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Chinese may become Russia’s second largest ethnic population by 2050 26 October 2016 TASS The number of unemployed people in China is more than the entire Russian population. Facebook russia , china , migration
Experts predict a possible growth in the migration flow from China into Russia, by 2050 the Chinese may become the second largest population group in Russia, Scientific Director of the Center for Migration Research of the Institute of National Economic Prediction of Russia’s Academy of Science Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya said.
"The number of unemployed people in China is more than the entire Russian population," she noted at an international conference at the North Caucasus Federal University in the Russian city of Stavropol, dubbed as "Migration processes.""If we maintain solid relations with China then I think by 2050 the Chinese may become the second largest population group in Russia and surpass the Central Asian populace as far as migration goes," the expert said.
Zayonchkovskaya said the reason for this process was that after 2030 the migrant inflow from Central Asian countries would decline as a large part of young people had already left these countries to work or study in the neighboring states.
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are the main countries whose citizens come to Russia, Ukrainians migrate in large numbers, too. "If we think of other countries from where migrant labor can be obtained, I can think of none other than China," Zayonchkovskaya noted, emphasizing that "Russia will need foreign workers to ensure its economic development."
According to the expert, the changes in the pension legislation would not balance the situation given the decrease in the working-age population. "Raising the retirement age will neither level out the demographic waves, nor will it solve the labor shortage problem, as it only solves the problem of the Pension Fund, though the demographic situation still remains problematic," Zayonchkovskaya added noting that according to the Federal Migration Service, the international migration flow into Russia in 2015 had amounted in 9.8 mln people.
First published by TASS . | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees will not be confirmed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate following criticism over controversial statements they made, a White House official said. The official said on Wednesday that the two nominations “will not be moving forward” in the U.S. Senate. One of the nominees, Brett Talley, selected for a district court position in Alabama, had already said he would withdraw. The other, Jeff Mateer, nominated to serve as a district court judge in Texas, was already hanging by a thread although he has not officially withdrawn. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican who chairs the influential Senate committee that overseas judicial nominations, said on Wednesday that he “doesn’t anticipate that either nominee would be confirmed,” a spokesman said. The move came a day after Grassley raised concerns about the statements the two nominees had made. Talley was reported by online magazine Slate as having posted online sympathetic comments about the early history of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) white supremacist group. He also failed to disclose that his wife works in the White House Counsel’s office, which overseas judicial nominations. Mateer has run into trouble over speeches he made in 2015. In one, he referred to transgender children as being part of “Satan’s plans,” CNN reported. Trump has made significant progress in filling vacancies on the federal courts with conservative judges. He also appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. | 0 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov had held talks with China s ambassador to Russia Li Hui about Moscow and Beijing coordinating action on North Korea at the U.N. Security Council. The officials exchanged views on joint steps, the ministry said in a statement. | 0 |
Tuesday on Politico’s “Off Message” podcast, Gov. Terry McAuliffe ( ) said it was time for the Democratic Party “to move on” from Hillary Clinton. McAuliffe said, “I think you have got to move forward,” adding, “my advice would be we have just got to move on. ” Discussing the reasons for Clinton’s presidential election loss and Russia’s involvement, he added, “So, that awareness has to be raised, has to be analyzed, has to be fixed, and I think there are enough people. My advice would be to Hillary — there’s enough people that will do that and get that information out. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0 |
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican Republic closed most of its ports ahead of Hurricane Maria, but the country s 34,000-barrel-per-day refinery was still running, the government said on Wednesday. Ports that suspended operations under the red alert declared for extreme weather conditions are La Romana, Samana, Arroyo Barril, Puerto Plata and Manzanillo, the Dominican Port Authority said in a statement. Maria was a Category 4 hurricane when it hit Puerto Rico earlier on Wednesday. The ports of San Souci and Haina, which serve the country s sole refinery, also halted operations on Wednesday, according to operators of those facilities. The port of Caucedo has not declared its status. State-run refining company Refidomsa last week lifted a force majeure declaration on its fuel deliveries due to Hurricane Harvey, which limited its imports of oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to be processed at the facility. The refinery s docks temporarily closed earlier in September due to Hurricane Irma, but they resumed operations days later. Refidomsa, owned by the island s government and Venezuela s state-run oil firm Petr leos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) [PDVSA.UL], this week issued a yellow alert to the industry ahead of Maria, which means it will monitor the storm to decide on further action, the Dominican firm said. Puerto Rico s Yabucoa terminal operated by Buckeye Partners suspended operations on Tuesday. The company is monitoring the storm to decide whether to close its Bahamas terminal, the largest in the Caribbean. NuStar Energy has not reopened its terminal on the island of St. Eustatius after Hurricane Irma damaged some tanks. | 0 |
OSU will receive more than $212 million in federal funding in 2016, they ll receive and additional $68 million in state funds.This winter, students at Oregon State University will have the opportunity to take a new class that promises to teach them about how African Americans have historically resisted the white supremacy. The class, titled African American Resistance in the Era of Donald Trump, will be taught by Dr. Dwaine Plaza, a professor of sociology and current Chair of the Sociology Program in the School of Public Policy.Plaza announced the new class last week in an email sent to some Oregon State students and obtained by Campus Reform, explaining that The goal of the course is to give students an understanding for how racism is deeply embedded in social media, movies, television shows, music, art, literature, and sports. In a statement to Campus Reform, Plaza asserted that the class emerged after the November 8 election, because In my opinion we are about to step back into the 1960s when whiteness was currency and people of color needed to be in the shadows struggling for whatever trickles down to us. According to a copy of the syllabus obtained by Campus Reform, the course will teach students about the evolution of modern racism from the post-emancipation period up to the election of Donald Trump.Students will also learn about topics such as The Black Panther Party, The Harlem Renaissance, and Racism in Oregon.The class will be held from January 9 through March 17, according to the Oregon State course catalogue, and up to 20 students will be able to take the course, 17 of whom are already enrolled. Two other professors, Larry Rodgers and Marilyn Stewart, will also help teach the course. Campus ReformOregon is a hot-bed for radical Trump haters. It was one of only a handful of states Hillary won with only 50% of the vote to Trump s 39.3%. On April 9, 2016 anti-Trump terrorists took over a Portland State University pro-Trump student meeting. There is so much irony in people who behave like common thugs and terrorists carrying signs saying, Love Trumps hate, while screaming down and threatening anyone with opposing views. | 0 |
On Tuesday night, seven of the Bundy militants that were previously occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon were arrested by authorities. What started as a traffic stop devolved into a gunfight with the FBI, in which the blue tarp man, LaVoy Finicum, was killed. The five remaining militants with Bundy, one of whom was wounded but survived, were promptly arrested. There were two other militants that were arrested in separate incidents from the one that involved gunfire.That s when it seemed things suddenly became all too real for Ammon Bundy. He, along with his fellow rebels, was arraigned in federal court and held without bail while awaiting trial. The sudden realization of what was happening appeared to knock some sense into his head, prompting Ammon Bundy to call on the remaining militants at the refuge to surrender and leave the compound.Through attorney, Ammon Bundy is telling remaining occupiers in Burns to "Go home. Hug your families. Let us take it from here." Jamie Wilson (@JWilsonreporter) January 27, 2016FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing commented that the militants were given ample opportunities to leave the occupation peacefully. Instead, they have chosen to threaten and intimidate the America they claim to love, he said in a statement during a press conference regarding the arrests and shooting Wednesday.The remaining militants had previously made statements that they were going to resist arrest, with one of them recording a statement that he was going to die fighting while everyone was watching.A check on the militant s YouTube channel shows new video from the compound uploaded as of 1 hour ago at the time of approximately 8:15 pm EST on 1/27, with a live stream scheduled later. From videos uploaded previously, it seems that there is still a small group remaining on-site.Sheriff Dave Ward also made an emotional appeal for an end to the occupation:This has been tearing our community apart. It s time for everyone in this illegal occupation to move on. It doesn t have to be bloodshed in our community. If we have issues with the way things are going in our government, we have a responsibility as citizens to act on them in an appropriate manner. We don t arm up and rebel. We work through the appropriate channels.Source: opb.orgThere are only two ways to end this now. Hopefully the remaining few realize their lives are not worth throwing away.Featured image via flickr | 0 |
A Myterous Ice Monster Has Been Filmed In Alaska - What Is It? # thinkbig 50
Witness report: Our employees did not investigate. It’s kind of far out in the middle of the river. Video was taken right by our BLM Fairbanks District Office facing downstream. We’re not sure what it is. We’re letting you all be the judge. Tags | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has gone on Twitter to lambaste a number of companies for cost over-runs, or high prices, or foreign manufacturing. But Reuters interviews with executives and lobbyists who met with him at the White House reveal a Trump who is very different from his uncompromising and demanding @realDonaldTrump Twitter handle. Here are some of the examples to illustrate the difference in tone: What he tweeted about automakers: Jan. 3 - General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax! Jan. 5 - Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. What he told automakers at Jan. 24 White House meeting: “We’re reducing taxes very substantially and we’re reducing unnecessary regulations. We are going to make the process much more simple for the auto companies and for everybody else that wants to do business in the United States.” What he tweeted about manufacturers: Dec. 2 - Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers. This is happening all over our country. No more! Dec 6 - Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order! Dec. 12 - Lockheed Martin: The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. What he told manufacturers at Jan. 23 White House meeting: “We’re going to be cutting regulation massively ... The problem with the regulation that we have right now is that you can’t do anything.” What he tweeted about drugmakers: March 7 - I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry. Pricing for the American people will come way down! What he told drugmakers on Jan. 31 White House meeting “We’re also gonna be streamlining the process, so that, from your standpoint, when you have a drug, you can actually get it approved if it works, instead of waiting for many, many years.” | 1 |
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - The Turkish military killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in a clash in northern Iraq near the border with Turkey on Thursday evening and one Turkish soldier was also killed, security sources said. The sources said four Turkish soldiers were wounded in the firefight in the Kanimasi area of Iraq s Dohuk region, across the border from Turkey s Cukurca district. The clash occurred as Turkish and Iraqi troops hold military exercises some 100 km (60 miles) to the west at the Habur border gate, part of coordinated steps by the two countries in response to the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum. Turkish soldiers have for years been deployed in various parts of northern Iraq, including at Kanimasi, to prevent PKK militants crossing the border into Turkey, security sources say. Commanders of the PKK, which is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, are based in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish warplanes frequently carry out cross-border air strikes against PKK targets there but reports of clashes on land there are rare. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its separatist insurgency in 1984. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The disclosure this week of documents describing secret CIA hacking tools shows that intensified U.S. government efforts to prevent leaks by intelligence agency employees and contractors have largely failed, cyber security professionals and intelligence officials say. If the Central Intelligence Agency disclosures are confirmed to be the work of an intelligence agency contractor, as government investigators currently suspect, it would be at least the third public case in recent years in which special software and human resources programs intended to catch so-called insider threats have not worked. The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which published the CIA documents Tuesday, said it obtained the archive after it circulated among former U.S. government contractors in “an unauthorized manner.” Part of the problem in combating leaks is that the number of government employees and contractors with access to highly sensitive information has exploded in recent years, due in part to greater information-sharing across the government that was mandated in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Budget constraints that force agencies to rely on contractors rather than permanent staff have also contributed to the problem, intelligence officials say. Government estimates of how many people have been granted Top Secret clearances range from the high hundreds of thousands to more than a million across thousands of public agencies and private companies. Government agencies estimate that there is one insider threat for every 6,000 to 8,000 employees, an intelligence agency contractor said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of upsetting his employer. The contractor said there is too much sharing of information internally, with many workers having access to material they do not need. Recognizing the dangers, former President Barack Obama signed an executive order creating the National Insider Threat Task Force in 2011, following the disclosures of hundreds of thousands of State Department cables that were stolen by former Army private Chelsea Manning and provided to WikiLeaks. The order covered virtually every federal department and agency, including the Department of Education, the Peace Corps and other offices not directly involved in national security. The program requires federal employees to monitor co-workers for suspicious actions based on behavioral profiling. Those who fail to report high-risk people or behaviors could face penalties, including criminal charges. Insider threat investigations can also be launched when computer network monitoring detects “suspicious user behavior,” according to government documents. Monitoring of prospective and current government employees has only increased in recent years. Under a directive issued in May 2016 by James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, U.S. officials evaluating whether employees should continue to have access to classified information can collect publicly available social media posts of those workers. Despite the new initiatives and a raft of innovative employee monitoring technologies developed by the NSA and private-sector tech companies, insider threats remain “the greatest worry across government and industry,” said Curtis Dukes, the former head of cyber defense at the National Security Agency who now works at the Center for Internet Security, a non-profit organization committed to protecting against cyber threats. Tuesday’s leaks came at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies were already reeling from the discovery that former contractor Harold Martin had allegedly spent 20 years stealing secrets from the NSA and three other intelligence agencies before finally being caught last summer. Martin worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, the same consulting firm that employed Edward Snowden, who in 2013 exposed details about U.S. spying programs. This week’s dump of CIA files is especially alarming because the spy agency is considered the “gold standard” for monitoring and tracking insiders, according to Larry Pfeiffer, chief of staff to then-CIA director Michael Hayden. Leo Taddeo, chief security officer at Cryptzone and a former special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s cyber crime division in New York, said the Sept. 11 attacks prompted a significant expansion in the number of facilities and government contractors who had access to sensitive information. A 2003 report on the attacks concluded the plot could have been disrupted if not for lapses of communication between the CIA and FBI. That finding and others forced a restructuring of how U.S. intelligence agencies share information, overcoming resistance by some officials who worried the new arrangement could create new problems. “We need for the right people to see the right dots, so they can connect them, but the counter argument is you increase the insider risk and that compromise has a greater impact,” Taddeo said. Chris Inglis, former deputy director of the NSA, gave a presentation entitled “How to Catch a Snowden” to a jam-packed room last month at the RSA cyber security conference in San Francisco. The talk was so popular that conference organizers had Inglis present twice. Inglis said companies, as well as governments, need to embrace continuous monitoring of employees and the use of behavioral analytics to spot potential leakers, and to directly involve human resources departments in detection efforts. Some companies have been hesitant to adopt such strategies, Inglis said, but a raft of breaches in recent years has led to a growing embrace of more aggressive approaches. “The unfortunate truth is you’re only going to suffer this one in a million times, but that one in a million can kill you,” he said. | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s Queen Elizabeth formally opened Scotland s biggest infrastructure project in a generation - the third bridge across the River Forth - on Monday, exactly 53 years after she opened the second. The 91-year-old monarch met with workers and school children who had gathered on the bridge before cutting a blue ribbon to mark its opening, as a flotilla passed underneath and the Royal Air Force s Red Arrows display jets flew overhead. The 1.35 billion-pound ($1.7 billion) Queensferry Crossing, the longest bridge of its type in the world at 1.7 miles (2.7 km), connects the capital Edinburgh to Scotland s north. The Queen described all three magnificent structures crossing the River Forth, built in three separate centuries, as feats of modern engineering . The Queensferry crossing joins its iconic and historic neighbors to create not only a breathtaking sight across the Firth of Forth, but to provide an important link for so many in this community and the surrounding areas, she said in a statement. Built with 35,000 tonnes of steel and 150,000 tonnes of concrete, the crossing reaches 210 meters (690 ft) above high tide, standing as tall as about 48 London buses stacked on top of each other. Barriers deflect the wind and shield vehicles from the huge gusts common on the Forth. | 0 |
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According to Democrats, the only thing in life which isn’t rigged is this election.
As long as Hillary Clinton is said by the pollsters to be in the lead and likely to win, the “system” is just fine – but only the election system.
It can’t be rigged if the democrats win. A democrat being in power is the natural order of things. I think it may actually be a part of Darwin’s evolutionary theory. First the protozoa, then the fish, then the ape, then the Neanderthal Republican, and finally, the enlightened progressive Democrat. That’s how it goes – right?
It is amusing that the same people and party, who claim that everything in America is somehow rigged, think it ridiculous when the Republican nominee claims that of this election – and that Republican voters are the ones this time being “disenfranchised.”
In August of this year, the Washington Post claimed that Exxon Mobil is “rigging the system” against green energy. Of course they are. After all, they are the poster-corporation of evil “big oil.” “As recently as last year, it continued to fund organizations that play down the risks of carbon pollution,” writes the Post.
So “rigged” is the system that the AGs of the communist states of New York and Massachusetts, “are investigating whether ExxonMobil violated state laws by knowingly misleading their residents and shareholders about climate change.”
Big Oil – Climate Change – Rigged – Check.
In 2015, Director of the University of Cambridge Master of Finance program, Simon Taylor wrote that, “Bank executive pay appears rigged against women.” He found that female bank execs’ “pay packages typically have a much lower level of incentive compensation,” netting women much less than male counterparts.
That same year, the NewStatesman.com wrote that, “Women can’t have it all – because the game is rigged.” The author is upset that women have to “choose” between having a high-powered career and spending time raising a family. Yeah – I know. If the system wasn’t so “rigged,” women could have it all – a model family and equal pay – unless, of course, if they work for the Clinton Foundation.
Women – Equal Pay – Rigged – Check
Naturally, the system is “rigged” against the poor and the middle class. The working class warrior, Elizabeth Warren , who is worth almost $15 million, said in an interview with CNN : “Let's just be real clear - the game is rigged and it's rigged in favor of those who have money and who have power,” like Elizabeth Warren.
Middle Class – Poor – Workers of the World Unite - Rigged – Check
There are many more examples of the democrats and liberals in general (redundant) whining of this ethereal system being rigged against every constituent group under their umbrella , that I would be remiss to not mention the seminal complaint of all the left. The system has been and will always be rigged against blacks – particularly the justice system.
Everywhere in America, according to the left, are examples of a rigged justice system, where blacks, minding their own business, are rounded up, arrested, and summarily shot. So rigged is the system , that “George Washington University law professor Paul Butler, who is a former federal prosecutor, has suggested the remedy ought to be widespread jury nullification. ‘It is, in fact, the moral responsibility of black jurors to emancipate some guilty black outlaws.’”
Blacks – Social Justice – Rigged – Check
With all this “rigging” going on, maybe the only fair thing to do is allow Hillary and her minions to do whatever they must to win, thus righting some of the wrongs of the rigged system. It should be our moral responsibility to emancipate some guilty democrat outlaws.
Democrats lying and cheating on camera – Dead People Voting – Illegals Voting – Election not Rigged – Check. shares | 1 |
California Democrats are taking a page from Oregon s book and appear set to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour despite gloom and doom predictions from Republicans.Lawmakers are prepared to vote for a gradual increase of wages that would not only give workers $15 an hour by 2022, it would also tie future wage raises to inflation, which has been a longtime goal of progressives such as Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.According to the Los Angeles Times: The negotiated deal would boost California s statewide minimum wage from $10 an hour to $10.50 on Jan. 1, 2017, with a 50-cent increase in 2018 and then $1-per-year increases through 2022. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees would have an extra year to comply, delaying their workers receiving a $15 hourly wage until 2023. Governor Jerry Brown and his Democratic allies compromised with labor unions on the raise after unions successfully got wage initiatives on the November ballot that would have increase the wage from $10 an hour to $15 an hour immediately rather than over a period of time.The new deal would give businesses and the government time to prepare for wage increases instead of having to deal with them all at once.But the bottom line is that California is about to join Oregon as the second blue state to step up to lead the nation on the minimum wage and treating workers well.Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed her state s minimum wage bill into law earlier this month, drawing praise from labor unions and President Obama, who called the effort one that will boost the paychecks of hardworking Americans and help support millions of workers trying to make ends meet and urged Congress to do the same.But Republicans refuse to do anything that will help American workers at a time when wealthy CEOs are raking in profits at record numbers while their hardworking employees struggle to survive on a daily basis. Many Republican-controlled state legislatures have even passed laws banning cities and counties from raising the local minimum wage on their own, which makes it incredibly clear that Republicans don t care about the the strife of workers and their families while Democrats are consistently proving that they are committed to helping Americans do more than just get by. Featured image via Wikimedia | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China s air force carried out another round of long-range drills on Monday, flying into the Sea of Japan and prompting South Korean and Japanese jets to scramble, and again around self-ruled Taiwan amid growing tension over China s assertiveness. China has in recent months ramped up its long-range air force drills, particularly around Taiwan, claimed by China as its own. The air force said in a statement that fighter and bomber aircraft flew through the Tsushima Strait that separates South Korea from Japan and into international waters in the Sea of Japan. The Sea of Japan is not Japan s, and the drills were lawful and reasonable, air force spokesman Shen Jinke said in the statement, describing the exercises as routine and pre-planned. The Japanese Defence Ministry said in a statement that the aircraft - two SU-30 fighters, two H-6 bombers and one TU-154 reconnaissance plane - had not violated Japan s airspace. In Seoul, South Korea s Joint Chiefs of Staff said five Chinese military planes were spotted entering the Korean Air Defence Identification Zone, and fighter jets scrambled in response. The Chinese aircraft also flew through Japan s Air Defence Identification Zone, they said. Our fighter planes took normal tactical measures, identifying the models of the Chinese planes and flying aerial surveillance until they left, the South Korean statement said. Chinese air force spokesman Shen alluded to the scrambled aircraft, saying they responded to interference from foreign military aircraft but were able to achieve the aim of their drill. Taiwan s military said that China had staged a separate drill at the same time, flying a plane through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines and then returning to base through the Strait of Miyako, to Taiwan s north and near Japan s southern islands. Taiwan monitored Japan sending F-15 fighters to intercept, Taiwan s defence ministry added in its statement. The Japanese Defence Ministry identified the plane as Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft. There was no violation of Japan s airspace in this instance either, the ministry said. China s air force last week conducted island encirclement patrols near Taiwan, after a senior Chinese diplomat threatened that China would invade the self-ruled island if any U.S. warships made port visits there. China suspects Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who leads the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, wants to declare the island s formal independence. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s security. China s air force exercises also come amid regional tensions over North Korea s nuclear and missile programmes, with bellicose rhetoric from both North Korea and U.S. President Donald Trump. | 0 |
21st Century Wire says Facebook knows best?Facebook has begun its rollout of the Disputed Story tag, which allows only ABC News, FactCheck.org, the Associated Press, Snopes and Politifact to determine if a story is fake news .In the following video Stuart J. Hooper delves into the depths of the arrogance that Facebook is now exhibiting with this move, and how the failing mainstream media is only really interested in stopping their main competition the exploding alternative media scene.Watch the video here: READ MORE ON FAKE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Fake News FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
Trump World’s Darkest Side November 8, 2016
Donald Trump’s campaign has exposed and spoken to the real pain and profound alienation of many Americans, but the candidate also has exploited those emotions with lies and appeals to prejudice, says Michael Winship.
By Michael Winship
When I grow up, I want to be Charlie Pierce , who covers politics for Esquire magazine and has toiled in our scrivener’s trade, as far as I can tell, since the late 1970s.
I know, technically, he’s a couple of years younger than I am, but he writes with the fierce wit and well-aimed anger to which I aspire, and as this wheezing milk train of a presidential campaign clanks into the final station, few have been as perceptive when it comes to trying to figure out just what the hell has happened to America this year. Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. (Photo credit: Grant Miller/RNC)
Charlie Pierce has done so with great style throughout, but now, thanks to Donald Trump and just hours before Election Day, he has come to the end of his watchdog rope. He wrote on Saturday that Trump — to whom he refers as El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago — had “managed to exceed even my admittedly expansive limits for political obscenity.”
Pierce was talking about Trump’s reaction after President Obama responded to an elderly heckler wearing a military tunic at a Friday campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
As the crowd booed the man, Obama said, “Hey! Listen up! I told you to be focused, and you’re not focused right now. Listen to what I’m saying. Hold up. Hold up! … Everybody sit down, and be quiet for a second… First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech. Second of all, it looks like maybe he might’ve served in our military and we got to respect that. Third of all, he was elderly and we got to respect our elders. And fourth of all, don’t boo, vote.”
In other words, the President showed poise, grace and yes, class. But shortly after, here’s how the moment was seen through Trump’s eyes at a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania: “There was a protester and a protester that likes us,” Trump said. “And what happened is they wouldn’t put the cameras on him. They kept the cameras on Obama. … He was talking to a protester, screaming at him, really screaming at him. By the way, if I spoke the way Obama spoke to that protester, they would say he became unhinged.”
Unhinged? Really? We all know that Trump seems to get his news from an implanted electrode picking up propaganda signals from the Planet Mongo. But there comes a point when the lies piled upon lies become too much for even the fairest and most equable of us. Hearing Trump’s demonstrably false description of what happened at Obama’s rally, Charlie Pierce finally had it.
“Maybe it was because it was so ludicrously provable a lie,” he wrote. “[Trump] didn’t care. He never has cared. His contempt for the democratic processes and for the norms of self-government is matched only by the deep contempt he has for all the suckers who mistake his contempt for the American experiment for their deep disappointment in it. He has measured their intelligence by his heavily leveraged net worth and found them hilariously lacking.
“We are all the subcontractors who build his indomitable ego for him and, as such, he can stiff us according to his customary business plan. His campaign long ago became a sickening charade performed by a grotesque charlatan.”
The Scene in Reno
And so it is. Look, too, at how Trump and his followers at a rally in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday responded to a man with a “Republicans against Trump” sign. Before someone shouted “Gun!” and the moment turned even uglier, Trump had looked down and said, “Oh we have one of those guys from the Hillary Clinton campaign. How much are you being paid, $1,500?” As the crowd booed, Trump said, “Okay. Take him out.” The run-down PIX Theatre sign reads “Vote Trump” on Main Street in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. July 15, 2016. (Photo by Tony Webster Flickr)
The protester, a Reno resident named Austyn Crites, described himself as Republican and a fiscal conservative. He told The Guardian he was grateful to the police who removed him from the auditorium for interrogation — they kept him from being further kicked, choked and pummeled by the gang of Trump supporters who surrounded him.
Still, he said, “The people who attacked me — I’m not blaming them. I’m blaming Donald Trump’s hate rhetoric, … The fact that I got beat up today, that’s just showing what he’s doing to his crowds.”
Throughout the campaign, whenever Trump has egged on his followers, I’ve thought of that line in Young Frankenstein, when the angry Transylvanian villagers are told by the local police inspector, “A riot is an ugly thing, and I think that it is just about time we had one.”
Remember what Trump said when a protester was dragged out of a February rally in Las Vegas: “I love the old days — you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks. … I’d like to punch him in the face.”
By now, you’ve heard it all before and the litany of lies, outrageous claims and insults has climbed so high that many of us have become numb and weary from the sheer repetition of Trump’s buffoonery. You can only go to so many demolition derbies before the sight of flaming car wrecks becomes routine.
Dog Whistles
What’s more, you can argue that far more insidious and frightening are the dog whistle attacks appealing to the baser instincts of the bigoted and ignorant. The latest: the closing ad from the Trump campaign that, with anti-Semitic overtones, points fingers at “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class.” Former speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
As Josh Marshall notes at Talking Points Memo , “The four readily identifiable American bad guys in the ad are Hillary Clinton, George Soros (Jewish financier), Janet Yellen (Jewish Fed Chair) and Lloyd Blankfein (Jewish Goldman Sachs CEO)… This is an ad intended to appeal to anti-Semites and spread anti-Semitic ideas… This is intentional and by design. It is no accident.”
