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0 комментариев 3 поделились Фото: Fotodom.ru/DP
Эксперты Bloomberg уверены: США не будут вводить по-настоящему серьёзные санкции против России. Вашингтон мог бы запретить покупку российских гособлигаций или отключить Россию от системы межбанковских сообщений SWIFT, но это может крайне негативно отразиться на экономике Европы и мира.
Pravda.Ru обратилась за комментарием подобной смены направления санкционной политики США к первому проректору Финансового университета при правительстве РФ Константину Симонову.
Пока рано говорить о том, что в США началось некое отрезвление, стоит дождаться новой администрации и посмотреть, какими будут их взгляды, считает эксперт. Нынешнее правительство по-прежнему воспринимает Россию, как противника и оппонента, по-прежнему давит на нас.
"Надо понимать очевидную вещь: если бы у Соединенных Штатов были бы какие-то реальные возможности по нанесению ущерба нашей экономике, они бы неизбежно их применили ", - отметил Константин Симонов.
Собеседник Pravda.Ru напомнил, что еще год назад на Западе была следующая концепция: "Не волнуйтесь, дорогие обыватели, у нас есть секретные приемы против России. Если, грубо говоря, они еще будут наглеть, мы их там прижмем, и им конец".
Говорилось о том, что Россию будет отключена от системы SWIFT. "Это было смешно, я специально поговорил с людьми, которые занимались внешнеэкономической деятельностью до создания SWIFT. SWIFT система уж не такая и старая, торговали раньше без нее, по телексу отправляли платежки", - поделился эксперт. По сути, SWIFT всегда была секретной кнопкой, на которую невозможно нажать.
Куда еще расширять санкции? Можно полностью запретить все экономические отношения с Россией, продолжает Константин Симонов. Это, конечно, повлияло бы на российскую экономику. (Глава МИД Великобритании) Борис Джонсон, например, предлагал это. Возникает ответный вопрос: если у вас 42% импорта газа - российский газ, а треть рынка нефти - это российская нефть, то как вы собираетесь существовать без России?
Надо сказать, что санкции породили антисанкции, которые болезненно воспринимаются европейскими предприятиями. Например, Италия, исторически не раз терпевшая поражение от России, успела пожалеть о введении санкций . "Я неделю был в Вероне (это одна из самых экономически развитых частей Италии) и встретился с крупным итальянским бизнесменом. Говоря о санкциях, он заявил, что русские нам ничего в жизни плохого не сделали. Это мы к ним пришли с Наполеоном там под Березиной, получили тысячи трупов, потом с Гитлером зачем-то полезли туда и получили десятки тысяч трупов. Никогда у итальянцев к русским не было претензий. Никогда они нам ничего плохого не делали. Зачем мы ввели эти санкции, если теперь не сможем торговать?", - поделился с Pravda.Ru эксперт.
Тем не менее мы понимаем, что это скорее локальная, бизнесовая точка зрения. Нельзя сказать, что население Европы в целом сильно страдает от того, что против России применены санкции. Пока что эта точка зрения не является мейнстримной, но все может поменяться, заключил Константин Симонов.
Читайте последние новости Pravda.Ru на сегодня Поделиться: | 0 |
Common painkillers linked to increased heart failure risk
Tuesday, November 01, 2016 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer Tags: heart failure , pain management , antioxidants (NaturalNews) When elderly patients with joint problems start taking common painkillers such as ibuprofen and naproxen, their risk of heart failure increases. This is the finding of a UK study published in the British Medical Journal . The study investigated 10 million people with an average age of 77 from the UK, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Those who took non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were rushed to the hospital with heart failure 19 percent more often than those who did not take the drugs. The same awful correlation was not made for those under the age of 65, but the study does point out that serious health problems are being ignored and numbed by painkillers. Dealing with the root cause of inflammation is more important for long-term health Regular use of NSAIDs is becoming a popular strategy to help manage pain later in life. Using these over-the-counter painkillers may take the edge off the pain, but continued use does not deal with the problems that are causing the inflammation in the first place. And old age is not the reason for the pain.For this reason, elderly patients could benefit more from natural anti-inflammatory substances that work with the body's healing process. Over time, giving the body phyto-nutrients such as astaxanthin, curcumin and capsicum do much greater damage repair than NSAIDs. These plant based medicines go after the free radicals that are causing damage at the cellular level.Numbing the pain is not enough, and allows heart conditions to go unnoticed, leading to heart failure . Pain within the joints and tissues is a signal to the conscious self that there is indeed a breakdown, an imbalance, or a deficiency. When NSAIDs are thrown at the problem regularly, there can only be a numbing of the real problems that the elderly patient faces. When the correct nutrients are absorbed and toxins are removed, then the root problem sending the message of pain can be repaired. Better pain management essential for the elderly Flu shots and other vaccines containing aluminum are pushed on the elderly as "medicine." The aluminum acts as an inflammatory adjuvant to trigger the immune system to respond to the virus material in the vaccine. The inflammation and genetic damage that aluminum is known to cause may be exacerbating pain in elderly patients and causing damage to their nervous systems.Natural substances that repair the nervous and immune systems would be better advised for the elderly population. However, the medical system and the common patient do not understand how to use substances such as phenolic compounds that come from plants. These real life medicines possess antioxidant properties that act as therapeutic agents to counteract oxidative stress. Something as simple as Siberian ginseng ( Eleutherococcus senticosus ) can be included in the diet to provide greater mental and physical stamina. This root contains a powerful combination of sterols, coumarins, flavonoids and polysaccharides that lessen the effect of stress on the body, allowing one to adapt to high stress situations and manage pain more effectively. Sources include: | 0 |
Posted on November 5, 2016 by DCG | 1 Comment
From The Independent : Saudi Arabia is set to behead a disabled man for taking part in anti-government protests.
A specialised criminal court in Riyadh , the Arab kingdom’s capital, sentenced Munir al-Adam, to death for “attacks on police” and other offences they said took place during protests in the Shia-dominated east in late 2011 .
The 23-year-old is partially blind and was already partially deaf at the time of arrest; he alleges he is now completely deaf in one ear as a result of being severely beaten by police. His family issued a statement rejecting the verdict and claiming that Mr. Adam was tortured into confessing, The Times reported.
The steel cable worker said he had only signed a document admitting the offences after being repeatedly beaten. He said he had been accused of “sending texts” when he was too poor to own a mobile phone.
Forty-seven protesters and alleged supporters of al-Qaeda were executed in a single day in January. In July, the number of beheadings in Saudi Arabia reached 108 this year, putting the country, which has a population of nearly 29 million people, on track to exceed its 2015 execution total.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most prolific executioners. Research last year by human rights organisation Reprieve found that, of those identified as facing execution in Saudi Arabia, some 72 per cent were sentenced to death for non-violent alleged crimes, while torture and forced confessions were common.
“Munir Adam’s appalling case illustrates how the Saudi authorities are all too happy to subject the most vulnerable people to the swordsman’s blade,” said Maya Foa, of Reprieve. “Saudi Arabia’s close allies, including the UK, must urge the kingdom to release Munir, along with juveniles and others who were sentenced to death for protesting.”
The traditionally close relationship between Saudi Arabia and Britain has become strained in the past year as people in the West have protested against the use of the death penalty, including against minors. Protests also erupted across the Middle East in January.
Sara Hashah, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa spokesperson, said Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran were responsible for 90 per cent of all recorded executions globally and were out of step with the rest of the world .
“In Saudi Arabia, where people are routinely sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials, we have seen a dramatic surge in the number of executions in the past two years which has shown no sign of abating in 2016,” she told The Independent in July.
“This clearly demonstrates that Saudi Arabia’s authorities are increasingly out of step with a global trend of states moving away from the death penalty. “Saudi Arabia’s authorities must end their reliance on this cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment immediately.”
Mr. Adam was reportedly detained in February 2012 for taking part in protests in his home town of Qatif the previous year, when he was 18 years old.
Read the rest of the story here .
DCG | 0 |
Resource Packet for Allies Travelling to Standing Rock Posted on November 1, 2016 Resource Packet for Allies Travelling to Standing Rock Share on Twitter “This is about reflecting on how you can come in a good way, and not about how to be ‘right.'”
Now that the Indigenous resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline is grabbing headlines, a growing number of non-native allies are travelling to Standing Rock to stand with the water protectors. And with an urgent call out for people to come and commit civil disobedience to stop this pipeline, there is lots of need for more allies to come and throw down.
A group of folks called Solidariteam put together a resource packet for people who are showing up without much experience or history with Indigenous spaces and communities; as one member wrote, the packet is “for folks that are navigating the complexities of power, privilege, settler colonialism, shame, solidarity, support, taking leadership from Indigenous communities and taking action.”
The packet includes information about camp culture, questions to ask yourself before going (and ways you can help from home that you might not have thought of; a lot of folks have skills that make them way more useful at home than in the camp), and cultural protocols written with guidance from camp elders.
You can find the packet and download the tools at standingrocksolidaritynetwork.org/resource-packet . And when you’re done, check out the rest of the website for more useful info: finding out current needs and which donation sites are legitimate, sources of Indigenous history and analysis, connect with local organizing in your town, and more. | 0 |
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WOLFSBURG, Germany — The chief executive of Volkswagen said on Thursday that he personally apologized to President Obama this week for cheating on vehicle emissions tests, speaking up for its work force as the German carmaker negotiates penalties with United States officials. Volkswagen is in talks with American authorities about the fines it must pay for programming engines to cheat on emissions tests. The company said on Thursday that it had set aside 7 billion euros, or $7. 9 billion, for legal costs worldwide, even though in theory it faces fines of $18 billion in the United States alone, plus compensation to owners. Matthias Müller, the chief executive of Volkswagen, had what he described as a conversation with Mr. Obama during the president’s visit this week to Hanover, not far from Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg. The encounter took place on Sunday at a dinner hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel for Mr. Obama and representatives of German industry. “I used the opportunity to personally apologize to him for our behavior,” Mr. Müller said during a news conference in Wolfsburg on Thursday. “I thanked him for the constructive cooperation with his officials. Of course I also expressed the hope that I will be able to continue to fulfill my responsibility to 600, 000 employees and their families as well as suppliers and dealers. ” Mr. Müller’s mention of Volkswagen workers and their families may have reflected concern that the punishment the company faces could harm those who had nothing to do with any wrongdoing. Lawyers in the case expect the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department to demand penalties that are painful for Volkswagen, but not so severe that they destroy the company. Thousands of jobs in the United States depend on Volkswagen. The company has a factory in Chattanooga, Tenn. that is preparing to produce a new version of the Tiguan compact S. U. V. as well as an extensive dealer network in the country. Mr. Müller said on Thursday that Mr. Obama appeared receptive to his remarks. The Volkswagen chief said he felt encouraged about a solution that would ensure the company a future in the United States. The White House declined to comment on Mr. Müller’s account of the event. The German carmaker said last week that it had set aside €16. 2 billion to cover costs related to its admission that it had programmed diesel vehicles to evade clean air regulations. On Thursday, it said that within that figure was €7 billion for legal costs, which includes proceedings in other countries, like France or South Korea. Most of the rest of the €16. 2 billion will be used to repair diesel vehicles that are polluting more than allowed, or to buy back ones that cannot be fixed. The €7 billion figure disclosed on Thursday indicates that the company is confident that its legal costs in the United States will be much lower than the maximum. Volkswagen has admitted manipulating software in 11 million cars worldwide, including about 600, 000 in the United States, so that emissions equipment operated at full capacity only when the vehicles were being tested. At other times, the cars polluted much more than allowed. The €7 billion would also cover compensation to the owners of Volkswagen vehicles who have filed lawsuits. On Thursday, Volkswagen also provided details on the loss it reported last week. The company said it had lost €1. 5 billion worldwide during the year, compared with a profit of €11 billion in 2014. Volkswagen A. G. a subset of Volkswagen Group that includes core operations such as the Volkswagen brand but that excludes the Audi unit as well as some foreign holdings, reported a loss of €5. 5 billion. Though Audi has belonged to Volkswagen since the 1960s, it continues to have a small number of outside shareholders and holds its own annual meeting. Volkswagen, which owns brands including Porsche and Skoda as well as manufacturers of trucks and commercial vehicles, sold 10 million vehicles in 2015, down from 10. 2 million in 2014. Sales rose 5. 4 percent to €213 billion. Company executives said they still saw the United States as a growth market for Volkswagen, despite the enormous damage to the carmaker’s image. “We do see a lot of potential, though of course not in the short term,” Herbert Diess, the executive in charge of Volkswagen brand cars, said during the news conference. “We are starting from zero. ” | 1 |
The city council of Columbus, Ohio, voted on Monday to make it against the law to arrest anyone based on their illegal immigration status. The city also and made it illegal to deny someone services because they are an illegal alien. City officials deny that Columbus is a “sanctuary city. ”[The Columbus Dispatch reported that the Columbus City Council voted to adopt an executive order issued by Mayor Andrew J. Ginther in early February. After he signed the executive order, Mayor Ginther told those at a press conference, “To all of you I say, Columbus is your home. ” The mayor’s executive order provided that the city will “actively support, to the greatest extent practicable, the placement or settlement in this jurisdiction of aliens eligible to be admitted to the United States as refugees. ” The room was full of leaders from the city’s refugee and immigrant communities, the local NBC affiliate reported. The mayor’s order dictates: Although the policy prevents the City or employees from using any city property for detecting or apprehending those illegally in the country, or “the use of local taxpayer resources for the enforcement of federal immigration policy,” city officials do not declare Columbus a “sanctuary city,” reported the Dispatch. “[T]hey don’t want the city a target for President Donald Trump, who has threatened federal funding for cities that adopt the label,” the article written Monday afternoon about the ordinance and city officials reported. The president of the city council, Zach Klein was reported to say that “The permanence of city code transcends every mayor. ” “We decided not to focus on labels and focus more on the substance,” he added. The ordinance will be effective after 30 days. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook. | 1 |
The ancient Aztec temple in Puebla, Mexico, whose base is four times larger than Giza’s and has nearly twice the volume, is so often overlooked partly because it’s hidden underneath layers of dirt, causing it to appear more like a natural mountain than a place of worship. Even the famed explorer Hernán Cortés totally missed it, obliviously building a church directly on top of it. The Great Pyramid of Cholula, known to the locals as Tlachihualtepetl (man-made mountain), stands around 66 meters (216 feet) tall and 450 meters (1,475 feet) wide. Although archaeologists cannot seem to agree on who built the complex, it is thought to have been constructed at some point around 300 BCE. As for the story behind the mysterious complex, it goes that the Aztec city of Cholula was infiltrated by Spanish invaders in October 1519, resulting in a mostly burnt and looted city. To symbolize Spanish dominance and the arrival of Christianity, the Spaniards built “Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remediosa,” a Catholic parish church, on top of the city’s biggest “hill.” But underneath that “hill” resided the largest pyramid in the world, likely constructed with adobe , a type of brick made out of baked mud, with six layers built on top of each over many generations. Every time a layer was finished, a new group of works would resume construction. It was this incremental growth that allowed the Great Pyramid of Cholula to become so enormous. It is thought that the ancient Aztecs used the Great Pyramid of Cholula as a place of worship for about 1,000 years before moving to a new, smaller location close by. Keep Evolving Your Consciousness Inspiration and all our best content, straight to your inbox. Prior to being replaced by newer structures, the pyramid was decorated in red, black, and yellow insects , but lack of maintenance allowed the mud bricks to support all kinds of tropical greenery. “It was abandoned sometime in the 7th or 8th Century CE,” explained archaeologist David Carballo . “The Choluteca had a newer pyramid-temple located nearby, which the Spaniards destroyed.” Upon arriving in Cholula in 1519, Cortés and his men killed around 3,000 people in a single hour, and while this took out 10 percent of the entire city’s population, and leveled out many of their religious structures, the precious pyramid remained mistakenly untouched. It’s not known if the Aztecs knew the mud bricks would encourage things to grow all over it, eventually resulting in an entirely buried structure, but nevertheless, this occurrence allowed the pyramid to be salvaged. Appearing more like a hill than anything else, this deception, whether intentional or not, has given us the opportunity to study and celebrate the pyramid today. Not only does the structure hold the title of the world’s largest pyramid, but it’s also the largest monument ever built anywhere on Earth , by any civilization, to this day. The pyramid wasn’t even discovered until the early 1900s as a result of locals starting to build a psychiatric ward close by. And by the 1930s , archaeologists began to uncover it, constructing a series of tunnels stretching 8 kilometres (5 miles) in length to give them access. Now, after more than 2,300 years from initial construction, the site has become a tourist destination.
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 0 |
Taming the corporate media beast BRICS Do Not Lack Mortar: What Detractors Should Know
In a world of uncertainties and crumbling western economies, the five-member BRICS group is more – not less – relevant Russia & India Report
A lot of people want to see the BRICS fail. Western nations, in particular the United States and Britain, are prime suspects. However, there are plenty of unwitting commentators in the emerging world who are playing into the West’s hands. Each year, as the BRICS summit draws near, the cacophony from these haters grows louder. Questions about the viability and relevance of the BRICS are raised in the media.
During the build-up to the Goa summit this year, the refrain was similar but with the background buzz that the India-China rift over Pakistan-backed terrorism would derail the summit. However, the predicted outcome of an implosion didn’t materialise and, on the contrary, with India and Russia inking the S-400 missile deal , Goa 2016 turned out to be a memorable event.
Since many innocent readers may have been misinformed by the compromised commentators – who will certainly be back like a bounced cheque next year – here’s a ready reckoner on the BRICS group. So the next time you hear remarks that the BRICS are collapsing, don’t lose sleep over the issue.
World needs BRICS
Most of the global multilateral institutions that exist today are no longer relevant. The IMF and the World Bank, for instance, were founded during the closing years of World War II. In geopolitical time, that’s ancient history. Similarly, the G-7 appears to be on life support and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) is no longer a leading organisation.
With the western economies perched on monetary and budgetary cliffs, the five BRICS members provide a stable alternate force that offsets the West’s decline. Both China and India continue to experience high economic growth and are on course to become mega economies that will completely dwarf the West in the coming decades. Beijing’s growth may have fallen under 7 per cent but that’s enough to add the equivalent of Holland’s national income to the Chinese GDP.
Bottom line: without the BRICS, the world economy will experience 1929 all over again.
BRICS slowdown, not a meltdown
Uday Kotak, executive vice-president of Kotak Mahindra Bank, feels India should quit the BRICS coalition because of the slowdown in four of the five economies. His view has been echoed by several so-called experts. But curiously, have you ever heard any economist or banker say the OECD must disband because it has basket cases such as Greece or terror exporters such as Turkey?
According to the US-based Centre on Global Interests , “You can look at the BRICS from the financial market's point of view, or from a geopolitical point of view. But whichever lens you view it through, what you see is the same: despite economic slowdowns and even economic hardship in some nations, these are far and away the most powerful countries outside of the developed core. Their economies have scale. Their decisions can move financial markets. They have intellectual capital and clout within their regions. And in terms of foreign policy, they are the counterweight to a unipolar world run largely by Washington and its friends in London and Brussels.”
It adds: “In both of these regards – economics and foreign policy – the BRICS are alive and kicking. In fact, they are more relevant today than they were in November 2001, when Jim O'Neill grouped them into the strange bedfellows that they have become.”
Bilaterals can’t bring down the BRICS
If the UN fails to discuss relevant political issues, the international body is considered a failure. But BRICS is not a platform that was created for discussing politics. The primary role of the five-member group is to remove the West’s grip from the levers that control the world economy. By establishing their own New Development Bank, the BRICS have ensured that the IMF is no longer the world’s lender-of-last-resort.
In this backdrop, fears that bilateral issues involving India and China will wreck summits have consistently proved to be baseless.
Take Goa 2016. While the Goa Declaration mentions terror, the focus of the summit was not terrorism at all. Sure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a shot at Pakistan, describing it as the “mothership of terrorism”, and China defended its ally by saying it had made “great sacrifices”. But both New Delhi and Beijing were merely playing to their respective galleries even as the real summitry was happening behind closed doors.
To be sure, politics can be tabled if it’s a side dish – like Syria was a couple of years ago – but issues with the potential to derail the summit simply have no place in BRICS.
Critics of the BRICS often point to the India-China border issue as evidence of serious problems. But this misses the point. There always will be different opinions and views among the BRICS countries – just like there are differences among NATO or European Union members.
BRICS are not united but it doesn’t matter
Unlike NATO or the European Union, where the member countries have more or less the same goals and are also of the same racial stock, each of the BRICS countries is different. However, their membership of BRICS gives them a common goal – development. As emerging countries, they are focussed on raising their standards of living.
The fact that they are united as a group, despite such stark differences in national goals, opinions and geopolitical rivalries and even outright hostilities, points to the viability of the BRICS. | 0 |
Tweet Widget by Yohannes Woldemariam
The minority ethnic regime in Ethiopia now faces multiple rebellions. The regime’s foreign friends are part of the problem. “Faced with increased intrusion into their lands by so-called international investors, by displacement and by the breakdown of their social fabric, Ethiopians are mobilizing to resist.” The once formidable government coalition “is beginning to unravel.” The Deteriorating Situation in Ethiopia by Yohannes Woldemariam
This article previously appeared in Pambazuka News .
“ The revolts are widespread and they appear beyond the power of the state to control and put down.”
The revolts in Ethiopia have the potential for creating radical, beneficial changes in the political order or instigating complete chaos that crosses its borders and destabilizes the entire fragile Horn of Africa region, for the outcomes of such uprisings have varied considerably from country to country. These protests can be the catalyst for building a new and democratic Ethiopia or end up in tears and disillusionment, as in Libya, South Sudan and many other places in the world. Countries emerging from dictatorships are particularly vulnerable and Ethiopia is certainly under a vicious dictatorship.
The events in Ethiopia are being described as “Intifada,” “Ethiopian Spring” or as something akin to the Color Revolutions in the Ukraine and Georgia and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China. During the uprising in 2005 protesting the rigged election, the late chief of the Tigrean Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, did say that there would not be any more Color Revolutions in Ethiopia. That uprising was put down with hundreds dead and thousands in concentration camps.
This time, however, the revolts are widespread and they appear beyond the power of the state to control and put down. Apparently, Mr. Zenawi spoke prematurely. Technological innovation is a very important part of this current political mass mobilization, which is why the government has moved with cutting Ethiopia off from the internet and dismantling satellite dishes from the homes of ordinary citizens. Drawing on satellite television, mobile phones and the Internet, the revolts are spreading. Within seconds, activists send their messages against the tyranny. Unsurprisingly, the TPLF oligarchy is extremely fearful of social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and the diaspora media.
In this piece, I want to reflect on three points:
1. The celebrity factor: Feyisa Lilesa versus Prime Minister Halemariam Desalegn
2. Mr. Abay Tsehaye’s reference to Rwanda
3. The newly declared State of Emergency
The celebrity factor: Feyisa Lilesa versus Prime Minister Halemariam Desalegn
In the wake of the Rio Olympics, the profile of the Ethiopian uprising got a boost from Feyisa Lilesa , with his heroic act of crossing his arms on winning the silver medal for marathon, a signature symbol of solidarity of the oppressed Oromo nation to which Feyisa belongs. The influence of the celebrity athlete for social change is formidable, and Feyisa has emerged as a powerful voice for the struggle of his Oromo people, causing nervous shivers in the beleaguered regime. What the death and imprisonment of thousands of Oromos couldn’t accomplish in Ethiopia was achieved by his symbolic act at the finish line. Now the whole world is clued into the terrible conditions in Ethiopia and beginning to learn about the plight of the Oromo people.
Other Ethiopian athletes have since used their successes to follow suit. Ebsa Ejigu, Tamiru Demissie and Hirut Guangul have used their international successes to publicize the plight of their country’s men and women to an international audience. This trend is likely to continue now as other athletes and celebrities are losing their fear of retaliation and becoming more and more willing to participate in what has become a growing national movement. Yes, these athletes will pay a price. Lilesa is now separated from his wife and children and beckoning an unknown fate. Life in exile will not be easy even for famous athletes. But compared to those losing lives and limbs to bullets in Ethiopia, it is a small price to pay. They are heroes, and their names are already inscribed in history books.
“These athletes will pay a price.”
The TPLF reaction to Lilesa’s heroic act can be gleaned from statements given by PM Hailemariam Desalegn. Although the PM is from the Wolayta ethnic group, which was traditionally relegated to the periphery of the Ethiopian mainstream, he has become a willing accomplice and spokesman for the TPLF. Most people regard him as an accidental PM who happened to be in the right place and at the right time when his powerful boss, PM Meles Zenawi, passed away in the summer of 2012. He was handpicked as Zenawi’s deputy because he wasn’t a threat and, as a non-Tigrean, served as a convenient cover and a token representing “diversity” for the TPLF. He is so loyal to the late PM, he still refers to the Meles “vision” in his public pronouncements. Most Ethiopians know that he is just a figurehead with no real power. Yet, in an interview conducted with the online Foreign Policy.com, he is quoted as saying:
“It’s me who sent [Lilesa] to Rio for the Olympics, and we expected him to come back after winning the medal. . . . [T]his is not the capacity of the man himself. It’s something which has been orchestrated by someone else from outside.”
It is remarkable that the PM has the audacity to say he sent Feyisa Lilesa to the Olympics, as if Feyisa needed his charitable permission. It is crystal clear that Feyisa earned his place in the Olympics.
One can readily concede that he may have acquiesced to nepotism by sending to the Olympics the unqualified son of the head of the sports federation, Robel Kiros Habte , who made Ethiopia a laughing stock with his hopeless performance in a swimming race. But no one can doubt that Feyisa went to the Olympics because he was Ethiopia’s best hope for the marathon. And he delivered in no unmistakable terms by winning a silver medal competing with the best and the elites in the world. It is hard to believe that Desalegn referring to Feyisa actually said: “This is not the capacity of the man himself” – thus exposing his own pomposity, shallowness and contempt for the Oromo hero. Clearly, Desalegn has sold his soul to the TPLF devil. To suggest that Feyisa cannot think for himself and act on his own is inexcusably ignorant and arrogant and unbecoming of a prime minster.
“Desalegn is a sellout with little dignity, reading and parroting whatever script is given to him by the TPLF.”
Feyisa is not only a fine athlete; he is also a dignified, proud, principled and articulate Oromo and Ethiopian, as he amply demonstrated during the press conference in the Washington D.C. rally where Congressman Chris Smith also spoke. Also, in a direct reply to the PM’s insult, Feyisa quipped:
“I was not surprised by his comments because individuals who are always controlled by others tend to assume everyone is that way as well. . . . Unlike the prime minister, I make my own decisions and speak for myself.”
Indeed, Desalegn is a sellout with little dignity, reading and parroting whatever script is given to him by the TPLF. The pretentious PM has replaced the real world with a make-believe virtual world. It is for this reason that he is unable to see realities on the ground; he is temporarily sheltered behind a wall whose mortar is sychophantic servitude and a wicked willingness to say and do anything to appease his TPLF benefactors.
It is beyond regrettable that Desalegn is unable to see the rapid downside toward further chaos and civil war in Ethiopia that is due to the abject misery and oppression suffered by the people who are subjected to the policies of those he is serving and to whom he has sold his soul. He calls himself a born-again Christian with a straight face. How would Jesus himself, who stood up to the hypocritical Pharisees and threw the money-changers out of the temple in Jerusalem, have regarded a man like Desalegn, who is in bed with the TPLF elites who are the modern day equivalent of the Pharisees in Ethiopia and whose words and actions rarely match? The human suffering that is the result of the violent and continuous repression cannot be seen from inside their ideological castles resting on the thin air of empty rhetoric and shameless self-promotion.
Desalegn would be well advised to keep his mouth closed to spare himself more disgrace. He has already sunk into the deep end of an abyss. It is depressing to see a human being selling out his people and becoming a slave of oppressors.
Invoking the specter of Rwanda
The TPLF ideologue and one of the real powers behind the throne, Mr. Abay Tsehaye, in an interview with the pro-government Radio Fana, compared the situation of Rwanda in the early 90s to the current situation in Ethiopia. He correctly stated that Rwanda was comprised of only two ethnic groups (the Hutu and the Tutsi), really not much of a country, and was on the verge of disintegration. He went on to say that reconciliation occurred and the country recovered. In Ethiopia with over eighty ethnic groups, if the situation goes “out of control,” he concluded, Ethiopia will cease to exist as a country. Every thoughtful person worries about this. However, one can reasonably surmise from his analysis that Ethiopia under the control of his Tigray-dominated government, who make up only six percent of the Ethiopian population, is his guarantee for holding the country together. Mr. Tsehaye fails to recognize the draconian hegemonic policies of his regime as the very reasons for the grim state of affairs in the country. As the Ethiopian uprising makes clear, the various ethnicities are no longer buying TPLF shenanigans and see the TPLF itself as the main cause of Ethiopia’s predicament, as the country descends into possible civil war.
For anyone willing to see the truth, Ethiopia is in a state of turmoil due to the exploitation of the long-suffering people of Oromia, Ogaden, Gambella and other ethnic groups by the TPLF elite in partnership with international enablers such as China and the United States, the principal rivals in Africa and the Horn region. The TPLF exploitation, in which valuable resources and political roles are dominated by a minority elite that has transformed itself into an oligarchy, has created highly rebellious resentment by the victims while reinforcing a sense of ethnic identity and consciousness. Faced with increased intrusion into their lands by so-called international investors, by the displacement and stunted developments they experience and by the breakdown of their social fabric, Ethiopians are mobilizing to resist.
“The various see the TPLF itself as the main cause of Ethiopia’s predicament, as the country descends into possible civil war.”
The government’s state-driven development projects financed by international investors and partners bypass the rural peasants and pastoralists, alienating the people and reinforcing the politics of deep ethnic hierarchy. Recent events have made it clear that TPLF’s “constitutional federalism” has more to do with its divide-and-rule strategy and its elitist allocation of national resources, comparable to actions of the former Soviet Communist Party, which retained tight control over its regions through local parties. The TPLF set up People’s Democratic Organizations, local versions of the ruling party, which squeezed out traditional authority.
The co-opted ethnic leaders from these regions have either completely lost credibility, are sitting on the fence, or are jumping ship to support the resistance. Key former government figures like Junedin Sado are breaking their silence and speaking out with scathing attacks on the regime. He has apologized to the Ethiopian people for the time that he served under the regime. The so- called coalition that the TPLF built is beginning to unravel. Some Amhara and some Oromo are coming together against the TPLF, overcoming but not necessarily forgetting, the legacy of the historic oppression by Amhara elites which began with Menelik II.
Abay Tsehaye and TPLF leaders will need to face reality — if they have it in them to be truly concerned about Ethiopian unity. Oromo historical grievances are not myths, as some revisionist history asserts. Oromo land is the most fertile and lush in Ethiopia, in contrast to the northern Ethiopian highlands with its rugged mountains and thin soils contributing relatively little to national economic production, but the Oromo have been alienated from control over their land throughout the 20th century first by the Amhara and now by the new TPLF overlords.
Acutely divided societies in which no single faction can impose its view might find an ability to arrive at political compromises in a constitutional form. But in Ethiopia, the hegemonic Amhara and now the Tigreans have excluded others from real power-sharing making true constitutionalism elusive. The leaders see the state as a prize to be won, a basis for private accumulation and patronage. But there is not enough patronage to go around, and those excluded from it mobilize their co-religionists and ethnic groups in an increasingly unmanageable opposition.
The State of Emergency
In response, the TPLF is relying on intensified repression by security forces, ethnic loyalists and the army. And for the first time in twenty-five years, the regime has declared a State of Emergency , clearly showing how rattled it is by the rebellion in the country. The Prime Minster announced :
“The cause of this (state of emergency) is that anti-peace forces in collaboration with foreign enemies of the country are making organized attempts to destabilize our country, to disrupt its peace and also to undermine the existence and security of its peoples.”
This response undoubtedly means more sticks and further erosion of civil liberties in the country but is unlikely to quell the unrest. One of the targets of the State of Emergency is the Internet and Social Media. PM Desalegn did make it a point to rant against diaspora media and the Internet during his appearance in September at the United Nations General Assembly:
“In fact, we are seeing how misinformation could easily go viral via social media and mislead many people, especially the youth…Social media has certainly empowered populists and other extremists to exploit people’s genuine concerns and spread their message of hate and bigotry without any inhibition...it is critical to underline one matter which is usually given short shrift, both by the media and others. It is simply hypocritical to deny that some of our countries have been targets for destabilization activities carried out with no accountability by people and groups who have been given shelters by States with whom we have absolutely no problems.”
The regime that Desalegn serves is responsible for suffocating the Ethiopian people by denying them any alternative media. The Ethiopian government is one of the top jailers and harassers of anyone daring to publish or practice independent journalism within the country. Now, Desalegn is shedding his crocodile tears about his inability to control and suppress social media and broadcasting emanating from the diaspora. While he has a point about the inherent potential for the abuse of social media, the regime is responsible for bringing criticisms on itself. In the absence of media freedom in the country, social media and broadcasting from the diaspora acquired enormous significance for Ethiopians hungry for information. It is clear that Ethiopians no longer trust the regime and have little confidence in official government news, which in reality is mostly propaganda.
“The Ethiopian government is one of the top jailers and harassers of anyone daring to publish or practice independent journalism.”
Authoritarian regimes adopt various forms of censorship to depoliticize the population and prevent the questioning of their legitimacy. By definition, authoritarian regimes demand strict submission by the media to their political authority. They do so by publishing or broadcasting deceptions in order to maintain their power structures. For example, the regime’s media censored Feyisa’s symbolic gesture in Rio while proclaiming that Feyisa is a national hero and welcome to return home, without any consequences.
The advent of the Internet has somewhat leveled the playing field by empowering regular Internet users to become content producers by utilizing decentralized and distributed networks such as social media. These uses of media pose a great danger to dictatorial regimes, which are moving to subvert, block social media and limit internet use, as in Ethiopia today.
China is the leading culprit in creating the technology to enable censorship, which it is sharing with the Ethiopian government. This suppression of the media will not succeed. Freedom-loving people find ways to circumvent these barriers and make determined efforts to stay informed – and, in turn, to inform the whole world. Yohannes Woldemariam is an educator and author. This article previously appeared on the Huffington Post’s Contributor platform. [2] | 0 |
New video: How to BREAK THE CYCLE of human complacency and servitude
by Mike Adams , the Health Ranger
(NaturalNews) It’s time to break the cycle of complacency and servitude so that we can move humanity forward. We must move past the age of centralized government corruption and control. We must take responsibility for our lives and the repercussions of our actions. It’s time for humanity to end the age of servitude and proclaim our independence from all the systems of manipulation, deceit and control that try to dominate our minds (the media, the government, false science, false social narratives, etc).
In my newest documentary-style video, I reveal how we can all break the cycle of human complacency and servitude by raising our self-awareness about all the ways we are being systematically manipulated or deceived.
From the video: “One of the hardest things in the world is to introduce someone to the real world they’ve never seen. Because they’ve never lived in it. They’ve lived in a fictional construct inside their own head. They’ve been swimming in fictional delusions and belief systems and cultural narratives that simply aren’t true. And yet they think that’s reality.”
Learn how to question your beliefs, question your senses and preempt the social engineering mechanisms that have turned your brain into a puppet of the corrupt establishment.
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To learn more, click here
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Bill Cunningham worked as discreetly as he could. “My whole thing is to be invisible,” he wrote in 2002. “You get more natural pictures that way, too. ” But while he looked for subjects, his subjects also looked for him. After his death on Saturday at age 87, we asked New York Times readers to share their sightings — and personal photos — of Mr. Cunningham on the streets of New York City and beyond. The responses have been edited for clarity and length. Tara Shannon in Pasadena, Calif. For a model on the runway, he was always on the right side of the runway. For a model doing he was on Seventh Avenue after the shows to catch us girls in groups, and the society women. We all knew that he liked it best if you didn’t look at him and the camera, and we would all give him his shot. And then we would always break down and call out to him, “Hi, Bill!” and he would answer back, “Hi, kids. ” My heart has held him from the very first time we smiled at each other through the lens of a camera. He was our muse as much as we were his. Beth Williams in Palo Alto, Calif. After I saw the movie about him, I wrote him a letter imploring him to wear a helmet, on the grounds that he was a national treasure who could not be replaced. A few months passed, and I received a postcard from him, dated Jan. 10, 2012. “Dear Dr. Williams. ..Thank you for your thoughtful note 30 Oct and offer of a bike helmet, I have two and realize its safety importance. Thank you for reminding me of their safety. Sorry to be so late in writing . .. now I [have] time to thank you. Best wishes for the New Year, Bill Cunningham. ” The postcard was from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and I imagined him thinking of me while on vacation there! Obviously, I framed his card. I was very moved by his taking the time to respond to my letter. Rados Protic in Barcelona, Spain Bill Cunningham helped me get my green card. Over the years, Bill had taken a lot of pictures of me — some were published in The New York Times, some were not. When I was working as an executive at the Estée Lauder Companies in the ‘90s and in the process of getting my green card, under the category, ‘person with exceptional ability,’ my lawyer suggested I get as many recommendation letters from famous and influential people as possible. I contacted Bill, who had just taken a picture of me in a winter coat with a lavish fur collar. He graciously agreed to send me a letter. Some time later I received the photo with a handwritten, wonderful note on the back of the picture. My lawyer submitted it along with letters from other notable figures. A couple of months later I received my green card. I still can hear Bill’s voice: “Child, what a marvelous coat. ” Judith Rice in New York I was producing a men’s wear show for Donna Karan around 1992. It was a presentation, and we needed props so that the models could be engaged while standing. My dear friends recently had a baby, and I asked Donna if she wanted a baby for the show. Her enthusiastic response was, “Yes! Can you get one?” Well, we put baby Kate into a model’s arms, and it was instant love. Of course, Bill got the shot and sent me two copies, one for Kate signed, “To little Kate, who for a few minutes made Seventh Avenue a big, happy family. ” Twenty years later, I reintroduced Kate to Bill at a runway show she was then majoring in photography. He was awestruck that she was actually studying photography. “Oh, you’re a real professional. I’m just a guy who figured out how to do it along the way. ” They then spoke quietly alone, words I’ll never know, but Kate will have them forever, as we will forever have Bill in our hearts. Jeff Nash in Edmonton, Alberta My only encounter with Bill Cunningham capturing street fashion was unique because at the time I had no idea who he was. Something drew my eye to him, and I remember thinking to myself it must be a cool life to be in your 80s and bike around New York photographing the city. I immediately thought this must be a really fulfilling way to spend your retirement! I took some photos of him because he just stood out so much to me. I remember him being shy, and he would reposition himself when he spotted me trying to take a photo of him. He probably thought I was taking photos of “The Bill Cunningham,” but in reality I was just doing what he was famous for: capturing candid photos of interesting people. It wasn’t until a friend saw my photos on Instagram and educated me as to who this man was. After that, I read up on his legacy and watched the documentary about his life and learned what an interesting man he was. Kevin Chan in New York He’s one of my inspirations as a photographer. Funny story of when I met him in October 2013 at the Central Park fall pumpkin festival. A group of tourists asked him if he would take a picture of them, not knowing who he was, but just a guy with a camera who looked like he knew how to take a photo. I asked the tourists if they knew who took their photo — one of the most legendary photographers in the world. I’m sure they’ll be cherishing that photo now. Regan Stephens in New York Last summer I took my daughter to the Ralph Lauren children’s show at Central Park Zoo. I snapped a quick photo while he was working hard to capture all the impeccably dressed tots and their parents. I promised her some candy if she stayed still, and you can see from the look on her face she didn’t realize she was in the presence of one of the greats. Matthew Allen in New York I saw him while I was photographing the 2015 Armory art show as an avid hobbyist. His ability to place himself perfectly, at the right moment, was instructive, to say the least. At one point, he and I momentarily crossed photographic paths in front of a mirror. He nodded in my direction when we brought our cameras down, and that nod told me that after all those years, he still had fun taking pictures. Kashish Das Shrestha in New York As a documentary photographer from Nepal working New York Fashion Week, I always thought it was a thrill to be taking photos and to turn and realize that I was briefly sharing this city, and its streets and runways, with an icon like Bill Cunningham, who it seemed would have preferred not to be noticed at all. Karen Stevenson in Berkeley, Calif. I’d followed Bill Cunningham’s photo essays for years, and was excited to see him snapping photos at the Metropolitan Opera’s 2015 New Year’s Eve gala. I had on a new dress, and secretly hoped he’d think I looked as elegant as I thought I did and take my picture. Eventually he did look in my direction, checked out my outfit and turned away. Snubbed by Bill Cunningham! My bruised pride notwithstanding, I remained a devoted fan. A. B. Rashish in Brooklyn When I was 19, I had a weekend job at a very chic clothing store in SoHo. This was in the 1980s. I would wear the store’s clothes when I worked there. One Saturday, I took a break and was walking over to Donald Sacks for coffee. I spotted Bill Cunningham, crouched low at the corner as I made my way down the block in an olive green gabardine suit with a fur collar. I tried to play it cool, but I couldn’t help cracking a smile as he snapped my picture. When he stopped shooting, he smiled right back. Lynnette Blanche in New York I once spotted him in Central Park. Despite seeing him zip around the city all the time, I never bothered him. This time, I had to get a picture. I begged him for a selfie. He was quick to decline and let me know he hated them! But, being the polite man that he was, he graciously allowed me to take his picture. He gave me one shot. I wish it was better, but I’m so glad I have it. He had the best smile. | 1 |
Government asks what else it was meant to do with a f**king stadium 03-11-16
THE government has asked critics of the Olympic stadium deal with West Ham what they would have done with a f**king 80,000-seat stadium.
Sports minister Tracey Crouch said: “Yes, recouping £15 million of the £323 million conversion cost is a bit shit. We’re aware. We have calculators.
“But I fear that West Ham had us rather over a barrel on this one because it’s not like we could sell it as a call centre or a massive open-air TK Maxx.
“And other football teams, for example Liverpool, Fleetwood Town and fucking Ross fucking County FC found the north London location rather inconvenient for them.
“Perhaps we should have left it as a habitat for the grey heron, maybe they could have scraped together £500 million from selling their eggs or something.”
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We Use Cookies: Our policy [X] 43-Year-Old Can’t Get Over The Amount Of Kids In Local Night Club October 26, 2016 - BREAKING NEWS , LIFESTYLE Share 0 Add Comment
A COUNTY Waterford man is currently undergoing psychiatric treatment today after he was unable to get over the amount of ‘kids’ in a local night club last night.
Michael Roache, 43, is said to be suffering from a rare form of temporary psychosis, which forces him to repeat himself continually for its duration.
“It started after he arrived home last night,” wife Deirdre Roache recalls, “I thought nothing of it until this morning, when I found him staring at the ceiling in bed, murmuring the same thing over and over again: ‘I can’t get over the amount of kids in here'”.
Worried, the mother of children immediately called her local care doctor, who in turn referred him to a psychiatric unit for further testing.
It is understood the self-employed man was overwhelmed when he entered the popular nightclub in the city centre, triggering something in his head and sending him into a loop.
“He kept saying over and over again that he couldn’t get over the amount of kids in the place,” friend Dermot Ryan told WWN, who is also way too old for night clubs, “We just went in for a late drink because we were working late. It’ll be the last time I go into that fucking place. I felt so old”.
Mr. Roache is currently being treated for verbal looping at the psychiatric unit, and doctors have suggested temporarily moving him to an old folks home in a bid to ‘snap him out of it’.
