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Next Swipe left/right Watch a man with an axe destroy Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
First it had a tiny wall built around it , then a mute symbol was added – now someone dressed as a construction worker has smashed Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a pickaxe. Footage of the construction worker destroying Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame Star. pic.twitter.com/fg190QtnCY
— MEFeater Magazine (@mefeater) October 26, 2016
Deadline reports that the man originally intended to remove Trump’s star completely to auction it off next month in New York to raise funds for the women who have recently come forward to accuse Trump of sexually assaulting them over the decades. | 0 |
Televisión Española empieza a construir los platós apilando funcionarios EL MUNDO TODAY RADIO El Mundo Today en tu buzón Tu Email Quiénes somos © El Mundo Today Este sitio web utiliza cookies para analizar cómo es utilizado el sitio. Las cookies no te pueden identificar. Si continuas navegando supone la aceptación de la Política de Cookies. Estoy de acuerdo. Más info. | 0 |
From a mold used in sugar refining to an oversize oyster, a spear tip to a Transferware teapot and a bone from a passenger pigeon, which was once the most abundant bird in North America but was declared extinct in 1914, New York City has cataloged and digitized a vast archive of its buried past. On Wednesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is opening the Nan A. Rothschild Research Center, which the commission says is the first municipal archive devoted to a city’s own archaeological collection, a repository in Midtown Manhattan of more than one million artifacts open to researchers and scholars by appointment. A digital archive is already available. In many cases, the objects are portals of discovery into the city’s history, opening hidden doors to untold stories that began — or, perhaps, ended — with a child’s broken teacup abandoned in Battery Park or a glass seal that identified a wine bottle waiting to be refilled at a local tavern with a family’s favorite vintage. “We’re curating what scholars may want to study and what may be exhibited,” said Amanda Sutphin, the commission’s director of archaeology. The repository on West 47th Street already contains more than 1, 500 boxes of artifacts from 31 sites that were excavated in all five boroughs. Those sites include the Stadt Huys, now 85 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, which, in 1979, was the city’s first major historical dig and demonstrated that archaeological treasures might be buried beneath the shallow basements of old buildings. (The Stadt Huys was originally built to relieve William Kieft, the director of what was then known as New Netherland, of the burden of accommodating visitors to his home it later became New Amsterdam’s first City Hall.) That excavation was directed by Nan A. Rothschild, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Barnard College, a member of the faculty of Columbia University, and a cousin of Helena Durst, the chief administrative officer of the Durst Organization, the developer who donated the space for the repository. The repository was named for Dr. Rothschild to honor her contributions to the field. The repository and website are also a collaboration of the Museum of the City of New York the Fund for the City of New York and Iron Mountain, a records and data management company. The digital archive includes images, maps, an education guide and quiz for students, a searchable database, archaeological reports by the landmarks commission and information on which local colleges and universities offer degrees in the field. (A tip for beginners: If you want to sound smart, refer to a piece of broken pottery as a sherd, not a shard.) The repository “contains the city’s material past, although often in fragments,” Dr. Rothschild said. Meenakshi Srinivasan, the commission chairwoman, said, “The everyday objects in the collection reveal what life was like for people who were not documented in the historic record. ” Until they were gathered at the repository, the artifacts were stored at 14 locations, some under reasonably good conditions at Columbia University and Brooklyn College. But some artifacts were unceremoniously stored at a women’s restroom in Van Cortlandt Park. They will now be kept in a storage area where the contents will be further inventoried. Over time, more will be integrated into the repository, including objects from an excavation at 7 Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan that have been in storage. “These are public projects paid for with public dollars on public land, so the public needs to benefit,” Ms. Sutphin said. | 1 |
It has recently been confirmed that iconic whistleblower Chelsea Manning tried to commit suicide in early October, making it the second attempt to end her life just this year. The attempt took place... | 0 |
Guest Guest | 0 |
You are here: Home / US / Hillary Isn’t Only One Who Suffers Memory Loss, Look What Bill Just Did…. Hillary Isn’t Only One Who Suffers Memory Loss, Look What Bill Just Did…. October 27, 2016 Pinterest
Bill Clinton will probably have to avoid Hillary even more than usual after his latest showing on the campaign trail, in which it became clear that it isn’t just his wife that has memory issues.
Slick Willy was out on the campaign trail on Tuesday, angling to get his lecherous, alleged-rapist butt back in the White House, and apparently he forgot his own criminal business partner wife’s campaign slogan.
“But we were growing together,” Bill said. “This slampaign slogan of Hillary’s, ‘growing together,’ it’s more than just two words that sound good.”
That’s not a typo either; according to IJR , Bill called Hillary’s “campaign slogan” a “slampaign slogan,” before mangling Hillary’s already-stupid actual campaign slogan: “Stronger Together.”
Bill probably shouldn’t use “I’m With Her” either, since he might lapse into, “and her, and her over there, and her right there too.”
“Stronger Together” is also the name of Hillary’s flop of a book, which I highly doubt Bill bothered to read, although you can’t really blame him for that; he has a hard enough time staying awake when his wife speaks — he must be immune to shrill cackling by now.
I’m guessing Bill is going to want to stay as far away as he can from Hillary while she likely has one of her infamous “cooling off” periods. Hillary has been widely reported to have a nasty temper , so it’d certainly be wise for Bill to stay far away.
Hillary can’t be mad for too long though, because it’s likely that she’s going to need Bill to run the White House. Although neither of them appear to be in the greatest health, they can do a great deal of damage between the two of them.
Bill and Hillary have had a painfully obvious agreement throughout their “married life” to help each other politically. Now it’s Hillary’s turn and she’s surely not going to take too kindly to Bill screwing up her ascendancy.
No need to worry Hillary, you’re responsible for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, ruining the life of a 12-year-old rape victim, and numerous other crimes and disgusting deeds, so a few memory lapses from Bill won’t affect the election.
Hillary managed to forget answers nearly 40 times during the FBI investigation into her use of private servers to send and receive classified information as secretary of state, so forgetting a dumb campaign slogan should be no big whoop.
What would be nice is if Bill’s memory lapses led to a moment of clarity and human decency and he let everyone know where the bodies have been buried during the Clinton mafia’s assault on American politics. Won’t happen though; we can’t have nice things… | 0 |
THE HAGUE (AFP) — Geert Wilders may have been beaten into second place in the Dutch elections but the MP will enjoy a magnified role in parliament and remain a force to be reckoned with, analysts said. [While he failed in his aim of starting a “patriotic revolution,” Wilders has already succeeded in shifting the debate and the tone in Dutch politics on immigration and integration, observers said. Campaigning on an ticket, the politician saw his hopes wilt from an high in January when opinion polls had said he could win as many as 37 seats in the Dutch lower chamber. Instead, he captured a more sobering 20 seats in Wednesday’s general elections, behind the 33 won by the Liberal party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, but enough to place his Freedom Party (PVV) second. “It would have been great if we were the largest, but we’re willing to talk and help govern. That’s my hope,” Wilders told journalists Thursday. But he warned his party would “show our hard opposition side” if he were excluded. The long process to form the next government has begun with the VVD sounding out other parties to try to cobble together a coalition. Most parties leaders, including Rutte, have already vowed not to work with Wilders, alienated by his fiery rhetoric, and his attitude. — Long shadow — But analysts say Wilders, who quit the VVD in 2006 to set up his party, will continue to cast a long shadow across the Dutch political landscape and has already succeeded in pulling the lowlands country to the right. “What’s telling is that many parties, including Rutte’s VVD, have already taken on some of the PVV’s viewpoints and content … particularly when it comes to immigration policies,” said Matthijs Rooduijn, a political sociologist at Utrecht University. “That doesn’t mean that parties like the VVD … suddenly moved to the but there certainly is a shift in that direction,” he said. “Most parties have become more nationalist and that’s because of the PVV’s influence,” he said. With Wilders likely to end up the largest party in opposition, more clashes are also forecast, such as with rising young star Jesse Klaver, whose GroenLinks party upped their seats from four to 14. Wilders will also likely lock horns with the progressive leader of Democracy party D66, Alexander Pechtold, which the PVV beat into third place with 19 seats. Should D66 or GroenLinks enter government with Rutte “the clash is going to continue when it comes to social and cultural topics. And the sparks are going to fly,” Rooduijn said. — ‘Bland political elites’ — Wilders, who already triggered the collapse of one Rutte government in 2012, could also seek to exploit the fragmented nature of the next coalition which will be made up of at least four and maybe five parties, Rooduijn said. “He could argue the new cabinet is making too many compromises and deals — it will give him extra ammunition for his populist message that there’s a bland political elite who still won’t listen to voters’ concerns,” he said. “The outcome of this election does not at all mean the end of Geert Wilders and the issues that he is advocating,” said Claes de Vreese, politics professor at the University of Amsterdam. “He remains an important force in Dutch and European politics. He had more votes and increased his number of seats, even though it was not this ‘people’s revolution’ that he was claiming. ” Wilders was hailed by European leaders too, ahead of other key elections in France and Germany this year, who said his polls performance was far from a defeat. His success “proves that the ideas we share are advancing in the various European countries,” said Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, who is hoping to upset the French presidential elections. “Ignore the froth: whilst the establishment did cling on, they took a beating at this election,” wrote the new British blog Westmonster. Wilders’s notoriety has already spread across the Atlantic. Trevor Noah, who hosts the popular US late night programme “The Daily Show” gave Wilders and his “hateful” message a roasting Thursday, comparing his blond mesh to Donald Trump, and likening him to a blond villan played by the actor Christopher Walken’s in “Batman Returns. ” | 1 |
Based on his experiences living in Europe and the “ ” problems now being committed in the name of liberalism in California, model and actor Fabio warns Americans, “Don’t ever give up your guns. ”[He suggests liberals have divided people and are using the split to push their agenda. He said, “The current division in the country only makes politicians stronger. When people are divided, the politicians can do whatever. When people are united, that’s a dangerous thing. ” According to LifeZette, Fabio recalled arriving in America for the first time, saying, “It was like a beautiful dream. It was like paradise. I fell in love with this country. ” But he has watched sweeping change occur under Democrats like Governor Jerry Brown, and he indicates that the change favors criminals while leaving police “demoralized. ” He said, “It’s a disaster. It’s an epidemic. I’ve been around the world. I’ve been to Africa. Everywhere. Downtown Los Angeles now looks like a country. ” Fabio said LA is is full of “ streets and sidewalks” and also has “ ” crime and homeless problems. And he warned that things are going to get worse because of Proposition 57. Fabio said that proposition was ubiquitously promoted to save money by releasing “nonviolent” criminals from prison, but he says Prop. 57 has actually resulted in a reduction in sentences for “human trafficking involving sex with minors, assault with a deadly weapon, attempting to explode a bomb in a school or hospital, discharging a firearm on school guards, failing to register as a sex offender … the list goes on and on and on. ” Fabio said, “Just look at Europe and go the opposite way. It’s as simple as that. Europe already jumped off the cliff. They are doomed. ” He added: Don’t you ever give up your guns. If people lose that right, forget about it. Politicians — they will take everything away from you. And then what are you going to do, protest with a rock? Because that’s what they do in Europe. 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 |
Twitter has officially announced three new changes to the platform in their latest effort to combat “abuse and harassment. ”[The changes include extra measures to stop suspended users from creating new accounts, “safer search results,” and the collapsing of “potentially abusive or Tweets. ” “Making Twitter a safer place is our primary focus,” claimed the company in a blog post update on Tuesday. “We stand for freedom of expression and people being able to see all sides of any topic. That’s put in jeopardy when abuse and harassment stifle and silence those voices. We won’t tolerate it and we’re launching new efforts to stop it. ” “Building on the work we began in November, we’re continuing to work on ways to give people more control over what they see on Twitter,” they continued. “Last week, we introduced an improvement to reporting abusive Tweets that gives people experiencing targeted harassment more ways to report it. Today, we’re announcing three changes: stopping the creation of new abusive accounts, bringing forward safer search results, and collapsing potentially abusive or Tweets. ” “Safer search results” will work by removing “sensitive” tweets and tweets from blocked and muted users from your searches on the platform, while their new collapsing system will hide a large quantity of replies on your tweets. Twitter does not explain what qualifies a tweet for being deemed “sensitive,” and while it says “this type of content will be discoverable if you want to find it,” it doesn’t say how since “it won’t clutter search results any longer. ” Twitter has also not yet explained how they will combat the creation of new accounts from suspended users. “In the days and weeks ahead, we will continue to roll out product changes — some changes will be visible and some less so — and will update you on progress every step of the way,” concluded Twitter in their post. “With every change, we’ll learn, iterate, and continue to move at this speed until we’ve made a significant impact that people can feel. ” The platform has introduced numerous other attempts to combat “harassment” and “hate speech” over the past few years, including a word filtering tool inspired by the Twitter alternative Gab. Twitter, who recently donated $1. 6 million to the ACLU, has repeatedly been accused of censoring conservative and libertarian accounts over the past few years, with numerous users having been permanently suspended from the platform. Breitbart Senior Editor MILO, Pharmaceutical Entrepreneur Martin Shkreli, and rapper Azealia Banks have all been permanently suspended from the platform, while others have been temporarily suspended following political remarks. Despite the sanctioning of accounts, numerous abusive users have been allowed to stay on Twitter. In July, Twitter refused to sanction an account that sexually harassed and sent violent threats to a female Breitbart News contributor, while rapper Talib Kweli was able to repeatedly call numerous black conservatives “coons,” including Breitbart’s Jerome Hudson, Sheriff David Clarke, and activist Maajid Nawaz, without suspension. Threats against the president have also been repeatedly allowed on Twitter, with over 12, 000 tweets calling for the assassination of President Trump having been made since he took office on January 20. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
Páginas Libres
BCRP: ¿economistas mudos ante ejercicio ilegal de la profesión? por Julio César Alba Bravo Socios | 2 de noviembre de 2016 BCRP: ¿economistas mudos ante ejercicio ilegal de la profesión? ¡Qué pintoresco nuestro Congreso! Las prácticas del franeleo, el reino de la informalidad, el descalabro del sistema jurídico, la dictadura de la necedad. En fin, el paraíso del subdesarrollo.
Los irresponsables congresistas que llenaron el BCR de mediocridad quizá no sabían que:
1. En cuanto los señores Chlimper y Rey se sienten en una butaca del BCR, tendrán altas posibilidades de ser acusados de “Ejercicio Ilegal de la Profesión”. Expliquemos:
2. Existe un mandato constitucional (Art. 20) que prescribe la Colegiatura para ejercer determinada actividad profesional. Por su parte, el Código Penal (Art.363) castiga con severas sanciones el “Ejercicio Ilegal de la Profesión” (léase prácticas profesionales sin contar con título y/o sin colegiatura). Las penalidades se hacen extensivas a quienes nombran al ciudadano bendecido por la simpatía del poderoso.
3. Ahora bien, para acceder a la colegiatura y desempeñar determinados cargos de evidente especialidad, las leyes 15488 y 24531 señalan con claridad meridiana las condiciones obligatorias que deben satisfacer quienes se desempeñan en la conducción económica del país. Esto en añadidura a lo que especifica la Ley Orgánica del BCR, que en los casos de Chlimper y Rey ha sido groseramente violentada.
4. Los defensores de la pareja fujimorista alegan que anteriormente han desempeñado cargos similares otros funcionarios sin especialidad titulada y, por tanto, sin colegiatura profesional. Citan varios personajes que supieron acomodarse a las circunstancias, y cerraron los ojos a la informalidad que cometían con la complicidad de politicastros de turno. Aceptar estos peregrinos argumentos significaría convivir cómodamente con la más grosera ilegalidad y admitir que la costumbre genera derecho por encima de la Constitución, las leyes y demás ornamentos inútiles que exhibe nuestra inefable República.
Ignoran que la economía monetaria es una disciplina que los jóvenes aspirantes a economistas califican como “muy tranca”, como para que amateurs como Rey digan que aprenderán rápido. En el caso del otro fujimorista, conviene remarcar que un desempeño impecable en el BCR va mucho mas allá de asistir a un Directorio y firmar sin leer ni entender. Una buena performance es mucho más que un lobbysmo puro y duro.
Ante tamaños antecedentes, el que escribe, un modesto economista, voy a intentar sanar enfermos y construir edificios sin preocuparme de leyes, especialidades, colegiaturas y demás sandeces. Como en Perú la ilegalidad es entusiastamente recompensada, y la informalidad es nuestro lema, no importará qué les suceda a mis clientes y pacientes. Firmaré planos e intentaré sanar el cáncer, sacándoles la lengua a los decanos de los Colegios de Ingenieros y de Médicos.
A propósito, ¿qué hace el relajado decano de los economistas? No hace nada y su pasividad seguramente la justificará diciendo que hace más de 40 años y mil funcionarios la ley no se aplicó para nada, así que “no jodan”.
Julio César Alba Bravo Fuente
Senal de Alerta (Peru) | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Wilbur L. Ross, the billionaire investor, as commerce secretary on Monday, installing a key leader for the Trump administration’s plans to overhaul trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. By a vote of 72 to 27, the Senate confirmed Mr. Ross, who has already been advising President Trump on economic policy and helping him to craft ways to rewrite the tax code. A renegotiation of Nafta is expected to be Mr. Ross’s top priority when he takes over the job. During his confirmation hearing in January, he warned that “all aspects” of the agreement between the United States and its northern and southern neighbors are on the table. With the confirmation of Mr. Ross, the most important members of Mr. Trump’s economic team are in place just in time for looming fights over the budget, health care and tax legislation. Compared with some of Mr. Trump’s other cabinet picks, Mr. Ross had his confirmation process move ahead with relative ease. He faced less resistance from Democrats than Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Andrew F. Puzder, whose nomination to lead the Labor Department was derailed. A former Democrat, Mr. Ross, 79, divested a significant portion of his holdings to avoid conflicts of interest before taking the helm of the Commerce Department. He also tried to temper some of Mr. Trump’s views on trade, attempting to ease concerns that the United States is going to be engaging in trade wars. “I am but I am trade,” Mr. Ross declared at his confirmation hearing. But he takes the job with lingering questions about how his business experience will mesh with Mr. Trump’s “America First” trade agenda. As a private equity investor, Mr. Ross amassed a fortune by taking advantage of trade deals with countries such as China and Mexico. He sent jobs to Mexico when he was the head of a car parts company, benefiting from some of the Nafta provisions that he will most likely be looking to unwind. And he is maintaining a minority stake in a company backed by the Chinese government. Mr. Ross has said that he wants to use his knowledge of the global economy to help improve the fortunes of and Americans. He said last summer that he was attracted to Mr. Trump as a candidate because he believed that the country needed a “more radical, new approach to government. ” The appointment of Mr. Ross fulfills Mr. Trump’s promise to stock his cabinet with proven dealmakers. But it also opens the president up to criticism that he has veered away from his vows of populism by surrounding himself with plutocrats. Democrats have assailed Mr. Trump for assembling the wealthiest cabinet in American history, and on Monday they did not let up. “Wilbur Ross is practically a cartoon stereotype of a Wall Street fat cat with no interest in anyone but himself,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, wrote on Twitter. On the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, accused Mr. Ross of having questionable business ties to Russia. He said Mr. Ross and the Trump administration had failed to be forthcoming about the matter and described it as a troubling pattern. “This is just another example of this administration abandoning transparency and trying to jam nominees through,” Mr. Schumer said. “This is another black mark on this nation’s administration. ” Mr. Ross is set to be sworn in on Tuesday at the White House. The Senate was also holding a cloture vote on Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, Mr. Trump’s nominee for interior secretary. A full vote is expected for Mr. Zinke later this week. | 1 |
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The N. F. L. has determined that a penalty should have been called against a Denver Broncos linebacker after his hit against Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton in the third quarter of Thursday night’s game, which opened the football season. Dean Blandino, the league’s chief of officiating, said that officials on the field had erred in not penalizing the linebacker, Brandon Marshall, for roughing the passer in the third quarter. The acknowledgment came as the league continued to combat the perception that it was not doing enough to protect players from hits that could lead to head trauma. In recent years, the league has added neurotrauma specialists in the press box and on the sideline to decide whether a player should be taken out of a game. On Thursday, in a nationally televised rematch of last year’s Super Bowl, the Broncos hit Newton in the head at least four times. The league determined one of the hits was not illegal because Newton was out of the pocket. Another hit was not illegal because the defender, Von Miller, was grappling with a blocker while Newton was being sacked. Marshall’s hit, though, should have drawn a flag, the league said. Newton, though, was not taken out. In a statement, the league said that medical personnel on the Panthers’ sideline, including the neurotrauma specialist and two independent athletic trainers in the press box, had communicated after the hit and that the neurotrauma specialist and team physician had reviewed video of the play. “They concluded there were no indications of a concussion that would require further evaluation and the removal of the player from the game,” the league said. A fourth hit, by Darian Stewart in the fourth quarter, did draw a penalty, but an call against Newton offset that penalty. Newton, the league’s most valuable player last season, shrugged it off. “It’s not my job to question the officials,” he said. “I really like this officiating crew, so I know it wasn’t something they did intentionally. But it’s not fun to get hit in the head. ” The reaction to the hits was quick and clear. Scott Fowler, a columnist at The Charlotte Observer, said he was “furious” that Newton had not been taken off the field to be examined after being hit in the head. Cecil Newton, Cam’s father, criticized the officials for failing to penalize the Broncos. “I think the culprit is the mere fact that they allowed the game to get out of control,” he told ESPN. “They allowed players to push the envelope to the very edge. ” In a story on the hits, The Ringer ran a headline that read, “It’s Getting Harder and Harder to Deny That Football Is Doomed. ” Hyperbole aside, the N. F. L. will continue to struggle to find a balance between keeping players safe and not destroying the flow of games, which are already burdened with challenges, video reviews and a blizzard of television timeouts. The league will always face pressure to make the game safer, but also to try to appease players and coaches, as well as fans, who do not want to see the action on the field diluted. “In a way, the Cam Newton situation is the latest example to personify how tough it is for the N. F. L. to figure this out going forward,” said Lee Igel, an associate in the medical ethics division at NYU Langone Medical Center and a clinical associate professor of sports ethics at the NYU School of Professional Studies. “It’s medical interests versus business interests. Because there are enough different factors weighing in, it looks unsolvable. ” Last season, the league was criticized after several players were not removed from games even after being hit so severely they had trouble standing up. In one case, Case Keenum, a quarterback for the Rams, hit his head on the turf. A team trainer ran onto the field to look at him but returned to the sideline without removing him from the game. Only after the game did the Rams test Keenum to see whether he had sustained a concussion, and it was confirmed that he had. In addition to the challenges of diagnosing a concussion in the middle of a game, players are often reluctant to admit they are hurt, and unwilling to go to the sideline to be evaluated. Coaches, too, can be reluctant to remove their best players, particularly at key junctures in the game. To reduce the chance of that happening, the league this summer said that it would fine teams hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly take away their draft picks if they failed to take players out of games after the players had sustained concussions. Troy Vincent, the N. F. L. executive vice president for football operations, this week highlighted the dangers of head hits on Twitter, noting that “it’s illegal to use the crown of the helmet to tackle. ” | 1 |
A South Carolina man charged in the kidnapping of a woman found alive in a storage container confessed on Saturday to the unsolved killings of four people in 2003, and may be linked to a total of seven deaths, the authorities said. Late on Saturday, the Spartanburg County sheriff, Chuck Wright, said that a body found in a shallow grave the day before was that of Charles D. Carver, 32, the boyfriend of the rescued woman, The Associated Press reported. He died of gunshot wounds, Sheriff Wright said. Todd C. Kohlhepp, 45, the owner of the property and a registered sex offender, has been charged with kidnapping the woman, Kala V. Brown, who disappeared along with Mr. Carver in late August. Investigators had been sweeping the woods and fields with cadaver dogs after finding Ms. Brown inside a storage container on the property, about 20 miles east of Greenville, S. C. The sheriff said there were indications that two other bodies might be buried on the property. In a stunning twist that drew gasps at a news conference, Sheriff Wright said Mr. Kohlhepp had confessed on Saturday to a quadruple homicide on Nov. 6, 2003. The police said four people were killed at the Superbike Motorsports shop in Chesnee, S. C.: Scott Ponder, 30 Beverly Guy, 52, his mother, who worked there part time and Brian Lucas, 29, and Chris Sherbert, 26, who were employees, The Greenville News reported. Sheriff Wright said Mr. Kohlhepp “told us some stuff that nobody ought to know” about the killings. He described Mr. Kohlhepp as “very cooperative. ” He added: “I’m rejoicing that our community can know that four people who were brutally murdered — there’s no wondering about it anymore. ” Four murder warrants were signed in connection with the killings in the shop, and a murder charge was pending in the case of Mr. Carver, Sheriff Wright said. The case began to unfold when deputies heard Ms. Brown, 30, banging from inside a storage container on Thursday. At a hearing on Friday during which Mr. Kohlhepp was denied bond, the prosecutor, Barry Barnette, said Ms. Brown had told investigators she saw Mr. Kohlhepp shoot Mr. Carver. Ms. Brown also told the authorities that there might be four people buried on the property, Sheriff Wright said. He added that missing persons’ cases were being reopened in light of the revelations. He said investigators would continue to search other properties owned by Mr. Kohlhepp. Mr. Barnette told Magistrate Judge Daniel R. Burns of Spartanburg County that officials had found “numerous guns, assault rifles, two handguns with silencers on them” and “rounds of ammo. ” “It’s unbelievable how much he had out there,” Mr. Barnette said. “This individual is a very, very dangerous individual. ” Sheriff Wright said the authorities were also looking for clues online to shed light on what he said had not been a “random act” of kidnapping. The disappearance of Mr. Carver and Ms. Brown had taken a strange turn last month when friends and family noticed that their Facebook accounts had suddenly become active, updated with posts they did not believe had been written by the couple, The Daily Beast reported. On Friday, Sheriff Wright told reporters that investigators were trying to figure out whether Mr. Kohlhepp or another person had published the posts. Mr. Kohlhepp, of Moore, S. C. sold real estate and had a landscaping business, Sheriff Wright said. He was convicted at age 15 in Arizona in the kidnapping and rape of a girl at gunpoint, Mr. Barnette told the court. | 1 |
Add another mystery to the murky case of the disappearing traffic lanes at the George Washington Bridge: Who is John Doe and why is he putting up such a struggle to shield his identity? A man known only by that alias has hired a lawyer from a prominent Manhattan firm to plead with two federal courts in five days to keep his name out of the impending prosecution of the alleged criminal conspiracy known broadly as Bridgegate. So far, he is winning the fight for anonymity. On Tuesday, an appellate court in Philadelphia blocked the scheduled release of a list of people who prosecutors believe were somehow involved in the scheme to tie up traffic at the New Jersey end of the bridge in September 2013. The court set a hearing on John Doe’s appeal for June 6. So, the riddle of John Doe’s identity and motivation will keep the politically curious guessing for a few more weeks, at the least. Who, they wondered, could have played a notable role in the highly publicized scheme and still hope to avoid being linked to it? And why did he wait until the eve of the scheduled release of the list of “unindicted ” to try to suppress it? “There are no coincidences in New Jersey politics,” said John S. Wisniewski, a Democratic state assemblyman who was of a legislative committee that investigated the scheme. “I’m certain that there is an important reason for whoever John Doe is to have retained counsel, a reason that only recently came up. ” Whoever he is, Mr. Wisniewski said, John Doe had the resources and connections to hire Jenny Kramer, a former federal prosecutor who is now with the Chadbourne Parke law firm. Ms. Kramer filed a motion in federal court in Newark last week, arguing that her client would be “publicly branded a felon” by his inclusion on the list, even though he has not been charged with a crime. Prosecutors have not said how many names are on the list, but they have obtained indictments against only three former allies of Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, suspected of plotting to tie up traffic in Fort Lee, N. J. They contend that the three — Bill Baroni, David Wildstein and Bridget Anne Kelly — sought to punish the borough’s mayor, Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for declining to endorse Mr. Christie for in 2013. Mr. Baroni was the governor’s top executive appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge. Mr. Wildstein, who pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy last May, was a deputy to Mr. Baroni at the agency. Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly, who was a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, are scheduled to stand trial in September on nine counts, including conspiracy to commit fraud. Mr. Wildstein has stated that there is evidence that Mr. Christie knew about the scheme while it was being carried out, but the governor has said he found out about it afterward and quickly informed the public. Unless those denials have been refuted by prosecutors, Mr. Wisniewski said, “it probably is unlikely that the governor is on this list. ” He declined to speculate about John Doe’s identity, but trying to puzzle it out has been something of a parlor game among those who have continued to follow the case. Holly Schepisi, a Republican state assemblywoman who was on the committee with Mr. Wisniewski, called it a “Bridgegate fantasy league” that had people swapping rosters of possibilities and wishes. “There are some people out there who still hold out hope, for whatever diabolical reason, that John Doe is somebody very senior,” Ms. Schepisi said. Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science at Montclair State University, said in an interview on Tuesday that there was “widespread speculation” that John Doe could be Mr. Christie. “It is someone who has an enormous amount to lose,” Ms. Harrison said. “Who has the most to lose?” Ms. Harrison noted that Donald J. Trump, the Republican candidate for president, was scheduled to attend a rally in New Jersey on Thursday that will raise money to pay for Mr. Christie’s aborted presidential campaign. “So there is at least some advantage he has gained from the delay of this,” she said, referring to the governor. But Assemblywoman Schepisi said she was reasonably certain that John Doe was not Mr. Christie, but another current or former public official or government employee. Beyond that, she said, she had heard plenty of guesses, but “everybody’s speculating. ” Susan Wigenton, the judge in the United States District Court in Newark who denied John Doe’s motion to keep the list confidential, said that the public’s right to know outweighed the interests of privacy of the people on the list, for “whom the government has sufficient evidence to designate as having joined the conspiracy. ” Ms. Schepisi said she thought John Doe had a strong argument against being implicated in a conspiracy without being charged and having a chance to defend himself. She said she imagined he had good reason to want to keep his presence on that list a secret. “When people hear the phrase ‘unindicted ’ the implication is no longer, unfortunately, O. K. you didn’t commit a crime it is, you very probably did something criminal and somehow you skated,” Ms. Schepisi said. “It’s like having a big scarlet letter put across your chest for the rest of your life. ” | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Donald Trump was criticized from across the political spectrum for his baseless claim on Twitter that he lost the popular vote because millions cast ballots illegally. California’s top election official called the allegations absurd and said Mr. Trump’s “reckless tweets are inappropriate and unbecoming. ” Mr. Trump made the claim after Hillary Clinton’s campaign agreed to participate in a recount effort in Wisconsin and possibly two other states. ____ 2. Mr. Trump has resumed holding transition meetings at his headquarters in New York, Trump Tower, which has been heavily fortified as a kind of White House North. As suspense continued over whether Mitt Romney would be chosen for secretary of state, Mr. Trump set up meetings with two other possibilities: the retired Gen. David Petraeus, above, and Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. We took a close look at Steve Bannon, the incendiary figure whom Mr. Trump appointed as chief White House strategist. Mr. Bannon once told a colleague that Mr. Trump was an “imperfect vessel” for the revolution he had in mind. But they bonded anyway. ____ 3. Cuba began nine days of mourning for Fidel Castro, only to be jarred by Mr. Trump’s threat on Twitter to “terminate deal” to normalize diplomatic relations. It is now up to Fidel’s brother, Raúl Castro, who assumed presidential powers in 2006, to steer the country. Their sister, an outspoken critic of Fidel Castro living in Miami, had not spoken to him in decades but was nonetheless upset by exiles’ celebrations of his death. Here’s our full obituary of Fidel Castro. ____ 4. Syrian rebels lost a large stretch of territory in the city of Aleppo to government forces and Kurdish fighters, a possible turning point in the grinding civil war. Residents described horrifying scenes of people being killed by shells as they searched for shelter. They said it was the heaviest bombardment yet in years of war. “It’s like doomsday,” one activist said. ____ 5. Nine people were injured on the campus of Ohio State University when a student drove his car onto the sidewalk and then stabbed several people with a butcher knife. The attacker, identified as Abdul Artan, 18, was shot dead within about a minute by a campus police officer. ____ 6. A federal judge granted Dylann Storm Roof’s request to represent himself in his capital trial on charges of killing nine churchgoers in Charleston, S. C. That means the avowed white supremacist could survivors of the massacre and family members of the dead. Mr. Roof has offered to plead guilty to the 33 charges against him in exchange for a life sentence. ____ 7. Officials in sanctuary cities across the country are gearing up to oppose Mr. Trump if he follows through on his campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants. They say they will continue to limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents. In doing so, they risk losing federal funding. “We are not going to use our resources to enforce what we believe are unjust immigration laws,” the mayor of Oakland, Calif. said. ____ 8. In the coal country of West Virginia, where Mr. Trump pummeled Mrs. Clinton, Appalachians are eyeing Washington with a feeling they have not had in years: hope. That’s despite the predictions that coal will never come back and that the only way to revive the economy is to diversify it. “I don’t think he can ever fulfill all the promises he made even in four or eight years,” said one man who lost his job at a coal company last year. “But I think we’re headed in the right direction. ” ___ 9. A Cold War battle playing out in Lower Manhattan for the last three weeks — through the medium of chess — will last another game. Sergey Karjakin, a Russian, left, and Magnus Carlsen, a Norwegian and the defending world champion, ended the final regulation game in the World Chess Championship in a draw. They will meet again to try to break the tie on Wednesday. ___ 10. Finally, what’s worth watching tonight? Our answer: Two HBO documentaries that capture Cuba on the brink of change (good time to watch!) and “Don’t Look Back,” D. A. Pennebaker’s chronicle of Bob Dylan’s 1965 British concert tour, which is streaming on Filmstruck. ___ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. 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 Friday’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
You are here: Home / US / Thomas Sowell Delivers the BRUTAL Truth About Understanding Politics Thomas Sowell Delivers the BRUTAL Truth About Understanding Politics October 28, 2016
C.E. Dyer writes that Bill and Hillary Clinton are generous people — that is, generous toward themselves.
The Clintons are probably the world’s most famous grifters and the Clinton Farce Foundation has proven to be a great cover for them.
Bill and Hillary gave $1,042,000 to charity according to their tax return and $1 million of that went to, you guessed it, the Clinton Foundation. Of the $1,042,000 the Clintons gave to charity as listed on their return, $1 million went to the Clinton Foundation https://t.co/IuNXUGZBdC
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 12, 2016 @CounterMoonbat Which in turn is used to pay Chelsea her $900K salary. & leftists everywhere say "aren't they wonderful". We're so screwed.
— Da Hack (@NoMoreSheepdog) August 12, 2016
It’s a pretty slick move: donate to your own charity and write it off on your taxes. One twitter user aptly called the Clinton Foundation “their own slush fund.”
As far as the money laundering comment goes, well, dirty money does need to get clean, you know, and Clinton Foundation money is dirty in more ways than one.
First, it’s a great way to make enough money to pay for Hillary’s ugly designer clothes and Bill’s girlfriends — not to mention that Chelsea needs a job; $600,000 at NBC only goes so far, you know.
Second, the Clinton Foundation takes enormous amounts of money from countries with disgusting human rights abuses and all the Clintons have to do is a photo-op here and there to make it look like it’s all about charity and whatnot.
This fits perfectly with the Democrat Party, though — it doesn’t matter what is, just what it looks like, and fortunately for them Democrat voters aren’t the most discerning bunch.
Apparently Clinton made $10.6 million in 2015…but hey, she’s just like us!
She’s your neighbor down the street who can’t climb the stairs, screams at everyone and gets away with massive fraud and has yet to be held accountable for the death of four Americans on her watch — not to mention the others that drop like flies around her.
Then there’s creepy, pervy, pathological liar uncle Bill, and their ne’er-do-well daughter Chelsea with questionable paternity — although that’s probably a lot more common …
Everyone’s got neighbors like that right? | 0 |
PARIS — Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who killed 84 people in a terrorist attack in Nice, France, last week, planned his assault over several months and got help from at least five people, the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday. However, although the Islamic State called the attacker one of its “soldiers,” there is as yet no evidence that he or the suspected accomplices had any direct contact with the terrorist network, the prosecutor, François Molins, who handles terrorism investigations in France, said at a news conference in Paris. Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian who lived in Nice, drove a cargo truck through crowds that had gathered on the city’s waterfront promenade to watch the Bastille Day fireworks on July 14. He also fired an automatic pistol at the police, before they shot and killed him. The authorities initially said they believed that Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who had not been particularly religious, had become rapidly radicalized over a few weeks before the attack. But on Thursday, Mr. Molins suggested that the attack had been planned for months. Investigators have confirmed “not only the premeditated character” of the attack but also that Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel “benefited from support and complicity in the preparation and carrying out of his criminal act,” Mr. Molins said. The five suspects, who were arrested in the days after the attack, were charged on Thursday evening. Mr. Molins said that the charges would include murder, attempted murder, terrorist conspiracy, and the possession and transportation of weapons. Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s estranged wife was also arrested, but was released without charges on Sunday, as was a man who had been wrongly identified as a suspect, according to Audrey Delaunay, the man’s lawyer. On Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s phone, investigators found pictures of fireworks and of the Nice promenade from last year, as well as an image of an article about Captagon, an amphetamine that has been associated in some news reports with Islamic State fighters. Also on the phone was an image of an article on a Tunisian man killed in January after he tried to attack a police station in Paris. Mr. Molins also said that investigators had uncovered pictures, text messages and phone calls that showed he had been in close contact over the past year with three men who are now suspects. The authorities identified them as Ramzi A. 21, a native of Nice and a dual citizen Chokri C. 37, a Tunisian born in Sousse, Tunisia and Mohamed Oualid G. 40, a dual citizen born in La Marsa, Tunisia. Mohamed Oualid G. and Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel called each other 1, 278 times over the last year. Mohamed Oualid G. sent Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel a text message praising the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, Mr. Molins said, and investigators found pictures on Mohamed Oualid G. ’s phone of the aftermath of the attack in Nice. Investigators also found pictures on Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s phone from July 11 and July 13 of Mohamed Oualid G. in the truck used for the attack, he said. On April 4, Chokri C. sent Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel a Facebook message advising him to “load the truck” and to “cut the brakes, my friend, and I’ll watch,” Mr. Molins said. His fingerprints were also found on the truck’s passenger door, and he was recorded by a surveillance camera in the truck beside Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel, on the promenade in Nice, less than three hours before the attack, Mr. Molins said. A text message sent by Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel to Ramzi A. just minutes before the attack thanked him for an automatic pistol, which he then used to shoot at the police, and “asked for new ones,” Mr. Molins said. Like Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel, none of the men were known to French intelligence services, Mr. Molins said. Ramzi A. had a criminal record with convictions for theft, violence and drug use between 2013 and 2015. An Albanian couple — Artan H. 38, and Enkeledja Z. 42, who also holds French citizenship — also face criminal proceedings. They are suspected of having helped Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel obtain the 7. automatic pistol that he used. Questions continued to be raised about security measures in Nice on the night of the attack, which killed not only French citizens who had been celebrating their national holiday, but also people of 19 other nationalities, including citizens of Algeria, Brazil, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Madagascar and the United States. France’s Socialist government has sparred repeatedly with opposing politicians on the right and far right, especially local officials in Nice, over how many national and municipal officers were securing the promenade on the night of the attack and how they were spread out. The national police answer to the state, whereas municipal officers answer to city authorities. The newspaper Libération reported on Thursday that only one municipal police car was positioned at the spot where Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel barreled through and onto the promenade, and it said that although national and city officials had agreed on — and stuck to — a security plan for Bastille Day, the government had misrepresented those measures after the attack. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, while denying that accusation, has ordered an internal police investigation, separate from the continuing judicial one, which will look into the Bastille Day security measures in Nice. Questions have also been raised about why the authorities did not position heavy obstacles at the entrances to the promenade’s pedestrian area, to block vehicles from entering. The authorities across France are rushing to strengthen security at the dozens of events over the summer. They have added vehicular barriers at Paris Plages, an annual event that turns sections of the Seine’s embankments into artificial beaches, and have canceled events like an film festival and a pedestrian day on the . On Thursday, the French Parliament also passed a bill extending for an additional six months the state of emergency that was declared after the November attacks that killed 130 people in and around Paris. It grants the French authorities extraordinary policing powers, such as the ability to carry out police raids or place people under house arrest without a judge’s authorization. The latest extension, which would last until the end of January, would make this state of emergency the longest since the 1950s. In addition, legislation passed on Thursday gives the government new powers. For example, under the state of emergency, the police will be allowed to seize computers and phones and copy the data on them without prior judicial authorization. And from now on, the government will be able to place a person returning from Syria or Iraq under house arrest for up to three months instead of one. | 1 |
Fight Inflammation with These 9 Vitamins and Minerals (And where to get them) http://blogs.naturalnews.com/fight-inflammation-9-vitamins-minerals-get/
By Twain Yobra
Posted Monday, October 31, 2016 at 12:42pm EDT
Vitamins and minerals play vital roles in the body. And one of their most important role is fighting inflammation. And this can reduce risk of diseases like arthritis, heart disease and so on.
Here are 9 anti-inflammatory vitamin and minerals you should include in your diet.
1. Vitamin E
This antioxidant will fight inflammation. You can get vitamin E from natural sources seeds and nuts like almonds, peanuts and so on. Avocado and spinach are also great sources.
2. Magnesium
Research shows that magnesium will keep you relaxed, increases energy, improves heart health and much more. Unfortunately most people are magnesium deficient. Good food sources of magnesium include beans, nuts, leafy greens, whole wheat bread, carrots, and meat.
3. Vitamin B
Low levels of B vitamins increase risk of inflammation. Natural sources include broccoli, kale, cauliflower, bell pepper, chicken, tuna and chickpeas.
4. Glutathione
This antioxidant will definitely fight inflammation. You can get it from garlic, apples, tomatoes, apples, grapefruit and avocado.
5. Vitamin C
Vitamin C is known to strengthening the immune system, reducing toxicity and even fights cancer. Lemon water, tomatoes, and oranges are great sources of vitamin C.
6. Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency plus poor nutrition can lead to chronic inflammation. Sunlight is the most popular sources of vitamin D, other sources including avocado, spinach, seeds and nuts.
7. Vitamin K
Vitamin K prevents the body from heart disease, osteoporosis. Get vitamin K eggs, liver, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and kale.
8. Coenzyme Q10
This antioxidant has anti-inflammatory properties. You can get it from natural sources like olive oil, walnuts, peanuts, spinach, mackerel, beef liver, and sardines.
9. Vitamin A
Vitamin A protects the body against free radicals. You can increase levels of vitamin A by eating carrots, broccoli, sweet potato, kale, collard greens, cantaloupe, dandelion, and spinach.
For more information on eating healthy and staying fit, download your FREE 3 Weeks Flat Stomach Guide to help you improve your health and physique. And like our Facebook page . You might also like… | 0 |
LawBreakers is the next big release from Unreal and Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski, but does it live up to the hype?[ Cliff Bleszinski (formerly known as CliffyB) is best known for his work on the Unreal and Gears of War franchises, both of which went on to spawn multiple sequels and are considered classics among both fans and critics. Bleszinski’s latest project, released under his own company Boss Key Productions, is a shooter with an twist that I got to get time with at E3. LawBreakers lets players choose one of nine different classes spread across 18 characters to fight to the death in a team shooter. The classes feature many character types that players of team shooters will be familiar with there are heavy shooters that utilize rocket launchers and grenades to decimate large groups of opponents, while also characters that rely on blades and speed boosts to slice their way through the competition at close range. LawBreakers focuses heavily on the futuristic elements of the game, both in promotional material and gameplay itself. is a huge feature that is utilized throughout the game, with players moving between regular gravity and zones constantly, forcing them to adapt their playstyle and utilize movement abilities in order to keep up with the nature of the game. While the elements provide a slightly new playstyle, overall LawBreakers suffers from a lack of originality. To the experienced FPS fan, LawBreakers comes across as an attempt to innovate in ways that aren’t as new and groundbreaking as LawBreakers presents them as being. Many of the mechanics we see in LawBreakers such as are similar to the movement systems of shooters like Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the Titanfall franchise, while special character abilities are quite similar to the abilities in other hero shooters like Overwatch. While the game introduces some interesting design elements and in many cases attempts to rely on their futuristic style, the visuals can often be quite lackluster. Textures in many areas look bland and recycled, while many character designs are hit and miss. The LawBreakers team does seem to have chosen to appeal to the eSports market with much of their branding however which may be the games best chance at success. Overall my time with LawBreakers left me with the impression of a fun shooter to kill some time with but unlikely to win any awards for groundbreaking innovation. Hopefully, the full release of LawBreakers will reveal a bit more depth by its August 8 release date. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 1 |
وزارة الخارجية الأميركية تشبه مقاومة الإمبريالية بالإرهاب شبكة فولتير | 26 تشرين الأول (أكتوبر) 2016 français Español Türkçe Deutsch أعلنت وزارة الخارجية عن ادراج المواطن اللبناني هيثم علي الطباطبائي الملقب ب "أبو علي الطباطبائي" على قائمة "الإرهابيين الدوليين
هذا الادراج يكشف عن خصوصية : انتقدت وزارة الخارجية هذا الضابط الرفيع في حزب الله، لدعمه الجمهورية العربية السورية، وهي دولة عضو في الأمم المتحدة
ولتبدو بمظهر حسن، أشارت تعليمات وزارة الخارجية إلى رؤية هذا الضابط في اليمن. فقط على أساس هذه المعلومات، تم توجيه الاتهام له بأنه يقاتل إلى جانب قوات التحالف الحوثي، وأنصار الرئيس السابق صالح الذين يسيطرون على معظم أنحاء البلاد
في كل الأحوال، لم تنسب وزارة الخارجية إلى الضابط المذكور أي عمل إرهابي. واكتفت بتشبيه مقاومة الامبريالية الأميركية بالارهاب | 0 |
JAFFA, Israel — An Egyptian man was sentenced to death for murdering a Christian alcohol retailer. [The sentence for Adel Assaliyeh, a Muslim resident of Alexandria, was submitted to the Grand Mufti of Egypt, who has the prerogative on signing off on death sentences. Assaliyeh admitted to killing the victim, Youssef Lamei, saying he had asked him to stop selling alcohol to no avail. Refusing legal counsel, Assaliyeh reportedly didn’t show remorse and said, “If I could, I’d kill all of the alcohol retailers. ” The victim’s son Tony said the defendant threatened him during the trial and said he would murder him too as well as all Coptic Christians. Tony said that the defendant nonchalantly reenacted the murder while citing Islamic rulings permitting the killing of Christians that he had heard on television. Lamei’s assault last month by an initially anonymous man was caught on cameras and shocked the Egyptian public. It also further increased the uncertainties facing the Coptic community. | 1 |
4072 Views November 09, 2016 22 Comments SITREPs Scott
Source: Extract from infographic – Offiziere.ch
Source: Extract from infographic – Offiziere.ch
Latest information is that the Russian fleet off the coast of Syria is going to carry out military strikes in the Aleppo region including seaborne missiles launches. This is not surprising since the main elements of the Russian Navy force have at last converged off Cyprus & Syria. The Kuznetsov carrier has been on the receiving end of a lot of trolling, mocking all the way to the Syrian shores It has taken a while to finally get the vital naval pieces into place, much of it to howls of protest from NATO and the MSM.
