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An international tribunal in The Hague released a landmark decision on Tuesday in a dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea. Here are answers to six questions about the case. What is this case about? The Philippines filed a complaint in 2013 after China took control of a reef about 140 miles from the Philippine coast. It accused China of violating international law by interfering with fishing, endangering ships and failing to protect the marine environment at the reef, known as Scarborough Shoal. But the Philippines also went further, asking an international tribunal to reject China’s claim to sovereignty over waters within a “ line” that appears on official Chinese maps. The dashes encircle as much as 90 percent of the South China Sea, an area the size of Mexico that is vital to global trade and rich in natural resources, including potential oil deposits. The Philippines also accused China of violating international law by dredging sand to build artificial islands out of several reefs in the South China Sea, including one it says is in its waters. The tribunal largely agreed, declaring that there was “no legal basis” for the line and concluding that China had unlawfully built an artificial island in Philippine waters. What does international law say? The Philippines filed its complaint under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which lays out rules for the use of the world’s oceans. The treaty came into force in 1994 and has been ratified by both China and the Philippines, as well as 165 other states and the European Union. The treaty says a country has sovereignty over waters extending 12 nautical miles from its coast, and control over economic activities in waters on its continental shelf and up to 200 nautical miles from its coast, including fishing, mining, oil exploration and the construction of artificial islands. The treaty sets out detailed rules for defining these zones, what to do when two nations’ zones overlap and how to resolve disputes. China’s line includes waters beyond these zones, and Beijing has cited what it calls historical evidence to support it. But the tribunal rejected that argument, saying any historic rights that China enjoyed previously “were extinguished” by the treaty. The tribunal also said that while Chinese navigators and fishermen had historically used islands in the sea, there was no evidence Beijing had ever exercised exclusive authority over the waters or their resources. What does China say? China has boycotted the international tribunal that was set up to hear the case. It says the panel of five judges and legal experts has no jurisdiction because the sovereignty of reefs, rocks and islands in the South China Sea is disputed. The argument goes like this: If you don’t know what countries these specks of land belong to, you can’t use the treaty to draw territorial and economic zones in the waters around them. And the judges can’t decide whom the specks of land belong to because the Law of the Sea deals only with maritime disputes, not land disputes. China also says it reached a deal with the Philippines years ago to settle disputes in the South China Sea through negotiations. That agreement, it says, prohibited the Philippines from taking the case to the tribunal. Why is this case important? In addition to China and the Philippines, four states — Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam — claim parts of the South China Sea, and China’s line overlaps with the “exclusive economic zone” of a fifth country, Indonesia. Their differences sometimes escalate into skirmishes, and people are worried that an incident could erupt into a broader conflict. Tuesday’s decision is the first time an international tribunal has ruled on any of these disputes. It could set a precedent or establish principles for easing tensions. It could also alter the political dynamic in the region, restraining some countries while emboldening others. China probably has the most at stake. Since the case was filed, it has conducted enormous dredging operations to transform reefs into artificial islands with military runways and naval harbors, over the objections of countries with competing claims as well as those of the United States. The tribunal could declare some of this construction illegal, or it could leave the question unresolved. Either way, China’s response to the decision will be seen as a test of what kind of country it is becoming — a global leader committed to international law and institutions, or a superpower willing to take unilateral action against its neighbors. Why does the Chinese government care so much about the South China Sea? Chinese military strategists say China needs to control the sea to defend itself, to push the United States out of the Western Pacific and to become a naval power. China also depends on the shipping routes that go through the sea, and is eager to lay claim to oil and other resources to fuel its voracious economy. There are domestic political factors, too. Chinese schoolchildren are taught that the sea has belonged to China since ancient times, and President Xi Jinping has used the construction of artificial islands in the sea to fan nationalist sentiment and strengthen his authority over the Chinese military. What happens if the tribunal rules against China? The Chinese government has said it will not “accept, recognize or execute” the decision. While the decision is binding, the tribunal has no power to enforce it, and no one expects that China will volunteer to dismantle its artificial islands and return the sand to the ocean floor. But the United States, the region’s dominant military power, could use the decision to justify more naval patrols in the area, to recruit new allies and give more support to old ones, and to rally world opinion against Beijing’s behavior. While it will denounce the decision in public, the Chinese leadership may decide to back off and begin easing tensions with neighboring countries. It could start with the new Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, who says he wants to improve relations with China and has proposed talks on maritime cooperation. But some analysts are worried that President Xi will respond instead with defiance. Chinese diplomats have already suggested China might withdraw from the Convention on the Law of the Sea. It could also begin transforming the reef at the center of the dispute, Scarborough Shoal, into a military outpost, risking a clash with the Philippines, an American ally. And it might try to impose a new “air defense identification zone” over part of the South China Sea, asserting the right to identify, monitor and take military action against planes in the area. | 1 |
Live at Truthdig: Robert Scheer and Thomas Frank Talk About His New Book at 4 P.M. PDT Posted on Oct 30, 2016 Eventbrite
Truthdig editor in chief Robert Scheer sits down with political analyst Thomas Frank to discuss his new book “Listen Liberal: Whatever Happened to the Party of the People?” as well as the 2016 election and other topics at 4 p.m. PDT in Los Angeles, Cali.
You can watch the live discussion here on our Facebook , and it will be posted here later this afternoon. You can click here for more details about the event, and check out past Facebook live videos on our YouTube page!
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BEIJING — President Trump may not be known for his diplomacy, but someone in his family appears to be picking up the slack. That would be Arabella, his granddaughter. A video of her singing “Happy New Year” in Chinese has gone viral on social media in China. Arabella has been taking Chinese lessons. Arabella’s mother, Ivanka Trump, posted the song on her Instagram account on Thursday. “Arabella singing a song she learned for #ChineseNewYear. Wishing everyone an amazing year to come during these days of celebration,” Ms. Trump wrote on her account. Arabella appeared in a black cardigan with ornate pockets and skinny black pants, and she played with a Chinese marionette as she sang. On Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, more than 60, 000 people said they liked Arabella’s song. Some of them said they much preferred her to Mr. Trump, who has stirred the relationship over Taiwan and the South China Sea, among other things. “The granddaughter is much more sensible,” said one. Another Weibo user noted, “Her Mandarin is perfect. ” Some people were more critical: “So you want to get the Chinese off your back with just this song?” However, this was not Arabella’s first diplomatic coup this week. On Wednesday evening, she and her mother turned up at a New Year’s reception at the Chinese Embassy in Washington. A beaming Chinese ambassador, Cui Tiankai, escorted the pair around the party, as Arabella, decked out in red dress with a big bow at her neck, played with Chinese traditional arts that were on display. China’s official broadcaster, CCTV, showed the team at the reception on its news broadcast on Thursday. The usually stern newspaper Global Times almost gushed. “Her appearance at the Chinese Embassy, endowed with a certain political and diplomatic significance, could be invigorating to the . S. relationship,” the paper said of Ms. Trump’s embassy visit, with Arabella in tow. | 1 |
Get short URL 0 1 0 0 Relations between Moscow and Belgrade are developing favorably, nevertheless, additional stimuli would benefit their trade and economic cooperation, Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev on Wednesday.
BELGRADE (Sputnik) — During his visit, apart from Dacic and Stefanovic, Patrushev is expected to meet with Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic, and President Tomislav Nikolic. As part of the visit, Patrushev will take part in the ceremony of laying wreaths at the memorial to the liberators of Belgrade and at the monument to Soviet soldiers. © AP Photo/ Darko Vojinovic Serbian Minister Stands for Increased Cooperation With Russian Security Services "Minister Dacic stressed that relations between Serbia and Russia are traditionally good, and are developing in the interests, and to the satisfaction, of both countries, as well as that it is necessary to provide additional incentives for the development of trade and economic relations," the Serbian Foreign Ministry press service announced, citing the first deputy head of the Serbian government.
In the afternoon, before speaking with Patrushev, Interior Minister of Serbia Nebojsa Stefanovic said that Belgrade was successfully cooperating with the Russian Interior Ministry, Federal Security Service and the National Guard. Patrushev proposed to work on a memorandum of understanding to create the conditions for regular communication on security matters of mutual interest. ... | 0 |
A man ignited two large fires on the 17th floor of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, using toasters and towels to set the flames. [One person was injured during the blaze. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the injured person was a security guard the extent of the guard’s injuries are not known. According to the Las Vegas the man believed to be responsible for starting the conflagration was taken into custody Wednesday night. Local NBC News affiliate 3News identified the suspect as Roger Fraley. The Clark County Fire Department was reportedly dispatched to the hotel at 2000 Fashion Show Drive, just after 5 p. m. on Wednesday after receiving reports of two separate, simultaneous fires. The firefighters reportedly found one small fire in a women’s pool deck restroom, and another in the hallway of the 17th floor. The fire did not activate the sprinkler system but it reportedly did activate the smoke alarms. The Las Vegas wrote that it took more than 45 Clark County Fire Department personnel, arson investigators and Metro detectives to address the conflagration and ensuing investigation. Fraley is currently booked in the Clark County Detention Center. A police spokesman told the Las Vegas that Fraley is facing charges of arson and burglary. It is not clear what Fraley’s motives were in setting the fire. Three days before President Donald Tump’s historic inauguration, a man from California attempted to set himself on fire “as an act of protest” in front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D. C. “We have a dictator that has been elected,” the man reportedly said at the time. Follow Adelle Nazarian on Facebook and Twitter. | 1 |
Dakota Access pipeline protesters occupy Hillary Clinton campaign HQ Dakota Access pipeline protesters occupy Hillary Clinton campaign HQ By 0 65
The campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton in Brooklyn, New York, was taken over Thursday by protesters against the Dakota Access Pipeline being constructed in North Dakota and three other states. They’re demanding the candidate declare where she stands.
READ MORE: Arrests as North Dakota cops remove pipeline protesters from private land (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
Surrounding a drum circle and teepee in the middle of Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters in Brooklyn was a coalition of Bernie Sanders supporters, environmentalists and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, all demonstrating against the planned 1,172-mile, $3.78 billion pipeline known as the Dakota Access.
The activists who call themselves “protectors, not protesters” are demanding Clinton openly take a position on the Dakota Access pipeline, or DAPL.
The main protests are ongoing in North Dakota, where police ordered evacuations of activists demonstrating on private land reserved for the crude oil project. Other demonstrations have been held in the other states where the pipeline is scheduled to cross into, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
Other Clinton campaign offices were also targeted in solidarity on Thursday, including the one in Seattle, Washington.
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Share This: Dispatches from Eric Zuesse O n November 7th, a Morning Consult and Politico poll of early voters showed Donald Trump to be overwhelmingly viewed by early voters as being the more dangerous of the two major-Party candidates. The mega-corporation Alphabet, formerly known as Google, deserves a lot of the credit for that result, on candidate Hillary Clinton’s behalf — against, first, Bernie Sanders, and, now, Mr. Trump. Eric Schmidt, the billionaire Chairman and top executive of Alphabet Corporation, has been behind the scenes working for her campaign all along, and will be beyond being the most powerful person in the world (which he already was) if she wins. On 1 February 2016, FORTUNE bannered, “Google’s Parent Seizes Apple’s Crown As Most Valuable U.S. Company” , and that understated the reality: it’s been actually the entire world’s most valuable company ever since that time (and not merely the “Most Valuable U.S. Company”). Eric Schmidt: One of the billionaires who control our destiny, for the worse.
Schmidt detailed in the recently wikileaked 2014 email to Hillary’s campaign, the means for winning both the nomination and the ultimate victory. It was an email to Hillary Clinton’s aide Cheryl Mills, dated 15 April 2014 , and was promptly forwarded by her to John Podesta, Hillary’s campaign manager. Here is just the opening of it, to indicate the types of matters it addressed: 1. Size, Structure and Timing Let’s assume a total budget of about $1.5Billion, with more than 5000 paid employees and million(s) of volunteers. The entire startup ceases operation four days after November 8, 2016. The structure includes a Chairman or Chairwoman who is the external face of the campaign and a President who is the executive in charge of objectives, measurements, systems and building and managing the organization. Every day matters as our end date does not change. An official campaign right after midterm elections and a preparatory team assembled now is best. 2. Location The campaign headquarters will have about a thousand people, mostly young and hardworking and enthusiastic. Its important to have a very large hiring pool (such as Chicago or NYC) from which to choose enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees. DC is a poor choice as its full of distractions and interruptions. Moving the location from DC elsewhere guarantees visitors have taken the time to travel and to help. The key is a large population of talented people who are dying to work for you. Any outer borough of NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston are all good examples of a large, blue state city to base in. Employees will relocate to participate in the campaign, and will find low cost temporary housing or live with campaign supporters on a donated basis. This worked well in Chicago and can work elsewhere. The computers will be in the cloud and most likely on Amazon Web services (AWS). All the campaign needs are portable computers, tablets and smart phones along with credit card readers. 3. The pieces of a Campaign a) The Field Its important to have strong field leadership, with autonomy and empowerment. Operations talent needs to build the offices, set up the systems, hire the people, and administer what is about 5000 people. Initial modeling will show heavy hiring in the key battleground states. There is plenty of time to set these functions up and build the human systems. The field is about organizing people, voter contact, and get out the vote programs. .. Then, for example, there’s this: .. Partners like Blue State Digital will do much of the fund raising. A key point is to convert BSD and other partners to pure cloud service offerings to handle the expected crush and load. d) Media (paid), (earned) and (social), and polling New tools should be developed to measure reach and impact of paid, earned and social media. The impact of press coverage should be measurable in reach and impact, and TV effectiveness measured by attention and other surveys. Build tools that measure the rate and spread of stories and rumors, and model how it works and who has the biggest impact. Tools can tell us about the origin of stories and the impact of any venue, person or theme. .. and this: .. In the case where we can’t identify the specific human, we can still have a partial digital voter id, for a person or “probable-person” with attributes that we can identify and use to target. As they respond we can eventually match to a registered voter in the main file. This digital key is eventually matched to a real person. It’s focused on controlling the outcome regardless of the actual merits of the competing candidates; and Schmidt was an ultimate insider in his knowledge of what companies Podesta should select to carry out the various parts of this operation. (Of course, those companies will then be in a privileged position, alongside Alphabet, serving a Clinton Administration.) S chmidt also was proving to Hillary that in his work for her he was entirely objective in her interests, such as by his recommending Amazon, his big cloud-computing competitor, instead of Alphabet’s own cloud-computing service. This is a bipartisan operation, for her, against any and all other candidates. .. Schmidt also was crucially involved in helping in 2011 to plan the coup in Ukraine that Hillary’s State Department was then working on, and which culminated successfully in February 2014 . ( Here’s Hillary’s protégé Victoria Nuland overseeing the operation and selecting on 4 February 2014 who would be leading the country after the coup: “Yats” .) This ‘democratic revolution’ “featured civic self-organization aided by the use of Internet-based social media, neighborhood initiatives, and online news sites” , and this online operation (directed mainly at rallying Ukraine’s anti-Russians, called ‘pro-EU’ people) fits precisely the “tech camps” that started inside the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine on 1 March 2013 , after Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and Google’s and the U.S. State Department’s Jared Cohen, had deceived wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange into informing them, on 23 June 2011 , how to foment massive public demonstrations online. As planned (and, of course, Assange had no fore-knowledge of any of this), the coup ended in a very bloody ‘false-flag’ operation on 20 February 2014, in which Right Sector paramilitaries who had been trained by the rabidly anti-Russian racist Dmitriy Yarosh , and who were dressed as state-security police, shot down upon the crowd and murdered both regular policemen and the protesters, so that the bloodshed would be blamed on the man Obama was trying to oust, the democratically elected President, Viktor Yanukovych (who was lots more popular among Ukrainians than any of the subsequent top leaders of Ukraine have been). .. Then these Right Sector mercenaries massacred an untold number of Crimeans who had been peacefully demonstrating there in Kiev against the anti-government (called ‘Maidan’) demonstrators, and who fled back into their eight buses that had taken them there from Crimea, back now to Crimea. Yarosh’s people blocked the buses at the town of Korsun and murdered some and injured others . This terrified the people in Crimea, which had voted 75% for the very person that the Obama Administration had just overthrown. That massacre was a key precipitating-event for the plebiscite that was then held in Crimea on 16 March 2014, at which over 90% of the residents voted for Crimea to rejoin with Russia, of which it had been a part until the Soviet leader in 1954 arbitrarily transferred Crimea to Ukraine. .. Right Sector thugs (now in plain clothes) were also behind the subsequent 2 May 2014 massacre of the new regime’s peacefully demonstrating opponents inside the Trade Unions Building in Odessa — the event that sparked the breakaway of yet another region of Ukraine: Donbass. .. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama wanted to control Ukraine because it has the longest border with Russia of any European country and would be ideal for placing missiles aimed at Moscow just a five minutes flight-time away. This was part of a plan that was started actually by U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush on the night of 24 February 1990 and which both Bill Clinton and Bush’s son advanced, as did Obama and as will Hillary — presumably to the plan’s ultimate conclusion, war against Russia. .. It’s a massive, decades-long, team-effort, on the part of America’s billionaires and their allied billionaires around the world; and, if Clinton wins, then it will be culminated. Eric Schmidt is key to her success in it, and will probably benefit hugely from it, if the conquest can be carried out by non-nuclear means or by ‘bluffing’ (which, of course, is being carefully gamed-out). But, just in case it goes nuclear, the people who are on the inside have already invested in nuclear bunkers for themselves and their friends and their friends’ friends . They are prepared for the worst, but hope for the best (for themselves, at least). About the author =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS | 0 |
The reaction on social media to the news that Beyoncé is pregnant with twins was by turns swift, sweet and strange. While Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance of the hit song “Formation” was seen as a pointed political statement, addressing issues like black pride and police brutality, it and the video drew anger from some in law enforcement who said they were an attack on their profession. Then there were others like the police officer in Virginia who recreated her formidable choreography to inspire high school students. A phone call to the Atlanta department seeking comment was not immediately returned on Wednesday. | 1 |
Content Warning: Adult language] This week on his “Savage Love” podcast, gay rights activist Dan Savage went after first lady Melania Trump, saying she was “as ugly on the inside as she is pretty on the outside. ” “I want to open today’s show talking about someone I hate,” Savage, who is a activist, said. “But God knows there’s enough hate in the world, and I don’t want to add to the sum total but forgive me, I have got to get this off my chest: I f***ing hate Melania Trump. ” He continued, “I’m not alone in loathing Donald Trump’s third wife — she’s married to a misogynist after all. Odds are good her husband hates her, too. But there are some folks on the left who not only don’t hate her. They view her as some sort of sympathetic figure. The pretty princess in the tower locked up by the orange ogre with the bad combover, a princess desperately blinking out distress signals during ceremonies and inaugural balls. ” He added, “I think we can credit that undeserving charitable view of our new first lady to our propensity as humans, as a species to think that the insides of pretty people match the outsides of pretty people. And that may be true sometimes but only randomly. And everyone always beware of confirmation bias. And you know what it’s definitely not true in this case. Mrs. Trump, Melania Trump, is as ugly on the inside as she is pretty on the outside. She is a birther. Pretty Melania went on TV to push the same racist conspiracy theories about Barack Obama that her husband did. She’s an immigrant who doesn’t give a s**t about the plight of other immigrants. She’s famously a plagiarist. And she’s brought ruinous lawsuits against journalists and bloggers accusing them of, among other things, potentially interfering with her ability to profit off her role as first lady. ” ( The Wrap) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Written by Jacob G. Hornberger Eight years ago, President Obama had a chance to change the warmongering direction that outgoing President Bush and the U.S. national-security establishment had led America for the previous eight years. Obama could have said, “Enough is enough. America has done enough killing and dying. I’m going to lead our country in a different direction — toward peace, prosperity, and harmony with the people of the world.” He could have ordered all U.S. troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan to return home. He could have ended U.S. involvement in the endless wars that Bush, the Pentagon, and the CIA spawned in that part of the world. He could have led America in a new direction.Instead, Obama decided to stay Bush’s course, no doubt believing that he, unlike Bush, could win the endless wars that Bush had started. It was not to be. He chose to keep the national-security establishment embroiled in Afghanistan and Iraq. Death and destruction are Obama’s legacy, just as they were Bush’s.Obama hoped that Hillary Clinton would protect and continue his (and Bush’s) legacy of foreign death and destruction. Yesterday, a majority of American voters dashed that hope.Will Trump change directions and bring U.S. troops home? Possibly not, especially given he is an interventionist, just as his Clinton, Bush, and Obama are. But there is always that possibility, especially since Trump, unlike Clinton, owes no allegiance to the U.S. military-industrial complex, whose survival and prosperity depends on endless wars and perpetual crises.If Clinton had been elected, there was never any doubt about continued U.S. interventionism in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Not only is she a died-in-the-wool interventionist, she would have been owned by the national-security establishment. She would have done whatever the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA wanted, which would have automatically meant endless warfare — and permanent destruction of the liberty and prosperity of the American people.It’s obvious that Americans want a new direction when it comes to foreign policy. That’s partly what Trump’s election is all about. Americans are sick and tired of the never-ending wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere. That includes military families, especially the many who supported Trump, Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein. Americans are also tired of the out of control spending and debt that come with these wars. By electing Trump, it is obvious that Americans are demanding a change on foreign policy.Imagine the benefits to American society if Trump were to change directions on foreign policy. No more anti-American terrorist blowback, which would mean no more war on terrorism. That means the restoration of a sense of normality to American lives. No more TSA checkpoints at airports. No more mass surveillance schemes to “keep us safe.” No more color coded warnings. No more totalitarian power to round up Americans, put them into concentration camps or military dungeons, and torture them. No more power to assassinate people, including Americans. In other words, the restoration of American civil liberties and privacy.The Middle East is embroiled in civil wars — wars that have been engendered or magnified by U.S. interventionism. Continued interventionism in an attempt to fix the problems only pours gasoline on the fires. The U.S. government has done enough damage to Afghanistan and the Middle East. It has already killed enough people, including those in wedding parties, hospitals, and neighborhoods. Enough is enough.Will Trump be bad on immigration and trade? Undoubtedly, but Clinton would have been bad in those areas too. Don’t forget, after all, that Obama has become America’s greatest deporter-in-chief, deporting more illegal immigrants than any U.S. president in history. Clinton would have followed in his footsteps, especially in the hope of protecting his legacy. Moreover, while Trump will undoubtedly begin trade wars, Clinton would have been imposing sanctions on people all over the world whose government failed to obey the commands of the U.S. government. A distinction without a difference.Another area for hope under a Trump presidency is with respect to the drug war, one of the most failed, destructive, and expensive government programs in history. Clinton would have followed in Bush’s and Obama’s footsteps by keeping it in existence, if for no other reason than to cater to the army of DEA agents, federal and state judges, federal and state prosecutors, court clerks, and police departments whose existence depends on the drug war.While Trump is a drug warrior himself, he doesn’t have the same allegiance to the vast drug-war bureaucracy that Clinton has. If we get close to pushing this government program off the cliff — and I am convinced that it is on the precipice — there is a good chance that Trump will not put much effort into fighting its demise. Clinton would have fought for the drug war with every fiber of her being.There is another possible upside to Trump’s election: The likelihood that Cold War II will come to a sudden end. With Clinton, the continuation of the new Cold War against Russia was a certainty. In fact, Clinton’s Cold War might well have gotten hot very quickly, given her intent to establish a no-fly zone over Syria where she could show how tough she is by ordering U.S. warplanes to shoot down Russian warplanes. There is no telling where that would have led, but it very well might have led to all-out nuclear war, something that the U.S. national-security establishment wanted with the Soviet Union back in the 1960s under President Kennedy.The danger of war with Russia obviously diminishes under a President Trump, who has said that he favors friendly relations with Russia, just as Kennedy favored friendly relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba in the months before he was assassinated.Indeed, given Trump’s negative comments about NATO, there is even the possibility of a dismantling of that old Cold War dinosaur that gave us the crisis in Ukraine with Russia.
How about it, President-Elect Trump? While you’re mulling over your new Berlin Wall on the Southern (and maybe Northern) border and your coming trade wars with China, how about refusing to follow the 16 years of Bush-Obama when it comes to U.S. foreign interventionism? Bring the troops home. Lead America in a different direction, at least insofar as foreign policy is concerned — away from death, destruction, spending, debt, loss of liberty and privacy, and economic impoverishment and toward freedom, peace, prosperity, and harmony. Reprinted with permission from the Future of Freedom Foundation . Related | 0 |
Good. But not too good. That is the verdict from economists after the Labor Department reported on Friday that in August employers added 151, 000 jobs, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4. 9 percent, and wage gains were modest. It was a solid performance that keeps the economy on track, but not strong enough to push the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate when policy makers meet this month. “It confirms that the economy is performing well, but does not provide the threat of overheating that might have caused an increase sooner rather than later,” said Carl R. Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust. Since the financial crisis, the Fed has raised interest rates just once, in December, from near zero. Low rates are intended to encourage businesses to borrow and invest, but Fed policy makers are now split between those who worry that reducing this economic stimulus would undermine growth and those who fear that waiting could allow inflation to take hold. Republicans and Democrats mined the report for evidence that supported the economic arguments they will make through the November election. How to handle a recovery that has delivered steady but less than spectacular growth has not only been a flash point among Fed bankers — who will next meet on Sept. 20 and 21 — but also between the presidential candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton. For the Trump campaign, which has suggested that recent employment figures have understated the dire state of the labor market, the decline in manufacturing jobs was another sign that the policies of the Obama administration were leaving workers behind. Mr. Trump, a Republican, has also railed against trade deals, blaming them for jobs lost to Mexico and China, as part of his strategy to appeal to disaffected white, voters. “The latest economic numbers from the past day paint a bleak picture,” said Curtis Ellis, a senior economic adviser to Mr. Trump. Hoping to attract those same voters, Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, has proposed public investments in infrastructure like roads, affordable housing and renewable energy. Jacob Leibenluft, an economic adviser to the Clinton campaign, said that she was focused on dealing with “the challenge of not enough jobs and the general sense of economic insecurity that persists. ” At the same time, Democrats have pointed to the positive signs in the overall economy, highlighting sturdy job growth in the private sector that has lasted a record 78 months, and a low jobless rate. Some economists say that a recovery as modest and uneven as this one would normally add to the problems for the incumbent political party, but the unorthodox nature of Mr. Trump’s candidacy could help Mrs. Clinton overcome the odds. “A kind of status quo economy might not have been good enough for Clinton against a normal Republican candidate,” Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said. “But against Trump maybe it will be enough. ” The jobless rate, based on a separate survey of households, stayed at 4. 9 percent, roughly half of what it was seven years ago, and consumer spending remains healthy. But a broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged and underemployed workers is nearly twice that figure. Wages have only recently begun to climb. The increase was a modest 2. 4 percent in August, slower than in the previous month but a pace that keeps most workers ahead of inflation. Another report released on Friday offered more encouraging news, showing that the United States trade deficit shrank sharply, by 11. 6 percent in July from the previous month, because of an increase in American exports. Earlier, monthly job gains plummeting to 24, 000 in May and swelling to more than 10 times that number in June and July. As Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said, “Sometimes the porridge is really hot sometimes the porridge is really cold this one is in between. ” Revised estimates from the Labor Department left the hearty totals from the previous two reports little changed and took the average of monthly job gains to 232, 000 after big gains of 271, 000 in June and 275, 000 in July. The August estimate is subject to two more revisions. Economists, who estimate that the nation needs about 100, 000 new jobs every month to keep up with population growth, say it is natural for the jobs machine to slow as the pool of unemployed workers gradually dries up. Still, large numbers of workers remain out of the labor market altogether, widening the gap between the haves and the and depressing wage gains. “A lot of people are still on the bench that could come into the labor market,” said Ken Esch, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers or PwC, an accounting and consulting network. “Until more people are participating, I don’t see the inflationary pressures, and our data says we don’t expect to see much over the next 12 months. ” A recent PwC survey of private companies found that fewer than half of respondents planned to add positions in the next 12 months, a decrease from the first quarter of 2016, and that companies expected to increase wages, but by less than 3 percent. Retirements in the baby boom generation are also playing a role in keeping wage gains modest. “You have many young, inexperienced workers joining the work force today, and many older workers at the peak of their earnings retiring,” said Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor Economic Research. “That churning is pulling the average wage down. ” Diversity in wage growth is wide. “Most of the best gains are in skilled jobs, like tech, health care and finance,” Mr. Chamberlain said. “There are very poor wage gains in many professions, especially manufacturing and energy,” two areas that have also been shedding jobs. Ian Siegel, a founder and the chief executive of ZipRecruiter, which distributes job postings primarily from small and midsize businesses, said he had noticed that “the number of jobs posted stayed flat, but there’s been a shift in mix,” with a “big increase in jobs. ” His observations are in line with a report released last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that found the American economy was creating more jobs, basically defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as those paying $30, 000 to $60, 000 a year. “The tide has begun to turn,” William C. Dudley, president of the New York Fed, said when the report was released. “For the first time in quite a while, we are seeing gains in jobs actually outnumber gains in and jobs nationwide. ” Dan Finnigan, chief executive of Jobvite, a recruiting service used by said the tightening job market might be prying open more opportunities for younger workers. “I’m hearing without a doubt that employers are taking more risks and are forced to hire less experienced people for jobs,” he said. In his view, older workers who were able to delay retirement when the recession hit did so, blocking more junior employees from moving up the pipeline. That clog is finally beginning to clear. The growing number of retirees accounts to some degree for the droopy labor force participation rate, offsetting the number of sidelined workers who have rejoined the labor force, Jason Furman, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said. At the same time, Mr. Furman acknowledged that a large proportion of workers, 25 to 54, particularly men, remained outside the circle of work. This group’s participation rate, now at 88 percent, started slipping decades ago, he said, but the decline in the United States has been much sharper than in advanced Western European economies. “That leads me to the conclusion that it is not caused by technology but is a result of institutional and policy choices we’ve made as a country,” Mr. Furman said. “For women, we do very little to subsidize child care or make workplaces flexible. When it comes to men, we spend very little money to train people for jobs or find jobs. ” Jonas Prising, chairman and chief executive of the ManpowerGroup, one of the largest recruiters in the United States, agreed that low participation rates were troubling, despite the improving labor market. “It may look like full employment,” he said, “but it’s not full employment. ” | 1 |
The hashtag #MyUnintendedJoy is trending on Twitter prior to Friday’s March for Life, as women faced with unplanned or complicated pregnancies are Tweeting their stories showing why they chose life over abortion. [The Federalist’s Bre Payton highlights the hashtag and draws attention to “the women and children the abortion industry doesn’t want you to know about. ” The March for Life is the world’s largest demonstration and will be held Friday, January 27, on the national mall in Washington, D. C. Here are some of the stories about the babies who were born because their mothers and fathers chose life, despite the recommendations of doctors and other family members and friends to abort: #MyUnintendedJoy came when we were young, broke and completely unready for a family. Now she’s almost 2 and the highlight of every day. pic. twitter. — Gabrielle Rystedt (@gabbithegreat) January 23, 2017, Many warned me that keeping him would ruin my life. Instead he redeemed it. #MyUnintendedJoy pic. twitter. — Kayla (@VixenRogue) January 23, 2017, #MyUnintendedJoy came after rape. https: . — Denise Bossert (@denisebossert) January 26, 2017, #MyUnintendedJoy will be 25 Friday. She’s special needs most pro choice women wouldn’t have given her a chance! @ScottBaio @MrsScottBaio pic. twitter. — Jenn Graves (@JennGraves1) January 23, 2017, #MyUnintendedJoy Is 14 and the light of my life. She is my hero. pic. twitter. — Heather (@hboulware) January 23, 2017, My unintended became both mine and his adooptive parents joy. #MyUnintendedJoy, — Sweet_Me_Lissa (@Mel_lific) January 25, 2017, Doctors Told Me to Abort My Disabled Baby But He Has Brought Me Unintended Joy https: . #MarchForLife #MyUnintendedJoy pic. twitter. — LifeNews. com (@LifeNewsHQ) January 26, 2017, Contraceptive failure, on fetus damaging meds, refused recommended abortion. #MyUnintendedJoy is now a 27 year old mother of three beauties! — FederalistTXTwister (@KeleJohnson) January 24, 2017, #MyUnintendedJoy is my everything and then some more pic. twitter. — Allison Bean Wrinkle (@AllisonMBean) January 24, 2017, #MyUnintendedJoy came during my 3rd year in law school. It was not easy, but I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for him. — Naniluns (@naniluns) January 25, 2017, #Myunintendedjoy is probably my favorite hashtag to date. Their momma’s chose life, and we chose #adoption. I’m endlessly joyful. pic. twitter. — Lauren Rae Konkol (@laurenkonkol) January 24, 2017, Bio mom chose life and look what happened. 💕😍❤️ #MyUnintendedJoy pic. twitter. — Schültzie 🇺🇸🇻 (@schultzenfreude) January 23, 2017, I was #myunintendedjoy born to parents who could not take care of me in addition to their 3 other kids and am so glad they chose adoption! — Miraculous Christine (@RevPokemon) January 24, 2017, #MyUnintendedJoy turned me into a warrior: I protected him when no one else would. We both became stronger together :) — The Little Llama (@somelittlellama) January 25, 2017, #myunintendedjoy is a strong, brave 25 year old man that is basically my caretaker now. His motto is ”you took care of me, now it’s my turn, — Karen Porter (@karenyporter) January 24, 2017, #myunintendedjoy 6 yrs ago, appointment was set, money in pocket, best appointment I ever missed. pic. twitter. — ᱚɛɱ ղɛ۷ɛя λɠλɪղ (@XxKISxXx) January 24, 2017, #myunintendedjoy Adopted, not aborted pic. twitter. — Floyd Lee Corkins (@epluribus2013) January 24, 2017, | 1 |
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Media coverage has recently been saturated with distressing scenes showing the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, where aerial bombardment has led to a heavy loss of civilian life. The severity of the crisis instinctively makes us want to help – scores of protesters gathered outside the seat of the British prime minister on Saturday holding signs calling on the government to “Save Aleppo” and impose a “No-Bomb Zone Now”. While the anger is understandable, the way it is being channeled reflects a circumscribed policy debate – there are other options than a No-Fly Zone, which should be avoided as it would harm rather than help efforts to alleviate the suffering of Syrian civilians.
In any area of policy, the mainstream debate revolves around policy alternatives that reflect establishment divisions. For example, in economics, ‘there is no alternative’ to neoliberalism, at least there wasn’t until Keynesianism was rediscovered by some elites after the 2008 crisis. The debate over what is to be done over Syria revolves around two policy alternatives: the hawks, including likely next U.S. president, Hillary Clinton, advocate a NFZ and the doves, including the current U.S. administration, maintain that the sanctions regime should be increased. This effectively reflects a division within the establishment on how to proceed. Serious policy alternatives are not discussed. In particular, discussion of increasing aid and support to refugees, surely the most obvious way of directly helping civilians in Syria, and what the UN has called on industrialized countries to do , is curious by its absence.
This circumscribed debate does not logically follow from its supposed pretext – stopping civilian loss of life. In fact, a NFZ is a policy that would unavoidably lead to civilians dying. Enforcing a NFZ means destroying air defenses, which are located to defend cities – i.e. they are located in areas where there are many civilians. Even the flagbearer for the hawks, Hillary Clinton, has admitted privately that with a No-Fly Zone “you’re going to kill a lot of Syrians”; such intervention will “take a lot of civilians”. This realization would seem inconsistent with the often-used humanitarian pretext, but it makes sense given Hillary Clinton’s recent admission that her top priority in Syria is removing Syrian President Assad.
There is a clear parallel with the imposition of a NFZ in Libya, which prolonged the conflict and worsened the situation for civilians. NATO bombing directly led to scores of civilian deaths and facilitated the overthrow of the regime by rebel militias that have killed, and are continuing to kill , thousands. Particularly repugnant was the ethnic cleansing of black people , including through public lynching . In a 2013 paper , Alan Kuperman, a Harvard academic, argued that NATO intervention extended the war by a factor of 6 and increased the death toll 7 to 10 times; given that Libya is now a failed state, torn apart by warlords, we can safely say that these estimates were too conservative. President Obama privately calls the situation in Libya a “ shit show ”. Only last month a report from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament found that the humanitarian justification was an insufficient pretext and based on falsehoods, the supposedly limited intervention led “ineluctably” to regime change, and that the (British) government, and by implication other participating Western powers, did not seriously consider diplomatic alternatives to military action.
Regardless, the mantra of Western foreign policy is “it will be different this time” – unlike all recent Western military interventions this one will be limited, successful and won’t leave a worse humanitarian situation in its wake. Although, if the dire humanitarian situation in Aleppo necessitates immediate action, then why are there not equally loud calls for action for civilians facing similar situations? U.S. bombing in Manbij and Kobane in Syria and Ramadi and Fallujah in Iraq has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and flattened entire neighbourhoods ; more than a third of US and UK backed Saudi airstrikes in Yemen have hit civilian sites, including schools , hospitals , weddings and funerals .
Talking about this is not meant as a distraction or relativization; the fact that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are engaged in similar activities does not make the bombing of Aleppo less objectionable. However, it does raise questions about the motives of those pushing so hard for a no-fly zone. If western foreign policy actors, and their allies in press, were motivated by humanitarian concerns, then surely stopping these atrocities should appear on the policy agenda – especially given that the action required is easier and does not risk war with Russia.
If humanitarian considerations were really the important factors in the foreign policy debate, then there would be discussion on the legitimacy of aerial bombardment of cities and towns, given that this invariably leads to civilian deaths. International agreements have been successful in making chemical and biological weapons illegal, a prohibition which is generally followed ( though not always ). The first well-publicized use of aerial bombardment, the Nazi bombing of Guernica in 1937, caused righteous, popular outrage. Tragically, however, its use became normalized during the Second World War and a ban on aerial bombing of cities was not included in the post-war international settlement. The fact that this seems so hopelessly idealistic reflects the fact that it is geopolitics, not humanitarian considerations, that govern international relations and foreign policy discussion; human suffering is nothing more than a useful pretext for whatever actions you want to take in order to secure geopolitical advantage. The U.S. and its allies want to remove Syria from Russia’s orbit, so therefore the dictator there must go, but airstrikes to support the dictator in Yemen are fine, because the dictator there is a friend of close U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.
There is an added complication with the NFZ in Syria in that it marks a return to Cold-War era brinkmanship and possible armed confrontation with Russia. The logic of brinkmanship runs that to make geopolitical gains, one must escalate to a level that will make the other side back down, partly by convincing your enemy you are ready to commit irrational acts. There is an inherent danger in this game: both states are nuclear armed and the consequences of a spiral of escalation could be devastating .
Syria hawks, or what close Obama aide Ben Rhodes called the “ pro-stupid shit ” caucus, argue that a NFZ will lead Russia to effectively back down: for example, Clinton argued that it will “give us leverage in our conversations with Russia”. (Interestingly, in the exchange this quote from Clinton indicated the war goal: a NFZ will make Russia “put the Assad future on the political and diplomatic track” – i.e. Russia will be forced to accept regime change.) After all, despite the panic in the press, Russia is actually a feeble successor state to a superpower, and would come off worse in a direct conflict with the preeminent might of North America, or so the logic runs.
However, ‘dovish’ Western foreign policy actors point to the danger that advanced Russian materiel support to Syria poses to the enforcement of a NFZ. Unlike other recent U.S. military adventures, enforcing a NFZ in Syria could lead to significant, and politically unpalatable, American casualties – pilots will be shot down. This realization means that saner establishment figures are opposed to a NFZ. For example, U.S. Army General Carter Ham, who oversaw the NFZ in Libya, said a NFZ is a “violent combat action that results in lots of casualties and increased risk to our own personnel”.
Instead, relative doves like current Secretary of State John Kerry advocate intensifying the sanctions regime against Syria and Russia. Again, this does not seem to be seriously about helping civilians. A leaked UN report has revealed that the existing Western sanctions regime is preventing humanitarian aid and creating a humanitarian disaster that threatens to rival that caused by the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq during the 1990s. The history of sanctions tends to show that the costs are borne by civilians, and a Petersen Institute study of all sanctions incidents since WWII shows that sanctions failed to achieve their goals in about ⅔ of cases, and are even less successful when applied against enemies and autocrats.
So, what is to be done? What should people in the West and globally push for to help the people of Syria? Unfortunately, there do not seem to be any quick fixes – the situation in Syria is complex and involves diverse actors, with competing interests. Immediate relief to the refugees fleeing the conflict should be a priority. In terms of foreign policy, campaigning for de-escalation and diplomacy against constant militarism remain the best solutions for the Syrian people, and humanity generally. | 0 |
Sports play as an escape from real world negativity. Unfortunately, the sports and political worlds collide quite a bit recently. [Whatever your political persuasion, the actual game on Super Bowl Sunday should prove fun to watch. Neither the cast of the Mike musical Hamilton singing “America the Beautiful” pregame nor Lady Gaga performing the halftime show, or commercials with political agendas, can ruin a game, featuring two great quarterbacks, New England’s Tom Brady and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan. Let’s take a closer look at the football game, which likely plays as a nice escape from political football. One of the great in this contest features Ryan against a superb Patriots secondary: cornerbacks Malcolm Butler and Logan Ryan, along with safeties Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung. They all play on a high level. However, the Patriots’ secondary faces a Herculian challenge against the Falcons’ coterie of weapons, led by wide receiver Julio Jones, who averaged more than 100 receiving yards a game this season. If you take away Jones, Ryan happily targets other talented wideouts such as Mo Sanu or speedy Taylor Gabriel, or perhaps one of three talented tight ends. “As a defensive coordinator, you really have to pick your poison, and decide what you want to take away,” Jones said. And the poison includes a tailback tandem that can hurt you running and receiving. Atlanta’s dynamic duo of Davonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman combined for 2, 482 yards and 24 touchdowns this season. This pair of powerful runners are passing game weapons as well, combining for 85 receptions and 883 yards. The Patriots aren’t easy to run against with a cornucopia of talented, massive defensive linemen such as Alan Branch and Malcolm Brown. “They have big heavy guys up front that are ” said Falcons center Alex Mack. And Mack, Atlanta’s outstanding center, isn’t healthy. He’s dealing with a painful left fibula injury, and will probably need a Toradol shot to get through the game. “I’m concerned,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said about Mack. “I’m not panicked, but I’m concerned. ” With a quarterback and a coterie of weapons, the Falcons certainly shouldn’t struggle scoring, but they can score enough? Can they keep up with the Brady? While Atlanta’s defense has improved from early in the season, it’s still not an elite unit. In their regular season finale, a win over New Orleans, Saints QB Drew Brees threw for 350 yards, wide receiver Michael Thomas snagged 10 catches for 156 yards and tailback Mark Ingram rushed for 102 yards. After watching this tape, Brady likely chomps at the bit. The Falcons start three defensive rookies — safety Keanu Neal and linebackers De’Vondre Campbell and Deion Jones. They also feature a rookie nickel back, Brian Poole, who plays a lot. Brady is superb at manipulating defenders with his eyes — throwing them off the trail of where he intends to throw. Rookies are particularly vulnerable to this chicanery. Expect Brady to target these rookies. “Brady is going to find out what the kids know,” said SiriusXM NFL Radio analyst Pat Kirwan. “I would expect him to [go after the rookies],” said Neal. “I would expect him to go to a guy that doesn’t have as much as experience as others. ” Neal embraces the challenge. “Bring it on,” Neal said. “I’m not scared. ” Be careful what you wish for. Brady, looking for his fifth Super Bowl victory, is coming off a virtuoso performance vs. Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game, throwing for 384 yards and three touchdowns. At 39, Brady is still at the top of his game, and wants to play six more years. “You combine his competitiveness, his preparation, his accuracy and his toughness with his memory, you’ve got the best quarterback to ever play,” Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien, a former Patriots assistant, told the Boston Herald. A good way to mess with Brady is with interior pressure. “The best way to disrupt [his] rhythm has always been pressuring Brady from the center of the pocket,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “Many times, when [pressure] comes from the edge he’s able to step up and find an extra [second] worth of time to find a free receiver. ” And blitzing Brady a lot isn’t a good idea. “There isn’t a blitz I haven’t seen,” said Brady, a NFL starting QB. The New York Giants beat him in a pair of Super Bowls (2007 and 2011) without blitzing. They relied on their front four to pressure him, allowing them to drop seven guys into coverage. “When you can affect him with a rush, it’s absolutely pivotal for our defense,” said Falcons defensive tackle Tyson Jackson. “You can drop more in coverage. ” Plus, if you blitz, you aren’t likely to get there the Patriots allowed only 24 sacks in the regular season. Aside from Brady’s greatness, another problem for the Falcons — they are sans their top cornerback Desmond Trufant, on injured reserve. “[The Falcons] will lose, if their defense isn’t good enough,” said retired coach Dick Vermeil. It probably isn’t. The pick here is New England. | 1 |
GENEVA (AFP) — European countries must stop returning asylum seekers to Hungary due to deteriorating conditions there for new arrivals including children, and allegations of abuse, the United Nations said Monday. [The situation for asylum seekers and other migrants has long been considered dire in Hungary, but it has worsened since the country last month introduced a new law on the systematic detention of all asylum seekers. “I urge states to suspend any Dublin transfer of to this country until the Hungarian authorities bring their practices and policies in line with European and international law,” said Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Dublin Regulation, which aims to stop people making asylum claims in multiple countries by requiring asylum seekers to be sent back to the first European country they arrived in, applies to European Union nations as well as Switzerland and Norway. Grandi said he was “encouraged” by a European Commission decision to work with Hungarian authorities in a bid to bring Budapest’s practices in line with EU law, but stressed in a statement that “urgent measures are needed to improve access to asylum in Hungary. ” The UN refugee agency has repeatedly cautioned that Hungary’s use of physical barriers and restrictive policies basically deny the access to asylum guaranteed under international law. Since Hungary’s new law came into force on March 28, all new asylum seekers, including children, have been “detained in shipping containers surrounded by high razor fences at the border for the entire length of their asylum procedures,” UNHCR pointed out. According to the government 324 shipping container homes have been installed at two separate locations called “transit zones” built into a fence that Hungary erected along the ( ) border in 2015. UNHCR warned last month that the new practice would “have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered. ” As of last Friday, 110 people, including four unaccompanied children and children with their families, were being held there, UNHCR said. EU member Hungary previously systematically detained all asylum applicants but suspended the practise in 2013 under pressure from Brussels, the UN refugee agency and the European Court of Human Rights. Grandi on Monday hailed recent efforts by Hungarian authorities to address allegations of police violence. But he said: “We remain very concerned about highly disturbing reports of serious incidents of and violence against people crossing the border into Hungary, including by state agents. “These unacceptable practices must be brought to an end and I urge the Hungarian authorities to further investigate any allegation of abuse and violence,” he added. | 1 |
Supporters of President Trump have helped raise nearly $24, 000 for a limo owned by a Muslim immigrant after it was set on fire and destroyed by protesters during the inauguration riots. [The GoFundMe page for Nationwide Chauffeured Limo Service recently reached just under $24, 000 in donations, most of which have come from conservatives and other limo service workers, after one of the company’s limos was attacked by a mob of protesters and completely damaged on inauguration day. The limo, which was owned by Muslim immigrant Muhammad Ashraf, was attacked with bricks and rocks after dropping off a customer, before the vehicle was completely torched — leaving the driver with minor injuries. “Protesters don’t understand that they are putting innocent people out of business with their actions. I hope you get enough here to replace your limo so that you can continue your small business,” commented one user who donated $25, before tagging Trump’s signature slogan “#MAGA. ” “Showing the Left what tolerance looks like,” commented another with his $25 donation, while one $50 donation was signed “From a Trump Supporter. ” Ashraf, who did not support President Trump during the election, expressed disappointed in the protesters who torched his limousine. “I did not agree with many of the things he said, but that still does not give me the right to go and affect someone’s livelihood,” he said. “I really don’t think we need to take this [violent] route. ” Though nearly $24, 000 has been raised, the damage to Ashraf’s vehicle is reported to cost around $70, 000, which does not include the medical expenses and commission for the driver who was attacked. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
We are Gulag Bound / *Resisters' Log* / Pope Francis: “…it is the communists who think like Christians” Pope Francis: “…it is the communists who think like Christians” November 20, 2016, 4:37 am by Guest Author Leave a Comment 0
By: Renee Nal | New Zeal Pope Francis climbs the steps to the altar upon arriving to give the first mass of his visit to Cuba in Havana’s Revolution Square, Sept. 20.
Last week, Pope Francis told Italian journalist and co-founder of the newspaper La Repubblica Eugenio Scalfari that “…it is the communists who think like Christians.”
Here is the exchange:
Q: You told me some time ago that the precept, “Love your neighbour as thyself” had to change, given the dark times that we are going through, and become “more than thyself.” So you yearn for a society where equality dominates. This, as you know, is the programme of Marxist socialism and then of communism. Are you therefore thinking of a Marxist type of society?
A: “It it has been said many times and my response has always been that, if anything, it is the communists who think like Christians. Christ spoke of a society where the poor, the weak and the marginalized have the right to decide. Not demagogues, not Barabbas, but the people, the poor, whether they have faith in a transcendent God or not. It is they who must help to achieve equality and freedom”.
Pope Francis also used a familiar progressive expression surrounding immigrants. He said in part, “…we need to break down walls and build bridges…” The pontiff said in part:
We must break down the walls that divide us: we must try to increase well-being and make it more widespread, but to achieve this we need to break down walls and build bridges that allow us to reduce inequality and increase freedom and rights. More rights and greater freedom.” Wall at Vatican City
As an aside, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg was quoted in April as saying, “Instead of building walls we can help build bridges.” Just one month later, Zuckerburg reportedly “…started buying parcels around his Palo Alto home to protect his privacy.” 0 Gulag-wide Bulletins from Sovereignty Unbound We respect your privacy, time, and inbox. Track us Down @GulagBound Like the Gulag There are many important matters that Gulag Bound itself is not treating on a daily basis. For that reason we suggest The Globe & Malevolence and the sites shown under "Key Links in our Chains," below. Your Daily Intelligence Brief MattSkosh on Secret Service Agents Pay a Visit to Anti-Obama Artist Sabo Tags activism Agenda 21 anti-American revolution authoritarianism Barack Hussein Obama II candidate eligibility collectivists & propaganda communisty organizations corruption crisis strategy Democrat finance & banking fraud George Soros globalism - NWO global Marxist-fascist movement government domination of resources history illegal immigration Islam Islamism jihad jihadism Israel kleptocracy labor unions Marxism Marxofascism Marxstream media Military Mitt Romney Obamacare health control Occupy Wall Street race-baiting/racism Republican Right of Private Property Russia Sovereignty Tea Party terrorism U.S. Congress U.S. Constitution U.S. Presidency (POTUS) United Nations (UN) video violence voting youth & education Sabotage What good will it do, to protect the United States of America, or our presumed interests against the aggressiveness of China, Russia, or Islam, if, partially in fear of these threats, we lose our free and independent nation to the stealth imperialism of transnational and global governance? As America threatens to shatter, we must see how a semi-covert, global, cartel collective and their NWO in the USA ("progressive" neo-Marxists and neo-fascists corporatists, updated with 21st Century techniques and technology) intentionally perpetrate this sabotage, while we patriots try to prevent it. Have a look around our camp, as we struggle to survive. - your tour guide Archives Militarization in America About DHS militarization, see the new, breakthrough analysis from James Simpson, " Police Militarization, Abuses of Power, and the Road to Impeachment " and our earlier, "Marxist President’s Military Exercises in These U.S. Cities; Yours One?"