“This kind of thing is common in the over 35’s,” Dr. Kevin Maher explained, “Hopefully an hour or two in the old folks home will neutralize his psychosis. He should have known better going to a nightclub at his age, though”. | 0 |
SEAFORD, Del. — Sunlight floods the floor at one end of the chicken house here at Acres, and spry little Cornish game hens flap their wings and chase one another. At the other end of the barn, where the windows are covered as part of a demonstration, the flock is largely somnolent and slow to move. “This is my second flock with the sunlight,” said Karen Speake, whose family has raised chickens on this farm for Perdue Foods, the nation’s poultry producer, for almost four decades. “They’re much happier birds, I can tell you, more active, more playful. ” Over the next several years, all of Perdue’s chickens — 676 million last year — will bask in sunlight, part of an ambitious overhaul of the company’s animal welfare practices, which it will announce on Monday. The commitment will hold Perdue to standards similar to those in Europe, which the American poultry industry has long dismissed as antiquated, inefficient and costly. In addition to installing windows, the company plans to give its chickens more space in barns. It may tinker with breeding to decrease the speed at which birds grow or to reduce their breast size, steps that could decrease the number and severity of leg injuries, an issue that has brought unwanted attention to the company. Also, Perdue will put its chickens to sleep before slaughter, a step taken several years ago by Bell Evans, a smaller poultry company. “We are going to go beyond what a chicken needs and give chickens what they want,” said Jim Perdue, whose grandfather founded the business in 1920. The industry has long argued that such standards would raise costs to producers that would eventually be passed on to consumers. But Perdue, which had $6 billion in sales last year and increased production more than 9 percent, is betting such concerns are overblown based on its experience so far. The move may also have a sweeping impact on the industry, forcing competitors to adopt similar practices. When Perdue announced that it intended to use no antibiotics, many of its competitors followed suit at the demand of their big customers. “It will change the way we do business in so many ways,” Mr. Perdue said. Numerous surveys conducted by the dairy and meat industries suggest that people care and want to know about animal welfare. For that reason, Mr. Perdue said, the company plans to issue annual reports on its progress on the new standards. “We want to be held accountable,” he said. “If we mess up, we have to be prepared to say we messed up. ” In late 2014, Compassion in World Farming, an animal rights group, released video taken at a barn under contract to Perdue that showed birds with raw, red chests from sitting too long on litter laden with ammonia and feces. A few months earlier, Perdue agreed to stop using the phrase “humanely raised” on packages of its Harvestland brand of chicken to settle a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States. Still, in an interview a year ago, Mr. Perdue was unapologetic, emphasizing that the Department of Agriculture had signed off on Perdue’s animal welfare standards. So Leah Garces, director of Compassion’s American arm, was surprised this winter when Perdue invited her to talk about animal welfare with Bruce its senior vice president for food safety, quality and live operations. “When you sit down at the table with someone like Bruce, who’s repping a large chicken company, you think you can’t possibly have anything in common,” Ms. Garces said. “Then you start talking, and you realize that you have more in common than you thought. ” She said that while Tyson Foods, the country’s largest poultry producer, asked its farmers to adopt what are known as the five freedoms of animal welfare — including freedom from discomfort and freedom from fear and distress — Perdue is going further by insisting that its farmers enforce them. “Perdue is going well beyond what Tyson has done, and no other big poultry producer has come close to those two,” Ms. Garces said. Over the last decade or so, Perdue has done more than any other major American poultry producer to eliminate antibiotics of all kinds from its procedures. That made it impossible to continue raising so many birds in as tight spaces and under conditions many people consider unsanitary. Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride, the chicken producer in the world, are also reducing their use of antibiotics. The purchase in 2011 of Coleman Natural Foods, a producer of organic meats, as well as the acquisition last year of Niman Ranch, a producer of pork and beef, also helped persuade Mr. Perdue that his company, now the largest producer of organic chicken, could improve animal welfare without hurting business. “As a major chicken producer, you think there’s going to be a lot more problems growing an organic chicken, but then you find out that there are a lot of benefits to raising chickens that way that can be applied to raising chicken more conventionally,” he said. Mr. Perdue traveled around the country over the last three weeks, talking with the company’s 2, 200 farmers about the new animal welfare program. Farmers will no longer be compensated solely for efficiency rather, Perdue will reward them for ensuring better welfare for the birds they tend. Perdue is also paying to install windows in barns, and it may help offset the costs of adding the avian equivalent of playground equipment — things like inclined slats for perching, haystacks for pecking and hiding places where chickens lower down in the pecking order can get away from bullies. “We’re learning things from them about animal welfare,” Mr. Perdue said. “Our relationships with them are absolutely critical to make this work. ” The company is already considering an innovation by Ms. Speake’s father, Elmer Atkins, who found the boards that Perdue supplied to draw across the windows in their barn too cumbersome. “So he slept on it,” Ms. Speake said. The next day, they bought vinyl and rods and hung curtains. | 1 |
The complex and brutal conflict in Syria has defied the best efforts of peace negotiators and humanitarian officials for more than five years, but a new group of luminaries is weighing in on a war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives: celebrities. More than two dozen actors, singers and other prominent people have signed a petition urging the Nobel Prize committee to award its 2016 Peace Prize to a group of volunteer rescue workers toiling in cities across the country. The move draws attention to both the horror of the conflict and the growing willingness of Americans to adopt it as a cause célèbre. The White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, are a group of volunteer emergency workers who rush to the scene of airstrikes in civilian areas of cities like Aleppo, which was once the country’s largest but is now divided between rebel groups and the regime of President Bashar . His central government has rained bombs on citizens for years, and the White Helmets say they have pulled more than 60, 000 people alive from the rubble. The petition may have no impact on who gets the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded on Oct. 7. But its organizer, an advocacy group called the Syria Campaign, said it was hopeful that the celebrities’ endorsement of the rescue workers, as well as an upcoming Netflix documentary about them, were signals of growing concern for the plight of Syrian civilians, who they say have often been overshadowed in the West by concerns about refugees and the Islamic State. Raed Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, said in a statement that it was a “huge morale boost”to see increased international support for their work, especially from people they recognized from the movies. The signatories include George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Daniel Craig, Justin Timberlake, Aziz Ansari and Zoe Saldana. “For international stars to stand next to the White Helmets’ humanitarian cause gives a morale boost for all people doing this work,” Mr. Saleh said. ”We deeply appreciate this support and remain determined to rescue as many souls as possible and create the opportunity for peace. This is our mission. ” Syria is far from the first conflict to attract celebrity attention, and stars like Angelina Jolie and Mr. Affleck have devoted considerable time to touring war zones and raising money for relief efforts. So why has it taken more than five years for celebrities to adopt Syria as a cause? One reason may be the complicated nature of the conflict, which has involved hundreds of rebel groups, including some linked to Al Qaeda, and has set the stage for the rise of the Islamic State, analysts said. It has confounded policy makers, so movie stars and pop singers can hardly be expected to have done any better. “For years people have been confused by the perceived complexity of the Syria conflict and have continually asked, ‘Who are the good guys?’ ” said Anna Nolan, the director of the Syria Campaign. The announcement that Netflix would produce a documentary about the White Helmets, and the drive to award them the Nobel Peace Prize, answered that question for public figures who wanted to get involved. “The White Helmets are probably one of the most inspiring stories that has come out of the Syrian conflict, so it is a very easy group to endorse and stand behind because they are real life heroes on the ground,” said Lina Sergie Attar, a writer who founded a humanitarian organization that works with refugees on the border. Celebrity activism has sometimes been controversial, but Ms. Attar said she was glad to see famous people support a local organization addressing “the heart of the problem. ” “We’ve seen celebrities go to refugee camps, but I’ve always watched that and thought they were engaging with refugees as if they’re divorced from the political and military circumstances that created the refugee crisis itself,” said Ms. Attar. ”That was very frustrating to watch. ” Kassem Eid is a Syrian asylum seeker in Germany who spent two years touring the United States with the Council campaigning for the United States to act against the Assad regime. The experience left him deeply cynical about American policy makers. But he said he believed in the work of the White Helmets, and thought that actors, writers and singers could perhaps do some good. “I have more faith in the devil than in politicians,” he said. “But movie stars and celebrities don’t have elections to win, so they can say whatever they want or whatever they believe is right. ” | 1 |
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Members of a militia ambushed and then beheaded about 40 police officers on Friday in a central province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said on Saturday. In recent months, the provinces in the Kasai region, in Congo, have been the scene of fighting between the police and a local tribal militia called Kamuina Nsapu. Violence in the area has claimed more than 300 lives since August and displaced more than 200, 000 people. Military authorities reported on Friday that they had lost contact with a police convoy from the capital, Kinshasa, that was making its way toward Kananga, southeast of the capital. François Kalamba, the speaker of the Kasai provincial assembly, confirmed on Saturday that the convoy had been ambushed by Kamuina Nsapu fighters between the city of Tshikapa and Kananga, and that about 40 officers had been decapitated. The central region of the country is particularly volatile because of an insurgency, with frequent clashes between militia fighters and the military and security forces, despite the presence of United Nations peacekeepers. Civilians are often caught up in the violence. Last week, the Congolese military’s auditor general announced that seven officers had been arrested and charged with war crimes after a video surfaced last month depicting soldiers shooting a group of civilians in Province, a massacre that left at least 13 dead. At least five other videos that appear to show members of Congo’s military shooting civilians are now also circulating on social networking platforms. Amid the mounting accusations of violence against civilians, and the discovery of 10 mass graves dug in January and February in the chief of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo urged the United Nations Security Council this week to press the government to open an investigation into possible human rights violations. Some elected leaders and human rights advocates in Congo have called for an independent international inquiry. This month, two United Nations officials — an American and a Swede — were among six people abducted in the Province by unknown assailants. Some insurgents, however, are reportedly surrendering to the authorities. Justin Milongo, the deputy governor of Province, said on Saturday that 400 Kamuina Nsapu militia fighters had “laid down their arms” in Kananga and were being detained. | 1 |
BRUSSELS — European Union officials announced plans for a big increase in military spending on Wednesday, pledging to take greater responsibility for their security at a time when the United States appears to be taking a step back in its role in the world. The bloc’s top officials proposed spending 5. 5 billion euros, or $5. 8 billion, a year to help governments acquire hardware, including helicopters and drones, and to develop military technology. Wary of concerns about consolidation of power in Brussels as member governments are under pressure from populist forces, officials stressed that the plan was in no way a step toward creating a European Union army. Member countries would own the hardware that was purchased, and much of the money would go to European companies. But the proposal, known as the European Defense Action Plan, follows calls by Donald J. Trump, the United States for members of NATO to devote 2 percent of their gross domestic product to military spending. (Of the 28 nations in the European Union, 22 are also part of NATO.) “If Europe does not take care of its own security, nobody else will do it for us,” said Juncker, the president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. “A strong, competitive and innovative defense industrial base is what will give us strategic autonomy. ” Total military spending by European Union governments was about €200 billion last year, but the union does not currently have a budget for military research or procurement. The plan foresees a pilot phase of €90 million, or $95 million, up to 2020 — and €500 million, or $528 million, a year after that — for research into technologies like drones and for cybersecurity tools. A second plank of the plan foresees spending 10 times that amount to help governments develop and buy hardware. But rather than drawing on the shared European Union budget, member states would make individual contributions, and some of the money might come from bonds. Obama administration officials welcomed the increased spending. “It is no secret that we’ve been asking them to do this for years,” said one senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss alliance relations. But the official also said it was imperative that Mr. Trump reassured allies that his administration’s commitment to collective defense of NATO allies would be solid. During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump questioned whether the United States would automatically defend NATO allies if they were attacked, and said American support would depend on the willingness of those countries to pay their fair share for military protection. But since then, a number of Republican lawmakers and foreign policy experts — including those in close contact with Mr. Trump since he won the election — have insisted that the American commitment to NATO will remain strong. European Union leaders will discuss the proposal at a summit meeting in December. The member governments still must approve it, and that could be a lengthy process given concerns about sovereignty. Politicians in countries like Lithuania and Poland, for example, might question whether the additional spending might be better devoted to bolstering NATO as a resurgent Russia is raising alarms in much of Central and Eastern Europe. Britain could be an obstacle, too. It has long stood in the way of deeper European military cooperation, which London fears could undermine NATO. British voters decided in a June referendum to leave the European Union, but the lengthy process of exiting the bloc has not yet legally begun. European officials “know that it will not be easy” to carry out the plans, Elzbieta Bienkowska, the European Union commissioner for the internal market and industry, said on Wednesday. Federica Mogherini, the union’s foreign policy chief, said the plans did not amount to competition with NATO. Agreeing to the spending could help European countries get over a “Trump hump” created by the ’s demands, said Nick Witney, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “This spending is very and even money from the European budget is a fair basis for a country to claim it’s chipping more into defense,” said Mr. Witney, a former chief executive of the European Defense Agency, a forum for European Union member states to cooperate on defense initiatives. “On the other hand, the commitment to spending 2 percent on defense is meant to be about the long haul, and about genuinely readjusting national budget priorities, and I don’t see this plan as moving European NATO members much closer to that goal,” he said, adding that much of the plan was based on debt financing. Jyrki Katainen, a vice president of the European Commission, said the timing of the plan had “nothing to do with American elections” since it had been in the works since 2014. A longstanding goal was to avoid duplication of effort in military procurement, which is mostly done on a national basis, and to improve the compatibility of the various military hardware that European countries acquire, he said. One example of inefficiency in European defense was the development of the Airbus A400M military aircraft, European officials said. If the proposed plan is adopted, problems that include defining where to place doors for paratroopers — which had contributed to the development of the aircraft taking about a decade longer than necessary — could be more easily resolved, they said. The officials said more military spending could have a positive effect on the sluggish European economy. “Boosting defense RD in Europe is crucial to maintain critical competences and technologies! Thumbs up,” Dirk Hoke, the chief executive for Airbus Defense and Space, wrote on Twitter. | 1 |
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In case you didn’t already know the glaringly obvious, MSNBC is widely considered to be one of the most liberal cable news channels of all the mainstream media. Now, in a stunning segment on his show, MSNBC host Chris Matthews basically endorses Donald Trump. Hillary must be feeling pretty crappy about herself because this latest scandal appears to have been pushed Matthews onto the Trump train. A liberal. That’s sad Hillary.
Matthews reviews a string of Obama’s failures, then goes on to say that if you like them, vote for Hillary. If you want to change those failures, the only option is to vote for Trump. This is HUGE!
You know you are on the losing end when staunch Democrats even hate you.
He even stated that we have the chance to change the status quo unless we’ve become too “dainty” to do that. I seriously can’t believe I heard that from Chris Matthews on MSNBC! Related Items | 0 |
Royal Families of Belgium and Netherlands SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) So much of this story revolves around Mehran T. Keshe, whose plasma related defense technologies, threaten the military balance of power, disabling American stealth drones and even leaving an AEGIS destroyer floating, dead in the water, in the Black Sea. Anti-Keshe “troll” and convicted pedophile Sterling Allen, former Rense Radio host, now serving a life sentence, is said to have supplied the encryption keys that allowed the FBI to take over the Netherlands based site. From NBC: “The website operated from a server based in the Netherlands and, at its height, boasted up to 70,000 members worldwide,” it added. “It attempted to operate as a ‘discussion–only’ forum where people could share their sexual interest in young boys without committing any specific offences, thus operating ‘below the radar’ of police attention,” Europol said. Police infiltrated site The Europol statement said U.K. and Australian police infiltrated the site to identify the members who posed the greatest danger to children. Police also sometimes posed as children online as part of the investigation. Law enforcement authorities from 13 countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Spain and the U.K., were involved in the case, Europol said. The statement said Europol analysts had cracked the security features of a key computer server at the center of the network which uncovered the identities of suspected child sex offenders. And, after his arrest, the forum’s Dutch administrator helped police break encryption measures that shielded users’ identities, allowing police to begin their covert investigations. “Europol subsequently issued over 4,000 intelligence reports to police authorities in over 30 countries in Europe and elsewhere, which has led to the arrests of suspects and the safeguarding of children,” Europol said. In September 2015, Iranian physicist Mehran T. Keshe met with the FBI in Rome, a meeting set up by VT. From a source at Europol: It was this from Veterans Today that helped push this forward: “It was Keshe’s information given to the FBI in Italy that led to the seizure of Sterling Allan’s computer back in January of 2016, which led to the Obama White House getting files tying Justice “Tony” Scalia to a child sex ring and demonstrating that it was Scalia that had protected Allan. “ With Justice Scalia exposed to Obama blackmail, his own friends smothered him to death with a pillow, and walked past police, while the world moved on, no autopsy, no investigation.” Read: Former Victim Claims Scalia Was a Pedophile That explains why Hollande (President of the French Republic) was scared he is linked to child abuse in France, via Belgium as well. Abdessalem (Foreign Minister of Tunisia) was traded by the FBI so Hollande can stay in power, sign the tafta and much more allow American military presence in France, which is now turning against him… That explains why the US military unit near Milan was behind us to see what we had in stock against Bibi (Netanyahu) and Hollande… now that they have Hollande, they are pushing him to the edge, using pressure on Sarkozy, right hand of Bibi, they moved in Tripoli, blackmailing Roma. Thus, what begins as a hundred arrests, when you peel the levels, involves the French elections and even the recent Bataclan attack in Paris now tied to, if you can imagine it, a police informant smuggled into France through Italy by Tunisia, who out of curiosity runs an anti-Keshe website. Why do they hate Keshe? Pedophilia Bombshells — The Sick World of the 'Elite': | 0 |
Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
Donald Trump’s red wave on Election Day was an unprecedented body blow against neoliberalism. The stupid early-1990s prediction about the ‘end of history’ turned into a – possible – shock of the new. The new global nativism? Perhaps a new push towards democratic socialism? Too early to tell.
Once again. A body blow, not a death blow. Like the cast of The Walking Dead, the zombie neoliberal elite simply won’t quit. For the Powers That Be/Deep State/Wall Street axis, there’s only one game in town, and that is to win, at all costs. Failing that, to knock over the whole chessboard, as in hot war.
Hot war has been postponed, at least for a few years. Meanwhile, it’s enlightening to observe the collective American and Eurocrat despair about a world they can’t understand anymore; Brexit, Trumpquake, the rise of the far-right across the West. For the insulated financial/tech/think-tank elites of liquid modernity, criticism of neoliberalism – with is inbuilt deregulation, privatization a-go-go, austerity obsession – is anathema.
The angry, white, blue collar Western uprising is the ultimate backlash against neoliberalism – an instinctive reaction against the rigged economic casino capitalism game and its subservient political arms. That’s at the core of Trump winning non-college white voters in Wisconsin by 28 points. Blaming “whitelash” , racism, WikiLeaks or Russia is no more than childish diversionary tactics.
The key question is whether the backlash may engender a new Western drive towards democratic socialism – read David Harvey’s books for the road map – or just nostalgic nationalism raging against the neoliberal Washington/EU/NAFTA/ globalization machine.
Read my lips: much lower taxes
Trump is proposing to turn the tables on the neoliberal game. Throughout his campaign he criminalized free trade – the essence of globalization – for decimating the American working class, even as US businesses blamed free trade for forcing them to squeeze workers’ wages.
So let’s see how Trump will be able to impose his priorities. In parallel to addressing the appalling structural decline in US manufacturing, he wants to pull a China: a massive $1 trillion infrastructure project over 10 years via public-private partnerships and private investments encouraged by lower taxes. That’s supposed to create a wealth of jobs.
Lower corporate taxes in this case translate into a whopping $3 trillion over 10 years, something like 1.6 percent of GDP. That would be the way to incite huge multinationals to repatriate the hundreds of billions of dollars in profits stashed abroad. This fiscal shock would create 25 million jobs in the US over the next 10 years, and propel a 4 percent growth rate.
And then there’s the protectionist drive that will renegotiate NAFTA and kill TPP for good. Not to mention raising import tariffs over manufactured products (many by de-localized US multinationals) imported from China and Mexico.
It’s open to fierce debate how Trumponomics will manage to square the circle; with more economic growth fueled by less taxes, imports will rise to satisfy internal demand. But if these products are subjected to stiffer tariffs, they will become more expensive, and inflation will inevitably rise.
Anyway, the bottom line of protectionist Trumponomics would be a huge blow against global trade. Deglobalization, anyone?
Asia braces for impact
Predictably, the heart of deglobalization will be the Trump-China relationship. Throughout the campaign, Trump blamed China for currency manipulation and proposed a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports.
In Hong Kong banking circles, no one believes in it. Key argument: the already strapped basket of “deplorables” simply won’t have the means to pay more for these Chinese imports.
Another thing entirely would be for Trumponomics to find mechanisms to hurt US companies that de-localize in Asia. That would translate into serious problems for outsourcing Meccas such as India and the Philippines. Outsourcing in the Philippines, for instance, serves mostly US companies and attracts revenue as crucial to the nation as total Filipino worker remittances from abroad, something like 9 percent of GDP.
It’s quite enlightening in this context to consider what Narayana Murthy – founder of Indian IT major Infosys – told the CNBC TV-18 network; “What is in the best interest of America is for its corporations to succeed, for its corporations to create more jobs… to export more… so I’m very positive.”
Four months ago Nomura Holdings Inc. issued a report titled “Trumping Asia” . No less than 77 percent of respondents expected Trump to brand China a currency manipulator; and 75 percent predicted he will impose tariffs on exports from China, South Korea and Japan.
So no wonder all across Asia the next months will be nerve-wracking. Asia – and not only China – is the factory of the world. Any Trump trade restriction over China will reverberate all across Asia.
Brace for impact: deglobalized Trumponomics vs. Neoliberalism will be a battle for the ages.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). His latest book is Empire of Chaos . He may be reached at . (Reprinted from RT by permission of author or representative) | 0 |
This guy sounds just like Castro. They brag about the communist utopia but the only crumbs they can get don't come from other commie nations. Cuba is still 50 years behind the rest of the world - where has the commie support from their commie brothers been for the last 50 years.
These Filipinos won't be happy until they are on the US Gov't dole. | 0 |
A newly published report has accused Facebook of rejecting female developer’s code 35 percent more often than code written by male developers. [The Wall Street Journal reports that an engineer at Facebook gathered data last year showing that code written by women at the company was more frequently rejected than code written by male developers. The report apparently set off a debate within Facebook internally about possible gender bias within the Silicon Valley tech company. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was even asked about the report during a weekly town hall meeting. Senior Facebook officials conducted their own review of the Facebook engineer’s report following the outcry. Facebook’s Head of Infrastructure, Jay Parikh, published an internal post a month after the review which attributed the rejection rate gap to the engineer’s rank and level of work rather than their gender. This was seen by many employees as evidence that female developers were not rising through the ranks of Google at the same rate as their male counterparts. A Facebook spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the initial analysis by the Facebook engineer was, “incomplete and inaccurate — performed by a former Facebook engineer with an incomplete data set. ” However, the spokesperson did confirm Mr. Parikh’s analysis, which was based on data unavailable to the majority of employees. The spokesperson also stated that there aren’t enough women at senior engineering levels at Facebook and across many Silicon Valley tech companies. Tracy Chou, a diversity advocate and former software engineer at Pinterest said, “especially for mass consumer products, there are just going to be blind spots. ” The engineer that conducted the report who has reportedly been at the company for several years stated that she conducted the analysis, “so that we can have an insight into how the review process impacts people in various groups. ” The engineer stated that she analyzed five years of data that she pulled from Facebook’s own open repository of data. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 1 |
In this video released by Project Veritas Action, a top Democratic donor is caught on camera disparaging members of the African American community at a fundraiser for North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Deborah Ross. In the video, prominent Ross donor Benjamin Barber expresses his opinion about blacks who vote Republican by comparing them to Nazis.
“Have you heard of the Sonderkommandos? Jewish guards who helped murder Jews in the camps. So there were even Jews that were helping the Nazis murder Jews! So blacks who are helping the other side are seriously fucked in the head. They’re only helping the enemy who will destroy them. Maybe they think ‘if I help them we’ll get along okay; somehow I’ll save my race by working with the murderers,’” said Barber at a fundraiser for Ross on the Upper West Side of New York City on September 19, 2016.
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Meryl Streep accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at Sunday night’s Golden Globes — and used her acceptance speech to repeatedly attack Donald Trump in what was one of the night’s most pointed political statements. [The began her speech by noting that Hollywood is the most “vilified” segment of American society following Donald Trump’s victory. “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and Mixed Martial Arts, which are not the arts,” she said. At tonight’s #GoldenGlobes we honor Hollywood legend Meryl Streep with the prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. pic. twitter. — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 9, 2017, Streep said Trump’s mocking of disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski was the “performance” that most “stunned” her. “There was nothing good about it, but it did its job,” the actress said. “It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was in real life. That instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone’s life because it gives permission for others to do the same. ” “Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence,” Streep said. Streep challenged a “principled press” to stand up to Trump “to hold power to hold power to account, to call to the carpet for every outrage. Streep called on Hollywood to support the Committee to Protect Journalists, “because we’re going to need them going forward — and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth. ” “Take your broken heart, make it into art,” Streep concluded, quoting the late actress Carrie Fisher. Watch Streep’s full speech above. | 1 |
Hillary Clinton Tops "Islamist Money in Politics" List
There are some very dubious awards out there that you just don't want to win. Being one of the top recipients of Islamic money in politics certainly tops that list. Hillary Clinton likes to complain about dark money. This is as dark as money gets. As the Middle East Forum's research shows .
Hillary Clinton tops the list, raking in $41,165 from prominent Islamists. This includes $19,249 from senior officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates on November 15, 2014.
For example, Mrs. Clinton has accepted $3,900 from former CAIR vice-chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras, who has defended numerous Islamists in Ohio indicted – and later convicted – on terrorism charges.
Among other current presidential candidates, Jill Stein has accepted $250. Donald Trump and Gary Johnson have not received any Islamist money.
Other top recent recipients of money from the enemy include Rep. Keith Ellison ($17,370) and Rep. Andre Carson ($13,225).
The top ten list includes nine Democrats, one independent (Sen. Bernie Sanders accepted $9,285), and no Republicans.
I don't think that's too surprising to anyone. Though you have to feel sorry for Jill Stein. She hates Israel and announced she wouldn't have killed Osama bin Laden. What's a girl gotta do to get ahead on Jihad Street anyway? | 0 |
WASHINGTON — President Trump is barreling into a confrontation with the courts barely two weeks after taking office, foreshadowing years of legal battles as an administration determined to disrupt the existing order presses the boundaries of executive power. Lawyers for the administration were ordered to submit a brief on Monday defending Mr. Trump’s order temporarily banning refugees from around the world and all visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. An appeals court in California refused on Sunday to reinstate the ban after a lower court blocked it. As people from the countries targeted by Mr. Trump struggled to make their way to the United States while they could, the president for the second day in a row expressed rage at the judge in the case, this time accusing him of endangering national security. Vice President Mike Pence defended the president’s tone, but lawyers and lawmakers of both parties said Mr. Trump’s comments reflected a lack of respect for the constitutional system of checks and balances. Late in the day, Mr. Trump took to Twitter to blame the judge and the judiciary for what the president suggested would be a future terrorist attack. “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril,” Mr. Trump wrote, a day after referring to the “ judge” in the case. “If something happens blame him and court system. ” Even before the latest post, Republicans joined Democrats in chiding him. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said it was “best not to single out judges. ” “We all get disappointed from time to time,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union. ” “I think it is best to avoid criticizing judges individually. ” The White House offered no evidence for Mr. Trump’s suggestion that potential terrorists would now pour over the border because of the judge’s order. Since Sept. 11, 2001, no American has been killed in a terrorist attack on American soil by anyone who immigrated from any of the seven countries named in Mr. Trump’s order. The impassioned debate over the immigration order brought to the fore issues at the heart of the Trump presidency. A businessman with no experience in public office, Mr. Trump has shown in his administration’s opening days that he favors an approach with little regard for the two other branches of government. While Congress, controlled by Republicans, has deferred, the judiciary may emerge as the major obstacle for Mr. Trump. Democrats and some Republicans said Mr. Trump’s attack on the courts would color the battle over the nomination of Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court as well as the president’s relationship with Congress. Other presidents have clashed with the judiciary. The Supreme Court invalidated parts of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, forced Richard M. Nixon to turn over Watergate tapes and rejected Bill Clinton’s bid to delay a sexual harassment lawsuit. The last two presidents battled with courts repeatedly over the limits of their power. The judiciary ruled that George W. Bush overstepped his bounds in denying due process to terrorism suspects and that Barack Obama assumed power he did not have to allow millions of unauthorized immigrants to stay in the country. Charles Fried, solicitor general under Ronald Reagan, said the ruling by a Federal District Court in Washington State blocking Mr. Trump’s order resembled a ruling by a Texas district court stopping Mr. Obama from proceeding with his own immigration order. But rarely, if ever, has a president this early in his tenure, and with such personal invective, battled the courts. Mr. Trump, Mr. Fried said, is turning everything into “a soap opera” with overheated attacks on the judge. “There are no lines for him,” said Mr. Fried, who teaches at Harvard Law School and voted against Mr. Trump. “There is no notion of, this is inappropriate, this is indecent, this is unpresidential. ” Other Republicans brushed off the attacks, noting that judges have lifetime tenure that protects them from criticism. But even some Republicans said Mr. Trump’s order raised valid legal questions for the courts. “If I were in the White House, I’d feel better about my position if the ban or moratorium or whatever you call it were based on an actual attack or threat,” former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who served under Mr. Bush, said in an interview. Still, he said, when it comes to noncitizens overseas, “the executive has enjoyed great deference from the courts. ” Judge James Robart, a Federal District Court judge in Seattle appointed by Mr. Bush, on Friday issued a nationwide suspension of Mr. Trump’s order while its legality was debated. The administration quickly asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overrule the judge, but it refused early Sunday and instead ordered the government to file a brief on Monday. The quick briefing schedule indicated that the appeals court could issue a ruling on the merits of the president’s order within days. In the meantime, refugees vetted by the government can proceed to the United States, as can any travelers with approved visas from the seven targeted nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Still, widespread confusion and anger were reported at overseas airports on Sunday. Unsure which orders to follow, airlines stopped even some of the people named in the lawsuits who were technically cleared to come to the country, according to a government official. The assertion of broad latitude by the president in areas of national security resembles the struggles of the Bush years, when in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks the administration claimed sometimes sweeping power in the name of fighting terrorism. Jack Goldsmith, who as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under Mr. Bush argued that some of the initial orders went too far and forced them to be rolled back, said on Sunday that there were similarities. “But Bush’s legal directives were not as sloppy as Trump’s,” he said. “And Trump’s serial attacks on judges and the judiciary take us into new territory. The sloppiness and aggressiveness of the directives, combined with the attacks on judges, put extra pressure on judges to rule against Trump. ” This was not the first time Mr. Trump has castigated a judge who ruled against him. As a candidate last year, Mr. Trump asserted that Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, who was presiding over a fraud lawsuit by former students of Trump University, had a conflict of interest because his family was of Mexican heritage and he therefore would be biased because of Mr. Trump’s promise to build a border wall. Such comments from a sitting president, however, were unusual and triggered consternation in the legal community. Bartholomew J. Dalton, the president of the American College of Trial Lawyers, called Mr. Trump’s “insulting language” inappropriate. “It is wrong for the chief executive of the executive branch to demean a member of the judiciary with such language,” Mr. Dalton said in a statement. “This undermines judicial independence, which is the backbone to our constitutional democracy. ” Senators of both parties appearing on Sunday talk shows concurred. “I’ll be honest, I don’t understand language like that,” Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, said on “This Week” on ABC. “We don’t have judges. We don’t have senators. We don’t have presidents. We have people from three different branches of government who take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. ” “The president is not a dictator,” Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, said on “Fox News Sunday. ” “The framers of our Constitution wanted a strong Congress for the very reason that most of these kinds of things should be done within the scope of lawmaking. This is done within the scope of executive power. ” It fell to Mr. Pence to defend Mr. Trump. “Well, look, the president of the United States has every right to criticize the other two branches of government. And we have a long tradition of that in this country,” he said on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “The judge’s actions in this case,” he added, “making decisions about American foreign policy and national security, it’s just very frustrating to the president, to our whole administration, to millions of Americans who want to see judges that will uphold the law and recognize the authority the president of the United States has under the Constitution to manage who comes into this country. ” | 1 |
Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” the Hollywood Reporter’s Michael Wolff defended a recent Newsweek column of his in which he took aim at the media for it’s aggressive coverage of President Donald Trump, including a specific criticism aimed at show host Brian Stelter. Partial transcript as follows: STELTER: Let me read from your Newsweek column. Let’s put part of it on screen here. You said, “The media strategy is to show Trump as an inept and craven sociopath. The Trump strategy is to show that the media people are hopeful prigs, out of touch with the nation. ” And you mentioned me. You said, “The media correspondent for CNN turns to the camera every Sunday morning and delivers a pious sermon about Trump’s perfidiousness. ” I hope I pronounced that right. Tell me about that particular issue. Do you feel that my style is wrong or my substance is wrong, trying to fact check the president? WOLFF: I think it’s — and I mean this with truly no disrespect, but I think you can border on being sort of quite a ridiculous figure. It’s not a good look to repeatedly and defend your own . The media should not be the story. Every week in this religious sense, you make it the story. We are not the story. STELTER: There’s room for one hour a week on CNN for this? WOLFF: Listen, I love your show. I just wish you wouldn’t turn to the camera and lecture America about the virtues of the media and every one trying to attack it. The media will be fine. STELTER: The media doesn’t need defending at this moment? WOLFF: The media does not need defending by the media certainly. You know, and so far, the media is — I mean, “The New York Times” front page looks like it’s 1938 in Germany every day. STELTER: No, it does not. Give me a break. WOLFF: “The New Yorker” as I say, has left all of its standards behind and now become, you know, an opinion vehicle constantly. Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 1 |
We Are Change
In this video Luke Rudkowski covers the latest news of Wikileaks emails released by Juliana Assange showing how CNN asked the DNC for questions to ask Donald Trump. This is clear rigging of the election for Hillary Clinton. We go over more main stream media collusion and how to defeat them by doing their job better then them. If you want to take part in that invest in our media organization here https://www.patreon.com/wearechange
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Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aZA8…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMgam…
https://milo.yiannopoulos.net/2016/11…
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wik…
https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/emai…
https://twitter.com/rooshv/status/795…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t…
http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/07/hus…
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwqlomaUs…
https://twitter.com/TheDCPolitics/sta…
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2016/11/…
http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/06/lea…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwqojhuVE…
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The post CNN IS OFFICIALLY RIGGING THE ELECTION FOR CLINTON, ALL CREDIBILITY LOST appeared first on We Are Change .
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Just days after a national campaign in which he vowed repeatedly to repeal President Obama’s signature health care law, Donald J. Trump is sending signals that his approach to health care is a work in progress. Mr. Trump even indicated that he would like to keep two of the most popular benefits of the Affordable Care Act, one that forces insurers to cover people with health conditions and another that allows parents to cover children under their plan into their . He told The Wall Street Journal that he was reconsidering his stance after meeting with Mr. Obama on Thursday. The comments added to a sense of whiplash about the law and its future. More than 100, 000 Americans rushed to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, the biggest turnout yet during this year’s period, underscoring that millions of people now depend on the law for coverage. Beyond Mr. Trump’s comments, new plans laid out on his presidential transition website this week deviate from what he had proposed during the campaign, and he added ideas that appeared to more closely align with the mainstream Republican agenda. The new plans drop all mention of reining in high drug prices, which Mr. Trump had advocated for months, and add new language about modernizing Medicare, a potential nod to congressional efforts to give people vouchers toward buying private health insurance. “Health care is shaping up as a priority for the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress,” said Larry Levitt, an executive at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which closely tracks health policy. “But we still have very little detail about what that really means. ” The health care industry, which invested hundreds of millions of dollars in preparing for business under the Affordable Care Act, is disoriented about what to do next — and scrambling for ways to avoid a financial shock. A repeal of the act would mean the loss of millions of customers for insurance companies and uninsured people turning to hospital emergency rooms for basic care. Mr. Trump, in an interview to be broadcast on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” said the guarantee of coverage for people with conditions was “one of the strongest assets” of the law. He also said he would try to preserve the measure allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26. “We’re going to do it simultaneously — it’ll be just fine,” he said, saying that people would not lose coverage when the law was repealed. Policy experts say that the part of the law that Mr. Trump is rethinking, that prevents insurers from refusing to cover people with costly medical conditions, only works financially for insurers if there are plenty of healthy people also buying insurance. If only sick people enroll, premiums would soar. To get healthy people covered, the existing law includes generous subsidies to help more people to afford a policy and taxes people who don’t buy insurance. Industry executives say their first priority is to persuade Mr. Trump and the new Congress to replace the law with some way for people to continue getting coverage. The problem is that, until now, top executives from the biggest insurers have not heard from Mr. Trump or his close advisers about his plans. In fact, the industry as a whole made no contingency plans for a Trump victory and does not yet appear to have developed a strategy. In the last few days, executives have huddled hurriedly with their boards and advisers to discuss how to react. In mapping out various election result possibilities, “this wasn’t on the sheet,” said Mark Bertolini, the chief executive of Aetna. “We had no idea how to approach it. ” The consequences are urgent. About 22 million Americans would be without insurance if the law were repealed. The state marketplaces, where about 10 million of those people buy insurance, would no longer exist. The millions of others who were newly eligible for Medicaid would also lose coverage. “I’m concerned about the fear factor of what is going on,” said Bernard J. Tyson, the chief executive of Kaiser Permanente, the system based in California that includes hospitals, doctors and an insurance plan. He said the company was already getting calls from people worried about whether they would still be able to get coverage. Both federal officials and insurance executives say people should not hesitate to sign up during the current open enrollment period. Terri Marsh, 61, in Goose Creek, S. C. did not hesitate to sign up again for a Blue Cross plan as soon as she could. “Insurance is something you have to have,” she said. Before the marketplace plans were available, she had been without coverage for five years, despite having a serious inflammatory disease. “Because I have a disease that is off the wall for them, I could not get insurance,” she said. Without getting the coverage through the law, she said, “I could possibly be dead. ” Yet Republicans have seized on some areas where the law is struggling and in the insurance marketplaces in particular. This month, for example, Republicans highlighted the sharp rise in the average price of an insurance plan on the marketplace — 25 percent — as proof that the law was fatally flawed. Mr. Bertolini warned that rates could go even higher next year. Without a supermajority in the Senate, Republicans will probably be unable to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act. But they can eliminate several consequential provisions through a special budgetary process called reconciliation. Last year, the Senate passed a reconciliation bill that undid large portions of the health bill. The House passed it. President Obama vetoed it. The bill would have eliminated the expansion of Medicaid coverage for Americans near or below the poverty line. It would have eliminated subsidies to help Americans buy their own insurance on new marketplaces. It would have eliminated tax penalties for the uninsured, meant to urge everyone to obtain health insurance. And it would have eliminated a number of taxes created by the law to help fund those programs. (It was written to kick in after two years, meaning the programs would not disappear immediately.) Many parts of the law cannot be repealed through reconciliation. Among them are reforms to the Medicare program, a provision that requires insurers to cover young adults on their parents’ policies, and requirements that health insurers sell policies to anyone regardless of their health history. Those parts of the law are very likely to remain law. Crucial aspects of the bill can be undone in a number of other ways, too. The administration could simply halt efforts to sign people up for the state marketplace plans. Or Congress could eliminate the federal subsidies that help millions of people afford a plan. Either one of those moves would most likely cause far fewer people to sign up for insurance, leading to instability or collapse of the insurance marketplaces. “There are a lot of different triggers that can be pulled,” said Benjamin Isgur, the leader of the PwC Health Research Institute. For the insurers and hospitals, the challenge is to persuade Trump that an alternative to the online marketplaces is necessary. Insurers will feel the loss of customers both in the individual market and under state Medicaid programs. While most are well diversified into other areas of insurance, the Affordable Care Act was seen as a way to forestall the steady erosion in insurance. The companies spent years and millions investing in being able to sell new policies through the state marketplaces, operating under an entirely new model. Hospitals, however, are likely to be the biggest losers. Under the law, they agreed to get less money from the government, essentially in exchange for having to cover fewer uninsured people. “If repeal happens, are there voices in the industry loud enough to replace it?” said Sam Glick, a partner at Oliver Wyman, a consulting firm. Executives insist that the proposals that have been discussed before, including by Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House and a Republican, laid out how to replace the coverage and would allow people to transition to different options. The Trump administration and Congress “are not going to pull out the rug from people,” said Dr. J. Mario Molina, the chief executive of Molina Healthcare, a insurer. He predicted that the earliest the law could be repealed was 2018, and that it would be replaced with something like a modified version of Medicaid, the government insurance for poor people. “The debate is not around the what, but around the how,” he said. Because Mr. Trump has been short on detailing exactly what he plans to do, though, many in the industry argue they cannot prepare a strategy in advance. He has said broadly that he wants to repeal the law, for example, and give states more control over Medicaid programs. He has talked about being able to sell insurance across state lines and has recently discussed a return to the state programs that existed to help cover people with serious medical conditions. “This is Day 1 of figuring out what all of this means,” Mr. Glick of Oliver Wyman said Wednesday. | 1 |
If only we were able to deport citizens, we could use Trump’s new policy of excluding those who are “hostile” toward our country to get rid of Judge James Robart. [Judge Robart’s veto of Trump’s travel ban notwithstanding, there is not the slightest question but that the president, in his sole discretion, can choose to admit or exclude any foreigners he likes, based on “the interests of the United States. ” The Clinton administration used the executive branch’s broad power over immigration to send a boy back to a communist dictatorship. The courts were completely powerless to stop him. As explained by the federal appellate court that ruled on Elian Gonzalez’s asylum application: “It is the duty of the Congress and of the executive branch to exercise political will,” and “in no context is the executive branch entitled to more deference than in the context of foreign affairs,” which includes immigration. The court acknowledged that Elian might well be subjected to “” “communist indoctrination” and “political manipulation. ” (Then again, so would enrolling him at Sidwell Friends.) It didn’t matter! Sending little boys back to communist dictatorships was the policy of the Clinton administration. The Obama administration’s immigration policy was to ensure that millions of foreigners would come here and help turn our country into a Mexican version of Pakistan. When Arizona merely tried to enforce the federal immigration laws being ignored by the Obama administration, the entire media erupted in rage at this incursion into the majestic power of the president over immigration. They said it was like living in Nazi Germany! The most reviled section of the act, melodramatically called the “Papers Please” law, was upheld by the Supreme Court. But the other parts, allowing state officials to enforce federal immigration laws, were ruled unconstitutional. A president’s policy choice to ignore immigration laws supersedes a state’s right to enforce them. The court conceded that hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens were arrested in Arizona each year, that they were responsible for “a disproportionate share of serious crime,” and that illegals constituted nearly 6 percent of Arizona’s population. But Arizona was powerless to enforce laws on the books — if those laws happened to be about immigration. The president’s authority over immigration is absolute and exclusive, as part of his authority over foreign policy. To review: — When the president’s immigration policy is to promote international communism: The president wins. — When the president’s immigration policy is to transform America into a different country: The president wins. — But when the president’s immigration policy is to protect Americans: Some judge announces that his authority exceeds that of the president. This is exactly what I warned you about in Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole. Nothing Trump does will be met with such massive resistance as his immigration policies. The left used to attack America by spying for Stalin, aiding our enemies, murdering cops and blowing up buildings. But, then liberals realized, it’s so much more effective to just do away with America altogether! Teddy Kennedy gave them their chance with the 1965 immigration act. Since then, we’ve been taking in more than a million immigrants a year, 90 percent from comically primitive cultures. They like the welfare, but have very little interest in adopting the rest of our culture. In many parts of the country, you’re already not living in America. Just a few more years, and the transformation will be complete. There will be a North American landmass known as “the United States,” but it won’t be our country. The only thing that stands between America and oblivion is a total immigration moratorium. We are well past the point of quick fixes — as Judge Robart’s delusional ruling proves. The judiciary, both political parties, the media, Hollywood, corporate America and approximately 1 million lobbying groups are all working frantically to bring the hardest cases to our shores. traitors, who used to honeymoon in Cuba and fight with peasant revolutionaries in Peru, toil away, late into the night, to ensure that genocidal Rwandans can move to America and immediately start collecting food stamps, Medicaid and Social Security. No matter how clearly laws are written, government bureaucrats connive to import people from countries that a majority of Americans would not want to visit, much less become. Federal judges issue lunatic rulings to ensure that there will never be a pause in the transformation of America. Congress could write laws requiring immigrants to pay taxes, learn English, forgo welfare and have good moral character. It could write laws giving the president authority to exclude aliens in the public interest. Except it already has. Those laws were swept away by INS officials, federal judges and Democratic administrations — under ferocious pressure from groups. The country will not be safe until the following outfits are out of business: The ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project the National Immigration Forum the National Immigration Law Center the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights the Office of Migration and Refugee Services the American Immigration Law Foundation the American Immigration Lawyers Association the Border Information and Outreach Service Atlas: DIY the Catholic Legal Immigration Network the Clearinghouse for Immigrant Education the Farmworker Justice Fund Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees the Immigrant Legal Resource Center the International Center for Migration, Ethnicity and Citizenship the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service the National Association for Bilingual Education the National Clearinghouse on Agricultural Guest Worker Issues the National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants the National Coalition for Haitian Rights the National Council of La Raza and the National Farm Worker Ministry. And that’s only a small fraction of the immigration groups assiduously dragging the Third World to our shores — while you were busy working. Look at that list — look at Judge Robart’s ruling! — and ask yourself: Is it possible that anything short of a total immigration moratorium can save this country? Only when there is no immigration to bellyache about will these nuts be forced to think of a new way to destroy America. | 1 |
Trump rape accuser skips press conference, citing threats ‹ › GPD is our General Posting Department whereby we share posts from other sources along with general information with our readers. It is managed by our Editorial Board Iraqi forces retake new district in Mosul as house to house search for militants intensifies By GPD on November 4, 2016
Army officials said the new military gains in Samaha will “ensure security” for the larger district of Gogjali whose residents have partly fled to Kurdish controlled Khazir overnight.
By Rudaw
GOGJALI, Mosul– Iraqi special forces have cleared a second neighborhood of ISIS militants in the eastern outskirts of Mosul city after they retook control of nearby Gogjali district Wednesday.
Military commanders told Rudaw the house to house search will continue in both Gogjali and Samaha districts for remaining militants in the area, asking residents to stay indoors.
Army officials said the new military gains in Samaha will “ensure security” for the larger district of Gogjali whose residents have partly fled to Kurdish controlled Khazir overnight.