It is doubtful that the air strikes against the rebels will be carrier launched, largely due to the ski jump configuration that hinders the launching of fully laden aircraft, but SU-33s have already been reported in the skies above Syria, either probably on Combat Air Patrols, or more than likely having relocated to the main airbase at Khmeimim , supplementing the air assets there. If indeed true, it will nevertheless be the first combat air sortie in 25 years for the Kuznetsov’s air wing! Much less fuss has been made in the MSM & politically on the role of the Black & Caspian Sea fleets,which have already used Kalibrs in anger in 2015 & this year. Interestingly, 100 Kalibr & Onix missiles were ordered by the Russian Ministry of Defense in the 3rd quarter of 2016. (TASS 21 Oct). The destroyer, Smetlivy is also reported to have joined the fleet, after a Greek stopover, where sailors got to see the sights of Athens. Whereas Spain & Malta snubbed the Russian Navy, Greece welcomes them with open arms.
At the beginning of November, the naval auxiliary, Prof. Nikolay Muru left Sevastopol along with the missile frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, the only surface ship carrying Kalibrs in the eastern Mediterranean. The Prof. Nikolay Muru is a Search & Rescue (SAR) ship, also capable of underwater operations & has Dynamic Positioning System (DPS); it’s one of two vessels that frequently use AIS and as such trackable. The other is the Nikolay Chiker, an ocean going tug, which accompanied the Kuznetsov fleet down from Severomorsk. The Chiker is now quite close to Turkey, at the northernmost edge of what appears to be the Russian Navy operational zone. (See diagram for the NOTAM).
Russia’s aircraft carrier group is ready to launch strike on Aleppo in the next 24 hours
Also underway and heading to Syria is the Large Buoy Tender, KIL 158, with a deck cargo of what appears to be two fast ‘Raptor’ patrol craft .
It has a heavy lift crane and also an underwater operations role. You don’t send off such ships far from their homeports for a nice training cruise, so although this might seem at first sight, dull news compared to the deployment of combat ships, it is interesting from a logistical point of view. There is the need to reconfigure the Tartus docks into a viable & safe naval base permanently and as such specialist vessels with diving support capabilities will probably come in handy.
Equally, the arrival of specialist auxiliary ships makes for an intriguing combination, specifically looking at the underwater operations capability. This is especially so when you vector in what the Yantar did last month. The Yantar, a Russian navy oceanographic ship was off Syrian & Lebanese coasts, loitered over areas where there submarine cables linking Cyprus with the Levant & Turkey. My guess is that it was also surveying and checking out the Anti Submarine Warfare sonar arrays ‘toys’ left there by NATO – (US), in preparation for the arrival of the main fleet. Back in October, several UK MSM newspapers reported the deployment of 2 Akula class & 1 Kilo class submarines in the Atlantic. They added that they were joining the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean. So maybe the Yantar was giving the elusive Russian submarine(s?) some more room to maneuver discreetly. At the same time, there was what seemed to be a cat and mouse game taking place between the Russian navy (a sub?) firing missiles and the US Navy sending out an ASW P-8 air patrol the next day in the area. A discreet but vital underwater conflict is taking place off the Syrian coast.
Caption: Map showing the location of the Yantar in relation to submarine cables in the region
Some of the Russian ships took a northerly route past Cyprus, thus completely avoiding the French aircraft-carrier group and the busy airspace used by the RAF and ISF aircraft. Just by looking at the NOTAM map for Cyprus shows this crowded airspace). There are still NATO/US ships lurking in the area, probably keeping tabs on the Russians. One, off Crete, was the USNS Mary Sears (T AGS 65), an oceanographic ship, with sonar, underwater metal detection & satellite imagery capabilities, approximately in the same mould as the Yantar. The Yantar is now going to Iran and maybe will cause some ASW mischief making there. The latest ‘watcher’ is the Spanish navy tanker, the Cantabria, (A 15), and before that it was the turn of the Danish warship HMDS Absalon off Crete. The US naval oiler Leroy Grumman is also deployed in the area and it appears to be replenishing the French carrier group.
The latest news in is that there was a ‘brief encounter’ between the Kuznetsov escorts and a Dutch NATO submarine. (SPUTNIK news 9 Nov) Supposedly for a top notch hyper silent submarine, the Dutch Walrus class diesel- electric submarine was detected by the Severomorsk & the Vice-Adm Kulakov.
In other news, the Russian naval “Syrian Express” is still providing a much needed military supply shuttle service. In what is probably the oddest naval movement was that of a tug SB 5 towing a barge, that went through the Bosphorus twice in less than 30 hours, a record breaking transit. The barge looked like a mooring pontoon for one of the big combat ships or for the Kuznetsov. The naval logistical & combat support operations is a underrated but vital aspect of the Russian military campaign in Syria.
P.S. Rumor has it that the Dutch sub detected is the Walrus, since it visited Valletta, Malta back in September.
All sources are OSINT; usually cross checked.
Thank you for your time,
LeDahu | 0 |
Rep. @MaxineWaters sees impeachment in #Trump’s future. Retweet to agree, like to disagree #AMJoy https: . During the Saturday MSNBC “AM Joy” broadcast, Rep. Maxine Waters ( ) predicted that impeachment is in President Donald Trump’s future over alleged ties with Russia. “We are going to see who the real patriots are when we unveil this collusion that I believe is there. I think in the final analysis they are going to have to move away from [Trump] and we will see that he will be in a position where he will meet the standards and the criteria for higher crimes and misdemeanors, and I maintain that’s where impeachment comes in. Last month, Waters said it was her “greatest desire” to lead Trump “right into impeachment. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A bombing at Bangladesh’s largest gathering for the Eid holiday killed two police officers and a civilian on Thursday, police officials said, a day after the Islamic State warned that more attacks would follow the militants’ bloody siege in the capital last week. The attack on Thursday occurred at Sholakia Eidgah, a prayer ground in the Kishoreganj district, about 60 miles northeast of Dhaka, the capital. More than 100, 000 people were estimated to have gathered there for Eid the holiday that concludes the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued a statement deploring the attack and the killers who had carried it out. “What kind of Islamic virtues do they hold as they go to kill people instead of offering their prayers at prayers time, carry out a suicidal bomb attack,” she said. In the aftermath of a bloody weekend attack carried out by young men, several from prosperous families, the prime minister renewed official entreaties to parents and school administrators to inform the authorities about unexplained and prolonged absences by young men. “I urge the guardians to take steps to bring back their missing sons home,” she said. “We will give them all cooperation to find their missing boys and for their treatment, if necessary. ” More details emerged about the attack on the religious gathering on Thursday. About half an hour before morning prayers were to begin, a group of men approached a police checkpoint at a high school near the prayer ground and set off a bomb, said Tofazzal Hossain, an assistant superintendent of the Kishoreganj police. “They attacked the police out of nowhere,” said Mr. Hossain, who added that some of the attackers had been carrying guns and bladed weapons. Six other officers were seriously wounded, said a police inspector, Mueid Chowdhury, but they were expected to survive. Several civilians were also hurt. The police killed one of the attackers and arrested two others, Mr. Hossain said. A search was underway for the other assailants. Security had been tightened for Eid celebrations around Bangladesh after the militant assault Friday night on an upscale restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic district, in which at least 20 hostages were killed. On Wednesday, the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the restaurant siege, released a video threatening more such attacks in Bangladesh. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Thursday. But the imam of the Sholakia Eidgah mosque, Maulana Fariduddin Masud, had taken a public stance against violence committed in the name of Islam. In January, he led more than 100, 000 Islamic clerics in signing a fatwa, or religious ruling, that condemned militancy. | 1 |
November 6, 2016 at 12:21 pm
Pure and utter propaganda. What tripe. Lets keep stacking our forces up along the Russian border and when they start taking precautions to protect their country and people they're the bad guys. Absolute garbage. Do some actual research of your own and don't let these folks suck you in with the dramatic pictures and music. | 0 |
United States Marine Field McConnell Plum City Online - ( AbelDanger.net ) October 31, 2016
1. Abel Danger ( AD ) claims that Clinton Foundation donors use 8(a) servers for online assassination betting and the trade in child pornography and torture killings as first staged in 1996 at pig farm raves in B.C. allegedly sponsored by so-called 'Libranos' in the Canadian government.
2. AD claims that Hillary Clinton or her aide Huma Abedin hired pedophile pimps to entrap and extort the directors of Boeing into mentoring the Federal Bridge Certification Authority, outsourcing C4I developments to Serco , moving the Boeing headquarters office from Washington State to Chicago in 2001 and attempting a bridge-based coup d'etat on 9/11.
3. AD claims that Serco has been providing a murder-for-hire service to Clinton donors by synchronizing Zulu death betting on 8(a) servers with in-flight snuff films which victims watch as they are flown to their deaths and with which loved ones and potential whistle-blowers are silenced by fear.
4. United States Marine Field McConnell – Global Operations Director of Abel Danger – has offered to serve as a five-star general in a Trump administration to help Trump destroy the Clinton bridge of pimps and obtain justice for victims of 'death by plane'.
FBI's Comey Bureau Re Opening Investigation into Hillary Clinton's Emails!! October 28, 2016
Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot Extortion of Lockheed Martin – a mentor of Clinton’s bridge of pimps.
Copy of SERCO GROUP PLC: List of Subsidiaries AND Shareholders! [Note British and Saudi Governments, AXA, HSBC , Teachers' and Gold man Sachs]
Defense Ammunition Center [Outsourced to Serco ]
Serco ... Would you like to know more?
"Digital Fires Instructor Serco - Camp Pendleton, CA Uses information derived from all military disciplines (e.g., aviation, ground combat, command and control, combat service support, intelligence, and opposing forces) to determine changes in enemy capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action."
" Serco 's Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence is based in Colorado Springs, CO. The team provides a variety of services in support of Boeing’s business units as well as research and development efforts. Serco 's architecture employs object-oriented (OO)/Unified Modeling Language (UML) to define, design and satisfy defense agencies' mission-critical requirements, including Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I). This approach improves system developer's understanding of operational requirements and how best to integrate enterprise operations and systems for the optimal fulfillment of C4I and other operational needs."
" Robert William "Willie" Pickton (born October 24, 1949)[ 2 ] of Port Coquitlam , British Columbia , Canada, is a former multi-millionaire pig farmer[ 3 ] and serial killer convicted in 2007 of the second-degree murders of six women.[4][ 5 ] He was also charged in the deaths of an additional twenty women,[6] many of them from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside; however, these charges were stayed by the Crown in 2010.[7] In December 2007, he was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years – the longest sentence then available under Canadian law for murder.[8]
During the trial's first day of jury evidence, January 22, 2007, the Crown stated he confessed to 49 murders to an undercover police officer posing as a cellmate . The Crown reported that Pickton told the officer that he wanted to kill another woman to make it an even 50, and that he was caught because he was "sloppy".[9] Background[edit]
By 1992, Robert William Pickton and his brother David owned a Port Coquitlam farm. Worker Bill Hiscox called it a "creepy-looking place", noting that it was patrolled by a 600-lb. (270 kg) boar , one of the few actual pigs on the farm. "I never saw a pig like that, who would chase you and bite at you," he said. "It was running out with the dogs around the property." He later described Pickton as a "pretty quiet guy, hard to strike up a conversation with," whose occasionally bizarre behavior, despite no evidence of substance abuse , would draw attention.
Pickton's only vehicle was a converted bus, with deeply tinted windows, to which he was emotionally attached. The Pickton brothers gradually neglected the site's farming operations. They registered a non-profit charity, the Piggy Palace Good Times Society, with the Canadian government in 1996 as aiming to "organize, co-ordinate, manage and operate special events, functions, dances, shows and exhibitions on behalf of service organizations, sports organizations and other worthy groups." Its events included raves and wild parties featuring Vancouver prostitutes and gatherings in a converted slaughterhouse. These events attracted as many as 2,000 people. Hell's Angel members were known to often frequent the farm."
"650,000 Emails Found On Anthony Weiner's Laptop; DOJ Blocked Foundation Probe
by Tyler Durden
Oct 30, 2016 10:34 PM
Yesterday, we reported that the FBI has found " tens of thousands of emails " belonging to Huma Adein on Anthony Weiner's computer, raising questions how practical it is that any conclusive finding will be available or made by the FBI in the few days left before the elections Now, according to the WSJ , it appears that Federal agents are preparing to scour roughly 650,000 emails that, as we reported moments ago were discovered weeks ago on the laptop of Anthony Weiner , to see how many relate to a prior probe of Hillary Clinton's email use, as metadata on the device suggests there may be thousands sent to or from the private server that the Democratic nominee used while she was secretary of state, according to people familiar with the matter.
As the WSJ adds, the review will take weeks at a minimum to determine whether those messages are work-related emails between Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide and the estranged wife of Mr. Weiner, and State Department officials; how many are duplicates of emails already reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and whether they include either classified information or important new evidence in the Clinton email probe, which FBI officials call "Midyear."
And, as we further reported earlier today , the FBI has had to await a court order to begin reviewing the emails, because they were uncovered in an unrelated probe of Mr. Weiner, and that order was delayed for reasons that remain unclear.
More stunning is just how many emails were found on Weiner's computer. And while one can only imagine the content of some of the more persona ones, the WSJ writes that the latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe, the bureau's second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a minor, they had recovered a laptop with 650,000 emails. Many, they said, were from the accounts of Ms. Abedin, according to people familiar with the matter.
Those emails stretched back years , these people said, and were on a laptop that both Mr. Weiner and Ms. Abedin used and that hadn't previously come up in the Clinton email probe. Ms. Abedin said in late August that the couple were separating.
The FBI had searched the computer while looking for child pornography, people familiar with the matter said, but the warrant they used didn't give them authority to search for matters related to Mrs. Clinton's email arrangement at the State Department. Mr. Weiner has denied sending explicit or indecent messages to the teenager.
As reported yesterday, it appears that there are potentially tens of thousands of Abedin linked emails on Weiner's computer:
In their initial review of the laptop, the metadata showed many messages, apparently in the thousands, that were either sent to or from the private email server at Mrs. Clinton's home that had been the focus of so much investigative effort for the FBI. Senior FBI officials decided to let the Weiner investigators proceed with a closer examination of the metadata on the computer, and report back to them.
The WSJ then connects the dots between how the Weiner emails were linked to the Clinton reopening of the Clinton probe, despite Loretta Lynch's and the DOJ's vocal urges not to do so :
At a meeting early last week of senior Justice Department and FBI officials, a member of the department’s senior national-security staff asked for an update on the Weiner laptop, the people familiar with the matter said. At that point, officials realized that no one had acted to obtain a warrant, these people said.
Mr. McCabe then instructed the email investigators to talk to the Weiner investigators and see whether the laptop’s contents could be relevant to the Clinton email probe, these people said. After the investigators spoke, the agents agreed it was potentially relevant.
Mr. Comey was given an update, decided to go forward with the case and notified Congress on Friday, with explosive results. Senior Justice Department officials had warned Mr. Comey that telling Congress would violate well-established policies against overt actions that could affect an election, and some within the FBI have been unhappy at Mr. Comey's repeated public statements on the probe, going back to his first press conference on the subject in July.
But wait it gets better.
Recall that this is the same Andrew Mcabe whose wife the Wall Street Journal reported last week received $467,500 in campaign funds in late 2015 from the political action committee of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime ally of the Clintons and, until he was elected governor in November 2013, a Clinton Foundation board member.
Mr. McAuliffe had supported Dr. McCabe in the hopes she and a handful of other Democrats might help win a majority in the state Senate, giving Mr. McAuliffe more sway in the state capitol. Dr. McCabe lost her race last November, and Democrats failed to win their majority.
FBI officials have said Mr. McCabe had no role in the Clinton email probe until he became deputy director, and there was no conflict of interest because by then his wife's campaign was over. Which brings us to the second big topic: the Clinton Foundation, and how the DOJ made sure that particular probe never made the light of day. At the same time as the Clinton server was being investigated, other Clinton-related investigations were under way within the FBI, and they have been the subject of internal debate for months.
Early this year, four FBI field offices—New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Little Rock, Ark.—were collecting information about the Clinton Foundation to see if there was evidence of financial crimes or influence-peddling, according to people familiar with the matter.
The WSJ touches on something fascinating: Los Angeles agents had picked up information about the Clinton Foundation from an unrelated public corruption case and had issued some subpoenas for bank records related to the foundation, these people said. So where did that trail go? Apparently nowhere.
The Washington field office was probing financial relationships involving Mr. McAuliffe before he became a Clinton Foundation board member, these people said. Mr. McAuliffe has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer has said the probe is focused on whether he failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity. The FBI field office in New York had done the most work on the Clinton Foundation case and received help from the FBI field office in Little Rock, the people familiar with the matter said.
In February, FBI officials made a presentation to the Justice Department, according to these people. By all accounts, the meeting didn't go well.
Some said that is because the FBI didn’t present compelling evidence to justify more aggressive pursuit of the Clinton Foundation, and that the career public integrity prosecutors in the room simply believed it wasn't a very strong case. Others said that from the start, the Justice Department officials were stern, icy and dismissive of the case.
"That was one of the weirdest meetings I've ever been to," one participant told others afterward, according to people familiar with the matter.
Needless to say, the probe into the Foundation faded.
But back to the Clinton probe, according to a person familiar with the probes, on Aug. 12, a senior Justice Department official called Mr. McCabe to voice his displeasure at finding that New York FBI agents were still openly pursuing the Clinton Foundation probe, despite the department's refusal to allow more aggressive investigative methods in the case. Mr. McCabe said agents still had the authority to pursue the issue as long as they didn’t use those methods.
At this point a question emerges: did McCabe seek to defend or press on with a Clinton probe: Mr. McCabe’s defenders in the agency said that following the call, he repeated the instruction that he had given earlier in the Clinton Foundation investigation: Agents were to keep pursuing the work within the authority they had.
Others further down the FBI chain of command, however, said agents were given a much starker instruction on the case: “Stand down.” When agents questioned why they weren’t allowed to take more aggressive steps, they said they were told the order had come from the deputy director—Mr. McCabe. Others familiar with the matter deny Mr. McCabe or any other senior FBI official gave such a stand-down instruction.
At this point the two probes, into Hillary's email and the Clinton Foundation converged:
For agents who already felt uneasy about FBI leadership’s handling of the Clinton Foundation case, the moment only deepened their concerns, these people said. For those who felt the probe hadn’t yet found significant evidence of criminal conduct, the leadership’s approach was the right response to the facts on the ground.
Things accelerated over the past two months, when in September, agents on the foundation case asked to see the emails contained on nongovernment laptops that had been searched as part of the Clinton email case, but that request was rejected by prosecutors at the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn. Those emails were given to the FBI based on grants of partial immunity and limited-use agreements, meaning agents could only use them for the purpose of investigating possible mishandling of classified information.
Some FBI agents were dissatisfied with that answer, and asked for permission to make a similar request to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. McCabe, these people said, told them no and added that they could not “go prosecutor-shopping."
Not long after that discussion, FBI agents informed the bureau’s leaders about the Weiner laptop, prompting Mr. Comey's disclosure to Congress and setting of the furor that promises to consume the final days of a tumultuous campaign
While much of the latest developments are known, or could have been inferred assuming more corruption within government agencies, the punchline is that the weeks if not months of upcoming work means that if Clinton wins the White House, she will likely do so amid at least one ongoing investigation into her inner circle being handled by law-enforcement officials who are deeply divided over how to manage such cases. It also means that Trump will be hounding Hilllary for the remainder of the campaign as being the only presidential candidate to seek election with a recently reopened criminal probe hanging over her head."
" Serco Processes 2 Millionth Patent Application for U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office Date: 18 Mar 2013 Serco Inc., a leading provider of professional, technology, and management services to the federal government, announced today that their Pre-Grant Publication (PGPubs) Classification Services team recently processed their 2 millionth patent application for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). Each application was also processed within the contractually required 28-day window."
"3.4.1 Federal Public Key Infrastructure Policy Authority (FPKIPA)
Any infrastructure which cuts across multiple agencies requires the cooperation of the affected agencies to make it work. The Federal PKI is no different. While agencies may run their own agency-specific PKI domains to serve their own agency-specific needs, interoperating with other agencies imposes unique requirements and obligations. The model of governance reflects the fact that the Federal PKI has evolved from the bottom up, from agencies adopting this technology to serve their specific needs rather than having its use prescribed for them. In 1996, the Federal PKI Steering Committee was formed under the Government Information Technology Services Board, co-chaired by OMB and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR). The Steering Committee, comprising over 50 members representing over two dozen agencies, has as its focus the promotion of interoperable PKI solutions, the development of common guidance, and the sharing of information so that agencies considering or deploying PKI solutions can benefit from those who have already done so. Participation in the Steering Committee is voluntary. Its activities are published at http://gits-sec.treas.gov ."
"1107. Murder-for-Hire—The Offense
The "murder-for-hire" statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1958, was enacted as part of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, Pub.L. 98-473, Ch. X, Part A (Oct. 12, 1984). Section 1958(a) provides:
Whoever travels in or causes another (including the intended victim) to travel in interstate or foreign commerce, or uses or causes another (including the intended victim) to use the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce, with intent that a murder be committed in violation of the laws of any State or the United States as consideration for the receipt of, or as consideration for a promise or agreement to pay anything of pecuniary value, or who conspires to do so [violates this statute].
… The maximum penalty for violating § 1958 varies with the severity of the conduct: a fine and/or ten years for any violation; a fine and/or twenty years if personal injury results; and a fine of not more than $250,000 and/or death or life imprisonment if death results. If the death penalty might be applicable, the United States Attorney's Office must comply with the guidelines at USAM 9-10.000 ."
"Super Serco bulldozes ahead
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER UPDATED: 23:00 GMT, 1 September 2004
SERCO has come a long way since the 1960s when it ran the 'four-minute warning' system to alert the nation to a ballistic missile attack.
Today its £10.3bn order book is bigger than many countries' defence budgets. It is bidding for a further £8bn worth of contracts and sees £16bn of 'opportunities'.
Profit growth is less ballistic. The first-half pre-tax surplus rose 4% to £28.1m, net profits just 1% to £18m. Stripping out goodwill, the rise was 17%, with dividends up 12.5% to 0.81p.
Serco runs the Docklands Light Railway, five UK prisons, airport radar and forest bulldozers in Florida."
" Serco farewell to NPL after 19 years of innovation 8 January 2015 Serco said goodbye to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at the end of December 2014 after 19 years of extraordinary innovation and science that has seen the establishment build a world-leading reputation and deliver billions of pounds of benefit for the UK economy. During that period under Serco 's management and leadership, NPL has delivered an extraordinary variety and breadth of accomplishments for the UK's economy and industry. Some of the key achievements during that time have been:… It has been estimated that work carried out by the Centre of Carbon Measurement at NPL will save eight million tonnes of carbon emissions reductions (2% of UK footprint) and over half a billion pounds in economic benefit over the next decade…. NPL's caesium fountain atomic clock is accurate to 1 second in 158 million years and NPL is playing a key role in introducing rigour to high frequency trading [for Serco 's front running banks] in the City through NPL [Zulu] Time."
"UK Cabinet Office – Emergency Planning College – Serco …..Types of Exercise Workshop Exercises These are structured discussion events where participants can explore issues in a less pressurised environment. They are an ideal way of developing solutions, procedures and plans rather than the focus being on decision making. Table Top Exercises These involve a realistic scenario and will follow a time line, either in real-time or with time jumps to concentrate on the more important areas. The participants would be expected to be familiar with the plans and procedures that are being used although the exercise tempo and complexity can be adjusted to suit the current state of training and readiness. Simulation and media play can be used to support the exercise. Table-top exercises help develop teamwork and allow participants to gain a better understanding of their roles and that of other agencies and organisations. Command/Control Post Exercises These are designed primarily to exercise the senior leadership and support staff in collective planning and decision making within a strategic grouping. Ideally such exercises would be run from the real command and control locations and using their communications and information systems [Feeling lucky, Punk?] . This could include a mix of locations and varying levels of technical simulation support. The Gold Standard system is flexible to allow the tempo and intensity to be adjusted to ensure maximum training benefit, or to fully test and evaluate the most important aspects of a plan. Such exercises also test information flow, communications, equipment, procedures, decision making and coordination. Live Exercises These can range from testing individual components of a system or organisation through to a full-scale rehearsal. They are particularly useful where there are regulatory requirements or with high-risk situations. They are more complex and costly to organise and deliver but can be integrated with Command Post Exercises as part of a wider exercising package."
"Christopher Rajendran Hyman CBE (born 5 July 1963 in Durban, South Africa)[1] was Chief Executive of Serco Group plc from 2002 to October 2013.[2] … On graduation, he worked for Arthur Andersen. In 1989, he won an 18-month exchange with Ernst & Young in London, who employed him after four months.[1] Head hunted in 1994 by Serco , Hyman became European finance director, and in 1999 was made group finance director. In 2002, Hyman became chief executive. .. Hyman resigned from his role of Chief Executive of Serco on 25 October 2013 following allegations that Serco had overcharged government customers. .. He was [making a presentation to Serco shareholder, including British and Saudi governments] on the 47th floor of the World Trade Center [North Tower] at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001."
"Serco's Office of Partner Relations (OPR) helps facilitate our aggressive small business utilization and growth strategies. Through the OPR, Serco mentors four local small businesses under formal Mentor Protégé Agreements: Three sponsored by DHS (Base One Technologies, TSymmetry, Inc., and HeiTech Services, Inc.,) and the fourth sponsored by GSA (DKW Communications, Inc.). Serco and HeiTech Services were awarded the 2007 DHS Mentor Protégé Team Award for exceeding our mentoring goals."
"Base One Technologies, Ltd. is a DOMESTIC BUSINESS CORPORATION, located in New York, NY and was formed on Feb 15, 1994. This file was obtained from the Secretary of State and has a file number of 1795583. "
"Base One Technologies – Corporate Strategy – We are a Government Certified Women-Owned Business
We practice Diversity [Pride] Recruitment and Staffing for IT positions .. We are also partnered with firms that are 8A certified as Minority firms, Disabled Veteran firms, Native American firms, Vietnam veteran firms, women owned firms. .. Information Security Planning is the process whereby an organization seeks to protect its operations and assets from data theft or computer hackers that seek to obtain unauthorized information or sabotage business operations. Key Clients Benefiting From Our Information Security Expertise: Pentagon Renovation Program, FAA, Citigroup [Federal Bridge] , MCI. .. Base One Technologies … Develops, implements and supports Information Security Counter measures such as honey-pots and evidence logging and incident documentation processes and solutions."
"Opened in 1994 as the successor to the Transitional Immigrant Visa Processing Center in Rosslyn, Va., the NVC centralizes all immigrant visa pre-processing and appointment scheduling for overseas posts. The NVC collects paperwork and fees before forwarding a case, ready for adjudication, to the responsible post.
The center also handles immigrant and fiancé visa petitions, and while it does not adjudicate visa applications, it provides technical assistance and support to visa-adjudicating consular officials overseas.
Only two Foreign Service officers, the director and deputy director, work at the center, along with just five Civil Service employees. They work with almost 500 contract employees doing preprocessing of visas, making the center one of the largest employers in the Portsmouth area.
The contractor, Serco , Inc., has worked with the NVC since its inception and with the Department for almost 18 years.
The NVC houses more than 2.6 million immigrant visa files, receives almost two million pieces of mail per year and received more than half a million petitions from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in 2011. Its file rooms' high-density shelves are stacked floor-to-ceiling with files, each a collection of someone’s hopes and dreams and each requiring proper handling. ….
The NVC also preprocesses the chief of mission (COM) application required for the filing of a petition for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). Such visas, for foreign nationals who have performed services for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan, require COM concurrence before the applicant can file a petition with USCIS. The NVC collects the requisite documents from such applicants and, when complete, forwards the package to the U.S. embassies in Baghdad or Kabul for COM approval"
Yours sincerely,
Field McConnell, United States Naval Academy, 1971; Forensic Economist; 30 year airline and 22 year military pilot; 23,000 hours of safety; Tel: 715 307 8222
David Hawkins Tel: 604 542-0891 Forensic Economist; former leader of oil-well blow-out teams; now sponsors Grand Juries in CSI Crime and Safety Investigation | 0 |
President Donald Trump met with a group of conservative media reporters, columnists, and radio hosts to discuss his first 100 days as president, speaking about trade issues, foreign policy, and infrastructure spending. [Representatives from Breitbart News were present for the event. The event was billed as a reception, as White House aides and members of the press office mingled with about individuals from conservative media outlets to discuss Trump’s first 100 days and issues of importance. But the event turned into an impromptu press conference after the president entered the room flanked by senior advisers Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and Jared Kushner. At one point economic advisor Gary Cohn peered in the door to view the event. White House press secretary Sean Spicer was also present, as Trump held a discussion, which the White House press staff put on the record afterwards. Conservative journalists asked Trump policy questions — particularly about trade foreign affairs in North Korea, Iran, and Syria and social policy. Trump announced that he wanted to levy a 20 percent tax on Canadian soft lumber and suggested he wanted to address milk imports as well. “It means we’re going to start doing lumber in our country, it’s going to mean that farmers are going to start selling milk in our country,” Trump said. A senior administration trade official said that the issue was a “long simmering problem” with Canada, accusing them of charging lumber companies low subsidized rates. “We love Canada, wonderful people, wonderful country, but they have been very good about taking advantage of us through NAFTA,” Trump said. Trump said that he would explore allowing more logging on federal lands with the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency. “We’re actually having some of those horrific fires because this stuff is sitting there, virgin stuff for so long, and it’s in very bad shape,” he said. Trump seemed to think that Syrian dictator Bashar would not use chemical weapons again. “Wait and see if he uses them again, OK?” he said, adding that the Obama administration was wrong about Syria getting rid of their chemical weapons. “That turned out to be false,” he said. “They duped the Obama administration. ” Trump continued to highlight the problems with North Korea but remained elusive about what he was planning to do in the country. He mused that North Korea’s dictator Kim was probably not as strong militarily as he appeared. “I’m not so sure he’s so strong like he says he is I’m not so sure at all,” he said. Trump criticized modern presidents for not acting decisively on the North Korea threat. “This should have been done by Obama and it should have been done by every president since, really, Clinton,” he said, referring to the former president’s memoirs. He also discussed the ongoing crisis of persecuted Christians in the Middle East. “Nobody’s been treated worse, it seems to me, than Christians in the Middle East,” he said, arguing that it was easier for Muslims to come into the United States as refugees than Christians, although it was far more dangerous there for Christians. “We’re going to be helping the Christians big league,” he said. Trump defended his plan to spend big on infrastructure, pointing out that the United States spent $6 trillion in the Middle East with little to show for it. “I tell you what we got, it’s 20 times worse than it first was when we first started bombing the hell out of Iraq,” he said. “Iraq was thrown in the hornets nest and it’s a disaster, far worse than anybody understands. ” Trump said he wanted to spend $1 trillion on building new infrastructure and repairing existing infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, and airports. When asked if he still believed DACA was illegal, Trump demurred, instead focusing on his efforts to crack down on gang members. “We’re getting rid of people, and people in towns, they’re cheering. These are rough people,” Trump said, saying that DHS Secretary Gen. John Kelly called members as bad as . “We have people that came into this country that should have never ever in a million years been allowed into this country. ” | 1 |
England’s Football Association, which remained largely silent for almost two weeks as former players came forward with accusations of sexual abuse by coaches in the country’s soccer development system, announced Sunday that it was broadening an internal investigation into the claims. The F. A. the governing body for soccer across England, said it had appointed Kate Gallafent, a lawyer with experience in sexual abuse cases, to oversee the internal investigation, which had not been revealed before. The F. A. also said it was working closely with the police in pursuing the claims. At least six former players have said publicly that they were molested as boys in the youth programs, and the head of the English soccer players’ union said Sunday that nearly two dozen more former players had come forward privately. Until now, the F. A. had made little public comment on the revelations other than to say it had set up a telephone help line for victims of abuse. “The internal review will look into what information the F. A. was aware of at the relevant times around the issues that have been raised in the press, what clubs were aware of, and what action was or should have been taken,” the association said in a statement Sunday. The scandal has grown out of an interview with Andy Woodward, a former player with the Crewe Alexandra, that was published by The Guardian on Nov. 16. In the article, Woodward said he had been sexually abused by Barry Bennell, who has been convicted of sexual abuse charges in both Britain and the United States. Bennell worked as a scout and coach for a number of clubs, including Crewe, across England’s North West during the 1980s. Woodward, now 43, said the abuse began when he was 11 and was invited to stay at Bennell’s house. He said Bennell had silenced him during the years of abuse with threats of further violence and of undermining his prospective soccer career. Woodward said that Crewe had failed in its “duty to protect” those children under its care. Four more former players have since said that they had been victims of Bennell. Steve Walters, another former Crewe player, said that reading Woodward’s account had persuaded him to reveal that he had been abused for a year, until he was 14. David White, who would go on to the English national team, and Jason Dunford both recounted abuse, or attempted abuse, while playing for a junior team in Manchester called Whitehill that was run by Bennell. A fourth former player, Ian Ackley, said he had been raped “hundreds of times” while playing amateur soccer in Derbyshire. The allegations against coaches have spread beyond Bennell. Paul Stewart, who played for Liverpool and England, said he had been abused by another coach for four years. And on Sunday, Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, the players’ union, told the BBC that as many as 20 players have come forward with information. Many, he said, have chosen to remain anonymous for now. At least four police forces across the country — in Northumbria, Hampshire and Cheshire as well as the Metropolitan Police in London — have announced that they are conducting inquiries into sexual offenses in soccer clubs. Various clubs, including Manchester City, Newcastle United, Blackpool and Leeds United, have said they will cooperate with any inquiries. Crewe’s initial response to Woodward’s claims was to offer no comment. The club’s longstanding technical director, Dario Gradi, who worked with Bennell, said he had been instructed by his superiors not to discuss the issue. Only after a former director, Hamilton Smith, revealed Thursday that he had informed the club of his concerns about Bennell at the time did Crewe announce that it planned to set up an internal investigation to determine what, if anything, the club had known during the period when Bennell was accused of abusing young players. Bennell worked with Crewe until 1992. He was arrested two years later while working in Florida, and he was convicted of raping a British boy at a soccer camp there. After his conviction in the United States, Bennell was deported to England and convicted, in 1998, on charges dating from 1978 to 1992, with another 22 charges left on file. He was jailed for nine years. In May 2015, Bennell was ordered to serve two more years for sexual offenses against a boy that the authorities said dated to 1980. In its statement on Sunday, the F. A. said it had begun its investigation “with acknowledgment that a inquiry may be required in time. ” The accusations of abusing children echo those against other authority figures connected to powerful institutions, including Roman Catholic priests, coaches in U. S. A. Swimming and Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State. Woodward has suggested that Bennell’s case could prove similar to that of Jimmy Savile, a British television personality who was found, after his death in 2011, to have committed many sexual crimes during a career that lasted decades. A investigation of that case concluded, in a scathing report, that Savile’s employers at the BBC had done little to stop his abuse of minors despite a history of complaints against him. | 1 |
2016 US Presidential Election ( 45 ) 0 14 0 0 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed he will have spent more than $100 million of his own money on his candidacy by Election Day, US media reported.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — According to the candidates’ latest filings with the US Federal Election Commission, through September 30 Trump personally has contributed $56.1 million to his own campaign. During the same period Clinton has given $1.3 million to her campaign. © REUTERS/ Carlos Barria Clinton Claims US Voters to Reject Trump's ‘Divisive Vision of America’ "I'll have over $100 million in the campaign, and I'm prepared to go much more than that," Trump told CNN after a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday for his new hotel in Washington, DC. "Hillary Clinton has nothing in the campaign. She's all special interests and donors, and they give her the money then she will do whatever they tell her to do."
Trump declined to give details when asked to specify how much he will spend between now and Election Day, November 8. ... | 0 |
Before I ever tucked into a dish of potted shrimp, I’d always imagined it to be the kind of thing a British vicar might be offered when he stopped to call on a pair of elderly sisters for tea. Wholesome and nourishing, but not at all sexy. My first taste, at a seafood restaurant in London, threw that idea on its head. The tiny pink shrimp were succulent and plump, bursting with brininess. Even better, they were coated in golden butter — not melted, but semifirm at room temperature — which turned velvety when plopped on the hot toast served alongside. From my American perspective, it was a bit like a lobster roll, but with even more of a textural contrast between the crunchy brown toast and the tender shrimp. Historically, shrimp, as well as other seafood and meats, were potted as a way to preserve them. The cooked shrimp were put into crocks or ramekins and covered in spiced, clarified butter, which sealed them from contact with air. Back at home, I set out to recreate the dish, but with a few changes. The most necessary one was the shrimp itself. In Britain, potted shrimp is made from small brown shrimp, an intensely saline local delicacy that we can’t get here. Sweet Maine shrimp would make an excellent substitute were it not for the fact that the fishing season was canceled this winter because of diminished stocks, resulting from rising ocean temperatures. I used wild shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico and cut them into pieces, which worked well. Use the best quality shrimp you can get. Next, I increased the spices in the butter. Traditionally, a bit of mace, a hint of pepper and a trace of anchovy suffice. In my recipe, I use all three, along with cayenne, garlic and thyme. I also added a pinch of celery seed, inspired by lobster rolls. With modern refrigeration, you no longer need to clarify butter, which removes its water content, to improve its preserving abilities. And so you may think you can skip that step here. You can, but you shouldn’t. With its smooth, satiny texture, the clarified butter cap is an elegant contrast to the soft shrimp below. Potted shrimp is an extremely rich dish — think of it like a shrimp pâté — so serve small portions as an appetizer either before a light meal, or with a big salad as your meal. Or tap into your inner vicar, and have it with tea. Recipe: Spiced Potted Shrimp | 1 |
NTEB Ads Privacy Policy LET THE HEATHEN RAGE: Anti-Trump Protesters Reveal Their Hatred Towards America And Liberty Anti-Trump Demonstrators with signs reading "Not my president!" clogged streets in New York City on Saturday during a fourth day of anti-Trump protests nationwide, a day after a person was shot during a protest in Portland, Oregon. by Geoffrey Grider November 13, 2016 These anti-Trump protesters that are clogging city streets at this very moment hate America, hate what this nation stands for, and seek to destroy it and us
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Psalm 2:1 (KJV)
After being denied victory on Election Night , the anti-Trump liberal Democrats, in cities across America, have decided that they best way they can show their “love” for Americans and freedom is by working to destroy both them and it. In so doing, they have revealed their true nature. They are not just upset over losing, they have decided that if they cannot rule no one will. That is the spirit of Antichrist.
Demonstrators with signs reading “Not my president!” clogged streets in New York City on Saturday during a fourth day of anti-Trump protests nationwide, a day after a person was shot during a protest in Portland, Oregon. Can You IDME? Riot Vandalism & Assault Suspect https://t.co/QJ4kiAHyzd #CanYouIDME pic.twitter.com/zBQBkuxzxW
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 12, 2016
Two 18-year-old men detained early Saturday were arrested later in the day in connection to the shooting on Portland’s Morrison Bridge, which occurred after 1 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) Saturday, police said. It was unclear whether the shooting was politically motivated.
“Preliminary information indicates that a suspect was in a vehicle on the bridge and there was a confrontation with someone in the protest,” Portland police said in a statement. “The suspect got out of the vehicle and fired multiple shots injuring the victim.” The victim is expected to survive, police said. “We are the popular vote” chant protesters. @msnbc pic.twitter.com/AmDyCTIfCz
— Morgan Radford (@MorganRadford) November 12, 2016
Now, in the interest of full disclosure , when the Kenyan-born and Muslim-raised Barack Hussein Obama was elected, I declared he would “never be my president”. And for the entire time of his presidency I wrote over 1,300 articles exposing him and his Marxist plan for America. Let this website be my witness to that. This is how I exercised my Constitutional right to free speech. But at no time did I ever protest in the streets, ever threaten another human being, and I never used the global platform of NTEB to ever call for physical violence of any kind ever.
Why not?
Because though I despised the anti-American president Obama, I still loved America and the ideals she stood for. I saw myself as a patriot in exile, but still teared up every time I heard the National Anthem or read about a soldier’s heroic sacrifice on a foreign battlefield. These anti-Trump protesters that are clogging city streets at this very moment hate America, hate what this nation stands for, and seek to destroy it and us. They preach “love” while they shoot innocent people in the streets, they demand “tolerance” while offering none. They accuse Trump of having a “dark vision” for America while carrying out despotic deeds of darkness no Trump supporter would ever even dream of. Whitney Houston – Star Spangled Banner
The United States Constitution allows you to burn the flag if that is how you choose to express yourself, and I accept that. But if that is how you choose to express yourself, you reveal your true nature and spirit. You who are now rioting in the street by permission of the very country you hold in contempt are depraved in both mind and spirit. You are not “protesting Donald Trump”, you are seeking to hurt, to maim and to destroy. That’s satanic. You are nothing more than a herpes blister on the beautiful mouth of Lady Liberty .
Now please, before someone gets killed , get in an orderly line and move north to Canada like you promised you would.
It’s time to make America great again , and we don’t need you to do it.
Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING | 0 |
WASHINGTON — President Trump, flanked by company executives and miners, signed a executive order on Tuesday to nullify President Barack Obama’s climate change efforts and revive the coal industry, effectively ceding American leadership in the international campaign to curb the dangerous heating of the planet. Mr. Trump made clear that the United States had no intention of meeting the commitments that his predecessor had made to curb carbon dioxide pollution, turning denials of climate change into national policy. At a ceremony, Mr. Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to start the complex and lengthy legal process of withdrawing and rewriting the Clean Power Plan, which would have closed hundreds of power plants, frozen construction of new plants and replaced them with vast new wind and solar farms. “C’mon, fellas. You know what this is? You know what this says?” Mr. Trump said to the miners. “You’re going back to work. ” Throughout the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump vowed to roll back Mr. Obama’s major climate change policies, a set of ambitious E. P. A. regulations to curb greenhouse pollution from power plants. He made clear that American leadership in the global campaign against climate change would take a back seat to his commitment to energy industry jobs. With his order to move forward with the rollback, climate diplomats around the world maneuvered to fill the vacuum left by the exit of the globe’s climate polluter. “There are countless countries ready to step up and deliver on their climate promises and take advantages of Mr. Trump’s to reap the benefits of the transition to the economy,” said Laurence Tubiana, the chief French negotiator of the 2015 Paris agreement, the landmark accord that committed nearly every country to take action to reduce emissions. Over all, the goal of the Paris deal is to keep the planet from warming more than 3. 6 degrees, the point at which scientists say the earth will be irrevocably locked into a future of severe droughts, floods, rising sea levels and food shortages. Mr. Obama pledged that the United States would cut its emissions about 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Carrying out the Clean Power Plan was essential to meeting that target. “This is not the time for any country to change course on the very serious and very real threat of climate change,” said Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program. “The science tells us that we need bolder, more ambitious commitments. ” Mr. Trump has not yet decided whether to formally withdraw from the Paris agreement. But by rolling back the policies needed to meet American commitments, the United States essentially announced that it would not comply, whether the nation remains a signatory or not, experts said. “One of the greatest concerns is what other key countries, including China, India and Brazil, will do when the U. S. reneges on the Paris agreement,” said Robert Stavins, a professor of environmental economics at Harvard, mentioning some of the world’s other largest carbon dioxide polluters. “The scenario is that the Paris agreement will unravel,” Mr. Stavins said. “That would be a great tragedy. ” Diplomats from some of the world’s other major economies say they intend to continue carrying out their climate change agreements, with or without the United States. But the Trump administration’s moves are likely to embolden opponents of climate action around the world. At the heart of the Paris accord was a breakthrough 2014 agreement between Mr. Obama and China’s president, Xi Jinping, in which the leaders of the world’s two largest polluting countries agreed to enact policies to cut their emissions. At the time, Mr. Obama offered the Clean Power Plan as evidence that the United States would meet its target. Their deal was seen as the catalyst to bring other countries to the table to forge the Paris pact. If Mr. Trump reneges on his predecessor’s commitment, it could further fray a relationship that has become more tenuous since his election. “Getting to that point was not easy,” said Kelly Sims Gallagher, an expert on Chinese environmental policy at Tufts University who helped broker the climate talks. “This undoes many years of work building up trust that the U. S. will honor the commitments it makes at the presidential level. ” Mr. Trump is tentatively scheduled to meet with Mr. Xi next week at his Florida estate. Mr. Xi has signaled that he is prepared to move forward with his Paris pledge that China’s emissions will drop by or before 2030. Speaking at the Davos economic summit meeting in January, Mr. Xi said, “All signatories should stick to it instead of walking away from it, as this is a responsibility we must assume for future generations. ” But experts say that without action from the United States, China’s efforts to curb emissions may slow. “It may empower business and political interests within China that still opposed climate action,” said Alex L. Wang, a legal scholar of Chinese environmental policies at the University of California, Los Angeles. The same dynamic could play out in India, the world’s carbon dioxide polluter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked closely with Mr. Obama on climate change policies, but he did so against internal domestic pressures to prioritize economic development — including the provision of cheap electricity to India’s rural poor. Mr. Trump spoke with Mr. Modi by telephone on Tuesday, but aides declined to say if they discussed climate change. Harsh V. Pant, a research fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank in New Delhi, said Mr. Trump’s order would give the Indian government political space to delay some of its climate commitments. “It will slow down a little bit,” he said. Still, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump’s orders will fully vanquish Mr. Obama’s climate change legacy. Legal experts say it could take years for the E. P. A. administrator to carry out the process of withdrawing and revising the climate change regulations, and the process will be hit by legal challenges at every turn. A coalition of states, including New York and California, has already vowed to fight Mr. Trump. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York said he was preparing to challenge any effort to do away with regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. Such a move, he argued, violated the Clean Air Act, as well as established case law. “If they want to go back into the process, we believe they are compelled under law to come up with something close to the Clean Power Plan,” he said. “They probably don’t want to hear this again,” he said, “but if they want to repeal, they have to replace. ” | 1 |
Nearly half a century ago, archaeologists found a charred ancient scroll in the ark of a synagogue on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The lump of carbonized parchment could not be opened or read. Its curators did nothing but conserve it, hoping that new technology might one day emerge to make the scroll legible. Just such a technology has now been perfected by computer scientists at the University of Kentucky. Working with biblical scholars in Jerusalem, they have used a computer to unfurl a digital image of the scroll. It turns out to hold a fragment identical to the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible and, at nearly 2, 000 years old, is the earliest instance of the text. The writing retrieved by the computer from the digital image of the unopened scroll is amazingly clear and legible, in contrast to the scroll’s blackened and exterior. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think anything would come of it,” said Pnina Shor, the head of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority. Scholars say this remarkable new technique may make it possible to read other scrolls too brittle to be unrolled. The scroll’s content, the first two chapters of the Book of Leviticus, has consonants — early Hebrew texts didn’t specify vowels — that are identical to those of the Masoretic text, the authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible and the one often used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles. The Dead Sea scrolls, those found at Qumran and elsewhere around the Dead Sea, contain versions quite similar to the Masoretic text but with many small differences. The text in the scroll found at the excavation site in Israel decades ago has none, according to Emanuel Tov, an expert on the Dead Sea scrolls at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “We have never found something as striking as this,” Dr. Tov said. “This is the earliest evidence of the exact form of the medieval text,” he said, referring to the Masoretic text. The experts say this new method may make it possible to read other ancient scrolls, including several Dead Sea scrolls and about 300 carbonized ones from Herculaneum, which were destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A. D. 79. The date of the scroll is the subject of conflicting evidence. A measurement indicates that the scroll was copied around A. D. 300. But the style of the ancient script suggests a date nearer to A. D. 100. “We may safely date this scroll” to between A. D. 50 and 100, wrote Ada Yardeni, an expert on Hebrew paleography, in an article in the journal Textus. Dr. Tov said he was “inclined toward a date, based on paleography. ” The feat of recovering the text was made possible by software programs developed by W. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky. Inspired by the hope of reading the many charred and unopenable scrolls found at Herculaneum, near Pompeii in Italy, Dr. Seales has been working for the last 13 years on ways to read the text inside an ancient scroll. Methods like CT scans can pick out blobs of ink inside a charred scroll, but the jumble of letters is unreadable unless each letter can be assigned to the surface on which it is written. Dr. Seales realized that the writing surface of the scroll had first to be reconstructed and the letters then stuck back to it. He succeeded in 2009 in working out the physical structure of the ruffled layers of papyrus in a Herculaneum scroll. He has since developed a method, called virtual unwrapping, to model the surface of an ancient scroll in the form of a mesh of tiny triangles. Each triangle can be resized by the computer until the virtual surface makes the best fit to the internal structure of the scroll, as revealed by the scanning method. The blobs of ink are assigned to their right place on the structure, and the computer then unfolds the whole structure into a sheet. The suite of software programs, called Volume Cartography, will become open source when Dr. Seales’s current government grant ends, he said. The scroll was brought to Dr. Seales’s attention by Dr. Shor. A colleague, Sefi Porat, who had helped excavate the synagogue in 1970, was preparing a final publication of the findings. He asked Dr. Shor to scan the scroll and other artifacts as part of a project to create images of all Dead Sea scroll material, and showed her a box full of lumps of charcoal. “I said, ‘There is nothing we can do because our system isn’t geared toward these chunks,’ ” she said. But because she was submitting other objects for a scan, she put one of the lumps in with other items. Dr. Shor had the lump scanned by a commercially available, based, tomography machine, of the kind used for scanning of biological tissues. Knowing of Dr. Seales’s work, she sent him the scan and asked him to analyze it. Both were surprised when, after several refinements, an image emerged with clear and legible script. “We were amazed at the quality of the images — much of the text is as readable as that of unharmed Dead Sea scrolls,” said Michael Segal, a biblical scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who helped analyze the text. The surviving content of the scroll, the first two chapters of Leviticus, is part of a listing of the various sacrifices that were performed in biblical times at the temple in Jerusalem. Although some text has previously been identified in ancient artifacts, “the manuscript represents the first severely damaged, scroll to be unrolled and identified noninvasively,” Dr. Seales and his colleagues write in the journal Science Advances. Richard Janko, a classical scholar at the University of Michigan, said the carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum were a small section of a much larger library at a grand villa probably owned by Julius Caesar’s Lucius Calpurnius Piso. Much of the villa is still unexcavated, and its library could contain works of Latin and Greek literature. Successful reading of even a single scroll from Herculaneum with Dr. Seales’s method would spur excavation of the rest of Piso’s villa, Dr. Janko said. Both Dr. Tov and Dr. Segal said that scholars might come to consider the manuscript as a Dead Sea scroll, especially if the early date indicated by paleography is confirmed. “It doesn’t tell us what was the original text, only that the Masoretic text is a very ancient text in all of its details,” Dr. Segal said. “And we now have evidence that this text was being used from a very early date by Jews in the land of Israel. ” | 1 |
6 Things That Happen In Every Jane Austen Story Ever Posted today Email Jane, we love ya, but maybe mix it up a little!
1. Someone named Bullfinch comes back from vacation: If, in the middle of a tense dinner party between members of rival agrarian families, a man suddenly bursts through the wall wearing a Hawaiian shirt and carrying luggage, and someone in the back of the room shouts, “Hot damn! Bullfinch is back from vacation!” then you can be sure that you’re reading a Jane Austen novel.