About the trajectory of this, we must pray, communicate, keep calm, and do not become the first to engage. If it comes to it, do not even respond in kind, until after the after the first times that extreme, anti-American violence is done by them. It calls for an attitude of self sacrifice -- first cheek, second cheek, then no more.
And speak out about the potential and strategic "sense" of the Obama/NWO's DHS carrying out false flag missions of violence, blaming it on American patriots, perhaps upon our militia movements.
We are in a real war, right now (of which others and I have been trying to alert fellow Sovereign Citizens for years) and the prime war is for the minds, hearts, and wills of the American People. We are opposed by an anti-American insurrection using any means of power (see Gramsci, Frankfurt School) including government power, as they are granted that opportunity. | 0 |
Does Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and hopeful, think Donald J. Trump has the mental fitness to be president of the United States? His answer in an interview on Monday was not very convincing. “Yeah, and my answer would be, sure,” Mr. Gingrich said, after a sigh and a pause, in an interview for the first episode of “The ” a new politics podcast from The New York Times that was published on Tuesday. The former speaker declined to give a more emphatic endorsement of Mr. Trump’s psychological sturdiness when the interviewer, Michael Barbaro, asked if he could “be more forceful than ‘sure.’ ” Instead, Mr. Gingrich said he believed Mr. Trump was “at least as reliable as Andrew Jackson” and praised him for possessing “a personality which will by definition not be normal. ” Here is a transcript of the exchange: (Andrew Jackson was last in the news when the Treasury Department decided in April that the former president, a slaveholder known today for both his persecution of Native Americans and advocacy for poor whites, would share the $20 bill with the former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.) Questions have mounted among both Democrats and Republicans about whether Mr. Trump possesses the mental fitness and strength of character to serve as president, and his poll numbers have fallen as a result. Mr. Gingrich acknowledged Mr. Trump’s trouble in his interview with “The . ” “The last two weeks have been peculiarly bad for Trump,” he said. Mr. Trump has appeared to inflict much of that damage upon himself, including by engaging in a feud with the parents of a fallen United States soldier who criticized him at the Democratic National Convention, confounding many of his supporters. As his numbers have fallen and his troubles have grown, some Republican officials have begun to publicly reject his candidacy. On Monday Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said she would not vote for Mr. Trump, citing his “constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize” to those he has attacked. Earlier that day, 50 national security officials who served in Republican administrations signed an open letter warning that he “would put at risk our country’s national security and ” if he won the election. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO — I hunched over the stove wearing protective eyewear and rubber gloves, boiling a pot of water laced with a toxic, corrosive chemical. I wasn’t trying to dissolve a body like Walter White in “Breaking Bad. ” I wanted to recreate the perfect East Coast bagel, the kind with a glossy brown, crunchy crust and pillowy crumb, the kind I’ve found to be elusive here in San Francisco, where airy buns with holes try to pass for the real thing. The bubbling caldron was the final step in a baking saga that was as maddening as it was gratifying. The good news is it only took me 300 bagels to nail it. The frustrating news is that the key to nailing it had been just across the Bay Bridge all along. My journey of 300 bagels began in May and became an office ritual. A native Californian who spent only two years in New York (long enough to become indoctrinated with East Coast bagel and pizza snobbery) I complained bitterly about missing my blistery gold, crunchy salt bagel with a tomato schmear from in Midtown Manhattan. No matter. I would make my own. Every week after filing my technology column for the business section, I would treat my colleagues with results of my experimentation. After a few weeks, I thought I had perfected it. I told my editor. She told the Food section. They invited me to prove it. I submitted my recipe, overnighted some bagels to my colleagues and prepared to write a article. But the Food editors told me to wait just a minute: A recipe tester for The New York Times (and the author of a pizza cookbook) was going to try to beat my bagel. Better yet, the tester would bake my bagels and four contenders, and let a panel of bagel snobs at The Times judge whose were best. You know what happened: I lost. And paradoxically, the panel picked a bagel from a transplanted East Coast baker: Dan Graf, the owner of Baron Baking, based in Oakland, Calif. I was in bitter denial. I tried Mr. Graf’s recipe, which was published in The Times in 2012. I baked bagels using both of our recipes. I preferred mine to his. My bagel, a result of combining techniques from over a dozen recipes online, in cookbooks and in YouTube videos, was admittedly complicated. (I destroyed and repaired my stand mixer twice while experimenting with it.) But I believed it was worth it. I liked the crunchy crust from boiling the bagels and baking them at a very high heat I liked the tangy flavor from the sourdough starter. Mr. Graf’s recipe — a combination of flour, salt, water, malt powder and yeast boiled in a solution of salt and baking soda and then baked — was simpler, more straightforward. It resulted in a chewier crust and a nice crumb, but his bagels had a slightly yellow tint and a bitter aftertaste from the baking soda. I invited Mr. Graf to meet me at a cafe, where, aficionado to aficionado, we could swap our creations and politely judge each other. Mr. Graf, a bearded man with glasses, called my bagel “phenomenal,” adding, “If I saw that in a store, I would buy it. ” He also complimented me for the extra punch in flavor from the starter. But he noticed some cracks on the bottom half of my bagels and recommended flipping them in the oven to prevent them from drying out. Then I ate a Baron bagel. It had a brown crust, a delightful chew and a rich, nutty flavor. His bagels were perfectly shaped and shiny, like something that could be on the cover of Bon Appétit. “Yours are definitely better,” I said. He did not disagree. I asked Mr. Graf whether he had changed his recipe. He said no, but added that the version he offered to The Times was tailored for home kitchens. For more flavor, he mixes a starter and lets it sit for about 28 hours. This serves as a base for the dough. After the bagels are rolled and shaped, they ferment in the refrigerator for another 20 hours. And he uses a secret ingredient: lye, or sodium hydroxide, in the water, a chemical base used for boiling pretzels, making soap and cleaning drains (that last phrase being one you don’t want to see in a sentence about food). A tiny amount of lye dramatically increases the pH level of the water, Mr. Graf said, which results in the crispy brown crust. But use too much — or boil it in the wrong kind of pot (a stainless steel one is required) — and it could be poisonous. “There is that liability there of, like, ‘Oh, don’t poison yourself,’” Mr. Graf said. “It’s really caustic. ” So his home recipe instructs the baker to boil the bagels in salted water. (A Times reporter revised his recipe in 2012 to include baking soda, a common alternative to lye.) Here I was trying to perfect the bagel and working with a version of his recipe. “It’s the tragedy of the food commons,” he said, referring to the simplification of home recipes. I was determined to try lye. By coincidence, I had dinner days later with a friend who had an unopened bottle in his closet. My friend had gone through a phase and had hoped to experiment with boiling in lye, but never had the guts to open the bottle labeled in red: “Poison: Causes Severe Burns. ” I took the bottle home. The next morning, I drank a cup of coffee and put on my safety gear. Mr. Graf told me in an email to weigh the water and the lye so the chemical accounted for 0. 15 percent of the solution. Using a kitchen scale, I weighed a pot with 2, 200 grams of water (a bit more than a ) and determined I needed about 3 grams of lye, which amounted to a small pinch. (For safe measurements, brave bagel makers should always weigh the lye with a scale). I dropped the lye into the stainless steel pot of water, brought it to a boil and added the bagels. The water turned a disturbing yellow. But after I transferred the bagels to the oven and baked them for 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through the cooking, I knew my quest had come to an end. The bagels came out exactly how I wanted them: crunchy and brown with a glossy sheen, a nice chew and soft inside. Not nearly as perfect as Mr. Graf’s, but exceptional for a bagel from a home kitchen. That day, some friends dropped by for brunch. Not one of them was poisoned. We fantasized for a moment about quitting our jobs and opening a bakery. But then we remembered Mr. Graf, and that his establishment delivers bagels to grocery stores and restaurants throughout the Bay Area, including a nearby Whole Foods, and that he could give a run for its money. Recipe: Baron Bagels | 1 |
Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Islamic cleric whose fulminating sermons inspired violent fundamentalist movements in Egypt and, an American court found, a 1993 plot for a bombing rampage in New York, died on Saturday at a federal prison near Raleigh, N. C. where he was serving a life sentence. He was 78. Greg Norton, a spokesman for the prison, the Butner Federal Correctional Complex, confirmed the death, saying the cause was complications of diabetes and coronary artery disease. Born to a humble merchant in a Nile Delta village and blind from infancy, Mr. Abdel Rahman became one of the most influential and fearsome theologians of the Islamist fundamentalism that swept the Middle East in recent decades. On Oct. 1, 1995, Mr. Abdel Rahman was convicted, along with nine other defendants, on sedition charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He was found guilty of guiding a conspiracy to wage “a war of urban terrorism,” with the ultimate aim of carrying out a day of bombings against the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, the George Washington Bridge, the United Nations and the Manhattan headquarters of the F. B. I. Those bombings never happened, but the intent of the conspiracy, prosecutors said, was to destroy New York landmarks, kill hundreds of people and force the United States to abandon its support for Israel and Egypt. Prosecutors also asserted that Mr. Rahman was linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which killed six people. In Mr. Abdel Rahman’s trial, prosecutors described the World Trade Center attack as part of a broader conspiracy involving the blind cleric. They depicted the bombing as part of a plot that included the killing of a militant rabbi in 1990 and the conspiracy to blow up New York landmarks. Before coming to the United States, Mr. Abdel Rahman was put on trial in Egypt. In 1980, according to courtroom testimony there, he gave a blessing to a cell of militant Islamists, emboldening them to assassinate President Anwar during a military parade on Oct. 6, 1981, in Cairo. Mr. Abdel Rahman faced trial twice in Egypt for instigating Mr. Sadat’s assassination and for political disturbances that erupted at the time. Twice, in 1982 and 1984, he was acquitted. In learned but vitriolic jeremiads, Mr. Abdel Rahman denounced Egypt’s secularist leaders as corrupt pharaohs and infidels. He proclaimed that faithful Muslims had a duty to wage jihad, or holy war, to install a government in Egypt that would obey the strictest Islamic laws. He denounced what he saw as the corrosive effect on Islam of the materialistic and hypersexualized West. In 1990, as he fled from Egypt, Mr. Abdel Rahman moved to the United States, bringing his preaching and his campaign against the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to mosques in Brooklyn and Jersey City. Mr. Abdel Rahman, who was known as the blind sheikh, spent years in the most severe solitary confinement, barred from communicating with his followers, praying with other prisoners or even listening to Arabic radio. Failing blood circulation had killed the sensation in his fingertips, making it impossible for him to read his Braille Islamic texts. Mr. Abdel Rahman was born on May 3, 1938, in a small village in the Nile Delta. An infection blinded him at 10 months. When he became an adult, his right eye remained open but clouded while his left eye stayed closed. Sent to a school for the blind, he excelled, learning Braille and memorizing the Quran by the time he was 11. He trained to be an Islamic scholar, completing his doctoral degree in 1973 at University in Cairo, the world’s premier center of Islamic learning. Mr. Abdel Rahman first antagonized the Egyptian authorities in 1970 when he barred the faithful in a mosque where he was presiding, in the town Fayoum, from praying after the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a secularist. He was imprisoned for several months. Soon he began to espouse a doctrine, rooted in Quranic interpretation, holding that devout Muslims were obliged to kill rulers who did not follow Islamic law. Saad Hasaballah, a lawyer who represented Mr. Abdel Rahman in the Sadat assassination trials, said the sheikh told the Islamist army officers involved in the plot that a secular leader like Mr. Sadat deserved death — although he never mentioned the president by name. In 1984, Egypt’s highest court found that Mr. Abdel Rahman had been tortured while in prison during the trials. Years later, at a news conference in New Jersey, he enumerated 12 methods of torture he said jailers had used. During the 1980s, Mr. Abdel Rahman emerged as the imam of the Islamic Group, a student organization that grew to include thousands of members. Over more than a decade, the group carried out terrorist attacks, including many on tourist sites, killing foreigners and paralyzing Egypt’s tourism industry. The government responded fiercely, imprisoning thousands of the group’s followers. Mr. Abdel Rahman also traveled that decade to Afghanistan and Pakistan, giving religious teachings to the Islamist fighters battling the Soviet occupation. He brought two of his sons, Ahmed and Muhammad, still teenagers, to Afghanistan to join the jihad. His preaching there brought him in contact with Osama bin Laden. In 1989, Mr. Abdel Rahman was put on trial again in Egypt, charged with instigating an antigovernment riot in Fayoum. Placed under house arrest, he managed to escape. On July 18, 1990, he traveled to New York, carrying a visa granted by the United States consulate in Sudan. Since his name had appeared on a State Department terrorism watch list, the visa prompted outrage in Congress and an investigation of the immigration agency. Still, Mr. Abdel Rahman did little to mute his sermons when he took up preaching in Brooklyn and Jersey City. After several of the bomb plot suspects were arrested in the act of mixing a brew of explosives, Mr. Abdel Rahman surrendered to federal authorities on July 2, 1993. His trial hinged on transcripts of secretly recorded meetings with an F. B. I. informant, Emad Salem. He was represented by the civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 of smuggling messages from the imprisoned sheikh to his followers in Egypt. She was granted compassionate release from federal prison three years ago after being found to have breast cancer. In court, Mr. Abdel Rahman maintained his innocence. At his January 1996 sentencing, he called the trial “an attack on the words of God” and said the United States, “an enemy of Islam,” was seeking to give him “a slow death. ” | 1 |
Teddy bears, tears, candles, cartoons, murals, mosaics, flowers, flags, projections, hashtags, balloons, wreaths, lights, vigils, scarves, and more. These are the best solutions the Western world seems to come up with every few months when we are slammed by another Islamist terrorist attack. We are our own sickness. [If the words above look familiar, it is because they are. They are the same words I wrote on March 23rd, 2016, just over one year ago, after coordinated suicide bombing attacks in the Union capital of Brussels, Belgium, which left 32 dead and 340 injured. Last night, another 22 people died, and at least another 60 have been injured at a former Disney star’s concert in Manchester, England. The targeting of an audience predominantly comprised of young girls should haunt even the most callous of cynics, and the most relativist of liberals. But it won’t. Already we have witnessed large news sites demanding Britain refuse to change its approach to terrorism and extremism. Just keep sucking it up. Keep watching your friends and family die. After all, according to London’s mayor, terrorism is “part and parcel” of everyday urban life, right? All of it, ultimately, is a distraction. I don’t know if it’s meant to be or not. But it is a massive distraction from the facts of this case. And the reality of European life today. Let’s take 2017 alone so far. Yesterday marked the 142nd day of 2017. There have been, this year, at least 15 attempted terrorist attacks on European, British, or West Russian soil, killing dozens, and injuring hundreds. That’s one attack attempted every 9 days in Europe. Think about that. ONE ATTACK EVERY NINE DAYS. In the meantime, the Independent website wants us to “carry on exactly as before”: There’s only one way Britain should respond to attacks such as Manchester. That is by carrying on exactly as before https: . pic. twitter. — The Independent (@Independent) May 23, 2017, I suggest we don’t “carry on exactly as before”. In fact, I suggest we do away with the trite “Keep Calm and Carry On” mindset that has been adopted by hipsters and tourist tat sellers. Instead, I suggest we look back in history a little further, for how we deal with this scourge. St. Augustine of Hippo — not to be confused with the homonymous St. Augustine of Canterbury who brought Christianity to England — once said: “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. ” Don’t let anyone tell you now is not a time to get angry or change anything. Now is absolutely that time. #Manchester pic. twitter. — Raheem (@RaheemKassam) May 23, 2017, This is our new mantra. This is our new slogan. This is our new way of life. For news sources like the Independent, the ostensible fight in defence of multiculturalism is even more important than the news story itself, let alone positions. Over the past 16 hours, the Independent has published and promoted at least seven separate articles targeting the critics of mass migration or lax security. I cannot for one second imagine being that editor and having the callousness to shout across the newsroom: “Let’s hammer Nigel Farage for what he said on Fox!” while young girls are still bleeding in hospitals in England. I encourage you to read their article, by the way, and find anything wrong in what Mr. Farage told Tucker Carlson last night. This is their new normal. Terror attacks are now political footballs for the left, while they, without a scintilla of or irony, accuse the right of using these events for partisan gain. How heartless does someone have to be otherwise, to tweet something like this? Here’s a small insight into the mind of the author of that tweet, David Leavitt, for context: The only thing more aggravating than the ending of #GirlsHBO is that we still have Donald Trump as president. #resist #impeachTrumpnow pic. twitter. — David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) April 17, 2017, We now know that girls as young as eight years old died in the terror attack in Manchester last night. We know in neighbouring communities, young girls were targeted, groomed, and raped by Pakistani, more often than not Muslim, men living in the United Kingdom. And while the political left hurls accusations of a “war on women” at the right, for refusing to accept taxpayer subsidy of contraception or abortion, the real war on women is taking place in British towns and cities, conducted by fellow travellers of the high chiefs of multiculturalism. We must protect our beautiful daughters with the beautiful daughters of St. Augustine: courage, and anger. Anyone who cannot agree to this basic statement should find no support in public life. Raheem Kassam is the Editor in Chief of Breitbart London and tweets at @RaheemKassam | 1 |
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) responded to the news of the shooting in Alexandria by saying it proves we have “too many guns on the street. ”[Breitbart News reported that at least four people were injured when a gunman opened fire on House and Senate members at a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday morning. Former New York Times assistant managing editor Jim Roberts quoted McAuliffe as saying: “There are too many guns on the street … we worry about this every day for all of our citizens,” and BuzzFeed DC editor Sarah Mimms tweeted: VA Gov. McAuliffe: ”We lose 93 … people per day due to gun violence,” mentions background checks, gun show loophole. — Sarah Mimms (@SarahMMimms) June 14, 2017, The “93 people” a day claim is a talking point shared by gun control proponents throughout the U. S. Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action, Hillary Clinton, and similar groups and individuals have been making for years. They repeatedly state more than 90 people are killed by “gun violence” in America every day. But in reality, the number of people killed annually by homicidal firearm use is about a third of that figure. Individuals like McAuliffe swell the number of deaths via “gun violence” by adding suicides to homicides, more than doubling the number of people who are actually murdered with a firearm. Interestingly enough, Mimms reported that McAuliffe first said “93 million people [are killed] per day,” but he corrected that statement. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 1 |
Two people have died following an outbreak of listeria linked to a popular artisanal raw milk cheese made in upstate New York, the authorities said this week. The deaths occurred in Vermont and Connecticut, local officials said. Four other people in New York and Florida reported feeling sick after eating Ouleout, the artisanal cheese, which is produced by Vulto Creamery in Walton. Illnesses started on dates from Sept. 1 of last year to Jan. 22, the Food and Drug Administration said. All six people were hospitalized and two people died. Ouleout has been celebrated across the United States as much for its unusual back story as for its flavor: It was created by Jos Vulto, a Dutch artist linked to the Museum of Modern Art, who started making cheese in his apartment and aging it under a sidewalk in Brooklyn. Vulto Creamery, which produces Ouleout, said it was recalling the product, and, as a precautionary measure, three other soft cheeses: Miranda, Heinennellie, and Willowemoc. “We are very busy working on this recall with F. D. A. and our customers,” the creamery said in an email without offering details on the cause of the outbreak. Listeria monocytogenes is a health risk often connected to unpasteurized dairy products. It can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, pregnant women and the elderly, the Public Health Department in Connecticut said. “Although healthy individuals may suffer only symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths and fetal infection among pregnant women,” a statement said. Vulto Creamery began contacting clients on March 3, asking them to return purchases of Ouleout after being informed of a listeria strain in a sample, the health department said. It issued a recall on March 7 and extended it to the three other brands. The deaths highlighted concerns over safety regulations around artisanal cheese production in the United States, particularly around the cheese segment, which only about a decade ago, experts say. The outbreak has also revived a continuing debate between the virtues of cheese, which aficionados say tastes better, and safety. Some customers swear only by cheese. Europeans have eaten cheese for hundreds of years. In France, for example, 15 percent of its cheese is made of unpasteurized milk, according to French agricultural statistics. The thinking is that when milk is cooked, or pasteurized, many of the enzymes are destroyed. Ouleout, a soft cheese that is aged for 60 days, “requires real craftsmanship” because it needs to retain a good amount of moisture even as it matures, said Carlos Yescas, program director at Oldways Cheese Coalition, a nonprofit organization that promotes artisanal cheese making. “Otherwise, the cheese will dry out really quickly. ” cheese is made by washing and curing the cheese in beer and other solutions, helping create its pungent flavor. More than half of artisanal cheese produced in the United States is made of unpasteurized milk, Mr. Yescas said, adding that there are a number of ways in which the cheese could be contaminated. Listeria, he said, could originate from the wood boards used to age the cheese, the water supply or improper sanitation, like walking in dirty boots. “It’s hard to pinpoint,” Mr. Yescas said. In the United States, regulations on cheese are less stringent than in Europe, where more steps are required to ensure that there is no contamination, he said. Here, there is only a single national standard for cheese production, Mr. Yescas said, which requires that the cheese be aged for at least 60 days to block E. coli from developing. “We need to take a look again at the rule and have a consensus with the scientific community, regulators and cheese producers,” Mr. Yescas said. Ouleout was an instant hit when it came out a few years ago. Mr. Vulto quickly earned a reputation among cheese lovers as an urban cheese maker “extraordinaire. ” Mr. Vulto came to the United States from the Netherlands in 1990, according to several media outlets specializing in cheese. He spent two years as an at P. S. 1 in Queens, a contemporary art institution affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He specialized in crafting abstract installations made of metal. His specialty involved “wrapping empty buildings in cloth and building contained fires of sawdust and hay inside,” according to Culture Cheese Mag. When the building started to emit smoke, the cloth absorbed an imprint of the building. Mr. Vulto called the technique “rooking,” a play on the Dutch word for smoke. In 2008, Mr. Vulto switched to cheese making, reportedly inspired by the stink caused by a carton of soured milk in his refrigerator. He began creating rudimentary cheese in his apartment, and gradually mastered the art by making and remaking new batches and studying techniques. To store and age the cheese, Mr. Vulto used a “crawlspace in the floor of his Williamsburg studio, which opened up under the sidewalk,” wrote Geoffrey Gray, a food writer. It was “too small for a person but the conditions were just right for aging cheese. ” Mr. Vulto eventually moved to Walton, near the Catskills, where he opened his cheese production facility. | 1 |
Nancy Pelosi ( ) on Friday called on Speaker Paul Ryan ( ) to reconvene the Congress for debate on the United States’ Thursday night airstrikes on a Syrian military airbase. [Shortly after Thursday night’s strike, President Donald Trump read a statement which proclaimed that he ordered the attack in response to Syrian President Bashar launching chemical attacks on innocent Syrian civilians on Tuesday. Early Friday morning Pelosi tweeted out a letter to Speaker Ryan in which she writes, “I am writing to request that you call the House back in session immediately to debate any decision to place our men and women in uniform in harm’s way. ” The letter continues: Bashar ’s chemical weapons attack on his own people places him outside the circle of civilized human behavior. Assad also continues to attack his own people with conventional weapons. Meanwhile, Russia props up the Assad regime and enables its brutal war crimes to continue. The President’s action and any response demands that we immediately do our duty. Congress must live up to its Constitutional responsibility to debate an Authorization of the Use of Military Force against a sovereign nation. As heartbreaking as Assad’s chemical weapons attacks on his own people was, the crisis in Syria will not be resolved by one night of airstrikes. The killing will not stop without a comprehensive political solution to end the violence. The American people are owed a comprehensive strategy with clear objectives to keep our brave men and women in uniform safe and avoid collateral damage to innocent civilians in Syria. Directly following the U. S. airstrikes, Pelosi responded with condemnation of the Syrian government’s chemical and other attacks on its own people. She stated, in part, “Tonight’s strike in Syria appears to be a proportional response to the regime’s use of chemical weapons. If the President intends to escalate the U. S. military’s involvement in Syria, he must to come to Congress for an Authorization for Use of Military Force which is tailored to meet the threat and prevent another war in the Middle East. ” Overall reaction to the U. S. strikes has been mixed on both sides of the aisle. Republican Sen. Rand Paul has condemned the attacks as “illegal” and “unconstitutional. ” Sen. Ted Cruz has expressed great anticipation to hear Trump make the case for military action in Syria and said he is “encouraged” by the Trump Administration’s foreign policy. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the strikes “the right thing to do. ” Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said, “It angers and saddens me that President Trump has taken the advice of war hawks and escalated our illegal regime change war to overthrow the Syrian government. ” Congress recessed on Thursday for a Easter break. Pelosi is calling on Ryan to call members right back. Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 1 |
Few things are more important to wine drinkers than value, but value can mean different things to different people. In March I wrote a profile of Eli Zabar, the New York food merchant whose restaurant is offering great values on wines. I cited some examples like a 2004 Muscadet and a 2007 Touraine red, each for $60, as well as a 1995 Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico Riserva for $250 and a 1995 Hubert de Montille Pommard 1er Cru Rugiens for $295. The social media firestorm began almost immediately. “The wine prices are completely ridiculous,” one reader wrote. “$60 for a Muscadet? That’s a $10 bottle in France, as is any Touraine red. $250 for a Chianti? Please tell me it’s a misprint. No Italian would ever believe it. ” Some people are wed to a utilitarian notion of wine. It’s liquid, it has alcohol and the rest is marketing and gullibility. Others may see a vast chasm between a bottle of Muscadet from the latest vintage (not even $10!) and a great bottle from a master craftsman. The opportunity to appreciate its complexities and nuances might intrigue them enough to consider $60 well spent. But few places offer such an opportunity for value. A wine lover willing to spend $300 to savor a Burgundy from a great producer will have to search long and hard, though any number of restaurants would willingly sell him the chance for $700. Value is not simply a synonym for inexpensive. It ought to mean that the amount of pleasure is beyond the norm for the price you paid. Great value can be had at $5 or at $500, though either is rare. By far, the greatest opportunity to find wine values is in the range of $15 to $25. Here, the qualities of conscientious agriculture, cultural tradition, craftsmanship, distinctiveness and deliciousness converge at prices that make these bottles worth seeking out. If you love them, they are well worth it. If you don’t, the exploration will have come at not too high a cost. Here, then, are 20 bottles I bought in New York for $20 or less. They are not the only examples by far. I could have bought many different bottles. Nobody will be able to find all of these, but if you have access to a good wine shop, you will discover your own treasures. I chose these with a mind to the season. They are generally to wines with an eye to freshness. Wine’s first duty is to refresh. In the added dimensions lies the value. Monastero Suore Cistercensi Lazio Bianco Coenobium 2014, $19. 99 This is a rare Lazio white with great character, a blend of trebbiano, malvasia and verdicchio. The grapes are grown by Cistercian nuns just north of Rome and made into wine under the supervision of Giampiero Bea of the great Umbrian producer Paolo Bea. It’s redolent of apples, herbs, citrus and volcanic soils, and has just the slightest pleasant tannic rasp, courtesy of maceration with the grape skins. (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, New York) Ronchi di Cialla Colli Orientali del Friuli Ribolla Gialla 2014, $19. 99 Ribolla gialla is one of the indigenous grapes of the Giulia region in northeastern Italy. This is a straightforward version compared with some of the vanguard wines made in the region, but it’s delicious, with flavors of nuts, flowers and tropical citrus fruits along with mineral undertones. (Soilair Selection, New York) Ravines Finger Lakes Dry Riesling 2014, $17. 99 Riesling has been a great success story in the Finger Lakes, and though it’s not the only winner in the region, it’s been by far the dominant grape there. Year in and year out, Ravines’s riesling has been one of my favorites. It’s absolutely refreshing, with earthy, citrus and wet stone flavors. If you like this, try the Ravines Argetsinger Vineyard riesling, a firmer, deeper version. Domaine Michel Brégeon par Frédéric Lailler Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2013, $17. 99 Muscadet is perennially a great value, especially from Brégeon, an producer that always makes some of the more interesting wines in the region. This is characteristically fresh and tangy, with flavors of citrus, herbs and chamomile and a grainy, minerally depth that comes from aging on the lees, the remnants of yeast after fermentation. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, Calif.) Guímaro Ribeira Sacra Blanco 2014, $19. 99 Ribeira Sacra in the eastern Galicia region of Spain, where the vineyards rise at harrowing angles from the rivers, is best known for its reds made from the mencía grape. But the whites, like this one from Guímaro, made with godello, can be superb. This is refreshing, harmonious and a touch exotic, with flavors of citrus, flowers, herbs and stone fruits. (José Pastor Gourmet, Richmond, Calif.) Litaud Domaine des Vieilles Pierres St. Les Pommards 2014, $19. 99 Must one always have chardonnay? Absolutely, if it is as good as this St. often a source of exceptional values. Though it was aged in steel tanks, it has the rich texture that usually comes from with great depth and presence, and lingering flavors of citrus, yeast, flowers and minerals. ( de of the Vines, Long Island City, N. Y.) Ponce Manchuela Reto 2014, $19. 99 I’ve written before about the 2012 Ponce Reto, which was richer and juicier than the 2014, which is a bit subtler. Nonetheless, it is a distinctive wine, made entirely from the albillo grape, which I’ve never seen outside the Manchuela region of Spain. It’s fresh, floral and herbal, another option in the array of dry, crisp whites. (T. Edward Wines, New York) Edmunds St. John El Dorado County Witters Vineyard Rosé Gamay Noir 2015, $19. 99 The wine stores tell us it’s rosé season (though in my opinion, it’s never not rosé season). Here is an old favorite, which year after year offers the vivacity characteristic of a good young rosé. It’s made entirely of gamay noir, the grape of Beaujolais (hence the somewhat awkward name ) and it’s exactly what you want on those first few days out on the deck, the balcony or wherever you can grab space in the open air. Bodega Chacra Patagonia Mainqué Pinot Noir Rosé 2015, $18. 99 Of course they make rosé in Argentina. The Mainqué comes from Bodega Chacra in Patagonia, an producer of superb pinot noirs. This is made of pinot noir, too. It’s fresh and crisp, with a little more body than the yet earthy, tangy and succulent. (Grand Cru Selections, New York) Carl Loewen Mosel Riesling Kabinett Longuicher Herrenberg 2014, $19. 99 I yearn for kabinett rieslings in the springtime. Something about their lightly sweet, delicate nature captures the newborn hope of the season. This is a lovely example, lively with acidity, redolent of herbs and stone aromas, deceptively substantial though nonetheless fine. (A Terry Theise Estate Wines, New York) Nahe Riesling Kabinett Münsterer Rheinberg 2014, $18. 99 Here’s another kabinett option. It’s fascinating to compare this from Nahe side by side with the Loewen from the Mosel. It’s a little bigger boned, a little weightier, and slightly more obviously sweeter. Yet it’s still beautifully balanced, with apple and stone flavors, refreshing and great with river fish. (A Terry Theise Estate Wines, New York) Burgaud Morgon Les Charmes 2014, $19. 99 With so many good wines and great values coming from the crus of Beaujolais, it would be a shame not to include at least one here. This Burgaud Morgon was not in our recent wine panel tasting, but it could easily have been included, with its earthy, stony, focused red fruit flavors. It’s almost as if you can taste the granite of the vineyard underlying the wine. (Maximum Wine, Englishtown, N. J.) Domaine Zafeirakis Tyrnavos Limniona 2012, $18. 99 This wine is a new one for me, and am I glad I found it. It’s made of limniona, an indigenous Greek grape that had nearly disappeared until it was resurrected virtually by Christos Zafeirakis in the last 15 years or so. This one comes from Tyrnavos in the Thessaly region of central Greece. It’s fresh, lively and absolutely delicious, full of the spicy flavors of dark fruits. It cries out for grilled meats. (Dionysi Grevenitis Wildman Sons, New York) Rovellotti Colline Novaresi Vespolina Ronco al Maso 2013, $19. 99 The nebbiolo grape thrives throughout the Langhe and Alto Piemonte regions of northwestern Italy. It is so successful that it overshadows a cast of supporting grapes that can be delicious on their own and great values, like vespolina from Colline Novaresi. It offers fresh flavors of raspberries and cranberries, and, like many of those supporting grapes, carries a hint of nebbiolo in its darker, slightly tarlike undertones. (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, New York) Montinore Estate Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2014, $19. 99 Another perennial favorite and great value. This pinot noir from Montinore is grown biodynamically. Its dark, earthy fruit flavors are interlaced with savory, meaty herbal tones that make it versatile with many foods and give it a complexity that belies its modest price. Frecciarossa Uva Rara I. G. T. 2012, $19. 99 The Uva Rara grape comes from Pavia in Lombardy. Despite its name, it’s relatively common in that area. (In the essential reference “Wine Grapes,” it’s speculated that “rara” refers to the sparse number of grapes in a bunch.) Whatever the derivation, this wine is deeply fragrant, smelling like candied flower petals. On the palate it’s fresh, with a sort of herbal bitterness that’s actually quite appealing and sets you up for the next sip. (Vignaioli Selection, New York) Burlotto Barbera d’Alba 2014, $19. 99 This is how I remember Barbera d’Alba back when I was becoming obsessed with wine in the early 1980s: fresh, fruity, lively with acidity, and with hardly any tannin. Many modern barberas are aged in new oak barrels, and some are compelling in their own way. But I have a sentimental attachment to the brisk, direct older style, especially when it comes from a careful, traditional producer like Burlotto. (Bacchanal Wine Imports, Port Chester, N. Y.) Señorío de P. Peciña Rioja Crianza 2010, $19. 99 This crianza Rioja is a perfect example of the synergy that can be achieved between the tempranillo grape (with a dash or two of graciano and garnacha) and the spicy coconut flavors of American oak barrels. The result, particularly with a few years of age, is this mellow yet complex wine, with the earthy flavors of red raspberries, vanilla, coconut and tobacco. Just the thing for leg of lamb. (Polaner Selections, Mount Kisco, N. Y.) Bernabeleva Vinos de Madrid Navaherreros Garnacha 2013, $18. 99 This is a powerful wine at 15 percent alcohol, yet despite its size it is vividly fruity, explosively floral, spicy and beautifully balanced. It is intense and concentrated yet is not heavy. It’s the bigger, stronger sibling of the Bernabeleva Camino de Navaherreros, which I wrote about last fall. (Polaner Selections, Mount Kisco, N. Y.) François Chidaine Vouvray Brut Pétillant NV, $18. 99 This sparkling Vouvray is simply superb. It’s made entirely of chenin blanc and wears its chenin personality of honey, lemon, flowers and yeast, with all the finesse of a good Champagne. The French bureaucracy is making it difficult for producers in neighboring areas of Vouvray to use the Vouvray appellation, even if the grapes are from Vouvray. Because Chidaine is based in Montlouis, this might be the last Chidaine sparkler called Vouvray until the silly ruling is resolved. (Polaner Selections, Mount Kisco, N. Y.) | 1 |
By True Activist The majority of America’s mainline media is owned and controlled by a mere 6 corporations, but few in the U.S. are aware of this… Unless you go out of your way to seek truthful news... | 0 |
WASHINGTON, D. C. — The Trump Administration fiscal year 2018 budget set to be released on Tuesday factors in the defunding of Planned Parenthood, assuming the American Health Care Act passes into law. [Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney was asked at a Monday press briefing if the new budget defunds abortion provider Planned Parenthood. He replied, “yes,” but added that it does “because it assumes the American Health Care Act passes and the AHCA in its current form, which is the one we assumed — and that’s making a bunch of assumptions, here — that it assumes that passes and that defunds Planned Parenthood. ” The new budget entitled, “A New Foundation for American Greatness” will be posted to the OMB website at 11:00 a. m. on Tuesday morning. Mulvaney told reporters at the Monday briefing that the budget focuses in on more money for defense, border security, law enforcement, veterans, and school choice. The AHCA struggled to pass the House and faces an uphill battle to passage in the Senate. Asked during the Monday briefing about changes to Medicaid, Mulvaney said, “We assume the Affordable Health Care Act that passed out of the House passes. That has some Medicaid changes into it. We wrap that into our budget proposals. We go another half a step further and ratchet down some of the growth rates that are assumed in the AHCA. ” Defunding of Planned Parenthood was a provision of the AHCA that President Donald Trump used to put pressure on the conservative House Freedom Caucus to vote for passage of the bill. The Director said that the budget balances in 10 years and funds the President’s priorities. Mulvaney will deliver the budget to the Hill on Tuesday and will testify before the House Budget Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Budget Committee on Thursday. Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 1 |
HANGZHOU, China — In Dream Town, a collection of boxy office buildings on the gritty edge of this historic city, one tiny company is developing a portable printer. Another takes orders for traditional Chinese massages by smartphone. They are just two of the 710 being nurtured here. Anywhere else, an incubator like Dream Town would be a vision of venture capitalists, angel investors or technology stalwarts. But this is China. The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t trust the invisible hand of capitalism alone to encourage entrepreneurship, especially since it is a big part of the leadership’s strategy to reshape the sagging economy. Which is why the government of Hangzhou — a former royal capital that has been a major commercial hub for more than a millennium — built Dream Town and lavishes resources on . The businesses here get a slate of benefits like subsidized rent, cash handouts and special training, all courtesy of the city. Chemayi, which offers car repair services through a smartphone app, is staying at Dream Town for three years and is applying for as much as $450, 000 in subsidies from city authorities to help pay salaries and buy equipment. “From the central government all the way down to local governments, we have seen a lot of warm support,” said Li Liheng, and chief executive of Chemayi. For much of China’s long economic boom, young people flocked to manufacturing zones for jobs making bluejeans or iPhones. But today China is trying to move beyond just being the world’s factory floor. Policy makers want the next generation to find work in modern offices, creating the ideas, technologies and jobs to feed the country’s future growth. Premier Li Keqiang frequently calls for “mass entrepreneurship. ” In March at the National People’s Congress, he bragged that 12, 000 new companies were founded each day in 2015. The entrepreneurial embrace comes with lots of financial support. Across the country, officials are creating investment funds, providing cash subsidies and building incubators. “Without these kinds of subsidies, you only rely on private money, and you wouldn’t see so many technology happening today,” said Ning Tao, a partner at Innovation Works, a venture capital fund in Beijing. “Without quantity, you cannot have quality. ” But the heavy spending is adding to worries about an inflating bubble in the world of China’s tiniest companies. Along with the government funds, venture capital money is flooding the country. About $49 billion in deals were made last year, making China second only to the United States, according to the accounting firm Ernst Young. Some economists and entrepreneurs are concerned that the government is helping fuel a frenzy that might ultimately result in failed businesses, wasted resources and financial losses. Just one city, Suzhou, near Shanghai, has announced it will open 300 incubators by 2020 to house 30, 000 . Beijing’s policy makers have a long history of giving favored companies easy access to loans and subsidies to propel certain industries, with both good and bad consequences. Though that tactic lubricated the nation’s industrialization, it also contributed to the excess that has buried the country in empty apartment blocks, mothballed cement plants and sputtering steel mills — all of which threaten the economy’s stability. “I think the subsidies shouldn’t be a policy,” Jin Xiangrong, an economist at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, said of the support programs. “They can lead to overcapacity like the kind we see now in China’s manufacturing sector, which is largely a result of government support. ” Hangzhou city officials turned down requests for interviews. At Dream Town, Mr. Li, 39, frets more about his own business. He got the initial idea for Chemayi in 2009 after a car accident. To find a trustworthy mechanic, he searched online, asked friends for advice and visited repair shops. But Mr. Li found it difficult to judge who was reliable. A car culture — and all the services that come with it — is relatively new in China. Aiming to fill the information void, he and three friends set up Chemayi in 2013 with 5 million renminbi (currently $750, 000) of their own money. For an annual fee, Chemayi sends out staff members to help fix flat tires, paint scratches or repair engines. “Henry Ford is gone for so many years, but we are still driving his cars,” Mr. Li said. “I felt that I also must pursue a cause that will persist after I’m gone. ” Chemayi beat out more than two dozen other for a coveted space in Dream Town in a 2014 competition. Another Ouyang Feng, delivered a presentation to a panel of judges who peppered him with questions about Chemayi’s business model and future prospects. The provincial governor watched over the grilling. In the end, the committee awarded Chemayi a golden key that symbolically opened the doors to Dream Town. Chemayi now has 284 employees in four cities, with plans to reach 1, 000 by the end of the year. Mr. Li said his company had raised $22 million in private money and turned a profit of about 10 million renminbi last year. “A lot of Chinese people want to be successful. They want to initiate change through innovation,” Mr. Li said in his spacious corner office, while fussing with a traditional Chinese wooden set. “That is a formidable power. ” Hangzhou is a natural center for China’s fever. After China embraced capitalist reform in the 1980s, Zhejiang province, of which Hangzhou is the capital, emerged as a leading base for the export industries that fueled the country’s rapid growth. Factories pumped out products like socks and plastic Christmas trees. Now that zeal for commerce is being channeled into technology . Hangzhou is home to China’s most famous internet company, the giant Alibaba, which has become a training ground for entrepreneurs. The neighborhoods near Alibaba’s sprawling campus, once a poorly developed area on the city’s outskirts, now make up a budding tech center with newly built office parks like Dream Town, dominated by ambitious college graduates, angel investors and venture capitalists. The local restaurants have become hangouts to exchange ideas and gossip over fried squid and stewed pork and eggs. Feng Xiao is typical of this new breed. Mr. Feng, 39 and a Hangzhou native, spent 11 years at Alibaba, mainly in sales and marketing. “There is a Chinese proverb, ‘The soil is too rich,’” Mr. Feng said. Alibaba “offered you a lot of opportunities. It was easy to have a sense of success. But I wanted to be able to start from scratch. ” His was born in Alibaba’s cafeteria, where he ate meal after meal. “I really missed Mom’s cooking,” he said. He figured that many other people, trapped working for long hours far from home, felt the same. Mr. Feng and two other Alibaba employees left their jobs in 2014 and opened a food delivery service, Mishi. Their plan was to connect people willing to prepare homemade meals with professionals who were too busy to cook. They set up shop in a friend’s empty house, decorated with secondhand furniture and photos from home. Along with raising $19 million from private investors, Mishi caught the eye of the Hangzhou city government. In 2014, district officials awarded Mishi 5 million renminbi to help pay the bills. Its rent in a Hangzhou office park is also subsidized. “The most important thing on the part of the government is whether they are open” to new types of businesses, Mr. Feng said. “We are glad to see they are aggressively supporting us. ” Hangzhou represents what Chinese leaders see as the nation’s economic future. The country used to generate astronomical growth rates by depending heavily on exports and extremely high investment in apartment towers, factories and highways. China built so many steel mills that it can produce 10 times as much steel as the United States. But today, costs are rising, eating away at the competitiveness of many export industries. The long investment boom has saddled the economy with too many factories and a mountain of debt. Instead, policy makers are encouraging a shift to new growth engines, like services and high tech. The entrepreneurial focus is providing an economic boost for Hangzhou. The city’s gross domestic product rose 10. 2 percent in 2015, compared with the 6. 9 percent national growth rate. Hangzhou’s service sector, which includes many was the main engine of that strong performance, surging 14. 6 percent. “The Chinese know that enterprises are not going to employ everybody,” said Hans Tung, a managing partner at GGV Capital, a venture capital firm that operates in both Silicon Valley and China. “They need young people to create jobs for themselves, so they are encouraging them to try something new. ” Mishi, the food delivery has created 100 jobs, and has bolstered the incomes of more than 10, 000 home chefs. Cai Liangen, a retired businessman turned Mishi cook, learned about the when a marketing team visited his apartment complex seeking to enlist new chefs. Last November, he and his wife began making local specialties in their kitchen, including a sliced pork dish prepared with “my mother’s secret recipe,” Mr. Cai said. They now receive 40 orders a day and earn 5, 000 renminbi a month, increasing their total income 70 percent. “We do it because we love to cook,” Mr. Cai said, “but the money is good to have, too. ” After submitting a proposal in 2014 to join a Hangzhou incubator, Ai Binke sat nervously before a committee of tech industry executives who questioned his future prospects. His software company, Yun Ran Internet of Things, had only four employees, and its business deals had been small. But his Mr. Ai explained to the committee, had great potential. That was sufficient for the judges to award him 100, 000 renminbi in subsidies. The bulk, roughly 70 percent, was instantly transferred into his corporate bank account. “As long as you run projects that are encouraged by the Hangzhou government, you can get the subsidies,” said Mr. Ai, 29. “It’s not very difficult. ” Local governments around China are spending heavily on . In Shenzhen, authorities are offering to subsidize up to 70 percent of rent for “creative” . Local officials in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu are setting up a 200 million renminbi “entrepreneurship and innovation development fund” and promising subsidies of up to 5 million renminbi. Officials in Guangdong province in China’s south will cover part of a ’s losses. Even the city of Yingtan, in an area of Jiangxi province mainly known for its ancient Taoist temples, is planning to build an incubator. Hangzhou’s government has been one of the more active. Officials are forming a venture capital fund of 4. 7 billion renminbi with contributions from companies, according to the city’s website. This year, Hangzhou announced that it would give 100 million renminbi annually to help pay expenses. But governments historically have a spotty record of using money to generate business success stories. During Japan’s decades, its bureaucrats tried to “pick winners” by selecting certain industries for support. Though they nurtured a few internationally competitive industries (shipbuilding and steel) they also had significant failures (chemicals and computer software). The Obama administration got a black eye for its financial aid to the solar technology firm Solyndra, which sank into bankruptcy. In China, government efforts to assist new businesses have often led to waste and excess. Too much investment pours into favored industries, spawning poorly conceived projects in areas like hotels and solar panels. By trying to spur the state is also engaging in a business that even for the most experienced venture capitalist is prone to produce more failures than successes. Hangzhou officials are trying to avoid such pitfalls. At Dream Town, the financial aid is often linked to a ’s performance. The amount of free rent depends on how much private capital a company can raise. Cash handouts are tied to revenue targets or apps. Government officials also enlist professionals to help allocate the city’s money. The committee that judges applicants to Dream Town is usually made up of tech executives, financiers and academics. Ye Feng, a manager at another incubator who has sat as a judge on three occasions, said she quizzed the contenders on their technology, business plan and even product pricing. Usually about 30 appear at each competition. No more than four make the cut to enter Dream Town. “The competition is quite fierce,” Ms. Ye said. “Sometimes it’s hard to make a decision. ” But some in Hangzhou fear that the government is doling out too much money, and it is flowing to with weak business plans and feeble prospects. Mr. Ai of Yun Ran said that two neighbors also received city subsidies. One, a robotics failed to attract private capital and closed, while the other, a mobile game company, is struggling to stay afloat as its business withers. The government money, Mr. Ai said, often cannot replace the private capital necessary for . “Without financing, it would be very hard for them to survive,” he said. | 1 |
BREAKING BOMBSHELL: Wikileaks Exposes Hillary’s Campaign “Remain Close” with Convicted Serial Child Molester BREAKING BOMBSHELL: Wikileaks Exposes Hillary’s Campaign “Remain Close” with Convicted Serial Child Molester Breaking News By Amy Moreno November 5, 2016
We’ve learned a great deal from the Wikileaks Podesta emails.
From pay to play scams run by the Hillary to vile, nasty name-calling by the campaign chiefs to macabre occult “spirit cooking” ceremonies and the ongoing attempts to hide Hillary’s emails from FBI investigators and the public.
Now, we’re finding out a VERY DISTURBING fact.
John Podesta, Hillary’s CAMPAIGN CHAIR has CLOSE family ties to CONVICTED SERIAL CHILD MOLESTER Denny Hastert .
From Wikipedia…
In the email below, Podesta’s brother mentions Denny, saying he’s remained “CLOSE” to him.
Denny Hastert was a wrestling coach, and he molested the boys on his team and then paid “hush money” to cover it up.
These are the people who the Hillary campaign, and their family members call friends and keep in “close touch with.”
It’s disgusting.
