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BEIJING — They protest, picket and sing to defend Mao’s memory, yearning for the East to be red again. But lately some of China’s Maoists are finding inspiration in an unlikely insurgent in the West: Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump “has torn up the old rules of the ruling elites, not just of the capitalist West,” said Zhang Hongliang, a polemicist who is the loudest proponent of what could be loosely called “Maoists for Trump. ” In a recent essay, Mr. Zhang lauded the American president as being alone among national leaders daring “to openly promote the political ideas of Chairman Mao. ” President Xi Jinping of China will be sizing up Mr. Trump during a visit to his estate in Florida this week, in the leaders’ first summit meeting. Meanwhile, many ordinary Chinese people have also been taking the measure of the new American president and have been bewildered, incensed and yet, sometimes, inspired. The global wave of nationalist, sentiment that Mr. Trump rode to power has washed ashore in China, encouraging a fringe that is hostile to capitalism and Western influence, and that the Communist Party has long sought to cultivate — and contain. China’s Maoists are a small minority most Chinese have no desire to revive the ruthless, convulsive politics of the Mao era. But the Maoists’ growing assertiveness, echoed in their embrace of aspects of Mr. Trump’s agenda, could help push the country in a more authoritarian direction. They also complicate the efforts of Mr. Xi to play both sides of an ideological divide: as a robust defender of Mao’s legacy, but also a proponent of market liberalization and even a champion of globalization in the Trump age. It is a paradox that these admirers of Mao Zedong, a Marxist revolutionary who railed against Western imperialism, have found things to like about this American president, a property tycoon with a cabinet crowded with millionaires. But they want Mr. Xi to take a page from Mr. Trump’s “America First” script and protect Chinese workers from layoffs, privatization and foreign competition. “Trump opposes globalization, and so should China,” said one article on Utopia, a popular Maoist website. “Trump’s ideology has oriented toward China, and he is learning from China,” said another Chinese site. China’s as they are sometimes called, are loosely united by demands for stringent economic equality, zealous nationalism and a loathing of the capitalist West and liberal democracy. “Many of the same ideas now animating the global populist movement have been the hallmarks of the movement for over a decade,” said Jude Blanchette, a researcher in Beijing who is writing a book about the movement. “The have also clearly benefited from the rise of Xi Jinping, as he has blasted a pretty large dog whistle in their direction,” Mr. Blanchette added. Many on China’s far left see Mr. Trump as a dangerous foe who has questioned established American policy on Taiwan, vowed to confront China’s hold on the disputed South China Sea and threatened to cut Chinese exports to America. But some Maoists say Mr. Trump also offers a model. They think he led a populist revolt that humbled a corrupt political establishment not unlike what they see in China. They cheer his incendiary tactics, sometimes likening them to Mao’s methods. And they hear in his remarks an echo of their own disgust with Western democracy, American interventionism and liberal political values. Maoist meetings and websites dwell on a clutch of enemies, including the C. I. A. and America in general, genetically modified crops and advocates of privatizing state companies. But they reserve a particular venom for liberal Chinese intellectuals and celebrities who have condemned Mao. In the West, Mr. Zhang argued, the nationalists are on the right while the left generally supports internationalism. “But China is the opposite,” he said. “Chinese rightists are the traitors, while Chinese leftists are the patriots. ” The Communist Party never repudiated Mao’s legacy after his death in 1976, but it condemned his excesses, including the violent Cultural Revolution, and for years he was ignored or discredited while Deng Xiaoping pursued economic liberalization. In the 1990s, though, the party refurbished Mao’s image and fostered a popular revival to bolster its authority and blunt calls for political liberalization. Officials started using Maoists to intimidate liberal academics, dissidents and other critics. Before Mr. Xi came to power in 2012, a political rival, Bo Xilai, openly encouraged “red” nostalgia for the Mao era as part of an effort to build a populist power base. Mr. Bo was purged in a scandal, but the Maoists regrouped as Mr. Xi associated himself more closely with Mao’s legacy than his predecessors and called for a return to Marxist purity. Under Mr. Xi, Maoists have become bolder in taking to the streets and organizing online campaigns. A court ruling last year and legislation adopted last month protecting Communist heroes buoyed them further. Nobody expects Maoists to seize power in Beijing. They are disdained by the middle class and kept on a tether by the party authorities. Across China, there are maybe a few thousand active supporters of Maoist groups and causes, and their petitions against liberal intellectuals have gathered tens of thousands of signatures online, according to Mr. Blanchette, the researcher. But the Chinese left’s broader message of muscular nationalism and its criticism of widening inequality have reverberated, especially among retirees, workers and former party officials dismayed by extravagant wealth and corruption. Mr. Trump and the global surge of nationalism and populism have added to the political tinder. Dai Jianzhong, a sociologist in Beijing, said Maoists could gain a bigger following if an economic slowdown caused mass layoffs, or if tensions with the United States escalated into confrontation. “It was a big shock for China to see American society overwhelmed by this tide of populism,” Mr. Dai said. “China is a different society, but if the economy stagnates and workers feel badly let down, populism will gain influence. The influence of Maoists and ultraleftists would spread. ” In January, about a hundred protesters gathered in Jinan, a provincial capital in eastern China, to condemn a professor of communications and advertising, Deng Xiangchao, who had dared criticize Mao online. They chanted and held banners near Mr. Deng’s home, reviling him as a “traitor” and “enemy of the people,” and roughed up a few people who came to show their support for him. “We love Chairman Mao because we’re poor, and the poor all love Chairman Mao,” Yang Jianguo, a retired worker who was among the protesters, said by telephone after the protest. The university swiftly dismissed Mr. Deng rather than engage in a prolonged battle with the Maoists. Later, activists also successfully demanded the dismissal of a television station worker who had voiced support for Mr. Deng. It would be unthinkable for the party to be so obliging of protesters for free speech or other causes the party considers anathema. But while Mr. Xi has silenced the party’s liberal critics, the party has tolerated, even abetted, its opponents, giving the Maoist populists room to grow stronger. “Their influence has clearly grown with the leftist turn in ideology, especially since 2015,” said Deng Yuwen, a current affairs writer in Beijing who has criticized the Maoists. “It’s not that the top level of the party directly controls them, but the Maoists are politically astute, and they have a good sense of what they can get away with,” he added. “They know the officials use them, but they also use the officials. ” While party leaders may find them useful for intimidating critics, the Maoists want to take China in a different direction and reverse market policies that have fueled decades of growth, by seizing the assets of the rich and strengthening state ownership of industry, for example. Most phrase their criticism of the party carefully, but some openly accuse it of betraying Mao. “China is a capitalist state under socialist guise,” said Mr. Yang, the retired worker. “Capitalists dominate the country. ” Asked about the American president, Mr. Yang was more generous: “Trump has socialist tendencies, because the way he won power in a way reflected the workers’ demands. ” Many Maoists see Mr. Xi as a fellow traveler who is taking China in the right direction by restoring respect for Mao and Marx. But others say privately that even Mr. Xi may not be a dependable ally. They point out that he has promoted himself abroad as a proponent of expanding global trade and a friend of multinational corporations, drawing an implicit contrast with Mr. Trump. He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University who is often reviled by China’s far left, said Mr. Xi was playing a dangerous game by allowing Maoist populists to silence liberal voices and risked igniting political fires that he cannot easily control. “If political currents in China increasingly converge with populism,” Mr. He added, “that would have a powerful effect on China’s future. ” | 1 |
Zach Cartwright | November 10, 2016
According to the data, Donald Trump would have been soundly defeated by Bernie Sanders last night had the Vermont senator been the one to face him.
When examining the 13 states Hillary Clinton lost twice — the states Trump won side-by-side with the states Bernie Sanders won during the Democratic primary — the similarities are striking. The GOP nominee likely saw this, and tweeted in May that he was relieved to not have to face Sanders in the general election: I would rather run against Crooked Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders and that will happen because the books are cooked against Bernie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2016
In five states Sanders won where exit polling data is available — Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — the demographics that helped Trump hit 270 electoral college votes were also Sen. Sanders’ key demographics that helped him defeat the former Secretary of State in multiple primaries in different regions of the country.
The numbers suggest that there may have been enough Sanders votes in those pivotal states to have swung the election in Sanders’ favor if superdelegates and restrictive closed primaries weren’t part of the Democratic primary process. Popular blog All That Is Interesting created an electoral map assuming that Sanders won white, rural rust belt voters in the traditionally blue states that Hillary Clinton lost on Tuesday night in a hypothetical Trump/Sanders general election matchup, giving Sanders with a 303-235 advantage .
Determining whether or not Sanders would have won the states Clinton lost is easy when looking at exit poll data taken during the Democratic primary. Here’s a state-by-state breakdown: Indiana
Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton by 5 points in Indiana’s May 3 primary. Tuesday night, Trump beat Clinton in the Hoosier State by 20 points . While Indiana went to Mitt Romney in 2012, it’s worth remembering that Barack Obama won the state in 2008, meaning it isn’t a solidly red state.
What contributed most to Sanders’ primary win in Indiana was his dominance with white voters (57 percent support) and men (59 percent support), who collectively made up 72 percent and 42 percent of voters, respectively, according to NBC News . Sanders also excelled among poor and lower-middle class voters, winning the majority of voters who made less than $30,000 in 2015, and between $30,000 and $50,000. Sen. Sanders won the support of a whopping 72 percent of independents, 54 percent of voters who said free trade had a negative effect on jobs, and 60 percent of voters who said they were “very worried” about the future of the U.S. economy.
Comparatively, Donald Trump won 53 percent of white voters in the Hoosier State’s Republican primary, and 59 percent of men — roughly the same percentages Sanders won for those same demographics. Trump also won 54 percent of voters who made between $30,000 and $50,000 in 2015, and 53 percent of voters who were “very worried” about the future of the economy. Michigan
The March 8 Michigan primary was perhaps Bernie Sanders’ most important victory, as pollsters widely and wrongly predicted a considerable victory for Hillary Clinton due to her strength with black voters in cities like Detroit and Flint. Sanders’ 50-48 win was largely due to his strength with rural, white voters disenfranchised by free trade deals backed by the Clintons, like NAFTA.
Much like Indiana, Sanders prevailed with the help of 55 percent of male voters and 56 percent of white voters . 54 percent of voters who made less than $50,000 in 2015 supported Sanders, as well as 71 percent of voters identifying as independent. NAFTA hate brought Sen. Sanders over the finish line, as 56 percent of voters who said free trade was bad for job growth in Michigan picked Sanders. The Vermont senator did very well with voters who said they wanted an outsider in office, winning 84 percent of that demographic . Sanders’ strength wasn’t in inner cities, but in suburbs and rural areas, capturing 50 percent and 57 percent of voters, respectively.
Donald Trump beat all four of his competitors in the Michigan primary along the same demographic lines. Trump won 53 percent of men and 38 percent of white voters ( 13 points better than his closest competitor, Ted Cruz). Among the $30,000 to $50,000 income demographic, Trump demolished Cruz by 21 points. Trump also won 45 percent of voters who said free trade took away American jobs, which was 23 points higher than Cruz. West Virginia
Voters in West Virginia largely live in rural areas, work blue-collar jobs, and are some of the poorest in the country. It’s no surprise Sanders won by 15 points in the May 10 primary, and that Trump beat Ted Cruz by 68 points. Because Democrats are well-represented in the West Virginia legislature, and because West Virginians just elected a Democrat for governor while simultaneously rejecting Hillary Clinton, it’s very possible Sanders would have won the state had he been the Democratic nominee.
As was the pattern during the Democratic primary, Sanders won with white voters and men , capturing 52 percent and 53 percent of those demographics, respectively. Sen. Sanders crushed Hillary Clinton by 32 points in the $30,000 to $50,000 income demographic, and also beat the former Secretary of State by 19 points among voters who made less than $30,000 last year. Trump obliterated the competition in those same gender, race, and income demographics. Wisconsin
Clinton’s loss to Trump in the Badger State was perhaps the most significant of the night, as Wisconsin hasn’t voted for a Republican for president in more than 30 years . Wisconsin was also a state where Sanders notched a crushing victory over Clinton, winning by a 57-43 margin .
Bernie Sanders won nearly two-thirds of male voters, and 59 percent of whites, who made up 83 percent of the electorate in the state’s April 5 primary. Sen. Sanders defeated Clinton in all of the income demographics, but did particularly well among middle class voters, capturing 54 percent of the $30,000 to $50,000 demographic, along with 61 percent of the state’s $50,000 to $99,000 demographic, who made up the largest percentage of primary voters. Among voters against free trade policies, Sanders won by a 60-39 margin .
Wisconsin exit pollsters also asked voters about their opinions on foreign policy. While Trump made a reputation for himself as anti-interventionist, Sanders also appealed to Wisconsin voters opposed to foreign intervention. An astounding 74 percent of Sanders backers in the primary said the United States should take a “less active role” in foreign policy, who collectively made up 35 percent of the electorate.
While we can’t unfortunately travel back in time and give Bernie Sanders the nomination, one thing to take away from this data is that the tide is shifting in America toward a new form of politics that eschews global capitalism and yearns for economic populism. Whoever challenges Donald Trump in 2020 should pay close attention to these numbers.
Zach Cartwright is an activist and author from Richmond, Virginia. He enjoys writing about politics, government, and the media. Send him an email at [email protected] | 0 |
Saturday, 29 October 2016 Another clue was an arrow in the lung area.
King William II Rufus was the son of William the Conqueror and King of England from 1087 to 1100. Described as uncouth, barbaric, lacking both morals and ethics, addicted to vice, and definitely not the most popular king, he was killed by an arrow to the lungs-probably shot by one of his own men.
Although his body was left where it lay when he was shot in the New Forest, it was said it was later removed to Winchester Cathedral. From there, the bones were scattered around during the English Civil War and later put in a giant mortuary chest along with Kings Egbert, Ethelwulfe, and others.
But the body of King William II Rufus was actually identified at the Motor City Museum, which is near the New Forest area where King Rufus was shot. Apparently, the king was so popular that they just dug a shallow grave in the New Forest area and tossed him in.
The grave was discovered when the museum was breaking ground in its parking lot for a new area to display its 1895 Knight auto. The workers came upon some bones (apparently the citizens who buried King Rufus didn't bother with a coffin) and sent them to the British Museum for identification.
Since the royal Norman DNA was on file, it was determined to be Rufus from process of elimination. And someone had carved "Rufus" on the femur. Make Al N.'s day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 0 |
Videos Saudi ambassador gives bizarre answer to illegal Yemen cluster bomb question:’It’s like asking if you’ll stop beating your wife Prince Abdullah Al-Saud clumsily dodges question about the Kingdom’s role in the 19-month-old Yemeni civil war, which has left more than 10,000 people dead. Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US Prince Abdullah Al-Saud speaking to reporters at the 25th Annual Arab-US Policymakers Conference in Washington DC, October 27 2016 Screenshot via Zaid Jilani/YouTube
Saudi Arabia ’s ambassador to the US has evaded answering a question about Saudi Arabia’s alleged use of cluster munitions in the Yemeni civil war by answering, “This is like the question, ‘Will you stop beating your wife?’”
“Will you continue to use cluster weapons in Yemen?” a reporter from The Intercept asked Prince Abdullah Al-Saud, the Kingdom’s ambassador to the US, at the annual Arab-US Policymakers Conference in Washington DC last week.
“This is like the question, ‘Will you stop beating your wife?’” Mr Saud replied, laughing. When pressed on the same point, the prince said, “You are political operators… I’m not a politician.”
Mr Saud went on to say that the Kingdom would contine bombing Houthi rebels in Yemen “no matter what it takes.”
“If anyone attacks human lives, and disturbs the border, in whatever region, we’re going to continue hitting them, no matter what,” he said.
“Anyone who wants to solve the Yemen problem should understand who is making all the problems.”
A Saudi-led coalition of Middle Eastern states began bombing Shiite Houti rebels in Yemen at the request of the exiled internationally recognised goverment in March 2015.
The intervention has been heavily criticised by humanitarian groups, who allege that the Kingdom has dropped illegal cluster munitions – banned under international law because of the indiscriminate damage they cause – and also that the Saudi military capabilities are not sophisticated enough to avoid targeting civilian infrastrucutre, causing unneccessary loss of life.
More than 10,000 people have died in Yemen’s conflict to date, the majority because of bombing on the capital Sanaa and other rebel-held cities, the UN says.
Rebel counter attacks across the border have killed nearly 500 Saudi citizens, the Saudi envoy to the UN Abdallah al-Moallim said last month.
Saudi Arabia has opened an investigations task force into human rights violations caused by coalition bombing, but Human Rights Watch and several other international bodies have pressed for an independent inquiry.
Rights groups have also called on Western nations to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations, which they say are destined for use in Yemen’s 19-month-old civil war.
Mr Saud was the keynote speaker at the 25th annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference, which is funded by – among others – oil companies Chevron, ExxonMobile, and ConocoPhillips, and weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing.
Former Director of the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David Petraeus, also spoke at the summit, attended by business figures and US military officials.
This article originally appeared on The Independent. Be Sociable, Share! | 0 |
WASHINGTON, D. C. — Vice President Mike Pence took to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers on the heels of the release of Republican House Leaders’ plan to replace Obamacare. [Pence was scheduled for a Senate Republican Policy lunch, after which he was to hold “a series of meetings with lawmakers. the White House released a readout of the Vice President’s meeting with U. S. House Representatives Marks Meadows ( ) and Jim Jordan ( ): The Vice President today met with conservative leaders in the House to discuss the failures of Obamacare and the need to repeal and replace that disastrous law. Participants discussed their shared desire for fiscally responsible, reforms that encourage competition and provide individuals and families with the ability to choose the health insurance option that is best for them. The Vice President stressed this is the first step in the process to deliver on the President’s promise to the American people and looks forward to House passage of the American Health Care Act. Shortly after the meeting, members of the House Freedom Caucus, including Meadows and Jordan, held a press conference on Capitol Hill, during which they addressed repeal and replacement of Obamacare. Rep. Meadows recalled for reporters that he campaigned alongside Donald Trump during the presidential election. He said that talk of repeal meant to many that the entire bill would be repealed. Both Meadows and Jordan spoke of getting rid of Obamacare completely and bringing down healthcare costs for Americans. Jordan told reporters: Tomorrow I will introduce the bill that every single Republican voted on just 15 months ago, the bill that actually repeals Obamacare. Our plan has always been repeal in one piece of legislation, replace in the other and that replacement we talked about a few weeks ago is the bill sponsored by [Rep.] Dr. [Rand] Paul in the Senate and [Rep.] Mark Sanford in the House. He went on to summarize and differentiate three different replacement plans. The first he named was the plan, which he defined as essentially the plan to keep Obamacare. The second Jordan named was the House Leadership plan, “which I believe when you look through it, is Obamacare in a different form. ” The third he named as “our plan,” as he spoke alongside members of the House Freedom Caucus. He said of this third plan that it is “the one that I think is consistent with what we told the voters we were gonna do. Repeal Obamacare, replace it with a plan that actually brings down the cost of insurance, brings down the cost of healthcare. ” Member after member denounced the House Leadership plan to replace Obamacare as unacceptable based on what they promised to the American people. Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Louie Gohmert, Rep. Mark Sanford, Rep. Dave Brat, and Sen. Rand Paul were among those who also spoke at the Tuesday afternoon House Freedom Caucus press conference. Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 1 |
The Arkansas Parole Board has recommended that one of the eight men set to be executed during a span this month receive clemency and be spared capital punishment. The board’s nonbinding recommendation, approved by a vote of 6 to 1, is the latest twist in Arkansas’s effort to restart its capital punishment program, which has been suspended since 2005 because of legal and logistical challenges. While four other inmates on death row have been denied clemency in recent weeks, the parole board showed mercy for Jason McGehee, who killed a teenager in the Ozarks in 1996. The recommendation is now in the hands of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican who scheduled the stacked executions because a drug used by the state is about to expire. A spokesman for the governor said he was reviewing it. If Mr. Hutchinson denies the recommendation and all eight inmates are put to death, Arkansas will be the first state to conduct that many executions in a month since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1977, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a group that studies capital punishment. Six of the eight inmates applied for clemency after Mr. Hutchinson announced the executions in February. The final parole board hearing is on Friday. Typically, if a death sentence is commuted, it is replaced with a sentence of life without parole. The board did not explain its decision in Mr. McGehee’s case. But during the clemency hearing on Friday, the chairman, John Felts, said he did not believe that Mr. McGehee’s sentence was excessive, given that the murder victim was tortured before his death, according to The Arkansas . Mr. Felts was the lone member to vote against clemency. Mr. McGehee’s clemency bid had the support of two officials: the judge who presided over his case and a former director of the Arkansas Department of Correction. The judge, Robert McCorkindale, wrote in a letter to the parole board that Mr. McGehee did not deserve the death penalty. “I tried a lot of capital murder cases in my years, and I saw people that I thought were much worse individuals get life without parole as opposed to the death penalty,” Mr. McCorkindale, who oversaw the 14th Judicial Circuit in Arkansas from 1979 to 2002, said in an interview on Wednesday. “I didn’t see him as the worst of the worst,” Mr. McCorkindale added. “As a matter of fact, he was a very young man. ” Mr. McGehee, who was 20 at the time, and two friends kidnapped John Thomas Melbourne Jr. in August 1996, after they heard that he had told the authorities about their theft ring. They took Mr. Melbourne to an abandoned farm, tied him up with an electrical cord, and took turns beating and choking him until he died. The capital murder trials started in 1998, and the two other men were tried first. One received life in prison without parole, and the other, who was a juvenile, had his sentence adjusted in January to 40 years in prison. In the last trial, prosecutors described Mr. McGehee as the ringleader of the kidnapping and murder. Mr. McCorkindale said he believed that the three men did not kidnap Mr. Melbourne with the intention of killing him, but that the situation got out of hand. He said Mr. McGehee had been sentenced to death even though he did not deliver the fatal blow. “I just felt that these were all young people involved in this case, and there was a shared responsibility,” he said. At the hearing on Friday, the victim’s father, John Melbourne, said his son had also pleaded for mercy before he died. “John didn’t have this,” Mr. Melbourne told the parole board members, according to news reports. “He begged for his life, too. He didn’t have y’all. ” | 1 |
SBS Australia reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his inaugural tour to Australia has been ‘wonderful’. The Israeli PM and his wife Sara wound up their trip to Sydney on Sunday, meeting with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop just hours before departing. [‘This has been a wonderful visit here. You people are amazing,’ Mr Netanyahu told the foreign minister before holding bilateral talks behind closed doors. Mr Netanyahu joked with Ms Bishop, who’s just arrived home from a whirlwind trip to the US and UK, that the pair had ‘shared more or less the same route’. Ms Bishop last week held talks with top Trump administration officials in Washington including H R McMaster, the president’s newly appointed National Security Advisor. Read more here. | 1 |
■ The Oakland Raiders defense may need some tightening up, but their offense can keep up with Drew Brees in the Superdome and their coach’s Twitter game is decidedly elite. ■ Jameis Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers completed touchdowns to four different receivers in a win on the road, and no one is asking if Marcus Mariota should have been drafted ahead of him anymore. ■ Life without Marshawn Lynch may be an odd experience for the Seattle Seahawks, who asked Russell Wilson to throw a 43 times, struggled to run the ball, and barely beat the uninspiring Miami Dolphins at home. ■ Ezekiel Elliott should likely have exercised a bit more caution before discussing breaking Eric Dickerson’s rookie rushing record, as the Dallas Cowboys running back had just 51 yards in his debut, averaging 2. 5 yards a carry. ■ The New England Patriots, playing on the road, beat one of the best teams in the N. F. L. without Tom Brady or Rob Gronkowski, and Jimmy Garoppolo completed a pass to himself, so the other teams in the N. F. L. may want to consider giving up. Go here for the complete Week 1 schedule and scores The New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals are two of the top teams in the N. F. L. so a tight matchup between them on Sunday night made sense until you realized the Patriots were playing without the team’s two best players, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, and their most dominant defender from last season, Chandler Jones, was suited up for the other team. Proving that no individuals are too important when it comes to one of Coach Bill Belichick’s teams, the Patriots outlasted the Cardinals with Jimmy Garoppolo not missing a beat in Brady’s place and the team’s defense working together to limit one of the N. F. L. ’s most potent offensive units. Garoppolo, who threw just four passes last season, completed 24 of 33 against the Cardinals for 264 yards and 1 touchdown, showing a great deal of mobility in the pocket and getting some style points for pulling a trick out of Steve Young’s old play book, catching his own deflected pass and running it for a gain. Down by one point with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game, he led a drive that resulted in Stephen Gostkowski’s field goal that put New England on top for good. Garoppolo was positively Belichickian in his assessment of the win. “There’s plenty of room for improvement,” Garoppolo said. “We’ll look at the film and get it corrected for next week. ” The Cardinals, who never seemed to get into an offensive rhythm despite Larry Fitzgerald scoring the 99th and 100th receiving touchdowns of his career, had a chance to take the lead when Chandler Catanzaro came out for a field goal attempt with 41 seconds remaining, but after a low snap, Catanzaro’s kick sailed wide left, ensuring New England’s victory. Russell Wilson hobbled through much of the second half, but when the Seattle Seahawks needed him most he stepped back into the pocket and found Doug Baldwin in the corner of the end zone to put his team ahead to stay in a win over the Miami Dolphins. It was the first game of the Lynch era, and the Seahawks leaned heavily on Wilson, who threw a 43 passes, many of which came after he had his ankle crushed under the weight of Ndamukong Suh following a sack in the third quarter. Playing with a taped ankle that severely limited his mobility, Wilson did not miss a snap and was able to float the ball over a defensive back into Baldwin’s arms from 2 yards away. He finished the day with 258 yards passing, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. It was a quiet game in favor of the Seahawks after three quarters, but the teams made it interesting from that point forward, with Cassius Marsh, a standout special teams player for Seattle, blocking a field goal, and Ryan Tannehill of the Dolphins engineering an efficient drive that appeared to secure a huge upset win for Miami prior to Wilson finding Baldwin for the . Marcus Peters, a cornerback for the Kansas City Chiefs, held his right fist in the air throughout the playing of the national anthem before his team’s game against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. Peters, who stood with his arms linked with his teammates, was channeling the Black Power salutes of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics while simultaneously supporting the protest that Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers started during the preseason to raise issues of the treatment of minorities. “I salute Colin for what he’s doing for a great cause,” Peters told reporters on Friday. “I’m 100 percent behind him. What’s going on in law enforcement, it does need to change and it does need to change for everybody, not just us as black Americans. ” The Chiefs as a team issued a statement, saying in part “after having a number of thoughtful discussions as a group regarding our representation during the National Anthem, we decided collectively to lock arms as a sign of solidarity. It was our goal to be unified as a team and to be respectful of everyone’s opinions, and the remembrance of . ” The protest of the national anthem has been a hot topic, with many players in Week 1 choosing to help hold the oversize flags to show their patriotism, while several others have voiced support of the issue. In the game on Thursday between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, Brandon Marshall, a linebacker for the Broncos, kneeled during the anthem in solidarity with Kaepernick, his teammate in college at Nevada. In the Sunday afternoon game between the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins, the Seahawks linked arms together in a sign of unity while as he had promised, Arian Foster, a Dolphins running back, kneeled. He was joined by his teammates Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas and Jelani Jenkins. The Houston Texans had to temper some of the enthusiasm for the team’s win over the Chicago Bears because of what appeared to be a significant knee injury to Brian Cushing, a linebacker who is among the team’s leaders on defense. Cushing, who has dealt with several knee injuries in the past, went down in the first quarter and did not return. — Keenan Allen, a wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers, suffered a injury to his right knee early in the second quarter. The Sporting News is reporting that Allen tore his ACL, which would be a big blow to the Chargers, who had started the game well but ended up losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime. Allen, who is the team’s best receiver when healthy, already had 6 catches for 63 yards at the time of his injury. Following a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Coach Jack Del Rio of the Oakland Raiders decided he had no interest in going to overtime against the New Orleans Saints, and instead went for a conversion with just 47 seconds remaining. The upstart Raiders made Del Rio look like a genius, with Derek Carr finding Michael Crabtree for the conversion, and then the Oakland defense held on to secure a victory in New Orleans. “I was thinking ‘we’re here to win, let’s win it right now,’” Del Rio said at a news conference following the game. “That’s why we took some clock there at the end, so they wouldn’t have as much, that’s why we went for two after the score. Everything about our strategy at the end was to win. ” The Raiders, trying to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season, survived a passing game by Drew Brees and a touchdown by Brandin Cooks that was the longest reception in the N. F. L. since 2011. Victor Cruz is back! Facing a crucial situation yards from the Dallas end zone, the Giants turned to a star who was injured and out of the lineup last season. Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, playing his first game in nearly two years, craftily around and between two Dallas defenders to get open for a touchdown pass that gave the Giants a spirited victory. Here’s how they won. Carson Wentz Makes Browns Pay: The Cleveland Browns felt strongly enough that Carson Wentz was not the answer for the team at quarterback that they traded away the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft rather that select him. After getting a good look at the quarterback in his role as the starter for the Philadelphia Eagles, they may be regretting that decision. Wentz hit the ground running in his N. F. L. career, throwing a touchdown on his first drive and eventually beating the Browns . “This is who he is,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said after the game. “This is his DNA. He prepared like a veteran and he played that way. His maturity level was outstanding. ” The Browns, who have seemed cursed at the quarterback position since Bernie Kosar was released in 1991, knew that keeping the No. 2 pick in the draft would guarantee them either Jared Goff (who ended up going No. 1 to the Los Angeles Rams) or Wentz, but according to Paul DePodesta, the team’s chief strategy officer, neither player was enticing enough, so the team instead traded the pick to the Eagles for five draft picks. Time will tell if Wentz is an elite quarterback, but in the first game of his career he completed 22 of 37 passes for 278 yards and threw two touchdowns and no interceptions. Late field goal dooms Jets: The scheduling doyens at N. F. L. headquarters did not do the Jets any favors. Five of their first six opponents this season advanced to the playoffs last season, a hazy maze of danger that began Sunday afternoon when the Cincinnati Bengals visited MetLife Stadium. Sure enough, the first game of the season ended in disappointment for the Jets, whose defensive backfield had more seams than a business suit. The Bengals held on for a win as Mike Nugent kicked a field goal with 54 seconds left. Here’s our Jets game story. Packers survive in Jacksonville: The Jaguars and their young quarterback, Blake Bortles, made it difficult, but Aaron Rodgers was too much for them, leading the Packers to a victory. Rodgers threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score. He looked every bit like, well, a league MVP. He extended plays with his feet, escaped sacks and had precision accuracy all over the field. Bortles gave Rodgers a challenge, completing 24 of 39 passes for 320 yards and a touchdown, but he came up short on the Jaguars’ final drive. Osweiler Solid in Texans Debut: Brock Osweiler threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns in his debut with Houston to lead the Texans and their revamped offense to a win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday. Osweiler, who signed to a $72 million contract from Denver in the offseason, was helped by an offense filled with playmakers. He completed passes to eight different receivers, led by rookie pick Will Fuller, who became the first player in franchise history to have 100 yards receiving in a debut with 107 and a touchdown. DeAndre Hopkins added 54 yards and a score and running back Lamar Miller had 106 yards rushing in his first game with the Texans. — Associated Press All times Eastern Tampa Bay 31, Atlanta 24 Baltimore 13, Buffalo 7 Houston 23, Chicago 14 Green Bay 27, Jacksonville 23 Kansas City 33, San Diego 27, OT Oakland 35, New Orleans 34 Cincinnati 23, Jets 22 Philadelphia 29, Cleveland 10 Minnesota 25, Tennessee 16 Seattle 12, Miami 10 N. Y. Giants 20, Dallas 19 Detroit 39, Indianapolis 35 New England 23, Arizona 21 | 1 |
WASHINGTON — This week’s Senate showdown over the pending Supreme Court confirmation will go down in history because by next weekend America will either see the first ever successful partisan filibuster of a nominee or the Senate will reject using filibusters to block presidential nominations. [The Senate’s judiciary committee will vote Monday, April 3, on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to be the next justice on the U. S. Supreme Court to succeed a historic figure in American law, Justice Antonin Scalia. The committee will favorably report the nomination to the full Senate, possibly on a vote. The full Senate will debate Gorsuch’s nomination starting Tuesday, with a final vote on Friday, April 7. For well over a century, senators have used Senate Rule XXII to kill legislation. That rule allows that for any debatable question (meaning issue or measure) before the Senate, each senator is able to speak twice on each question in any one legislative day. A legislative day begins whenever the Senate is gaveled to order and ends whenever the presiding officer adjourns the Senate. A filibuster occurs when a senator expects that a legislative measure he opposes might pass, so he takes all the time he can consume to keep talking about the issue to stall a final vote. If there are other senators who likewise want to defeat the measure, then when the first senator is too exhausted to talk any longer (because there are all sorts of Senate rules that burden a speaker’s ability to continue, such as the requirement that they stand rather than sit, and cannot have water or other drink on the Senate floor) one of his supporting colleague starts his own speech, and they pass it down the chain from there. The Senate must stay in session around the clock if it wishes to pass the measure. If at any point the Senate adjourns for the night, then when a new session begins the clock starts all over again. The procedure for forcing an end to debate is called a cloture motion. It takes a vote of the Senate (meaning 60 senators in the body) to invoke cloture. After that point, any additional debate is limited to 30 hours. When debate ends, the Senate holds a final vote. If 41 senators oppose cloture, the filibuster continues. However, the Senate has two business calendars. One is legislative, where it works as the counterpart of the U. S. House to pass bills into law. The other is executive, where the Senate has a role in judicial appointments and executive appointments. Even though Senate Rule XXII does not explicitly say it applies only to legislative business, the reality is that senators never used it against judicial nominations, keeping the executive calendar to separate procedures. Occasionally a Supreme Court nominee may be confirmed only narrowly, such as Justice Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed by a vote of . But no one attempted to filibuster the Thomas nomination. It was taken for granted that the nomination deserved an vote. There has only been one successful filibuster of a Supreme Court nomination when President Johnson nominated Justice Abe Fortas to become chief justice in 1968. But the opposition to Fortas was bipartisan, and it appears a majority of senators in the body would have defeated the nomination. By contrast, in 228 years, there has never been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nomination. But that is what Sen. Chuck Schumer ( ) is attempting to do this week, declaring a new threshold for Supreme Court nominations. In 2003, it was a more junior Schumer who introduced filibusters of presidential nominations to lower federal courts, when he led an effort to block several of President George W. Bush’s nominees to the federal courts of appeals. In 2013 the shoe was on the other foot, with Republican senators blocking nominees of Democratic President Barack Obama to those same appellate courts. Sen. Harry Reid ( ) then engineered a ruling from the Senate’s presiding officer that Rule XXII does not apply to federal judicial nominees at the appellate or trial levels, or executive appointments as well, for that matter. But that ruling did not cover the Supreme Court. There are 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats (including Independents who caucus with the Democrats) in the Senate today. Consequently, it would take eight Democrats to cross the aisle to invoke a cloture. If there are not eight to be found, then Sen. Mitch McConnell ( ) is prepared to have the chair issue a ruling that the precedent Reid created in 2013 applies to Supreme Court nominations as well. If at least 50 senators agree (because Vice President Mike Pence casts the vote if the Senate splits ) then Gorsuch’s nomination — and all future Supreme Court nominations — will need only 51 votes. Such a ruling is called the “constitutional option” by its supporters. This constitutional option would restore two centuries of precedent, whereby elections have consequences. The Constitution vests the power to appoint judges jointly in the president and the Senate. If the American people give the White House and the Senate to the same political party, then that party should be able to confirm its own nominees to the judiciary. It is unclear at that point where the votes are, both on the Gorsuch filibuster and on the constitutional option. But whichever way the showdown goes, Friday’s vote will be one for the history books. Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski. | 1 |
MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — A group of gunmen from one of the cartels operating in this border state executed, dismembered, and bagged three victims. Their remains were left in the bed of a truck with a poster bearing a . [The gruesome discovery was made by municipal police officers from the town of Escobedo, who were carrying out a routine patrol. The vehicle did not seem out of the ordinary until the officers spotted a several trash bags with human remains and a cartel message. The officers that reported the crime scene in the Villas de San Francisco neighborhood confirmed to Breitbart Texas they found at least seven plastic bags in the bed of the pickup in plain view. Authorities were able to identify a human foot and a torso that were protruding from the bags. Among the bloody human remains, authorities found three human heads and the poster that been stuck to a body with an ice pick. The message read: “This happened for (word missing) $$ to the Golfos (Gulf Cartel members) and farting Zetas, Greetings to Jaime Alberto Cano Gonzalez and Mario Salazar Cortez “the Baldy” from Apodaca. This is just starting. ” The bloody war for control of the drug trade in Nuevo Leon has not slowed even though state authorities have been trying to downplay the violence by calling it an “internal fight” and not a “ . ” Despite claims by government officials, executions, mutilated bodies and threats continue to turn up in the industrial areas surrounding Monterrey. Aldo Fasci Zuazua, the Nuevo Leon Public Safety Spokesman, confirmed the open investigation by the state attorney general’s office into the dismembered bodies. The pickup had been reported stolen just a week before from the town of Apodaca. Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda from Monterrey, Nuevo León. | 1 |
TMZ Sports posted a video of Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas partying at a bar in Georgia over the weekend. In the video, Thomas says, “F*** Tom Brady,” and then adds, “But he’s great!” According to TMZ, Thomas said he was just joking and “meant no harm. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
nnnndddd thats how you get drone striked.... | 0 |
Georg Soros the good oil . http://mailstar.net/soros.html Sometimes for truth you have to sacrifice something in order to show non bias , it certainly puts the wind up the mad left raddicals paid by Soros . So the democrats dont think voting is rigged eh???? How do they explain this then ?? Clinton Eugene “Clint” Curtis is an American attorney, computer programmer and ex-employee of NASA and ExxonMobil, who also exposed election hacking. He is notable chiefly for making a series of whistleblower allegations about his former employer and about Republican Congressman Tom Feeney, including an allegation that in 2000, Feeney and Yang Enterprises requested Curtis’s assistance in a scheme to steal votes by inserting fraudulent code into touch screen voting systems. Remember this is the Democrats at the hearing . He tells the members how he was hired by Congressman Tom Feeney in 2000 to build a prototype software package that would secretly rig an election to sway the result 51/49 to a specified side. Now this shows Donald Trump is not only not bias but just wants an honest election and no vote rigging http://www.activistpost.com/2016/03/watch-computer-programmer-testifies-under-oath-he-coded-computers-to-rig-elections.html One might ask who are Yang enterprises ??? Field will like this . There was a reason they did not want to know who they were . http://www.yangenterprises.com/ YEI is a GSA Advantage member, offering Information Technology solutions (GS-35F-0896N), Professional Engineering Services (GS-10F-0107Y), Logistics Worldwide (GS-10F-0135Y), and Facilities Maintenance and Management Services (GS-21F-090AA).YEI receives the Marshall Space Flight Center Small Business Subcontractor Excellence Award.YEI awarded State of Florida IT Consulting Services contract.http://www.dms.myflorida.com/business_operations/state_purchasing/vendor_information/state_contracts_and_agreements/state_term_contracts/information_technology_it_consulting_services/contractors/t_z/contractors_yang_enterprises_inc Name: Li-Woan (Lee) Yang Title: President/CEO Looks like they are all in on it , no wonder its always 50/50 no matter how many people in every western country which is impossible given the differnt cultures . The video is the ultimate smoking gun against the liars who know full well its all rigged . And for the Democrats to be claiming its nottrue is an outrageous lie , they had the inquiry . | 0 |
Report Copyright Violation Mark of the Beast @ 5:47 of this video he lets us know what the Mark of the Beast is.. The antichrist will be able to control those who take this mark. Do you have eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to understand? JESUS CHRIST is the ONLY WAY to SALVATION, DELIVERANCE and PEACE! Soon his grace will be taken from the earth and his WRATH will be poured out. Accept JESUS CHRIST while the GRACE of GOD is still available. May the Peace of God be with you! Love, Pray, Repent and Forgive. Page 1 | 0 |
Desgranamos los perfiles de los posibles nuevos Ministros RAJOY REJUVENECE EL GOBIERNO PONIENDO DE MINISTRAS A LA YENNI Y A LA DÉBORA
Aunque el Presidente del Gobierno, Mariano Rajoy, no hará públicos los nombres que conformarán el Consejo de Ministros de esta legislatura, las quinielas apuntan a que habrá una profunda remodelación.
A continuación, ofrecemos un breve resumen de los Ministros que más suenan para formar parte del Ejecutivo. Presidencia – Mariano Rajoy
Después de casi un año sabático recorriendo Europa como mochilero a fin de encontrarse consigo mismo, Rajoy retoma su labor como Presidente del Gobierno. Deberá afrontar temas decisivos para el país, como el reajuste de las pensiones, los nuevos recortes impuestos por Europa, y la renovación de memes de Internet.
Vicepresidencia – La Yenni
Con el objetivo de rejuvenecer el gobierno, la Yenni (22 años) aparcará su trabajo de gogó en la discoteca Sensaciones para asumir todas aquellas tareas a las que el Presidente no se vea capacitado, por ejemplo: todas.
Ministerio de Justicia – La Débora
Otro perfil joven en un puesto de alta responsabilidad. Debo asume la cartera de Justicia, una tarea que no se le presenta fácil, pues deberá compaginarlo con acabar la ESO, requisito indispensable si quiere que le compren una moto.
Ministerio de Defensa – Mario’John Cobra’ Vaquero
Aficionado al Tae Kwondo y al Jiu Jitsu, Mario ‘John Cobra’ Vaquero tendrá el cometido de aplicar serios recortes a Defensa mediante la implantación de la lucha cuerpo a cuerpo y la sustitución de los tanques por españoles o sudamericanos nacionalizados al alistarse al ejército. Será uno de los miembros más dialogantes del equipo de Rajoy.