“We still are afraid of Daesh,” said a female Kurdish resident of Gogjali in burqa outfit telling Rudaw that the head to toe black dress was compulsory under ISIS rule.
Rudaw correspondent Hardi Muhammad who is travelling with the Iraqi Special Forces inside Mosul said that the distance between army units and ISIS positions in the neighborhood is less than 300 meters.
“We still hear sporadic gunfire around Gogjali district but it’s unclear what is exactly taking place here,” said Muhammad.
Major General Maadan Saadi, commander of the Second Golden Brigade told Rudaw they still need additional information about militants in the city and urged residents to inform the army units of possible ISIS positions.
“We have been carrying out searches today in the connecting roads between Gogjali and surrounding areas, we also question the locals about them which our forces need,” said General Saadi.
The army is particularly concerned with booby trapped houses and landmines planted by the militants that have recently killed dozens of anti-ISIS Shiite militia elsewhere near Mosul.
At least 15 Hashd-al Shaabi militants were killed and dozens more were severely wounded on Tuesday when the Shiite militia entered several liberated villages near the township of Tal Afar in Nineveh Plains.
Rudaw correspondent Shady Rasoul who is in Khazir refugee camp north of Mosul said at least 5,000 refugees had fled Gogjali over the past two days and taken shelter in the Kurdish controlled camp.
She said the camp now hosted over 7000 displaced people but the number was most likely to grow.
“It’s difficult to know exactly how many will seek refuge here but we estimate that around 100,000 people will likely leave Mosul for camps in Dohuk province,” visiting Iraqi Migration Minister Darbaz Muhammad told Rudaw’s Shady Rasoul in Khazir refugee camp.
Many of the residents have left their homes because of “indiscriminate ISIS shelling” according to Rasoul who had interviewed several fleeing families. Related Posts: New World Order, Weiner and Revelation The GPD 20 Reads Filed under Military | 0 |
By Christina Sarich
Jordan — You’ve already heard of solar panels that can sustainably provide energy, but what about an ultra-high tech solar panel that can provide doubly-pure, twice distilled water for a family of four, out of thin air?
A new start up company called Zero Mass Water that won’t rely on outdated municipal water with decaying pipes full of lead to deliver water to the ‘middle billion’ and under-served people lacking clean drinking water in the world. It will create it with solar panels and a technology that capitalizes on moisture in the air.
The company’s tag line is ‘drinking water democratized,’ and it certainly seems to stand for the exact opposite world view of, say, Nestle , which has been stealing water from people and San Bernardino National Forest reserves and then selling it back to people in plastic water bottles. Zero Mass Water can deliver clean water to people in the poorest nations, with no need for piping or complicated water plants. The solar panel itself is smaller than a traditional air conditioner and can be placed in remote areas with ease.
The United Nations claims that more than 783 million people currently lack clean drinking water and more than 6 million people die annually from water-borne disease. They also claim that, with population growth, we can expect a 50 percent increase in water demand; but they haven’t accounted for simple technologies which can make use of millions of gallons of water using clean, sustainable, and even simple technologies. The demand for water could also easily be met by practicing better water harvesting, catchment, and filtering.
Zero Mass Water joins other breakthrough technologies like the “Drinkable Book” and experimental wastewater filters , which are trying to bring water to every corner of the world.
A blog post from Duke Energy, a partner in Zero Mass’s project claims the water purification system doesn’t need an outside source of energy, so it can be placed were infrastructure is damaged or non-existent.
At a recent installation in the coastal city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, a medical clinic was able to enjoy clean water for the first time without having to haul it in with trucks — an expensive endeavor. Though it rains frequently in Ecuador, there is little potable water .
The project has targeted an even larger area for humanitarian aid — water-generating solar panels are being placed in Jordan. The company claims the panels will help Syrian refugees in the country, possibly aiding 200,000 people, who currently have no access to clean drinking water.
If Zero Mass Water is successful in a war-torn area, their solar panels might also be perfect for the 5,300 cities across the U.S. who have been drinking lead-contaminated water due to crumbling infrastructure and a political elite who have been unwilling to replace old pipes with new ones, along with expensive water filters on municipal supplies.
When the sun can bring you energy, and drinking water, there is little need for poverty, ill-health, and reliance upon aging government and corporate structures . This invention truly could democratize water for the planet.
This article ( These New Solar Panels Use Sunlight to Create Clean Drinking Water from the Air ) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Christina Sarich and UndergroundReporter.org . If you spot a typo, please email the error and the name of the article to [email protected] . Image credit: Pexels .
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Trump Promises ‘New Deal for Black America’ Ben Kamisar, The Hill, October 26, 2016
Donald Trump called for a “new deal for black America” in a Wednesday afternoon address as he works to bridge the gap he faces with the crucial voting bloc less than two weeks from Election Day.
Speaking in Charlotte, N.C., the GOP presidential nominee criticized years of Democratic rule for leaving black America behind and outlined his plan to help.
My “deal is grounded in three promises: safe communities, great education and high-paying jobs,” Trump said, speaking off what appeared to be scripted remarks
“Whether you vote for me or not, I will be your greatest champion. We live in a very divided country, and I will be your greatest champion.”
{snip}
“African-American citizens have sacrificed so much for our nation. They fought and died in every war since the Revolution and from the pews and the picket lines, they’ve lifted up the conscience of our country in the long march for civil rights. Yet too many African-Americans have been left behind.”
Trump called for incentives to move companies into blighted neighborhoods to bolster employment, help African-Americans get better access to credit and push cities to declare “blighted communities” disaster areas to help rebuild infrastructure.
He also said he’d support increasing the number of police officers in such areas, connecting a lack of officers to a rise in murder rate in major cities.
But while Trump’s call focused on removing “gang members and criminal cartels,” he blamed Clinton for promoting a “war on police.” He did not mention the accusations of police brutality by minorities who feel that they are disproportionately targeted.
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WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Monday to confirm President Trump’s Air Force Secretary pick Heather Wilson, making her the first military service secretary in the Trump administration to be confirmed, and the first Air Force Academy graduate in that position. [Wilson, 56, takes the reigns as Trump looks to rebuild the military and lower the costs of expensive weapons systems such as the Joint Strike Fighter. The service is also facing a challenging pilot shortage of 800 pilots. Wilson has been the president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, an engineering and science university, since 2013. She served as a congresswoman representing New Mexico from 1998 to 2009, serving as a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and on the House Armed Service Committee. Wilson graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1982 and was in its third class to include women. She served until 1989, including in Europe during the Cold War. She earned masters and doctoral degrees as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England and served on the National Security Council Staff under President George H. W. Bush. Wilson, an private pilot, is married to attorney and retired Air Force Col. Jay Hone, and they have three adult children. The Senate Armed Services Committee voted in support of her nomination after her confirmation hearing on March 30. “Heather Wilson is going to make an outstanding Secretary of the Air Force,” Trump said in a statement announcing her nomination. “Her distinguished military service, high level of knowledge, and success in so many different fields gives me great confidence that she will lead our nation’s Air Force with the greatest competence and integrity. ” Wilson is now the Pentagon’s second political appointment in the Trump administration. Defense Secretary James Mattis was the first. There are now 55 more such positions to be filled. | 1 |
In cities the world over, men (and, to a lesser extent, women) who urinate in the street — al fresco — are a scourge of urban life, costing millions of dollars for cleaning and the repair of damage to public infrastructure. And, oh, the stench. Now, Paris has a new weapon against what the French call “les pipis sauvages” or “wild peeing”: a sleek and public toilet. Befitting the country of Matisse, the urinal looks more like a modernist flower box than a receptacle for human waste. You can even grow flowers in its compost. The Parisian innovation was spurred by a problem of public urination so endemic that City Hall recently proposed dispatching a nearly “incivility brigade” of officers to try to prevent bad behavior, which also includes leaving dog waste on the street and littering cigarette butts. Fines for public urination are steep — about $75. Even that was not deterrent enough, officials say. A small brigade of sanitation workers still has to scrub about 1, 800 miles of sidewalk each day. And dozens of surfaces are splattered by urine, according to City Hall. Enter the boxy Uritrottoir — a combination of the French words for “urinal” and “pavement” — which has grabbed headlines and has already been lauded as a “friend of flowers” by Le Figaro, the French newspaper, because it produces compost that can be used for fertilizer. Designed by Faltazi, a industrial design firm, its top section also doubles as an attractive flower or plant holder. The Uritrottoir, which has paint and does not use water, works by storing urine on a bed of dry straw, sawdust or wood chips. Monitored remotely by a “urine attendant” who can see on a computer when the toilet is full, the urine and straw is carted away to the outskirts of Paris, where it is turned into compost that can later be used in public gardens or parks. Fabien Esculier, an engineer who is known in the French media as “Monsieur Pipi” because of his expertise on the subject, said the Uritrottoir was more than the dozens of existing public toilets which dot the capital and are connected to the public sewage system. “Its greatest virtue is that it doesn’t use water, and produces compost that can be used for public gardens and parks,” he said. So far, Paris’s Gare de Lyon, a railway station that has become ground zero in the capital’s war against public urination, has ordered two of the toilets, which were installed on Tuesday outside the station, and the SNCF, France’s national railway, says it plans to roll out more across the capital if the Uritrottoir is a success. “I am optimistic it will work,” said Maxime Bourette, the SNCF maintenance official who ordered the toilets for the railway. “Everyone is tired of the mess. ” He said it remained to be seen whether the toilets were cost effective — he said the SNCF paid about $9, 730 for two, while it would cost about $865 a month to pay a sanitation worker to clean the toilets and take away the waste. A designer of the Uritrottoir, Laurent Lebot, 45, an industrial engineer who has also invented an vacuum cleaner, said Nantes, in western France, had ordered three for the spring. He had also had inquiries from local councils in Cannes, France Lausanne, Switzerland London and Saarbrücken, Germany. A large model can handle the outflow of 600 people a smaller model absorbs 300 trips to the toilet. “Public urination is a huge problem in France,” Mr. Lebot said. “Beyond the terrible smell, urine degrades lamp posts and telephone poles, damages cars, pollutes the Seine and undermines everyday life of a city. Cleaning up wastes water, and detergents are damaging for the environment. ” France is far from alone in combating public urination. In San Francisco, a street lamp whose base was damaged by urine recently collapsed, almost injuring a driver. The city has since installed public urinals adorned by plants. New York has also long suffered from drunken urinating revelers, but the City Council recently downgraded the offense, along with littering and excessive noise, as part of its effort to divert minor offenders from its already overstretched court system. Nevertheless, offenders face a fine of $350 to $450 if they commit a third offense within a year. In Chester, northwest England, the local government has clamped down on public urination amid concerns it was damaging the city’s medieval covered walkways. In France, the acrid smell of urine has been a particular blight on the nation’s capital stretching back centuries, and Mr. Lebot noted that the carbon of the straw had the added benefit of combating the odor of urine. His next challenge, he added, was to design an aesthetically pleasing public toilet that women could use. Among the steepest fines for an act of public urination — about $37, 500 — was meted out to Pierre Pinoncelli, a French citizen who urinated on the artist Marcel Duchamp’s Dadaist porcelain urinal “Fountain” in 1993 — considered a masterpiece of conceptual art — before hitting it with a hammer. In 2006, he was fined about $230, 000 after he attacked the artwork a second time. | 1 |
Is De-industrialization a “Natural Phenomenon” of Developed Economies? Increasing real revenues affect people’s lifestyle choices Jörg Guido Hülsmann | Mises.org
Let me first state my position and then add a few arguments to back it up.
Economic growth typically entails a re-allocation of labor away from industrial production, but it does not all by itself lead to falling industrial output. The decline of industrial production in the US and France in the past thirty years is to some extent due to capital exports, but especially to government interventionism in the form of mushrooming labor, business and financial regulations, education policies, social security funding, and taxation. This decline cannot be stopped through more interventions, even if they are designed with the good intention to reindustrialize the country.
Now let me offer a few considerations in support of these contentions.
The reallocation of labor in a growing economy results most notably from capital accumulation and from changing preferences of the working-age population. Further investments and extensions of the existing structure of production make it necessary to spend more time devising new methods, preparing industrial activity, coordinating and monitoring supply chains. Low-quality blue-collar labor diminishes, whereas there is some increase in high-quality blue-collars, but especially an increase in white-collars working in and around the supply chains.
Increasing real revenues affect people’s lifestyle choices. Rather than laboring long hours that provide essentially a monetary reward, they increasingly prefer enjoyable activities that provide immediate psychological and emotional rewards. Thus the blossoming of artistic, intellectual, and scientific activities in developed countries, at the expense of traditional industrial pursuits.
As a natural consequence of economic growth, therefore, industrial production declines relative to what it could be if it attracted even more people. But this does neither imply a shrinking physical industrial output, nor does it imply shrinking industrial revenues. Capital accumulation and technological progress make it possible that industry thrives even when less people have industrial employment. Germany provides an example.
In the past thirty years, western capitalists have invested large amounts of capital in formerly communist countries of the East and Far East. This reallocation of capital, though beneficial from the overall point of view of the world economy, has been detrimental in the short-run to the industrial development of those western countries where the capital would otherwise have been used.
But capital investments in countries such as France and the US have declined even more as a result of mushrooming government interventions. Welfare checks diminish the incentive to accept low-paying and non-gratifying industrial jobs. Massive subsidies for secondary and higher education artificially prolong schooling; reduce the supply of qualified manual labor; and create an artificial bias among the working-age population for scientific, intellectual, and artistic activities. Panoply of regulations have, on the one hand, increased the costs of doing business and, on the other hand, stimulated rent-seeking and manifold forms of evasion and regulatory arbitrage. Today they are feeding entire armies of lawyers, accountants, auditors, and financial advisors, all at the expense of ordinary business.
These tendencies cannot be stopped through so-called reindustrialization policies, which boil down to even more government spending, premised on the spurious notion that irresponsible (and often also inexperienced) politicians know best how to use the available scarce resources. Such policies have utterly failed in the past (Airbus included), and will fail in the future. Genuine reindustrialization requires more oxygen for industry. It requires nothing less than a rollback of the artificial obstacles for industrial development that government interventions have created in past generations. | 0 |
adobochron 3 Comments Comerford
Washington, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles) – It is common knowledge that Ronald Reagan loved mac n’cheese. Bill Clinton, before his heart bypass, indulged in jalapeño cheeseburgers. How about Barack Obama?
In an exclusive interview with White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford, she indicated that Obama does not have one particular favorite food. “But he loves Filipino cuisine,” she said.
Comerford, a Filipino American, has so far served as executive chef under three U.S. Presidents – George W. Bush, Clinton and Obama. She is the first woman and the first of Asian descent who has served as White House executive chef. Halo-Halo
“There are so many Filipino foods that the president likes, but on top of his list is halo-halo, the Filipino version of the Hawaiian shaved ice,” Comerford said. Asked to name the top ten Filipino foods fancied by Obama, Comerford gave us the following list:
1. Halo-Halo (shaved ice)
2. Dinuguan (pork blood stew)
3. Balut (duck embryo)
5. Kinilaw na Kambing (ceviche-style goat meat)
6. Tocino (sweet cured pork)
7. Laing (spicy taro leaves)
8. Pinakbet (Filipino version of ratatouille)
9. Crispy Pata (Deep-fried pork knuckles)
10. Kare-Kare (Tripe and vegetables in peanut sauce)
Asked how often Filipino food is served to the Obamas, Comerford, with a wink in her eye, said, “That’s classified information!” Rate this: | 0 |
AHEAD of his much anticipated title fight against Eddie Alvarez, Conor McGregor took some time out of his busy schedule to relax and give the readers of WWN his guide of New York.
Pound for pound the best city in the world. It’s box office baby.
The 9/11 memorial was sad, but not as sad as Alvarez will be when I crash land a jumbo left hook in the seemingly structurally sound facade of a face. He will come crashing down. It will be an inside job, because he prepares like a chump.
My focus remains on the battle ahead in Madison Square Gardens but I was thrown off my preparation when I learned there is no garden. It’s just a big fuck off arena forged out of metal for the fighting God. I would say Gods, but there is only one, me, Notorious.
I had anticipated doing my movement training with grass beneath my feet, so I headed to Central Park. It ain’t got a patch on Phoenix Park. I wouldn’t be the fighter I am today without Dublin’s back garden. Chasing the deer as a nipper helped me hone my quickness, my agility.
I studied the deer and the stag; their movements. So don’t be surprised if I enter the octagon with four hooves and antlers. I will do anything, all it takes to win. Anyway, back to the tour, I hear they filmed some Sex and the City shit in Central Park.
No Sex in the City for Alvarez, though. He couldn’t score in a brothel above Coppers with 20gs in his pocket. What I am saying is that my opponent is challenged in the face department. His head is like a melted lasagne left out in the sun for weeks. Not even Donald Trump would grab him by the pussy.
Speaking of that Fanta headed prick, I’m not in his weight class ‘cus I’m not obese, but I’ll knock him out all the same. I’ll be worth more than him by the end of 205 too. Where’s my Hollywood star, fuck it, I’ll take the whole Walk.
But, back to the tour – it would be interesting to note, the actors in Sex in the City are not as rich as me. Chumps.
When you tour around New York, be warned, people will ask you for endless selfies if you are famous as I am. I love the fans, but obviously when in camp, you’ve got to watch what you’re eating, it can make you a little tetchy, so while reducing my food intake ahead of the weigh in, I like to reduce my selfie intake too. Running from overweight Americans barely counts for cardio, but you’ve gotta take every chance to gain the edge over your opponent.
I was told to try the New York pizza, but can’t do that until after my victory, in the mean time I might use it to throw around at the pre-fight press conference. A scalding hot slice slapping Eddie in the face might improve his chances with the ladies.
Peace out. I’ve off to chuck a few euro off the top of the Empire State building to let off some steam. | 0 |
Google and Facebook will be working with the mainstream media to tell voters “what and who to trust” including “memes, comment threads and news sites” in the lead up to the French elections. [The two Tech giants, who have been accused of a “liberal bias” will set up the “coalition news verification project” with 37 French and international media outlets including the BBC, AFP (Agence ) and BuzzFeed News. On an official blog post, Google claimed “CrowdTangle” had been set up “with a goal of helping the French electorate make sense of what and who to trust in their social media feeds, web searches and general online news consumption in the coming months … ” The first round of the French presidential election is due to be held in April, and polls suggest right wing populist Marine Le Pen could come out on top. Following the January election of Donald J. Trump as U. S. president — another right wing populist challenging the establishment — many liberal media outlets claimed voters had been tricked by “fake news” and the result could be discredited. “With combined expertise from across media and technology, CrossCheck aims to ensure hoaxes, rumours and false claims are swiftly debunked, and misleading or confusing stories are accurately reported,” Google said. “With the French presidential election approaching, journalists from across France and beyond will work together to find and verify content circulating publicly online, whether it is photographs, videos, memes, comment threads and news sites. ” The public will be encouraged to submit questions and links to news and social media content they wish to see investigated. The questions will then be listed alongside answers on the CrossCheck website, Google explained via its News Lab arm. “Each participating newsroom will contribute their own experience, resources and regional knowledge to speed and strengthen the verification process, and to ensure that accurate reports reach citizens across the country and beyond,” the website adds. In August 2016, Facebook fired its entire Trending News team, formerly responsible for curating the platform’s “Trending News” list, after Breitbart News and others reported accusations of progressive, liberal biases. At the beginning of this year, Facebook launched their own features in Germany to counter fake news after authorities had claimed such stories could help populists in this year’s elections and threatened to sue unless unfavourable content was deleted quickly. The social media site has been working with the European Union (EU) since December 2016 to censor “hate speech” as well as help authorities “criminalise” “individual perpetrators” and “promot[e] independent ” that the EU favours. National governments are also interested in influencing online content. German officials have proposed creating a special government unit to combat fake news and the UK parliament is set to launch an inquiry this year, claiming the phenomenon is undermining democracy. After the U. S. election, the left wing website Buzzfeed claimed that, overall, fake news accounted for 10. 6 million of the 21. 5 million shares, reactions, and comments on U. S. political stories on Facebook last year. However, President Donald. J. Trump accused Buzzfeed of being “fake news” after the website published lurid and unsubstantiated claims about the then . Despite publishing allegedly fake news, BuzzFeed is part of the CrossCheck project with Google and Facebook. | 1 |
Wayne MADSEN | 03.11.2016 | WORLD Hillary and Bill Clinton: The «Bonnie and Clyde» of American Politics Whether the information originated from hacked e-mails and computer files or Freedom of Information Act requests, the revelations about the political and business activities of Hillary and Bill Clinton and their cronies hearken back to another era, the Great Depression of the 1930s and the crime spree of another unscrupulous couple: bank robbery desperados Bonnie and Clyde. Aside from Hillary Clinton running her own lucrative «off-the-books» foreign policy via her private email servers and e-mail chain of associates and flunkies, it was her and her husband’s joint Clinton Foundation and Teneo Capital operations that scream out the word «corruption.» The servers were merely a mechanism by which the Clintons ran their own «pay-to-play» racketeering operation, something that would have been the envy of a contemporary of Bonnie and Clyde, Chicago crime boss Al Capone. Teneo, which runs a hedge fund operation and a «private intelligence» service jam-packed with former Central Intelligence Agency operatives, is where Mrs. Clinton’s «gal pal» and aide Huma Abedin worked simultaneously to her government employment with the State Department. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of 650,000 emails found on the laptop computer of disgraced former New York Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Abedin, is but the proverbial tip of the iceberg. While FBI agents pore through Abedin’s emails that were discovered on the laptop and looking Mrs. Clinton’s emails that were either not destroyed by her aides or which were never accounted for, the real story is the FBI’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation and Teneo. Five FBI field offices are investigating the racketeering of the foundation and the foreign connections of Teneo. The offices include New York; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Miami. Little Rock is the home of the Clinton Foundation, while New York is the home base of Teneo. The addition of the Miami field office to the Clinton probe is significant. One of Teneo Intelligence’s many global offices is located in Bogota, Colombia. A secretive Colombian private equity fund, «Fondo Acceso», financed by Mexican mega-billionaire Carlos Slim and Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra, is run out of the Clinton Foundation’s Bogota office. Tracking the money being fed into the Clinton Foundation may include proceeds from the illegal narcotics traffic in Colombia and other nearby countries. The Bogota activities of the Clinton Foundation, «Fondo Acceso», which ironically means «Access Fund», and Teneo appear to be concentrated in the Chico Business Park in the Colombian capital. Therefore, the involvement of the Miami office, in investigating Clinton Foundation funding, including the major donations from Slim and Giustra, makes a world of sense. Teneo was co-founded by longtime Bill Clinton associate Doug Band, who served in Clinton’s White House Counsel’s Office and later as Clinton’s chief aide in the Clinton Foundation and its associated Clinton Global Initiative. Band’s brother is Bill Clinton’s medical doctor who accompanies the ex-president on foreign trips. Doug Band was the point person who lobbied the incoming Barack Obama administration in 2008 to appoint Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Mrs. Clinton’s tenure at State ensured that there was little separation between her department, the Clinton Foundation and Global Initiative, and Teneo. Abedin served as Mrs. Clinton’s «transition team» leader as the Secretary of State left the department to launch her presidential candidacy after the November 2012 election. From that time on, Mrs. Clinton, Abedin, Doug Band, Clinton’s campaign chief John Podesta, and others engaged in an email flurry to 1) ensure that the files in the private servers were either scrubbed or sanitized; 2) to officially sever all links between them and the Clinton Foundation and Teneo; and 3) to paint a picture for the public that all was well and legal with Mrs. Clinton’s term as America’s chief foreign policy executive. Unfortunately, the entire Clinton team has been exposed with the publication of emails from Mrs. Clinton’s swearing in as Secretary of State in 2009 to after she launched her campaign for the White House in 2013. The picture painted by the emails is one of modern-day gangsters milking everything they possibly could out of supposed public service. The FBI’s New York field office is also likely looking at Teneo’s dealings with other Clinton allies. It was Teneo that advised former New Jersey Democratic Governor Jon Corzine's MF Global investment firm as it was collapsing amid charges of major fraud by Corzine, a Clinton loyalist. It is also known as Mrs. Clinton communicated with President Obama over her private server and that Obama used a pseudonym. Obama lied to the American people when he stated that he first learned of the existence of Mrs. Clinton’s server from news media reports. There is little wonder why Obama has refused to condemn FBI director James Comey for re-launching his probe of the Clinton emails, based on the discovery of the additional traffic on Weiner’s laptop. Presidents who dug themselves deep into scandals by lying about «what they knew and when they knew it» helped sink the administration of Richard Nixon and almost cost Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton their presidencies. Obama was wise not to interfere in the FBI’s many criminal cases now building up like a tidal wave against Mrs. Clinton. The many Clinton scandals also involve the illegal shipment of U.S.- and foreign-manufactured weapons to jihadist rebels in Libya and Syria against U.S. law. When Clinton and Abedin oversaw the jihadist rebellions in both countries, the U.S. was subject to imposing a United Nations arms embargo directed against both civil war theaters. The sudden decision on October 5, 2016, by the Justice Department to drop all charges against the State Department-licensed Turi Defense Group of Arizona and its owner, Marc Turi, for violating U.S. law by shipping unregistered weapons to Libyan rebels, some of which were transferred to Syrian rebels by the CIA station in Benghazi, indicates that Attorney General Loretta Lynch wanted the Turi case to disappear before the November 8th election. The federal trial of Turi and his company was due to begin on November 8th. The indictment of Turi was brought in the U.S. Court for the District of Arizona in Phoenix. Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport was the scene of an impromptu and highly-questionable tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Lynch on June 27, 2016. Turi claims that approval for the secret weapons shipments to Libya and onward to Syria were personally approved by Mrs. Clinton and had a green light from the CIA. Any new email or other evidence that Mrs. Clinton authorized illegal weapons shipments to jihadist terrorists would have required the FBI to broaden its investigation of both Hillary and Bill Clinton, as well as Lynch. Mrs. Clinton may have violated federal law by permitting the shipment of weapons to belligerent parties in Libya and Syria; Mr. Clinton may have obstructed justice in talking to the Attorney General; and Lynch may have violated her oath of office in misusing her position as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice. The Clinton scandal, in many ways, resembles the Iran-Contra episode more than it does Watergate. In Watergate, the cover-up by Nixon and his cronies, in many respects, was worse than the original crimes. In Iran-Contra, the arms and drugs smuggling crimes were equal to the cover-up, including the criminal role of then-Vice President George H. W. Bush in the entire affair. With the Clintons’ «E-mailgate», shipping U.S. weapons to terrorists and accepting foreign campaign donations from dodgy regimes in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Qatar are every bit as bad as the obvious ensuing cover-up by Hillary Clinton and her and her husband's cronies. If these many cases are what the FBI and its offices in Washington, New York, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Miami, and possibly Phoenix, are now looking at, the FBI director had every right and a constitutional responsibility to inform Congress and the voting public. And FBI director Comey has every right not to tip off to the Clinton gang what he and the bureau may have on them, evidence demanded now by Mrs. Clinton and her supporters. This evidence may become material to the impeachment of Mrs. Clinton from the office of president of the United States should she be elected on November 8 th . | 0 |
WCD Ministry to reward married men who select “What is your anniversary date?” as security question Posted on Tweet
The Ministry of Women and Child Development, headed by Maneka Gandhi has announced a new bravery award for married Indian men who select “What is your anniversary date?” as a security question during their registration process with any website online.
“The idea is to encourage married men across the country to remember their wedding anniversaries correctly and well. This, in turn, will prevent unwanted acrimony in families in India and foster better husband-wife relationships. The number of married Indian men who remember their wedding anniversaries is abysmal and this is an earnest effort to improve the rate. Even today, lakhs of Indian married men who sign up for anything online and create an account anywhere usually choose ‘What is your first pet’s name?’, or ‘When is your birthday?’, or ‘Which is your favorite car?’ as their security question,” WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi told The UnReal Times .
“Hardly anyone ever chooses ‘What is your anniversary date?’ as a security question, simply because there have been people who have forgotten their passwords and not only have they been unable to retrieve their accounts due to inability to answer the security question correctly, but they have also been unable to retrieve access to their own households, due to highly miffed wives. We do not want to further penalize those who forget their anniversaries as they would already be in deep shit, so we’re trying to change this the positive way – by honoring those few who do. We hope the number of men who do remember the anniversaries grows due to this,” Gandhi added.
The ministry’s policy, however, wasn’t without its share of initial controversy. BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who was one of the first married men to stake claim for the award, after bravely selecting the anniversary security question while registering at Patanjali’s online retail website to buy their honey bottles, has been denied an award by his mother. “I’m sorry, Varun’s case is special – anything other than honey and I would gladly give him the award. I will even overlook the fact that our women journos’ Whatsapp group was totally against Varun buying things from Patanjali, of all places, but honey is an absolute no-no,” Maneka Gandhi is reported to have said.
Varun’s act of bravado reportedly hasn’t found favor with his better half too. “Poor Varun, he told Yamini ‘I’ll never forget our anniversary, honey!’ to which she yelled back ‘Don’t you dare say honey again!’” a WCD ministry source told The UnReal Times . Tweet About Ashwin Kumar
1 of the proud columnists of URT, former co-editor of URT Tamil, amateur musician, Real Harris Jayaraj devotee, UnReal T. Rajendar fanatic, passionate about stopping female foeticide. | 0 |
The U. S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that a North Carolina statute that prevents registered sex offenders from accessing social media sites where children are known to be online violates the First Amendment. [The case, Packingham v. North Carolina, concerned a registered sex offender who posted an exuberant message on his own Facebook profile in 2010 thanking God for the fact that a court had dismissed a traffic ticket: “Man God is Good! How about I got so much favor they dismissed the ticket before court even started? No fine, no court cost, no nothing spent. . . . . . Praise be to GOD, WOW! Thanks JESUS!” He was convicted and given a suspended sentence. The defendant appealed his conviction and sentence, and the state appellate court agreed with him that the state law was unconstitutional. The North Carolina Supreme Court, however, disagreed and upheld the law as constitutional, on the argument that it served a legitimate state interest in protecting minors, and that there were alternative sites on which sex offenders could communicate without the risk that they might gather information about minor children. The majority opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, held: “A fundamental principle of the First Amendment is that all persons have access to places where they can speak and listen, and then, after reflection, speak and listen once more. ” Social media, Kennedy wrote, is one of those places: On Facebook, for example, users can debate religion and politics with their friends and neighbors or share vacation photos. On LinkedIn, users can look for work, advertise for employees, or review tips on entrepreneurship. And on Twitter, users can petition their elected representatives and otherwise engage with them in a direct manner. While the law is “content neutral,” and therefore only subject to the standard of “intermediate scrutiny,” Kennedy wrote, it is not “narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest. ” The law could theoretically bar access to newspaper websites as well, he added. The state could write a new law that was more specific in its application to the problem at hand, he suggested, such as prohibiting “contacting a minor or using a website to gather information about a minor. ” But the current law was far too broad, he said, because it “bars access to what for many are the principal sources for knowing rent events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge. ” The liberal justices — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — all joined Kennedy’s opinion. The conservatives — minus Neil Grouch, who was appointed too late to participate — joined a concurring opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, which agreed with the majority that the North Carolina’s “extraordinary breadth” was a problem, but disagreed with what Alito called the majority’s “undisciplined” comments. Specifically, Alito argued, the Court went too far in suggesting that social media were like other public forums, which could be construed as meaning “that the States are largely powerless to restrict even the most dangerous sexual predators from visiting any internet sites. ” Alito wrote that the “fatal problem” for the law was that “its wide sweep precludes access to a large number of websites that are most unlikely to facilitate the commission of a sex crime against a child. A handful of examples illustrates this point. ” And yet, he added: But if the entirety of the internet or even just “social media” sites16 are the 21st century equivalent of public streets and parks, then States may have little ability to restrict the sites that may be visited by even the most dangerous sex offenders. May a State preclude an adult previously convicted of molesting children from visiting a dating site for teenagers? Or a site where minors communicate with each other about personal problems? The Court should be more attentive to the implications of its rhetoric for, contrary to the Court’s suggestion, there are important differences between cyberspace and the physical world. In applying the First Amendment to the Internet, Alito concluded, “we should proceed circumspectly, taking one step at a time. ” 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 |
Netflix Ceo: TV’s Future includes Hallucination Pills 10/27/2016
INDEPENDENT
The future of TV might everyone taking hallucinogenic drugs, according to the head of Netflix.
The threats to the streaming TV company might not be Amazon or other streaming services, but instead “pharmacological” ways of entertaining people, Reed Hastings has said.
And just as films and TV shows are a supposedly improved version of other entertainments, those same things might eventually become defunct, he said. In the same way that the cinema and TV screen made “the opera and the novel” much smaller, something else might be on the way to do the same thing, the Netflix boss said at a Wall Street Journal event.
Those challenges could come from anywhere, he said. They might not be another form of screen: “Is it VR, is it gaming, is it pharmacological?” Mr Hastings asked the event.
He went on to say that it might be possible that in the coming years someone will develop a drug that will make people get the same experiences that at the moment come from streaming services like Netflix. Apparently making reference to The Matrix, he said that we might be able to take one pill to escape into a hallucination and then another to come back.
“In twenty or fifty years, taking a personalized blue pill you just hallucinate in an entertaining way and then a white pill brings you back to normality is perfectly viable,” Mr Hastings said. “And if the source of human entertainment in thirty or forty years is pharmacological we’ll be in real trouble.”
His references to The Matrix – and to being in “trouble” – recall arguments that have recently been made by tech billionaires including Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Both have suggested that it might be possible that we are part of a simulated universe – something that they said might be part of a virtual reality world, but could just as easily be the result of a drug-induced hallucination.
Mr Hastings didn’t indicate whether or not Netflix would look to make such drugs itself, or how it would fend off any companies that did. But it does sound a little like something out Black Mirror, which Netflix is showing the new season of at the moment. | 0 |
Kris Kobach of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, who is also Secretary of State for Kansas, joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Monday’s Breitbart News Daily to discuss voter fraud and border security. [“The commission is going to be about a dozen people, bipartisan, five of them current or former Secretaries of State,” Kobach said. “What it’s going to do is take a nationwide look at the problem of voter fraud. There’s a lot of debate around the subject of voter fraud, and as someone who has been Secretary of State in a state where we introduced photo ID as well as proof of citizenship, and security for ballots — which is oftentimes a source of fraud or a type of fraud that occurs — we’re going to look at it from a nationwide perspective. ” “I’ve amassed a lot of data at the state level in Kansas, but there really hasn’t ever been an effort by a federal entity to measure the statistics and the facts nationwide and see what the numbers look like,” he noted. Kobach recalled that Kansas and other states asked the Obama administration to provide lists of aliens on legal visas to check against voter rolls, so they could weed out ineligible voters. “The federal government has consistently said no, under the Obama administration. Well, this commission will have the authority to maybe look at a couple of states and say, ‘okay, let’s check how many people who are registered voters in those states are also known aliens, according to the federal government,” he said. “That’s going to be exciting, something never done before, and it will give us some sense of what the real numbers are of this problem. ” “The Social Security Administration has what’s called the ‘master death file.’ It sounds like some sort of starship from Star Wars, but the master death file is a list of people who have died. The Social Security Administration wants to track that, and of course keep Social Security Numbers rotating to people who are living. That’s a database that can be used to bump against some of the voter rolls,” he added. “Things like that, where we can just take some hard statistics and gather some numbers — and we’ll also be looking at anecdotal things and prosecutions for voter fraud. It’s a big job,” Kobach said. Marlow anticipated that Kobach would encounter obstructionism from Democrats despite the bipartisan nature of his commission, because as he starkly put it, “We know that the Democrats would like to have lax voter laws and voter rules, because that allows them to cheat. ” Kobach said that after the commission was announced last week, “we did have people like Chuck Schumer coming out immediately and criticize me, and say that the commission is a waste of time. ” “My response is, ‘Senator, what are you afraid of? What are you afraid the commission is going to find, that you would attack the of the commission ad hominem, and that you don’t want the commission to look at the evidence? ’” he said. “Look, if he’s right and voter fraud is virtually in America, then the commission will find virtually nothing, and we will make his case for him,” Kobach argued. “I think it’s kind of curious how some of the leadership of the Democrat Party — and that includes Tom Perez — have criticized the commission, when I would think if they really are interested in the facts, they would say ‘Hey, great the commission will prove to us that voter fraud doesn’t exist.’ So yeah, it’s been interesting. ” Kobach said the Trump administration is “doing well” on immigration and border security so far, in his estimation. “I think the executive orders are what needed to be done. The vetting of people coming from parts of the world where terrorism is rampant, where ISIS or control territory, is very problematic. I give them high marks for that,” he said. “The other thing is, they’ve sent a very clear message to the ICE agents that hey, we’re taking the rope off your hands, we’re untying your hands and letting you do your job,” he continued. “Just by doing that, just by seeing ICE agents more active and out on the field, back doing what they were supposed to do, that has sent a message to the smugglers and to the illegal aliens coming in that there is a new sheriff in town. ” “That’s why you’re seeing the border crossing numbers plummeting,” Kobach stated. “I think that’s great. It does show what those of us who have studied and worked in the immigration field know, and that is that if you make a slight change of policy in Washington, you’ll get an immediate reaction on the border. ” “For example, whenever the crowd starts talking about an amnesty — and under President Obama, they had a president who was welcoming an amnesty — then immediately border crossings surged,” he recalled. “The word gets down south of the border very quickly, and people surge in, because they want to be in the country so that they can claim they were eligible for the amnesty when it happens. Similarly, the opposite is true too. If a more aggressive enforcement begins, word gets across that hey, this is going to be tougher. The price of a coyote smuggling you in is going to double or triple. That affects behavior. ” “Those are some good marks for the administration. I think there is more they could be doing, and hopefully they will be doing it in the near future,” he said. Marlow cited some of the more vicious attacks on Kobach’s character, and asked what it was like to endure such calumny merely because he insists on border security and clean elections. “It’s not good at all,” Kobach replied. “They’ve been dragging my name through the mud for years now. I’ve become calloused to it, and it doesn’t bother me that much. But you know, it bothers my wife, my family. You don’t want your kids to read that. ” “It’s so false,” he continued. “When someone is in a debate, and they don’t have any arguments left, oftentimes on the Left they resort to ad hominem remarks. They just attack you as a person. They call you a racist, they call you a vote suppressor. They just come up with these stupid names. That’s because they don’t have any actual arguments left. I’m not surprised any more by it. It doesn’t bother me, but it’s rather tedious, and I certainly don’t like my family seeing it. ” Kobach anticipated his commission completing its work within a year, and said he would continue to work on ballot integrity and border security in the meantime. “We should see some interesting data, whatever it is, that the commission is able to present to the country. I continue to work in the area of illegal immigration as a litigator, so I’ll be working there. I think you’re going to see a lot of things happening, especially on sanctuary cities,” he said. “California has got this bill that has passed one house, it’s in the other house, to create a sanctuary state, which is just extraordinary. I think you could potentially see litigation on that. You could see litigation on a whole bunch of things,” he anticipated. “I’ll keep fighting to keep our voter rolls clean, and to help this commission find whatever there is to find on the subject nationally. The fight to secure our borders is something that has to be done both within the administration and without. States need to help. States like Texas made a great effort to enlist state and local law enforcement, just like Arizona did a few years ago. I’ll be continuing to push for that,” Kobach promised. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/bombshell-clinton-campaign-was-heavily.html Julian Assange's sacrificial effort to expose the vast corruption behind the Clinton Machine through his "WikiLeaks" releases, has done so much over the past year to change the course of both the nation and the world for the better – most notably with the recent election of outsider Donald J. Trump as America's next president-elect. But what else do these WikiLeaks releases reveal that hasn't been covered by the media, particularly with regards to food policy?A simple search for the word "Monsanto" in The Podesta Emails batch of leaked email documents shows that the biotechnology giant is a close friend of Hillary Clinton and her family's Clinton Foundation – big surprise, right? Dozens of emails and email chains speak about the world's most evil corporation, several discussing its many contributions to what has now been exposed as a massive money-laundering "charity" scam that the Clintons used to line their own pockets.Along with Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and a multitude of other ill-regarded multinationals, Monsanto is exposed as being a longtime contributor to the Clinton Foundation, likely "scratching the back" of the organization with pay-to-play "donations" in exchange for political favors. This is, of course, what the Clinton Foundation is all about, we now know, which is why the Clinton campaign worked so hard during the final days of the election to keep all eyes distracted from WikiLeaks.But these tactics ultimately failed, and what the public now has access to via WikiLeaks is incredibly telling as to the nature of Clinton's relationship with Monsanto. While secretary of state, for instance, Hillary Clinton used her position to "target" nation states that hadn't yet accepted Monsanto's agenda . Countries that didn't cooperate with the plan to adopt transgenic crop technology, it was revealed, were punished with economic and other forms of "retaliation."After word of all this broke headlines, Hillary Clinton earned herself the name "Bride of Frankenfood" for her now-exposed ties to the biotechnology industry, a position that way-back-when cost her in terms of public support. But what we now know from WikiLeaks is that Clinton's handlers worked overtime to rebrand her as an opponent of genetically-modified organisms ( GMOs ), a position that her primary opponent Bernie Sanders genuinely held, and that helped him tremendously in gaining grassroots support. Hillary campaign tried to steal Bernie Sanders' platform, emails reveal Back in March, a peculiar email sent from Gary Hirschberg, chairman of the "Just Label It" GMO labeling campaign to John Podesta , campaign chairman of the Clinton campaign, exposes plans by insiders to rebrand Hillary as some type of hero for food freedom. Dated March 16, 2016, the email sent by Hirschberg , who also serves as chairman of the organic brand Stonyfield Farm, urges Podesta to have Hillary "weigh in" on the GMO issue "if we hope to tap the Bernie progressives' enthusiasm after he concedes."Clinton's attempt to ride on the coattails of Bernie's legacy ultimately failed, but it wasn't the only time that such a strategy was attempted. According to another email , the campaign also tried to brainstorm ways to rebrand Clinton as a dynamic candidate who demonstrated genuine human emotions, as opposed to the "overly programmed" liberal demagogue perception that dominated her previous run for the presidency.All in all, 46 emails in The Podesta Emails archive make mention of Monsanto, and many others discuss biotechnology and other elements of the industrial agriculture system to which Hillary Clinton is bound in allegiance due to her strong financial connections with this industry. Now that she's out of the running for president, though, the American people will hopefully no longer have to endure anymore of her lies. Reference: http://www.naturalnews.com | 0 |
Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
The Iraqi armed forces are becoming bogged down in the battle for Mosul. Its elite special forces and an armoured division are fighting to hold districts in the eastern outskirts of the city against counter-attacks by Isis fighters using networks of tunnels to move about unseen.
“In one day we lost 37 dead and 70 wounded,” said a former senior Iraqi official, adding that the Iraqi forces had been caught by surprise by the extent of the tunnel system built by Isis, said to be 45 miles long.
The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and the Ninth Armoured Division have been trying for two weeks to fight their way into that part of Mosul city, east of the Tigris River.
Isis is sending waves of suicide bombers either as individuals who blow themselves up or in vehicles packed with explosives, snipers and mortar teams, to restart the fighting in a dozen districts that the Iraqi Army had said were already captured.
“At first I was optimistic that we might capture Mosul in two or three weeks, but I now believe it will take months,” said Khasro Goran, a senior Kurdish leader familiar with conditions in Mosul, in an exclusive interview with The Independent .
He said he had changed his mind about the likely length of the siege when he witnessed the ferocity of the fighting in the outer defences of Mosul. He added that “if they [Isis] continue fighting like this then a lot of Mosul will be destroyed. I hope it will not be like Aleppo.”
A prolonged siege of Mosul with heavy civilian casualties and the possibility of Turkish military intervention is likely to be the first international crisis to be faced by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. The slow and heavily-contested advance of the Iraqi armed forces into the city means that the attack will still be going on when he is inaugurated in Washington on 20 January.
Mr Trump would have to decide if he is willing to sanction an escalation in US-led airstrikes to destroy Isis defences, though this would inevitably lead to heavy loss of life among the estimated 1.5 million civilians in Mosul.
A threatened military intervention by Turkey will also become more likely if the best Iraqi combat units suffer heavy losses and look for reinforcements from the Shia paramilitary Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga.
Under an American-brokered agreement, these are being kept out of the city of Mosul itself to avoid sectarian and ethnic tensions between them and its Sunni Arab population.
Turkey has sent tanks to the Turkish-Iraqi border and said it may invade if the Hashd or Peshmerga fight inside Mosul.
The problem for the Iraqi armed forces is that they have previously relied heavily on US-led airstrikes to destroy Isis fighters in fixed positions. There have been 10,300 such airstrikes in Iraq since 2014.
In the battle for Ramadi in 2015 some 70 per cent of the city was destroyed, but almost all of the 350,000 population had fled and Isis did not fight to the last man. The same was true of the outer ring of towns around Mosul like Bartella and Qaraqosh a dozen more miles from the city, which were empty of their largely Christian inhabitants, making it easier to target and destroy from the air buildings held by Isis.
The same tactics cannot be used in Mosul because its people are still there and the city is very big. The Baghdad government offensive that began on 17 October went well until it reached Mosul’s outskirts two weeks ago.
