefe” vanity plate, said he has not decided whether he will attach the license plate to his car when it arrives in 12 weeks. Evan Milton, 26, of Nebraska, claimed his state’s “covfefe” vanity plate for $40 just five hours after Trump tweeted the word. Milton told the Lincoln that he applied for the license plate through his state’s DMV website around 4 a. m. because he wanted a vanity plate on his car that came from a meme. Trump himself has poked fun of his original tweet, where he wrote about the “constant negative press covfefe,” in a tweet: “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’? ?? Enjoy!” Who can figure out the true meaning of ”covfefe” ? ?? Enjoy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017, “Covfefe” also became the number one trending topic on Twitter within the hour after Trump posted his original tweet, giving birth to a new meme. As of Monday afternoon, there are still seven states where drivers can order a “covfefe” vanity plate. The states still to be claimed are New Hampshire, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. | 1 |
Outgoing Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the federal government has a mandate to hold police officers accountable for their actions. [“You’ve got to hold police accountable, you’ve got to help them hold themselves accountable, and you’ve got to build in community accountability,” she told the Associated Press in an interview published Saturday. Lynch also said that relationships between the Justice Department and local law enforcement had improved. Her comments come a day after the Justice Department released a scathing report on the Chicago Police Department’s civil rights violations, the Hill reported. Lynch, who was sworn in as attorney general in April 2015, took charge during a period where there was much criticism about police practices in black communities, and she made it a department priority to go after civil rights violations. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, plans to change the focus of the Justice Department to highlight issues such as national security and immigration. Lynch’s tenure as attorney general has been marked by massacres by violent extremists, hacking attempts from overseas, and an election season investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Lynch also drew criticism for an unplanned meeting with Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac in Phoenix. Lynch said she wished she had never met Bill Clinton on the tarmac, Breitbart reported. | 1 |
The biggest presence at Sunday’s Golden Globes was a TV star who didn’t show up, didn’t win an award, was not thanked and was only rarely mentioned by name. Hollywood’s first awards show of the year was — like so much in today’s headlines — brought to you by Donald J. Trump. Even before Meryl Streep took the to the he loomed over Jimmy Fallon’s monologue. The last time Mr. Trump appeared with Mr. Fallon on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” the host tousled his hair during a softball interview. Mr. Trump’s subsequent election was both an affirmation of celebrity’s power and a repudiation of most celebrities’ politics. So beyond “Moonlight” versus “Manchester by the Sea,” a big question hanging over the awards was how, or whether, Mr. Fallon would address the Republican elephant in the room. The night began with exactly the kind of bit you’d figure Mr. Fallon would start with: a parody of scenes from the musical mash note to Los Angeles, “La La Land. ” It was a fitting choice, if not an especially hilarious one, at the most escapist of awards shows. Music and comedy are the strength of Mr. Fallon’s “The Tonight Show. ” (He brought his bandleader, Questlove, along as D. J.) And just as “La La Land” is a bubbly tribute to performers and their dreams, Mr. Fallon’s talk show is a stage for celebrities — and politicians — to perform their likability. In his monologue, Mr. Fallon seemed determined to show that his hand had claws. He said the awards results were “tabulated by the firm of Ernst Young and Putin. ” Referencing “Game of Thrones” fans who wondered what would have happened if King Joffrey — the show’s sadistic, petty — had lived, he said, “in 12 days we’re going to find out. ” His jokes felt out of character the rest were ordinary. (He did show off his talent for impressions, doing a Chris Rock that reminded us how sharp Mr. Rock had been at the Oscars.) The most memorable part may have been at the beginning, when Mr. Fallon’s Teleprompter went out. He vamped for a bit, and after the commercial break he returned with a joke — likening his mishap to Mariah Carey’s singing disaster on New Year’s Eve — that it seemed half of Twitter had already made at that point. Mr. Fallon handled his technical much better than the diva. But he didn’t make much of it either, and that summed up the night. He wasn’t bad this year just didn’t seem like his cultural moment. You had to wonder what last year’s host, the vitriolic Ricky Gervais, might have done, or Mr. Fallon’s other predecessors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who made acerbic jokes in good fun. Entertainers can make an audience forget the turbulent times with a tour de force performance. (See Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig, who did a brilliant bit about their first visits to the movies going horribly wrong — someone might want to call their agents and lock them down to host next year.) They can make art out of troubles. (See many of the night’s winners, such as the “The People v. O. J. Simpson. ”) Or they can lay it between the lines. Hugh Laurie seemed to compare his character in “The Night Manager” to the : “I accept this award on behalf of psychopathic billionaires everywhere. ” It was Meryl Streep, receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award, who repudiated Mr. Trump, for a “performance” during the campaign in which he mocked a disabled reporter. “It sank its hooks in my heart,” she said. Call me biased (that reporter is a colleague at The Times) but it was as passionate and devastating as any scripted clip played that night. Ms. Streep also said that without Hollywood’s performers from around the world, “you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts. ” Did that persuade anyone for whom those are entertainment? There is a school of thought that it does nobody good for celebrities to deliver political diatribes, coded or not, on a night that celebrates the fortune of the fortunate. But their work says something, like it or not. The 2016 election was, among other things, a cultural argument: overtly and subtextually, it was in part about how comfortable America was with change, diversity and inclusion — about whether there was some homogeneous “greatness” that America had lost. The awards, and the acceptances, often served as an answer, a message that the social gears have not totally been thrown in reverse. “Moonlight,” a film about a young black man growing up gay, won best drama. FX’s “Atlanta,” set in the scene of the Georgia city, won best TV comedy or musical, and its creator, Donald Glover (who also won best actor in a comedy or musical) thanked “all the black folks in Atlanta. ” And Tracee Ellis Ross, star of “ ” (whose title Mr. Trump once railed against on Twitter) dedicated her award to women of color: “I want you to know that I see you. We see you. ” Sometimes, this Globescast said, art is an escape. Sometimes it’s a call to arms. And sometimes seeing, and being seen, is a statement in itself. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump, the Manhattan real estate mogul who boasts about his wealth, maintains a fleet of aircraft and sells his own brand of neckties, paid respects on Sunday to an incongruous constituency. “Look at all these bikers,” Mr. Trump, standing before a crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial, said with admiration. “Do we love the bikers? Yes. We love the bikers. ” Mr. Trump was addressing a gathering at the 29th annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle run, a vast event over Memorial Day weekend that is dedicated to accounting for military members taken as prisoners of war or listed as missing in action. Bikers assembled at the Pentagon before riding en masse into the nation’s capital, with many dressed in leather vests covered in patches, their bikes rumbling throughout the afternoon. For the Mr. Trump, who likes to stress his desire to strengthen the military and improve how veterans are treated, the gathering provided a receptive audience, if one where he might otherwise seem out of place. “He speaks what’s on his mind and means what he says,” said Tom Christian, 43, a heating and contractor from Tennessee. “And that’s what a biker does. That’s the way we are: We say what we think. If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, go the other way. ” The warm embrace from the crowd gave no hint of the controversy that Mr. Trump incited last year when he denigrated the military service of Senator John McCain of Arizona, a former prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Mr. Trump said Mr. McCain, a fellow Republican, was not a war hero, saying, “I like people that weren’t captured, O. K.?” Mr. Trump is the latest political figure, but not the only one, to pay attention to bikers. Wearing a black helmet, Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, appeared at Rolling Thunder in 2011, months before saying she would not run for president in 2012. And one of Mr. Trump’s former Republican rivals, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a proud owner, campaigned at Harley dealerships and wore motorcycle boots on the campaign trail. Asked during a debate what he wanted his Secret Service code name to be, he suggested Harley. Campaigning in Wisconsin in March, Mr. Trump observed that Mr. Walker was “always on a Harley. ” “I’m not a huge biker, I have to be honest with you, O. K.?” Mr. Trump added. “I always liked the limo better. ” Nancy Regg, a spokeswoman for Rolling Thunder, said the group had invited Mr. Trump to appear. The group did not extend an invitation to Hillary Clinton or Senator Bernie Sanders, she said. Richard McFadden, 58, an annual Rolling Thunder attendee from North Carolina, said Mrs. Clinton would not have been welcome. “Just like asking Jane Fonda to show up, it’d be a very, very bad thing,” said Mr. McFadden, who works in computer support and wore a button that read, “Hillary for Prison 2016. ” Mr. Trump’s supporters include a group called “Bikers for Trump,” which has more than 46, 000 “likes” on Facebook. Speaking on Sunday, Mr. Trump told the crowd of seeing large numbers of bikers at his campaign events. “I said, ‘What are they all doing here?’ and my people would say, ‘They’re here to protect you, Mr. Trump,’” he said. “It’s an amazing thing. And I want to tell you, some of these people are tough. ” But when he shakes their hands, “there is love, and it’s an incredible feeling, and that’s why I wanted to be with you today,” he said. Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and forgoing a necktie, Mr. Trump pledged to rebuild the military and said George S. Patton and other deceased generals were “spinning in their graves. ” He lamented that veterans “have been treated so badly in this country” and asserted that in many cases, immigrants in the country illegally were taken better care of. He said that on Tuesday he will detail the money he had raised for veterans’ groups. Standing before the reflecting pool with the Washington Monument offering a striking backdrop, Mr. Trump also expressed disappointment about the size of the crowd, which did not fill the space cordoned off in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the event. “I thought this would be like Dr. Martin Luther King, where the people would be lined up from here all the way to the Washington Monument,” he said. He seemed to blame event organizers, saying he passed enormous crowds along the roads on the way to the gathering, including “the most beautiful bikes I’ve ever seen in my life. ” Two retirees from New Jersey, Tom Gadosky and his companion, Marney Pratt, who are both 67, traveled to Rolling Thunder on their . Both plan to vote for Mr. Trump in November. “A lot of the people, if you walk around, are baby boomers, like us,” Ms. Pratt said. “We’ve been through it all. We want to have it back again. ” Neither of them was bothered by what Mr. Trump had said about Mr. McCain. People, Mr. Gadosky said, “have very short memories. ” | 1 |
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He has slashed the state budget, frozen government contracts and reduced the pay of civil employees, all part of drastic austerity measures as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is buffeted by low oil prices. But last year, Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince, saw a yacht he couldn’t resist. While vacationing in the south of France, Prince bin Salman spotted a yacht floating off the coast. He dispatched an aide to buy the ship, the Serene, which was owned by Yuri Shefler, a Russian vodka tycoon. The deal was done within hours, at a price of approximately 500 million euros (roughly $550 million today) according to an associate of Mr. Shefler and a Saudi close to the royal family. The Russian moved off the yacht the same day. It is the paradox of the brash, Prince bin Salman: a man who is trying to overturn tradition, reinvent the economy and consolidate power — while holding tight to his royal privilege. In less than two years, he has emerged as the most dynamic royal in the Arab world’s wealthiest nation, setting up a potential rivalry for the throne. He has a hand in nearly all elements of Saudi policy — from a war in Yemen that has cost the kingdom billions of dollars and led to international criticism over civilian deaths, to a push domestically to restrain Saudi Arabia’s habits and to break its “addiction” to oil. He has begun to loosen social restrictions that grate on young people. The rise of Prince bin Salman has shattered decades of tradition in the royal family, where respect for seniority and among branches are traditions. Never before in Saudi history has so much power been wielded by the deputy crown prince, who is second in line to the throne. That centralization of authority has angered many of his relatives. His seemingly boundless ambitions have led many Saudis and foreign officials to suspect that his ultimate goal is not just to transform the kingdom, but also to shove aside the current crown prince, his cousin, Mohammed bin Nayef, to become the next king. Such a move could further upset his relatives and — if successful — give the country what it has never seen: a young king who could rule the kingdom for many decades. Crown Prince bin Nayef, the interior minister and longtime counterterrorism czar, has deep ties to Washington and the support of many of the older royals. Deciphering the dynamics of the family can be like trying to navigate a hall of mirrors, but many Saudi and American officials say Prince bin Salman has made moves aimed at reaching into Prince bin Nayef’s portfolios and weakening him. This has left officials in Washington hedging their bets by building relationships with both men, unsure who will end up on top. The White House got an early sign of the ascent of the young prince in late 2015, when — breaking protocol — Prince bin Salman delivered a soliloquy about the failures of American foreign policy during a meeting between his father, King Salman, and President Obama. Many young Saudis admire him as an energetic representative of their generation who has addressed some of the country’s problems with uncommon bluntness. The kingdom’s news media have built his image as a hardworking, businesslike leader less concerned than his predecessors with the trappings of royalty. Others see him as a upstart who is risking instability by changing too much, too fast. Months of interviews with Saudi and American officials, members of the royal family and their associates, and diplomats focused on Saudi affairs reveal a portrait of a prince in a hurry to prove that he can transform Saudi Arabia. Prince bin Salman declined multiple interview requests for this article. But the question many raise — and cannot yet answer — is whether the energetic leader will succeed in charting a new path for the kingdom, or whether his impulsiveness and inexperience will destabilize the Arab world’s largest economy at a time of turbulence in the Middle East. Early this year, Crown Prince bin Nayef left the kingdom for his family’s villa in Algeria, a sprawling compound an hour’s drive north of Algiers. Although he has long taken annual hunting vacations there, many who know him said that this year was different. He stayed away for weeks, largely incommunicado and often refusing to respond to messages from Saudi officials and close associates in Washington. Even John O. Brennan, the C. I. A. director, whom he has known for decades, had difficulty reaching him. The crown prince has diabetes, and suffers from the lingering effects of an assassination attempt in 2009 by a jihadist who detonated a bomb he had hidden in his rectum. But his lengthy absence at a time of low oil prices, turmoil in the Middle East and a foundering war in Yemen led several American officials to conclude that the crown prince was fleeing frictions with his younger cousin and that the prince was worried his chance to ascend the throne was in jeopardy. Since King Salman ascended to the throne in January 2015, new powers had been flowing to his son, some of them undermining the authority of the crown prince. King Salman collapsed the crown prince’s court into his own, giving Prince bin Salman control over access to the king. Prince bin Salman also hastily announced the formation of a military alliance of Islamic countries to fight terrorism. Counterterrorism had long been the domain of Prince bin Nayef, but the new plan gave no role to him or his powerful Interior Ministry. The exact personal relationship between the two men is unclear, fueling discussion in Saudi Arabia and in foreign capitals about who is ascendant. Obscuring the picture are the stark differences in the men’s public profiles. Prince bin Nayef has largely stayed in the shadows, although he did visit New York last month to address the United Nations General Assembly before heading to Turkey for a state visit. His younger cousin, meanwhile, has worked to remain in the spotlight, touring world capitals, speaking with foreign journalists, being photographed with the Facebook chairman Mark Zuckerberg and presenting himself as a face of a new Saudi Arabia. “There is no topic that is more important than succession matters, especially now,” said Joseph A. Kechichian, a senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, who has extensive contacts in the Saudi royal family. “This matters for monarchy, for the regional allies and for the kingdom’s international partners. ” Among the most concrete initiatives so far of Prince bin Salman, who serves as minister of defense, is the war in Yemen, which since it was begun last year has failed to dislodge the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies from the Yemeni capital. The war has driven much of Yemen toward famine and killed thousands of civilians while costing the Saudi government tens of billions of dollars. The prosecution of the war by a prince with no military experience has exacerbated tensions between him and his older cousins, according to American officials and members of the royal family. Three of Saudi Arabia’s main security services are run by princes. Although all agreed that the kingdom had to respond when the Houthis seized the Yemeni capital and forced the government into exile, Prince bin Salman took the lead, launching the war in March 2015 without full coordination across the security services. The head of the National Guard, Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, had not been informed and was out of the country when the first strikes were carried out, according to a senior National Guard officer. The National Guard is now holding much of the Yemeni border. American officials, too, were put off when, just as the Yemen campaign was escalating, Prince bin Salman took a vacation in the Maldives, the island archipelago off the coast of India. Several American officials said Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter had trouble reaching him for days during one part of the trip. The prolonged war has also heightened tensions between Prince bin Salman and Prince bin Nayef, who won the respect of Saudis and American officials for dismantling Al Qaeda in the kingdom nearly a decade ago and now sees it taking advantage of chaos in Yemen, according to several American officials and analysts. “If Mohammed bin Nayef wanted to be seen as a big supporter of this war, he’s had a year and a half to do it,” said Bruce Riedel, a former Middle East analyst at the C. I. A. and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Near the start of the war, Prince bin Salman was a forceful public advocate for the campaign and was often photographed visiting troops and meeting with military leaders. But as the campaign has stalemated, such appearances have grown rare. The war underlines the plans of Prince bin Salman for a brawny foreign policy for the kingdom, one less reliant on Western powers like the United States for its security. He has criticized the thawing of America’s relations with Iran and comments by Mr. Obama during an interview this year that Saudi Arabia must “share the neighborhood” with Iran. This is part of what analysts say is Prince bin Salman’s attempt to foster a sense of Saudi national identity that has not existed since the kingdom’s founding in 1932. “There has been a surge of Saudi nationalism since the campaign in Yemen began, with the sense that Saudi Arabia is taking independent collective action,” said Andrew Bowen, a Saudi expert at the Wilson Center in Washington. Still, Mr. Bowen said support among younger Saudis could diminish the longer the conflict dragged on. Diplomats say the death toll for Saudi troops is higher than the government has publicly acknowledged, and a recent deadly airstrike on a funeral in the Yemeni capital has renewed calls by human rights groups and some American lawmakers to block or delay weapons sales to the kingdom. People who have met Prince bin Salman said he insisted that Saudi Arabia must be more assertive in shaping events in the Middle East and confronting Iran’s influence in the region — whether in Yemen, Syria, Iraq or Lebanon. Brian Katulis, a Middle East expert at the Center for American Progress in Washington, who met the prince this year in Riyadh, said his agenda was clear. “His main message is that Saudi Arabia is a force to be reckoned with,” Mr. Katulis said. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s few remaining absolute monarchies, which means that Prince bin Salman was given all of his powers by a vote of one: his own father. The prince’s rise began in early 2015, after King Abdullah died of lung cancer and King Salman ascended to the throne. In a series of royal decrees, the new king restructured the government and shook up the order of succession in the royal family in ways that invested tremendous power in his son. He was named defense minister and head of a powerful new council to oversee the Saudi economy as well as put in charge of the governing body of Saudi Aramco, the state oil company and the primary engine of the Saudi economy. More important, the king decreed a new order of succession, overturning the wishes of King Abdullah and replacing his designated crown prince, Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, with Prince bin Nayef. While all previous Saudi kings and crown princes had been sons of the kingdom’s founder, Prince bin Nayef was the first of the founder’s grandsons to be put in line. Many hailed the move because of the prince’s success at fighting Al Qaeda and because he has only daughters, leading many to hope he would choose a successor based on merit rather than paternity. The bigger surprise was that the king named Prince bin Salman deputy crown prince. He was 29 years old at the time and virtually unknown to the kingdom’s closest allies. This effectively scrapped the political aspirations of his older relatives, many of whom had decades of experience in public life and in key sectors like defense and oil policy. Some are still angry — although only in private, out of deference to the king. Since then, Prince bin Salman has moved quickly to build his public profile and market himself to other nations as the point man for the kingdom. Domestically, his focus has been on an ambitious plan for the future of the kingdom, called Vision 2030. The plan, released in April, seeks to transform Saudi life by diversifying its economy away from oil, increasing Saudi employment and improving education, health and other government services. A National Transformation Plan, laying out targets for improving government ministries, came shortly after. Read in one way, the documents are an ambitious blueprint to change the Saudi way of life. Read in another, they are a scathing indictment of how poorly the kingdom has been run by Prince bin Salman’s elders. Official government development plans going back decades have called for reducing the dependence on oil and increasing Saudi employment — to little effect. And in calling for transparency and accountability, the plan acknowledges that both have been in short supply. Diplomats and economists say much about the Saudi economy remains opaque, including the cost of generous perks and stipends for members of the royal family. The need for change is greater now, with global oil prices less than half of what they were in 2014 and hundreds of thousands of young Saudis entering the job market yearly. Prince bin Salman has called for a new era of fiscal responsibility, and over the last year, fuel, water and electricity prices have gone up while the pay of some public sector employees has been cut — squeezing the budgets of average Saudis. He has also said the government will sell shares of Saudi Aramco, believed to be the world’s most valuable company. Many Saudis say his age and ambition are benefits at a time when old ways of thinking must be changed. “He is speaking in the language of the youth,” said Hoda a member of the kingdom’s advisory Shura Council, which is appointed by the king. “The country for too long has been looking through the lenses of the older generation, and we need to look at who is going to carry the torch to the next generation. ” Some of his initiatives have appeared . In December, he held his first news conference to announce the formation of a military alliance of Islamic countries to fight terrorism. But a number of countries that he said were involved soon responded that they knew nothing about it or were still waiting for information before deciding whether to join. Others have been popular. After Prince bin Salman called for more entertainment options for families and young people, who often flee the country on their vacations, the cabinet passed regulations restricting the powers of the religious police. An Entertainment Authority he established has planned its first activities, which include comedy shows, pro wrestling events and monster truck rallies. The prince has kept his distance from the Council of Senior Scholars, the mostly elderly clerics who set official religious policy and often release religious opinions that young Saudis mock as being out of touch with modern life. Instead, he has sought the favor of younger clerics who boast millions of followers on social media. After the release of Vision 2030, Prince bin Salman held a reception for Saudi journalists and academics that included a number of younger, clerics who have gone forth to praise the plan. Prince bin Salman’s prominence today was difficult to predict during his early years, spent largely below the radar of Western officials who keep track of young Saudi royals who might one day rule the kingdom. Several of King Salman’s other sons, who studied overseas to perfect foreign languages and earn advanced degrees, built impressive résumés. One became the first Arab astronaut, another a deputy oil minister, yet another the governor of Medina Province. Prince bin Salman stayed in Saudi Arabia and does not speak fluent English, although he appears to understand it. After a private school education, he studied law at King Saud University in Riyadh, reportedly graduating fourth in his class. Another prince of the same generation said he had gotten to know him during high school, when one of their uncles hosted regular dinners for the younger princes at his palace. He recalled Prince bin Salman being one of the crowd, saying he liked to play bridge and admired Margaret Thatcher. King Salman is said to see himself in his favorite son, the latest in the lineage of a family that has ruled most of the Arabian Peninsula for eight decades. In 2007, when the United States ambassador dropped in on King Salman, then a prince and the governor of Riyadh Province, to say farewell at the end of his posting, the governor asked for help circumventing America’s stringent visa procedures. His wife could not get a visa to see her doctor, and although his other children were willing to submit to the visa hurdles, “his son, Prince Mohammed, refused to go to the U. S. Embassy to be fingerprinted ‘like some criminal,’” according to a State Department cable at the time. Prince bin Salman graduated from the university that year and continued to work for his father, who was named defense minister in 2011, while dabbling in real estate and business. Many members of the royal family remain wary of the young prince’s projects and ultimate ambitions. Some mock him as the “Prince of the Vision” and complain about his army of foreign consultants and . Other are annoyed by the media cell he created inside the royal court to promote his initiatives, both foreign and domestic. Called the Center for Studies and Media Affairs, the group has focused on promoting a positive story about the Yemen war in Washington and has hired numerous Washington lobbying and public affairs firms to assist in the effort. Inside the kingdom, the government has largely succeeded in keeping criticism — and even open discussion — of the prince and his projects out of the public sphere. His family holds sway over the parent company of many Saudi newspapers, which have breathlessly covered his initiatives, and prominent Saudi editors and journalists who have accompanied him on foreign trips have been given up to $100, 000 in cash, according to two people who have traveled with the prince’s delegation. Meanwhile, Saudi journalists deemed too critical have been quietly silenced through phone calls informing them that they are barred from publishing, and sometimes from traveling abroad. In June, a Saudi journalist, Sultan published an article in Arabic on his website, The Riyadh Post, in which he addressed the lack of discussion about Prince bin Salman’s rise. “You can buy tens of newspapers and hundreds of journalists, but you can’t buy the history that will be written about you,” he wrote. He said that the prince’s popularity among Saudis was based on a “sweeping desire for great change” and that they loved him based on the hope that he would “turn their dreams into reality. ” In that lay the risk, Mr. Qahtani wrote: “If you fail, this love withers quickly, as if it never existed, and is replaced by a deep feeling of frustration and hatred. ” The site was blocked the next day, Mr. Qahtani said, for the third time in 13 months. (It is now back up, at a new address.) As sweeping and as Prince bin Salman’s initiatives are, they may hang by the tenuous thread of his link to his father, who has memory lapses, according to foreign officials who have met with him. Even the prince’s supporters acknowledge that they are not sure he will retain his current roles after his father dies. In the meantime, he is racing against time to establish his reputation and cement his place in the kingdom’s power structure. His fast ascent, and his foreign trips to Washington, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia, have led senior Obama administration officials to consider the prospect that he could step over Prince bin Nayef and become Saudi Arabia’s next king. This has led to a balancing act for American officials who want to build a relationship with him while not being used as leverage in any rivalry with Prince bin Nayef. Obama administration officials say relations with Prince bin Salman have generally improved, but only after a rocky start when he would routinely lecture senior Americans — even the president. In November, during a Group of 20 summit meeting at a luxury resort on the Turkish coast, Prince bin Salman gave what American officials described as a lengthy speech about what he saw as the failure of American foreign policy in the Middle East — from the Obama administration’s restraint in Syria to its efforts to improve relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s bitter enemy. Personal relationships have long been the bedrock of relations, yet the Obama administration has struggled to find someone to develop a rapport with the prince. The job has largely fallen to Secretary of State John Kerry, who has hosted the prince several times at his home in Georgetown. In June, the two men shared an iftar dinner, breaking the Ramadan fast. In September 2015, dinner at Mr. Kerry’s house ended with Prince bin Salman playing Beethoven on the piano for the secretary of state and the other guests. In May, the prince invited Mr. Kerry for a meeting on the Serene, the luxury yacht he bought from the Russian billionaire. His desire to reimagine the Saudi state is reflected in his admiration — some even call it envy — for the kingdom’s more modern and progressive neighbor in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates. He has influential supporters in this effort, particularly the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who for more than a year has been promoting Prince bin Salman in the Middle East and in Washington. Crown Prince bin Zayed, the United Arab Emirates’ de facto ruler, is a favorite among Obama administration officials, who view him as a reliable ally and a respected voice in the Sunni world. But he also has a history of personal antipathy toward Prince bin Nayef, adding a particular urgency to his support for the chief rival of the Saudi crown prince. In April of last year, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, led a small delegation of top White House officials to visit Prince bin Zayed at his home in McLean, Va. During the meeting, according to several officials who attended, the prince urged the Americans to develop a relationship with Prince bin Salman. But all questions about Prince bin Salman’s future are likely to depend on how long his father lives, according to diplomats who track Saudi Arabia. If he died soon, Prince bin Nayef would become king and could dismiss his younger cousin as a gesture to his fellow royals. In fact, it was King Salman who set the precedent for such moves by dismissing the crown prince named by his predecessor. “If the king’s health starts to deteriorate, Mohammed bin Salman is very likely to try to get Mohammed bin Nayef out of the picture,” said Mr. Riedel, the former C. I. A. analyst. But the longer King Salman reigns, foreign officials said, the longer the young prince has to consolidate his power — or to convince Prince bin Nayef that he is worth keeping around if Prince bin Nayef becomes king. Most Saudi watchers do not expect any struggles within the family to spill into the open, as all the royals understand how much they have to lose from such fissures becoming public or destabilizing their grip on the kingdom. “I am persuaded as someone who focuses on this topic that the ruling family of Saudi Arabia above all else puts the interest of the family first and foremost,” said Mr. Kechichian, the analyst who knows many royals. “Not a single member of the family will do anything to hurt the family. ” | 1 |
By Kurt Nimmo, Blacklisted News If elected this week Hillary Clinton will turn up the heat on brinkmanship with Russia. Democrats insist Russia is behind... | 0 |
Kenneth W. Starr announced Wednesday that he would resign as chancellor of Baylor University, effective immediately, saying it was a “matter of conscience. ” Mr. Starr’s decision came less than a week after he was stripped of the more operationally powerful position of president of the university in the wake of a scandal in which Baylor acknowledged that it had mishandled accusations of sexual assault against several football players. “I have to, and I willingly do, accept responsibility,” Mr. Starr told “Outside the Lines,” the ESPN program in which he announced his decision. “The captain goes down with the ship,” he added. But he also doubled down on a statement he released last week in which he said that he had been unaware of the beginning of what was later described as a widespread problem until last August, when a former football player was convicted of sexual assault. While Mr. Starr is stepping down as chancellor, a role that a Baylor regent described last week as one focused primarily on raising money as well as on “religious liberty,” he planned to retain his post as a tenured professor at Baylor’s law school. The scandal has also claimed the jobs of Art Briles, the successful head football coach, whom the Board of Regents fired last Thursday, and Ian McCaw, the athletic director, who resigned Sunday, days after the Regents had placed him on probation. Mr. Starr said he had not been consulted on Mr. Briles’s firing. He mixed some light condemnation of the coach, for failing to be a “stronger disciplinarian,” with praise, calling him a “players’ coach” and a “genius. ” Before entering academia as dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law in 2004 and becoming president of Baylor, the country’s largest Baptist university, in 2010, Mr. Starr was an independent counsel whose report to Congress led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998. Before that, he was the United States solicitor general and a federal judge. At Baylor, Mr. Starr was credited with raising the university’s national profile — along with hundreds of millions of dollars — in no small part by tying the university’s national image to the recent success of its football team under Mr. Briles. It was Mr. Starr who, nearly one year ago, ordered an internal investigation into the university’s handling of a former player who was convicted of sexually assaulting another Baylor athlete. That inquiry led Mr. Starr to recommend that Baylor hire outside lawyers to investigate Baylor’s handling of such accusations more broadly. The board agreed, and it described the results of that investigation last Thursday in an executive summary that accompanied its decisions to demote Mr. Starr and to fire Mr. Briles. The board said in a statement last week that the investigation had found that the university’s climate flouted federal laws, including Title IX. The board condemned a university leadership that, it said, “created a cultural perception that football was above the rules. ” | 1 |
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Even amidst the bluster, lies, and anger unleashed by the presidential election—the last of these captured this morning in a vivid photo essay in Germany’s leading daily, the Süddeutsche Zeitung , I often hear the calming strains of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most famous arias, “Sheep May Safely Graze.” The first duty of the president, we are often told by the candidates, is the security of the American people. In this piece Bach presents a sonic vision of safety secured by enlightened leadership.
