text
stringlengths 1
134k
| label
int64 0
1
|
|---|---|
NYPD Cop Who Killed Eric Garner to be Indicted on Civil Rights Violations Anon HQ
In a surprising move by the Justice Department, it seems as though an indictment of the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner may be on the horizon. Officer Daniel Pantaleo was caught on cell phone footage, filmed choking the life out of Garner on a Staten Island street corner. After two years of public outrage – in the failure to prosecute Pantaleo and an internal conflict at the DOJ, reports have surfaced, indicating that Pantaleo will stand trial for civil rights violations.
One would think that the video evidence of Garner’s murder would be enough to convict Pantaleo on a minimum voluntary manslaughter. A Staten Island grand jury failed to indict him on a charge of murder, which was presented to them last year. Again, the grand jury system is a fraud when it comes to police killings, as the prosecutor has sole discretion to prosecute. The grand jury system is used to placate the public, and this case was no different. Aside from the local authorities failing to prosecute, the FBI and the Justice Department lawyers handling the case out of Brooklyn didn’t believe there was sufficient evidence to bring a federal civil rights violation charge. In order to do so, they would have to prove that Pantaleo intended to violate Garner’s civil rights.
“It’s going to happen sooner than later,” said an unnamed source within the investigation. “Washington wants to indict him.” This information came out after the entire team of federal prosecutors was replaced.
It is difficult to avoid the appearance of a cover-up when all of the initial investigators found nothing wrong with the actions taken by Pantaleo, which resulted in Garner’s death. The fact that he used an illegal chokehold – which had been outlawed – seemed to make little impact on their decision. All the while, Pantaleo has been riding a desk and collecting his substantial six figure salary from the NYPD.
Up until now, the only person to have been penalized for Garner’s death is Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, who was the supervisor on scene. The only charge was internal, not criminal, for failure to properly supervise. Adonis said in regards to the incident “the perpetrator’s condition did not seem serious and… he did not appear to get worse.” The outright lies told by police, when covering up their crimes, is enough to make your blood boil. Nothing about Adonis’ statement had any truth to it, as Garner pleaded for help and ultimately died on scene. Hard to believe anyone wouldn’t define death as “getting worse.”
Although a federal charge seems imminent, an indictment is only the beginning of a very long battle. The fact that Pantaleo was brought before a grand jury only to have them not indict, doesn’t look good for prosecutors. Even if the presentation was one-sided and an obvious fix, the defense can use it to demonstrate internal conflict and therefore, argue that the case is in fact, politically driven. It doesn’t help matters when the jury finds out that the original prosecutors did not feel a charge was warranted and had been removed from the case. Presenting the internal conflict will not sit well with a jury.
The New York Daily News spoke with an anonymous former federal prosecutor who stated “If I’m Pantaleo’s defense lawyer, I want all the internal communications that the prosecutors were fighting about.” Obtaining specific details of the internal conflicts would indeed sway a jury. On the flip-side, he stated, “The government will argue, though, that it is internal deliberations and that you can’t cross-examine witnesses about what the prosecutors think about their case.” Others contend that the former prosecutors would be barred from being involved in the indictment and not allowed to give any testimony for the defense or prosecution. With the burden of proof falling on the shoulders of the DOJ, despite the clear-cut murder that took place, they’ll fight an uphill battle in court.
The Police Benevolent Association has denied that Pantaleo ever used a chokehold, and believes the entire issue is a moot point. Despite their cherry picking their own beliefs, they can’t cherry pick their own facts in this case, as the video speaks for itself. While Pantaleo needs to stand trial for the death of Eric Garner, attempting to prove his intent is going to be difficult. It is unfortunate that the need to define Pantaleo’s intent is overshadowing the true tragedy of this case: the very death of justice. | 0 |
Don’t worry about Hillary: BuzzFeed confirms she remained totally super awesome while under siege Posted at 5:54 pm on October 29, 2016 by Brett T. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
Well, this wasn’t altogether unexpected. After news broke Friday that the FBI had uncovered new information pertinent to its investigation into Hillary Clinton, it wasn’t long before reporters, as predicted, began filing stories about Republicans “pouncing” on the news .
That’s all well and good — everyone knew those mean Republicans would attack. As always, Clinton put up a brave front, challenging the FBI to go public with whatever it had, possibly including classified documents related to an ongoing federal investigation.
But did anyone think to really check on the Democratic candidate? How was she holding up behind the scenes? Pretty well, it seems. BuzzFeed’s Ruby Cramer provided readers with an insider’s look at Hillary’s super-weird day under siege. Your guide to the *weirdest* yet most totally normal day on the plane w/Clinton—a candidate unfazed when under seige https://t.co/i3xwJ1T4Bn
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) October 29, 2016
So relax, everyone: there’s no need whatsoever to lose sleep on Clinton’s behalf. Even while besieged by the continuing fallout of a scandal of her own making, she was “almost bizarrely unfazed by crisis.” @rubycramer @maggieNYT this woman is tougher than any man i no of
— allen stubbs (@NASTY4HRC) October 29, 2016
OMG, right? Totally. @rubycramer "a candidate unfazed when under siege"
That's what I like.
— Jaymes Winn (@jaymeswinn) October 29, 2016 @rubycramer @maggieNYT This woman is a rock of strength! That is the mark of a true leader!
— M. Stein (@MStein2016) October 29, 2016 @rubycramer @BuzzFeedNews good piece. She's made of steel, our Hillary. | 0 |
Taking the Woo-Woo Out of Meditation Oct 27, 2016 0 0
Which will it be? Zazen, Vipassana, Transcendental, Mantra, Dzogchen, Mindfulness, or one of the numerous other types of mediation? With everyone from business tycoons to sixth-generation monks practicing meditation, along with people like rapper, 50 Cent, publishing mogul, Rupert Murdock, singers, Sting, and Alanis Morisette – how do you pick through the woo-woo and get to the nitty gritty facts about a meditation practice?
Fortunately, meditation has been proven beyond the fairy tale images of cross-legged sadhus, mendicants, sages and yogis peacefully serene in some verdant forest or awe-inspiring temple. There are now over 3,000 scientific studies on the benefits of meditation, with more coming to the fore all the time.
Both alternative-medicine gurus and Harvard researchers alike have now picked apart various types of meditation to learn that it is more effective than just sitting still , but all it really amounts to is this: learning to do one thing, mindfully, at one time .
Meditation has been proven to boost immunity, reduce depression and anxiety, increase empathy, and boost creativity. It can even help improve emotional intelligence and help wounds heal faster. It isn’t a magic pill, but it might come close.
Here’s a shocking truth about meditation, though. It won’t solve all your problems. As Jack Kornfield, a man responsible for helping to popularize meditation in the West in the 1970s has written ,
“While I benefited enormously from the training in the Thai and Burmese monasteries where I practiced, I noticed two striking things. First, there were major areas of difficulty in my life, such as loneliness, intimate relationships, work, childhood wounds, and patterns of fear that even very deep meditation didn’t touch.
“Second, among the several dozen Western monks (and lots of Asian meditators) I met during my time in Asia, with a few notable exceptions, most were not helped by meditation in big areas of their lives. Meditation and spiritual practice can easily be used to suppress and avoid feeling or to escape from difficult areas of our lives.”
Here’s what meditation will do for you. Meditation is like working out for the brain. If you flex a muscle often enough, it becomes stronger. For many of us, focus is transient. If we try really hard, we might be able to focus for a few minutes. Most of us really only concentrate on one thing at a time for seconds. T he average person thinks approximately 48.6 thoughts per minute, according to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California. That adds up to a total of 70,000 thoughts per day .
Now ask yourself, among those many thousands of thoughts, which are constructive? Which are about the present moment, and not about hopes for the future or fears from the past? Which thoughts are happy? Which are sad? Which are helping you to achieve what you want in this lifetime, and which thoughts are holding you back? Do your thoughts help you to merge seemingly inconsistent facts in reality, or are they just a random mess which you can never seem to make sense out of? Are you regularly thinking calm, focused thoughts, or are they scattered?
While different types of meditation affect us variously, they all make lasting changes in the brain, no differently than if you were to practice playing the piano every day, or if you consistently went to the gym and lifted weights. For example:
Vipassana meditation also known as insight meditation has this effect on the brain: It creates a thicker right insula which is involved in the cognitive-emotional processes which create greater empathy and self-awareness . The right temporal area of the brain has increased blood flow and activity. This area is responsible for the process of hearing . The right parietal area is greatly activated. This area of the brain is in charge of processing touch . Attention and focus are increased as evidenced by a thicker right frontal cortex. Brain wave changes include increased activity within the left-prefrontal cortex is associated with positive affect and happiness. People who suffer from depression tend to have underactivated left-prefrontal regions. Also, the sites “C3/C4” on a QEEG tend to become increasingly active during this type of meditation. These are areas within the motor system associated with moving your right hand.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) has a tendency to create restful alertness. This is what happens to the brain: The frontal lobes of the brain, associated with focused attention and advanced cognitive function become more active. The parietal areas of the brain become more active. This area of the brain is associated with spacial recognition of the awareness of objects in our environment. The major sensory area of the brain, the thalamus, becomes more activated in long-term TM practitioners. Activity in he basal ganglia, the area of the brain responsible for controlling voluntary motor movement, procedural learning, and emotion is decreased. Brain waves as measured by EEG’s with TM meditators include the increase and coherence of Alpha waves . Coherence simply means that the brain waves are being transmitted across both hemispheres of the brain, thus improving neural communication across a greater distance. This results in full-brain thinking. Alpha waves as a result of TM does not usually occur with other meditative practices. The ‘back’ or posterior of the brain tends to work more efficiently, with synchronization in these quadrants. Alpha synchronization may also serve as a “carrier” frequency for 20 Hz beta waves (cognition) and 40 Hz gamma waves (perception).
Tibetan Loving-Kindness Meditation practitioners experience exactly more of the aim of their meditation – unconditional loving kindness. On brain scans, this shows up as: Decreased parietal activity. This area of the brain is responsible for our spatial orientation, and our visual attention . Frontal activity is increased. The left prefrontal cortex shows particular changes in this type of meditative practice, which translates as more positive emotions and greater self-control . Thalamus activity tends to increase (whereas in TM, activity in this area decreases.) Brain wave changes include a tendency to display higher than average amplitude of 40 Hz gamma waves. This phenomenon is associated with advanced perceptual functions, binding of information, as well as intelligence. Those who have mental deficits tend to elicit significantly less 40 Hz activity throughout their brain. Those who practice this type of meditation will also show more Gamma waves, most often associated with less of a ‘me’ focus, and the ability to engage in loving-kindness. Gamma waves tend to be synchronized within the frontal and parietal regions of the brain. This can lead to an enhanced ability to focus as well as states of emotional bliss.
So, without the ‘woo,’ what can meditation do for you? It depends on what you are looking for. If you seek better focus, or more compassion, they are both benefits of a consistent meditative practice. There are additional meditative practices that build grey matter, and still more than can help with depression and pain or lower stress levels. Like any worthwhile endeavor, meditation takes practice. The results are dependent upon which brain muscles you build and flex. | 0 |
Constitutional Law Expert: Comey Did NOT Violate Law By Announcing Email Investigation Source: Washington's Blog
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid alleges that FBI Director Comey has violated the law by announcing the re-opened investigation into Clinton emails so close to the presidential election.
Is he right?
One of the top constitutional law experts in the United States (and a liberal), Professor Jonathan Turley, says no :
[Reid’s] allegation is in my view wildly misplaced. Reid is arguing that the actions of FBI Director James B. Comey violates the Hatch Act . I cannot see a plausible, let alone compelling, basis for such a charge against Comey.
In his letter to Comey, Reid raised the the Hatch Act, which prohibits partisan politicking by government employees.
5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1) prohibits a government employee from “us[ing] his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”
Reid argued:
“Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another. I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”
The reference to “months” is curious. Comey has kept Congress informed in compliance with oversight functions of the congressional committees but has been circumspect in the extent of such disclosures. It is troubling to see Democrats (who historically favor both transparency and checks on executive powers) argue against such disclosure and cooperation with oversight committees. More importantly, the Hatch Act is simply a dog that will not hunt.
Richard W. Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and the chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House from 2005 to 2007, has filed a Hatch Act complaint against Comey with the federal Office of Special Counsel and Office of Government Ethics. He argues that “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.”
However, Comey was between the horns of a dilemma. He could be accused of acts of commission in making the disclosure or omission in withholding the disclosure in an election year. Quite frankly, I found Painter’s justification for his filing remarkably speculative. He admits that he has no evidence to suggest that Comey wants to influence the election or favors either candidate . Intent is key under the Hatch investigations. You can disagree with the timing of Comey’s disclosure, but that is not a matter for the Hatch Act or even an ethical charge in my view.
Congress passed the Hatch Act in response to scandals during the 1938 congressional elections and intended the Act to bar federal employees from using “[their] official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” Comey is not doing that in communicating with Congress on a matter of oversight.
Such violations under the Hatch Act, even if proven, are not criminal matters . The Office of Special Counsel -can investigate such matters and seek discipline — a matter than can ultimately go before the Merit Systems Protection Board.
CNN confirms :
violators aren’t going to jail: the Hatch Act is not a criminal statute. Instead, it is an administrative constraint on government employees. The law is enforced by a special independent federal agency — the Office of Special Counsel — which is charged with investigating complaint allegations and, where found to be meritorious, either pursuing a settlement with the offending employee or prosecuting their case before the federal agency that oversees internal employment disputes — the Merit Systems Protection Board. And for presidential appointees like Comey, the Office of Special Counsel submits a report of its findings along with the employee’s response to the President , who makes a decision on whether discipline is warranted .
***
The Hatch Act provision most commonly invoked in discussions of Comey’s letter is 5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1), which prohibits a government employee from “us[ing] his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”
The key text is the emphasized phrase — which conditions a violation of the statute on whether the employee’s purpose was to interfere with or affect the result of an election. Thus, the Hatch Act does not focus on the effect of the employee’s conduct, but the intent. To that end, if Comey did not intend to interfere with or affect the upcoming election through his letter to Congress, then he did not violate the letter of the Hatch Act. | 0 |
Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s News HQ,” Sen. Rand Paul ( ) said while he supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, it must be replaced immediately or “within months of repealing it, you will lead to further bankruptcies in the insurance industry. ” Paul said, “Well here’s the interesting thing about Obamacare, they wanted to provide insurance for everybody, even if you were already sick, preexisting conditions, but they could only pay for it if they forced all of the healthy people to buy insurance through a mandate. It’s not working so well. What is happening is not enough healthy people are buying insurance and the rates for individual insurance went through the roof and yet insurance companies are still failing and threatening bankruptcy. ” He added, “Here is the problem. If you repeal the individual mandate that forces young people to buy insurance less young healthy people buy insurance and the system will spiral quicker. I’m for getting rid of the mandate. I am for repealing Obamacare, but you have to replace it. If you don’t replace it, my prediction is within months of repealing it, you will lead to further bankruptcies in the insurance industry. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • The stage is set for fierce battles starting tomorrow as the U. S. Senate begins confirmation hearings on Donald J. Trump’s cabinet picks, even though many have not completed customary background checks or ethics reviews. The first focus will be Senator Jeff Sessions, above, Mr. Trump’s choice for attorney general. Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary, is in the U. S. for talks with advisers of Mr. Trump and congressional leaders. In 2015, Mr. Johnson said that Mr. Trump displayed “an ignorance that is truly alarming. ” _____ • “Laughter of the year!” Russian politicians and commentators are ridiculing a U. S. intelligence report that outlines an elaborate plot ordered by President Vladimir V. Putin to alter the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. Interviews with supporters of Mr. Trump in two U. S. states found similarly dismissive opinions. Journalists are trying to come to terms with Moscow’s ability to steer Western news coverage by doling out hacked documents. _____ • In Jerusalem, a Palestinian driver plowed a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers, killing four, injuring 17 others and ending several months of relative calm in the city. Israel was shaken politically by a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu negotiated for more positive coverage with Yediot Aharonot, a newspaper that is often critical of the prime minister, in exchange for curtailing its main competitor. And Israel’s ambassador to Britain apologized over a recording of a senior diplomat plotting to “take down” senior British politicians. _____ • At the Golden Globes, the musical “La La Land” dominated by winning a record seven awards. In drama categories, “Moonlight” won best picture, “The Crown” won best television show and Isabelle Huppert was named best actress for her performance in “Elle. ” And Meryl Streep used her acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award to forcefully criticize Mr. Trump. _____ • Two men who made history died: Mário Soares, who guided Portugal’s rocky transition to democracy in the 1970s, was 92. Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, was 82. _____ • Freezing temperatures spread across most of Europe over the weekend, killing dozens and disrupting traffic. Russia celebrated the coldest Orthodox Christmas in 120 years. It will remain bitterly cold across Europe’s southeast today, but temperatures are expected to rise in Western Europe. Fresh snow in the Alps is good news for ski resorts there. _____ • In London, a strike of staff members that has shut most Underground stations in Central London is disrupting commutes today. And British Airways said a cabin crew strike on Tuesday and Wednesday would not disrupt flights. • Russia required Apple and Google to remove the LinkedIn app from their local stores. • A Volkswagen regulatory compliance executive was arrested in the U. S. on conspiracy charges, marking an escalation of the criminal investigation into the automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. • The European Union’s statistics agency is expected to say that unemployment in the eurozone remained unchanged in November. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Many Turks view President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarianism as reassuring in the face of a ferocious onslaught of terrorist attacks. [The New York Times] • Germany threatened to end development aid to countries that refuse to take back rejected asylum seekers. [Agence ] • An assembly of Irish citizens convened by Parliament is considering changes to one of the most divisive policies in the country: the ban on abortions. [The New York Times] • Italy’s Five Star Movement is voting on whether it should leave the alliance of euroskeptic parties in the European Parliament it with the U. K. Independence Party. [Politico] • America’s opioid epidemic killed more than 33, 000 people in 2015. We followed the interstate flow of cheap smuggled heroin and tracked “pill mill” clinics where pain medicine is handed out like candy. [The New York Times] (In this new section, we’ll help you start your day just right.) • A New Year’s challenge for the mind: Make this the year that you quiet all those negative thoughts swirling around your brain. Here’s how to do it. • If you’re hitting the gym this morning, don’t forget to warm up. It may just save your knees. • Recipe of the day: Don’t order out tonight — make your own sesame noodles. • Eight seconds is an eternity when you’re on top of a bucking, animal. Our Daily 360 video takes you out of the chutes with professional bull riders. • David Bowie resurfaced in a new video for one of his final songs just hours before what would have been his 70th birthday on Sunday. • NASA announced plans for a spacecraft named Psyche to visit an asteroid that appears to be made of metal. “Not only is it unique,” an expert said, “it’s improbable. ” If one of your resolutions this year is to eat healthier in the morning, consider porridge. The combination of grain and water is comfort served in its most humble form. The dish has also been feeding the world for thousands of years. Congee, a porridge, has been eaten in China since about 2, 500 B. C. Koreans make variations of juk, with pine nut as the main ingredient. Upma is a thick porridge made from roasted semolina or rice flour common in south India. And in Ethiopia, genfo, unique for its use of red pepper, is a traditional Sunday breakfast. On many cold mornings, Americans start their days with oatmeal. The actor Wilford Brimley famously pitched the food’s health benefits in an ad, saying, “It’s the right thing to do. ” But Scots may be the most famous consumers of oats. They’ve been a staple of their diets since the Roman Empire. Scotland even hosts a global competition — the Golden Spurtle is the top prize. Scotland’s former oldest living woman swore by the dish. Before her death in 2015 at 109, she revealed her secret to longevity. “A nice warm bowl of porridge every morning,” she said, and “staying away from men. ” Remy Tumin contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Being 'reasonable' is for total f**king dickheads, agrees Britain 04-11-16
HOLDING reasonable political opinions is now only for total shitheads who should shut the fuck up forever, it has been confirmed.
As Britain’s newspapers branded judges ‘enemies of the people’ for a legal ruling and compared the Brexit process to the horrors of the second world war, the public agreed that frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog is the best way forward.
Susan Traherne, from Gloucester, said: “You know those people who say ‘there’s right and wrong on both sides’ and ‘politics is about compromise’?
“FUCK THEM.”
She added: “In 2016, it’s all about taking the most extreme position possible on your end of the spectrum and characterising the other side as the Nazis, or Stalin, or the Khmer Rouge if you fancy something a bit exotic.”
Bill McKay, from Stevenage, said: “‘Talking’ to people? ‘Debating in Parliament’? ‘Checks and balances’?
“FUCK THAT.”
He added: “If anyone even tries being reasonable around me, I’m punching first and asking questions never.”
Prime minister Theresa May said: “Loving this.”
Share: | 0 |
at 2:29 pm 1 Comment
I’m not one to shy away from Hillary Clinton related controversies, but this whole Spirit Cooking topic just seemed too far over the top to not have a good explanation. As such, I’ve avoided writing about it, hoping that someone from the Clinton team would come out and put all the craziness to rest. That has not happened.
Indeed, the topic was trending at #1 for much of the morning on Twitter, and continues to trend at #3 many hours later. All day, I’ve been trying as hard as possible to disassociate my confirmation bias about the Clintons, from this story. As such, I’ve been waiting for a good “debunking” piece to come out, but have yet to see one.
For those of you who are interested in the topic, here’s a measured take from The Washington Times :
A new WikiLeaks release of stolen emails belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta reveal an invitation by his brother to a “Spirit Cooking dinner” at the home of artist Marina Abramovic.
“Spirit Cooking with Essential Aphrodisiac Recipes” was released by Ms. Abramovic in 1996, but the “ingredients” call for “fresh breast milk with fresh sperm milk” to be consumed “on earthquake nights.”
New York’s Museum of Modern Art called it a “cookbook” for “evocative instructions for actions or thoughts.” Another recipe calls for “fresh morning urine.”
“Are you in NYC Thursday July 9 Marina wants you to come to dinner Mary?” Tony Podesta says in an email forwarded to his brother June 28, 2015.
“Dear Tony, I am so looking forward to the Spirit Cooking dinner at my place,” Ms. Abramovic says in a June 25 email sent at 2:35 a.m. GMT +2. “Do you think you will be able to let me know if your brother is joining? All my love, Marina.”
You can see the source email through the following tweet by Wikileaks: Tony Podesta. | 0 |
Facebook reportedly pays an army of Filipino content curators to police content on the social network’s platform. [The Daily Mail reports that Facebook has been hiring young Filipinos to act as content curators on the Facebook platform. The workers reportedly work grueling shifts for little pay and decide on whether or not content on Facebook should be removed or allowed. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stated earlier this month that the social media company, worth $435 billion, would be adding another 3, 000 content moderators to the team of 4, 500 it already employs and pledged to “improve the process for [reporting content] quickly. ” It was discovered during an investigation by the Mail on Sunday that Facebook outsources much of its content policing to the professional services firm Accenture. “We hire college graduates, experienced hires, provide intensive training and pay competitive wages,” Accenture claimed. When asked for comment, Facebook said, “We’ve built a global network of operations centres to work so that we have people in the right country with the right language and cultural skills to review reports. We recognise this work can be difficult, which is why our contracts with partners stipulate that wellness and psychological support must be provided. ” | 1 |
A boy was found dead by his mother on Monday evening after accidentally shooting himself while streaming on Instagram Live. [Malachi Hemphill was streaming on the site, showing his friends a gun that was in his possession. It was unloaded, so one of the viewers asked why there was no magazine in it. After loading the gun following instruction from his viewers, he accidentally shot himself. “I heard a big boom. I couldn’t tell if it was a gunshot or what,” Shaniqua Stephens, his mother, told 11 Alive Atlanta. She had just watched her son take out the trash when she heard the noise. Running upstairs with her daughter, they found him “laying there in a pool of blood. ” “My daughter screamed and said. ‘Mom turn his phone off!’ As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live,” Stephens recounted. Hemphill was rushed to Grady Hospital, but it was too late. “This is just a pain that will never go away,” she said. “He was my only son. He was just only 13. Just the thought of me seeing him on the floor will never leave my brain. ” After returning home, several of his friends were outside the house. “There was about 40 to 50 kids outside,” Stephens said. “I guess these were the kids that were watching on live that live in the area. I guess when it happened they just ran over here. ” It is unclear how Hemphill came to have the gun on him. He was allegedly handed the gun by a friend police are looking into where the gun came from originally. This is not the first time a death has been streamed live on the internet using social media. In January, an Arkansas woman collapsed and died in front of her children while video livestreaming on Facebook. In December, a in Georgia hanged herself on Facebook live. Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can like his page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_ or on Gab @JH. | 1 |
Attack Hit a School, Killing Several Children 26, 2016 Share This
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a flurry of airstrikes today against the Idlib Province in northern Syria killed at least 35 civilians today, including an estimated 22 school children, when one of the strikes hit a school.
The Observatory said they weren’t clear if the attacks were carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes, though later reports from other sources attributed the attacks to the Syrians. The Idlib Province is controlled by the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
This has made it a regular target for airstrikes, though the comparative lack of intelligence on the location of Nusra fighters means that the attacks have a tendency to hit civilian bystanders. Few Nusra fighters have been caught up in any of the recent strikes.
The main fighting between Nusra and the Syrian military recently is over Aleppo, though there is also considerable tension along the border between Idlib and Latakia Provinces, with the Syrian military having talked up a potential invasion of Idlib from the coast for awhile. | 0 |
Will the 2016 election be rigged?
That depends on what the definition of “is” is – and whether or not you count blatant media bias, operatives and instigators, shady quasi-voters, bizarre electronic voting “errors” and a heavy-handed advantage in the electoral college and the shifting demographics of a socialist state that promises much to certain groups.
With the GOP leadership turning its back on Trump, and the Democratic machine dedicated solely to providing for Her, it will be a difficult win for Trump, despite overwhelming enthusiasm at rallies across the entire country and lop-sided pro-Trump crowds that literally dwarf pro-Hillary gatherings of very few.
But as most everyone knows by now, it isn’t the popular vote that counts – but only the delegates awarded state-by-state to the electoral college… and that is a game that Hillary’s operatives are very good at playing.
There are several states that are being surprisingly maneuvered for her advantage… and if successful, will block Trump from even coming close the presidency.
Texas Could Turn “Blue” For the First Time In 20 Years
This is the big enchilada, so to speak. For the first time in many decades, Texas is in play for Hillary and the Democrats. Texas has been as solidly “red” as any state in the union, but 2016 could be different.
With 38 electoral votes, the Lone Star State is the biggest prize on the map next to California, whose 55 electoral votes have gone to the Democrats since before history began. Since at least 2008, the Dems have been massaging their electioneering strategy to capitalize on shifting demographics – with plenty of Hispanics in the next generation of voters. On paper, Hillary should be able to play well to Hispanics with all the controversy over Trump’s immigration stances and talk of a border wall. Rumors of illegal immigrants be encouraged to vote could be a crucial factor, with polls in Texas close to neck and neck… it could go either way.
Of course, there is every reason to think that Team Hillary is not taking any chances.
As Michael Snyder and many others have reported , electronic voting machines have been mysteriously flipping votes for Hillary in several counties in Texas… and that doesn’t bode well for a massive electoral prize that is within range for her campaign:
Early voting has already begun in many states, and a number of voters in Texas are reporting that the voting machines switched their votes from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. The odd thing is that none of the other choices were affected when these individuals attempted to vote for a straight Republican ticket. If Hillary Clinton is declared the winner of the state of Texas on election night, a full investigation of these voting machines should be conducted, because there is no way that Donald Trump should lose that state. I have said that it will be the greatest miracle in U.S. political history if Donald Trump wins this election, but without the state of Texas Donald Trump has exactly zero chance of winning.
At least one county is making an emergency switch to paper ballots after irregularities were found with the electronic machines during early voting.
Meanwhile, Infowars confronted the head of Texas’ elections about his decision to violate voter laws and abandon a manual count of a random sampling of 1-3% of votes (which should theoretically reflect the larger voting trend, unless something is fishy). Without that count, there is less accountability than ever:
This is major issue, and Texas isn’t the only state… just the biggest.
2. Utah’s Independent Republican Could Actually Beat Trump
OK, so Utah only has a grand total of 6 electoral college votes… and has never been a decisive swing state in a presidential election. But that is because the state has been so solidly “red.” However, this election is totally different.
A little known independent candidate named Evan McMullin has actually taken the lead in several recent polls in Utah, and is neck-and-neck with both Trump and Hillary in several other polls (at or around 30% apiece). Libertarian Gary Johnson is also playing (relatively) well at about 5% – possibly enough to swing further momentum away form Trump.
But Evan McMullin is the real surprise hit – in a state that is suddenly considered an important battleground in the election.
McMullin is a Mormon, which gives him a significant boost. He is officially tied to Better for America, which is basically a #NeverTrump operation – backed by neocons like William Kristol. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Evan McMullin has a pretty colorful and telling background : on top of being a former policy director for House Republicans, he’s also a former CIA operations officer; a member of the elite think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR); a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and a volunteer refugee resettlement officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jordan.
Wow! I wonder if there could be an agenda there. Hillary probably won’t win Utah, but Trump may not either – and it could make a crucial difference if he is within striking distance of 270 electoral votes.
3. Florida Is a Must Win Swing State for Trump… But Current Polls Show Possible Hillary Win
Oh boy… Florida all over again. With 29 electoral votes, it remains a major contender that is so often on the fence and swinging in the wind. It is considered essential for a Trump victory, and indeed for just about any successful Republican bid for the presidency.
Sure, we all know the polls are rigged, and may be oversampling Dems to look better for Hillary on paper – but nonetheless, that perception drives expectations.
If She can create a convincing win there, it could change the course of the election once again. Florida has consistently been the closest outcome – in 2008 and 2012 it went blue for Obama; in 2000 and 2004 it went red for Bush (and not without major controversy and some very shady recounting).
Her team is pushing heavily for early voting in Florida, and so far they claim an early voting advantage.
But campaign surrogate Roger Stone is now reporting that Hillary has met secretly with Broward County officials in Florida, and there is speculation that problems with the voting machines may soon be happening all over again.
Pay very close to what happens there, because of course, Florida could be THE deciding state (again). Right now polls are within 2 points , currently in favor of Trump by a very narrow margin.
4. Colorado Has Known Voting Fraud Issues – With Dead People on the Voter Rolls
With 9 electoral votes, Colorado is currently swinging “blue” but could go either way. CBS4 and the Washington Times reported that an investigation was started by Colorado’s Secretary of State after multiple examples were found of deceased people registered and in the voter rolls:
“This is the kind of thing you hear rumored, joked about in Chicago, that kind of thing,” Mr. Maasssaid during a Thursday evening broadcast. “Tonight, that changes. We did find voter fraud in Colorado that essentially waters down your vote.”
[…]
“This is the kind of thing you hear rumored, joked about in Chicago, that kind of thing,” Mr. Maasssaid during a Thursday evening broadcast. “Tonight, that changes. We did find voter fraud in Colorado that essentially waters down your vote.”
It’s not clear whether or not Colorado could make a difference in the outcome, but the results could prove suspect.
5. Hillary Is “Leading” In These Key Swing States
While Trump is expected to win the crucial state of Ohio, and also North Carolina, Hillary is projected to take key states including Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa, Virginia and Arizona.
According to the Washington Post :
if Clinton can hold Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, then she only needs one more out of many swing states — New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, or Florida — barring any surprise Trump win in a blue-leaning state like Wisconsin. That is currently looking very plausible.
While any of these could change in the actual outcome, it shows that Hillary has definitely maneuvered to win where it counts – not with the people, but with the electoral college.
The details are too numerous to follow here, and anything could happen.
6. You Know Voter Fraud Is Happening If the Media Claim It Isn’t
What should be very telling to everyone is how loudly the major media – in concert – are trying to debunk Trump’s claims of voter fraud and insist that all is well when it is quite clear that there are major issues.
This is one claim that the system is very afraid of, because quite frankly, they have a great deal to hide.
There is more reason than ever for accountability, reporting on any irregularities and an insistence that the will of the people be respected – because the system is desperate to hold onto control at any cost.
Read more:
Electronic Voting Machines Caught Switching Trump Votes To Hillary: “Trying to Steal Texas”
Trump Resists Pledge To “Absolutely Accept” Election Results… But Why Should Anyone Accept Fraud?
Unrest and Martial Law? Leaked Military Drill Anticipates “No Rule of Law” After Election Results
Trump Resists Pledge To “Absolutely Accept” Election Results… But Why Should Anyone Accept Fraud?
If Trump Wins, Will Obama Declare Martial Law To Remain In Office? “These Are Not Normal Times”
After Bernie Cheated By DNC, Trump Fears “Election Going To Be Rigged”
| 0 |
Hillary Clinton has cancelled all upcoming campaign events following the FBI’s announcement that they are reopening their email server investigation.
Via YourNewsWire
The reopening of the case has sent the Clinton campaign into complete chaos, according to reports . According to “Citizens for Trump” Special Projects Director Jack Posobiec, Hillary is looking to get out of the media spotlight for a while.
Hillary has cancelled all campaign events in FL, OH, and NC
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) October 29, 2016
In a tweet, he stated: “Hillary has cancelled all campaign events in FL, OH, and NC.” The Clinton campaign want to focus on states that Hillary lost serious ground in – like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Michigan.
Has the latest email scandal finally brought Hillary to her knees? Will there even be an election on November 8th, or will we be watching Hillary Clinton go on trial? It seems like anything is possible right now.
| 0 |
Не дадим российским роботам нападать на людей! 19 ноября 2016 Происшествия
ГОСТ для роботов появится в России к концу этого года. Основываться он будет на отечественных разработках с учетом международного опыта. А то, не дай бог, и у нас роботы будут такими же неуправляемыми, как в Китае.
Необходимость упорядочить все знания, накопленные чуть ли не за полвека существования робототехники в России, назрела давно, тем более что эта отрасль у нас отстает от стран-флагманов вышеупомянутого направления. Да и созданием этих «агрегатов» занимается кто угодно, вплоть до частников. И каждый по-своему понимает термины, поскольку об их единообразии никто не задумывался.
Нет, ГОСТы разрабатывались, но было это давненько: не меньше четверти столетия назад, и касались они лишь промышленных манипуляторов, по сути, настоящими роботами не являющимися. К тому же, Россия их не производит, вовсю пользуясь буржуйскими механизмами.
А вот чего у нас в достатке, так это «образовательных» роботизированных устройств, во множестве бегающих на выставках и разных тематических мероприятиях, где они обучают всех присутствующих. Особенный восторг это вызывает у наших ребятишек. Как, в прочем, и у китайских, где такое чудо современной техники чуть не угробило одного из сотрудников IT-выставки.
Случилось это первое «нападение робота» на одушевленное мыслящее существо в южно-китайском городе Шэньчжэнь. Вот недаром ученые опасаются развития искусственного интеллекта. Вроде бы программное устройство машины, созданной для игр с ребятишками 4-12 лет, не должно позволять такие эксцессы, ведь даже в пылесосы и утюги грамотные производители ставят «защиту от дураков»!
Но, видно, именно этому «дроиду», обладающему, кстати, почти человеческой мимикой, создатели что-то недодали или – вот ужас-то! – переусердствовали с его умственными способностями и эмоциональной сферой… А иначе, с чего бы бедняга, соскучившийся в одиночестве, начал громить экспонаты и не захотел подчиняться работнику, пытавшемуся прекратить дебош взбесившегося «терминатора»?