Here is something Charlie Pierce wrote back in May . Trump, he said, “is riding on a wave of pain that he never has felt.”
“He is riding on a wave of anxiety he never has encountered. Beyond their love of him, there is no indication that he is as deeply aware of what has powered his rise as the people whose fear, and doubt, and, yes, hatred has powered his rise. Their job is still to wait in line, cheer on cue, and give him the devotion that he has earned because, after all, he is He, Trump, and they’re not, and that will never change.”
Add it all up and to me, this is what it comes down to: Do you want to live in a United States where anger, prejudice and fear rule, and dissent is viewed as treason, or in a country where we try to meet every issue from terrorism to education with clear eyes and a rational mind?
This year’s choices are far from perfect, but nonetheless a choice must be made. To quote a founding father who believed in such things: liberty, once lost, is lost forever. This could be democracy’s last stop. Vote.
Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWinship . | 1 |
Donald Trump has declared the media to be the enemy, but John McCain has a stark warning about Trump s most recent declaration of war: suppressing the free press is how dictators get started. During a Sunday morning interview on Meet the Press, the Republican senator told NBC s Chuck Todd that if we want to preserve democracy, then we have to have a free press. Period. I hate the press. I hate you especially, McCain joked. But the fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It s vital. If you want to preserve I m very serious now if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press, McCain said. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That s how dictators get started. Trump went on a Twitter rant and attacked the free press yet again on Friday, declaring that the media is the enemy of the American people. The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017McCain said that while becoming a dictator isn t necessarily Trump s goal, he does think we need to look at history and learn from it to avoid making the same mistakes we have made in the past. And what history shows us is that dictators get started by suppressing free press. In other words, a consolidation of power when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. And I m not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history. Here s the video:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
Federal authorities in New York have issued a subpoena for records pertaining to allegations that Anthony D. Weiner exchanged sexually explicit messages with a girl, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Weiner was the subject of an article on Wednesday in The Daily Mail, a British newspaper, that said he had an online correspondence with the girl beginning in January that included suggestive texts and explicit messages sent over social media. According to The Daily Mail, the girl, who was not identified, said she did not want to press charges “because she believes her relationship with Weiner was consensual. ” Still, she and her father agreed to be interviewed out of concern for other underage girls, the publication reported. It was not clear which records investigators in the office of the United States attorney, Preet Bharara, would subpoena. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity. A spokesman for the New York Police Department said it was investigating Mr. Weiner but did not elaborate. Last month, Mr. Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, told him she wanted to separate, after The New York Post reported that he had exchanged lewd messages with a woman, including a photo that included an image of his crotch as he lay next to the couple’s son. The New York City Administration for Children’s Services opened an investigation into his treatment of the Jordan, Mr. Weiner said at the time. Before that, Mr. Weiner’s political career, as a congressman and then a candidate for mayor of New York, had been twice destroyed as a result of lewd messages exchanged with strangers. | 0 |
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Hundreds of medical students and faculty members gathered at Northwestern University’s school of medicine in Chicago on Monday to voice their opposition to the dismantling of Obamacare. The demonstration was part of a larger White Coats for Coverage effort organized by medical students across the country and came a day before the annual deadline to enroll in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. “The ACA is not perfect, but pulling the rug out from under the feet of our most vulnerable patients is not the answer,” Dr. Bruce Henshaw, a faculty member at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told the group of around 600 people. “We will not stand idly by as our patients lose their rights. We will not stop today. We will write and call our representatives to ensure this doesn’t happen.” Students organized the event. Northwestern University spokeswoman Marla Paul said the school had no official position on the issue. Photos on social media showed students rallying at numerous universities and cities. “Proud to join my Yale colleagues to collectively say #protectourpatients. Improve the ACA, DON’T repeal it,” Ryan Murphy, who shared photos of a rally at Yale University, said on Twitter. Republican President Donald Trump’s first executive order, signed hours after taking office, directed the federal government to scale back regulations, taxes and penalties under the ACA. Republican Representative Tom Price, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has said an overhaul of Obamacare will initially focus on individual health plans sold through online exchanges and the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump has said he wants to keep some elements of the program, such as allowing young adults to be covered under their parents’ insurance. He favors plans that use health savings accounts and sale of insurance across state lines. More than 8.8 million Americans were signed up for 2017 coverage under the ACA through HealthCare.gov as of Jan. 14, according to the site, up from around 8.7 million sign-ups as of Jan. 14 last year. Arturo Salow, a second year student at Northwestern from Miami, Florida, urged people to sign up for ACA coverage before Tuesday’s deadline, saying more enrollees would make a rollback more challenging for Republicans. “I’d advise any patient to sign up immediately,” Salow said. “If they are going to take away coverage, let’s make it as difficult as possible.” | 0 |
Only Demented Imbeciles want a Killary Reign of Terror ‹ › Since 2011, VNN has operated as part of the Veterans Today Network ; a group that operates over 50 plus media, information and service online sites for U.S. Military Veterans. Donald Trump Is Winning – Bill Mitchell and Stefan Molyneux By VNN on November 2, 2016 The greater the battle the greater the victory - Bill Mitchell
Stefan Molyneux : Looking at the FACTS
The silent majority for Trump vs The propagandists for Hillary
“The silent majority” vs “the Propagandists”
“The Facts” vs “the Reality”
Take a look at the enthusiastic crowds at the Trump Rallies: Right Side Broadcasting Related Posts: | 1 |
Most of the media is capitalizing off what Hillary Clinton said at a recent LGBT event that was held in New York City. Unlike a Donald Trump gaffe every other hour, Hillary said something that bordered on inappropriate, albeit completely honest. She said that half of Trump s supporters are a basket of deplorables. In other words, they need to be called out on their blatant bigotry.Hillary said: To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up he tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Hearing this from Hillary, Trump took this as a cue to defend the indefensible the racists themselves. And yes, they are blatantly racist. In fact, he even called them great Americans. Trump tweeted out: Hillary Clinton just had her 47% moment. What a terrible thing she said about so many great Americans! Hillary Clinton just had her 47% moment. What a terrible thing she said about so many great Americans! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2016Now, maybe Trump thinks that his racist supporters are great Americans, but to the rest of level-headed and non-racist America, they are bigots who are deplorable and worthy of condemnation.Featured image via Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images | 0 |
Teenager ‘enamored with ISIS’ in court over ‘viable device’ found on London... Teenager ‘enamored with ISIS’ in court over ‘viable device’ found on London Underground By 0 53
A poker-fixated teenager, who was “enamored with ISIS” and charged in connection with a “viable device” found on the London Underground, has appeared in court.
Damon Smith, 19, of South East London, has been accused of unlawfully and maliciously making or possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious danger to property, the Metropolitan Police said. BREAKING – 19 year old Damon Smith charged with possessing or constructing explosives after device left on London tube train last Thursday pic.twitter.com/b0BekmI1aw
— Mark White (@skymarkwhite) October 26, 2016
He did not enter a plea in relation to the charge during his hearing at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
Defence counsel Simon Eastwood, however, indicated that his client, who has a form of autism, would be pleading not guilty on the grounds it was a prank, according to Sky News.
The device was found last Thursday on a tube carriage on the Jubilee Line at North Greenwich station, near the O2 Arena. It had been left inside an abandoned black Adidas rucksack and was found by two members of the public.
Read more
The station was evacuated for several hours, and counter-terrorism police destroyed the item in a controlled explosion.
The prosecution told the court that experts carried out a forensic examination of the package and deemed it to be a “viable improvised explosive device” which would have caused injury had it detonated.
The bomb was a “pressure” type device and contained grey powder, ball bearings, and a clock-type detonator, the court was told.
Four properties have been searched in connection with the investigation.
On Saturday, another device was discovered at an address in Newton Abbot by police investigating the North Greenwich incident. The item was later declared not viable.
Smith had just moved to London from Newton Abbot, Devon, to study IT at the London Metropolitan University.
He has been described as a “mummy’s boy” and a “loner,” with an interest in martial arts and online poker.
Friends of Smith have also claimed he was “enamored” with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Sky reports.
“He had a Koran and knew several phrases and he wore a black headscarf. Damon had replica guns and air rifles and even posted a video of himself shooting a replica Glock on YouTube,” a former friend told the Sun.
Smith has been remanded back into custody and will next appear at the Old Bailey on November 17.
Via RT . This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license. | 1 |
The Hillary Clinton supporters are the definition of a liv this is just pitiful! | 1 |
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke out again on Donald Trump s attacks on the judge overseeing the Trump University case. In a press conference, when asked about Trump, Ryan said his claim that the judge should be removed from the proceedings because of Hispanic heritage was the textbook definition of racism and indefensible. Ryan continued, noting, I do absolutely disavow those comments. Paul Ryan weighs in on Donald Trump's attacks on judge's ethnic heritage : "I do absolutely disavow those comments" https://t.co/EuNIF2NvEO CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) June 7, 2016Despite the harsh condemnation, however, Ryan would not rescind his endorsement of Trump for President of the United States. He added, But do I believe Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not. The unprecedented rebuke of the Republican Party s presidential nominee by the highest-ranked Republican official in the country would seem to be nearly worthless, if he still supports the candidate anyways.Even more striking, Ryan made his remarks as he stood in front of a largely African-American crowd, as he was announcing a conservative anti-poverty campaign. Ryan has often used publicity stunts to make Republicans appear more compassionate, while advocating for a legislative agenda that would cut many of the major provisions of the social safety net welfare, social security, and the like put in place and shored up by progressives and Democrats.Republicans have been pummeled on Trump s decision to racially attack Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel. Nearly every Democrat of national significance including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders has blasted him over it. Republicans in the House and Senate have condemned the attack, but almost all of those have said like Ryan that they will still back Trump for the presidency.Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a tweet in defense of Curiel, writing, Judge Curiel is an American hero who stood up to the Mexican cartels. I was proud to appoint him when I was Gov. The racist episode is another black eye for the Republican Party as it attempts to make itself more appealing to Latino voters, after they overwhelmingly backed President Obama in the last two elections.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, amid new questions about Anti-Trump text messages sent by FBI employees assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller s Russia investigation. Rosenstein testified that Mueller is running his office appropriately and without bias.In a colorful exchange between Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Rosenstein, Chabot asked the Deputy AG: How with a straight face, can you say that this group of Democrat partisans are unbiased, and will give President Trump a fair shake? After a brief stammer, Rosenstein replied that political affiliation and the issue of bias are different things, and that we should trust the experience Mueller and the Justice Department have in managing investigation teams, adding: We recognize that we have employees with political opinions, and it s our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions. To which Chabot argued how can anyone possibly reach that conclusion: I was at first encouraged. It seemed like a serious matter and deserved a serious investigation. And I assumed, as many of us did, that Mr. Mueller would pull together an unbiased team. But, rather than wearing stripes as umpires and referees might wear, I would submit that the Mueller team overwhelmingly, uh, oughta be attired with Democratic donkeys on their jerseys or I m with Hillary t-shirts, certainly not with Let s Make America Great Again and I think that s a shame. Because I think the American people deserve a lot better than the very biased team they re getting under Robert Mueller. And I think it s really sad. Things get awkwardly amusing at the 50 minute mark WATCH: READ MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire RussiaGate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1 |
The only state keeping the Republican Party viable at the national level in presidential races is the state of Texas. Texas and its 38 electoral votes help to form the backbone in any Republican quest for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.Republicans have not lost Texas since 1976, when Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford after Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Whether Republicans have won or lost the overall race, Texas has been blood red (Mitt Romney won by 16% there in 2012).But now with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, suddenly the race has seriously narrowed in Texas.Donald Trump is still winning in the deep red state, but his advantage has dropped precipitously from double digits to under 5 percent in the last two weeks. The last three polls in the state show him ahead of Hillary Clinton by only 2 points in a Washington Post-SurveyMonkey poll, 3 points in a University of Houston poll and 4 points in a Survey USA/Texas Tenga poll.All of those most recent polls were conducted after the Oct. 7 release of a tape in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women. Polls conducted in the prior month show the GOP candidate leading by at least 12 and up to 22 points. A couple of earlier polls had signaled the race might be closer than expected, but there hasn t been consistent evidence until now.A Clinton win in Texas isn t required for there to be considered a major ground-shifting development. Even a single-digit Texas loss would be a huge step forward for Democrats there, and a shock to the system for Republicans.The growing Latino population in Texas has consistently raised Democratic hopes that the state could be tipped into their column like it has been in Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. Democrats are also hoping for success in Arizona, where incumbent Senator John McCain recently denounced Trump for his crude comments with Billy Bush.Things are changing in the southwest, and they might change faster than anyone expected.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
Is the European gravy train finally coming to an end?The Danish parliament is considering a bill to seize migrants valuables to pay for their benefits.The leftists are very upset about this commonsense legislation. Daily Sabah reported:A controversial Danish bill to seize migrants valuables to pay for their stay in asylum centers looks set to pass in parliament after the government on Tuesday secured a parliamentary majority.Parliament was set to begin a series of debates on the bill yesterday, ahead of a vote on Jan. 26. Faced with a storm of criticism, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, whose right-wing Venstre party is behind the plan, called it the most misunderstood bill in Denmark s history. His minority government and its right-wing allies, the far-right Danish People s Party (DPP), the Liberal Alliance and the Conservative People s Party, reached an agreement on the bill on Tuesday with the opposition Social Democrats, meaning it is now supported by a majority of parties in parliament.The amended bill would allow Danish authorities to seize migrants cash exceeding 10,000 kroner ($1,450), as well as any individual items valued at more than 10,000 kroner.Via: Gateway Pundit | 1 |
The woman who wants to be the next Democrat candidate for president is doing exactly what Democrats do best these days, expressing their desire to harm anyone who holds an opposing political view. Oh, we know fake indian and US Senator Elizabeth Warren was only kidding when she told a crowd that she would like to cut the Republicans open . After all, she s just pandering to her base. Isn t that how the majority of Democrats operate these days? Trash Trump suggest violence against his supporters then talk about how intolerant Republicans are.In a discussion about the repeal of Obamacare, Democrat Elizabeth Warren (who is famous for lying on her application to Harvard and University of Pennsylvania about having Cherokee and Delaware Indian heritage) mocked the Republicans attempt at offering Americans a better option than the horribly failed government controlled health care that Warren voted to support. I hope they leave their bodies to science. I would like to cut them open, Warren said during an event in Chicago on Saturday. God, what planet do they live on? Warren asked, before sharing her wish to cut open their bodies.Warren then told the crowd she hoped Republicans donated their bodies to science so she could cut them open when they died.Ladies and Gentlemen Introducing the the first Native American presidential candidate for 2020 The future face of the Democrat Party LOL! | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday insisted that Washington’s “one China” policy should not be used as a “bargaining chip” with Beijing after President-elect Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to be bound by its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of China. Signaling further resistance Trump will face in Washington if he tries to overturn a principle that has underpinned more than four decades of U.S.-China relations, Republican U.S. Senator John McCain said he personally backed the “China policy” and no one should “leap to conclusions” that the president-elect would abandon it. “I do not respond to every comment by the president-elect because it may be reversed the next day,” McCain told Reuters when asked about Trump’s statement in an interview broadcast over the weekend. Trump set off a diplomatic firestorm when he told Fox News: “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.” This followed an earlier protest from China over the Republican president-elect’s decision to accept a telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Dec. 2. The issue is highly sensitive for China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, and Beijing expressed “serious concern” about Trump’s latest remarks. It called the “one China” policy the basis for relations, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned against moves to damage China’s “core interests,” saying that “in the end, they are lifting a rock only to drop it on their feet.” Some U.S. analysts warn that Trump could provoke a military confrontation if he presses the Taiwan issue too far. Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business & Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington called Taiwan “the third rail of U.S.-China relations.” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States is committed to the “one China” principle and will not use the Taiwan issue to gain leverage in any dealings with Beijing. “The United States does not view Taiwan and our relationship with Taiwan as a bargaining chip,” he told a daily briefing, calling Taiwan a “close partner.” “And bargaining that away is not something that this administration believes is our best interest. “Disrupting this policy,” he said, “could have a disruptive effect on our ability to work with China in those areas where our interests do align. That reflects the high priority that China puts on the policy and on Taiwan.” While saying the “one China” policy should remain intact, McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and an outspoken critic of Democratic President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, said that “somebody should hold China responsible” for its behavior with regard to Taiwan, Hong Kong, island building in the South China Sea and “propping up” North Korea. After Trump’s phone conversation with Taiwan’s president, the Obama administration said senior White House aides had spoken with Chinese officials to insist that Washington’s “one China” policy remained unchanged. China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on Tuesday it was clear Trump did not understand the policy. “The one-China policy is the cornerstone for any country, including the United States, to engage with China diplomatically, and is simply non-negotiable: no exceptions,” Xinhua said. The State Department’s senior diplomat for Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, was due to speak to China’s ambassador to Washington on Monday, the State Department said. Trump has tempered his strong criticisms of China and call to Taiwan’s president by announcing plans last week to nominate a long-standing friend of Beijing, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, as the next U.S. ambassador to China. However, he is also considering John Bolton, a former Bush administration official who has urged a tougher line on Beijing, for the No. 2 job at the U.S. State Department, according to a source familiar with the matter. Bolton has said the next U.S. president should take bolder steps to halt China’ military aggressiveness in the South and East China seas and consider a “diplomatic ladder of escalation” that could lead to restoring full diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. | 0 |
On Friday, Donald Trump finally got the chance to be in the same room as his favorite world leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Giddy with the chance to speak with a global leader whom he truly admired, Trump made Putin meet with him for over two hours, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.Tillerson also reported that Trump brought up the Russian interference in the election, opening the meeting by asking Putin if he d done any meddling. No one knows why the hell Trump would do this, but Putin responded exactly as we all expected him to by denying it.Reporters at the briefing also seemed stunned that Trump actually thought Putin would admit to such a thing, especially since Trump has defended Russia and denied the interference so extensively, even at the expense of America s intelligence agencies and free press. Apparently, Trump asked Putin about the election several times, each time getting a denial from Putin. And according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, that was all Trump needed to convince him or satisfy his need to prove his own innocence in the Russian scandal.In a report about the meeting, Tillerson said: What the two presidents I think rightly focused on is how to we move forward Because it s not clear to me that we will ever come to some agreed-upon resolution of that question between the two nations. You can listen to Tillerson s recap of what happened between Putin and Trump below:Putin and Trump s relationship is highly problematic, and their meeting was the focus of the G20 Summit this week. As Trump s Russia scandal continues to heat up, it was almost too predictable that America s corrupt POTUS would ask a question like this, which would of course be denied. Trump is, once again, trying to make fools out of us all and we re not buying it.Featured image via Handout / Getty Images | 1 |
The State Department released 7,000 Clinton e-mails today and plans to release a total of 55,000 but Mr. Transparency didn t! The most important communications from Benghazi are being kept from the American people until Obama s out of office in 2017. FLASHBACK VIDEO: Obama: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency. Via: FOX | 1 |
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi faced calls on Tuesday to take measures ranging from an economic blockade to military action after Kurds voted in a referendum in support of independence. But he will need to proceed cautiously. Abadi has been trying to unite Iraq since he took office, focusing mainly on sectarian hostilities between Shi ites and Sunnis, which had triggered a civil war, and Islamic State militants who seized a third of his country before their defeat. The Shi ite-led Baghdad government and the Kurdish region in the north have struggled for years to resolve differences over oil and other sensitive issues. But Monday s vote, which is likely to lead to a breakaway state that has been the dream of generations of Kurds, has ratcheted up tensions, posing one of the biggest challenges to Abadi as he tries to keep Iraq together. The Iraqi government ruled out talks on possible secession for Kurdish-held parts of northern Iraq on Tuesday after projections by the Kurdish Rudaw TV channel showed support for a split could be over 90 percent. Neighboring Iran and Turkey also fiercely oppose independence in the north. They say it will cause regional chaos, and they also fear secession will encourage their own restive Kurdish populations to press for self-determination. Now Abadi s Shi ite constituency, as well as Sunni Arabs opposed to Kurdish independence, will be pressing him to take firm action. Disputed areas such as the multi-ethnic oil city of Kirkuk could be a flashpoint for widespread instability. Kurds have gone too far and government must show them a tougher face. Government forces must go to maintain peace in Kirkuk and all other areas Kurds try to control by force, said Mohammed Tamim, an Arab Sunni lawmaker from Kirkuk Parliament has authorized Abadi to safeguard Iraqi unity and such a mandate allows him to send troops. Mobilizing government troops may not be so easy. The army has spent years fighting Islamic State and the recent battle to drive the group out of Mosul has left many of Iraq s formations exhausted. Those troops that can fight are engaged in operations against Islamic State militants west of Kirkuk and near the Syrian border. Another option would be to turn to Iranian-backed paramilitary groups. Some, like Asaib ahl al-Haq, have already threatened to march on Kirkuk. Tehran supports Shi ite Muslim groups that have been prominent in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Abadi, as the commander of armed forces, must switch the needle of the fighting compass toward Kirkuk, said Hashim al-Mouasawi, a spokesman for the Shi ite Nujaba group, which has about 10,000 fighters and is loyal to Iran. We are fully prepared to answer Abadi s orders to liberate Kirkuk and the oilfields from the separatist militias control before it s too late. We will fight to safeguard the prestige of the state. While the use of these paramilitary groups against the Kurds would spare the army from having to fight against fellow Iraqis, there are risks for Abadi. Tensions are already high between Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shi ite paramilitary forces, even though they cooperated in the fight against Islamic State. Now that Islamic State has largely been removed from strategic areas, the ethnic and sectarian battle for land and influence that has dogged Iraq could complicate efforts to create harmony among its many sects and communities. If the Shi ite paramilitaries and Kurds clash, it will mean all-out war between two of the best fighting forces in Iraq, a U.S. ally and OPEC oil producer with an economy shattered by conflict. Vahal Ali, a spokesman for Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said the Kurds would not take further steps toward independence without pursuing peaceful negotiations with the Baghdad government. But, he added, Kurds did not have endless patience. If we are attacked we will defend ourselves, he said. We are not breaking any laws. The Kurdish people were given a chance to vote and they did. For its part, the Iraqi government gave the KRG three days to hand over control of its airports in order to avoid an international air embargo, Abadi said, according to state TV. Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop flights to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, in KRG territory, but only Iran complied. Lawmakers called on Abadi to apply economic pressure on the Kurds, who suffered under Saddam for decades and then began building a semi-autonomous zone in the north after his fall. One possibility is a blockade of Kurdish areas, something that Vahal Ali said would also harm the Baghdad government. The Government must take tough measures to prevent the Kurdish leaders from going too far, said Shi ite lawmaker Ammar Tuma. He called for shutting down exits and entrances, controlling the border crossings, chasing the funds Kurdish leaders generated from illegal oil sales, and finally deploying Iraqi forces in areas they try to control by force. Kurdish oil sales without the consent of the government have angered Iraqi leaders. But placing an economic stranglehold on the Kurds may have only limited success for Baghdad if Turkey continues to trade with the north. Turkey has long been northern Iraq s main link to the outside world and the KRG exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day to world markets via Turkey. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if his country halts the flow of goods and oil across the border with northern Iraq. And while it sees the referendum as a grave matter for its own national security, Turkey has built good relations with Barzani s Kurdish administration. Iraq, including the Kurdish region, was Turkey s third-largest export market in 2016. Erdogan has repeatedly threatened economic sanctions against the Kurds in response to the referendum, but he has so far given few specifics. | 0 |
Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s mother, Zubeidat, has reportedly posted a statement online declaring Americans “the terrorists here” and calling her son “the best of the best.” In a message sent to a family friend on Russian social media site VKontakte, Zubeidat Tsarnaev wrote, “I will never forget it. May god bless those who helped my son. The terrorists here are the Americans and it’s known to everyone. My son is the best of the best.” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts against him and now faces the death penalty.