This is why the word is out that the FBI and NYPD are absolutely disgusted by the content of the new Clinton emails being investigated which may involve child sex trafficking. This is a movement – we are the political OUTSIDERS fighting against the FAILED GLOBAL ESTABLISHMENT! Join the resistance and help us fight to put America First! Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
It was Donald J. Trump’s chance to sound contrite and mature, to explain away the sexually predatory boasts he was caught making on tape and to persuade Americans that — for all his braggadocio — he was, in fact, capable of feeling shame. Maura Cotter, 22, a senior at the University of Notre Dame, was shocked at what Mr. Trump did instead in Sunday’s debate: repeat, over and over, that what he had said on the 2005 recording, about forcing himself on women and grabbing their genitals, was simply “ banter. ” It was, Ms. Cotter said, “not an apology — no reason to believe he’s changed at all. ” A classmate, Abigail Wilson, who is a registered Republican, listened closely to Mr. Trump and was reminded, she said, of the time she was groped by a stranger. The Republican nominee, she said soberly, “may not have physically harmed anyone with his words, but he has the power to do so by example. ” Whether they love Mr. Trump or loathe him, many female voters interviewed across the country seemed to watch Sunday’s historically nasty debate through the same inescapable prism: a raunchy recording in which Mr. Trump told of kissing and touching women however he pleased. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he said, loud and clear, on the tape. That is Mr. Trump’s new, agonizing and reality: He may have uttered words about unfair trade deals or threats to national security, but what these voters heard instead was his voice on that searing recording, casually and excitedly explaining that he could sexually assault strangers with impunity. Some said they were so upset by what they had seen — over and over — that they could barely bring themselves to turn on the television and watch him in the debate. Others dismissed the tape as entirely beside the point, a distraction with no bearing on the presidency. “We’re all human,” said Gayle Mason, 73, a retired kindergarten teacher and a Republican in West Covina, Calif. who watched the debate on Fox News over iced tea. “When he becomes president, you’re not going to see stuff like that. ” But on this, the voters interviewed all agreed: The sound of Mr. Trump at his most obscene lingered over Sunday night’s confrontation like an unbudging cloud. Several voters tuned in for the sole purpose of watching Mr. Trump explain his lasciviousness aboard the “Access Hollywood” bus. Joey Elliott, 63, who lives in South Bend, Ind. said she wanted “to see how he tries to squirm out of it. ” From the debate’s opening moments, Mrs. Clinton grabbed hold of the recording and turned it into a rhetorical battering ram. In a measured but firm tone, she seized on Mr. Trump’s claim that the tape did not really represent who he was. “I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it,” she said. “It represents exactly who he is. ” It was a striking and singular tableau: a male candidate for president being asked, by the first woman to share such a stage, to defend crude comments in which he had seemed to reduce her gender to its anatomy. Despite his best efforts, Mr. Trump could not quickly put the issue to rest. A moderator, Anderson Cooper, pressed him about the tape four times, wondering if Mr. Trump understood the gravity of what he had said, and whether he had ever carried out the lewd actions he had described. No, Mr. Trump said. Eventually, the debate moved on. After saying he was sorry but doing little to demonstrate remorse, Mr. Trump instead sought to turn the ugliest phase of his campaign into an attack on Bill Clinton’s past sexual trespasses — by turning Mrs. Clinton into a wife who had abided, aided and abetted her husband’s misdeeds. “There’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women,” Mr. Trump said, minimizing his behavior as language, not actions. “Don’t tell me about words. ” Rarely has gender played such a significant role in a presidential debate. The candidates on the stage, until now, were always men, and discussion of the sexes tended to be perfunctory. But Sunday night was different. Sex was a cudgel, a motif, a backdrop. It was never out of the picture. And the dynamics between the man and the woman onstage played out in powerful and unexpected ways. At one point, Mrs. Clinton deferred to Mr. Trump on a question about the future of President Obama’s signature health legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump tried a moment of male chivalry. “No, I’m a gentleman, Hillary,” Mr. Trump said, with a dramatic sweep of his arm. “Go ahead. ” And with each response, Mrs. Clinton stepped toward voters in the audience, paying little mind to Mr. Trump’s personal space, as if seeking to rattle Mr. Trump merely by being a woman unbound, free to roam where she pleased, as a nation watched. In nearly two dozen interviews conducted in person and by telephone during the debate, women expressed deep reservations about Mr. Trump’s demeanor, interruptions and, above all, the dismissive manner with which he brushed aside the recording in which he casually bragged about assaulting women. Diane Crawford, 62, a resident of Greenfield, Iowa, was struck by how eagerly Mr. Trump sought to change the subject to Mrs. Clinton’s spouse and his infidelities. “He just kept throwing Bill Clinton in there,” she said, “and Bill Clinton is not running for president. ” A skeptic of Mrs. Clinton’s heading into the debate, Ms. Crawford said she had changed her mind during those tense exchanges. “I’m not hesitant any longer to support Hillary,” Ms. Crawford said. “She showed her leadership ability with her response. ” Karyn Sloas, 48, an independent in Knoxville, Tenn. said she had planned to vote for Mr. Trump until she heard about the recording on social media over the weekend. She was repulsed. She thought of the example that Mr. Trump had set for her daughter and her son. “I don’t want him to think it’s O. K. to talk that way,” Ms. Sloas said. The tape was a breaking point for Donna Stevens, too. An independent in suburban Valley Cottage, N. Y. she was leaning toward voting for Mr. Trump. Then she watched the recording. “What he said was appalling,” she said. For Mr. Trump, Sunday night’s early focus on the 2005 tape was the culmination of a remarkable series of provocations against women. His first appearance in a primary debate, in August 2015, had led to a highly public — and deeply sexualized — attack against a woman, Megyn Kelly, when he suggested that Ms. Kelly, a Fox News anchor who was among the moderators, had been menstruating when she asked him tough questions. He went on to mock the appearance of a female rival, Carly Fiorina. And he accused Mrs. Clinton of playing “the woman card” in her primary, suggesting that she expected to prevail simply because of her sex. Now, in the final weeks of the campaign, it is Mr. Trump whose campaign is imperiled by his careless approach to gender. On Sunday, Ms. Sloas in Knoxville waited for Mr. Trump to redeem himself in her eyes, by displaying real regret for his treatment of women on the recording. “He’d have to show true remorse,” she said. “We, and I mean ‘we,’ as in America, would have to see remorse. ” All night, she said, he failed to demonstrate it. “I wanted to hear ‘I was wrong,’” Ms. Sloas said, minutes after the debate had concluded. “I didn’t get that. ” | 1 |
IQUITOS, Peru — Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday reversed parts of a decision to strip the national legislature of its powers, an abrupt shift that came amid mounting domestic and international criticism that the country was edging toward dictatorship. “The decisions of the court have not divested the Parliament of its powers,” Maikel Moreno, the court’s chief judge, said in an address on Saturday afternoon. He said the Supreme Court should not be in conflict with other branches of government “because it is only an arbiter. ” The state television network VTV on Saturday published summaries of the court’s most recent rulings in which the judges said they had “suppressed” parts of an earlier decision to nullify the legislature and allow the court to write laws itself. Judge Moreno said the court had also reversed a decision to strip lawmakers of their immunity from prosecution. The court’s initial ruling, published on Wednesday night, prompted widespread outrage because it removed what most consider to be the last remaining check to President Nicolás Maduro’s growing power, the legislature. The court, packed with judges loyal to Mr. Maduro, is considered to be controlled by the president. Saturday’s decision appeared to have support among top officials in Mr. Maduro’s government. Ernesto Villegas, the information minister, characterized the previous rulings as a mistake when he took to Twitter on Saturday to say that the court was “correcting the rulings. ” But as of late Saturday, the court itself had not published its rulings on its website, leaving it unclear how far the court planned to go in restoring the legislature’s powers, which it has been chipping away at for more than a year. Margarita López Maya, a Venezuelan political scientist, said the court appeared to consider the legislature to be in contempt, meaning that it might not be able to pass laws, even if the court agreed not to take over its legislative powers. The court has also spent the past year overturning major decisions made by the chamber, Ms. López said, including a law granting amnesty to political prisoners and moves to block the president from expanding his power over the economy. That stalemate, she added, seemed unlikely to change. “It’s like a chess game where you just moved one pawn,” she said. Enrique Sánchez Falcón, a Venezuelan constitutional expert, said he also believed that the court would continue to consider the legislature to be in contempt of the law and questioned whether it was even legal for its earlier decision to be revised. But the series of events had done damage to the rule of law in Venezuela, he said. “The constitutional order of Venezuela has been completely fractured,” he said. On Saturday, the Venezuelan opposition showed no signs that it would accept the court’s reversal as evidence that a respect for democratic principles had been restored. Several thousand protesters gathered in the streets in a show of support for the National Assembly. Witnesses said that security forces dispersed by firing tear gas canisters, which injured at least two lawmakers who had joined the protest. The court’s initial decision also revealed dissent within Mr. Maduro’s movement that could reflect limits on his march toward rule. Chief among them was Luisa Ortega, the attorney general, who on Friday issued a dramatic rebuke to the president, holding a news conference in which she said that the rulings violated the inclusive spirit of Venezuela’s laws. The decision by the court represented “a rupture in the constitutional order,” Ms. Ortega said. Ms. Ortega, a longtime follower of Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, has remained loyal to Mr. Maduro. But she emerged as a leading critic when she spoke out against a massacre of civilians by the military in the Barlovento region, outside Caracas, in October. Américo Martí, a Venezuelan lawyer and leftist leader, said that Ms. Ortega’s dissent represented a “kind of democratic reaction within Chavismo and a reflection of the international and national pressure” the movement was facing. The court’s decision generated condemnation outside Venezuela as well, with critics saying that the country had become a dictatorship in all but name. Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, a regional body that aims to promote democracy, trade, and economic and social development, called the move a “ coup,” while the United States and other countries condemned the decision as eroding the country’s democracy. “What we have warned of has finally come to pass,” said Mr. Almagro, who has spent much of the past year chastising the government, even accusing Mr. Maduro of aiming to become a “petty dictator. ” Critics say the court’s assault on the legislature is part of a longer slide away from democracy that has come as the government’s popularity has declined amid the worst economic crisis in recent memory. Falling oil prices and years of economic mismanagement have left many Venezuelans facing shortages of food and basic medicines, setting off widespread protests. The government is holding at least 114 political prisoners, according to Penal Forum, a human rights group. Local elections that were to have been held last year have been postponed. | 1 |
THE HAGUE — Elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday are being watched especially closely across Europe and beyond as a key gauge of whether formerly strong barriers to the far right still stand on a continent with painful memories of fascism, but also with a growing number of aspiring nationalist leaders. The Dutch vote is the first of several critical European elections this year, to be followed by those in France, Germany and possibly Italy. A common thread in the campaigns has been attacks on the European Union for diluting sovereignty, opening borders to migrants and leaving nations vulnerable to terrorism. “These are the quarterfinals in trying to prevent the wrong sort of populism from winning,” Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister and leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, said of the Dutch election. “The half finals are in France in April and May and in September in Germany, we have the finals,” he said. Almost everywhere populist parties have risen with nationalist calls to stem immigration to secure and preserve local cultures. The question now is whether the populists will maintain their momentum or be blunted by a newfound hesitancy among voters. Even as support for centrist parties craters nearly everywhere, some analysts see new hints of wariness of the protest and votes that aided the rise of recent populist politicians, given the uncertainty and conflict ushered in by the first weeks of the Trump administration and the British vote last year to exit the European Union, or Brexit. Hajo Funke, a political scientist at the Free University in Berlin, said he had detected early signs in the past several weeks of a backlash against populism. In Germany, for example, the Alternative for Germany party has slipped in the polls. Mr. Funke said he thought that voters in Europe were looking at Brexit and the Trump presidency not as points of inspiration, but rather with deep concern. “There is no Trump effect,” he said. “Nothing happened. ” On the current moment for populist parties, he said, “I see stagnation, or decline. ” In the Netherlands, Mr. Funke noted, Geert Wilders, one of the most stridently politicians in Europe, has struggled to improve his standing in recent weeks after climbing quickly in the polls. “There is a danger that it can go out of control, as far as the voting for Wilders,” he said, “but I doubt that will be the case. ” Even if populists like Mr. Wilders do not prevail, other analysts said, their high profiles and often inflammatory presence had moved much of the political debate to the far right’s turf. The battle in many ways is already won. “Since the entrance of Geert Wilders into the political arena, he hasn’t had any office but he has exerted influence,” said Bert Bakker, a communications professor at the University of Amsterdam. Discussions in the Netherlands now often center on restrictions on immigrants, identity politics and nationalism. Professors, pollsters and others who closely watch elections emphasize that, at least in the Netherlands, the far right is not going to win or control the government — or even come close — not least because the other parties have promised publicly not to work with Mr. Wilders in a coalition. That has not stopped them from adopting somewhat milder versions of the far right’s positions on many issues. One result is that the far right’s views have dominated the debate, crowding out other views and issues. “Even if these parties are not actually winning or part of the government, everything is moving to a more stance, more to try to win voters who are the losers in globalization,” said Jasper Muis, a professor of sociology at the Free University of Amsterdam, who studies populism. “Immigration and asylum seekers become the focus on the one hand and values and norms on the others,” he said, “but not much is said about economic development or employment and that’s a part of the success story of the populist right: that they’ve been able to make it difficult to talk about other subjects. ” In the most optimistic outlooks, Mr. Wilders, who heads the Freedom Party, will get about 15 percent of the vote. Even if his votes were combined with those of other and parties, the combined number of likely seats in the Parliament would not exceed about 30, or 20 percent of the Parliament. However, the Christian Democratic Appeal party is promoting a line almost as conservative on immigration as that of Mr. Wilders, a change from its more moderate position of several years ago. That party now looks likely to win about as many seats as Mr. Wilders, and if the mainstream right’s seats are added to that, the and parties would have a majority. Even if the right has dominated the campaign, the reality is that the Netherlands is deeply divided and its centrist parties are losing ground in an increasingly fractured political landscape. There are 28 parties on the ballot. Only between 10 and 12 will get enough votes to win a seat in Parliament. There are still likely to be four or five parties in the governing coalition — all but guaranteeing it will include both and parties. For that reason some experienced observers of European politics say the rightward drift by the Dutch may be more important as a harbinger of trends on the Continent than for its practical impact. Some analysts are far more worried about the French vote, because the leader of the National Front, the presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, has a bloc of voters that is much more solidified behind her. “The bloc for Le Pen is very consistent, which is different than the other populists,” said Mr. Funke of the Free University in Berlin. An even greater concern may be Italy, where the populist Five Star party and the Northern League could win if elections are held, in part on a platform proposing a referendum on whether Italy should continue to use the euro. That could trigger a loss of confidence by foreign investors and capital flight from the Continent. “Italy is potentially the worst case because if they are forced by election results to have a euro referendum,” Mr. Funke said, “then there would be a big danger. ” | 1 |
Most people say “I’m sorry” many times a day for a host of trivial affronts — accidentally bumping into someone or failing to hold open a door. These apologies are easy and usually readily accepted, often with a response like, “No problem. ” But when “I’m sorry” are the words needed to right truly hurtful words, acts or inaction, they can be the hardest ones to utter. And even when an apology is offered with the best of intentions, it can be seriously undermined by the way in which it is worded. Instead of eradicating the emotional pain the affront caused, a poorly worded apology can result in lasting anger and antagonism, and undermine an important relationship. I admit to a lifetime of challenges when it comes to apologizing, especially when I thought I was right or misunderstood or that the offended party was being overly sensitive. But I recently discovered that the need for an apology is less about me than the person who, for whatever reason, is offended by something I said or did or failed to do, regardless of my intentions. I also learned that a sincere apology can be powerful medicine with surprising value for the giver as well as the recipient. After learning that a neighbor who had assaulted me verbally was furious about an oversight I had not known I committed, I wrote a letter in hopes of defusing the hostility. Without offering any excuses, I apologized for my lapse in etiquette and respect. I said I was not asking for or expecting forgiveness, merely that I hoped we could have a civil, if not friendly, relationship going forward, then delivered the letter with a jar of my homemade jam. Expecting nothing in return, I was greatly relieved when my doorbell rang and the neighbor thanked me warmly for what I had said and done. My relief was palpable. I felt as if I’d not only discarded an enemy but made a new friend, which is indeed how it played out in the days that followed. About a week later I learned that, according to the psychologist and author Harriet Lerner, the wording of my apology was just what the “doctor” would have ordered. In the very first chapter of her new book, “Why Won’t You Apologize? ,” Dr. Lerner points out that apologies followed by rationalizations are “never satisfying” and can even be harmful. “When ‘but’ is tagged on to an apology,” she wrote, it’s an excuse that counters the sincerity of the original message. The best apologies are short and don’t include explanations that can undo them. Nor should a request for forgiveness be part of an apology. The offended party may accept a sincere apology but still be unready to forgive the transgression. Forgiveness, should it come, may depend on a demonstration going forward that the offense will not be repeated. “It’s not our place to tell anyone to forgive or not to forgive,” Dr. Lerner said in an interview. She disputes popular thinking that failing to forgive is bad for one’s health and can lead to a life mired in bitterness and hate. “There is no one path to healing,” she said. “There are many roads to letting go of corrosive emotions without forgiving, like therapy, meditation, medication, even swimming. ” Hardest of all, Dr. Lerner said, is to forgive a nonapologetic offender, like my aunt whom I had loved dearly and who served as my second mother after mine died. But when I, raised Jewish, married a Christian, she refused to come to the wedding and never apologized for the intense hurt her absence had caused. Although I made several attempts to restore the relationship, she always managed to deflect them, and to this day, more than half a century later, I cannot forgive her. The focus of an apology should be on what the offender has said or done, not on the person’s reaction to it. Saying “I’m sorry you feel that way” shifts the focus away from the person who is supposedly apologizing and turns “I’m sorry” into “I’m not really sorry at all,” the psychologist wrote. As to why many people find it hard to offer a sincere, unfettered apology, Dr. Lerner pointed out that “humans are for defensiveness. It’s very difficult to take direct, unequivocal responsibility for our hurtful actions. It takes a great deal of maturity to put a relationship or another person before our need to be right. ” Offering an apology is an admission of guilt that admittedly leaves people vulnerable. There’s no guarantee as to how it will be received. It is the prerogative of the injured party to reject an apology, even when sincerely offered. The person may feel the offense was so enormous — for example, having been sexually abused by a parent — that it is impossible to accept a mea culpa offered by the abusive parent years later. Righting a perceived wrong can be especially challenging when it involves family members, who may be inclined to cite history — he was abused by his father, or she was raised by a distant mother — as an excuse for hurtful behavior. “History can be used as an explanation, not an excuse,” the psychologist said. “It should involve a conversation that allows the hurt party to express anger and pain if an apology, however sincere, is to heal a broken connection. ” As she wrote: “Nondefensive listening [to the hurt party] is at the heart of offering a sincere apology. ” She urges the listener not to “interrupt, argue, refute, or correct facts, or bring up your own criticisms and complaints. ” Even when the offended party is largely at fault, she suggests apologizing for one’s own part in the incident, however small it may be. Dr. Lerner views apology as “central to health, both physical and emotional. ‘I’m sorry’ are the two most healing words in the English language,” she said. “The courage to apologize wisely and well is not just a gift to the injured person, who can then feel soothed and released from obsessive recriminations, bitterness and corrosive anger. It’s also a gift to one’s own health, bestowing integrity and maturity — an ability to take a cleareyed look at how our behavior affects others and to assume responsibility for acting at another person’s expense. ” Beverly Engel, the author of “The Power of Apology,” relates how her life was changed by a sincere, effective apology from her mother for years of emotional abuse. “Almost like magic,” she wrote, “apology has the power to repair harm, mend relationships, soothe wounds and heal broken hearts. An apology actually affects the bodily functions of the person receiving it — blood pressure decreases, heart rate slows and breathing becomes steadier. ” | 1 |
安理会28日会议2016年十月
俄罗斯总统观注 伏尔泰网 | 纽约（美国） | 2016年10月27日 français English Español русский عربي 联合国与区域及次区域组织在维持国际和平与安全方面的合作：集体安全条约组织、上海合作组织和独立国家联合体 俄罗斯联邦计划在2016年10月28日就“联合国与区域及次区域组织在维持国际和平与安全方面的合作：集体安全条约组织、上海合作组织和独立国家联合体”专题举行一次辩论，作为俄国担任安全理事会主席期间的一项中心工作。
鉴于当代挑战和威胁的全球性质，要制定采取有效对策所需的集体办法，就必须在维持和平与安全方面，加强联合国与区域和次区域组织的合作。
就联合国而言，这主要是其普遍性的一种反映，从联合国组织成员的普遍性及其工作的普遍性来看，都市如此；而且也是其国际公认的合法性的体现。另一方面，区域组织对其责任领域的情况往往有更好的认识，在许多情况下，他们都设有适应当地现实情况的预防机制及维和机制。在这方面，区域组织的活动要以寻求新冲突的和平、政治解决为方向。
正是在此背景下，同联合国主要区域伙伴进行正常协调以处理维持国际和平与安全问题，才具有高度的相关性。例如，安全理事会定期举行会议，讨论与非洲联盟、欧洲安全与合作组织和欧洲联盟合作事宜。近年来，对与阿拉伯国家联盟、东南亚国家联盟、南美洲国家联盟和其它区域行动者合作的情况，进行过审查。
众所周知，联合国组织同其区域伙伴之间的合作涉及日益广泛的问题。有关方面努力遏制大规模毁灭性武器的扩散和小武器的轻武器的非法流动，打击网络恐怖主义和非法移徙现象，——在所有这些领域，上述组织与联合国之间的合作势头日益增强；此种努力补充了维持和平和建设和平的目标。就在幅员广大的欧亚大陆(尤其是中亚区域)维持和平稳定而言，这一点至关重要。
正是在此领域，有三个相对年轻的组织，集体安全条约组织、上海合作组织和独立国家联合体(独联体)，在从东欧直至远东的广袤区域开展工作。这些组织正在世界上发挥其政治影响，对加强区域安全和国际安全作出重大贡献。
辩论将侧重于集体安全条约组织、上海合作组织和独联体对消除该区域和平与安全面临的威胁所作的贡献，包括反恐、打击贩毒和有组织犯罪。此项活动还提供了一个机会，可以在此确认这三个组织对同联合国(包括其中亚地区预防外交中心)切实合作的承诺。
集体安全条约组织是多层面结构，能对其成员国可能面临的当代广泛的挑战和威胁作出坚定回应。就此而言，联合国与集体安全条约组织在维和方面加强合作的潜力还很大。在集体安全条约组织内部，目前正在加紧工作，发展其自身维和能力，包括可能提供给联合国维和行动的能力。同时，集体安全条约组织正在积极促进帮助阿富汗进行冲突后重建以及消除来自该国的毒品威胁的国际努力。
该组织与联合国的关系在许多领域都得到成功的发展：反恐和打击贩毒、维持和平以及控制有组织犯罪。集体安全条约组织与联合国专门机构(包括安全理事会反恐怖主义委员会和联合国毒品和犯罪问题办公室)维持并发展有益的关系。
大会每两年就联合国与集体安全条约组织之间的合作通过一份决议。计划将在第七十一届会议审议题为“联合国同各区域组织及其他组织的合作”的议程项目范畴内，就此专题通过一份决议。
2010年，联合国秘书处与上海合作组织秘书处签署关于双方合作的联合声明，为两组织按照《联合国宪章》第八章就国际和平与安全问题开展合作提供了法律框架。目前，上海合作组织与联合国在下列领域开展积极合作：预防和解决冲突、反恐(为此目的，上海合作组织内的区域反恐结构正在运作)、不扩散大规模毁灭性武器、打击跨国犯罪、非法贩运毒品以及确保国际信息安全。
在此范畴内，上海合作组织积极支持国际社会和联合国机构努力恢复阿富汗和平，并一贯主张联合国在解决阿富汗问题进程中发挥关键的协调作用。
合作确保安全以及应对当代的挑战和威胁，一直是，并将继续是，独联体成员国之间开展专题合作的优先领域之一。
同国际组织开展建设性合作，也是积极消除新出现的威胁方面的关键因素。独联体国家加入了有关确保安全、裁军和消除当代挑战和威胁的所有最重要的国际文书，并正为实施此类文书作出重大贡献。
考虑到联合国的关键作用，考虑到必须与其他国际机构及其专门机构(反恐怖主义委员会、联合国毒品和犯罪问题办公室、国际刑事警察组织、国际移徙组织、联合国难民事务高级专员公署和反洗钱金融行动任务组)发展建设性伙伴关系，目前正在采取联合措施。
联合国与集体安全条约组织、上海合作组织和独联体在《联合国宪章》第八章基础上进一步加强和加深合作，在推进联合国组织各项目标方面正在发挥建设性作用，包括应对当代的挑战和威胁。一方面，这些区域组织应当积极作好准备，发挥自身潜力，维护联合国利益。另一方面，对于加大联合国与这些组织的协调与合作，联合国本身应继续给予必要重视，同时应坚持联合国及安全理事会的特权。
在此背景下，我们谨建议会员国就如何利用现有区域机制加强欧亚区域安全，提出自己的观点。很显然，该次区域的稳定将是欧亚各国经济增长和国家建设的基础，因此，我们欢迎各国代表团提出看法，包括通过安全与发展相结合这样做。我们坚信，在这里，在具有普遍合法性的联合国，我们将能够为处理稳定弱势区域的问题，集体提出创新办法，嗣后可推广到安全理事会重点关注的世界其他地区。
在辩论期间，联合国秘书长潘基文、集体安全条约组织秘书长博尔久扎、上海合作组织秘书长阿利莫夫以及独联体执行委员会副主席伊凡诺夫将发表讲话。我们也邀请上述区域组织成员国和其他有关国家的代表参加此次会议。 | 0 |
Breaking! Google & Youtube Caught Censoring Bill Clinton’s Son Danney William's YouTube channel goes does days before election Infowars.com
The YouTube channel of Danney Williams, the reported “son” of Bill Clinton, was taken offline Wednesday without explanation.
Infowars reached out to Williams via cell phone to learn the details on why he believes his channel was removed.
Williams recently joined the Alex Jones Show for an exclusive sit-down interview to reveal his past and current mission to reach his father.
In a second exclusive interview Williams also revealed his views on Hillary Clinton and why he thinks she is keeping him away from his father. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP | 0 |
Guest Guest | 0 |
BNI Store Nov 6 2016 GERMANY: Bigger than the Berlin Wall, the 12-foot-high ‘Munich Wall’ is being constructed to protect local residents from illegal alien Muslim invaders Locals campaigned for the wall, in the suburb of Neuperlach Süd, after authorities decided that some 160 young (up to age 40) unaccompanied Muslim illegals will move into a large shelter which is less than 100 metres from a residential estate. UK Daily Mail Critics say the wall is further proof of the alienation voters feel with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy. Deputy District Chairman Guido Bucholtz, said: ‘I was frightened when I saw this monster of a wall.’ (Not as frightened as Germans are of the Muslim invaders) He added that he thinks the wall is too high as another similar structure designed to fence off a migrant camp was just three metres high. He said: ‘This whole propaganda really sucks.’ (Yeah, I guess you don’t like it when people find out you’ve been lying to them) However residents from the neighbouring housing development from the asylum centre went to court to get the wall built. One of their arguments for the wall was the fear that the value of their homes would plummet if there was nothing to separate them from the refugees who could be there for years to come. Local residents said they are fearful of the ‘noise and behaviour’ of the Muslim thugs. The judge of the Administrative Court in Munich confirmed the wall in a judgment – noted that the migrants should not use if for ‘ball throwing games’ or other ‘leisure use’. The fact that it is higher than the Berlin Wall of the Cold War is not lost on locals and officials. But engineers said it had to be that high to provide an effective sound insulation. The wall is nearly finished. Locals say they do not care about how it looks; only that it will separate them from the unaccompanied Muslim freeloaders, rapists and jihadists who have often been at the centre of friction with locals in other German towns. | 0 |
Kris Kristofferson’s “Dementia” Turned out to Be Something Completely Different…
Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system.
Songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson has Lyme disease. While this isn’t necessarily good news, it’s new news because for years he was told he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia.
For years Kristofferson, 79, was misdiagnosed, his doctors assuming his issues stemmed from Alzheimer’s or dementia. Thankfully, earlier this year someone finally did a test and it came back positive.
His wife Lisa remembers him taking medications for things he didn’t have, and dealing with all the side effects, but after just three weeks of Lyme treatment, he was back. There are still some down days, but for the most part, he’s his old self.
Lyme disease is caused by the bite of an infected blacklegged or deer tick. If the tick is a lyme carrier and the bite is left untreated, it can eventually cause a host of debilitating symptoms, weeks or months later. While the disease may reveal itself within 30 days as a characteristic “bull’s-eye” rash, some people never get a rash.
Most bites come from the immature form of the tick- the nymph- which is about the size of a poppy seed, so the bite can easily go unnoticed. Someone who has been bitten may experience one or more of the following: Severe headaches Additional rashes on other parts of the body Arthritis with severe joint pain and swelling, often in the knees Facial or Bell’s palsy Muscle and joint pain that comes and goes Heart palpitations or an irregular heartbeat (Lyme carditis) Dizziness or shortness of breath Nerve pain Shooting pains, numbness, or tingling in the hands or feet Problems with short-term memory
And, even after months or years of infection, other cognitive problems can occur: problems remembering names or words slowed thinking “brain fog” difficulty following conversations
Perhaps this is why doctors assumed Kristofferson was suffering from dementia, the symptoms are similar. However, many patients say that their doctors pay little attention to their persisting symptoms and often either assume it’s something else or brush it off.
But it’s time to stop pretending that Lyme disease isn’t the major health threat the government has labeled it. According to the CDC, about 300,000 people a year are diagnosed with Lyme disease.
The medical establishment has been at odds for years. There is strong disagreement about how reliable current testing methods are and even if it should be called a lasting illness.
From the Next Avenue article:
“The term ‘chronic Lyme disease’ (CLD) has been used to describe people with different illnesses,” the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says on its website. “While the term is sometimes used to describe illness in patients with Lyme disease, in many occasions it has been used to describe symptoms in people who have no evidence of a current or past infection with [the Lyme bacterium].
The best way to prevent Lyme is to keep from getting bitten. Avoid wooded areas with a lot of brush, high grass, and leaf litter. When you go off trail (if you must) use bug repellent on exposed skin and clothes and ALWAYS check yourself and your loved ones as soon as you get done.
Don’t forget that your pets can also bring them inside so make sure to protect them too. If you use traditional methods, your vet can prescribe something but lavender and geranium oil are also good, natural deterrents for ticks.
Again, you can have fun outside where the ticks are. Just remember to very carefully inspect yourself for ticks after hiking, camping or being in the backyard if it’s close to a wooded area. | 0 |
LONDON — Black activists, responding to calls for a nationwide protest against racial injustice, staged demonstrations in London and several other cities across Britain on Friday, in their boldest show of support to date for the emerging Black Lives Matter movement here. Black Lives Matter U. K. had called for a nationwide “shutdown” to protest an array of injustices, including police brutality racial disparities in arrests, convictions and sentencing the treatment of immigrants in detention inadequate mental health services and a reported increase in hate crimes since Britain’s decision, in a June 23 referendum, to leave the European Union. “We are here because we have no choice,” Wail Qasim, an activist and journalist who took part in a protest near Heathrow Airport, which serves London, wrote on Twitter. “We are here because this is a crisis. ” The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in the United States in 2013, has spread to several countries, including Britain, Canada and France. On Friday morning, activists unfurled a giant banner and lay down on an access road near Heathrow, bringing traffic to a standstill for several hours. The police arrested 10 people. Five more people were arrested in Birmingham, Britain’s populous city, after blocking traffic leading to the airport. Four activists were arrested in Nottingham, a city of more than 300, 000 in the Midlands, after protesters blocked trams and buses by lying down in front of the Theatre Royal. The demonstrations were peaceful but powerful in several cases, the authorities had to use special equipment to cut through the tubes the protesters had used to link their arms. The demonstrations were timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary, on Thursday, of the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a unarmed black man, in the Tottenham section of London. His death touched off riots in poorer sections of the capital, as well as in cities including Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool. In January 2014, an inquest jury found that the killing of Mr. Duggan had been justified, finding it more likely than not that he had tossed a firearm from a taxi shortly before he was shot. But in October, a judge granted Mr. Duggan’s family the right to appeal those findings. The 2011 riots echoed disturbances that shook the Brixton neighborhood of London no fewer than three times — in 1981, 1985 and 1995 — in response to anger at police treatment of black residents. The activists have been upset by three recent deaths of black Britons: Mzee Mohammed, 18, who died last month after he was arrested in Liverpool Sarah Reed, a with a history of mental illness, who died in a jail in North London in January and had previously been the victim of police brutality and Jermaine Baker, 28, who was fatally shot by the police in North London in December, after he tried to free a convict from a police van. “In the U. K. we have exactly the same problems as in America, but in America they’re far worse,” Kehinde Andrews, an associate professor of sociology and head of the black studies program at Birmingham City University, said in a phone interview. “You’re three times more likely to be killed by the police if you’re black, but the police don’t kill that many people in Britain in general. ” So far this year, the police in Britain have shot and killed two people, compared with 571 in the United States. Britain has the largest prison population in Western Europe, and blacks are overrepresented. But even so, the incarceration rate is far lower than in the United States. Gun violence is also relatively rare in Britain handguns were effectively prohibited after a 1996 massacre at a school in Scotland. Most police officers in the country do not carry guns. Because deadly encounters with the police are fairly rare, activists in Britain have tended to focus more on the treatment of black people in custody, like Sean Rigg, a musician who had schizophrenia and who died in a police station in Brixton in 2008 and Kingsley Burrell, a student who died in police custody in Birmingham in 2011. Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated in London last month after the police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. When she took office as Britain’s prime minister on July 13, Theresa May pledged to fight “burning injustice” and to “make Britain a country that works for everyone,” noting that “if you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white. ” In her previous position, as home secretary, Ms. May reduced the prevalence of “stop and search” (what Americans call “stop and frisk”) a policing practice that she denounced as ineffective and unjust, saying that people were often subject to scrutiny on no other basis than their skin color. But Gus John, a black educator and activist who immigrated to Britain from Grenada as a young man, described Ms. May’s speech as “a bit rich,” noting that she was in charge of domestic security and policing when Mr. Duggan died. “If society tacitly endorses racial injustice, and doesn’t see the matter as one that faces the country as a whole but simply as episodes that the black community has got to deal with, it is not just legitimate but necessary to take the struggle to them,” Mr. John said, adding that he “absolutely” supported the protests. Blacks account for about 3 percent of Britain’s population, compared with nearly 13 percent in the United States. While people of African origin have lived in Britain for centuries, black migration began with people from the Caribbean after World War II, followed by an influx from former British colonies in Africa, especially Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. | 1 |
Two English bishops have hit out after the government’s top advisor on integration said it was “not OK” for Catholic schools to oppose gay marriage. [The Catholic bishops of Portsmouth and Shrewsbury said it was becoming increasingly difficult to pass on traditional teaching in Britain, and that Christian values are facing discrimination. Earlier this week, Dame Louise Casey, the British government’s senior advisor on integration told MPs: “It is not OK for Catholic schools to be homophobic and marriage,” adding: “I have a problem with the expression of religious conservatism because I think often it can be . ” Philip Egan, the Bishop of Portsmouth, said any restrictions on Catholic schools passing on Church teaching would by worthy of George Orwell’s Nineteen . He told Catholic News Service that trying to preach on traditional sexual morality in Britain has become “like arguing with an alcoholic”. “After a while, they won’t argue with you on grounds of reason, they just become furious and respond that way. There is something in our culture increasingly like that,” the bishop said. Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury also said that Britain’s values had been shaped by its Christian heritage. “These values would be undermined if an ‘equalities agenda’ in schools became the vehicle for an increasing intolerance of Christian teaching,” he said. “Strangely, it is the historic teachings of Christianity and the Christian vision of marriage which might be in need of toleration,” Bishop Davies added. He said the Catholic Church would benefit from a new papal document on anthropology to clarify Church teaching and counter the rise of gender ideology. In November, Dutch cardinal Willem Eijk called on the Pope to issue a document condemning gender ideology, saying many Catholics were being “misled” into believing people could choose their own genders, partly because “they don’t hear anything else”. “[Gender theory] is spreading and spreading everywhere in the Western world, and we have to warn people,” he said. “From the point of moral theology, it’s clear — you are not allowed to change your sex in this way. ” | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. He has a Pulitzer, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Grammy, Academy and Golden Globe Awards. He was inducted into the Rock Roll Hall of Fame decades ago. And now, Bob Dylan adds a Nobel Prize to that list. The songwriter and musician was honored in the literature category, a distinction that set off intense debate on social media. Our music critic had one question: “What took them so long?” ____ 2. Donald Trump counterattacked after several women came forward with accounts of his sexual aggression, singling out The Times for publishing what he called “false smears. ” Here’s what our lawyer had to say about that. Hillary Clinton will be off the campaign trail for days, letting the furor over Mr. Trump play out in a race tilting in her favor. Michelle Obama, the first lady, sharply criticized Mr. Trump in a speech, saying in a voice that shook with emotion that his lewd comments about women were “disgraceful” and “intolerable. ” ____ 3. An American warship fired “limited, ” cruise missiles at Yemen, where Houthi rebels are fighting the government. The Pentagon said insurgents had fired two missiles at another American warship in the area in recent days. It was the first time the U. S. had become directly involved in the conflict. ____ 4. The train that smashed through a station in Hoboken, N. J. last month drew attention to a railroad that has been deteriorating in recent years. Despite booming ridership, New Jersey Transit’s finances have suffered during Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. New Jersey Transit hasn’t had a permanent leader for nearly a year, nor a public meeting in months, and it was fined for several violations during a recent audit. Another headache for Mr. Christie: A judge allowed a criminal complaint accusing him of misconduct in the bridge scandal to move forward. ____ 5. The Nigerian government said 21 of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram two years ago had been freed. They were among nearly 300 students kidnapped from a school in the town of Chibok, sparking an international campaign using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Most of the girls are still missing, believed to be held in remote areas controlled by the militant group. ____ 6. An autopsy requested by the family of Keith Lamont Scott, whose fatal shooting by the police last month prompted days of protests in Charlotte, N. C. showed that he died from gunshot wounds to the back and the abdomen. The county medical examiner’s office has not yet released the results of its own autopsy. Four cameras recorded his death, but none clearly show whether he was holding a gun. We did a analysis to create a reconstruction of the moments before and after the shooting. ____ 7. Demand for pastry chefs is soaring, but salaries are stagnant. Our financial columnist says restaurants are simply hiring younger people with less training, a dynamic at work in other U. S. industries, too. Above, Emily Spurlin, at work at a “ ” restaurant in Chicago’s West Loop. ____ 8. Hyperrealistic video games like the FIFA series and Pro Evolution Soccer are changing the way soccer is played. Many professional players are obsessed with the versions of their jobs, and use them to study the moves and strategies of famous players. FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, is expected to decide in January whether to expand the World Cup finals from a tournament to include as many as 48 countries. ____ 9. #thisis2016. Reactions are pouring in after an open letter from a Times editor to the woman who yelled “Go back to China!” at his family on the street. In the video above, recount their experiences with racism. One man was once asked, “Is your peripheral vision as good as mine, or better? ’Cause, you know, your eyes. ” ____ 10. Finally, a reader asked if eating fish is good for us just because it replaces red meat. There are other reasons, like: vitamins A, D and B, a host of minerals and protein that is lean and . Fish is also low in saturated fat and cholesterol, but high in fatty acids. Happy eating. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Zero Hedge October 28, 2016
Moments ago, Russian president started speaking at the final session of the Valdai International Discussion Club’s 13th annual meeting in Sochi. More than 130 experts and political analysts from Russia and other countries are taking part in this year’s three-day meeting, titled ‘The Future in Progress: Shaping the World of Tomorrow’.
While Putin’s speech can be seen below, he has already had a handful of soundbites, most notably the following he just said in response to accusations that Russia could influence the US election:
“Hysteria has been whipped up in the United States about the influence of Russia over the U.S. presidential election,” said Putin, calling it a ruse to cover up for the fact that the U.S. political elite had nothing to say about serious issues such as the country’s national debt or gun control.
“It’s much simpler to distract people with so-called Russian hackers, spies, and agents of influence. Does anyone really think that Russia could influence the American people’s choice in any way? The number of mythical, dreamt-up problems include the hysteria – I can’t think of another word – that has broken out in the United States about the influence of Russia on the current elections for the US president.”
He ended that phrase as follows: “What, is America a banana republic?!” Putin mocks claim that Russia is trying to influence the US elections: “What, is America a banana republic? America is a great power”
— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) October 27, 2016
And then, to emphasize his trolling, added the following: “correct me if I am wrong.”
He also said that “Russia has no intention of attacking anyone, it is ridiculous, foolish and unthinkable. I read your analytical materials prepared not only by those present but also by analysts in the US and Europe. However, it is just unthinkable, silly and unrealistic. In Europe alone, the combined population of NATO countries stands at 300 million, in the US the total population is, probably, 600 million, while in Russia – 146 million. It is just funny to talk about this.”
According to the Russian president, contradictions stemming from redistribution of political power are growing.
“Regrettably, next to nothing has changed for the better in the past months. To be frank, nothing has changed. Contradictions stemming from redistribution of economic power and political influence are only growing,” Putin said.
Hence, according to the Russian leader, the burden of mutual mistrust is limiting possibilities to stand to real challenges and real threats facing the world community. “As a matter of fact, the entire globalization project has turned to be a crisis and voices in Europe are speaking (and we know and hear it well) about the failure of the policy of multiculturalism,” Putin said, adding that this situation is a consequence of a wrong, hasty and somewhat arrogant choice made by Europe’s political elites some twenty-five years ago.
“Back then, at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, there was a chance not only to spur globalization processes but to give them a qualitatively new, harmonious and sustainable character,” the Russian leader said.
He drew attention to the fact that the countries that claimed to be the winners in the Cold War began to reshape the global political and economic order in their own interests.
These states, in his words, embarked on a path of “globalization and security for themselves only, but not for all.” But not all agreed on that.Some could not resist that any longer whereas others were not yet ready, so, no wonder the system of international relations has been feverish and the global economy is failing to recover from the crisis, Putin added.
On globalization
The Russian president stressed globalization should be for all but not only for the select few.
“Obviously, the global community must focus on really topical problems facing the entire humankind, the solution of which will make the world a safer and more stable place and the system of international relations equal and fair,” Putin said.
He said such an approach will make it possible to “make the globalization for the select few turn into globalization for all.”
“I am confident that it is possible to overcome any challenges and threats only together,” Putin stressed.
On Global Propaganda
The president said he regrets that Moscow does not possess such global propaganda techniques as Washington does.
“I would like to have such a propaganda machine in Russia. But, unfortunately, I don’t. We have no such global media as CNN, BBC and some others. We have no such opportunities so far,” Putin said at a session of the Valdai Discussion Club.
On the world economy
The president expects the trend towards regionalization of the world economy will continue. It is absolutely evident that economic cooperation must be mutually advantageous and be based on general universal principles so that each state could become a full-fledged participant in the global economic life,” Putin said.
“In the mid-term prospect, the tendency towards regionalization of the global economy will apparently continue, but regional trade agreements should complement, develop, and not substitute universal norms and rules,” the president said.
The global economy is unable to get out of the current systemic crisis and the political and economic principles continue to be reshuffled, Putin stressed.
“The system of international relations remains feverish. The global economy is unable to get out of the systemic crisis. The principles and rules in politics and the economy continue to be reshuffled. Quite often dogmas that until recently had been regarded as fundamentally true are turned inside out,” Putin said.
These days, he said, whenever the powers that be find some standards or rules beneficial, they force everybody else to obey them. However, if at a certain point the very same standards begin to pose obstructions, they are at once sent into the dustbin as outdated and new rules are established.
As an example of that strategy Putin mentioned the missile and bombing strikes against Belgrade and Iraq, then against Libya and Afghanistan. The operation began without a corresponding resolution by the UN Security Council. Some superpowers, the Russian leader said, in their attempts to change the strategic balance of force in their favor have torn down the international legal regime that prohibited the deployment of new missile defense systems. They have created and armed international terrorist groups, whose cruelty is now pushing millions of migrants out of the unsafe areas.
Whole countries are being plunged into chaos. The principles of free trade are trampled on and sanctions are used to exert political pressures.
“We can see the freedom of trade being sacrificed and so-called sanctions being used for exerting political pressures. In bypass of the World Trade Organizations attempts are being made to form closed economic alliances living by harsh rules and putting up firm barriers alliances where dome
On NATO
He said that NATO has outlived its usefulness as a structure and on the topic of the escalating proxy war in Syria, Putin had a simple comment: “Our agreements with the US on Syria did not work out.”
And some more headlines from his pragmatic remarks: RUSSIA’S PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN MILITARY THREAT BEING EXAGGERATED TO JUSTIFY MILITARY SPENDING RUSSIA’S PUTIN SAYS CYBER ATTACKS OR OTHER TYPES OF INTERFERENCE INTO OTHER COUNTRIES’ AFFAIRS UNACCEPTABLE RUSSIA’S PUTIN SAYS DONALD TRUMP BEHAVES EXTRAVAGANTLY , BUT IT IS FOR A REASON
Follow Putin’s speech live below. | 0 |
During the 3 rd presidential debate Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton laughably claimed that self-made billionaire, Donald Trump —a political outsider—was a puppet, rather than herself:
“He'd [Vladimir Putin] rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”
“No puppet, no puppet… You're the puppet,” was Mr. Trump's honest reply.
Excuse me, but which scandal-embroiled candidate made a dirty U.S. uranium deal with Russia? Which same one blatantly broke American law and fostered potential espionage? As with everything two-faced Hillary says, the truth opposes her own words and deeds. Via Charity-gate , Mrs. Clinton did the former; with Server-gate, she did the latter. Thus, at the debate, she falsely accused Trump of her own crimes. This behavior is classical psychological projection: her own deep-seeded guilt blamed on her innocent political opponent.
Beyond a worthless apology, Hillary's blame game never includes herself. Mr. Trump's call to Russia to release her illegally destroyed emails (if they have them) isn't espionage. He has nothing to do with what was left unprotected or has likely been stolen. First, wasn't it Hillary who intentionally had unauthorized, private servers set up in the first place as Secretary of State? Second, wasn't it Mrs. Clinton's responsibility to follow the law forbidding such extraneous storage of classified information? Third, since she knowingly ignored the rules, doesn't she own the consequences of hackers and potentially “interfering” foreign governments in next month's election?
Hillary has aided Russia, the foreign government she now publicly demonizes. In reality, if anyone is a hypothetical puppet of Putin's, it's Hillary Clinton , not Donald Trump. Specifically, her State Department approved the Uranium One deal, which insanely ceded Russian control of 20% of American produced uranium for a fat donation to her pay for play sham of a charity, the Clinton Foundation . (That's the highly prized “ yellow cake ” used in nuclear weapons.) What's to stop the Kremlin from sharing the extra supply with their Middle East allies, the nuclearly ambitious Iranian Imams ? You know, the same bearded fellows who finessed a toothless, Obama-approved nuclear deal that virtually guarantees them the bomb within the next decade? The answer to all of the above is nothing at all.
Moreover, if the Soviets do have her destroyed emails, Mr. Putin has a treasure trove of top secret material with which to blackmail the normally paranoid and self-obsessed Hillary . Therefore, Mrs. Clinton would waste critical years in office (vital to the continued solvency of America) looking only to save her own skin. Indeed, the next president must contend with the escalating, unsustainable 19.7T debt . (That sounds like a wheelhouse challenge to a businessman and job creator like Donald Trump .)
Yet, Hillary's not up to that, or anything constructive. Crooked Hillary will be embroiled in ever worsening scandals, and future Nixon style cover-ups. Just like her impeached hubby Bill, she'll remain in an endless cycle of political damage control. Recall her already well-established track record of incompetence and lawlessness. While the country seizes in a hellish Clinton Administration death spiral, how would this divisive rabble-rouser lead—except disastrously—over a social and economic cliff?
It doesn't take a dummy to know who's better for America's future . If ventriloquists were Wall Street bankers, speechifying “Hillary six figures” would be their open borders , amnesty-promising marionette. Brassy Donald Trump should not be confused with any of that. Unlike the shifty one percenters who finance Mrs. Clinton's corrupt candidacy, Donald Trump's a captain of industry who can't be bought. He already has all of the fame, wealth and power anyone could want. America needs his tell-it-like-it-is 'can-do' optimism—not an elitist figurehead for foreign and domestic special interest groups, and corporate masters. shares | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump won the White House after spending a little more than half of what Hillary Clinton did, using a combination of his own money and contributions from donors big and small to fuel a campaign that shattered the modern conventions of money and politics. The figures for the final weeks of the campaign, released late Thursday, showed that Mr. Trump paid his own companies nearly $12 million over the course of the election — reimbursement for flights, hotel stays, meals and services for him and his staff members, as well as office space in the tower he owns on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. His preferred mode of transportation — his private aircraft — made up the largest chunk of money that went back into Trump entities, $8. 7 million. The figures also show that Mr. Trump put in $65 million of his own cash, well short of the $100 million he had originally promised he would spend on his campaign. These unusual practices provide a glimpse of the kind of potential conflicts and ethical issues that Mr. Trump will have to resolve as president. The wealthiest man ever elected president, Mr. Trump is already facing calls from government ethics officials to sever ties to his vast real estate and financial holdings around the world. He is resisting so far, raising the possibility that he could enter office with a virtually unknowable number of personal entanglements that is without precedent. Over all, Mr. Trump raised far less money than Mrs. Clinton did, though the disparity — like the race itself — closed at the end of the campaign. The Clinton campaign brought in $70 million from Oct. 20 to Nov. 28, compared with $86 million for the Trump campaign, of which $10 million came from Mr. Trump’s own pocket. The combined figures, which include what each campaign and its outside allies raised, reinforce just how little money seemed to matter in this election. Mrs. Clinton and her allies took in about $1 billion Mr. Trump and the groups working on his behalf raised only about $600 million. Sustained at times by little more than a Twitter account, his own money and extensive news media coverage, Mr. Trump relied far less on the traditional tools of campaigning. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign was more dependent on television advertising, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on almost relentlessly negative attacks. At a time when every presidential election promises to obliterate spending records, 2016 was an exception. Both candidates spent significantly less than their counterparts did in 2012. Mrs. Clinton’s total expenses were $565 million, compared with $775 million for President Obama Mr. Trump spent $322 million, while Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee that year, spent $460 million. Mrs. Clinton closed with under $1 million in the bank, much less than the $7 million remaining for the Trump campaign. Though Mr. Trump would often brag that he was financing his own campaign, that was only partially true. The new disclosures show that nearly 80 percent of the money his campaign brought in came from donors. The disclosures also undercut another theme that was central to Mr. Trump’s appeal as an antipolitician — his insistence that he would not favor wealthy donors and powerful interests if elected. Some of his nominees, who include millionaires and billionaires, made large donations to his campaign or to “super PACs” supporting him. For example, Linda McMahon, the professional wrestling mogul whom Mr. Trump has chosen to lead the Small Business Administration, donated $7 million to two groups. The records also show that the men he intends to nominate for his secretaries of Labor, Treasury and Commerce all made contributions to his campaign, the Republican National Committee or another group supporting him. Still, Mr. Trump’s campaign also benefited from a network of ordinary Americans who gave small amounts of money, an illustration of his powerful appeal. percent of the amount donors gave directly to his campaign came from people who donated $200 or less. The financial fortunes of the political parties are also reflected in the outcome of the campaign, with Democrats in worse shape than Republicans as they head into 2017. The Democratic National Committee reported having $13 million on hand and $2 million in debt. The Republican National Committee has $21 million on hand and no debt. The figures also showed the extent to which the Republican National Committee benefited from its financial arrangement with Mr. Trump, who despite being a drag on the party’s finances early on ended up helping to rescue it. The committee kept a slice of the money it had raised with Mr. Trump through two joint committees, helping to pay off $7 million in debt and leaving it in much better financial condition than at the beginning of the campaign. | 1 |
MINNEAPOLIS — The day after his oldest son was convicted of conspiring to join and kill for the Islamic State in Syria, Abdihamid Yusuf just wanted to go home and rest. But bills were stacking up, so on Saturday morning he and his wife visited the jail and then reopened Hooyo’s Kitchen, the small Somali restaurant where they serve plates of chicken, rice and bananas. “We try to survive,” Mr. Yusuf said. The trial of his son and two other young men splintered families and opinions here in the country’s largest Somali community. Former friends testified against one another, describing how they had watched propaganda videos, bought fake passports and plotted their paths to Syria. Family members squabbled in the halls of the courthouse. Some said they had been threatened or shunned. When the jury came back on Friday afternoon, Mr. Yusuf did not even get word in time to reach the courtroom to see his son, Mohamed Farah, and the two other defendants, Guled Omar, 21, and Abdirahman Daud, 22, declared guilty. A total of nine men — including another of Mr. Yusuf’s sons, Adnan — have been convicted in the case. Federal prosecutors say the case shined a light on the persistent problem of terrorist recruiting here. Law enforcement authorities have said that more than 20 young men from Minnesota have left to join the Shabab militant group in Somalia and that more than 15 have tried or succeeded in leaving to join the Islamic State. But it also opened wounds among families, and at the end of the trial, some in the community praised justice served, while others pointed to what they called another injustice. Deqa Hussen said she had learned the price of cooperating: “They’ve been calling me snitch. ” Her oldest son, Abdirizak Warsame, 21, briefly acted as the leader of a group of friends as they planned to travel to Syria in 2014. He pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors, telling the jury how he had wanted the rewards of martyrdom. Now, Ms. Hussen said, longtime friends and strangers have accused her of selling her son to the government. During the trial, she said, the mother of another defendant threatened her life. “I have to respect the government and I have to respect my son,” she said. “My culture is a culture of silence. You cannot speak your rights. ” Some in the Somali community praised the government. They said that the three defendants had gotten a fair trial, and that they hoped the convictions would prompt candid talks about extremism and its allure to some young men here. “This is good for the community,” said Mohamed Ahmed, a gas station manager who created an online cartoon character, Average Mohamed, to condemn extremism. “It unmasks the fear, forces us to think deeply. We can either confront it or bury our heads. ” Jibril Afyare, an IBM software engineer and community activist, spoke of vigilance. He said he talked regularly to the United States attorney about the threat of recruitment by terrorist groups, and has a local police captain’s number on speed dial. “We cannot afford even one Somali youth to be recruited by extremists,” he said. “It’s dangerous for the country, and it’s dangerous for the Somali community. ” But others called the case a setup, and said the defendants had been goaded to act and praise terrorism by a onetime friend who made secret audio recordings as a paid federal informant. In barber shops and cafes where the case flashed on television screens, young men and old said the trial would harden the community’s relationship with law enforcement, and said the defendants did not deserve potential sentences of life in prison. “People think the trial was dishonest and was done in a hurry, that this is a conspiracy,” said Jamaal K. Farah, 35, a barber and comedian who goes by the name Happy Khalif and has attracted hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Mr. Farah said he used to give haircuts to some of the nine friends who have now pleaded guilty or been convicted. He rejected portrayals of them as eager, militants who spoke of wanting to spit on the United States, kill Turkish security forces or die as martyrs. The case focused on conversations and events in 2014 and 2015. Prosecutors said some of the defendants had watched Islamic State propaganda videos, met to discuss routes and timing to leave for Syria, tried to buy fake passports from an undercover F. B. I. agent and played paintball to train for combat. But to Mr. Farah and others skeptical of the convictions, the men were not defendants or terrorists, but boys, brothers, kids who had messed up but deserved a second chance. “These kids used to be part of this community,” Mr. Farah said. “This country gave us hope and a better life. We think this trial was a total injustice. ” As he watched boys play basketball outside a community center in central Minneapolis, Burhan Mohumed thought of his friend Guled Omar. He said Mr. Omar had played here before “he was caught up in that storm. ” Mr. Mohumed attended the trial regularly but was barred from the courthouse after he intervened in a fight and argued with court security officers. After the trial, Andrew M. Luger, the United States attorney for Minnesota, condemned the threats and courthouse scuffles as intolerable and “ . ” Mr. Mohumed supported the three defendants and, echoing others here, he was upset they could face life in prison even though they never left for Syria and never pulled a trigger. “If they can convict them on words and thoughts, it’s over,” he said. “People will not feel safe in our communities. ” But prosecutors said the case involved far more than thoughts. They said the defendants were ready to kill for the Islamic State and had made efforts to fly out of Kennedy International Airport or cross the Mexican border to travel to Syria. On Saturday, Mr. Yusuf said, his wife insisted that they go back to work after they visited their son in jail. He said he had taken time off from his job driving a school bus to deal with the criminal cases against his sons. But they still had five other children to care for. So they opened Hooyo’s Kitchen, in a Somali shopping center stuffed with rug stores, barber shops, classrooms and kitchens, four floors above Mr. Farah’s barber shop. As his wife cooked, Mr. Yusuf rushed food to customers. People stopped by to tell them to be strong. Mr. Yusuf’s thoughts tilted back to his sons. He said Mohamed Farah, the oldest, was hopeful about sentencing, and had told him that whatever came next was God’s will. He worried about the cost of funding two commissary accounts so his sons could call him from jail. He worried about the distance he would have to drive to visit them. “It’s not fair,” Mr. Yusuf said. But he said they were propped up by faith. “We believe God will give, no matter what. ” | 1 |
Ex-rep: 'If Trump loses, I'm grabbing my musket' Previously tweeted call for 'war' against Obama after Dallas police shootings Published: 11 mins ago
(The Hill) A former congressman on Wednesday threatened to grab his musket if GOP nominee Donald Trump loses the presidential election.