Since then the fighting has swung backwards and forwards with districts being captured or recaptured three or four times.
In al-Qadisiyah al-Thaniya district, which the CTS had entered on Friday, the elite soldiers later retreated and Isis fighters returned. A local resident told a news agency that “they came back to us again, and this is what we feared. At night there were fierce clashes and we heard powerful explosions.”
In Intisar, another embattled east Mosul district, the Iraqi army’s Ninth Armoured Division has found that its tanks are vulnerable in street fighting for which its soldiers have neither experience nor training. Last Tuesday it lost two T-72 tanks.
There were some signs of Isis disarray at the start of the siege. Hoshyar Zebari, the former Iraqi Finance and Foreign Minister, says that by far “the biggest surprise for Isis was some months back when the Iraqi government and the leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) agreed on a joint offensive against Isis in Mosul.” Isis did not expect this – Baghdad and the KRG had previously been barely on speaking terms because of economic and territorial disputes.
When Iraqi forces first attacked east Mosul, there were reports of wavering morale among some Isis fighters, but the Isis leadership has mercilessly enforced its control.
The UN says that it has executed some 70 civilians in Mosul accused of collaboration with Iraqi forces over the last week. Last Tuesday alone 40 people were dressed in orange jumpsuits and shot for “treason and collaboration” before being hanged from electricity poles.
Another 20 civilians have been shot for using mobile phones to leak information to the Iraqi army and their bodies were hanged at traffic lights.
The real level of support for Isis in Mosul is unclear. The 54,000 people who have fled the city and sought refuge behind Peshmerga or Iraqi army lands all express their hatred of movement and deplore its atrocities.
But local Christians and Kurds view the displaced civilians from Isis with suspicion as possible covert Isis supporters. “I see that Isis are getting their families to safety,” said one Christian driving past a camp of white tents occupied by Internally Displaced People (IDPs) at Khazar, east of Mosul.
Mr Goran is an expert on the internal politics of Mosul where he was deputy governor between 2003 and 2009, and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the city until 2011. Speaking of the political sympathies of its people, he said that “a third of the population supports Isis, much of the rest is passive and only a small percentage actively resisted them.”
He believes that reports of extensive anti-Isis armed resistance inside the city was largely propaganda designed for the media. He pointed out that there might be a lot of foreign fighters in Mosul, but “the majority of fighters are Iraqis”.
During the almost two-and-a-half years in which Isis has ruled Mosul since it captured it in June 2014 it has concentrated on recruiting young adolescents and teenagers to its cause. These are given extensive ideological and technical training to turn them into fanatical fighters or suicide bombers.
Isis is holding out effectively in east Mosul and may be able to withstand a siege for many months, but it is likely to lose the battle for the city in the long term. Iraqi army units are approaching Mosul from the south and the Hashd are closing off the escape routes to the west. A last stand by Isis in the city, however, could lead to its destruction. (Reprinted from The Independent | 0 |
We’re about 600 to 3, 000 feet below the ocean’s surface. It’s cold, it’s dark and it’s slow down here. If you’re lucky, it’s blue in the daytime and black at night. And the deeper we go, the darker it gets. Welcome to the twilight zone, fishies. There’s not much to eat and no green plants growing either. Here, you eat what you can get, and find a way to eat it, or you starve. It’s weird down here, in the mesopelagic zone of the deep sea. Creatures can be sluggish, but they are well adapted. Some use big eyes to find prey. Others make their own flashlights. Big mouths help predators eat big prey. That may be why barbeled dragonfishes have special head joints that allow them to open up their mouths 120 degrees and swallow big prey whole. This flexible head joint, described for the first time in a study published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, is unlike any other known to science. Nalani Schnell, a zoologist at the French National Museum of Natural History, had already discovered that different groups of barbeled dragonfishes had an unusual gap between their heads and necks that other fishes don’t have. Some gaps were the result of a missing first vertebrae. Others resulted from the absence of a spine, filled in instead with an elongated notochord, a flexible rod made up of something similar to cartilage. To find out the function of these gaps, Dr. Schnell teamed up with Dave Johnson, a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Together, they obtained five divergent groups of the species from museum collections, macerated the flesh from their bodies and stained the bones different colors. This allowed them to actually move the bones around, which led to the discovery that the gap was a functional joint that allows the fish’s head to move up and out. “In most other fishes, the head has a strong connection to the rest of the body, without much flexibility,” Dr. Schnell wrote in an email, which is a stabilizing force during swimming. But “the barbeled dragonfishes are (ambush) predators, and prey items are scarce in the . ” As the species diverged into different groups, the flexible gaps in the more primitive fish developed into “an actual folding apparatus that makes this a true joint,” Dr. Johnson said. “There are no other fishes that have that sort of a directional, complex articulation. ” A joint that allows them to open their mouths wide is advantageous because they can engulf large prey that can sustain them for long periods of no food. Like the moray eel, barbeled dragonfishes use a second set of teeth to pull the large prey into their bodies to digest it. “Imagine yourself out in the middle of the ocean, and you’re trying to make a living. You’re going to eat anything you can, if you think it isn’t going to kill you,” Dr. Johnson said. “You don’t bypass this thing because it’s too big to eat, because you don’t know when you’re going to see another meal. ” | 1 |
Sunday night’s episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” played less like a breezy record of the demimonde than a documentary. Early in the episode, Kim Kardashian West was called to action by her husband, Kanye West, after audio of him angrily referring to Taylor Swift as “fake” leaked in February. Over and over again, she reiterated how she felt that Mr. West was portrayed unfairly in public, by Ms. Swift and others. As the episode goes on, Ms. Kardashian West’s ire rises — clearly, she is plotting her moves. At the end, she seeks advice from her mother and manager, Kris Jenner. Ms. Jenner suggests calling Ms. Swift to smooth things over. Ms. Kardashian West says no, thanks. Just as the episode ended on the East Coast, Ms. Kardashian West released on Snapchat several video clips of a phone conversation between Mr. West and Ms. Swift in which he appears to get her support — mostly enthusiastic, perhaps slightly hesitant — for provocative lyrics that refer to her on his song “Famous,” from his album “The Life of Pablo,” released in February. Not long after, Ms. Swift released a statement on Instagram stating that she had not approved of the song and that Mr. West had not delivered on a promise to play her the final version before its release. “While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard,” she wrote. These are the latest salvos in the running squabble between Ms. Swift and Mr. West, a gripping but unfortunate beef that puts two of the leading pop stars of the day at loggerheads. The first phase of their disagreement dates from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when he crashed her acceptance speech for best female video, in a show of support for Beyoncé, whom she had beaten. They didn’t publicly reconcile until the 2015 Grammys, and the road since has been bumpy. On “Famous,” he rapped, in familiar hyperbolic style, that they “might still have sex,” and that he was responsible for her success. Shortly thereafter, she lashed out at him (without using his name) from the Grammy stage. The video for “Famous,” released last month, features a Swift along with other celebrity topless in bed with Mr. West and Ms. Kardashian West, an jolt of beatific erotica. Ms. Swift and Mr. West couldn’t be more different: Ms. Swift is a covert operator, Mr. West a namer of names. Ms. Swift is as careful a crafter of narrative, both in song and in life, as anyone in pop. Mr. West shoots from the hip it’s the source of much of his charm. Throughout this battle, each has accused the other of dishonesty. There is a fundamental layer of falseness and contrivance to all public images: Celebrity culture relies on that layer not being disrupted. Part of the power of the video Ms. Kardashian West released is it appeared to show that Ms. Swift’s public presentation and private machinations were at odds. The Ms. Swift in those video clips is — “I’m, like, this close to overexposure,” she said — in a way she often isn’t in public, and she is also willing to disrupt her image in unexpected ways. But her stern response to the song’s release served as a reassertion of the old order. It also extended a narrative in which Mr. West, who is black, is painted as the predator and Ms. Swift, who is white, as the prey, a story with uncomfortable racial overtones. In the excerpts, though, Mr. West is solicitous and warm. “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex,” he says, enunciating each word of the lyric carefully, with Ms. Swift on speakerphone. Rhythmically, it sounds like perhaps he’s workshopping one of two options with her. Later, he says: “I want things that make you feel good. I don’t want to do rap that makes people feel bad. ” (The clips are short and choppy, and clearly excerpts. On Twitter in February, Mr. West said the call with Ms. Swift had been an hour long.) “I just really appreciate it,” Ms. Swift said. “I never would have expected you to tell me about a line in your song. ” “Relationships,” Mr. West tells her, “are more important than punch lines. ” Seeking permission for a lyric is an extraordinary step, especially for Mr. West, whose loose tongue is his greatest asset. Ms. Swift, by contrast, has generally avoided identifying the subjects of her songs, though after the 2009 V. M. A. s, she released the rather patronizing “Innocent” — including the words “Who you are is not what you ’re still an innocent” — which she described in a 2010 interview with MTV as not a song about Mr. West but one “to” him. (Her song “Dear John” is widely believed to be about John Mayer, to whom Ms. Swift was romantically linked. It is one of the most effective and ruthless eviscerations of a fellow celebrity in pop history, and it seems unlikely that Ms. Swift ran it past Mr. Mayer for approval.) Given the seemingly genial nature of the conversation between Ms. Swift and Mr. West, what agitated Ms. Swift remains unclear. The release of video clips of the call is a clear violation of trust and raises possible legal issues. (The legality of recording phone calls varies from state to state a representative for Mr. West did not respond to an inquiry about where the rapper had been at the time of the call.) In an interview with GQ released last month, Ms. Kardashian West mentioned that Ms. Swift’s legal team knew about the recorded conversation “and then they sent an attorney’s letter like, ‘Don’t you dare do anything with that footage,’ and asking us to destroy it. ” The statement issued by Ms. Swift’s representative when Mr. West’s “Famous” came out said that Ms. Swift had “cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message,” but that does not appear to be in line with what she expresses in these video clips. The statement also said, “Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that bitch famous. ’” The video clips on Ms. Kardashian West’s Snapchat do not show Mr. West asking about that line. And so, if this conflagration turns on the interpretation of that epithet, then what may be at play is a contextual misread, or perhaps a clash of value systems. Mr. West comes from the world of where use of that term to refer to women can be so pervasive as to dull its pejorative meaning. In 2012, Mr. West unveiled the song “Perfect Bitch” — it was about Ms. Kardashian West, then his girlfriend. But though it has become a catchall term, it still carries undeniable historical baggage. Perhaps Ms. Swift didn’t like hearing herself referred to in that fashion, regardless of the context. Maybe she was concerned about her young female fan base and the word’s effect on them. Maybe she simply got cold feet. Whatever the case, both sides have opted for public escalation over private reconciliation. Mr. West and Ms. Kardashian West are armed with selectively edited documentation optimized for social media distribution. They are primed for battle. Meanwhile, Ms. Swift and her team increasingly transmit an air of fatigue. After Ms. Kardashian West’s GQ interview, Ms. Swift’s representative released a statement that concluded, “Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West, and now Kim Kardashian, will not just leave her alone. ” And Ms. Swift’s latest reply concludes with a similar sentiment, though this time from her directly: “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009. ” But this bespeaks a misunderstanding of how public storytelling unfolds. It is crowdsourced, not written from the top down. In the past, Ms. Swift’s refusal to name the subjects of her songs or any of her personal antagonists also robbed them of their opportunities to respond, keeping the narrative tidy. But that’s not an option when the two main characters are equally famous. Ms. Swift’s revulsion only amplifies the situation: The farther from Mr. West she tries to pull, the more tightly they are bound. | 1 |
PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic convention is over, and delegates streamed to airports and train stations on Friday morning to return home for the summer weekend. But the contrasting political displays — Republicans met last week in Cleveland — offered important lessons about the two presidential nominees, and their parties, as they head into the November general election. Check out our takeaways: Democrats are much better at staging a convention. It was visible every night over these past two weeks, in the size of the crowds, the energy in the hall, the caliber of the speakers, the celebrity of the celebrities, and the basic coherence of the messages. In the end, Donald J. Trump delivered a rough, and at times halting, show Hillary Clinton offered a polished Hollywood production. The next few weeks will tell how much of a difference that makes in what matters most: whether voters prefer Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump. But Mr. Trump’s sloppy convention was a missed opportunity, and sent up warning flares for Republicans already concerned about his capacity to grapple with the basic mechanics of American politics. Conventions are challenging, but so are voter registration and turnout, opposition research and and the increasingly sophisticated process of identifying voters through microtargeting. The Clinton campaign is filled with people who have done this before. If Mr. Trump or Republicans had any doubt about that, all they had to do was watch. This is not going to be a “there’s no difference between the candidates” election. When were Americans last presented with two such starkly different views of the country as Mr. Trump’s bleak portrayal of a country under siege, and Mrs. Clinton’s “best days are ahead of us” optimism? The candidates have diametrically opposing views on health care, gun control, abortion, the role of government, immigration and terrorism. They also have different styles and résumés: The insider and the businessman, a Democrat who has always believed in government and a Republican iconoclast who talks about tearing it down. And, not incidentally, a man — and a woman who is seeking to become the nation’s first female president. No, we didn’t get the multiballot floor fight that many people — O. K. many reporters — had yearned for. But if these ostentatious, expensive gatherings have flirted with irrelevance in recent years, Cleveland and Philadelphia proved they can still be riveting and influential. The Trump campaign grappled with accusations that Melania Trump cribbed from Michelle Obama’s 2008 remarks to Democrats, and Senator Ted Cruz thumbed his nose at Mr. Trump by refusing to endorse him until he was booed off the stage. In Philadelphia, Bernie Sanders supporters demonstrated in the streets, and a handful of Democratic delegates booed — booed! — their party’s nominee when she spoke. And three people — Michelle Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President Obama — gave speeches for the ages that people were still buzzing about on their way out of town. Hillary Clinton is a tough sell, and she probably always will be. Much of her success here came because she was lifted by the president and first lady, the vice president and former President Bill Clinton. But that of surrogates is unlikely to spend the next three months on the road nonstop Mrs. Clinton will have to win this election herself. She has long been polarizing, but the F. B. I. ’s investigation into her email and server may have done irreversible damage to her credibility, as Mr. Trump clearly hopes given his nickname for her, Crooked Hillary. Mrs. Clinton did not tackle that instead seeming to try for a workaround: Take me as I am. Or, perhaps: Better me than him. Her other challenge? She has been in public life for 40 years, but she is running at a time when voters want something new and when the Washington establishment has rarely been more unpopular. For all of Mr. Trump’s shortcomings that his convention unintentionally highlighted, he seems to reflect the American mood in a way that may be impossible for Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Clinton took full advantage of having the last word, offering what amounted to the closing argument of a debate. By contrast, it did not appear that Mr. Trump and his aides had anticipated Mrs. Clinton’s rebuttal by making moves to try to constrain what she might do and say at her convention. Mr. Trump’s dark speech set the table for Mrs. Clinton to deliver what was, in effect, a “Morning in America Again” address to the nation. Beyond that, her party managed to seize what for many years have been the defining symbols of the Republican Party: God and country. The Democratic convention was a sea of waving American flags on the final night, as delegates burst into chants of “U. S. A.! U. S. A. !” Law and order will be a big theme in the fall, and Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton approach it very differently. In a summer of terrorist attacks around the world and attacks on police officers on American soil, Mr. Trump promised an iron fist. “I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police,” he said: “When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country. ” Mrs. Clinton pushed hard for stricter gun controls, and offered tributes not only to slain police officers but to killed in police shootings. Mrs. Clinton has her party mostly behind her, even taking into account the scattered boos and feeble attempt at jeering by Sanders supporters, which she ignored. So many elected Democrats wanted to speak on her behalf that the Clinton campaign had difficulty accommodating them all. By contrast, Mr. Trump’s convention had the absence of prominent Republicans prime speaking spots went to his children and to the general manager of Trump Winery. Will that matter in this age of the Tea Party and hostility to the Washington establishment? Perhaps not, but it is party leaders who help raise money, drum up enthusiasm and get people out to vote. Finally, with apologies to George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and even Bill Clinton, this convention showed once and for all that when it comes to pure political talent — the ability to move a crowd, seize a moment, and deliver a speech that rises to a challenge — Barack Obama laps the field. | 1 |
Another Arab supremacist masturbation fantasy. The world map was re-shaped after the fall of the Ottoman empire almost 100 years ago. And the Palestine Arabs refused several very good offers since then to share the area with the Jews, who are native to the area called Palestine. And that conflict continues to this day. The Israelis have bent over backwards to try and accommodate them, and many Arabs would like to end the conflict, but the current politicos and lunatic blood-seeking writers like Baroud won't be happy without another war, seeking a Jew-free Palestine. Perhaps their next generation of leaders will want to look forward rather than backwards. | 0 |
Chamber music might not seem like an obvious candidate to be “chopped and screwed”: remixed and slowed down in the style pioneered by DJ Screw when he transformed Houston’s scene a generation ago. But that unlikely inspiration helped give the film “Moonlight,” whose score is nominated for an Academy Award, its otherworldly sound. The unusual idea emerged when the film’s director, Barry Jenkins, was batting around musical possibilities with its composer, Nicholas Britell, and Mr. Jenkins mentioned his love of chopped and screwed tracks. (The style can give songs a woozy, psychedelic flavor.) “When you slow the music down, the pitch goes down,” Mr. Britell, 36, said in an interview in his Manhattan studio. “And you actually get this audio texture which is deepened and enriched and you hear more things in it. It sort of opens it up and stretches it out. ” Here is how Mr. Britell chopped and screwed instrumental music and wove it into a film whose three chapters take its hero, Chiron, from boyhood (when the character is nicknamed Little) to manhood (when he’s known as Black). When he first read the screenplay, Mr. Britell said, “it felt like a piece of poetry. ” Mr. Jenkins knew that he wanted an orchestral score. So Mr. Britell wrote a simple, somber, plangent piece that he initially called “Piano and Violin Poem,” which he recorded in D major. It became “Little’s Theme. ” For the teenage Chiron, Mr. Britell bent the pitch of “Little’s Theme” until it was in B major. Then, for a harrowing scene involving a schoolyard fight, he slowed the music drastically, until it was almost unrecognizable — more than two octaves lower than the original recording. “We were trying, in the music, to have there be a correspondence between the nature of Chiron’s world at that point and what’s happening musically without being too overt about it,” Mr. Britell said. “In that scene you’re hearing this rumbling. You almost don’t know what it is. And then you hear something that almost sounds like a bell, and almost sounds like a bass — and in fact it’s the piano and the violins from the very beginning. ” For the theme music for Chiron’s adulthood, Mr. Britell reorchestrated “Little’s Theme” for an ensemble of cellos and had them record it in D major — but then bent the pitch until it was in A major. “I chopped and screwed the recording,” he said. “Cellos don’t play those notes. It sounds like a weird cross between basses and cellos. ” Many members of the audience may not notice that some of the more fantastic effects in the score are its main themes contorted beyond recognition. But the filmmakers do wink at the audience when they include a more traditional kind of chopped and screwed track: the mix of Jidenna’s “Classic Man” that plays in the background in this scene. The popularity of the soundtrack led to a performance last month in Los Angeles, when the Wordless Music Orchestra performed the score live as the film was screened another outing is planned at the Barbican Center in London on March 18. But mimicking the effects of chopped and screwed with live orchestra took some serious reverse engineering. “If it’s a violin that sounds like a bass, I’ll have a bass play it,” Mr. Britell said. | 1 |
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If you want to see war without end, vote for Hillary Clinton. It is tremendously ironic that Hillary Clinton and the mainstream media have attempted to portray Donald Trump as “dangerous” and “temperamental”, because it is Clinton that actually has a long history of being emotionally unstable. She has a temper that is absolutely legendary, and she has been cussing out the men and women in her security detail for decades . Hillary Clinton played a key role in starting the civil war in Syria, thanks to her Libya is a post-apocalyptic wasteland today, and now she is picking a fight with the Russians before she has even won the election. Of all the candidates there were running for president this election cycle, there was nobody that was even close to as dangerous as Hillary Clinton, and if she wins the election I am fully convinced that World War 3 will begin before her time in the White House is over.
Someone that shares this opinion with me is Donald Trump. According to Reuters , Trump recently stated that we are “going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton”…
On Syria’s civil war, Trump said Clinton could drag the United States into a world war with a more aggressive posture toward resolving the conflict.
Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” on the ground to protect non-combatants. Some analysts fear that protecting those zones could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian fighter jets.
“What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria,” said Trump as he dined on fried eggs and sausage at his Trump National Doral golf resort. “You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton.”
In order to have a no-fly zone in Syria, you would have to enforce it.
And in order to enforce it, you would have to be willing to shoot at the Russians.
According to National Intelligence Director James Clapper , that could have dire consequences…
Russia could shoot down a U.S. aircraft if a no-fly zone were imposed over Syria, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft if they felt that was threatening to their forces on the ground,” Clapper said, speaking with CBS’ Charlie Rose at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York about several national security issues.
Of course Clapper is not alone in that assessment. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Francis Dunford, says that imposing a no-fly zone over all of Syria “would require us to go to war” …
“Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,… That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.” ( Senate Armed Services Committee, September 22, 2016, emphasis added)
But Hillary Clinton is unwavering in her position that this is what she wants.
You see, the truth is that Hillary Clinton wants to win the war that she started in Syria. Back in 2011, she spearheaded an effort along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to try to use the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East as an opportunity to try to overthrow President Assad in Syria. If it wasn’t for her meddling, millions of refugees would not be pouring into Europe and elsewhere, and there would be no “humanitarian crisis” in Syria at all.
Thanks to Russian intervention, the war in Syria is not too far from being over, but the Obama administration is desperate to keep it going. They understand that if Assad is victorious that all of their efforts for the last five years have been wasted, and that is why they are so determined to keep Aleppo from falling. Without Aleppo, many of the jihadist rebels that the Obama administration has been supporting won’t have anywhere to hide.
So the Obama administration has actually been considering direct strikes against the Syrian military, and the Russians have already said that they will not allow this to happen . If Obama is insane enough to order airstrikes against Syrian forces and the Russians start shooting back, that could set off a chain of events that could rapidly spiral completely out of control.
One recent survey found that current American leadership has a 1 percent approval rating in Russia right now, and the Russians dislike Hillary Clinton even more than they dislike Barack Obama. The Russians know that if Hillary Clinton is elected that it is quite likely that they will have to fight a war with us, and that is why they desperately want Donald Trump to win in November. You can see this outlook reflected in comments that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently made about the two candidates …
“Mrs. Clinton has chosen to take up a very aggressive stance against our country, against Russia. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, calls for cooperation – at least when it comes to the international fight against terrorism,” Putin said.
“Naturally we welcome those who would like to cooperate with us. And we consider it wrong, that we always have to be in conflict with one another, creating existential threats for each other and for the whole world,” Putin noted.
Anyone that watched the three presidential debates could see that Hillary Clinton is absolutely seething with animosity for Russia. The thought of her finger on the nuclear trigger is almost too terrible to contemplate, but it may soon become a reality.
And even now, the Obama administration and our NATO allies are shifting forces into position for a confrontation with Moscow. This week it is being reported that NATO troops will soon be sent to Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania … Nine hundred US troops are to be sent to eastern Europe next year as America’s troubled relationship with Russia enters new, uncertain territory. A US-led battle group of NATO allied soldiers will be sent to Poland as part of the multi-nation operation. British forces will lead one of the four battle groups in Estonia, Canada will spearhead the presence in Latvia and Germany will be present in Lithuania.
In addition, Infowars is reporting that U.S. Marines will soon be stationed in Norway near the border with Russia…
After accepting a Pentagon proposal, Norway will host US Marines at a base near the Russian border as Russia deploys nuclear-capable ships to Kaliningrad.
A rotating force of approximately 330 Marines will be stationed at an airfield in the city of Vaernes, just outside Trondheim, beginning in January. Norway and Russia share an 122-mile border in the Arctic.
“The US initiative to augment their training and exercises in Norway by locating a Marine Corps Rotational Force in Norway is highly welcome and will have positive implications for our already strong bilateral relationship,” said Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide.
Most Americans aren’t aware of any of this, nor do they really care about our relationship with Russia.
But in Russia things are completely different. The possibility of war with the United States is the biggest news story over there these days , and feverish preparations are being made for a potential nuclear confrontation …
Russian authorities have stepped up nuclear-war survival measures amid a showdown with Washington, dusting off Soviet-era civil-defense plans and upgrading bomb shelters in the biggest cities.
At the Kremlin’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Cold War is back.
The country recently held its biggest civil defense drills since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., with what officials said were 40 million people rehearsing a response to chemical and nuclear threats.
I know that I have been writing about this over and over , but the truth is that we are on a path to war with Russia, and the election of Hillary Clinton would greatly accelerate the march toward war.
In my controversial new book , I expressed my belief that war with Russia is coming, but at the time that I wrote it I didn’t know how the election would turn out.
At this point it looks like Clinton is very likely to win on November 8th, and that would be absolutely disastrous for our relationship with Russia.
If you are reading this and you are considering voting for Hillary Clinton, please don’t do it . We simply cannot afford to have an emotionally unstable warmonger with a violent temper in the White House at this critical time.
If the American people do choose Hillary Clinton this November, I believe that it will be a choice that they will bitterly, bitterly regret in future years.
Take a look at the future of America: The Beginning of the End and then prepare shares | 0 |
Haaretz reports: Three Palestinian assailants armed with guns and knives carried out an attack Friday night in Jerusalem that killed one Border Policewoman and left a number of people wounded. [The officer, Hadas Malka, 23, was critically stabbed while attempting to reach for her gun, according to Israel’s Police, and later succumbed to her wounds. All three attackers were shot dead by officers at the scene. The attack unfolded along Sultan Suleiman Street, near Damascus Gate in the Old City. At one scene, two of the attackers were shot and killed after assaulting police officers with knives and guns. At the other, an attacker was shot dead after stabbing a border policewoman, critically wounding her. Read more here. | 1 |
Arvind Kejriwal promises to make Delhi pollution-free once he is made the Prime Minister Posted on Tweet
Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who has off late come a under lot of pressure on the crumbling state of the Indian capital due to severe air pollution has promised his critics to clean up the air in the capital once he is elected as the prime minister of India. The AAP supremo claims that an imandar sarkar at the center will ensure that the future Delhi state government gets in line thereby making Delhi a smog free city.
“Doston, the center is not allowing the state to function and that’s why I need to become the PM to perform the duties of the CM. Once I become the PM of India, I’ll have all the power to rule the capital and so, besides cleaning its air, several new flyovers would be made, there would be no traffic jams, 15 lakh CCTVs would be installed, free Wi-Fi will be provided for all, new DTC buses would be inducted, Yamuna would cleaned and most importantly Delhi would attain full statehood,” said Kejriwal.
“Even corrupt Sheila ji could clean Delhi’s air significantly by decongesting Delhi through flyovers and metro and it was only possible because she had support from the corrupt center. Corrupt-Corrupt mil ke kaam kar lete they [Corrupt and corrupt worked together] . Once I become the PM, I will give all the support to the city just like the old times,” he added, while speaking at a press conference wearing a gas mask.
On a question regarding state and center relations, Kejriwal said, “ Aisa bhi ho sakta hai [It might happen] that the future Delhi CM might not cooperate, but since we will be honest and strict, we will get the CM in line and make him perform all that we are not able to do now. In short I would not be a weak PM like Modiji,” said Kejriwal, and added, “And if the situation gets really bad, I can get Delhi under the center. And in the worst case scenario, I’ll become Delhi’s CM again. Whatever the case may be, I’ll ensure that Delhi becomes a clean and green city.”
AAP leaders have unanimously supported Arvind’s view point and claimed that they too need central ministry positions to solve all the problems of Delhi.
“If you want to fix the Delhi once and for all, the first step would be to help Kajariwal win the Punjab election and make him its CM. Once that is done we will take the next step and win the UP election and Kajariwal will be its CM also. Everyone knows that the party who wins the UP bags the center and thus by the 2019 he will become the prime minister of India to solve all the problems of Delhi state including air pollusion,” said AAP stalwart, Ashutosh.
(DMAN aka Divyamaan is the author of the spoof book ‘The Bogus Read’ ) Tweet About D-MAN
A jack of many trades who now wants to master some. Born wisecracker who makes every effort to get the maximum out of life. He facebooks here and tweets here . | 0 |
Summer on the streets of Chinese cities yields a panoply of exotic sights and sounds: old men loudly jousting over tiles, sidewalk barbecues grilling animal parts, and the unmistakable growl of a clearing throat — that ends with an inevitable splat. But nothing defines China’s most sweltering season (or bewilders foreigners) more than the curious sartorial habits of grown men who neatly roll up their shirts to reveal bellies, often in glorious plenitude, without the teeniest hint of shame (nor the teeniest hint of a ). The exposed midriff, visible in shops, restaurants and hospital waiting rooms, often has a companion flourish, with practitioners rolling up their pants legs to just below the knee. This, it will be explained upon asking, is a makeshift form of known as the Beijing Bikini. (Others somewhat disparagingly describe the phenomenon as “bang ye,” which roughly translates as “exposing yourself like a grandfather. ”) It is on display anywhere where temperatures sizzle — urban or rural, private space or public sphere, recreational park or commercial shop. Social convention bars women from engaging in similar displays of flesh. Although adherents, often with cigarette and beer in hand, attest to the Beijing Bikini’s cooling health benefits, they face mounting hostility from educated upstarts or busybody bureaucrats who find the summer parade of bulging tummies uncouth and unbecoming of a great nation. Chinese newspapers wage periodic propaganda campaigns against the look, but it endures and is increasingly visible abroad, proudly displayed by Chinese tourists outside New York City art museums, Buckingham Palace in London and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. | 1 |
Riots in Portland on Third Night of Protests Trump returns to Twitter to complain about "unfair" protests "incited" by media. By Ed Krayewski
" Reason " - There were more protests around the country against the election of Donald Trump last night, with police in Portland declaring the protest there a riot due to deteriorating conditions. Rioters there threw objects at cops, attacked newspaper stands, and smashed windows. Earlier, police said protesters were trying to stop "anarchist groups" from destroying property, and tweeted that it encouraged others to leave the area, before declaring the situation a riot and issuing orders to disperse the "unlawful assembly." Police say they made 26 arrests and dispersed the crowd using pepper spray, "rubber ball distraction devices" and rubber baton rounds.
Trump returned to Twitter for the first time since being elected on Tuesday night after spending the day in Washington, tweeting that "professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting," calling it "very unfair!" NBC News described the tweet as "putting an end to a brief stretch of conciliatory behavior since Tuesday," although one salty tweet in a 72 hour period doesn't seem like enough data to come to that conclusion. Trump had "returned to pre-election form," as NBC News put it, also pointing out Trump himself had tweeted in favor of a march on Washington after Mitt Romney's 2012 loss, and suggested if he lost riots could ensue.
At least two other prominent Trump supporters, Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke and former Rep. Joe Walsh, had also tweeted supportively of protests and civil disobedience before the election but called for a tough response after. They did not expect Trump to win, so the calculus changed. Things are different now that he's president-electthough not for Trump's tendency to make loose statements and the media's tendency to botch interpretations of those statements.
Trump's tweet was characterized as "unpresidential." I'm not sure what was expected at this point, particularly since such protests have, until now, worked in Trump's favor. The Trump campaign cancelled a rally in Chicago after massive protests there. Trump said the protests would "energize" his votershe clinched the nomination in May. By June, I noted how attacks on Trump supporters by anti-Trump protesters were an apparent effort to help get Trump elected. In late September, when protests and riots erupted in Charlotte after a fatal police shooting there, I suggested the city was working hard to get North Carolina in the Trump column.
On Wednesday night, when there were protests and "vigils" around the country, I suggested this trend to could end up helping Trump by earning him political capital and helping drive never-Trump conservatives back into the fold. Protesters say they are demonstrating because Donald Trump has created a climate of fear for minorities. Riots also have that tendency. If the mostly white rioters in Portland last night provide police in the city to ramp up enforcement, that endangers marginalized people the most. Protests last month over a police contract the outgoing mayor pushed through before leaving office failed to stop the contract, and it's not unreasonable to fear tonight's riots will increase tensions in altogether different neighborhoods.
And for all the talk pre-election of "voter intimidation," what else could violent protests over the result of an election be other than voter intimidation? Hillary Clinton won Portland overwhelmingly, but that still leaves a minority of Trump voters watching their fellow citizens destroy property over the way they voted. And it leaves a slew of residents who didn't vote, but will probably eventually be blamed for Trump's win as well. Blame anyone but Clinton and the Democratic Party.
Some Anti-Trump protesters like to compare Trump to Hitler, yet it doesn't seem they understand their own comparison. Hitler used civil unrestspecifically the Reichstag fireto greatly expand his powers after he had already been elected. At the Republican convention, Trump called America a "divided crime scene" and said "only" he could solve the country's problems. Anti-Trump protesters are setting the stage for him. It's hard to imagine what continued violent protests (the Portland group has organized as a Resistance) can accomplish other than creating a climate of fear Trump could exploit to make it easier to get what he wants, whatever that turns out to be.
A write-up of a mostly white riot in Portland would perhaps be incomplete with a note about the occupation of a remote outpost in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in protest of federal prosecutors reneging on a plea deal with two ranchers who had set a fire on their property that spread onto federal land, appealing the sentences handed down in favor for longer ones. Those protesters were called "terrorists" by many left-wing commentators because they were armed. The hashtag #OregonUnderAttack went viral. No one has suggested Oregon, or Portland, have been under attack tonight, nor has anyone called the protesters or rioters terrorists. But as usual, one side has created a precedent when it was convenient rhetorically in the short term that can be used by the other side with as much, if not more, effect.
If anti-Trump protesters are concerned about the powers Trump will inherit, President Obama and the Congress have two and a half months to try to get something accomplished in terms of limiting executive power. The prospect is unlikely already. Directionless protests make the prospect less likely, and also place efforts at reducing government power after Trump is in office at a disadvantage. Although protesters may be more interesting in expressing their feelings, including by rioting, than reducing government power and constraining the office of the president.
Vandalized cars, smashed windows: Anti-Trump protest in Portland proclaimed riot (PHOTOS, VIDEO): Some 4,000 people started their protest at Pioneer Courthouse Square and moved to northeast Portland, according to The Oregonian daily. Insanity: About time for an assassination: Trump death threats swamp Twitter ; Numerous disgruntled Americans have taken to Twitter to encourage the murder of Donald Trump, echoing the reaction to Barack Obamas 2008 election victory, albeit from a different side of the political spectrum.
Middle School students chant 'Build that wall' : "Tears were running down my face," said Josie, who is Mexican-American. "I was so upset. A friend went to the bathroom crying.
Obamas post-presidential $5.3 mn Washington mansion : Photos: Realtors estimated that the residence would cost about $22,000 a month. Its not known if Obama, who has a net worth of up to $7 million, and is entitled to a presidential pension of $203,700 a year, is paying the going rate. | 0 |
10 Medicinal Plants For Your Survival Garden
A lot of the medicine that is currently distributed by the United States health system is extremely expensive and filled with unnatural chemicals that have horrible side effects. Adding medicinal plants to your garden can not only save your pocketbooks, it can also save your life! These 10 medicinal plants can be grown in your garden: 1. Aloe Vera Aloe vera grows well under the sun with well-drained or moist soil. Its sap is useful for speeding up healing and reducing skin infections. It can help heal wounds, cuts, burns, and eczema.
Aloe can also help treat: -Ulcerative colitis -Digestive problems
2. Stinging Nettle
Stinging Nettle is a quick-growing plant with leaves that are covered with tiny, silica-tipped hairs that can irritate the skin. Nettle prefers rich soil with good moisture content. They enjoy full sun or partial shade. Nettle is a great nutritious addition to the diet and has been used as an herbal remedy in many traditions.
Stinging Nettle can be used to remedy the following: -Cleanses the blood | 0 |
By Jay Syrmopoulos Pipeline opponents attempting to protect their water supply from the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL), as well as prevent the continued destruction... | 0 |
On Monday Bill Clinton campaigned in Greensboro, North Carolina for his wife Hillary Clinton.
Bill was interrupted by several Black Lives Matter protesters chanting “black lives matter,” while holding up a sign.
This was the day before the national election.
| 0 |
Clinton surrogate says ‘nothing new here’ three times in response to Clinton Foundation stories | 0 |
That's simply not done. Bad form, you know. | 0 |
WIESBADEN, Germany — The pianist starts his show abruptly, with a wail. The words and music are Arabic, but the pain is clear in any language. “How, God?” he sings, “How could God bring you this scourge?” He is performing for a German audience in a quiet German town with spires. But Aeham Ahmad is thinking of his pulverized, starving neighborhood in Syria, where a few years ago, before coming to Germany as a refugee, he embarked on a strange career by playing concerts in the rubble. He jumps up, bobs his head in an impish little bow, and says by way of introduction: “I’m sorry, I’m not a good piano player. I learned in Syria. It’s not like Mozart and Bach, but this is the way we play it. ” In a Germany deeply torn between embracing and fearing the million migrants who have arrived in the past year, Mr. Ahmad, 27, has set himself the task of putting a human face on his fellow refugees. His aim is to ease their integration and maybe even help the millions more, not least his wife and children, whom he left behind. That mission has become more urgent lately, after Germany was shocked by two separate attacks in which refugees linked to the Islamic State tried to kill civilians. Only the assailants died, but the attacks have left many Germans angry, anxious and ready to slam the door shut. There is already talk of accelerated expulsions. Onstage, Mr. Ahmad flatters his listeners, reassures them, owns them. He tells of his flight from bombs, hunger and repression. He sings of minarets and church bells “calling for peace. ” He declares that “terrorism has no religion,” and that refugees come “to build Germany,” not to harm it. “History will remember that Germany has taken in the Muslims,” he declares, then leads them in a singalong of “All My Little Ducks,” the German equivalent of “Mary Had a Little Lamb. ” He leaves the hall, as usual, in a shower of hugs and selfies. But the next day in his tiny room in the town of Wiesbaden, he lacerates himself over the role he has honed so well: He is “the good refugee,” making “good Germans” feel good about themselves. He cannot help seeing a touch of minstrel show in his act. He imagines how he might look through German eyes: a charity case, a trained animal dancing for treats. “He’s a refugee dog,” he says in a singsong voice. “They play with him, and he’s playing, and he’s happy. ” Before the Syrian catastrophe, Mr. Ahmad, a Palestinian refugee and the son of a blind violinist, was a piano teacher and music shop salesman. Now, his message of resilience, along with Germans’ desire for a reassuring symbol, has made him Germany’s most popular refugee. He sings, he plays and, sometimes, he smacks the piano in grief and rage. Mr. Ahmad is booked virtually every night, crisscrossing the country from stadiums to modest provincial bars. He has appeared in dozens of uplifting German news accounts and received a prestigious prize named for one of his idols, Beethoven. Christina Aguilera’s film production company has been in touch. “I feel like I’ve been taken out of reality,” he says one day on a bullet train between venues. He grew up, he continues, hearing his father spin his life story into legend, “like you tell stories about Sinbad the sailor. ” But even the tale of a blind musician who learned to play the violin pales in comparison with his own fantastical voyage, from Syrian government siege and Islamist extremist rule through shipwreck and exile to uneasy celebrity. Onstage every night, he that journey. And on every road trip in between, he it — rather mercilessly, like the artist he has always been. “I feel like a frog that’s being dissected,” he confesses, collapsing into a seat at the start of a trip to his next gig, which, as always, because of labor restrictions on refugees, he will play for free. “I’m selling myself,” he says, “and I’m not even getting the money. ” Worse, he wonders if he is making any difference: “They clap for me, but the rest” — back in Syria — “are still in prison, under siege, under bombs. ” His own boys rebuke him: “You didn’t send a plane to bring us. ” God, stop the world from spinning I can’t stand it any more. I’m dizzy. I want to come down. Mr. Ahmad’s life as the refugee began three years ago when he parked his instrument on a street of destroyed buildings — walls collapsed, awnings askew — and began to sing. He lived in Yarmouk, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, that started as a refugee camp for Palestinians in the 1950s. Over the years, it grew into a bustling district of a Palestinians and Syrians. But it was now gutted by the Syrian civil war. Government troops kept it cordoned off, pounding it with artillery and sometimes airstrikes. Insurgent groups vied for control. Lack of regular access to food and medicine was beginning to kill some of the most vulnerable starved to death. His only audience was his neighbors, trapped with him. And his goal was almost painfully modest: to keep everyone from losing their minds. “I want to give them a beautiful dream,” he said back then, over a spotty internet link. “To change this black color at least into gray. ” Mr. Ahmad played with a young men’s chorus he called the Yarmouk Guys. Some of his songs were sad, yearning for those who had fled — “My emigrants, come back, the mint is still green” — some rollicking and funny, skewering Arab and world leaders. His toddler would sit atop the piano girls and old women joined in his father had cameos with his violin. Soon, videos of the performances spread online, first among Syrians, then more widely, a different kind of dispatch from a war so brutal that it had already left much of the world numb. Mr. Ahmad became a symbol of hope and defiance and began to embrace a larger mission: showing that there were human beings stuck in Yarmouk. “Everyone is against the civilians,” he said in a video chat. Eventually, his new fame would help him escape the siege — to join the emigrants he sang of. That helps drive his ambivalence and fuel a colossal case of survivor’s guilt. It is also how, after years of online correspondence, my colleague Hwaida Saad and I find ourselves on the main square of Wiesbaden on a late spring afternoon, meeting Mr. Ahmad in person for the first time. It is clear how much he has already changed. He wheels his bike confidently up to the cafe, birdlike and sprightly in a striped shirt and skinny jeans, and wolfs down an éclair. He has learned some staccato English. When his phone rings, which it does constantly, he adopts the brisk, businesslike tone of a performer too busy for all of his fans. “I talk to a million people on the phone,” he tells a caller. “I’m sorry, which one is your concert?” The very first thing he tells us is that he does not want to sugarcoat the experience of exile, or to be anyone’s poster child for Europe as a happy ending. “They see me as a star,” he says. “But still, they look at us funny. ” He says people often ask how it feels to play in Germany, and now, for once, he wants to give the honest answer: “I feel nothing. I close my eyes, and all around me — I play and I remember Yarmouk. ” The memory of war is everywhere in Wiesbaden. The dormitory where Mr. Ahmad shares a room with five other refugees is called the American Camp, for the troops it long housed after World War II. Every day, he wheels his bike past brass tiles bearing the names of deported Jews, embedded in sidewalks outside their onetime homes. Many of Mr. Ahmad’s enthusiastic helpers here see aiding refugees as part of Germany’s moral burden, atoning for its Nazi past. When the local newspaper reported that he needed someone to donate a piano, he was offered 30. Mr. Ahmad marches us down a grand avenue lined with palatial villas to a cafe to meet some friends, elegant women who envelop him in motherly good will. One, Elke Gruhn, the director of an arts center, has adopted Mr. Ahmad’s cause — and, effectively, Mr. Ahmad himself. Lately, she has been battling rules that have blocked Mr. Ahmad from being paid for performances, or even collecting the Beethoven prize honorarium of 10, 000 euros, about $11, 200. He has reached a stage in his asylum process that lets him work as, say, a wage laborer. But German rules, Ms. Gruhn says, seem not to envision a refugee artist or musician. So he subsists on the government’s €300 monthly refugee stipend. But still, he keeps playing because that is not just what he does, but who he has become. That evening, as he rushes to yet another concert, he insists that he is not a great pianist, just good at marketing his story. He has invited other refugees to join him at concerts, to ease the minds of Germans who fear that every refugee might be a terrorist. “People will see them sitting and listening to music,” he explains. “Sweet people, following German rules. ” The concert is a hit. But he cannot sleep afterward, and a day later, his mood darkens as he heads to his next show. At the train station, he learns the venue is five hours away, not two, as he was told. Too many patrons are booking too many shows, not coordinating, not considering his exhaustion. Germans, he says, would never subject themselves to such a schedule. “Just say no,” Ms. Gruhn has told him. But he cannot. He feels obligated. As the train zips through a storybook landscape — castle turrets, deep woods — he brings to mind an enchanted child, unable to stop dancing. Disembarking at Gütersloh, an industrial town clear across the country, he sees a car hit a bicyclist, who falls with a thud. “She’s going to die,” he says. “I know the sound. Just look at it, the blood. She will die for sure. ” But there is no blood. The paramedics think the cyclist will be all right. Is Mr. Ahmad reliving Yarmouk? There’s a little child sleeping in the bed, Hungry, tired, but dreamy. The barrel [bomb] came. It didn’t leave behind the small or the old. The child is up in paradise. So happy, so full. The first time a government fighter jet attacked Yarmouk is seared into Mr. Ahmad’s memory: Dec. 16, 2012. Rockets landed near a United Nations school and a mosque sheltering displaced people. Body parts littered the ground. People fled headlong with hurriedly packed bags. It was a shock to Palestinians raised on the Syrian government’s claim to be their champion. For Mr. Ahmad, it was the start of “a second Nakba,” or disaster, the Palestinians’ name for their displacement in 1948. To him, Yarmouk was a substitute homeland. But his father, born in southern Syria after his parents were driven from their home in the Galilee, had always told him different. “He told me music is our country,” Mr. Ahmad tells us. “And now I’m noticing this is true. ” Mr. Ahmad’s parents, like him, were rescued by music. His father, Ibrahim, lost his sight at 8. He was sent to a school for the blind in Damascus, bound for a life of weaving wicker chairs. But he lied, telling his father that he needed a violin or he would be kicked out of school. He learned to play Arabic classics and opened a music shop in Yarmouk. Later, in the Old City of Damascus, a young Syrian woman named Iman, whose conservative father did not want her studying music, sneaked to Ibrahim’s shop and asked for accordion lessons. Romance ensued, but her father rejected her blind suitor: “You want to be a servant?” So Iman, pretending her accordion needed repairs, took her mother to the shop. Ibrahim played, Iman’s mother sang. A few years later, Aeham Ahmad was born. As a small boy, he watched his father dip wooden slats in water, softening and bending them to build the fat belly of an oud. He remembers his father’s storeroom, a mysterious expanse of broken guitars and pianos. His father enrolled him in an elite music school when he was 6 to learn to read scores and play Western classical music. He worked hard but lacked the grades, and the connections, for a concert career, so he studied music education and worked in the shop. Still, he played with a driven energy. “I always feel I’m not good enough,” Mr. Ahmad says. “I was like this before, and the war made it worse: I play every day to fix something that is screwed up in me. ” One day, Mr. Ahmad noticed a young woman in glasses lingering at the window. Mortified, he pretended to be on the phone. Later, she walked in with shawarma sandwiches. “For me and you,” she said. “We’re going to eat. ” It was a bold move in their traditional neighborhood. But Mr. Ahmad liked that. He felt even luckier after war broke out. His wife gave birth twice while their town was under siege, and she supported him when playing music became risky. “I thank God,” he says, “for having a strong woman. ” When protests against President Bashar of Syria began in 2011, he says, he watched with interest but did not join. He was reluctant to embrace a cause or identity beyond music, “my own personal revolution. ” Security forces fired on protesters armed rebellion gathered steam. Yarmouk stayed neutral at first, as Palestinian leaders urged. But Syria’s relatively good treatment of Palestinians gave them a stake in the country, and like Syrians, they were divided. Many joined the rebellion. Yarmouk Camp sheltered wounded rebels and displaced civilians, enough to provoke government attacks. Rebels seized the camp, and security forces sealed it off. Officials rarely allowed United Nations aid deliveries. People were shot while picking up food boxes, or arrested, like Mr. Ahmad’s brother Alaa. Food prices soared. Those who could afford to bribe their way out did. Those who could not ate grass. Mr. Ahmad did not try to leave he was wanted for military service. To feed the family, he spent its savings. Then an uncle set his pigeons free and fled himself, leaving the birds’ feed, a mountain of lentils. Mr. Ahmad opened a falafel stand. Falafel should be made of chickpeas, but people were hungry. One day, a shell landed near his stand, killing three customers. Shrapnel hit Mr. Ahmad’s hand. He started playing piano more, to rehabilitate his fingers. That gave him an idea. The lentils were running out, but music never would. He found seven friends sharing a water pipe (tobacco was scarce). One, Mahmoud Tamim, liked to write songs mocking Mr. Assad Mr. Ahmad asked him to write one about Yarmouk. They became the first Yarmouk Guys, Shebab . For their debut, they pushed the piano to the rubble from the first airstrike and sang the new song, “Yarmouk Is Missing You. ” It remains their biggest hit. The project felt pure back then, but as their fame grew, some singers asked for pay. Next, activists started selling photographs to media outlets. Even Mr. Ahmad saw opportunities. “Always, there is the ego,” he recalls. “They made money off me, but without these photos, I am not famous. ” The attention made it harder to fend off warlords. A Palestinian faction demanded that he remove a line about Yarmouk’s being “surrounded by cannons,” since the obvious culprit was the government. Then came Islamists. They objected first to concerts, later to music in general. “If the Prophet Muhammad were here, they would call him an infidel if he disagreed with them — it’s about ‘agree and obey,’” Mr. Ahmad complained at the time in a video chat. “Can they stop the birds from singing?” He stopped playing in public. He hid his electronic keyboard in a duffel bag and climbed to rooftops to play, watching out for government snipers. Still, he felt unsafe. Members of his band were being abducted: Mr. Tamim by security forces, others by Islamist fighters. One day, a gunman set his piano on fire. Finally, Mr. Ahmad cashed in. A German journalist sent enough money to get him and his family out of Yarmouk. Halfway to Turkey, security forces stopped them and threw them in jail, the children included. They got out a week later, but, shaken, they decided that his wife and their children would wait in Syria because relatives are still in danger, we are not disclosing their names. Mr. Ahmad went on alone. Emigration, kidnapping, killing and hunger My heart is torn among my bones, Bleeding blood, fire and light. Misery has crossed the sea. For a while, he was just another refugee. He faded into the masses fleeing then, in August 2015, as the exodus to Europe grew. Paying smugglers, he crossed mountains, dodging checkpoints and border guards. His first boat from Turkey sank, and several people drowned. Mr. Ahmad filmed his second crossing for the BBC. Safe in Europe, he started posting his progress on Facebook. Now, he was traveling openly as the Piano Man of Yarmouk. He arrived in September in Munich, entering Germany at the peak of European sympathy. A wrenching photograph of a drowned Syrian toddler, Alan Kurdi, had gone viral borders were open and Germans were meeting trains with flowers. Mr. Ahmad bounced from camp to camp, but practically everywhere, he found helpers who knew his story. In Stuttgart, an online fan invited him home. They played a duet, his first German performance. Concert invitations multiplied. In November, the welcome came to an abrupt end with the Islamic State’s attacks in Paris. Though the killers were European citizens of North African origin, fears grew that sleeper cells were among the Middle Eastern arrivals. There were angry calls to send refugees back. German liberals spreading a message of inclusion seized on Mr. Ahmad, “as if,” he joked, “I’m the only refugee around. ” He performed with German celebrities like the folk singer Judith Holofernes and received the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Inclusion and the Fight Against Poverty. After migrants attacked women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, he tried to ease tensions with a concert. Audiences and journalists skewed his story to fit European fears, he says, emphasizing Islamist extremists but playing down the government siege. But he could hardly complain, counting on the attention to speed the paperwork to bring his family to Germany — and maybe even smooth others’ path to integration. “I failed to change anything in Syria,” he reasoned, “but here I might have a chance. ” By the time we visit, Mr. Ahmad is used to the contrasts of life in this wealthy German town. Outside his dormitory, spacious houses are draped with lilacs and rhododendrons, and a poster advertises a €50 reward for a lost teddy bear. Rarely alone, he is lonely. He walks head down, video chatting with his wife and boys. He bounces between his dorm room and fancy hotels paid for by concert organizers. He has met the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Television news amps up fear of refugees and reports occasional attacks on migrants. But Mr. Ahmad insists that no German has ever threatened him. And so, he keeps playing, trying to change German minds — and fight stereotypes. A day after the Wiesbaden concert, Mr. Ahmad plays for a high school class. The students listen, rapt, then ask questions that rankle. “If you were still in Syria, would you be fighting for ISIS?” “How could you learn piano in Syria?” He answers gamely: He is against all violence Syrians are the Islamic State’s main victims prewar Syria was troubled, not destitute his family owned several houses and pianos. “How has your integration been?” someone asks. “Perfect,” he says. Just once we see him lose his temper: a wealthy concert host demands €2 change from a €200 train ticket. “Everyone is promoting themselves,” Mr. Ahmad splutters later. In recent weeks, things have improved for Mr. Ahmad. He received residency status and a small apartment. His bureaucratic tangle is solved: Now, he will be able to incorporate a company, hire a manager and be paid for concerts. And finally, days ago, his wife and children arrived. Still he wonders onstage: “Are they feeling the music I’m feeling? Or do they just feel pity because I’m a refugee?” Germans, he tells an audience in Wiesbaden, often ask if he has heard of Mozart. He pauses a beat, then charges into a medley: Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca intercut with Beethoven’s “Für Elise. ” He slows down, speeds up, flashes a grin, then swipes a hand up and down the keyboard like Little Richard, or Liberace. The crowd laughs, clapping in time. It is a musical joke, a jab at racist assumptions. And they are in on it. | 1 |
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IMRAN GASHKORI | Sports Editor |
As excitement for summer cricket builds, Wynnum father Chris Richards has honed his preparation, taking 7 wickets in a “frightening” spell yesterday.