Ministerio de Agricultura – John Deere 3036E Compacto
La serie 3E le ofrece más potencia y características que cualquier otro tractor estándar de su categoría, y resulta sumamente sencillo de manejar. Destacan su potente motor diésel de 3 cilindros, la transmisión hidrostática y tracción delantera mecánica, el enganche de tres puntos trasero Categoría 1 y la TDF independiente que aseguran flexibilidad para todo tipo de tareas. Consume menos carburante que su predecesor en el cargo.
Cuanto más trabaje, más apreciará el sistema Twin Touch™ controlando el avance del tractor por pedales, el respaldo alto ergonómico y la columna de dirección ajustable que hacen al 3E tan cómodo y productivo.
Ministerio de Interior – Ángel Marcelo
Es un ser incorpóreo de luz con sobrada experiencia al frente de Interior, pues ha sido la mano derecha de su predecesor en el cargo, Jorge Fernández Díaz, desde que se conocieron en Las Vegas. Los que le conocen destacan su capacidad de diálogo. Dirigirá el ministerio a través de Fernández Díaz, pues es la única persona que puede verle y hablar con él.
Ministerio de Sanidad – Virus del ébola
Es uno de los nombres que más ha sonado en el Ministerio de Sanidad por lo que a pocos sorprendería que le fuera otorgada una cartera microscópica.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores – Pedro Duque
El Presidente Rajoy pretende dar un golpe de autoridad con este nombramiento, pues nadie ha estado más al Exterior que el astronauta.
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes – Rubén Doblas Gundersen
El proceso de rejuvenecimiento del Gobierno está encabezado por Doblas Gundersen. Entre sus propuestas más interesantes está la posible supresión del sistema educativo por videotutoriales de Youtube. Gran defensor de la idea de que aprender no debe ser aburrido, sino más bien un gameplay.
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente- Xavier Garcia Albiol
El ex alcalde de Badalona se hizo popular con su eslogan “Limpiemos Badalona”, un alegato a favor de la ecología y el cuidado de la naturaleza. Sus propuestas, de sobras conocidas, incluyen la reducción de emisiones de co2, de musulmanes y de contaminación acústica.
Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo – Señor X.
La gran incógnita del futuro Consejo de Ministros. De él solo se sabe que tiene acento andaluz, que es un apasionado de los bonsais y que tiene una excelente relación con las grandes empresas energéticas. Según fuentes del gobierno, el hecho de no conocer su aspecto no es impedimento, pues lleva tiempo gobernando desde la sombra.
Ministerio de Cataluña – Señor Pantumáquez
El nuevo gobierno tiene muy claro que tiene un frente abierto en Cataluña. Por ello, ha creado el Ministerio de Lo de Cataluña, y ha colocado al frente a una persona consciente de la realidad catalana, y que confían en que será bien recibida entre los independentistas.
Ministerio de lo que quiera – Rita Barberà
La otrora Alcaldesa de Valencia, Rita Barberá, ve correspondida su labor en el partido y recibirá la cartera que ella misma escoja a fin de “poder sacar el mayor partido posible de sus aptitudes”. De este modo, Barberá podrá ejercer un cargo a medida, en un Ministerio donde podrá hacer lo que le venga en gana, sin tener que dar explicaciones. La sustituirán en el Senado seis personas de complexión normal.
Ministerio de Soyjefamandomucho – Angela Merkel
Por último, el gran poder de decisión de Merkel se ve oficializado con este Ministerio, que podrá imponer sus decisiones por encima de cualquier ley o decreto aprobados por el resto de carteras.
Este ministerio queda desierto hasta que el presidente electo averigüe lo que es “Fomento” Etiquetas | 0 |
You Are Here: Home » Health & Wellness » 4 Motivation-Zapping Thoughts To Identify and Eliminate 4 Motivation-Zapping Thoughts To Identify and Eliminate Prev post Next post
by Elizabeth Seward – Staff Writer
I often tell myself that the only difference between an idea and an accomplishment is action. I repeat this to myself regularly because I believe it; I believe in the power of action. Most people fully understand the importance of action, no matter how unproductive they might be.
The difficulty is often in finding the motivation to initiate action. Not everyone is born naturally motivated, but we all need this driving force behind us if we’re going to succeed in doing just about anything we dream of doing. In fact, much of our life trajectory depends on our ability to harness motivation so that it yields action. Are you killing your own motivation?
If you catch yourself entertaining any of the motivation-zapping thoughts below, stop that unhelpful voice in your head dead in its tracks and reset! What I Want Is For Other People, Not Me. I’ve been an artist all of my life. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to make “a living” out of creating, and thus, all of my life, I occasionally come across people who try to convince me that the life of an artist is one for rich folks or crazy people or beautiful elites or some other kind of person that just isn’t me. Luckily, I haven’t spent much time listening to those people. However, every once in a while, especially if I’m already feeling down, that thought pattern will make its way into my head. Learn this now: no matter your background, you are entitled to the opportunity to work toward what you want. I Don’t Have The Resources. Maybe you think you don’t have the time, the energy, the right space, the money, or any other type of resource or support you need to put your ideas into action. And maybe you’re right. But be honest with yourself: it’s more likely that you’re just making excuses. There are solutions to most problems like these, so find them and embrace them. Improve your time management skills, get some help with your other tasks (delegate!), secure the space and equipment you need – even if you have to borrow it, pinch pennies, find financing, look for a new job, exercise daily for an energy boost – just do whatever it takes. If the idea is important enough to you, you’ll find a way to uplift it with action. I’ll Do It Eventually. There is no eventually. There is no guarantee that you will be here tomorrow. If you can begin today, get the show on the road! Meet this motivation-zapping thought with rebellion and give your idea the green light today. I’m Not Good Enough. Maybe you think you don’t have the talent, intelligence, or charisma it takes to bring your idea into fruition? Think again. The biggest thing standing between you and your goal is not your raw skill, but your willingness to actively participate in your own idea. As they say, showing up is half of the battle (I think it’s most of the battle). Most people who are good at something didn’t get that way without practice. You have to begin cutting your teeth somewhere! The main reason others might be more skilled than you are at something specific is because they do it regularly and you do not. There are exceptions, of course, but this is usually the case. 3 Common Vegetable Garden Planning Mistakes
Are you planning a vegetable garden? You might not be aware of several common mistakes people make when they are planning out their vegetable gardens. When planning a vegetable garden it’s easy to ignore problems that can occur when plants are in the ground. In this video we look at 3 common mistakes gardeners make […] 8 Herbs That Can Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Are you feeling stressed or suffering from feelings of anxiety? You may find that certain herbs are a fast, easy and effective way to reduce stress and anxiety. Before going into detail about the herbs that can help you to manage your stress and anxiety, I do want to point out that diet and lifestyle still need to […] Chemtrails Killing Organic Crops and Monsanto’s GMO Seeds Thrive
Organic farmers and our food supply have a huge environmental hazard to contend with compliments of the U.S. government – chemtrails. Chemtrails are chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for purposes undisclosed to the general public in programs directed by various government officials. These sprays pollute the soil, water and air while […] The Horrific True Story of How Pringles Chips are Made
The Pringles Company (in an effort to avoid taxes levied against “luxury foods” like chips in the UK) once even argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they are technically not even potato chips. by Dr. Mercola – Mercola.com To understand the nature of Pringles and other stackable chips, forget the […] Top 20 Energy Boosting Foods
Check out these 20 Super Energy Boosting Foods! by Matt Hall – staff writer If you’re finding your energy lacking, you may be tempted to reach for a chemical-laden energy drink or yet another double-shot espresso. Don’t! Instead of your 10th cup of coffee for the day, reach for one or more of the following […] China Incinerates 3 US Shipments of Genetically Modified Corn
China has destroyed a total of at least three genetically modified corn shipments with origins from the United States in a move that echoes the way in which the nation of Hungary actually went and destroyed acres upon acres of Monsanto’s GMO corn fields. This move by China represents a direct stand against Monsanto — […] Top chefs meet with lawmakers to urge GMO labeling
by Rachael Nania – WTOP News Chef José Andrés address lawmakers and chefs who met on Capitol Hill to urge members of Congress to support legislation mandating the labeling of genetically modified foods. (WTOP/Rachel Nania) WASHINGTON — The discussion surrounding labeling foods that contain genetically modified organisms is reaching a boiling point, and chefs are adding […] Shoulder Pain: Natural Remedies For Joint Pain Relief
You can provide your own shoulder joint pain relief, in most cases. The pain relief is usually right at your fingertips……once you know a few very basic techniques. Learn the self-treatments that will get rid of your pain. The results can occur quite rapidly once you release the right tissue. Just follow along with the videos. Step 1 – […] How Roundup Ready GMO Corn Is Made
Have you ever wondered how GMO corn is made? Roundup Ready Corn is genetically engineered corn that has had its DNA modified to withstand the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup). It is also known as “glyphosate tolerant corn.” Roundup Ready corn was first deregulated in the U.S. in 1997 and first […] Eight foods that help fight allergies
by Sandeep Godiyal – Naturalnews.com Allergies are indeed bothersome. But instead of reaching out to the usual medications, individuals can now seek relief from various foods. Among the known foods that help fight off spring allergies are citrus fruits, red grapes, broccoli, collard greens, nuts, apples, fish, onions and garlic. With a diet enriched with these […] Costco Going All Out for Organic
As originally reported by The Seattle Times, Costco is finding new and creative ways to meet its customers’ growing demand for organic produce. Article by Sarah Landers – Natural News Costco can be a little unpredictable when it comes to embracing natural, healthy foods. In 2015, there was a petition against the company to urge it not […] Attachment And Separation: What Everyone Should Know
by Dr. Peter Cook – The Natural Child Project Many human troubles would be lessened if the emotional needs of infants and young children were better understood in our society. This applies particularly to attachment needs and the effects of separating infants from their parents. Can you imagine how you might feel if you were happily […] Kellogg’s Loves GMO Contamination of Organic Food
Organic Consumers Association and allies warned Kellogg’s, if they used sugar from genetically engineered sugar beets in their foods, they would face a consumer boycott. Kellogg’s responded, claiming that, even though they don’t use genetically engineered ingredients in Europe, in the U.S., “consumer concerns about the usage of biotech ingredients in food production are low.”Does that […] 6 Diet Tips to Prevent Cancer
Even though there isn’t a food out there that is going to prevent cancer completely, there are certain things that you can do to avoid getting one of the major cancers. For starters, how about sticking with more of a plant-based diet? Eating more vegetables and fruits, while consuming less dairy, processed meats and alcohol can […] Join For Free! Discover Little Known Health Secrets and Useful Tips For Healthy Living! First Name | 0 |
Russian Scientist Says Newest Ice Age is Happening Now November 02, 2016 Russian Scientist Says Newest Ice Age is Underway
A new study by a prominent Russian astrophysicist claims the “new Little Ice Age” started at the end of 2015 due to low solar activity, kicking off decades of “deep cooling” in the latter half of the 21st Century. “As a result, the Earth has, and will continue to have, a negative average annual energy balance and a long-term adverse thermal condition,” Dr. Habibullo Abdussamatov , who is the head of space research for the Pulkovo Observatory at the Russian Academy of Sciences, wrote in a recent study. “The quasi-centennial epoch of the new Little Ice Age has started at the end 2015 after the maximum phase of solar cycle 24,” Abdussamatov wrote. “The start of a solar grand minimum is anticipated in solar cycle 27 in 2043 and the beginning of phase of deep cooling in the new Little Ice Age in 2060.” Abdussamatov’s latest work was translated into English and featured in a new book by geologist Don Easterbrook on evidence opposing the mainstream view that carbon dioxide is the main source of recent global warming.
Abdussamatov argues that declining solar activity will cause a gradual cooling over North America and Europe, which could recreate the conditions experienced during the “Little Ice Age”— cooler periods from Middle Ages to the mid-19th Century that coincided with a lull in sunspots.
“The gradual weakening of the Gulf Stream leads to stronger cooling in the zone of its action in western Europe and the eastern parts of the United States and Canada,” Abdussamatov wrote.
“Quasi-bicentennial cyclic variations of [total solar irradiance] together with successive very important influences of the causal feedback effects are the main fundamental causes of corresponding alterations in climate variation from warming to the Little Ice Age,” he wrote.
Abdussamatov previously predicted declining solar activity would lead to a new “Little Ice Age” in the next 30 years.
READ MORE: "SUN'S HEARTBEAT" INDICATES A SOON-COMING GLOBAL ICE AGE
For years, some scientists have warned that declining solar activity could bring cooler global temperatures in the coming years, but this view has been contested by many scientists who see greenhouse gases, like CO2, as the primary warming agent.
A 2015 study led by Met Office scientist Sarah Ineson found the overall cooling effect of a “grand solar minimum” would be marginal — only offsetting 0.1 degree Celsius of greenhouse gas warming.
Though regional impacts could be more pronounced, Inseon found. Her study found northern Europe could see 0.4 to 0.8 degrees of cooling if solar activity hits record low levels.
“This research shows that the regional impacts of a grand solar minimum are likely to be larger than the global effect, but it’s still nowhere near big enough to override the expected global warming trend due to man-made change,” Ineson said in a statement.
“This means that even if we were to see a return to levels of solar activity not seen since the Maunder Minimum, our winters would likely still be getting milder overall,” she said.
But sunspot aficionados argue the “pause” in global average temperature since the late 1990s coincides with decreasing solar activity. Most scientists say the “pause” in global warming was caused by ocean oscillation cycles.
“Since 1990, the Sun has been in the declining phase of the quasi-bicentennial variation in total solar irradiance,” Abdussamatov wrote. “The decrease in the portion of TSI absorbed by the Earth since 1990 has remained uncompensated by the Earth’s long-wave radiation into space at the previous high level because of the thermal inertia of the world’s oceans.”
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424 Views November 17, 2016 No Comments Guest Posts The Saker
by Oleg Maslov
It’s official, Russia has decided to grab the bull by the horns. Just one week after the shocking vote in the US presidential election resulted in a Trump victory, Russia has decided to pull all the stops and take care of some long lingering business while Obama’s administration is working overtime to manage a transition that no one expected would happen and Obama himself is out of the office, making what might be his very last visit to Europe, calming the closest of American allies in a time of serious questions about the future of the American relationship with NATO.
Obama has just two months before Trump will be sworn in and much of the time and energy of his staff will be consumed by briefing Trump and his cabinet, which is not yet fully formed, on their duties and on the situation in the world in general. Perhaps Obama’s own transition team will try to convince the Teflon Don and his staff to pursue a similar policy on many issues, not the least of which include Obamacare and the Paris agreement on climate change. Trump himself has already received a call from Putin shortly after the election, one of Trump’s most publicized calls with world leaders after news of his victory broke, putting even more pressure on Obama’s transition team to get their points across quickly.
In the meantime, Obama is making his last expected tour of Europe before Trump’s inauguration. It is not certain exactly why Obama chose to visit Greece first, but it is certainly significant that he was greeted with tens of thousands of protesters, in the least because it shows the current zeitgeist. Obama has to perform his duties of Salesman in Chief as he goes around to NATO allies and reassures them of budget commitments to American forces stationed abroad. I can only imagine the brain-tingling questions that Obama will have to field from the German and French defense ministers.
The main source of all the sweating European bureaucrats is Trump’s apparent friendliness with Russia and criticism of NATO, which could mean that Brussels will have to have some existential discussions on many long standing policies, including the sanctions against Russia. In fact, if Trump were to recognize Crimea as a legal part of Russia, as he has suggested that he is willing to do, Europe may either have to follow suit and bring down the house of cards commonly referred to as the Ukrainian Crisis or declare an open break with Washington’s foreign policy, a veritable checkmate.
If the current batch of Eurocrats were to keep their jobs (which is looking questionable), they would most probably try to avoid an open break with Washington or, ironically, risk losing their jobs. An open break with Washington would set the European Union into open waters of foreign policy sovereignty, a move that would meet with great resistance from many sources. Either way, an incredible shake-up is coming to Ukraine soon as they are about to have much less friends in the ‘international community’.
However, all of these major theatrical dramas and loud, painful snowflake whines are actually working wonderfully to divert attention from the real news. This last Monday night, Russia did several noteworthy things on a globally relevant geopolitical level that will surely resonate with the global movers and shakers. Russia launched an all-out air assault onto ‘Syrian rebels’ operating in the Homs, Idlib, and Latakia provinces of Syria. Monday night’s military campaign coincided with the biggest corruption bust in the history of modern Russia – the Russian Economy Minister Ulyukaev was taken into custody by the FSB after being caught demanding and accepting a $2 million bribe. Lastly, and perhaps less significantly but just as suddenly and symbolically, Russia has announced that it will no longer participate in the International Criminal Court.
However, in the humble opinion of this author, the most important fact to note connecting these three events is that they represent huge milestones in the modern history of Russia. One event is on the domestic political and economic level, connecting staff thought to be within the inner circle of the Kremlin specifically with financial corruption. The second is purely military in nature and works to show off the power projection capabilities of the modern Russian military. Thirdly, Russia’s decision to leave the ICC is a huge signal to Russia’s positions in the context of international bodies, up to and including the UN.
I would like to highlight this point just one more time to make sure that the meaning doesn’t slide by anyone. The government of Russia has just performed the biggest government shake up since the fall of the Soviet Union, with the FSB arresting the ‘untouchable’ Economy Minister from his post and placing him on a very public trial for extorting a very large bribe. Russia have also launched the biggest attack on an enemy military at least since the Second Chechen conflict, which was the major event of the first few years of Putin’s presidency over 17 years ago, and, at most, since Soviet forces left Afghanistan in 1989, 27 years ago. And lastly, Russia has made a very major and unexpected decision to abandon the jurisdictions of the ICC, long known for its adherence to justice and fair verdicts (sarcasm). AT NEARLY EXACTLY THE SAME TIME!
Is it just me, or does it seem like the planets are aligning here?
Let’s analyze the first event. Alexei Ulyukaev was accused of extorting a bribe from state-owned oil company Rosneft to tune of $2 million, cold hard cash, and was arrested by investigators (mostly three letter agencies) at night. To top it all off, one official said under condition of anonymity that Ulyukaev’s arrest was the final act in a yearlong investigation by the FSB. Ulyukaev, a member of the Russian government since the break-up of the Soviet Union, has been considered as member of Russia’s liberal, Western-leaning politicians. Of particular interest is Ulyukaev’s CV.
Ulyukaev has held some critical positions in the modern Russian government, including serving under Gaidar and managing the shock privatizations of Soviet assets (as well as the shock hyperinflation) from 1991-1994. He was a deputy to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin from 2000-2004 before taking a job as the first vice-chairman of the Russian Central Bank, a position that he held from April 2004 to June 2013. When he was arrested, again, in the middle of the night, he was the acting Economy Minister.
Ulyukaev was certainly high on the list of those considered to be untouchable.
Along with Ulyukaev, the vice-governor of Saint Petersburg and some high-ranking officials in the regional government of the Kemerovo region have also been arrested for corruption after investigations by the FSB.
Various commentary has already surfaced claiming that Putin has turned to the age old Russian tradition of the Purge. Opinion leaders in the community are writing that no ‘chinovnik’ or oligarch could feel that ‘untouchable’ anymore after Ulyukaev’s arrest and that corrupt officials better behave or face the ax. Still others are claiming that Putin is consolidating his power and is preparing to become a dictator in the classic sense. No matter which explanation you prefer, the fact remains that the Russian government is powerfully expressing its political and economic sovereignty and is publicly making a loud statement against corruption.
The second incident was a comprehensive and simultaneous assault on rebel targets all over Syria in a very short time frame. Targets were struck with a bevy of missiles launched both from sea and by land. One of the most surprising features of this massive campaign is the sheer size and diversity of it. The Bastion system, highlighted as a defensive surface-to-surface missile system, showed off its potent attack power, engaging targets up to 300 miles away.
IHS Janes reports on the news that Russia is “not known to have previously claimed” that the Bastion, which is originally an anti-ship missile, “has a land attack capability”. It turns out that missile ‘defense’ systems designed to engage land targets, such as the United States Missile Defense systems in Poland and Romania, can easily be used to engage in attacks on land targets. Surprise, surprise.
However, the brunt of the missile strikes done by Kalibr missiles launched from the Mediterranean Sea, most notably from Russia’s new and improved frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich. In fact, the Russian naval group, led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, made ‘waves’ in Europe as the group was headed to their final destination, the Syrian coast, from which they launched volley after volley of high precision cruise missiles at targets from what is most likely a confusing medley of rebel groups. It is highly likely that, among the rebel groups which met the explosive end of a Russian cruise missile, some were directly funded by American allies, and less likely that the Russians even targeted groups directly trained or supplied by the CIA.
This major military move actually kills two birds with one stone. First, it provides Russia’s allies and ‘partners’ in the area with a bit of information about how far and in what quantity the Russian military can project its power. Further, it reveals that the Russians are most likely purposefully understating the power and capabilities of many of their newest technologies (although this should come as a surprise to no one). Also to this point, the Russian government did not ask permission of any international body when it passed through international waters and made its way to Syria, despite the ‘uncomfort’ felt in London. The second stone is that Russia has engaged in one of the most effective and convincing advertising campaigns for their newest export model military products. With loud fanfare, the Russians showed the world that Russian arms still give great bang for the buck.
The last major move, but, in the view of this author, not nearly as significant as the other two, is Russia’s decision to withdraw its signature from the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court. This move was sudden and symbolic, coming after the ICC ruled Russia’s ‘annexation’ Crimea illegal and called the current situation an ‘occupation’, but will lead to no noticeable change in real terms, since Russia never actually ratified the Rome Statute, meaning that it never submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the ICC to begin with.
One can write more on the nature and meaning of the withdrawal of Russia from the ICC, but the readers are welcome to find their own facts and form their own opinions. I will also stop short of giving my opinion on this strange set of geopolitical ‘coincidences’, and finish only with a invitation for speculation on what these facts could mean for the future of Russia, Russia’s relationship with Europe and the world, and the global security structure as a whole. The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95 | 0 |
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Cops Begin ILLEGALLY Removing DAPL Protesters From Protected Indian Land — Stolen Through Eminent Domain Counter Current News
The months-long protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline has just come to a head on Thursday.
Police and protesters clashed over disputed territory near the pipeline’s path, on Native American tribal land, seized by the government.
CNN reports the following:
North Dakota authorities started removing roadblocks protesters set up to demarcate a camp that they say is located on tribal land.
Protesters set up teepees, tents and other structures on Sunday to set down roots for a “winter camp.”
But authorities say they are trespassing and brought in police in riot gear to forcibly remove protesters from what they say is private property.
State authorities called in reinforcements from seven other states to help, North Dakota Department of Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong said. As of Thursday afternoon, about 100 protesters remained.
“Protesters escalated unlawful behavior this weekend by setting up illegal roadblocks, trespassing onto private property and establishing an encampment (actions that) forced law enforcement to respond at this time,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier stated.
The conflict between police and protesters originates from the ongoing construction of the 1,172-mile pipeline that will threaten the environment and destroy Native American burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts.
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.@jerryspringer on how Steve Bannon apparently wants to make American a white Christian nation. Do you agree? #AMJoy https: . Sunday, on MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” talk show host Jerry Springer suggested that White House Chief Strategist and former Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon “has a philosophical goal” to “do away with a multicultural America,” which is why he and President Donald Trump go after the courts and the media. “Bannon has a philosophical goal, and that is, as I said before, to do away with a multicultural America. He wants America to be basically Christian and white. So keep out the Mexicans, keep out the Muslims, etc. ,” Springer explained. The “Jerry Springer Show” host also said Twitter is like a “drug” for the president. “[Trump] can’t get the mainstream media, because obviously, they won’t respect him,” Springer added. “So, therefore, he goes to the things he can control. That’s the tabloid journalism or the Twitter account. So, Trump gets his drug, and Bannon gets the goal of doing away with mainstream media. ” Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO — Ultimate Fighting Championship seemed for years to be a curio, a niche sport for those interested in seeing combatants pummel one another in an octagonal cage. But U. F. C. has become a global sports empire — and now commands an price tag. The league, which promotes mixed martial arts, is expected to announce as soon as Monday that it has sold itself to a group led by the talent giant for about $4 billion, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Backing the deal are the private equity heavyweights Silver Lake, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and the investment firm of the billionaire Michael S. Dell. The deal highlights the power and reach of the U. F. C. whose fights are now shown in more than 156 countries and take place in all 50 states, and which claims millennials as some 45 percent of its audience. For its new owners, the league represents a prime source of content, particularly in the digital arena. Beyond its headline fights, which the company asserts are the events on TV, U. F. C. over all generates roughly 2, 000 hours’ worth of material each year, much of it available on its Fight Pass streaming service. The transaction comes just as U. F. C. concluded its latest series of fights, perhaps the biggest in the organization’s history. (The event, U. F. C. 200, drew more than 18, 000 fans to Las Vegas but was marred by some controversy, including the absence of stars like Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, the last of whom was removed after testing positive for an undisclosed substance. It will be a windfall for U. F. C. ’s primary owners, the longtime casino entrepreneurs Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, though they will stay on as minority investors. The brothers bought U. F. C. in 2000 for just $2 million at a low point for the league, after the promoter spent years and millions of dollars battling to win approval from state athletic commissions. Before the arrival of the Fertittas, U. F. C. had begun climbing in popularity, thanks to early stars like Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock and a reputation for being just shy of civilized. But opposition loomed from Senator John McCain of Arizona, who derided the sport as “human cockfighting,” and former Governor George E. Pataki of New York, who banned the sport from the state. The early years under the brothers — who run the business through a company called Zuffa, the Italian word for “fight” — were still tough, with losses weighing over the enterprise. But the Fertittas took the brand to a new level, with more advertising, more effective social media marketing and better distribution through partnerships like the one with Fox. Licensing money for video games, clothes and more began to roll in. U. F. C. ’s revenue was about $600 million last year. Respectability came along with rules meant to curb the excesses of early fights and getting approval from each state’s athletic commission. The last came this year, when New York lifted its ban on the sport. And television programming like “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show elevated U. F. C. ’s presence in pop culture, turning athletes like Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture into mainstream stars. Combatants began appearing on ESPN and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. Successive generations of fighters, particularly Ms. Rousey, became even bigger celebrities. U. F. C. has demonstrated enormous digital reach as well, particularly after the introduction of U. F. C. Fight Pass streaming service in late 2013. Under the Fertittas, U. F. C. also swallowed up many of its competitors while pushing aggressively abroad, establishing beachheads in Europe, Asia and Australia. As part of that international campaign, Zuffa sold a minority stake in the promoter to an arm of the Abu Dhabi government six years ago. Not all has been rosy for U. F. C. however. The league has faced accusations that it underpays many of its athletes. And it remains dogged by concerns about the brutality of some of its fights. Along the way, the Fertittas, burly fighting enthusiasts who are bound to settle business disputes with a jujitsu match, have already earned themselves a fortune and amassed art collections. Rumors about a sale of U. F. C. in a deal have percolated since the spring. In May, the company flatly denied being up for sale. Its president, Dana White, said, “We’re not for sale,” though he conceded, “But let me tell you what. If somebody shows up with $4 billion, we can talk. ” As recently as last week, Lorenzo Fertitta and Mr. White denied that they had sold the business. “We own the U. F. C. We did not sell the U. F. C. ,” Mr. White told The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. (That’s true: The two sides signed the deal agreement over the weekend.) Such is the popularity of the company that it drew interest from a number of suitors, including big Chinese media players that reportedly included the Dalian Wanda Group, which owns the AMC theater chain, and China Media Capital, which owns stakes in pro sports teams like the Manchester City soccer club. But it was which already represents stars like Ms. Rousey in media rights and has represented U. F. C. itself, that emerged victorious. For the Hollywood colossus, which is led by Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, acquiring U. F. C. is the latest step in creating a huge stable meant to command digital media. The agency has gained financial firepower for such deals, taking investments this year from the Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank and the mutual fund titan Fidelity. has already taken steps into the sports world, buying the Professional Bull Riders league last year. Still, U. F. C. is a much bigger step in the agency’s goal to become a platform for content, to which it can apply a host of levers — from marketing to talent management to television and digital distribution. Though represents Ms. Rousey and other combatants in their endorsements and movie deals, the agency will not get involved in the actual pay negotiations with athletes, according to the people with direct knowledge of the matter. Backing the agency are Silver Lake, which led the merger of WME and IMG nearly three years ago and which has long pushed portfolio companies to become bigger through acquisitions, and K. K. R. which has often worked with Silver Lake on major investments like the takeovers of GoDaddy and the chip maker Avago. Both firms will own minority stakes in U. F. C. Mr. Dell has been allied with Silver Lake since the investment firm helped him take his computer empire private in 2013, and then aided him in buying the data storage company EMC last year in what was the takeover in technology. Mr. Dell’s firm, MSD Capital, will own preferred shares in the sports league, which will essentially pay out interest. | 1 |
Здоровье » Здоровье и профилактика Гос д ум е предстоит рассмотреть законопроект о телемедицине . В каких случаях врачам следует разрешить консультировать пациента дистанционно? Можно ли ставить диагноз на расстоянии? Что сейчас препятствует развитию телемедицины в России? Об этом в прямом эфире видеостудии Pravda.Ru рассказал член правления Общества врачей России Айрат Ханов. 0 комментариев 0 поделились Фото: Fotodom.ru/DP
— Каковы аргументы "за" и "против" телемедицины ? Что медики понимают под телемедициной, и не расходится ли это понимание с тем, что представляют себе авторы законопроектов?
— Если придерживаться буквы определения, то телемедицина — это дистанционные медицинские услуги. По факту, практически каждый врач и многие из граждан нашей страны телемедицинскими услугами пользуются уже много лет. Телефонные консультации, например, — это также телемедицина, потому что врач на расстоянии по телефону дает рекомендации пациенту. Например, врач может увеличить дозу препарата, заменить его на другой препарат или же пригласить больного к себе на прием.
Медицина развивается в связи с тем, что появляются современные средства передачи любой информации — визуальной, письменной и так далее. Ведь интернет развивается.
В настоящее время во всем мире телемедицина движется вперед уже большими темпами. И как нам показывают цифры зарубежных источников, там при этом экономят до 40 процентов средств на медицинских услугах. К сожалению, у нас пока это все хотя и не запрещено, но и не разрешено, не прописано законодательно.
— Медикам действительно нужно, чтобы это явление узаконили? Или, в принципе, как они работали без этого, так и будут нормально работать?
— Я думаю, что нужно, чтобы это узаконили.
— А почему?
— Потому что в медицинском процессе участвуют два человека, две стороны: врач и пациент. И в этой ситуации важно сделать новое максимально удобным , чтобы это облегчало работу врача, улучшало ее и было удобно для пациента. Без этого могут возникнуть юридические проблемы.
Например, когда пациент что-то не так поймет, сам сделает что-то не так, как врач прописал, и из-за этого будут какие-то осложнения, потом он может предъявить врачу юридические претензии. И вот тут возникает проблема, потому что у нас телемедицина не регламентирована.
— То есть может иметь значение, что рекомендация была дана по телефону или по интернету? А если бы сидели офлайн, претензий бы не было?
— Да, потому что информация может исказиться по ходу донесения. Не так услышал, не так понял.
— Но это же может это и в очном разговоре случиться?
— Конечно, но это будет рассматриваться в юридических органах на основе регламентирующих документов, законов. А если порядок не прописан, то сложностей для всех возникнет намного больше. Сейчас в России, согласно законодательству, по лицензионным требованиям медицинская услуга должна оказываться по месту действия лицензии, то есть вот только в этом здании, даже не в соседнем.
— В каких случаях может применяться телемедицина без ущерба для качества лечения?
— Телемедицина нужна, конечно, в первую очередь, для приближения медицинской помощи. Если где-то населенный пункт расположен за 500-700 километров от центральной районной больницы, нет медицинского работника рядом, — чтобы до него добраться, нужны сутки или двое. А если есть связь — телефонная или интернет, — и человеку страждущему нужно оказать помощь именно сейчас, телемедицина может сильно помочь, приблизить лечение.
Во-вторых, телемедицина нужна, когда нужно решить медицинские вопросы между врачом и пациентом уже, например, для уточнения каких-то позиций — результатов анализов или корректировки назначения лечения. Бывает также, что иногда пациенты едут за сотни километров, чтобы получить от врача одноминутную консультацию, хотя сейчас ее легко можно получить по телефону или через интернет. Через современные телемедицинские системы в письменном виде на сайте это сделать особенно легко и удобно.
— Но врачу, что бы минуту уделить пациенту очно, по интернету или телефону, все равно нужно эту минуту выделить. То есть здесь получается проблема — не нагрузят ли врачей, если им теперь дополнительно онлайн консультировать? Где им взять еще время?
— Вот как раз закон и нужен для того, чтобы наш Фонд обязательного медицинского страхования прописал в перечне услуг эту статью — телемедицинская консультация и за нее финансировал лечебные учреждения. Нужен закон. Если визит повторный, уточняющий, почему бы, если пациент находится где-то далеко, не использовать возможности телемедицины? Тогда можно сэкономить на времени пациента и врача. И тогда врач в сэкономленное время может принять другого больного. Кстати, в мировой практике очень много приборов, подсоединенных к телемедицинским портам.
— Какие это дает возможности?
— Во-первых, можно снять кардиограмму, отправить ее врачу за тысячу километров, где он может расшифровать кардиограмму и прислать свои советы. Можно прибором, который присоединен к специализированному порталу, измерить сахар в крови. Можно измерить артериальное давление, пульс, пульсосимметрию сделать…
И в мире уже есть тысячи различных приборов, которые прикрепляются к телу и могут измерять показатели круглые сутки.
— А у нас как дело с этим обстоит? Насколько мы отстаем от Запада?
— Мы отстаем именно потому, что у нас нет соответствующего закона, нет систематизации этих вопросов. К сожалению, в этом направлении движения мы немного отстаем и по приборной базе, по программным продуктам, но закон дал бы толчок к ускорению этих процессов.