Zubeidat said she was outraged at the verdict in an interview with Vocativ over WhatsApp:
"TODAY THEY ARE KILLING MUSLIMS, AND TOMORROW WILL COME YOUR TURN AND HE, WHO DOUBTS THIS IS DEEPLY MISTAKEN!!!!!” . "THEY WILL PAY FOR MY SONS AND THE SONS OF ISLAM, PERMANENTLY!!! THE TEARS OF THEIR MOTHERS WILL BE FUEL FOR THEM IN HELL, AND ALSO THEIR BLOOD, I AM DOUBTLESS AND ETERNALLY GLAD THAT I KNOW THIS FROM THE WORDS OF THE CREATOR, NOT JUST ANYONE’S WORDS!!!!!!" | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday it would be “ridiculous” for a fight with Democrats over immigration issues to result in a standoff over a year-end spending bill and prompt a shutdown of the federal government. “There’s not going to be a government shutdown,” McConnell told ABC’s “This Week” program. “It’s just not going to happen.” As tensions rise between the two parties over the spending bill, McConnell called the Democrats’ position “untenable,” saying Congress has until March to address the status of so-called Dreamers, young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. With funding for the federal government due to run out on Friday, Republican leaders need to put together the votes for a spending bill. But Democrats have said they will insist on protections for Dreamers as the price of their support for a spending bill, setting the stage for a potential showdown. “That’s a ridiculous position,” McConnell told ABC. Although Republicans control both chambers of the U.S. Congress, at least some Democratic votes will be needed to pass the spending bill. In September, Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which shields young illegal immigrants from deportation. He gave Congress six months to find a solution. “I don’t think that Democrats would be very smart to say they want to shut down the government over a non-emergency that we can address anytime between now and March,” McConnell said. “That’s a very untenable position.” Trump and Republican leaders want measures strengthening border enforcement to accompany any relief for the Dreamers, a stance Democrats reject. McConnell said he was also optimistic that House and Senate Republicans could agree on unified tax legislation to send to President Donald Trump after the Senate approved its own bill on Saturday. | 0 |
Americans watched in horror as live chopper video showed a massive group of Antifa thugs chasing down a lone Trump supporter like a pack of hungry wolves. Once they finally caught the Trump supporter, they surrounded him and began to beat him mercilessly. There were no police in sight.We had an exclusive conversation with a Bernie Sanders supporter who is also a Berkeley resident, who was beaten bloody after feeling compelled to step in help and defend the free speech rights of Trump supporters. The Sanders supporter was shocked to see that one of the Soros supported, Antifa thugs who attacked him was a woman. Although he didn t agree with everything they stood for, he still believed they had the right to free speech and that the Antifa thugs, Black Lives Matter and BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) had no business using violence or the threat of violence to silence them.Watch how the tough woman who was wearing a mask, responded to the Berkeley police officers who, according the Bernie Sanders supporter we talked to, had mostly moved to the perimeter of the violence and were allowing it to happen. For anyone who has a hard time believing that women are a part of this violent group, watch this disgusting thug cry like a baby while disrespecting the Berkeley police officers who arrested her.***LANGUAGE WARNING***A member of ANTIFA screams for her service animal. Probably shouldn't be out rioting if you need a service animal. pic.twitter.com/V3wuVn08lo Based Monitored (@BasedMonitored) August 28, 2017Here s another video showing a tough female Antifa thug flexing her muscles from behind a mask: https://twitter.com/LeighMartinezTV/status/901897070092574721Antifa thugs beat, and then poured urine on the small group of Trump supporters who came out to support a Trans woman in MLK Park who organized a rally for peace.#Antifa beat and pour urine on Trump supporter at #Berkeley. pic.twitter.com/OHYS6YN8L6 Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) August 27, 2017 | 0 |
While speaking with the ladies from The View via satellite from Anaheim, CA, where he s been campaigning, Bernie Sanders was asked about Donald Trump and how Trump has been hammering the Clintons. He was asked if it s fair to go after Hillary Clinton for what her husband may or may not have done. Bernie immediately said it is not okay, and then goes on to tell the truth about Donald Trump.He flat-out calls Trump a demagogue and a bigot, which got audible loud cheers from the studio audience in attendance.Bernie also added: He has nothing to say about the important issues facing our country. He also made clear that Trump cannot be President of the United States.When pressed about the fact that some of his supporters have said they would vote for Trump over Hillary if he doesn t get the Democratic nomination, Bernie said not to believe the polls this early on. He seems to know that as the general election draws closer, and if Hillary is to be the nominee, many of his supporters will realize what s at stake and vote for Hillary, because the alternative is not only bad for the nation, but the entire world.Bernie Sanders genuinely wants what s best for the nation, and he knows that a Trump presidency would be catastrophic.Watch the segment here:.@SenSanders on Donald Trump: He has nothing to say about the important issues facing our country. https://t.co/bfTR1gdrx3 The View (@TheView) May 24, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump reluctantly signed into law a sweeping sanctions bill against Russia, Iran and North Korea this week. As U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meet this weekend at a regional forum in Manila, here is a look at new Russia sanctions : * The law establishes a review process that allows Congress to block any effort by Trump to ease or lift sanctions on Russia. Lawmakers passed the bill to punish Russia over its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its involvement in Syria’s civil war. * Trump, or any U.S. president, must submit a report to the appropriate congressional committee describing the rationale behind any easing of sanctions on Russia and how it would affect U.S. national security interests. Congress would have at least 30 days to hold hearings and then vote on any proposed change. If lawmakers back a “joint resolution of disapproval,” the president would be barred from changing the sanctions. * New sanctions are introduced on entities doing business with Russian military or intelligence agencies, companies involved in Russian off-shore oil projects, and those participating in Russian oil or gas pipeline construction within Russia. The bill targets a wide range of Russian industries, which might further hurt Russia’s economy, already weakened by 2014 sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea. * The law also ramps up sanctions against any entity involved in any cyber attacks on behalf of the Russian government, or that is owned by or acting on behalf of any such entity. The president is allowed to waive these sanctions if he determines it is in the national security interest to do so, subject to congressional review. * Six executive orders signed by President Barack Obama are codified, which would prevent Trump from using an executive order to revoke them. The measures, from 2014-2016, targeted Russia’s financial services, energy, defense and other industries in retaliation for its annexation of Crimea and incursion into Ukraine, as well as cyber-attacks and election interference in the United States. * The law also requires an interagency report on senior foreign political figures and oligarchs in Russia, their estimated net worth and sources of income, any indications of corruption, and their connection to Russian President Vladimir Putin. | 1 |
By BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley T he world’s most reactionary regime, the head-chopping, terror-sponsoring Saudi Arabian kleptocracy, was awarded the chair of the UN Human Rights Council, while Russia has been kicked out. The travesty was engineered by the Superpower of Lies to punish Moscow for resisting the U.S.-led war of sectarian massacre and regime change in Syria. The War Party is on the march, to the cheers of corporate media – and Hillary hasn’t even been elected yet. “All attempts to stop the fighting were rejected by the U.S. and NATO and sealed the fate of the Syrian people.” Did Russia invade Iraq and kill one million people? Does Russia have a greater percentage of its population behind bars than any other country in the world? Did Russia occupy Haiti after kidnapping its president? Are Russian police allowed to shoot children to death without fear of repercussion? Is Russia entering its 20 th year of a terror war against the people of Somalia? All of these crimes take place in or at the direction of the United States. Yet the full force of propaganda and influence on world opinion is directed against Russia, which whatever its shortcomings cannot hold a candle to America in violating human rights.
Simply put, Hillary Clinton must be denied a victory of great magnitude and any opportunity to claim a mandate. The dangers presented by a Hillary Clinton presidency cannot be overstated. She and the war party have been steadily working towards a goal that defies logic and risks all life on earth. Regime change [3] is once again their modus operandi and they hope to make it a reality against Russia. Nearly every claim of Russian evil doing is a lie, a ruse meant to put Americans in a fighting mood and lose their fear of nuclear conflagration. It isn’t clear if Clinton and the rest of the would-be warriors actually realize they are risking mushroom clouds. Perhaps they believe that Vladimir Putin will be easily pushed around when all evidence points to the contrary. “Regime change is once again their modus operandi and they hope to make it a reality against Russia.” The unproven allegations of interference in the presidential election and casting blame on Russia as the sole cause of suffering in Syria are meant to desensitize the public. It is an age old ploy which makes war not just acceptable but deemed a necessity. The usual suspects are helping out eagerly. The corporate media, led by newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post , are front and center in pushing tales of Russian villainy. Human Rights Watch and other organizations who care nothing about abuses committed by the United States and its allies are also playing their usual role of choosing the next regime change victim. Russia lost its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council in part because of American pressure and public relations assistance from the human rights industrial complex. The UNHRC is now chaired by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that funds the jihadist terrorist groups who caused 500,000 Syrian deaths. The Saudis are causing dislocation, death and starvation in Yemen, too, but they are American allies, so there is little opposition to their misdeeds. The openly bigoted Donald Trump has been the perfect foil for Hillary Clinton. That is why she and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership preferred him as their rival. He made the case for the discredited lesser evilism argument and his sensible statements about avoiding enmity with Russia made him even more useful. “Newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post, are front and center in pushing tales of Russian villainy.” The United States and its allies are the cause of Syria’s destruction. Their effort to overthrow president Assad created a humanitarian disaster complete with ISIS and al Nusra fighters who love to chop off heads for entertainment. Far from being the cause of the catastrophe Russia left its ally to fight alone for four years. They even made overtures to negotiate [4] Assad’s fate with the United States. All attempts to stop the fighting were rejected by the U.S. and NATO and sealed the fate of the Syrian people. The people of east Aleppo are being shelled by American allies but one wouldn’t know that by reading what passes for journalism in newspapers and on television. The American role in the slaughter is barely mentioned or is excused as an effort to protect the civilian population. The bloodshed was made in the U.S. and could end if this government wanted it to. Nearly every claim of Russian evil doing is a lie, a ruse meant to put Americans in a fighting mood and lose their fear of nuclear conflagration. It isn’t clear if Clinton and the rest of the would-be warriors actually realize they are risking mushroom clouds. Perhaps they believe that Vladimir Putin will be easily pushed around when all evidence points to the contrary. The anti-Russian propaganda effort has worked to perfection. NATO is massing troops on Russia’s borders in a clear provocation yet Putin is labeled the bad guy. He is said to be menacing the countries that join in threatening his nation. The United States makes phony claims of Russian war crimes despite having blood on its hands. The latest Human Rights Watch canards about prosecuting Assad come straight from the White House and State Department and have nothing to do with concern for Syrians living in their fifth year of hell. “Donald Trump has been the perfect foil for Hillary Clinton.” There is no lesser evil between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. She is fully supported by the war party in her desire for a more “muscular” foreign policy. That bizarre term means death and starvation for millions more people if Clinton wins in a landslide. She must be denied a victory of that magnitude and any opportunity to claim a mandate. Peace loving people must give their votes to the Green Party ticket of Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka. They are alone in rejecting the premise of an imperialist country and its endless wars. The United States is the most dangerous country in the world. If it has a reckless and war loving president the threat becomes existential. That is the prospect we face with a Hillary Clinton presidency. If the role of villain is cast on the world stage she is the star of the show. Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/russophobia_war_party_propaganda | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Connecticut Governor John Rowland on Friday urged a federal appeals court to overturn his conviction on charges that the Republican tried to use sham contracts to hide his political work in two U.S. congressional campaigns, saying prosecutors went too far in applying the law. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York heard arguments over whether Rowland used illegal consulting contracts for candidates who in 2010 and 2012 ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives. Rowland, who was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison in March 2015, is free on bail during his appeal. He had previously spent 10 months in prison following his 2004 guilty plea to separate charges arising from his acceptance of illegal gifts while he was governor. Rowland resigned from office that year. Andrew Fish, Rowland’s lawyer, told the appeals court on Friday that a draft contract rejected by one of the candidates, Mark Greenberg, did not constitute a falsified document. “Frankly, the government saying that a contract proposal is a falsified document makes little sense,” Fish said. He said prosecutors went too far in trying to criminalize Rowland’s conduct under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a governance law passed after Enron Corp’s collapse, that prohibits falsifying documents to hide financial wrongdoing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Liam Brennan countered that the case was in the “heartland” of the statute. “This is creating a fake record to have in the file in case there is an investigation,” he said. A federal jury in New Haven found Rowland guilty in March 2015 on charges of conspiracy, falsifying records in a federal investigation, causing false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission, and causing illegal campaign contributions. Prosecutors said Rowland, 58, sought to advise Greenberg, who testified that in 2010 he rejected Rowland’s offer and a contract to conceal the ex-governor’s role. Rowland was also accused of negotiating a deal to work for a nursing home company owned by Brian Foley, the husband of 2012 congressional candidate, Lisa Wilson-Foley, and receive $35,000 intended to compensate him for advising her campaign. Wilson-Foley and Foley pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions. Wilson-Foley received a five-month prison term, while Foley was sentenced to three months in a halfway house. | 1 |
How this woman is even trending in the polls should tell you everything you need to know about the Democrat party Good morning, ma am, a member of the uniformed Secret Service once greeted Hillary Clinton. F off, she replied.That exchange is one among many that active and retired Secret Service agents shared with Ronald Kessler, author of First Family Detail, a compelling look at the intrepid personnel who shield America s presidents and their families and those whom they guard.Kessler writes flatteringly and critically about people in both parties. Regarding the Clintons, Kessler presents Chelsea as a model protectee who respected and appreciated her agents. He describes Bill as a difficult chief executive, but an easygoing ex-president. And Kessler exposes Hillary as an epically abusive Arctic monster. When in public, Hillary smiles and acts graciously, Kessler explains. As soon as the cameras are gone, her angry personality, nastiness, and imperiousness become evident. He adds: Hillary Clinton can make Richard Nixon look like Mahatma Gandhi. Kessler was an investigative reporter with the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post and has penned 19 other books. Among much more in First Family Detail, he reports: Hillary was very rude to agents, and she didn t appear to like law enforcement or the military, former Secret Service agent Lloyd Bulman recalls. She wouldn t go over and meet military people or police officers, as most protectees do. She was just really rude to almost everybody. She d act like she didn t want you around, like you were beneath her. Hillary didn t like the military aides wearing their uniforms around the White House, one former agent remembers. She asked if they would wear business suits instead. The uniform s a sign of pride, and they re proud to wear their uniform. I know that the military was actually really offended by it. Former agent Jeff Crane says, Hillary would cuss at Secret Service drivers for going over bumps. Another former member of her detail recollects, Hillary never talked to us . . . Most all members of first families would talk to us and smile. She never did that. We spent years with her, yet another Secret Service agent notes. She never said thank you. Within the White House, Hillary had a standing rule that no one spoke to her when she was going from one location to another, says former FBI agent Coy Copeland. In fact, anyone who would see her coming would just step into the first available office. One former Secret Service agent states, If Hillary was walking down a hall, you were supposed to hide behind drapes used as partitions. Hillary one day ran into a White House electrician who was changing a lightbulb in the upstairs family quarters. She screamed at him, because she had demanded that all repairs be performed while the Clintons were outside the Executive Mansion. She caught the guy on a ladder doing the lightbulb, says Franette McCulloch, who served at that time as assistant White House pastry chef. He was a basket case. White House usher Christopher B. Emery unwisely called back Barbara Bush after she phoned him for computer troubleshooting. Emery helped the former first lady twice. Consequently, Kessler reports, Hillary sacked him. The father of four stayed jobless for a year.While running for US Senate, Hillary stopped at an upstate New York 4-H Club. As one Secret Service agent says, Hillary saw farmers and cows and then erupted. She turned to a staffer and said, What the f - - - did we come here for? There s no money here. Secret Service agents consider being assigned to her detail a form of punishment, Kessler concludes. In fact, agents say being on Hillary Clinton s detail is the worst duty assignment in the Secret Service. Watch Hillary show her true colors when a reporter in Africa accidentally refers to Barack Obama as Mr. Clinton. Hillary doesn t forgive her faux pas and does her best to embarrass the reporter:After studying the Secret Service and its relationships with dozens of presidents, vice-presidents and their families, Ronald Kessler s astonishment at Hillary Clinton s inhumanity should reverberate in every American s head.As he told me: No one would hire such a person to work at a McDonald s, and yet she is being considered for president of the United States. Via: NYP | 1 |
According to court records, Geek Squad technician John Trey Westphal, an FBI informant, reported he accidentally located on a customer s computer an image of a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck. Westphal notified his boss, Justin Meade, also an FBI informant, who alerted colleague Randall Ratliff, another FBI informant at Best Buy, as well as the FBI. Claiming the image met the definition of child pornography and was tied to a series of illicit pictures known as the Jenny shots, agent Tracey Riley seized the hard drive.Not necessarily a problem, considering companies performing computer/electronic device repair are legally required to report discovered child porn to law enforcement. The difference here is the paycheck. This Geek Squad member had been paid $500 for digging around in customers computers and reporting his findings to the FBI. That changes the motivation from legal obligation to a chance to earn extra cash by digging around in files not essential to the repair work at hand.The allegations are made by lawyers for a California doctor charged with possessing child pornography, after the doctor took his computer to a Best Buy store for repair. Computers which require data recovery are typically sent from Best Buy stores around the country to a central Geek Squad City facility in Brooks, Ky., and customers consent to having their computers searched and turned over to authorities if child porn is found.While there is no question that Geek Squad technicians have notified authorities after finding child porn, the new court documents assert that there is a deeper relationship than has previously been revealed between the company and federal authorities. The court is now considering the extent of that relationship and whether it is grounds to throw out a pending child porn case, though it could also have ramifications for the dozens of cases which originate from the Kentucky facility annually.Defense lawyers for the doctor argue that Geek Squad City s technicians acted as government agents by receiving payments from the FBI, regularly speaking with and referring cases to the FBI, and creating a program to search for child porn. If a government agent wants to search a computer, they need a warrant, and the case has raised issues of privacy invasion and violation of constitutional search and seizure rights.Both Best Buy and the U.S. attorney s office in Los Angeles deny any violations in the search of surgeon Mark Rettenmaier s hard drive, for which the FBI obtained a warrant after being contacted by a Geek Squad supervisor. That in turn led to a warrant and search of Rettenmaier s home, which led to the discovery of thousands of images of child pornography, according to a reply brief by assistant U.S. attorneys Anthony Brown and Gregory Scally.Underneath it all is the perplexing and disturbing aversion to adhering to the Fourth Amendment we ve seen time and time again from law enforcement agencies, both at local and federal levels. Anything that can be done to avoid seeking a warrant, and anything that creates an obfuscatory paper trail, is deployed to make sure the accused faces an even more uphill battle once they arrive in court.Read more: WaPo | 1 |
Donald Trump has attracted all sorts of fringe individuals and organizations as of late. He s attracted the most extreme elements of the Republican Party, and even the Ku Klux Klan is on board with his demonization of minorities and women. Now, Trump s extremist fan base has gone international with an endorsement from Golden Dawn members, a far right neo-Nazi party in Greece which has a presence in the Greek parliament. In the new video, Trump is praised as a man who doesn t fear to speak the truth. Watch video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCwXFVhe6DE]Ilias Panagiotaros is a leading member of the party and he s on board with Trump s policies. Penagitaros has praised Hitler for having a great personality. Panagiotaros, along with Golden Dawn, has been linked to multiple offenses like murder, aggravated assault, trafficking, kidnapping, money laundering and extortion by the Greek government.Of particular excitement to Panagiotaros is when Trump infamously used a Mussolini quote to describe himself and then defended himself from the outrage, saying, What difference does it make if it was Mussolini or somebody else, Trump said. It s a very good quote. As a result of the Greek economic collapse and the Syrian refugee crisis, Golden Dawn, which has an anti-capitalist platform and is anti-immigration, has gained more of a following. Thus, it should be of no surprise that Donald Trump has some racist fans in the international arena since his platform of denying Muslims entry into the US and building a wall to keep Mexicans out are comparable to that of this organization.The hope is that Donald Trump, along with the creepy Ted Cruz, who is likely even more racist than Trump with his personal brand of xenophobia, will never get to the presidency because if one of these men do, this country and its people are in deep trouble. Featured image via video screenshot. | 1 |
While Richard Spencer’s half-joke of hailing Donald Trump with R oman salute rose a lot of dust, some remarks in his NPI speech point into rather sinister direction. A posthuman one.
transcript with references and additional a/v material:
Undoubtedly, there was a sigh of relief throughout the world when Hillary Clinton lost Presidential elections to Donald Trump. If for nothing else, then for the sake of quiet joy of watching adolescent commissars melt in tears “because: racism, homophobia, xenophobia and whateverphobia”; it was a joy, and a relief, because it showed monolithic control system of moral nominalism , dubbed “political correctness”, to be a paper tiger.
However, party is over and dialectics is back with the vengeance. As SJW s are, hopefully, moving out from the spotlight of post-historical stage, the new contender asserts his right to fashion the reality of our day and age into his own image. If we are to judge the day by the first gleam of dawn, this image will be just as ugly – and just as unreal – as hermaphrodite ideal of politically correct “ shitlib ”.
In the words of more or less universally acclaimed leader of the “alternative right” movement, Richard Spencer, in the future we are to deal with the leadership of “children of the sun”.
This is an interesting, and to my mind quite worrisome, statement of intent – a manifestation of will, as Spencer would doubtless rectify me – pointing out in many directions while seemingly focusing on the eternal – and quite unidirectional – circular movement of the pagan deity, revered by all self-respecting übermenschen – from Nietzsche to postmodern occultists.
However, there’s a deeper astro-theological metaphor at work here. The “pure eye that can gaze upon overabundance of joy without envy” (Nietzsche) in it’s virtual, postmodern, installment is not to be strictly represented by Swastika – as Spencer apparently assumes, but by other, only seemingly ancient, symbol taken in fact from the world of tabletop and PC gaming and turned into ideological brand by Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin (or his minions): an individual widely promoted by core members of alt right movement.
The symbol in question is an eight pointed star signifying the movement, not of sun, but of presumably primordial origin of everything: Chaos.
In the lines to follow, we’ll provide some preliminary analysis of the emerging situation: the channeling of chaos principle – and adjacent chaos logic – through loosely knit alt right movement, taking as a starting point some statements from Spencer’s speech held at NPI Conference in Washington D.C. on November 21 st .
Triumph of the will or hipster Babylon working
In introduction to his triumphal encomium to the ideological victory of alt right, embodied in the election of Donald Trump, Spencer makes one interesting remark:
“But even though we always took Trump seriously, there was still a moment of unreality – or perhaps too painfully intense reality – when the state of Pennsylvania was called for Donald Trump, the moment when we knew Kek had smiled upon us, that meme magic was real. And though these terms are used half-jokingly, they represent something truly important–the victory of will . We willed Donald Trump into office, made this dream into reality. ”
It is all delivered in a manner of an in-joke, not to be taken too seriously. Moreover, to the uninitiated into mysteries of this Internet movement it is probably unclear who is “Kek” and what exactly is “meme magic”.
We’ll start our explanation with lesser weirdness.
“Meme” is an expression denoting “inexistent existent”, coined apparently by Richard Dawkins to explain how human thoughts fit in his evolutionary theology: memes are thoughts expressed in image and/or phrase which, by circulation in public, acquire the life and subsistence of their own and are able to “infect” the consciousness with their messages, like viruses. Meme is inexistent because there’s no such thing as thoughts having a biologically based self-subsistence and ability to procreate like viruses. Images and/or phrases are not living beings save by bad analogy that omits to tell us on what exactly it is based: what is that one principle making memes and viruses congenial. Yet they, quite paradoxically, exist because analogy apparently works . However no one seems to pose the question, why it works.
Well, it works because it is magical.
Chaos Magick
Here we have an example of magical thinking in the postmodern – in fact posthumanist – vein, resting on assumption that what has not evolved in nature can – and should – be created in analogy to imagined process of evolution. If artificial construct is in line with “principle of evolution” it is real or, to be more precise, it is in accordance with imaginary nature of this principle; it is imagined into existence .
Therefore “meme magick” works only insofar it relies upon artificial, preferably technological medium for sustenance and on assumption that its recipients identify themselves with their artificial, preferably online identities that can indeed be imbibed with “memes” as they are in themselves artificial and arbitrary constructs.
The goal of practitioner of such magic – a far cry from what was traditionally considered to be magic – is to change the world according to his will. This is, more or less, what is known from the Seventies of the last century as chaos magick , a postmodern imitation of ancient practice of acting in sub-human and sub-natural “domain” of the world, in the past mostly confined to people born with dubious talent to practice it. The peculiarity of chaos magick is, on the one hand, that it is entirely syncretic, i.e. that it uses everything that it’s practitioner can imbibe with intended, subjective, meaning, and that it relies on virtual, i.e. artificial world of mass culture, now embodied above all in Internet.
The idea behind it all is that nothing is true and everything is possible .
There are many interesting implications to this.
The first is that everything is interrelated, i.e. that everything is connected with everything else. So any which way you take, you’ll get where you want to get if you will it hard enough. The second is that there’s no hierarchy of higher and lower – there’s only an infinite surface dissolving into ever more complex elements, dissolving in turn into nothingness, if concentrated upon. As there’s nothing higher, there’s nothing to be revered and everything can – and indeed: should – be an object of ironical laughter. And, most importantly, this is the world of dreams, ruled by what is usually called “dream logic” but in actual fact: chaos logic or un-logic .
In this sense, Richard Spencer quite accurately proclaimed Trump’s victory an accomplishment of meme- or chaos magick.
Trump is willed into office by Internet memes binding the will of alt right adherents and turning their dream into reality – virtual reality, one may add, yet reality nonetheless. The fact that Trump was elected for a plethora of motives – from the appeal of his politics, to public takedown of Hillary Clinton by Wikileaks – is immaterial, because in the world of chaos every subjective “reality tunnel”, or interpretation of the world, is as real as any other.
In this sense we can observe new “God Emperor of USA” as a magical creation of Internet, by the Internet and for the Internet – today still the Internet of interconnected computer nodes, but soon probably the Internet of things. If one is to push Spencer’s remark to it’s logical extreme, we can assert that illustrious Donald is the world’s first president of posthuman race; an embodiment of ultra progressive dream invoked to reality by professed ultra anti-progressive group.
So that was lesser weirdness. Let us proceed now to high weirdness.
We owe the reader an answer to a question: who the hell is Kek?
Well, the reason why Spencer mentions him is again a magickal “half-joke”: Kek is interpreted to be an ancient Egyptian deity by a number of Internet observers and identified with alt right memetic avatar – Pepe the frog. While I habitually suspend judgment on all things Egyptian, because ancient Egyptian culture is a slippery ground even for experts, I consider this interpretation, upon closer inspection, to be quite valid in the virtual light of chaos logic.
Namely, Pepe, the cartoon character, conceived in 2005. by cartoonist Matt Furie, emerged as a meme from the depths of Internet forums, more precisely: 4chan sub-forum /pol/, devoted to political discussions with no holds barred, which was, in view of some observers, a breeding ground for many alt right aficionados; a place of absolute freedom, therefore: absolute chaos.
The expression “kek” was also appropriated from the forums and stems from the in-joke among the players of World of Warcraft , replacing the standard Internet abbreviation “LOL” (“laughing out loud”). Someone eventually noticed that Kek is in fact the name of frog-headed Egyptian deity, signifying Chaos and darkness, and Pepe was rebranded as Kek the deity – ironic one, no doubt, half joking one, as surprisingly many alt righters like to put it, but deity nonetheless.
It is important to point out that in view of the most “esoteric Kekists”, that is: (half grinning) faithful of Kek/Pepe, the association was originally entirely haphazard and accidental, yet it developed into an ever growing system of synchronicities – causally unrelated meaningful relations among events. So it came to pass that Kek sounds very similar to ‘cuck’(originally: cuckservative), a term denoting old fashioned conservative who was still not “red pilled” (another meme taken from pop culture, shared by both alt right and conspiracy theorists) by alt right or, should we assume: Kek himself; furthermore, Hillary Clinton addressed Pepe as nothing less than public enemy, identifying presumably the whole alt right movement with cartoon character. Then it happened that after this act Hillary fainted in front of the cameras, and that was immediately interpreted as an action of Kek.
A good run-down of Kek/Pepe/Trump identification
However, it all began with people noticing the numerical synchronicities in the random series of numbers in posts on /pol/ sub-forum:
„One last thing you need to understand about imageboard culture: dubs.
Every post on 4chan and similar venues comes with an 8-digit numerical stamp. This number represents that post’s entry position in the entire posting lineage of the imageboard.
With the amount of traffic these sites get, the last couple digits of this number are essentially a random roll. When a poster gets repeated digits, its called “dubs”, “trips”, “quads”, and so on.
Since a poster can’t know their post number until after they’ve submitted the post, its common for people to “bet” the contents of their message on the occurrence of repeating digits (…) When that endeavor proves a successful, a “GET” has been made and the stroke of luck is celebrated.
Out of this practice, a strange phenomenon began to take place on /pol/: discussion threads associated with Trump displayed noticeably frequent GETs. It wasn’t long before all of these seemingly random elements discussed so far became irreparably tied together within imageboard culture: Pepe the Frog (now /pol/’s unofficial mascot) Donald Trump (/pol/’s overwhelming candidate of choice) Repeating digit post numbers (“GETS”) “KEK” (used as an expression of delight, particular in response to Trump’s “trolling” of the establishment, as well as in reaction to unlikely GETs in general)
…and a god was born.“ ( source )
Synchronicities related to emergence of Kek the God and his merging with Trump in the bowels of Internet forums early on in the presidential campaign, are so numerous and, frankly, mind boggling that we cannot list them here, for the sake of brevity. For our purpose it is sufficient to point out that for many alt right aficionados, including core leadership, Kek is the God and Trump is his prophet, all declared with smug grin and ironical stance, yet with all the necessary power of conviction.
Namely, chaos magick relies on laughter, or irreverence of its own principles because it is essentially un-principled. Fairly in accordance with its postmodern nature it seeks to deconstruct any kind of order to enable its “practitioner” to impose his own will and change the world – as Spencer would put it: make his dreams a reality.