2. One chapter briefly digresses from the main storyline to describe a clever, bonnet-wearing mule: Literary scholars attribute Austen’s obsession with bonnet-wearing mules to the fact that whenever a publisher would pay Austen for her work, such an animal would immediately knock her down and eat all her money. Savvy readers know just to skip these chapters!
3. Yorkshire County lifts up and moves itself a few inches further into the North Sea to try and crush skinny-dippers: Some say that, had Austen written another two novels, all the land of Yorkshire would’ve finally flattened the naked swimmers it’d always lusted to suffocate.
4. Characters spend the entirety of a picnic trying to remember the word “picnic”: SISTER 1: I do believe the proper nomenclature is “dirt supper.”SISTER 2: Nonsense! Mother insists it is called a “scoundrel’s meal.”SISTER 3: Now, now, let us not be uncomely. I happen to know, as a matter of fact, that it is called a “porknock.” Every. Damn. Book!
5. Abraham Lincoln always shows up at the main character’s home and asks to use the toilet: Did they even have toilets back then?!? Whether it’s Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park , Sense And Sensibility or Persuasion , there’s always that part where Honest Abe is standing at the front door, holding his top hat over his crotch region and politely asking if he can “make disgrace” in the family commode.
6. The local butcher tries to insert himself into any love triangle that will have him: This Austen staple was first seen in Pride And Prejudice , where Brigsby the Butcher sheepishly presents Fitzwilliam Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, and Anne de Bourgh with a sack full of raw ribeye and quietly begs them to break his heart too. If you’ve read any other Austen novel, you know the scorned butcher is as essential to her writing as the setting of Victorian England. | 0 |
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The Times made a reference on Thursday to the suffering of millions of Yemenis using the phrase "the forgotten war".
An18-year-old Yemeni girl's image catches the attention on the front page of the newspaper. Her malnutrition reduced her to a skeleton and she has disturbingly become emaciated as a result of food shortage.
This newspaper reported that Saida has been hospitalized in the port city of Hodeidah because of malnutrition while the city is under economic siege of Saudi Arabia. | 0 |
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s good to be Google. Sometimes it’s just plain great. Revenue regularly increases at a clip rarely achieved by firms of its size. The same goes for profits. Seven of its products have over a billion users, a scale unimaginable in the predigital era. A reorganization last year into a holding company called Alphabet, accompanied by some related personnel moves, was unexpected but generally applauded. Investors and analysts see little in the short term to disrupt this happy state of affairs, which has pushed Alphabet’s value to more than $500 billion. Those sentiments were confirmed in its earnings report, released Thursday after the market closed. It was even better than the rosy forecasts. Revenue rose to $21. 5 billion, about $750 million more than analysts were predicting and a 21 percent jump from a year earlier. Earnings per share after excluding certain items was $8. 42, or 39 cents more than forecasts. Last year, it was $6. 99. Celebration ensued. Alphabet’s shares, which drifted sideways during regular trading, immediately rose 4 percent after hours. In some ways, the quarter was the mirror image of the previous quarter, which was good but not as great as analysts hoped. That knocked the stock back and induced some — never far below the surface with even the best and most successful internet companies — that Google’s days of dominance in search and advertising might be on the verge of starting to wane. No such worries were on display on Thursday as executives talked to analysts. Google rose to fame and fortune on desktop searches, but the health of the company is now reflected in its presence on people’s phones, not only with advertising but also with its Android operating system. “The strength of the quarter is about mobile,” said Sundar Pichai, chief executive of the Google division where most of the company’s revenue and profits are made. “It’s transformed the way that people consume information, and Google’s products have become a central and part of their experience. ” Last fall, Google revamped its ad formats and delivery, which have been powering the increase in revenue. The number of paid clicks in the second quarter increased 29 percent from last year, the same rate as in the first quarter. Aggregate cost per click fell 9 percent from 2015, the same drop as in the first quarter. Mr. Pichai’s lengthy prepared remarks took a perspective, focusing on the importance of machine learning — software that adjusts to the user’s experience. It will be, he promised, the source of the next great innovations after the switch to mobile runs its course. He also made a reference to the latest game craze, Pokémon Go, “which I suspect a few of you are playing right now. ” Google had spun off Pokémon Go’s developer, Niantic, last year. The biggest complaint some shareholders can come up with is that Alphabet’s moonshots — things like cars and delivering goods by drone — are still in the early stages. Revenue for these “other bets” was $185 million, driven largely by Google Fiber the thermostat company, Nest and Verily, a life sciences company. Alphabet said it lost $859 million on “other bets” in the second quarter, more than the $660 million loss a year ago. Alphabet does not break down how many employees work at the moonshots, but in general the company’s head count is rising almost as fast as its revenue. More than 66, 000 people now work at the company, up nearly 17 percent over the last year. Some analysts predict that Google will sooner or later need innovation closer to home than its moonshots, somewhat in the mode of the ceaselessly inventive Amazon or Apple. “Amazon took their retailing platform and built a stream of web services. Apple is increasingly talking about money from services, not just hardware,” said Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Google needs things that expand beyond advertising to give it greater breadth. ” A more immediate problem could be European regulators, who unveiled another round of charges against the company earlier this month. The accusations involve Google abusing its dominance in search, advertising and Android. Google disputes the charges. Google could eventually be forced to pay fines. It would not miss the money but if the cases succeed in distracting the company and tempering its innovations, that could be a real problem for management and ultimately shareholders. On Thursday, no one seemed unduly worried about this possibility. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act faced an uncertain fate on Wednesday as conservative Republicans pushed to eliminate federal requirements that health insurance plans provide certain benefits to consumers. House Republican leaders met with members of their party late into the night on Wednesday as they struggled to muster support for the bill, scheduled for a vote on the House floor on Thursday. President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, worked through the day to placate conservative House Republicans who said that the bill did not do enough to lower health insurance costs by reducing federal regulations. The legislation would roll back major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, a significantpillar of President Barack Obama’s legacy. But in trying to satisfy conservatives, the Trump administration and House Republican leaders risked jeopardizing support for the bill among more moderate Republicans. On the eve of the crucial vote, party leaders appeared to be short of a majority and were working into the night to whip their members into line. Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, expressed optimism on Wednesday night that talks with Republican leaders would lead to revisions to the bill. “We’re encouraged tonight, just based on the real willingness of not only the White House, but our leadership, to make this bill better,” Mr. Meadows said, crediting the personal involvement of Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence. But Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania and a leader of a moderate bloc of lawmakers known as the Tuesday Group, said late Wednesday night that he would oppose the bill. “I believe this bill, in its current form, will lead to the loss of coverage and make insurance unaffordable for too many Americans, particularly for income and older individuals,” Mr. Dent said. And the powerful conservative network funded by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch issued a direct challenge to the president and said that it would provide financial support to members who voted against the plan. “We will stand with lawmakers who keep their promise and oppose this legislation,” said James Davis, executive vice president of Freedom Partners, the umbrella organization responsible for the Koch brothers’ political efforts. About two dozen conservative Republicans, including Freedom Caucus members, met Wednesday with top administration officials, including Mr. Pence and Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump. “I don’t think they changed any minds,” Representative Randy Weber, Republican of Texas, said after the meeting. The tenacity and persistence of the conservatives appeared to give them outsize influence as Mr. Ryan struggled to round up votes for the repeal bill, which faces solid opposition from House Democrats. Supporters of their bill have put their faith in Mr. Trump, whose young presidency could be badly damaged by a public and consequential loss. “When the president calls someone and says, ‘I need your vote on this,’ it’s very hard to say no to the president of the United States when this torpedoes our entire conference, Trump’s entire presidency, and we end up losing the Senate next year and we lose members in the House,” said Representative Chris Collins, Republican of New York and a top Trump supporter in the House. But conservative opposition was over substance, not politics. Conservatives are upset over the failure of the House bill to repeal a set of regulations in Mr. Obama’s signature health law, which require insurers to cover a base set of benefits, like maternity care, preventive services, wellness checkups and rehabilitative services. These “essential health benefits” raise the cost of insurance and prevent companies from offering options, the conservatives say. “How can you talk about repealing the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, without repealing the essential health benefits?” asked Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican who attended the meeting with Mr. Pence. Republican leaders say that if the House makes such changes to the bill, it could imperil their ability to push the legislation through the Senate using expedited procedures that neutralize the threat of a filibuster. Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, likened the swirling cloud of uncertainty to the situation in November 2003, when the House approved a bill adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare after a vote that lasted nearly three hours in the middle of the night. The bill passed, 220 to 215, after House Republican leaders put down a conservative rebellion. “It’s tough to pass controversial things, especially when Republicans have different ideas,” Mr. Simpson said. Eventually, he predicted, House leaders will get the votes they need, though they may need to tweak the repeal bill. Representative Scott DesJarlais, Republican of Tennessee, said the administration tried to sell the House bill, known as the American Health Care Act, by arguing that it could be improved later in the Senate. But House members rarely relish handing their political fate to the other chamber. “I am more skeptical,” Mr. DesJarlais said. “I like to see what I’m going to get when I vote for it, not promises that I get later. ” Asked if supporters of the bill had the votes to pass it in the House, Mr. DesJarlais said, “I don’t think they do. ” A spokeswoman for the Freedom Caucus, Alyssa Farah, said that more than 25 members of the caucus were “no” votes on the health care measure — enough to sink the bill in the House, though that count could not be independently verified. Representative Andy Harris, Republican of Maryland, said that despite recent changes to the health care bill, he was unable to vote for it. “This legislation simply won’t lower premiums as much as the American people need, and lowering the cost of coverage is my primary goal,” said Mr. Harris, an anesthesiologist and member of the Freedom Caucus. House leaders were also contending with opposition from more moderate Republicans worried about the toll that the health bill could take in their districts. Representative Dan Donovan of New York, who attended a meeting at the White House with Mr. Trump on Tuesday, said Wednesday that he would vote against the bill. “Recognizing that the status quo is failing isn’t, on its own, a compelling reason to vote ‘yes’ on the current replacement plan,” said Mr. Donovan, the only Republican House member from New York City. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said he was sure the House would pass the repeal bill. “Slowly but surely we’re getting there,” he said. “There is no Plan B. There’s Plan A and Plan A. We’re going to get this done. ” | 1 |
Looking For Proof Of Evolution? You Can Find It On Your Own Body March 20, 2016 Subscribe
There are some who like to say that evolution is merely a theory and that man was created by God. The debate between the opposing ideas of evolution versus creationism have been going on for decades, and will probably never end, despite the fact that science conclusively proves evolution to be real and verifiable.
Perhaps nothing proves evolution more than the existence of vestigial structures. Vestigial structures are what can best be called evolution’s leftovers. They are body parts that have outlived the context through which they came to be.
As this video from Vox proves, we carry these structures with us each and every day, and they should remind us of just how incredible and adaptable the human form truly is.
Featured Image Via Vox | 0 |
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Republicans have successfully conducted an entire primary and general election without addressing a single key issue on the campaign trail. Now that we’re just days from the election ending, Donald Trump’s campaign has finally addressed climate change – by planning to cut $100 billion dollars in climate change spending, presumably to pay for the ridiculous tax cuts to the rich he proposes.
It’s been days since the Trump campaign policy was unveiled, but the mainstream media hasn’t even noticed. Most major media outlets who consider themselves “objective” are interested in “FBI has become Trumplandia” drama, more than this vitally important policy matter that might actually inform voters. Luckily, Bloomberg noticed and reports :
Donald Trump says he would save $100 billion over eight years by cutting all federal climate change spending—a sum his campaign says would be achieved by eliminating domestic and international climate programs.
“We’re going to put America first. That includes canceling billions in climate change spending for the United Nations, a number Hillary wants to increase, and instead use that money to provide for American infrastructure including clean water, clean air and safety,” the Republican presidential candidate said Oct. 31 at a rally in Warren, Mich. “We’re giving away billions and billions and billions of dollars,” he said. The Trump campaign did not give a specific tally to account for the $100 billion total in response to a query from Bloomberg BNA.
But in an e-mail, the campaign press office said that the figure combined an estimate of what the Obama administration had spent on climate-related programs, the amount of U.S. contributions to an international climate fund that Trump would cancel, and a calculation of what Trump believes would be savings to the economy if Obama’s and Clinton’s climate policies were reversed. The Trump campaign said the $100 billion total included $50 billion, or what it estimated the Obama administration has spent on programs related to climate change. “Eliminating that spending will save similar amounts over the Trump administration,” it said.
Trump and his elected Republican supporters have spent this entire election practicing the art of political distraction by choosing a reality TV clown for President, and it’s worked perfectly on the mainstream media who have ignored actual policy for months, feasting on the high ratings of substantive debates about plagiarism, pussy grabbing and Putin.
This story is important for any voter who’s not sure what you’re getting between the two parties, or torn between a third-party and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. While a third-party might promise the moon and the stars, letting Republicans take over the Oval Office with Trump guarantees that climate change efforts will be defunded, quickly.
The first beneficiary of that kind of environmental know nothing-ism would be the Koch Brothers, oil companies and the wealthiest of the wealthy who will get the savings on their tax bills when Trump slashes every form of taxation on the rich to benefit himself and the top 1% of earners.
Let your undecided voter friends know about this travesty which must be stopped on November 8th. | 0 |
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in: Politics , Sleuth Journal , Special Interests “And I certainly hope that Michelle Obama does not become the nominee if Hillary Clinton has to step aside, because Donald Trump would have an exceedingly difficult time defeating her.” I realize that this headline must sound extremely bizarre, but in this article I will explain why this could actually happen. We have just learned that the FBI has obtained a search warrant that will enable the agency to examine approximately 650,000 emails that are sitting on electronic devices owned by Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner. Now that the FBI is going through these emails, it is unlikely but still possible that a decision about whether or not to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime could be made by November 8th. Of course the most likely scenario is that Hillary Clinton will not be indicted before election day and that Americans will be voting with this scandal hanging ominously over the Clinton campaign. But if the FBI does quickly take action, it is possible that Hillary Clinton could be forced from the race before election day, and that would require the Democrats to come up with a new candidate. In fact, there are already calls in the mainstream media for Clinton to willingly remove herself from the race. For example, the following comes from a Chicago Tribune article entitled “ Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside “… So what should the Democrats do now? If ruling Democrats hold themselves to the high moral standards they impose on the people they govern, they would follow a simple process: They would demand that Mrs. Clinton step down, immediately, and let her vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, stand in her place. Democrats should say, honestly, that with a new criminal investigation going on into events around her home-brew email server from the time she was secretary of state, having Clinton anywhere near the White House is just not a good idea. But what the author of that article does not understand is that Tim Kaine would not automatically take her place if Clinton steps down before the election. In a previous article , I included a quote from a U.S. News & World Report article that explained what would happen if Hillary Clinton was removed from the Democratic ticket for some reason prior to November 8th… If Clinton were to fall off the ticket, Democratic National Committee members would gather to vote on a replacement. DNC members acted as superdelegates during this year’s primary and overwhelmingly backed Clinton over boat-rocking socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. DNC spokesman Mark Paustenbach says there currently are 445 committee members – a number that changes over time and is guided by the group’s bylaws, which give membership to specific officeholders and party leaders and hold 200 spots for selection by states, along with an optional 75 slots DNC members can choose to fill. But the party rules for replacing a presidential nominee merely specify that a majority of members must be present at a special meeting called by the committee chairman. The meeting would follow procedures set by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee and proxy voting would not be allowed. So if this email scandal forced Hillary Clinton to exit the race at the last minute, a majority of the members of the Democratic National Committee would gather to select a new nominee. Who would they choose? Let’s take a look at the top five options… #1 Tim Kaine He would seem to be an obvious choice since he is Hillary Clinton’s running mate. But to win a national campaign you need to have name recognition, and most Americans outside of the state of Virginia have very little familiarity with him. And at this point he has proven to have very little popularity on the campaign trail. In fact, attendance at many of his rallies in key swing states can be measured in the dozens. So to me it seems unlikely that the DNC would select Kaine as the replacement nominee. #2 Joe Biden Vice-President Joe Biden has far more name recognition than Tim Kaine does, and in recent days he has been touting how he believes that he would have actually won the nomination if he would have decided to run … Vice President Joe Biden said in a recent interview that he believed he could have beat former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination had he pursued it. Biden was asked in an interview with CNN Saturday if news that the FBI was re-opening their criminal probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state made him second-guess his decision last year not to run. But according to the vice president, the short answer is “no.” The only thing that kept him from running, Biden said, was the recent death of his son, Beau. Unfortunately for Biden, he suffers from many of the same things that Kaine does. Biden is boring, he is not very good on the campaign trail, and he doesn’t have the sort of charisma that would motivate people to go to the polls in large numbers. Biden would probably represent the “safest” choice for the Democrats, but he might not be a winning choice. #3 Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders would seem to be a logical choice since he was the runner-up to Hillary Clinton, but the truth is that there are a lot of things working against Bernie Sanders. First of all, he does not have any real loyalty to the Democrats. He has previously operated as an independent, and he expressed a desire to return to independent status once the campaign was over. Secondly, the Democratic establishment very much dislikes him, and that plays a huge role in decisions such as this. Thirdly, Democratic insiders fear that he would be “another McGovern” and would get absolutely wiped out in a general election. So even though he is very popular with the radical left, it appears that Sanders would be the least likely choice on this list. #4 Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren would be very popular with the “Bernie Sanders” wing of the party, and she would enable the party to replace Hillary Clinton with another woman. So she is definitely a possibility. But she does lack name recognition, and just like Sanders there would be concern that the Republicans would frame her candidacy as “another McGovern” because of her far left policies. #5 Michelle Obama One recent survey found that 67 percent of all Democrats would rather have a third term for Obama than a first term for Hillary Clinton. And these days Barack Obama’s approval rating is running anywhere from +9 to +11. So the thought of another Obama in the White House is not as far-fetched as you might think. Michelle Obama has better name recognition than anyone else on this list, and she is generally very well-liked by the American people. And she has received a tremendous amount of praise for her work on the campaign trail recently. For instance, her recent speech in New Hampshire was lauded as “the most influential speech of the 2016 campaign” in a recent MSN article entitled “ In this campaign, Michelle Obama became more than just another political voice “… The speech, amplified by timing and met with an enthusiastic response, cemented Obama’s place as a star of the presidential race and put a defining stroke not just on how women view Trump, but also on herself as a voice of moral authority. Three months before leaving the White House, she already is among the ranks of public figures who transcend politics and title. “When you rise to a level like that, you see how much weight your words carry,” said Anita McBride, former chief of staff to Laura Bush and executive in residence at the School of Public Affairs at American University. “We know she didn’t like politics. But she was impassioned by the language that was used, and she feels compelled to speak out. People listen to her.” If I were the Democrats, Michelle Obama is the one that I would select if a replacement nominee was needed, because she would give them the very best chance of winning against Donald Trump. Of course the Obamas are just as radical as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but the American people have become quite comfortable with them at this point. And I certainly hope that Michelle Obama does not become the nominee if Hillary Clinton has to step aside, because Donald Trump would have an exceedingly difficult time defeating her. In the final analysis, none of this is probably going to matter anyway because it is unlikely that the FBI will move quickly enough to force Hillary Clinton out before election day, but there is still a small chance that it could actually happen. And if it does happen, it is going to turn politics in America completely upside down. 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For anyone wondering how former President Barack Obama is adjusting to life under the Trump administration, know this: He seems to be doing just fine. Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, took a vacation to the British Virgin Islands, where they have been hosted by Richard Branson, the chief executive of the Virgin Group. On Tuesday, Mr. Branson published a blog post, along with photos and video, showing Mr. Obama learning to kitesurf. Yes, he seems to be doing just fine. Mr. Branson wrote that Mr. Obama spent two days learning how to stay afloat and navigate kitesurfing. “Being the former president of America, there was lots of security around, but Barack was able to really relax and get into it,” Mr. Branson wrote. While Mr. Obama was enjoying the wind and the waves, his vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced details of his work. Mr. Biden will lead the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a new effort “focused principally on diplomacy, foreign policy and national security,” the university announced on Tuesday. Mr. Biden said in a statement: “The Penn Biden Center and I will be engaging with Penn’s wonderful students while partnering with its eminent faculty and global centers to convene world leaders, develop and advance smart policy, and impact the national debate about how America can continue to lead in the 21st Century. ” The center will be in Washington, but Mr. Biden will also have an office on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, which is a short Amtrak ride away in Philadelphia. The campus is also a fairly short trip from Delaware, where Mr. Biden served as a senator for 36 years and where he maintains deep roots. He will also be working with the University of Delaware, his alma mater. The university announced on Tuesday that Mr. Biden would be the founding chairman of the Biden Institute, which it described as “a new research and policy center focused on developing public policy solutions on issues ranging from economic reform and environmental sustainability to civil rights, criminal justice, women’s rights and more. ” The former vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, intend to split time between a lakeside home in Greenville, Del. a Wilmington suburb, and a home in Washington. Dr. Biden plans to continue teaching English at a community college in Northern Virginia. The couple previously announced the creation of the Biden Foundation as a platform to advance priorities like military families, preventing violence against women and a “moonshot” to cure cancer. | 1 |
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The leaders of the militia who temporarily occupied a national wildlife refuge in Oregon have been acquitted on charges related to the standoff.
The 41-day “occupation” brought heightened attention to a decades-long dispute over control of federal lands in the U.S. West.
A jury in Portland found brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy not guilty of possession of a firearm in a federal facility and conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, some 300 miles southeast of Portland, The New York Post is reporting .
Despite this acquittal, the brothers are still expected to stand trial in Nevada early in 2017, on charges stemming from another controversial standoff with federal authorities. The feds rounded up cattle at their father Cliven’s ranch in 2014, alleging unpaid grazing fees, but they faced armed protesters.
The brothers are part of a Nevada ranching family embroiled in a lengthy fight over the use of public range, and their occupation drew an international spotlight to a uniquely American West dispute: federal restrictions on ranching, mining and logging to protect the environment. The U.S. government, which controls much of the land in the West, says it tries to balance industry, recreation and wildlife concerns to benefit all.
“We are just so excited,” Angie Bundy, Ryan’s wife, told the Guardian after the verdict was announced. “We’ve been praying hard, and we knew they hadn’t done anything wrong.”
The Post is reporting that the trial seemed like an open-and-shut case. There was no dispute that the group actually seized the refuge, established armed patrols, and vetted visitors.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this case is not a whodunit,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said in his closing argument, arguing that the group decided to take over a federal workplace that didn’t belong to them.
But federal prosecutors took two weeks to present their case, finishing with a display of more than 30 guns seized at the standoff, testifying to 16,636 live rounds and 1,700 spent casings were found.
Despite the evidence, the brothers were found not guilty, suggesting that the jury – along with the American people – are growing weary of continued government interference in local land use issues. | 0 |
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most powerful men in the world because billions of people give Facebook, which he founded, free access to their personal data. In return, users receive carefully curated snapshots of his life: baby photos, mundane office tours and the occasional 5K. On Tuesday, observers were reminded that Mr. Zuckerberg, 32, is not just a normal guy who enjoys running and quiet dinners with friends. In a photo posted to his Facebook account, he celebrated the growing user base of Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. An Twitter user named Chris Olson noticed that in the image’s background, his laptop camera and microphone jack appeared to be covered with tape. Other publications, including Gizmodo, used the tweet to raise the question: Was this paranoia, or just good practice? The camera and microphone jack are usually a signal that someone is concerned, perhaps only vaguely, about hackers’ gaining access to his or her devices by using trojans — a process called “ratting. ” (Remote access is not limited to ratters: According to a cache of National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, at least two programs were devised to take over computer cameras and microphones.) Security experts supported the taping, for a few good reasons: • The first is that Mr. Zuckerberg is a target. “I think Zuckerberg is sensible to take these precautions,” Graham Cluley, an online security expert and consultant, wrote in an email Wednesday. “As well as intelligence agencies and conventional online criminals who might be interested in targeting his billions, there are no doubt plenty of mischievous hackers who would find it amusing to spy upon such a figure. ” • The second is that covering photo, video and audio portals has long been a basic and cheap security safeguard. “Covering the camera is a very common security measure,” Lysa Myers, a security researcher at the data security firm ESET, said in an email. “If you were to walk around a security conference, you would have an easier time counting devices that don’t have something over the camera. ” • Third, Mr. Zuckerberg is not immune to security breaches. A recent hacking of his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts shows that he most likely committed two basic privacy faux pas: He may have used the same password across several websites and did not use authentication. Judging from his photo, however, it appears that Mr. Zuckerberg was taking simple precautions to protect himself from anyone who may try to gain remote access. The practice is fairly technologically simple: Hackers trick people into clicking on links or unfamiliar websites containing malware that allows them access to the devices. Mr. Zuckerberg is not the only case: James Comey, the director of the F. B. I. told students at Kenyon College in April that he also puts tape over his computer’s webcam, for surprisingly simple reasons, according to NPR: “I saw something in the news, so I copied it,” Mr. Comey said. “I put a piece of tape — I have obviously a laptop, personal laptop — I put a piece of tape over the camera. Because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera. ” People who are not billionaires or government officials are not without risk, said Stephen Cobb, a senior security researcher at ESET. “For people who are not C. E. O. s, the threat is people scanning the internet for accessible webcams for a range of motives, from voyeurism to extortion,” Mr. Cobb wrote in an email. Experts don’t have a good estimate for how often such attacks occur, but according to a 2015 report released by the nonprofit Digital Citizens Alliance, the practice is a growing problem for consumers, especially young women. The report also said that trojans account for some 70 percent of all malware. “They’ve been one of the most popular types of malware on every operating system, for quite a long time,” Ms. Myers, of ESET, said. “The best ways to protect against them are to update all your software on your machine regularly, and use reputable security software, including and a firewall. ” | 1 |
MONROVIA, Liberia — Bernice Freeman was chatting with some market women, trying to explain why it was so important that they leave their food stalls to vote for the first woman to be elected president of an African country, when she noticed some boys laughing nearby, waving something white. It was October 2005, the first presidential election after 15 years of a hideous civil war in Liberia. On the ballot was Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a global technocrat with so much government experience it practically oozed from her pores, and a group of men, most notably the professional soccer player George Weah. Like many of the 1. 5 million women in Liberia who had survived the civil war, Ms. Freeman had personally witnessed acts of violence so brutal she still had nightmares. Soldiers had gutted her cousin. rebels wearing Halloween masks had murdered her friends. Ms. Freeman herself had knelt in the dirt, praying, while henchmen loyal to the president had chambered rounds of their machine guns on orders to shoot her and the other women praying with her one afternoon. Ms. Freeman had seen it all. But even so, she was unprepared for the sight of the young men laughing nearby as she campaigned for a female president. The boys had taken women’s panties, had smeared the crotches with tomato paste and were waving them at the women — their unsubtle way of saying that a woman could not be president. But instead of making Ms. Freeman and the other women embarrassed, the heckling only angered them. “You know what?” one of the undecided women told Ms. Freeman, looking at the boys in disgust. “We will vote. Don’t worry, we will vote. ” And vote they did. Close to 80 percent of the Liberian women who flooded the polls during the country’s first postwar presidential election voted to usher a woman into power for the first time on a continent that for centuries had been the world’s most patriarchal. Eleven years before Pantsuit Nation became a secret Facebook group for women who supported Hillary Clinton in America and “I’m With Her” buttons and bumper stickers sprouted on lapels and S. U. V. s, the women of Liberia held a master class in how to get a woman elected president. Now, as the American women who supported Mrs. Clinton grapple with the whys of last November’s election, the story of how, 4, 500 miles away, the women of Liberia upended centuries of male rule to accomplish what their American counterparts could not has acquired a sharp and keen relevance. The Liberia story is one of extremes. It is almost as if for Liberians to contemplate installing a woman as president, the country needed to first go over a cliff so steep that there seemed nowhere left to drop. Mothers saw their children kidnapped, drugged and forced to take up arms in the country’s civil war. More than 70 percent of Liberian women were raped during the war years. Starving young girls gnawed on tree bark for sustenance, while horrified children were forced to watch their sisters, mothers and grandmothers in front of them. What happened in the war years so devastated Liberian women, who blamed the men who waged the war for the ensuing horrors, that many of them came to view Mrs. Sirleaf not necessarily as the better of the presidential candidates but, rather, as the only alternative to putting a man back in power in a place that men had just run into the ground. Masawa Jabateh, who had seen her daughter die from malnourishment during the war, said her despair became infused with a blind fury when she saw men campaigning to be president in 2005, especially since the leading candidate was Mr. Weah. “Those men want put some grona boy in the chair who don’t know what we doing? So we can go back to war again? No,” she said. Her thought process was straightforward: She was “voting for woman,” she said. “Vote for Woman,” in 2005, became the de facto campaign slogan of Ms. Sirleaf’s run for the presidency. It all started on the morning of May 2, 2005, a week into the voter registration period for the looming presidential elections, when Vabah Gayflor, the minister for gender, woke up to discover that women had not been registering to vote. A string of men were tossing their hats into the ring for the presidency, including Mr. Weah, a renowned athlete who had won the Ballon d’Or and been named FIFA world player of the year and African player of the century. Unlike his rivals, Mr. Weah was not tainted by any association with those who had brought Liberia to ruin over the past 15 years, but he had no college education. (His listing of a bachelor’s degree in sports management from Parkwood University in London was a subject of a scandal after news accounts surfaced calling the school an unaccredited diploma mill requiring no actual study.) At the other end of the spectrum was Mrs. Sirleaf. A former finance minister and jailed dissident, she had a pedigree that included the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. She had transformed herself from an abused wife, cowering and hunched in the front seat of her husband’s car while he slapped her, to an international bureaucrat attempting what no woman had ever done before: winning, by popular vote, the right to lead an African country. To the Weah supporters, there was no contest. Grandmother versus soccer star? But to women like Ms. Gayflor, Ms. Jabateh and Ms. Freeman, there was also no contest. “You will take our country, our baby, and throw the baby away to football player? I beg you, no,” Ms. Gayflor said. Ms. Gayflor’s job as gender minister was supposed to be about helping women and children get access to health care, school feeding programs (in a postwar country with hardly any schools) and rape support. But she decided to redefine her role: getting a woman elected president. And she was not happy with the news from the National Elections Commission: Of the 100, 000 Liberians who had registered to vote in the first week of the monthlong registration drive, only 15 percent were women. Who was registering instead? Former combatants, from all the armed groups that had fought in the war. Ms. Gayflor was appalled. Huddling with Etweda Cooper, the women’s activist known throughout Liberia as “Sugars,” Ms. Gayflor knew they had to take action fast. The men were holding mass rallies. But market women didn’t have time to go to mass rallies. They were busy making market. Ms. Gayflor and Mrs. Cooper realized they would have to try a different strategy. Quickly they organized a group to use the radio stations to plead: “Women, oh women! Y’all got to register to vote. ” They fanned out to the Monrovia markets. At first, some of the market women balked they had their wares and their babies to tend. But Mrs. Cooper was ready for them with babysitters and stall tenders. “We will mind it for you,” she said. “Go register. ” It was not enough to stay in Monrovia. The Liberian bush loomed, large, imposing and filled with village women. The women bought bullhorns and scattered their troops along the road. “Women, oh women!” they yelled into the bullhorns. “Go register. ” By the end of the registration period, the final figures came out: Some 1. 5 million Liberians out of the country’s population of three million had registered to vote. percent of those registered were women. Unlike American presidential campaigns, the Liberian campaign season begins two months before Election Day. Liberian election rules dictate that a winning candidate has to get 50 percent of the vote — a quirk that guaranteed that in a crowded field of 22 candidates, there would be a runoff. So the key for Mrs. Sirleaf was to survive the first round by coming in second at least, so that she would then stand alone against Mr. Weah. As a government minister, Ms. Gayflor was not allowed to show favoritism for any candidate, let alone campaign on one’s behalf. So she and Mrs. Cooper devised a strategy: They would present their efforts as simply an attempt to empower women. Ms. Gayflor would not sully her cabinet position by telling women whom to support. (She left that to Mrs. Cooper.) Instead, she would simply encourage women to exercise their right. She organized women’s rallies where she gave speeches exhorting the crowd to vote. “I’m not telling you who to vote for, women!” she said. “Just make sure you vote. ” Right after Ms. Gayflor spoke, Mrs. Cooper — not constrained by any neutrality vows — shouted at the crowd, “Vote for woman!” Everywhere, the women’s rallies followed the same script: Ms. Gayflor: “Women, oh women! If y’all got to tie your baby on your back soon in the morning, I beg y’all, go vote!” Mrs. Cooper: “Vote for woman!” Ms. Gayflor: “Even self your baby got diapers, put it down, go vote!” Mrs. Cooper: “Vote for woman! At the rallies, the women passed out plastic bags of drinking water, a rare and precious commodity in a place where people regularly drank from unsanitary wells and dirty rivers. The rainy season was ending, but the air was still stewy when Election Day dawned. Of the 1. 5 million people registered to vote, some 900, 000 showed up at the polls. They came in wheelbarrows and wheelchairs. They came with babies on their backs. They came the night before, some sleeping on the hard ground outside the polling booths so they could vote when morning came. The results began to trickle in that night. As expected, Mr. Weah was in first place. But he wasn’t close to 50 percent. And Mrs. Sirleaf was right behind him, where she needed to be. Time for the real battle. The soccer player versus the grandmother. The men fell in line behind Mr. Weah and complained that the women supporting Mrs. Sirleaf were sexist. Given the choice between a soccer player with no credible college education and a development expert, the top male presidential candidates who fell short of the runoff, with one exception, endorsed the soccer player. In the meantime, Mr. Weah, honing a message explaining why he, and not Mrs. Sirleaf, should run Liberia, settled on an “educated people failed” theme. But what the men who endorsed that strategy failed to realize was how much that very idea was angering the market women. Those women may not have been educated themselves, but they worked in the fields and the market stalls to send their children to school. Now the men were telling them that education wasn’t important. Just as the men fell in behind Mr. Weah, the women fell in behind Mrs. Sirleaf. The market women went door to door, passing out and fliers. They slept on the side of the road at night, curled up on their mats. They walked from village to village, calling out the now familiar mantra “Vote for woman!” Mr. Weah’s supporters responded by promising that if he lost, the country would go back to war. “No Weah, no peace!” they chanted. Thus the runoff started resembling past elections, like the one in 1985, in which Samuel Doe’s supporters had suggested the same thing: Vote for Mr. Doe or the country goes back to war. Except that in November 2005, this tactic appeared to have met its match. Because the women had their own tricks, tricks that would make Mr. Weah’s threats look like boys’ play. “You want beer? Just give me your voter ID card I will buy you beer. ” “I say, we buying voter ID cards, oh. Ten Liberty dollars for one. ” “Who looking for money? Just bring your voter ID card. ” A group of women had stationed themselves at a bar near a major intersection, luring young men in a fashion. Except this time the women were the ones with the cash, and the young men were the ones with the commodity for sale. “Some of those boys were finish stupid,” a market woman, Nancy Nagbe, recalled with a smirk. “We were crafty, oh!” Many of the young men thought they were done with voting after the first round and didn’t understand that they would need their IDs again. Others knew and did not care late in the evening of a muggy hot day, the lure of a crisp, cold and malty Club Beer far outshone whatever benefits they thought their voter card could bring them. As for the ones who were too smart to sell their voter card — their mothers simply stole them, recalled one gender ministry official, Parleh Harris. One market woman said she sneaked into her son’s room while he was sleeping, slipped his voter ID out of his wallet and buried it in the yard. “Yeah, I took it. And so what?” the woman said. “That foolish boy, what he knew? I carried him for nine months. I took care of him. I fed him when he was hungry. Then he will take people country and give it away?” Ms. Gayflor, by now, was sailing perilously close to getting fired for illegally campaigning as a government minister. A few days before the runoff, she called a meeting in a room at the gender ministry. She invited every female political candidate, no matter what party she belonged to, along with market women, female lawyers and anyone else she could think of who lacked a Y chromosome. That night, in the stuffy room, the women all stood, one by one, and pledged to support Mrs. Sirleaf, who was so overcome afterward she could barely stand upright. “If I were a crying woman,” she said, “I would be crying right now. You have humbled me. ” The repercussions came the next day. Ms. Gayflor arrived at work to find reporters camped out on the ministry’s steps. The questions came furiously. Ms. Gayflor was past the point of backing down. “You take a former football player and give him our country?” she shot back. “Liberia is not a learning ground!” She had one last shot to fire. “Let me give you a goodbye statement,” the minister said. “Mrs. Sirleaf will be the next president of this country. ” On Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005, the people of Liberia went to the polls for the second time in four weeks. There was a palpable sense in the air that something big was happening. International observers stationed themselves at polling places and voting booths some 230 agencies, from the Carter Center to the European Union, showed up to chronicle the proceedings. Helicopters from the United Nations mission hovered overhead, a constant presence above the voting booth lines. But the helicopters could not see what was going on at a polling station in Sinkor. Helpful poll workers were allowing pregnant women and nursing mothers to cut to the front of the line. So Ms. Freeman — who had been heckled weeks before by the young men waving white panties smeared with tomato paste — and a handful of other women were passing around babies and toddlers. “You want borrow the baby?” Ms. Freeman grinned at one woman, sneaking a furtive look over her shoulder. “Put the baby on your back. ” To another woman, she advised: “Act pregnant. If they think you pregnant you can vote in front. ” It was unclear whether the poll workers noticed how many different women were carrying the same baby to vote on that Election Day in November 2005. And when the National Elections Commission, on Nov. 23, announced the election results — Mrs. Sirleaf’s 59. 4 percent to Mr. Weah’s 40. 6 percent — Ms. Freeman wore a smile on her face. | 1 |
One of the most passionately debated stage works of our time is a operetta. Is Gilbert and Sullivan’s enduringly popular “The Mikado” a droll satire of Victorian England? A racist caricature of Japan? Some amalgam of the two? Recent revivals have ended up in the cross hairs of these questions, sparking protests across the nation, along with earnest wondering about how — and even if — this 1885 piece should be staged in the 21st century. When an outcry arose last year over a planned revival of the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players’ old production — which had featured a mostly white cast in yellowface makeup, and employed some ugly stereotypes to evoke the imaginary Japanese town of Titipu — the company initially responded by saying that it would scrap the makeup. Then, realizing that the complications were more than skin deep, it decided to scrap the entire staging and take a year to rethink its approach, diversify its cast and create a new show. The result will open on Wednesday at Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in Manhattan. Finding the right balance is not easy: Some of the most severe critics of “The Mikado” find it too inherently offensive to be performed, while some ardent fans view any changes as bows to excessive political correctness. Shortly after the New York company announced it was replacing last year’s “Mikado” with “The Pirates of Penzance,” David Wannen, its executive director, received a letter from a pirate who complained that he was offended that the troupe did not plan to cast real pirates. David Auxier, the director of the new “Mikado” production, recalled that “Sometimes the conversation got to be: ‘You’re never going to please everybody, so why try? ’” He added: “I said, ‘We’re starting from the understanding that we’re never going to please everybody. But we’re still going to try. ’” As the use of yellowface — which can refer not only to makeup, but to broader attempts at racial impersonation or caricature — has drawn protests at “Mikado” revivals from Seattle to New York, companies presenting it have responded with a variety of approaches. A 2013 staging by Skylark Opera and Mu Performing Arts in St. Paul inverted the libretto, setting the piece in England and casting actors in key roles. This year, the Lamplighters Music Theater in San Francisco decided not to set its new production in Japan after local performers threatened protests. Instead it moved the action to Renaissance Italy and changed the opening line from “If you want to know who we are, we are gentlemen of Japan” to “If you want to know who we are, we are gentlemen of Milan. ” A production by the Gilbert and Sullivan Players this fall was set in a 1960s hotel in Las Vegas to, as the organizers put it, “recontextualize the origins of the show in Japonisme and commodity racism. ” It still drew protests. In New York, emotions have run high on all sides. A Save the Mikado NYC Facebook page sprang up, calling for the operetta “to be performed exactly as conceived by Gilbert and Sullivan, with only a very small number of minor alterations that have been standard for over half a century. ” Another Facebook group, Artists Against The Mikado, was “dedicated to the controversial idea that minstrel shows where white people dress up as fake Japanese is a little out of date. ” The old “Mikado” production had used yellowface, and the troupe had invented a minor role, played by a child, that was credited as a “coolie,” which company officials said they had not realized was a slur. A 2004 version of the staging included “a man with a Fu Manchu mustache and impossibly long fingernails,” Josephine Lee, a professor of English and Studies at the University of Minnesota, writes in her influential 2010 book, “The Japan of Pure Invention: Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Mikado,’” which traces the work’s long, complex racial history. In an interview, Ms. Lee questioned the commonly heard defense that “The Mikado” should not be considered racist because it is meant in fun. “There are lots of instances in blackface minstrelsy that are lighthearted and funny — and also offensive,” she said. Before mounting their new “Mikado,” the New Yorkers sought advice, listened to critics and sent out casting calls that stressed a desire for diversity. At a forum held in November at the Kaye Playhouse, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, a professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia who has performed in Gilbert and Sullivan works, noted that many of the most offensive elements of recent productions were invented by stage directors. “You don’t need to do a lot of violence to the work to not tape actor’s eyes back to make their eyes look ‘slanty,’” he said, recalling productions he had appeared in that did just that. So the New York company set about trying to strip away those elements. Like Mike Leigh’s 1999 film “” which told the story of Gilbert and Sullivan as they created “The Mikado,” the new production will firmly establish the operetta as a work of the Victorian imagination. A new prologue features the composer and librettist planning their next opera and admiring some Japanese objects. When a sword falls, knocking Gilbert unconscious, he dreams “The Mikado” proper, set in an imaginary Japan as conceived by a Englishman. The production will emphasize the work’s satire of Victorian mores, and do away with racially charged performance tics and excessive bowing and shuffling in its choreography. While the ensemble would never be mistaken for, say, the multicultural cast of “Hamilton,” it is the troupe’s most diverse yet. Erin Quill, an actress, wrote about the controversy last year on her lively blog, The Fairy Princess Diaries. Ms. Quill, who spoke at the company’s forum in November, said in an interview that she was “cautiously optimistic” about the new production. “Am I glad this conversation is happening?” she asked. “Absolutely. Do I wish this conversation had been 20 years ago? Of course. ” | 1 |
For those who are too young or too unwilling to remember, a trip down memory lane.
1969 – Debut: Hillary speaks at Wellesley graduation, insults Edward Brooke, Senate’s lone black member.
1973 – Watergate committee: Says Chief Counsel Jerry Zeifman of Hillary’s performance, “She was a liar. She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”
1978-79 – Cattlegate: as wife of Arkansas governor, she invests $1,000 in cattle futures, makes $100,000.
1978 – Whitewater: Clintons borrow money to launch Whitewater Development Corporations. Several people go to prison over it. Clintons don’t.
1992 – Bimbo eruptions: Bill and Hillary swear to Steve Kroft on “60 minutes” Bill had nothing to do with Gennifer Flowers.
1992 – Private investigators: “We reached out to them,” Hillary tells CBS’ Steve Kroft of Bill’s women. “I met with two of them to reassure them they were friends of ours.” They also hire PIs to bribe and/or threaten as many as two-dozen of them.
1993 – Health care reform: Hillary heads secret health-care task force, sued successfully for violating open meeting laws. Subsequent plan killed by Democratic-controlled House.
1993 – Waco: Hillary’s DOJ authorizes armed assault against religious community in Waco, 80 dead, many of them children, more than half racial minorities.
1993 – Travelgate: Hillary orchestrates firing of travel office employees, replaces them with her own people. Independent Counsel Robert Ray calls her sworn testimony “factually false” but can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt it was ”knowingly false.”
1993 – Vince Foster: White House counsel and reputed Hillary lover is found dead in Fort Marcy Park. The DOJ opens a separate investigation of possible obstruction of justice by Hillary and her cohorts for blocking search of Foster office.