Above a pulsing B-flat drone whose static harmony conveys contented repose, a pair of pastoral recorders waft over an untroubled landscape: this is artfully managed nature with no suggestion of the horrors of the wild, nowhere the menace of danger. There are no armies or terrorists massing beyond the verdant hills. When, after two bars of instrumental introduction, the drone breaks into a gentle gait it is not done to worry the listener but to lift the eyes and ears over welcome fields. In just four graceful measures Bach has painted an expansive, tranquil canvas. Over these Bachian fields floats the soprano voice of Pales, the Roman deity of shepherds:
Sheep may safe graze, When watched over by a good shepherd. Where rulers govern well Peaceful calm is to be felt That makes a country happy.
Ruling your subjects well is like animal husbandry: manage the flock, be concerned, competent and watchful. Let your charges nibble and roam but never too far towards unknown perils.
We may have the notorious Bundy gang getting let off federal conspiracy and weapons charges after its attempt at an armed takeover of huge stretches of the American landscape (the rogues gallery of the exonerated is to be seen in New York Times today is even scarier than the just-mentioned photo essay in the Süddeutsche Zeitung ), but Bach’s aria nonetheless projects a pursuit of happiness that can readily be transposed from its premiere on February 23 rd , 1713 in a castle banqueting hall set in the green hills of central Germany to the Land of the Free on October 28, 2016 little more than a week before Election Day. Heard today, the aria confirms that what Americans want most is a nice lawn; a pet or two; and to be left in peace.
In the three century’s since its first performance, the aria has proliferating in myriad transcription and arrangements, the most famous of them by the visionary Italian piano virtuoso F erruccio Busoni . Given the work’s graceful beauty, it is not surprising that in one version or another it’s a favorite at weddings: having played the thing countless times for nuptial proceedings, I can assert that its popularity indicates that security and stability, not passion, are the enduring foundation of the institution of marriage, and in turn therefore of American democracy. The aria text’s praising male rule remains unheard in these instrumental transcriptions, and the wedding pairs remain blissful ignorant of it.
This Best-of-Bach track comes from the so-called Hunt Cantata (BWV 208), composed for the thirty-first birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weißenfels. He loved music, but even more, hunting, a proclivity captured by Bach in his musical tribute. At his own wedding the previous year, Duke Christian’s distant relative, the mighty Saxon Elector and Polish King, Frederick the Strong, had had his jewelers, the miraculous Dinglinger brothers, fashion a lavish hunting cup that he presented to the couple and which is now to be marveled at in Dresden’s famous museum, the Grünes Gewölbe. Bach’s music was meant to match this level of opulence and artifice, one which even minor German princes like Christian enjoyed.
But hunting was not just a topic for artistic representation at the hands of a Dinglinger or a Bach. It was a dangerous pursuit, especially since prevailing attitudes towards gun control and safety were almost as primitive as those held in America today. Musicians were not spared mortal danger. The Weißenfels male alto and writer on music Johann Beer, who was also among the funniest and most prolific of early German novelists, got himself killed in a hunting accident with one of the dukes. His colleague David Heinrich Garthoff, who must have known Bach, came to the court as an oboist (an instrument often deployed for accompanying the hunt) but got his lower lip shot off while hunting birds. Garthoff was a versatile musician and became the court’s lipless organist.
Lucky for us, Christian didn’t hand Bach a blunderbuss and command him into the fields when the composer visited the court for the Duke’s birthday festivities in 1713, otherwise we might have been deprived of hundreds of cantatas, the Goldberg Variations, the B-Minor Mass and heaps of other hits and only a few misses.
Both Countess Clinton and Sir Donald are all for protecting the gun rights of hunters, so this is a movement both could get behind. Indeed, it’s any gun-lover’s dream, even if he didn’t—or doesn’t—have a tenth of the arsenal of the Duke. At the aria’s start the obligatory horns fill the banqueting with tales of the day’s daring escapades taking down massive bucks beaten towards the hunting party so that the Duke could dispatch these trophies-to-be at close range. Then the goddess Diana, sung by the famed German soprano Pauline Kellner (also likely Anna Magdalena Bach’s teacher), unleashed her own dazzling vocal firepower, shoots off a coloratura melisma on the very first syllable before listeners can even figure out what she was referring to, though the hunting horns have left little doubt: “Hunting is the passion of the gods,” she sings, following that blast with a line that would make a fine bumper sticker for a Ford F-250 pick-up on the back roads of Upstate New York: “Hunting is for heroes.” Even if there had been rather too much of the above-mentioned collateral damage among Weißenfels musicians, this is bracing bipartisan defense of guns and game. While the aria may indeed represent Hilary’s views on the second amendment, she could use more than a little of the panache of Bach’s Diana in getting her message out.
Before we leave this hugely entertaining cantata let’s listen quickly to the political lessons to be gleaned from the first aria of Pan, the god of shepherds and a lusty rustic type who, like Donald, you wouldn’t want to sit next to in first-class. Bach makes his Pan a fun-loving, loose cannon of a bass, who goes off half-cocked claiming that he would make a worthy leader: like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump , this libertine purports to have great erotic powers, and it can only be assumed he thinks these will help him as head-of-state. A pair of brash oboes starts bragging even before the voice enters, making the absurd claim that “A Prince is the Pan of his country.” The bass sounds-off through a lurching gigue that suggests too much drink. After his opening comic comparison, one about as funny as imagining Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Pan goes on to make a decent point of political theory, though hardly an original one since the analogy between a ruler-less country and a headless body politic was a trope of the time:
Just as the body without the soul Cannot live or control itself, So a country is a cave of death When it no longer has a head and prince And therefore lacks its best part.
Pan holds resolutely to long notes on “live” and “rule” but then tumbles drunkenly down from them as he runs out of breath. On entering the mortal cavern with its minor shadows and chromatic crags, the drunk goes dark, only brightening just before the close when he remembers that he is after all “the best part”—the happy head to the nation’s body. It’s a raucous, rambling stump speech worthy of you-know-who.
Sumptuous entertainments like this cantata drained the ducal coffers in Weißenfels such that many of the court’s musicians—including some of Bach’s own in-laws—were eventually owed years of unpaid salary. As a result, the duchy was dissolved by the higher-up royals in Dresden. Even the marital Hunting Cup came back to the giver. If you believe the gun-loving Trump, a similar fate awaits the Americans once the Chinese debt-holders come calling—and not just to bag a couple of big horn sheep for their trophy wall. | 0 |
VIDEOS Something big is underway on all fronts: “Within the next few weeks the future of the united states will be decided” Congress gave the green light to send weapons and munitions to Ukraine; the “holdup” is due to Obama not wanting to jeopardize the election of Hillary Clinton By Jeremiah Johnson - November 3, 2016
As of this writing, the increased U.S. troop presence in Eastern Europe includes a battalion-sized element of American troops being emplaced in the Suwalki Gap, Polish territory that borders Lithuania in a 60-mile stretch of corridor. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that 600 Russian and Belarussian airborne troops conducted training exercises in Brest, on the Belorussian-Polish border only a few miles from where the U.S. forces are deploying in Poland. This on the heels of Britain deploying 800 men, tanks, and jets to Estonia, along with pledges of Challenger 2 tanks, APC’s (Armored Personnel Carriers), and drones. Two companies of French and Danish Soldiers will join the British in the deployment to Estonia.
For the first time since 1945, Norway has violated its treaty with Russia (then the Soviet Union) not to station foreign troops on its soil. A company of U.S. Marines will soon be stationed for a 6-month deployment in Norway. The situation is heating up in Ukraine, according to a report on fort-russ.com entitled Ukraine Moves Massive Force up to Lugansk Frontline , published October 28, 2016 . The report reveals the Ukrainian Army is deploying 3,500 soldiers and 200 armored vehicles of the 15 th Motorized Infantry Brigade to Krasny Oktyabr in the district of Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine. For the first time in history, Romanian airspace is being patrolled by the RAF (Royal Air Force) of Britain.
In addition, the Ukrainian National Guard is deploying a tactical company equipped with 82 mm mortars and AGS-17 auto grenade launchers, along with APC’s and missile launchers. A separate reconnaissance battalion named the “Night Shades,” a nationalist volunteer battalion will be deploying to Lugansk as well. No doubt they will receive a “warm” reception, as the fighting has been ongoing in the region for more than two years. The area is a severe flashpoint, as the separatists are ethnic Russians of Ukrainian nationality who wish to secede in the manner that Crimea did…Russia annexed them after the popular vote to leave Ukraine. Now (since December 2015) the Congress gave the green light to send weapons and munitions to Ukraine; the “holdup” is due to Obama not wanting to jeopardize the election of Hillary Clinton, as the Russians have stated weapons to Ukraine means war with the U.S. and NATO.
Meanwhile the Varshankya-class stealth subs are deploying into the Black Sea as the Russian fleet is moving toward Syria. The Russian and Syrian armies continue to bomb and attack the al-Nusra/Jabhat Fatah ash-Sham fighters emplaced in the city of Aleppo. The mainstream media, meanwhile, is faltering in its attempt to create a “sacred U.S.-coalition crusade” to “free the city of Mosul,” as the offensive is not working quite as planned. There are also reports that the U.S. government has plans to “navigate” Islamic terrorists from Mosul into Syria, to cause more problems for Assad and the Russians; the mainstream media is notoriously silent on the collateral damages being caused by the U.S.-led Mosul attacks, in which U.S. aircraft are supporting with bombing missions.
Let’s be clear on this: The U.S. is beefing up conventional forces of American troops into Eastern Europe and convincing NATO countries to augment these deployments with soldiers and equipment. The Russians have been responding with opposing counter-deployments to offset the U.S.-NATO movements. The aggressive stance is being taken by the U.S.-NATO-IMF hegemony in its military buildup in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, the very “backyard” of Russia. The bottom line: the stage is being set to start WWIII on the slightest provocation.
The domestic perspective yields that just a few weeks after the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) transfer from U.S. control to (basically) the UN on October 1, 2016, the U.S. has had a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack from hackers on October 21, 2016 affecting the east and west coast of the U.S. as well as Texas and part of Europe. Just one week before, on October 13, 2016 just “in case” some “space weather anomaly” were to cripple the power grid and electrical infrastructure of the United States. Something even worse that happened may really tie into this.
Last week it was reported by the U.S. Army that Major General John Rossi had committed suicide . Rossi had been slated to take over as the Commander of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, and the Army Forces Strategic Command. General Rossi was about to complete 33 years of service and was only 55 years old. He was “found” at Redstone Arsenal, and the Army just ruled it a suicide. The Daily Mail on dailymail.co.uk reported that a U.S. government official told USA Today: “It seemed that Rossi was overwhelmed by his responsibilities” as a potential reason for his suicide. The problem is, he committed suicide on July 31, 2016…and it’s taken two months for the Army to rule it as being a suicide?
With the command assignment, Rossi would have been privy to every procedure and protocol to defend the United States against an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) attack or an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack or event. He would know everything from the “top” down: that is, the Commander-in-Chief (Obama) would have to foster a one-on-one relationship with the man who would hold the key post to defending against a foreign missile attack. Maybe this time the missile would not have been foreign, or if it was? It may not have been the leader of a foreign country to direct it against the United States.
It is almost impossible to believe that a Major General of the United States Army just receiving a top command post, a 55-year-old soldier…a general officer…with 33 years of service, a wife, and a loving family would “off” himself because of being “overwhelmed by responsibility.” Men such as Rossi (the highest-ranking member of the military to do such a thing) do not shirk responsibility: they meet it, head on. The whole thing stinks of a purge , in the manner that the entire military of the United States has been purged of hundreds of senior General Staff officers, Admiralty, and Senior Noncommissioned Officers…replaced by “yes” men over the course of Obama’s term.
The whole thing stinks of an assassination : no suicide note, no real press coverage, and nothing from his friends, family, or fellow soldiers. This occurs, and then Obama signs his Executive Order to “protect” us from the dreaded space anomaly that will take down our infrastructure. Could this have possibly been a suicide? Think of all of the heartache and grief his family is going through with his loss. What about the benefits and retirement that his family would lose with such an act? If he really committed suicide, then it was probably because he found out about something so heinous, so vile that would occur to the U.S. that he couldn’t live with it and probably couldn’t stop it.
Bottom line: Was he terminated when he wouldn’t go along with a false flag EMP-plan conceived by Obama to take down our grid, cripple our response time, and set the stage for martial law and the suspension of all rights under the Constitution of the United States?
As I have mentioned in the past, I repeat once again:
The next war will be initiated by an EMP device detonated above the continental United States followed by a limited nuclear exchange and then conventional warfare.
I never said that it wouldn’t be Obama who initiated the EMP device, and in all probability if he doesn’t initiate it…he’ll either provoke it, allow it, or request it. We haven’t even mentioned the voting (early voting) taking place where fraud is occurring in Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, and Florida, among others. The illusion of the vote: the joke of the year, but the joke is on us.
And Obama is the joker, setting the stage for the transfer of power. That transfer is not going to occur with the losing candidate (in either case) going gently into that good night. The stage is set for a war to begin. The stage is set for a false flag operation to take down our grid. The stage is set to steal the election for Clinton or declare it null and void. Within the next few weeks, the future of the United States will be decided…with or without the consent of the governed. | 0 |
LONDON — At least 350 people have come forward to report abuse at the hands of youth soccer coaches in Britain over the past two weeks, the police said Thursday, deepening a child sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed English soccer. The scandal emerged last month after at least six former professional players publicly said they had been molested as boys in youth programs. The head of the English soccer players’ union last week said at least 20 more former players had come forward, many of them privately. The National Police Chiefs’ Council on Thursday said police forces had received a “significant” amount of calls since those first public revelations, and a children’s charity for victims of abuse said a new telephone help line it had set up had received 860 calls in its first week, 60 of which were referred to the police or to social services. The 350 figure cited by the National Police Chiefs’ Council is based on existing investigations as well as the referrals from the help line, officials said. At that size, the scale of the accusations may be even greater than those involving the British television celebrity Jimmy Savile, who, after his death, was found to have sexually abused 72 people, including children. Referrals made to the police through calls to the soccer charity help line are more than three times as many as those made in the Savile case, according to the charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Peter Wanless, the charity’s chief executive, said the number of soccer players speaking out had caught the entire nation’s attention. “We have had a staggering surge in calls to our football hotline, which reveals the worrying extent of abuse that had been going on within the sport,” he said in a statement. David Eatock, 40, a former Newcastle United player, became the latest to speak out, telling the BBC on Thursday that he had been groomed between 18 and 21 by the coach George Ormond, who was convicted in 2002 of assaulting seven boys. Sixteen police forces across Britain are investigating accusations of past and present sexual abuse in soccer, and several clubs are conducting their own investigations. The London team Chelsea confirmed Tuesday that it had hired a law firm to investigate “an individual employed by the club in the 1970s who is now deceased. ” The Football Association, the body that governs soccer in England, which had stayed largely silent when the initial accusations were made, is conducting its own investigation. It has appointed Kate Gallafent, a lawyer with experience in sexual abuse cases, to oversee it. A number of clubs, including Newcastle United, Manchester City and Leeds United, have said they will help the police with their investigations. The scandal grew out of an interview with Andy Woodward, a former player with the Crewe Alexandra, that was published by The Guardian on Nov. 16. In the article, Woodward said he had been sexually abused by a former coach, Barry Bennell. Bennell worked as a scout and coach for a number of clubs, including Crewe, across England’s North West during the 1980s. Woodward, now 43, said the abuse began when he was 11 and was invited to stay at Bennell’s house. He said Bennell had silenced him during the years of abuse with threats of further violence and of undermining his prospective soccer career. Woodward said Crewe had failed in its “duty to protect” those children under its care. Four more former players have since said they had been victims of Bennell. This week, Bennell was charged with eight counts of child sexual assault for offenses committed between 1981 and 1985. | 1 |
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Remember a few months ago when liberals thought there was no way Donald Trump would ever take the presidency? Remember when, in their arrogance, many celebrities promised to leave the country if he was ever elected? Looks like it’s time to start packing!
The list of celebrities that were supposedly set to lose after this election include liberal comedians like Jon Stewart and Amy Schumer. Stewart spent the majority of the election season calling Trump and his supporters racists, sexists, and bigots. “I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet because clearly this planet’s gone bonkers,” he said in an interview with People magazine.
The list also includes the ever-peachy Lena Dunham, who promised to stand by her threat no matter what.
“I know a lot of people have been threatening to do this, but I really will,” Dunham said in April at an awards ceremony. “I know a lovely place in Vancouver, and I can get my work done from there.”
Below is a list of at least 23 celebrities who promised to leave if Trump won the election:
• Comedian Jon Stewart | 0 |
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During a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg, Harvard Professor and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers criticized a paper written by Trump economic officials Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross as “well beyond voodoo economics. ” Summers said the transition to a new administration is a matter “of enormous uncertainty, and I don’t think that’s fully recognized by markets. ” Summers also criticized a paper written by White House National Trade Council head Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as “well beyond voodoo economics. ” And, “The logic of it, the arguments made, are so far out of the mainstream of any kind of responsible economic thinking that they’re the economic equivalent of creationism. ” He also compared the paper to scientists who don’t believe in global warming. ( Business Insider) Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 1 |
Early Tuesday morning, a wave of Turkish airstrikes reportedly struck a headquarters building used by the Kurdish YPG militia in northeastern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 18 YPG fighters and media officials were killed in the attack. [Turkey also conducted airstrikes in the Sinjar region of Iraq, ostensibly aimed at the militant Kurdish separatists of the PKK. However, Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq — another key U. S. military ally against the Islamic State — also said the Turks hit their positions, killing five of their troops. The YPG released a statement saying its headquarters in Mount Karachok near the border was hit by Turkish planes, damaging a media center, radio broadcast facilities, and military installations. The YPG described Turkey’s attack as “treacherous” and “barbaric” and even accused the Turks of attempting to undermine the planned offensive against Raqqa, the Syrian capital of the Islamic State. Critics of Turkey have accused it of tacitly supporting ISIS against the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria and of covertly profiting from trade with the Islamic State. Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim asked the United States to defend them against further Turkish strikes. “A people that is fighting terrorism is being stabbed in the back. Coalition forces must not remain silent against this. No one should accept these attacks,” Muslim said. The Turkish military said these airstrikes were intended to stop the PKK from smuggling weapons into Turkey. A statement from the military described the targets as “terrorists” and “terror hubs. ” According to the Turkish military, 70 militants were killed in the airstrikes. The PKK recently claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a police compound in southeastern Turkey that killed three people. The attackers dug a tunnel beneath the compound to plant what they described as “more than 2. 5 tonnes of explosives. ” Turkey accuses other Kurdish forces, particularly the YPG in Syria, of being in league with the PKK. The PKK does have a presence in the Sinjar region, in part because it came to the aid of the Yazidi minority when ISIS tried to exterminate them. The PKK has been training and arming Yazidis to fight the Islamic State and has said it will not withdraw from Sinjar until Yazidi forces control the area. The Kurdish administration has been urging Yazidis to join the Peshmerga and other militia units instead of the PKK. Peshmerga commanders have asked the PKK to withdraw from the area. This is a difficult conflict for the United States to negotiate. On the one hand, Turkey is a NATO member and an important regional ally the U. S. is nervous about alienating. The U. S. classifies the PKK as a terrorist organization, just as Turkey does. On the other hand, the Peshmerga and YPG are crucial American battlefield allies against the Islamic State. The Peshmerga and YPG have also clashed among themselves, even while both cooperate with the United States. American military officials reportedly visited the Mount Karachok region by helicopter on Tuesday to assess the damage from Turkey’s airstrikes. Turkey’s Daily Sabah, which has a bent, began its report on the visit by stating the YPG is an “offshoot” of the PKK terrorist group and said banners depicting jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan can be seen in the background of photos that showed U. S. officials walking with YPG representatives. The U. S. coalition in Iraq and Syria issued a statement encouraging all forces in the region to “concentrate their efforts on ISIS and not toward objectives that may cause the Coalition to divert energy and resources away from the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. ” The Iraqi Foreign Ministry denounced Turkey’s strikes as a violation of its sovereignty, warned that a larger Turkish military incursion would “destabilize northern Iraq,” and asked the international community to block further “interference” by Turkey. | 1 |
The New Republic Mon, 04 Apr 1994 13:56 UTC You see a girl walking down the street. You can say, "There goes a beautiful girl" or "There goes a whore." What the hell's the difference? They've both got legs. ~ Jon E.M. Jacoby, executive vice president of Stephens Inc., explaining the Arkansas system of politics and finance as it reached perfection during the Clinton years Part 1 © Unknown In Arkansas, the latest backstairs of the national political system, you hear a lot of things. Concerning Whitewater, for example, you are constantly-- and probably correctly--reminded that the dustup involves nothing but a typical loony tunes savings & loans deal from the 1980s, despite the august personages involved and their perplexing insistence on behaving like refugees from a Raymond Chandler novel. In Arkansas memories are long, political rascality is king of regional sports and rumor and truth tend to commingle until otherwise reasonable people are driven slightly bonkers trying to sort out one from the other. In Little Rock the whole Whitewater affair is regarded as something of a hoot--the Yankee carpetbagger press, with the reality of Arkansas staring it in the face, has gone and missed the real story again. But if Whitewater was nothing but a minor peccadillo that the press has glommed onto because it thinks it understands it--and compared with the private financial shenanigans of Arizona Governor Fife Symington, Whitewater resembles a misdeed along the lines of crossing the street against the light-- why, then, has the Clinton administration so frantically placed its back to the door, as though a peek beyond would reveal grandpa tied to a chair, surrounded by his looted bank books? In Arkansas the answer to this question eerily resembles the epitaph on the tombstone of Sir Christopher Wren: if you would see Clinton's monument, look around. When it comes to Bill Clinton's home state, the national press has repeatedly looked, seen everything and observed next to nothing (the honorable, largely ignored exception being the Los Angeles Times ). Visiting Little Rock in search of atmosphere during the presidential campaign, reporter after reporter dutifully described the imposing Stephens Building, the elegant Capitol Hotel, the Worthen Bank tower and the headquarters of Arkla Petroleum, future White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty's gas company, without realizing that all of these things were either owned, controlled or under the influence of a single, immensely powerful family: the Stephenses . By a happy chance, the family is also the stellar client of Hillary Rodham Clinton's old employer, the Rose Law Firm . Although it usually served as a hired gun with a conveniently blind eye, Rose proves to be a handy prism for observing a Gothic, sometimes darkly humorous tale of bonds, banks, a friendly cocaine distributor, sinister Pakistanis, shadowy Indonesians and the uses to which an agreeable state government can be put. The story is in fact three connected stories, combined in a typically Southern saga: Stephens Inc. and the Worthen Bank Corporation; the Rose Law Firm itself; and the Arkansas bond business, which, like most bond businesses, is extremely difficult for the well-educated layman to understand, thus making it an excellent place to hide things in plain sight. Central to the story is a pair of siblings named Witt and Jackson Stephens. Part 2 In one sense, nothing unusual occurred in Arkansas during the 1980s: tales of high jinks in high places have always figured prominently in American discourse, and some of the most colorful stories--a number of them actually true--have come out of the Bubba Belt of the South and Southwest, whose geographical heart happens to be occupied by Arkansas. But Arkansas is rendered sui generis by the presence of the only major investment bank not headquartered on Wall Street, Stephens Inc. of Little Rock, which does much to explain some of the arresting peculiarities of a state that is more than a little strange even when judged by the spacious standards of its region. For one thing, although Arkansas is the home to some of the nation's wealthiest families, it is one of the poorest states in the country , although there is no reason for it to be poor at all. Abundantly endowed with minerals, petroleum, timber and some of the most fertile agricultural land on the surface of the planet, it bears a close resemblance to a Third World country, with a ruling oligarchy , a small and relatively powerless middle class and a disfranchised, leaderless populace admired for its colorful folkways, deplored for its propensity to violence (on a per capita basis, Little Rock has one of the highest murder rates in the nation) and appreciated for its willingness to do just about any kind of work for just about any kind of wage. In the words of one local wag, the farther you get from Arkansas, the better the Stephens boys look. Indeed, the family's sanitized, Horatio Alger- like biographies have been featured, accompanied by a remarkable lack of examination, in publications as various as Forbes and Golf Digest . The dynasty's founder, Witt Stephens, together with his younger brother by sixteen years, Jackson, grew up on a hardscrabble farm near the town of Prattsville, the sons of a small-time speculator in oil stocks and sometime state legislator, A.J. Stephens, who remained a power in state Democratic politics until the end of his life. An eighth-grade dropout, Witt first made his living by peddling Bibles and belt buckles before he discovered a pair of bonanzas in undervalued, Depression-era municipal bonds and the natural gas with which Arkansas is so richly endowed. Meanwhile, Jackson briefly served as a page with his father in the state legislature and went on to become a classmate of future president Jimmy Carter at the Naval Academy, a circumstance that would later serve the family's fortunes well while causing a disaster of still unmeasured magnitude in the American banking system. After World War II the brothers joined forces at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock, with Witt--or Mr. Witt, as he came to be known--serving as the company's colorful, cigar-chomping and aphoristic face to the world (or as much of the world as paid attention) while the taciturn Jack toiled away in the back office, revealing a golden touch at investment strategy. These things are relative, of course; by the time Witt (who died in 1992 at the age of 83) handed over the reins to Jack in 1957, while retaining his petroleum interests and serving as the presiding genius of the firm, Stephens Inc. was worth a beggarly $7.5 million. But in the Arkansas of 1957, a financial institution with $7.5 million had the money and the clout to do a number of things--including purchase a governor. Witt, like his father before him, was a staunch hereditary Democrat, a supporter and friend of such Arkansas luminaries as Senator William Fulbright. He was also a great patron of the infamous, six-term Orval Faubus--not, apparently, because of the governor's segregationist policies (to the family's credit, Jack Stephens, a trustee of the University of Arkansas since 1948, had successfully lent his voice to the cause of integrating the institution), but because Faubus was sound on the subject of natural gas, a subject dear to the Stephens' heart. As the family's fortune continued to wax after the Faubus years, it became an axiom of Arkansas politics that someone could occasionally become governor without permission from Stephens headquarters, but the politician was unlikely to remain governor for very long unless he paid close attention to the care and feeding of the brothers-- the great exception to the rule being two-term Republican Winthrop Rockefeller, the beneficiary, representative and broken reed of an even vaster American fortune, who became the failed hope of Arkansas liberalism. Decades later, when the self-effacing Jack became chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, naive visitors were quickly enlightened on the subject of how a man so shy could assume a post so prominent in the sport of the moneyed and the gently bred. "Jackson Stephens?" it was explained. "He's the man who owns Arkansas." It was with Jackson Stephens at the helm that Stephens Inc. propelled itself into the stratosphere of the American financial plutocracy, making a bewildering variety of investments in enterprises as various as real estate, hazardous waste incineration, data processing, nursing homes, trucking and airplane maintenance, while simultaneously diversifying into the business of underwriting issues of common stock. In its new role, the firm called on the services of young C. Joseph Giroir, the only trained securities lawyer in the state, and his paralyzingly respectable firm, Rose. The securities business, in turn, led to a chain of peculiar events beginning in 1977 (the year, it so happened, that Bill Clinton became Arkansas attorney general and that Rose hired his wife). That year, no less a figure than T. Bertram Lance appeared on the corporate doorstep of his old friend's classmate, bringing with him a load of troubles and a glittering opportunity. Lance was compelled to resign as head of Jimmy Carter's Office of Management and Budget because of his long history of questionable financial practices in Georgia. As a result of that history, he was also beset by a negative net worth, substantial loans from banks in Chicago and New York and a large stockholding in the National Bank of Georgia. Sadly for Lance the price of the bank stock was depressed and its sale on the open market could not rescue him from the specter of bankruptcy, which was the dilemma Stephens Inc. was invited to solve. A solution was soon found in the form of the now notorious Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) , although whether Lance introduced Stephens to the Pakistani-run scam or vice versa is a matter of some debate. Beyond dispute, however, is the fact that the comptroller of the currency, the nation's principal regulator of commercial banks, had clearly stated that BCCI was never to enter the American banking system under any circumstances. Oddly, this unambiguous order did nothing to prevent Stephens Inc. from solving Lance's problems while settling a small score of its own. The National Bank of Georgia was controlled by a holding company called Financial General, one of the few entities in the country allowed to engage in interstate banking under the laws of the time. The Stephens interests controlled slightly less than 5 percent of Financial General and the investment had soured, partly because Financial General refused to hire the family's data processing company. It was, Stephens soon persuaded BCCI, just the sort of investment BCCI was looking for, the comptroller's edict notwithstanding. Comment: BCCI was pretty much the global (not 'Pakistani') financial instrument that got the Western 'war on terror' up and running, funneling weapons to terrorists via payments of hard drugs, prostitutes and cash. In short order, Stephens launched Lance on the path to renewed solvency, assembled blocks of stock for purchase by