I would go further and add: make all reality a dream ; because, chaos magick and alt right are nothing more but novel forms in the development of virtual, i.e. posthuman , world. The idea of adherence and reattachment to tradition that the alt right movement professes is nothing more but simulacrum appealing to people tired of liberal nihilism – in its essence, however, it is a complete opposite: a disintegration of all substantial traditional principles – above all an idea of preexistent hierarchy of Being – into nothingness of primordial Chaos.
Posthuman traditionalism
I already developed this insight regarding the subversive work of Alexander Dugin, who is probably the most consequent subverter of Tradition with recognizable public persona acting in our age, but now we can see how his affiliates in USA and Europe are doing the same thing – with less philosophical subtlety, but fueled by much greater raw power. Namely, alt right, if we are to judge by what it’s leadership advocates, is ideologically nothing more but project of building the simulated tradition – something Richard Spencer likes to call “political theology” – founded on New Age filtered Aryan myths , racial interpretation of Nietzsche and generally crossbred with “do your own thing” mentality, all done in the virtual ether of information technology. After all, if we are to agree with Spencer – half jokingly of course – that God Emperor was inaugurated by the act of Kek the God, then the victory of alt right “traditionalists” is in fact the victory of technological magic; the act of pseudo magus waving the same wand Ray Kurzweill and his ilk offer to progressive lunatics .
In the end, therefore, we are talking about another victory of posthumanism, branded, spontaneously or otherwise, as traditionalism. The obsession of alt right adherents with “identity” in general and “white identity” in particular points to a fact that they are unable to realize the simple truth of Tradition they supposedly defend: they understand identity as something that can be created and not something that must be accepted . Observing the plethora of various, rather eccentric individuals in it’s vanguard, from macho gay postmodern Spartans to adherents to all kinds of exotic – and to a large extent made up – pagan religions one is at the lack to find a common denominator, save maybe for quite unchallenged neo-darwinist stance, especially to be found among “game” bloggers as Chateau Heartiste . If someone thinks that he can reattach himself to pre-modern spiritual history of humankind – actually the only one there is – while at the same time musing about “alpha and beta males”, “sexual market”, “signaling and counter-signaling”, professing therefore his proud monkey ancestry and reducing human relations to mental GMO of memes, genes and biological analogies, he is doing nothing else than unconsciously subverting the very thing he seemingly defends.
The allure of alt right lies in it’s dialectical opposition to political correctness and rampart destruction of moral substance of the West, induced by process of globalization. Yet this is an eristic or, to use an excellent neologism invented by one correspondent of mine: discordian dialectic; the process of infinite division into ever multiplying opposites founded on the principle of Chaos. It is all done with the crooked half grin, a pinch of salt to every smug remark – with irony of the man who knows he’s a liar and a cheat. But smug humor goes just a short way. In the end it morphs into sarcasm and irreverence of what should in fact be revered and subverts the very principles it professes to defend, far more effectively than dead serious PC brigade or techno loonies of posthumanist movement could ever hope for.
We’ll end with the word of warning to Christian adherents of alt right. The words have a definite meanings and power. There’s only one Chaos and there’s only one bringer of light from Chaos – as some Kek worshipers already defined the poor Frog’s main job . And it’s not the One to be defined as “God from God, Light from Light”, but “God from Gutter, Light from Darkness”. A real Darkness shining in virtual brightness. Hope you guess His name.
So, without a pinch of irony, I declare: be careful who your “hail”.
***
Author Branko Malić is a Croatian author and owner of Kali Tribune , with the background in classical philosophy. He’s focused on philosophy, media, culture and deep politics analysis. | 1 |
21st Century Wire says For those who still refuse to entertain any Michael Hastings Boston Breaks conspiracy theories, this latest story offers yet more proof that hacking a vehicle is not only possible it s relatively easy to do. Everyone has seen or heard those annoying ads on TV and radio, for those new smart monitoring devices that insurance companies are trying hard to convince you to install in your car. They tell us, If you are a safe driver, then we ll be sure to pass on premium discounts to safe drivers. To even the most mild skeptic, this little invention reeks of Big Brother tech.According to crafty insurance moguls, their revolutionary smart plug-in device connects to your car s computer port which is normally located just beneath the steering wheel. They claim that it only records drivers when they accelerate, brake and steer. They claim that this data will reveal how erratic a driver you are, which in turn will determine your road risk actuary and how much you will have to pay for auto insurance. SMART? Munic Box plug-in technology allows an access portal into your car s computer functions.Most smart people realize that this smart device will not save you money, as much as it will give insurance companies like Progressive an easy metric by which to raise your rates, not lower them.If that isn t bad enough, now cyber researchers in America have shown how hackers can send a simple text message to manipulate your car s functions even interfere your car s brakes.The hack was performed by engineering students Karl Koscher and Ian Foster from the University of California, San Diego, remotely hijacked a lovely cherry Corvette through a smart device used by auto insurer Metromile. Watch The team of researchers presented their findings at the Usenix computer conference in Washington, D.C. Mobile Devices did not respond to CNNMoney requests for comment. However, Stefan Savage, the college engineering professor that oversaw the research project, said that the device maker has since issued a software update. Do you agree with us that there is nothing smart about this technology?Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below READ MORE SCI-TECH NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Sci-Tech Files | 0 |
The working class voters who supported Donald Trump just got duped again.Because if Trump s Secretary of Labor pick has his way, workers will no longer be able to take a much needed break during the workday.Workers need breaks. It gives them a chance to grab something to eat and recharge their batteries so they can go back to work with a fresher mind and body. Workers perform their jobs better with breaks and are less likely to make mistakes.That s why workers get a mandatory break thanks to labor unions and the federal government.But fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder wants to force workers to work straight through the day without a break.In a 2009 interview dug up by OC Weekly, Puzder expressed his disdain for the state of California where the Carl s Jr. restaurant originated and openly whined about overtime laws and other worker protections, including laws allowing workers to take a much needed break during their shift.Trump s labor man also had choice words for Carl s Jr. s home state. I think the big change in California, it s really become a kind of socialist state, Puzder opined. You can t be a capitalist in this state, and Carl was at heart a capitalist who created a company that to this day bears his initials. The would-be Labor Secretary complained about regulations and overtime laws, claiming workers are overprotected. Have you ever been to a fast food restaurant and the employees are sitting and you re wondering, Why are they sitting?' Puzder asked. They are on what is called a mandatory break [emphasis his]. He shared a laugh with the interviewer, saying the so-called nanny state is why Carl s Jr. doesn t open up any new restaurants in California anymore.In short, all those Trump supporters who think Trump is going to make their lives easier will not only lose Social Security and their healthcare, they are going to lose break time at work as well as their overtime pay, minimum wage, and other protections that keep them safe and unexploited while on the job.The choice of Puzder as Labor Secretary is the ultimate f*ck you to the working class. Trump literally picked a guy who opposes worker s rights and the right to get paid fair wages.Any blue collar worker who voted for Trump because they believed he was on their side have just been betrayed and while they are denying it now, they won t be able to deny it once they are worked to the bone and get little pay, no healthcare, and no Social Security to save them from poverty once they retire, assuming they are able to retire at all.Featured Image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September and avoid federal agency shutdowns on Saturday when existing money is depleted. With the 309-118 vote in the Republican-controlled chamber, the legislation now goes to the Senate, which is expected to pass it before a midnight Friday deadline. The Pentagon is a big winner in the legislation, with defense spending rising significantly. While the bill cleared the House easily, dozens more Democrats voted for it than Republicans, many of whom oppose most spending measures. This was the first major legislation to pass the House this year with bipartisan support and marks Republican President Donald Trump’s first legislative victory, even though he railed against some of its provisions. The legislation bulks up federal funding for border security but does not pay for starting construction on a U.S.-Mexico border wall that Trump promised to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs. Trump had said he would make Mexico pay for the wall, but the Mexican government refused, making it necessary for the new administration to ask Congress for the money. Democrats and many Republicans have argued that a wall is an ineffective and wasteful way of securing the southern border. Another battle over the barrier is expected when Congress tries to pass a spending bill for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Trump already has begun focusing on that upcoming fight. In a tweet on Tuesday, he taunted lawmakers, saying, “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” The legislation would add $12.5 billion this fiscal year for the Pentagon, with another $2.5 billion available after Trump gives details on his plans for defeating the Islamic State militant group. It ignores many of the spending cuts on domestic programs the White House had sought and adds $2 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $295 million for Puerto Rico’s underfunded Medicaid healthcare for the poor and $407 million to fight fires in Western states. But the legislation is late in coming. The fiscal year began last Oct. 1 and for the last seven months federal agencies have been operating mainly on simple extensions of the previous year’s funding and the priorities that came with that. | 0 |
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - When Zakir Naik emerged from a prominent Malaysian mosque last month fans swarmed about him, seeking selfies with the Indian Muslim televangelist whose hardline views have sparked a criminal investigation back in his home country. Accompanied by a bodyguard, Naik was making a rare public appearance at the Putra Mosque in Malaysia s administrative capital, where the prime minister and his cabinet members often worship. Naik, who has been banned in the UK, has been given permanent residency in Malaysia, and embraced by top government officials. Critics see Naik s presence in Malaysia as another sign of top-level support for hardline Islam in a country with substantial minorities of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists, and which has long projected a moderate Islamic image. Support for a more politicized Islam has grown in recent years under Prime Minister Najib Razak, especially after he lost the popular vote in the 2013 general election - the ruling coalition s worst-ever electoral performance. Since then, his ruling party has been trying to appease an increasingly conservative ethnic Malay-Muslim base and religion has become a battleground ahead of elections the prime minister has to call by mid-2018. Naik, a 52-year-old medical doctor, has aroused controversy with his puritan brand of Islam - recommending the death penalty for homosexuals and those who abandon Islam as their faith, according to media reports. A Youtube video shows Naik saying that if Osama bin Laden is terrorizing America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, I am with him . Last week, India s counter-terrorism agency prepared charges against Naik, saying he has been promoting enmity and hatred between different religious groups in India through public speeches and lectures. Bangladesh suspended Peace TV channel, which features Naik s preachings, after some media reports claimed bombers of a Dhaka cafe that killed 22 people last year were admirers of him. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. The Malaysian government accommodates Naik because he remains a reasonably popular character amongst Malays, who gloss over his more controversial aspects, said Rashaad Ali, an analyst with S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. If the government were to kick him out of the country, it causes them to lose religious credibility in the eyes of the public. At his appearance at the Putra mosque last month, a female Reuters reporter asked about the investigation in India. Naik would only say: Sorry, it is not right for me to speak with ladies in public. Naik did not respond to subsequent requests for comment from Reuters. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told parliament on Tuesday that Naik, who obtained permanent residency five years ago, was not being given preferential treatment . Over the time spent in this country, he has not broken any laws or regulations. As such, there is no reason from a legal standpoint to detain or arrest him, Zahid said. The government has not received any official request from India related to terrorism allegations involving him , he added. Zahid and the prime minister have both posted photos on Facebook of their meetings with Naik last year in Malaysia. A group of Malaysian activists has filed suit in the High Court to deport Naik, saying he is a threat to public peace in the multi-racial society - about 40 percent of Malaysia s population is non-Muslim. The group said it was unaware Naik had been going to the Putrajaya mosque - or where he might be in Malaysia. Officials at the Putra Mosque said Naik has been attending Friday prayers there for about a month. He has also been spotted in other mosques, hospitals and restaurants in the administrative capital in recent months, according to witnesses that Reuters spoke to. Naik has in the past denied India s allegations. In an interview with a Kuwaiti television channel in May, he said he was being targeted by the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi because of his popularity. Malaysia s opposition Islamic Party (PAS), which has defended Naik in the past, last week urged the government to disregard any potential Indian extradition request, saying the allegations aim to block his influence and efforts to spread religious awareness among the international community. Islamic groups have stoked controversy for trying to impose their ethos in a multi-cultural country. Malaysian authorities canceled a planned beer festival last month, citing security concerns, and for some years now international pop stars who wish to make appearances in Malaysia face restrictions over clothing and dancing. Islam is the official religion in Malaysia. The laws, however, are secular, though the country does have sharia courts for civil cases for Muslims. Malaysia s nine sultans, who take turns as the mostly ceremonial monarch and are the official guardians of Islam in Malaysia, last month called for unity and religious harmony after what they described as excessive actions in the name of Islam. One of them harshly condemned a Muslim-only launderette. We are seeing this gravitation toward fundamentalism and a conservative idea of Islam because the current government doesn t want to be seen as secular anymore, said Ahmad Farouk Musa, founder of a moderate Islam think-tank, Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF). To ensure Malay support, the government thinks it has to have Islamic credentials just like PAS, Farouk told Reuters. said. Islam sells. In September, Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol was detained for giving an unauthorized speech in the Malaysian capital, in which he argued that governments shouldn t police religion or morality. Zahid, also the home minister, said Akyol s book Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty has been banned as it contravened norms of the society in Malaysia . Farouk, who organized the speech, said he now faces charges for abetting Akyol. | 0 |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk warned on Tuesday that completing a Brexit treaty and agreeing on future relations with Britain would be a furious race against time where EU states would have to stick together to avoid economic disruption. Writing to national leaders ahead of a summit he will chair in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, Tusk noted his plan to seek their approval to launch a second phase of negotiations, on transition and future ties, after achieving sufficient progress last week and agreeing an outline of the divorce. The conclusion of the first phase of negotiations is moderate progress, since we only have 10 months left to determine the transition period and our future relations with the UK, Tusk wrote. This will be a furious race against time, where again our unity will be key. And the experience so far has shown that unity is a sine qua non of an orderly Brexit. | 1 |
DUBAI/ZURICH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has announced it will confiscate money and assets held by dozens of top officials and businessmen detained in an anti-corruption crackdown. But the experiences of two other Arab states trying to recover stolen money, Egypt and Tunisia, suggest Riyadh may face years of legal and diplomatic battles to secure assets held abroad. Even then success is not guaranteed. The anti-corruption committee that detained princes, tycoons and ministers at the weekend has the power under a royal decree to take whatever measures are deemed necessary to seize companies, funds and other assets without waiting for the results of criminal investigations. The offshore scrutiny of assets has already begun in the Gulf region, where Saudi Arabia regularly shares information. The United Arab Emirates central bank and securities regulator has asked banks and finance companies there to provide information on the accounts of 19 Saudi citizens, banking sources told Reuters on Thursday. The Saudi committee has not given details of the allegations individuals face, though Saudi officials say they include money laundering, bribery, extortion and taking advantage of public office for personal gain. Riyadh has also set no timetable for its confiscations, although banking sources say more than 1,700 domestic bank accounts have already been frozen at the request of the central bank. If the committee were to try to retrieve all the revenue that has been lost to corruption, from bribes to illegal expropriation of land, the total would be $800 billion, an official at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry has estimated. A large amount of the funds are believed by financial sources to be held offshore in bank accounts, portfolio investments, corporate shareholdings and real estate. Many of the businessmen detained have private planes one has a Boeing 747 airliner. And a study by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research estimated Saudis have stashed away wealth equivalent to over 55 percent of the country s gross domestic product in foreign tax havens an amount exceeding $300 billion. But Egypt and Tunisia s experiences show that although asset freezes can be arranged within months, repatriating the money can take many years. Cairo has tried unsuccessfully for five years to retrieve about 85 million pounds ($111 million)in British bank accounts belonging to the inner circle of former President Hosni Mubarak. British officials have said they are bound by British law, which requires the Egyptians to provide them with criminal convictions first. Tunisia has so far recovered only a small portion of about $35 million claimed from Switzerland following the 2011 revolution that inspired the Arab Spring uprising. Saudi Prince Alwaleed's investment: tmsnrt.rs/2j5fE04 There are some precedents that could give Saudi Arabia cause for hope that it will be able to repatriate money. Last year, Nigeria and Switzerland signed a deal paving the way for the return of over $300 million confiscated from the family of Nigeria s former military ruler Sani Abacha. Requests from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria have led to nearly 1 billion Swiss francs ($1 billion) of assets being frozen by Swiss authorities. But the efforts of Egypt and Tunisia to retrieve the money have stumbled over a requirement to submit evidence that would be admissible in Western legal systems, proving the beneficial owners of the assets and showing that corruption has taken place. Often assets are held in complex offshore vehicles making it hard to show who really owns them. Carlo Lombardini, a banking lawyer and professor of banking law at University of Lausanne, said Riyadh would have to provide detailed evidence proving how the money was obtained to seize assets in Switzerland on the grounds of corruption. And then there is an issue whether this person in Saudi Arabia can defend themselves, and whether they benefit from a proper defense, he said. Saudi officials would have to satisfy Swiss authorities that owners of assets had been given due process. This could be difficult given the speed and the scale of the crackdown, and the sweeping powers given to the anti-corruption committee. The Saudi attorney-general said on Monday that detailed questioning of detainees had already produced a great deal of evidence , but gave no more details. Senior Saudi officials did not respond to requests for information on the investigation. A Gulf-based lawyer familiar with international corruption cases said there were two channels through which Saudi Arabia could pursue assets abroad. In cases where Riyadh had a signed a treaty or convention with a foreign country, it could use this to obtain assistance gathering evidence before seeking to seize assets via the court system. However, Saudi Arabia does not have such a treaty with the United States, Switzerland and many other countries. Saudi Arabia could also send a letter of request to a relevant ministry in the other nation. This would be a test of its diplomatic influence in foreign capitals. Businessmen in detention include international investor Prince Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose wealth was estimated by Forbes magazine before the crackdown at $17 billion; Mohammad al-Amoudi at $10.4 billion, with construction, agriculture and energy companies in Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia; and finance and healthcare magnate Saleh Kamel at $2.3 billion. Repatriating assets could be so hard that Riyadh may try to avoid foreign legal action altogether in many cases, instead making deals with detained tycoons and princes that in effect legalize their fortunes in exchange for a share of their money, some bankers and consultants say. The government will also strike deals with businessmen and royals to avoid arrest, but only as part of a greater commitment to the local economy, said Ayham Kamel, Eurasia Group s practice head, Middle East & North Africa in a note. Saudi wealth stored abroad: tmsnrt.rs/2znHlrL | 0 |
Will the new policy for face-to-face interviews with applicants for citizenship be enough to weed out terrorists who only plan on harming Americans?It s being reported that many seeking citizenship and asylum have converted to Christianity to better their chances of making it into their desired country:Breitbart News reported:Muslims migrating from Syria have admitted to converting to Christianity in a bid to boost their chances of being given asylum in the West, despite the risks associated with apostasy. Two Muslim Syrians living in Lebanon have told The Telegraph that they and their families have converted to Christianity because they believe it gives them a better chance of gaining asylum in the West, and because they can better access aid from Christian charities.Ibrahim Ali, who became homeless after moving to Beirut, told the paper: A lot of people are doing it to get to Europe, the US and Canada. While I plan to stay in Lebanon, I know hundreds who been baptised just to help their applications. They would do anything to have security for their family. The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it will soon require more people to undergo in-person interviews before they can gain a firmer legal footing in the U.S., carrying out yet another part of President Trump s extreme vetting executive order.While the so-called travel ban on six Muslim-majority countries has garnered most of the attention, it was just a temporary measure designed to give the government the space to stiffen its regular checks so it could be more adept at denying potential terrorists entry.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced one of those new policies Monday, saying it wants more people to have to face in-person interviews before they re giving permanent status in the country. Read more: WT | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced his resignation on Thursday and said it “felt pretty good” to step down, ending a six-year tenure as the top U.S. spy that included a sometimes rocky relationship with Congress. Clapper, 75, a retired three-star U.S. Air Force general, will stay on until Democratic President Barack Obama leaves office in January. He has said for months he intended to leave when Obama departed and his replacement will be chosen by Republican President-elect Donald Trump. Clapper’s term was marked by efforts to grapple with the re-emergence of an aggressive Russia, extremist attacks and growing cyber threats, as well as misleading a Senate committee about federal policy on collecting data on millions of Americans. His formal letter of resignation was issued in response to a White House request that all Obama administration political appointees submit resignations effective at noon on Jan. 20, a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said. Clapper appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing on Thursday and Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, lightheartedly said he hoped Clapper would stay in the job for four more years. “I submitted my letter of resignation last night, which felt pretty good,” Clapper responded. “I’ve got 64 days left.” In March 2013 Clapper found himself at the center of controversy after testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, telling Senator Ron Wyden that the U.S. government did “not wittingly” collect data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans. His statement was disproved months later when former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden exposed classified details of U.S. surveillance programs, including one that collected domestic U.S. phone call data in bulk. Clapper later said his response to the Senate was the “least untruthful” one he could provide. On Thursday, Wyden said senior intelligence officials “engaged in a deception spree regarding mass surveillance” during Clapper’s tenure. Others praised Clapper with Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, saying he had “served our country honorably and with distinction in every capacity requested of him.” Before last week’s presidential election Clapper’s office issued a pre-election declaration accusing Russia of hacking U.S. political operatives and individuals as part of a scheme to “interfere with the U.S. election process.” On Thursday he declined to comment on whether the Russians had shared any of the hacked information with unnamed Americans in the past 18 months. Clapper said he did not expect “a significant change in Russian behavior” when asked about Russia’s alleged involvement in hacking. He added that Russia was planning to expand its presence at a naval base it maintains in Tartous, Syria. The leading candidates to replace Clapper in the Trump administration include Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and a previous deputy director of national intelligence under Clapper, according to national security officials and people close to Trump’s transition team. Retired Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency during Obama’s first term, and former Republican Representative Pete Hoekstra, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, also may be in contention, sources said. The director of national intelligence oversees 17 U.S. intelligence agencies and serves as the president’s principal intelligence adviser and briefer. As deputy director of national intelligence, Cardillo had served as Obama’s “alternate” principal briefer, an official said. Clapper’s service in military and intelligence spanned six decades, beginning in the 1960s in the U.S. Marine Corps followed by enlistment as a U.S. Air Force officer. | 0 |
Breaking news out of Trump s White House indicates that marijuana use may have contributed to the violent events at Bowling Green and perhaps even in Sweden.At least, in the opinion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that could be the case. Despite repeated promises by Trump on the campaign trail to leave states alone that have legalized recreational cannabis, the Trump administration appears to be gearing up to take aim at the legal marijuana industry. On Monday, he told reporters at the Justice Department that real violence is connected to cannabis use:Sessions further said that experts have told him there is more violence around marijuana, than one would think. You can t sue somebody for a drug debt, Sessions said, on Monday. The only way to get your money is through strong-arm tactics, and violence tends to follow that. (Business Insider) I don t think America is going to be a better place when people of all ages, and particularly young people, are smoking pot, Sessions said. I believe it s an unhealthy practice, and current levels of THC in marijuana are very high compared to what they were a few years ago, and we re seeing real violence around that. If he was just a tiny bit smarter, he d realize he s actually arguing in favor of legalization. I live in Portland, Oregon. Here s a couple of notes about the recreational dispensary located a convenient four blocks from my house first, they are a small business. Small businesses aren t in the habit of fronting people inventory; you typically pay for what you re purchasing, and leave. The second point here is going to require a bit of imagination.Let s imagine that they have fronted me untold amounts of cannabis, and I haven t paid. So they send a strongman to my house to get the money and I just call the cops, because weed is legal, I m not incriminating myself by calling, and using strong-arm tactics to get money you are owed is illegal. Federal courts aren t going to treat it as a legitimate product, sure, but the answer to that is complete legalization, not wasting millions of dollars in pointless enforcement and court battles with individual states.He said some other genuinely dumb shit as well:Sessions then appeared to criticize a column The Washington Post published Tuesday by Sam Kamin, professor of marijuana law and policy at the University of Denver. In the op-ed, Kamin argues that the opioid crisis is a reason to expand access to marijuana rather than to contract it. A 2016 study from Columbia University s Mailman School of Public Health found adverse consequences of opioid use decreased over time in states where marijuana is legalized as individuals substituted marijuana for opioids to treat pain.But Sessions scoffed at Kamin s reasoning. Give me a break, Sessions said. This is the kind of argument that has been out there. [It s] almost a desperate attempt to defend the harmlessness of marijuana or even benefits. I doubt that s true. Maybe science will prove me wrong. My best view is that we don t need to be legalizing marijuana. Well, Sessions, science has, indeed, proved you wrong. Your best view is both behind the times and demonstrably false. There is so much information out there demonstrating the benefits of cannabis in combating the opiate epidemic and treating chronic pain that if you re the Attorney General, and ignorant of it, it s by choice.It s time for the failed war on drugs to draw to a close. All prohibition of cannabis accomplishes is driving people who self-medicate or are prescribed cannabis for chronic pain to use prescription opiates instead, finances the cartels and fuels violence, and makes the Fox News crowd happy. The gateway drug shtick is old and false. Sean Spicer and Jeff Sessions think that increased recreational use of cannabis has led to the opiate epidemic, rather than excessive and improper prescriptions (as evidence shows). This is so wrong and out-of-touch that it shows they have no interest in actually helping or rehabilitating heroin and oxy addicts they are only interested in using them as a political prop that justifies attacking rights they don t believe people should have. So much for small government, eh?Featured image via Zach Gibson/Getty Images | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration briefed congressional staff this week on how the White House was considering non-proliferation standards in a potential pact to sell nuclear reactor technology to Saudi Arabia, but did not indicate whether allowing uranium enrichment would be part of any deal, congressional aides said. Non-proliferation advocates worry that allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich fuel in a nuclear power deal could also enable it to one day covertly produce fissile material and set off an arms race with arch-rival Iran that could spread more broadly throughout the Middle East. Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff members were briefed by State Department and Department of Energy officials in a meeting on Wednesday, the aides said. They learned the administration “is working to develop a position on non-proliferation standards” should they begin talks with Saudi Arabia on a civilian nuclear cooperation pact known as a 123 agreement, a committee aide said. The administration is still mulling whether any agreement would allow uranium enrichment, the aide said. The race to build Saudi Arabia’s first nuclear power reactors is heating up among U.S., South Korean, Chinese and Russian companies. U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry visited Saudi Arabia last week, telling Reuters then that new talks between the two allies on a 123 agreement would start soon. An agreement would allow U.S. companies to participate in Saudi Arabia’s civilian nuclear program. Riyadh has said it wants to be self-sufficient in producing nuclear fuel and that it is not interested in diverting nuclear technology to military use. In previous talks, Saudi Arabia has refused to sign an agreement with Washington that would deprive it of enriching uranium. Uranium fuel for reactors is enriched to only about 5 percent, lower than the 90 percent level for fissile material in nuclear bombs. Some senators with proliferation concerns worry the administration is moving too quickly on talks about nuclear plants and enrichment with Saudi without consulting Congress. As required by a 2008 law, the president is required to keep the committees in the House and Senate that deal with foreign relations “fully and currently informed” on any initiative and talks relating to new or amended 123 agreements. “We’re frustrated by the lack of briefings and having to yet again learn about potential foreign policy developments from the press,” a congressional aide said. A day before the senate briefing, a report by Bloomberg citing sources said that the administration may allow uranium enrichment as part of an agreement. The congressional aide said there are concerns that plans for an agreement are only being conducted by a small number of people controlled by the White House. “It also appears that this is policy being driven out of the White House, which makes congressional oversight that much harder,” said the aide. If lawmakers oppose a civilian nuclear deal signed by the president they can try to fight it with legislation or other measures. The Trump administration and the previous Obama administration have pushed for selling nuclear power technology abroad, partly to keep the country competitive with Russia and China in nuclear innovation. A State Department official said the United States and Saudi Arabia have been in talks since 2012 regarding a 123 agreement but declined to comment on the discussions. Energy Department officials did not immediately comment on the briefing. Toshiba-owned Westinghouse is in talks with other U.S.- based companies to form a consortium for a bid in a multibillion-dollar tender for two nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia. Winning a bid would be a big step for Westinghouse. It went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year and abandoned plans to build two advanced AP1000 reactors in the United States. | 0 |