Так, может быть, наше отставание в роботизации всех сторон жизни не такое уж зло? Глядишь, заставят делать эти высокотехнологичные автоматы по единым ГОСТам — и нашим детям не придется сталкиваться с озверевшими от скуки персонажами фантастических триллеров! | 0 |
SEOUL, South Korea — Bowing to public pressure, an official in South Korea’s city said on Friday that activists could put up a statue representing Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II, a year after the two countries said they had put that emotional issue behind them. The bronze, statue, of a girl in traditional Korean dress sitting in a chair, had been raised without permission on Wednesday on a sidewalk near the Japanese Consulate in Busan. The police removed the statue, dispersing activists who tried to stop them, but on Friday an official said it could be reinstated. “I apologize to many citizens,” Park mayor of the ward in Busan where the consulate sits, said at a news conference as he announced the statue’s return. “This is an issue between the two nations, and I realize it’s too much for a local office like mine to handle. ” Activists quickly put the statue back in place. Since the statue’s removal on Wednesday, the ward’s office had been overwhelmed with angry phone calls, and its website temporarily froze because so many people were visiting to leave hostile comments. Some called Mr. Park a “ collaborator,” a grave insult in South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan’s colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century still run deep. The consulate had strongly objected to the presence of the statue, which the activists installed near one of its gates, where diplomats would see it as they left their offices. On Friday, the consulate lodged a protest and request to Busan city to remove the statue. Japan registered complaints with the governments of South Korea and Busan. Shinsuke Sugiyama, Japan’s vice minister for foreign affairs, told the South Korean ambassador in Japan that the statue “went against the spirit of the Korea agreement concluded at the end of last year and is extremely regrettable,” adding that it would have an “unfavorable impact on the relationship between Japan and South Korea, as well as disturb the security of the consulate. ” Mr. Sugiyama said the Japanese government would continue to strongly request that South Korea remove the statue. Dozens of identical statues have been put up in South Korea since 2011, when the first one, placed near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, caused a diplomatic uproar. But the statue in Busan was only the second to be installed near a Japanese diplomatic mission. Wednesday was the first anniversary of a landmark agreement between South Korea and Japan to resolve their dispute over the extent of Tokyo’s responsibility for what happened to the wartime sex slaves, or “comfort women,” as they were euphemistically known. Both sides called that deal — in which Japan apologized and promised $8. 3 million to care for the surviving women, in return for South Korea’s promise not to press any future claims — a “final and irreversible resolution” to the dispute, which had become a serious obstacle in their relations. But the deal fell short of the survivors’ demand that Japan pay formal reparations and accept legal responsibility for what they endured. And it proved to be one of the most unpopular decisions made by President Park whose powers have been suspended since the National Assembly voted for her impeachment this month over a corruption scandal. In the year since the agreement was reached, students have been camping out by the statue near the Japanese Embassy to ensure it is not removed, and five more statues have been installed around the country, with money raised through donations. Opposition parties have long denounced the deal, and since Ms. Park’s powers were suspended, they have increased pressure on the government to reconsider it, along with some of her other key policy decisions. If the Constitutional Court ratifies Ms. Park’s impeachment in the coming months, formally removing her from office, a presidential election will be held. Two leading contenders to succeed her have said that they will seek changes to the deal with Japan if elected. Japan’s defense minister, Tomomi Inada, stirred bitter wartime memories in South Korea on Thursday by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which commemorates Japan’s war dead, including a number of officers convicted of war crimes during World War II. | 1 |
The Comedy Central series Broad City will bleep out President Donald Trump’s name in its upcoming fourth season, in what one actress describes as an attempt to rid the show of any mention of the president. [“There’s no airtime for this orange [person],” in season four of the show, actress Ilana Glazer told USA Today. “We bleep his name the whole season. ” From actress and executive producer Amy Poehler, Broad City follows two — played by actresses Abbi Jacobson and Glazer — living in New York City. A trailer teasing season four sees the show’s stars wearing pussy hats at a protest. A moment later, Glazer yells “F*ck You, Trump. I’m going back in,” and proceeds to turn on what appears to be a vibrating sex toy. Of the scene, Glazer says Jacobson’s character struggles to stimulate herself sexually due to all the “danger” imposed by the Trump administration. “Ilana’s ‘powers’ are decreasing during the current administration because it’s just so hard to (orgasm) when you know so many people are in such danger,” the actress said. “So Ilana works through her ( ) and it’s wild. ” The show, which began as a web series in 2009, has veered into politics in the past. A season three episode saw Glazer’s character volunteering for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Pandemonium erupts when Clinton makes a surprise visit to the campaign office. On the set of @broadcity season 3 with @abbijacobson, @ilazer and Amy! #yas pic. twitter. — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 11, 2015, Jacobson defended Clinton’s appearance on the show, telling Entertainment Weekly that they “were not trying to make a statement” by having the former Sec. of State on. A year later, however, Glazer said season four was written with the expectation that Hillary Clinton would win the election. “We wrote (Season 4) being like, ‘Here we go! Hillary for president! ’” Glazer told USA Today. But after “this host became president of our country, we rewrote a lot. ” The comedy series saw a considerable ratings dip in season three, falling from an average of 1. 2 million viewers in its season one debut in 2014 to about 600, 000 viewers in March 2016. The fourth season of Broad City premieres on Comedy Central August 23. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 1 |
Yoko Ono, the artist known for such monumental works as “Breaking up The Beatles” and well, that’s really it, has taken to Twitter to once again insert herself into the political sphere. Comment on this Article Via Your Facebook Account Comment on this Article Via Your Disqus Account Follow Us on Facebook! | 0 |
So, anyway, what’s the deal? Is Trump just trying to cut his impending loss off at the pass? @SopanDeb Man, his campaign's internal polling must be dreadful
— Jason Solomon (@solomonster) October 27, 2016 @SopanDeb Only someone who knows he will lose says that.
— Marcus S. (@goodwillfiction) October 27, 2016 @alivitali Something a loser would say.
Or is Trump flexing Trump’s authoritarian muscles? @alivitali Sounds like a dictator.
— Bonkai Forever (@Forever_Dusk) October 27, 2016 @SopanDeb That is called a dictatorship. He knows that, right? I mean, he has to…
— Aaron Sarka (@SarkaAaron) October 27, 2016 @SopanDeb The Dictator Speaketh
— Austin Corona (@austincorona1) October 27, 2016 @SopanDeb "you know, sorta seize power through some armed uprising and install me as president. Like, for life. Just thinking aloud."
— Edward DeRuiter (@edwardderuiter) October 27, 2016 @SopanDeb God help us if he wins. He has true dictatorial urges.
— Oliver Hernandez (@OliverHernandez) October 27, 2016
By all means, GOP, make this man your ideological — and intellectual — standard-bearer. See how well that works out for you. It’s worked wonders so far! @SopanDeb Yeah, this is a guy who definitely respects the limits of presidential power
— Scott McBride (@jscottmcbride) October 27, 2016 @SopanDeb Brilliant. Such a transcendent legal mind he has. Really a huge defender of the Constitution. | 0 |
Even though he’s about to get the full Hollywood C. G. I. treatment, Doctor Strange has never been a superstar of the Marvel Universe — more like an endearing benchwarmer with a knuckleball personality and a wacky Cloak of Levitation. He arrived unheralded in 1963 in Strange Tales No. 110 as a feature to the Human Torch. He was a slight, afterthought dreamed up by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, who are better known for creating the Amazing . Conceived at first in the cornball tradition of comics necromancers like Mandrake the Magician and Mr. Mystic, Doctor Strange gradually staked out a singular position as a master of the mystic arts and, eventually, Sorcerer Supreme. And unlike most Marvel heroes, who rely on their fists, he uses magic to defend Earth from malign, otherworldly threats like the Dread Dormammu and the nefarious Nightmare. He finally got his own comic book in 1968, but it was canceled the next year. Not even Doctor Strange’s mighty enchantments could overcome poor sales, a sad hallmark of his career. But now potential vindication is near. “Doctor Strange” opens Friday, Nov. 4, with Benedict Cumberbatch starring. Based on my many decades of study, here are 10 things you should know before you see the movie. Magic, after all, can be exhilarating but befuddling. 1. HE’S A REAL DOCTOR Before draping his cape and waggling his fingers, Stephen Strange was a talented yet arrogant surgeon, driven by ego and ambition. So he’s your man, whether you’ve got a bad ticker or, as Jason Aaron wrote in the recent graphic novel “The Way of the Weird,” “your daughter started cursing in Latin and walking like a spider. ” 2. HE’S AN ALLITERATION ADDICT This is really the writer Stan Lee’s fault, but Strange can’t speak without racking up points. His many munificent mutterings include: the Shadowy Shades of the Seraphim, the Seven Rings of Raggadorr and — who can forget? — the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth. 3. HE’S GROOVY, MAN! In the 1960s and early ’70s, he did have a certain counterculture cachet. In T. Rex’s “Mambo Sun,” Marc Bolan sang, “On a mountain range, I’m Doctor Strange for you. ” A 1965 psychedelic concert in San Francisco was called “A Tribute to Dr. Strange,” and he showed up on the cover of the Pink Floyd album “A Saucerful of Secrets” (1968). 4. HE’S A MERRY PRANKSTER, TOO Speaking of the counterculture, the doc also appeared in “The Electric Acid Test,” Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction chronicle of the trip taken by the novelist Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. Mr. Wolfe wrote of Kesey reading comic books, “absorbed in the plunging purple Steve Ditko shadows of Dr. Strange. ” The writer Roy Thomas later returned the favor, giving Mr. Wolfe a in Doctor Strange No. 180 in 1969. 5. HE LIVES IN THE VILLAGE (OF COURSE) Stephen Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum sits in Greenwich Village at 177A Bleecker. Presumably it’s not too far from his preferred watering hole, the Bar With No Doors. 6. HE’S A MAGICAL LADIES MAN Sure, he routinely saves the world — if not the universe — but Strange is also something of a cad and a hound. He’s been known to make out with any entity that’s vaguely female in form, including insectlike . Really, he’s more likely to be killed by a spurned girlfriend than by one of his archenemies. 7. HE’S NO ALI He prefers to hurl spells, incantations and mystic bolts, but Doctor Strange will engage in physical combat if he has to. He knows martial arts, but his weapon of choice (in this fleshly plane of existence) is a baseball bat wrapped in enchanted barbed wire. 8. HE KNOWS SUPERNATURAL BONDAGE One disturbing element during Strange’s Ditko years ( ) was how often Clea, the doctor’s love interest, was drawn bound and in poses of submission. But the Ditko biographer Blake Bell explained in “Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko,” that in the years he worked on the character, Mr. Ditko shared a studio at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street in Manhattan with Eric Stanton, a fetish artist. Stanton was best known for his bondage work on comic strips like “Sweeter Gwendolyn” and “Confidential TV. ” Maybe something stuck with Mr. Ditko. 9. HIS MENTOR WAS NOT TILDA SWINTON In the coming movie, Doctor Strange’s mentor, the Ancient One, is played by a beguiling if tough Tilda Swinton. In the comics, Ancient is male, an archaic Asian relic who owns an I’ face that looks like a fossilized prune. Ms. Swinton’s version is Celtic, and the change was one of a number of developments that led to renewed controversy over Hollywood’s whitewashing of Asian characters. 10. HIS DEFINING ARTIST WAS STEVE DITKO Though he stopped drawing the character in 1966, Steve Ditko is still the definitive Doctor Strange artist. For four years Mr. Ditko imagined Strange’s netherworlds, dimensions and phantasmagorias. (It’s hard to believe upon reading Doctor Strange that Mr. Ditko also once drew the bulk of the Incredible Hulk.) As the comics historian Dean Mullaney has written of Ditko, “He took the ethereal and made it tangible. ” And two books have just been published that provide full access to Mr. Ditko’s dreamscapes. “Ditko Unleashed” (IDW) is the generously illustrated catalog for a Ditko retrospective on display through Jan. 8 at the Casal Solleric museum in Mallorca, Spain, while the “Doctor Strange Omnibus” (Marvel) reprints his full, epic run on the character. As the Marvel artist John Romita Sr. who succeeded Mr. Ditko on told Mr. Bell, “No one could do Doctor Strange like him. ” | 1 |
— The Dishonorable DJT (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 27, 2016
Remember that WSJ story we told you about on Sunday that reported on a Gov. Terry McAuliffe super PAC that donated to the wife of a senior FBI official who just happened to take over Hillary Clinton’s email investigation?
Yeah … it just got a whole lot worse. Apparently Hillary Clinton herself was the one who raised the money for the super PAC that set off this entire chain of events in the first place! Alana Goodman of the Daily Mail reports: EXCLUSIVE: Clinton headlined fundraiser for McAuliffe group before it gave $500K to wife of FBI boss https://t.co/zOdL6yo8a2
Not only that, but Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook used to work for the McAuliffe’s super PAC:
Virginia election records show that Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook, a former McAuliffe aide, was also on the Common Good VA payroll before he joined her presidential campaign
Another coincidence? Again, nothing to see here…move along, anoint her president and let's be done with it. Unreal. #tcot #lnyhbt https://t.co/pthO0dqqNr | 0 |
It was the year politics took over our closets, and clothes went beyond products to become positions. From the moment in early February when Beyoncé strode onto the field at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. for the Super Bowl 50 halftime show followed by an army of backup dancers in outfits that paid homage to the Black Panthers to perform “Formation,” a song that was called the anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement, it was clear “fashion statement” was going to take on a whole new meaning in 2016. No longer was it enough to simply tell others what you believed you had to show them, too. And the simplest, most powerful, most public way to do that was via what you wore. In a world of white noise and factional cacophony, a world where the first line of communication is visual, clothes are our shared language. Whether you like what you see or not, you can read it. Once upon a time “political dress” meant the dress of the political class. In 2016, it became a term donned by everyone — and damned by some. Practically every month. In April, Laurence Rossignol, the French minister for women’s rights, fired the first salvo at what became the fashion lightning rod of the summer: the Burkini. Ms. Rossignol scolded designers from Marks Spencer to Dolce Gabbana for catering to the Muslim market by offering swimsuits and hijabs, accusing them of “promoting women’s bodies being locked up” to bolster their own coffers. Soon Pierre Bergé, the outspoken of Yves Saint Laurent, stepped into the fray. A particular item of dress had become a symbol of the debate over the balance between enlightenment values and civil society, and whether freedom includes the freedom to wear whatever you want. By August, the issue had gone global and viral. Islamic women increasingly demanded they be accorded equal respect and treatment when it came to their clothing choices. The fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first Olympic athlete to compete for the United States while wearing a hijab. Then Anniesa Hasibuan, an Indonesian, became the first designer to pair a hijab with every look of her show during New York Fashion Week. Condé Nast International started Vogue Arabia. [See more Year in Style articles] It was but one sartorial story in a summer where wardrobes spoke as loudly as any words (and in turn spurred a lot of them). In May, in a nod to the opening of Cuba, Karl Lagerfeld took the Chanel Cruise show to Havana, becoming the first brand to stage a show in the country. The decision was not without controversy, since the average Cuban wage at the time was $25 a month and the brand had, it admitted, “zero business” there — but the trip did serve in focusing the attention of the 1 percent, at least for a moment, on the island nation. In June, British designers began to publicly declare their “Brexit” stance using the London men’s wear shows as their soapbox, with one designer, Daniel W. Fletcher, not only staging a outside the official show site but also dressing his protesters in “stay” hoodies and and the Sibling designers Sid Bryan and Cozette McCreery likewise donning slogan tees to take their bows. In July, W. N. B. A. teams led by the Minnesota Lynx and then the New York Liberty started swapping their usual uniform for black emblazoned with the slogans #blacklivesmatter and #Dallas5, among others despite individual and team fines from the league, the players persisted. Around the same time, a photo became a national symbol when a young woman in a flowing sundress faced down police in Baton Rouge, La. at a protest over the killing of Alton Sterling, and the visceral visual contrast between the Louisiana State Police troopers’ black riot gear and her graceful, nonrevolutionary summer frock crystallized the fault lines developing around the country. That month also saw the election of Theresa May, who became Britain’s second female prime minister, causing a torrent of stories about her fanciful footwear, which she proudly proclaimed was a tactical “icebreaker” in meetings. And it was when Hillary Clinton formally accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. Standing onstage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Mrs. Clinton made history as the first woman to be a major party nominee for president, but in case you missed the import, her white Ralph Lauren pantsuit underscored the message. It squared the circle first drawn by suffragists in 1913 when they adopted white as one of their signature colors, and later traced by Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan in 1978 when they wore white to the women’s rights march on Washington, and then by Geraldine Ferraro with her white suit accepting the Democratic nomination in 1984. And so it went. By September, there was no holding back: The look of autumn was the look of the American election. New York Fashion Week kicked off the day with a benefit for Mrs. Clinton featuring a runway show for which Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, was a host Ms. Wintour wore a dress designed by Jason Wu featuring a mosaic of the different states in varying shades of blue. Opening Ceremony recast its presentation as a “pageant of the people” featuring not only models in shirtdresses and bomber jackets but also Natasha Lyonne and Whoopi Goldberg talking electoral issues — both accessorized by Rock the Vote volunteers. In Paris, Stella McCartney splashed female empowerment and antifur slogans such as “Thanks Girls” and “No Leather” over her lace and cotton loungewear. In October, the “pantsuit power” flash mob, 170 dancers strong, took to the streets in New York’s Union Square wearing, natch, a rainbow of pantsuits to demonstrate their support of Mrs. Clinton the resulting video has been seen over 91, 000 times. And on Nov. 8 those women who intended to vote for the first female president adopted both sartorial stratagems, and went to the polls in pantsuits or white or both to cast their votes. You didn’t even need to see the boxes they checked on their ballots to know where they were coming from. Though their candidate lost, the point remained, embedded in the fabric of social media and, now, recent history. The year may be over. But the change in our wardrobes — the change in how we think about the fabric of our lives — is just beginning. | 1 |
SONOYTA, Mexico — Reiner Ríos Gómez, who is from Honduras’s capital, Tegucigalpa, lifted his shirt last week to expose a scar about 12 inches long in the middle of his back, where he said a machete hit him as he fled the robbers who were trying to steal his pay: 2, 800 lempiras, or about $119, for half a month’s work in construction. To escape that life, he set out for the United States on Jan. 15, making it as far as Sonoyta, Mexico, a city on the Arizona border where roadside stalls sell the camouflage clothes and backpacks that migrants use to cross to the other side. Then he called a cousin in Houston. “Why are you coming?” he said his cousin asked him. “They’re going to send you back. ” So Mr. Ríos, 33, settled down at a shelter in Sonoyta, unsure of what to do next. “I have nothing to go back to,” he said. “And I don’t know if there’s anything for me on the other side. ” Customs and Border Protection reported this week that the number of people caught trying to enter the United States illegally from Mexico had fallen in February to the lowest level in five years. The Trump administration said the sharp decline was a sign that its promises to hire more enforcement agents, deport more people and wall off the border were discouraging people from even trying to cross. In interviews with migrants, their advocates, and workers at shelters and soup kitchens in Mexico, the United States and Central America, few quibbled with the idea that President Trump had altered the climate for immigration. Indeed, it was clear that the ground had shifted on both sides of the border, and that the route north to a better life had suddenly grown quieter, riskier and more desperate. Since January, occupancy at one shelter in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Tex. has fallen by about according to its director, Aarón Méndez Ruiz. Other shelters in the United States and Mexico reported significant drops as well. Six Central Americans staying at Mr. Méndez’s shelter voluntarily surrendered to the Mexican authorities so they could be sent back home, he said, and about 40 more chose to return on their own. “That had never happened,” Mr. Méndez said. “People don’t return. ” In the Arizona desert, where blue flags flying 30 feet in the air mark where volunteers have left drums full of water, “there have been more water stations with no water use than usual,” said Stephen Saltonstall of the aid group Humane Borders. Last week, Ruben Garcia, the director of the Annunciation House, a shelter in El Paso, noticed that far fewer Central Americans were arriving than he was used to seeing. He asked those who did show up why that was. “One hundred percent verbalized some version of, ‘Your president,’” Mr. Garcia said. The drop in border crossings is encouraging news, the homeland security secretary, John F. Kelly, said in a statement, “because it means many fewer people are putting themselves and their families at risk of exploitation, assault and injury by human traffickers and the physical dangers of the treacherous journey north. ” At the same time, though, the dire economic and safety conditions that drive people from their homes have not changed. At Casa del Migrante — a shelter in Caborca, 80 miles from the Arizona border — Mainor José Portillo, a from Choloma, Honduras, was waiting last week for his arm to heal. He injured it last month while trying to enter the United States. Because he had no money to pay his smugglers, he had agreed to carry a backpack filled with 50 pounds of marijuana. But he was spotted by the Border Patrol as soon as he crossed, he said, so he dropped the backpack and was able to outrun the agents and make it back to the Mexican side. Now he was trying to decide whether to try again. One thing was certain: He did not want to go back to Honduras. “The gangs killed my cousin, and they said I was going to be next,” he said. Attempting an illegal crossing into the United States has become even more of a financial gamble than before. Officials and immigrant advocates in several countries said the criminal groups that control smuggling had been empowered as they began marketing themselves to migrants as the only way to evade the increased enforcement. Smuggling fees from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the and Northern Triangle of Central America, have climbed as high as $15, 000, advocates and officials reported, far above the average yearly income in the region. Some migrants who might once have headed to the United States for safety and work are instead looking elsewhere, including Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and even South America. “If the United States isn’t a country that will provide the guarantees, they will go somewhere else,” said Vinicio Sandoval, executive director of the Independent Monitoring Group of El Salvador, a labor and legal rights organization involved in migration issues. But a number of migrants along the route were holding to the unrealistic hope that Mr. Trump would change his mind about them. Gustavo Adolfo Gómez, a cabdriver, said he had left Choluteca, Honduras, on Jan. 15 after gang members sprayed the taxi stand where he worked with bullets, killing two of his colleagues. He arrived on Feb. 27 at the Pueblos Sin Fronteras shelter in Sonoyta. He said he planned to wait there a bit. For what? He was not sure. “Maybe Trump will close his eyes one night and God will touch his heart,” he said. men and one woman slept at Casa del Migrante in Caborca one night last week, on rolled rugs and skinny mats under a frayed plastic roof that did not completely keep out the rain. Just a month earlier, the shelter was twice as full. Leonel Valderramas, 36, who stayed there last week, said he had departed in early January from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the most dangerous city in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. He heard updates about Mr. Trump’s policies along the way, from fellow migrants who had boarded the same freight trains: “the wall, the raids, the deportation, everything,” he said. He hoped to make it to Houston, where he has friends. But then his wife called, telling him, “Si quieres, regresa” — come back if you want to. He had come too far to turn back, he said. “But,” he added, “what if I keep going and I get caught?” | 1 |
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 17:37 UTC © Omar haj kadour / AFP A Syrian man checks the damage at a school after it was hit in an alleged air strike in the village of Hass, in the south of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on October 26, 2016. Almost two dozen children have reportedly been killed in an airstrike on a school complex in Syria's Idlib province, according to opposition activists . The reports emerged as the UN Security Council debated the dire humanitarian situation in the country. At least 28 civilians, mostly children, were killed when the strikes hit a school complex in the village of Hass, the activists said, pinning the blame on either Russian or Syrian warplanes . The Wednesday tragedy was first reported by the controversial two-man, London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Western-funded Civil Defense Network, also known as the White Helmets . The opposition Idlib Media Center also confirmed a strike on a school, claiming a "rocket" struck the premises. Comment: Red flag number one. Abdulrahman (aka SOHR) is a fraud and a terrorist sympathizer (see: Propaganda spin cycle: 'Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' is funded by US and UK governments ). The White Helmets have the distinction of being actual terrorists (see: White Helmets Fraud: Terrorist Support Group, Not Humanitarians - But West Loves Them! ). They are liars, cheats, frauds, and killers. "One rocket hit the entrance of the school as students were leaving to go home after the school administration decided to end classes for the day because of the raids," an activist said, speaking on condition of anonymity . The UN Children's Rights & Emergency Relief Organization has condemned the tragedy as a potential "war crime," saying it is likely the "deadliest attack on a school" since the beginning of the Syrian war. "Twenty-two children and six teachers were reportedly murdered today when their school compound was repeatedly attacked in Idlib, Syria," UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement. He did not specify the circumstances of the attack or the sources of the reports. "This is a tragedy. It is an outrage. And if deliberate, it is a war crime ," Lake added. "When will the world's revulsion at such barbarity be matched by insistence that this must stop?" Comment: UNSG Ban Ki-moon released an identical statement today, saying : "The Secretary-General is appalled by reports of attacks that killed students and teachers in a school complex in Haas village, Idlib governorate, Syria on 26 October. If deliberate, this attack may amount to a war crime." Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the attack on a school in Syria's Idlib and called for an investigation into the bombing . She also said that international media "launched an attack" on Russia by claiming that Moscow and Damascus are behind the bombing without presenting evidence . Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said that Moscow will look into the facts to determine whether a possible airstrike destroyed the school, as reports of the deadly assault have so far only been confirmed by groups with tainted reputations and questionable sources. © Omar haj kadour / AFP A general view shows a damaged classroom at a school after it was hit in an alleged air strike in the village of Hass, in the south of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on October 26, 2016. Commenting on allegations that Russian jets could be responsible, Churkin said that Moscow will wait for the military to assess the situation. "It's horrible, I hope we were not involved. It's the easiest thing for me to say no, but I'm a responsible person, so I need to see what my Ministry of Defense is going to say ," he said. In it latest daily bulletin , the Russian center for the reconciliation of the opposing sides did not mention striking any targets in Idlib province . Citing a military source, Syrian state TV did report that strikes had taken place on terrorist positions in the region, but the targeting of a school complex was not confirmed. Idlib province is controlled by the Army of Conquest, a conglomerate of rebel groups being run by Fateh al-Sham Front (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra). Under the truce agreed between Russia and the US earlier this year, Islamic State and Al-Nusra fighters will continue to be targeted in airstrikes until terrorists lay down their weapons. Comment: The Russian Foreign Ministry explicitly denied carrying out an airstrike on the school. Maria Zakharova: "This is a lie. Russia has nothing to do with this dreadful attack." The Defense Ministry followed up with their own statement, which unlike the paranoid ravings of SOHR and the White Helmets, actually included some evidence: "On Thursday, a Russian UAV was directed to the area, to conduct detailed digital photography," said a statement from Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov. "As can be seen from the photos taken by the drone, there are no signs of damage to the roof of the school, or craters from airstrikes around it ." "We have analyzed the photo and video 'evidence' of the supposed attack. The video published in a range of Western media outlets appears to consist of more than 10 different shots, filmed at different times of the day, and in different resolutions that were edited into a single clip," stated Konashenkov. "The photograph published by AFP shows that only one wall of the school is damaged, and all the desks inside the classroom are in place . The outer fence seen through the hole has no traces of damage from bomb fragments. In a genuine airstrike this is physically impossible - the furniture would have been swept away by the blast wave, and there would have been damage marks on the classroom wall and the outer fence ." © Russian Defense Ministry " Our evidence points to UNICEF falling victim to another scam from the White Helmet fraudsters . Before making resonant statements, UNICEF should check its sources more carefully, to protect the reputation of the respected organization," continued Konashenkov. In addition, just as with the humanitarian aid convoy attack, Russian recon detected a U.S. drone in the area at the time of the attack: No Russian aircraft entered the area over the Syrian Idlib, where the alleged strike took place, [Konashenkov said]. "According to a photo made by a Russian UAV, the school's roof is not damaged and there are no bomb craters in the area near the school. Similar information may be requested from our American colleagues. Russian reconnaissance means registered a US' MQ-1B Predator surveillance-and-attack drone ." | 0 |
There has been a and a rally, an allegation of “fake news,” a petition that garnered thousands of signatures and a chorus of outcry from elected officials. What is causing so much outrage? Townsend Harris High School, a school in Queens, is getting a new principal. For several months, students, teachers and parents have made a forceful and public case against the school’s interim acting principal, Rosemarie Jahoda, who has held the position since the beginning of the school year. They have criticized her management style and interactions with students, and called for her to be replaced. In the past week, the conflict has only intensified. On Tuesday, the Queens borough president, Melinda Katz, sent a letter to the New York City schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, calling for changes in the process, which she described as “entirely shrouded under a veil of silence and secrecy. ” This was her third letter to Ms. Fariña on the hiring process and its impact on Townsend Harris. When a principal position is open, the superintendent selects three to five candidates from the applicant pool and sends them to members of the school leadership team, which is made up of parents, school staff members and the chapter leader of the teachers’ union. A committee from the leadership team interviews applicants and makes recommendations to the superintendent. The superintendent then consults with the leadership team, but does not have to choose the candidate it favored. This is all done in private, and members of the leadership team are required to sign a confidentiality agreement. “You can’t have true community input without allowing the community input to be public,” Ms. Katz said in an interview. Students working on the school newspaper, The Classic, filed a Freedom of Information Act request this week asking for the names of the 38 people who had applied to be their principal, according to Brian Sweeney, an English teacher and the school newspaper adviser. Although being appointed interim acting principal does not officially confer an advantage in getting the job permanently, some people familiar with the workings of the system believe that it does. Other public officials have also criticized the process and expressed concerns about Ms. Jahoda. Nily Rozic and David Weprin, two Democratic members of the New York State Assembly, said in a letter last week to the schools chancellor that they were “disappointed by the lack of community input during the selection process and the lack of engagement by your office. ” Their letter also raised concerns about a comment by an Education Department official that “fake news” about the situation at Townsend Harris was being widely circulated. The official, Fran DeSanctis, a representative for the high school superintendent’s office, made the comment at a district leadership meeting last week, the letter said. The Townsend Harris newspaper has aggressively covered the tensions at the school and Ms. Jahoda. Students on the school paper were outraged by the “fake news” comment, saying their own reporting accounted for much of the news being written on the subject. They published a public letter of their own online.’ ”“PolitiFact defines fake news as ’ stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports,’” the letter said. “Fake news is not poorly sourced journalism: It is wholly fictitious. Ms. DeSanctis is therefore not accusing us of being wrong she is accusing us of purposefully making up lies and reporting them as news. If we were fabricating our material, we would be able to leave school far earlier than we do. ”” ’Through the Education Department, Ms. DeSanctis declined to comment. Ms. Jahoda, who declined to be interviewed, said in a statement, “It’s always been my focus as a teacher and administrator to serve students, and it continues to be my focus at Townsend Harris. ” “While there have been many inaccurate allegations,” she said, “I want to move forward and serve all the students and families at Townsend. ” Ms. Katz, the borough president, said she was perplexed by how the conflict had spun so far out of control. “Whatever they’re doing right now, it’s not working,” she said of the Education Department. “No matter who they pick permanently, right now they’ve let it go astray. No one is answering the question of the kids and teachers and parents and alumni. ” Will Mantell, a spokesman for the department, said, “We value hearing from students, elected officials and school communities, and continue to listen to their feedback. ” | 1 |
On May 14, 1948, U. S. President Harry Truman recognized the State of Israel — over the vehement objections of the State Department, which was partial to the Arab states and lacked confidence that the Jewish state could defend itself. [Truman declared: This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel. Truman’s brief telegram was an act of immense political courage. For months, his leading foreign policy advisers, including Secretary of State George C. Marshall, had been urging him not to recognize Israel, but rather to consider a prolonged “trusteeship” of Palestine after the British Mandate had expired. In brazen tactics reminiscent of the “deep state” methods being used by the federal bureaucracy against President Donald Trump today, the State Department even tried to tie Truman’s hands. As one of his advisers, Clark Clifford, later recalled: My fears about the State Department had crystallized after a bitter incident in March, when, without informing the President, it had permit ted the American delegation to the UN to reverse its support for partition and switch to trusteeship for Palestine — a contradiction of a personal commitment the President had given the previous day to Chaim Weiz mann, the Zionist leader who would later become the first President of Israel. Furious and depressed when he learned what had happened, Presi dent Truman wrote on his calendar for March 19, 1948: “The State Dept. pulled the rug from under me today … . The first I know about it is what I see in the papers! Isn’t that hell? I am now in the position of a liar and a . I’ve never felt so low in my life. There are people on the third and fourth level of the State Dept. who have always wanted to cut my throat. They’ve succeeded in doing it. ” The State Deparment’s arrogance merely strengthened Truman’s resolve on the issue. Truman wrote to his sister on March 21, 1948 that the State Department’s “striped pants conspirators” had “balled up” the issue, but added that “it may work out anyway in spite of them. ” On May 12, Truman presided over a decisive meeting in the Oval Office. The State Department presented its case against Israel. Clifford was there, and spoke in favor of recognition. Secretary Marshall objected to his presence, adding: “If you follow Clifford’s advice and if I were to vote in the election, I would vote against you. ” President Truman did not make his decision known until the fateful day itself. The president’s staff made clear to the State Department that if it opposed him, Truman was prepared to fight a political war against it. Finally, the bureaucrats backed down. The diplomats at the United Nations were taken by surprise. Clifford notes their reaction in his memoir: “As The New York Times reported the next morn ing, ‘the first reaction was that someone was making a terrible joke, and some diplomats broke into skeptical laughs. ’” But reality soon set in. The United States had recognized Israel — and the Soviet Union did the same a few days later. Since then, the State Department has generally retained an bias — partly because of the oil reserves controlled by Israel’s enemies, and partly because of the sheer number of Arab and Muslim states, which allows them to exert disproportionate power in many international institutions. The left’s embrace of the Palestinian cause has also affected the political culture in Washington. The consensus in the foreign policy community is that moves such as relocating the U. S. embassy to Jerusalem would launch — indeed, almost justify — a “third intifada. ” But for Truman, the issue of recognizing Israel was fundamentally a moral one. And he was not going to let any bureaucrat, or any foreign threat, stand in his way. As he wrote to his brother on March 22, 1948: “I think the proper thing to do, and the thing I have been doing, is to do what I think is right and let them all go to hell. ” Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
According to Reuters:
“The new emails turned up as FBI investigators were examining electronic devices used by former Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner in connection with an alleged “sexting” scandal. Weiner’s estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is a Clinton confidante.”
According to two law enforcement sources, there is a group of investigators within the FBI’s New York Field Office – the office that discovered the recent Anthony Weiner emails – that are hostile toward Clinton – and it is believed that this faction is behind the recent media leaks about the ongoing Clinton Foundation investigation.
One thing is for sure – if Clinton wins the election on Tuesday, the Democratic Party will undoubtedly be launching an investigation into the FBI, and it would be more than ironic if the most memorable scandal of the 2016 election ends up being about the FBI, instead of Clinton’s emails.
Apparently, Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani – the former mayor of New York City – might have some involvement in it as well:
It is a clear violation of the law by these FBI agents in an attempt to influence a presidential election. If any Democrats were thinking about staying home on election day, this should really inspire them to do the opposite.