Беседовала Лейла Мамедова
Подготовил к публикации Юрий Кондратьев Телемедицина – лечебный прорыв или фикция? | 0 |
LONDON — George Michael, the English who became a pop legend in the 1980s and ’90s and who was found dead on Christmas Day, died of a heart condition, according to a coroner’s statement released on Tuesday. Darren Salter, the senior coroner for Oxfordshire County, said Mr. Michael, 53, died at his home in of natural causes: dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver. Dilated cardiomyopathy develops when the heart’s ventricles enlarge and weaken, a process that usually starts in the left ventricle. The weakening of the heart’s chambers causes the heart muscle to work harder, and over time that reduces its ability to pump blood. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle. Fat buildup in the liver can be caused by drinking alcohol, but there is also a common nonalcoholic variant that is related to being overweight or obese. Mr. Michael had a history of hard living: In 2007 he was sentenced to community service and barred from driving for two years after he was found asleep behind the wheel of a car while under the influence of drugs. The following year, he was arrested on suspicion of possessing crack cocaine. Mr. Salter’s statement did not specify the cause of the fat building in the liver. Because the death was natural, “the investigation is being discontinued and there is no need for an inquest or any further enquiries,” Mr. Salter said in a statement. “No further updates will be provided and the family requests the media and public respect their privacy. ” Mr. Michael, who was born in London to a British mother and a Greek Cypriot father, started the group Wham! with a high school friend, Andrew Ridgeley. The pair became household names with the 1984 single “Wake Me Up Before You . ” They split up in 1986, and Mr. Michael began a solo career with his album “Faith,” released in 1987. His final studio album featuring new songs was “Patience” in 2004. On Monday, Mr. Michael was celebrated at Paris Fashion Week when the designer Stella McCartney closed her show with a procession of models dancing to his song “Faith” and chanting the words “love” and “faith. ” Mr. Michael had famously cast five supermodels who had appeared together on the cover of British Vogue — Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz — in the David video for his 1990 song “Freedom! ’90. ” | 1 |
LUCCA, Italy (AP) — U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued an ultimatum to Russia on Tuesday: Side with the U. S. and likeminded countries on Syria, or embrace Iran, militant group Hezbollah and embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad. [As he embarked on a trip to Moscow following urgent meetings in Italy with top diplomats, Tillerson said it was unclear whether Russia had failed to take seriously its obligation to rid Syria of chemical weapons, or had merely been incompetent. But he said the distinction “doesn’t much matter to the dead. ” “We cannot let this happen again,” the secretary of state said. “We want to relieve the suffering of the Syrian people. Russia can be a part of that future and play an important role,” Tillerson added in remarks to reporters. “Or Russia can maintain its alliance with this group, which we believe is not going to serve Russia’s interests longer term. ” Since the U. S. launched airstrikes against Assad’s forces in retaliation for a chemical attack on civilians last week, Trump administration officials have offered mixed messages about whether Washington believes Assad definitely must surrender power — and when. Tillerson said it was clear the U. S. saw no role for Assad in Syria’s future, given that he had lost legitimacy. “It is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end,” he said. “But the question of how that ends and the transition itself could be very important in our view to the durability, the stability inside of a unified Syria. ” “That’s why we are not presupposing how that occurs,” Tillerson added. He said the talks that Russia and Iran have helped broker in the Kazakh capital, Astana, could generate momentum toward broader talks about a political transition — if the Astana talks succeed in creating a durable . The resulting political talks would take place under the auspices of the United Nations process in Geneva. “To date, Astana has not achieved much progress,” Tillerson said. Tillerson spoke after a meeting of the “likeminded” countries was hastily arranged on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of Seven industrialized economies in Italy, days after the U. S. for the first time launched airstrikes against Assad’s forces. A key focus since the chemical attack has been on increasing pressure on Russia, Assad’s strongest ally, which has used its own military to keep Assad in power. The U. S. and others have said that Russia bears responsibility for the deaths of civilians at the hands of Assad given Moscow’s role in guaranteeing the 2013 deal in which Assad was supposed to have given up his chemical weapons arsenal. The U. S. raised the stakes significantly on Monday when a senior U. S. official said Washington has made a preliminary conclusion that Russia knew in advance of Syria’s chemical weapons attack. Yet the U. S. has no proof of Moscow’s involvement, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on intelligence matters and demanded anonymity. That accusation will hang over Tillerson’s visit to Moscow, where he plans with meet with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and possibly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin declined to say whether Putin would meet with Tillerson, in line with its usual practice of not announcing such meetings ahead of time. The United States has sought to minimize expectations for the trip or the likelihood that the U. S. will leave with any concessions from Russia regarding its support for Assad. Instead, the U. S. is hoping to use the visit — the first by a Trump Cabinet official to Russia — to convey its expectations to Moscow and then allow the Russians a period of time to respond. Though intended to punish Assad for a chemical weapons attack, the U. S. strikes last week served to refocus the world’s attention on the bloody war in Syria, now in its seventh year. Diplomats gathered in Italy as U. S. officials in Washington floated the possibility of new sanctions on the Syrian and Russian military, plus the threat of additional U. S. military action if Assad’s government continues attacking civilians. At Tuesday’s meeting in the walled Tuscan city of Lucca, the countries were joined by diplomats from nations including Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The inclusion of those countries is important because the U. S. strategy for Syria involves enlisting help from Mideast nations to ensure security and stability in Syria after the Islamic State group is vanquished. | 1 |
If Donald J. Trump meant what he said, then the world may one day look back to recall that the first superpower nuclear arms race since the Cold War was announced by two talk show hosts. “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,” Mika Brzezinski, of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, said on Friday. She and her curled up in nightwear in front of a fake fireplace, said the quote was a statement from Mr. Trump, elaborating on a Twitter message on nuclear weapons. Mr. Trump has a history of bluster and his declarations may turn out to be bluffs. But should he follow through on instigating a nuclear arms race, the consequences could be severe. Best estimates of likely Russian and Chinese responses offer a concerning guide. So do lessons from the Cold War arms race, which brought the world so close to the brink that American and Soviet adversaries worked to reverse the competition they had once seen as essential. Nuclear arms races are not usually something that states set out to provoke, but are pulled into against their wills. In the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union saw themselves as reacting to one another, straining to maintain a strategic balance that would deter war or at least make it survivable. Winston Churchill remarked in 1954 that more warheads could accomplish little more than to “make the rubble bounce. ” But this quote reflects a misunderstanding: that the arms race was a simple matter of accruing warheads. In fact, it was far more dangerous, with stockpiles merely reflecting complex advances. For instance, one country might develop weapons that could deliver warheads more rapidly, which would require the other to shorten its response time and build redundant, retaliatory weapons. While “arms race” describes the sets of policies that helped make the Cold War so dangerous, arms racing was not in itself policy. Rather, it was a — and — byproduct of American and Soviet aims. Leaders on both sides wanted to avoid losing, but none saw the race as desirable. The exception, Ronald Reagan, entered office in 1981 determined to win the Cold War in part by outstripping the Soviet Union on nuclear arms. But after a few years of tightening response times and incidents, he became the most enthusiastic proponent of nuclear disarmament to occupy the Oval Office. Though some Americans believe the arms race won the Cold War, as Mr. Reagan had initially hoped, the two sides ended their competition willingly — and a few years before internal political and economic forces would pull down the Soviet Union from within. Mr. Reagan and the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought total disarmament at a 1986 summit meeting. Unable to agree on terms, they settled for an ongoing drawdown of nuclear forces, reversing the arms race. Such reductions have continued since, codified in treaties such as the 2010 New Start agreement, which Mr. Trump’s policy would likely undo. In his Twitter post on Thursday announcing that policy, Mr. Trump said his goal was that “the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. ” It is not clear what that means. But whatever his intention, analysts say that Mr. Trump’s stated desire to provoke an arms race does have a foreseeable range of outcomes. The two countries most likely to respond are Russia, whose nuclear arsenal is comparable to that of the United States, and China, which has a far smaller program. Though each has a slightly different goal, both design their programs to counterbalance the United States, and will therefore calibrate to keep pace with any American advances. But analysts warn that, in part because the United States is already so much more powerful in conventional terms, Russia and China may feel forced to take actions that are destabilizing and put all parties at risk. Since the end of the Cold War, Moscow has seen nuclear parity with the United States as its last — perhaps only — guarantee of survival against a far stronger Western alliance it perceives as an existential threat. Falling behind would, in Moscow’s view, invite Russia’s destruction. Though Russia’s economy is a fraction the size of America’s, it has kept up. Should it find parity too costly, Moscow would likely compensate by expending another kind of currency: its willingness to accept nuclear risk. This would be aimed at strengthening Russian deterrence against any American threat. For instance, Russia might deploy more Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave located between Poland and Lithuania. Such missiles can reach European capitals in a matter of minutes and, because they are fired from special vehicles, can be difficult to knock out. Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, could also loosen restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons. Some analysts already believe that Russian military doctrine allows for the use of a single “ ” nuclear strike, in case of a conventional war, to force the other side to stand down. Such policies put a greater onus on the United States to reduce risk, compensating for any relative Russian weakness. Beijing’s nuclear aims are less ambitious: to retain just enough ability that, should the United States attack first, it can fire a few nuclear weapons in retaliation. Should Mr. Trump advance American nuclear abilities — even if this is aimed principally at Russia — China will fear that an American first strike could wipe out its warheads. This would render China’s nuclear deterrent effectively obsolete, all but forcing it to compensate. Vipin Narang, a nuclear weapons expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said China would build up its own abilities, but worried that it would seek a quicker fix as well. China might preload nuclear warheads onto missiles to shorten its response time, Mr. Narang suggested. Or it could hide missiles in hardened locations, like tunnels. It might consider adopting Pakistan’s practice of putting warheads in unmarked vans and driving them around the country, in a road trip, to keep them safe from attack. China could also decide to abandon its policy against the first use of nuclear weapons in any conflict “because they could not afford to go second,” Mr. Narang said. Mr. Narang emphasized that such steps would increase the risk of an accident or miscalculation that, while remote, could be catastrophic. Of Mr. Trump’s intentions and their likely impact in Beijing and Moscow, Mr. Narang said, “It’s a scary new world if he’s serious about, and trying to trigger, an arms race with either or both. ” Paul C. Warnke, a senior Pentagon official in the Cold War’s early years, concluded that their mutual buildups were less like a race than two runners on adjacent treadmills. “The only victory the arms race has to offer,” he wrote in 1975, was to “be first off the treadmill. ” Mr. Warnke’s view was controversial at the time, but later became accepted even by many dedicated Cold Warriors. The early 1980s had seen near misses that had brought the world intolerably close to the edge. In 1983, for instance, a Soviet system detected an incoming American nuclear attack. It happened to be a moment of high tension in which the Kremlin had feared a strike. Because of missile advances that had come as part of the arms race, the Soviets had only 23 minutes to respond before the missiles would land — not enough time to equipment, much less negotiate with Washington. The arms race also dictated that the Soviet Union respond with overwhelming retaliation against the United States, to quickly neutralize any further threat. The Soviet officer in charge of the station could see no evidence of a false alarm, but told his superiors that it was. His guess, proved correct, may have saved the world. Though the episode would not become public for years, Mr. Reagan wrote in his memoirs that another war scare, which occurred that same month when Soviet forces shot down a South Korean airliner that had wandered into Soviet airspace, “demonstrated how close the world had come to the precipice and how much we needed nuclear arms control. ” Mr. Reagan principally turned against the arms race because of its dangers, but others came to oppose it for the simple reason that, after decades and billions or perhaps trillions of dollars, it had failed to accomplish victory. “Building nukes to get others to stop historically has had the same effect as telling everyone in an email storm to cease using ‘Reply All,’ ” Joshua H. Pollack, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, joked on Twitter. Mr. Pollack added, “There is no last, winning move when it comes to arms racing. ” The first response came from Cheryl Rofer, a retired nuclear scientist at the Los Alamos National Research Laboratory: “But there is a last move. ” | 1 |
The Alignment Between These Ancient Sites Will Blow Your Mind Did you know that ancient sites like Easter Island, Nazca, Ollantaytambo, Paratoari, Tassili n’Ajjer... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/the-alignment-between-these-ancient.html Did you know that ancient sites like Easter Island, Nazca, Ollantaytambo, Paratoari, Tassili n’Ajjer and the Pyramids of Giza are all aligned on a single great circle? There is a mind-boggling connection among ancient structures that is indicative of a far greater meaning than we were aware of. There have been numerous theories that ancient structures around the globe were specifically positioned by its ancient builder’s thousands of years ago. Perhaps one of the best examples — according to many — is the Great Pyramid of Giza and its curious position on Earth.For those of you who didn’t know, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the most accurately aligned structure in existence and faces true north with only 3/60th of a degree of error. Furthermore, the weight of the pyramid is estimated at 5,955,000 tons. Multiplied by 10^8 gives a reasonable estimate of the earth’s mass. As you can see, ancient structures were built with a mind-boggling precision.But the Pyramids at the Giza plateau do not stand solitary on Earth. In fact, there are countless other sites that seem to be connected somehow. If you take a look at other ancient sites like the Nazca Lines, Machu Picchu, Easter Island, Mohenjo Daro, and Tassili n’Ajjer among others and draw down their position on a map, you will notice a connection that points perhaps towards an ancient ‘code’ embedded within these structures.As is noted by world-mysteries.com, ancient sites like Giza, Siwa, Tassili n’Ajjer, Paratoari, Ollantaytambo, Machupicchu, Nazca, Easter Island, Aneityum Island, Preah Vihear, Sukhothai, Pyay, Khajuraho, Mohenjo Daro, Persepolis, Ur, Petra are shown clockwise from Giza on the equal azimuthal projection. The projection is centered on the axis point in southeastern Alaska. Distances to any location from the center of an equal azimuthal projection are equally scaled. Since all of the sites on the great circle alignment are equally distant from the axis point at one-quarter of the circumference of the earth, the alignment forms a perfect circle halfway between the center and the outer edge of the projection. Check out the cover image (above) to understand the complexity of this mysterious alignment. Jim Alison goes on to explain even further in a very intriguing chart: The chart below lists the distance of each site from the great circle and the distance of each site from the northern axis point. There are slight variations in the distance from the axis point to the great circle depending on whether the route from the axis point to different locations along the great circle crosses over the equator or Polar Regions. The mean distance from the axis point to the great circle is 6,218 miles. Furthermore, the alignment of these sites is easily observable on a globe of the Earth with a horizon ring. If you line up any two of these sites on the horizon ring, all of the sites will be right on the horizon ring:Start on the Equator, at the mouth of the Amazon River, at 49° 17′ West Longitude; go to 30° 18′ North Latitude, 40° 43′ East Longitude, in the Middle East, which is the maximum latitude the line touches; then go to the Equator at 130° 43′ East Longitude, near the Northwest tip of New Guinea; then to 30° 18′ South Latitude, 139° 17′ West Longitude, in the South Pacific; and then back to 49° 17′ West Longitude, at the Equator. As you can see, there seems to be a connection among all of the above structures that form — to the surprise of many — a massive circle encompassing all major archaeological site son planet Earth. How this is possible remains a profound enigma. Source and references: | 0 |
by Yves Smith
By Jeffrey Butler, Assistant Professor, Louisiana State University; Paola Giuliano, Associate Professor of Economics at the UCLA-Anderson School of Management; and Luigi Guiso Axa Professor of Household Finance, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance. Originally published at VoxEU
Assessing the trustworthiness of others is a ubiquitous and fundamental process. If these trustworthiness assessments translate into trusting behaviour , understanding how ‘trust beliefs’ are formed is consequential. The current US presidential election may hinge on voter assessments of the trustworthiness of candidates. The victims of the US investment fraudster Bernie Madoff are reminders of the potentially severe financial consequences of misallocated trust.
Kenneth Arrow (1972) famously asserted that trust is a prerequisite for most economic activity. A large and lively body of research in economics focuses on trust and its aggregate economic consequences, documenting strong relationships between general levels of trust between nations and everything from GDP growth to cross-country trade patterns (Knack and Zak 2001, Knack and Keefer 1996, Guiso et al. 2004, Tabellini 2008, Algan and Cahuc 2010, Guiso et al. 2009).
Despite the economic importance of trust, surprisingly little is known about what causes us to trust others. Although previous research suggests that both pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors (‘betrayal’ or ‘control’) play a role, it is not clear which non-pecuniary factors are particularly important or persistent, or precisely how these factors affect trust (Bohnet and Zeckhauser 2004, Cox 2004, Ashraf et al. 2006, Bohnet et al. 2008, Butler and Miller 2015, Bolton et al. 2016).
Furthermore, while common sense dictates one determinant of trust must be trust beliefs, even less is known about what shapes these beliefs or their relationship, if any, with trusting behaviour.
Moral Determinants of Trust and Trust Beliefs
Our research is beginning to fill this gap. We use experimental evidence from the so-called ‘trust game’ to shed light on the determinants of trust and trust beliefs. In this game, one person (the ‘sender’) sends money to another person (the ‘receiver’). The amount is increased when the receiver gets it. In turn, the receiver can return all, some or none to the sender. Because receivers are unconstrained in their decisions, senders’ choices can plausibly be interpreted as trusting behaviour.
Our results shed light on how, and to what extent, moral concerns drive trust. Building on previous research that found scope for non-pecuniary concerns, in Butler et al. (2016a) we elicit participants’ subjective, individual notions of what constitutes ‘cheating’ in the context of a trust game experiment, and relate this to their behaviour in the same game.
We find a large direct impact of moral concerns. While expected monetary returns play a large role in senders’ decisions to trust, we estimate that the likelihood of ending up feeling cheated also significantly influences trusting behaviour. Surprisingly, the influence of moral concerns on how much individuals trust is comparable in magnitude to risk aversion, a more widely acknowledged determinant of this trust/investment decision.
Notions of Cheating
Having documented that moral considerations are an important direct determinant of trust, we also found indirect channels through which moral concerns may affect trusting behaviour. One such channel operates through senders’ trust beliefs. We found that receivers try to not leave their (anonymous) co-players feeling cheated. Since there is no consensus on what cheating entails – we find wide variation in definitions of cheating, the patterns of which are interesting in their own right – this requires receivers to guess what senders would consider to be ‘cheating’.
How do they guess? Our evidence suggests that receivers’ belief in what the senders would consider as cheating is strongly correlated with how receivers themselves define cheating. This is a pattern consistent with the psychological phenomenon of ‘false consensus’ (Ross et al. 1977) in which we tend to think that others are like us.
Astoundingly, we find that senders apparently anticipate this thought process. We uncover a strong positive relationship between senders’ own cheating definitions and how much money senders believe receivers will return to them.
Since moral considerations, as manifested by subjective cheating definitions, play a strong direct and indirect role in trusting behaviour, the obvious question arises: where do these definitions come from? Our study suggests that cheating notions are affected by values instilled by parents. We surveyed participants about the values their parents taught them during their upbringing, and classified the list into two categories: Pro-social values, such as altruism and cooperation Pro-competitive values, such as striving to be better than others
We find that pro-competitive values are strongly associated with higher cheating definitions – that is, needing higher monetary returns in order to not feel cheated – while pro-social values substantially relax, or lower, cheating definitions.
Real-World Implications of Experimental Findings
Are there any real-world implications for these experimental findings about trust? If trust beliefs drive trust behaviour, trust behaviour is important for economic success. Moreover, if some individuals hold persistently mistaken trust beliefs, then these mistaken beliefs may create substantial economic losses.
The relationship between parentally instilled values and, ultimately, trust beliefs may be one source of persistently mistaken beliefs. A reduced-form channel may be false consensus. For instance, trustworthy individuals may believe that others are more trustworthy than they actually are – and, to the extent that false consensus operates on a subconscious level, its distorting effect on beliefs may not be eradicated by evidence.
Consistent with either of these channels, in related research we document substantial economic losses at the individual level associated with mistaken trust beliefs in large-scale survey data (Butler et al. 2016b). The income losses we can attribute to mistaken trust beliefs are in the same order of magnitude as those associated with not going to college. We replicate this relationship between mistaken trust beliefs and earnings losses in an experimental trust game, where we also find a substantial role for parentally instilled values, and false consensus in shaping trust beliefs (Butler et al. 2015).
Economists have singled out trust as an important phenomenon at the individual level, and for society as a whole. This raises natural questions about the determinants of trust. We knew already that decisions about whom and how much to trust are partly based on pecuniary considerations, but that there is a substantial and varied role for moral considerations. The interplay between trust, trust beliefs, instilled values, and automatic psychological process such as false consensus may be a particularly fruitful area for more research.
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About 7, 000 years ago, gentoo penguins first came to Ardley Island in the South Shetlands chain just off the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is a little over a mile long, almost small enough for a classic castaway cartoon, except that it is the Antarctic. And instead of a lone palm tree, there are now about 5, 000 breeding pairs of gentoo penguins, one of the largest colonies in the Antarctic, and a lot of guano (penguin excrement) much of which is washed into the freshwater Ardley Lake, where it accumulates in the sediment. In that guano, scientists have found the record of a recurring natural historical drama. Three times since the gentoos arrived on Ardley, the colony was devastated by volcanic eruptions. The ash and smoke killed them or drove them away. Penguins gather in colonies to breed, so there may well have been chicks caught in the ash fall even if adults escaped. The landscape the eruptions left cannot have been hospitable, because each time it took 400 to 800 years for a colony of similar size to . That is the story, reported Tuesday in Nature Communications, that Stephen J. Roberts of the British Antarctic Survey, Patrick Monien of Bremen University in Germany and other scientists from Poland, Scotland and England teased out of lake sediments that show, in the rise and fall of guano concentration, the rise and fall of the penguin colony. Dr. Roberts said the team of scientists did not set out to study guano. Rather, their interest was in evidence of historical changes in climate and sea level. But something about the sediment samples drilled from the bottom of Ardley Lake prompted them to take a different approach this time. The samples were a bit ripe. “When we opened them up they smelt differently,” he said. The team could see the ash from volcanic deposits and penguin bones, and began to compile information on the ash layers, biochemical analysis of the guano and similar samples from a lake whose shores did not have a penguin colony nearby. They estimated penguin population by the percentage of guano in a sediment sample, figuring three ounces of guano per day per penguin, and calculating how much of the colony’s output would flow into the lake. Using a sample to determine the amount of penguin guano flowing into the lake in a given period of time, they could calculate how big the colony was. This showed wide fluctuations in the colony’s size, with the peaks similar to the current numbers. Over all, they did not find any consistent pattern related to climate or sea level. But three times the population crashed — indicating the near extinction of the colony — coinciding with eruptions from the Deception Island volcano, also in the South Shetlands chain. The events do not have broad implications for climate studies, Dr. Roberts said. But they show one case where local events had a far greater effect on the population than global trends. Deception Island is an Antarctic landmark and a destination for tourists. The island is the rim of the volcano’s caldera. It’s a circle in the ocean, with only one entrance to the protected waters inside. Heat from the volcano makes some spots swimmable, and many passengers on Antarctic cruises bring back pictures of themselves in the waters of the island caldera. The scientists estimate that three large eruptions of the Deception Island volcano all but wiped out the penguins on Ardley Island — one 5, 500 to 5, 400 years ago, one 4, 500 to 4, 200 years ago, and the last 3, 200 to 3, 000 years ago. In more recent times, there have been smaller eruptions. The last eruption was in 1970. | 1 |
November 11, 2016 Vice President Biden: Trump will support Israel
American Jews have no reason to be concerned about the future of US-Israel ties after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, outgoing Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday at a World Jewish Congress (WJC) gala dinner in New York City.
Referring to Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, Biden said, “A number of my friends in the [Jewish] community are anxious about what it will mean for America’s commitment to Israel. I stand here to tell you that I have no doubt, none whatsoever, that in the Trump administration there will be no diminution of support as a consequence of this transition. Even if the new administration were inclined to reduce the commitment, which it is not, Congress would never let it happen; the American people would never let it happen.”
Furthermore, Biden told the crowd, “You measure your influence on how well you influence me, presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, senators, congressmen. But your influence on the American community at large has been profound. That’s the ultimate guarantor that every American president, and every transition, will never dare, even if they’re inclined — and the Trump admin is not inclined — to reduce” US support for the Jewish state.
Earlier in his remarks — given at an event at which he received the WJC’s Theodor Herzl award for his “contributions to the well-being of Israel and the Jewish people” — Biden equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. | 0 |
BY ROBERT SPENCER
“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
How is this not treason?
“Iran to Add U.S.-Made Aircraft to Its War Fleet: Obama admin paves way for Tehran to rebuild its air force,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon , October 24, 2016:
The Obama administration is forging a pathway for Iran to purchase American-made airliners that are likely to be converted for use in the Islamic Republic’s military, drawing concerns on Capitol Hill amid a flurry of recent attacks by Iranian-backed forces on U.S. military assets in the Middle East, according to conversations with lawmakers and fleet information obtained by the Washington Free Beacon .
Iran recently announced that it had struck deals with the U.S. Boeing airline manufacturer and France’s AirBus that would permit the companies to transfer technology and provide training to help the Islamic Republic produce equipment that would strengthen its aging fleet of American-made planes.
Iran currently uses at least six Boeing aircraft as part of its air force fleet. These planes were put on display last week when Iran launched a series of war drills aimed at deterring Western attacks.
As Iran angles to purchase 80 new jets from Boeing, which has lobbied heavily in favor of these sales, the Obama administration is being accused of helping to pave the way for Iran to transfer these commercial liners for use in its war fleet, according to lawmakers and sources familiar with Iran’s military buildup.
Iran has a history of transferring commercial jets purchased from America to its air force for use in military operations and the transfer of weapons and other illicit material abroad.
Lawmakers worry that the White House’s efforts to facilitate new airliner sales to Iran Air, the country’s national airline, will help Tehran bolster its war fleet at a time when it is threatening military action
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Here’s a question that separates a real “Harry Potter” fan from the rest of the muggles who think this is all just a bunch of wizarding gibberish: Is your Patronus a Siberian cat, a heron or a basset hound? The patronus charm, a cross between a spirit animal and a charm, is one of the many bits of “Harry Potter” lore that fans continue to debate and celebrate nearly two decades after the first book was published. This has given J. K. Rowling, the boy wizard’s creator, plenty of time to turn her wizarding world into a finely tuned marketing machine. On Thursday, that machine delivered what it called the “only authentic Patronus experience,” allowing visitors to Ms. Rowling’s definitive fan site, Pottermore, to take a quiz and see what theirs would be. The test, produced with 3D animation and written by Ms. Rowling herself, quickly excited fans online, who used the social media incantation #ExpectoPatronum to share their results. Twitter erupted into a menagerie full of dolphins, polecats, aardvarks and Irish wolfhounds. Some very fans played along. (There’s no way of knowing how many possible patronuses are out in the wizarding world. This writer’s patronus is a basset hound. The editor’s is a Siberian cat. Ms. Rowling’s is a heron.) Ms. Rowling and her employees at Pottermore hinted at this with some mysterious viral marketing. A day earlier, Potterheads were frantic over a mysterious tweet sent by Pottermore that showed a completely dark image, followed by images of a dark forest. But Potter obsessives are hard to fool: Most fans guessed what was happening right away. | 1 |
Economics has a foundation in hard numbers — employment, inflation, spending — that has largely allowed it to sidestep the competing partisan narratives that have afflicted American politics and culture. But not anymore. Since Donald J. Trump’s victory in November, consumer sentiment has diverged in an unprecedented way, with Republicans convinced that a boom is at hand, and Democrats foreseeing an imminent recession. “We’ve never recorded this before,” said Richard Curtin, who directs the University of Michigan’s monthly survey of consumer sentiment. Although the outlook has occasionally varied by political party since the survey began in 1946, “the partisan divide has never had as large an impact on consumers’ economic expectations,” he said. At the same time, familiar economic data points have become Rorschach tests. That was evident after the government’s monthly jobs report on Friday Republicans’ talking points centered on a low in the unemployment rate, while Democrats focused on a sharp decline in job creation. “I find it stunning, to be honest. It’s unreal,” said Michael R. Strain, director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “Things that were less politicized in the past, like how you feel about the economy, have become more politicized now. ” Indeed, the views underscore yet another front on which Americans remain polarized five months after the election, and with President Trump nearing his 100th day in office. There are some tangible reasons for the split. Many Republican states, including the Midwestern swing states that provided Mr. Trump’s margin of victory, have experienced a more sluggish recovery over the last eight years — and are thus more invested in the change promised by Mr. Trump. Many Democratic states have bounced back more vigorously. Hence their political and economic viewpoints were jolted by November’s election result. For example, Vermont, Colorado and Massachusetts — all carried by the Democrats — are thriving, with an unemployment rate below 4 percent. In Republican strongholds like Alaska, Georgia and Alabama, the rate is well above the national average of 4. 5 percent. Republicans aren’t the only ones who are feeling more upbeat, whether or not it’s justified by the data. Sentiment among business leaders who backed Mr. Trump has also surged since the election. David Congdon, chief executive of Old Dominion Freight Line, the trucking giant, never expected Mr. Trump to win when he voted for him in November. “I fell out of bed when I got up in the morning on Nov. 9,” he admitted. “I didn’t quite know what I was voting for. ” But despite misfires in Washington like the failed attempt to roll back President Barack Obama’s health care policies, Mr. Congdon is definitely feeling more positive. “Trump’s got a hard road ahead of him, but I think he’s off to a decent start,” said Mr. Congdon, who recently joined other transportation executives for a meeting with Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. “I’m personally optimistic about the economy for the rest of the year, and I think we will see an uptick in terms of freight deliveries,” he said. “We have picked up our hiring. ” Economists, too, find their outlook shifting with the political landscape. Before the election, Heather Boushey, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton during the campaign, thought “the economy was on the right track, with slow and steady growth like we’ve had over the past few years. ” Now she is much more pessimistic, especially about the economy’s prospects. Although she is pleased that the Affordable Care Act survived Republican efforts to repeal it, the gridlock has led her to believe that Mr. Trump will never get a big infrastructure spending package through Congress. “I am losing hope that we will make those investments over the next few years,” said Ms. Boushey, executive director of the liberal Center for Equitable Growth. The University of Michigan researchers have their own way of measuring the gulf between the two viewpoints and how quickly it has flipped. Among Republicans, the Michigan consumer expectations index was at 61. 1 in October, the kind of reading typically reported in the depths of a recession. Confident that Mrs. Clinton would win, Democrats registered a 95. 4 reading, close to the highs reached when her husband was in office in the late 1990s and the economy was soaring. By March, the positions were reversed, with an even more extreme split. Republicans’ expectations had soared to 122. 5, equivalent to levels registered in boom times. As for Democrats, they were even more pessimistic than Republicans had been in October. As at the voting booth, the split in perceptions could have consequences. If behavior tracks the sentiment among Democrats, who account for 32 percent of respondents in the survey, prophecies could quickly become by affecting spending and investing decisions. “If of the population cut their consumer spending by 5 percent, you get a recession,” said Alan Blinder, a Princeton economist who served in the Clinton administration and advised Al Gore and Hillary Clinton on economic policy during their Democratic presidential campaigns. “I don’t think it will happen, but it’s not beyond the realm of the possible. ” To be sure, even if Democratic consumers pulled back, that wouldn’t necessarily bring on a recession. A burst of spending by bullish Republicans, who equal 27 percent of those polled by the Michigan researchers, could counteract much of that drag. And independents, who are the largest cohort in the survey, at 41 percent, remain fairly optimistic about future growth. It is rare for “rising optimism to coexist with increasing uncertainty,” said Mr. Curtin, the Michigan expert. “The current level of optimism clearly indicates that no economywide spending retrenchment is underway, but the prevailing level of uncertainty will limit growth in discretionary spending. ” Lawrence H. Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and was Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser during his first term, said he, too, was struck by the big swing in economic sentiment. “It is a remarkably big switch from October,” he said. “If you are a Democrat, you are primed for negativity. It carries through in your view of everything else. ” A prominent Democrat himself and a strong Hillary Clinton backer, Mr. Summers is nonetheless slightly more optimistic than he was late last year, because the data on housing starts and business investment intentions has been positive, not because of the new administration’s policies. Whether the optimists or pessimists prove more prescient about the economy’s trajectory, Mr. Summers said, the split in perceptions will persist. “I’d bet there will be some minor convergence,” he said, “but there will still be a large divergence on what should be a matter of objective reality. ” | 1 |
Tuesday evening in Los Angeles at the Democratic Club, while discussing President Donald Trump’s budget, Rep. Maxine Waters ( ) said she hoped Trump is impeached so he cannot build a wall on the U. S. border. Waters said, “We are in church you all. We have got to do what God would have us do. And I believe we are the kind of people that would do that. So I’m hoping and praying the wall will never be built and if we impeach him we know it is not going to get built. ” ( WFB) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Online voting to choose San Diego’s Major League Soccer (MLS) team currently shows “Footy McFooty Face” leading other possible names by a wide margin. [By Saturday morning, “Footy McFooty Face” had 5, 229 votes, well over four times as many as of the other possible names. According to 10 News, the other names include “San Diego Bad Hombres,” “San Diego Surf,” “Mission San Diego FC,” “San Diego Football Club (SDFC),” and “San Diego Armada. ” Votes can be cast on SoccerCity SD’s Facebook page. There is precedent for Internet voting to go awry in these kinds of situations. For example, in March 2016 the British government decided to let people vote online to name a $287 million “polar research ship. ” The New York Times reports that people “quickly disregarded the more dignified names suggested by the Natural Environment Research Council,” opting instead for “R. R. S. Boaty McBoatface. ” The Huffington Post reports that Mountain Dew asked internet voters to “Dub the Dew” by choosing a name for a new flavor in 2014. The voting was “hijacked” by 4Chan, and the names with the most votes were “‘Hitler Did Nothing Wrong,’ ‘Diabeetus’ [and] ‘Moist Nugget. ’” The voting to name San Diego’s MLS team ends March 31. SoccerCity SD has not said whether it will use “Footy McFooty Face,” if in fact that name wins the internet poll. Ultimately, the British government decided to name the research vessel the RRS Sir David Attenborough, after a popular host of nature programs. It named a submersible research vehicle Boaty McBoatface instead, in a mild tribute to the results of the original popular vote. 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 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — For 38 straight days, the streets of the northwestern Syrian town of Maarat had been the scene of protests against the government and the Islamic extremists of the Nusra Front. On Tuesday, they became a scene of carnage, as government warplanes attacked the town’s marketplace, killing dozens of people, according to residents and rescue workers. The attack confirmed the apparent unraveling of a fragile agreement between Syrian government forces and some armed opposition groups. The attack in Maarat and a similar one in the nearby town of Kafr Nabl, came several days after the start of a new insurgent offensive in a neighboring province, and a day after the main Syrian opposition group said it would no longer participate in diplomatic discussions in Geneva. The opposition has accused the government of repeatedly violating the partial and Tuesday’s attacks were seen as a violent end to the relative respite from airstrikes that had lasted nearly two months. Some residents in Maarat 68 miles north of Homs, and in other towns in Syria that had been afforded a modicum of free space, had resumed the street protests that began the uprising against President Bashar more than five years ago. The recent protests have signaled residents’ opposition to the government that has been bombing them and their distaste for extremists fighting among the rebel groups. As Syrians at home have again raised their voices in protest, insurgent groups have been pressing representatives of the opposition to take a harder line in talks in Geneva, which have produced little progress. The bombings Tuesday were, for many in Syria, the last straw. “We consider it the end of the truce, but we will keep demonstrating,” Anas an antigovernment activist, said by phone from Maarat . As the partial and the political talks crumbled, the goals set out by the United Nations mediator, Staffan de Mistura, and the chief international sponsors of the talks, the United States and Russia, have dissipated. Aid workers have managed to visit some areas of Syria, but most of the besieged areas have received little of the help they desperately need. The government has continued to remove medical supplies, including nutrition kits to help save people from starvation, from shipments to areas it has under siege, aid officials said. Hopes for an exchange of prisoners have gone unfulfilled. The government has not agreed to discuss a political transition, while the opposition has refused any resolution that would allow Mr. Assad to remain in office, citing the protocols governing the Geneva talks, which call for the establishment of a transitional governing body with full executive powers. Riad Hijab, the head of the High Negotiations Committee representing Syrian opposition groups in Geneva, said Tuesday that his delegation would not participate in “a political process which prolongs the life of this regime. ” The opposition’s decision to pull out of talks in Geneva could be viewed as a win for Russia, Mr. Assad’s chief international backer, which can blame the rebels for the collapse of the talks while continuing the parallel talks it has organized on its own military base in Syria with officially tolerated opposition figures. The breakdown of political negotiations could also be awkward for Saudi Arabia, the main sponsor of the Syrian opposition, as President Obama prepares to visit the Saudi capital this week. Negotiators said the bombings underscored their view that the government was not interested in seeing the talks succeed. “Our decision to postpone our participation in the Geneva talks was taken to highlight the cynicism of the regime in pretending to negotiate while escalating the violence,” Salem the spokesman for the negotiations committee, said in a statement. “This attack is Assad’s response. The world must not ignore this challenge. ” Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesman in New York, said Tuesday that there had been “an uptick in violence” and that aid agencies had not had satisfactory access to civilians trapped in besieged areas. “We’ve seen an increase in our ability to deliver humanitarian aid,” he said, adding that access was insufficient. “Obviously we need to see less violence and more humanitarian access. ” Videos and photographs that were posted online by residents and rescue workers in Maarat and Kafr Nabl showed bodies, including some children, strewn about the twisted metal and spilled vegetables of marketplaces. More than 40 people were killed in Maarat and several more in Kafr Nabl, a town known for its witty protest banners and cartoons. The partial that appears all but finished did not cover the Nusra Front or militants of the Islamic State, and the government has reserved the right to attack insurgent groups that cooperate with them. In Maarat rebels had recently clashed with Nusra Front fighters, igniting the protests. | 1 |
Drugs approved in recent years that can cure hepatitis C may have severe side effects, including liver failure, a new report suggests. The number of adverse events appears relatively small, and the findings are not conclusive. But experts said the report was a warning that should not be ignored. It involves nine widely used antiviral drugs that were heralded as a huge advance because they greatly increased cure rates, seemingly with few side effects. The report will be published online on Wednesday by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a nonprofit in Horsham, Pa. that studies drug safety. Its findings are based on the group’s analysis of the Food and Drug Administration’s database of reports from doctors around the world of adverse events that might be related to medications. Dr. Robert S. Brown, the director of the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at at Columbia and Weill Cornell, who was not involved in the study, said that there had been other, scattered accounts of problems with the new drugs and that they should be investigated further. “We don’t want people to ignore it and lead to risks to patients,” he said. “We don’t want people to overreact and not treat patients who should be treated. A lot of doctors are unclear about it, and if doctors are unclear, patients are, too. ” Dr. Brown added that problems might arise from some doctors’ prescribing incorrectly, giving the drugs to patients with liver function too poor to tolerate them or benefit from them. Hepatitis C is an enormous public health problem. Caused by a virus, it leads to chronic liver disease in most people who contract it, and some eventually develop cirrhosis and liver cancer. In the United States, an estimated 2. 7 million to 3. 9 million people have chronic hepatitis C, at least 20, 000 a year die from it and it is the leading cause of liver transplants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Globally, the World Health Organization reports 130 million to 150 million current chronic cases, and 700, 000 deaths per year. The virus is and the most common source of infection is among people who use illicit drugs. In the United States before 1992, when a test became available to screen donated blood, many cases were caused by transfusions. In countries where the blood supply is not screened, transfusions still pose a risk. Needlestick injuries and other hospital accidents may also cause some cases. There is no vaccine to prevent the infection, so treatments have long been eagerly sought. The drugs covered in the new report include two blockbusters, Sovaldi and Harvoni, both made by Gilead Sciences and priced at $1, 000 a pill, with billions of dollars in sales. Sovaldi was approved in 2013, and Harvoni in 2014. These drugs and other antivirals can cure the disease in 12 weeks in many patients. Earlier drugs were less effective, had to be taken for much longer and had harsh side effects that left many patients unable to finish the course of therapy. About 250, 000 people took the newer drugs in 2015, the report said, at tremendous expense: $55, 000 to $125, 000 per patient. In those treated during the year ending June 30, 2016, the report identified 524 with liver failure, 165 of whom died. Of those with liver failure, 386 were from outside the United States. An additional 1, 058 had severe liver injury, and in 761 the drugs appeared not to work. But whether the drugs were to blame is not known. The problems were observed by doctors who suspected drugs were the cause, but that does not prove cause and effect. And details about the patients’ medical histories were not available. A spokesman for Gilead, Mark Snyder, wrote in an email, “We closely assess both safety reports as well as safety data from our clinical trials on an ongoing basis and have found no suggestion of a causal relationship between Sovaldi or Harvoni and liver failure. ” He added that Gilead’s drugs had been approved for people with severe liver disease from hepatitis C, and that some would inevitably suffer liver failure despite the best treatment. The F. D. A. received a copy of the report, but declined to discuss it. A spokeswoman, Theresa Eisenman, wrote in an email, “The F. D. A. does not typically comment on specific studies, but evaluates them as part of the body of evidence to further our understanding about a particular issue and assist in our mission to protect public health. ” For all types of drugs, the agency received nearly 300, 000 new reports of adverse events during the second quarter of 2016, from the United States and other countries. Most of the events were described by doctors and other health professionals. Because reporting is voluntary for doctors, researchers generally suspect that many problems go unreported and that the real number is higher. In October, the F. D. A. identified the first major safety problem caused by the nine antiviral drugs. In 24 patients, the drugs wiped out hepatitis C — but also reactivated hepatitis B infections that had been dormant. Two of those patients died, and one needed a liver transplant. The agency said there were probably additional cases that had not been reported. As a result, the agency required that a boxed warning, its most prominent advisory, be added to the labeling of the newer antivirals, telling doctors to screen and monitor for hepatitis B in all patients taking the drugs for hepatitis C. Infection with both viruses is not common, and how the reactivation occurs is not known. The problem was not detected during premarket testing of the drugs because patients who currently had hepatitis B or who had a history of it were not allowed into the studies. With testing and the right treatment, Dr. Brown said, hepatitis B reactivation should be completely preventable. The other cases of liver failure are a separate problem. He said it was important for doctors prescribing the newer drugs to test patients’ liver function thoroughly first, because liver disease can be deceptive, and people who look well may actually be on the brink of liver failure and therefore not candidates for the drugs. Thomas J. Moore, a senior scientist at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and an author of the report, said the study reflected a larger question about the drug approval process. Approval for the newer hepatitis C drugs was expedited because better treatments were so badly needed. But does the rush to market come at a price? “Gosh, here is something that really qualifies as a breakthrough, and we have policies to get it into use as quickly as possible, which means we know less about it,” Mr. Moore said. “Benefits and side effects evolve over the long term, not over 12 weeks. ” | 1 |
Police Officers discovered a prostitution ring in a massage parlor after a sewer line became clogged with condoms. [The massage parlor in Northwest Austin was discovered to be a prostitution ring after a sewer pipe at the business was destroyed by hundreds of condoms, according to the Austin . A realty company had recently taken over the property, located in a shopping center, where the prostitution ring was doing business as Jade Massage Therapy LLC. Police were about the prostitution ring in early February when, according to an affidavit, several tenants became worried that illicit activities were occurring after an industrial disposal unit connected to the City’s sewer line was clogged with hundreds of condoms. The clogged line was not the only piece of evidence that led investigators to uncovering the ring allegedly owned by a woman named Juan Wang and her husband, Joseph Emery. Two days prior to receiving the tip, Wang was reportedly stopped by security at International Airport after she was discovered carrying $30, 000 in cash. Wang reportedly told police that the money was for a medical procedure she had been saving for in China. Wang allegedly claimed that she only made $20, 000 a year at Jade Massage. When the police pointed out to her that she was carrying 18 months of income, she reportedly became visibly nervous. She gave the police a contact phone number to reach her at and then boarded her flight to China. When police investigated the phone number, they reportedly discovered it was linked to a Backpage. com account that had for “sexual services” at her business. Police were able to obtain a search warrant based off the evidence gathered and executed it on March 22. Investigators found reportedly Wang with a naked man and another nude couple in a separate room. They also found more than $65, 000 in a safe at Wang and Emery’s home, according to the local paper. Investigators claimed that 12 women worked at Jade Massage lived with Wang and Emery at their home. Police found records of the names with hundreds of receipts with excessive tips paid. Wang and Emery have not yet been placed in custody as of Tuesday, but they face charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and money laundering. Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra. | 1 |
Posted on October 26, 2016 by Edmondo Burr in News , UK // 0 Comments In a show of force against Russia, the UK is sending 800 soldiers with tanks and drones to take up a “serious military presence” near Russia’s western border with Estonia.
It comes just days after Russian ships sailed through the English Channel testing British defences on their way to the Mediterranean for possible offensive operations in Syria.
International tensions are mounting as communications between America and Russia over their operations in Syria break down.
The Daily Express report:
British soldiers will travel to Estonia in what is one of the biggest build-ups of foreign firepower on Russia’s border since the Cold War.
The move will take place next spring, with Denmark and France also taking part in the huge military exercise.
The project was revealed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, who said the UK’s forces will be “fully combat-capable”.
He said: “That battalion will be defensive in nature, but it will be fully combat-capable.
“This is about two things: reassurance, and that needs to be done with some formidable presence, and deterrence.
“This is not simply a trip-wire. This is a serious military presence.”
Cold War-style tensions between Moscow and Washington took a further dip this week after the US revealed plans to station marines in Norway – just a few hundred miles from the border with Russia.
Officials in Norway and the US said they were considering a deal for extra equipment and training for the Scandinavian country.
Russia has reacted angrily to the plans, saying there was “the absence of threat from Russia to Norway”.
Mr Putin made a similar show of force last month, when he orchestrated a military evacuation drill including a staggering 40 million people.
The huge four-day “civil defence” drill set alarm bells ringing in Washington and London, with tensions already high over disagreements in Syria.
Russia’s Ministry for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disaster revealed 40 million civilians, 200,000 emergency rescuers and 50,000 units of equipment were involved in the war game, which ran from October 4 to October 7.
And last month two RAF jets were scrambled to intercept Russian bombers which had flown threateningly close to British airspace.
While the two Russian Blackjack bombers did not enter British airspace, authorities were alarmed when they passed to the west of the Shetland Islands.
The Ministry of Defence revealed jets from RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Coningsby were eventually launched as a “precautionary measure”.
The Russian planes, which had travelled from the direction of Norway, then continued their route away from Britain.
A similar incident occurred again last, when the RAF were twice forced to scramble jets to intercept Russian bombers.
Putin’s aircrafts flew in an “area of interest” off the coast of Scotland on October 12 and October 16, the MoD revealed. This latest development comes amid a massive break-down in communication between America and Russia over their operations in Syria.
A spokesman for the US State Department said earlier this month: “Extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria to expand their operations.
A spokesman for the US State Department said earlier this month: “Extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria to expand their operations.
“This could include attacks against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities.