On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump,” former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) tweeted on Wednesday.
“On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket.You in?” | 0 |
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Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s glass house of sexual impropriety and hypocrisy just got a new addition. Clinton is set to fundraise with rapper Jay-Z, whose lyrics put GOP nominee Donald Trump’s 11-year-old comments to shame.
Clinton, who brands herself as some sort of champion of women’s issues, will fund-raise with Jay-Z, whose popular song titled “Big Pimpin” includes the following lyrics: You know I – thug em, f— em, love em, leave em Cause I don’t f—in need em Take em out the hood, keep em lookin good But I don’t f—in feed em First time they fuss I’m breezin.
Taking desperate women “out the hood,” taking the money they make from selling their bodies and further abusing them is really championing women’s issues, eh?
Let’s see, Trump made some lewd comments about what consenting adult women would hypothetically allow him to do because of his star status and he’s a monster, but Jay-Z talks about profiting off of the misery of desperate women and treating them like garbage and hey, he’s with her!
Western Journalism reported :
Writing on TruthFeed , Amy Moreno noted that Clinton has a stable of rap artists supporting her whose language is beyond offensive.
“Even while Hillary and her supporters are feigning outrage, she ran a contest on her website promoting a ‘meet-and-greet’ with rap artist Pusha T, who says vulgar things about women in his songs,” she wrote.
In Got ‘Em Covered , Pusha T sings: All of you lil’ n—as quote all of the wrong figures Poke all of the wrong b—s And follow the wrong n—as.”
“Yet, besides all that anti-woman vulgarity, Hillary had a contest on her website to meet this animal,” wrote Moreno.
Western Journalism also reported that earlier this month, Trump supporter Betsy McCaughey called out Clinton’s hypocrisy. McCaughey responded to the video of Trump’s comments by noting how Clinton accepts support from rappers who denigrate women for a living.
“Hillary Clinton expresses that she finds the language … horrific, but in fact she likes language like this, quote, ‘I came to slay, b—-. When he F me good, I take his a– to Red Lobster,’ McCaughey said and added, “That happens to be a line from Beyoncé.”
“Her [Clinton’s] favorite performer whom she says she idolizes and would like to imitate,” she continued. “So you know what I’m saying to you? There’s a lot of hypocrisy.”
Clinton doesn’t care about women, children , minorities, or anyone else that she uses and abuses to gain votes. Clinton cares about money and power — that’s it. | 0 |
Current and former U. S. officials, supposedly concerned that President Trump had shared some “highly classified information” with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador to the U. S. last week, leaked that information to the Washington Post in an article published Monday. [However, the report admits that it is “unlikely” Trump broke any laws. “As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law,” the report said. In addition, his national security adviser, who was at the meeting, told the Post nothing was shared that was not already publicly known. “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,” said Army Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster. McMaster later told reporters at the White House, “Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Their accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources. I was in the room, it didn’t happen. ” “This story is false. The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced,” added Dina Powell, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, who also attended the meeting. The current and former officials told the Post that Trump shared information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that was obtained by a U. S. partner through an agreement and was so sensitive it was withheld from U. S. allies and restricted within the U. S. government. The officials said Trump’s disclosure risked cooperation from an ally that had access to the inner workings of the Islamic State, which they then shared details of with the Post. The current and former officials told the Post that Trump discussed an Islamic State terrorist threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft. They said that senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and National Security Agency after the meeting. The officials bashed the president, portraying him as “reckless. ” A “former senior U. S. official close to current administration officials” said Trump “seems to be very reckless, and doesn’t grasp the gravity of the things he’s dealing with, especially when it comes to intelligence and national security. And it’s all clouded because of this problem he has with Russia. ” They also claimed that Trump seemed to be “boasting” about his inside knowledge of the threat. The officials said Trump “did not reveal the specific intelligence gathering method, but described how the Islamic State was pursuing elements of a specific plot and how much harm such an attack could cause under varying circumstances. ” “Most alarmingly, officials said, Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State’s territory where the U. S. intelligence partner detected the threat,” it said. The officials then leaked the name of the city to the Post, which decided to withhold most of the plot details under the urging of current officials. The officials said the name of the city would be useful for Russia to help identify the U. S. ally or intelligence capability involved. The Post said the officials declined to identify the ally that collected the information, but said, “It is one that has previously voiced frustration with Washington’s inability to safeguard sensitive information related to Iraq and Syria. ” The officials claimed Trump described measures the U. S. has taken or is contemplating to counter the threat, “including military operations in Iraq and Syria as well as other steps to tighten security,” but did not say what those were. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that was false. “During President Trump’s meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov a broad range of subjects were discussed among which were common efforts and threats regarding . During that exchange the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations,” he said. Michelle Moons contributed to this report. | 1 |
November 10th, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
RT- Translated by Inessa Sinchougova
Putin took a minute to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory, during a reception of foreign delegates in the Kremlin.
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In an interview with Gabriel Sherman at New York Magazine, CNN President Jeff Zucker claimed that his network’s credibility is “higher than ever” at a time when it is under fire for partisan and dishonest reporting, adding that it would be a “mistake” for the incoming Trump administration to have an adversarial relationship with CNN. [Asked whether he was concerned about the network’s ongoing access to Donald Trump and the new administration, Zucker said it “doesn’t worry [him] that Donald Trump has not done an interview with the network in eight months. ” “I think our credibility is higher than ever, and our viewership is higher than ever, and our reporting is as strong as ever,” he continued. “The perception of Donald Trump in capitals around the world is shaped, in many ways, by CNN. Continuing to have an adversarial relationship with that network is a mistake,” he continued. Zucker’s comments come at a time when his network’s credibility is under intense scrutiny. Last week, CNN was at the centre of a fake news controversy after it reported on an unverified document, originally published by BuzzFeed, suggesting that Donald Trump had deep ties to the Russian government. At his first press conference since his election, Trump refused to take a question from a CNN reporter, saying that his network had been propagating “fake news. ” In the runup to November’s presidential election, information released by Wikileaks showed the network consistently attempting to help Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign. Examples of this included the network asking senior Democrats to draft questions for interviews with Republican candidates, as well as evidence that DNC Chair Donna Brazile received questions prior to a Democratic primary debate, which she subsequently fed to Hillary Clinton. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
There is no one right way to be an activist. There is no one right way to change the world. There is no one right philosophy of leftist politics. There is no one right reaction to the election. There is no one right solution to the massive problems we're facing.
That list is just for us, because this toxic "one right way" meme is burrowed deep into the left subconscious as much as the "one right way" meme has burrowed into the rest of our culture, and those we call our enemies. The left's version is far less destructive than the way it manifests in the right, but it is there nonetheless, causing all sorts of suffering among ourselves, and scaring away many who might join our cause.
Very few people are aware that our entire culture is guided by this invisible cultural meme, but make no mistake - the idea that there is "one right way and my way is it" is perhaps the most deadly and toxic meme in our entire culture, and if we ever want to stop reproducing the systems of oppression we are fighting against, we must weed out this idea within ourselves.
Fortunately, once you see it, you can't unsee it, so let me give just a handful of examples.
In our, the dominant, culture (which began 10,000 years ago and grew to dominate the entire planet, save for the few indigenous societies which have managed to survive thousands of years of colonialism, assimilation, and destruction):
There is one right economic system. There is one right religion. There is one right country. There is one right political party. There is one right sexual orientation. There is one superior gender. There is one superior race. There is one superior language. There is one superior form of civilization.
All of these are subsets of the one meta-meme to rule them all:
There is one right way to live, and our way is it.
No doubt we can trace the vast majority of death, colonialization, conquest, war, genocide, discrimination and suffering in the entire history of our culture (which began roughly 10,000 years ago) to this belief in the "one right way."
Capitalism, religious persecution, white supremacy, patriarchy - they are all symptoms of a dominating way of life that seeks to homogenize the great diversity of the world, creating a planet where one way of life reigns supreme.
Trump and the authoritarian right, in the coming years, will be doing their best to force their way onto the rest of the world. We must resist this homogenization, but while we are doing it, we must not also do this to each other, on a smaller scale.
The "one right way" meme is a killer, that much should be clear. If we strive to be more than the mirror reflection of those we are fighting against, let us agree to not bring the "one right way" meme into our own discussions, politics, and organizing.
The antidote to a toxic, deadly meme is a more compelling and truthful meme, which is rooted in the natural laws of the universe.
Daniel Quinn, to which I owe the inspiration for all of the above, said it best.
That alternative meme is this:
There is no one right way to live. There never has, and never will be.
There are thousands of ways to live that work well for its members, and there are many ways that don't work (we've been trying one that doesn't work for 10,000 years, which has almost brought our species to extinction in the blink of a geological eye).
Let's fight for a world where thousands of diverse ways of living and being can co-exist. This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License 0.0 · | 0 |
VIDEOS 7 Malheur Wildlife Refuge standoff defendants acquitted in Oregon The federal trial of 7 Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupiers has come to an end and the verdict is in October 28, 2016 Via Pete Santilli/LiveStream
PORTLAND (INTELLIHUB) — Seven brave individuals who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last winter in protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s treatment of the Hammond Family were acquitted of conspiracy charges Thursday as supporters cheered outside the courthouse.
Ammon Bundy, Shawna Cox, David Lee Fry, Jeff Wayne Banta, Neil Wampler and Kenneth Medenbach were found not guilty on all counts, however the court could not reach a verdict on Ryan Bundy regarding a theft charge.
The group’s leader Ammon Bundy will remain in custody to later stand trial for another high-profile standoff which took place at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada where members of militia and the BLM pointed loaded rifles at each other.
Ammon’s attorney Marcus Mumford was tased in the courtroom then detained, following a small protest where he demanded that his client be set free, but U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown said Ammon needed to be held by federal marshals until the Nevada trial.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D), who ordered the FBI to act swiftly during the occupation, was not happy with the verdict, nor were other corrupt local officials, like Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward who violated the U.S. Constitution during the occupation.
Shockingly, this case is a major victory for ranchers and Americans in general who surprisingly may still have rights.
Brian Cavalier, Ammon’s personal bodyguard, was sentenced earlier in the week to time served, 9 months, “but remains under a U.S. Marshals Service hold, and is expected to be transferred to Nevada, where he faces another federal indictment stemming from the 2014 armed standoff with federal agents outside controversial rancher Cliven Bundy’s ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada,” according to a report by OregonLive.com.
Intellihub broadcast hours of the FBI’s siege on the final four occupiers live, before and during their surrender, which you can find here .
You can read more about the Malheur Wildlife Refuge standoff here .
Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist, filmmaker , radio talk show host and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics. Established in 2013, Intellihub.com is ranked in the upper 1% traffic tier on the World Wide Web. Read more from Shep’s World . Get the Podcast . Follow Shep on Facebook and Twitter . | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The contentious presidential election is fracturing the Republican Party. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who broke with Donald Trump earlier this month, could face a postelection revolt. “You can’t ignore what millions and millions of people have expressed in this election cycle,” one Republican representative said, warning party leaders to proceed cautiously on trade and immigration. A new poll found that Hillary Clinton has strengthened her position with younger voters. And she turned 69. ____ 2. Mr. Trump held a at his newest luxury hotel, near the White House in Washington. It was the latest in a series of promotional events he’s dragged reporters to in recent days, even as his poll numbers have fallen. He also praised Newt Gingrich, a day after Mr. Gingrich accused Megyn Kelly of Fox News of being “fascinated with sex” when she grilled him about Mr. Trump’s treatment of women. A man with a sledgehammer and a pickax smashed Mr. Trump’s star on Hollywood Boulevard, above, saying he wanted to sell it and donate the proceeds to Mr. Trump’s accusers. ____ 3. The Pentagon said it would stop trying to claw back money it overpaid to thousands of California National Guard soldiers — at least for now. A report in the The Los Angeles Times over the weekend about the hardships the soldiers are facing — some owing tens of thousands of dollars — provoked broad criticism from lawmakers and veterans. Above, Robert D’Andrea, a retired Army major, was told to return a $20, 000 bonus. ____ 4. President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines wants to oust American troops from his country. Speaking in Tokyo, he said he was willing to revoke or renegotiate the agreement that lets the Pentagon use five military bases there. Distancing the Philippines from the U. S. would please China. ____ 5. “Incredibly lucky. ” That was our photographer, who was covering Iraqi forces’ push toward Mosul when his convoy was hit by a suicide car bomb. His account, with photos and videos, takes you to the front lines of the fight against the Islamic State. ____ 6. H. I. V. arrived in the U. S. long before “Patient Zero. ” A new genetic analysis exonerates a French Canadian flight attendant who had been blamed for bringing the virus into the country. Above, an AIDS patient in 1987. ____ 7. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians, to tie up the World Series at one game apiece. Neither team has won the Series in decades. Our columnist is delving into Indians history, taking their train route home from Boston in 1948, when they celebrated their last title. Above, nuns got some batting tips from Indians outfielder Rocky Colavito in 1959. ____ 8. Patton Oswalt, the comedian known for TV and film roles, including “The King of Queens,” was crushed by the sudden death of his wife, the true crime writer Michelle McNamara. In one of our articles today, he talks about trying to cope and how is the one thing that helps. Going onstage, he said, was “a rebuke to grief, an acceptance of the messiness of life. I’ll never be at 100 percent again, but that won’t stop me from living this. ” ____ 9. You may know the Afghan woman arrested in Pakistan, accused of trying to obtain illegal identity cards. Sharbat Gula, above, became a symbol of her country’s refugee crisis in the 1980s, when her piercing green eyes peered from the cover of National Geographic. Her arrest goes to the heart of an ordeal confronting many Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan because of decades of war. ____ 10. Finally, rainbow sprinkles are back. One Instagram picture at a time, they invaded cookies and waffles, then cocktails and croissants, and finally, as a design motif, phone cases, scented candles and nails. “They’re just so photogenic,” said a young pastry chef. “They make anything look festive. ” ____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Many Women Suffer From Fungal Infections And They Can Cure Them At Home Ξ [November 1, 2016] BLOG There’s A Reason Why Pizzas Have That Plastic Table In The Middle And It Makes Total Sense posted by Eddie f you’re human and not a fun hating robot, than you likely enjoy having a delicious pizza delivered right to your door. However, when you open the box, you’ve probably noticed that plastic, tripod looking thing stuck in the middle of your pie. And while you’re likely used to throwing it away by now without giving it a second thought, have you ever wondered what it’s for? Well, as it turns out it’s actually for a very useful purpose and not some free doll sized patio furniture tie-in. The device, which has been called a ‘pizza saver,’ was invented by Carmela Vitale of Dix Hills, New York. Vitale filed the patent on February 10th 1983 and was issued one on February 12th, 1985. Carmela still lives in New York state as a local Councillor. The ‘pizza saver’s’ invention is all based around the science behind pizza boxes. Pizzas are often placed in corrugated cardboard boxes which keeps them warm due to insulation. However, the boxes come with one fatal flaw, the steam created by the pizza can make it soggy. That’s where the pizza saver comes in. When the box becomes soggy, the center tends to touch down on the pizza, becoming stuck to the cheese. This can cost your pizza some precious cheese which as we all know, is a definite no no when it comes to pizza consumption. However, by placing the pizza saver in the center of a pie, the plastic topper prevents the box from touching down on the pizza, allowing us to enjoy every last bite. Source: | 0 |
Ian Greenhalgh is a photographer and historian with a particular interest in military history and the real causes of conflicts. His studies in history and background in the media industry have given him a keen insight into the use of mass media as a creator of conflict in the modern world. His favored areas of study include state sponsored terrorism, media manufactured reality and the role of intelligence services in manipulation of populations and the perception of events. Turkish Disinfo: Daesh terrorist leader Baghdadi urges followers to attack Turkey By Ian Greenhalgh on November 3, 2016 Turkish map showing the planned annexation of northern Syrian and Iraq including the cities of Mosul and Aleppo [Editor’s note: This story is deliberate disinfo put out by a newspaper that is controlled by the Turkish government and functions as a mouthpiece for their propaganda and disinfo. The claim that Daesh is to target Turkey is nonsense, the goal of this story is to give Turkey an excuse for further military action in Syria and Iraq, they can simply use the excuse that they are attacking Daesh in response to Al-Baghdadi’s call for attacks on Turkey. Turkey aims to seize large portions of Syrian and Iraqi territory including the cities of Mosul and Aleppo, they are planning to move on Kurdish held Manbij shortly and have been massing forces on their side of the border in preparation for further offensive moves. The big question is why the US and Russia are remaining silent on the matter of Turkish military adventurism aimed at annexation of Syrian and Iraqi territory in order to create what Davutoglu calls ‘Lebensraum’ for the Turkish people, part of a plan to restore the Ottoman empire. Ian] Daesh terrorist leader Baghdadi urges followers to attack Turkey
The Daesh terrorist group’s leader who is currently believed to be in Mosul, called on his supporters to take the battle to Turkey and carry out attacks in the country. Baghdadi’s call, which was released in a voice recording on Thursday, is the first message he issued after Iraqi forces backed by the U.S. launched an offensive in Mosul to take the city back from the terrorists.
In the 31-minute-long recording, Baghdadi expressed confidence that Daesh will be victorious in Mosul, and told his followers to invade Turkey.
“Unleash the fire of your anger on Turkish troops in Syria” the terrorist leader said and added:
“Turkey today entered your range of action and the aim of your struggle … invade it and turn its safety into fear.”
Baghdadi claimed that Turkey is cooperating with Atheists, therefore deserves to be attacked and targeted.
He also urged Daesh terrorist fighters to target security forces, members of the ruling Al Saud monarch and media outlets in Saudi Arabia and launch simultaneous attacks, as he claimed they were also cooperating with ‘infidel nations’ in Syria and Iraq.
With a population of over 1.5 million people, Mosul stands as a bastion of the terrorist group.
Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in late August to clear Syria’s northern border area of terrorists. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) units backed by Turkish forces were able to liberate Jarablus and more than 32 villages west of the Euphrates River following Turkey’s operation.
In December 2015, Daesh released a video urging the conquest of Istanbul and Turkey and called President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ‘Satan,’ while harshly criticizing him for supporting the U.S.-led coalition against the terrorists.
In its determined fight against the terrorists, Turkey has prevented the entry of over 52,075 people from entering the country and detained thousands of Daesh suspects, since the start of 2016, according to Interior Ministry figures. Moreover, since 2011, Turkey has deported more than 3,290 foreign terrorist fighters from 95 countries and refused entry to more than 38,269 individuals in its fight against Daesh, which counts the Muslim-majority country as an enemy.
Daesh terrorists frequently target Turkey, which has recognized it as a terrorist group in October 2013. It is responsible for a string of terror attacks in Ankara and Istanbul, as well as cross-border fire from Syria that has killed a number of residents in Turkish border towns over the last year. Related Posts: | 0 |
Cuba declared nine days of mourning after Fidel Castro’s death, a period that will culminate in his funeral on Sunday. Photographers for The New York Times crossed the nation to capture the mood of Cubans grappling with life without him. Havana, by nature, is a noisy place. Honking, chatter and pulsing music are just three strands of the city’s braided soundtrack. But the death of Mr. Castro brought an eerie silence. The government banned drinking, partying and loud music, leaving the city on mute, bereft of its melody and verve. For many Cubans, the death of Mr. Castro felt like that of a father — one with whom they had a complicated relationship. In his nearly 50 years leading the nation, he brought much to Cuba, including free health care and education, but he also oversaw economic deprivation and stifled freedom. The contradiction of Mr. Castro’s Cuba persisted in his passing. Across the generations, there were tears and genuine sorrow. Others hardly mourned at all, keeping quiet all the same, out of fear, respect or a sense of social obligation. In death, as in life, Mr. Castro demanded reverence. On Wednesday, Mr. Castro’s ashes were taken into the countryside, on a route that retraced, in reverse, the steps of the revolution he led in 1959. Towns and villages along the route were emptied of residents as caravans of flatbed trucks carted thousands to catch a glimpse of Mr. Castro’s remains. The residents rose before dawn and retired after dark, forming surreal lines of order. Their faces were fixed in reverence. In rural Cuba, there was no trace of the cynicism or state pressure that was on display in Havana. The revolution delivered to the rural poor the benefits of cities, like doctors and teachers. Schoolgirls and weathered farmers shared an unscripted devotion born of admiration for Mr. Castro’s ideals and values, and for the he gave his people. On Saturday, in Revolution Plaza in Santiago de Cuba, where his revolution began, the ambience was one of genuine warmth. People were enjoying one another, their friends and families, a human connection that predated the distraction of selfies and social media. A distinctly Cuban togetherness unbroken by technology. Mr. Castro was buried in the city Sunday morning, the revolutionary interred in the heartland of his revolution. Compatriots from his earliest days hobbled to attend, as did students, soldiers and officials. As the procession finished the final mile from the plaza to the cemetery, a stillness presided over the crowd. But the refrain of the journey was the same. What had been carried in the chants of Cubans and on their shirts and banners now emerged without a word: Yo Soy Fidel. | 1 |
=> Professor George Borjas at Harvard. Credit: VDare.com.
Borjas no bore . October 20th I went to an event organized by the Center for Immigration Studies to hear Professor George Borjas present his new book, We Wanted Workers . Borjas explains the title in his Introduction:
Reflecting on the European experience with the millions of guest workers [from the 1950s onwards], the Swiss playwright and novelist Max Frisch made perhaps the single most insightful observation about immigration when he quipped: “We wanted workers, but we got people instead.”
(In a footnote, Borjas gives us the German original: “ Wir riefen Arbeitskräfte, es kamen Menschen .”)
Borjas is a lively and engaging speaker. I bought a copy of his book, and stood on line to have him sign it. When I got to him, he immediately recognized me from a chance encounter eight years ago, which I had completely forgotten.
That was of course embarrassing, with a line of secondary emotions coming along behind the embarrassment: gratification (How nice that a bigfoot researcher, a Harvard professor, remembers me after so many years!); annoyance (If he can remember an obscure opinionator, why can’t I remember a serious and important scholar, working in a field that I often write about?); to anxiety (Am I losing my marbles? He’s only five years younger than me …)
I recommend the book in any case; and I further recommend Borjas in person, if you get a chance to see him speak. I only regret that he is, to borrow Dr Johnson’s self-description , “a retired and uncourtly scholar,” with no taste at all — with, in fact, I think, a strong dis -taste — for political contention.
Borjas lays out a solid, factual, quantitative basis for the kinds of arguments we make here, with gentlemanly good humor and scholarly rigor. I’d love to see him make his case in argument with the open borders shills, on TV talking-head shows or the campaign trail … but that’s not his choice.
All strength to Prof Borjas anyway, and all success to his new book.
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Two essays on race . This month produced two notable essays dealing with race. One was notable for dishonesty and incoherence; the other for its clarity and straightforward good sense.
The dishonesty and incoherence was of course in defense of the No Such Thing As Race dogma, hereinunder NOSTAR.
NOSTAR is a key axiom in our state ideology. It is, however, so contrary to everyday experience, common sense, and elementary biology that media outlets feel obliged to publish stern affirmations of it from time to time, rather as state newspapers in communist countries used to publish long editorials, for use in study sessions by the Party faithful, affirming the infallibility of Marxist-Leninism.
(The outstanding exhibit here, according to sinologist Simon Leys , was an editorial in the Peking People’s Daily at the time of the Lin Biao affair in 1971 , instructing readers that extreme leftism was a right-wing deviation.)
So here was science journalist Faye Flam [ ] laying down the Party line at Bloomberg News, October 3rd.
Race is perhaps the worst idea ever to come out of science. [ Science’s Biggest Blunder by Faye Flam; Bloomberg News , October 3rd 2016.]
Really? Worse than phlogiston ? Worse than spontaneous generation ? Worse than the luminiferous ether ?
“We never use the term ‘race,’” said Harvard geneticist Swapan Mallick, an author on one of the papers revealing the latest DNA-based human story.
So what term do Dr Mallick and his colleagues use when discussing l ocal common-ancestry variations within a species? If “race” was good enough for Darwin , why isn’t it good enough for him?
“We’re all part of the tapestry of humanity, and it’s interesting to see how we got where we are.”
Indeed we are, and indeed it is. It is equally true, though, that we are all part of the tapestry of the genus Homo , of the family Hominidae , of the order Primates , of the class Mammalia , of the the phylum Chordata , of the Animal Kingdom . All of that is pretty interesting, too. What’s your point? ORDER IT NOW
One of the world’s most prominent American scientists of the mid-1800s, Samuel Morton, collected skulls from all over the world and attempted to demonstrate that those of European ancestry had the world’s biggest heads and were, so he claimed, intellectually superior.
Except that “there is no evidence that Morton believed this or was trying to prove it.” [ Scientists Measure the Accuracy of a Racism Claim by Nicholas Wade; New York Times , June 13, 2011]
Scientists subsequently realized that Morton was wrong — about whose heads were biggest and the connection between head size and intelligence.
Leaving aside the fact that Morton was not much interested in such a connection, brain size (which correlates with head size) does correlate with intelligence. [ Neuroanatomical Correlates of Intelligence by E. Luders, K.K. Narr, P.M. Thompson, and A.W. Toga; National Institutes of Health, 2009.]
[Geneticist Joseph] Graves sometimes quizzes his students by showing them an image of a man and asking them to guess where he comes from. It appears to show someone most Americans would identify as a black man, and Graves says people assume he’s from Africa or an African American community in the U.S. But he’s from the Solomon Islands, which are in the South Pacific.
Are there really people who don’t know this sort of thing? Fifty years ago, in then-wellnigh-monoracial England, I attended classes at University College, London with a young man whose skin was black. He was from Burma. (I recall his name as Man Man Tin, although the internet records no trace of such a person. In those easy-going days, with no offense intended or taken — he was a cheerful and sociable fellow — we gave him the nickname Rin Tin Tin . That would have gotten us permanently rusticated nowadays.)
And so on. It gets wearisome refuting this mendacious gibberish.
How refreshing, then, a few days later, to see that Jared Taylor had posted the talk he gave to September’s press conference on the Alt Right .
Given the loose nature of the movement [i.e. the Alt Right], there are people who consider themselves “Alt Right” but who disagree on one or more of these points — except one. The entire Alt Right is united in contempt for the idea that race is only a “social construct.” This is an idea that is so wrong and stupid that only very intelligent people can convince themselves it is true.
Race is a biological fact. Does anyone think that the differences between Danes and Pygmies are a sociological illusion? …
There are countless race differences in such things as skull structure, twinning rates, and susceptibility to disease. It is even possible to tell a person’s race from the varieties of bacteria that live in his mouth!
Human races have been evolving separately for perhaps as long as 100,000 years, and evolution has marked their temperaments and mental abilities just as it has their physical characteristics. [ What is the Alt Right? by Jared Taylor; American Renaissance , October 11 2016.]
Ah, the sweet clear wine of truth!
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Slow day at the Pentagon . The other zone of our social life in which state ideologues demand that we pretend to believe preposterous things is of course sex — or, as we are now supposed to say, “gender.”
Most of the preposterous things they want us to pretend to believe are in aid of an assault on traditional concepts of manliness. It is therefore not surprising that a key target of the No Such Thing As Sex (NOSTAS) preposterentsia is the military.
A friend with military connections passed on to me a document recently published by the Department of Defense. Title: Transgender Service in the U.S. Military: An Implementation Handbook .
The wretched thing has seventy-two pages . Sample, from pages 60-61:
Scenario 11: Use of Shower Facilities
A transgender Service member has expressed privacy concerns regarding the open bay shower configuration. Similarly, several other non-transgender Service members have expressed discomfort when showering in these facilities with individuals who have different genitalia.
Key takeaway(s)
This scenario illustrates the importance of open lines of communication between the Service member and the commander. It also depicts steps a commander may take to permit privacy, based on Service policy.
Service member responsibilities If you have any concerns about privacy in an open bay shower setting, you should discuss this with your chain of command. Consider altering your shower hours.
Commander responsibilities
You may employ reasonable accommodations when/if you have a Service member who voices concerns about privacy. This should be done with the intent of avoiding any stigmatizing impact to any Service member. If permitted by Service policies, some of these steps may include: Facility modifications, such as installing shower curtains and placing towel and clothing hooks inside individual shower stalls. In cases where accommodations are not practicable, you may authorize alternative measures to respect personal privacy, such as adjustments to timing of the use of shower or changing facilities Take proactive steps through the chain of command to ensure that expressions of discomfort don’t escalate into harassment or hazing. Consult the SCCC for guidance on how to institute such measures.
I repeat, there are 72 pages of this. That’s more than half as many pages as the Seaman’s Pocket Book from which I learned all the essentials of service as a rating in the Royal Navy .
Oh, and if you’re wondering what an SCCC is, it’s a Service Central Coordination Cell: basically an email address to which you can send queries about policy in your service.
The SCCC e-address for the Army is . If you want to send frivolous or spoof questions to the Army, use that address. Don’t worry that you may be wasting their time; to judge by that 72-page handbook they’ve just put out on servicepersons confused about their sex, time is a thing they have plenty of in today’s military.
Antarius, The Planet With 12 Sexes . On a related theme (I guess), Greg Cochran mused on how things might be if there were more than two human sexes. ORDER IT NOW
Many species have several different kinds of males (a few have different kinds of females as well). For example, a lizard species in California has three different kinds of males — aggressive orange-throated guys that successfully dominate blue males, sneaky yellow guys that get past orange males guarding a big territory, and blue mate-guarding males (that are also cooperative — possibly a green-beard gene) that successful guard females from sneaky yellows. The population frequencies oscillate: scissors, paper, rock. [ The Third Sex by Greg Cochran; West Hunter blog, October 26th 2016.]
I’m sorry to say that what this brought to my mind was one of Ed Subitzky’s cartoons from the glory days of National Lampoon forty years ago. Title: “ Saturday night on Antarius (The planet with 12 different sexes ) .”
I think I’ll send that link to the SCCCs for all the different services. You never know; we may find ourselves at war with Antarius one of these days.
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Does he bill his patients via the web? Just one more on the (approximately) medical beat.
My better half works in Medical Billing, arguing over the phone all day long with doctors, hospitals, patients, and insurance companies.
The other day she reported having dealt with a radiologist named Kwak — Dr Kwak. My lady is unfailingly truthful, so I did not doubt her story, but I was curious to see that Dr Kwak looks like, so I Googled him.
Sure enough, there he is: No Bong Kwak, MD — Specialty : Diagnostic Radiology. No picture, though. Googling further, I find that Kwak is a not-uncommon Korean family name.
I am sure that the Kwaks are a proud and noble lineage, and that Dr Kwak discharges his radiological duties at the highest standards of professionalism. And yes, I know it’s childish to make fun of people’s names, which after all they can’t help. For all I know to the contrary, “Derbyshire” sounds screamingly funny to Korean ears. If so, I do not begrudge them their mirth. Still … Dr Kwak?
And while we are at the intersection of October with names Korean, let’s pause in respectful silence for a moment to remember the South Korean Secretary of State murdered by the Norks in the Rangoon bombing of October 1983 : Lee Bum Suk.
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Galaxies like grains of sand . For the longest time I carried around in my head the easy thumbnail tally of the cosmos: there are a hundred billion stars in our galaxy and a hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.
That second hundred billion crept up to two hundred billion when I wasn’t looking; and now suddenly it’s increased tenfold.
The scale of the universe, already unfathomable, just became even more so: There are about 10 times as many galaxies as previously thought.
The new number, two trillion galaxies, is the result of work led by Christopher J. Conselice, an astrophysicist at the University of Nottingham in England, published last week in The Astrophysical Journal . [ Two Trillion Galaxies, at the Very Least by Henry Fountain; New York Times , October 17th 2016.]
That’s just the observable universe, mind: the one little bubble of objects whose emitted light has reached us since the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. The whole shebang is much bigger. It may in fact be infinite: There is an argument for this in Chapter Five of Max Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe .
There’s a downside and an upside to knowing stuff like this.
The downside is of course that it further dethrones us. It is only within living memory that we have known there are any other galaxies besides our own, let alone two trillion of the suckers. Not very long before that — a mere handful of generations — our little ball of rock was assumed to be the principal place in the cosmos, and its affairs the primary interest of the Creator.
The upside is that our consciousness, our civilization, our accomplishments seem all the more astonishing as it becomes more and more probable that there are no others like them anywhere, or at least anywhere within several billion trillion miles.
The arguments for this cosmic exceptionalism go back at least as far as Michael Hart’s 1975 paper An Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth . Tegmark recycles them briefly in the last chapter of his book. (He is out at the most skeptical end of the spectrum for belief in extraterrestrial intelligence: “I’ve just argued that we’re probably the most intelligent life-form in our entire universe.”) British science journalist John Gribbin wrote an entire book arguing the skeptical case.
So we are utterly insignificant, but at the same time fantastically unique. There’s something to meditate on, a hundred years on from Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity , which opened the way to serious, informed speculation about these tremendous matters.
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Warm happy glow of the month . Home maintenance chore this month has been spackling. I hate spackling.
This is to do with my property’s standalone garage. The garage has a loft. For our first 24 years in this house, we paid no attention to the garage loft. It was a dark, filthy place, clogged with junk from previous homeowners going back to the 1940s.
It didn’t even have a floor , only some random planks thrown across the joists. Nor was there any ceiling. If you went up there — there was a crude, rotting wooden access ladder from below — you risked having your scalp ripped open by roofers’ nails. It seems to be a cardinal rule of roofing to use nails two inches longer than necessary when fixing the roof tiles in place. ORDER IT NOW
As the main house silted up with accumulated stuff , though, I began looking for extra storage space. And there it was: a nice unused space, twenty feet square, crammed with the junk of strangers long since passed on to their celestial rewards.
I cleaned it out. I installed a proper pull-down access ladder . I laid a proper floor. I hauled up tremendous 8’×4′ panels of drywall and screwed them to the roof beams. I put in windows at each end.
Then, to seal up the seams between panels and hide the screw holes, you have to spackle that drywall .
It’s a tiresome business. You can learn the essentials from YouTube; but the instructors all disagree with each other. This one says to use fiber tape on the joints; that one says no, fiber tape is for pros, stick with paper tape. This one wets the paper tape, this one doesn’t. This one says to spread the joint compound like this ; that one says to spread it like that ; a third one says to spread it like that but with a turn of the wrist thus . This one uses a special trowel for inside corners; that one says no, just do one wall, let it dry, then do the other. I was getting flashbacks to my time in Ed School amid those endless tiresome arguments about the best way to teach math.
I made all the mistakes amateurs make: used too much mud and ended up sanding three quarters of it off, etc., etc. Still, when I’d finished it didn’t look bad.
I called in my neighbor Charlie to do site inspection. Charlie worked for years in construction. He is a scrupulously truthful man (and a Trump supporter!) After looking over my spackling he declared it “Not bad.”
Not bad! That was my warm happy glow of the month right there. Bob Dylan is welcome to his Nobel Prize : I’ll take “Not bad” from Charlie.
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Quote of the month .
Freedom of speech and thought, such as we still more or less have, are very delicate and easily smashed.
Watching our current elite’s treatment of liberty is like watching a baboon carrying a priceless Ming vase across a stone-paved floor. [ Trust judges? I’d rather ask a baboon to carry a Ming vase by Peter Hitchens; MailOnline , October 29th 2016.]
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The Americans . The Mrs and I have been binge-watching the TV series The Americans , recommended by a friend.
The premise of the show is that in the late Cold War years of the 1980s, the U.S.S.R. had agents deep embedded in American life, living as ordinary suburban American couples with kids, but on call to carry out espionage missions. Its psychological appeal is to the fantasy we all nurse, from early childhood onward, of living a secret life of excitement and danger while keeping up an outward mask of humdrum social normality.
The plotting and characterization is very good, with a narrative “pull” that keeps you wanting to rent the next clutch of episodes. The storylines teeter on the edge of absurdity without ever quite falling over into the void.
Unfortunately I find that I am now in love with Annet Mahendru . When I confessed this to Mrs Derbyshire, she counter-confessed that she is in love with Noah Emmerich . The balance of domestic affections thus remains undisturbed, and we continue to watch The Americans with guiltless pleasure.
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Math Corner . The number three doesn’t get the respect it deserves, in my opinion.
Two is all over. We inhabit a universe of pairs: positive and negative, up and down, male and female, liberal and conservative, … there’s no end to the twos.
Three has less of a public profile. Threeness doesn’t have the deep, fundamental quality of twoness.
Not that three is altogether neglected. The Christian god is tripartite; heroes in fairy-tales are granted three wishes; and no-one thinks ill of underwear manufacturers marketing their products as small, medium, and large.
Patriots of many nations celebrate the fact of their flag having three colors. The French actually name their flag for this feature, which keys to the three ideals of the Revolution: liberty, fraternity, equity. English children used to be taught to sing : “Red, white, and blue / What does it mean to you / …,” although I suppose this would be considered a racist outrage nowadays. I see an opportunity for arbitrage here #TeachEcon pic.twitter.com/lyuzQKFHZz
— Jadrian Wooten (@Wootenomics) October 28, 2016
In math, one of the most striking objects in elementary Measure Theory (dealing with the lengths, areas, volumes, etc. of mathematical figures) is Cantor ‘s set, which has uncountably many points in it (i.e. too many to match off one-one with the counting numbers 1, 2, 3, …) yet has measure zero. Cantor’s set is arrived at by repeated division of a line segment into three parts; it is best grasped via ternary (base 3) notation . ORDER IT NOW
There is a dark, negative side to threeness, though. Three is often used to slight and marginalize: third-rate, three’s a crowd, third arm inspection (ask one of the older generation of military veterans), etc. The word “triage” has positively sinister connotations. The Hound of Hell had three heads.
This dark aspect was explored at length in Chapter Four of Paul Fussell’s fine book The Great War and Modern Memory . Fussell fills seven pages exploring the role played by threeness in the WW1 combat experience as filtered by the human imagination.
For the poet Charles Sorley the transformation of man into corpse is a three-part action. First, man; then, when hit, animal, writhing and thrashing in articulate agony or making horrible snoring noises; then a “thing.”
The under-appreciation of three is best seen in the realm of fractions. It is possible to find a ruler marked off in thirds of an inch — I own one — but halves and quarters are far more popular. We say “a quarter of an hour” all the time; when did you last hear someone say “a third of an hour”?
Is there a VDARE.com-relevant angle to any of this? Of course there is!
Looking at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Clock the other day, I found myself wondering when the population of our republic will reach a third of a billion. It’s almost there. That day, October 6th, around noon, the clock showed 324,647,530. The rate of increase — births minus deaths plus net immigration — was shown as one person every twelve seconds.
With 8,685,803 to go until we reach the magic number of 333,333,333, and assuming linear extrapolation, we get to a third of a billion sometime in the late evening of January 25th, 2020 (assuming I have done my arithmetic correctly, which should by no means be relied on).
Will there be national celebration? A public holiday? Street parties? I doubt it. Thirdness gets even less respect than threeness.
John Derbyshire [ ] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him. ) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books . He’s had t w o books published by VDARE.com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT ( also available in Kindle ) and From the Dissident Right II: Essays 2013 . His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com . (Reprinted from VDare.com by permission of author or representative) | 0 |
Donald J. Trump plans to announce his running mate before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this month, and has started an “Apprentice” search — meeting with possible candidates one by one and then posting on Twitter about it. (On Monday, he even praised on Twitter Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a running mate whom some Republicans nonetheless like because of his military service.) Below is a look at the four potential candidates for vice president whom the Trump campaign has already begun vetting: Why Mr. Trump would choose him: After dropping out of the Republican primary contest, Mr. Christie was one of Mr. Trump’s earliest endorsers — the sort of loyalty that goes far in his world. Mr. Christie has since emerged as a key figure behind the scenes, including running Mr. Trump’s transition team. Mr. Trump has said he would like to choose someone with government experience, and Mr. Christie’s leadership of a traditionally Democratic state, where he has pushed legislation through the New Jersey State House, could help in working with a deeply divided Congress. Mr. Christie himself is also brash enough to handle the outsize personality at the top of the ticket. Possible downside: Mr. Christie is still dealing with fallout from the George Washington Bridge scandal. Mr. Trump has also seemed dismissive of Mr. Christie at times on the campaign trail, once ordering him back to the plane after the governor had finished introducing the Manhattan businessman. And Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s who wields an increasingly influential role behind the scenes on the campaign team, has a fraught relationship with Mr. Christie, who as a prosecutor helped send his father to jail. _____ Why Mr. Trump would choose her: A mom from a socially conservative state, Ms. Ernst electrified the Republican establishment with her election to the Senate in 2014, and quickly emerged as one of the party’s rising stars and fresh faces. During her Senate bid, she garnered attention with an ad about pig castration and her promise to make the politicians in Washington “squeal” — an outsider ethos that matches that of Mr. Trump. She is an Iraq war veteran and retired National Guard lieutenant colonel, which could bring military and foreign policy experience — two areas in which Mr. Trump is lacking. And as a woman, she could help him shore up his standing with female voters among whom Mr. Trump trails far behind Hillary Clinton in polls. Possible downside: Elected to the Senate just two years ago, Ms. Ernst lacks a deep breadth of national governing experience. She was a disciplined if carefully managed candidate during her Senate bid, and it is unclear if she can withstand not just the media scrutiny of being the vice presidential pick, but also the general chaos of the Trump operation. _____ Why Mr. Trump would choose him: A former speaker of the House and Republican congressman from Georgia for two decades, Mr. Gingrich brings the governing experience and Washington that Mr. Trump says he wants in a running mate. Mr. Gingrich also seems eager for the job, and has the intellectual bona fides and dynamic personality to handle someone like Mr. Trump as his running mate. Possible downside: Mr. Gingrich was perhaps the most public face of partisan warfare with the Clintons during the 1990s, and was ultimately forced to resign his speakership after an ethics violation and poor showing from Republicans in the 1998 midterm elections. He is also a convert to Catholicism. _____ Why Trump would choose him: Mr. Pence, the popular governor of a Rust Belt swing state — President Obama narrowly won Indiana in 2008 Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, won it 2012 — is a favorite among social conservatives, and could help reassure a Republican base still skeptical about Mr. Trump’s credentials. Mr. Pence has twice toyed with a presidential run, and is locked in a close fight with John Gregg, a Democrat and former speaker of Indiana’s House of Representatives, making a place on Mr. Trump’s ticket potentially more appealing. Possible downside: Mr. Trump talks of expanding the electoral map and attracting a broad coalition to beat Mrs. Clinton, including some disaffected Democrats, link those who originally supported Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But Mr. Pence’s socially conservative stances, especially on gay rights, could turn off some of those voters. He also endorsed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in the Republican primary, but failed to deliver his home state. | 1 |
Pedals, a beloved American black bear who walked upright and strolled around the suburbs of New Jersey like a cartoon come to life, was believed to have been killed by a hunter last week, animal welfare activists said. His age was not known. Since 2014 residents of Rockaway Township have posted videos online of the bear strolling through their neighborhoods and backyards with admirable posture, his forepaws pulled close to his chest. Many commented that on first glance, Pedals resembled a man wearing a bear suit. But it appears that local celebrity was not enough to save Pedals during the state’s hunting season for black bears, which began on Monday and allowed hunters to kill bears with a bow and arrow for the first time since the 1960s. He was one of 487 bears killed by hunters in New Jersey last week. It was unknown whether Pedals walked upright because his forepaws were injured or if he had been born with a congenital defect, but either way his supporters had organized into an online community to promote his . On Friday, an administrator of a Facebook group dedicated to the bear posted an anguished statement for its more than 21, 000 followers. It was tagged “feeling heartbroken. ” “PEDALS IS DEAD,” the statement said, which accused the authorities of not doing enough to protect a local treasure and said the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Fish and Wildlife “really don’t have a heart. ” “For the hundreds and thousands of animals lovers who were following his story, I am sorry that we have this sad news to bring to you,” the statement said. “PEDALS is at peace now because his beautiful soul left his body when he was killed. ” The internet does not like it when a famous animal is killed (think of Cecil the Lion or of Harambe, the Cincinnati zoo gorilla turned into an unstoppable meme). The apparent death of Pedals at the hands of hunter was also met with the by now predictable online outrage. Gothamist reported that the bear had been “assassinated. ” Bob Considine, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said on Saturday that a dead bear with visible injuries had been brought into a check station last week. But in a statement the department cautioned that it had “no way of verifying the identity of any bear that has not been previously tagged or had a DNA sample previously taken. ” Mr. Considine said biologists working for the department had taken pictures of that bear and that they would soon be released to the public. “We plan on releasing them to whoever wants them early next week,” he said. Animal welfare activists had unsuccessfully tried to get Pedals relocated to a wildlife preserve in New York. A GoFundMe page dedicated to that effort collected more than $22, 000, and a petition calling on state officials to facilitate such a move gathered more than 300, 000 signatures. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country and its ursine residents have seen their numbers grow, too, since the 1980s, according to the Division of Fish and Wildlife. They have expanded their habitat from their traditional stamping grounds in the forested northwestern part of the state and have now been sighted in all 21 counties, the department said. Lisa who organized the petition to have Pedals relocated, did not respond to messages seeking comment on Saturday. Bears and humans typically live cheek by jowl with few problems but tragedy has struck before. In 2014, Darsh Patel, a Rutgers student was killed by a black bear while hiking with friends in West Milford, the first death caused by a bear in the state’s history. In 2015 a Boy Scout troop leader was injured in a bear attack while hiking with children in Rockaway Township. | 1 |
LOS ANGELES — It’s long, it’s classic and, a jury decided on Thursday, it’s an original. Led Zeppelin did not steal the opening riff of its rock anthem “Stairway to Heaven,” a federal jury ruled here, giving the band a victory in a copyright case in which millions of dollars were at stake. The case pitted an obscure song from the margins of rock history against one of the canonical hits of the genre. The suit was filed two years ago by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the songs of Randy Wolfe, a member of the band Spirit. It contends that the Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant had lifted substantial portions of the Spirit song “Taurus,” from 1968, for the beginning of “Stairway to Heaven,” which was released in 1971 and, by some estimates, has earned more than $500 million. Mr. Wolfe died in 1997 and complained of the similarity in interviews but never brought a suit. The case was filed shortly after a Supreme Court ruling allowed copyright infringement cases to go forward even after long delays. Lawyers for Mr. Skidmore presented evidence showing that the bands crossed paths while touring early in their careers, as well as testimony from music experts saying that both songs shared a similar chord progression and, most distinctively, a descending bass line in a chromatic scale. Mr. Plant and Mr. Page both testified that “Stairway to Heaven” had been composed independently, and that while both bands had played on the same bill a handful of times, they did not recall ever seeing Spirit perform and had no familiarity with “Taurus” until the lawsuit was brought. “I didn’t remember it then, and I don’t remember it now,” Mr. Plant said. The jury found that, although Mr. Page and Mr. Plant had access to “Taurus” before the release of “Stairway to Heaven,” the two songs’ original elements did not contain enough similarities. Before reaching the verdict on Thursday, the jury asked to listen to audio recordings of the introductions to both songs twice. “We are grateful for the jury’s conscientious service and pleased that it has ruled in our favor, putting to rest questions about the origins of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and confirming what we have known for 45 years,” Mr. Plant and Mr. Page said in a statement on Thursday. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Francis Malofiy, said an appeal was being considered. The statute of limitations for past copyright infringement is three years. The two sides presented widely different estimates of Led Zeppelin’s earnings from 2011 to 2014, when the case was filed. Experts for the plaintiff pointed to a $60 million music publishing deal that Mr. Page and Mr. Plant signed with Warner Music and suggested that a large portion of that could be attributed to “Stairway. ” But later in the trial, an accountant called by Led Zeppelin’s side put the amounts at $615, 000 for Mr. Page and $532, 000 for Mr. Plant. The trial was the second major case in a year to involve copyright issues and the music industry, after Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay $5. 3 million to the family of Marvin Gaye over their 2013 hit “Blurred Lines. ” That case, which has been appealed, has led to a wide debate in the music world over the limits of copyright protection, and whether the musical elements of homage — a song’s atmospherics, rhythms and overall “feel” — can cross the line into infringement. | 1 |
Oh, the politics are strong with this one. FBI Director James Comey just sent out a letter to the Republican Congressional Committee informing them that the FBI will be looking into more of Hillary Clinton’s emails. The discovery of the new emails was “in connection with an unrelated case.”
As Think Progress points out, all the letter really means is there are emails that were discovered that the FBI had not reviewed. It doesn’t mean a case is being “re-opened.” This does not say the FBI will be reexamining the information of the previous investigation. And, it doesn’t mean that all of a sudden criminal charges are going to be forthcoming. It means nothing, except, the FBI needs to read a few more emails that were missed in the previous investigation.
Even Comey says in his letter:
“The FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant.”
Read Republican James Comey’s letter, here:
Yet, the reality of this statement is lost on not only major media outlets who are reporting that the case has been “reopened,” but also our politicians. Paul Ryan’s response takes the cake, though. The Republican Speaker of the House went full knee-jerk with this one. He said in a statement :
“Yet again, Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame. She was entrusted with some of our nation’s most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information. This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators. I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.”