Clinton needs every vote now, as people are going to ridiculous lengths to make this election work for Trump, who is currently losing in the polls. Clinton is facing more opposition and obstacles than any presidential candidate has ever dealt with, and even those in power are abusing their authority to get her insane opponent into the White House. | 0 |
Hillary Clinton’s campaign announced a proposal on Wednesday to eliminate tuition at public colleges and universities for families with annual incomes up to $125, 000 — largely embracing a core position of Senator Bernie Sanders, who had pledged to make tuition at public institutions free for all students. While stopping short of Mr. Sanders’s vision, the proposal is likely to hearten many of the senator’s young supporters who had flocked to his insurgent campaign. Mrs. Clinton and her aides are working to unite the party behind her before the Democratic National Convention begins on July 25 in Philadelphia. She and Mr. Sanders have already discussed the importance of featuring the issue of the affordability of higher education prominently in the general election. Mr. Sanders, who has yet to end his candidacy and endorse Mrs. Clinton, praised her education proposal as a “very bold initiative” in a brief news conference in Washington on Wednesday, calling it a significant step for party unity. “The final product is the work of both campaigns,” he said — a clear sign of thawing relations between the two after a bitterly fought nominating contest. The policy proposals come as Mrs. Clinton has been engaged in intensely personal sparring with Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and could be an effort to turn the page in her campaign a day after the F. B. I. director, James B. Comey, was sharply critical of her “extremely careless” use of a private email address and server. Under Mrs. Clinton’s education proposal, the federal government would provide tuition grants to states that agree to put up some matching money. In some respects, the proposal was similar to one Mrs. Clinton made last year. At that time, however, she said she would expect families to make a “realistic contribution” to tuition payments. Also, borrowing a key aspect of Mr. Sanders’s plan, the new proposal appears to make tougher demands on states than her previous one. Education policy experts generally praised the new proposal, calling the requirements for state financial participation essential to reversing the drastic state cuts in higher education support. But some experts said details of the initiative — including exactly how it would work and be paid for — were sketchy, and raised concerns that some states would decline to contribute money. They also raised questions about the impact on private colleges and universities with small endowments that compete with state institutions. “To the extent that it borrows from the Sanders system of matching, that’s a very significant step forward in our judgment,” said Barmak Nassirian, the director of federal relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, whose membership includes many regional public universities. “The reason prices have gone up is that states have been withdrawing their support. ” F. King Alexander, the chancellor of Louisiana State University, who has advocated a state matching requirement in federal education funding, said the Clinton campaign had been in contact with him about the proposal. “The most important part of the plan is that the federal government plays a role in getting states to reinvest and keep higher education affordable at public colleges and universities,” Mr. Alexander said. “You can only play in the free college game if your state maintains its commitment. ” Mrs. Clinton had previously raised questions about that aspect of Mr. Sanders’s plan, saying it gave states the ability to opt out, just as some had done with Medicaid expansion. As recently as this spring, Mrs. Clinton scoffed at the idea that Republican governors like Scott Walker of Wisconsin — who has slashed state spending on the University of Wisconsin — would ever go along with Mr. Sanders and support state matching funds to qualify for his proposed federal tuition grants. She was almost surely right — and on Wednesday, a spokesman for Mr. Walker said the governor would not go along with her plan, either, seeing it as costly and ineffective. The Clinton campaign was struggling with the question of what would happen if some states refused to participate, said an education expert who was consulted on the plan. In addition to possible opposition from states that would not want to pay or that resent federal intrusion, the plan might face resistance from private colleges and universities that compete with public institutions receiving the federal money, even though it pledges $25 billion over 10 years to help historically black colleges and other private colleges with modest endowments. “Our biggest concern with it is how it limits student choice,” said Sarah A. Flanagan, the vice president of government relations for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. “It would put a lot of subsidies — well over $100 billion in new money — towards major economic incentives for people to go to their public colleges, not even public colleges. It certainly limits student choice. ” Mrs. Clinton had previously said she would raise the money for her education plan, estimated last year to cost $350 billion over 10 years, by limiting deductions for taxpayers. The additional cost of the proposals announced Wednesday would be covered by closing tax loopholes, particularly those used by hedge funds and private equity firms, the campaign said. Mr. Sanders had said his plan to make college tuition free would have cost $70 billion a year, with of that paid for by states. As part of her package of proposals, Mrs. Clinton, who speaks often on the campaign trail of her plans for college education, is also calling for a moratorium on the repayment of federal student loans. The move, which the campaign said would be carried out through executive action if Mrs. Clinton becomes president, would allow borrowers to refinance loans or restructure debt. Mrs. Clinton is also pledging to restore Pell Grant funding, her campaign said, in the hopes of aiding students seeking summer courses, and will also require that students work 10 hours a week to help pay the cost of their college attendance. If adopted, her initiative would take shape over several years, the campaign said, initially covering students whose families make $85, 000 a year or less. The threshold would increase by $10, 000 a year until it reached $125, 000 in 2021. The announcement arrives as Mr. Sanders and his allies seek to exert maximum influence over the official Democratic platform, hoping to push Mrs. Clinton to the left on a number of fronts. Adam Green, one of the founders of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an advocacy group, said the announcement on Wednesday “should be welcome news for Bernie Sanders supporters. ” “This represents a doubling down by Hillary Clinton on the idea that if you’re a student in America, you should be able to attend your state’s public colleges or universities and graduate with zero debt,” Mr. Green said in a statement. “It would be smart general election messaging if the popular idea of college with a component gets enshrined in the Democratic platform. ” At his news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Sanders said: “I want to take this opportunity this afternoon to applaud Secretary Clinton for the very bold initiative she has brought forth for the financing of higher education. This proposal combines some of the strongest ideas which she fought for during the campaign with some of the principles that I fought for. ” | 1 |
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee told an audience at Washington’s Heritage Foundation Wednesday that he is aligned with President Donald Trump’s populist conservatism and the president’s concern for “The Forgotten Man” — a full reversal from stances he took in the presidential campaign when he adamantly opposed Trump’s candidacy. [“Donald Trump’s tabloid and persona may be an artifact of America’s glib celebrity culture, but his presidency represents a substantive indictment of Washington’s political and policymaking consensus, very much including the consensus within the GOP,” Lee said. “It’s an indictment I . ” Lee, who was associated with conservative holdouts, said it was time to get with the program and recognize that Trump is working on the same problems they are working on. “Almost seven years ago, I first ran for the Senate as an challenger against an incumbent of my own party,” he said. He added: Four years ago, I first came to the Heritage Foundation and urged conservatives to reconnect with the working families and struggling communities our party had too long ignored and I spent the bulk of my first term in the Senate advocating for policy reforms to help and empower the “Forgotten Americans” that Washington’s broken status quo was leaving behind. “President Trump’s peculiar brand of populist, nationalist politics is not what I had in mind. But nor must his election be the existential threat to conservatism, republicanism, and constitutionalism that many of his critics on the Right fear,” the senator said. The speech marked Lee’s progress from the loyal supporter of his best friend in the upper chamber, Sen. Ted Cruz (R. ) who took the fight to candidate Trump on the platform committee and led the unsuccessful fight to unbind pledged delegates to the New York City developer. It was a move that could have freed delegates unable to vote their will on the first ballot. In September, Lee rejected the idea of accepting Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court. In October, Lee asked Trump to step aside from the GOP ticket after the Access Hollywood tape was released. In November, Lee said he did not vote for Trump, instead opting for Evan McMullin, a former senior aide to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R. . ). After the election, the Utah senator made the trip to Trump Tower and met with the for 90 minutes. The meeting went well enough for Lee to tell a Utah radio audience in January that if Trump asked him to be on the Supreme Court, he would accept the nod. The senator was the featured speaker opening up the foundation’s “Conservatism for the Forgotten Man” discussion. The discussion will be hosted by John Edward Hilboldt, the foundation’s director of lectures and seminars led by Yuval Levin, a Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and editor at National Affairs and Heritage’s Salim Furth, a research fellow in macroeconomics. Lee said conservatives struggle with how to gauge how much government people really want and need. “Conservatives’ view of human nature and history tells us that in this life, there will always be problems and that attempts to use government to solve them often only make things worse,” he said. The natural skepticism for government action often proves conservatives are correct and much better at empowering citizens and communities to develop their own solutions, he said. “At our worst, though, we look indifferent to suffering and injustice because we may not see problems that require action. ” Deciding where, when, and how much to act is the constant frustration for conservatives, but with the November results, the struggle and frustration have been resolved, he said. “President Trump has already identified the problems that Americans want us to solve: Economic dislocation and insecurity. Inequality of opportunity, political marginalization, social isolation, and the cruel repugnance of a elite insulated from all of the above openly contemptuous of their disconnected countrymen who are not,” he said. “These problems are why Donald Trump ran for president and why he won. ” Conservatives must recognize that millions of real people need help, and it is incumbent upon them to work with the president, he asserted. “Trump was elected to help those Americans. And conservatives — especially conservatives who had misgivings about Candidate Trump — have a duty now to help him see how and where our principles can serve his mandate,” he said. “While the Left rages and the Washington Establishment scratches its head, conservatives — we — can make a case for a unifying, agenda. ” | 1 |
Disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner will plead guilty to charges that he sent obscene material to a girl, The New York Times has reported. [Weiner, 52, will enter a guilty plea with the U. S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan on a single charge of sending explicit material to a minor. The girl alleged that he sent her nude photos, shared pornographic videos with her, discussed his “rape fantasies,” and requested that she undress and masturbate during video calls. The crime carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail, although it is likely that the sentence will mean Weiner becomes a registered sex offender, although a final determination is yet to be made. Throughout his political career, Weiner, who is married to close Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, has been embroiled in a number of sexting scandals. The first, exposed in 2011 by the late Andrew Breitbart and dubbed ‘Weinergate,’ led to his resignation from Congress and the issuing of a public apology. Then, in 2013, while running as a candidate for mayor of New York, more photos were published of Weiner sexting another woman under the alias ‘Carlos Danger.’ Despite the revelation, Weiner did not pull out the race and eventually finished fifth with just 4. 9 percent of the vote. Last October, Weiner checked into a sex addiction facility to overcome his urges, although he was reportedly forced to leave early having run out of money to pay for it. Now, Huma Abedin, who last year revealed she was separating from Weiner, is reportedly “working hard” to save the couple’s marriage. According to sources close to the New York Post, Abedin remains “in love” with Weiner, blaming the “pressures of the campaign and presidential race and him drifting off into obscurity” for his latest relapse. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
Breitbart News head copy editor Adrienne Ross published two books on April 17, Push Your Way to Purpose: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You’re Meant to Be and #AuntAlma Unleashed: Old, Bold, and Out of Control. Below is an excerpt from Push Your Way to Purpose. Purpose consumes me. It always has. Who are you? Why are you? What will you? I began contemplating those questions when I was a young girl sitting in my bedroom and staring at pictures of music and television icons taped to my wall. But it started long before that. I entered the world with a mandate on my life. It was spoken. It was so. But I didn’t know. I always had a feeling that something larger was calling me, though, which made little sense, considering that I lived in rather ordinary surroundings. The projects of the Bronx don’t exactly conjure up images of greatness. Later, after I moved to Long Island, a bright future may have seemed more likely to the onlooker — like I was getting closer to the possibility of greatness, but even as I daydreamed, there was a nagging longing for more. But how would I make it happen? Isn’t that the question everyone asks? If you think not, think again. By 11, children have already begun wondering what their purpose is. By 40, adults have begun wondering if they missed theirs. We’re all consumed with purpose. Your neighbors are. Your are. You are. We may not recognize it, but it’s there — in the words we speak, the decisions we make, even the friends we keep. Everything points back to purpose and our longing for it. What are the odds that we will fulfill our purpose, though? The answer has everything to do with identity, being able to recognize who we truly are. Unfortunately, many never come to this revelation. As a result, they live beneath themselves. Even those seemingly on top of the world struggle with identity. I am writing this book because I have a message to share, one that will help you understand that there’s more waiting — for you. No matter how low you’ve fallen or how high you’ve climbed, you’re marked for more. This isn’t one of those name it, claim it, blab it, grab it, sprinkle a little dust, and you can have it books meant to pump you up with hot air. Those books do pump you up, right before dropping you — on your head. This book doesn’t tell you that reaching the place you were meant to be is easy. In fact, it tells you the opposite. Some of it is difficult, but all of it is doable. My experiences provide keys to unlock the doors to your destiny and introduce you to principles. My book is called Push Your Way to Purpose for a reason. Let’s just say the title also has a purpose. “Push” is a verb. Verbs are action words. You have to become a verb to grasp what the book’s subtitle promises to teach you: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You’re Meant to Be. Nobody wants to push anymore. We want everything to be easy. But easy doesn’t bring us to destiny. I don’t believe it was supposed to be as hard as we have made it, though. God created us with basic instructions: BE. But “but” got in the way. We “but” our way out of “be,” making excuses for being everything other than our best, and we made messes along the way. Some messes look like successes, while other messes can’t hide. Some people are so far down they can’t even imagine up. But most of the people we encounter are just your ordinary, people. They’re not at rock bottom, and they’re not soaring on the clouds. They’re average, working, normal people. They’re parents, teachers, students, friends. They’re community members you see in the supermarket. They run for elected office. They change diapers. They’re you. They’re me. So we’re in this together. We each have a purpose, and we can discover it, then fulfill it. It will require effort, a willingness never to settle for less than who we are meant to be. It may also require swallowing our egos if we think we have it all together and embracing our potential if we think we have nothing together. Wherever we sit on that spectrum, let us get up, raise our expectations, believe for more, and push our way to purpose. It’s time. “Name her Adrienne because she’s going to be a schoolteacher. ” I’ve shared this story more times than I can count, and for good reason: by the time I’m done telling the story, it always garners the desired response. What is that story, and what is the response? That’s the purpose of this chapter. It’s a perfect place to start because it sets the stage for the focus of this book. Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to believe that she was, in fact, born to be successful, that the adage is true for her life: “The sky is the limit. ” Some would bet the farm — or the — on it. It sounds good, doesn’t it? But it’s not true, or at least it’s not necessarily true. Like most things, it must be made to be true. You have to grab it and make it true in your life. The sky very well may be the limit, but so may the floor. It all depends on the level of your reach, the things you’ve chosen to embrace, the relationships you have — and have not — fostered. All these and more figure into your limit. You may be one of those whose life seems to be without limits, or you may be one who seemingly cannot catch a break. It could go either way because while there are circumstances that are beyond our control and sometimes just happens, very often, the thing that happens to us is us. One thing influencing our level of success is what we hear. When I say “hear,” I mean “listen to. ” Many words bump into my ear in the course of a day, but I don’t feed off of them all. There’s a huge difference between what I hear well enough to repeat and what I listen to and choose to eat — to digest. I decide. And it makes all the difference in the world. Adrienne Ross is an author, editor, columnist, speaker, and former teacher and coach. She owns Adrienne Ross Communications and speaks at schools, churches, political events, and national and international service organization conferences. Ross’s first book is #AuntAlma: Raisin’ a Little Hell Heaven on Earth. | 1 |
Oroville Dam’s spillway was forced to reopen at maximum flow as over 50, 000 cubic feet per second of water careened into the lake and weather scientists warned of an impending 7 to heatwave that could cause flooding from an accelerated snowmelt. [Water inflow at Lake Oroville on April 14 at 3 p. m. was a stunning 51, 378 cubic feet per second, up from 15, 000 cubic feet just 48 hours earlier. With the water level rising to 865. 84 feet, just 4. 14 feet from the danger zone, California Department of Water Resources engineers opened the dam’s gates and started continuously releasing water at down the spillway at its top rate of 35, 069 cubic feet per second. Breitbart News reported that the Northern Sierras on April 13 set an record of 89. 7 inches of precipitation for the water year. We warned that a new series of Northern California storms through the Easter holidays was expected to bring heavy rain and hail to the lower elevations, and up to 6 inches of new snow above level. Breitbart News also reported that Eldridge M. Moores, California’s preeminent expert regarding tectonic plate movements in mountain belts, told KQED that the main reason Oroville Dam’s spillway failed and almost took down the dam itself was due to the structural flaw of using deteriorating incompetent rock ago to anchor the spillway, rather than fresh rock granite that could have lasted up to a 1, 000 years. The California Department of Water Resources declared a very significant risk if repairs to the damaged spillways were not completed and both spillways for the next rainy season that begins on November 1. The large construction crew that has been feverishly trying to repair the spillway, was removed just hours before it reopened. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency now forecasts that the strong heating pattern in of the equatorial Pacific Ocean will develop this summer into an El Niño, creating a high probability of a wet water year that begins on November 1. In another dangerous development, UCLA climate scientist and author of the Water West blog, Daniel Swain, posted images taken from space by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast Satellite System that has identified a high probability of a potential 7 to heat wave bearing down on northern California. Swain warned that of a major snowmelt across the Sierras. He warned that a Hurricane flood risk could develop along eastern slopes of Sierra Nevada Mountains over the coming weeks. He highlighted that that the melting snowpack on the Nevada side could send 500 billion gallons of water into the swollen Walker and Carson rivers. | 1 |
Police Clash with Pipeline Protesters October 29, 2016
The confluence of the twin issues of Native American respect for the land and modern environmentalists’ alarm over global warming has met in resistance to a North Dakota oil pipeline, observed Ann Wright.
By Ann Wright
It’s like we are back to the 1800s when the U.S. Army rampaged against Native American tribes across the American West. The militarized police and the use of the National Guard this week in responding to the Standing Rock Sioux Native American challenge in North Dakota to big oil and its dangerous pipelines reminds one of Custer’s Last Stand against Sitting Bull.
In fact, the portrait of Sitting Bull is on one of the most popular t-shirts available to supporters of the “water protectors,” as those are known who protest yet one more oil pipeline that crosses sensitive watershed areas and major rivers of the United States. A graphic used by protesters resisting the Dakota Access pipeline.
Four days last week, I joined hundreds of Native Americans and social justice campaigners from around the United States and around the world, in challenging the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), the 1,172-mile, $3.7 billion dollar scar across the face of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
Last week, I photographed the area along Highway 6 south of Bismarck where the Energy Transfer Partnership contractors were busy digging the trench for the “Black Snake” as the pipeline is called.
I also counted 24 police cars returning to Bismarck at shift change around 3 p.m., a huge number of state law enforcement personnel and vehicles dedicated to protection of corporate business, instead of the rights of citizens.
Huge machines were chewing up the earth near water sources for all of North Dakota. The pipeline was rerouted from near Bismarck so if the pipeline breaks it would not endanger the water supply of the capital city of the state. But it was relocated to where it will cross the Missouri River and will jeopardize the water supply of the Native Americans and all Americans living in southern North Dakota and downstream of the Missouri River. Security forces protecting the Dakota Access pipeline construction spray protesters with pepper spray. (Photo by Tim Yakaitis)
On Thursday, the digging took a more confrontational turn. The huge digging equipment arrived to cut across State Highway 1806 at a spot where water protectors had set up a front-line camp several months ago, one mile north of the main encampment of over 1,000 people. As the equipment arrived, the “water protectors” blocked the highway.
In a dangerous incident, an armed private security guard of DAPL came onto the camp and was chased off into the water abutting the camp by water protectors. After a lengthy standoff, tribal agency police arrived and arrested the security guard. Water protectors set his security vehicle on fire.
On Friday more than 100 local and state police and North Dakota National Guard arrested over 140 people who blocked the highway attempting to stop the destruction of the land. Police in riot gear with automatic rifles lined up across a highway, with multiple MRAPs (mine-resistant ambush protected military vehicles), a sound cannon that can immobilize persons nearby, Humvees driven by National Guardsmen, an armored police truck and a bulldozer.
Police used mace, pepper spray, tear gas and flash-bang grenades and bean-bag rounds against Native Americans who lined up on the highway. Police reportedly shot rubber bullets at their horses and wounded one rider and his horse.
As this police mayhem was unfolding, a small herd of buffalo stampeded across a nearby field, a strong symbolic signal to the water protectors who erupted in cheers and shouts, leaving law enforcement officials wondering what was happening. The security forces protecting the Dakota Access pipeline against protesters are heavily militarized. (Photo by Tim Yakaitis)
The legality of the use by the State of North Dakota of its National Guard for the protests has been questioned strongly. National Guardsmen have been operating checkpoints to control entrance into the area and later were reportedly used to go house to house to talk to citizens about the protests — clearly law enforcement functions, not responsibilities of a military organization.
Supporters of the water protectors come from all over the United States. One grandmother arrived with cooking equipment and food, purchased with her social security check. Her granddaughter who helps her keep track of her finances, called her and said, “Granny, you have only $9 left in your bank account.” She responded, “Yes, and I going to use it today to buy more food to cook for these good people who are trying to save our water and our culture.”
Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserve and retired as a Colonel. She also was a U.S. diplomat for 16 years. She resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. | 0 |
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who is representing the Berkeley College Republicans in their free speech case against the University of California, Berkeley over failing to allow Ann Coulter to speak on campus on equal terms, slammed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for ignoring the case. ”[“I don’t see the ACLU here in this room, which is unfortunate,” Dillon said, after listing several prominent Democrats who join her in opposing Berkeley’s efforts to restrict Coulter’s speech. Asked whether there was “something special” about suing UC Berkeley, the home of the Free Speech Movement, Dillon answered: “I never thought I’d be on the same side of an issue as Willie Brown, Bernie Sanders, Bill Maher, Keith Ellison, and every other person who’s a lawyer. Now, there are some amateur lawyers, like Howard Dean, who looks up a case on the Internet and then thinks he’s a Supreme Court scholar — and, you know, some of our members of Congress who play lawyers on TV, apparently. But no, I think I don’t know any lawyers, serious lawyers practicing constitutional law, who think that this is appropriate. “And I have had dozens and dozens of emails and calls from lawyers who don’t know me, around the country. They all start with, ‘I don’t support what Ann Coulter says, but,” you know, or, ‘I hate what Donald Trump stands for, but you’re absolutely right on this, and this cannot stand.’ “And nor should it stand if it were happening on a conservative college campus and it were liberal students whose views were being marginalized. ” She noted that her passion for free speech issues was born when she was a student at Dartmouth, when some students were expelled for criticizing a music professor in print. “Who represented us in the hinterlands of New Hampshire? The American Civil Liberties Union came in to represent my colleagues on the Dartmouth Review. ” She remarked, in that context, that the ACLU’s absence at Berkeley was noteworthy. As Breitbart News noted last month, Dhillon once served on the board of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the ACLU. She is a noted Trump supporter, and serves as the vice chair of the California Republican Party. She is reportedly under consideration to be named to lead the Civil Rights Division of the U. S. Department of Justice. Dhillon is also representing Trump supporters who were attacked by rioters outside a Trump rally in their lawsuit against the city of San Jose for failing to protect them from the mob. Critics say the ACLU has been drifting in a left direction for many years, often abandoning its absolute adherence to basic civil liberties in favor of a redistributionist, and concept of rights. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
Russia refuses to join any scheme to help Syrian refugees and blames Western powers for Europe’s migration crisis. A trickle of migrants have entered Russia – but the country has granted asylum to only two Syrians so far this year.
Via UsualRoutine
Nonetheless, Russia blamed the West for Syria’s bloodshed and for the outflow of refugees. “We expect that for the most part that expenditures [for dealing with refugees] will fall on the countries linked to causing the catastrophic situation,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, according to Interfax news agency. Asked whether Russia would join any program to help refugees, Mr Peskov replied: “It’s hardly likely.”
Scroll Down For Video Below! He confirmed that some refugees from the Middle East had tried to cross Russian territory with the aim of reaching the European Union by crossing the border into Norway. Mr.Peskov warned that terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant(Isil) could infiltrate groups of migrants, posing a possible security threat.
The Kremlin has recently provided Mr.Assad with more military support by sending a contingent of Russian troops to Syria. Their role appears to be to protect the Russian naval facility at Tartous, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, and provide training and expertise for the regime’s forces, which are responsible for the great majority of civilian deaths in the conflict. “The threat coming from Islamic State is evident,” said Mr.Peskov. “The only force capable of resisting it is the Syrian armed forces.”
Last week, President Vladimir Putin said that Europe’s migration crisis was “completely predictable”, adding: “These are the policies of our American partners. Europe blindly follows within the framework of its so-called duties as an ally – and then must bear the burden.”
| 0 |
A federal judge ruled on Monday that a $37 billion merger between the health insurance giants Aetna and Humana should not be allowed to go through on antitrust grounds, siding with the Justice Department, which had been seeking to block the deal. The deal is one of two proposed by the nation’s largest health insurers both were challenged by the Obama administration. Another federal judge is expected to rule soon on the case involving Anthem and Cigna, the larger of the two deals, at $48 billion. Citing the sweeping changes to the industry caused by the Affordable Care Act, insurers had embarked on a frenzy of deal making a year and a half ago. The proposed combinations promised to reshape the industry by shrinking the number of the largest insurers to three, from five the largest, UnitedHealth Group, remained independent. Today, the industry finds itself in arguably an even greater state of flux, with President Trump and the Congress having vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something else, the details of which are unknown. Monday’s decision adds to the uncertainty facing the industry. While the judge found that a merger of Aetna and Humana would not be in the interest of its consumers, companies are likely to remain interested in future combinations. Insurers view mergers as a way to gain greater clout in negotiations with hospitals and doctors. An Aetna spokesman said the company was reviewing the opinion and “is giving serious consideration to an appeal. ” Humana did not respond to an email seeking comment. If the deal falls apart, Aetna would have to pay Humana $1 billion, according to the terms of the merger agreement. The combination was largely focused around the private market for Medicare Advantage plans, a area in the industry in which companies offer private insurance as an alternative to the federal government’s traditional Medicare program. Humana, while smaller than its rivals, has a strong position in the Medicare Advantage market and was viewed as an attractive acquisition. But the deal came under sharp criticism from consumer advocates and government officials who argued that the private market was already concentrated: Individuals would suffer from a lack of choice and competition in certain markets. UnitedHealth, Humana and Aetna were the three largest players in the Medicare Advantage market, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation last year. In his ruling, the judge, John D. Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, said the court “mostly agrees” with the Justice Department’s argument that the deal would lessen competition for Medicare Advantage plans as well as individual health insurance sold in state marketplaces. Judge Bates rejected the companies’ rebuttal, saying that government regulation would be unable to prevent the combined entity from “raising prices or reducing benefits. ” He said that neither new competitors nor divestitures would be enough to address the concentration that would result from the merger. The insurers had argued that the merger would allow them to become more efficient, passing those savings on to consumers. But the judge said he did not think the merger would benefit people buying policies, especially in those markets where the combination of the companies would have a large share of the business. “The court is unpersuaded that the efficiencies generated by the merger will be sufficient to mitigate the anticompetitive effects for consumers in the challenged markets,” he wrote. Over the last few years, the Obama administration became more aggressive in blocking deals, especially in health care. The government has blocked mergers among large hospital systems and contributed to dismantling the $152 billion deal between Pfizer and Allergan. Monday’s ruling came six months after the Justice Department sued to block both the Aetna and the Cigna deals. Both were seen as unlikely to succeed, although the merger between Cigna and Anthem was seen as even less likely to be approved because those two companies have more overlap nationally and have been unable to present a unified front. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, also of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, has yet to issue a ruling on that combination, although antitrust lawyers said they did not believe Monday’s decision would affect her decision. “The facts are very different,” said Andrea Murino, a partner and of the antitrust and competition law practice at Goodwin. While Judge Jackson is likely to look at her fellow judge’s opinion, “she probably made up her mind long ago,” Ms. Murino said. The Justice Department, which has not yet had new leadership installed under President Trump, issued a statement applauding the decision. “This merger would have stifled competition and led to higher prices and health insurance,” said Brent C. Snyder, a deputy assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s antitrust division. “Aetna attempted to buy a formidable rival, Humana, instead of competing independently to win customers. ” Analysts played down the ability of Aetna to prevail in any appeal of the decision, and Ms. Murino described any challenge to Judge Bate’s decision as “an uphill battle. ” But Matthew L. Cantor, a partner at Constantine Cannon, said Aetna was most likely trying to buy time in making an appeal to see if the Trump administration might be more amenable to some sort of combination. “I wouldn’t be surprised if those kinds of discussions are happening,” he said. Even if both mergers are successfully blocked, analysts predicted there would be continued consolidation as insurers tried other combinations that could make it past the Justice Department and state antitrust officials. Humana’s Medicare Advantage business is particularly attractive in the current environment, Ana Gupte, an analyst with Leerink Partners, told investors. She mentioned both Cigna and Anthem, which may be looking for merger partners if their deal is blocked, as potentially interested in pursuing Humana. Antitrust experts echoed the idea that the companies, even if they are unsuccessful in their current attempts to merge, would not stop trying. “I don’t think this rules out further consolidation in insurance markets,” Mr. Cantor, of Constantine Cannon, said. Shares of Aetna closed down about 2. 8 percent while Humana’s shares closed up 2. 2 percent. Cigna’s and Anthem’s shares were little changed. | 1 |
Donald John Trump defied the skeptics who said he would never run, and the political veterans who scoffed at his slapdash campaign. He attacked the norms of American politics, singling out groups for derision on the basis of race and religion and attacking the legitimacy of the political process. He ignored conventions of common decency, employing casual vulgarity and raining personal humiliation on his political opponents and critics in the media. And in the ultimate act of defiance, Mr. Trump emerged victorious, summoning a tidal wave of support from less educated whites displaced by changes in the economy and deeply resistant to the country’s shifting cultural and racial tones. In his triumph, Mr. Trump has delivered perhaps the greatest shock to the American political system in modern times and opened the door to an era of extraordinary political uncertainty at home and around the globe. The slashing, freewheeling campaign that took him to the doorstep of the White House replicated a familiar pattern from Mr. Trump’s life, but on an Olympian scale. The son of a wealthy real estate developer in Queens, Mr. Trump, 70, spent decades pursuing social acceptance in upscale Manhattan and seeking, at times desperately, to persuade the wider world to see him as a great man of affairs. But Mr. Trump was often met with scoffing disdain by wealthy elites and mainstream civic leaders, culminating in a mortifying roast by President Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011. So Mr. Trump fashioned himself instead as a proudly garish champion of the common man — a person of unsophisticated tastes but distinctive popular appeal — and acted the part in extravagant fashion, first in the New York tabloids and then on national television. He became a pundit of sorts, fulminating against crime in New York City and international trade and Mr. Obama’s legitimacy as president, often in racially incendiary terms. His candidacy unfolded in much the same way: as the rampage of an aggrieved outsider, aligned more with the cultural sensibilities of whites than with his peers in society. On the first day of his run — June 16, 2015 — Mr. Trump drew a direct parallel between his determined quest for success in New York and his entry into the political arena. Addressing a crowd made up largely of reporters in the atrium of Trump Tower, Mr. Trump noted that political seers had predicted, “He’ll never run. ” Seconds later, he mused that his father, Fred Trump, had urged him never to compete in “the big leagues” of Manhattan. “‘We don’t know anything about that. Don’t do it,’” Mr. Trump quoted his father as saying. “I said, ‘I’ve got to go into Manhattan. I’ve got to build those big buildings. I’ve got to do it, Dad. I’ve got to do it. ’” Powered by that same grasping ambition, Mr. Trump’s candidacy was marked by countless missteps and grievous errors, from the crude and meandering speeches he delivered daily, to the allegations of sexual assault that appeared to cripple him in the final weeks of the race. No other presidential candidate in memory has given offense so freely and been so battered by scandal, and lived to fight on and win. Amid all his innumerable blunders, however, Mr. Trump got one or two things right that mattered more than all the rest. On a visceral level, he grasped dynamics that the political leadership of both parties missed or ignored — most of all, the raw frustration of and white voters who rallied to his candidacy with decisive force. Mr. Trump rallied them less with policy promises than with pronouncements — against foreign trade, foreign wars and foreign workers. He left his Republican primary opponents agog at his dismissals of mainstream policy, and exposed a yawning breach between the program of tax cuts and fiscal austerity favored by traditional conservatives, and the preoccupations of the party’s rank and file. Ridiculed by critics on the right and left, shunned by the most respected figures in American politics, including every living former president, Mr. Trump equated his own outcast status with the resentments of the white class. Even the invective and incivility that appalled the traditional guardians of political discourse seemed only to forge a tighter bond between Mr. Trump and his inflamed following. He dismissed American social norms as mere “political correctness,” mocking the physical appearance of an opponent’s wife, savaging Hillary Clinton’s marriage and wielding stereotypes of racial minorities — all to the applause of his base. In sum, Mr. Trump offered himself to the country as a tribune of white populist rage, and pledged at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to defend “the factory workers and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. ” “These are the forgotten men and women of our country,” Mr. Trump said. “People who work hard but no longer have a voice. ” He pledged: “I am your voice. ” The message resonated especially in the Midwest, where a stunning victory in Ohio helped give Mr. Trump the Electoral College votes he needed to win. But his ultimate triumph was driven less by region than by race and class. His winning coalition consisted of restive whites and scarcely anyone else. Mr. Trump’s winding path to the presidency began 10 miles east of the spot where he would build Trump Tower, in the wealthy Queens enclave of Jamaica Estates, where his father’s real estate empire granted Mr. Trump an easy entry into the world of construction and development. He showed little interest in politics as a young man, obtaining deferments to avoid fighting in the Vietnam War but declining to participate in the protest movements of that era. He found his way into the political arena by way of his commercial interests and social aspirations: Under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, the legendary and infamous former adviser to Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, Mr. Trump made himself a presence at events and political conventions. As early as the 1980s, he insinuated himself into the company of leaders in both parties, giving money to Ronald Reagan as readily as to Mario M. Cuomo, the liberal governor of New York. But while Mr. Trump earned headlines at that stage mainly for his romantic escapades and business failures — a lurid divorce from his first wife, Ivana, and a series of corporate bankruptcies — even then he gave hints of loftier political goals. In the to the 1988 presidential campaign, he traveled to New Hampshire to give a speech warning of foreign threats to American economic power. The next year, Mr. Trump stirred fierce controversy in New York by calling loudly for the institution of the death penalty, in the aftermath of a brutal assault and rape in Central Park, though the five young men charged with the crime were later exonerated. Still, even as he began to campaign in the early presidential primary states, blasting Mexican migrants in acid language and demanding a shutdown of Muslim immigration into the United States, Mr. Trump never entirely shed his image as a boastful but ultimately benign showman. Republicans of august political lineage, like Jeb Bush, derided him as “an entertainer,” and trusted, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, that voters would discard him as such in the end. Democrats, too, who viewed Mr. Trump as plainly unelectable from the start, acknowledged at times that they might have been wrong to sneer at him early on. Hillary Clinton, appearing on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” last winter, noted that Mr. Trump had initially provoked “hysterical laughter,” before his call for a crackdown on Muslims. “I no longer think he’s funny,” Mrs. Clinton said. | 1 |
Pick a Peacemaker By Suzy Kassem November 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - To vastly improve your country and truly make it great again, start by choosing a better leader. Do not let the media or the establishment make you pick from the people they choose, but instead choose from those they do not pick. Pick a leader from among the people who is heart-driven, one who identifies with the common man on the street and understands what the country needs on every level. Do not pick a leader who is only money-driven and does not understand or identify with the common man, but only what corporations need on every level.
Pick a peacemaker. One who unites, not divides. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship. Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.
Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.
Most importantly, a great leader must serve the best interests of the people first, not those of multinational corporations. Human life should never be sacrificed for monetary profit. There are no exceptions. In addition, a leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness. Only a leader who is free from corruption welcomes scrutiny; for scrutiny allows a good leader to be an even greater leader.
And lastly, pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.
- Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem | 0 |
LOS ANGELES — Show business rule of thumb: Never underestimate a tot. Going into the weekend, most box office analysts predicted that “Beauty and the Beast” would easily remain the No. 1 movie in North America. One challenger, “The Boss Baby,” had received negative reviews. (The Los Angeles Times deemed it a “rancid diaper. ”) Another new arrival, “Ghost in the Shell,” had been written off as a contender after becoming embroiled in a “whitewashing” casting controversy. But “The Boss Baby” — in the tradition of “Look Who’s Talking,” Stewie from “Family Guy” and the Baby Herman from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” — proved enormously popular, pushing past Belle of “Beauty and the Beast” to take in roughly $49 million. Theaters far from the coasts (Indianapolis, Denver) saw especially strong turnout, according to the film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, “The Boss Baby” cost at least $200 million to make and market. It has taken in an additional $59 million overseas. Alec Baldwin, riding a wave of popularity for his “Saturday Night Live” portrayal of President Trump, gave voice to the baby. “Beauty and the Beast” (Disney) had $47. 5 million in ticket sales, for a domestic total of $395 million and a global one of $876 million, according to comScore, which compiles box office data. Fizzling in third place was “Ghost in the Shell,” a version of a Japanese manga by Shirow Masamune. It collected about $19 million — not nearly enough given production and marketing costs of at least $150 million. “Ghost in the Shell” (DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures) was also weak overseas, where it took in about $40 million. Casting Scarlett Johansson in a role originally played by an Asian actor was one misstep. The marketing may have been another Paramount’s campaign was visually arresting but failed to broaden the film’s appeal beyond older male fans. And the film was in many ways a mishmash, leading to weak reviews and word of mouth, as evidenced by CinemaScore exit polls. | 1 |
Defeating the Islamic State ( ) remains the United States’ primary goal in Syria, not toppling the country’s dictator Bashar according to officials in President Donald Trump’s administration. [Trump’s United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley suggested that U. S. regime change in Syria is likely. “Regime change is something that we think is going to happen, because all of the parties are going to see that Assad’s not the leader that needs to be taking place for Syria,” Haley told CNN. Some analysts and American lawmakers accused the Trump administration of sending mixed messages on its Syria policy, noting that while Haley indicated that getting rid of Assad is the administration’s priority, U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson maintained that the U. S. is focused on defeating ISIS. In separate interviews on Sunday, Tillerson and Trump’s national security adviser H. R. McMaster noted that the administration’s decision to bomb Assad last week is not a sign that America has shifted its primary focus from defeating ISIS to pushing the Syrian dictator from power. “Our priority is first the defeat of ISIS,” Tillerson told George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC News’s This Week on Sunday. “Once we can eliminate the battle against ISIS, conclude that — and it is going quite well — then we hope to turn our attention to agreements between the regime and opposition forces. ” Lt. Gen. McMaster agreed that defeating ISIS must come “first,” adding, “Then also, it has to be a significant change in the nature of the Assad regime and its behavior in particular. ” Asked about the alleged “mixed signals” on Trump’s Syria policy sent by Haley and the Tillerson, Lt. Gen. McMaster also told “Fox News Sunday” host, Chris Wallace: Both Secretary Tillerson and Ambassador Haley are right about this. What we really need to do, and what everyone who’s involved in this conflict needs to do is to do everything they can to resolve this civil war, to halt this humanitarian catastrophe, this political catastrophe, not only in Syria, but the catastrophe is affecting the greater Middle East, it’s affecting Europe and it’s a threat to the American people as well. And so, to do that, what’s required is some kind of a political solution to that very complex problem … we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to affect that change. Last week, President Trump ordered the U. S. military to strike an Assad base in northwestern Syria believed to have been housing the pilots who carried out a chemical weapons attack last Tuesday that killed as many as 100 people, including at least 27 children. Citing a senior U. S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Associated Press (AP) reports that Russia knew of last week’s chemical weapons assault in advance. “Russia’s got to tell us which one it is. Either they knew that there were chemical weapons and they knew there was going to be use and they just hid it from the international community, or they’re being played for fools by Assad by him having chemical weapons and they’re just in the dark and they don’t know anything about it,” declared Haley. Support from Iran and Russia has kept Assad in power. fighters, including members of the terrorist group Hezbollah, and Russian military forces are fighting alongside Assad troops. | 1 |
Why are celebs staying silent about politics? Esquire editor answers own question by naming and shaming Posted at 7:53 pm on October 26, 2016 by Brett T. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
As Twitchy reported, cameras were out in force on campus last weekend to capture some door-to-door vote canvassing by young celebrities like nasty woman Katy Perry, 32, and Miley Cyrus.