“Russia will continue to send troops home in body bags, and will continue to lose resources, perhaps even aircraft.” | 0 |
The Jerusalem Post reports: With surveys showing “lots of Swedish Jews are afraid of showing their Jewishness,” Stockholm has stepped up efforts to teach about the Holocaust as a means of fighting against antisemitism, the director of a program targeting the issue said. [“The Swedish government is investing a lot of money to combat the phenomenon of antisemitism and Islamophobia,” Ingrid Lomfors, director of the Living History Forum in Sweden added, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post this past week. The Forum is a public authority established by Sweden some 15 years ago with the aim of “promoting democracy, tolerance and human rights using the Holocaust as a starting point. ” In November the government announced an additional 156 million Krona (NIS 65 million) stipend to develop a new national program for Holocaust remembrance, with the aim of combating antisemitism and racism. Read more here. | 1 |
MEXICO CITY — For more than two decades, free trade has been at the heart of Mexico’s relationship with America, responsible for pumping a stream of vehicles, audio components and avocados north and cheap corn, cattle and software south. To the nation’s leaders, it was central, vital, nonnegotiable. At least until President Trump came along, promising to upend nearly $500 billion in annual trade between the two countries if it could not be more in America’s favor. Now, the Mexico’s leaders have a new priority: urging their American counterparts to hurry up and get on with it. While free trade has long been an article of faith in Mexico, uncertainty over the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement is hitting the country hard. There has been an abrupt slowdown in foreign investment, pinching off capital as investors wait to see how things shake out. Last year, such investment fell by 6 percent, a prelude to what analysts have predicted will be a 21 percent drop in 2017. Add to that a fluttering peso, lowered growth expectations, rising interest rates and looming political headwinds, and the urgency becomes clear. Mexico, and its investors, need certainty. For the moment, the Americans are not giving it to them, and don’t seem in a rush to do so. This month, Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross said it would be later in the year before real talks even started — after a mandatory consultation period with Congress, which has yet to start. The delay has irked the Mexicans, who didn’t want to renegotiate the pact in the first place. “From the Trump and American perspective, this is purely an optional problem,” said Michael Camuñez, the president of ManattJones Global Strategies and an assistant secretary of commerce in the Obama administration. “They have taken one of the most productive trade relationships in the world and amazingly have turned it into a problem. ” Driving the pressure is an especially delicate political environment in Mexico. President Enrique Peña Nieto’s approval ratings are near single digits, and further delays in clarifying the future of Nafta could imperil not only growth, but also employment at a time when the government can least afford to lose support. Adding to the uncertainty are midterm elections in the State of Mexico, the country’s most populous, from which the president hails. The state, a longtime center of power for Mr. Peña Nieto and his party, will hold elections on June 4, and it is far from clear that his party will win. A loss would be a devastating blow to the party, which has never lost there before, and would spell trouble in the 2018 presidential elections. Which presents yet another paradox: The longer the Americans wait on Nafta negotiations, the more political pressure it places on Mr. Peña Nieto, reducing the flexibility he has to accommodate demands, or surprises, from Mr. Trump’s team. For instance, if job losses begin to mount within the next six months, as some economists predict, the public pressure on the president may be so immense he could have a much harder time selling a revised agreement to Congress and Mexicans at large. “The longer we wait, the harder it is going to be for Trump to get what he wants because the nationalist pressure on Peña Nieto will be cumulative,” said Pamela Starr, an associate professor of international relations at the University of Southern California. “The longer he is in the presidency, from today forward, the more of a lame duck he is. ” All of this means that the leverage Mr. Trump is looking for could start to diminish. Already, the Mexican government has grown more stridently critical of the Trump administration’s stance on Nafta. The Mexican economic minister has said the nation will walk away from any deal that does not suit the country’s needs, and even proffered a list of : any sort of discussion of paying for a border wall, taxing remittances or carrying out a border adjustment tax. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that dealing with Nafta, a campaign priority for Mr. Trump, has suddenly taken a back seat to more pressing battles. And Mexicans have taken note. “It is clear that Trump’s priority right now in terms of his agenda is to try to pass Trumpcare, and we know how long that takes,” said Carlos Elizondo, a professor at the School of Government at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. “The outcome of that debate and process in the U. S. Congress will undoubtedly affect every other item on his list, including, of course, Nafta. ” That could be a saving grace. Those reading the tea leaves of an eventual negotiation are hopeful that with Mr. Trump distracted, administration officials, including Mr. Ross, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and others will take control of the talks. Both men have run global businesses in complex industries, and many here hope that will give them a more nuanced view of trade. An evolving belief in the realm of business people, academics and even officials is that members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet will understand the importance of Nafta, and move to preserve and expand it — not tear it apart. “When you know the kind of value chain that we have, you understand that it is a very difficult world to destroy, almost impossible,” said Juan Pablo del Valle Perochena, the chief executive of Mexichem, a Mexican chemical and building materials manufacturer. “There is so much at stake, of course, more for Mexico than the U. S. but there is a lot of value already in place. And when people understand that, they don’t worry so much. ” Still, the uncertainty has had a clear impact on the Mexican economy. The peso dropped by percentages after Mr. Trump’s election, forcing the central bank of Mexico to raise interest rates in February to an high to anchor inflation and bolster the currency, which has since rebounded. Expecting further pressure from the tense relationship with the United States, economists from an array of institutions have revised downward the expected 2017 growth for Mexico. Bancomer, a Mexican bank, for instance, revised its growth expectations for the Mexican economy to 1. 0 percent for the year. Delays that might bleed into 2018 will place negotiations in the middle of a presidential election year in Mexico. Indeed, some analysts suggest that Mr. Peña Nieto could kick the decision to his successor if negotiations go on too long. That, according to some, could be disastrous for those hoping to preserve Nafta. The leading candidate, for now, is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a populist whose candidacy has been given a major boost by the election of Mr. Trump. Mr. López Obrador, a candidate who nearly won the election in 2006, has promised to end a relationship of “subordination” to the United States, while focusing on domestic issues. It is unlikely that Mr. López Obrador will take as conciliatory a line in negotiations as the current administration. “The temptation to simply delay the negotiation until it becomes the next president’s problem is real,” Mr. Elizondo said. | 1 |
A proper foreign policy should be neither rash nor cowardly. It should be based on geopolitical facts, not emotions. And it should be consistent with the nation’s guiding principles, as well as internally consistent – meaning that the components of the foreign policy don’t conflict with each other.
Via TruthAndAction
It should be affordable, and recognize the nation’s strengths and weaknesses. None of this requires a genius to figure out. In other words, a proper foreign policy is exactly what we do not have in the United States. It’s difficult to imagine a more stupid foreign policy than one of using NATO to provoke Russia.
Scroll Down Below For Video NATO should have been disbanded when the Soviet empire fell. Of course, ending a government program, regardless of how useless or detrimental it is, is all but impossible. The Obama Administration’s foreign policy in Eastern Europe is one of lunacy as NATO and Russia appear to be preparing for war.
Nobody should admire cowardice. But recklessness needs to be condemned as well. When a nation engages others to assist it in taking rash and provocative actions, it needs to be called out for the danger it is. The military buildup in Eastern Europe, largely sponsored by the Obama Administration, supported by Hillary Clinton, and conducted through NATO, has the potential to trigger the unthinkable.
A key Russian defence figure says the deployment of US Marines at Værnes is part of a US buildup to go on a “global blitz” and warned that Norway may make itself a target for a potential nuclear attack. Frants Klintsevitsj, a deputy chairman of Russia’s defence and security committee, told TV2 that Russia views the presence of 330 Marines in Norway as a direct military threat that demands a reaction. Klintsevitsj, considered one of Russia’s most influential defence politicians, said that Norway may now be added to “the list of targets for our strategic weapons”. Frants Klintsevitsj, a deputy chairman of Russia’s defence and security committee, told TV2 that Russia views the presence of 330 Marines in Norway as a direct military threat that demands a reaction.
Klintsevitsj, considered one of Russia’s most influential defence politicians, said that Norway may now be added to “the list of targets for our strategic weapons”.
“This is very dangerous for Norway and Norwegians,” he said.
Apparently Norway’s Defense Minister isn’t too concerned about all of this. He should be.
Russia has on several occasions criticized the plans to deploy 330 US troops at Værnes. Norway’s defence minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, has rejected those criticisms and insisted that the deployment does not constitute a US military base but is rather a test run that will be evaluated during 2017.
“There is no objective reason for the Russians to react to this. But the Russians are reacting at the moment in the same way toward almost everything the Nato countries are doing,” Søreide said.
Now a bit of history to put this into context.
Before joining Nato in 1949, Norway allayed Russian fears by pledging not to open its territory to foreign combat troops so long as Norway was not attacked or threatened with attack.
Something changed.
The perspective of this article may appear to be pro-Russia, but the truth is that the intention is to be neither pro-Russia, nor anti-Russia, but pro-US. It’s difficult to see how an Obama Administration sponsored military build-up on Russia’s western border is pro-US. Using NATO as a cover doesn’t help or give it legitimacy. It just drags other countries into a potential nuclear conflict with Russia. And for what?
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WASHINGTON — More than 30 American service members — including a pregnant woman — have contracted the Zika virus in countries where the disease has been identified, Pentagon officials said on Wednesday. Maj. Ben Sakrisson, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department has been tracking Zika in servicemen and women abroad since January, and that the number had reached 33 this month. Pentagon officials did not identify the countries where the service members had contracted the virus, but said that they had all been previously identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as places where mosquitoes with the disease are present. The Pentagon has informed service members in affected areas to take precautions, Major Sakrisson said, and pregnant women in affected areas are being given the option of relocating. Military personnel in affected areas are advised to use insect repellent and to wear appropriate clothing. The news was first reported on Monday by Military Times. As of July 26, the C. D. C. was reporting active Zika virus transmissions in most of Central and South America with the exception of Chile and Uruguay, as well as in Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, the Marshall Islands, American Samoa and Fiji. The C. D. C. was also reporting active Zika transmissions in Cape Verde, off the coast of Senegal. The Army is working with outside scientists to develop a Zika vaccine, military officials said. Last month a Congressional measure to help fund the Zika response died amid bickering between Democrats and Republicans and despite agreement that the virus, which can cause serious birth defects, is a public health emergency. It failed after House Republicans refused to accept a bipartisan compromise reached in the Senate, and inserted clauses that reignited old disputes over government financing for Planned Parenthood. Last week Florida officials reported the first signs of local transmission of Zika in the continental United States, in a Miami neighborhood. By Monday, federal health officials were urging pregnant women to stay away from the neighborhood, in apparently the first time that the C. D. C. has advised people not to travel to a place in the continental United States. Officials said that the number of Zika cases in Florida caused by local mosquitoes had risen to 14 from four announced last Friday: 12 men and two women. But they maintained that they did not expect the number of cases there to grow into anything like the epidemic that has raged across Latin America in recent months. The Pentagon did not give details about the status of the pregnant woman or her baby. Zika has strained health resources throughout Latin America. The epidemic is now affecting Puerto Rico, with two percent of recent blood donors there reportedly infected, and hundreds of pregnant women testing positive. The disease has been linked to birth defects like microcephaly. As of July 27, 1, 658 cases of Zika in the continental United States and Hawaii have been reported to the C. D. C. with the majority of them contracted through exposure to mosquitoes outside the United States. Representative Ileana Republican of Florida, sent a letter to the C. D. C. on Wednesday signed by the entire Florida congressional delegation saying that Florida needed more funding to fight Zika. “The virus is finally here in our community and and from federal agencies with the power to do more are of little comfort to families throughout our state,” Ms. said in a statement, which also called the $720, 000 of $16 million of new funding allocated to Florida “paltry. ” | 1 |
Robert James Waller, whose gauzy, romantic novel “The Bridges of Madison County” became a runaway best seller on its publication in 1992 and the basis of a popular film, died on Friday at his home in Fredericksburg, Tex. He was 77. The cause was multiple myeloma, his daughter, Rachael Waller, said. The novel came out of the blue. Mr. Waller, on leave from teaching business at the University of Northern Iowa, was shooting pictures with a friend along the Mississippi River in the early 1990s when he decided to make a detour and photograph covered bridges in Madison County, Iowa. He was an enthusiastic guitarist and singer, and years earlier he had written a song about the dreams of a woman named Francesca. An idea stirred. Two weeks later he had completed the manuscript of “The Bridges of Madison County. ” It told the tale of Francesca, a Italian war bride on an Iowa farm whose life takes an unexpected turn when Robert Kincaid, 52, a photographer, stops by one day to ask directions to the Roseman Covered Bridge. She is temporarily alone, her husband and two children away at the state fair. Francesca and Robert discover that they are kindred spirits, athirst for love, and a torrid affair commences. It lasts just four days — but four days unlike any other. “God or the universe or whatever one chooses to label the great systems of balance and order does not recognize ” Kincaid tells her in a letter. “To the universe four days is no different than four billion . ” Many critics found the characters unconvincing, the sentiments sappy and the writing overripe. Kincaid, who called himself “one of the last cowboys,” was fond of delivering statements like “I am the highway and a peregrine and all the sails that ever went to sea. ” Millions of readers, however, found Mr. Waller’s story of reawakened love deeply moving. The Orlando Sentinel spoke for them when it wrote, “This lyrically written first novel is as perfect as a tear — and don’t be surprised if you shed a few upon reading it. ” Oprah Winfrey, who broadcast a special edition of her television show from Madison County, called it “a gift to the country. ” “Bridges” leapt to the top of the lists and stayed there, eventually outselling “Gone With the Wind. ” It took root on The New York Times’s list and remained there for three years, becoming, as Entertainment Weekly put it, “The Book That Would Not Die. ” The film, released in 1995, starred Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood and was directed by Mr. Eastwood. It was also reincarnated as a Broadway musical in 2014, starring Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale. Robert James Waller Jr. was born on Aug. 1, 1939, in Charles City, Iowa, and grew up in nearby Rockford, about 125 miles northeast of Des Moines. His father was a wholesaler and a local magistrate. His mother, the former Ruth Welch, was a homemaker. He won a basketball scholarship to the University of Iowa but transferred in his freshman year to Iowa State Teachers College (renamed the State College of Iowa in 1961). While an undergraduate, he married Georgia Wiedemeier, whom he had met at a dance in Iowa City. The marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Linda Bow, and a granddaughter. Mr. Waller earned a bachelor’s degree in business education in 1962 and a master’s in education in 1964 before pursuing graduate work at Indiana University’s school of business. He was awarded a doctorate of business administration in finance in 1968. His thesis was on the American guitar industry. He returned to his undergraduate alma mater, renamed the University of Northern Iowa in 1967, and taught management and economics there. In 1980 he was appointed dean of its business school. On the side he began writing travel and nature essays for The Des Moines Register’s Sunday edition. These were collected in “Just Beyond the Firelight: Stories and Essays” (1988) and “One Good Road Is Enough” (1990). Fed up with teaching, Mr. Waller took an unpaid leave of absence in 1990 and obtained a $200, 000 grant from the state to study the future of the region. His report, “Iowa: Perspectives on Today and Tomorrow,” was published in 1991. With “Bridges” still riding high, Mr. Waller recorded an album, “The Ballads of Madison County,” and in 10 days wrote his second novel, “Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend,” about the love affair between an economics professor and a colleague’s wife. With a first printing of a million copies, it, too, shot to the top of the lists. Seeking solitude, Mr. Waller moved to a ranch in Alpine, Tex. southeast of El Paso. The high desert country provided the setting for his novels “Puerto Vallarta Squeeze: The Run for el Norte” (1995) and “Border Music” (1995). Both sold well, but not spectacularly. Mr. Waller decided to revisit the scene of his first novel in “A Thousand Country Roads: An Epilogue to The Bridges of Madison County,” published in 2002. It continued the adventures of an older, lonelier Kincaid, who hits the road again and, at one point, finds his way back to territory. In his next novel, “High Plains Tango” (2005) Mr. Waller passed the generational baton to Kincaid’s son, a master carpenter who battles to stop development on the site of an Indian burial ground in South Dakota. Mr. Waller’s last novel, “The Long Night of Winchell Dear” (2006) was a taut, atmospheric thriller about a retired professional poker player and a fateful night at his ranch in the Texas desert. The romantic flame ignited by “The Bridges of Madison County” was slow to die. “I receive letters each week from people who have read it and are moved by the story,” Mr. Waller told Book Page in 2005. “At one time, I received 50 to 100 letters per week. Now it’s more on the order of five. The last I knew, 350 marriage ceremonies had been celebrated at Roseman Bridge. ” | 1 |
We Are Change
One day after Julian Assange officially revealed for the first time that the source of hacked Podesta and DNC emails in Wikileaks’ possession is not Russia, in the second excerpt from the John Pilger Special, to be broadcast by RT on Saturday Julian Assange accuses Hillary Clinton of misleading Americans about the true scope of Islamic State’s support from Washington’s Middle East allies.
As previously reported, in an August 17, 2014 email made public WikiLeaks last month, Hillary Clinton, who had served as secretary of state until the year before, urges John Podesta, then an advisor to Barack Obama, to “bring pressure” on Qatar and Saudi Arabia, “which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIS and other radical Sunni groups.”
“I think this is the most significant email in the whole collection,” Assange, whose whistle-blowing site released three tranches of Clinton-related emails over the past year, told Pilger in the interview.
“All serious analysts know, and even the US government has agreed, that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIS and funding ISIS, but the dodge has always been that it is some “rogue” princes using their oil money to do whatever they like, but actually the government disapproves. But that email says that it is the government of Saudi Arabia, and the government of Qatar that have been funding ISIS.”
As recounted by RT , Assange and Pilger, who sat down for their 25-minute interview at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where the whistleblower has been a refugee since 2012, also talked about the conflict of interest between Clinton’s official post, her husband’s nonprofit, and the Middle East officials, whose stated desire to fight terrorism may not have been sincere.
John Pilger: The Saudis, the Qataris, the Moroccans, the Bahrainis, particularly the first two, are giving all this money to the Clinton Foundation, while Hillary Clinton is secretary of state, and the State Department is approving massive arms sales, particularly Saudi Arabia.
Julian Assange: Under Hillary Clinton – and the Clinton emails reveal a significant discussion of it – the biggest-ever arms deal in the world was made with Saudi Arabia: more than $80 billion. During her tenure, the total arms exports from the US doubled in dollar value.
JP: Of course, the consequence of that is that this notorious jihadist group, called ISIL or ISIS, is created largely with money from people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation?
JA: Yes.
The conversation then turns to the imminent presidential election: Pilger questioned Assange over increasingly frequent accusations from the Clinton camp, and Western media, that WikiLeaks is looking to swing next week’s US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump – perhaps at Russia’s behest.
However, just as he did last week, Assange again dismissed the prospect of Trump, who is almost tied in the polls, winning as unlikely, and not necessarily due to his standing with the electorate.
‘Trump won’t be permitted to win’ “My analysis is that Trump would not be permitted to win. Why do I say that? Because he has had every establishment off his side. Trump does not have one establishment, maybe with the exception of the Evangelicals, if you can call them an establishment,” said Assange. “Banks, intelligence, arms companies, foreign money, etc. are all united behind Hillary Clinton. And the media as well. Media owners, and the journalists themselves.”
JP: The accusations that WikiLeaks is in league with the Russians and you hear people saying, “Well, why doesn’t WikiLeaks investigate and publish emails on Russia?”
JA: We have published over 800,000 documents of various kinds that relate to Russia. Most of those are critical. And… a great many books have come out of our publications about Russia, most of which are critical. And our documents have gone on to be used in quite a number of court cases, refugee cases of people fleeing some kinds of claimed political persecution in Russia, which they use our documents to back up.
JP: Do you take yourself a view of the US election? Do you have a preference for Clinton or Trump?
JA: Donald Trump – what does he represent in the American mind and in the European mind? He represents American “white trash,” deplorable and irredeemable. Basically, the same thing. It means, from a… establishment or educated, cosmopolitan, urbane perspective, these people are, you know, like the rednecks, and you can’t… like, they are just… you can never deal with them. And because he so clearly – through his words and actions and the type of people that turns up at his rallies – represents the people who are not the upper-middle-class-educated, there is a fear of seeming to be associated in any way with that, a social fear that lowers the class status of anyone who can be accused of somehow assisting in any way Trump, including criticizing Clinton. And if you look at how the middle class gains its economic and social power, it makes absolute sense.
He is right, but the same was said about Brexit.
Sources; http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-04/julian-assange-says-trump-wont-be-allowed-win-clinton-and-isis-are-funded-same-money
https://www.rt.com/news/365405-assange-pilger-full-transcript/
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Bob Waldrop, founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City, is calling for a boycott of the 2016 national collection in Catholic churches for the Archdiocese of Military Services, accusing the military bishops of material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war. To facilitate the boycott, he has prepared a half page document that can be printed and placed in the collection plate or offering envelope the weekend of November 5-6, 2016, when the offering is to be collected. A PDF version of the document is available at www.justpeace.org/mscollection.pdf . This has two copies on one page to facilitate distribution.
Text of the boycott call:
I am not giving to the 2016 Archdiocese for Military Services Collection.
The bishops of the Archdiocese for Military Services, together with nearly all of their brother United States Bishops, are guilty of material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war . In 2003, both Pope John Paul II and then Cardinal Ratzinger , who later became Benedict XVI, condemned our attack on Iraq as an unjust war. In spite of the Pope’s opposition, the Most Rev. Edwin O’Brien , then Archbishop for the Military Services advised Catholic members of the US Armed Forces: “Given the complexity of factors involved, many of which understandably remain confidential, it is altogether appropriate for members of our armed forces to presume the integrity of our leadership and its judgments and therefore to carry out their military duties in good conscience.”
Subsequent events have sadly proven the truth, wisdom, and prudence of Pope John Paul II’s judgment, and the fallacy and danger of the moral relativism embraced by the Bishops of the Archdiocese for Military Services and most of the other US Catholic Bishops regarding unjust war. The consequences cascading from our invasion brought death and injury and social dislocation to hundreds of thousands and devastated the historic Christian communities of Iraq and subsequently Syria. It may fairly be said that those who enabled and supported the war on the people of Iraq are "secondary terrorists" in that they created the objective conditions on the ground in the Middle East that are driving the extreme forms of terrorism currently prevalent in the region. Actions have consequences and those who propose the actions must own the consequences.
Therefore, because of these issues, I am not giving to the collection for the Archdiocese of Military Services. Instead, I will donate to an organization working to resolve the problems caused by war.
It is a sad and scandalous day when a people’s religious leaders fail them so egregiously. I promise to pray for the conversion of the Military Services hierarchy and clergy, and for the moral and physical protection of the members of our Armed Services, who are our sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, and children. They deserve religious leaders who will courageously preach and teach all of the Gospel of Christ, not just that which is acceptable to the United States Government.
Text prepared by Bob Waldrop, Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, Oklahoma City. PDF suitable for download and copying is available at www.justpeace.org/mscollection.pdf . Place this document in the collection plate or offering envelope for the Military Services collection the weekend of November 5-6. We invite those responsible for forwarding these offerings to the Military Services Archdiocese to also send any of these documents that parishioners give in lieu of a money donation.
Bob Waldrop is the founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City, which works in food security and for justice and peace. He has consistently opposed all of the United States military adventures since the 1970s when he met Justin Raimondo and Eric Garris tabling for the Libertarian Party at the San Jose Flea Market. He has been a consistent critic of the poor performance of the United States Catholic Bishops on the issues of war and peace since the embargo on the civilian economy of Iraq. His antiwar paper trail is at http://www.justpeace.org/warresponse.htm. He gardens, reads science fiction, and works as a church musician.
Bob Waldrop is the founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City, which works in food security and for justice and peace. He has consistently opposed all of the United States military adventures since the 1970s when he met Justin Raimondo and Eric Garris tabling for the Libertarian Party at the San Jose Flea Market. He has been a consistent critic of the poor performance of the United States Catholic Bishops on the issues of war and peace since the embargo on the civilian economy of Iraq. His anti-war paper trail is at http://www.justpeace.org/warresponse.htm . He gardens, reads science fiction, and works as a church musician.
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November 17, 2016
Kent woke today to scenes of carnage after a giant James May roamed the countryside overnight, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.
Scientists at the Kent Institute of Pharmacology admitted that May, 47, had agreed to take part in a trial of an experimental new drug aimed at getting middle-aged men to ‘just grow up’. Unfortunately the drug had the undesired effect of making him grow to five storeys tall, from which height it is believed that May’s instinct ‘to treat everything like a giant train set’ kicked in.
Whitstable was particularly badly hit when rush hour traffic was swept off the road by May’s huge hands so he could force Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond to race each other in two Robin Reliants made of lego. Eyewitness said he later tried to attach an electricity pylon to Clarkson’s car so he could play scaletrix but grew enraged when the wires tangled in his ample fringe, and threw Clarkson over a hill, before running off in the direction of Ashford.
Despite a body count of 3000 and rising, residents of Kent are urged to remain calm, and to talk about cars as much as possible in the hope of creating a familiar and soothing background noise for the confused beast. They are also urged to protect their homes and vehicles by putting up the posters Oz Clarke being airdropped by the RAF across the county.
Richard Hammond strenuously denied that this is yet another zany Top Gear stunt, claiming that ‘a giant James May wandering around causing mayhem really wouldn’t be that entertaining’. Jeremy Clarkson meanwhile hit back at Kent Council’s objection James May destroying the centre of Canterbury and killing thousands; ‘It’s just another example of the health and safety nanny state gone mad!’
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By John Bart Gerald Global Research, October 26, 2016
On his return from attempting to stop the terrible slaughter of Rwandans there was no official to welcome home Canada’s General Romeo Dallaire. In his recent memoir, Waiting For First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD , (1) Dallaire reveals that his return also began a pattern of suicide attempts, blamed on ptsd, perhaps survivor’s guilt, but which these years later might be traced more accurately to his reluctance to understand that the people who sent him to Rwanda did not care for humanity.
Dallaire, a protector, continues to affirm Canada’s adherence to a code of genocide prevention, on paper, and as a Senior Fellow contributes to the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. It is the major Genocide prevention NGO in Canada, but noted for coincidences of policy with those of the U.S. State Department and Canadian foreign service. Any MIGS project concerned with the genocide of U.S. or Canadian Aboriginal peoples, or of Palestinians is hard to find. Our society’s intransigence of not caring, hardens.
Currently it’s not even helpful to discuss a relationship between the U.S. and the Convention on Genocide since U.S. foreign policies lack moral compass. Having withdrawn from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the U.S. avoids charges of genocide as long as it has the military power to do so. With less military power, Canada subscribing to the Court, needs moral and political power to maintain its borders. Of necessity, diplomacy has meaning. Canada ratified the Convention on Genocide in 1952, (2) a generation before the U.S. which waited until 1988.
Several current news items lead to the same point of focus: Canada’s evasion of its responsibility to honour and adhere to the Convention on Genocide. Its unfaithfulness encourages states of emergency to play out through Indigenous communities in Canada. It’s also evident in foreign policies against more distant peoples. As though the Convention on Genocide were not primary law, had no statute of limitations, has no affect beyond the good will and salaried hopes of NGO’s, and no application to first world countries.
Canadian Mining Companies
From Toronto the Justice and Accountability Project has just issued a report on the responsibility of Canadian Mining companies for one level of violence in Latin America. The “Canada Brand”: Violence and Canadian Mining Companies in Latin America, (3) documents 44 deaths and 403 injuries in the years 2000 to 2015, all involving Canadian Companies in Latin America, and declares this is the tip of an iceberg. It classifies the majority of the victims as “targeted.”
While the report includes cases of criminalization it doesn’t include reports of deaths and injuries which aren’t verified by two independent sources and it doesn’t include “death threats, deliberate burning of crops and property destruction, forced displacement, reported assassination attempts without reported injury, illness from environmental contamination, or psychological trauma from any of the violence…” (4) or countries in other regions such as in Canada or Africa. This is 15 years of violence against native protectors of the land without bringing to bear the effects of the mining companies on entire communities and their habitats: to put the two together places the mining companies within a perspective of the U.N . Convention on Genocide. The murder of activist protectors suggests the element of “intention” considered by U.S. interpretation necessary to prosecution of genocide charges.
In Muskrat Falls Labrador, on October 23rd, 150 protesters entered the Crown corporation Nalcor’s construction site to protest the company’s reluctance to thoroughly clear vegetation and some topsoil from the land it’s about to flood. Uncut vegetation as well as topsoil are considered factors in the increase of methylmercury poisoning of the watershed. Nalcor workers are being evacuated from the camp, turning their quarters over to the protesters. The RCMP is blocking roads to discourage reinforcement to the protesters. Pam Palmater, a respected lawyer and Mi’kmaq teaching as an Associate Professor in Toronto, sees the company’s carelessness in risking the environment to poison as part of the ongoing industrial genocide of native peoples. (5) It’s a concern which increasingly covers settlers, immigrants, as both Indigenous and ‘settler’groups are equally deprived of power under law. Mayors of four nearby towns affected by the flooding say Nalcor consistently ignores them and they’ve been excluded from the talks between the company and Indigenous groups.
First Nations
In northern Saskatchewan so far in October four indigenous children – girls of from ten to fourteen years of age, took their own lives. This is part of an ongoing suicide epidemic in first Nations communities of the north where the suicide rate is five times the norm for Canada. The government is responding by increasing the number of mental health care workers available. This misses the point of the children’s final acts. As a group they’re refusing life on the terms that Canada offers. Suicide rates among northern Indigenous people are a result of social engineering by Canada’s dominant culture, either through its lack of concern or by intention. It continues the colonial genocide of subjugation. What could stop the native society’s slide into hopelessness is honouring the society’s basic needs of housing, water, food. This is not beyond the power and convenience of Canadian and Provincial governments. It seems beyond the business game plans of resource corporations and a European mindset of superiority which permeates all areas of Canadian society.
A recent article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reveals that the children of Nunavut have the highest respiratory infection rates in the world, and accuses the Nunavut government of covering up respiratory disease (respiratory syncytial virus / RSV) infections, which according to statistics from 2009 (why aren’t these statistics current?) hospitalized 40% of the children in Western Nunavut. The dosage of pharmaceuticals for treatment costs about $6500 / patient. (6) And children often have to be flown to hospital. Emergency funds go to pharmaceutical companies and airlines rather than the community and improving the living conditions and poor nutrition which cause the disease rate. The cycle of poverty and relief profits big business, as maintained by government budgeting.
All of these areas converge in a consideration of genocide but to mention the word “genocide” is a snare. While university courses and human rights NGOs raise the issue of genocide again and again as a thorn in the side of Canada’s self-image – the nuts and bolts of legally applying the Convention under Canadian law are so carefully controlled that the term has no meaning except in the service of a European exploitative class.
Application of the U.N.’s Convention on Genocide, which has teeth within Canadian law (7) requires permission of Canada’s Minister of Justice. (8) Canada’s Minister of Justice is a political appointment by the nation’s Prime Minister. Therefore practically, it isn’t likely the Prime Minister would ever be charged with genocide, nor will his political allies, nor the visiting leaders of allied countries, which gives all of them a certain amount of freedom from worry. And under the code of one dominant ruling elite, protection is assured subsequent government administrations and Ministers of Justice, as long as a group remains to subjugate. The same provision of requiring Ministerial approval applies to the prosecution of any crimes against humanity. (9)
Writing about this for some years, I’ve seen no challenge to this facet of Canadian law which obviously protects the establishment’s governance from prosecution for one of the worst crimes known to humankind. My belief is that Canada could survive honest and direct application of the Convention on Genocide to its policies, but won’t be able to if it delays in correcting root causes of disproportionate Aboriginal death and disease.
This loophole protecting politicians who further genocide lends impunity to the policies of NATO countries in their assaults on the peoples of Afghanistan, Libya, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, where militarily applied policies have involved what I think was/is genocide. The U.S., British, French policies find the democratically elected country heads guilty of crimes then bomb the peoples into subservience and fealty to NATO. It is clearly genocide against a national group, again and again.
The media of our NATO countries have formed a reality for our peoples which doesn’t recognize the criminality of NATO country foreign policies. In North America the governments’ impunity in oppressing First Peoples, Blacks and all the poor, while claiming to save them, provides a third rail carrying the power to knock out any resistance to the terrible crimes of foreign policy necessary to corporate resource extraction with high profits.
The impunity is acceded to by a professional class where the judicial system is so expensive, the lawyers so strictly controlled, the laws so favourable to capital, that there is no effective protest of obvious injustices. Where the mental health industry accepts as norm the murder of foreign civilian populations. Where the economic machinery empowered by security and surveillance would refuse existence to those who question, protest, and struggle effectively. Where the security industry believes in the fears created to further its expansion. Where education becomes naked training of skill sets for serving oppressive corporations. Where artists and writers are rewarded for saying nothing.
The situation of all young people gradually becomes near that of a Saskatchewan Indigenous girl. First Peoples precede us. If government maintains its refusal to protect Indigenous peoples with the primary human rights laws, then peoples of settler stock will, when convenient to power, find themselves without as well. We have to affirm and apply the protections of the Genocide Convention, for others, or we lose that protection for ourselves.
Notes
1. “Inside Roméo Dallaire’s brutally revealing new memoir,” Brian Bethune, Oct. 21, 2016, Maclean’s . 2. “Treaties, States Parties and Commentaries: Canada, current, International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC . 3. The “Canada Brand”: Violence and Canadian Mining Companies in Latin America , Justice and Accountability Project, Oct. 24, 2016, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario. 4. Ibid. 5. ”Muskrat Falls a ‘modern day form of genocide’: lawyer,” Hans Rollmann, Oct. 21, 2016, the In dependent.ca (Newfoundland & Labrador). 6. « ’Horribly sick kids :’ Arctic regions have highest infant lung infection rates in the world, » The Canadian Press, Oct. 18, 2016, CBC News ; « ’We have not seen it stop’ : Canada’s public health agency review respiratory illness in Nunavut babies, » John Van Dusen, Oct. 25, 2016, CBC News . 7. Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act – S.C.2000 , c.24 (Section 4),(Section 6), (SCHEDULE : Provisions of Rome Statute), and (Section 14). 8. Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act – S.C.2000 , c.24,“Procedures and Defences” 9. (3, 4). 9. The Canadian law against torture which wasn’t applied to former U.S. President Bush at his most recent visit of May 12th, 2014. The original source of this article is Global Research Copyright © John Bart Gerald , Global Research, 2016 Share: | 0 |
Can there be light below the surface of the Earth, without any exposure to the Sun? Surprisingly, the answer is YES. By Robert Sepehr
Bioluminescent organisms have the ability to glow almost like magic. Many organisms use their natural ability to produce light to trick predators, to attract mates and even to communicate.
The word for this seemingly magical ability is called “bioluminescence,” which comes from “bio,” meaning life, and “lumin,” meaning light.
Most of these organisms, such as plankton, glow blue, but a few glow red, green, or orange. Some tiny animal plankton (zooplankton) are big enough to see with the unaided eye.
Most bioluminescent zooplankton don’t glow in the dark themselves, but instead squirt globs of glowing chemicals into the water.
Some zooplankton use bioluminescence to attract a mate, or to form reproductive swarms. Not only is nature’s biochemistry fascinating, it can also be extremely beautiful, especially given the backdrop of a dark, misty cave.
Glow worm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. They may sometimes resemble worms, but are actually insects.
The glow they produce, through by a chemical reaction, is incredibly efficient; nearly 100% of the energy input is turned into light (Compare this to the best light-emitting diodes at just 24%).
Australia and New Zealand have some of the most spectacular caves, where one can go on guided tours to witness this natural phenomenon up close. (see video below)
Why do some mushrooms emit light? Making light isn’t common in fungi; scientists have described about 100,000 fungal species, and only 75 glow. Lab work has shown that the glow did not happen randomly or by accident.
Scientists found that these mushrooms made light mostly at night, so experiments were conducted to determine why.
According to studies ( referenced in the book ), in dark environments, bioluminescent fruit bodies may be at an advantage by attracting insects and other arthropods that could help disperse their spores.
Conditions that affect the growth of fungi, such as pH, light and temperature, have been found to influence bioluminescence, suggesting a link between metabolic activity and fungal bioluminescence.
The diversity of creatures with this ability is equally astonishing, from algae and the common firefly to deep-sea dwellers that are rarely seen by humans.
What’s also fascinating is that many of these creatures are not closely related, and bioluminescent traits have seemingly evolved separately at least 30 times.
With countless well lit subterranean caves and glowing caverns, it makes one wonder what could be dwelling in vast unexplored areas under the crust.
The idea that our planet consists of a hollow, or honeycombed, interior is not new. Some of the oldest cultures speak of civilizations inside of vast cavern-cities, within the bowels of the earth.
According to certain Buddhist and Hindu traditions, secret tunnels connect Tibet with a subterranean paradise, and they call this legendary underworld Agartha.
In India, this underground oasis is best known by its Sanskrit name, Shambhala, thought to mean ‘place of tranquility.’
Mythologies throughout the world, from North and South America to Europe and the Arctic, describe numerous entrances to these fabled inner kingdoms.
Many occult organizations, esoteric authors, and secret societies concur with these myths and legends of subterranean inhabitants, who are the remnants of antediluvian civilizations, which sought refuge in hollow caverns inside the earth.
Assuming that the myths are true, and the Earth is partially hollow, how could life survive underground? How would organisms receive the ventilation required to breathe miles below the surface?
Surface trees and rainforests are responsible for less than one-third of the Earth’s oxygen, while marine plants, such as phytoplankton, are responsible for between 70 to 80 percent of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. The vast majority of our oxygen comes from aquatic organisms.
Phytoplankton, kelp, and algae produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, a process which converts carbon dioxide and light into sugars which are then used for energy.
Phytoplankton is responsible for HALF of Earth’s oxygen
While the process of photosynthesis usually implies the presence of sunlight, the Sun is not the only available light or energy source able to power photosynthesis.
Before the discovery of hydrothermal vents, and their ecosystems, scientists believed that only small animals lived at the ocean bottom, in seafloor sediments.
They theorized that these animals received their food from above, because the established model of the marine food chain depended on sunlight and photosynthesis, just as the food chain on land does.
Mainstream academia taught that this was the only way life could survive in the darkness of the deep seafloor. The discovery of hydrothermal vents changed all that.
It became clear that vast communities of animals grew quickly and to larger than expected sizes in the depths without the aid of the Sun.
Instead of using light to create organic material (photosynthesis), microorganisms at the bottom of the food chain at hydrothermal vents used chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide (chemosynthesis).
At the seafloor, there are thriving ecosystems that receive energy not from the sun, but from the heat and chemicals provided by the planet itself.
For many thousands of species dwelling in the deep, the energy to sustain life does not flow down from above, but comes up from the interior of the earth.
Even in the unlikely scenario where every single tree were chopped down, we would still be able to breathe thanks to aquatic plant-life (ex. algae).
The Earth has a tremendous amount of water, and these oceans, rivers, and lakes are teeming with numerous species of biologically active, oxygen-producing organisms.
Are there any known sources of sustenance available that could provide for a large human population?
What evidence is there that a sustainable biosphere could exist miles below the surface, totally isolated from the nourishment and the established life cycle provided by the sun?
Where are the entrances to inner earth, and which races live inside?
Author and anthropologist, Robert Sepehr , explores these questions and attempts to unlock their riddles, which have eluded any consideration in mainstream academia.
Numerous endeavors have been undertaken to access the interior of the earth.
Polar expeditions and battles, such as Operation Highjump, still remain largely classified, and have been shrouded in secrecy for decades, but scientific revelations validating the rumors surrounding these covert events, and their implications, are finally being exposed to daylight.
What are the mysteries of inner Earth?
Robert Sepehr’s book, Gods with Amnesia: Subterranean Worlds of Inner Earth , is available on Amazon and all good bookstores.
Source: Atlantean Gardens
Via: Humans Are Free
More from Robert Sepehr : Bioluminescent Glowing Organisms of Inner Earth Subterranean Worlds of Inner Earth New Swabia (Neuschwabenland) and Base 211 Hopi Indians claim that their ancestors emerged from the underworld | 0 |
Wednesday in Colorado Springs, CO at the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers Employee Leadership Forum, former Speaker of the House John Boehner said last week’s media reports that he said Donald Trump’s presidency so far has been “a complete disaster” were not accurate. Boehner said, “Let me address this because some people have gotten carried away in their interpretation of what I said. Listen, Donald Trump is my friend. He was my supporter. I play golf with him and frankly, I like the president. I voted for him. I want him and frankly, I want the country to succeed. But I’ve seen some people write — I think they’ve gotten a little carried away in their interpretation of what I said. ” “I did not say that the president’s policies were a disaster,” he continued. “I did not say that the president’s agenda was a disaster. What I was referring to was the execution of the president’s agenda and the president’s policies. And frankly, I think there have been a number of missteps, unforced errors that the president has made and I think the White House would agree that they’ve had their share of mistakes as the president learns to be the president. ” ( Politico) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
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Last July, the Palestinian Authority took the unexpected, although belated step of seeking Arab backing in suing Britain over the Balfour Declaration. That ‘declaration’ was the first ever explicit commitment made by Britain, and the West in general, to establish a Jewish homeland atop an existing Palestinian homeland.
It is too early to tell whether the Arab League would heed the Palestinian call , or if the PA would even follow through, especially considering that the latter has the habit of making too many proclamations backed by little or no action.
However, it seems that the next year will witness a significant tug of war regarding the Balfour Declaration, the 100th anniversary of which will be commemorated on November 02, 2017 .
But who is Balfour, what is the Balfour Declaration and why does all of this matters today?
Britain's Foreign Secretary from late 1916, Arthur James Balfour, had pledged Palestine to another people. That promise was made on November 02, 1917 on behalf of the British government in the form of a letter sent to the leader of the Jewish community in Britain, Walter Rothschild.
MORE... Palestine’s reality: Al Nakba commemoration and the right of return or the return of the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement? To be a child in Palestine, where Israel has killed more children than the total number of goals scored in all FIFA World Cups Let There Be Water: Israel's policy of stolen water No hope and no heroes for Palestine At the time, Britain was not even in control of Palestine, which was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Either way, Palestine was never Balfour’s to so casually transfer to anyone else. His letter read:
“His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
He concluded, “I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.”
Balfour was hardly acting on his own. True, the Declaration bears his name, yet, in reality, he was a loyal agent of an Empire with massive geopolitical designs, not only concerning Palestine alone, but with Palestine as part of a larger Arab landscape.
Only a year earlier, another sinister document was introduced, albeit secretly. It was endorsed by another top British diplomat, Mark Sykes and, on behalf of France, by François Georges-Picot. The Russians were informed of the agreement, as they too had received a piece of the Ottoman cake.
The document indicated that, once the Ottomans were soundly defeated, their territories, including Palestine, would be split among the prospective victorious parties.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement , also known as the ‘Asia Minor Agreement’, was signed in secret one hundred years ago, two years into World War I. It signified the brutal nature of colonial powers that rarely associated land and resources with people who lived upon or owned them.
The centerpiece of the agreement was a map that was marked with straight lines by a China graph pencil. The map largely determined the fate of the Arabs, dividing them in accordance with various haphazard assumptions of tribal and sectarian lines.
The improvised map consisted not only of lines but also colors , along with language that attested to the fact that the two countries viewed the Arab region purely on materialistic terms, without paying the slightest attention to the possible repercussions of slicing up entire civilizations with a multifarious history of co-operation and conflict.
The Sykes-Picot negotiations were completed in March 1916 and, although official, was secretly signed on May 19, 1916.
WWI concluded on November 11, 1918, after which the division of the Ottoman Empire began in earnest.
British and French mandates were extended over divided Arab entities, while Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement a year later, when Belfour conveyed the British government’s promise, sealing the fate of Palestinians to a life of perpetual war and turmoil.
Rarely was British-Western hypocrisy and complete disregard for the national aspiration of any other nation on full display as in the case of Palestine. Beginning with the first wave of Zionist Jewish migration to Palestine in 1882, European countries helped facilitate the movement of illegal settlers and resources, where the establishment of many colonies, large and small, was afoot.
So when Balfour sent his letter to Rothschild, the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine was very much plausible.
Still, many supercilious promises were being made to the Arabs during the Great War years, as the Arab leadership sided with the British in their war against the Ottoman Empire. Arabs were promised instant independence, including that of the Palestinians.