the front men who would conceal BCCI's identity, effected an introduction to the subsequently disgraced Democratic wise man Clark Clifford, turned a small but tidy profit on the sale of its own shares, pocketed fees of at least $95,000--and, in return for a sum that in Stephens terms amounted to chump change, set in motion the process that would give BCCI its long-sought beachhead in the American financial community. When subsequently confronted with its BCCI involvement by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stephens Inc. neither admitted nor denied the sec's findings but promised to go and sin no more. But BCCI was not the only exotic party attracted by Lance's bank holdings. Also appearing on the scene was Mochtar Riady, one of the wealthiest men in Indonesia, with far-ranging interests and a known connection to his country's dictator, General Suharto . When someone went into business with Riady, there was also the possibility that they were in business with the general, a fairly decent chap by dictatorial standards (he had begun his reign with the slaughter of 200,000 supposed Communists, a feat he had not found necessary to duplicate except on the island of Timor) but a tyrant nonetheless. Stephens Inc., which appeared to be uninterested in the true activities of BCCI, exhibited a similar indifference when it came to Riady. Moreover, the Stephens people did not appear to be the least bit curious about the business endeavors of the distinguished former statesman who effected the introduction between Jakarta and Little Rock. This was Robert B. Anderson. Formerly a secretary of the treasury in the Eisenhower administration, Anderson had carried out diplomatic assignments for President Lyndon Johnson in the Middle East and had served as President Richard Nixon's chief negotiator in the Panama Canal talks before opening an offshore bank--Commercial and Trade Bank and Trust Ltd. on Anguilla--that catered to people who needed to launder money, evade taxes, or both. Jack Stephens had willingly presided over the handoff of a big hunk of an American bank to a bunch of Pakistani thugs, but he was not willing to let Riady go so easily. "He wanted to buy into an American bank, an idea I was not enthusiastic about," Stephens told an interviewer some years later, perhaps making an unconscious semantic distinction. He'd seen nothing wrong with selling BCCI an American bank--they even named it First American--but he and Riady soon began planning an entirely new kind of Arkansas bank holding company, for which they required the services of Giroir and his expertise in securities law. But they also needed something that increasingly became a hallmark of the Rose firm: a willingness to perpetrate a subtle conflict of interest. Founded in 1820, well before Arkansas became a state, Rose is one of the oldest surviving law firms west of the Mississippi, one of the most competent and one of the most quietly influential. Often, in looking at the state government of Arkansas, the Rose firm and the Stephens interests, it is hard to escape the impression that one is looking at a single entity, rather along the lines of NATO. The law partnership takes its curious name from U.M. Rose, a talented attorney who dominated the firm from the mid-1860s to the end of the century, was one of the founders of the American Bar Association and is one of two Arkansans whose statues adorn the Capitol in Washington. Over the years Rose has provided Arkansas with numerous legislators and justices of the state supreme court. In 1957, when the modern civil rights era was born in Governor Faubus's refusal to integrate Little Rock's Central High, it was a Rose lawyer who acted as lead counsel to the school board. (Rose still has no black partners.) And from 1975 until 1988 the firm enjoyed a spectacular run--growing from seventeen lawyers to fifty-three--under the leadership of the dapper and charming Giroir, the first and only chairman in the history of Rose, who deeply entwined the partnership and his personal destiny in the affairs of the Stephens family's empire. During the Clinton administration, the history of the Rose firm could be divided into two periods: the Giroir years, and the shorter period, from 1987 to 1992, when the firm claimed to be a democracy, voting on its future rather than blindly following a single, charismatic leader. This democracy, however, was publicly dominated by three partners: the amiable Webster Hubbell, who was until a few days ago associate attorney general; the quiet Vincent Foster, who was deputy White House counsel until his suicide last summer; and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who as of press time is still First Lady. The firm's sea change, which generated a certain amount of hoopla from the legal press, was more apparent than real. Under the surface, Rose was much the same as always, doing good for its friends and clients while doing well for itself, but much more silently. In his years as Rose's chief, Giroir conspicuously chaired a group drawn from the state's so-called Good Suit Club. The club successfully lobbied the legislature to change the state usury law, which made owning an Arkansas commercial bank a much more attractive proposition. It also was active in convincing the state's lawmakers to revise the law restricting the formation of bank holding companies, which enabled Giroir, Riady and Stephens to make a substantial and potentially lucrative investment. On his own, Giroir had purchased control of four Arkansas banks. He sold all four--including the second-largest bank in the city of Pine Bluff--to Worthen Banking Corporation, the new holding company Riady and Stephens had been able to set up after state law, with Giroir's help, had been made more congenial to such things. For his part in the deal, Giroir was compensated with $53,760,294 in cash, stock and assumed debt. He also became a major stockholder of Worthen (named after the venerable and very large Little Rock bank that was the pride of the Stephens commercial banking empire) and a powerful member of its board. He received further income by renting property to the company, and he pocketed an additional $2.1 million when he sold part of his stockholdings to a company affiliated with Riady's son James (who was also Worthen's co-president). More important, he managed to create a whole new client for his firm; Rose became Worthen's principal outside counsel. These things are complicated, dull and dry, which is an excellent form of concealment, but consider the sequence of events. With the stroke of a pen and without a visible second thought, then-Governor Bill Clinton, following his traumatic period as a voter-rejected civilian between 1980 and 1982, gave life to two pieces of legislation inspired by his wife's boss--revising the usury laws and permitting the formation of new banking holding companies. In a state as small as Arkansas, where everybody of importance knows everybody else, it seems impossible that Governor Clinton could not have known that the relevant legislation would be of immense personal benefit to the boss in question, the state's most powerful family and an Indonesian investor whose presence in Arkansas seemed to be regarded as the most natural thing in the world. Last and not incidentally, the governor, by permitting the creation of the Worthen Bank Corporation, had arranged a new payday for the Clinton family through the windfall in legal fees provided to the Rose firm (Hillary Rodham Clinton, partner). When the compensation of the firm's partners was computed, Rodham Clinton has insisted, she specifically exempted herself from receiving a share of Rose's business with the state. But although Worthen could not have been brought to life without the help of her husband's government, it was not a government agency. Rodham Clinton was therefore not excluded from a partner's share of its fees. More important, Worthen also became a major depository of the state's tax receipts. Nothing unusual here; governments frequently park their undeployed funds with large private banking institutions until they decide what to do with the money. But the results soon proved to be imprudent under the most charitable interpretation of the word. In 1985 Worthen Bank managed to lose $52 million of Arkansas state taxpayers' money in a purchase of government securities from a New Jersey brokerage with a questionable past and no future whatever; several of its principals ended up in jail for fraud. With its capital wiped out in a single stroke and a seizure by federal regulators imminent, Worthen was swiftly rescued with a $30 million cash infusion from its major stockholders, in the form of a loan that paid the Stephens partners a handsome 10 percent--together with additional funds from Stephens Inc., which pocketed a $3.2 million fee for its trouble. (The risk, in true Stephens fashion, was not great. Two-thirds of the funds were swiftly replaced by Worthen's insurance company, which made Stephens Inc.'s noble rescue of the bank--and of a big hunk of the Arkansas treasury--an almost surefire, profitable investment.) Also conspicuous during the complex negotiations were Joe Giroir and his partner Webb Hubbell, appearing in their capacity as members of Rose. Two questions surround this incident. First, how could Worthen have allowed the state to make such an obviously tainted investment via the New Jersey brokerage firm? Second, and more important, why did nobody in Arkansas appear before the bar of justice? The New Jersey firm was a direct lineal descendent of a peculiar regional phenomenon: the world of so-called bond daddies. The bond-daddy racket, long centered in Memphis but with many of its members drawn from Arkansas, specialized in selling questionable government securities to gullible investors, principally small banks with little financial sophistication. Here is where the oddity begins, at least as it concerns Worthen. The Stephens brothers, if not Giroir and Riady, were intimately familiar with the black arts of finance. They were also experts in the government bond market. Moreover, at least one of the principals in the New Jersey brokerage of Bevill, Bresler & Schulman Inc. (which executed the transaction for Worthen and the state of Arkansas) was well-known in the region. Bevill's operations had all the earmarks of a standard bond- daddy scam, and yet Worthen committed $52 million anyway. (At the bank, the official explanation was that co-president Jim Jett acted naively, on his own and without the supervision of his principal stockholders, which is possible but not entirely plausible, since Giroir, who represented the Stephenses, sat on the board.) Consider a virtually identical event at the same time in Ohio, in which a savings bank controlled by Marvin Warner, Jimmy Carter's ambassador to Switzerland, invested in the same kind of fraudulent securities, destroyed itself, ignited a statewide financial panic and caused Governor Richard Celeste to declare the first Ohio bank holiday since the Great Depression. A number of the responsible parties, including Warner, found themselves behind bars, some for a very long time. Why? Under long established Anglo-American law, an officer or director of a bank is governed by the "prudent man" rule, which states that he is personally responsible for the financial and legal consequences of his acts. In Arkansas, where the prudent man rule seems to have been suspended, a number of people were fired, but the Clinton government hauled precisely no one into court on criminal charges. Once again in Clinton's Arkansas, the law seemed to be different than it was in the rest of the United States--which makes certain Arkansans smile in knowing amusement over the fact that Bill Clinton now happens to be running the United States . Part 3 The near failure of Worthen in 1985, like the arrival of BCCI, proved to be another pivotal event in recent Arkansas history: Stephens, Worthen, Rose and the Clintons remained at the center of the stage, but the cast of supporting players began to change. A former Stephens executive named Ray Bradbury, who had been deeply involved in the bcci negotiations--hardly a job qualification, one would think--took the helm at Worthen, where he discovered that the bank was also stuffed with bad real estate loans. Meanwhile, federal regulators learned that the bank had made an excessive number of insider loans, particularly to the Riadys, although what happened next is, as usual, a matter of mutually exclusive explanations. Knowledgeable observers in Little Rock and elsewhere say that the Riadys were slowly forced out of the bank by the federal government; at Worthen, the official version says that the Riadys disengaged because it was clear the troubled bank could not be a major force in international finance. In any event, the Riadys soon departed. The role of Joe Giroir also underwent a change. As a principal owner of Worthen, he was charged with securities fraud in a shareholder suit; he was also sued by Worthen itself for taking illegal "short-swing" profits when he sold stock to the Riady affiliate. Not only did Giroir lose his board position and partial ownership of the bank--with Giroir and Riady out of the picture, the Stephenses gradually increased their stockholding to more than 40 percent, while stoutly denying they controlled the place--but, following Giroir's disgrace in 1988, Rose lost Worthen as a client that had once paid the firm hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. As for Giroir, his troubles were far from over. In 1986 he was revealed to be a shareholder in and a substantial borrower from a Pine Bluff thrift called FirstSouth, the first billion-dollar savings & loan failure in the country . Comment: Isn't that curious; the first S&L bust happened under the Clintons' watch. Before the dust had cleared, the head of FirstSouth had gone to jail together with a former president of the Arkansas Bar Association, and Giroir had sued the federal regulators while the federal regulators were suing him, putting a considerable crimp in the plans of his partners, Hubbell and Foster, to create a lucrative practice in the cleanup of the s&l crisis. (At failed s&ls, the fees for firms like Rose could be enormous. According to one frustrated federal investigator, private lawyers in Dallas were making $500,000 per month from the thrift catastrophe, more than the total annual budget for the federal cleanup effort in the entire state of Texas--and in Arkansas, where lawyers were cheaper, the damage per capita was among the worst in the country. Somehow, Governor Clinton escaped criticism for this interesting fact.) It was clear that Joe Giroir, who had built the modern Rose Law Firm, was now the partnership's greatest liability--the firm's reputation aside, federal regulators charged that Giroir had used Rose letterhead to give FirstSouth legal advice beneficial to himself; Rose was forced to settle with the Federal s&l Insurance Corporation regulators for a reported half-million dollars--although once again there is a contradictory official version of his abrupt departure. Giroir once claimed that he left the firm voluntarily but will no longer comment on the matter. The Rose firm fell abruptly silent on this and all other subjects following recent allegations that it had shredded its Whitewater files, but its spokesman told American Lawyer in 1992 that Giroir departed in a coup arranged by litigators who were miffed that he and the firm's other rainmakers were paid substantially more than the lawyers who actually did the scut work in court--litigators prominently including Hubbell, Foster and Rodham Clinton, who actually seemed to be engaged in very little legal work at all. With the departure of Giroir, life at Rose became quieter if no less active. The three partners became the firm's public face to the world. The most physically imposing and locally active of these was Hubbell, a six-foot, five- inch giant of a man who had played football for the University of Arkansas, had almost made it into the big time with the Chicago Bears, had served briefly as mayor of Little Rock (when Rose received a significant portion of the city's bond business) and had received an interim appointment as chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court from Governor Clinton. (According to a reliable source, Hubbell's father-in-law, Seth Ward, a septuagenarian self-made entrepreneur, once complained that keeping Hubbell in politics cost him $100,000 a year.) The second was Foster, once described as an immaculately brown-suited man in an immaculate brown office, who was regarded as the "soul" of a firm that, according to grand jury testimony, shredded volumes of his records the moment an independent federal prosecutor appeared in the vicinity . The last was Rose's first female partner, Rodham Clinton, who occasionally did some lawyering in the intervals when she wasn't working for the Children's Defense Fund, attending to her personal business affairs or serving as the governor's first lady. The three were described to American Lawyer as "big, big buddies"; Rodham Clinton's office was next door to Hubbell's, and much of her work was actually done by Foster. Comment: Hubbell is very likely the father of Chelsea Clinton. And Foster, another 'lover', was suicided shortly after he followed Killary to the White House. The three also were closely entwined in a curious financial arrangement. This was Mid-life Investors, a partnership set up by E. F. Hutton in 1983. Hubbell, Foster and Rodham Clinton each kicked in $15,000 and named each other--rather than their spouses--as beneficiaries. But although the fund was active at least until 1991, Rodham Clinton reported annual dividends of under twenty dollars from Mid-life Investors, a sum that comes as a surprise to Roy Drew, the financial counselor who supervised the partnership and invested its money in such 1980s takeover candidates as Diamond Shamrock and Firestone Tire. According to Drew, with the likes of Sir James Goldsmith and the Japanese offering huge sums for the stock of Shamrock and Firestone, there was no way Mid-life Investors could have failed to reap substantial profits. Although Rodham Clinton was a litigator--that is, a lawyer whose task is to appear in court, if only to force the other side to settle--and an attorney who was named one of the 100 most influential in the country by the National Law Journal in 1988 and 1991, she was almost never seen in the courtrooms of Little Rock ; some court reporters remember an occasional appearance, and one could not remember having seen her at all. According to a search conducted by American Lawyer , she tried just five cases during her fifteen years at Rose; other published sources say her work revolved around copyright infringement cases involving songwriters and bread companies. But paradoxically, in view of what happened to Giroir, she (like Giroir) received extra compensation for the business she generated from her extracurricular activities, even if she did not work on the cases at all. For example, she was only one of two Rose partners to act as a corporate director, serving at various times on the boards of four companies and earning $64,700 in 1991 from director's fees alone . (Her 1991 salary from Rose was in the vicinity of $110,000; her husband earned $35,000 and got to live in a free house.) She was on the board of Wal-Mart, a Rose client that Stephens had launched on the road to glory . (Rodham Clinton also owned $80,000 worth of Wal-Mart stock.) She served Southern Development Bancorp, a holding company created to give development loans in rural Arkansas, which, according to The Washington Post , paid Rose somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 in fees. In 1989 she joined the board of TCBY yogurt company, which occupies the tallest building in Little Rock. TCBY then proceeded to pay Rose $750,000 for legal work during the next few years. Last, and puzzlingly, she was a director of Lafarge, a giant French cement company that had no discernible connection to Arkansas except, like Stephens Inc., it was engaged in burning hazardous waste . (As president, Bill Clinton did nothing to stop operation of an Ohio waste incinerator, partly backed at one time by Stephens Inc., despite the fact that it didn't work, had no legal permit and his own vice president had promised that it would never operate until it was thoroughly investigated, which it wasn't.) Comment: That's the same Lafarge recently caught trading with Head-chopper Inc, ISIS: Paris strikes corporate partnership with Lafarge, who secretly sponsored ISIS for profit and has ties to Killary With Rodham Clinton aboard at Rose, the firm's long established connections to the governor's office were made firmer still. Rose, the gold standard of Arkansas law firms, had long enjoyed unusual access to the state's corridors of power. It both advised and did the bidding of the powerful family that acted as the state's shadow government, and during the Clinton years, the Rose Law Firm sometimes behaved as though it were an agency of the state rather than a legal partnership with offices in a converted YMCA. The intimate connection between Rose, Stephens Inc. and the governor's office may help explain how the Stephens family made a vast amount of money when its most visible enterprises were doing no such thing. The investment bank had hit a gusher when it took Wal-Mart public, made a pleasing sum on the stock of Tyson Foods, the nation's largest chicken processor, but otherwise cut no great swath in the stock market. Until recently, Worthen was a disaster area. At least part of the answer for the family's continued prosperity seems to reside in the unusual way Bill Clinton's state dealt with Stephens Inc.'s old specialty, government bonds. Part 4 The crown jewel of Bill Clinton's avowed attempt to create industries and jobs in the state was an unusual entity called the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA). According to well-established common law, a government-chartered authority is supposed to be an independent body, insulated from the hurly-burly of everyday political life and its temptations. But ADFA, written into law with the help of Webb Hubbell, was no such thing. All ten members of its board were appointed by the governor. Though it was specifically granted the power to issue industrial development bonds, the governor, personally, was required to approve every bond issue. State agencies with the ability to issue industrial bonds are supposed to distribute the money (and thus create jobs and wealth) to companies and individuals who can't receive lines of credit on favorable terms from the usual financial institutions or venture capitalists. On significant occasions, however, ADFA spread its bounty to less than deserving clients. Nor do the peculiarities of this body end here. Although it issued bonds, ADFA did no due diligence--the common practice of engaging an outside financial expert to examine the applicants for the proceeds and determine if they actually need the money and are otherwise worthy recipients. (Due diligence, according to an ADFA spokesman who happens to be the brother-in-law of one of Witt Stephens's daughters, was the responsibility of the purchasers of the bonds under the ancient principle of caveat emptor --a practice that had previously helped the region's bond daddies flourish and had wiped out the capital of the Worthen bank.) While its spokesman is a little fuzzy on the subject, it seems that there was no regular ADFA oversight to ensure that money was being spent according to the original purpose of the loan, although an ADFA employee might occasionally be sent into the field to discover if everything was tickety-boo. It is also somewhat difficult to discover just what ADFA was actually doing. A recent examination of the log kept at ADFA headquarters for the enlightenment of wandering reporters and inquisitive citizens reveals just twenty-five bond issues from 1985 to the present--or twenty-six, if you count the paperwork on a bond issue that was removed in a reporter's presence. Moreover, the log suggests that ADFA was heavily involved in good works with religious orders. But according to the Los Angeles Times ' count of ADFA's activities, the authority released seventy industrial bond issues--according to my count, the number is sixty-five--none of them to religious charities or university hospitals, and most of them missing from the official log. Which begs the question: Just what was ADFA doing with the $719 million it dispensed (or whose dispensation it authorized) as of January 1992? "ADFA," says Larry Nichols, a dismissed authority official, "was set up by Clinton for Dan Lasater." Now, it should be borne in mind that Nichols is something of an Arkansas character and, in some circles, a figure of fun. A well-known supporter of the Nicaraguan contras, Nichols was also the person who originally alleged that Clinton had an affair with Gennifer Flowers and four other women, only to destroy his credibility when he retracted his charges in a document remarkable for its abject contrition . But there are those in Arkansas who insist that Nichols is neither entirely a vindictive nut nor the sort of notorious regional liar who has to hire a man to call his own dog. "You ought to listen to Larry Nichols," says a Little Rock political consultant. "He says a lot of things, but sometimes he tells you something you really need to know." And, certainly, there is something intriguing about Bill Clinton's relations with Lasater, a man no governor in his right mind would let in the front door. If Dan Lasater was not the largest cocaine user in the state of Arkansas, he was certainly the most conspicuous one. A prosperous Little Rock bond dealer, he was an acquaintance of the Clinton family and a contributor to the governor's political fortunes. Lasater distinguished himself in other ways, too. He served ashtrays full of cocaine at parties in his mansion, stocked cocaine on his corporate jet (a plane used by the Clintons on more than one occasion) and later told the FBI that he had distributed cocaine on more than 180 occasions . "I shared my success ... in that manner," he explained. He was also a patron of Governor Clinton's cocaine-using half-brother, Roger, employing the younger man in his thoroughbred racing stables in Florida and claiming that he gave Roger Clinton $8,000 to pay off debts to drug suppliers . By 1985 it was also known that Lasater was the subject of a police investigation that, even the most uneducated guess would suggest, could end in only one way. But that year, Governor Clinton deemed Lasater worthy of handling a $30.2 million bond issue to modernize the state police radio system, despite the fact that the expenditure would normally be made by an appropriation from the treasury and the fact that Lasater was about to be busted . Nonetheless, Clinton vigorously lobbied the legislature, ignored the wishes of the Stephens family and won the day, giving Lasater & Co. a handsome $750,000 underwriting fee , according to the Los Angeles Times . In 1986 Lasater was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, with Roger Clinton testifying against him at his trial. In 1990 he received a state pardon from Governor Clinton . For whatever it's worth, one of the few people to have access to the office of the late Vincent Foster during the three days it was unsealed following his suicide was White House official Patsy Thomasson, who managed Lasater's business affairs while he was in jail. But in the Clinton system, perfected in Little Rock and now being practiced in Washington, none of these things should be considered a mistake or an aberration. Lasater was not the only strange thing about the Arkansas bond business during the time of Bill Clinton. Whenever a normal state issues bonds, there are many ways for a variety of people to get well on the public nickel. The beneficiary of the proceeds receives a loan at below-market rates. The financial institution that sold the bonds receives underwriting fees. For each bond issue, an outside attorney is engaged to certify that the deal conforms to the law and prepares the documents required by the Internal Revenue Service and the federal treasury. A bank is chosen as trustee for the money, collecting the repayments from the lucky borrowers and making the repayments to the purchasers of the bonds. And the borrower itself almost invariably retains a lawyer. But when one examines the activities of ADFA, a certain pattern emerges concerning at least some of the beneficiaries of Arkansas largess. For example, one of the very first ADFA bond issues provided $2.75 million to POM, a manufacturer of parking meters in Russellville, whose president happened to be Seth Ward II, the brother-in-law of Webb Hubbell. Despite the fact that Hubbell was chairman of the conflicts committee at Rose, he seemed to see nothing amiss in the fact that Rose then collected a fee as adfa's certifying attorney or that he himself served as POM's attorney. Nor did Hubbell seem to see anything unusual in the fact that he was representing the Resolution Trust Corporation in its case against the auditors of Madison Guaranty, despite the fact that his father-in-law, the senior Ward, had not repaid millions in loans from the thrift, or that Ward had received an airplane from Madison in the bargain. Between 1985 and mid-1992 Stephens Inc. was involved in the underwriting and sale of 78 percent of ADFA's housing and industrial bonds, an unsurprising figure considering the firm's familiarity with the market and its clout in the state. Still, considering Stephens's involvement in the authority's affairs, Governor Clinton did not appear to feel that it was ever so slightly wrong to appoint two Stephens associates--a vice president of one of Worthen's banks and a vice president of a chain of nursing homes partly controlled by the Stephens empire--to ADFA's ten-member board. Nor did the man who signed off on every single ADFA bond issue exhibit suspicion when Stephens seemed to be supplementing its brokerage fees by helping itself to ADFA's money in the form of favorable loans. Meanwhile, at least another member of the board, the vice president of Twin Cities Bank, an institution that served as trustee in one of ADFA's tangled deals, appeared to take a similar double-dip. And the governor's wife's law firm was not only receiving a healthy chunk of ADFA's legal business, but Rose apparently found nothing wrong with affiliates of Stephens receiving ADFA money, or with the fact that on not one but two occasions, ADFA issued bonds that benefited the relatives of Rose partners. In 1988 and 1989 ADFA lent a total of $1.37 million to the Pine Bluff Warehouse Company. Rose received $22,321 in legal fees from ADFA. The trustee bank was Worthen's National Bank of Commerce in Pine Bluff, whose vice president sat on the ADFA board and whose chief executive officer was not merely a member of Pine Bluff Warehouse's board but the father of a senior Rose partner, William Kennedy III, now associate White House counsel. Stephens, unsurprisingly, underwrote the bonds. In 1989 ADFA loaned $4.67 million to Arkansas Freightways, whose largest outside stockholder was Stephens Inc. Co-counsel on the bond issue was Rose. The trustee bank's executive vice president was a member of the ADFA board. The underwriter was Stephens. Also in 1989 ADFA tried to loan $83 million to a Texas entrepreneur for the purpose of bailing out Beverly Enterprises, the country's largest operator of nursing homes, 10 percent owned by Stephens, whose vice president sat on the ADFA board, at a time when Beverly's stock was being hammered by the company's persistent losses. A swift and decisive halt to the deal was called by Arkansas Attorney General Steve Clark, a rising political star who was expected to be a strong gubernatorial candidate in 1990, and who claimed that a Stephens-Beverly lobbyist had offered him a $100,000 bribe (as campaign contributions, of course) if he would just lay off and let the deal go through. The lobbyist was later cleared by an Arkansas court, but Clark was caught charging personal expenses on his state credit card. His political career in shambles, he was later disbarred. Current reports place him somewhere in the state of Georgia. But these were only the most conspicuously questionable of ADFA's doings, the ones most easily understood by the public and the press. There was also the question of the true extent of Rose's involvement in the authority's bond business. According to the Daily Record , a Little Rock business journal, Rose ranked fourth among the law firms working directly for ADFA, with fees of only $175,000 for the years up to 1991. But not everyone agrees with this assessment. When Frank White, the only man ever to defeat Clinton in a gubernatorial election, tried to repeat the feat in 1986, his campaign claimed that Rose had actually been in on every ADFA deal (for the authority or for the recipient) while Clinton was governor . Unfortunately, the relevant data was assembled under the supervision of White's political consultant, Darrell Glasscock, a former Louisiana state official and a great supporter of the contras ( an occupation that appears to have been an Arkansas cottage industry ). Reached recently by phone, former Governor White, now an officer of Worthen's principal competitor, the First Commercial bank holding company, clearly wishes he had never heard of Glasscock, cheerily questions Glasscock's veracity and pleasantly turns aside any questions about Rose. When a visitor to ADFA asks for the complete documentation on any particular bond issue, he is presented with a thick volume that, if placed on a chair, would allow him to dine with the grown-ups. A small sampling of these volumes reveals an interesting thing: every company examined, including POW, Arkansas Freightways, Pine Bluff Warehouse and Concert Vineyards appears to be eminently creditworthy. These are the sorts of enterprises that could walk in the door of any bank and walk off with any reasonable sum they needed. Why, then--in addition to the mutual back-scratching described above--were they being given loans at below market rates by a desperately poor state with other uses for its money? This question takes added luminosity from the fact that ADFA really didn't work very well. The old Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, started by Orval Faubus, created 90,000 jobs in nine years. And it had no bonding power. After seven years under the Clinton regime and with tens of millions in issued loans, ADFA had created just 2,700 jobs, many at wages significantly below the national standard. This anemic showing obscures the fact that ADFA had yet another purpose: its generosity was returned in the form of campaign contributions for William Jefferson Clinton . According to the Los Angeles Times , in the 1990 race for the governorship, the recipients of ADFA's largess contributed $400,300, nearly one-fifth of the Clinton war chest. They then kicked in with millions more for the presidential race. Outside Arkansas the white-shoe investment bank of Goldman Sachs, which later contributed its co-chairman, Robert Rubin, to President Clinton's inner circle of economic advisers, raised millions for the presidential race and even paid for a substantial hunk of the Democratic National Convention. According to ADFA's incomplete records, Goldman was either the lead or sole underwriter of at least $400 million in ADFA bonds. In addition, two of ADFA's board members were active Clinton fund-raisers, which raises yet another question among many: Wasn't this against the law? For once, the answer is terse and straightforward. Not in Arkansas . Under the Arkansas ethics-in-government act, passed in 1988 and, according to state legislators, either drafted or inspired by Hubbell, state legislators were required to report possible conflicts of interest. Surprisingly, the law specifically exempted the governor and other elected or appointed officials, including officials of state agencies and commissions. Moreover, these officials were not even required to report dealings with entities--such as Rose--that employed their relatives. This was not the only remaining service that Rose had provided to the governance of its state. When the time came to rewrite the state's incorporation laws, it was Rose that drew up the 397-page treatise that formed the basis of the legislation. Well, somebody has to draft a state's legislation, and under Arkansas's unusual ethics law, it was perfectly all right for Rose to do just that. Less clear (if anything in these murky waters can be described as clear) is just why Clinton seemed so eager to assist the Stephens family, which was hardly enamored of the man and kept bankrolling the candidates who ran against him for governor until it experienced a change of heart in 1990. Witt Stephens habitually referred to Clinton as "that boy." In a moment of candor his brother Jack once remarked that "it would be awfully easy for Stephens, if we wanted to be close to a governor, to be close to Bill Clinton." Nonetheless, the Clinton governorship's assistance to Stephens extended well beyond ADFA. During Clinton's years in Little Rock, the Stephens interests were involved in some 61 percent of the $7 billion of all the state bonds issued in Arkansas . Contrary to state law, Stephens Inc., according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , was given the underwriting for the state university system without competitive bids from other bond dealers. The Fayetteville campus alone, where the Clintons had once taught law, had $33 million in bonds outstanding. Under Clinton, Stephens devised a plan to rescue the state's troubled student loan authority, in which the authority's bonds would be bought by the state employees' retirement funds. An independent consultant--Roy Drew, the very man who created Mid-life Investors for Hubbell, Foster and Rodham Clinton-- was brought in to examine the deal. Drew thought it was a terrible investment and so did the state's auditor, Julia Hughes Jones. But Drew was dismissed, Jones's budget failed to pass the legislature (the first time ever for an Arkansas state auditor) and she began to receive late-night harassing calls from a collection agency--concerning, ironically, her own daughter's student loan, which was current. In the upshot, the retirement funds bought $100 million of the loan authority's bonds, another $100 million in the bonds of two other state agencies, ADFA was given the task of overseeing the retirement fund's investment policies and Stephens Inc., according to The Philadelphia Inquirer , made $1.8 million. These were very considerable favors to a family that not only bankrolled Clinton's opponents but seemed to despise him as a man. But Bill Clinton's canny instinct that the Stephenses needed to be appeased--rather than ignored--eventually paid off. After Clinton's unexpected loss in the New Hampshire primary, with the campaign coffers bare, the staff paying its bills on their personal credit cards and federal matching funds just beyond reach, the Worthen Bank rescued the candidacy with a prearranged $3.5 million line of credit, selflessly advanced at a lucrative rate of interest. Later, Worthen - whose executives, like many Stephens executives, experienced a spasm of Arkansas patriotism that caused them to reach for their checkbooks - became the Clinton campaign's depository of $55 million in federal campaign funds, which, in effect, was free money. Worthen did not have to pay any interest on this staggering sum, but as long as it was on deposit (and as long as Worthen, with its undistinguished track record in the department of government deposits, managed not to lose it), the bank was free to use it to make itself some money that it got to keep. And when the votes were counted, everybody who wanted to go to Washington got to go to Washington: Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, president and First Lady; Mack McLarty, White House chief of staff; Vince Foster, deputy White House counsel; Webb Hubbell, associate attorney general; Patsy Thomasson, a White House aide. Jack Stephens, though mentioned as a candidate for secretary of the treasury, had, it now seems safe to say, the good sense to stay home. Oh, and one last thing: when Whitewater special prosecutor Robert Fiske--who once defended Clark Clifford, the famed friend of Jack Stephens's old client, BCCI--arrived in Little Rock, something strange happened. Worthen Bank had a fire. Is this a great country, or what? Comment: Yeah, it's a great country if you love giving free reign to your baser instincts. See also: | 0 |