It’s no surprise both were trying to coax millennials to vote for Hillary Clinton. But what about Taylor Swift, asked no one? Hang on one second; someone did ask. In a piece published by Esquire Wednesday, editor Matt Miller asks , “Why are influential celebrities remaining silent this election?” Taylor Swift has 156,147,879 social media followers. Why is she remaining politically silent? https://t.co/SRqu5kNo1r
— John Hendrickson (@JohnGHendy) October 26, 2016
Why do these select entertainers get to keep their political opinions to themselves? “Maybe these artists are protecting their brand?” Miller posits, adding, “Fuck that! If their brand means to sacrifice the very values that make them human and a contributing member of this society, then they live a sad, hollow life.”
Before making some remark about Taylor Swift being a singer and not a politician, consider this: Taylor Swift is not a private citizen. Her opinion matters to more people than Paul Ryan's opinion ever will.
— John Hendrickson (@JohnGHendy) October 26, 2016
Someone’s living a sad, hollow life. Though Miller wrote the piece, Esquire deputy editor John Hendrickson took most of the heat for it after publicizing the article by tweeting quotes from it. @JohnGHendy @esquire Because she's a pop star and not a political pundit? What do I win?
— Randy Wortinger (@randicus79) October 26, 2016 Maybe because she wants to sell music to both sides, you simpleton. @JohnGHendy @esquire
— Yes, Nick $earcy! (@yesnicksearcy) October 26, 2016 @JohnGHendy @esquire Because this is one of the most divisive elections of all time and she doesn't want to alienate 1/2 of her audience. | 0 |
WikiLeaks Initiates Phase 3: The Dump That Will Take Hillary Down Dawn Parabellum Corrupt democrat, Hillary Clinton
WikiLeaks is putting Hillary Clinton and the corrupt Democrats who surround her on notice. With a warning sounded last night about the initiation of “phase 3” from the website, which has been leaking devastating emails about Hillary’s insiders, the “election dump” promises to be the one that brings her to her knees.
Wikileaks announced on Twitter that it would soon launch “phase three of [its] election coverage.” The tweet also asked those who wish to see more dumps to donate to the site to assist with their funding. The tweet read, “We commence phase 3 of our US election coverage next week.” We commence phase 3 of our US election coverage next week. You can contribute: https://t.co/MsNZhrTzTL @WLTaskForce pic.twitter.com/XferJnMGux
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 30, 2016
This dump is supposed to be even more damaging to the already flailing political career of Hillary Clinton. Wikileaks supporters now include a number of disgruntled Republican voters and Bernie Sanders supporters.
Immediately after the site announced this dump, several WikiLeaks followers replied with tweets expressing hope that phase three would ultimately damage Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ‘s campaign for good. However, some expressed concern that it could be too little, too late. @wikileaks @WLTaskForce by next week, I assume you mean tomorrow, and not 3 days before the election. Near 30%+ in some states already voted
— Mel (@melimel521) October 30, 2016
New archives of emails released to the public would definitely devastate the Clinton campaign even further, and after the FBI’s announcement that they will reopen the investigation against Hillary, it could be the straw which breaks the camel’s back.
So far, no amount of corruption or criminal activity has gotten devout Democrat voters to see Hillary for who she is: a power hungry sociopath. She has been caught rigging elections across the globe and cheating to get the Democrat nomination. It’s even been proven, thanks to WikiLeaks, that she cheated during the debates against Donald Trump .
There is some speculation that the emails released this time won’t all be Hillary Clinton related, eluding to the possibility of even more Democrats and their corruption being exposed. Hillary Clinton’s rigged podium helped her cheat during the debates with Donald Trump
Hackers who have taken responsibility for the hacks of John Podesta’s emails may have more up their sleeves. Guccifer 2.0, who claims to be a lone Romanian male, was also involved in the hack on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Hopefully, these leaks will finally get Democrat voters to realize who they have been bowing down to over the past few years. Accessing the leaked emails is not difficult, in fact, I personally check the new dumps daily. If Democrats cared half as much about honesty and integrity as they did about making sure we have the first female president, Hillary would already be no more than a stain on American history. | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The Democratic presidential race grew more bruising for the party itself. Bernie Sanders’s campaign manager accused a top Democratic official of working against the candidate “for personal reasons. ” Some of his supporters threatened to back Donald Trump if Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee. Mr. Trump piled on, gleefully tweeting that Mr. Sanders was being “treated very badly,” and adding, “The system is rigged against him. ” ____ 2. Mr. Trump tried to address concerns within the Republican Party that he is not a conservative, releasing a list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees that included several who are favorites of conservative legal scholars. One of our stories today offers a detailed look at five crucial weeks of Mr. Trump’s campaign, during which he transitioned from a seemingly unelectable candidate to the de facto Republican nominee. ____ 3. The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, denounced the “shocking new dimension of doping. ” He said Russian sports federations could be barred from the Rio Olympics if allegations of doping prove true. “We will apply our zero tolerance policy, not only with regard to the athletes but also with regard to everybody implicated and within our reach,” he said. ____ 4. The Labor Department issued a new regulation that will enable millions more workers to make overtime. As of Dec. 1, most salaried workers who earn up to $47, 476 annually will get time and a half for any labor over 40 hours a week. That will include a far wider range of work than before. The previous cutoff, set in 2004, was $23, 660. ____ 5. Robin Wright became the latest actress to openly address pay disparities in the entertainment industry. She said she had taken a hard line with the producers of the Netflix series “House of Cards” after she learned that her character was as popular as that of her Kevin Spacey. “You better pay me or I’m going to go public,” she said she told them, adding, “And they did. ” ____ 6. The Asian monsoon season, primed by the El Niño phenomenon, opened with a disaster in Sri Lanka. Torrential rains set off landslides and flash floods that displaced hundreds of thousands of people. A death toll in the dozens is expected to rise. ____ 7. A Nigerian schoolgirl who was taken in a mass kidnapping by Boko Haram more than two years ago was found and returned to her town, Chibok. Now the mother of a she is the first girl to be recovered since the early days of the episode. “She was so happy to see her people,” a Chibok resident said. “People were so happy, so happy that, yes, there is hope these girls are alive. ____ 8. New Jersey closed one of its most notorious cold cases, convicting this woman of murder 25 years after her son disappeared. A bit of blue blanket found with his remains was the key. Investigators recently went back and found three people who could testify that the blanket was from the boy’s home, allowing prosecutors to draw the damning connection. ____ 9. Paul Simon went back on tour, promoting his “Stranger to Stranger” album, which goes on sale June 3. Our critic says the artist is making some of the strangest, most intriguing music of his career. Songs “crack jokes and ponder questions about love, death, spirituality, baseball, economic inequality, brain chemistry and music itself. ” ____ 10. Finally, good news. Despite reports to the contrary in China’s media, this panda is just fine. The Taipei Zoo posted its proof — the bear with current newspapers — on Facebook. “Tuan Tuan says: What more do you need?” the zoo’s caption reads. “Please don’t believe online rumors. Friends who care about Tuan Tuan don’t need to worry. ” ____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Monday on NBC’s “Today,” while discussing President Donald Trump’s executive order that halted immigration from seven countries into the United States, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) declared the act would “make us less safe” and that it would “encourage lone wolves in America. ” Schumer said, “First, it was done in such a sloppy and care less way. Major agencies, the Border Patrol, Customs didn’t know about it. There were major holes in how it was done. It almost seems like a back of the envelope. So even for those who might be for this, I’m certainly opposed, the slap dash way it was done was appalling and created the chaos. More importantly this will make us less safe. John McCain is exactly right. It will encourage lone wolves in America, they have created most of the terrorism. The biggest problems we’ve had with terrorism are not from these countries. In fact, there is something called the Visa waiver program which allows people from France or Belgium, places where there are known terrorists to come in no questions asked. I don’t even get what they were getting at because they are not stopping terror, they are instead doing what in effect as Rudy Giuliani said a Muslim ban. That is against what America is all about. ” He added, “This evening I will ask for a vote on the floor of the senate to repeal this. Senator Feinstein has carefully thought out legislation to repeal this. I hope Mitch McConnell allows that vote. Already 11 Republicans, not just the ones you have shown have spoken out against this. We should repeal this and then we should sit down in a careful thoughtful way, figure out ways we need to tighten up things. ” ( Grabien) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
The market panic that initially met Britain’s vote to leave the European Union showed signs of subsiding on Monday. While stocks continued to slide for a second trading day, by the close of business Monday a measure of calm appeared to be returning to certain significant corners of the market. The benchmark Standard Poor’s index was stable for most of the day after dropping around 2 percent in the first minutes of trading. It ended the day down 1. 8 percent. Markets in Japan and China finished Monday in positive territory. A gauge of expected future volatility in the markets, the VIX, fell on Monday after spiking on Friday, and remained far below the level it reached last summer when problems in the Chinese economy came to the fore. “I’m not expecting contagion here,” said Jack A. Ablin, the chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, based in Chicago. “We’re pretty well insulated,” he said of the American economy. The outlook was less sanguine in Europe. Investors continued dumping European stocks and seeking out the safety of gold and bonds on Monday, despite comments from British and European officials intended to calm markets. George Osborne, the British chancellor of the Exchequer, spoke for the first time since the Brexit vote, before markets opened on Monday. He said that while Britain’s public finances would be affected by an exit from the bloc, the broader economy was still in good shape. “Our economy is about as strong as it could be to confront the challenge our country now faces,” Mr. Osborne said. “It is inevitable, after Thursday’s vote, that Britain’s economy is going to have to adjust to the new situation we find ourselves in. ” “We were prepared for the unexpected,” he added. “We are equipped for whatever happens. ” But Mr. Osborne’s comments appeared to do little to shore up the nation’s currency. The British pound fell on Monday to its lowest level against the dollar since the 1980s. In another blow to the British economy, the Standard Poor’s rating agency announced on Monday that it was stripping Great Britain of its AAA rating. The country’s rating was dropped two notches, to AA. Standard Poor’s analysts said in their report that the vote last week “will weaken the predictability, stability, and effectiveness of policy making in the U. K. and affect its economy, G. D. P. growth and fiscal and external balances. ” There is still enormous uncertainty about how exactly Britain’s exit will play out, and how it will ripple through the economy. The most obvious victims are likely to be the big European banks, which have relied on an ability to operate easily across borders. Trading in financial stocks like Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland was briefly suspended on Monday because of precipitous declines. Barclays fell 17 percent on Monday on top of its 17 percent decline on Friday. That brought the bank’s stock below the bottom it reached during the 2011 eurozone crisis, though it remained far above the trough reached during the financial crisis. “Banks are one of the most exposed sectors to Brexit,” Andrew Coombs, a Citigroup analyst, said in a research note distributed on Monday. He noted that British banks were particularly vulnerable “given the likely headwinds of a deteriorating domestic economy, and higher risk premia associated with a less predictable political and economic landscape. ” But, he warned, “the European investment banks are also not immune, with sizable operations in London, which may now need to be reviewed. ” Italian officials said on Monday that they were looking at creating what amounted to a bailout fund to help struggling banks in the country. Throughout Europe, however, investors have not been assuming the worst — they seem to have reserved their harshest punishment so far for bank stocks. By contrast, a broad index of European shares, the Euro Stoxx, fell 2. 8 percent on Monday but was still above the lows it reached earlier this year. In the United States, the S. P. index finished down 1. 8 percent, or 36. 87 points, at 2, 000. 54 on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1. 5 percent, or 260. 51 points, to 17, 140. 24. The Nasdaq composite was down 2. 4 percent, or 113. 54 points, to 4, 594. 44. Some economists said that the turmoil in Europe could slightly stunt American growth. Goldman Sachs economists said on Monday that they had reduced their estimates for American economic growth in the second half of 2016, to 2 percent from 2. 25 percent. But other analysts were far more optimistic. Pantheon Macroeconomics said on Monday that it still anticipated American economic growth to gain steam this year, driven by improving consumer confidence. For American investors, the biggest fallout from the British vote may be the influence that it has on the Federal Reserve and its plans for raising interest rates in the economy. Traders were betting on Monday that the Fed would have to keep rates lower for longer, which could help stimulate the economy. Janet L. Yellen, the Fed chairwoman, was supposed to attend a meeting of central bank chiefs this week in Portugal, but she called that off after the British vote last week. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held an emergency meeting on Monday with officials from the nation’s central bank and Finance Ministry to discuss how to contain the fallout from the vote in Britain, which pummeled markets in Japan and elsewhere on Friday. Japan was hit especially hard. The Nikkei suffered its biggest point drop in 16 years and the yen jumped about 5 percent against the dollar. On Monday, Japanese authorities issued their strongest warning yet that they were prepared to intervene in the market to curb the rise of the yen. Markets elsewhere in the region were mostly little changed. Japan, however, generally fears an excessively strong currency, which can hurt the country’s economy by making its exports more expensive and consequently less competitive. “There is still uncertainty and risk in the financial markets, and it’s important that we continue to work for stability,” Mr. Abe told reporters after a meeting at the prime minister’s office. He added that he had instructed the finance minister, Taro Aso, to “coordinate with the Bank of Japan and be even more mindful of movements in the markets, including the currency market. ” | 1 |
When the United Nations’ top official tried to inspect an infamous prison in Gambia two years ago, officials there denied him access. So he protested all the way up the country’s chain of command. In a tense meeting with members of the cabinet of the country’s autocratic ruler, the United Nations official, Juan E. Méndez, was again denied, this time with a jeering dismissal. “They said, ‘Why don’t you go to Guantánamo instead,’” recalled Mr. Mendez, a former United Nations special rapporteur on torture. In Bahrain, officials were a little more subtle, but the message was the same, as they twice canceled prison inspection visits. “They said we face the same threats to national security as other countries face,” Mr. Mendez said. “It was clear they were referring to the United States, and they didn’t feel that they needed to give me access. ” Now, after Donald J. Trump’s campaign vows to reinstate the sort of torture used in the war on terrorism — and to fill the Guantánamo Bay prison with “some bad dudes” — human rights experts fear that authoritarian regimes around the world will see it as another green light to carry out their own abuses. A return to such “enhanced interrogation” — and even to techniques that Mr. Trump has pledged will be “much worse” — would also send a powerful message just as nations around the world have begun to examine their own past abuses to ensure that they will not be repeated. “Sometimes we see progress, and then we see ” said Victor the of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, a umbrella organization for groups. “When the U. S. was engaging in torture, that created an enormous of the pendulum,” he added. “There were a lot of officials in other countries during the Bush administration who were saying, ‘The Americans are doing it, so why can’t we?’ Now, with Trump saying, ‘I will bring a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,’ you can imagine how far we could go backwards. ” Nils Melzer, who succeeded Mr. Mendez as the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture in November, warned that if the Trump administration revived the use of torture, the consequences around the world “would be catastrophic. ” A fragile consensus against torture, said José Miguel Vivanco, the regional director for the Americas for Human Rights Watch, could be shattered “when you have the White House openly advocating for torture. ” During the campaign, Mr. Trump declared that “torture works,” and he vowed to “immediately” reinstate techniques like waterboarding because “we have to beat the savages” of the Islamic State, who “deserve” such treatment even if it is fruitless. Since the election, Mr. Trump has indicated that he might be reconsidering his position, citing the firm stance against torture by James N. Mattis, his Pentagon nominee. In an interview with The New York Times in November, Mr. Trump said that he was “surprised” when Mr. Mattis told him that he opposed torture and instead favored more humane interrogations of prisoners based on rapport building. But Mr. Trump did not close the door entirely. If Americans feel strongly about bringing back waterboarding and other tactics, he said, “I would be guided by that. ” Nora Sveaass, a psychologist at the University of Oslo and a former member of the United Nations Committee Against Torture, warned that if Mr. Trump revived the use of torture by the United States, it would have a ripple effect around the globe. “The U. S. is a very strong voice,” Ms. Sveaass said. “It’s just like putting a bomb into all of those major principles — the absolute prohibition on torture the absolute obligation to provide redress and justice to victims of torture, including rehabilitation the obligation to investigate and hold people to account,” she added. “If one country such as the U. S. openly torpedoes those principles, you can just forget about asking for compliance from states already challenging the absolute prohibition. ” The signal from Mr. Trump that torture is acceptable again comes just as countries from Argentina to Tunisia, either through courts or special truth commissions, are engaged in tentative efforts to hold themselves accountable for past conduct. In Argentina, Omar Graffigna, the former chief of the country’s air force, was sentenced to prison in September for the 1978 kidnapping and torture of two activists, Patricia Roisinblit and José Manuel Pérez Rojo. The prosecution of Mr. Graffigna was just one in a series of old cases that have been brought into the courts this year in Argentina, as the nation comes to grips with the legacy of its “dirty war” of the 1970s and early 1980s. In Tunisia, a new Truth and Dignity Commission held its first hearings in November, allowing torture victims to tell their harrowing stories before a national television audience. The commission was created to investigate torture and other human rights violations dating to 1955, primarily by the regime of President Zine Ben Ali, who was deposed during the Arab Spring in 2011. And in December, Bolivia’s legislature voted to create a truth commission to investigate torture, murders and other crimes committed by a series of authoritarian regimes from 1964 to 1982. Even in countries that have not conducted such investigations, new organizations have begun to take root, and those groups are trying to make it more difficult for their governments to continue to engage in torture with secrecy and impunity. Samuel Herbert Nsubuga, the chief executive of the African Center for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, based in Uganda, said legislation that the country passed in 2012 had still not been put into effect. When the law finally takes effect, “our challenge will be to bring some people to trial in Uganda for torture,” he said. In the meantime, his group has enlisted doctors and psychologists to provide medical help and therapy to torture victims, as well as lawyers to provide legal advice. But the moves toward examining past abuses are so far limited to relatively small nations or countries where the focus is on historical events rather than the current use of torture. The inquiries are also often being conducted in the face of strong resistance from top government officials, who oppose aggressive investigations even of past crimes. Those modest efforts could face sharp setbacks if Mr. Trump brings back banned practices. “I am afraid that Trump’s government will question the basic values of the international order, and torturing people will be justified,” said Carlos Jibaja, a psychologist with CAPS, a group in Lima, Peru, that helps victims of torture. At the same time, Mr. Trump’s advocacy of torture may encourage some major countries, like Russia and the Philippines, to be even more open and aggressive in their use of torture. Olga Sadovskaya, the vice chairwoman of the Committee Against Torture, a human rights group in Russia, said that torture was already common in the country. She noted that Russian prison and police officials routinely used torture tactics with cruel nicknames, such as the “President Putin,” which involves attaching wires from an office telephone to a victim’s body and then running electric current through it. The police like that tactic, she said, because it does not leave marks. Edeliza Hernandez, the executive director of the Medical Action Group in the Philippines, an organization that documents cases of torture and provides treatment and rehabilitation, estimated that there were 200 political prisoners in detention centers in the country, and said that most of them had been tortured. “The government has soldiers watch us while we inspect prisoners,” she said. Mr. Melzer, the United Nations official, warned that if Mr. Trump followed through on his pledges, more countries would follow his lead and get back into the torture business. “What kind of message would that be to the world?” Mr. Melzer asked. “It couldn’t be worse. What happens to the role of the United States as an example in the world, and what would that mean for the policies of other states? If the United States does it, those other countries will know they can get away with it. The last thing the world needs is a U. S. president legitimizing this. ” | 1 |
Former U. N. Ambassador John Bolton joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow live from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily. [“I’ve had the privilege to speak at CPAC for as long as I can remember,” said Bolton. “What I consistently try to talk about is the importance of a conservative foreign policy, through the vagaries of elections. The last eight years, I’ve been able to describe what’s wrong with Obama, which is very difficult in the time allotted for the main floor speeches. ” “This year, obviously, I’ll be following both Vice President Pence, who will be there tonight, and President Trump himself will be there tomorrow morning. So what I’m going to try and do is lay out some of the principles I think we have to continue to operate on — whatever people on the Hill say, whatever people in the executive branch say,” he declared. “One of the bedrock principles of conservatism — and I think they start with the belief in American exceptionalism and the notion that our national security policy has to be based on American interests. I just think it’s important to keep focused, and although I’m not in the Trump administration, I will be doing whatever I can from the outside to try and keep their attention focused as the days go forward,” he said. Marlow asked why a foreign policy that puts America first is so widely seen as a “revolutionary idea. ” “It’s because the establishment doesn’t see it that way,” Bolton replied. “You can already, in the mainstream media commentary about the president’s emerging team and the direction he’s going in, some of the themes that show how the press, the mainstream press in Washington, tries to manipulate new Republican administrations. ” “They’re filled with commentary about how wonderful it is that many of the president’s appointments are and technocratic and perhaps most important of all, not controversial — meaning that the New York Times and the Washington Post are prepared to give him a pass,” Bolton said. “Look, it’s very early days, and this is not necessarily a reflection of the truth about these individuals. It’s a reflection of how the Washington echo chamber is trying to mold them, to get them to seek the approval of their betters who write editorials on the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. ” “If they can avoid succumbing to that siren song, they’ll do fine,” he advised. “But what the media and the Democrats are trying to do now is convince them: ‘You don’t want to be controversial. You don’t want to be ideological. Things are just fine. Be a technocrat. Tinker around the edges. Don’t change much.’ That’s not what Donald Trump got elected to do. That’s the fight really on the national security front, I think, for the soul of the administration. ” Marlow confessed he had been quietly rooting for Bolton to become national security adviser, prompting Bolton to humorously observe that he might have gotten the job if Marlow had only been less quiet about supporting him. “What do you think of McMaster?” Marlow asked, referring to General H. R. McMaster, who was named national security adviser this week. “His book, Dereliction of Duty, is something, really, that anybody concerned about either the Vietnam war or relations in the United States ought to read. It’s absolutely ” Bolton replied. “I think he’s demonstrated that he’s a man of great personal courage, and he’s an original thinker. I hope that he’ll be able to demonstrate those qualities. You know, it’s an uphill struggle when you’re still on active duty, which he is. I wish him all the best. I hope he does well. I’m happy to help out, whatever way I can, from the outside. ” “Let’s hope he can help coordinate the various departments and agencies that do national security. It sounds kind of boring and bureaucratic, but I tell you, it can be fatal to an administration — again, especially a Republican administration — if it doesn’t speak with one voice,” Bolton said. John Bolton is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and presides over his own political action committee, BoltonPAC. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 1 |
Das State Department setzt den Widerstand gegen den Imperialismus dem Terrorismus gleich Voltaire Netzwerk | 26. Oktober 2016 français Español Türkçe عربي Das US-State Department hat angekündigt, es werde den Libanesen Haytham „Ali Tabataba’i“, alias „Abu ‚Ali Al-Tabataba’i“, auf die Liste der "globalen Terroristen" setzen.
Diese Einschreibung ist besonders aufschlussreich: das Außenministerium wirft diesem leitenden Offizier der Hisbollah vor, die syrische arabische Republik, Mitglied der Vereinten Nationen, zu unterstützen.
Um gute Figur zu machen berichtet die Notiz des State Department auch, dass er im Jemen gesehen wurde. Auf Grundlage dieser Informationen allein beschuldigt es ihn, an Seite der aus den Huthis und den Anhängern des ehemaligen Präsidenten Saleh bestehenden Koalition zu kämpfen, die den Großteil des Landes kontrolliert.
Das State Department beschuldigt den Offizier jedoch keiner einzigen terroristischen Tat. Es setzt einfach den Widerstand gegen den US-Imperialismus dem Terrorismus gleich.
Übersetzung
Horst Frohlich | 0 |
1 комментариев
Как сообщили в Детском фонде ООН (ЮНИСЕФ), "двадцать два ребенка и шесть учителей, согласно полученным сведениям, были убиты сегодня, когда здание их школы было неоднократно атаковано в Идлибе, Сирия", «Это трагедия. Если это было сделано намеренно, то это - военное преступление»,- приводит AFP слова директора ЮНИСЕФ Энтони Лейка.
До этого правозащитники сообщали, что «военные самолеты или российские, или сирийские нанесли шесть ударов» по деревне Хасс Лэйк отметил, что произошедшее является трагедией или военным преступлением.
По его словам, речь идет о возможно самом смертоносном нападении на школу в Сирии с момента начала конфликта в стране в 2011 году.
Как пишет РИА Новости, постоянный представитель РФ при ООН Виталий Чуркин назвал ужасным сообщение об ударе по школе в сирийском Идлибе. "Мне проще всего сказать, что это не мы, но я ответственный человек, так что мне нужно подождать и посмотреть, что скажет наше министерство обороны", - цитирует дипломата ТАСС.
Телеканал Al-Jazeera сообщает, что близкие к оппозиции сирийские правозащитники возложили ответственность за авиаудар на Россию.
Напомним, Идлиб - провинция на северо-западе Сирии, граничит с провинцией Алеппо. Территорию Идлиба в 2015 году контролировала террористическая организация "Джебхат ан-Нусра" (запрещена в РФ), и самолеты российских ВКС наносили удары по этому региону. В декабре 2015 года агентство Reuters со ссылкой на спасателей сообщало о гибели десятков мирных жителей в результате налета российских самолетов.
Вооруженное противостояние продолжается в Сирии с марта 2011 года. По данным ООН, погибли более 220 тысяч человек.
США и их союзники с 2014 года проводят в Ираке и Сирии операцию против ИГ. В ночь на 17 октября премьер-министр Ирака Хайдер аль-Абади заявил о начале военной операции по освобождению Мосула от боевиков ИГ. Иракские военные и силы полиции, а также курдские формирования при поддержке авиации коалиции во главе с США начали массированное наступление на город.
Однако это наступление может обернуться катастрофой на Ближнем Востоке. Об этом заявил, к примеру, кандидат в президенты США Дональд Трамп. Или вот мнение отставного полковника США Дэниэла Дэвиса, которое он изложил в статье, опубликованной в The National Interest : Америке и силам коалиции стоит поторопиться с проведением операции в Мосуле, в противном случае террористы могут разорвать этот альянс в клочья.