When the intentions of the British and their rapport with the Zionists became too apparent, Palestinians rebelled , marking a rebellion that has never ceased 99 years later, and highlighting the horrific consequences of British colonialism and the eventual complete Zionist takeover of Palestine which is still felt after all of these years.
Paltry attempts to pacify Palestinian anger were to no avail, especially after the League of Nations Council in July 1922 approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine – which was originally granted to Britain in April 1920 – without consulting the Palestinians at all. In fact, Palestinians would disappear from the British and international radar, only to reappear as negligible rioters, troublemakers, and obstacles to the joint British-Zionist colonial concoctions.
Despite occasional assurances to the contrary, the British intention of ensuring the establishment of an exclusively Jewish state in Palestine was becoming clearer with time. The Balfour Declaration was not merely an aberration, but had, indeed, set the stage for the full-scale ethnic cleansing that followed, three decades later.
In fact, that history remains in constant replay: the Zionists claimed Palestine and renamed it ‘Israel’; the British continue to support them, although never ceasing to pay lip-service to the Arabs; and the Palestinian people remain a nation that is geographically fragmented between refugee camps, in the diaspora, militarily occupied, or treated as second class citizens in a country upon which their ancestors dwelt since time immemorial.
While Balfour cannot be blamed for all the misfortunates that have befallen Palestinians since he communicated his brief, but infamous letter, the notion that his ‘promise’ embodied - that of complete disregard of the aspirations and rights of the Palestinian Arab people – that very letter is handed from one generation of British diplomats to the next, in the same way that Palestinian resistance to colonialism has and continues to spread across generations.
That injustice continues, thus the perpetuation of the conflict. What the British, the early Zionists, the Americans and subsequent Israeli governments failed to understand, and continue to ignore at their own peril, is that there can be no peace without justice and equality in Palestine; and that Palestinians will continue to resist, as long as the reasons that inspired their rebellion nearly a century ago, remain in place. | 0 |
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Protesters blocked the upper level of the George Washington Bridge into New York City during the busy Wednesday morning rush hour, causing extensive delays in both directions of the span.
The upper level eastbound lane was closed for 15 minutes as police arrested 10 protesters around 8:15 a.m., officials said. Delays continued to build on the George Washington Bridge as a result.
Motorists headed to New York who earlier faced a 60 minute delay are now looking at a 90-minute wait as of 9 a.m., according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
A reporter on the bridge tweeted the protesters are demanding “equal rights for immigrants” and “political power for marginalized communities.”
As of 8:55 a.m., the deomonstration has ended, according to Port Authority police spokesman Joe Pentangelo. | 0 |
Dienstag, 22. November 2016 Studie: Lohnzahlungen verursachen Milliardenschäden für deutsche Unternehmen Hamburg (Archiv) - Schon lange haben Wirtschaftsverbände gewarnt, jetzt bestätigt eine unabhängige Studie den Verdacht: Lohnzahlungen an Arbeitnehmer fügen deutschen Unternehmen jährlich Schäden in Milliardenhöhe zu. Zu dieser Feststellung kam das Institut für Wirtschaftsökonomie in einer großangelegten Studie, in deren Zuge mehr als 3000 hiesige Betriebe und Unternehmen unter die Lupe genommen wurden. "Die Zahlen sind alarmierend", erklärt Ökonom Harald Glockner. "In den letzten Jahren machten Lohnkosten im Schnitt zwei Drittel aller Unternehmensausgaben aus. Kaum vorzustellen, was für gigantische Gewinne gemacht werden könnten, wenn dieser lästige Posten nicht wäre." Schwächen die Wirtschaft mit ihrer Gier: Arbeitnehmer Vielen Beschäftigten sei weder bewusst, welchen enormen finanziellen Schaden sie ihrem Arbeitgeber durch ihre Löhne und Bezüge monatlich zufügen, noch dass sie damit letztlich gar ihren eigenen Arbeitsplatz gefährden. In diesem Klima des Egoismus sei es für viele Firmen schwer geworden, auch nur die allernötigsten Rekordrenditen an ihre Aktionäre auszuschütten. Angesichts der erschreckenden Ergebnisse der Studie fordert der Arbeitgeberverband nun einen flächendeckenden Höchstlohn für abhängig Beschäftigte. Andernfalls sei deutschlandweit mit Vorstandsprotesten und Chefstreiks zu rechnen. fed, dan, ssi; Idee: Tobias K.; Foto oben: © Kautz15 - Fotolia.com, Foto rechts: © Kurhan - Fotolia.com; Hinweis: Erstmals erschienen am 21.8.14 Artikel teilen: | 0 |
Posted on November 1, 2016 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News , US // 0 Comments
A bombshell investigation has revealed that software used in almost all precincts across the U.S. is used to commit election fraud on an enormous scale.
Bev Harris, a leading expert on voter fraud, filmed what she describes as “ the most devastating election theft mechanism yet found ,” that allows officials to change the results of the election.
Infowars.com reports:
Used in precincts all across the country, the software – deemed “the most devastating election theft mechanism yet found” – allows votes to be fractured and rounded up or down to sway the results for any candidate. RELATED CONTENT Democratic Party Leader Served Election Fraud Lawsuit
According to Harris, a member of the non-partisan Black Box Voting investigative team, this latest discovery constitutes the “missing piece” that blows the lid off of wide-scale voter fraud.
“It was put in the system in 2001 but it came into wide use in 2006,” Harris said. “It took someone with a special set of skills to know what to look for.”
A mini-documentary by Black Box Voting on the discovery shows real-time demonstrations with the secretive software.
“It can give contract signing authority to whoever the user chooses,” the video’s description states. “All political power can be converted to the hands of a few anonymous subcontractors.”
“It runs silently, invisibly, and can produce plausible results that really pass for the real thing.”
Further analysis on the malicious software provided by Alex Jones reveals how this revelation ties into the 2016 presidential election. | 0 |
By Patrick J. Buchanan October 29, 2016
Should Donald Trump surge from behind to win, he would likely bring in with him both houses of Congress.
Much of his agenda — tax cuts, deregulation, border security, deportation of criminals here illegally, repeal of Obamacare, appointing justices like Scalia, unleashing the energy industry — could be readily enacted.
On new trade treaties with China and Mexico, Trump might need economic nationalists in Bernie Sanders’ party to stand with him, as free-trade Republicans stood by their K-Street contributors.
Still, compatible agendas and GOP self-interest could transcend personal animosities and make for a successful four years.
But consider what a Hillary Clinton presidency would be like.
She would enter office as the least-admired president in history, without a vision or a mandate. She would take office with two-thirds of the nation believing she is untruthful and untrustworthy.
Reports of poor health and lack of stamina may be exaggerated. Yet she moves like a woman her age. Unlike Ronald Reagan, her husband, Bill, and President Obama, she is not a natural political athlete and lacks the personal and rhetorical skills to move people to action.
She makes few mistakes as a debater, but she is often shrill — when she is not boring. Trump is right: Hillary Clinton is tough as a $2 steak. But save for those close to her, she appears not to be a terribly likable person.
Still, such attributes, or the lack of them, do not assure a failed presidency. James Polk, no charmer, was a one-term president, but a great one, victorious in the Mexican War, annexing California and the Southwest, negotiating a fair division of the Oregon territory with the British.
Yet the hostility Clinton would face the day she takes office would almost seem to ensure four years of pure hell.
The reason: her credibility, or rather her transparent lack of it.
Consider. Because the tapes revealed he did not tell the full truth about when he learned about Watergate, Richard Nixon was forced to resign.
In the Iran-Contra affair, Reagan faced potential impeachment charges, until ex-security adviser John Poindexter testified that Reagan told the truth when he said he had not known of the secret transfer of funds to the Nicaraguan Contras.
Bill Clinton was impeached — for lying.
White House scandals, as Nixon said in Watergate, are almost always rooted in mendacity — not the misdeed, but the cover-up, the lies, the perjury, the obstruction of justice that follow.
And here Hillary Clinton seems to have an almost insoluble problem.
She has testified for hours to FBI agents investigating why and how her server was set up and whether secret information passed through it.
Forty times during her FBI interrogation, Clinton said she could not or did not recall. This writer has friends who went to prison for telling a grand jury, “I can’t recall.”
After studying her testimony and the contents of her emails, FBI Director James Comey virtually accused Clinton of lying.
Moreover, thousands of emails were erased from her server, even after she had reportedly been sent a subpoena from Congress to retain them.
During her first two years as secretary of state, half of her outside visitors were contributors to the Clinton Foundation.
Yet there was not a single quid pro quo, Clinton tells us.
Yesterday’s newspapers exploded with reports of how Bill Clinton aide Doug Band raised money for the Clinton Foundation, and then hit up the same corporate contributors to pay huge fees for Bill’s speeches.
What were the corporations buying if not influence? What were the foreign contributors buying, if not influence with an ex-president, and a secretary of state and possible future president?
Did none of the big donors receive any official favors?
“There’s a lot of smoke and there’s no fire,” says Hillary Clinton.
Perhaps, but there seems to be more smoke every day.
If once or twice in her hours of testimony to the FBI, grand jury or before Congress, Clinton were proven to have lied, her Justice Department would be obligated to name a special prosecutor, as was Nixon’s.
And, with the election over, the investigative reporters of the adversary press, Pulitzers beckoning, would be cut loose to go after her.
The Republican House is already gearing up for investigations that could last deep into Clinton’s first term.
There is a vast trove of public and sworn testimony from Hillary, about the server, the emails, the erasures, the Clinton Foundation. Now, thanks to WikiLeaks, there are tens of thousands of emails to sift through, and perhaps tens of thousands more to come.
What are the odds that not one contains information that contradicts her sworn testimony? Cong. Jim Jordan contends that Clinton may already have perjured herself.
And as the full-court press would begin with her inauguration, Clinton would have to deal with the Syrians, Russians, Taliban, North Koreans and Xi Jinping in the South China Sea — and with Bill Clinton wandering around the White House with nothing to do.
This election is not over. But if Hillary Clinton wins, a truly hellish presidency could await her, and us. The Best of Patrick J. Buchanan Tags: | 0 |
Report Copyright Violation Calling All Ohio Voters ... Diebolt I called the election board this morning, in Summit County. I talked to a man who assured me that basically no voter fraud is going to happen there.However he mentioned that to the west and south of me might be at risk, as they use the Diebolt voting machines.Anyone in Ohio please call your election board and ask about voter fraud.I think we need boots on the ground where Diebolt voting machine are being used. | 0 |
Region: Russia in the World More bang for the buck is the most apt description when we compare spending of the United States Government with that of the Government of the Russian Federation on its defense sector and military technology development. A closer look at the two budgets reveals the huge fault line that cuts across the entire US economy today. It also mirrors the true collapse of the American hegemon as a world power. It need not have been. In the official Fiscal Year 2017 the US Department of Defense officially requested $523.9 billion in what they call “discretionary funding,” as in, “we use it as we please, no independent audit allowed.” Another $58.8 billion was requested for so-called Overseas Contingency Operations, typical Pentagon-speak for wars everywhere from Afghanistan to Syria to military operations around the South China sea. That made an official total of $583 billion requested and granted by a docile Congress . On October 13, the Russian wire-service Tass.ru reported that the Russian government is set to spend 948.59 billion rubles on national defense in 2017, according to the draft federal budget posted. It sounds like a lot, almost one trillion rubles. If we convert at the current dollar exchange rate, this translates into a mere $15 billion. Of that 793.79 billion rubles or $12.7 billion is planned to be spent on the Russian Armed Forces. In 2015 the Russian Federation spent $26 billion on the state military-industrial complex development program will reach 1.67 trillion rubles . That total for military industry investment and maintaining Russia’s armed forces, some $49 billion, equals 8.4 % of the dollar amount the United States Defense Department plays with annually . To that must be added the separate amount of $400 billion for modernization of Russian armed forces military capabilities by 2020. That’s roughly another $80 billion a year. Now the relevant question at a time when Washington-led NATO forces are aggressively moving to the borders of the Russian Federation, when US Pentagon Special Forces and mercenaries like Blackwater aka Academi are mucking around Ukraine causing mischief, destruction and murder, is which country is getting better defense or military capacities for every dollar spent. Astonishing performance The answer came following the September 30, 2015 Russian announcement that it had agreed to respond with military support to the call of the legitimate government of Syria. What Russian military efforts have accomplished with meager resources, has astonished most western military experts. Far from being the dilapidated, technologically obsolescent Soviet-era military that many US planners reckon, Russia’s armed forces have undergone a quiet and impressive modernization ever since it became clear around 2007 that Washington was intent on pushing NATO to Moscow’s front door in Ukraine and Georgia as well as threatening with US missile “defense” in Poland, Czech Republic and now also in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shiogu is a remarkable organizer who is known for reorganizing large Russian government departments. Before becoming Defense Minister he was head of the large Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, responsible for emergency situations, such as floods, earthquakes and acts of terrorism. The result of Russia’s military modernization, partly demonstrated in the military intervention in Syria, has been a strategic shift in the global military balance of power that Washington’s neo-conservatives, none of whom have served in active duty military theatres, did not reckon with. Russian science and engineering have accomplished astonishing results with minimum investment. Just a select glance at what is being developed is instructive. Hypersonic nuclear missile On October 25 the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau published the first image of the newest heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, the RS-28 Sarmat known under NATO’s reporting name SS-X-30. It will replace its predecessor, the R36M2 Voyevoda or NATO reporting name SS-18 Satan. It is now in test phase and will enter service at the end of 2018. The SS-X-30 will replace the world’s most powerful strategic missile, the SS-18 Satan. One reason Washington pursued the Start-1 strategic arms reduction treaty with Moscow was because the Pentagon estimated that the SS-18 with its multiple warhead consisting of ten independently targetable re-entry vehicles each having a yield of 750 kilotons was a serious threat. Now, the new successor, SS-X-30 according to Tass military analyst, Viktor Litovkin, is far more threatening. While specific details are top secret, according to Litovkin, the new ICBM will evade any missile defense arrays Washington can install. It has far smaller liftoff mass and a greater range of flight up to 17,000 kilometers, able to reach virtually any target in the Continental USA. It is designed to go on flight paths crossing the South Pole, from where they are least-expected and where no missile shields are being created. Each missile will carry between 10-15 independently targetable nuclear warheads, in a “grape cluster” able to separate from the cluster one by one when a pre-loaded program issues the order to attack the selected target, Litovkin adds . He says that the SS-X-30 re-entry vehicle, called by Russian media Yu-71, and by its developer ‘object 4202′, or Aero-ballistic Hypersonic Warhead, will fly at hypersonic speeds of Mach 17, roughly 4.3 miles (7km) per second, with flight path’s altitude and direction constantly changing all the time making it immune to any missile defenses the Pentagon has deployed in Poland or South Korea, even those relying on space-based elements. “For the SS-X-30 it makes no difference if there is a missile defense or if there is none. It will slip through unnoticed,” says Litovkin . The new missile is capable of wiping out a country the size of France with nuclear explosions 2,000 times more powerful than the bomb used at Hiroshima in 1945 by Washington . Pentagon bucks go to waste The SS-X-30 development is but one of numerous game-changing weapons technologies Russia has been combat testing in Syria. Another is the cutting-edge Russian T-14 Armata tank that has no western competitor. Russian fighter jets have demonstrated their value in Syria and Russian anti-missile Contrast this with the colossal waste of US defense budget spending. Washington is used to fight wars, like the school classroom bully, only against tiny unequipped enemies like Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi in Libya. Granted US defense giants like Boeing or Lockheed Martin are working on hypersonic jets and other classified new weapons. However, the efficiency of every dollar spent on US military hardware is overshadowed by the effective of Russian defense spending. A recent US Defense Department report stated that the budget controls of the pentagon are non-existent. Alone the US Department of the Army cannot provide an audit trail for a cumulative $6.5 trillion of expenses . There are deep cultural and historical reasons why Russia has responded to the actions of Washington and NATO since 2007 as they have. They are deadly serious about defending the Russian Motherland as they term it. Washington politicians, regardless who is President, would do well to take this into their calculations when they egg on European NATO partners to provoke Russia in every way imaginable. Europeans would also do well to reconsider whether being Washington’s front line in NATO is worth the price of possible nuclear pulverization. I think not personally. F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.” Popular Articles | 0 |
Pepsi is in trouble with the left. The diabetes sugary beverage company recently released an ad featuring Kendall Jenner as a protester, handing a can of Pepsi to a police officer during a rally. The left doesn’t like this because, apparently, you should never be nice to a policeman.[ If anything, the outrage from the left shows that leftist activists don’t know the history of their own movement. Photos of peace activists handing flowers to riot police were among the most iconic images of the 1960s, and became a common theme in subsequent demonstrations. Some are claiming that the ad was inspired by this photo from a Black Lives Matter protest. But images of protesters handing gifts to police officers have appeared so often in history that it could have been inspired by any one of them. Black Lives Matter activist and noted Jack Dorsey pal DeRay Mckesson was also offended by Pepsi’s ad, taking to his favorite social network to denounce it as “trash. ” If I had carried Pepsi I guess I never would’ve gotten arrested. Who knew? — deray mckesson (@deray) April 5, 2017, Mckesson was smart enough not to accuse Pepsi of trying to leverage social movements for private gain. Mckesson, we must remember, has used his Twitter account to hawk everything from Verizon data plans to Doritos. I just changed my @Verizon plan to the newly released Unlimited Plan. It’s a . #VZunlimited, — deray mckesson (@deray) February 13, 2017, Rainbow Doritos are a tasty way to support LGBT causes ”https: . ”>September 17, 2015, Deray has denied that these tweets are sponsored, at least in the case of Verizon. I guess that settles the matter then. Nothing to see here, folks! McDonald’s breakfast is coming, beginning Oct. 6th ”https: . ”>September 1, 2015, The new Dove men’s deodorant is the best I’ve ever used. Hands down. — deray mckesson (@deray) May 4, 2012, ACtivism pic. twitter. — Alex Nichols (@Lowenaffchen) September 28, 2015, Of course, it’s possible that Mckesson is telling the truth. Perhaps he really is just the most person on Twitter. At this point, though, I’m only surprised he hasn’t sold advertising on his vest like a NASCAR driver, Putting aside Mckesson’s unbridled love for mass market brands however, the wider outrage over Pepsi’s ad just doesn’t make sense. Over the past two decades, politics on the left has become a form of LARPing. (LARPing, or Roleplaying, is where people play as superheroes, like Green Arrow, Batman, or Gandhi). As early as the 1970s, activists were serious about achieving their political objectives. They were willing to kill, die, and go to jail in pursuit of their political ideals. They were brutal, immoral and deeply misguided, but they were also serious. Modern activism is nothing like that. It’s still violent, yes, but the masked “ ” burning down campuses and beating up Trump supporters show no willingness to accept that they may face consequences for their actions. Nor do they show any signs of the Weather Underground or the Baader Meinhof faction’s plans for the radical overthrow of western society. Involvement in activism, today, is not about remaking society or achieving political utopia. Today, it’s about : demonstrating to your peers and to society at large that you’re not a racist, not a sexist, not a homophobe, and so on. It’s about showing how bold and edgy you are. The masked protesters who threw firebombs at Berkeley were probably thinking less of how their actions would lead to a better world, and more about the cheers of approval they’d get from their buddies. In short, it’s about being cool. Celebrities — like Kendall Jenner — have encouraged this perhaps more than any other group. from Hollywood stars and pop singers has become so routine that when Lady Gaga didn’t attack Donald Trump during her Super Bowl performance, the left reacted with shock. A singer who simply sings, without making political statements, has become difficult to comprehend. Brands too, are relentlessly pressured by the left to endorse their cultural values. CEOs with conservative political values, like Brendan Eich, do not last. In ’s case, the CEO’s opposition to marriage was enough to spark a nationwide boycott. The presence of a single open Trump supporter, Peter Thiel, on Facebook’s board of directors, has led the left to agitate for his removal. Because of these twin pressures: to be seen as cool, and to avoid controversy, it has become impossible for brands not to be progressive. The left has made its values a path to social status, and instinctively kicks up a controversy when they are not respected. Faced with this, brands don’t have a choice. Pepsi was trying to suck up to leftists with its ad, not upset them. That much is clear from their grovelling apology and pledge to remove the ad following the outrage: Pepsi’s statement. pic. twitter. — Jennifer Maloney (@maloneyfiles) April 5, 2017, The left has made it impossible for brands to demonstrate any values other than progressive ones. In the case of celebrities, not demonstrating progressive values is seen as unusual. It is utterly surprising that Pepsi, and Kendall Jenner would kowtow to those values. Which, again, leads me back to the point I made at the start of this piece: It’s not a problem for the left that Kendall Jenner dressed as a protester to hawk Pepsi. It’s that she was nice to a police officer while doing so. You can follow Allum Bokhari on Twitter and add him on Facebook. Email tips and suggestions to abokhari@breitbart. com. | 1 |
by Outis Philalithopoulos By Outis Philalithopoulos, who met an untimely end five years ago, and now “wears the chains he forged in life” as an economist. In our story so far , a cyclops challenged Outis to discover possibly inconvenient truths about liberalism, and proposed the help of three Spirits. Through the gloom, there sounded the deep, hollow, melancholy note of a bell. I turned, and there stood a strange figure. It seemed rather aged, and yet the face, and the smooth, hairless head, had not a wrinkle in it. The arms were very long and muscular, and the feet were bare. “Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?” I asked. “I am!” He spoke with a French accent, in a voice that was even and clear. “Who and what are you?” I demanded. “I am the Ghost of Liberalism Past. My name is Michel Foucault.” “Oh,” I said. “Should I know that name?” “What?” the Spirit exclaimed, with a flash of pride. Then he sighed. “I suppose,” he said, “it is better if my phantom no longer casts its shadow upon the world, as if I were some sort of great Astrologer surveying an atemporal sky, telling people what is good and what is not.” “But you were famous?” I asked, feeling bad that I had hurt his feelings. “Oh, sure,” he said with a trace of self-mockery. “Noam Chomsky once said that he had ‘never met anyone who was so totally amoral.’ I tried to teach people about madness, medicine, and sexuality, but most wrote me off as this radical anarchist with an absolute hatred of power.” “And that wasn’t true?” “No!” he exclaimed. “Power is not always repressive.” I struggled to understand. “By power, do you mean government? Or one social group oppressing another?” “These are only a few particular instances of power,” Foucault explained. “Power is anything that tends to render immobile and untouchable those things that are offered to us as real, as true, as good.” “That sounds kind of… bad,” I replied. “Listen, listen,” Foucault replied. “How difficult it is! I’m not a prophet. I’m not going to tell people, “This is good for you, this is bad for you!” I try to analyze a real situation in its various complexities, with the goal of allowing refusal, and curiosity, and innovation. Is it clearer, now?” I shook my head. “I find your world confusing. It’s like there are no points of orientation…” Foucault gazed at me mildly. “Perhaps, in time…” he murmured. Then he clasped me by the arm. “Rise! And walk with me!” I took a step – and found myself outside a snowy yard covered in red brick. “What?” I stammered. “Here is where I wrote my thesis…” “You remember it, then?” inquired the Spirit. “Remember it?” I cried. “I could walk this campus blindfolded.” “Let us go in, then.” We walked through the doors of the Kennedy School of Government, into the midst of a boisterous crowd of students. Seconds later, they fell silent, and the president of the Young Democrats announced the speaker. It was Al Franken, presenting his book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot . I hadn’t heard Franken’s name in a while, but something tugged at my memory. I looked questioningly at Foucault. “1996,” was his only response, as laughter echoed from the audience. Franken had begun speaking. I soon found myself nodding along with Franken’s words. Franken pointed out that Limbaugh had “tapped into the resentments of the ‘angry white male,’” mentioning his “studio audience of rabid – but extraordinarily straight-laced – right-wing yahoos.” He went on to talk about some of the crazy religious people he had met while touring the country. “By now, you may be thinking I’m showing an anti-Christian bias,” Franken suggested, grinning. “Nonsense! Need I remind you that I married a Roman Catholic, whom I met in college, despoiled and then convinced to renounce the Pope?” The crowd roared with laughter. I joined them, although something about that word “despoiled” rubbed me the wrong way. Franken added that Limbaugh believes feminists think all heterosexual sex is rape. “The thing is,” Franken said, “I know a lot of women, almost all of whom consider themselves feminists, and I know of only one who actually holds this belief. And we’ve been married nearly twenty years.” As the room rocked with laughter, my jaw dropped. Making light of the victims of marital rape? What was Franken’s problem? Franken said that at one point, when Limbaugh had not been famous, he had been so poor that his wife had made him go file for unemployment. Franken addressed Limbaugh directly. “I swear, you must be the biggest pussy on God’s green Earth. My God, you are a sad, sad creature, aren’t you? Sort of a she-male?” I was sure Franken was right and Limbaugh was a horrible person, but how could he not see how problematic his statements were? Reinforcing gender normativity? Negative references to female anatomy? Why wasn’t anyone in the audience besides me concerned? Most likely people were concerned, but felt too marginalized to say anything. Franken had meanwhile moved on to the big picture. What was the fundamental issue with guys like Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich and Pat Robertson? “You know what I dislike most about these guys? They’re always so certain. They’re always 100 percent sure of what they’re saying.” He paused for a split second. “This is why I like being a Democrat. When we see a complicated, intractable problem, we have the only really genuine, authentic human reaction you can have: we’re confused.” I stared at Foucault. When Allan Bloom had claimed that liberals are terrified of people who think they are right, I had assumed he was describing a colony on Neptune. Maybe he was instead talking about people like Franken and Foucault. Foucault smiled back at me. Franken started to discuss various controversial issues. President Clinton’s crime bill paid for a lot of new prisons, and that’s good. Riiight. I have no problem frying a murderer. In some cases I’d even waive the cruel-and-unusual punishment. That is, as long as we know we have the right guy. Right. What kind of progressive/liberal was this guy, anyway? Wait, what was that about a “national Ponzi scheme currently scheduled to implode in a spectacular fiscal nightmare”? Pete Peterson, a co-founder of the Concord Coalition, did hit a home run with a very sobering speech about what will happen if we don’t reform social security. Okaaay. Franken talked about watching Pat Buchanan speak to members of the Reform Party. He counted six standing ovations, “although it’s hard to count when you’re cowering under your seat.” The biggest ovations had come on the crowd’s “red meat issues,” such as NAFTA and the 1995 Mexican bank bailout, on which Buchanan had said: Politicians of both parties sold us out in Washington, D.C. They took Citibank and Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs off the hook, and they put us on. Well, […] when I get to the White House, NAFTA will be canceled! To me, the speech sounded like something Matt Taibbi would say. Why did it frighten Franken so much? An uncomfortable subject that’s not discussed enough is black on black crime. Jesse Jackson had the courage to talk about it in terms that most people can identify with. He said it pains him that when he’s walking down the street at night and hears footsteps, he’s relieved if it’s a white man and not a black man. I know exactly what he means. I was leaving NBC late one night and heard some footsteps. When I turned around, I saw it was Jesse Jackson, and it scared the living daylights out of me! The audience thought this was hysterical. Why hadn’t the real progressives organized to deplatform this guy? Franken returned to the topic of anti-establishment, anti-free trade Americans in his final windup. Some of them were crackpots, sure. But I thought about Hank from Michigan, a retired autoworker who was worried about jobs moving overseas. I thought about Louise from Washington state, who was scared for her children because wages for non-college graduates have fallen 20 percent in the last twenty years. I thought about how our political system appeals to the worst, not the best, in us. And I thought about this book. Maybe, I thought, I’m on the wrong track. Maybe I’m sowing the very seeds of distrust that I so decry. Perhaps, I thought, I should throw away the 200-plus pages of cheap, tawdry, mean-spirited (yet accurate) bile, and start over on a book whose humor heals rather than wounds. Then, as we flew over Manhattan, it occurred to me that my book was due in a week. Then we flew over my daughter’s private school. And then my son’s orthodontist. Followed by the bank that holds the mortgage on my apartment. And as the plane banked its wings, a stream of light pierced the window, bathing my face in the orange glow of the sun setting over the American continent. And I thought to myself, “You know, Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot.” “He sells out his principles to maintain his cushy lifestyle and then brags about it?” I wondered incredulously, as laughter and applause reverberated around me. “ Allez, viens ,” Foucault said, beckoning. A long line of students waited to talk with Franken, who beamed and autographed copies of his book. A rather earnest-looking young man and woman were walking towards us. “Did you like it, Outis?” she asked with an accent a bit like Foucault’s. “It was hilarious,” the young man said. “But Corinne, did you…” “Yes, it was good,” she said. “Rush Limbaugh really is a negative person and it’s scary that there are so many insane people in your country. But…” “Oh, yes,” said the young Outis. “The talk over in your department…” “I know you’re not thrilled about it,” Corinne began. Outis said, “The way they talk…” Corinne completed the thought. “It can be hard to understand. And honestly…” and her voice lowered, as if she were afraid of being overheard, “a lot of postmodernist scholars are just BS artists who spout the jargon to get good jobs.” The young Outis nodded. Corinne continued with some passion. “But sometimes people just use that as an excuse not to listen to the important things they say. And this speaker’s different.” “I suppose she’s not very well known…?” Corinne eyes danced. “Well, you are an economist…” “But that doesn’t mean I’m a complete illiterate,” Outis shot back. “Come on, I’m familiar with a lot of postmodernists – Derrida, Stanley Fish, Judith Butler, Edward Said…” “But you’ve never heard of her ,” Corinne finished. “Well, maybe she isn’t as chic as some of the others, but she’s very smart – and clearer than most of them.” “Sure,” Outis said uncertainly. Corinne frowned. Outis took on what he doubtless assumed was a cunning expression. “I’d be more excited to go if afterward we slip out for a walk down the Charles.” She smiled cunningly back at him. I looked desperately at Foucault. “Spirit,” I cried. “Show me no more!” * * * In the next episode, Outis becomes more certain that postmodernist liberalism was not a myth after all. Sources : For Foucault, see this interview . At one point, the interviewer remarks, “I have to admit, I find myself a bit lost, without points of orientation, in your world […]” All Franken statements are verbatim quotes from Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot (1996). 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 |
Tweets from a Fresno State lecturer Lars Maischak not only demonstrate stark disagreement with capitalism, Christianity, and the GOP, but also a declaration that President Trump “must hang” to save democracy. [Maischak teaches America History at the university. His February 17 tweet speaks for itself: To save American democracy, Trump must hang. The sooner and the higher, the better. #TheResistance #DeathToFascism https: . — Lars Maischak (@LarsMaischak) February 18, 2017, Other tweets on Maischak’s profile demonstrate the ideology behind statements about Trump hanging and explain why universities across the country are now viewed with disdain by average, Americans. Here is another tweet from Maischak, dated March 8: Don’t tell me to ”obey the Law.” ”The Law” in this country is one part Racism, one part Class Oppression, all Capitalism. #TheResistance, — Lars Maischak (@LarsMaischak) March 8, 2017, And another dates March 3: Judging from the largely absent facial markings this year, Christianity is paying the price for its pact with Fascism. Students abandon it. — Lars Maischak (@LarsMaischak) March 4, 2017, This is today’s academia. These are types of voices hired to teach recent high school graduates American History. How do you think George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson fare when taught by one who sees the world in this way? How do you think America’s heritage fares? 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 |
By Shane Trejo This brave new world we are living in is getting very wild and crazy during this election season. Although the Tenth Amendment... | 0 |
BRUSSELS (AFP) — The EU has clearly pinned its hopes on presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron in Sunday’s French vote, wary of the threat posed by the fiercely eurosceptic Marine Le Pen. [A host of top Brussels figures led by European Commission President Juncker have broken with their usual protocol of not interfering in national elections and have openly backed the centrist former banker to beat leader Le Pen. In the European Union’s corridors of power, Macron is seen as more than just a frontline defence against populism as seen with Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump in the US. To many, the represents a breath of fresh air that could offer the embattled bloc a sorely needed chance to push ahead with unifying new projects after years of crisis. “We are crossing our fingers,” one senior EU official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Macron’s gruelling televised debate with Le Pen on Wednesday was “watched widely” at the highest levels of the European institutions, “including by colleagues” the EU official said. “Of course we see Macron in a positive way. We have the feeling that we can work with Macron because his project isn’t to destroy the EU as with Le Pen,” the official added. This week EU Brexit negotiator and former French minister Michel Barnier said he would vote for Macron, saying that France would “stay European” under him. — ‘Huge sigh of relief’ — Le Pen’s disdain for Europe runs deep. She has long wanted France to drop the euro single currency and return to the franc, and also leave Europe’s Schengen travel zone. She has predicted the EU “will die” and has vowed to hold a “Frexit” referendum on France’s membership of the European Union. Macron, also a former economy minister, wants to bolster the EU and the eurozone. He wants to set up a separate budget for the 19 countries that use the common currency. He also proposes giving the eurozone its own parliament and finance minister. “Macron’s victory would bring a huge sigh of relief because of all the candidates, he is the one who backed further EU integration: no ifs or buts,” said Vincenzo Scarpetta, senior policy analyst at Open Europe. In one of his last interviews before Sunday’s Macron stressed that in case of victory, “I cannot keep Europe as it is”. “We need a Europe that is more efficient, that protects, and that is less boring to people in their everyday lives,” he told French daily Le Parisien. It was this enthusiasm that led the EU’s most senior figures to openly show their excitement when Macron narrowly beat the second place Le Pen in the first round of the French vote on April 23. “Good luck,” tweeted European Commission chief Juncker only a few hours after the result, in a rare break with Brussels protocol. Juncker’s spokesman said France was choosing between European values and “the destruction of Europe. ” A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, took a similar approach, wishing Macron the best for the next two weeks of campaigning. EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini even praised Macron for speaking against a backdrop of the European Union’s starred flag on the night of the first round. — ‘Good on paper’ — But analysts warned against such unmitigated enthusiasm. “Reforming the EU may sound good on paper but Macron’s ideas are bold,” said Open Europe’s Scarpetta. “But how much of this is realistic in practice as any of these would require changing the EU treaties,” he said, adding that powerful Germany would also have to be on board. Analyst Henrik Enderlein of the Hertie school of governance in Berlin said that Macron left his mark in Germany as French minister, including with Wolfgang Schaeuble, the EU’s most influential economic official. “It’s totally against the grain to get elected in 2017 saying I want more Europe and that is what has made an impression in Germany,” Enderlein told AFP. Still, turning this into deliverable policies remained a major challenge given the divisions on major issues with Berlin, including security and the economy, he added. | 1 |
The message to the dozens of Wells Fargo workers gathered for a ethics workshop in San Diego in was loud and clear: Do not create fake bank accounts in the name of unsuspecting clients. Similar warnings were being relayed from corporate headquarters in San Francisco to regional bankers in Texas, as senior management learned that some Wells employees had been trying to meet exacting sales goals by creating sham bank accounts and credit cards instead of making legitimate sales. Across the vast retail bank, more “risk professionals” were deployed in efforts to stamp out the illegal activity. But the bank’s efforts were not enough. Three years after the first false accounts were exposed publicly and the authorities began investigating, Wells, one of the nation’s largest banks, said it was still firing employees over the questionable accounts well into this year. Some former employees say the explanation is simple: Wells has continued to push the sales goals that caused employees to break the rules in the first place. In fact, the goals at the center of a $185 million civil settlement and investigations by prosecutors in three states are not set to be phased out for another three months. “They warned us about this type of behavior and said, ‘You must report it,’ but the reality was that people had to meet their goals,” said Khalid Taha, a former Wells Fargo personal banker who resigned in July. “They needed a paycheck. ” In the week since banking regulators and the Los Angeles city attorney announced the settlement with Wells over the illegal sales practices, Wells Fargo executives, including the chief executive, John Stumpf, have denied that the misdeeds were the result of a flawed incentive structure or an aggressive sales culture. In all, 5, 300 employees have lost their jobs because of the scandal. Wells said in its defense that over the last several years it had adjusted its compensation structure to place less emphasis on meeting sales goals and more on other factors like good customer service. The bank analyzed potentially questionable accounts and employee terminations from 2011 through much of 2015 and concluded that it had made progress in cleaning up its act. Mary Eshet, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, said the bank’s analysis of that period showed that the questionable accounts and the terminations had been declining since 2013. “The steps we have been taking have been effective,” she said. “And we are continuing to do more. ” In interviews, former employees say the fact that the behavior has continued to occur — even if less frequently — shows that the bank has not been doing enough to stop it. The biggest problem, the former employees say, has been Wells Fargo’s aggressive sales culture, which was nurtured and honed over decades at the bank’s highest levels. “The branch managers were always asking, ‘How many solutions did you sell today? ’” said Sharif Kellogg, who used to work in a Wells Fargo branch in Catonsville, Md. “They wanted three to four a day. In my mind, that was crazy — that’s not how people’s financial lives work. ” One particular branch in the Los Angeles area was held up as a model of employees’ cranking out huge numbers of new accounts. Years before the scandal came to light, retail bankers from other parts of the country used to visit the branch to divine the secret sauce, according to a former bank executive. The branch was eventually hit with a wave of firings over phony accounts. Former employees have scoffed at the bank’s suggestions that the sham accounts were primarily the result of bad decisions by unethical workers. In an online discussion on Reddit this week, former Wells employees swapped grim stories about the dichotomy between their ethics training — where they were formally told not to do anything inappropriate — and the reality of a relentless push to meet sales goals that many considered unrealistic. Mr. Kellogg said he was constantly being hounded by his supervisor to increase his sales, or “solutions,” as they were known. “I was always getting written up for failing to bump my solutions numbers up,” he said. Some of his facing the same pressure, bent the rules, said Mr. Kellogg, who was making $11. 75 an hour when he left the bank in 2012. They would ask local business owners whom they knew well to open additional accounts as favors, saying they could close them later. “It seems as though you’d have to be willfully ignorant to believe that these goals are achievable through any other means,” Mr. Kellogg said. “During our training we go through SO much training about ethics and how you CANNOT do that,” another former Wells teller wrote in the Reddit forum. “I got threatened to be fired as a teller with them because I wasn’t meeting my numbers. I told them I didn’t believe in trying to convince someone to spend money they don’t have, get what they don’t need. ” Bank employees were expected to hit sales goals as part of their regular duties. If they hit the goals, it also factored into their yearly bonus. The bank said the goals were only one of several factors used to evaluate an employee’s job performance. But some former employees said they worried that they would lose their jobs if they did not meet them. Other former Wells employees have vented their frustrations in a series of cartoon videos on YouTube that spoof on the bank’s culture — and the fact that they were hardly getting rich from hitting their bosses’ targets. In one video, a cartoon banker drones on: “If tellers and bankers make those sales numbers each day, at the end of the month everybody in the branch will get a $5 gift card to McDonald’s. The district manager will get a $10, 000 cash bonus. ” After the practice of creating phony accounts was first reported in The Los Angeles Times in late 2013, the bank stepped up its monitoring and ethics training, former employees said. For its part, the bank said it had caught the behavior and started firing workers before the article appeared. In San Diego, Mr. Taha said he attended two days of ethics training where employees were shown the difference between valid and improper accounts. But the problems persisted. Mr. Taha, 28, said he fielded complaints from customers about questionable accounts until shortly before he left the bank this summer. He said bank managers had grown weary of writing up reports on potentially improper sales. “It was like jaywalking,” Mr. Taha said of the practice of creating fraudulent accounts. “It was hard to police. ” Mr. Taha now belongs to the Committee for Better Banks, an advocacy group that has been petitioning banks like Wells to improve working conditions for employees. Customers all over the country have experienced the effects of the questionable sales. Early last year, Walter Mankowski, a computer science researcher who lives in Bryn Mawr, Pa. received a Wells Fargo credit card in the mail that he had not applied for. He essentially forgot about the card until months later, when a $45 annual fee for it turned up on one of his account statements. “It took talking to three different people at Wells Fargo to cancel it,” Mr. Mankowski said. “I probably spent half an hour on the phone trying to cancel this card I didn’t know about and didn’t want. ” He is not alone. When the Los Angeles city attorney, Mike Feuer, sued the bank in May of last year over the phony accounts, his office received hundreds of calls from Wells customers and employees. Some of those complaints regarded questionable accounts created only months before the lawsuit was filed. “Clearly the necessity to fire 5, 300 employees shows that there is something that needs to change with Wells internal oversight and with its practices generally,” Mr. Feuer said in an interview. Some customers — even those who were not victims — agree and are voting with their feet. Darin Grantham, 43, a management consultant who lives in Phoenix, said he planned to close his checking, savings and credit card accounts with Wells Fargo this week — not because he had a bad experience, but because “I lost trust in them” because of the scandal. Mr. Stumpf, Wells Fargo’s chief executive, has been called to testify at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday, and federal prosecutors are considering bringing charges. He has publicly said he feels accountable for what has happened, but he blamed workers for “misinterpreting” sales goals. Customers like Mr. Grantham aren’t buying it. “They deny it because they don’t want to affect their bonuses and jobs, but at some level they had to have an idea,” he said of Wells’s senior management. “When employees lose their jobs, it’s not just them — they’re the scapegoats. ” In its settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators, announced last Thursday, Wells agreed to develop a broad “oversight program” of its sales practices, among other measures. But it was not until four days later that the bank announced that it would halt the sales goals altogether — starting Jan. 1. Ms. Eshet said the bank had considered this step for quite some time before finally deciding to eliminate the goals. “We don’t want there to be any doubt on the part of our customers that our team members have their best interest at heart,” she said. Still, the bank decided to wait a few months to implement the change because it needed enough “lead time” to roll out the change correctly, she explained. “It was really important when we are making changes in compensation structure for team members that we get it right,” Ms. Eshet said. | 1 |
PHOENIX — For eight years, Guadalupe García de Rayos had checked in at the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office here, a requirement since she was caught using a fake Social Security number during a raid in 2008 at a water park where she worked. Every year since then, she has walked in and out of the meetings after a brief review of her case and some questions. But not this year. On Wednesday, immigration agents arrested Ms. Rayos, 35. Despite efforts by her family and others who tried to block, legally and physically, her removal from the United States, she was deported Thursday to Nogales, Mexico, the same city where she crossed into the United States 21 years ago. Immigration agents “said she’s a threat, but my wife isn’t a threat,” her husband said in an interview. As one of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, Ms. Rayos was always a candidate for deportation, but as a matter of practicality, the Obama administration had focused its finite resources on removing the most serious criminals. The government even won a deportation order against Ms. Rayos in 2013, but had not carried it out, instead merely requiring her to check in periodically. That all changed under President Trump, who ran on a pledge of being tougher on illegal immigration. Among the 18 executive orders that he has issued since taking office on Jan. 20 is one stipulating that undocumented immigrants convicted of any criminal offense — and even those who have not been charged but are believed to have committed “acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense” — have become a priority for deportation. Immigrants’ rights advocates say the new order could easily apply to a majority of unauthorized immigrants in the United States. “We’re living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants,” Ms. Rayos’s lawyer, Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado, said Wednesday after leaving the building here that houses the federal immigration agency, known by its acronym, ICE. But groups supporting Mr. Trump’s moves on illegal immigration say that the deportations were long overdue, and would stop unauthorized immigrants from taking jobs from citizens, even if it meant that painful deportations would be taking place more often. “It’s easy to put a human face on this one woman,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, adding that he was not opining on the merits of Ms. Rayos’s case. “We can’t precisely pinpoint who the person or people are who might not have gotten a job taken by a person or people here illegally,” he said. “The general principle was we hold the people who violate the laws responsible for the consequences that accrue to other people. ” In a statement Thursday, Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokeswoman for ICE, noted Ms. Rayos’s previous felony conviction and deportation order. Ms. Rayos’s “immigration case underwent review at multiple levels of the immigration court system, including the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the judges held she did not have a legal basis to remain in the U. S.,” Ms. O’Keefe said. “ICE will continue to focus on identifying and removing individuals with felony convictions who have final orders of removal issued by the nation’s immigration courts. ” Lawyers from two of the nation’s leading civil rights’ groups said Ms. Rayos might be the first unauthorized immigrant to be arrested during a scheduled meeting with immigration officials since Mr. Trump took office. Ms. Rayos was 14 when she left Acambaro, a city in an impoverished corner of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, and sneaked across the border into Nogales, Ariz. a drive from Phoenix. She married — her husband is also undocumented, and thus did not want his name published — and gave birth to a boy and a girl, who are now in their teens. Ms. Rayos was working at Golfland Sunsplash in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, when Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies swooped in on Dec. 16, 2008, arresting her and several other employees on charges of suspicion of identity theft and using forged documents to obtain employment. The raid was one of the first ordered by Joe Arpaio, who was sheriff at the time, under an Arizona law authorizing sanctions against employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants. She spent three months in a county jail, followed by three months in immigration detention, she told a reporter. In 2013, an immigration court ordered that she be sent back to Mexico, but her case had been on hold since the federal authorities — under the Obama administration — decided not to act on the deportation order. Her son, Angel, still remembers the evening of her arrest — the knock on the door, the flashlight on the darkened living room, the sight of handcuffs on his mother’s wrists. “I was in second grade,” he said. “I never forgot that night, and I’ve lived in fear of losing my mother every night since then. ” Ms. Rayos was afraid to go to her appointment on Wednesday, knowing what might happen. Carlos Garcia, executive director of Puente, an immigrants’ rights group, told her she could skip it and go into hiding or seek refuge at a church in North Phoenix, joining two other unauthorized immigrants facing deportation who have lived there for months. She decided to face the odds. Before her appointment, Ms. Rayos and her family attended Mass. Later, she stopped for a moment, clasped her hands and bowed her head, as if she were reciting a silent prayer. “I have faith in God,” Ms. Rayos said, pinching her forehead and trying not to cry. She walked toward the gates that surround the ICE building, followed by Mr. Garcia and a small army of Puente volunteers, the same group that staged numerous protests against Mr. Arpaio at the height of his pursuit of unauthorized immigrants. The volunteers chanted, “No estás sola,” Spanish for “you are not alone. ” When it became clear that Ms. Rayos would not walk out of the building, the protesters were ready. As a van carrying Ms. Rayos left the ICE building Wednesday, they surrounded it, chanting, “Liberation, not deportation. ” Her daughter, Jacqueline, joined in, holding a sign that read, “Not one more deportation. ” One man, Manuel Saldana, tied himself to one of the van’s front wheels and said, “I’m going to stay here as long as it takes. ” Soon, police officers in helmets had surrounded Mr. Saldana. They cut off the ties holding him to the tire and rounded up at least six others who were blocking the front and back of the van, arresting them all. The driver quickly put the van in reverse and rolled back inside the building. Ms. Rayos was one of several detainees inside the van. Later, a vehicle was seen leaving the building under police escort, and her husband said he suspected she might have been inside. On Thursday, Ms. Rayos’s husband and children received a call from her, telling them she was in Nogales, Mexico, just south of the Arizona border. His daughter had stayed with protesters until long past midnight. By sunrise, she was back home, packing her mother’s suitcase — her toothpaste, her brush, her favorite pants and shirts. “Nobody should have to pack her mother’s bag,” she said, her lips quivering, tears filling her eyes. “It isn’t fair. ” | 1 |
As feminism erodes down to its tattooed, lesbian core, we should stop and take a moment to wonder what the point of the third wave part of feminism was. Although it ultimately proves destructive to western societies to give women “equality,” at least the first and second wave had something legitimate to bitch about. Third wave feminism; not so much, and today we’ll talk about the underlying motives and the end game of it all.