Donald J. Trump publicly retreated from his “birther” campaign on Friday, tersely acknowledging that President Obama was born in the United States — and effectively conceding that the conspiracy theory he had promoted for years was baseless. Mr. Trump made no apology for and took no questions about what had amounted to a smear of the nation’s first black president. Instead, he claimed, falsely, that questions about Mr. Obama’s citizenship were initially stirred by the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, in her unsuccessful primary contest against Mr. Obama in 2008. Still, Mr. Trump’s brief remarks, tacked on to the end of a campaign appearance with military veterans at his new hotel in downtown Washington, represented a sharp reversal from a position he had publicly maintained, over howls of outrage from all but the extreme of the political spectrum, since 2011. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Mr. Trump said. “Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again. ” Earlier Friday, Mr. Trump sought to stoke interest in his eventual statement on his birther views, telling Fox Business that he would save his views for the event at his hotel because “we have to keep the suspense going. ” Mr. Trump’s embrace of and refusal to disavow the birther issue helped drive his standing among black voters to historically low levels, with some public opinion polls showing him supported by zero percent of . Given his other racially incendiary statements, Mr. Trump’s aides privately say they fear he will be unable to shake free of charges that he is racist, a label that has stuck to him with deleterious effect, polls show. Mindful that the birther issue could also haunt Mr. Trump in his first debate with Mrs. Clinton, on Sept. 26, his aides tried for several days to put it to rest. But Mr. Trump himself revived the issue late Thursday, declining in an interview with The Washington Post to acknowledge that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii. In his brief remarks, Mr. Trump leveled the accusation — which his supporters have been pressing for weeks — that Mrs. Clinton first raised doubts eight years ago about Mr. Obama’s birthplace. “Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy,” Mr. Trump said. “I finished it. ” During the 2008 Democratic contest, a senior strategist for Mrs. Clinton at one point pondered, in an internal memo that was later leaked, the ways in which Mr. Obama’s personal background differed from those of many Americans. But contrary to Mr. Trump’s assertion, neither Mrs. Clinton nor her campaign ever publicly questioned Mr. Obama’s citizenship or birthplace. The topic was such a fringe issue within the Republican Party that in 2011, conservatives, including Ann Coulter, now a vocal Trump supporter, called on Mr. Trump to stop pursuing it. Mr. Trump’s aides, in a statement late Thursday, tried to argue that he had actually “ended” the birther issue. Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Jason Miller, asserted — also falsely — that Mr. Trump had “obtained” Mr. Obama’s birth certificate the president actually released the version in 2011. “Mr. Trump did a great service to the president and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised,” Mr. Miller said. Mr. Trump’s remarks on Friday came after Mr. Obama, in a brief exchange with reporters at the White House, again expressed scorn for the subject. “I was pretty confident about where I was born,” he said. “I think most people were as well. My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that. ” Two of Mr. Trump’s top advisers — his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York — said in recent days that Mr. Trump had come to believe that Mr. Obama was born in the United States. But Mr. Trump refused to say so. “I’ll answer that question at the right time,” Mr. Trump said in the Washington Post interview. “I just don’t want to answer it yet. ” The Clinton campaign made clear that it would not let Mr. Trump slide on the subject. In a speech to the Black Women’s Agenda symposium in Washington on Friday — before Mr. Trump made his statement — Mrs. Clinton said Mr. Trump owed Mr. Obama and the country an apology. “For five years he has led the birther movement to delegitimize our first black president,” Mrs. Clinton said. “His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. ” She added, “There is no erasing it in history. ” Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Mr. Trump was making such pronounced racial attacks that critics had struggled to adjust. “One of things that we are all used to in this business is dog whistles,” Mr. Clyburn said. “But the thing that we are not used to, and I’m finding it very difficult to get used to, are the howls of wolves. These are howls. These are not whistles. ” Mr. Trump must improve his standing with suburban moderates who shrink from backing someone accused of racism. But his remarks on Friday seemed unlikely to make much of a dent. Connie Keys, 54, a mother in Montclair, N. J. said Mr. Trump still seemed not to accept Mr. Obama as presidential. “He makes it sounds like, ‘I should be thanked, I should be applauded, because I’m the one who finally told the country that the president was born here,’ when in fact the voters decided that for themselves when we elected President Obama twice,” said Ms. Keys, who is white. The birther issue brought Mr. Trump attention and vaulted him to the front of Republican primary polls in 2011 as he considered a White House bid. He claimed, without ever offering evidence, that he had hired investigators, and said they “cannot believe what they’re finding. ” Mr. Obama, frustrated by the degree to which questions about his citizenship were spreading and attention was being diverted from federal budget discussions, released his birth certificate that April. “We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” he said. Mr. Trump, who was en route to New Hampshire for a political trip at the time, took a victory lap. “I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue,” he told reporters. But he still refused to accept that Mr. Obama’s birth certificate was authentic. “We have to look at it to see if it’s real,” he said. On Friday, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, said he was glad that Mr. Trump “now rejects the crazy idea President Obama wasn’t born in America. ” But he warned that this would not end the discussion. “The problem he’ll have is that he was a leader of this movement,” Mr. Graham said. “I don’t think he did the country a service, himself a service or the party a service by pushing this so hard and so long. ” Democrats seized on Mr. Trump’s remarks as a litmus test for Republican candidates. “He continues to disqualify himself, and yet Republican Senate candidates continue to stand by his side,” said Sadie Weiner, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. She said Republican candidates needed to say “if they think Donald Trump should apologize to the American people for the absurd lies he has spread about President Obama and why they continue to support a campaign that provides a safe harbor for this type of disgusting race baiting. ” Mr. Trump took no questions after his remarks about Mr. Obama. As reporters shouted questions, he smiled and left the room. Not long after, the structure holding up the curtain that had provided a backdrop for his remarks collapsed, sending American flags toppling to the ground. No one was hurt. | 1 |
If anyone tries to tell you Hillary won the popular vote, she did not. Besides the “votes counted” vs. “votes cast” fact, there’s the NON-CITIZENS voting. A whopping three million of them. However, we shouldn’t be surprised since both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama told illegals it was A-OK to vote. According to Gregg Philips of votefraud.org, three million illegal aliens voted! This was voters fraud on a massive scale! Hillary is winning the popular vote by about 630,000 votes and there This is voters fraud on an unimaginably massive scale. We have verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens.
We are joining . @TrueTheVote to initiate legal action. #unrigged
— Gregg Phillips (@JumpVote) November 13, 2016
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On Friday’s “Outfront” on CNN, former Obama administration green jobs czar and network contributor Van Jones said President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord was “one of the dumbest moves in politics” history and a “big ”for his base. Jones said, “Trump has said basically it took 25 years for 190 countries to come together and now he says he wants to start something on his own. Nobody is saying they want to do that. In fact, what has happened is exsactly what people predicted. He had created the biggest power vacuum on the planet by calling that press conference. And now you see China rushing forward, California rushing forward, and what he’s actually done is give a tremendous gift to his opponents. You see the emerging of what you can call a green growth alliance where cities and states and businesses and tribes and governments are coming together, going around the president of the United States. He gave away power. ” He continued, “The one thing nobody’s talked about is that he also threw his own base under the bus. His rustbelt base needs jobs. Had he doubled down, they could be building wind turbines right now, smart cars right now, smart batteries, solar panels. Instead, he gave all that away to Germany. He not only gave his opponents a huge opportunity he gave his base a big nothing burger when they could have had jobs. It was one of the dumbest moves in politics. It’s going to go down in history. Not just bad for the planet, bad for Donald Trump and his voters. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Interviews The FBI probe was inevitable “because of the metastasizing of the links and the connections that the Clinton Foundation had, most specifically and grievously to Saudi Arabia, to Qatar,” says American analyst Scott Bennett.
The ongoing federal investigation into the Clinton Foundation was expected because of the Clinton family’s ties with US enemies, says Scott Bennett, a former US Army psychological warfare officer.
The FBI has been probing possible pay-to-play schemes at the family foundation for over a year now and is “likely” to press charges against it, Fox News reported Wednesday, citing informed officials.
Bennett told Press TV on Friday that the probe was inevitable “because of the metastasizing of the links and the connections that the Clinton Foundation had, most specifically and grievously to Saudi Arabia, to Qatar,” and many other countries blacklisted by Washington.
It was revealed on Friday that the Clinton Foundation took a $1 million gift from Qatar during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as the US secretary of state, without her informing the State Department.
Hillary decided to not inform the department of the transaction, despite signing an ethics agreement with regards to the foundation when she became secretary of state.
According to the foundation’s website, Qatar has so far given the Clintons a total of between $1 million and $5 million over the years.
Aside from Qatar, Saudi Arabia has also been one of the Clinton Foundation’s biggest donors. It became known in 2008 that the kingdom had given them between $10 million and $25 million.
“So those terrorist entities, which have been labeled as the enemies of the United States, have been appearing as Clinton Foundation donors,” Bennett said.
“That is a serious crime, it is treason, it is corruption, it is bribery of officials,” said the analyst.
Bennett argued that all the leaks and investigations concerning the Clinton family were coming from “those personnel in the American government who have had enough.”
“They have stepped up, they have released emails, they have hacked into their own computers and in some cases they have provided it to WikiLeaks,” he added.
Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has released thousands of Hillary’s campaign chairman and top aide John Podesta’s emails since last month, exposing some of the well-kept secrets surrounding the Clinton family and Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House.
Bennett predicted that the case would “most probably” lead to indictments and some people would be arrested as early as this weekend. Loading ... | 0 |
Lee Winfield’s teammates can still remember him coming to their homes in his Volkswagen van. It was the signal of the start of another trip for the Buffalo Braves in the early 1970s, back when N. B. A. players flew with the general public, washed their own uniforms and endured schedules. Before the Braves hit the road, Winfield, a point guard, would traverse the city to collect teammates as he drove to the airport. The Braves often flew Allegheny Airlines, a regional carrier that the players referred to as “Agony Airlines. ” They folded their large frames into coach seats, which was the only option since there was no first class. And getting out of Buffalo was the easy part of a road trip. “By the third game in the third night in the third city, you wouldn’t even know what the score was,” Kenny Charles, a shooting guard, said in a telephone interview. The league has evolved, of course. The new collective bargaining agreement that was tentatively reached last week between the N. B. A. and the National Basketball Players Association calls for a reduction in the number of times that teams play games on consecutive days — the dreaded . Most players will tell you that the add up to more fatigue and more risk for injury. They have also become a marketing problem for the league, because coaches sometimes bench their stars for one of the games. Just last week the Cleveland Cavaliers left LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love at home when the team visited the Memphis Grizzlies on the second night of a . It was a disappointment to many fans who had paid to see the Cavaliers, the defending N. B. A. champs, at full force in the team’s lone trip to Memphis. “I love the idea of less ” Larry Nance Jr. a Los Angeles Lakers forward, said Friday, “because we’re on one now, and I like the idea of not being on one. ” The Lakers were in Philadelphia on Friday for the first half of a that was part of a trip. After defeating the Sixers, the Lakers took a charter flight to Cleveland for their game against the Cavaliers on Saturday. Without D’Angelo Russell, who sat out after having played well against the Sixers, the Lakers lost. In all, the Lakers are scheduled to play 16 sets of this season. The load should lighten next season. Under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, the start of the season will move up by about a week to build more off days into the schedule and reduce the number of — though by how many is unclear. “It’s tough because we have a young team,” Luke Walton, the Lakers’s head coach, said. “You have who aren’t used to this. The mental preparation that it takes and the mental strength that it takes to fight through that fatigue is challenging. ” That said, the concern over is a source of amusement for former players like Dan Issel, whose career featured countless sets of more than 50 and about a dozen . In an email, Issel said he had no specific recollection of any of them, not even the time he scored 37 points for the Kentucky Colonels of the A. B. A. in his fourth game in as many days in 1970. (N. B. A. players of that era were no strangers to four straight games, either.) To Issel, those stretches never seemed remarkable. He would have gladly played in even more of them, he said, had his teams “flown charter with sleeper seats and great meals, and stayed in hotels,” a reference to some of the amenities available to today’s players. Charles Grantham, who joined the players’ union as a consultant when the N. B. A. merged with the A. B. A. in 1976, said easing the schedule was not a priority at the negotiating table — not for the players, who were pushing for guaranteed contracts and improved transportation, and not for the league, which had financial troubles. “The business was to get the product out there and to play as often as you could,” said Grantham, who was the union’s executive director from 1988 to 1995. “I think owners looked at their teams like owning a candy store: They wanted it open all the time. ” The A. B. A. merger, along with expansion, resulted in more games for the league and reduced the financial imperative to stretch teams so thin. Plus, it was becoming obvious that tired players produced basketball, a detriment to a league that was trying to expand its audience. “All of us sat there and recognized that in order for this product to move forward, it’s got to be set for television,” Grantham said. “And the players need some fresh legs. ” Still, change did not come swiftly. The players themselves saw virtue in plying their trade without much time off, similar to how baseball players of that era were oblivious to pitch counts. George Gervin, a scoring wizard for the San Antonio Spurs through much of the 1970s and early ’80s, said he could not fathom skipping games to keep his body fresh. “Rest? It’s your job, man!” Gervin said in a telephone interview. “We got all these people crying now about playing . I respect the job that these guys are doing. But yesterday, it was a little bit more difficult. ” His point of view has the familiar tone of generational grumbling: When I was your age … But Gervin has always considered himself a basketball purist. “I hated the preseason because the coach would be like, ‘Hey, you’re only going to play half the game,’” he said. “I was like, ‘What? What kind of crap is that? I worked all summer and you got me trained, and you want me to play half the game?’ Come on, man. ” Phil Chenier, a N. B. A. who retired in 1981, recalled nights when he could feel the physical toll of his profession. The schedule was more fearsome than any single opponent. But sometimes he made it look effortless. Over a stretch with the Washington Bullets in March 1977, Chenier scored 21 points in a narrow road loss to the Atlanta Hawks before returning home to score 30 and 38, respectively, in wins against the New Orleans Jazz and the Phoenix Suns. “Once the game starts, you just start playing,” Chenier said. “That’s all you know. ” He does remember one hazard: the uniforms. Most teams had only one set of road uniforms, and the players were generally responsible for their care. Some were more fastidious than others. Chenier recalled using shampoo to launder his jersey and shorts in hotel bathtubs. Planning ahead was important, he said, otherwise he would end up with a soggy uniform for the next game. Also, he discovered that certain shampoos brought a side effect. “You’d put your uniform on and you’d feel like you have this rash,” Chenier said. “Of course, some guys didn’t wash their uniforms at all — and you could tell. ” The laundry complications, Charles said, could signal that an opposing team was on a rough trip. He knew when he caught a whiff of his defender. “And you’d be like, ‘Oh, you guys played last night,’” he said. By the early 1980s, the league had largely scrubbed from the schedule. They made a brief return during the season, when the league scrambled to cram games into a reduced scheduled after a labor stoppage. The Lakers, for example, opened that season by playing three games in three days, losing twice. Metta World Peace, a forward who is still playing for the team at 37, reflected on that experience — “It was bad,” he said — and assessed as difficult enough, especially at his age. “They kill me,” he said. When he was younger, he said, he did not take them seriously. After a flight, he would often try to squeeze in a trip to a nightclub between games. “And play like garbage,” World Peace said. “When I got older and actually wanted to win, I would drink a lot of water, eat a lot of veggies, go to bed once you got into the city — no sex, nothing like that. Because all that stuff adds up. ” World Peace said he thought that the quality of play would improve with fewer . But he does not want to see them eliminated. “They build so much character,” he said, sounding like a true throwback. | 1 |
If you’re visiting Florence, Italy, you’ve got to see the Uffizi Gallery. But why? Because that’s what one does in Florence? Because you feel compelled to post a selfie in front of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”? Those are obviously terrible reasons. We shouldn’t go to places because they’re we should go to fully appreciate the thing that made them — an unparalleled collection of Renaissance art, for example. But that requires a thoughtful, visit, not just following the masses, snapping pictures and checking it off your bucket list. I spoke with those in charge of some of the world’s great attractions to glean strategies for making the most of a visit, both substantive improvements and simple techniques. Because, no matter how great the view is from the crown of Lady Liberty, you don’t want to wait in a long line to get there. Actually, you can’t visit the crown at all without serious planning. “On busy days you’re talking 25, 000 people on a small island, and 500 a day get to the crown,” said Michael Amato, the lead park ranger for the Statue of Liberty National Monument. “Right now we’re sold out until late October, early November. ” So it’s not so simple as “plan in advance. ” You need to check on what’s available only in advance — say, tickets for a performance. The ultimate way to avoid crowds is to visit during the in other words, not now. Many dismiss travel as unviable because of school schedules, but remember American Thanksgiving and spring breaks (if they don’t fall over Easter week) don’t mirror other countries’ vacations. Some American habits can play to your advantage. “Americans love to eat early,” said Eike Schmidt, the director of the Uffizi Galleries. “Have an early lunch, and get to the Uffizi something like 1 p. m. when the vast majority of people head off to eat. ” Timed tickets can often be bought days in advance and are increasingly available at crowded attractions around the world. At the Uffizi, they cost 4 euros extra (boosting admission to 16. 50 euros, about $18) and take care of waiting in line, if not the crowds. You can buy them at the official Uffizi website, uffizi. it, if you can find it. Unofficial sites that look official are rampant. They often look good and sometimes contain good information, but look out. “You can pay $30 or $40 on a fake website,” Mr. Schmidt said. “And sometimes the tickets do not exist” — that is, they’re fakes. Even when they’re just reselling real tickets, look out for markups. For example, uffizi. com, one of the unofficial sites, charges 24. 99 euros (about $27. 35) and it even marks up the audio guides. The official site is and difficult to find (and is getting an upgrade). If you’re ever having trouble finding the official site of any attraction, search for it on a trusted travel site — say, LonelyPlanet. com — and follow the links. Between planning and traveling, a lot can change. Keep up to date, Jade McKellar, the director of visitor experiences at the Sydney Opera House, said in an email. “If you’re looking for inspiration,” she said, “follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter. ” The Opera House’s Facebook page, for example, recently posted information on the free Homeground festival in October, featuring indigenous musicians from around the world. In another development somewhat lower on the cultural scale, the Statue of Liberty’s Instagram account recently noted a new wave of visitors to Ellis Island: Pokémon. Ms. McKellar noted that too many visitors “stop at the selfie. ” Even without planning, visitors can often buy tickets for events that run 363 days a year. But like many sites, a true visit means dedicating a full day, something a rushed traveler might be loath to do but should do. You may want to append to a tour of the Sydney Opera House a pretheater dinner at the locavore Australian restaurant Bennelong, and an evening performance. (Just be aware that reservations at Bennelong need to be made well ahead.) Another reason to set aside more time: Visitors skip the but equally worthwhile, often beautifully complementary sites nearby. Susan Greaney, the senior properties historian at English Heritage, which oversees Stonehenge, recommended a trip to the nearby Wiltshire Museum and the Salisbury Museum, local history museums with exhibitions, each less than a drive away but apt to be missed by anyone on a day tour from London. Mark Thomas, the western district director of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation — a fancy title that involves oversight of Niagara Falls State Park — recommended the New York Power Authority’s Niagara Power Vista, a free attraction that was recently overhauled and reopened, 10 minutes away from the park. Mr. Schmidt noted that the copy of Michelangelo’s David on the Piazza della Signoria near the Uffizi was indistinguishable to nonexperts. Lines to see the real one at the Accademia Gallery can run hours if you don’t buy tickets in advance. “If someone has just three days in Florence, do you want to waste three hours in line when you can see a very faithful copy?” he said. Sometimes, the attraction is even part of the same complex. Mr. Amato noted that this year Liberty Island would attract 4. 4 million visitors, while the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration will attract just 2. 4 million. That’s preposterous, considering that the boat to Liberty Island also stops at Ellis Island, which costs nothing extra and (in my opinion, not his) is far more interesting. But again, it means killing a day. Reading up on the attraction can make a vast difference in how much you appreciate it. I slogged through “The Conquest of the Incas” by John Hemming before visiting Machu Picchu for the first time, and it made for a rich experience. But there are easier ways. Mr. Thomas recommended visitors watch Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film noir picture “Niagara,” set at and near the falls. And in the next six months, Mr. Schmidt’s book about the Uffizi should come out. (Exercise some discretion — for example, Ms. Greaney of English Heritage did not mention the Stonehenge scene from the 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” and for good reason.) Some final recommendations: Be an active visitor, engaging guides, rangers or docents and exploring corners. For monuments, consider a more adventurous alternative route to avoid crowds — walking the steep hill to the Peak viewpoint in Hong Kong or hiking up the rain forest path to Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro instead of taking the crowded trams that lead to each. Even if you’re not traveling with children, I recommend inventing a game before you go — even adults run out of steam on a long day of sightseeing. My favorite, applicable to any museum with abstract art, is “Name the Picasso,” in which you guess the name of a painting (“Death in the Jungle”) and then compare it to its real name (“Nude in a Black Armchair. ”) Of course, you can also simply skip the attraction. If you’re sick of museums by the time you get to Florence, forgo the Uffizi and take advantage of other things Florence has to offer. Perhaps a gelato (or tripe sandwich) crawl is in order? Don’t worry about what your friends will think. You can use Photoshop to show them you “saw” “The Birth of Venus. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — For about $50, you can get a smartphone with a display, fast data service and, according to security contractors, a secret feature: a backdoor that sends all your text messages to China every 72 hours. Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. The American authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence. International customers and users of disposable or prepaid phones are the people most affected by the software. But the scope is unclear. The Chinese company that wrote the software, Shanghai Adups Technology Company, says its code runs on more than 700 million phones, cars and other smart devices. One American phone manufacturer, BLU Products, said that 120, 000 of its phones had been affected and that it had updated the software to eliminate the feature. Kryptowire, the security firm that discovered the vulnerability, said the Adups software transmitted the full contents of text messages, contact lists, call logs, location information and other data to a Chinese server. The code comes preinstalled on phones and the surveillance is not disclosed to users, said Tom Karygiannis, a vice president of Kryptowire, which is based in Fairfax, Va. “Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t have known about it,” he said. Security experts frequently discover vulnerabilities in consumer electronics, but this case is exceptional. It was not a bug. Rather, Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behavior, according to a document that Adups provided to explain the problem to BLU executives. That version of the software was not intended for American phones, the company said. “This is a private company that made a mistake,” said Lily Lim, a lawyer in Palo Alto, Calif. who represents Adups. The episode shows how companies throughout the technology supply chain can compromise privacy, with or without the knowledge of manufacturers or customers. It also offers a look at one way that Chinese companies — and by extension the government — can monitor cellphone behavior. For many years, the Chinese government has used a variety of methods to filter and track internet use and monitor online conversations. It requires technology companies that operate in China to follow strict rules. Ms. Lim said Adups was not affiliated with the Chinese government. At the heart of the issue is a special type of software, known as firmware, that tells phones how to operate. Adups provides the code that lets companies remotely update their firmware, an important function that is largely unseen by users. Normally, when a phone manufacturer updates its firmware, it tells customers what it is doing and whether it will use any personal information. Even if that is disclosed in long legal disclosures that customers routinely ignore, it is at least disclosed. That did not happen with the Adups software, Kryptowire said. According to its website, Adups provides software to two of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. Both are based in China. Samuel the chief executive of the BLU Products, said: “It was obviously something that we were not aware of. We moved very quickly to correct it. ” He added that Adups had assured him that all of the information taken from BLU customers had been destroyed. The software was written at the request of an unidentified Chinese manufacturer that wanted the ability to store call logs, text messages and other data, according to the Adups document. Adups said the Chinese company used the data for customer support. Ms. Lim said the software was intended to help the Chinese client identify junk text messages and calls. She did not identify the company that requested it and said she did not know how many phones were affected. She said phone companies, not Adups, were responsible for disclosing privacy policies to users. “Adups was just there to provide functionality that the phone distributor asked for,” she said. Android phones run software that is developed by Google and distributed free for phone manufacturers to customize. A Google official said the company had told Adups to remove the surveillance ability from phones that run services like the Google Play store. That would not include devices in China, where hundreds of millions of people use Android phones but where Google does not operate because of censorship concerns. Because Adups has not published a list of affected phones, it is not clear how users can determine whether their phones are vulnerable. “People who have some technical skills could,” Mr. Karygiannis, the Kryptowire vice president, said. “But the average consumer? No. ” Ms. Lim said she did not know how customers could determine whether they were affected. Adups also provides what it calls “big data” services to help companies study their customers, “to know better about them, about what they like and what they use and there they come from and what they prefer to provide better service,” according to its website. Kryptowire discovered the problem through a combination of happenstance and curiosity. A researcher there bought an inexpensive phone, the BLU R1 HD, for a trip overseas. While setting up the phone, he noticed unusual network activity, Mr. Karygiannis said. Over the next week, analysts noticed that the phone was transmitting text messages to a server in Shanghai and was registered to Adups, according to a Kryptowire report. Kryptowire took its findings to the United States government. It made its report public on Tuesday. Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the agency “was recently made aware of the concerns discovered by Kryptowire and is working with our public and private sector partners to identify appropriate mitigation strategies. ” Kryptowire is a Homeland Security contractor but analyzed the BLU phone independent of that contract. Mr. the BLU chief executive, said he was confident that the problem had been resolved for his customers. “Today there is no BLU device that is collecting that information,” he said. | 1 |
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A petition to reverse the decision by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to make the entire job title system gender-neutral has reached more than 100,000 signatures, forcing a White House review.