Читайте последние новости Pravda.Ru на сегодня Поделиться: | 0 |
As a throng of Chinese reporters crowded in front of him, Jeremy Lin briefly cast his eyes toward the distant skyline of Manhattan, the birthplace of Linsanity. It has been four years since Mr. Lin seemed to inspire New Yorkers and Asians around the world with his mystical, mythical string of performances with the New York Knicks. But now, as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Mr. Lin says he has a different perspective on his fame and his popularity as the first N. B. A. player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent. “When it first started, I’m not going to lie, it was cool, and then it became a burden,” he said at the Nets’ practice facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. “I didn’t really know what I had gotten myself into. One, two, three, four years later, every year I embrace it more. Every year I’m more appreciative, every year I love it more. ” He is 27 now, and it is no longer enough to be just a leader for the Nets on the court. “Chinese people, Asians, they always have a special place in my heart,” he said. “Coming back here, I want to be able to try to inspire the next generation, reach out in the community. ” A Harvard graduate and a son of Taiwanese immigrants, Mr. Lin became an empowering figure not only for Asians, but also for underdogs, Knicks fans and New Yorkers mired in the doldrums in February 2012. The team’s leader, Carmelo Anthony, was injured when Mr. Lin was igniting a turnaround. Enter Mr. Lin, a journeyman who had been cut by two teams. Linsanity, in all its glorious euphoria, erupted. And then, several weeks later, Mr. Lin’s run was over, cut short by a knee injury, combined with the resignation of his coach, Mike D’Antoni. After the season, the Knicks allowed Mr. Lin to depart to the Houston Rockets via free agency. “As soon as he took off that New York uniform, that magic was gone,” said Andrew Kuo, 38, a New artist and ardent Lin fan. The artifacts of that time, like the sandwiches once named for him, grew stale. The puns faded from the lexicon. “The Lin memes are done, it’s O. K. it’s extinct now,” Mr. Kuo said. There is, however, the matter of that “Linsanity No. 17” tattoo on his left forearm. Mr. Kuo laughed and said that it might have been dumb. “But it’s nice to look down and remember it all,” he added. Mr. Lin recalled how he wished he had stopped to enjoy that heady time more while it was swirling around him. As for Linsanity, he may have won the trademark, but he has mixed feelings about it he does not intend to revive it. “Not in a way that I’m offended, but it kind of dehumanizes me to refer to me as a phenomenon,” he said. “I’m going to be here, keep playing my game, and whatever you guys want to call it, it’s up to you guys. ” It was typical humility from a man who at the start of his Knicks career in 2012 was sleeping on his brother’s couch. In what seemed a quaint bookend to that time, Mr. Lin and his trainer, Josh Fan, stayed at an Airbnb rental on Tuesday night, just so they could be near the practice facility in Brooklyn. They turned down the Nets’ offer of a hotel room. Mr. Lin, wearing a new hairstyle featuring tight braids atop his head, was officially introduced on a podium along with five other acquisitions. Yet it is his celebrity that gives the lowly Nets an instant marketing boost while in what is otherwise a rebuilding mode. Since Lin signed his $36 million contract in early July, the team’s sales department has been contacting Asian groups all over New York to offer ticket packages. Brett Yormark, the chief executive of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, said that in response to Mr. Lin’s presence on the team he had scheduled a trip to China to discuss partnership opportunities with travel and packaged good companies. “Our brand is pretty big there, obviously,” he said. As for closer to home? “Obviously, when you think of Sunset Park, that’s an opportunity to ignite a potential fan base,” he said. “Everything is under discussion. ” Mr. Lin’s presence is sure to create ripples along fault lines, even though his fame transcends that rivalry, uniting fans from California to Australia and to Taiwan, where he holds summer basketball camps. He recently returned from his annual visit. “He’s got a lot of fans there,” said Timothy J. Hwang, the New York bureau chief for Central News Network of Taiwan, who was among two dozen Chinese journalists covering Mr. Lin’s news conference. (Mr. Lin gave his first interview in Mandarin.) “He attracts a lot of attention, especially for the younger generation,” Mr. Hwang said. “Basketball is the most popular sport in Taiwan. ” By moving back to the city with the largest Chinese population outside of Asia — 573, 388 residents according to the latest census figures, from 2014 — Mr. Lin will certainly gain a broader, brighter spotlight. “I think he belongs in New York,” said Jimmy Ching, 51, the proprietor of Pacificana, a sprawling dim sum palace in Sunset Park. Last year, Mr. Ching tuned all of the restaurant’s 10 television screens to Knicks games when Mr. Lin played against them as a member of the Charlotte Hornets. “When he was at the Knicks, it was this momentum and the people and the whole area were rooting for him,” Mr. Ching added. “You see it in the Chinese communities. You see it in Brooklyn Chinese community, you see it in Manhattan Chinese community, you see it in the Flushing community. For that to happen, it was something. We pulled together. ” Mr. Lin’s most ardent supporters see a different player now than the relentless, sometimes reckless, guard who once tried to prove his worth. “The definition of Linsanity may have evolved,” said K. P. Chan, 68, a retired banker who lives in Bayside, Queens. “That was just sheer madness, that was epiphany. All the stars were aligned and all of a sudden, he had this breakout out of nowhere. But he has become a much more more complete player. ” Last year, Mr. Chan connected with two California fans via an internet forum to produce a YouTube video that questioned whether N. B. A. referees were neglecting to call flagrant fouls committed against Mr. Lin. As the only in the N. B. A. Mr. Lin represents a new “model minority,” said Peter Kwong, a professor of urban affairs at Hunter College. “On the one hand, he does everything Asians are supposed to do — he went to Harvard — and on the other hand, he’s doing things Asians are not supposed to do: sports,” said Professor Kwong, who specializes in Chinese immigration. “That is the charm of him. ” But the notion of a lack of athleticism among the Chinese seems to be an outdated stereotype, considering the popularity of basketball in Asia and the deep tradition of Asian basketball leagues across this country. “People really don’t understand how some Asian kids could be good,” said Ryan Chin, 15, a mentor in a youth basketball league. “I just want to thank Jeremy Lin. ” | 1 |
House Republicans suddenly reversed plans to change the rules of the House Ethics Oversight panel, in a public humiliation to kick off the 115th Congress. [In a hastily arranged meeting on Capitol Hill, the Republican conference scrambled to kill the rules changes proposal before a scheduled vote and after Donald Trump publicly ridiculed them for their timing on the issue. Other tough ethics organizations, including Judicial Watch, criticized the proposed rule changes. “The American people will see this latest push to undermine congressional ethics enforcement as shady and corrupt,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The full House should seriously consider whether it wants to bear the brunt of public outrage and go through with the rule change this afternoon. ” Democrats and the media piled on as well, ridiculing Republicans for trying to weaken the panel despite many of them campaigning to drain the swamp. “Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress. ” House Speaker Paul Ryan was vocally opposed to the proposed reforms, according to a senior congressional source, but he ultimately failed to lead Republicans away from the public relations disaster that ensued. Republicans were split about the proposed changes, according to House sources. Some agreed that there were reforms needed to change the anonymous nature of the ethics accusations and leaks of investigations to the media, others thought that the reforms went too far. Many Republicans ultimately agreed that the timing of the reforms looked bad. Speaker Ryan tried to defend the reforms in a statement on Tuesday morning, before ultimately calling a meeting to revisit the proposition. The Republican conference unanimously agreed to cancel the changes, according to reports. | 1 |
MUNICH — Years after World War II, American officials here entrusted more than 10, 000 confiscated artworks to Bavarian authorities to return to the rightful owners, many of them Jews whose property had been plundered. But new research in the yellowing archives here makes clear how relentlessly Nazi families pursued the Bavarian officials, badgering them, often successfully, to return art they brazenly continued to view as their property. Hitler’s private secretary, Henriette von Schirach, and her family pleaded with officials of the Bavarian State Painting Collections to turn over nearly 300 works, including a small landscape, “View of a Dutch Square” by the Dutch artist Jan van der Heyden. Before the war, the painting had been owned by Gottlieb and Mathilde Kraus, Jews who fled their Vienna penthouse, leaving behind a carefully packed collection of art that was then confiscated by the Gestapo in 1941. Mrs. von Schirach persuaded the Bavarians to give it back to her for a pittance — 300 Deutschmarks, which was roughly $75 then or nearly $600 now. “The basic element of this story is this: They stole from my family,” said John Graykowski, 62, the Krauses’ “and then they gave it back to the guy who stole it from them. How does that work?” It turns out, the archives show, that hundreds of works were actually sold back at discounted prices in the 1950s and the 1960s to the very Nazis who had taken possession of them, including the widow of Hermann Goering, a senior aide to Hitler who pillaged art to amass a collection of more than a thousand works. This murky chapter of history came to light because of Mr. Graykowski’s search for some 160 missing works from the Kraus collection. In 2009, Mr. Graykowski, a Virginia lawyer, enlisted the help of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a nonprofit that researched the archives for him and made key discoveries. Anne Webber, a founder of the commission, said her researchers concluded that the resale of looted art to families had hardly been isolated. “They called them a ‘return sale,’” she said. “Why were they returned to them rather than the family from whom they were looted? Nobody knew. ” The return sales to Nazi families — first reported in late June by the Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung — are also causing political recriminations. This week, a Bavarian state Parliament committee demanded an accounting from government officials about the extent of the system to resell art to Nazi families and a tally of how many looted works remain in government possession that could be returned to the proper heirs. Mrs. von Schirach’s grandson Ferdinand von Schirach — a German author whose grandfather was imprisoned for 20 years for the deportation of more than 60, 000 Austrian Jews — is also pledging to investigate the provenance of his late grandmother’s art. “We need to know about the evil,” he said. “That’s the only way we can live with it. ” The discreet art trade with Nazi relatives emerged in 1949, four years after the war, when the American military transferred responsibility for restitution of looted works to the West Germans and Austrians. Munich became the hub of a network of art dealers and state officials who had helped drive Nazi looting and then after the war fostered trafficking in those works. The painting collection’s archives illustrate in great detail the efforts by families like the von Schirachs to retain the art. The family patriarch was Baldur von Schirach, a Nazi governor in Vienna who was tried for war crimes in Nuremberg. While he was imprisoned in Spandau, his wife, Henriette, and relatives worked for more than a decade to reclaim art, carpets and furniture. According to archival documents, her father, Heinrich Hoffmann, who was Hitler’s personal photographer, sought to claim a list of 278 paintings that had been confiscated by units like the Monuments Men, an Allied group devoted to recovering and returning looted art. But the Americans were suspicious of him, according to one investigator who said in a 1945 document that “the interrogation of Hoffmann is a thankless task. ” The investigator added,“He is an alcoholic and has all the weaknesses which go with this vice. ” Mrs. von Schirach tirelessly continued the efforts, chasing the mostly German artworks. By 1953, at least 89 works had been promised to the family. By 1957, her brother had recovered 170. In one example of her zeal, Mrs. von Schirach got back a table after persuading a Munich antique dealer to testify in 1954 that she had purchased it from his store in 1932. Robert M. Edsel, whose 2009 book, “The Monuments Men,” inspired a movie by that name starring George Clooney, said he was not surprised by the secret sales. “This is the problem for countries, universities, private individuals or auction houses that just want the Nazis era issues to go away,” he said. “The more they avoid transparency, the more it refuels interest and frustration. Why does it matter so many years later? It’s stolen. ” Jonathan Petropoulos, a historian at Claremont McKenna College in California who studied the postwar Munich art network, said the Bavarians failed to follow promises to the Americans that they would find the rightful owners of the art. “Officials from both governments said they would continue to conduct research, but this scarcely happened, at least, for many decades,” he said. In the Graykowski case, the researchers found that the late 17th century oil painting “View of a Dutch Square,” apparently from van der Heyden’s studio, had passed through the official collecting points in postwar Munich where the Monuments Men gathered looted art for restitution. In 1962, the state museum sold it and a landscape from the Kraus collection to Mrs. von Schirach. The current owner of the Dutch oil painting is the Catholic Cathedral Association of Xanten in Westphalia in Germany. It said it purchased the work in 1963, a year after Mrs. von Schirach recovered it at an auction in Cologne for 16, 100 Deutschmarks, which was about $4, 000 then or around $31, 000 at today’s rates — 50 times what she had paid for it. Its current value is unclear, but it is similar to another work of a cathedral square by van der Heyden that hangs in the Louvre in Paris. Barking, the cathedral association’s chairman, said that the group is willing to negotiate a return to Mr. Graykowski and his family if certain “requirements are met. ” But the two sides are in a stalemate. The Kraus descendants disagreed over the choice of a mediator and the association’s demand for some sort of a return on its investment. Mr. Barking said they were still waiting for a notarized list of the Kraus heirs. Mr. Graykowski, the said that the material had been sent and that the church association was stalling. Mr. Graykowski said he hoped his family’s story would weigh on private collectors with problematic works. His were elderly when they moved to the United States, he said, and so scarred by their losses in Vienna that they refused to speak in German. “Maybe people will feel the moral weight to come forward,” he said. “My grandmother was an artist, and her paintings are on the list of stolen works. So someone has my grandmother’s painting in their parlor. I never met her. I wish I had this piece of her. ” | 1 |
A threat from a junior Israeli embassy worker to ‘take down’ a British government minister drew an immediate apology from the country’s most senior diplomat. [The Mail on Sunday newspaper posted undercover footage, taken in a covert sting operation, of the embassy employee telling a reporter from that “I want to take down … the Deputy Foreign Minister” (Sir Alan Duncan) — a critic of Israel, and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s . Duncan was “doing a lot of problems,” he added, before calling foreign office chief Johnson an “idiot” and mocking “crazy” opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his “weirdo” supporters. The embassy apologized for the smears, saying it “rejects the remarks concerning Minister Duncan, which are completely unacceptable”. “The comments were made by a junior embassy employee who is not an Israeli diplomat, and who will be ending his term of employment with the embassy shortly,” it added. Ambassador Mark Regev (pictured) apologised personally to Duncan on Friday, according to the embassy. Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed they had received an apology, and that it now considered “the matter closed”. “The Israeli Ambassador has apologised and is clear these comments do not reflect the views of the Embassy or Government of Israel,” a spokesperson told The Independent. “The UK has a strong relationship with Israel and we consider the matter closed. ” The Guardian reported that the footage was part of a wider project recording conversations with Israeli embassy staff, British politicians and supporters, which is set to air in documentaries that will broadcast from January 15. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Some of Donald J. Trump’s most prominent cabinet nominees — with their millions in assets and complex business arrangements — are moving unusually slowly through the government’s arduous financial disclosure examinations, threatening the quick start promised for the new administration and raising Democratic concerns that their confirmations could customary ethical safeguards. On Thursday, the ranking Democrats on all 16 Senate committees released a joint statement saying they would block confirmation votes until each nominee of Mr. Trump had cleared an F. B. I. background check, completed a financial disclosure statement and ethics agreement approved by the federal Office of Government Ethics, and “satisfied reasonable requests for additional information. ” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, that panel’s ranking Democrat, engaged in a public spat over Mr. Cardin’s request for three years of tax returns from Exxon Mobil’s chief executive, Rex Tillerson, who has been picked to be the next secretary of state. “As is precedent for nominees considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the committee has not asked Mr. Tillerson to provide copies of his tax returns,” Mr. Corker said. And Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent letters to the top ethics officials at 17 government agencies, asking if they had been in touch with officials of the Trump transition, whether they had received financial disclosure statements, and whether any Trump pick “refused to provide any information that you believe is necessary to conduct a conflicts analysis as required by law. ” “Given the large and complex financial holdings and boundless, serious potential for conflicts of interest,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in an email, “these nominees need to turn over all relevant financial and background information so that senators can thoroughly review their record before going forward with any hearings. ” Several of Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks would be among the wealthiest public servants in modern history. That alone presents a significant challenge to Senate Republicans, who hope to begin confirmation hearings in a few weeks. Mr. Trump’s selection process — begun, unlike that of most predecessors, after his election rather than before — may have added to the challenge of moving quickly now. “They need to step on the gas and get it done,” said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served as chief ethics counsel to President George W. Bush. “They need to tell the Senate what they are going to do with their assets. ” Cabinet nominees undergo rigorous background checks by the F. B. I. and the Office of Government Ethics, as well as a complicated process involving the agencies they are nominated to run. This is to ensure that nominees have no financial conflicts of interest or outstanding tax matters that could later expose them to criminal prosecution. For nominees with extensive financial holdings, preparation for confirmation hearings can take weeks or even months, as was the case with Penny Pritzker, a billionaire who is President Obama’s commerce secretary. Previous new administrations have taken longer to name cabinet picks than Mr. Trump has done, in part because they were doing their own vetting that the Trump transition has largely forgone. Three people who have discussed Mr. Trump’s nominees with officials involved in the screening, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations of a highly secretive government agency, were told of the slow pace, which has alarmed Senate Democrats. Mr. McConnell has said he hopes to move ahead on several of Mr. Trump’s nominees “on Day 1. ” Emails to Mr. Trump’s transition team were not returned. Many of Mr. Trump’s nominees come with a complex web of financial interests and investments. They include Mr. Tillerson Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner picked to head the Treasury the billionaire investor Wilbur L. Ross Jr. chosen as commerce secretary and Betsy DeVos, the ’s choice to run the Department of Education. Lawmakers have already raised questions about Mr. Tillerson’s seeming reluctance to turn over his personal financial information. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has tentatively set Jan. 11 for the start of Mr. Tillerson’s confirmation hearing. In keeping with longstanding committee precedent, it has not asked Mr. Tillerson to provide his tax returns, Senator Corker said. “By all accounts, Mr. Tillerson is currently ahead of schedule in providing information to the committee,” he added. “He already has submitted a completed nominee questionnaire and will soon submit an extensive financial disclosure. ” But Mr. Cardin voiced the fears of some Democrats that Mr. Tillerson and other nominees — and Republican committee chairmen — may take their cues from Mr. Trump’s unusual decision not to release his own tax returns. “I think it is an important part of vetting this candidate because he has never made public disclosures of this type, as he has worked at Exxon Mobil for his entire career and has never been in public service,” Mr. Cardin wrote on Thursday in a letter to committee Democrats. “Mr. Tillerson was actively engaged with many foreign governments that could become relevant if confirmed as secretary of state. The Senate has a responsibility to review all relevant documents during the confirmation process. ” Republicans say the concern is misplaced. Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which will hold the hearing for Mr. Mnuchin, has previously said that Mr. Trump’s nominees “will undergo the same bipartisan vetting process as the nominees from previous administrations. ” This includes scrutiny by the Office of Government Ethics, and his committee’s requirement for three years of a nominee’s most recent federal tax returns. A spokeswoman for Mr. Hatch said on Wednesday that the committee would not schedule a hearing before completion of the bipartisan vetting process. Selections made during a transition are more complicated than those of a sitting president because a nomination cannot be officially made until the new president is sworn in. Candidates typically start to put together their prospective cabinet during the campaign the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, conducted an extensive vetting process during his failed 2012 White House run. When an incoming president has chosen a nominee, the transition office works immediately to get forms in order for the ethics office and the F. B. I. The F. B. I. does its own significant vetting, which has been the downfall of some nominees, frequently over tax issues or payments to domestic workers. Often this review is done long before the nomination arrives on Capitol Hill. Federal ethics law requires that financial disclosure forms be submitted no later than five days after a formal nomination, or before a nominee’s hearing, whichever is earlier. Generally, if nominees have any financial entanglements that could create real or potential conflicts of interest, they work with an ethics compliance employee to come up with a plan to address those conflicts. In many cases, though not all, a nominee resolves conflicts through divestiture, the use of a blind trust or a formal recusal from certain matters. This practice protects the public interest, but also the nominee. Cabinet members later found to be acting in their own financial interest in their official capacity can be prosecuted. “If you have substantial assets, they want some sort of assets agreement,” Mr. Painter said. “That can take a few weeks, especially with billionaires. ” Democrats insist the process cannot be disregarded. “When you occupy this country’s highest positions of power, you manage trillions of dollars, enforce more than two centuries of law, control the world’s most powerful military and make decisions that are literally matters of life and death,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee. “That’s why nominees need a thorough vetting process, not a rubber stamp. ” | 1 |
Monday at the White House daily briefing when asked about Sunday’s Golden Globes remarks by actress Meryl Streep criticizing Donald Trump, press secretary Josh Earnest said, “She clearly was delivering a thoughtful, carefully considered message that she believes in deeply. ” Earnest said, ‘I haven’t spoken to the president about her speech. I didn’t see her speech but I certainly read about it. It seemed to get plenty of attention. I think what I can say is she clearly was delivering a thoughtful, carefully considered message that she believes in deeply. It seemed to me to be a fairly straight forward excise of her First Amendment rights as a citizen of the United States. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
— Richard Varady (@RichardVarady) October 26, 2016 @RichardVarady @Denis44 @PressSec @BarackObama They never talk about the deductibles. Wonder why that is?
— Poppy Fields (@Poppy_Fields1) October 26, 2016 @Denis44 Deductibles have doubled for millions. Why don't you state that?
— Poppy Fields (@Poppy_Fields1) October 26, 2016 @Denis44 No mention of tripled premiums and limited choices? I wonder why.
— Alea Iacta Est (@sullafelix) October 26, 2016 @Denis44 @PressSec Where's the slice for how many can no longer see their doctor and be covered? | 0 |
November 10th, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
Anatoly Sharij - Translated by Inessa Sinchougova
Donald Trump's win gives puppet states such as the Ukraine hope, that soon they may escape America's imperialist shackles. All Trump would have to do is cease funding Ukraine's hand-picked, corrupt elite. Without US taxpayer dollars going to Ukraine's politicians, the scoundrels would ditch the country faster than anyone would care to know... So now we wait! The presenter is Anatoly Sharij, a popular Ukrainian video blogger.
Follow us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Donate!
| 0 |
Man seems to think he helped out with World War Two 14-11-16 A 42-YEAR-OLD man thinks he had something to do with Britain’s historical military victories. Office manager Martin Bishop frequently expresses pride at how ‘we’ defeated enemies like the Nazis, despite having no military training and not being born at the time. Bishop said: “We showed tyrants like Hitler and Napoleon who’s boss, although my ability to fight them personally has been limited by being born in 1974. “It’s in our national character to never give up, like during the Battle of Britain or when I did that 5km charity run. “I may not have been at our wars in person, but I feel I’m continuing our proud military tradition by watching documentaries about them while having my tea. “If I’d been around at the time I’d definitely have been getting stuck in on D-Day or at the Battle of Agincourt, because I’m a dab hand at archery on the Wii.” However colleague Nikki Hollis said: “When the office went paintballing, Martin mostly hid in a wooden fort. “Also I can’t see him surviving World War One mentally unscathed because he was totally traumatised by the last episode of Blackadder .”
Share: | 0 |
LOS ANGELES — The chief executive of Sony’s underperforming entertainment division, Michael Lynton, announced Friday that he would step down to focus more intently on the popular messaging service Snapchat, where he was an early investor. Mr. Lynton, who weathered various corporate crises at Sony Entertainment over his tenure, including a devastating cyberattack and a battle with activist investors, will step down on Feb. 2, the company said. After that, Kazuo Hirai, the president and chief executive of Sony Corporation, based in Tokyo, will take a more role at the conglomerate’s movie, television and music division, at least for a time. Mr. Hirai will begin keeping a second office at Sony’s studio complex in Culver City, Calif. the company said, and take the additional title of executive of Sony Entertainment. Mr. Lynton will also serve as executive for a period starting in February to help Mr. Hirai learn the inner workings of the movie and television businesses and select a permanent successor. In the meantime, Mr. Lynton, 57, will officially become chairman of the board at Snap Inc. which owns Snapchat. Snap is expected to go public — with an eye toward being valued at $30 billion or more — this spring. As chairman, Mr. Lynton is not expected to play a direct management role, but rather focus on matters involving strategy and governance in support of Evan Spiegel, Snap’s chief executive. “I have been involved with Evan and Snapchat since its early days, and, given its growth since then, decided the time was right to transition,” Mr. Lynton said in a statement. He added that he was confident that “the broad changes we have made and new management team we have assembled over the last few years” at Sony would bear fruit. Despite wrenching turnaround efforts — Mr. Lynton hired a new movie chief in 2015 — Sony’s film operation, which includes the Columbia, Screen Gems and TriStar labels, has experienced a prolonged shortage of breakout hits. Last year, Sony released 22 movies (not including those distributed by its New art house unit) and collected $911. 5 million at the domestic box office, with moderate successes like “The Angry Birds Movie” offset by clunkers like “The Brothers Grimsby. ” Among the six major Hollywood studios, only Paramount fared worse, with 15 releases taking in $876. 8 million. The leader, Walt Disney Studios, where Mr. Lynton worked in the 1990s, had 13 releases and $3 billion in domestic sales. In a statement, Mr. Hirai said Mr. Lynton’s structural changes “set the path for restoring profitability and future growth, though we recognize current challenges in the motion picture businesses and its turnaround will take some time. ” That suggests Mr. Hirai plans to be patient with Thomas E. Rothman, the chairman of Sony Pictures, who has ruffled feathers at the studio as he has pushed for change. Mr. Hirai also emphasized that the studio was not for sale — a persistent topic of Hollywood speculation — calling movies, television and music “essential parts of Sony. ” Although the studio’s top television executive was pushed out in June after clashing with Mr. Lynton, Sony’s business has been a bright spot. It makes “The Crown” for Netflix, “Blacklist” for NBC and “The Goldbergs” for ABC, in addition to lucrative chestnuts like “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune. ” Sony also delivered the seminal series “Breaking Bad” during Mr. Lynton’s tenure. Sony Music, which went through management changes of its own in October, has strengthened its position by focusing on growth areas like streaming and paying the estate of Michael Jackson $750 million for its share of the Music Publishing catalog, which contains more than one million copyrights, including 250 songs by the Beatles. Sony Music has also released hits by artists like Beyoncé and Meghan Trainor. In his statement, Mr. Hirai thanked Mr. Lynton for “his strong leadership and dedication to Sony throughout his long and illustrious career with the company. ” | 1 |
Why Obama Will Win Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, August 2008
It is time to get used to the idea that the next president of the United States will be black. Why will a nation we are so often assured is “racist” elect a black president? And will it make a difference?
Ever since Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race, the polls have reported consistently that Barack Obama will beat John McCain. The media love to tell us that whites say they support the black candidate and then vote for the white, but there is no reason for whites to lie in this campaign. Mr. Obama will not get a majority of the white vote but he will get enough to beat Mr. McCain. Why will so many whites vote for Mr. Obama?
First, some support his policies. They want to end the war in Iraq, and they want the standard liberal program of socialized medicine, higher taxes, more handouts, and more government. There has always been a substantial minority of whites who vote this way, and they have a clear favorite in Mr. Obama.
Second, as many people have pointed out, an enormous number of whites think it is deeply virtuous to vote for a black—not for an out-and-out race man such as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, but for an unthreatening, well-scrubbed black who speaks standard English and promises to “bring us together.” Even if they live sharply segregated lives, whites thrill to the language of “coming together,” and they adore blacks who don’t act or sound black.
For many whites, voting for Mr. Obama will be an act of high patriotism. Electing him will prove America is not “racist,” and many whites believe that rising above “racism” is America’s sacred calling. One must never underestimate the importance to whites of feeling virtuous. Most would rather lose a leg than be thought a “bigot,” and a vote for Obama is a painless way to burnish anti-racist credentials.
Third, young whites will line up for Mr. Obama. They have been swallowing anti-white, multi-culti propaganda all their lives and have not knocked around enough to discover it is false. Some who know their parents will vote for Mr. McCain will make a special point of voting for Mr. Obama. Every new generation thinks it is cooler, hipper, and wiser than any generation that ever lived, and what could be cooler, hipper, or wiser than putting a black man in the White House? For many young whites, a vote for Mr. Obama will be a denial of every uncool, unhip, and especially every even faintly race-realist thing their parents ever said or did.
Fourth, although the country seems to have a collective memory of no more than two weeks, Americans think everything is “historic.” Whenever someone breaks an obscure record in professional baseball we are told history was made. If you ask someone why he waited in line all night to buy the first Apple iPhone he will tell you it’s a “historic” product. Americans love anything that is “historic,” and for people who think a few more stolen bases are “history” right up there with the Battle of Lepanto, putting a black man in the White House will be the discovery of America, Pearl Harbor, and the Second Coming all rolled into one. Many whites will vote for Mr. Obama because they want to think they helped “make history.”
The media, which has its own grim reasons for supporting Mr. Obama, is mesmerized by the same prospect. Editors salivate at the thought of writing headlines like “History is Made” the day after the election, and some will lose all self-control and add an exclamation mark. The emphasis, of course, will be on Mr. Obama as the first black president, implying more to come. The media, which always subtly boost the Democrat, will be even more blatantly partisan this time, downplaying every blunder Mr. Obama makes and highlighting Mr. McCain’s.
Fifth, many whites will vote for Mr. Obama—or at least not vote for Mr. McCain—because the Republicans have nominated the most stunningly unattractive candidate in years. Old and pock-marked, Mr. McCain is thoroughly disliked in the Senate for arrogance that he cannot even hide from voters when he is not speaking from notes. He has dismayed Republicans by promoting amnesty for illegals, and dismayed everyone else by saying America should stay in Iraq for 100 years if it takes that long to “win.” Mr. Obama therefore has the enormous advantage of running against an opponent that not even Republicans like.
Mr. Obama will also crush Mr. McCain in face-to-face debates. Mr. McCain cannot put an unscripted sentence together any better than George W. Bush can, and will come across as a thick-witted geezer. Mr. Obama, who is as glib as any politician, gives credence to H.L. Mencken’s definition of democracy as “rule by orators.”
But what about America’s storied “racism”? Isn’t America brimming with people who can’t bear the thought of a black president? Americans have been numbed for decades by attractive television-blacks who read the news, forecast the weather, and tell us which brand of toothpaste to buy. Americans get a steady diet of heroic movie-blacks who outsmart and beat up white brutes, solve baffling technical problems, dispense sage advice, and save the world. Even the current Miss USA is black. There are millions of whites who do not want to live with blacks or have much to do with them, but would a black president be much different from nearly eight years of black secretaries of state? The march of blackness may be vaguely worrying to whites but they think there is nothing they can do about it and that they shouldn’t even if they could.
The final reason why whites will vote for Mr. Obama is that the Republicans do not have the backbone to attack him in the only way that would work. If they were serious, they would fill the airways with Jeremiah Wright prancing and raving, along with the message: “This is the man who married Mr. and Mrs. Obama, baptized their children, and whom Mr. Obama calls a ‘family member’.” They would buy radio ads quoting Michelle Obama’s thesis in which she says she will always be black first and American second. Mr. McCain has nothing like the stomach for a campaign like this.
Many blacks probably think he has the stomach for considerably worse: 57 percent think Mr. Obama is in greater physical danger than any white politician, and many say they would have warned him not to run, for fear he would be killed. An assassination would certainly be a shattering event. There is no telling how many cities would go up in flames, and Third-World countries, which have followed the Obama nomination with unprecedented interest, would help make it the most widely reported killing in history. (I have just returned from a Muslim country in which everyone has heard of Mr. Obama and likes him, but most have never heard of John McCain.) Whatever gruesome fantasies blacks may be spinning, however, assassination has gone out of style in America, and white resistance—such as it is—is dependably nonviolent. Mr. Obama will be perfectly safe.
In any case, Mr. Obama will win far more white votes than he will lose because he is black. Whites who don’t want a black president would not vote for a Democrat anyway. As for black voters, even nominal Republicans are said to be running for the doors, but strictly racial voting has always been fine for blacks. Not so for whites, of course. Just try telling your co-workers that you disagree with Mr. McCain but are voting for him because he is white.
Racially conscious whites will be in a quandary in November. Even if Mr. McCain’s policies are worse than Mr. Obama’s should they vote for the white man—one with an adopted Bangladeshi daughter and who long ago betrayed white interests? Even after years of being softened up with black heroes and figureheads, a black in the White House is a powerful symbol of white dispossession. A mulatto president is an almost explicit endorsement of miscegenation. This is bitter medicine.
Some whites have argued that a black president would undercut the charges of “racism” whites are forever facing, but they are dreaming. The entire government could look like a meeting of the Mystic Knights of the Sea, but as long as blacks are worse off than whites we will be blamed for it. Sensible whites cannot cheerfully vote for either man; I suspect most will stay home or vote for a minor candidate.
Aside from the symbolic impact, which cannot be calculated, will President Obama be much different from a President Hillary Clinton? She would lard her cabinet with blacks and Hispanics, nominate ultra-liberal judges, push for amnesty, grovel before non-whites everywhere, and load up the “civil rights” division of the Justice Department with anti-white sharks. She would certainly make a bigger fool of herself over Hispanics and Asians (see “ Turning Up the Pressure ,” AR, May 2008). Our choice, therefore, could not be more disagreeable. On balance, we get to decide which is the more degrading spectacle: deluded white people giving their country away or clear-eyed blacks helping themselves to it.
President Obama will, however, face special pressures. He can’t let the pushier brothers walk all over him, but he will have to throw them enough bones to keep them off his back. It will be a tricky balance. Mr. Obama’s first annual address to the NAACP will be a love feast, but every year after that it will be harder to explain why black unemployment, poverty, and incarceration rates haven’t changed at all.
Even Mr. Obama’s star-struck white supporters will eventually wonder what happened to all that “change” he promised. There is not going to be change. The system is far too stuck in its self-serving ways for that. With the help of an enlarged Democratic majority in Congress, Mr. Obama may set up some wheezing, byzantine form of socialized medicine, but no one will be happy with it. If Mr. Obama inherits a sick economy, a weak dollar, expensive oil, and shrinking revenues, Americans will not at all like the change they get.
On the bright side, with Mr. Obama we have a good chance of piquant First-Lady behavior. What will the White House be like with Michelle in charge? Will she want a new exterior paint job? How and whom will she entertain? Will the Big Man’s guest bedrooms—in the African tradition—be turned over to third cousins from Kenya and the South Side of Chicago? There is no telling with what improprieties large and small Mrs. Obama will entertain us as she makes up her mind whether she is an American.
It will be an edifying presidency; and whites may be a little less deluded in 2012. | 0 |
Email Print It would appear as though conservatives have had enough of the liberals dumping on our HQ’s around the country, so they decided to dump a little something on one of theirs! USA Today reports that in the early morning hours of Saturday, the Warren County, Ohio, Democrat Headquarters received a “gift” from an anonymous donor. Of course, the idea of a “gift” is always in the eyes of the receiver. Where a farmer would have been grateful for the donation, Democrat leadership was less than thrilled with it. The gift in question: a truckload of manure. Some would view this delivery as a “redistribution of wealth” – a truckload of manure isn’t necessarily cheap. Others may see it as the public giving back what Democrats have been shoveling out for the last eight years. While this “donation” is being categorized as an act of vandalism, you can’t help but believe that the police officers who took the call on this “contribution” had a stifled chuckle about it. There is a humorous aspect to this social commentary. “What reasonable person thinks this is OK?” Democrat Party Chair Bethe Goldenfield said in a post on social media. “I won’t be responding to anyone who thinks this is acceptable behavior. It is illegal !” The same thing happened in 2012, Goldenfield noted. Evidently, Ms. Goldenfield doesn’t appreciate the subtlety of the humor and/or the karma involved. One could argue that “what goes around comes around.” Warren County is a suburban Cincinnati county that overwhelmingly votes Republican. Mitt Romney garnered 69 percent of the vote in 2012. In fact, it’s been close to 40 years since a Democrat was elected to even a countywide office. In response to the news, the chairman of the Warren County Republican Party said the GOP had nothing to do with the manure. In an act of good faith, he extended access to organization volunteers “to help clean things up.” That is a far cry from anything Democrats have offered in the aftermath of much more serious incidents at Republican headquarters in North Carolina and Indiana. In North Carolina, someone firebombed the Orange County GOP headquarters. In that incident, graffiti was scrawled on the side of the building warning the Republican “Nazis” to leave the county or else. In Indiana, someone tossed a brick through the window of one local Republican headquarters. Both of these incidents – presumably executed by pro-Clinton operatives – caused extensive monetary damage. The “donation in Warren County, Ohio, caused no damage and, if Ms. Goldenfield was resourceful, she could have made a profit for the organization in selling the manure to a farmer or a garden center. These examples illustrate the fundamental differences between the Left and Right side of the aisle. Where the Right makes symbolic gestures that literally hurt no one and harm nothing, the Left firebombs and destroys property. Please tell me which party is the more civilized and intellectual party? All that Progressive enlightenment hasn’t amounted to much. What do you think about campaign “contribution” that was made to the Democrat Party in Ohio? Please share the story on Facebook and tell us because we want to hear YOUR voice! Join us on Facebook to Stop The Takeover. Click on the button to subscribe. | 0 |
Daily Caller October 27, 2016
Ezekiel Emanuel stopped by “Morning Joe” on Wednesday to talk about the Affordable Care Act premium increases that will affect more than one million Americans.
WATCH:
Mika Brzezinski noted that Emanuel, one of Obama’s former advisors, is “often called one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act.”
“How’s that working for you right now, Zeke?” chimed in Joe Scarborough.
Emanuel’s response?
Laughter. A d v e r t i s e m e n t
“Be honest, though,” Scarborough continued. “Zeke only worked on the part of the Affordable Care Act that’s causing increases 25 percent on average.”
Brzezinski stated she’s “all for it.”
Again, Emanuel responded with a case of the giggles. This 24 | 0 |
Over 2,500 hacked Clinton Campaign staff emails have been released by Wikileaks, bringing the total number of emails released to over 50,000. In the most recent batch, there is a transcript of a paid speech given by Bill Clinton at a “Hillary for America” fundraiser while Hillary was secretary of state.
An email from January 2016 from Tina Flournoy, Bill Clinton’s aide, had an attached document with a transcript of a speech given by Bill Clinton at the home of Mike and Patti Miller in October 2015.
“I haven’t run for office in 20 years, and yet every election I feel like an old horse that once won a bunch of races and somebody comes to the barn, gives me an extra bale of hay, hauls me on the track and slaps me on the rump, just to see if I can get around one more time,” Bill Clinton joked.
Speaking about the presidential primary debates, Clinton said, “These people actually think they can insult their way to the White House, or compete with each other for who can say the most politically correct things.”
Speaking of the Iran nuclear deal, he said:
Even the people that don’t like this Iran nuclear agreement like the sanctions that were imposed on Iran. She did that, and she got Russia and China to go along… you don’t know yet whether this Iranian thing is going to be good or bad. It depends on whether we enforce it. And you’ve got to have somebody in there tough enough, with enough connections in these other countries, to enforce the trigger that will re-impose the sanctions if they violate the rules.
Speaking about Republicans who oppose Hillary Clinton, Bill said:
Because, don’t be fooled: these guys do a lot of serious psychological studies. And they know that if you badmouth somebody enough in the press, day in and day out, especially if you’ve got your own microphone with Fox News, even if every single charge turns out to be false, you can hurt them.
Referring to a call he received from Barack Obama to tell him that Osama Bin Laden was killed, Bill said:
I could take CIA papers every day if I wanted to. I don’t, because of Hillary’s jobs in the Senate and Secretary of State, because I give too many public speeches and I’d hate to accidentally say something that I read in a government document.
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
We encourage you to share and republish our reports, analyses, breaking news and videos ( Click for details ).
Contributed by The Daily Sheeple of www.TheDailySheeple.com .