“They were coming out perfectly,” the 36-year-old said between celebratory beers. The Australian tradition of backyard cricket has gotten much more competitive in recent years. PHOTO: Supplied.
“Warnie always said one brings two… In this case I went further,” he said.
The full-time landscaper took the wickets of his three kids (aged 5, 8 & 13) as well as his wife (32) and two kids from down the street (ages unknown).
“I was a pretty talented junior but my best was only three or four for,” he said.
Richards claimed the scalps in just four overs on his 16-meter backyard pitch aided by generous electric wickie rules and the controversial one-hand-one-bounce law. Richards vehemently denies that he tampered with the ball, despite half of it being covered in a mysterious tape for the duration of the match. PHOTO: Supplied.
However, video has emerged of Richards allegedly tampering with the ball with what seems like red electrical tape.
“The tape was already on the ball before we started playing. That’s well within the rules,” he said.
Neighbours described his spell as “frightening and intense” but added numerous dismissals were through the six-and-out by-law.
In addition to his economical and wicket-to-wicket line-and-length bowling style, Richards also used an impressive array of sledges and other psychological tactics to get under the skin of the opposition team.
His daughter Kayla explains.
“Dad would dip one in short and I’d have to dive out-of-the-way,” she said.
“Every time I tried to dodge the short balls, he’d call me a poofter, which doesn’t make any sense to me,”
Despite the criticism levelled against him, Richards has lashed out at his detractors.
“You don’t hear Johno (Mitchell Johnson) whinge about how he takes ’em” the one-time 3rd grader said.
“I’m already growing the mo’ so I can steam in with him when The Ashes start.”
“I played it smart. Me boy Jacob (aged 8 ) Is a pretty timid kid. I knew after knocking over Darcy (aged 5) with a full toss that he would be pretty nervous at the crease. I banged the first one in short to get him backing away. He was a frightened rabbit after that. All I had to do was put the next one on the stumps. Seven balls later I had his wicket.”
With additional reporting from the Wynnum Advertiser.
2 Responses to " Brisbane Dad Takes 7 Backyard Wickets In “Frightening Return To Form” " Greg July 6, 2015 at 5:08 pm
Best one yet boys, keep it up | 0 |
posted by Eddie “…Out of the middle of its division, a burning torch sprang, throwing out a long way, flames, coals, and sparks. As well, the moon’s body which was lower, twisted as though anxious, and in the words of those who told me and had seen it with their own eyes, the moon palpitated like a pummelled snake. After this, it returned to its proper state…” The moon is without a doubt, one of the most enigmatic objects in the sky. Thousands of years ago, ancient civilizations observed the sky, watching in awe Earth’s faithful companion. Since time immemorial, the moon has also been the subject of numerous myths and conspiracy theories. All kinds of strange ‘things’ are connected t. Interestingly, in 1178, a group of monks from Canterbury observed how the moon ‘suddenly exploded’ into ‘sparks’, taking a ‘blackish appearance’. If we look history history, we will realize that man times have astronomical events been mistaken for supernatural signs. In ancient times, these events were considered omens, and from time to time, strange lights observed in the sky were interpreted as evil signs. Mysteriously, on June 18th of 1178, monks in Canterbury observed a fascinating sighting. As they looked up to the sky, they witnessed a fascinating event which they described accordingly: “…This year on the Sunday before the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, after sunset when the moon was first seen, a marvelous sign was seen by five or more men sitting facing it. Now, there was a clear new moon, as was usual at that phase, its horns extended to the east, and behold suddenly the upper horn was divided in two. Out of the middle of its division, a burning torch sprang, throwing out a long way, flames, coals, and sparks. As well, the moon’s body which was lower, twisted as though anxious, and in the words of those who told me and had seen it with their own eyes, the moon palpitated like a pummelled snake. After this, it returned to its proper state…” So what did they observe in 1178? Did the moon really blow up? According to researchers, they didn’t actually witness the moon exploding, but they observed a massive impact of a large body that smashed into the moon, forming what we today know is the Giordano Bruno crater. However, there are others who disagree saying that an impact od such magnitude would have sent towards Earth debris that would have resulted in sightings observed by more people on Earth, and not just a few monks. However, studies have shown that the impact would have launched 10 million tons of ejecta into the Earth’s atmosphere in the following weeks. According to a report from NASA , such an impact would have triggered a blizzard-like, week-long meteor storm on Earth –yet there are no accounts of such a storm in any known historical record, including the European, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese and Korean astronomical archives. Withers reported his analysis and other tests of the hypothesis in this month’s issue of Meteoritics and Planetary Science . According to many, if we want to explain what the monks saw from a scientific perspective, then the most plausible explanation is that the monks probably witnessed a massive meteor blow up in the atmosphere. From the monk’s observational point –and only from there— It would have looked as if the moon had exploded, while people from elsewhere would have spotted the phenomenon but only as a bright shooting star. “I calculate that this would cause a week-long meteor storm comparable to the peak of the 1966 Leonids,” he said. Ten million tons of rock showering the entire Earth as pieces of ejecta about a centimeter across (inch-sized fragments) for a week is equivalent to 50,000 meteors each hour. And they would be very bright, very easy to see, at magnitude 1 or magnitude 2. It would have been a spectacular sight to see! Everyone around the world would have had the opportunity to see the best fireworks show in history.” “I think they happened to be at the right place at the right time to look up in the sky and see a meteor that was directly in front of the moon, coming straight towards them.” “That would explain why only five people are recorded to have seen it. Imagine being in Canterbury on that June evening and seeing the moon convulse and spray hot, molten rock into space.” “The memories of it would live with you for the rest of your life.” Source: | 0 |
Only five?
Sheesh, with Killary it's at least 1,000 terrifying things. | 0 |
HUGE Air Drill, Over 130 Command Centers in Russia, CIS on Alert
In addition, over 100 aircraft have been scrambled as part of the drill Originally appeared at RT Over 100 fighter jets, long-range bombers and combat helicopters have been scrambled at their bases across Russia and six post-Soviet states as the allies prepare to test their integrated air defense system in a massive military exercise.
More than 130 command and control centers have been put on alert in Russia and six former Soviet republics – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
All the countries contribute to the integrated air defense system overseen by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – an alliance of former Soviet republics that emerged after the collapse of the USSR.
The large-scale military exercise is to train high-readiness forces in dealing with “airspace violations, including by hijacked aircraft” as well as “assisting crews of aircraft in distress,” the ministry added.
Some 100 aircraft, including Su-27, MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighter jets, Su-24 and Su-34 bombers, as well as Su-25 ground attack jets and combat helicopters provided by the allies, are expected to take part in the drill.
Troops from electronic warfare and surface-to-air missile units are also participating.
The exercise started at 8am Moscow time with Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 aircraft given the roles of aggressor. The planes, simulating an adversary force, were spotted over Eastern European and Central Asian airspaces, the Russian military said.
All units are being coordinated from a Russian Air Force command center located outside Moscow.
The joint CIS air defense system, established in 1995, currently focuses on protecting the ex-Soviet countries’ airspace as well as providing air or missile strike early warnings and coordinated responses.
Russia contributes the bulk of the system’s early warning and air defense capacities, with short- and long-range radar stations monitoring the area.
Notably, the system does not have a single commander. It is collectively controlled by the chiefs of the air defense forces of the member states themselves.
Bilateral air defense systems between Russia and its neighbors have also been established in recent years. Last December, an air defense agreement between Russia and Armenia was signed by the two countries’ defense ministers, Sergey Shoigu and Seyran Oganyan, respectively.
In 2013 Moscow signed a separate treaty on a joint regional air defense system with Kazakhstan. Russian and Belarusian anti-aircraft missile forces have already been unified into an integrated system designed to contain any security threats in the European theater. Did you enjoy this article? - Consider helping us! Russia Insider depends on your donations: the more you give, the more we can do. $1 $10 Other amount
If you wish you make a tax-deductible contribution of $1,000 or more, please visit our Support page for instructions Click here for our commenting guidelines On fire | 0 |
By wmw_admin on November 1, 2016 Michael Snyder — The Economic Collapse Oct 30, 2016
In the world of politics, the cover-up is often worse than the original crime. It was his role in the Watergate cover-up that took down Richard Nixon, and now Hillary Clinton’s cover-up of her email scandal could send her to prison for a very, very long time. When news broke that the FBI has renewed its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, it sent shockwaves throughout the political world . But this time around, we aren’t just talking about an investigation into the mishandling of classified documents. I haven’t heard anyone talking about this, but if the FBI discovers that Hillary Clinton altered, destroyed or concealed any emails that should have been turned over to the FBI during the original investigation, she could be charged with obstruction of justice. That would immediately end her political career, and if she was found guilty it could send her to prison for the rest of her life.
I have not seen a single news report mention the phrase “obstruction of justice” yet, but I am convinced that there is a very good chance that this is where this scandal is heading. The following is the relevant part of the federal statute that deals with obstruction of justice … Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsified, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under Title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
If Hillary Clinton is sent to prison for 20 years, that would essentially be for the rest of her life.
I have a feeling that the FBI is going to find a great deal of evidence of obstruction of justice in Huma Abedin’s emails. But unfortunately there is not likely to be a resolution to this matter before November 8th, because according to the Wall Street Journal there are approximately 650,000 emails to search through… As federal agents prepare to scour roughly 650,000 emails to see how many relate to a prior probe of Hillary Clinton ’s email use, the surprise disclosure that investigators were pursuing the potential new evidence lays bare building tensions inside the bureau and the Justice Department over how to investigate the Democratic presidential nominee. Metadata found on the laptop used by former Rep. Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide, suggests there may be thousands of emails sent to or from the private server that Mrs. Clinton used while she was secretary of state, according to people familiar with the matter. It will take weeks, at a minimum, to determine whether those messages are work-related from the time Ms. Abedin served with Mrs. Clinton at the State Department; how many are duplicates of emails already reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and whether they include either classified information or important new evidence in the Clinton email probe.
Of those 650,000 emails, an inside source told Fox News that “ at least 10,000 ” would be of interest to the investigation.
At this point, FBI officials have not even begun searching through the emails, because a search warrant has not been secured yet. The following comes from CNN … Government lawyers haven’t yet approached Abedin’s lawyers to seek an agreement to conduct the search. Sources earlier told CNN that those discussions had begun, but the law enforcement officials now say they have not. Either way, government lawyers plan to seek a search warrant from a judge to conduct the search of the computer, the law enforcement officials said.
But the FBI is reportedly already searching a laptop that was co-owned by Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin, and no warrant was necessary for that search because Weiner is cooperating with the FBI.
Many have been wondering why FBI Director James Comey would choose to make such a bold move just over a week until election day. Surely he had to know that this would have a dramatic impact on the election, and it is unlikely that he would have done so unless someone had already found something really big. In addition, Comey was reportedly eager to find an opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of his peers at the FBI. The following is an excerpt from a Daily Mail article that was written by Ed Klein, the author of a recently released New York Times bestseller about the Clintons entitled “ Guilty As Sin “… ‘The atmosphere at the FBI has been toxic ever since Jim announced last July that he wouldn’t recommend an indictment against Hillary,’ said the source, a close friend who has known Comey for nearly two decades, shares family outings with him, and accompanies him to Catholic mass every week. ‘Some people, including department heads, stopped talking to Jim, and even ignored his greetings when they passed him in the hall,’ said the source. ‘They felt that he betrayed them and brought disgrace on the bureau by letting Hillary off with a slap on the wrist.’ According to the source, Comey fretted over the problem for months and discussed it at great length with his wife, Patrice. He told his wife that he was depressed by the stack of resignation letters piling up on his desk from disaffected agents. The letters reminded him every day that morale in the FBI had hit rock bottom.
So what happens next?
In the most likely scenario, the FBI will not have time to complete the investigation and decide whether or not to charge Hillary Clinton before the election. This means that we would go into November 8th with this scandal hanging over the Clinton campaign, and that would seem to be very good news for Donald Trump.
However, it is possible that once the FBI starts searching through these emails that they could come to the conclusion very rapidly that charges against Clinton are warranted, and if that happens we could still see some sort of announcement before election day.
In the unlikely event that does happen, we could actually see Hillary Clinton forced out of the race before November 8th.
Once again, this appears to be very unlikely at this point, but it is still possible.
If Clinton was forced to step aside, the Democrats would need to come up with a new nominee, and that process would take time. In an article later today on The Most Important News I will reveal who I believe that nominee would be.
In such a scenario, the Democrats would desperately need time to get their act together, and so we could actually see Barack Obama attempt to delay or suspend the election . The legality of such a move is highly questionable, but Barack Obama has not allowed a little thing like the U.S. Constitution to stop him in the past.
This week is going to be exceedingly interesting – that is for sure.
The craziest election in modern American history just keeps getting crazier, and I have a feeling that even more twists and turns are ahead.
It sure seems ironic that Anthony Weiner is playing such a central role this late in the story, and I can’t wait to see what is in store for the season finale. | 0 |
WATCH: Pay no attention to 2008 Michelle Obama, because 2016 FLOTUS’ says Hillary’s totally qualified! Posted at 4:44 pm on October 27, 2016 by Doug P.
As we told you earlier, First Lady Michelle Obama was the headliner at a rally where she was introduced by Hillary Clinton . FLOTUS had praise to offer the Democrat nominee: WATCH: FLOTUS: "We want a President who takes the job seriously" https://t.co/H9n7JKbYS7 pic.twitter.com/g3f0JJh8zb
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 27, 2016 . @FLOTUS : "Hillary is a policy wonk. And let me tell you, when you are president, that is a good thing." pic.twitter.com/uTLQdpDhqG | 0 |
A freight train slammed into a charter bus full of people on their way to a casino on Tuesday afternoon in Biloxi, Miss. killing at least four onboard and injuring many more, the authorities said. The bus, which was near its destination in Biloxi on a trip from Austin, Tex. appeared to have gotten stuck on the tracks at a railroad crossing, the Biloxi Police Department said. About 50 people, including many members of a senior center in Texas, were on the bus when the crash occurred, around 2:10 p. m. and almost every passenger appeared to have some injuries, said the police chief, John Miller. “It’s a terrible tragedy,” Chief Miller said at a news conference, adding that the accident was the worst of its kind that he could recall in Biloxi. “It is a terrible, chaotic scene right now, but we have it under control. ” A witness who called 911 and ran to the accident scene described a horrific sight: the locomotive, still running, tearing into the driver’s side of the bus and knocking people out of their seats. “I went out there, and I started hearing sirens,” said Bradley Raye, a manager at Hammett’s Auto Electric, about 200 feet from where the accident occurred. Passengers on the bus, which was operated by the company Echo Transportation, said they were traveling from Austin, Chief Miller said. One passenger, Jim DeLaCruz, said the bus got stuck trying to cross the tracks, and the driver yelled for everyone to exit as the train barreled toward them. “We were trying to get off ourselves,” Mr. DeLaCruz said in a video interview with The Sun Herald in Biloxi. He escaped uninjured, but his wife appeared to have a leg injury and walked away from the accident with a firefighter tending her. “The train just kept coming and kept coming,” he said. Many of the passengers were from the Bastrop Senior Center, about 30 miles southeast of Austin. They had departed on Sunday morning for a trip along the Gulf Coast, said Barbara Adkins, the center’s president. On Tuesday afternoon, the group was heading to a casino in Biloxi before stopping in New Orleans. Ms. Adkins said it appeared that some of the passengers were relatives traveling with members of the senior center, which hosts music, entertainment and art events for its members during the week. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and his wife, Cecilia, said they were upset by the crash. “Cecilia and I are deeply saddened by the loss of life in this tragic accident, and we extend our prayers to the families who lost loved ones and to all those affected by this tragedy,” they said in a statement. John Ferrari, the chief executive of the TBL Group, which operates Echo Transportation, said he was still gathering information about the crash. Echo, which has a fleet of 113 vehicles, mostly buses and vans, says on its website that it provides travel for schools, tour groups and corporations. Its vehicles have been involved in six crashes in the past two years, but only one resulted in injuries, federal records show. The freight train, which was operated by CSX, was en route to Mobile, Ala. from New Orleans and had three locomotives and 52 cars, the company said. No one on the train was injured. “Our thoughts are with all involved,” the company said in a statement. The CSX rail line originates in New Orleans and runs along the Gulf of Mexico into Mississippi before turning north in Alabama toward Mobile. In Biloxi, the railroad cuts through the southern part of the city, near homes, an industrial area and several casinos. The speed limit for trains there is 45 miles per hour. The crossing at Main Street, which has two gate arms with flashing lights, has been the site of several crashes in recent years, according to federal records. In 2014, a train barreled into a that had gotten stuck on the tracks, injuring a person on the train. Two months ago, the driver of a Pepsi delivery truck jumped out of the cab when his truck was stuck in the way of a train. A spokesman for CSX said the company would know more about the accident, including the speed of the train at the time of the crash, after its event recorder was reviewed. | 1 |
When Libby Chamberlain, the creator of the Clinton Facebook group Pantsuit Nation, announced this week that she plans to publish a Pantsuit book, she framed the publication deal as a collective victory for the group. “A book of YOU. A book BY YOU,” she wrote. “A permanent, beautiful, holdable, shareable, tearstainable book. ” But pretty swiftly, she faced a backlash from some of the page’s members, who derided the deal as a betrayal of the group’s primary function as a private place for people to share personal stories. Many commenters asked whether people whose stories appeared in the book would be compensated, and how the profits would be spent. Some accused Ms. Chamberlain of crass profiteering. “What a ! You had the biggest group of new political activists this country has ever seen, and you chose and profiting off that instead of harnessing that energy to make the country better,” one member wrote on the page. “Very disappointed,’’ another group member fumed. “I was hoping this group would become a powerful force for activism to fight the evil we all have to face. You chose another direction and that’s your right of course. But my energy and money is going elsewhere. ” The book, which is scheduled to be published in May by Flatiron Books, will draw on the stories and images from the group, which now has around four million members. In her original announcement on Monday, Ms. Chamberlain encouraged people who want to submit their posts and stories to contact her, and said that she would seek permission from others to use their material. In a post addressing irate members on Wednesday, she explained that the proceeds would be used to “support Pantsuit Nation and the causes that are central to the group. ” She also said that the Pantsuit Nation nonprofit organizations she is forming will help raise money for other groups, including Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Some members voiced their support for Ms. Chamberlain’s plans, arguing that a book would amplify the group’s message beyond Facebook. Still, others saw the deal as another big letdown after their hopes of electing a woman to the country’s highest office were crushed on Nov. 8. “I voted for the first female POTUS and all I got was this lousy book,” one person wrote. | 1 |
Like many astrophysicists, Sara Seager sometimes has a problem with her perception of scale. Knowing that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies, and that each might contain hundreds of billions of stars, can make the lives of astrophysicists and even those closest to them seem insignificant. Their work can also, paradoxically, bolster their sense of themselves. Believing that you alone might answer the question “Are we alone?” requires considerable ego. Astrophysicists are forever toggling between feelings of bigness and smallness, of hubris and humility, depending on whether they’re looking out or within. One perfect fall day, Seager boarded a train in Concord, Mass. on her way to her office at M. I. T. and realized she didn’t have her phone. She couldn’t seem to decide whether this was or wasn’t a big deal. Not having her phone would make the day tricky in some ways, because her sons, Max and Alex, had a soccer game after school, and she would need to coordinate a ride to watch them. She also wanted to be able to find and sit with her best friend, Melissa, who sometimes takes the same train to work. “She’s my best friend, but I know she has other best friends,” Seager said, wanting to make the nature of their relationship clear. She is an admirer of clarity. She also likes absolutes, spaces and time to think, but not too much time to think. She took out her laptop to see if she could email Melissa. The train’s was down. She would have to occupy herself on the commute alone. Seager’s office is on the 17th floor of M. I. T. ’s Green Building, the tallest building in Cambridge, its roof dotted with meteorological and radar equipment. She is a tenured professor of physics and of planetary science, certified a “genius” by the MacArthur Foundation in 2013. Her area of expertise is the relatively new field of exoplanets: planets that orbit stars other than our sun. More particular, she wants to find an Earthlike exoplanet — a rocky planet of reasonable mass that orbits its star within a temperate “Goldilocks zone” that is not too hot or too cold, which would allow water to remain liquid — and determine that there is life on it. That is as simple as her math gets. Her office is spare. There is a set of bookshelves — “Optics” and “Asteroids III” and “How to Build a Habitable Planet” — topped with a row of certificates and honors leaning against a chalkboard covered with equations. In addition to the MacArthur award, which doesn’t come with a certificate but with $625, 000, she is proudest of her election to the National Academy of Sciences. Although the line between lunacy and scientific fact is constantly shifting, the search for aliens still occupies the shadows of cranks, and Seager hears from them almost daily, or at least her assistant does. By the standards of her universe, Seager is famous. She is careful about the company she keeps and the words she chooses. She isn’t searching for aliens. She’s searching for exoplanets that show signs of life. She’s searching for a familiar blue dot in the sky. That means Seager, who is 45, has given herself a very difficult problem to solve, the problem that has always plagued astronomy, which, at its essence, is the study of light: Light wages war with itself. Light pollutes. Light blinds. Seager has a commanding view of downtown Boston from her office window. She can sweep her eyes, hazel and intense, all the way from the gold Capitol dome to Fenway Park. When Seager works at night and the Red Sox are in town, she sometimes has to close her curtains, because the ballpark’s white lights are so glaring. And on this morning, after the sun completed its rise, her enviable vista became unbearable. It was searing, and she had to draw her curtains. That’s how light can be the object of her passion and also her enemy. Little lights — exoplanets — are washed out by bigger lights — their stars — the way stars are washed out by our biggest light, the sun. Seager’s challenge is that she has dedicated her life to the search for the smallest lights. The vastness of space almost defies conventional measures of distance. Driving the speed limit to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star grouping to the sun, would take 50 million years or so our fastest current spacecraft would make the trip in a relatively brisk 73, 000 years. The star is six away. To rocket across our galaxy would take about 23, 000 times as long as a trip to Alpha Centauri, or 1. 7 billion years, and the Milky Way is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope once searched a tiny fragment of the night sky, the size of a penny held at arm’s length, that was long thought by astronomers to be dark. It contained 3, 000 previously unseen points of light. Not 3, 000 new stars — 3, 000 new galaxies. And in all those galaxies, orbiting around some large percentage of each of their virtually countless stars: planets. Planets like Neptune, planets like Mercury, planets like Earth. As late as the 1990s, exoplanets remained a largely theoretical construct. Logic dictated that they must be out there, but proof of their existence remained as out of reach as they were. Some scientists dismissed efforts to find exoplanets as “stamp collecting,” a derogatory term within the community for hunting new, unreachable lights just to name them. (Even among astronomers, there can be too much stargazing.) It wasn’t until 1995 that the colossal 51 Pegasi b, the first widely recognized exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star, was found by a pair of Swiss astronomers using a spectrograph. The Swiss didn’t see 51 Pegasi b no one has. By using a complex mathematical method called radial velocity, they witnessed the planet’s gravitational effect on its star and deduced that it must be there. There has been an explosion of knowledge in the relatively short time since, in part because of Seager’s pioneering theoretical work in using light to study the composition of alien atmospheres. When starlight passes through a planet’s atmosphere, certain potentially gases, like oxygen, will block particular wavelengths of light. It’s a way of seeing something by looking for what’s not there. Light or its absence is also the root of something called the transit technique, a newer, more efficient way than radial velocity of finding exoplanets by looking at their stars. It treats light almost like music, something that can be sensed more accurately than it can be seen. The Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009 and now trailing 75 million miles behind Earth, detects exoplanets when they orbit between their stars and the telescope’s mirrors, making tiny but measurable partial eclipses. A planet the size of Jupiter passing in front of its sun might result in a 1 percent dip in the amount of starlight Kepler receives, a drop that, in time, reveals itself to be as regular as rhythm, as an orbit. The transit technique has led to a bonanza of finds. In May, NASA announced the validation of 1, 284 exoplanets, by far the largest single collection of new worlds yet. There are now 3, 414 confirmed exoplanets and an additional 4, 696 suspected ones, the count forever increasing. Before Kepler, the nature of the transit technique meant that most of those exoplanets were “Hot Jupiters,” giant balls of hydrogen and helium with short orbits, making them scalding, lifeless behemoths. But in April 2014, Kepler found its first exoplanet in its star’s habitable zone: . It’s about 10 percent larger than Earth and orbits on the outer reaches of where the temperature could allow life. No one knows the mass, composition or density of but its discovery remains a revelation. Kepler was searching, somewhat blindly, an impossibly small sliver of space, and it found a potentially habitable world more quickly than anyone might have guessed. In August, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory announced that they had detected a somewhat similar planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the single star closest to us after the sun. They named it Proxima Centauri b. Studying the data, Seager supported the discovery and agreed that it might boast a — or at least — surface temperature. There are now nearly 300 confirmed exoplanets or candidates orbiting within the habitable zones of their stars. Extrapolating the math, NASA scientists now believe that there are tens of billions of potentially planets in the Milky Way alone. The odds practically guarantee that a habitable planet is somewhere out there and that someone or something else is, too. In some ways, the search for life is now where the search for exoplanets was 20 years ago: Common sense suggests a presence that we can’t confirm. Seager understands that we won’t know they’re out there until we more truly lay eyes on their home and see something that reminds us of ours. Maybe it’s the color blue maybe it’s clouds maybe, however many generations from now, it’s the orange electrical grids of alien cities, the black rectangles of their lightless Central Parks. But how could we ever begin to look that far? “Everything brave has to start somewhere,” Seager says. The beginning of her next potential breakthrough hangs on the wall opposite the window in her office. It is a scale model of a single petal of something called the starshade. She has been a leading proponent of the starshade project, and outside her teaching, it is one of her principal professional concerns. Imagine that aliens with our present technology were trying to find us. At best, they would see Jupiter. We would be lost in the sun’s glare. The same is true for our trying to see them. The starshade is a way to block the light from our theoretical twin’s sun, an idea floated in 1962 by Lyman Spitzer, who also laid the groundwork for space telescopes like Hubble. The starshade is a huge shield, about a hundred feet across. For practical reasons that have to do with the bending of light, but also lend it a certain cosmic beauty, the starshade is shaped exactly like a sunflower. By Seager’s hopeful reckoning, one day the starshade will be rocketed into space and unfurled, working in tandem with a new space telescope like the Wfirst, scheduled to launch in the . When the telescope is aimed at a particular planetary system, lasers will help align the starshade, floating more than 18, 000 miles away, between the telescope and the distant star, closing the curtains on it. With the big light extinguished, the little lights, including a potential Earthlike planet and everything it might represent, will become clear. We will see them. The trouble is that sometimes the simplest ideas are the most complicated to execute. About once a decade since Spitzer’s proposal — he could work out the math but not the mechanics — someone else has taken up the cause, advancing the starshade slightly closer to reality before technological or political inertia set in. Three years ago, Seager joined a new, study to try to overcome the final practical hurdles NASA then chose her from among her fellow committee members to lead the effort. After those decades of false starts, Seager and her team have already succeeded in making the starshade seem like a real possibility. NASA recognized it as a “technology project,” which is speak for “this might actually happen. ” Today the starshade is a piece of buildable, functional hardware. Seager packs that single petal into a battered black case and wheels it, along with a miniature model of the starshade, into classrooms and conferences and the halls of Congress, trying to find the momentum and hundreds of millions of dollars that allow impossible things to exist. “If I want the starshade to succeed, I have to help mastermind it,” Seager says. “The world sees me as the one who will find another Earth. ” She has her intelligence, and her credentials, and her audience. She has her focus. But maybe more than anything else, Seager understands in ways few of us do that sometimes you need darkness to see. Seager grew up in Toronto, wired in a way all her own. “Ever since I was a child, there was just something about me that wasn’t quite like the others,” she says. “Kids know how to sort through who’s the same and who’s different. ” After her parents divorced, her father, Dr. David Seager, achieved a certain fame by becoming one of the world’s leaders in hair transplants. The Seager Hair Transplant Center still operates and bears his name a decade after his death. David Seager was besotted with his bright daughter and wanted her to become a physician. Seager did her best to fit in. Sometimes she did mostly she didn’t. Eventually, she gave up trying. She still talks breathlessly — “without enough modulation,” she has learned by listening to other people talk. She has never had the patience to invest in something like watching TV. “Things just move too slowly,” she says. “It feels like a drag. ” She sleeps a lot, but that’s just a concession to her biology she recognizes that she’s a more efficient machine when she’s rested. But if Seager’s apartness didn’t make her insecure, it also made her feel as though the expectations of others didn’t apply to her. “I loved the stars,” she says. When she was 16, she bought a telescope. Friendless for most of her childhood, Seager eventually forged her way to her own vision of the good life. She found and married a quiet man named Mike Wevrick, whom she met on a ski trip with her canoe club. He had seen something in her that nobody other than her father fully saw he saw her as special as well as strange. Later, she graduated from Harvard, an early expert in exoplanets. (51 Pegasi b was discovered just when she was searching for a thesis topic. “I was born at the perfect time,” she says.) She and Wevrick had Max and Alex Seager was hired by M. I. T. and she and Wevrick and the boys moved into a pretty yellow Victorian in Concord, Mass. She took the train to work. Wevrick, a freelance editor, managed just about everything that didn’t involve the search for intelligent life in the universe. Seager never shopped for groceries or cooked or pumped gas. All she had to do was find another Earth. Then, in the fall of 2009, Wevrick got a stomachache that drove him to bed. They figured it was the flu. Wevrick didn’t have the flu, but a rare cancer of the small intestine. They were told that the initial prospects were good, and he fought the cancer sufferer’s systematic fight. But while laws govern astrophysics, cancer is an anarchist. About a year after Wevrick’s diagnosis, he and Seager went skiing, and he couldn’t keep up. A few more terrible months passed, and he began writing out a methodical list, practical advice for Seager after his death. It wasn’t a love letter it was an instruction manual for life on Earth. By June 2011, he was 47 and in home hospice. Seager asked him how to get the roof rack that carried his canoes off the car. “It’s too complicated to explain,” Wevrick said. That July, he died. The first couple of months after Wevrick’s death were weird. Seager felt a surprising sense of relief from the uncertainties of sickness, a kind of liberation. She didn’t care about conventions like money, which she had never needed to manage, and she took the boys on some epic trips. There are pictures of them smiling together in the deserts of New Mexico, on mountaintops in Hawaii. Then one day, she went into Boston for a haircut, got turned around and accidentally walked into a lawyer’s office next to the salon. Seager ended up talking to a woman inside. That woman was also a widow, and she told Seager that there would be a moment, as inevitable as death itself, when her feelings of release would be replaced by the more lasting aimlessness of the lost. Seager walked back outside, and just like that, the world came out from under her feet. She fell into an impossible blackness. Later that winter, she took the boys sledding at the big hill in Concord. Two other women and their children were there. Seager stared at them coldly. They were smiling and carefree with their perfect, blissful lives. Seager felt ugly and ruined next to them. Then Alex, who was 6 at the time, had a meltdown. He sprawled himself across the hill so that the other children couldn’t go down it. The two other mothers tried to get him to move. “He has a problem,” Seager told them. They continued to try to shift him. “HE HAS A PROBLEM,” Seager said. “MY HUSBAND DIED. ” “Mine, too,” one of the other women said. That was Melissa. A few weeks later, on Valentine’s Day, Seager was invited to her first gathering of the widows. Today, Melissa says she could detect the telltale “flintiness” of the recently bereaved the moment she saw Seager on the hill. Now there were six widows united in Concord, each each in a different stage of grief, drawn together by the peculiar pull of the unlucky. Three had been widowed by cancer, two by accidents — bicycling and hiking — and one by suicide. Melissa’s husband was four years gone, Seager’s seven months. Widowhood was like a new universe for Seager to explore. She had never understood many social norms. The celebration of birthdays, for instance. “I just don’t see the point,” she says. “Why would I want to celebrate my birthday? Why on earth would I even care?” She had also drawn a hard line against Christmas and its myths. “I never wanted my kids to believe in Santa. ” After Wevrick’s death, she became even more of a satellite, developing a deeper intolerance for life’s ordinary concerns. Making dinner seemed an insurmountable chore, the routine of school lunches a form of torture. The roof needed to be replaced, and she didn’t have the faintest idea how to get it fixed. She wasn’t sure how to swipe credit cards. If the answers to her questions weren’t somewhere on Wevrick’s three wrinkled sheets of paper, it could feel as though they were locked in a safe. There was a pendant light in her front hall, where the boys would fight with their toy lightsabers, and sometimes they would hit the light with their wild swings. Seager decided that either the light or one of the boys was going to end up damaged. She asked the widows how to do electrical work — “I have to parcel out things with logic and evidence,” she says — got out the ladder and took down the light, carefully wrapping black tape around the ends of the bare wires that now poked through the hole in the ceiling. She remembers thinking that her removing that light, all by herself, represented the height of her new accomplishment. She felt so reduced. She felt so gigantic. For all of her real and perceived strangeness, the most unusual thing about Seager is her blindness to her greatest gift. She is more than aware of her preternatural mathematical abilities, her possession of a rare mind that can see numbers and their functions as clearly as the rest of us see colors and shapes. “I’m good at that stuff,” she says with her brand of factual certainty that is sometimes confused with arrogance. She knows she is unusually capable of turning abstract concepts into things that can be packed into a case. What she doesn’t always see is her knack for connection between places if not always people, the unconventional grace she possesses when it comes to closing unfathomable distances. Seager has lined the hallway outside her office with a series of magical travel posters put out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Each gives a glimpse of the alien worlds that, in part because of her, we now know exist. There’s a poster for an exoplanet that orbits a pair of stars, like Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine. is depicted with red grass and red leaves on its trees, because its star is cooler and redder than the sun, which might influence photosynthesis in ways. There’s even one for PSO J318. a rogue planet that doesn’t orbit a star but instead wanders across the galaxy, cast in perpetual darkness, swept by rain of molten iron. After the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, Seager wrote a galactic postcard from it for the website Quartz. She closed her eyes and imagined a world 25 trillion miles away. “For the average earthling,” she wrote, “visiting this planet might not be much fun. ” She saw a planet perhaps a third larger than Earth, with an orbit of only 11 days. Given its proximity to its small, red star, she suggested that the ultraviolet radiation on Proxima Centauri b is probably intense but the light . She also deduced that Proxima Centauri b is “tidally locked. ” Like the moon’s relationship to Earth, one side of the planet always faces its star, which is always in the same place in its sky. Parts of Proxima Centauri b are cast in perpetual sunrise or sunset. One side is always in darkness. At first, after Wevrick’s death, Seager thought about abandoning her work, because she was having such a hard time with her responsibilities at home. Her dean talked her out of quitting, giving her financial support to hire caregivers for the boys and urging her to redouble her efforts. “I had worked so hard,” she says. “I had all the years I called the lost years with Mike when I ignored him. We had little tiny kids. I was working all the time, exhausted all the time. But I was like: We’ll have money some day. We’ll have time some day. ” She paused. Her face was blank, emotionless. “Now I’ll cry. ” Seconds later, tears spilled out of her eyes, and her voice modulated. “I wanted to make it up to him, and I never did. ” Seager has always found comfort and perhaps even solace in her work, in her search for another and maybe better version of our world. In her mourning, each discovery represented one more avenue of escape. In the spring of 2013, she was given responsibility for the starshade. That July, she met a tall, man named Charles Darrow. Darrow, who is now 53, was an amateur astronomer and the president of the Toronto branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and at the last minute he decided to go to the society’s annual meeting in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Darrow was on his way out of a profoundly unhappy marriage he worked for his family business, an wholesaler. He needed a break, and he pointed his car north. “I wanted to be alone,” he says. At a reception on the Friday evening, Darrow noticed a woman staring at him from across the room. “I thought she was looking at someone behind me,” he says. Then he went into the lecture hall, and the same woman was that night’s keynote speaker. She talked about exoplanets. The next day, lunch was in a university cafeteria. The woman was in the salad line ahead of him, and she turned around. Darrow mustered up his courage and invited Sara Seager to join him. “I knew about five minutes into the conversation that my life was going to change,” he says. Seager was taken with Darrow the night she saw him in Thunder Bay. She had been struck by the contrast between the whiteness of his shirt and his tanned summer skin. But she didn’t have the same certainty that possessed him at their lunch the next day. She wasn’t sure how to develop a relationship across the 549 miles between her home in Concord and his home outside Toronto. She thought they might never cross paths again. They might not have, except Darrow resolved during his drive back home that he had to call her. He picked up the phone five times but always hung up before she answered. On the sixth, he spoke to her, beginning a long correspondence, emails and conversations over Skype. Darrow and Seager talked every way but face to face. They fell in love remotely. “I had to follow my heart,” Darrow says. “I decided that I wasn’t going to die unhappy. ” Melissa, meanwhile, told Seager that if she could close the gap between here and a planet like — a journey that would take us 500 to complete — then the 549 miles between Concord and Toronto shouldn’t seem like such an insurmountable gulf. By her usual measures, he was right next door. Seager and Darrow married in April 2015. In different ways, each had rescued the other. Seager was the cataclysm that allowed Darrow to make every correction. He divorced, left his family business and moved into a pretty yellow Victorian in Concord. The two boys started calling him dad. For Seager, Darrow was a second chance to know love, even deeper than the one she had known, because it seemed so improbable in her sadness. “I feel so lucky to have found him,” Seager says. “What are the chances?” Adapting to his new life hasn’t always been easy for Darrow. He is determined, as he puts it, “to make Sara the happiest woman in the multiverse. ” He cooks dinner he helps take care of the boys he maintains the house he walks with Seager to the train station every morning, and he picks her up every night. He has chosen to take care of the mundane so that she can devote herself to the extraordinary. But he banged his head more than once on Wevrick’s canoe, which still hung from the back of the garage. Not long ago, Darrow was looking for the right ways to assert his presence, to make a claim to a house that didn’t always feel like his. The wires dangling from the front hall ceiling bothered him. They looked bad and seemed dangerous. A few months after his arrival in Concord, he took his opening. He carved out some of the plaster, installed a plastic box, ran the wires through it and hooked up a new fixture, flush mounted, so that the boys wouldn’t hit it during their duels. Darrow climbed down from the ladder and flicked the switch. The morning after she forgot her phone, Seager woke up and decided, just like that, to skip the commute. With the house to herself, she tried to make coffee. She left out part of the machine, and after some terrible noises, the pot was bone dry. She sat down at her kitchen table with her empty mug and began talking about hundreds of billions of galaxies and their hundreds of billions of stars. Tens of billions of habitable planets, far more of them than there are people on Earth. There has to be other life somewhere out there. We can’t be that special. “It would be arrogant to think so,” Seager said. But in her lifetime, after the Wfirst telescope rockets into orbit, and maybe her starshade follows it — she puts the chances of success at 85 percent — she will have time to explore only the nearest hundred stars or so. A hundred stars out of all those lights in the sky, a fraction of a fraction of a fraction. Will one of them have a small, rocky planet like Earth? Probably. Will one of those small, rocky planets have liquid water on it? Possibly. Will the planet sustain life? Now the odds tilt. Now they are working against her, and she knows it. Now they’re maybe one in a million that she’ll find what she’s looking for. She did some private math. “I believe,” she said. Seager’s discovery will be if it comes, but it will also be quiet, a few pixels on a screen. It will obey the laws of physics. It will be a probability equation: What are the chances? We won’t discover that there is life on other planets the way we’ve been taught that we’ll learn. There won’t be some great mother ship descending from the sky over Johannesburg or a bizarre lightning storm that monsters will ride to New Jersey. What Seager will have is a photograph from a space telescope of a distant solar system, with its star eclipsed by her starshade, and with a familiar blue dot some safe and survivable distance away from it. That’s all the evidence she will have that we’re not alone, and that will be all the evidence she will need. Her proof of life will be a small light where there wasn’t one before. | 1 |
Home › SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY › U.S. LAWMAKERS RAISE PRIVACY CONCERNS OVER NEW HACKING RULES U.S. LAWMAKERS RAISE PRIVACY CONCERNS OVER NEW HACKING RULES 0 SHARES [10/27/16] A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress on Thursday asked the Justice Department to clarify how a looming rule change to the government’s hacking powers could impact privacy rights of innocent Americans. The change, due to take place on December 1, would let judges issue search warrants for remote access to computers located in any jurisdiction, potentially including foreign countries. Magistrate judges can normally only order searches within the jurisdiction of their court, which is typically limited to a few counties. “We are concerned about the full scope of the new authority that would be provided to the Department of Justice,” 23 senators and representatives wrote to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The Supreme Court in April approved amendments to Rule 41 of the federal rules of criminal procedure that would allow judges to issue warrants in cases when a suspect uses anonymizing technology to conceal the location of his or her computer or for an investigation into a network of hacked or infected computers, such as a botnet. Those amendments will take effect on December 1 of this year unless Congress passes legislation that would reject, amend or postpone the changes. Some lawmakers, led by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, have introduced legislation that would halt the changes, but it has yet to gain much traction. Post navigation | 0 |