The petition soared to 50,000 within the first week of its launch in late September, but for the rest of October, it was an open question of whether it would reach its goal.
But as of Monday morning, the petition reached 102,591 signatures , which reflects the fact that the new job title change is viewed in an almost universally unfavorable light.
“For 241 Years Navy personnel have been identified by their Job specialty, known as a ‘Rating.’ The oldest rates such as Boatswain Mates, and Gunners Mate predate the founding of this country,” the petition states. “Being known by your job title was a sense of pride. A sign of accomplishment. The Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations just senselessly erased this tradition. One only has to visit Navy social media pages to see the disgust and outrage of current and former personnel.”
“One by one current leadership continues to erode the very things that set the Navy apart from the other services,” the petition continues. “Mr. President, I and the others signing this petition request you use your authority to restore to our Sailors what they have earned.”
But reversing what the military deems progress is an uphill challenge.
Navy officials try to justify the change by saying it will grant sailors better career opportunities, but hardly anyone is convinced.
In late September, the Navy eliminated its historic job title system in a move officials admitted was linked to concerns about gender neutrality. The only title to escape unscathed is “seaman” for E-3s and under.
The job title change effort was developed by then-Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens, who retired just before the Navy actually made the official announcement of the major switch.
Article posted with permission from The Daily Caller News Foundation 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 |
Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/ron-paul-education-system-broken-lets.html Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently signed an executive order forbidding Maryland public schools from beginning classes before Labor Day. Governor Hogan’s executive order benefits businesses in Maryland’s coastal areas that lose school-aged summer employees and business from Maryland families when schools start in August.However, as Governor Hogan’s critics have pointed out, some Maryland school districts, as well as Maryland schoolchildren, benefit from an earlier start to the school year.Governor Hogan’s executive order is the latest example of how centralized government control of education leaves many students behind.A centrally planned education system can no more meet the unique needs of every child than a centrally planned economic system can meet the unique needs of every worker and consumer.Centralizing education at the state or, worse, federal level inevitably leads to political conflicts over issues ranging from whether students should be allowed to pray on school grounds, to what should be the curriculum, to what food should be served in the cafeteria, to who should be allowed to use which bathroom.The centralization and politicization of education is rooted in the idea that education is a right that must be provided by the government, instead of a good that individuals should obtain in the market. Separating school from state would empower parents to find an education system that meets the needs of their children instead of using the political process to force their idea of a good education on all children.While many politicians praise local and parental control of education, the fact is both major parties embrace federal control of education. The two sides only differ on the details. Liberals who oppose the testing mandates of No Child Left Behind enthusiastically backed President Clinton’s national testing proposals. They also back the Obama administration’s expansion of federal interference in the classroom via Common Core.Similarly, conservatives who (correctly) not just opposed Clinton’s initiatives but called for the abolition of the Department of Education enthusiastically supported No Child Left Behind. Even most conservatives who oppose Common Core, federal bathroom and cafeteria mandates, and other federal education policies, support reforming, instead of eliminating, the Department of Education.Politicians will not voluntarily relinquish control over education to parents. Therefore, parents and other concerned citizens should take a page from the UK and work to “Ed-Exit” government-controlled education. Parents and other concerned citizens should pressure Congress to finally shut down the Department of Education and return the money to American families. They also must pressure state governments and local school boards to reject federal mandates, even if it means forgoing federal funding.Parents should also explore education alternatives, such as private, charter, and religious schools, as well as homeschooling. Homeschooling is the ultimate form of Ed-Exit. Homeschooling parents have the freedom to shape every aspect of education — from the curriculum to the length of the school day to what their children have for lunch to who can and cannot use the bathroom — to fit their child’s unique needs.Parents interested in providing their children with a quality education emphasizing the ideas of liberty should try out my homeschooling curriculum. The curriculum provides students with a well-rounded education that includes courses in personal finance and public speaking. The government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize Austrian economics, libertarian political theory, and the history of liberty. However, unlike government schools, my curriculum never puts ideological indoctrination ahead of education.Parents interested in Ed-Exiting from government-run schools can learn more about my curriculum at ronpaulcurriculum.com . By Ron Paul / Image Credits: Pink Floyd - The Wall , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). | 0 |
Chart Of The Day: What Recovery? Real Construction Spending Still 17.7% Below 2006 Level | 0 |
SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson ruled out on Friday opening any negotiation with North Korea to freeze its nuclear and missile programs and said for the first time that the Trump administration might be forced to take action “if they elevate the threat of their weapons program” to an unacceptable level. Mr. Tillerson’s comments in Seoul, a day before he travels to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders, explicitly rejected any return to the bargaining table in an effort to buy time by halting North Korea’s accelerating testing program. The country’s leader, Kim said on New Year’s Day that North Korea was in the “final stage” of preparation for the first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the United States. The secretary of state’s comments were the Trump administration’s first public hint at the options being considered, and they made clear that none involved a negotiated settlement or waiting for the North Korean government to collapse. “The policy of strategic patience has ended,” Mr. Tillerson said, a reference to the term used by the Obama administration to describe a policy of waiting out the North Koreans, while gradually ratcheting up sanctions and covert action. Negotiations “can only be achieved by denuclearizing, giving up their weapons of mass destruction,” he said — a step to which the North committed in 1992, and again in subsequent accords, but has always violated. “Only then will we be prepared to engage them in talks. ” His warning on Friday about new ways to pressure the North was far more specific and martial sounding than during the first stop of his tour, in Tokyo on Thursday. His inconsistency of tone may have been intended to signal a tougher line to the Chinese before he lands in Beijing on Saturday. It could also reflect an effort by Mr. Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, to issue the right diplomatic signals in a region where American commitment is in doubt. Almost exactly a year ago, when Donald J. Trump was still a presidential candidate, he threatened in an interview with The New York Times to pull troops back from the Pacific region unless South Korea and Japan paid a greater share of the cost of keeping them there. During Mr. Tillerson’s stops in South Korea and Japan, there was no public talk of that demand. On Friday afternoon, after visiting the Demilitarized Zone and peering into North Korean territory in what has become a ritual for American officials making a first visit to the South, Mr. Tillerson explicitly rejected a Chinese proposal to get the North Koreans to freeze their testing in return for the United States and South Korea suspending all annual joint military exercises, which are now underway. Mr. Tillerson argued that a freeze would essentially enshrine “a comprehensive set of capabilities” North Korea possesses that already pose too great a threat to the United States and its allies, and he said there would be no negotiation until the North agreed to dismantle its programs. Mr. Tillerson ignored a question about whether the Trump administration would double down on the use of cyberweapons against the North’s missile development, a covert program that President Barack Obama accelerated early in 2014 and that so far has yielded mixed results. Instead, Mr. Tillerson referred vaguely to a “number of steps” the United States could take — a phrase that seemed to embrace much more vigorous enforcement of sanctions, ramping up missile defenses, cutting off North Korea’s oil, intensifying the cyberwar program and striking the North’s known missile sites. The rejection of negotiations on a freeze would be consistent with the approach taken by Mr. Obama, who declined Chinese offers to restart the talks that stalled several years ago unless the North agreed at the outset that the goal of the negotiations was the “complete, verifiable, irreversible” dismantling of its program. But classified assessments of the North that the Obama administration left for its successors included a grim assessment by the intelligence community: that North Korea’s leader, Mr. Kim, believes his nuclear weapons program is the only way to guarantee the survival of his regime and will never trade it away for economic or other benefits. The assessment said that the example of what happened to Col. Muammar the longtime leader of Libya, had played a critical role in North Korean thinking. Colonel Qaddafi gave up the components of Libya’s nuclear program in late 2003 — most of them were still in crates from Pakistan — in hopes of economic integration with the West. Eight years later, when the Arab Spring broke out, the United States and its European allies joined forces to depose Colonel Qaddafi, who was eventually found hiding in a ditch and executed by Libyan rebels. Among many experts, the idea of a freeze has been favored as the least terrible of a series of bad options. Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear expert who worked on Mr. Obama’s National Security Council, and Toby Dalton wrote recently in Politico: “A temporary freeze on missile and nuclear developments sounds better than an unconstrained and growing threat. It is also, possibly, the most logical and necessary first step toward an overall agreement between the U. S. and North Korea. But the risk that North Korea will cheat or hide facilities during a negotiated freeze is great. ” William J. Perry, who was secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton, argued on Friday that it was no longer realistic to expect North Korea to commit to dismantling or surrendering its nuclear arsenal. The Trump administration, he said, should instead focus on persuading the North to commit to a freeze in which it suspends testing of nuclear weapons and missiles and pledges not to sell or transfer any of its nuclear technology. “I see very little prospect of a collapse,” he added. “For eight years in the Obama administration and eight years in the Bush administration, they were expecting that to happen. As a consequence, their policies were not very effective. ” In Asia, on his first major trip overseas as secretary of state, Mr. Tillerson has been heavily scripted in his few public comments, and he has gone out of his way to make sure he is not subject to questions beyond highly controlled news conferences, at which his staff chooses the questioners. In a breach of past practice, he traveled without the usual State Department press corps, which has flown on the secretary’s plane for roughly half a century. That group of reporters, many of them veterans of foreign policy and national security coverage, use the plane rides to try to get the secretary and other top State Department officials to explain American policy. Mr. Tillerson’s aides first said their plane was too small to accommodate the press corps and later said they were experimenting with new forms of coverage then they opened a seat for a reporter from the Independent Journal Review, which is aimed at younger, readers. The site’s reporters have never traveled with the secretary before. That decision is a striking departure for the State Department. Last May, department officials protested when Egypt’s military leader, Abdel Fattah blocked pool reporters traveling with Secretary John Kerry from entering the presidential palace, and China frequently imposes similar restrictions to avoid unwanted questions to the Chinese leadership. Mr. Tillerson appears to be using similar tactics during his travels, though the two news conferences he held on the trip were his first since taking office at the beginning of February. | 1 |
They were at one time after WWII to be a State. But congress shot it down by one vote. | 0 |
Twenty Years of a Dictatorial Democracy By James Bovard
" Washington Times " - The 2016 election campaign is mortifying millions of Americans in part because the presidency has become far more dangerous in recent times. Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have lived in a perpetual emergency, which supposedly justifies routinely ignoring the law and Constitution. And both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have signaled that power grabs will proliferate in the next four years.
Politicians talk as if voting magically protects the rights of everyone within a 50-mile radius of the polling booth. But the ballots Americans have cast in presidential elections since 2000 did nothing to constrain the commander in chief.
President George W. Bushs declaration in 2000 that America needed a more humble foreign policy did not deter him from vowing to rid the world of evil and launching the most catastrophic war in American history. Eight years later, Barack Obama campaigned as the candidate of peace and promised a new birth of freedom. But that did not stop him from bombing seven nations, claiming a right to assassinate American citizens, and championing Orwellian total surveillance.
Mr. Bush was famous for signing statements decrees that nullified hundreds of provisions of laws enacted by Congress. President Obama is renowned for unilaterally and endlessly rewriting laws such as the Affordable Care Act to postpone political backlashes against the Democratic Party and for effectively waiving federal immigration law. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama exploited the state secrets doctrine to shield their most controversial policies from the American public.
While many conservatives applauded Mr. Bushs power grabs, many liberals cheered Mr. Obamas decrees. After 16 years of Bush-Obama, the federal government is far more arbitrary and lethal. Richard Nixons maxim its not illegal if the president does it is the lodestar for commanders in chief in the new century.
There is no reason to expect the next president to be less power hungry than the last two White House occupants. Both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton can be expected to trample the First Amendment. Mr. Trump has talked of shutting down mosques and changing libel laws to make it far more perilous for the media to reveal abuses by the nations elite. Mrs. Clinton was in the forefront of an administration that broke all records for prosecuting leakers and journalists who exposed government abuses. She could smash the remnants of the Freedom of Information Act like her aides hammered her Blackberry phones to obliterate her email trail.
Neither candidate seems to recognize any limit on presidential power. Mr. Trump calls for reviving the brutal interrogation methods of the George W. Bush era. Mrs. Clinton opposes torture but believes presidents have a right to launch wars whenever they decide it is in the national interest. After Mrs. Clinton helped persuade Mr. Obama to bomb Libya in 2011, she signaled that the administration would scorn any congressional cease-and-desist order under the War Powers Act.
If Americans could be confident that either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton would be leashed by the law, there would be less dread about who wins in November. But elections are becoming simply coronations via vote counts. The president will take an oath of office on Inauguration Day, but then can do as he or she pleases.
We now have a political system which is nominally democratic but increasingly authoritarian. The rule oflLaw has been defined down to finding a single federal lawyer to write a secret memo vindicating the presidents latest unpublished executive order.
By the end of the next presidential term, America will have had almost a 20-year stretch of dictatorial democracy. Our rulers disdain for the highest law of the land is torpedoing the citizenrys faith in representative government. Forty percent of registered voters have lost faith in American democracy, according to recent Survey Monkey poll.
The United States may be on the verge of the biggest legitimacy crisis since the Civil War. Whoever wins on Nov. 8 will be profoundly distrusted even before being sworn in. The combination of a widely detested new president and unrestrained power almost guarantees greater crises in the coming years.
Neither Mr. Trump nor Mrs. Clinton are promising to make America constitutional again. But as Thomas Jefferson declared in 1786, An elective despotism was not the government we fought for. If presidents are lawless, then voters are merely designating the most dangerous criminal in the land.
James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy (Palgrave, 2006) and Lost Rights (St. Martins, 1994). | 0 |
Регион: Южная Азия Борьба с терроризмом становится ключевой проблемой для всех стран мира, и то, что к ней было обращено внимание участников 8-го саммита БРИКС, вполне закономерно. Но у Индии был особый интерес заострить на ней внимание после совершенного террористами из радикальной группировки «Джаиш-э-Мохаммад» («Воинство Мухаммеда») нападения на расположение индийского пехотного батальона близ города Ури в 10 км от Линии Коридора в штате Кашмир 18 сентября. Ответственность в гибели 18 своих военнослужащих Индия возложила на Пакистан, который, по её мнению, оказывает поддержку этим террористам. В своем твиттере Раджинат Сингх, министр внутренних дел, охарактеризовал атаку как трансграничное вторжение боевиков, подготовленных и вооруженных Пакистаном, и назвал его «террористическим государством». Выступая на 71-ой сессии Генеральной Ассамблеи ООН, представитель Индии заострил вопрос о поддержке Пакистаном трансграничного терроризма, что имеет не только региональные, но и глобальные последствия. Индия ответила на нападение террористов точечным ударом по их базам на подконтрольной Пакистану части Кашмира, в ходе которого было уничтожено семь укрытий боевиков, ликвидировано более 35 экстремистов. Несмотря на протесты Пакистана, мировая общественность не осудила эти действия Индии. Отношения между странами вышли на новый виток конфронтации, в которой оказались вовлечены и страны БРИКС. Проблема терроризма, поставленная на повестку дня Нарендрой Моди на саммите,(а она требовала осуждения Пакистана) оказалась не такой простой в своем решении, поскольку затрагивала интересы других участников организации, прежде всего России и Китая. Открывая встречу, Н.Моди заявил: «В нашем регионе терроризм представляет большую угрозу для мира, безопасности и развития. Трагично то, что носителем терроризма является страна, расположенная по соседству с Индией. И террор, распространившийся во всем мире, связан с этой «плавучей базой». БРИКС должна единодушно противодействовать этой угрозе». Ещё ранее на встрече G 20 5 сентября Н.Моди призвал к изоляции и наказанию тех, кто спонсирует и поддерживает терроризм. Таким образом, обсуждая проблему терроризма, страны БРИКС де факто должны были ответить на вопрос, кого они поддерживают больше Индию или Пакистан в их борьбе за лидерство в Южной Азии. Несмотря на проведенные незадолго до саммита российско-пакистанские военные учения, Н.Моди решил не только не заострять на этом внимание, но приложил все усилия к тому, чтобы заручиться поддержкой России, которую он назвал (по-русски) «старым другом», и выразил ей признательность за безоговорочное осуждение террористической атаки на армейскую базу в Ури. В Совместном заявлении по итогам визита Президента Российской Федерации В.В.Путина в Республику Индию от 15 октября 2016 г. говорится, что стороны подчеркнули необходимость недопущения возникновения «тихих гаваней» террористов. Хотя такая формулировка носит достаточно расплывчатый характер и не указывает напрямую на Пакистан как на «тихую гавань» террористов, однако Индия осталась ею удовлетворена. Отвечая на вопросы журналистов относительно военных связей между Россией и Пакистаном, первый заместитель министра иностранных дел Индии С.Джайшанкар заявил, что Россия не будет делать ничего, что может навредить интересам Индии. Между Россией и Индией существует полное взаимопонимание. На саммите это нашло конкретное подтверждение в укреплении военно-технического и экономического сотрудничества между странами. Что касается Китая, то его позиция в отношении причастности Пакистана к террористической атаке на Индию была заявлена ещё ранее, когда он заблокировал выдвинутое Индией предложение о включении Масуда Азхара, укрывающегося в Пакистане лидера «Джаиш-э-Мохаммад», в список международных террористов, объявленных ООН вне закона. Индийская сторона считает его ответственным за целый ряд террористических атак на территории страны, включая совершенное 13 декабря 2001 г. нападение на парламент и 2 января 2016 г. – на авиабазу в г. Патханкот. Дело, конечно, не в фигуре Масуда Азхара. Как было официально заявлено, «Китай выступает против всех форм терроризма. Не должно быть двойных стандартов в противодействии терроризму. Но также недопустимо использовать борьбу с терроризмом как предлог для достижения политических целей». Действие КНР продиктовано чисто прагматичными экономическими и политическими соображениями, лежащими в основе её сближения с Пакистаном. В политическом плане Китай стремится использовать Пакистан в качестве геополитического игрока, способного противостоять усилению влияния Индии в Южной Азии, и как связующее звено с исламским миром. Вызывает опасения у китайского руководства и расширение военного сотрудничества между Индией и США, что может негативно сказаться на планах Китая в Индийском океане. В дополнение к геополитическому соперничеству между Китаем и Индией раздражающим фактором в их отношениях является и покровительство, оказываемое Индией Далай-ламе. В экономическом плане Пакистан представляет интерес для Китая в реализации его амбициозной инициативы «Один пояс и одна дорога». И хотя Н.Моди пытался убедить Си Цзиньпина в том, что у Индии и Китая, которые являются «жертвами терроризма», не должно быть различий в подходе к его противодействию, тем не менее китайский лидер в своей 10-минутной речи на саммите, признав растущую угрозу терроризма и осудив все его формы, ограничился заявлением о необходимости укрепления диалога по проблеме безопасности и партнерства в регионе. Позиция Китая по Масуду Азхаре осталась неизменной. Попытки Индии политизировать проблему терроризма на саммите БРИКС в целях политической изоляции Пакистана как страны «предоставляющей убежище для террористов и вооружающей их», не увенчались успехом. Лидеры пятерки сохранили разумный нейтралитет и проявили политическую дальновидность, чтобы не обострять обстановку в Южной Азии, чем могут воспользоваться террористы для активизации своей деятельности. Наталия Рогожина, доктор политических наук, ведущий научный сотрудник ИМЭМО РАН, специально для интернет-журнала «Новое Восточное Обозрение». Популярные статьи | 0 |
We’ve all heard of or read about the many people who, it is said, were murdered on orders of Bill and Hillary Clinton. (See, for example, the website Arkancide .)
But the deaths are the stuff of rumors — until now.
On September 24, 2013, on the Pete Santilli radio show, a former longtime Clinton associate named Larry Nichols admitted that he had killed people as the Clintons’ hit man or murderer-for-hire. I took this screenshot of Larry Nichols from one of his videos uploaded to YouTube in 2009.
Larry Nichols (LN), a self-described former Green Beret, was a longtime associate of Bill Clinton (BC) and served as the marketing director of BC’s Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA), “the best kept secret in Arkansas.” The two men first met in the late 1970s when BC was an up-and-coming politician. Wikipedia has no entry on Arkansas Development Finance Authority except for a brief reference to ADFA as one of the entities investigated by the United States Senate Whitewater Committee , but without identifying or describing what ADFA is. So I did an Internet search for ADFA and discovered that it is actually an agency of the Arkansas State government. The ADFA website describes itself as “ Arkansas’ largest source of low-cost financing for low-to-moderate income housing development, small industries, government, education, agricultural business enterprise & health care.”
On September 24, 2013, Nichols was interviewed by the Pete Santilli radio show for GuerillaMediaNetwork.com. As introduced by Santilli, Nichols “has a lot of inside information on the Clinton crime family.” He published The Clinton Chronicles (a 1990 documentary subtitled “An Investigation Into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton”) on the Clintons’“child trafficking,” Bill’s “sexual escapades,” and how Hillary “spent 30 years covering up Bill Clinton’s sexual and criminal activities.”
Here’s the audio of Nichols’ interview with Santilli:
Larry Nichols’ interview begins at the 1:11:08 mark in the YouTube audio. Here’s my transcription of what Nichols said. LN is Larry Nichols; PS is Pete Santilli.
LN: “I have actually beat up women and beat up husbands to protect the Clintons…. Not only have I killed people for [Bill Clinton], I’ve [never been in] jail.”
PS: “You’ve always been protected by the Clintons.”
Beginning at the 1:11:49 mark, LN says: “But now let’s call a spade a spade. I’ve been all over the world killing people for this country, some deservedly, some not. Ain’t matter to me. Just what I was paid to do…. Ronald Reagan sent me to El Salvadore. I did it for God and country.”
PS asks if, at the time when LN killed for the Clintons, did he do it patriotically, for the common good?