1994 – Chinagate: Hillary meets with disgraced fixer Webb Hubbell. A week later Clinton Indonesian money man James Riady gives Hubbell $100,000 “job.” Hubbell never talks. Reads the NYT headline, “Payment to an Ex-Clinton Aide Is Linked to Big Chinese Project.”
1994 – Filegate: Hillary henchman Craig Livingstone improperly requests and receives FBI background reports on several hundred individuals. Multiple investigations follow.
1994 – November elections: Due in no small part to health-care fiasco, Dems lose Senate and House for first time in nearly 50 years.
1995 – Chinagate: Hillary convenes secret meeting with Bill and Dick Morris. They launch what Thompson Committee calls “the most corrupt political campaign in modern history.”
Sign the precedent-setting petition supporting Trump’s call for an independent prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton!
1995 – Pay to play: The $100,000 donation to travel with the Clintons on trade missions morphs from a discreet expectation into the price of admission. Independent counsel investigates.
1995-96 – Thompson Committee: The Clintons “pulled down all the barriers that would normally be in place to keep out illegal contributions, pressured policy makers, and left themselves open to strong suspicion that they were selling not only access to high-ranking officials, but policy as well.”
1996 – Blizzard of lies: Hillary dodges imaginary “sniper fire” in Bosnia’s Tuzla airport.
1996 – Ron Brown death: Nine days later embattled Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who hates being “Hillary Clinton’s being mother-f—ing tour guide,” leaves Tuzla on final, fatal flight to Croatia.
1996 – Enron connection: Brown goes to Croatia to broker a sweetheart deal between the neo-fascists who run the country and the Enron Corporation. Despite his death, the deal goes through, ends very badly.
1996 – Ron Brown cover-up: Pathologists find an apparent bullet hole in Brown’s head. He is buried without autopsy. Head X-rays are lost. Three pathologists and photographer have careers wrecked for going public.
1995-96 – Thompson Committee: “Millions of dollars were raised in illegal contributions, much of it from foreign sources.”
1996 – TWA Flight 800: Hillary is in family quarters with Bill and Sandy Berger when plans are launched to cover up real cause of the destruction of the aircraft.
1996 – Blizzard of Lies: In a New York Times op-ed titled “Blizzard of Lies,” the usually restrained William Safire famously calls Hillary “a congenital liar.”
1997 – Pay to play: Johnny Chung tells Thompson Committee he funneled $100,000 from the Chinese military to the DNC. “The White House is like a subway. You have to put in coins to open the gates.”
1998 – Monica: “There isn’t any fire,” Hillary tells Matt Lauer about the “smoke” surrounding Monica Lewinsky accusations. ”The great story here is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband.”
1999 – FALN: Clinton pardons 16 lethal Puerto Rican terrorists to boost Hillary’s chance to win N.Y. Senate seat. She supports move until outrage mounts.
1999 – Christopher Hitchens: “Like him, [Hillary] is not just a liar but a lie; a phony construct of shreds and patches and hysterical, self-pitying demagogic improvisations.”
2001 – Pardongate: Clinton pardons 140 people on final day of office, including cocaine dealer, drug-dealing brother, Whitewater pal and billionaire fugitive Marc Rich. Hillary’s brothers Hugh and Tony both implicated during subsequent investigation. James Comey investigates, finds no illegality.
2001 – Furnituregate: The Clintons leave the White House with $134,000 worth of items that they, once the story breaks, have to return or pay for.
Please share with your Republican friends who seem comfortable with this woman returning to the White House. Unless, they get a royalty every time the suffix “gate” is applied to a word, they are in for a rough four years.
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Clinton policy on Syria would lead to WW III: Trump 57 am Clinton policy on Syria would lead to WW III: Trump Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:37AM US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Orlando Sanford International Airport on October 25, 2016 in Sanford, Florida. (Photos by AFP)
US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton’s policy towards Syria would “lead to World War III”, arguing that the Democratic nominee would drag the US into an armed confrontation with Russia.
Trump made the warning in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, following Clinton’s proposal for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” in Syria earlier this month.
“What we should do is focus on ISIL (Daesh). We should not be focusing on Syria,” Trump said.
“You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton,” he said.
On October 7, the Democratic nominee said a no-fly zone was required inside the war-ravaged country to stabilize fighting, a move that was opposed in Congress due to the risk of entering into conflict with Russia, since a US-enforced no-fly zone would mean the US could shoot down Russian fighter jets should they enter Syrian airspace.
Clinton also described the situation in Syria as “incredibly complex” since the intervention of Russia. US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks at an early vote rally at Broward College in Coconut Creek, Florida, on October 25, 2016.
“You’re not fighting Syria anymore; you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk,” Trump said.
The Republican nominee also referred to the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power as a second-level priority to defeating Daesh.
“Assad is secondary, to me, to ISIL,” Trump said.
Russia might down US planes
Meanwhile, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also warned about the consequences of Clinton’s push for a no-fly zone in Syria that could spark a conflict with Russia.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Clapper said Clinton’s proposal for the establishment of a no-fly zone in Syria could lead to Russia shooting down American planes there. James Clapper, the US director of National Intelligence, speaks at the Council of Foreign Relations, on October 25, 2016 in New York City.
“I wouldn’t put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft if they — if they felt that was threatening to their forces on the ground,” he said.
“I take stock in the nature of the weaponry that they deploy and why they — why they did that,” Clapper said of Russian weapons recently deployed to Syria. “The system they have there is a very advanced air-defense system. It’s very capable. And I don’t think they’d do it and deploy it unless they had some intent to use it.”
During the third and final presidential debate last week, Clinton reiterated her remarks on a no-fly zone that could save lives and hasten the end of the conflict in Syria.
A foreign-backed militancy has been going on in Syria since March 2011, with a plethora of armed groups — each supported by one foreign country or another — fighting the Assad government.
Since 2014, the United States, along with a number of its allies, has been leading a so-called anti-terror campaign in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Instead of helping to rein in the Takfiri terrorists, the air raids have killed many civilians, and caused extensive damage to the country’s infrastructure.
Iran has been offering Syria advisory military help. Russia, another Syrian ally, has also been conducting an aerial bombardment campaign against militant positions in Syria at a request from Damascus.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. | 0 |
Doug Moore was out of town at a Florida conference on information technology in October 2015 when he was struck with terrible abdominal pain. He tried to go to an urgent care center and called several local doctors. No one could see him. So he headed to the nearest emergency room. On the way, he called his insurance company to make sure the visit would be covered. Once he got to the Palms of Pasadena Hospital emergency room, a doctor gave him some medication and tests, and let him go. A month later, feeling better and back at home in Baton Rouge, La. Mr. Moore, 34, received an bill from the doctor who treated him — for $1, 620. “That really makes me mad, and kind of breaks my heart,” he said. When people go to the emergency room, they are often stunned to discover that doctors who treated them are not employed by the hospital and bill their insurance company separately. These doctors negotiate separate deals with insurance companies for payment. If the doctor and the insurance company never strike a deal, the visit is billed at much higher rates. While the insurance company sometimes pays the higher amount, unlucky patients like Mr. Moore can be caught in the crossfire. They receive care and have no idea what it will end up costing them. New research published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday found that more than one in five patients visiting the emergency room may face the same financial shock. The study looked at billing data from one large national insurer and found that 22 percent of the time, patients who went to a hospital covered by their plan still received a bill from a doctor who was not in the insurance company’s network. The average such bill cost more than $900, though there was a wide range the highest was for more than $19, 000. This is not the first time researchers have examined surprise medical bills, but it’s the broadest analysis to date of the problem nationwide. The study found wide variation across the country over the likelihood that someone would get a surprise medical bill. In McAllen, Tex. for example, the rates of surprise billing were 89 percent, compared with Boulder, Colo. where it was near zero. Once patients get to the emergency room, they have little choice over who treats them. “To put it in very, very blunt terms: This is the health equivalent of a carjacking,” said Zack Cooper, an assistant professor of health policy and economics at Yale University, and a of the paper. Mr. Cooper argues that the problem could be solved by Congress, which could make the visit a package that includes both the doctor and hospital. Consumer advocates, and scholars like Mr. Cooper, see the surprise bill as unfair. It’s nearly impossible for patients to uncover the contract arrangements of individual physicians once they walk into an emergency room — or are brought by ambulance. “People are, by and large, not aware that they’re playing that type of financial roulette,” said Chuck Bell, the programs director at Consumers Union, an advocacy group that has been urging states and Congress to help solve the problem. “They follow the rules, and they go to the hospital, and then it’s just like a . ” Several states have passed legislation aimed at tackling the problem, including New York, Florida and California, where a law recently went into effect. But the state laws affect only a fraction of insurance customers. Insurance offered by large companies, like Mr. Moore’s employer, is regulated under federal law. And most of the laws work by setting up a dispute resolution system for patients, which means they need to know they can go to state authorities to fight a big bill. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, introduced legislation last year to tackle the practice nationwide, but he said he experienced “a healthy dose of indifference” from his colleagues on the Ways and Means committee. Mr. Doggett had heard complaints of surprise bills from constituents, and it turns out that the new study found that Texas is a hot spot for the practice. Mr. Doggett said he would introduce the legislation again next year. “I think that there’s got to be a way to get consumers out of this trap,” he said. President Obama included proposals to limit emergency room bills in his budget proposal, and recent regulations have made it more difficult for doctors to collect certain bills, though those rules are being fought in court by physicians. The acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has said that surprise bills are a policy priority for him. The data in the study come from one large commercial insurer, but the researchers agreed not to name it in exchange for access. Mr. Cooper said there was only a little difference in the share of surprise bills in places where the insurance company had a lot of customers, compared with those where it did less business. Emergency room doctors criticized the study’s findings and were quick to blame the insurers. The American College of Emergency Physicians, the medical society that represents the doctors, said patients are much less likely to face large unexpected bills than the study suggested, citing an analysis the group did in Florida of patients who were “balance billed,” or asked to make up the difference between what the insurer pays and what the doctor bills. “Our balance bills are less than a couple of hundred dollars, on average,” said Dr. Rebecca Parker, the group’s president. She said that most doctors want to be included in networks but that they are not being offered reasonable fees. “This is insurance company bad behavior,” said Dr. Parker, whose group this week put out a parody video that accuses the insurers of paying too little for their work. Insurance companies like to blame the physicians, arguing that while they can reach a deal with the hospitals, there are many doctors who refuse to be part of the network they offer under a plan. And the insurers argue hospitals have a responsibility to make sure the outside doctors they use to staff their emergency rooms sign contracts with the same health plans they do. “This would go a long way to reduce and prevent consumers from receiving a big surprise balance bill,” Kristine Grow, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, said in an email. The new paper’s authors agree. When Mr. Moore received his doctor’s bill, he tried appealing the charge to his insurance company. “We understand that you went to a preferred provider facility and did not have a choice of the emergency room physician who treated you,” his insurer wrote back — but denied the claim. Then he went to the private practice that had sent him the bill. It was willing to negotiate. “They knocked off half the bill,” he said. “Which is great. It’s like, would you rather get punched four times or two times? I guess two times is better. ” | 1 |
Red State :
Fox News Sunday reported this morning that Anthony Weiner is cooperating with the FBI, which has re-opened (yes, lefties: “re-opened”) the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s classified emails. Watch as Chris Wallace reports the breaking news during the panel segment near the end of the show:
And the news is breaking while we’re on the air. Our colleague Bret Baier has just sent us an e-mail saying he has two sources who say that Anthony Weiner, who also had co-ownership of that laptop with his estranged wife Huma Abedin, is cooperating with the FBI investigation, had given them the laptop, so therefore they didn’t need a warrant to get in to see the contents of said laptop. Pretty interesting development.
Targets of federal investigations will often cooperate, hoping that they will get consideration from a judge at sentencing. Given Weiner’s well-known penchant for lying, it’s hard to believe that a prosecutor would give Weiner a deal based on an agreement to testify, unless his testimony were very strongly corroborated by hard evidence. But cooperation can take many forms — and, as Wallace indicated on this morning’s show, one of those forms could be signing a consent form to allow the contents of devices that they could probably get a warrant for anyway. We’ll see if Weiner’s cooperation extends beyond that. More Related | 0 |
Complains Obama Isn't Hawkish Enough
In a new interview with Britain’s Sky News, former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen brought out the old narrative of America as the “world’s policeman,” but with a lot more upbeat of an attitude about it than one would generally see.
Rasmussen criticized President Obama for not being hawkish enough, saying his successor needs to be much more interventionist, and declaring “ we need America as the world’s policeman, ” adding that the US needs to “restore international law and order” through wars.
Rasmussen, who was always a relative hawk in the post but seems to have taken it to an entirely new level, set out a series of things the US needs to fix militarily, including Iraq, Syria, Libya, Russia, China, and North Korea. This of course closely mirrors recent Pentagon talk of wars in the decades to come.
The timing of his calls for extreme US bellicosity are centered on trying to influence the upcoming US election in favor of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who has campaigned heavily on picking fights in Syria and against Russia. Rasmussen underscored this fact by declaring Donald Trump, who openly said the US cannot be the world’s police, as “very dangerous for the world.” | 0 |
The Oklahoma Legislature on Thursday passed a bill that would effectively ban abortions by subjecting doctors who perform them to felony charges and revoking their medical licenses — the first legislation of its kind. In a year in which states have tried to outlaw abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy, to ban the main surgical method used in the second trimester and to shut down abortion clinics with onerous regulations, Oklahoma’s bill is the most . The measure, which passed the Senate by a vote of 33 to 12, will be presented to Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, who will have five days to sign it, veto it or allow it to take effect without her signature. If it becomes law, it is certain to face a quick challenge in state or federal court. And because the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that women have a right to obtain abortions until the fetus is viable outside the womb, legal experts say, it will soon be declared unconstitutional. That has not deterred politicians in a state dominated by conservative Republicans. Some say they welcome the chance to make a strong statement and to engage the issues in court. “Most people know I am for defending rights,” Senator Nathan Dahm, the author of the bill and a software developer from Broken Arrow, Okla. told The Oklahoman. “Those rights begin at conception. ” Mr. Dahm told reporters that he knew the measure would be challenged but expressed hope that the case would lead the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Ms. Fallin, who has signed several bills that were later blocked by the courts, will not comment on the new bill “until she and her staff have had a chance to review it,” Michael McNutt, her communications director, said in an email. But some legislators called the measure an diversion. “I’m and a Roman Catholic, but I don’t think we should waste our time on legislation that someone will declare unconstitutional,” Senator Ervin Yen, an anesthesiologist from Oklahoma City, and one of a small number of Republicans to oppose the bill, said in an interview. In an open letter on Thursday, the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal group based in New York, urged Ms. Fallin to veto what it said was a “blatantly unconstitutional measure. ” Noting that it has sued Oklahoma eight times in the last six years, blocking lesser restrictions like the state’s effort to ban the surgical method, the center said that “this bill will almost certainly lead to expensive court challenges that the State of Oklahoma simply cannot defend in light of longstanding Supreme Court precedent. ” The bill would strip doctors who perform abortions of their medical licenses unless the procedure was necessary to save a woman’s life. The felony provision does not include that exception. Currently, only two clinics in Oklahoma, one in Norman and one in Tulsa, provide abortions. A third, owned by Trust Women, a foundation based in Wichita, Kan. is under construction and is to open next month. Julie Burkhart, Trust Women’s chief executive, expressed dismay at the bill and urged Ms. Fallin to veto it. Oklahoma’s proposal to criminalize abortion may be the most stringent, but it is one of many new measures that continue in conservative states. This year, South Dakota joined 12 other states in banning abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy, with a similar bill in South Carolina awaiting the signature of Gov. Nikki R. Haley. Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia have passed laws to ban the use of the surgical technique even though courts in Oklahoma and elsewhere have previously overturned such laws. Texas regulations that could force a majority of the state’s abortion clinics to close are the subject of a major Supreme Court case. The rules require that doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals and that abortion clinics meet the stringent building and staffing standards of ambulatory surgery centers. The decision, expected in June, could have major effects on access to abortion in several other states. But the Supreme Court, while it is debating how far states may go in regulating abortion, has given no sign that it will overturn the basic right of women to obtain the procedure, which is at stake in the new Oklahoma bill. | 1 |
It has shown up on Irish trivia Facebook pages, in Scientific American magazine, and on white nationalist message boards: the story of the Irish slaves who built America, who are sometimes said to have outnumbered and been treated worse than slaves from Africa. But it’s not true. Historians say the idea of Irish slaves is based on a misreading of history and that the distortion is often politically motivated. memes have taken off online and are used as racist barbs against . “The Irish were slaves, too,” the memes often say. “We got over it, so why can’t you?” A small group of Irish and American scholars has spent years pushing back on the false history. Last year, 82 Irish scholars and writers signed an open letter denouncing the Irish slave myth and asking publications to stop mentioning it. Some complied, removing or revising articles that referenced the false claims, but the letter’s impact was limited. The Irish slave narrative is based on the misinterpretation of the history of indentured servitude, which is how many poor Europeans migrated to North America and the Caribbean in the early colonial period, historians said. Without a doubt, life was bad for indentured servants. They were often treated brutally. Not all of them entered servitude willingly. Some were political prisoners. Some were children. “I’m not saying it was pleasant or anything — it was the opposite — but it was a completely different category from slavery,” said Liam Hogan, a research librarian in Ireland who has spearheaded the debunking effort. “It was a transitory state. ” The legal differences between indentured servitude and chattel slavery were profound, according to Matthew Reilly, an archaeologist who studies Barbados. Unlike slaves, servants were considered legally human. Their servitude was based on a contract that limited their service to a finite period of time, usually about seven years, in exchange for passage to the colonies. They did not pass their unfree status on to descendants. Contemporary accounts in Ireland sometimes referred to these people as slaves, Mr. Hogan said. That was true in the sense that any form of coerced labor can be described as slavery, from Ancient Rome to human trafficking. But in colonial America and the Caribbean, the word “slavery” had a specific legal meaning. Europeans, by definition, were not included in it. “An indenture implies two people have entered into a contract with each other but slavery is not a contract,” said Leslie Harris, a professor of history at Northwestern University. “It is often about being a prisoner of war or being bought or sold bodily as part of a trade. That is a critical distinction. ” The memes sometimes pop up in apolitical settings, like history trivia websites, but their recent spread has mirrored escalating racial and political tension in the United States, Mr. Hogan said. Central to the memes is the notion that historians and the media are covering up the truth. He said he has received death threats from Americans for his work. “These memes are the No. 1 derailment people use when they talk about the slave trade,” he said. “Look in any or news story from the last two years and someone will mention it in the comments. ” The memes often have common elements: the false claim that Irish people were enslaved in America or the Caribbean after the 1649 British invasion of Ireland led by Oliver Cromwell the false claim that Irish slaves were cheaper and treated worse than African slaves the false claim that Irish women were forcibly “bred” with black men. Some of them are easy to disprove. Many of the memes use photographs, including of Jewish Holocaust victims or 20th century child laborers, to illustrate events they claim happened in the 17th century, long before the invention of photography. Many reference a nonexistent 1625 proclamation by King James II, who was not born until 1633. They often hijack specific atrocities committed against black slaves and substitute Irish people for the actual victims. A favorite event to use is the 1781 Zong massacre, in which over 130 African slaves were thrown to their deaths off a slave ship. InfoWars, the conspiracy site favored by President Trump, is one site that has falsely claimed Irish people were the victims of the Zong massacre, whose death toll it inflated by adding a zero to the end. “It almost becomes a race to the bottom of who suffered more,” Mr. Reilly said, adding that the memes are “an effort to claim a certain ancestry of suffering in order to claim a certain political position. ” The white slavery narrative has long been a staple of the far right, but it became specifically Irish after the 2000 publication of “To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland,” a book by the late journalist Sean O’Callaghan, which Mr. Hogan and others have said was shoddily researched. It received positive reviews in Ireland, however, and was widely read there. In America, the book connected the white slave narrative to an influential ethnic group of over 34 million people, many of whom had been raised on stories of Irish rebellion against Britain and tales of bias in America at the turn of the 20th century. From there, it took off. Mr. O’Callaghan’s work was repeated or repackaged on Irish genealogy websites, in a popular online essay, and in articles in publications like Scientific American and The Daily Kos. The claims also appeared on IrishCentral, a leading news website, where many of the Facebook comments were critical of . The memes became popular on white nationalist message boards, websites and sites like InfoWars. On social media, they are primarily a creature of Facebook, where they have been shared millions of times. Ireland has a long history of verifiable tragedies: centuries of British occupation, famine, emigration and sectarian violence. Three decades of armed conflict in Northern Ireland ended only in 1998, and paramilitary violence has intermittently flared ever since. Mr. Hogan said it was upsetting for many Irish people to see that history “used as a weapon” by Americans who claim a connection to the country. He said that for some people, it seemed like the meme was “replacing the actual history of their Irish heritage. ” It is true that sentiment was present in the United States until well into the 20th century, but that is a separate issue from 17th century indentured servitude, Ms. Harris said. The descendants of indentured servants, Irish or otherwise, did not face a legacy of racism similar to the one faced by people of African descent, she said. Nevertheless, she called the meme’s existence unsurprising. “There has been a huge backlash against talking about slavery that continues to this day,” she said, not to mention Jim Crow and other forms of discrimination against blacks that “grew out of enslavement. ” “This continued misuse of Irish history devalues the real history,” Mr. Hogan said. “There are libraries filled with all the bad things that actually did happen. We don’t need memes and these dodgy articles full of lies. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Friday relented in their flirtation with a government shutdown over a dispute about health care benefits for coal miners, and with less than an hour before the midnight deadline, the Senate approved a measure to fund the government through April. The party’s willingness to take the nation to the brink of a government shutdown signaled its intention, just weeks after its election drubbing in Rust Belt states, to quickly leverage the sorts of issues that propelled Donald J. Trump to victory. The House on Thursday passed a spending bill that would keep the government open through late April and extend through that month health care benefits for retired miners who were set to lose them at the end of the year. But Democrats wanted those benefits to last for a year, and slowed down voting on the measure with the threat of rejecting the bill. “We never intended to shut down the government,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, the incoming minority leader, said on the Senate floor Friday evening. He added, “I think we’ve made our point. ” Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, who led the charge on behalf of the miners, said that at the very least, he and his colleagues had drawn attention to “what coal miners have done for this country. ” It was unclear what Mr. Manchin and other Democrats had gained from the process. There was no legislative compromise, nor any promise of more money for miners in the future. “There’s no guarantee,” Mr. Manchin conceded, before suggesting that he and other Democrats may hold up legislation over the issue next year. “We’re going to use every tactic we can. ” Mr. Manchin faces in 2018 in a state. Asked if he thought the fight over the miners’ health care would help his chances, he said, “Well, I sure don’t think it hurts. ” On Friday morning, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, urged his Democratic colleagues to approve the spending bill, warning that without it, the miners would lose their health care at the end of the month. “This is a good time to take yes for an answer,” Mr. McConnell said. He pledged to work to prevent the expiration of the miners’ health care coverage next year and blamed Senate Democrats for contributing to the coal industry’s plight in the first place. Late Friday, senators voted, 61 to 38, on a procedural measure to advance the spending bill, barely pulling it over the line. Many Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting it, though for various reasons. Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, waited until the 60 votes needed had been cast before voting no. Soon after, about 45 minutes before the government would have shut down, the Senate approved the spending bill, 63 to 36. Democrats’ threat to shut down the government — the sort of intransigence adopted by Republicans in the recent past — indicates their willingness to use the few tools available to them to block legislation next year, when possible, and to bludgeon Republicans with populist issues on which they share common ground with Mr. Trump. Pressing his case on Thursday, Mr. Manchin said that senators from both parties had campaigned on giving a “fair shake” to working people. “It’s either put up or shut up,” he said. “You’ve asked them to vote for you because of this reason. Now you have a chance to show them that’s why you’re here. ” Mr. Manchin had furiously worked the phones on Friday to see how many senators would join him in voting against a procedural measure to advance the spending bill. But he found that many senators, like House representatives, wanted to avoid a shutdown. Senators from coal states did want to use the threat of a shutdown to bring renewed attention to the retired miners, and set up a push for a longer extension and a more lasting solution in January. While Democrats now have the opposition party mantle that Republicans held through much of the Obama presidency, the dynamics are different. For instance, while Mr. McConnell distanced himself in the past from Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas when they sought to disrupt bills, Mr. Schumer stood with Mr. Manchin on Thursday night to call for a better deal for the miners. Mr. McConnell did not prevent the government shutdown of 2013, but in later years, he worked harder to stem disputes before they got that far. “We’re going to win this fight,” Mr. Schumer said on Thursday. “We can’t predict the exact path, but we are going to win this fight, because we’re right. ” The coal industry has been decimated in recent years, with a string of bankruptcies. Lawmakers from states, as well as the United Mine Workers of America, have pushed for legislation that would protect the health care and pensions of retirees. Democrats argued that a extension of miners’ health care benefits would leave them in limbo. “I’ve tweeted Trump,” Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said on Thursday, adding that the dispute over the miners’ health care was an early test for Mr. Trump. “In those communities they live in, Trump often got 70 percent of the vote,” Mr. Brown said. “I would think he’d want to help them, but so far, he hasn’t. ” Mr. Trump has not spoken publicly about the Senate dispute, and his transition team did not respond to requests for comment, but he voiced frequent praise for coal miners during his campaign. “We’re going to put our miners back to work,” Mr. Trump said on Friday night at a rally in Michigan. “Miners, we love our miners. ” In a twist, Mr. Manchin had been scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump on Friday the meeting was postponed until Monday. In addition to the fight over the miners, Senate Democrats spoke out this week on another issue that seemed right out of Mr. Trump’s playbook, pushing to write into law a permanent requirement that steel and iron be used in water projects. Such a requirement had been removed from a water projects bill that the House approved on Thursday, and Democrats insisted, without success, that it be put back into the legislation. “The time is now for Donald Trump to take a stand in support of American workers,” said Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin. Wrapping up its work for the year, the Senate approved the water projects bill early Saturday morning. The fate of that bill was important to Michigan’s senators, as was the approval of the spending bill. Together, the two measures provide funding to Flint, Mich. and other communities dealing with drinking water. | 1 |
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Region: USA in the World Even though The American Spectator has claimed that “Obama and his crew will soon be swept into the dustbin of history”, the future of “America’s lame duck” still draws a lot of media attention. Some commentators, especially those that have been handsomely paid by the White House, are trying to somehow improve the public image of the still sitting US president who has discredited himself in a number of ways over the last 8 years, especially in such fields as “ combating ” racism in the United States and Washington’s military interventions across the globe. The New York Times would note that with less than three months left for his presidency, Barack Obama is preparing for a life after the White House that would most likely include a close relationship with Silicon Valley. As an explanation for such a statement, the newspaper provides the report on how interested President Obama was in the Dragon spacecraft built by SpaceX. President Obama even tested a program that stimulates docking the spacecraft with the International Space Station. This area of Obama’s possible interests is cited by a great many commentators as his future occupation, which seems logical since Obama’s “contribution” to US military contractors regarding profits has been paramount all throughout his years in office. However, there’s reports that Obama has diverse musical interests as well. Reportedly, his favorite music genre is soul. He listens to various artists that developed this genre, but his absolute favorite is Stevie Wonder and his “My Cherie Amour”, “All In Love Is Fair”, “For Once in My Life”, and “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. These songs can always be found in the playlist of the current American leader. Barack Obama is also found of Al Green and his vocal prowess. He tends to enjoy such saxophonists as Lester Young, John Coltrane, and Coleman Hawkins. As for rock legends, Obama prefers to listen to the legendary The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. As for the latest hits, Barack Obama has been enjoying the Canadian indie rockers Arcade Fire with their “We Used to Wait”, and the British indie-pop band Florence & The Machine with their hit “You’ve Got The Love”. As a real American president, Barack Obama just can not help but love country music as well, as he frequently listens to such bands as Zac Brown and Montgomery Gentry. So some musicians, especially in the US, have been advising Obama to switch to musical activities, perhaps playing in a banjo in a band. – It seems that it might be a good pastime for Obama after his “toying with soldiers” in the Middle East and other regions of the world. A lot of comments in various media can be found about Obama’s ties with hospitals, and Doctors Without Borders in particular. Tens of hospital have been wiped off the face of the earth and hundreds of doctors and their patients died as a result of the strikes in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, and elsewhere in the world authorized by Obama. Therefore, it seems unlikely that any hospital run by Doctors Without Borders will have the courage to turn Obama’s application down after the termination of his presidential mandate. Especially when you consider that the risk of dying under US bombs will diminish for most of its employees after January 2017. However, if the White House is then occupied by Hillary Clinton, Obama may be running the risk of coming under friendly fire if working in one of such hospitals, an irony considering his endorsement of Clinton. But the most important thing by far is that Obama will no longer be making America’s decisions, since during his time doing so, he has got the US mired in five overseas wars simultaneously , subjecting millions of innocent civilians in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to intolerable suffering, loss of shelter and families, and forced refuge in foreign lands. Therefore, the choice of a decent successor to the current lame duck president should be way more important than supporting the war party and Obama’s spiritual successor – Hillary Clinton. Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.” Popular Articles | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The F. B. I. director, James B. Comey Jr. defended himself Thursday against an onslaught of Republican criticism for ending the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, but he also provided new details that could prove damaging to her just weeks before she is to be named the Democrats’ presidential nominee. At a contentious hearing of the House oversight committee, Mr. Comey acknowledged under questioning that a number of key assertions that Mrs. Clinton made for months in defending her email system were contradicted by the F. B. I. ’s investigation. Mr. Comey said that Mrs. Clinton had failed to return “thousands” of emails to the State Department, despite her public insistence to the contrary, and that her lawyers may have destroyed classified material that the F. B. I. was unable to recover. He also described her handling of classified material as secretary of state as “negligent” — a legal term he avoided using when he announced on Tuesday that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring a case against her. The F. B. I. director repeatedly suggested that someone in the federal government who had done what Mrs. Clinton and her aides did would probably be subject to administrative sanctions. Asked whether those sanctions could include firing or the loss of security clearance, Mr. Comey said that they could. While an F. B. I. employee who mishandled classified evidence in the way that Mrs. Clinton did would not be prosecuted either, he said sternly, “they would face consequences for this. ” Mr. Comey also criticized Mrs. Clinton’s lawyers for their handling of her emails. He said that they had not actually read all of her emails before destroying them, as she had suggested, and that they may have deleted classified material without her knowledge. David Kendall, the lead lawyer on Mrs. Clinton’s team, declined to comment on this point. But Mr. Comey, in response to Republican accusations that he had employed a “double standard” to spare Mrs. Clinton from criminal charges, insisted that she was not given special consideration by the F. B. I. nor held to a more lenient standard than a less prominent person would have been. He said his team of investigators had not found clear evidence that Mrs. Clinton intended to break the law governing the use of classified materials and explained that prosecutors have “grave concerns” about using the lower legal standard of “gross negligence” in their handling, and have applied it only once in the last century. Democrats on the House oversight committee attempted to respond to the new facts presented by Mr. Comey while accusing their Republican colleagues of conducting a partisan witch hunt in their attacks on him. Republicans were not mollified, and they expressed particular frustration with Mr. Comey when he said that the F. B. I. did not examine Mrs. Clinton’s statements to Congress about her email server to determine whether she had perjured herself. Mr. Comey said to do that would have required a formal request from Congress, known as a referral. “You’ll have one in the next few hours,” responded Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who is the committee chairman. His office said later that the committee would probably issue the referral on Friday, a move that would ensure their scrutiny of Mrs. Clinton’s emails extends past the end of the criminal case. The State Department is also reopening an internal review looking at possible disciplinary action against current employees who may have been involved in the handling of Mrs. Clinton’s emails. Republicans also pressed Mr. Comey to say whether the Clinton Foundation, the global charity started by former President Bill Clinton, had become embroiled in the investigation, as some reports have suggested. Mr. Comey — who was surprisingly forthcoming on many other issues — twice declined to answer Mr. Chaffetz on that issue. Before the hearing, a smiling Mr. Chaffetz greeted Mr. Comey and thanked him for appearing so quickly at what was billed as an “emergency” hearing into the Clinton investigation. But less than 10 seconds into the start of the hearing, Mr. Chaffetz lit into the F. B. I. director over a decision he said that “mystified” him. If the “average Joe” handled classified information the way that Mrs. Clinton had, “they’d be in handcuffs,” Mr. Chaffetz said. He said there was legitimate concern that “if your name isn’t Clinton or you’re not part of the powerful elite that Lady Justice will act differently. ” In more than four and a half hours of testimony, Mr. Comey was for the most part calm and dispassionate in defending the F. B. I. ’s work, veering at times into the roles of sober federal prosecutor and erudite law school scholar — two jobs he held before taking over the bureau two years ago. But he showed occasional piques of anger when some Republicans suggested that he was part of a political agenda designed to clear Mrs. Clinton of criminal wrongdoing. Representative John Mica, Republican of Florida, told Mr. Comey that it looked as if the end of the investigation into Mrs. Clinton was choreographed, beginning with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch’s chance meeting last week with Mr. Clinton, and continuing with the F. B. I. ’s interview with Mrs. Clinton on Saturday, Mr. Comey’s announcement on Tuesday, and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign appearance with President Obama hours later. Mr. Mica said he did not know what to tell constituents talking about the case in Florida cafes. Mr. Comey grew red in the face, raising his voice as he answered the congressman. “I hope what you’ll tell the folks in the cafe is: Look me in the eye and listen to what I’m about to say. I did not coordinate that with anyone,” Mr. Comey said. “The White House, the Department of Justice, nobody outside the F. B. I. family had any idea what I was about to say. I say that under oath, I stand by that. There was no coordination. ” Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, said in a statement that Mr. Comey’s testimony “clearly knocked down a number of false Republican talking points. ” He added that “while Republicans may try to keep this issue alive, this hearing proved those efforts will only backfire. ” | 1 |
David Longstreth makes music in a former ’s workshop on the east side of Los Angeles, in an unlovely, industrial part of town. His studio sits beside a wide boulevard without nearby stop signs, red lights or crosswalks, so cars and trucks hurtle past day and night at terrifying speeds. One recent afternoon, Longstreth edged up to the curb, head swiveling. He wore an unkempt beard and scuffed desert boots that — after he spotted a narrow gap in traffic — transported him across the asphalt and into a bodega on the other side. There, he bought two gallon jugs of filtered water. He was planning a full night of recording and, he explained, “the tap water here is kind of jank. ” For the last decade and a half, Longstreth has been putting out music under the name Dirty Projectors, and it was here, beside the death gantlet, that he finished his first new LP in four years, out next week: a breakup album that he calls the most emotionally taxing thing he has made. His studio was cavernous, with gaping skylights and a battalion of movable soundproofing panels that Longstreth built D. I. Y. using materials from Home Depot. These stood sentry around a drum kit, a piano and assorted microphones and amps. An iMac, loaded with ProTools production software, sat atop a Giotto monograph and a massive tome called “Recording the Beatles. ” Leaned against a wall were framed portraits of Missy Elliott, Joni Mitchell and Beethoven — an unimpeachable holy trinity. Longstreth, 35, draws from a wide range of references, and in between seven Dirty Projectors albums he has put his fingerprints all over work by an impressive variety of artists. He teamed up with David Byrne to write a song and with Bjork to write several he adventurous R. B. with Solange Knowles devised orchestral arrangements for Joanna Newsom produced an album by the Tuareg rock guitarist Bombino and, most recognizably, wrote the luminous bridge that Rihanna sings on “FourFiveSeconds,” a smash hit from 2015 that also features Kanye West and Paul McCartney. Speaking to an interviewer in 2012, Bjork praised Longstreth’s “almost psychic ability to write for other voices. ” A freight train rumbled past the studio on tracks abutting the building. Fiddling with the placement of two microphones, Longstreth seemed not to notice. Before long, I detected another, gentler source of noise pollution. A cricket had moved into the ceiling, and its intermittent chirping provided a hypnotic overhead beat. Longstreth moved to a worn old couch and, fooling around on an electric guitar, briefly improvised against it. Longstreth has not yet made an LP of cricket duets, but you could almost imagine it. He is a playful conceptualist whose music moves in a handful of directions all at once. Dirty Projectors’ critical breakthrough was the album “Rise Above,” from 2007, in which Longstreth tried to recreate Black Flag’s 1981 punk landmark, “Damaged,” wholly from memory. The result — a covers record riddled with the flubs and inventions of forgetfulness — was a jumble of intricate syncopations, vertiginous time changes and splintery guitar work. “Rise Above” was Longstreth’s fourth album, and his first to feature the singer and guitarist Amber Coffman, who joined the cast of musicians Longstreth relied upon to tour and record. Coffman became his girlfriend, and she proved crucial to the success of the band’s next album, “Bitte Orca,” which came out in 2009 and won Dirty Projectors a wave of new fans. Longstreth’s ideas about harmony, rhythm and arranging remained unconventional, but his songwriting grew brighter and more direct. Coffman’s voice, with its strong, clean phrasing, helped this music to pass, after a fashion, as a kind of alien pop. At the couple’s apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, domestic rituals bled into the creative process, and vice versa. When they watched Wim Wenders’s “Wings of Desire” together, Longstreth asked Coffman to write down dialogue that resonated with her. These jottings became lyrics for the band’s biggest single, “Stillness Is the Move,” in 2009, on which Coffman emulated the feats of R. B. stars like Mariah Carey and Destiny’s Child. Accompanying her, Longstreth played a West guitar riff that sounded like something colorful shattering. The song put Dirty Projectors at the forefront of the booming Brooklyn scene, alongside simpatico acts like Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear. These bands booked worldwide tours, landed prominent festival slots, licensed songs to ad campaigns and crossed over to mainstream audiences. Among Dirty Projectors’ converts was Jay Z, who sent a handwritten note asking them to join a festival he was organizing the star Diplo, who flew Coffman and Longstreth to Jamaica to work with him and the French rockers Phoenix, who invited the band to open for them at Madison Square Garden. In 2013, after a year of intense touring to support Dirty Projectors’ assured sixth album, “Swing Lo Magellan,” Longstreth and Coffman split. The album was not the commercial success Longstreth had hoped for. “You think an album’s gonna propel you forward, and then it doesn’t, at least not immediately,” says Brett Williams, the music manager who represents both Longstreth and Coffman. This shortfall, paired with the breakup, sent Longstreth into a depression. “I was super bummed,” he said. “The band and my relationship with Amber had become so intertwined that, when we broke up, it felt like everything that had defined my life for a decade was suddenly gone. ” Gradually he began making music again “to try to work through what I was feeling. ” The first song he released was the sparse, glitchy “Keep Your Name. ” In writing the lyrics, he drew on a convention: “It’s a divorce song,” Longstreth said. The opening line is “I don’t know why you abandoned me,” and he soon drops a knotty clue about fissures between him and Coffman: “What I want from art is truth — what you want is fame. ” In building the vocals, meanwhile, Longstreth digitally lowered the pitch of his singing in a nod to DJ Screw, a Houston innovator who wrung from this effect a narcotic quality that Longstreth was curious to explore in his song about heartbreak. The single, smoldering with recrimination, offered the first outward sign of turbulence within the group. Two weeks after its release, last fall, Coffman put out her own single, “All to Myself,” about finding solace in solitude. It emerged that she had an album of solo material due in 2017. Conjecture filled blog posts and comment sections. What was going on with Dirty Projectors? What did these dueling releases mean? The answer was complicated. After their breakup, Longstreth and Coffman reached a détente solid enough that she asked him to produce her solo record. “It was a good thing for our friendship, to reverse the roles we’d played in Dirty Projectors, where everything had been in the service of my vision,” Longstreth said. “Here, I was in service of her ideas, trying to bring them out into the world. We were reinventing how we related to each other. ” By the end of 2015, they’d more or less finished the album. In an act of symbolic accord, its last song shared musical motifs with the last song on Longstreth’s. Around this time, however, things soured again, and when I spoke with Longstreth in his studio, he said that, with some stray exceptions, he and Coffman hadn’t spoken in a year. “I want us to be close friends, and to work together again,” he said. But “things between us,” he noted unhappily, “have been better. ” Now each of their projects was scheduled to come out within a couple of months of the other: They weren’t talking, but their music was in direct conversation. On the floor of Longstreth’s studio were 15 stacks of index cards. The topmost cards bore different inscriptions in black Sharpie: These were names of new songs in various stages of completion, with each stack containing Longstreth’s notes for a different song. “Uh, I guess you can look at those,” he said when he saw me standing over the stacks. He explained that this organizational system was one he used on “Dirty Projectors” too, but as to whether another album was underway, he demurred: “I’m just working through some numbers. ” An engineer named Robby Moncrieff commandeered the iMac, dialing up the ProTools session for a song currently called “Suck My Lifestyle. ” It featured a riot of snares, bongos, tambourines, cabasas, and claps. Some of these instruments were acoustic others, . The acoustic sounds derived from recordings Longstreth made of the virtuoso percussionist Mauro Refosco, who backs Thom Yorke and Flea in the band Atoms for Peace. Longstreth had manipulated these recordings, sampling individual hits and rearranging them, with software, into wild new configurations. “It’s a way to use the dynamics and imperfections of his performance to make an impossible rhythm,” Longstreth said. “Suck My Lifestyle” contained a place holder guitar riff that was, like the beat, a product of ample technological mediation. Longstreth had cut and pasted recordings of his own playing, then rearranged these snippets to compose a new riff. The ensuing melody behaved in unexpected ways — doubling back on itself, unfurling, stammering. As Moncrieff recorded him, Longstreth sat with an acoustic guitar and diligently replayed the digitized riff live, returning it to the realm of the analog: an oil painting of a Photoshop collage. Much of the music on “Dirty Projectors,” he told me, had come together in this way. Whereas fragmentation and reconciliation are major themes on any breakup album, Longstreth had made them compositional strategies too. When I asked him to explain the tensions with Coffman, Longstreth declined, out of respect for her, he said, and to “keep certain personal things personal. ” But many lyrics on “Dirty Projectors” grapple with the breakup, whether it’s lines in “Keep Your Name” about or his seeming admission, on the slithering “Death Spiral,” that he “condescended relentlessly. ” After I inquired into their romantic troubles, Longstreth said his desire was to “leave it to the music,” while reminding me that the album was a work of art, grounded in truth but subject to distortions. “Not a journal,” he said. (Coffman declined to speak to me for this article. Her publicist said, “Her focus right now is on her own music. ”) For Longstreth, moreover, the three years it took to make the album had allowed its meaning to dilate. He initially wrote the second single, “Little Bubble,” to describe the sphere of happiness he and Coffman temporarily shared, but here in 2017 “bubble” had become a buzzword, referring to the supposedly cosseted perspective of “coastal elites,” and now the song’s poignant refrain — “we had our own little bubble, for a while” — sounded like a postelection elegy. Longstreth hoped when he wrote “Dirty Projectors” for such added resonances to accrue, and in devising motifs that worked in the context of a breakup album but also brooked alternate interpretations, he was inspired in part by his exposure, while working on “FourFiveSeconds,” to the songwriting methods of Kanye West. (According to Longstreth, West initially envisioned that track as a solo, then added Rihanna.) In 2015 West asked Longstreth over to his L. A. home to toss around ideas. West routinely assembles motley creative brain trusts, and the brusque, Bronx rapper French Montana and the slick Canadian singer the Weeknd were there, too. This invitation led to another, to the Mexican seaside village of Punta Mita, where West rented a mansion belonging to the “Girls Gone Wild” impresario Joe Francis and transformed it into a songwriting headquarters for his album “The Life of Pablo. ” Longstreth, a coffee geek who observes a precise ritual, brought along his own ceramic dripper and, as he put it, “Third Wave roasted beans,” which apparently entertained West’s wife, Kim Kardashian. “She asked me, ‘Are you making, like, a caramel macchiato? ’’u2009” Longstreth recalled. Other guests included Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend and the rappers Rhymefest and Big Sean. “Kanye has this discursive way of working, getting input from a range of people, that I thought was really cool,” Longstreth said. He described a moment when West played a tape he’d made of Paul McCartney playing a Wurlitzer while West improvised a vocal, feeling his way through the music by making nonsense sounds. Amid this gibberish, “something he sang sounded sort of like ‘Memories can get you into trouble,’’u2009” Longstreth recalled. Struck by this phrase, he and Koenig went off to write a song exploring its potential meanings. “Like, maybe you’re with your girlfriend but thinking of your ex,” Longstreth explained. After Mexico, Longstreth kept in touch with Elon Rutberg, one of West’s main creative advisers, and solicited his feedback about “Dirty Projectors. ” Of the “Memories” song, Longstreth added, “Kanye didn’t wind up using it, but it was good — maybe something will come of it down the line. ” The path that Longstreth took to hanging out with Kanye West in Mexican mansions is improbable. He grew up on five acres of farmland in central Connecticut, where his parents moved from the Bay Area in the late ’70s. They levied a prohibition on video games and grew their own food. “They were into subsistence farming — ‘back to the land,’’u2009” he says. “They had a cow or two, sheep, goats, geese. They made their own cheese. We ate eggs from our chickens, who were my responsibility. ” His older brother, Jake, exposed him to “cool stuff,” David recalls, like “music and drawing. He showed me how to play the riff from Nirvana’s ‘Come as You Are. ’’u2009” Through Nirvana, Jake, who is now a painter in Los Angeles, got into “other weirder, smaller bands from the late ’80s and ’90s West Coast underground,” Longstreth continued, “and from there, into the first generation of punk. ” Their parents, he added, “were rock ’n’ rollers in the ’60s, but they listened pretty widely: baroque music titans of ’40s, ’50s, ’60s jazz the ‘Big Chill’ soundtrack. ” In 1999, when Jake left for college in Portland, Ore. David inherited his Tascam recorder. With all these influences swimming through his head, he recalled, he “started making albums. My brother still has a suitcase with, like, 100 tapes we made as kids. ” Longstreth’s early recordings were rough by design: and even ugly. “I used to feel that musical knowledge and emotional were antagonistic,” he said, invoking bedrock punk principles. “But I was too curious about chords and instruments and recording to stay locked in that mentality. ” He enrolled at Yale, where he studied music, but was unhappy. “It was about training the next generation of global power elite,” Longstreth said of the campus culture. “It wasn’t about intellectual curiosity or mastery. ” He dropped out and traveled to Portland, where Jake had enmeshed himself in the demimonde, and where David began giving his own concerts at house parties. After about a year, he returned to Yale to finish his degree. “It would not have been cool with my parents if I didn’t,” he explained. There, he assumed the name Dirty Projectors and made one of his best, and strangest, albums, “The Getty Address,” which was a tracing the spiritual wanderings of a fictitious version of the Eagles’ Don Henley. The libretto was a fanciful meditation on, among other things, entwined forms of imperialism, and in Longstreth’s rendering Henley became a sort of Oppenheimer, conflicted about his epochal hits and their role in the flattening of world culture. For the music, Longstreth “wrote and recorded arrangements for wind septet, women’s choir and cello octet,” according to accompanying text, then “digitally deconstructed” these sessions “and sang over the reconstituted parts. ” Songs alluded to Steve Reich, Justin Timberlake and, as Longstreth put it to me, “a kitschy, exoticist, American fantasy of what Chinese music sounds like. ” These collisions of era and idiom doubled, for him, as elaborate arguments, but you didn’t need to fully grasp these in order to appreciate the album’s beauty. By the time Longstreth moved to Brooklyn, he was something of a minor legend in circles: ascetic, eccentric and respected for it. Ezra Koenig told me that, in college, he passingly considered becoming a music critic, but the only review he ever wrote was an “embarrassing” rave, published in the online magazine Dusted, about Dirty Projectors’ 2003 debut album. A couple of years later, Koenig befriended Longstreth and came aboard Dirty Projectors as a touring saxophonist and keyboardist — joining an group of musicians whose members also included the bassist Nat Baldwin, the drummer Brian McOmber and the singers Haley Dekle and Angel Deradoorian. When Longstreth moved to a place in Koenig, then a schoolteacher, was among his roommates. “I remember him recording music in the middle of the night, when I had to be up at 7 a. m. for work,” Koenig said. The friendship survived, and Koenig was among Longstreth’s sounding boards as he “Dirty Projectors” for release. “I watched him go from living in a windowless room, making what most people would call difficult music, to being a part of Rihanna and Solange songs,” Koenig said. He added that, even as Longstreth’s profile has risen, there has been a constancy to his music: “Compositionally, he does harmonic stuff no one else is doing. There’s a thread that runs through all Dave’s work, where the sensibility is unmistakably him. ” One morning, I met Longstreth for breakfast burritos near the house in Highland Park that he shares with his girlfriend, an artist liaison at an L. A. gallery. Afterward we walked to his cluttered Prius, where he retrieved “The Fractal Geometry of Nature,” a book by the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot featuring fractals. “This is a late Christmas present for my friend Zach Harris,” Longstreth explained. “He’s a painter, and his studio’s just down the block. Do you want to pop in on him?” Longstreth moved to California in 2014, and through his girlfriend and his brother, he gained entry into a circle of fine artists in town. He enjoyed visiting with Harris, he said, and trading ideas about work: “Zach has this whole cosmology behind everything he does. ” Lately they’d been discussing tantalizing geometries, like Fibonacci spirals and Mandelbrot sets, and these conversations inspired Longstreth’s gift. Harris welcomed Longstreth into his studio with a hug. He wore a mustache and white jeans. His work space, he explained, “used to be a grow house. I converted it three years ago, and we found all this weed still here. Some bullets too. ” A dozen or so paintings ringed the room, all very large. Many were covered and crisscrossed by carved pieces of wood that Harris had machined with a laser, then painted colors. Between these lattices he’d inscribed legions of tiny figures engaged in odd, feverish interactions. I spied a roaring lion near a cluster of winged archers and, in a cheekier register, a parody of the “March of Progress” illustration that riffed on Nike’s Jumpman logo. Longstreth inspected a painting up close, in which a woman and a devil were engaged in a contortive sex act. “Stories start suggesting themselves,” Harris said, “and I follow them. I’m really into making these little universes you can get lost in. ” The two seemed to regard each other as kindred spirits. “Dave and I talk a lot about structures that all art forms share,” Harris went on. Longstreth nodded. “I love thinking of one medium as analogous to another, even if they aren’t, quite,” he replied. “Working on this new album, I’d lose focus on a song after a while, but thinking of it as if it were a painting allowed me to come at it again, in a new light. ” Harris waved a hand over one of his canvases. “There’s a thing here and an Egyptian thing here — in painting, you can take all these different visual languages and styles and put them together. There’s a sense of that in Dave’s songs, too. Traditions he’s bringing together and synthesizing. ” Longstreth appeared to blush at the sound of his friend describing his music with such care. “Maybe,” he said, shrugging. He lingered a bit more, paging through the Mandelbrot book. “He figured out the math and ratios that generate this stuff,” Longstreth said. “There are names for all of these. ” Before long, Longstreth said goodbye and made for his Prius, which he pointed toward his studio. It was nearly noon, and he had his own little universe to get lost in. | 1 |
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WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
– From Major General Smedley Butler’s War is a Rackett
Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich has just penned an extremely powerful warning about the warmongers in Washington D.C. Who funds them, what their motives are, and why it is imperative for the American people to stop them.