So, 11 days before our presidential election, we’ve had the FBI Director, who happens to be a Republican, release an ambiguous letter which touches on an unsubstantiated scandal for which the Democratic presidential candidate came out of clean as a whistle because charges couldn’t be justified. And now we’ve had the Speaker of the House call for the candidate’s intelligence briefings to be suspended “until this matter is fully resolved.”
Which, by the way, the FBI Director says he “cannot predict how long it will take to complete this additional work.”
Yeah, ok. Like this doesn’t have political ploy written all over it. How pathetic.
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Outgoing senator Harry Reid says he can't hide it anymore: "I want to be a reptile!"
Reid, who said his boyhood dream was to be some sort of lizard or snake, will finally make that dream come true when he retires in a few months.
"Lots of fellas my age just sit and watch the sunset" said Reid from his senate office, "But I got other ideas. Retirement is just a new start for me. I'll be shedding my skin, as they say, and I mean it."
This isn't a new idea for Reid. His senate colleagues say he's been talking about this for years. It's been a source of some regular admiration and mostly derisive, mocking admiration, as others in the senate say. But still a type of admiration.
"Yeah, this old world has been twistin' and contrivin' a whole lot since I started" Reid said in his characteristic folksy way, "And I hate everyone. That's why I want to change species."
Reid said he thought about becoming some kind of plant, then a bit closer to human, but he's "partial" to a reptilian path.
"I may go for Iguana" he offered, as "they got that really good tail." Reid hasn't settled on a choice quite yet.
Reid's wife reacted to the plan with her usual good humor. "Oh that Harry, he comes up with the craziest ideas." She said. "Last year, he wanted to buy a dirt bike!" Make Jeff Brone's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 0 |
Many people seek an easy formula for choosing better wines. I’m often asked if I can suggest a book, or a class, or a particular wine magazine. But trying to master the vast array of wine producers from almost all corners of the earth is a long, though fascinating, slog. I’m still trudging along that endless route myself. Fortunately, there is a simpler solution that does not require poring over tomes that daunt you with complexity, or pamphlets that mislead you by promising easy expertise. All you have to do is remember three words: Wine is food. This may sound absurd to people whose idea of wine appreciation is swilling a little red in a bar while their friends are downing cocktails or beer. It will make no sense to those for whom a glass of wine is merely the reward for arriving home after a hard day’s work, as others may enjoy a Scotch on the rocks or a martini. But wine in the classic sense is not a cocktail replacement. It is an integral part of a meal, served at the table, with food. And for me, a simple way to understand wine, to elevate the quality of what you consume and the pleasure you take in it, is to treat wine as if it were another staple of the table, just as you would the produce, meat and bread that you shop for and eat. In the last few decades, Americans have become far more conscious of the ingredients in their meals. Categories like organic foods, once the province of eccentric health nuts, are now mainstream and big business. Shopping is no longer a matter of driving the car to the supermarket and loading up it carries a host of ethical, political and aesthetic considerations. Where and how is food grown and raised? How are animals treated? Flavor, a factor that was once relegated to the bottom of the food industry’s list of priorities, is again front and center. The distance that food must travel is critical to many, as is the role of science and industry. All of these considerations are fundamental to the food revolution that has vastly improved both the quality of what we eat and the pleasure we take in it. Yet when it comes to wine, many who care deeply about their food are still drinking the equivalent of the square tomato. This blind spot has kept many consumers from asking questions about how their wine is made, even though they may be hyperconscious of the origins of the food they eat. What would happen if wine drinkers began to take an interest in the winemaking process? Make no mistake: Just as surely as supermarket aisles in the United States are lined with processed foods, the products of painstaking research into flavor components, manufacturing techniques and customer desires, so are they filled with bottles of processed wine. These wines are not the simple, pastoral expressions of an agricultural culture. They are wines, farmed industrially with chemical sprays, churned out in factories with technology and machinery and additives, and tailored, just as processed foods are, to specifications derived from substantial audience research and the use of focus groups. Most people don’t care about the intricacies of what they consume, as long as it tastes good to them. They have other priorities. But a significant minority do care about what they eat, enough so that farmers’ markets, butchers and bakers, restaurants and whole supermarket chains are now dedicated to providing great ingredients that meet heightened aesthetic, medical, moral and ethical considerations. Thinking about wine in the same way is a significant first step toward improving the quality of the wine you drink and the pleasure you take in it. Under federal law, a wine cannot be called organic unless it is made from grapes that have been certified as organic, has been fermented with organic yeast and has no added sulfur dioxide, a preservative that is used in all but the most natural of wines. Very few wines can be called organic, though many are made from organically grown grapes. That alone may offer no clues to the quality of the wine. Organic grapes, like industrially farmed grapes, can be processed in the winery with great artifice and little regard for producing a forthright product. What’s more, many small farmers of great integrity work organically, or adhere to even stricter principles than the definition requires, but don’t bother certifying their work because of the expense and bureaucracy involved. So labels are not always meaningful. Even more important than labels like “organic” would be a greater sense of transparency in how grapes are grown and wine is made. Processed foods are required to list all the ingredients used during production. Why should wine be immune to such labeling requirements? Many decisions are made after scanning the ingredient labels of competing products. Shouldn’t we want to know what’s in our wine, too? The wine industry has long argued that consumers would find ingredient labels confusing or incomprehensible. That may be true, but it’s irrelevant. Who among us understands the ingredients that go into, say, a breakfast cereal? Millions of people could not care less and buy these products anyway. But with comprehensive labeling, those who want to avoid artificial or suspect ingredients have the opportunity to do so. They should have the same opportunity with wine. And you can bet that once people begin to ask questions about the ingredients and processes involved in making wine, the industry will begin to cater more to this growing group of educated consumers. Thinking of wine as food will affect shopping decisions in another important way. Many people who may care enough to buy meat, fish, bread and produce from specialty purveyors or farmers’ markets continue to buy their wine in supermarkets, retailers or convenience stores. If you care about wine, that is a mistake. You may happen on a good bottle, but chances are you will not. For that, you need a store run by passionate devotees who do much of the advance work for you. A good wine shop or online merchant with a point of view, like a great butcher or baker, will have performed a rigorous selection process before making its wares available to consumers. Knowing that you are in a good wine shop can sharpen your down to issues of taste and occasion rather than quality. Treating wine as food clarifies the notion of what it is you have on the table. It simplifies wine and makes it more approachable. And it leads to the same conclusion: To drink better wine, you must ultimately find a better wine source. | 1 |
The L. A. Times have published a scathing editorial about the protesters who ran riot at Berkeley last week, calling them the “No Free Speech Movement. ”[The label is an inversion of the Free Speech Movement, an student activist group that was founded at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. Even if the cancellation was justified by concerns about public safety after an outbreak of violence and property destruction, the fact that Yiannopoulos was prevented from speaking to a willing audience of campus Republicans should make supporters of free speech shiver. The article goes on to say that President Trump’s threat to withdraw federal funds is a “ ” reaction, and accuses MILO of “generalizing” his critics’ objections to his talks, but continues to condemn the opponents of free speech at Berkeley. Yet it’s also true that, on colleges campuses and elsewhere, some “progressive” voices do call for the stifling of speech they don’t approve of. A leaflet circulated at the Berkeley protest said Yiannopoulos has “no right to speak at Cal or anywhere else” because he’s a “tool of Trump’s possessive fascist government. ” This is just the latest variation on the argument of the censor that “error has no rights,” or, put another way, that one only has a right to free speech if one is speaking the “truth. ” It’s an insidious notion that needs to be opposed in every generation. Read the full article at the L. A. Times. | 1 |
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The Houthi-Saleh Alliance has taken control over several strategic villages in al-Khobeh region, killing tens of Saudi soldiers and destroying their military hardware.
The Houthi-Saleh Alliance continued its advances in the province of Jizan , located in southern Saudi Arabia, taking full control over several strategic villages in al-Khobeh region, Arabic-language media reported on Saturday, citing a senior Ansarullah Commander, Nasreddin Ameri.
According to Ameri, tens of Saudi soldiers lost their lives and many more of them fled the battlefield after 12 hours of clashes with fighters of the alliance. He also added that “six armored Bradly tanks and two Abrams tanks of the Saudi Army were destroyed, while other Saudi military hardware was also set on fire by Yemeni troops.”
Last week, Saudi Arabia’s military bases, located in Assir, Jizan and Najran provinces of the kingdom, were pounded by artillery units of the Houthi-Saleh Alliance. As result, Saudi troops suffered heavy losses.
According to reports, Yemeni fighters and their allies struck gatherings of the Saudi forces, stationed in the northern part of Midi desert near the village of al-Mousem in Jizan province. The Saudi Mosan military base, located in the southern part of the kingdom, as well as the Manfaz border checkpoint in Assir province were also hit by the alliance. As a result of the attacks, a large number of Saudi soldiers were killed. Two armored vehicles of Saudi military were destroyed by the Houthi-Saleh Alliance near the al-Khazra border checkpoint. All members of the crews were killed.
Earlier in November, the al-Ahad information website reported that residents of more than 60% of Saudi Arabia’s villages, located along the border with Yemen , had been evacuated by the kingdom’s border guards. According to commander of the al-Arezeh Border Guards in the province of Jizan, Lieutenant Ali al-Amri, the evacuation was carried out on an order of senior Saudi officials.
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[VIDEO] Muslims Demand That Crosses Are Removed From A Catholic University Because They Find Them Offensive Oct 28, 2016 Previous post
Obama continuously claims that Muslims do not what to change our culture and Sharia Law is not coming to the United States. Yet, Yale Law School has opened up an Islamic Law Center for students to study Sharia Law and in Germany, an 8-month pregnant woman was beaten for wearing a cross, because it’s against Sharia Law. Now, a professor at a rival college is upset that Washington D.C.’s Catholic University of America has crosses covering the classrooms and does not have a designated space for their Muslim students to pray.
Now, Muslims are complaining about crosses hanging up in the classroom of a Catholic University in Washington D.C. The complaint says that the crosses at the Washington D.C.’s Catholic Univeristy of America are “offensive” and prevent Muslims from praying within the vicinity of them. This may come as a shock to many, but it is just the latest occurrence of demands for the United States to implement and maintain Sharia Law adherence. The complaint was filed with the Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights by a Professor Banzhaf from the rivaling college of George Washington University saying that there are in fact “too many crosses in every room of Washington D.C.’s Catholic Univeristy of America” which is a “human rights violation that prevents Muslim students from praying there.” Officials of the Washington D.C.’s Catholic Univeristy of America said that they were not aware of any complaints from any of the Muslim students who attended.
Professor Banzhaf already has a pending lawsuit against Washington D.C.’s Catholic University of America for terminating its policy of mixed-gender dorms. Professor Banzhaf also has a rather long history of filing civil rights lawsuits on topics that range from smoking to childhood obesity. Part of the lawsuit states the Catholic University “does not provide space – as other universities do – for the many daily prayers Muslim students must make, forcing them instead to find temporarily empty classrooms where they are often surrounded by Catholic symbols which are incongruous to their religion.”
Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society was quoted as saying that “this attorney is really turning civil rights on its head. He’s using the law for his own discrimination against the Catholic institution and essentially saying Catholic University cannot operate according to its Catholic principles.”
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SAN FRANCISCO — When Amazon introduced its Echo device in late 2014, Google executives were caught off guard. For years, they had predicted the creation of a virtual assistant that would answer questions or help accomplish tasks, and they focused on building that capability into smartphones and tablets. Amazon took a different approach and created the Echo, a device with the sole purpose of showcasing the company’s artificially intelligent assistant software, called Alexa. Since then, the Echo has become a surprise hit, vaulting Amazon ahead of Google in a race to build technology that interacts as humans do. Users can ask Alexa to play music, dim the lights or call for a ride. For Google, whose name is synonymous with finding answers on the internet, Amazon’s success with Alexa exposed a vulnerability. Google, along with its parent company, Alphabet, has invested heavily to solve the technology world’s toughest problems, but it often trails competitors in turning those advancements into products and businesses. On Tuesday, Google is expected to finally unveil its answer to the Echo, alongside new smartphones and tablets. The Google Home device, which looks a little like an air freshener, is expected to go on sale later this month. Google Home is powered by what Google calls the Assistant, which uses artificial intelligence to understand what users are saying and respond conversationally with the best answers. Google introduced a messaging app last month that incorporates the Assistant, and the company plans to add the feature to its latest smartphones and tablets. Given the newness of the market for artificially intelligent home gadgets, Google has plenty of time to close the gap. The company believes it can win over consumers with a smarter digital assistant that builds on its stronghold in search and years of research in artificial intelligence. But the fact that Google was outmaneuvered by Amazon — not Apple, which builds its own digital assistant technology, called Siri, into its mobile products — has caused throughout the technology industry. Amazon has a notoriously uneven track record in making hardware, with some hits, like the Kindle and spectacular whiffs, like the Fire Phone. “Amazon is the accidental winner here,” said Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “Amazon got there first, which is superimpressive, and it has been a huge hit. ” Google is a leader in natural language processing — the ability to turn spoken words into terms that computers can digest — and its search engine is the starting point for how most people get answers on the internet. In fact, the company says 20 percent of Google searches on mobile phones are done by voice. So why didn’t Google create an device before Amazon? In part, Google was hindered by a balkanized structure that prevented different groups within the company from working together, according to four current and former employees. Google, based in Mountain View, Calif. had a large team working on voice search but its focus was on an app for smartphones. The company had a separate team working on the Android operating system, which runs on smartphones, tablets and home devices, and they were building virtual assistant technology into mobile devices. Google bought Nest Labs, a manufacturer of thermostats and smoke detectors, for $3. 2 billion in 2014 as an entree into the home. But the unit seldom collaborated with the rest of the company. And other Google hardware divisions responsible for building smartphones, tablets, Chromebook computers, routers and Chromecast devices to stream video were focused on updating products. A competitor for the Echo, it seems, fell through the cracks. This is not the first time Amazon has jumped ahead of Google, despite the search company’s considerable technological edge. From its inception, Google has devoted enormous resources to operating efficient data centers to power its many services. But it was Amazon that identified an opportunity in renting out its technology infrastructure to companies in need of computing power, storage and data analysis. That business, called Amazon Web Services, is now on pace to generate more than $10 billion in revenue this year, while Google is playing . A lack of focus can at times compound these issues. Google encourages its employees to spend 20 percent of their time pursuing new ideas beyond their usual responsibilities. Products like Gmail emerged from this policy, but it also fosters a that, according to one former employee, leads Google to chase too many ideas. “Part of the problem is that it has a scattershot approach to things,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. When pursuing new ideas, he said, “they don’t always make big bets strategically. ” Google has spent seven years working on cars, for example, and it is still not clear how the company plans to cash in on its work. By contrast, Uber, which started as a company around the time that Google started work on autonomous vehicles, is already testing cars to pick up customers in Pittsburgh. Despite its many successes, Google has a spotty history of creating devices. In 2012, Google introduced an speaker called the Nexus Q. The vision was for the device to plug into a home entertainment system for streaming music or video, a sort of hybrid of an Apple TV and a Sonos speaker. But Google killed the product before it even started shipping it to consumers. Also in 2012, Google bought the phone manufacturer Motorola for $12. 5 billion. The next year, it introduced the Moto X, the first smartphone equipped with a listening chip so users could bring the phone to life by uttering the words “O. K. Google. ” It has pushed this feature into the latest phones running its Android operating system. Apple’s more recent iPhones and iPads have a similar feature, activated by the words “Hey Siri. ” But what makes the Amazon Echo stand out is a technology called a microphone that can make out someone’s voice from across a room, even when there is background clatter. And the Echo is always in position to listen for the wake word — Alexa — whereas phones are often tucked away in pockets and bags. According to a former employee, Google has tinkered with audio, but its focus was on the car, not a home device. Amazon invested in artificial intelligence and speech technologies in the years before unveiling Echo, but its most crucial asset was its strength in the cloud computing market, which it dominates with Amazon Web Services, or A. W. S. The vast majority of Echo’s intelligence is contained in A. W. S. and most of the apps that developers have built for Alexa run on the cloud service. “The most important architectural vision is that it’s all in the cloud,” Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president for devices and services, said in an interview this year. Amazon says tens of thousands of developers are creating skills for Alexa, more than 3, 000 of which have been released so far. And thousands of developers are working to incorporate Alexa’s voice capabilities into their hardware products. Last month, GE Appliances announced an Alexa app that lets people preheat a connected oven with voice commands. Chris Herbert, chief executive of a called TrackR that makes wireless beacons for finding misplaced keys and wallets, recently released an app for Alexa that allows people to find their items with voice commands. Mr. Herbert said he had looked at the voice offerings from both Google and Apple, but neither company yet offered the same range of capabilities as Amazon, because they viewed it as an feature to phones as opposed to a computer. “It’s kind of to me,” he said. | 1 |
A federal appeals court in New York has thrown out a $655. 5 million verdict rendered last year that had held the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization liable for their roles in supporting terrorist attacks in Israel that claimed American lives. In reversing the verdict on Wednesday in the case, which drew the attention of the Obama administration, the appeals court did not minimize the impact of the six terrorist attacks, which occurred from 2002 to 2004, but it held that the Federal District Court in Manhattan had lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case. “The terror attacks and suicide bombings that triggered this suit and victimized these plaintiffs were unquestionably horrific,” said a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan. “But the federal courts cannot exercise jurisdiction in a civil case beyond the limits prescribed by the due process clause of the Constitution,” the court added, “no matter how horrendous the underlying attacks or morally compelling the plaintiffs’ claims. ” The plaintiffs included 10 families, comprising about three dozen people, eight of whom were physically injured in the attacks, as well as the estates of several victims who were killed. The suit was brought under the Act, which provided for the tripling of the $218. 5 million in damages awarded by a Manhattan jury. The law, which allows United States citizens who are the victims of international terrorism to sue in the federal courts, was passed some years after the 1985 murder of Leon Klinghoffer in the Palestinian hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Kent A. Yalowitz, a lawyer for the families in the case, said in a statement that the law had been passed by Congress “to protect Americans wherever in the world they traveled. ” “The very terrorists who prompted the law have now hidden behind the U. S. Constitution to avoid responsibility for their crimes,” Mr. Yalowitz said. “This cruel decision must be corrected so that these families may receive justice. ” Mr. Yalowitz said the plaintiffs were weighing their options, which could include seeking review by the full appeals court, or asking the United States Supreme Court to hear the case. The attacks in Israel occurred on the street, at a crowded bus stop and inside a bus, and in a cafeteria on the Hebrew University campus. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the P. L. O. ’s executive committee who testified for the defense in the trial, expressed satisfaction with the appeals court’s decision, saying, “I hope this is the end of it. ” Speaking by telephone from Ramallah in the West Bank, Ms. Ashrawi said, “Finally the American justice system proved its impartiality. ” She added that the decision “restores my faith in the judicial system. ” The jury in the trial, which ended in February 2015, heard emotional testimony from victims and witnesses in the attacks. But in finding that the federal court lacked jurisdiction, the appellate panel ruled that the connections between the Palestinian defendants and the United States were not sufficient to give the trial court the power to hear the plaintiffs’ claims. Judge John G. Koeltl, writing for the panel, said the attacks in Israel had not been “expressly aimed at the United States,” and evidence presented by the plaintiffs had established the attacks’ “random and fortuitous nature. ” “Evidence at trial showed that the shooters fired ‘indiscriminately,’” the judge wrote, “and chose sites for their suicide bomb attacks that were ‘full of people,’ because they sought to kill ‘as many people as possible. ’” The decision was joined by Judges Pierre N. Leval and Christopher F. Droney. The trial judge, George B. Daniels, had required the Palestinian Authority to post a bond of $10 million and an additional $1 million monthly to appeal the case. The bond is typically 111 percent of the judgment, but the authority said it could not afford that. Lawyers for the victims had objected to the lower amount, but the authority won support from an unexpected source: the Obama administration. Officials at the Justice and State Departments had asked Judge Daniels to consider the ramifications of requiring too high a bond, suggesting that doing so could cause economic and political harm to the Palestinian Authority and the broader peace process. “A P. A. insolvency and collapse would harm current and future U. S. efforts to achieve a solution to the conflict,” Antony J. Blinken, the deputy secretary of state, said in a court filing in August 2015. The government’s filing came after sharp debate between officials at the State and Justice Departments over the strategy to take in the case. | 1 |
Despite being present in the country long before its independence, the Christians in Pakistan are among the nation’s most persecuted victims of social discrimination, mob violence, and the threat of terrorist attacks. [In Lahore, the Christian community recently celebrated its first Easter without an attack on its churches since 2014. The Pakistani army announced that they had foiled this year’s plot to attack the community, finding suicide vests and other weapons in the home of a suspected jihadist. On Easter 2015, suicide bombers targeted two churches in Lahore on Easter, killing fourteen. The next year, a bomb claimed by the Pakistani Taliban targeted a Lahore park, killing 72 and injuring hundreds, mostly women and children. As the leader of the Catholic community there, Archbishop Sebastian Shaw OFM of Lahore faces the formidable task of keeping his community’s spirits high while engaging the majority Muslim community in order to turn the tides of suspicion against Christians. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News arranged alongside the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the Archbishop emphasized the need for interfaith dialogue and education for Christians in creating a more tolerant and peaceful Pakistan, the former necessary for breaking down unfounded stereotypes and the latter to allow for better dialogue. The better Christians know their own faith, he noted, the better equipped they are to educate those of other religions who may see Christians as a threat to national stability. “Children should have a good knowledge of their own religion,” he explained. “If we talk to people for interreligious dialogue, one has to know about his or her own religion. Otherwise, [dialogue] turns into debate, and debate ends in enmity and sour relations. ” “We are a very small minority, but we are very strong in faith and very loyal and faithful to the country,” Archbishop Shaw emphasized. “Christians are in the army, they are in the judiciary, in the schools and education, hospitals. All together we are working for the progress and fortification of Pakistan. ” In the however, the Archbishop noted that Christians must live with the reality that they will face threats of violence from terrorists and mobs incensed by accusations of blasphemy and that includes heavy investments in security and cooperation with the Pakistani government. “Christian volunteers are very alert, we have to be very alert and vigilant for any big event. It’s not good, but this is the way we are living now,” he lamented. “The pressure [from violent actors] is there, sometimes growing, but at the same time, all government agencies are more alert. When they have security meetings, they invite our churches also, so in this way, the network is very good. ” The local Catholic Church is investing in a variety of new security measures for its churches, from higher fences to security cameras to armed guards, he said. Christian officials and volunteers reach out to politicians who sympathize with the community as well. Most importantly to the Archbishop, however, were appeals to interfaith dialogue and eradicating the belief that Christians were somehow less patriotic or more loyal to foreign powers than Muslim Pakistanis. “After [the September 11, 2001, attacks] — before that also, but more after — many people thought that to be Christian in Pakistan means we are allies to America or the West,” he noted. “So that’s why many of our churches and institutions were attacked. ” “Through interreligious dialogue, people of different faiths came together, we started talking, sharing ideas about peace, coexistence, and how to make our society a better society for everyone,” the Archbishop added. “We started explaining that God has given us this planet, this planet is for everybody, a person is free to have his or her own religion, that is a choice God gives us. ” Archbishop Shaw noted that not all action against Christian persecution is dialogue, however. He highlighted the need for Christians to practice Christianity towards all, particularly through charity acts, to show Pakistani Muslims that there is no need to fear or attack Christians. He noted a particular instance in which Christians united to aid victims of a major flood. “People knew that [the charity work] was within the church, and the church was helping people with the reconstruction of houses, building of schools,” he noted. “The schools are for everybody — in all our schools, 90 percent of students are Muslims — so they know that Christians, especially Catholics, are serving all people regardless of creed or religion. ” Christian schools have long served Muslims in Pakistan, particularly the nation’s higher classes who have the means to choose their children’s education. “Christian schools and universities are a prominent part of the Pakistani educational system and are highly regarded by Muslims and the Pakistani government,” Sara Singha explains in her chapter in Christianity and Freedom: Volume 2, Contemporary Perspectives. “Many of these schools incorporate Christian values into curricula and are preferred by Muslim elites because of their moral and educational training. ” To those he serves, Archbishop Shaw delivers a simple message of hope: “If you are born in Pakistan, be happy because God has a purpose for you. If not, you would have been born in America or somewhere else. Try to understand the purpose of your being and purpose of your life to become a true follower of Christ and give witness to the lessons of risen Christ. ” He highlights what he calls “the two F’s: don’t live in fear, and do not fight. ” “Jesus gave us a new commandment: love one another,” he explains. “We should have a point of view of the world that we are not here to fight with anybody and we are also not here to live in fear. We are here to respect ourselves and respect other people. We feel it is the right approach to work for coexistence and a peaceful society in the future. ” | 1 |
Camden, New Jersey: One Of Hundreds Of U.S. Cities That Are Turning Into Rotting, Decaying Hellholes December 15th, 2013
All over America, formerly prosperous communities are being transformed into crime-infested wastelands of poverty and despair. Of course the most famous example of this is Detroit . At one time, Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city that the world had ever seen and it had the highest per capita income in the entire country. But now it has become a rotting, decaying hellhole that the rest of the planet laughs at. And of course Detroit is far from alone. There are hundreds of other U.S. cities that are suffering a similar fate. In this article, the focus is going to be on Camden, New Jersey, but the truth is that there are lots of other “Detroits” and “Camdens” all over the nation. Jobs and businesses are leaving our cities at a staggering rate, and what is being left behind is poverty, crime and extreme desperation.
Earlier this month, Rolling Stone published an article that took a hard look at the nightmare conditions that exist in Camden. A city that once made Campbell’s soup and some of this nation’s most famous warships is now a national disgrace. The following are six of the best quotes out of that article…
-“In September, its last supermarket closed, and the city has been declared a “food desert” by the USDA. The place is literally dying, its population having plummeted from above 120,000 in the Fifties to less than 80,000 today.”
-“Their home is a city with thousands of abandoned houses but no money to demolish them, leaving whole blocks full of Ninth Ward-style wreckage to gather waste and rats.”
-“With legal business mostly gone, illegal business took hold. Those hundreds of industries have been replaced by about 175 open-air drug markets, through which some quarter of a billion dollars in dope moves every year.”
-“On January 18th, 2011, the city laid off 168 of its 368 police officers, kicking off a dramatic, years-long, cops-versus-locals, house-to-house battle over a few square miles of North American territory that should have been national news, but has not been, likely because it took place in an isolated black and Hispanic ghost town.”
-“After the 2011 layoffs, police went into almost total retreat. Drug dealers cheerfully gave interviews to local reporters while slinging in broad daylight.”
-“The carnage left Camden’s crime rate on par with places like Haiti after its 2010 earthquake, and with other infamous Third World hot spots, as police officials later noticed to their dismay when they studied U.N. statistics.”
You can read the rest of the article right here . But as bad as things have become in Camden, this should not be a surprise to most of you. The reality is that this kind of rot and decay is happening in communities all over the United States.
Over in Detroit, crime has gotten so bad that even the police are telling people to “ enter Detroit at your own risk “. When you call the police in Detroit it takes them an average of 58 minutes to respond, and more than 90 percent of the crimes committed in the city end up as unsolved mysteries.
At this point, 60 percent of all children in Detroit are living in poverty, and there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.
For much more on all this, check out the statistics in this article , and you can find some great photos of the “ruins of Detroit” right here .
So why is all of this happening?
Well, there are lots of factors involved of course, but the biggest one is the lack of good jobs in these cities.
At one time, Detroit had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the entire nation. But now those days are long gone.
And what is happening to Detroit is precisely what is happening to America as a whole. Our good jobs are disappearing and the middle class is being systematically destroyed .
In order to have a middle class, you have got to have middle class jobs.
There is no way around that.
And right now, hordes of young people are graduating from college and discovering that the middle class jobs that they were promised simply are not there.
CNN recently profiled a 37-year-old college graduate named Bobby Bingham. Because he cannot find a good job, he is forced to work four low paying jobs…
Bobby Bingham works four jobs in Kansas City, Missouri, yet he has very little to show for it.
Bingham is 37 years old and has a college degree, but like many Americans, is stuck working many hours in low wage, part-time jobs.
Each week, he works a total of about 60 hours in his jobs as a massage therapist, a waiter at a Mexican restaurant, a delivery man for sandwich chain Jimmy John’s and a receptionist at his massage school.
Bingham makes approximately $400 a week, which works out to about $20,000 a year. He has come to the conclusion that he may never be able to make enough to support a family…
“I’ve come to the point in my life where I wonder if I can ever support a family,” he said. “I have no idea how that’s ever going to logically happen.”
That deeply saddened my heart when I read that. Here is a young man that wants to get married, have a family and do all the right things, but the economy is so bad that he fears that this may never be possible for him.
As I have written about previously, the economic downturn that we are experiencing right now has hit men particularly hard . The number of men in their prime working years that do not make enough money to support a family is rising with each passing year, and this is causing massive problems in this country.
And when our politicians proclaim that all we need is “more education”, I feel like vomiting. The U.S. population as a whole has more “education” today than it ever has had before.
If you think that “more education” is the answer, then check out the following excerpt from a recent interview with a law school graduate that is making about $40,000 a year and that has about $200,000 in law school debt…
Yes, it’s extremely hard to get by. I can’t afford rent or a car and can barely afford food. Anything extra like enjoying myself with friends, going to a movie, traveling, etc. — that’s all out the window for the foreseeable future and possibly for the rest of my life thanks to law school. I live with my parents. I don’t have a car. I don’t go out to socialize. I don’t date. I don’t buy new clothes. I don’t buy electronics. I don’t buy much of anything. I spend my free time working other jobs to put more money toward my debt. I do contract work for other lawyers, but the pay is very low and payment is sporadic.
Why did this happen to him? Well, the truth is that there are way, way too many law school graduates. There are not nearly enough good jobs for all of them. In fact, this particular law school graduate deeply regrets ever going to law school and considers it “an extraordinary waste of money”…
I consider law school a waste of my life and an extraordinary waste of money. I feel like I was duped and tricked. At the end of the day, it’s my own fault for being a sucker and I learned an extremely hard lesson. Because I went to law school, I don’t see myself having a family, earning a comfortable wage, or having an enjoyable lifestyle.
But at least he has a job. There are millions of college graduates that do not. And there are hundreds of thousands of other college graduates that are currently working as waiters and waitresses. Large numbers are also working temp jobs or standing behind registers in retail stores.
Over the past decade, tens of thousands of businesses and millions of good jobs have left this country. The quality of the jobs that remain continues to decline at a frightening pace , and most of the new jobs that are being “created” these days are part-time jobs.
But you won’t hear the mainstream media or our most prominent politicians talk about these things much. You won’t hear them talk about the fact that median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row or about the fact that the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row .
The middle class is dying .
Wake up America.
And even as millions of our jobs have been shipped to the other side of the planet, some of the most prominent “American companies” have been bought up by foreigners. The following list comes from a recent Economy In Crisis article … —–
Here are some of America’s most famous brands currently held in foreign hands: Budweiser, now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V., which is based in Leuven, Belgium Alka-Seltzer, now owned by German company Bayer Schering Pharma AG Ben & Jerrys, now owned by British-Dutch Unilever AMC theaters, now owned by the Chinese 7-Eleven, now owned by the Japanese company, Seven & I Holdings Woman’s Day Magazine, now owned by the French company, Hachette Filipacchi Médias, S.A Purina, now owned by the Swiss company, Nestle Gerber, now owned by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Novartis Firestone, now owned by the Japanese Bridgestone Corporation Citgo, now owned by the government of Venezuela French’s Mustard, now owned by Reckitt Benckiser, a British conglomerate Frigidaire, now owned by Sweden’s AB Electrolux The Plaza Hotel in New York City, now owned by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva’s El-Ad Group Trader Joes, now owned by German billionaires Karl and Theo Albrecht Dial soap, now owned by Henkel KGaA, based in Dusseldorf, Germany Sunglass Hut, now owned by Italian eyewear seller Luxottica Group —–
Are you starting to get the picture?
Our economic infrastructure is being absolutely gutted and more than 46 million Americans are now living in poverty.
And if you are waiting for the jokers in Washington D.C. to fix things, you are going to be waiting for a very, very long time.
Over the past several years, both the Democrats and the Republicans have proven again and again that they are basically completely and totally useless. In fact, just about everything that they try to do actually makes our problems even worse.
In just a few days, Barack Obama leaves for a 17 day holiday vacation in Hawaii. Many have criticized him and the members of Congress for taking so much time off, but perhaps that is the best thing that they can do at this point. As long as they are away from Washington D.C., at least they won’t be making things even worse for all the rest of us. Dent, Faber, Celente, Maloney, Rogers – What Do They Say Is Coming In 2014? » MegaLiberty74
It’s the deindustrialization of America by big government through taxations, fines, fees, extreme regulations, etc. Eventually, the business owner who can’t pay in D.C. to get exempted from such criminal government as like we are seeing with Obamacare, they throw their hands up and say DONE.
Who’s John Galt? This was all predicted and it’s basic economics. JoeD
John Galt was a creepy celibate perv who settled on being dirty thirds with Dagny Taggart.
America as an industrial power could never compete with the rest of the world once the rug was pulled out from under its feet. You blame taxes and regulation but that’s what comes with maintaining a first world country. No way to compete with the China’s of the world that are willing to poison their people with toxic pollution and have billions of people willing to work for slave wages. Of course instead of choosing to protect ourselves we decided it would be a better idea to save a few bucks at Walmart. jox
To reduce the taxes you should cut military expenses, not healthcare nor education. Sonar
So tell that to communist China and Russia which are both increasing military expenditures while spending very little on social services for their people? some-buh-day
Another masterpiece, Michael. That last paragraph is golden lol. Don’t forget that people are leaving the country in record numbers also 1stworlder
Those are productive people trying to go Galt to somewhere with lower taxes Chris
Ross Perot warned us this would eventually happen, but we failed to listen. In all honesty, we deserve everything we’re getting now. We voted for all of this. Politicians realized a long time ago that most people were uniformed about what was happening around them, thus allowing them to pass these ludicrous trade agreements that only benefited a handful of individuals. I’m afraid it’s too late to save the ship now. Rodster
It was the “giant sucking sound”, so true. Mondobeyondo
The “giant sucking sound” is coming from DC. 2Gary2
the giant sucking sound is conservative policies sucking the wealth of the middle class up to their 1% who they exclusively represent. Sonar
the giant sucking sound is progressive/liberal/leftist/socialist/communist policies sucking the wealth of the middle class up to their 1% cronies like George Soros along with bankers and hedge funds managers who put their stooge into the White House dbomb12
Don’t forget the “CONSERVATIVE” heritage foundation supported NAFTA. The left / right paradigm is the real divider. All polititcians are part of the same culb and we are not in it FUKyiah
WHAT conservative policies? What planet are you from? I’ll bet your parents were related BEFORE they got married. nestazhe265
Aunty Elena got a real nice Porsche Boxster by working off of a computer… Read Full Report Big29.ℂom FounderChurch
We need more of THE RIGHT KIND, and fewer of the wrong kind. By that I mean dumb America haters and I think you would qualify on both counts. Why do you pretend to be so dense and dumb? You know what I meant to start with, and if you are too slow to get it, well then, I just told you. Pablo Solano
Laughable. Spouting meaningless rubbish. It saddens me to think of the trees that produced oxygen that has been wasted on you. GSOB
I didn’t vote for any of this. In fact, I voted for Ross Perot. Geoff Gariepy
Ross Perot was looking out for Ross Perot. Mondobeyondo
So did I. He would have made a difference if he had been elected. But this is a democracy, er, constitutional republic, and the people wanted Clinton. Kannin
The people didn’t want Clinton! He won with less than 50% of the vote. Ross Perot only served to divide the conservative vote. djc
I voted for him twice. Its all really hopeless at this stage of the game. JulietteofOhio
WE don’t deserve this and WE didn’t fail to listen.There just weren’t enough of US to make a difference, but WE are suffering along with everyone else. I do agree it’s too late to save the ship. J Hall
And the opportunity is likely to come sooner than most expects. Mondobeyondo
How did these politicians get to such high levels of power? Someone voted for them. We don’t have coup d’etats in America (or do we?)
Detroit is my favorite example of mismanagement. And NO, it has NOTHING to do with black politicians in charge for the past 60 years there. It’s government mismanagement, Kannin
It was mismanagement and the unions. At the same time the government was growing too large too fast… and giving in to the public unions, the private unions were killing manufacturing jobs. What followed was fewer jobs and higher taxes to help support the bloated city. Then the wealthiest and the middle class fled to the burbs, and left the city to the poorest… who cannot afford to support the massive amounts of infrastructure and retirees. You can draw a very clear line between Detroit, Michigan and 20 other cities and states… St. Louis, Chicago, California and Illinois to name a few… mismanaged by liberal governments and unions… both, private and public. Annette Smith
I am so surprised that California has not declared bankruptcy. I don’t know how it gets along. Used to live there, and glad we don’t anymore. El Pollo de Oro
Chris: to this day, I hate Rush “Pillhead” Limbaugh with a passion for trashing Ross Perot. Pillhead was a big supporter of NAFTA and called Perot a racist for opposing it. But Perot was absolutely right about that “giant sucking sound.” Americans ignored Perot at their own peril, and I think you’re right about it being too late to save the ship now. Welcome to the Third World. Chris
EI Pollo de Oro: NAFTA and the rest of the free trade agreements were never meant to help us “little people.” Its sole purpose was to turn First World countries into Third World dumps. If they pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, then it’s lights out for good. El Pollo de Oro
Chris: That’s exactly what NAFTA (No American Factories Taking Applications) was designed to do: turn major developed economies into Third World toilets. And CAFTA made things even worse because it sent out a message that if globalists though minimum-wage workers in México were overpaid, they could always move to countries that are even poorer (Honduras, Guatemalan, El Salvador). Globalism is truly a race to the bottom just as Perot predicted. Sequoia
NAFTA also screwed the Mexican people,because it wiped out all of the small family farms.Now the campesinos in Michoacan and other agriculture areas have to compete with the big Agribusiness corpotations in the USSA, and of course they can’t compete with them. The campesinos went broke and could’t compete and some of them had no choice than abandon their farms and try to cross the border ilegally into the USSA,to find work and survive. If there was no NAFTA,most of these people would have stayed in their home states,in Mexico Farming and surviving. NAFTA has screwed the Amaeicans, Mexicans and Canadians El Pollo de Oro
Sequoia: Excellent point about how badly NAFTA hurt campesinos in México. Although globalists won’t admit it, there’s a major connection between NAFTA and all the narcoviolencia south of the border. When campesinos lost their livelihood, los carteles took full advantage of that and put them to work. Sonar
NAFTA was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 8, 1993 and entered force January 1, 1994. Although it was signed by President Bush, it was a priority of President Clinton’s, and its passage is considered one of his first successes by the Democrat Party. El Pollo de Oro
Sonar: NAFTA is one of the many reasons I’m neither a Republi-con nor a Democrap. Clinton and Gore supported NAFTA along with Rush “Pillhead” Limbaugh and the Heritage Foundation. It was bipartisan rape of the American economy. So, bienvenidos, americanos, al tercer mundo. Annette Smith
Always, follow the money. Danger_Close
Limbaugh had always been for the Establishment GOP and for Multi National Corporations. He has never cared about what’s best for The Republic or it’s citizens.
He threatened to leave for Singapore if Obama was reelected, yet for some reason, he’s still in West Palm Beach.
Americans ignored Perot, as the ignored Paul. Trouble is, both were right. El Pollo de Oro
Danger Close: Pillhead Limbaugh also threatened to move to Costa Rica because of the Unaffordable Care Act, which gave me a good laugh because in many parts of Latin America, he would be a prime candidate for the dreaded Desperate People Doing Desperate Things Tax. Pillhead might be OK in Costa Rica, which is one of the safer countries in Latin America. But in Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras or Colombia, he would be a prime candidate for a kidnapping. The kidnappers/DPDDTT collectors are no joke in those countries. GSOB
I like Rush more than I know you. Annette Smith
Rush was okay when he started. He has become filthy and vulgar. He has been outright disgustingly trashy. I no longer listen to him for years. No one in my family does, anymore. Once you have to resort to vulgarity, you’re nothing. Sally Q
No, not all of us voted for this crap…many of us either refused to vote (don’t bother with the arguments…), or voted for somebody such as Ron Paul…the problems are not voting; the problems are the banking / corporate conglomerates and various multinational organizations such as the CFR that own the governments of most countries and are deliberately orchestrating these events. If you don’t believe it, do some investigating into the Federal Reserve, the Rothschilds, the Bilderbergs, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations and other related people and organizations. Put it together and understand. Chris
” the problems are the banking / corporate conglomerates and various multinational organizations such as the CFR that own the governments of most countries and are deliberately orchestrating these events” You just made my point. Like I said in my original post, voting is the problem because the majority keep on voting for politicians who are in cahoots with corporate conglomerates, etc. theblues77
Exactly. You can’t write an accurate article or frame the debate accurately without STARTING with NAFTA. bertinanth764
my Aunty Caroline got Buick Verano Sedan by working part time at home online. my latest blog post Big29.ℂom GSOB
troll John O’Neill
Amen to all of that. It is not just Obama/Biden who caused much of this but it is the millions of Americans who voted for them and who still champion their affirmative action virtuous government. Americans brought this on themselves and as Mencken once said “democracy is people getting what they deserve and getting it good and hard”. Rufus T Firefly
Does the Rolling Drone article point out that, like Detroit, Camden is a Democratic city that voted overhelmingly for Obama? They are getting the hellhole they deserve. WarriorClass III
Camden was 89 percent white in 1940 (104,842 out of 117,536 residents), and it was thriving. It attracted a steady flow of black migrants in search of jobs (that they didn’t create, nor could they sustain). By 1980, the city was 53 percent black (45,009 out of 84,910 residents). Only 26,003 white people remained.
This is how the city of Camden died — no more white residents paying the taxes or maintaining some form of civilization to support the city. Eventually, the same non-white population that overwhelmed Camden started to overwhelm the white suburbs surrounding the city.
Demography is destiny.
You meant race is destiny. Mondobeyondo
Race.. is the 100 meter dash. 1stworlder
its inverse. The race that usually wins 100 meter dashes loses out at the math test at payday loan offices. luchia
You are so correct warrior. I live in Camden on Erie St., in 1953. I was a great neighborhood. No crime, but petty stuff. We then moved to N. 24th St. No crime, except the petty. When I would go out and play, Mom would say, be home before dark, and at ages 8,9,10,11, etc., I was gone ALL day long. Couldn’t call Mom either, no phone, oh also no cell phone (lol). Nice clean neighborhoods both of them. Then they build Abbott Village for the low income people and slowly the place deteriorated, it seem like wild fire, slowly thugs and people from Puerto Rico, blacks took over, and it went to crap. Once the whites moved out, it started to become what it is today. Drove thru there about 2 yrs. ago, it was disgusting. Sequoia
Los Angeles CA has also turned into a hellhole which is expanding to one day turn all of Southern California into one. Sonar
Inland California is filled with bankrupt hellholes like Stockton and San Bernardino. Annette Smith
So true, so true! Those of us who grew up there know this to be the absolute truth. Did you know that Los Angeles is filled with illiterate people? There was a news report on the amount of illegals there. So many, now that the whites have moved out, that they are the main population group in Los Angeles city…and they are illiterate. Google it for the story. de malfosse
luchia; I also lived on Erie St until ’69. There is no public acceptance of that which we witnessed. Hellfire1968
Baltimore is the way and it is getting worse. k
They shouldnt have been brought from africa then. Blame politicians, not people. JulietteofOhio
There’s not a lot we can do about that, now. Politicians didn’t bring them, it was a business, and a very bad one, which has ongoing ramifications for all of us. We’re still stuck trying to take care of them, and they’re still busily biting the hand that feeds them. k
Its not the ones who are being fed, its the ones who arent. k
And businesses and politicians have been hand in hand since millenia. They are two sides of the same coin. Hammerstrike
Who elected the politicians? That´s right!
Some are more guilty than others but if you are looking for the guilty, you only need to look into a mirror! k
People elect politicians believing they will do something good. Now if politicians do something bad instead, its their fault not the peoples. The only other alternative is not to vote…and a lot of people do that already. k
I dont know how i missed your comment. Kim
This is racist. The failure of Camden and other us cities is connected to de-industrialization which can be connected to an even bigger cause, namely, peak oil in the United States in 1970. I’m not talking about fracking potentials, but cheap, easily-recoverable oil with large investment to energy recovered ratios. After we drained our wells circa 1970, industrialization declined and the jobs (money) went away and the poor were left inhabiting places like Camden and Detroit. This has nothing to do with the color of anyone’s skin. The only connection I see between race and poverty is lack of opportunity, and the governments refusal to be honest and manage the wind down of industry in a rational way. Eventually, we will all be living in similar Camdens, or worse.
The weapons of mass instruction have done their damage. There are far more poor whites without opportunity than non-whites in America, yet it’s the non-whites that are responsible for more than 80% of the crime.
The ten most dangerous cities in America all have non-white majority populations, new FBI data has revealed.
This not-so-surprising news is just the latest piece of evidence that emphasizes a clear correlation between increased non-white immigration and soaring crime figures.
Refer to The New Century Foundation’s The Color of Crime (2005), an American report on the differences in crime rates by race. It found that:
• Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder, and eight times more likely to commit robbery.
• Hispanics commit violent crimes at roughly three times the white rate.
• Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.
• Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against a white than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.
• Blacks are 2.25 times more likely to commit officially-designated hate crimes against whites than vice versa.
• Only 10 percent of youth gang members are white.
• Hispanics are 19 times more likely than whites to be members of youth gangs. Blacks are 15 times more likely, and Asians are nine times more likely.
• Blacks are seven times more likely to be in prison than whites. Hispanics are three times more likely.
You can keep making excuses for these people, but the facts don’t change. The problems you mention affect us all, but it’s the non-whites committing the crimes. Kim
Depends on where u live. I don’t believe criminal behavior is oriented in one’s racial DNA, just as I don’t believe one is homosexuality in the womb and from birth.
Environment, social status, economic status, inequality, and culture play primary roles in adult behavior.
Then u have the added problem of substance abuse.
Let’s take a comprehensive look at these statistical outcomes before we make conclusion that if you’re born black or mexican you are destined to have an 80% more probability to commit a violent crime than your white counterparts. Until there is actually something isolated in the human genome pertaining to race and criminal behaviors, I any reason to take a racist attitude toward crime. WarriorClass III
To some extent it does seem to depend upon where you live. Minorities in Texas are less violent than in other parts of the country. Nevertheless they are still more violent than whites and there are far more whites that are subjected to adverse pressures with regard to the things you mention, like environment, social status, economic status, inequality, drug use and cultural issues. Overall, non-whites are more impulsive and violent and the strongest correlation is race rather than any other factor. This is just observation of the facts, not racism. Whites are not angels, but you don’t see these problems in majority white cities and neighborhoods. Kim
It could be cultural, intellectual and emotional as well. It is well known that Italians are hot tempered. Does that mean they are hot tempered BECAUSE they are Italian? Not necessarily, I am of English heritage mostly and my family is very even tempered. But we have our issues. GSOB
Good point Spain is the only Hispanic nation with more bookstores than woman/male donkey shows. Hammerstrike
“Minorities in Texas are less violent than in other parts of the country.”
Everyone is, because there are a lot of guns there! GSOB
P = Perseverance of the Saints 1stworlder
IQ has been proven to be at least 85% genetic. This plays out in choices like “should I take a 500+%APR payday loan” or “should I rob a liquor store for $200, which could put me in prison, and prevent me from getting a job at a liquor store” China towns have been some of the poorest neighborhoods in US history but had even less crime than white hoods. Asians are able to succeed because they evolved under similar circumstances as Europeans. Kim
Ok, no way. Not genetic, it’s environmental, in other words, related to the way you are raised, taught, what sort of examples you have had, I will reach and give u the benefit of nutritional influences. Genetics? Please. No way — this line of thought is akin to predestination, and I don’t believe in predestination, however, if we are talking about some sort of genetic defect, I am open to that. Are u talking about some sort of mental defect that has been diagnosed by a medical doctor? 1stworlder
Nutrition can only affect it negatively and no one in the US on foodstamps is going to be that deficient. Studies have been done on identical twins separated at birth. The genes for IQ would give no advantage to people in an R style evolution set up where they have to outbreed diseases, High IQ only helps those evolving in K style evolution. If it was environmental 4th generation Hispanics would be able to compete with whites. Reality is what still exists when you stop believing in it. The avg IQ for east Asians is 106, whites 100, Mexicans 90, US/DR blacks 85 and African/Haiti blacks 70. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share a land mass but the avg IQs between the 2 is as great as US vs African blacks due to the histories of each side of the island. Haitis side killed all whites & mixed after slaves where freed while the DR only killed white males. Annette Smith
Culture. And, the fact that the way your mom and dad brought you up, generally creates your destiny. Oh, that’s culture. Hammerstrike
Look further than peak oil or even wages, it is still more expensive for China to get oil than for the US and A.
The Federal Reserve and central banks in europe, through inflation, are redistributing profits from manufacture and other businesses to themselves and their cronies, they backed bloated governements that are sucking national economies even drier.
As for race… Sonar
Peak oil have been proven to be a failed theory put out by alarmists in the environmental movement who refuse to acknowledge the fact that oil production is INCREASING! In 2003, the Bakken formation in North Dakota was producing a mere 10,000 barrels a day. Today, it is over 400,000 barrels, and North Dakota has become the fourth-largest oil-producing state in the country. Such “tight” oil could add as much as two million barrels a day to U.S. oil production after 2020—something that would not have been in any forecast five years ago.
Overall U.S. oil production has increased more than 10% since 2008. Net oil imports reached a high point of 60% in 2005, but today, thanks to increased production and greater energy efficiency (plus the use of ethanol), imports are down to 47%. Kim
The Bakken oil play is a joke. As are all fracking operations. Hammerstrike
Not when biological warfare, economic collapse and pandemies are involved! Gay Veteran
“…So why is all of this happening? Well, there are lots of factors involved of course, but the biggest one is the lack of good jobs in these cities….”
I expected this article to bring out the people who wants to blame minorities instead of the multi-national corporations.
attributed to Jay Gould: “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.” Mondobeyondo
You know, whenever you discuss Detroit’s politics you run the risk of being racist.
*sigh*
Ummm.. you know? I’m tired of hearing the old tired arguments that “anywhere black people run the government, trouble is sure to follow”.
Just gonna touch on a couple brief points as my time is limited.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present…..
Exhibit #1 The late Nelson Mandela. Black guy, held in prison for 27 years, ran for president, and won. South Africa is a worse, um BETTER country because of Nelson Mandela.
If there was an African American Republican in charge of Detroit, would it have been any different? Really? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. English Kev
South Africa is better,yeah? That’s what you’re saying,right? Jeesh.