LN: “I didn’t give a shit. Some of these people, like Wayne Damond (?), needed to be dealt with. So I went to the jail, cut his nuts off, put them in a jar, put formaldehyde in it and left it there.”
PS asks what motivated LN in killing for the Clintons.
LN: “Just money. One minute I was doing something for the government, next minute I was doing something for the Clintons. What difference was it?”
PS asks how the Clintons presented “these [murderous] tasks” to LN.
LN: “Whenever I got an F2 call, that meant go and kill. State police are not trained to kill in … the late ’70s, early ’80s. There were no SWAT teams…. I had an F2 call, that meant go in and kill a guy. I didn’t give a shit…. When it [the order to kill] came from the president [Reagan], it was for God and country. When it came from Clinton, hell, I didn’t give a damn. I just go kill somebody, cut his nuts off.”
PS asks if LN was paid to murder.
LN answers that if the Clintons did not pay him, “they’d piss me off and they didn’t want to piss me off.”
At some point, however, the Clintons turned on LN and he had to defend himself. LN says: “I had to [defend myself] because I didn’t have a support group. The media weren’t going to cover it, so if I died, they’d just pour alcohol over me and say I was drunk and crashed on the side of the road.”
PS asks LN what kept him alive.
LN: “I’m a Green Beret. I’m trained … I’m skilled in staying alive. We have one rule: Kill back first. So if they send people to me, I’ll just kill them back first. I don’t ask questions. I deal with it.”
Larry Nichols was also asked about Hillary Clinton’s fitness to be president. His answer: “After the Benghazi debacle, No.”
Nichols claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a friend, told him what we already now know — that the Obama administration had been providing arms for Muslim terrorists in Syria (via Libya). When Netanyahu voiced his objection, the arms supply stopped, which enraged the al-Qaeda-connected terrorists to attack the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
What Nichols doesn’t say (doesn’t know) is that the Obama regime has NOT stopped supplying arms to the Syrian “rebels,” but is actually expanding the CIA’s training of the terrorists .
H/t Dean Garrison and FOTM’s TnRick
See also: | 0 |
A man from Austin, Texas, was arrested for indecent exposure after a resident called the police to report he was “having sex with a fence” outside her window, police said. [A police report reveals that Eleodoro Estala, 32, was seen by a neighbor urinating on the grass but when he saw the neighbor taking video of him with her cell phone he took off his clothing and began thrusting himself into the fence that separates their properties, according to CBS 47. The woman called the police and showed them photos and video of Estala’s actions. He was then arrested for exposure. The neighbor also told police that Estala put his mouth over a fence post and stuck his tongue in and out through a hole in the fence. A police report notes that the suspect appeared intoxicated. He also didn’t cooperate with officers. Estala’s bail was set at $2, 500. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
A former United States Marine who traveled to New Jersey with a gun he legally owned — but which was not registered in New Jersey — is facing three years in prison for firearm law violations. [The three years is the minimum sentence that former Marine Sergeant Hisashi Pompey has to serve before he can even be eligible for parole under New Jersey’s strict gun control laws. ABC 7 reports that Pompey did “three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan for which he received medals for bravery. ” He was a military police sergeant. Six years ago Pompey visited New Jersey and brought his legally owned handgun with him from Virginia. During the course of the night, one of Pompey’s friends got involved in a fight, retrieved the gun, and “carried it into a confrontation with police. ” Police arrested Pompey’s friend then arrested Pompey, as well, for having brought an unregistered handgun into the state. He is now asking Governor Chris Christie (R) to grant him clemency. Pompey said, “Only help I am asking for is from the governor, that’s the only one, everyone from judges to lawyers say the only person who will help me now is the governor. ” Pompey has a wife and children at home, all of whom he will have to leave for a minimum of three years if Christie does not act. In April 2015, Christie pardoned Pennsylvania resident Shaneen Allen, who was arrested in 2013 for carrying a legally owned handgun in her car. Allen even had a Pennsylvania permit to carry the gun, but New Jersey does not recognize Pennsylvania’s permit. On December 23, 2015, Christie pardoned U. S. Marine Joshua Velez, a Massachusetts concealed carry permit holder who was arrested over a year earlier for bringing his 9mm handgun into the state of New Jersey. The pardon said: WHEREAS, Joshua Velez has made a written application to the Governor for a pardon for the aforesaid offenses, and the State Parole Board, upon request of the Governor, in accordance with the law, has made an investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding said application for a Pardon, NOW, THEREFORE, I, CHRIS CHRISTIE, Governor the State of New Jersey, by virtue of the authority conferred upon me by the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and the statutes of this State, do hereby grant Joshua Velez a full and free Pardon for all criminal charges arising from the arrest occurring September 6, 2015, to include the aforesaid crimes, and this Order is applicable solely to said criminal charges and to no other. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 1 |
langues , enfants
En octobre dernier, Bella est devenue célèbre du jour au lendemain grâce au projet Personnes extraordinaires présenté par la chaîne de télévision Rossiya 1. La vidéo dans laquelle la petite fille répond aux questions, chante des chansons et parle dans plusieurs langues a suscité un grand intérêt sur les réseaux sociaux. « Je me sens stupide par rapport à cet enfant » , écrivaient les internautes dans les commentaires.
Ioulia Deviatkina, la mère de Bella, affirme que sa fille n’est pas un enfant prodige, ses parents accordant simplement beaucoup d’attention à son développement. « Les enfants n’ont pas forcément besoin de parler sept langues, mais chaque petit est capable de maîtriser deux ou trois langues » , assure Ioulia.
Les parents de Bella sont conscients que dans la vraie vie, la petite fille n’utilisera pas les sept langues activement : c’est tout simplement impossible. « Quand elle ira à l’école, nous nous concentrerons sur l’anglais, le français et le chinois » , précise la mère de la petite fille.
« Nous n’avons pas peur que Bella s’ennuie en classe non plus. Elle possède les connaissances obligatoires pour tout enfant de quatre ans. Simplement, elle est capable de parler sur ces sujets « enfantins » dans plusieurs langues différentes » . Le gazouillis en français
La mère de la petite fille est linguiste de formation et enseigne l’anglais aux enfants depuis sept ans. Son père travaille à l’Institut de recherche Radio. C’est une famille de classe moyenne. Cependant, pour les parents de Bella, le développement de leur fille est l’investissement le plus important. Окт 18 2016 в 3:35 PDT
Initialement, les parents de Bella voulaient qu’elle parle couramment l’anglais. Ainsi, dès la naissance, sa mère lui parlait en deux langues, les alternant jour après jour. Elle veillait à ce que les langues ne se mélangent pas et interdisait à sa fille d’utiliser des mots russes dans les conversations en anglais.
Quand Bella a eu 10 mois, ses parents ont rajouté le français. Elle ne savait pas parler, mais pouvait montrer du doigt les objets nommés par les adultes. Lire aussi : De jeunes mères russes racontent comment leur enfant a bouleversé leur vie
Bella a appris à lire avant de commencer à parler. Dès l’âge de cinq mois, ses parents lui apprenaient à lire grâces à des cartes spéciales. Par exemple, quand on montrait à Bella, âgée de neuf mois, le mot « main » en russe ou en anglais, elle montrait sa main. Avant l’âge d’un an, la petite fille a appris 60 de ces cartes avec ses parents. Elle a commencéà lire couramment à l’âge de deux ans. Dessins animés en chinois
À deux ans, Bella savait parler avec des phrases courtes et lire avec aisance dans trois langues. Avant l’âge de trois ans, ses parents ont rajouté le chinois au « programme » . Ioulia raconte que la petite fille montrait un grand intérêt pour la nouvelle langue. Elle demandait même qu’on lui mette des dessins animés en chinois . Окт 5 2016 в 5:26 PDT
À l’âge de 3 ans et 2 mois, la petite Bella étudiait volontiers l’espagnol et l’allemand, mais aussi la danse, le violon et le chant . Puis, on a rajouté l’arabe. Bella se promène, joue à cache-cache et lit des livres pour enfants, mais elle le fait en plusieurs langues différentes. Tous ses cours se déroulent sous forme de jeu.
Ses parents organisent des voyages ludiques avec des locuteurs natifs, elle fréquente un club de théâtre en anglais, apprend le dessin en français, la danse en espagnol et suit des cours de patinage avec un locuteur allemand. Par ailleurs, ses parents lui organisent régulièrement des cours collectifs avec des amis qui sont également élevés dans un milieu multilingue. Lire aussi : Le russe, cinquième langue dans les écoles de l’UE Outil de développement du cerveau
Les chercheurs confirment que la capacitéà parler plusieurs langues et de passer de l’une à l’autre dépend de l’interaction entre différentes zones du cerveau. Elles se mettent en marche en fonction des caractéristiques phonétiques de la langue, de son système grammatical, de l’imagerie linguistique et même de la tonalité de la prononciation.
« Chaque nouvelle expérience se reflète dans le cerveau par l’émergence de connexions nerveuses. L’hippocampe, responsable de la mémoire, stimule la croissance de nouveaux neurones. Le volume de certaines zones du cerveau croît littéralement » , explique la psychologue Tatiana Diatchenko. Окт 16 2016 в 1:18 PDT
« Le multilinguisme a une influence positive sur le développement général de l’enfant, même s’il peut provoquer un retard du développement du langage à cette étape, par rapport aux enfants qui n’apprennent qu’une seule langue » , explique Kira Ivanonva, spécialiste de l’Institut de recherches linguistiques auprès de l’Académie russe des sciences.
Cependant, un apprentissage précoce ne garantit pas que l’enfant parlera couramment la langue plus tard. « Je connais une mère qui ne parlait qu’anglais avec son enfant à partir de l’âge de trois ans. Aujourd’hui, ce petit n’est même pas capable de maîtriser le programme d’une école normale, non-spécialisée » , raconte Maria Molina, chercheuse à l’Institut de linguistique auprès de l’Académie russe des sciences. Lire aussi : | 0 |
Donald J. Trump on Tuesday refused to endorse two leading Republicans — the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, and Senator John McCain of Arizona — in their primary election campaigns. Mr. Ryan and Mr. McCain have both endorsed Mr. Trump for president, but they have criticized his denouncement of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. “I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country,” Mr. Trump told The Washington Post. “We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there yet. I’m not quite there yet. ” Mr. Trump had signaled support for Mr. Ryan’s primary opponent, Paul Nehlen, in a Twitter message on Monday night, thanking him for his “kind words. ” The nominee’s “not quite there yet” wording echoed language that Mr. Ryan used in May when he was still wavering on whether to get behind Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump also singled out Mr. McCain, telling The Post: “I’ve never been there with John McCain because I’ve always felt that he should have done a much better job for the vets. ” The comments are a significant break in the steps toward party unity that Republican officials have been stressing since their convention last month. The remarks are also an indication that the party is still struggling to heal some of the wounds from Mr. Trump’s primary campaign. After Khizr Khan rebuked Mr. Trump at the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Trump traded in religious stereotypes by suggesting that Mr. Khan might have prevented his wife from speaking at the event. Mr. Ryan said in a statement on Sunday that he rejected Mr. Trump’s proposed Muslim immigration ban as “not reflective of America’s fundamental values. ” He added: “Many Muslim Americans have served valiantly in our military and made the ultimate sacrifice. Captain Khan was one such brave example. His sacrifice — and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan — should always be honored. Period. ” Mr. McCain followed with a lengthy statement on Monday, saying: “I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers or candidates. ” | 1 |
[Kp note: started writing on 10-29, but posted on 10-30, so I changed the date in the title.]
Not sure what those “things” are yet, but I’m sure they’ll come.
There’s a lot of “something” going on today, at least within me. There was a period of time today when I felt I was walking around in another dimension… definitely not here , fully, at least, and more like in a “dream” or “transparent” type of shape. It actually felt very pleasant, and very much more “at home” than living upon/in this 3D-4D-whatever type physical “world” thing.
I have “stuff” to do, as I walk and move and BE upon this planet… even though I know I AM a BE ing of Light, yet I am here in the physical body, and I (apparently) have accepted that and know I have “physical type” areas in which to “work” (lots of quote marks in there).
This blog will very likely always be a secondary part of my expression here, however, as my DOing and BEing primarily centers on the “Energy work” I feel is mine to do. It is particularly significant that I am in Hawai’i, formerly known as Lemuria, and performing most of the “Energy missions” over here. Somehow the islands feel like fingers of my own hand… and that has been true ever since I first arrived.
I’m not trying to “teach” anything here. Just share the “sense” I have about all this stuff… from my viewpoint… no one else’s.
So why am I writing this particular post? Well, as always, I felt an urgent movement to do so. And I presume I’ll be following or listening to that “movement” for my entire experience here on this planet.
That is all for now.
Aloha, Kp | 0 |
As the rain poured down, a man with a Harry Potter phoenix feather tattoo on his forearm waited patiently on a Brooklyn sidewalk. The man, Robert Saulter, a lawyer in Boston for the United States Air Force, was in New York for the weekend and said he just had to be at Saturday’s midnight party for the latest in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which is actually a play. “It sounds ridiculous that I’m 32 years old and I’m tearing up,” Mr. Saulter said as the BookCourt store in the Cobble Hill neighborhood opened its doors. “But I always felt misunderstood and I feel like if you’ve read the books, you understand the emotional connection you get to Harry, someone who really wanted to do good things with the world and wanted to feel loved. ” Mr. Saulter even named his son, who is 7 months old, Phoenix Harrison, for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth in the series. Mr. Saulter was among nearly 200 people who waited at the store for the script that was written by Jack Thorne and based on a story by Mr. Thorne, John Tiffany and J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series, which led to films and a theme park. The play, which opened in London over the weekend, has already become a critical, commercial and — with the casting of the black actress Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger — controversial hit. It continues where the final book left off, as Harry and his crew send their children to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ms. Rowling has made it clear that “Cursed Child” is not an eighth Harry Potter novel, but the fans do not care. The book topped the 2016 charts for Amazon’s print and Kindle sales, while also becoming Barnes Noble’s top book since “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” in 2007. Scholastic, the publisher in the United States, will not have sales figures until later this week. It has been nearly 20 years since the first book and almost 10 years since the publication of “Deathly Hallows,” what many have considered the final chapter in Ms. Rowling’s story. And Mary Gannett, an owner of BookCourt, said she had not been sure the store should host a party this time. Interest trickled in slowly after the script’s publication was announced in February, Ms. Gannett said, but in the past week, requests for reserved copies nearly doubled. In New York and across the country, Potterheads swarmed bookstores Saturday night and into Sunday morning to celebrate the release, as if they had found the secret winged key that not only let them back into their childhoods but also opened the door to another generation. Judy Stelter, the manager of Book World in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. was expecting a smaller, older audience for the store’s midnight party. Instead, she was greeted by teenagers and young children with their parents, who filled the small store to enjoy cake and chocolate frogs (a treat among wizards). “Look at all the young kids in here,” Ms. Stelter said, standing beside boxes of “Cursed Child. ” “They’re in here for a book that’s in print and on paper, not on an electric device. Once they read like that, they’ll read for life. ” Many fans happily brought family members who were not old enough — or even born yet — for the celebrations of the original series. In Atlanta, Erin Whitlock, 24, brought her brother Liam to a Barnes Noble in the Edgewood neighborhood. “He’s as big a fan as I am, and it’s just really cool to be here tonight because he gets to experience what I grew up with,” Ms. Whitlock said, noting that her brother visits Ms. Rowling’s website Pottermore, where she regularly publishes new stories. “The wizarding world doesn’t stop with the books. It goes with your imagination. ” JillEllyn Riley, 48, a writer and editor who lives in Cobble Hill, perused the novels at BookCourt with her sons, ages 13 and 19, who did not seem to mind the spectacle of their mother dressed as Sybil Trelawney, a professor at Hogwarts. Ms. Riley said she hosted monthly Harry Potter club meetings in the neighborhood with her younger son. “We came here to BookCourt for Book 7, all of us,” she said. “My was 3, and I knew that later he would read the books and wouldn’t be able to go to the midnight releases, but I knew he’d know he had been there once. ” Aubrey Nolan, 25, who planned the evening at BookCourt, said she wanted to keep the activities family friendly. All around her, children sipped cream soda floats they passed off as butterbeer and decorated wands with paint, sequins and string. Others had mug shots taken that resembled the wizards imprisoned at Azkaban. Bookstores around the country embraced the theme, too, with Books of Wonder in Manhattan offering photos with owls (like Harry’s Hedwig) and the Charles Deering Library at Northwestern University outside Chicago refereeing a Quidditch match, a sport played in the series. At the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, nearly 250 people showed up for what was billed as a Hogwarts reunion. And members of the Seattle Shakesbeerience performed the first few scenes from the play with Patrick Lennon — who said the group’s motto is “script in one hand, drink in the other” — as Harry. “I’m in the group that aged along with Harry,” Mr. Lennon, 30, said. “One of the actresses says she’ll probably be crying through it. I might too. ” For some, nothing was more important than getting their hands on the newest edition, even if it meant waiting alone or interrupting a vacation. Annie Grandidge and Travis Dicks, tourists from New Castle, Australia, spent two and a half hours in line at the Barnes Noble on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. And Ashley Johnson, 32, the actress who played Chrissy Seaver in the sitcom “Growing Pains,” recently moved to Brooklyn to work on NBC’s “Blindspot.” She showed up at BookCourt by herself, knowing she would easily make friends with other Potter fans. “I was a little angry that I didn’t read these as I was growing up,” Ms. Johnson said. “I found them in my and I never got to go wait in line for the original books, so to be a part of that I felt like I needed to go do it. We don’t get to do this with a lot of things with how fast the world moves, and to wait in line for a book at midnight feels really special. ” Margaret Piraino, 24, dressed as Nymphadora Tonks, a witch, complete with rainbow hair and jewelry, attended the BookCourt party with her girlfriend, Laurel Detkin, a fellow Potter enthusiast. But this time was different. “I grew up with Harry Potter and it’s been my entire life, and my dad would go to Barnes Noble with me every time there was a new release,” Ms. Piraino, who lives in Brooklyn Heights, said. “And this year, my dad died in January and it’s the first time I had to go on my own. ” In Seattle, Dylan Blanford, 13, donned a long black robe and a yellow tie as a member of Hufflepuff, one of the four houses at Hogwarts, and said he was jealous that he was not at parties for the previous Harry Potter books. He started reading the books at age 5. “I’m excited because there’s still this little jumping around inside of me going, ‘Harry! Harry! Harry!’ And there’s also this jumping around inside of me going, ‘Harry! Harry! Harry! ’” he said. “I’m so excited because it’s not the end, forever, you know?” | 1 |
14 Days to Do 14 Things, If Hillary’s Indicted-Extreme Violence Expected
UPDATE: HILLARY CLINTON IS AGAIN UNDER INVESTIGATION BY THE FBI. IF SHE IS INDICTED, HER PEOPLE WILL UNDOUBTEDLY LAUNCH A CYBER ATTACK ON THE ELECTIONS AND BLAME THE RUSSIANS. HILLARY HAS TIPPED HER HAND MANY TIMES. IF THIS HAPPENS, YOU MUST HASTEN YOUR PREPARATIONS. IF HILLARY SKATES, AGAIN, WE STILL ONLY HAVE A SHORT WINDOW TO ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE. PLEASE PREPARE NOW!
The Common Sense Show issued an alert yesterday with regard to the likelihood of widespread violence, regardless of who wins the election. The violence may not be dramatic on November, but I believe that a crescendo will be reached by the holidays. There are literally dozens of troop movements and a number of martial law events taking place as I write these words. The bottom line is, half of the country hates the other half of the country and pressure valve is ready to blow. And if Trump wins, the violence factor will escalate exponentially as evidenced by the firebombed GOP building in North Carolina.
When these events come to fruition, it could potentially paralyze this nation and bring the economy to a standstill. Subsequently, the grocery store shelves could be empty within two days and food riots would likely commence by sundown of the second day. All Americans would instantly be in danger. Local law enforcement would be overwhelmed. What would be your chances of survival? Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that FEMA has conducted research studies on America’s level of preparedness and the news is not good. FEMA concluded that 72% of all Americans are not prepared to survive what is coming In other words, when society begins to fragment, you and your fellow preppers are outnumbered by a 3 to 1 margin.
Are you prepared for 3 out of 4 of your neighbors climbing through your windows in search of life-saving supplies? The FEMA Preparedness Reports
In response to concerns about strengthening the nation’s ability to protect its population and way of life (i.e., security) and ability to adapt and recover from emergencies (i.e., resilience), the President of the United States issued Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness (PPD-8).
PPD-8 is a directive for the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate a comprehensive campaign to encourage Americans to practice national preparedness. Despite efforts by FEMA and other organizations to educate American citizens on becoming prepared, growth in specific preparedness behaviors has been limited. Government programs to this end are nearly nonexistent.
I have spent the past week illustrating how a coming economic collapse is unavoidable and how the elite have conspired to steal as many of your assets as possible prior to the collapse. This article presents some common sense things one can do which could increase the chances of surviving a major societal meltdown resulting from an economic collapse. If you have any doubts as to what is coming, I strongly encourage you to read what I have written about on this topic over the past several months. Even Ray Charles could see that our economy will not be around much longer in its present form.
It is always best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. For the purposes of this article, it is possible that society will not totally collapse even if the dollar does. However, large segments of societies always collapse when an economic collapse happens. Surviving the worst case scenario is the purpose behind what will be covered here. We have about 14 days to do the following 14 things: 1. The Creation of a Pseudo-Identity
It may be necessary to become invisible in the event you think you believe that your name could be on a (Red) list because roundups will usually occur in dire situations. Therefore, the creation of a pseudo-identity could become very important. 2. It Takes Money to Prepare If you have read the articles at the above links, you should have concluded that it is the height of stupidity to leave your life savings in an institution that is planning to steal from you. You need to divert your cash, other than the ability to pay basic bills, in preparation for what is coming.
Getting your money out of the bank has become an art form and you need to be careful. There is a barrier to your ability to procure some of these life-saving and life-extending supplies. Right now, you do not have full access to your money.
As you move to withdraw the bulk of your money, there are three federal banking laws that you should be cognizant of, namely, Cash Transaction Report (CTR), a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) and structuring. Cash Transaction Reports
Federal law requires that the bank file a report based upon any withdrawal or deposit of $10,000 or more on any single given day.The law was designed to put a damper on money laundering, sophisticated counterfeiting and other federal crimes.
To remain in compliance with the law, financial institutions must obtain personal identification, information about the transaction and the social security number of the person conducting the transaction.
Before proceeding with the planned withdrawal of your money, I would strongly suggest that you read the following federal guidelines as it relates to CTR’s as produced by the The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). All the federal regulations contained in this article are elucidated in this series of federal reports. Structuring and SAR
There will undoubtedly be some geniuses whose math ability will tell them that all they have to do is to withdraw $9,999.99 and the bank and its protector, the federal government will be none the wiser. It is not quite that simple. The bank is required to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) which serves to notify the federal government of an individual’s attempt to structure deposits or withdrawals by circumventing the $10,000 reporting requirement.
Structuring transactions to prevent a CTR from being reported can result in imprisonment for not more than five years and/or a fine of up to $250,000. If structuring involves more than $100,000 in a twelve month period or is performed while violating another law of the federal government, the penalty is doubled. Enforcement
Much like the enforcement of our tax laws, the federal government’s enforcement of its banking laws as it relates to CTR’s, SAR’s and subsequent structuring is quite draconian. Civilian asset forfeiture laws come into play. The government can seize your bank accounts while it determines if a crime has been committed. The government can literally seize your assets in perpetuity without an order of the court. Of course, you could try and sue but you will be up against the deep pockets of the federal government and the case could take years. By the time your case is decided, the financial banking crisis that you are so desperately trying to avoid by withdrawing your money, could be over. So, proceed with caution. Withdrawing Your Money From the Bank
The best way to avoid getting your money caught in the bank in the midst of a bank run would be to not let the lion’s share of your money ever cross the bank. The simplest way to accomplish this is to prevent any form of deposit from going automatically into your account, as much as it is possible.
Secondly, you need to begin to pay cash for everything. Let’s say that every 30 days, Bob cashes his check at the bank from his work worth $5,000 net pay. Bob leaves just enough in the bank to be able to conduct normal banking business. Bob walks out of the bank every month with the majority of the cash from his check. Bob should begin to pay cash for as much as he can, such as eating out, paying the electric bill (pay the bill in person), buying groceries, etc. When it becomes necessary to make a “big ticket” purchase, Bob could temporarily leave more in the bank to cover the writing of a check.
You would also be wise to open multiple banking accounts ranging from the big five megabanks to your local credit unions. You could withdraw much smaller amounts until the sum total of your accounts is greatly diminished and is in your possession. To open the accounts, simply write a personal check from your home bank. Of course, in these cases, the bank could hold the check for 15-30 days.
I cannot promise you that if you become the target of federal investigators, that you will not have your every financial move scrutinized and the feds will eventually discover the aggregate patterns of withdrawal. People who I interviewed told me that they believe that the federal government is in the process of getting the banking computers to “talk” to each other in a way that would reveal structuring, but that technology is not yet online. If you ever become the target of a federal investigation, do not, under any circumstances, allow yourself to be interviewed by federal officials without an attorney present. In many cases, people go to jail and pay huge fines, not because they have committed a federal crime, but because federal officials state that they have lied or misled them. And if you do not have an attorney present, it is your word versus the federal government.
There are other sources besides banks that you can tap into for money which can be used to prepare for what is coming. 4o1K’s, IRA, et al
If you were 100% convinced of an imminent crash, you would be foolish not to take your money out. However, the prepayment penalty of 50% is steep if you withdraw your funds before you are 59.5 years old.
If you are retiring soon, take the lump sum option and convert all of these retirement monies to survival supplies and gold which you will need as the world emerges from the crash.
The moral of the story is to become as liquid as possible, from a cash perspective. Getting access to your money is only the first part of being prepared to survive an economic crash. 3. Make a List
Buy a good prepper book. Holly Deyo is an excellent source for this information (www.standdeyo.com). In the interim, procure your food, water, guns, ammo and home security adjustments. If you do not have a big dog, consider obtaining a pair. These animals will be your companion, home security system and ally if someone attempts to breach your home with bad intent. Of course, you will have to store dog food as well.
Sit down and construct a list of what you will need after reading a good prepper book.
Make all of you purchases in cash! You do not want to let the wrong people know what you are up to.
4. Rural Vs. Urban We have to live our lives for today and it may not be possible to move to a rural area because of your job. However, one survivalist that I was speaking with estimates that the rate of survival for a country in economic chaos would be 10 times higher for rural residents as opposed to urban residents. Consider buying a place in an isolated area and commuting to work in the interim. 5. Pay Off Your Mortgage and Car Loans
If you have a CD, a 401k or any other long-term investment, you might want to consider taking the penalty and executing a withdrawal and apply what’s left of the principal, usually about 50% of the original value, and paying down your major debts.
After an economic collapse, you most likely will not have a job and your retirement and savings will likely be wiped out and confiscated. That is why it would be wise to pay down your debt while you can afford to do so because after the collapse, there will still be foreclosures and repossessions and if you and your family survive, you could be on the street if you cannot pay your bills.
6. Buy Gold and Silver While You Can Afford It
Goldman Sachs has been shorting gold. The elite have been hording gold as have the BRICS. These entities are telling you, by action, what medium of exchange is going to be of value following the collapse that is coming.
Storing gold and silver is an economic survival strategy which will pay dividends after the smoke begins to clear in the post-collapse era.
7. Practice Austerity Before Austerity Is Imposed On You
It is critical to immediately eliminate all unnecessary expenses. Give yourself some operating capital. You may be able to purchase a bug-out residence in a rural area. You will certainly be able to afford more survival gear.