Comey will inevitably be remembered for the controversial role he played in the 2016 presidential election, where his agency conducted surveillance of the Trump campaign as well as investigated the Clinton camp for mishandling classified materials, giving both sides arguments for how the FBI ultimately swayed the vote.But even before the 2016 campaign, the FBI endured a number of humiliations under Comey s tenure. Most damning were revelations that the FBI was generally aware of almost every terrorist who successfully struck America over the last eight years.1. Before he bombed the Boston Marathon, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev but let him go. Russia sent the Obama Administration a second warning, but the FBI opted against investigating him again.2. Shortly after the NSA scandal exploded in 2013, the FBI was exposed conducting its own data mining on innocent Americans; the agency, Bloomberg reported, retains that material for decades (even if no wrongdoing is found).3. The FBI had possession of emails sent by Nidal Hasan saying he wanted to kill his fellow soldiers to protect the Taliban but didn t intervene, leading many critics to argue the tragedy that resulted in the death of 31 Americans at Fort Hood could have been prevented.4. During the Obama Administration, the FBI claimed that two private jets were being used primarily for counterterrorism, when in fact they were mostly being used for Eric Holder and Robert Mueller s business and personal travel.5. When the FBI demanded Apple create a backdoor that would allow law enforcement agencies to unlock the cell phones of various suspects, the company refused, sparking a battle between the feds and America s biggest tech company. What makes this incident indicative of Comey s questionable management of the agency is that a) The FBI jumped the gun, as they were indeed ultimately able to crack the San Bernardino terrorist s phone, and b) Almost every other major national security figure sided with Apple (from former CIA Director General Petraeus to former CIA Director James Woolsey to former director of the NSA, General Michael Hayden), warning that such a crack would inevitably wind up in the wrong hands.6. In 2015, the FBI conducted a controversial raid on a Texas political meeting, finger printing, photographing, and seizing phones from attendees (some in the group believe in restoring Texas as an independent constitutional republic).7. During its investigation into Hillary Clinton s mishandling of classified material, the FBI made an unusual deal in which Clinton aides were both given immunity and allowed to destroy their laptops.8. The father of the radical Islamist who detonated a backpack bomb in New York City in 2016 alerted the FBI to his son s radicalization. The FBI, however, cleared Ahmad Khan Rahami after a brief interview.9. The FBI also investigated the terrorist who killed 49 people and wounded 53 more at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Despite a more than 10-month investigation of Omar Mateen during which Mateen admitting lying to agents the FBI opted against pressing further and closed its case.10. CBS recently reported that when two terrorists sought to kill Americans attending the Draw Muhammad event in Garland, Texas, the FBI not only had an understanding an attack was coming, but actually had an undercover agent traveling with the Islamists, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi. The FBI has refused to comment on why the agent on the scene did not intervene during the attack.Via: Grabien | 0 |
Join Patrick every week at 21WIRE.TV for news, views and analysis on all top stories domestically and abroad THIS WEEK: Episode 3 Did the Russians Do It? The 4th Estate become a fifth column, as The Washington Post loses the plot scapegoating Russia over Wikileaks rather than face up to the Democratic Party s own electoral debacle. Also, how Podesta Emails likely LEAKED to Wikileaks from inside the US, not hacked by the Kremlin. And will Trump drain the swamp, or simply fill it up again? Host Patrick Henningsen talks to Ray McGovern, former CIA Analyst and founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) about these and many more topics. Listen: This program broadcasts LIVE every Wednesday night from 8pm to 9pm, right after the Savage Nation, on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX over the terrestrial AM band across the greater Phoenix and central Arizona region, and live over global satellite and online via www.1100kfnx.comREAD MORE WIKILEAKS NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Wikileaks Files | 1 |
OCALA, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump escalated his attacks on U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday, deepening a fracture in the party with only four weeks to go until the Nov. 8 election. Trump, at a rally before thousands of supporters jammed into a livestock arena in Ocala, Florida, also attempted to drive voters away from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton with an overwhelmingly negative speech in which he described her as corrupt and unqualified for the presidency. Ryan said on Monday he was no longer going to campaign for or defend Trump and advised House Republicans not to support the White House candidate if they did not want to. His move followed outcry over a video that surfaced last Friday showing Trump bragging in 2005 about groping women and making unwanted sexual advances. Trump’s response to being abandoned by Ryan, the country’s most senior elected Republican, has veered between saying he feels free now to campaign on his own terms and assailing Ryan and other “disloyal” Republicans. “Already the Republican nominee has a massive disadvantage and especially when you have the leaders not putting their weight behind the people,” the New York businessman said on Wednesday, complaining that Ryan and others had not called to congratulate him on what he felt was a strong performance at a debate against Clinton on Sunday. “You’d think they’d say great going Don, let’s go. Let’s beat this crook,” Trump said. “No, he doesn’t do that,” he added of Ryan, as the crowd booed in sympathy. “There is a whole deal going on there. There is a whole deal going on and we’re going to figure it out. I always figure things out. But there’s a whole sinister deal going on.” The release of the video has plunged Trump and the Republican Party into a deep crisis that has jeopardized his chances of winning the White House, when he was already lagging Clinton in national opinion polls, and possibly put Republican control of the U.S. Congress in danger. Trump’s fresh round of attacks came even as his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, heard concerns from some House Republicans that Trump’s criticism of Ryan was distracting from his message on how to defeat Clinton and win the White House. Conway convened a conference call with House Republicans who support Trump that lasted about an hour. A congressional aide said Conway went through a list of differences between Trump and Clinton and talked about how to make the case for Trump and against Clinton. The general theme of comments from lawmakers on the call was that Trump needed to focus on his message to the United States and distinguish it from Clinton’s, the aide said. The aide said members specifically brought up Trump’s attacks on Ryan as a distraction from that message. The tone from House Republican was one of frustration at Trump’s attacks on a fellow Republican, the aide said. The campaign and Conway did not respond to requests for their comments about the call. Nonetheless, Ryan has been facing considerable blowback from a number of his fellow House Republicans since announcing his decision to focus on electing Republicans in Congress. Oklahoma Republican Jim Bridenstine, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted on Wednesday that he will not support Ryan – presumably, for speaker in the next Congress — because of Ryan’s failure to defend Trump. “Given the stakes of this election, If Paul Ryan isn’t for Trump, then I’m not for Paul Ryan,” Bridenstine tweeted. Republican Senator John Thune, who called for Trump to withdraw from the race in a Saturday tweet, says his position has not changed but that he will vote for all Republican candidates on the ticket including Trump. “I intend to support the nominee of our party. But he’s got a lot of work to do, I think, if he’s going to have any hope of winning this election,” Thune told KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in an interview that aired late on Tuesday. Thune was among a string of Republican officials and former officials who called on Trump to withdraw from the race over the weekend. | 0 |
Governor Rick Snyder and his emergency management team have literally poisoned the water in Flint, Michigan. The city is literally in the middle of a public health emergency, and Snyder is being roundly criticized for his actions that could have permanent effects on the lives of the children living there who have been drinking and bathing in lead-poisoned water.Politicians and emergency workers around the nation have been gravely concerned about the situation in Flint, and many are doing what they can to bring an end to the water crisis and aid those poor residents affected by it. One such politician is Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She sent two of her best and most trusted campaign staff to the suffering city of Flint, to do whatever they could to help in this time of dire need. Clinton s proactive response has earned her the endorsement of Flint s mayor, Karen Weaver. The mayor said of Clinton s response to the crisis: If this was a test, she has really come to the forefront and passed it because we in Flint need some help and we need it now. The statement came during a conference call that was the work of Clinton s campaign. It seems as if the endorsement wasn t part of Weaver s planned press releases from the call, but, nonetheless it happened. She said, when asked if she was giving Clinton her endorsement: Yeah it does sound like it, doesn t it? I want Hillary. Weaver went on to mention that others had expressed outrage and concern over what was going on in Flint, but action was what got Hillary her endorsement. We do want some accountability. But as far as what Hillary Clinton has done, she has actually been the only candidate, whether we re talking about Democratic or Republican, to reach out and talk with us We want a friend like Hillary in the White House. This is a very important endorsement from a mayor who has suddenly found herself thrust onto the national stage because of reckless decisions by a GOP governor who doesn t give a damn about the people he is supposed to serve.Whether it s Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, hopefully both would work to get Rick Snyder and those like him out of positions of power before they can ruin anymore lives.There have been at least three class action lawsuits filed on behalf of those living in Flint who are affected by the poisoned water. According to attorneys for the city of Flint s residents, the consequences for what Rick Snyder has done could be dire, and those responsible must be held accountable, and taken from their positions: Public officials must never again be permitted to give assurances to the public about public health conditions when they know the assurances are false. Public officials must never again be permitted to ruin the lives of our children by remaining silent in the face of a public health emergency. That is exactly right. Hillary and other Democrats, thank you for doing what you are doing. These people need your support so much right now. This isn t about politics, it s about people s lives. Hopefully others follow in Clinton s footsteps and send desperately needed AID to Flint, Michigan.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, released a new batch of their own income tax returns on Friday, ratcheting up the pressure on her opponent, Donald J. Trump, to begin making public his own forms. The newest tax return of Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, showed an adjusted gross income of $10. 6 million for 2015, a large drop from previous years but still enough to place them in the top 0. 1 percent of American households. They paid about $3. 6 million in federal taxes for an effective tax rate of about 35 percent. More than half their income came from speeches Mrs. Clinton also earned $3 million from “Hard Choices,” her memoir of her years as secretary of state. Mr. Kaine, the Virginia senator, and his wife, Anne Holton, who was Virginia’s secretary of education until she stepped down last month, reported income of $313, 441 for 2015. But aside from their earnings, the release was intended to put a spotlight on Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his own returns. Mike Pence, the Indiana governor and Mr. Trump’s running mate, also has not made public his tax data during the campaign. Mrs. Clinton’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said in a statement the release sets a “stark contrast” with Mr. Trump, whom she accused of “hiding behind fake excuses. ” “He has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years,” she said. “What is he trying to hide?” The Trump campaign would not discuss his tax returns, but in a statement on Friday, a spokesman, Jason Miller, called Mrs. Clinton’s disclosure an effort to shield her from questions about her emails when she was secretary of state and about what favors were sought by donors to her family’s foundation. “This document release is nothing more than an attempt at distraction and misdirection by an individual who created and then purged an illegal private email server,” he said. If Mr. Trump does not make public the details of his taxes, he would be the first major party presidential nominee to decline to do so since Richard M. Nixon. Mr. Trump is not required as a candidate to reveal his taxes, but he has submitted his personal financial disclosure form outlining his business interests, which he is obligated to file. While Mr. Trump has cited an I. R. S. audit as his reason for not releasing his taxes, the agency said in a statement this year, “Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information. ” The lack of a disclosure of his taxes has opened Mr. Trump to attacks, first during the Republican primary campaign and now in the months leading to the Nov. 8 general election. Critics have questioned whether Mr. Trump has not released his taxes because his reported earnings could be underwhelming in comparison to his own statements about his net worth. Others have suggested that the tax documents would reveal business interests that could be problematic if he were elected. There have also been questions about how much Mr. Trump has paid in taxes over the years, whether he in fact paid any federal taxes some years, and whether he has followed through on his charitable pledges. Given the expansive web of tax breaks available to real estate developers, tax experts say it would not be surprising if Mr. Trump paid little or no income taxes some years, even as he amassed billions of dollars in wealth. The Clintons’ income has also brought scrutiny, and their returns hint at how much they have relied on their star power and government connections to catapult them into the ranks of the super rich. Though they were once seen as relatable to average Americans, polls suggest that many voters now see them as out of touch. Their 2015 income, while less than half what they earned the previous year, put them well above the $2 million threshold for the top 0. 1 percent of taxpayers, according to an analysis of federal income tax data by Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. They were within $1 million of reaching the 0. 01 percent threshold — or the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent. In recent years they have collected tens of millions of dollars in fees for speeches, including some delivered abroad and others sponsored by financial institutions. Mrs. Clinton has faced calls to release the transcripts of her speeches, particularly from the three she gave for Goldman Sachs for a total of $675, 000. Her primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Mr. Trump have used those speeches to portray Mrs. Clinton as being chummy with Wall Street. In 2015, before she officially began her campaign and stopped giving speeches, she earned $1. 5 million in speaking fees. Her husband earned $5. 25 million from speeches last year. According to Mrs. Clinton’s personal financial disclosure filed in May, she and her husband made more than two dozen speeches in 2015 for $150, 000 and up. Mr. Clinton earned $225, 000 for a February speech sponsored by UBS Wealth Management, for example, and Mrs. Clinton gave a speech for eBay in March for $315, 000. Mr. Clinton also earned $1. 7 million from his consulting business, WJC L. L. C. after it brought in more than $6 million the year before, according to the tax returns. The financial disclosure from earlier this year said that two sources of consulting income were Varkey GEMS Foundation, an international charity founded by Sunny Varkey, an education entrepreneur, and Laureate Education, a network of schools. These financial ties — including the past speeches, business endeavors and well as donor relationships with the Clinton Foundation — have already attracted critics who say they include inherent conflicts of interest and could be problematic under a Clinton administration. From 2007 to 2015, according to returns released Friday and previously, the Clintons made a total adjusted gross income of $150 million and paid $48 million in federal taxes. In the same period they gave $16 million to charity, including $1 million last year that went mostly to their family foundation. The Clintons’ other income last year included $24, 932 in interest, $84, 358 in mutual fund dividends and $226, 297 in pension payments from the federal and Arkansas governments. Their deductions included $1. 4 million in state income taxes and $98, 244 in property taxes on their homes in Chappaqua, N. Y. and Washington. They also wrote off $41, 040 in mortgage interest. | 0 |
WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - Makan Delrahim, a veteran lobbyist on President Donald Trump’s transition team, is expected to be nominated to head the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, two sources familiar with the vetting process told Reuters on Friday. Delrahim is expected to move to the Justice Department after finishing up in the White House counsel’s office, where he is working to steer Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch through the Senate confirmation process. The sources spoke on background because an announcement has not yet been made. As the proposed new chief of the Antitrust Division, he would be in charge of overseeing corporate mergers at a time when many investors and corporate executives hope for a more relaxed attitude toward deal-making after years of tougher oversight by the Obama administration. The department is reviewing a number of major deals, including mergers of Dow and Dupont and Bayer and Monsanto. Those proposed transactions, along with a third deal, ChemChina’s purchase of Syngenta, would consolidate six agricultural chemical giants into three. The Justice Department is also assessing AT&T’s controversial plan to buy Time Warner, owner of HBO, Warner Brothers and the news network CNN. President Trump has not criticized the Time Warner deal since the November election but during his campaign he said it was an example of “too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.” Delrahim must be confirmed by the Senate. Before coming to work at the White House following Trump’s inauguration in January, Delrahim was a lobbyist with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP. In 2016, he lobbied for the semiconductor company Qualcomm, Comcast Corp and Zuffa LLC, also known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship, among others, according to the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database. Another client in 2016 was health insurer Anthem Inc, which this year lost a court fight with the Justice Department over whether it would be allowed to merge with rival Cigna. Anthem is appealing the loss. Delrahim, whose family emigrated from Iran when he was young, cemented his loyalty to Trump last summer when he wrote a piece in the New York Post urging Republicans to fall in line behind Trump. Only Trump would be able to win and ensure conservatives on the Supreme Court, the lawyer argued, adding “There’s no glory in handing the Supreme Court to a Democratic president. But if we write off Trump, that’s what will happen.” Delrahim is a veteran of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where he was deputy assistant attorney general from 2003 to 2005, under then-President George W. Bush. He specialized in international antitrust. | 1 |
Just when you thought he couldn t possibly get worse, Donald Trump lowers the bar. While in Puerto Rico, Donald Trump just told American citizens you re throwing our budget out of whack. Read below:Mick [Mulvaney] is in charge of a thing called budget. Now, I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you re throwing our budget a little out of whack, because we ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico.If you look at real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds of people that died. And you look at what happened here with really a storm that was totally overpowering nobody s ever seen anything like this. What is our death count this morning? 16, certified.The certified death count in Puerto Rico may be misleading nobody actually knows how many uncertified deaths there are in Puerto Rico. There could be hundreds. The death count hasn t been updated in days, and many people are missing. Yet, once again, Trump s chief concern is his public image.Here s the video:President Trump: "Now I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack" https://t.co/3DSMX2ysAx NBC News (@NBCNews) October 3, 2017In the responses to NBC s tweet, the vast majority of replies called him out for his lies: Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Thursday he believed Hillary Clinton would stick with President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee if she won the Nov. 8 presidential election. Some Republican conservatives were concerned that if Democratic presidential candidate Clinton won the White House, she would pick a more liberal judge than Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, for a lifetime appointment to the high court. Garland is a centrist federal appeals court judge whom a number of Republicans have praised. “I would think that she and all the people around her would say, ‘Why do we need to rock the boat here? Let’s get him confirmed quickly and move on to the next one, whenever that comes,’” Reid said on a conference call with reporters. Clinton has urged the Senate to confirm Garland. Her campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on Reid’s remarks. Senate Democrats may try to force a vote on procedural motions that, if successful, would lead to a vote on Garland before the new president takes office in January, Reid said. He invited along Republicans who want to distance themselves from their party’s controversial presidential candidate, Donald Trump. “We have a couple of options and we are deciding when to do that. And if we should do that. When and if,” Reid said. The leader of the Republican-controlled Senate, Mitch McConnell, has refused to schedule hearings on the nomination of Garland, saying the winner of the Nov. 8 presidential election should choose the Supreme Court justice. Obama nominated Garland on March 16 to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 13. “The majority leader has been clear: the next president will make the nomination for this vacancy,” Don Stewart, deputy chief of staff for McConnell, said in an email. A number of Republican senators in tough re-election fights are trying to distance themselves from their party’s controversial nominee, yet they refuse to hold a vote on Garland, Reid said. He said those Republicans should call on McConnell to confirm Garland, not hold the Supreme Court seat for someone as “radical and unfit” as Trump, a New York businessman who has never held public office. “They spend a lot of time these Republicans, spending a lot of energy trying to separate themselves from Donald Trump. But as long as they’re holding a Supreme Court seat open for him, they’re his minions. They’re his enablers,” Reid said. | 1 |
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki of Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer from jaysanalysis.com, Jamie Hanshaw (author of Weird Stuff: Hollywood Mind Control) Randy J, and hopefully Daniel Spaulding. Tonight the Boiler Gang is talking about Birlfriends and Bothfriends , Spore takes Red Hot Chilli Pepper s Flea to task for his SJW oriented remarks against Clint Eastwood, Daniel Spaulding brings a clip of former CIA Director, Michael Morell, saying that We need to Kill Russians and Iranians to a smug Charlie Rose, the absurdity of the main stream media and left wing establishment kettle calling pot black with regards to Trumps supposed connections to Russia and much more on this August 11th edition of Boiler Room.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Reference Links: | 0 |
President Trump has decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his position as communications director. It s also being reported that John Kelly is a key player in the removal (see below). Scaramucci was only on the job for three days but caused a stir when he unloaded a crude verbal tirade against other senior members of the president s senior staff.#BreakingNews: @POTUS removing @Scaramucci as Communications Director via @nytimes pic.twitter.com/8J0W6UDkcu FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) July 31, 2017Mr. Scaramucci s abrupt removal came just 10 days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff, a move that convulsed an already chaotic White House and led to the departures of Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, and Reince Priebus, the president s first chief of staff.The decision to remove Mr. Scaramucci, who had boasted about reporting directly to the president not the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, came at Mr. Kelly s request, the people said. Mr. Kelly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting Monday morning that he is in charge.It was not clear whether Mr. Scaramucci will remain employed at the White House in another position or will leave altogether.Via: Bloomberg News | 0 |
This is the definition of insanity-doing the same thing over and over. We just need a Congress strong enough to stop the madness.For over 30 years, sovereign nations, particularly in the West have been buying votes by offering social payments in the form of welfare.The ridiculousness of this should not be lost on anyone. Politicians, in order to be elected, promise to allocate taxpayer funds on social programs that will benefit said taxpayers down the road (we re simply talking about social spending, not infrastructure or other costs).The concept that taxpayers might simply just keep the money to begin with never enters the equation. And because everyone believes that they are somehow spending someone else s money, they play along.When you believe that you are spending someone else s money, it s very easy to write a blank check, which is precisely what Western nations have been doing for years, promising everyone a safe and secure retirement without ever bothering to see where the money would come from.When actual bills came due to fund this stuff, Governments quickly discovered that current tax revenues couldn t cover it so they issued sovereign debt to make up the difference.And so the bond bubble was created.The large banks, that have a monopoly on managing sovereign debt auctions, were only too happy to play along with this. The reasons are as follows:1) They can use these alleged risk-free assets as collateral to backstop tens of trillions worth of derivatives trades. A $1 million investment in your typical US Treasury can backstop over $15 million worth of derivatives if not more. The profits from the derivatives markets remains a primary source of revenue for the banks.2) Sovereign Governments are only too happy to bail out the big banks if the stuff ever hits the fan on the trades that are backstopped by the sovereign debt (see 2006 onwards). Since the banks are the ones holding the sovereign debt, they can always threaten to dump bonds, which would render the whole social welfare Ponzi bankrupt (see what happened in Europe when sovereign bonds collapsed in 2011-2012).3) In a debt-based financial system such as the current one, sovereign bonds are the senior most assets in the system. Those who own these in bulk are at the top of the financial food chain in terms of financial, economic, and political clout.Since it was rarely if ever a problem to issue sovereign debt, Governments kept promising future payments that they didn t have until we reach today: the point at which most Western nations are sporting Debt to GDP ratios well north of 300% when you consider unfunded liabilities (the social spending programs mentioned earlier).Now, cutting social spending is usually considered political suicide (after all, the voters put you in office in the first place based on you promising to pay them welfare payments down the road). So rather than default on the social contract made with voters, the political class will simply push to issue MORE debt to finance old debt that is coming due.The US did precisely this in the fourth quarter of 2014, issuing over $1 trillion in new debt simply to pay back old debt that was coming due.Read more: Zero Hedge | 0 |
link Hello again ATS! Though we are two weeks out from Election Day as I sit to write these words – I find myself already looking beyond Tuesday, November the eighth and at some of the things that I think will happen between now and 2020 as well as what I think the landscape will look like in the year leading up to that year's election. It won't be a popular opinion here on ATS, I am sure... But as of today I feel confident in saying that, short of some unprecedented and wholly unforseeable revelation or event – this years election is very likely a done deal. Hillary Clinton will almost certainly be the next President of the United States. With just two weeks remaining before Election Day ( as of this writing ), the meta-analysis of polls shows Clinton possessing nearly an insurmountable lead. While it is true that Trump enjoys a very passionate and enthusiastic base, he has done little to successfully expand that base. The potential for him to find a means of connecting with undecided and uncommitted voters is minimal and shrinks with each passing day. Having come to this view, I find myself free to look beyond the coming weeks and to try and get a handle on what a post 2016 world will look like. Frankly, gazing into my allegorical crystal ball, I see dark and threatening clouds gathering on our horizon. Clouds that could very well bring a storm of epic proportions our way. Election Night Blues The night of Tuesday, November the eighth could well be historic – in the worst of ways. This election cycle has broken several taboos and lowered the bar of political discourse in unprecedented ways. It has been a season of highly divisive hyperbole and rhetoric that has built-up a great deal of social tension. We currently sit atop a very, very dry powder keg of anger that is seething and highly volatile. Passions will be flaring among many as we watch the Election results stream in on our televisions, computers and phones. Many of those watching will be deeply, deeply emotionally invested in the outcome of this race. In this climactic moment we, as a nation, will be perilously close to critical mass. One spark away from potential disaster... Four years ago a man with some degree of fame was emotionally invested in that years election and he took to social media, Twitter, to vent his reactions in a paroxysmal spasm of emotion... That minor celebrity was one Donald J. Trump: Source Imagine for a moment what could happen if history repeats itself and this same man goes on a similar rant this Election night. Imagine the violence such a display could potentially trigger. Then stop imagining and take a deep breath... Such a reaction is not just possible – given the evidence, it is more than likely the probable outcome. Trump is currently heavily invested in telling his followers that the election is rigged, that they have no voice and that he is "the only one" who can save them. This is a very, very dangerous and unstable bit of social chemistry. Most Trump supporters, obviously, will not lash out in violence if their candidate loses the race – even if they personally feel that the outcome of the Election was not legitimate. However some Trump supporters, those in the extremes of what the media is currently calling "the alt right" very well could take to the streets in rage. Given some of the fringe support that Trump enjoys, I would honestly be surprised if such things were not already being planned by a handful of those on the fringe. The rhetoric of revolution has been abused of late – and there are always the few who take such statements far too literally... Across the line. Blunty put – if Election night comes and Trump loses – and if he takes to Twitter as he did four years ago – it could well result in a very long and bloody night. A catastrophic night that we will look back upon with shame. A night that could well poison our nation for years to come. Much Ado About Trump TV Many pundits and wonks have mused over the fact that it truly does appear that Trump has been laying the groundwork for a future media operation... Presumably a news network or service of some kind. I count myself among those who have been suggesting so for a fairly long time. However where I differ is that I don't see it as being quite so cut and dry any longer. While I do think that Trump's original thoughts ( or more the thoughts of those who influence Trump ) was to create a new media Conservative news venue... I think that it's now grown into something more. I think that Trump TV ( Or whatever they end up calling it - "Trump TV" is too generic. There's no inherent propaganda value in the name. I think something more like "Trump's MAGA Network" is probably more on point. ) will be used as a device to begin a new political party. More accurately to succeed where others have previously failed ( I’m looking at you Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck ) by congealing the various "Patriot", "Tea Party" and fringe right wing groups into one collective and singular entity – a party firmly rooted in extreme nationalism with enough religion and conservatism thrown in to gain wider appeal. My prediction is that Donald Trump will remain the focal point and figurehead of this coming movement – using this new network much as he currently utilizes his Twitter feed... A platform for him to vent his late night frustrations, angers and insecurities. His name will be predominantly used in the branding and messaging and Trump will be the face of it all. The most frequent speaker and guest. Imagine if The Apprentice had been a 24/7/365 live streaming show – and Trump had the power to walk in at any moment to say whatever happened to be on his mind... That is how I see Trump TV. However I don't see Trump being the driving force behind the actual message. Trump is a brand, after all. He has made his place in this world by putting his name on buildings he didn't build, shows that he didn't create and ideas he didn't originate. Trump works as a spokesperson – the guy who says "I’m not only the President of... But I'm also a member". The real people behind the curtain will be The Mercers ( Robert and Rebekah ), Steve Bannon and, to a lesser degree, Roger Ailes. As for on camera talents? I think the current obvious potential faces of this new media enterprise will be Hannity, O'Reilly and Lahren – though I'm honestly not personally sure if O'Reilly will make the jump. Money is money, after all, and Big Daddy Bill is sitting pretty comfortably atop the Fox news heap as his career winds down. Regardless, however, of who wins the backstage power war ( Other than the Mercers who are a lock ) and the on camera positions... The network itself will be the propaganda arm of the extreme right wing and I think it very well could end up pulling the national discourse much further to the right in the coming 4-8 years. Particularly with the subjects of national isolationism and national identity politics. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A national association of U.S. venture capitalists filed suit against the Trump administration on Tuesday, claiming it illegally delayed a policy that would have allowed foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the United States to build their companies. The suit, filed in Washington, D.C. District Court by the National Venture Capital Association, argues that the Trump administration did not go through proper procedures when it delayed the Obama administration’s “International Entrepreneur” rule, which was due to go into effect in July and would have allowed some foreign start-up founders to stay in the United States for up to five years in hopes of growing their businesses. Instead, in July the Trump administration pushed back implementing the new rule to March 2018, and said it was “highly likely” the administration would ultimately rescind the rule. In delaying the program’s start date, the Department of Homeland Security did not engage in the standard “notice and comment” period government agencies typically go through when changing regulations, or a delayed effective date. The DHS argued in July that doing so while the agency was likely to abolish the rule would be contrary to the public interest because it would sow confusion and waste resources and mean the immigration agency would have to expend limited resources to implement the rule. The suit claims that the administration’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires advance notice of new rules, and asks the court to stop the government from delaying the new rule and instead require it to begin accepting applications from foreign entrepreneurs. “The process followed by DHS in deciding to delay the effective date of the rule was the polar opposite of the careful, deliberative process DHS used to formulate the rule itself,” the suit argued. A DHS spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. The NVCA was joined in the suit by several tech start-ups active in the United States but founded by foreign entrepreneurs who wanted to be able to stay in the country and work with their businesses through the entrepreneur rule but are now unable to. The Obama administration estimated fewer than 3,000 entrepreneurs would be eligible for the program each year. The rule would have applied to start-up founders who own a large portion of their companies. To qualify, the companies have to have already received significant investment from American investors or government grants. | 0 |