When one looks at modern feminism, you see women who have “flipped the script,” to use their term, and rewired life so that men are not necessary for them. A modern feminist has her own job that can meet her needs, but maybe not all her wants, and has her own small place with her cat(s) and Netflix. When she wants the company of men, she goes out and sluts it up and is always successful due to the biological imperative of men.
On the surface, a feminist woman may appear to be the analog of a Red Pill Man, yet, upon closer examination, she is actually an imperfect copy. A man works harder, more dangerous jobs, and makes more money because of it, thus he has money for anything he wants and more. A proper man has interesting hobbies and a healthy, fit lifestyle, and he must do this to fulfill his potential and inner drive, but also because he realizes that normal men do not get laid due to hypergamy and he must be the best he can be if he wants to be successful with women.
However, the most crucial difference lies in the outcome. Women, who outlast their shelf lives while still being single are miserable, and I fully expect the suicide rate of women of my generation to skyrocket in about 5 years from now. Men, whose value is based on their production and can enjoy a later in life peak than women, also can live for other things than companionship and family, and can be quite happy on their own, even if they did want a family at one time, or still do.
So, the question is, if women, despite their feminist pandering to the contrary, actually DO want a man to live with and grow old with, why is third wave feminism devoted to stopping that in every which way? The answer, like most things, lies in the red pill philosophy. Women, including feminists, only want the best men; modern feminism is nothing more than a nuclear-level shit test.
A woman needs an alpha man like a fish needs water SJW society today tells us that men are not supposed to hit on women in the grocery store, in the bookstore, or at the coffee shop because that’s a precursor to stalking or some shit. At night, you’re not supposed to hit on girls at the bar or club, because they are there with the friends and not looking for that. At work, you’re not even supposed to talk to women about anything other than work-related topics because that’s harassment.
If you are wondering where is a guy supposed to meet girls, then you get the point and the answer is that you’re not. Feminists, and women in general, know that any man who actually allows them to regulate his behavior is not a man worth having in the first place, so they are only interested in men that see that the answer to feminism’s constraints is to ignore them in the first place.
Combining the above shit test with hypergamy will result in a winning combo. If a man is successful, good looking, and alpha enough, he has a good chance of pulling another man’s wife directly out of their marriage and family and taking her away. Women are ultimately interested only in their own self interest and that means, when confronted with the best man she has ever beheld, she will go against feminism because it is not in her own best self interest at the time, and instead, be receptive to the man in hopes of snaring him.
Ultimately, women DO still need and want men, they just don’t want to be bothered by inferior men, and third wave feminism does a good job of convincing the betas to stay away until they are wanted for their paychecks by post-Wall NASCAR-style wrecks of women.
When is enough enough? When you look at feminism logically (which is hard), you can come up with the premise that women have been disadvantaged over history, and feminism is an effort to balance the scales. They will disguise it in self-depreciating irony “feminism is the radical notion that men and women are equal,” but what they really men is that men and women should be equal over the balance of history, and, since women have been so disadvantaged, men had better get ready for some suck to square the accounts.
I bet she’s been in 100 ROK articles by now…
The question then follows, if men “owe” women, how much are we talking? Can it ever be paid off, or have women been so heinously treated over the entirety of our existence that there will never be enough atonement to make up for it? I have three theories.
It could be that men have apparently treated women so badly for all time that it can never be paid off because it’s an absolute. The problem with absolutes is they lack scope. The worst atrocities in history have been borne by both men and women alike, and it could be said that men have borne the heavier half, as they are usually expected to die before defeat in war, whereas women, although they get raped by the conquerors, at least get to live. I doubt most women have been treated that badly, though, on the balance, so there is probably some finite amount of penance men would do to restore “equality.”
The other two theories center on the idea that, eventually, men will atone for all faults perceived by feminism, and the only difference lies in what happens then. My second idea is not a noble one, but it is probably the most accurate. Feminists, you see, are not for equality, they are for female supremacy, and, once “equality” is reached, women will get to be on top for millennia. Some would say we are already at that point, and this is why anyone who is not a feminist can see why the movement has faltered and lost whatever relevance it ever had. When you already have it all, shouldn’t you stop and try to actually make things equal, that is, if you actually have moral integrity?
That’s the third idea, the concept of, once all debts are paid, “true equality” would rule. I doubt this one would ever happen, as our victimhood-empowerment culture makes it advantageous to be a victim, and you can’t be a victim if your demographic is on top. Plus, being “feelers,” not “thinkers,” the average woman lacks the intellectual capacity to be honest with themselves.
Conclusion Combining the idea of feminism being a massive shit test to guys and a scam to win money and prizes from society just because you have a vagina, one can see that the only solution is to treat it like the cult bullshit it is. While that is nothing new for those of us here at Return of Kings , and nothing new for those our message reaches, the reason we must treat it like that has hopefully been a little more exposed to the light here.
The reason that feminism makes no sense, and makes it seem like all men have no way to succeed and must lose everything is because that is precisely the point. There is no way to win, there is no equality, there is only female superiority, males that go along with it, and men that do not.
Read More: Feminism Has Lost The Minds Of Young Women
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Many humans are discovering they have unique abilities that science can’t explain, suggesting that we may have untapped potential beyond our wildest dreams. Since the majority of people have yet to realize this potential, there is a certain mysticism surrounding this phenomenon, which is why many perceive people with special capabilities as “superhumans.” One of the more recent superhumans to share his talent with the world is Nong Yousui , a young boy from Dahua, China. Nong Yousui and His Superhuman Eyesight Like many babies, Nong Yousui was born with blue eyes; however, Nong’s eyes have a certain brightness that set him apart from other blue-eyed children. Later in life, he discovered that the colour of his eyes wasn’t his only unique attribute, as he claims to have perfect vision in complete darkness. Naturally, his father brought Nong to the hospital in search for answers. As his father explained , “They [doctors] told me he would grow out of it and that his eyes would stop glowing and turn black like most Chinese people but they never did.” Even though Nong can see clearly in the dark, he has difficulty seeing in sunlight and finds bright light uncomfortable. His teacher also claims that when light is shined directly into Nong’s eyes in the dark, they reflect a neon green tone. When Nong’s story first went public, a skeptical Chinese journalist decided to formally test his claim. The journalist created a set of questionnaires for the boy to complete in a controlled setting, a pitch black dark room. After completing the tests, his results clearly proved that the boy can see, read, and write perfectly in complete darkness. The World Record Academy , the organization that certifies world records, deemed Nong Yousui as the first person to be able to see in the dark and awarded him with a world record. Check out the following video about Nong Yousui and his ability to see in the dark: http://www.medicaldaily.com/chinese-boy-nong-yousui-can-see-pitch-dark-scientists-unconvinced-253207 The Scientific Debate Surrounding Nong’s Night Vision Nong’s story has generated a lot of publicity, mostly outside mainstream media (not surprisingly), though it has attracted attention from the scientific community as well. Many scientists remain skeptical of Nong’s unique eyesight because it doesn’t make sense according to human evolution. As James Reynolds , a pediatric ophthalmologist at State University of New York in Buffalo, explained, evolution is a slow process: “Evolutionarily, mutations can result in differences that allow for new environmental niche exploitation. But such mutations are modified over long periods. A functional tapetum in a human would be just as absurd as a human born with wings. It can’t happen.” Although evolution clearly occurred in nature, it is important to note that there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the theory of evolution and its relationship to modern-day humans. A University of Glasgow study performed in 2000 proved that modern man was not in fact descended from Neanderthals, a species believed to be our ancestors, disproving the out-of-Africa model of modern human evolution. I’m not suggesting that Darwin’s work was wrong whatsoever; I’m simply reiterating the fact that it is a theory that has been applied to humans and that specific parts of it have been disproven, including the hypothesis that we evolved from Neanderthals. With that, I think it’s presumptuous to state that the theory of human evolution negates the reality of Nong’s night vision, when we’re still searching for answers surrounding human evolution in general. Nong’s night vision seems more plausible when you consider all of the other species with similar capabilities. Numerous animals including cats and those that are nocturnal have incredible night vision due to a thin layer of cells that exists in their eyes called the tapetum lucidum (as mentioned above). When light shines directly into these animals’ eyes, their eyes appear to glow, similar to Nong’s. What We Can Learn From Nong’s Story This isn’t the first time we’ve observed incredible capabilities in human eyes. Many people have claimed to heal their eyesight naturally and there have been studies performed on humans that have successfully improved their night vision (read our article about it here ). Eyes have also been referred to as the gateway to the soul, which means they could be used as a tool to look beyond the physical world and into the spiritual. Like Nong, many other people have come forward to share their superhuman abilities with the public — abilities for which scientists have had no explanations. Many of these people are enlightened beings, such as monks who can generate heat and have supernormal mental capabilities. Another infamous ‘superhuman,’ Wim Hof , can submerge his body in ice for hours while meditating and his body temperature remains stable, an ability which still baffles scientists. Why should we automatically doubt a young boy’s uniqueness because science tells us to? It’s time we put our scientific egos aside, accept the fact that some things are inexplicable (for now), and recognize that what we deem impossible may sometimes be possible. To read more about other people with superhuman capabilities, check out our article: | 0 |
VIDEOS If Clinton goes down, Loretta Lynch will go down with her Loretta Lynch’s ties to the Clintons go back to 1999 when then-President Bill Clinton appointed her to run the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office October 31, 2016
Oh, Loretta.
I’ll bet that AG Loretta Lynch is shaking in her boots right now, because when Hillary Clinton goes down, Lynch’s career will go down with her. Heck, maybe they’ll even be cellmates.
Loretta Lynch’s ties to the Clintons go back to 1999 when then-President Bill Clinton appointed her to run the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office. She left in 2002 and went into private practice, but returned to the Brooklyn office in 2010 at the behest of President Barack Obama. ( Here’s her official bio. )
In 2015, she was sworn in to become the 83rd Attorney General of the United States, taking the place of the blatantly corrupt Attorney General, Eric Holder , who will probably be most famous for his roles in the Fast and Furious operation, inciting racial tensions, and his mishandling of the Lois Lerner/IRS debacle. First, there was the secret airplane meeting with Bill Clinton
It all started to publically go downhill for Lynch during the first investigation into Hillary Clinton’s carelessness with national secrets via her home email server . Right before FBI Director James Comey was to meet with Hillary Clinton to interrogate her about the subject, Lynch was busted having a secret meeting with Bill Clinton. The Washington Post reported: Clinton’s private, unplanned meeting with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch at the Phoenix airport last week, coming at a time when the Justice Department should be nearing completion of its examination of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server for her emails as secretary of state, will inevitably — and negatively — affect public attitudes about that investigation… …Lynch has tried to make amends, though not without leaving some confusion in her wake. In a conversation Friday with Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart at the Aspen Ideas Festival, she insisted again that the conversation was innocent — about grandchildren and golf and such — and did not touch on the investigation of the emails. But she said she recognized that others would not see it that way. “The fact that the meeting that I had is now casting a shadow over how people are going to view that work is something that I take seriously, and deeply and painfully,” she said. Lynch said that she would “be accepting” whatever recommendation the career prosecutors and FBI Director James B. Comey bring her — though she did not say she would remove herself completely from the case. She also said she had made that decision some months ago but was only now making it public.
Of course, it was all much easier for Lynch to abide by the decision when Comey miraculously found that Hillary Clinton was not criminal in her negligence with national secrets.
Now, though, people are asking questions about that ill-founded meeting. Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit for “all records” related to the illicit meeting between Attorney General Lynch and former President Bill Clinton. “On June 29, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch is reported to have met privately with former President Bill Clinton on board a parked private plane at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. The meeting occurred during the then-ongoing investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s email server, and mere hours before the Benghazi report was released publicly involving both Mrs. Clinton and the Obama administration. Judicial Watch filed a request on June 30 that the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General investigate that meeting.” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that during that meeting, Bill Clinton may have offered to extend Lynch’s position in the AG’s office during a Hillary Clinton administration. Then she blocked a congressional investigation into the notorious Iranian ransom payment.
Last week, AG Lynch blocked a congressional investigation into the cash payments that the Obama administration made to Iran by pleading the Fifth. The Washington Free Beacon reported: Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of Congress about the Obama administration’s secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has “pleaded the Fifth” Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon … …“It is frankly unacceptable that your department refuses to answer straightforward questions from the people’s elected representatives in Congress about an important national security issue,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your staff failed to address any of our questions, and instead provided a copy of public testimony and a lecture about the sensitivity of information associated with this issue.” “As the United States’ chief law enforcement officer, it is outrageous that you would essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries,” they stated. “The actions of your department come at time when Iran continues to hold Americans hostage and unjustly sentence them to prison.”
How very judicial of her. Lynch tried to shut Comey up about the new investigation into the Clinton emails.
Now, even the mainstream media can’t turn its head.
Earlier I wrote about the fact that FBI Director James Comey made the decision on his own to go public about the new investigation into the Hillary Clinton emails. But let’s talk a little further about Lynch’s desperate attempts to shut him up.
The New York Times reported that the Justice Department “strongly discouraged Comey” against releasing the information: The day before the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, sent a letter to Congress announcing that new evidence had been discovered that might be related to the completed Hillary Clinton email investigation, the Justice Department strongly discouraged the step and told him that he would be breaking with longstanding policy, three law enforcement officials said on Saturday. Senior Justice Department officials did not move to stop him from sending the letter, officials said, but they did everything short of it, pointing to policies against talking about current criminal investigations or being seen as meddling in elections.
How interesting that it’s seen as “influencing the election” to investigate someone now but it wasn’t back when she was investigated and not charged. I’m not sure exactly how that works, but according to USA Today (emphasis mine), a “…federal official familiar with Comey’s decision said Saturday that the FBI director considered the attorney general’s advice during a spirited discussion of the matter Thursday and early Friday but felt compelled to act.” Do you remember Janet Reno?
Poor Janet was another Attorney General who went down for the Clintons. She was also sworn in as AG under Bill Clinton, and many questioned her appointment at the time. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune : She arrived in Washington from Miami as Caesar’s wife, and so she has remained. She was ignorant and independent of insider D.C. and has stayed that way. Bill Clinton never much liked her and never confided in her, and she reciprocated.
She became AG just in time to take the fall for the debacle in Waco , actually. According to History.com The Waco standoff had already begun by the time Janet Reno became the first female attorney general on March 12, 1993. She approved the FBI’s tear gas plan the following month, explaining that negotiations with the Branch Davidians had stalemated and that the children inside the compound were at risk. “We will never know whether there was a better solution,” Reno said in 1995. “Everyone involved … made their best judgments based on all the information we had.” Nonetheless, a Republican-led congressional report called her decision “premature, wrong and highly irresponsible.” She was also criticized when facts emerged contradicting some of her earlier statements.
The Tribune post continued to discuss Reno’s position as a scapegoat: Every day since she took office , she has been supervising at least one probe embarrassing to Clinton–Whitewater, fundraising, Lewinsky, China espionage, etc. Clinton can’t afford the political beating he would take if he cashiered her. …But no such attorney general could have survived the Clinton scandals, much less survived them with her own reputation–and her department’s–intact.
Attorney Generals who have anything to do with the Clintons don’t seem to fare too well. They end up so embroiled in Clinton scandals that they, too, are pulled down into the mire, regardless of what their intentions were when they started out. Lynch can see her future…and it has something to do with “Help Wanted” ads
The last time Lynch was involved in the Clinton email kerfuffle, she promised to abide by FBI Director James Comey’s recommendation.
I wonder if she’ll make that same promise this time?
She really can’t, because if she does, it will show she was complicit with the Clintons the last time around, and also this time when she decried Comey’s release of information about the investigation.
I wonder if she and Hillary Clinton will be able to get adjoining cells when/if the truth comes out. Via Daisy Luther Daisy Luther is a single mom who lives in a small village in the mountains of Northern California, where she homeschools her youngest daughter and raises veggies, chickens, and a motley assortment of dogs and cats. She is a best-selling author who has written several books, including The Organic Canner , The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget , and The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide: Harvest, Treat, and Store Your Most Vital Resource . Daisy is a prolific blogger who has been widely republished throughout alternative media. On her website, The Organic Prepper , Daisy uses her background in alternative journalism to provide a unique perspective on health, self-reliance, personal liberty, and preparedness. You can follow her on Facebook , Pinterest , and Twitter . | 0 |
Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” while discussing President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn working as a foreign agent during the presidential campaign, Mika Brzezinski said declared the Trump presidency as having “no credibility where we stand right now. ” Brzezinski said, “It’s staggering … They have made a joke of the entire transition process, and this presidency has no credibility where we stand right now. I don’t say that with hysteria. I don’t say that with shrillness. I say that with a deep sense of concern for how we often cover this story because there are people who believe Trump from start to finish and he’s not telling the truth. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
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As the end of Obama’s term in office approaches, it may be of interest to evaluate his performance on Latin America. One of Obama’s foreign policy promises at the beginning of his first term was to change the way America does business with Latin America.
The promise to change the way America does business in its backyard was a significant one because the way America has played in its backyard has a long and consistently appalling history. The history of interference and regime change began early when President McKinley betrayed Cuba and stole it under the deceptive promise of liberating it from Spain. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt severed Panama from Columbia, declared it an independent nation and put in power a government whose first act was to sign over the future Panama Canal. In a little discussed maneuver, the U.S. cooperated with the 1908 removal of Venezuelan President Juan Vicente Gómez. In 1909, President Taft removed Nicaragua’s José Santos Zelaya because he insisted that US companies in Nicaragua honor their agreements and tried to make his country less dependent on the US by borrowing from European, and not American, banks.
In the modern era, 1954 saw Eisenhower order the CIA overthrow of Guatemala’s Jacobo Arbenz. In 1959-1960, Eisenhower would also start the covert action to remove Fidel Castro from Cuba. Kennedy would continue to rain "the terrors of the earth" on Cuba. He would also begin the Brazilian coup that would overthrow Goulart in 1964 and undertake a political action to encourage the removal of Cheddi Jagan from power in Guyana. In 1971, Nixon would brutalize Chile with the coup against Salvador Allende. President Omar Torrijos of Panama would die in a plane crash in 1981. In The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now , John Perkins has claimed that Torrijos’ plane crash was another US assassination. Though it has never been proven that Torrijos’ death was a CIA assassination, there is some evidence that, at least earlier, consideration of his assassination was on the table. At the close of 1989, George H.W. Bush, in an unprovoked attack on the civilian population of a nation that had never threatened America, would take out Panama’s Manuel Noriega. At the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was twice removed from power over the popular voice of Haitians. The Latin American coups would continue through George W. Bush’s unpopular and short lived 2002 removal of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
So, it is not unimportant to evaluate Obama’s performance on his promise to change this tragic and shameful history. It’s not unimportant, but it is unimpressive.
It didn’t take long for the first indication that nothing had changed. On June 28, 2009, Honduras’ democratically elected President, Manuel Zelaya, was seized at gunpoint, removed in a coup and whisked away in a plane that refueled at a US military base.
After the coup, US support to the Honduran military only increased. The American ambassador was never recalled, and the US refused to join the call of the United Nation’s General Assembly and the Organization of American States for the return of the elected President. Though the Organization of American States (OAS) refused to recognize the new coup president, the US State Department refused to join in that too. In fact, following an election that the OAS, the U.N. and others refused to recognize, the US would insist on recognizing the coup government as the victor of the election.
But, despite the refusal to call Zelaya’s removal at gunpoint a coup, and despite recognizing the coup government as the legitimate government of Honduras, the Obama White House knew it was a coup. By July 24, 2009, less than a month after the coup, the White House was in receipt of a cable sent from the US embassy in Honduras. In an almost comic lack of subtlety that was clearly never meant to be public, the cable is called "Open and Shut: the Case of the Honduran Coup". In it, the embassy says "There is no doubt that the military, Supreme Court and National Congress conspired on June 28 in what constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup . . . ." Their conclusions could not be clearer: the embassy explicitly calls it a "coup" and says that "[t]here is no doubt". And just in case there were any remaining objections, the cable adds that ". . . none of the . . . arguments [of the coup defenders] has any substantive validity under the Honduran constitution".
At best, Obama cooperated with the coup by maintaining silence, though his administration was engaged in dialogue with the rebellious military up to the day of the coup, and by recognizing the coup government as the legitimate government of Honduras. Latin American expert Mark Weisbrot told me in a correspondence that "the Obama administration acknowledged that they were talking to the [Honduran] military right up to the day of the coup, allegedly to convince them not to do it". But, he added, "I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t convince them not to do it if they really wanted to: the Honduran military is pretty dependent on the US" The charge was reiterated by Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle , the minister of culture in the Zelaya government, who said on Democracy Now that "I know for a fact that CIA operatives and military personnel of the United States were in direct contact with the conspirators of the coup d’état and aided the conspirators of the coup d’état." At worst, Obama was, as Zelaya has always insisted, involved in the coup. Zelaya claims that "the coup came from the north form the US" In the heat of the coup, the plane that was carrying the kidnapped president landed at the US military base of Palmerola for fifteen to twenty minutes while it refueled, despite the close proximity of its destination. After the coup, then Secretary of State Clinton has admitted that she aided the coup government by shoring up the coup government blocking the return of the elected government: "In the subsequent days [after the coup] I spoke with my counterparts around the hemisphere, including Secretary [Patricia] Espinosa in Mexico. We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot."
After the coup against Zelaya, Ecuador’s popularly elected president, Rafael Correa, said, "We have intelligence reports that say that after Zelaya, I’m next." He may have been right.
The year after the Honduran coup, there was an attempted coup on Correa. Although the action failed, Latin American expert Mark Weisbrot says it was clearly an attempted coup to overthrow the government of Rafael Correa.
Corrrea had renegotiated oil contracts and demanded a bigger share of the big oil companies’ revenue for the people of Ecuador. He also opposed a free trade agreement with the US and closed the US military base in Ecuador. He joined Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador in the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and successfully defaulted on over $3 billion of foreign debt that was illegitimately contacted by Ecuadorian leaders Correa said were CIA supported dictators.
Prior to Obama, the US had started action against Correa. An October 2005 embassy cable sent by US ambassador Linda Jewell outlined action for "desirable political and economic change in Ecuador." In 2006, she cabled that a Correa election would "derail" US hopes as the embassy expects Correa to join Chavez and other nationalist South American leaders." In the same cable [06QUITO2150], Jewell said that the US has "actively discouraged potential alliances" with Correa. She admitted [06QUITO2991] to "working in concert with other Ecuadorians and groups who share our vision."
During the Obama years, the US would continue to intervene in Ecuador. In March 2009, Ecuador expelled Mark Sullivan, an American official whom they accused of being the CIA station chief in Quito and whom they accused of playing a role in the suspension of US assistance to a special investigative police unit when Ecuador named a new chief of whom the US didn’t approve.
On October 30, 2010, the coup Correa had been expecting came. The coup leader was a graduate of the School of the Americas. A government appointed commission found that "foreign actors" had been involved in the coup. One of members of the commission announced his belief that the US State Department and the CIA had been involved.
The same year, Obama failed his next test. That year, America bankrolled the Haitian elections. The cost was 14 million dollars: a price tag that presumably gave America some say. But Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) banned fourteen parties from running in the election. The CEP was handpicked by the ruling party in a process that is not recognized by Haiti’s constitution.
Fanmi Lavalas, the party of Jean Bertrand Aristide, who was twice removed in US sponsored coups, is the largest and the most popular party in Haiti. It has won every election it has been allowed to participate in. That it has been allowed to participate in, that is. But in this US backed election, Fanmi Lavalas was not allowed to participate: it was banned by the CEP.
The US and its allies continued to influence the Haitian elections when they supported a runoff between two unpopular candidates representing essentially the same side. But the second round runoff between the two candidates was illegal because the CEP never accomplished the number of votes to ratify the first round results that selected them.
The Obama administration financed the election that specifically excluded the party the people wanted to elect. And, in doing so, Obama broke his foreign policy promise to Latin America and very quietly continued to do business with Latin America in the same interventionist way the US had always done business with Latin America.
The next indicator of a failing grade came in Paraguay, where in June 2012, Fernando Lugo, the democratically elected leader of Paraguay was removed in a coup. The right wing opposition opportunistically capitalized on a skirmish over disputed land that left at least eleven people dead to unfairly blame the deaths on President Lugo. It then impeached him after giving him only twenty-four hours to prepare his defense and only two hours to deliver it. The Latin American organizations Unasur and Mercosur suspended the new Paraguayan government; the US spent coup day negotiating a new military base in Paraguay. As in Honduras, they never used the word “coup”.
But they could have used the word if they hadn’t wanted to support the coup with their silence. As early as 2009, US embassy cables say that Lugo’s political opposition has as its goal to "Capitalize on any Lugo missteps" and to "impeach Lugo and assure their own political supremacy". The cable notes that to achieve their goal, they are willing to "legally" impeach Lugo "even if on spurious grounds". Obama knew it was a coup: the US had been tipped off about the strategy and told what it would look like.
The next year, 2013, the interference moved to Venezuela. Against the wishes of the United States, Hugo Chavez’ successor, Nicolás Maduro, won the right to continue the Bolivarian Revolution by winning the next national election. America was the only country in the world to refuse to recognize the election results , though 150 electoral monitors from around the world monitored Venezuela’s election, including delegations from the Union of South American Nations and the Carter Center.
Two years later, in 2015, the Obama administration again became involved in Venezuela. Contrary to Obama’s promise, business went on as usual with American money being pumped into Venezuela to fund groups who oppose Maduro. Since 2000, $90 million has poured into Venezuela. That sort of interference in Venezuela is not suggestive of a new way of doing business in Latin America. In 2015, that US funded opposition once again attempted to pull off a coup in Venezuela. Maduro explicitly accused the Americans of, as in 2002, being involved.
The accusation is not an empty one. Venezuelan officials have produced a significant volume of evidence that the events constitute a failed coup and that the US was involved. They have produced a recording of a communique that was to be issued after the Maduro government was removed from power. They have shown confessions by military officials. And they have admitted as evidence a recorded phone conversation between opposition leaders discussing the coup. The day before the planned coup, Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, who is known to have made phone calls to a US number, Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Corina Machado, both major opposition leader of last year’s attempt to remove Maduro from power – an attempt that they made clear was an attempted coup by saying that they would not to stop until they “ got rid of Maduro " – signed a National Transition Agreement. Weapons were also found in the office of the opposition party.
Lucas Koerner of Venezuelanalysis.com adds that the aircraft to be used as part of the failed coup has links to the notorious American security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater). And it has been reported that a number of the coup leaders obtained US visas from the American embassy to facilitate escape should the coup fail.
And, just this past May, President Maduro has declared a state of emergency, accusing the US of once again conspiring with right wing groups in Venezuela to overthrow his government. Maduro says that “Washington is activating measures at the request of Venezuela’s fascist right.”
In perhaps his final chance to make good on his promise to do business with Latin America differently, Obama has, once again, disappointed by maintaining American silence on the coup in Brazil. How do we know that Obama should have spoken out against the take over of parliament by an unelected party? How do we know that it was a coup? Because the unelected party said so. Twice: both before the coup and after.
The publication of a transcript of the call between Romero Jucá, who was a senator at the time of the call and is currently the planning minister in Michael Temer’s new government, and former oil executive Sergio Machado, provides incontrovertible proof that the removal of the elected President was a coup. The phone call lays bare “a national pact” to remove Dilma and install Temer as President. Jucá reveals that, not only opposition politicians, but also the military and the Supreme Court are conspirators in the coup. Regarding the military’s role, Jucá says, “I am talking to the generals, the military commanders. They are fine with this, they said they will guarantee it.” And, as for the Supreme Court, Glenn Greenwald reports that Jucá admits that he “spoke with and secured the involvement of numerous justices on Brazil’s Supreme Court.” Jucá further boasted that “there are only a small number” of Supreme Court justices that he had not spoken to.
So confident is Michel Temer that he has US support for his coup that he is comfortable to openly boast about it in the US in front of an audience of business and foreign policy leaders. Temer clearly told his American audience that elected President Dilma Rousseff was not removed from power for "violating fiscal laws by using loans from public banks to cover budget shortfalls, which artificially enhanced the budget surplus" as the official charge stated. She was, the new, unelected President admitted, removed because of her refusal to implement a right wing economic plan that was inconsistent with the economic platform Brazilians elected her on. Temer’s economic plan featured cuts to health, education and welfare spending as well as increased emphasis on privatization and deregulation.
Rousseff was not on board. So she was thrown overboard. In the words of Temer’s comfortable confession :
And many months ago, while I was still vice president, we released a document named ‘A Bridge to the Future’ because we knew it would be impossible for the government to continue on that course. We suggested that the government should adopt the theses presented in that document called ‘A Bridge to the Future.’ But, as that did not work out, the plan wasn’t adopted and a process was established which culminated with me being installed as president of the republic.
Confession. Cased closed.
And just to remove any doubt that the coup government’s motivation was not indignation at Rouseff’s fiscal maneuver, one of the coup government’s first acts of legislation was to explicitly legalize the very budgetary act they had impeached Rousseff for two days earlier.
So, once again, at best, Obama gets a low grade on his foreign policy promise for maintaining silence on what he knows to be a coup in Latin America. Silence is support. At worst, he gets a failing grade for cooperating with the coup.
American participation in the Brazilian coup has not been established. But, “there is no doubt that the biggest players in this coup attempt – people like former presidential candidates José Serra and Aécio Neves – are US government allies," according to Latin American exert Mark Weisbrot. And Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Professor of Sociology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says that Brazil is awash in financing from American sources, including “CIA-related organizations.”
The very day after the impeachment vote, Senator Aloysio Nunes of the coup government began a three day visit to Washington . Nunes is a significant player in the coup government: he was the vice-presidential candidate on the 2014 ticket that lost to President Rousseff and a key player in the effort to impeach President Rousseff in the senate. Nunes scheduled meetings with, amongst others, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker and Ben Cardin, as well as with Undersecretary of State and former Ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon. Though Nunes denies it, there are reports that his trip to Washington was ordered by Michel Temer. The willingness to go ahead with the planned meetings with Nunes right after the impeachment vote demonstrates, once again, at least tacit acceptance or approval on the part of Washington.
So, Obama broke his promise. His foreign policy in Latin America may be more silent and more subtle, but the way he has done business with Latin America has not broken from the long line of Presidents who preceded him. At a rapid and consistent rate of almost one each year, Obama has done business as usual in America’s backyard: 2009 in Honduras; 2010 in Haiti and, perhaps, Ecuador; 2012 in Paraguay; 2013 in Venezuela; 2015 in Venezuela again and 2016 in Brazil.
Ted Snider writes on analyzing patterns in US foreign policy and history. An earlier version of this article was published on ConsortiumNews . Read more by Ted Snider | 0 |
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CAREFUL to dispose of the nuclear codes under the cover of darkness, US president Barack Obama began digging at an unknown patch of earth behind the White House at 3am this morning, WWN has learned.
However, there was some urgency required as first light began to break over the horizon and Obama, along with two aides, had yet to bury the modest box which contained the codes to all of America’s nuclear warhead missiles.
“Just shout the safety word we agreed on if you see anyone coming, even if it’s Michelle, no one can know it’s here, maybe we can tell her where they are when she runs in 8 years time,” Obama said to a secret service official as his brow glistened with sweat.
Now clawing at the earth in a frantic fashion with his bare hands fuelled by images of a tiny orange hand plunging its digits onto the ‘launch nuclear weapon’ button, the Democrat felt he could take no chances with the codes as Republican candidate Donald Trump was leading in some national polls.
“Whose job is it to regularly water the grass here, I want his ass fired, it’s been hell digging here, it’s so hard and dry,” Obama added, unaware watering the White House lawns was the official duty of the president of the country.
Finishing burying the box containing the codes, Obama used the shovel to dab down the freshly overturned soil before striking his aides over the back of the head with the digging tool.