In order to increase your immediate cash flow, start an at-home business. Start a business which has virtually no upfront and startup costs. Even if you are not able to generate much income, you will create a legal tax evasion strategy in which you can legally deduct many of your present activities and expenses (e.g. mileage, the purchase of any office supply, etc.) including survival gear.
8. Create and Store Your Own Food
With regard to storing food, you need to do so immediately. I recommend storing two years worth of food. However, you need to master the art of growing food inside your home. There are plenty of resources which can teach you how to do that. However, you would be wise if you would create a hiding place in which you can store food and water safely in a hidden location . If you are ever robbed, you will not have exhausted your food supplies. You are most likely to be robbed by FEMA or one of their mercenary groups (e.g. Academia) during the beginning of the crisis because food and water will be used as weapons to control you. I am personally aware of FEMA going to selected homeowners to catalogue their reserve food and water supplies. Remember, water is sunlight and temperature sensitive. There are plenty of prepper manuals that you can consult for instructions on how to meet these needs. The time to do these things is yesterday.
The biggest threat to survival is death due to dehydration and starving to death. Contaminated water will also pose a threat. There are plenty of places to purchase large drums and obtain water tablets for water purification purposes. Obtain a pair of water filters in case you have to go mobile to survive.
Finally, learn to grow your own food within your residence. Your garden will likely be raided by humans and hungry animals alike. There are plenty of prepper manuals which can teach you how to accomplish this task. 9. Personal Supplies Of course you will need toothpaste, toiletries, eating utensils, feminine hygiene supplies, etc. For a complete list of personal items see Steve Quayles list on his website .
10. Horde Medicines and Medical Supplies
If you or your family has a chronic health condition, it is critical that you have 6 months to a year in medicine. Also, you should research natural alternatives to treatment for health conditions in case you are not able to meet this goal due to the inability to obtain prescriptions. Don’t forget to obtain some pain medication and antibiotics in case of unforeseen emergencies. Make a trip to Mexico and sneak across medication in old pill bottles in order to escape detection by the Border Patrol who will ask you if you obtained medication in Mexico when you come back across the border.
If you can safely ration your existing medication doses, do so and store the excesses. Make sure you also have a first aid kit. Take a First Aid class including CPR at your local fire station.
Some are thinking that this is a lot of work. My response would be, how bad do you want you and your family to survive? 11. Guns and Ammunition
Regardless of your moral convictions, ask yourself if you want your family to survive.
Buy your guns off the books from private parties and at gun shows. “Keep guns for show and guns for go”. In other words, have a safe location that you can bury guns so that when gun confiscation begins, you will not be left totally defenseless.
America needs to not only create safe and secure homes, but to create as many Warsaw ghettos as possible (look it up). We need to make ourselves a hard country to conquer and occupy. We cannot stop a treasonous leader from handing off the country to some foreign entity (e.g. the UN). However, occupation of America should be problematic for the blue-helmet wearing Russians, Chinese and other proxy forces training on our soil to occupy us.
It is recommended that you have 3 types of weapons: (1) pistols for close in fighting; (2) shotguns for defense of the entrance to your home; and, (3) a rifle with a scope in order to fight back against long-range snipers that do not want to storm your home because you appear to be prepared. Immediately, obtain weapons instruction for you and your family, firearms training and then practice! Conduct mock raids on your residence so that you can see your vulnerabilities. An armed populace makes a people more feared by an abusive government.
Do not forget about gas masks for each member of your family and make sure to store extras. If you have the means to obtain body armor, do so now, because Congress is preparing to outlaw the private use of body armor.
12. Prepare to Survive in the Raw Elements and Build a Way of Life
It is possible that you can learn to survive in the raw elements without heating and central air conditioning. You may not have lights. Obtain flashlights, many batteries and a hand crank radio.
Make sure you have clothes befitting all weather that you may encounter because a crisis that begins in January, may not be over by August.
Take a weekend and pretend the grid is down. This will allow you to see firsthand what supplies you will need. When should you perform this drill? There is no time like the present.
To people with generators, congratulations on your foresight. However, if you are the only house on the block with lights, how long do you think it will be until you have unwanted visitors with bad intent?
Get in shape, begin to walk, jog or run. The better shape you are in, the better.
Don’t forget about procuring non-electronic forms of entertainment. This should include board games and educational materials for your children. You will want to establish some normalcy for the sake of your children. You are preparing to adopt a new way of life. Make the new life worth living.
I would also recommend that every personal library contain The Constitution of the United States. After the chaos subsides, we will need to rebuild. You will not want to live in a “might makes right” society. 13. For Goodness Sake, Do Not Tell Anyone
If your four adjacent neighbors broach the topic of preparedness, gauge the situation and then make an informed decision. If your neighbors are on board with preparing, that will help you form a defensive perimeter and a mutual alliance pact. Otherwise, tell nobody of your preparation plans. Do not tell your friends, family members, and co-workers. Make your preparations in cash or cashier’s checks as much as possible. Limit the paper trail to you. You do not want the government to know that you are prepared because you could be the first one on your block that is visited at 3AM. You and your mate should prepare in stealth. Kids talk and so do their friends. 14. PRAY! Survival is never guaranteed, salvation is! And do not forget one of your most important resources, your Bible. In a post-collapse America, it is likely that a religion will be forced upon the survivors and that religion will not be Christianity. Conclusion
In an upside-down world in which the banks legally own your money, getting your money away from these criminal banks has become an art form. I cannot promise you that you will be able to retrieve all of your assets. However, I can promise you that if you do not act, you will lose everything and you will lack needed supplies to weather what is coming.
I would strongly suggest that you keep your gas tank filled and you have plenty of cash, food and ammunition on hand. It is better to be safe than sorry.
Breaking News: FBI Investigation Reopens The elite may be pulling their support for Hillary. She is, again, under investigation by the FBI. IF her plug is pulled, the violence may come sooner than we anticipated- Get to work America, we do not have long. | 0 |
Let’s just get this out of the way, shall we? Ayelet Waldman: intemperate tweeter, guerrilla oversharer, provocateur, literary exhibitionist, cyclone of sass. When The New York Times Book Review didn’t select her novel “Love and Treasure” as one of its 100 Notable Books of 2014, she unleashed a tweetstorm of hurt. ( excerpt: “there are MANY books on that notable list with reviews that were NOWHERE near as good as mine. ”) When she announced in a 2005 essay that she loved her husband, the novelist Michael Chabon, more than she loved her children, outraged mothers everywhere clucked and and when she expressed surprise, the chorus came back — Well, what on earth did you expect? But here’s my question for those who sneer at or her new memoir about the possible therapeutic value of LSD, “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life”: What on earth did you expect? Here is the truth about Ms. Waldman, which complicates matters for those who don’t like her: She has spent many years struggling with punishing, ungovernable moods. Originally, doctors told her she had bipolar II disorder years later, a psychiatrist decided premenstrual dysphoric disorder more closely corresponded with her symptoms, and Ms. Waldman agreed. But whatever it’s called, hers is not a mood disorder of the quiet, novelistic variety. It’s big and operatic, often driving her to do the very things for which she’s been publicly shamed: acting out, picking fights, trawling for affirmation. Just because she doesn’t have a picturesque version of melancholy doesn’t make it any less real or any less deserving of compassion. And after reading “A Really Good Day,” you understand just why Ms. Waldman might have been willing to experiment to find relief. She’d exhausted her family. She’d exhausted all manner of therapies. And she’d exhausted just about every drug in the pharmacopoeia — including the ones that sound like Spanish dances (Cymbalta, Strattera, Concerta) the ones that look like typing tests (Zoloft, Effexor, Seroquel) and the ones that could well be craters on the moon (Valium, Ambien, Lunesta). Her Ambien dependence proved particularly problematic. When she took too much, she’d have text exchanges with Mr. Chabon that looked like this: Hence Ms. Waldman’s trial with LSD — 10 micrograms every three days. A microdose, as she explains, is anywhere from to of what one would find on a tab of acid. It doesn’t turn the world into a bubbling lava lamp. This dosage, taken at this rate, is “” according to the psychologist and former psychedelic researcher James Fadiman. Mr. Fadiman’s (admittedly informal, nonrandomized) research suggests that people who follow this protocol simply feel … better. Ms. Waldman wanted to know what something as luxuriously pedestrian as “better” was like. “A Really Good Day” is a captain’s log of her trip. It combines daily reports of her moods with the research she’s done about the history of psychedelics and her extended meditations on drugs and the law. (Before becoming a writer, Ms. Waldman was a federal public defender.) And what does she find? That the experience really is transformative. “You’ve been much happier,” her younger daughter tells her. “You’ve been controlling your emotions. Like, when you’re angry, you’re . ” The reader doesn’t have quite as uniformly positive an experience. Part of the problem is aesthetic: Ms. Waldman has a tendency to slide into the prefab language of psychotherapy or . (“It is suddenly so obvious that what I need to do is just get out of my own way. ”) Her sense of humor can be unsubtle. (On the weak magic mushrooms she once tried in college: “It’s possible that all I ate was a handful of dried shiitakes dipped in cow manure. ”) She’s a fan of extended metaphors, and almost no one should be a fan of extended metaphors. They involve beating a dead horse, converting it to glue, and then discovering the glue doesn’t work. If you see what I mean. And her observations can be trite. Her anxious while meditating — “Now you’re thinking about thinking! Stop berating yourself for thinking!” — will surprise exactly no one. But then Ms. Waldman will capture you with genuinely brave and human moments, like when she confesses that she yells at people because she enjoys it. Or when she says her talents aren’t considerable enough to earn her a great artist’s tempestuous mood swings. Or expresses guilt that her oldest child has had to bear the brunt of her anger and depression. Her reminiscences about her time defending poor, defenseless clients in Los Angeles are riveting. I am not sure they belong in this book — especially when she talks about the unfairness of our sentencing guidelines (I mean, agreed, but this is neither the time nor the place for ) — but I’d love to see an independent memoir about her legal work one day. Ms. Waldman’s survey of the history and literature of psychotropic drugs is informative, though it can also, on occasion, be too sloppy and loose. She casually drops the phrase “Alzheimer’ benzos” (short for benzodiazepines, that class of drugs including Valium and Xanax) without so much as a footnote, and this claim is hardly settled science. She writes that Francis Crick “reportedly” experimented with LSD when he envisioned the double helix, and then takes it back in a footnote. “Couldn’t we just pretend it’s true?” she asks. No, we can’t. There are other uncareful moments of this kind, and other undocumented declarations. I mention them not to be picayune, but because writing about drug research is a delicate business, requiring a certain amount of control in one’s voice. You really don’t want readers doubting your authority when you’re making an argument in favor of a maligned and illegal substance. But it’s an argument that needs to be made. As she did with her 2009 essay collection, “Bad Mother,” which decriminalized ordinary mommy infractions and helped bring a sense of proportion to the messy enterprise of parenting, Ms. Waldman brings a huge dose of compassion and, yes, good sense to “A Really Good Day. ” Whatever her foibles or stylistic lapses, she makes a persuasive case for the therapeutic use of psychedelics. (Want to be inspired? Read the research on the effects of hallucinogens on dying cancer patients.) As ever, Ms. Waldman is wielding her powers of provocation to goad us into an uncomfortable but necessary conversation. Quibble with her style, her methods, her desire to attract attention. In normalizing the conversation about LSD, she may one day help others feel normal. | 1 |
Russia’s super secret spy submarine returns to sea…. AFTER 16 YEARS. Tweet
Earlier this month, a Russian ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) called Podmoskovie slipped out of its pier at Severodvinsk for the first time in 16 years.
But BS-64 Podmoskovie—which was commissioned in 1986 as a Project 667BDRM Delfin-class (NATO: Delta IV) SSBN designated K-64—is no ordinary boomer. Over the course of nearly two decades, the massive submarine was modified to conduct special missions. But exactly what those missions might be remains somewhat of a mystery.
Podmoskovie was photographed leaving the shipyard for contractor sea trials on Oct. 22 by Oleg Kuleshov, who writes for the BMPD blog—a product of the Moscow-based Centre for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. | 0 |
For nearly two decades, Bill O’Reilly has been Fox News’s top asset, building the No. 1 program in cable news for a network that has pulled in billions of dollars in revenues for its parent company, 21st Century Fox. Behind the scenes, the company has repeatedly stood by Mr. O’Reilly as he faced a series of allegations of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior. An investigation by The New York Times has found a total of five women who have received payouts from either Mr. O’Reilly or the company in exchange for agreeing to not pursue litigation or speak about their accusations against him. The agreements totaled about $13 million. Two settlements came after the network’s former chairman, Roger Ailes, was dismissed last summer in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, when the company said it did not tolerate behavior that “disrespects women or contributes to an uncomfortable work environment. ” The women who made allegations against Mr. O’Reilly either worked for him or appeared on his show. They have complained about a wide range of behavior, including verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded as if Mr. O’Reilly was masturbating, according to documents and interviews. The reporting suggests a pattern: As an influential figure in the newsroom, Mr. O’Reilly would create a bond with some women by offering advice and promising to help them professionally. He then would pursue sexual relationships with them, causing some to fear that if they rebuffed him, their careers would stall. Of the five settlements, two were previously known — one for about $9 million in 2004 with a producer, and another struck last year with a former personality, which The Times reported on in January. The Times has learned new details related to those cases. The three other settlements were uncovered by The Times. Two involved sexual harassment claims against Mr. O’Reilly, and the other was for verbal abuse related to an episode in which he berated a young producer in front of newsroom colleagues. Besides the women who reached settlements, two other women have spoken of inappropriate behavior by the host. A former regular guest on his show, Wendy Walsh, told The Times that after she rebuffed an advance from him he didn’t follow through on a verbal offer to secure her a lucrative position at the network. And a former Fox News host named Andrea Tantaros said Mr. O’Reilly sexually harassed her in a lawsuit she filed last summer against the network and Mr. Ailes. Representatives for 21st Century Fox would not discuss specific accusations against Mr. O’Reilly, but in a written statement to The Times the company acknowledged it had addressed the issue with him. “21st Century Fox takes matters of workplace behavior very seriously,” the statement said. “Notwithstanding the fact that no current or former Fox News employee ever took advantage of the 21st Century Fox hotline to raise a concern about Bill O’Reilly, even anonymously, we have looked into these matters over the last few months and discussed them with Mr. O’Reilly. While he denies the merits of these claims, Mr. O’Reilly has resolved those he regarded as his personal responsibility. Mr. O’Reilly is fully committed to supporting our efforts to improve the environment for all our employees at Fox News. ” According to legal experts, companies occasionally settle disputes that they believe have little merit because it is less risky than taking the matters to trial, which can be costly and create a string of embarrassing headlines. The revelations about Mr. O’Reilly, 67, come after sexual harassment accusations against Mr. Ailes led to an internal investigation that found women at Fox News faced harassment. Current and former Fox News employees told The Times that they feared making complaints to network executives or the human resources department. Mr. Ailes, who has denied the allegations against him, received $40 million as part of his exit package. The company has reached settlements with at least six women who accused Mr. Ailes of sexual harassment, according to a person briefed on the agreements. At the time of Mr. Ailes’s departure, 21st Century Fox’s top executives, James and Lachlan Murdoch, the sons of the executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, said the company was committed to “maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect. ” Since then, the company has struck two settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly, and learned of one Mr. O’Reilly reached secretly in 2011. The company declined to answer questions about whether Mr. O’Reilly had ever been disciplined. Mr. O’Reilly has thrived since joining Fox News in 1996. He earns an annual salary of about $18 million as the host of “The O’Reilly Factor. ” Every weeknight at 8 p. m. he presents a pugnacious, viewpoint and a fervent strain of patriotism that appeals to conservative viewers. His value to the company is enormous. From 2014 through 2016, the show generated more than $446 million in advertising revenues, according to the research firm Kantar Media. This is a sensitive time for Fox News as it continues to deal with the fallout of the Ailes scandal. The network is facing an investigation by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is looking into how the company structured settlements. Fox News has said that neither it nor 21st Century Fox has received a subpoena but that they have “been in communication with the U. S. attorney’s office for months. ” Details on the allegations against Mr. O’Reilly and the company’s handling of them are based on more than five dozen interviews with current and former employees of Fox News and its former and current parent companies, News Corporation and 21st Century Fox representatives for the network and people close to Mr. O’Reilly and the women. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing confidentiality agreements and fear of retaliation. The Times also examined more than 100 pages of documents and court filings related to the complaints. Ms. Walsh, the former guest on Mr. O’Reilly’s show, said his offer to make her a contributor never materialized after she declined an invitation to go to his hotel suite after a dinner in 2013. “I feel bad that some of these old guys are using mating strategies that were acceptable in the 1950s and are not acceptable now,” she said. “I hope young men can learn from this. ” She said romantic relationships at the workplace “should never happen when there is an imbalance of power and colleagues shouldn’t unwittingly be manipulated into obtaining sex for somebody. ” Just over a week ago, Mr. O’Reilly hired the crisis communications expert Mark Fabiani — who worked in the Clinton White House — to respond to The Times. In a statement, Mr. O’Reilly suggested that his prominence made him a target. “Just like other prominent and controversial people,” the statement read, “I’m vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity. In my more than 20 years at Fox News Channel, no one has ever filed a complaint about me with the Human Resources Department, even on the anonymous hotline. “But most importantly, I’m a father who cares deeply for my children and who would do anything to avoid hurting them in any way. And so I have put to rest any controversies to spare my children. “The worst part of my job is being a target for those who would harm me and my employer, the Fox News Channel. Those of us in the arena are constantly at risk, as are our families and children. My primary efforts will continue to be to put forth an honest TV program and to protect those close to me. ” Fredric S. Newman, a lawyer for Mr. O’Reilly, said in a statement Friday evening, “We are now seriously considering legal action to defend Mr. O’Reilly’s reputation. ” Fox News has been aware of complaints about inappropriate behavior by Mr. O’Reilly since at least 2002, when Mr. O’Reilly stormed into the newsroom and screamed at a young producer, according to current and former employees, some of whom witnessed the incident. Shortly thereafter, the woman, Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, left the network with a payout and bound by a confidentiality agreement, people familiar with the deal said. The exact amount she was paid is not known, but it was far less than the other settlements. The case did not involve sexual harassment. Two years later, allegations about Mr. O’Reilly entered the public arena in lurid fashion when a producer on his show, Andrea Mackris, then 33, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him. In the suit, she said he had told her to buy a vibrator, called her at times when it sounded as if he was masturbating and described sexual fantasies involving her. Ms. Mackris had recorded some of the conversations, people familiar with the case said. Ms. Mackris also said in the suit that Mr. O’Reilly, who was married at the time (he and his wife divorced in 2011) threatened her, saying he would make any woman who complained about his behavior “pay so dearly that she’ll wish she’d never been born. ” Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly adopted an aggressive strategy that served as a stark warning of what could happen to women if they came forward with complaints, current and former employees told The Times. Before Ms. Mackris even filed suit, Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly surprised her with a suit of their own, asserting she was seeking to extort $60 million in return for not going public with “scandalous and scurrilous” claims about him. “This is the single most evil thing I have ever experienced, and I have seen a lot,” he said on his show the day both suits were filed. “But these people picked the wrong guy. ” A public relations firm was hired to help shape the narrative in Mr. O’Reilly’s favor, and the private investigator Bo Dietl was retained to dig up information on Ms. Mackris. The goal was to depict her as a promiscuous woman, deeply in debt, who was trying to shake down Mr. O’Reilly, according to people briefed on the strategy. Several unflattering stories about her appeared in the tabloids. After two weeks of sensational headlines, the two sides settled, and Mr. O’Reilly agreed to pay Ms. Mackris about $9 million, according to people briefed on the agreement. The parties agreed to issue a public statement that “no wrongdoing whatsoever” had occurred. In the years that followed, Mr. O’Reilly and Fox News dealt with sexual harassment allegations in private, striking agreements with three more women. In 2011, Rebecca Gomez Diamond, who had hosted a show on the Fox Business Network — also supervised by Mr. Ailes — was told the network was not renewing her contract. Similar to Ms. Mackris, she had recorded conversations with Mr. O’Reilly, according to people familiar with the case. Armed with the recordings, her lawyers went to the company and outlined her complaints against him. Ms. Diamond left the network, bound by a confidentiality agreement, and Mr. O’Reilly paid the settlement, two of the people said. The exact amount of the payout is not known. Although that deal was made nearly six years ago, Fox News’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, learned of it only in late 2016 when it conducted an investigation into Fox News under Mr. Ailes’s tenure, according to another person familiar with the matter. In the aftermath of Mr. Ailes’s ouster last summer, as 21st Century Fox was completing settlements and trying to put the scandal behind it, it reached deals with two women who had complained about sexual harassment by Mr. O’Reilly. One was Laurie Dhue, a Fox News anchor from 2000 to 2008. Though Ms. Dhue had not raised sexual harassment issues during her tenure or upon her departure, her lawyers went to the company to outline her harassment claims against Mr. O’Reilly and Mr. Ailes, according to people briefed on the complaints. In response, 21st Century Fox reached a settlement with her for over $1 million, according to a person briefed on the agreement. In September, 21st Century Fox reached a settlement worth $1. 6 million with Juliet Huddy, who had made regular appearances on Mr. O’Reilly’s show, according to people familiar with the matter. Ms. Huddy’s lawyers had told the company that Mr. O’Reilly pursued a sexual relationship in 2011, at a time he exerted significant influence over her airtime. Among Ms. Huddy’s complaints was that he made inappropriate phone calls, the lawyers said in correspondence obtained by The Times. The letter said that when he tried to kiss her, she pulled away and fell to the ground and he didn’t help her up. When she rebuffed him, he tried to blunt her career prospects, the letter said. Ms. Huddy was eventually moved to an early morning show on WNYW, an affiliate station, where she worked until she left the company in September. Before Ms. Huddy reached an agreement with 21st Century Fox, Mr. Newman, Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyer, sent a letter to her lawyer outlining some embarrassing personal issues he said Ms. Huddy had. He stated that she would “face significant credibility concerns if she tries to pursue a claim against Mr. O’Reilly. ” The letter, which was obtained by The Times, said that if she were to follow through with a claim against Mr. O’Reilly, he would pursue legal action “to hold Ms. Huddy, and all who have assisted her, personally liable for any damage suffered by him or his family. ” In January, when The Times and others reported on Ms. Huddy’s settlement, representatives for Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly dismissed the allegations. Fox News is now in a legal battle with Ms. Tantaros, the former personality who is suing the network and Mr. Ailes after turning down a settlement offer of nearly $1 million. Mr. O’Reilly is not a defendant, but in the suit Ms. Tantaros said that in early 2016 Mr. O’Reilly had asked “her to come to stay with him on Long Island where it would be ‘very private,’” and told her “on more than one occasion that he could ‘see [her] as a wild girl,’” according to court documents. In an affidavit filed under oath, Ms. Tantaros’s psychologist, Michele Berdy, who treated her from 2013 to 2016, said she recalled “a number of occasions when Andrea complained to me about recurring unwanted advances from Bill O’Reilly. ” Fox News said it investigated Ms. Tantaros’s claims and found them baseless. The company explained her departure by saying she published a book that violated company policy. In court papers, the network said that she “is not a victim she is an opportunist” and that her allegations bore “all the hallmarks of the wannabe. ” Ms. Walsh, the former guest on “The O’Reilly Factor,” told The Times she was propositioned by Mr. O’Reilly in 2013 but did not lodge a complaint because she did not want to harm her career prospects. Ms. Walsh said that she met Mr. O’Reilly for a dinner, arranged by his secretary, at the restaurant in the Hotel in Los Angeles. During the dinner, she said, he told her he was friends with Mr. Ailes, and promised to make her a network contributor — a job that can pay several hundred thousand dollars a year. After dinner, she said, Mr. O’Reilly invited her to his hotel suite. Ms. Walsh said she declined. Trying to remain cordial, she suggested that they go to the hotel bar instead. Once there, she said, he became hostile, telling her that she could forget any career advice he had given her and that she was on her own. He also told her that her black leather purse was ugly. Ms. Walsh continued to appear on his show for about four months, but she said she sensed that he had become cold toward her on camera. Then, a producer for “The O’Reilly Factor” told Ms. Walsh that she would no longer appear on the show. She was never made a contributor. “I knew my hopes of a career at Fox News were in jeopardy after that evening,” said Ms. Walsh, now an adjunct professor of psychology at California State University, Channel Islands, and a radio host at KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles. A person briefed on the network’s decision said that Ms. Walsh was removed from the broadcast because the program’s ratings declined during her segments. Ms. Mackris, the producer who sued Mr. O’Reilly in 2004, never worked in television news again. In the years after the dispute, she suffered from stress and spent years seeing a therapist, struggling to figure out how to create a new life, according to interviews with people close to her at the time. Ms. Mackris’s settlement prevents her from talking about Fox News and her dispute with Mr. O’Reilly, according to people briefed on the deal. But she is allowed to talk about her life now. Today, Ms. Mackris lives with her cats in an condo in her hometown, St. Louis, where she keeps bowls of colorful gumballs on tabletops. Her family is close by. She has traveled the world, volunteered, returned to school, discovered prayer and meditation, and started writing. She is working on a book she researched and wrote over the past four years about a woman who fled Romania during World War II. “A few years ago, I heard about a pair of natural pearl earrings forgotten in a drawer for 35 years that had just sold for millions at auction,” Ms. Mackris said. “They’d been given to a woman named Elena Lupescu by the king of Romania who ruled up until World War II, and I was immediately and completely taken by her story. ” “She lived in exile,” Ms. Mackris continued. “She lived in silence. And I got really curious about three things: How did she live with it all? Did she forgive them? And was she free?” At Fox News, Mr. O’Reilly has continued his dominance. In the months since the presidential election, as the network has pulled in record ratings, his show has averaged 3. 9 million viewers a night, according to Nielsen. Since September, he has released three books, including one for children, adding to his growing publishing empire. And in February, Mr. O’Reilly landed a coveted interview with President Trump before the Super Bowl. Mr. O’Reilly was an early defender of Mr. Ailes and Fox News during that sexual harassment scandal last summer. His support remained resolute into the fall, after the company had reached agreements to settle the harassment claims from Ms. Huddy and Ms. Dhue. In November, he chided Megyn Kelly, his colleague at the time, after she described being sexually harassed by Mr. Ailes in her memoir. “If somebody is paying you a wage, you owe that person or company allegiance,” he said on his nightly show, without mentioning Ms. Kelly by name. “You don’t like what’s happening in the workplace, go to human resources or leave. ” | 1 |
— Marianne Lyles (@MarianneLyles) November 2, 2016
Police are still developing information on a suspect and have warned that the scene remains dangerous.
“There’s definitely danger out there, someone is out there shooting police officers,” officer Parizek said.
2 officers killed: “There’s literally a clear and present danger if you’re a police officer” https://t.co/MjAzXn8pUr
— Des Moines Register (@DMRegister) November 2, 2016
Des Moines PD have paired up their officers as a precaution following the shootings.
“We are always vigilant about our safety, but we still got to get out there and do it,” Parizek told the media.
Des Moines police briefing press re: officers shot: “I can’t even begin to talk about how bad this is” @news4buffalo
— Katie Alexander (@KatieNews4) 2 November 2016
Police will not be releasing names of either officer during initial presser, family getting notified. At least two more expected during day pic.twitter.com/9qIshG9jPP
— Jacob J. Peklo (@JacobPekloTV) 2 November 2016
The Urbandale Schools District said that all schools will be closed Wednesday as a result of the fatal shootings and ongoing investigation.