The piece was published at The Nation and is titled: Why Is the Foreign Policy Establishment Spoiling for More War? Look at Their Donors .
Read it and share it with everyone you know.
W ashington, DC, may be the only place in the world where people openly flaunt their pseudo-intellectuality by banding together, declaring themselves “think tanks,” and raising money from external interests, including foreign governments, to compile reports that advance policies inimical to the real-life concerns of the American people.
As a former member of the House of Representatives, I remember 16 years of congressional hearings where pedigreed experts came to advocate wars in testimony based on circular, rococo thinking devoid of depth, reality, and truth. I remember other hearings where the Pentagon was unable to reconcile over $1 trillion in accounts, lost track of $12 billion in cash sent to Iraq, and rigged a missile-defense test so that an interceptor could easily home in on a target. War is first and foremost a profitable racket.
How else to explain that in the past 15 years this city’s so called bipartisan foreign policy elite has promoted wars in Iraq and Libya, and interventions in Syria and Yemen, which have opened Pandora’s box to a trusting world, to the tune of trillions of dollars, a windfall for military contractors. DC’s think “tanks” should rightly be included in the taxonomy of armored war vehicles and not as gathering places for refugees from academia.
According to the front page of this past Friday’s Washington Post, the bipartisan foreign-policy elite recommends the next president show less restraint than President Obama. Acting at the urging of “liberal” hawks brandishing humanitarian intervention, read war, the Obama administration attacked Libya along with allied powers working through NATO.
Indeed, I warned about this in last week’s piece: U.S. Foreign Policy ‘Elite’ Eagerly Await an Expansion of Overseas Wars Under Hillary Clinton .
The think tankers fell in line with the Iraq invasion. Not being in the tank, I did my own analysis of the call for war in October of 2002, based on readily accessible information, and easily concluded that there was no justification for war. I distributed it widely in Congress and led 125 Democrats in voting against the Iraq war resolution. There was no money to be made from a conclusion that war was uncalled for, so, against millions protesting in the United States and worldwide, our government launched into an abyss, with a lot of armchair generals waving combat pennants. The marching band and chowder society of DC think tanks learned nothing from the Iraq and Libya experience.
The only winners were arms dealers, oil companies, and jihadists. Immediately after the fall of Libya, the black flag of Al Qaeda was raised over a municipal building in Benghazi, Gadhafi’s murder was soon to follow, with Secretary Clinton quipping with a laugh, “We came, we saw, he died.” President Obama apparently learned from this misadventure, but not the Washington policy establishment, which is spoiling for more war.
The self-identified liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) is now calling for Syria to be bombed, and estimates America’s current military adventures will be tidied up by 2025, a tardy twist on “mission accomplished.” CAP, according to a report in The Nation, has received funding from war contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who make the bombers that CAP wants to rain hellfire on Syria.
The Brookings Institute has taken tens of millions from foreign governments , notably Qatar, a key player in the military campaign to oust Assad. Retired four-star Marine general John Allen is now a Brookings senior fellow . Charles Lister is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute , which has received funding from Saudi Arabia , the major financial force providing billions in arms to upend Assad and install a Sunni caliphate stretching across Iraq and Syria. Foreign-government money is driving our foreign policy.
As the drumbeat for an expanded war gets louder, Allen and Lister jointly signed an op-ed in the Sunday Washington Post, calling for an attack on Syria. The Brookings Institute, in a report to Congress , admitted it received $250,000 from the US Central Command, Centcom, where General Allen shared leadership duties with General David Petraeus. Pentagon money to think tanks that endorse war? This is academic integrity, DC-style.
And why is Central Command, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of transportation, and the US Department of Health and Human Services giving money to Brookings?
Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who famously told Colin Powell , “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it,” predictably says of this current moment , “We do think there needs to be more American action.” A former Bush administration top adviser is also calling for the United States to launch a cruise missile attack on Syria.
The American people are fed up with war, but a concerted effort is being made through fearmongering, propaganda, and lies to prepare our country for a dangerous confrontation, with Russia in Syria.
The demonization of Russia is a calculated plan to resurrect a raison d’être for stone-cold warriors trying to escape from the dustbin of history by evoking the specter of Russian world domination.
It’s infectious. Earlier this year the BBC broadcast a fictional show that contemplated WWIII, beginning with a Russian invasion of Latvia (where 26 percent of the population is ethnic Russian and 34 percent of Latvians speak Russian at home).
The imaginary WWIII scenario conjures Russia’s targeting London for a nuclear strike. No wonder that by the summer of 2016 a poll showed two-thirds of UK citizens approved the new British PM’s launching a nuclear strike in retaliation. So much for learning the lessons detailed in the Chilcot report.
As this year’s presidential election comes to a conclusion, the Washington ideologues are regurgitating the same bipartisan consensus that has kept America at war since 9/11 and made the world a decidedly more dangerous place.
The DC think tanks provide cover for the political establishment, a political safety net, with a fictive analytical framework providing a moral rationale for intervention, capitol casuistry. I’m fed up with the DC policy elite who cash in on war while presenting themselves as experts, at the cost of other people’s lives, our national fortune, and the sacred honor of our country.
Any report advocating war that comes from any alleged think tank ought to be accompanied by a list of the think tank’s sponsors and donors and a statement of the lobbying connections of the report’s authors.
It is our patriotic duty to expose why the DC foreign-policy establishment and its sponsors have not learned from their failures and instead are repeating them, with the acquiescence of the political class and sleepwalkers with press passes.
It is also time for a new peace movement in America, one that includes progressives and libertarians alike, both in and out of Congress, to organize on campuses, in cities, and towns across America, to serve as an effective counterbalance to the Demuplican war party, its think tanks, and its media cheerleaders. The work begins now, not after the Inauguration. We must not accept war as inevitable, and those leaders who would lead us in that direction, whether in Congress or the White House, must face visible opposition.
Thank you Mr. Kucinich, I couldn’t agree more.
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Get short URL 0 13 0 0 The 40-million strong African American community deserved "new deal" to transform their communities, safety and economic prospects as well as the future of their children, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The city of Charlotte was the site of a mass-murder that shocked the United States last year when nine African Americans holding a Bible study in their church were shot dead. A young white racist Dylann Storm Roof is facing trial charged with the crime. © REUTERS/ Mike Segar Half of US Voters Concerned About Potential Violence on Election Day "[It is time for] a new deal for black America," Trump said in on Wednesday. "I am asking for the honor of your vote and the privilege of serving as your president and I will not let you down… Whether you vote for me or not , I will be your greatest champion." © AP Photo/ Don Ryan Black Lives Matter Activist Endorses Clinton for US President in Opinion Article
Trump said he proposed a three-point plan for the African American community that focused on creating safe communities, great education and high paying jobs. "My vision rests on a principle that has defined this campaign right from the beginning: It is called America First… Every African American citizen in this country is entitled to a job that puts them first… I work for you and I work only for you," Trump noted. ... | 0 |
I’m not an immigrant, but my grandparents are. More than 50 years ago, they arrived in New York City from Iran. I grew up mainly in central New Jersey, an American kid playing little league for the Raritan Red Sox and soccer for the Raritan Rovers. In 1985, I travelled with my family to our ancestral land. I was only eight, but old enough to understand that the Iranians had lost their liberty and freedom. I saw the abject despair of a people who, in a desperate attempt to bring about change, had ushered in nationalist tyrants led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
What I witnessed during that year in Iran changed the course of my life. In 1996, at age 19, wanting to help preserve the blessings of liberty and freedom we enjoy in America, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Now, with the rise of Donald Trump and his nationalist alt-right movement, I’ve come to feel that the values I sought to protect are in jeopardy.
In Iran, theocratic fundmentalists sowed division and hatred of outsiders — of Westerners, Christians, and other religious minorities. Here in America, the right wing seems to have stolen passages directly from their playbook as it spreads hatred of immigrants, particularly Muslim ones. This form of nationalistic bigotry — Islamophobia — threatens the heart of our nation. When I chose to serve in the military, I did so to protect what I viewed as our sacred foundational values of liberty, equality, and democracy. Now, 20 years later, I’ve joined forces with fellow veterans to again fight for those sacred values, this time right here at home.
“Death to America!”
As a child, I sat in my class at the international school one sunny morning and heard in the distance the faint sounds of gunfire and rising chants of “Death to America!” That day would define the rest of my life.
It was Tehran, the capital of Iran, in 1985. I was attending a unique school for bilingual students who had been born in Western nations. It had become the last refuge in that city with any tolerance for Western teaching, but that also made it a target for military fundamentalists. As the gunfire drew closer, I heard boots pounding the marble tiles outside, marching into our building, and thundering down the corridor toward my classroom. As I heard voices chanting “Death to America!” I remember wondering if I would survive to see my parents again.
In a flash of green and black uniforms, those soldiers rushed into our classroom, grabbed us by our shirt collars, and yelled at us to get outside. We were then packed into the school’s courtyard where a soldier pointed his rifle at our group and commanded us to look up. Almost in unison, my classmates and I raised our eyes and saw the flags of our many nations being torn down and dangled from the balcony, then set ablaze and tossed, still burning, into the courtyard. As those flags floated to the ground in flames, the soldiers fired their guns in the air. Shouting, they ordered us — if we ever wanted to see our families again — to swear allegiance to the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini and trample on the remains of the burning symbols of our home countries. I scanned the smoke that was filling the courtyard for my friends and classmates and, horrified, watched them capitulate and begin to chant, “Death to America!” as they stomped on our sacred symbols.
I was so angry that, young as I was, I began to plead with them to come to their senses. No one paid the slightest attention to an eight year old and yet, for the first time in my life, I felt something like righteous indignation. I suspect that, born and raised in America, I was already imbued with such a sense of privilege that I just couldn’t fathom the immense danger I was in. Certainly, I was acting in ways no native Iranian would have found reasonable.
Across the smoke-filled courtyard, I saw a soldier coming at me and knew he meant to force me to submit. I spotted an American flag still burning, dropped to my knees, and grabbed the charred pieces from underneath a classmate’s feet. As the soldier closed in on me, I ducked and ran, still clutching my charred pieces of flag into a crowd of civilians who had gathered to witness the commotion. The events of that day would come to define all that I have ever stood for — or against.
“Camel Jockey,” “Ayatollah,” and “Gandhi”
My parents and I soon returned to the United States and I entered third grade. More than anything, I just wanted to be normal, to fit in and be accepted by my peers. Unfortunately, my first name, Nader (which I changed to Nate upon joining the Navy), and my swarthy Middle Eastern appearance, were little help on that score, eliciting regular jibes from my classmates. Even at that young age, they had already mastered a veritable thesaurus of ethnic defamation, including “camel jockey,” “sand-nigger,” “raghead,” “ayatollah,” and ironically, “Gandhi” (which I now take as a compliment). My classmates regularly sought to “other-ize” me in those years, as if I were a lesser American because of my faith and ethnicity.
Yet I remember that tingling in my chest when I first donned my Cub Scout uniform — all because of the American flag patch on its shoulder. Something felt so good about wearing it, a feeling I still had when I joined the military. It seems that the flag I tried to rescue in Tehran was stapled to my heart, or that’s how I felt anyway as I wore my country’s uniform.
When I took my oath of enlistment in the U.S. Navy, I gave my mom a camera and asked her to take some photos, but she was so overwhelmed with pride and joy that she cried throughout the ceremony and managed to snap only a few images of the carpet. She cried even harder when I was selected to serve as the first Muslim-American member of the U.S. Navy Presidential Ceremonial Honor Guard . On that day, I was proud, too, and all the taunts of those bullies of my childhood seemed finally silenced.
Being tormented because of my ethnicity and religion in those early years had another effect on me. It caused me to become unusually sensitive to the nature of other people. Somehow, I grasped that, if it weren’t for a fear of the unknown, there was an inherent goodness and frail humanity lurking in many of the kids who bullied and harassed me. Often, I discovered, those same bullies could be tremendously kind to their families, friends, or even strangers. I realized, then, that if, despite everything, I could lay myself bare and trust them enough to reach out in kindness, I might in turn gain their trust and they might then see me, too, and stop operating from such a place of fear and hate.
Through patience, humor, and understanding, I was able to offer myself as the embodiment of my people and somehow defang the “otherness” of so much that Americans found scary. To this day, I have friends from elementary school, middle school, high school, and the military who tell me that I am the only Muslim they have ever known and that, had they not met me, their perspective on Islam would have been wholly subject to the prevailing fear-based narrative that has poisoned this country since September 11, 2001.
In 1998, I became special assistant to the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy and then, in 1999, I was recruited to serve at the Defense Intelligence Agency. In August 2000, I transferred to the Naval Reserve.
In the wake of 9/11, I began to observe how so many of my fellow Americans were adopting a fundamentalist “us vs. them” attitude towards Muslims and Islam. I suddenly found myself in an America where the scattered insults I had endured as a child took on an overarching and sinister meaning and form, where they became something like an ideology and way of life.
By the time I completed my military service in 2006, I had begun to understand that our policies in the Middle East,similarly disturbed, seemed in pursuit of little more than perpetual warfare. That, in turn, was made possible by the creation of a new enemy: Islam — or rather of a portrait, painted by the powers-that-be, of Islam as a terror religion, as a hooded villain lurking out there somewhere in the desert, waiting to destroy us. I knew that attempting to dispel, through the patient approach of my childhood, the kind of Islamophobia that now had the country by the throat was not going to be enough. Post-9/11 attacks on Muslims in the U.S. and elsewhere were not merely childish taunts.
For the first time in my life, in a country gripped by fear, I believed I was witnessing a shift, en masse, toward an American fundamentalism and ultra-nationalism that reflected a wanton lack of reason, not to mention fact. As a boy in Iran, I had witnessed the dark destination down which such a path could take a country. Now, it seemed to me, in America’s quest to escape the very demons we had sown by our own misadventures in the Middle East, and forsaking the hallmarks of our founding, we risked becoming everything we sought to defeat.
The Boy in the Schoolyard Grown Up
On February 10, 2015, three young American students, Yusor Abu-Salha, Razan Abu-Salha, and Deah Shaddy Barakat, were executed at an apartment complex in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The killer was a gun-crazy white man filled with hate and described by his own daughter as “a monster.” Those assassinations struck a special chord of sorrow and loss in me. My mom and I cried and prayed together for those students and their families.
The incident in Chapel Hill also awoke in me some version of the righteous indignation I had felt so many years earlier in that smoke-filled courtyard in Iran. I would be damned if I stood by while kids in my country were murdered simply because of their faith. It violated every word of the oath I had taken when I joined the military and desecrated every value I held in my heart as a sacred tenet of our nation. White nationalists and bigots had, by then, thrown down the gauntlet for so much of this, using Islamophobia to trigger targeted assassinations in the United States. This was terrorism, pure and simple, inspired by hate-speakers here at home.
At that moment, I reached out to fellow veterans who, I thought, might be willing to help — and it’s true what they say about soul mates being irrevocably drawn to each other. When I contacted Veterans For Peace , an organization dedicated to exposing the costs of war and militarism, I found the leadership well aware of the inherent dangers of Islamophobia and of the need to confront this new enemy. So Executive Director Michael McPhearson formed a committee of vets from around the country to decide how those of us who had donned uniforms to defend this land could best battle the phenomenon — and I, of course, joined it.
From that committee emerged Veterans Challenge Islamophobia (VCI). It now has organizers in Arizona, Georgia, New Jersey, and Texas, and that’s just a beginning. Totally nonpartisan, VCI focuses on politicians of any party who engage in hate speech. We’ve met with leaders of American Muslim communities, sat with them through Ramadan, and attended their Iftar dinners to break our fasts together. In the wake of the Orlando shooting , we at VCI also mobilized to fight back against attempts to pit the Muslim community against the LGBTQ+ community.
Our group was born of the belief that, as American military veterans, we had a responsibility to call out bigotry, hatred, and the perpetuation of endless warfare. We want the American Muslim community to know that they have allies, and that those allies are indeed veterans as well. We stand with them and for them and, for those of us who are Muslim, among them.
Nationalism and xenophobia have no place in American life, and I, for my part, don’t think Donald Trump or anyone like him should be able to peddle Islamophobia in an attempt to undermine our national unity. Without Islamophobia, there no longer exists a “clash of civilizations.” Without Islamophobia, whatever the problems in the world may be, there is no longer an “us vs. them” and it’s possible to begin reimagining a world of something other than perpetual war.
As of now, this remains the struggle of my life, for despite my intense love for America, some of my countrymen increasingly see American Muslims as the “other,” the enemy.
My Mom taught me as a boy that the only thing that mattered was what was in my heart. Now, with her in mind and as a representative of VCI, when I meet fellow Americans I always remember my childhood experiences with my bullying peers. And I still lay myself bare, as I did then. I give trust to gain trust, but always knowing that these days this isn’t just a matter of niceties. It’s a question of life or death. It’s part of a battle for the soul of our nation.
In many ways, I still consider myself that boy in the school courtyard in Tehran trying to rescue charred pieces of that flag from those trampling feet. It’s just that now I’m doing it in my own country.
Nate Terani is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and served in military intelligence with the Defense Intelligence Agency. He is currently a member of the leadership team at Common Defense PAC and regional campaign organizer with Veterans Challenge Islamophobia . He is a featured columnist with the Arizona Muslim Voice newspaper. (Reprinted from TomDispatch by permission of author or representative) | 0 |
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The Republican National Committee launched a new video advertisement Thursday hitting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on her support for the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare.”
The 27-second video, which is part of a five-figure campaign on Facebook, details the recent developments surrounding increased healthcare premiums for individuals in certain states by reminding voters of Clinton's support for the landmark law.
The video, obtained by Independent Journal Review, also plays Clinton's quote taking credit for the Affordable Care Act's framework:
“Before it was called Obamacare, it was called Hillarycare.”
In a statement, RNC chairman Reince Priebus said, “Hillary Clinton’s tone deaf promises to expand Obamacare will only mean a greater strain on the finances of many American families,” adding:
“Hillary Clinton has for years touted her own botched healthcare plans as the blueprint for this trainwreck of a law that was designed to fail, and the almost daily reports of skyrocketing premiums, disappearing options, and collapsing state exchanges will remain a reality if she is president.”
Obamacare's struggles have been a prominent focus for Republicans in many down-ballot races across the United States. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has touched on the issue as well, releasing a brief healthcare position paper .
Because of Clinton's role in the framework and selling of the Affordable Care Act, Priebus said that voters should reject Clinton.
“The best way to hold Hillary Clinton and Democrats in Congress accountable for this mess is to elect Donald Trump president and return Republican majorities to the House and Senate so we can pass patient-centered healthcare reform that won’t cripple family budgets," he said. | 0 |
Home » Headlines » World News » FBI Discovered Emails Weeks Ago, Stash Includes Classified Emails “Likely” Deleted By Clinton – Wikileaks
JACKPOT…
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 31, 2016
Lost in all this is further criminal revelations from Wikileaks regarding donations: Tina Flournoy, Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, tells Hillary Clinton campain chair John Podesta: https://t.co/xPuAzjvBEM pic.twitter.com/PhMvUu7m3F
Meanwhile, Wikileaks begins “Phase 3” of the Hillary leaks this week: We commence phase 3 of our US election coverage next week. You can contribute: https://t.co/MsNZhrTzTL @WLTaskForce pic.twitter.com/XferJnMGux
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Напомним, Эдуард Шифрин является одним из соучредителей холдинга Midland Group, которая ведет проекты в области металлургии, недвижимости и сельского хозяйства. На территории РФ компания владеет различной недвижимостью. По оценкам финансовых аналитиков, состояние Шифрина составляет более 1 млрд долларов.
Прокомментировать ситуацию Pravda.Ru попросила руководителя Института политических исследований при Депортаменте стран СНГ Алексея Бычкова.
— Почему богатые люди с Украины уезжают не на Запад, а в Россию?
— Прежде всего, это связано с тем, что в 2014 году произошла "революция недвижимости", как об этом говорят на Украине, прежде всего имея в виду передел сфер влияния олигархов. Кто-то в этом переделе получил преимущество, например, Порошенко, Коломойский получили там новые предприятия и новые финансовые механизмы. А кто-то, наоборот, потерял, например, Ахметов.
В основном убытки понесли представители, скажем так, донецкой и восточной группы, тот же Шифрин из Днепропетровска. Сейчас, естественно, эти люди имеют серьезное влияние — финансовое и политическое — на Украине, и у них по-прежнему до сих пор сохраняются определенные политические силы, финансовые механизмы воздействия.
Поэтому я считаю, что Москва принимает правильное решение. С одной стороны, она объединяет людей, скажем так, положительно относящихся к России. Здесь безусловно важно отметить, что у Шифрина большое количества бизнесов находится в России, много недвижимости, которая находится на территории России. Естественно, этим людям более выгодно взаимодействие с Россией.
Когда произошел Майдан, Украина раскололось на две части не только с точки зрения языкового отношения, культурного отношения, типа "русский мир" и "украинские националисты". Раскол прошел и с точки зрения крупных финансовых магнатов, в частности, олигархов. И этот раскол в перспективе приведет к тому, что Украина прекратит существовать как государство.
На сегодняшний день происходит гражданская война (по другому ее не назовешь), и это последствия того, что одни люди, скажем так, пытались отодвинуть других влиятельных людей на Украине и заполучить бразды правления и финансовые механизмы. А из-за этого, естественно, страдают простые люди. Есть такая украинская поговорка, паны скубятся, а у холопов чубы летят.
— Не вызовет ли эта история недовольство, учитывая, что, скажем, украинскому шахтеру, наверное, не так просто получить российское гражданство. Сколько у нас украинцев, и нормально ли у них миграционные вопросы решаются?
— Это политическая история. Она никак не связана с миграционными потоками. Это сугубо связано с тем, что влиятельных людей, которые критически относятся в нынешнее время к правительству в Киеве, Владимир Владимирович Путин объединяет вокруг себя.
С одной стороны, это положительно с точки зрения позиции "враг моего врага — мой друг". С другой стороны, у нас у самих огромное количество олигархов, чье состояние хранится в лондонских, кипрских и других банках за пределами Российской Федерации. И естественно, новые олигархи, у которых состояние исчисляется в фунтах, тот же Шифрин, который уже на протяжении долго периода времени проживал не на территории Украины, а в Англии, сложно сказать, какое влияние будут оказывать. Ведь Англия сейчас является главным геополитическим врагом России. Насколько это правильное, взвешенное с точки зрения далеко идущих планов решение — это уже сложно оценить. Но это политическое решение, принятое в верхах, где, наверное, немного больше видят, чем мы.
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Keywords: ban on marijuana , legalized marijuana , Marijuana benefits
Long gone are the days where marijuana is seen as taboo. More and more states have been legalizing marijuana for medical use—Alaska, California, DC, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New Mexico, Connecticut, Michigan, Maryland, Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Vermont; while Colorado and Washington have made history by decriminalizing the plant completely. Besides the United States, many countries have also began legalizing the use of marijuana (however, in some of these places, cultivating or transporting is still illegal)—Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Italy, Estonia, Jamaica, Mexico, Nepal—among many others.
After a Gallop poll was done, it showed that 58 percent of Americans are in favor of legalizing the natural plant. This is the first time in history that Americans are more in favor of legalizing, than criminalizing, the herb. Below are a few reasons why it’s time to legalize marijuana worldwide. Marijuana can be used to treat a variety of medical ailments.
Did you know that marijuana helps in treating epileptic seizures? It contains certain cannabinoids that have anticonvulsant properties, according to Katherine Mortati, MD, a neurologist serving at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center , SUNY Downstate Medical Center . Furthermore, marijuana has been discovered to relieve nausea in cancer patients, increase appetite in HIV/AIDS patients, relax muscle tension and spasms; and relieve chronic pain. It has a very low abuse risk.
According to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, around 9 to 10 percent of adult users become dependent on marijuana. This is much lower than the dependent 20 percent of cocaine users, 25 percent of addicted heroin users, and the 30 percent of dependent tobacco users. Cannabis can be a useful in treating insomnia.
The number one cause of insomnia is stress, and marijuana aids in relaxation. A study done by the National Cancer Institute found that patients that ingested a cannabis plant extract spray reported a much more restful sleep. It has been researched that THC provides a subject with an easier time falling asleep, longer sleep, deeper sleep, and better breathing while sleeping. The National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institutes of Health funded studies that reported that subjects were able to fall asleep easier and more quickly after consuming THC. Approximately 40% of Americans have admitted to using marijuana.
With more and more Americans having admit to trying marijuana at least once in their lives, it has been shown that marijuana is less addictive than coffee. Because of this, more people are finding reasons to feel safer when trying the drug. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.
There has never been any reported case of anyone ever fatally overdosing on marijuana, despite the large amounts of THC in their systems. Prescription drugs, on the other hand, have been responsible for over 25,000 deaths in 2014 according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse ; while the Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that 6 Americans die every day from alcohol poisoning.
Sources: | 0 |
Microsoft withheld a free patch from users of old software that “could have slowed the devastating spread of ransomware WannaCry to businesses,” opting to charge those using older versions instead, according to a report. “Recognizing that for a variety of business reasons, companies sometimes choose not to upgrade even after 10 or 15 years, Microsoft offers custom support agreements as a stopgap measure,” said the spokesman to CNET. “To be clear, Microsoft would prefer that companies upgrade and realize the full benefits of the latest version rather than choose custom support. ” “Security experts agree that the best protection is to be on a modern, system that incorporates the latest innovations,” they continued. “Older systems, even if fully simply lack the latest protections. ” Following last week’s WannaCry global attack, which disrupted organizations and services around the world, including Britain’s National Healthcare Service (NHS) Microsoft criticized the U. S. government for poorly storing cyberweapons, which had been leaked from the National Security Agency (NSA). “The WannaCrypt exploits used in the attack were drawn from the exploits stolen from the National Security Agency, or NSA, in the United States,” Microsoft explained in a statement. “That theft was publicly reported earlier this year. A month prior, on March 14, Microsoft had released a security update to patch this vulnerability and protect our customers. ” “While this protected newer Windows systems and computers that had enabled Windows Update to apply this latest update, many computers remained unpatched globally. As a result, hospitals, businesses, governments, and computers at homes were affected,” they claimed. Citing the recent WikiLeaks releases that included leaked code for CIA programs, Microsoft added that “this attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem,” calling it “an emerging pattern in 2017. ” “The governments of the world should treat this attack as a call,” they expressed, claiming that government agencies “need to take a different approach and adhere in cyberspace to the same rules applied to weapons in the physical world. ” Several journalists, however, claimed in articles that Microsoft was just as responsible for the attack as the U. S. government. “By failing to support older versions of its operating system, the IT company provided the hackers that stole the NSA’s IT Tomahawk Missile the opportunity they needed,” expressed one writer for the Independent, while the Inquirer voiced similar concerns in an article titled “Microsoft, it’s not just the NSA. If you want to kill WannaCry, fix broken Windows. ” This week, cybersecurity firm Proofpoint warned that a bigger global attack was on the way. “It uses the hacking tools recently disclosed by the NSA and which have since been fixed by Microsoft in a more stealthy manner and for a different purpose,” said Proofpoint, who discovered the “Adylkuzz” attack. “As it is silent and doesn’t trouble the user, the Adylkuzz attack is much more profitable for the cyber criminals. ” “It transforms the infected users into unwitting financial supporters of their attackers,” they continued, explaining that Adylkuzz lays low on infected devices and mines the Monero, before sending the financial gain to the perpetrators. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Days after the Senate confirmed him as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference and was asked about addressing a group that probably wanted to eliminate his agency. “I think it’s justified,” he responded, to cheers. “I think people across the country look at the E. P. A. the way they look at the I. R. S. ” In the days since, Mr. Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general who built a career out of suing the agency he now leads, has moved to stock the top offices of the agency with conservatives — many of them skeptics of climate change and all of them intent on rolling back environmental regulations that they see as overly intrusive and harmful to business. Mr. Pruitt has drawn heavily from the staff of his friend and fellow Oklahoma Republican, Senator James Inhofe, long known as Congress’s most prominent skeptic of climate science. A former Inhofe chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, will be Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff. Another former Inhofe staff member, Byron Brown, will serve as Mr. Jackson’s deputy. Andrew Wheeler, a fossil fuel lobbyist and a former Inhofe chief of staff, is a finalist to be Mr. Pruitt’s deputy, although he requires confirmation to the position by the Senate. To friends and critics, Mr. Pruitt seems intent on building an E. P. A. leadership that is fundamentally at odds with the career officials, scientists and employees who carry out the agency’s missions. That might be a recipe for strife and gridlock at the federal agency tasked to keep safe the nation’s clean air and water while safeguarding the planet’s future. “He’s the most different kind of E. P. A. administrator that’s ever been,” said Steve J. Milloy, a member of the E. P. A. transition team who runs the website JunkScience. com, which aims to debunk climate change. “He’s not coming in thinking E. P. A. is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Quite the opposite. ” Gina McCarthy, who headed the E. P. A. under former President Barack Obama, said she too saw Mr. Pruitt as unique. “It’s fine to have differing opinions on how to meet the mission of the agency. Many Republican administrators have had that,” she said. “But here, for the first time, I see someone who has no commitment to the mission of the agency. ” A pair of Trump campaigners from Washington State are also heading into senior positions at the E. P. A. Don Benton, a former Washington state senator who headed President Trump’s state campaign, will be the agency’s senior liaison with the White House. Douglas Ericksen, a current Washington state senator, is being considered as the regional administrator of the E. P. A. ’s Pacific Northwest office. As a state senator, Mr. Ericksen has been active in opposing efforts to pass a climate change law taxing carbon pollution. Last month, he invited Tony Heller, a climate denialist who blogs under the pseudonym Steven Goddard, to address a Washington State Senate committee on the costs of climate change policy. Mr. Heller’s blog says “global warming is the biggest fraud in science history. ” “I think the reason both of these guys are being considered for this stuff is they were the only prominent elected officials in the state of Washington that were early supporters and organizers for Trump,” said Todd Donovan, a political scientist at Western Washington University. “No other state legislators were putting their necks out for Trump. ” Another transition official under consideration by Mr. Pruitt for a permanent position is David Kreutzer, a senior research fellow in energy economics and climate change at the conservative Heritage Foundation who has publicly praised the benefits of increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That view stands in opposition to the broad scientific consensus that increased carbon dioxide traps heat and contributes to the dangerous warming of the planet. The agency’s policy agenda is snapping into focus: Last week, Mr. Trump signed an executive order directing Mr. Pruitt to begin the legal process of dismantling a major regulation aimed at increasing the federal government’s authority over rivers, streams and wetlands in order to prevent water pollution. Also last week, Mr. Pruitt ordered the agency to walk back a program on collecting data on methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas wells. This week, Mr. Trump is expected to sign an executive order directing Mr. Pruitt to begin the legal process of unwinding Mr. Obama’s E. P. A. regulations aimed at curbing pollution from power plants, and Mr. Pruitt is expected to announce plans to begin to weaken an rule mandating higher fuel economy standards. A draft White House budget blueprint proposes to slash the E. P. A. budget by about 24 percent, or $2 billion from its current level of $8. 1 billion, and cut employee numbers by about 20 percent from its current staff of about 15, 000. Agency employees say morale has already been damaged. After working for years to draft climate change regulations under the Obama administration, many of those same career scientists and lawyers will be ordered to go back and undo them. Ms. McCarthy, who oversaw the writing and execution of those major water and climate change regulations, said it would be difficult and to reverse them, especially if Mr. Trump succeeds in greatly downsizing the agency. “If you want to do these executive orders that require a whole rewrite of the rule, you have to get that right, legally,” she said. “It took years to do those rules. To now ask for those things to be undone with less staff and low morale — how are they going to do it?” There is one area in which Mr. Pruitt has vowed to continue the traditional work of the E. P. A.: a longstanding program for sending funds to states to clean up “brownfields” — former industrial sites that have been contaminated by pollution. Although Mr. Trump’s budget blueprint would slash funds for that program, Mr. Pruitt pledged to a gathering of mayors in Washington last week that he would fight to save the program. “With the White House and Congress I am communicating a message about brownfields,” he told mayors. “I want to hear from you about successes and communicate them. ” J. Christian Bollwage, the Democratic mayor of Elizabeth, N. J. a city that has been plagued with industrial pollution, said he was heartened to hear the pledge. “I’ve never heard such a vociferous defense of providing brownfields grants,” he said. “He was explicit. He said he was going to take the defense of brownfields to the White House. I was impressed and hopeful. ” But, Mr. Bollwage added, “Coming from New Jersey, climate change is also a big issue. And I’m still worried about an administration that seems to think climate change is a hoax. ” Concern over Mr. Pruitt’s stewardship may not be . There is speculation that the E. P. A. chief already has his eyes on a different office. Mr. Inhofe, 82, will complete his current Senate term in 2020. While he declined to speak of his retirement plans, Mr. Inhofe said of Mr. Pruitt, “I think he’d make a great senator. ” | 1 |
Over the past decade, Christians in the United States have grown increasingly alarmed about the persecution of other Christians overseas, especially in the Middle East. With each priest kidnapped in Syria, each Christian family attacked in Iraq or each Coptic church bombed in Egypt, the clamor for action rose. During the campaign, Donald J. Trump picked up on these fears, speaking frequently of Christians who were refused entry to the United States and beheaded by terrorists of the Islamic State: “If you’re a Christian, you have no chance,” he said in Ohio in November. Now, President Trump has followed through on his campaign promise to rescue Christians who are suffering. The executive order he signed on Friday gives preference to refugees who belong to a religious minority in their country, and have been persecuted for their religion. The president detailed his intentions during an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Friday, saying his administration is giving priority to Christians because they had suffered “more so” than others, “so we are going to help them. ” But if Mr. Trump had hoped for Christian leaders to break out in cheers, that is, for the most part, not what he has heard so far. A broad array of clergy members has strongly denounced Mr. Trump’s order as discriminatory, misguided and inhumane. Outrage has also come from some of the evangelical, Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant leaders who represent the churches most active in trying to aid persecuted Christians. By giving preference to Christians over Muslims, religious leaders have said the executive order pits one faith against another. By barring any refugees from entering the United States for nearly four months, it leaves people to suffer longer in camps, and prevents families from reuniting. Also, many religious leaders have said that putting an indefinite freeze on refugees from Syria, and cutting the total number of refugees admitted this year by 60, 000, shuts the door to those most in need. “We believe in assisting all, regardless of their religious beliefs,” said Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, the chairman of the committee on migration for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Jen Smyers, the director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee program of Church World Service, a ministry affiliated with dozens of Christian denominations, called Friday a “shameful day” in United States history. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump’s executive order will find more support in the pews. During the campaign, Mr. Trump successfully mined many voters’ concern about national security and fear of Muslims. He earned the votes of four out of every five white evangelical Christians, and a majority of white Catholics, exit polls showed. In interviews on Sunday, churchgoers in several cities were sharply divided on the issue, including on whether Christian teachings supported giving priority to Christians. “Love thy neighbor” was cited more than once, and by both sides: It was seen as both a commandment to embrace all peoples and to defend one’s actual neighbors from harm. “You look at a city like Mosul, which is one of the oldest Christian populations in the world,” said Mark Tanner, 52, a worshiper at Buckhead Church, an evangelical church in Atlanta, referring to the besieged Iraqi city. “There’s a remnant there that want to stay there to be a Christian witness. ” “So yeah,” he continued. “We should reach out to everyone, but we have to be real about it and as far as who you let come into the country. ” Nmachi Abengowe, 62, a native of Nigeria who attends Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, cited violence in Africa in defending Mr. Trump’s preference for Christian refugees. “They believe in jihad,” he said of Muslims. “They don’t have peace. Peace comes from Jesus Christ. ” That was not the view of Makeisha Robey, 39, who was at the Atlanta church. “I think that is just completely opposite what it means to be a Christian,” she said. “God’s love was not for you specifically. It’s actually for everyone, and it’s our job as Christians to kind of enforce that on this planet, to bring God’s love to everyone. ” John and Noreen Yarwood, who attended Mass at the of St. Joseph, a Catholic church in Brooklyn, said they feared that a policy of preference for Christians could in practice become a preference for certain denominations of Christianity over others. “What does this administration mean by Christian?” Mr. Yarwood, 37, asked. He said that refugees are deserving of help and mercy “because of desperation and poverty,” not because of their religion. “This is not grace,” he said of the president’s order. “It doesn’t follow Christian teachings. ” Christian leaders who defended Mr. Trump’s executive order were rare this weekend. One of the few was the Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham and the president of Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical aid organization. Mr. Graham has long denounced Islam as “evil,” and in July 2015 proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States as a solution to domestic terrorism, months before Mr. Trump made his first call for the same. In a statement on Saturday, Mr. Graham said of refugees, “We need to be sure their philosophies related to freedom and liberty are in line with ours. ” He added that those who followed Sharia law — a set of beliefs at the core of Islam — hold notions “ultimately incompatible with the Constitution of this nation. ” Jim Jacobson, the president of Christian Freedom International, which advocates for persecuted Christians, applauded the executive order and said, “The Trump administration has given hope to persecuted Christians that their cases will finally be considered. ” Among the claims Mr. Trump made at his campaign rallies was that the Obama administration had denied refugee status to Christians, and had given preference to Muslims. “How unfair is that? How bad is that?” he told supporters at a rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio, interlaced with boasts about his “tremendous evangelical support. ” The contention was consistent with the conspiracy theories held by some conservative Christians that Mr. Obama was secretly a Muslim, and that he was turning a blind eye to the suffering of Christians while using the reins of government to increase the Muslim population of the United States. But the claim is simply untrue. In 2016, the United States admitted almost as many Christian refugees (37, 521) as Muslim refugees (38, 901) according to the Pew Research Center. While only about one percent of the refugees from Syria resettled in the United States last year were Christian, the population of that country is 93 percent Muslim and only 5 percent Christian, according to Pew. And leaders of several refugee resettlement organizations said during interviews that it took 18 months to three years for most refugees to go through the vetting process to get into the United States. Many Syrian Christians got into the pipeline more recently. “We have no evidence that would support a belief that the Obama administration was discriminating against Christian populations,” said the Rev. Scott Arbeiter, the president of World Relief, the humanitarian arm of National Association of Evangelicals. His organization has resettled thousands of Muslim refugees, with the help of a network of 1, 200 evangelical churches. Mr. Arbeiter said that World Relief is opposed to “any measure that would discriminate against the most vulnerable people in the world based on ethnicity, country of origin, religion, gender or gender identity. Our commitment is to serve vulnerable people without regard to those factors, or any others. ” He said that World Relief had already gathered 12, 000 signatures from evangelical Christians for a petition opposing Mr. Trump’s executive order. “We’re going to call out to our network, the 1, 200 churches that are actively involved,” he said, “and ask them to use their voices to change the narrative, to challenge the facts that drive the fear so high that people would accept this executive order. ” | 1 |
LONDON — Across the English Channel, a great and unyielding power holds sway, denying London’s rights. The sovereign state is not sovereign at all. Days before a referendum on leaving the European Union, those are the images of Britain’s plight advanced by the Brexiteers, who are campaigning for their nation to signal a muscular new era of independence by leaving the bloc. But the English have been there before. Five centuries ago, King Henry VIII, chafing at the theological and financial clout of the papacy, broke with Rome and led his subjects into the new pastures of the Church of England, with himself as its supreme overlord. It was a step that changed Christendom, molding faith and identity to this day among the world’s roughly 85 million Anglicans. In the process, “England ceased to be part of a huge, medieval, European empire and instead became an independent sovereign free from ‘the authority of any foreign potentate’ — above all the Pope,” Adrian Pabst, a lecturer in politics at the University of Kent, wrote in The Guardian in 2009. “If you ever wondered about the origins of English euroskepticism, look no further than the Protestant Reformation. ” Historical parallels can be facile if not misleading, and the differences between the two eras are profound, not least in the democratic nature of Britain’s decision this time. But the echoes are strong enough to resonate at a moment when Britain is looking to its past for lessons that would apply to its future. Henry’s pique was rooted in Rome’s refusal to annul his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon. He went on to take five more wives in his quest for a male heir, in direct contradiction of Catholic orthodoxy. The Brexiteers’ campaign is also about divorce — of nations and economies, perhaps, but certainly just as permanent, and with potentially consequences. When Britons vote on Thursday, they may do so at the same polling stations used during national elections. Yet for the side that loses the ballot, “there is no no consoling thought in defeat that, at least, there’s always next season,” the columnist Alex Massie wrote on The Spectator’s website. “No, defeat is permanent and for keeps. ” By coincidence, perhaps, the campaign has gathered pace at a time when the national imagination has been caught by the blockbuster success of Hilary Mantel’s novels “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies,” set during Henry VIII’s reign and reviving the issue of how the elite relate to adversaries at home and foes abroad. Ms. Mantel was among almost 300 cultural figures — actors and writers among them — who signed a public letter last month urging a vote to remain part of the European Union. “What kind of nation do we want to be?” the letter asked. “Are we and open to working with others to achieve more? Or do we close ourselves off from our friends and neighbors at a time of increasing global uncertainty?” The goes beyond that. Over centuries, England, and then Britain, has strutted the global stage as an imperial overlord whose people sometimes seem more comfortable in the guise of underdogs. The national psyche rests on a history of invasion, submission, conquest and — from the Romans and the through the Normans and on to dynasties entwined with the royal houses of Europe. In more recent years, waves of immigration — Jamaicans in the 1950s, then Pakistanis, Indians and other Asians in the 1960s — have reshaped the country’s demographics. Christianity, prevalent in Henry’s day, is professed by less than half the population. The loss of an empire and the rise of a complex, interconnected global economy has rekindled the notion that, in times of flux, the English define themselves by their opposition to a bigger outside power — the papacy in the 16th century the European Union in the 21st. This theme suffused Churchill’s speeches during World War II as Hitler’s armies spread across Europe to the Continent’s coastline. “We shall never surrender,” Churchill declared in 1940, albeit with the caveat that Britain would fight on until “the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. ” Today’s political leaders can barely resist the Churchillian mantra. Facing hostile questioning from a television audience on Sunday, a rattled Prime Minister David Cameron pointed out that “at my office I sit two yards from” where Churchill “resolved to fight on against Hitler. ” Churchill did not wish to be alone, Mr. Cameron said. “But he didn’t quit,” the prime minister added. “He didn’t quit on democracy, he didn’t quit on freedom. We want to fight for those things today. ” It was also Churchill, who, in 1930, foreshadowed one of the Brexiteers’ arguments in an article in the Saturday Evening Post. “We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonalty,” he said. “But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed. ” David Starkey, a Cambridge historian critical of the European Union, has drawn a direct parallel with the modern battle for the nation’s soul. “England’s semidetached relationship with continental Europe is neither new nor an aberration,” he wrote in 2012. “Instead, it is deeply rooted in the political development of the past 500 years. ” The debate “was couched in strikingly ‘modern’ terms,” Dr. Starkey wrote, with Henry’s opponents arguing the case for papal authority “like a contemporary europhile,” maintaining that England was “subordinate to the laws and values of a Christendom. ” “Henry VIII’s judges replied, on the contrary, that statute was binding and Parliament sovereign,” Dr. Starkey said. Then, as now, the notion of sovereignty was central to the discussion, and the implications were enormous. By breaking with Rome, some historians argue, the English came to see themselves a nation apart — a magnified by the Act of Union with Scotland in 1707 and by centuries of colonial expansion. “Imperial Britain was isolationist, xenophobic, and nationalist,” the historian Edwin Jones wrote in 1998, and a combination of these elements “helped to sustain the of the British” in the early 18th century, he added. In 1848, Lord Palmerston, then the foreign secretary, told Parliament: “I may say without any vainglorious boast or without great offense to anyone that we stand at the head of moral, social and political civilization. Our task is to lead the way and direct the march of other nations. ” But the British always seem to qualify global ambition with the kind of parochial preoccupations that persuaded Adam Smith in 1776 to coin the phrase “a nation of shopkeepers. ” As the empire grew, indeed, a group known as the Little Englanders advocated a retreat from headlong colonial expansion, particularly in southern Africa. These days, the term endures as a derogatory epithet for the Brexiteers, who prefer to claim the mantle of a reawakened Britannia ruling newer waves — this time through a web of trade deals and alliances beyond the perceived narrow constraints and petty regulation of Brussels. Some argue that the dominant strand of the Brexiteers’ DNA lies in what A. A. Gill, a columnist for The Sunday Times, called “the most pernicious and debilitating Little English drug, nostalgia. ” | 1 |
Break Out of the Illusion
In the old Soviet Union, people had “free” elections and were “free” to choose any Communist candidate that had been selected for the election. Most of the people of the Soviet Union understood well that their elections were shams.