This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.TheDailySheeple.com. | 0 |
LONDON — When Ecuador holds a general election on Sunday, the results could have international repercussions linked to one man thousands of miles away: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who took refuge in the country’s embassy in London nearly five years ago and who remains there. Mr. Assange moved into the embassy in Knightsbridge, one of the British capital’s most affluent neighborhoods, after accusations of rape in Sweden, which he has described as a for an American effort to extradite him and try him on espionage charges. Whether Ecuador will continue its role of reluctant warden to Mr. Assange, who was granted asylum by President Rafael Correa in 2012, hinges on the outcome of the elections. Eight candidates are seeking the presidency, and at least two have said they would evict him if they won. If balloting reflects recent poll results, it is unlikely that Mr. Assange would need to pack his bags anytime soon: While Mr. Correa’s preferred successor, Lenín Moreno, is the polls indicate that the election is likely to go to a second round, meaning that Mr. Assange’s fate may not be decided until a runoff in early April. If Guillermo Lasso of Creating Opportunities or Cynthia Viteri of the Social Christian Party pull off an upset, however, it could be a different fate altogether. “As president of this nation, I need the money used for his upkeep, for example to pay for my children’s school lunches,” Ms. Viteri said about Mr. Assange, the newspaper El Comercio reported on Thursday. “I withdraw his asylum,” she said, “for the purchase, in my opinion, of Mr. Assange’s silence. ” She did not elaborate. Ms. Viteri was a distant third in two recent polls, with about 14 percent of support. In the past, Mr. Lasso has supported Mr. Assange’s stay at the embassy, but he expressed a different view in comments to The Guardian last week. “The Ecuadorean people have been paying a cost that we should not have to bear,” he said. “We will cordially ask Señor Assange to leave within 30 days of assuming a mandate. ” Foreign Minister Guillaume Long has rejected the idea that Mr. Assange might be forced to leave the embassy. “We’ve ratified his asylum several times, and under this government, there is no decision to revoke it at all,” he said in an interview on Friday. “Let’s not forget that Julian Assange was granted asylum on grounds of fear of possible political persecution. ” Mr. Moreno, the did not make much of the issue of Mr. Assange’s fate during the campaign, which has focused on economic matters at a time of falling oil prices. Speculation that Mr. Assange was overstaying his welcome grew when the embassy cut off his access to the internet in October, shortly before elections in the United States. WikiLeaks had published tens of thousands of hacked emails from inside Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. “We didn’t want any ambiguity,” Mr. Long said of his country’s decision to cut off Mr. Assange’s online access. “We wanted it to be very clear that Ecuador’s diplomatic mission was not being used in order to interfere in the U. S. electoral process. ” Mr. Long said that Mr. Assange, whom he last saw in June, lived in “extremely tough conditions,” in a small space with very little light. “London is not exactly the most luminous city, and it has a long winter,” he said. The foreign minister revealed some weariness with the length of Mr. Assange’s time at the embassy, The Guardian reported, asking for Sweden to speed up its investigation as “this has been going on for far too long. ” But in the interview on Friday, he dismissed the idea that providing refuge to Mr. Assange came at a financial cost that Ecuadoreans could not afford. Rather, he said, the cost is political. “We’ve taken a principled decision, and it speaks highly of a country that defends its ideals, not just petty interests,” he said. “Having one more person in the embassy is a marginal addition to the cost of running the embassy,” he continued. “What’s the cost of having someone in the bedroom?” | 1 |
Three days after Tiger Woods committed to his first PGA Tour event in 14 months, he abruptly withdrew, leaving this week’s Safeway Open with twice as many tickets sold as a year ago but a fraction of the star power. The Woods wing of fans descending on Napa, Calif. this week will still be able to see the major winner Phil Mickelson, no small consolation prize. But the announcement of Woods’s withdrawal, first reported by Golf Channel on Monday and later confirmed by Woods in a statement posted on his website, came as the interest in his comeback had intensified into a Category 4 hype storm. It partly manifested in the gambling world: Bettors could wager on whether Woods’s first drive would find the fairway and if he would finish in the top 10. His odds of winning were listed as 40 to 1, better than all but eight players in the field. The major winner Johnny Miller — an owner of the course hosting this week’s event, the PGA Tour’s season opener — described the straightforward layout as ideal for Woods to ease his way back into a “second career” that Miller said would produce another six or eight victories. A fellow touring pro, Jesper Parnevik, gushed about Woods’s game after playing a practice round with him recently, telling Golf Channel, “Comebacks are never a sure thing, but something tells me his might be spectacular. ” All the talk, however well intentioned, intensified the pressure on Woods, whose final three shots in front of the public, from 100 yards out during a media day in May for a tournament that benefits his foundation, all found a water hazard. People may remember his promising finish to the season last year, when he contended before settling for a tie for 10th at the Wyndham Championship in what turned out to be his last competitive event. But it cannot be easy for Woods to forget how he started 2015: with a withdrawal and three scores in the 80s in his first six events. Since his season in 2013, Woods has acquired a kind of scar tissue that no amount of vitamin E will ameliorate. The only remedy for Woods is to play and accept that his shots might get worse before his scores get better. For Woods to have committed to a tournament on Friday before changing his mind three days later suggests that his problem is mental, not physical. Woods, 40, appears to be experiencing performance anxiety, and really, who in his position would not feel a little like the emperor with no game? In the statement on his website, Woods described his game as “vulnerable and not where it needs to be. ” His candid assessment called to mind a line from “I Said Yes to Everything,” the memoir of the Academy actress Lee Grant. In it, she wrote, “The problem when you are a star, when the money rests on you as an actor, is that your freedom to fail is gone. ” Woods’s freedom to miss the first fairway or miss the cut is gone. Any other player who had been sidelined from competitive golf for more than 400 days, as Woods has, would not be expected to return and immediately resume his winning ways. Yet before he withdrew, oddsmakers were listing Woods not that far behind the favorites. Woods also pulled out of next month’s Turkish Airlines Open, which would have been his second event. “I will continue to work hard and plan to play at my foundation’s event, the Hero World Challenge,” Woods said, referring to the December event that he hosts in the Bahamas. A winner of 79 tour events, Woods missed all four majors this year for the first time since he turned pro in August 1996. He secured the first of those Tour wins 20 years ago last week. Since his successful 2013 season, Woods has had three surgical procedures and 18 tour starts. He is four major victories from equaling Jack Nicklaus’s record and three tour victories from equaling Sam Snead’s career mark. Snead and, more recently, Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Steve Stricker summoned some of their best golf in their 40s. There is no reason to believe Woods cannot win again. But to succeed — or even start — this second career, as Miller called it, Woods is going to have to forget the golfer he was in his prime, the one whose goal in every event he entered was to win. “After a lot of hours,” Woods said in his statement, “I knew I wasn’t ready to compete against the best golfers in the world. ” If he compares his shots now with his shots then, Woods is never going to feel ready. That does not mean he cannot compete. He should not let the hype machine chase him into retirement just because he has a new normal. As he resets his timetable, Woods should adopt this swing thought: Perfect is the enemy of good. | 1 |
LONDON — One day in 2004, Boris Johnson was interrupted on his morning jog by a pack of tabloid reporters massed outside his house in North London. They asked about rumors that Mr. Johnson, then editor of The Spectator magazine and a member of Parliament, had once had an extramarital affair, gotten his lover pregnant and paid for her abortion. The chronically disheveled Mr. Johnson, wearing voluminous shorts and a bandanna decorated with skulls and crossbones, responded with his usual cocktail of charm, bluster and obfuscation. Having already dismissed the story as “a completely untrue and ludicrous conjecture,” and “an inverted pyramid of piffle,” he cheerily advised the reporters to “go for a run, get some exercise and have a beautiful day. ” He was lying. The reports were correct, and he was fired from his parliamentary job as the Conservative Party arts spokesman. But it didn’t seem to bother him too much. Mr. Johnson has always had a knack for recasting disaster as farce, and he devoted his weekly newspaper column to the virtues of being fired. “Nothing excites compassion, in friend and foe alike,” he wrote, “as much as the sight of you on the Tarmac with your propeller buried six feet under. ” Mr. Johnson, 52, has had a singularly charmed life, always wafting upward on a Teflon cloud of charm and guile even as people have questioned his integrity, seriousness and competence. But not anymore. Having gambled his political future on the chance to lead his party and country through the aftermath of the “Brexit” referendum on whether to exit the European Union, Mr. Johnson found on Thursday that his luck had run out. He withdrew from the race. In the end, he was done in as much by his own hubris, lack of preparation and bewilderment in the face of the Brexit result as he was by the treachery and dwindling support of his colleagues. As he abandoned his campaign to be the Conservative Party leader — and with it, probably, his chances of ever being prime minister — he seemed almost relieved to be spared the burden of running the country he had done so much to destabilize. Mr. Johnson, the former mayor of London, who has not given an interview since the Brexit vote, did not respond to a message left on his parliamentary office voice mail. For a student of Shakespeare, which Mr. Johnson is (he is writing a biography) the situation was replete with ironies. A man who had spent his life behaving like Falstaff and making merry in the pub had failed to convince his party, and perhaps himself, that he had somehow suddenly turned into Prince Hal, poised to lead the country through its crisis in Europe. On Thursday, the anger at Mr. Johnson was palpable, replacing last week’s anger at Prime Minister David Cameron for calling the referendum in the first place. The sense that Mr. Johnson had presided over the Brexit campaign without a plan for what to do if it won — and then walked away without cleaning up his mess — was particularly enraging. “He’s like a general who marches his army to the sound of guns and the moment he sees the battleground abandons it,” Michael Heseltine, a Tory politician, told the BBC. “I have never seen anything like it. He ripped the Tory party apart. He has created the greatest constitutional crisis in peacetime in my life. ” Just a few days earlier, Mr. Johnson had seemed poised to coast into position as prime minister when Mr. Cameron stepped down in the fall. Outside London, at least before the referendum, he was the Conservative Party’s star candidate, a populist maverick for the times. With his air of disarrayed befuddlement, his crazy coiffure, his idiosyncratically imaginative P. G. Wodehousian locution, his habit of slipping into Latin and Greek, his and his obvious delight in himself, he oozes a charm rarely seen in politicians. He cycles to work and carries his things in a backpack. He looks as if he’s slept in his clothes and just gotten out of bed. He has the privileged demeanor of an old Etonian (he went to school there) but a Bill Clintonesque way with crowds and an appeal that transcends class. In headlines he is “BoJo” to most Britons he is simply “Boris. ” But his surface success has always carried alongside it a reputation for lies, evasions and exaggerations, a lack of seriousness and discipline, a tendency to wade blindly into situations without thinking through their ramifications, and a perception that he puts his own ambitions first. He has a habit of deflecting tough questions and affecting an amused insouciance about his mistakes, which include fathering a child with a woman other than his wife (he and his wife, a lawyer, have four children). He is better on the big picture than he is on the details. Take last Monday’s column by Mr. Johnson in The Daily Telegraph, the first substantive statement anyone from the Brexit side had made since the vote. As chaos swirled outside and Britain waited nervously for a sign that someone had a plan, Mr. Johnson produced a shoddily prepared article that seemed uncertain of its facts and backtracked on a number of key Brexit promises. Supporters of Mr. Johnson said at the time that the article had been written hastily and turned in late and should be treated more as a first draft than as a definitive statement. In fact, it was as a journalist who played around with the facts that Mr. Johnson first made his name. He was fired from his first reporting job, at The Times of London, for inventing a quote and attributing it to an Oxford professor (who happened to be his godfather). But he was hired anyway by The Daily Telegraph and sent to Brussels in 1989 to cover the European Union. It was a boring assignment, but Mr. Johnson found a way of livening it: He made things up. His great talent was to take tiny grains of information in reports and proposals, repackage them as official European policy and present them as part of a broad narrative about Brussels’s risibility. His stories were full of condoms, fishermen forced to wear hairnets and international disputes over cheese policy. While his stories became increasingly influential in the euroskeptic wing of the Conservative Party and in many ways set the tone for the British papers’ coverage of Europe ever since, Mr. Johnson tends to treat his approach as great fun. “I was just chucking these rocks over the garden wall and listening to this amazing crash from the greenhouse next door over in England,” he told an interviewer. “Everything I wrote from Brussels was having this amazing explosive effect on the Tory party,” he said, “and it really gave me this, I suppose, rather weird sense of power. ” After Brussels, Mr. Johnson became editor of The Spectator, which functions as a kind of house organ for conventional Conservative Party wisdom, and began writing a popular weekly column in The Daily Telegraph. In 2001 he won a seat in Parliament. I was in London at the time and wrote a profile of Mr. Johnson. He boasted to me in the way peculiar to British men that, trying to juggle three jobs, he was unable to do any of them properly. “Because I have no time to do it, I do it in no time,” he said of his Telegraph column. “You just whack it out. ” Mr. Johnson seemed constitutionally incapable of taking anything truly seriously. Deciding he did not feel like being photographed for The Times article, for instance, he got another man in The Spectator office to impersonate him in the photo session. The photographer duly snapped away, until the magazine’s publisher found out what was going on and made Mr. Johnson sit for the portrait. (He was 37 at the time.) Around that time Mr. Johnson also became a bona fide celebrity, honing his trademark persona as a hyperarticulate in a string of highly amusing appearances on the current events quiz show “Have I Got News For You. ” Viewers adored him. “His charming, bumbling buffoon image was neatly done and went down very well with audiences,” said Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye magazine and a panelist on the show. In 2008, Mr. Johnson unexpectedly ran for mayor of London and, even more unexpectedly for a Conservative in a Labour city, won. The same complaints that had dogged him in the past dogged him again, along with criticisms that he had failed to address serious issues like air quality and affordable housing. “We had eight frustrating years where we’d ask detailed policy questions, and what we’d get back in response was bluster and grandiose claims,” said Joanne McCartney, a Labour Assembly member who is now deputy mayor. “If he didn’t know the answer to the question, which was a regular occurrence, he’d use bluster and wit to avoid answering. ” Mr. Johnson all along denied that he wanted to be prime minister, saying it was about as likely as his being “reincarnated as an olive. ” But he has always been wittier, quicker and more charismatic than Mr. Cameron. The 2012 London Olympics proved the perfect showcase for his anarchic wit. Filmed stranded haplessly on a malfunctioning zipwire, Mr. Johnson took an incident that would have humiliated most other politicians and somehow used it to burnish his appeal. (A photograph of the dangling Mr. Johnson was used to quite different effect last week on the cover of the French newspaper Libération.) Mr. Cameron has always been threatened by Mr. Johnson his efforts to slough off the mayor as a kind of amusing Tory mascot never worked. But it wasn’t until Mr. Johnson betrayed the prime minister by throwing his support behind the Brexit campaign that the party saw the extent of his ambition. Before now, Mr. Johnson has rarely been confronted by a situation he could not maneuver his way through. But a harbinger came in March, when he was summoned before a House of Commons committee and forensically interrogated by its Tory chairman, Andrew Tyrie, about a series of statements he had made over the years about Europe. Mr. Johnson tried his normal humorous approach. Asked, for instance, about his assertion that the European Union has a law saying that balloons cannot be blown up by children under 8 (it doesn’t) he deflected the question, saying, “In my household, only children under 8 are allowed to blow up balloons. ” He continued in this vein throughout the session, as Mr. Tyrie peered unsmilingly at him, acid in his voice. “This is all very interesting, Boris,” Mr. Tyrie said at one point. “Except none of it is really true, is it?” | 1 |
The nation’s capital is planning to use $500, 000 to help migrants circumvent deportation under Donald Trump’s and help pay the legal bills for individuals looking to apply for asylum. [The money will go from the pockets of Washington D. C.’s taxpayers to the coffers of defense lawyers who are willing to represent the region’s estimated 25, 000 illegal immigrants in court, the Washington Post reported. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said her city was “doubling down” on their sanctuary city status, saying the illegal immigrant population would be supported by the “legal community. ” “We must ensure that all District residents can take advantage of their federal and constitutional rights,” Bowser told the Post. “If immigration enforcement changes and problems arise, D. C.’s immigrant population will have our support and the support of D. C.’s legal community. ” Washington is not the first in the country to begin a legal fund for migrants. Los Angeles, California, has started a much more significant fund, with nearly $10 million expected to be set aside to pay for the legal expenses of the area’s massive illegal immigrant population, as Breitbart Texas reported. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 1 |
SHOCKER!!! Left Wing MSNBC commentator Chris Mathews has just endorsed Donald Trump for president In the meantime, Hillary Clinton has just ordered a fireworks display to celebrate her winning the election on Nov. 8th. But this could blow up in her face! Hillary Clinton may have lit the fuse for her victory celebration a little too soon — by planning an Election Night explosion of fireworks over the Hudson River in New York City. NY Post NYC Cops and firefighters were blown away by Clinton’s hubris in planning the fireworks display, which would eclipse the shower of blazing sparkles that preceded the balloon drop at July’s Democratic National Convention. Somebody asked “If she loses, will she take the displsy over to the East Side and sell it to Trump for half-price?” | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The reported death of the Islamic State’s senior propagandist and strategist, Abu Muhammad in an American drone strike in northern Syria on Tuesday casts in sharp relief the immediate challenge the terrorist group faces in replacing one of its pivotal founding members. The attack, carried out by a military Reaper drone, also underscores the progress the military’s most elite Special Operations commandos and the Central Intelligence Agency have made in the conflict’s two years by using information from spies on the ground and sensors in the sky to target a growing number of Islamic State leaders. The coalition has killed about 120 important Islamic State officials and operators, including about a dozen of the group’s top leaders, according to the Pentagon. Still, the Islamic State has proved to be remarkably resilient, American officials and counterterrorism specialists say, noting that the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has succession plans to replace even its top leader, Abu Bakr should he be killed. “There’s a deep bench,” said William McCants of the Brookings Institution, the author of “The ISIS Apocalypse. ” In the coming days, Mr. Baghdadi is likely to meet with his shura, or council of advisers, in Raqqa, the group’s capital in Syria, to pick a replacement for Mr. Adnani, a Syrian, who had been believed to be Mr. Baghdadi’s heir apparent. Among the candidates to replace Mr. Adnani is Turki 31, one of the most senior clerics of the Islamic State, who is believed to have been appointed the group’s chief mufti. A native of Bahrain, Mr. Binali is considered a prodigy who studied under some of the top leaders in the jihadi pantheon, including Abu Muhammad who is regarded as one of the most influential Al Qaeda ideologues. “Even more important than that is that he is an extremely talented speaker, orator — kind of like Adnani,” said Cole Bunzel, a doctoral candidate at Princeton who who wrote a Brookings Institution paper on the ideology of the Islamic State. As early as 2013, Mr. Binali is believed to have traveled to join ISIS in Syria, where he began producing some of the group’s most influential theological treatises which laid the foundation for the group’s future actions. On April 30, 2014, he published an essay arguing that one does not need to have full territorial control before declaring an Islamic caliphate. The concept of territorial control was believed by many to be a prerequisite for a caliphate, said Mr. Bunzel, and Mr. Binali’s essay served to clear the way for the declaration of the caliphate months later in the summer of 2014. Mr. Bunzel said he suspected that it was Mr. Binali who headed the Islamic State’s Research and Fatwa Department, which issued pamphlets explaining the legality of raping enslaved Yazidi women. United States intelligence officials said Mr. Binali may have also traveled recently to Libya to help ISIS bolster its franchise there, an affiliate group that in recent weeks has been driven out of its stronghold in Surt. Laith Alkhouri, a director at Flashpoint, a business risk intelligence company in New York that tracks militant and cyber threats, said that while Mr. Binali is certainly a contender for a greater leadership role, he may have been marginalized in recent months. If so, Mr. Alkhouri said, another candidate could be Abu Luqman, also known as Ali Mousa who was the first wali, or ruler, in Raqqa and led much of the ISIS strategy in Aleppo in 2015. Mr. Alkhouri said Mr. Luqman fits the characteristics of someone ISIS would trust as spokesman. He was imprisoned by the Syrian government before the revolution, holds a law degree and worked as a recruiter for the forerunner of ISIS during the United States occupation of Iraq. Mr. Luqman has been reported killed several times: once in an airstrike, another time by being stabbed by a Libyan fighter who was displeased by Mr. Luqman’s treatment of foreign fighters. His death has never been officially confirmed. The person who takes Mr. Adnani’s place will undoubtedly work closely with Mr. Baghdadi, the organization’s shadowy leader. Mr. Baghdadi meets periodically with regional emirs at his headquarters in Raqqa. To ensure his safety, special drivers pick up each of the emirs and take their cellphones and any other electronics to avoid inadvertently disclosing their location through tracking by American intelligence, United States officials said. The high stakes at play in the apparent death of Mr. Adnani were revealed on Wednesday when the Russian military said that its warplanes had carried out a strike in Syria that killed up to 40 Islamic State fighters, including Mr. Adnani. The Russian announcement appeared to be a direct challenge to the Pentagon, which claimed a day earlier that one of its drone strikes had killed the senior figure. Pentagon officials dismissed Russia’s claim, but have not confirmed the reports by ISIS’s official news agency that Mr. Adnani was killed. Russia has faced criticism from the West that its military intervention in Syria was undertaken to prop up President Bashar of Syria, rather than to fulfill the Kremlin’s stated goal of fighting terrorism. This is the first public announcement from Russia that it had killed a specific senior figure in the terrorist group. For more than two years, Mr. Adnani had a $5 million bounty on his head, offered by the United States, and he was on the kill list for the air campaign in Iraq and Syria. It is unclear how the United States identified and tracked Mr. Adnani, but his death, if confirmed, would highlight the ability of American agencies to collect and coordinate information gathered from raids on ISIS safe houses. Such raids produce intelligence from cellphones and computer hard drives and other information that is combined with an increasingly effective network of spies and informants to put pressure on ISIS leaders. That pressure may have been why Mr. Adnani was in the region of northern Syria where his vehicle was struck by Hellfire missiles on Tuesday night. Al Bab, where Mr. Adnani’s vehicle was hit, has become one of several hubs for ISIS operatives in recent years, in part because it is the largest population center near the Turkish border that the group still controls, a place where ISIS figures can try to disappear among what’s left of an urban population. Al Bab has been devastated over the years, its civilian population caught between the brutal rule of the Islamic State and indiscriminate barrel bombings and airstrikes by the Syrian government. It is the biggest ISIS stronghold in Aleppo Province, a territory that is increasingly embattled. The area that ISIS holds along the Turkish border, separating two Kurdish enclaves, is under pressure from several directions. A new Turkish incursion, with artillery, tanks and air power backing a ground force of and Syrian rebels, has increased the fighting as it seizes new territory from ISIS and as the new force clashes with militias also fighting ISIS. ISIS established itself early on in northern Aleppo Province, but was driven out of many towns and villages in early 2014 by rival insurgent groups, including United rebels. The group was pushed to the east, leaving ISIS in control only of a strip of northeastern Aleppo Province anchored by Al Bab. | 1 |
Thursday on his “No Spin News” podcast, Bill O’Reilly weighed in on CNN reporting that there was a crisis within the members of the White House. According to O’Reilly, the supposed crisis is “fake” and is being “manufactured” by mainstream media to hurt President Donald Trump’s ability to govern. Partial transcript as follows: So in the midst of this big story, terror story, in England and the president speaking to the Pope and then going to NATO in Belgium, what do I see on CNN? White House in crisis. This is what they’re doing. This is what their lead was last night. I mean, I’m saying to myself, am I not living in the real world anymore? White House in crisis. What crisis? What crisis? There is an investigation going on on whether Russians were able to compromise people like General Michael Flynn, and Paul Manafort, who worked for Trump briefly in his campaign. Were they able, the Russians, to compromise those people in some way? That’s the investigation. OK, that’s where we are right now. That’s a White House in crisis? See this is all fake. It is fake. The crisis is being manufactured. Now that being said, it could down the road lead to something more. It’s possible. I want to know. Mueller is investigating now, the FBI is investigating, and two congressional committees are investigating. That’s four. So I assume we’re going to get to the bottom of it. But in the meantime, the media is going to gin it up every single crisis, crisis, crisis. And what does that do? It hurts the president’s ability to govern because he’s always on the defensive. ( RCP Video) Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
President Barack Obama’s Department of State sponsored the July event in Ohio where Sen. Jeff Sessions met the Russian ambassador for the second time in 2016, according to the organizers of the event. [The July 20 meeting in Cleveland was used by the Washington Post’s March 1 headline to double the number of meetings where Sessions met with Russians in 2016. “Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose,” said the headline, which has created a as Democratic partisans push for Sessions’ resignation from his post as the nation’s Attorney General, amid Democratic claims that the Russian government helped Donald Trump win the 2016 election. The event was hosted by a civic organization, Global Cleveland, whose website cites the state department’s role: On Tuesday, July 19, Global Cleveland welcomed roughly 80 international ambassadors to its Global Partners in Diplomacy reception at Severance Hall. The event, coordinated in partnership with the 2016 Republican National Convention and the U. S. Department of State, introduced the ambassadors to nearly 200 of Northeast Ohio’s civic and corporate leaders. … . The [first] evening’s keynote speaker, U. S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, stressed the importance of understanding what “having people of different backgrounds and origins means to your community. ” … Click here to see pictures from the event: https: . facebook. ? tab=albumalbum_id=1105759579497225, The July 19 activities were covered by Cleveland. com, which quotes one of the organizers saying “We are working very closely with the State Department and the RNC to make sure folks coming to Cleveland are filled in with everything they need to know about, including that Cleveland is awesome. ” The revelation of the State Department’s role in arranging Sessions’ brief meeting with the Russian ambassador comes as news reports sketch out a large effort by deputies working for outgoing President Barack Obama to track and disseminate information about Donald Trump and his deputies. The Washington Post article used the Ohio event to justify its claim that Sessions held “meetings” with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kisylak. According to the article’s lede: . Jeff Sessions ( .) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general … The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. But the Washington Post only briefly described the Ohio meeting in the 32nd and 33rd paragraphs of the story, saying: Two months before the September meeting, Sessions attended a Heritage Foundation event in July on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention that was attended by about 50 ambassadors. When the event was over, a small group of ambassadors approached Sessions as he was leaving the podium, and Kislyak was among them, the Justice Department official said. Sessions then spoke individually to some of the ambassadors, including Kislyak, the official said. In the informal exchanges, the ambassadors expressed appreciation for his remarks and some of them invited him to events they were sponsoring, said the official, citing a former Sessions staffer who was at the event. Sessions said he also met the Russian ambassador in September, with two of his senior staff. The meeting became “testy” when the subject of Ukraine was broached, he said at a March 2 press conference. | 1 |
On the Thursday edition of Breitbart News Daily, broadcast live on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 from 6AM to 9AM Eastern, Breitbart London Raheem Kassam will offer the latest analysis of Wednesday’s terror attack in London. [He’ll be joined by Dr. Alan Mendoza, the Founder and Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society Phillip Haney, former Department of Homeland Security official and author of See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad and Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to President Trump and author of the bestselling book Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War. Rep. Dave Brat ( ) will discuss the latest developments regarding House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare replacement bill, which is coming under intense criticism from all quarters and has been dubbed “Ryancare,” “ ” and “ ” by critics. The bill is expect to face a House vote on Thursday. We’ll also hear from former UN ambassador John Bolton about FBI director James Comey’s testimony on Capitol Hill, the latest revelations about the leaking of classified intelligence, Trump’s proposed defense budget, and the terror attack in London. Live from London, Rome, and Jerusalem, Breitbart correspondents will provide updates on the latest international news. Breitbart News Daily is the first live, conservative radio enterprise to air seven days a week. SiriusXM Vice President for news and talk Dave Gorab called the show “the conservative news show of record. ” Follow Breitbart News on Twitter for live updates during the show. Listeners may call into the show at: . | 1 |
Source: Zero Hedge
by Tyler Durden
Oct 29, 2016
Last night a leaked memo was revealed, indicating FBI director James Comey's stated reasons for reopening the Clinton email probe upon discovering what now appear to be tens of thousands of Huma Abedin emails located on Anthony Weiner's notebook. Comey revealed two core reasons for the action: a sense of obligation to lawmakers and a concern that word of the new email discovery would leak to the media and raise questions of a coverup. What he did not reveal, and as has emerged overnight from a report by the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, is that Comey also acted in contravention to DOJ practices, and more importantly, acted contrary to the "preference" of DOJ head Loretta Lynch, whose infamous meeting with Bill Clinton on the Phoenix tarmac at the end of June will likely be reassessed in light of these latest revelations.
According to the New Yorker, "Comey's decision to make public new evidence that may raise additional legal questions about Clinton was contrary to the views of the Attorney General, according to a well-informed Administration official. Lynch expressed her preference that Comey follow the department's longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election, but he said that he felt compelled to do otherwise. "
Traditionally, the Justice Department has advised prosecutors and law enforcement to avoid any appearance of meddling in the outcome of elections, even if it means holding off on pressing cases . One former senior official recalled that Janet Reno, the Attorney General under Bill Clinton, "completely shut down the prosecution of a politically sensitive criminal target prior to an election . "She was adamant—anything that could influence the election had to go dark," the former official said. Please go to Zero Hedge to read the entire article. | 0 |
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Wednesday that it would move championships for this academic year, including its football title game in December and its women’s basketball tournament in March, out of North Carolina in reaction to a state law that curbed protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The decision came two days after the N. C. A. A. announced that it would move championship games for the coming year, including six in the Division I men’s basketball tournament, touching off contentious debate between opponents of the law, who praised the N. C. A. A. for taking a stand, and supporters of the law, who said the association was inappropriately inserting itself into politics. “The A. C. C. Council of Presidents made it clear that the core values of this league are of the utmost importance and the opposition to any form of discrimination is paramount,” Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “Today’s decision is one of principle. ” The A. C. C. ’s action was not only another blow to the state, but one sure to hit home in every sense: Four of the conference’s 15 members are in the state, and the conference has its headquarters in Greensboro. “When you’re talking about native North Carolinians, and particularly those of us who grew up in the A. C. C. this is a pretty powerful statement against the birthplace of that conference,” said J. Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, N. C. The law, commonly referred to as House Bill 2 or H. B. 2, nullified local government ordinances establishing protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and requires people in publicly owned buildings to use restrooms that correspond with the genders listed on their birth certificates. The statute is the subject of federal lawsuits. James P. Clements, the president of Clemson, said: “The decision to move the championships out of North Carolina while H. B. 2 remains the law was not an easy one, but it is consistent with the shared values of inclusion and nondiscrimination at all of our institutions. ” In recent days, athletic directors at North Carolina’s four A. C. C. member universities — the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill North Carolina State Duke and Wake Forest — issued statements expressing concern about the law or its effects. In a joint statement, the chancellors of U. N. C. and North Carolina State, Carol L. Folt and Randy Woodson, said Wednesday: “We appreciate the Council of Presidents’ reaffirmation of the A. C. C. ’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion,” adding, “However, we regret today’s decision will negatively affect many North Carolinians, especially in the affected host communities. ” Hours after the A. C. C. announced its move, Gov. Pat McCrory, who is seeking this fall, used a statement to repeat, verbatim, 67 of the words he used Tuesday to comment about the N. C. A. A.’s decision. Mr. McCrory, on Tuesday and Wednesday, said he encouraged “all public and private institutions to both respect and allow our nation’s judicial system to proceed without economic threats or political retaliation. ” Mr. McCrory did not specifically criticize the A. C. C. but this week, he described the N. C. A. A. as “a monopoly” that had not demonstrated respect for . The speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Tim Moore, said the decisions by the N. C. A. A. and the A. C. C. were “very unfortunate. ” “No one ever wants to lose events under any circumstances, but these organizations are certainly entitled to host their events wherever they choose,” Mr. Moore, a Republican who supports H. B. 2, said. “The truth remains that this law was never about and does not promote discrimination. ” Mr. McCrory’s Democratic rival, Roy Cooper, the state’s attorney general, said in a video released Wednesday that the governor had shown “no leadership. ” “This is not just about sports,” Mr. Cooper said. “This is about communities in North Carolina suffering real economic blows. ” The conference, which said it would announce future sites, has just a few weeks to relocate its first affected championship, for women’s soccer, which had been scheduled to take place in Cary beginning Oct. 30, and less than three months to find a new venue for its marquee event, the football championship game, scheduled for Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Dec. 3. Six other championships featuring sports like men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s golf and baseball are scheduled to be held at venues. The men’s A. C. C. basketball tournament, frequently held in the state, was already set to be staged at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Some championships hosted by specific universities will not be affected, like the men’s and women’s championships at North Carolina State. Beyond those championships and A. C. C. games, the other major college sports event set to take place in the state is the Belk Bowl, which will pit an A. C. C. football team against one from the Southeastern Conference on Dec. 29 in Charlotte. The Charlotte Sports Foundation, which hosts the Belk Bowl and the A. C. C. football championship, said in a statement Wednesday that it was “disappointed” that the football title game was moving, adding, “We recognize the economic impact moving the game and its events have on the Charlotte area. ” Frank Kay, a spokesman for the host organization, said there were no talks about relocating the Belk Bowl. Mr. Swofford had presaged the A. C. C. ’s decision in a statement late Monday night, saying that the N. C. A. A.’s action “continues to build upon the negative impact” the law “has already had on the state” and adding that he personally felt the law should “be repealed as it’s counter to basic human rights. ” Charlotte, which is North Carolina’s largest city and which Mr. McCrory governed as mayor for 14 years, has been especially hard hit by the fallout from the law. In addition to the A. C. C. title game, the National Basketball Association’s 2017 Game was withdrawn from the city this summer in reaction to the law. Charlotte’s municipal efforts to strengthen legal protections for transgender people were part of what prodded the General Assembly to pass H. B. 2. “The cancellation of the 2016 A. C. C. football championship is a blow to Charlotte’s visitor economy and is irreplaceable at this late date,” said Tom Murray, the chief executive of the Charlotte Regional Visitors’ Authority, which estimated that the A. C. C. ’s 2015 football title game had an economic impact of more than $32 million. But the mounting economic toll spreads far beyond Charlotte, ensnaring cities like Greensboro and Cary, which is just outside Raleigh and had been scheduled to host N. C. A. A. championships in baseball, lacrosse, tennis and soccer. Mayor Nancy Vaughan of Greensboro, whose father was a longtime A. C. C. official, said in an interview Tuesday, “We are in the process right now of bidding games and tournaments for the next four years, so we are really looking at the possibility of a drought. ” Scott Dupree, the executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, said that for sports events in North Carolina, this week has been “unprecedented and historically bad, probably the worst ever in terms of lost business and damage to our brand. ” | 1 |
Posted on November 7, 2016 by DCG | 3 Comments
That’s how the Clintons roll…
From Fox News : Former President Bill Clinton’s top aide wrote in 2012 that Chelsea Clinton used Clinton Foundation resources “for her wedding and life for a decade” and a top Foundation donor was responsible for “killing” unfavorable press coverage – all as an internal Foundation audit uncovered numerous conflicts of interest and “quid pro quo benefits,” according to emails released Sunday by WikiLeaks.
Doug Band, founder of global strategies company Teneo and Bill Clinton’s personal assistant since the 1990s, wrote the Jan. 4, 2012, email to future Hillary Clinton presidential campaign chair John Podesta and two other Clinton aides after receiving word that Chelsea had told “one of the [President] bush 43 kids” and others about “an internal investigation of money within the foundation.” Band wrote such chatter was “not smart.” Bill Clinton and Doug Band
“The investigation into her getting paid for campaigning, using foundation resources for her wedding and life for a decade, taxes on money from her parents….,” Band wrote . “ I hope that you will speak to her and end this[.] Once we go down this road….”
The FBI reportedly is looking into The Clinton Foundation, although the extent and focus of the investigation is unclear. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, had previously said some of the “personal” emails she deleted from her secret, homebrew server – the subject of another FBI probe – were related to Chelsea’s wedding.
Band’s email, which was revealed after Podesta’s Gmail account was hacked and subsequently uploaded to WikiLeaks, came at a time of turmoil and upheaval within The Clinton Foundation. Aside from the internal audit, previous emails show a prolonged effort to untangle Teneo from the Foundation. When Band launched the company in summer 2011, he was still employed by the Foundation and Bill Clinton was listed as a Teneo adviser.
But after much haggling, Clinton’s and Band’s roles were clearly delineated: Band continued on as a personal aide to Clinton and Clinton became a Teneo client. During the back-and-forth that produced the final document spelling out each of the men’s roles, Band on Nov. 12, 2011 wrote an 11-page memo outlining how Teneo was created and how it had helped to enrich Clinton and the Foundation . In that draft of the memo, Band wrote he had “sought to leverage my activities, including my partner role at Teneo, to support and to raise funds for the Foundation.”
“I am sure I have done so imperfectly,” he added. Marc Lasry and Bill Clinton
In another section of the memo, which was later deleted, Band wrote about billionaire hedge fund manager Marc Lasry as a “good example of the complex relationships a friend/supporter can have within the foundation.” Chelsea Clinton worked for Lasry, Lasry held Foundation fundraisers and Band was a paid adviser for Lasry’s firm, Avenue Capital, an investment company whose holding American Media Inc. publishes The National Enquirer.
But fundraisers and jobs weren’t Lasry’s lone contribution to Team Clinton.
“He has been helpful on a number of fronts, including … responding favorably to our requests to use his plane for Foundation and the Clintons’ personal purposes, killing potential unfavorable stories in the Enquirer [of which he owns a controlling share of the debt]…” Band wrote.
Less than a month after Band’s Teneo memo went out, lawyers from Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP, the firm contracted to run the internal Foundation audit, emailed a draft of a governance memorandum and recommendations to Podesta, who was serving as a special adviser to the Foundation, and Bruce Lindsey, then the Foundation’s CEO.
The audit draft noted substantial issues, including a Conflict-of-Interest Policy that had not been implemented, conflicts that were not disclosed in a timely fashion and board members not following the policy when they became aware of conflicts.
“In addition, some interviewees reported conflicts of those raising funds or donors, some of whom may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gifts,” according to the Dec. 5, 2011, draft. Another section of the document noted that “interviewees also mentioned instances in which gifts and payments received by staff had not been properly disclosed.”
There were other problems, including 1,298 “complimentary” $20,000 memberships for the Clinton Global Initiative as opposed to just 500 paid memberships. Of the “complimentary” group, “276 were coded ‘discretionary,’” the audit noted. “Interviewees informed us that there is no transparency into how the comp list is developed,” the document stated.
The lawyers conducting the audit also noticed problems in the Foundation’s IRS Form 990, the tax return document of an organization that is exempt from income tax. While charitable groups are allowed to pay board members and staff a reasonable salary, none of the reasonable compensation calculations identified by the lawyers were ever done, the 990 form showed. The lawyers also wrote the 990 indicated the Foundation had a written conflict-of-interest policy that was enforced.
“However, we did not find evidence of that enforcement,” the memo stated.
Other problems included a “very small” Foundation Board “comprised solely of ‘insiders’”; unsigned Board minutes that “appear to have been cloned from one year to the next; “material weaknesses” in the “segregation of accounting duties, review of journal entries, audit adjustments and financial statement preparation, and lack of Board meetings.”