Ironically, the two issues that catapulted Trump past all of his competitors in the GOP Presidential race were building the wall on our southern border and not allowing unveiled refugees to enter our country. We re gonna go out on a limb and guess that based on Trump s popularity with a wide variety of Americans, both issues are pretty important when it comes to our national security.Hillary Clinton will launch an attack on Donald Trump s national security policy Thursday, focusing on an issue the likely Democratic presidential nominee could use to her advantage over the billionaire New Yorker.The address in San Diego will make clear the threat that Donald Trump would pose to our national security and to put forth her own vision for keeping America safe at home and leading in the world, Clinton s campaign said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.For Clinton, the move is part of an effort to paint Trump as fundamentally unsuited to lead the world s most powerful military as she hopes to pivot away from the extended Democratic primary and toward a general election match-up with the presumptive GOP nominee.The attacks on Trump s lack of national security bona fides have increased speculation that he might pick a running mate with more experience in the defense or foreign policy, such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). Throughout this campaign, Trump has refused to outline any coherent foreign policy doctrine, failed to demonstrate a basic understanding of world affairs, and repeatedly proven he s temperamentally unfit to serve as our commander in chief, Clinton s campaign said on Wednesday.Despite his apparent weaknesses, however, Trump benefitted the most when the GOP primary contest took on a national security focus following deadly terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino last year. Notwithstanding their radical nature, Trump s proposals to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the country have attracted a fair amount of support from fellow Republicans. | 0 |
re buke r byo ok/ verb 1. express sharp disapproval or criticism of (someone) because of their behavior or actions.Obama s sharp disapproval of ISIS will have them shaking in their evil boots Very powerful!By now, most of America would rather have a hot poker in the eye than be forced to hear the sound of Barry s incompetent voice, but you just have to listen to this arrogant a*s to believe he actually said this re buke r byo ok/ verb 1. express sharp disapproval or criticism of (someone) because of their behavior or actions.In a joint press conference with France s President Hollande on Tuesday, President Obama took a cue from Brian Williams and focused on the powerful message that we are sending terrorists by not cancelling the climate conference in Paris.Imagine the cold chill wind that in that moment crawled up the spine of every ISIS terrorist with a TV and possibly an aerosol spray can. Like Reagan and Churchill before him, the President has spoken words that will echo through the ages. We will fight them on the beaches, which we re preserving though a combination of initiatives such as emissions reduction and carbon offsets. Stirring.One should keep in mind, this is the same climate conference which is featuring Prince Charles as a keynote speaker. Yes, Prince Charles, who says the conflict in Syria is the fault of climate change.So .. we ll be rebuking terror by focusing on the real threat of climate change and featuring a speaker who blames the battle with ISIS on the weather rather than the terror.Rebuke. I do not think it means what you think it means.Via: Truth Revolt | 0 |
Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list. | 0 |
Donald Trump has been fundraising like crazy for his re-election campaign, having filed his papers the day he was inaugurated for his first term. But there s quite possibly an odd reason for his incessant begging for funds: According to Reuters, he s using the money to pay for his defense team in the Russia scandal.Reuters spoke to two people who are familiar with the situation, but they were unable to determine how much has already been spent on legal fees. Federal election laws allow candidates to spend private campaign donations on legal matters, but up until now, the legal matters in question dealt with routine and mundane things such as compliance requirements and ballot access issues.Trump may well become the first president in the modern campaign finance era to use his donations to pay for a criminal defense in addition to routine legal matters. One of the biggest reasons that candidates shifted largely from public financing to private financing for their election campaigns is so they have greater flexibility in how they spend that money. That helps to give Trump greater latitude to spend donations on his own legal defense. Furthermore, since the Russia scandal is something that may not have existed had he not been elected, Trump and his family may well be legally free to spend their donors dollars on Russia.His campaign organization currently has nearly $12 million. When Reuters asked Trump s lead attorney how the bills were getting paid, he snapped, That s none of your business. Trump spent a large chunk of his campaign funding on his own properties during the 2016 election cycle, and has been spending government money at some of those same properties, lining his pockets with public dollars. His campaign has paid one law firm Jones Day almost $4 million, some of which probably did go to help with the Russia probe. Jones Day has also responded to inquiries related to Russia, including sending documents to Congress on the campaign s behalf.Here s the sad thing: His donors, whether they know where their money is going or not, would probably cheer their chance to help Trump defeat the liberal conspiracy that is the Russia probe. They think they re helping him get re-elected in 2020, so they think they re helping him defeat the great deep-state witch hunt.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1 |
This is great! It s refreshing to hear somebody not be a wuss -best line of the video! | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Would Donald Trump really consider not paying portions of the U.S. debt? The prospect riled economists on Friday as stories in the New York Times and the conservative website The Blaze cast fresh scrutiny on comments Trump made a day earlier. Responding to a question about the national debt, the likely Republican presidential nominee said in an interview on CNBC on Thursday he would “borrow knowing that if the economy crashed you could make a deal.” When asked if that meant he had taken a page from his own playbook as a businessman and try to get U.S. creditors to accept less than the full value of the bonds they hold, he said “No,” but added: “I could see long-term renegotiations where we borrow long-term at very low rates.” The reaction to his words on Friday offered the first-time political candidate a taste of how delicate the prospect of discussing economic and fiscal policy can be. It also highlighted a danger for Trump as his campaign moves from a crowded, personality-fueled contest for the Republican nomination to a general election competition where the media and members of the public expect more policy details from the candidates. “Such remarks by a major presidential candidate have no modern precedent,” the New York Times wrote in a story saying Trump’s plan implied he would “negotiate a partial repayment” of U.S. debt. “It’s beyond ludicrous and irresponsible unless you’re, say, an emerging market country,” wrote the U.S. debt analyst David Ader, the head of rates strategy at CRT Capital, in a note to clients early Friday morning. A senior campaign adviser said Trump had not meant to suggest he would demur on any U.S. debt payments. “Mr. Trump was clear in saying that he was not going to renegotiate U.S. debt, despite being asked multiple times, and that he would not default on U.S. debt, despite being asked multiple times,” said the adviser, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “All he said is that he believes that long term low interest Treasuries would be a better deal for the U.S. taxpayer.” Still, four Trump companies have been through bankruptcies in which his creditors were forced to accept far less than the more than $4 billion he owed them, and in the CNBC interview he spoke of loving to “play with” debt. “The United States is nowhere near debt distress,” said Charles Seville, an analyst at Fitch Ratings Inc. who focuses on government debt. Seville said if the U.S. government were to choose not to repay creditors, it would “undermine faith in the United States’s ability to borrow at low rates which is the underpinning of its high credit rating,” adding, “there’s no quick way of reducing the debt burden. It’s something that would be a product of fiscal consolidation or faster growth.” Moreover, given that U.S. Treasuries are viewed as the safest-of-safe securities globally, underpinning the dollar’s status as the world’s preferred reserve currency, any damage to that reputation would likely unleash far-flung ructions in financial markets worldwide. The U.S. government regularly issues Treasury bills, notes and bonds maturing in a range of between four weeks and 30 years. Currently, interest rates on U.S. government debt are near historically low levels, meaning the government is able to borrow cheaply. The Treasury Department has been gradually moving more of its obligations into longer-term debt to take advantage of the low rates. | 1 |
PARIS/GENEVA (Reuters) - Seeking to win Saudi Arabia s agreement to a U.N. investigation into alleged war crimes in Yemen, the Netherlands revised a proposed resolution late on Thursday, the eve of a crucial vote that will determine if there is tough outside scrutiny of Yemen s war. The Dutch revision submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council, circulated just in time for debate on Friday morning, called for an international eminent group of experts to carry out an inquiry. The earlier version had asked for an international commission of inquiry, the gold standard for U.N. human rights investigations since a landmark report by a U.N. commission of inquiry into North Korea in 2014. It was not immediately clear if the call for an eminent group of experts would be accepted by Saudi Arabia, which has in previous years convinced the U.N. Human Rights Council that an internal Yemeni investigation is more appropriate. Saudi Arabia and its allies have been bombing the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen since the Houthis seized much of the country s north in 2015. U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein has pleaded with the council s 47 member countries to launch an independent investigation into the war, which has killed thousands, ruined the economy and pushed millions to the brink of famine. Riyadh says the coalition is fighting terrorists and supporting Yemen s legitimate government, but Zeid s office has said Saudi-led air strikes cause the majority of civilian casualties. A panel set up by the Saudi-led coalition to investigate civilian casualties found its air strikes were largely justified. The last-minute Dutch amendment came after France, not currently a member of the council, pushed for a compromise. We are working in particular to narrow positions on the international dimension of the investigation mechanism on the violation of human rights committed in Yemen, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne told reporters. The French statement appeared to echo Britain and the United States, which want to see consensus around a single resolution. We believe that there is room to satisfy everybody, said a French diplomatic source, denying that Paris was seeking to weaken the text. Two diplomatic sources said the Dutch had been under great pressure to back down. In a letter seen by one of the diplomats, Saudi Arabia - the world s biggest oil exporter - had warned some states of possible consequences should they support the Dutch resolution, submitted jointly with Canada, calling for a full commission. The Saudi ambassador in Geneva declined to comment on the negotiations. Earlier in the three-week council session, he said the time was not ripe for an international inquiry. The new French administration has drawn criticism over its stance in light of a ringing appeal by President Emmanuel Macron to defend human rights during his inaugural speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 20. Six major international groups, including Amnesty International, have published columns in the French press over the last week calling on Macron to do more on Yemen. By refraining from supporting efforts to advance justice in Yemen, President Macron would betray his own pledge to uphold human rights values and place lucrative arms deals with Saudi Arabia above the shattered lives of ordinary Yemenis who have endured years of war crimes, cholera and near famine, Louis Charbonneau, United Nations-based director at Human Rights Watch, said by phone. It s not too late...to finally support an international investigation on Yemen and show Macron s commitment to human rights is more than mere words. | 1 |
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s plan to punish a U.S. automaker accused of price-fixing is a sign of how Beijing could retaliate if President-elect Donald Trump upends decades of relations between the two nations. Trump’s assertion that the United States need not be bound by the policy that Taiwan is part of “one China” would erode a bedrock of U.S.-China ties that has underpinned the vast increase in trade and cooperation between what are now the world’s two largest economies. Few expect the disagreement will lead to outright military confrontation, nor even the kind of economic war that many feared could be launched by Trump’s threat during the U.S. presidential campaign to slap tariffs of up to 45 percent on Chinese imports. However, a rising China has plenty of other ways to push back hard if Trump presses on the Taiwan question, which most analysts see as the most sensitive part of the U.S.-China relationship. In what might be a shot across the bow of the Trump administration, due to take office on Jan. 20, the official China Daily newspaper quoted a state planning official saying China will soon penalize an unnamed U.S. automaker for monopolistic behavior. While the official said no one should read “anything improper” into this, shares of General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co skidded. Auto industry sources have told Reuters this specific investigation was already underway before Trump’s recent comments. However, the manner in which it was announced, by saying only that it was a U.S. automaker before a formal announcement of fines, has raised questions around whether officials might be seizing on the case to send a shot across the bow of the incoming Trump administration. Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, said on Wednesday Trump’s team was aware of the report but it would be premature to comment. In Washington, a Democratic congressional aide said China’s threat to fine the automaker was a “good sharp reminder” to Trump that “they have cards to play too and that if he is thinking that he can enter into negotiations - be it on Taiwan, trade, North Korea, whatever - as if the United States is the sole global superpower ... then he is going to need to think again.” China’s state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, did not responded to Reuters requests for comment on the China Daily story. China’s Foreign Ministry said it did not know any details about the case. “China welcomes foreign companies, including American ones, to invest in and operate in China. At the same time they must respect China’s laws and rules. This point is very clear,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said when asked if this was China sending a message to Trump. Pressure on other U.S. companies, such as Boeing Co (BA.N) and General Electric Co (GE.N), with large interests in China could be one of the most tangible tools of retaliation, together with new limits on access to the country’s huge markets. U.S. business interests in China are estimated at more than $500 billion. Wider economic steps - such as China, America’s biggest creditor, selling a significant part of its $1.16 trillion of U.S. Treasuries, or weakening its currency - seem unlikely, the first because it would slash the value of China’s U.S. bond portfolio and the second because it could accelerate capital flight, experts said. Beijing could speed up a military build-up that had begun to slow along with Chinese economic growth, carry out naval exercises close to Taiwan - which it regards as a renegade province - and withhold diplomatic cooperation on issues such as Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs. “Taiwan policy is what China considers a core interest ... and it’s prepared to go to great lengths to defend it,” said Eric Altbach, senior vice president at the Albright Stonebridge Group consultancy in Washington and a former deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs. The consensus within the Obama administration is that Trump, who irked China by taking a phone call from Taiwan’s president, was not fully aware of the potential backlash from Beijing over his questioning of the “one China” policy, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The hope is that by the time Trump takes over from President Barack Obama, he will recognize that China has advanced so far economically, diplomatically and militarily that it is unwise to pick fights with Beijing over such a bedrock principle, he added. A former senior U.S. official took a more pessimistic view. “Trump has basically guaranteed that the first year in the China relationship will be a combative, competitive one, and the question is how bad it will get,” he said. “The Chinese now are basically putting together their list on how to retaliate.” There are at least three ways in which the matter could play out, U.S. China experts said. Trump could backtrack over time, much as former U.S. President George W. Bush did. A second track would be if Trump goes on questioning the “one China” policy without taking concrete action. The third, considered unlikely by U.S. officials past and present, would be a drift toward military confrontation. Asked if Trump’s “one China” stance could lead to this, a source with ties to the Chinese leadership told Reuters: “We will see what Trump says and does after he becomes president.” A second source with leadership ties said they expected tensions with the United States over Taiwan. But the source said Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has sounded a more nationalistic line than his recent predecessors, could also use the issue to further cement his grip on power. “If (Taiwan) is emboldened by the U.S. support and does something drastic, it could be an opportunity for us. There will be just cause to dispatch troops,” the second source said. While the possibility of Taiwan declaring independence and hence triggering a Chinese invasion seems low, the mere softening in the U.S. commitment to the policy would likely play out in China’s defense posture. “It will alter Chinese defense priorities. I think that’s inevitable now,” said Dennis Wilder, a former CIA China analyst. He said Xi may increase Chinese military spending for 2017 and place new emphasis, over time, on gaining the amphibious capabilities necessary to actually invade Taiwan. “Xi Jinping has to respond to this internally, domestically, and while he doesn’t want an open fight with Trump, he will have to show ... resolve,” he said, citing higher military spending, more defense exercises and tougher rhetoric on Taiwan. “We can anticipate that unless this issue is taken off the table.” | 1 |
21st Century Wire says A group of top Silicon Valley tech companies have filed a rare legal brief stating Trump Administration s Executive Order on immigration is discriminatory and departs dramatically from the principles that have governed our immigration law for decades. This legal filing follows the report Friday when a Federal Judge issued a temporarily restraining order blocking US Border Patrol, Customs and Immigration Services from enforcing President Trump s recent executive order, which bars entry to the U.S. to anyone coming from seven majority Muslim countries.This story and the leaked text of the legal challenge was a Washington Post exclusive on Sunday . Elizabeth Dwoskin Washington PostSilicon Valley is stepping up its confrontation with the Trump administration.On Sunday night, Google, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Netflix and other prominent tech companies are planning to file legal brief opposing the administration s contentious entry ban, according to people familiar with the matter.The amicus brief is expected to be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which is expected to rule within a few days on an appeal by the administration after a federal judge in Seattle issued late Friday a temporary restraining order putting the entry ban on hold. The brief comes at the end of a week of nationwide protests against the plan as well as a flurry of activity in Silicon Valley, a region that sees immigration as central to its identity as an innovation hub.Companies backing the filing also include Pinterest, Yelp, Square, Reddit, Kickstarter, Github, Glassdoor, Box, Mozilla, Dropbox, Twilio, Zynga, Medium, Pinterest, and Salesforce, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the filing was still being finalized Sunday.Notably, it doesn t appear that Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft are party to the brief. The sources cautioned that the wording of the brief and the participants could still change before the filing is made Sunday night.A draft of the filing says that the entry ban, which barred individuals from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S. for at least 90 days and suspended the U.S. refugee program, is discriminatory. The Order effects a sudden, seismic shift in the rules governing entry into the United States, and it departs dramatically from the principles that have governed our immigration law for decades, a draft obtained by The Washington Post reads. The Order discriminates on the basis of national origin and religion. It closes our borders to the world s most vulnerable people, such as those fleeing the devastation of war. And it establishes discretionary and arbitrary rules for admission to this country, even by immigrants who have lived here lawfully for years. Continue this story at the Washington PostREAD MORE IMMIGRATION BAN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Immigration Files | 0 |
In what has to be considered an historic about face, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that 100,000 migrants who recently arrived in Germany would be deported.For more than a year following the massive tide of humanity that flooded into Germany from Africa and the Middle East, Merkel stoutly defended her open border policy as being consistent with western values. A million migrants later, and a huge voter backlash due to overburdened local governments and a sky rocketing crime rate, Merkel has changed her tune.On November 9, 2016, Germany s Angela Merkel offered Donald J. Trump a public admonishment following his historic win against pro-amensty Hillary Clinton: Sunday Express:Ordinarily, a politician who tried to pull this off would be toast. But Merkel finds herself in a strong position because the alternatives to her are even worse.Recent polls show her coalition of the CDU/CSU comfortably ahead by 11 points over the Social Democratic Party the leading left wing party in Germany by 33-22%. The next strongest party are the Greens who poll at 12% and then the nationalist party AfD at almost 9%. Put simply, the German voter has nowhere else to go now that Merkel has flip flopped on immigration.There is a chance that the left wing parties will poll enough votes to fashion a majority, but given that the Social Democrats are determined to continue with a liberal immigration policy, it isn t likely.Merkel will probably pull off her switcheroo on open borders and win re-election. But she has already accelerated the timetable for a takeover of her country by people with no interest in promoting German or western values and ideas. American Thinker | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug to treat patients with the most common childhood form of muscular dystrophy, a vivid example of the growing power that patients and their advocates wield over the federal government’s evaluation of drugs. The agency’s approval went against the recommendation of its experts. The main clinical trial of the drug was small, involving only 12 boys with the disease known as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and did not have an adequate control group of boys who had the disease but did not take the drug. A group of independent experts convened by the agency this spring said there was not enough evidence that it was effective. But the vote was close. Large and impassioned groups of patients, including boys in wheelchairs, and their advocates, weighed in. The muscular dystrophy community is well organized and has lobbied for years to win approval for the drug, getting members of Congress to write letters to the agency. A decision on the drug had been delayed for months. The approval was so controversial that F. D. A. employees fought over it, a dispute that was taken to the agency’s commissioner, Dr. Robert M. Califf, who ultimately decided that it would stand. The approval delighted the drug’s advocates and sent the share price of the drug’s maker, Sarepta Therapeutics, soaring. But it was taken as a deeply troubling sign among drug policy experts who believe the F. D. A. has been far too influenced by patient advocates and drug companies, and has allowed the delicate balance in drug approvals to tilt toward speedy decisions based on preliminary data and away from more conclusive evidence of effectiveness and safety. “The agency has set a dangerous precedent,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research in Washington. “To prove something works, you have to compare it to something else — a placebo or a treatment. They didn’t do that. ” About 9, 000 to 12, 000 Americans, virtually all boys, are estimated to have Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Because of rare genetic mutations, people with the disease make little or no dystrophin, a protein that acts as a shock absorber to protect muscles from deterioration. Boys with Duchenne typically need wheelchairs by their teens and die by their late 20s. The drug, eteplirsen, uses a technology called exon skipping that seeks to partly correct the genetic defect, allowing muscle cells to produce a somewhat functional form of dystrophin. The drug is applicable to only about 13 percent of Duchenne patients. Other drugs are being developed for patients with different mutations. Sarepta said the average cost of eteplirsen for a patient would be about $300, 000 a year. That is double the cost of most new cancer drugs, according to Dr. Zuckerman. The drug received accelerated approval, which is reserved for medicines that treat serious diseases and address an “unmet medical need. ” The agency defines that as “a condition whose treatment or diagnosis is not addressed adequately by available therapy. ” But even as it approved the drug, the agency also required the company to conduct another clinical trial to confirm the drug’s effectiveness. If the drug maker fails to prove it, the agency said it may “initiate proceedings to withdraw approval. ” During a heated public meeting in April, experts voted 7 to 3, with three abstentions, that the clinical data did not meet the F. D. A. requirements for studies necessary for approval. The agency had urged Sarepta, which is based in Cambridge, Mass. to do a larger study with a placebo control to better determine whether the drug worked. But the company argued that doing so would be unethical and impractical, since early hints of effectiveness meant that parents would no longer enroll their sons in a trial where they might not get the drug. Instead, Sarepta compared the data from the 12 boys in the trial to historical data from patients in Italy and Belgium who were as closely matched as possible in disease characteristics. Now the company will have to conduct another trial. But Dr. Zuckerman argued that it is more difficult to enroll patients after a drug had been approved, because families will not want to take a chance that their son would be in a placebo group. Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F. D. A. ’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement, “We eagerly await learning more about the efficacy of this drug through a confirmatory clinical trial that the company must conduct after approval. ” | 0 |
Bundy Ranch occupiers acquitted on all counts after challenging the corrupt Bureau of Land Management
Saturday, October 29, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes Tags: Ammon Bundy , Oregon ranchers , court decision (NaturalNews) In what freedom fighters across the country are calling a stunning victory against a tyrannical government agency, a jury in Oregon has acquitted all seven defendants involved in the armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in January.Cheers broke out in the Portland, Ore., federal courtroom when the jury announced the acquittals of Ammon Bundy, along with brother Ryan Bundy and five others, the Chicago Tribune reported .The seven were charged with conspiracy to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which is located about 300 miles southeast of Portland. Also, the jury could not reach a verdict on even one count of theft for Ryan Bundy. Shocked by the acquittals The announcement by the jury did not come without additional drama, however. Upon hearing the jury's decision, Marcus Mumford, one of Ammon Bundy's attorneys, demanded his client be released, even shouting at the judge. That prompted U.S. marshals to tackle Mumford to the ground and use a stun gun on him a number of times before arresting him, the Tribune reported.U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said she was not able to release Bundy because he faces federal charges in Nevada, his home state, related to an armed standoff with federal Bureau of Land Management agents at his father Cliven Bundy's ranch in 2014 .As reported by KATU , the armed standoff began Jan. 2 and lasted nearly six weeks. The incident brought new attention to the long-running issue of too much federal ownership of lands in the American West. The confrontations at the refuge earlier this year and on Cliven Bundy's ranch in 2014 essentially reignited arguments between private citizens – mostly ranchers – and the federal government that stem from the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion in the late 1970s, when Western states like Nevada attempted to wrestle more control of their own territory from the federal government .As noted by The New York Times the federal government owns nearly half of the land – 47 percent – in the West.The Tribune noted that even the defendants' attorneys were shocked by the acquittals."It's stunning," said Robert Salisbury, an attorney for defendant Jeff Banta. "It's a stunning victory for the defense. I'm speechless."The U.S. Attorney in Oregon , Billy J. Williams, said in a statement that his office stood by its decision to prosecute the seven defendants."We strongly believe that this case needed to be brought before a Court, publicly tried, and decided by a jury," the statement said. 'When the jury hears the story, I expect the same result' The Oregon case was, in a sense, an extension the tense standoff between federal officials with the BLM and other authorities, and the Bundy's two years ago in Nevada. Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are all scheduled to go on trial for that standoff early next year.It's not clear what the outcome of the Nevada trial will be. Federal attorneys have said they don't feel like the outcome in Oregon will have any effect whatsoever on the Nevada trial.But defense attorneys involved in the Nevada trial aren't so sure. Daniel Hill, an attorney for Ammon Bundy , says the Oregon acquittal bodes well for his client and the other defendants, all of whom are facing felony weapon, conspiracy and other charges, the Tribune reported."When the jury hears the whole story," he told The Associated Press , "I expect the same result." Sources: | 0 |
Errol Louis is the host of "Inside City Hall," a nightly political show on NY1, a New York all-news channel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) Years ago, when I hosted a daily talk-radio show, one of the cardinal rules laid down by my program director was to avoid booking guests or taking phone calls from listeners who wanted to debate abortion, gay marriage or the death penalty. All three issues -- and especially abortion -- were considered a conversational dead-end, on which nearly all intelligent adults have already made up their minds.
Any sort of abortion "debate" would inevitably turn into a shoutfest yielding circular arguments, bad feelings and bored listeners.
I thought about that rule of thumb as I read about the elaborate media hoax ginned up by the Center for Medical Progress, a right-wing group trying to discredit and defund Planned Parenthood.