Nope,, didn’t say that at all. Peter
There was only one person who walked on water, and it wasn’t Mandela. There was a reason Mandela went to jail. Did you know his wife put tires around peoples necks and set them on fire. While he was busy organizing car bombing in the city. Does the Liberal media or schools teach this. Or are they too busy renaming the school after him. Anonymous
Have you asked some of the South African farmers if they think S.Africa is a better country after Mandela? jox
Obviously the people that benefited from segregation and racism feel that life was better with the former social structure. Do we have to worry about them? 1stworlder
During apartheid there was always heavy immigration as it was better than any black nation. Kim
It absolutely would not have made one bit of difference whether a democrat or a republican black or white was running Detroit. Detroit was built on cheap oil. It was a city that thrived on industrialization and collapsed under its own weight when de-industrialization began, and the poor were left holding the bag. Race is so completely irrelevant in the collapse of Detroit and Camden, I find it bizarre that we are even discussing it. Just give it time, we will all be living in Camdens of our own soon enough. De-industrialization itself isn’t an evil thing. But refusal to honestly acknowledge it and manage it in a proper way has led to the Camdens of this country. Pablo Solano
Here, here 1stworlder
When you replace a population with an avg IQ of 100 with one of 85 you get the 3rdworld. 1stworlder
Mandella’s family was given a free gold mine and the new black guards they hired sold all the equipment for scrap. Not an ounce of gold has left it since it was given, you would think if you were going to steal from a gold mine you would steal gold not scrap metal. Mondobeyondo
Three reasons why I’m still awake at 1AM on the Internet. – in no particular order:
1) Lady Gaga videos 2) People who think all our nation’s problems are because of the Democrats 3) That “Sound of Music” production that Carrie Underwood (who I suspect is a Democrat) starred in on NBC, on December 5th. Malcolm Reynolds
“People who think all our nation’s problems are because of the Democrats” What do you ascribe them to? Gay Veteran
BOTH parties. get a clue Malcolm Reynolds
Oh, I’ve got a clue. It’s a simple question to see what he thinks the issue is. I’m just curious what he thinks.
Now lets see if you have that much touted clue. Which philosophy? laura m.
Other hellholes are Reading, Pa. Sections in Baltimore, Gary, Ind., Atlanta; some of these row houses are at least 100 yrs old and not kept up in decades, like Detroit falling into ruins. K & Kim: agree, this is not a time to breed kids either. They will have a zero future. 1stworlder
Reading PA is a sanctuary city. Boo-urns
Voting Republican would have made no different. Do you really think the GOP isn’t comprised of the same type of idiots and morons and greedy bastards as the Democrats? Drud
I agree with the sentiment and I love the handle. Almost makes me want to change my to Hans Moleman. K
Michael once we had a pretty great Country here. Now we are turning into the world norm, 75% poor, 20% middle class, and 5% rich or near rich. Most of the smaller countries have always had these kind of percentages. Now the larger ones are heading down the same road. It is all part of a long term plan, and that plan is approaching the final chapter. Once this sort of plan would have never worked here, the people would have never stood for it. So perhaps this Country may be more educated than ever before. But it sure isn’t as smart as it once was. kfilly
Yeah, most that are educated are educated idiots. Most of them don’t have a lick of common sense. Anonymous
Very true. Some of the most intelligent people are found in the rural areas with little formal education. The song “A Country Boy Can Survive” is likely talking about the Southeast USA. Those people know how to survive and take care of themselves, even when there are no jobs to be found. Annette Smith
I am living among some of those folks. It’s good to be here. They take care of one another, too! J Hall
kfilly, they were never really educated. They were trained and indoctrinated. There is a significant difference. Mondobeyondo
It’s still a great country. Ask anyone from Cambodia what they think of the U.S.
We are losing the American Dream though. That more than anything, is what made America great. Azrael
No, what made America great was the wholesale killing of indians to get their land for free. If you would have had to pay for it you would have been in the same position as Mexico. K
What happened to the Native Americans was wrong, but not unique. Except for the most remote, or undesired land. Every place on earth is soaked with human blood. ,All lands, have at some point been violently taken by someone else. Mans civilized nature is a very thin veneer. In times of crisis, it is quite easily ripped away.Those that doubt that are in for quite a shock, albeit a very short shock. k
All great countries, at some point have gone down too. K
Very true. But none of those Countries possessed nuclear weapons. If we fail, what happens next. Do the local warlords take over the nukes? Or do the Russians or the Chinese nuke us, to keep that from happening. Or do they invade en masse to secure the nuclear stockpile. No, if we fail, it will be greatly different than anything witnessed before. k
Russia, china, india, pak, have the same threat…and more likely than not, they have a greater danger from warlords and economic/societal collapse than america has right now. K
Russia and China have a strong enough military, to secure their nukes. As Russia already proved when the communists fell. India is actually in better shape than most, and the core of their military is highly professional. Pak. there are already plans in place to invade, to secure their nukes. k
Not as strong as americas. America has the strongest military in the world. And if you think their military is strong enough to protect their nukes, then my friend you have nothing to worry about with regards to americas capability to protect its nukes. GSOB
That is for the time being.
America is the atomic weapons franchise dealer of the world. GSOB
ACTS 17:26
And He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,
27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. Annette Smith
Everything has a shelf life. Kim
I agree with you. The native Americans were just waiting to be displaced. Someone was going to do it eventually, but, what I find tragic is the WAY they were displaced. I also agree that many are in for quite a shock. I vacillate from being hopeful, to being afraid. Sometimes I feel ambivalent, which I strongly dislike. K
Until the collapse actually happens, there is nothing wrong with a bit of hope. Fear however can paralyze, I find no use for it. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst seems a good guideline. Many nowadays get caution confused with fear. Caution comes from wisdom, fear does not. So prepare to the point that you can, but do not forget to live your life.. GSOB
Matthew 24:6
“You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.… Annette Smith
My family is gone, except for my son. I am glad that he has chosen to not marry and have kids. So, I only have him to worry about. I would hate to have grand-children in this world. I would worry so much about them. I grew up in the 50’s in a neighborhood that was like Ozzie and Harriet. I miss that place. Anyway, I’m glad that I won’t have immediate family to worry about. Patrick Mallahan
Only the strong survive, it’s nature. J Hall
Azrael, the initial settlers did well with the indigenous peoples. Both benefited from the other. What happened is when the ruling class realized that the wilderness they were banishing the undesirables to was, in fact, a very wealthy land – they sent their own to pillage it as they had done everywhere else they could reach. Mondobeyondo
Not really. Nations all over the world have this tendency of killing off their native citizens for their (the conquerors’) own benefit. Australia for one.
There are exceptions (Japan, Sweden, etc)… but not many. FUKyiah
Native Americans were angels who never killed each other and they never fought over land. Is this the crap they teach the kiddies in public school nowadays? Azrael
No, but they do teach us that it was their land, not yours, and you slaughtered them for it. Which makes you far more evil than they ever were. GSOB
Prove how that made America great… K
You can always find someplace worse. But my friend consider this. Forty years ago, people from Germany wanted to come here, not so much anymore. We were the great experiment. Could a nation prosper without the greedy psychotic few ruling it? Well it seems the experiment is over, and they getting ready to eliminate the lab rats. Anonymous
Ask almost anyone in the military if people from other countries are still hanging around the military bars to get a spouse to get to the USA. The answer is still “yes.” Dave Jenkins
Because most of them living in those other countries who want to marry a spouse to get to the USA still believe that the streets in the USA are paved with gold and money grows on every American tree. Until they arrive.. then they wake up and smell the coffee. I am sure most of them wanted to immigrate to the USA even in 1935 in the depths of the Great Depression. My point : they don`t know any better. FUKyiah
They used to want to come to the U.S. for freedom and opportunity…..now they want free government cheese! Parasites! Patrick Mallahan
‘The American Dream’ relied heavily on only a small portion of the world prospering. Now that everyone wants ‘The American Dream’ there aren’t enough of the scraps left from the fat cats to allow it. Malcolm Reynolds
If the American Dream relied on so little, how come when the concept is expanded there’s just not enough? Patrick Mallahan
Because based on my comment you replied to, ‘The American Dream’ only works when a small portion of the world population is experiencing it. Every time a new person takes part in ‘The American Dream’ it takes away from those already enjoying ‘The American Dream’ GSOB
DEFINE:‘The American Dream’
If you can only do that, you’d be speaking for yourself as to what that is.
You don’t understand the half of what you pretend to know. k
Thats a very good point!
If i am not mistaken i think it was bill clinton who said, america with 5% of the world population consumes 20 % of the worlds resources, and he likes to keep it that way.
Not trying to criticise america or anything, given the chance every country will try to do that. GSOB
It is glaringly obvious that ‘The American Dream’ is but materialism to you.
‘The American Dream’ did not rely on a small portion of the world for it to propser,… as you say.
You have missed the boat. Go play with your XBOX 1stworlder
The American dream require only that my grandfather didn’t have to pay for Latrina’s 14 illegitimate kids provisioning. Low IQ 3rdworlders bring everything around them down just like in Detroit. Patrick Mallahan
What it basically comes down to is, do you think it’s the responsibility of the intelligent to take care of the unintelligent? My answer is no. Annette Smith
Unfortunately, that is true. I went back to California for a visit. I drove through parts of the better areas of Los Angeles. Santa Monica and West L.A. were where we visited. I could not believe the screaming yellow paint of the hispanic businesses and how garish they had turned to place into. They can only bring with them what they know. How sad. beckjeremy .
The fact you use Cambodia, a country not too long ago bombed into the stone age, as a reference point with which to compare the US says it all. Mondobeyondo
Didn’t have to be Cambodia though. Matter of fact, we have a habit of building up countries that we’ve bombed. Japan, Germany, Iraq… El Pollo de Oro
Guatemala is a great country compared to Somalia. To the average Somali, Guatamala City would be a big step up. But to globalists, the problem with Guatemala is that it isn’t Third World enough and needs to be more like Somalia. Rogoraeck
USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! Annette Smith
Any strong country has to be reduced to nothing, for their to be a One World Gov. Right?
And while Bingham makes $20K a year, Congress is considering – only considering, mind you – capping spending on official portraits (oil paintings) at $20K each. Currently, a portrait can cost much more than $20K. Rodster
Eventually this will all lead to a total social breakdown. It’s happening ALL around the world. Places like China are having to dumping cheap money into their system to keep their citizens (all 1.2 billion) from going ballistic.
So in the end as we get closer to a total global economic collapse we are going to read more of these stories.
At some point Amerikans will say enough and that’s when the Tanks, Paramilitary and Militarized Police depts are called in against an UNARMED nations. Douglas M. Green
djgrooveline posted a video on youtube last week showing a mile or more of railcars with light armored vehicles being transported. You have to assume that DHS preparing with assault weapons, ammo, gear and armored vehicles is no coincidence to our economic decay and decline in these years of $ trillion deficits and “recovery.” greanfinisher .
This is why the politicians want to disarm the people. JSB
All the while stock indices soar to new heights. Azrael
That’s not soaring for wealth, it’s inflation. 1stworlder
you can melt down a pre 1965 quarter and get over $5 of silver, that’s how bad inflation is James
Michael,
Might I suggest taking a look at Thom Hartmann. he recent wrote a book called the crash of 2016. He is liberal in nature but criticizes Obama and the democrats all the time. I have just started the book but based off interviews he is saying that Obama is doing what Bush and his advisors tried to do before 2008. That is delay the crash until he leaves office. Hartmann even suggests that the crash will be before 2016 and that it is long term decline not one epic crash as you have often stated. 1stworlder
While he has a point about cycles he ignores that leftist George Soros caused in UK to the pound, what he claims the right is trying to do here, instead of leftist Soros slopupy
Here is a young man that wants to get married, have a family and do all the right things, but the economy is so bad that he fears that this may never be possible for him. Uhhh…and the problem is?? XSANDIEGOCA
Let’s all go to Hawaii! Bushisugly
What has America become? Is it fair to draw comparisons to an Orwellian state? Well maybe it is not that far from the truth, so let’s make some comparisons.
The first and most obvious similarity is the surveillance of everyone. As the NSA completely unchallenged expands it’s storage capabilities toward infinity, and cameras are popping up everywhere, there will ulitimatly be no place to hide. Not even your thoughts are safe. In an Orwelian society one do have “food rations”, in an American society one have “food stamps”. They are basicly the same, and the percentage that rely upon them in our American system are well into the double digits and rising fast, soon to effect the vast majority of us in true Orwellian style.
As in the totalitarian Oceania, the totalitarian America is run by a shadowy despot who’s identity doesn’t remain clear to the public. In our case most probably a group of ultra-rich and a selected few military commanders, their exact identity and the level of cooperation between them, remains pretty much in the dark. In America, though, the totalitarian system is dressed up like a to-party-democracy, arguably making it even harder for the common man to hold the rigth people accountable for what is happening. Not even Owrell thought of that.
And of course, the history are being alternated in front of our eyes. Are you one of the numerous Americans that believe the cold blooded murder of a quarter million innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (perhaps the single biggest crime during WWII) was an act of heroism? If so you believe in a giant lie, which for years have been presented to us as a indisputable fact. Sadly not the only example of a lie turned into fact, especially not if you consider withholding the truth as a lie.
So what about those who have rebellious thoughts, what happen to them? Well first of all there are no such things as revolutionaries in America, only terrorists. And such elements of society can of course be put in prison for as long as our masters seems fit, with or without any formal charges against them. Though, such measures are usually not necessary because everybody knows that people who speak against the American moddel are nutters, that is after all what the media constantly keeps telling us, and when the media is directly run by a selected few from the elite, can legally lie, and make sure to drown any kind of alternative opinions by constantly spamming the internett and our TV-screens with the same junk-news and zombifying entertainment day after day after day, it becomes pretty obvious why people end up rather compliant. Sounds like a familiar story?
No wonder then why Americans apparently love their “Big Brother”, I mean, why else would we collectively pay trillions of dollars to bail our “pupet masters” following the financial crisis in 2008, without staging as much as a proper protest?
Not so much difference after all perhaps? It might still be some years to og before we are there, but things are deteriorating fast and the future looks rather bleake. Unless, of course, you lern to master the art of “dubblethink”. GSOB
Our country has been sold out long ago. Our current leadership on the hill will continue this to achieve the liberal version of it.. Guest
And some will say the solution is to vote them all out in the next election. Right. We’ve been hearing that for years, and yet the same politicians are voted back into office. Nothing will change. We’re told that approval ratings for the Congress and the President are at new lows, but it doesn’t matter. The President will go on lying to the American people. And the Congress will continue to do nothing about this nation’s growing indebtedness except make it worse. There won’t be a turnaround. The slow death will continue until there are no vital signs whatsoever. Rodster
It’s very sad but true. ConcernedAmerican
Politicians are selected, but not by the voters. GSOB
“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” – Josef V. Stalin
hey gary, you must be s proud Rodster
This is Gary’s Progressive/Keynesian world so he needs to embrace it with lots of love. Guest
The Rolling Stone article referred to above states a quarter of a billion dollars flows through the open-air drug markets in Camden. Tax the drug dealers HARD, and spread the wealth! Rodster
This story hot close to home. I remember working on a vehicle for a young couple and the wife to me here and her husband were in debt (dental college) for $374k. She said it was hard paying the bills and here and her husband were getting by even though they were renting a nice house in a gated community. Bill
I wonder if Camden will get station #2 for dispensing o-gas? Bill
Although the original article for this story is traced to a satirical website it is still good cabal fodder as it could lead to street violence which could lead in turn to martial law. This “is” what the cabal wants. GSOB
Propaganda is truly phenomenal! Roddy Pfeiffer
Being on top of the heap is only temporary, as America is finding out. When other countries learn to manufacture what we make, they will do it cheaper and we will no longer have jobs. Did we think we could keep all this a secret forever? Tractor
Send him and his family to sunny Detroit for a couple of years. They can stay in my cardboard box on S. Michigan Ave. bloggo
The problem is while the rest of the worlds cities and infrastructure where lying in ruins in the fifties after the war there was no competition to US. Its easy to be superpower when NO competition. Go the olympics while all other competitors have a ball and chain. As they recovered the truth comes home.They are a bunch of people who have stole N America from the inhabitants by brutal violence. They will get the due wrath. Alasha
“Bobby Bingham works four jobs in Kansas City, Missouri, yet he has very little to show for it.”
i worked “three jobs mon and trust me it is is n fun. totally hated every breathing moment…. wondering why did God let me wake up again today. Just a smidget of improvement since i have my $60k job yr past 4 years in this high cost of living area where 2 bedroom apartments can easily go for $4k a month…. now my every other breathing moment is hated and i wake every other day wondering why did He let me live another day……….. sort of. Alasha
Ben & Jerrys, now owned by British-Dutch Unilever
AMC theaters, now owned by the Chinese
7-Eleven, now owned by the Japanese company, Seven & I Holdings
Gerber, now owned by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Novartis
Firestone, now owned by the Japanese Bridgestone Corporation
Trader Joes, now owned by German billionaires Karl and Theo Albrecht
Dial soap, now owned by Henkel KGaA, based in Dusseldorf, Germany
Really – wow I dont want to buy or use ANY of these products,,,, I thought i was supporting our community… Especially with Trader Joes which i Love……. BUMMMER Klenzade
Nestles bought Gerber from Novartis two years ago. xander cross
More proof that it’s white men that are sending the jobs to Europe and China. JoeD
We all want the first world standard of living but no one is willing to pay more than the third world price. All of this is fine so long as it doesn’t come to my neighborhood! Colin
I feel our country has two types of cities; the cities that are gentrifying, like San Francisco and Washington, DC, and the cities that are dying, like Camden and Detroit. Anonymous
I didn’t know San Fran was doing well. Last I heard, their homeless population was really growing. Also, who can afford to live in California? Seriously, what kind of work are people doing that they can afford to live in California, New York, and New Jersey? Whenever I look at their home prices and what one gets for the money, I have to make sure I am sitting down to endure the shock. Sonar
Both San Francisco and Washington DC have huge homeless populations and both cities are controlled by the wealthy Democrat elite. 1stworlder
He meant Oakland. San Fran people found out they can up armor houses and pay 24/7 security guards for less than living in San Fran. Annette Smith
Well said, Anonymous! As I’ve mentioned before, I am from San Diego. The cost of housing is ridiculous! El Pollo de Oro
Colin: I’ve said many times that cities run by Democraps tend to fall into two extreme categories. You have the ultra-expensive, hyper-gentrified yuppie ghettoes like Boston, New York, Seattle, and Denver (the places where there is a Starbucks on every corner). And you have the crime-infested, rotting horror movies like Detroit, Camden, Gary, Newark, etc. Philly, where I live, is a combination of the two: it’s Starbucks and Whole Paycheck in some places and toothless crack whores in others. Orange Jean
El P., I wouldn’t exactly place Boston in a “hyper-gentrified yuppie” category. The reason being, while there are plenty of neighborhoods and nearby cities (Cambridge for example) have large areas that are more often frequented by tourists that qualify – there are also large, horribly poverty stricken neighborhoods that are right up there with Detroit.
I used to work in the heart of Roxbury, at the Boston Public Health Commission. Roxbury is a very high crime neighborhood of Boston, that looks like something out of a bombed out WWII movie. It was very dangerous to be there at night, I’m sure it still is…
And even though a place like Cambridge is known for Harvard Square and plenty of hoity-toity neighobrhoods… it also has neighborhoods (some parts of North and East Cambridge for example) that are very high crime similar to Detroit. When I lived in North Cambridge back in the mid-70s and my son was in grammar school… he told me he was afraid of the gangs they had, little kids in 1st and 2nd grade… holding up little old ladies at knife point. El Pollo de Oro
Matter of fact, a good friend of mine grew up in Roxbury (the North Philly of Boston). I know that some parts of Dorchester are also really hard. But I think that overall, Boston has a much higher “Starbucks factor” (as I call it) than Baltimore, for example. Baltimore has a handful of gentrified neighborhoods, but most of it is a war zone. 1stworlder
By gentrifying you mean white people with no kids moving in. Imaplaneiac
Fellow bloggers, a few days ago, I found that the RNC has restored e-mail capability to their web site: http://www.gop.gov . It was removed from their site after the Nov 2012 so-called Presidential ” Election “. I had then wrote the RNC TWICE supplying them with links to reports of WIDESPREAD voter fraud. The RNC FAILED to reply to BOTH of my reports!? But they DID delete e-mail capability; preventing comments from alarmed Americans such as myself! So, the other day, I BLASTED the RNC. YOU may want to do likewise; especially following CAVER Boehner’s recent tirade about the Tea Party! His remarks leave NO DOUBT that he is complicit with the objectives of the DEMONcrats! By his actions … he REGULARLY kisses their rings and CAVES to them! Mondobeyondo
Your town or city is next. Trust me. You’re in the crosshairs.
Camden today, Des Moines tomorrow, Hellfire1968
and Baltimore the next day. hero
I used to live in Philly & consider it my 2nd home. Whenever I rode PATCO & passed through Camden, I broke my heart looking at deserted homes & empty city blocks. Absolutely no economic activity & all I hear on Action News was about people going there to buy drugs.
It is true…When Blacks & Hispanics moved in, whole neighborhoods got destroyed & Camden never recovered from it. North Philly & West Philly are beginning to look like Camden but time will tell. Mondobeyondo
I’ve never lived east of the Mississippi River. I do not know what life is like in New York City, or New Orleans, or Philly, Detroit, etc.Can’t speak for those places. I’ve HEARD of Cabrini Green, the Detroit projects, etc. Personal experience? Zero.
Is it really that bad in Philly? Because it’s bad here in Phoenix, Arizona. If you are looking for the promised land, don’t come here. You won’t find it here.
Phoenix is suburbia gone berzerk; Las Vegas is suburbia gone berzerk with casinos. I live in one, been to the other often. Anonymous
New Orleans does not look like it ever recovered from Hurricane Katrina. IMO it looks like a third world country now. NOLA used to be a beautiful city that could rival the beauty of Savannah. Now you don’t want to go outside the tourist areas in NOLA or Savannah IMO. grumpyhillbilly
The positives for Philadelphia is it has very good med schools and universities. Pharmaceutical companies do research with the med schools, but prefer to work outside the city There are a few posh neighborhood, but they are increasingly getting invaded by criminal. Other than that its a decaying dump. Get past the historical areas and center city, I don’t think they’ve picked up the trash for years. By they – I mean the unioned city trash collectors. Kill a cop – you’ll get swift justice, but don’t bother that union for results in any other circumstances. Many buildings are crumbling. If you look at them side way you can still see there onetime grandeur. If it weren’t for the state, Philadelphia would have likely been the first city to have declared bankruptcy. The schools are teetering on whatever collapse you can think of. But the city Democrat machine is doing quite well. As is the union leadership, despite their dwindling membership. Corruption is thriving. El Pollo de Oro
Mondobeyondo: Philly is a tale of two cities. You have the crime-infested, dilapidated Philly (Kensington, North Philly, Germantown, Strawberry Mansion, Frankford), and you have the expensive gentrified areas that are full of yuppies with a Starbucks everywhere you turn. I know people here who are doing really well and others who are barely scraping by. Cities run by Democraps range from ultra-expensive places like Boston, San Francisco and Seattle to hellholes like Camden and Detroit, and Philly has both extremes. And such extremes are to be expected in a Third World country like the BRA. Sonar
Middle class families have been largely priced out of San Francisco and Seattle. Both those cities have a small wealthy Democrat elite who run everything and a lot of poor and homeless people who are totally dependent on government handouts like welfare, food stamps and rent subsidies. Anonymous
Detroit wasn’t destroyed. It committed suicide. MeMadMax
We paid for NAFTA and all the other so called “free trade” agreements with out country… Rene Girrard
Thanks Michale for posting another great article. I’m afraid you are so right that the middle class is dying. Why is there no talk of this on the MSM or even internet news sites? A couple in their 50’s just moved out right below me. They wanted to move to some place cheaper so they set u their 35-foot camper at an RV park just north of Ft. Worth. They are paying $300/month for the space, electric & water. It is far cheaper than what they were paying here at the extended stay hotel. There is also an article on Drudge now about people living in their RVs in NYC. I think this may be a trend in the future. smallergovnow
I’m considering doing just that. sell my house, buy a fifth wheel trailer and piece of land in the country… Anonymous
When enough people do it, this too will become unaffordable. xander cross
Funny how all of the companies that was sold to other countries are were sold by white men. So once again, who exactly is sending the jobs to other countries? The answer is WHITE MEN. Guest
Welcome back sander floss! We missed you…NOT!! xander cross
I see you yet again and of course, you cannot refute my statement. Sonar
We see that you cannot substantiate your racist and bigoted comments. xander cross
Pot, meet kettle. luchia
Maybe, they “unionized” themselves out of a job. The owner of a company, didn’t want to pay union wages, got his goods made for cheaper outside the USA. Anonymous
Yeah, who wants to pay those working class people a wage they can actually live on? How dare the workers form a union. How dare those workers demand humane working conditions and hours. Instead of forming unions, workers should have just jumped in front of their employer’s gunfire at Blair Mountain. Instead of forming unions, workers should have just been quiet and and happy about the company heads that do little real work becoming billionaires off of other people’s work and back. Meanwhile, employers have found a way to get free labor through internships and volunteering.
Americans work more than any other industrialized country. Americans deserve to be paid for their time, hard work, and their backs. No single person at any company should be making 7+ figure salaries. Every employer screams “We are a team” until it is time to cut the paychecks. Then, they pretend that some people on the team are less valuable than other people on the team. Malcolm Reynolds
In case you didn’t notice with all that leftist pap and whining, wages seem to be directly proportional to skills.
If you’re a moron whose job can be filled by basically calling out “NEXT!”, you can expect to make peanuts. If your job is very hard and there are very few of you, you can expect to make boat loads of money.
This is called life honey boo boo. Now go flip a burger, make a buck. Snore! Anonymous
So, are you suggesting a CEO should “be paid peanuts?” What specific “skills” do those at the top of the food chain possess to justify their salary? Have you ever watched them come down from their temperature controlled offices to attempt to do the real work on the show “Undercover Bosses?” Malcolm Reynolds
LMAO! You make minimum wage doncha? DiscouragedOne
Do you have any actual experience and facts to base your conclusions on, or you ACTUALLY believe what is on reality shows is real. Man, this country is messed up! Anonymous
I guess it is better for employers to be allowed to treat workers any way they want to. Perhaps working conditions in the USA should be as they are in China; where some factories have had to place suicide nets to catch the workers that are so miserable they are flinging themselves out of the windows. Is that a better solution than workers forming unions? Malcolm Reynolds
BTW, you’re clearly advocating a govt corporate blending, which is Fascism and is what currently exists in this country.. Gay Veteran
profits are easy when you have slave labor in China MrsBulldoggy .
You think all the evil in the world is perpetrated by white men? You are a racist, bigoted fool! There are many examples of narcissistic, evil murderers in this world that were not white: *Blacks in Rwanda committing mass genocide in 1994 (nothing to do with white men) *Pol Pot in the 1970’s exterminating anyone who would not turn to communism in Cambodia (nothing to do with white men) *Kim Jong Un and Il starving and murdering their own people (nothing to do with white men) *Chairman Mao murdering 50 Million+ of his own Chinese people during the 20th century (nothing to do with white men) *Arabic Muslims in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and other middle eastern and north African countries slaughtering non-muslims because they are infidels (has NOTHING to do with white men) The list goes on and on and on. Crimes against humanity have happened in history against all people of every color and creed by all people of every color and creed. Evil is not the sole domain of white men, evil comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, religions, non-religions, creeds. To put forth otherwise makes one look like an illiterate fool that is spouting racist, bigoted rhetoric. BTW, you don’t know if all these people are white or not, Xander. The wealthiest man on Earth right now is a MEXICAN (NOT WHITE MAN) named Carlos Slim. He has his hands in everything just like all the other wealthy men and women who are billionaires. Pull your head out of your southern orifice and get a clue… xander cross
I see you failed at reading. I never said all evil are perpetrated by white men. I said that white men sent the jobs to china for over 30 years and still do so to this very day. So, white men are the problem. MrsBulldoggy .
No, Xander you fail at logic and critical reasoning. You have problems, seriously, Xander. Mental health issues that I do not wish to deal with nor am I qualified to handle. I just feel sorry for you and your insane, inane and seriously deranged rantings and ravings. Nothing else to say except God Bless and get some help as soon as you can. xander cross
I feel that you’re going to need help when white men finish sending the jobs and resources to china and then send them water resources as well. Lets see how funny this is going to be. Sonar
xander cross appears to have forgotten to take medications today to control delusional thinking? xander cross
Why are you continuing to promote medications in China? The fact that you know that your medicine companies are sold to china now, suggest to me that you need mental help. xander cross
Every company that Michael has listed was sold by white men. So once again, white men are the ones that sending the jobs to China for greed. So, this proves to me that white men turned china into an economic superpower. luchia
Maybe, they got sick and tired of dealing with all the union b.s. Malcolm Reynolds
racist. xander cross
So who exactly sold all of the jobs to china then? The answer would be white men. Malcolm Reynolds
Think deeper. I know it’s hard for someone whose posts litter this page like so much garbage and cant get past the color of someone’s skin, but give it a shot anyway.
Apply whatever electrons you manage to get firing towards govt and redistribution of wealth and then get back to me. Sonar
xander cross is delusional again ConcernedAmerican
Excellent article. Thank you for making the points about education and it’s cost. I recently read that Rockefeller took a 10 WEEK course to become a bookkeeper. How did we go from needing 10 weeks to begin a career to spending half our lives in school before we can begin a career, or a family? Mondobeyondo
Michael is right. The middle clTass is dying. It doesn’t have to be that way, but we kind of chose our fate. Too busy listening to Lady Gaga, and following her example to the T.
That stands for Trouble, and that rhymes with
Okay, that’s enough
As I was saying, Lady Gaga. She lives for the applause, and she’s in love with Judas. If she is your example of Miss America, well…
; DiscouragedOne
I don’t listen to Gaga and am not familiar (nor will I ever be) but I do remember “t and that rhymes with p and that stands for pool”, she sounds like a copycat. Mondobeyondo
Camden 2013? Looks more like Warsaw 1943. El Pollo de Oro
What’s the difference between Berlin in 1945 and Camden in 2013? Berlin in 1945 looked a lot better. FounderChurch
We have. Cursed God and now it’s time for America to die and go to hell. We’ve killed our children with demonic Birth Control and refuse to repent. It’s all over. Pablo Solano
Really. We need more people? Why didn’t I think of that. FounderChurch
The answer to your question is: We need more of THE RIGHT KIND, and fewer of the wrong kind.
By that I mean dumb America haters and I think you would qualify on both counts.
Why do you pretend to be so dense and dumb? You know what I meant to start with, and if you are too slow to get it, well then, I just told you. Pablo Solano
How very Christian of you. And who decides who are the RIGHT kind of people, YOU? What in my comment leads you to believe I hate America? Dumb and Dense? coming from an individual who believes in a supernatural spirit that hears prayers. Yer right. FounderChurch
Being an admitted Atheist you have no standing to correct any Religious Believer. Stick to your own kind, and be kind to everyone else.
As to evaluating who are the right kind of people, just about anyone’s opinion would be better than no opinion or standards at all.
We have standards people have to meet for thousands of things, rights and privaledges, why not standards for being a parent? Got anything against that? Afraid you could not muster up? I doubt you have any children or would ever want any. Just guessing. Your object is to prevent anyone else from having any children. GSOB | 0 |
Uber has hired NASA engineer Mark Moore as Director of Engineering for their flying car project “Uber Elevate,” which seeks to expand the cab service into airborne travel. [Moore worked at NASA “as an advanced aircraft engineer and basically kickstarted the current interest in vertical and landing craft for urban flight with a 2010 paper on the feasibility of the vehicles. ” “The engineer was impressed by Uber’s work on the subject, and saw a chance to make the vision he’d originally articulated years ago into something real, in a reasonable time scale,” according to TechCrunch. “Moore said that key to his decision to join Uber was that the company seemed to have a practical business case for making a flying commuter transit service real — and nothing would ever get done without market motivation behind the vision. ” Uber’s plans for a flying service were first hinted at in September 2016 by Uber’s Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden. In an interview, Holden shared his interest in “vertical takeoff and landing” vehicles (VTOL) claiming, “It could change cities and how we work and live. ” Holden added that he wanted to offer his customers “as many options as possible to move around,” and that passenger drone technology could be a fully functioning norm within a decade. “VTOL is another way to do that,” said Holden, after talking about ways to decrease city traffic. Uber’s Head of Product for Advanced Programs, Nikhil Goel, confirmed in a statement that Moore would be working on VTOL vehicles. “Uber continues to see its role as an catalyst to the growing developing VTOL ecosystem,” said Goel in the statement. “We’re excited to have Mark join us to work with companies and stakeholders as we continue to explore the use case described in our white paper. ” In 2015, rapper and other individuals, including members of the Saudi Arabian royal family, invested $20 million in JetSmarter, which has been billed as “the Uber for flying,” while an Israeli tech firm is also prepared to launch their drone service in 2020, following 15 years of development. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
Can’t take time off for a weeklong vacation? Getting away for a weekend is still a way to recharge your batteries, said Shawna Huffman Owen, the president of Huffman Travel, a travel consultancy based in Chicago. “If you plan well,” she said, “a quick trip can be a great break and even feel longer than it is. ” As a frequent weekend vacationer, she has plenty of advice on getting the most out of a little time off. Here, her top tips: KNOW YOUR GOAL Do you want to completely disconnect and relax, be active, hit popular nightclubs and restaurants or bond with your family? “Your weekend trip will be a waste if it doesn’t accomplish what you’re looking to do,” Ms. Huffman Owen said. Travelers interested in cultural attractions, for example, might not appreciate a stay in a countryside retreat with few sights nearby, while those who like to be pampered wouldn’t enjoy a property without a spa or one where the spa is small and has a limited menu of services. Plan a trip according to what interests you most. PICK AN DESTINATION Enjoying your destination — not spending all of your time traveling to and from it — is crucial when you have limited time off. Consider places that are within a drive or a nonstop flight from home. For travelers who live on the East Coast or in the Midwest of the United States, Ms. Huffman Owen’s favorite spots for weekend trips include South Beach, Charleston, Quebec City, Montreal, Newport and the New England region West Coast and Southwest residents could consider Cabo San Lucas or San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and Big Sur, Vancouver, Seattle, Sonoma and Napa. FULFILL A DREAM The exception to choosing an easily accessible destination, Ms. Huffman Owen said, is using your weekend getaway to fulfill a travel fantasy such as flying to Paris to have dinner in that restaurant you have always wanted to dine at, going to London to catch a tennis match at Wimbledon or heading to Morocco for a trek in the Sahara, a trip that the adventure travel company Epic Tomato can arrange. “Trips like these may require more effort and a bigger budget,” she said, “but they will be ones that you will never forget and can be rejuvenating in their own way. ” DO YOUR HOMEWORK Planning is crucial to making the most of your weekend away and avoiding disappointment. If you’re heading to a spa, for example, be sure to book treatments and fitness classes as far in advance as possible because many spas can be fully booked on weekends, and exercise classes, such as spinning, may have a limit on the number of participants. It’s also a good idea to book tables at nightclubs and restaurants, and reserve theater tickets and poolside and beachside cabanas at resorts. | 1 |
Is there any merit in taking a cynical view of life? Are the observations of cynicism realistic, brave observations on human nature, freed from sentimentality, or are they only the somber commentary offered by one who is a loser at the game of life, taking solace in his weakness and failure? There are compelling arguments either way. What is not disputed, however, is that François de La Rouchefoucauld was one of the most brilliantly cynical epigrammers who ever lived.
It probably did not help that he came from a long line of noblemen, for nothing so enfeebles the soul as much as inherited wealth and titles. He was born in 1613 and inherited the title of duke on the death of his father in 1650. Receiving the usual education of his class, he dabbled in military matters in his teens. Various itinerant love affairs followed with well-placed women, but some of these ended badly; we find him imprisoned in Bastille for a week in 1636 for political intrigue.
Although married, he continued to pursue other women, as was the custom of the time and his station. Marriages in those days were business affairs to be ignored at each party’s pleasure or necessity; one such dalliance resulted in an illegitimate child, but the woman eventually rejected him for a more appealing competitor. In 1652 he found himself mixed up with a quasi-revolt called the Fronde, an adventure that left him with impaired sight when he was struck with a musket ball in the head. Health problems also intervened to add to his misery in the form of gout and melancholy.
In late seventeenth century France, the Paris salons were centers of debate, discussion, and the flowering of controversial ideas. By now La Rochefoucauld had acquired an acrid talent for stinging prose, and he knew how to use it. His failures in love and war had primed his spirit for a cynical view of life, and this predilection meshed well with the taste of the salons for savage wit. Nothing is so shallow as sophistication.
From his frequent visits to the salon of Mme. de Sable in Paris, he had begun to piece together a body of epigrams that represented his worldview. One of his peers had more commercial goals in mind, for a bootleg collection of 189 of his sayings was first published without his permission (and with no attribution) in 1663. Two years later he finally put out a proper edition; this contained 317 maxims. The volume was titled Sentences et maximes morales , but this is usually shortened to Maxims.
There is a philosophy here. It centers around the idea that all men are self-seeking egoists to a fault; any “virtue” a man displays is only a smokescreen concealing his self-love: “Our virtues are only vices in disguise.” Human vanity takes precedence over nearly all else: “Virtues are lost in self-interest, as rivers are in the sea.” Even the nobler emotions like love and altruism, according to La Rochefoucauld, are only a “kind of traffic in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.” He took a dim view of women, finding them fit only for love (for men such as himself, of course) and procreation. One of his crueler maxims was “few women’s worth lasts longer than their beauty.”
But life’s realities eventually caught up with him, softening his rougher edges. His wife, who had cared for him in his infirmities for eighteen years, died in 1670; his mother’s death followed two years later. Two of his sons would eventually die of injuries received in France’s ruinous wars of the period.
This gloomy picture was brightened by the entry into his life of the Mme. de La Fayette, who was twenty years his junior. She invited him to stay with her in Paris, and he was carried there with difficulty. She seems to have viewed him as a reform project; she would later say that “He gave me understanding, but I reformed his heart.” Perhaps his fame made him an interesting captive. The union worked, and seemed to alleviate his dark picture of humanity; and when his final hours came, he asked for, and received, the last rites of the Church in 1680.
A fair assessment of La Rochefoucauld must take into account his undeniable wit, his probing sensitivity, and his ability to strip away the pretenses behind many human actions. Yet all in all, his maxims are meager in result. Many of them are superficial and shallow, the product of a personality still nursing the wounds of an early disillusionment. We weary of his aphorisms after two or three pages, and hesitate to reopen his book later.
Worse still, he was wrong to say that virtue and altruism are shams. Nothing is more vital to life, and we can see them around us every day, if only we know where to look, and as long as our senses are not blinded by fear. Timor animi auribus officit , as Sallust says: fear blocks out the ears.
Any bitter weakling can be a cynic, but it takes depth of character to accept the world’s—and man’s—faults and foibles, and to balance those against man’s unquestioned capacity for greatness of soul. Broader life experiences might have corrected La Rochefoucauld’s errors, but he preferred to remain in a state of arrested development while receiving the applause and notoriety of Paris society. His maxims can bring smiles to our faces, as it is easy to find amusement in the flaws of others; yet we forget that his barbs were directed at us as well.
Montaigne was far wiser, for he took a balanced view of life, accepting the world’s absurdities and joys with the equanimity and calm resolution of a Greek or Roman sage. He was also a better man. La Rochefoucauld was intelligent without being wise, and never found the confidence in himself to submit his ego to the consolatory power of a higher philosophical authority in any form. Cynicism, in the end, strips a man of his most important protective armor, and leaves him naked to face the cruelties of life. No cynic ever died a happy man.
Read More: 7 Tips On How To Get Into The Best Shape Of Your Life
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WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department said in sworn testimony released Tuesday that Mrs. Clinton’s advisers gave little thought to the problems her private email server might create if they were forced to turn over her communications under public records law. “Certainly from my standpoint, I wish that had been something we thought about,” Cheryl D. Mills, who was chief of staff when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, testified in a deposition on Friday in a lawsuit against the State Department brought by a conservative legal group. Ms. Mills’s comments — contrite at times, defensive at others — represented the first sworn public accounting from a member of Mrs. Clinton’s inner circle about the controversy over her exclusive use of a private email account during her State Department tenure. The issue, which has dogged her presidential campaign for more than a year, flared up again last week after the release of a highly critical investigation by the State Department’s inspector general that found Mrs. Clinton was not authorized to use the private server. Mrs. Clinton declined to be interviewed for that inquiry. Ms. Mills insisted during nearly seven hours of testimony that Mrs. Clinton’s use of the private clintonemail. com account, housed on a server in her home, was “absolutely not” an attempt to evade the Freedom of Information Act, as many of her critics have charged. She acknowledged, however, that the account was tightly held. Unless Mrs. Clinton emailed other officials first from her account, they had to go through gatekeepers in Mrs. Clinton’s office to get her email address. Even top officials like Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff in 2009 and 2010, had to request the address. But Ms. Mills also said that the private account was no secret. She estimated that Mrs. Clinton shared emails with about 100 State Department officials from her private account. “So her use of her email was not something that was unknown,” she said. Her deposition came in a private lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal advocacy group. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, has allowed the group to take sworn testimony from at least a officials to explore how and why the private email server was used — a decision that the judge has said “boggles the mind. ” Ms. Mills’s lawyer, Beth A. Wilkinson, repeatedly clashed with the Judicial Watch lawyers, saying their questions were beyond the scope of what the judge had allowed. But Ms. Mills, who like Mrs. Clinton refused to be interviewed by the State Department’s inspector general, voiced no apparent irritation over her lengthy deposition and told lawyers for Judicial Watch that she wanted to be helpful, according to a transcript. Under questioning, Ms. Mills detailed how Mrs. Clinton came to use the private server, and what her aides did to facilitate the unusual arrangement. She said that Mrs. Clinton never considered using an official government email address and made clear from the start of her tenure in 2009 that she wanted to use a personal email address, Ms. Mills said. She described that decision as “a continuation of a practice that she had been using as a senator” before becoming secretary of state. Ms. Mills said repeatedly that she could not recall any specific discussions in Mrs. Clinton’s office about how to preserve her emails to ensure that they would be available when the State Department responded to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the law passed after Watergate to encourage government transparency. She said she assumed that the emails Mrs. Clinton sent to officials with department email accounts would be “captured” automatically and saved. At the same time, she acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton periodically emailed officials at their personal accounts — records that would not have shown up in the State Department system. Ms. Mills testified that she routinely complied with records requests under the law, known as FOIA, but that a separate office dealt with the requests. She said she did not recall any instances in which she discussed the requirements regarding those requests, even when shown an email from Stephen D. Mull, who was executive secretary in Mrs. Clinton’s office from 2009 to 2012, about the issuance of a State Department BlackBerry. “We will prepare two version for her to use, one with operating State Department email account which would mask her identity but which would also be subject to FOIA requests,” wrote Mr. Mull, who is also scheduled to testify in the Judicial Watch lawsuit. The State Department’s inspector general documented one episode in 2010 in which a top information management official, John Bentel, told two unnamed specialists in his office “never to speak of the secretary’s personal email system again” after they had raised concerns about the private email arrangement. Asked whether anyone had raised concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s emails would not show up in public records requests, Ms. Mills said: “I’m not aware of it. They might have. ” She said repeatedly that she wished she and other advisers had given more thought to the issue. | 1 |
WHOA! FBI director tells Congress Hillary investigation reopening ‘due to recent developments’ (here’s the letter) Posted at 1:35 pm Doug P.
FBI Director James Comey has made it known (on a Friday of course) that the Bureau will be reopening the Hillary Clinton case to look at new information.
Comey sent this letter to Congress today: Comey says there are newly discovered emails that FBI will now investigate, reopening Clinton email server case. pic.twitter.com/hEKPQ7R1x3
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 28, 2016 FBI Director Comey, in letter to members of Congress, says FBI is investigating additional emails in Clinton private server case pic.twitter.com/Ue0qlhqT5w
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) October 28, 2016
We’ll update the story as more is known. Trending | 0 |
Email
With just days left before Americans will go to the polls to elect a new president, voters committed to continuing to live under the protections of personal liberty in the Constitution must examine positions taken by the candidates on key issues.
In this article, we'll look at Hillary Clinton's call for civilian disarmament and what Americans could do to prevent this policy from coming to pass, even if Clinton is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.
On her campaign website, Clinton makes several unconstitutional promises that would have the effect of disarming millions of Americans and threatening the enjoyment of the right to keep and bear arms of millions more. Here's a sample from her list of presidential promises: As president, Hillary will: Expand background checks to more gun sales — including by closing the gun show and internet sales loopholes — and strengthen the background check system by getting rid of the so-called “Charleston Loophole.” Take on the gun lobby by removing the industry’s sweeping legal protection for illegal and irresponsible actions (which makes it almost impossible for people to hold them accountable), and revoking licenses from dealers who break the law. Keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, other violent criminals, and the severely mentally ill by supporting laws that stop domestic abusers from buying and owning guns, making it a federal crime for someone to intentionally buy a gun for a person prohibited from owning one, and closing the loopholes that allow people suffering from severe mental illness to purchase and own guns. She will also support work to keep military-style weapons off our streets.
There are so many constitutionally repugnant statements in these three paragraphs.
First, there is no such thing as a gun show loophole. Here's the truth as explained by the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute: If the voters learn the facts about gun shows, they will discover that there is no gun show loophole, no gun show crime problem and no reason to adopt federal legislation whose main effect would be to infringe on First and Second Amendment rights. Despite what some media commentators have claimed, existing gun laws apply just as much to gun shows as they do to any other place where guns are sold. Since 1938, persons selling firearms have been required to obtain a federal firearms license. If a dealer sells a gun from a storefront, from a room in his home or from a table at a gun show, the rules are exactly the same: he can get authorization from the FBI for the sale only after the FBI runs its “instant” background check (which often takes days to complete). As a result, firearms are the most severely regulated consumer product in the United States — the only product for which FBI permission is required for every single sale.
Surely Clinton and her advisors are aware of this fact and that they are misrepresenting the situation to uninformed voters, thus their insistence on "closing the gun show loophole" becomes nothing less than another attempt to demand the surrender of natural rights in exchange for a "safer world."
Next, with regard to the creation of "universal background checks," here's more from Cato: Gun-control advocates often claim that 40 percent of annual firearms sales take place today without background checks. The Washington Post “fact-checker” has debunked that claim, giving it “Three Pinocchios.” The Post noted that the survey data used for the study on which the 40 percent claim is based are more than two decades old, which means they were collected prior to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System becoming operational in 1998. The survey only polled 251 people, and, upon asking whether their gun transfer involved a federally licensed dealer — that is, a federal firearms licensee (FFL) — gave respondents the choice of saying “probably” or “probably not” in addition to “yes” and “no.” From that survey, the report concluded that 35.7 percent of acquisitions did not involve a background check. But “acquisitions” is a much broader category than “purchases,” which is the term used by advocates for gun control. Gifts and inheritances between family members or among close friends are acquisitions, but not purchases. When the Post asked researchers to correct for that distinction, the percentage of firearms purchased without a background check fell to between 14 and 22 percent. The Post subsequently conducted its own survey of Maryland residents, and found that 21 percent of respondents reported not having gone through a background check to purchase a firearm in the previous decade. Even that 21 percent, which entails transactions between private, noncommercial sellers, is regulated by the federal law against giving a firearm to someone the transferor knows, or reasonably should know, is among the nine categories of prohibited persons under federal law (e.g., mentally impaired; convicted felons). The assertion that nearly half of the gun sales in America are unregulated is simply false. Federal law governs as many gun sales and transfers as is practically enforceable already.
Third, Clinton calls for the end to the "gun lobby's" support of the firearm industry, specifically for the former's legal counsel offered to the latter. This is a patent assault on the right of the accused to an attorney.
Here is an explanation on the importance of these impediments to tyranny written by the celebrated Montesquieu: But in moderate governments, where the life of the meanest subject is deemed precious, no man is stripped of his honor or property until after a long inquiry; and no man is bereft of life till his very country has attacked him — an attack that is never made without leaving him all possible means of making his defence. Hence it is that when a person renders himself absolute, he immediately thinks of reducing the number of laws. In a government thus constituted they are more affected with particular inconveniences than with the liberty of the subject, which is very little minded. In republics, it is plain that as many formalities at least are necessary as in monarchies. In both governments they increase in proportion to the value which is set on the honor, fortune, liberty, and life of the subject. In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
In other words, despotic governments attempt to curtail the civil liberties of citizens, while republics would never make such a move against freedom, not even if the accused is a weapons manufacturer, Mrs. Clinton!
Finally, with regard to the depriving of the "mentally ill" of their right to keep and bear arms, Hillary Clinton demonstrates once again that her ultimate aim is not safety, but statism. She wants to continue the federal government's consolidation of all political power and its assumption of the authority to give and take away rights according to a person's willingness to bend the knee to the masters of the state.
There is no wiggle room in the Second Amendment; the federal government is expressly forbidden from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms. There is no exception for mental illness or for having published "anti-government" posts on the Internet.
Now, as Hillary Clinton promises to be an executive without consideration for any constitutional restraints on her power, states must come to the defense of the rights of the people, and many states are doing just that.
If, however, enough people vote to give the president power to rob their fellow citizens of their ability to resist tyranny, then all other liberties will be at the mercy of that same federal force, for a disarmed populace is a slave populace. | 0 |
A Hillary Clinton goon destroyed Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The “peaceful man” said that he had 4-5 family members assaulted and that hes terrible upset that he has a presidential nominee who is a “poster child for sexual violence”. People were standing around and filming his “brave act”, we imagine it took several minutes to accomplish this, yet no one intervened, no one called the cops.
Most of the fake accusers have already been debunked but batshit crazed liberals still push on the narrative that Trump is a rapist.
This is a classic tactic from Saul Alinsky of whom Hillary Clinton idolized and based her college thesis on. Divert attention away from your issues with the same issue but falsely accusing it on your opponent. Nice!
So Hillary wants to divert attention away from her open marriage and from her husband’s rapes of multiple women with false accusations of Trump. Make no mistake about it, this is not a Trump issue. She would have done the same thing with any other opponent. If it were Ted Cruz, same story, if he would have exposed Bill Clinton’s rapes, the next week you would have had multiple women falsely accusing Ted Cruz of raping and groping them. Unbelievable!
The vandal identified himself as James Otis and he removed the emblem from the middle of the star to sell it and donate the money to all the women who were raped by Trump.
You would think that in the light of Project Veritas videos and how they exposed the DNC evil who paid agitators, violence, voter fraud and more they would chill out for a while but nope, the viciousness is going on. These people are pushing the limits of law in this country and as of now its a banana republic led by banana-boy Obama but if Trump gets in, a lot of people are RIGHTFULLY going to be locked up and have the key thrown away for all this chaos, anarchy and lawlessness.
LAPD is currently searching for the vandalism suspect.
Trump received his star in 2007. In July 2016 a protester built a 6-inch wall around the star which is a legitimate form of protest, but destroying the star is just anarchy and that man needs to be locked up for a while along with the Democrats who paid him to do that.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce said they are planning to repair the star. Well at least they have some honor in them.
“People can make a difference by voting and not destroying public property” the chamber’s president said.
These sort of things are normally expected to happen in poor countries with little to no freedoms where the opposition party is systematically oppressed but in a country like America which brags to the world how it is “the greatest democracy in the world” it is surely setting a bad example which no one in its right mind would like to follow.
If it has come to the point that even the communist state press in China is saying that what the media in America is doing to Trump is pure bias, then we know how bad it is in America.
The media people in America are rubbing their hands at this one. They are truly happy and excited this happened.
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More Americans Than Ever Are Losing Their Religion By Michael Snyder, on August 25th, 2016
Never before in U.S. history have so many Americans chosen to be unaffiliated with any particular religious group. As you will see below, the percentage of “nones” in this country has absolutely skyrocketed over the past decade. But not all faiths are losing members in the United States. In fact, Islam, Buddhism, Wicca and various New Age organizations have all experienced excellent growth in recent years. Sadly, almost all of the growth for the “nones” has come at the expense of Christianity. Americans are leaving the Christian faith in droves, and this is why many of our churches are less than half full on Sunday mornings. What we are doing right now is clearly not working, and hopefully we can get the church in America to wake up while there is still time to do so.