DCG | 0 |
On Wednesday, President Trump rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms according to their gender identity, an issue that has roiled recent political discourse. Earlier in the week, one vigilant reader pointed out language that he felt needlessly distinguished between biologically born women and transgender women. The line came in a column on the resistance discussions to Trump’s agenda that are taking place over dinners in private homes. The public editor’s take: The reader has a good point. I’m not sure this was a distinction worth making in the first place. Over the weekend and into Monday, letters came in referring to another topic at the forefront of the new White House’s agenda lately — illegal immigration. Several readers found headlines misleading in their descriptions of a new Trump proposal. The public editor’s take: The head of the copy desk, Jill Taylor, agrees with the reader that “illegal” would have made for a clearer headline, though she pointed out that, for space reasons, the desk took a calculated risk that readers who’ve been paying at least a little attention would not equate “immigrants” with all immigrants. Two reactions from me. First, I sympathize, as always, with the dilemma of the copy editor trying to fit “undocumented immigrants” into a headline. But making the choice to lose the qualifier distorts the meaning. Headlines that refer only to “immigrants” makes it sound like a World War . Deporting immigrants who are undocumented, and thus here illegally, is a much smaller subset of all immigrants, and aggressive deportation of this group has been pursued in past administrations too. Plus, with the occasional confusion that some White House directives are producing, clarity on what in fact is happening becomes all the more crucial. Readers also took issue this week with another headline, this one on a story about the sentencing of an Israeli soldier who killed an unconscious Palestinian attacker. Specifically, readers were upset that the print headline didn’t note the Palestinian had been the initial aggressor when he carried out a stabbing attack at an Israeli checkpoint in March before being killed. The print headline read: “Israeli Soldier Who Killed Wounded Palestinian Gets 18 Months. ” The digital headline, on the other hand, read: “Elor Azaria, Israeli Soldier Who Killed Wounded Assailant, Gets 18 Months in Prison. ” The public editor’s take: It can often be difficult to sort through the competing claims of biased reporting in coverage of the Middle East, with views so hardened on both sides and emotions running high. This headline, however, does seem to miss the mark by failing to signal a core element of the story. Headlines were the hot topic of the week: Another one that stoked the anger of readers was on the home page, and pointed to a story about Milo Yiannopoulos’s fall. The headline read: “Star of the Backs Sex, and Is Shunned. ” We asked Michael Owen, editor of the news desk, for his view. The public editor’s take: I have in fact written about this issue before, including a headline on a story about a Montana judge who sentenced a man to two months in prison for raping his preteen daughter. The Times headline at one point referred to him as having sex with his daughter. In this case, I appreciate what the editors were thinking in addressing the headline — that they were trying to capture Yiannopoulos’s perspective. But the headline speaks from the voice of The Times, and, as written, it swaps the language of assault for the language of sex. Before Trump appointed Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster as his new national security adviser, The Times ran a story on a possible choice who turned down the job. The article concluded with a sentence about another contender for the post, the former general and director of the C. I. A. David Petraeus. The line stood out to several readers: “Mr. Petraeus resigned from the C. I. A. in 2012 after admitting that he had an extramarital affair. ” The public editor’s take: Here’s a case of applying a little too much haste in describing Petraeus’s checkered past. An editor I spoke with agreed. Obviously, in the case of the fallen general, it would have been more accurate to attribute his ouster to his mishandling of classified material. Returning to our hot topic of the week, it may have taken the military backgrounds of the men in line for the national security adviser position — or simply rabid fandom of “Apocalypse Now” and its Wagner helicopter scene — to have spotted the issue with the following headline: “New Slopes in South Korea. ” The public editor’s take: I’m guessing not too many editors have served, though in this case it seemed obvious that the reference was to the ski slope picture above the headline. Far away from Korea, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, Uzbeks of Korean descent run a restaurant that The Times recently reviewed. The review ran with a slide show, and one of the photos was removed after readers commented. We went to the editor of the review, Patrick Farrell, for an explanation. The public editor’s take: Seems like a reasonable approach and responsible outcome to me. Finally, one reader objected to a line in a piece on a Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. We agree. | 1 |
In a 2013 paid speech hosted by Goldman Sachs, Hillary Clinton said she had not yet decided whether she would run for president again. But she did offer some friendly advice to the bank’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, when he asked what he would need to do to mount his own hypothetical bid. “I think you would leave Goldman Sachs and start running a soup kitchen somewhere,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Then you could be a legend in your own time, both when you were there and when you left. ” Mrs. Clinton’s campaign declined to release transcripts of her speeches to Wall Street firms during the Democratic primary contests, when her rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, intensely criticized her for accepting roughly $225, 000 per speech. But on Saturday, transcripts of three appearances at Goldman Sachs events were released by WikiLeaks, part of a trove of thousands of emails obtained by hackers who illegally breached the email account of one of Mrs. Clinton’s top aides. The genial relationship she appeared to have with Mr. Blankfein and other Wall Street executives at the events would not have served Mrs. Clinton well in the Democratic primary contests, when Mr. Sanders used the speeches to portray her as being too close to Wall Street. But for Mrs. Clinton, who is often criticized as overly scripted, her relaxed, exchanges at these private events also revealed a side that she has struggled to show voters under the intense glare of a presidential race. While the emails released last week showed Mrs. Clinton’s cadre of campaign aides agonizing over jokes she should tell in public and calculating political implications, the transcripts revealed Mrs. Clinton freely dispensing her own quick wit before a audience. In one session with Mr. Blankfein, Mrs. Clinton relayed an argument she had had as secretary of state, when she tried to persuade a Chinese diplomat that his country had no more right to claim the South China Sea than the United States had to the Pacific Ocean. “He says to me, ‘We’ll, you know, we’ll claim Hawaii,’” Mrs. Clinton told Mr. Blankfein. “And I said: ‘Yeah, but we have proof we bought it. Do you have proof you bought any of these places you’re claiming? ’” Mr. Blankfein interjected: “But they have to take New Jersey. ” “No, no, no,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We’re going to give them a red state. ” At these events, which took place in June and October of 2013, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly demurred when asked about her future plans, but it was also clear she was contemplating the political landscape if she were to run again. Mrs. Clinton said that if she mounted a presidential campaign, she would need to begin raising money in 2014 or “early the following year. ” And she expressed concerns about how the news media covered campaigns. “Our political press has just been captured by trivia,” Mrs. Clinton said at a C. E. O. conference in South Carolina at which Mr. Blankfein moderated a discussion. “And so you don’t want to give them any more time to trivialize the importance of the issues than you have to give them. You want to be able to wait as long as possible. ” Excerpts from some of her speeches had previously been released by WikiLeaks, shortly after a recording surfaced in which her opponent, Donald J. Trump, made crude remarks about women. The Clinton campaign has refused to verify the authenticity of the transcripts, which came from the hacked email account of John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman. The campaign has blamed the Russian government for the hack and WikiLeaks — whose founder, Julian Assange, is a critic of Mrs. Clinton — for releasing the emails in a coordinated effort to help Mr. Trump, a view echoed by the Obama administration. The emails released Saturday included a fuller version of Mrs. Clinton’s previously leaked answer to a question posed by Timothy J. O’Neill, a senior Goldman executive, at a symposium hosted by the firm. Asked how Wall Street banks should approach efforts by Washington to impose tougher regulation and oversight, Mrs. Clinton made a show of empathy and spoke gently. She detailed her time working with Wall Street as a senator from New York and confided that the “conventional wisdom” of blaming Wall Street banks for the financial crisis was an “oversimplification. ” Mrs. Clinton described how banks were holding back on lending because they were “scared of regulations. ” She urged banks to allow greater transparency and help policy makers come up with solutions. “We’re all in this together,” Mrs. Clinton told the audience. Most strikingly, Mrs. Clinton did not defend the 2010 financial oversight legislation, a major achievement of President Obama and congressional Democrats in the wake of the crisis — and a target of Wall Street lobbying ever since. Instead, Mrs. Clinton suggested that it had been passed for “political reasons” by lawmakers panicked by their angry constituents. “I think the jury is still out on that because it was very difficult to sort of sort through it all,” Mrs. Clinton said of the overhaul. Mrs. Clinton took a far stronger line in public, particularly after she began her second bid for president. In a January 2016 speech in New York, amid her tough primary campaign with Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Clinton vowed to defend the Act and expand financial regulation to new territory, such as hedge funds and traders. But most of Mrs. Clinton’s insights involved foreign policy and her experiences as the nation’s top diplomat, including concerns about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, the rise of sentiment in China and a strikingly prescient prediction about the spread of nationalism in Europe. Mrs. Clinton presented the Pentagon’s argument against establishing a zone in Syria, a policy that she has advocated in her 2016 campaign. Noting that American pilots would have to enforce the zone, she said, “We’re not putting our pilots at risk,” and added, “You’re going to kill a lot of Syrians. ” Other hacked emails suggest Mrs. Clinton’s campaign had deep concerns about the Wall Street transcripts being made public. In November 2015, as Mrs. Clinton’s campaign was refusing to release transcripts of her paid speeches, her speechwriter, Dan Schwerin, suggested anonymously leaking to a reporter excerpts from one particular speech he wrote for her: A 2014 address to Deutsche Bank. In that speech, he said in the email, “I wrote her a long riff about economic fairness and how the financial industry has lost its way, precisely for the purpose of having something we could show people if ever asked what she was saying behind closed doors for two years to all those fat cats. ” He also acknowledged that it was “definitely not as tough or pointed as we would write it now. ” Another adviser, Mandy Grunwald, disagreed with Mr. Schwerin about releasing the 2014 speech. Referring to Mrs. Clinton by her initials, Ms. Grunwald argued that the speech had not been hard enough on Wall Street. The remarks, Ms. Grunwald said, “make it sound like HRC DOESN’T think the game is rigged — only that she recognizes that the public thinks so. ” Ms. Grunwald added: “They are angry. She isn’t. ” | 1 |
YouTube has restored the official channel for conservative blog Legal Insurrection following coverage from Breitbart News and a number of other media outlets. [The YouTube channel was originally removed “based on excerpts of audio of and speakers at the MLA Annual Meeting,” which Legal Insurrection covered — exposing a number of individuals who wanted to lead a boycott against Israel. In response to the coverage, the MLA filed a copyright claim against the audio of speakers recorded during the meeting, and Legal Insurrection’s channel was suspended. However, the site claims that they never received a warning or a copyright strike prior to the channel’s removal. Copyright infringements are usually sanctioned with a single strike, cautioning the channel against any further incidents. YouTube opts to remove a channel after three strikes. “While I’m glad our YouTube channel is restored, the fact remains that we were removed without any prior notice or chance to defend ourselves against what we believe are unjustified copyright claims,” said Legal Insurrection Founder William Jacobson. “We intend to fight the copyright claims if they are pursued in court. ” “It is highly questionable that MLA owns the copyright for oral presentations at the Annual Meeting, and even if it did, the limited excerpts we used from the nearly video posted by MLA on YouTube are fair use,” declared Legal Insurrection in a blog post last week. “What I think is really going on here is that activists at MLA complained to MLA that MLA had posted the audio on YouTube. MLA took down its own video and now seeks to silence our reporting. ” YouTube has previously censored conservative channels on their site, most notably targeting PragerU’s educational videos. Last year, YouTube placed some of PragerU’s videos on “restricted mode,” a mode designed to stop children from viewing inappropriate adult content. Videos covering topics such as whether George Bush lied about the Iraq War, the university “diversity scam,” and whether Sharia Law and freedom can coexist were all placed on restricted mode — meaning the videos couldn’t be watched at schools, libraries, or on computers with parental blocks. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
WASHINGTON, D. C. — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu says Turkey has been “very clear” in explaining its presence in Syria: to defeat the Islamic State. [While expressing support for a political mechanism to remove dictator Bashar Çavuşoğlu did not affirm Erdoğan’s statement expressly stating that Turkey’s army had entered Syria “to end the rule of the tyrant Assad, who terrorizes with state terror. ” “From the beginning, our target has been very clear. We have been in Syria to defeat Daesh and to clear many cities in Manbij from Daesh and make those areas or zones. ” He added, “our position regarding Assad has also been very clear. Assad has killed more than 600, 000 innocent people,” he said, noting that the Syrian dictator has used chemical weapons “including chlorine gas to carry out these atrocities. ” Turkey has been accused of playing a “double game” on the Islamic State in Syria. President Erdoğan has been accused of helping the terrorist organization in their fight against Kurdish rebels and Syria’s President Bashar . An State militant told Newsweek in 2014 that the Islamic State saw Turkey as its ally: “ISIS commanders told us to fear nothing at all because there was full cooperation with the Turks. ” The man, who was named “Sherko Omer” for his safety, said, “ISIS and Turkey cooperate together on the ground on the basis that they have a common enemy to destroy, the Kurds. ” Last year, reported, “The Cumhuriyet daily’s Can Dundar and Ankara representative Erdem Gul landed behind bars Nov. 27 for reporting that Turkish intelligence shipped weapons to radical Islamists in Syria. Though they were released three months later, they eventually received jail terms for revealing state secrets. ” In October 2015, nearly 130 people were killed in Turkey after two suspected Islamic State bombers attacked a rally put on by a group of leftists, the first of a string of bombings and mass shooting the Islamic State has taken credit for within Turkey. In November, Erdoğan announced that Turkey was in Syria “to end the rule of the tyrant who terrorizes with state terror. ” He insisted that his forces were not in Syria for “any other reason. ” Several days later, Erdoğan reportedly clarified his statement in what was seen as backpedaling of his admission to seeing that Assad’s regime is toppled, saying instead that his troops are only in Syria to target “terror organizations. ” In the month of March 2016 alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 2, 658 people, including 588 civilians. There were 125 children killed in the conflict. They died in bombings, by mortars, IEDs or random gunfire. Çavuşoğlu asked, “Are we going to legitimize such a regime?” Asked whether removal of Assad is currently possible without leaving a power vacuum ripe for exploitation by Iran and Hezbollah, Çavuşoğlu said, “there will be no vacuum if the political process works. ” He added, “while we are defeating Daesh on the ground, we need to focus on political solutions,” which include talks in both Astana and Geneva. Pressed further and asked if he still felt this way considering Iran’s role in the region, which has been instrumental in causing instability, he added, “Iran’s role there is very clear. It’s dominating not only in Syria but also dominating the politics in Iraq. Therefore, if we only target Daesh, we will be serving the interests of Iran and Hezbollah and other groups on the ground. I don’t think we prefer this. ” Breitbart News reported that the Pentagon, which has been working with the Syrian Kurdish YPG and the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga to take Daesh down, has cast some doubt on Turkey’s role in taking Daesh out in the northern reaches of Syria. “We have made clear … that we are open to a Turkish role in the continued operations to defeat ISIS in northern Syria,” We haven’t come to an agreement about what that role will be or if there will be one,” Pentagon spokesman Col. John Dorrian said. “But we talk to Turkey through military channels and I believe at diplomatic levels every day. ” He added, “I think I’d like to leave it at we would expect Kurds to be involved. And that’s probably about where we’re at. ” Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz. This article has been edited since publication. | 1 |
Butler Shaffer blog/state-police-police-state/
The Nebraska State Patrol (i.e., the state police force for Nebraska) has sent some of its troopers to North Dakota to help control protests over the pipeline project. Why? If that doesn’t prove sufficient to suppress popular expression of opposition to governmental action, will Germany, or France, or Korea (both North and South?) be asked to send troops? Will NATO, and perhaps the United Nations, eventually be called upon to war against the political order’s greatest foe: human beings? 7:41 | 0 |
Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( ) said she attended President Trump’s inauguration because she wanted the event “burned” in her eyes. [Warren explained her rationale for attending the event on Real Time with Bill Maher as she promoted her new book This Fight is Our Fight. “I went to Trump’s inauguration. I watched. I wanted to see it. I wanted it burned in my eyes,” Warren told Maher. “My view on this was if there was ever going to be a moment where I was like, ‘Oh I’m too tired to get up,’ all I had to do is close my eyes and it’s like, ‘Oh god, I’m up. I’m ready. I’m back in the fight,’” she continued. Warren said it was that event that inspired her to keep up the fight against Trump’s policies. The book This Fight is Our Fight ends with the Women’s Marches that took place the weekend after the inauguration, which Warren said was the day “the world changed. ” That was “the day we made our voices heard,” she said. The progressive firebrand has been one of Trump’s fiercest critics, giving the president an “F” for his first 100 days for not living up to his promises to help the working class. | 1 |
Politics is one of those sports where the team playing defense doesn’t get to score many points. Democrats are working hard to keep President Trump on defense, using an even more aggressive version of the same playbook they run against every Republican president. They think the collapse of Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare repeal legislation last week gave them a new first down. Here are seven signs the Trump agenda has regained a great deal of momentum in just one day. [Jeff Sessions’ crackdown on sanctuary cities: On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions strongly criticized “sanctuary cities” which refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and said billions in federal funding could be jeopardized by continued refusal to comply with the law. Sessions said sanctuary cities are “making our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on the streets,” and cited overwhelming support from the American people for turning illegal alien criminals over to ICE. He noted that many of the aliens shielded by sanctuary cities are guilty of extremely serious offenses, including rape and murder. This was unquestionably an aggressive move. The inevitable pushback from sanctuary apologists was panicked and defensive. They apparently thought the Trump administration had been intimidated out of pursuing such issues, especially after the president’s executive order for a temporary visa suspension was sabotaged by activist judges. The Democratic playbook says Republicans withdraw from the field after the first sign of injury, and never run a play twice if it doesn’t pick up significant political yardage on the first attempt. Chicago and L. A. mayors defend sanctuary policies: The best sign that you’re on offense is when the opposing team scrambles into defensive formation. Sanctuary cities provide an excellent political opportunity for the Trump administration, since as Sessions noted, they have support from the American people on the issue. Also, it’s great fun to watch Democrats, who used to believe states’ rights and the Tenth Amendment were phrases used by unpatriotic racists, argue that Democrat mayors should be allowed to ignore federal laws they don’t like, while still receiving billions of dollars from taxpayers in other parts of the country. Thus we have Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who presides over one of the bloodiest urban hellscapes in the nation, claiming that he has some kind of constitutional right to federal taxpayer dollars, even as he defies American voters by protecting illegal alien criminals from deportation. Republicans will benefit enormously from Rahm Emanuel becoming the face of Democrat city governance. Emanuel’s office attempted to link the sanctuary city crackdown to Trump’s executive order on immigration, as did Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti. “My office will continue to ensure local governments have the tools they need to legally protect their immigrant communities — and we won’t stop fighting to beat back President Trump’s immigration policies,” Garcetti declared. This reinforces the point made above about Democrats expecting the Trump administration to retreat from immigration after the legal challenges to his executive order. To be sure, immigration is a complicated issue. There are parts of the debate where public opinion becomes much more divided. At the moment, Trump is fighting on precisely the ground that made so many Americans disgusted with a corrupt establishment and its refusal to execute simple duties to the citizens of the United States. He’s playing from strength, and should ignore the Left’s attempts to convince him otherwise. One reason the Left fights so hard on this absurd ground is that it fears conceding any point about the corrupt folly of our immigration laws, or that illegal immigrants are indeed breaking the law. In other words, they’re playing defense, because they know there are big points to be scored against them. Environmental executive orders: Reining in madcap environmentalism and bureaucratic bloat is another issue where the Trump administration enjoys tremendous popular support. The president’s forthcoming executive order to roll back climate change orders and promote energy independence will likely be another play made from a position of great strength. (It is important to note that at the time of this writing, the exact contents of Trump’s order were not know.) The Trump administration seems interested in pointing out how shoddy, and doctored the data behind these climate change initiatives has been. For example, it’s a killer point that the EPA knew its own expensive regulations would have no measurable effect on global temperatures. That kind of anecdote has a long shelf life. The administration can run a play like that over and over again, picking up a few yards every time. “Draining the swamp” involves hammering home the truth that Washington itself is a special interest, endlessly lobbying itself for more money and power. The EPA is among the worst examples of “regulatory capture,” where the line between a federal agency and its lobbyists becomes blurred. Taxpayers will rally behind Trump every time he hits the flabbiest, most sections of the federal bureaucracy. Investigating Clinton ties to Russia: Of course, Trump’s critics will accuse him of trying to change the subject by asking congressional investigators to look into connections between the Clinton machine and Russia. Whatever the ultimate outcome may be, it is unquestionably an example of the Trump team running an offensive play when it’s supposed to be permanently on defense. In years past, critics who called Republicans the “Stupid Party” often complained about how easily they were put on defense, swiftly accepting media narratives that required them to spend their days responding to allegations without pushing back. For better or worse, going back to the earliest moments of his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has refused to assume a permanent defensive crouch, on nearly any issue. Many of the confident pundit predictions that his campaign was doomed, at various critical junctures, were born from the conventional wisdom that Trump would pay a heavy price for refusing to become defensive and apologetic. The conventional wisdom proved to be incorrect. This particular play is still in progress, so it’s hard to say where the ball will end up. It doesn’t hurt to spotlight how Democrat opinion of Russia turned on a dime after the 2016 election. Also, the curious notion that Hillary Clinton is absolved of all offenses under some mythical “old news” clause of political law because she lost the election should be shredded, especially since we would currently be hearing loud demands to absolve her of all offenses if she had won the election. Ford factory expansion in America: Bill Clinton’s famous campaign slogan, “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” comes to mind when news like Ford Motor Company’s announcement of three new plants in Michigan breaks. The next two elections will be very heavily influenced by how well the economy is doing. Good economic news will give Trump and congressional Republicans political capital to spend on other issues. Naturally they will become more energetic about pursuing their agenda with a strong financial wind at their backs. It will be very difficult for Democrats to downplay good news from the automotive industry, given how much they made of President Obama “saving the industry. ” A constant drumbeat of job creation stories from various industries has driven consumer confidence to a according to a new report. Much of Trump’s agenda — including immigration, regulatory reform, and tax reform — is linked to his vision of a stronger American economy producing more jobs. Every part of that agenda becomes more difficult for Democrats to oppose if the economy is, in fact, stronger and producing more jobs. Obamacare repeal: The Trump Agenda may even be playing stronger offense than the Trump White House at the moment. Rep. Mo Brooks ( ) has filed a bill that would repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety. Brooks said one of the purposes behind his bill is to “burn away the fog” and “show American voters who really wants to repeal Obamacare, and who merely acted that way during election time. ” We’ll have to see how many of his colleagues run downfield to catch that particular pass. The simplicity of Brooks’ bill was a slap in the face to Speaker Paul Ryan’s convoluted, ineffective, wildly unpopular, and politically tone deaf Ryancare bill that would have hurt Trump’s base more than anyone. It was quite noticeable that at no point during the brief tussle over the House bill were Democrats put on defense over the failures of Obamacare. Instead, Republicans were left stammering dubious excuses for why they didn’t bring back the last repeal bill they passed while President Obama was still in the White House, producing the cloud of fog Brooks wants to burn away with his simple bill. Chuck Schumer’s public meltdown: If Obamacare repeal was a debacle that left much of the GOP looking defensive, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s embarrassing tirade against a Trump supporter at a Manhattan restaurant on Sunday is a sign that Democrats’ grip on the ball is none too tight. Schumer certainly didn’t act like he was brimming with confidence after an ostensibly catastrophic week for congressional Republicans and the White House. Democrats are banking heavily on their “Resistance” mythology of a stolen election and illegitimate Trump presidency. (They did the same thing after Bush won in 2000, but now we have social media and an even more voracious news cycle to amplify their histrionics.) The problem with such a strategy is that it runs the risk of alienating people who aren’t . Those people are also growing annoyed by the of everything in American life. Political eruptions in a restaurant are the sort of thing that makes them groan. is a long pass down the field that runs a high risk of interception. It’s too easy for the other team to pick off that pass by getting things done and generating positive press. Average voters don’t follow the minutiae of Washington scandal wars the way pundits do. It’s an article of conventional political wisdom that Republicans went too far criticizing presidents Clinton and Obama at various junctures, alienating some persuadable middle voters. The same thing can happen with Trump, no matter how hard Democrats try to paint him as a uniquely divisive and objectionable president. Presidents have a great deal of power to go back on offense after setbacks, as we’re seeing right now. | 1 |
November 1, 2016 Iranians arrested after celebrating ancient Persian king Cyrus the Great
Iran’s Islamic Republic has arrested the organizers of a march last week near the tomb of the ancient Persian king Cyrus the Great that attracted thousands of people celebrating the country’s pre-Islamic glory.
Crowds of mostly young Iranians attended the march near the ancient city of Pasargadae in central province of Fars on Friday to celebrate the day unofficially marked in the Iranian calendar as Cyrus Day.
| 0 |
Even as his chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination slip away, Senator Bernie Sanders and his allies are trying to use his popularity to expand his political influence, setting up an ideological struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party in the era. Aides to Mr. Sanders have been pressing party officials for a significant role in drafting the platform for the Democratic convention in July, aiming to lock in strong planks on issues like a $ federal minimum wage, breaking up Wall Street banks and banning natural gas “fracking. ” Amid his unexpectedly strong showing in the Democratic primaries, Mr. Sanders has tapped his donor list to raise money for liberal congressional candidates in New York, Nevada and Washington State. And in the waning months of Barack Obama’s presidency, Mr. Sanders’s allies are testing their muscle against the White House, mounting a public attack on the president’s housing secretary, Julián Castro, over his department’s sales of delinquent mortgages to banks and private equity firms. “There is a greater goal here,” said Representative Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona, a of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who sent a letter to Mr. Castro criticizing the mortgage sales. “The contribution of Bernie that will be lasting for us is that we will coalesce around an agenda. ” The pressure from Mr. Sanders and his allies is putting the party establishment, which is closely aligned with Hillary Clinton, in a delicate position. Democratic leaders are wary of steering the party too far left, but do not want to alienate the Sanders supporters whose votes Mrs. Clinton needs in November, or risk losing the vast new donor base Mr. Sanders has created. The institutional bulwarks against Mr. Sanders are significant: Hundreds of the party’s “superdelegates” have endorsed Mrs. Clinton, a signal of her broad support among the party’s power brokers. The Democratic National Committee now relies on Mrs. Clinton’s to provide a fifth of its monthly income, an arrangement the Sanders campaign has criticized. And Mrs. Clinton is well positioned to block any proposals she would not want to defend in a general election. In January, the party chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, appointed dozens of Clinton supporters and advisers to the three standing committees of the Democratic Party convention. Of 45 potential members submitted by Mr. Sanders, she appointed just three, according to Mr. Sanders’s campaign. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut, a top Clinton surrogate, will be of the platform committee. Barney Frank, a former Massachusetts congressman and fierce critic of Mr. Sanders and his Wall Street proposals, will be a of the rules committee, which governs procedure on the convention floor. Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders, said he believed the campaign would ultimately be well represented on all the committees as more members are named. But he questioned how Ms. Wasserman Schultz had chosen her discretionary appointments. “Not only are they supporting Clinton, but they have been extremely critical of Bernie Sanders,” Mr. Longabaugh said. “That doesn’t seem like the right way to go if we want to have a convention that is evenhanded. ” Luis Miranda, a spokesman for the Democratic National Convention, said the party was “committed to an open, inclusive and representative process” to draft the platform. “Both of our campaigns will be represented on the drafting committee,” Mr. Miranda said. Some fissures within the Democratic family may be inevitable. For eight years, Mr. Obama’s presidency has muted ideological disagreement within the party. His moral authority as the country’s first black commander in chief, his popularity with Democratic voters and his political battles with Congress have worked to squelch the kind of ideological battles that have divided the Republican Party. But the Democrats’ liberal wing, including lawmakers like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, has become more restive in Mr. Obama’s second term. Liberal groups have pressured the president on recent appointments to the Treasury Department and his deportation policies. At the same time, a younger generation of activists is challenging presidential candidates in both parties on issues of criminal justice, police violence and the rights of undocumented immigrants. “A boldly populist, type of platform is massively appealing to those who have come of age during the financial meltdown and the period afterward,” said Kurt Walters, the campaign director at Rootstrikers, a group that favors limiting the influence of big donors in politics. The party is relatively unified on raising the minimum wage to $15, and Mrs. Clinton recently voiced qualified support. But there is a risk, some Democrats said, that Mr. Sanders — an independent who is not actually a member of the party — would push the party to embrace positions that could later hurt Mrs. Clinton and other Democratic candidates. Mr. Sanders is almost certain to win a speaking slot at the summer convention, providing one of the biggest audiences yet for his views. Some Democrats said they feared a equivalent of Pat Buchanan’s searing speech at the 1992 Republican convention, when Mr. Buchanan, who had failed to win his party’s nomination, called for a “cultural war” against “liberals and radicals. ” Matt Bennett, a founder of the think tank Third Way, said Mrs. Clinton had so far avoided tacking too far left to compete effectively in a general election. “They need to be careful not to go so far as to hand the Republicans something to beat them over the head with,” Mr. Bennett said. “Bans on anything tend to be politically problematic. ” The campaign against Mr. Castro’s policies at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, called “Don’t Sell Our Homes to Wall Street,” could foreshadow the kind of leverage progressives would like to exert after November. Mr. Castro, one of the country’s most prominent young Latino politicians, is seen as a potential pick for Mrs. Clinton. But the pressure tactics are also likely to sow more of the bitterness that has come to dominate Mr. Sanders’s primary battle with Mrs. Clinton. This month, Mr. Sanders asked his supporters to contribute money to Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman running for Congress. In his email, Mr. Sanders also suggested that Emily’s List, a political action committee that is dedicated to electing women who support abortion rights and is close to Mrs. Clinton, had spurned Ms. Flores in her race because she had endorsed Mr. Sanders. Emily’s List, which has endorsed Ms. Flores in past campaigns, backed another Democratic candidate. The claim drew a sharp response from Emily’s List, one of the most powerful groups in mainstream Democratic politics. “We support several candidates who have endorsed him, so he should stick to issues rather than disingenuous attacks,” said Marcy Stech, a spokeswoman for Emily’s List. But in an interview, Ms. Flores said she believed there was a broader agenda at play in the group’s decision. “It’s just like with the presidential race,” Ms. Flores said. “The Democratic Party and the establishment have their ideas about who they want to support. ” | 1 |
Yahoo News PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A jury delivered an extraordinary blow to the government Thursday in a long-running battle over the use of public lands when it acquitted all seven defendants involved in the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in rural southeastern Oregon. Tumult erupted in the courtroom after the verdicts were read when an attorney for group leader Ammon Bundy demanded his client be immediately released, repeatedly yelling at the judge. U.S. marshals tackled attorney Marcus Mumford to the ground, used a stun gun on him several times and arrested him. U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said she could not release Bundy because he still faces charges in Nevada stemming from an armed standoff at his father Cliven Bundy’s ranch two years ago. The Portland jury acquitted Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy and five others of conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland. Even attorneys for the defendants were surprised by the acquittals. “It’s stunning. It’s a stunning victory for the defense,” said Robert Salisbury, attorney for defendant Jeff Banta. “I’m speechless.” Said defendant Neil Wampler: “This is a tremendous victory for rural America and it is a well-deserved, overwhelming defeat for a corrupt and predatory federal government.” The U.S Attorney in Oregon, Billy J. Williams, issued a statement defending the decision to bring charges against the seven defendants: “We strongly believe that this case needed to be brought before a Court, publicly tried, and decided by a jury. A Bundy daughter, Bailey Logue, said family members were savoring the victory, and would begin Friday to determine their next step. “First thing, we’re going to get down on our knees and thank our Heavenly Father, and we’re going to enjoy our families,” Logue said. “Tomorrow, we’re going to figure out what we’re going to do next.” Messages left for Bundy family matriarch Carol Bundy in Bunkerville, Nevada, weren’t immediately returned. The Oregon case is a continuation of the tense standoff with federal officials at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014. Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are among those who are to go on trial in Nevada early next year for that standoff. While the charges in Oregon accused defendants of preventing federal workers from getting to their workplace, the case in Nevada revolves around allegations of a more direct threat: An armed standoff involving dozens of Bundy backers pointing weapons including assault-style rifles at federal Bureau of Land Management agents and contract cowboys rounding up cattle near the Bundy ranch outside Bunkerville. Daniel Hill, attorney for Ammon Bundy in the Nevada case, said he believed the acquittal in Oregon bodes well for his client and the other defendants facing felony weapon, conspiracy and other charges. “When the jury here hears the whole story, I expect the same result,” Hill told The Associated Press in Las Vegas. Hill also said he’ll seek his client’s release from federal custody pending trial in Nevada. Ammon Bundy and his followers took over the Oregon bird sanctuary on Jan. 2. They objected to prison sentences handed down to Dwight and Steven Hammond, two local ranchers convicted of setting fires. They demanded the government free the father and son and relinquish control of public lands to local officials. The Bundys and other key figures were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop outside the refuge that ended with police fatally shooting Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an occupation spokesman. Most occupiers left after his death, but four holdouts remained until Feb. 11, when they surrendered following a lengthy negotiation. Federal prosecutors took two weeks to present their case, finishing with a display of more than 30 guns seized after the standoff. An FBI agent testified that 16,636 live rounds and nearly 1,700 spent casings were found. During trial, Bundy testified that the plan was to take ownership of the refuge by occupying it for a period of time and then turn it over to local officials to use as they saw fit. Bundy also testified that the occupiers carried guns because they would have been arrested immediately otherwise and to protect themselves against possible government attack. The bird sanctuary takeover drew sympathizers from around the West. It also drew a few protesters who were upset that the armed occupation was preventing others from using the land. They included Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. Suckling on Thursday called the acquittals “extremely disturbing” for “anyone who cares about America’s public lands, the rights of native people and their heritage, and a political system that refuses to be bullied by violence and racism. “The Bundy clan and their followers peddle a dangerous brand of radicalism aimed at taking over lands owned by all of us. I worry this verdict only emboldens the kind of intimidation and right-wing violence that underpins their movement,” Suckling said. One of Ammon Bundy’s attorneys, Morgan Philpot, had a different perspective after watching Mumford get tackled by marshals. “His liberty was just assaulted by the very government that was supposed to protect it, by the very government that just prosecuted his client — unjustly as the jury found.” There’s another Oregon trial coming up over the wildlife refuge. Authorities had charged 26 occupiers with conspiracy. Eleven pleaded guilty, and another had the charge dropped. Seven defendants chose not to be tried at this time. Their trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 14. | 0 |
ELIZABETH, N. J. — Along the commercial corridor of Elmora Avenue, Salvadoran pupusas are sold next to kosher California rolls and across the street from a salon where three Colombians, a Cuban and a Uruguayan cut hair. Past Las Américas Bakery, the owner of another salon is the proud daughter of southern Italian immigrants. And on that same street, which decades ago used to be populated by Orthodox Jews, there stands an outlier: First American Fried Chicken, owned and operated by the Rahami family, immigrants from Afghanistan. Afghans are not a particularly large group living in Elizabeth. There were only about 200 in a city of nearly 127, 000 people, with 77 born in Afghanistan, according to 2014 census figures compiled by researchers at Queens College. In that same year, 63 percent of Elizabeth residents were Hispanic. But because of Ahmad Khan Rahami, the arrested on Monday after a gunfight and suspected of planting bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey, Afghans have become the most talked about immigrants in what seemed to be a haven of diversity. “I woke up feeling like it was a dream I never felt like that could happen here,” Agueda Elizabeth Meza, 54, the owner of a Peruvian restaurant on Elizabeth Avenue, said through an interpreter. “Elizabeth is a city of all different bloods — as García Márquez said. ” Pick a flag — there are more than 50 nationalities, and more than 37 languages spoken, according to the office of Mayor J. Christian Bollwage (who is of German and Irish heritage). From Poland, Portugal and Peru, they all have come to Elizabeth. The International Rescue Committee, one of nine agencies in the United States that work with the government to resettle refugees, said that since 2010, its office here had helped 102 Afghan refugees, which includes 30 families. It is still not clear why Mr. Rahami and his family settled in Elizabeth. The authorities said he arrived in the United States as a child and, while a minor, was naturalized through his father — a different path from recent refugees who have come after years of international vetting. “One thing we do not want to see is any sort of backlash against the community in or around Elizabeth,” said Avigail Ziv, the International Rescue Committee’s executive director for New York and New Jersey. “These are refugees who have suffered a lot and have dealt with violence as well. They are just trying to rebuild their lives. ” There are four mosques in Elizabeth, but the largest, and where the agency said its Afghan refugees attended, is Darul Islam, in the northwestern part of the city. The president of the mosque, Hassen Abdellah, said he did not know whether Mr. Rahami had been there. “If he prayed in Elizabeth, my gut is that he did come here, everybody comes here,” said Mr. Abdellah, born in New Jersey, who was one of the mosque’s founding members in 1992. “We have an international community, people from Russia, Turkey, Pakistan. We have Asians, Africans, we have the whole tree. ” Asked how many Afghans attend his mosque, Mr. Abdellah said it was perhaps “6 to 7 percent. ” On Monday morning, Mr. Abdellah received an email sent to leaders of area mosques with pictures of Mr. Rahami. “I was in shock, like everybody else,” he said. “I can’t believe that somebody in Elizabeth was involved in something like this. We’ve always been in partnership with the city and the government. ” The surprise registered closer to the fried chicken restaurant on Elmora Avenue. Guillermo Niell, 35, from Uruguay, said he and his family live across the street. He would often buy there and he never noticed anything strange about the owners. But his Uruguayan hair stylist, Pepo Lambrechts, recalled that recently Mr. Rahami was always on his computer or his phone, not paying attention to customers. “My father loved that place,” Cristina Castro, 35, the owner of the salon, said. Once a week, when he used to visit from Colombia, her daughter, Lesley, 13, would take him there. Ms. Castro’s mother, Gladys Echeverri, said she moved the family to Elizabeth in 1999, after the largest rebel group in Colombia made owning a hair salon too difficult in their small town outside Medellín. Ms. Echeverri was worried that Mr. Rahami’s arrest would affect business in Elizabeth. “It will hurt the reputation,” she said. But Ms. Castro said the city’s image was already tarnished by being in the dingy shadow of Newark. Officials with the Greater Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce would disagree. They are trying to turn Elizabeth into prime tourist destination, with the Jersey Gardens outlet mall as its biggest draw and its history — thanks to Alexander Hamilton, who lived and studied in Elizabeth after coming to the American colonies in 1772 — in vogue. “We were the first capital of New Jersey this is where New Jersey was founded,” said Gordon Haas, the president of the Chamber of Commerce. “We advertise, ‘You can dine the world without a passport,’ because you name a restaurant, we’ve got it,” Mr. Haas said, adding, “including now, I guess, an Afghani chicken place. ” On Monday, as police cars and government vehicles cordoned off the street next to the restaurant and others around downtown Elizabeth, there was another kind of tension in the air for some immigrants. Back in January, immigration officials conducted raids in New Jersey as part of a nationwide effort to deport those who had orders of removal. That brought an increased law enforcement presence and anxiety to Elmora Avenue. “On the one side, you feel some security having all of this police around,” Ms. Meza said, who is a member of Make the Road New Jersey, an immigrant activist group. “But on the other side, there is this feeling of fear because only a few months ago raids were happening in our community, and one cannot help but be reminded. ” | 1 |
From the beginning, the Chainsmokers knew dance music was a joke. The festivals, the groupthink, the sounds — these were the hallmarks of a scene designed for ecstatic release, but also one that was easily parodied. And so rather than make serious music that others might dismiss, they embodied parody themselves. They made songs about selfies and Kanye West (in so much as they were about anything) and saw their stars rise. They seemed to understand, in a particularly disquieting way, how easy it was to game the system, turning growing American interest in and tolerance of dance music into a platform for ambition. That made the Chainsmokers both disorientingly effective and easily loathed. So maybe it’s humility, or maybe it’s strategy, but pointedly, over the last couple of years, the duo of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall have been engaged in a very public process of dismantling mainstream dance music from within. By this point, they are essentially a pop duo — Mr. Taggart sings and writes, and both men produce. Instead of club music though, they’ve come to specialize in a style that approximates a skinned and deboned version of those sounds, maintaining a handful of its key gestures and flourishes while administering a benzodiazepine to the tempo and volume. In 2015 and 2016, three Chainsmokers songs reached the Top 10 of the Billboard singles chart, as have two songs that appear on their new album, “Memories … Do Not Open,” “Paris” and the Coldplay collaboration “Something Just Like This. ” Each hit has been more denuded than the one that preceded it. This is the logical endpoint of the American explosion of the last decade, which was almost certainly never going to end in a nightclub. It was a long con in retraining pop ears to accept some of that world’s sonic ideas. By that measurement, “Memories … Do Not Open” — the first Chainsmokers album — is a savvy success that cannily toys with expectations. Most songs hover between 95 and 105 beats per minute, something more than a slog but less than a gallop. Often, when a song arrives at the drop — the place where an explosion usually lands — it instead veers into something like a sun shower, or a crowd applauding in the distance, rarely the usual gut punch. But these strategic victories don’t overshadow the Chainsmokers’ myriad weaknesses. In the ecosystem in which the Chainsmokers have thrived — dance music and the pop that derives from its distillation — the album is a meaningless concept, and the album format underscores both this duo’s weaknesses and strengths. Mr. Taggart is a capable but unexciting singer. And he has shockingly few lyrical ideas, less of a concern for performers more adept with melody. Most songs here moan about brittle young relationships over the musical equivalent of bringing an amiable golden retriever along for an unhurried jog. (The songs written with the Emily Warren, like “Don’t Say” and the excellent “My Type,” are among the best here, with an emotional texture the others grasp for futilely.) Two songs, the impressive “Honest” and “Wake Up Alone,” parse the weight that fame exacts on emotional relationships — they’re among the most credible on the album. While the Chainsmokers often appear to have decided what sort of music they’re not making, their affirmative choices are lacking. “The One” ends up somewhere near chillwave, “Break Up Every Night” is toothless and “Last Day Alive,” a collaboration with the duo Florida Georgia Line, is 100 percent pure pablum, a collection of dim anthemic sayings in search of a stadium, a twinkle with no diamond. All of this makes for songs in search of remixes, skeletons notable as much for what’s missing as what’s there. That’s a curious position for an act moving from the world of festivals, where the scene is the star more than the performer, to the world of pop, where personality counts, a shift that may well be the Chainsmokers’ undoing, even if their music remains effective. That’s because onstage, on the duo’s handful of televised performances, they’re almost brutally awkward. On “Saturday Night Live” — where they performed “Paris” and “Break Up Every Night” last weekend — they were listless and limp. Of course they were. Mr. Taggart is not an aggressively trained pop star (and for what it’s worth, not a disruptive punk either). He was uncomfortable in the same way a young indie rock or folk singer might be, unsure of how to use his body as effectively as his voice. The Chainsmokers might have gamed their way into pop, but pop is hard work — inside jokes melt under the klieg lights. | 1 |
PORTSMOUTH, N. H. — Escalating his criticism of Hillary Clinton’s debate performances, Donald J. Trump came to a state battling a drug epidemic and suggested without any evidence on Saturday that his opponent had been on drugs during their second debate. “I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” Mr. Trump told a crowd of thousands gathered in the parking lot of a Toyota dealership on a chilly afternoon. He continued: “We should take a drug test prior because I don’t know what’s going on with her. But at the beginning of her last debate — she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, ‘Oh, take me down.’ She could barely reach her car. ” When asked for comment, the Clinton campaign directed reporters to a statement by Robby Mook, the campaign manager, that was put out earlier in the day in response to Mr. Trump’s allegations of a “rigged” election. “Campaigns should be hard fought and elections hard won, but what is fundamental about the American electoral system is that it is free, fair and open to the people,” Mr. Mook wrote. “Participation in the system — and particularly voting — should be encouraged, not dismissed or undermined because a candidate is afraid he’s going to lose. ” Mrs. Clinton stepped away from the campaign trail over the weekend to prepare for the third and final presidential debate on Wednesday, and Mr. Trump has spent the week criticizing his opponent’s public schedule as too heavy on “debate prep” while he campaigns around the country. In recent days, Mr. Trump has made increasingly outlandish allegations as he seeks to fend off reports of lewd comments and accusations of sexual assault. Among other things, he has alleged a global media conspiracy and told his followers that the electoral process is being rigged against him. He has also personally insulted and degraded the women who have accused him. Mr. Trump, who said he was willing to take a drug test before the next debate, directed a large portion of his remarks to the drug epidemic. He praised the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act as an “important step in the right direction,” and he called for more drug courts and mandated treatment. “I would dramatically expand access to treatment sites and end Medicaid policies that obstruct inpatient treatment,” he said. Mr. Trump said the government should reduce the amount of Schedule II opioids like oxycodone that can be made and sold in the United States. He also criticized the Food and Drug Administration, saying that it was too slow to approve addiction recovery medicines and that “we need to move it along. ” He promised that his border wall and policies would help stem the flow of drugs into the country. Mr. Trump praised his running mate, Mike Pence, for increasing “mandatory minimum sentences for the most serious drug offenders” as governor of Indiana, although the candidate himself did not personally endorse the idea. Mr. Trump has often focused on Mrs. Clinton’s health during the presidential race. He claims she lacks the “stamina” to campaign, or to be president. His campaign released an ad this week focusing heavily on her health. | 1 |
syrien , irak , isis In Mossul verbleiben viele Zivilisten. Quelle:AFP / East News
Der irakische Ministerpräsident Haider al-Abadi hat am 17. Oktober den Beginn der Rückeroberung Mossuls verkündet. Die Großstadt im Norden des Irak ist seit Juni 2014 in den Händen des IS. Je nach Schätzung befinden sich derzeit bis zu 1,5 Millionen Zivilisten und 10 000 IS-Kämpfer in der Stadt. Bis zu 60 000 Mann zogen in den Kampf, um Mossul zu befreien: Kräfte der irakischen Armee, sunnitische und schiitische Einheiten und kurdische Peschmerga-Kämpfer. Die internationale Anti-Terror-Koalition unter US-Führung sorgt für Luftunterstützung.