Here in the United States, we also have “free” elections and the corporate media narrative is that you need to vote for one of the two candidates that have been selected for you, because if you go outside of that “choice”, the other terrible candidate that you do not want will win the election. You may not particularly like the candidate you plan to vote for, but that candidate is certainly the “lesser evil”. The corporate media has successfully spun that illusion so now many people do not even realize that there are choices outside of the Democrat/Republican duopoly that is strangling our election process.
So exactly how has the media created this illusion? Here are 2 examples:
Peoples' Exhibit A:
In Maryland, there are 3 candidates that are on the ballot for the office of U.S. Senator. Logically, you would think that the televised debate to inform voters of all their choices that the televised debate of these candidates would therefore include all three candidates. Unfortunately, you would be wrong.
Only the candidates representing the Democrat/Republican duopoly were allowed to appear on stage, censoring the voice of Dr. Margaret Flowers, who is running on the Green Party ticket. This was done despite the fact that both of the candidates clearly said that Dr. Flowers should participate in the debate. (Notice how it was the corporate entities that dictated who appeared and who did not). The Republican candidate Kathy Szeliga, openly suggested that the third podium be opened for Dr. Flowers to participate, yet she was ignored. THIS IS KEY: what does this tell you of the real power structure here?
The YouTube video below will show Dr. Margaret Flowers boldly going on to the stage and challenging the censoring of her voice. (Things start getting interesting around 5:50 ) Once you have seen this video, what are your thoughts about how “free” our elections really are? Do you like the fact that the corporate media gets to make the decisions of who should be heard and who should not?
After being ejected from the stage, Dr. Flowers issued a statement: “We are fighting for our families, and our communities. I will not be silent about this rigged political process and this televised sham debate I was just excluded from.
Shame on Ralph Watkins of League of Women Voters, Andy Green of the Baltimore Sun, Jay Newman of WJZ-13 CBS Baltimore, Ann Cotten of The University of Baltimore, and thanks to Kathy Szeliga, all the brave voices that rose to speak up, and everyone sharing the word on social media.“
People should find it especially troubling that institutes of higher learning, the University Of Baltimore and the College of Public Affairs were engaged in the censorship of a candidate who was on the ballot, but outside of those selected for public consumption. What ethics, morals, and values are they teaching their students and our future leaders? As a student or a parent of a student attending the University of Maryland, I would be very concerned about the leadership of this institution. Should not the very purpose for the existence of the College of Public Affairs be to engage in uncensored free debate of ideas? How can they be a party to the limiting and censoring of ideas? As a student attending these schools, I would certainly be reevaluating my enrollment. This is a purposeful dumbing down of the curriculum and this school could eventually find itself losing its relevancy, much as the public distrust for the corporate media has been steadily and continuously eroding their relevancy.
Additionally, the reputation of the University was further damaged by the fact that the University of Baltimore refused to meet with Dr. Flowers and that it was the University Police that forcefully escorted Dr. Flowers from the debate.
This entire episode illuminates how “our” electoral process has been hijacked by corporate interests and others who serve those interests. The fact that the Maryland League of Women Voters were integrally involved in this silencing saddens the heart. Here is an organization that previously had tremendous integrity, but has over time been co-opted and now serves the power interests.
Peoples' Exhibit B:
Remember those presidential debates? They only included Clinton and Trump, despite the fact there are two other candidates on the ballots in most states. Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein of the Green Party were not part of these debates. Who was it that excluded them?
They were excluded by the Commission on Presidential Debates. So who exactly is this Commission on Presidential Debates?
Most people would be surprised to learn that the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a private corporation . It is under the joint sponsorship of both the Democratic and Republican political parties in the United States. The Commission's debates are sponsored by private contributions from foundations and corporations. It becomes easy to understand why such a corporation would want to exclude candidates from other political parties that would question the existing power structure.
With the CPD being privately funded by big money, just whose interests do you believe that the CPD represents? If they were to allow outside political parties to participate in the debates, the illusion that they have spun through their mouthpieces in the corporate media would begin to unravel. People would realize that there are other choices beyond the “lesser evil”.
The sad part is that most people I talk to have not even heard of Gary Johnson or Jill Stein. Despite the fact that Trump and Clinton are the most unpopular candidates in recent history, the campaigns of Johnson and Stein do not get any traction in the corporate media. So exactly how has the corporate media provided the people with unbiased and neutral information?
When was the last time the corporate media news presented you with a contrast and comparison of the candidates' positions on the issues? When was the last time the corporate media presented you with the voting records of all the candidates on specific issues? When was the last time the corporate media presented you with information on who contributed to the candidates? Corporations and big money do not want you knowing this information about their hired and paid for servants. What we have received from the corporate media is mud slinging, scandals, and basically a horse race mentality of who is ahead and who is behind in corporate run polls. A substantive discussion of the key issues affecting the nation and the planet has been missing. It is the corporate media that is limiting your information and choices, and yet most people still unquestioningly accept the “lesser evil” paradigm constantly repeated by these self-serving entities.
In Summary
When you look how the how the Supreme Court essentially legalized government corruption through its infamous Citizens United ruling, when you see how big money has flooded the electoral process, when you witness the forceful ejection of a candidate by corporate interests from a televised debate, when you see big money and corporations essentially bidding for government favors, it becomes apparent that we have a corporate state with a government that services its needs.
The corporate media is used as a tool to make sure that the current power structure stays in place. Just look at the revelations by WikiLeaks, (an alternative media site) on how the corporate media was used to favor establishment candidates during the primary elections. Isn't it interesting that these WikiLeaks documents also did not get much corporate media attention? People are forced to go to alternative media to obtain this information. These leaks will most certainly be used by historians to write about this corrupt 2016 election.
The fact that the corporate media excluded candidates on the ballot from the televised debates should not surprise anyone as it would have disrupted the illusion of having only two choices in the election. As we saw in the debates, the power resided not with the political candidates, but with the corporate interests. What would you expect from such a media when you have a Green Party that accepts no corporate donations.
It is time to break out of the illusion that has been spun by the corporate interests. Take a good hard look at the platforms of Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. You may just find that they represent the values, ethics, and morals that you really believe in. Take a look at the platforms of other candidates further down on the ballot. Do not allow yourself to fall for the “lesser evil” paradigm that has been repeated over and over again. The Democrat/Republican parties are all part of the same Money Party. As long as we keep rewarding them with our votes, what incentive is there for them to change?
In case anyone reading this still thinks their elected officials are representing them, what do you think would happen if you and a lobbyist were waiting to see your elected representative, who would be seen first?
You can expect that the corporate media will keep repeating the refrain that you are throwing your vote away if you vote outside of the duopoly. But try to explain to yourself how you are not throwing your vote away by voting for someone you do not want? Look where generations of voting for the “lesser evil” has brought us.
So I leave you with this parting thought: exactly just how is our electoral system different from that in the old Soviet Union? Both the USSR and the US preselect the candidates offered to the masses and suppress those outside of the power structure.
There is an old saying: “as long as you keep doin' what you are doin', you will keep gettin' what you are gettin' ”. It is time to End The Illusion. Share This Article... | 0 |
It’s summer, and more Americans are on the road. Crowded roads. So here are a few tips you may never have learned or have forgotten. Some advice should be obvious, like getting out of the left lane on expressways if you are blocking cars by driving well under the speed limit. (Some states are cracking down on drivers who don’t understand this.) And don’t slow down to look at an accident on the side of the highway. What would you hope to see? Just move along. This is less obvious: Don’t change lanes so much. And don’t put yourself in positions where you have to brake so much. Have you ever been in traffic that slowed to a crawl? You assume there must be a bad accident ahead — but sometimes when traffic finally gets moving again, there is no sign of trouble. What most likely happened is that drivers had to brake either to be safe or because they are bad drivers who sped and then braked and sped and then braked. This caused the driver behind to brake, and the person behind that driver to brake. Soon you have a peristaltic action for miles down the highway as drivers touch their brakes. Even a slight variation in speed can do it, as Japanese scientists discovered when they asked drivers on a track to maintain their speed. Eventually there was a jam. Sometimes traffic slows because two lanes narrow to one. A bottleneck calls for a technique known as zippering. You may call it cutting in and cheating, but you have to get over that. The trick is, again, maintaining speed with less braking. Drivers should use both lanes until traffic slows, then you do what they taught you in kindergarten: Be nice. Take turns. Instead of bunching up to prevent the jerk in the other lane from cutting in, you leave space so he can glide in. Then a car from your lane proceeds. Then you let another driver cut in. And so on. As you approach the final merging point, leave even more space. The nice people in Minnesota made an extra effort to teach motorists there how to do it. So did Kansas, but with animation. I know, it sounds counterintuitive. But if everyone cooperates, it works, say traffic engineers. Now let’s quickly deal with a few issues on city streets. Like parking. Anyone who hated having to feed parking meters and carry a pile of coins is grateful that cities large and small have adopted parking apps like Parkmobile or Pango. You park you let the app that’s linked to your credit card know you are there and you go about your business. The downside? As cities removed meters, they eliminated marked parking spaces. Cars are no longer evenly spaced. On any block it is easy to find half a car length of wasted space behind a parked car, and a similar half a car length in front of it. Or even more. Granted, this can happen when a mammoth Ford F350 pulls out and a little Fiat 500 pulls in. But sometimes it’s because you don’t know how much space you need in front and in back of you. Here’s the tip: It’s not as much as you might think. Thanks to a formula worked out by a British mathematician, we know it is about two and a half feet in front and the same in back for a typical sedan. I won’t bother to tell you how to parallel park. Eventually, automatic parallel parking will be standard on all new cars. Finally, the pet peeve of a pedestrian, if you will indulge me. It’s a right turn on red — after a stop. (And in New York City and some other locations, of course, it’s illegal to turn at all on a red light.) When they have the crossing light, pedestrians have the right of way over a giant hunk of steel and glass. There is some evidence that few fatalities are caused by drivers who forget that second part, but still, be nice, even Minnesota nice. | 1 |
Mark Ruffalo is one the movie industry’s most outspoken advocates on environmental issues. In addition to confronting Monsanto’s CEO and declaring that the biotech company is poisoning people,... | 0 |
WATCH: UK Reporter RIPS CNN, Calls Them “Clinton News Network”
Trump has suggested that he could put even more of his fortune into his campaign during the closing stretch.
“I will be over $100 million, and it could be much more than that,” he told ABC News, adding the the total was already around $61 million.
Both campaigns have been focused on the key state of Florida , a state Trump needs to win. Other key states that both nominees have invested in included Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina.
Trump has pondered why he hasn’t gotten more credit for hanging tough while the polls show him consistently behind Clinton. That’s a good question, but the answer could be tied up in the fact that liberals have worked tirelessly to skew polls in favor of Clinton.
Trump also appeared to have a healthy amount of self-confidence — so much so that he invests his own money in him campaign — something we haven’t seen from Clinton. Ever.
Most voters have become painfully aware of how Democrats lie and cheat about almost everything , and having Clinton in the White House would mean that absolutely no one could trust our commander in chief.
That’s a sobering thought that should make the choice of who to vote for crystal clear. | 0 |
According to Toys “R” Us, one of the hottest action figures this holiday season will be the Star Wars Interactech Imperial Stormtrooper, a plastic fighter that makes punching sounds. But there’s another fighter action figure — minus the sound effects — that’s getting the spotlight this month, and its name is Golda Meir. On Dec. 11, when the actress Tovah Feldshuh reprises her Tony role as Meir in two performances of the play “Golda’s Balcony” — part of a benefit for Temple in New York — guests will take home a of Meir that stands just under three inches tall. The figurine of the former Israeli prime minister features her signature somber dark skirt and jacket, with a matronly string of pearls around her neck, sensible flats on her feet and her gray hair in a bun. The piece is the work of Asaf Harari, a “souvenir designer” based in Tel Aviv. It’s part of a series of cheeky of Israeli leaders, including Menachem Begin and David from Mr. Harari’s design studio, Piece of History. Gady Levy, the executive director of Temple said he ordered about 2, 000 of the from Mr. Harari’s company as part of his promotional plan for All About Golda, the temple’s new series that features classes, an exhibition and even a sweepstakes, called Go Golda Go, in which contestants post to Instagram photos of their action figure for the chance of winning a trip to Israel. Mr. Harari, 31, recently talked about action figures. Following are edited excerpts from the conversation. I have to be honest. When I first heard there was such a thing as a Golda Meir action figure, I laughed. Israeli and Jewish people are very cynical. We don’t like to admire people. We like to find the flaws and the negative stuff in each person. We don’t like to make people kings. The figurine keeps the character of Golda, but it’s also funny. What made you decide to depict her in these clothes? This is the way the Israeli people, when they say Golda Meir — it’s like this, with a pearl necklace and one long dress with dark shoes. It’s a basic caricature of pictures that you can find. What is she made of? Vinyl. It’s like plastic, but soft. It’s hand painted. It’s designed in Israel and molded in Israel, but it’s mass manufactured in China. Has anyone been offended? A few times, nasty comments and comments about making these figurines. A lot of people don’t like the idea of Israel itself, and don’t like the idea that I’m making heroes of people who helped create Israel. From Jewish people I’ve gotten comments about her nose, because it’s too big. But I’m laughing at Jewish characteristics. How popular is the Golda Meir figure compared with your other pieces? She’s No. 1. Everybody loves her. | 1 |
Hillary is the ultimate weapon, to facilitate the US's self destruction. | 0 |
HONG KONG — As fewer than 1, 200 electors were casting ballots on Sunday for Hong Kong’s next leader, Sampson Wong was tagging Facebook videos that showed city residents making breakfast, riding trains and playing with cats. The scenes were unremarkable, and that was the point: Mr. Wong and other members of the Add Oil Team, an artists’ collective, were broadcasting the videos of people engaged in activities that did not include voting as a critique of an unrepresentative political process. “No Election in Hong Kong Now,” the title of their Facebook Live stream said. The Add Oil Team plans to turn the videos into a work that could be exhibited in a gallery. “Although it’s an angry protest gesture, it’s also kind of peaceful,” Mr. Wong said, flanked by laptops and coffee cups in a minimalist design studio. Nearly three years ago, this semiautonomous Chinese city of 7. 3 million was roiled by months of protests, known as Occupy Central or the Umbrella Movement, that stoked an existential debate over its political future. The protests ended without achieving their goal of greater public participation in the election of Hong Kong’s leader, and several organizers now face criminal charges. In July, Hong Kong will inaugurate its new leader, Carrie Lam, Beijing’s preferred candidate, as the former British colony commemorates the 20th anniversary of its handover to Chinese rule. All of that leaves local artists struggling to find meaning in the city’s upheavals, art professionals said in interviews. And while some of their recent works are more overtly political than others, many are infused with a sense of helplessness toward what is widely seen here as the city’s increasing subjugation to Beijing’s authoritarianism. “The expression of frustration, or the acceptance of failure, could be the key words of the artwork which reacts to the Umbrella Movement,” said Chow Chun Fai, who paints scenes from films in which characters comment on Hong Kong’s relationship with the mainland. “Three years ago, we had to be very quick and loud” during the street protests, he added. But recent artwork is “more sentimental, and we have the distance to tell the story and to listen to the story. ” Artists and curators in Hong Kong say that some of the themes coursing through local art have been present for decades. But the 2014 protests, they say, were an important catalyst for many artists, particularly those who came of age in this century. “Somehow the Umbrella Movement unfolded a lot of layers of the political and social problems” that Hong Kong faces, said Clara Cheung, a of CG Artpartment, an art space in the Kowloon district. Recent artworks that address Hong Kong politics vary widely in message and delivery. Some are intended for public spaces, rather than commercial galleries, and feature loaded commentaries on the “one country, two systems” framework that guarantees the city its civil liberties and a high degree of autonomy until 2047. A prominent example is the light show Mr. Wong and Jason Lam mounted last year that counted down the seconds until “one country, two systems” was due to expire. The display was exhibited across the face of Hong Kong’s tallest skyscraper to coincide with a visit by Zhang Dejiang, a member of China’s governing Politburo Standing Committee — but pulled after the artists explained its subversive message. In a similar vein, “Controlling Device,” by Kacey Wong, shows a pair of nooses, one bronzed, and one coated in red wax. Mr. Wong has said the piece is a commentary on recent crackdowns on free expression in Hong Kong, including the apparent abductions of several prominent booksellers to the mainland in 2015. “We’re fighting a war that we cannot win, so how to fight it?” Mr. Wong asked on a recent afternoon in his studio. “You fight it with grace. ” Other artworks comment on Hong Kong’s relationship with Beijing in more roundabout ways. Ocean Leung, for example, incorporates police and political banners into works that intentionally distort the banners’ original messages. The works are not overtly and Mr. Leung said that his art illustrated how difficult it was to take clear positions on political questions. “It’s an embrace of failure,” he said. Similarly oblique commentaries run through “Breathing Space: Contemporary Art From Hong Kong,” an show on view through July 9 at the Hong Kong Center of the Asia Society, which in November canceled a planned screening of a documentary about the Umbrella Movement, citing political concerns. One piece, “Defense and Resistance,” by South Ho, shows photos of the artist walling and then unwalling himself in with bricks marked with “Made in Xianggang,” the word for Hong Kong in Mandarin, the mainland’s dominant tongue. The bricks are also stacked up in the center of the gallery, with a chunk missing, and it is unclear whether the wall is structurally sound — a possible metaphor for Beijing’s power over the city. An especially haunting work, “If the Moment Came,” is a black box with a top made of wired glass and a murky interior that shows a looping video of a hand playing with a kendama, a Japanese toy featuring a wooden handle and a small ball. The artist, Chloë Cheuk, said that she created the installation after making an audio recording of boys playing with kendamas at one of the 2014 protest sites. She added the wired glass, she said, as a reference to protesters who smashed a window at the Legislative Council complex around the same time. Ms. Cheuk, 27, said that the ball’s inevitable failure to break through the glass was intended to evoke the feeling of helplessness that she said was now familiar to many young Hong Kongers. But that feeling transcends politics, she said, and her artistic practice is primarily guided by her emotions. “When people see my work, they can respond because they can really feel it,” she said on a recent evening in Yau Tong, an industrial area in eastern Kowloon. “They feel that they’ve been understood. ” | 1 |
Mittwoch, 9. November 2016 Make News Honest Again! Der Postillon launches The Postillon (the-postillon.com) Fürth, London, New York (dpo) - Der 9. November 2016 ist ein Tag, der in die Geschichte eingehen wird. Nein! Nicht weil der olle Trump die Präsidentschaftswahl gewonnen hat, sondern weil heute offiziell die internationale Ausgabe des Postillon , Deutschlands größter Tages- und Nachtzeitung, startet: The Postillon Auf The Postillon werden ab sofort regelmäßig die besten Artikel, Reportagen und Enthüllungsstorys der Postillon -Redaktion auf Englisch erscheinen. Make News Honest Again! Fan auf Facebook werden: The Postillon The Postillon auf Twitter folgen: The Postillon Artikel teilen: | 0 |
Polls released since the first round of the French presidential election show Emmanuel Macron leading migration candidate Marine Le Pen by double digits. [The poll, conducted by Elabe, was published Monday and shows Macron with a commanding lead in the second round vote with 64 per cent of the vote while Le Pen has 36 per cent. The En Marche leader beats Le Pen in most age demographics according to the poll, but some are sceptical that the race is already over as one out of five French voters have yet to express a choice, L’Express reports. One demographic that Le Pen is winning over is the working class. According to the poll, a majority of French workers, or 54 per cent, support the migration candidate. Macron, who is often seen as the candidate of globalism and France’s elite class, predictably scores 81 per cent of the vote from executives and those in academia. The strong showing for Macron comes from the left wing vote 93 per cent of those who backed Socialist party candidate Benoit Hamon and 77 per cent of those who voted for Mélenchon have thrown their support behind Macron. On the right of the political spectrum, 63 per cent of supporters of Republican François Fillon said they would vote for Macron and 37 said they would vote for Le Pen. Of all those asked about their voting intentions, close to or 17 per cent, had not decided who they would vote for. Many of these undecided voters are supporters of Fillon and Mélenchon. Le Pen’s platform, which combines some of the and policies of Fillon and some of the protectionist policies of Mélenchon, could appeal to voters — though it remains to be seen to what extent. Many experts are cautious about celebrating a Macron victory two weeks ahead of the election. U. S. broadcaster CNN has cast doubt on the accuracy of the polling, though many first round polls were mostly accurate. In her victory speech on Sunday evening, Le Pen framed the second round race as a debate on globalism and said the survival of France is at stake. Shocking many in France and abroad earlier this week, she temporarily stepped down as leader of the Front National to, in her words, “feel more free, and above partisan considerations. ” Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 1 |
What just happened in America is beyond anything I could have ever imagined. The soul of this country was torn apart at the very moment when we had a chance to rise above the hateful rhetoric we have been forced to listen to for months and to unite with a compassion for those who are different, a love for our country beyond measure and an acceptance of opinion and ideals that make this country great….Not Great Again … GREAT!
Instead, we watched a wild witch-hunt supported by a predominantly white male force incessantly run after our first female candidate as if she was the most horrendous human being alive. The emails, the emails, and the emails….must I say more.
We have allowed a man to escape the same trials beset on a woman and skate free through a remarkable path of no consequence for things that otherwise make us gasp in disbelief. Corruption? Has anyone, including the media, dared to bring out the stories of Donald Trump’s association with a convicted sexual predator who he has called “a decent man?” Has anyone, especially the media, given any of the women who accused Donald Trump of mishandling them more than a story or two, or a conversation sparking protests and demands for the truth within their own circles? Does anyone who voted for Donald Trump even understand how many lies he told during the campaign and how many facts he got wrong, all proven in written form by fact-checkers, historians, and other leaders? Does anyone who voted for Donald Trump really think he will be honest with anyone when he takes the Oval Office?
What do I tell my teenage daughter when she asks why a man who has obviously done so much wrong in his life doesn’t get held to the same standard as a woman? In this case, one who devoted her life to public service and the betterment of the lives of children and women? What do I tell my teenage daughter when she asks me “how an election can be won by a man who has proven to be unfit? Donald Trump fed into the weaknesses of this group just like the schoolyard bully. He surrounded himself with people who feed negative and unfair propaganda to the masses each and every day. He has been fed by a silver spoon all his life and has never known what it feels like to mine for coal, live in rural America on a fixed income or work all day every day for minimum wage barely making ends meet. I do. How can anyone expect him to understand? What do I tell my daughter?
This president-elect has admittedly, and in his own words, grabbed women by their “pussy” and let’s not forget had extra-marital affairs. A man who has bankrupted companies more than I like to count at the risk it puts such great fear in my heart for our country that I can’t even keep my head up. A man who openly made fun of a disabled person on national television with the world watching. A man who couldn’t even bring his ego in long enough to pay respect to a four-star father who lost his son fighting for our country. A man who has no military experience whatsoever and had the fortune of money behind him when he escaped serving our country because of a spur in his foot, a spur he cannot even remember correctly. A man who has made clear he has no tolerance for immigrants, minorities, gay people and the like. Is this really what my America looks like? What do I tell my daughter?
I am old enough to remember several elections and while my candidate of choice didn’t always win, I don’t remember our country protesting with such fervor at the prospect of an individual not fit to run our country ever before. How can this be? Why didn’t the majority of people who voted for this man understand this? How can a narcissistic egomaniacal liar make it to the oval office? How can bad behavior continue to be awarded in a country that was to represent “strength, power, and honesty?” What do I tell my daughter?
He fed into the uneducated and the displaced, allowing them to believe he will save them. That’s what bullies do. They find the most disenfranchised weak individual on the playground and pick on them. Does anyone not see this and how this played out for someone who has the world in dismay and our allies bewildered? Does anyone not notice that headlines across the globe are using such words as “W.T.F” and “Are you Kidding Me?. While those headlines circulate, can we not sit here and really ask ourselves if that is OK; if it is OK for a man to allow our country to now be a joke, a misfit, a low-lying power that doesn’t take all the risks involved with letting this man through the front door seriously. What do I tell my daughter?
I worked for someone who bears the exact same traits and behavior of Donald Trump. They don’t change my friends, but they keep on winning despite their arrogance, lies, and ugly behavioral traits. I worked for a narcissistic man who treats women horribly, depletes the human spirit as a game of fun and thrives on the power he exerts to make the “little person” feel even smaller. The day I was able to leave that horrendous work situation was the best day of my professional life. It is because of that and why I anxiously wait for four years to fly by faster than anything imaginable. I am ashamed our country has gotten to the point where decency didn’t outweigh ignorance.
When I woke this morning I was hopeful to feel a bit of anxiety leaving my body, a sense of “we shall overcome” and a certain bit of optimism that would take me through the next four years. It didn’t happen. The tears keep flowing and the idea of uncertainty and embarrassment override any sense of understanding I can possibly relate to what just happened in this country…my country.
We have an Electoral College system that I believe is flawed and antiquated. We have a process that doesn’t allow for certain standards of conduct to be upheld for the highest office in the world. We have people who still believe that black Americans and women have only defined places in their lives. Yet none of that thought process, none of that diabolical way of life compares to the remarkable and unprecedented statement on humanity in which the election of Donald J. Trump leads to. And that is the purpose of why I write today.
As of this morning, Hillary Clinton continues to win the popular vote. I now know how Al Gore felt. Our Electoral College process which Donald Trump, in his own words and in his own tweet said “our electoral college process is a disaster, it is not democracy” proves once again to not honor the real power of our people. I am hopeful that enough Americans join into the petition for this process to be reviewed, refined and changed so the people do speak in our next election and that the process is changed. I know that I will do what I can to encourage and persuade those I come in contact with or know to support this change. “We the People” is exactly what we should be thinking!
I will close with recognizing that people wanted change. They wanted change in Washington and they wanted change in policy and for this, I can agree. There were so many better choices for change throughout the entire election process. There were so many candidates who could have brought about change while keeping our country’s reputation alive with our allies, protected our country from the threat of all kinds of evil, changed our education, health system, and environment for the good and protected our children. But yet the hate-filled people who couldn’t get past their own simple way of thinking that someone who has billions will also make them billions have a very rude awakening coming their way. It is hard to try to determine how change will be brought on by someone contemplating putting the same “old white men” in his cabinet and some who have questionable pasts…Giuliani, Gingrich, Christie. Is that an example of the change this country was looking for?
When the DOW drops 700 points in one night everyone needs to pay attention. When social media trends with #notmypresident in a democratic society, everyone needs to pay attention. When women are asking “why have we not come any further?” everyone needs to pay attention. When immigrants who are the very fabric of our nation, and black Americans who gave more than they should have ever had to so we could build this country, ask am I safe, everyone needs to pay attention and when gays and transgender people ask if they can walk the streets and be free anymore, everyone needs to pay attention. I simply ask “What will I tell my daughter?” And what will my daughter tell her daughter?
Open your eyes and ears America. Be a voice stronger than you ever expected. Please bring about change and force yourself to not tire in this fight and trying to make a difference, blocking hatred in any way or form possible. Be proud of who you are and for who will become. Take a stand and be a force for those who need to be held up. Don’t let this get away from you over time, don’t become complacent and don’t ever stop making sure your path to greatness is an important opportunity for all of us! This is what you can tell your daughter.
Open Letter by Caroline Galloway
(Edited by Cherese Jackson)
Caroline Galloway is a PR specialist with 23 years experience in Entertainment and Consumer Brand Marketing & PR. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio and is a working mother of two, who has published numerous announcements and articles on a variety of topics.
Source:
Mouth to Mouth PR & Partnerships: Caroline Galloway
Photo Credits:
Top Image Courtesy of MattJP – Flickr License
Inline Image Courtesy of Mike Licht – Flickr License
Featured Image Courtesy of madanelu – Flickr License Donald Trump , open letter , politics | 0 |
BEIJING — Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and President Xi Jinping of China cast aside their differences on Sunday with a public display of cooperation, sidestepping areas of disagreement even as North Korea made another defiant statement by showing off a new missile engine. In the meeting between the United States and China since President Trump took office, the two sides made no mention of other contentious issues, including possible punitive trade measures against China and Washington’s unhappiness with Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea. Greeting the new secretary of state in an ornate room in the Great Hall of the People, Mr. Xi thanked Mr. Tillerson for a smooth transition to the Trump administration and expressed his appreciation for the sentiment that “the . S. relationship can only be defined by cooperation and friendship. ” At least in public, Mr. Tillerson adopted a far different tone than that of his boss, who said in a Twitter post on Friday that China had “done little to help” on North Korea. Instead, Mr. Tillerson said the United States looked forward to stronger ties with China. China has been North Korea’s biggest backer, but relations between the two countries have been strained as the North continues to pursue the development of nuclear weapons. Hours before the meeting between Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Xi, North Korea stuck its nose under the tent, announcing that it had tested a new missile engine that analysts said could be used in an intercontinental missile. The test, apparently timed for Mr. Tillerson’s visit to Beijing, was another sign that North Korea was expanding its missile capabilities, with the state news media reporting that the country’s leader, Kim had presided over an event of “historic significance. ” By testing the engine on Saturday, Mr. Kim appeared to be giving China an additional headache by goading Mr. Tillerson, who said in South Korea on Friday that if the North elevated its threat, a strike by the United States would be on the table. The missile engine created the “perfect test” of the red line drawn by Mr. Tillerson in Seoul, said Evans J. R. Revere, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of state specializing in North Korea. Mr. Kim said in January that North Korea was in the final stages of preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM: a weapon that could reach the United States. “Based on what just happened at the test site, he doesn’t seem to have been kidding,” Mr. Revere said. During his stay in Beijing, Mr. Tillerson, who also visited Japan during his first trip to Asia as secretary of state, took the unusual step of repeating rosy Chinese language on the state of relations between the United States and China. The relationship is guided by “nonconflict, nonconfrontation, mutual respect and cooperation,” Mr. Tillerson said at a news conference with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The Chinese state news media quoted Mr. Tillerson’s echo of the Chinese phrasing, noting it approvingly. But behind the scenes, diplomats and analysts said there was little doubt that Mr. Tillerson had pressed China to enforce sanctions against North Korea and raised the possibility that the United States would bolster its missile defense in Asia if China did not rein in Mr. Kim. China strongly objects to the installation of a missile defense system in South Korea, and the polite public words from Mr. Tillerson were designed to give China “face,” said a diplomat in Beijing who spoke on the condition of anonymity per diplomatic custom. Mr. Tillerson was almost certainly sterner in private, according to the diplomat. “I believe Tillerson repeated in the meetings what he said publicly in South Korea and Japan, and backed up Trump in his tweet,” he said. That meant some public warmth was necessary, the diplomat said, because aside from talking about North Korea, Mr. Tillerson also had the task of setting a broad agenda for a summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi that is expected to take place in Florida in early April. At the summit meeting, China is expected to seek a reaffirmation of the “One China” policy, under which the United States recognizes a single Chinese government in Beijing and does not maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Mr. Trump committed to that policy in a telephone conversation with Mr. Xi in early February, but Chinese leaders, on edge about the president’s unpredictability, are eager to further secure it. Mr. Trump’s trade team is expected to be in place by the time Mr. Xi reaches Florida, and the Chinese will be looking to deter plans for tariffs and more stringent scrutiny of Chinese investment in the United States. Chinese analysts said Mr. Tillerson had probably encountered resistance to his arguments that the missile defense system — known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad — was of little danger to China, which firmly believes that the system erodes its nuclear deterrent. “Tillerson will repeat many times this is no threat to China, but Xi won’t believe it,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University. The best chance for cooperation on North Korea might come if China decides to more dutifully enforce some economic sanctions, Mr. Shi said. That would be a relatively small price to pay the Americans for a smooth summit meeting in Florida, although it would further hurt China’s already strained ties with North Korea, he said. “Maybe Xi will broaden the punishment against North Korea somewhat, at the cost of further damaging relations with North Korea,” Mr. Shi said. “We have punished North Korea many times, and Kim hates China more and more. Maybe China will take some small steps to shut down a few trading companies, but not all. ” China keeps the rudimentary North Korean economy running by supplying almost all its oil, and there is little chance Mr. Xi would consider shutting down the pipeline, even though China abruptly halted imports of North Korea’s coal last month, ending a valuable source of foreign currency for Pyongyang. “China won’t turn the sanctions from targeting the North Korean nuclear program into a punishment for ordinary North Korean people,” The Global Times, a newspaper that often reflects official thinking, said Friday. But on the eve of Mr. Tillerson’s visit to Beijing, a Washington research organization specializing in nuclear matters released a study that it said showed that China was not enforcing the sanctions aimed at the nuclear program. China has allowed large quantities of materials used to make a component of hydrogen bombs to pass through its borders to the North, according to the research group, the Institute for Science and International Security. A newly operating plant in North Korea that produces a key ingredient for hydrogen bombs is a glaring example of China’s ignoring sanctions, the group said. The study found that a plant producing lithium 6 — used to manufacture hydrogen bombs that are more powerful than conventional nuclear weapons — was located at a chemical complex on North Korea’s east coast. The North purchased mercury and lithium hydroxide in China, and the items were transported across the border, the president of the institute, David Albright, said. The two commodities are needed for the production of lithium 6, he said. | 1 |
By Joe Clark Videos October 28, 2016 Trump Calls Black Man At Rally A ‘Thug,’ Kicks Him Out – Except There’s One BIG Problem (VIDEO)
On Wednesday night during a rally in Kinston, North Carolina, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump once again focused on his fabled “minority outreach” initiative by kicking another black man out from his “inclusive” rally.
Trump accused the man of being a protester, however, like most of his supporters, Trump’s perception of a person of color was way off base.
During the exchange, Trump points to an older black man in a red shirt who made his way about 30 feet from the stage while yelling out “Donald!” to get the nominee’s attention. Trump immediately pounces on the opportunity to show how tough he is to his rabid supporters.
“We have a protester!” he said . Trump then said this to Cary: “By the way, were you paid $1,500 to be a thug?”
As the man was escorted out by Trump’s security team, the crowd erupted into chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump,” as the candidate bellowed “You can get him out. Get him out.”
C.J. Cary is a 63-year old former Marine who has been a Trump supporter ever since the billionaire replied to a 1992 letter Cary sent during Trump’s first divorce.
Cary made his way to the rally on Wednesday to see his hero and deliver a personal message via note to the GOP candidate. The note contained a bit of advice for the nominee, basically telling him to stop saying offensive things about women, minorities, and people with disabilities on the campaign trail, otherwise “lying Hillary” will beat him in November.
However, the former Marine never had an opportunity to make it more than 30 feet from his favorite candidate before being stopped and unceremoniously thrown out of the venue by the candidate himself.
Cary said he tried to explain his intentions to the security personnel.
“I said, ‘I was trying to get this doc to Mr. Donald … will you get this to Donald?’ ” Cary told the paper. “He said, ‘Well dude, we’d be happy to give it to him.’ ” Trump calls black supporter a "thug," has him kicked out of a rally in North Carolina. https://t.co/b4gkI6qx9v pic.twitter.com/eJKuu0CLRi
— Jason Sparks (@sparksjls) October 28, 2016
But it seems that this incident hasn’t deterred Cary’s support for “Mr. Donald” who he described as “an honest person.”
“I support Trump because he’s honest,” Cary said . “You can work with an honest person and convince them their vision isn’t in the best interest of everyone. You can’t work with dishonest people. That’s why I don’t like Obama—the worst president in American history.”