Earlier today I came across a brand new study from the Pew Research Center entitled “ Why America’s ‘nones’ left religion behind “. One thing that particularly stood out to me was the fact that most “nones” were once affiliated with a particular religion but have now discarded that label…
Perhaps the most striking trend in American religion in recent years has been the growing percentage of adults who do not identify with a religious group . And the vast majority of these religious “nones” (78%) say they were raised as a member of a particular religion before shedding their religious identity in adulthood.
Overall, the percentage of “nones” in this nation has been absolutely soaring in recent years. Back in 2007, “nones” made up 16 percent of the population, but now that number has risen to 23 percent. The following is from a different Pew Research Center report that was published last year …
Religious “nones” – a shorthand we use to refer to people who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is “nothing in particular” – now make up roughly 23% of the U.S. adult population. This is a stark increase from 2007, the last time a similar Pew Research study was conducted, when 16% of Americans were “nones.” ( During this same time period, Christians have fallen from 78% to 71%. )
I want you to notice one particularly sobering fact in the excerpt posted above. The seven percent increase in the percentage of “nones” was matched exactly by a seven percent decrease in the percentage of Christians.
It is time to face a very hard truth – Christianity is in rapid decline in America.
So why is this happening?
Is there an explanation for why so many people are leaving the church?
Well, here is some of the feedback that the Pew Research Center received while conducting their new survey…
About half of current religious “nones” who were raised in a religion (49%) indicate that a lack of belief led them to move away from religion. This includes many respondents who mention “science” as the reason they do not believe in religious teachings, including one who said “ I’m a scientist now, and I don’t believe in miracles .” Others reference “ common sense ,” “ logic ” or a “ lack of evidence ” – or simply say they do not believe in God.
This is such a tragedy, because during my decades of research into these things I have found that logic and reason should always point people toward the Christian faith and not away from it. There is an absolutely gigantic for Christianity out there, but unfortunately most people don’t know about it or they are not interested in considering it.
The biggest cultural shift has been happening among our young people. Most of them have been raised in an environment where God has been removed from almost every corner of public life, and the results have been beyond catastrophic.
In America today, 35 percent of all Millennials are “nones”.
Millennials are more than twice as likely to be “nones” as Baby Boomers (17 percent), and they are more than three times as likely to be “nones” as the Silent Generation (11 percent).
In other words, the younger you are the more likely you are to be religiously unaffiliated.
And this shows up in the church attendance numbers as well. Millennials are much, much less likely to be in church on any particular Sunday morning than the oldest Americans are. The following information comes from another Pew Research Center report …
Millennials – especially the youngest Millennials, who have entered adulthood since the first Landscape Study was conducted – are far less religious than their elders. For example, only 27% of Millennials say they attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared with 51% of adults in the Silent generation . Four-in-ten of the youngest Millennials say they pray every day, compared with six-in-ten Baby Boomers and two-thirds of members of the Silent generation. Only about half of Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with seven-in-ten Americans in the Silent and Baby Boom cohorts. And only about four-in-ten Millennials say religion is very important in their lives, compared with more than half in the older generational cohorts.
We are slowly losing an entire generation.
When you walk into most churches in America on Sunday morning, what are you going to find?
You are going to find that the congregation is dominated by “the greys”, and I am not talking about space aliens.
As the oldest Americans die off, the United States is becoming less and less Christian. We are on the exact same path that Europe has already gone down, but most churches are just going on with business as usual and don’t seem to even understand that we have a major crisis on our hands.
As I said at the top of this article, what we are doing right now is clearly not working, and if we continue on the path that we are currently on we will continue to lose young people by the millions.
America needs revival more than it has ever needed it before.
Let us pray that one arrives very soon. There Is A Mainstream Media Conspiracy To Hide Hillary Clinton’s Rapidly Failing Health » Grillsgt.
And then there are those who realized virtually all churches in their area are either preaching heresy, or are downright apostate. Mke
Or they are so watered down and user-friendly that you feel like you wasted a good part of your Sunday when you leave. I’m amazed at most churches I go into these days. Not a lot of comprehensive, honest Bible-teaching going on. That’s why people are walking away. Sure, some will walk away when you boldly teach the Bible, but that’s the way it is supposed to be. iris
Yes, people need truth. Can the church growth models! Preach the gospel. If church leaders won’t do it, that’s their problem, we can share Christ every day with those we come in contact with, by word and deed. I’m glad we’re in a congregation where it is shared every week. PoorBoy2
Could it be that all of these years of focusing on “Religion” and do’s and don’t’s instead of relationship with the one true God is bearing fruit? Though ritual and tradition can be meaningful and helpful, without relationship they are dead and empty leading to “nones”. Mike
I’d say it’s more related to greasy grace, once saved always saved no matter how backslidden you are, and “we don’t want to offend anybody” type teaching going on. Most of the teaching on the radio and in the churches is weak. Paul Patriot
So, do you think someone can lose their salvation based on works Can one obtain salvation by works
If someone is a backsliding “Christian” then I concur that they were never really saved.
Reference the parable of the sower and this will reveal the wheat and tares sitting next to one another in churches across this world.
If Jesus does not have the power to truly save you and by your actions you can lose that salvation, then his work on Calvary was not as great as the Bible says it was…….he is either the Savior or he is not, and a saved person will act a certain way, and not backside back into the pig pen, thus revealing their false conversion.
Just sayin…….I agree with you most teaching today is weak, there is no more preaching of he’ll and no more preaching that unless you are born again, you will not be saved…and that Jesus is the ONLY name j Der heaven in which we can be saved. algol2000
The righteousness of Jesus is for Jesus. Work out your own by following in his footsteps. iris
So very true! When Christians realize that it is His righteousness living in, guiding and empowering us, sanctifying us, redeeming us, we humbly and gratefully, submit to His leading in hope, peace and joy. We boast in Him, not in ourselves or our ability to do good, and have that blessed assurance. He is our confidence and our worth is in Him. We cling to what He has accomplished for us on the Cross, and even more, in what He is doing in our lives by God’s Holy Spirit. 1Corinthians 1:30-31. Grillsgt.
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Eph. 2:8-9 algol2000
The watering down, so to speak is in these very words, and has led to the blatant apostasy that you are witnessing. The grace that Jesus provides is so that God can be patient while you bring forth the fruits (works) required for sonship. Grillsgt.
A works-based salvation?? Seriously?? Do you also believe that one can lose their salvation? Not trying to sound snarky, but just asking about your views. watchmannonthewall
Why would Jesus speak about blotting a persons name out of the Book of Life if it is an empty threat? Wouldn’t He be guilty of atempted manipulation, deception, if one really can’t be blotted out? of course the writer of Hebrews refers to this in Hebrews 6:4-6 and again in 10:26-31.
Korah is a prime example in the OT, having seen all of God’s miracles and even been choosen to minister for God as Levite yet he rebelled and fire came out from God and the earth opened to receive him. The fire and opening of the earth is just a concealed OT way of indicating he went to the Lake of Fire for his rebellion!
Once saved always saved is another false doctrine that has made many feel comfortable in their sin! But Jesus said, “Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” This was to people convinced they knew Him, but He said He didn’t know them! We need to make sure He knows us and this means, by definition, we walk in a “Lawful” manner! algol2000
A work-based salvation is what Jesus taught. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the pharisees and the pharisees, ye shall in no wise see the kingdom of heaven”. “Be ye perfect (in deeds) just as your heavenly father is perfect”.
On this earth, deeds are the basis for judgement in an earthly court, how much more so in heaven? Without laws to govern conduct, there can be no sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. And law-breakers will be punished by the Judge. watchmannonthewall
Can we take a look at scripture to see how well the statement you quoted, made by Paul, aligns itself to all of scripture?
God says in Isaiah 46:10 that He declares the end from the beginning. Let’s go to “the End”, work our way back to “the Beginning”, and see what God says in His Word, OK?
Rev. 20:13- “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of the according to THEIR DEEDS [works].” This is speaking only of those who are “lost”. What about the “saved”?
Rev. 14:13- “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Write’, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!” “Yes” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labor, for their DEEDS [works] follow with them.”
The book of Revelation indicates the works by both saints and the wicked are noticed by God. See also in the message to each of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, John records Jesus as claiming, “I know thy works…” Clearly Jesus considers “works” in His assessment of His people!
James, the brother of Jesus, had this to say about works (James 2:14-24): “What use is it brethren, if a man says he has faith, BUT he has no works? Can that [workless] faith save him?”…”Even so faith, if it has no works, is DEAD being by itself.”…Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of THE WORKS, faith was perfected…You see that a man is justified by works, and NOT by faith ALONE.” James states works are a necessary addition to faith. What does Paul say?
In Paul’s pastoral epistle to Titus, he writes the following (3:8): “This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God [those who have faith] may be careful to engage in good DEEDS.”
In his letter to Timothy (1 Tim. 6:17-18) Paul tells Timothy, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good [deeds], to be rich in good WORKS, to be generous and ready to share…” Again, Paul speaks about putting feet to one’s faith!
Just two verses after the one you quote in Ephesians above, Paul writes (v.10), “For we are His [the Father’s] workmanship created in Christ Jesus FOR good works, which God prepared beforehand , that we should walk in them.” God obviously expects His people to “do” good works, having prepared these ahead of time for them!
Jesus said the following concerning “works”: “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” (Mt. 16:27) Note that this specifically occurs with regard to the return of Christ and applies to His people, those who are “saved”! Jesus also said we are to let our light shine before men so they see our “good works” and glorify His Father. (Mt. 5:16) You see Paul agreed with Jesus’ teaching concerning His expectation of His people to perform “good works” and says they will be rewarded in the kingdom according to these.
So what are these “good works”? Lots of debate about this, but not surprisingly, scripture clearly identifies these. It is just that people don’t want to accept what God said that they tend to ignore His Words!
Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 3:16-17, “ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for REPROOF, for CORRECTION, for TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS [traininng in the performance of “good works”],that the man of God may be adequate, and EQUIPPED for every good work”.
Paul says Scripture, OT and NT(and understand the NT wasn’t written when Paul wrote this to Timothy and Paul never claimed his letters were scripture as the Gentile “Church” made this claim many years later), is the source of instruction to identify and instruct us in the performance of “good works”. Paul just got done speaking to Timothy, in the prior two verses, about how he had known the “scriptures” from childhood. When Timothy was a child, none of the NT had been written! Not one word! Paul therefore told Timothy and US the OT contains the instructions regarding what God considers good works and how they are to be performed. We already have looked at the fact we will all be judged on how well we obey God’s instructions in this matter!
We see the NT, John, James, Paul , Jesus, all teach people, saved and unsaved , will be judged by their works. Where does “faith” enter the outcome? If one has saving faith, as James said Abraham did as evidenced by his obedience to God’s instructions, we will be obedient to God’s Word. Note James also says the devils “believe”, but we know they do NOT obey God’s instructions. How many of us are just like them?
Is being judged by our works just a NT expectation? James already used Abraham as an example to indicate it is not. Jeremiah (17:10) also says, “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to EVERY man according to his ways, according to the results of his DEEDS.” Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, according to their deeds!
The “greasy grace” of today is one catalyst for the current malaise affecting the people’s relationship to God and/or the lack of relevance Christianity has for many. Many of today’s preachers don’t even know scripture says what I just shared, straight from scripture, with you!
When Jesus said he came to destroy the “works of the devil” He was referring to destroying rebellion against obedience to God by empowering His people to obey His Word through the indwelling Spirit!
Unfortunately, the devil has now got many believing that once you say the prayer of faith, you’ve done all you need to do to go to heaven, but Scripture doesn’t teach that , does it? It actually teaches your faith is to be able to be seen by your daily walk, your works as defined by God’s Word! Now you know!! Just do it! Grillsgt.
Ephesians 2:10…” For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Notice Paul said, FOR good works, not by them. Also, Titus 3: 4-7…”4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Now…does the Bible contradict itself, or could it be, one or more opinions of this subject might be mistaken? Grillsgt.
Right, PB2! There is a movement afoot to replace Christianity with “Churchianity”. AverGo
Exciting, If you believe that God’s Word, Never Returns Void. Then couple that with, Bring up a Man in the Way he should go, then Later he will not depart from it. Then as the Endtimes become more undeniable, God will bring back the Prodigal sons and daughters. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; watchmannonthewall
Both Paul and Solomon spoke of the children of the last generation being very rebellious and full of pride. It is the mirror image of what happened at the Exodus.
There it was the parents who did not believe God and obey Him, refused to go up and take the Land. Here, in this last generation, it is the children who have rebelled againt parents and Jeus even said the those of a man’s OWN household would be HIS worst enemies.
Understanding the passage, a paraphrase from Micah 7:6, the father, the man, is in the right and those opposing him are in the wrong!
Jesus never taught opposition to parents any more than He taught opposition to the Father! Both are the Creators of others and Creators are to be honored and obeyed by the Created. 1st commandment and 5th commandment- Love God and others and parents are the first neighbors we are to love! K
Which came first. People walking away from the Church? Or the Church walking away from real Godly teachings. Dale Graley
very good point Ambassador 2Co 5:20
A few years ago I was with a group of professed Christians who had this “as long as we believe in Jesus it doesn’t matter what else we believe” attitude. They were lamenting the dumbing down of America in our schools primarily but the dumbing down of culture in general as well. I asked them if they believed the USA was a Christian nation, now or in the past. They said yes to which I replied “you can’t dumb down a Christian nation unless you dumb down Christianity first.” As you can imagine that didn’t go over very well.
Isaiah 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
That verse is a prophetic statement told in symbols, so those who don’t have eyes to see will not get it. Read the surrounding context and you can tell it’s about the end times. Anyway the symbol breakdown is this:
seven = completion or totality women = churches (bride of Christ) one man = Jesus bread = doctrine apparel = righteousness (white robes or filthy rags)
Reread Isaiah 4:1 with the symbols decoded and it says “And in the day all the churches shall say to Jesus, we will teach our own ways, and present ourselves to the world in any manner we see fit: only let us be called Christians to take away our shame. OriginalRS
The latter, most definitely. RageHard84
Dang. This question cuts to the point. I mean, there are churches which have abandoned sound doctrine and adopted heresies like serpent seed, the idea that homosexuality and transgenderism are promoted by the Bible when they’re really sins, it’s crazy. LowellST13
The government and the 501C3 tax exempt for Churches has dissolved sound doctrine. Churches have sold their soul to the devil, government, I get those two confused. I am fortunate to be part of an Independent Baptist Church that is sound in the KJV 1611 and if I have a problem with Sermon’s I look at the bible first and if it is there than it is my problem. I need to change, not THE CHURCH or the BIBLE THE BIBLE and how GOD Authored it is the same Yesterday, today, and forever AMEN David
repenting is not enough. If you can’t forgive others for their trespasses against you or harbor hate & anger towards others then God can’t forgive you and you won’t make it into heaven. Joan Camara
Can I have hate and anger toward evil people? krinks
The Church walking away from Godly teaching. When I was a young man in the early 70s I clearly recall very few politicians dared to proclaim their support for abortion. They feared the wrath of the Christian Vote. Only the far left Pelosi/Sanders type dared to proclaim such. Over time people stopped taking the Lord into the Voting Booth, emboldening the Perverts. Today rare is the politician that can get ahead by proclaiming Christian Principles. The DNC in hacked correspondence actually discussed the best way to get rid of Religious Liberty in America. Yet even at this most that call themselves Christians will vote for them. It is all I can do to not go to Church and cuss them all out for what they have allowed our nation to become. watchmannonthewall
K, great question! I’d like to give a shot as to the apex of the problem and answer a question Michael posed in his book, “The Rapture Verdict”, where he inquired if anyone knew what the “great apostacy” is, which Paul spoke of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 saying, “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [the Day of the LORD from verse 2] will not come unless the apostasy comes first [1] and the man of lawlessness is revealed [2], the son of destruction.” (NASB) We see there is first a great apostacy, which comes BEFORE the anti-christ and THEN the anti-christ is revealed (Michael pointed this out in his book). It agrees with Jesus’ timeline in Mt. 24:29-31 regarding the “gathering” of His saints! In fact, since the anti-christ is called “the man of lawlessness”, this should clue us in to the fact the “apostacy” is related to “lawlessness” increasing, a necessity to set the stage for the anti-christ, even as Jesus prophesied in Mt. 24:12. Recall, Jesus also said He did not know those who “PRACTICE lawlessness” in Mt. 7:23, even though these people were PERFORMING MIRACLES using His Name!! The KJV translates “apostacy” as “falling away” in 2 Thess. 2:3, and Strong’s says the term is used just twice in the NT: “Grk. #646- apostasia” and defines the term as “defection from truth”. The great end time apostacy is “defection from truth”. What is truth (Truth)?“All Thy commandments are Truth.” (Ps. 119:151) “Thy Law is Truth.” (Ps. 119:142)“Thy Word is Truth” according to Jesus (Jn. 17:17), and Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life “. (Jn. 14:6) Jesus also prayed for us saying, “Sanctify them by Thy Truth; Thy Word is Truth.” We, God’s people, are to be set apart from the world by “practicing” the Word of God, the Law, the Commandments, the Word of God, and Jesus! Using the substitution principle, we can define defection from Truth as a defection from God’s Commandments, His Law, His Word, and from Jesus. This should be easy to understand since present day Christian teaching has God’s Truth, His Law, His Word, and His Commandments as all put to death by Jesus Christ at the cross; of course, Jesus had to die since He is Truth also! Today’s Christianity, for the most part, worships ANOTHER resurrected Jesus, not the one of the NT! Can God’s Truth die…or is it forever? There are scriptures that say “No”, despite claims of portions of God’sWord passing away. In case one is not convinced, let’s look at two NT examples: The first is the murder of Stephen, called the first martyr of “the Church”, and the second is when Paul returns to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey to keep God’s Festival of Leviticus 23:15-21, Shavuot, or what we call Pentecost. Why was Stephen put to death? What does Scripture say?“And yet they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he [Stephen] was speaking. Then they secretly induced men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.’ And they stirred up the people, and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and dragged him away, and brought him before the council [the Sanhedrin].”“And they put forth FALSE witnesses who said, ‘This man incessently speaks against this holy place, and the Law [the Law of Moses- but they were FALSE witnesses, meaning he did NOT speak against EITHER the holy place OR against Moses]; for we have heard him say that this Jesus will destroy this place and altar the customs which Moses handed down to us [but they were FALSE witnesses- so Stephen never spoke against the customs MOSES handed down to them]'”. (Acts 6:10-14) Please note: “the Church” definitely believes the customs Moses handed down were changed, but if that were true, wouldn’t the FALSE witnesses actually be TRUE witnesses? Well? Let God be true and every man a liar! What was it they thought Moses had taught them, the customs, but which he never really did? It was the Jewish Oral Law which Jesus referenced in Mark 7:9 where He referred to it saying, “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition”! They had their own “traditions” which superceded God’s commandments, you know, sort of like how the Catholic church has its own traditions that are contrary to the Word of God, or how the Protestant Churches do the same. (See Romans 10:3 where Paul speaks of the same.) The second use of “apostasia” is found in Acts 21 and it actually gives us God’s definition of “apostacy”, if one will accept it! God loves to hide things in plain sight!“And when we [Paul and Luke, and others] had come to Jerusalem, the bretheren received us gladly. And now the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. And after he had greeted them, he begun to relate one by one the things God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.”“And when they heard it they begn glorifying God; and they [the elders] said to him, ‘You see brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, AND THEY ARE ALL ZEALOUS FOR THE LAW [the Truth!]; and they have been told about you that you are teachinig all the Jews among the Gentiles to forsake Moses [to GRK- “apostacize” Moses], telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according tot he customs.” (Acts 21:17-21) Note that the charges leveled against Paul are the same ones which Paul consented unto regarding the death of Stephen. It was about “the customs” of Moses. Paul did explain circumcision without a circumcised heart will not get you salvation before God. They didn’t much like that one, did they? God wants both, but especially the spiritual one! But that was one “custom” of Moses Paul taught against, the NT records these debates, but Moses never taught that! Moses said, “Circumcise therefore your heart and stiffen your neck no more.” (Deut. 10:16) And, “Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, or eyes to see, nor ears to hear.” (Deut 29:4) Moses clearly taught God wanted a circumcised heart so they could understand God”s instructions! The Acts passage lets us know James, the brother of Jesus, and the elders were rejoicing that so many of their Judean brothers were finally living out the Mosaic Law the way God intended it to be lived, zealously! There is no hint of the idea that following the Mosaic Law is to be avoided here, is there? Also, James and the elders reported to Paul that some of their Judean brothers had heard Paul was teaching the Gentiles and those in the Diaspora to “apostacize” the teachings of Moses. Stephen wans’t guilty of this and neither was Paul! , What are the teachings of Moses? They are the Law, the Commandments and the Word of God; they are “the Truth”, according to God’s definition! I did not say it! God did! You can find it in your own Bible! God plainly defines the great end time apostacy as a departure from the Law of Moses! Jesus accused the Jews of not even knowing what Moses said and informed them Moses would be testifying against them in the judgment. (Jn. 5:45-47) Has “the Church” forsaken, apostacized Moses in this day? You bet! This doctrine infiltrated the American church through the institutions of higher learning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has spread from there. It has been opposed by the RCC heirarchy from the 3rd century on, since if one puts God’s Word as the highest spiritual authority then the RCC heirachy is not the highest authority but rather is to be in submission to God’s Holy Word. Rome does not willingly abandon its power to claim to speak for God even for God Himself! I think the NT makes a great case for the great end time apostacy to be related to God’s shepherds teaching and encouraging His people to “practice lawlessness” by removing the standard of holiness God established through Moses and confirmed in Jesus Christ. Thisis why both jeremiah (23) and Ezekiel (34) speak of how the LORD is going to judge His shepherds uppn His return for the way they have destroyed His Word and people! One last point with respect to the OT: 1) Nearly the very last words of the last book written there, Milachi 4:4, are, “Remember the the Law of Moses My servant, even the statutes, and ordinances, which I commanded him in Horeb for ALL of Israel.” Paul says we have been grafted into Israel therefore this verse is for us, as Israel! (Romans 11:19-24 and Eph. 2:11-13) Everyone has a choice: one can begin to read Scripture as God had it written, a book of instruction on how He expects His family to live with one another, or one can decide to pick and choose favoite passages that seemto support our doctrine and the theologians, the leaders are nearly always wrong(!), and twist the scriptures to live according to the standard they want to live by in this life. We will all give an account of the things done in our body. However, if you love God, you will keep His Commandments, His Law, His Word, Jesus and Truth! If you want to know why today’s “Church” is dying, it is because it has perverted Gods’ Truth, which only brings death! God’s Word is bread and sustains life. Departing from life, means death! Paul Patriot
ONE thing to look at, and would make a great subject for a future article is the invasion and take over of the education system, via common core and other ideological brainwashing of young Minds, all in the name of “separation of church and state” which is a twisted invention and re interpretation of the 1st Amendment. The founders would not even recognize what is being done today as being remotely Constitutional.
So, the removing of Biblical principles from schools and teaching absolute morals and Godly accountability, thus opening up young minds for indoctrination…….has created thus anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-Bible………anti-US Heritage mindset that is and will lead to our destruction as a free society, and one that is and will continue to plead with the God of the Bible to judge this nation and pour out onto her what she deserves.
May we repent and call out to “nature’s God”…….the God of our heritage for restoration….if that is even possible at this point. Gay Veteran
hey, what are the parents doing??? religious indoctrination is THEIR job, not that of the State Jesus Freak
hey GV hopefully loving their kids like Jesus loves all of us sorry losers John
Do you get the irony in having a government endorsed school teach your children about morals and values and god’s accountability in public school? Apparently no one is accountable to god, especially our own government because they have yet to be punished by god’s wrath for all the evil mass murdering, lying, cheating, stealing they have done since the USA’s inception. Jim Davis
Too many bat-guano crazy people in churches. Not too mention the hypocrites, gossipers, back-stabbers, etc. eunuch is blocked word
And then a number of fundamentalist Christians have a holier–than–thou pious mindset. (no i’m not saying they’re all that way) Jim Davis
Was this a robo-post? WTF! Heather
Don’t judge unless you are perfect. Lorelei Vision
It’s not a judgment, it’s the Truth! I knew a “Christian” woman who gossiped about everyone, sometimes Falsely. When Biblical Scripture was pointed out to this woman, admonishing her “sin”, what did she do? She emphatically stated that she “would not change”! She continued to speak with “forked tongue” until she died, even though her gossiping actually harmed other people. Many religious people hate it when their sin is pointed out, they hate being shown their hypocrisy. That is why so many non-believers hate Christians – our sheer hypocrisy of “do as I say, not as I do” is deceitful, insincere, pretension and off-putting. Those that truly follow God and His word have no problem being told the Truth about themselves. If the chastisement is True, we will heed the admonishment and act accordingly. Just because we are “saved” doesn’t mean we are to go out in the world with a chip on our shoulder, we are to walk a higher path and be an example to others. If you can’t handle the Truth, then maybe you need to revisit your walk with God… Heather
Hi Lorelei! Thanks for the honest feedback. Yes, you are right, some Christians set very bad examples, and their words are only a reflection of what is in their heart. Their relationship with the Savior needs much work! I’ve been Born Again Christian for about 30+ years and in the first 10 years you would have never known it…drinking and everything else under the sun. My ‘communication’ with Jesus was non existent, therefore my lifestyle reflected the world, nor Christ. After much heartache, I began a dialogue with Jesus, put my trust In Him, etc and I haven’t been the same since. All we can do is pray for those who have wondered away. My guess is that this Christian woman dId not fully commit her life to Jesus. The New Testement (Bible) tells us exactly what God expects from us…to be like Christ! God bless, and Marantha Lorelei Vision
There is much Truth to your comment, Jim. How many Christians actually walk the walk? Not many that I have met… Dawg01
It is wrong to lump all churches together. I go to a church that is not perfect, but does it’s best to interpret the bible, preaches Jesus is Lord and Savior, does missions overseas including very dangerous areas, and does outreach for the community. What are you who are criticizing all churches doing to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helping others. Grillsgt.
Google the Church of Laodicea, Dawg. “The Bible clearly prophesies that the Church of the end times will be characterized by apostasy. Paul said that the Antichrist will not be revealed until “the apostasy comes first” ~ Dr. David Reagan Joan Camara
Right! The “falling away”…..it’s definitely happening..! Grillsgt.
“3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. “ WWF
One thing I don’t like is sites that won’t approve your comment when you leave a Bible verse. Like Naturalnews had a story about Muslim terror so I put that verse about he shall be a wild man and guess what??? not approved! JF
Most sites today will not ‘approve’ anything that is anti-muslim. Grillsgt.
Yeah, no moral courage. Joan Camara
Mike Adams from naturalnews, is not a godly man, at all. He just knows about health, and likes to put government articles on his site too. shots = autism
There’s a page on natural news that discusses distillation and links to the H20 labs water distiller site. I left a comment pointing out that H20 labs sells the same distillers as Megahome but ups the price and my comment was rejected. Robert
It is more disturbing that anyone would find this disturbing. There are two ways, a narrow one and a broad one. Also bothersome is some saying that “whatever we are doing it isn’t working” as if there is a certain strategy to all this. Some few receive the gospel while most by far reject it. No surprise. We do not do anything. God remains sovereign. VigilanteCaregiver
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is still growing – both by births and converts.
Membership as of April 2016 was 15,634,199 folks. It keeps going up. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/statistical-report-2015?lang=eng Gay Veteran
cults tend to get bigger Guest
So is atheism a cult? And nice to see your back GV, I was starting me to miss you and your contributions! VigilanteCaregiver
If that’s about the homosexual usurper; he’s not atheist. He’s anti-Christ. Big difference. John
What if gay vet is not a vet nor gay? What if their name is just something being used to test people – to see how they will react to their comments based on said name?
It is interesting how everytime gay vet comments their sexuality is brought up and mocked/scorned by followers of christ. VigilanteCaregiver
GV’s pro-deviant, anti-christian, anti-unborn child, anti-American, anti-civilization, and anti-constitutional garbage is not acceptable.
She’s proudly wears her homosexuality in her name – of course we’re going to call her out on it. Homosexuality is a proven mental disorder; linked to narcissistic personality disorder and she really needs to get help as it’s dangerous physically, mentally, and emotionally. I will not enable someone with obvious mental problems and call it normal.
The LDS Church has instructed members to be loving towards those who suffer homosexuality, and we should. This person needs help. Acceptance and cognitive dissonance to self-harming behaviors and GV’s destructive and possibly criminal views is not loving – that is evil. Joan Camara
True enough! mleblanc138
I’m LDS too, but that number includes a lot of inactives and less actives. Think about all the people on your Ward’s list that never show up. Now multiply for every ward and I also hear the inactivity rate outside the US is way higher. VigilanteCaregiver
Half of our ward is disabled. We have low attendance during meetings, but go out and meet with them and their families at home.
We’re supposed to contact and do what we can for the inactive. Usually they’re inactive for a good reason. greanfinisher .
The country was never Christian to begin with. In fact, during the country’s entire history, only four popes had decided not to avoid the United States during their world tours. Heck, this country had spent the vast majority of its time inciting wars and expanding its empire so I would hardly describe it as being Christian. At best, it would more resemble the Roman empire, and even that characterization would be too kind. Make no mistake. Wealth, power and control have always reigned in the country, and not the Creator. Grillsgt.
How many nations did the US conquer and occupy, like the Romans? The nations we defeated in battle, i.e. Germany, Japan, did not become a possession. After the war, we helped to restore them to become free nations. greanfinisher .
The U.S. conquered and/or occupied a horde of sovereign lands during its history including those territories held by Mexico, Cuba, Ukraine, Libya, Russia, Dominican Republic, Columbia, Haiti, Kuwait, Puerto Rico, Jordan, Canada, Hawaii, Iraq, Panama, Guatemala, and Afghanistan. As per Germany, Japan and South Korea, all of these countries are still occupied by the United States, and answer only to their American masters. With tens of thousands of American troops holding these three countries hostage, they could hardly be described as free nations. Grillsgt.
Which of these “territories” do you believe we unilaterally invaded and occupied? Were they nations? And was the US the aggressor? Who drew first blood? Can you cite references? Grillsgt.
I think I see your reasoning. We have differing views what an empire is. Some examples that come to mind would be the Babylonian Empire, the Soviets, Ottomans, the Byzantines, Romans, etc. Yes, we did change the course of countries’ directions, but we are not the central authority, as the ones I mentioned. Mexico IS a sovereign nation, as are the other countries you listed. Others were occupied by tyrants, like Saddam Hussein, for example. Columbia was involved in the drug trade that was affecting the US. We could go on, but I think you get my drift. As for Germany, Japan, and South Korea, they want us there. John
Thank you greanfinisher for being one of the few quiet voices of reason that try to reach the unreachable. greanfinisher .
I can fully appreciate Grillsgt’s problem as he had likely been brainwashed and indoctrinated by the American propaganda machine. With time, he will eventually see things from a true perspective. Gay Veteran
“…This is such a tragedy, because during my decades of research into these things I have found that logic and reason should always point people toward the Christian faith and not away from it. There is an absolutely gigantic for Christianity out there, but unfortunately most people don’t know about it or they are not interested in considering it….”
every religion on the planet think their religion is THE religion!
btw, why does “god” never regenerate the limbs of amputees? it that happened then talk about “an absolutely gigantic for Christianity out there” Grillsgt.
A passage in Matthew touches on that thought…“The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.[a] 4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away. Matthew 16: 1-4
The “Sign of Jonah” was Christ’s death, burial, and Resurrection. Gay Veteran
but there are tons of people claiming “god” cured them, and yet NOT one amputee John
People really should study the human brain as it is the reason we have the mass psychosis called: religion.
It is a virus that spreads from generation to generation and never stops.
This includes not only the major religions in the world, but also those religions that subscribe to satanism, etc.
They are all just a farce created by clever tricksters who know more about our brains, motivations, etc than we do.
People do not have time to study themselves – they are too busy being children, going to school, falling in love, working 9 – 5, then golfing in their golden years or working till they drop to ever examine themselves and all the b.s. they have been taught.
They will continue this cycle with their own children and so on and so on. Because the beat goes on and on and never stops. Save for a few. DJohn1
The churches need to do some things. One of which is to establish what is fact and what is fiction. If I look at the material world then there are physical laws by which everything on this planet operates. One of those laws is the operation of gravity and the surface tension of water. It is mentioned in the BIble about Jesus walking on water and Peter attempting to do so. Without Jesus helping he could not walk on water. According to Jesus his faith was to weak. In the natural order of things Peter should drown when he attempts to walk on water. No representative of any religion that I know of can duplicate Jesus in walking on water. And there lies the problem. We live in the natural order of things. We live in the natural world with a set system of physical laws that none of us can break as Jesus could at will. Miracles are in the realm of the supernatural rather than the realm of the natural order of things. Yet many Christians have experienced Miracles of one kind or another. Just do not depend on Miracles. They are at the whim of our God and Creator. He decides what happens not us. I have felt the power of God in the form of the Holy Spirit before. Someone I was spiritually attached to confirmed this for me without prompting of any kind and 5,000 miles approximately between me and that person when I was 21. Yet none of this is taught anywhere that I know of. It is there. It is real. But it is not reproductable. So science has a huge problem attempting to reproduce anything that is talked extensively about in the New Testament. To them it is fable. It is myth without substance. And that basically in the form of Humanism is taught in the schools. So yes the old time religion of the churches is obsolete in not addressing the problem of science and natural laws of the universe. The young people are quick to pick up on this lack. They dismiss the Holy Spirit as a force. People like me have experienced it first hand and know different. I don’t have all the answers. If Jesus ever chose me for anything I would be totally surprised. I have met him only second hand in the Bible. As just about everyone in this time has done. IF Jesus as a God and as an immortal being came back, the forces of this world would attempt to kill him again. Those forces of this world do not represent all of humanity and they certainly do not represent me. Jesus gave many lessons in 3 years of ministry on this planet. One of which was Peter attempting to walk on water. Another concerning Peter was in his fear of crucifixion he denied Christ. The lesson is you do not know what you might do under the right kind of pressures. Jesus taught many things. One was the limits we put on ourselves. I have no clue to the answers that science information has come up with. Is the universe 13.5 billion years old. Are galaxies as common as a grains of sand on deserts? Is the Universe so large it is difficult to even conceive how large it is? The universe as we see it through our telescopes is so incredibly large as to be above the ability of most people to even understand. AS for me and mine, we worship the God of creation, the alpha and omega, the beginning of it all and the end of it all and are loyal to both God and his son, Jesus. When will Jesus come back? Only God knows. john
“Yet many Christians have experienced Miracles of one kind or another. Just do not depend on Miracles. They are at the whim of our God and Creator. He decides what happens not us.”
So you are saying that god decides if a child will be abused? Is that really OK with you from your own logistical standpoint? DJohn1
I am saying that God created it all. And no I am not all right with a lot of things allowed in this creation. But I wasn’t there when it was created and had no say one way or another in how it was created. I also do not have the big picture as God sees it. God is not human. God is also immortal and all powerful in this universe.
Look around you. This world is full of violent interactions. Yet good Christians once took out the predators. The result was a far worse disaster. The herds increased too fast and starvation loomed. All because we upset the balance of nature. Is a child being abused part of God’s creation or something else? Something wicked this way comes. God appears to have an opposite number in the Father of all Lies, Satan. This is documented fairly well in Job, the oldest book of the Bible.
When, not if, we succeed in finding life on another planet, will it follow the patterns of this world? The answer to that is it is likely. The reality of this world is it is a sick, violent place, and Christians are killed every day in other areas of the world. I do not agree with a lot of the reality I see out there. But only God can change it. To give him the glory is also to give him the responsibility. So in answer to your question ultimately the responsibility of this world lies on God’s shoulders. john
“So in answer to your question ultimately the responsibility of this world lies on God’s shoulders.”
That is exactly where you are wrong. Thinking that it is god’s responsibility is why the world is the way it is. We are responsible for evil and good. We make the choice in how we behave and how we treat other people. There is no satan and no god. If you want to see god look in the mirror. If you want to see satan look in the same mirror. We are all light and dark. watchmannonthewall
That’s what satan told Eve: “For God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be LIKE God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:5)
Know what? Satan told the truth and you agreed. We all choose either the good or evil, but keep in mind only God, the Creator, gets to define what each term means.
The problem with Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was that neither was yet mature enough or had the wisdom necessary to properly choose between good or evil. To overcome this deficit, mankind makes up its own definition of each. Many people are still in the same place. Those who accept God’s definitions of “good and evil” are further along than others!
Those who have chosen to obey God and follow His Word, are being taught the wisdom to properly make that choice, now. When Jesus returns and teaches Torah in Jerusalem during the Millennium (Is. 2:1-4, Micah 4:1-4), there will be a quantum leap forward in righteousness as this wisdom is taught without error, not like today. MaxRockatansky33 Ebedmelech the eunuch
That’s because they’re not allowed to have a wife which is contrary to the Bible. There’s a guaranteed solution to stopping the priests’ abuse (unless they get T prescription) if you know about farm work but messing up could mean sepsis / fournier’s gangrene. Someone needs to have a lot of stuff like infection stoppers including colloidal silver and calcium bentonite clay which stops gangrene if you know how to use it. Messing up costs over 14 grand but if you pay a lot when there you might get most of it canceled, however each specialist sends a separate minor bill and the shrink charges 150.
The lack of androgens did not change any of my opinions, hobbies or worldview but it does remove reproductive desire completely including all interest in lib-i-do related stuff. For example I used to like piercings on some women but now it’s like why do they hurt themselves? Looks gross. Also lost most attraction to women. ALL aggression goes away and i’m also more docile.
Overall I don’t recommend it cause osteoporosis risk. I can’t have sugar, much coffee, much salt, fluoride water and I need real foods and sunshine on skin for vitamin D. Also wearing all that priest garb would require a lot of Estroven, evening primrose oil, black cohash–especially from month 3-4 until about a year when male men-opa-use ends & then they’ll just get normal heats. Taking hor-mo-nes and then quitting for awhile might retrigger male me-nop-ause but I’ll probably have to do this when food is hard to get. Rebel w/out a Cause
WTF? You’re recommending castration???? Isn’t that a little extreme, as in “eliminating” the natural way of things? How about you be like Paul and fight the “good fight”, and “finish the course”? Why resort to damaging/destroying what God gave you to begin with? Do you think God made a mistake…? SHOTS = AUTISM
I don’t recommend it, I’m saying it WILL stop the priest sxeuual abuses. The effects are REALLY extreme so if a priest had that tendency toward kids he should go on lupron or licorice root to lower androgen-based behavoir instead. carson
what is the falling away of 2nd thessalonains 2? Can folks fall away from what they were never near too? So there was a nearness and now a falling away from it? An atheist falling away into satanism as example isn’t what the verse is concerned with is it, it’s dealing with those falling away from a nearness but not quite thereness to Christ and also from ‘natural’ love and natural kindnesses etc etc (covered in 2nd timothy 3), falling away from goodness and natural love but mostly a nearness or form to Christ…
But what was a nearness to but not quite thereness..a ‘form of godliness but one which denied the power thereof’? religion’osity? But what does God direct those who are His to do with that anyway? ‘from such turn away” (2nd timothy 3:5).
The falling away is not the catching up, it’s falling away and is happening just as written.
and menkinds attempts to ‘grow the church’..via men’s means, worldly lures and baits and ‘programs’ and things pleasing to the flesh is NO answer, never should have risen to prominence anyway, unless God builds the house it doesn’t stand, God grants faith we throw out the seeds but God causes the growth..etc etc etc, those trying to grow the church via man should know that, it’s written all over after all.
unless God builds the house it doesn’t stand, and now all these churches are falling…hmmm. On the otherhand some churches are still preaching the truth, and not really ‘growing’ (although in truth they are growing in Christ, but pew sitters/numbers not so much) while other churches with the fleshly bent ear tickling lures are growing also, but here ‘growing’ and ensnaring further are interchangeable.
But rejoice always many are and many will be saved for sure, even while others fall away, rejoice when even one sinner repents. Richard
Why is religion losing ground? Because it never did anything for anybody. it doesn’t put food on the table. It doesn’t provide jobs. It doesn’t cure disease. It doesn’t prevent divorces. I doesn’t pay the mortgage. It had to be just a matter of time before people woke up and realized that religion was just a political ploy to keep the plebs down and satisfied with ‘their lot’.
OK, now let it rip, all you religious fanatics. I’m ready for you… Go for it… John
Richard thank you for speaking the truth. You will no doubt either be 1. ignored or 2. have a list of bible verses that blame adam and eve for the reason this world and many of the people in it completely suck. Cause it’s all about the sin. Yet who caused us to sin? God did by allowing the temptation to be placed before 2 innocent people. That would like placing one of those laundry pods in front of a toddler, along with a cookie and telling them they can eat the cookie but not the laundry pod. You know what would happen… Paul Patriot
So according to your comments, God is to blame for the mess we are in, because he gave us free will to choose, rather than making us robots.
Wow!!!! You have no idea the dangerous path you are walking, a path of blasphemous, accusing of the Living God of tempting the human race by giving them free will.
I pray you wake up and see the danger and foolishness of your pointing a finger at your creator…. TJAW
Apologies for butting into this discussion, but God is not my creator, because I do not believe in him. He is not real to me, so there is no “dangerous path”. Of course, you will attempt to convince me otherwise, but there is no solid argument that can be made for his existence. Atheism is on the rise for a simple reason – it’s better to think for yourself than blindly believe in fairy tales and exaggerated history. Paul Patriot
And you will continue in your rejection of God, and will be without excuse on judgement day. Just because he is not real to you, does not mean that he does not exist.
The Bible has had its enemies like you for thousands of years, yet it has been true and unwavering in its scientific, historical and prophetic truth, so, I will trust in writings that have proven themselves for centuries ( over man’s emotion and opinion and “feelings”)
Rest assured the Bible will be here and still be true long after you and I have died, and will continue to be a stumbling block to folks like you, and a source of peace, comfort and hope for folks like me.
God “is not real to me” as an excuse to run away fro the savior that calls them to repent (of their sins) and believe in the only name under heaven in which a man can be saved…Jesus.
No hard feelings, I appreciate you corresponding with me.
Hope you don’t mind, still praying for you…….I used to believe what you did, that’s why I know where you are and how blind I was once Jesus came into my life Paul Patriot
How blind I was until Jesus opened my eyes. TJAW
You are hopelessly deluded. Jesus died almost 2000 years ago. Whatever happened to him back then has absolutely no correlation to your life. TJAW
Even if I believed in God, even if there was concrete proof that he exists, he has done NOTHING for me. He does nothing for anyone. He does not rid the world of disease, he refuses to shield the world from terrorism and evil, he lets children starve to death and families suffer. I don’t need you to pray for me. I don’t live in your childish fairy tale world of angels and demons and spirits. IsabellaSpeaking
Saying that you know that God has done “nothing for anyone” implies that you know everything. Many people claim God has done a lot for them, so…how would you know otherwise…unless you know everything? And since you know everything, why don’t you rid the world of disease, shield the world from terrorism and evil, etc.? If not the whole world, then maybe one little part of it? Maybe, though, it can’t be done…not in this world… iris
(:!!! Can’t argue with that one at all. As for the veracity of the Bible: historical details, archeological finds and detailed fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies, (about 300 about the Messiah, alone, almost all of which were fulfilled by Yeshua of Bethlehem, the remaining ones all have to do with the end of days and Messiah’s return and reign on earth regarding the Messiah), the fact that 66 books, written 1500 years apart in some cases, by 40 authors from all walks of life, all having the same theme and going with each other, should give anyone doubting it, pause, at least. And the intricate patterning of the universe implies the opposite of random chance, not to mention the law of cause and effect. God bless! Paul Patriot
You are repeating the same mantra that has been repeated by God hating folks for centuries.
Our founding fathers would disagree with you regarding the role of religion and faith in society, and the positive influence absolute morals has. I agree, “religion” can be destructive, but, a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, will only produce citizens who strive to please God in their actions, and cause fell o human beings no harm, and on the contrary, a relationship with Jesus, will prevent divorce, adultery, drug abuse, rape, robbery, murder, and entitlement attitudes.
Again, it’s not “religion” that is beneficial per say, it is a personal relationship with the Savior. Paul Patriot
The “religion of peace” is not losing ground….somehow the pied piper of propaganda has brainwashed people to criticize Christinity due to its “intolerant” view of saying the Jesus is the only way to be saved from hell…….yet are silent about a religious ideology in which the founders teachings are obeyed, have shown over the past 1400+ years, that “religion of peace” leaves a path of death, destruction and oppression wherever is goes and gains the “upper house”, proving to be the most intolerant religion known by modern man.
No one here who criticize Christianity seem to want to speak out about Islam though……. iris
Yes, interesting, since Islam, like many religions, is based on man’s perceived ability to perform enough works of righteousness, as they interpret them. The ways of man are sinking sand. We can never do enough to make it into heaven, for only God is perfect. We need the salvation provided by Jesus Christ, first, last and always. All religions are mankind trying to get to God or to become God or a god. Christianity is a relationship with God, who humbled Himself to come to us as one of us, to give His very self in our place, and took the punishment we all deserve, in order to provide the way of reconciliation to our Holy Creator. He is “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Maximus
I identify as a Christian. I just don’t attend church. My beliefs are mine and mine alone; I have a pretty good understanding with the Lord. If other’s think along the same lines, fine. If they don’t, well that’s fine too.
What gets me is the vilification of Christianity in modern times. I’m not worried about it personally. You either stand with Him or stand alone. horse777res
America has abandoned GOD, and GOD has abandoned America. The BIBLE says”The wicked shall be turned into hell, and nations that forget GOD.” Psalm 9:17 tacoma
All religions (with a few rarest exceptions) are based on the impossible. Christianity calls it miracle, other religions have other names. Miracles are impossible in the real world. It is delusion to believe they exist.
Religion is also about worshiping a god (or gods). The god represents the miracle. By doing this act of worship all kinds of powerful, even impossible benefits will happen. The differences between religions is one of different definitions of god, how to conduct the worship, and what kind of benefit will emerge. Only human beings of the past 10,000 years (but not earlier) do this kind of nonsense. It is the result of our powerful imagination.
Well the basic nonsense of worshiping gods is so great the leaders of religions were required to construct all kinds of fantastic structures and elaborate rituals to convince people to maintain belief and worship. Add to his are punishments and bloody enforcements. But why? The leaders want to keep their power over people, the age old human character.
Most religions offer ‘teaching’, some kind of wisdom. But teaching can certainly be offered without religion. An American Native (who treat lightning as a god) is as moral as any of the European religion without their teaching. Follower of Buddhism is at least as moral, likely much more, than followers of other major religions. But Buddhism does not have a god, and does not compel anybody to do anything.
But are there gods, are they real? Of course there are gods, history of religion list thousands of gods. They are real, but only in the minds of man. A god is software; can be created, defined, killed off at will. Anybody can make a god, based on something real (like the Sun) or fantasy. This is why to make the ‘establishment’ god one needs to wrap all kinds of fantastism and protection around it, make it special. The world always have enough fools to be taken in. 90% of humans are born followers, and they love to be led or fooled.
In the end, religions are just forms of sociology, politics, philosophy, mind over body.
There have been great debate between science and religion. Well there are as many religions as human can create them. There is only one science, one based solely only proven facts and accurate predictions. This is why 10,000 universities of the world offer scientific education. And the modern world of great achievements is build on engineering, which in turn is built on science. Rebel w/out a Cause
Oh my. I’ve read through a lot of the comments, and I have to make a few observations. 1) I graduated from a Independent Fundamental Baptist Bible college, which was controlled by an IFB church, which in turn was easily identified as a cult. And therein lies the rub. Too many “churches” are in reality “cults”. Following the preacher’s teachings as if they’re direct from God. Truth becomes warped. God’s “Word” becomes manipulative teachings to contribute to the preacher’s power and control. Don’t believe me? Google the Hyles family and the First Baptist Church of Hammond Indiana, and the cesspool of corruption it entailed. Even after the demise of Dr. Hyles, the corruption went on to bring down his successor. These are the things that turn people away from Christianity. Who can you trust? What teachings can you trust to be real, and not perverted and twisted? I’ve been a “member” of numerous churches. Only one would I trust to be called “Godly’. The rest were ALL manipulative, controlling, and deceitful. What does THAT tell you about “organized religion”? iris
Yes, indeed. MR.RANDY DOUGLAS MILLER
AS A LIFELONG PREACHERS KID AND GREWUP IN THE ANTI-SCIENCE CREATIONIST EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY I’M ABSOLUTELY ECSTATIC TO SEE THIS WONDERFUL THING HAPPENING.I’VE BEEN A “NONE” FOR DECADES! | 0 |
November 13, 2016 By 21wire Leave a Comment
Episode #160 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes this November 13, 2016 as host Patrick Henningsen brings a 3 HOURS special broadcast of LIVE power-packed talk radio on ACR…
LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:
SUNDAYS – 5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12pm PT (US)
This week’s edition of THE SUNDAY WIRE is on the road broadcasting LIVE from the Valley of the Sun. This week host Patrick Henningsen covers this week’s top stories in the US and internationally. In the first hour we’ll conduct a post-mortem on the incredible US Election which has produced President Elect Donald J Trump , and the aftermath – a nation divided punctuated by numerous street protests in part fuelled by Soros and the Democratic Party Machine . Later, we’re joined by our roving everyman , ACR Boiler Room contributor, Randy J , for an on the ground take on Election events from the West Coast, and beyond…
SUPPORT 21WIRE – SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield – this is your brave new world…
*NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES* | 0 |
Someone Just Donated $2.5 Million to Bail Out Everyone Arrested at Standing Rock Source: Nick Bernabe
North Dakota — Following the recent mass arrests of 141 people at the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site located near Standing Rock, North Dakota, an anonymous donor just donated $2.5 million to bail out everyone who was arrested at the protests.
The news came after Tamara Francis-Fourkiller, a tribal leader from the Caddo Nation tribe in Caddo County, Oklahoma, was arrested at Standing Rock. Francis-Fourkiller was released after spending two days in jail, but her family says she was just an innocent observer in the clashes between militarized law enforcement and Native American activists, or “water protectors.”
According to local news affiliate News On 6 :
“Family members of Caddo Nation chairwoman Tamara Francis-Fourkiller said an anonymous donor paid $2.5 million late Saturday afternoon to release everyone arrested on Thursday at the Dakota Access Pipeline site. They said, however, that Francis-Fourkiller should not have been arrested in the first place.”
Though the donor who sent the $2.5 million remains anonymous, it appears the person is connected to the Caddo Nation tribe in some way .
The anonymous donation is welcome news to those arrested in the mass crackdown last Thursday, however, Standing Rock is still raising legal defense funds for future arrests — which are all but guaranteed to happen. | 0 |
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/04/...