Taking a page from the falsehoods and selectively-edited videos that brought about the defunding and bankruptcy of the left-wing advocacy group ACORN, the Center for Medical Progress strategy is to create a narrative, claim that its videos constitute damning evidence, and repeat that story enough times to give politicians the "proof" they need to attack Planned Parenthood.
That plan appears to have fizzled already, with the failure of a Senate vote this week to defund Planned Parenthood. But that won't stop the anti-abortion advocates, who will always see themselves as just one more rally, prayer vigil or media hoax away from ultimate victory.
Despite the extensive preparation and deceit that went into the plan, the hoax won't shift the country's decades-long stalemate over abortion by so much as a millimeter. As it says in the book of Ecclesiastes: "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."
By law, women getting abortions can voluntarily donate the tissue from that procedure to medical research, and by law the abortion provider can request nominal reimbursement $30 to $100 in most cases -- for saving, packing and shipping the tissue to a research firm.
The details of the process are enough to trouble anyone: non-medical people don't talk about the price of requesting, removing and shipping organs and pieces of flesh from place to place. Most of us would freak out if we listened to professionals in the local hospita l, funeral home or medical examiner's office discuss details of how a dying person's request to have their body parts donated for transplants or scientific research actually gets carried out.
It turns out that cadavers, livers, kidneys, eyes and other organs don't walk themselves over to the local hospital or medical school for free.
So let's acknowledge up front that some startling, even grisly conversations will inevitably follow when women getting an abortion agree to donate the stem cells and other tissue to scientific research. But that doesn't equate to selling body parts.
Transcripts of the videos created by the Center for Medical Progress show instances of the hoaxers posing as medical middlemen, trying to lure Planned Parenthood staffers into talking about how money gets paid to abortion providers who take nominal reimbursements for moving body tissue from clinics to research facilities.
And in case after case, what emerges is medical professionals highly aware and cognizant of their duty to be careful and ethical about their words and actions.
"Really their bottom line is, they want to break even. Every penny they save is just pennies they give to another patient. To provide a service the patient wouldn't get," says Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood Federation.
Later in the same conversation she says: "we're not looking to make money from this. Our goal is to keep access available. And if we do something that makes a target, that just removes access for everybody."
And later: "Our goal, like I said, is to give patients the option without impacting our bottom line. The messaging is this should not be seen as a new revenue stream, because that's not what it is."
On and on it goes, in each of these supposedly "bombshell" videos, forming what could be called an inkblot conversation, similar to the Rorschach tests in which the viewer looks at an inkblot and describes what picture they see.
To those already convinced that abortions should be safe, legal and rare, it looks like Planned Parenthood is responsibly doing exactly what a medical provider should. People who already want to ban all abortions everywhere will see the conversations as some nefarious trade in baby parts.
In other words, the videos are less an investigative expose than a mirror in which a divided nation can look at its view on abortion. | 1 |
Perhaps Democrat Mayor Michael Nutter is taking a cue from the reckless DA in Baltimore in presuming guilt of the engineer without the benefit of an investigation. The Mayor basically accused the engineer of criminal negligence without even knowing all of the details of the crash. From Democrat Mayor Michael Nutter: Clearly it was reckless in terms of the driving by the engineer. There s no way in the world that he should have been going that fast into the curve. Clearly he was reckless and irresponsible in his actions. There s really no excuse that can be offered. Listen to the Mayor s unjustified, irresponsible inflammatory remarks here:https://youtu.be/CBZxmmdp2Kg The Amtrak train that derailed Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring more than 200, may have been struck by an object before it careened off the tracks, an assistant conductor on the train told investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board.At a news conference on Friday, Robert L. Sumwalt, the safety board official who is leading the investigation, said an assistant conductor had reported that she believed she heard a radio transmission in which an engineer on a regional line said his train had been struck by a projectile and the engineer on the Amtrak train replied that his had been struck, too.Mr. Sumwalt said that investigators had found a fist-size circular area of impact on the left side of the Amtrak train s windshield and that they had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to analyze it. He said that the F.B.I. had been called in because it has the forensics expertise needed for the investigation, but that it had not yet begun its analysis.He said that investigators had also interviewed the engineer and found him extremely cooperative, and that the engineer had said he was not fatigued or ill at the time of the accident. But he could not remember anything about the derailment.Investigators asked the engineer, Brandon Bostian, whether he recalled any projectiles, and he said he did not. He was specifically asked that question, and he did not recall anything of that sort, Mr. Sumwalt said. But then again, he reported that he does not have any recollection of anything past North Philadelphia. The assistant conductor, however, who was working in the cafe car, heard Mr. Bostian talking to an engineer on the Septa regional rail line who said his train had been hit by a rock or shot at, according to Mr. Sumwalt. She said she thought she heard Mr. Bostian reply that his train had also been struck. Right after she recalled hearing this conversation between her engineer and the Septa engineer, she said she felt a rumbling, and her train leaned over and her car went over on its side, Mr. Sumwalt said.Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman at Septa, confirmed that the windshield of one of its trains had been shattered by a projectile near the North Philadelphia station about 9:10 p.m. on Tuesday, about 12 minutes before the Amtrak train derailed. We have reports of trains being struck by objects in this area about two to three times a month, Ms. Williams said. Mostly, she said, the objects are thrown by children and do no damage.The safety board has asked to interview the engineer of the Septa train that was hit by the projectile, and Septa is cooperating, Ms. Williams said.For days, speculation about the cause of the accident has centered on Mr. Bostian. Investigators reported earlier this week that the train accelerated suddenly a minute before the derailment and that Mr. Bostian applied the emergency brake seconds before the cars careened off the tracks, striking nearby utility poles.On Friday, Mr. Sumwalt said that the engineer, accompanied by his lawyer, had been open with investigators and had demonstrated a very good working knowledge of the proper procedures and speeds for the rail line, but that he did not remember the accident. He recalls ringing the train bell as he went through North Philadelphia Station, as required, Mr. Sumwalt said. He has no recollection of anything past that. Investigators said that Mr. Bostian had been extremely cooperative during his interview and that he had reported no problems with his train handling. Two other conductors were on the train that night. A senior conductor is hospitalized, according to the safety board, and has not been interviewed.A junior conductor was in the back of the train and reported that his radio was not working, so he was unable to hear the engineer, Mr. Sumwalt said. He told investigators he felt shaking, then two large impacts that dislodged seats.Both conductors said they had confidence in the engineer, calling him very professional. Via: NYT | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said it received a signed memorandum of understanding from Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Tuesday evening, an initial step in being able to provide more detailed briefing materials to the incoming administration. “The next step is for the President-elect’s transition team to provide us with the names of the individuals they have authorized to represent their transition effort across the government,” said Brandi Hoffine a White House spokeswoman. | 0 |
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Thursday denounced the murder of innocent women and children as the horrid face of war as he presided at a special prayer service for peace in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Francis had planned to go later this year to South Sudan, which has been hit by civil war, famine and a refugee crisis, but had to scrap the project for security reasons. During the service, which was punctuated by African singing in English, French, Italian and Swahili, Francis asked God to break down the walls of hostility that today divide brothers and sisters, especially in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. May he protect children who suffer from conflicts in which they have no part, but which rob them of their childhood and at times of life itself, he said in his brief homily. How hypocritical it is to deny the mass murder of women and children! Here war shows its most horrid face, he said. St. Peter s Basilica was decked out with photographs of African children. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after protracted bloodshed, then fell into civil war in late 2013, with troops loyal to President Salva Kiir fighting those backing Riek Machar, a former vice president Kiir had sacked. Both sides have targeted civilians, human rights groups say. Right now, we are moving into the lean season, and by July of 2018, many thousands of people across South Sudan not just isolated pockets of the country will be dying from hunger, said Jerry Farrell, country representative in South Sudan for Catholic Relief Services. What is most tragic is there absolutely shouldn t be hunger in South Sudan, he said in an email, adding that people of different tribes inter-marry and work together but that the conflict is instigated and fanned by politicians. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, dozens of people have died in protests against President Joseph Kabila s refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December. Unrest sparked by the uncertainty surrounding the polls has raised fears Congo could witness a repeat of the kind of violence that killed millions around the turn of the last century, mostly from hunger and disease. | 1 |
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland s political establishment must open up negotiations on proposals to reform the country s courts to avoid further damage to the country s judicial system, a United Nations envoy urged on Friday. Secrecy surrounding the proposals, if not dispelled, could do lasting harm to Poland s court system, said Diego Garcia-Sayan, a UN special rapporteur on the independence of the judiciary. The proposed changes risk hampering the capacity of judicial authorities to ensure checks and balances and protect and promote human rights, Garcia-Sayan said at a briefing after a four-day mission to Warsaw. Poland s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is embroiled in a confrontation with President Andrzej Duda over reforming the court system. The standoff began in July, when the president, a PiS ally, unexpectedly vetoed bills that would have changed the makeup of the Supreme Court and how judges are chosen. PiS says the judicial system needs to be reformed because the courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist-era mentality. But critics of the plans say they are part of a drive toward authoritarianism. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of PiS and Poland s paramount politician, has since met privately with Duda four times for talks on the reforms. Details of those meetings have been kept secret, and it is not known whether a consensus is in sight. Garcia-Sayan said it was difficult to understand how in a democracy work on major legal reforms could take place behind closed doors. It s not a technicality that s being discussed, but a major thing that will have to do with justice, checks and balances, and so on, he said. So, a major suggestion is, please, open political, substantial dialogue. He added that the judiciary reform that PiS has been pushing since coming to power in late 2015 has been presented as a cure, but appears to be worse than the disease affecting the Polish judiciary. Garcia-Sayan s comments were not supported by facts and were harmful for Poland and the Polish people , Rafal Bochenek, a government spokesman, told Poland s state news agency, PAP. | 0 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Tuesday it strongly condemned the ballistic missile launch by North Korea earlier in the day that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific waters off Hokkaido. We will respond strongly based on our steadfast alliance with the United States if North Korea continues nuclear and missile provocations, the South s foreign ministry said in a statement. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eight U.S. Senate Democrats questioned on Tuesday whether they could trust President Donald Trump’s nominee for the top job at the U.S. Export-Import Bank to support renewing the trade lender’s charter in 2019 and to believe in its mission. Scott Garrett, a former Republican congressman from New Jersey who was one of the EXIM Bank’s leading opponents during a 2015 fight in Congress to shut it down, “refused to confirm that he would unequivocally support reauthorizing the bank,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and seven other senators said in a statement after meeting with Garrett. The nominee for EXIM chairman has met with strong opposition from industry groups that use its financing, including the National Association of Manufacturers, which said Garrett had a track record of trying to undermine the institution. The bank has been unable to approve loans above $10 million for two years because of efforts by conservative Republicans in Congress to shut it down and then block nominations to its board, keeping it from financing large aircraft, satellites, power turbines and other major projects. Critics have charged that EXIM provides unnecessary “corporate welfare” to large companies such as Boeing (BA.N), General Electric (GE.N) and Caterpillar (CAT.N), putting taxpayers at risk. The bank also provides export financing and guarantees for thousands of small manufacturers. “Today’s meeting was bizarre. Scott Garrett – one of the most vocal opponents of the Export-Import Bank while he was in Congress – agreed to speak with us about his nomination, but during the meeting, he wouldn’t discuss his personal thoughts about the Bank and its mission,” the senators said in a statement. “The bank has overwhelming support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress and we need a leader of the bank who also fully stands by its goals,” added the senators, who included Democrats Heidi Heitkamp, Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray, Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons and Joe Donnelly. Their statement did not say specifically how they would vote on Garrett’s nomination. No nomination hearing has been scheduled by the Senate Banking Committee. A White House spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment on the senators’ statement. | 1 |
WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) - The U.S. government made it tougher on Wednesday for Americans to visit Cuba and do business in the country, making good on a pledge by President Donald Trump to roll back his Democratic predecessor s move toward warmer ties with Havana. The restrictions, which take effect on Thursday, are aimed at preventing the military, intelligence and security arms of Cuba s Communist government from benefiting from American tourists and trade, the White House said. They fill in the regulatory detail on a Trump policy speech in June, in which the Republican president called for a tightening of restrictions. He said then that the Cuban government continued to oppress its people and former President Barack Obama had made too many concessions in his 2014 diplomatic breakthrough with Washington s former Cold War foe. The regulations include a ban on Americans doing business with some 180 Cuban government entities, holding companies, and tourism companies. The list includes 83 state-owned hotels, including famous hotels in Old Havana such as Ernest Hemingway s erstwhile favorite haunt the Hotel Ambos Mundos, as well as the city s new luxury shopping mall. All these measures hurt the Cuban people, said Cuba s Foreign Ministry chief for U.S. Affairs Josefina Vidal. She said that government revenue funds Cuba s free education and healthcare systems. Speaking to reporters in Havana, she called the list arbitrary and the regulations a further setback in U.S.-Cuban relations. The new rules were criticized as too lax by Republican leaders who favor a hard line, but as counterproductive by those who agreed with Obama s rationale for the detente: that Washington s many decades of isolating the Caribbean island failed to force change. The Cuban hotels listed included those run by military-linked chains Gaviota and Habaguanex. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, said the list failed to go far enough because it omitted companies like Gran Caribe Hotel Group and Cubanacan that have ties to the Cuban government. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said the regulations were unfair to Cuba, coming as Trump was being feted in Beijing by a Communist government in a country to which Americans can travel freely. The hypocrisy of the White House ideologues is glaring, Leahy said in a statement. While U.S. travelers will still be able to make authorized trips to Cuba with a U.S.-based organization and accompanied by a U.S. representative of the group, it will be harder for them to travel individually, according to the new regulations. Before Obama s opening, travel by many Americans was similarly restricted to such organized trips. Travelers need to be able to show a full-time schedule with activities that support Cuban people and show meaningful interaction, going beyond merely staying in rooms in private homes, eating in private restaurants, or shopping in private stores, a U.S. official told reporters on a conference call. The administration says it is keen to support such small private enterprises that have sprung up around the country under President Raul Castro s reforms to the largely state-controlled economy. Staying or eating or shopping in some of those privately owned places is something that we wanted to encourage. But what we wanted to say is, that alone is not enough, the official said. However, Cubans in the fledgling private sector say the Trump administration s more hostile stance toward Havana has already hurt their business. He is putting us in serious danger by frightening away American visitors looking to rent our properties, said Norma Hernandez, who rents out rooms on Airbnb and who said her business flourished over the last year thanks to a surge in U.S. visitors. Trump s rollback of Obama s opening has not affected a centerpiece of the detente, the restoration of diplomatic ties and the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. Business contracts and travel arrangements already in place will be allowed to go ahead and will not be subject to the restrictions, officials told reporters. The list of entities that Americans cannot do business with includes a special development zone at Cuba s Mariel port, which Cuba hopes to develop into a major Caribbean industrial and shipping hub with tax and customs breaks. The National Foreign Trade Council, a business lobby group in Washington, called the Mariel restriction counterproductive because it would hurt a Cuban government initiative that could potentially benefit Cuban workers. The head of an educational travel company said there were still many legal avenues - as well as commercial flights, cruise ships, U.S.-owned hotels, and tour providers - to enable Americans to visit Cuba. But he said the new restrictions would hurt Cuba s private sector, at a time when the economy is already struggling. U.S. backtracking on Cuba could not come at a worse time, said Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s threats to slap steep tariffs on Chinese and Mexican imports may have won him votes in Republican primaries but they would likely backfire, severely disrupting U.S. manufacturers that increasingly depend on global supply chains. The Republican presidential front-runner’s campaign pledges to impose 45 percent tariffs on all imports from China and 35 percent on many goods from Mexico would spark financial market turmoil and possibly even a recession, former trade negotiators, trade lawyers, economists and business executives told Reuters. “I don’t mind trade wars when we’re losing $58 billion a year,” Trump said in a Feb. 25 debate, referring to the 2015 U.S. goods trade deficit with Mexico. Economists dispute the idea the United States is “losing” money as the trade deficit is simply the difference between what the United States imports and what it exports to a country. "Imposing tariffs or putting up trade barriers may sound good, but it will hurt our economy and credibility," said Wendy Cutler, the former acting deputy U.S. Trade Representative who helped lead U.S. negotiations in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal last year. Among those hardest hit would be the U.S. auto industry, which has fully integrated Mexico into its production network. Some $118 billion worth of vehicles and parts flowed north and south across the border tariff-free last year, according to U.S. Commerce Department data. A 35 percent tariff would raise costs for Ford Motor Co's U.S.-assembled F-series and medium-duty pickup trucks that use Mexican-made diesel engines, one of its most profitable vehicle lines. (Graphic on U.S.-Mexico auto and parts trade: tmsnrt.rs/1UN3wun) Ford CEO Mark Fields on Wednesday defended the company’s investment strategy, which includes $9 billion for U.S. plants over the next four years, saying, “We will do what makes sense for the business.” Buyers of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s popular Ram 1500 pickup trucks assembled in Saltillo, Mexico, could see their $26,000 base price pushed up by $9,000 if the tariff is fully passed on to consumers. A Chrysler spokesman declined to comment on Trump’s statements. Trump’s campaign said in a statement that U.S. trade policy constitutes “unilateral economic surrender” and needs complete change because it allows foreign competitors to shut out U.S imports, devalue their currencies and unfairly target U.S. industries. “I don’t think he does our issue any favors by making it so incredibly jingoistic and bombastic,” said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a group that allies domestic steelmakers and other manufacturers with the United Steelworkers union. “But I believe there’s widespread agreement ... that there is something amiss with our economic relationship with China and it’s past time that our government pushes back a little more forcefully.” It would take years for U.S. industry to rebuild supply chains devastated by sudden tariff hikes on Chinese and Mexican goods and any retaliatory measures, said Peter Petri, a Brandeis University professor who has co-authored an influential study on the effects of the TPP trade deal on national income. Even if U.S. firms were able to make such a transition, Petri said this would likely result in a permanent annual reduction in U.S. national income of more than $100 billion, or 0.8 percent. Trump’s tariff plans would effectively violate NAFTA and revoke U.S. commitments to the World Trade Organization, say trade lawyers. Beijing and Mexico City “are just going to retaliate on the things that are likely to hurt us most,” said Susan Schwab, the U.S. Trade Representative from 2006 to 2009 in the George W. Bush administration. Schwab negotiated major portions of free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. In 2009, Mexico slapped duties up to 25 percent on more than 90 different U.S. farm goods, from pork to frozen potatoes due to foot-dragging by U.S. lawmakers on allowing Mexican truckers on to U.S. roads, as specified under NAFTA. The National Potato Council estimates that U.S. growers lost about $70 million in revenue over 31 months, a 50 percent cut from their third-largest export market. Mexico’s economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo said last week that big tariffs on Mexico would return the United States to “an isolationist, xenophobic and protectionist vision.” And a full-scale tariff war with China would likely expose the largest U.S. export sectors to steep duties, including aircraft, semiconductors, corn and soybeans, trade lawyers said. Retaliatory tariffs would also hurt growing U.S. vehicle exports to China - at 300,000 a year now equivalent to the annual output of a large assembly plant. General Motors Co is now planning to import a Buick sport-utility vehicle from a Chinese joint venture plant. A GM spokesman declined to comment. China’s state-run Global Times newspaper called Trump “big-mouthed, anti traditional and abusively forthright” in an editorial, but did not directly address his tariff proposals. A long-running U.S.-China trade dispute over solar panels illustrates how tariffs can sometimes cause unanticipated damage. In 2012, the U.S. Commerce Department slapped anti-dumping duties of up to 78 percent on Chinese solar panels after German-owned SolarWorld AG complained that below-cost Chinese imports were hurting its U.S. production. China responded with its own 57 percent duties against U.S. producers of polycrystalline silicon, the raw material for photovoltaic cells. This put the brakes on an industry that was fast expanding to meet demand from Chinese solar panel makers. Hemlock Semiconductor, controlled by Dow Corning, abandoned construction of a $1.5 billion new polysilicon plant in 2014. Dow Corning spokesman Jarrod Erpelding said Hemlock “serves as a strong example of how trade disputes often have unintended consequences.” “This is really stupid,” said Francine Sullivan, chief legal officer of REC Silicon in Moses Lake, Washington, which halted production this year. “The necessity and value in putting on tariffs to protect solar panels in the U.S. was just not thought through. We’ve suffered enormous financial damage as a result of this.” The Trump campaign said measures like tariffs would level the playing field and help bring “millions of manufacturing jobs back to the United States.” But Durwin “Oodie” Royal, a furnace operator at U.S. Steel Corp’s Lone Star Tubular Operations in Texas, knows first-hand that such relief can be temporary. Workers at the plant cheered when the United States imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese drilling pipe in 2009 and 2011. But the company announced on Friday that it would temporarily idle the tube mill, laying off 450 workers as it battles a slump in U.S. oil and gas drilling, a continued global steel glut and “unfairly traded imports.” “When they slap tariffs on one country, the imports just come in from another country,” said Royal, who expects to be among those workers who are idled. After the tariffs were imposed on China, South Korean imports surged, he said. “Right now, we’re just limping along like everybody else.” | 0 |
BEIJING/CHICAGO (Reuters) - United Nations sanctions on North Korea s important textiles industry are expected to disrupt a business largely based in China and pose compliance headaches for clothing retailers in the United States and around the world. The U.N. security Council imposed a ban on North Korea textile exports and a ceiling on the country s imports of crude oil on Monday, ratcheting up sanctions designed to pressure North Korea into talks about its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Retailers in the United States and other countries have intentionally limited their exposure to North Korea in recent years, as tensions over the country s nuclear program have increased. The industry has sought to strengthen control over its supply chain since a textile factory collapse in Bangladesh killed more than 1,100 people in 2013. Larger retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), have the ability to keep North Korea-produced goods out of their stores. But smaller brands may face enforcement challenges, said Marc Wulfraat, president of supply chain consulting firm MWPVL International. There are still hundreds and thousands of companies that are sourcing from overseas that don t have the wherewithal or the resources or people or money to chase after these issues, Wulfraat said. Textiles were North Korea s second-biggest export after coal and other minerals in 2016, totaling $752 million, according to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. Nearly 80 percent went to China. Enforcement of the textile ban along North Korea s 1,400-km (870-mile) border with China - where goods are sometimes smuggled across, often on boats at night - could be challenging, North Korea experts say. In the past, we have seen shows of quite convincing enforcement in the major centers, such as at Dandong, said Chris Green, a North Korea expert at Leiden University in the Netherlands, referring to the largest trading hub on the China-North Korea border. Goods still slip through in less visible areas, he said. Trade in non-banned goods, including food and other daily necessities, continues between China and North Korea. Enforcement will depend a lot on China, said Paul Tjia, an outsourcing specialist who regularly visits North Korea. So far, a lot of the North Korean textiles trade to Europe and other places goes via China. It will be up to Chinese companies that deal in the North Korean textile trade to take action and up to the Chinese government to ensure the Chinese companies are taking action. On a recent visit to the Chinese border with North Korea, several Chinese traders told Reuters the Chinese government is strictly enforcing U.N. sanctions to the point that some businesses that rely on trade with North Korea have already gone bankrupt or traders have had to start trading in non-sanctioned goods. Another challenge is that clothes can be partly made in China and partly in North Korea with a Made in China label attached to the finished product. Even if a label says Made in China, some parts of the product are allowed to be made in North Korea and other places, Tjia said. For example, the buttons may come from Italy, the cotton may come from Australia or India, the labor may come from North Korea or China, the accessories may come from Bangladesh. A spokeswoman for Target Corp (TGT.N) said the company has taken steps to keep even unfinished goods from North Korea out of its supply chain. We re aware of the accusations and have clear guidelines and standards in place for our vendors and suppliers, said spokeswoman Jenna Rack. We don t source any products from North Korea or any apparel products from Dandong. North Korea does not release statistics on the number of people involved in the textiles industry, but experts estimate at least 100,000 people are employed at North Korean textiles factories, producing goods both for export and the domestic market. Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea specialist at Beijing s Renmin University, estimates the figure may be as high as 200,000 people. Wages at textiles factories grew tenfold around 2010 when North Korea was experimenting with economic reforms, according to Green, so people suddenly went from earning 30 North Korean won to 300 won. They were suddenly getting a reasonable wage, said Green. Supply chain consultant Tjia said North Korea textile workers will be hit by the trade ban. If the goal of the sanctions is to create difficulties for ordinary workers and their ability to make a livelihood, then a ban on textiles will work, he said. | 0 |
ZURICH (Reuters) - A Swiss federal court has dismissed the asylum appeal of a woman convicted in Spain of supporting the Basque separatist group ETA, but said she was now free to remain in Switzerland after Madrid dropped her sentence. The case of Nekane Txapartegi, who said she was tortured while in custody in Spain before fleeing in 2007, has drawn considerable attention in Switzerland, with members of a Free Nekane movement staging rallies in Zurich and other cities. The United Nations special rapporteur on torture and Amnesty International had also urged Swiss authorities not to extradite Txapartegi to Spain. On Friday the Swiss court said the asylum issue was no longer relevant because Spain s High Court had ruled that her sentence - initially 11 years in jail, later reduced to 3-1/2 years - had reached its statute of limitations. As with every European citizen, Ms. Txapartegi may stay in Switzerland within the rules of free movement, a spokesman for the State Secretariat for Migration said. Switzerland is not in the European Union but EU citizens can settle there provided they are in gainful employment or can prove they have sufficient funds to support themselves. Swiss authorities arrested Txapartegi in Zurich in April 2016 after they discovered she had been living under an assumed name in Switzerland since 2009. They agreed in March this year to extradite her but freed her in September after the Spanish decision to drop her jail sentence. Txapartegi had told Swiss authorities she was tortured into confessing support for ETA while in Spanish custody. The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said at the time she could not credibly show that she was actually tortured . On Friday the Swiss court said that, given the conditions prevailing in Spain at the time of her arrest, she may well have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse, but said it no longer needed to evaluate her claims. ETA, which killed more than 850 people in a decades-long campaign to carve out a separate state, effectively ended its armed resistance this year when it surrendered its weapons. | 1 |
This could easily be about Donald Trump should he get elected in November, except that the whole nation would be sorry instead of just a single state.Maine already has been dealing with their own version of the Republican nominee for years now and he somehow got elected and re-elected as the Governor and the results have been nothing short of embarrassing and disastrous.So the editorial board of the Portland Press Herald, Maine s largest newspaper, apologized to the entire country on Friday expressing regret that Paul Lepage was elevated to the office he currently occupies. Dear America: Maine here. Please forgive us we made a terrible mistake. We managed to elect and re-elect a governor who is unfit for high office. He has a gruff exterior and blunt way of talking that some of us find refreshing, but he has shown again and again that he governs by grudge, and uses his power to beat up on people who cannot fight back. The people LePage beats up on the most are African-Americans and Hispanics, whom the Tea Party governor has repeatedly blamed for crimes and drugs in the state, even going so far as to accuse them of trying to take advantage of white women in the state after they are done delivering heroin.The hate and fear mongering has caused many people to think twice before relocating to the state, whose population is getting older. This has hurt industries that are desperate for new blood to remain in operation.But LePage doesn t give a damn about that. If he could hang a whites only sign on the Welcome To Maine billboard at the state line he would do it. LePage knows that his words are widely understood to mean that he thinks that the color of their skin makes some people more likely to commit crimes, the Press Herald continues. Rather than clarify or withdraw those statements, he repeats them.And that s exactly what Donald Trump does. Just like LePage, Trump makes toxic remarks that have drawn white supremacists to his campaign while repulsing minority voters across the country.Only now is he pretending that he wants their votes after his poll numbers have imploded.Take out LePage s name and replace it with Donald Trump s throughout the editorial and it s a perfect match.Like LePage, Trump often blames the media for his own blunders and makes offensive remarks that make him look like a jackass who should never have been on the ballot in the first place. LePage also doesn t apologize and has a thin skin.After Democratic state Rep. Drew Gattine commented about LePage s racism, the Republican governor lashed out by leaving a nasty and threatening message on his voicemail I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you cocksucker, LePage said. I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I m a racist. I ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker. You I need you to, just friggin I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you. It would be nice to think that LePage would reflect on what he says and learn from these incidents, but he appears to be completely incapable of change, the Press Herald lamented about the incident. He will probably blame the media again for any embarrassment he suffers, but everyone has heard the tape and knows what the governor said. Unfortunately, LePage will be in office until 2019, which gives him plenty of time to do more damage and humiliate the state of Maine ever more. Somehow, that s the only bright side the Press Herald can think of.On the bright side, America, LePage isn t going to be governor forever, and when his successor takes office in 2019, Mainers of all political parties will have to work together to fix the damage he has done to our reputation. We hope that this person will be a leader who will welcome people of all races to live in Maine, and invest in our wonderful state.Until then, please accept our apology. We ll try not to do it again.America needs to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president. The last thing this country needs is a Paul LePage on the national level. It would be embarrassing and we would have to apologize to the entire world for all of the destruction Trump causes over the next four years assuming that he doesn t somehow get re-elected like LePage did in Maine.So let s make sure we don t have to make such an apology by making sure Hillary Clinton wins in November.Featured Image: Flickr | 1 |
Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and a New America fellow. He is the author of " Jimmy Carter " and " The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society. " The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
(CNN) What could possibly motivate a Republican to formally endorse Donald Trump and join his raucous brigade? With each primary and caucus victory, the pressure for prominent Republicans to take a stand on his candidacy greatly intensifies. But taking this step is not easy.