Some people never learn.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Following directions from Google Maps on a smartphone last year, Jose Alejandro turned a Ford truck, hauling a trailer, where he thought the app was telling him to go. But he ended up stuck on the railroad tracks at a poorly marked California crossing. Soon after Mr. abandoned the truck, a commuter train barreled into it, killing the engineer and injuring 32 others. On Monday, after investigating the crash for almost two years, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a safety recommendation asking technology and delivery companies to add the exact locations of more than 200, 000 grade crossings into digital maps and to provide alerts when drivers encounter them. The crash involving Mr. ’s truck — on Feb. 24, 2015, in Oxnard, Calif. — was one of the more than 200 fatalities that took place at a grade crossing, where road and railway lines are at the same level, in the United States last year. What made this crash stand out was the possible role of digital mapping technology in taking a driver down a wrong path. This was the first time the safety board has targeted navigation apps as a factor in a major accident. These days, drivers count on mapping apps for more than getting from one place to another. The apps serve as bulletin boards, alerting drivers in real time about their surroundings. Navigation apps such as Waze provide warnings for traffic jams, vehicles, roadway debris or even lurking police officers. The accuracy of mapping data is becoming more important as driverless cars start taking to the road. It will be up to navigation apps to guide cars onto the safest routes and to warn passengers — who may not be paying attention — about potential hazards. “The safer car in the future isn’t going to have a better bumper it’s going to have better navigation,” said Eric Gundersen, chief executive of Mapbox, a digital map provider. The Federal Railroad Administration has lobbied technology companies for 18 months to add alerts for grade crossings. The rail agency said it had contacted 11 technology companies, including Apple and Microsoft, to integrate its location data of grade crossings. In this year’s lineup of GPS devices, Garmin included safety warnings for potential hazards like sharp turns and railroad crossings, the company said, although it does not use the federal rail location data. Several months after the Oxnard crash, the railroad agency said Google had agreed to add audio and visual warnings to Google Maps, the world’s most popular mapping app, based on location data. But Google has not yet included that feature, even though it has updated the app more than two dozen times for the iPhone since then. The National Transportation Safety Board said Apple and three other companies had also agreed to add crossing data, but the board was uncertain when the companies would do so. A spokeswoman from Google said the company was aware of the safety board’s recommendation and was looking at ways to add safety features. Apple said it was working to add the rail data to its maps but would not elaborate on implementation specifics. Microsoft and MapQuest said they were also reviewing the data used in their maps. In a speech on Sept. 15, Sarah E. Feinberg, administrator of the railroad agency, said many of the recent deaths at rail crossings were not from drivers trying to “beat the train” but were “situations where the driver lost situational awareness, or there weren’t sufficient protections in place to protect the vehicle or provide adequate warning to the driver. ” She chided technology companies for procrastinating on integrating data into mapping applications that “will save many lives. ” On Monday, Ms. Feinberg praised the safety board’s recommendation, saying she hoped it “will raise this to the top of technology companies’ priority lists. ” The N. T. S. B.’s recommendations are not binding, but the board can use them to pressure technology companies to take action. It can also try to persuade Congress to offer funds to provide incentives to the companies, said James E. Hall, a former chairman of the safety board. The board has issued safety recommendations in the past, urging utility companies to update their maps with accurate locations of abandoned gas lines. Digital maps started replacing paper maps about a decade ago, when GPS devices from companies like Garmin and TomTom became more affordable and car companies started offering navigation systems. But the breakthrough came when Google and Apple added directions into mapping apps on smartphones, putting the technology into millions of devices already in people’s pockets. Globally, an estimated one billion people use a mapping app or service every week, according to the technology research firm Berg Insight. In the Oxnard crash, the driver was using Google Maps in Spanish on a smartphone borrowed from his wife. Investigators believe the map was one of a number of factors, including driver fatigue. Mr. was on a drive from his home in Yuma, Ariz. What was supposed to be a trip had stretched to 21 hours because his truck broke down along the way and he was involved in a minor crash. He came upon the rail crossing before sunrise, having not slept substantively in more than 24 hours, the safety board’s report said. “The N. T. S. B. concludes that had the driver’s navigation application included information on the upcoming grade crossing, he would have been less likely to misinterpret the visual cues and mistakenly turn onto the railroad tracks,” the safety board wrote in its report. At the time, the crossing had no grade separation, and there were no cones or markers warning drivers from turning onto the rails. Since 2008, there have been five accidents at that crossing, including one in 2010 when a confused driver turned onto the tracks and was struck by a train. The driver was injured, but there were no fatalities. “It’s easy to understand how in the dark, a driver unfamiliar with the area can turn at the wrong place if a navigation app says, ‘Turn here,’” said James McGillis, who lives near Oxnard, in Simi Valley, and has written extensively on his website about the crash. The police found Mr. a mile from his truck. He had abandoned it on the tracks with the headlights and hazard lights on and the driver’s door open. Ron Bamieh, Mr. ’s lawyer, said his client was trying to get help. Mr. was charged in February of this year with vehicular manslaughter and is awaiting arraignment. At some grade crossings, there are no gates or blinking lights to warn drivers of an oncoming train — just a crossing sign or a crossbuck, a white “X” marked with the words “railroad crossing. ” Thomas F. Prendergast, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, said grade crossings could be especially dangerous because drivers often do not take the proper precautions, especially with all the other distractions in the car. “Sometimes we want to distract while they are distracted,” Mr. Prendergast said, praising the safety board’s move. “That level of technology can be a game changer. ” The need for a recommendation speaks to the dependence some drivers feel toward navigation apps, choosing to follow directions from the app even in the face of contradictory information. In February, after a rockslide closed Interstate 70 in Colorado, directions from Google Maps sent drivers over a mountain pass near Aspen as an alternative. But that road was closed for the winter. A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, Amy Ford, said many drivers ignored road signs informing them that the road was closed and followed the apps instead. The most determined drivers became stranded and needed assistance from law enforcement. “It’s become integral for many drivers,” said Jake Nelson, AAA’s director of traffic safety advocacy and research. “The risk is when we become on these technologies. ” | 1 |
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq — Along the battle line north of Falluja, small units of Shiite fighters are raining mortar shells and rockets down on the city and its Islamic State occupiers. Militia graffiti is scrawled in red paint along a network of low walls cratered by bullets and bombs, and a wailing ambulance siren signals another load of wounded bound for treatment away from the front. The battle for Falluja has become entrenched outside the city itself. Iraqi forces surrounding the area have been bogged down by a fierce Islamic State counterattack. A few civilians managed to escape the city as the fighting closed in, but the status of tens of thousands still trapped there is an urgent question. Some parts of the extended battlefield are lush with date palm trees and almost bucolic, familiar to anyone who watched television images of American Marines fighting over the same territory more than a decade ago. But mostly, the land is brown and parched, scarred by the fighting. A charred tank, split in two, sits at an intersection, and smoke is always rising in the distance, from an airstrike, a mortar or a car bomb. The landscape has also been gutted by an elaborate network of tunnels — some of which have been hit in recent days by American airstrikes — that the Islamic State was able to construct while it held the area for more than two years. To get close to the front, a New York Times reporting team met officials from the Badr Organization, a longstanding Shiite militia backed by Iran, at a street corner in Baghdad outside a shawarma shop on Sunday morning. Our cars joined theirs in a small convoy, and, whipping past the checkpoints, we made it to a base east of Falluja in about an hour. Within the base, Iraq’s fragmented security forces occupied different areas: militias in one place the elite Iraqi Army counterterrorism forces, which work closely with the United States, in another and Sunni policemen from Falluja, who are scheduled to hold the city once it is taken from the Islamic State, in yet another space, some of the men lounging in tank tops or fixing their vehicles. Near the front, Hadi the Badr Organization’s leader, spoke of the forces’ progress in Falluja’s outlying areas. “I am amazed at the advancements so far,” he said. “We expected it to be a long vicious battle. ” Still, the real fight — taking the city street by street — has not yet begun, and Mr. Ameri said the battle might be slowed to allow civilians to leave. “We have a big concern for the lives of civilians inside Falluja,” said Mr. Ameri, mindful of the sectarian tensions that have been heightened with the battle, as a mostly Shiite force converges on a Sunni city. “There may be a delay to allow civilians to leave. ” That would parallel what happened during the first battle for Falluja, in April 2004, when American forces began assaulting the city, only to pull back because of concerns about civilians being killed. Then, Falluja became a byword for the United States’ failure to pacify a growing insurgency, and it was not until seven months later, in November, that Marines moved in and cleared the city in a battle that cost nearly 100 American lives. The battle for Falluja now unfolding is being fought by a jagged constellation of government security forces, Shiite militias and Sunni tribal fighters. They are closing in on the city from the north and south, but not yet fighting for its center. Still within Falluja are an estimated 50, 000 civilians, long cut off from shipments of food and medicine by a government siege and now under artillery fire as the front lines have tightened around the city. The Norwegian Refugee Council on Tuesday warned of a “catastrophe unfolding in Falluja,” saying that humanitarian conditions were “rapidly deteriorating as fierce fighting intensifies. ” And the United Nations, based on informers in the city, warned Tuesday that civilians were being killed from shelling by forces, including seven members of one family a few days ago. Lise Grande, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Iraq, said in an interview, “I am desperately worried about what is happening to civilians in Falluja. ” Ms. Grande said that informers inside the city had told the United Nations that Islamic State fighters were moving families to the city center to serve as human shields. Families who have been able to leave have reported severe food shortages and a lack of clean water, raising concerns, she said, of a cholera outbreak. About 3, 700 people, mostly from the outlying areas of Falluja, have reached safety over the past week, the United Nations said. An additional 500 men and boys over the age of 12 have reached government lines but are being held by the Iraqi authorities for questioning about any potential links to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Falluja has been closed to the world since the Islamic State captured it more than two years ago, as a steppingstone to its broader conquest of northern and western Iraq. A glimpse of the darkness that has grown inside emerged early Tuesday, when two women from the Yazidi religious minority, believed to have been captured in northern Iraq by the Islamic State and held in Falluja, possibly as sex slaves, reached safety by boat across the Euphrates River. Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi member of the Iraqi Parliament, traveled to Baghdad on Tuesday to meet the women, and said she believed that more Yazidi women were trapped inside the city. “I don’t know the exact number, but I’m sure there are many, many more,” Ms. Dakhil said in an interview. Standing in a field of scrub and palm trees on Sunday, near the front lines, Col. Sadiq Jaleel, of the federal police, said the Islamic State was unleashing its full arsenal against his men: snipers, houses, roadside bombs. He stressed that his men, a mortar team arrayed around him, amid open crates of shells, were advancing slowly to protect civilians. “The fighting has been vicious,” the colonel said. But he quickly added, referring to the populated heart of Falluja, “the battles in the residential areas will be more difficult. ” Humanitarian officials in Iraq believe they are racing against time to avert what they worry could be a blood bath should Iraqi forces storm the city center. Those fears were heightened on Monday morning, when Iraq’s United counterterrorism forces left their bases and advanced from the south toward the city. Statements that commanders gave to the news media on Monday falsely asserted that they had entered the city and were fighting for it. But on Tuesday it was clear that their advance had stalled in the face of stiff resistance from the Islamic State. The battle for Falluja has caught the public’s attention after a stretch of political turmoil that saw protesters storm Baghdad’s Green Zone and Parliament. Accordingly, the battle is also being waged in the Iraqi news media, and the various forces involved have all kept up a patter of statements claiming battlefield successes that, in some cases like on Monday, have yet to happen. On Tuesday afternoon, as it became evident that no quick victory was at hand, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, a central hub for the army, federal police and militias, urged the news media to be careful: “We warn all of the mass media to be accurate with the news about the military operations for the Falluja battle, and not to be hasty in publishing information and news and to check the sources of the news before publishing them. ” | 1 |
A Tennessee woman slipped into a coma and died after an ambulance company took so long to assemble a crew that one worker had time for a cigarette break. Paramedics in New York had to covertly swipe medical supplies from a hospital to restock their depleted ambulances after emergency runs. A man in the suburban South watched a chimney fire burn his house to the ground as he waited for the fire department, which billed him anyway and then sued him for $15, 000 when he did not pay. In each of these cases, someone dialed 911 and Wall Street answered. The business of driving ambulances and operating fire brigades represents just one facet of a profound shift on Wall Street and Main Street alike, a New York Times investigation has found. Since the 2008 financial crisis, private equity firms, the “corporate raiders” of an earlier era, have increasingly taken over a wide array of civic and financial services that are central to American life. Today, people interact with private equity when they dial 911, pay their mortgage, play a round of golf or turn on the kitchen tap for a glass of water. Private equity put a unique stamp on these businesses. Unlike other companies, which often have years of experience making a product or offering a service, private equity is primarily skilled in making money. And in many of these businesses, The Times found, private equity firms applied a sophisticated moneymaking playbook: a mix of cost cuts, price increases, lobbying and litigation. In emergency care and firefighting, this approach creates a fundamental tension: the push to turn a profit while caring for people in their most vulnerable moments. For governments and their citizens, the effects have often been dire. Under private equity ownership, some ambulance response times worsened, heart monitors failed and companies slid into bankruptcy, according to a Times examination of thousands of pages of internal documents and government records, as well as interviews with dozens of former employees. In at least two cases, lawsuits contend, poor service led to patient deaths. Private equity gained new power and responsibility as a direct result of the 2008 crisis. As cities and towns nationwide struggled to pay for basics like public infrastructure and ambulance services, private equity stepped in. At the same time, as banks scaled back their mortgage operations after the crisis, private equity firms — which face lighter regulation than banks, and none of their capital requirements — moved in there as well. The power shift has happened with relatively little scrutiny, even as federal authorities have tightened rules for banks. Unlike banks, which take deposits and borrow from the government, private equity firms invest money from wealthy individuals and pension funds desperate for returns at a time of historically low interest rates. Since the 2008 financial crisis, private equity firms have gone from managing $1 trillion to managing $4. 3 trillion — more than the value of Germany’s gross domestic product — according to the advisory firm Triago. Retirement nest eggs are fueling the growth and sharing in private equity’s risks and returns: Nearly half of private equity’s invested assets come from pensions. “There is private equity — a lot of it — and it’s happening everywhere,” said Vikram Pandit, a former Citigroup chief executive who is now head of the Orogen Group, which invests in financial businesses. Across the financial landscape, he said, “New champions will emerge. ” Warburg Pincus, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Company, and other major private equity firms have invested in emergency services, a business that routinely holds the lives of customers in its hands. While this represents one small corner of private equity, which traditionally used debt to seize underperforming companies, it captures the industry’s newfound pervasiveness. K. K. R. — a firm memorialized in “Barbarians at the Gate,” a book that chronicled a defining 1980s Wall Street deal — also invested in public water services. Blackstone is now America’s largest landlord of rental houses. And in the mortgage industry, until recently the province of banks, the Fortress Investment Group controls a huge bill collector. In many of the fields where private equity now operates, it has not necessarily performed better or worse than the banks and governments it replaced. In some cases it financed projects that others wouldn’t fund and provided crucial public services, including emergency care. And because these firms do not rely on the government for loans, and are much smaller than Wall Street banks, they pose far less risk to the broader economy. “Over 11 million Americans work for businesses, and millions more rely on private equity performance for their retirement security,” said James Maloney, a spokesman for the American Investment Council, the industry’s leading lobbying group. Private equity, Mr. Maloney said, helps “advance both our economic and societal . ” But the Times investigation of emergency services shows that hasn’t always been the case. Of the 12 ambulance companies recently owned by private equity, three filed for bankruptcy in the last three years, according to public filings and SP Global Market Intelligence, a research service that tracks over 1, 100 major ambulance companies in the United States. Those three companies had problems that predated private equity. But no other ambulance company tracked by the research firm filed for bankruptcy during that period. The latest blowup came in February, when TransCare EMS, controlled by the firm Patriarch Partners, filed for bankruptcy, closing its doors forever. One day, cities and towns up and down the East Coast had TransCare services the next, they didn’t. “Private equity has, in this case, threatened public safety,” said Richard Thomas, the mayor of Mount Vernon, N. Y, which relied on TransCare. “It’s not the way to treat the public. ” Patriarch’s owner and founder, Lynn Tilton, said in a statement that she was “deeply saddened by the unfortunate circumstances that triggered the abrupt end to TransCare’s operations and the heartache it has caused for many of its devoted employees. ” She noted that TransCare, like other ambulance companies, “faced the obstacles inherent to its business model. ” long one of the nation’s largest ambulance companies and one of the few operators of private fire departments, did a tour through bankruptcy, although it reorganized and stayed in business. One private equity investor took into bankruptcy, and another helped get it out. During that period, ’s response times slowed in certain towns and it instituted more aggressive billing practices across the board, records show. While under the control of Warburg, once sent a $761 collections notice to an infant girl born in an ambulance. “The matter may be reported to a national credit reporting agency,” the notice read, effectively threatening a baby with a bad credit report. “Obviously there were problems with ” said Ron Cunningham, a spokesman for ’s new parent company, Envision Healthcare, which is not a private equity firm. “We are continuing to hire paramedics and E. M. T.s and what you are seeing is that the response times are improving. ” In a statement, Warburg said it “invested in with the objective of growing and strengthening the company’s business. ” “Despite several initiatives undertaken by the company’s board and management team,” the statement said, the “challenges faced were too difficult to overcome. ” While private equity firms have always invested in a diverse array of companies, including hospitals and nursing homes, their movement into emergency services raises broader questions about the administering of public services. Cities and towns are required to offer citizens a free education, and they generally provide a police force, but almost everything else is fair game for privatization. “We’re reaching new lows in the public safety services we will help provide, especially in very poor cities,” said Michelle Wilde Anderson, a law professor at Stanford University who specializes in state and local government. Private equity firms, she said, “are not philanthropists. ” A TransCare ambulance pulled into a hospital parking lot in Westchester County. Employees in windbreakers, “EMS” emblazoned on the backs, hopped out and headed for the emergency room door. They were there not to bring in a patient or sign paperwork, but to go “E. R. shopping”: swiping supplies to replenish critical items TransCare could not afford to replace in its ambulances. After an ambulance finishes a run, hospital staff members often restock medications as a courtesy. But TransCare emergency workers described pressure from supervisors to go further and raid supply carts, sometimes without the hospital’s blessing. On occasion, one TransCare worker would act as lookout while “the other one would just be grabbing stuff,” said Emanuel Almodovar, a former employee. Chez Valenta, an veteran of TransCare, said employees often had no choice. Medications in the ambulances were expired and supplies were depleted. “There’s only a couple of things that terrify paramedics,” Ms. Valenta said. “Being without your critical medications is one of them. I make no apologies. ” The supply shortage — and the extreme measures taken to address it — was just one warning sign of TransCare’s demise. In February, it became official: Employees received an email from a supervisor declaring, “We are being told to cease operations immediately. ” TransCare’s unraveling, told through internal documents and interviews with former employees, provides a case study in private equity’s ambulance experiment. The company’s implosion followed the bankruptcies of two other ambulance companies owned by private equity, and First Med. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Private equity investors swept into the ambulance business with high hopes. “Tremendous growth potential,” Warburg Pincus said in a statement in 2011 when it bought with plans to acquire rival ambulance services and improve bill collection. Other firms bet that fragile towns would outsource emergency care. And, the thinking went, President Obama’s health care overhaul would insure millions more people, providing new paying customers. But many newly insured Americans turned out to be on Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Medicaid restricts some of the most aggressive billing tactics. “It didn’t quite play out like they had hoped,” said Mike Ward, executive director of the National EMS Management Association. So some private equity firms fell back on a moneymaking strategy: slashing costs. The case of TransCare shows the perils of that approach. In 2003, Patriarch helped rescue TransCare, which had previously been owned by other private equity investors, from another bankruptcy. For years the company, which once had 2, 000 employees, showed signs of improvement, with ample resources and high morale. Patriarch’s owner, Ms. Tilton, liked to put a friendly face on private equity, shunning the stereotype of Wall Street raiders out to strip companies of valuable assets or flip them for a quick profit. Ms. Tilton starred in a reality television show, “Diva of Distressed,” and has famously said, “It’s only men I strip and flip. ” The TransCare mess was a mere blip for Patriarch, which manages a sprawling portfolio of more than 70 companies, including the mapmaker Rand McNally. And Ms. Tilton, who said she “worked tirelessly” to try to save the company, attributed TransCare’s collapse to problems beyond Patriarch’s control. The business requires costly investment in medical gear, she said. “With limited free cash flow, any disruptions in the business can cause unsustainable deterioration. ” Yet Ms. Tilton was very much in charge of TransCare as it crumbled. She was the sole owner of the Patriarch Partners fund that had a controlling stake in TransCare. And although she never held an executive or management role, she was TransCare’s sole board member — a situation almost in corporate America. Only 3 percent of private companies have two or fewer board members, according to survey data from the National Association of Corporate Directors, which called a board “likely a recipe for governance failure. ” Former TransCare employees described pressure to cut costs and increase billing as the company weakened in recent years. Patients were transported unnecessarily in ambulances, they said. And ambulances regularly broke down. On the day TransCare filed for bankruptcy, more than 30 percent of the company’s vehicles were out of service, some for hundreds of days, according to internal documents. “We drove buses on the 911 unit where the brakes didn’t work properly,” said Rayshma Raghunath, a former TransCare employee, referring to her ambulance. She started feeling uneasy during the Ebola scare in 2014, when she said workers had trouble getting enough sanitary wipes to disinfect their ambulances. Caitlin Cannizzaro, another former employee, said that even starting the ambulances became tough. One morning, it took four hours to get some running, she said. “You really had to become a MacGyver in the field. ” By early 2015, the company had racked up health department violations for failed ambulance inspections, internal documents show. Employees spotted bedbugs in the Brooklyn dispatch center. Suppliers refused to provide drugs or repair ambulances because of unpaid bills. “We were constantly having problems with the heart monitors,” said Mr. Almodovar, the former emergency medical technician. “It started getting scary. The last thing we want is for a patient to die on us because the equipment is failing. ” By February 2015, shortages became critical. According to meeting minutes reviewed by The Times, TransCare executives discussed how their New York locations would be “unable to make it through the weekend with current medical supplies. ” Supervisors regularly paid for supplies out of their own pockets and hoped for reimbursement, emails show. Some workers said the ambulances carried expired medications. Others went “E. R. shopping. ” In March 2015, a new problem emerged: Some TransCare employees did not get paid on time. Then in July, it happened again. When it looked like payroll might be delayed another time, TransCare sent sample questions and answers to managers, “to help you communicate” with frustrated employees. It read in part: In the first few days of 2016, the trouble accelerated. Eviction warnings had piled up. High levels of carbon monoxide in the Brooklyn office sent at least one employee to the hospital, according to medical records. The company lost a major customer, the city of New Rochelle, N. Y. Less than 48 hours later, employees learned the chief executive had stepped down — the third in four years to leave. “Recent events have been a call,” the chief operating officer wrote to the staff to announce the chief executive’s departure. The note signed off, “Here’s to a great future together!” A month later, the company filed for bankruptcy, leaving a mess for cities and employees alike. Workers rushed to the company’s offices in Brooklyn to collect their final paychecks. Worried the checks might bounce, some piled into emergency vehicles and raced to a store. James Bradley, deputy commissioner of public safety in White Plains, blamed Patriarch for TransCare’s woes. “That’s where the problems lie,” he said. The city of Mount Vernon, another former customer in New York, hired a new private company at a cost to taxpayers, and is developing its own ambulance operation within its fire department. In New York City, where TransCare had operated 27 ambulances, the fire department paid its own ambulance workers overtime to fill the void. “I am highly upset with Patriarch. They lied to us,” said Jay Robbins, a former director of operations at TransCare who was at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “I told my employees to come in and work, and now they won’t be getting paid,” he said soon after the bankruptcy, his voice shaking. The bankruptcy also disrupted litigation pending against the company, including a malpractice case that raises questions about TransCare’s training procedures. During an Aerosmith concert at Madison Square Garden in 2012, Robert Albrecht, a businessman with a wife and three children, suddenly collapsed. TransCare arrived within minutes — it was stationed in the building. But a paramedic mistakenly inserted a breathing tube into Mr. Albrecht’s esophagus, medical records and the lawsuit show, pumping air into his stomach instead of his lungs. He was pronounced dead minutes later. The case was scheduled for preliminary settlement talks, according to the family’s lawyer, Jonathan C. Reiter, when TransCare went under. Today Mr. Albrecht’s widow is a creditor in the bankruptcy, in line with medical suppliers and unpaid workers. In Loudon County, Tenn. another ambulance company was unnerving local officials. After 11 years of relying on the Tennessee county wanted to part ways in 2014. So it sent letters to the company outlining grievances: employees slept through an emergency call. A driver refused to transport a dead body because it would “stink up” his ambulance. Another worker, who later said she offered to respond to an emergency even though she was off duty, had enough time to smoke a cigarette while the company scrambled to assemble a full crew. The patient later died. In the year since private equity had led the company into bankruptcy, had endangered “the health and welfare” of its citizens, Loudon County said in a letter to the company. It was, as the letter put it, “a complete system failure. ” Data on the quality of an ambulance company’s performance is scarce at the national level and difficult to compare or . A basic metric — how often ambulances are late — is often defined differently, if it is measured at all. Still, data can show how one company changes over time, and a Times analysis of data obtained under freedom of information laws from five of ’s major markets suggests that service in four areas suffered under private equity ownership. The Times examined where operated exclusively, in or near cities. In one town, response times surged in another, penalties skyrocketed. In a third, county officials time and again received a dreaded alert: no available ambulances. The first private equity investor to back was Warburg Pincus. It was just one investment for a firm that manages roughly $40 billion. But the 2011 takeover was the sort of acquisition that tarred private equity firms in the public mind as corporate raiders out to make a fast dollar. Warburg financed its roughly $730 million purchase by adding more than $500 million in debt to ’s balance sheet — a deep hole to climb out of. Initially, Warburg invested in the company and its ambulances. acquired two ambulance companies, helping increase capital spending by 20 percent and payroll by 15 percent in 2012. But the deals added to overall debt, contributing to cutbacks that potentially affected patient care. Some ambulances weren’t promptly restocked, employees said. In Arizona, the company’s home state, it shelved a program that gave raises to senior staff. It also slashed pensions there. “It was a train wreck,” said Aaron Chamney, a former fire captain who said he was dismissed a month into Warburg’s ownership after he was injured on the job. The financial results were also a mess. which operates ambulances in 20 states, told investors it would book higher revenue than it ultimately did, leading bondholders to sue Warburg for fraud, a case that continues. Warburg denies the accusations. As Warburg’s investment spiraled toward bankruptcy, service suffered. In Arizona, just days before the August 2013 bankruptcy, the health department wrote to demanding data on its 911 response times. was failing to respond on time, state records show. Tacoma, Wash. waived almost all of ’s fines for lateness in 2012 because the company was meeting overall standards. Then, however, performance collapsed. paid fines for nine straight months. In the first half of 2013, average monthly penalties, both waived and not, nearly quintupled from the same period a year earlier. “Throughout our ownership of Warburg Pincus always supported a high standard of customer care and the best possible results for all of the company’s stakeholders,” the firm said in a statement, citing “increased spending to improve operations and processes, increased capital investment and strategic acquisitions. ” But as Warburg’s investment was crumbling, something interesting happened: Other investors saw an opportunity and snapped up ’s bonds. This is a classic strategy in which Wall Street firms hunt for investments (in this case, distressed debt) expecting them to bounce back. But didn’t recover. It filed for bankruptcy. Suddenly those bondholders had a choice: revive the company, or lose their money. The biggest bondholder was Oaktree Capital Management, an investment manager that specializes in distressed bonds and private equity deals. Oaktree invested $88 million in loans and stock, helping wipe out Warburg’s stake in the company. By January 2014, Oaktree was the single largest shareholder in . But Oaktree, which owned nearly 40 percent of did not halt the slide. In Rochester, monthly penalties averaged $58, 950 in the first half of 2015, during Oaktree’s tenure, more than double the average during the first half of 2013, when Warburg owned the company. In July 2014, the Mesa, Ariz. fire chief formally complained about ’s “unprecedented reduction of ambulances, which in turn delayed patient care. ” The fire chief of the Superstition Fire and Medical District, in Apache Junction, Ariz. accused of appearing “more focused on cutting corners and canceling contracts than quality of care. ” In Aurora, Colo. awarded medals of valor to some employees for responding to the 2012 movie theater shooting. But the city issued increasing penalties to the company, on an average basis, for late responses and other problems after the bankruptcy. Last year, during Oaktree’s tenure, Aurora chose to award its contract to a different ambulance company. In a statement, Oaktree said ’s board was unaware of “any contracts that the company lost due to deficient response times or supplies. ” “The board’s foremost focus was patient safety,” Oaktree said, adding that it “never contemplated any expense cuts that would have affected response time or patient care. ” Not everyone was displeased with . In Wheat Ridge, Colo. the company has been considered compliant since 2011. When suffered delays, “There were always reasonable explanations,” said Daniel Brennan, chief of police. Similarly, San Diego considered compliant under Warburg’s and Oaktree’s ownership. However, the city’s records show that it excused several hundred late responses over the last five years for circumstances like bursts of emergency calls. Officials in Knox County, Tenn. said they started worrying in April 2015 when alerted them twice that it had no ambulances available for emergencies, forcing them to rely on other providers. That is known as a “level zero,” and it had happened only once before in recent years. In 2015, the county penalized $110, 000 for . also must tell the county if three or fewer ambulances are available. During the second half of 2015, it notified the county of such shortages an average of 106 times per month — quadruple the average of the same period in 2013. “What we’ve been told is that their challenge is around staffing,” said Dr. Martha Buchanan, director of the county’s health department. She cited the bankruptcy and a new law requiring more worker certifications, making hiring tougher. also reported increased lateness, defined as taking 10 minutes or longer to reach an emergency. In the second half of 2015, was late, on average, about 9. 4 percent of the time, up from 6. 8 percent two years earlier. Though the company still met overall standards, the county said “had increased difficulty in doing so. ” Since Envision took over in late 2015, replacing private equity, the company has shown signs of improvement, Knox County officials said. It has purchased new ambulances and raised salaries. In neighboring Loudon County, officials noticed response time problems after the bankruptcy, when Oaktree was the largest shareholder. The final straw came after an 911 call in August 2014. Donna Maher, 81, couldn’t breathe. “They’re coming as quick as they can,” the 911 operator promised. But ’s ambulance had not yet left the station. Surveillance video showed an emergency worker standing beside her ambulance, smoking a cigarette. Ms. Maher eventually reached the hospital, but died 10 days later. Later that year, Loudon County negotiated an early exit from its contract. And the ambulance worker, Cortney Bryson, was fired. Ms. Bryson sued for wrongful termination, saying the company was “covering up improper scheduling, staffing and response criteria” in a way that “could have been shown to be a direct factor in the death of a citizen. ” In an interview, Ms. Bryson said she had worked two shifts before the call about Ms. Maher came in. Ms. Bryson was technically off the clock, she said, but a replacement hadn’t yet arrived. Ms. Bryson said that she offered to go with another colleague, but that they needed permission because the colleague lacked full credentials. While waiting, she smoked. Jennifer Estes, the 911 center director, says it is difficult to link a delayed ambulance to a death. But this case, she said, “leaves some room for someone to wonder, ‘Could the extra time have made a difference? ’” After private equity took over new posters appeared on the walls of ambulance and fire stations, featuring a caricature of a uniformed employee delivering a mandate: Get a signature. In other words, get patients to sign documents that can be used to bill them. “Almost always, if the patient is alert, they will be able to sign,” he says. And if the patient can’t sign? Then go to a family member, or a nurse. “They’ll sign — because I don’t give up. ” The posters — just one element of ’s aggressive billing practices while owned by private equity — promoted “Do the Write Thing,” a policy instructing employees to document every detail of a patient’s treatment. It paired with another initiative, the “Care to Cash” checklist, also instituted during Warburg’s tenure. Warburg Pincus said it was not aware of those specific initiatives. The policies, said, would help patients by ensuring that bills were accurate. But employees complained that the process distracted them from caregiving and put them in the awkward position of seeking signatures from ill or medicated patients. Do the Write Thing “didn’t sit well with the firefighters,” said Nico Latini, who has worked at for a decade. “We operate under a high level of integrity and we do the right thing every day — with an R, not a W. ” In the four years that private equity led the company was fighting for financial survival. It raised its prices, but patients couldn’t afford those bigger bills. Against that backdrop, the company intensified its collection efforts. And when people didn’t pay, took them to court. After Warburg left the company, eliminated Care to Cash and Do the Write Thing. But even under its new equity owner, it still sues to collect some unpaid bills from fire and ambulance customers. ’s new owner said it “will continue to utilize the legal system to pursue payment when appropriate,” but added that it first asks “customers who need assistance to work with us to develop a payment plan that meets their needs. ” ’s fire departments sell homeowners an annual subscription for fire protection, often ranging from $100 to $500, depending on the property. If a nonsubscriber suffers a fire, will still answer the call, unlike some other private departments. But then it sends a bill well above the subscription price. Even before private equity took over, the company sued to collect fire bills. Under private equity, this practice flourished. The Times examined court filings in the areas where operates fire departments and identified dozens of lawsuits filed since 2011, when private equity took over. In these lawsuits, which are at public fire departments, the company pursued unpaid bills ranging from a few hundred dollars to $59, 000. In Knoxville, Tenn. Lester Day faced one of those lawsuits. When his chimney caught fire in March 2013, he dialed 911. When firefighters arrived almost an hour later, 911 records indicate, the house had been reduced to ashes. That didn’t stop from charging Mr. Day for their response and then placing a $15, 000 lien on his home, which he had since rebuilt. “Now I’m having to sell everything we’ve got,” Mr. Day said in an interview. “It ain’t right. ” also filed hundreds of lawsuits against ambulance patients in the same time period, including claims against families of people who died. Public providers are generally less aggressive than private ones, and some opt not to sue at all. The New York Fire Department said it sends letters to ambulance patients but stops short of suing. And yet, patients may not always have the chance to ride in a government ambulance. Private companies now represent about 25 percent of all ambulance providers, according to the National Association of State EMS Officials. ’s community fire service, which operates in Arizona, Oregon and Tennessee, is one of the nation’s few private fire departments. Only 4 percent of Americans rely on a private fire service. mainly serves unincorporated areas without public fire departments, where often there is no government contract or public oversight. The Times spoke with more than a dozen people who had been sued by the company after fires on their property. Many homeowners in ’s jurisdiction did not realize they had to pay for fire protection separately, on top of their taxes. Some thought the subscription fee was unwarranted. “I thought the fire department was paid out of taxes,” said Alice Addie, who lives with her husband, LaVern, in Mesa, Ariz. In 2013, filed a roughly $7, 000 lawsuit against the Addies after their mobile home caught fire. Mr. Addie, a Navy veteran, at first disputed the charges, storming into his local fire department to question the suit. Ultimately, the company allowed the Addies to pay off their bill in monthly installments. But in the backyard of his home, in the shadow of the rugged mountains of Maricopa County, he explained how they were still struggling with that debt. “We just eat two meals a day instead of three,” he said. | 1 |
Pointing Fingers Over Trump’s Victory November 17, 2016
After Donald Trump’s victory, Democrats and progressives have traded accusations as to what was at fault, the Establishment’s insistence on Hillary Clinton or the insurgent challenges from Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein, reports Nat Parry.
By Nat Parry
As the reality of Donald J. Trump’s victory in the Nov. 8 presidential election sets in, Democrats and progressives have been trading accusations over who – or what – may have led to this historic electoral defeat.
For progressives who backed Vermont’s independent Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries, the culprit is clearly the Democratic Party establishment, led by the likes of former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and current interim DNC chair Donna Brazile, who they blame for stacking the deck against their candidate and ensuring Hillary Clinton’s nomination – despite her considerable baggage heading into the election. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. (Photos by Gage Skidmore and derivative by Krassotkin, Wikipedia)
These progressives point to Clinton’s historically low favorability ratings in national polls, and the fact that in a hypothetical one-one-one match-up between Trump and Sanders, polling data showed early on that Sanders would have likely defeated Trump easily. Trump himself seemed to understand the advantage Sanders had over him in a possible general election contest, tweeting in May 2016 that he “would rather run against Crooked Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders and that will happen because the books are cooked against Bernie!”
Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, Sanders was clearly more liked, even as Clinton wrapped up the nomination last summer. Gallup polling found in June 2016 that Sanders held 70 percent favorable and 18 percent unfavorable ratings among Democratic voters, while Clinton was seen favorably by 67 percent and unfavorably by 28 percent. In the aftermath of Trump’s victory – assisted by the lowest voter turnout in 20 years – some have argued that enthusiasm for Sanders could have pushed the Democrats to victory in key swing states that ultimately went to Trump.
To back up these claims, the progressive website USUncut pointed out on Nov. 10 that in five states that Sanders won in the primaries – Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin – the exit polling data indicated that the demographic groups that helped Trump reach 270 electoral college votes were also Sanders’s key demographics.
“Assuming that Sanders won white, rural rust belt voters in the traditionally blue states that Hillary Clinton lost,” Sanders would have won the Electoral College with a 303-235 advantage , according to this analysis.
Yet, while progressives blame the Democratic establishment for pushing an unpopular nominee – who was saddled by a federal investigation into her use of a private email server while Secretary of State, questions related to the ethics of her collecting sizable speaking fees from Wall Street firms, and suspicions over the Clinton Foundation’s dealings with foreign governments – establishment Democrats have been largely placing the blame on progressives for failing to unite behind Clinton.
Some commentators have pointed fingers at voters who decided to buck the two-party system and cast a ballot for the Green Party’s Jill Stein or the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson while others have assigned blame to Sanders for daring to mount a primary challenge against Clinton in the first place.
This was the argument of Prof. Gil Troy, who wrote at Time Magazine on Nov. 14 that “Senator Bernie Sanders earned the 2016 ‘Ralph Nader Award’ for the Leftist Most Responsible for Helping Republicans Win the Presidency.”
While acknowledging that Trump “cleverly exploited voters’ frustrations” and that “Clinton’s campaign in 2016 was as rigid and empty as it was when she lost in 2008,” Troy nevertheless argues that Sanders’ insurgent primary campaign “pushed her too far left to prevent an effective re-centering in the fall.”
Troy offers few facts or polling data to back up these claims, instead making broad-based assertions such as “just as Ralph Nader siphoned tens of thousands of votes on Election Day 2000 in Florida from Al Gore, causing the deadlock and George W. Bush’s victory, Bernie Sanders’ similar vampire effect enfeebled Hillary Clinton.”
According to this view, even running a progressive primary election challenge – much less a third-party campaign – is dangerously unacceptable, creating a so-called “vampire effect” that “siphons votes” that rightfully belong to someone else.
The Spoiler Effect
While Sanders remains the target of some criticism for costing the Democrats the election, the real vitriol is leveled at third parties and their supporters. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida.
Typical was the reaction of Newsweek senior writer Kurt Eichenwald, who published an account of an encounter he had with a fan in the Philadelphia International Airport following the election. The individual had approached Eichenwald to praise his work but nearly ended up the victim of a physical assault.
According to Eichenwald, the man, who had recognized the pundit from his television appearances, thanked him for his reporting on Trump and expressed disgust that Trump had won. Eichenwald then asked the fan who he had voted for. The man stated that he voted for Green Party nominee Jill Stein, to which Eichenwald replied: “You’re lucky it’s illegal for me to punch you in the face.” According to his account of the interaction, Eichenwald then told his fan to go “have sex with himself.”
As anyone who has ever voted for a party other than the Democrats or Republicans can attest, this is a pretty familiar reaction. In the United States’ winner-take-all electoral system, a vote for anyone outside of the two main parties is seen as a “wasted vote” that could “spoil” the election, and those who make this decision risk professional and social ostracism.
In this system, third-party voters are vilified to an extent not seen for any other voting demographic – including nonvoters who in fact account for a far greater share of the electorate, and therefore have a much bigger effect in swinging the election.
Yet, this has not stopped many pundits and social media users from piling blame onto supporters of Stein or Johnson, who are deemed reckless and irresponsible for so frivolously casting a ballot for candidates who had no chance of winning – or worse yet, as personally culpable for Trump’s victory and all the disastrous policies that might follow.
“If you vote for somebody who can’t win for president, it means that you don’t care who wins for president,” opined MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Election Night. She later elaborated on this wasted-vote theory, tweeting about a fanciful scenario in which every Stein vote and half of Johnson’s votes would have gone to Clinton, who might have then claimed enough states from Trump to eke out an Electoral College win, a story repeated by CNN .
In a similar vein, columnist Paul Krugman weighed in by tweeting in the early morning hours of Nov. 9 that “Jill Stein has managed to play Ralph Nader,” referring to the “spoiler effect” that the 2000 Green Party nominee allegedly had on the election 16 years ago. “Without her Florida might have been saved.”
Flawed Analysis
Setting aside rehashed arguments from 2000, when it comes to Election 2016 independent evaluations of third-party voting have concluded that the effect of this voting bloc was statistically negligible, and cannot seriously be attributed to Clinton’s defeat. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
A Wall Street Journal analysis, for example, found that Clinton would have needed to win 70 percent of the vote share that went to both the Libertarian and Green parties across eight swing states to claim victory – a highly unlikely scenario considering that the Libertarian Party champions a brand of fiscal conservatism and limited government that traditionally appeals to right-leaning, Republican voters. (Indeed, the 2016 Libertarian Party ticket was headed by two former Republican governors: Gary Johnson of New Mexico and Bill Weld of Massachusetts.)
In another analysis, the Washington Post concluded that in the five states Trump won by a margin smaller than the combined Johnson/Stein vote, some of them could have been flipped if the entire Stein vote was added to Clinton’s total. In this scenario, the Post notes, the outcome might have changed in Michigan and Wisconsin, still however leaving her short of an Electoral College victory.
The paper pointed out however that “this projection rests on the unrealistic assumption that all Stein voters would have voted for Clinton,” conceding that it is impossible to “know how Johnson and Stein backers would have voted if forced to choose between Clinton, Trump and staying home.” More realistically, many would have “skipped the presidential race or voted for another candidate .”
Besides the lack of hard statistical data to back up the wasted vote/spoiler effect claims, they also rest on a flawed assumption that anyone’s votes – whether Clinton’s, Trump’s, Johnson’s or Stein’s – actually belong to anyone else. In fact, many third-party voters are simply fed up with the system itself, and hope that by voting for other options, it might be possible to someday build up viable alternatives to the two-party system.
This was especially the case this year, in which the numbers of disaffected voters reached historic proportions. By the time the primaries had been decided last summer, in fact, the two front-runners were the most unpopular candidates seen in a generation, which should have been seen as a warning sign to Democrats who traditionally rely on high voter turnout for electoral success.
According to a Quinnipiac poll released in June, Clinton had a 57 percent unfavorability rating, while Trump received a 59 percent unfavorability rating. Moreover, according to a survey by Data Targeting, 55 percent of Americans favored having an independent or third-party presidential candidate to consider. Among millennials – a key demographic for Barack Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012 – 91 percent expressed support for additional choices this year.
Another poll, released in September just before the Trump-Clinton debates began, found that 76 percent of Americans favored Johnson and Stein sharing the stage with the two main party candidates in the debates. This, of course, did not happen, with the Commission on Presidential Debates sticking to its strict criteria that independents and third parties need to reach 15 percent in national polling before they are allowed into the debates.
This is perhaps one reason why Americans remained largely ignorant of Stein’s and Johnson’s campaigns, with Gallup finding that 63 percent were unfamiliar with Johnson heading into the general election, and 68 percent were unfamiliar with Stein.
Voter Boycotts and Voter Suppression
Regardless of the impacts of third-party alternatives – which only ended up receiving a total of 4 percent of the popular vote – the deep disaffection among American voters that was seen in earlier polling seemed to manifest itself in other voting trends on Election Day. This disaffection can be seen in the high number of down-ballot voters who opted not to cast a ballot for president this year. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
One telling analysis found that in 14 states, down-ballot candidates received more votes than presidential candidates.
In North Carolina, for instance, about 30,000 more people cast ballots for incumbent Gov. Pat McCrory and Roy Cooper than for any of the presidential nominees. In Vermont, about 314,000 voters cast ballots in the governor’s race, and 313,000 for the Senate, while just 291,000 voted for president – a difference of almost 8 percent.
In Oregon, where Democrats Sen. Ron Wyden and Gov. Kate Brown easily won re-election, their races drew about 75,000 more votes than the presidential contest. Other states in which down-ballot voters essentially boycotted the presidential election included Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
Besides nonvoters, another factor that should be receiving at least as much attention as third-party “spoilers” are the would-be voters who could not cast a ballot due to systematic disenfranchisement, possible voter suppression or other all-too-familiar problems at polling places. As the Brennan Center for Justice noted on Nov. 14, “too many voters had to contend with long lines, malfunctioning voting machines, confusion over voting restrictions, voter intimidation, [and] voter registration problems.”
The nonpartisan law and policy institute, which has been documenting flaws in U.S. election administration for years, notes that “2016 was not the first election in which these problems have occurred – and that itself is a problem.”
Describing numerous instances of voting problems across the country, the group concluded that “the ways in which elections are administered, including how well they are resourced, can have a negative impact on citizens’ ability to cast a ballot and the confidence the public has in the system.”
Investigative reporter Greg Palast went further than that, contending that “before a single vote was cast, the election was fixed by GOP and Trump operatives.”
He noted in a Nov. 11 blog post that in 2013, just as the Supreme Court overturned key sections of the Voting Rights Act, Republican operatives created a system called Crosscheck to purge 1.1 million Americans from the voter rolls of Republican-controlled states.
According to his count, in Michigan, the Crosscheck purge list eliminated 449,922 voters from the rolls, while Trump claimed victory in that state by just 13,107 votes. In Arizona, the Trump victory margin was 85,257 votes, while a total of 270,824 voters were eliminated by Crosscheck. The Trump victory margin in North Carolina was 177,008, while the Crosscheck purge list accounted for 589,393 voters knocked off the rolls.
Palast notes that “the electoral putsch was aided by nine other methods of attacking the right to vote of Black, Latino and Asian-American voters … including ‘caging,’ ‘purging,’ blocking legitimate registrations, and wrongly shunting millions to ‘provisional’ ballots that will never be counted.”
He also points to the discrepancies between the exit polling data and the final results in several battleground states, noting that exit polling is historically “deadly accurate.” Despite this, Palast notes that in 2016, the exit polling was off the mark in at least four key swing states.
According to the exit polls, Clinton should have won Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but at the end of the day all of these states went to Trump. Accounting for a total of 74 Electoral College votes, these four states would have been more than enough for Clinton to have flipped the election.
And of course, this all assumes that the Electoral College is legitimate in the first place. The fact remains that Hillary Clinton received more than one million more votes nationwide than Donald Trump, and the only reason he is assuming the White House is due to the arcane and controversial system of allocating votes through the Electoral College.
This has led to increasing calls to abolish the Electoral College altogether based on the idea that elections should be determined on the principle of one person, one vote.
Needed Reforms Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson.
Needless to say, to many around the world – not to mention many within the United States – these elections are looking less like free expressions of the people’s will than they do down-and-dirty slug fests in which either side is willing to claim a victory at any cost.
This election was observed by two international organizations in fact, and while their final reports vary to considerable degrees, both the Organization of American States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe both criticized the tone of the election and highlighted numerous structural deficiencies in the way the United States chooses its leaders.
The OAS final report identified the following issues as representing key areas for improvement in the U.S. electoral system: taking measures to avoid long lines at polling places, broadening cooperation between states to compare information and avoid possible duplications in voter registries, expanding the practice of redistricting through nonpartisan commissions, addressing the impacts of the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, establishing better campaign finance rules, and jettisoning the divisive campaign rhetoric that has turned off so many voters from the process.
The OAS also noted the unusual practice in the United States of simultaneously mandating voter identification while not providing this required identification to eligible voters.
“Practically all countries in the region provide at least one free form of national identification to their citizens, which is used for electoral purposes,” said the OAS . “In the U.S., 32 states currently have laws in force that require voters to show some form of prescribed identification to verify their identity before casting a vote.” However, these states do not make this identification readily available to citizens, contrary to good electoral practice.
This is also a weakness that the OSCE pointed out in its report , noting: “Voter identification rules are politically divisive and vary across the states, with 32 states requiring photo identification. A high volume of litigation regarding voter identification continued up to Election Day, generating confusion among voters and election officials regarding the application of rules. Efforts to ensure the integrity of the vote are important, but should not lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.”
The 57-country organization also noted the undue obstacles faced by minor parties and independents trying to compete in U.S. elections.
“The number of signatures required and the signature submission deadlines vary from state to state, which made it cumbersome for third party or independent candidates to register across all states for presidential elections,” the OSCE pointed out. “Both the Green Party and Libertarian Party challenged ballot access requirements in several states, with success in a few instances.”
The organization, which has been monitoring elections in the United States since 2004, regretted that since previous election observation missions, a number of its “priority recommendations remain unaddressed.” It pointed out that “deficiencies in the legal framework persist, such as the disenfranchisement of citizens living in various territories, restrictions on the voting rights of convicted criminals and infringements on secrecy of the ballot.”
Rather than focusing on who is to blame for Trump’s victory in Election 2016, Democrats, Republicans, progressives, independent conservatives, third-party supporters, minorities, and good-government groups might be better served coming together and finally taking seriously the task of electoral reform, beginning with addressing some of the key recommendations of impartial international observers.
Perhaps then, this perennial debate and the endless exchange of recriminations might finally come to an end.
Nat Parry is the co-author of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. [This story originally appeared at Essential Opinion, https://essentialopinion.wordpress.com/2016/11/17/election-2016s-blame-game/ | 0 |
Purdue University professors have presented research on rapidly charging batteries that could change the face of the electric automotive industry. [Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, and Mathematics John Cushman presented new research at the International Society for Porous Media 9th International Conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Entitled “Redox reactions in in porous media — membraneless battery applications,” the report outlines a new type of battery, and the method by which it could be recharged with unprecedented speed. Cushman called the growing worldwide sales of electric and hybrid vehicles “incredible,” but said that there remained “strong challenges” for the industry and consumer alike. Chief among those concerns is the life of a hybrid or electric vehicle’s battery, and the massive infrastructure development needed to keep them charged. For drivers, it boils down to practicality. The time and effort required to keep their cars running is still an ongoing hurdle. Purdue Professor Eric Nauman is the along with Cushman, of Ifbattery — a company exploring the commercial applications of their research. He highlighted the “tremendous cost” of developing infrastructure to handle the needed distribution and storage of the energy used by traditional electric vehicles. With Cushman and Nauman’s new developments, they may have a solution: “Ifbattery is developing an energy storage system that would enable drivers to fill up their electric or hybrid vehicles with fluid electrolytes to spent battery fluids much like refueling their gas tanks. ” Using fluid electrolytes to power batteries gives them a much more accessible fuel supply. Furthermore, the spent electrolytic fuel could be collected and recharged at a wind, solar, or hydroelectric power plant. Cushman said: Instead of refining petroleum, the refiners would reprocess spent electrolytes and instead of dispensing gas, the fueling stations would dispense a water and ethanol or methanol solution as fluid electrolytes to power vehicles. Users would be able to drop off the spent electrolytes at gas stations, which would then be sent in bulk to solar farms, wind turbine installations or hydroelectric plants for reconstitution or into the viable electrolyte and reused many times. It is believed that our technology could be nearly ‘ ’ ready for most of the underground piping system, rail and truck delivery system, gas stations and refineries. With the potential for clean, efficient, and reusable fuel, both hybrid and electric vehicles could be poised for a leap into mass consumer relevance. Backed up by higher capacity and recharging that is as easy as a stop at the gas station, we may be looking at the first truly pragmatic alternative to vehicles. All that remains to be seen is whether the cost of implementation is prohibitive. If not, Purdue and Ifbattery may very well force car companies and consumers alike to take notice. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 1 |
Email Several months ago we published a list of irreverent Photoshops depicting the then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as a bald man in several humiliating contexts. We understood that these images were a bit crass and promised to remove them if Trump were to win the election, as a sign of respect for the office of the United States presidency. True to our word, we tried to take these pictures down as soon as Trump was elected, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to figure out how to delete this article from our website. Once content is published to our homepage, it seems to be stuck there. Though we cannot delete the bald Photoshops, we have been able to stretch out Donald Trump’s face all wide so that you can’t even tell he’s the one in the pictures. We hope this serves as an adequate temporary solution until we find a way to take these unbecoming images down completely. 1. At the current time, we are comfortable posting this picture with the caption “My bald spot is absolutely yuge” alongside it, but should Trump assume the esteemed office of president in the fall, we would immediately remove it.
We apologize that we weren’t able to remove this disrespectful picture of our president-elect completely, but we did what we could and stretched it out all wide. You can barely tell it’s Donald Trump. 2. Regardless of whatever political views you hold, it is disrespectful to show a picture of the commander-in-chief along with a caption like “So this is what that pile of straw on his head is for.”
We’re talking with our programmers now to figure out a way to delete these images from the web. Hopefully they will develop a method for doing so in the near future. In the meantime, we have preserved the dignity of President-elect Trump by stretching his face out and making his eyes huge. Nobody will be able to recognize that the man in this image is our new president. 3. Of course, it would still be fine to disagree with President Trump if you don’t support his policies. A healthy democracy allows dissent and debate. However, implying that the president wears a toupee when there is no evidence that he does is a crass breach of proper decorum.
The presidency is the most hallowed office in our nation, and it is worthy of reverence and decorum at all times. Ideally, this image of Donald Trump’s toupee flying off in the wind would no longer be on our website. Since this is currently impossible, we’ve used the magic of Photoshop to make his head very tall and thin. His identity is obscured. This bald man could be anybody. 4. No matter who is president, you address them as “Sir,” not “Donald the Hutt.” We would quickly remove this if the American people choose Trump on November 8.
This degrading Photoshop of President Trump’s face on Jabba the Hutt’s body is immature and degrading, and we’d remove it if we could. Since we currently don’t know how, we’ve at least given him a tie to wear to imbue him with the poise and decorum the presidency confers on all who hold that hallowed office. 5. Comparing President Trump to Adolf Hitler would remain a valid political commentary, but making him bald in addition is completely uncalled for. If Donald Trump is elected, we promise to restore his normal hair to this image.
Now that the American electorate has chosen Donald Trump to lead our nation, this image depicting him as a bald Adolf Hitler has become an unsubtle and tactless political statement that does not meet our exacting editorial standards. We’ve given President-elect Trump his hair back in an effort to restore his dignity. 6. For now, let us enjoy this humorous Photoshop and its accompanying caption, “I am going to build a wig, and Mexico is going to pay for it.” During a Trump presidency, it would no longer have a place in the national discourse.
All right, that’s all of them. We’ve stretched out President-elect Donald Trump’s face all wide so that nobody will know that he is the bald man in this picture. Hopefully, we’ll find a way to remove these pictures from our website, but until then, this will have to do. | 0 |
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[Ed. – If you’re wondering if we’ve ever had to do this with a NATO ally before, the answer is no. This is what our vice president would call a big effing deal.]
The State Department is ordering family members of employees posted to the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul to leave because of security concerns.
In a statement issued Saturday, the State Department says the decision is based on security information indicating extremist groups are continuing aggressive efforts to attack U.S. citizens in areas of Istanbul where they reside or frequent.
The Consulate General remains open and fully staffed. The order applies only to the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul, not to other U.S. diplomatic posts in Turkey. | 0 |
How demonetisation has affected tipping Posted on Tweet (Image via blogcdn.com)
Today we will talk about the one area that probably has been hit the hardest by demonetisation: Tipping.
I got thinking about this after a small incident at a restaurant where I was for an evening bite early this week. The bill was for Rs.197 and, as it happened, I had only a few 100 rupee notes with me. I could have left two hundred rupee notes and walked off, but three rupees is, forget tips, pittance even as alms these days. Roadside beggars, if they were offered Rs.3, would perhaps take it as extreme insult, and, as is the norm these days, initiate an online ‘change.org’ petition against this discrimination and before the end of the week it would have had a lakh of signatories and the media would run away with the story (“Three rupees and the hubris of the privileged”, “Five reasons why beggars are also human beings”, “Post-Trump, alms hit a new low”, “India ranked 153rd in the Global Alms-Giving Index (below Rwanda, Gambia and Bhutan)”, and the inevitable “How twitter reacted to “AlmsGate”). And after a week or so of this — this is the power of media pressure and online change petitions — the general public would have quietly moved on to some other issue.
Sorry, I digressed. Back to the restaurant. I could have topped the bill with another Rs.100, but Rs.103 would have been hefty as a tip. The middle-class cheapskate in me would not have let me sleep peacefully that night.
So what did I do? I went for the third option, which was to pick the bill and pay it with my credit card at the counter and slink off without making any eye contact with the waiter, who, if ever I visit the same restaurant again, is sure to bring my soup after spitting into it.
The problem with tipping is there is no hard and fast rule to it. In some countries,’ etiquette has it that you leave 15% of the bill amount as a tip. In some others, it is 10%. In some others, possibly pockets of Pakistan, it is good etiquette if you at least pay the bill. In my home town Madurai, it was considered good enough if you give the waiter a warm smile while leaving. But that is Madurai, a place where holding the door for the person coming behind you might be taken as extreme insult: “ Yaen pa, engallukku kai kaal illaiya? ” (“Why man, don’t we have hands and legs?”)
Modern-day bills also leave you confused about tipping. You are always stumped by ‘service tax’ and ‘service charge’. One is a government levy and the other is a charge by the shop. Here is a handy explainer on what they actually mean:
Service Tax: You pay
Service Charge: You pay.
Okay, here is another definition: Service tax and service charge are totally two different things, but generally combine together to make the bill for the pizza, which you ordered only because the price was marked Rs.199, magically change to Rs. 476 at the time of paying.
When the bill includes ‘service charge’, it is generally taken that you need not tip. But not all bills include the service charge. But even when it is included, it may not be ‘totally’ included. Which, of course, means, you are even more unsure as to how much to tip.
Even more of a toughie is the scene at pricey hotels when you are on tour. At a fancy hotel you should be prepared to tip basically your annual provident fund payments. Even if you are travelling alone and carrying just a duffel bag, the moment you arrive at the hotel, the staff there will dart towards you, while one will open the car door and before you tip him a ten or twenty, another will reach for your small bag and without waiting for you, carry it towards the reception desk probably situated 60-70 metres away and deposit there (cue for you to slip in another ten or twenty), from where another staff will pick it up and take it to the lift located 20 metres away and travel with you all the way to the floor where your room is and then leave you when you pay him twenty or fifty) whereupon another person will materialise from nowhere to purvey something (“This water bottle is a compliment from the hotel, sir”) and also tell you how to operate the TV and AC (“Here is the switch and you have to turn it on”), but by this time you would have totally run out of all loose change and you will have no other go but to tip him a 100. When you are eventually through with the stay you would probably have tipped everyone and everything, including bathroom fixtures, and may want to leave sliding via the drainpipe without anyone noticing.