All @UrbandaleSchool Schools & Adventuretime cancelled today Wed Nov 2. All buildings closed. Staff do not report to buildings #UCSDAlert
— Urbandale Schools (@UrbandaleSchool) November 2, 2016
1st look at scene where 2 officers were shot & killed in an apparent ambush in Des Moines. Following this #BREAKING news in the #AlertCenter pic.twitter.com/c3kYpNRrrU
— Julian Glover (@JulianGloverTV) November 2, 2016
In a statement the governor’s office said that “an attack on public safety officers is an attack on the public safety of all Iowans.”
“We call on Iowans to support our law enforcement officials in bringing this suspect to justice,” it added. Share Google + phyllis.goldner
I gain around 6.000-8.000 bucks monthly for freelancing i do from my home. Everyone prepared to do basic freelance jobs for 2h-5h a day from comfort of your home and get reasonable paycheck for doing it… This is a work for you… http://chilp.it/8d93f4b Phil Freeman
Fuck off! Phil Freeman
This is the result of the vicinage no longer tolerating roaming, uniformed, armed, militarized, abusive, banker revenue agents preying upon the working poor. No cop is safe, and this, however unfortunate, can and will continue. I suggest the police nation wide reconsider their role in OUR society. A come to geezuz moment of clarity is in order, that is unless you wish to continue digging holes. We are tired of your shit. ACAB! AlPennG
AT THE PRESS BRIEFING THE OFFICER CALLED THE PERSON THAT SHOT THE OFFICERS A COWARD WHICH THEY ARE BUT WHAT DO YOU CALL CRIMINAL COPS THAT SHOT UNARMED AMERICANS IN THE STREETS AND IN THE HOMES!?!?!? I WOULD LIKE HIM TO TELL US THAT Social Trending BREAKING: Two Cops Shot, Killed in ‘Ambush Style’ Attacks While Sitting in Their Vehicles, Shooter At Large November 2, 2016 Breaking: Podesta Told Mills ‘Dump All Those Emails’ on Day News of Clinton’s Private Email Server Broke November 1, 2016 | 0 |
Battle Over Dakota Access Pipeline Should Be the Most Important of the Year Posted on Nov 3, 2016
By Sonali Kolhatkar A protester against the controversial Dakota Access pipeline project takes a stand before law enforcement officers Oct. 27 as police and other forces attempt to force activists from a camp set up in the path of pipeline construction near Cannon Ball, N.D. ( James MacPherson / AP Photo )
More than a million people around the U.S. have “ checked in ” via Facebook to Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Cannon Ball, N.D. While this began as an attempt to confuse Morton County Sheriff’s Department officials thought to be digitally surveilling activists, the check-ins morphed into a collective gesture of solidarity. They are also a measure of how deeply the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s fight over the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) resonates with the American public. A similar measure is apparent in how crowd-funding campaigns set up by activists have far outpaced their funding goals— one effort to raise $5,000 ended up generating more than $1 million. Americans who are unable to physically lend their support are eager to participate in some way in the struggle against the pipeline that one New York Times op-ed writer equates with the Keystone XL pipeline fight .
The DAPL conflict is symbolic of so many wrongs and is at the intersection of so many issues that it is no wonder it is shaping up to be the most important contemporary struggle in the U.S. It embodies, in particular, the historic mistreatment of Native Americans, as well as their ongoing efforts to preserve their sovereignty. It is also a matter of environmental racism, given that the pipeline is routed under the water source of a vulnerable minority. Short-term pollution from pipelines and other oil infrastructure, as well as the longer-term pollution of greenhouse gases that affect the climate, are also part of the DAPL story.
In the massive police response against protesters, we are seeing horrifying examples of police brutality and witnessing how state power protects private commercial interest and preserves corporate domination over people. This has engendered domestic solidarity from the Black Lives Matter movement, labor groups and others who consider it a common struggle, as well as international solidarity offered by oppressed communities, such as Palestinians. Many threads are coming together to weave a tapestry of struggle.
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The fight to stop the DAPL is a perfect storm of issues, a convergence of ills that represents so much of what is wrong with American society that needs desperately to be fixed. A growing list of celebrities—including actors Shailene Woodley, Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth, as well as musicians Neil Young and Dave Matthews—are lending their star power to the cause and turning their fans on to it.
The fact that our elected officials are so deafeningly silent on this crucial struggle is exactly why many Americans are disillusioned by our electoral system. GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has said nothing about the pipeline project, perhaps because he has numerous business interests tied to it. But Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who ought to be a natural ally to the “water protectors,” as they refer to themselves, had to be shamed into issuing a statement. Indigenous youths from various tribes occupied her campaign office in Brooklyn, N.Y., recently to demand she take a stand against the pipeline. When she issued a statement , it was a meaningless request that “all voices should be heard and all views considered.” Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, spouted similar nonsense in a recent interview, saying, “I think she believes that stakeholders need to get together at this point. ... It’s important that all voices are heard.”
Similarly, President Obama, who seems to have very little to lose by stopping the project voluntarily halting its project. The company, obviously, did not comply. However the President did suggest in open letter to Obama , calling on him to “take a bold stand” against the project.
It’s not just most elected officials and candidates running for office who are silent. Mainstream corporate media outlets have only recently begun covering the protests at Standing Rock, although they began in April. In September, the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting called out TV networks for their “blackout” of the story. Even with increased media coverage, there has been little focus from traditional media outlets on police brutality against water protectors and journalists and the extreme felony charges many of them are facing. | 0 |
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — The delivery trucks began arriving with their precious parcels before daybreak, lining up outside a massive government edifice that rises above Orange County’s suburban sprawl. On Monday, the starting gun went off on application season for visas, known as visas, which allow employers, primarily technology companies, to bring in foreign workers for three years at a time. For the last few years, the federal government has been so overwhelmed by applications that it has stopped accepting them within a week of opening day, hence the line of trucks trying to deliver applications before the doors close on the program for another year. And this year, the rush has escalated to an scramble because the future of the program is unclear. Hailed by proponents as vital to American innovation, the program has also been criticized as a scheme to displace United States workers with cheaper foreign labor. President Trump has vowed to overhaul it, and lawmakers from both parties have drafted bills to alter it. At campaign rallies, Mr. Trump introduced Americans who had been asked to train their foreign successors at companies that included Disney. “We won’t let this happen anymore,” he thundered in one stump speech about the practice, which he has called “outrageous” and “demeaning. ” This past weekend, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a technical change that could make it harder for programmers to receive the visas, and on Monday, the Justice Department warned that it would investigate companies that it believed had overlooked qualified American workers. “The Justice Department will not tolerate employers’ misusing the visa process to discriminate against U. S. workers,” Thomas Wheeler, the head of the department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. Each year, 65, 000 visas are made available to workers with bachelor’s degrees, and 20, 000 more are earmarked for those with master’s degrees or higher. When the gates swung open at the government processing center here on Monday, the first truck in line, a FedEx rig, carried 15, 000 packages, said a courier, Andrew Langyo. “We’re loaded, and we have more trucks coming,” said Mr. Langyo, who would return two hours later in the same truck with another haul. Last year, the government received 236, 000 applications in the first week before deciding it would accept no more. A computer randomly chooses the winners. The average petition, a collection of forms and documents attesting to the bona fides of a job offer and the person chosen to fill it, is about two inches thick. But some files are six inches thick and weigh several pounds, according to Bill Yates, a former director of the Vermont Service Center, which also processes applications. Mr. Yates recalled some mishaps, like the time a driver bound for the center in Vermont drove 50 miles unaware that his truck’s back door had swung open, spilling its cargo onto the road. The visas are attractive not only to the companies that file the applications, but also to the workers themselves, who can become eligible for a green card while working on an . Among the petitions expected to land in California’s center is that of Minh Nguyen, a engineer from Vietnam who was sponsored for an by BitTitan, a cloud software company in Kirkland, Wash. It is his second attempt at a visa. “In America, you’re in the center of new technology and changes in the I. T. industry,” said Mr. Nguyen, 25. “I would contribute directly to the company and to software development in the U. S. ” In 2014, the last year for which information is available, just 13 outsourcing firms accounted for a third of all granted visas. The top recipients were Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro, all based in India. The companies, which subcontract their employees to banks, retailers and other businesses in the United States to do programming, accounting and other work, often inundate the immigration service with tens of thousands of applications. BitTitan, a growing company that hopes to hire 60 engineers in the next 12 months, is submitting six applications. “We are trying to fill specific positions around cloud and artificial intelligence,” the chief executive, Geeman Yip, said. “If we can’t fill them, our innovation suffers. ” Several bipartisan bills in the Senate and the House seek to make companies give more priority to American workers before they fill jobs with visas. They also seek to raise the minimum pay for the jobs, which depend on skill level and location: A computer systems analyst in Pittsburgh, for example, must make at least $49, 000 under current regulations. The theory is that higher pay will eliminate some of the rationale for importing workers. A draft of a presidential executive order on “protecting American jobs and workers by strengthening the integrity of foreign worker visa programs” was distributed widely in late January but never signed. Then, without warning, Citizenship and Immigration Services published a memo on its website over the weekend that could affect many applications. Specifically, companies seeking to import computer programmers at the lowest pay levels will have to prove that the work they perform qualifies as “specialty” labor, which is what the visas were created for. “There will be greater scrutiny of the role the company wants to fill,” said Lynden Melmed, a lawyer in Washington and a former chief counsel for the immigration service. The measure appears to be directed mainly at outsourcing firms, rather than the big technology companies, which tend to hire workers at higher skill and pay levels. In a statement, the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the main trade group for India’s outsourcing industry, said, “The visa system exists specifically because the U. S. has a persistent shortage of I. T. talent. ” The group said that its members followed all the program’s rules, and that the change would have little impact. “It is aimed at screening out workers, whereas our members tend to provide workers to help U. S. companies fill their skills gaps and compete globally,” it said. Even before the memo and the Justice Department’s warning, fears about the future of the program were making this year more than most. “Just to make sure the petitions get in, almost every client demanded that theirs arrive on the first day,” said Greg McCall, a lawyer at Perkins Coie in Seattle who prepared 150 applications. Inside the federal building, a formidable structure that has provided backdrops for movies including “Coma” and “Outbreak,” the logistical dance unfolded over two floors. In the mailroom, about 40 people wearing blue gloves sat around tables opening packages that arrived nonstop in bins. In a huge warehouse, those same packages were separated according to whether the applicants had bachelor’s or master’s degrees. All told, 1, 500 workers were involved, with a second shift expected to stretch past normal business hours. “This is the day we prepare for months and months in advance,” said Donna P. Campagnolo, the center’s deputy director. Trucks came and went all day, with some couriers, including from FedEx, staggering their deliveries to avoid having dozens of trucks backed up at the gate. Some smaller delivery companies received a piece of the action, too. One courier, Fernando Salas, pulled up in a red Suzuki station wagon stuffed with 10 boxes. “I have 109 envelopes,” he said. “That is all that fits in here. ” It was all surprisingly for a program used primarily for jobs. Asked why the government had not digitized the process, Ms. Campagnolo said: “There’s obviously a lot of paper. There’s no denying it. ” The biggest challenge, she said, is “trash overflow. ” | 1 |
Home › POLITICS | US NEWS › SECRET RECORDINGS FUELED FBI FEUD IN CLINTON PROBE SECRET RECORDINGS FUELED FBI FEUD IN CLINTON PROBE 0 SHARES [11/3/16] Secret recordings of a suspect talking about the Clinton Foundation fueled an internal battle between FBI agents who wanted to pursue the case and corruption prosecutors who viewed the statements as worthless hearsay, people familiar with the matter said.
Agents, using informants and recordings from unrelated corruption investigations, thought they had found enough material to merit aggressively pursuing the investigation into the foundation that started in summer 2015 based on claims made in a book by a conservative author called “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” these people said.
The account of the case and resulting dispute comes from interviews with officials at multiple agencies.
Starting in February and continuing today, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and public-corruption prosecutors became increasingly frustrated with each other, as often happens within and between departments. At the center of the tension stood the U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, Robert Capers, who some at the FBI came to view as exacerbating the problems by telling each side what it wanted to hear, these people said. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Capers declined to comment.
The roots of the dispute lie in a disagreement over the strength of the case, these people said, which broadly centered on whether Clinton Foundation contributors received favorable treatment from the State Department under Hillary Clinton.
Senior officials in the Justice Department and the FBI didn’t think much of the evidence, while investigators believed they had promising leads their bosses wouldn’t let them pursue, they said.
These details on the probe are emerging amid the continuing furor surrounding FBI Director James Comey’s disclosure to Congress that new emails had emerged that could be relevant to a separate, previously closed FBI investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s email arrangement while she was secretary of state.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama took the unusual step of criticizing the FBI when asked about Mr. Comey’s disclosure of the emails.
Amid the internal finger-pointing on the Clinton Foundation matter, some have blamed the FBI’s No. 2 official, deputy director Andrew McCabe, claiming he sought to stop agents from pursuing the case this summer. His defenders deny that, and say it was the Justice Department that kept pushing back on the investigation.
At times, people on both sides of the dispute thought Mr. Capers agreed with them. Defenders of Mr. Capers said he was straightforward and always told people he thought the case wasn’t strong. Post navigation Warning : array_key_exists() expects parameter 2 to be array, null given in /home/content/p3pnexwpnas07_data02/05/3222705/html/wp-content/plugins/widget-options/core/functions.widget.display.php on line 182 Warning : array_key_exists() expects parameter 2 to be array, null given in /home/content/p3pnexwpnas07_data02/05/3222705/html/wp-content/plugins/widget-options/core/functions.widget.display.php on line 182 Warning : array_key_exists() expects parameter 2 to be array, null given in /home/content/p3pnexwpnas07_data02/05/3222705/html/wp-content/plugins/widget-options/core/functions.widget.display.php on line 182 Warning : array_key_exists() expects parameter 2 to be array, null given in /home/content/p3pnexwpnas07_data02/05/3222705/html/wp-content/plugins/widget-options/core/functions.widget.display.php on line 182 RESOURCES | 0 |
Tom Hanks is set to executive produce an HBO miniseries about Donald Trump’s historic election and stunning victory over Hillary Clinton, according to the Hollywood Reporter. [Jay Roach will direct the project while Gary Goetzman is also signed on to executive produce. The Trump miniseries will be based on the third installment of political commentary duo Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s book Game Change. Roach, Hanks, and Goetzman all collaborated with Halperin and Heilemann on the 2012 HBO film Game Change, which chronicled the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain and former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. The 2012 installment of Game Change was described by Breitbart News as a “heinous piece of propaganda,” an “ contribution to Barack Obama,” and an overall hackneyed political on Governor Palin. Halperin and Heilemann’s 2010 bestseller Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime was over 400 pages long. But, as Breitbart reported, the HBO film focused primarily on Palin and largely ignored President Obama. Of course the 2012 installment of Game Change, which starred Ed Harris, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, and Sarah Paulson, was a runaway success. It snagged three Golden Globes and five Primetime Emmy Awards, among others. “We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, whose work on their book Game Change set the bar for political reporting and storytelling inside a presidential campaign,” HBO Films president Len Amato said in a statement. “Reuniting Game Change director and executive producer Jay Roach and Playtone producers Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman with Mark and John for a project based on their upcoming book promises to vividly capture the most unique and impactful event in modern American politics. ” No writer has been attached yet for the Trump miniseries. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claims to manage public land for the “common good.” However, their actions as a federal agency consistently show that they really serve private interests,... | 0 |
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter I believe we are in the midst of one of the biggest evolutions in our consciousness we have ever seen. I say this because everywhere you look, things seem to be changing in a very big way. But some back story first. About 7 years ago, something happened in my life that changed the way I saw myself, my life and the world. I left college for good. I had been through 3 different programs in 3 years trying to figure out what worked for me. I was depressed on and off. I couldn’t believe that life was simply wake up and go to school until you get a degree. Then, wake up and go to a job you don’t truly like to make money to support your life until you’re 60 and then hopefully you can retire. Then, you die. I had to make a change and all along something told me that if I did, everything would be okay. Regardless of what everyone told me my whole life, I knew deeply that I didn’t (just as you don’t) have to live life in the way everyone tells you. 5 years ago Collective Evolution was born. A platform that has touched millions of people in a positive way over its 5 years and has changed my life in a positive way. CE likely wouldn’t be around if I didn’t choose to leave school for good. I was invited by Columbia University’s Teacher’s College to give a TEDx talk as they felt I was an agent of change. Below is that talk and it tells my story as well as what I feel is one of the most important things we need to know and internalize: change starts within. This is what I feel is changing our entire world. Follow Your Passion, It’s Important The bottom line is, I believe we need to begin following our passions as a first choice when we are young. If we don’t yet know what our passions are, take the time to enjoy life and figure them out. There is no need to rush into post secondary school so we can get in debt and be stuck in a job for the rest of our lives. This, unfortunately, is a western mentality where we operate under the idea that this is the only way and since people who follow this path are praised and celebrated, many follow the same path. Even for people who are older and well out of school, it’s never too late to start doing something new and following your passion. Although there may be financial responsibilities at times, make arrangements and plans to transition into doing something you love. It’s always possible and there is a way, we just need to begin trying and putting the steps into place. I believe that the moment we truly choose to begin doing something from our hearts, the world around us begins to conspire to make it happen as a result of our conscious desire to make it happen. Since the thoughts might be building, I want to be clear, I am not saying there is no value in education or post secondary school. I am simply stating my belief that it should only be attended when you TRULY know what you want to do, need the education for it and are passion about it. I believe that the education system is designed the way it is for ulterior purposes more so than simply educating with pure intention. More on that below. Does Education Kill Creativity?
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 0 |
After four days of difficult deliberations, a jury in Manhattan found a drug dealer guilty on Monday of murdering a police officer during a desperate flight from a gunfight with other gang members in October 2015. The man, Tyrone Howard, 32, sat as the jury foreman announced that he had been convicted of aggravated homicide for the shooting death of Officer Randolph Holder, a charge carrying a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Three of the jurors were in tears as they confirmed the verdict, which came only two hours after they sent the judge a note saying they were deadlocked on some charges. Officer Holder’s father, Randolph Holder Sr. nodded as the verdict was read, and as Mr. Howard was pronounced guilty for every charge in a long list that included robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, Mr. Holder removed his glasses and dabbed tears from his eyes. His wife, Princess, cried beside him. The courtroom was packed with dozens of police officers and their union leaders, who had been there every day of the deliberations in a show of support for their fallen comrade. Several hugged Mr. Holder as Mr. Howard was led out in handcuffs. After the verdict was read, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. shook hands with and embraced the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Patrick J. Lynch, who said, “Well done. ” Outside, Mr. Vance thanked the jury for “a decision that I think is both thoughtful and comports with fairness and justice in this case. ” “This is a tragic case and a sad day, but we can’t thank our police officers enough for putting their lives on the line every day,” Mr. Vance said. “This case reinforces the importance of what illegal guns mean to New York City and the danger they put our city in, as well as our officers. ” During a monthlong trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Howard was involved in a gunfight that broke out at 8:30 p. m. between rival gang members on 102nd Street in East Harlem on Oct. 20, 2015. He dropped a backpack and fled up the promenade toward 120th Street, stealing a bicycle along the way, according to prosecutors. Thirteen minutes later, at 120th Street, he ran into Officer Holder and his partner that day, Officer Omar Wallace, on a desolate ramp leading to a footbridge over Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. The officers were in plainclothes but had their badges showing. Officer Wallace testified that he recognized Mr. Howard as he came up the ramp on a bicycle because he had arrested him for smoking marijuana the year before. Officer Wallace said he shouted, “Hey!” at the defendant. Mr. Howard jumped off the bike, produced a gun and fired it, hitting Officer Holder in the head, Officer Wallace said. Officer Wallace said he then returned fire. Mr. Howard, who was wounded in the buttocks, fled and was arrested four blocks north. Police divers soon found the . Glock pistol used to kill the officer in the river. During her summations last week, the lead prosecutor, Linda Ford, methodically laid out the evidence from more than two dozen witnesses, surveillance cameras and 911 calls. She argued that Mr. Howard knew the two men approaching him were police officers because the area was swarming with officers and he was on the run from another shooting. She said he purposely shot Officer Holder to escape capture. But Mr. Howard’s lawyer, Michael Hurwitz, argued that the prosecution had not proved Mr. Howard knew the men coming toward him were police officers, which is required for the aggravated murder charge. “We know it was dark,” Mr. Hurwitz said. “We know it was quick, and we know the police officers are in civilian clothes. ” Mr. Hurwitz also contended that Officer Wallace made a mistake when he identified Mr. Howard as the gunman. He pointed out that it was a dark night and that the light on the ramp was dim. It was unlikely, he said, that the officer could recognize someone he had arrested only once, 14 months earlier, under those conditions. “People make mistakes,” he said. On Monday afternoon, the jurors sent a note to the judge saying they could not come to an agreement on some charges. That note came after several others asking, among other things, for the definition of reasonable doubt and to hear the testimony of Officer Wallace again. The judge, Justice Michael J. Obus, told them to keep deliberating, and they reached a verdict at 5 p. m. As they left the courthouse, the jurors declined to say what the sticking points had been but said the deliberations had been extremely difficult, with a few jurors unconvinced of Mr. Howard’s guilt on some charges. “In a way it was like ‘Twelve Angry Men’ in reverse,” said Jane Ritter, a retired schoolteacher on the panel who wept during the verdict. Another juror, Alfred Berneti, a bartender, said the jury had been deeply divided at points, without giving details. “There were some opinions, but we respected the fact that we had different opinions,” he said. “We just wanted to do what was right and follow the semantics and the law. ” | 1 |
BREAKING : Wikileaks Reveals More Clinton “Quid Pro Quo”– Bill Meets With Saudi Prince in D.C. BREAKING : Wikileaks Reveals More Clinton “Quid Pro Quo”– Bill Meets With Saudi Prince in D.C. Breaking News By Amy Moreno October 29, 2016
As we all know by now, the Clinton Foundation is one GIANT SCAM designed to fill the pockets of the Clintons, and they’re rich bastard pals.
Thanks to Wikileaks there’s no longer “doubt” over the crooked dealings at that corrupt and disgusting foundation.
We also have learned how the Clintons make their hundreds of millions.
Quid pro quo – or PAY TO PLAY.
During Hillary’s time at the State Department, she would sell favors and access.
After she had left, he and Bill kept it up, using their political power and influence to help foreign countries like Morrocco and Saudi Arabia.
Two Islamic countries that ABUSE, IMPRISON, and EXECUTE WOMEN AND GAYS.
In a leaked email recently released from Wikileaks we see that Bill Clinton was meeting with the Saudi Prince as recently as September of last year. #PodestaEmails22 : This is it: Quid pro quo
— MicroSpookyLeaks™ (@WDFx2EU7) October 29, 2016
The Clintons are the most corrupt, greedy, and repugnant political family of our lifetime.
Neither one of the blood-sucking leeches should be allowed within 500 feet of the White House ever again. 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 |
Posted by Matthew Bernstein | Nov 9, 2016 | American Strength People Thought It Would Be A Good Idea To Deface A Memorial Dedicated To Military Veterans
Despite all the talk of the election that has been discussed there is another significant event and pseudo-holiday coming up in two days. That would be Veteran’s Day. It’s a holiday that, as stated, is designed to make sure that we can remember our veterans from all military encounters.
It’s something that should be taken very seriously, considering the fact that these veterans gave the ultimate price to make sure that YOU have the freedoms that you do now. And some people in the United States do, considering that there is memorials set up to honor these veterans.
Except not everyone thinks that these memorials should be taken seriously. In fact, there are some people out there that don’t respect the memorials and everything that they stand for. They think it’s a good idea to DISRESPECT the memorials that are out there.
The most recent example comes from someone who is against the Dakota Access Pipeline. They were so against it that they thought the best course of action would be to vandalize a memorial that was set specifically for World War II veterans in Washington. That came from the National Park Service on Tuesday. People Thought It Would Be A Good Idea To Vandalize A World War II Memorial
A spokesman by the name of Mike Litterst said that someone spray-painted the North Dakota section of the memorial. A photo that was provided by the park service showed the phrase “#NoDAPL” was written in paint. Yes they thought the best way to protest this would be to vandalize a memorial designed to honor military service members.
That is honestly the most disgusting thing that could have EVER happened. There shouldn’t EVER be a reason that someone should vandalize a MILITARY memorial just to get their point across. These people put their lives ON THE LINE to make sure that you have the right to protest like you are doing!
The person that vandalized this memorial was protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been fighting along with other tribes and environmental groups in an effort to stop the completion of the nearly $4 billion pipeline. They claimed that it was going to threaten the water supply for millions of people.
The supporters of the pipeline have said that it is a safer way to move oil rather than trucks and trains. Considering that oil is very flammable and accidents can happen, I would rather see something be moved safely. But no matter what side you are on, vandalizing a memorial designed for military veterans is something that SHOULDN’T happen!
As of right now, the United States Park Police are investigating the vandalism. But there is good news about this whole thing. The vandal had used paint to make his mark. And a paint stripper has been used to remove much of the damage that had been done.
The pipeline protests have been going on for a long time. But President Obama has said that the federal government was looking for ways to “reroute” parts of the pipeline. It sounds like another attempt to appease people on the president’s behalf.
But the bottom line is that these people thought it was a good idea to make their message heard by spray painting a VETERANS MEMORIAL! That is the ultimate sign of disrespect! And it makes it worse when you factor in that Veteran’s Day is literally two days away. It’s like they don’t care about the fact that these veterans made the ultimate sacrifice so they could pull those actions. These Men Risk Their Lives So That Families Across The USA Can Enjoy Freedom
Every American should honor the fact that these veterans have given everything that they possibly could to make sure that the freedoms of the United States stay that way. And every memorial that is destroyed and vandalized is just another reminder that not everyone believes that military veterans should be thanked.
Those people are some of the worst Americans on the planet. If you want to protest something, then fine, but there is NO EXCUSE for anyone to vandalize a memorial designed to honor those that served. And the simple fact that someone thought it was a good idea is sickening.
There are several ways to make your point but this is among one of the absolute worst out there. And what is even worse is that there are people that are going to think that it was a good idea.
Sadly this isn’t the first time that this has happened. There were people that thought it was a good idea to vandalize a September 11, 2001 memorial . And the worst part of that was they actually did it. In a college town in California people thought it was a good idea to destroy something that means a lot to some people here in the country.
That wasn’t the only time that this has happened. Just a couple weeks ago there was another report that someone thought it would be a good idea to destroy a veterans memorial . Yes there are people here in the United States that want to make sure that military people don’t get the respect that they deserve. It’s like these people have just lost all respect for those that have given everything and more for the safety of the country.
Share this article to make sure that we can find the person, or people, that is responsible for destroying a monument that is dedicated to our military veterans. What makes it worse is that it is so close to Veteran’s Day. The pure timing of this entire action is something that should make every red-blooded patriot in the country angry.
We need your help to make sure that the people that are responsible for this action are caught and brought to justice. This type of activity is simply unacceptable. But with your help we can find the protestors that are responsible and make sure they pay for their crimes. | 0 |
The Daily Sheeple – by Ryan Bannister
A prankster in Stockton, California is not laughing after an attempt to scare people in a creepy clown costume ended with a man pulling out his pistol and striking him on the side of his head.
Sadiq Mohammad, 20, decided that clowning around in Stockton attempting to scare unsuspecting people was a good idea, and he assuredly reaped the consequences of this brilliant plan.
He is a professional prankster who runs an entertainment website called Hoodclips, which gets almost 7 million views daily.
“The numbers don’t lie, people love comedy. That’s why I have a lot of followers,” Mohammad said.
Mohammad decided to hide behind some bushes and jump out to scare a man who was walking by, he began to cry out, “It’s a prank,” but the man said the prank was not funny, and he approached him with his pistol drawn.
He was struck down to the ground, and he and his cameraman immediately ran away. | 0 |
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