“No one can know where it’s buried, no one,” Obama added, as he dragged their unconscious bodies to another patch of White House lawn, whereby he set about digging two fresh holes. | 0 |
With its grasslands and oppressive heat, the middle of the Namib Desert may seem like a strange place to go fishing. Yet there Jennifer Guyton and Tyler Coverdale were, standing in a sea of orange sand and brittle yellow grass with their carp pole. But the two Princeton graduate students weren’t trying to catch some sort of dogfish or a literal “sand shark. ” That would be absurd. Instead, they had swapped the hook with a camera so they could investigate the scenery around something much more scientifically sensible: fairy circles. That is what scientists call the mysterious bald spots speckled across Namibia’s grasslands. The rings are six feet to 115 feet wide and are regularly spaced out in a hexagon or honeycomb pattern. As their ethereal name would imply, fairy circles have long bewildered researchers as to their origins. But a new study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature that Ms. Guyton and Mr. Coverdale were involved in seeks to offer some insights into how the enchanting landscapes may have formed. Although the name fairy circles sounds sweet and peaceful, there is passionate scientific disagreement over how they arise, and the two prevailing hypotheses have become adversaries in the dispute. One side suggests that termites, locked in competition with neighboring colonies, create the circles as they fight for dominance and resources. The other says that perpetually thirsty plants simultaneously assist and compete with their neighbors’ roots, causing the vegetation to “ ” into the patterns. The new study suggests that termites and plants may be jointly responsible for forming fairy circle landscapes in Namibia. And it has received mixed reviews from scientists entrenched in the dispute. “We thought both sides of the debate bring in compelling arguments for each of these mechanisms, so why should it be one or the other?” said Corina Tarnita, an ecologist from Princeton University and the study’s author. Dr. Tarnita worked with Juan Bonachela, a mathematician from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, to test the termite and plant explanations in a computer model. They found that either hypothesis could generate the fairy circle features. But when they tested both mechanisms together, the model revealed a second, smaller pattern hidden within the clumps of grass between the fairy circles. “Everyone was focusing on the circles and not what was happening in between them,” said Robert M. Pringle, an ecologist at Princeton and another author on the paper. The next step for the team was to confirm that this second vegetation pattern existed in nature. So they sent Ms. Guyton and Mr. Coverdale to Namibia in 2015 with their camera and fishing pole. Ms. Guyton said that each of the grassy patterns was as different as fingerprints, but were mathematically similar. By comparing the photos with their model, the team verified that the second pattern did exist in the grass surrounding the Namibian fairy circles. That finding, they said, confirmed that their mathematics reflected reality and suggested that only by interacting together could insects and plants create the landscape that characterizes Namibian fairy circles. Some fairy circle experts firmly placed in either team termite or team plant had strong doubts about the paper’s findings, while others welcomed it. Norbert Juergens, a biologist from the University of Hamburg in Germany who published the study that said termites engineer fairy circles agreed with the overall findings and said that he hoped they would “be an for all those who since 2013 questioned the termite hypothesis. ” Stephan Getzin, an ecologist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany, was not persuaded, saying in an email that the paper was unable to account for the presence of fairy circles where sand termites were completely absent, as in Australia. “Logically, if there are fairy circles without the presence of termites, the termite theory cannot be considered as a strong explanation for the phenomenon,” he said. Dr. Tarnita responded that their model showed that both termites and plants could make the fairy circles, but that the entire system, which includes the vegetation and the patterns seen in the Namibian fairy circles, needed both. Walter R. Tschinkel, a retired entomologist from Florida State University who was not involved in the study, said in an email that the assumptions the team made about termites in their computer model were untested. “There is no evidence that the real termite Psammotermes allocerus does what the computer ‘termite’ does,” he said. But Max Rietkerk, an environmental scientist from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said that the authors showed that the two hypotheses could have worked together in Namibia’s fairy circles. He also agreed, however, that the argument could use more empirical evidence. Dr. Pringle defended the use of their model, pointing out that it drove the team to discover new empirical evidence that no one had found before, the grass patterns. Despite the team’s attempt to solve the mystery, it seems the fairy circle scuffle flutters on. | 1 |
It took nearly three weeks, 12 closely fought games and a day of tiebreakers to decide the World Chess Championship, but at the end of play on Wednesday, victory went to Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian grandmaster, leaving Sergey Karjakin to return home to Russia in noble defeat. “Karjakin only wanted to prove he was Carlsen’s equal,” said Denes Boros, a Hungarian grandmaster and chess commentator who was at the event. “Carlsen came to prove he was greater. ” In the end, he was. Wednesday was Mr. Carlsen’s 26th birthday, which he said earlier in the week had been good luck in the past. Mr. Karjakin is also 26, making them the youngest pair ever to face off in the world championship. Spectators at the Fulton Market Building in Lower Manhattan, many of them students of past championships, declared the match outstanding, with each player pressing minute advantages or finding inventive defenses against whatever attack the other threw at him. “It’s one of the matches on both sides,” said Lev Alburt, a grandmaster who has followed championship matches since 1954. “Even the fact of many draws, almost all have been achieved in very sharp play. Both players are trying to squeeze something almost from nothing. Where other players would play safe, both keep playing for a win, creating problems for their opponent at a risk to themselves. ” “It’s one of the most exciting championship matches in history,” he said. “If you’re a beginner, you can learn a lot, and if you’re a grandmaster, you can learn a lot. ” Everything got fast and fun on Wednesday, as the solemn, deliberative pace of the first 12 games gave way to rapid action in which mistakes were inevitable. The tiebreakers consisted of four games of chess, with each man given 25 minutes to complete his moves, plus an additional 10 seconds for every move made. After Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur and former chess prodigy, made the ceremonial first move, Mr. Karjakin, playing white, began the day like most others, with the Ruy Lopez opening. Both players started aggressively, with Mr. Carlsen advancing his pawns on the queen side. He stood up from the board twice in the opening minutes. Mr. Karjakin pushed back, but after an exchange of major pieces, the game headed to a draw — a slight advantage for Mr. Carlsen, who now had white for two of the remaining three games. In the next game, with the rain outside wrapping the venue in a gauzy gray, Mr. Carlsen put enormous time pressure on Mr. Karjakin, at one point forcing the Russian’s clock down to near zero. But a combination of creative defense and missed opportunities let Mr. Karjakin escape with a stalemate, eliciting applause from the crowd. “Magnus blew it,” said Maurice Ashley, a grandmaster watching in a V. I. P. area. Then in Game 3, first blood. With Mr. Karjakin again playing white, Mr. Carlsen applied unrelenting pressure on both sides of the board, forcing Mr. Karjakin again to use his clock. This time the challenger did not have a response for Mr. Carlsen’s attack, and they entered the last game with Mr. Karjakin needing a win just to stay alive and force the match into the blitz round. Mr. Carlsen, playing white in Game 4, never gave Mr. Karjakin a chance, opening a slight advantage and pressing it until the challenger had to fight not to lose. This time, Mr. Karjakin’s remarkable ability to eke out draws was of no use. Mr. Carlsen, needing only a draw to win the match, pressed on and won. For Mr. Carlsen, who has been called “the Mozart of chess,” the last two games were a recovery from his mistake in Game 2, which allowed his opponent to escape. After defending brilliantly throughout the match, Mr. Karjakin never managed a serious attack in the tiebreakers. With just three wins in 16 games, Mr. Carlsen retained his title and his reputation as a player with no weaknesses. This was the first world championship match in New York since 1995, and organizers hoped to emulate the luxury boxes at baseball or basketball games, with a V. I. P. lounge where drinks were free and tickets cost up to $1, 200 a day. Regular day passes cost $75 most days. It was a test for chess as an American spectator sport, and the results were mixed. Even in the venue, most spectators followed the game on video monitors or computer simulations of the board, rather than observing the players through the mirrors. Many played their own games as the action was going on. Yet the energy of the crowd at moments was unmistakable, if never exactly at the level of Alabama versus Clemson. The organizers said 10 million people worldwide followed the match online — some paying $15 and up for video, but most watching computer renderings of the board and pieces for free. The winner takes home 60 percent of a prize purse of about $1. 1 million, lower than at some previous championships. Bruce Pandolfini, a writer and teacher, said that history was being made, in part because of the players’ youth and Mr. Carlsen’s celebrity, and also because the match was accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Both players are young enough to build a rivalry for years to come, though three Americans — Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura — were all rated higher than Mr. Karjakin going into the match and are eager for a shot at the title in 2018. If one of them gets that far, he will be the first American to compete for the championship since Bobby Fischer won it in 1972. After the game, Mr. Karjakin suggested that he might have at the expense of his creativity. “Maybe it would be better to have a fresh head and not repeat so much,” he said. Mr. Carlsen said it was the most difficult of his championship matches, adding, “I’m very happy that at the end of the match I managed to find joy in playing. ” He added, “That’s the most important thing. ” | 1 |
Air quality in some East Asian capitals is famously poor, with residents of Beijing taking extreme measures to avoid the health risks associated with heavy pollution. [The problem has grown worse as emerging Asian economies, particularly China, have increased their use of coal and private automobiles. Now, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warn that East Asian pollution may be causing smog along the West Coast of the United States, as nitrogen oxides move on air currents across the Pacific Ocean. National Public Radio reports: The problem, scientists say, is that Asian countries’ emissions of nitrogen oxides — which sunlight then breaks down in reactions that produce ozone — have tripled since 1990. When those harmful gases circulate to North America, they offset gains in U. S. air quality that have come from cutting nitrogen oxide emissions by 50 percent. … The research was published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The study looked at levels of ozone (the key component in smog) from 1980 to 2014. … They concluded that the spike in emissions in Asia “is the major driver” of the rise in ozone levels in the western U. S. for both spring and summer in recent decades. According to the study, which was funded by NASA, U. S. air pollution whose original source is in Asia has increased by 65%. In the 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster, which followed the Japanese tsunami, there were concerns that Pacific air currents could bring radioactive particles across the ocean and into the U. S. Such radiation was first detected in December 2016. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 08:13 UTC © Nutrition Review Mold toxin in cereals, coffee and wine inhibits cell regeneration in the brain. Chronic sinus problems, brain fog, unrelenting fatigue, ice pick headaches, increased gut permeability, and prone to static shocks may be signs of trouble with mold allergies and mold toxins. Sources of molds can easily come from fall foliage decay, water damage from heavy rains, floods, and hurricanes, and even several foods. Exposure to mold leads to not only the common respiratory symptoms, but can cause increased gut permeability and more severe immune disorders like CIRS and Mold-Related Illness. Mold toxins are ubiquitous and must be managed for health. Mold Allergies Mayo Clinic describes mold allergy as similar to other types of upper respiratory allergies. Common symptoms include sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, cough and postnasal drip, itchy eyes, nose and throat, watery eyes, and dry, scaly skin. Mold allergy problems may lead to asthma, fungal sinus infections, and allergic reactions in the lung like allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. In this context, the mold allergies recognized are IgE reactions. IgE reactions reflect immunological inflammation caused by immediate or acute hypersensitivity. This is the same response as someone who eats peanuts or strawberries and develops hives or has anaphylactic symptoms. Treatment focuses on nasal corticosteroids like Flonase and Omnaris along with antihistamines. Natural support for acute allergic mold symptoms focus on antihistamines, reducing congestion, and blocking immune system chemicals like leukotrienes that lead to excess mucus. A number of antihistamine drugs are modeled after the nutrient quercetin, a natural antihistamine and bioflavonoid found in apples, onions, and other natural foods. Carnosine, chlorella, arabinogalactan, B vitamins, vitamin C, D, tocotrienols and DHA help reduce histamine release, help stabilize the immune (mast) cells that release histamine, and help lymphatic congestion. Antihistamine medications are not without side effects. Benadryl affects acetylcholine and may increase the risk for dementia. Mold Toxins In addition to mold allergies, there is the concern of mold toxins impacting the health of the gut and immune system. Changes in childhood growth, increased gut permeability, autoimmune disorders, and even systemic autoimmune inflammatory reactions, known as Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) may occur as a result of mold biotoxins or mycotoxins. Mold emits toxins that the body must detoxify. These substances, known as volatile organic compounds or VOCs, produce the musty odor of mold. Some of the gases produced include hexane, benzene, acetone and methylene chloride. These gases are known for their role in upper respiratory inflammation and sick building syndrome. Another toxic substance produced by mold is trichothecenes. Trichothecenes are toxic metabolites or mycotoxins produced by mold or fungus. They are found in the agricultural and food industry worldwide, which poses health hazards for animals and humans alike. Trichothecenes decrease macrophage activity in the immune system, which may increase the susceptibility to bacteria and viruses. Macrophages are a type of white blood cell that helps clean up cellular debris, germs, cancer cells, etc. It is the pac-man garbage collector of the immune system. Mold Toxins and Gut Changes Foods contaminated with molds are of concern around the globe. Mycotoxins , like aflatoxin, deoxinivalenol (DON), and fumonisins, etc. effect the intestines and cause significant damage to the gut lining and function. The direct impact includes decreased intestinal cell viability, reductions in short chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentrations elimination of beneficial bacteria, increased expression of genes involved in promoting inflammation and counteracting oxidative stress. Researchers report that as technology is able to better measure food contamination to mold toxins, they find "that a significant proportion of the human population is chronically exposed to DON doses exceeding the provisional maximum tolerable daily dose." Recent research demonstrates just how powerful these mold biotoxins are, affecting intestinal function but also damaging immune, endocrine, and neurological function, and stunting the growth process in children . Animal and human studies focus on three major mycotoxins - aflatoxin (AF), fumonisin (FUM), and deoxynivaenol (DON). These different toxins have distinct actions, but they all cause intestinal damage, affect protein synthesis and create inflammation. As a result of consuming foods contaminated with mycotoxins, children in this study experienced environmental enteropathy. This is a low grade chronic condition of the small intestine that causes poor absorption of nutrients and increased intestinal permeability (Leaky Gut Syndrome). The mycotoxin contaminated food causes a breakdown in the villi or fingerlike projections of the gut resulting in inflammation affecting the entire body. Researchers believe that the chronic exposure to mycotoxins in the food supply contributed significantly to loss of growth, wasting, and stunting in these children. This concern is widely present in third world countries, but it certainly raises questions for all, even in affluent countries. Common Mold Toxins in Foods Aflatoxins may be present in many different types of foods. This includes cereals, tree nuts, corn, peanuts/peanut butter, pistachios, Brazil nuts, chilies, black pepper, dried fruit and figs. Milk, cheese, and dairy products may be contaminated with aflatoxins. Fumonisins are primarily found in corn-based products like yellow cornmeal, blue cornmeal, corn muffin mix, and mixed grain cereals. The mold mycotoxin DON (deoxynivaenol) is frequently found infecting grains in the field or during storage . Humans are exposed to it with the consumption of cereal grains like corn, wheat, oats, barley, and rice. Researchers note that it has been detected in buckwheat, popcorn, sorghum, triticale, and other food products including flour, bread, breakfast cereals, noodles, infant foods, pancakes, malt and beer. Pointing out these foods is not meant to make one "food phobic" but rather it is to realize that these toxins are ubiquitous and they can be problematic especially if they are a staple to the diet. Certain foods will have more or less amounts than others. Individuals who struggle with mold toxins, leaky gut syndrome, and insufficient antioxidants may need to limit or avoid these foods while their body heals. CIRS - Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome Mold biotoxins can have a severe impact on health in those who are genetically susceptible. These biotoxins commonly occur in the environment from water damaged buildings and as noted above from the food supply, etc. Once the source of mold toxins has been removed and the damaged structure repaired, many individuals are able to clear these mold toxins out of the body without trouble. However, it is estimated that almost 25 percent of the population is genetically susceptible to chronic mold illness, which is known as Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome or CIRS. An older name is "mixed mold exposure" . CIRS occurs because of genetic susceptibility with the HLA DR/DQ genes. Individuals who have this gene and the protein (MHC Class II protein) that it commands, fail to recognize mold toxins or biotoxins. The mold biotoxins stay activated in the body and continue to cause inflammation and damage. Until the toxins are cleared out, the chronic inflammation stays smoldering . The same genes also affect how the MHCII proteins recognize Lyme biotoxins. Lab Tests for Severe or Unresolved Concerns If you wonder why you can't get rid of chronic respiratory concerns, ongoing fatigue, and feel like your losing your memory, you may want to look into testing for the HLA DR/DQ (DRB1, DRB3, DRB4, DRB5 and DQ) mold susceptibility genes. Other labs of great value include TGF-beta, MSH, VEGF, VIP, C4a, C3a, anti-gliadin (gluten) intolerance, ADH, MMP-9, and leptin. Estrogen, progesterone, thyroid and adrenal hormones are also affected by mold toxins leading to deficient or imbalanced levels. Common lab tests that measure inflammation, i.e. CRP and SED rate, are not elevated with mold biotoxins. What Does CIRS Look Like? Symptoms or common diagnoses associated with or affected by CIRS and mold toxins includes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ulcerative colitis , fibromyalgia, Lyme disease , Hashimoto's thyroiditis, chronic EBV and other herpes viruses, rheumatoid arthritis , brain fog, brain fatigue , Crohn's disease, Celiac disease, poor memory, exercise intolerance, respiratory problems, chronic sinusitis, blood sugar problems, and poor oxygenation . Fatigue, muscle aches, muscle cramps, ice pick headaches/sharp stabbing pain in the head, light sensitivity, morning stiffness, word finding difficulties, decreased academic or work performance, frequent or increased static shocks, appetite changes, vertigo, body temperature dysregulation, diarrhea, and other symptoms may be present. Autoimmune disorders and neurological inflammation should raise the question of mold toxicity. Sudden increase in weight after moving into water damaged building or new work environment may occur due to the inflammatory overload to the brain that leads to leptin resistance . Elevated leptin and weight gain in this context will fail to respond to dietary changes and physical activity. Removal of oneself from the toxic environment is critical followed by mold remediation of the building. Removal of dust particles saturated with mold VOCs is important as these circulate through the air and will continue to affect the mold toxin susceptible individual. Work with mold experts if you suspect or have CIRS and live or work in a water damaged building. How to Help Ease the Toxic Burden One of the most important things that you can do to help your body, i.e. your liver, gut, brain deal with these toxins is to ensure healthy glutathione levels, detoxification and removal of these substances from the body, and gut repair . Support and treatment of mold toxins includes several different nutrients. Mold toxins must be detoxified through the liver and the cytochrome P450 pathway. This detox system relies heavily on adequate glutathione and SOD enzymatic antioxidant pathways which require several nutrients. This includes B vitamins, NAC, MSM sulfur, acetyl-l-carnitine, lipoic acid, taurine, choline, glycine, glutamine, arginine, manganese, iron, coenzyme Q10, zinc, copper, silymarin, omega 3 fish oils, vitamin A, C, and E, and others. It is also helpful to support healthy gall bladder and bile acid function to help bind onto and clear mold toxins. Friendly flora/gut bacteria, fiber , lipoic acid, oregano oil , chlorella , or d-limonene help support this process. By supporting glutathione, cytochrome P 450 system, bile acids and gall bladder, the body stands a better chance in clearing out the VOCs and inflammatory compounds that mold exposure creates. Rebuilding and healing of the damaged gut lining is just as essential as the detoxification of mold toxins to stop autoimmune, endocrine, and neurological injury. Leaky Gut Syndrome repair relies heavily on vitamin D, vitamin A, glutamine, omega 3 oils, the good omega-6 oil GLA, and probiotics. Curcumin, boswellia, and resveratrol provide vital anti-inflammatory support for the gut and also the brain. Use enough digestive enzyme support to help breakdown all food types and reduce the strain on the gut and immune system. For those who have CIRS, other steps and medical support may be needed. Mold toxins are invariably present. It is a matter of how we handle their toxic effects or if we struggle under the burden of this environmental challenge. Genetics, exposure amounts, and efficiency and efficacy of the detoxification pathways determine the outcome of this equation. If you feel worse in certain environments or by consuming foods with these toxins, then it may be time to remediate the damaging effects of mold. Nutritional Options Chlorella - This blue-green algae super food packs power when it comes to detoxification. Chlorella binds onto toxins in a safe manner without stressing the liver, gut, or gall bladder. Quality of chlorella varies in the industry. Choose only chlorella grown indoors that is free of environmental toxins. A very thin or semi-permeable cell membrane is preferred over a broken cell membrane. B Vitamins - B vitamins are essential for detoxification and the cytochrome P 450 system. Several of the B vitamins are required for glutathione production and antioxidant function. Given the demands of today's world, B vitamin replenishment and support is a must. Omega-3 and -6 oils - The omega-3 oil DHA and the omega-6 oil GLA are critical in protecting the brain and body from inflammation. The gut lining requires DHA and GLA to heal when increased permeability exists. Vitamin A - This often overlooked vitamin is essential for the epithelial lining of the gut as well as the mucosal lining of the sinuses and lungs. Without adequate vitamin A, the immune system struggles to maintain integrity. Those who struggle with thyroid concerns may not be able to convert beta carotene into vitamin A. Oregano Oil - This spice provides powerful anti-fungal support. It also demonstrates anti-inflammatory and antihistamine benefits. We have used oregano oil for many chronic sinus and respiratory concerns for nearly 25 years with great results. Many low quality forms of oregano oil add olive, soy, or other oils. It is best to use a product free of added, unnecessary ingredients. Silymarin - Silymarin is the active ingredient of milk thistle extract. It has been shown highly protective to the liver and is essential for the cytochrome P 450 system. In addition to its benefits for detoxification, it helps to recycle glutathione and acts a natural anti-inflammatory compound for the liver and brain. Fiber - Fiber is critical to binding onto toxins dumped into the gut. This includes the toxins from the liver and gall bladder. Arabinogalactan fiber and oat bran fiber provide excellent forms of soluble and insoluble fibers. In order to clear toxins and keep the bowels moving, it is often very helpful to increase fiber intake to 30 - 50 grams of fiber per day. Today's diets often have very low fiber intakes of 8-10 grams per day. | 0 |
It has been claimed that Nostradamus prophesied Donald Trump’s surprise victory as President of the United States five centuries ago, putting to shame modern pollsters.
Via YourNewsWire
The famous French medical practitioner and seer has been credited for predicting major world events and his followers claim he foresaw Donald Trump’s victory. However, the end is nigh…because as at the same time, Nostradamus also predicted that Trumps presidency would herald the the end of the world.
The ancient prophet refers to president-elect Donald Trump as “the false trumpet” who will one day engage in military adventures to force “Byzantium to change its laws,” which in turn would lead to the Apocalypse. “The false trumpet concealing madness will cause Byzantium to change its laws,” Nostradamus predicted over four hundred years ago.
While many were surprised by the billionaire’s victory in the 2016 US election, followers of Nostradamus would not have been, claiming the prophesier predicted this in the 16th century.
In Century III, Quatrain 81, Nostradamus wrote: “The great shameless, audacious bawler. He will be elected governor of the army: The boldness of his contention. “The bridge broken, the city faint from fear.”
Many believe that the “shameless, audacious bawler” part refers to Mr Trump’s loud communication, while “governor of the army” refers to being in charge of the world’s leading military force. In Century 1, 40, another prediction reads: “The false trumpet concealing madness will cause Byzantium to change its laws.”
Byzantium was an Ancient Greek colony – some have connected this to the fact Greece is becoming a landing spot for immigrants and refugees, a topic that has been at the center of Mr Trump’s candidacy.
Finally, in Quatrain 50, Nostradamus writes “the Republic of the big city” will engage in costly military operations, ordered by the “trumpet”, which has led to fears of nuclear war. One user wrote on Facebook: “I pretty sure this is the start to Nostradamus’ prediction of the Apocalypse.”
Another posted: “Nostradamus predicted this outcome. Nostradamus predicted after the trumpet wins, there will be a Great War! He predicted this 400 yrs ago! “His prediction have all come true! I’m afraid America is going fall, compare us to Roma, we have to much debt, and we import more than we export, we are in serious trouble.”
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Prepare for the Perseids. This week, the annual meteor shower will illuminate the night sky with cosmic fireworks, creating a particularly dazzling display for skygazers across the Northern Hemisphere. NASA estimates that between 160 and 200 meteors will ignite in Earth’s atmosphere every hour during the display’s peak on Thursday night and Friday morning. Normally the shower has between 80 and 100 space specks. You can thank Jupiter and its intense gravity for turning this year’s meteor shower into a meteor hurricane. The Perseids occur when Earth runs into pieces of debris floating in the solar system that were left behind by Comet . The dirty snowball orbits the sun about once every 133 years. It made its last close pass by the sun in 1992. But you won’t be seeing the leftovers of that event. A general rule of thumb with meteor showers is that you are never watching remnants from a comet’s most recent orbit. Instead, the burning bits come from the previous pass. In this case, the debris were ejected when Comet visited in 1862 or earlier. For this week’s shower, Jupiter’s gravity has tugged together at least three meteor streams left by the comet into Earth’s path. Our planet will run into a cluster of leftovers from Comet ’s rendezvous in 1862, 1479 and 1079. “You’re seeing pieces of ice that have been orbiting for that long themselves into the Earth’s atmosphere,” said Bill Cooke, an astronomer with NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. Jupiter’s large gravitational pull is constantly influencing the meteor streams, according to Dr. Cooke. Sometimes it tugs them toward Earth, and sometimes it pushes them farther away. The last time a special Perseids shower like this one occurred was in 2009. The Perseids zoom through the atmosphere at around 133, 000 miles per hour and burst about 60 miles overhead, according to Dr. Cooke. Most of the meteors are about the size of a grain of sand, but some can be as large as a silver dollar. You should be able to see many of the small bursts, but it’s the handful of large ones that create fireballs when set ablaze. “It scares you to the bone when you see it coming across,” said Jackie Faherty, an astronomer from the American Museum of Natural History. “If you get just one, it will be embedded in your vision for all time. I don’t think you forget things like this. ” The best way to see the Perseids meteor shower, according to Dr. Faherty, is to go to a location with a clear view of the entire night sky. Ideally you would go somewhere with dark skies, but she said the main thing to look for is a spot that offers a wide, unobstructed view. She said that even in a crowded city like New York you could still spot some of the flashes by going to a rooftop. The best time to watch is before dawn on Friday. Before getting their hopes up, stargazers should be warned that the weather and moonlight can obscure the show. If that happens, there are several livestreams of the event to watch, like one hosted by NASA and one hosted by Slooh, a global system of cameras and telescopes pointed at the sky. Still, Dr. Faherty suggests people get outside and try to see it for themselves. “It is worth waiting out there for an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours even to catch a glimpse of something like this,” she said. “When you get a good one, it will rival the stars in the sky. ” | 1 |
The Times of Israel reports: Iran’s parliament speaker on Sunday rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comparison of the ancient Persians who sought the annihilation of the Jews in the Purim story to Iran, advising the Israeli premier to study history and the Jewish Bible. [In an address to parliament on Sunday, which coincided with the Purim holiday, Iranian Speaker Ali Larijani said in Tehran that “apparently, [Netanyahu] is neither acquainted with history, nor has read the Torah,” according to Iranian media reports. Larijani said that Netanyahu “has distorted the Iranians’ historical era and attempted to misrepresent events. Of course, nothing more than presenting such lies is expected from a wicked Zionist,” he said, according to the Fars News Agency. Read the full story here. | 1 |
KABUL, Afghanistan — As heavy snow fell on the muddy arena in northern Afghanistan where a traditional game of buzkashi — two teams of horsemen fighting for a dead goat — was underway on Friday, a scuffle broke out near the stands. It was not just another group of hotheaded fans going at it. The man who had thrown the punch is the vice president of Afghanistan, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum. And he did not stop there: To drive the humiliation home, he put his foot on the chest of his downed victim, a political rival named Ahmad Ishchi, who was then beaten by the general’s bodyguards, thrown into the back of an armored vehicle and taken away, said several of Mr. Ishchi’s relatives, many of them speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “Dostum came there, and he walked around the stadium, — then he called Ahmad Ishchi over to him,” said Gulab Khan, a relative of Mr. Ishchi who was among about 5, 000 spectators at the game. “After talking with him for a couple of minutes, he punched him, and his bodyguards started beating him with . They beat Ahmad very badly and in a barbaric way. ” The account of General Dostum’s actions — while not unexpected for a former warlord with a history of accusations of human rights violations and abuse, including physical acts of retaliation against allies and rivals — underscores fears about someone a heartbeat from the presidency. With President Ashraf Ghani traveling on an official visit to Central Asia, General Dostum is technically the acting president. For more than two days, he has held a political rival hostage in one of his properties, with members of Mr. Ishchi’s family increasingly concerned about his health. On Sunday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the vice president’s pink palace in the northern city of Shibarghan, pleading with him to free Mr. Ishchi. The protesters remained all day, but General Dostum did not meet with them. His guards simply told the protesters that the general was busy or resting. Spokesmen and advisers to General Dostum did not respond to requests for comment, despite promises from several of them. Aides who had accompanied the general to the game, and who were shown at his side in official pictures, flatly denied they had been there. Lutfullah Azizi, the governor of Jowzjan Province, which includes Shibarghan, said on Sunday that he was away from his office on a visit to Kabul, the capital, but was trying to calm the situation. “I organized the tribal elders and sent them to talk with General Dostum to release Ahmad,” Mr. Azizi said. “They are currently meeting General Dostum, and we are emphasizing Ahmad’s release tonight, as he is sick. ” While the two men have a long history of not getting along, a senior Afghan official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said Mr. Ishchi had shown some sign of disrespect at a very vulnerable time for the general. General Dostum has increasingly felt marginalized and humiliated by Mr. Ghani in Kabul. He has spent more time away from his office — he is often seen in uniform on the battlefields of his northern stronghold — than behind his desk. Mr. Ishchi has been involved in politics in the north for decades and helped General Dostum found the Junbish party, which he leads now. A former labor leader during the Communist regime, he rose to serve in senior provincial government positions. One of his sons was a district governor in Jowzjan, and another is a member of the provincial council there. A third son has become rich in recent years through businesses he has in Turkey. The senior Afghan official said that although Mr. Ishchi had little power compared with General Dostum, the general considered the Ishchi family a threat to his own dynasty as he groomed his children to inherit his party and influence. The confrontation happened soon after General Dostum returned to the country from an absence that followed another outburst aimed at Mr. Ghani, in which he threatened to cause trouble if he was not taken seriously. The general was angry at the lack of help from the central government when his convoy was ambushed by the Taliban during a military operation in Faryab Province, killing many of the men who had been at his side for years. At Friday’s game, General Dostum arrived in a convoy of black armored vehicles. Before the goat was slaughtered to start the action, a video of the event showed, local musicians sang a tribute to the recent martyrs as the general wept. His trembling lips pushing out deep breaths of pain, and with snow gathering on his shoulders, he wiped his tears with a white tissue. Then he took it out on Mr. Ishchi. | 1 |
Women are uncomfortable their boyfriends and husbands, according to a new survey. [According to a report from Refinery 29, young women are uncomfortable navigating a relationship in which they their significant other. A survey revealed that many American women would be uncomfortable being the breadwinner in a relationship, citing concerns that the responsibility of providing for their partner would be tiring. When asked how they would feel if they knew right now that they would always be the breadwinner in their current marriages and relationships, words like “tired,” “exhausted,” and that special one, “resentful” turned up over and over again. One woman responded, “It’s stressful. It’s a huge responsibility. I pressure myself to stay in the job I’m at even if I’m unhappy there. ” Another wrote, “I kind of assume this will be the case, just based on our past jobs and . It makes me feel a little weary sometimes, like I may never get a break, or get to pursue something I might really love, but if I COULD do something I really loved while making enough money to support us, I would be perfectly fine with that. ” This was a common theme in the responses. Most of these women didn’t mind being the breadwinner as long as they eventually had the option to make less, their partners contributed equally in the household, and it didn’t trap them into jobs they no longer wanted. One commenter on the Refinery 29 article condemned the attitudes of the women who participated in the survey, arguing that at no point was it mentioned that men must have historically experienced similar stress over having to provide for their wives: “The primary revelation of this article seems to be the stress and pressure that results from supporting another individual and a family. It’s curious that no observation is made that this is what men fulfilling this role for hundreds of years prior must have felt. ” That might not be correct. Perhaps one reason husbands tend to earn more than their wives is that they are more comfortable with being the top earning spouse. In 2015, 38 percent of American wives made more than their husbands. This trend is increasing, as less than a quarter of American women their husbands in 1987. However, research from the University of Chicago revealed that relationships in which wives making even $5, 000 more than their husband annually were more likely to end in divorce. Research from Washington University in St. Louis on marriages in Denmark revealed that wives earning more than their husbands were more likely to take medications and also more likely to suffer from insomnia. According to a report by The New York Times, most young Americans expect to equally share financial and responsibilities with their partner. “When young Americans are asked about their family aspirations, large majorities choose equally shared breadwinning and if the option of work policies is mentioned. ” This may be, in part, due to the reality that there is a financial advantage for couples in which both partners have an income. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 1 |
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Trump Tells The Truth
And that is why the One Percent hate him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYozWHBIf8g&app=desktop
The post Trump Tells The Truth appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org . | 0 |
CEDAR KEY, Fla. — Florida may have largely dodged catastrophic damage from Hurricane Hermine, which blew through the state on Friday, but you would not have known it by visiting this artsy village of about 700 people in the northwest, near the Panhandle. Teresa Gonzalez sat inside what was left of her pink and purple Beach Front Motel on Friday afternoon and started calling customers to cancel their reservations. The hurricane had knocked out one wall of her motel, and the storm surge left the place littered with debris. The sandbags she had laid around the property had been carried away. “None of us expected anything like this,” said Ms. Gonzalez, who moved to Cedar Key five years ago. “There is a lot of damage on this island, and it wasn’t until last night really that they told us the surge would be up to 11 feet. By then it was too late. ” She added: “There is not much we can do but shut down and rebuild again. ” The police chief, Virgil Sandlin, said the town had been “devastated” by the wind, the rain and a storm surge that coincided with high tide. The island had been under an evacuation order, and most people had left. Many houses, even those on stilts, had lost walls as the wind pried them loose or trees crashed down. Floodwaters invaded many homes and businesses in this Gulf village more than two hours north of Tampa. City Hall flooded, and the town’s waterfront thoroughfare, Dock Street, was seriously damaged. The cleanup, Chief Sandlin said, will require substantial work. “I’ve been here 34 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said. “In my view, we got the worst damage. It’s devastating, almost breathtaking to see what wind and water has done compared to some of the other systems that have come through here. ” Some businesses looked like they were beyond repair, he said. One house had burned. “There will be a lot of them that will be fixable, and some of them no,” Chief Sandlin said. On the waterfront, many of the restaurants had been ravaged by the wind and the waves. A new fixture sat inside the Big Deck Bar and Grill it had come from the restaurant across the street. “Their staircases are in our dining room here,” said Darlene Skarupski, who owns the restaurant with her husband. She stood with a cold beer in hand outside a window that dared, “Bring it on, Hermine. ” “I don’t even know where to begin,” she said. A few hours after the storm, as people streamed back into their homes and businesses, a sense of camaraderie took hold. People with shovels started clearing out debris. One storefront started piping music out to the street. Another business started offering free coffee to . And the storm itself headed for the Carolinas as a tropical storm, leaving areas of northern Florida to cope with the aftermath of the first hurricane in 11 years. The Category 1 hurricane toppled countless trees, flooded homes and cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of people. The National Hurricane Center said the storm made landfall at 1:30 a. m. Friday near the tiny town of St. Marks, 30 minutes south of Tallahassee, with winds of 80 miles per hour. Last night it was making its way up the Eastern Seaboard, where it will continue to unleash rain and high winds through the Labor Day weekend. Tropical storm watches are in effect. The government warned of “the possibility of threatening inundation” through Sunday morning at “most coastal locations” between the North border and Bridgeport, Conn. In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency for parts of the state in anticipation of the storm. In Florida, the cleanup began early Friday. “There is a lot of work left to do, and we will spend the coming days assessing damage left by the hurricane,” said Gov. Rick Scott, who rode out part of the storm in the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee, where several trees toppled on the property. Despite the direct hit on Florida, the winds spared most of the northern part of the state, leaving behind a manageable mess in the most affected counties and not the kind of catastrophic damage a more powerful storm could have wrought. One person was reported killed, a homeless man in Marion County who was hit by a tree. The greatest property damage came to the state’s small Gulf Coast communities, many of which were built on islands that cater to tourists. In addition to Cedar Key, other communities were also starting to rebuild. Farther north, in St. Marks, where the hurricane came ashore, water had poured into a . In Taylor County, the county administrator, Dustin Hinkel, said the coast had “sustained severe damage. ” In Steinhatchee, a small fishing community in Taylor County where the governor made a visit, some residents were being ferried by boat to their homes. Parts of the county battled a surge of water. The Florida National Guard had been called in to help. Mr. Scott had urged people in communities to evacuate, and it appeared that most people had heeded his advice. Only a handful of rescues took place across north Florida, including 18 people in Pasco County who were plucked out of floodwaters. In the marshy fishing village of Suwannee, where Gulf Coast waters meet the Suwannee River, almost everyone had obeyed the county’s evacuation orders except for a few who were holding a hurricane party with vodka and cranberry juice. Others though found lodging where they could. About 25 miles away in Old Town, the Suwannee Gables Motel and Marina compensated for a wave of holiday weekend cancellations by accommodating waterfront residents scrambling for shelter. Hurricane Hermine was the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Back on Cedar Key, which Mr. Scott visited Friday evening to assess the damage, Ms. Gonzalez said as bad as things were, she had one thing to be grateful for as evening approached. “At least we have a home to go to,” she said. | 1 |
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Tara Wood and her four-year-old daughter, Norah, were picking up her birthday cake at a local grocery story when they passed an older man.
As her mom describes on Facebook, there was something that drew Norah to this specific gentleman. Her eyes lit up and she began waving:
“Hi old person! It's my birthday today!”
“Well hello little lady,” the man replied. “And how old are you today?”
Tara admits to WSBTV that the man didn't look like the warmest man in the world — she was almost embarrassed when her daughter first called him over — but when the man realized Norah was talking to him, his face lit up. Loading Facebook Post...
She says they carried on a small conversation and it was “super adorable.” Yet, when they said goodbye and went their separate ways, Norah realized she missed out on the opportunity to take a photo with her new friend.
Tara turned around and tracked down the older gentleman — who they learned was named Mr. Dan — one more time. Loading Facebook Post...
When they thanked Mr. Dan for taking some time out of his day to talk with them, it brought tears to his eyes:
“No, thank YOU. This has been the best day I've had in a long time,” Mr. Dan said. “You've made me so happy, Ms. Norah.”
According to WSBTV , Mr. Dan had lost his wife in March and he had sunk into a bit of a depression.
What Tara didn't know is that those few words and that quick photoshoot would blossom into one the most adorable and purist friendships. That friendship would help Mr. Dan find a reason to get a haircut and shave again. Now the adorable and “magical” duo has lunch dates: | 0 |
The psychiatric hospital here in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, has long been a forgotten place, filled with forgotten people. But with Venezuela suffering from a severe economic crisis, this mental institution has almost no drugs to control the afflictions tormenting its patients. At the invitation of doctors, reporters from The New York Times visited six psychiatric wards across the country. All reported shortages of medicine, even food. The one here, El Pampero Hospital, hasn’t employed a psychiatrist in two years. It has running water for only a few hours a day, and food is scarce. Omar Mendoza, pictured above, is one of many undernourished patients. He lost half his weight this summer and is down to about 75 pounds. The glue that keeps this hospital in order — the sedatives, tranquilizers and medications — is nearly all gone. In courtyards, women who are functional while medicated are now curled on the floor hallucinating, crying, screaming, rocking back and forth for hours. The doctors and nurses here are aghast at what is taking place, caught between anger and feelings of helplessness. The nursing staff debates daily: Who gets the few remaining pills? Who is the most unstable, or suffering the most? They reduce doses, doling out pills into small metal cups with the fluidity of Las Vegas casino dealers. El Pampero also suffers from shortages of basic and cleaning supplies. There is no soap, no shampoo, no toothpaste, no toilet paper. Patients relieve themselves in the common areas and patio area, and clean themselves only with water. Nurses fear that patients in the men’s ward are more likely to become violent when they are unmedicated. Two of the men in this photograph murdered members of their families before their schizophrenia was diagnosed. One decapitated his mother, and the other stabbed his stepfather. We found Cleofila Carillo crying softly under a mosquito net. The morning before, her unmedicated bunkmate had leapt on top of her, beaten her, bitten off her nose and eaten it. Doctors said she needed full reconstructive surgery, but because of the shortages, they did not have the medical supplies to perform it. All they could do was apply a bandage. Without sedatives, nurses say, they must restrain patients or lock them in isolation cells to keep them from harming themselves. That is what happened to Raul Martínez, who was suffering a psychotic episode. A nurse tied him to a gurney. Patients eat three times a day, but there is never enough food from the government. Members of the hospital staff solicit donations during their time off. Medical records show that over half of the patients in the men’s ward are underweight. Clothes are also in short supply at the hospital. Many patients in the women’s ward wear only and few have shoes. The clothing they do have is ill fitting and threadbare. Nurses fashion belts out of surgical gloves and pieces of rope to keep patients’ pants from sliding off their slight frames. Down the hall, Ms. Carillo’s attacker had been isolated and locked inside a small solitary confinement cell. She yelled at nurses when they asked why she had bitten off and swallowed her roommate’s nose. “It wasn’t me, I did not do it,” she repeated, claiming that she did not know what they were talking about. When Yusmar Torres had no medication to control her mood disorder and depression, she constructed a noose out of a bedsheet and threatened to commit suicide. The staff stripped her of her clothes for safety and put her in a solitary confinement cell, where she was left for days. There are few light moments in El Pampero, but every Friday morning, therapists put on salsa music and hold a dance for the 10 percent of patients who are stable enough to participate. Before the medicine shortages, the recreation center held weekly sewing, cooking and sculpture classes, even a farming program. One therapist said: “When patients have their medicines, they can do really complex crafts. Now they just do simple tasks. ” Mr. Martínez, who suffers from schizophrenia but has little medication, took a nap under his bed. He also suffers from depression. The head nurse, Evila García, fed a blind patient as a stray cat roamed the women’s ward dining hall. Several stray dogs and cats live in the hospital, and the dogs often sleep with patients in their beds. Nurses worry about parasites because the animals have not had their shots and have not been dewormed, but some patients find comfort in them. The Venezuelan government denies that its public hospitals are suffering from shortages, and has refused multiple offers of international medical aid. Josefina Zapata, a patient suffering from psychosis and epilepsy, was in solitary confinement. She was not violent, but the hospital staff did not have the anticonvulsants she needed. The staff regularly kept her locked in this cell, on a mattress on the floor, so that when she started convulsing, she was less likely to hurt herself. The vast majority of patients living at El Pampero have been abandoned by their families and rely completely on the state to meet their basic needs. “May God have mercy on us,” the head nurse said. | 1 |
Today the volcano that straddles the border between China and North Korea is tranquil. Hot springs simmer on the surrounding peaks, wild blueberries grow on its green slopes and a pool called Heaven Lake fills its crater. But Mount Paektu, as the North Koreans call it, is only asleep. When it last awoke about a thousand years ago, the Millennium Eruption unleashed one of the most violent volcanic events in recorded human history. And when North Korean scientists recorded a swarm of tiny earthquakes rumbling beneath the volcano from 2002 to 2005, they were so concerned that the reclusive country eventually contacted the West for help. The result was a rare collaboration of scientists from North Korea and researchers from countries with which it has hostile relations. Officials in Pyongyang first reached out in 2011, and after two years of planning the project was set. In 2013, volcanologists from the United States and Britain met researchers in North Korea to investigate Mount Paektu and its magma plumbing. The effort has since yielded tantalizing insights into the slumbering giant that once blanketed the Korean Peninsula in an avalanche of ash. Mount Paektu is sacred to the North Korean people. They valorize it as the site where Kim Il Sung, the founding father of modern North Korea, used guerrilla tactics to fight the Japanese during World War II, and as the supposed birthplace of his son, Kim who succeeded him as the country’s leader. North Koreans make pilgrimages to the mountain, and students march up its summit singing songs. It is an important fixture in their everyday lives, visible in their paintings and propaganda. Even kindergartners sing the song “Let’s Go to Mount Paektu. ” “That cultural significance explains part of the motivation for the scientists there to understand the volcano,” said Clive Oppenheimer, a volcanologist at the University of Cambridge who was part of the team. “They are concerned about the cultural impact that a future large eruption would have. ” That willingness to work helped the team collect vital information about the volcano’s inner workings. But the collaboration was not without its difficulties. “Typically as a geologist you want to walk around and explore, and you could imagine in North Korea that can be something of a challenge,” said James Hammond, a geophysicist at Birkbeck, University of London, who participated in the research. “You can’t just walk off and go wherever you want to. But with some communication and scientific argument, everything we wanted to do, we got. ” They communicated through translators who accompanied them throughout the trip. One challenge was the scientific gap between the two groups. Barred from attending conferences outside their country and denied access to most scientific literature, the North Koreans had been isolated from the last 20 years of debate in volcanology and geophysics. But they were eager to learn. (Efforts to contact the researchers from the Earthquake Administration and the State Academy of Science through North Korea’s permanent representative to the United Nations were not successful.) One of the questions that the team set out to answer was how much gas the Millennium Eruption sent into the sky, and whether the event affected the climate in the Northern Hemisphere. Large eruptions can release huge clouds of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. There, the sulfur gas transforms into a sulfate aerosol that reflects sunlight and cools the planet. The famous modern example was the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which ejected so much volcanic dust and rock into the stratosphere it caused what is known as “the year without summer. ” Blizzards hit New York in June, and frost wreaked havoc on crops in New England in July. That eruption released an estimated 28 megatons of sulfur. When the sulfur falls back to the ground, it can get trapped and preserved in polar ice. Previous studies of ice cores from Greenland dated to A. D. 946, when the Millennium Eruption occurred, had low levels of sulfur, suggesting that the eruption emitted a small amount of gas and did not have strong effects on the climate. But the team thought the ice core estimates might have been low and wanted to test for sulfur traces within the white pumice that came from the actual eruption and was now scattered across the volcano. By analyzing the white pumice for geochemical clues, the team found that the Millennium Eruption actually emitted a large amount of sulfur into the atmosphere: an estimated 45 megatons. That is about 20 times what previous estimates had suggested, and about 1. 5 times what was emitted by Mount Tambora. “This eruption had much more gas than we thought it did in the past,” said Kayla Iacovino, a volcanologist at Arizona State University and lead author on the team’s most recent paper. “It had enough gas to place it as one of the largest volcanoes in human history. ” With that information, Dr. Iacovino said that the gas from the Millennium Eruption had the potential to affect the climate. But that does not mean that it did. Several factors, like the mountain’s high latitude and the time of year it erupted, could also have influenced its climate effects. The team published its findings last month in the journal Science Advances. Longpré, a volcanologist at Queens College in New York who was not involved in the research, said the paper “offers a fresh and improved view on this enigmatic volcanic event. ” He said that the authors’ estimates for sulfur emissions were most likely much closer to the true emissions from the Millennium Eruption than previous studies provided. But he added that the finding required further investigation. Dr. Iacovino said that the next step to forecasting any future eruptions would be continued monitoring. “We were able to make this collaboration supersuccessful in no small part thanks to the North Korean government,” she said. She hopes the results from their work with the North Koreans will lead to further research. “If we can understand the volcano’s history, what the volcano is capable of, only then can we start to make predictions of what it might do in the future. ” | 1 |
BALTIMORE — Ten years after the Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro sustained an eventually fatal injury in the Preakness Stakes, two horses died during the race’s undercard at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, including a filly owned by Barbaro’s owners, Gretchen and Roy Jackson. Pramedya broke from the No. 8 hole in the day’s fourth race, just as Barbaro did when he won the Kentucky Derby by six and a half lengths in 2006. She broke through the gate before the start, just as Barbaro did in the Preakness, and had to be reloaded. She then stumbled while coming around the turn, and the jockey Daniel Centeno was thrown to the turf. Pimlico officials said Pramedya, a filly, was euthanized on the track after breaking her left front cannon bone. Centeno was driven off in an ambulance, and officials said his right collarbone was broken. The race was won by Barbaro’s trainer, Michael Matz, with Truly Together. Sal Sinatra, the Maryland Jockey Club president and general manager, said the turf course had been inspected and looked fine. “It’s unfortunate, and then obviously, of course, with it being Barbaro’s connections, that makes it worse,” he said. In the day’s first race, the gelding Homeboykris collapsed and died after finishing first and being photographed in the winner’s circle. Officials suspected a cardiovascular collapse, and he will be taken to the New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania for a necropsy. New Bolton, about 75 miles north of Baltimore, is where Barbaro had surgery on his right hind leg after stumbling at the start of the 2006 Preakness. Homeboykris, who won 14 races in 63 career starts, won the Champagne Stakes in 2009 and finished 16th in the Kentucky Derby in 2010. | 1 |
In a powerfully worded editorial, the Catholic archdiocese of Mexico City has condemned all companies and individuals who would work on Donald Trump’s border wall, calling them “immoral” and “traitors to their country. ”[The unsigned editorial titled “Treason to the Homeland” appeared in Sunday’s edition of Desde la Fe, the weekly magazine of the Archdiocese of Mexico. Pulling no punches, the savages the U. S. President, calling him a “fanatic” who is intent on constructing a “monument to intimidation and silence, hatred and xenophobia. ” As harsh as its denunciation of Trump may be, however, the article is directed at Mexicans who are willing to work on the wall. What is regrettable, the piece states, is that “on this side of the border, Mexicans are ready to collaborate with a fanatical project that annihilates the good relationship and harmony of two nations that share a common border. ” The article states that in recent days, more than 500 Mexican companies have expressed interest in contracts to participate in “the construction of the wall of ignominy,” by providing cement, materials, lighting and paint. “With the fine justification of being companies that generate jobs, these companies seek to make a profit, regardless of the consequences, and consolidate their presence in the industry they exploit. ” For these companies, “the end justifies the means,” it reads. The result, the piece adds, is that the “investment of Mexican companies in the wall will end up nurturing all those forms of discrimination that throughout history have subjected millions of human beings. ” The also takes issue with the Mexican government for its “lukewarmness” in dealing with Mexican businesses. In their the piece continues, government officials fail to see that the wall is an “open threat” that violates social relations and peace and therefore has not taken legal action against these companies. In an interesting twist, the states that “any deportation, when there is no proven crime and administrative failure justified according to law, is a sign of terror. ” It is entirely possible that the Archdiocese is unaware of Mexico’s own immigration policy and practices, which in most respects are stricter than those of the United States. Under Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony. In Article 118, the General Law on Population states that foreigners entering the country without the required documentation will be fined the equivalent of “20 to 100 days of established minimum salary. ” Article 125 adds that along with the stated fine, foreigners without legal documentation will be deported from the country. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2015, the Mexican government “carried out about 150, 000 deportations of unauthorized immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. ” The Mexican Archdiocese states that the border wall is a monument “to silence the voices of poorly paid and workers, unprotected families and abused persons. It is a retreat from the noblest longings of mankind, for which much blood has been shed. It is a prelude to the destruction of the values of democracy and social rights. ” Moreover, the wall “represents the predominance of a country that considers itself good with the manifest destiny to crush a nationality that it has considered perverted and corrupt: the Mexican. ” The article concludes: “Any company that intends to invest in the wall of the fanatic Trump would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered as traitors to their country. ” Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
November 2: Daily Contrarian Reads By David Stockman. My daily contrarian reads for Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016. | 0 |
Home | World | Shameful Obama Legacy: White Man Beaten Viciously For Voting Trump Shameful Obama Legacy: White Man Beaten Viciously For Voting Trump By Doctor Zee 10/11/2016 22:42:48
CALIFORNIA – USA – Racial tensions have increased tenfold since the Obama election in 2008, but it’s getting worse after Trump in 2016.