Announcing that you will back Donald Trump is to enter into an alliance with a person who is controversial, explosive and who can often get extremely nasty on the campaign trail.
This is someone who has repeatedly said things that offend women, Latinos and Muslims; who was slow to disavow white supremacist support and who has chosen to stoke, rather than calm, flareups of violence at his rallies.
This week, he predicted "riots" should he fail to be given the GOP nomination, even if he lacks the required delegate total. And even if a politician is willing to be associated with the incendiary things Trump has already said, it is impossible to know what he will do next, and that can be frightening for anyone in the political arena.
As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie learned last week, you might even find yourself humiliated by Trump after you take the risky step of supporting and going out to campaign for him.
Thus far, Trump has received a few high-profile endorsements, including those of Christie, Sarah Palin, Sen. Jeff Sessions, Ben Carson, Jerry Falwell, and, at a much lower level, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. This is still a pretty limited list for someone as far ahead as Trump.
So why would any other Republicans decide to take this step? The question is becoming much more important with each week. As Trump closes in on the delegates that he needs to secure the nomination in this three-person race (though it is not clear he will reach the required majority), he will be pressing harder to secure more endorsements so that he can avoid a brokered convention in Cleveland.
Obtaining a job in a Trump administration will be a major motivating factor for many Republicans. As the possibility of a Trump presidency becomes more real, a larger number of Republicans will make the calculation that if they want to be part of his administration they will need to get off the fence sooner rather than later.
Trump is the kind of person who punishes anyone who stands in his way.
Those officials who come out in the next few weeks and play a role in helping him win some of the bigger states that loom ahead are hoping to be in a good position to be part of the White House should Trump manage to win the election.
Loyalty to party is a powerful force in our current era of polarized politics.
While the primary season is about deciding what kind of person you want to represent your party, the general election is about making sure that your party has power. Gradually the path forward for Trump's opponents is becoming less clear. If Trump demonstrates the potential to build a diverse electoral coalition that can defeat Hillary Clinton, this will be enough for some Republicans to line up behind him.
As Ben Carson explained when he announced his support, "I didn't see a path for Kasich, who I like,or for Rubio, who I like. As far as Cruz is concerned, I don't think he's gonna be able to draw independents and Democrats unless he has some kind of miraculous change."
These Republicans will separate their support for the campaign from the man.
Given that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic candidate, the intense feelings that she elicits within the GOP will be enough to move some Republicans into Donald Trump's camp. There will be the moment, perhaps in the near future, when Republican turn their attention to the competition against the Democrats rather than among themselves.
If the anti-Trump coalition headed by Mitt Romney does not show any signs of strength, some Republicans may decide that it is time to heal the divisions in the party by accepting Trump to maximize their chances in the fall.
As Trump looks more and more like a winner in the party contest, there will be Republicans who actually like the candidate or at minimum are excited about what he can offer in the electoral arena who will finally step forward.
There might be a tipping point where this insurgency becomes legitimate, becoming less of a political circus than an actual competition. Once this happens, this will be a key moment for Trump to start securing a huge number of endorsements as more candidates are willing to stand up for a candidacy that once may have seemed too dangerous.
Nor will Republicans necessarily be worried about the risk of endorsing Trump only to have a brokered convention select a different candidate this summer.
If the nomination is decided at the convention, Cruz or Kasich -- or anyone else who enters the competition -- will need the support of everyone who backed Trump and have reason to court their vote.
The final factor that can move Republicans into the Trump camp will be animosity toward his opponents, particularly Ted Cruz. Though he is trying to position himself as the new "establishment" choice, Cruz has been as much, if not more, of an insurgent to the party than Trump.
He is also a politician who has personally burned many bridges with fellow party members in the Senate and the campaign. If Kasich no longer looks like a viable choice for a brokered convention, some Republicans might support Trump as a way to pay back their anger toward Cruz.
Taking the step of standing on the podium with Donald Trump will not be easy.
Every politician realizes the high costs that can come with this, particularly since the outcome of the fight might not be totally settled until the summer.
For many Republicans, this will come down to balancing political and self-interest with the difficulty of supporting a candidate who is genuinely distasteful to them and who risks bringing them embarrassment and anger from people they respect. But as Trump looks like the only real game in town, we'll see more Republicans deciding that this is a risk worth taking. | 1 |
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis for the hundred and thirty fifth episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.On this episode of Boiler Room the ACR Brain-Trust is running a round table discussion on school systems putting cameras in bathrooms in the US and the EU, Facebook as an extension of the federal intelligence apparatus, silicone valley insiders admit social media was designed to exploit inherent vulnerabilities in human beings to get them addicted to their applications, the selective silencing of dissenting voices in social media, the NY bike path terror attack from a non-conspiratorial VLOGer, the Texas church shooting near San Antonio and the first Transexual elected to political office.Direct Download Episode #135 Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research: | 1 |
Dave Alpert
Why would the American people elect a racist, misogynist, narcissistic, criminal to the presidency of this country?
There is no simple answer but let’s look at the variables. First, let us look at his opponent, Hillary Clinton, one of the most disliked, distrusted candidates for the office of president in U.S. history.
Hillary represents the establishment . . . she is friendly and subservient to Wall Street, the Banksters, and the war industry. She has proven to be a war monger who has never found a war she didn’t like. Although she is the candidate of the Democratic Party, a party that likes to project themselves as the saviors of the working men and women, she does not now, nor has she ever, represented hope and relief to the working class.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an agreement which was activated in 1994, was supported by Hillary Clinton. This is an agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada that resulted in the exportation of thousands of well-paying jobs to countries with a work force willing to work for significantly lower salaries.
Thus, American corporations moved their production plants to Mexico leaving American workers without jobs and many towns, that relied for economic survival on these corporations, bankrupt. As we have learned, in a capitalistic society, the corporation’s main obligation is to the shareholders, not the workers.
Today, we are confronted with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), another trade agreement that is being pushed by President Obama, a Democrat, and originally supported by Hillary Clinton, another Democrat. This so-called trade agreement would double down on the negative and problematic effects of the NAFTA agreement on working class Americans. Only the corporations and, therefore, the shareholders, would benefit.
It was only when Bernie Sanders called her out regarding this issue that, Hillary began to modify her position on the TPP, claiming that she had not yet seen the details of the agreement and would withhold a decision whether or not to support it. Eventually, she stated that she would not support the TPP. But, as we know, campaign rhetoric is meaningless and once the campaign is over, we go back to business as usual. And, business as usual means continuing to exploit and abuse the working class for the benefit of the ruling class.
As a result of the policies of the past 20 years, the people of the Industrial Heartland or “Rust Belt” felt betrayed and angry . . . they had been abandoned. The states that make up the Rust Belt are Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and lower Michigan. These are states that are considered swing states, states that are not red or blue and can go either Democrat or Republican. Hillary Clinton did not win any of these states.
Donald Trump spoke to them, the people of the Industrial Heartland . . . he portrayed himself as an outsider, which was hard to dispute since he never held office, a populist billionaire, an oxymoron, who spoke for the working class. His style, although abrupt and insulting, was appealing to many people . . . where Donald would get in your face, with Hillary, you had to watch your back.
The initial phase of Trump’s candidacy was perplexing. He proceeded to insult Mexicans, Muslims, women, gays, blacks, and the disabled. One could hardly take his candidacy seriously. How do you insult the voters and expect to get their votes? In fact, many of us thought that Trump was being so outrageous that he would create fear and anger among the voters and push them to vote for Hillary. In other words, he was the foil for Hillary’s run for the presidency.
Trump’s rhetoric has created a dangerous situation. Racists and white supremacists, who previously were more or less background noise, were given legitimacy by Trump’s oratory. The voice of the white man now had the public’s attention.
Many of these folks are also 2nd amendment enthusiasts and do not hesitate to carry guns. This combination may at some point explode into armed conflict between the various factions in the U.S. The country is now more divided than at any time since the Civil War.
Non-Christians and people of color are now on the official hit list and may very well be targeted for deportation or abuse. Dissidents will likely be put on this administration’s neutralization list. We are moving rapidly into a fascist state.
While black men were being shot by police almost daily, Trump made it clear that he supports the police and stands for law and order. These are statements that historically were code words for targeting people of color. We can expect that the police, who are already armed with military weapons, to become more aggressive in their implementation of law and order. They have been given official sanctions.
Although we are in a crisis, we are also in a moment of opportunity. During the election period, I wrote that neither Trump nor Clinton deserved our support. People would inevitably ask, “What else can I do?” The answer has always remained the same. ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, RESIST, RESIST, AND RESIST SOME MORE.
Although Trump won the electoral college vote, Clinton won the popular vote. There will undoubtedly be a focus on the unfairness of not abiding by the will of the people. This will serve as a distraction and deflection away from the critical issues. What will be missing from the discussion is that the ruling class selects and invests in the candidates running for office, candidates that, like Trump and Clinton, are not trusted or liked and do not represent our interests . . . that we are stuck in a two party system that projects one voice, the voice of the ruling class. Alternative options are purposefully excluded from the discussion and the will of the people ignored and silenced before the voting ever takes place.
Change in the U.S. will never come from the ballot box and participating in this farce gives credibility to the ruling class’s con job. We cannot wait for the next election because, as history has shown, we will again be given the choice between two candidates, neither of whom will represent us, our needs or our concerns.
This economic and political system is rigged and corrupt. Even Donald Trump acknowledged this. It matters little who sits in the Oval Office, it is the system that must be changed. Capitalism and its imperialistic partner are destroying our planet, initiating wars worldwide and allowing the ruling class to exploit and abuse working people. Band-Aids on a broken system will not offer us meaningful relief, the system must be changed.
Working people must begin to recognize that the enemy is not Russia, China or Assad’s Syria, it is the capitalists/imperialists who are located right here in the U.S. that want to rule the world by any means necessary. As a result, hundreds of thousands have died and the homes of innocent people have been destroyed so that these men and women can fulfill their agenda of world domination. That’s what Hillary Clinton supports and that’s what Donald Trump will support.
THE PRIMARY MISSION OF THESE PEOPLE IS PROFIT.
We must take to the streets, whites, blacks, Latinos, Muslims, gays, straights, and shut down and put a stop to business as usual, and also refuse to continue participating in our own downfall.
We live in the belly of the beast, the strongest and most militarized country in the world, as well as in the history of man itself. The U.S. has perpetrated more death and destruction than any country in human history. “We” are the enemy, “we” are the threat to human survival. Yet, it is this country that marches uninvited into other countries and determines who shall lead those countries and how those people should live their lives.
IT IS TIME TO ACT . . . LET’S NOT WAIT UNTIL THE U.S. PROVOKES WW3.
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents. | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - British aid minister Priti Patel will resign rather than be sacked by Prime Minister Theresa May, the BBC s political editor quoted an unnamed source as saying on Wednesday. Patel was meeting May on Wednesday to answer questions over undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee has begun a sweeping probe into possible sexual harassment and discrimination by the chamber’s 434 lawmakers and their staff, requesting on Friday a wide range of documents from the congressional office that handles employment disputes. In a letter to the office, Susan Brooks, the committee’s Republican chair, and Theodore Deutch, its senior Democrat, requested the congressional compliance office promptly share all its records “related to any claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation or any other employment practice.” Capitol Hill has been rocked this fall by news of possible sexual misconduct by lawmakers, and outrage that public money may have been paid to settle harassment suits against lawmakers. Most notably Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, is under pressure to resign in light of sexual harassment allegations, which Reuters has not verified. U.S. media have reported Conyers used public funds to settle a claim with a woman, and the ethics committee is currently investigating if he “used official resources for impermissible personal purposes.” Conyers has acknowledged settling with a former staffer over her claims of harassment, but he has denied wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Texas Republican Representative Joe Barton recently decided not to seek re-election after a nude photo of him appeared on the internet. The committee had no comment beyond the letter. Pressure is mounting for it to ramp up its enforcement of congressional rules. It last took a disciplinary action on Aug. 1, determining Representative Ben Ray Lujan broke a rule on campaign communications but not imposing any sanctions. Along with resolving disputes and enforcing employment laws for more than 30,000 people working for Congress, the compliance office provides public money to confidentially settle claims against lawmakers. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is seeking to change that practice with legislation that would require prompt public disclosure of settlement awards. In a letter sent to House Administration Committee Chair Gregg Harper on Friday, the compliance office said that since 2013 it has paid settlements on two claims including sex discrimination allegations and one alleging sexual harassment. It paid $84,000 for one sexual harassment claim and $7,000 in one case alleging both sex and religious discrimination. Politico reported the harassment award was made on behalf of Texas Republican Blake Farenthold. “While I 100 percent support more transparency with respect to claims against members of Congress, I can neither confirm nor deny that settlement involved my office as the Congressional Accountability Act prohibits me from answering that question,” said Farenthold in a statement. In 2014 Farenthold’s former communications director Lauren Greene sued him, alleging a hostile work environment, gender discrimination, and retaliation, court documents show. Farenthold and Greene reached a mediated agreement in 2015 to avoid costly litigation, but the settlement’s details were confidential, according to a statement released at the time, where Farenthold denied engaging in any wrongdoing. | 0 |
When Other People s Money Runs Out An NGO operating in Venezuela has published videos of starved prisoners in the socialist nation killing, skinning, and cooking cats on aluminum pans in order to survive, as wardens have forbidden families from bringing food and serve only a small cup of rice and water per day.The NGO A Window for Liberty published the videos on their social media pages and have issued a statement condemning the Venezuelan government for human rights abuses against prisoners. The videos were smuggled out by relatives of those in multiple prisons across the country. According to NGO head Carlos Nieto Palma, relatives of inmates from at least four prisons denounced both the lack of food and various forms of physical abuse, including beatings with bats, chains, and heavy wet cloths.The video and photos published by the NGO are from the Centro Penitenciario Metropolitano Yare 3 prison in the northern state of Miranda. Miranda is an opposition stronghold governed by former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. Relatives of inmates at a different prison in Lara state have protested that they have been banned from bringing food to the inmates despite the fact that the government has claimed the current economic crisis makes it difficult for the state to pay for sufficient food for the inmates.The video of inmates preparing their protein has been posted to Youtube. ****Warning: Graphic****https://youtu.be/d5vQZmky900The NGO also published photos following the skinning of the cat showing how inmates use a makeshift stove made out of aluminum foil and what appears to be a match to cook the meat:Reclusos de todo el pa s pasan hambre por falta de alimentaci n en recintos carcelariosLa organizaci n no Posted by UNA VENTANA A LA LIBERTAD on Sunday, August 30, 2015Some inmates have nicknamed the new diet the Chinese menu, due to rice being the only thing officially served in prison. Eighty percent of prisons have banned relatives from bringing inmates food despite the crisis. Those outside of prison also suffer through great food shortages, however, as the nation imposed a ration system in supermarkets that has made it nearly impossible to legally purchase such necessary home goods as milk, vegetable oil, and flour. As a result, a black market on the Venezuelan-Colombian border has flourished, where Venezuelans trade their cheap oil for basic foods easily purchased in Colombia.Such human rights violations raise particular questions in Venezuela, where being publicly opposed to the socialist regime of President Nicol s Maduro could easily land anyone in prison. At its peak, the regime was arresting one anti-socialist protester every half hour in 2014. Prisons in the country are overflowing with prisoners of conscience, not just standard criminals.Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
The woman whose criminal investigation has been reopened by the FBI is speaking to a sparsely populated black church in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. We are only 9 days away from the election people and this woman still can barely fill a phone booth with legitimate supporters Hillary Clinton at mount olive baptist church Fort Lauderdale pic.twitter.com/czgRUBR9sn Amy Sherman (@AmySherman1) October 30, 2016Maybe the attendance was low because good Christian people probably have better things to do on a Sunday then go to church to listen to a sociopathic liar or maybe blacks just don t like being insulted by Hillary, like in this email released by Wikileaks.BOMBSHELL Racist Hillary Clinton Calls " Blacks, Muslims and Rom*** Never Do Wells " !!#PodestaEmails #TrumpTapes pic.twitter.com/7nJL2fZWjz STOCK MONSTER (@StockMonsterUSA) October 8, 2016Hillary Clinton has just arrived at New Mount Olive Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL for Sunday church service (of course) pic.twitter.com/McRUE3mCmR Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) October 30, 2016Her speech in church followed an early afternoon stop at a local bar where Hillary was drumming up support from drunks:https://twitter.com/NCSBM/status/792759839495639041 | 1 |
Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hungarian actress whose glamour and marriages to millionaires put a luster of American celebrity on a long but only modestly successful career in movies and television, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 99. The cause was heart failure, her longtime publicist Edward Lozzi said. Married at least eight times, calling everyone “Dahlink,” flaunting a lifestyle and abetted by gossip columnists and tabloid headline writers, Ms. Gabor played the coifed platinum femme fatale in plunging necklines in dozens of film and television roles, many of them cameos as herself. Her career, which began with the title Miss Hungary in 1936, was still going strong in the 1990s, outlasting those of her sisters, Eva and Magda, celebrities in their own right. She was the last surviving Gabor sister. “A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it,” Ms. Gabor once said. Her husbands included a Turkish diplomat, the hotel heir Conrad Hilton, the actor George Sanders, an industrialist, an oil magnate, a toy designer, a divorce lawyer and a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony. Another marriage that nobody counted — a case of bigamy at sea with a Mexican actor — lasted only a day and was annulled. In 1989, she was arrested for slapping a police officer who had pulled her over for a traffic violation and found that her license had expired and that she had an open vodka bottle in her car, a Corniche convertible. Breezing into court, she took the stand and, by turns haughty, coquettish, weepy and coarse, spoke of Gestapo tactics in Beverly Hills. The judge gave her 72 hours in jail. “You just cannot drive a in Beverly Hills anymore, because they have it in for you,” she said after things had blown over. Ms. Gabor appeared in more than 60 television movies and feature films, mostly although some were Italian, French, German and Australian. Critics said her best roles were early in her career, in “Moulin Rouge” (1952) and “Lili” (1953). She also appeared as a nightclub manager in Orson Welles’s 1958 classic “Touch of Evil” and, the same year, as a sexy alien in “Queen of Outer Space,” a camp favorite about virile American astronauts landing on a planet populated by scantily clad women. From the 1950s into the ’90s, she was also on scores of television programs: talk shows, game shows, comedy specials, westerns, episodic dramas. On the 1960s series “Batman,” she played the Minerva, whose mineral spa fleeced swells by extracting secrets from their brains. “A real vicked voman,” she described the character in her Hungarian accent. Exploiting her naughty celebrity, Ms. Gabor, with the help of collaborators and ghost writers, published four books: “Zsa Zsa Gabor: My Story” (1960) “Zsa Zsa’s Complete Guide to Men” (1969) “How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man” (1970) and “One Lifetime Is Not Enough” (1991). In addition to her steady appearances in movies and on television, Ms. Gabor operated a cosmetics company. She once offered $1 million to anyone who could prove she had had a . In 1974, she bought a villa in Bel Air built by Howard Hughes and formerly owned by Elvis Presley. Her multitiered clothes closet — 30 feet long, 12 feet deep and 14 feet high — contained 5, 000 garments that, except for favored gowns, were given to charities and replaced with a new wardrobe from time to time, according to her official fan site, zsazsagabor. org. In early 2009, Ms. Gabor discovered that she had joined a long list of celebrities who were victimized by Bernard L. Madoff, the financial swindler whose worldwide Ponzi scheme that cost investors tens of billions. Her lawyer Chris Fields said she lost at least $7 million and possibly as much as $10 million. Ms. Gabor had been in and out of hospitals for years. She suffered head and other injuries and was hospitalized for a month in 2002 after a car driven by her hairdresser struck a utility pole in West Hollywood. It left her in a wheelchair, and she retreated from the spotlight. She suffered a stroke in 2005 and had surgery for a blocked carotid artery. In 2007, she again underwent surgery to treat a leg infection and aftereffects of the stroke. In July 2010, she underwent surgery after a fall at her home in which she also suffered a concussion. Released from the hospital in August, she was readmitted two days later for treatment of unspecified complications. In January 2011, her right leg was amputated above the knee after an infection proved resistant to antibiotics. Doctors said the operation was necessary to save her life. Two months later, shock over the death of her friend Elizabeth Taylor sent her to the hospital with high blood pressure, and Ms. Gabor’s publicist, John Blanchette, quoted her as saying she feared she was next. In November 2011, she had emergency surgery after blood began flowing through a feeding tube inserted in her stomach. Born Sari Gabor in Budapest in 1917 — she always gave a birth date of Feb. 6 or 7, but not the year, though Mr. Lozzi confirmed on Sunday that it was 1917 — Ms. Gabor grew up in relative prosperity, the second of three daughters of Vilmos and Jolie Gabor. Raised for stardom, the sisters attended private schools and were chauffeured to acting, dancing, music and fencing classes. On the eve of World War II, Ms. Gabor, her mother and her sisters emigrated to the United States, and by the 1950s the Gabor sisters had become as well known for their love lives as for their careers. Magda, who acted on radio briefly and helped her mother operate a chain of jewelry boutiques, died in 1997, as did her mother. Eva, who was best known for her role on television’s “Green Acres” in the 1960s — and whom the public sometimes confused with Zsa Zsa — died in 1995. Zsa Zsa, who divorced seven of her eight husbands, was first married to Burhan Belge, a Turkish diplomat in Budapest, from 1937 to 1941. Her second marriage, to Mr. Hilton, lasted from 1942 to 1947. Their daughter, Francesca Hilton, an actress, was Ms. Gabor’s only child. She died in 2015. Her other marriages were to Mr. Sanders ( ) who later married Magda Gabor the Herbert L. Hutner ( ) the oil magnate Joshua S. Cosden Jr. ( ) Jack Ryan, an inventor and toy designer who helped create the Barbie doll ( ) Michael O’Hara, a lawyer ( ) and Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, whom she married in 1986. Mr. Prinz von Anhalt, often described in the news media as a prince or the Duke of Saxony, was born Hans Robert Lichtenberg, the son of a police officer in Germany. He changed his name to include what sounded like a title after Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt, the Duchess of Saxony, adopted him in 1980 as an adult. The adoption, widely reported to have been a business transaction, conferred only an illusion of nobility, reinforced by the name change. Some biographies of Ms. Gabor also mention a 1983 marriage to Felipe de Alba, a lawyer who appeared in films in Mexico in the 1940s and ’50s, but Ms. Gabor said it lasted only a day. The ceremony was performed by a ship’s captain at sea but was probably illegal because the ship was not in international waters, and Ms. Gabor was technically not yet divorced from Mr. O’Hara. It was later annulled, just to make sure. There were also notorious affairs with Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican playboy, and with Rafael Trujillo Jr. the son of the Dominican dictator. Ms. Gabor is survived by her husband, Mr. Prinz von Anhalt. Ms. Gabor’s many public appearances included a 1987 address to the American Bar Association convention in San Francisco, where she spoke to the family law section at a luncheon. “We’ve had enough of the routine speakers,” the chairman said, introducing Ms. Gabor as “an optimist who still believes in marriage. ” Telling her tales of marital joys and woes, Ms. Gabor confided, “I have learned that not diamonds but divorce lawyers are a girl’s best friend. ” Then, inviting questions, the chairman said, “Let’s keep it on direct, not on cross. ” “What does that mean?” she asked. “That means they’ve got to be nice to you. ” | 0 |
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is set to appoint a woman deputy after a special ruling party congress next month, the first lady said on Saturday and added that there was nothing wrong if her husband appointed her. The 93-year-old Mugabe has held power in the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980 and consistently refused to anoint a successor. He argues that the ruling ZANU-PF party would choose his replacement if and when he decides to retire. Grace Mugabe told a ZANU-PF rally in the second city of Bulawayo that the party would amend its constitution this month and the changes would be adopted at a special December congress to ensure that one of Mugabe s two deputies would be a woman. Allowing Mugabe to appoint a woman deputy could scuttle the presidential ambitions of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had been seen as a shoe-in to succeed Mugabe. Phelekezela Mphoko is the second Mugabe deputy, but lacks any political base. Mnangagwa, nicknamed Ngwena (Crocodile), has seen his political stock plummet in the last few months, on accusations by party rivals that he was plotting to get Mugabe to step down in his favor. He denies the accusation. On Saturday Grace cranked up the pressure against Mnangagwa, calling him the root cause of factionalism that was gnawing at the ruling party. She also accused the vice president s supporters of booing her while she gave her speech. Before that special congress, this November we need the constitution to be changed accordingly so that when we are going we will adopt the proposal that one of the vice presidents should be a woman, Grace said in a speech broadcast on state TV. What if I get in (as vice president)? What s wrong with that? Am I not in the party? If people know that I work hard and they want to work with me what is wrong with that? Grace said. A visibly angry Mugabe told the same rally that he and his wife were tired of constant insults from people who identified themselves as Mnangagwa s supporters. | 0 |
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