But tipping is important and a basic courtesy extended to any service or work done. But not to trouble you in this demonetised time, I don’t mind cheques. | 0 |
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A GROUP of over a thousand civilians fleeing from the civil war in Syria have taken the time to pull off one of the best mannequin challenges we’ve ever seen, in a 4-minute video lighting the internet on fire right now!
The mannequin challenge, the latest craze sweeping through social media platforms at the minute, involves groups of people posing stock-still as a camera roves around them, with everyone from the Portuguese football team to Michelle Obama to a group of lads at a house party in Stillorgan taking part.
All those videos pale in comparison, however, to the epic one-take shot filmed in the war-torn region of Aleppo in which 976 men, women, children and babies are shown staying perfectly still, with poses ranging from “half-buried underneath a collapsed hospital” to “clutching throat as the lungs fill with chlorine gas”.
“With the mannequin challenge, you’ll always see one person blink or sway, but not in this one,” posted Mark Lennings, a 26-year-old internet user who shared the video on his Facebook page.
“You’d nearly swear they were actually mannequins. But that can’t be the case, because if this kind of thing was really happening to these people, we’d be talking about it more than we’re talking about a viral game that serves only to fill our timelines with nonsense so we don’t have to cope with the realities of this world. In fact, it’s the best viral video to come out of the country since the ice-bucket challenge they filmed in the Mediterranean last year”.
It is really up there with the best we’ve seen, to view the epic video, click HERE. | 0 |
Home / Badge Abuse / Genius Child Arrested, Interrogated, and Thrown in Juvi by Hero Cops for Making a Homemade Clock Genius Child Arrested, Interrogated, and Thrown in Juvi by Hero Cops for Making a Homemade Clock John Vibes September 16, 2015 326 Comments
Irving, TX – An intelligent and talented 9th grader was arrested this week for bringing a homemade clock into school. 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed is interested in electronics and has taught himself how to make his own radios and other devices. He can even repair his own go-kart.
Recently, he made a clock that he was proud of so he decided to take it into school and show his classmates and teachers. Sadly, instead of celebrating his achievement, one of his teachers called the police on him because they thought that it might be a bomb.
When the police arrived, they took the threat seriously and believed that it could be a bomb as well, even though it obviously wasn’t. Eventually, the police charged him with making a clock and misrepresenting it as a bomb, even though he consistently told everyone that it was a clock, and denied that it was a bomb when the teachers or the police suggested it.
The young man was then handcuffed and taken to a juvenile detention center, and his clock was taken and put in an evidence room. He was also suspended from school and was unable to attend a student council meeting that he was scheduled to be a part of.
“Here in high school, none of the teachers know what I can do,” Ahmed told Dallas News after the incident.
He then explained that when he showed his engineering teacher what he created, he was warned not to show it to the other teachers.
“He was like, ‘That’s really nice, I would advise you not to show any other teachers’,” Ahmed said.
He then kept the clock in his bag until his English class when the alarm went off and disturbed his teacher. After the class, Ahmed showed his teacher what was making the noise, and she accused him of bringing a bomb to school.
“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said.
“I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me,’” he explained.
The teacher took the clock from him and he had expected that was the end of it. However, towards the end of the day, Ahmed was pulled out of class and taken to a room filled with police officers.
He said that the officers then attempted to get him to admit that he tried to make a bomb.
“They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb? ’” Ahmed said.
“I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.”
The officer then told him, “ ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me.’”
The police even admit that Ahmed never once said the device was a bomb, and they never had any reason to believe that it actually was one, but the police still seemed to think he was lying about something, even though they didn’t have any proof.
“We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb. He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation,” police spokesman James McLellan said.
“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?” he added.
They couldn’t possibly imagine that a young man would want to teach himself a valuable skill and share his achievement with his teachers.
“They thought, ‘How could someone like this build something like this unless it’s a threat?’,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed believes that his family is being discriminated against.
“He just wants to invent good things for mankind, but because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated,” he said.
There has since been an outpour of support on social media since Ahmed’s story went public. He has even gotten support from Mark Z and President Obama. Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.
— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015
John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter-culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist work , he organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference , which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com. Share John Lloyd Scharf
I did that. As a Vietnam Vet who spent a great deal of time in the Philippines when they were under martial law, life, liberty, and public safety are too precious to let slip. Every time a citizen is persecuted, the Terrorists win. That is the point of terrorism. Destruction alone is not the object. Having us turn on each other is. A draconian law enforcement suits the political purposes by creating innocent martyrs. When they violate the laws they are paid to enforce and threaten the public safety they are sworn to protect, we lose our liberty and the TERRORISTS win. John Lloyd Scharf
I did that. As a Vietnam Vet who spent a great deal of time in the Philippines when they were under martial law, life, liberty, and public safety are too precious to let slip. Every time a citizen is persecuted, the Terrorists win. That is the point of terrorism. Destruction alone is not the object. Having us turn on each other is. A draconian law enforcement suits the political purposes by creating innocent martyrs. When they violate the laws they are paid to enforce and threaten the public safety they are sworn to protect, we lose our liberty and the TERRORISTS win. Dania Chaviano
everything happens for a reason… now he has a direct invite from the president of the united states to visit the white house and a message from Mark to visit facebook head quarters and now a nation behind him in support of his brilliant mind and talent… i know it still doesnt change the shitty stuff that happened due to peoples sheer ignorance and discrimination but the positive i think out ways the negative now! Dania Chaviano
everything happens for a reason… now he has a direct invite from the president of the united states to visit the white house and a message from Mark to visit facebook head quarters and now a nation behind him in support of his brilliant mind and talent… i know it still doesnt change the shitty stuff that happened due to peoples sheer ignorance and discrimination but the positive i think out ways the negative now! Miguel Angel Coria
It’s not the kid’s fault or the cops, I believe it’s hollywood and the media creating a string of stereotypical “racism” in our minds, we see muslim we think terrorism, the cop only acted on basic instinct I believe it would be smart to start a project putting an end to stereotypes. There exists a possibility it might work. Just thinking away Miguel Angel Coria
I’m assuming your african american because i actually went into your page, took time to form an idea before I got offended, but just from your comments i’m realizing your just as ignorant as rednecks. People who realize they can’t win in an intellectual debate do they directly start offending their opponent, you might as well start wearing a Donald Trump shirt and watching duck dynasty. Because the problem is that Government separates people by race, religion, or beliefs. They way they can’t stand together against them. Try researching information before going and thinking your right about everything you say. I’m Douglas Brigham
Cops fuck up its not the cops fault.
I guess it’s also not Dylan Roof fault that he killed 9 people. Because of the media.
SMH Beth Pucku
I’m Canadian and love all you. Obama is obviously trying to switch over the American people brain washing from hating Muslim to loving them cos Obama knows he’s killing all thses people over seas to get the oil to feed the industrial military war machine.
I’m reading an article, generating my own thought about it and creating an idea that might help solve the issue ? And what are you doing about it? Small minded people discuss other people. Average minded people discuss events, Critical thinkers discuss ideas. Aimee Hernandez
Miguel your initial comment is very basic n ambiguous. You appear to contradict yourself to say the least. What “idea” are you creating to solve the issue? Perhaps you should take a couple steps back, not just one, but a couple sir. I can construe an opinion based on the few comments you have posted. FYI you can’t be part of the solution when your basic mentality is part of the issue. With all due respect read some more….a lot more then pretend to have some sort of “intellictual” debate. Just saying … Miguel Angel Coria
I’ll leave it plain and simple so you and your friend can understand, I stated my opinion, and an idea (Not the exact blue print). I never stated any of those as a fact. I try and help by spreading thought process but it’s people like you and your friend who go around acting like overseers deciding what is wrong and what is right. I read, I watch, I think. I don’t offend people directly or insult people who try and improve and give opinion. So re-read the post and all it’s comments think about it for a second and just like in elementary school if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything. Go to your hompage and on will find a tab that say’s “what’s on your mind today” go ahead click and go crazy. Have a great day ma’am Miguel Angel Coria
It’s not the kid’s fault or the cops, I believe it’s hollywood and the media creating a string of stereotypical “racism” in our minds, we see muslim we think terrorism, the cop only acted on basic instinct I believe it would be smart to start a project putting an end to stereotypes. There exists a possibility it might work. Just thinking away Miguel Angel Coria
I’m assuming your african american because i actually went into your page, took time to form an idea before I got offended, but just from your comments i’m realizing your just as ignorant as rednecks. People who realize they can’t win in an intellectual debate do they directly start offending their opponent, you might as well start wearing a Donald Trump shirt and watching duck dynasty. Because the problem is that Government separates people by race, religion, or beliefs. They way they can’t stand together against them. Try researching information before going and thinking your right about everything you say. I’m Douglas Brigham
Cops fuck up its not the cops fault.
I guess it’s also not Dylan Roof fault that he killed 9 people. Because of the media.
SMH Beth Pucku
I’m Canadian and love all you. Obama is obviously trying to switch over the American people brain washing from hating Muslim to loving them cos Obama knows he’s killing all thses people over seas to get the oil to feed the industrial military war machine.
I’m reading an article, generating my own thought about it and creating an idea that might help solve the issue ? And what are you doing about it? Small minded people discuss other people. Average minded people discuss events, Critical thinkers discuss ideas. Aimee Hernandez
Miguel your initial comment is very basic n ambiguous. You appear to contradict yourself to say the least. What “idea” are you creating to solve the issue? Perhaps you should take a couple steps back, not just one, but a couple sir. I can construe an opinion based on the few comments you have posted. FYI you can’t be part of the solution when your basic mentality is part of the issue. With all due respect read some more….a lot more then pretend to have some sort of “intellictual” debate. Just saying … Miguel Angel Coria
I’ll leave it plain and simple so you and your friend can understand, I stated my opinion, and an idea (Not the exact blue print). I never stated any of those as a fact. I try and help by spreading thought process but it’s people like you and your friend who go around acting like overseers deciding what is wrong and what is right. I read, I watch, I think. I don’t offend people directly or insult people who try and improve and give opinion. So re-read the post and all it’s comments think about it for a second and just like in elementary school if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything. Go to your hompage and on will find a tab that say’s “what’s on your mind today” go ahead click and go crazy. Have a great day ma’am
Yea and my penis looks like it can make it in the Porn Industry! Lmao Police IQ at an all time LOW!
Yea and my penis looks like it can make it in the Porn Industry! Lmao Police IQ at an all time LOW! Keith Buck
Of course not. How could I? I only spent 18 years in the public school system. I completed an apprenticeship and proceeded to teach up to five people at a time during the work week. As for police. Again how could I? I’ve only spent 31 years being surrounded by them and having them in my family. Lady, before you accuse someone of not knowing what they’re talking about. Make sure that you actually do. Keith Buck
Of course not. How could I? I only spent 18 years in the public school system. I completed an apprenticeship and proceeded to teach up to five people at a time during the work week. As for police. Again how could I? I’ve only spent 31 years being surrounded by them and having them in my family. Lady, before you accuse someone of not knowing what they’re talking about. Make sure that you actually do.
“Looks like a movie bomb to me.”
He should stop watching movies and start actually do his job properly…
Hollywood obviously messed up his rational thinking…
“Looks like a movie bomb to me.”
He should stop watching movies and start actually do his job properly…
Hollywood obviously messed up his rational thinking…
I DO NOT agree with arresting him, taking him to juvi., etc
But SERIOUSLY…..he had to know how that looks to people.
I DO NOT agree with arresting him, taking him to juvi., etc
But SERIOUSLY…..he had to know how that looks to people. Louis Edward Francis Mills
Get’s to the station and after 1 day it’s like: “Hey seargeant, you were meant to take your medicine”. “Thanks Ahmed”. “Hey inspector, 7.30, time to call your wife.”“Hey, you’re right Ahmed, thanks buddy.”“Excuse me chief, didn’t that squad say they would be back at 9.15? It’s 9.17 exactly, sir.”“Right you are Ahmed”. IT’S OBVIOUS THEY SIMPLY WANTED A WORKING CLOCK AND SOMEONE WHO KNEW HOW TO READ IT! Louis Edward Francis Mills
Get’s to the station and after 1 day it’s like: “Hey seargeant, you were meant to take your medicine”. “Thanks Ahmed”. “Hey inspector, 7.30, time to call your wife.”“Hey, you’re right Ahmed, thanks buddy.”“Excuse me chief, didn’t that squad say they would be back at 9.15? It’s 9.17 exactly, sir.”“Right you are Ahmed”. IT’S OBVIOUS THEY SIMPLY WANTED A WORKING CLOCK AND SOMEONE WHO KNEW HOW TO READ IT!
…so a high school asked me to come in and do a presentation on what I do. I was going to bring in a bunch of circuit boards…
Guess I better rethink that? oh wait! My name is not Mohammed… I should be good.
…so a high school asked me to come in and do a presentation on what I do. I was going to bring in a bunch of circuit boards…
Guess I better rethink that? oh wait! My name is not Mohammed… I should be good.
OUTRAGEOUS! IT IS TIME EVERYONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE ABOLISH QUALIFIED IMMUNITY FOR COPS ! ** Arrest, charge, indict and convict cops for the crimes they commit under the color of law! CHARGE THEIR COMMANDERS AS ACCESSORIES TO THE CRIMES that their subordinates commit and police will STOP victimizing the public.*** NO MORE SPECIAL GRAND JURIES FOR COPS!**** HOLD JUDGES ACCOUNTABLE for light sentencing handed down to criminal cops.*** CHARGE JUDGES AND DISTRICT ATTORNEYS WITH OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE when they refuse to prosecute cops for criminal misconduct. Police who SHOOT PETS should be held accountable and charged with animal abuse! THEY SHOULD GET MANDATORY JAIL TIME FOR KILLING PETS!
OUTRAGEOUS! IT IS TIME EVERYONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE ABOLISH QUALIFIED IMMUNITY FOR COPS ! ** Arrest, charge, indict and convict cops for the crimes they commit under the color of law! CHARGE THEIR COMMANDERS AS ACCESSORIES TO THE CRIMES that their subordinates commit and police will STOP victimizing the public.*** NO MORE SPECIAL GRAND JURIES FOR COPS!**** HOLD JUDGES ACCOUNTABLE for light sentencing handed down to criminal cops.*** CHARGE JUDGES AND DISTRICT ATTORNEYS WITH OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE when they refuse to prosecute cops for criminal misconduct. Police who SHOOT PETS should be held accountable and charged with animal abuse! THEY SHOULD GET MANDATORY JAIL TIME FOR KILLING PETS! Edward Johnson
Back when I was growing up science fair and art fair projects were encouraged. In high school I had students left and right along with some teachers ask me to fix their Walkman or boombox radio. It was a big boost to my self esteem in the work force.More came with experience. The teachers who had this boy arrested or in no way teachers anymore after the trauma they put him through. Edward Johnson
Back when I was growing up science fair and art fair projects were encouraged. In high school I had students left and right along with some teachers ask me to fix their Walkman or boombox radio. It was a big boost to my self esteem in the work force.More came with experience. The teachers who had this boy arrested or in no way teachers anymore after the trauma they put him through.
It’s not rocket science. Denounce Islam. The Shoe Bomber was a Muslim The Beltway Snipers were Muslims The Fort Hood Shooter was a Muslim The underwear Bomber was a Muslim The U-S.S. Cole Bombers were Muslims The Madrid Train Bombers were Muslims The Bafi Nightclub Bombers were Muslims The London Subway Bombers were Muslims The Moscow Theatre Attackers were Muslims The Boston Marathon Bombers were Muslims The Pan-Am flight #93 Bombers were Muslims The Air France Entebbe Hijackers were Muslims The Iranian Embassy Takeover, was by Muslims The Beirut U.S. Embassy bombers were Muslims The Libyan U.S. Embassy Attack was by Musiims The Buenos Aires Suicide Bombers were Muslims The Israeli Olympic Team Attackers were Muslims The Kenyan U.S, Embassy Bombers were Muslims The Saudi, Khobar Towers Bombers were Muslims The Beirut Marine Barracks bombers were Muslims The Besian Russian School Attackers were Muslims The first World Trade Center Bombers were Muslims The Bombay & Mumbai India Attackers were Muslims The Achille Lauro Cruise Ship Hijackers were Muslims The September 11th 2001 Airline Hijackers were Muslims’
Think of it:
Buddhists living with Hindus = No Problem Hindus living with Christians = No Problem Hindus living with Jews = No Problem Christians living with Shintos = No Problem Shintos living with Confucians = No Problem Confusians living with Baha’is = No Problem Baha’is living with Jews = No Problem Jews living with Atheists = No Problem Atheists living with Buddhists = No Problem Buddhists living with Sikhs = No Problem Sikhs living with Hindus = No Problem Hindus living with Baha’is = No Problem Baha’is living with Christians = No Problem Christians living with Jews = No Problem Jews living with Buddhists = No Problem Buddhists living with Shintos = No Problem Shintos living with Atheists = No Problem Atheists living with Confucians = No Problem Confusians living with Hindus = No Problem
Muslims living with Hindus = Problem Muslims living with Buddhists = Problem Muslims living with Christians = Problem Muslims living with Jews = Problem Muslims living with Sikhs = Problem Muslims living with Baha’is = Problem Muslims living with Shintos = Problem Muslims living with Atheists = Problem MUSLIMS LIVING WITH MUSLIMS = BIG PROBLEM
SO THIS LEAD TO They’re not happy in Gaza They’re not happy in Egypt They’re not happy in Libya They’re not happy in Morocco They’re not happy in Iran They’re not happy in Iraq They’re not happy in Yemen They’re not happy in Afghanistan They’re not happy in Pakistan They’re not happy in Syria They’re not happy in Lebanon They’re not happy in Nigeria They’re not happy in Kenya They’re not happy in Sudan
So, where are they happy? They’re happy in Australia They’re happy in England They’re happy in Belgium They’re happy in France They’re happy in Italy They’re happy in Germany They’re happy in Sweden They’re happy in the USA & Canada They’re happy in Norway & India They’re happy in almost every country that is not Islamic! And who do they blame? Not Islam… Not their leadership… Not themselves… THEY BLAME THE COUNTRIES THEY ARE HAPPY IN!! And they want to change the countries they’re happy in, to be like the countries they came from where they were unhappy and finally they will be get hammered !!!!
Islamic Jihad: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION ISIS: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Al-Qaeda: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Taliban: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Hamas: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Hezbollah: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Boko Haram: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Al-Nusra: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Abu Sayyaf: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Al-Badr: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Muslim Brotherhood: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Lashkar-e-Taiba: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Palestine Liberation Front: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Ansaru: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Jemaah Islamiyah: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION Abdullah Azzam Brigades: AN ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION AND A LOT MORE
It’s not rocket science. Denounce Islam. The Shoe Bomber was a Muslim The Beltway Snipers were Muslims The Fort Hood Shooter was a Muslim The underwear Bomber was a Muslim The U-S.S. Cole Bombers were Muslims The Madrid Train Bombers were Muslims The Bafi Nightclub Bombers were Muslims The London Subway Bombers were Muslims The Moscow Theatre Attackers were Muslims The Boston Marathon Bombers were Muslims The Pan-Am flight #93 Bombers were Muslims The Air France Entebbe Hijackers were Muslims The Iranian Embassy Takeover, was by Muslims The Beirut U.S. Embassy bombers were Muslims The Libyan U.S. Embassy Attack was by Musiims The Buenos Aires Suicide Bombers were Muslims The Israeli Olympic Team Attackers were Muslims The Kenyan U.S, Embassy Bombers were Muslims The Saudi, Khobar Towers Bombers were Muslims The Beirut Marine Barracks bombers were Muslims The Besian Russian School Attackers were Muslims The first World Trade Center Bombers were Muslims The Bombay & Mumbai India Attackers were Muslims The Achille Lauro Cruise Ship Hijackers were Muslims The September 11th 2001 Airline Hijackers were Muslims’
Think of it:
Buddhists living with Hindus = No Problem Hindus living with Christians = No Problem Hindus living with Jews = No Problem Christians living with Shintos = No Problem Shintos living with Confucians = No Problem Confusians living with Baha’is = No Problem Baha’is living with Jews = No Problem Jews living with Atheists = No Problem Atheists living with Buddhists = No Problem Buddhists living with Sikhs = No Problem Sikhs living with Hindus = No Problem Hindus living with Baha’is = No Problem Baha’is living with Christians = No Problem Christians living with Jews = No Problem Jews living with Buddhists = No Problem Buddhists living with Shintos = No Problem Shintos living with Atheists = No Problem Atheists living with Confucians = No Problem Confusians living with Hindus = No Problem
Muslims living with Hindus = Problem Muslims living with Buddhists = Problem Muslims living with Christians = Problem Muslims living with Jews = Problem Muslims living with Sikhs = Problem Muslims living with Baha’is = Problem Muslims living with Shintos = Problem Muslims living with Atheists = Problem MUSLIMS LIVING WITH MUSLIMS = BIG PROBLEM
SO THIS LEAD TO They’re not happy in Gaza They’re not happy in Egypt They’re not happy in Libya They’re not happy in Morocco They’re not happy in Iran They’re not happy in Iraq They’re not happy in Yemen They’re not happy in Afghanistan They’re not happy in Pakistan They’re not happy in Syria They’re not happy in Lebanon They’re not happy in Nigeria They’re not happy in Kenya They’re not happy in Sudan
So, where are they happy? | 0 |
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With just 10 days to go before the most important election of our lifetime, Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans are soaring in the polls. The Friday announcement that the FBI would be re-opening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s personal email server has not helped matters for Democrats, either.
But none of this will matter if they are able to manipulate the vote. According to MRC Blog , that’s why the left is going to drastic measures to drum up Democratic voters, expanding voting rights to include non-citizens in major cities nationwide.
The latest notable city to do so is San Francisco, whose Election Day ballot will include a measure allowing the parents or legal guardians of any student in the city’s public schools to vote in school board elections. Under this measure, people with green cards, visas, or no documentation at all would be allowed to vote.
San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu, who believes illegal aliens should be allowed to vote to bypass the “broken immigration system in this country,” made the following statement:
“One out of three kids in the San Francisco unified school system has a parent who is an immigrant, who is disenfranchised and doesn’t have a voice. We’ve had legal immigrants who’ve had children go through the entire K-12 system without having a say.”
Chiu is the son of Taiwanese immigrants.
It is no secret that the vast majority of illegal aliens vote Democrat, because that is the party which is incessantly trying to buy their loyalty with an endless stream of handouts and promises of blanket amnesty. If it weren’t so, we wouldn’t see all of these liberals pushing so hard to give illegals voting rights; they simply do so because it works in their favor, not because it is actually good for anyone.
Major cities from sea to shining sea are following San Francisco’s lead, which is just one more very important reason to vote for Donald Trump on Nov. 8. We need to turn this country around and FAST! | 0 |
CNN devoted not one, but two segments on how President Trump got two scoops of ice cream while his dinner guests only got one as the network tried to pass off a “scoop” about the president’s eating habits as news.[ In a segment titled, “Two scoops for Trump,” CNN’s Jeanne Moos talks about Trump’s “executive privilege” for receiving two scoops of ice cream while the three TIME magazine correspondents he had dinner with only got one. The TIME magazine correspondents made sure to take note of the disparity between the food given to the president and the food they were served in a profile called “Donald Trump After Hours,” the profile the segment was based on. “At the dessert course, he gets two scoops of vanilla ice cream with his chocolate cream pie, instead of the single scoop for everyone else,” TIME’s Michael Scherer and Zeke Miller wrote. “With the salad course, Trump is served what appears to be Thousand Island dressing instead of the creamy vinaigrette for his guests,” they added. But this was not the only segment CNN devoted to the subject. CNN also gave airtime to an interview between CNN’s Brooke Baldwin and CNN political reporter and Chris Cillizza with the headline, “President Gets Two Scoops of Ice Cream, Everyone Else One. ” “The President gets two scoops, you know, everyone around the table gets one, and no word if there were sprinkles,” Baldwin commented. “Right, well, the broader point here is, the White House staff has adapted to Donald Trump’s case,” CNN political reporter and Chris Cillizza responded. “So, when everyone else gets water, he gets a diet coke. When everybody gets one scoop of ice cream, he gets two. ” Fox News host Sean Hannity mocked CNN for its “ coverage. ” Thanks for the hard hitting news on your network @jaketapperhttps: . #Hannity, — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 11, 2017, “Thanks for the news on your network,” Hannity wrote on Twitter. Others, however, thought Trump’s ice cream habits were worth mentioning. @davidfrum a man unable to restrain his urges, — Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) May 11, 2017, “This explains a lot,” the Atlantic’s David Frum wrote on Twitter, to which Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post responded saying that Trump is “a man unable to restrain his urges. ” | 1 |
The new year is almost here and it’s often a time when we all start to think about what we want to change for the next year. I’ve never been much a fan of the whole cliche of changing because of the new year, but why not embrace it as a time where we can make change?
Do a quick reflection right now. Do you feel like you have followed your dreams and passions this past year? Do you feel you got caught up in the stresses of life quite often? Did you feel judgement, negative self talk and anger were a big part of your days? Reflecting on how you’ve felt over your year and being honest with yourself about it gives you the chance to know how to adjust and move forward from this moment forward whether it be the new year or not.
I’ve found in my own life that if I don’t pay attention to how I feel, what I create, what’s playing out in my life and take responsibility for it, it doesn’t change. It stays the same, I experience the same emotions or stagnant feelings, and I don’t move forward. But the moment I decide to take it into my own hands, I see how much I’m not a victim to what happens.
11 Things To Let Go of Before the New year 1. Stop all the negative self talk – It’s first because it’s probably one of the most important. The more we talk poorly about ourselves to ourselves or others, the more we disempower ourselves and empower all the things we wish to adjust about ourselves. Observe it, take note of it, and kick it. It’s not helping you.
2. Choose one bad eating habit and kick it! – Taking care of and fuelling your vessel is one of the most important things we can do in life to stay mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy. Pick one of your worst eating habits and aim to cut it out completely in 3 months. Whatever it might be, be honest with yourself and make it happen. Then take on the next bad eating habit in 3 months.
3. Let go of chasing ‘success’ – So often we put up goals or plans for ourselves yet have this tiny limited scope of what success is. Next thing you know we bring stress, worry and fear into the equation throughout the whole journey because we may not be totally in line to hit this pin prick point of what success looks like to us. Instead, do your best to take the steps needed to get to where you want to go, but let go of the lure of success and what it looks like and means. There’s no such thing as failure. (more)
4. Kick the idea that you cannot achieve or follow your dreams – So often we have our ideas of what we are excited or passionate about, but let it go because we think we can’t do it or because it’s unrealistic. Instead of believing every word of that, take ONE step. One step towards making your passion or your dreams happen. The one step will lead to the next and the next, but you have to take the first one. Plan out that first step and take it!
5. Let go of the idea that you should run from your problems – We often get into this mentality that we just need to “get over it.” In theory this sounds sorta good, you move on from things that happen in the past or something to that effect. But by just forgetting about it, did we really move on? No, it gets triggered again later or lies dormant as a resented event etc. Instead, let’s face our problems and truly move past them. Journal about it, talk to someone else about it. Put the cards on the table to someone who cares about you and who can help you move past it. Pick someone who will see the bigger picture and be honest with you. You have all it takes to move past what challenges you.
6. Stop comparing yourself to others – This is a big one. So often we are looking at others and using what they have, do or are to compare it against us and make up a story. This whole game can make us sad or feel down about ourselves or it can feed our ego in a big way. Let it go, respect everyone’s journey, including your own and stop the need to compare yourself to others.
7. Stop judging others – Judging other people can become a habit and an addiction. It’s like something we can’t stop doing sometimes! Take a moment the next time you judge someone and observe it. Ask yourself why you did it, how did it make you feel? Etc. Make a conscious effort to stop. (more)
8. Stop the blame game – Blaming and pointing fingers when it comes to our challenges or what happens to us doesn’t allow us to look at and observe how we might have created or aligned with an experience to help make it happen. I’m not saying there’s no such things others can do to hurt you, I’m simply saying take responsibility for how you feel and don’t even point blame, it doesn’t help us.
9. Stop worrying and trying so hard to fit in and be accepted – This is something far too many of us do just to save face and not be “the weird one.” The reality is, it’s more ‘weird’ to be a version of yourself that isn’t genuine or real simply because you want to be accepted by others. It’s a choice you can’t maintain forever and the longer it goes the more uncomfortable you will feel. Be you, accept yourself, be genuine and don’t try to make others do the same when. Let it happen. Trust.
10. Let go of the need to control everything – Sometimes we can’t take a step forward in anything because we don’t know all the answers or all the variables. This is our obsession with control sometimes. Yes, observe a situation and make the best choices available to you, but don’t worry so much about needing to control or know every detail about it. Learn to leave things up to trust and knowing that things will work out as they need to. This doesn’t mean be reckless, just that you don’t need to control every thing, person and detail.
11. Stop procrastinating – This one goes with everything on the list. Stop putting it all off. Whatever it may be. The changes listed above, the hobby you want to, the career you want to explore, or the thing you want to tell to someone important to you. Stop putting it off and just do it!
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Posted on October 26, 2016 by Tony Elliott
It appears Bill and Hillary Clinton are making plans to flee the country in the event Donald Trump wins this election. Reports are circulating that the Clintons have transferred 1.8 Billion dollars from the Clinton Foundation to the Qatar Central Bank , via a facilitation/abatement of JP Morgan Chase & Company for reasons not revealed.
This move of such a large sum of money to the country of Qatar says in itself, Hillary Clinton knows she is going to lose the election, and she doesn’t plan to allow herself to be prosecuted for various high crimes and treason under a Trump Administration.
The country of Qatar happens to be one of a handful of countries that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States , thus would be a perfect place for her to run to in escaping justice.
Donald Trump has said many times during his campaign and at the Presidential debates that once he gets into office, he intends to prosecute her on various high crimes from her latest crimes of sending classified material via a personal email server. All the way to gun running to terrorist groups in Syria resulting in the deaths of 4 Americans in Benghazi .
President Barack H Obama has also apparently been making exit plans with his purchase of a $4.9 million dollar seaside mansion in Dubai in January 2016 , another non extradition country.
Snopes and other supposed fact checking sites have debunked both the story of Obama’s purchase of the mansion and the firing of Rear Admiral Rick Williams. However, over the last several months, these sites have been busted for lying in trying to debunk such information as the before mentioned, when in fact the information is true . Snopes and other sites try their best to keep incriminating information from being believed, but the truth has a way of coming out on its own, as it always has.
The Bush family has been quietly buying property, as well with the purchase of 100,000 acres in Paraguay in 2006, yet another country good for the Bush family since it does not allow extradition to any country if the death penalty is a possibility for the crime. If the corruption is found to go as far back as both of the Bush Administrations with any connections to them being the perpetrators of the events on 9-11 , the death penalty would surely be a stipulation of any extradition request. Apparently, if things get going with prosecuting the corrupt and treasonous, the Bushes plan on getting out of the country as well.
Courtesy of Freedom Outpost
Tony Elliott is an established writer with articles in over 20 publications of differing topics. Political Commentary Columnist for the Cimarron News Press in Cimarron, New Mexico from 2001 to 2003. He was also a regular writer for several small coastal newspapers in Southern Oregon during the early 1990’s. BOOKS: Aura Visions: The Origin Prophecy , Enviroclowns: The Climate Change Circus , Strange Sounds: A Research Report Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 0 |
Tuesday on ABC’s “The View,” during the panel discussion on President Donald Trump’s recent round of interviews, Joy Behar diagnosed Trump with “mental illness. ” Behar said, “You know what, I’m trying to be mean. Something’s wrong with this guy. Something is wrong. There’s something seriously wrong about this man, and I’ve been saying it for months … Yes. something is wrong with him. The Republican party is enabling the mental illness on a daily basis. ” She added, “You know the mental illness theory that I have, the derangement theory, I think Andrew Jackson in his portrait is talking to Trump. Like Son of Sam and like Nixon. Nixon if you recall, Whoopi, you were around … He was talking to the portraits and the portraits were talking to him. And Andrew Jackson is saying, you’re the best, you’re the greatest, and he likes that. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Mexico Declares Marijuana Use “Human Right” In Supreme Court page: 1 The Mexican Supreme Court ruled by 4 to 1 that banning the consumption and cultivation of cannabis for personal use violates the human right to free development of one’s personality. … … Freedom To Smoke a Human Right. It's about damn time! For a long time now, people have been fighting for the basic human right of being able to consume whatever substances they wish, and do with their personal property (the human body) as they see fit. This is especially true of cannabis, which has a long list of medicinal benefits. In spite of its minor adverse effects (which pale in comparison to alcohol and cigarettes) people in the United States, and other parts of the world, are still being locked up for simply using the “miracle plant” to help combat disease and pain. Mexico, however, often demonized as being backwards by their Norther neighbors, has ruled that smoking marijuana should be a basic human right! edit on 26-10-2016 by Encryptor because: (no reason given) new topics | 0 |
Posted on October 31, 2016 by Claire Bernish
Censorship by Facebook has become a thorn in the side of nearly anyone with an opinion differing from the narrative touted by the corporate press — for instance, sentiments not praising Hillary Clinton — and now, through both a new report from Reuters and emails published by Wikileaks, we have insight into why certain posts are targeted.
Facebook relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and human judgment to remove posts deemed offensive, violent, or otherwise unacceptable to its community standards — but precisely how the ultimate call to take down posts, pages, and groups are made remains unknown.
And Facebook takedowns, no matter the improvements to the process the social media behemoth claims to make, have been no less controversial or questionable — and those whose posts are censored have little if any recourse to argue their case.
Recent examples of head-scratchers which led to an international uproar, include Facebook’s removal of the iconic Vietnam War photograph of Phan Thị Kim Phúc — who, at just 9-years-old, was captured on film by an Associated Press photographer fleeing the aftermath of an errant napalm attack near a Buddhist pagoda in the village of Trang Bang.
That photograph helped cement in the collective American mind the horrors of the war, and ultimately fueled the success of the anti-war effort — but Facebook arbitrarily pulled the image for nudity — and proceeded even to ban the page of the Conservative prime minister of Norway for also posting the image.
Ultimately, the social media company reversed course in that case — but not before also taking down the equally iconic image of civil rights leader Rosa Park’s arrest.
But taking down of the image of Kim Phúc might not have been simply an error of AI, since it had been used as a specific example in training the teams responsible for content removal, two unnamed former Facebook employees told Reuters .
“Trainers told content-monitoring staffers that the photo violated Facebook policy, despite its historical significance, because it depicted a naked child, in distress, photographed without her consent, the employees told Reuters.”
In the final decision to reverse that censorship, Facebook head of the community operations division, Justin Osofsky, admitted it had been a “mistake.”
According to Reuters , to whom many current and former Facebook employees spoke on condition of anonymity, the process of judging which posts deserve to be remove and which should be allowed will, in certain instances, be left to the discretion of a small cadre of the company’s elite executives.
In addition to Osofsky, Global Policy Chief Monika Bickert; government relations chief, Joel Kaplan; vice president for public policy and communications, Elliot Schrage; and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg make the final call on censorship and appeals.
“All five studied at Harvard, and four of them have both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the elite institution. All but Sandberg hold law degrees. Three of the executives have longstanding personal ties to Sandberg,” the outlet notes. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg also occasionally offers guidance in difficult decisions. But there are others.
Company spokeswoman Christine Chen explained, “Facebook has a broad, diverse and global network involved in content policy and enforcement, with different managers and senior executives being pulled in depending on the region and the issue at hand.”
For those on the receiving end of what could only be described as lopsided and inexplicable censorship, recourse is generally limited and can be nearly impossible to come by. Often, the nature of posts and pages removed insinuates political motivations on the part of the censors.
Indeed, and once again flaring international controversy, Facebook disabled , among others, the accounts of editors of Quds and Shehab New Agency — prominent Palestinian media organizations — without explanation or even a specific example given for justification.
Although three of four Palestinian-focused accounts were restored, Facebook refused to comment to either Reuters or the accounts’ owners why the decision was reversed, except to say it had been an ‘error.’
In fact, although Chen and other Facebook insiders spoke with Reuters directly about contentious content removal policies and procedures, many details of the processes remain covert and sorely intransparent to the public who is so often forced to cope with the consequences.
Earlier this year, an exposé by Gizmodo showing Facebook’s suppression of conservative outlets via its “Trending Topics” section appeared to evidence extreme bias in favor of liberal and corporate media mainstays. Alternative media, too, which provides reports counter to the mainstream political and foreign policy paradigm, has often been the subject of controversial take-downs, censorship, and suppressive tactics — either directly by Facebook, or through convoluted algorithms and artificial intelligence bots.
However, considering Sheryl Sandberg and her loyalists populate the top-level group deciding the fate for content removal complaints, it would appear Wikileaks could provide answers for both post censorship and suppression of outlets not vowing complete fealty to the preferred, left-leaning narrative.
In a June 4, 2015, email to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta — an enormous cache of whose emails are still being published on a daily basis by Wikileaks — penned by Sandberg in response to condolences on the death of her husband, states , in part,
“And I still want HRC to win badly. I am still here to help as I can. She came over and was magical with my kids.”
After a wave of post removals and temporary page bans, it appears Facebook has begun to come to its senses for what actually violates community standards — and what might have political worth contrary to the views of its executives.
Senior members of Facebook’s policy team recently posted about the laxing of rules governing community standards, which — though welcome — might only provide temporary relief. Quoted by the Wall Street Journal , they wrote :
“In the weeks ahead, we’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest—even if they might otherwise violate our standards.”
While the social media giant deems itself a technology, and not news, platform, Facebook is still the bouncing off point for issues of interest for an overwhelming percentage of its users. Although it perhaps has some responsibility in regard to the removal of certain content, putting censorship in the hands of only a few individuals in certain instances is a chilling reminder of the fragility — and grave importance — of free speech. Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 0 |
No one person can review every new restaurant in New York, but not long ago, I felt confident that I could hit all the ones where a customer who had a full dinner and no drinks would spend, say, $125 or more. I didn’t always choose to weigh in, but those cases were rare. Over the last year or so, I started to notice that there were so many places in that price range that even if reviewing them all were possible, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Among Japanese restaurants alone, there were a omakase places serving cooked food, sushi or some combination. Some I wrote about, some I may circle back to later on, and others left me wishing I had saved room for a second, more interesting meal. Despite what you may read in the comments on some of my reviews, these meals are not really for “the 1 percent. ” Even the most expensive restaurant is not in the same league as a $25 million apartment over Central Park. Still, the growing distance between the very rich and everybody else is replicated, in miniature and with less alarming implications, in the city’s restaurant scene. So I was encouraged when three places that were among my 10 favorite restaurants this year bowed to more moderate budgets by adding a shorter, cheaper meal (Aska and Günter Seeger NY) or an à la carte option (Agern). I cheered for Greg Baxtrom, a product of several famous kitchens, when he brought a similar level of creativity to Olmsted, an affordable neighborhood spot in Brooklyn. And I smiled every time I spotted a bottle of wine for under $55 at Le Coucou, a reformed and refined homage to the fancy French restaurants that have mostly vanished from New York. Month after month, I was surprised by the good, resourceful kitchens I found squirreled away in spaces that barely qualified as restaurants: wine bars and bar bars and a nostalgic lunch counter called Mr. Donahue’s, where $20 buys a full dinner of American food my grandmother would have recognized. The cost of running a restaurant is notoriously punishing. Often the pain is passed on to us, but sometimes it inspires chefs to think a little harder. This year, those are the restaurants I want to tell you about. They are presented here roughly in the order of the intensity of my desire to go back again, which diverges here and there from the number of stars that flew above their reviews. 1. Le Coucou The genius of this project from the chef Daniel Rose and the restaurateur Stephen Starr is that it gives us almost everything we loved about New York’s French restaurants without the things we didn’t. The dining room isn’t stuffy, the service isn’t snooty, and people don’t get seated in Siberia if their pronunciation of boeuf bourguignon doesn’t have the right backhand spin. (As far as I can tell, Le Coucou doesn’t have a Siberia.) The wine list covers the historic old appellations of France, but it also embraces emerging ones and exciting regions from other countries while pricing bottles in a range that’s unusually democratic. Meanwhile, Mr. Rose knocks the dust off some archetypal premodern French dishes. Sole Véronique gets its peeled grapes and its sauce along with a sense of conviction that can’t be faked. The fleecy quenelles of pike, in a lava flow of sauce Américaine, have a finer flavor than the ones at La Grenouille, which some people still think of as the city’s . Mr. Rose isn’t simply hauling out museum pieces, though. He’s making them fresh again, and relevant. ★★★ 138 Lafayette Street SoHo lecoucou. com. 2. Lilia Look around the dining room, glance at the menu, and you could be at any number of casual Italian restaurants. Start eating, though, and you realize Lilia has something else going on. That something is Missy Robbins, the chef and owner. She’s a cook. You don’t see her tricks coming, but you taste them and wonder how she did it. Like Jonathan Waxman at Barbuto, she relaxes the tight grip of Italian cuisine without changing it in ways that are cheap or tortured. It would be easy enough for her to tidy up her seafood appetizers, her main courses of fish and meat grilled on an open fire, and her pastas, which I can never eat without smiling, and serve them in a dressier dining room. It would be hard, though, to make them taste better. ★★★ 567 Union Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn lilianewyork. com. 3. Mr. Donahue’s This tiny retro lunch counter has the attentiveness to atmosphere of a period movie. The lighting has a diffuse, analog softness. The music sounds like a Jonathan Schwartz radio broadcast with the soliloquies about Sinatra edited out. The most remarkable bid for nostalgia is the food proffer: an main course like roast beef or a nearly meatloaf of beef, with a good sauce and a choice of two carefully considered sides for $19. 99. The counter stools and handful of table seats aren’t as hard to come by as you’d expect, possibly because Mr. Donahue’s isn’t particularly celebratory. It has a contemplative, almost wistful mood. If that happens to be your mood, too, I can’t think of a more congenial place to eat well downtown. ★★ 203 Mott Street, NoLIta mrdonahues. com. 4. Le Coq Rico The Alsatian chef Antoine Westermann has built a bistro that’s more compelling and carnally satisfying than any modern steakhouse. His star dish is rotisserie chicken, and his secret is buying old breeds raised by farmers who let them feed and mature longer than usual. The meat has a depth of flavor you rarely encounter. Other birds, like duck and squab, play minor but memorable roles on the menu. The dedication to poultry continues with eggs and livers the foie gras is very fine, as you’d expect, but a more telling sign of how much care goes into the ingredients is the plate of gorgeous, creamy chicken livers. The prices can make your eyes pop, but so can the portions. And while Mr. Westermann spends half his time in France, he hasn’t hit autopilot on Le Coq Rico. He was in the house one recent night, and new breeds of chicken have strutted onto the menu since my review. ★★ 30 East 20th Street, Flatiron district lecoqriconyc. com. 5. Agern The ambitious Nordic invasion of Grand Central Terminal by the Danish entrepreneur Claus Meyer has many facets, including a food hall and a Danish hot dog stall, but Agern is the one that has food worth missing a train for. The chef of this comfortably formal restaurant is Gunnar Gislason, importing the philosophy of cooking with underappreciated ingredients from nearby that he follows at Dill in Reykjavik, Iceland. The beet baked in ashes and salt that is carved at tableside, like a steamship round, may not be as exciting as its ceremony, but like much of the cooking, its flavors are honest and appealing. You can order à la carte or amble through the “field and forest” tasting menu ($140) or a nonvegetarian excursion ($165). Both prices include service and a round and tangy loaf of sourdough with a memorably crackling crust. ★★★ Grand Central Terminal, 89 East 42nd Street, Midtown East agernrestaurant. com. 6. Aska “Oh, not a New Nordic tasting menu,” I hear you say. “We had a New Nordic tasting menu last night!” Well, this one has reindeer lichen and the cinders of burned lambs’ hearts — you didn’t have that last night, did you? It also has a chef, Fredrik Berselius, who has become very adept at broadening and intensifying the flavors of his ingredients. Some of these are imported, like wild wood pigeon from Scotland. Others are grown or foraged nearby. Mr. Berselius is not dogmatic. He does have his share of strange ideas, but even the odd stuff pays off when you eat it. Upstairs in the selectively lighted dining room, the Unabridged Berselius is a tasting menu for $215, and the abridged, version is $145. (All prices include service.) Down in the basement is a casual lounge with small plates, none costing more than $16, although you won’t find any blackened hearts down there. ★★★ 47 South Fifth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn askanyc. com. 7. Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu’s Kitchen Forget about the name. Tea is never mentioned by the servers (though it should be, because it’s good) and noodles may not always be the best thing on the table. It doesn’t matter. There is skillful, contemporary Chinese food all over the menu, and color photographs to let you know what you’re in for. Most of the dishes are drawn from either Beijing, Shanghai or Chongqing. Peppers are not quite everywhere, but they are strongly represented in many dishes. So many fresh green chiles lurk in Madam Zhu’s Spicy Fish Stew that eating it is a contact sport. There is some shading to the cooking, too. I counted three distinct frying styles, and clearly need to return to finish the survey. ★★ 401 Avenue of the Americas, Greenwich Village madamzhu. com. 8. Günter Seeger NY Two of my meals were stunningly good and pure. A third had a few too many ordinary moments, which kept me from writing a rave for a restaurant where the only option at the time was a dinner for $148. Since then, a $98 menu has been added. If you can swallow either price, then I say: Go. Mr. Seeger, who earned national praise when he was in Atlanta, has a formidable command of classical European techniques, but he keeps his skills in the service of simplicity. Changing the menu every day, he almost seems to undress his ingredients, revealing the beauty of what’s under the surface. It’s cooking, and watching him pull it off can be thrilling. ★★ 641 Hudson Street, West Village gunterseegerny. com. 9. Olmsted One problem with the rise of expensive tasting menus is that a lot of culinary intelligence and imagination is locked up inside restaurants that are hard for most people to afford more than once a year, if that. Olmsted’s chef, Greg Baxtrom, worked at some of those places, but he makes his own smart, inventive food inside a Brooklyn spot where I could imagine eating once a week. The carrot crepe with littleneck clams, an immediate Instagram star, is both a novelty and a fine way to start dinner. Prices are kept in line in part through affordable ingredients like guinea hen, roasted and confitted in a memorable main course. There’s an inviting garden where you can have drinks and elevated bar snacks while inspecting the backyard agriculture. Homegrown kale greens up Olmsted’s take on crab Rangoon, while eggs are supplied, one at a time, by a resident pair of quail. As of Sunday, they’ve weathered their first winter snow. ★★ 659 Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Heights olmstednyc. com. 10. Llama Inn As far as I’m concerned, there ought to be two Peruvian restaurants in every New York neighborhood. One would serve rotisserie chicken, and the other would present more adventurous pieces of that country’s kaleidoscopic cuisine, as Erik Ramirez does at Llama Inn. Mr. Ramirez makes an excellent ceviche and a tiradito whose marinade looks on the plate like lightly reduced Tang and tastes spicy, fruity and quietly thrilling. He also makes the only quinoa salad I’ve ever looked at without feeling pity, either for the salad or for myself. ★★ 50 Withers Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn llamainnnyc. com. | 1 |
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