All that Obama brought to America is hatred, vicious race divisions and unpunished violence committed by blacks.
Here we see an unbridled example of this Obama legacy at work, where an elderly white man is set upon by a pack of African Americans, or in U.S. media terms ‘young people’ simply because the man voted for Donald Trump.
Blow after blow are administered on this man’s head by cowardly creatures lower than animals, intent on brutally beating him down. | 0 |
Chris Christie’s job approval is at a career low. Nearly of New Jersey voters, and half his fellow Republicans, said in a recent poll that he should have been a defendant in the trial over the George Washington Bridge lane closings, in which two of his former aides were convicted last month. And in a stinging turnabout, Bill Stepien, the campaign manager whom Mr. Christie dismissed in the Bridgegate scandal, is expected to become Donald J. Trump’s White House political director, while Mr. Christie was fired as transition chief and shut out of jobs in Mr. Trump’s administration, despite having been one of his earliest supporters. Welcome home, Governor. “Governor Christie has been abandoned by virtually everyone,” Krista Jenkins, director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind Poll, said when the findings showing his approval rating at 18 percent were released this month. Once considered the Republican Party’s best hope to win the White House, Mr. Christie has endured months of humiliation after he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Mr. Trump — who mocked him as they campaigned together for eating too many Oreos, and passed him over as the nominee. Now, Mr. Christie has returned to New Jersey a lame duck in his last year to discover voters angry over his absences and a Legislature suddenly unwilling to go along with his agenda. “If he was at one time a bipartisan figure who was able to unite both sides of the aisle and even draw union support, that’s completely evaporated,” Ms. Jenkins said in an interview. “It’s hard to find anyone in recent memory who is in such disfavor. ’’ Mr. Christie still believes he has a political future nationally. He wants to write a book and his friends have been telling people in New Jersey that the governor expects Mr. Trump to eventually come around to him. According to their scenario, the White House management team of Jared Kushner, Stephen K. Bannon and Reince Priebus will be a disaster and Mr. Christie will be tapped as the skilled manager, like David Gergen, the former aide to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan who swooped in to steady Bill Clinton’s administration after a raucous first year. Mr. Christie’s popularity in his home state, stratospheric after his handling of Hurricane Sandy, began to fall with Bridgegate, but sank even lower as he spent so much time out of the state, first leading the Republican Governors Association, then running for president. By the time he abandoned his own run and endorsed Mr. Trump, his constituents had come to believe he would do just about anything to escape New Jersey. He has left them with 10 credit downgrades, more than any other governor nationwide. And as if the state’s finances were not bad enough, Mr. Christie has spent at least $10 million of taxpayer money to defend himself in the bridge scandal, and most New Jersey voters say they do not believe he has told the truth about his involvement. His waning popularity now means waning power, as he discovered last week in a surprise legislative defeat. The governor and the Democratic leaders of the State Legislature were rushing through a hastily written bill that would have relaxed ethics laws to allow Mr. Christie to profit from sales of a book and given raises to hundreds of public officials. And, in what the governor’s critics called his “revenge bill,” the same package of legislation would have eliminated a requirement that local governments pay to publish legal notices in newspapers — punishing an industry that relentlessly chronicled the bridge scandal. It was the kind of deal that would have breezed through even a year ago, when Mr. Christie wielded so much control that Republicans reversed their own votes to block overrides of his vetoes. This time, his own lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, who, along with her husband, a judge, was in line for a raise, called the legislation “ridiculous. ” On Twitter, #ChristieBookTitles trended, with suggestions including “A Bridge to Nowhere,” “The Very Hungry Governor” and “Oh, the Places You Won’t Go!” With the public flooding their offices with angry phone calls, Republicans who have stood by Mr. Christie began running away from him. “That’s not my bill,” said Jon M. Bramnick, the Republican leader of the State Assembly and one of the governor’s most steadfast supporters. And Democratic leaders, who had helped Mr. Christie secure victories on public employee benefits that made him a national figure in his first term, reversed themselves and yanked the bills without putting them up for a vote. “He thought he could do what he’s done in the past — get Democratic leadership on his side and use that to push through whatever he wanted,” Jeff Tittel, the director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club and a frequent Christie critic, said, calling it “the biggest blunder since he’s been governor. ” “I haven’t seen as much public outrage since Florio wanted to tax toilet paper,” Mr. Tittel said, referring to former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio’s imposition of a tax on paper products in 1990. (Mr. Florio, a Democrat, and Mr. Christie are now tied for the job approval, at 18 percent Gov. Brendan Byrne, another Democrat, hit 17 percent, the record low for New Jersey governors, in 1977, but was . Now, at 92, he is generally beloved.) State Senator Jennifer Beck, a Republican, said that after Mr. Christie’s absences there was “an expectation that now that he’s back, he’s going to grapple with the major issues in this state. ” Those would include high property taxes, the nation’s highest foreclosure rate and its most underfunded pension system. When he and the Democratic leaders rushed to pass measures for raises — estimated at $10 million a year — and to allow him to profit from writing a book, they showed they were out of touch with the public, she said, “kind of like having a tin ear. ” Ms. Beck said she expected that the governor’s unpopularity would mean more Republicans distancing themselves from him. “When the citizenry are behind you, it’s much harder to challenge,” Ms. Beck said. “When the people aren’t with you, it’s easier. ” Mr. Christie said in a speech last month that he intended to leave the same way he came in: “loudly. ” And on his monthly radio show last week, he blamed “the haters,” who made it “personal, about me,” for the legislative defeat. “That’s O. K. that’s fine,” he said. “They get to do what they want to do. ” He insisted he would continue pushing the bill involving the newspapers, though his remarks suggested he was counting down his time. “I have 391 days,” he said, “and I’m not going to get off this issue. ” His office declined to comment on what else the governor might focus on during his last year in office, saying he would reveal his plans in his State of the State speech next month. In recent weeks, most of Mr. Christie’s public events have been around the issue of recovery from drug addiction, which he has long spoken about as a personal cause following the death of a close friend. He has also announced plans to renovate the State House, which again raised eyebrows, given that it is expected to cost $300 million at a time when the state has severe debt. Renovations would also force Mr. Christie’s successor, widely expected to be a Democrat, into rented office space rather than the official quarters for at least four years. Mr. Christie has not taken questions from reporters in more than 100 days. He has spent several mornings guest hosting a New York sports radio show, prompting speculation that he is auditioning for a more permanent role should the Trump administration not come knocking. And even his supporters said it would be hard for Mr. Christie to get much accomplished. “When you’re in the last year of a second term, it’s difficult,” Mr. Bramnick, the Republican Assembly leader, said. “Everyone’s looking to the future. ” Is the governor’s approval rating as low as it can go? Not quite, said Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, citing President François Hollande of France. “His approval rating is at 4 percent,’’ Mr. Murray said. “So that gives Christie something to shoot for. ” | 1 |
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“You live on Martha’s Vineyard year round?” It’s a question I’ve been asked many times since I moved here from New York some 20 years ago. Sometimes I sense envy behind the question, sometimes pity. Do I live in bucolic bliss? Have I found solace in nature, a simplified, existence? Or perhaps my inquisitors imagine me in one of those paintings of a lonely lighthouse, furious waves breaching the rocks, while the lighthouse keeper stoically rides the storm. Or perhaps they see a marooned Tom Hanks with only a volleyball face for a friend. The choice to live on an island seven miles off Cape Cod is an unconventional one. But of course, life here in the has the routines we all juggle: Take the kids to school, walk the dog, shop for dinner. A musician by trade, I’ve managed to carve out a living on Martha’s Vineyard as a bandleader, and my wife runs an dance program. Years ago, we purchased the Old Martha’s Vineyard Dairy in Edgartown. “Heck of a wreck,” the ad read years of neglect had left the rambling old farm building and its Ma ’n’ additions in disrepair: toppled chimney, leaky roof, caving walls, rotted windows. But we managed to renovate the property to include summer rental cottages and have raised two children here. People are sometimes surprised to learn that Martha’s Vineyard is approximately four times the size of Manhattan, with six towns and four distinct villages within them. Oak Bluffs, Edgartown and Vineyard Haven are referred to as “down island,” and Chilmark, West Tisbury and Aquinnah are “up island. ” The “up” and “down” do not refer to north and south but to the westerly coordinates. (When whaling ships sailed the globe, heading “up,” in nautical terms, actually took you west.) Down island is more densely populated, and Edgartown, particularly, retains the flavor of the whaling industry, with its sea captains’ homes and bustling mercantile feel. Up island is more bucolic, with spectacular beaches, farms and wooded trails. Vineyard life follows a seasonal rhythm all its own. In summer, the population of 15, 500 swells to 115, 000, creating a hectic pace. Only a quick wave was offered as I passed an old friend last August, his gesture conveying a familiar sentiment: Too busy to talk we’ll catch up in the fall when things settle down. The Steamship Authority’s ferries unload a steady stream of cars brimming with white coolers and colorful beach supplies. Traffic on the roads slows to a crawl. Fall is the prize the thick, hazy air of summer is gone, yet it is still warm enough for a swim well into October. The summer crowds — presidential guests, Hollywood stars and their entourages, seasonal residents and vacationers — have mostly vanished. The pace slows gracefully. Locked gates to private beaches swing open, restaurants like Offshore Ale, Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company and the Wharf Pub fill with locals. Ample time to linger now for a chat. Winter dulls the landscape as green meadows turn beige and amber, and the ubiquitous twisted scrub oaks, leafless, appear stark and naked, hunched over like weathered old witches clutching broomstick and cane. Edgartown’s overflowing flower boxes are empty, cedar beach houses shuttered. The ferry is our lifeline to the mainland, to goods, supplies, mail, just about everything. it runs from 6 a. m. till 8:30 p. m. 9:45 on weekends. But when the winds kick up past 50 miles per hour, the ferries shut down. News of canceled boats quickly disseminates at coffee shops and checkout lines. Bar talk of a pending storm prompts the question: “Think they’ll be canceling boats tomorrow?” There are few cocktail parties and no beach cookouts in winter, but plenty of potluck dinners with friends and neighbors, many of them teachers, police officers, artists, writers, musicians, restaurant workers and tradespeople fueled by the cycle of build, renovate, paint and restore. Commercial fishermen still ply the waters for lobster, bay scallops, conch and fin fish. However, their numbers have dwindled because of diminishing fish stocks, regulatory issues and the rising cost of living on the island, which is about 70 percent above the national average, according to a study by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. Roughly 20 percent of the population is Brazilian immigrants. Portuguese is, in fact, a second language on the island. Each year as the season comes to an end I keep a close eye on the weather, watchful for a fair day to haul my boat out of the water. One early December morning, the sun created a crisp, presolstice light blues were a bit bluer, and what greenery remained seemed greener. It had been such a mild fall that I’d left the boat in the water longer than usual, but winter was approaching, and I knew that hauling even my and its mooring and chain would only become harder. From Edgartown I steered my pickup toward Oak Bluffs via Beach Road, empty boat trailer in tow, my golden retriever, Bella, riding shotgun. Beach Road is a narrow, strip across the dunes. State Beach was on my right, the tidal pond named Sengekontacket on my left. (The Wampanoag name means “at the bursting forth of the tidal stream. ”) The Beach Road and its two bridges deliver a different view from day to day, hour to hour. In summer, the bridge’s rail is lined with bathers poised for a jump into the channel between tidal pond and sea. In the fall, fishermen cast in the moving waters of the channel below for striped bass or bluefish others rake for clams in the adjacent shallow pond. In the heart of the winter, the sea is gray, sluggish waves too heavy to crest, whitecaps crashing against the pilings and jetties. The first stop that December morning was Mocha Mott’s coffee shop in Oak Bluffs. The former owner, Mott Hinckley, arrived in 1994 and opened this premium coffee shop, determined to operate it 365 days a year. A second shop soon opened in Vineyard Haven. Holiday lights were strung around chalkboard menus offering soups, sandwiches and breakfast items, and the heart pine floor cast a warm glow. No Starbucks to compete with here. In fact, you won’t find many chain stores islanders have successfully fought them off. McDonald’s tried to brandish its golden arches back in 1978, but that Goliath was chased away. While many shops, restaurants and bars are closed for the winter, a few remain open. Other winter breakfast spots are Linda Jean’s in Oak Bluffs (classic eggs, toast and home fries) and the venerable Black Dog Tavern, whose tables face Vineyard Haven Harbor, where one can watch for the ferry. Night life, too, is an option. In the winter live music, from jazz to blues to to a weekend dance band play on at the Newes From America pub in Edgartown and, in Oak Bluffs, Park Corner, Offshore Ale Company, and most notably the Ritz Cafe, with live music five nights a week. Coffee in its holder, I headed up island toward Chilmark, on Tisbury Road. On the right was the state forest and its wooded bike path. (An extensive bike path now covers most of the island.) At the triangle at the end of the road, I took a left and drove past Alley’s General Store, where you’ll find a bit of everything, from snacks and hardware to novelty items like emergency underpants in a can and racecars. Beyond Alley’s, I took a right on Music Street, then a left onto Middle Road, where I twisted and turned under the gnarled tree canopy that filtered the crisp winter light. There is a farm stand on that road with amazing cheese, bread and yogurt drinks. A tin can acts as cash register the honor system prevails here. of the way down Middle Road I slowed to take in a breathtaking view that hasn’t changed since I was a teenager: vivid green rolling hills stretching for miles, past a small pond then down to the south shore. It could be Ireland or Scotland. This parcel known as Keith Farm has been preserved through the efforts of Vineyard Open Land Foundation. Other conservation groups are engaged in preservation, perhaps most notably the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, which has acquired more than 3, 000 acres. I continued past the Chilmark Store, closed for the winter, where locals and Hollywood’s best provision their August beach excursions. A mile up the road I backed my trailer down the ramp to Quitsa Pond’s town landing, where I’ve moored my boat for two decades. After a quick kayak trip to my boat’s mooring, I cranked the engine and was off, cruising through the meandering tidal ponds to Menemsha, where I would top off the boat’s gas tank. Menemsha, still an active fishing hamlet, has a New England coastal feel from days long past. One glance in the right direction and time warps back to the 1940s. Weatherworn shacks, perched on the exposed strip of Dutcher’s Dock, house the gear and tackle of what remains of Menemsha’s fishing fleet. Summer’s wooden sailboats and small yachts flee for warmer climates in the fall in winter, Menemsha is still home port to a dozen weathered lobster boats and a small fleet of draggers and scallop boats. I filled my tank at the gas dock, then navigated toward Quitsa Pond’s town landing, my final trip for the season. I hauled my boat with little fuss, and steered the truck back down island on South Road with a boat on my tail and lunch on my mind. Adjacent to Alley’s is a breakfast and lunch spot called 7a its name is derived from Martha’s Vineyard’s position on the Department of Agriculture’s plant hardiness zone map. The porch here is a social gathering spot, and I often sit down for lunch and end up having company. The Liz Lemon sandwich (named for Tina Fey’s character on “30 Rock”) is a Reubenesque fantasy in which pastrami, turkey, Swiss, coleslaw, Russian dressing and crumbled potato chips somehow fuse seamlessly between slices of toasted rye. I finished my lunch and headed back down island with the afternoon sun in my rearview mirror. I set my boat in its winter resting place next to an old twisted pear tree in our backyard, its bent branches a reminder of winter winds to come. I’ve become accustomed to the seasonal pace on Martha’s Vineyard. Though I can’t claim to have achieved bucolic bliss, I have enjoyed solace in nature. When winter storms rage, I am sometimes reminded of that stalwart light keeper, but in my 20 years here I’ve never felt marooned. Like the ebb and flow of the tidal ponds, my final cruise marks the flow from fall to winter. And winter’s low tide anticipates the flood tide of spring, with the promise of summer on its heels. | 1 |
39 Shoina is a village drowned up to the waist in sand. Its denizens are quite fatalistic about it, and their only means of protection is leaving their door open for the night, as they can never be sure if they can open it in the morning. The village of Shoina is situated beyond the Arctic Circle, 1,400 kilometers north of Moscow. This tiny settlement is known for its sands, which appeared here over 50 years ago and have been waging a relentless offensive against humans ever since, depriving them of living space. How did they appear, and where else in Russia can you find unusual places like this? Solve the mystery, on RTDoc. SUBSCRIBE TO RTD Channel to get documentaries firsthand! http://bit.ly/1MgFbVy FOLLOW US RTD WEBSITE: http://RTD.rt.com/ RTD ON TWITTER: http://twitter.com/RT_DOC RTD ON FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/RTDocumentary RTD ON DAILYMOTION http://www.dailymotion.com/rt_doc RTD ON INSTAGRAM http://instagram.com/rt_documentary/ RTD LIVE http://rtd.rt.com/on-air/ | 0 |
Archives Michael On Television No Matter What Happens, We Won’t Know Who The Next President Will Be Until December 19th 8th, 2016
Most Americans assume that their votes decide who the next president will be, but that is actually not the case. It is that will elect the next president, and they don’t meet until December 19th. And the truth is that all of the members of never meet in one place. Rather, electors gather together in all 50 state capitals on the second Wednesday in December, and it is at that time that the next president and vice president are officially elected. Of course members of have voted according to the will of the people about 99 percent of the time throughout our history, but with how crazy this election has turned out to be you never know what might happen. For example, later on in this article you will see that one elector in Washington state has already publicly stated that he will not cast his vote for Hillary Clinton. If other “faithless electors” emerge, that could potentially change the entire
If you are not familiar with the basics of how works, here is a pretty good summary from Wikipedia …
Even though the aggregate national popular vote is calculated by state officials, media organizations, and the Federal Election Commission , the people only indirectly elect the president, as the national popular vote is not the basis for electing the president or vice president. The President and Vice President of the United States are elected by , which consists of 538 presidential electors from the fifty states and Washington, D.C. . Presidential electors are selected on a state-by-state basis, as determined by the laws of each state. Since the election of 1824 , [35] most states have appointed their electors on a winner-take-all basis, based on the statewide popular vote on Election Day . Maine and Nebraska are the only two current exceptions, as both states use the congressional district method. Although ballots list the names of the presidential and vice presidential candidates (who run on a ticket ), voters actually choose electors when they vote for president and vice president. These presidential electors in turn cast electoral votes for those two offices. Electors usually pledge to vote for their party’s nominee, but some “ faithless electors ” have voted for other candidates.
A candidate must receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) to win the presidency or the vice presidency. If no candidate receives a majority in the election for president or vice president, that election is determined via a contingency procedure established by the Twelfth Amendment . In such a situation, the House chooses one of the top three presidential electoral vote-winners as the president, while the Senate chooses one of the top two vice presidential electoral vote-winners as vice president.
In an attempt to make sure that their electors vote according to the will of the people, 29 states have passed laws that impose penalties on “faithless electors”. In many cases the punishment consists of a fine, but that may not be enough to keep some electors in line this time around. According to ABC News , one elector that was supposed to be committed to Hillary Clinton has already announced that he is refusing to vote for her despite the fact that he will get hit by a $1,000 fine…
One elector has already said he won’t vote for Clinton, despite a fine. Robert Satiacum, a member of Washington’s Puyallup Tribe, says he believes Clinton is a “criminal” who doesn’t care enough about American Indians and “she’s done nothing but flip back and forth.”
Satiacum faces a $1,000 fine in Washington if he doesn’t vote for Clinton, but he said he doesn’t care.
“She will not get my vote, period,” he told The Associated Press.
And there are 21 states that do not impose penalties on “faithless electors” at all.
So while it is true that over 99 percent of all Electors throughout our history have voted the way that they were supposed to, that may not happen in 2016.
There is also the possibility that the winning candidate could die or become incapacitated between Election Day and December 19th. If that happens, the electors that are supposed to be committed to the winning candidate would be free to vote for someone else. archives.gov …
If a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the general election and the meeting of electors, under federal law, the electors pledged to the deceased candidate may vote for the candidate of their choice at the meeting of electors. Individual states may pass laws on the subject, but no federal law proscribes how electors must vote when a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated. In 1872, when Horace Greeley passed away between election day and the meeting of electors, the electors who were slated to vote for Greeley voted for various candidates, including Greeley. The votes cast for Greeley were not counted due to a House resolution passed regarding the matter. See the full Electoral College vote counts for President and Vice President in the 1872 election.
As to a candidate who dies or becomes incapacitated between the meeting of electors and the counting of electoral votes in Congress, the Constitution is silent on whether this candidate meets the definition of “President elect” or “Vice President elect.” If the candidate with a majority of the electoral votes is considered “President elect,” even before the counting of electoral votes in Congress, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment applies. Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President elect will become President if the President elect dies or becomes incapacitated.
If a winning Presidential candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the counting of electoral votes in Congress and the inauguration, the Vice President elect will become President, according to Section 3 of the 20th Amendment .
Our Constitution really should be amended to deal with a situation where a winning candidate dies between Election Day and vote, but up until now that has not happened.
So the cold, hard reality of the matter is that we will enter a period of great uncertainty between November 8th and December 19th. Even though the American people will have spoken, we will not have a “President-elect” yet, and if something happens to the winning candidate that could throw us into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
And of course if the election results are very tight and a few “faithless electors” throw the election in the opposite direction on December 19th, that could create an enormous constitutional crisis as well.
Following the vote of on December 19th, a joint session of Congress takes place on January 6th of the following year to formally declare the winner …
The Twelfth Amendment mandates that the Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election. [53] The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors. [54] Since the Twentieth Amendment , the newly elected House declares the winner of the election; all elections before 1936 were determined by the outgoing House.
Two weeks later, the winning candidate will be inaugurated on January 20th, and at that point the next president will begin to serve.
It would be a whole lot simpler and more rational to just allow the American people to directly elect the president, and it would probably take a major crisis in order to get the kind of constitutional amendment that is needed to do that.
But for now the system is what it is, and that means that the election is not over until it is over.
So November 8th is definitely not the end of the story, and the craziest chapters of this election season may still be yet to come. | 0 |
Go to Article A Trump supporter wearing a Trump/Pence t-shirt let it fly on a reporter from MSNBC because of his one sided reporting and the demonizing of Trump. This is one brave woman! New Yorkers have had enough of the protests and violence! … @calmsnbc is having an interesting day. pic.twitter.com/EMelMQamAU | 0 |
Carl G. Jung Attitude Types and the Sash of Solitude Nov 8, 2016 0 0
Jung believed that our orientation to the world was a foundational aspect of our personality. Jung identified was the two opposite ways in which we adapt to, or orient ourselves to, the world. These are Jung’s attitudes of Extraversion and Introversion. Extraversion – Our energy moves toward the outer world of people, places and things; the world outside of us. Introversion – Our energy moves toward the inner world of thoughts and ideas; the world inside of us. Loneliness vs. Solitude
As human beings, we are social creatures and, without others around us from birth, we would not even be able to stay alive in this world. Social space plays a crucial role in the development of our personality, as the direction of our development is determined by the expectations of other people and our desire to meet those expectations. That is how we become a part of a collective, social space called society, and society receives its special nature from the culture it represents.
The book of our personal history is written in this social space, and our identity is built upon the foundation of our personal history. We are surrounded by other people, and their expectations and requirements are present in our mind when we are alone. Most people do not understand the difference between solitude and being lonely. The solitude is at the same time loneliness for us.
The two words, however, mean two different situations. Solitude is the state of the mind, whereas solitude is the state of the Consciousness.
In the isolated state of consciousness of Ego-dominated mind we do not like to be alone, when we are alone, we think we are lonely, we find it difficult to tolerate, we try to avoid it. How we do it, depends on our attitude types. Extraversion vs. Introversion
Extroverted people focus primarily on social life. When we are alone, we seek friends, go to parties, because we like to share our pleasures and sorrows with others.
Introverted people, on the other hand, tolerate loneliness much better, they like to be alone. They turn towards their internal world (thoughts and emotions). They are not alone, though, as other people are present in their mind in the form of their opinions and expectations. When they turn inward, they talk, argue with the opinions of others, and analyze the reactions of others.
For an external observer, an introverted person might seem to be alone, but there is usually a whole little group in the head of the person. When an introverted person is alone, they try to find some activity to occupy themselves in order to avoid the unpleasant feelings that come with loneliness. They are capable of watching TV for hours, or use work as an escape route. The Gift of Solitude
Why do people so desperately run away from loneliness, from being alone?
Because we do not know ourselves, so we do not like being alone. When we are lonely, we must face the fact that our entire personality is pretence, and our whole identity is built upon false foundations.
Even if these sentences are not formulated so specifically in our mind when we are on our own, the anxiety and depression overcoming us signify that there is something wrong with us. We feel lonely, so we escape so as to find shelter in the company of others or in our own thoughts from the negative emotions.
We feel lonely because we are full of insistence. We insist on our personal identity, our own history, in which the main roles are always played by others. Solitude is a menace to the foundations of our identity.
It is true that during our life we are often surrounded by other people, and we live our life as members of the society, but deep inside we remain separate, isolated individuals for the whole of our life. Very deep inside we are born alone, live alone and we die alone. Being alone like that is a state we interpret as solitude.
Only the awakening of the Consciousness is capable of putting an end to that sense of solitude rooted in our original isolation. Only when we have experienced that Miracle, do we recognize that loneliness is our natural state, in which the independent, still all-penetrating Presence shines on.
Read more articles from Frank M. Wanderer Vote Up Frank M. Wanderer PhD Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D is a professor of psychology, a consciousness researcher and writer. Frank is the author of the books " The Revolution of Consciousness: De-conditioning the Programmed Mind ", " Ego - Alertness - Consciousness: The Path to Your Spiritual Home " and several books on consciousness . With a lifelong interest in the mystery of human existence, Frank’s work is to help others wake up from identification with our personal history and the illusory world of the forms and shapes, and to find our identity in what he calls “the Miracle”, the mystery of the Consciousness. You can also follow his blog HERE | 0 |
End Of The American Dream October 27, 2016
If you want to see war without end, vote for Hillary Clinton. It is tremendously ironic that Hillary Clinton and the mainstream media have attempted to portray Donald Trump as “dangerous” and “temperamental”, because it is Clinton that actually has a long history of being emotionally unstable.
She has a temper that is absolutely legendary, and she has been cussing out the men and women in her security detail for decades . Hillary Clinton played a key role in starting the civil war in Syria, thanks to her Libya is a post-apocalyptic wasteland today, and now she is picking a fight with the Russians before she has even won the election. Of all the candidates there were running for president this election cycle, there was nobody that was even close to as dangerous as Hillary Clinton, and if she wins the election I am fully convinced that World War 3 will begin before her time in the White House is over.
Someone that shares this opinion with me is Donald Trump. According to Reuters , Trump recently stated that we are “going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton”…
On Syria’s civil war, Trump said Clinton could drag the United States into a world war with a more aggressive posture toward resolving the conflict.
Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” on the ground to protect non-combatants. Some analysts fear that protecting those zones could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian fighter jets.
“What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria,” said Trump as he dined on fried eggs and sausage at his Trump National Doral golf resort. “You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton.”
In order to have a no-fly zone in Syria, you would have to enforce it.
And in order to enforce it, you would have to be willing to shoot at the Russians.
According to National Intelligence Director James Clapper , that could have dire consequences…
Russia could shoot down a U.S. aircraft if a no-fly zone were imposed over Syria, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft if they felt that was threatening to their forces on the ground,” Clapper said, speaking with CBS’ Charlie Rose at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York about several national security issues.
Of course Clapper is not alone in that assessment. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Francis Dunford, says that imposing a no-fly zone over all of Syria “would require us to go to war” …
“Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,… That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.” ( Senate Armed Services Committee, September 22, 2016, emphasis added)
But Hillary Clinton is unwavering in her position that this is what she wants.
You see, the truth is that Hillary Clinton wants to win the war that she started in Syria. Back in 2011, she spearheaded an effort along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to try to use the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East as an opportunity to try to overthrow President Assad in Syria. If it wasn’t for her meddling, millions of refugees would not be pouring into Europe and elsewhere, and there would be no “humanitarian crisis” in Syria at all.
Thanks to Russian intervention, the war in Syria is not too far from being over, but the Obama administration is desperate to keep it going. They understand that if Assad is victorious that all of their efforts for the last five years have been wasted, and that is why they are so determined to keep Aleppo from falling. Without Aleppo, many of the jihadist rebels that the Obama administration has been supporting won’t have anywhere to hide.
So the Obama administration has actually been considering direct strikes against the Syrian military, and the Russians have already said that they will not allow this to happen . If Obama is insane enough to order airstrikes against Syrian forces and the Russians start shooting back, that could set off a chain of events that could rapidly spiral completely out of control.
One recent survey found that current American leadership has a 1 percent approval rating in Russia right now, and the Russians dislike Hillary Clinton even more than they dislike Barack Obama. The Russians know that if Hillary Clinton is elected that it is quite likely that they will have to fight a war with us, and that is why they desperately want Donald Trump to win in November. You can see this outlook reflected in comments that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently made about the two candidates …
“Mrs. Clinton has chosen to take up a very aggressive stance against our country, against Russia. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, calls for cooperation – at least when it comes to the international fight against terrorism,” Putin said.
“Naturally we welcome those who would like to cooperate with us. And we consider it wrong, that we always have to be in conflict with one another, creating existential threats for each other and for the whole world,” Putin noted.
Anyone that watched the three presidential debates could see that Hillary Clinton is absolutely seething with animosity for Russia. The thought of her finger on the nuclear trigger is almost too terrible to contemplate, but it may soon become a reality.
And even now, the Obama administration and our NATO allies are shifting forces into position for a confrontation with Moscow. This week it is being reported that NATO troops will soon be sent to Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania … Nine hundred US troops are to be sent to eastern Europe next year as America’s troubled relationship with Russia enters new, uncertain territory. A US-led battle group of NATO allied soldiers will be sent to Poland as part of the multi-nation operation. British forces will lead one of the four battle groups in Estonia, Canada will spearhead the presence in Latvia and Germany will be present in Lithuania.
In addition, Infowars is reporting that U.S. Marines will soon be stationed in Norway near the border with Russia…
After accepting a Pentagon proposal, Norway will host US Marines at a base near the Russian border as Russia deploys nuclear-capable ships to Kaliningrad.
A rotating force of approximately 330 Marines will be stationed at an airfield in the city of Vaernes, just outside Trondheim, beginning in January. Norway and Russia share an 122-mile border in the Arctic.
“The US initiative to augment their training and exercises in Norway by locating a Marine Corps Rotational Force in Norway is highly welcome and will have positive implications for our already strong bilateral relationship,” said Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide.
Most Americans aren’t aware of any of this, nor do they really care about our relationship with Russia.
But in Russia things are completely different. The possibility of war with the United States is the biggest news story over there these days , and feverish preparations are being made for a potential nuclear confrontation …
Russian authorities have stepped up nuclear-war survival measures amid a showdown with Washington, dusting off Soviet-era civil-defense plans and upgrading bomb shelters in the biggest cities.
At the Kremlin’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Cold War is back.
The country recently held its biggest civil defense drills since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., with what officials said were 40 million people rehearsing a response to chemical and nuclear threats.
I know that I have been writing about this over and over , but the truth is that we are on a path to war with Russia, and the election of Hillary Clinton would greatly accelerate the march toward war.
In my controversial new book , I expressed my belief that war with Russia is coming, but at the time that I wrote it I didn’t know how the election would turn out.
At this point it looks like Clinton is very likely to win on November 8th, and that would be absolutely disastrous for our relationship with Russia.
If you are reading this and you are considering voting for Hillary Clinton, please don’t do it . We simply cannot afford to have an emotionally unstable warmonger with a violent temper in the White House at this critical time.
If the American people do choose Hillary Clinton this November, I believe that it will be a choice that they will bitterly, bitterly regret in future years. This article was posted: Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 6:01 am Share this article | 0 |
Waking Times
Mainstream media is completely silent on this story, so it is up to you to share the findings of this important research with everyone you know.
New testing conducted by an FDA-registered food safety lab found alarming levels of the chemical glyphosate (known as Monsanto’s Roundup weed-killer) in several very common foods. This independent research reveals that many popular foods have over 1000 times the glyphosate levels that have been established to be harmful.
“With the widespread increase in glyphosate use over the past 20 years and the fact that independent science has confirmed low level exposure to Roundup causes liver and kidney damage at only 0.05 ppb glyphosate equivalent, as reflected by changes in function of over 4000 genes, the American public should be concerned about glyphosate residues on their food.
Additional research points to harmful impacts at levels between 10 ppb and 700 ppb. Considering these shocking new scientific test results, regulators must take the below findings into account during any reauthorization of glyphosate.” ~ Glyphosate: Unsafe on Any Plate
Below are two images that show food testing results published by Food Democracy Now! and The Detox Project, which commissioned the research.
Full laboratory reports for this food testing can be found here . A searchable database of results can be found here .
It is no surprise that Monsanto does not want the public to know about these food safety test results. They pay-off mainstream media outlets and regulatory agencies, keeping the media silent when independent research such as this is published, so they can continue making billions from selling glyphosate.
This new research is only supplement to numerous other independent studies that basically show that Monsanto is poisoning us with glyphosate and the government is doing nothing to stop it. Read: Dramatic Increase in Kidney Disease in the US and Abroad Linked To Roundup (Glyphosate) ‘Weedkiller’ ; and Glyphosate (Roundup) Carcinogenic In the Parts Per Trillion Range .
It is up to each person who sees this story to share it and help others realize that Monsanto is poisoning our food. Anna Hunt . About the Author
Anna Hunt is co-owner an online store offering GMO-free healthy storable food and emergency kits . She is also the staff writer for WakingTimes.com . Anna is a certified Hatha yoga instructor and founder of Atenas Yoga Center. She enjoys raising her children and being a voice for optimal human health and wellness. Visit her essential oils store here . Visit Offgrid Outpost on Facebook . Like Waking Times on Facebook . Follow Waking Times on Twitter . This article ( Monsanto Desperately Hoping to Hide New Food Safety Test Results Anna Hunt Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of WakingTimes or its staff.
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Disclaimer right off the bat: This is not, nor does it claim to be, an authentic cassata. It’s not my grandmother’s recipe. The classic Sicilian cassata is a spongecake layered with creamy sweetened ricotta, a heavenly combination. Elaborately decorated with colorful candied fruits, wrapped in marzipan, true cassata is a sight to behold. My simple summery version is covered with ripe red strawberries, but any fresh summer berries would be welcome, or slices of nectarine, peach or mango. The unswerving requirements for this cassata are a good spongecake and the best ricotta available. Look for the absolute freshest, tastiest ricotta most good cheese stores or Italian delis can supply it. It must be moist, with no sourness. A spoonful should feel creamy on the tongue, not grainy. It’s worth tasting several kinds to see the broad range of ricotta types. Lightly sweetened and whisked to smoothness, this ricotta filling is spread over the cake layers as if it were frosting. Though can sometimes have strict rules, there’s a fair amount of leeway here. If you like lemon, you can increase the amount of lemon zest in the cake, for instance, or add a little to the filling. You may play around with the syrup, replacing grappa with light rum, or you may use limoncello instead, or a honey syrup or orange liqueur. And you may decrease the sweetness of the cake or filling, if desired, without compromising flavor. Ideally, the spongecake should be made a day ahead, so it is easily sliced into thin layers. And then the cassata should be assembled at least several hours in advance to allow flavors to meld. Paint the cake layers with the lemon syrup, spread each layer with the ricotta cream, and give the cake an afternoon (or a day) in the fridge. Just before serving, pile the cake with ripe berries. You could toss them with a little sugar and lemon juice first, or just arrange them on the cake and dust them lightly with confectioners’ sugar. Though my cassata is rather rustic looking, it is somewhat fancier than shortcake or trifle, so it could be used as a summer birthday cake. But it’s really a celebration unto itself for lovers of summer fruit and good ricotta. Recipe: Strawberry Cassata | Easy Summer Desserts | 1 |
By Ulson Gunnar Despite the United States being engaged in what it calls “reconstruction” in Afghanistan, quarterly reports on their progress doing so reveals expanding... | 0 |
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