PARIS — France eased its gun rules on Wednesday to allow police officers to carry their sidearms even if the nation is not in a state of emergency. The move was a response to an attack on Monday in which an Islamic State assailant fatally stabbed a policeman and his companion at their home while their child was there. The eased rules, welcomed by France’s police unions, came as the authorities in Belgium alerted police that more attacks appeared to be in advanced planning stages and could be imminent. A group of extremists have left Syria and divided into smaller groups headed for Belgium and France, the warning said. The information was reported by a Belgian newspaper, La Dernière Heure, which said police had received an alert that “combatants left Syria about a week and a half ago in order to reach Europe via Turkey and Greece, by boat, without passports. ” Belgian counterterrorism officials tried to play down the significance of the warning. The Belgian Coordinating Body for Threat Analysis, which reviews and evaluates intelligence and other information, did not raise the country’s alert level, and said in a statement that the warning, leaked to the newspaper, “had not been contextualized and, in its current form, has no direct impact on the current threat level. ” Brussels, the capital, was virtually shut down in November after attacks in and around Paris left 130 people dead and the authorities warning of the possibility of an imminent attack in Belgium. Officials did not dispute the authenticity of the new warning, which described the assailants as armed and poised to strike. Among the possible targets in Belgium were embassies, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, concert halls and pedestrian streets, according to the warning. When pressed about the information, Paul Van Tigchelt, the director of the body — known by its French initials, OCAM, as well as its Flemish initials, OCAD — described it as “raw intelligence. ” Raw intelligence generally refers to information that is largely unverified, may originate from a single source and has not yet been corroborated. However, with the Euro 2016 soccer tournament underway in France and drawing huge crowds to city centers and areas around stadiums, the report from Belgium was consistent with assessments by security officials that its neighbor faces a persistent and serious risk. There are already a number of Belgian and French citizens or residents who have fought for the Islamic State or other groups in Syria or Iraq and then returned home, as was the case with a number of people who took part in either the Paris or Brussels attacks. In testimony before Belgium’s Parliament on Wednesday, Justice Minister Koen Geens said that as of June 7, 114 Belgian fighters had returned from the conflict zone and that seven of them had since died. The number of returnees in France is about 244, one of the top French intelligence officials, Patrick Calvar, told lawmakers last month. French officials did not respond specifically to Belgium’s most recent warning of returning jihadists. But Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France, speaking on France Inter radio Wednesday, made clear that the country must be prepared for more attacks. “Other innocent people will lose their lives,” he said. “You could accuse me of making society even more anxious than it already is, given all the events that have happened. But sadly, this is the reality. ” He was referring not only to the November attacks, but also to the fatal stabbings in France on Monday by an extremist who asserted loyalty to the Islamic State. “This is generational, we have hundreds of individuals who are radicalized,” Mr. Valls said. There was no change to the threat level in France on Wednesday. France has maintained a state of emergency since the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, and considers the risk of attack high. However, French police officers were particularly on edge after stabbings on Monday of an officer and his companion, an Interior Ministry employee. The country’s police unions met with Interior Ministry officials on Wednesday and emerged saying they had received indefinite permission to carry their work guns, even when off duty. They are permitted to do so now under provisions, but those will expire on July 26. Many police officers had worried that the expiration would make them more vulnerable. The extended permission for carrying, given by Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, is not permanent, but does not have an end date. A far less nervous and combative mood prevailed in Magnanville, the small town west of Paris where the stabbings took place. About 200 people gathered at noon on Wednesday for a moment of silence at the end of the street where the policeman lived with his family. They listened quietly to remarks from the town’s mayor and sang the national anthem, “La Marseillaise. ” Only a few of the mourners complained that France had too many mosques, a sentiment expressed in parts of France in response to fears of Islamic extremists. Men representing area Muslim groups came to pay their respects, standing a bit apart as if they were outsiders, although they were from neighboring towns. One of them, Abdelaziz El Jaouhari, who is the secretary general for the Council of Muslims for the department of Yvelines, said France needed more proper mosques to help fight radicalism. A department is a local unit of government, similar to a county. “We do not have enough official places of prayer for the community, and it is much better for young people to be in official places of worship rather than with those networks they find in basements and I don’t know where,” Mr. Jaouhari said. | 1 |
Welcome to the Dangerous Faggot Tour! I’m Milo, the supervillain of the Internet. I’m happy to be with you here tonight for my second show in Colorado.[ I hear the protesters aren’t having too much fun out there in this weather. Shame. Poor lambs. My team and I actually found the public ANTIFA Facebook group behind the protest out there. In it, they discussed whether or not they should wear masks to hide their identities, using their Facebook names, for all to see. No I am not making this up my enemies are that fucking stupid. Here’s one of them, peacefully expressing his dislike for me. Where are you Gabe? I’d like you to try now please, if you’re hearing this! Come on. Fucking idiots. Anyway, moving on … The Democrats have absolutely no idea what happened to them this election. But to me, it is extremely obvious. The Democrats have gone from being the party of the common man, to the party of the cuckold. Once upon a time, this was the voter the Democrat party supported. This man worked hard in a dirty and dangerous environment, often shortening his life from disease and injury, for the American to give his family a better life. This type of man was and still is the backbone of this country, and he exists today in factories and yes even in coal mines. Coal mines the left will proudly tell you they want to put out of business. But this type of guy is no longer welcome by the progressives and the Democrats. They have a new favorite voter. Here he is! The current year Democrat. The social justice warrior. He doesn’t work, or if he does it is the service industry, because he is too busy complaining about things. He probably joined the Women’s March on Washington trying to hook up with some women after white knighting them. What this profound change represents is a massive shift completely into the extreme fringe of leftist politics, which we call Identity Politics. What matters is your minority group, and how aggrieved you are. The white working class is incompatible with those who have taken over the left. Nannying schoolmarms. Haughty college professors and worse yet, their brainwashed students shouting slogans. Race hustlers that define them as “part of the problem” just because they are white. I frankly don’t blame anyone for running away from the left, do you? Let’s be clear about what the left lost. The white working class turned against the Democrat party in a historic fashion during this election. The numbers are stunning, even to someone as stunning as me. I’m not a dataporn kind of faggot like those losers at the Guardian and the spectacularly dreadful FiveThirtyEight but I have to share a few of the key stats from Pew Research with you. whites voted for Donald Trump by a 4% margin. This is similar to how they voted for Mitt Romney. That is a bit embarrassing to be honest, but we have to admit that those goofy #NeverTrump people are all college eggheads. Proof that college can make you dumber. But the numbers for those that didn’t graduate college are amazing. A 39% margin for Trump! These are the deplorables, ladies and gentlemen, just as much as the hip millennials posting Pepe on Twitter. Let’s be clear about one thing. educated doesn’t mean stupid. It means you wisely chose not to pay $40, 000 a year to be lectured on microaggressions. Some of the smartest and most successful people in history have been either college dropouts, like me, or people who never attended at all, like a lot of my crew on this tour. They are smarter — and so am I — than 90 per cent of the people in this room. They’re already more successful and they already have more enjoyable jobs and have more political and cultural influence than most of the people in this room. No offense! But my point is that “ educated” isn’t a synonym for dumb redneck or idiot. A good 50 per cent of the most successful people I know didn’t get a university degree. The split among all voters is also amazing. All college graduates went to Hillary by a 9% margin, while all people without degrees went to Trump by 8%. We haven’t seen this kind of gap since 1980. So rather than smart versus dumb, try to think of this split in cultural terms. When we look at the way counties voted in battleground states, it is a similar story. Trump won Wisconsin by taking 10 counties that typically go Democrat. Kenosha County has been Democrat since 1972, but it went to Trump. Similar stories and countries exist in every state. The evidence very clearly shows the left lost the white working class. The working class has always been a Democrat stronghold, mostly due to the Democrat control of labor unions. A long time ago when labor unions had a real purpose, Democrats fought for things we value now, like a 40 hour workweek and ending child labor. As you might guess, I wouldn’t mind child labor coming back because I don’t like kids much, but even I know GENERALLY we are better off with kids going to school. Liberals have lots of theories for why working class whites abandoned them. The most obvious of which is their old standby, “they are racist”. That’s absurd … the same counties I just mentioned all voted for Obama, most of them twice. They will also argue that whites voted this way out of anger. They voted for the clown candidate out of spite, to hurt the world that hurt them. This is a plot from a poorly written novel, it’s probably in Harry Potter somewhere since that is the only book that millennial liberals can reference. Again, like their other theories, that is insane. American voters had multiple options to express their displeasure with the system. They might vote for third party candidates like Crazy Jill Stein and high as a kite Gary Johnson. Maybe even the heroic Jeb Bush. Or they could just stay home. And guess what, Democrats did all three to varying degrees in different states. The Democrat push to get Republicans to vote third party failed disastrously at the same time. That McMuffin guy wouldn’t even win his home state of Utah. This was Obama’s argument. He famously slapped the very people that elected him in Pennsylvania when he said: “They get bitter they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or sentiment or sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. ” What an amazing statement. After he said it, a lot of people realized just how out of touch with Americans the President really was. But it turns out it wasn’t just Obama, it was the entire party. Just consider the values of the working class and you will see how incompatible the left has become. The white working class wants jobs. They don’t want to be stuck trying to make ends meet with work and government assistance. They want a good paying job that they can take pride in. The type of job that has fled America thanks to the left. The white working class wants safety. They want to work hard while not worrying that their family is in danger from terrorists or criminals. It’s a basic American value as captured by Norman Rockwell. The white working class wants freedom to do what they want. If they work a long shift, they don’t want scolding yuppies telling them they can’t drink a large soda. They don’t want to be lectured for enjoying a movie with some TA. They certainly don’t want to sit down to a video game only to be lectured about sex and violence. They want to watch a NASCAR race without being lectured about global warming by people who fly around in private planes. And finally, they want freedom of speech. They don’t want to be told what they can say and they don’t want to be called racist or be told they are bitterly clinging to God and guns for disagreeing with their elected politicians. You see actually it’s often the working classes who enjoy the most subversive art. Madonna, Marilyn Manson, Guns and Roses. These are mainstream artists but they are artists who appeal primarily to the working classes. What they all have in common is that they push or pushed the boundaries of decency and tried out new and dangerous ideas. Like your favourite faggot, Milo Yiannopoulos, they are generally scorned by the ruling elites while being phenomenally popular with ordinary people. Here’s a list of things the modern Democrats value. Globalization — Hillary wanted a borderless economic zone. Who do you think suffers the most under globalism? The working class of course, through wage depression, stagnant standards of living and unemployment. Social Justice — Identity politics is the heart of social justice, where victims are in a pyramid and the most privileged people on earth are white men. Social justice warriors especially on campus would have the audacity to go up to a coal miner and lecture them on their privilege. If you’re a straight white male, no matter how poor you are or how bad your life has been, forget ever getting any sympathy from the left. Islam — Liberals are in love with Islam, mainly because of identity politics. Even the women’s rights march was led by Muslim women with their heads covered! The white working class desires safety for their families, but Islam brings everything but safety. Look at Europe! Free Everything — free education, free birth control, free healthcare, free Obamaphones. All of these things are paid for by SOMEONE, and it isn’t usually the . It is the paycheck earners who watch their healthcare costs skyrocket. Control of Speech — The left wants to control speech and thought. To them, America should be one giant college campus! The working class hates being lectured by Harvard and yes, even by UC Colorado Springs. What the left doesn’t value, however, is the views and identities of the white voters across America. This past election cycle brought us the most vicious rhetoric we have seen in years. You’ve undoubtedly noticed feminists brandishing “I Bathe in White Male Tears” signs and such. You’ve likely witnessed the liberal news cycle call out straight white males day after day. The same obnoxious, patronizing tone. They talk to you like you’re a stupid dog who just pissed the rug for the fifth time this week. When that fails, they’ll blame slavery on you. I gotta say, I’m a gay Brit here as a warning from Europe but I watch how ordinary Americans are spoken about and it makes me mad. You could even say I’m offended. This is exactly the type of thing that put Trump into the White House. The more of this, the more voters see Lena Dunham talking about the extinction of the white race … . The longer the Republicans will be in power. For years, the left and its various degenerate platoons like Hollywood, New York media and the universities vilified and generalized about an entire race. All the while of course telling us that race was just a social construct. There are nearly 200 million white people in this country. Did you really think enough wouldn’t get tired of you harassing them, lying about them and insulting them and vote to save themselves from your odious bigotry? The left berated, assaulted, and socially ostracised a huge slice of the population based on skin color. If you’re listening to this, and you wrote or tweeted about “white men” being the problem, I want you to know that the next eight years are entirely your fault, so please soak it in. This is the best way to look at it: Take any male propaganda the left has created and replace the word “white” or “male” with another group. “I Bathe In Black Tears,” wouldn’t go over too well would it? In my case I bathe in another fluid from black people but out of propriety I try not to bring it up too often. The “die cis scum” social media activists of the world either can’t see this, or refuse to acknowledge it. Something similar happened with feminism, you will recall. So the question is, America: You now know why Trump is your president. You should understand what put him there. What will you do to fix it? Will you stop engaging in lopsided identity politics? Will you abandon them altogether? Or will you continue down the same path? That strange homeless guy, Shia LeBoeuf is completely right: “He will not divide us. ” But the liberal left will and if you look around, they already have, by dividing people into groups based on skin color, sexuality and gender. They have forgotten the lessons of Dr King, who would be horrified by identity politics and probably have voted Trump like Kim and Kanye. We fight outrage culture by being outrageous, and Trump and I are the answer to this need. Within hours of Trump’s presidency, he began working on the exact policies he promised throughout the election. Now the rollback begins, and we use it to our advantage, rebuilding culture brick by brick. I know some of you don’t believe me. Although I’m always proven right, there are still haters who won’t accept that the Democrat party has rejected the white working class so completely. So I am going to let the Democrats themselves tell you, in their own words. This is Sally Boynton Brown, who wants to be the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, on what she thinks the chair of the DNC should do: They all sound as crazy as her folks. She isn’t the Jill Stein of the DNC, she is a mainstream leftist. They sound exactly like European politicians now, but Europeans don’t blame whites for everything, they just blame the people of their own country, like Germans or Frenchmen. And the emphasis on Islam is the same as Europe too. The Executive director of the Council on Relations has announced that stopping the influx of Muslim refugees into this country is the moral equivalent of slavery. Their madness is deepening folks. It used to be all white people and only white people were racist, now any policy they don’t like is slavery. Good luck pushing that outside of Salon, Twitter, and college campuses. The left didn’t learn anything from the beatdown they suffered on election night. In fact they are on their identity politics. Conservatives aren’t just deplorables and racists, we’re white nationalist hatemongers. And white women and the working class who voted for Trump are too. They’ve ramped up their fake news activities to prove how wrong we all are, and their top weapon is fake hate crimes. America has a problem with fake hate crimes. The left is always searching for the next big outrage, and sometimes when the pressure gets too high, they just decide to make them up. That is basically how the UVA rape fantasy that ran in Rolling Stone came about by the way. This trend has just accelerated since the election, fake attacks on Muslim women seem to be in vogue right now. But it isn’t a new trend. I wrote an article in May 2016 that documented 100 fake hate crimes in the last decade. 100 of them! And surely there were more that just didn’t make it into the public eye. I bring this up because Colorado Springs is part of the list. In 2015, threats were left outside of a predominantly black church referencing the KKK and a second one says “Black men beware, you are the target”. There’s just one problem. This is the evil racist local police found behind the messages. Whoops, it’s a black guy! Sadly, this is part of an increasing trend in the US towards sensational but untrue stories. Fake hate crimes are the original fake news. I mentioned the UVA rape case, which was a complete fabrication happily carried by the leftist media. Of course everyone with a brain knows that rape culture on campus is a myth. 1 in 4 women on campus will not be raped, and American universities are not more dangerous than African nations, sorry about it. But there are rape cultures in this world, and most of them are because of Muslims. A few years ago Colorado Springs got a taste of that first hand, when a group of 5 Iraqi men gangraped a woman, leaving her severely injured with blood spattered all over the walls. Here’s one of the Iraqis involved, Jasim Mohammed Hassin Ramadon. Let’s all say a quick prayer of thanks to God that Donald Trump is already taking action to stop Islam’s rape culture from flooding America. Islam carries rape wherever it goes. Whether it is the refugee rape gangs in Germany, or the long term grooming gangs in Rotherham, this is an actual rape problem that America doesn’t need. Unfortunately the west didn’t get the message at the time of this attack in Colorado Springs, but we have it now! Identity politics never unifies the groups it pretends to care about, it just leads to intense jockeying for positions as America’s next biggest victim class. As the Democrats continue to descend into this madness, these groups will fight ever increasing battles for supremacy. Of course I called this.. I wrote a piece in 2015 called “Minority Wars” that chronicled the way different groups within the leftist movement will fight each other over the next decade. Some of them have already come true! One of the battles I foresaw was intersectional feminists versus white feminists. That has already started, with white women at the women’s march being told to shut up and learn their place. Sounds a little like that DNC chairman hopeful doesn’t it? There will be more fights. Trannies versus feminists is the one I’m looking forward to. Or there’s the one that hits closes to home, white gay men versus the entire rest of the LGBT spectrum, which gets three letters added to it every week. The biggest battles will be amongst identities that don’t even exist yet. Maybe people that identify as Lego figures versus people that identify as the USS Enterprise. That would be a fun one wouldn’t it? You should be seeing my point. Identity politics feeds on itself, and is tremendously destructive. The white working class, and America overall has rejected identity politics by electing Donald Trump, but the Democrats don’t care, and will have the political party they have chosen. What Democrat Leaders Aren’t in Line? I’ve said tonight that all the Democrats sound as crazy as that cat lady who wants to run the Democrat party. But some of them aren’t falling in line with the nuts. Have you figured out who I am talking about? It’s big labor. I am no fan of labor unions. I don’t think they serve the purpose they once did, which was getting the American worker a fair shake. I think in many cases they hurt competitiveness and have hurt the very workers they represent. But Labor leader are smart. They know it is very difficult to be the highly paid head of a union when there are no workers to represent. And that is the track America has been on. This week big labor met with Donald Trump, and they gushed about him. Can you imagine labor leaders speaking about a Republican positively? Hell, there are lots of of Republicans that don’t talk about Daddy this way. Here is a choice quote, about Trump’s decision to get rid of TPP: “With this decision, the president has taken the first step toward fixing 30 years of bad trade policies that have cost working Americans millions of jobs. ” The labor unions put their money behind Hillary Clinton, but they’ve swung around to Trump, because more jobs in America is good for everybody including big labor. I’m going to give you one of my extremely rare trigger warnings, because I’m going to show you a graph about economics. I know many of you think you have enough classes during the week, but this is the dirty little secret about American workers that the left doesn’t want you to know. The red line is growth in median household income. Hooray! Income has grown 43% since 2000! But not so fast. The blue line is growth adjusted for inflation. It is slightly negative since 2000, and at one point was almost down 10%. The left can claim the economy is recovering, but the American worker is making no more adjusted for inflation than they were in the year 2000. This is the biggest problem facing the American economy, but the left would rather lecture you about cultural appropriation and microaggressions. As a final aside on this graph, mainly so I can punish anyone not in STEM by keeping it up on the screen longer, who do you have confidence in helping American workers? The businessman who has made billions and created many thousands of jobs, or the politicians who have spent their life in the swamp? I’d like to end this speech with a quick note about the men and women I’ve been speaking about, the white working class of America. As a foreigner, I’ve had more exposure to the working class during this tour than I ever had before. They’ve been at my shows, spoken to me in public, and I’ve come to know them. Plenty of my military and veteran fans fall into this category too. Working class Americans are fundamentally decent people. They are work hard, play hard people. They are very different than me, and frankly very different from most of you. No matter what background you come from, you shouldn’t look down on the working class, because they are what America is really about. The difference between conservatives and the new breed of Democrats is that we don’t think the working class is evil, or that they need to be controlled and taught how to think. They care about the same things as we do. A strong America, a great economy, jobs for them AND you all when you graduate, and a safe place to live. The American dream is what fuels the working class. The dream to improve economically and give their children a better life than they had. At some point in the recent past, liberals decided that dreamers are illegal immigrants who should get cheap college tuition instead of hard working Americans who deserve more than shuttered factories. To those Americans, I say welcome to the party of Trump, it’s going to be a wild ride. Written from prepared remarks. MILO wears glasses by Givenchy, $350. Distressed blue jeans by True Religion, $329. Brown leather belt with gold buckle by Louis Vuitton, $450. Light pink dress shirt by Brooks Brothers, $92. Sparkly purple suit jacket by Angelino, $225. Burgundy crushed velvet slippers by Crockett Jones, $370. Socks by Ralph Lauren, 3 pairs for $21. 98. Jewellery and pearls, too much money to count. | 1 |
Read by 1,225 people
This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge .
Editor’s Comment: Would anything the Clinton’s allegedly did be enough to constitute a “scandal”? It is questionable whether even (rumored) video of Bill Clinton engaged in sex acts with minors would raise media eyebrows. It isn’t a question of what “is” is anymore, it is a question of what the supposed ‘watchdogs’ of the political scene (in all their official and self-appointed capacities) are willing to put on the table. For Alt-Right supporters of Trump, anything and everything is fair game, and there is plenty of detritus to bring to the surface; but for CNN and even FOX, many of these bombshell scandals may well not even exist.
The establishment is in the battle of its life to spin the great political realignment and rebuke of its powers into a new mandate for control. Whether that plays out in Hillary, or in some bastardized control of Trump’s administration after the fact, it is quite clear that the “Teflon” candidate is being allowed to sweep everything under the carpet. No matter what Wikileaks emails, Guccifer 2.0 hacks, whistleblowers and witnesses reveal, it is smooth sailing for Big H.
For any other politician, a mere fraction of the dirt piled up on this family would have ended careers, stirred media scrutiny and ended in prosecution, even if it is all just formality ending in suspended sentences. Instead, Hillary only becomes more inevitable in spite of, or possible even because of, the scandals that have emerged (both inside and outside the White House, the federal government, the State Department and the rigged DNC process). It is entirely possible that the electoral college is so locked-up that literally nothing could block her path. Let’s see how they tally the score come Tuesday night…
Doug Band Accuses Chelsea Of Using Clinton Foundation Money To Pay For Her Wedding
by Tyler Durden
A couple of days ago we shared a Podesta email from Doug Band about Chelsea talking openly in public about her “internal investigation” into the Clinton Foundation.
As with many of the Doug Band email chains , the rabbit hole just got a little deeper today with Band accusing of Chelsea of “using foundation resources for her wedding and life for a decade” among other accusations. He also concludes with another veiled threat on the consequences “once we go down this road….”
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….
I hope that you will speak to her and end this
Once we go down this road….
The implications are troubling: as our friends from the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation point out, “* If true* people (then) worth well into 8 figures used 501c3 $ to pay for a wedding. ” *If true* people (then) worth well into 8 figures used 501c3 $ to pay for a wedding. #PodestaEmails32 @wikileaks https://t.co/xpYZbDN4C0
— SIRF (@SIRF_Report) November 6, 2016
The latest Band email comes after he previously accused Chelsea of talking about her “internal investigation” in the Clinton Foundation with “one of the bush 43 kids.”
I just received a call from a close friend of wjcs who said that cvc told one of the bush 43 kids that she is conducting an internal investigation of money within the foundation from cgi to the foundation
The bush kid then told someone else who then told an operative within the republican party
I have heard more and more chatter of cvc and bari talking about lots of what is going on internally to people
Not smart
Something tells us that Chelsea and Doug may not be on speaking terms for a while after all the WikiLeaks revelations.
This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge . Click here to subscribe : Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary. Please Spread The Word And Share This Post
Author: Tyler Durden Views: Read by 1,225 people Date: November 7th, 2016 Website: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-06/doug-band-accuses-chelsea-using-clinton-foundation-money-pay-her-wedding
Copyright Information: This content has been contributed to SHTFplan by a third-party or has been republished with permission from the author. Please contact the author directly for republishing information. | 0 |
Despite the fact that Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeatedly outlined the conversations he said he had with Russian diplomats during the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, Senators at Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee repeatedly peppered Sessions with various forms of the same question — whether he had met with Russian officials during the course of the campaign. [It was not clear whether those inquiring senators — mostly Democrats and some Republicans — expected a different answer to the same question. Sessions previously acknowledged that he met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in his capacity as a senator and chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. In his opening remarks, Sessions stated unequivocally that he had never had any conversations with Russian officials about interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Sessions declared: “Let me state this clearly: I have never met with or had any conversations with Russians or any foreign officials concerning any interference with any campaign or election. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign. ” “I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, and the suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process is an appalling and detestable lie,” he said. “I recused myself from any investigation into the campaigns for President, but I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. ” In his remarks Tuesday, Sessions again addressed a third possible brief encounter with Kislyak, who was a guest in the audience at an April foreign policy speech delivered by Trump at the Mayflower hotel. Sessions reportedly attended a reception with dozens of other guests, including Kislyak. He says he did not meet privately with Kislyak and does not recall greeting him, but allows that the two may have exchanged a passing interaction — one that would have taken place in a room full of attendees. “I attended a reception with my staff, that included at least two dozen people and President Trump, though I do recall several conversations I had during that reception, and I do not have recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian ambassador or any other Russian officials. If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian ambassador in that reception, I do not remember it. ” Despite Sessions’ accounting of his meetings with Russian diplomats during the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, senators repeatedly peppered Sessions with the same general question about whether he had met with Russian officials during the course of the campaign. Here are 12 times from Tuesday’s hearing that senators asked Sessions whether he met with Russian officials: 1 — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr ( ) asked, “One, did you have any meetings with Russian officials or their proxies on behalf of the Trump campaign or during your time as attorney general?” 2 — Burr asked, “From your testimony, you said you don’t remember whether the ambassador from Russia was there?” 3 — Burr: “You never remember having a conversation or meeting with the ambassador?” 4 — Burr: “You reported two other meetings with the ambassador, one in July on the sidelines of the Republican convention, I believe and one in September in your senate office. Have you had any other interactions with government officials over the year in a campaign capacity?” 5 — Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, asked: “And again, echoing what the chairman said, again for the record, there was no other meeting with any other officials of the Russian government in the campaign season?” 6 — Sen. Roy Blunt ( ): “So when you said you possibly had a meeting with Mr. Kislyak, did you mean you possibly met him?” 7 — Sen. Joe Manchin ( ): “If I could, sir, did you have any meetings, any other meetings with Russian officials that have not previously been disclosed?” 8 — Manchin: “I’m going to go quick through this. Are there any other meetings between Russian government officials and any other Trump campaign associates that have not been previously disclosed that you know of?” 9 — Sen. Kamala Harris ( ): “Did you have any communications with Russian officials for any reason during the campaign that have not been disclosed in public or to this committee?” 10 — Harris: “Did you have any communication with any Russian businessman or any Russian nationals?” 11 — Harris: “Are you aware of any communications (with Russians)?” 12 — Harris: “Are you aware of any communications with any Trump officials or did you have any communications with any officials about Russia or Russian interests in the United States before January 20?” Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. With research by Joshua Klein. | 1 |
Turnbull to Propose Law That Bans Boat Asylum Seekers from Australia Permanently News, October 31, 2016
Federal Labor will look closely at the government’s new tough stance on refugees but says it’s ridiculous that some banned from Australia won’t ever be allowed to visit for business, accusing Malcolm Turnbull of pandering to One Nation.
The opposition has not entirely ruled out the government’s proposed lifetime ban on asylum seekers who arrive by boat, instead saying it will look at the legislation before coming up with a position.
Under the plan, all adults sent to offshore immigration centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island would be prevented from ever entering Australia, even as tourists or on business, regardless of whether they’re found to be refugees or not.
The coalition is ramping up its attack on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for not publicly stating a position on the ban within 24 hours of its announcement.
“This bloke is weak,” former immigration minister Scott Morrison told Sydney radio station 2GB.
Mr Shorten says Labor will look closely at the legislation “when the government can be bothered releasing it”.
“It seems ridiculous to me that a genuine refugee who settles in the US or Canada and becomes a US or Canadian citizen is banned from visiting Australia as a tourist, businessman or businesswoman 40 years down the track,” he said.
He also took aim at the prime minister, saying the Mr Turnbull of old would never have proposed this to keep the right-wing extremists in his party happy.
“He’s earning the praise of Pauline Hanson–I hope he’s proud of that.”
Meanwhile, One Nation is both applauding and claiming a win over the government’s tough stance.
Its Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts said the government was “dancing to our tune’, while leader Pauline Hanson put it more bluntly.
“Refugees are not welcome here,” she told the Seven Network.
Concerns have also been raised the ban may contravene article 31 of the international refugee convention, which states signatory nations shall not penalise refugees for illegal entry when they have come directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened.
Amnesty International says the outrageous and unnecessary law discriminates against people seeking safety based on their mode of arrival, a clear breach of Australia’s obligations.
““This is yet another layer of cruelty in Australia’s already deliberately abusive policy,” refugee campaigner Ming Yu Hah said.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull insists the plan does not contravene the convention.
“We have taken legal advice and we are satisfied it is within power and consistent with our international obligations,” he told reporters in outback South Australia on Monday.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale told ABC radio he was hopeful that “if Labor shows a little bit of courage on this issue”, it could be struck down.
Mr Turnbull said the government has spoken to just one of the 11 Senate crossbenchers about the proposal, which it will put to parliament next week.
Independent senators Derryn Hinch and Nick Xenophon separately said they supported the government in general but wanted to see details.
Meanwhile, the debate comes as the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Francois Crepeau, is due to arrive on Tuesday to look at the government’s migration policies and laws.
Earlier
The Federal Government wants to pass laws to make sure no asylum seekers who tried to come to Australia by boat, even those found to be refugees, can ever enter the country.
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today told media “the door to Australia is closed to those who seek to come here by boat with a people smuggler”.
“That absolutely unflinching, unequivocal message has to be loud and clear,” he told reporters in Sydney this morning.
The government will ask parliament to ban everyone who was sent to Nauru or Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island for offshore immigration processing after July 19, 2013–the date Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd declared: “As of today, asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia.”
The ban would apply whether or not they were found to be refugees and extends to all types of visas, including tourist and business categories. Asylum seekers aged under 18 at the time they were sent to Nauru or Manus Island would be exempt.
The minister would also have power to lift the bar if they believe it’s in the public interest for someone to be allowed in to Australia.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton described the plan as one of the government’s strongest moves, building on the success of its border protection policies over the past three years.
It sent a clear message that Australia was not an option.
“There are still people, advocates in Australia and elsewhere, who are messaging to people on Nauru and Manus, that at some stage you’ll come to Australia,” Mr Dutton said.
“Those people are living in false hope and it cannot continue.” The legislation would reflect the coalition’s long-standing policy and what it understood to be Labor’s position, Mr Turnbull said.
He expects the opposition will give “unequivocal support” to the move.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop earlier this morning said the government would enshrine in law what had been a longstanding policy.
“This is a tough message we are sending to the people smuggling syndicates and those who pay people smugglers to try and enter Australia,” she told ABC TV.
“We are sending a strong message to those currently in Manus and Nauru, if they are found to be owed protection, they will not be resettled in Australia. If they’re not found to be owed protection, they should return home.”
This would even apply to accepted refugees later attempting to visit via tourist visa, she said.
“I will never forget 1200 people that we know of drowned at sea coming to Australia under these people smuggling networks,” she said. “We cannot have situations where people are drowning at sea and that is why we are working through the case load, the cohort of people who are on Manus and Nauru, to find third country resettlements for them and if they want to stay in PNG and in Nauru, they can be resettled there.”
Mr Turnbull expects Labor and its leader Bill Shorten will support the laws, saying they are “entirely consistent with his party’s stated public position”.
Mr Dutton added Australia has ‘discussions ongoing with a number of countries’ on the issue of resettling the asylum seekers already at Naru and Manus.
Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said it was too soon to determine if Labor would support the bill.
“What I’d say is it’s a distraction from Peter Dutton’s hopeless mismanagement of his portfolio,” she told reporters on the Gold Coast.
“It is extraordinary that, three years on, the government has not found third countries to resettle those people who are in limbo on Manus Island and Nauru.” She said Mr Dutton needed to find a permanent resettlement option for these people left in limbo. | 0 |
Its a disgrace , they have wrecked the FBI , its worse than Hoover and thats saying something , they have to make a stand sometime ,its getting like Alcapone arresting Alcapone . What a mess . Trump should make something out of this stopping honesty in the FBI is an outrage of the highest order. Your brave guys/girls but where is the help you deserve ///???? No one is against the FBI They just hate crooks in their undermining the whole legal syatem if you could call it that . You have to give Sibel Edmons some credit she named Hillary as part of the Dirty dozen . Looks like they are trying to destroy thm going on who they keep putting in charge. | 0 |
We live in a sharing economy of collaborative consumption — services, not stuff. Crowdsourcing, rentals like Airbnb: An interest, exemplified by millennials, in a temporary ownership of goods. Apps, not objects. What, then, to make of objects? In a culture being redefined by the way it consumes, what to make of people who collect things, who keep things? What to make of the personal archives, the private universes, the physical stabs at permanence and immortality that collectors create? “The Keeper,” the New Museum’s summer show, a exhibit that opens on Wednesday, July 20, is a museum blockbuster of a different kind. With over 4, 000 objects representing more than two dozen collectors, including contemporary artists making art conceived by collecting, Massimiliano Gioni, the museum’s artistic director, and his team of curators have mounted a remarkable series of object lessons about what it means to “keep,” the relationship of possession to loss, the madness inherent in love, and the undeniable importance of the individual’s voice in recording and interpreting history and its sweep. “The Keeper” is its own cultural crowdsourcing, including Korbinian Aigner’s still lifes of fruit, painted by Mr. Aigner, a German Catholic priest, while interred in the Dachau concentration camp, where he cultivated apples until his escape. Also on view are 3, 000 photographs of people with their teddy bears, assembled by Ydessa Hendeles, a contemporary Canadian artist. Mr. Aigner’s pomological studies were most likely an act of survival, focusing on the reassuring rationality of during the irrational decimation by the Reich. And, like much of “The Keeper,” Ms. Hendeles’s “Partners (The Teddy Bear Project)” is a kind of unexpected infiltration into ordinary lives, a backstage look at the familiar spectacle of the 20th century as we think we know it. “I don’t want to flatten it by saying it’s a show about collections,” Mr. Gioni said, sitting in the museum recently, concerned that many people associate objects with “luxury objects,” especially in the art world. Mr. Gioni explained that part of his intention for “The Keeper” was to look at ways of collecting and owning things. “It’s not the economic value that makes the value of the object,” he said. “Notions of values are more complicated than keeping score at auction. ” There are no masterpieces in the exhibition, as one would expect of a major museum show. “There’s no hierarchy,” Lisa Phillips, the New Museum’s director, said. “Each has its integrity as a project. ” Yet every piece is a masterwork in its right. The exhibition includes the photographed interiors of “Sociological Record” by Zofia Rydet. In 1978, at 67, she took up photography with the purpose of documenting every household in Poland, as a way to reveal people through the things they lived with. Harry Smith, an American filmmaker and ethnomusicologist, collected string figures, also in the show, made by indigenous peoples around the world. In an interview in 1969, Mr. Smith said, “As far as I know, the string figures are the only universal thing other than singing. ” By design, there are no distinctions between “naïve” and “professional” art, either. Carol Bove’s sculptures and her collaborative installations with the work of Carlo Scarpa, the Italian architect, are well known to the gallery world. Arthur Bispo do Rosário’s tapestries and garments, constructed from discarded clothing and junk in preparation for Judgment Day, are the products of five decades of residency in a psychiatric hospital in Rio de Janeiro. “Every good artist is some sort of an outsider,” Mr. Gioni said. Every collector is some sort of outsider, too, looking in, trying to understand the experience of being here. Ultimately, even what we choose not to keep defines us. The declutter gurus, yard sales and online exchanges — the arcades of unwanted waste — are powerful cultural forces, too. Why do we keep? Beyond preservation — insuring the safety of a thing — keeping can be an act of . “It is about what brings us together as people,” said Ms. Hendeles, who archived images of people posing with teddy bears. Her intention was to create a portrait of the century, much like the photographer August Sander’s documentary project “Face of Our Time” in 1929. The cuddly teddy bear, sometimes ratty with affection, turned out to be an icon of the first order, appearing like a totemic ghost in thousands of images. In one, a Nazi wearing an arm sling holds a bear on his knee. Another shows children who later died in the Holocaust. The toys were considered totems of protection and sympathy in grief, such as the black bear produced in 1912 to memorialize the Titanic’s victims. Ms. Hendeles’s project is displayed in a architectural setting meant to resemble an academic library with steel mezzanines and polished wood vitrines. “It questions the authority of the museum, the past, and what we think we know,” she said, an intention shared by Mr. Gioni’s show. Ms. Hendeles is the only child of two survivors of Auschwitz. “I was touching on unconscious needs that I had, because I didn’t have any family photographs,” she said of the genesis of the project. “I’m keeping other people’s memories. ” One might call “Partners” a family album of man. We keep to tell, too. In a small pocket of the exhibition are objects from the National Museum of Beirut, rescued by Maurice Chehab, its director general of antiquities until the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Mr. Chehab saved artifacts by encasing them in concrete. But as the surviving objects bear witness, preservation can be a sadly poetic concept. They are disfigured and transformed by conflict, melted by hate. Shinro Ohtake’s scrapbooks are more recent records. Mr. Ohtake, an artist and musician, began in 1977 a series of assemblages that gather the urban residue of his own daily life: clippings from magazines, matchbooks, ticket stubs — the cheeky garbage of an active mind. In its devotional richness, each of Mr. Ohtake’s books has the quality of a contemporary Book of Hours. In an email, he explained that he thought of them as communicating “the potential of the streets of the time, as a site where people lived their lives. ” Mr. Ohtake, living in London in 1977, moved frequently and wanted a medium of expression, like a diary, that would be easy to carry and work on. “Traveling is like a collage of everyday time,” he wrote. Speaking as a musician — Mr. Ohtake has led two bands — he said that he thought “the most extreme noise is silence. ” Objects, then, would be the loudest things you could live with. A video, “The Last Silent Movie,” by Susan Hiller, provides a lilting, unsettling musical air to the fourth floor of “The Keeper. ” Ms. Hiller, an anthropologist who became an artist, compiled audio samples of endangered and extinct languages, playing them in a video on a black screen with transcribed subtitles. The singsong and staccato of the work gives voice to the recognition that collecting can be a requiem. More optimistically in the same exhibition space is a thoughtful conversation: Ms. Bove’s installation of sculptures with works by Mr. Scarpa, known for his modern redesigns of museums. “When I first saw his work, I felt shocked — the strategies that he produced for historical work,” Ms. Bove said recently. “It’s counter to our traditions of museum design, to be neutral. ” Ms. Bove created spatial juxtapositions and interactions that gave the group an intelligent integrity that is a hallmark of a collection greater than the sum of its parts. By its nature, collecting is subjective, even at its most encyclopedic. When collecting strives to become objective, the eccentricity veers into obsession. Oliver Croy, an Austrian artist who discovered 387 homemade building models in a shop in Vienna in 1993, bought them, lived with them in a apartment for several years and is no longer collecting, having skirted its edges. “I did therapy, so I gave up on that,” he said in a telephone interview. The models, built in the 1950s and ’60s by an insurance clerk, Peter Fritz, were given to the Wien Museum in Vienna. In another project, a keeper and the subject of his collection have forged a bond, with a rare on each end. For 62 years, Ye Jinglu sat for an annual studio portrait, the first in 1901. The photographs, shifting imperceptibly in background, costume and the register of Mr. Ye’s advancing age, are a virtuosic portrait of a man’s life. In the last photograph, the dandy of the initial one has softly disappeared, and the world has irrevocably changed. The collection was discovered by Tong Bingxue, a photography collector, in 2007. In his mind, Mr. Tong chased Mr. Ye back into the past. “I repeatedly perused the album,” he wrote in an email, “the man patiently telling me his stories by his appearance. ” Mr. Tong contacted anyone who might have known Mr. Ye, including immediate family. “I leafed gingerly through the album again, the leaps from the Qing dynasty, to the Republic of China, and then, to the new China. ” As he contemplated Mr. Ye’s life, he was able to contemplate his own. He called his relationship to this man “uncuttable. ” Mr. Gioni, the curator, writes in his catalog essay that the desperate need to be extraordinary lies “at the root of human nature. ” Most overtly it lies within the heart of collectors. But he concludes with the realization, “harsh and comforting,” that we are, in fact, just like everybody else. One of Mr. Gioni’s keepers might not agree. Wilson Bentley, born to a family of farmers in Vermont in 1865, was fascinated from childhood by the weather. He attached a microscope to a bellows camera and captured on film the intricate pattern of a single snowflake. As is now generally undisputed, each is unique. And so perhaps, as collectors — despite all that we “share” — are we all. | 1 |
October 30, 2016 at 4:49 pm
Quite possible that Trump is surfing a much more significant phenomenon, powered by the total penetration by internet, the neural system of the world.
to keep insisting that it is just business as usual is like claiming that because no earthquake happened for the last observed 100 days, it will never happen.