Here's Bill Clinton, calling Obamacare the craziest thing in the world. Then, after he got an earful from Hillary, he tried to walk back his comments. | 0 |
(Mr Smith): You know Mr Main I don't respond very well if people start to pull on my strings... (The Main): ... and still... here you are Mr Smith. (Mr Smith): Indeed ! (The Main): Poor Mr Smith , doesn't know which pill swallow... doesn't he ? (Mr Smith): You weren't completely honest with me Mr Main. I don't like dishonest people dear Mr Main and I certainly want a dishonest person to become my boss. (The Main): So just follow the rules dear Mr Smith. Forget about the letter have some fun some sex and Die of boredom like the rest of the controllers. (Mr Smith): People that talk about rules are very dangerous people my father used to say. (The Main): your father was a wise man. (The Main): Tell me do you like dangerous Mr Smith ? (Mr Smith): Hyperborea... (The Main): I consider that a yes , Applause for you. You've been investigating haven't you? (The Main): Oh I really start to like you Dear young Mr Smith. (Mr Smith,agitated): 58 Billion death , Genocide !, an entire sentient species !!. Sir You're a monster nothing more !!! (The Main,voice calm): ...And yet here you are (Mr Smith): Just the Truth nothing more.... Convince me that you're worth it. (The Main): Oh dear Mr smith I'm worth it. But the truth has to be deserved.... I admit Hyperborea was an mistake that shouldn't be made. (Mr Smith): The truth...Just tell me why... (The Main): Mistakes dear Mr Smith... We have made a lot of mistakes. (Mr Smith,loud voice): don't you mean You made a lot of mistakes... Sir ! (finger pointing). (Mr Smith,loud voice ): Don't blame it on the minor controllers , YOU were the main controller and YOU made a lot of mistakes. (The Main,soft voice): OK OK , Indeed I made a lot of mistakes. I tried to create Heaven and ended up with Hell , it was Hubris at it's finest ! (Mr Smith): .... (The Main): You know what the opposite of love is dear Mr Smith ? (Mr Smith): .... (The Main,crescendo voice): It's isn't hate it is Too much love. I loved too much ! If you want to condemn me condemn me for too much love and not for Genocide. Yes yes I killed 58biljon beautiful people but the source of my demise the one and only real source Mr Smith was ... too much love!! (Silence) (The Main,emotional):It was a beautiful Soul pure as our precious aether. I was obsessed with it. I started it to follow into it's myriad of incarnations. As the Eons went by I saw how the Hyperboreans those beautiful people that I had created started colonize the 5 th planet of sol ,Tia-mat Eons later they even colonized the 3th planet now known as Earth. Their empire grew. Beautiful people that had no hate in their hearth. Yes I was responsible for they extinction by making the greatest mistake a Controller could make... Do you know what that is Mr Smith ? (Mr Smith): .... (The Main,soft-voice): I Entered The simulation. edit on 10272016 by frenchfries because: (no reason given) | 0 |
United States – reformation or fracture? by Thierry Meyssan Observing the US presidential electoral campaign, Thierry Meyssan analyses the resurgence of an old and weighty conflict of civilisation. Hillary Clinton has just declared that this election is not about programmes, but about the question «Who are the Americans?». It was not for reasons of his political prgramme that the Republican leaders have withdrawn their support from their candidate, Donald Trump, but because of his personal behaviour. According to Thierry Meyssan, until now, the United States was composed of migrants from different horizons who accepted to submit to the ideology of a particular community . This is the model which is in the process of breaking down, at the risk of shattering the country itself.
Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) | 26 October 2016 français Español italiano русский Deutsch Português ελληνικά Türkçe عربي During the year of the US electoral campaign that we have just weathered, the rhetoric has profoundly changed, and an unexpected rift has appeared between the two camps. If, in the beginning, the candidates spoke about subjects which were genuinely political (such as the sharing of wealth or national security), today they are mostly talking about sex and money. It is this dialogue, and not the political questions, which has caused the explosion of the Republican party – whose main leaders have withdrawn their support from their candidate - and which is recomposing the political chess-board, awakening an ancient cleavage of civilisation. On one side, Mrs. Clinton is working to appear politically correct, while on the other, «The Donald» is blowing the hypocrisy of the ex-«First Lady» to smithereens.
On one side, Hillary Clinton promises male / female equality - although she has never hesitated to attack and defile the women who revealed that they had slept with her husband – and that she is presenting herself not for her personal qualities, but as the wife of an ex-President, and that she accuses Donald Trump of misogyny because he does not hide his appreciation of the female gender. On the other, Donald Trump denounces the privatisation of the State and the racketing of foreign personalities by the Clinton Foundation to obtain appointments with the State Department – the creation of ObamaCare not in the interest of citizens, but for the profit of medical insurance companies - and goes as far as to question the honesty of the electoral system.
I am perfectly aware that the way in which Donald Trump expresses himself may encourage racism, but I do not believe for a second that this question is at the heart of the electoral debate, despite the hype from the pro-Clinton medias. It is not without interest that, during the Lewinsky affair, President Bill Clinton apologised to the Nation and convened a number of preachers to pray for his salvation. But when he was accused of similar misconduct by an audio recording, Donald Trump simply apologised to the people he had upset without making any appeal to members of the clergy. The currrent divide re-awakens the revolt of Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran values against those of the Calvinists, mainly represented in the USA by the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Methodists.
While the two candidates were raised in the Puritan tradition (Clinton as a Methodist and Trump as a Presbyterian), Mrs. Clinton has returned to the religion of her father, and participates today in a prayer group composed of the army chiefs of staff, The Family, while Mr. Trump practises a more interior form of spirituality and rarely goes to church. Of course, no-one is locked into the systems in which they were raised, but when people act without thinking, they unconsciously reproduce these systems. The question of the religious environment of the candidates may therefore be important.
In order to understand the stakes of this game, we have to go back and look at 17th century England. Oliver Cromwell instigated a military coup d’etat which overthrew King Charles 1st. He wanted to install a Republic, purify the soul of the country, and ordered the decapitation of the ex-sovereign. He created a sectarian régime inspired by the ideas of Calvin, massacred thousands of Irish Papists, and imposed a Puritan way of life. He also created Zionism – he invited the Jews back to England, and was the first head of state in the world to demand the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. This bloody episode is known by the name of the «First British Civil War».
After the monarchy had been reinstated, Cromwell’s Puritans fled from England. They set up in Holland, from where some of them left for the Americas aboard the Mayflower (the «Pilgrim Fathers»), while others founded the Afrikaneer community in South Africa. During the War of Independence in the 18th century United States, we saw a resurgence of the struggle of the Calvinists against the British monarchy, so that in current manuals of British History, it is known as the «Second Civil War».
In the 19th century, the American Civil War opposed the Southern States (mainly inhabited by Catholic colonists) to the North (mostly inhabited by Protestant colonists). The History of the winning side presents this confrontation as a fight for freedom in the face of slavery, which is pure propaganda. The Southern states abolished slavery during the war when they concluded an agreement with the British monarchy). As a result, we once again saw the revolt of the Puritans against the Brititsh throne, which is why some historians speak of the «Third British Civil War».
During the 20th century, this interior confrontation of British civilisation seemed over and done with, apart from the re-appearance of the Puritans in the United Kingdom with the «non-conformist Christians» of Prime Minister David Lloyd George. It was they who divided Ireland and agreed to create the « Jewish national homeland» in Palestine.
In any case, one of Richard Nixon’s advisors, Kevin Philipps, dedicated a voluminous thesis to these civil wars, in which he noted that none of the problems had been solved, and announced a fourth confrontation [ 1 ].
The adepts of the Calvinist churches, who for the last 40 years have voted massively for the Republicans, now support the Democrats.
I have no doubt that Mrs. Clinton will be the next President of the United States, or that if Mr. Trump were to be elected, he would be rapidly eliminated. But over the last few months, we have witnessed a large electoral redistribution within an irreversible demographic evolution. The Puritan-based churches now account for only a quarter of the population, and are swinging towards the Democrat camp. Their model looks like a historical accident. It disappeared in South Africa, and will not be able to survive much longer, either in the United States or in Israël. Beyond the Presidential election, US society will have to evolve rapidly or split once again. In a country where the youth massively rejects the influence of the Puritan preachers, it is no longer possible to displace the question of equality. The Puritans envisage a society where all men are equal, but not equivalent. Lord Cromwell wanted a Republic for the English, but only after he had massacred the Irish Papists. This is how it is at the moment in the United States – all citizens are equal before the law, but in the name of the same texts, black people are systematically condemned, while attenuating circumstances are found for white people who have committed equivalent crimes. And in the majority of states, a penal condemnation, even for a speeding ticket, is enough to cancel the right to vote. Consequently, white and black people are equal, but in most states, the majority of black people has been legally deprived of its right to vote. The paradigm of this thought, in terms of foreign policy, is the «two-state» solution in Palestine – equal, but above all, not equivalent.
It is Puritan thinking that led the administrations of preacher Carter, Reagan, Bush (Sr. and Jr. are direct descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers), Clinton and Obama to support Wahhabism, in contradiction to the declared ideals of their countries, and today, to support Daesh.
A long time ago, the Founding Fathers built communities in Plymouth and Boston which were idealised in the US collective memory. And yet the historians are formal – they claimed to be creating the «New Israël», and chose the «Law of Moses». They did not place the Cross in their temples, but the Tables of the Law. Although they are Christians, they attach more importance to the Jewish scriptures than the Gospel. They oblige their women to veil their faces and re-established corporaI punishment. Thierry Meyssan
Thierry Meyssan Translation
Pete Kimberley | 0 |
Since he was captured on Monday, Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man accused of carrying out bombings last weekend in Manhattan and on the Jersey Shore, has been hospitalized in Newark, recovering from gunshot wounds he sustained in a confrontation with the police. From his bed at University Hospital, he has been charged by three different prosecutors: the United States attorneys in Manhattan and New Jersey, for his alleged role in the bombings and the Union County, N. J. prosecutor, for allegedly trying to kill police officers who tracked him down on Monday in the city of Linden. A New Jersey judge has ordered him held on $5. 2 million bail on the state charges. Yet despite the burst of legal proceedings and litany of charges made public this week, Mr. Rahami has not had a lawyer for almost the entire time he has been in custody, and even now, the question of his legal representation remains unsettled. On Thursday, Peter A. Liguori, a state public defender in Union County, sought to meet with Mr. Rahami but was prevented by a lawyer with the Union County prosecutor’s office, according to a filing Mr. Liguori submitted to a judge in Superior Court in Elizabeth, the county seat. “I attempted to meet with or at least see Mr. Rahami to confirm his condition,” Mr. Liguori wrote to the judge, Regina Caulfield. But, he said, a prosecutor, Ann Luvera, told him that Mr. Rahami was “unconscious and unable to speak,” and she “would not give me permission to visit. ” Earlier in the week, Mr. Liguori had said that neither Mr. Rahami nor his family had sought representation from the public defender. But since then, Mr. Rahami’s father had asked the office to represent his son, who had been found to be eligible as an indigent defendant, Mr. Liguori said In the court filing, Mr. Liguori said he was formally entering his appearance in the case, the latest twist in a flurry of unusual activity to secure legal representation for Mr. Rahami. Usually when people are arrested on federal or state charges, they are taken to court promptly, informed of their rights and, if they cannot afford a lawyer, appointed one. But the delay in providing Mr. Rahami a lawyer has raised concerns among legal rights advocacy groups as well as lawyers who have been seeking to represent him. “It is outrageous that the prosecutor is refusing to give permission to the public defender to visit Mr. Rahami,” said Udi Ofer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is not involved in the case. “It is vital that the public defender be given access to his client so that Mr. Rahami’s medical condition may be verified and his rights are protected. ” A spokesman for the Union County prosecutor’s office could not be reached for comment late Friday afternoon after the public defender’s filing was released by a court official. It could not be learned on Friday whether Judge Caulfield had acted on Mr. Liguori’s request to represent Mr. Rahami. But much of the debate over the bombing suspect’s legal representation has come amid great mystery about his medical condition. Law enforcement officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the continuing investigation, have said that Mr. Rahami was shot multiple times. He remained intubated as of Thursday. When was he taken to the hospital, a senior law enforcement official said, investigators questioned him briefly in the ambulance, asking for his name and whether he had any weapons, but gathered little useful information. The official said Mr. Rahami was not questioned under the public safety exception to the Miranda rules. Under the exception, investigators interrogate a suspect for intelligence purposes without advising the suspect of his rights, a tactic used in previous terrorism cases. A suspect is only then advised of his rights and questioned for law enforcement purposes. David E. Patton, the chief federal public defender in New York City, where Mr. Rahami is expected to be prosecuted first on the federal charges, wrote to a judge in Manhattan on Tuesday, asking that Mr. Rahami be brought there “at the earliest possible time” for a court appearance. If he was unable to travel because of his medical condition, Mr. Patton said, the office could meet with him in the hospital and represent him via videoconference. The office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, opposed the request, arguing that Mr. Rahami had not been arrested on federal charges and therefore the right to a speedy court appearance and to a lawyer had not been triggered. A magistrate judge, Gabriel W. Gorenstein, ruled for the government, agreeing that there had been no federal arrest. On Wednesday, Richard Coughlin, the federal public defender for New Jersey, made a similar request in the United States District Court in Newark. The office of Paul J. Fishman, the United States attorney for New Jersey, opposed that request, and it was denied on Friday by a magistrate judge, Mark Falk. Mr. Liguori, in his letter to Judge Caulfield, noted that but for Mr. Rahami’s “apparent incapacity, he was due to be produced before the court for his original appearance” on Thursday. “Except for these extraordinary circumstances, I would have entered my appearance” at that proceeding, he wrote. Mr. Patton, the public defender in Manhattan, said the questions surrounding Mr. Rahami’s representation were “starting to look like a game of monte. ” “I don’t care where his lawyer comes from,” he added. “He just needs a lawyer. ” | 1 |
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Webster: frequenting the bottom. When a right-wing cell (FBI), from its inception, at the heart of government, now appears to the Left of the leading candidate for president (Clinton), one knows that she is fishing on the shoreline of fascism. From a democratic standpoint, it doesn’t get any worse. Even her challenger, matching her stride for stride in vulgarian (pretentious, indecent), gut-authoritarianism, the two the Janus-faced expression of the Class-State, at least does not demonize Putin and Russia, as preparatory, in her case, to still wider confrontation, including China, as dangerously leading up to a catastrophic war, or at first the breakdown of the international order.
The FBI, from cops and robbers, to reds and fellow subversives, as television and popular opinion would have it, was a spearhead for McCarthyism and a practical annex of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Those were the days, from Baby-face Nelson to the Rosenbergs, and now, hardly chastened from its turbid (muddy, foul, opaque) past, still the guardian of American innocence, Director Comey makes one correct move to undo the legacy of J. Edgar Hoover, and the American political world falls apart. I am not a fan of Comey’s for his initial exoneration of Clinton in her use of a private server at State, but surely, this is an eye-opener, about how far the political spectrum has shifted to the Far Right.
Whomever wins the election, America digs itself deeper into the cesspool of hierarchical class-differentiation, wealth-concentration, a pervasive ideological atmosphere of solipsistic hatred at home for human difference, rancid hegemony abroad for any who seek an alternative path to modernization away from the example of US petrifying capitalism. This election reveals that America, like a broken record, is stuck, playing over and over again the themes of domestic repression and foreign counterrevolution, the ideal synthesis for the unilateral assertion of world power. Neither candidate nor major party distances itself from the latter goal.
Comey, perhaps against his will and ideological proclivities, achieves standing here, merely, as he should, by doing his duty. The bipartisan consensus maneuvering in place to chastise him reveals the dark reality of a nation so devoted to denial and untruth, possibly to cover over its sins of commission (war crimes, indigenous racism and xenophobia) and omission (failure to act on environmental degradation, an adequate system of health care, a military budget crowding out the general welfare), that it has lost its way and falsified its original promised constitutional existence. America is presently normless, and has been since capitalism inaugurated its take-off stage following the Civil War. And before that, with institutionalized slavery, internal genocidal expansion, and cap-in-hand deference to political ideologues not adverse to compromise with, if not actually representing, vested interests.
Scratch America from the democratic column, transposed now to an enlarged banana republic wherein one can expect, from either party and successful candidate, enhanced features of an already ripening Police State. Surveillance, proscription, total exclusion of viable methods, measures, and structural changes pointed toward democratization, America will formally become what it already is: a panicked response to the self-realization of its nihilistic core of moral values and systemic attributes—a nuclear-armed Goliath lacking soul and conscience, and for that reason a menace to world peace and self-renewal at home. No, Comey, by his actions, is not the enemy, but one who for the first time has put on his spectacles and looked around him. There are some things that even an ardent “patriot” cannot stomach.
I recall how in the 1960s, e.g., Mississippi Freedom Summer, the FBI would interrogate us, try to sow doubts in the hearts of the demonstrators, act as intimidators pure and simple, combined with its undercover role in breaking up antiwar protests throughout the decade, so I hardly have much hope that things have changed. Yet, my hat is off to Comey, even if only to anger Clinton, force Democrats into self-protective mode, and raise questions about the rotten stinking fish used to fertilize her and the party’s position on war and peace, capitalism (Wall Street’s Miss America), and the Clintons’ own mind-boggling accumulation of personal wealth—all of which is instinctively known by the public, but unable to extricate from the mental prison of submerged guilt for totalitarian ways and practices.
We await the election, a studied exercise in un-freedom, where tyranny of false consciousness defines the psychological mental set of America, what Adorno writing sixty-six years ago called authoritarian submission, a framework where the Leadership Principle comes to the foreground if it has not already. Parallels to the incipient stages of Nazism are not an exaggeration, and it is not a loud-mouthed Trump who is necessarily the greatest danger. He is predominantly all-surface. It is Clinton who plumbs the depths of arrogance, ambition, congealed militarism. America, R.I.P.
My New York Times Comment to its editorial, “James Comey’s Big Mistake,” 11-1-16, follows:
Comey acted honorably. Unlike Hoover, he is here depoliticizing the FBI. The Times has demonstrated such partiality to Clinton, in news selection as well as editorial opinion, that it is hard to take its criticism seriously. Endorsement is one thing, blind-siding the other side quite different. Are not emails a legitimate area of investigation? Does not the public have the right to know, especially in an election? If there is no smoking gun, this will redound to Clinton’s benefit; if there is, yes, it might change minds. But what is wrong with that?
Clinton invariably is treated with kid gloves. Even the initial issue, the use of a private server to transact government business, is forgotten. Rather than jump on Comey, why not revisit the whole question–which Comey had originally dismissed–of Clinton’s valuing of transparency, and from there (although it is now late in the game) her whole foreign policy framework and hostility, in particular, to Putin and Russia?
To criticize Clinton does not necessarily make one an apologist for Trump. Call the shots with equal endeavor; responsible journalism requires no less. | 0 |
Sen. Tom Cotton ( ) took to the Senate floor on Thursday ahead of the vote on the spending bill to fund the federal government through September, citing as the main reason he voted against it the flood of unskilled workers that could be admitted to the United States under the legislation. [“I want to hone in on one particular provision that shows just how bad this process is,” Cotton said, noting the bill is almost 1, 700 pages in length. “They don’t hide the good things in the bill, they only hide the bad things,” Cotton said. “So look to page 735, section you will find an increase in visas of almost 79, 000. “A 120 percent increase over the normal annual cap of a seasonal visa program for temporary workers that can take up to nine or ten months,” Cotton said. “It’s not necessary. It has nothing to do with funding the government, nothing. ” Cotton criticized the process and noted it is unclear how the visa section got into a spending bill. “But this is what it does: it takes jobs away from American workers and abuses the immigrants that come into this country,” Cotton said, noting that according to the Department of Labor thousands of guest workers have been abused by American employers, including sexual abuse. “It is a form of indentured servitude,” Cotton said. Breitbart News reported ahead of the spending bill vote that the it allows the Department of Homeland Security to import at least 20, 000 extra foreign workers for seasonal jobs in the United States, instead of requiring companies to recruit, train, and pay marginalized Americans. The program currently allows companies that do seasonal work to import up to 66, 000 foreign workers each year instead of recruiting and hiring Americans. The program is supported by Democrats and Republicans eager to aid local business groups, which are competing against each other for American workers, and which face competition from the companies that employ roughly eight million illegal immigrants. The program means companies don’t have to pay a premium to hire Americans for seasonal overtime work that leaves them unemployed in winter, and it also reduces pressure on the companies to recruit and train youths and marginalized Americans, including millions of Americans who have fallen out of the workforce. The imported workers are also paid at rates that are lower than needed to attract Americans to those jobs — which also means that the companies can pay lower wages to their American workers. Cotton said the spending bill reinforces the false narrative about American workers and what jobs they are willing to take. “A lot of the arguments for this kind of program boil down to this: No American worker will do that job,” Cotton said. “That is a lie. It is a lie. ” “There is no job that Americans will not do,” Cotton said. “There is no industry in America where a majority of workers are not American citizens or lawful immigrants — not landscapers, not construction workers, not ski instructors, not lifeguards, not resort workers, not crab men, not a single one. ” “If the wage is decent and the employer obeys the law, Americans will do the job,” Cotton said. “And if it’s not, they should pay higher wages. To say anything else is an insult to the work ethic of the American people who make this country run. ” | 1 |
GENEVA — Islamic State militants have summarily killed scores of civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul in recent days, sometimes using children as executioners, and have used chemical agents against Iraqi and Kurdish troops, United Nations officials said on Friday. Video posted by the militants on Wednesday showed four children, who appear to be 10 to 14 years old, shooting four civilians accused of disloyalty at a location near the Tigris River, said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the United Nations human rights office in Geneva. The video release identified one of the children as Russian, another as coming from Uzbekistan and two as Iraqis. United Nations investigators had not identified the time of the killings but believed they were recent, citing the surge in executions by Islamic State courts and fighters in and around Mosul in recent weeks and the brutal training the militants have forced on children in the parts of Iraq and Syria they control. “They are showing they are still in business,” Ms. Shamdasani said of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh. In one massacre, militants were said to have summarily shot 40 civilians in Mosul, dressing them in orange clothes adorned with words, marked in red, labeling them “traitors and agents of the I. S. F. ,” Ms. Shamdasani said, using the abbreviation for Iraqi Security Forces. Afterward, the militants strung up the bodies of their victims from electricity poles around the city — a practice the Islamic State long used to strike fear into those who live in the group’s strongholds. The next day, Islamic State fighters shot 20 civilians at a military base in the north of the city and also strung up their bodies with signs carrying statements like “used cellphones to leak information to the I. S. F. ,” she said. The battle for Mosul, with tens of thousands of security force members bearing down on Iraq’s city, is now almost a month old. At the beginning, the fighting moved relatively quickly because the first objective was to clear dozens of outlying villages that, while they were defended by Islamic State militants, were largely uninhabited by civilians, allowing government forces a freer hand to act without regard for killing civilians. But in the 10 days since Iraqi counterterrorism forces punched into the city itself from the east, the fighting has slowed, as soldiers go house to house in brutal urban fighting in areas where there are still large numbers of civilians. Over the past week, the largest numbers of civilians so far have fled the fighting, with close to 48, 000 people displaced as of Friday, according to the World Health Organization and United Nations. But that is nowhere near the total that officials worry could be in danger once the fighting moves to the most populated areas across the Tigris on the west side of Mosul, which is still believed to be home to at least one million people. Reports from inside the city indicate that the Islamic State has set up elaborate defenses on the banks of the Tigris, including artillery pieces. The United Nations said that militants were reported to have shot six civilians on Oct. 20 for keeping hidden SIM cards in defiance of an order to surrender them. A week later, a man was killed for keeping a cellphone, she added. Among the witnesses to the recent killings was the sole survivor from a group of 50 former members of Iraq’s security forces who was abducted by militants, taken to the Mosul airport and shot. Although wounded, “he pretended to be dead, escaped, and we spoke to him,” she said. Meanwhile, a mass grave discovered on Monday by Iraqi troops near an agricultural college in the town of Hamam was only one among numerous sites of killings, Ms. Shamdasani said. The grave contained at least 100 corpses, but Islamic State fighters were also reported to have dumped bodies down a well and at a cement factory yard in the same town, and at several other locations including the Mosul airport and in the Tigris. On a lengthening list of atrocities reported from Mosul, militants had deployed “sons of the Caliphate,” believed to be teenagers or younger, around the old town armed with explosive belts. They had also brought abducted women, some of them members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, into the city to distribute them as slaves for their fighters. Interviews with residents inside Mosul in recent days indicate a pattern of brutality by the Islamic State much like what the United Nations has been reporting, including an increase in the number of boys on the streets carrying rifles and swords. One resident told The New York Times that the Islamic State in recent days had executed 18 former security force members and driven their bodies in the back of a pickup truck to a freshly dug mass grave. In addition to the Islamic State’s forcibly moving civilians into Mosul for use as human shields to deter attack, the United Nations said it had credible reports of the group’s fighters’ using chemical weapons and chemical agents like chlorine gas against advancing Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Ms. Shamdasani said that Iraqi troops entering the city had found large quantities of sulfur and ammonia stockpiled in civilian areas of the city. The discovery raised fears that the chemicals could be used as a weapon to slow advancing government forces or punish civilians left behind after militants set on fire and shelled a sulfur gas factory in a subdistrict of Mosul. Their action resulted in the death of four civilians who inhaled fumes from burning sulfur, she added. Militants had also reportedly dumped sulfur in trenches and pits in Mosul and were holding civilians nearby. Human rights officials are also receiving accounts of revenge killings by forces, targeting local Sunni civilians they accused of aiding or supporting the Islamic State, deepening fears that sectarian strife will continue after the battle for Mosul has ended. Voicing outrage at the “numbing and intolerable” suffering inflicted on civilians by the unfolding conflict, the United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad in a statement on Friday demanded immediate action by the Iraqi government to protect fleeing or freed residents of areas held by the Islamic State and to bring the attackers to justice. Quick action could save lives by discouraging people from taking the law into their own hands, Ms. Shamdasani said. | 1 |
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President Trump’s economic team paints a rosier picture about what his policies could accomplish than the economics profession is willing to endorse. [His team is formulating budget and tax proposals that project 3 percent annual growth, while the number crunchers at the Congressional Budget Office estimate only 1. 9 percent. How fast the economy can grow comes down to the simple sum of likely worker productivity and labor force growth. Since the financial crisis, productivity has advanced about 1 percent a year, as compared to the 2 percent in prior decades. Thanks to baby boomer retirements and a declining birth rate, the prime working age population — those aged 25 to 65 — is not likely to grow even 1 percent annually, even with immigration reforms and changes in entitlements programs that encourage more adults to work. The premise underneath Mr. Trump’s program — lower taxes, health care reform, deregulation, infrastructure spending and tougher trade policies to lower the import deficit — is to make the United States a more attractive location to invest and innovate than, for example, China or Mexico. No doubt, cutting corporate and personal income taxes and spending more on roads and highways could give the economy a Keynesian jolt and raise growth above 3 percent for a few quarters, but his policy reforms are likely to be watered down by political infighting. Those prospects that will carry punch for productivity and growth are limited by Congressional politics and perhaps, more fundamentally, conditions limiting the efficacy of pushing up investment through tax cuts. As with health care, the GOP in Congress is sharply divided on tax reform. For example, should corporate reform tax imports to make the package revenue neutral or accept a somewhat bigger federal deficit? And, President Trump and Speaker Ryan are unlikely to get much help from Democrats to forge a bipartisan majority. Similarly, paying to improve roads and bridges with private money has some potential but many improvements will likely require unpopular new taxes and user fees. Mr. Trump’s promise to get tough on trade faces strong opposition among skeptics inside his own White House. More importantly, though, many economists believe low labor productivity growth is baked into the cake. Led by Northwestern University Professor Robert Gordon, most hew to the notion that the faster pace of productivity growth accomplished during the American industrial era — roughly 1870 to 1970 — resulted from ground breaking innovations like electricity, the interstate highway system and antibiotics whose effects are not likely to be repeated. They argue that these days important new technologies do more to entertain and enhance our leisure time — game machines and hand held devices that permit comparison shopping while roaming the aisles at Target — than boost productivity. The problem is that economists are really good at explaining what just happened — in this case the productivity slowdown of the last few decades — but are lousy at telling us much about the future. Our models look at recent trends, cast those in the concrete, and then extrapolate into the future. Those can’t accurately predict GDP growth two or three quarters from now, never mind tell us much about how emerging innovations will change work and the broader contours of the economy one or several decades into the future. Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and robotics have the potential to replace up to 90 percent of job categories as we currently know them. Or, those technologies will at least be able to make the workers occupying most positions profoundly more efficient, from robots that perform routine tooth repairs for dentists to artificial intelligence programs that accelerate the work of designers for the automobile and fashion industries. In the decades ahead, machines that can feel and think — replace the tactile advantages of the human hand and genuinely solve tough problems as opposed to merely accelerating the searching and processing of information — will boost productivity in ways we can hardly fathom. Vision and imagination have a way of winning out over pessimism and ossified thinking, and perhaps it’s a good thing that the White House has only a thin representation of economists and other experts telling President Trump what can’t be achieved. His supporters keep talking about rekindling animal spirits, but perhaps they will fill America’s biggest deficit — the shortage of confidence that vexing challenges can be turned to our advantage. Peter Morici is an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, and a national columnist. | 1 |
The So-Called OPEC Cartel Whiffs Again Marathon Talks, No Deal By Wall Street Journal. Posted On Monday, October 31st, 2016 A weekend marathon of talks between major oil producers failed to finalize plans to implement an output cut, threatening the viability of an agreement reached last month to reduce production by as much as 2%. The talks were also aimed at securing coordinated cuts with producers outside OPEC, such as Russia, the world’s largest oil producer. Instead, Iraq and Iran’s insistence on exemptions emerged as a big sticking point Friday as those members refused to agree to cut their burgeoning output. You need to login to view this content.
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David Stockman's Contra Corner is the only place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted and rebuked. Subscribe now to receive David Stockman’s latest posts by email each day as well as his model portfolio, Lee Adler’s Daily Data Dive and David’s personally curated insights and analysis from leading contrarian thinkers. | 0 |
Efforts to eradicate opium in Afghanistan dropped by nearly 90 percent last year as the cultivation of the illicit drug, which as heroin provides an estimated 60 percent of Taliban funding, reached unprecedented levels. [The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) a U. S. watchdog agency, published a report revealing the alarming trend this week. Meanwhile, a heroin crisis deemed the worst drug addiction epidemic in U. S. history has gripped the United States. Although the DEA estimates that only about one percent of the heroin in the United States originates from Afghanistan, the world’s top producer of opium, some analysts believe it is impossible that only such small amount reaches American soil. The DEA has acknowledged that the majority of heroin in neighboring Canada is produced in Afghanistan. As heroin overdose deaths in the United States have reached historic levels, surpassing gun homicides, the U. S. is spending millions to treat addiction in Afghanistan. “The United States has committed more than $8. 5 billion to counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, the country still leads the world in opium production, and Afghan farmers are growing more opium than ever,” notes SIGAR in its latest quarterly report to Congress, the last to cover the Barack Obama administration. Citing the United Nations, SIGAR points out that eradication efforts in 2016 “were the lowest this decade at 355 hectares — a 91% decrease from 2015,” while opium production skyrocketed 43 percent over 2015’s levels, to an estimated 4, 800 tons. Afghan territory under opium cultivation also increased this year by 10 percent, to 201, 000 hectares (about 776 square miles) compared to last year’s total. The area under opium cultivation is equivalent to more than 11 times the size of Washington, D. C. SIGAR notes, “The opium produced is exported as either raw opium or consumed domestically in different forms, seized, stored, or lost. ” American Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of U. S. and NATO forces, estimated at the end of last year that the Taliban generates more than half of its funding from the lucrative opium business. “They [the Taliban] receive much of their funding from the narcotics trafficking that occurs out of Helmand,” the commander told reporters in December. “As you know, Helmand produces a significant amount of the opium globally that turns into heroin and this provides about 60 percent of the Taliban funding, we believe. ” For years, the Pentagon has reported that revenue from opium trafficking is sustaining the insurgency in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Taliban has grown stronger and is believed to have captured more territory under former President Barack Obama than at any time since it was removed from power by the U. S. military in 2001. “While opium is not counted in official GDP [Gross Domestic Product] estimates, its earnings boost domestic demand and are a significant source of foreign exchange,” reveals SIGAR. “The 2016 value of opium production was almost $900 million, roughly 5% of GDP, and a 57% increase over 2015. ” John Sopko, chief of SIGAR, has acknowledged that the cultivation and trafficking of opium in Afghanistan puts the entire estimated $117 billion U. S. taxpayer investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan at risk. In February 2015, Sopko told lawmakers: The narcotics trade, which not only supports the insurgency but also feeds organized crime and corruption, puts the gains the U. S. agencies and their international partners have achieved over the past 13 years in women’s issues, health, education, rule of law, and governance in jeopardy. Helmand, a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan that borders Pakistan, remains the country’s main opium province. More than half of the province is currently under the control or influence of terrorists. The DEA claims most of the heroin in the United States is produced in Mexico. However, an article published by the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP) a patient advocacy group, criticizes the Obama administration and the mainstream media for misleading the American public about the influx of heroin from Afghanistan. The article cites William Edstrom, identified as a scientist and author of articles in scientific journals, including the Journal of Biological Chemistry, as writing: Heroin from Mexico cannot supply even 10% of US heroin demand. Yet the DEA claims most heroin in the US is from Mexico. Most heroin in the US is coming from Afghanistan. We’re getting hit with the largest ever illicit drug epidemic in American history and the DEA is asleep at the wheel. Using U. N. data, Breitbart News has determined that opium production has dramatically increased since the U. S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. SIGAR notes that the U. N. may have underestimated its most recent estimate for historic opium production in 2016 given the international body’s inability to reach various regions for security reasons. The U. N. “delivers estimates for only a single harvest, yet credible reports indicate that Afghan farmers have been reaping multiple harvests in recent years,” adds the inspector general. | 1 |
I’ve often observed that, when it comes to public policy, the Obama Justice Department has been a locus of evil. And therefore it was concerning to see that the man who ran that Obama agency for years, the disgraced Eric Holder, has gotten himself a new, gig. [On January 4 liberal California legislative leaders announced that they are using tax dollars to hire former Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm to assist them in anticipated federal challenges to several state policies such as climate change and immigration. Leftists controlling the Democratic Party are especially concerned that a new Trump administration might actually start enforcing the rule of law against California’s dangerous and unlawful sanctuary policies. Evidently, Eric Holder will waste taxpayer funds defending this lawlessness. In a statement, Kevin de Leon, California Senate President Pro Tempore, said, “With the upcoming change in administrations, we expect that there will be extraordinary challenges for California in the uncertain times ahead. ” The California Attorney General, who represents the State’s interest in court, already has a budget of $190 million. In response, we have filed a records request with the California Legislature Joint Rules Committee seeking to examine legislative records regarding the state’s employment of former Obama U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.: All contracts between the California Legislature and former U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. or Covington and Burling. All communications between the California Legislature and former U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. or Covington and Burling about the Legislature’s retention of Holder Covington and Burling. Holder was one of Obama’s and most controversial Cabinet members. On June 28, 2012, he became the first U. S. Attorney General to be held in contempt of Congress on both civil and criminal grounds. The contempt charge came in connection with Holder’s refusal to turn over documents about his agency’s lies on Operation Fast and Furious, the Obama administration’s scandal. JW exposed numerous outrages associated with this scandal. Under Holder the Justice Department dismissed its voting rights case against the New Black Panther Party. The Justice Department originally filed its lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party following an incident that took place outside of a Philadelphia polling station on November 4, 2008. According to multiple witnesses, members of the New Black Panthers blocked access to polling stations, harassed voters and hurled racial epithets. A video of the incident, showing a member of the New Black Panther Party brandishing a baton weapon, was widely distributed on the Internet. JW exposed a number of Obama DOJ lies regarding the Black Panthers, which a federal judge validated in Judicial Watch v. United States Department of Justice (No. 1: ). In 2013, the Obama Justice Department was caught spying on The Associated Press by collecting months’ worth of phone records of reporters and editors. Fox News’ James Rosen was among those targeted by Holder’s Justice Department. Thanks in part to JW’s success in exposing his corruption, Holder was forced to resign from the Justice Department in 2015 and rejoin his old law firm of Covington Burling. Our records request is designed to expose how California state legislators are wasting tax dollars to take care of another corrupt politician — Eric Holder — with the intention of deliberately resisting the rule of law on immigration and other matters. His record at the Clinton and Obama Justice Departments demonstrates a willingness to bend the law in order to protect his political patrons. | 1 |
Australia stops all donations to the corrupt Clinton Foundation November 24, 2016 Google + Following Hillary Clinton’s US presidential election defeat, it has been announced that Australia has cut all official ties with the Clinton Foundation.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced to the joint party room that agreements with the Foundation previously set up by the Rudd-Gillard government had not been renewed.
“[Former Prime Minister Julia] Gillard also donated $300 million of our money to the Clinton-affiliated Global Partnership for Education,” Australian newspaper the Herald Sun wrote in an October article titled, “Why have we donated to Clinton’s foundation?”
The Foundation, set up by the former first family of the United States, has received large amounts in donations from foreign governments, leading many to question whether it was part of a pay-to-play scheme during the former first lady’s tenure as US Secretary of State.
Disparities in the amount of funds given to the Foundation by the Australian government have raised eyebrows.
Reports from the Clinton Foundation list the Commonwealth of Australia and the Australian Agency for International Development as having collectively donated somewhere between $20- to $50 million. The Foundation also has a sister company called the Clinton Health Access Initiative however, which appears to have also received funding from Australian taxpayers.
“Since 2006, Australia has contributed $88 million to [the Clinton Health Access Initiative] and its sister organization, the Clinton Foundation,” Bishop said in a statement on September 22, 2014.
Documents released in July by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provided a different number from both, however, listing 11 separate grants to the Clinton Foundation, and a “China Clinton Foundation” that totaled almost $71 million.
These disparities prompted Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the vice-chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to bring the issue to the attention of the IRS.
In July, she told the Daily Caller that “reports have shown that the Clinton Foundation has failed to accurately report tens of millions of dollars in foreign government grants, including some while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.”
“This should be troubling to all Americans as it gives the appearance that there could be a pay-to-play arrangement between the Clintons and foreign governments while the interests of the American people were pushed aside. The tax-exempt status of the foundation should be reviewed immediately,” Blackburn said at the time.
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BANGKOK — The government of Malaysia declared North Korea’s ambassador “persona non grata” on Saturday and gave him 48 hours to leave the country, a major break in diplomatic relations after the airport assassination of Kim the half brother of North Korea’s leader. The decision to expel Ambassador Kang Chol came after he failed to appear at Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as requested. Earlier, Mr. Kang had ignored a request to apologize for several inflammatory statements, including questioning the police finding that Mr. Kim was murdered with a banned nerve agent. “It should be made clear — Malaysia will react strongly against any insults made against it or any attempt to tarnish its reputation,” Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said in a statement announcing the expulsion order. Mr. Kim, the elder half brother of North Korea’s leader, Kim died on Feb. 13 less than 20 minutes after two women wiped poison on his face as he prepared to check in for a flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The women, one from Indonesia and one from Vietnam, have been charged with murder. The police are seeking seven North Korean men in the case, including two believed by the authorities to have taken refuge at the North Korean Embassy. South Korea has accused the North Korean government of masterminding the attack. Mr. Kang, using unusually blunt language for a diplomat, had said that North Korea “cannot trust” the Malaysian police investigation. He charged that it was politically motivated and accused Malaysia of colluding with outside powers to defame North Korea. Mr. Kang referred to Kim only by the name on the passport he was carrying, Kim Chol, and sought to have his body handed over to the embassy before an autopsy could be performed. He subsequently challenged Malaysia’s finding that Mr. Kim had been killed with the nerve agent VX, a highly toxic chemical weapon known to be in North Korea’s arsenal but banned under international conventions. The Foreign Ministry had set a deadline of 5 p. m. last Tuesday for Mr. Kang to apologize for his statements. “Almost four days have passed since the deadline lapsed,” the foreign minister said in his statement. “No such apology has been made, neither has there been any indication that one is forthcoming. For this reason, the ambassador has been declared persona non grata. ” Mr. Anifah noted that the police had released a North Korean man arrested in the case, Ri Jong Chol, for lack of evidence on Friday. He said it was “proof that the investigation is conducted in an impartial, fair and transparent manner, as befits a country that practices the rule of law. ” Declaring an ambassador persona non grata is one of the harshest measures a country can take short of breaking off diplomatic relations. Malaysia had previously recalled its ambassador from North Korea for consultations and there was no indication when he might be sent back. Some Malaysians have questioned why the country has an embassy in North Korea, given that there is little trade between the countries and few Malaysian tourists venture there. On Thursday, Malaysia announced that it would end its practice of allowing North Koreans to enter without a visa, effective Monday. About 1, 000 North Koreans live and work in Malaysia, where they can help bring in foreign currency for their isolated country, which has struggled economically under international sanctions. | 1 |
On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said the Republican Party would “be rewarded” for tackling health care. Host Chris Wallace said, “House Republicans are right now facing angry voters at town halls this weekend. On Friday, ‘The Cook Political Report,’ which you know well, the kind of unofficial bible assessing House races, shifted its assessment of 20 seats now held by Republicans in the direction of Democrats. I’m not saying they’re going to win them, but that they are more likely for Democrats to win. You could lose your House majority over this. ” Priebus said, “Yeah, these are the same people that said Donald Trump wasn’t going to run and he ran, he couldn’t win the general, he won the general, he couldn’t get health care repeal and replace through the House, he got it through the House. Look, the fact of the matter is there are sometimes in life you have to do what’s right, not what’s politically expedient. We believe this is going to be a better product, and by the time people see the premiums are lower, it’s a better service, more options, more choices, they’re going to reward the Republicans that stood up and said we are not going to see the Obamacare system, which is failing and collapsing continue any longer. We’re going to do something better, and We’re going to do our job as legislators to get this thing done. I think that the Republican Party will be rewarded. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN, | 1 |
I try to be frugal. But my instincts as a consumer are mistaken. Behavioral economics suggests that I’m often frugal in the wrong way and that you may be, too. Consider this situation: You’re shopping for headphones. An electronics store has the model you want for $50, a reasonable price. But a sales clerk says: “You know our other branch has this item on sale for $40. ” Going to that store will take 30 minutes, and you can’t buy the headphones for that price online. Do you go to the other branch? Before you answer, consider a slightly modified version of the same situation: Instead of headphones, you are buying speakers. You go to the same store and find the model you want for $400. Again, the price seems reasonable but the sales clerk says it’s on sale at the other branch for $385. What do you do now? Research by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, the psychologists whose work helped spawn behavioral economics, suggests that people are more likely to make the trip for the $40 headphones than for the $385 speakers. At first glance, this makes sense. By taking the trouble to go to the other store, you can save 20 percent on the headphones and only 3. 75 percent on the speakers. The bigger percentage in savings is more appealing. Though intuitive, this way of looking at the choices is mistaken. In each case it will take 30 minutes to save some money. But with the headphones, you save $10 with the speakers, you save $15. It’s as if you had two identical job offers, but one paid $20 an hour and the other $30. Yet you consistently chose the job. We tend to focus on the percentage rather than the amount we save, and fall prey to a mental illusion. After all, when your shopping is done, it is dollars — not percentages — that will be in your bank account. This error is pernicious because it leads to a great deal of misdirected frugality. Ofer H. Azar, an economist at University in Israel, asked consumers in the United States how much they needed to save to justify spending an extra 20 minutes. The same pattern emerged. When shopping for a $10 pen, they required only a $3. 75 savings, on average. For a $30, 000 car, though, they needed $277. 83 for that 20 minutes. This kind of foolish frugality is common. Consider how easy it is to fritter away time surfing the web for, say, a great deal on a $50 pair of jeans. Yet many of us spend no time at all on our investments. The result is that we barely glance at the fees charged by mutual funds: Without thinking much about it, we will choose a fund that charges an extra 0. 25 percentage point rather than spend the time to find a cheaper one. That’s reasonable on the face of it. What’s a quarter of a percent? But that seemingly tiny percentage difference can easily amount to thousands of dollars of lost money. We brag to our friends about how much we saved on the jeans — “30 percent off!” — never mentioning (or even registering) the money we threw away on our investments. Another of Professor’s Azar’s papers summarizes the problem perfectly: “Do Consumers Make Too Much Effort to Save on Cheap Items and Too Little to Save on Expensive Items?” The answer is, resoundingly, “Yes. ” Complicating matters is the fact that marketers understand this all too well. When you go to buy a new car, at the very end of the transaction, the dealer may suggest some . And you may be tempted to bite. Once you’re paying tens of thousands of dollars, what’s an extra $200 for a better sound system? It’s not just a problem with car sales. When you’re buying a $1, 000 computer, why quibble over a little extra for a bigger hard drive? Or when you’re choosing a large TV, why not pay a little more for one that is a few inches bigger? This is a slippery slope. Once you have gotten started, substantial sums can feel small. If you have remodeled your home recently, this may be painfully familiar. What all of this amounts to is a tendency to think in relative rather than absolute terms. In some ways, what we experience as consumers is like what we experience when we listen to music or lift a heavy object. For example, we are more likely to notice that a drumbeat is loud if we have been listening to, say, a gentle violin. And we will notice that we are lifting extra pounds if they are added to a lightly packed suitcase. The same additional weight is barely noticeable in a heavy one. Vision, heat perception, smell and taste all obey a similar law: Perception is largely a relative mechanism. Recent work in neuroeconomics suggests this link between dollars and senses is not just metaphorical. The economists Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology and John A. Clithero of Pomona College say similar factors are at play in both cases. This neurological connection is fascinating, a reminder that even higher order cognition has humble origins. But these kinds of errors aren’t inevitable. We may not be able to control how our senses manage stimuli, but we can control how we manage our money. Not everyone falls prey to this effect, as Anuj K. Shah, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago, has demonstrated in research done with Eldar Shafir, a psychology professor at Princeton, and me. For one thing, people behave more consistently as consumers than more affluent ones. Poorer people tend to value a dollar more consistently, irrespective of the context. It is not simply that those with less money pinch more pennies it is that they are compelled to value those pennies in absolute rather than relative terms. Whereas the may dabble in frugality, necessity makes the poor experts in it. To them, a dollar has real tangible value. A dollar saved is a dollar to be spent elsewhere, not merely a piece of token accounting. The insight here is simple: When it comes to money, stop looking at relative values and start looking at absolutes. Dollars, not percentages, matter. In this case, the can learn something about money management from the poor. | 1 |
A Texas man is facing charges for child pornography after lending his computer to his neighbor, who discovered nude photographs of his sister on the laptop, police said. [Joe Garza Jr. 65, of Fort Worth, was arrested March 3 and charged with possession of child pornography. Police later charged him with continuous sexual abuse for allegedly molesting the the New York Post reported. Prosecutors added a second charge of continuous sexual abuse Tuesday for allegedly abusing the girl’s older sister years ago, the Fort Worth reported. Garza’s neighbor was in the process of fixing his own hard drive when he asked to borrow Garza’s computer, according to Officer Domingo Martinez, a Fort Worth police officer assigned to the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. “When he hooked it up, he saw a folder on there,” Martinez told the newspaper. “Curious, he looked at it, and that’s when he saw pictures of his [own] sister. ” The neighbor gave the computer back to Garza and notified his parents. His mother texted Garza, telling him to come over so she could confront him about the alleged images. “They talked for two hours,” he said. “I don’t know if he openly admitted it but he said he has a problem and asked her not to call the police and that he would disappear and not come back. ” The mother texted her older daughter to notify the police, who arrested Garza while he was still at the family’s home. An arrest warrant affidavit stated that Garza admitted to taking photos and videos, abusing the and abusing the older sister when she was 10 or 11 years old. Garza is being held at the Tarrant County Jail on $145, 000 bond. | 1 |
Hillary Cleared As FBI Folds Again
Comey Says "Conclusions Unchanged From July" On Clinton Email Review
By Tyler Durden November 06, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Zero Hedge" - In a letter to several committee chairmen released Sunday, FBI Director James Comey announced on Sunday afternoon that just over a week after the FBI reopened its probe into Clinton emails, the Bureau has not changed its July conclusion regarding Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while secretary of State.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz made waves Sunday afternoon, when he tweeted about the FBI letter.
FBI Dir just informed us "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Sec Clinton"
Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) November 6, 2016
Below is the full letter from FBI Director Comey, with the key section highlighted.
The Clinton campaign is exuberant...
We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director Comey has confirmed it https://t.co/BMQQx9eRzw
Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) November 6, 2016
So, having reviewed 650,000 emails in less than a week (?), we can now go back to Democrats loving Comey and the FBI and Trump hating on them. | 0 |
A teacher at Hinkley Elementary School has come under fire after being accused of shaming a student for wearing a sweatshirt that commemorated her first deer kill. [Domonique Yatsko, a student at Hinkley Elementary, was carrying on a family tradition by wearing a photograph of her first deer kill on a sweatshirt. “She was ashamed and belittled in front of everyone in the classroom,” the student’s mother said. “She didn’t know what to think she was so upset. ” Domonique’s teacher, Hannah Copa, allegedly yelled at the young girl over the sweatshirt and told her to “to take off the sweatshirt because ‘killing animals is not what we do. ’” According to the student’s mother, Domonique was so shaken by the incident with her teacher that she immediately threw the sweatshirt in the garbage when she came home from school. According to a report from The Medina County Gazette, a superintendent from the school district claimed that the teacher addressed the student about her sweatshirt after it made several of her classmates upset. The superintendent added, “The situation as I understand it is several children expressed concerns to the teacher and the teacher asked the student to step into hallway and take off (the sweatshirt) because it was upsetting to some of the students, and she did. ” Hunting apparel, including camouflage and images of animals, does not violate the Highland dress code, Aukerman said. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about social justice and libertarian issues for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 1 |
Women are not just sexual objects you pigs. Just remember that when they trot out the bejewelled boobs , wear the “ TaTa Top ”, or just want to “ Free the Nipple ” in the name of “empowerment.” Ms. Holliday has a message for the “pig”
From Daily Mail : Tess Holliday is using her platform as a model to speak out against Donald Trump and the allegations of sexual assault against him.
The 31-year-old took to Instagram over the weekend to share an ad of herself posing in New York City’s Times Square while modeling a New Look Fashion T-shirt that reads: ‘Respect Women #Dump Trump.’
‘Respect Women,’ she captioned the image. ‘Our bodies are not for you to stare at or touch without our consent. Women are not just sexual objects , women are not here for your consumption. So many of us have a sexual assault story, myself included,’ she continued.
‘To endorse someone who not just condones this behavior but actively engages in it would be an awful step backwards for women not just in the US but across the world. #dumptrump #dumptrump #dumptrump The feminist in action
‘Also might I add I’m NOT telling you who to vote for. Trump is a pig & that’s a fact. [sic]’
The photo, which was taken by her longtime partner Nick Holliday, sees Tess posed with her hands on her hips as she stares at the camera. Along with the white T-shirt, which features black block lettering, she is wearing ripped jeans and black high-heeled sandals.
The photo has been liked more than 62,000 times since it was posted on Saturday, and unsurprisingly, the political statement caused a stir.
‘Love the shirt, Tess,’ one woman wrote. ‘Way to use your constitutionally protected voice. #activism #freedom #feminism.’
And while many supported Tess’ statement, there were plenty of people who disagreed with her. ‘Such a shame to have to [unfollow] you,’ another woman wrote. ‘Use your celebrity for something better than being political.’
There was also a fierce debate about whether or not Tess’ post could be seen as an endorsement for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and some people who disagreed with her statement attacked the size 22 model for her weight .
‘There is some super hateful stuff on here,’ one woman wrote. ‘I don’t agree or disagree with your position, but I still admire your message. Why can’t everyone get along! Dang! Everyone gets to have their own opinion people!
‘And targeting her weight because you disagree? Really? People are crazy, keep up your positive messages Tess! Whatever your political views are, I still love what you represent girl!’
Read about the rest of this womyn’s rant here .
DCG | 0 |
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