„Der Augenblick des großen Sieges ist nah“, erklärte al-Abadi zu Beginn der Offensive. Mehr als eine Woche nach der Verkündung wird jedoch deutlich, dass der Vormarsch der Anti-IS-Kräfte ins Stocken gerät. Gleich nach Beginn der Befreiungsoperation kam es zu Verwerfungen zwischen Bagdad und Ankara. Derweil geht der IS in bereits befreiten Siedlungen zu Gegenoffensiven über. Der republikanische Präsidentschaftskandidat Donald Trump wertete die Operation bereits als ein „totales Desaster“. Wer wird kämpfen? Kampf gegen IS: Russland liefert Waffen an irakische Kurden Der Militärexperte Wladimir Jewsejew, stellvertretender Direktor des Instituts der GUS-Länder, betont, dass die Zahl aufgestellter Truppen an sich nicht aussagekräftig sei: „Die Kurden haben gar nicht vor, Mossul zu befreien“, sagt er. „Sie haben kurdische Gebiete im Stadtumland eingenommen und gehen keinen Schritt weiter. Die Schiiten wird al-Abadi nicht nach Mossul lassen, um Massaker zu verhindern. Und die Türken – die schlagkräftigste Einheit von allen – werden die Stadt nicht stürmen, um eigene Opfer zu vermeiden“, erklärt der Experte. Es bleibe also nur die irakische Regierungsarmee. Dort blühe aber die Korruption und die Zahl der Deserteure sei hoch. „Von den angekündigten 60 000 Mann werden für die Eroberung Mossuls höchstens 30 000 bereitstehen“, sagt Jewsejew. „In einer vom IS stark befestigten urbanen Umgebung reichen diese Kräfte nicht aus.“ Zumal Mossul in westlicher Richtung offen sei, weswegen die IS-Kämpfer ständigen Nachschub bekommen könnten. „Bis zu den US-Präsidentschaftswahlen am 8. November ist die Stadt, anders als die USA es geplant haben, sicherlich nicht einzunehmen.“
Der Nahost-Experte und Politologe Leonid Issajew von der Higher School of Economics ist ebenfalls der Ansicht, dass ein langanhaltender Kampf bevorstehe. „Erst wird man um die Provinz, dann um die Stadt Mossul und dann um jeden einzelnen Stadtteil kämpfen müssen“, sagt er. Die Schlacht werde sich über Monate hinziehen und viele Opfer fordern. Sunniten gegen Schiiten Syrien-Frieden in der Krise: Wie geht es nun weiter? Doch auch wenn der IS in Mossul bezwungen werden sollte, werde das den Irak nicht befrieden, so die Experten. Mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit würde vor Ort ein neuer – konfessioneller oder ethnischer – Konflikt ausbrechen. Die schiitischen Einheiten hätten in den letzten zwei Jahren die sunnitische Bevölkerung nach der Befreiung vom IS massakriert – wegen der Kooperation mit dem Feind. Die Kurden verfolgten ihre eigenen Interessen: Sie expandierten territorial, wenn sie irakische Städte und Dörfer befreiten. Die arabische Bevölkerung werde verdrängt und kurdische Siedler nähmen ihren Platz ein.
Wie die Nachkriegsordnung in Mossul aussehen könnte, ohne dass es zu ethnischen und religiösen Säuberungen kommt, sei eine nicht weniger wichtige Frage als der Kampf gegen den IS. Wenn viele Religions- und Stammesgruppen nicht der Regierung in Bagdad unterstünden, sei eine solche Ordnung nicht ohne weiteres zu erreichen. Angst vor irakischem Aleppo Machtspielchen auf höchster Ebene: Der Syrien-Konflikt im UN-Sicherheitsrat Ein weiteres Problem: In Mossul verbleiben viele Zivilisten. Seit Beginn der Offensive wurden infolge von Luftschlägen der Koalition bereits Todesopfer unter der Zivilbevölkerung gemeldet.
Jewsejew betont, dass zivile Opfer beim Bombardement von Städten praktisch nicht zu vermeiden seien. Washington verstehe das und versuche eine ähnliche Situation wie in Aleppo zu vermeiden. Dort beschuldigt der Westen Russland und Syrien, Luftschläge gegen die Zivilbevölkerung zu fliegen.
„Die Amerikaner erklären bereits, sie wollten nicht, dass sich Mossul in ein zweites Aleppo verwandele. Deshalb werden sie die Luftschläge auf ein Minimum zurückschrauben“, sagt Issajew. Zugleich stünden die Vereinigten Staaten vor einem Dilemma: „Das Bombardement führt zu mehr Toten unter den Zivilisten. Bleiben die Luftschläge aber aus, erleiden jene Kräfte Verluste, die die Stadt am Boden stürmen: Washingtons irakische Verbündete. Das erschwere die Einnahme Mossuls und die Koordination der Bodentruppen, so der Experte. RBTH-Check 37 bis 38 Millionen Menschen leben derzeit im Irak. Der Großteil – 75 bis 80 Prozent – sind Araber. Die Kurden sind mit 15 bis 20 Prozent die größte ethnische Minderheit. Sie leben in der Region Irakisches Kurdistan im Norden des Iraks, die seit Kriegsausbruch de facto von Bagdad unabhängig ist. Die Schiiten sind die größte Religionsgemeinschaft des Iraks – sie machen 60 bis 70 Prozent der Bevölkerung aus. Die Sunniten sind eine große Minderheit – 30 bis 40 Prozent. Der Islamische Staat bekennt sich zum sunnitischen Islam und betrachtet Schiiten als Häretiker. Der Norden des Iraks, insbesondere Mossul, wird überwiegend von Sunniten bewohnt. Alle Rechte vorbehalten | 0 |
Posted on October 27, 2016 by DCG | 7 Comments
From Campus Reform : Grinnell College (a private liberal arts college in Iowa) is promoting a guide to help students avoid “cultural appropriation” this Halloween , warning that some costumes could be considered “deplorable and problematic.” (Gee, wonder where they got the idea for the word “deplorable?”)
The guide provides several examples of costumes that might fit the definition of “cultural appropriation,” defining the term as “the act of displaying people’s cultures in a disrespectful or condescending manner.”
The guide, called “My Identity, Not Your Costume,” goes on to list several examples of “offensive” Halloween costumes, featuring pictures of Grinnell students holding photos of costumes that would be considered disrespectful towards their culture.
In one instance, the guide shows a picture of a burly white man dressed in lingerie with a sash proclaiming “Call me Caitlyn,” referring to Caitlyn Jenner. The photo is held by a Grinnell student wearing a “National Coming Out Day” pin, and includes a caption stating, “the misrepresentation of my identity bothers me because people categorize me by my looks and may not understand my culture.” You just don’t understand this culture…
Another example of culturally appropriated Halloween costumes, according to the guide, is “using other cultures as accessories to appear more hip/interesting without adequate understanding or permission ,” one example of which is a picture of someone dressed as a Hindu deity being held by an Indian student and the message that such costumes are “deplorable and problematic.”
It then warns students that if their costumes take “defining characteristics of another culture” without “permission , or understanding of the historical background behind the said culture,” then these costumes might be too offensive to wear.
The guide then concludes with two questions the school thinks students should consider before selecting a Halloween costume, asking, “Does your costume perpetuate stereotypes or inaccurately portray my culture as a joke?” as well as “Why would I find your ‘Halloween costume’ to be offensive?”
Campus Reform reached out to Grinnell for a comment on the matter but did not receive a response in time for publication.
To donate to Campus Reform , go here .
DCG | 0 |
Movie critics got their first look at “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” on Monday night. As their reviews spread across the internet on Tuesday, it became clear there was little consensus about the film. The reviews were mostly positive, but there were several notable exceptions. Let’s start with, oh, to pick one at random, The New York Times. A. O. Scott called it a “thoroughly mediocre movie” with “a surprisingly hackish script. ” On MTV, Amy Nicholson said the film’s director, Gareth Edwards, had an opportunity to “explore a frontier,” but instead, “we’re trapped on a cruise to the moon. ” The Miami Herald was also underwhelmed. Rene Rodriguez said the end was rousing, but the journey there was “about as exciting as a long drive down the Florida Turnpike. ” In USA Today, Brian Truitt said the movie was undermined by its ties to the original trilogy, and it “misses a real chance to turn the familiar into something remarkable. ” Stephanie Zacharek wrote in Time that it was “almost pedantic in its inoffensiveness. ” The New Yorker was perhaps the most harsh. Calling the film “lobotomized and depersonalized,” Richard Brody wondered: Is it time to abandon the “Star Wars” franchise? Several other critics were far more complimentary, and some even considered it among the best of the eight films in the “Star Wars” canon. Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty said the film “gets the obsessive curiosity that the most rabid ‘Star Wars’ fans have always had. ” Richard Lawson wrote in Vanity Fair that it is “a bracing and dizzying marvel, propulsively pitched and even, I dare say, moving. ” Jen Yamato in The Daily Beast declared it the best “Star Wars” movie since “The Empire Strikes Back. ” In Variety, Peter Debruge said it is “not the crass skeptics may have feared. ” In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers said the spinoff “has the same primitive, emotional, loopy, let’ spirit that made us fall in love with the original trilogy. In Wired, Angela Watercutter said it was unfairly burdened by the inevitable discussion of how it fit into the postelection climate in the United States. Bryan Bishop wrote in The Verge that several of the characters “feel thin and undefined” and struggled with the workload of building itself from the ground up. Peter Bradshaw wrote in The Guardian that it was an “exhilarating, and enjoyable adventure. ” In The Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips said it is “rough around the edges, hectic in its crosscutting but increasingly effective as kinetic cinema. ” In Deadline, Pete Hammond called it “a rousing and wholly entertaining take that proves you don’t have to go along with the recipe in order to serve up a satisfying meal for fans and alike. ” | 1 |
On Thursday, temperatures on the East Coast are expected to plummet, and some people — fellow journalists and weather broadcasters, we’re looking at you — may start talking about a “polar vortex. ” We thought you might want to know what the polar vortex is, and what it’s not. (And we wanted to the inevitable chatter about climate change that usually crops up when the thermometer drops — “It’s cold, how could the Earth be warming?” We’ll tell you how.) First, the polar vortex always exists. That catchy, phrase is another term for the polar jet streams, which are caused by and cold air, encircling both poles. They swirl from west to east, centered around the poles. When a dip in the polar vortex comes to our part of the world, it’s usually the result of a change in pressure, which disturbs the swirl, and can push the frosty Arctic air south, according to Faye Barthold, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. And the Arctic jet stream (or polar vortex) can sometimes dip far enough south that it allows the cold air to travel down to places that do not normally have Arctic conditions, like wherever you live. When there is this dip in the jet stream that brings cold to the East, there’s usually a countervailing loop that takes warm air into Alaska or the Arctic. In the last few years, a frozen East has often coincided with a warm Alaska. But this phenomenon is not exclusive to North America — the polar vortex can freeze Europe and Asia, too. When the Arctic jet stream moves back north, it sort of forces the cold air to travel back that way, too, Ms. Barthold said, and that is why the frigid temperatures brought by the polar vortex are usually . But for it to bring cold temperatures, it usually has to come to us straight from the Arctic, as opposed to dipping somewhere else in the country, and then moving to wherever you are. That’s because as the cold air stays at lower latitudes, it warms up, gaining heat from adjacent warmer air. And those super cold temperatures may generally be brought our way by the polar vortex, but cold winter weather is not always a result of Arctic air moving right into our midst. When these cold snaps come, you may hear other people asking,” If global warming is supposed to be warming the globe, then why is it so cold?” Well, for starters, there is a difference between weather and climate. Climate refers to the averages and trends in atmospheric conditions over large areas, while weather deals with variations, which is what happens when the polar vortex visits your hometown. And of course, an Arctic blast can still occur in a warmer world. The air that comes down from the North Pole might not be as cold, Ms. Barthold said, but it would still be the product of the same phenomenon. Some studies suggest that climate change could actually make these frigid waves of Arctic air more common, a result of shrinking sea ice. However, other scientists remain skeptical of this theory. And the earth is definitely warming: Temperature records show that, by the end of last year, the earth’s surface had warmed by about 1. 8 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century. But even though the earth’s surface is warming, scientists say that winter will still exist. And even if parts of the United States are experiencing unusually cold temperatures, it represents such a small portion of the earth’s surface — about 2 percent — that it does not mean much in terms of average global temperatures. So, if, for instance, a senator (perhaps James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma) brandishes a snowball on the floor of the Senate to dispute the validity of climate science when a chill wind blows through Washington, you will know that the unseasonably cold temperatures he is talking about do not mean that global warming is not happening. It is. | 1 |
Share on Twitter IJR Opinion is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.
I had my life threatened, and I didn’t ask for it.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that a deranged moron woke up on the wrong side of the bed on a Monday morning, or maybe it’s because I’m in a leadership position for my local Republican Party in a bellwether county. Maybe both. Either way, it was chilling.
I got the email when I woke up at 7 a.m. on a Monday morning, right as I was getting ready for a busy week. As someone who works in public relations and media, I’m bound at the hip to my email inbox.
Needless to say, the email with the subject line “BOMB” instantly caught my eye. I opened it. “This has to be a joke,” I thought. Another political fundraising email? After all, desperate times do call for desperate measures.
“You Nazi f***ing Republicans are going to blow up to pieces,” it began:
“You won't live to see the election day, and when your friends talk about how great you and your family WERE, other motherf***ing Republican a**holes would know how dangerous it is to insult the U.S. soon-to-be president Hillary Clinton.”
Swell. The election hasn’t even happened yet, and I’m already about to get droned by President Hillary Clinton. Alex Jones was right. Well, at least I’ll go down in a blaze of glory.
It continued:
“You have no idea what a liar your gun-loving daughter-molesting pig of a candidate is, but don't worry, I'm gonna show you who he is and how much he really cares about you f***ers who are about to die for him. Sit tight, it'll be over soon.”
And that was it. My immediate reaction was to send a quick reply, a snarky “Nice to meet you too” or “Do you even know me?” But I didn’t.
For the record, I’ve meticulously tiptoed around expressing public sentiments for or against Donald Trump. Anyone involved in a GOP leadership role is obligated to support whomever the GOP nominates. And if you refuse to back the candidate, you shouldn’t publicly oppose or speak out against said candidate. Plus, there are curtains on the voting booth for a reason.
But as far as the Republican Party is concerned, I have never been a fan of Donald Trump. Heck, I spent months of my life campaigning against Donald Trump in the GOP primaries. And while I am most definitely disgusted by Donald Trump’s comments about women and social issues - and I think I can speak for many lifelong conservatives in my shoes - we should all be completely repulsed by this kind of attempt to threaten or undermine our democratic system through threat of physical harm.
Anyone who threatens someone else’s life because of alleged support for Donald Trump (or any other candidate) is threatening a pillar of freedom that makes our republic great. The threat I received this past week is hardly an isolated case, either. It is merely one example of many acts of violence taking place against people of differing viewpoints. David French of National Review wrote a particularly jarring account.
You can bet that no matter the outcome on November 8th, there will be textbooks of postmortems about what happened this year. But it goes without saying that in the most contentious presidential election in recent memory, we seem to have forgotten who we are.
We’ve all “unfollowed” Facebook friends of opposing viewpoints, sent regrettably nasty in-the-moment texts to people with whom we disagreed, and engaged in shameless schadenfreude at the demise of both political parties.
But despite our differences, I think Americans can all agree on one thing: we have a right to vote for whoever we think will be the best leader for our country. As Thomas Paine once said:
“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another.”
Anyone who threatens the life of a fellow citizen because of his or her support for a candidate is attempting to attach a price tag of fear and risk to a vote.
Despite intimidation, violence, despair, and bomb threats - go vote. Volunteer. In the meantime, you’ll be silently laughing in the face of those who want to destroy our democracy. | 0 |
Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
It’s been a weird 24 hours if you happen to live inside the head of Sean Hannity. The Fox News pundit and Trump propagandist has been live tweeting some sort of mental breakdown and it’s entirely unclear what the endgame is.
It started like this: For reasons unknown, on his radio show Hannity told listeners that he would be asking Donald Trump for help in shipping the Obama family – all of whom are Americans – to Kenya after the election.
If you’re saying to yourself “Wow, that sounds pretty racist” the answer is yes, yes it is . There is no universe in which a person telling America’s first black president to go back to Africa cannot be construed as a racist statement. That is, unless you happen to reside in the fantasy world that Sean Hannity currently lives in.
After getting rightfully hammered for the comments, Hannity either got very drunk or had a psychotic break and tweeted out a profoundlymisspelled defense of what he said. The tweets wouldn’t pass a breathalyzer.
Tweet #1 (now deleted):
Liberal media. It’s was Josh Ernest who refuse to amswee teh ? Will Obama stay in the US if DT wins. I mentioned I’d pay a charter to …
“amswee teh ?” Really?
Tweet #2 (now deleted):
Liberal media 2 Any country they choose. 1- Canada where the satire piece was written Kenya where he visited
The second tweet also linked to the website of infamous conservative provocateur Chuck Johnson, a racist white nationalist who once proposed the theory that Obama was a gay prostitute. Johnson is so morally repugnant that he was officially permanently banned from ever holding an account on Twitter.
After waking up, Hannity got back on Twitter to do damage control. According to him, these incoherent cries for help weren’t what they looked like, he just didn’t have his glasses on… Half asleep and didn't put my glasses on. Lol. I wish I had a better excuse. https://t.co/GUvw7ef2AV
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 27, 2016
He also doubled down on his defense of telling Obama to go to Africa. I said I'll send him anywhere he wants to go. I mentioned Canada first, Kenya where part of his family is today, Jakarta where he once lived https://t.co/wvNxCMTXYu
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 27, 2016
None of which “answee teh ?” of why the Obama family should be exiled to another country in the first place. Glasses or not, that’s a level of fascist thinking that has been relatively unthinkable in American democracy. Only since the rise of Trump, and his avowed policy of going after his political and personal enemies after he’s elected, would the idea of banning a former president from the country even be imagined. Now it’s being normalized by a Fox News pundit with an audience of millions.
Sean Hannity has been a hack for many years, but Donald Trump finally completely severed his grip on reality. We’re witnessing what happens when a man with major delusions gets to indulge them in front of an audience of millions each night on a major network – and it isn’t pretty.
Featured image via Fox News Share this Article! | 0 |
By Sean Colarossi on Wed, Oct 26th, 2016 at 7:36 pm This type of language from someone who used to be a member of the United States Congress is abhorrent, but it's also to be expected in the Trump era of American politics. Share on Twitter Print This Post
Hopefully, as a country, we’ll return to a time in our politics when violent language is shocking and rare. But this year, when the man at the top of the Republican ticket has repeatedly encouraged his supporters to revolt if he loses, isn’t likely to be that time.
On Wednesday, former GOP Congressman Joe Walsh, a right-wing extremist who now hosts a talk radio show, followed his nominee’s lead and told urged his Twitter followers to grab their guns on Nov. 9 if Hillary Clinton is elected.
Tweet: On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump.
On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket.
You in?
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 26, 2016
This type of language from someone who used to be – and thankfully no longer is – a member of the United States Congress is abhorrent, but it’s also to be expected in the Trump era of American politics.
After all, not long ago Trump himself instructed his supporters to revolt if Clinton decides to fulfill her constitutional duty and nominate Supreme Court judges.
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” the Republican nominee said. “Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”
More recently, Trump said that he’d like to see what happens if Clinton’s bodyguards were disarmed.
“I think her bodyguards should drop all weapons. Disarm immediately,” he said. “Take their guns away, let’s see what happens to her.”
Not only does Walsh’s rhetoric align perfectly with what Trump has suggested at various points throughout this campaign, but it’s also a continuation of dangerous language that the former Republican congressman seems to enjoy using.
Earlier in the year, when five police officers were gunned down in Dallas, Walsh blamed President Obama, tweeting: “This is now war. Watch out Obama. Watch out black lives matter punks. Real America is coming after you.”
Before Trump hit the scene, this type of rhetoric existed, but it often only came from the most extreme elements in either party. Now it has the encouragement of a major party presidential nominee.
On Nov. 9, we shouldn’t hope that people take up arms to protest the results of the election. We should hope that when Trump loses, he’ll take a lot of this dangerous rhetoric with him. | 0 |
Jake Gyllenhaal is delaying his return to Broadway. A revival of Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This,” starring Mr. Gyllenhaal, that was scheduled to begin performances in February at a Hudson Theater, is instead being postponed, the producers Stacey Mindich and Jessica R. Jenen said in a brief statement Friday evening. They said the postponement was “due to scheduling conflicts with the show’s star,” and that “the show is now aiming for its Broadway bow during the season. ” Mr. Gyllenhaal, primarily known for his work on film, has appeared on Broadway once before, in “Constellations,” a play by Nick Payne, which ran for three months in 2014 and 2015. The Ambassador Theater Group, which is reconverting the Hudson from a hotel event space into a theater, said it plans to announce another production soon. Mr. Gyllenhaal’s fans, however, have another opportunity to see him onstage in New York: Next week he is scheduled to star in four concert performances of “Sunday in the Park with George” at New York City Center. | 1 |
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hillary Clinton pounded away on Tuesday at Donald J. Trump’s business record and economic proposals, seeking to turn his claims of astounding financial success and genius against him and predicting a recession and global panic if he is elected president. In a stern but speech at an education center garage here, Mrs. Clinton took care to intermingle the policy proclamations of Mr. Trump and his professed image as a business success of the highest order. “Donald Trump has said he’s qualified to be president because of his business record,” Mrs. Clinton said. “A few days ago he said — and I quote — ‘I’m going to do for the country what I did for my business.’ So let’s take a look. ” Though she leveled predictable blows against various products, noting that many items — Trump ties, Trump steaks, Trump furniture — were made outside the United States, Mrs. Clinton’s most pointed refrains sought to depict Mr. Trump, her presumptive Republican opponent, as an enemy to the very people he had claimed to champion in the primary. She checked off the stumbles of his casino business in Atlantic City disparaged his companies’ bankruptcies (Mr. Trump’s many books about business “all seem to end at Chapter 11,” she joked) and insisted that his “one move” in business and politics was to make “ promises” and then let people down. Mrs. Clinton invoked her father, who owned a small drapery business in Chicago, as she described Mr. Trump’s history of failing to pay painters, waiters, plumbers and other contractors who had completed work for him. “My late father was a ” she said. “If his customers had done what Trump did, my dad would never have made it. So I take this personally. ” She added, “This is not normal behavior. ” The barrage comes at a perilous moment for Mr. Trump, who fired his campaign manager on Monday and faces severe disadvantages in and organization. One supporter introducing Mrs. Clinton said gleefully that the campaign had more staff members in Ohio than Mr. Trump had nationwide. Although polls often show that voters see Mrs. Clinton as more qualified than Mr. Trump on foreign policy, her economic views have not always been an easy sell. In the Democratic primary race, she was dogged by criticism of her support for trade deals struck during the administrations of her husband and President Obama. Mr. Trump, posting repeatedly on Twitter to counter Mrs. Clinton, said he planned to make his own “big speech” Wednesday to discuss her “failed policies and bad judgment. ” The Trump campaign, which has seldom engaged in rapid response, also sent a barrage of news releases to reporters in an effort to undercut Mrs. Clinton’s arguments. Their subjects included Bill Clinton’s former position on the board of a college, the loss of manufacturing jobs since 1993 and a slew of negative headlines about economic indicators under President Obama. In one Twitter post, Mr. Trump seemed to embrace a label Mrs. Clinton had tried to make stick: that he had referred to himself as the “king of debt. ” “I am ‘the king of debt,’” Mr. Trump wrote on Tuesday. “That has been great for me as a businessman, but is bad for the country. I made a fortune off of debt, will fix U. S. ” Mrs. Clinton had taken Mr. Trump to task for suggesting that the United States might default on its debts under his leadership, arguing that Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary, “would be rolling in his grave. ” “The full faith and credit of the United States is not something you just gamble away,” she said, predicting that because the global economy “hangs on every word our president says,” even raising the possibility of a default “would cause a global panic. ” At one point, she ridiculed Mr. Trump’s suggestion that he could “sell off America’s assets” if necessary. “Even if we sold all our aircraft carriers and the Statue of Liberty, even if we let some billionaire turn Yosemite into a private country club,” she said, “we still wouldn’t even get close. ” Mrs. Clinton attacked Mr. Trump on several other issues, including immigration and pay equality for women. She also ridiculed Mr. Trump for saying that climate change was a “hoax invented by the Chinese,” noting that it was “a lot easier to say a problem doesn’t exist than it is to actually try to solve it. ” The speech on Tuesday was the centerpiece of a coordinated attack on Mr. Trump’s fiscal sense. On Tuesday morning, Mrs. Clinton’s team released a video, “Bad Businessman,” featuring clips of figures including Mitt Romney and Senators Marco Rubio and Elizabeth Warren insulting assorted ventures. “What ever happened to Trump Airlines?” Mr. Romney asks in one excerpt, taken from a speech he made in March that struck a similar tone to Mrs. Clinton’s. The campaign introduced a website, Artofthesteal. biz, detailing Mr. Trump’s checkered history in Atlantic City, his father’s role in bolstering his fortunes and his constellation of enterprises. By early evening, Mr. Trump’s team had responded with its own site, LyingCrookedHillary. com, which was not immediately functional but would be in coming days, according to the campaign. In her next scheduled public appearance, on Wednesday in Raleigh, N. C. Mrs. Clinton is expected to shift to a more positive message, outlining her vision for what she has labeled a “growth and fairness economy. ” Her plans include increasing the minimum wage, closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs overseas and expanding benefits for working families. Mrs. Clinton has leaned this week on an analysis for Moody’s Analytics led by Mark Zandi, who she noted was an economic adviser to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. The report predicted that Mr. Trump’s proposals on trade, taxation immigration and spending would produce a lengthy downturn and significant job losses, particularly hurting and workers. Mrs. Clinton quoted from the report during her speech. But moments before her remarks, Mr. Trump’s campaign emailed reporters, noting Mr. Zandi’s ties to Democrats. He has donated to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. As she wrapped up, Mrs. Clinton reiterated a campaign theme — “Stronger Together” — that has become more prominent in recent weeks, and argued that Mr. Trump “believes in the worst of us” and cannot be trusted at the controls. Mr. Trump still seemed to be watching. “Hillary defrauded America as Secy of State,” he wrote on Twitter. “She used it as a personal hedge fund to get herself rich! Corrupt, dangerous, dishonest. ” | 1 |
Cleveland Indians Rattled By Deafening Sound Of Wrigley Field Crowd’s Indigestion Close Vol 52 Issue 42 · Sports · Baseball
CHICAGO—Barely able to communicate through the din of thunderous noise during Game 3 of the World Series, members of the Cleveland Indians admitted Friday to being completely rattled by the deafening sound of the Wrigley Field crowd’s indigestion. “It’s so loud—I’ve never heard anything like this before,” said Indians infielder Mike Napoli, whose voice was barely audible over the booming growls of Cubs fans’ stomachs reverberating throughout the stadium, with experts estimating that the roar of the crowd’s indigestion reached as loud as 120 decibels. “It started off as some pretty intense rumbling before the game, but by the second inning, all the gurgling was just ear-splitting. I swear, it feels like the whole stadium is shaking.” At press time, with pitcher Kyle Hendricks one strike away from ending the top half of the fourth inning, sources confirmed that Wrigley Field erupted into deafening groans as Cubs fans attempted to climb out of their seats to stand up. Share This Story: WATCH VIDEO FROM THE ONION Sign up For The Onion's Newsletter
Give your spam filter something to do. Daily Headlines | 0 |
RIO DE JANEIRO — Japan returned to the top of the men’s gymnastics world, beating Russia and China in the team event at the Olympics. The event was a renewal of the longtime gymnastics rivalry between Japan and China. China won the last two gold medals, in 2008 and 2012. But Japan has Kohei Uchimura, the world’s best gymnast — and perhaps the best ever — anchoring their team. In the final rotation, Japan took on Russia in the floor exercise, holding a slim 0. 208 lead. Japan went first. After an outstanding score from Kenzo Shirai and a good one from Ryohei Kato, Uchimura locked down the win with a 15. 6. Combined, it was the best team floor exercise score of the night. It was the end of a dominant night for Uchimura, who started strong with a 15. 100 on the pommel horse, below. Russia could not match those scores and had to settle for second. China won the bronze. Russia had been the early leader after strong horse and rings performances, including a 15. 7 by Denis Abliazin on rings. Japan rallied on the vault and parallel bars and took the lead on the high bar. Abliazin, below, and the Russians came up short on the floor routine later in the night, allowing Japan to seal the victory. Russia met with some jeers from the crowd, as it has at other events in the aftermath of reports of doping. China was making early mistakes. You Hao stumbled on his rings landing. More stumbles followed on the vault, normally a chance to pick up high scores. A big parallel bars, including a stellar one by You, thrust China back into medal contention. The Americans got off to a slow start on their first apparatus, floor exercise, when two of their three gymnasts, Alexander Naddour, below, and Sam Mikulak, tumbled out of bounds. Next up was the horse, where Danell Leyva slipped on the dismount, leading to another low score and seriously denting United States medal hopes. Better performances followed, but Leyva fell on the high bar, and the team could finish no better than fifth. | 1 |
3 responses to “ Enjoy some “period positive meditative coloring” with this new book! ” David | November 4, 2016 at 7:02 am | Reply
Sounds like she is trying to make money of a medical condition that women have no choice but to endure! Maybe if mothers would teach their children, both girls AND boys about female ministration the stigma would go away! Women that refuse to teach their daughters about this problem ARE the problem. Many a young girl that did not know about ministration freak out the first time. If that happens at school even other more educated girls laugh at them and make fun of the unsuspecting girl. I have known of a few in my life time! | 0 |
While President Donald Trump amasses praise from labor unions and work advocates for his cracking down on abuse within the visa program, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce is distressed by the executive order. [The U. S. Chamber of Commerce slammed Trump’s order, which mandates that the Departments of Justice, Labor, and Homeland Security conduct legal reviews of the system and its impacts on American labor. “Economic growth requires a skilled workforce, so it should be a priority to make sure American workers have the skills required to fill open jobs with American companies,” the Chamber wrote in a statement. “It would be a mistake to close the door on workers from around the world who can contribute to American businesses’ growth and expansion and make the U. S. more competitive around the world. The program plays an important role in addressing this need, but it can be improved. ” The U. S. Chamber of Commerce’s statement also claims the organization supports Trump’s ‘Buy American’ initiative, but said “expanding current ‘Buy American’ rules in U. S. law would make it more difficult to spur growth and jobs here at home. ” Rather than reforming or ending the visa program, which gives at least 85, 000 U. S. jobs to foreign workers every year, the Chamber said they would prefer an expansion. “If the goal is to grow the economy and create jobs, which the administration has indicated, it’s important to open more procurement markets for American companies and attract the best and brightest talent,” the statement read. “We look forward to working with the administration to accomplish those shared goals. ” The U. S. Chamber of Commerce touts their support for “a legal status” for illegal immigrants on their website, despite the harmful impacts it would have on American workers. As Breitbart News has reported, there are perhaps 1. 8 million foreign guest workers in the U. S. despite 4 million young Americans entering the workforce every year. If the visa program had never been introduced and enacted, computer science job availability in the labor market would be up 11 percent and wages in the tech industry would have increased by five percent, Breitbart News reported. With American voters, the visa remains incredibly unpopular, since only 30 percent of Americans said in a recent poll that the visa is necessary, Breitbart Texas reported. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 1 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.