An aside, regarding the gatekeeping: i am quite certain that the jew has covered the entire gamut from outrageous lying of pam geller through restrained lying of alex jones and veterans today to deep sayanim sites that to this date have never failed to speak nothing but the truth, yet only wait to start their siren call to the ever sly deception. remain vigilant. | 0 |
An Afghan migrant attacked a woman at an asylum centre in Austria because she was reading a bible. [The attack took place in the town on Timelkam in the state of Upper Austria. The attacker was a migrant from Afghanistan who became annoyed that the woman had been invited by Christian residents to read the bible. Austrian paper Kronen Zeitung says he ran into the kitchen where the woman was talking and attempted to stab her in her upper body. Her thick winter coat protected from serious harm, however she fell and injured her ear due the force of the blow. Police arrived at the scene and arrested the migrant. He admitted he had overreacted, although he told police this was due to “personal problems”. He also stated that he had never seen the woman before the attack. There have been numerous incidents of Christians coming under attack in migrant centres across Europe. One charity said that over 700 Christians have been attacked in German asylums homes since May 2016, with the majority of perpetrators being Muslim. Christian charity Open Doors said that 83 per cent of the cases reported included multiple assaults, while almost half of victims claim they have received death threats from fellow migrants. Another 44 said they had been sexually assaulted. Over 90 per cent of the attackers were Muslim, and in 205 cases the attackers were not only Muslim but also guards at the centres. Breitbart London also reported in August how an German politician who converted to Christianity said that Christians face ongoing persecution in migrant homes. Mahin Mousapour said Christians in asylum centres were being told they are “impure as a dog”. “Toys of Christian children are being destroyed, Christian asylum seekers are told not only to wash their dishes after eating but also that they must clean the entire kitchen as it would otherwise be ‘unclean’. Many Muslim asylum seekers call all Christians unclean. Church services are held in secret, bibles and crucifixes have to be hidden,” she said. | 1 |
By: Charles Seife, Scientific American | The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has been arm-twisting journalists into relinquishing their reportorial independence, our investigation reveals. Other institutions are following suit. It was a faustian bargain—and it certainly made editors at National Public Radio squirm. The deal was this: NPR, along with a select group of media outlets, would get a briefing about an upcoming announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a day before anyone else. But in exchange for the scoop, NPR would have to abandon its reportorial independence. The FDA would dictate whom NPR’s reporter could and couldn’t interview. “My editors are uncomfortable with the condition that we cannot seek reaction,” NPR reporter Rob Stein wrote back to the government officials offering the deal. Stein asked for a little bit of leeway to do some independent reporting but was turned down flat. Take the deal or leave it. NPR took the deal. “I’ll be at the briefing,” Stein wrote. Later that day in April 2014, Stein—along with reporters from more than a dozen other top-tier media organizations, including CBS, NBC, CNN, the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times —showed up at a federal building to get his reward. Every single journalist present had agreed not to ask any questions of sources not approved by the government until given the go-ahead. “I think embargoes that attempt to control sourcing are dangerous because they limit the role of the reporter whose job it is to do a full look at a subject,” says New York Times former public editor Margaret Sullivan. “It’s really inappropriate for a source to be telling a journalist whom he or she can and can’t talk to.” Ivan Oransky, distinguished writer in residence at New York University’s Journalism Institute and founder of the Embargo Watch weblog, agrees: “I think it’s deeply wrong.” This kind of deal offered by the FDA—known as a close-hold embargo—is an increasingly important tool used by scientific and government agencies to control the behavior of the science press. Or so it seems. It is impossible to tell for sure because it is happening almost entirely behind the scenes. We only know about the FDA deal because of a wayward sentence inserted by an editor at the New York Times . But for that breach of secrecy, nobody outside the small clique of government officials and trusted reporters would have known that the journalists covering the agency had given up their right to do independent reporting. Documents obtained by Scientific American through Freedom of Information Act requests now paint a disturbing picture of the tactics that are used to control the science press. For example, the FDA assures the public that it is committed to transparency, but the documents show that, privately, the agency denies many reporters access—including ones from major outlets such as Fox News—and even deceives them with half-truths to handicap them in their pursuit of a story. At the same time, the FDA cultivates a coterie of journalists whom it keeps in line with threats. And the agency has made it a practice to demand total control over whom reporters can and can’t talk to until after the news has broken, deaf to protests by journalistic associations and media ethicists and in violation of its own written policies. By using close-hold embargoes and other methods, the FDA, like other sources of scientific information, are gaining control of journalists who are supposed to keep an eye on those institutions. The watchdogs are being turned into lapdogs. “Journalists have ceded the power to the scientific establishment,” says Vincent Kiernan, a science journalist and dean at George Mason University. “I think it’s interesting and somewhat inexplicable, knowing journalists in general as being people who don’t like ceding power.” The press corps is primed for manipulation by a convention that goes back decades: the embargo. The embargo is a back-room deal between journalists and the people they cover—their sources. A source grants the journalist access on condition that he or she cannot publish before an agreed-on date and time. A surprisingly large proportion of science and health stories are the product of embargoes. Most of the major science journals offer reporters advance copies of upcoming articles—and the contact information of the authors—in return for agreeing not to run with the story until the embargo expires. These embargoes set the weekly rhythm of science coverage: On Monday afternoon, you may see a bunch of stories about the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA published almost simultaneously. Tuesday, it’s the Journal of the American Medical Association . On Wednesday, it’s Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine. Science stories appear on Thursday. Other institutions have also adopted the embargo system. Federal institutions, especially the ones science and health journalists report on, have as well. Embargoes are the reason that stories about the National Laboratories, the National Institutes of Health and other organizations often tend to break at the precisely same time. Embargoes were first embraced by science reporters in the 1920s, in part because they take the pressure off. After all, when everybody agrees to publish their stories simultaneously, a reporter can spend extra time researching and writing a story without fear of being scooped. “[Embargoes] were created at the behest of journalists,” says Kiernan, who has written a book, Embargoed Science , about scientific embargoes. “Scientists had to be convinced to go along.” But scientific institutions soon realized that embargoes could be used to manipulate the timing and, to a lesser extent, the nature of press coverage. The result is a system whereby scientific institutions increasingly control the press corps. “They’ve gotten the upper hand in this relationship, and journalists have never taken it back,” Kiernan says. The embargo system is such an established institution in science journalism that few reporters complain or even think about its darker implications, at least until they themselves feel slighted. This January the California Institute of Technology was sitting on a great story: researchers there had evidence of a new giant planet—Planet Nine—in the outer reaches of our solar system. The Caltech press office decided to give only a dozen reporters, including Scientific American ‘s Michael Lemonick, early access to the scientists and their study. When the news broke, the rest of the scientific journalism community was left scrambling. “Apart from the chosen 12, those working to news deadlines were denied the opportunity to speak to the researchers, obtain independent viewpoints or have time to properly digest the published research paper,” complained BBC reporter Pallab Ghosh about Caltech’s “inappropriate” favoritism in an open letter to the World Federation of Science Journalists. When asked about why Caltech chose to release the news only to a select group of reporters, Farnaz Khadem, Caltech’s head of communications, stated that she is committed to being “fair and transparent” about how and when Caltech shares news with journalists. She then refused to talk about the Planet Nine incident or embargoes or press strategy, and she would not grant access to anyone at Caltech who might talk about such matters. As a consequence, it is hard to know for certain why Caltech decided to share the news with only a select group of reporters. But it is not hard to guess why journalists such as Ghosh were excluded. “It wasn’t that they were not good enough or not liked enough,” Kiernan speculates. “There was a real effort here to control things, making sure that the elite of the elite covered this story and covered it in a certain way, which would then shape the coverage of all other journalists. It’s very clearly a control effort.” Caltech is not the only institution that steers coverage by briefing a very small subset of reporters. (As I was writing this piece, I received a note from a U.S. Air Force press officer offering a sneak preview of video footage being offered to “a select number of digital publications.”) For years the FDA has been cultivating a small group of journalists who are entrusted with advance notice of certain events while others are left out in the cold. But it was not the game of favorites that ignited a minor firestorm in the journalism community in January 2011—it was the introduction of the close-hold embargo. Like a regular embargo, a close-hold embargo allows early access to information provided that attendees not publish before a set date and time. In this case, it was a sneak peek at rules about to be published regarding medical devices. But there was an additional condition: reporters were expressly forbidden from seeking outside comment. Journalists would have to give up any semblance of being able to do independent reporting on the matter before the embargo expired. Even reporters who had been dealing with the FDA for years were incredulous. When one asked the agency’s press office if it really was forbidding communications with outside sources, Karen Riley, an official at the FDA, erased all doubt. “It goes without saying that the embargo means YOU CANNOT call around and get comment ahead of the 1 P.M. embargo,” she said in an e-mail. “Actually it does need some saying, since this is a new version of a journalistic embargo,” wrote Oransky in his Embargo Watch blog. Without the ability to contact independent sources, he continued, “journalists become stenographers.” Kiernan echoes the sentiment: “[When] you can’t verify the information, you can’t get comment on the information. You have to just keep it among this group of people that I told you about, and you can’t use it elsewhere. In that situation, the journalist is allowing his or her reporting hands to be tied in a way that they’re not going to be anything, ultimately, other than a stenographer.” The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), of which I am a member, publicly objected to the close-hold embargo, noting that it “will be a serious obstacle to good journalism. Reporters who want to be competitive on a story will essentially have to agree to write only what the FDA wants to tell the world, without analysis or outside commentary.” Faced by this opposition, the agency quickly backtracked. After a meeting with AHCJ leaders, Meghan Scott, then the agency’s acting associate commissioner for external affairs, wrote: “Prior to your inquiry, the FDA did not have a formal news embargo policy in place.” The FDA was now establishing new ground rules that “will better serve the media and the public.” Initially published online in June 2011, the FDA’s new media policy officially killed the close-hold embargo: “A journalist may share embargoed material provided by the FDA with nonjournalists or third parties to obtain quotes or opinions prior to an embargo lift provided that the reporter secures agreement from the third party to uphold the embargo.” Due diligence would always be allowed, at least at the FDA. Health and science journalists breathed a sigh of relief. The AHCJ expressed gratitude that the FDA had changed its tune, and Oransky’s Embargo Watch congratulated the agency for backing down: “For doing the right thing, the FDA has earned a spot on the Embargo Watch Honor Roll. Kudos.” And the FDA had cleared up the misunderstanding and affirmed that it was committed to “a culture of openness in its interaction with the news media and the public.” In reality, there was no misunderstanding. The close-hold embargo had become part of the agency’s media strategy. It was here to stay—policy or no policy. It is hard to tell when a close-hold embargo is afoot because, by its very nature, it is a secret that neither the reporters who have been given special access nor the scientific institution that sets up the deal wants to be revealed. The public hears about it only when a journalist chooses to reveal the information. We have a few rare instances where journalists revealed that close-hold embargoes were being used by scientists and scientific institutions after 2011. In 2012 biologist Gilles-Eric Séralini and his colleagues published a dubious—later retracted and then republished—paper purportedly linking genetically modified foods to cancer in rats. They gave reporters early access under a close-hold embargo, quite likely to hamstring the reporters’ ability to explore gaping holes in the article, a situation science journalist Carl Zimmer described as “a rancid, corrupt way to report about science.” In 2014 the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (also called the CSB) released a report to journalists under a close-hold embargo. When challenged, the then managing director of the CSB, Daniel Horowitz, told Oransky’s Embargo Watch that the close-hold embargo was used “on the theory that this would provide a more orderly process.” He then stated that the board was going to “drop the policy in its entirety for future reports.” Privately, however, a CSB public affairs specialist noted in an e-mail, “Frankly, I wish we did have more stenographers out there. Government agencies trying to control the information flow is an old story, but the other side of the story is that government agencies that do good work often have a difficult time getting their story told in an era of journalistic skepticism and partisan bickering and bureaucratic infighting.” Also in 2014 the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) used a close-hold embargo when it announced to a dozen reporters that researchers had discovered subtle signals of gravitational waves from the early universe. “You could only talk to other scientists who had seen the papers already; we didn’t want them shared unduly,” says Christine Pulliam, the media relations manager for CfA. Unfortunately, the list of approved scientists provided by CfA listed only theoreticians, not experimentalists—and only an experimentalist was likely to see the flaw that doomed the study. (The team was seeing the signature of cosmic dust, not gravitational waves.) “I felt like a fool, in retrospect,” says Lemonick, who, as one of a dozen or so chosen journalists, covered the story for Time (at the time, he was not on the staff of Scientific American ). The FDA, too, quietly held close-hold embargoed briefings, even though its official media policy forbids it. Without a source willing to talk, it is impossible to tell for sure when or why FDA started violating its own rules. A document from January 2014, however, describes the FDA’s strategy for getting media coverage of the launch of a new public health ad campaign. It lays out a plan for the agency to host a “media briefing for select, top-tier reporters who will have a major influence on coverage and public opinion of the campaigns.… Media who attend the briefing will be instructed that there is a strict, close-hold embargo that does not allow for contact with those outside of the FDA for comment on the campaign.” Why? The document gives a glimpse: “Media coverage of the campaign is guaranteed; however, we want to ensure outlets provide quality coverage of the launch,” the document explains. “The media briefing will give us an opportunity to shape the news stories, conduct embargoed interviews with the major outlets ahead of the launch and give media outlets opportunities to prepare more in-depth coverage of the campaign launch.” Ten reporters—from the New York Times , the Washington Post, USA Today , the Associated Press, Reuters, ABC, NBC, CNN and NPR—were invited to have their stories shaped. The day after the briefing, on February 4, everybody—except for the New York Times —ran with stories about the ad campaign. Independent comment was notably missing. Only NPR, which went live hours after the others, and CNN, in an update to its story midday, managed to get any reaction from anyone outside of the FDA. CBS plunked down an out-of-context quotation from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, probably in hopes that readers wouldn’t notice that it was two months old. Nobody else seems to have tried to get anyone who could critique the ad campaign. The result was a set of stories almost uniformly cleaving to the FDA’s party line, without a hint of a question about whether the ad campaign would be as ineffective as many other such campaigns. Not one of the media outlets said anything about the close-hold embargo. From the agency’s point of view, it was mission accomplished. The FDA had a much harder task two months later. The agency was about to make public controversial new rules about electronic cigarettes. It was nearly impossible to keep the story from leaking out ahead of time; days before the new rules were going to be published in April 2014, rumors were flying. Reporters around the country could smell the story and began to e-mail the FDA’s press office with questions about the e-cigarette rules. The agency flacks would have to use all the powers at their disposal to control the flow of information. “I’ve heard a number of rumors that the FDA will be releasing its proposed e-cigarette regulations on Monday,” Clara Ritger, then a reporter with the National Journal asked on Friday, April 18. “I wanted to see if I could confirm that? If that’s not accurate, do you have a timeline?” Stephanie Yao, then an FDA press officer, dodged the question: “The proposal is still in draft form and under review. As a matter of policy, the FDA does not share draft rules with outside groups while a rule is still under review.” The fencing match was on. “Thank you for following up with the statement,” Ritger responded. “While I know the proposal is still in draft form and under review, for my planning purposes I wanted to find out when the proposed regulations will be coming out?” “Have you subscribed to FDA press announcements?” Jenny Haliski, then another FDA press officer, wrote back on Monday. “The proposed rule itself will be published in the Federal Register.” “Thanks for sending! I signed up,” Ritger responded. “The only other question I had was when the proposed regulations would come out, off the record, for planning purposes?” Not even an offer of being off the record could get the agency to spill the beans. “The FDA can’t speculate on the timing of the proposed rule,” Haliski replied. But this was a carefully crafted half-truth. There was no need to speculate. Haliski and others in the press office knew quite well not just that the rule was going to be published on Thursday, April 24, but also that there was going to be a close-hold embargoed briefing on Wednesday. It’s just that Ritger and the National Journal weren’t invited. The invite list had been drafted days earlier, and, as usual, the briefing was limited to trusted journalists: the same outlets from the ad campaign briefing in February, with the addition of a few more, which included the Wall Street Journal , the Boston Globe , the Los Angeles Times , Bloomberg News, Politico and the Congressional Quarterly . At the very same moment that the agency was discussing the embargoed briefing with some of their chosen reporters, anyone outside that small circle, like Ritger, was being thrown off the trail. Not even Fox News was allowed in. Some within the FDA press office wondered why Fox was excluded, unlike the other major networks. “BTW, we noticed that Fox still wasn’t on the invite list,” Raquel Ortiz, then an FDA press officer, told Haliski. “I have no national Fox reporter who had contacted me on this topic,” Haliski responded. “All reporters invited to the briefing needed to have covered tobacco regulatory issues before.” Ortiz realized that this wasn’t an honest answer: “But they definitely cover FDA/CTP [Center for Tobacco Products] and tobacco stories—[a colleague has] seen them.” “We don’t have a good contact for Fox,” Haliski insisted, rather lamely. A contact would not have been hard to find had they bothered to look. And, as chance would have it, the contact found them. Early the next morning, with plenty of time before the briefing, Fox’s senior national correspondent—John Roberts, one-time heir apparent to Dan Rather—contacted Haliski asking for access. “I’m aware that the FDA will likely come out with its deeming rule regarding e-cigarettes in the next week or so. I’d like to have a story ready to go for the day (holding to any embargo),” he wrote. “Can we make that happen?” “Hi, John, Have you subscribed to FDA press announcements?” Access denied. “I was particularly troubled by it because I was the medical correspondent for CBS Evening News for a couple of years, and I had a very good relationship with the FDA and everybody there,” says Roberts, who found out he was excluded after the other correspondents’ stories came out. “I was told by these folks that Fox news wasn’t invited because of ‘past experiences with Fox.’” A little after noon on Wednesday, April 23, the briefing went on as scheduled. All the reporters present understood the terms, as announced: “As discussed, under this embargo you will not be able to reach out to third parties for comment on this announcement. We are providing you with a preview of the information with this understanding.” But by 2:30 P.M., the close-hold embargo was already fraying at the edges. FDA officials apparently got wind that a reporter was trying to talk to a member of Congress about the new rules. Even though it was not clear that this was a breach of the embargo—the interview was scheduled for after the embargo expired, and the reporter presumably did not share any crucial information ahead of time—it was bending the close-hold rules, and the FDA was livid. Within half an hour, FDA’s Jefferson had fired off an angry e-mail to the close-hold journalists. “It has been brought to our attention that there has already been a break in the embargo…. Third-party outreach of any kind was and is not permitted for this announcement. Everyone who participated agreed to this,” she wrote. “Moving forward, we will no longer consider embargoed briefings for news media if reporters are not willing to abide by the terms an embargo…. We take this matter very seriously, and as a consequence any individuals who violated the embargo will be excluded from future embargoed briefings with the agency.” Violate the rules, even in spirit, and you’ll be left out in the cold with the rest. The denials flew in. “This is very frustrating as someone who has consistently played by the rules and has covered CTP/FDA for years to be lumped in with a group of reporters that cannot respect your requests not to reach out to third parties,” insisted then AP reporter Michael Felberbaum. “I have of course always advocated that you work more closely with reporters like myself who clearly understand and cover this area consistently instead of reporters who are just assigned to handle on a whim.” But despite the scare about a breach, the secrecy held. When the embargo expired and the early news stories went online, the FDA had little to complain about; the embargo had worked once again to shape coverage. Felberbaum’s piece, for example, quoted Margaret Hamburg, then head of the FDA, and Mitch Zeller, the head of the agency’s CTP, but nobody else. Even after he updated his piece later in the day to get some outside comments, there was little hint of how controversial the new rules were. Members of the tobacco industry were generally unhappy with increased federal regulation of their business, while antitobacco advocates tended to argue that the new regulations were far too weak and took way too long to promulgate. And there was no mention, in Felberbaum’s article, at least, that the agency had tried to regulate e-cigarettes several years earlier but was slapped down with a stinging rebuke from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (When asked about his work for the AP, Felberbaum—who has since quit his job as a reporter to become an FDA press officer—said, “I’m not really sure whether I’m comfortable discussing that at this point.”) Some of the other outlets, like NPR, injected a little more nuance into their pieces, despite the restrictions, by doing additional reporting after the embargo expired. (In a statement, NPR said that agreeing to the FDA’s conditions was not a violation of ethics guidelines and “in no way influenced which other voices or ideas were included in the coverage.”) Still, even those pieces did not stray far from the key messages that the agency wanted to get across. Again the FDA found little to complain about. Except for one little thing. Of all the media outlets, the New York Times was the only one to mention the close-hold embargo: “FDA officials gave journalists an outline of the new rules on Wednesday but required that they not talk to industry or public health groups until after Thursday’s formal release of the document.” (“I felt like I wanted to be clear with readers,” Sabrina Tavernise, the author of the story, later told Sullivan, the New York Times ‘ public editor at the time. “Usually you would have reaction in a story like this, but in this case, there wasn’t going to be any.”) The FDA was not pleased that the omertà had been broken. “I have to say while I generally reserve my editorial comments, I was a little surprised by the tone of your article and the swipe you took at the embargo in the paper—when after combing through the coverage no one else felt the need to do so in quite that way,” the FDA’s Jefferson upbraided Tavernise in an e-mail. “To be clear, this is me taking stuff personally when I know I shouldn’t, but I thought we had a better working relationship than this…. I never expect totally positive coverage as our policies are controversial and complex, but at least more neutral and slightly less editorialized. Simply put, bummer. Off to deal with a pissed Fox News reporter.” Tavernise promptly apologized. “Geez, sorry about the embargo thing. Editors were asking why we didn’t get to see it so I was asked to put a line in to explain,” she wrote. (Tavernise declined to comment for this article; Celia Dugger, one of the New York Times editors who handled the piece, said via e-mail: “As to the decision to describe the conditions of the embargo in the story, Sabrina and I talked it over and agreed it was best to include them.”) The FDA was not pleased that the secret of the close-hold embargo was out, and the excluded press was confused and angry. “In this particular instance, it struck me as very strange,” says Fox’s Roberts. “It was a government agency picking and choosing who it was going to talk to on a matter of public policy, and then the fact that I had a longstanding relationship with the FDA that, with this new administration, didn’t seem to matter.” Oransky complained again on Embargo Watch about the FDA’s attempts to turn journalists “into stenographers.” Sullivan asked a few pointed questions of Jefferson, who, in Sullivan’s words, insisted that the FDA’s intent was “not to be manipulative but to give reporters early access to a complicated news development” and noted, in passing, that Tavernise had not objected to the terms of the close-hold embargo. But the damage was short-lived. Very little came of the complaints; Sullivan said that she would “like to see the Times push back—hard—against such restrictions in every instance and be prepared to walk away from the story if need be,” but there is no evidence of any substantial pushback by anyone. The two-tiered system of outsiders and insiders that undergirds the close-hold policy is also still enforced. Major press outlets such as Scientific American and Agence France-Presse have written to the FDA to complain about being excluded but have not received any satisfaction from the agency. Months after the e-cigarette affair and following a different FDA story about food labeling that insiders had early access to, Time magazine complained about its lack of access to a select-press-only phone call. “ Time was not included … (they weren’t even on my radar to be honest with you), but we handled all their queries” the day after the call, then FDA press officer Jennifer Corbett Dooren wrote. Absent any indications from the agency, it is anyone’s guess whether the close-hold embargo is still in use at the FDA and, if so, how frequently. Unfortunately, the FDA refused to answer any questions. Because I am suing the agency for access to documents about embargo practices at the FDA, the press office, in a statement that failed to answer any specific questions, said that news embargoes “allow reporters time to develop their articles on complex matters in an informed, accurate way” and that its use of embargoes conforms to relevant government guidelines and best practices. The press office referred all questions to the FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel, which did not supply answers. Since the New York Times slip, no journalist covering the agency has openly mentioned being subject to such restrictions. Scientific American made a significant effort to contact many of the reporters believed to have agreed to an FDA close-hold embargo—including the AP’s Felberbaum, the Times ‘ Tavernise, NPR’s Stein, and other reporters from Reuters, USA Today and the LA Times . None could shed any light on the issue. Some explicitly refused to speak to Scientific American ; some failed to return queries; two had no recollection of having ever agreed to a close-hold embargo, including Tom Burton, a Pulitzer Prize–winning Wall Street Journal reporter and the only one willing to answer questions. “I didn’t remember it at all, and [even] after you told me, I didn’t remember,” he said. As far as he knows, Burton added, such embargoes are rare. No matter how rare it might be, there is documentary evidence of its happening multiple times, and each instance since 2011 is a violation of the FDA’s official media policy, which explicitly bans close-hold embargoes. This policy still stands, just as it did before the last close-hold embargo. The smart money says that the agency’s unofficial policy still stands, too—and the favoritism and close-hold embargoes continue. It is apparently too sweet an arrangement for the FDA simply to walk away. Despite the difficulty of measuring the use of close-hold embargoes, Oransky and Kiernan and other embargo observers agree that they—and other variations of the embargo used to tighten control over the press—appear to be on the rise. And they have been cropping up in other fields of journalism, such as business journalism as well. “More and more sources, including government sources but also corporate sources, are interested in controlling the message, and this is one of the ways they’re trying to do it,” says the New York Times ‘ Sullivan. “I think it should be resisted.” As much blame as government and other institutions bear for attempting to control the press through such means, the primary responsibility lies with the journalists themselves. Even a close-hold embargo wouldn’t constrain a reporter without the reporter’s consent; the reporter can simply wait until the embargo expires and speak to outside sources, albeit at the cost of filing the story a little bit later. Says Oransky: “We as journalists need to look inward a little bit and think about why all of us feel we absolutely have to publish something at embargo [expiration] when we don’t think we have the whole story?” Alas, Kiernan says, there isn’t any movement within the journalism community to change things: “I don’t know that journalists in general have taken a step back, [looking] from the 50,000-foot view to understand how their work is controlled and shaped by the embargo system. Submit your review | 0 |
A short investigation was launched after a Travis County judge wore a pink, knitted “pussy hat” in her courtroom late in January causing, some to doubt her impartiality from the bench. [Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt started her session on January 24 by putting on the pink knitted hat that has become associated with the Women’s March protests held the day after Donald J. Trump took the oath of office to become the 45th president of the United States. The judge’s shocking partisanship was first noted by Reddit users and soon caused residents to quiz Texas authorities as to whether or not a sitting judge is allowed to wear partisan political paraphernalia on the bench. Travis County Judge Wears ”Pussy Hat” During Court Hearings. could you expect to have a fair trial especially as a man if you saw this? pic. twitter. — Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) January 30, 2017, Local Austin TV station KVUE claimed that several county officials told them that Eckhardt didn’t break any rules other than that of propriety. Eckhardt has been known as a liberal, activist judge in the past. In June of last year, Eckhardt used a naturalization ceremony to attack Donald Trump, the Second Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, and the death penalty. At one point during the ceremony, the judge urged the newly sworn citizens to register to vote so they could vote against Donald Trump. Her bald attempt to politicize the ceremony rankled some participants. In October of 2015, Eckhardt met with activists for illegal aliens who were seeking help to quash a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas against the Obama administration over its executive amnesty program that would allow up to five million illegal aliens to remain in the United States without fear of deportation. Also in October, Eckhardt insisted that the state’s lawsuit was only being waged by “those who wish to play politics with peoples’ lives” and that Travis County’s economy was a success only because it is “built on immigration. ” Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
As the founder of the Traditionalist Worker Party, an American group that aims to preserve the privileged place of whiteness in Western civilization and fight “ degeneracy,” Matthew Heimbach knows whom he envisions as the ideal ruler: the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. “Russia is our biggest inspiration,” Mr. Heimbach said. “I see President Putin as the leader of the free world. ” Throughout the presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump mystified many on the left and in the foreign policy establishment with his praise for Mr. Putin and his criticism of the Obama administration’s efforts to isolate and punish Russia for its actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. But what seemed inexplicable when Mr. Trump first expressed his admiration for the Russian leader seems, in retrospect, to have been a shrewd dog whistle to a small but highly motivated part of his base. For Mr. Heimbach is far from alone in his esteem for Mr. Putin. Throughout the collection of white ethnocentrists, nationalists, populists and that has taken root on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr. Putin is widely revered as a kind of white knight: a symbol of strength, racial purity and traditional Christian values in a world under threat from Islam, immigrants and rootless cosmopolitan elites. “I’ve always seen Russia as the guardian at the gate, as the easternmost outpost of our people,” said Sam Dickson, a white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan lawyer who frequently speaks at gatherings of the a fringe movement that embraces white nationalism and a range of racist and positions. “They are our barrier to the Oriental invasion of our homeland and the great protector of Christendom. I admire the Russian people. They are the strongest white people on earth. ” Fascination with and, in many cases, adoration of Mr. Putin — or at least a distorted image of him — first took hold among politicians in Europe, many of whom have since developed close relations with their brethren in the United States. Such ties across the Atlantic have helped spread the view of Mr. Putin’s Russia as an ideal model. “We need a chancellor like Putin, someone who is working for Germany and Europe like Putin works for Russia,” said Udo Voigt, leader of Germany’s National Democratic Party. That group views Chancellor Angela Merkel as a traitor because she opened the door to nearly a million migrants from Syria and elsewhere last year. “Putin is a symbol for us of what is possible,” Mr. Voigt said. The Obama administration has accused Russian interests of meddling in the presidential campaign by spreading fake news and hacking into the computers of the Democratic National Committee and the emails of John Podesta, a leading figure in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But efforts by Russia, which has jailed some of its own white supremacist agitators, to organize and inspire extreme groups in the United States and Europe may ultimately prove more influential. His voice amplified by think tanks, the Orthodox Church and news media, like RT and Sputnik, that are aimed at foreign audiences, Mr. Putin has in recent years reached out to conservative and nationalist groups abroad with the message that he stands with them against gay rights activists and other forces of moral decay. He first embraced this theme when, campaigning for his third term as president in early 2012, he presented Russia not only as a military power deserving of international respect, but also as a “civilizational model” that could rally all those in Russia and beyond who were fed up with the erosion of traditional values. The Kremlin has also provided financial and logistical support to forces in the West, said Peter Kreko, an analyst at Political Capital, a research group in Budapest. Though Jobbik, a party in Hungary and other groups have been accused of receiving money from Moscow, the only proven case so far involves the National Front in France, which got loans worth more than $11 million from Russian banks. Russia also shares with groups across the world a deeply held belief that, regardless of their party, traditional elites should be deposed because of their support for globalism and transnational institutions like NATO and the European Union. But this means different things to different groups and people. Mr. Putin, for example, has “a natural interest in making a mess in Europe and the U. S.,” Mr. Kreko said. But for Mr. Heimbach, whose Traditionalist Worker Party uses the slogan “Globalism is the poison, nationalism is the antidote,” the term “international elites” is often an code for Jews, though he denied any racist intent. Mr. Putin has never personally promoted white supremacist ideas, and has repeatedly insisted that Russia, while predominantly white and Christian, is a vast territory of diverse religions and ethnic groups stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Nor has he displayed any sign of hostility toward Jews, a fact that has infuriated some of Russia’s more extremist nationalist groups. In fact, Mr. Putin’s agenda is not purely ideological. It is as much about accomplishing strategic goals like destabilizing Europe and NATO, or forcing the European Union to rescind the sanctions it applied after his forays into Crimea and eastern Ukraine. This has not stopped people like Richard B. Spencer, who runs the website AlternativeRight. com and directs the National Policy Institute, an group based in Montana, from hailing Mr. Putin as a protector of the white race. Not all of the has fully embraced the Russian leader. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s new chief strategist, who until he entered the White House ran Breitbart News, which he has called a platform for the has a complicated view of Mr. Putin. In a speech in 2014, he said that Mr. Putin ran a “kleptocracy,” but also that “we, the West, really have to look at what he’s talking about as far as traditionalism goes. ” Mr. Spencer, who held a conference in Washington in November, produced a video last year in which he claimed that “an understanding” between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin might bring together Slavic and American Caucasians and eventually “foretell a unified white world. ” This summer, he echoed those remarks when he told The Nation magazine, “I think we should be because Russia is the great white power that exists in the world. ” In an interview this past week, Mr. Spencer — he made headlines at his conference by shouting “Hail Trump!” — offered a more measured version of this sentiment, referring to Mr. Putin as “a normal leader in an abnormal world. ” “He wants to conserve his nation and his people,” Mr. Spencer said. “He recognizes certain enemies and certain traditions that should remain, like the church and the state. These are very normal conservative ends. ” Mr. Spencer acknowledged that Mr. Putin did not share his ideology, but played that down, saying, “We can look to Putin as someone we can admire and understand. ” Mr. Putin’s fans in Europe generally avoid white supremacist ideas, at least in public, but have also praised him for his nationalistic pride and his views on Islamic extremism, immigration and traditional sexual mores. When ordinary people see that “a man can kiss a man in the street in Germany, they look to the east and Russia and see that this kind of a new life has been stopped there,” said Mr. Voigt, the German leader. “For us, this is hope. ” Mr. Voigt added that he and his party “agree 100 percent with Putin’s position” on homosexuality: “We are absolutely against gender politics for my country and for Europe. ” Not all of Europe’s populists are smitten with Mr. Putin, though most tend to see him much more favorably than their own entrenched elites. “I’m more a fan than not,” said Tom Van Grieken, the leader of Vlaams Belang, a Belgian group that champions independence for the region of Flanders. “He does a good job for Russian interests. But I’m not sure he is good for the rest of the world. ” In Mr. Putin’s favor, Mr. Van Grieken insisted that Russia had been demonized by a Belgian establishment that “is a slave to America,” adding, “Putin is not black or white, but 50 shades of gray. ” Last year, in an effort to unite disparate and occasionally feuding groups and to place Russia squarely at the center of the expanding movement against liberal elites, a Russian political party, Rodina, organized a gathering of nationalist figures from Europe, the United States and elsewhere in a cramped conference room at St. Petersburg’s Holiday Inn. Fyodor V. Biryukov, a leader of the Rodina, or Motherland, party, said it was the first time that activists in the vanguard of “a new global revolution” had gotten together to rail against marriage, political correctness, radical Islamists and New York financiers. He said the Kremlin had not supported the event, “but “did not bother us, either. ” Among the Europeans at the conference were representatives from Britain First, a nationalist party, and Golden Dawn, the Greek group. At least two Americans were also there. One of them was Mr. Dickson, the former Klan lawyer, who flew in from Atlanta and gave a speech that ended with a cry in halting Russian: “God save the czar!” The other was Jared Taylor, the founder of the white supremacist think tank American Renaissance, who said that the descendants of white Europeans risked being swept away by a wave of Africans, Central Americans and Asians. In recent years, Mr. Taylor has struck up ties with European groups, inviting officials from the National Front, Vlaams Belang and the British National Party to speak at his American Renaissance events. “There is a worldwide awakening of nationalism among European countries — and I include the United States in that,” Mr. Taylor said. “All across Europe, we are seeing the rise of parties expressing the idea that Europe, in order to remain Europe, must remain European. I have a feeling of intense kinship for those that wish to preserve their nation and their culture. ” Mr. Heimbach has made three trips to Europe in the last three years, meeting with officials from the Golden Dawn in Greece, the New Right in Romania and Mr. Voigt’s National Democratic Party in Germany to discuss and organizing strategies. In Prague in September, he addressed members of the Workers’ Party of Social Justice, which opposes NATO and the European Union, has sought to criminalize homosexuality and has called for the Czech Republic to restore relations with Russia. “We white Americans can never be truly separated from our European brothers and sisters,” Mr. Heimbach told the crowd, “because we are all bonded together by shared blood, heritage and destiny. ” Tomas Vanas, the Czech party’s chairman, said in a telephone interview this past week that he stood together with Mr. Putin and others to resist “the perverse liberal values of the Western world. ” From home in Ohio last month, Mr. Heimbach described his visits to Europe as field trips that help him learn how to make the white nationalist movement in the United States a “real political force. ” He also spoke about creating a broader, worldwide network, which he called, with a nod to Comintern, the old Communist International, “the Traditionalist International. ” In this, as in many things, Mr. Putin’s Russia, now the home of a new global alliance of groups called the World Movement, was the template. “Russia has already taken its place on the global stage by organizing national movements as counterparts to Atlanticist elites,” Mr. Heimbach said. “Intellectually, they’ve shown us how it works. ” | 1 |
JERUSALEM — Within days of Donald J. Trump’s election to the presidency, Jerusalem’s city planning chief declared an end to the era of holding up new housing for Jewish residents in contentious neighborhoods out of deference to American objections. Last week, he followed through, advancing a plan to build 500 homes, a down payment on thousands more to come. The mayor’s office insisted that the timing was coincidental and the decision not political. But the planning chief made clear that he saw a green light to proceed “now that Trump” had won. Call it the Trump Effect. Around the world, his election is already shaping events — or at least perceived to be shaping them — even though he will not take office for seven more weeks. Companies hoping to profit from Mr. Trump’s economic policies have seen shares soar. Countries fearing his stance have seen the value of their currencies plunge against the dollar. Governments are recalibrating policies on trade, defense and immigration. The behavior of the global markets toward Mr. Trump has been uneven. On Monday, stocks and the dollar slipped slightly and bond prices rose, perhaps indicating a bit of caution after the postelection stock market surge. Much of the markets’ mixed reaction reflects uncertainty about a new president who has never held public office, leaving political leaders, business executives and international institutions to make bets on how a Trump administration may rewrite rules that have governed global affairs under American presidents of both parties. “For allies and adversaries alike, the election of Donald Trump represents the likely abandonment of a U. S. commitment to uphold the global order,” said Ivo Daalder, a former United States ambassador to NATO who is now president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. For some, there was initially a promising forecast. American and foreign stock markets climbed in what some analysts called “the Trump bump. ” The Dow Jones industrial average has broken several records since the election, and last week topped 19, 000 for the first time amid expectations of more regulatory policies. Investment banks like Goldman Sachs have fared particularly well. European firms have seen stock prices rise, too. Deutsche Bank, whose shares shot up as high as 17 percent after the election, has reasons for optimism beyond its longtime ties to Mr. Trump’s businesses. With the Justice Department proposing a $14 billion fine as it begins negotiations with the bank over its handling of securities in the 2008 financial crisis, some in Germany hope a new administration will ease up and loosen regulations. Another company that has seen its share value increase since the election is Magal Security Systems, an Israeli firm that helped develop security barriers around Gaza and the West Bank. With Mr. Trump’s promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico, investors expect that firms like Magal could get some of the business. Magal’s shares rose as high as 24 percent above their level, with trading volume as much as 150 times higher. For the same reason, Mexico has taken an economic hit since the election. Besides the wall, Mr. Trump has vowed to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico’s peso has fallen sharply, and its central bank last week slashed its growth projection for next year, citing “the electoral process in the United States. ” Other economies have reacted with trepidation amid fears that Mr. Trump’s policies may drive up interest rates and inflation, an expectation that some traders call Trumpflation. Some countries are trying to figure out how to respond in other ways. Leaders of NATO allies are looking at increasing military spending in response to Mr. Trump’s insistence that they pay a greater share of their defense. Lithuania last week chose a new prime minister, who renewed the nation’s promise to raise security spending. In the Philippines, where President Rodrigo Duterte has feuded with President Obama, the government has tried to gain favor in Mr. Trump’s Washington. Mr. Duterte named as his new trade envoy to the United States Jose E. B. Antonio, a real estate tycoon who is helping build Trump Tower Manila. After Britain rebuffed Mr. Trump’s suggestion to name Nigel Farage, a leader of the “Brexit” campaign to leave the European Union, as ambassador to the United States, The Times of London reported that Mr. Farage may move to America anyway. In many places, there is still much head scratching over Mr. Trump. The Bild Zeitung in Germany secured exclusive rights to translating into German the whole interview Mr. Trump gave to The New York Times last week. Bungeishunju, the Japanese publisher of “Trump Revealed,” by the Washington Post journalists Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher, reprinted an additional 10, 000 copies. In China, initial optimism about Mr. Trump is giving way to skepticism. “We should stop imagining what benefits Trump’s election could bring to China,” Zhu Chenghu, a retired major general, said at a seminar at the China Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing on Friday. “He will return to the traditional policies that rely on the role of the U. S. dollar and seek expansion overseas. ” Mr. Trump’s election is getting credit, or blame, for all sorts of events, no matter how tangential. In Russia, a newspaper interviewed an analyst who suggested that the arrest of a cabinet minister on bribery charges may have resulted from Mr. Trump’s success because Moscow no longer had to fear going after protégés of reformers who were once close to Washington. Nowhere has the Trump Effect been more visible than in Jerusalem, where the political right has openly rejoiced at the election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had a prickly relationship with Mr. Obama, has made clear to associates that he is overjoyed at Mr. Trump’s ascension. Members of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition expect Mr. Trump to abandon the practice of Mr. Obama and presidents of both parties who tried to restrain Israel from building housing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Shortly after the election, a Trump adviser said settlements were not an obstacle to peace, appearing to have adopted the argument Mr. Netanyahu makes. “The next few weeks present a unique window of opportunity for Israel,” Naftali Bennett, who leads a party in Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet, told a conference sponsored by The Jerusalem Post last week. After years of American pressure, he added, “it’s ours to decide. ” Betty Herschman, the director of international relations for Ir Amim, a group that opposes settlement construction, said it was too early to know what Mr. Trump’s policy would actually be. But she said one thing was clear: “The Israeli right is already celebrating. ” A case in point was last week’s decision on 500 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, an neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem across the “green line” delineating the border that existed until Israel won the 1967 war. The development had been in the works for years without being built. An announcement that it would proceed in 2010 while Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was visiting Israel infuriated Mr. Obama and his team. Brachie Sprung, a spokeswoman for Mayor Nir Barkat, said last week’s action by the municipal planning committee was a result of the developer’s coming back to the city with revisions to his plan that required new approval. “There has been no political statement here with this piece of land,” she said. But it was easy to see the move in the context of the emerging Trump era. Meir Turgeman, the deputy mayor who leads the planning committee, had just days earlier promised to advance 7, 000 housing units that were delayed under American pressure, and he named Ramat Shlomo as an example. “I intend to exploit the change of the guard in the U. S. A. and bring them to approval,” Mr. Turgeman told Israel’s Channel 2. Until now, he said, there had been pressure from Mr. Netanyahu’s office not to proceed to avoid angering Washington. “That’s over. From now, we intend to take the plans out of deep freeze. ” | 1 |
Map to Wikileaks Podesta Emails - Alphabetical Index by Sender (Version 14 Updated 10/25/16)
SUPPLEMENT TO: Navigating Wikileaks: A Guide to the Podesta Emails (image by Charles Grapski) License DMCA
The following is a lengthy list of the entirety of the Podesta Emails database as released by Wikileaks (updated as of 10/24/14 through the 14th dump of records). It provides a quick graphic representation of the structure of the database (which is organized alphabetically by the sender [see the Introduction to the Guide: Navigating WikiLeaks: A Guide to the Podesta Emails ]). In particular this view, which contains a set of documents by the Alphabetical set (one for each letter and a PRE and POST category for the emails that fall prior to A and after Z), can show the gaps in the records thus far released. It is thus a useful tool to see whether a particular sender may be missing or what further emails from a particular sender have yet been released. This can be done using the colored bands - the DARK ORANGE band highlighting the as yet unreleased emails. Each of the other colored bands represents the data dumps from the 7th through the latest. The second to last column (dump) indicates which dump the email was released in. I will present an alphabetical list at the start which provides a direct link to a PDF version (links not active) and a SPREADSHEET version (active links if download Excel file [Viewable online but doesn't work if open in Google Sheets]). The links provide a link to the Wikileaks page (Link) and to directly download the .eml email file (Get). This will be followed by an image representation of the entire alphabetical list. Unfortunately due to the limitations on using table formatting I have chosen to use the image rather than the data itself on this page. Thus the user might find the PDF and/or SPREADSHEET useful. I will also provide the links to the PDF and SPREADSHEET above each alphabetical section.
Also useful is the General Map of the database showing the total number of released and unreleased emails by alphabetical set. See: MAP to Wikileaks Podesta Emails [Version 14 - Updated (10/24/16)] - Advertisement -
The Introduction to this Guide including a narrative and an explanation of the methodology can be found here: Navigating WikiLeaks: A Guide to the Podesta Emails.
[UPDATE NOTE: Updates will be loaded shortly bringing this info up to date through the 19th data dump by Wikileaks on 10/26/16. In order to do so I will publish the PDF and SPREADSHEET in advance of the full page so it is available for use as soon as possible. You can check the Series Page on OpEdNews to see what updates have been posted. Unfortunately the site does not allow updates to these pages themselves so new pages will be created for updates.] MAP of Indexed Sender Email Information Files (Quick Links) LETTER - PDF - SPREADSHEET | 0 |
BREAKING: White House Abandons TPP & TTIP Nov 11, 2016 5 0
In a major victory for several nations and millions of people around the world, the White House has announced moments ago that Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress has said that they won’t try to advance the Trans Pacific Partnership as they know a Trump administration will be completely opposed to it. This makes the TPP, a trade agreement that has been protested on a global scale, now effectively dead in the water. As the Wall Street Journal reports :
The failure to pass what is by far the biggest trade agreement in more than a decade is abitter defeat for Mr. Obama, whose belated but fervent support for freer trade divided his party and complicated the campaign of Mrs. Clinton. The TPP’s collapse also dents American prestige in the region at a time when China is flexing its economic and military muscle. Protesters in front of the White House.
Donald Trump has voiced his resistance to the TPP and laid out in his plan for his first 100 days in office to include saying no to trade deals like the TPP and TTIP. For many, it is believed such trade deals would strongly and negatively impact the workforce in America.
In addition to the TPP being dropped by the White House today, the TTIP suffered an effective defeat as well.
As reported by Bloomberg , European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said that talks between the U.S. and EU would be put on “indefinite hold” because of Trump’s victory in the election.
“There will be a natural pause, of course, while we wait for the next administration; then, for quite some time TTIP will probably be in the freezer. Then what happens when it’s defrosted, I think we will need to wait and see. I don’t see the resumption of any TTIP negotiation in quite a long time. Whether it makes sense to have new rounds — well probably not.”
The U.S and EU have been working on the TTIP for three years which would have eliminated tariffs on goods, enlarged service markets and bolstered regulatory cooperation. Germany’s Angela Merkel and Barack Obama have both called the TTIP a “policy priority.”
As The Guardian has reported , both trade agreements have been clouded in secrecy and even the contents of such deals were not easily allowed to be revealed to Congress:
“Yet that doesn’t seem to be the position of the “most transparent administration ever”. While lobbyists are given a free hand to help write the deals, even members of legislative bodies have to jump through absurd hoops just to lay eyes on the document. Draconian restrictions were put on US members of Congress if they wanted to view TPP while it was in negotiation, so much so that they were even threatened with prosecution if they talked about it. And Time magazine just reported on what Katja Kipping, a member of German parliament, had to do to see the latest version of TTIP. This included agreeing to a restricted reading time of just two hours, having a guard breathing down her neck the entire time and not sharing the contents of the agreement with anyone.”
Though Donald Trump has voiced strong opposition to these deals, we will now wait and see if he makes good on his words. It appears though that the U.S. and EU have all but given up on the TPP and TTIP. Share the good news!
Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science and does health coaching through his website Orgonlight Health . You can follow the Orgonlight Health facebook page or visit the website for more information and other inspiring articles. | 0 |
Twitter Freaks Out When White People Spotted Holding “Blacks for Trump” Signs
The video featured a montage of Trump talking about other people he didn’t terrible like (like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ) and it showed him doing very similar motions with his hands .
Anyone who’s watched Trump for the past year would realize that his sometimes-bizarre hand motions are simple his way of mocking people he doesn’t like. He does it regardless of whether the person is disabled.
Further analysis on the video showed that the reporter in question actually can’t move his arm freely. However, none of this mattered to liberals. Advertisement - story continues below
They simply captured an image of Trump that looked like he was mocking the reporter, put it next to a photo of the reporter, and plastered that all over the airwaves.
You can watch the full video below:
The Clinton campaign is so desperate to stop Trump that they will lie and smear his name if they think it will earn them a point. It’s up to us to spread the word and inform the American people of the truth. Advertisement - story continues below | 0 |
Started by two roommates in a Stanford dorm in 2011, Snapchat’s parent, Snap, Inc. filed with the SEC last week for a $3 billion initial public offering (IPO) but admit the company may never make a profit. [According to the United States Securities Exchange Commission website, the company has grown its daily user base to 158 million. The discloses that company revenue spiked up by almost 700 percent last year to $404. 5 million, from $58. 7 million in 2015. But Snap’s net loss also jumped from $372. 9 million in 2015 to $514. 6 million in 2016. Companies that “go public” list risk factors, but Snap’s are unusually severe. The company warns that Snap: had operating losses in the past, and expects more in the future has highly significant competition that will intensify believes losing one key staff member could harm the business projects that users and advertisers could quit the platform if security is compromised and warns that its user metrics and estimates are not reliable. Breitbart News reported that a former Snap employee, Anthony Pompliano, had filed suit against the company after being fired — so he alleges — for refusing to participate in a scheme to inflate the company’s valuation. With Pompliano alleging that Snap, Inc. might seek to violate the United States Securities Act of 1933 — which prohibits deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud during an IPO — Snap’s states the company may never achieve profitability. Despite having all these risk factors, Snap is expected to be the hottest IPO since Alibaba (BABA) in September 2014 and Facebook (FB) in May 2012. Both investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are underwriters, and Wall Street is whispering that the company could have a $34 billion public valuation. Originally designed in 2011 to facilitate sexting and other images that needed to disappear, Snapchat took a radical social app turn away from Facebook users updating family and friends, from Instagram recording beautiful photo content, and from Twitter as a continuous cocktail party conversations. Unlike its competitors, who want everything posted on their sites to be archived and indexed digitally, Snapchat created a platform where everything was in the moment and then gone. Some users have compared Snapchat’s business model to television 50 years ago, when programing was in front of a live audience and content wasn’t preserved on videotape. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel and his Stanford buddies Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, innovated past just being a “sexting app” to offer goofy Lenses that let users overlay animated facial features and add laser eyes, clown face, rainbow vomiting and hundreds of other stupidly fun gags. Social justice warriors have from time to time attacked the company for allowing users access to filters that can create slanted eyes, Asian buck teeth, blackface and a number of other politically incorrect looks. The company has recently been pushing its “Stories” feature, which lets users assemble videos and photos from the past 24 hours to create adventures and scenarios. The filing of the with the United States Securities Exchange Commission allows Snap, Inc. to launch a due diligence tour in anticipation of an IPO that should take place within the next 45 days. | 1 |
The Dark Agenda Behind Globalism And Open Borders By Brandon Smith
When people unfamiliar with the liberty movement stumble onto the undeniable fact of the “conspiracy” of globalism they tend to look for easy answers to understand what it is and why it exists. Most people today have been conditioned to perceive events from a misinterpreted standpoint of “Occam’s Razor”— they wrongly assume that the simplest explanation is probably the right one.
In fact, this is not what Occam’s Razor states. Instead, to summarize, it states that the simplest explanation GIVEN THE EVIDENCE at hand is probably the right explanation.
It has been well known and documented for decades that the push for globalism is a deliberate and focused effort on the part of a select “elite;” international financiers, central bankers, political leaders and the numerous members of exclusive think tanks. They often openly admit their goals for total globalization in their own publications, perhaps believing that the uneducated commoners would never read them anyway. Carroll Quigley, mentor to Bill Clinton and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is often quoted with open admissions to the general scheme:
The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world. – Carroll Quigley, Tragedy And Hope
The people behind the effort to enforce globalism are tied together by a particular ideology, perhaps even a cult-like religion, in which they envision a world order as described in Plato’s Republic . They believe that they are “chosen” either by fate, destiny or genetics to rule as philosopher kings over the rest of us. They believe that they are the wisest and most capable that humanity has to offer, and that through evolutionary means, they can create chaos and order out of thin air and mold society at will.
This mentality is evident in the systems that they build and exploit. For example, central banking in general is nothing more than a mechanism for driving nations into debt, currency devaluation, and ultimately, enslavement through widespread economic extortion. The end game for central banks is, I believe, the triggering of historic financial crisis, which can then be used by the elites as leverage to promote complete global centralization as the only viable solution.
This process of destabilizing economies and societies is not directed by the heads of the various central banks. Instead, it is directed by even more central global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements, as outlined in revealing mainstream articles like “ Ruling The World Of Money “published by Harper’s Magazine .
We also find through the words of globalists that the campaign for a “new world order” is not meant to be voluntary.
… When the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people … will hate the new world order … and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people. – HG Welles, Fabian Socialist and author of The New World Order
In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than f rom the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault. – Richard Gardner, member of the Trilateral Commission, published in the April, 1974 issue of Foreign Affairs
The New World Order cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the single most significant component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions. – Henry Kissinger, World Action Council, April 19, 1994
I could quote globalists all day long, but I think you get the general idea. While some people see globalism as a “natural offshoot” of free markets or the inevitable outcome of economic progress, the reality is that the simplest explanation (given the evidence at hand) is that globalism is an outright war waged against the ideal of sovereign peoples and nations. It is a guerrilla war, or fourth generation warfare, waged by a small group of elites against the rest of us.
A significant element of this war concerns the nature of borders. Borders of nations, states and even towns and villages, are not just lines on a map or invisible barriers in the dirt. This is what the elites and the mainstream media would like us to believe. Instead, borders when applied correctly represent principles; or at least, that is supposed to be their function.
Human beings are natural community builders; we are constantly seeking out others of like-mind and like-purpose because we understand subconsciously that groups of individuals working together can (often but not always) accomplish more. That said, human beings also have a natural tendency to value individual freedom and the right to voluntary association. We do not like to be forced to associate with people or groups that do not hold similar values.
Cultures erect borders because, frankly, people have the right to vet those who wish to join and participate in their endeavors. People also have a right to discriminate against anyone who does not share their core values; or, in other words, we have the right to refuse association with other groups and ideologies that are destructive to our own.
Interestingly, globalists and their mouthpieces will argue that by refusing to associate with those who might undermine our values, it is WE who are violating THEIR rights. See how that works?
Globalists exploit the word “isolationism” to shame sovereignty champions in the eyes of the public, but there is no shame in isolation when such principles as freedom of speech and expression or the right to self defense are on the line. There is also nothing wrong with isolating a prosperous economic model from unsuccessful economic models. Forcing a decentralized free market economy to adopt feudal administration through central banking and government will eventually destroy that model. Forcing a free market economy into fiscal interdependency with socialist economies will also most likely undermine that culture. Just as importing millions of people with differing values to feed on a nation after it has had socialism thrust upon it is a recipe for collapse.
The point is, some values and social structures are mutually exclusive; no matter how hard you try, certain cultures can never be homogenized with other cultures. You can only eliminate one culture to make room for the other in a border-less world. This is what globalists seek to achieve. It is the greater purpose behind open border policies and globalization – to annihilate ideological competition so that humanity thinks it has no other option but the elitist religion. The ultimate end game of globalists is not to control governments (governments are nothing more than a tool). Rather, their end game is to obtain total psychological influence and eventually consent from the masses.
Variety and choice have to be removed from our environment in order for globalism to work, which is a nice way to say that many people will have to die and many principles will have to be erased from the public consciousness. The elites assert that their concept of a single world culture is the pinnacle principle of mankind, and that there is no longer any need for borders because no other principle is superior to theirs. As long as borders as a concept continue to exist there is always the chance of separate and different ideals rising to compete with the globalist philosophy. This is unacceptable to the elites.
This has led not so subtle propaganda meme that cultures that value sovereignty over globalism are somehow seething cauldrons of potential evil. Today, with the rising tide of anti-globalist movements, the argument in the mainstream is that “populists” (conservatives) are of a lower and uneducated class and are a dangerous element set to topple the “peace and prosperity” afforded by globalist hands. In other words, we are treated like children scrawling with our finger paints across a finely crafted Mona Lisa. Once again, Carroll Quigley promotes (or predicts) this propaganda decades in advance when he discusses the need for “working within the system” for change instead of fighting against it:
For example, I’ve talked about the lower middle class as the backbone of fascism in the future. I think this may happen. The party members of the Nazi Party in Germany were consistently lower middle class. I think that the right-wing movements in this country are pretty generally in this group. – Carroll Quigley, from Dissent: Do We Need It?
The problem is that these people refuse to confront the fruits of globalization that can be observed so far. Globalists have had free rein over most of the world’s governments for at least a century, if not longer. As a consequence of their influences, we have had two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession which is still ongoing, too many regional conflicts and genocides to count and the systematic oppression of free agent entrepreneurs, inventors and ideas to the point that we are now suffering from social and financial stagnation.
The globalists have long been in power, yet, the existence of borders is blamed for the storm of crises we have endured for the past hundred years? Liberty champions are called “deplorable” populists and fascists while globalists dodge blame like slimy slithering eels?
This is the best card the globalists have up their sleeve, and it is the reason why I continue to argue that they plan to allow conservative movements to gain a measure of political power in the next year, only to pull the plug on international fiscal life support and blame us for the resulting tragedy.
There is no modicum of evidence to support the notion that globalization, interdependency and centralization actually work. One need only examine the economic and immigration nightmare present in the EU to understand this. So, the globalists will now argue that the world is actually not centralized ENOUGH. That’s right; they will claim we need more globalization, not less, to solve the world’s ailments.
In the meantime, principles of sovereignty have to be historically demonized — the concept of separate cultures built on separate beliefs has to be psychologically equated with evil by future generations. Otherwise, the globalists will never be able to successfully establish a global system without borders.
Imagine, for a moment, an era not far away in which the principle of sovereignty is considered so abhorrent, so racist, so violent and poisonous that any individual would be shamed or even punished by the collective for entertaining the notion. Imagine a world in which sovereignty and conservatism are held up to the next generation as the new “original sins;” dangerous ideas that almost brought about the extinction of man.
This mental prison is where globalists want to take us. We can break free, but this would require a complete reversal of the way in which we participate in society. Meaning, we need a rebellion of voluntary associations. A push for decentralization instead of globalization. Thousands upon thousands of voluntary groups focusing on localization, self reliance and true production. We must act to build a system that is based on redundancy instead of fragile interdependency . We need to go back to an age of many borders, not less borders, until every individual is himself free to participate in whatever social group or endeavor he believes is best for him, as well as free to defend against people that seek to sabotage him; a voluntary tribal society devoid of forced associations.
Of course, this effort would require unimaginable sacrifice and a fight that would probably last a generation. To suggest otherwise would be a lie. I can’t possibly convince anyone that a potential future based on a hypothetical model is worth that sacrifice. I have no idea whether it is or is not. I can only point out that the globalist dominated world we live in today is clearly doomed. We can argue about what comes next after we have removed our heads from the guillotine.
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Report: Friend Has Been Going By Middle Name This Whole Fucking Time CALABASAS, CA—Astounded that it had never come up at any point in the six years they had known each other, local woman Lucy Reed, 25, reported Tuesday that her friend Nicole Silberthau had apparently been going by her middle name this whole fucking time. Disappointing Prince Vaults Found To Contain 37,000 Hours Of Billy Joel Covers CHANHASSEN, MN—Ending rampant speculation regarding the extent of the late musician’s catalogue of unreleased recordings, the executors of Prince’s estate announced Monday that the performer’s famed vault in his Paisley Park residence sadly contains 37,000 hours of Billy Joel covers. Conceptual Genius Goes As Self For Halloween ‘He Himself Is The Costume,’ Say Amazed Onlookers SHERMAN OAKS, CA—Brilliantly subverting the very idea of a costume, conceptual genius Mark Richards, 27, reportedly stunned his fellow partygoers Friday when he announced that he had dressed as himself for Halloween. | 0 |
2016 elections by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Donald Trump’s many evils are manifest and obvious. But let’s stop pretending that some historical line has been crossed in U.S. political and social relations. “The dictates of white supremacy are ever present and the numbers of white people who do anything serious about it are small.” Newly outraged Democrats act like they’ve never seen a fascist. “There is an ample supply of domestic fascists. They are the people who wear police uniforms.” Freedom Rider : How Not to Protest Trump by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“ There are many unique characteristics to the Donald Trump story but the institutional evils that permeate this country persist no matter who sits in the oval office. ”
Thousands of progressives are taking to the streets in opposition to the Donald Trump presidency. After eight years of Obama induced slumber they awoke with quite a start. Many of these individuals and organizations protested as part of the anti-war, Occupy and Black Lives Matter movements, but others weren’t concerned about very much until the reality show host became president elect.
The awful Hillary Clinton should be inaugurated the 45 th president of the United States because she won the popular vote. But for the second time in less than twenty years a Democrat preferred by the people will instead be an historical footnote. If nothing else the Electoral College is rightly condemned.
But where else should protesters direct their anger? If they are concerned about fascism they could protest police killings, or United States government murders committed during numerous interventions abroad. They might have risen up against the mass incarceration state. The list of outrages that should get people moving is quite long.
White liberals here in New York City didn’t care very much when black and brown residents were subjected to nearly one million police encounters. Mayor Bloomberg’s infamous stop and frisk program was a tailor made opportunity for public anger. Yet every poll indicated that white people were in favor of this very fascist 21 st century slave patrol. Those same people are now upset but what exactly has raised their ire?
“Trump is no more hostile to the rights of the press than Obama was.”
They say they are concerned about the rights of undocumented people but they didn’t say much when Obama acted as the Deporter-in-Chief. The so-called Muslim registry of men from 25 countries under the auspices of the NSEERS program lasted from 2002 to 2011. That is to say during two years of the Obama administration. They may be concerned about climate change and Trump’s promise to end America’s participation in the most recent climate agreement. But that agreement allows for a rise in carbon production and thus in world temperatures. They would have been smarter to challenge the phony climate change process itself.
They say they are afraid that Trump will muzzle the press. His shouting match with network executives should not be a cause for alarm. Eventually they’ll start saying good things about him so he was foolish to be so hostile. But he is no more hostile to the rights of the press than Obama was. When he used the Espionage Act to punish leakers and whistle blowers many of the now distraught progressives didn’t say much.
So what has gotten progressives so angry? There is nothing new about the so-called alt-right movement. There is always a way to brand white nationalism. They may be the Tea Party one day and alt-right the next but it all amounts to the same thing. The dictates of white supremacy are ever present and the numbers of white people who do anything serious about it are small.
If the sight of naziesque salutes to Trump are upsetting just keep in mind that there is an ample supply of domestic fascists. They are the people who wear police uniforms. They may not “hail Trump” or anyone else but they kill three people in this country every day.
“ Barack Obama and Eric Holder quite literally kept thousands of black people in jail who could have been freed.”
Donald Trump should be given credit for providing so much low hanging fruit. His appointment of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions to the post of attorney general provides ready made ingredients for fear and anger. Sessions was once denied a federal judgeship in part because of racist remarks directed at a black attorney. And who can ignore the glorification of the Confederacy in his name. But what did Obama and his two black attorney generals do? There were no prosecutions of killer police. That fact is a curious one in the age of murder caught on video. The Obama Justice Department argued against giving the right to request resentencing for those convicted during the years of draconian drug crime prosecution. Barack Obama and Eric Holder quite literally kept thousands of black people in jail who could have been freed.
It is difficult to take protesters seriously when they won’t even direct their anger at the party which displayed such gross incompetence during the recent campaign. The inability to defeat the man who seemed so unsuited to the presidency should stir anger towards the people whose hubris brought him to the White House.
There is always a need to engage in struggle, whether a Republican or Democrat is president. There are many unique characteristics to the Donald Trump story but the institutional evils that permeate this country persist no matter who sits in the oval office. We can gauge the true level of concern about justice when a Democrat next emerges victorious. A president who provides a greater opportunity for scorn should not be the last one who faces opposition. Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com. | 0 |
HAVANA — When Fidel Castro rode victoriously into Havana on Jan. 8, 1959, Juan Montes Torre rushed into the streets to cheer. A poor, uneducated laborer from the eastern countryside of Cuba, he had arrived in the capital a few years earlier and, like most of his neighbors, could hardly believe what was happening. “It was an emotional shock,” Mr. Montes said. “These bearded men, poorly dressed — they won! And on behalf of the lower classes!” Mr. Montes, who was 25 at the time, stayed loyal to Mr. Castro, who died on Friday, from that moment. The Castro revolution gave him an education, a home, and a job as a police officer who sometimes guarded the comandante himself. But that allegiance slipped from generation to generation in Mr. Montes’s family, and in Cuba as a whole. His son’s views darkened decades ago, during tussles with the Castro government’s restrictions. His teenage granddaughter, Rocio, has spent most of her youth feeling glum about the conditions in her country. “There are too many Cubans who get up every day and struggle and struggle, and that’s it,” she said in an interview. “My dream is to leave. ” The Montes family’s story of faith and disillusion is common. Cuban families have been arguing about Mr. Castro since he came to power. His death has again produced an intense clash of emotions for many Cubans who recognize that he was more than just a political figure. He was also a brother, a father and a grandfather to various Cuban generations — a familiar presence whose ideals, whims and ego shaped everyone’s identity and daily life. Whether they wanted him around or not, Fidel was there, with his speeches, his billboards and the grandiose absolutes — “Socialismo o muerte!” (“Socialism or death! ”) — that helped produce early triumphs in education and health care, along with restrictions on speech and assembly and, later on, persistent economic failures. His relationship to the country was remarkably personal. Robert A. Pastor, a former Latin America adviser to President Jimmy Carter, used to say that Mr. Castro was one of the few world leaders referred to by just their first names. Many Cubans have grown comfortable with calling him a complicated relative. “You have to look at this in a very cool way — this is like the father who has been there all the time that has taken the family through thick and thin,” Carlos Alzugaray Treto, a former Cuban diplomat, said in an interview on Saturday. “Maybe at times you don’t agree with him, but most of the time you agree with what he has done. ” Yet Mr. Castro was not exactly a common loved one. He was also the maximum leader — charismatic but quick to anger, a guerrilla whose name Cubans were often afraid to utter. Because he ruled for decades, Mr. Castro’s impact — and the perception of it — changed over time. Cubans born before the revolution saw him as a transformative force for good or ill. Those born later, especially after the Soviet Union started collapsing in 1989, tend to view him as an obdurate barrier to economic opportunity and to integration with the rest of the world. In life, he was often an enigma in death, for Cuban families like the Monteses, he is a collage of competing images, from the inspiring young rebel to the old man. Mr. Montes first heard of the barbudos, or bearded rebels, when he was picking coffee and fruit in the fields in Cuba’s eastern province of Guantánamo. It was the early 1950s, and poor farmers in the area had started banding together, revolting against wealthy landowners. Mr. Castro was among many leaders said to be demanding better working conditions. On July 26, 1953, Mr. Castro staged his first major attack, raiding the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, now the country’s city. Mr. Castro was caught, and he defended himself in court three months later with a lengthy speech that included the line “History will absolve me. ” Mr. Montes had decided by then to move to Havana — and to root for Mr. Castro and his guerrillas. “There was a lot of injustice back then,” Mr. Montes said. “Coups, crime. The government didn’t care at all for the people. ” Compared with its neighbors, Cuba was well off, with a income in 1958 that was exceeded in Latin America by only Argentina and Venezuela, according to United Nations statistics. But the Cuban economy was essentially stuck in place, with yawning inequality. In rural areas like those where Mr. Montes grew up, more than 90 percent of the homes lacked electricity. In Havana, the streets were clogged with a mix of Cadillacs and ragtag beggars. After taking power in 1959, Mr. Castro promised radical change. “We have fought to give democracy and liberty to our people,” he said days after his triumphant arrival in Havana. He delivered, Mr. Montes said. Over the next few months, the Castro government announced plans for land reform to grant property to the poor, taxes of 80 percent on expensive cars and additional government spending to decrease unemployment. In December that year, Mr. Montes was hired as a police officer. It was his first steady job since his arrival in Havana and came with free schooling, leading him from a education to a high school diploma. The pride he felt at his rise into the middle class can be seen in family pictures from that era, with his wife wearing new necklaces beside her smiling husband. Even in his 80s, he speaks of his first few years on the police force with the excitement of a new cadet. “When someone committed a crime, we arrested them, but always with a sense of justice,” he said. “We didn’t abuse anyone. It was a process for everyone. It wasn’t just for the upper classes. ” From the outside, especially in Washington, Mr. Castro seemed to be upending Cuba’s justice system, summarily executing opponents and filling Cuban jails. Mr. Montes, however, said he had seen a police force once viewed as a collection of corrupt thugs becoming professional. From 1959 to 1962, Mr. Montes said, Cubans all over the country were eager to serve Mr. Castro. But there were enemies close by — mostly wealthier Cuban exiles who had fled when Mr. Castro began nationalizing property. They had the support of the United States, and when their attack came at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, Mr. Montes was guarding the home of Celia Sánchez, a famous guerrilla fighter and Mr. Castro’s longtime lover and confidante. Around 4 a. m. Mr. Montes said, there was a flurry of activity inside. Moments later Mr. Castro emerged, surrounded by armed escorts. “He looked calm,” Mr. Montes said. “No one knew what was happening. No one knew they attacked us. ” The Cuban missile crisis and the American trade embargo only strengthened the siege mentality that Mr. Castro relied on for decades, as he argued repeatedly that Cuba must remain under tight control lest the northern imperialists invade and turn the island into an American fief. In an interview in late 2012, Mr. Montes said he had never questioned that assessment, even when he was with critics of Mr. Castro’s authoritarian ways. In 1970, during the government’s effort to harvest a record 10 million tons of sugar, Mr. Montes helped guard 300 political prisoners forced to cut sugar cane. Mr. Montes said they had not seemed to be bad people. “But,” he said, with what sounded like a touch of disappointment, “they were wrong. ” He said he had often felt the same way about relatives who at times were critical of Mr. Castro, including some who had moved to the United States. “The revolution is a process,” he said. Shifting in his seat, on a flowered couch at his home in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana, he looked toward his son’s house next door. “They don’t see things very clearly,” he said. “They don’t realize that they have the greatest opportunity in the world they have the opportunity to study. ” He said he wished younger Cubans in his family could see the broader context. “We were a poor, uneducated, humble family before the revolution,” he said. “Then there was a change. It’s a radical change that’s still maturing. ” The entrance to Juan Carlos’s home is covered in green vines with bunches of bitter grapes. More than a decade ago, he ran a private restaurant, or paladar, beneath the greenery. He also used to rent rooms to tourists until he developed a new business in which he uses his newly acquired Spanish passport to travel to Panama to buy clothes and other items to sell in Havana. He is a member of what might be called the “resolver” generation — those who learned to resolve or negotiate their way around the shortages, regulations and inefficiencies of Cuban socialism in its later stages. If his father’s image of Mr. Castro and the revolution was shaped by the changes of the 1950s or ’60s, his views have been sculpted by the transition from the flush 1980s to the scavenging ’90s. The shift was significant. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba lost a patron that had provided around $4 billion a year in credits and subsidies. The economy contracted by 34 percent from 1990 to 1993, with chronic shortages of fuel, soap, food — just about everything. Cuban officials acknowledged in 1990 that the country had entered a “special period. ” The implication was that Cuba would need to make some exceptions to the norm. In 1993, Mr. Castro legalized the American dollar and allowed Cubans to become in dozens of industries, especially those serving tourists. Scholars still debate the degree to which Cuba adopted capitalism in that period, but Juan Carlos was one of many who took advantage. He was 31 at the time and had already become frustrated with the way the Castro government worked. In his 20s, he worked at Cuba’s customs agency, as his father had after his tenure on the police force. What Juan Carlos saw, he said, was an antidemocratic system that rewarded silence instead of initiative. He said his frustration peaked in the late 1980s when he was rebuffed by Communist Party officials for gathering recommendations from colleagues for improving the agency. He believed he was doing what socialism revered: organizing workers. “But the party guys,” he said, “they just told me: ‘That’s not right. Here are the things we are going to talk about, and you, don’t stand up and talk. ’” Juan Carlos shook his head and laughed as if expressing a sentiment that Cubans have long relied on to describe with the government: “No es fácil” — it’s not easy. He left his job just before the Soviet Union’s collapse. Over the next few years, he found work in hotels. When Mr. Castro legalized small restaurants, Juan Carlos decided to open one with his wife, but there was a problem: He needed permission from the local Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, the neighborhood party watchdog, and the group had not met in years. So he nominated himself to lead the group and got his neighbors to support his candidacy. “I became the president so I could open the restaurant,” he said. The Castro government was never far away, however. The 1990s led to relative economic openness, but in fits and starts as Mr. Castro and his brother Raúl, who took over presidential powers in 2006, limited change. Businesses must stay small under laws that restrict how many employees can be hired. Supplies must be bought from the government, and crackdowns are common. Even as relations with the United States have improved, peaking with reopened embassies and President Obama’s visit this year, the economic life of the island remains constricted by Cuba’s loyalty to central control. “It’s like an accordion — they open a little, they close,” Juan Carlos said. “But they never open it up all the way. ” Success, then, has tended to play favorites. Economic and racial inequality, after improving in the early years of the revolution, has gotten worse since the 1990s. Cubans with small businesses and more lucrative jobs in tourism are typically with advantages built up over time. Some have relatives in Miami. Others have connections in government or, in the case of Juan Carlos, Spanish ancestry and a home in Vedado with extra space. He acknowledged that he had done relatively well through much hard work. During one winter visit, he popped a tape into a VCR, showing his daughter’s quinceañera — her 15th birthday party — at the Hotel Nacional. The girl, Rocio, wore a light gown and thanked her parents as the guests drank and danced. It looked like a small prom. But for Juan Carlos, and especially for his daughter, one night of fun is nowhere near enough to create contentment. Rocio dreams of becoming an art historian. Tall and thin, she described Cuba with the nuanced sophistication that comes from a good education and plenty of time to think things through. In her eyes, Cuba is purgatory, and even before he died, Mr. Castro was a specter of the past, studied in textbooks more than seen. “Fidel had an enormous vision,” she said. And, yes, there a lot of things she said she loved about Mr. Castro’s Cuba: the breezy liberty of the streets, and rarely snagged with traffic the emphasis on education and culture. She said she sometimes feared that violence would return once Fidel and Raúl Castro were gone. But mostly, as she has grown from adolescence to adulthood, she has wanted to leave. Her older sister already lives in Spain. Her best friend went to Miami for a vacation one summer and stayed, telling Rocio about the crowded shopping malls and the impressive facilities at her new school. Most of Rocio’s friends, she said, hope to get out of Cuba as soon as they can. “My generation, we’re not worried about politics or ideals,” she said. “We just want to get out. Abroad you can achieve so much more. You can be recognized for your work, internationally, by the world. ” Fidel Castro’s era of speeches, ideology and Cold War standoffs is not what today’s ambitious young people want. Like many young Cubans, Rocio mostly wants Cuba to catch up. Why is there no open and affordable access to the internet? Why can’t she easily get on Facebook to say hi to her sister in Barcelona? Why is it so hard to visit the Louvre, in person or virtually? “I think everyone has a right to get the information they want to think and study,” she said. She said that the American trade embargo clearly did not help, but that most young people considered their own government responsible for creating a society of limits. “Fidel and Raúl started out with a good idea,” she said. “They just didn’t achieve what they said they would achieve. ” She wants the same thing her grandfather and Fidel Castro wanted when they were young: radical change and a fair shot at making a life for herself on her terms. The changes of the past few years under Raúl Castro, allowing more private enterprise and travel, offer some hope, she said, “but it’s not changing at the pace it needs to. ” Fidel Castro is gone — “He was a man of the 20th century,” Mr. Montes said in an interview on Saturday night — and his granddaughter has long been ready to move on. “We don’t have time to wait,” she said. | 1 |
We Are Change
Some call it victim-blaming. Others call it reality. I call it the natural outcome of decades of insanity.
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[Graphic from the Dorian Gray Wiki Project .] =By= Edward Curtin “They didn’t act like people and they didn’t act like actors. It’s hard to explain.” J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye “Eleanor Rigby…Lives in a dream/Waits at the window, wearing a face/That she keeps in a jar by the door/Who is it for?” The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby Editor's Note The analogy of the mask and the role it plays in our lives provides fertile ground for discussion of this (endless) political season. That each of us plays some role in this farce (in the classic sense of that word) is an important recognition. More than any election in my lifetime I have heard “you can’t make this shit up.” A classic statement of life imitating art imitating fantastical life. Unfortunately, for many of us, myself included, this feels more like a nightmare from which I cannot wake myself. There is a world in the balance. One could say that there always in when dealing with a deck stacked with the arsenal of the United States. However, now we are dealing with an unfolding environmental catastrophe which will leave more dead than we can count. The new estimate from the World Wildlife Fund is that two-thirds of the world’s wildlife will be extinct by 2020. That is less than 4 years. Those species deaths will certainly be accompanied by the decimation of countless human lives as well. So pick your stage and which play is real. T he idiocy of the Presidential election race will soon be over, as will the endless pseudo-debates and the droning of the commentators, who have been prattling on for more than a year, as if there were something to consider about this sick farce; as if the deep state had not been directing this life-movie from the start.
Gore Vidal got a laugh when years ago he referred to Ronald Reagan as our “acting president.” But we’ve had four acting presidents since and their acts have left millions dead and wounded around the globe, including thousands of American troops. Now we have the sordid spectacle of an election campaign that is so patently phony that “delusionary” is the only word that can describe the thinking of those who take it seriously. Many Americans have acquiesced in this ongoing tragedy, playing their parts in this deadly charade. The ghosts of all America’s victims walk among us, and they will haunt us until we come to life by admitting our own complicity in their deaths. The show must not go on, but it will, as long as we keep acting our parts.
Norman O. Brown so well describes our stage set: “Ancestral voices prophesying war; ancestral spirits in the danse macabre or war dance; Valhalla, ghostly warriors who kill each other and are reborn to fight again. All warfare is ghostly, every army an exercitus feralis (army of ghosts), every soldier a living corpse.”
The Obama administration repeatedly sets the stage by talking about and waging an endless war, a thirty year war, a long struggle, an open-ended war. Soon Obama’s feral, war loving understudy, Hillary Clinton, will take center stage as he exits right, after promoting her. “This is not me going through the motions here,” he recently said. “I really, really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton.” The role-playing, black face of empire will be replaced by the role-playing female face of empire as the audience cheers, hiding from their masked selves their part in a face-saving, phony performance. Without a complicit audience, the performance can’t go on. But it does, or, as Kurt Vonnegut put it, “so it goes.” But the act is wearing thin.
The autumnal season and especially the Halloween weekend of ghosts, the dead, and masks has me thinking of my own experience with acting, and how understanding the nature of our complicity in a mass act of bad faith is so important.
Having grown up as the only brother among seven sisters, I was always my parents’ favorite son. With such dumb luck, I never felt the need to be someone I wasn’t and so accepted my favored fate. But from an early age I learned from my sisters what it meant to “put on your face.” Like most girls in a cosmetic culture, they would stand or sit in front of a mirror dutifully applying lipstick, cover-up, and mascara (Italian, maschera , mask) in preparation for their entrances onto the social stage where they would face so many other faces facing and eyeing them. Mirrors meeting mirrors, looking-glass selves. It seemed to the boy I was, such an exhausting act.
At the time I had only a dim awareness of life the movie.
Then, when I was a young teenager, I had the great opportunity to learn how to be a public phony and put on a face. I got to lie to a national television audience and got paid for my deception. The show was a very popular one – To Tell the Truth – one of many game shows my parents, sisters, and I appeared on. We were a “theatrical” family, not trained actors, but a brood of faces unconsciously hoping to discover who they were through their acts. My parents had started this by accepting an invitation to appear on a show hosted by Johnny Carson, Do You Trust Your Wife? (The show was later renamed Who Do You Trust? – an apt, albeit grammatically incorrect, appellation for the paranoid Cold War years.) But I didn’t then care about politics; I just wanted to put on a good face and lie well while ostensibly telling the truth. I succeeded by convincing two of the celebrity panelists that I was who I wasn’t – Robert McGee – and getting paid $250 for my act. Lying seemed so easy; all you needed was a good mask and a convincing demeanor. This was my public lesson in “putting on your face.”
Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by masks, liars, and the role of acting on the social stage. Ghosts of the Past by Ian Kath.
As the Halloween weekend transpires, this enchantment increases. I think of how all persons are, by definition, masked, the word ‘person’ being derived from the Latin, persona, meaning mask. Another Latin word, larva, occurs to me, it too meaning mask, ghost, or evil spirit. The living masks light up for me as I think of ghosts, the dead, all the souls and spirits circulating through our days. While etymology might seem arcane, I rather think it offers us a portal into our lives, not just personally, but politically and culturally as well. Shakespeare was right, of course, “all the world’s a stage,” though I would disagree with the bard that we are “merely” players. It does often seem that way, but seeming is the essence of the actor’s show and tell. But who are we behind the masks? Who is it uttering those words coming through the masks’ mouth holes (the per-sona , Latin, to sound through).
Halloween. The children play at scaring and being scared. Death walks among them and they scream with glee. The play is on. The grim reaper walks up and down the street. Treats greet them. The costumes are ingenious; the masks, wild. The parents stand behind, watching, smiling. It’s all great fun, the candy sweet. So what’s the trick? When does the performance end?
As Halloween ends, the saints come marching in followed by all the souls. The Days of the Dead. Spirits. Ghosts walk the streets. Dead leaves fall. The dead are everywhere, swirling through the air, drifting. We are surrounded by them. We are them. Until.
Until when? Perhaps not until we dead awaken and see through the charade of social life and realize the masked performers are not just the deadly politicians and celebrities, not only the professional actors and the corporate media performers, but us.
Lying is the leading cause of living death in the United States, and the pharmaceutical companies have no prescription for this one. Not yet, anyway, as far as I care to know.
It seems to me that Albert Camus was right, and that we should aspire to be neither victims nor executioners. To do so will take a serious reevaluation of the roles we play in the ongoing national tragedy of lie piled upon lie in aggressive wars around the world and in election farces that perpetuate them. The leading actors we elect are our responsibility. We produce and maintain them. They are our mirror images; we, theirs. It is the danse macabre , a last tango in the land of bad actors, our two-faced show. This masquerade ball that passes for political reality is infiltrated by the ghosts of all those victims we have murdered around the wide world. We may choose not to see them, but they are lurking in the shadowy corners. And they will haunt us until we make amends.
“Do you not know there comes a midnight hour when everyone has to throw off his mask?” warned Kierkegaard, “Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this? Or are you not terrified by it?”
“Whenever I take up a newspaper,” Ibsen added, “I seem to see ghosts gliding between the lines. There must be ghosts all the country over, as thick as the sands of the sea. And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.”
Edward Curtin is a writer and sociologist. He teaches at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Educated in the the classics, literature, theology, and sociology, his writing on a wide variety of topics has appeared widely over many years. He tries to write as a public intellectual for the general public, not as a specialist for a narrow readership. Originally published by Intrepid Report .
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We apologize for this inconvenience. Nauseated by the Had enough of their lies, escapism, omissions and relentless manipulation? | 0 |
— Ellen L. Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) October 26, 2016
Hillary’s not one for subtlety. She’s got big plans for Election Night: Hillary Clinton's Election Night Event will be held at the Javits Center in NYC. pic.twitter.com/PKcPrme9lX
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) October 26, 2016
What’s so special about the Javits Center, you ask? Reminder: The Javits Center, where Hillary Clinton is holding her election night party, has a literal glass ceiling pic.twitter.com/RvGLDx9cAc | 0 |
What Is At Stake In The Election By Paul Craig Roberts
Here Are The Presstitutes Who Control Americans Minds :
I just heard an NPR presstitute declare that Texas, a traditional sure thing
for Republicans was up for grabs in the presidential election. Little wonder if this report on Zero Hedge is correct. Apparently, the voting machines are already at work stealing the election for Killary.
From my long experience in journalism, I know the American public is not very sharp. Nevertheless, it is difficult for me to believe that Americans, whose jobs, careers, and the same for their children and grandchildren, have been sold out by the elites who Hillary represents would actually vote for her. It makes no sense. If this were the case, how did Trump get the Republican nomination despite the vicious presstitute campaign against him?
It seems obvious that the majority of Americans who have been suffering terribly at the hands of the One Percent who own Hillary lock, stock, and barrel, will not vote for the people who have ruined their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren.
Furthermore, if Trumps election is as impossible as the presstitutes tell usHillarys win is 93% certain according to the latest presstitute pronouncementthe vicious 24/7 attacks on Trump would be pointless. Wouldnt they? Why the constant, frenetic, vicious attacks on a person who has no chance?
There are reports that a company associated with Hillary backer George Soros is supplying the voting machines to 16 states, including states that determine election outcomes. I do not know that these reports are correct. However, I do know for a fact that the oligarchic interests that rule America are opposed to Trump being elected President for the simple reason that they are unsure that they would be able to control him.
It is hard to believe that dispossessed Americans will vote for Hillary, the representative of those who have dispossessed them, when Trump says he will re-empower the dispossessed. Hillary has denigrated ordinary Americans who, she says, she is so removed from by her wealth that she doesnt even know who they are. Clearly, Hillary, paid $675,000 by Goldman Sachs for three 20-minute speeches, is not a representative of the people. She represents the One Percent whose policies have flushed the prospects of ordinary Americans down the toilet.
What is really disturbing is the pretense by the presstitute scum that Trumps lewd admiration for female charms is deemed more important than the prospect of nuclear war. At no time during the presidential primaries or during the current presidential campaign has it been mentioned that Russia is being assaulted daily by propaganda, threatened by military buildups, and being convinced that the United States and its European vassals are planning an attack.
A threatened Russia, made insecure by inexplicable hostility and Western propaganda, is a danger manufactured by the neoconservative supporters of Hillary Clinton.
If the American people are really so unbelievably stupid that they think lewd remarks about women are more important than avoiding nuclear war, the American people are too stupid to exist. They will deserve the mushroom clouds that will wipe them and everyone else off the face of the earth.
Donald Trump is the only candidate in the primaries and the general election who has said that he sees no point in conflict with Russia when Putin has shown nothing but desire to work things out to mutual advantage.
In contrast, Hillary has declared the thrice-elected president of Russia to be the new Hitler and has threatened Russia with military action. Hillary talks openly about regime change in Russia.
Surely, in a free media at least one person in the print and TV media would raise this most important of all points. But where have you seen it?
Only in my columns and a few others in the alternative media.
In other words, we are about to have an election in which the important issue has played no role. And yet allegedly we are the exceptional, indispensable people, a peoples democracy protected by a free press.
In truth, this mythical description of America is merely a cloak for the rule of the Oligarchs. And the Oligarchs are risking life on earth for their continual supremacy.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts editor of was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are Dissolution of The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . | 0 |
Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the .) Before disaster struck, Anthony Booth Armer had an epic summer. It started one day last June, during his shift as a server at a Laguna Beach restaurant. He had a flash of insight, he said — he needed a change. “And I got my stuff, walked out and just said: ‘I’m going to push it in what I love 100 percent. And that’s all I’m going to do. ’” That’s the moment the Laguna Beach jumper was born. Over the next months, Mr. Armer, 28, became an internet sensation by filming himself making dozens of leaps into water from structures across the region. He seemed to flirt with death, rocketing within inches of rocks and ledges. His YouTube videos have raked in more than 23 million views and drawn attention from around the world. Comedy Central’s “Tosh. 0” ran a segment. Much of the online reaction has been withering, with some people criticizing Mr. Armer’s judgment and predicting a bad end. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, and it happened. Launching himself from a rooftop, he struck the edge of a hotel swimming pool and badly shattered both of his feet. Now, a gambit that seemed to be going so well has turned his life upside down. Doctors told him he may not be able to run again. Mr. Armer faces trespassing and other charges. His family is angry with him, he said. And an anticipated windfall from his YouTube channel never came. (He said he’s made roughly $6, 000.) Asked if he harbored regrets, he said: “I mean, you could think of it in that way. I think of it as paying dues. I felt like I was in debt with the universe, so to speak. ” He added, “I think that this is just a lesson to show that I need to be more respectful. ” And after he heals up? He’s eyeing wingsuits, he said. (Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.) • George Lucas’s new museum picked Los Angeles as its home over San Francisco, ending a monthslong competition. [The New York Times] • Gov. Jerry Brown sees a budget deficit. Legislative leaders see a surplus. [The Associated Press] • A police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in El Cajon last September will not face criminal charges. [The New York Times] • A new study raises questions about the effectiveness of the minimum wage at helping the working poor. [The New York Times] • Just who is counted as a gang member? The A. C. L. U. is suing over sweeping gang injunctions issued in Los Angeles. [The New York Times] • A legal battle is flaring over a new law that requires IMDb to comply with requests to unpublish actors’ ages. [Variety] • Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan are adding political muscle to their philanthropic work. [The New York Times] • Marijuana is legal in California. So why are people still getting busted in Yosemite? [McClatchy] • Evacuations and an avalanche — rain and snow continued to pummel Northern California. [Sacramento Bee] • Scientists say the storms are putting a major dent in California’s drought. [San Francisco Chronicle] • For the first time, the Sundance Film Festival will put a spotlight on one theme: global warming and the environment. [The New York Times] • Video: A Caltrans crew exploded an old bridge in Shasta County. [KRCR] At a confirmation hearing on Tuesday for Representative Xavier Becerra, who has been nominated to be California’s next attorney general, the big question on Democrats’ minds was hard to miss. How would Mr. Becerra handle the incoming Trump administration? Democratic members of a special Assembly committee made clear that they expected Mr. Becerra, a son of immigrants, to be a bulwark against any federal challenges to California’s stands on immigration, the environment and civil rights. Some of the remarks: The panel voted along party lines, 6 to 3, to support Mr. Becerra. The Republicans said he failed to assuage their concerns on issues including public safety and religious freedom. Next up, the nomination goes before the full chamber. California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 1 |
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